School Committee: August 24, 2023

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

0:12 Call the meeting to order at 7:00 PM Um, I don’t, it’s not, oh, I don’t. What’s going on? Oh, you turned around. You turned around. I don’t, um, so accommodations, anybody on the committee or Julia or Michelle have accommodation to me? Um, I just wanna acknowledge this is our last meeting before the start of the school year. Um, I know that much of our staff doesn’t really take summers off, and we have staff that does work all summer, and then even our, our staff that isn’t scheduled to work all summer quite often. Um, does. And so much goes into opening our schools. I am eternally grateful for everything that staff and parents

0:59 and everybody works together and gets done to make it successful on our opening day. Um, so I just wanna that work public comment. Um, that brings us to anybody. Mind hands? Nope. Um, district updates. Michelle Cresta. Yes. So we just have a couple updates. Um, just a reminder that next week starts our return to school, um, schedule, our new teachers come in on Monday for a new teacher orientation on Tuesday. All of our other teachers will come back and report to work for Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. Professional development schedule that is jam packed with lots of great things that Julia has organized and other staff as well. Um,

1:46 and then on September 5th, our students will return and our pre-K returns, I believe, on September 7th. So the next two weeks are jam packed. A lot of, a lot of great things going on. It’d be great to see all of our staff back. Um, and we will be kicking off in the pack with a staff wide meeting on Wednesday morning. Um, terms of transportation, just wanted to give you, we opened our transportation registration this past week, or I believe on the 15th, a little over a week ago. Um, we have 139 bus riders on regular bus transportation. We have 32 students registered on the page ride bus, which is great. Um, and we do have a very small wait list right now in our Peter Ride bus. Um,

2:31 we do anticipate by October when we figure out what the ridership is on the actual buses and who’s going to what stops that we will be able to accommodate, um, everybody. But, um, right now we’re just in a very small wait list, which is great. And lastly, on that front, the, the M B T A passes for middle school and high school students are available in the schools. They arrived this week, so those were available for discount rides on the M B T A system. Um, and lastly, I just want to remind everyone, um, until we secure an interim superintendent, we are done an administrator at central admin office. So, um, just ask for everyone’s patience. Everyone’s been fabulous. Everyone’s pitching in, we’re all doing a little bit extra. Um, but I just want,

3:17 want people to be mindful if they contact the superintendent’s office, the business office. We are at an extremely busy time, and, um, we’re, we’re doing the best we can, but certainly things aren’t, you know, aren’t always as timely as I, I know one would like ‘em because I’m a very patient person. I like answers right away. So, um, things are going great. We’re off to a great school year and very excited to see our staff return next week and our students return the following week thereafter. That’s about it for our district updates for this week. Um, I actually forgotten another conversation I had. I wanted to commend the Marblehead Housing Authority. They had an event this past weekend for, um, their tenants. And one of the, the pieces to that was they had provided, um, a lot of materials to students, our students that are living in their housing.

4:06 And I, I just think it was, you know, a, a great opportunity for yet another organization and in this town to support our students. And I’m very grateful for the work, um, that they did to bring on.

4:21 I’ll just say to it’s spirit of full disclosure, I’m on board of Marvel Advising Authority, and we did host that event, which I thought went very, very well. Um, and kudos. And thanks to our police chief Dennis King and his, uh, staff. Our fire chief Jason Gilland, Harvard Master Mark soa, they all attended, the two chiefs were dumped in dump tank, which was kind of cool by, um, several of our, um, of our, um, residents children. Um, and we did have an opportunity to hand out school supplies, which was great. Um, couldn’t meet all of the needs, but we were able to make a, that we had reached out to Spur, which is another organization in town. Unfortunately, they weren’t able to, um, supply us with, uh, backpacks or supplies, but we were able to procure them ourselves. So it was great. Um, great opportunity. So thanks. Thanks, Michelle. Um,

5:07 that brings us to our consent, action and agenda items. We all have a schedule of bills. Um, so I’ll ask for a motion to approve the identified schedule of bills total, 160,000, $57 and 15 cents. So moved by Jen Schaffner, second. Second by Brian Oda. We’re gonna have roll Paul vote. Um, Allison Taylor in favor. Um, can we turn off the sound a little bit, Frank, if you, I think I heard it in favor. Yep. In favor. Okay, perfect. Uh, Brian, in favor, Jen. Chef in favor, Sarah Fox in favor. Motion carries four to zero. Um, next I’m gonna kick it back to Michelle. Um, on our agenda, we have the appointment of the school nurse for the Glover School. If you can just introduce Yes. So this evening with us on Zoom, um,

5:57 which Frank, you’ll have to unmute her. Marietta Collins, um, she’s on there. She is an applicant for our Lover School nurse position. She comes with lots of school nursing experience. She’s with Lynn Public Schools for a number of years. Um, she’s also a camp nurse at the J C C, so she’s familiar with a lot of our level head kids. Um, she’s a wonderful person and I think she’s gonna be a fabulous asset to our school community. And she’s with us tonight because school committee needs to appoint all school nurses. Um, so hoping that, um, we’re impressed with Marietta Rosa, I was so wonderful. Um, if we just wanna unmute Marietta and here she just wants to say hello. Hello. Hi Mary. Hope you can hear me.

