Welcome to the October 9th, 2024 School Committee Meeting.

This open meeting of the Sharon School Committee is being conducted remotely, consistent with an act relative to extending certain COVID-19 measures adapted during the state of emergency signed into law on June 16, 2021, as amended and extended through March of 2025.

These provisions allow public bodies to meet remotely as long as reasonable public access is afforded so the public can follow along with the deliberations of the meeting.

For this meeting, the school committee of the school committee, we are convening by video teleconferencing via Zoom.

Members of the public have been provided with access information so that they can follow the meeting remotely.

All votes will be conducted via roll call.

So typically, we begin with community comment, but I would like Peter Vitello, our superintendent, would like to say a few words first.

Thank you, Julie.

I just want to make a comment on the message that I sent out on Monday regarding October 7, 2023.

I received some feedback from members of the community and had lots of conversations with both colleagues, family members, friends, and just wanted to comment, especially on the feedback that I received.

I very much appreciate and accept totally the constructive, heartfelt feedback that I have received from several members of the community, as well as the grace extended by some, including some of those who know me well and also some who do not. As a superintendent who earnestly cares for all of our students and families, a father of two children, a son of a Jewish descent, and a person with close friends and family connected to and living in Israel, I did not intend the message the way it was felt by many. However, I understand the impact.

That impact is more important than intent, and I regret the impact that it had.

I appreciate the feedback and perspective I've received and pledge to learn from it. I, too, when I think back to last year, was saddened and outraged by the horrific attacks on Israel by Hamas on October 7, 2023, and do not in any way mean to diminish how that day, in particular, and its memory has caused pain for the Jewish members of our Sharon Public Schools community.

In future communications, I will continue to attempt to demonstrate love and empathy for all in our community, while working to analyze the impact of my words more carefully, and widening my net of trusted folks of varying perspectives that I rely on to discuss and grapple with the topics that affect all of us in our community.

Again, I thank people for their feedback, and definitely pledge to learn from it.

So I just wanted to start with that.

Thank you, Peter.

And that was very well said.

I'm going to take a little bit out of order.

I'm going to call on David Baskin for our first community comment.

You have two minutes, David.

Thank you, Julie.

Dr. Patello, I just wanted to say thank you.

I think that this is sorely needed, and I appreciate your ability to listen and understand our feedback.

So I just wanted to say from my perspective, gratitude and thanks.

That's it. SPEAKER_UNKNOWN: Thank you.

Okay.

Thank you, David.

Casey McLaughlin.

Casey.

Can you hear me?

There you go. I can't start my video.

Okay.

I wanted to say, I wanted to ask, actually, what is our current policy regarding school personnel who feel entitled to hide a student's gender identity from their parents?

There is a safe schools program for LGBTQ on the DOE website.

But it's pretty vague. Let me be clear.

If you're withholding information from parents regarding the mental health of their own children, you're violating their parental rights.

A 2015 NIH report shows dramatically elevated rates of anxiety, depression, and suicidality among transgender people. Autism and past sexual trauma are also frequent comorbidities.

This is not as simple as Johnny is Jane now, but don't tell mom and dad.

Let's break it down. Who determines that the child's home is an unsafe space?

Should schools screen parents to make sure that they're in line with the current LGBTQ dogma and push to remove that child from the harm of that home environment?

If a child admits that they're exploring their newfound sexuality in an online chat forum with potential predators, is that also withheld?

What about the disclosure of past sexual trauma or current abuse?

Is that withheld from the parent?

If the suicidality is connected to this new gender identity, is that withheld?

Who does the mandated reporter report to? Another administrator?

DCF?

Is this all behind the parent's back?

Gender dysphoria is a psychiatric condition.

On what grounds are school personnel allowed to diagnose a child? If a child experiences body dysmorphia and develops anorexia or bulimia, the parent would be notified to get medical treatment for that child.

But gender dysphoria is okay to keep hidden from that same parent?

Make it make sense.

The bottom line is this. If you don't appear on the birth certificate or in my divorce agreement, and you're not paying your portion of all of their expenses, and if you're not authorized to see, diagnose, and treat my child, then you have no right to play make pretend co-parent.

