[0:35] October 6, 2025, regular school committee meeting. Can we please stand for the pledge of allegiance?

[0:44] I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America.

[0:49] And to the Republic for which it stands.

[0:52] One nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

[0:58] Please, moment of silence.

[1:13] Okay. The listing of matters on the agenda are those reasonably anticipated by the chair, which may be discussed

[1:20] at the meeting. Not all items listed may in fact be discussed and other items not listed may

[1:25] also be brought up for discussion to the extent permitted by law. This meeting will be live

[1:30] streamed for cable. A recording of this meeting will also be posted on the Westbridge Water

[1:35] Community Access Media website wb-cam.org. Okay. The first order of business is approval of minutes

[1:45] from both the September 8th and September 18th, 2025 school committee meetings.

[1:53] Is there a motion?

[1:57] Is there a second?

[2:02] Any discussion? No. All in favour?

[2:06] Aye. Aye. Aye's have it. Okay. The warrants report. The following warrants were issued

[2:13] and paid for the fiscal year 2026. Bill warrants fiscal year 26 on September 4th,

[2:21] $125 for $132,681 in 70 cents, on September 11th, 2025, $177,021 in 86 cents, on September

[2:37] $1,825,125,892 and $777 on September 25,140,549 in 54 cents.

[2:54] For payroll warrants, fiscal year 26 on September 12,225,

[3:00] The $611,547 and 30 cents on September 2625, 622,420 and 74 cents.

[3:14] As always, all warrants are public record and once signed are available in the Selectman's Office for Review.

[3:22] Okay, so unfortunately George Baruda, our student advisory committee representative could not be here again tonight due to soccer obligations.

[3:30] He is optimistic he'll be here at the next meeting because the soccer season will be over by then.

[3:35] But I do have an update I'll share and his behalf later in the meeting.

[3:40] Now we'll open for public comment.

[3:42] Members of the audience wishing to address the committee may do so at this time.

[3:46] audience members shall limit comments to three minutes and are reminded that public comment

[3:51] is not a discussion, debate or dialogue between individuals and the school committee, personnel

[3:57] issues or issues that would violate student or employee confidentiality cannot be addressed

[4:02] during the public comment.

[4:04] That's

[4:07] one of the things that was brought to me out of all of the, how I'm supposed to address that.

[4:12] I'm going to wait.

[4:14] It was like-

[4:15] It was like-

[4:15] Do we have the, at the very end? Do we have items of it?

[4:18] Yes, but yeah.

[4:19] Yeah, you could probably hold it at the end.

[4:20] Excuse me, I mean, either.

[4:21] Questions recommendations by the committee?

[4:23] No, wait a second.

[4:24] Okay.

[4:25] All right.

[4:26] Seeing none, we will move on to the superintendent's update.

[4:30] Thank you very much.

[4:31] Just on my goal, like presented them at the last meeting,

[4:35] made a few fairly minor revisions from our discussions at the meeting and

[4:40] I recently submitted them back to your folder and so they've been updated and we

[4:46] shared.

[4:49] The Massachusetts Emergency Response Plan, the MIRP, we updated in the summer,

[4:55] this past summer, a huge thank you to Lead Nurse Julie Dietrichsen for her work and the work

[5:00] of the nurses who has spent a lot of time making sure we had a lot of the things that are required

[5:05] within the plan, updated, inclusive, behavioral health things, as well as student safety, staff

[5:13] safety. We located some of the AEDs around the building. I did share it out with the West

[5:20] Prisma. Please fire in the fire department and the administrators to make sure that

[5:24] nothing we were missing. We thank you to Mark and the Bregar, had a maintenance who has

[5:29] moved some of the AEDs around. Some of them were more centrally located with a school but not

[5:34] We really, probably the best place in terms of safety in case someone needed them, we want

[5:38] to make sure not only the administration, but the nurse and any visitor to the building

[5:42] that may be their after hours could easily see when they asked, we want to get the high

[5:47] traffic areas closest to the main entrance, usually it was the spot that we chose.

[5:52] We did submit it in September after the meeting and they are good for every two years, so

[5:57] we'll be resimitting and you change as they go along over the next couple of years.

[6:03] Sorry, I was slow on the goals thing type, and that's a question.

[6:06] Yes, so we, I don't we do the year and review, do we do anything like check it in the middle or okay?

[6:11] Yes, we do.

[6:13] We do.

[6:14] Mark, I believe it does like a mid-year self evaluation and we give kind of feedback at that point.

[6:19] Okay, cool.

[6:20] It's a dream or anything?

[6:21] Yes.

[6:22] I think it's a dream or anything.

[6:23] Perfect.

[6:25] But it means it's time.

[6:26] So we have a schedule meeting on October 21st.

[6:32] The attendees will be myself, our business manager.

[6:35] We have two school clean members who will be there.

[6:38] A town administrator at the chair of the board

[6:40] of Sleckman, the chair of the Finance Committee.

[6:43] We started these now three years ago,

[6:45] so we've had two prior years of meetings.

[6:48] They've gone really well.

[6:50] It's really not too much to share information related to,

[6:53] not only this year's budget,

[6:54] but planning ahead for next year's budget.

[6:58] Some of the possible talking points will talk about,

[7:01] we always talk about what are staffing needs,

[7:03] we've seen any changes in this current year,

[7:05] or things that we're looking to possibly add for next year.

[7:09] Again, the major thing that we want to accomplish

[7:12] by these meetings is to have no surprises with the town.

