School Committee: May 13, 2021

Transcript captured from YouTube auto-captioning. No speaker labels; proper names and dollar figures occasionally misheard. Click any timecode to jump to that moment in the source video.

0:51 emily’s just loading up to youtube or the to the website

1:04 as you can probably tell i i did make it back by the skin of my teeth so i’m glad i even was able to check a few kids for chicks all right david’s just having a few little audio issues so we’re just gonna try to let him figure that out

1:26 we do have all members in attendance um james is recording and we are live on youtube

1:42 that is that audio good is that better okay you can hear me now okay we can hear you but it’s still coming through on your computer

1:55 okay i can hear david perfectly fine if that’s and there’s no echo for anybody if you can try it again david but i didn’t catch one okay this sounds okay right now it sounds yeah no you you sound great to me all right okay thank you great then i will call us to order at 702.

2:14 all right first up we have public comment if anyone wants to make a public comment please raise your hand we’re using that function with zoom i will need people’s full names and addresses

2:37 okay i am not seeing any hands raised so i will move us to the exciting part of our evening which is the planning for success superintendents advisory committee membership john so can everyone hear me am i coming through um as you might anticipate this was a process that generated a good deal of interest um not in every category but in the parent category for sure so we have three drawings that we will do this evening i want to say sarah fox for giving me some guidance on this as she went through the superintendent search and had to navigate this process for robust community interest and how to do it in a way that’s fair so

3:24 very scientifically i have grab bags here and so i will show the names to the people that are here so you see the names going into said bags you have you have reese stalberg you have you have kate schmeck pepper you have you have katie menlinson i hope i said that name correctly arma lanson

4:07 in the bag shaking it up looking away hopefully the tv audience is following the first person to be on planning for success will be reese daubert awesome for an elementary pass elementary okay elementary parent and so we shake again looking away reaching into the bag and the second person will be mimi lemay those will be our two elementary school representatives

4:40 and again as i put out in the overview of this process just because you’re not on the planning team does not mean that you won’t have an opportunity to contribute to the process and be part of giving your opinions and thoughts and ideas for those strategic objectives that we will eventually get to so the next is middle school again highly scientific dump out the names in the bag there are two people for the middle school you have jeff st george

5:22 shake it up reach into the bag make sure it’s totally scientific

5:38 our last our last will be the high school dumping out the names you have two people vying for the one spot lucy burke

6:01 good thing i didn’t have to go through this for all reaching into the bag not looking pulling a name out and that person is lucy burke

6:22 so just to update uh people on the other i’m getting echo now i don’t care okay um the teacher rep at the middle school will be tawny callahan there are two teachers vying for the high school spot so i will go over to the high school tomorrow and draw those names in front of those two teachers our two community members our mural shell and sin again with the echo earlshell and cindy lowenson or lowen i’m sorry uh two school committee members are sarah fox and megan taylor and the two students current 10th grader ariel mogulesko and

7:07 current junior benjamin khan and jason silva did agree uh since our last meeting or maybe i announced this at our last meeting but would be joining the community as a community rep as well monique lloyd will be the metco parent representative and scott solberg will be the uh cpac rep

7:30 did we have a k-6 teacher i missed that one we do have k-6 teacher diane babbitt again i’m getting that echo whenever someone in the room is unmuted it happens so diane babbitt is one of the elementary reps and the second rep is tbd because i got an email today that may have changed the second rep so i want to touch base with those building principles if someone has changed their mind and somebody else is interested in doing it to work through that so those would be that would be the elementary

8:08 but thank you for everyone that has expressed interest and i’m looking forward to the process that starts tuesday at nine o’clock and we will be in the field house uh at the high school uh because i don’t think the weather is going to be super nice for the us to be out under the tent so we’ll be in the field house and thank you to mr bauer for relocating some lunches and pe classes to accommodate us and that’s all i have great megan so this is great i’m really excited about i think it’s a great committee and i just want to thank obviously you know everyone who’s put their name in to be part of this and i’m looking forward to getting it underway and getting the strategic plan put together i think it’s really exciting and i’m glad we’re moving it forward john thank you

8:59 great and thank you to everyone who uh put their name out there and expressed interest and um you know that’s a really important part of this uh this process so best of luck to you guys as you start along on this i’m excited all right so that moves us to our next agenda item which is the review of the policy e b c a e b c f the face coverings so um emily and i met in on the subcommittee and the policy subcommittee this monday morning and we took a look at this policy first um so there’s been plenty kind of going on this week um as far as face coverings go within the state um