I suggest you make this very clear to the entire staff at Sharon Public Schools and the entire community at large.

Thank you so much.

Thank you, Ms.

McLaughlin.

And that was a nice flourish, Adam, wherever that came from. So next we have Mira Belenke.

Hi, thank you.

And I want to start by thanking Dr. Botello for his very nice message.

It was very heartfelt, and I really appreciate that. I'm here to actually talk about a slightly different issue.

Sharon, ninth graders, will read five novels this year.

One is a graphic novel by Star Trek actor George Takei that Amazon advertises for nine-year-olds.

So that leaves four novels.

Another one of them is up on the screen as my virtual background.

Oh.

Can you please start my video?

Because I can't start, turn on my camera. All right, so while you're doing that.

So the official goal of the English department is to introduce students to a diverse array of texts.

These book choices send...

Oh, sorry. Sorry.

Can you restart my timer?

Because I just lost half my time.

But being muted.

Give her another minute.

So Sharon, ninth graders, will read five novels this year. As I said, one is a graphic novel by Star Trek actor George Takei that Amazon advertises for nine-year-olds.

Another one is up on the screen. The official goal of the English department is to introduce students to a diverse array of texts.

These books' choices send kids a very strong message about diversity.

They say that out of all the books written by or about minorities, this is the best we found.

So according to our English department, the best book about autism follows the main character to the bathroom at every opportunity.

Was this really the best choice?

I thought about reading it out loud to you, but I decided I have a little too much self-respect for that. Instead, I'm going to read you an excerpt of a different book, an autobiography by an autistic woman named Temple Grandin, who revolutionized the livestock industry.

I think in pictures.

When somebody speaks to me, his words are instantly translated into pictures.

Language-based thinkers often find this phenomenon difficult to understand.

But in my job as an equipment designer for the livestock industry, visual thinking is a tremendous advantage.

We all have choices. This committee has the power to approve and reject the curriculum.

You can't choose individual books, but you can take a look at the syllabus as a whole and say whether there's grade level and meets district goals.

You set those goals.

Reading a diverse array of texts is a really low bar. You're out of time, Mira.

Thank you.

Okay.

Allison Sobel. Okay. Okay. SPEAKER_UNKNOWN: Okay. SPEAKER_UNKNOWN: Okay. SPEAKER_UNKNOWN: Okay. SPEAKER_UNKNOWN: Okay. SPEAKER_UNKNOWN: Okay. SPEAKER_UNKNOWN: Okay. SPEAKER_UNKNOWN: Okay. SPEAKER_UNKNOWN: Okay. SPEAKER_UNKNOWN: Okay. SPEAKER_UNKNOWN: Okay. SPEAKER_UNKNOWN: Okay. SPEAKER_UNKNOWN: Okay. SPEAKER_UNKNOWN: Okay. SPEAKER_UNKNOWN: Okay. SPEAKER_UNKNOWN: Alright. Okay.

Thank you. Alright. Okay. Alright. Okay. Karen. Hi. Sorry, I'm on someone else's computer. This is Beth Anne Durrell.

I have a fourth grader in the developmental learning program at Cottage and a first grader and I wanted to share a letter on behalf of all of the parents from the DLP program.

We hope that you are aware of the staffing shortage in the DLP classroom.

Currently, the DLP classroom serves 11 students ranging in age from 5 to 10 years of age and is staffed by a single special education teacher.

As far as we are aware, eligible students assigned to instructional groupings outside of the general education classroom should have groupings that do not exceed eight students to one certified special education teacher.

And the ages of the youngest and oldest student in any instructional grouping should not differ by more than 48 months.

We believe that the DLP classroom is not in compliance with the special education laws.

The school has been aware of this problem since mid-August of this year and sent out first written communication of the staffing shortage on September 12th.

Not only is the program missing a full-time SPED teacher, the program was missing two instructional assistants, which could be partially due to the contract issues or pay.

Almost four weeks later, we have been provided with no updates and no viable solutions for our children who are being under-deserved.

The parents of this classroom have written emails to the superintendent, school principal, and director of student services with limited communication.