[7:16] We were going to talk about special education.

[7:17] We've talked about both in-district and how to district

[7:21] placements which make up a decent percentage of our overall budget, a transportation, we'll

[7:28] talk about our transport.

[7:30] Education needs within the district. School choice, we always budget a certain number depending on our student enrollment

[7:36] the time. Talk, potentially, about capital budget items. We'll talk about success, we've had with past items that have been funded by

[7:44] a town and what we're looking to possibly do for next year, which we're tracing out of twice a

[7:50] project, and we'll talk about the elementary building project. So getting up to date there and share all the

[7:56] information.

[7:58] It's also a good opportunity for us to ask questions, how's the town, the finances and

[8:02] the town look?

[8:03] What's the revenue we look like?

[8:05] What is some of the building projects?

[8:07] So, it's very much informal, but it's very beneficial, I think, towards our working relationship.

[8:14] And honestly, I think it's shown dividends at our last couple of years, meetings with both

[8:19] the Board of Psycho and the Finance Committee.

[8:21] The information we share during this meeting stays pretty consistent when we meet with

[8:25] in March. So I want to thank the town for being receptive to having these meetings and

[8:31] you know we may or may not have another one as we get closer to budget we're kind of

[8:35] to see how things go but I don't think it's a bad idea to have a future meeting as well.

[8:40] So thank you to those of you who will be on the committee and meeting with us.

[8:44] I have a person who I'm too sorry. So for both their opportunity to share information

[8:52] Is there like, do we ever do like a check-in on here's what was the pro-vastier or here's

[8:59] on the first quarter, second quarter, third quarter, do we ever do anything like that?

[9:01] We haven't gotten that specific.

[9:03] We've talked about any major things that have come up that are out of our scope of budget,

[9:10] for example, if we had any major repairs or things like that, but we haven't really broken

[9:15] down by, you know, that, you know, much detail.

[9:21] So just to, from my perspective, J.P., that was something that I learned in a lot of learning

[9:26] that I went through last year that really would be best practice to be doing, but in talking

[9:32] with Kathy, we do have some obstacles in terms of the software that is used in that unfortunately

[9:37] is controlled by the town.

[9:40] So possibly we could have some conversations in these meetings about how...

[9:45] So, sorry, it's the town, it's a like software and then this will use this.

[9:51] That's the blocker.

[9:52] And I think that's a great talking point.

[9:55] Because we would the way that we process payroll and bill warrants,

[10:02] it's time consuming.

[10:04] It's a lot of data entry by our staff.

[10:06] They're doing a lot of this stuff by hand.

[10:09] We don't have, I can defer to Kathy and others, but we don't have great modules

[10:15] that are really user friendly and also to gather information so it's something that I know

[10:21] Kathy talked with the town about I think their system drives our system but we would like

[10:28] to get together and look at something moving forward. So we do have the ability to pull data

[10:35] much quicker. All right yeah we should definitely bring that up. Okay great.

[10:44] This is Janice professional

[10:46] development plan really has so far as it is.

[10:49] The highlight of the night, so the committee was formed last spring and we had representatives

[10:55] from elementary and high school and we feel like we built a strong foundation to support our staff

[11:02] learning and growth. So in the fall, so far we've had an outstraining at the high school,

[11:09] the middle senior high school for all staff and at the elementary level we had de-escalation training

[11:15] with Elise, our new BCBA.

[11:18] I was at that one and I'll tell you a phenomenal.

[11:22] So in October, we're going to swap.

[11:24] And elementary will have Alice training

[11:26] in the high middle senior high school

[11:28] have the de-escalation training.

[11:30] In December, John Collins had secured two sessions

[11:35] for AI training, one session geared towards the elementary level,

[11:40] and one session geared for a middle senior high school.

[11:43] And staff led PD, we have monthly sessions from January to June, and 21 proposals were submitted by staff and all the proposals align with Dessie's guidelines for high quality PD.

[12:00] And they support at least one of the strategic initiatives, either student success, curriculum, staff development or facilities and resources.

[12:08] And just to name a few, we have a cross-curricular coordination, which is open to anybody, and they'll be working, especially with Whitin Wisdom.

[12:20] There's a lot of cross-curricular activities they can do within Whitin Wisdom, so that's one of the topics.

[12:27] A deep dive into Whitin Wisdom's deep dive, so a deep dive in Whitin Wisdom is their grammar and language component.

[12:34] And there's not really a whole lot of time,

[12:38] Witten wisdom takes a lot of time.

[12:40] So this is a deep dive into that and how can

[12:43] they make it more incorporated into their daily lessons.

[12:47] A dyslexia, who what where went and why.

[12:51] That's being led by the reading specialists who

[12:53] has been trained in dyslexia.

[12:57] They went to a summer institute last year.

[12:59] It was a year long institute.

[13:01] and five teachers went and Keith up and they came up with a dyslexia plan, so that will be an interesting one.

[13:11] Incorporating movement and teamwork in the classroom, when we tell you that once got the most registrants,

[13:17] that is being led by the APE teacher.

[13:20] new text strategies including AI, science practices for diverse learners, supporting diverse

[13:28] learners, supporting instruction in the math classroom, topics in early childhood approaches

[13:34] to play and learning, and then trauma-inform mental health and substance abuse training.

[13:39] That is for the nurses and Julie Dixon's behavioral health grant allowed for a presenter

[13:46] to come in and present to the nurses on that topic.

