School Committee - September 11, 2024
School Committee, 9/11/24 - Meeting Summary
Date: 9/11/24
Type: School Committee
Source: https://tv.sharontv.com/internetchannel/show/14378?site=2
Generated: September 13, 2025 at 09:18 PM
AI Model: Perplexity
- Meeting Metadata
- Date & time: September 11, 2024, starting at 7:00 PM
- Location / format: Remote meeting conducted via Zoom, broadcast live and recorded by Sharon TV
- Attendees (by role):
- Chair: Avi (resigned during meeting)
- Vice Chair: Dan Newman (prior role mentioned; not active chair here)
- Members present: Alan, Julie, Jeremy, Georgeann (no comments recorded), Adam, Dan, and student representative Isha Agarwal
- Superintendent Dr. Botello and Principal Keenan also participated
- Jane (administrative support for correspondence) was present
- Note: Committee reorganized chair and vice chair during meeting
- Agenda Overview
- Acknowledgment of September 11th
- Public comments on attendance policy and school safety technology
- Correspondence summary
- Student representative update
- Superintendent update
- Review and vote on student handbooks (early childhood, middle, elementary, high school)
- Proposal to name METCO office space
- Discussion on school committee correspondence summary responsibility
- School committee reorganization (chair/vice-chair nominations, committee assignments)
- Approval of August 28, 2024, minutes
- Approval of middle school field trip to Washington DC
- Announcements and updates
- Major Discussions
Topic: Absence/Attendance Policy and Illness-Related Absences
What triggered the discussion: Public comments and student handbook review regarding attendance policy changes at Sharon High School and districtwide.
Key points debated:
- Concern that requiring doctor’s notes for illness-related absences after a certain number could be inequitable due to healthcare access barriers.
- Potential conflict between public health guidelines (keeping sick children home) and attendance policy enforcement.
- Arguments that 10 unexcused absences is a high bar but can push parents to send ill children to school to avoid penalties, increasing illness spread.
- Counter-arguments emphasizing the importance of a firm attendance policy to reduce chronic absenteeism, with provisions for chronic illness through medical plans (504, IEP).
- Consideration of restorative supports for students approaching absence limits.
- Discussion on balancing rigor and flexibility, supporting student success, and meeting state attendance accountability expectations.
- Suggestions that chronic absenteeism is concentrated in a subset of students (~12%), and addressing that improves overall attendance data.
- Requests for data gathering via a Google form pilot before finalizing policies.
- Support for monthly tiered attendance support approaches.
- Clarification that college visits up to 2 days junior year and 3 days senior year are excused absences.
- Debate on whether parent notes should be accepted without doctor’s notes; recognition of potential misuse balanced with trust in families and administrative discretion.
Member Contributions & Stances:
- Avi (Chair): Acknowledged complexity; ultimately supported policy shift after discussion with principals, emphasizing academic rigor and culture of seriousness.
- Alan: Supported the attendance policy, recognizing the need for boundaries and fairness, trusting educators to enforce it equitably.
- Julie: Initially opposed but changed to support after discussion with administration; acknowledged need for rigor balanced by understanding complexities.
- Jeremy: Advocated for nuanced language and potential targeted policy for chronic absences, rather than broad burdens. Suggested further discussion on smartphone use policy.
- Georgeann: No contribution recorded on this topic.
- Adam: No direct stance recorded here but engaged in other parts of discussion.
- Dan: Supported closer examination; raised specific questions about policy wording and consistency of expectations; expressed concerns on practical impact on families.
Areas of Agreement/Disagreement:
- Agreement on importance of reducing chronic absenteeism and supporting students.
- Disagreement on strictness and impact of requiring doctor’s notes for illness-related absences beyond threshold.
- Disagreement on timing of implementing policy versus gathering more data first, with some supporting pilot data collection before formal policy.
Key Quotes:
- “We should not punish parents and children for doing the right thing for the health of the community.” — Tobin Asklar
- “This policy is just putting us back in line with what many many other districts do.” — Marily Burke
- “The need to have firm policies and to create a culture of taking academic pursuits seriously at our high school.” — Avi
- “Parents can make decisions about their children to keep them out of school for 10 occasions and if they need more … then they can go to their child’s doctor.” — Alan
Outcome / Next steps:
- Attendance policy incorporated in high school handbook approved with some discussion on possible future adjustments and restorative supports.
- Parent notes remain excused for some absences, but a doctor’s note required beyond 10 absences to avoid unexcused status.
- Follow-up discussions suggested on smartphone policy and attendance interventions.
Topic: Student Handbooks Approval
Triggered by: Annual handbook review and approval process.
Key points debated:
- Minor questions on ECC, middle, elementary, and high school handbooks; generally uncontroversial.
- In elementary handbook, discussion on homework consistency and expectations.
- Requests from members for clearer remedies for parents if handbook guidelines are not consistently applied by teachers.
- Discussion of balancing district-wide philosophy with school-based autonomy on homework.
- Booster on shared understanding among elementary principals for consistency with some flexibility.
- High school handbook included attendance policies discussed above and smartphone use, with suggestion for a future focused review.
Member Contributions & Stances:
- Avi: No recorded direct stance beyond procedural approval.
- Alan: Supported approval, engaged with clarifications.
- Julie: Hosted detailed discussion on elementary homework concerns; nominated as Chair during meeting.
- Jeremy: Raised smartphone policy for future attention, supported handbook approval.
- Georgeann: No contribution recorded on this topic.
- Adam: Supported approvals, engaged in discussion on MCMullen naming.
- Dan: Interested in clarifying homework and attendance policies; supported approval.
Areas of Agreement/Disagreement:
- Agreement: Handbooks approved with agreed minor edits to clarify expectations and remedies for parents in elementary.
Outcome / Next steps:
- All handbooks approved (ECC, middle, elementary, high school) including attendance policies.
- Future review of smartphone use policy and homework consistency planned.
Topic: Proposal to Name Sharon High School METCO Office the “McMullen Trailblazing Center”
Triggered by: Proposed naming to honor founding METCO director Evelyn McMullen.
Key points debated:
- Process question raised about whether school council and PTO consultations occurred per policy.
- Explanation that due to scheduling or procedural context, typical school council consultation was not possible; precedent from other naming cases cited.
- General positive sentiment about naming, recognizing Ms. McMullen’s long and impactful legacy.
- Suggestion for appropriate signage or plaque to educate visitors about Ms. McMullen’s contributions.
Member Contributions & Stances:
- Avi: Supported naming, shared positive personal remembrance of Evelyn McMullen.
- Alan: Raised process procedural question but supported contingent on school council review.
- Julie: Supported motion; expressed appreciation for Ms. McMullen’s legacy.
- Jeremy: Supported motion.
- Georgeann: No contribution recorded.
- Adam: Supported motion and requested display materials for awareness.
- Dan: Raised process question, supported naming contingent on proper consultation.
Areas of Agreement/Disagreement:
- Agreement on appropriateness of naming and Ms. McMullen’s impact.
- Disagreement or uncertainty only regarding formal consultation process fulfillment; motion passed contingent on school council consultation post-approval.
Outcome / Next steps:
- Motion approved 7-0 with contingency that school council will review and feedback reported back later.
- Suggestions for informative plaque or signage will be pursued.
Topic: School Committee Correspondence Summary Handling
Triggered by: Dan proposed that responsibility for summarizing incoming correspondence shift from administrative staff (Jane) to a committee member.
Key points debated:
- Majority opposition citing Jane’s neutrality, experience, and professionalism.
- Concerns that committee member handling might introduce bias or perceived politicization.
- Discussion that Jane functions as a nonpartisan employee with accountability to superintendent and committee.
- Recognition of Jane’s skill in impartial summaries and legal implications of correspondence handling.
- Discussion on what constitutes correspondence and how to handle junk or marketing emails appropriately.
- Suggestion to limit subscriptions to the shared email address to reduce irrelevant mail.
- Administrative offers for technical help managing email filtering.
- No consensus to change current practice; committee prefers to keep summary with Jane.
Member Contributions & Stances:
- Avi: Strong no to shifting responsibility; praised Jane’s work and neutrality.