6:45 Yes, yes. Welcome. Um, I will open it up to the committee if anybody has any questions or, or thoughts to share with Marietta. Sorry. No, not really. Um, hi Marietta. Um, this is Jen Ner. Thanks. Thanks for attending. I think Michelle gave us your background as well as you are the candidate. So I would totally support, um, Michelle bringing forward. And just for everyone’s edification, my understanding is that in the every Reform Act in 93, the one thing someone somewhere forgot was that school committee does not any, does not need to approve the nurses. And that got missed. So for some reason, that was a holdover from those days, that school committees still 30 years later, are required to approve this one particular, um, staff, which is position, which would normally fall under the superintendent.

7:32 So that’s a really good explanation. It, it often feels, um, awkward like we’re hiring someone, but we’re not asking a lot of questions. It really is that we’re, you know, we, the people, um, that are in operations, shell and, uh, hope and our student services that are involved in this have already had the interview and have, have brought Marietta forward. And, and therefore, you know, we’re happy to, to have you here and to move forward through this. Um, I was really excited to see that you have been, uh, working in the school systems in Lynn already and even have your know, some of our students probably through the, your work at the J C C, which is wonderful. They’re so cute. Do you have any questions for, uh, Allison? Do you have any questions before?

8:20 Okay. And then, Marietta, do you have any questions or concerns for us? Not at this time. No. I’m sure I’ll have a lot for, um, Megan, the team lead. Okay. Yes. Our, our she’s, yes. Um, I just, I learned to always ask, um, you have all the appropriate certifications through Desi, correct? Yes. Okay, Perfect. Um, all right. So without further a or do, I will ask for a motion to appoint Marietta Collins as school nurse for the Glover School by Brian. I saw his hand seconded by Jen. Roll call. Vote Allison. In favor. Um, Brian, in favor, Jen In favor, Sarah Fox in favor. Motion carries four to zero, and welcome, welcome, welcome.

9:09 I hope you have a race first day. Yes. And hopefully you won’t have to see as many I see. 60 kids per day. Hopefully they won’t have, Hopefully you won’t be that busy. But we had like 1200 kids in the Lynn Public School that I was at. Yeah. Um, all right, well, welcome. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much, everyone. Oh, wonderful. Um, that brings us to our school community communications and discussion items, the Interim superintendent search discussion. So we, as we had discussed, um, at our last meeting, we have contracted with nasdaq. Um, as a member of the NASDAQ organization, the search process would be free. Um, we have been impressed in the past with how organized they were with getting us the, the information and, and facilitating their pieces of things.

9:57 So we’re happy to have that partnership once again. Um, after working with Carolyn Burke, who is our liaison, um, she was a able to confirm that the notice went live, I believe, on Monday. So that’s up on their various sites. School spring, I know jumps into the top of my head and other sites that they put, they put it out on. Um, and then the next step was we need to secure a parent volunteer as well as a staff member to be, to serve on the interim superintendent search committee with us as well as an administrator. We’ll be talking about that here tonight, though. Um, now a big piece of this was, was setting the timeline. Carolyn and I worked, um, and upon her recommendation, we’ve come up with a set of dates.

10:43 This is very much so, like what we did for the full superintendent search, where we put out the dates that we will be conducting these meetings and interviews. And we ask that anybody who is, um, requesting to be part of this and throws their hat in into the ring, if you will, can fully commit to all of these dates ahead of time. If you cannot commit to all of these dates, um, we respectfully ask that you not, um, submit your information because it, it, it is a hundred percent participation mandatory. Um, so this will be up on our website. I also will put this out with the press, but, um, the dates will be September 18th, 20th, 27th, 28th, 29th and 30th. And what those dates will constitute,

11:29 just to kind of run everybody through it, is the applications will close on September 18th, which is a Monday. That evening will be the first meeting of the screening committee, during which, um, members will receive training on interview procedures, formulated questions, the confidentiality piece to this. And at the end of this, we will receive the confidential link to all of the application materials. We will be meeting then two days later on September 20th in the evening, um, as a screening committee. At this meeting, we will decide whom to interview, and we’ll finalize the questions we’ll be asking the following week. We have set up four potential dates. We get four dates so that Carolyn can work with the candidates we choose to interview, give them some options.

12:14 It’s always encourage that we give evening options and then a weekend option so we can fit into everybody’s schedule. Um, so that will be the 27th, 28th, and 29th in the evening, and the 30th during the day that we’ll give out as options to these candidates. And at that point, after the last interview, um, we will deliberate on who we will recommend to bring forward to the fine to the full committee. Just so everyone remembers the process at that point is Nasdaq then goes back to the candidates that we voted to move forward and says they’d like to move you forward to the public stage. We need the permission of the candidate to move them forward to the public stage. I know that sounds kind of crazy. Why would someone apply if they don’t want it? Believe it or not, it happens. Um, and it has happened where, you know, people choose not to move forward. Um,

13:03 and then it will come in front of the full committee to do public interviews with whoever’s brought forward. And then the hope is by that first week of October, um, I think our scheduled meeting is the fifth that we’ll have interviewed, um, candidates or be interviewing candidates. And we’ll be able to make an offer to our interim candidate, you know, within those first two weeks of October. That’s if all schedules align. Um, and that also I think includes at least one three day weekend. Yes, there’s two three day weekends where it’s in there. So, um, just to make things a little more exciting. So that’s just to lay that out. And again, I know I threw out a lot of dates. We will make sure that this is up on our website so that when people are