[13:51] So we've got some really good stuff.

[13:53] At the end, I'll send out a survey

[13:55] and see how the teachers feel it went.

[13:58] But so far, so good.

[14:00] So stay tuned.

[14:03] Any questions?

[14:05] And now, thank you for your leadership and coordinate

[14:08] in the group.

[14:09] I think we have this year as a kind of a mix.

[14:11] We did PD that we felt was necessary.

[14:14] from the teachers, perspective, thank you to Officer Packard and Detective Devoli for the

[14:22] House Training, which was really hands-on. I got to hear from the people I covered the office,

[14:27] our office staff, could go down for the training. I talked to Column Union members today who

[14:31] felt was very valuable. In their words, at some points, it's a little bit scary to go through this,

[14:36] but our goals to train the educators. So, if there is an issue, they're well trained,

[14:43] and they're comfortable in a very uncomfortable situation.

[14:48] So, you give them a lot of credit and I dig it over and get to see some of the de-escalation training.

[14:53] And I felt that was also important and helpful.

[14:57] So, I'm looking forward to the switch and then we're looking forward to it.

[15:00] And I think this was a good compromise. The plan where the district held a certain number of PD days, because there are things we have to get done within the district, and then to open up those six other days to the staff for proposals.

[15:17] And there were some that are teetering on whether they'll run or not, but hopefully we

[15:24] put in a stipulation that has to be at least two attendees, plus the presenter, so we

[15:31] will close on a couple, but most of them have well over that amount.

[15:35] So it'll be a good season.

[15:38] Thank you.

[15:38] Thanks, staff.

[15:40] Okay, just to update on the competency determination,

[15:46] you back in November of 2024,

[15:49] when Massachusetts voters voted on doubt question number two,

[15:52] to eliminate the use of MCAS as a graduation requirement,

[15:57] students in grade 10 will take English math,

[15:59] and science is statewide graduation requirement.

[16:02] You remove that, the new graduation requirement

[16:05] or competency determination is now

[16:08] by each individual district.

[16:10] So we're working to come up with our, what we believe the students should know and what they should

[16:18] where they can show competency as the finished 10th grade. It doesn't change the graduation requirements.

[16:24] We still maintain those those are still local independent graduation requirements.

[16:31] Although they do not have to pass the MCAS exams, they will have to take them and sit for them.

[16:38] There is accountability that each district is, look, it's the same looks at accountability for each district, so those scores do matter still to us.

[16:48] Again, our draft is in process.

[16:52] It is ahead of them, that's been submitted to Dessie until December 31.

[16:56] We hope to have it done much earlier than that.

[17:00] And we are making sure that it will cross around things, school committee policy, IK, F.E.

[17:05] So what's in there is also going to be within our plan.

[17:08] The state is also looking at state, graduation requirements, vision of a high school graduate in Massachusetts.

[17:19] So it'd be interesting to see, I think, they're going to look at what the competency determinations are for each individual school district

[17:25] And then I'm going to see what they feel is important for all students.

[17:29] But again, it won't take away local control for graduation requirements.

[17:34] It is something that we need to review and vote on for a few minutes.

[17:38] Yes.

[17:38] Our problem, I'm guessing we'll probably bring it in the final member.

[17:43] I think we're done by them.

[17:47] Building project update.

[17:49] We haven't had a lot to update on yet, but we are going to be moving pretty quickly.

[17:55] We have our next school building free meeting tomorrow night where we'll

[18:00] presenting a fresh on the schematic design cost estimates and that will be out there.

[18:06] We continue to post on Facebook, on live feed newsletter, and through emails.

[18:12] We do some videos coming so we are probably three to four different videos that will be produced

[18:17] and sent out, written recent emails out to families.

[18:21] As I sent one last week, that has an images looking at the site and the exterior of the building.

[18:28] I've received a couple of emails back, and while I'm sending one out this week, it's

[18:33] set to probably go middle of the week to talk more about the classroom layout and what it looks

[18:39] like.

[18:40] So people can ask questions or if you have concerns about certain things, so trying to break

[18:45] it down.

[18:46] It's really a lot of stuff.

[18:47] I sent previously in one big email, but I'm trying to break it down a lot of people

[18:50] opportunities to ask questions. We want families, staff, and the community members to ask questions.

[18:57] I got a great question. Over the weekend, have they do with concerns in the neighborhood,

[19:04] but in the neighborhood of a water and what that's going to look like? The short answer on that is,

[19:09] it's probably going to be a lot better because there are no retention systems currently.

[19:13] So there will be retention systems throughout the site, which will hopefully keep more water in there

[19:18] for improving their area of town rather than making it worse.

[19:24] We did recently as a number of us toward a woodland elementary school in

[19:30] millford.

[19:31] It's a little bit older building about nine years old, but what was interesting was

[19:36] it was an elementary school of a thousand and fifty students.

[19:40] So it was good to see a school operating.

[19:42] It did have a large of a great span, but to see how they did a lot of different

[19:46] things that are building that big.

[19:49] There we were in a school building community

[19:50] on the 21st of October.

[19:52] On the 23rd, we'll be submitting our schematic design

[19:55] for the MSPA.

[19:57] Our next community forum is set for November 6th,

[20:01] unless that changes tomorrow night.

[20:03] And then looking down the road,

[20:04] we're looking at a January 26th date

[20:07] for a potential town meeting.