- Julie: Agreed with Avi, emphasized legal obligations and quality of current process.
- Alan: Supported current practice, expressing trust in Jane.
- Shauna: Echoed support for Jane’s neutrality and cautioned against committee bias.
- Jeremy: No direct comment recorded.
- Adam: Offered technical support to Dan for inbox management, no direct stance on summary shift.
- Dan: Proposed the change, acknowledged others’ concerns, agreed to abide by group decision.
Outcome / Next steps:
- No change; Jane continues to summarize correspondence.
- Agreement to adopt a practice of no new subscriptions via shared mailbox to reduce clutter.
Topic: School Committee Reorganization
Triggered by: Chair Avi announced resignation; motion to elect new chair and reassign roles.
Key points debated:
- Julie Rowe nominated and elected chair (7-0).
- Avi nominated and elected vice chair (7-0).
- Committee subcommittee chair appointments made: Avi to chair negotiations and calendar subcommittees, remain on capital outlay and building committees; Julie to continue as voting member on negotiations.
- Clarification on negotiation committee membership quorum raised and resolved (Julie attends as non-voting member).
- Motion passed to continue remainder of current organization as is (7-0).
Member Contributions & Stances:
- Julie: Accepted nominations, thanked Avi, expressed positive working relationship.
- Avi: Stepped down as chair, expressed appreciation.
- Other members: Supported all appointments unanimously.
Outcome / Next steps:
- Leadership roles updated immediately following vote.
- Votes
Motion: Approve ECC Handbook
Result: Passed 7-0
Roll-call: Avi Yes, Alan Yes, Julie Yes, Jeremy Yes, Georgeann Yes, Adam Yes, Dan Yes
Motion: Approve Middle School Handbook
Result: Passed 7-0
Roll-call: Avi Yes, Alan Yes, Julie Yes, Jeremy Yes, Georgeann Yes, Adam Yes, Dan Yes
Motion: Approve Elementary School Handbook (with agreed revisions)
Result: Passed 7-0
Roll-call: Avi Yes, Alan Yes, Julie Yes, Jeremy Yes, Georgeann Yes, Adam Yes, Dan Yes
Motion: Approve High School Handbook
Result: Passed 6-1 (Jeremy No)
Roll-call: Avi Yes, Alan Yes, Julie Yes, Jeremy No, Georgeann Not stated, Adam Yes, Dan Yes
Motion: Approve naming of METCO office space as McMullen Trailblazing Center (contingent on school council review)
Result: Passed 7-0
Roll-call: Avi Yes, Alan Yes, Julie Yes, Jeremy Yes, Georgeann Yes, Adam Yes, Dan Yes
Motion: Elect Julie Rowe as Chair of School Committee
Result: Passed 7-0
Roll-call: Avi Yes, Alan Yes, Julie Yes, Jeremy Yes, Georgeann Yes, Adam Yes, Dan Yes
Motion: Elect Avi as Vice Chair of School Committee
Result: Passed 7-0
Roll-call: Avi Yes, Alan Yes, Julie Yes, Jeremy Yes, Georgeann Yes, Adam Yes, Dan Yes
Motion: Continue remainder of committee organization as is
Result: Passed 7-0
Roll-call: Avi Yes, Alan Yes, Julie Yes, Jeremy Yes, Georgeann Yes, Adam Yes, Dan Yes
- Presentations Without Discussion
- Student Representative Update (Isha Agarwal): Covered student involvement in orientations, athletic information nights, summer activities including community service, success of debate team, and upcoming school events.
- Superintendent Update (Dr. Botello): Highlighted positive school year start, community events, professional development plans, translation services, attendance at open houses, restorative circle training, and budget planning.
- Action Items & Follow-Ups
- Administration to add clarifying language in elementary handbook directing parents to contact building leaders if homework guidelines are not consistently followed.
- School council to review METCO office naming and report back to committee.
- Ongoing monitoring and possible future adjustments of attendance policy and smartphone usage policy at high school.
- Open Questions / Items Deferred
- Homework policy consistency and philosophy to be continued as district-wide conversation.
- Further discussion on smartphone use policy in high school planned.
- Process for correspondence definition and treatment remains informal; no formal change implemented.
- Thompson Island field trip approval status questioned by members but determined it was not on agenda or possibly approved separately; no further action at this meeting.
- Appendices
-
Acronyms:
- METCO: Metropolitan Council for Educational Opportunity (program supporting Boston students attending Sharon schools)
- ECC: Early Childhood Center
- IEP: Individualized Education Program
- 504 plan: Section 504 Accommodation Plan
-
Referenced documents: Student handbooks (various levels), attendance policy draft, school committee policies on naming practices
This structured summary captures all major topics, member roles and stances, key debates, and decisions from the September 11, 2024 Sharon School Committee meeting transcript.
Document Metadata
- Original Transcript Length: 75,434 characters
- Summary Word Count: 2,036 words
- Compression Ratio: 5.1:1
- Transcript File:
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Transcript and Video
all right just turned seven o'clock on my clock um see okay welcome to the september 11th 2024 meeting of the sharon school committee uh this meeting will be conducted remotely over zoom attendance by board members will be remote remote attendance shall count towards a quorum meeting will be broadcast live and recorded by sharon tv if you elect to enable your webcam your image and background may be broadcast with or without sound before we jump right into public comments which is our first agenda item i do just want to acknowledge uh that it is september 11th um obviously that's uh an important but sad day for all of us uh i don't see i know we've got a student rep on so most of us i should say remember that day um and it's i think just important for us to take a moment to acknowledge all the lives that were lost that day um and so i just didn't want to miss an opportunity to start off with that as far as public comments go uh i need someone to keep a clock for two minutes any volunteers no volunteer oh adam shane just just in the nick of time all right so adam will keep two minutes ask everybody to uh yeah speak about whatever it is that you want just keep it to two minutes first up i see tobin asklar hi thank you avi um i'm tobin asklar i'm speaking as a parent of two middle schoolers and a high schooler and they share in public schools um with some concerns about the proposed policy to consider absences due to illnesses unexcused absences um without a doctor's note or um and not only does this seem inequitable but there are barriers to access to medical care around cost availability of providers loss of work transportation etc to get to get that doctor's note that they would need to avoid that absence it also creates a conflict with i think policy in terms of jh the student absences and excuses policy which tells us um in all events and regardless of how many absences have occurred to date students should stay home if they have a temperature of 100 degrees if they're vomiting or have diarrhea if they have a severe cold with fever sneezing thickened nasal all these things so um they're telling us to leave them home and we we know that doctors don't always um see patients until they've been sick three days or more if there is pressure in addition to avoid unexcused absences to avoid losing that academic credit um after 10 unexcused absences i understand it's a high bar but it may may make parents make decisions to send their kids to school anyway to avoid adding unexcused absences this choice then exposes all in the school to um illness which makes the kids less safe and potentially more um lead to more absences of other kids teachers and building staff i'd like to see parent notes for illnesses above above considered an excused absence we should not punish parents and children for doing the right thing for the health of the community and thank you so much avi as well for acknowledging september 11th today it is a sad day and one that we should always remember thank you judy crosby thanks avi um so i'm not going to repeat what tobin said but i agree with everything that tobin said um i did want to suggest some language um parents guardians will provide a written explanation for the absence or cardiness of a child this will be required in advance for types of absences where advance notice is possible in instances of chronic or irregular absence reportedly due to illness the school administration may request a physician statement certifying such absences to be justified so that if you get to many days or you see kids being out a lot and the parent is constantly saying it's due to illness then it's appropriate to ask them to approach a physician um so i think it's really important that this policy be changed um the other thing i wanted to ask about was in light of the really i'm sorry a really unfortunate thing that happened in winder georgia with the school shooting um one of the reasons that shooting shockingly was not as bad as it could have been was because they had panic buttons in their teacher's hands um on the back of every teacher lanyard is a button and when the teacher pushes it a certain number of times it triggers an alert that's how everybody was able to respond so quickly and stop the shooting so one question i had was do we have such a thing if we don't can it please be part of the capital outlay request for this year um it's technology that's readily available and it's not just used in instances of school shootings it can be used if there is any kind of issue happening in the classroom a student passes out a student you know there's a fight there's any of those sorts of things it will immediately alert to exactly where in the building the problem is and people can respond appropriately um so i'd like to ask that that be considered for capital outlay if we don't have that already in our schools thanks thank you i have read a an article talking about those panic buttons on the back of the lanyards also and i think a capital outlay request is a very appropriate ask thank you uh lori davis hi um i just want to um address the attendance policy uh at the high school it's being composed as well um i'm a teacher at the high school and uh i just feel um understanding that parents have some concerns i think what we need to consider as well is that 10 absences are that are unexcused are quite a lot of absences um and there will be quite a few options and availability of warnings if kids are getting close to that um i i agree that parents should keep students home if they have a fever or if they're ill um but 10 absences for like if a kid has a migraine or a kid has um an issue with like having the stomach flu um without having to see the doctor is quite a few absences for unexcused um obviously this student is ill for two or three days longer than that the assumption would be that they would have seen a doctor anyway and those absences would be excused um clearly given the data that um mrs keenan showed us uh and showed the school committee and showed the community um about absences absences have been an issue um and and they are going to continue to be an issue um moving forward and other schools have instituted these policies with these caps of absences that were actually less a lot lower than what we're asking currently um and i think if we go ahead and we at least try it for a year and see exactly where