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[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] Good evening and welcome to the May 1st, 2025 meeting of the Brookline School Committee. Um, I'd like to start by moving the consent agenda. Um, do I have
a second for that? Thank you, Suzanne. Uh, any questions or discussion about the consent agenda items? Um, oh, and I forgot to say at the outset that there are eight of us around the table tonight and we have Valrius joining remotely. All right, then let's move to a vote on
the consent agenda. Uh, Jesse, yes. Sarah, yes. Steven, yes. Mariah, yes. Suzanne, yes. Helen, yes. Carolyn, yes. Val, yes. And I vote yes. Um, the other piece of administrative business
is the approval of the fiscal year 26 bus contracts extensions. We have a memo here from the director of operations um expressing satisfaction with our current vendor for in town and metco bus service um and proposing the renewal. Um so I'd
like to move that as well. Do I have a second? Andy, I would just I'll second and just add that finance previously recommended this. Yeah. All right. Any further discussion? All right. Start with Val.
Yes. Carolyn, yes. Uh, Helen, yes. Suzanne, yes. Mariah, yes. Stephen, yes. Sarah, yes. Jesse, yes. And I vote yes as well. All right. Uh, this takes us to our superintendence report. Dr. Gillery,
just say something about the bus contracts. Uh, sure. Go ahead, I think it's really great. And Susan, thank you. I don't know if you did that particular contract, but we have always made a contract for three years, but then allowed for extensions in it. And this
has been really a good practice. So just for people to know that that's why we're getting a good uh rate right now. All right. Good evening everyone. We have a brief superintendence update for you tonight. Um first off I want to
start with our FY excuse me FY26 materials feed placements. Um there were um 44 applications uh this school year for materials fee. 24 of those were in
kindergarten. 20 were in grades um or 1 through 10 even though we say grades 1 through 11. Um the kindergarten range broke out. We had uh eight unit A teachers um or staff eight unit A staff
members um that applied. Seven of them received their first choice. Um, one received their second preference. Um, other school employees, which would be unit B or central administration, there was one application or two applications
there. Um, and for the town side, uh, for kindergarten, there were a total of six applications. Um, three of them received their first preference, second, third, and, uh, then no options listed. In each of these cases um these
announcements will be going out to uh the staff and they have the option of accepting or rejecting those. So these are just basically at this juncture the number of applications um that uh were received and approved as
as as of such. So 42 applica applicants and 42 of them were actually placed. The two that weren't placed were in 11th grade. um given the size of that cohort, we didn't want to add um to that uh burgeoning there. So, in grades 1
through 10, six uh I'm sorry, that's 11 unit A applications, uh six received their first preference, two received their second preference, two received their third and then one didn't have any choices listed. Other school employees,
three received their first preference, uh one received their third and one didn't have any choice listed. And then on the town side, we had four applications um two received their first choice and two um did not um receive
their second choice. So um any questions there? Sure. I'm just confused by the math probably because I can't see the chart. There were 42 applications. You 44 applicants. 44 applications. You accepted 42. Yeah. But then the numbers that you just 42 Wait.
So 40. So there were 16 um in kindergarten total applications, unit A, other school employees and town employees. And then in grades 1 through 10, there were 22
placements. So 16 and 22, if my math is working, is 38 is 38. Yeah. Uh oh. Then two, the two that were not placed um but they were on the 44. Let's see. I'll double check that. Let me double check
my math and I'll come back to you. Okay. Thank you. But um well the important part is that almost everybody got placed except for the two of except for the two. Um other times we haven't been able to do that. So that
that's great. I have a question. Sure. Um, so first of all, I'm interested in what you just said, Helen. So that's a high rate in your experience or no that I don't remember. I don't know what our total is. It's
been I think around 130 kids altogether. We have 200 in in materials fee. And so you have just um a materials fee. So you think about it in the sense that what's the cohort that's going out, right? And then what are the spaces that are available as well. So, we generally keep
that number around 200. What is the I don't have that listed here. Okay. Yeah, because I was only looking at the applicants there, but it generally ranges keeps it in that 200 or so range. Yeah. Yeah. Um, thanks.
Um, just curious if you know the two 11th graders that weren't accepted. This is detaily. Do you know whether um those students have siblings in younger grades and whether those were
school or townside parents? So right now we are discussing this information before the parents have been aware. Well, let's sort of pull back a little giving broad information at this. Sorry. Oops. Okay. I did have one other
question though. When you talk about um people getting their first, second, third choice, which of course is great and and I like the idea of of of trying to do that.
Um was there also sort of cognizance of like where we have seats and use facilities and that usual? Yeah. So that um that goes in there that's part of the critical juncture piece of that as well.
Okay. Okay. So, definitely looking at space. And so, this while this was materials fee um the breakdown that we gave, there's also the Medco applications as well, but I'm not presenting that information tonight. Okay. Thank you. And I'll circle back
with the team. I provided to you all via email where the missing numbers are on my chart, my summary chart. Can I ask a question? Sure. [Music] Um, does this timing is this a similar timing to prior years? Okay, this is the
normal the normal timing. Okay, thanks. I just had a quick question. Are these numbers already projected? Yes, they're included in our projections. That's what I meant to say. Thank you. All right. So then the rest of our update is just to note that uh Desi has
completed the site visit to Winthre uh that was done uh Winthre at uh Driscoll that was done on April 16th and issued a certificate of approval for the expansion of the therapeutic program
there. And then we want to um share in remembrance of Maline Corkeran uh a lifelong BH uh Brookline resident and former teacher. Uh BHS passed away at the age of 94. She was a beloved
teacher at BHS for many years and a dear friend and mentor to many and will be remembered for her energetic um spirit, caring spirit and her enormous impact on students. Um we've
also and I'll share this again in more detail on a later committee but we've uh completed our principal searches for FR FRR Baker and Pierce at this junction. will be presenting those um um leaders
um at a later meeting. That concludes the superintendent's report for tonight. All right. Thanks, Dr. Gillery. Uh so, next we'll go to Kieran for a student report. Can I just ask what what did Miss Corkran teach? Does anyone know? She
taught I know she was the cheerleading coach. I remember her. She taught um typing in early childhood. And was she It was part of the career in technology. Well, it wasn't called then. It wasn't called career in technology, but that's what it was. Thank you. And was she
Craig Corkran's mother? Pretty sure I believe so. Yes. Okay. What was that, Caroline? Craig Corkran was was right. Retired um longtime um PE teacher at Baker and I don't know where else. Thank
you. Nice. As a nurse at Oh, wow. that into the mic. Betsy said Craig's wife is the nurse at Hayes. So, lots of connections. Um, all right. I guess uh I'll get
started. Um, so this is just uh first of all, happy May to you all. Um, I missed actually I wasn't in person in the April meeting, so this is the first time I think I've been here in like a month. Um, so it's great to see you guys again. Um and then this is just what occurred at BHS during the month of April. Um I
think most prominently most importantly um we had our final days of um so as you all know uh the days of are really just a series of events held annually for BHS students um to really learn um about sort of the daily experiences of whether
