live it is seven o'clock um welcome to the september 3rd 2025 meeting of the sharon school committee this meeting will be conducted remotely over zoom attendance by board members will be remote and remote attendance shall count towards a quorum the meeting will be broadcast live and recorded by sharon tv if you allow to enable your webcam your image and background maybe broadcast with or without sound as always we will begin our meeting with public comments some ground rules two minutes uh please let me limit your comments to two minutes um i know adam was going to be a couple minutes late to the meeting here is there another member of the committee who is willing to keep time all right no volunteers from the committee i'll do it thank you julie all right let's see if we can get some hands raised here for public comment i see a hand and i will call on judy crosby i do want to note valerie raised her physical hand so which you may not have seen valerie the go-to um and if you could not count that towards my two minutes please um so uh at your last school committee meeting principal keenan presented several proposed changes to the high school handbook one of them was changing the national honor society threshold from a 5.0 gpa to a 5.25

gpa for reference up until a few years ago it was a 5.3 gpa she said in her comments that a 5.0 equals a 79 in the very same handbook and i cannot screen share there is a very nice chart of grades and it shows that honors and ap classes are graded out of a 6.3 and in fact a 5 is a straight b which ironically she said is the national honor society national standard is a pure b there's a c plus which would be a 79 is a 4.3 on that same scale a 5 is an a on the standard classroom scale for non-ap and honors classes and for foundation classes it only goes up to a 4.3 so why am i telling you all this i'd like you to strongly consider that raising the national honor society threshold to a 5.25 in fact sends it back to effectively a b plus which is well above what she said the national standard is for national honor society um i also think it's incredibly dangerous and disingenuous to have a school administrator join a meeting and inform parents that a 5 is a 79 because if you speak with the police department you will find out that they are regularly called to the homes of high school students who are having extreme reactions from their parents over their grade point average and the last thing we want is parents getting angry because their kid has a 5.0 which is a b in honors classes and a pure a in standard so i understand probably five of you did not have that information to hand because you don't have kids at the high school and i don't know what the other two's issue was but please reconsider this thank you nina vigoda good evening everyone my name is nina vigoda and i'm an incoming junior at sharon high school and a figure skater today i speak to you about sharon high's absence policy not just for the benefit of figure skaters or athletes but for the benefit of every student who participates in an extracurricular activity outside of sharon's programs while i understand that the school cannot cater a program to every student's interest i do believe that it is fair to expect that organized sports outside of school that students do not otherwise have access to are just as respected and well regarded as those that are part of the school the current school policy does not recognize school affiliated activities as excused absences discourages students from pursuing high level achievements outside of school and suggests that our achievements are less valuable or important i absolutely understand and respect the absence policy and its intentions but i also believe that small changes like excusing absences for legitimate athletic and extracurricular activities would benefit numerous students and improve our school community in general helping to create a more unified and understanding school environment i have been figure skating for nearly a decade almost as long as i've been in school and the sport has never once hindered my my abilities academically throughout the time i've been skating i have maintained straight a's in honors classes stayed involved in my school community and kept up with my assignments even when i needed to miss class for competitions and i know that there are other students just like me opportunities that stem from these activities can lead the way to scholarships leadership activities and future careers with the students best interest in mind the school should support not hinder them just because we do not have direct access to these activities and that is the narrative that this absence policy is pushing on us thank you thank you um valerie i can see you on my screen so if you were in fact raising your hand just nod your head and i'll call on you now all right i'll unmute you now there you go avi there's another student here and i wonder if you want to have her go first that's natalie i see natalie here if you if you'd like to speak i'd just invite you to take that time now and we'll hear from natalie next okay all right thanks avi good evening all um i want to begin by acknowledging the intent behind the current high school absence policy and the efforts of our administrators and teachers to encourage consistent attendance it's clear that after a year of this policy there's been some positive outcome and reduction in absence absenteeism however it doesn't seem to have significantly changed the behavior of chronically absent students which i think is the main group that was intended to impact for other students like my daughter who you just heard from it's had unintended consequences she used to her absences for official events which were documented were always excused now they are never excused so we've kind of gone from zero to 60. um i appreciate that the policy currently includes a discretionary clause but no exceptions were made um ostensibly to to gather data last year well now that we've had a year's worth of data i want to suggest that it's a good time to review the policy to compare the intent with the impact i'd like to thank principal keenan for indicating in our meeting yesterday that she would consider adding you know some number of excused absences three to five excused absences