13:49 deciding if they, if this is something they wanna do, um, they know those dates. And if they can commit, interesting, parents should submit a letter of interest stating that they are a parent and the reasons that they’re seeking deserve, um, to myself. This, again, will be on the website. And then interested staff should be a member of the Unit aid contract, and they will submit their letter to either Jonathan Heller or Sally Shery. All these submissions should be made by September 4th. Again, we’ll make sure this is in writing everywhere for people so they don’t have to. So what we need to do here tonight, including the parent? Yes. That it should be September 4th. Yep. So what we fifth? We had said that. Yeah, I have, um, yeah, I put here the fourth. Um, so what we need to decide here tonight is we need to name, um,

14:39 the, who the administrator that will be joining us will be, um, my recommendation is that Michelle be the administrator. Um, one reason is Michelle’s been pretty clear, she doesn’t want the job. So we don’t have to have a concern that whoever the representative administrator is is also someone that’s submitting their application. Um, also, you know, I I think you’ll be, you know, working very closely with this person. You’ve had a lot of experience in other districts, so you may very well have some information of people that might be coming in front of us. So that’s, that’s also helpful. I think that would be an asset. So I will, um, ask for a motion to, um, appoint Michelle Cresta to the

15:25 interim superintendent search committee, and then we can open up for discussion. So second, Jen Schaffner, Allison second. Um, and then open for discussion. All right. No, no, I was just gonna say, I, um, I do agree that it should definitely be Michelle. I just wanted to, you know, make sure everybody had an opportunity to, to weigh in there. I think it’s a, you know, we’re in sort of a, a unique situation. Um, and again, given the fact that Michelle will be working very closely, certainly with this committee and is in the role right now, um, I think makes really perfect sense for her to be the representative on the, on the committee, because also, we actually remember this person’s also in a way interviewing us. And so I think you might be in a good position doing the job right now to answer

16:12 some questions that a potential candidate have. Um, more so than, you know, we, uh, we can’t answer the operational side. You Absolutely. All right. So if there’s no further discussion, I will ask for a roll call vote. Um, Allison Taylor in favor? Uh, Brian Oda in favor, Jen Shatner in favor, Sarah Fox in favor. Motion carries four to zero. We’re stuck with us. Michelle. Um, one more thing. All right. Just add to look. Um, so the next piece is we’ll have to determine who the two representatives of the school committee will be. So, um, I, you know, as chair would like to sit, be part of that process.

17:00 Um, happy to open that up for discussion and, and hear what people’s thoughts are. Um, but I, I certainly would like to have,

17:14 I’ll just make a comment for comment that I, I be, I was on the interim search and the permanent search the last time, and I think everyone should know this is really more for the public, the spoke meeting members that, you know, the ultimate decision for this hire is with the school committee. Yes, absolutely. And that the screening committee is very important, don’t get me wrong. They will go through the initial, um, submissions and we’ll call that down to a list of folks that they want to interview and then call again down to who they wanna present as final candidates. And hopefully there’s, you know, there’s a robust discussion and, and some great candidates to come forward. But it, it is ultimately the decision of the school committee after what will be, um, open interviews Yes. Um, in public. So I think it’s just important to put that in context,

18:01 that the screening committee is a very important role, but it is not, you know, the final. Yes. And we will be doing, um, some comprehensive interviews of the full, with the full committee to, um, whatever candidates are brought forward. Um, and I’m hopeful that we’ll have some, some great candidates to bring forward the whole committee. And quite frankly, the, the community to come here from, I’d like to say that, uh, having been a principal in the district as well as an assistant principal, I’ve worked for many of the previous superintendents. I think I have a lot of experience in what I’d like to see the superintendents. So I’d like to be on the screening committee if that’s

18:46 Possible. Are there other members that Are we, are we nominated? If we’re nominating ourself? I thought other people were supposed to nominate, but I guess we’re nominating ourselves. Um, I sat back and let other people do the searches that we had last year. And so, um, I definitely would like to be on the search committee for this particular role.

19:14 Um, I also wanna point out, this is the interim search. This is not the full, um, su full-time superintendent search. So we will also, um, be having another search possibly as early as February as we talked about the other day. Um, so I just for the public wanna put that out there. So also, so if parents or a staff member doesn’t get on the committee committee, that they’re also aware that, you know, there is other opportunities. And for what it’s worth, I, I feel that it, there shouldn’t be duplication that we probably should have separate two separate screening committees, so Oh yeah. We won’t be carry, yeah, it won’t be a carry. So what is worth, I too would like to be on the committee. Um, obviously we’re a bit of a standstill at this point. Um, I do,

20:04 you know, I do understand other, you know, other committee members, um, would like to be considered. Um, I think, Allison, you make a good point. You know, you, you’ve been on the committee is your second year feels like your 10th year something. Um, and you have, um, you didn’t participate last year and, um, I would support,

20:30 probably not, but I’m just, you know, in terms of, I,

20:35 I, you know what, I’m happy that we all, um, want to be honest. ‘cause I quite frankly, if we didn’t want to be on it, I, I would have some concerns. So I, I actually think it’s really great that we’re all this invested in it and really wanna be on it. Um, I do agree, you know, Allison got to, um, have that first year and, you know, did get passed over quite a bit, you know, for various screening committees. And I, and I’ve been there, I’ve done that. I, I, I get that. Um, and I understand you wanting to have a voice in that. Um, I understand everybody’s point of view and you make some really good points. Brian, my one thought on that is, is it’s really a different