In a letter from the director of student services on September 12th, we were assured that the individual needs of the children in the DLP program are being met. We have not been provided with any objective data to support this claim.

We are increasingly concerned that the staffing shortage is leading to violations of individual IEP mandates and that the individual needs of these students are not being met.

Many of us moved to Sharon for the educational services.

However, the school system is failing its most vulnerable students.

We are disappointed that the school committee has not made this a priority, and we ask that the staffing shortage at the DLP be added to the agenda at school committee meetings until a solution is provided.

We're pretty frustrated. Bethann, Bethann, thank you. I'm very sorry to interrupt you. No, I'm done.

I'm done.

Okay, I just, we actually have some news for you, and I'll let Peter tell you the news.

Peter, if you want to. Yeah, we posted the position when the opening occurred and have been seeking candidates and had a candidate in today that was, did very, very well, and I've already checked references.

So we're hopeful as far as the teacher opening that we'll have that filled, you know, very, very quickly.

Yeah, I think that's fantastic.

I know we need to fill these positions.

I'm just going to say it, that this is a systemic issue.

I know I have a child in a sub-separate program.

Bethann, I'm sorry, Bethann.

You can't, we can't go back and forth. Okay.

I apologize.

I'm sorry.

Okay.

Are there any other public comments?

Nope. Okay.

Shauna, are you ready to do the correspondence?

Yep.

All right.

All right. So, the school committee has received 36 pieces of correspondence between September 11th, 2024 at 9 a.m. and October 9th, 2024 at 9 a.m.

A parent wrote to acquire about the room assignments for non-binary students who may be attending the Thompson Island field trip.

A parent wrote to share information with the school committee regarding the implementation of the new Title IX regulations in light of recent court case and injunction.

A representative from Massachusetts State DCF shared information with the school committee regarding Stryer Academy.

A community member wrote to share information on a program that provides opportunities to create healthier food choices for students.

The high school library media specialist shared two editions of the Sharon High School Library newsletter in the school committee.

The newsletter highlighted featured library acquisitions, statistics on SHS library services, and introduced the library interns. The school committee was copied on a letter sent to Fred Turkington, town administrator from the MSBA, which summarized information on the SHS building project construction change orders. We received several updates and newsletters from METCO.

These updates highlighted a celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month, promoted free forums for the history of busing and desegregation in Boston, identified grants available to educators to support equity in schools, celebrated METCO board members recognized in the Boys and Girls Club of America alumni Hall of Fame, parents and students who wrote to school committee to share their concerns regarding staffing and vacancies in the DLP program at Cottage Elementary School.

The letter requested that the district focus on the urgency of the matter to ensure that students in the DLTP program can be appropriately supported with staffing and proper coverage.

A parent wrote to request that the school committee share information regarding the 25-26 school year calendar as soon as possible.

The League of Women Voters wrote to share information on student membership and provide resources on high school voter registration drives. Several families wrote to provide feedback on Sharon High School's updated absence procedures.

This feedback focused on college visit protocols and nursing staff protocols for students who become sick during the day.

A parent wrote to share information with the school committee on the sex ed opt-out regulations.

The school committee was copied on an email sent to Dr. Votelo and the SHS principal that shared information on a situation regarding verbal harassment of students.

The school committee received a request to share more detailed information on the METCO updates that are received by the school committee, which, thank you, Jane, I think that we just hit that up above.

A parent wrote to ask for additional clarification regarding the certification of halal meals that are being offered through the food service department.

The school committee was copied on an email sent to the principal of Sharon High School regarding the school council ballots and election timing.

The Sharon committee, the school committee was copied on an email.

Oh, sorry.

The Sharon community has provided considerable feedback regarding the superintendent's message that was sent out on October 7th.

Highlights of the feedback included the message failed to focus on specific events of October 7th and the impact to the Jewish community.

The suggestion that it may have been better not to send out any message at all. The acknowledgement that was a sincere message with good intentions, but that it left out portions of the Sharon community feeling unseen and unheard.

Concerns with the letter reflects a sense of equivocation and erodes the sense of safety for Jewish students in the district.