9:46 and sort of it’s changing the some of the changing guidance that is coming out from the cdc um and so i i anticipate this you know david you kind of teed it up last last thursday at our meeting that there are changes coming down the pike um i anticipate there to probably be multiple changes in this um i think this is probably going to be something that we need to continue to look at um just based on this week alone um you know the cdc stuff came out um i had been paying more attention to things over the weekend reading about things you know there’s plenty of scientific information coming out on outdoors there’s the meaa i believe weighed in on outdoor sports

10:34 earlier this week i believe miaa met today um you know we’re kind of hoping that duffy comes along and and does some some updated guidance on this as well so um this i i anticipate this to change probably many times um and i think you know hopefully that’s it’s gonna change in the positive many times um i think these are exciting changes that all say that we are headed out of code and all the coded restrictions um and so we will make sure that we will be fluid with that so you guys all had in your dropbox the current mass policy which had been revised in march a little bit and then the new revisions

11:21 so so what were so also

11:30 we should best practice is that emily and i meet with the subcommittee we present these to the full committee at an open meeting and then we vote at an additional open meeting so kind of like three public readings i had suggested last thursday that so that we could continue to move this along and not kind of waste time for you know a few reasons that if possible we vote some of these changes this evening if the committee feels ready to do so so the first round of changes that were in the dropbox are that masks should be worn by all individuals in school buildings on school grounds and during school hours and at school sponsored events so right now we have them worn

12:17 whenever someone is on school grounds at any point regardless of what’s going on i think backing it off and saying that just during just for school things is a highly appropriate thing to do right now um we did have some pretty vocal vocal group um show up at our meeting on monday morning and request that we take a further dive and talk about masks and whether they’re necessary when children are outdoors at all um emily you know do you want to jump in and give your perspective at any point go ahead so um i think that that is sort of what’s to what’s to be put out what’s to be

13:05 considered um this evening um and i think you know there’s plenty to discuss within that um so i’ll i’ll stop talking for a moment if anybody else wants to talk um only um so just um the request was from the parents was for us to look at the idea of having masks be optional at recess so that when children go out to play i think they also if jim was outside that they could remove their masks if they wanted to as long as they kept a six foot distance um and that which i personally think is something we should consider [Music]

13:50 and think about but i know that there’s going to be a lot of logistics that go into that and people probably have thoughts on it in both on both sides so i think the best thing for us to do is to get feedback on what the rest of our committee feels on what the community feels because we did listen to one set of people and i think it’s only right because this is a big deal to listen to everybody else to everyone have equal weigh-in but i think it is something we should look into and look into more and i support it um but i want to give everyone the fair um you know the fair their fair voice to be heard john i know you did a little bit of background this week um just kind of

14:36 what other districts might be doing um do you have any information that you wanted to share with us on that yes it is probably uh as current as when i sent the survey out after monday’s meeting but the north shore superintendent’s 23 districts responded and no one was looking at mass policies of changing them on tuesday of this week but as sarah pointed out just as recently as today the cdc has come out with a new update and so i can imagine that perhaps david as you said in the fall marblehead could be leaders in this sphere and although the conversation wasn’t happening i

15:22 anticipate most superintendents were looking at it we have five weeks left we’ve finally gotten the schools open we opened them by telling families we would have face mask and social distancing and continue with our pool testing efforts and hand washing and some of those things have changed since we made that commitment and i do think that it’s right but i would want us to provide an opportunity for um like i said monday people don’t normally come to a policy meeting and so people that would be proponents of us maintaining mask probably didn’t think there was a need to come to that and now that we’re talking about it in an open forum and in the public that those who support the idea of

16:09 idea of idea of allowing students at recess or during pe to go without a mask it is important to note that developmentally elementary school children are not going to be able to socially distance and so the mask where they say you don’t have to have a mask if you can socially distance our elementary school students that’s a big ask and i’m not saying that we don’t look at the mass policy i’m not saying that there’s not merit to the science emerging that being outdoors and the uh transmission concerns that might have been there in the past