[20:09] With more likely, they're not a ballot vote,

[20:12] probably that next Saturday.

[20:14] again, not set, yeah. From November to January, we have multiple community forums, presenting

[20:21] a lot of similar information. I hope a lot of new information, but we'll be doing them in-person

[20:26] and we'll talk about doing some virtual ones as well to get the information out there. So once we have

[20:32] the numbers, we'll also start looking at calculating potential increases in the factory.

[20:39] So, I have a question.

[20:41] Sure.

[20:43] I'm not sure if this, I've got a lot of feedback.

[20:47] How much of this is already set versus how much is up for debate?

[20:51] Because I know people like, oh, well, it should be a Howard.

[20:54] Well, the decision has already been made.

[20:56] It's already in.

[20:57] And if they're saying, oh, I'm not voting on it this way.

[20:59] But I'll vote like, my understanding is at this point.

[21:02] This is a yes or a no as is.

[21:04] And I want to make sure that I understand it correctly.

[21:08] Good question, so the answer is yes, we're they've done the design the school building committee last April voted on the Rosalmo Donald site

[21:18] The Howard site had a few major drawbacks one. Yeah, no, just so people here

[21:25] Yeah, make sure that we say the people are all I'm going to go when I'm going to say it should be in the Howard

[21:30] We're we're past that you should have come to those things. We're past that decision

[21:34] And we are at a different decision where we are now voting on whether to continue to move

[21:38] forward with the claim we have now.

[21:41] I'm understanding.

[21:42] You're 100% correct.

[21:44] Yeah.

[21:44] And again, major issues with traffic at that site will be going to show some more traffic numbers

[21:48] in it.

[21:49] I come up every morning about the same time how it's opening or from up before and one of the

[21:53] six are stopped from the center all the way down probably to Hacomok if not beyond.

[21:58] But the other major.

[22:00] What the heck?

[22:01] You can write about it.

[22:02] Yeah.

[22:02] Right.

[22:02] The other major issue with the Howard Center so people know is that at that site, we did not have a site to put the waste water treatment plan.

[22:11] It would not hit on the site because you've got to build that first.

[22:15] So you couldn't build that in the school.

[22:18] We would have to find a site off site.

[22:23] So it was under termine.

[22:24] And so it was the cost of whether it's town owned property or buying property.

[22:28] So that was a major run.

[22:30] I know to move forward in the project without knowing where we're pumping on that.

[22:35] So it is, that part is done. The drawings, there's still some room for changes in design development.

[22:43] But the site is pretty set, might have some minor changes.

[22:48] But good questions, and I'm glad you're asking, and I encourage people to have questions.

[22:53] you have concerns, they hear rumors, they're unsure of something, we'll answer every question.

[22:59] If I don't know the answer, I'll pass them on to our architects and our OPM to get them

[23:04] the answer to them.

[23:05] They may not like the answer, but we'll make sure they have all the information so they're

[23:08] informed when they go for them.

[23:11] The other things we're going to look at too is what is going to cost not to do the building

[23:16] project for future maintenance concerns, the potential down the road to watch the classrooms

[23:22] and so forth and look at that over a 30 year period and see what the cost is with that.

[23:27] We don't have those yet, but we will.

[23:32] The reads quarterly report is in the U.R. packet by our bylaws for the collaborative.

[23:38] We give that to each quarter for you to review.

[23:43] And surveys, so just all the history last year, in the fall, I sent out three Google

[23:50] on surveys. It was survey overload. So this year, we are sending out surveys to families, staff,

[23:58] and students and grades of board to 12. It'll be one survey broken into three different

[24:04] parts which I shared with you. There'll be the Climate and Culture Survey, which asks questions

[24:09] about the individual schools as well as Superintendent, as part of the bullying, intervention and

[24:15] prevention plan. We have said that everybody end of October. We'll send out a survey on that.

[24:22] So there's a separate questions about that. It's very similar to the one we sent last year.

[24:27] And the institutional self evaluation of education program that is we'll gather information.

[24:33] I said administrative team will look to ensure that we're providing an equitable learning environment.

[24:39] That the second two are a lot shorter. The first one is the longest of the three.

[24:43] But there are the goal is to gather a very helpful information.

[24:47] I will send them out by email.

[24:49] I will post information on social media,

[24:52] directing them back to the emails.

[24:54] I think I'm not planning on posting the surveys on social media,

[25:00] but I will remind people about that.

[25:03] The surveys are completely anonymous.

[25:05] We will make sure we check them again,

[25:07] but the same process we use last year is,

[25:09] and let's say give us identifying a phrase

[25:11] that we will not know who someone is.

[25:14] Again, looking for information to help our move our district forward, but there are places

[25:19] that people can put contact information and that we encourage that if they have a question

[25:24] or a concern or something that we could investigate further, it is really helpful to get

[25:30] the information and we administrators are myself or directors will reach out and contact

[25:36] people.

[25:37] It's not required but it is helpful when trying to, you know, picture people understand

[25:42] or for us to get more information and it will imply either provided by the December meeting

[25:48] by November December to an executive summary that provides information about the all the

[25:53] information included in the survey.

[25:56] Any questions from Mr. Bodwell?

[26:00] Okay. Thank you Mr. Bodwell.

[26:03] Moving on to new business. The first item is we have to nominate and vote for a delegate

[26:10] to attend the M.A.S.C. M.A.S. joint conference that happens in November. I believe

[26:15] it's November 12th through 14th this year.