we're at with the absences i think it could do a lot of good for for students um for student education and for the school district as a whole in light of the state's requirements for attendance so thank you thank you ms davis next up i see judith weeder hi thanks for recognizing me um also thank you for recognizing september 11th i've been so busy today and i haven't even had a chance to think about it and that's really bad um so with um with all due respect to ms davis and i do have a lot of love and respect for the teachers in sharon high school in particular um i understand that that feels like it's a lot of days the data that principal keenan showed last meeting showed a decline in the absences like they were trending in a better direction and also um frankly anything that discourages parents from keeping their kids home when they're sick particularly right now when we know that covet has certainly been spreading including in massachusetts and we also know that the cdc has relaxed the guidelines around keeping your kids at home we will see more kids coming into the school when they are not just when they're unwell and potentially going to spread uh illness to other kids but also they're they're not going to be able to participate right they're not going to be able to focus for their tests for class participation for the projects for the things that they need to get done so it's not a great situation for them either and i've already written into the school committee plus one to everything that tobin said they were fantastic in expressing all the issues around iniquity i study this for a living and i'm telling you right now the health care system is not designed to support parents in fact very little is designed to support parents so what i'm asking for is instead since principal keenan is proposing to do this google form as our way of capturing attendance changes why not get a year's worth of data under our belt with that form before we institute the new policy and then use the data to help us make an informed decision about the policy rather than implementing the policy and then backing in to the decision that we made thank you marily burke hi thank you for letting me speak um i'm also a teacher at the high school and coordinator and i i also want to be clear i believe it's nine absences per term that's allowed so it's actually 36 absences a year that's 20 of the school year um which is a significant amount and i'll share that in my own classroom last year i teach one class at the high school i tried to go back and on and get hard data for you but i would probably say less than 20 of the time of the entire school year i had my entire class for the one period a day that i have them which is concerning and it's tough to have momentum it's tough to um keep kids on track when they're not there and i as a science teacher and i understand the the guidelines and the concerns about illness um 36 absences is a lot throughout the year and i do want parents to keep their kids home when they're sick i myself live in a district that has this kind of policy and it's really i mean my son's sick i call him out sick and it's an unaccused absence he's still allowed to make up the work um and only when he's sick for a long amount of time am i going to go get a doctor's note or when my daughter has an orthodontist appointment i get the note from the orthodontist as i'm leaving um and it really has not been a barrier um i feel like this policy is just putting us back in line with what many many many other districts do in the area and i know there's a number of teachers on here just can i do a real quick straw poll and ask teachers that are on here right now to raise their hand if they are in agreement with instituting this attendance policy i just quick straw poll of the teachers that are on thank you all right seeing no further hands to speak i will move over to correspondence and i'll go to alan i think alan's gonna read this shauna since i know you were at open house but you are here if you're cool with it alan said he'd read it all right i think that'll be you alan just one quick clarification it is the the policy that's in the handbook is uh 10 absences over the full year for one credit reduction 20 over the full year for two credit reduction not 36 absences over the year go ahead alan thank you alan no problem um so the school excuse me the school committee has received 27 pieces of correspondence between june 26 2024 and august 28th of 2024 uh several community members wrote to request that the school committee assure that desi has provided written confirmation oh hold on did i pull up the wrong one i did i apologize hold on this is last week this is what you get for being a newbie please forgive me uh okay i'm starting over uh the school committee has received 12 pieces of correspondence between august 28th 2024 and september 11th 2024 uh pam wrote to request a copy of meeting notes taken in a follow-up conversation with assistant superintendent whittemore the follow-up conversation was related to a previous letter of determination we received two invitations to events sponsored by the norfolk county sheriff's department a family wrote to request that the school committee consider moving back the back to school start date prior to labor day uh we received a few letters from parents related to the shs handbook proposal these letters were primarily focused on the language related to excuse absences and also raised a concern regarding how this language was discussed with a sharon high school students during an assembly a parent wrote expressing their concerns regarding some of the questions in the back to school surveys that teachers may ask their students to complete we received a letter that questioned the use of boars head deli meat in the sharon public school cafeterias we received the back to school edition of millie's medco monday newsletter which focused on events held through medco a parent wrote to request clarification on bus stops and bus route schedules and we received information from a parent regarding uh an organization called escape the waste which is an educational organization focused on sustainability those are the correspondence thank you alan um i know we do have a student rep here today we've got isha agarwal isha are you here just raise your hand hand oh i see you hi i'm isha agarwal and i'll be the student representative today thank you so much okay to begin student involvement showed how excited students were to return to school and connect with peers over 60 student volunteers entered the new student orientation and freshman orientation on august 28th a great turnout for an event that welcomes new eagles with a lot of spirit and excitement to provide tours and to answer questions about activities and clubs for parents as well as students there was a well attended athletic information night on thursday august 22nd with a new athletic director students kept themselves busy this summer with camp travel work athletics and internships and of course service key cup for example worked to harvest vegetables from a community garden to donate to a local food pantry in addition dust and strong student leaders organized a blood drive on friday august 31st at the sharon public safety building sharon high school eagles joined students from other towns to plant flags on the foxborough common on saturday august 24th to recognize overdose awareness month and the debate team received chartered recognition by the national speech and debate league as a top performing high school over the past three years and has already started practicing for the upcoming fall competitions senior class officers are preparing for an informational session for senior parents of parent open house tonight next week and are excited to start their year with senior sunrise and homecoming dance both on a september 27th seniors had a meeting with counseling today about the process and parents are invited this evening to hear a presentation as well students are adjusting to the new schedule and rules pertaining to attendance during class meetings administrators reviewed the rules and addressed questions so far students are adjusting and recognize the importance of getting to school on time as clubs are getting into the swing of the school year they are preparing for club fair which will be held on october 9th this is a great way for students to learn about getting involved and to end the freshman class will be holding their class officer election soon thank you thank you um that was a great update appreciate your time all right next up i'll throw it to our superintendent dr botello for his updates yeah great thank you and i appreciate that student update as well it was a very uh informative and detailed and appreciate the participation of our group this uh this year um we definitely had an awesome really um exciting enthusiastic uh school opening throughout the district got to go around to uh the elementary schools middle school and the high school as well as the ecc that started up the and uh definitely a lot of excited uh both staff um students and also parents who are uh ready to have their kiddos you know kind of um um in school and in in in busy again after a great summer um some of the um welcoming activities included uh an ecc meeting greet uh the middle school has uh done its first community uh day uh back on september 6th we had fire drills which are mandated across our schools and during the first full week um assemblies at the high school uh with the the theme be curious uh with the theme be curious and also a great event where we invited our um boston resident families um to uh sharon uh which was which was uh you know run by uh carla hands our our meko director after school clubs and activities as our student representative said are are ready to get started and also just that we're really working out we always work out the kinks with uh transportation during the first couple weeks adjusting routes and stops and stuff and so we thank families for being patient as we try to uh get everything rolling smoothly um open houses are are happening we have a the grade six happening tonight um and grade seven and eight on the uh tomorrow night then we have our high school on the the 19th our elementary schools on the 26th and our ecc will be on october 15th so we uh we love the the strong attendance of our parents and guardians there just some of the work that's being done already we had a great group of staff members uh participate in a training on restorative circles which really gives students a voice into uh their community and in their education uh we have um you know translation services we have a lot a large growing uh english language uh learner population and really working to support them to through translation services we did a bullying investigation training with our um cabinet and principals and we'll be holding that with our assistant principals and other administrators we're working out our pd calendar for um for the district and also um we're able to give uh new backpacks to 46 students for uh some of our new students um as well as start to um inform um our elementary teachers about uh the pilot we'll be doing and train those who are going to be involved with that pilot um you know we definitely we're we're working to partner with our families it's so incredibly