HomeMy WebLinkAbout2025-01-08 School Council - RMHS Minutes - DraftP rx
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Board - Committee - Commission - Council:
School Council -Reading Memorial High
Date: 2025-01-08 Time: 4:15 PM
Building: School - Memorial High Location: School Library
Address: 62 Oakland Road Session: Open Session
Purpose: School Council Meeting Version: Draft
Attendees: Members - Present:
Principal Callanan, Assistant Principal Kadi Buckley, Sara Ortins, Grace
Cunniff (student), Leah Malone (student), Jessica Ayer, Trey Skehan, Tracy
Pluchak, Lisa Bibeau-Carcione, Pocja Mandon Parsons (via zoom)
Members - Not Present:
Marianne Downing
Others Present:
Minutes Respectfully Submitted By: Sara Ortins
Topics of Discussion:
Meeting was called to order by Principal Callanan at 4:15 PM.
The meeting began with Principal Callanan nominating Sara Ortins to be the new chair and
and the members present unanimously approved.
Principal Callanan then raised the topic of updates to the Student Handbook.
1. Principal Callanan suggested that redundant policies be removed from the handbook
and instead noted to refer to the school committee or district policies that exist. The
purpose of this is to reduce inconsistencies that could develop if a policy is
maintained in more than one place. An example of this is the policy related to
Student Records. For that section, the introduction and the FERPA language will
remain, and a link would be added to the policy. Principal Callanan will check with
district administration to be sure that any school committee or district policies that
must be kept in the student handbook will remain there. The council agreed.
2. Due to the change in Massachusetts law related to the MCAS graduation
requirement, Principal Callanan will adjust the handbook policies were appropriate.
3. The Behavioral Health section would be added to the RMHS Counseling Department
website along with any additional resources to support students.
4. Principal Callanan will check with the nurse regarding the Health Services section to
see if a change to the chart is necessary or if this resides in the district handbook.
5. Principal Callanan requested the council to review the handbook, review any high-
school -related policies, and raise any questions by either commenting in the
document or bringing them to the next meeting. Principal Callanan will continue to
review the handbook as well and bring any items for discussion to future meetings.
6. The 2025-2026 handbook will be approved by the council before the end of this
school year.
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7. Assistant Principal Kadi Buckley asked if there is an Al policy. There is no district
policy yet. There was a general discussion among the council members about AI use
by students and how this is currently a constantly moving topic in education.
8. It was noted that last year, the committee did a thorough review of the handbook
and did make changes where necessary.
9. A member of the school council offered to scan the handbook to remove old
formatting that exists in the digital version of the handbook.
Principal Callanan asked the council if there were topics the members wanted to cover
before the end of the school year. The following suggestions were made-
1. A member mentioned the topic of Senior Privilege. Assistant Principal Kadi Buckley
noted that the policy related to this is communicated to students and families each
quarter. It was mentioned whether or not Senior Privilege should be added to the
student handbook.
2. A member mentioned a review of progress towards principal's goals for this school
year.
3. Principal Callanan mentioned that a budget overview would be a topic for a future
meeting.
The school council meeting adjourned at 5:10 pm.
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