[26:21] Thank

[26:25] you so much for your time to speak to the member.

[26:30] I think it's like two down in the evening.

[26:36] Is there a second?

[26:37] Second.

[26:39] Any discussion?

[26:41] I'm fine.

[26:42] I know.

[26:42] I went last year and it's actually, it's a wealth of information, there's some really, really good sessions and then there's some little, is that dryer for you during the day?

[26:54] Say that again?

[26:54] Is that doable for you?

[26:55] It's doable for me.

[26:57] So it makes sense while I'm willing to be able to.

[27:00] Okay.

[27:00] Shall we vote?

[27:02] All in favor?

[27:04] All opposed?

[27:06] No opposed.

[27:07] All right.

[27:07] Yeah.

[27:07] type. Moving on to, we need to conduct a revote on the WBEA secretaries contract. We voted

[27:17] at our last meeting, but just to cross all our cheese and dollar eyes want to be clear

[27:23] about who is voting on the panel. So is there a motion to approve the WBEA secretaries union

[27:32] contract. Motion to approve the WBE Secretary contract. There are seconds. Okay, all in favor. I all opposed.

[27:44] And that's all I'm going to say that next. And any recusals. Okay. So three four and one recused. Okay. Then we need to approve. Have you had a chance to review the career technical

[28:02] education, the CTE middle school pathway exploration plan that was in the packet for this meeting.

[28:09] It's a voting issue.

[28:11] Just a quick bit of background. So this is something that DSE has sent out to a redistrict.

[28:18] We're not a CTE school or program. So we have we had to develop a pathway for a middle school

[28:25] students to ensure that they're having equitable exploration of programs. So really they know

[28:30] what their options are for career and technical education programs.

[28:35] We have to submit it to DEC by the first of November.

[28:39] A lot of things that we put in the spent of things that we were currently doing.

[28:43] There was some tweaking, there was some minor changes, but we're really doing a lot of those.

[28:50] It really is to show it, give information on how students are learning about the programs

[28:55] and our guidance and administration are working with the students to discuss the pathways.

[28:59] We have a new person doing the middle school guidance, who's doing a great job, really taking the lead on this, and I think this is the plan,

[29:09] really identifies what we're doing and how we're doing at the middle senior high school.

[29:13] This is a template from the state, so we really work through the template and collaborate on it, met a few times, discussed it,

[29:20] This is pageant that was guidance and talked about how input they had.

[29:25] So it's a plan that I believe is truly bought in by everyone involved and we are at

[29:32] part of the regulations we need to post it so we'll post it but I think we can help

[29:36] to ensure that our students are getting this information.

[29:40] Is there a motion to approve the plan?

[29:51] Is there a second?

[29:52] Okay. Any discussion? Questions?

[29:58] Okay. All in favor?

[30:00] Aye, all opposed? The Aye's have it. Okay, and moving on to the Westbridge Order's CPAC update. This is my Skowsky.

[30:11] The mission of the Westbridge Order's special education parent, advisory council. It's a health field exclusive schools and communities.

[30:18] We support families of students with IEPs and five to four points. And we also welcome the conclude general education.

[30:25] for parents by offering advice, advocacy, educational opportunities, and career building events.

[30:32] West Point, my spiritual arts event has officially started our year and we're looking forward

[30:36] to reconnecting with really faces and walk-ling new members.

[30:41] Our next meeting will be held here at the Minnel Senior High School Learning Commons on Tuesday

[30:45] October 14 at 6 p.m.

[30:48] As always, everyone is welcome to attend.

[30:51] This Thursday, October 9th, will be hosting an information table at Springstreet School's

[30:57] Criminal Night.

[30:58] Please top by and meet the board, ask questions, and learn more about our work and join

[31:02] our mailing list so you can stay up to date.

[31:05] We excited to share that we'll be soon accepting applications from student representatives.

[31:11] Students in grades 7, few 12 are invited to apply and serve as an advisor to student

[31:16] body and help promote inclusion across the school committee.

[31:19] More information about this opportunity will be available soon to students.

[31:24] Looking ahead, we are pleased to welcome back your steam rally from Cape Pod, Advertisers

[31:29] for our first work shop of the year, Basic Rides in the Child's IPA.

[31:34] This event will take place Thursday, November 18 from 6 to 730 pm.

[31:39] Knowledge is power in this work shop is a great way for families to learn about their legal

[31:44] rights and special education and strategies to advocate, especially for their children.

[31:50] Sign-up details and Zoom links will be available soon.

[31:54] For more information about West Bridgewater Sea Act, I'll come to you, Vince, which

[31:58] had joined our mailing list.

[31:59] You can find us on Facebook or email us at any time.

[32:04] Thank you.

[32:06] Okay, moving on to reports of the subcommittees, we'll start with the student outreach to the

[32:14] I have an update that the Student Representative George Baroode sent to me, so I will read it from his first-person narrator.

[32:24] Good evening, I am George Baroode, Student Representative to the School Committee and a junior at the middle senior high school.

[32:30] I'd like to provide an update on recent activities from the Student Perspective.

[32:34] I am unfortunately unable to attend due to school soccer commitments, but I cannot wait to meet all of you a post-season.

[32:40] And very pleased to announce that I had noticed a large number of students in clubs, activities, and extracurricular activities,

[32:49] specifically clubs such as the Financial Investment Club, which gained five or six new members, and model UN and Leo's clubs doubling their numbers.