important as we um try to uh realize uh the our vision for education which includes a really positive and vibrant school culture really seeking educational excellence in the form of student-centered learning for all our kids and also really trying to amplify the sense of belonging so that all kids feel that they belong in school and with that sense of belonging it gives them a much greater opportunity for them to to embrace their education and learn we've got extraordinary things being done by our um administration faculty and staff to work towards this vision uh we we know teaching and parenting has gotten more and more complex over the last you know 10-15 years and we look forward to partnering with our families uh really strongly working collaboratively assuming a positive intent we know as educators that every parent cares deeply about uh their kiddos and when they're advocating for them it's because of that caring and we um we we know uh that we're trying to instill and and and show an understanding but also um uh show that we care deeply about their kids too and really working in their best interest so you look to model kindness understanding mutual respect and humility in our partnership and so over the next uh several meetings we have a bunch of different things to look forward to uh just recommended policy updates as well as other policy updates pd planning overview my goals for the year school improvement plan and the goals embedded in those as well as some beginning our um first quarter financial report uh for fyo25 as well as looking at capital review and proposals in fyo26 so those will be coming up in the next several meetings um great thank you are there any questions from the table all right seeing no questions we'll go to our first discussion item final review and vote to approve student handbooks uh we'll start with elementary go to middle high and early childhood will be last actually you know what let's do early childhood then middle then elementary then high were there questions on the early childhood oh sorry it looks like yeah miss canin has her hand up um i have no problem waiting till you get to the high school one um i apologize so i just want to give some clarification prior to the high school absolutely thank you um all right uh is there any are there any questions on the ecc handbook are we ready to vote it i'd entertain a motion motion to approve oh sorry alan you go motion to approve the uh ecc uh handbook second all right adam yes jeremy yes alan yes julie yes dan yes shana yes i am a yes motion carries seven oh all right next up middle school were there any questions on the middle school any discussion or if not i would entertain a motion oh second oh oh all right oh i should have said i will entertain a motion to approve the middle school handbook but motion's removed alan yes jeremy yes adam yes julie yes dan yes jana yes yes motion carries seven oh all right elementary is there any are there any questions or discussion i see dan's hand yeah thanks avi in our last meeting um i had raised the topic of homework within the elementary handbook and uh we had a short discussion about it um particularly that um what was in the handbook might not align to what families are actually experiencing on the ground in terms of the amount and type of homework in different classes um i see in the updated version that the administration has done what they said they would do and taken a first crack at bringing it more into alignment i appreciate that uh what i like about these handbook discussions is um they give you an opportunity to align and collect connect with each other about all these different topics quickly and then um they can help i think at least identify areas for additional focus um i don't want to hold up the handbooks because i understand their importance um and they cover many different topics so i don't want to put the admission i never want to put the administration on the spot um as part of this discussion but for me that discussion did raise a lot of more general questions around homework and what our posture towards homework is and should be uh particularly in the elementary context and uh what i heard is that there has been a laissez-faire approach to homework at least in the elementary schools where some people might be getting no homework from their teacher and other people's might be getting quite a bit um so i think every what i heard is everybody agreed that that warranted additional discussion i don't want to hold up the handbook today but um what i wanted to ask is is this something that we can uh work on and talk about more throughout this year uh with with school committee with the administration i think good policy comes from the bottom up so um is this something we can continue the conversation about with a potential goal about reducing that variation for next year uh is the administration open to that uh yeah i think we could um we can provide uh begin to provide first of our rationale for the adjustments that were made and uh further explain uh the degree of consistency that we're expecting from uh faculty as well as look at some of the research on on homework and in in doing so have a discussion that will um you know help inform any further adjustments that might be happening in future years uh sorry just to piggyback on that i i just want to caution us from from doing that and and thinking about the larger picture because it's not just an elementary school it doesn't then just become an elementary school discussion it becomes a district-wide discussion because there there are middle school classes that don't give homework there are high school classes that don't give homework right so like we we want to make sure that our district leaders that we have in front of us our principals our building-based administration are leading their buildings and we're consistent across you know the three the three elementary schools yes but also in terms of like our philosophy as a district right like i believe that miss keenan and i'm i only have you on my screen right now right is running her school in such a way that she empowers her teachers to do what is best for her students educationally right so if a class needs to have homework or needs to finish an assignment that hasn't been finished then okay they're going to assign that but to they have to have that autonomy so i just i i just worry dan about us getting into something that really isn't our purview and really does lead to um it lies at the school-based administration level dan yeah thanks shauna um i absolutely agree um one of the reasons i suggested kicking this back to the administration is so that exactly what you're talking about we're not imposing from the top down i would want to see what the administration comes up with to rectify some of these issues that we raised in the last discussion and see what they recommend i think that should always be the starting point um i i do think this is our purview many districts have um school committee policies actually specific on homework there is a mask uh policy around homework so it's not at all unusual whether that's ultimately where this ends up i don't have an opinion on that whether that needs to be a district-wide policy or what the solution is i i would want to hear more about that and get the recommendation coming from the principals and the administration first um but i also uh it's it's clear to me at least that um the way we've been going the past couple years um where there are these wild disparities in parent experiences just based on what teacher they get in fourth grade and fifth grade um i think i think this is is something that's ripe for attention um so i i would like to um explore that with the administration if they're willing over the next year yeah i'll just make a comment i i mean we're definitely willing to have a discussion i do agree i think that the um the policy at the at the school committee level should be uh broad and philosophical but it can talk about things like consistency and then the actual uh more prescriptive guidelines should be done at the um be a small p policy or guidelines at the um the building level but we can you know again share a rationale and have conversations is fine thank you all right so seeing no more hands before you vote i actually have something i'd like to weigh in on and maybe an ask of admin um at the elementary level so for me i see the answer as in line with what shauna just said but and also what dan just said and i don't think that they're at odds in that i think that dan is pointing out as we as we both did in the last meeting that these guidelines that exist right now and these expectations were not set by school committee they were they were set by building admin what what dan is pointing out what i've pointed out what many parents in this district point out that those guidelines and expectations which are in a handbook are not being met by many educators in our district and to be fair and honest and transparent they're not being attempted to be met um we all know of teachers and we won't name them on this call who our kids know two grades before they get them won't give them homework they are not doing that because of a uh a case-by-case basis they're not doing that because they're reading the group that's in front of them how do i know that because again year after year after year that teacher doesn't give homework this teacher gives an immense amount of homework it's a very different experience being had by our students depending on what teacher in the building they get so to me what i would ask for out of this handbook if if the committee wanted to ask along with me is some sort of a remedy given to the parents like what is because these handbooks are meant to be prescriptive for the parents what what is it that you are supposed to do in the event of x y or z and to me if these are the expectations at the building level of our elementary school principals of their staff their their educators what is a parent to do if they're seeing that this is not what's going on for their student i would assume that that is for them to contact building a building leader and so for me i would want something in this handbook that said something to the effect of if these if these guidelines if it is the feeling of the parents that these guidelines are not what is being experienced by the student please contact building leadership i agree that it should not be the school committee i imagine that it should not be district leadership but i think that building leadership should either be saying look here's why and i'm okay with it or saying hey let me look into that but i don't i don't think parents should just be expected to just accept that the teacher that their student got essentially by lottery is going to give them a very different perhaps harder perhaps less hard perhaps better perhaps worse but a different experience than if they've gotten another teacher yeah i can tell but first of all with the revisions that we've made the the expectations that are forward is that this is going to be reviewed by building a leader leaders with their teachers and that they will meet those expectations because we've made them flexible enough um that we think they are reasonable and good guidelines so that's the first thing that will happen the second we