[1:08] Good evening Easthampton. We are going to call to order this evening’s regular session. Meeting of the Easthampton School Committee. We’re going to roll call in Bonnie Adkins present. Megan Harvey, present. Eric Goyette here, Linda markey here. I’m Laura Scott. Present.
[1:29] We will be joined in a little while by our colleague Sam Hunter. Uh, the mayor is out of town this evening. And our student rep and student clerk will not be here this evening. They are under the weather, and we hope they feel better quickly. Uh, with that, we’re going to start with our consent agenda. Eric.
[1:50] I entertain a motion to approve finance and other consent agenda items below as written. So moved. Thank you. Linda, may I have a second? I’ll second. Sorry, Eric. You finish. No. That’s perfect. Why aren’t you done? Yeah, that was it. Okay. Any comments? Questions? Discussion. Okay, we’re gonna roll. Call the vote. Bonnie. Yes. Megan. Yes. Eric. Steen.
[2:12] Yes. Linda and Laura. Scott. I consent agenda passes on to announcements and new business. Um, student representative updates. As I mentioned, both of our high school reps are under the weather, and our middle school rep will be, um, unveiled at our October 13th question mark meeting.
[2:35] Our next meeting is October 13th, and we will meet our middle school rep. At that point, just Atkins, Barbara, our student clerk to the school committee, did send a note that the homecoming dance is on September 24th, starting at 7 p.m.. Uh, who are we playing for? Homecoming? Um. It’s not. It’s a dance. It’s, um. And then some teams might be playing. I’m old. Apologies.
[2:56] I’m having, like. A gotcha. Everybody goes to the football game, right? Right. This is not varsity blues, everyone. This is real life. So congratulations to all the students. Have a great time at homecoming. Moving on to the out of state field trip. Request.
[3:13] Do we have an out-of-state field trip request? Oh, yeah. I mean, for what it is. That’s okay. I don’t have shoes on. Do you want to bring. Down there? Are you gonna have them? Yes. So clarify photograph. Thank you very much. Okay. We have a request. Oh. So exciting.
[3:36] So it looks like our foreign language club that is, um, led by mango, who is everybody’s favorite. She’s a delight. They are asking permission for a trip to Mexico City and. Okay, Oaxaca. Oh. That’s how it’s spelled. That’s how it’s spelled. I might have really brutalized that pronunciation. And we will get a correction on that in the future.
[3:59] Anyway, this is, um, the source of funding is coming from families, schools and club fundraisers. Miss mango does an amount fundraising every year. This trip will be for the 2028, um, foreign Language club trip in April. Uh, cost per student $3,687, which, given the current economy is less than I’ve seen, that’s really exciting.
[4:24] Does anybody have any questions about this? If not, I will entertain a motion to approve the out of date field trip request. Sounds awesome. Yeah. I will entertain a. Motion. So moved. Thank you. Can I get a second? I a second. Thank you. Linda. Comments. Questions? Discussion. No, but I hope you guys have a wonderful time. Um, we are gonna roll call that vote. Bonnie. Yes I.
[4:45] Know yes. Question. Well, what’s the question? I just want to say that I think the fact that we have this opportunity, that we have a travel opportunity in our schools, is something to be highlighted. Every year. Every. Year. And they.
[5:00] Go, and I’ve been fortunate enough to have a family member go on one. So of you, Lauren, I just think it’s really great that we’re able to offer this at our school. Yes. And if anyone’s interested in supporting, they do take donations because these trips are expensive and we want every kid who wants to go to be able to go. Okay. So we will roll.
[5:15] Call that vote. Bonnie. Yes. Thank you. Yes. All right. Yes. Yes. And Laura’s got a motion approved. Thank you. Sorry. Melina, do I need to sign? And I’ll sign this. Okay. Next is a public comment.
[5:36] If anyone joining us in person or remotely has a question or comment that they would like to share. Hydra. Hi. And if you’re online joining us, you can raise your virtual hand, uh, whenever you’re ready. Drea, go right ahead. And you. Hi, everybody. I’m back. Um.
[5:55] I’m here tonight to speak about my concerns about the recent East Hampton High School cell phone usage, feedback for families survey. I’m just going to assume that you have seen that survey. This survey is significantly imbalanced. Several questions collect detailed information about why families might need direct access to their children’s cell phones, and what concerns they might have about stronger limits.
[6:18] However, there are no comparable questions about problems caused by phones during the school day or the potential academic, social and emotional benefits of a belt Bell policy. The survey states that it was adapted from the Stanford NYU toolkit for Assessing Phones in Schools.
[6:45] Taps, Taps is a comprehensive, multidimensional evaluation system consisting of six surveys designed to examine a broad range of student, family, classroom, and school outcomes. My concern is not with Taps, but with how DHS selected questions from it. Uh, of the eight questions in the Ace survey, four appeared to be taken or simplified from Taps and are regarding grade level phone ownership.
[7:10] Whether the phone comes to school and frequency of parent child contact. DHS then added detailed questions about why families need direct contact, their concerns about greater restrictions and their preferred policy. At the same time, it omitted Taps questions about distraction, and attention, resistance to rules, parent child conflict and rushing through responsibilities to return to a phone.
[7:36] Questions from a carefully designed data collection tool cannot simply be selected in isolation without changing what the tool measures. Taps was constructed as an integrated set of measures, selecting questions about families desire for direct phone access while omitting questions that measure problems associated with that access changes both the balance of the survey and the
[7:58] conclusions that can reasonably be drawn from it. The survey also assumes that families need to communicate directly with students through their cell phones. Why is there no option? Asking whether families could contact students through the school’s main office, as they did before? Students routinely carried phones during the school day.
[8:21] The school acts in loco parentis in the place of the parent, with responsibility for supervising and protecting students while they are in its care. That does not diminish the role of parents. It means that school’s safe school safety and emergency communication cannot depend on every parent having private cell phone access to their child.
[8:43] If an individual student has an emergency, the school is responsible for contacting the family and coordinating the response. If the school itself faces an emergency. Students need to follow staff directions while the district communicates with families through official channels.
[9:07] A student’s personal cell phone is not the school’s emergency communication plan, although question seven includes a bell two Bell policy among several possible responses, the surrounding questions produced detailed evidence about reasons for opposing such a policy, not reasons for supporting one. The bell to bell option is buried rather than presented as an equally developed alternative.
[9:36] This survey cannot possibly establish that maintaining the current possible policy is better for students or preferred by the HS community. Before the results are presented or used to guide policy. I would like to ask the district to explain one who selected and adapted the Taps questions.
[10:01] Two what criteria determined which questions were included and omitted? Three how will the district account for the survey’s imbalance when interpreting and presenting the results? Or what controls prevent multiple responses from the same person? Five Will the district make public the complete results? The number of families invited to participate, the number who responded and how duplicate or incomplete responses were handled. And finally, six.
[10:28] Will HS administer the taps? Student, teacher and administrator surveys to gather evidence from those who experience the effects of cell phone access inside the school. Until these questions are answered, the survey results should not be presented as a balanced measure of community opinion or used to justify maintaining the current policy. Thank you. Thank you.
[10:48] Can you send that to me in writing two with the questions? I didn’t take them. Or did you give me a lot already? Thank you very much. Thank you. Anyone else care to join public speak? Do you want to offer some points of clarity for the public? So the the survey that was mentioned during public speak was made
[11:05] available to parents at the Ace open House via a QR code. Um, two days prior uh central Office had designed the survey sent to me for approval, and I did approve it. And it is my understanding it will be more widely shared with the larger parent population via parent square imminently.