[32:59] I'm also excited to announce the amount of hands-on projects students are involved in.

[33:03] Through the Global Citizens Club alone, we have a Hispanic Heritage Month project, a

[33:09] breast cancer awareness project, and a fundraiser for Gaza, which I am a part of.

[33:14] The Leo's Club is also building a memorial, rock, labyrinth, and honor of Mr. Finling.

[33:21] Although I have talked to many students about changes they would like to see and have gotten

[33:25] some good feedback. One piece of feedback I have received from numerous individuals is the

[33:31] of a theater class. With one student having had to choose between theater and her

[33:39] after school sport. All members of the Student Advisory Committee unanimously agreed

[33:45] that this was unacceptable. Another change we wanted to make was the addition of more

[33:50] AP classes in the school, specifically AP psychology, AP government and civics and

[33:57] and other decided additions.

[34:00] I do know of a teacher that has certified for AP Psychology

[34:03] and is willing to teach next year if possible.

[34:07] Finally, I would like to talk about the schedule

[34:09] and how the eight classes with the drop three schedule

[34:12] would promote classroom hours while still holding

[34:15] the students interest.

[34:17] I believe that a vote throughout the faculty

[34:19] as well as a vote for the students would be ideal.

[34:23] Thank you for your consideration towards student interest

[34:26] and I'm looking forward to a very positive year.

[34:28] If you have any questions,

[34:30] never hesitate to reach out to me.

[34:31] Thank you.

[34:34] So that was from George.

[34:35] Like I said, you should be here at our next monthly school committee meeting.

[34:40] I met with the five students on the committee last week on Wednesday.

[34:44] And then the four of us this evening met with the four other students

[34:48] aside from George to kind of shocked.

[34:51] It was mostly about the items that George mentioned in his update.

[34:55] And I think it was really positive.

[34:57] I think we have some students that are invested in making sure that everything's working best for

[35:04] all parties involved.

[35:07] So you guys have anything you want to share about our meeting or?

[35:13] No, I have a solid group there.

[35:15] Good.

[35:16] Good.

[35:16] And I will just say that we established that it was more than one student that was required

[35:24] to choose between theater and sports.

[35:26] So, I think it's something that we hope we can fix going forward.

[35:34] So, what I think is great is that there have student voice that they're able to talk to

[35:38] school committee.

[35:39] And obviously page has a principle through by a superintendent's group that's made up of students

[35:44] 9 to 9 to 12 and I've got a middle school group as well.

[35:48] So, I think it's important to hear and listen to see what can be done and what maybe can't be done.

[35:54] And again, have a genuine discussion on it, and providing information back and forth is good,

[36:00] because we've got you there again.

[36:02] Same.

[36:03] And then just the other thing to note, it's kind of adjacent to this committee.

[36:09] One of the students on the Student Advisory Committee is also in Searsack, which is the

[36:13] selfie-term regional student advisory committee.

[36:16] So it's a group of students from multiple schools in selfie-term Massachusetts, and they're

[36:22] hosting the regional meeting here next week on the 14th, I believe,

[36:27] yeah, on October 14th. So I feel like that's pretty cool, that it's hosting.

[36:37] We love having them here. It's great to get other kids in and great for our kids to see kids,

[36:42] you know, walking to building and talking to them. So exciting. I think it's probably

[36:46] much better than virtually because we can actually talk and collaborate and all that. Do you

[36:50] No, Christine, is there a staff member involved in running that?

[36:55] Yes, yes.

[36:55] Yeah, they enjoy that.

[36:57] Okay.

[36:57] They work with Steve.

[36:58] Okay, but in the schools, or anyone like affiliated,

[37:01] we're running that or it's just gonna stay okay.

[37:04] Okay.

[37:04] All right.

[37:05] Thank you.

[37:06] All right.

[37:07] Moving on to the policy subcommittee.

[37:09] Mrs. Myesco ski.

[37:12] I moved to open the following policies to review what our next policy subcommittee.

[37:16] There we go.

[37:18] A, A, school district, legal status, A, B, the people and their school district, A, D,

[37:24] mission statement, philosophy statement, A, D, seat, faculty smoking on school premises.

[37:30] A-D-D-A, background checks, A-D-D-A-R, B-C-I-J-S, model board policy, A-D-S, school district, wellness program, and A-D, commitment to a policy.

[37:43] Is there a second?

[37:45] Second.

[37:46] Any discussion?

[37:48] These are just making a way through A's for review.

[37:52] Okay.

[37:53] All in favour?

[37:55] Aye.

[37:55] Aye. All opposed?

[37:57] All right. Aye's have it.

[37:58] Okay, so I would like to move

[38:01] set the following policies as written.

[38:04] EV 50 program and EEC emergency plan.

[38:09] There's second.

[38:12] Any discussion?

[38:13] Yes.

[38:15] EV and EVC.

[38:17] These are two existing policies that were reviewed

[38:19] and we compared with the MACS model policies

[38:23] and they compared with the district's plans for clients.

[38:26] The new changes were recommended for these policies.

[38:30] Any questions?

[38:32] All those in favor?

[38:34] Aye.

[38:35] Opposed?

[38:36] Aye's have it?

[38:38] Okay.

[38:38] So I move to accept the following policies with some small edits.

[38:42] G, the E, B, C, gifts and gifts to install a big five-step.

[38:47] J, J, E, student, fundraising activities.

[38:51] K, B, B, relations with parent, booster organizations.