can add a sentence in in what i would say would be if a parent finds that you know they're not experiencing this please communicate with the teacher and if they're if that does not work then go to the building leader we can add that sentence for sure that's all that's great thank you shauna so i think i think we've i think we've unraveled this like microcosm of an issue that we're we're now saying and and i think the word that we're all looking for is experience especially at the elementary school level because when all of our kids come together at the melting pot of the middle school and they're put into three teams randomly assigned by school they all have john i don't think we can hear you i think you're cutting out SPEAKER_UNKNOWN: uh oh shauna you know you're not coming in clear i think what i think what i'm hearing shauna say is that they the kids in the elementary should have a similar experience because they all end up in the house right now for my own don island okay no can you we can hear you now i i think i think shauna's saying that the three different elementary schools pour into one middle school and the kids are all jumbled up and if they've had a different experience at each school level then it will um you know be shown in the middle school which i you know i can i i totally agree with that that it should it should try to be a little bit more consistent so that when they do get to sixth grade um everybody's kind of starting from the same experience and i hope i that's how i feel i think that's what shauna was saying yes sorry can you hear me yes can you hear me yes we can hear you okay sorry yes julie thank you for capturing that i think i think the word that we're looking for is experience and the second one that we're looking for is cons absolutely all right you're coming back out there i see dr vitello has his hand up and i don't know that he has to raise his hand in these meetings so i'll take i would say i think we we are i mean the elementary uh principles uh since i've been here working together much more so than in the past and we are certainly striving uh for a a certain level of consistency we actually want to balance between i mean i think we talk about what is tight and what is loose so we want a large degree of consistency kids should not experience a vastly different we also want to give some autonomy to educators to make judgments so we're looking for that balance but when we create guidelines that have a reasonableness to them and have some flexibility but not too much that's what we're striving for and we'll continue to do so thank you all right dan then adam and then we'll vote go ahead dan thanks i'll close out my piece with one more question um i i liked everything i just heard dr vitello explain in terms of next steps and i want him to have an opportunity to go back and meet with his team and talk about this and figure out what makes sense um he used the word expectations that i really like um in the handbook one of the things i noticed right off the bat is it says these are not expectations uh which to me means you can ignore them in the middle school handbook it says these are expectations and in the in this high school handbook too so i noticed that inconsistency right off the bat and i think that might be driving um why people treat these as really optional and can be ignored is the administration if if you're going to be taking that approach and these are kind of being expressed as yeah we all get their guidelines but they are also expectations um can we remove that sentence that just says these are not expectations is that a reasonable first step that that is fair yeah because we're we're meeting we're meeting to make them be more you know reasonable and and realistic but that they become it they are expectations so we can make a change to that thank you all right adam i saw you saw your your hand down you have your hand down so i will entertain a motion to with these revisions dr botello's agreed to here in this meeting uh approve the elementary school handbook so moved second second all right shauna yes dan yes julie yes jeremy yes adam yes alan yes yes now i'm a yes motion carries seven oh all right and now ms keenan it's uh it's on you uh are there any questions i imagine there are probably no questions or comments to be made about the high school handbook if not i'll entertain a motion uh but if somebody has questions or comments now's the time jeremy yeah i think on two items one on smartphone usage similar to dan's note like i don't want to hold up this the handbook getting approved and i think we're making steps in the right direction but i think over the course of the year we should dig into whether or not a stricter policy would be appropriate to get most data suggests that limiting phone usage throughout the entire day has a more better impact for students both academically and for mental wellness so similar to dan's asking homework i think we should take a more focused look at smartphone usage in that policy um on the attendance policy i've talked to a bunch of teachers and looked at neighboring towns um mansfield foxborough medfield well call can all require a doctor's note and teachers are generally supportive of it that said i'm wondering if there's a way that we could revise the language to be more targeted at when it's an issue um looking at like massachusetts materials on approaches to improving attendance like multi-tiered approaches seem to be best so i wouldn't want to play place a large burden on many parents and i know that they get 10 per year but it is a pain especially when we have stuff like covet tests and doctors won't see kids if they haven't been sick for a number of days so i wonder if there are methods that we could use to target students that we believe are going to be on the path to chronic absence um versus kind of this broad strokes approach all right miss keeney do you want to take that yeah i i can speak to that i mean from a logistical standpoint i think tracking that would be very very difficult um but i i understand what you're saying i i guess i just want to backtrack a little bit and talk about this process this was a year-long process with the school council that was made up of parents community members teachers students and myself that looked at um the data from all different schools around us and what they're doing and this was a real middle of the road approach you know also we're giving a restorative piece to this to help students if they lose a credit to get that back none of us at the high school there's no adult at the high school that does not want students to succeed and we recognize that there are things in students life health things whether they're mental health physical health that happens and and we want to work with families but that being said we have to live within the means of of how desi looks at chronic attendance and the issues last year at sharon high school we had over 12 000 absences so that averaged about 10.4
absences per year per student um but simultaneously we had about 12 of our student population that were chronically absent meaning more than 18 days and so i guess that speaks a little to what you were saying that this is not the whole community of students that are excessively meeting missing school but there is a pattern here and i do think we need to understand that um desi looks at each school and we get an accountability rating and that is made up of a a variety of factors which include mcas scores which include how we um work with our high needs students but a large part of it also is our attendance and when our accountability rating goes down that has implications for the community as a whole and i think it's important to understand that you know at the end of the end of the day honestly what we're trying to do is when students graduate from sharon high school they are human beings that are resilient that they're persistent that um they have the skills to persevere in college or any post-secondary pursuit that they want and unfortunately covid created a situation where we have created really bad attendance habits i mean i want sharon high school to be the best high school in the state you know and we can we have the faculty they are incredibly talented we have the students they are incredibly talented but we as adults have to put up some guardrails and routines in place um i think that show that we we mean what we say when we say attendance um is is almost 100 of the battle and being successful and we know that through research so um this wasn't taken lightly by any stretch of the imagination um we did talk about you know the struggles of parents and trying to get doctors appointments and and we've we've built in some flexibility there particularly with kids that have chronic illnesses and things of that nature um but respectfully i think this is a really good middle of the road approach and like i mentioned to you two weeks ago my goal is to get that chronic attendance rate back to where it was in the 17 18 school year to six percent or less as it should be i mean sharon high school should have 96 97 percent attendance rate last year we had 94 the year before 93 so um i'm hoping that that you will approve this um i'm happy to reflect on it throughout the year with members of the school council as well as our faculty and other administrators but i do think that this a lot of thought was put into this on all sides and i just want to comment on the this the certainly um both the state and other research talks about that monthly tiered support and this is part of that so by having this one portion of our attendance strategy we're having you know this is kind of our tier one this is you know this is for most students it's going to work well in encouraging them to come to school when they can and getting those doctor notes when they need them then when we see those kids who are creeping up towards that 10 or coming over that 10 we work with those intensively to support them in order to be able to uh meet the expectations if necessary get doctors know if it's something uh chronic or um help them with whatever is getting in the way beyond sickness that is resulting in their attendance so those supports i i would not support this approach if we weren't coupling it with uh using our counseling staff and others to support kids who are having attendance issues but by minimizing that group by having a strong you know system as far as accountability that allows us to do that more effectively uh thank you uh and thank you principal keenan and dr patello both for your comments that i had the chance we've had to speak offline uh like jeremy i did some some research as well and i know and respect that this is a policy developed through the school council process um i want to say up front i'm going to support the the policy and i just want to speak briefly to to why um because i do hear and understand the feedback from the community about the notion that these absences written by uh or or proved or supported by parents is going to be now labeled as unexcused and i i wrestle with that a lot because i think you know we want to have a collaborative relationship with parents i think we we want to trust parents that they're going to be um uh correct and fair and reasonable in how they um call out their students um i think when you look at