[11:26] And it is one facet out of many that is our year long data project. And I believe we are trying to front load a lot of that data collection to, um, be consummated before January. So that is the most up to date information. Andrea, I can follow up with you later in the week. Thank you.
[11:44] Do you have anything you’d like to add, Michelle, or should we move on? Okay. Um, we are going to move now to the district showcase. Uh, we are very excited tonight. Would you like to make the introductions? Sure. I would love to.
[12:03] Welcome, uh, Patty Benson, who is going who’s here tonight to talk to us about our Tiny Tots program and what it offers for both the community and for the students of HHS. You. While they’re getting ready, I’ll let the public know.
[12:30] And we thank the public many, many times since the successful override earlier this year and the program that we’re highlighting tonight is one of the programs that we were able to preserve, um, which is is it a 40 year history in the city? I believe that we’ve been running tiny, tiny tots and, um, our current faculty member is just an incredible human being and such an incredible bright light in the high school community.
[12:47] And we’re so lucky to still have her sharing her efforts with our students. Thank you. Thank you for that. Introduction. Is the mic at a good. Yes. Okay. Hi, I’m Patty Benson, as Laura said, and I’m the child development teacher at East Hampton High School.
[13:03] Um, for our students showcase tonight, we’d like to highlight the work the high schoolers do in their child development classes and in the Tiny Tots preschool. I did try to get some high schoolers to come with me.
[13:18] A lot of them were busy with their sports and their jobs, and so it’s wonderful to realize how busy they are and how much they have going on. So although I wish they could be here with me, it’s still a positive thing to hear. How much, uh, how involved they are in the community outside school hours. So that’s something positive. Um, let me see if I can. Yes. Okay.
[13:36] Before we jump right in to the student experience, I just want to give you a little background on the child development classes and the preschool. For those who may not know how it all works. Um, so, uh, the study of child development is the study of the ways in which children learn and grow.
[13:53] And in that we cover such topics as the physical, emotional, cognitive, and social development of children, ages and stages, philosophies of education, lesson planning, preschool observations, reflection, theories of development, children’s literature, and where to find accurate and up to date information. So we do cover a lot, and there are four classes for about four child development classes available at Easthampton High School.
[14:16] There’s Introduction to Early Childhood and then there’s Early Childhood practicum one, two and three. That’s a little background on that. Okay. Whoops. Um. Each class when you take one of these child development classes you receive four health credits.
[14:39] And it’s a combination of traditional academic study and hands on experience in our preschool classroom, for instance, this slide shows the schedule for practicum one. So that particular class sees the preschoolers on Mondays and Wednesdays for the whole block. And then they have their academic blocks on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday.
[15:03] Okay, I just want to say this blend of academic study and hands on experience is an outstanding educational experience because it offers a combination of serious academic study and real world, hands on experience. And the excellence of this combination is recognized by the fact that the students can get college credit for taking our high school courses.
[15:20] So students who take both Introduction to Early Childhood and Early Childhood Practicum one are eligible for college credit at Holyoke Community College. Um, if a student earns an 80 in both classes, maintains an overall GPA of 2.5, then the HCC class Introduction to Early Childhood will appear is already completed on their HCC transcript when they enroll. So that’s something you know, we can all be really proud of.
[15:42] Okay, so that was just some brief background on, um, our, our child development classes. And now I’m going to give you a little background on the preschool. So you’ve all heard of Tiny Tots preschool. But what what is it actually and how does it run? It’s a play based enrichment.
[15:59] Preschool takes place right at East Hampton High School. Um, if you give us five minutes, we can move out all the high school furniture. And in the in place, we have an amazing preschool, and it really only does take five minutes. Um, the preschool is open from Monday through Thursday. Uh, ten months a year, 2.5 hours a day.
[16:16] And the cost is 20 to $40 per month. So it makes an extremely affordable option for our families. It’s for children age two years, nine months to five plus years. So it’s a form of low cost but very high quality care and education.
[16:34] And at the end of the presentation, I’m going to show you some pictures of all the fun things we do. Um, in Tiny Tots. So you’ll get to see some more of that. Okay. So now I just want to talk about how the Tiny Tots program and the child development classes align together with our school values and our school goals.
[16:53] So this slide shows our nest values, um, at the high school that I’m sure you’re all familiar with, nurture, encourage support together. You know, obviously I won’t go through it. I think you’re all familiar with it. And it’s here in the slideshow. If you want to go further.
[17:09] Um, and then this slide shows our student learner expectations. So I think that we touch on all these values and all these learner expectations in tiny tots. But for the sake of time, we’re just going to focus on a few of them tonight. So this is um, focusing on the values at the high school.
[17:29] So the N stands for nurturing a safe, inclusive and accepting environment. And this is important in our classrooms. But it’s even more important when we’re entrusted with our school systems youngest learners. So we all work together. The high schoolers all work together to make sure the tiny tots environment is safe, inclusive and accepting.
[17:43] And in doing so, we recommit to those values at DHS. Um, the S stands for Supporting School and Community Engagement. So Tiny Tots is a wonderful way to invite the community right into our school and to offer something very valuable back to the community that gives us so much.
[18:00] That’s one of the most special things about it. Now, switching to the student learning goals, um, I’m just going to focus on two here. These two learning goals are addressed. Um, when we problem solve in real time, helping our preschoolers learn to get along with each other and making their way through the many challenging situations of preschool classroom can present.
[18:20] Caregiving for a young child requires constant engagement, as well as the ability to be flexible and patient. And when we send the preschoolers home, at the end of the day, we reflect on what went well and what we can do even better next time.
[18:36] So being an active and complex thinker and being engaged, collaborative, reflective and flexible, that is something we really focus on in child development classes and in tiny tots. Okay, so since the high schoolers could not be with us here tonight, I did ask them today, um, to share with me why they were taking Tiny Tots or what they were getting out of Tiny tots.
[18:56] And these are some of the things they shared. Um, so I am going to take a minute to read them because they’re brief. So one person said, I’m taking this class for my future in the medical field because ideally, I’d like to be a pediatrician. Another person said, I want to be a teacher when I’m older.
[19:11] I find this class interesting because it goes over child development. I enjoy working with kids and I like having practice and navigating situations with them. Um, someone said, I choose this class because I love the hands on learning. Uh, someone said I get to be a more in-depth part of the community. Because of this class.
[19:27] I share that feeling very much. So, um, someone said, when I’m getting out of Tiny Tots, learning how to take care of young kids and make connections with them, all of these just struck me as so important and so many different, varied reasons.
[19:42] And this last one I hope to learn more about two, three and four year olds and how they act. And also the tiny tots are so cute! Not only is it true, but it’s a little deeper than if you stop and think about it. Um, working with young children is a source of joy, fascination and joy.
[19:59] And so anything that brings joy into our day at the school is, is really, really valuable. Again, I share that feeling deeply. Um, okay, so then my next slide. Um, just some numbers so you can see how the impact of this program. So this semester, 48 high schoolers are taking child development classes. And that’s very typical. I usually have 45 to 48 students.
[20:22] Um, we’re serving preschoolers from 22 families from East Hampton and the surrounding communities. Again, that’s typical. We usually have 20 to 25 families, um, per year because they don’t all come every day.
[20:40] So typically we have 16 preschoolers a day attending, and we are amazingly proud of the fact that child development and tiny tots have been at the high school for more than 45 years, so it’s really special part of our community and has been for decades.