Examples of possible alternative message, including one sent out by congressman, I can never say his name, Jake Auchenkloss.

Auchenkloss.

Yep, him.

Yep.

We received information on the Sharon High School Financial Reality Fair that is scheduled for November 15th, 2024.

The school committee members were invited to volunteer for the fair and email included information on a volunteer orientation session.

A parent wrote to remind the school committee that this is National Bullying Prevention Month.

The Norfolk County Sheriff's Department shared information on several events that they are sponsoring, including a winter coat drive.

That's it. Thank you, Shawna.

Thank you. Thank you. SPEAKER_UNKNOWN: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Yes.

Hi. Hi.

Great.

Thank you. Welcome.

SPEAKER_UNKNOWN: Thank you. So, you know, we're one month into the school year, and, you know, we've already had a bunch of great events and happenings.

So, I do have sort of a lengthy update to give all of you.

Eagles have had an amazing homecoming weekend on September 27th with a packed Eagles stadium for the first home football game against Owlboro, followed by a dance that featured music by our own radio club. The sports have been exciting with the girls' field hockey team nailing their first victory of the season. And the Unified basketball team has its home opening this Friday at 3. And we hope to have a packed nest for the game.

Many of our basketball team players are also helping to coach Unified, so we hope to see many Eagles cheering them on. The class of 28 student government elections are going to happen over the next week or so. And we are seeing upwards of around 60 candidates submitting their paperwork for various positions.

So, you know, that's very exciting to have a lot of activity in student government.

We do have planning for Powder Puff that's going to be class of 2025 against 26 on Thursday, November 21st at night under the lights of the stadium.

And, you know, we're encouraging everyone to come. There's going to be cheerleaders and hot chocolate for everyone. The class of 25 kicked off their senior year with Senior Sunrise near the lake with hot chocolate and donuts and getting their class t-shirts. And so far we've sold as much as 100 pies as part of the Humble Pie Thanksgiving fundraiser.

And we are working diligently on senior superlatives and lift up. The atmosphere has been electric with the highly anticipated club fair, which took place today, right around after school.

And we were able to feature an amazing 80 clubs with a bunch of music, lots of sound as students were enticed to join new clubs, as well as check out the established ones. And clubs, you know, have already been full swing in terms of service and competitions.

Notice that with the bunch of field trip approval forms.

And then student council leaders also offered a presentation last week to over 60 club leaders about the updated club structures and application forms, as well as information about fundraising.

The school has had a few very important assemblies for Suicide Prevention Month, Mental Health Awareness and Bullying Prevention.

A Sharon alum, Wes Woodson, visited us and shared his experience with mental health and ways that students are able to seek help if they are facing similar struggles.

The No Hate High School Tour also visited us to educate students on the importance of anti-bullying, which was accompanied by a BMX bike performance.

The students responded enthusiastically and enjoyed the assembly.

The student council is preparing to celebrate Halloween Spirit Week with creative spooky festivities.

And our music department proudly received the Tri-M Music Honor Society banner, recognizing SHS as the 23-24 Tri-M Chapter of the Year.

The Key Club led tours on Sharon Day at the high school.

The student council members gave tours to the class of 74 members as a reunion activity.

Both events gave current eagles a chance to connect with alum and alum family members who loved seeing the new school and reminiscing about how their own SHS experiences were. The high school parking lot is having painted lines added to help people navigate, drop off and pick up and appears to be much more efficient with fewer delays and traffic jams. And just to recap everything, we're hoping that you guys follow all this excitement and eagle impact along with action photos by following our school Instagram at Sharon.hi.eagles.

Thank you. Thank you, Brendan. Thank you, Brendan.

And I do commend the video of the bikes jumping over Principal Keenan as a huge highlight.

So, go Eagles.

And now it is time for the superintendent update.

Great.

SPEAKER_UNKNOWN: Thank you. Jean is going to put up the presentation and I will begin.

Yeah, as our student representative noted, it's been a great start to the school year and lots of great energy.

Just got a bunch of announcements.

First of all, MCAS distribution will be, the results will be sent home to families early next week. And then we're looking forward to in December, providing a presentation to the school community and the community to kind of analyze the results.

