School Committee: March 20, 2025

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.

0:01 We are.

0:06 All right. And then we just need the green light over here. So I’m gonna call us back to order at 6 0 4.

0:16 And we have two members joining us online. Um, I just wanna make sure get, can you guys gimme the thumbs up if you can hear us?

0:24 Allison and Jen. Someone’s got sound over here. I’m sorry. You, I’m sorry, Sarah. I couldn’t hear you. All right. So I was, can you hear me better now? Yes. Thank you. Okay, perfect. So I call us back to order at 6 0 4. We are gonna rise for the pledge of Allegiance, the flags at the back of the room. Brian, you can

0:46 I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United, United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you very Much. Um, we do not have our student representative tonight. She’s at a performance and I am going to open for accommodations and then we’re gonna take the agenda a little bit outta order after that. Does anybody have any accommodations for this evening?

1:17 I do. Um, I’d like to, um, commend our boys and girls track coach Nolan Ramo and Will har Har.

1:29 Um, uh, I just found out this afternoon that, um, they, along with our student athletes from the track teams, um, were able to purchase a new bike for one of our alumnus, Nicolet, who, uh, rides his bike around the parking lot and I guess saw his bike broke and that they witnessed that he was walking around the parking lot and they all came together as a community and bought him a new bike. Oh, that’s wonderful. So I wanted to commend, I’m sorry, I got teary eye. This is, this is emotional for me. Um, I wanna commend the two coaches and all the student athletes for doing the right thing, being so kind and doing, um, what we all should do is watching out for one another. So thank you. Oh, that’s wonderful. And actually, I would like to ask the committee for a motion to enable the chair to send a, a note of gratitude for to them for such

2:16 Move. Seconded. Um, we’ll do a roll call vote. Alison Taylor,

2:22 Absolutely. In favor, favor, Jen Schaffner. Absolutely. In favor. Brian. In favor, Al In favor, Sarah. In favor. The motion carries five to zero. And, um, Jen, you can just work with, um, John to get the contact information and we’ll send that off. Um, thank you. So I’m gonna take from here on, we’re gonna take a few things out of order because we have our, um, third graders, some of our third graders from the Brown School, their leadership council here to present to us. And I wanna give them an opportunity to present, um, before we start with our public comments. So we’re so proud of you guys and we’re so excited to have you here tonight. I I will hand it off to Ms. Elmer and Ms. Max.

3:11 Yep. Nope, it’s okay. Take your time. You know what, we can talk while you do that. We should set the time. We’re good at that. Okay. Thanks for your patience tonight. Um, I’m Mary Maxfield, the, uh, principal at Brown. And I’m Kara Elmer, school counselor at Brown. And together this year we started a, uh, leadership council. And, uh, they are here and they are amazing third graders. We are very, very proud of them. And they are going to present to you tonight about what it is that they do as leadership council members, how they came to be leadership council members, and, um, all, all the ways they changed throughout the years. Yeah, we’re just really excited. We’re super proud of ‘em. They should be proud of themselves. They’ve worked very hard and they’re an amazing group of students and good leaders.

3:59 And they’re gonna start by just introducing themselves. Could you guys turn around and just tell them who you are and start with Matthew. We’ll start with Matthew. Hi,

4:20 We, We can’t hear anything, Sarah. I Don’t, um, you, they’re gonna go to a microphone. That be Great. We could, we could see them mean we can see the presentation, but Mr. Mrs. Bruits class. Good evening. I am June Gray from Mr. McMahon’s class. Good evening. I’m Maggie Willard from Mrs. Bruits class. Hi, I am Jackson Crosby from Mr. Bowen’s class. Thank you. Alright. Yeah. Okay. Have a seat and we can show those slides and I’m gonna have them take it away. Um, they, it’s all in their hands tonight, so if you could put it Yep. Great. And the next slide.

5:07 So if whoever’s talking can just, when you talk umspeaking to the microphone, that would be awesome guys. May Yeah. Maybe. Okay. Yeah, you can actually even hold it if you want to. They know how to do that.

5:19 Pretty good.

5:25 This is kind of a new way of presenting, so they’re kind of making sure that you guys can be seen and heard by not only people in this room, but the people at home who are interested in hearing what you have to say. Okay. So we’re trying, it’s a new kind of setup. You guys are much well versed on this than we are. They’re doing great. Okay. All. And next slide.

5:51 And one click. Alright. Who’s up first?

6:02 This is how we got onto the Brown School Leader Leadership Council. First, we had to write a speech to our class and tell it to them afterwards. We wrote the class, but for two represents, they thought were right for the job.

6:17 At the end of the day, the winners were announced and I was super proud of myself for being heard on the announcements. And for the next day we did a meeting and we talked about what we were going, the goals that we were gonna do for our leadership council.

6:38 Excellent.

6:48 First, we set our goals. Um, one of our goals is to make the Brown School a better place. Here’s one of the things we do to make the Brown School a better place. We help people, we use teamwork. We try new things, fairness for all. And we, and we listen to others.

7:18 This is some things how we help people at the Brown School. Being a role model, we can be a role model in the lunchroom by helping someone put away their tray in the classroom. We can help somebody if they didn’t hear the directions on the playground. We can help somebody if they got hurt in the restrooms. We can pick up trash that has fallen from the trash can.

7:55 These are some ways we use teamwork. One way was we meet once a week at, during our recess and lunchtime, and we also lead our community meetings on a way we use. Teamwork was when we edit the script with our partners. We can wait. If we had a part last time and our partner wanted that part, this time, we could give it to them. Another way is we could partner up with someone new. Last time for my first community meeting, I was with Matthew, but now I am with Maggie. And finally, we can listen to each other.

8:41 Listening to each other is a, is a big deal in the leadership council. ‘cause it’s important if other people are sharing their ideas or if they’re just like talking.

9:03 Okay. Okay. Once a month, we will gather together and, and have a whole school community meeting.

9:21 We’ll share, we’ll celebrate our learning. Sh eh, in each grade we’ll share something different. And we, we’ll do poll three names for the entry. And we will also do a staff stumper.

9:41 We’ll also share, I think I already did that. We will, we will sing our school song on the end and also do the Pledge of Allegiance. Lunch, lunch, Lunch, lunch. Lunch. Oh, I’m back lunch and lunch and birthday Tomorrow.

10:03 Do you wanna talk about, Oh, and at the end we will huddle up, say what was good and how we can improve it.

10:23 Also, also at the community meetings, the grades would share their learning There. The grades would share our learning. One time we had the first grade share their fluency. They were poems to us. Another time we had the second grade to talk about the West. They showed a slideshow. They saw to talk about what they were learning.

10:44 In grade three, we saw that they were learning wit and wisdom art. One of the art pieces that they showed us was a wave of Congo Wonga. And the kindergartners will share a song about how to be ready to learn on Monday.

11:18 Hello. Um, this is, uh, um, justice and fairness wall, if you can see it on the screen. Um, but we at Brown School try to notice every voice at Brown school. And we, so we made a kindness and justice wall that shows multiple ways that we can help people in justice. And, um, we try to improve by healing every voice and have fairness and, and justice fall. And we think, how can I have or think more of this? And one of the notes, heel on, um, one of our,

12:07 um, one of our bricks in the wall of justice. Uh, or I noticed people, including other kids in their games. I wonder if everybody can have

12:26 someone, oh, someone to play with. Oh, and recess. Nice job.

12:42 As the leadership council, we try many new things. Me and Jackson wrote a proposal for a, to the PTO for, uh, a new podium. The one, uh, some of the things on our script was the, the one we have was, um, it was borrowed from the middle school. It was too tall for us. We had to sit on the, um, bottom step of the stage. And the third graders in the back couldn’t see because we were standing on the bottom step.

13:22 They asked questions. The PTO voted and we got it. Hope we’re hoping for it next week for many more kids.

13:47 Um, another goal we had was listening to others. And as representatives, we need to listen to others. One way we did it is by, we asked our classmates what books they wanted in our ven book, bending Machine. And, um, my class, I took a piece of paper and we, um, and I like, kind of voted my class like the books. And, um, the one that had the most votes was Dork Diaries. And we’re hoping to put it in the book Bending Machine suit.

14:31 Another way we listened to others was we did the Kindness and Justice Wall. And we asked students what were their ideas to show kindness and what they notice about how people are showing kindness. And what if we can show more kindness. Another thing we did was interview teachers on video to learn more. We showed our video at community meetings and it was good for their students or for all the kids in the school to learn more about those teachers. And those are some ways we listened to others.

15:21 If it helps. When we first got elected, we had mixed feelings. Most of us were nervous, excited, and scared. And for two of us, it was a dream come true for them.

15:38 Um, and Now, Mike, hold it so that we can hear you. And now we are better at public speaking. We understand the importance of listening to others. Um, we have eye contact with our audience. We problem solve. Um, we have been more confident and we understand that being a leader can sometimes be hard.

16:09 And, and could you guys also

16:17 our leadership council

16:28 question. That’s a wonderful job. We’re gonna, can you come right over there? Yeah, we’re gonna, but also, I’m gonna open it up to the committee if anybody has any questions or comments to make to you guys. Two of our committee members are online, but, um, sometimes they pop up on the screen, but you’ll hear them either way. Does anybody have anything? Well, do you think this leadership c is going to help you become school committee members at some point in time? Hopefully. What do you think guys? You wanna be leaders when you get older? Yeah. Yeah. Not as

17:03 Did he say? Not in The, he said just not the president. I’ll start with this then I’ll become president Later. Hey, everybody did a great job. Thank you so much for coming out tonight. We really, I really appreciate it. And I have to tell you that you have learned a lot of things at your age that I’ve only learned in the last few years. So excellent job, everybody. You, I, I have been so impressed to watch this program unfold. I think this really embodies one of the goals that we hear about from the superintendent of student voice. ‘cause you guys really get to have a voice. You get to be leaders in your community. Um, and they and your whole school got a voice because they got to elect you. And I think this really exemplifies something we’ve been trying to do. And I just could not be more proud of you.

17:48 Anything. Yeah. I, I, I’ll but is Allison Allison, you don’t see her? No. You guys did an amazing job. Matthew. You look very dapper in your city. All look lovely. Temped. I don’t wanna put you in this spot. I’m so very proud of you. It’s so hard to get up and speak in front of a bunch of strangers. So you should be really, really proud of yourself. So I just want, I just want to say, um, you know, this was, this was a vision, um, that I had with, uh, with our administrative team around student voice. And, um, Ms. Maxfield did a really great job of kind of coming up with this idea for student leadership. And I think, um, I was really proud to hear that she did that. And I was really proud to hear that so many kids were interested in it. And you guys got voted in, right?

18:34 It wasn’t just like, Hey, you know, your, your peers got to vote you. So for me, as superintendent of schools, this is like really cool to me. This is really cool to see student voice in action leadership. You guys are leaders of your school. How cool is that? Right? So you have set the bar this eye for next year’s third graders, right? So those second graders are watching you right now. And when they become third graders, they’re gonna want to be in your shoes and do all the really cool things you guys are doing. So great job. Should be very proud of yourselves. And we have certificates for you guys. So I’m gonna call your name and when I call your name, you’re gonna come up

19:11 June. Thank you so much for coming and congratulations.

19:21 Go Judy. Good job. There you go, Jackson.

19:29 Nice Work. Harrison.

19:34 Full traffic jam. There you go. Great job Maggie.

19:41 Awesome job. Maggie. Matthew,

19:47 Good job. Bob. Mila, Good Work. Ruby. Lynn. Zara, nice work. And Tess, such a good job. Can we Stand Over? So I am gonna call a recess in the meeting so we can take, you guys can do some pictures and stuff like that. And, um, not your kind of recess bud, I wish. Um, so I’m gonna just call, call like a five or 10 minute recess so the kids can have a minute to, you know, get the appreciation you guys deserve. And I have to say, like, I’m so impressed, particularly

20:34 with this kindness and justice wall, and I really hope some of our other schools take that wonderful idea and start to do something like that too. ‘cause it, it’s pretty cool to look at. Um, so I will call a recess at six twenty five. All right, so I’m gonna call us back into session at 6 32. Um, and that will bring us to public comment, um, as we had paused that while we had the students present. So, um, for anybody online, if you can raise your hand, if you wanna make public comment, and if anybody in the room would like to make public comment, just so we don’t have a traffic jam up here, maybe just raise your, we normally have a sign up sheep, um, but if you wanna just raise your hand and we’ll go in some semblance of an order here.

21:19 Um, you in the black, we’re here very early. So I’m gonna, you were here an hour early, so I’m gonna call on you. Um, and just for the record, if you can state your name and address for the record. Thank you.

21:39 Good evening. I’m Kira Kay from Pickwick Road, and I wish I was anywhere but here right now because my kids have been in this district for nearly 20 years, and I’ve never spoken at a school committee meeting until this issue arose. Um, he said I always trusted that the majority of my school committee, um, we’re doing whatever was best for student achievement and wellbeing. Proud that here in Marblehead we are safe from issues that plague and degrade education in lower performing states. But lately, I’m not so sure. So here I am. Uh, there’s so much that could be said about this policy, how it feels unnecessary, how it sets a poor example for our kids when adults sanction exclusion of those

22:25 who deserve support, how we have more important priorities, or how divisive the resulting angst has been for our town, or even how it was possibly pre-planned and politically motivated. But I won’t go into all of that now, but I am wondering this, why has the proposed policy not changed at all since last summer? Not after a majority of students demonstrated that there was a better and legally that an alternative, not after our local newspaper endorsed that alternative. Not after so many townspeople showed up on short notice to express everything from disappointment to outrage with what had been proposed. Not even after the state commissioner of elementary and secondary education. In light of recent alarming policies from the current administration released a statement in forming districts

23:11 that it is essential that schools should continue their support for marginalized students to reinforce that they belong in their school communities. He continued research consistently demonstrates that when schools take proactive steps to foster inclusivity through strong policies, affirming practices and supportive educators, students experience improved mental health, academic success, and overall wellbeing. We can all agree that this guy would know what he’s talking about if here in Marblehead, we’re told that our district will take the opposite approach, making us a very conspicuous outlier in the state of Massachusetts and beyond. A change I did notice was the severity of the language used, which I found rather Starling declaring.