[20:56] Um, so I am now going to share some pictures so you can see when the high schoolers are learning with the tiny tots, we are playing with them because children learn through play. But I wanted to show you how many different curriculum areas the high schoolers are learning about as they work with the tiny tots. So we have literacy. That’s really important.
[21:11] One I always tell the high schoolers the two most important things we can do with the preschoolers are read to them and talk with them. And so that’s what they do. Um, math. And then we have physical education.
[21:27] We do play, uh, there’s a little corner of the park that we’re allowed to play in, and we do go outside every day that we can when it’s, um, above 40 degrees, the preschoolers could go at any time, but they have snow pants, snow boots and all that. Which high schoolers don’t have.
[21:42] Um, so but we do get out when we can and when we can’t, we? We are allowed to share the gym, um, all kinds of Stem activities, you know, blocks is just the whole package. Math, geometry, science, engineering. Um, and. Interject, you have a lot of male students in these photos. Is that pretty typical? Yes it is. It actually is. I would say the program is 40 to 50% male students. Maybe it might be 40. But yes, it’s definitely there.
[22:06] They’re a large minority, let’s put it that way. Um, cooking, health and wellness. There are other things we cover. Uh, we do a lot of science, and that pairs with a lot of sensory activities. More science, more sensory activities. Because, you know, we all love the sensory activities.
[22:24] Both the tiny tots, the high schoolers and myself get a lot out of those, um, more science. We try to bring nature in the classroom as much as we can, which lends itself to social emotional learning.
[22:42] Art, of course, we do art every day in preschool, which is also a form of pre literacy education because it strengthens your fingers for reading and writing. Uh, social studies. We do all kinds of social studies, which in preschool means field trips, spirit days, and most of all building community. That’s really what child Development and Tiny Tots is all about.
[23:01] Um, and I just want to end by saying thank you to Our Town, to Easthampton for your continued support of child development classes and the Tiny Tots preschool. Thank you. All. We have to stand and get all the flowers now. Patty, this is going to take a while. Does anybody have any questions about tiny tots or child development? Um, I don’t have a question.
[23:23] I just have glowing, glowing, glowing praise for your program, for being attentive to our youngest learners and connecting that with older learners is extraordinary. And we don’t ever talk about it enough out in community.
[23:52] Like how important it is to make these connections, um, intergenerational, um, as well as really attending to the youngest among us. Like there is no health if our youngest are not well. And so helping them to learn and grow, including their mental health, um, with a program like this is phenomenal. And just thank you, thank you, thank you.
[24:16] I’ve had the opportunity sometimes when I’m picking up Jess to be sitting there and kind of watching at the edge of that playground, some of the engagement and I like, have had tears in my eyes seeing, you know, some of the students and their level of engagement. They squat down there looking eye to eye. They’re fully engaged. That is extraordinary and so important in this world. So thank.
[24:38] You, thank you, thank you for everything you said. Thank you. Yeah, I also just I have no questions. Thank you for presenting to us and showing us all those pictures of they are really cute. They started to us, um, it’s just fun to see what they get to do.
[24:53] And as a parent of, you know, kids in our district at various ages, including a high schooler, it’s so nice that there’s so many students every year who get to take this moment to, like, be outside of themselves. Um, because I’m watching my kids go through this and, like, their world is.
[25:09] So they have a ton going on at this age right there. So much to to deal with. But the ability for them to connect and care for someone else, I think is just such a great way for them to like, see the big picture. You know. The wonderful shift. Yeah, yeah.
[25:25] And we have a friend, my my son is not signed up. He’s just a freshman this year. But we have a friend who is in the program this year and she’s already loving it. So we’ve heard wonderful things. Good. Glad to hear that. Thank you so much.
[25:40] What grade can they can any high school or enroll or is it start at a certain like 10th or 11th? It’s actually nine through 12. Um, typically freshmen don’t always get in to the class, but um, every semester I do have some freshmen. So this year I think I have five freshmen, and all the rest are ten, 11 and 12. Okay. Yeah. So yeah, I can speak firsthand.
[25:54] I had the privilege of working with miss Patty way back when, in the same school. Um, and my daughter was in her preschool class. And so I think what Laura mentioned about the override, what it preserves, you get to really see in not even just scrape the surface of the value that miss Patty
[26:08] brings her, her knowledge, her ability to work with kids. I’ve seen it firsthand for years. Just stuff that’s just unbelievable and and how these kids respond to it. But also, I think it’s super valuable.
[26:27] Having worked in a school where pre-K to six, where I used to work, when you have young people in a building, it softens the older kids and it lets it reminds them from time to time of, okay, yeah, that’s right, because those kids don’t mess around with any of the nonsense. They’re just kids. Preschoolers and tiny tots are just playing and learning and being over the top, and it’s just all over the place.
[26:41] So it just helps kind of ground a school. And I think that’s super valuable, especially for a high school setting where stress can start to roll in. And, you know, I’m sure some of your seniors who are maybe stressed about their futures, you step in that room with those kids and it’s like, oh yeah, this is it.
[26:55] That’s so well said. Because the preschoolers are in the moment. So then we have to be in the moment. So that’s really well said. Yeah. Thank you, thank. You, thank you. All right. I’m sure we’re going to keep going I appreciate all that you do. Um.. It’s great. To see your program in action.
[27:10] And I think it is very special. And I think it’s one of the things that. Does make East. Hampton High School such a special place. And just seeing all the littles coming in, and I’ve seen kids transform right in front of me.
[27:26] I’m like, you are not the same kid that you were like 45 minutes ago walking down the hallway. You know, they’re holding hands with the little tiny tots kids and playing balls and playing, you know, catch with them. And it’s it’s just unbelievable to see. Yeah. Thank you. Um.
[27:45] A lot of you, um, I don’t know if I’ve ever mentioned anybody before, but I moved from Illinois to Connecticut, uh, 38 years ago to be the director of a daycare center and a preschool. All of my early, uh, career was working with preschoolers, and I haven’t worked with him in a long time. And that just brought a lot back.
[28:10] And and, um, I there’s still my favorite. I mean, I’ve taught all ages and I’ve worked with all ages. I’ve had a long career working with students in nonprofits and teaching and everything. And they are the most special learners because they’re just so open to learning.
[28:33] And I have such admiration for this program and such pride to be sitting here today on the School committee at a school that has been able to do this for 45 years. I think that is amazing. Yeah. And I just want to say again, how much I appreciate it, how much I appreciate that, and how much I want to come visit you.
[28:51] Yes. You’re anyone’s welcome to drop by and visit. Absolutely. Thank you. Um, thank you so much for the presentation. I listen to it in the car on the way. I’m doing, um, and I just want to say, I, um, I well, actually, I had a question.
[29:04] I was just wondering, have you. Because you you how long have you been doing this program? I might have missed that. So I’m in my fifth year at the high school. Yes. Um, have you have you seen. Kind of like, especially since.
[29:16] I mean, I guess it’s all been kind of since Covid, but, like, has there been, like, any kind of change that you’ve noticed in, like, the high school students or like any kind of anything like that’s different now? Um, I would say there was a change when I first started in 2022, in the preschoolers, because every parent was saying
[29:31] the same thing to me. My child has never played with other children, right. Um, because that was 2022. Yeah, but what was amazing is children are designed to play with other children, so there was no problem kind of getting over that.