21:22 perspective of hiring from the school committee as hiring what you’re looking for as an administrator. Um, and so we want, we want everybody to, as much as possible, to stay in the roles. Like when I am, when I’m on that committee, I wanna make sure that I’m speaking from the perspective of what I’m looking for as a school committee member. I’m not my parent experience. And so Michelle is kind of gonna be there for that, um, administrative experience. Um, I do think, you know, you’ll have, you would have some excellent questions, particularly coming forward into the, the open interviews. What I will say is even whatev, however the chips fall, if there’s questions you want us to be asking,

22:08 it is completely okay for you guys to say, can you make, even if I can’t be on the committee, please, can you make, um, sure that this question is covered. This is something you look at. Um, I, I would welcome that, that feedback. Um,

22:27 so, you know, I do, we need to make this, we do need to make the decision. We do need to make the decision. We do. Um, well, our next meeting, we could make it at our next meeting, um, on, which will be September 7th, um, first day of pre preschool and kindergarten. Um, I, I don’t know that any of our stances are gonna change between now and then, to be perfectly honest, I think we all bring something really valid to the table and, um, you know, that’s kind of where we’re at. Um, I’m happy to entertain a motion if someone wants to make a motion to appoint two members. I’ll make a motion to appoint Sarah and Allison. Taylor.

23:22 Is there a second on that? I’ll second. Second.

23:27 Okay. So that any discussion or we kind of put the card before the horse discussion. Um, thank you. Like I should say. Thank you. Um, so can we take a roll call Vote. Allison. Taylor In favor? Brian. Oda in favor, Jen. Schaffner in favor, Sarah Fox in favor. Motion carries board zero. Um,

23:53 next we will have,

23:59 next we will have subcommittee and liaison updates. Um, Brian, can I ask one question? The parent portion of the school, of the screening committee deciding that we discuss that? So yes. So that will be decided. People will submit by the fourth. Um, and then I will make sure the letters of interest are up in the Dropbox. Okay. Uh, that’s why I said the fourth. So, ‘cause my goal is that everybody has everything in Dropbox for the eight hours in advance. And then, um, on the seventh we will determine that. I’m gonna talk to Carolyn A. Little more about her recommendation about how that is determined. It’s been done different ways in the past, so I’m gonna really just go with, you know, whatever my conversation with her feels. I’d like to just say, just for the record, I do feel that, you know, we had a number of search committees over the last three to four years.

24:47 And I would like, I think we talked about this at the last meeting, but we’re on this as an agenda item. I would like to see, um, that we don’t have, you know, duplicates or, you know, a second round of people that we, that we are able to get, um, new, um, new folks on. I completely agree. I know that was, I, I heard a lot of feedback from the community that over the last couple years when they saw the same parent reps continually being on, on the same searches that they felt it wasn’t, we weren’t getting, um, a good cross section. So I, I think it is time to, um, if you have served on a committee in the last three years, then we respectfully request you not submit your name and we’ll be, um,

25:32 we come there. Can we get that out in Messenger? Or how do we wanna We can certainly do that. Yeah. I can send this as a pdf. We can do it. I know when we did it last time, we did a tab on, um, Steven, or it was when we were looking for replacements for Emily Baron after she resigned. Um, we made a tab right when you went to the school, school website that people could click on. So I’ll get this to Steven, um, and to you. And then from there we can figure out logistics of it. Perfect. Thank you. Um, so subcommittee liaison, app updates. Brian, you had done some research on the curriculum, the idea of a curriculum subcommittee. Just to give a little bit of background on this, um, Sarah Gold had brought this forward about a little over a year ago.

26:20 She had been working with the chair of the Beverly School Committee. Um, Nan had kind of put her in touch at the time because it had come about that Beverly was having this curriculum subcommittee and we wanted to look into it. At first there was a lot of discussion among the committee, is it overlapping or not as far as what is really operations and We should not be involved in. So Brian’s done some research on this. Yes. I’ve contacted 14 different districts and of the 14, um, three of ‘em didn’t respond. And that’s probably ‘cause of the sub. But two districts do have curriculum subcommittees, Salem and Winchester. And when I asked for the details that he give me, what I got from Winchester was contact N E S C and get some advice from them

27:08 on curriculum. Okay. And I did contact N E S C, but she was on extended vacation, so, okay. Um, two districts, Ingham and Beverly do have curriculum subcommittee, but they evolved ‘em into something else. Okay. And, um, uh, the Hindu subcommittee broke itself down into two pieces. A special education subcommittee and a general education subcommittee. That way they’re not overlapping each other. The what they were trying to put ‘em in one big committee, but the special education department felt they would get to show then, and the general public would rather hear about all of the other kids. So they split it in two. Beverly, however, has a completely different,

27:55 I couldn’t find a subcommittee with my top of the chair of the subcommittee. They renamed those, um,

28:05 the, they call themselves the curriculum instruction and student life subcommittee ‘cause of the size of Beverly’s district. They found that the school committee meetings were getting to be four hours long, ‘cause all the different inputs. So they created a subcommittee as more of an information gathering committee, and they hit whatever topic was, uh, big on the table at that time. They would meet with those folks, whether it was administrative teachers or directors, and get an idea of what was going on. And they would report back and then version to the school committee. And unless the school committee wanted a bigger explanation, that would be the end of that discussion. So they kept that. So that’s what that was. And that was really fascinating to talk ‘cause it really wasn’t a curriculum committee at all.