23:58 The school committee has sole power to decide what reflects the dis the district’s mission, vision, and values. Yikes, since this policy has been unyielding outta step with so many in Marblehead, and since there has been no willingness to take a single expressed concern and under consideration it seems outlandish to then put yourself in charge of determining our town’s values. The first Marblehead schoolhouse was built in 1675. Somehow we’ve made it three and a half centuries without any such decree. How? Because we require our school administrators and teachers to have advanced degrees in education ensuring they are experts in creating healthy and productive school environments. Wouldn’t they be better qualified to make such decisions than the Committee

24:45 of rotating members who may have good intentions but lack the benefit of such education and training? I’m asking you to leave this in their capable hands where it has always been enhanced by the wise council of our knowledgeable and compassionate students. And I wonder if that makes sense to you, Mr. Du. If not, I ask the committee if they would be willing to come into the school the morning after the policy is enacted, and remove any and all offending banners of support and acceptance from the Juneteenth flag in the Brown school foyer to anything on the high school cafeteria walls, to any little rainbow flags sitting on teacher’s desks in mugs full of pencils as our children look on, wondering what might be next. Thank you.

25:30 Thank you. Um, the right there you were, you were next. And then we’ll go, um, over here and then to Renee Keeny. And then if anybody’s not popped up online, and then we’ll come back to, to here. That’s kind of the cadence we’ll follow.

25:50 Good evening. My name is Liv Niles from ER Road, a junior at MHS. And I’m here today because I strongly believe that banning all flags at our school would be a mistake. I understand that the idea behind this policy might be to prevent conflict or make things simpler, but honestly it would do more harm than good. Flags are more than just decorations. They’re symbols of identity, culture, and personal beliefs. Taking that away would make a lot of students feel like they can’t express who they are. Flags give students a way to feel seen and valued, whether it’s a pride flag, a cultural flag, or even a flag from a sports team. These symbols matter to people. They help us feel connected to our backgrounds and to each other.

26:36 If we take that away, we’re not just removing a piece of fabric. We’re telling students that their identities and beliefs don’t belong here. That’s not the kind of message a school should be sending. Our school is supposed to be a place where everyone feels accepted and supported. Banning flags sends the opposite message. Instead of encouraging, understanding and respect, it teaches students to hide their differences. And honestly, avoiding differences doesn’t make them go away. It just makes students feel isolated and unheard. I know that conflicts can happen when people have different opinions or beliefs, but the solution isn’t to erase those differences. It’s to teach students how to respect them. We should be encouraging open conversations

27:23 and helping students understand each other. That’s how you create a school environment where everyone feels safe and included. So instead of banning flags, let’s focus on building a culture of respect and understanding. Let’s show students that their identities matter and that diversity is something to be proud of, not something to hide. A policy that silences students isn’t the answer. Listening to and supporting them is as mentioned in the student forum with the policy subcommittee, Marin Nina and I put forward our own policy for the flags that was reviewed by lawyers at GLAD G-L-B-T-Q, legal Advocates and Offenders. This policy abides by the SHIRTLIFF v Boston Supreme Court case and takes into account student voices in addition

28:09 to the input of parents, teachers, and other community members. Additionally, as we mentioned at the student forum, we created a survey that was sent to all high school students through the class officers and included questions about a student voice in flag policy decisions and an opportunity to write a statement to be shared at the student forum. The results of the survey included 103 out of 109 students who answered the form stating that they believe we should have a voice in flag policy decisions. These results, along with student statements and our student proposed policy were sent to all school committee members. We ask that you honor our commitment to take school voices, student voices into account, and consider adopting our legally vetted student policy.

28:55 Thank you.

29:03 Yeah. No, no, no, no. Yeah.

29:12 Hi, um, Margaret Carter, 29 Fer Street. I, uh, spoke at your flag subcommittee, um, meeting, and I would hope that you would listen to that. Um, I spoke from my heart in what this history of, uh, and your policy would do, um, regarding that and the acceptance of people like myself and others. Um, I hope that you actually listen to that meeting and you don’t just isolate it to the two people that were there to hear what we had to say in addition to that, you know, what I saw in the papers was that you modified the policy slightly to say that it was gonna be the school committee that would get to decide what flags would be in the schools. I I reiterate what somebody said is, if we’ve had hundreds of years of our schools managing the flags and banners within their buildings with no lawsuits related to flags or banners, one outsider comes in

30:00 and rips down a banner and suddenly that means we’re gonna be sued because someone else violates school property. That just doesn’t make any sense at all.

30:11 We can’t, you shouldn’t be hiding behind a lawyer that tells you you have to have a very restrictive policy. I’d love to see if you guys would share into the record the language that they actually told you you were, that you had to write into this. What is the law saying you have to do? I would love to see that. And, um, I don’t believe that it has anything to do with the school interior at all, or that it include banners versus flags. I had only heard that it was flags. On what grounds do you think you are? Somebody in the paper said that they, that they had to make this policy because they might be sued otherwise. On what grounds would you think that someone would, would sue because there’s a pride flag

30:57 or a Black Lives Matter flag hanging. What are the grounds? I’d love to know what, what that suit would look like. ‘cause I just can’t imagine the case they’d have against you. Conversely, what I heard at that policy subcommittee meeting was that you are definitely gonna be sued if you did pursue this restrictive policy that is putting us all at risk for suit as a town.

31:21 If every flag and banner has to go through the school committee, I’d also like to understand, I would say that it’s gonna strangle the school’s ability to communicate. You’ll strangle their ability to have any causes that they work together, even to support their own teams or, you know, other issues. Are you gonna call a special meeting if the football team wins the championship and they wanna, uh, go around the high school with a banner and cheer each other on? Or you, or is that just not gonna happen because you haven’t approved that banner for that team? What are your processes for accepting and enforcing going to be? Are you and I would like to know, are you gonna do that in public meeting or are you gonna do it behind closed doors? Are you gonna have policies in place that say why one,

32:10 one flag or one banner is gonna be rejected? You should have those policies and those criteria laid out in advance of re of, of reviewing any flag or banner. What makes it rejectable

32:26 and are you gonna make it the whim of a subcommittee or is it gonna be a whole panel, a whole five person committee, unanimous decision that has to reject the flag? Or are you gonna say it has to be unanimous for them to accept a flag? And who decides what is artwork versus banner? Who decides what is poster versus banner and who is gonna enforce it? Are you gonna go in and, and, and create a new position of an enforcement officer to go into the schools and rip things down? Like, what, what is it going to look like in reality?

33:02 And if you make arbitrary and capricious decisions without a structure to decide what is and what is not an acceptable banner or a flag, you will open yourself up for lawsuits. Thank you. Thank you.

33:18 Um, sir, you can go after Ms. Keeny Did. Yeah.

33:27 Renee Ramirez, Keeny two Beverly Ave, Marblehead. Good evening. I’ve offered public comment to the public policy subcommittee on the flag policy since last July and have supported the student’s request for reasonable compromise over the past year. We’ve asked the subcommittee to consider from an educational and developmental perspective the importance of allowing student input. We’ve asked them to trust our trained professional administrators to make decisions on what’s an appropriate banner or flag. They know the students, the dynamics within the school.

34:12 They know like the students in like live so eloquently said. This is more than a public building. It’s the student’s community and educational home. We have connected the stated mission, vision, and values of the school district with this policy. The students, as they’ve said, sought legal guidance. So we talked about the legal parameters of a flag policy. Yet with all of that, we are here at the most restrictive policy. So I have nothing more to add to this from a legal or policy lens. I think those have been exhausted. Um, but sometimes a story can capture the heart of the matter.

35:00 I’m a retired clinical social worker. I worked primarily with children and families in school settings and outpatient mental health. I learned very early, they taught me that any symbol, expression or validation of who you are, what you can achieve and what you can become, is especially important to children outside of family. There is no underestimating the influence of the school in a child’s learning and development and in shaping their self-concept. As a clinical consultant to a Head Start program, a part of my job was running a play therapy group. I had a bunch of beautiful, lovable four

35:47 and 5-year-old, very diverse group of kids. We’d often start the group in circle with a theme one day. It was what I want to be when I grow up. The very first, most eager little black hand shot up. I called on Sabrina. Sabrina said quite intently with a great big smile, with full confidence that anything was possible. Her answer was, when I grow up, I want to be white. Four years old, another child. Manny was exceptionally bright. I called him my co-therapist in this group.

36:33 He was a natural leader. Even at five, one day after a finger painting project, the class was washing up and Manny was the last obsessively washing the blue primary paint off. So I went over to reassure him that he’d already done a great job washing up. He looked up at me and said, but I can’t get the black off. I want it off. Do you think I will ever forget the anxiety in his eyes about not being able to change his color? Even now, in this moment so many years later, I feel the tear in my heart at that moment.

37:21 There are so many stories that are truly sacred to me, and I only share this tonight because this issue and this moment in time require us to dig deep and realize this flag issue is not about being risk averse, not about just complying with the law. It’s about the importance of allowing our kids, like you saw tonight, build a welcoming, accepting community for all and making sure that every child knows they’re valued and can make a contribution to their school, family and community.

38:04 I feel badly for you. I know it’s not your intention, you can’t help it. But your flag and banner banning draft policy, it is happening in the context of a government that is as racing from the Arlington National Cemetery websites, all women and blacks who made heroic contributions to this country. Articles on Navajo codebreakers taken down from military websites, military basis on which my family are even con even their con contracted services have banned celebrations of black history and women’s history. There is an attempt to purge anyone non-white,

38:51 non-straight, non-male. From our collective memory as a nation. Indeed today, there was an executive order to dismantle the education department. That’s probably an affirmation of how important you are as a committee and our schools are. So in the midst of these challenging times, I truly hope that this committee will model for our students courage, compassion, and integrity. I ask you to please stand on the right side of history here in Marblehead and proudly, confidently vote no on this draft policy.

39:37 And yes for education.

39:42 Thank you, Renee.

39:48 I do see a hand up online after this gentleman, we will go to the online. I’m sorry if I missed that a few minutes ago. Thank you. Good evening. I’m Brent Speed from Gerald Road. Uh, I came tonight to just offer my perspective, um, on the proposed flag policy as a a lawyer of, of over 12 years. I’ve seen in the local newspaper that some members of the subcommittee claim that the flag policy, and I’m paraphrasing, is necessary and the only viable way to regulate which flags or banners are displayed in the schools while simultaneously protecting the town from legal liability. That’s simply incorrect. And it’s based on a fundamental misunderstanding or misrepresentation of relevant First Amendment law.

40:33 Longstanding Supreme Court precedents and power schools to regulate the speech of students. These include prohibiting, lewd, obscene, and profane speech, exercising reasonable editorial control over the content and style of school-sponsored expressive activities if related to a legitimate pedagogical concern and regulating speech if necessary to avoid material disruption of classwork. This school district is well aware of these standards as evidenced by other policies currently affecting the district. For example, the high school dress code prohibits wearing clothing that displays obscene, sexually aggressive illegal paraphernalia, weapons, harassing and or bigoted remarks or symbols. The high school Code of Conduct also regulates other speech

41:19 by prohibiting bullying, harassment, hate speech, abusive or vulgar remarks, swearing and rude remarks to teachers and staff. So what I suggest is that this committee could craft a thoughtful policy that empowers students to express their views while also advancing the educational purpose of the schools and maintaining school discipline. Instead, the proposed policy is trying to use a Supreme Court decision that has no effect on the First Amendment principles that apply to the regulation of student speech in schools. And really it comes across as a thinly veiled excuse to end a practice which either members of the committee either don’t agree with in terms of hanging flags and banners up in schools or the particular speech that it’s expressing.

42:10 I ironically, the policy and as it’s currently drafted, as some others have already commented on, actually potentially exposes the town to First Amendment claims because it purports to be able to control speech that the school committee cannot legally suppress on school property. So the policy basically provides that the school policy can dictate what flags or banners or symbolic displays are displayed anywhere, anytime by anyone on school property. Practically speaking, some examples of things that potentially could be covered by the policy as it’s currently drafted would include a car dropping off a student with a bumper sticker

42:56 of a Black Lives Matter or a thin blue line flag. A student wearing a shirt that’s in the, of a gay in the manner of a gate pride, uh, flag, um, uh, at a sporting event, students holding up a pro marblehead banner cheering on their team. It also would ban things like a Spanish a a teacher teaching a Spanish classroom hanging up a flag of Spain or Mexico in the room unless approved by the school committee. So those are only a few examples of some of the things that potentially could be banned that are protected speech or that would be troubling, um, if they were, um, prohibited. And so I would caution the committee that if it does decide

43:41 to move forward with a flag policy, it should carefully consider the language and the way that the policy is crafted and ensure that it doesn’t suppress speech unnecessarily or unconstitutionally. Thank you. Um, we have a few hands up in line. I do wanna note that we are, we have a policy on public comment that it runs, um, 15 minutes. We’re now at 22 minutes. I through a motion of the committee can extend that. So moved. Second. Second. Um, any discussion? No. Um, I didn’t hear the motion, sir. I’m sorry. Um, to extend public comment, I just am trying to follow a procedure. Um, so we have a motion on the table to extend public comment. Um, I’ll, if there’s no discussion, I’ll go for a roll call vote. Jen. Chap. Uh, Can I, uh, uh, can I just, how many hands are raised

44:28 and how many people do we have Lined up in Switzer? Um, we, two more online. We have two in the room. Um, so four.

44:39 Um, okay. So I’m gonna suggest that we maybe go another 10 minutes if we could. Okay. So if each of you can, we Do have a lot of stuff We need to on tonight, try to keep to like two, two and a half minutes just to be respectful and give the other folks Thank you. A time to, um, so I just, I’ll take a roll call. Vote on that. Jen Ner In favor. Allison Taylor. I think she’s dropped off. Okay. Um, Brian Oda in favor. A Williams in favor, Sarah Fox in favor. Motion carries four to zero. So, we’ll, we’ll continue just asking people to, um, to those four folks to keep it. I see more hands going up. We’re, I’m, I’m gonna hold tight to the four that I, when we made the motion and then we can make another one if we need be. So it was Kathleen Terren. Oh, I’m sorry.