it's you know how race impacts us at the high school, how ability and disabilities impact us at the high school. um it's really just seeking to go beyond what's typically taught in the curriculum um and understanding the kind of the daily issues that um affect many students um personally at the high
school. And so in April um BHS held both its day of dialogue uh and its day of change. Um so day of dialogue uh it centers on the daily experiences of LGBTQ plus students and faculty at the high school. Um it's an event that's held annually around April um usually
the week before April vacation. Um and it's always put together by uh the queer student program which is led by Kate Leslie um who's a social studies teacher. Um so the themes of the event this year were um an information session on uh if I can recall the rise of
anti-trans legislation around the nation um as well as uh really what's the sort of the hallmark of the event um which is student speeches and faculty speeches. Uh so this year there were eight seniors who spoke um about their personal
experiences um being LGBTQ um at the high school as well as four faculty members um who spoke about the same thing. Uh yesterday actually BHS also held a day of change. Um day of change is led annually um it was the first two blocks of the day. It's always presented
by Sharp Warrior Sharp Warriors. Um, and so Sharp Warriors, it's a club at BHS that's dedicated to combating rape and sexual assault culture both in the school, outside of the school. Um, and so we were given options. Uh, this event occurred during a block and CB block,
which were the first two blocks of the day. Um, Ablock featured a lesson on the media's depiction of both pornography as well as sex. Um, and so how that's influenced how we think about those topics. Uh while the second um second
block of the day um many classes uh watched a documentary called The Hunting Ground um and that's about rape on campus. Um I can just you know speak from personal experience. It was a pretty sort of harrowing and kind of eye-opening documentary. Um it focused
on various college campuses around the nation. uh UNCC Chapel Hill, um UC Berkeley, um to name a few, and really how there's sort of an epidemic of under reporting of rape and sexual assault that goes on there. Um and how that's really contributed to poor student
experiences, especially among young women on those campuses and the general level of unsafety felt on those campuses. Um so I can definitely share with you guys the information that we as students were provided by our teachers. I can share that with Betsy um and put it in the report as well. um because it
really was uh a truly powerful documentary. Um and you know I think that sharpers both encouraged all the students to watch it in their free time um as well as you know the community as a large um to watch that as well. Um on
a lighter note Senior Assassin um has don't be fooled by the name. Um it's I can assure you it's perfectly benign. Um, so Senior Assassin really is um what a lot of seniors wait for uh four years
um until we get to play. Um so what it involves is seniors um they participate, they use water guns um to shoot each other um and try and get each other out of the game. Um so this has been a tradition at Brooklyn. You know, certainly when I came in as a freshman,
I mean, even we we even we knew about it. Um so, you know, definitely very popular. Um, unfortunately I missed the first week. This was the first week. Um, so I'll be buying in next week. Um, but it's really a fun game and I think, you know, more than even the nature of the
game is what it promotes among BHS. Um, which is really kind of senior bonding, um, which is, you know, inclusivity. The senior class really, you know, this is an entirely studentr run event. Um, 107 seniors chose to participate. Um, so it really is kind of a testament I think
to, you know, both the sort of bonding of the senior class, how tight we are as a class. Um, as well as, um, yeah, I mean, it just really speaks to the character of the senior class. Um, and then I also wanted to give our like a known student report spotlight on excellence, I guess you could say. I
feel like Dr. Gillery right now. Um, where I actually just wanted to highlight a few stories um, at BHS because I really do think that this speaks to a lot about what BHS represents. Um, so three of the stories that I wanted to share with you guys, um, so five seniors or four seniors, um,
I'll be featuring, um, Joey Alasmar, he's a senior, um, at BHS, uh, RUNL graduate as well. Um, he's actually running to serve as one of our library trustees, um, in this election cycle. Um, Ezra Kleinbound, Hannah Zelane, uh, and Maria Udallova are also seniors.
They all drafted, co-sponsored, and then introduced warrant articles that will be up at this May's town election um which I believe um May the last week of May town meeting um which is I believe the last week of May um you know ranging
from banning fuagra the sale of fuagra in the town um to you know declaring a resolution um in Brooklyn you know supporting denuclearization um across the world and within the United States. Um, so I included the link to the warrant articles here. That's a picture of Joey, um, in our
high school library. Um, and I really included this just because I think it, you know, also really speaks to the character of the senior class, um, in that, you know, civic engagement, sort of changemaking, I guess you could say. It's just really pervasive at BHS. Um, and I think that really is, um, you
know, a direct result, um, and a product of of what BHS has fostered. Um and you know I think certainly after four years at BHS um I can definitely you know speak to that um and and testify that you know that really is is what BHS has promoted among students. So that's the
April report from BHS. So I actually don't remember the senior assassin. I do remember the senior pranks that used to happen and this may substitute for that and that's a good thing um because one year the seniors
took all the seats in the auditorium and turned them around backwards. That was not a good year and nor were they happy after that at all. The other piece um with your um if you get a chance to
listen to Joey uh I'll l Alasma. Alasma. Alasma. Um I had Penty at one of the candidate a few of the candidates forms and it would really make you proud of what a BHS well what a Brooklyn education um
produces gives for a student to be able to produce what what he the way he talks with his passion about the libraries, his use of the libraries. Um, I I don't want to be political here, but I do want you to to listen to me because it it
made me proud. So, and the other guys, too, of course, you know, with the warrant articles, I don't want to, you know, negate that, but, you know, that was that was really something. Carolyn, well, since Helen opened the door. Oh.
Um, I'll say this as this is a completely neutral and factual statement. Kieran is running for town meeting. figure out how to work that in. I like your this is a completely neutral and non-political statement. So, yes, I'm glad you did.
Just put it in the spotlight here. Very. All right. Well, thank you very much, Kieran. Um, yeah. So, actually not totally unrelated to the town election. So, we had now have the said duty of saying farewell to
our outgoing member, Stephen Arinberg. Um, yeah. So, Steve was elected for a one-year term in 2021 and then reelected for a three-year term in 2022. Um, I'm really going to miss the many conversations that we've had in in these years. Um I think for me what stands out
about you Stephen is that uh when the committee is getting sidetracked or um getting lost in operational weeds, you have this way of making a comment that kind of brings us back to the moral core of whatever topic we're dealing with and
kind of refocuses us on what really matters. So I'm really going to miss having you on the committee. Yeah. So, uh, are there others who would like to roast or say anything about, uh, about
Stephen Mariah? Stephen, it has been such a pleasure to have you on the committee and to work with you. And I want to echo what Andy said that I think that one of the things that I found the most valuable is your just tremendous dedication to your core beliefs and and your commitment to
seeing those through and really the moral spirit by which with which or by which you sort of do all of your school committee business. So I'm really grateful and I will miss you terribly and thank you for your your service with us.