what other districts have done and the fact that this is consistent with that and i also think the fact that um not all parents are are uh as scrupulous as we'd want them to be and there are parents who will take advantage of this of the of the rules and write notes for their kids for for just about anything and so um i thought about well what if we made it you know 10 excused absences and then it became uh a doctor's note required and the reality is that's just semantics that the issue here is really the cap right and that there has to be a line drawn somewhere that the school can say there's been a certain number of absences above which it is no longer reasonable and that if that's the case we have to be able to take action um and so i think that call them unexcused call them excused parents can make decisions about their children to keep them out of school for 10 occasions and if they need more absences than that then they can go to their child's doctor um and we all know that if the child has a chronic medical condition that uh there's the ability to get medical notes that speak to the chronic nature of that condition there's the 504 plan process there's the iep process so i'm i'm not concerned about students with chronic medical conditions being disadvantaged by this policy i know it's a change i know it's an adjustment i know it's a a linguistic change that feels very significant but i really believe that the district is going to benefit i think the administration is going to support and enforce this policy in a fair and equitable way and as principal keenan said i think if it helps contribute to us being the best district in the state and providing the best education for students hopefully that's our foremost responsibility and we have to trust that our educators and our school council have looked at this carefully made the best decision and so i'm going to support their decision thank you thanks alan all right seeing no other hands i'll just say before we vote that i know um i just i feel like i should clarify since i said in the last meeting that i would not vote for this policy i did have an opportunity to have a conversation with building admin over the high school and similar to what alan has had to say you know for me and just in weighing it was made clear that these things were also concerns of the high school admin but that the need uh to have firm policies and to create a culture of taking academia academic pursuits seriously at our high school this is something that's important and i know that this community very much shares uh principal keenan's belief that we can be the best high school in the state and so i i can't see in good conscience tying our educators hands behind their back when we're asking them to deliver rigidity um and rigor for for our students and to deliver results so that's why my vote will be changing uh dan i saw your hands back up thanks i have a quick uh question for miss keenan um some parents were asking about college visits and um if you could please clarify um how you're approaching college visits that might be across multiple days um i think parents were reading the language and weren't totally sure about what that meant in terms of being excused versus unexcused could you talk about that a little bit um and i i apologize because i don't have the handbook right in front of me um but we do allow for a certain amount of excused absences both in junior and senior year for college visits um because we we want students to take that opportunity with their families to explore their post-secondary pursuit so we feel that and that's that's in line with almost every high school in the state that allows that to be an excused absence now you know when you're getting to 10 days out because because you're visiting schools now you're taking away you know from the very thing we're trying to avoid uh but we have put in place days for both junior and senior year and clearly you know if there's a situation that comes up where there's you know someone decides they want to go to california to look at a school um we have the flexibility to to to meet with those families individually and and and and look at that um as an excuse to absence but um yeah we we believe that is important it's important part of their high school experience is to explore colleges Adam sorry just as a quick follow-up to Dan's question um so in the in the handbook i just pulled it up when it talks about the college visits it says up to five kind of two junior year three senior year and i think the question that was raised was just does that mean two visits that could span multiple days or is that two days and then three days gotcha um two and three days thank you yeah yeah all right i will entertain a motion to approve the high school handbook so moved i'll second all right adam yes julie yes jeremy no dan yes allen yes shauna yes nami yes motion carries six to one all right next up we have a proposal to name the sharon high school met co-office discussion impossible vote uh dr botella do you want to take the lead here sure yes we're uh proposing to um name the uh space on the second floor um uh that uh our boston students and metco students attend uh is the mcmullen trailblazing center and this is named after um the founding director of metco here in sharon and our first graduating class of 1971.
um all right are there any questions or discussion from the table all right dan from what i'm reading and hearing this sounds like an excellent suggestion the person sounds very worthy um i have a process question which is um if this proposal went to the school council first and the reason i'm asking is because we have a policy um that was just approved a couple of years ago about the process these things are supposed to take um and it does say in it that it needs to go to the school council and the pto just just as a consultation from my understanding i just wanted to ask if that's occurred i don't want to hold this up so i'm even happy to approve contingent on this going to them and their agreement if that if that's appropriate but i just wanted to raise the process question make sure we do it the right way uh did this get brought up to the school council i apologize my son was asking me a question so can you repeat that we would do it was a process question because the the policy uh mentions it going uh for in a consulting way to the school council uh as well as the pto did um are you talking about the handbook still no those this is about the um uh naming the mecco space the mcmullen trailblazing center oh i see what you're saying um i think carla could probably speak uh more clearly to that i think she followed the procedures that were uh lined out for her um and filled out the proper paperwork and sent it to central office we from the time that she wanted to propose this the school council was not in session i would say it's akin to also we just had the field a naming uh ceremony for the field that was put before school committee that that did not go before school council as well nor did um the baseball field naming none of those two things so i just want to clarify something and i think we all want to see this get done in the end just process wise there's there are there's a background here so as dan pointed out there was there's a policy which does specifically say that the pto and the school council will be looped in this is for things inside the buildings outside the buildings like our physical property that was actually a a change from from previous town uh i can't remember the the bylaw was not changed we we made a change though sort of to circumvent a bylaw and that process actually would be more even perhaps more arduous and didn't happen here which is for those items like that field there's a proposal that comes to the school committee chair the school committee chair announces in an open session that this has happened there's a two-week time frame where the public can give feedback and then the school committee votes so i had the same question to be honest with you with this coming up was just whether or not it had gone through the school council channels similar to dan i would personally be open to passing this contingent on the school council um you know reviewing it post i i guess i'm saying that because it feels to me like this is something we should probably all be on board for i but but from a policy standpoint i do think that we might as well if we would be past a couple years we might as well go through it um and i i think we could probably get a little bit better about making that clear to you all at the building level so we don't have this happen um so again i personally if other people were comfortable with it would follow dan's suit and and pass contingent but that is that is the difference the technicality in the process that makes sense to me and you know i'm happy to bring that up and have that on our agenda for our first school council meeting awesome great thanks on an entirely different note i don't know if any of my uh three other colleagues on the committee who were in school at the same time i was ever had any interaction with uh evelyn mcmullen and i don't know if anybody in the call ever had interaction with evelyn mcmullen but i remember uh substantial interaction with her even though i wasn't in the medical program she was an absolutely lovely brilliant empathetic woman who was a real leader in the high school um again even for kids that weren't involved in the medical program so um to the extent that that that just i think deserves to be said uh uh certainly she is very deserving i can't speak to the class 1971 although hats off to them for for being the first class um she is more than deserving of this honor and i think it's a fantastic thing that we're doing so thank you yeah now and i think your comments are embodying you know what ms mcmullen represented and what carla hands is is trying to do in her footsteps that i always say that we are a mecca district we have students who live in boston and come to sharon we are all mecca um and so she embodied that by the way that she supported our students from boston as but as well as interacted with kids throughout the school um to pull us together which is incredibly uh symbolic of what we want to be yeah thank you absolutely now i i see kimber dennis's hand and i know given her role in the metco program um she's not simply a member of the public is it all right if i call on her to be comfortable here all right kimber okay wait i'm coming i'm turning my phone no worries i first would like to say um i i think it's um beautiful that they are considering changing the um mecca center to the um mcmullen trailblazers i did get an opportunity to meet her i am a product of mecca i worked in the mecca program but my mother was part of project exodus that helped start mecca so it it has a significant um um holding in my heart that they're naming and she she was in that position for many many many years so even though that that the um mecca um directors in the past have had short tenure she had a very long tenure so her impact in the district was long lasting and and memorable so i think it's um it's fitting for them to change it to that i i'm very proud to hear that they are giving her some recognition for all of the uh work and time she put in the sharing medical program thank