45:25 I just have to give you permission to unmute. I’m sorry. You should be able to click on your screen to do that now.

45:33 Hi, can you hear me okay? Yep, go right ahead. Alright, so, um, my name is Kathleen Rin. I live at 23 Devereaux in Marblehead and I recently sent a school committee an email, uh, regarding my position on the situation. And so I’d like to just read that now if I may. So, I recently moved to Marblehead in 2021 with my husband. When we moved here, I was six months pregnant with our first baby. And looking forward to all the things that being a new mom entailed, we were thrilled to have moved to this beautiful coastal community, which was renowned for its wonderful school system. However, I have been disappointed to read all the articles of crumbling school leadership,

46:19 school building deterioration, and now about your extremely disappointing school flag policy. The children and people who live in town that you serve should have the right to contribute to the policies in place in their schools at a time when civil rights are being stripped away from our marginalized community members. And the representation is literally being erased from government websites. Allowing school groups to express and support messages of inclusion is exactly what the community needs. Part of education is exploring uncomfortable topics, participating in debate and learning to find your own voice. If we begin to censor ideas and groups now, where will it end? It’s a very dangerous slippery slope.

47:05 The landmark Supreme Court case, tinker v Des Moines ruled that expression, which does not disrupt the educational environment, is protected under our First Amendment rights. A pride flag does not disrupt the learning environment. A Black Lives Matter flag does not disrupt the learning environment. They do not represent hate. These are flags that make small groups of people feel seen and included when historically they have been excluded or unjustly maltreated. Protecting free speech, maintaining safe and inclusive spaces, as well as allowing the free exchange of ideas are essential to public education. I want my daughter to get an excellent education that I

47:52 firmly believe public schools can provide. However, the decision Marblehead school committee has come to has just gives me pause. It lacks a signal. It signals a lack of trust in the experience educators of the town. And it signals that this town does not support the people who need it the most. We should affirm values of inclusion because we are stronger together. And I do urge you to reconsider your decision. Thank you. Thank you. Um, Jeannie Lampkin. And if we can again, folks, just keep it down, uh, to we’re shooting for the now two minute mark. ‘cause we went over a little bit so that everybody that was, um, here and prepared to speak has the opportunity.

48:43 Jeannie, you disappeared. Okay. She has disappeared. So apparently she’s yielding the floor at Angus,

48:58 Uh, Angus McLoan 39 Tyson Lane, parent Of an eighth grader at the middle school. Um, Recording in progress. I just realized I paused the recording during our recess. I apologize greatly. Um, but it will still all be on MHTV. I apologize, I just restarted. It is back on for me. It is back on for you. I’m, I really, I apologize that it had been paused. So I’m a, uh, marble hood resident, parents and an educator I teach in the classroom at LaSelle University in Newton. I’m so proud of Liv for being here and speaking so articulately on this, uh, on this issue tonight. What we talking about here is, is policy by political objective. Policy making by political objective. I spent 11 years serving as chief of staff for a member

49:44 of the state Senate crafting public policy. And every time I saw policy designed to accomplish a political objective, it was policy that had unintended consequences. In this case, the political objective of at least one member of the committee, maybe more, is to remove the Black Lives Matter flag. This has been stated publicly political objective around which an attempt is being made to craft policy. So now the committee has spent 18 months focused on trying to craft a policy to accomplish a narrow political objective.

50:19 Creating policy by political objective Is a terrible way to create policy, such as policy will always have unintended consequences. What we’ve seen over these many months are several versions of a policy draft, each version worse than the last one. First, we had a policy proposal that would, uh, ban flags except with school committee exceptions. Then we had a policy that just ban flags outright said, no flags except for the enumerated ones. Now we have a policy that would politicize in a permanent way this school committee and turn it into a partisan body making partisan decisions, flag and banner by flag and banner about what will be hung on the walls of our schools. It will turn this into a political partisan body

51:06 and it will create partisan elections. We have been well served in this community by having a non-partisan school committee. And I would suggest that we continue in that tradition and a great deal of the committee’s time and energy that could have been put toward improving our schools and improving the quality of education in our schools has been put toward the effort to accomplish this narrow political objective. I would note, you know, this whole debate has been on the, the claim that that and, and it’s not inaccurate that an administrator asked for guidance from the school committee. That very administrator came before the school committee shortly after asking for that guidance and said, on the record, this is not designed to remove the Black Lives Matter flag. But I think it’s clear now that that is the objective

51:53 of proponents of this policy. So finally, what we have now is a flag censorship policy that puts every decision, every flag to be flown, um, in the hands of the school committee case by case with a complete ban on public participation by quote third parties. Well, who is a third party under this policy? Every taxpayer, marblehead, every homeowner in Marblehead, every parent in Marblehead, every student in Marblehead, every teacher who teaches in Marblehead under this policy, would be prohibited from coming to your committee to propose that a particular flag or banner be either flown or not flown. Now, I really appreciate the comments of the attorney who spoke earlier who I have not met before, but I look forward to shaking your hand

52:40 ‘cause you did a great job articulating the First Amendment concerns with this policy. But I would recommend that there’s another, also a First Amendment concern in this country. We have a right of free petition. We have a right to petition our elected officials for redress of grievances passing a policy that prohibits me and everybody else in this community from coming to petition this committee to make a decision around a particular flag or banner is patently unconstitutional. And it will lead to litigation. Something that this community very, very much given the significant expense of all the litigation that has proceeded, does not want and cannot afford. So I would suggest to you that this policy proposal that’s before you is not fully baked,

53:25 despite it being 18 months into this dialogue, is not ready for consideration by this committee until a great deal more consideration is given to the legal implications of passing such a policy. And I would recommend to you that this policy should be tabled indefinitely until a better policy has been developed. And I would point out the only one that’s been proposed that is not designed by political objective is the policy put forward by the students carefully researched, balanced, drafted in consultation with council, if this committee wants to do the right thing by our students and our community, if we’re gonna adopt a policy at all, which I would argue we don’t necessarily need to ‘cause we haven’t had one for centuries and would been just fine. That’s the policy that should be adopted. I would also like to second the question that was raised earlier by another speaker.

54:11 I’d love to hear what interim Superintendent Robo thinks about this. I hope a member of the committee will ask him during your deliberations this evening. Thank you very much. Thank you. I do see Jeanie Han back up. Um, so I’m gonna ask that you unmute yourselves, Sarah. Yes. Can you hear Me? Yeah. Before we get into Jeanie, hang on one second. I just wanna make one comment, which I know we know don’t normally do, but I just wanna state right now for the record that I am unaware of any member of this committee making any statement whatsoever in regards to any particular flag anywhere in our buildings. And I’m gonna leave it at that. I have not heard any member, myself included, make any statements. And I think that’s important to note. Thank you. I I’m gonna ask, and as we do with public comment, we, we don’t interact with public comment. Um, and there’s, if, if you stick around

54:57 and watch the meeting unfold, I have yet to see people’s public comment not be addressed at the appropriate agenda item in the committee or in the meeting. And as this is an agenda item, um, we can absolutely talk more about that at that point. Um, so I’m gonna, um, I think Jeanie looks like you were unable to unmute. Unmute. And we’re gonna pop to you. Yes, Your magic, uh, unmute button from the sky appeared this time. So thank you, Sarah. Hello everyone. I appreciate all the people who are, um, back at this, um, hard topic and, and I think, um, things that um, will, will at least give me, um, a little positive before I make my comments quickly, ‘cause I know you don’t wanna be here all night, is, um, Renee, um, sharing the long held perspective from her work

55:43 really hit me hard. Um, and I appreciate how hard it was for her to say that. So I just wanna acknowledge that. I also wanna say that, um, one of the other online speakers, Kathleen, is my neighbor of two’s doors down that through Covid and everything else, we haven’t had enough chances to meet. So I will run out of my house shortly to go wave at their house. Um, and I just wanna say in this small town, this of this small town, when my girls were babies, the house that Kathleen lives at was, uh, owned and, uh, beloved by the Antonucci, who Deb Antonucci was a force to be reckoned with in Marblehead schools. And she was just an amazing person. So I think our legacy of caring deeply about this town and our schools, wherever we are in our journey is, is just one that I have lived personally.

56:30 Um, and, and I wanna speak briefly to legacy and to the people that need to make this decision. Um, I know Allison and Jen, you’ve been carrying this for some time trying to figure it out. And, and I would just, in the spirit of we all will be the ancestors that our children and their children will look at. You really want everyone on this school committee who will cast some vote on this to think in the very long term. And this town loves our history. What will our children and their children say about our decisions in this moment? Um, I, I repeated these comments that I found on multiple, uh, websites, Johns Hopkins, Stanford, et cetera, the developmental needs of our high school students. They are ready and they are starting to develop the ability

57:16 to think abstractly. They are concerned with philosophy, politics, social issues. They’re starting to think long term. They’re starting to set goals. They are really interested in all the things their peers are up to. They want independence from their parents. They, they really wanna start to get out into the world and say who they are. And they are in high school. And I would ask you to consider, in addition to all of the other points made here tonight, which I endorse, what are we telling them about our trust in them, about our optimism that they can, with the values and skills we have imparted to them from their homes to this town, to our schools, that they can,

58:03 and they will meet the world, that they will negotiate things that are new and different with night discernment and diplomacy and good values. And they will figure out how to accept things that are different from them. How to learn and grow and how to contribute to the world. And I ask you to not think about a place where instead this policy serves to put blinkers and blinders on them, to encase them in bubble wrap, to hide them and make them fragile and rigid from seeing anything that they might not be aware of, that they might not be comfortable with, that they might not know what to do with. Because in these formative years,

58:48 this is when they should be figuring it out. And if they don’t have the experience to see a sign, a symbol, a message that they’re unfamiliar with, that they’re uncomfortable about, that they come to believe they disagree with, and they learn how to do all of that respectfully and with empathy and with the ability to realize that they too can be valued, even if they’re different, then I just ask you, what is the point of having them in school at all? So please think Way beyond this moment. What are we telling them? Don’t put them in bubble wrap. Don’t put the blinkers on them. Don’t make them afraid to see a world that may not be totally curated for their comfort.

59:34 Thank you. Thank you Jeanie. Um, you sir.

59:44 Thank you. I’ll be brief. Um, Henry g Gusto Road, uh, Mohawk Road. Um, I think one thing we can all agree on is that we all enjoyed the third graders presentation at the beginning of this meeting. And, uh, I was gonna talk about something else, but I was really taken by their, the, the leadership qualities that they outlined in, in their presentation about teamwork and collaboration and, and justice and inclusion. And I think it’s, it’s, it, it’s a really important message that I hope everyone internalizes when they’re thinking about this new flag policy. Um, and we’re all really proud of the third graders, of course. Um, but we should also be proud of our high school students who created an amazing flag policy that’s been legally reviewed.

1:00:30 Um, I think that their efforts should be applauded by this school committee. I think that they embody the mission of this school committee to produce, um, what you call, um, uh, contributing members of society. And I think if we have to adopt a flag policy, um, we should adopt theirs. And I urge you not to vote for this proposed subcommittee flag policy. Thank you very much. Thank You Mr. Questa. I do have one more person who raised their hand after we made the motion. I’m gonna let her speak, but then after that we really are gonna move on with the, the business meeting. Um, Megan Kaplan. I am, I should have been able to, I should have unmuted you.

1:01:18 You should be all set. Can you hear me? Yep, go ahead. Oh, so it’s Megan Kaplan. Um, I live at seventh Sapphire Ave. I am trying to talk to you as a parent. Um, I, I don’t, I’m really speaking off the cuff and my house is pretty chaotic right now, so I might be saying some similar things as what others have said, but I’m gonna try to, I’m gonna be really brief. Okay. So this past week, my first grader at Glover had to do, um, a project it for homework. He had to make a lab contract. Um, what he put on his Lepper contract was a flag of virus. Um, so I just wonder if, is the school committee kind of encroaching on curriculum a little bit with this policy? Like, I, I assume they’re not gonna,

1:02:05 we’re not gonna make kids rip flags off projects. However, if, and I think that this has been brought up before, but if there’s a project in the high school hanging that has a flag, my my first graders Lupton trap, what does that look like in terms of this policy? Um, my second point is, and I think that the last gentleman spoke to this as well, but it is that we’re we the community, you all, uh, our educators, our administration, we’re, we’re trying to create leaders in, in the community where, you know, we’re really encouraging students to be leaders, and we’ve got leaders, we’ve heard from our youngest leaders, uh, this, this meeting, and it was awesome.

1:02:51 Um, but are we listening to our students leaders? Are we really hearing what they have to say and what message are we sending to them when even if we hear them, if we’re not acting in their perceived best interest? Uh, that’s pretty much it. Thanks. Thank you, Megan. Um, all right. So that brings public comment to a conclusion. And the next agenda item is district updates with the superintendent. Thank you. Um, appreciate that. Uh, so yeah, that’s tough to do. Uh, updates. We’ve heard a lot of, a lot of, um, public comment like that, so I need to just take a beat for a second. Um, so good evening. Um, spring is sprung and there’s a lot going on in Marblehead schools.

1:03:36 Um, Hades Town Teen Edition is April 11th, 12th, and 13th at 7:00 PM two and two respectively. Congrats to, this is gonna be a little all over the place. I try to grab a lot of stuff from a lot of the newsletters, um, to share. So congrats to, uh, Nate Assa, uh, for finishing sixth nationwide in the 500 me, uh, 5,000 meter race at the New Balance National Indoor Track and Field competition. Um, that’s a great accomplishment. Um, I am hoping I don’t, um, butcher the name. It’s A-O-I-F-E Oe Iffa Iffa, It was, sorry. Iffa Sullivan’s documentary, uh, making Magic. And Marblehead has been selected for screening at the, I’m sorry, is she here? Are you here? No. Okay. I’m sorry.