16:54 but i do think it is prudent that given the changing landscape and announcing it tonight that you provide the opportunity for the sports medicine group that met today i did call bill gain at the miaa and ask him and he said really they’re in this procedural loop right now because eea produced some guidance on monday and miaa has tried to be in line with the eea guidance all year for each season of play and so they met this afternoon at four o’clock their recommendations will not go in effect until the full board meets and the miaa full board is meeting next thursday when we also have

17:40 a meeting so the results of that meeting would be known at your next meeting and also deci has not updated their guidance my guess is that they will right now their published guidance is that if you’re going to do a graduation it has to be outside and masked now that may likely change before we get to june 4th but i think putting it out there for the public to weigh in and there’s never a shortage of people willing to provide us insight and then taking it up at next thursday’s meeting given that you’ll have a week’s worth of additional information but for tonight lifting the during school hours or providing the caveat that people wear masks on school property only during school hours at

18:26 school-sponsored events i think is a prudent step at this time yeah so i i absolutely agree that first set the red that occurs on that policy that’s in the dropbox um can and should be voted this evening um i think you know that opens things up to um the different sports and everything and you know parents taking their children to the school after school and on the weekend so i think that that is that is you know absolutely sort of within within what we should do um i would really like to see us be able to um you know give kids the option to unmask when they’re outside um i do think you know in the experience that i have um

19:11 you know elementary school students just are not especially at recess and pe just are not going to um be able to socially distance and i think some of that you know there’s a bit of a catch here because some of the pieces around removing the mask is is about them being able to see a full expression and everything and yet if they have to keep six foot distance that inhibits what they’re how they’re able to play what they’re able to do um and again i just don’t see them really being able to do that anyways the catch on this for me is that currently the state mandate that that is is from governor baker says that it that you have to be masked if you cannot socially distance outside so

19:58 i think you know and that deci can can weigh in and overrule that but that without that that’s the state mandate um i am hopeful that again as these other organizations are looking to change things that either the state and or dussey does the same so that it frees us to really make these decisions that i think are very supported by science at this point you know the reading that i did over last weekend um personally was was really exciting to me because i had kind of been caught in this like i don’t know where we’re at right now and then sort of educated myself and and we’re in a good place um so i would i would really i’m really hopeful that the mandates and such catch up to that really fast because it does seem as

20:45 though the risk of transmission regardless of social distancing outside is incredibly low um and you know all of the key researchers who i’ve followed for quite some time are saying that so that’s kind of where my head is at megan i know you had your hand raised so um i appreciate that update and all the kind of work you have all done on this um i have a couple questions though so with the change that you’re proposing does that include pick up and drop off for parents i mean that is after school hours okay um and then i know you mentioned that mia just met this afternoon but have you heard any feedback from them you have not and

21:30 and and the other thing i just wanted to mention is with the so the recess i hear your point about you know especially the younger kids being able to maintain the distance without a lot of oversight but for gym class i guess i’m wondering if we could at least kind of ask the administration and the pe teachers to kind of put their heads together and see if there is a way to have those gym classes unmasked because that is a much more structured time and i think john you said there’s five weeks so it’s you know not that many gym classes but maybe there’s something that we can do there to modify what they had planned and do that unmasked outside because jim i think you know i would like to see the gym classes outside as much as possible right now

22:17 unless the weather you know weather isn’t permitting and if we can make that structured in a way that they could take their masks off i you know i would like to see if you know if you guys could come back to us with that that would be great um you know i agree with emily and you know what you said you know also with what you said with the risk is extremely low outside i would like to see us get to this point but i take your point about you know making sure that we have the feedback from other parents also on both sides of of the issue and also you know there’s more information that we know is coming in the in the week um so i think it makes sense to kind of get that information and make the right decision because we have been you know we have kind of taken

23:02 methodical steps throughout this and hopefully we’re close to being able to lift that piece um but we probably should get the information that we need to make the right decision

23:14 and sarah i think that’s it i also want to make sure and john foske and my should be able to speak to this um that any further changes in the math policy i.e having students unmasked during the school day will not put us in breach of contract with our mlu because we have to be very cognizant that we do have an mou and although i don’t have the language in front of me i just want to make sure that we’re not putting ourselves in breach yeah john i will i was going to pipe him but you go ahead yeah i did no not john john bucky um i we did raise this with mea uh at our tuesday meeting that this would be a conversation at the school committee level and what some of the conversation

24:02 coming out of the policy subcommittee so that is a conversation that has already begun with them am i correct in my understanding though that as it currently stands we without a change we would be putting ourselves in breach i don’t think so but i would want to clarify that with the other john