you ms dennis i know it means a lot coming from you and the work that you did in our schools i know adam will share this sentiment we had the privilege of seeing uh the role that you played uh in advocating for students at the walkout a couple years ago so i i know firsthand the leader that you are and appreciate your voice on this thank you absolutely um i will entertain a motion to approve uh this name change contingent on there being a meeting with the school council and having the school council weigh in with that information reported back to the committee so moved second adam uh yes and and i also raised my head because i i just wanted to ask i so i don't know uh as much about mcmullen and it's been great to hear this um would love to see if there is a i don't know if uh like print out on a bulletin board or a plaque or something i i would love to share this awareness and make sure that uh everyone who's coming in through the high school uh gets that that same sense of uh who ms mcmuller was and the impact that she had on the district so all right so adam's a yes jeremy yes shauna yes yes yes yes julie yes i'm a yes motion carries 7-0 all right um next up we have uh school committee correspondence and this is the discussion item um dan had asked me to agenda this so i'll turn out i'm not turning the chair over but the floor is yours for the moment dan thanks alvi i really appreciate it i have a few process questions for the group they're of a more administrative nature i'll try to make them quick when i started um jane martin um was very generous explained to me how everything worked our accounts our mailbox and our correspondence and there's a there's a when you first start there's a learning curve associated with all that so i really appreciate all the explanation uh that she gave me and um as part of that i was surprised when jane told me that she's the one who summarizes our correspondence uh between meetings i had always assumed that the secretary did that uh because uh correspondence is often associated with the secretary and the secretary reads the correspondence but i apparently we have a process where um jane does that to help us out um instead so i asked jane how she felt about that and she said she's done it as a courtesy to our committee for a number of years now um and if we wanted to the responsibility could return to us either way she said was fine with her i hope i'm representing her accurately um and i would never bring this up without talking to administration first um because this is a year where i think everybody will need to pitch in including all of us uh i know administration has a lot to do already and particularly jane does and it just didn't sit right to me that we were asking them to do something we could try to do ourselves so i just wanted to bring it up and have the conversation um because she had offered that that i could do that um and i'm happy to volunteer to try it right now uh if i can just take that one thing off her plate uh hopefully it's a help uh i could try to work any kinks out of the process and longer term uh i think it might be something our secretary could do whoever that is in the future they're reading the summary anyway uh but i just wanted to bring it up and see how others felt and um see if we could try to take one thing off administration's plate uh does anybody have any objections i'll go i'm gonna go first and then i'll take hands um i would be a hard hard i don't want to say hard too many times i'll be a really hard no here um and i'd be a hard no on two to i'd be a hard no to take this and put it in the hands of somebody from the committee for a lot of reasons one jane does a phenomenal job with this um two there is a i'll pull the curtain back here for the public one of the things that jane does such a phenomenal job on when i see these correspondents and i know the rest of the committee sees this as well we all read these emails uh every one of us i believe reads all of these emails when we see them summarized they're always summarized in my opinion in a very neutral way they don't share in any way a bias or a view on them i believe that if they were being done by committee members we would open ourselves up to the feeling and or belief if somebody ever felt like they had been presented in a biased way that they were in any way being handled in a political way because they were being handled by one of the elected officials for the same reason nothing personal specific to you dan but i would not i certainly would oppose handing this to a committee member who wasn't the secretary because i suppose if this group and i'm not one of them wanted to vote to take this into the committee's hands it feels to me like that should go directly into the secretary's hands because at the very least the committee did elect that person to respond to those emails that's one of the responsibilities of the secretary and so to me having a fourth to have a chair to then have a vice chair to then have a secretary with this responsibility and then to have a fourth person who now reads this correspondence but like we do get emails for example so sometimes jane will summarize a group of emails and then we will receive an email from a member of the public saying my email was never read well i feel like this group is pretty insulated against the against issues like that because we have a phenomenal admin who's handling that for us and can explain here's what i did the moment that our group is taking that in i think we rightfully would be opened to folks some folks feeling like we were not handling them fairly so for me these would all be hard nose julia i see your hand is up uh thanks as a i think i've been secretary twice um and i i totally agree with what avi is saying and i would only like to add that i do believe keeping track of our correspondence um as and is like a i believe a legal obligation and i think uh jane really does a great job with that and tracking all of that um and making sure you know uh that we see what is necessary to see so i would i would agree with avi in that um i would if if i would prefer jane do it thanks alan yeah i appreciate you bringing it up i i would say that you know given your unique past experience dan writing a pretty neutral summary um you have a skill set that uh maybe comes closest on the committee to jane's but myself included uh i don't think anyone else uh could even come within uh sniffing distance of the job jane does i think she does a phenomenal job and i wouldn't trust any other member of the committee uh perhaps dan other than you given your background and i think going on a going forward basis therefore taking out of the hands of somebody that does such a phenomenal job just because you happen to be on the committee dan is not something i think we should be doing i think if it ain't broke we shouldn't fix it shauna thanks um i think i think i uh not i think i echo the sentiments of of my colleagues um i also want to add that there is a certain level of um neutrality that needs to occur um and sometimes um if someone is writing into us or we are responding to uh a level of correspondence we may get tripped up um i think jane does an incredible job summing things up and doing it in such a way that captures what our constituents are writing about what they're how they're feeling but in a manner in which is um very neutral um i think that is a very very important um task uh and sometimes i could see that getting blurried um depending on kind of your stance and um the topic at hand and i'm not saying your dan as like your as like our stance so um i am a no despite being um the secretary and having years of administrative background running iep meetings and contentious meetings and having to be the note taker um it is i will leave it to how it's done now dan yeah i appreciate everybody's thoughts and these are all reasonable points of view um i was just trying to pull the group and see how everyone felt so if that's the direction we go that's totally fine um i i i guess i'm a little taken aback by the suggestion that um the administration doing something would be inherently less biased than us i know there are many parents who um rightfully or wrongly would have written in and suggested that the opposite might be true um i don't believe that i i don't i don't see this as one way or another resolving that issue that who's whoever is doing this can have their own biases or characterizing i think the only way to really resolve that would be to totally offshore it to like an independent person or a counselor or something i don't see personally see a distinction there in terms of like who's doing it and whether there's a bias there or not um but again everyone's points are reasonable and whatever the group wants to do is fine with me dan i don't i don't want to get into it too much of back and forth but i feel like i have to respond to that just by clarifying here's my reason why that's a and to me this is actually really cut and dry plain logic jane is an employee of this district who was hired to do a job based on her qualifications and she works for our superintendent and she works for this committee so she answers two bosses and again i think you just heard many of those people say what a phenomenal job she does you me alan julie jeremy shauna adam we were elected by the public for our views so we are i mean i can i can speak for myself i mean i i i take seriously the the responsibility to be open-minded and and hear administration here our educators hear the public but i i literally run every three years and tell the public how i feel and what they can count on me for then they elect me that is very different than an employee of our district who's hired for their abilities and their qualifications and then who maintains their job by being good at it um the truth is i could be bad at this and if somehow i convinced enough people to like me and and vote for me theoretically i could keep coming back and being bad at it i don't think that that means i should uh summarize our correspondence all right is there anything else or should we move on uh i had just a couple other quick issues so um as part of this review of the correspondence um i did have the question of what we should consider correspondence i did talk with jane about this um because we don't consider everything we receive to be correspondence we we know that um right now from what i understand we make or i guess you could say jane makes those determinations on a case-by-case basis um there doesn't seem to be any kind of definition or policy or process around what is correspondence versus what is others we might have some informal practices um i've just personally noticed sometimes things like mailings and newsletters uh emails from school staff make it in sometimes they don't and there might be good reasons for that um but when i was asking if we have like a uniform practice that people aren't being treated desperately um the answer i heard was no so you know i have some suggestions about how we might resolve that but if people don't think that's an issue um that's valid too just wanted to bring up the discussion i see jane's hand let me call on jane hey jane hi thanks um just very briefly um when i did speak with mr newman i did explain there is not a written formal what what gets accepted and what doesn't