1:04:23 IIII should have practiced it. I’m, I apologize, has been selected for screening at the Salem Film Festival on Saturday, March 28th at 10 15 at the National Park Service Visitor Center. So that’s really cool. Hopefully folks can get out and see that. Um, the All Town musical concerts are beginning tonight here, um, here with the All Coral, uh, concert that start at seven, March 25th for all the bands, all bands at Vets April 3rd for all strings at Vets and April 16th back here for all Jazz at the high school. And they all start at seven o’clock. Community Arts Nights sponsored by the MHS, national Arts Honors Society is March 21st from five to eight in the high school cafeteria. So those are just some of the things happening. Um, I wanted to share that Meco ADV Advocacy Day. Wow, that was tough. Um, it was held today at the State House. Our Meco directed, uh, AIA Johnson represented Marblehead

1:05:09 and shared how our program works, the challenges with programming and funding and all the positives transpiring here in Marblehead. Um, the Meco program’s, uh, really robust here in, in Marblehead. We have, uh, you know, um, more students coming in for next year. Uh, there’s some funding issues from, from, obviously from the state, but, um, you know, uh, Cage’s been a really good advocate for, um, at the State House and in Meco, uh, hq, the headquarters, and making sure that we’re getting what we need for our students, um, our Boston based students. So I appreciate her efforts. Um, can I ask a Question on that? Yes. Um, I wanna make sure I word this appropriately. Given the climate we’re in right now, are there any concerns, um, that the METCO program could become a, a target, if you will,

1:05:58 or become a a I think you know what I’m getting at. I don’t Answer. Yeah, I don’t, I haven’t heard No, I, I think that, I think the easy answer is no Um, are there some funding issues that may transpire going down the road? Possibly. Um, but the METCO program’s been in place for so long, it’s so ingrained in, I think there’s 32 communities. Um, and there’s a lot of Boston based students that come out to our, to our, um, our educational facilities and communities. And I think it’s really well ingrained. I think the state, um, from what I understand is, is um, hasn’t really balked at any of the funding. Okay. The only, the only challenge right now is the president and CEO, um, has, has resigned. So they’re actually in leadership, um, change right now. I saw that. Yeah. So I think that’s really the only, the big thing at the, at the moment, but I, I don’t foresee it. Um, do

1:06:43 You know the timeline for them replacing Millie or, Um, I know that they On the spot, I apologize. No, no. I, I wanna say it’s a July one start, but it could be earlier. I know they’re looking at it, uh, getting the committees together and stuff, so I don’t think it’s like a immediate, Um, okay. I just, you Know, I was hoping it’s Been a longstanding program. I, Yeah. And I wanted to have her come to one of the school committee meetings this spring, but I don’t know that that’s gonna happen now, so. Okay. Um, but I just wanna share that the METCO program is alive and well here and in Marblehead, and I think it’s, I think it’s a great program, um, in offering diversity and, um, inclusion and belonging for our students. Although, well, which stands for Women’s Educational Leadership Network Conference was held this week. This week. This week, yes. This, yep. And we sent a contingency of our, our leaders for the day of professional development, networking and share. I think we had 14. 1214, yes.

1:07:30 Um, of, of our leaders, um, went and spent the day, which, um, I heard was a great conference. And I’m glad we were able to represent Marblehead really proudly there. Uh, we held professional Development day on March 19th, where things like curriculum alignment continue to review the science curriculum, special education programming, review of data, um, iReady and prescreening, um, et cetera, was, was done along with ongoing WIT and Wisdom pd and a host of other topics, um, that were addressed across the district. A few other upcoming events of interest are kindergarten registration begins on March, on Monday, March 24th. The Brown Steam Fair is on March 27th, I believe that begins at six o’clock. You know that I, I think it’s six o’clock. And the Glo, I’m assuming I know that. Well, you all have kids everywhere. I figured. Um, and the Glover Glow Run is on the 26th, which really sounds like a blast.

1:08:16 I think that’s gonna be fun. Um, and I just wanna share a few personal experiences. Um, I thought were really cool this week. Um, I received very persuasive snail mail letters from, uh, nine of our high school AP students, um, from, um, Robin Fine’s class, um, complete with research citations. It was really cool. I got an email saying, oh, you’re gonna get letters. And I kind of thought about it, forgot about it. I took, I took a few days off. I came back and I had all these, a pile of letters on my desk. I was a little nervous, ‘cause like, you know, they all had envelopes and stamps. I’m like, uh oh, what’s this? Um, and then it was from the students, it was really cool. Um, they had topics. They were per, per persuasive writing, uh, letters. And the topics range from school start times. There were several of those, uh, three day week, uh, talking about three day weekends, the length of the school year, the ability to have a mental health day incorporated into the school

1:09:01 year and the attendance policy. So, I just wanna say I’m proud of the way the students wrote the letters, um, and how persuasive they all were, you know, was just sending an email. They actually addressed the letters. They, it was, it was really cool. Um, I’m trying my best to write back because it is definitely a loss to art and it’s gonna take a little time. But I, my plan is to, um, to write everybody back. ‘cause I think, uh, they, they’re, um, that’s, that’s the right thing to do. Right. Um, but I wanted to thank the students, Owen Ridge, max Teeter, and again, I’m gonna apologize ahead of time. If I mispronounce anything, I’m gonna do my best. Max Teeter, uh, Sarah Monroe, Adeline dor, Timmy Wales De de Lopez. Sorry. Danielle Guerrero, Eleanor Nile, and Olivia per, for sharing your thoughts and perspectives. This is student’s voice at its fine. We, we heard from the third graders today,

1:09:48 really cool student voice, really well written, uh, persuasive letters from the high school students. It was great. Um, I also wanna share that I was asked to be a guest speaker on the Hadassah Web webinar last night. It’s kind of really neat. I didn’t really know what to expect. But, um, I went on, uh, with, uh, yeah, Al McGahn and her son, David Mcg, again, a high school student here at Marblehead High School. It was myself and another woman that was from Oakland, California. I’m not exactly sure what her role was, but she talked about some really cool, um, stuff around antisemitism. But I was invited on. It was a cool webinar. Um, it started at, I think, seven. I was got on around seven 15. It went to around nine o’clock last night. It was about a hundred people on. Um, and we talked a lot about, um, antisemitism, um, anti-discrimination, what kinds of things, um, are happening here in Marblehead, but also just like in curriculum, how we review curriculum.

1:10:35 How do we look at that for, for biases and antisemitism. David McGinn was very instrumental here at the high school for identifying some materials that weren’t, weren’t necessarily appropriate. And he did some really great student adv advocacy. Why am I having trouble with that word today? I, I don’t know. Um, but again, student voice at its finest, right? He spoke up, he, he, he went through the right channels, did the right thing. He talked to his teacher. He talked to his mother. He, he did, um, went to the department head, talked about it, and, and really, um, I thought it was really cool. So he shared that story. I shared some of the stuff. Um, you know, since I’ve come to Marblehead, I’ve met with many members of the Jewish community. Um, I’ve been to things at, um, you know, the A DL, the JCC, uh, Lapin Foundation. Met with a lot of, uh, community members, just to kind of get a feel for what I, I’m not Jewish.

1:11:22 I, I don’t have a, a broad knowledge of, of, uh, the Jewish community and the culture here in Marblehead. Um, so it’s been really eye-opening for me to learn some, some things about that community and what’s been brought to the mix and really the concerns about antisemitism. So I talked a lot about that, and I share that because I think it’s important. Um, we created an anti-discrimination committee, um, with a, with a, a focus on antisemitism for right now. Um, that’s composed of some parents and some administrators, teachers and students. Um, and we’ve met a couple times. Um, but as we move forward, people have asked me some questions about this, so I kind of want to talk about it in public for a minute. Um, so as we move forward, I’ll pull people in for, you know, some resources that, you know, we, um, we had a, a rabbi, um, from Swamps Skit who had been in one

1:12:09 of the meetings and he offered some assistance and maybe looking at some curriculum if we run into things. ‘cause, you know, maybe some, some subtle anti-Semitic, um, things might be in the curriculum. He’s offered his services there. We’ve talked to, you know, the, the, um, uh, organizations I just mentioned, and how, how can we tap into those for resources. Um, so I’ll pull people in as we need to and into the committee. Um, but I think we’re off to a pretty good start. I had really good conversations with the students. I had met with them separately. They shared a lot of, uh, their, uh, experiences. And I met with the adults. Um, none of the students were able to make the time that I set up the, the meeting. But, um, I think we’ve had some good communication. I just wanna share that. I think it’s important for folks to know. Um, I’ll move on. Um, and then the last thing I just wanted to share was, um,

1:12:54 uh, read Across America. Wheat provided me with the opportunity to be a guest reader today at this part, part classroom, first grade class by Glover this morning. Marika. Um, the students were really respectful. They were intent, attentive. I read a book called Be U-B-B-E-Y-O-U. Um, it’s by Peter H. Reynolds. It was really cool. It was a book about, you know, being kind. It was a book about it’s okay to be different. It’s a book about, you know, accepting one another. Um, and I didn’t pick it. I, I, I couldn’t find my box of books that I saved from when my kids were little this morning at four 30 when I was getting ready to come to Marblehead. I couldn’t find it. I was all panicking. But I got to the C and they had the book for me. And I’m, I’m like, what a cool book to read. I hadn’t read it before I read it. And it’s like, so, um, um, insightful and,

1:13:42 and, um, you know, timely. Um, so it was a really cool book. And I just share that because I love doing that. And it’s really cool to see the kids. Yeah, I was a guest reader, so I had to guess who I was. They had no idea who I was. But, so when we talked about it, and then I had to explain what a superintendent was and, you know, all that stuff. But the kids were great. And I just, I appreciated being invited in. So I just, I like to share the positive stuff, and the student stuff is positive to me. So thank you for indulging me for a few minutes. Okay. I’m done. Anybody, um, have some questions about, or cut anything about the superintendent update? Jen? Uh, no, that was great. I know we have a couple reports. We’re still waiting on John, but we’ll, I guess talk about those offline for when we’ll get those presented. Oh, yeah. I apologize. I, I, I meant to, um, I got, I got way laid this afternoon. Um, so the report on the anti-Semitic, um,

1:14:31 situations, um, that occurred. I will have the executive summary. I, I spoke with, um, the, the office yesterday. We had a long conversation, uh, zoomed in. I’ll have the executive summary for that for the next meeting. And I believe we’ll have the academic Discoveries report as well. Um, that report’s, um, academic discovery reports around the special education. We’ve talked a little bit about it, that, that was done, you know, kind of started before we all got here. But it’s a 349 page report, I think. Yes. It’s, so, it’s very comprehensive in one, in one way. But as Lisa Marie and I have delved into it, there’s, um, a decent amount of inaccuracies. So we’re trying to work with the company to, you know, kind of course correct a little bit. And we want to make sure we’re sharing what’s, um, what’s appropriate to share.

1:15:16 So, but the plan gen is to have both of those for the next meeting. And I apologize for the delay. It’s really been kind of out of our control. But, um, we’ve been pushing. So do You think, um, John, well, first of all, for the academic discoveries, do we expect an executive summary or is it sort of just a deep dive into, So I think, so the way I, the way I read the, read the, the report, it is a draft report they sent. ‘cause they wanted to send it to us and get our, you know, opinion about how it’s format and things like that. So I, we haven’t got the complete report yet, but, um, what I looked at, how I looked at it, the first like 30 pages was really an executive summary. It talked about it, talked about what they did, how they did it, what their process was, their main findings. And then the other 300, and I can’t do the math in my head pages left, um,

1:16:02 were really, uh, about documentation that they looked at programming, things that they looked at and what I can tell you. So I think the, if I don’t get a separate executive summary, those first, that first part of the, um, report will be what, we’ll, I think we’ll share, um, because that’s really the meat and potatoes of it. And then secondly, what I want to say is, everything that I read in the report, Lisa Marie and her team has pretty much already addressed, which we, we kind of already knew. Um, ‘cause she identified those things really quickly. And she’s either addressed them or is in the process of addressing them. So I feel really good about, you know, we’ll get the report, it’ll be, it’ll be good information, but we’re already, um, in my opinion, ahead of the game for any corrective action that might come out of that. Um, So I think, can I just make one quick comment? Absolutely. I think that, um, you know, this report, it has taken a long time, right?

1:16:48 And it, it came out of a very, very difficult time that we had a year and a half ago, basically. And it’s clear in, you know, the current administration that at least it’s clear to me I should say, that, you know, many, many of these items have been, um, rectified. So I just wonder, I’m just throwing this out, whether Lisa, Marie, you know, you and John think it makes sense to, I hate to put more work on Lisa Marie, but to maybe have, you know, kind of a brief summary that, you know, here’s the executive summary and here are the things that we’ve dealt with. And, um, we can sort of put it to bed that point. I, I think, I think actually, I think that’s actually a really good idea. And I’m happy to, um, to craft that with Lisa Marie. I just, I wasn’t sure if they were gonna provide us with something that was a briefer thing where, where Lisa, Marie and I haven’t had a chance to connect this week

1:17:35 in earnest to talk about it. So, um, if they, if they’re not gonna do that on their own, we’ll certainly do that. ‘cause it does make sense. ‘cause I think between the two of us, we can kind of come up with a, a two or three page that would make sense to share. Well, it’s also only half the story, right? The first half of the story is the issues that we were facing, and the second half of the story is where we are. Mm-hmm. 16 to 18 months later, or 12 months later, um, in, in dealing with it. Yeah. And I think the other piece to the whole puzzle is that, um, Lisa Marie, at some point, this probably late spring, will also come to the committee and kind of talk a little bit about her department and where we are and, and where we’re going. And kind of a, a deeper dive into an update, which, which will be kind of subsequent to that report. So I think between the two, that’d be great. I think the public will get a really, really good idea of,

1:18:22 of all the good work that’s happening and where we’re headed in Marblehead. And I’m very confident that we’ll be in a much better place, um, shortly well, in excellent year’s time. Thank you. Thank you. Really looking forward to that. Thank you, Lisa Marie. Thank you, John. You’re Welcome. And I’m very eager to see the report on the investigation into the antisemitism that the school committee voted to, um, fund and, and request. Um, for, I, I think that actually what struck me through this whole discussion about the flags is that people seem to not understand where, what the root of that, um, investigation for the antisemitism was. And what happened was, going back about 18 months ago, or 15 months ago, some year, about a year

1:19:09 and a half ago, um, we had, um, flags that our faculty got into a disagreement about. Um, there was very strong feelings after, um, the events of October of 2023 happened. And, um, faculty was in strong disagreement. Um, harsh interactions occurred, um, and this, and, and a lot bubbled up about feelings of antisemitism in our school, feelings of antisemitism, potentially faculty to faculty. Um, and a lot, very large portion of this

1:19:55 investigation has to do with claims of some faculty telling other faculty that flags that were hanging were offensive, um, and so on and so forth. It ultimately culminated in, um, the loss of, of several teachers, um, leaving of their own free will, just because they, this, this was such a dynamic conflict. And I think what people don’t understand is that, that, that it was the precipitous all of this, it, it wasn’t that the school committee all of a sudden one day decided, um, we’re gonna move forward on this. Um, and it’s become, you know, we, we had one meeting, it was the largest meeting I have seen, you know, I’ve been on the board for six years. I was at every single meeting for probably three, four years prior.