24:25 and i think that’s that’s a another step away where i agree sarah that that will probably come to a point maybe in the next five weeks based on what was announced today by the cdc but um i think the first step is just being outdoors um and is it safe to say i mean based on what you’re saying with miaa and the information i know greg’s on but it’s status quo athletes are wearing masks when they’re in the field for all sporting events and they’re going to be meeting to see how that might potentially change next week but right

25:10 now that is still in place that is correct and i think that so the town guidance um i’m just not really sure about the policy that you know the face covering policies during school hours at school-sponsored events so if there’s a baseball game at seaside today that’s a school sponsored event i guess i guess i’ve seen seaside as park and rec jurisdiction and so it’s a team um so they have to be following the mia team does right but right parents or or visitors yeah i think that through the field the school sponsored event is more

25:57 school buildings or school grounds right right and like like graduation okay all right and and i agree i think you know the outdoors piece of it i mean there’s still also the 15 minute rule so you know or at least that’s the way they talk about i don’t know how long recess is these days but maybe there could be a recess that’s less than 15 minutes and everybody’s without masks uh for a period of the day and it keeps us within

26:32 you know with it within the guidelines i just i think i think we need to continue to move in that direction and today’s announcement was was certainly one of those i think even though it’s you know we don’t know who’s been vaccinated and who hasn’t but it’s up to the individuals that um have been vaccinated to be able to take their masks off now and um that that’s what they’re saying and we have to um have confidence that people that are following that are in fact vaccinated and have taken the proper steps but i think just like a week ago friday when the state changed their guidance and then

27:19 towns and schools sort of reviewed what was going on and it lags a little bit behind i think that’s where we’re at today you know the announcements just continue to change and it’s a very fluid process so i would like to think that we don’t just stick with it because as dr bucky said you know graduation is about a month away and maybe if things change it will make it easier on dan for the scheduling of parents and how they come to the event and how they leave the event and um those kinds of things based on based on the requirements so

28:00 if the goal is to is to make it so that you know adults and vaccinating adults and parents and whatnot can make their own decision off the school property i.e i’ll use david’s example of seaside i don’t believe this language accomplishes that goal um that is a school sponsored event for liability purposes that’s you know what they would define as a school sponsored event so if that is the goal i just don’t believe this language accomplishes that so you might want to go back and sharpen your pencil and change the language again because the way this reads at a school-sponsored event uh a high school or or whatnot um

28:42 sports event is a school sponsored event i’m happy to look through the chair i’m happy to look at the language i continue to be in close contract with andrew petty at board of health to make sure that we are saying the same things because he’s getting a number of questions from reckon park about uh youth leagues and youth sports and uh those parameters but i think if you wanted to say at school sponsored events held on school property or something like that but again i can work with john foskett to look at that language yeah and exactly i mean he’s our our council is here you know this would this is her his you know his thing so not that he needs to give us an answer today but he’s hearing our concern and he’s hearing what the will of the

29:30 committee is and so all i am saying is that language isn’t accomplishing this goal so if we oh go ahead well i was just going to say that like i read it differently right so you know i read like on school grounds um during school hours but if it’s not it has to be crystal clear like sarah said so that there is no ambiguity um so that everyone knows what the expectation sarah can you give me that language again so at during school hours it reads um must be worn by all individuals in school buildings on school grounds during school hours at school sponsored events in on school transportation even when social distancing is observed

30:17 so if we took out the comma at on school grounds so it would read in school buildings on school grounds during school hours

30:28 well i i honestly sarah i think we have council let them ward smith we shouldn’t be wordsmithing this let them do it and we can approve this as is now but if that is the clarification you’re seeking then just have them do it so that it you know it reads the appropriate way but we can approve this like this and as you said things will be coming back so at least approve it the way it is so we get that much done at least you know youth lacrosse use of soccer and all those people can make their own decision and then you know john hears us john foskett hears us he can you know correspond and give us i’m sure if if john gets i’m sure he has the policy that we’re providing

31:16 um he knows what the goal is and um he can produce that i just wanted to clarify that you know the language the way it is reads that way i i i’m not an attorney but the way i read the language is like i see a school sponsored event being like uh if there was some music presentation or a theater event at seven o’clock at night and i’m not really seeing a baseball game at the athletic at seaside being a school sponsored event but it probably could be so yeah i guess you know why don’t we just i’m in favor of making a motion to approve this change and it gives some additional flexibility for um