[29:47] And as far as the high schoolers, I think like I was saying, it helped as far as the preschoolers and the present moment, and it keeps us in the present moment. So I think that was like an island of normalcy. You know, the um, so, yeah. Please, um, thank the students for taking such good care of our kids. Yeah. I think. That’s I. Do really appreciate.
[30:05] That a question. Go ahead. So is how do they is there a lottery. How do they get I guess I don’t know how they get there. The preschoolers or the student or the high school students? No, no, no, no, the high school students, I understand they take it. Yes.
[30:20] There must be more parents than you can let in wanting their children. It kind of depends on the year of the five years that I’ve been running it so far. Um, two years. We had a waiting list, and the other years, actually, I’ve really had to work to fill it.
[30:35] Um, because even though it is an amazing opportunity as far as the cost, the hours can be prohibitive for a lot of families. It’s only 2.5 hours a day, and we’re closed on Fridays, so it really works out well for parents who are, say, working at home.
[30:49] And now they have ten hours to focus, or I have a lot of grandparents who pick up and drop off. So the grandparents are watching the kids and now they have ten hours to like, put their feet up, or there will be families who just had a baby.
[31:00] So maybe the mom or dad is home for a little bit, but now their older child has something to do, so there’s definitely a niche and there’s definitely a need. And it serves all those different families. But because the hours are so short, um, you know, it’s it’s not as easy to fill as you might always think.
[31:17] And the years that we did have a waiting list, it is done by lottery. There’s preference to if you’re already enrolled. So someone who’s already enrolled in coming back for the next year, they have preference. But beyond that, one exception, it’s just completely a lottery. I literally pick them out of a hat and put them in order.
[31:31] Okay, um, but mostly people are able to get a spot if they, if they need one. That’s great. Okay. Thank you. Patty. That’s wonderful.
[31:46] I think this program should have a place in every high school in the country, like home economics, like the digital media, civics literacy that we’re talking about. This is one of those skills that you were so lucky. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Thank you. Okay. That was lovely. Uh, we are going to move to the superintendent update. All right. I gave my superintendent update at the first meeting, but I do.
[32:10] I did want to update everybody. I asked Julianne, our assistant super, to put together a list of the grants we currently have, the ones kind of that are in the works, because I think it’s really important that people understand how we sort of generate some revenue for ourselves and how we, um,
[32:30] supplement our budget to get the things that we need for our students and for our staff. So, um, just this is a list. We are in year three of our one eight foundation that is providing the support for street math.
[32:48] That is 3500 plus the cost of professional development and the the use of the platform. So we are in our last year of that. So we’re going to look at the data to make a decision on whether we move forward with that for subsequent subsequent years. So that’s just one thing to note.
[33:02] We are in year two of a three year grant, again with the one eight Foundation for our open side. It is our high quality instructional materials for science. Um, we are able to purchase science kits, provide professional development because it is a new curriculum. Teachers need the training and expertise and that has been incredible. Professional development.
[33:23] So that work is happening in grades 6 to 8. At Mountain View. We are in year two of two for what you’ve heard many times of the Prism grant. So that is our, um, high quality instructional material for literacy. It is our curriculum purchase. It provides us with professional development.
[33:49] The actual curriculum purchases, and it also we have an instructional consultant who works with us for this implementation. So that is in year two. That has been over $700,000 that we’ve received from the, um from the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. For that, we have some one year grants that are happening.
[34:08] We got our fair share earmark, which was $100,000. Thank you so much for that support to, um, Rep representative and Rep. Gomez. Yep. For that very much. We appreciate the advocacy there. We also received a grant from the Massachusetts Life Science Center, Education and Workforce Development for almost $70,000.
[34:32] And that was for our for the open side implementation at the high school, which includes biology, forensics, engineering and biomedical. And it was amazing. I went in during professional development day to see the teachers learning, and they had like they were doing hands on. It was hands on. Incredible. I they it was awesome to see. And the teachers were so into it.
[34:52] But it’s expensive because it’s a lot of consumables with the hands on learning and it’s difficult for us, you know, and we don’t have a line item in our budget to purchase curriculum, or we have a we have small portion for professional development. But, um, it is yeah. This is how we get what we need. Right.
[35:10] Um, we received a grant from the cultural Massachusetts Cultural Council. This is $5,000. And this is for Jess Corwin, who’s an adaptive music instructor to provide interactive lessons with tiny tots and our life skills program. So just, again, that hands on experience, um, we were awarded desi early literacy high dosage tutoring.
[35:32] So we have 19 seats. So this wasn’t, um, this was actually the seats. It wasn’t an award for money, but it was for 19 for students to get 1 to 1 tutoring to support their literacy development. We’re really excited. And this is through amplify, which is the curriculum.
[35:52] Um, they are the provider of CLA. So it’s through amplify. So it’s there’s such alignment between that program and our curriculum. We received the Desi Genocide Education grant. We we were awarded a $80,000 for this work. We are partnering with Facing Histories and ourselves, um, amazing resources. For us.
[36:21] It is going to to be in conjunction with the collaborative for Educational Services to provide curriculum, professional development, curriculum work. So we’re really excited about that. We have preliminary approval for from Desi for work based learning. So $7,600 to support these. The MFA pathways platform, which is work based learning experiences. We know that work is so important.
[36:45] So we applied for the grant, got the grant. We have preliminary approval for the what we’re calling my cap implementation. We talked about that with the commissioner and at our last school committee meeting. But it is for us. So to make sure that every student has the experiences, skills and a plan for after they graduate.
[37:04] So it is my cap, like a graduation cap. We received preliminary approval from from Desi for the sorry another my cap. So for us to design the activities and the pathways in grades 6 to 8. So $15,000 to pay teachers to do some of this work. So really excited about sort of the grant opportunities.
[37:27] Um, Julianne has is the one writing all of these grants, right? All of them. So we are we also get yearly, um, the next sort of list are the yearly grants and the awards that we receive. So we get the idea. It’s a consolidation grant.
[37:48] This first one is for our early childhood programming, for the early intervention. Then we get the idea. That’s for sort of our out of districts placement cost. Um, it is to help supplement some special education services. Um, and then through Essa, we get what we call we often refer to them as title grants.
[38:10] So there’s title one, which is um, our, our reading intervention and coaching work. Uh, title two is PD and Professional learning. Title three we’re spending that money on curriculum, tutoring and family engagement. And title four we’re spending that money on professional learning and professional development. Um, we have two grants that are in process.
[38:29] We have a hate crimes prevention grant, and that is our work with the high school. And, um, the middle school. Some of us were able to participate in those open dialogue sessions, but it’s really to create peer led conflict mediation programs. It’s it’s great work that’s happening.
[38:52] Um, and then we have a grant for the Massachusetts Cultural Council for additional funds for that adaptive music program to come from HHS to to go to Mountain View, and then last but not least, we have our partners at Elf who, um, they are going to award grants based on proposals by educators and families.
[39:11] So we have a lot of things happening. We have a lot of grants that even those DC grants that we get every day, there are still a grant application process to go through and an approval process.
[39:27] So I think it speaks to the amount of work that, um, Julianne Levin is doing on behalf of the district to make sure that we are, we have what we need to support the students. Um, in any way possible. Incredible. Anyone have questions? Comments? I just wanted to mention so the, um, the Cultural Council music program, Jess Corbin, she worked with Patti and I guess will work.