1:20:41 So in 10 years, it was the largest outpouring I have ever seen, where we had to have, um, a, a fire chief here to make sure we could do, or, or there was some type of, um, public safety here to make sure the overflow was okay. We filled a, a room downstairs. There was that many people here that really culminated in that investigation happening. And so for me, I would really like to see the outcome of this in independent investigation and any recommendations they may have. Um, so I’m, I’m really hopeful that we see that soon. You will see, you will see the executive story at the next meeting, um, that they’ve done that. What I can say is, um, it’s largely a personnel issue that that was the investigation.

1:21:27 So, you know, I, I don’t, I can probably say that some people are gonna be a little disappointed in the outcome, um, based upon the fact that it’s, it’s mainly personnel issues. It’s, you know, it’s not that investigation was never intended to be, is, is, is Marblehead schools anti-Semitic? That’s not the intent. I think some people think that was the intent. It was based upon specific personnel issues that quite frankly, could have been handled differently and weren’t. And the investigation was set off because, um, there was some issues with how we could do it internally. Um, and so, you know, it’s, we’ll get the executive summary and It’ll be, but I think it will speak to, you know, a lot of this boiled up from that point. And, and I hope I, I, I at least hope to, to see

1:22:12 what an Dependen person came back with. Um, so we’ll see that next meeting in two weeks. Yep. All right. So thank you for your very, very thorough update on, Sorry, I just got a little carried Away today. Today. No, it was great. It was great. Um, so that brings us to our consent action agenda Items. I did not see minutes in the Dropbox. Uh, they did not make it. Okay. Um, and I am gonna reach out again. Okay. That There’s a scheduled bills, though. No, Sir. Theres a schedule of bills. So I’m gonna ask for a motion to approve the identified And minutes. We don’t have, yeah, we didn’t have The minutes. Yeah. Motion to approve the identified schedule of bills totaling $973,745 and 11 cents. So, moved, Moved. Seconded, Jen Schaffner, seconded by Al Williams discussion.

1:22:59 So I will do roll call, vote Jen Schaffner In favor, Brian OTA in favor, Al Williams. In favor, Sarah Fox in favor. Motion carries four to zero with their approval. Those bills, we have no minutes. That’s postponed. That brings us to school committee communication discussion items. We have the FY 25 Marblehead School District budget 26. Um, this has been very well publicized, well vetted. It’s available FY 26, FY 26, um, available online. We had our budget workshop so people could really see how it’s made, where the suggestions come from, that each, um, that the school committee does not make up the budget that our, um, administrators work together as a team to propose each of their budgets, um, for their individual school and their individual department.

1:23:44 Which then, um, goes up to our, um, superintendent and, and our assistant superintendent of finance and operations. Um, they work on that and then bring it forward to us. So I am gonna ask for a motion to approve the FY 26 budget and the amount of 49,000,120 sales, $120,285. All move moved by Brian Oda. Seconded. Second Jen Schaffner. And any discussion?

1:24:18 Nope. All right. So Wait, wait, wait. I have, I always wanna make a comment. I’m looking forward to this vote. I will make this quick, but I just wanna make, you know, one comment around, um, the issue of the budget this year. There’s been some things floating out in the press, um, and in the public. Um, I’ve had some people approach me and there was some questions around, um, that this expectation that we were gonna be needing additional revenue sources going into this, uh, budget season. And that, um, the town, um, had a greater level of free cash than was expected. Um, which came to light, um, for me around the time of the state of the town in early January. Um, and I think the rest of the committee, too, um, not sure that maybe the budget subcommittee had some discussions, but I don’t, I don’t think so.

1:25:04 We had had no update on that. It’s important to note, um, that this was an e you know, uh, an evolutionary process, um, in the finances of the town. Um, we did expected a certain projection that we had been told all throughout the fall, through the summer of the fall, and into the winter, uh, early winter, um, that we fully expected, um, that we were gonna have, we were gonna have some difficulty possibly making, making this budget with the town projections. And those projections changed. And when they changed in early January, early to mid-January, we were able to move forward, um, which I’m, which is great news, um, with a budget that the administration, superintendent and the administration is, um, tells us they’re confident it will be a level services budget, and we are moving forward

1:25:50 with a solid budget to educate our students. Yes. Um, and, and that was all announced during the state of the town. I believe it came to the attention of the Fin com about my understanding is, you know, a week or two ahead of, of, um, state of the town. So even FinCon was unaware that the revenue projections were coming in much higher than had been expected. Um, and people want more. And I’d like To ask the press that it may be there to, to, um, reflect that if possible. Okay. And folks can also go back and review the minutes. We got a thumbs up fin the FinCon meetings, as well as the select board meetings because our revenue stream gets developed there, not here. Um, the town comes and says, this is what we have earmarked for you, and this is what we can project. Um, there was a meeting, I believe it was, God,

1:26:37 I don’t know if my memory is right, but I wanna say it was around October 11th is sticking out in my mind for some reason of last fall where they gave what they thought the projections were gonna be. And then fast forward, two and a half months later, they came in much, much higher. So I encourage folks that, you know, don’t wanna take my word for it or Jen’s word, um, to go back, review those FinCon minutes, review those select board minutes, and really, really put it all together for yourselves. Um, all right. So I’m gonna call for vote. Jen Schaffner In favor, Brian OTA in favor, Al Williams. Forgot your name for a second. Sorry. In favor, Sarah Fox. In favor. Motion carries four to zero, and we have a number to bring to the warrant hearing. Um, just for folks looking at the timeline, um,

1:27:22 FinCon will vote our budget at a meeting on March 31st. At that point, it then moves on to the warrant hearing, which is that first week of April. Um, at the warrant hearing is when FinCon votes a recommendation. Um, often on the floor of town meeting, you’ll hear FinCon re recommends passage or Fin FinCon or recommends indefinite postponement, the warrant hearings, where all that comes from. Um, and then town meeting, as always, is the first Monday, and sad to say, probably Tuesday of May. Um, so all that, that’s when all the fun happens. Um, next we have, thank you very much for sticking it out through the meeting, the proposed overnight trip for the DECA Career Development Conference. Um, and again, congratulations to our DECA team

1:28:10 because every year they seem to, um, be in front of us to go to the next conference because they, they really have done do a great job. So kudos to you for working with them and kudos to the students. Thank you. Uh, my name is Paul Gleason. I’m business teacher Model Head high school. See you again. Um, so I’m, uh, here to request approval for an overnight field trip. I believe I sent you, um, a packet with a lot of details. You wanna go to Disney World? Well, that’s where the decking conference is. And it’s a, uh, five night, um, overnight trip. And we were able to, uh, fundraise

1:28:56 and with a, uh, gen, uh, generous, um, grant, we were able to keep the cost down so that students will only be responsible for covering the airfare. So the registration fee and the, uh, and the logic, oh, and they’ll have to pay for their rides. Um, but it really is a great opportunity. And, uh, we had, um, three young ladies and, um, are the president of our club, uh, qualified to go to the national competition. That’s wonderful. Um, that leads to some questions. How are you gonna finagle those rooms? But that’s a huge issue. Um, well, I, I can address that. So, um, I confirmed that this particular hotel, um, each room has two beds and cots are, uh, available in this, in this hotel.

1:29:44 So, um, the three girls know each other and they’ll be staying in one room. And, uh, we have partnered with, uh, another school, uh, who only has, uh, they only have three male attendees. And our student agreed to, um, we sort of joined forces with, uh, with their chaperone. Um, in order to supervise the students. I’ve also been in contact with the, um, DECA advisor at Beverly High School, who is a female. And she’ll help me with the, uh, making sure that the, the young ladies adhere to their curfew and be in their hotel room, uh, uh, uh, on time. So, um, the, uh, the school is,

1:30:30 I say it’s Quain Regional High School. So they have, um, they have two students. And so our student will be joining up with them and they’ve sort of shared their social media information and have been in touch and sort of, kind of like the college roommate process. Does anybody have any questions? Jen? Um, and just for anybody that’s wondering why we’re voting this, we have a policy, um, I think, which is pretty standard. All school committees I think have the same one. Um, for any outta state or overnight field trips, which just checks both boxes, um, you need school committee approval. So I will ask for a motion to approve the proposed overnight trip for the DECA Career Development Conference from 4 25 25 to 4 29 25. Uh, just just to a note, uh, the 30th is a travel day.

1:31:17 So the conference runs to four to the 29th, and then that Wednesday would be a travel day. You start on the 25th, still will Be, yes. After school on the 25th. Okay. So, um, I’ll amend that to a motion to approve the proposed, uh, overnight field trip to DECA Career Development Conference from 4 25 25 to 4 30 25. So moved. Moved by Brian. Seconded. Second. Aye, Jen Schaffner in discussion. Uh, roll call, vote. Jen Schaffner in favor. Brian Odo in favor Al Williams In favor, Sarah Fox in favor. Motion carries four to zero and please wish them all good luck from all. I will thank you. And I will update you on congratulate your students. Yeah, thank you so much. That’s great. Every year you guys go to the nationals, it’s very impressive.

1:32:04 Um, I’ll get that. So that brings us to our next agenda item, which is the proposed policy IMDB flags in banners. First reading, I will ask Jen to speak to this as she is a member of the subcommittee. Has Allison popped back on or is she still Off? I don’t Okay. See her on, so we should probably keep that in mind. So, so just a little, um, um, update since the last time we met. We had, um, Alison and I met in the, as as a policy subcommittee on March 7th. And, um, I had shared with her at that point the, which you should also have in your, uh, Google Drive, the legal brief that was presented to us,

1:32:50 which I had requested from our attorney, John FoST, and a recommended policy, um, based on that, well, based on his advice and on that, on that, um, brief. So I shared that at the policy subcommittee meeting. Um, we discussed it, um, we had public comment, we discussed it. Um, Allison did have a few questions, and particularly around the brief, um, and some questions around the draft, which I was not in a position to answer, um, from a legal perspective. So I had encouraged her to speak to the attorney. Um, and we were planning to have another policy meeting, um, to review, to come back after she had had that conversation. And then we would decide what, um, policy we would come forward with.

1:33:36 I felt very strongly, um, just because this has been going on for quite some time, um, that I wanted to get it on to tonight’s meeting. So I know that there were some, um, fits and starts and, uh, her being able to get in touch with John and they did have a chance to speak. However, it was not in time for us to post for subcommittee meeting before this school committee meeting. So I kept this on the agenda. Um, and I didn’t realize she wasn’t gonna be here tonight. So that may be something we might wanna talk about that issue in terms of possibly tabling it. But, um, what I’ve presented to you is what has been presented to us from, from our attorney, um, based on current law, current Supreme Court law, and the, um, um, what’s going on,

1:34:21 you know, in, in other districts in, in the state of Massachusetts. So there were, there have been a lot of comments. We’ve had forums, which I, um, I know the committee’s been aware of, but wasn’t necessarily in attendance when we had student forums and, um, a community forum. We’ve had a lot of, um, input from the community. Um, some of the same folks who spoke tonight. Um, I think there is some, um, I don’t wanna say misinformation, but there, our attorney is giving us advice, um, that does not, um, that speaks to our responsibility as a committee in terms of what is government speech, um, and that what is displayed in the buildings, um, according to our attorney is actually government speech if we are

1:35:08 going to make a policy around it. So that’s where this issue around free speech or first amendment and, and government speech gets kind of, um, I think, um, I don’t wanna say confused, but it, it, it gets, it gets, it gets difficult. So I know there are a lot of questions. I know there’s been a lot of input. I just felt strongly that because this has had so much community input and so much, um, discussion, that it was important to bring it to the full committee and get a sense from the full committee of where, where, what your thoughts are and where you would like to go forward with this. Um, Jen, I believe you made this, this is the opinion, uh, that was presented at least to the committee from, um, our attorneys. It’s a three page brief and it cites, um, the shirt lift case, it cites, uh,

1:36:00 KAE versus independent school district, um, out of the eighth circuit in 2024. It’s, it cites a couple of pieces of case law. And then my question is, I believe you made this public as part of your, um, subcommittee. I saw it in our packet for this meeting. Um, was this available on the PA for everybody to see? ‘cause it seems like some folks may not have seen it. Um, yes, it was made public. Um, I believe it’s been referred to in the press. So yes. Okay. It has definitely been, so It’s un to these. Okay. And just so you know, I, in my discussions with John FoST, who, who is the attorney in this case, the associate attorney who’s, who’s working with us on this, it is not typical for attorneys in any case,

1:36:46 but school district attorneys to be communicating directly with the public. They don’t typically come to open meetings and give their opinion. They give their opinion generally to the chair. Um, who then will share it with the other committee, the other, other committee members. And then oftentimes is this necessary in some cases in executive session with the entire committee. In this case, I spoke to John and specifically asked him to draft something that could be released to the public that would speak to why he is making the recommendation he’s making to us for this policy. Okay. And that is the, that’s the brief you have. Um, and just because fo I, as I said earlier, we try to answer questions that are rise in public comment. One of the questions was, would we be doing things in executive session? Executive session is outlined very clearly.