32:02 um um groups that are using athletic fields on weekends and after hours and for parents um who are on playgrounds and the like not during school hours it gives some additional flexibility there for from ask wearing and we can we’re meeting again next week and we’ll just keep reviewing it so was that your motion yeah i’d like to make a motion to accept um ebc fa face coverings um as revised on 5 13. so moved i mean second whatever i’m supposed to say great and then as i said from the beginning you know we’re going to continue to take a look at this um and i am hopeful that in addition to the

32:48 little pieces that we just talked about about being able to kind of um with school sponsored events kind of really figuring that out uh that by the time next thursday rolls around we’ll have more updated guidance on the mandates and all of that particularly as it pertains to outside and feasibility on the pe classes yes okay okay all right anybody else have anything to say on that and recess right yeah i mean i’m open to the to the you know to the suggestion you made too absolutely so

33:25 all right um i will roll call vote sarah gold yes emily varan yes megan taylor yes sarah fox yes and david harris yes all right those changes pass five to zero thank you everyone and everyone else stay tuned because i’m sure that those will not be the last changes okay that leads us on to the open meeting law complaint discussion um about a week and a half ago we all received an open meeting law complaint form from jen schaffner regarding the

34:03 the gathering that took place at my home about a month ago where i had taken a picture and then it was posted to facebook and then it was um sent around a little bit uh so we there were three of us there um i addressed it in the meeting immediately after and [Music] had made it what i thought was clear that there was you know that we did not deliberate at this meeting we did not discuss and deliberate um you know we did make a toast to finishing up the budget season and to the imminent return of kids into schools the preceding week um but that was it um

34:49 so it has to be brought to an open meeting um and i’ve talked with the uh the ag’s office so it had this this complaint has to be brought to an open meeting and discussed in an open meeting and then as i’m understanding it the committee as a whole votes on whether or not we believe that there was an open meeting law violation and then we submit that back to the attorney general’s office so so i i reached out to the ag’s office when you know this first came up because i had some people come to me and um spoke with the attorney for the day um on two different days

35:34 and like sarah said you know we’re definitely following the process on this um they explained you know the next point would be that we would file our response with the um clerk the ag’s office and the the filing party would determine at that point if whatever decision we came to and or remediation plan we came to was acceptable um if they felt it was not acceptable then the ag’s office would assign someone to it at which point they would interview all parties in attendance um and ask certain questions so

36:21 i i think that we should just go over those items anyway now um and they were you know who was in attendance you know what was discussed items like that um i will say

36:41 you know i think a good rule of thumb is if it you know if it if it push if if there if some if an event and again this is hindsight you know in fairness hindsight’s always 20 20. um if an event produces this much angst or anxiety among individuals in the community it’s probably a good idea to you know either post just to be sure which you know in fairness i’m sure sarah doesn’t want to post a meaning for her backyard um or avoid it um that being said i think it’s important to discuss who was in attendance as as the baseline

37:26 sure so we can i mean just two seconds we i mean we had already discussed it so um it was myself and megan and emily and then dr bucky was there for a little while as well um so that you know just so that everyone is clear again um david go ahead i just wanted to say that i think it wasn’t a was it a month ago that you made your prepared statement sarah gold so we were here and um sarah read a long statement it’s been recorded and it’s in the minutes and i don’t need to go over that but i think to bring the um event to the level of an open my meeting violation is just absurd

38:13 um it’s disappointing that we’ve reached this level of discourse in in all parts of of government and finger-pointing and the fact that we have a committee that can be together socially that can get along that can work to move issues forward and now we’re trying to divide that by saying you know people can’t to get together this summer at the dolphin and sit on the deck or people can’t get together in somebody’s backyard or people can’t be together at graduation because we need to post being together at graduation because we might be talking about something that’s

38:58 i mean there let’s be real there was no deliberation i wasn’t at the event but i i know that sarah gold megan emily and dr bucky fully understand their responsibilities as school commemors and the essence of the open meeting law is that you don’t deliberate that we don’t post an agenda and the four of us get on a conference call and say okay how are you going to vote on thursday night well i think we ought to vote this way it’s foolhardy to think that any of those conversations took place and even though i wasn’t there i’m gonna back up every committee member as well as the superintendent who’s been uh principal for his career now he’s a sitting superintendent and he