[39:48] So it’s just I just think it’s just that it keeps on reminding me of and thanking the public for making the hard decisions, whether it’s the override or when we decide to build these new schools. When you build things and when you invest things, people around start hearing and start listening.
[40:04] And there’s no it’s not a coincidence that you get great minds like Patti Benson and Jess Corwin, who are so great with all of the things that we are about in our school, inclusivity and belonging and and just teaching to everybody.
[40:20] And so the fact that those two people I have worked for seven years, but they’re here in our, in our city right now is um, I don’t think it’s a coincidence. I think it’s a great reflection of why we we put that money wherever, where it goes. Well, said Eric a little said, I appreciate you, Eric. Thank you. Anyone else? This is incredible. Yes. It’s really just. Like it was three pages long.
[40:44] And it totals well, well over. Um. Oh, about about $2 million total. Yeah. Grants? Nothing. I’m just. I, um, I’m overwhelmed by how much work this is, and I don’t do any of it, so.
[41:05] Yeah, um, I just I just want to thank, um, Julianne for, um, all of her work on this and everybody likes, you know, there’s data that has to go into this, like, other people are involved in making sure that these applications get done.
[41:20] Um, I hear from the public sometimes, um, especially, like during the override, people are saying, why don’t we apply for grants? Why don’t we apply for grants? Uh, a lot of our budget is grants. So. So it’s nice to have it all spelled out. And I think it’s also important to realize, too, like, we don’t have a way of purchasing curriculum material. Like we only do that through grants.
[41:37] And in fact, grants are kind of how, uh, public education is funded through the federal government. Um, and then also to a lesser extent, through the state. So I think it’s, you know, this is something that somebody has to do, and we have to make sure we’re on top of it.
[41:47] And, and let’s just remind people like it’s an incredible amount of work, but it’s also a precarious. Yeah, we do this because we have to this is a necessity. But it is a precarious situation to be an administrator, to say, we can we can, for example, buy consumables with grant money, but we don’t fund positions with that because we have to
[42:03] try to preserve continuity. And regulate. It’s just it’s a it’s a lot of both. You’re juggling in the air. It’s tricky. They all have like very specific kind of rules around how to, you know, what you have to do when you get the money. There’s a lot of accountability and follow up. So, um. Yeah, I.
[42:18] Think I think our teachers too, right. We, we like if we have an idea for a grant, you know, we go to our teachers, we talk about it. But I think the work that is behind every single one of these line items, it’s included, like weekend work, summer work, it’s included, you know, like the teachers who are
[42:35] lifting like the curriculum implementation. Right? We talk about it. Oh, we have we’ve adopted open science that that requires a teacher to change the way that they have been teaching with all new materials.
[42:52] So, I mean, it makes me really proud that, like, we got the money to do it, but even more proud that the teachers and we have heard from, um, our, our consultant from LA, I wish I could record, um, just about the consistency of implementation at Mountain View and how they have not seen this level of integrity to the curriculum anywhere. So I am so proud of that work.
[43:17] And I think everyone at Mountain View and this is a little foreshadowing into our, um, next presentation, which will be about our MCAS accountability data and how, you know, I think that that is translating into student performance. And we will talk about that at our next meeting. I warned Doctor Boss that I was going to blow this up.
[43:37] I can’t because it’s been it’s been a it’s a tough time out there y’all things. It’s a hard world. We got some good news today because the MCAS results were embargoed. I just want to add one more thing before we get into MCAS, which I think is great. We’re not gonna get into it. I’m just gonna touch.
[43:50] On it. Okay? I really I’m excited about that. I also just want to point out, like, I’m, I’m amazed by kind of how much work goes into this. And also like when we’re prioritizing the things, these things, there’s a lot like there’s tons of grants out there.
[44:05] There’s lots of different things that we could be working on. And these were the you did all those listening sessions last year. Like, we got a lot of really good feedback from families, from students, from teachers and staff.
[44:19] And so like, this is kind of what what has been identified as the stuff that we need to focus on the most right now and which and that will change, obviously. But like, we can you kind of have to pick the things that you focus on. And I think we’ve done a really good job. Like the district in general.
[44:31] But, um, especially with your leadership, just kind of like staying focused on what we’re working on right now instead of kind of scattering. All of the shiny objects. Exactly. Yeah. It’s very there’s a lot of shiny objects like public education. Yeah. I just like to reiterate this. I’ve been listening to this.
[44:48] And, um, as someone who recently applied for a grant, but, um, anyhow, grants don’t just fall in your lap. And I think that’s what you’ve said. I think that’s what you’ve said. But I think it’s really important to realize that these are opportunities that we had to go out and seek.
[45:05] Right? Have, you know, have the data behind it, have the ideas behind it, have the reasons behind it, and go through the process. And it could be easy to overlook these. It could be easy to just say, yeah, right. And I think probably there are other school systems there too.
[45:24] Um, and so to realize that we are when you talk about fiscal responsibility in a school district, you’re talking about finding the areas that you can find money to help support our students and help support our teachers.
[45:46] And I think this is a matter of pride that we should have here, that we are doing this and we are implementing them, and that we’re seeing results from them. And I just want to say that very plain spoken with, um. Well said. Uh, Sam, do you want to give do you want to give this special announcement? Because I will bumble my way. I am not expert at on cast. Do you want to give the.
[46:00] And then we’re not gonna go in depth, but I just want to give people a teaser, a presentation in the. I would. I would like to pass on that because I have not prepared anything and I don’t want to mess it up. So we’ve made some considerable progress and improvement on our MCAT scores across. The. District.
[46:21] Um, outpacing even many or most of our neighboring districts. And I think when I was discussing it with Doctor Walsh this afternoon, because I know very little about this and I forget it very soon after, somebody reminds me, um, that she was walking me through.
[46:36] And I think one of the things that she was attributing some of the success to were some of these curricular programs, not only the cost that we were able to bring them to the district, their very high quality curriculum, but also the buy in of our teachers who’ve really committed and leaned into it.
[46:52] Um, it’s just really it’s a beautiful moment that I just wanted us to sit in for a second, because those moments are fleeting. But we’ll have another one soon, I’m sure. All right. Uh. That’s great. Are we all set on grant updates? We’re gonna move on to the business update from Julia. Sorry, Franks. I think y’all are right in the back room. Excuse me. No. That’s okay. We just like company. Is going. Through. You’re trailing this out.
[47:16] Good evening. Good evening. Um. I typically don’t have a business report when there is two meetings in a month, so, uh. not a lot on this business report. Um, first one is the FY 26 end of year financial report, right? Every business manager’s favorite task of the year.
[47:35] Um, so I begun the process of working on that report and collecting data. Uh, that report is required as a submission to DC every year. Um, the tentative deadline to submit the completed report is September 30th. Um, detailed information about the close of FY 26 will be provided to the committee at a future meeting. Once that IR report is complete and submitted.
[47:53] So as always, you’ll get a complete copy of the report and any highlights. Do you need anything from city side or is this something that we can do or just independent school government? Uh, yeah, there are there are sections of it that I’m required to get information from the city.
[48:06] I have requested that information, and I am waiting for Of that second item is the summer food program. I think at last meeting I was able to give you meal counts, but you had asked about sort of the over under on the program.
[48:20] Um, so final meal counts and financial information was provided by Chartwell, who is our food service vendor. Um, so below on the report shows some historical program. Um, so this year, just like for the past four years. So this is our fourth year participating in the summer meals program.
[48:37] Every year that we’ve run that program, we have run the program at a loss, right, which this committee has decided is worthwhile in order to provide that service to our community.