perhaps for enrichment activities and non-school sponsored sports if um just right from the gate and then also to talk we talked about banking some absences if people have a perfect um absence record for their first term i just want to say one more quick thing and that is i speak from personal experience when i say that when i was at sharon high school i was a chronically tardy student not because i didn't care about school but because i was struggling with challenges at home if my school if sharon high had punished me then under a policy like this i may never have graduated but with the support that i needed i did graduate and i eventually went to college and graduate school and i that's why i think that it's really really important to not not just have this policy but get to the root of the absenteeism thank you very much thank you all right natalie good evening everyone i'm natalie and i'm a junior this year at sharon high school as well as a competitive figure skater when i first started high school in 2023 being a student athlete was never an issue i had official viewers figure skating letters that stated my reason for absence when i had competitions my teachers were all very supportive and accommodating for me missing notes homework or even assessments and i was able to maintain great academic standing despite my absences however this past school year the new school policy stopped considering those same letters and my excuse absences suddenly became valued the same as if i were skipping class or taking a vacation for a sport that i've trained in for many many years and for family who families who have invested significant time and resources this was a pretty dramatic shift attendance which was something i never really thought twice about suddenly became a major stressor in mine and my peers lives i found myself at risk of losing graduation credits and even opportunities to participate in both in school and outside of school extracurriculars sharon high school accepts documentation for school affiliated absences doctor's notes passing of family members etc if the underlying principle for all of these excused absences is the documentation the official sports letters coming from reputable organizations should carry the exact same weight this policy goes beyond figure skaters and student athletes in general whether it's an outside of school sport a music performance or other extracurriculars we should encourage the strengths of our students inside of school and outside of school we want to label the absence and not the student themselves an absence without the documentation linked to the school is not the same as an absence without responsibility if we fail to make that distinction we are not discouraging absences we are discouraging achievement thank you thank you natalie i'll throw it to alan matenko our secretary for correspondence hi everybody be with me i'm on my cell phone tonight so i apologize if things are a little bit slow switching okay the school committee received 12 pieces of correspondence between august 20th 2025 at 9am and september 3rd 2025 at 9am a parent wrote to follow up on previous correspondence in which they maintained that their child had been unfairly treated they asked the school committee to look at desi's investigation of the matter and their findings they also wrote to object that their july 23rd letter was not included in the previous correspondence summary a local organization wrote in to ask the district to help schools address anti-semitism through education awareness and prevention and provided a resource that would help achieve that goal the committee received several emails regarding the high school absence policy a parent wrote to request the location of the school committee meeting agenda the school committee meeting school committee was cc'd on letters from parents requesting the phone number for the it department and a concern about a student's academic schedule the committee received an invitation to art in the park a free family-friendly outdoor festival on saturday september 20th from 11 to 4 at the first congregational church hosted by the sharon forward foundation a parent wrote about concerns regarding a community member community member who is unrelated to the public schools and a parent wrote in regarding a recent supreme court ruling on parental opt-outs and requested that the district limit parental opt-outs to those currently granted by massachusetts general law that's correspondence thanks alan uh do we have an update from a student a student rep i was not made aware of a student rep being present so unless i see a hand raised here i'm going to assume we do not have a student rep update i do not see a hand all right i will throw it to our superintendent for some back to school updates enrollment and new higher updates and special education update so thank you um so we had a great uh start of the school year since our last meeting um yesterday our pre-k students began um and last week we had our um our kindergarten in one through 12 was a great kind of festive week lots of um enthusiasm both from kids and staff uh please again be looking out for your communications from schools and uh which becoming newsletters and emails uh enrollment has held steady since august 20th um um and so it's it's similar to pretty much identical to uh two weeks ago uh as far as additional new hires and openings uh we've hired a new district nurse leader lindsey verveal um which we'll bring before uh the school committee when she is um um beginning uh soon uh student services administrator uh nicole to set at heights uh cory rogers had to unexpectedly had a family um emergency and needed to resign from the position um but nicole to set who had been interviewing um in our processes with other schools and was uh exceptional is going to be joining us soon uh janet cole has been holding down the fort at the high school and doing a a superb superb job and likely will be continuing on uh for the the remainder of the year in that role and then we have um a soar teacher is verbally accepted at heights we've been um going through the process of trying to identify this teacher and found an exceptional teacher in amanda canadian who will be starting um in the next couple weeks um there's also we filled most of our a