get accepted but i when i review the when i review the incoming correspondence i have a pretty um consistent standard that i use and that standard includes um i will look at all newsletters that are coming in from important constituencies such as metco um but if you get which you often do and i know you see it if you get spam email if you if i know that somehow a vendor has gotten a hold of the school committee email list i'll start to watch to see how many of those are coming in and i won't include those kinds of advertisements or marketing materials in um in your correspondence you and you do get vendor things because pretty much every spring there is a public records request for the names and email addresses of all the school committee members from large database groups that are just looking to send out advertising material and it's public records request so i need to provide that information um i'm certainly happy to consider if somebody wants to suggest stricter guidelines but i do want to remind the school committee members and i know you are keenly aware of this your email is how your constituents reason constituents get to you and whether or not you like to think of somebody as an important constituent if somebody is writing to you they're a constituent so that's my own that's my only feedback on that process i appreciate that jane does anybody have any thoughts on this or any any feelings any all right it doesn't sound like there are any thoughts to share um dan did you have an ask of us or should i move on um the last question i'll just close it out um is about exactly what jane was just describing those kinds of subscription type emails um jane just described that we sometimes get these with some frequency it was the first thing i noticed when i started on school committee i had questions about what these were how we deal with them um i um have a suggestion for the committee which is um we have this shared mailbox so anything that goes to it um goes to all of our individual accounts automatically um i personally don't like getting subscriptions doesn't matter what the organization is um they clutter my mailbox um i know people have different preferences around some people don't mind them i do it would be a big help to me uh maybe others on the committee um if we could um just have a practice of not subscribing to things to our shared account and just returning that ability to our individual accounts um that way everybody can be subscribed to exactly what they want to be subscribed but no more um it would just be a favor to me and um i'd really appreciate if we could just adopt that general practice i don't think it would cost anybody anything uh so i just wanted to check if the group would agree with that anybody dan i mean alan dan i guess my question is a constituent however you define it that wants to get their message to every member of the school committee how do they do that under your scenario oh um i'm not for removing anybody's ability to um contact us through that shared mailbox that's very important um that mailbox sometimes gets subscribed to like automatic mailings and things over time so i would just like to adopt a practice where we're not subscribing to things through our shared mailbox we are because that's when we're asking them to mail us something um so i would like to just subscribe to things individually um so that we don't all have to get everybody else's subscriptions okay shauna dan i i just kind of want to put it out there and put it in perspective like we're running a school district here i i think like not not to be not to be like flipped but like if you don't like the email just delete it i mean we've we've got bigger fish to fry here than subscribing and unsubscribing to groups who spam us i mean we're trying to run a district and making sure that our kids are getting everything that they need and our teachers are supported and our faculty and staff have what they need okay like that's that's just my point of view i get where you're coming from it's annoying it's another mailbox but like come on then let's go next adam yeah i just want to let you know danny if you'd like to set up uh kind of rules within your inbox i'm more than happy to help you set up rules so that when certain subscriptions come in and and you can be very precise about it um they immediately bypass your inbox and you'd never even see them dan yeah i guess i guess if this is something that's not important i don't know why it would imply that we shouldn't take my suggestion versus take it um i i didn't want to bring this to the group and i tried to address it outside of school committee but i was informed that this is something that had to be discussed at the table um so i'm just trying to bring some consistency i wanted to do it the right way and consult the group so i appreciate everybody's thoughts all right is there anything else on this dan are you making an ask of us should i move on um no dan all right i will move on all right next up uh reorganization of the school committee uh as i mentioned in the last meeting i am resigning as chair uh for me that's with the hopes that julie roe will be our next school committee chair and so um i would entertain a motion to nominate julie roe as chair of the sharon school committee i would like to make a motion or second your motion i'm entertaining the motion all you have to do is move it so move i move it forward forward do i have a second second all right jeremy yes shauna i just moved it yes there are rules here adam yes alan yes dan yes julie yes and thank you very much everyone um and i just want to say that can i go all right oh yeah sorry you know what is it too late is it we have the votes already dang um i am a yes motion carries 7-0 julie you're now i just wanted to say thank you for the floor to say whatever you would like i just want to say thank you avi for um everything and i know um you you are like my brother in that you um i i i love you and you ignore and you annoy me so much at the same time and i know you feel the same way about me so um it's it's been really great and i'm looking forward to a productive working relationship going forward um and since i'm here i would like to nominate avi for vice chair um this would be really helpful to me going forward so if there is a motion so moved thank you second second thank you um dan yes shauna nah yeah yeah sure yes um adam yes alan yes yes jeremy yes jeremy yes obvi yes and i'm a yes so congratulations to avi um our new vice chair this is great um i think the um the rest of this was just some um kind of like a paperwork in that we were going to move around some of the um the town appointments um and i would like to do i would still like to stay on the capital outlay committee um and the thieves the building committee when it comes to our subcommittee appointments um i would still like to be on the negotiations subcommittee as um in the position of chair um of the school committee but i would like to nominate avi to be the chair of the negotiations subcommittee and to also um nominate him as chair of the calendar subcommittee so moved thank you second thank you uh dan yes shauna yes adam yes alan yes jeremy yes obvi yes and i am a yes so congratulations uh um jane do you have your hand i do i have a i just want to make sure i got that right julie because i'm sure my committee list so what you're saying is that for the negotiation subcommittee obvi is now going to become chair and you're going to be a member but obvi wasn't on the negotiation subcommittee so does this huh i'm sorry yes no you're right so does this now mean that there'll be four people on that because then you you're four out of seven it's a i i i'm just wondering what that membership is going to look like and does it if it's four out of seven does that mean you have a quorum of the school committee when you have a negotiation subcommittee meeting i i i'm sorry jane i misspoke i meant that i would attend the negotiations the way that we've we've done it up until not as a voting member not as not it right oh i got it got it yes i apologize i i i'm sorry that was confusing i didn't in my head it made total sense so okay awesome um going back to the agenda um so we also have on the agenda agenda a vote for secretary of the school committee um shauna are you still um all right do we need to vote on that are you still you're still good i hope so as long as i'm not writing the correspondence sorry just for i'm a little punchy tonight i'm a little punchy tonight okay um so i think that that does it for the second part of the reorganization of the school committee unless anybody else has something to add i'm assuming that i'll be julie i'll make a motion okay to continue the rest of the the rest of the current organization as is okay great is there a second okay thank you uh alan yes yes dan yes shauna yeah adam yes jeremy yes javi yes and i'm a yes awesome okay decision items um there we would like to have a vote to approve the minutes of august 28th to approve the minutes of august 28th fair emotion so moved thank you lots of seconds okay alan yes dan yes shauna yes adam yes jeremy yes jeremy yes obvi yes yes and i am yes the motion passes and the next vote is to approve the middle school field trip um that we hold annually we hold annually to washington dc june 10th to june 14th is there a motion so moved thank you second second great alan yes um adam yes sorry dan yes shauna yes jeremy yes bobby yes and i'm a yes um are there so that motion passes as well and the next is announcements and updates um shauna do you have an announcement or update i have a question did i just miss it didn't did we vote on thompson island that is a good question it's not on the agenda um i was told that it was supposed to be on the agenda for tonight could it be possible by the entire middle school staff they were like you need to leave here right now so you can go vote on thompson island um jane is it possible that we have that i didn't have that as a submission and honestly i've got to look back because we may have approved that one last sometimes we approve some in may and june for the following year that may have been one that got approved last year the only thing that the middle school had asked about for this agenda was the dc trip okay all right i just had very anxious um seventh grade teachers so i just wanted to make sure thank you jane thanks for checking on that jane um are there any other announcements or um otherwise anyone um i just i i personally would like to congratulate the uh high school girls varsity soccer team for beating milford five to three um on tuesday and tomorrow um there is a a game no sorry friday that i think there's a home game and um any i think everybody should pay attention to the high school girls varsity soccer because it's gonna be a good season thank you anybody else adam yeah for anyone interested the budget subcommittee will be meeting a week from thursday on the 19th keep your eyes peeled for posted agenda shauna did you have something nope just never lowered my hand okie doke well um that is do we have an executive session tonight no no no okay so with that i will accept in motion to adjourn so moved second second second oh you got it uh adam yes shauna yes alan yes dan yes jeremy yes avi yes 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