← School Committee · 2025-10-28 · School Committee
Annual Review: Policies IJND and IJNDB
Agenda original PDF
Minutes original PDF
ate what was the acceptable use policy into the empowered and responsible use of 3 information policy. The committee created a more concise list of what students and staff should be able to do. Ms. Acevedo was happy to answer any question as this was an informational read. Ms. Acevedo also recommended looking at updating the IJND at a later date to better align with the IJNDB Policy once that's approved, 2. Finance and Facilities - Seamus Kelley/Jennifer McAndrew A Vote: Monthly Budget Summary/Grants School Committee Member Mr. Kelley presented the grants report and the special education report from the packet with no questions from the committee. Mr. Kelley then brought up the cafeteria report that was pulled from the Consent Agenda. Ms. Driscoll inquired about sales that were slightly higher in 2025, lunch counts were higher and reimbursements were a bit lower resulting in revenues that were close to each other. Interim Deputy Superintendent said he would follow up with the Dining Director regarding the questions presented to get more information, noted that it may be an overlap from the month of August. Discussion include: potential SNAP benefits expiring on Saturday and the impact of that on families, and free lu
Transcript
▶ 18:18 Speaker 2: Sure. Thanks. So, yeah, appreciate the approval of the policy. And then this manual now is something that, um, we've, uh, read several, uh, neighboring communities, um, and looked at, at, you know, MASC Maslow policies and, um, brought together this document that sort of encapsulates and captures how the student activity funds is currently operating. It does align very closely with, uh, the policy, um, that was just approved and that, that middle column, um, and it just, uh, is kind of an overview of basic terms, um, uh, the use of the accounts, uh, eligible deposits and expenditures ineligible examples there. And then, um, uh, just some, some basic terminology. And I'd be happy to answer any questions and, and happily receive feedback. 'cause this is our first draft.
▶ 19:04 Speaker 5: Great. Uh, so that's the introduction. This would be our informational reading. Do we need to approve this? Is that correct? Eventually, or
▶ 19:11 Speaker 2: This is what we're following at school. So I would, I I would say yes, that's something that, you know, we would review it constantly and, and, and, you know, um, it's a kinda a living document, so if there were changes to it that needed to be, uh, brought forth, we could do that, you know, uh, at, at subsequent meetings.
▶ 19:25 Speaker 5: Okay. All right. Um, so this would be our informational reading on this, this pass there. Any questions on this as we see it? First time, Ms. Mc, Andrew,
▶ 19:33 Jennifer McAndrew: Thank you. Um, thank you for this. Um, agree. I completely agree that this is a big need and a big improvement and step forward. Um, I think it's just as a general practice for the committee to have a specific policy that is short and clear. Mm-hmm. And then a procedure that illuminates that policy for the day-to-day is really helpful and important. Um, and this one in particular for student activity accounts, um, we've seen a real proliferation of student clubs and extracurriculars, which is awesome. And our students are leaders and they, they wanna do this work, but, you know, they are collecting, in some cases, collecting money, putting money in bank account, you know, in the school, bank account, et cetera, and drawing down on those accounts. So this is a really important step forward. Um, I just wanna clarify a couple things and ask just a couple quick questions. So my understanding of what's here and what's in the policies that student activities accounts are for student facing, things that are not part of school, not part of the curriculum, not part of school. So extracurricular activities. Um, I think there's some, uh, confusion sometimes about what can be paid for out of these accounts. And I was happy to see the clarification around staff. So if staff are paid out of these accounts for say, um, like, uh, something that, that is a benefit to them, um, like travel or something like that, that is considered income. Am I understanding this right? You are. And it's reported that way? You Are correct. Okay. Um,
▶ 21:17 Speaker 7: so I think my questions are around, I are
▶ 21:23 Jennifer McAndrew: like fundraising for, so let's just take a fictional student club at the high school, and there's like a trip, I don't mean a, like a global languages exchange trip. I mean, like, there's, you know, some sort of like science fair that they wanna go to that's somewhere else. And there's, they have to travel and they're, they're using and they fundraise for that. So to offset the cost, is there a direction around how the fundraised money is, um, distributed? Is that something that we help the students with?
▶ 22:02 Speaker 7: Do you know what I'm trying to say? Like
▶ 22:04 Speaker 2: I'm asking? I do typically, yes. We, it's collaboration between the business office, the club advisor, and the students themselves as to the distribution of the money. And so that does, um, vary a little bit, but for the most part it is, they would fundraise, deposit the funds into the, the student activity fund, um, subcategory for that, that club or, or, um, activity. And then through collaboration with student leadership and the advisor, they would decide best how to allocate that. Whether it covers the entire cost of the trip or it subsidizes a portion for, for students. Um, that's all something that's driven by even student vote with collaborating with the, the advisor. So the one piece for fundraising that we want to be careful of is the scholarships. We can't, we can't provide scholarships through the student activity fund, so it's pretty prescribed things you can and can't do with it. And scholarships is one of them, but fundraising for, for trips, um, is, uh, um, something that we see pretty common.
▶ 22:59 Jennifer McAndrew: Okay. So one, one, like in this simplistic example, um, you know, the club is, you know, fundraising for, um, limited travel by, let's say train, um, and the to and for some sort of entrance fee to whatever, this is competition, and the total cost is a thousand dollars, and they raise 500 through fundraising. And then, um, the students who are participating would then maybe be charged a percentage of the 500, and that would go into the student activity, and then the cost would be paid out through filling out the form, getting a check, doing the procedure.