28:53 And then of the remaining seven districts I talked, all of them dropped for, um, never had one. And the same consistent response was, that’s the superintendent’s job. You’re gonna be running into boundary issues all the time. No matter how well you set it up, you’re gonna be crossing the boundaries. And they all felt it was better not to do that. Okay. So as we move through this, I mean, unless I get some different information, the three that respond to me, I would really like us to think about not having a curriculum subcommittee. And as you look at the way we do things today, the superintendent will bring in his assistant superintendent or the administrators on his team to talk about changes in the curriculum. If they want new programs, if they need new funding,

29:40 if they need to update something, they present it here at the whole body because we’re small enough. That actually works really well, I think. I think to go to a curriculum subcommittee and then bring it to this, I think we’ll do something in the, Hmm. So I’d like to make a motion that we drop this curriculum subcommittee and, uh, Well, we never originated it. Um, well, we didn’t formally make it a subcommittee in our policies. Okay. Oh. So we don’t have to take any action. Okay. Um, and then, like you said, if, if with your research, you know, in six months or whatever, you come back and say, actually I’ve seen something that’s happening. That’s really great. I’ve worked with Julia. She thinks it’s a good idea, then. We’ll, we’re perfectly happy to at any time revisit this, but I don’t see a need for action at this point. Okay. Can, can I just make a comment? Yeah. Quickly. So if, uh, Brian,

30:27 it’s great that you did that and um, maybe we can talk offline, but I actually have been doing a little bit of my own research just in general, kind of surfing around DESI and some other things. And, you know, we are in a cohort of school districts in Massachusetts that includes Hingham and some other districts that they consider us comparable, comparable district to. And Hingham actually. So I did a little bit. I then you probably did show, I went on to their website, you know, was bumping around in there. Um, first of all, they’re, you know, their, their, um, scores are higher than, I mean, in many ways their scores are higher than us. They have, um, achieved higher, they have higher student achievement than we do. Um, they, um, their per pupil expenditures less than ours. Um, their demographics are similar. Um, their, I think they have 2,700 students. They’re,

31:15 their demographics are similar. And so I went to their website. It is an incredibly robust website filled with a tremendous amount of information. Superintendent was hired, I believe in January. Um, then they’ve done that and has a 32 gauge entry document as to how the superintendent was choosing was going to work on, um, entering into the school district, um, including a strategic plan. They’re working on very, very, very robust. And so I was thinking of just, you know, reaching out and maybe the two of us could do this, you know, two, either the chair and the superintendent just to, and I may actually tune into some school communities just to kind of see what, you know, see what they’re doing to learn what a similar district with a similar budget, um, is doing and how they’re approaching. Um,

32:01 I will say they had a successful override this spring, um, town for town wide and for their schools. That’s, so your pupil expenditure saying it was less, was that before their override because they had a significant override, wasn’t it more than 8 million? It was, it was before their override. Okay. ‘cause it was a DESI number, which wouldn’t Okay. Um, I feel like in Marble, and we’ve been talking at least the people I’ve been talking to a lot about HAM lately. And there’s a reason they, they’re, the, the information they put out for their override was just unbelievable. It was, and it was a town, like, like what we were, it was a town ride override. I mean just the, the marketing of it, if you will. The fact that you can go to their website, you can say, okay, what’s being funded? What isn’t being funded? This is my address. This is that.

32:47 There was a lot they did. I actually was just talking to someone today saying, I, I think our select board or school committee and our income maybe would wanna talk and say, what was your path? How long did it take you to get to this point to be able to be this strategic about your ask? And I just think it, you know, their success story of getting through this process. And it would benefit us, any of us that want to reach out and find out what they’ve done and how they’ve done it, you know, to, to look at that. So yeah. So I may just, I may just reach out myself to the chair and just have a conversation and see, maybe we’ll do a filter maybe. We’ll, I don’t know. Yeah. Um, and the point is though, you know, by, maybe we can get some information on those two committees that they have set up.

33:34 Now, it might not be right for us, but let’s maybe find out what you know, what they’re doing. Yeah. Gentleman was chair of case. Okay. So he was a school committee member, or he’s a school committee member. So I would, that’s a great piece about so many hybrid meetings is now like, you can sign on and go to a meeting and hang them or go to a meeting in. Well, ‘cause we always hear about comparing ourselves to the W towns and just see the way other people are doing it. ‘cause I think it would be naive of us to say like, we know the way it should be done. So, um, I encourage any committee member that is, that is looking at the way other committees are doing things and may have a suggestion to let me know. I’ll put it on the agenda and you can give us your feedback and your research that might help our practice. So that would be great. Um,

34:20 uh, finance committee. We haven’t had a meeting yet. Um, I did briefly talk today, um, just to touch base if income is getting to be that time of year saying, you know, let’s, let’s talk about calendar. We didn’t, we did not talk about calendar today. We more made a plan that we need to start having these conversations. Um, we all have a ton going on right now, obviously, but we have our normal business and, um, I’m very, very proud of the work we did last year with being out the gate, the first ones in the town to have, you know, everything ready to go. And, and I, my intent is to do that again this year. So I’d like the subcommittees once school is up and running, um, hopefully by the second meeting in September to be able to come back and

35:08 let us know. I mean, policy’s already off running. Sorry. I think they’ve had at least one, if not two meetings. But if the rest of us can kind of get our our subcommittees up and running and get some feedback there, that would be great. Um, all right. So new business.