positions over the last uh week and a half we have a couple openings um that we're in the process of interviewing for and we're we also have um communications with agencies to contract if necessary um also as far as our executive assistant slash chief of staff position uh several promising candidates um and jane martin who's on vacation this week will be back and will continue to um fill the school committee secretary role until the position is is filled uh this one questions about the the title of student services administrator um at the especially at the elementary schools um this was a rebranding of the split special education administrator assistant principal position uh to make it more accurate to the actual role and attract candidates uh the position is always required a special education administrator license uh because of the essential aspects of that uh the job responsibilities have not changed um in the job description that was used both to guide um our new people but also in the posting uh for the position five of the ten responsibilities in the job posting are related to special education and the other five of the ten are related to the assistant principal role with a particular focus on student support both academically and social emotionally behaviorally that can also include supporting with discipline and supervision um in other typical um assistant principal type roles due to the mandated needs and responsibilities position has always had to be more of a special education administrator than traditional um it really depends uh somewhat on the individual but also on the school where you know some of our schools have heavier caseloads of special education um and the but the elementary student services administrator uh is the second administrator in the elementary school the co-leader with the principal um and so it is you know still fulfilling some of that assistant principal um uh role when we post for the position um and you posted a special education administrator slash assistant principal it really does not um attract um the same type of candidates um as when you you know kind of have it be its it's it's a singular role with certain focuses again part of the focus is um special education but part of it is uh student support uh which again overlaps into many of the assistant principal uh duties thus allowing for a individual with that special education focus but wants a broader responsibilities to take it on um and i'm going to turn it on um and i'm going to turn it over now to um astrid mazariegos to give us a little update on uh special education as well as um our tiered focus monitoring um uh process oops so let me get that back and amy toby can you give astrid uh um um the ability to like make sure she can be unmuted thank you everyone good evening um so special education update uh i've been visiting schools and classrooms it's been a pleasure to be at schools it was lovely to see the kids coming back um it was certainly um lots of excitement um i've been supporting soar um in terms of being in the building being in the classroom helping the instruction assistants um since we don't have a teacher there yet glad to say that we had a verbal agree agreement today with someone that i interviewed this weekend um she came and visited um the program today and we are super excited both with um nicole and amanda joining us at heights for our soar program um august 26th we had a meet and greet via zoom and met with a lot of families uh thank you for the support of the school committee member that was there i'm hoping to have a meet and greet uh later on in person so there will be more to come um my welcome letter will be out on friday um and it would include it's going to include a survey to families as well as links to uh what our programs specialized programs are there was a lot of questions during the meet and greet what the acronyms meant and so i will send that out along with the safeguards for families next slide please so tiered focus monitoring which i we say in special education is tfm it's really not it from the department of education um they divide uh districts by two groups group a and group b and they look at different indicators within those groups sharon was part of group a meaning that they looked at at least 36 indicators or compliances in the district um that means that last year the year before last year it was a self-assessment so there were a lot of questions that were asked from the district um last year 2024 2025 was actually the on-site monitoring reporting that meant the that um um a desi representative came to share and looked at files uh of those looking for those 36 indicators of compliance um and they range from timelines of ieps to some of civil rights to some of the you know are we doing um are the classroom set up the way they should be um so they looked at a whole range of indicators again 36 of them um this group a will probably won't happen again until year 26 27 um we'll probably um will next this year's year three so they will be continuing to monitor um so out of the um out of the 36 indicators next um out of the 39 indicators we re they were reviewed three of them were found it's partially not implemented and i just want to sort of give you a context in this out of the 580 plus students on an iep and sharon three files were the ones that were not compliant so i just wanted to put that out there um so out of 580 plus ieps or students on an iep three of them were the ones that were found partially implementing these indicators so i just wanted to make sure that you have that number because it wasn't 50 of our kids on an iep and it wasn't 70 of our kids on an iep it was really just three files and then with the three same kids that these three indicators were not met for um so it was standard seven standard eight and standard eight 19 and i included the executive standard eight and eight and eight and eight so we would have to have another summary here that i shared as well but i'll sort of explain what these are standard seven really is about um age of majority so this really has to do with students at the middle school and the high school they found that we were the teams were not um not meeting a year before the student was turning 18 to explain the laws and and regulations about age majority.