1:37:32 There’s a list of stipulations that you can and cannot use for executive session. We take it seriously. Our attorneys take it very seriously. Um, so no, nothing to do with this has been, is being decided in executive session. ‘cause it’s not an exemption. Um, so just to answer that question, it, it’s, it’s all in open session, so no concerns there. Um, all right. So I will open it up for discussion by the committee.

1:38:00 Alright, I’ll go first. Um, if we do need a policy, and I’m not exactly there to be quite honest, I am against this policy as written. Uh, I know there are folks questioning the soundness of our legal advice, but, but I will not further address that. Instead, I will say that the current draft doesn’t go far enough and specifically does not address student voice, which is a crucial component to our school improvement plans. I mean, how many times have we heard student voice mentioned even just tonight, nor does it address a very relevant question that I have in that, how does a proposal for a certain flag get to the school committee for consideration? Fortunately, I believe there’s a solution that may address some of these concerns as well as complies with our, our legal advice, although I’m not sure about that third party component.

1:38:47 Right. It sounds like there’s questions still about that, that we will not address tonight. Yeah. Um, so I would suggest that we allow the high school students and administration follow the proposal that the students have presented with the edit. That, you know, because of the legal advice that what they decide has to be approved by the school committee. This provides student voice a process for how items are presented to the school committee and complies with our legal advice. We’ve heard from many how important flags are, uh, and banners and how important they’re to students. And we cannot ignore that. Are there risks? Absolutely. But I would prefer trying what is suggested here versus assuming there will be a risk in trying to avoid that at all costs. Uh, and if what I’m suggesting becomes untenable,

1:39:33 we can always change the policy. Uh, lastly, I’d like to just conclude by saying that this policy has to be part of a larger holistic plan to have all students feel part of a community. Flags and posters are important, but they are a, a piece of providing a welcoming and supporting supportive environment for all the students. Alright, Brian. Well, we’ve been getting a lot of support, the current proposal from the public, and I also want to point out that nobody ever comes forward to say it in a public forum like this. Why? Because they don’t want to get the backlash for having a, an opinion that should only be the three flags period.

1:40:19 So that’s where my concern comes from because I also believe that, I mean, it’s very hard to talk about some of these banners and posters, the rainbow flags, and because they, for the majority of the people, they may support those kind of cause. But there are traditional religious people who believe in traditional family values, whether you do or not. And, you know, the rainbow flag doesn’t support them and they can’t say out out loud because they would get backlash. So that’s where my concerns are, is that, you know, know this is such a controversial issue that we can’t ignore the fact that we’re getting a lot of support for the current policy as proposed, but nobody was willing to come forward and speak about in public.

1:41:05 And the question you have to ask yourself is why. And that’s where I am at at this point. Um, Jen, I’ll defer, uh, defer to you, Sarah. I’ll, I let it go Last. So what I will say is, I think what Brian was talking about is we’ve gotten a, a tremendous amount of emails of people asking to go forward with the policy. Um, I don’t know that we’re seeing that publicly. What I will say is, I think to be truly what’s been troubling for me here in reading different, you know, letters we get, you know, things in the paper is that often whoever is speaking it, no matter what side, quite frankly, they’re speaking it from,

1:41:50 they are sure their side’s, right? Um, and the people who are adamant, we should not have X, y, z, feel, they’re right. That’s it. They’re right. And the people that feel we should have X, y, z feel they’re right. And, you know, we, we hear very compelling, very compelling si stories, um, from everyone. And I think the point I’m trying to make is when we as a community in Marblehead as a school system, as a society, say, this person’s bad, this person’s good. This is the only idea we can have. We stop listening to each other. Um, I brought up, I I at one point tried to get her to come in as a speaker. This one woman, Monica Guzman, who’s written a book and, and goes around speaking, I’ve had the opportunity to hear her speak.

1:42:37 And, and she talks about when she goes in a room, the person she sits next to is not the person who thinks the same way she thinks or aligns the way she lines politically, because that’s not gonna broaden her horizon. She seeks out the person who thinks differently, who may vote always differently. And only by having a conversation does is she able to, to realize that like we all have good parts and bad parts and good ideas and bad ideas, and we really have to be able to have these conversations and debates in a way that is civil. And I have not seen any civility whatsoever around this topic. And I think that I feel that so strongly because I saw what we went through when it started,

1:43:25 how we lost some really good educators. And and that’s sad for me that we lost educators because they couldn’t have a conversation and say, I agree one way, and I, I think another way, and let’s talk about that. So I don’t know what the answer is. I don’t know how that a applies to a policy. I will say that when we talk about what happened hundreds of years ago, the bottom line is shirt lift happened in 2022 and it changed the landscape. It, it really, what it said was, if you don’t have a policy and declare the flag as your government speech, you ca all means all. And the the problem with that, quite frankly is we’ve already started to have people call or stop us and say, I’ve ordered my flag for X, Y, z

1:44:12 fully knowing how offensive that flag is going to be to the majority of the people in our buildings, to be quite honest. But they’re ready to just make a point and say, once you say all is all my offensive flag is going up too, and that’s the problem. Um, and, and before someone writes it, I’m saying, you know, the pride flag is the offensive flag that is, or whatever flag. I am not saying that at all. Um, but the idea, like I hear a lot of people say, you know, what could be wrong with the Black Lives Matter flag? And quite frankly, I sat there and said the same thing. And then we had a room full of 200 people who explained from their point of view, from their religious identity, from their national identity

1:44:59 as Israeli Americans, how that could be. And I can’t speak for them. I can’t, I absolutely cannot. I do not see it through that lens. I, I, who am I to tell them how they feel? Just like when one of our students of color came and talked about how the flag made her feel like she had a home and it was accepted here and had a voice. Who am I to tell her she’s wrong? I I don’t have a chance. Like I can’t tell her she’s wrong either. And so I’m having a really hard time with this because to go one extreme or the other is to say only one voice matters. This side’s voice matters, or this side’s voice matters. And that, that is a problem. Because quite frankly, the bigger problem I see is

1:45:46 why do some of our students only feel like they belong with the flick? What, what are we doing wrong? Like, there’s a bigger story here, folks. We need to provide a sense of belonging to our students, all of our students. And, and we need to get underneath what are we not doing that’s making our L-G-G-B-T-Q students feel, heard, feel supported? How can we do better? Because I feel like it’s kind of, to be perfectly honest, folks, tokenism to put just the flag up and say check, we did it. Like what is the problem? What, what is the problem where our black students aren’t feeling heard, aren’t feeling supported? Like, let’s get under that. Let’s have bigger discussions. Like how, how are these students gonna be really included in

1:46:34 not a tokenized way in our community so that they feel heard? How are our Israeli American students gonna feel really heard, really supported by their peers? How are we gonna support all of our students in a better way than to say like, okay, I put a flag up on a wall downstairs, you should feel included. They really truly should have a curriculum that includes them. They should have an environment, a community, a representation on, you know, these presentations we see like we saw tonight on, um, from Brown. If we really wanna make people feel included and feel heard, let’s, let’s dig deeper folks. Like let’s really figure out how to do this.

1:47:19 Because the speeches I’ve heard from every side, I’m not pointing one finger for the folks that took the time to show up tonight or the folks that took the time to email us. Like, let’s to Renee’s story. Let’s really find out what’s going wrong and, and figure out how to make these kids feel like they’re part of our community. So I guess that doesn’t answer anything on the draft policy, but it’s been really gnawing at me that, that no one, I haven’t heard anybody yet peel back the layers of the onion and say, what’s going on in our schools, that we have demographics of students that they don’t feel belong, like they belong here. And I really wanna find out how we do that. And maybe it’s through our curriculum, maybe it’s through other areas, maybe like how, how can we do better?

1:48:09 So I mean, we still have to discuss the flag policy and I just went on my soapbox, but it’s bothered me that I haven’t heard that yet.

1:48:19 Back to you Al you just Can I, I, Jen, I know you wanna go last I, so I apologize. If I could just interrupt, um, would, would it be out of order if I asked if we could ask John what his, as our superintendent, interim superintendent, what his perspective is? And John, if you wanna say can I add to the next meeting around that? I know I’m kind of, so, so putting You on the Yeah, I appreciate you putting me on the spot. Fine. It’s fine, it’s fine. Um, yeah, I wasn’t really prepared to speak to it tonight just because, you know, I, I, I just, I, I dunno, I just didn’t really give it the due diligence that I probably should. But what I can say is that, you know, I think because the policy in and of itself, this is the first reading, so I don’t know that this is the policy yet. I’ve heard some, some dialogue back and forth from the committee.

1:49:05 Um, I sat in on, um, when the students came to, to meet the subcommittee, they asked if I was gonna be there. I don’t know if they were asking me to come, but they were asking if I was gonna be there. So I was there. Um, I’ve purposely stepped aside from all the other subcommittee meetings, um, and there’s been com there’s been community members kind of asking me, why, why, why did you do that? Why haven’t you taken a stance? Why haven’t you aligned yourself with one side or the other? Um, ‘cause that’s not who I am. I don’t align myself with one side or the other. I try to speak my truth. Um, so knowing that as superintendent, as a lifelong educator, as a, as an administrator for many, many years, I know that I’m never gonna make every person happy. Um, and I’m fine with that. As far as the school flag policy, um, I’m not there yet.

1:49:52 I, I think that, I honestly think there needs to be work done if we’re gonna have a policy. I, a little bit what you said, Al, I said if, if there’s gonna be a policy, I think it needs a little bit more, um, a little bit more attention. Um, but what I can say is that if you’re asking my opinion, my educational administrative opinion, I believe that there’s educational flags, orban flags and banners that have educational relevance within the schools, um, when they’re aligned with our curriculum and they’re aligned with, you know, our values as a district, as a school. Um, I do, I think there’s, there’s value there. I think, um, with that being said, we’ve talked a lot about, um, student voice, which I, I mean, I’m banging that gong loudly as we’ve seen.

1:50:38 Um, and I think it’s, I think it’s imperative that we, um, know that we listen, I, you know, I I said in that forum doesn’t mean that the students get to make the decision. They’re not the decision makers, but they can lend their input and thoughts, feedback into the discussion, right? I said that. Um, so I think it’s important that we listen and hear what they have to say. I also think it’s important that as we go through this, um, there’s been some conversations about one of the unintended consequences. And I don’t think we have the answers for those yet. And that’s, I’m, I’m struggling with that. You know, someone said, um, you know, is artwork gonna end up being taken down because it’s a flag or seen as a flag or a bander? Are we gonna have to get permission to have an athletic banner put up? I don’t know the answer to those questions. I don’t.

1:51:25 Um, so that’s, that’s one thing. Second thing, reform says that the building principle has the governance of their building with within the confines and the constraints of the policies that are established. That’s my, that’s not the actual words, but those are my words. Um, so at the end of the day, as superintendent, I’m charged of making sure policies and procedures are followed. School committees charged with developing, reviewing, maintaining, revising, establishing policies. They’re my boss. I’m in charge of making sure the policies are are that are in place that they voted or upon and that they have in place are enforced whether I agree with them or not. So I’m in a really strange position

1:52:11 because I have a, I have a committee that’s my, that are my bosses. I’m an lifelong educator who is here to support administrators, who support teachers who support our most important people as students. Um, and I think, I think, you know, in regards to the flag po I mean, I’ve been accused of aligning myself with the right. I’ve been accused of lying myself on the left. I’m about the most apolitical person that, um, I know and I, I, I try to do what’s right for kids long, long and short. So I share that and I share the fact that I think this needs a little bit more work. I think this needs a little bit more discussion. Um, and I think we need to move forward mindfully and knowing that there are gonna be ramifications no matter

1:52:58 how we, how we how out. And, um, and how do we, how do we create, um, critical thinking students? So to your point, Sarah, how do we, how do we make sure kids feel like they belong? Well, you saw, you saw it live tonight. That’s a perfect example of those third graders. They’re, they’re leaders in their school. That’s not by accident. That’s by planful discussion and, and, and making sure that we’re doing those things at a young age. So when they become your age and they’re in high school, they have those critical thinking skills and they can think about it and then maybe they could say, oh, I see a pride flag. I see a Black Lives Matter flag. I see an Israeli flag and maybe I’m offended by that one or not by that one or that by that one. But that’s okay. We’re all different. We’re all, we all have different perspectives and we need to teach our kids how

1:53:44 to accept those different perspectives. So is it about flags? I honestly think it’s less about flags than how do we, how do we develop and, and nurture a culture in our schools that allow people to feel as though they have a place and that they feel comfortable being here? That’s my soapbox. I, sorry, I wasn’t planning on talking tonight, but Jen, can I ask you a question? Um, and again, I wanna thank you and Allison ‘cause you are been on the subcommittee and I do believe deeply on, we establish subcommittees. You need to let the subcommittee do their job and then bring back the recommendation to the full committee. And then that’s where it ri you know, you voted up or you vote it down. But I do not agree with the idea of micromanaging subcommittees. If you wanted to be on that committee, then, you know, myself included, I should have been asked to be on that subcommittee. So I appreciate you guys, you know, wading through this and,

1:54:32 and giving multiple opportunities for feedback. So thank you for doing that. Um, we’ve heard a lot of people say, or I think I, what I was hearing was people were kind of aligned with what was the first iteration, which is, has to be quite maddening. ‘cause I remember when the first iteration came out, people were adamantly opposed to it. But it seems like folks have come around and so do you, I I know that you probably don’t have it in front of you right now, but can you paraphrase roughly what that first iteration was? Well, I believe I don’t have it in front of me that I, it basically said that, um, any flags that would be dis or banners would,

1:55:17 would be displayed in public places in the school buildings would, um, come outta the, the, this jurisdiction of the school committee. I, I believe ultimately that it would, there would be some sort of process that would come to the school committee. Okay. And which, you know, the case law seems to establish. But that, but essentially allowed for a process, if you will. It did. I just wanna make a couple points before we move on. Okay. And I know it’s getting late, but it’s really important ‘cause I’m going back to some of the comments that were made tonight. Um, the first thing I wanna say that was a, and I didn’t catch her name at the beginning that spoke about the students that presented to us at the student forum. Um, I guess it was last month. Um, and that the, the surveys that were sent out and received were sent to all school committee members.