▶ 23:37 Speaker 2: Yes. What you've just described is a typical operation firm, right?
▶ 23:39 Jennifer McAndrew: Yes. Okay. Um, I guess what I'm, one of the things that this made me think about is that this, you know, being the leader of a student club is a really great opportunity for a high school student as a real growth and development opportunity. And I wonder how, um, and they have a lot of different responsibilities on them, including being careful about money, um, in consultation with their cl with their club advisor. How do we, are we thinking at all yet? And I know we're early in the process of, you know, putting out this procedure, but, um, about like, training for student leaders?
▶ 24:16 Speaker 2: So that's a, that's a great question. And, and yes, I think, um, even certain advisors are thinking along those lines because just, I think it was yesterday or maybe even Friday, um, a club advisor did bring the treasurer for that group down to beat people in the business office, bring deposit down, show how that gets counted and then brought to the bank. So, um, I think people are thinking along those lines, and we welcome that to show them the process about how, 'cause sometimes I think there is a, a lack of awareness that this is actually real money that, that, you know, we're in charge of. And the Student Activity fund is a great example. It's an agency fund. It's actually technically not our funds, it's the student's fund. Mm-hmm. So, um, as, you know, to show them how the funds are deposited and then expended is, is a great exercise to see.
▶ 24:58 Jennifer McAndrew: Great. Thank you. Yeah, I really think it's a great learning opportunity all the way around. And I think even just having this document and distributing it to the student leaders of the clubs is a great opportunity for them to say, oh, they're actually, you know, here's this policy that I can learn about and follow and ask questions about.
▶ 25:14 Speaker 2: Yes, our plan is to give this out to all the clubs and advisors to share with students for sure.
▶ 25:18 Speaker 7: Great. Thank you. Great. Thank you.
▶ 25:20 Speaker 5: Are there further comments or questions from the committee, Mr. Sko?
▶ 25:25 Margaret Raymond Driscoll: Yeah, just a quick question. So, um, I see that, um, this account list has, um, clubs and classes from both the middle school and the high school. Are there any at the elementary school that would be involved?
▶ 25:39 Speaker 2: No. So we, we don't have student activity fund, uh, accounts at the elementary level that's not recommended by, um, uh, all the, the best practices out there. The Abrams group, uh, DESI doesn't recommend that. Um, so we have student activity funds established for the middle school and the high school. At this time, we do not have elementary and nor are we advocating for that at this time.
▶ 26:01 Margaret Raymond Driscoll: Perfect. I'm a little disappointed that the juggling club isn't the thing anymore, but back in the day it's very popular. So, um, I appreciate the fact that they're all, um, really responding as Ms. McAndrew mentioned to the needs and desires of the students and, um, being flexible so that, um, students can really live their best life, um, uh, during and after school at Melrose High School and Melrose Middle School. Thank you.
▶ 26:26 Speaker 5: Great. Any further comments or questions? Great. So I think we'll see that one again, but, um, we'll move on to the next items in the agenda. Um, sorry, I'm still navigating our new software, so gimme a second to find the titles of things. Um, so here we are at our annual review of the IJND policy, and we have a new, uh, I-J-N-D-B policy available to us, which Miss Acevedo's gonna introduce for us. Um, this is, uh, our annual review that we do on this policy every year. So, uh, we'll just go from there and learn about the new document in front of us. Yeah.
▶ 27:04 Speaker 6: Um, so for the past couple years, you probably heard me say we've been looking to update our acceptable use policy. I think it was last updated in 2015. Um, technology has evolved quite a bit since 2015 and our use of it in schools. Um, so the technology committee, um, has been working for probably the past year and a half to update what was the acceptable use policy into an empowered and responsible use of information policy. Um, many districts are moving in this direction. They are getting rid of the list of don'ts, um, and really thinking about what do we use technology for. Um, we were able to take our seven page policy currently and bring it down to a much more concise, um, list of things that we want our students and staff to be able to do. Um, so the table on the, I believe it's the second page, um, list some of the, um, principals and responsible use that we're, we're encouraging for not only our students as we're teaching them digital literacy, but also our staff. Um, and then it just kind of makes it much more clear about kind of the liability and the consequences and, and some of those things that were a little bit more, um, fuzzy in our previous policy. And I'm happy to answer any questions. Um, I think this is just up for an informational read tonight, not a vote.
▶ 28:21 Speaker 5: Yes. Yeah, both, both of these would be informational reads since is the first time we're seeing it this year. So,
▶ 28:26 Speaker 6: And we as a committee decided not to update anything else. The other policies, the, um, access to digital resources, which is also on the agenda for tonight, the social media policy. And I apologize, but there's one more. Um, all are are pretty outdated and haven't been looked at for several years. So once this is, um, approved, we would start looking at what those other policies are so that they more closely align, uh, with this one.
▶ 28:52 Speaker 5: Great. Uh, other questions or comments from the committee?
▶ 29:00 Speaker 5: Seeing none, um, I think if there are questions or comments, please send them in so that in the weeks between when we see this and, and approve these, we would have the chance to take any amendments, uh, hopefully before the day of the meeting, um, to get us on board and move us forward with what we want to see. So. Okay.