I think tagging on to that I'll just say I uh would refer to him as Mr. Sustainability or Dr. Sustainability. So um and I think that core value or belief that you have that has just reminded us that the choices
that we make today impact us tomorrow and in the future. So thank you for that hard work. Sarah, I'd like to thank you for all the expertise that you bring this and that you would if you didn't know yourself, you would go out and find the answer.
So, we loved the reports about what other school systems were doing and that will be greatly missed. Jesse, yeah, Stephen, um, you know, we're two seats away here in school community meetings, but very often during this year on policy, we were
literally next to each other in the smaller format. And um I appreciated that very much. I think our ability to make progress this year and our conversations in between meetings uh that did not violate OML, it's just the two of us um were all were always at
such a nice you know academic and also ethical and also meaningful level when we spoke and um it's it was a very good learning opportunity for me and um I enjoyed you know making a friend. So,
thank you very much and best of luck, Valerie. This is a hard one. Stephen, um, we came in about six weeks apart, I think. Um, don't go. That's that's what I like to say. Don't go. Um, thank you
for pushing us and and pushing conversation. And I I'm not going to say goodbye. I'm just going to say until I see you outside of school committee room. Suzanne. Well, Stephen, I think you've grown a
lot as we've grown with you. I I remember when you first came, I think you thought, I'm not going to make it through one year, let alone four years. So, thank you so much for hanging in there. You took on some tough issues. You did the sustainability task force, which is not easy. It's like hurting
cats. So, thank you for that. And you took on policy, which is also very challenging. And you've moved us forward. So, thank you so very much for that. I too will not say goodbye. I'll say I will see you on the streets of Brooklyn, which is really one of the joys of living in Brooklyn is running
into people you know and people you care about. So, I will see you on the streets of Brooklyn. Thank you very much, Stephen. Helen. So, Stephen, thank you for making me do the sustainability committee.
I wasn't really very happy with doing it, but in the end, I really learned a lot from the people who I worked with and have used them as um consultants on stuff when I have questions. So, it's been very valuable and the the whole piece that you did there was really an
important piece of work. So, thank you and good luck and have fun with your free nights. and Carolyn. Um, Stephen, you're just such a great thinker. I've appreciated so many of our
conversations before I was on school committee and since um I was actually in my Google contacts recently and there's a Stephen Arinberg election, so I must have supported you. Um, and I'm I'm glad I did. Um, and you're just, you know,
you're someone that I can can talk to, can argue with, um, in a way that that is really intellectually, um, satisfying. And I would just echo everybody else's appreciation for your
your core um, sort of direction. So, you will be missed here. Um, so the Betsy and the school committee would like to present you with some flowers and the certificate to
remember us by [Applause] Thank you guys. I didn't prepare any speech or anything. Just thank you. I have a lot of admiration for everybody here. Um it feels like a real privilege to get to to
do this just to just to serve on uh town government at all in this time, especially when things feel so crazy. Um just to feel like you're part of a body that gets to, you know, try to make decisions in the public good. It's a
good feeling and to serve on it with people who I have a lot of actual respect for and and um I just appreciate everybody's kindness and graciousness and patience with me as I uh try to keep
my cool and uh try to navigate these issues with you. So just thank you very much and um thank you to the administration too as you also battled through complex issues with us all. And um and thank you to Betsy. If we could all do our jobs as well as you do
yours, then I think I don't know that people know all the work that Betsy does to support the school committee, but it she enables us to function at a high level. So if we don't do well, it's the failure of our own ideas.
I'm also I didn't know where you were going with that. It's not Betsy's fault. The only other thing I just want to say I'll miss is that I know my mother watches all the school committee meetings from New York City. So I really get a kick out of debriefing them afterwards with her. So I know you're watching this right now
too, Mom. So I just I just want to give a shout out. So that's it. Thanks very much everyone for your kindness. All right. Thanks Stephen. So this takes us to public comment and we have four speakers tonight. Um each of whom has the floor for three minutes.
Um, our first speaker is Bradley Coleman. Yes, I'll make it work. Thank you very much. I'd like to start. I'm going to read an email that I sent to the members of the committee uh at 9:30 on Monday morning. Says, "Members of the school committee, I'm writing as a Pierce
school parent, member of the site council, and member of the Pierce principal search committee for an update on the decision on the new Pierce principal given the news of Dr. Dr. Giller's resignation. It's my expectation that he is no longer the primary decision maker for this hiring process. Dr. Gillery will not be the
supervisor of this incoming principal. We should not be bound by his decision. The ongoing questions about his leadership broadly and the approach to the principal searches more specifically should disqualify him from this role. Can you please let me know uh what the process will be for making this
decision? Thank you. I didn't get a reply to that email and now I realize that that's because by this point the decision had already been made. But uh the question is why did I send it Monday at 9:30? Well, that's cuz um the permanent principal decision for
Pierce was the very first thought I had when I saw the email announcing the superintendent's resignation. But actually, by the time I and all the other parents and teachers in the Pierce community knew enough to have that thought, it was already too late for us. Uh but when did the members of this committee know? well, by the
date on the superintendent's resignation letter at least 2 weeks earlier. And if the members of this committee had an interest in taking responsibility for the situation, that actually is plenty of time for you all to have intervened and prevented the now lame duck
superintendent from imposing a permanent appointment on our school as he's leaving. But you didn't do that. and instead you sat on that information of the superintendent's resignation until it was too late for families and staff to weigh in on the issue and worse waited until several days after early
voting in the election for your seats began, robbing some voters of the chance to make an informed decision on who they want naming the next superintendent. The lack of good faith action in the situation I feel is just another example of an ongoing pattern. And my only hope
is that the upcoming election is the start of a referendum on the lack of transparency and excuses for poor outcomes that unfortunately seem to have become the norm. Thank you for the time. Thank you, Mr. Coleman. Our next speaker
is Ruth Kaplan. on. Okay. So, she's um I guess having some technical problems, but she did also uh send her comments to us by email. All right. Our next speaker is Arno Amza. Am I is it okay for me to speak?