There's definitely been some positive developments in aggregate, but we're also digging deeper into the data to understand strengths and areas of need to learn from them and use them to help inform improvement efforts. And especially looking at, you know, various subgroups and seeing how they performed or various grade levels and how they performed.

Enrollment figures, you know, we're very at the elementary level, you know, kind of been able to have much more kind of even class sizes across schools this year in the ranges from any place from 16 to 23 and staying below 22 and 20 in the lower grades.

And this was helped by the opening of an additional section at Heights where we were able to move all of the students really who are Heights members of the Heights region back to their home school unless they were in fourth or fifth grade in, you know, had been in cottage or East for multiple years.

And then secondary numbers are pretty steady in aggregate across the middle school and high school.

Those are our tools for a total of 3,476 kids, which is very similar to last year. I wanted to give a preview of a kind of more performable proposal that I'll put forth at the next meeting, but I wanted you guys to be able to think about it. Think about it. We're definitely having like, like across the, the region, state and nation, there's a, there's a national substitute shortage.

And so definitely having difficulty having a good pool of substitutes in. So I am proposing that we.

Well, no, currently our rate is a hundred dollars per day and a rate for building substitutes that are typically in every day. The regular building substitutes are pretty much in every day is $120 per day. You know, because of the holes where, you know, sometimes having to pull individuals coverage, you know, have, you know, high school folks substituting in classes, which also costs money as well as in, in, you know, really extreme circumstances, having students in the library and auditorium and bigger groups.

So my proposal is going to be, well, first of all, here's some, some comparisons, you know, so Shrewsbury, like us, it is a hundred dollars per day. But Duxbury, Mansfield and Millis are $110 per day. Medway and Marshfield are 115 to 125. And Canton has a, a dual thing.

110 for not, for individuals who are not certified and 125 for those who are certified.

And this is for like their daily substitute rate. So what I'm proposing is beginning with a modest increase of increasing our daily rate from 100 to 110 and increasing our regular building sub rate from 120 to 125. I'm also proposing that we add an additional kind of regular building sub at the middle school and two more at the high school.

The, the cost at the high school for the additional building sub will end up being just about $18 per day, or actually, you know, 18, $23 per day more than if we were able to fill it. Fill it all those with teachers because they get paid $17 per class.

We have six classes a day. So it's pretty nominal.

Also, as far as the increases at, at, at other places, because we're not able to build, bring in subs, we're not using our full sub budget.

And the, the reality is anything we can do to have more subs available will just benefit our kids in our classrooms.

And, you know, the, the reality is that we're, we're still going to have some holes, but this will help to lessen the holes that we have and keep a little more on par with other districts.

So again, the summary is to increase our daily sub from 100 to 110 and increase our regular building sub from 120 to 125 and hire three additional regular building subs, two at the high school and one at the middle school for the remainder of the year to help alleviate critical substitute needs.

So I just wanted you guys to mull on that, just know about the sub shortage and mull on that between now and the next meeting and then we can discuss further then. Um, it's a national building awareness month.

And so we really try to work hard to, um, dig into situations of, of bullying, as well as really doing everything we can to prevent, um, bullying.

Um, you know, in addition to kind of work that's being done in classrooms and advisory, um, in other forums at the high school, we also had a, um, um, an anti hate, um, uh, bullying assembly.

Uh, which was very, um, dynamic with, uh, you know, um, uh, folks on, um, bikes and, and, and they actually, um, did a, uh, jump over, um, uh, principal Keenan's head, uh, as part of it, but also sent, uh, very, very strong messages around inclusion and, uh, positive relationships and anti-bullying.

Some other, uh, uh, dates that are coming up. We have early release on, um, October, uh, 16th, November 1st, and November 5th. November's, uh, coincides with Diwali.

So allowing for families to have at least a half day in order to have more times with their families or those who, um, um, don't go to school for the day will only be missing a half day. And then we have the federal holiday of indigenous people say, uh, next, uh, Monday the 14th. And some other, um, dates as far as school committee items coming up. We have, uh, school improvement plans, uh, for the elementary today. And then secondary will be our next meeting, um, approvals, um, during the next, uh, meetings.