So we have to have letters, we have to send letters to parents, we have to have documentation, we have to talk to both the student and the parent about their legal rights when they turn 18. So they found that we're not doing that. Standard A's is similar as well. It has to do with the high school.

When we have team meetings and there's an agency such as the Department of Transitional Services or the Department of Mental Health involved, they found that we weren't inviting that those outside agencies to the meeting to have a say in case that student needed those services.

And then standard 19 is really about extended evaluations.

When we propose an extended evaluation, it has to take place within eight weeks.

We have to meet midpoint.

And they found that we weren't doing that, that we were surpassing the eight weeks. And therefore, you know, that's how they felt that we weren't partially, we were implementing it, but not 100%.

When DESE gives us sort of the report about what we're partially implemented or not implementing at all, we go into a correction action plan, which is really a plan that we have to set forward of how we're going to go back to compliance with the relevant statutes and regulations.

Those that I looked at it right when I came in July 1st, and I got to work into really thinking about checks and balances for our teams.

So just to describe briefly, again, it's on the executive summary, I have created just really specific Google Docs for my student services administrators to keep track of every kid that's turning 14, because the age of majority and the transition planning starts at 14. To really give me an idea of who's turning 14, tracking that, I'm going to be looking at files, I'm going to be looking at kids who are turning 18, all the paperwork that needs to go home prior to turning 18, as well as all the paperwork that needs to come back, looking at agencies that are being invited or not being invited.

So all those checks and balances are going to be happening.

So all the things, in fact, are currently happening.

I trained the elementary school staff on all these standards, as well as what our correction action is going to be. I will be meeting with the high school next week to do the same thing, just to explain what we need to polish in our systems in order to be in compliance 100%. Important dates, again, this correction action plan was due July 15, that was turned in ahead of time. September 26, DESE will come back and ask for sort of those checks and balances that I just told you about, sort of what am I doing to make sure that we're moving forward with compliance.

And then on December, they will come back on site and start picking files again to make sure that we're in compliance compliance and that those files look 100% good.

Any questions?

Thank you both for those presentations.

I'll take questions from the table.

I saw Jeremy's hand first.

Just a small question.

I was wondering if of the files, there's a random selection or if they review every single one? It's a random selection, but they do a pretty thorough job in terms of you know, they really do not want us in the room or they just tell us to open a draw and hear the files. They spend a great deal of, did it in my old district.

They've, of course, come to every district, but they, and I wasn't here when they did it in Sharon, but I know that what they do is they just come into central office and they just ask us where the files are and they just do random checks. Got it. So three of the randomly selected ones were flagged.

Correct.

Yeah. Adam.

Thank you, Avi, and thank you, Astrid and Dr. Portello.

I guess just as a follow-up to Jeremy's question.

So three were found to, to kind of not have been implemented, but, but what was the denominator?

Like how many were actually sampled out of the, you know, I think you said there were 500 or so. Yeah. 240. When I talked to Desi, because that was my question coming in, sort of like how many kids, how many kids are really, did you look at and how many kids really were we not in compliance with? So it was 240. But that just prompts me to look at every single file as I go through this year to make sure that the next time around we're 100% in compliance.

Okay. Well, I, I love that you're going to, so first of all, thank you. I think that's super helpful. Um, and I, I think it's good that you're reviewing all of them as well. One thing that I was trying to reconcile is we, I think, hear from parents, um, who sometimes feel like they're struggling to get their IEPs, uh, implemented appropriately for their children.

Um, and so I just wanted to reconcile that. And I don't know if there was, you know, they just happened to fall, um, kind of outside of the sampled, um, group of files or I, can you, can you share, like, is there a difference between how, you know, maybe Desi is reviewing and kind of what parents may feel is the appropriate implementation?

I think implementation and following the regulations and the, um, timelines, it's different.

So I, I think that those are two different things. So a parent may be right that we're not implementing it in the way we wrote it. Um, Desi does look at, we do have to report, um, if we have compensatory services, we have to report if there was not a special educator providing the services.

So all those are part of the indicators.

Um, again, I named 39 that we had to review this time, this other 39 on the next round.

Um, so I think those, those are two different things.

They, they try to also ask, uh, like I said, whether we are actually providing services with the people that were lining up on the grid.

If that answers your question.

I think it does.

Thank you. Of course.

Julie.

Thanks, Avi. Hi, Astrid.

Um, thank you for this. I just, I had like several one-off questions, if that's just really fast. So the, um, how often does this, um, monitoring occur?

Is it like the three-year cycle every three years cycle? But again, it starts first with the set for self assessment, then on site, then monitoring.