Um Oh, it seems that um that Miss Miss Kaplan is with us. Okay. So, please go ahead. I got the notice after you said I didn't get the notice. So, here I am. All right. Welcome. Thank you. It's my first time speaking remotely, so thank you. And I just wanted to wish um
Stephen Aronberg all the best. Yeah. Is it possible to speak up, but we're having some trouble hearing you in the room. Can you hear me now? Not so well. Um if you if if possible, I'm going to try to go on to my phone. So, you want
to take somebody else? Actually, at this point, I can hear you fine if the others can. Yeah. So, please go ahead. Um whatever you've been doing the last few seconds works. All right. Okay, great. Um, thank you very much for um, taking me tonight. Um, my testimony
is regarding the um, something on your agenda tonight called um, resolution regarding the MTA's curriculum materials on the Israel Gaza conflict. Can you can you hear me now? Yes. Great. Okay. Um,
on September 10th of this uh this winter, I had a front row seat at the state house hearing of the special commission on combating anti-semitism, at which point I was able to watch and listen to MTA President Max
Page, who was asked to defend his union's anti-Jewish, anti-Israel curriculum resources regarding the Israeli Palestinian conflict. The offensive materials in question are not available to the general public. So
most of us were seeing them for the first time in that hearing. One of the most memorable moments, which I'm sure you read about in the papers, occurred when um he uh was being shown an image of a Jewish star folded out of dollar
bills. And when and by the way, these materials are supposedly balanced. That was the point of their materials. And when he asked whether the image was anti-semitic, he literally remained silent. We were also shown a workbook
for first graders portraying, and I'm quoting from here, Zionists as bullies who stole land by force and hurt many people. And that that lesson plan came with an accompanying workbook with writing
exercises. I repeat, this is a lesson plan for first graders and those materials are still included so far as my understanding. I am told, by the way, that MTA has since removed that egregious dollar sign image, but it
doesn't change their mindset. There was no apology or condemnation by the union of of those materials. And in any event, they have retained the vast majority of their resources that contain very biased articles on the history of Israel. What
has driven them to undertake this highly politicized agenda with such gusto? And why is Israel Palestine chosen as the topic as opposed to any number of other global conflicts? Um I that's I have no idea really but there's clearly an
ideological drive by the union um to do so which I consider and many consider quite dangerous. Um we all know that since the Hamas massacre of October 7, 2023, anti-semitism have spiked locally
and nationally. Sadly the MTA's launch of its biased curriculum further fuels the flames of hatred and division. Contrary to their assertions, these materials do not provide balance. Rather, they constitute propaganda. And with all due respect, the vast majority
of K through2 educators, both in Brookline or in any of our systems, lack subject matter expertise in the Middle East or in what constitutes anti-semitism. As a result, the teachers, even with the noblest of intentions, are very vulnerable to the
authoritiveness of these materials. I'm proud of the school committee that they're showing the leadership to introduce this resolution tonight and I hope it passes unanimously. I hope school committees across the state do the same and that the MASC takes this up
and and makes it a state resolution. No teacher in Brooklyn should rely on these bias materials and they should not receive professional development credits for any trainings based on them. Finally, I just want to say that I I value the MTA and its contributions
highly to public education in our state. I'm hoping that they'll show some course correction, major course correction, and return to focusing on their core mission of supporting teachers. They have no business creating polarizing and biased curriculum that creates a hostile
learning environment for Jewish minorities students and teachers in our town and in our state. Thank you very much for the time. Thank you, Miss Kaplan. Do we have Mr. Azilog with us?
Hello. Hello. Hello. Thank you. So if I may start uh the people in Gaza face a hunger crisis as the aid blockade by Israel reaches two months the longest ban since the
beginning of the criminal assault on Gaza. Life expectancy in the strip has fallen by 35 years. It is in order to distract us from this revoling reality that politician uh from Washington to Brooklyn use
accusations of anti-semitism. I am appalled that now it is my own school committee that attempts to smear the largest union of teacher in Massachusetts with unclear unsubstantiating accusation of anti-semitism. This resolution does not
give a single citation to support this grave accusation. Yet the school committee calls on all districts of Massachusetts, no less, to distrust the MTA. So at the time that in Brooklyn, some interest group thinks their role is to blame everything on the teaching
administration, many wonder who will be willing to feel the seat of Dr. Gillori, whom I thank for his advice. That's precisely the time that school committee chose to show public distrust for the teachers union. who
will want to work for a town who thinks it can polish your thoughts and won't trust your judgment. I did see the hearing of the MTA by the Massachusetts Commission of Anti-Semitism at the State House. It
looked like an inquisition tribunal. In the words of the MTA chair, we had been led to believe that the commission hearing would provide the opportunity for a thoughtful discussion. Instead, the co-chair used this hearing to engage
in political grandstanding that was disturbing to many, me included by the way, and remains one of the more deplorable displayed witnessed at the state house. So that's why I am asking the school committee instead of joining the state house in silencing those who
denounce the assault on Gaza civilians with American complicity. I ask you to defend the liberty to learn and the duty to speak up. And instead of giving lesson to other school district about education, I invite you to self-reflect
on how to make Brookline more inclusive, more respectful and attractive to prospective superintendent. So please stop wasting our time with this deplorable resolution. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Hzalag. Um, and our last speaker of the night is Juliet Landisman. Hello. Should I begin? Yes, please go ahead. Hi, I'm a longtime resident of Brooklyn. Okay. I am Juliet Lansman. I attended the Brooklyn schools followed by some of
my children. Growing up in the Brookline schools, I did not experience politics in the classroom. Instead, there was an acceptance of different opinions. Teachers generally did not promote a particular viewpoint. When our children attended Brookline schools, we encouraged them to accept their classmates might have differing points
of view. However, we trusted they would not encounter anti-semitism in the curriculum or in school in general. On February 10th, I attended the special commission anti-semitism hearing at the state house. Images of Nazi propaganda flashing for my eyes. Was I in 1944 or
2025? I was horrified by the anti-semitic curriculum materials that had been offered on the MTA website. Despite the reassurance of the MTA President Max Page, I viewed Jews portrayed as money rubbers, other related derogatory
images, and hateful threatening statements directed towards the state of Israel. No presentation of October 7th, 2023 massacre in which 1,200 plus innocent people were killed, others taken hostage. Many local families were and still are directly affected by this
horrible day and the aftermath. In a recent search of the MTA curriculum website, I saw several books that vilified the state of Israel. The materials displayed at the hearing were previously unavail to the public. Although some of the pages were apparently removed, I understand there
are still many current curriculum pages remaining. These materials still out and target Jews and Israelis. These biased materials should not be used by any educator in any classroom. I oppose the use of the MT materials related to the
Israel Gaza conflict. Thank you. Thank you very much, Miss Landisman. Um, so you are not actually our final speaker because someone else who had signed up who we thought was not here in fact is. So, um, uh, our last speaker will be Wincy Fun.
