MHS Field Trip Request - buildOn School Construction Methodology

Transcript (~15 min @ 1:39:12)

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▶ 1:39:09 Speaker 5: much anything further seeing nothing further that concludes our policy and portion of the program thank you very much thank you next on the agendas

▶ 1:39:14 Margaret Raymond Driscoll: educational programs and personnel subcommittee miss Dugan on EP this

▶ 1:39:32 Jessica Dugan: morning we have an item pulled off the consent agenda this evening we have an item pulled off the consent agenda so I would entertain a motion to approve the MHS field trip request build on school construction methodology second made by

▶ 1:39:51 Jessica Dugan: Ms. DeSalle, seconded by Ms. McAllister-Grand. Discussion and questions, Mr. O'Connell.

▶ 1:39:57 Speaker 5: Thank you very much. And I suppose through the chair to the superintendent. I love this. Ambitious, big, significant, international, and certainly well within our purview in terms of field trip approvals. What struck me about this was not just the cost, but the cost breakdown and I don't recall seeing this in in my brief experience here with the school committee of the I think it's thirty two hundred dollars miss Kane rightly noted that two thousand dollars of that was going straight to the school and it seems that this is essentially a donation to the build on organization and that $2,000 per participant goes straight to the school construction

▶ 1:40:56 Speaker 5: costs and I'm sorry that's okay that's okay so is this something that we have seen before in in in in given that I didn't think it was it strikes me that we're being asked to prove not just a field trip which again I love the ambition of it but also a fundraising effort and not just fundraising to help cover the cost of participation by students but really fundraising to support build on organization and you know if we're talking about fundraising I think we're talking about some additional policies that are implicated by this so I guess one thoughts on that and two is it worth our holding off on approving this given that we're meeting again next week and possibly giving some time to reflect on the implications for our other policies and if it's not too much to have Miss King come in that's more of you know the ambition and the scope than the fundraising component so please okay so I'm thank you for pulling

▶ 1:42:09 Speaker 2: this because I wanted it quite frankly so on this cane came to see me with mr. Corrigan and to talk to me about this a new club at the high school is a service club we've never had a service club very ambitious if you don't know miss Kane she's young she's idealistic has all the energy necessary for this and mr. Corrigan was walking her through the steps and said you need to talk to the superintendent so we talked about it and I said to her this is different than anything we've ever done because of the donation piece I said in the donation piece quite frankly raises the cost of this to a point where it could be an obstacle but I don't like dissuading my young eager staff from doing good stuff

▶ 1:43:09 Speaker 2: for our kids and I did say to her it is probable not even possible but probable the committee would like you to appear before them and talk about how you got here and what you're thinking um when we talked about it I said to her there's a couple of places here and she filled out the paperwork in accordance with the work on build on and build on as a well-established organization they're very supportive they're helping her learn about this and walk through this I said there's a couple of trips here as your superintendent I will say no to for

▶ 1:43:44 Jessica Dugan: an you mean from a location perspective location perspective as you know they're

▶ 1:43:50 Speaker 2: spreading your wings and they're spreading your wings in steps you know let's take reasonable steps similar to what we did with mr. Mahoney who took that lesson to heart and has grown from there and is now I think coming in front of you soon for Quebec so it is ambitious yet at the same time this is

▶ 1:44:12 Speaker 2: what we teach our children we're a school system that you cannot graduate unless you've done community service we have many organizations within our high that do community service above and beyond what is the requirement because that's what we want to teach our kids when you do the walk next weekend you know what it's going to look like with our kids so again my major concern with

▶ 1:44:41 Speaker 2: this is some of the locations and what happens if you do all this fundraising and you can't pull off the trip what do we do with the money we have fundraise from people those are my concerns and I'm assuming they're the committee's concerns as well so you know more than happy to ask miss Kane to come in front of you you know we sort of we told her that she had to get this in for this meeting because I'm thinking timelines you know if they're going to start to fundraise they have to start to fundraise soon you know all sorts of questions that should be asked it's a learning curve for her but it's a learning curve for us too as to this how this type of trip would work do we just

▶ 1:45:28 Jessica Dugan: for point of clarification do we raise money for the veterans trip to Washington DC as well students raise money to support that trip yeah yes no

▶ 1:45:43 Speaker 7: it's not a donation that's there's there's part of this that's the donation

▶ 1:45:51 Speaker 2: piece so they're raising money that's for the trip so it's the kids what the kids will fundraise for the gap trip to Germany the kids will fundraise for the trip to Costa Rica it's not a donation to an organization yeah veterans trip

▶ 1:46:04 Speaker 8: the kids raise money for the red to take the veterans it's correct so they're

▶ 1:46:13 Speaker 5: raising money beyond their own here is that the students are raising twenty six to thirty thousand dollars to build a school I mean that goes straight to build on and and according to build ons website and the related materials it's literally used to buy construction materials so that's that is very much in