1:56:03 That is not true. That was, we have not received, at least I haven’t received them. Um, Okay. She is, I haven’t seen them in fairness and she hasn’t seen them. It may be as simple as, um, just the, you left off the plurality of something. Do you mind if one of us emails you and you hit reply with that? Okay. So, but That would be a hundred, the 109 responses. That’s what we, Yeah, we’re looking for the individual 109. Um, and then again, I apologize ‘cause we don’t normally go back and forth, but I do really appreciate you as a student sticking it out the whole night and seeing, you know, how this all works. Um, so did that went out to the entire student body. So it went out to like 900, whatever the weekly numbers are. 42, 942 students. And you got, and you got responses by a hundred, so about 10%. So yeah,

1:56:49 We sent everything out through, um, the student government and available, um, the student, uh, Instagram accounts, like the Instagram. I’ll tell you in a second what she’s saying. So the, a lot of people would go through there. It was like, this is an optional. Okay. And Who form you would like fill it out? We told them what it was about. Okay. And, um, the people who wanted to fill it out, it out. So we had three who said they wanted to be voice nine answered in total. And I believe it was 37 people actually wrote up physical statements That, okay, so I’ll shoot you an email tonight and you can email us back. So Jen, she was, I just asked the mechanism and she said it went out through the student o officers, just these mics don’t pick up

1:57:34 different mics, pick up different things. Um, it went out to the student officers, which I assume meant like, you know, the freshman officers have the listerv for their whole group. I’m looking to Michelle to say yay or nay. Um, and then it also went out in their social media posts. Um, so that was the mechanism. And then they had 109 engage in the survey and 103 write actual narratives. 37 wrote narratives. Three Said yes. Oh, okay. Alright. Um, 109 responded 103 said yes, student voice, 30 some odd seven seven wrote narratives. So she will forward that data onto us after I email you. Um, alright, so next, the next question. Just wanted to cover that. Yeah, I’m trying to, I’m gonna set a few things straight for the record.

1:58:21 Um, and there were a couple of comments earlier, and this is gonna also get to, um, Al’s, uh, proposal for, I guess lack of a better word, um, um, earlier. So, um, I think it was Renee, um, that’s, um, gave a great presentation, which I appreciate, but she and I wrote down this quote, said, this is not about complying with the law end quote. Um, and while I appreciate that, um, actually it is right. And that’s really what I’m hearing from our, our attorney, and that’s what I’m presenting to, presented with the, to the policy subcommittee to Allison and presenting to the board. Um, there was another comment earlier tonight that the Supreme Court case doesn’t pertain to schools. Um, according to our attorney. In fact, it does because we are a public building like Boston City Hall, Abbott Hall, any other public building,

1:59:09 we absolutely are subject to the school committee case in the opinion of our attorney. Um, there was references to, um, um, bumper stickers and wearing things on shirts and going to sporting events. All of those would have nothing to do with this. Yeah. What this policy is represent is, is discussing, is what is in common areas of our public buildings, which is not what someone is wearing on their own body or on anything that that is their own person. They have absolutely every first amendment right to do that. My understanding, Jen, is it’s something that’s affixed to, so the school committee has care, is charged with care, custody, and control of the buildings. So it’d be something affixed like hanging on a wall, hanging on a flagpole, not people, um, you know,

1:59:57 the Tinker case, the first about the contract, by the way, you can wear what you want. I mean, that’s, the Tinker case really talks about, you know, it stemmed from someone wearing, um, the, the shirt, um, that I think we all, anybody familiar with the case familiar with. It also would, um, pertain to the, i i, the, um, mom who spoke about her first grader’s leprechaun project. Same thing like that is personal, you know, property or, uh, belongs to that particular student. So that has nothing, would not be part of this, um, part of this policy. So I just wanna go back for a second and just adjust. ‘cause Al you had you, you made a, a statement and, and made a suggestion. So I just, what I do want the committee to understand what has been explained to me, which I believe was printed

2:00:44 or put out in the pre in the brief that we just do need to consider, I would ask the board to consider, is that according to our attorney, the issue is around if, if we are going to have any, if we are going to have a policy around flags or banners, then it, we are the defacto stating that whatever’s displayed in common areas on flagpoles and common areas in our buildings are therefore government speech. So this is according to our attorney, not an issue of First Amendment free speech. It is government speech. And what his concern was with the policy, because he reviewed the policy that was, um, submitted by the students.

2:01:30 And I do appreciate and recognize they did a tremendous job in, in researching and, and resourcing and, and presenting that to us. That if we are going to have a policy that states that the committee is the decision maker, but we are going to accept requests and make determinations from either individuals or groups, that we are giving up our government speech and that it therefore is no longer government speech. And, and again, this is in the words of the attorney, and then it is now the fact that we cannot restrict anything at that point, it becomes a matter of, of free speech. In other words, that we are making our hall and our flagpoles available to anybody.

2:02:15 That’s the concern. That is what he’s explaining to us is the risk with this shirt left decision. So they just wanted to make that point. Now, this may be something that this committee is willing to consider, and I, I, you know, again, as the attorney explained, as John explained to me, he’s, you know, he’s just our attorney giving us advice and we will move forward with what we choose to move forward with. Um, but I think that’s just important to note. And again, he’s also, you know, obviously I can make him available or he can be made available to any member that wants speak to him directly. I’m just reading, I don want from, I’m not an attorney, I can’t sit here and give you all of the legal background on it than what he said, Reading from his brief, Jen. Um, mm-hmm. It’s, I’m just reading directly from his brief, pending further development of the law in this area.

2:03:01 That means beyond the shirt lift or the, um, the eighth circuit court case, um, that he cites here pending further development of the law in this area, it should be assumed that what is government speech in the school district likely would be limited to the speech determined and designed by the policymaking body, the school committee and the superintendent acting at the committee’s direction. Teachers, students and families are private persons in this context and cannot determine government speech. Their involvement in the adoption of flags or banners could compromise the district’s government speech immunity from having to comply with the First Amendment. The reason why that’s important is then you get back to what happened in the shirt lift case, where all means all in anybody that walks in

2:03:49 with any banner, even if the entire student body and every teacher in the building said they vote that it’s offensive. Every, every administrator says it’s offensive. Every school committee member says it’s offensive. Once we open it up that we are basing it on the first amendment rather than government speech. All means all anybody walks in here with anything, it goes up or we’re in violation of a Supreme Court case. Now, anybody that knows me, that knows there’s multiple Supreme Court cases that have gone through in the last couple years that I’m adamantly opposed to, it doesn’t mean they’re not case law. Not liking something and it not being true are two different things. And while I know many people are here on their, or have made public comment as attorneys, or have written

2:04:34 and corresponded with people as attorneys, we have gotten this from our counsel. And if we disregard the written notice of our counsel and then we get sued, we have acted in the eyes of Meyer, our insurance company against legal counsel. So that means we’re doing more than paying a $10,000 deductible. We’re owning the full boat on it. If we act in accordance with our legal counsel and they’re wrong, their in their indemnification comes into this. So this is more than just like, this is about more than just

2:05:14 what our personal feelings are about things going up and down. Once we get, you know, notification in writing from legal counsel, that is their recommendation. We should act one way or another if we disregard that we’re acting in opposition to advice of counsel. And even the attorneys who have been glaring and laughing when we have talked about advice of our counsel are no longer laughing. So, sorry, I’m not a lawyer. You know, I, I I appreciate what Jen said. I’m not married to a lawyer. Um, but what you, what you just stated from that, so John can act, so I’m not, we’re not saying give the students the ability to come and process the requests in a school that would clearly be across the line.

2:05:59 But John doing his duties as a superintendent of a school system, you know, you know, is listening to his community of students and administrators and, you know, comes to us with a flag proposal. Just, John, is that violating what you just said? Because he’s, I’d like to hear from counsel, um, specifically on that question. If our, if the recommendation comes through our agent, the superintendent, if we’re covered, I would. Right. I would Like that. And I think That’s important. John’s now looking like he no longer wants to be in the hot seat on this one. Again, I, you know, I signed up for this. It’s fine. I just, I need to make sure that whatever’s decided, I’m very clear with what the, what the governance is on it, and how I have to operate within the confines of the policy and or the legal advice.

2:06:45 I would like to hear from legal counsel. It seems abundantly clear to me that the only person that there seems to be any ambiguity about is the, is the superintendent acting as our agent. Um, I’d like to have more clarity on that. Sure. Um, but it seems abundantly clear that their recommendation, at least in this brief is that any other, anybody else coming forth with the recommendation would violate the the case law? Well, I don’t know that it’s anyone coming forth necessarily. It’s, if we take solicit hear it Yes. Under advisement, someone’s request that helps that then, then formulates our decision or helps us formulate our decision. It is supposed to be the reflection if we have this, if we have a policy reflection of the governing body. Yeah.

2:07:34 Um, And just, but again, I mean, we can have these conversations because we’re not all independent islands where we don’t, let’s face it. Right. I mean, not, we’re all gonna, anytime we make it, I, when I make a decision, I, you know, I I, there are people I talk to who I ask advice of and, um, opinions of. So I, I think that, um, you know, to, to al’s you know, proposal tonight, which is in some, to some degree, similar to what the students put forth. I understand that. So I think the, I think the concern, and maybe this is something we need to go back and get clarification from John Foskett, is, you know, if this is, you know, a formalized process, just give us some guidance on this because we wanna be able to,

2:08:19 at least I’m hearing this from a school committee member, um, wanna be able to have input, um, from what constituents and what does that, you know, really what does that mean? Yeah, right. Um, and what are the risks? So define, you know, define the extent the Yeah. Extent of the, of the risk, but it is a risk according to him. Yeah, No, absolutely. And I think that’s why we need clarification. So if I’m a school committee member and someone in the public comes to me and asks about something, am I allowed to, because I’m a school committee member, am I allowed to bring that up at the school committee and process it? And if so, that’s not that different what I’m asking for John to do on our behalf. Right? So for, so I understand that we have to be the sole authority around the approval, but there has to be some method that a request gets to us.

2:09:07 I think it’s a member would sponsor it, essentially. Like you’d sponsor a bill. Well, a a a member would bring it forward As a sponsor. Sarah, can I, let me just make one comment from my conversation, from my understanding from the attorney, um, Al is that if we go forward with a policy that therefore then makes whatever’s displayed de facto government speech, it is supposed to, the genesis of that should be from the committee. That’s What the advice is. Yeah. So I think, so I think, you know, we’re going back and forth. Like if I’m the agent of whatever, I, I mean, from what I’m hearing what you said, Jen, in regard to what the lawyer said, I’m not the decision maker. Right? Right. I could be potentially the conduit to mm-hmm. Students saying, I want wanna do this. They talk to me, I come and I say, this has been requested.

2:09:53 Then you make a decision. You know, I would think, but, but I also, I just, I, sorry, I don’t wanna No, no, I apologize. Don’t wanna interrupt. I just think as superintendent, I mean, if it’s part of my job, it’s part of my job, but like part of my, my, my job is to make sure that students are being educated. And quite frankly, I, I want no part of spending three quarters of every one of my days trying to figure out whether I have to bring flags to the school committee and, and, ‘cause that’s really not a good use of my time, although, so we have to figure that piece out. So, you know, it’s not that I wouldn’t be the agent of it, I just, you know, I don’t think, from what I’ve heard, that I would be the decision maker, which I’m fine with. But we also have to figure out if there’s a process, what does that process look like? And is it reasonable to expect, um, to take place with, with, you know, doing my job as well. So the,

2:10:41 The way I would see it happening is, and what I think I’ve heard from people is that you, you know, we have our educators, and as you are chief educator in charge, if for lack of more finite term, um, have the subject matter expertise, that if people brought their petitions to you, you would bet them, you would then come to us with a recommendation. So our, like, like when you recommend raising user fees or, or you recommend changing start times, like you bring us recommendations all the time. Mm-hmm. That it would be your recommendation that you would not come say, Sally Smith is proposing X, Y, Z. You would come to us with your recommendation and we would then deliberate on your recommendation. I would assume if one of your goals is student voice, that

2:11:27 to form your recommendation, you utilize the things in your goal. But my understanding from reading this brief, the only potential loophole I see here is that you bring us a recommendation. Not So I think, so I think we go back and we ask the lawyer if that’s, if that’s, if that’s a possibility And they, the answer may be no, I don’t know. But that’s the only loophole I see in their recommendation. Okay. Fair enough. Um, And again, I’m, I’m interested in seeing the first version, Jen, because you obviously brought it forward, not willy-nilly after much thought. And what I heard from several people, I think, you know, tonight, was that they now find that more palatable. So if we can look at that first iteration, or maybe, I did not hear that,

2:12:12 but I heard some people say that, that it started off with something they could live with and then moved on. Either way I would like to see it. Um, but I’d like to see a determination if John can be the agent or bring us his recommendations.

2:12:31 Okay. Um, Al you have a proposal in front of us, so I can also bring that forward too, if, if you’d like to share that with me electronically. Yeah, Absolutely. Yeah. Again, just yeah, something that speaks to how requests would come before the committee. But I’ll, I’ll, I’ll, I’ll send this to you, Jen. Okay. And, and thank you for helping me understand, you know, the whole government free speech. ‘cause that wasn’t clear to me from me reading the brief. Um, yeah. And because we are a committee, I don’t just get to ask Jen to look into something and Al doesn’t get, just get to ask Jen to, to, um, look at something. We have to, we have to vote to, to send this back to this, the subcommittee and ask them to do these things.

2:13:17 So, um, I, I will ask for a vote to enable Jen to bring back to the subcommittee, have our attorney answer the questions regarding the superintendent and at the subcommittee to talk about AL’S suggestion. So moved. Second. Second by Brian. Discussion.

2:13:43 Um, Jenner in favor. Brian Oda favor Al Williams In favor, Sarah Fox in favor. Motion carries four to zero. Um, and thank you. ‘cause I know this is the umpteenth iteration, and I, and I know that no one’s happy that this is continuing, but I wanna make sure that we’re taking the time to get our answer questions answered, make sure we’re following the advice of legal. And also at the same time trying to, to to hear, you know, all sides. Not one side or the other, but all sides. Um, okay. That brings us to the timeline for the superintendent evaluation.