Yep. Okay. Thank you. Good evening, members of the school committee, Superintendent Gillery, and fellow community members. My name is Wincy Fong and I'm the parent of a fourth grader in Brookline public schools. I'm here to express my deep
concern regarding the proposed reduction of our school class size and classes from four to three. A decision that would significantly increase our class sizes and directly impact the quality of
education our children receive. Reducing the number of classes will inevitably lead to larger class sizes, which research consistently shows can hinder student learning and teacher effectiveness. This impact is even more
pronounced for students with IEPs and diverse learning needs. With fewer teachers and more more students per class, it becomes exponentially harder to provide the individualized instruction and support these students
that they are legally entitled to and deserve. Increased class sizes will also result in added stress and administrative burden for our teachers who are already managing complex classrooms, parent
communications, curriculum demands, and compliance with education requirements. This isn't just about numbers on a page. Is about sustainability, morale, and long-term retention of quality
educators. Furthermore, the pressure doesn't stop at the classroom level. These changes will lead to more complaints, more administrative troubleshooting, and greater strain on school leadership and school committee
itself. We we risk trading a short-term budget decision solution for long-term erosion of trust, performance, and school reputations. Brooklyn families choose this community because of its strong
public schools. If we compromise the strength now, we not only risk academic outcomes for today's students, but we also jeopardize the district's ability to attract and retain families and staff
in the future. I respectfully urge the committee to explore alternatives whether through creative costs saving measures, additional funding sources, or structural efficiencies that do not
reduce direct classroom instruction. Let's prioritize our classrooms. Please protect our most v vulnerable learners and preserve the excellence that defines Brookline. I'm very f thankful for all your time and commitment to our children
and a very kind school committee that I just heard about the farewell. So, best of luck. Thank you very much, Miss Fun. Um, we also have a speaker who uh who came to our meeting um and would like to ask a question. So, please go ahead, Miss Peoples. Um, I would like to say that um
the policy of the committee is that we listen to comments, but we don't reply in the moment. All right. That's fine. Hello everyone. Um, my name is Angela Peoples. Um, I'm new here in the town of Chestnut Hill,
um, Brooklyn. I'm very com This is very hard for me because it's not like a great issue to be talking about. My comment is concerning not only my child but all children. Um my child attends the Ronald
Hayes school. Um I've been having trouble since day one of stepping my foot in the door. Um the welcome experience was not good. I spoke to um several people trying to branch out and you know work through issues and that
things are not getting resolved. I'm I'm here actually tonight because I was actually looking through um I was looking you guys up actually and I was trying to see who can I contact now. But um I did contact the
superintendent, Mr. Lionus, um I'm not sure if I said your name correctly, but um by email and I got no response. Um, I'm also a former resident of the Boston public school and what I'm seeing is this is a systematic issue. It's not
just here. My children have attended in Boston and I'm seeing the same issues and it's scaring me because when I grew up, school was a happy place. And what I'm seeing now, my child is um, he doesn't like school. There's a
lot of issues going on and I don't feel it's fair to teachers to have to deal with a lot of the issues as well. But um children being bullied and harassed um even by teachers. Um so a comment that was made to my son that compelled me to
be here tonight is the fact that he was basically told that he's in the sixth grade and was told that he'd be given a test for 10th graders and that way she'd make sure he'd fail. Now right there that's
malreatment. I am an educator as well. I love children. I have nine of my own. I have six grandchildren. And I make sure that it's my plight in this life to make sure children are treated well. And I'll speak for not only mine, but all even
the child that um my child experienced bullying at. Um no one did anything. And and my main concern was that when the other child, and I'm saying this now, you guys can write up whatever you want. The child was um he he threatened to bring a weapon to school. And so that's
why I got in touch with the superintendent because no one was listening to me. And even though that did not happen, the thought is the problem. So our mindsets, we have to reach our children. We have to listen to children more um before things happen.
And one thing that's more important, you can have the smartest child in the world. And you guys have seen from the news reports it um you can be very smart but then if your mental state is not so um settled or you know you're
comfortable with yourself and um you're not getting issues out that's when children will act out. And so it's my concern that um more needs to be done about children's um social and emotional issues at hand today. Um,
we're bringing a lot into the school, different things that had nothing to do with schooling to me. And um, I've homeschooled my children before. I know I'm probably over my time, but I just want you guys to know that this thing is happening from Boston area to
Brooklyn. So, it's not fair, but we need to do something about it and change it before we have more problems. Thank you. Thank you very much, Miss Peoples. That concludes our public comment for tonight and takes us to our discussion
of the fiscal year 2026 budget. Andy, sorry, can I ask a question? Can you see me? I can't see any. I see black screen right now. Oh, well, we can see you fine. Okay. It seems big is working on it at the moment. Andy, can I just make one
comment that you're taking up the whole screen, Val? We can see you. Anyone who wants to email the school committee can do so by emailing school_committsbma.org. So if you ever want to follow up, Miss Peoples, you can also email school_committsbma.org.
You're welcome. All right, Betsy, do you think we should wait for it to be fixed or uh should we proceed? So, I meant like people Yeah. I mean, can can folks at home hear us right now?
Uh, okay. Um, I said if any slides are going to go up, I don't know that we can see those. I see. I think we better wait. Oh, good. Yeah, I can see us again. Okay. So, uh, budget discussion. So, um,
I'd like to invite Dr. Given to sort of tee up the discussion, um, maybe outline some of the motions that we might be asked to consider tonight. Uh, we also have our town administrator, Chaz Kerry, with us. Thank you very, very much for joining us. Um, and he'll be here to provide, uh, some insight on, um, our
town partners' position on some of the things we have to discuss. Great. So, I'll have uh, slide deck up in one minute. Okay. I know you always say I'm soft spoken,
so perhaps I am. All right. So, we're going to start um with updates uh as we have done customarily and um we'll begin with an update on revenue and uh many of you will recall at a
prior meeting before the April break uh that we got some great news that um there were additional uh there's additional state aid coming our way and um that was reported to us by Tom um Vatelli I think is it Vlo
Vlo at our meeting and um we received communication from uh Melissa who calculates the um the uh revenue allocation um and sends us out notifications about adjustments. And so
tonight I'm sharing with you uh the information formally um so that we can uh reduce the amount of our gap which is great. So the additional revenue that's coming our way is $211,420 uh which makes uh the revenue allocation
for the school side um 142,148452. So again, we subtract out um our budget of 149,94 6 uh16 and that gives us the new starting gap. Um over the course of the
last several months um there has been much deliberation around ways to reduce expenses andor uh enhance revenue and the total impact of our actions to date is 6,34601.