[48:54] Um, you’ll notice that the loss this year is the lowest loss that we’ve had so far, which I think shows that we’re, um, discovering some efficiencies and learning better how to run that program to meet the needs to feed families, but also to run that program as efficiently as possible and just to provide some clarification and reminders is that we’re able to run that program at a loss, because during the school year, we receive enough reimbursement through the universal school meals reimbursement from the state government, as well as
[49:13] the National School Lunch Program reimbursement so that we make enough revenue from those reimbursements during the school year that we can offset that summer loss. Because we can’t spend that money on yes, non food. Absolutely endeavors. Okay.
[49:29] Um, just a reminder that the first two years we ran that program, Mary was one of our sites. So they operated under the auspices of our school lunch program. So um, the Chartwell team led by Ken was producing meals here that we brought to Erie. And you’re made the decision starting in FY 25 to run their own national school lunch program.
[49:44] So they’re no longer part of our program. And the last item I have on the agenda is a proposal for a supplemental appropriation request. Um, I believe you’ve heard more about this last year, but the technology infrastructure at East Hampton High School, a lot of that was installed when the building was initially opened.
[50:04] And a lot of that equipment is now ending. The, um, end of it’s usable life expectancy. So the school department needs to replace 110 wireless access points, as well as 72 switches at East Hampton High School. So the total cost for this project is $127,683.40.
[50:28] So we made the decision to apply for funding through the federal E-Rate program to fund that program. So, um, E-Rate is funded through the Federal Communications, Federal Communications Commission, and they provide funding specifically to libraries in schools to help provide internet access to provide students and families access to resources available through the internet.
[50:51] So it’s a program that we have access to our contract with our internet service provider is through that program. And then every year we can use remaining funds not used on that for other things that help either get internet to the building or help get internet from the building to students and staff, which is why we can use that to
[51:07] fund things like switches and wireless routers and access points. Um, so funding for that is tied to, um, your low income status. So because of our district’s low income status, the FCC is going to pick up 80% of the cost of that project. So, um, just over $100,000 of that project, $102,146.
[51:32] 72 will be funded directly by the FCC in a direct payment to the vendor, so that money does not cost the cedar or the district anything. And so we are required to come up with the other 20% of, um, the cost of that project.
[51:49] And so since this is a capital equipment purchase, we have asked this what the proposal is to ask the city to use their capital stabilization fund to fund the other $25,000 in change from that project. And so I’m asking you guys to make a motion to approve the submission of a supplemental appropriation request to the city.
[52:06] Do we have a sense, um, pending School Committee approval for that appropriation request when the City Council would hear it and then I presume they would kick it to their finance? Do we know anything about the schedule that yet or. No, I don’t. Okay. But when I submit this to them, I will ask them to provide me with those dates.
[52:17] And I can follow up with that as well. Yeah. Great. Um, I will entertain a motion to approve the submission. Do we have a deadline for when we need that from the appropriation? No, no. It’s okay. Just as long as we can make sure that this happens. Because this is this is huge. I think ASAP, ASAP.
[52:32] I just we I thought we were on the hook for $128,000 for this project to be asking extra work exactly to to this being a 25,000 $26,000 project is huge. So thank you to everyone. Thank you. Yep, this is incredible. I’m so happy I can’t even. it’s a good day. Yeah. Perfect.
[52:55] So is so is Justin. So is Bill. Yeah yeah yeah. Uh, I will entertain a motion to approve the submission of a supplemental appropriation request to the City council in the amount of $25,536.68 to fund the district’s portion of the FY 27 E-Rate internet connectivity upgrades approved.
[53:19] Thank you. Eric, can I get a second? Second. Thank you. Sam. Any further question comment, discussion? No, just that it is amazing. Really. Thank you for all of this work. Yep. I’m sure many districts would have just passed the buck to their city leadership and ask for 100 grand.
[53:34] We did not do that. Nope. Uh, we’ll roll call. Vote. Bonnie. Yes, Megan. With glee. Yes. Eric. Yes, Linda? Yes, Sam? Yes, Laura. Scott, I thank you very much. Thank you. Julia, is this that wrap it up for you? Yes, ma’am. Thank you so much. Can I add one additional? Always, Megan.
[53:53] Always, always. I just want to thank you for the work on the summer meals program and for bringing these numbers to us. Um, as you mentioned. Like, this is something our committee has continuously said is worth for us to do. And I will stand ten toes down that we will continue that way.
[54:11] Um, it just is an incredible thing that we can do for our community. And, um, it’s going to be increasingly important as it has been, and it’s going to continue to be. So thank you for doing all that work. I’m really proud of all those bills.
[54:27] Um, on a side note to that, I have discussed with Senator Velez and Rep Gomez about asking them to endorse a letter to Richie Neal to bring to, uh, Ritchie, Neil Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey to propose that the USDA relax their restrictions around grab and go. Oh, yeah. That would. Be great. Step one out of 10,000. But we’re gonna take the first step. Yeah. Sounds good. Great.
[54:48] Um, great. Thank you, thank you. Uh, we are going to move on to school committee updates. Uh, fine. Finance. Um, I don’t have any updates necessarily. We haven’t met, but I do want to announce again that we have the Joint Finance Committee meeting next Tuesday, September 29th, 2 to 3 p.m.
[55:08] on the first in the first floor conference room. So if you are interested in hearing more about School Committee and City Council, joint finance discussion. Promises to be thrilling. It’s going to be fun. I see you there. I know. what’s that? I’m in. I’m signing out. There you go. Yeah. See you. There. Uh. Thank you. Megan.
[55:29] Yes I do. Oh, you have an update? Amazing. Yeah, my board meeting is tomorrow night. I’m afraid. And I’m sorry about further update afterwards. And I have a pre update to your update, which is that we as a district were initially looking into, um, suspending our, um, membership to SES, which is a little more than $5,000
[55:53] annually. Off the top of my head, 5340, so I know all the numbers. Uh, we’re gonna check to see if that’s right. Fact check. Uh, but, uh, upon further investigation, in an effort to save every dollar we can, we actually, um, would be a loss to the district.
[56:13] If we were to do that, it would be, um, it would cost us more money because we get a discount on a couple special programs. Which are? We do have a few students enrolled in right now, and they are reaping huge benefits from that. And we are not going to disturb their learning and growth.
[56:30] And so onward we go with SES and Linda’s going to make a big splash there, I think. Well, I, I’m enjoying my work so far. Great. Um, it takes a bit. It takes a bit to get involved. And they’ve got a new leader too. They have a new. leadership on it.
[56:41] Who I yeah, who I really I’m really pleased that we have her. I think she’s going to be good. Um, there was a little bumps and. But anyhow we’re there now. It’s a large board. Yeah. And it’s a large board. It’s a large board. And it was a two hour meeting that. I think that’s maybe a.
[56:58] Record, uh, for our. I may have been three hours. Uh, it was, it was long, but I did notice it in our grants here that we have one that the collaborative educational services for, you know, we’re partnering with. So I, I think it’s good work and I’m glad to be going. Yeah. Yeah.
[57:15] We just didn’t want to be Pennywise and powerful. I was trying to tell the the public, we looked at literally every line item to try to make cuts. Right. Um, we’ll say it for the 17,000th time. We pass a level service budget in March, and then circumstances out of our control. Thankfully, the override passed.
[57:33] We still had to make over $900,000 in cuts from that level service budget. And so that was one of the things we were considering cutting. But it actually would.