2:14:29 Um, Jen had sent out, um, a timeline summary based on our workshop meeting. Um, I had, my recollection was slightly different than what was in the timeline. Um, my recollection was that on,

2:14:50 on or about May 8th, we were gonna have a workshop to compile our, um, composites. We had done this previously with a previous school committee. It worked really, really well. All voices, I’d say it was the most productive meeting we, we had as a group at the time. Um, all voices were heard, we wordsmithed it, it was a long meeting, but at the end of it, we all left with a product that I think we all felt we had a voice in. Um, so there was a tentative date of May 8th for that. A tentative, I think, tell me if, if, uh, people think I have it wrong, a tentative date of May, the following Thursday, what is that? The 14th, 15th, um, 15th. 15th to vote to, um, approve or,

2:15:38 or or fail, um, to approve the, the compilation of the midyear mid cycle review. Then at that point, we would also be, we’re gonna be doing a survey. It will go out to all staff, all um, all administrators, um, parents, community members. Um, we had talked about having that ready to go out, um, mid-April ish. So it can go out for a week to 10 days that the, the folks filling out. Um, the school committee members will have the results prior to doing their individual reviews, seeing as, um, some of the goals really would relate to that feedback that we are getting. And then we’ll make those also available to the public.

2:16:24 So that would be on May 14th, that we would 15, um, 15th, sorry, Jen. That, and again, these are roundabout days. May 15th, that we would talk about that. And then may, um, it’s a joyous month. It has five Thur, five Thursdays. So we, um, in theory could have a third meeting. And we talked about at the end of the month, having a third meeting to really talk about next steps after our review. Um, you know, and, and, and see what that means for moving ahead with, um, contracts. And, um, that way that would be done at the last meeting of May. That was my recollection. But if I have that wrong, please do tell me.

2:17:13 Okay. Um, Okay, so thoughts, just so everyone knows the public as well. So I had sent out, I, my notes were a little different. We had had so many days flying around. I did not hear, I did hear back from Sarah. I did hear back from anyone else on this. So what I had said is, we have a regular business meeting on May 1st. Um, that we would have, um, we would be sending surveys out to the staff and the community and parents, um, that the deadline would be May 12th, thir May 13th. On May 15th. We would have, instead of a regular business meeting, our school, our school committee workshop to develop the composite evaluation. And on the 22nd we would have a regular business meeting that would include potentially voting the re that composite and the determination whether to move forward with, um,

2:18:00 a permanent or co t change to, to a permanent contract. Um, that also brought us to June, potentially to June 5th if we didn’t have a vote at that meeting. And that was the issue I think Al um, which is our next scheduled meeting, uh, June 5th was I think you would not, we’re not gonna be available that night, which is an important vote. So I, I might be available, Jen, excuse me. ‘cause I, I should be in my destination a day or two before that so that I could, as long as our governor signs the extension of virtual meeting possibilities, I should be able to, to, to dial in For us. We’re safe anyway. ‘cause in 2019 we had a warrant article at town meeting that allowed

2:18:46 for remote participation via phone or video conference. As long as the majority, the quorum of the committee was in person. Okay. So even prior to 2020, um, I used it multiple times to zoom to call in from a hospital. So, um, that, that’s an established in marblehead, um, practice. So as long as the majority of us are here, you’d still be able to, yeah. So Jen, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt, interrupt Jen, but hope if that’s, you know, we need to have a meeting. What is it on the fifth and it’s an important vote. I can, I’ll make myself available. Okay. So I guess that’s what I’m just trying to determine what, um, because I think what the difference, Sarah is, Sarah, your, your recollection is that five May 8th we would be workshopping to do the composite evaluation

2:19:33 and mine was on May 15th. So that’s kind of the only discrepancy we have. And then we can move from there. So it doesn’t really doesn’t make, I just wanna make sure we’re not, that we have time, we’re not lagging, but we’ve got enough time to get this done. One thing I would ask, and I think Brian, you are meeting as a survey subcommittee I think tomorrow, is that right? Yes, ma’am. That’s correct. Yep. So do you, I mean, maybe until you meet, do you have any thoughts on when you put the timing you think would be on these surveys? ‘cause the surveys are gonna be an important part of the evaluation process. I think We sh I don’t foresee us needing, I think by next week we can honestly be done with the compilation of it. And then it’s just having Steven do whatever magic Steven does,

2:20:20 Does this have to go before this whole committee before we release the survey? Oh yeah. And we have, we’ll have our first meeting in April for them to review it. Okay. Because I don’t think we would be sending it out till mid-April anyway. So, um, I think Ryan and I are both confident we’ll be able to get that in front of the committee. Um, Yeah. But for the first meeting in April, I would suggest though that once we complete this discussion, that we publish the schedule. Yes. So that we have, you know, ‘cause we’re kind of bouncing numbers and dates around. So let’s, yeah. And it’s a lot. Let’s get a publish date so the public knows what the process going Forward. So, so if, if you guys feel comfortable with being able to come back at the next meeting with the survey questions, that’s what I heard. And then your timeline was a little bit shorter Right. For the whole thing. And then I would still be in kind here.

2:21:07 Right. So we wouldn’t have to worry about if we did, if we follow that timeline. Yeah, I like every, I, I like everyone being here and not Yeah. If it can be accommodated. I I, yeah. And I’ll love maybe before June, whether I’m invited back. Oh yeah. You have a two year contract, John. I understand that. But I want, I want a permanent contract, So I just wanna, so I, and I I agree. I think Sarah’s your, your timeline is, is better. So if we look at doing a workshop on the eighth, that’s, so we have a regular business meeting scheduled on. ‘cause I also want to minimize upsetting our regular schedule. May 1st we have a regular business meeting, May 8th we meet off cycle to do a workshop to develop the composite evaluation. We’ll have the surveys back and we will have each completed our evaluation. And then the 15th we have a regular business meeting

2:21:54 and we would discuss that in our regular business meeting. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Is that right? Yeah. Okay. And then we wouldn’t necessarily vote. We would, well maybe we would vote to, I guess I thought was we would technic potentially vote to approve that evaluation, that composite evaluation that would give the, I guess some, some time for community input so that on the, we could meet on the 22nd, which is not a regularly scheduled meeting to vote to move forward, potentially vote to move forward with a new contract. Yeah. I have no pro uh, preference between the 27th and 29th. As long as we get out that composite, get out those surveys

2:22:40 so that any feedback from the community that they have time to give that. Agreed. That’s fine with that. That I mean that, yeah, that gives, I just, I wanna remind everybody to block out their calendars that, what is that starting May 5th? It’s gonna be a long week. Fifth is town meeting. Um, possibly and likely the sixth as well. And then we have the eighth. So just prepare yourself town meeting something Go to May. And also the other issue, remember is that the eighth, um, that we will be meeting to discuss the composite evaluation is the week of town meeting. So, you know, depending on how it could be a long week. Yeah, that’s what I was just saying.

2:23:24 So just a Brian’s point I think is can we send an email out to the, the committee? Yes. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. We’ll take care of that. Yeah, there’s just S I’ve got 18 entries on my Calendar. There’s so many dates. Yeah. Um, okay, perfect. Thank you. So that brings us to subcommittee and liaison updates. Um, oops, we got anything? Yes. Communications Al and I met, um, we’re finishing up the March school committee, uh, newsletter. We’re also gonna be adding in a very short survey because we’ve had for the, uh, January and February newsletters that went out, we had over a thousand readers on both newsletters. So that’s a pretty good number. Seeing how we usually don’t have more than 30 people

2:24:09 attend the meeting like this. So getting it out to a thousand people, it’s, it’s a good thing. And the survey we had guar, we had said from the beginning, we’re gonna take a quick look at it three months into this school newsletter to make sure that people are finding out a value. So there’s gonna be like a five or six question survey. So it’s very simple and that’s going out. Um, we’re also still looking at other alternatives, which we’re also on the survey because we had said that, uh, we were looking at maybe a small two committee member meetings with informal meetings with parents to be able to talk freely about what’s going on, uh, as long as they’re not two committee members on the same subcommittee. And then we are also looking at a full town hall kind

2:24:56 of meeting in which people could throw questions at us in the, uh, mail that would be ready to answer or come and ask questions live to the whole committee as a whole. So we’re, we’re working on that, that that’s going in the survey to find out what people are interested in. ‘cause we don’t want to do it if only one person’s interested In saving. So I would be happy to pilot that idea of the two members. Um, I’m not on a sub. You have to be to be careful ‘cause who you’re meeting with, you can’t be on a subcommittee with. Right. For instance, if Alan and I did it and people started talking to us about facilities, then it should be posted. Jen and I aren’t on any current subcommittees together, I don’t think.

2:25:37 No, we were the negotiating committee, but that’s, yeah. Effectively that’s over Resolved. So, so if, if you, um, wanna work out some time, you know, in a few weeks when you’re local, um, I, if everyone’s okay with it, I’m happy to pilot that. Yes. If, if we get enough interest in having a small group meeting like that. Yeah, absolutely. That’s fine with me. Al do you have any questions? Nope. So, um, Al and Brian, I just wanted to ask one question when I, I’m gonna be back, um, the early the week after next, but I may ask you to post your subcommittee meeting as a school committee meeting so I can attend because I wanted to talk about, um, a couple of ideas, issues around the school committee, uh, social media,

2:26:26 Facebook account, um, and, um, some ideas I have on, um, maybe doing some articles in the local press. And so I want to run that by you both and just it’s best to do it in the subcommittee. Yeah, no, that’s fine. That’s, that’s one of our agenda I kind of future agenda items anyway, Jen. So yeah, we can, we can definitely do that. And we, we welcome that because if we are going to do things like that, we need some guidelines and around that and how we use that form of communication. So yeah, we’ll let you know. Yeah, I That would be great. And also, I know we had the FAQ thing bouncing around. I didn’t know if that at some point gets resolved. If we can get some version of that up at some point, that would be great. Yeah, we’ll have it resolved by the next school committee meeting. Thank you. Appreciate it. Um, the finance liaisons did meet, uh,

2:27:12 when another joint meeting with fin com. So earlier this week it feels like it was many, like it was weeks ago. Um, at this meeting we really focused on looking at the revolving funds. It’s something we started to focus on last year as ways that we could, um, balance our budget use revenues that have been coming in, but mainly just sitting in those revolving funds, uh, in order to quite frankly, um, avoid any reduction in staff or services. So that was a, that was something we started last year. We relied, um, quite a bit on revolving funds this year compared to years prior. It has worked well. We reviewed the balances. Um, Mike brought us through all the various balances. We talked about the potential of tapping into some

2:28:00 of those revolving funds that are a little bit larger. Um, they’re, they’re stipulated by law very specifically what you can and can’t do with each revolving fund. So Mike really explained to us what we could and couldn’t do. We had a great conversation with fin com and we have some areas we’re, we’re looking to delve into a little bit more to um, try to take some of the burden off, um, our other revenue streams, but make sure that we’re still funding everything we need to fund. Um, so I was really appreciative for John and Mike and, and their level of transparency on that. And, um, pat Franklin, Molly Teets and um, Alec Sby were really helpful. Um, also bouncing ideas off with Allison and I.

2:28:47 So that was, that was a good meeting, Was Solid. Um, so the only thing I, I wanted, uh, mention real quickly, policy subcommittee. We also are working on the operating protocol. So we did meet with Alicia Mallon last week and she presented, um, some suggestions to us that, um, Alison and I are working on. So that’s hopefully gonna be brought up in the next, you know, couple of meetings. I will note, just so you know, Brian, in doing some research, I was on the Melrose School Committee protocol website, uh, page. But they do have, um, we like weekly coffees with two school committee members. Um, Melrose does that. So, um, we won’t, we won’t be alone in doing that. So, And I believe when we looked, um, maybe it might have been Newton that you sign up for APL slot,

2:29:33 which I think was worked really well too. People can sign up for a slot. Sure. I keep saying slot. Um, alright, so that was good. Uh, closing business. Anybody have new business? Uh, well I just wanted to do a couple things. Cpac I attend the CPAC meeting. Uh, they now have funding for the unsung heroes, so they’re gonna be doing it again this year. They were concerned, for those who don’t know, what the unsung heroes are is for any special education educator, whether it’s a para tutor or teacher, they get recognized by their colleagues get submitted to CPAC and they get an award at a, like an awards dinner. So, um, that’s back on the table. I attended the superintendent’s safety advisory committee and we normally don’t report out on that because the information we share at

2:30:19 that meeting is confidential ‘cause it involves safety in the of the schools. However, the chief of police notified us that they are short crossing guards, and that’s a serious problem. They don’t have enough. And he’s asked us to put a plug in for ‘em. If anyone’s interested in being a crossing guard, it pays $21 33 cents per hour up to 10 hours. It’s easy work. And if anyone’s interested, people who are retired, uh, people looking for some extra things to do, just go to the police department and pick up the application there. So Thank you for doing that. I know at Brown we’re down several crosswalks, We covered Oh yeah. That, that was the discussion. And it’s not a fabulous situation. I have to assume it’s happening over at Glover too.

2:31:04 Um, so thank you for putting that plug in. Um, so it’s, oh, unsung heroes. I encourage everyone in the community to keep their eye open for when those emails come out. Um, it is a beautiful program. It’s a beautiful evening. Um, it doesn’t have to be a special education provider that people get notified of. Um, you could be a general education provider last year or the year before a student was written in as an unsung hero. It really is a beautiful evening. Um, and there was a couple years they published a book. So, you know, it, I, I’m, I never actually got to see the book, but I know when I wrote in about people, they, they came to me and said, what a beautiful letter you wrote. And so they must have read it somewhere.

2:31:50 Um, I, I just, it is a beautiful feelgood night where we really celebrate the people in our community that go the extra step for us, the students in our special education community to really make them feel like they belong. And they’re, um, they’re, it’s, it’s just a wonderful night. So I encourage people to keep an eye open and you’ve seen someone or witness something really wonderful to celebrate that and to write that in. Um, all right, so closing business, new business

2:32:24 announcements, um, correspondence. And then we have adjournment at 8:43 PM and I just did the math, Jen, I think it’s 3:00 AM there.