35:32 Oh, so, um, yes. So I had the opportunity to, um, be in an event that Diane Lia was at on Monday. She’s, for those that don’t know, she’s our state auditor. I see your hand too, Allison. And hearing her speak, you know, was really moving, really informative because it’s not, they don’t just come in and audit your book. They can come in and audit programs and practices and everything else. And I wanna reach out to the select board and have a conversation with them. Because, you know, one of the hurdles we’ve heard through this process now two years in a row for an override is questions about transparency, questions about efficiencies and things like that. And I am,

36:19 I, I have no concerns about our transparency, um, of what we’ve produced with the schools in the last year. And I feel very confident about that. So much so that I would like to talk to the select board and see if they would consider inviting, um, the state auditor to come in and audit our practices and audit us. Because I’m that confident that the, the information that will be yielded will match what, um, we’re doing. But I have not had those conversations yet. It’s just a thought. I, I did have that. I think it would be helpful for our voters to then be able to have this, this feedback that says, you know, an independent group came in and they looked at your practices and they looked at your books and, you know, we, we found no problems. Um,

37:05 I think that the, the voters would respond to that, um, in a positive way, which would positively benefit our, our children. And also, you know, if, if they found something that that is a suggestion or something improve that could be improved, I, I would welcome that as well too. Because at the end of the day, everything we do is to benefit students. And you know, I’ve said this in, if I’ve said it once and I’ve said it a million times, asking questions, identifying a problem isn’t a problem. It’s the first step to a solution. So, um, you know, I, it’s just a thought I had, I’ll be reaching out to them, but I just wanted to let the committee know I was gonna do that because, you know, it’s a conversation I wanna have. Maybe the conversation ends with,

37:52 you’re crazy if you don’t wanna do this. But, you know, I I I just thought, you know, having heard her speak that it was really a poss a, a good possibility. Alison, Uh, yeah. So I, I know I’m like a broken record about this. Um, but I remain incensed about this arpa, what I kind of consider nonsense ARPA money too. Yeah. Um, and I, I don’t know if it needs to be a motion or what. So I definitely, um, plan on writing appointed letter comment, um, to bring to the select board myself. I’m happy to do it as a private citizen.

38:38 I have the same issues as a private citizen. Um, but I was wondering what the committee thought about writing, you know, something or having a comment collectively. I’m not sure how everybody feel, how everybody else feels, um, about the lack of ARPA funding that we have received, the lack of transparency with the ARPA committee, the additional rules that were self-imposed. Um, I would like to put that forward as a possibility or an option and kind of see how the rest of the committee feels about doing something like that. Again, officially on record as a committee. Um, but if not, I’m happy to do it as a private citizen.

39:23 So one thought I have, Alison, is um, you have been a great advocate for this, so thank you. Do you maybe want to draft Yep. The position and then we’ll put it on the agenda, next agenda for us to look at and then, um, at that point deliberate and take a vote on if, if people feel the position is accurately reflected of the position of the full board board and then we could submit it. Um, I don’t know if that would be a appropriate path, but I support that hundred. Understand, I said that at the last meeting. I totally support your, you know, your issues and your concerns. Um, Allison, I agree with them and I support that as a committee, as we are advocates for our students. A large part of that advocacy is,

40:13 you know, securing and procuring resources that we need for, for, for our students and for our staff. Um, and I do support that. So, you know, in theory I, you know, I would agree and I would support that as coming from the school committee. Um, or at least going forward with the draft and presenting it, presenting it to us. Okay. Alright. So if you, if you’re comfortable, Yeah, absolutely. Uh, and then we can always, you know, tweak it if we need to. And of course if you wanna just get that draft to me within more than 48 hours each, then I can put it in the Dropbox. That will do. Great. Um, one question I have, and I’m trying to be cognizant of the fact that you are doing two huge, both independently, huge. You’re doing, you have a lot of support, simple admin.

41:00 I’m, I’m grateful for that. You’re still doing two jobs. I get it. Um, is it reasonable for our next meeting on the seventh for you to have a list for us of what we have requested and what has been approved today? I can definitely give you what’s been approved. I’m not sure I have the information, what’s been requested. I might have to go to the Outlook. Okay. All right. Because you might not have, I was not involved with those in, on all that. Okay. I can certainly try to. Okay. Um, the ARPA group is meeting once a month and I am now part of that group. Okay. Do you know when your next meeting is or do you, not the necessarily date, but will you be meeting in September? I believe it’s the end of September. Okay. So we’ll have had two meetings by then. We’ll have our petition statement and then maybe by that second meeting,

41:47 which would be September 21st, um, we can identify some, some appropriate requests. Um, I also, I mean, I would think in theory that this would be a letter that would go to select board. Yes. That’s I think who exactly mm-hmm. Um, copying.