So this year is the year of monitoring for us and Sharon.

Um, that's when they'll come in and say, okay, you had a correction action plan. Well, you don't have one, but are you still doing the things that you're supposed to be doing? And then the following three years, it's again, another self-assessment and not an on site visit, but more information gathering and data collection for that for us to produce to them. That's, that's great. And so, um, like, do you have an idea about like why this particular area? Like, I mean, I'm wondering maybe if, does it have something to do with like staff changes or like, I mean, or do we just not have a computer system that flags people or like, do you have a sense?

Yeah, I think we just need to be aligned from preschool all the way to the age of 22 of our systems and infrastructures in place, which I hope to do with many charts and checklists.

Um, I also feel like, especially for standard eight, where the agencies are not being invited.

We have to ask the parent and the student, depending on the age of that student, if we can invite the agency. And there are times where the parents don't respond to that. Um, so the time lapses, right?

And so it's, it's still on us, um, to make every effort. So in that case, we have to just make sure that we document that we've made many efforts to invite the agencies, um, and put that on an N1 or the notice of, uh, information for parents and DESE. Awesome.

Okay. And, um, no, I think that was it. Thank you. I appreciate it. Of course. Yeah. Or Jan.

Thanks, Avi. Astrid, I just wanted to say thank you. Um, I think putting the context to that, you know, what did you say? 240? How many did they call it? Yeah.

243 IEPs that were cited for kind of, um, as an educator and special ed, I would say typical things. I just want to thank you. And I love that you're front loading and kind of doing an internal audit, putting some things in place to help support our special ed teachers who work tremendously hard.

They're big caseloads.

Um, and I, I appreciate all the work that you guys do as a parent of, uh, two kids that have IEPs. I just wanted to thank you. Oh, sure. Of course.

Great. All right. Thank you guys again for the presentation.

Um, do I do want to recognize our CPAC board. I know there are multiple board members I see on the call. I know that you've been working closely with them. Uh, and certainly they had asked that we have updates like this. And so I appreciate their advocacy and their collaboration.

So again, thank you guys for the presentation.

I will move us next to our first discussion item, which is a final review and vote to approve the student handbooks.

Dr. Botello, I'll go to you for the order.

Okay.

Um, I think we'll start with the, um, ECC. Who needs to be co-hosted Dr.

Patel?

Um, no, I thought I figured it would be a discussion and a question.

Uh, possible.

Oh, okay. Okay. Great. As long as there's no presentation there. Does anybody from the committee have any questions or thoughts they'd like to share before I entertain a motion to approve the ECC handbook?

All right.

Seeing none, I would entertain a motion.

Second.

I didn't hear the, did someone.

Second.

So moved.

Okay. It's okay. So Georgian moves it. Adam, do we have a second?

I'll second.

Sure. Okay. Georgian.

Yes.

Adam.

Yes.

Alan.

Yes.

Julie.

Yes.

Jeremy.

Yes.

Dan.

Yes. And I'm a yes. Motion carries seven.

Oh, next Dr. Botello.

Uh, elementary.

Any questions or thoughts from the table? Otherwise I'll entertain a motion to approve the elementary handbooks. So moved.

Second.

All right.

Georgian.

Yes.

Adam.

Yes.

Alan.

Yes.

Julie.

Yes.

Jeremy.

Yes.

Dan.

Yes.

And I am a yes. Motion carries seven.

Oh. Next up.

Middle school.

I see Alan's hand. Yeah.

I had asked the question of Dr. Or principal O'Rourke at the last meeting about, uh, some of the bullying language and the sort of hurtful words language.

I didn't see in the drive an update.

And forgive me if I missed it. Um, was that language updated consistent with the discussion at the last meeting? I remember the question, but I don't, I, what, what did you want changed?

My, my rec, my, uh, the, under hurtful words, it enumerated a number of different types of racism, homophobia, et cetera.

And it listed hurtful words as a lower level sanction.

And then under harassment and bullying, it didn't explicate things like racism, homophobia, et cetera.

And those are higher level sanctions.

And I want to just clarify for anybody reading it and to make sure that we were all on the same page that homophobia, racism, and other types of xenophobia weren't going to be punished at a lower level, but we're going to be punished consistent with either harassment or bullying, which have different levels of sanction, according to the handbook.