And then, um, some budget reports, including FY24 final budget report, FY25, uh, quarter one week report with realignments.

Our capital submissions.

We'll start to review that today and continue over the next several meetings.

And then my goals as well as, uh, diversity, equity, inclusion update.

And then going into December, as we mentioned, uh, some, um, updates around, um, teaching and learning and especially looking at MCAS results.

Um, so today you're gonna see the, uh, early childhood and elementary schools will present their school improvement plans tonight.

We decided to delay the middle school and the high school because they've had some changes, especially at the high school. Um, they were having, uh, elections for school council representatives.

Um, so they wanted to be able to, uh, you know, share those, uh, with their new members prior to the presentation.

Um, and then, um, we'll vote on all SIPs on November 6th. Um, the school improvement plans continue to be really strongly tethered to our, um, district plan and strategic objectives initiatives, as well as show a strong alignment between schools and even levels. Um, also today, um, Dr. Jocelyn is gonna present our professional development landscape.

He has done a wonderful job working with our principals and our, uh, teacher leaders in order to map out our professional development, um, half days for the, for the year. And really grounding those on what are our learning goals for adults and how will we know if we reach them? Uh, something that, you know, we've been, uh, you know, you know, discussing and very much aligned to. So it's a great, um, work that's being done, um, on professional development this year.

All right.

Uh, thank you, Peter. And, um, the first hand, I see we have several hands up already.

So the first hand that I saw up was, um, from Shauna.

Um, thank you.

Um, I just had a point of clarification, Dr. Botello.

Um, the substitute, the, um, building-based subs that you're looking to hire.

Yeah.

Are those, are those full-time positions?

Are those, uh, benefits eligible positions?

They're not benefit eligible positions, but they are ones that we, um, will typically be in, you know, most every day. Um, you know, most every day, but not necessarily every day during the year. Um, so it's, it's some people that we, when we hire, we, um, tell them that we expect, uh, to have a need every day. We'll, we'll, we'll still kind of, um, you know, contact them, um, on a regular basis saying, okay, come in next week. Um, but there's a possibility of them, you know, not necessarily working every day. Okay.

Okay.

I only ask because, um, like other school districts have full-time building-based subs. So I just wanted to make sure that we have that distinction that this is not a dedicated sub that is coming to work every day and then it is assigned, um, as needed.

This is still part of a sub-tool.

It's very close to that, but it's, it's someone who's committing to being available every day and based upon our needs, we expect to come in, you know, most every day. But if there's a certain day when either they cannot come in or when we do not need them, we still, that still is, you know, still is a possibility.

So then can I, so then, okay, so if that's the case, it seems like we're walking a kind of a tight rope between what would be a full-time staff member.

Would it behoove us to invest in another building-based sub so that each elementary school, each middle school and, and the high school has a full-time building-based sub that is available to be met as needed?

Um, like how, how, how, uh, uh, uh, a possibility of, uh, the cost at the town level for, you know, kind of, uh, a, um, a full staff member with benefits eligible is certainly, uh, a different cost than the increase that we're, you know, kind of proposing, but it's certainly.

Okay.

For consideration.

And the increase, uh, okay. Uh, okay.

And then, I mean, that, that might be something that we just want to put in the back of our minds as we're building out the budget next year. Um, because I know that, um, the district where I work in several other districts, they use that model. Um, you know, granted subs are hard to find anywhere.

Um, but at least it helps alleviate a little bit of the pressure.

Um, and then you, you mentioned a rate of $17.

Is that the ST, um, is that the STA ST, uh, is that the contracted rate for teachers covering for one another at the high school?

At the high school level for teaching, uh, for yeah, covering a, a, a class at $17 per class.

And there are six classes in the day for a total of $112. Okay.

Okay.

All right.

Thank you. SPEAKER_UNKNOWN: All right. Uh, thank you, Shauna.

And I, I saw Avi next.

Thanks, Julie. Uh, thanks Dr. Pelo for the updates.

Um, I have a couple of questions or perhaps.