39:44 understands that opening meeting law better than anybody so i’m disappointed that it’s even come to this level and i think we should just move on and whatever we need to do um if i need to make a motion that i don’t think there was any violation of the open meeting lawyer i’ll make the motion and let’s just move on from this it’s absolutely ridiculous as far as the event sarah gold once again spoke to the event she made comments it’s on public record about what their feelings were about that and i think it was very well received but it was there was no way it was an open meeting law violation and that’s how i feel about it so dave told them because david made a motion um

40:29 motion um motion um so do i have a second i’ll second it okay so megan seconded so now we can have discussion go ahead megan so david i appreciate what you said and i thank you um that said i have absolutely nothing to hide about this night so yes i was there did we deliberate or even talk about it no should we have post you know said sheriff posted it no but you know as soon as we realized that it was an issue sarah took immediate proactive steps she proactively called the attorney general’s office she proactively addressed it in an open school committee meeting and she proactively took accountability as did we all a month ago so you know i’m sorry it’s gotten to this

41:16 point i really am um the the only other thing i’ll say sarah just to your sarah fox just to your point is we are going to be together outside of open meetings graduation david is a good example we march in the cr you know in the christmas parade we go on building tours we got together at town meeting yeah town meeting like we are going to be together outside of public meetings and to suggest that we have to post that every time i don’t think is appropriate and in terms of the open meeting law that is not what’s required through the open meeting law so i take the law very seriously and i would never put myself in a situation where i would be violating an open meeting law so i’m sorry it’s gotten to this point i

42:02 cannot apologize enough but i do think you know to say that we have to post anytime three of us are going to be together is not the right step either

42:15 um so i just thank you david for saying that and um i like megan said i appreciate it because i was there and like megan said i have nothing to hide either but i just have two things i want to share and one of them is from you know the ag’s office it’s the what is it called the open meeting law guide and educational materials which you are supposed to sign when you come when you get elected into office so i have this from last year and i’m just going to read what it says about open meeting law just so everybody is clear and what it actually says so a meeting a deliberation by a public body with respect to any matter within the body’s jerks

43:01 jurisdiction provided however meetings shall not include attendance of a quorum of a public body at a public or private gathering including a conference or training program or media or social or other event as long as members do not deliberate so the webster definition of deliberate because they don’t ever define deliberate because i think it’s ambiguous on what um you know because there’s room to wiggle so to be clear deliberation means the act of thinking about or discussing something and deciding carefully the is the act of deliberating and i can tell you since the budget was already voted we didn’t decide anything we

43:47 didn’t talk about it discuss it there’s other people there and you can ask them if you’d like we talked about so many other things that had nothing to do with school committee because it wasn’t the place or the time so i just want to make that clear to everybody and everybody’s who’s listening so we did not do anything wrong and we will meet and we can we are allowed to gather outside of this group so i just want to say that’s it sarah fox um um i’m sorry if you understood what i was saying is anytime you’re together you need to post um that is that was not my intention what um and you certainly are allowed to gather you know if you’re friends you can have a picnic to get you know fourth of july party together things like that but the idea is you

44:33 know you’re talking about your kid’s soccer or you know your house renovation or you know just general life things the crux of this problem i think is what the tagline was on this where it says cheers in job well done to balance budget and kids in school which are 100 the purview of the school committee now deliberation is sharing any um form of your opinion on a school matter cheers to a job well done is certainly a celebration and or an opinion um and as you know because we’ve changed our vote multiple times on various things and we’ve made motions to amen

45:18 and previously passed motion that no emotions death um so so i think that we are probably beating this more than we need to my point is the the requested remediation is that we do a training in open meeting law which i don’t actually think is negative impact whatsoever i don’t i don’t anybody sorry um if i may thank you um so i wasn’t there um i wasn’t aware it was happening um i i think it’s it’s really you know it’s the words that were paired with the photo

46:04 claiming that it was a celebration of purview items of the school committee so you know again do members of this body have a lot uh have the ability to have their own private lives most certainly you know four of us have children in the exact same age our lives will overlap we will be at the same events you know camaraderie has been formed at times and that that is not necessarily a bad thing um i think where the ambiguity lies for me is the words and the verbiage used as it pertains to