So as of tonight, the budget gap um is 1,50563. That said, we have some adjustments uh that have to be made. Um and that will be on the next slide. So some of the actions that we took um uh we have to make some adjustments to. And
so um I'm going to share with you what they are and then we can take the actions so that we're all kind of on the same page and we have documented um the changes um um you know in a formal way. So when we took the action to uh not
outsource um a a component of our uh food service program um it had a an impact that I had not taken into consideration. So the agreement was that if we reduced employees and that had a
and and therefore um the benefit costs would come off the books of the town that we would get credit for that. But by taking the action of actually just sending the revenue over, we didn't eliminate the cost. And so as a result
of that, um, the way that that that transaction will occur is to be vetted down through the town school partnership. And so all of that is to say that of the 300,000 that we had counted on for the reduction, we're only
going to get credit for one uh 200,000. So that changes it by 100,000. So to offset that um uh we do have we don't have a lot of as you know we've used um all almost all of our fund balances over
the last couple of years. We do have um uh the capacity small amount of a 100,000 that we could use to offset this um in the athletic revolving fund. Um, and I looked over the history as I always do to see to to see if that is um
an a recurring balance as opposed to a one-time blip of some sort. And it seems like it has been a consistent amount um in the fund balance over the course of uh a number of years. So, I feel very comfortable that we can make this um adjustment to offset uh the impact of
the food service adjustment so that it's um uh has a neutral impact to our work. So I I I can go through the last one or at some point we should probably take action as we have on the other ones so that we can update our our worksheet um
and capture all of these. So I'm not sure what your pleasure is. Do you want to do each one or do you want me to just go through the last one and then you can um vote them at as a package or um I'm wondering if we can um have you go through the end of your presentation
which is not going to be long um and then I would maybe call on um on the town administrator to fill in like another piece of the picture that I think the committee should have before we maybe get into a more detailed discussion. Absolutely. Right. So, actually the last item is an adjustment
and it is related to the conversations that have been taking place at town school partnership um and with the select board when we made our presentation on our budget to them a couple of weeks ago. Um, and as you know that there there has been some um
um you know um we'll say maybe disagreement in in the amount of money that uh the uh town um building public building department can actually afford to reduce their budget by. Uh there's
been a lot of dialogue around that and it and it seems like um the town is not comfortable with the decision that we had made previously. Um they are comfortable with uh the original motion that we had taken which was uh
162499. Um but the remainder of the um uh uh the budget reduction that we had taken of 600,000, they're not they're not really comfortable with that. So to make that that adjustment um and to have the conversation about that and Chaz can
come up and speak to to that um in a moment. Um I've put that adjustment here before you tonight. If if all of those are taken, it would make the budget gap as of today. If if that that is the pleasure of the school committee, um it would make our budget gap
$1,943,64. Um the next two slides I have just cued up for you language um uh so that if you do choose to um use money out of the circuit breaker. I've provided you with um the language uh to make that motion just just to be clear.
Um so we don't have a misstep there. Um I also want to highlight that if we use um the circuit breaker, it is money that we have not realized or will not have realized by the end of this year that we would in fact uh be using a receipt that would be uh typically allocated and
spent in FY27, i.e. we're moving forward a structural deficit for whatever amount is um allocated out of circuit breaker at this point. So I just need to say that I know you all know that but I feel like I need to say it one more time. Um so that's this motion and then the next
motion is the motion you would take to approve uh the FY26 uh budget. It is um uh really important that we conclude our budget deliberations uh so that we can go forward with uh hiring uh the hiring process for open
positions. Right now we haven't even posted uh for uh true open positions that we're going to need next year. Typically uh the postings go up at the beginning of April. It is now the beginning of May and I'm I'm very concerned about our ability to attract
and hire um qualified teachers for the vacancies that we will have inevitably next year. Um we can't move forward until we have some form of a budget. Also, as you can only imagine, um this uh is is very upsetting to everybody in
the community. our teachers and faculty and staff are um um highly anxious and being able to complete the budget cycle will provide some stability. We're also of course moving into contract negotiations uh with six unions next year. We have a lot of work to do and
you're going to have a superintendent search. So we really need to uh shift our sights on on the bigger picture work and so if at all possible I uh would highly recommend that we conclude our process this evening. um if you feel so inclined to do. Okay. Thank you, Dr.
Given. Um so, at Town School Partnership on Monday, uh our town partners had expressed some willingness to make available uh $970,000 from the CIP uh to help us meet our obligations if that turns out to be needed. Um and we have the town
administrator here. So, Chaz, would you mind um I guess describing how in your view like this idea might be implemented? Sure. Thank you. Thank you. Um, good evening. I'm Chaz Kerry. I'm the town administrator. Um, first of all, I want to thank you all
for the hard work that you have been doing over the last several months. Uh, this is not an easy process for anyone to go through. Um, and I will say it is our goal on the town side to be good partners in this and to try and reach a
conclusion that we can all move forward on together. Um, knowing the difficulties on both sides of the equation, the town has made reductions on its end of approximately $560,000 uh on its own budget. Uh and
unlike in the school committee case, um I see the potential for additional reductions down the road on the town side this year depending on how our revenue numbers come in and um other areas that may be outside of our control such as certain collective bargaining
obligations we have that uh are subject to mandatory arbitration. So I um I want to say that we are in the same a similar boat with regard to difficult financial situations and we want to be helpful. We
want to be good partners with the school committee. The select board wants to be good partners with the school committee because at the end of the day it's not a zero sum game. The schools provide a value to the town that is critical for the town's continued well-being. And so
that's the mission that the select board has given me and that's where I've been trying to thread the needle between not just the select board but also the advisory committee whose responsibility it is to submit the budget to town meeting and whose positions sometimes differ from the select board in terms of
how they've been positioned with the schools in the past. So, it is a difficult operation to try and thread the needle between three different power centers and hopefully get to a conclusion that all of us can agree with and agree on. So, with regard to the
$970,000, um the town's proposal would be that we further reduce the amount of money that we are spending out of recurring revenue on a one-year basis only to the capital
improvement program. You may recall the town has already reduced it from 6.6% to 6% in order to provide some relief to the schools. This would reduce it further, $970,000 of that, which would be the project cost for the design
portion of the Lincoln school grounds, including the playground in the fields and so forth, New Lincoln. So, that would be pushed back. It would not be cancelled. Uh, but we would not undertake that project this year. And what we would do, what we propose to do
with that money is to put it into a stabilization fund on the town side. um appropriate ask ask town meeting to appropriate that into a stabilization fund. That fund is controlled by my office um and I have had conversations
with Dr. Given today about some of the concerns there. the town is willing and able to enter into a formal memorandum of understanding with the school committee that reflects that that money is there in the event the schools need it um and that the town and schools will work in partnership with one another
that if that money is needed we will go to town meeting as a body and ask them to reallocate it. Town meeting would be in charge of reallocating that money formally. there's an opportunity to do that in November when there's typically a special town meeting. If there's a need for that money before that point, a
special town meeting can be called, including a special town meeting remotely by the select board at any time. Um, and the select board is willing to commit to that if that is the need of the school committee. Um so I uh
that is how we would structure this um is that we would put that money aside for the school for the schools in the event that it is needed. Um and there are a couple of reasons why it wouldn't just transfer over directly to your
operating budget. Um the first is if you move recurring revenue from the town side to the school side when you move it back it looks like a cut. Um, now I know that all of you understand that that's not what that is, and I know that we can
explain it to the public all we want, but at the end of the day, what it will look like is a cut from FY26 to FY27, and that's going to be difficult in principle to deal with. um we would
rather have a situation where that money is not in the budget at the start of the fiscal year but can be added to the budget if necessary. The other aspect of this is we want to be good stewards of this and ensure that there are capital
controls in place. Um, we want to be able to if the money if the need is less than this that we can release less of it and potentially start the Lincoln school playground project if that's something that the school committee wants to do. Um, you know what we typically do is we
base the budget in town meeting out of the Ways and Means Committee, the House Ways and Means Committee's budget, which is what Repo came and spoke to you about. The ultimate budget that's signed by the governor will likely shift that money again. We will likely see some, again, knock on wood, increase hopefully
in through funds either through unrestricted general government aid or through chapter 70 that could potentially flow to the school department through the split. In the past couple years, that's not been a whole lot of money, so we haven't done that and we've let it fall to free cash.