42:08 Yeah. I’d also like to read it out loud during a meeting. I feel like that has some impact as well. Um, I’m, I mean, I’m happy to put my money where my mouth is on that, if that’s possible. Um, also, I, I will reach out, uh, to the select board to see if they will provide a detailed listing of what has currently, I’ve tried to go back through as much as possible to get the details myself about what’s been distributed, where there’s no place that I can find, um, where it is easily displayed, shared with the public, which I think is, is too bad. I think that would be a nice thing to have for the town and the constituents. Um, but I will ask, uh, the select board.

42:54 I’ll reach out to select board to get that, just so that I have those facts and figures. Correct. Um, hopefully they will provide that. And it doesn’t have to be Foy.

43:06 Um, sorry Sarah, we both, you want me to send ‘em too?

43:12 I, I love here has this information in our own Oh, I mean I probably used your articles to, to gather a lot of the information also. So, but I mean, anything you have, um, Best thank you. I’m gonna leave it up. That’s interesting that you have and we don’t, so Yeah, so you don’t we want it. We’d like it. Okay. Great. Thank you Lee. Of course. Um, so, okay. Um, thank you Allison critiquing that on and, and that, um, and then I’ll, I’ll add that to the agenda as well. Um, like I said, I don’t know if you heard me before, you know it may be appropriate to ask to get put on the selecting agenda rather

43:58 than just reading it as public comment. ‘cause we are one board coming to another. Sure. So, um, I would, I would ask you maybe to touch base with their chair and, and let them know that this is happening and ask them if, if they would like us formally to be on their committee. I’m happy to, I’m happy to do it as well. But you’ve been, um, very passionate in, in your pursuit of the arpa and I don’t want to steal your thunder. So I think if we were to do go, if we go forward with this and we are on the agenda or even, uh, public comment and if there is one of us, we can host attendance, we would, we would post this. We, we can absolutely do a post. That’s not a problem at all. Um, alright, so that is that, um,

44:44 I have an odd piece of correspondence. Um, I’m gonna pull it up so I can read it off my phone. ‘cause if I read it off my screen, I’ll probably wind up ending the zoom call. Um, so a member of our committee, Megan Taylor, issued correspondence today for me to read. I’m going to give the caveat, I don’t know if this is an open meeting violation.

45:08 Um, our committee isn’t really, it’s great. So, um, I, I apologize ahead of time if it is, that is not my intent. Uh, my intent is to fulfill or wishes that I read this. So I’m, I’m just gonna do that, um, to the committee. I’m glad you are back on track for Thursday evening meetings. And I hope we remain committed to a regular meeting schedule. However, proper notice and communication is necessary to ensure the full committee and the public can participate. Unfortunately, tonight’s meeting marks 60% of open meetings that have not included full participation since this committee was seated in June. During these meetings,

45:54 there has been deliberation in votes on major decisions such as committee leadership budget and the interim superintendent search. Yet they have all been ad hoc, interim super, uh, I’m sorry. They have all been ad hoc meetings with many scheduled on short notes. These meetings have also occurred despite the chair’s knowledge that I would not be able to attend in prior committees, every member’s availability was considered to ensure pro participation and a board representative of, uh, board representation.

46:26 This has not been the practice of the current committee to date. This does not display good faith or intention to include all illustrates a exclusion, not just of my participation, but also the constituents that I represent and the public at large. Additionally, this is a direct opposition to the views stated during the superintendent’s valuation process regarding the importance to engage.

46:55 We are elected by the voters of Marblehead and we represent various stakeholders by not allowing for full committee participation. The community is not all, um, fully, sorry, I can’t say is also not fully represented. The actions of this committee demonstrate for communication a lack of appropriate governance and are not spirit of full transparency that all members of this committee campaign and were elective going forward. I recommend that the school committee engage full participation of the selected body to follow existing governance protocols and best practices to ensure we communicate and represent our community effectively. We can, we should do better as a committee. Megan Taylor Marblehead school committee member. With that,

47:45 I’m going to say I have been exceptionally gracious

47:54 over quite a long period of time with having written statements, setting a certain narrative

48:06 And just trudging through. People have a right as they always do to say whatever they want, whether it is factual and based or whether it’s not. Um, however, I do think it’s really important to point out at this point that we have followed. I, I reviewed today in all my spare time, our policies and our protocols. We have all time followed our policies and protocols. The state of Massachusetts and our policies require 48 hours advanced postings. We have given more than that. Um, we have reached out at all times to try as best as we can to schedule

48:52 meetings when they work for everybody members saying they’re not available weeks at a time. And during a period when we absolutely have to have these meetings, we cannot stop the business of this committee. Members of this committee have found time to zoom in while they’re on family vacations. Um, given their workday, members have given up income to get other people to cover their work and get not, not paid for that time. Members of this committee have prioritized the work of this committee, zooming in from hospital rooms while their children sit in bed.

49:38 To have a member of this committee release a statement and say, we have not been collaborative is disappointing.

49:49 Not responding when someone asks you when you can be scheduled or simply saying, no, I can’t make that work without offering an alternative is not working as a team.

50:05 Furthermore, after reviewing the P protocols, there was 12 of ‘em. They’re on our website. Some of the bru ones that jumped out at me were number nine to not break open meeting law. This is a sacred rule. It shouldn’t, it, it’s, it is not just a protocol. We govern under this. Number 12, privileged information and respect. Confidentiality of executive session. Again, this isn’t a goodwill gesture, folks. We are mandated under mass general law for very serious reasons to do these things.