[57:46] Have been and I know Sam has talked about this, but when Sam was on his I know Lawrence brought this forth, but it we save on district placements by belonging to it. That’s why that’s what you’re kind of referring. to now. Right. That because if it’s a placement in a C, C, s, then we as being a member, we get a discount. Yeah, yeah. Do we have the exact number? Is that what we’re offering about. I.
[58:03] I think yeah. That’s not set before. That’s the flags I think this is just straight up charades. Anyway. Wellness Committee. Uh, we. Ready for a meeting soon? Yeah. I get back. Doing well. Yeah. Everything’s. Everybody. Well. It’s going well. Okay, great. Check the website. This policy’s up. Bonnie. The d which I’ve now committed to memory.
[58:27] That’s impressive, because I can’t even brand. My brain around it. Um. No updates correctly. All right. Great. Um, we expect that to be, like a quarterly kind of endeavor, right? It really depends on what the needs are. Okay.
[58:48] Because it’s really about supporting the resolution that the city passed in terms of safety, safety issues. And so there may be different things that possibly could come up. But. Um, I’ll have more in the future. Excellent.
[59:06] Um, I’m also well, so policy we were gonna do some second readings tonight, and then I had something come up and I wasn’t sure if I was going to make it. So we just put those off. We’re going to do that next time. That’s right. We had a meeting. Um, we, um, had some more policies to promote. We’ll just. Okay. But what we can unveil tonight, Sam, we are going to. discuss the mask policy project. Oh. That’s exciting. Yes.
[59:26] We are putting this officially up for final consideration. And if this passes tonight, we are going to cut the check and get this work done. No. Great. Wait. That’s awesome. Yeah. You’ve been you’ve been talking about this for the whole time that we’ve been on. The school board again.
[59:40] Pennywise pound foolish. I was hesitant to commit to spend. This may cost the district as much as $10,500 over five years. That’s a starting point. And as we all know, I negotiate for a living, so that’s not where we’re going to end up.
[59:59] But what we will commit to is what I would ask for consideration tonight is to make that first payment and commit with the contract. Um, I would suggest they typically break it down into $3,500 payments. I am going to to try to access a discount beyond that, but I would suggest that we make the first investment of 3500 for this fiscal year.
[1:00:18] Um, and then that work can begin imminently before we are right back into contract negotiations and the dregs of budget season. Yes. Linda, for. Public clarification, Laura, would you please go over what this means? Yes, yes. So, uh, masc is the Massachusetts Association of School Committees, to which we are a member.
[1:00:40] Um, they offer a litany of services and consulting. Um, one of those services that we, um, made use of brought us the esteemed doctor Bill when they lent their services, um, guiding our superintendent search committee, they are consummate professionals. They are a delight, each of them in their own special way. It’s like a little rainbow of joy.
[1:01:01] I just love those guys. Um, they also have the mechanisms by which they can really get through this policy work in a way that people can understand the thoughtfulness that is going into the work, but is also moving it along with the pace that is much faster than we are able to in this kind of analog way.
[1:01:20] One of the things that I’m excited about is that through this project, we can also use their hosting service. So it will be easier to access for the public. To talk about that. For 10s, because that’s. A big. Benefit to hiring them specifically.
[1:01:37] So essentially all school districts have to make their policies available to the public, and hours are currently on our website, but they’re difficult to access if you don’t have a Microsoft office subscription. Um, and so. They’re not really searchable. They’re not searchable. They’re all in PDFs. Right.
[1:01:55] So like currently if you want access to one of our policies, you can get it off the website. And if you’re having trouble with it, you can just reach out to anybody and we’ll get it to you. But that’s like not the the best system.
[1:02:09] And also like when we update them, we have to then retype them all up because they are photocopied oftentimes from the original policy from whenever it was passed, which some of it is a while ago. Yeah. So yeah. Um, so, you know, one of the cool things is that they’re hosting service that we could use as a part of this project. Like all the text is searchable. Um, you can compare it to other policies from other districts easily.
[1:02:26] Um, and then it’s all, um, on their website as well. So it’s, it’s easy for families to navigate and, and find. So I think it will lead to more, uh, public transparency, which is kind of what we all are kind of committed to.
[1:02:43] Um, and particularly, you know, at a time when I think a lot of things are changing really quickly, it’s important to be able to access that stuff easily and correctly. And what they’ll do is they’ll use their recommended policies, right? Match them up against what we have some of our policies. We go back in there from 2008. They’ll they’ll flag those policies for us.
[1:03:00] Right. They’re not making the decisions. Right. They’re making recommendations. They’re helping us to organize. And prioritize. Right. Because like one of the things that’s difficult for me anyway is the policy chair is like, what’s what are the what are the policies that are the most important to update in general.
[1:03:15] But like also what’s most important specifically for East Hampton. And so they’re going to help, um, work through that as well. And I think some of the terminology. Right. And some of our policies that doesn’t represent who we are as a community any longer.
[1:03:30] So I think, you know, that will be another important piece. And the regulations have changed significantly. And some of our policies don’t reflect. the I mean, they might not. Um. Um, it occurs to me that the public may not understand the scale of what we’re talking about when we talk about our policy book.
[1:03:47] It’s not like the handbook that we give to students at the beginning. It is a 3 or 4 inch binder. Several, several inch deep. But it is hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of policies like it is. Many of it is right is required by the federal government or the state. Go ahead Sam. The other thing is they all cross-reference each other.
[1:04:03] They also cross-reference mass general law. So the policy through this policy project, we will update those references and make sure that they’re accurate and they’re referencing. It’s going to be so. Good to be hyperlinked together. Like it’ll be good. So I’m excited to get to start this.
[1:04:19] So all that to say, while I still don’t accept that we’re going to end up paying a full $10,500 for this. Yeah. We’ll get. When we talk about person hours, uh, that would go into this if we were to do that with, um, our staff here, it would cost us, I don’t know, five times that. Yeah. Easily.
[1:04:37] Yeah. I don’t I don’t remember somebody, um, one of the people at MASC who does this made a comment, uh, in a conversation I was having with them the other day where they’re like, oh, and then this district, the policy that we’re the policy project is the fastest one we’ve ever done.
[1:04:51] And I’m like, you haven’t done ours yet? Yeah, but. Welcome to the swamp. We’re gonna get it through. So excellent. On that note, I will entertain a motion to approve the proposal for a policy manual development provided to us by the MCC. So go ahead. Yo, you take it. Sam. You are the policy. Uh, so moved. Thank you. Sam. Second.
[1:05:10] Thank you. Linda. She’s great. Stolen right in there. I had. To comment for. Questions, comments, discussions about policy projects, anyone? Sam has such passion for policy. No, no, listen, just to say the the hours that he puts into this. Listen, I mean. Honestly, yeah. I’m on the policy committee. I don’t have the passion.
[1:05:31] I am trying, I’m working alongside him. He is the Batman. Robin. Yeah. Listen, the hours and when when he sends me policies, when he sends us for our, our meetings, he has to create, like a folder. You just have to mix it so much, it’s like. Yeah.
[1:05:53] So it’s going to take so much time and, and you let you be efficient in places where we need you. I’m excited. About it. Yeah, yeah. And I just I have to jump on here for like three things.
[1:06:11] First of all, I was policy and then because, uh, Eric needed to move to policy, you know, I was on finance, and then I came back to policy. Sam is, without a doubt a policy wonk. But without that being said, Sam, what were we dealing with? Policies that were like 55, 60 years old? Well, no, because most of them are from most of the really old ones are from like the mid 90s. Yeah, yeah. But we had some really.