But this year, again, whatever whatever helps, we're willing to do so that money could be spent um and could reduce that total $970,000 amount. So that's the process that we envision for this. What it means in practice and I will let Dr.
Given speak to it is that my understanding is you need to incumb you need to have the money in hand. You need to have the money in hand in order to uh vote a budget. Um and so you can't rely on $970,000 that's not appropriated to
you is my understanding. and that you have already made cuts significant enough that I doubt there is appetite to cut in the budget $970,000 even on a temporary basis in order to accommodate this being available to the school department at a
later date. So the thought would be the circuit breaker will contain enough money to cover that $1.9 million. The estimated revenue from the circuit breaker will exceed $1.9 million. We spoke with the treasurer uh of the town
on the town side, Lincoln Heinman, who says he will be able to facilitate as funds come in from the treasur from the state for the circuit breaker in FY26, he will be able to facilitate spending on those funds, making sure that you
know that the money can be the money is available to you even as the receipts come in. Um because I know that's difficult in terms of a cash flow perspective. So, we want to we confirmed with Lincoln that you can do that and then from there um when that money is
necessary, when you exceed that $ 1.0 and change million dollar mark in your expenditures and you tell the and you're able to inform the select board of that, then we go to town meeting and we release the money that we need. Um, and in that way you're able to cover and
make up some of that circuit breaker cost uh and reduce that structural debt gap um that Dr. Given referred to uh just a few minutes ago. Now that's the structure that we are proposing in order to make this work. Um I will echo Dr.
Given's concern about the use of one-time funds for future things. It does create a structural gap. There's no way around it. Um, I will note that, you know, the requests on the town side that sort of reached a fever pitch were for
the town to use one side funds to cover this. And ultimately, the select board's position was given that the overages in this instance are stemming on the school side in part from the cost center that can be covered by circuit breaker funds. It's
important to utilize those one-time funds primarily first if available before moving on to general fund. The other things the precedent that it sets to utilize onetime general fund revenue in this way is a bad precedent that once
you start you're not going to stop. So that's how we're trying to be creative in getting money from the town side of the budget to the school side of the budget, protecting the president and ensuring that we have enough time to then go through the process the expenditure and revenue study committee
which two of you were just at um in order to reach the conclusion about what if anything is put on the ballot next May in terms of an operating override. So this is a way to bridge the gap to an operating override. It does potential operating override. it does create a
structural gap that you will start with um around to the tune of around a million dollars um because that's money that wouldn't be available from the circuit breaker in order to cover FY27 expenses. So I don't want to minimize
that in any way. Um but I think that is where the other constituent bodies of the town school partnership landed and uh that is ultimately what the select board voted on Tuesday night. And again any sort of questions about process or
procedure um we're happy to answer. Um so actually can I can I start off with a question? Thank you very much Jazz well for you know thinking creatively about this and also for coming to talk to us about it now. Um I just want to be very clear on sort of what would trigger the
um the select board to make this request to town meeting to release those those those funds. So if our current budget gap is 1.943 million and we're talking about $970,000 from the So we're talking about slightly under $1 million that we
would basically be committing tonight to cover from circuit breaker if we needed to. As soon as it became clear that we would need to spend down circuit breaker beyond that. Yes, that would the select board is committing to make that request to town meeting at Yes. One of the one
of the terms that we've I I we've been working on this today, so I apologize that it's not before you, but Dr. Given and I have been treating emails on this. Um the proposal in theou would be that we would meet uh we would exchange financial information in October or
around October 10th so that we have time to go to the November town meeting if it looks like you might need that money. So we can be proactive, not just, oh, we hit, you know, we hit it and all of a sudden it's a crisis point. We want to be able to actually be proactive and allocate that money in an effective way
if we understand where you are in the first few months um particularly after school opens and those costs are present and beyond that we would talk on a quarterly basis just to see where we where where you are so that if we need to call a special town meeting we have the ability to do that and the
commitment is that we would not need to spend more than one one million from circuit breaker. Uh, I mean, you have to you have to you have to obligate it, but the commitment is that that $970,000 is there for you when you need it. When you go when you exceed that your current gap
minus 970 and you need 970 to plug that gap, that's where that commitment is. Okay. Thank you. So, Mariah, you had a question. I have two questions. Thank you, Chaz, for coming tonight. I really appreciate it. Sure. Um, I was a little confused by something you just said, and I just want
to clarify it. So, you said we'd have a $1 million structural gap, but don't we have a $2 million structure? Yes, you two million. Sorry. Okay. Um, I was excited that we might only have a $1 million structural gap. I thought this is wonderful magic. Okay. And then my next question is though, and this is
something that to me is a fundamental thing I can't get over in this proposal, which is we're even if you were to appropriate it into a separate account, I think it was called a contingency account in one place, a stabilization account in somewhere else, whatever it's called,
like it goes somewhere which is a holding account of some sort. Yeah. How can you commit to town meeting voting the way that you are committing that you are saying right now? And I'm and that's just sort of like we we don't have there's no what we are what would be
given up is the Lincoln playground redesign a portion of the CIP. The Lincoln playground is not just for the Lincoln school but of course for the community at large. Um and a community that has advocated for this project. We
I think DPW has already um done some preliminary work this even this past year because of what was already needed to just stabilize the structures. Um and so I think that like there's that issue and there's just no certainty. That's what's throwing me off with this is
there's just no certainty. And it's not that I think that using up our circuit breaker is a better way, but I feel like um I don't know how to wrap my brain
around something um relying on something that's not a commitment. And so that's my struggle. So I don't know if you have an an I don't know if that's an answer or if that's a question or a comment, but I I would be curious your reaction to that. Yeah, I understand it's tough. I think one of the things that we thought about is what is the cleanest way to do this that is that retains
right so you got to remember uh the rules of funding right when we appropriate money to the schools you cannot condition it in any way you cannot separate it into a different account you can't do any of that you have to give the schools the money be
done with it um and because of how that will look in the town school split because of all the stuff that we just talked about doing that now in the beginning of the fiscal year is going to cause trouble. So what can we do to make
that work and have that be as strong a commitment as possible? One of the things we also considered was putting it in the reserve fund. Problem with putting it in the reserve fund, that's the advisory committee. I don't know if you want to go there. Um, I think town meeting, especially if we are all on the same page now and explain it to town