And Dr. Patel, I'll just add that anecdotally, I know when Alan was asking that question, I saw principal or work nodding his head and acknowledging that change. But, but I also noticed that the change is not made. And, um, are there thoughts here from the table as to how people would like to proceed? Shall we table this for our next meeting? Should we pass this pending that change?

What are folks thinking?

Oops. Sorry, I keep unmuting and unmuting myself. I mean, I'm not a huge fan of passing things and then then fixing them. I'd rather get it right the first time. It's just me. Sure.

Sure. Anybody else? I think that would be my, that would be my thought as well. Adam? Adam? Adam- I'd also agree with that. Um, and I'd like to know if there's a distinction, an intentional distinction in the handbook in terms of what, what the use of a, uh, kind of problematic word is versus, uh, like what, what the standard, I guess, for bullying and harassment is. And I don't know if there's a distinction one time versus multiple times targeting, et cetera.

Um, so I'd, I'd like to hear from principal or work about that.

Yeah. All right. So we're going to table the middle school handbook for next meeting.

And Dr. Botello, if you can work with principal or work to make sure those changes can be made and we can get an updated copy, um, or, or those changes can be left as is. And this committee can choose to vote how they, how they would like to proceed.

If that's principal or work's decision is to put this forward as is, then certainly the committee is, is welcome to vote as they wish. Uh, next up, I guess what's left then is the high school handbook.

I see principal Keenan here. I'll go ahead, Jeremy. Jeremy Keenan- I would like to discuss the absence policy.

Um, I think that, you know, thinking about the outcomes, both in terms of benefits and costs, like if, if the goal is to look at reducing chronic absenteeism, the, the impact is pretty minimal.

You know, we went from 11.4%

to 10.4%.

Um, I, I looked at the DESE policies around this and they look at chronic absenteeism as a non, um, academic indicator for when scoring districts, they don't look at total absenteeism.

Um, it, I, I just want to confirm that's correct.

That was my read of it. Um, we're in the middle of the pack when we look at like the districts that we often compare ourselves to like Westwood and Acton and absenteeism.

And I understand that a lot of, of schools have absence policies that are strict like ours, but relative, most of the state, our absence rates are very low. Um, and the current policies plant placing a very high burden on families in terms of getting doctor's notes or not being able to do extracurricular activities that they want to pursue. So I understand that, you know, DESE wants us all schools to have an absence policy, but I think that in the context of Sharon and the impact we've seen from implementing the new policy, which was quite minimal on chronic absenteeism and really in line with the trend as absenteeism has decreased post COVID that a pretty draconian policy isn't the right trade-off between the benefits and the costs to the district.

All right, Principal Keenan, I'll let you, it looks like you want to respond to that. I'll let you respond to that.

I, I, uh, respectfully disagree.

Um, it has not been minimal changes to the attendance in Sharon, um, in the past two years, it has, um, gone down dramatically.

The average number year of five compared to 10 the year before, uh, it is not draconian by any stretch of the imagination.

If you compare it to other schools, um, like ours, um, or other schools in the Hockamock league, it draconian to me is insulting to be quite honest.

When I spent a year with, uh, the school council made up of students, parents, community members, and teachers who reviewed, uh, tens of handbook policies throughout the Hockamock, um, in and around the Boston suburbs and looked at theirs.

And we have one of the most flexible policies that there is. Um, the idea that this would be considered draconian when students are given, um, essentially a 10 day buffer, which is 6% of our, uh, school year, um, to me is just unreasonable.

We are a high school of mandated laws and regulations regarding compulsory education.

And beyond that, we are Sharon high school and Sharon high school currently is doing very well as a high school compared to other high schools in the state of Massachusetts and certainly in the country.

When I came here two years ago, I said, I want it to be the best high school in the state.

And I do. And that means having policies.

There were none, there were no attendance policies.

And like I've mentioned to many of you, as you've individually reached out to me regarding this attendance issue.

I was having people my first year when we had no attendance policy, call out students for three weeks to a month.

These are not chronically school avoiding kids.

These are people traveling or going on things that are chosen by families.

I respect that families have emergencies come up and we make a space for that within our handbook.

That is very like, if not exactly like almost all the high schools in the state.

We also have a caveat in the handbook that gives me the principal discretion for certain things.

Now, last time I was on here, I mentioned that I really didn't make exceptions regarding the athlete events.

But that's not to say I didn't make any exceptions last year.

For example, we had a student that was going to be part of the training for the Israeli Defense Forces.

And so because that was their post-secondary pursuit, we weaved that into college visits.