[1:06:31] Some are. That was, we had one that was 70, I remember it was in the 711. And so basically what this is doing is it’s taking this into the 21st century where people could actually access it and get to it. Huh. That’s the hope.
[1:06:56] And and it’s and the idea of this because I’ve been on policy, I understand the work that is being done. Yeah. It’s intense. And the other. Questions, one more thing I’d like to say about this. Um, when I decided to explore the the possibility of running for school committee, I asked Sam to point me in the direction of the policies. Okay. And bring. you the website wheelbarrow.
[1:07:21] He sent me folders, right? Like. And I was blown away. I was like, first of all, how am I ever gonna figure out how to find anything? Right? Right. And then I’m like, oh, and then I need to read these and I have to like, no, these. I don’t know them all. I didn’t read them all. Nobody.
[1:07:42] But I couldn’t even find them. I mean, that was like I would occasionally think, oh, I wonder what would do about this? And honestly, so I really, um, this is essential. It’ll really help us not only catch up, but move us forward. Exactly. So thank you.
[1:07:59] I want to assure the I, I obviously have a lot of hangups about spending money for myriad reasons. I want to assure the public we really we put months and months of talk and thought and debate into this.
[1:08:12] It really trusts us when we say this is important and trust us when we say this is a sound investment. Yeah, for. The. most part, as boring as a tooth as it is, right, Sam? Yes. Very boring. Grape juice. I’m good. Okay. We’re good. All right, I just have. Can I just add. Yeah.
[1:08:29] Just don’t let anybody forget me to take the actual vote. We’re still in questions. Oh, we’re. Still about. Okay, let’s do that then. Great. Bonnie. Yes. Megan. Yes. Erin. Yes. Linda. Yes, Sam. Yes. Laura. Scott I motion carries. Can I just add. Yes. Uh, under school committee updates, I just wanted to also add, um, that I’m. I’m the representative to the East Hampton Family center, um, community.
[1:08:52] Oh, that’s. Right, Council. And we just happened to meet the other day. So. Oh that’s great. Can I just jump in real quick? When did you get that? Okay. And I have one more for you, Melina. So do you want to give your update? Yeah.
[1:09:09] So, um, so this is the this is a, um, kind of a community group that’s made up of people who support the. Well, who the Easthampton family centers for families of children ages five and under. Um, and it’s supposed to be kind of like the one stop hub for all families who have children in that age range.
[1:09:25] So if you have a young child, um, they have playgroups every single week, usually multiple times a week in multiple different places, which is really cool. And, um, we can help get you in touch with them. Or also you can just look for Easthampton Family Center, um, online.
[1:09:41] And I just wanted to, uh, like, throw in just a couple of things that came up during our discussion. One is that the statewide waitlist for child care vouchers is opening up in October. So just to keep an eye out for that, if you’re looking for a childcare voucher. Can we push that out on parents for. Uh, that link. Is that allowed? We’ll look into it. I’ll look into it. Okay.
[1:10:00] Um, so just if you’re looking for that, um, that and that’s through Seven Hills. Um, and I’ve got the information. I can send you the report if you want to put it in this, um, for, for everybody.
[1:10:16] Um, and then also, um, I just wanted to, um, update everybody that the autism, uh, Medicaid waiver is opening soon. The children’s autism Medicaid waiver. So this is a medicaid waiver for children. It’s used to be 3 to 10. It’s now birth to ten. Um, for children who are diagnosed with autism, uh, who are income eligible for NASA health standards.
[1:10:32] So they don’t have to be on mass health standard yet, but they have to income qualify. Um, it’s a it’s a lottery. You basically like, put your kid’s name in the lottery and they pick kids as they age out of the waiver. Um, so, you know, I definitely recommend jumping on that waitlist.
[1:10:47] What if you get picked, you get a budget and you can use the budget to hire in-home support for your child, uh, either through ABA or through floor time, which is kind of cool. Um, and it’s all free, you know, for families who qualify. So, you know, that’s going to be opening up in mid October to November.
[1:11:03] And we will put I’ll make sure that I get the we’ll make sure that we put something out for families because that’s a, that’s an important one. We usually get a flyer for that from the school. Um, and uh, yeah. Just um, it was, it was a good it was a good conversation.
[1:11:17] Somebody from the library was there reporting on how summer reading was super successful. Lots and lots of turnout. She said. She was like, so there were some parents who got really into it with their babies. And like, how many books are we going to read to our babies this summer? Um, but she said the kids were super into it as well.
[1:11:29] So record that was not me. They have, uh, one thing I wanted to, uh, to just point out from them is that they’ve got, um, this, uh, all ages watercolors, uh, workshops that they’ve been doing with families, um, and that it’s been going really well.
[1:11:47] Their last one was on Friday, and they’re doing them more often, and they just had great turnout. So if any. And that’s at the library annex. So if anybody is looking for. fun stuff to do with it is if anybody’s looking for fun stuff to do with kids, just don’t forget about our public library. They’re fantastic. And so many more opportunities with the annex now.
[1:12:02] Yeah, exactly. So, um, I will send, uh, this report, Kelly’s Kelly Brown, who is the Easthampton Family Center director. She has put all of the kind of updates into one document, and I’ll. Send them another incredible gem. Really, really good.
[1:12:19] If anybody has any, um, any, you know, needs, uh, and has a child with between those ages, please reach out to them. They’re fantastic. Kelly in particular is phenomenal. Um, one other new announcement. Um, I was approached this week by a couple different organizations.
[1:12:36] Uh, PTO and some conversations with the community center and the CoA. And it struck me that we that we have a plethora of resources in the city, and we have an ever increasing well of need, and we are trying to do everything we can to best connect those resources with the need, and also to get ahead of identifying new needs that might emerge. ET cetera, etc..
[1:12:59] So in this spirit of that, um, the school committee will be one of the founding participants of a community support coalition. We will be drafting a letter, and we will be sending that out to all community organizations that we can think of collectively.
[1:13:19] Um, and we expect to convene the first meeting of that in October. So I am bringing this to your attention tonight, because I would love for one or more of you, um, to maybe step forward into the breach and join that coalition, at least in the short term, to help it get up and running, and to offer perspective from the school committee side.
[1:13:36] I would call. The Community Support Coalition. I, I really want to do this. Yeah. Anyone else like Show of Hands because there’s no limit. Like there’s several of you wanted Sam. community community support coalition. And the other thing too, because it doesn’t officially exist yet. You can all think about it.
[1:13:56] And then in our October meeting, I should have a more fulsome, a more fulsome, more fulsome update. Um. Seems like something we could tag team in on. 200%. Yeah, it’s we don’t know. It doesn’t exist yet, so you can build it to be whatever you want it to be. Yes. That’s great. Good.
[1:14:17] All right, on that note, our next meetings are October 13th, October 27th, November 10th, December 8th. And that was it for this calendar year. We’re not going to get it out. That’s why I think that’s good. That’s good for now. Uh, if there’s no other discussion, I will entertain a motion to adjourn. Uh. So moves. Thank you. Sam, can I get a second? Second.
[1:14:34] Thank you. Eric, you’re gonna roll call out. Bonnie. Good night. Megan. Good night. Erin. Good night. Linda. Good night Sam. Good night. Laura. Scott. Uh, good night everybody. I didn’t.