Policy KBE: Relations with Parent and Booster Organizations first vote (5 minutes)

Transcript (~12 min @ 58:26)

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▶ 58:15 Speaker 5: booster organizations sure and with that in mind why don't we segue uh to the next item and i i think the thinking of all of us is that there as one that's policy kb relations with parent and booster organizations this policy as revised is in the packet on for first vote so uh miss castelli i did take your advice and the advice of the chair and i did reach out to a number of folks who were involved with both parent organizations and booster organizations and also had the benefit of spending some time at the district's booth at the Victorian Fair and talk to even more people about this and you know as I said at our last meeting these mask updates are very much housekeeping matters particularly this one revised policy KB is truly and simply just bringing together two policies one to existing policy one that relates to parent organizations and one that relates to booster organizations in addition there's some clarifying language with regard to booster organizations but it's really nothing more than that it doesn't present a substantive change in policy and I think that was a concern that a lot of people had, people who talked to me about it. I think people heard that booster organizations were on our agenda and said, oh, there's going to be a change. I'm going to have to do something different. We're going to have to do something different with our particular booster organizations. But this policy, KB, doesn't change any of the rules of the road with regard to booster organizations or parent organizations. So I tried to assure people of that. That was the primary concern. I also had an opportunity with leave of the superintendent to meet with Mr. Fogarty to talk to him about this. Mr. Fogarty, of course, deals with these groups on a daily basis, and he shared that same concern as voiced by them. Several sports booster organizations and their representatives were at the fall sports assembly and expressed concerns. They, too, had heard that there was going to be a change. But again, it's not really a substantive change. At its heart, policy KBE, as revised, is really bringing together two existing policies. So this is much more of a ministerial action. I would also note in this regard, and I try to assure people of this when I talk to them about it that policy KBE is really aspirational and hortatory in its intent and I think a fair reading of the of the policy would reflect that this isn't a policy either in its prior form or its present form that was intended to be restrictive or limiting or or to impose specific constraints or conditions on these organizations that do great work for us so I think people need to be assured that nothing is really changing in that regard and the superintendent can comment on this but as she knows and I think as the committee knows there are are several other policies that address the process and procedure by which outside organizations make gifts to the school district and that also speak separately to fundraising and community outreach but this policy that's before us tonight for a second vote again really is aspirational it encourages it acknowledges the work of these groups it encourages the groups to work with building administrators and coaches and faculty advisors and it also to be sure encourages these groups to be aware of the responsibilities and the authority of both the superintendent in this committee and I think historically in this community booster organizations and parent organizations have been appropriately aware of all of that. So we have done some outreach and I hope we've taken steps to address the concerns about it. Ms. Casatelli. Thank you, Mr. O'Connell.

▶ 1:02:53 Christine Casatelli: I appreciate the extra effort that you took to reach out to these groups and to

▶ 1:03:06 Christine Casatelli: mr fogarty um so i i'm i accept this policy i i guess um maybe as a a further step we you know these groups want to maintain their autonomy i don't think we're going to take that away but when money is involved we need to have certain procedures in place and because there is turnover in booster clubs as students move on and parents are in and out i'm wondering i guess through the the chair to the superintendent what sorts of guidelines do we have in place with these groups with their input about money handling things like that because we want everyone to be well aware of the rules and want to be as transparent about this as possible

▶ 1:03:53 Speaker 3: You have, as a committee, I think it's eight or ten policies with which I share with every booster and advisory group.

▶ 1:04:04 Christine Casatelli: Not to interrupt, but those are policies I'm wondering about specific procedures.

▶ 1:04:09 Speaker 3: I cannot apply procedures to booster groups if they are non-profit organizations duly organized under the state regulations. what i can hold them accountable to is reporting any donations to us in a timely manner for us to record how we got the money and what we did with the money um they cannot advertise in our buildings they cannot send um flies in our buildings without my approval that's all in your policies all right what they do outside of melrose public schools i have no say in if the new drama group wants to run ads and stand on corners i have i have no say but if they want to use our kids and they want to send the flyer around the high school they have to go through me first that is the truth of the matter when it comes to booster groups that are non-profit organizations with their own set of rules and charters and regulations they have to obey I can only control what they want to do within our buildings and with our students and I run very strict control on that I also will not allow any fundraising by any for-profit group in our schools and I will not allow any for-profit group to use our children for fundraising but again what they want to do with children in their own neighborhoods I have no control of now

▶ 1:05:40 Christine Casatelli: you say you have all these policies is there any way to streamline it so anyway

▶ 1:05:44 Speaker 3: to streamline I don't know that would be very much up to the committee and how much they want to streamline it this is one attempt by mass to streamline it but

▶ 1:05:54 Christine Casatelli: because I'm thinking I mean the booster groups they're they're doing enough as it is let alone having to weed through our policies to figure out which ones

▶ 1:06:07 Speaker 3: apply to them or not well i will tell you quite frankly it's a very simple thing it's called ethics if you're raising money and giving it to the schools you want to raise it in a way that you're accountable for that nobody can ever misconstrue anything you did and you want to give it to the schools in a way in which you not only get recognition but we can clearly be audited in a way that causes no problems for us that's the bottom line here all right i certainly don't want

▶ 1:06:37 Speaker 3: anybody slipping a thousand dollars to some coach saying go buy yourself 10 balls well i value what

▶ 1:06:45 Christine Casatelli: our booster clubs do and we we couldn't do half the things we do without them absolutely and we

▶ 1:06:52 Speaker 3: bet and we value it and i will tell you we have yet to run into a problem and your policies have worked very well in avoiding those problems we also have very good working relationships with many of those groups do booster groups turn over years but I will tell you some booster groups turn over very slowly you know I've got seventy-year-old adults still running the booster group other times booster parents often come to meet me with me the band-aiders president meets with me almost yearly the drama parents we work closely with to help them get established when they have a question they shoot us an email I think most people want to do the right thing and they want to make sure that nobody in their midst does the wrong thing right nobody wants to be the little league team on the front page of the globe I just want it to be easy for them

▶ 1:07:50 Christine Casatelli: to do the right thing and it us to help them and working together well i wish doing the right thing

▶ 1:08:03 Speaker 2: was easy all the time but unfortunately it's not this song uh i too want the booster clubs to be able to help our students and help our programs and i want it to be easy for them however a financial constraint that we're not talking about that i know is under discussion at the administrative level um in the working groups that you have going on uh superintendent tamor is one of liability for these uh staff that are being compensated by booster groups and so while i appreciate these policies i also recognize that there's a work in progress going on beyond the scenes and i expect more to come to us as you said earlier in this meeting by december

▶ 1:08:58 Speaker 5: Thank you for that. Any further discussion? So, as a matter of procedure, let's first address policy KJA. Again, this was on our consent agenda for a second vote. It was taken off the consent agenda, so may I have a motion to approve this as revised? So moved. Made by Ms. DeSalem, seconded by Ms. Dugan. Thank you for that. Any discussion on the

▶ 1:09:24 Speaker 5: motion all those in favor passes unanimously thank you for that and that brings us to our final order of business and that's with regard to policy KBE this is on for a first vote again this is the much discussed relations with parent and booster organizations which we have been discussing it's in the packet it's a it combines our parent policy our parent organization policy and our booster policy may have a motion to approve so moved made by miss Dugan seconded by mr. Sal any discussion on that motion seeing none all in favor

▶ 1:10:01 Speaker 5: that it passes unanimously and that concludes our policy and planning

▶ 1:10:08 Margaret Raymond Driscoll: portion of our program thank you very much thank you next on our agendas the educational programs and personnel subcommittee miss Dugan good evening