50:45 When a member of this committee chose to write a letter to the editor and have it published in a publication that is delivered to all of our homes. And in that letter states, these are my opinions. I was going to read these in a meeting that is willfully breaking open meeting law and deliberating outside of a public meeting when that same individual discloses information that was privileged in executive session. That is willfully breaking mass general law and the provisions provided to keep all parties in a safe improper situation with confidentiality

51:34 when false claims are made that individuals do not have the same information and stories are written all about how that individual does not have the same information. And then we release executive session minutes that actually prove with the, from the set individual that they did indeed have all the information that everybody else had at the same time. And no apology is issued by either the individual or no acknowledgement is written as a follow-up article. Again, we can, to use Ms. Taylor’s words, we can and we should do better. Not liking an answer and not getting an answer are two

52:23 very different things moving forward. I hope that all committee members can prioritize the needs of our students because that’s what this is about. This is not about having a job. It is about doing. And I really hope that we will prioritize our students not fight personalities. That we will be, we can disagree without being disagreeable because that is, that is right, that is the way it should be. We shouldn’t all have the same opinion tonight. We all want it on a committee. We talked about how we wanted on it and why we thought we were the right choice. And then we voted and it was extremely civil. No one clutched their pearls and said, you know, why not me? You’re being me.

53:12 We were professionals. We sought a solution, we achieved one and we will implement it. That is my expectation moving forward for this entire committee. I really grappled with should I file an open meeting violation on the letter to the editor? Because on one hand, I stand by rules apply to everyone even when implementing those rules makes us uncomfortable. So if I stand by that, I really should do that because rules were broken and there needs to be a remedy saw. At the same time, I have no wish to further cause discontent in our community. So I will continue to grapple with this. I have three more days until I have to file it. But at the end of the day,

53:59 I really do wish that we can stop with the contentious, nasty, jives the nastiness back and forth, focus on our students, empower our staff to come to do their job without feeling uncomfortable about being in the room. And will the children at the table get into a fight and just focus on what needs to be done? And anybody that has to remind me about being a dissenting vote has not been paying attention for four years. So I have said my piece, I have done it as gracefully as I possibly can and I will open it up if anybody else’s response. Thank you for your words. I appreciate that. Um, very much so. Um,

54:46 you indicated at the beginning that you had concerns about this being, this correspondence being, I’m not sure and I’m refused, refused to continue to check up our legal fees. Yeah, no, I’m sure, uh, I have a number of concerns and, um, about what was in that letter, but I think maybe it would be best, um, tabled until Ms. Taylor’s at the next meeting. And we can do this, but I dunno if you’re interested. Um, I I don’t, I’m not really. I I, we have work to do. We have a 3000 student district to run that contains $46 million. We have four to 500 employees. We have a ton of work to do. And I, I am ready, I I am I am proud that through all of this,

55:31 as contentious as it has been, that we have been graceful to each other and I would choose to, you know, move on. And so I guess the only, I’ll make one quick comment that just jumped out at me, just hearing this, just took a couple notes. I mean, there were co quoting from this letter. There was a reference to constituents I represent and various stakeholders that you represent. And I just wanna say for the record that, um, I represent everyone in this town, um, and all the students and all the staff and faculty, parents, members of the community. I don’t have individual constituents or groups as far as I’m concerned. Um, and I don’t represent various stakeholders. I represent all the stakeholders. And when I make,

56:17 when I please a vote or deliberate, it is with the interest of the students and our staff and our administrators first and foremost. First and foremost, always keeping in mind that we’re also here as stewards of the town’s money and to represent the taxpayers and all the members of the community department. So that is a little disconcerting to hear that. And, um, I just wanted to make a statement. That’s who I represent. Allison, I see your hand. Uh, yeah, I think, uh, Jen’s um, said something similar to what I, I wanna say, I I think it’s very, uh,

57:05 divisive in nature to say that you represent certain constituents or certain stakeholders. Um, whether or not every single person in the town voted for us, uh, we still represent everybody. Whether someone agrees with each and every decision that we make, we are still representing them and we are still doing our level best. And, you know, giving up shifts at work, zooming in from our children’s sports games, missing our children, do these types of sports things so that we can be here. It’s not easy. It is a lot of work and it is a lot of time and it’s most often a thankless job. But we represent this town.

57:51 We chose to do this, and sometimes those priorities need to be made and, and we have to make those decisions. But I do think that it’s very, um, just divisive in nature to, to say something like that. And I just wanna second what Jen said. I represent the entire town. I am open to conversations with anybody in this town, whether you voted for me or not. Um, that’s a non-issue. And I, I, I hope moving forward we can all represent the entire town. Um, and like Sarah said, disagree, but not be disagreeable just because you don’t like what someone says. One thing that I always say, it’s just because you hate what you may hate what someone says that doesn’t make it hate speech. Just because you dislike what someone says doesn’t mean it’s wrong or that you

58:36 didn’t hear it. Um, I think those are important things to remember.

58:44 Well, I agree as an elected official, I represent everybody and I think we’re trying our best to represent that request. And, uh, I think I would like to say that we should move forward now. Mm-hmm. Know that we’ve brought these concerns to the public. Mm-hmm. And forum, I think it’s time to move on and get the work and do the job we were elected to Do. Exactly. I, I see no need for this discussion. Um, all right. So with that, I will adjourn us at 7 59.