Two questions and a point to make, um, the questions on the sub rate. I think I'd go the opposite way, perhaps.

From what Shauna was, was saying. And my, my concern, what I'd like to see in a part of the presentation, when you do make the formal ask. Is what the total budget for subs is and how much of that has actually been spent.

I think if we're, if we're just putting our cards face up, which I believe philosophically is the best way, um, to handle issues like this. We, we know that we're not going to use our whole sub budget.

Um, and so while we certainly never, I believe, aim to not fill sub spots.

When we build that budget out, there's an understanding that. Financially, the, the offset is that you should not be able to fill certain spots. So, a, um, although your presentation said that one offset was the teacher.

Teachers not having to teach those classes.

The reality is if teachers, and I'm not suggesting just as to be clear for our educators.

That it's a good situation or that we should want teachers picking up those extra classes.

But we're just speaking from a budget perspective.

That $17 times six classes is $102.

So that's actually, it does not offset that. Um, if anything, we're still talking about an increase.

And that increase is 10% on one of the line items and four, four, four and a half percent on the other. So I just think those sound like really small numbers.

And to some degree, maybe they are, uh, depending on how many subs and how many sub hours we actually fill. And I think that we need to be speaking honestly about that earlier tonight. We heard a letter read from multiple parents about an issue where, um, some of our most in need from an education, you know, from an educational support standpoint, some of our most in need students have gone without a needed support for a year. And I don't believe that that's hopefully a budget issue. I think that that's finding a qualified person issue, but never, nevertheless, I think that if we're going to talk about filling these sub spots, which I support.

We need to speak holistically about the other holes in our district and be prioritizing that. I don't think we should simply discuss fixing this issue without recognizing that there are other issues throughout the district that would require money. And if we're making a decision that says, say cost 10 grand or cost 40 grand, we should weigh out what that is. I know that there are folks on this committee that are working hard as a budget subcommittee to try to look at every single line item for this upcoming budget. But one thing I would remind the rest of the committee is within the actual year, there's so much fungibility that these budget decisions are made throughout the year. And we put so much effort in during budget cycle and our admin certainly does to make all these prioritization decisions within the year, though, this committee sometimes has asks made and we don't weigh them against everything else that that dollar could be used for. So what sounds very little and it might be very little adding $10 a day to fill sub holes in aggregate might end up being a number of large enough to fix another hole that we currently think we can't afford to fix. So I just want to make sure that when that presentation comes forward, all those numbers are available and we have the opportunity as a committee to discuss what our priority is. You know, is it filling these sub holes or is it X, Y and Z thing that our district currently needs?

I'll certainly provide those numbers.

I want to explain what I meant by offset. I mean, I thought I said partially offset, but there's still a $23 difference.

The reality is that's also when we can have teachers available.

Teachers only have to do that a limited amount where we can require it. And so the assumption that they're going to voluntarily do it in times where we don't have another sub available.

Is is is is is again is not based upon something we can require in addition, just knowing that, especially at the high school level, when we have these holes, if we were deciding to not try to entice folks with additional funding, it results in, you know, numbers of classes being sent to the auditorium or to the cafeteria.

So that's something we have to go in with eyes wide open about that. Yeah, absolutely.

And then switching gears, another thing that was in your update, and I know I'm going to start to sound like a broken record on this topic, but I think it's important to be a broken record on this topic. You mentioned the assembly on bullying, and then we put up our bullying policy.

I just want to be a voice for the kids in this district who are being bullied, who we investigate the bullying.

We do not end up finding it in their favor, so to speak.

And the bullying continues.

We have reports that we deal with of child to child bullying, adult to child bullying, adult to adult bullying.

And I can't imagine how painful it is to see our district put up graphics that look like, hey, look at this great thing that we're doing and how aligned we are against bullying, when in reality there are kids throughout our district who are dealing with bullying every day. And I've come to understand that due to state regulations and other tough situations, a lot of times our administrators' hands are tied.

And so I don't want it to sound like I'm saying our administration is failing on that or placing blame, but I just want us to be careful when we put things like that up. So it feels, it sends a message at this table in public that I don't think is always the reality for kids in our district.