[38:54] And IKL graduation requirements.

[39:01] Second.

[39:02] Question.

[39:04] So G, B, B, B, B, C, J, J, B, K, B, E.

[39:09] Changes to this policy is included.

[39:11] Just relate language to the state law, including banning students and staff.

[39:16] And more, it doesn't.

[39:17] Organizing craft rules and games of choice.

[39:19] Not so requiring booster organizations to apply with the same state laws and all gifts and donations and must be accepted by vote from the school committee.

[39:30] And in Ikea, the policy was updated to reflect current district courses, we apply for graduation, including language, amount of credit for foreign study.

[39:42] Does that one affect the cowplop procedures?

[39:45] It's interesting.

[39:46] Is it?

[39:47] Is it?

[39:47] Are they?

[39:48] It's also good work.

[39:50] It's a lot to check.

[39:51] I'm not sure.

[39:51] The lead chance, right?

[39:53] We've talked about that.

[39:55] I think we're trying to get some more clarity on that, because...

[39:59] Lots of rough, I don't know.

[40:00] We've, as a town, hold a lot of raffles.

[40:03] Like, is it financial?

[40:04] Like, it's cash?

[40:05] It's a problem.

[40:06] Or is it that you can win a ride in a police car to school?

[40:11] Like where is our line on this? And is it hours or is it cool?

[40:15] Well, we also do 55 to 55.

[40:17] That's how many of you guys have these?

[40:19] And that's, I mean, I also sent them a CTO.

[40:22] It's how we bring in a money.

[40:24] Wow, the boosters bring in their money.

[40:27] And is this, is this going to limit our fundraising ability?

[40:31] And address, I mean, I know from PTO standpoint it will.

[40:37] And I think with the PTO, as long as you don't involve the students,

[40:43] You guys just do it.

[40:46] Right, definitely not a competition.

[40:47] No.

[40:48] But it's a game of chance.

[40:50] It's as the organization can't.

[40:55] I'm not sure.

[40:57] But I believe it was making kids be responsible for the game of chance.

[41:03] And it's a run by the adults.

[41:05] It has to run by the parent organization.

[41:08] That's the students.

[41:10] I mean, I'm just going off the words in the document, I would definitely have some legal

[41:15] counsel to review that, because it flat-outs of the prohibition of students and staff in

[41:20] organizing our office.

[41:22] I can run it by, yeah, I would just just to go around.

[41:25] I can give further example of the cowplop to love that.

[41:29] Yeah, that's it.

[41:31] Well, like you said, it was something like the curriculum that's raffle.

[41:34] Yeah, exactly that's a raffle.

[41:36] We're going for the right thing.

[41:37] We're going for the right thing.

[41:38] We're going for the right thing, and we're going to tomorrow.

[41:40] I think we're going to put first.

[41:41] I don't know what to say.

[41:42] That's right.

[41:43] So is that that's J.J.E.

[41:45] Yeah, I don't know.

[41:45] But I'm sorry to...

[41:46] That was a question.

[41:47] And again, I can get that.

[41:49] Yes, J.J.E.

[41:50] Student Fund Rights and Activities.

[41:52] OK, so we want to hold that one, then.

[41:54] Hold that one.

[41:55] All right.

[41:56] So I'm just now, I'm like, now, that's right.

[42:00] They're in a different order than they were.

[42:01] last week to actual cowplops in the minutes.

[42:05] Okay, so we're going to show J-D-E and get some more definition on that.

[42:11] So we're going to accept with those small letters then J-B-E-B-C, K-V-E, and I-K-A.

[42:24] The second?

[42:26] Those motion, right?

[42:27] Oh, yeah.

[42:29] Oh, sorry.

[42:30] I got your second.

[42:31] Oh, hey, I guess I could.

[42:34] for the discussion. Okay. So vote to approve just again. IKF, GBE, BC and KBE. All in favour?

[42:47] Not KBE. Oh, not KBE. Oh, that's the parent booster. All right. So was the JJE that was

[42:53] an issue or the KBE? I think both of them were just doing okay. All right. So we're going to

[42:59] I'll show you the GBEC and IPF, which is a graduation requirement.

[43:05] Okay, second.

[43:07] Second.

[43:07] Further discussion.

[43:10] Just to this will be improving.

[43:13] I'm sorry.

[43:16] JBEC and IPF.

[43:19] GBEC and IPF.

[43:22] All of it.

[43:24] All of it.

[43:25] All opposed.

[43:28] All right.

[43:28] If we have to evolve to keep the other two still open so that we can clear it about it.

[43:33] I don't think so, right? Well, this is full.

[43:34] Just hold them, and then they're supposed to have a mini heart.

[43:37] I have a problem. We'll go over and then we'll go into the heart.

[43:43] Okay, yes.

[43:43] And then I move forward to add the following.

[43:47] We'll policy some time.

[43:48] You're trying to index and recommend it by the M.A.

[43:54] And they are E, C, A, B, access to buildings and grounds, K, I, visitors to school, E, F,

[44:01] B, A, school, and food, nutrition, meal, modification, and F, A, B, G, parent, advisory,

[44:08] councils.

[44:09] Sir, second.

[44:12] Any discussion?

[44:13] Yes.

[44:14] These two policies related to school security, which was E, CAB and KI are rewritten and

[44:23] more detailed copies and all necessary information within WAN policy.

