Policies for Review: MASC Recommendations (5 minutes)

Transcript (~8 min @ 49:20)

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▶ 49:29 Speaker 5: to the policy planning portion of our program as some of you may recall my name is Ed O'Connell I am the chair of this subcommittee in which capacity I'm ably assisted by one Jessica Dugan we have now three matters under policy and planning and with leave of the committee I'd like to take them out of order item number two I'll move to the top policies review mask recommendations the committee will recall that we're presently undertaking a comprehensive review of of our policy manual we're doing so in response to the updates recommended by the Mass Association of School Committees also known as mask mask has updated their policy reference manual as the committee knows we use that as a point of reference with regard to our policy making with that in mind we have in the packet and for our consideration tonight an updated mass policy update grid and five additional policies that we're proposing to update they are ADC smoking on school premises BBA powers and duties of the school committee BB BAB member qualifications BDD committee and superintendent relationship BEDA notification of school committee meetings and that's it under this particular item I would note that these proposed policies as revised are on our agenda for informational purposes and at least for this evening's purposes no vote is required with all of that said is there any discussion comment questions concerns with regard to these five policies or the updated grid miss

▶ 51:31 Speaker 7: McAllister-Grant regarding the second policy revised ABC smoking on school premises I was able to get some feedback from members of the school wellness advisory committee which I'm a liaison to and they have a significant amount of expertise on tobacco wellness health etc and they asked specifically if there is is a separate policy on marijuana use or this that is intended to be included in this policy as well

▶ 52:06 Speaker 3: we're waiting for guidance from the state on marijuana use policies um most of our professional organizations are trying to can i make the pun weed their way through it um sorry couldn't resist as you know so I think that depending on what the state regulatory committee comes out with that will drive what the policies may have to be so you don't want to jump the gun for it right now it's still illegal under what 21 and the school system follows the laws on that okay thank you and so

▶ 52:48 Speaker 7: had some additional suggestions which i did forward to the chair so he has the specific wording but to broaden it to be tobacco nicotine and vaping to cover be more comprehensive in terms

▶ 53:05 Speaker 5: of the terminology terrific thank you for that any other discussion comments miss castelli further on

▶ 53:14 Christine Casatelli: that one um i think even without guidance that we know that the marijuana policy would not pertain to our students or staff on campus is that correct so i'm not sure what guidance we're waiting for

▶ 53:31 Speaker 3: um i think really where the issues are going to lie are on medicinal and um anybody in possession of medicinal so i think that may be something that we're going to have to think about right now you know i um and and our attorney that's in play now right uh not really we really

▶ 53:49 Speaker 3: don't with the laws and medicine is any child who has medicine of any kind has to have prescription it has to be in the prescription bottle there has to be a signed certificate from the the doctor it has to be kept under lock and key by the nurse so that's the only place that it's right now in play anything else like you said I think would be illegal on school grounds and of course the

▶ 54:17 Christine Casatelli: students under 21 mm-hmm so okay thank you for that and I'm asking mr. O'Connell if there's any updates on the relations with booster organizations sure are you

▶ 54:25 Speaker 5: speaking about the item from the consent agenda yeah so why don't we first of all any other comments or questions with regard to the five other policies miss

▶ 54:36 Speaker 7: McAllister Graham please so the third one powers and duties there was a list added in the final paragraph that says who the school committee shall appoint I don't see we covered we went over this at our last meeting we have I think and the civil rights harassment officer was one of the people that we reviewed or appointed so I didn't know if they should be mentioned here as well or not

▶ 55:01 Speaker 3: it's regulatory I don't know if there's a need to repeat it in a policy well the

▶ 55:08 Speaker 7: school nurses and the school physician are sure here so we wouldn't want to

▶ 55:12 Speaker 5: exclude that I think that's a that's a good comment and would be a good

▶ 55:18 Speaker 7: amendment and then we had titled school resource officer and attendance officers I'm just wondering if that falls under supervisor of attendance no so that's

▶ 55:30 Speaker 3: different please school resource officers are a an agreement that we make between the district and the district attorney's office not every school district necessarily has them okay so that doesn't need to be included

▶ 55:48 Speaker 3: here because it's particular to our district and then supervisor of

▶ 55:50 Speaker 7: attendance is that a different role from attendance officers or is that the same thing okay so maybe we just make that plural yep it's a good point and then somewhere else I had been down that it said the staff might I have to find it you might need to come back to me if anybody else because it had said oh yes communication the committee takes a broad view of its functions including communication and keeps staff informed about the needs and wishes of the community I didn't think we would be the ones informing staff I thought the superintendent would be the one doing that so this is number four on the first page of this same policy so I thought maybe under the communication it should

▶ 56:37 Speaker 5: say keeping the superintendent informed right when I read that I you know I assume that was implied but we can clarify that that's a good point I thought it meant school staff any comment on that no the only thing that I

▶ 56:46 Speaker 3: would remind the committee is these are recommendations for mask not directives

▶ 56:57 Speaker 3: and the committee should do as they feel is needed to meet melville's needs

▶ 57:08 Margaret Raymond Driscoll: any further discussion ms driscoll please just a point on that um we can define staff in any way we want so my my understanding with this is we could um it would also apply to the superintendent who we would delegate to who is delegated by virtue of other policies for distributing information or not as she sees fit so it can be read a couple of different ways so as we're continuing to think about this it's another lens through which to filter that