46:46 one of our biggest responsibilities arguably um two of them actually balancing the budget and kids in school so i think that you know it’s it’s the claim that’s made there that makes it really hard here and again i don’t think it’s you know any i did not read any of this that anybody’s asking for 40 lashings or anything else it’s it’s simply the process of the self-reporting which is easy it’s just you know you self-report and they no one gets reprimanded nothing happens you just have to do the online class or something which i’m happy to take i think we all should be happy to take um i think we all have taken it as well when we first became a school committee member but i mean just a refresher you

47:33 know if you will and again it’s the will of the committee and we’ll vote on the will of the committee there’s a motion on the table but i just i wanted to clarify because i didn’t want you know anybody to to misread and say that you need to post the christmas parade or post saturday soccer games or things like that um i think it’s because of the language that was put with the post that made it in my mind problematic megan did you want to see something or david we both were on i mean i think we have done one in three at this point you know the training what you know i’ve done the training i’ve signed off on doing the training if we all want to do the training again i mean

48:18 that’s that’s it’s not a big deal but i think we’ve i mean we already proactively addressed one and three anyway in terms of the the request and you know we’ve had the feedback from the attorney general’s office and i think we should just move forward and put it to bed like just let’s be done this is honestly i don’t think you know yes was it a mistake okay sure i think we’ve acknowledged that in terms of the posting piece of it but you know this is not what i want to spend my time on in terms of moving the district forward that’s where we should be focused our time our time on in these meetings is how do we move this district forward how do we make this district better for our teachers our community and our students that’s what i want to be spending these meetings we know the time in these meetings on so let’s just put this to bed please okay

49:04 okay okay so we have a motion and it was seconded um so i will take a roll call vote uh sarah gold yes emily barron yes megan taylor

49:18 can you repeat the motion david can you repeat the motion [Music] [Music] did you hear that sarah no okay sorry it was a motion to um state that the school committee has not committed an open meeting law violation okay so that said date sarah emily megan just to clarify you all voted no violation correct correct okay i am going to vote in the affirmative of a violation however that means i have to vote because the the verbiage of the motion has been a little bit turned around but i believe there was a violation

50:06 david david i’ll vote to support the motion yes okay so the motion is supported four to one um i too don’t have any problem taking an additional you know a repeat of the uh open meeting uh segment from the masc so you know i have no problem doing that i can do it um you know i think there’s been a lot of consternation around open meeting law this year um and you know i’m not opposed to

50:41 seeing it like through again and then being able to talk better and and more with more authority on it emily did you have something can i make one quick suggestion i think we also need to talk about facebook and what we can post and what we can’t post because this has been now the second time something that’s come up on facebook is it breaking open meeting law on facebook and so if sarah needed to put i’m saying this as not a school committee member we need to figure this out because now this is two things that have come up that have caused a lot of issues based on facebook so maybe that’s something else as a committee we can figure out and make that more clear because everyone has the right to say whatever they want so

51:27 i don’t know something to think about we can look at that over the summer as well we did last summer too um and it’s megan and i had taken a continuing course from nasc at some point um and it certainly is a gray area right um but it might help all of us in the future just absolutely um i know that there’s one hand raised yale um we we did we can’t just do public comment in the middle of a deliberation so um i apologize right right okay so that leads us um that leads us to the end of our public meeting this evening we do have an executive session

52:14 posted um so and we have um no intent to lea to come back to the a public open session so can i get a motion to meet an executive session pursuant to massachusetts general laws chapter 30a section 21a for the following purpose purpose three to discuss strategy with respect to collective bargaining with the marblehead education association mea if an open meeting law earned if an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the bargaining position of the school committee and the taraso declares so moved sarah moved a second negan second and again just for the public uh there we have no intent to return to public session all right a rule called vote sarah gold yes

52:59 emily barron yes megan taylor yes sarah fox yes and david harris yes all right i will ask um everyone who is not on the committee or dr bucky and john foskett to please exit and exit the meeting and we entered into executive session at 7 54.

53:30 give a few moments for people to sign off sarah i assume i’m taking minutes for this now

54:36 yes yes so joan miller is going let me turn my video back on hot mess uh joe miller was going to join us to give the mea perspective before we hear from john foskett and then uh deliberate um hey come on in actually they’re here so we’ll let them hi so we’ve got a few people that are um remote so if you guys want to dial in um

55:11 can you just name for um me who’s in the room i can’t see it absolutely and sally and joan okay all right

55:23 sarah they’re going to log on so they’ll be on screen as well