And I don't think that putting, I don't think it's fair to those kids who are dealing with that and we're not able to protect them to then have to see us sort of in public talk about bullying as though we have a zero-tons policy that we actually enforce.

And then we're actually always standing up for those kids.

No, I think that's very important. And I think, you know, I in no way believe that we have solved the issue of bullying in our schools.

We work hard to try to combat it and, you know, being a superintendent but also a child who's experienced it, a father of a child, you know.

I appreciated the work that was done by the school of my child, but I also, you know, it's a very painful situation.

So I appreciate your acknowledgement of that. And I think it's important that we will share over the course of the year some of the data around bullying reports and, you know, kind of what we're doing to combat it and knowing that it's a problem in our schools and a problem in schools throughout the country.

And that, you know, we can always get better at, you know, helping families and kids through these situations.

I appreciate that.

Okay.

Thank you, Avi.

Adam. Adam.

SPEAKER_UNKNOWN: Thank you, Dr. Tellin.

Thank you, Dr. Tellin.

Avi raised a lot of points that I think were on my mind as well.

But I do want to thank you for bringing forward the issue related to the substitutes.

I think it's super important and it's the right forum for us to know.

And thank you for putting the school committee in a position where we can hopefully help solve the district's needs in that regard.

And I'm very supportive to doing what we can to get more subs in the building so that we don't, to your point, have kids kind of going to the auditorium or cafeterias often. One question that I did have, and I don't know if you know this now or can include it in the subsequent presentation.

But I'm curious if we are seeing, is it harder for us to get subs?

Like, is it that we have the same number of gaps of coverage but have had more difficulty getting subs? Or are we seeing more gaps in the coverage and kind of more, a need for a greater number of subs?

Yeah, I can bring some more.

I'm definitely monitoring kind of staff attendance in sub gaps so I can share some of that data.

Yeah, I'd say over the last, you know, several years, both in Sharon and across the Commonwealth, across the nation, you know, there's been a higher rate of absenteeism from staff.

Not dramatic, but definitely higher as well as students.

And also, between now and 10 years ago, the sub pool, but especially the last five years, has dwindled tremendously.

Again, you'll see articles, you know, that are nationwide about that issue.

So it's a combination of both, but I would say it's mostly an issue of less people who are available to sub. You know, we used to have, you know, as schools used to have like five or six people who we had on a regular basis who were in, you know, almost every day. And then you had another, you know, pool that were less frequent.

And then you also have, we still have the college kids, which is great.

But it's a, the sub shortage is a kind of nationwide phenomenon.

Thank you.

Thank you, Adam.

Shauna?

Thanks. I just had another question. Um, so Dr.

Patel, can you just clarify for me?

Um, sorry.

Um, my understanding was that you had said that if we have teachers pick up, it would be at a rate of $17.

And then there was a differential that you mentioned between if the teachers were to pick up six classes, it wouldn't be one teacher picking up six classes.

It would be conceivably two, if not more teachers picking up those classes, correct?

It would likely be six different teachers teaching up, you know, teaching one. Right. So it's not that we have one person who can cover all the classes because then we would need them to cover.

So I just, I just want to make sure that people also like kind of in the public understand that.

Um, that, you know, it's, it's during the preparation period. It's part of a larger puzzle, right?

Um, that if we can help alleviate that in some capacity, um, with that building sub, I am, I am completely for it because I, I see it. I, I live it every day, um, when I'm called to sub for my prep blocks and, you know, you naturally have a guilt that you want to be able to help, but you can't because you need that.

You need your own time.

Um, so I just wanted to make sure that, um, I clarified that for other people.

Thank you. Yeah.

Um, thank you, Shauna.

Um, anything from Dan, Jeremy or Alan?

Yes. Okay.

Um, I feel like that was a really good discussion and any questions I had were already addressed.

So, um, I think it is time to thank Peter and then move on to our discussion items.

So we have the school improvement plans, um, right now. And, um, Peter, are you going to introduce?

Yeah, we're going to start with, uh, ECC and, uh, Stacia Lamond is going to, uh, check, uh, kick us off.

SPEAKER_UNKNOWN: Thank you!

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