So we were able to excuse those absences.

There were athletes that were doing athletic showcases at colleges where they were vying for Division 1, Division 2 spots on teams.

I too was able to excuse those and make them part of college visits so it wouldn't land against them in a negative way. I would also mention respectfully the students that that came.

I respect them and I respect the hard work that they do after school and in school.

But to my knowledge, none of them came close to violating the attendance policy last year.

So I feel as though we're creating a situation before a situation happens.

And it's unfortunate because students are listening and they want this attendance policy to go away, some of them.

And they want it because they had flexibility.

And the type of flexibility that they had was excessive.

And I don't know how anyone can disagree with that if you look at the data over the past number of years.

I wouldn't have gone into education if I didn't care about kids and understand that things happen in life and there are times that we want to support them.

But the impression that I get, to be quite frank, is that I and my administrative team and members of that school council purposefully did something as a disservice to the students and families of Sharon.

And I don't appreciate it because I want nothing more than every student to cross that stage with the diploma that gives them, they've learned to be a better human, a more empathetic human, resilient human, someone who shows up in life.

That's what we want.

And I feel as though for the past two years, I have tried to create a flexible policy and I don't appreciate the level of contempt that is sent out when we have really good intentions as educators at Sharon High School.

Jeremy, I saw your hand go back up, but I assume this is part of the same back and forth. So I'll recognize you in that order so that the conversation keeps moving forward.

Oh, you're muted, Jeremy.

Jeremy, I'm sorry.

Apologies.

You're good. You know, I don't think that there was ill intent or malice. I know that chronic absenteeism is a problem that the state is aiming to tackle.

But looking at the data, you know, before the policy, we were 11.4%

chronic absenteeism.

After we were 10.4%.

What were we the year before, Jeremy?

The year before I came here.

But wasn't the policy implemented last year? Right.

But I internally worked very hard my first year to get kids into school.

I didn't have the time prior to me being hired to put forward a new attendance policy. I wanted to listen and learn, but that doesn't mean I didn't make changes internally within the building to try to get kids into the school. I mean, it seems as though the students had the desire to drop without this policy.

So I appreciate the work you've done. And I know that absenteeism is a problem.

I'm just looking at the before and after picture and understanding kind of the burden.

It can put place on families if you feel the need to go get doctor's notes. So I do appreciate that you've dropped it. Right. I don't think there's ill intent.

I'm just looking at the impact on chronic absenteeism, thinking about it in the local context, and then trying to marry that with the burden that I'm hearing from the community.

All right.

Alan. Principal Keenan, thanks for being here.

Nice to see you. I do want to just mention as a comment before I get to the questions I have for you that I did take a look at some of the other districts, just Medfield, Needham, Mansfield, Lexington.

Lexington stood out to me because they were ahead of us on the U.S. News and World Report ranking that would do some scoring on social media, and they actually are tightening their policy to make it more restrictive.

And among those four schools, just those four schools, they have attendance policies in at least two of them that are more restrictive than ours and limit, in fact, excused absences.

So I want to just give everybody who's listening some sense of color if you look at attendance policy in other districts.

Principal Keenan, a couple of questions that were raised last time, and I think you'd have indicated you'd try to follow off and get some additional information.

So I just wanted to touch base with you. One is the concern we've heard repeatedly about the impact of excused versus unexcused absences on National Honor Society eligibility.

The other is the concern that I think Avi raised last time with respect to the impact of the policy on senior privileges.

And I guess maybe those, I'll start with those two questions if I can. Sure.

Yeah.

Obviously, there's parts of the handbook that are left vague purposefully to allow for flexibility and discretion, right?

But to speak to National Honor Society and excused versus unexcused, it is not one of the four pillars of being accepted into National Honor Society.

However, attendance does count within the under the auspice of care.

And so schools do take attendance into account.

But I will tell you as having been, you know, someone on the committee in the past, you know, we look for flagrant violations of attendance.

We're not talking about a situation where a student was out and they had mono or, you know, a student had the flu or things of that nature.

That is easily researched and understood.

So does attendance play a part? It does. And it always has been. And you just mentioned Lexington, for example.

They're a good example.

You know, they have a higher rate of getting into National Honor Society.

And they do consider attendance as part of it. But we have discretion there.

And we recognize that there are situations in which a student was absent for a reason that might be more valid than others.

And then to speak to your point about excuse, DESE does not recognize, they don't distinguish, right?