[44:29] Policy, EF, EA, was developed and compliance with USDA, not just garner regulations, and

[44:35] describe steps necessary for the BIE, medically necessary meal modifications, and policy,

[44:43] KGB describes the requirement of the district's packs, which is to see how ELF and MLF and our

[44:50] district is in compliance with that policy. And just to sign up, we are going to hold on

[44:56] IT, this is not a liver, IT, IT, IT, IT, IT, IT.

[45:03] So, we recommend holding that policy into just the file ISIS works on the standards.

[45:13] So, vote to approve the ECAB, KII, EFBA, and KBG. All in favor? Aye, all opposed?

[45:24] All right, the eyes have it, and then just to reiterate, we're holding on IKFE, JGE and KBE.

[45:30] Yes.

[45:34] Okay, so any of the other subcommittees have any updates and

[45:42] we've still. Okay, so at this point,

[45:45] Harry, did you want to talk about the...

[45:47] Yeah, just one little thing. A couple of parents and one teacher now have asked if we have any plans to get either class-wise or

[45:56] Go Guardian, which are, I don't know, I'm sure you all know them.

[46:01] But it's essentially, I think we didn't.

[46:04] It's software that a classroom teacher has

[46:08] where you assigned the teacher's students,

[46:11] and they have visibility into the child's screen

[46:15] on their device to prevent kids from playing a game

[46:20] when they're supposed to take a test

[46:22] or having a Google Doc open with the entire class.

[46:24] there, essentially I am in the Google Doc, I guess it has become a larger issue since the

[46:33] cell phone mobile, which I love the way. But it has come up with a couple of times if you're

[46:39] a parents thing. My kid is watching YouTube videos during school and things like that.

[46:45] So it has come up a couple of times. What is out there?

[46:48] No, thank you. We have talked about it. So we've talked about our admin meetings. We've talked

[46:54] about, you know, some of the real benefits to it, so we can supervise and watch or what,

[46:59] you know, everyone's doing on their screen. There's a class associated with it. It's

[47:05] some are more expensive than others. And from what I understand too, it takes the teacher

[47:11] to be at their, you know, their computer to be seeing what's going on. And we know how quick

[47:16] kids are. So, you know, if they're moving around and they're looking at things, it becomes kind of

[47:22] at Gacha, trying to find out what they're doing.

[47:25] I think what we're looking at doing,

[47:27] sometimes in the classroom, they're not always on the computer

[47:29] as the computers come down,

[47:31] so they don't have them up from front of them,

[47:33] and they don't instruction, they don't need to be open.

[47:36] I think that's probably the most effective way.

[47:38] I think it's good we are one to one,

[47:39] but I think there's also some downsides to it.

[47:42] So it's been discussed, I think we can continue to look at it

[47:45] and see what the most effective use of the technology

[47:49] and the cost, and to see if it's going to work, and we talk to John Collins, and we look

[47:54] piloting it and see a worthwhile. I'm glad to bring it up, because I'm sure the teachers

[48:00] are equally frustrated at times.

[48:02] The one individual who specifically writes me is a teacher in another district, and she said

[48:07] that what she does when I'm not doing, is that she puts her screen on the board, and so that when

[48:17] She's walking around the room, she can just point like you can see what other students are doing as long as it's not a test or something like that, that their speech, she has all their tabs open and she just mirrors it, she walks around the room, she just ends up saying, you know, somebody says, they're not supposed to be, you know, we know how they are, just as, what they've opted to do so that they aren't stuck at their desk monitoring.

[48:40] Yeah, excellent.

[48:42] It's a word that is something like, is it worth, like, some kind of doing it demo, but

[48:46] we're going to provide it to the software, like, you know we can ask them to try to write it

[48:50] and stuff too, because that's what I would like my life.

[48:53] Yeah, if it's been a fish.

[48:55] Yeah, yeah.

[48:56] We can definitely do that.

[48:58] I'm just a whole main question for that.

[49:01] I understand that.

[49:02] But can the students chat with each other from there?

[49:07] They open up Google Docs, but they all have good, yeah.

[49:11] Yeah, that's that's where I was going to go check because like I'm thinking myself like what if they were taking a test

[49:15] We both had Google channel and we're just sending it

[49:17] I guess I guess I guess no one big one that I keep hearing that I think you would ever shoot on a test

[49:22] Is Google Doc are they ever to have the Google check that I guess the Google Doc where they just all like like

[49:32] Normalized

[49:33] The whole class has access or in their six best friends have access and they're timing to each other

[49:41] It's a, um, uh, yeah, uh, which is, um,

[49:45] family reasonable, but it is a more poor, um, you know,

[49:50] key word, weapon, yes, yeah.

[49:54] Yeah, do we do, like, any sort of like, screen recording

[49:57] through? Because I'm just thinking, like,

[49:59] you got to a situation where some kid did something he shouldn't,

[50:03] it might be valuable to have, like, five minutes.

[50:05] They do that, okay.

[50:07] And that's something that's probably only, that's full of it.

[50:09] It's more than I tried to learn, is that right?

[50:18] Any additional items for discussion?

[50:22] Okay.

[50:23] Our next regular school committee meeting is Monday, November 3rd,

[50:27] 25 at 6 p.m. here in the middle senior high school learning comments.

[50:32] Is there a motion to adjourn?

[50:35] A second.

[50:37] All in favour?

[50:38] Aye.

[50:39] All right.

[50:40] Thank you all.

WB School Committee Mtg: - October 6th, 2025

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