WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Mount Greylock School Committee recently approved an updated policy on time-outs, seclusion and the physical restraint of students.

 

The policy is based on updated state regulations that came down last winter. Superintendent Joseph Bergeron told the panel at its August meeting that his office waited on recommendations from the Massachusetts Association of School Committees that were released in May and ran the proposed changes past the district's legal counsel.

 

That timing — and an expectation from the commonwealth that districts have the updated policy in place for the start of the 2026-27 academic year — led to an expedited process for the School Committee, which did not do a first read with a vote at a subsequent meeting as is its practice.

 

"Policy JKAA speaks to the ways the school district and our procedures shall abide by the updated state regulations," Bergeron said. "We're not going to have a lot of leeway.

 

"Nothing about the way we interact with our students on a day-to-day basis is being shifted by this."

 

For example, the commonwealth does not allow schools to use "seclusion," or, "the involuntary confinement of a student alone in a room or area, with or without adult supervision," except some extreme cases, like when, "when student behavior poses an imminent threat of assault, or imminent serious physical harm to self or others, but only if safeguards are accounted for," the updated policy reads.

 

"From the state's perspective and my perspective, the idea of locking a child in a room without adult supervision is something we've never done," Bergeron said. "And it's something the state wants to make explicitly that nobody ever does."

 

Likewise, he explained, physical restraint of a student only can be used in extreme circumstances, like where, "the student has a documented history of repeatedly causing serious self-injuries and/or injuries to other students or staff," according to the policy adopted last week.

 

"A restraint is a last resort in that you are only performing any kind of restraint if you absolutely cannot provide safety for a student, their peers or adults through any other means," Bergeron said. "That really comes down to … not having a student harm another person, not having a student harm themself. There are a lot of of de-escalation steps and creating a safe space steps that you can take that don't involve a restraint.

 

"All of this tries to make sure that, every step of the way, we have staff that are carefully trained."

 

Whenever extreme cases arise where seclusion or physical restraint are used, they need to be documented and reported to parents or caregivers and reviewed by the administration under the new state guidelines.

 

The School Committee voted, 6-0, to approve the updated policy with member Ursula Maloy absent.

 

The committee also Aug. 13 agreed to the administration's recommendation to extend the district's transportation contract with Dufour Tours for an additional year with a 4 percent increase year-to-year and OK'd a five-year lease agreement for mail metering equipment at Williamstown Elementary School.

 

Lanesborough Elementary School Principal Nolan Pratt was before the School Committee to provide an update on activities at the school and seek the panel's approval to begin fund-raising for the annual sixth-grade class trip to Cape Cod.

 

Pratt told the committee that with the recent retirement of a teacher who took the lead on organizing the trip for many years, the school was using the opportunity to explore using an outside company to coordinate the four-day, three-night field trip that has been a LES tradition for 60 years.

 

"I think it is known the Cape Cod trip is a highlight for students who attend Lanesborough," Pratt said. "The day of the whale watch, I get third-hand joy. The chaperones call and tell me how excited the students are. And I'm sitting in my office getting excited for them."

 

Pratt said the trip has evolved from the early days of sleeping in tents and cooking over fire, and the use of a travel company would be the next step in that evolution.

 

The committee voted unanimously to authorize the fund-raising and will see the final itinerary and plans during the school year to approve before the trip in the spring.

 

And it heard a report about this past spring's trip for advanced Spanish language students to La Cumbre, Argentina.

 

Teacher Joe Johnson, who has coordinated a cultural exchange program with La Cumbre's St. Paul's School the last couple of years shared photos and highlights from the April vacation trip.

 

"The kids all stayed with host families this year instead of in a hotel," Johnson said. "It was a tremendous hit. … We had these long conversations about life and everything and what's different about our countries. The host family experience has been great.

 

"We're getting better [at the trip] with every iteration. And I'm looking forward to next year."

 

Thursday's meeting, which was held by video conference, started with a moment of silence in memory of Max Rothschild.