▶ 1:46:37 Margaret Raymond Driscoll: form for donation so yeah mr. school um presuming miss Kane will be here to speak with us a couple things for her consideration in her presentation one is this is for grades 9 to 12 so I'm curious you know we think about our students and I'm wondering would you want to include all four grades or would you want to limit it to older students on some students are more prepared to handle this kind of thing and I just have a question around that the other is it would be helpful to know if other districts have done this what other districts have done it and what their experience has been good and bad also

▶ 1:47:20 Margaret Raymond Driscoll: this is this is one more trip with fundraising at citywide PTO we've had many discussions over the year about the amount of fundraising the extent of fundraising that's done this is one more burden if you will or challenge your gift that we're looking to our community to help with and especially our local business has who have been so incredibly generous to our school system I struggle having our students ask you know having another ask by the schools for this kind of thing which is not you know directly the way there's the multiple components

▶ 1:48:09 Speaker 2: so one of the things I discussed with miss Kane was think of this as an every other year trip because to raise that amount of money and I made similar point

▶ 1:48:33 Speaker 2: In the context of all the money our kids raise, whether it's for athletics, performing arts, or their local Cub Scouts and Girl Scouts, or just a charity because we have one club at the high school that does nothing but raise money for charities. I said, so think of this in terms of an 18-month obligation rather than a 12-month obligation, which would take the seniors out of it. I said, also think about in between, because a service club has to feel their service. They have to do something to feel they're worthwhile and to meet their goals and their beliefs. What would you do locally for a service activity in the off years? So I've asked her that as the club advisor. And, you know, we've had kids who've done humanity. Habitat. Habitat, thank you. And God knows we've had tons of kids do the food kitchens, the Bread for Life, and other organizations.

▶ 1:49:26 Speaker 2: So, again, it's shaping this club. It's in its infancy. And how do we shape this club so that it appeals to kids, it meets their interests and needs, and it's sustainable? So I'm more than happy to have her come forward.

▶ 1:49:44 Jessica Dugan: and just so folks know there's 13 this is 13 students so it's not like we're asking a whole class to fundraise thirty five hundred dollars and how does a lot of our trips abroad are around that much money a lot of our trips abroad we try

▶ 1:49:59 Speaker 2: to keep in the mid twos you know and that does not include a donation so in a

▶ 1:50:11 Jessica Dugan: way this is something that I think it's a very different approach to fundraising as it is a service trip and it's in the summertime so I you know I always struggle with whether or not this should be something that the school committees of what whether or not should be done outside of well well I know there are

▶ 1:50:27 Speaker 2: churches to do that many many of you may belong to churches who grew up in churches that have a service component that you spend two three years fundraising for and then realize I think that in the absence of religious affiliation or the decline of religious affiliation our kids are looking for some vehicle by which to be of service and the truth of the matter is we filled the void on lots of things in his lives and there are lots of teachers who run

▶ 1:51:02 Jessica Dugan: maybe not in our district but who run trips in the summertime different than a the school vacation week in the summertime and do it outside of the district so again to me it's that you know what is that fine line of what the school committee should be approving and what an individual could be doing outside of the district affiliation so I think it would be would be great to have her come with some answers yes mr. pastor grant and I would add to

▶ 1:51:32 Speaker 4: mr. schools list of possible things to discuss I'm interested to hear how she selected build on versus you know volunteers for peace or some other service related international trip operator and to the point about 9th through 12th grade I don't really have a concern about opening it up to all grades I'm more interested to hear what is she anticipating as far as an application process to be a part of this effort does she expect them to write an essay or meet with her or something because I think there may be a ninth grade who's ninth grader who'd be very appropriate for this but I think it's important to go through the right procedure I very much excited about this

▶ 1:52:16 Speaker 4: new club and I very much appreciate her initiative and efforts I look forward to

▶ 1:52:25 Speaker 3: talking with her thank you miss Castelli yeah a quick look to

▶ 1:52:27 Christine Casatelli: Habitat for Humanity they have similar trips for like nineteen hundred dollars to Nicaragua and it does say that part of the fee goes toward the materials but it looks like at half the cost so if she could look into programs I don't know if they have an age limit maybe that's what she's dealing with but like miss McAllister grant said I it sounds like there are a number of programs to do that so if she could maybe do an evaluation of those or if she has let us know what that evaluation is and how she settled on that program I have a feeling

▶ 1:53:09 Speaker 2: the kids did the research and this is what they settled on so okay thank you

▶ 1:53:20 Jessica Dugan: is there a motion to postpone so moved by mr. Selm do we need a second on a

▶ 1:53:25 Speaker 3: to postpone I miss McAllister grant thank you very much that concludes EP

▶ 1:53:33 Jessica Dugan: thank you oh sorry excuse me I figured we're on board all of those in favor