meeting when we go to town meeting at the end of May, I think town meeting will be amenable to us working together creatively to try and solve this problem. Um, I would hope that town meeting as a body values the schools the same way that everyone else does. Um,
and so I would I I I do I have a guarantee? No, I have nothing nothing that I can guarantee, but I feel like the strongest possible outcome here that still respects the procedural way that we're trying to do this is to rely on our representations, our joint
representations to town, meaning that this is the way it works and that we're relying on them not to gatekeep the money from you, but to safeguard the money until you need it. Thank you. Just one follow-up question just because you were saying we're trying to creatively think about the process and is there no
way for you to rather than appropriate those funds into our operating budget for example appropriate them directly into the circuit breaker fund? No, I can't do that. The state the state unfortunately is has the plenary authority to do that is my understanding. I can't put money in your
circuit breaker for you. I see. Okay. Thank you. All right, Val and then Stephen. Thank you Chaz. I I think I heard you say that the reason not to appropriate it at Maytown meeting was because it would look like a cut and I'm trying to
understand I'm hoping you can help me understand why May Town Meeting would look like a cut but November town meeting wouldn't points in time um is really what it's about. Um when you look at what is the budget that passed uh what people rely on and what the
statistics were are going to be ultimately is what is the initial budget that passed for FY26 and can we point can we do a pointto-oint comparison of July 1st 2025 to July 1st 2026. Um you
know when we put that out there then it's much cleaner for us to be able to say year overyear there's not a cut here. Um even though you will have money appropriated in midyear um it's not going to look like a cut in comparison
from your proposed FY26 budget uh and your proposed FY27 budget. So it's two points in time. Okay. Thanks Stephen. Um thanks for this and thanks for um
coming in. so clearly as a good faith partner looking to help solve a problem. I just want to make sure I understand one point which is that just following up on what Val said, the reason not to appropriate it uh early is because it would be hard to correct a perception
that the subsequent year looks like a cut. Um I understand that and that makes a lot of sense. However, from the school committee's point of view, what we then have to accept is the lack of a guarantee. And that's
difficult for me because it's it seems to me easier from from a holistic point of view to request instead a guarantee and then a partnership around messaging subsequently to the town that this is in
fact a different data point than you think. It seems more responsible in fact to request a guarantee from the town side so that we can be proper stewards of of an excellent education because we
are then admitting a scenario where there is something potentially catastrophic which is that for one or another med reason our town's legislature does not approve of that appropriation. and that would feel like we've chosen the worst case scenario.
So, would it be possible? Would it would you consider appropriating it and then working with the school side on a messaging campaign so as to thoroughly apprise the town of the true
um year-to-year cost of education in Brooklyn rather than what you proposed the the later appropriation. Two things here. One is you do have a backs stop here um which is you are going to have $2 million in your circuit
breaker at least for f coming in in FY26. So you will not be in jeopardy of being unable to meet your budgetary obligations. You will just be creating a larger structural gap in that particular account going forward. But to Mariah's point, structural gap will still be
close to $2 million. It's just that the source will be different. um you'll have less money coming out of circuit breaker and money that will be covering expenses this year from the town's revenue side that will go back to the town's revenue side. So, it is not about whether or not
you're going to have you're going to be good for the money. Um the school department is going to have the money. It's just going to be coming from a different source. And again, there that's not to say that's not without some peril. It's money that's coming in over the course of the school year. But
that's where the Treasury Department is working is committed to working together with this to make that work to make the cash flow work. Um the other aspect of this is that we want to be we also want to demonstrate that when we do something
like this that there are controls on the process in some way. Right? Ultimately the town is saying we're willing to spend a million more dollars on this. Uh we want to be able to help the schools out this year. But in order to do that, we want to have some protection in
place. We want to have a structure in place where we're able to understand what the issue is and work together and get to town meeting on that front. You know, have an understanding of how your budget is running and where all those things are where the cost centers are so
that not so that we can run your process for you, but so that we understand where the gaps are and how we can solve for the how we can help you solve for the problem. And if that number winds up being less than $970,000, we don't want to be in a position where we're then asking you for
it back, right? We want to be in a position where we give you the money you need and if there's money left over at the end of it, it either is spent on beginning kicking off Lincoln or it falls to free cash and is used for that project next year.
I I guess it's the the risk of exhausting our circuit breaker with without a strong guarant without a very strong guarantee seems like um not the strongest offer from the town
side when there is something else on the town side that can be offered when you consider the what's the the downside to it from the I I I I realize this is tricky and I and I
I see it from both points of view. Yeah. What's the only downside to it is is is a communications hit that could be remedied. That that seems to me so much slimmer than than a a
real shortfall. But it's not just a communications hit, right? That is part of it. But the other part of it is the town is doing something extraordinary. The town is moving away in an extraordinary circumstance. In an extraordinary circumstance and the town
wants a guarantee that if if we're going to do this, we're going to be good stewards of that money together. And that requires some level of guarantee on our end as well. I will say this, when the school department asked for $3
million in ARPA money, it had $4.2 million at least in its revolving funds. We didn't know that at the time we said yes to that. It's only now with the partnership of Dr. Given and Dr. Gillery that we actually have an understanding
of how much money you have at all. We haven't been good partners in the past years and there's not a lot of trust there. In order for there to be trust, we need to start building it. So I don't want there to be a situation where there's a loss of trust here and that
means we got to take the first steps in a careful way. Thank you. All right, Carolyn and then Mariah. Thanks. Um, and thank you Chaz for being here and Susan for your explanations.
Um, and your memo of April 25th was very clear and I was reading this and just thinking, "Wow, I wish I could write that." Well, um, and it's complex, so I I really appreciate that. [Music]
Um, so just picking up on what Stephen was saying, um, I personally um don't have the same perspective of of um
disliking the notion were this to be the choice um of of this stabilization fund controlled by your office and and going through town meeting. Um, for the reasons that you've said, it makes um,
sense to me. Um, I sorry because I'm just looking at my questions and cutting. Um, so, and I guess I just want to sort
of ask you or Dr. Gillery or um to make sure I'm clear, the alternative to this proposal and the lack of a guarantee um is for the school department to further cut
expenses or use more circuit breaker or use more of circuit breaker. Um so those are our choices. They're difficult might be difficult choices but there are choices. Um, I would have to
say I I would agree politically, you know, if we go down this road, I'd be shocked if we went to town meeting. Um, and town meeting didn't approve this. And I say that based on I think I'm running for town meeting for my fourth
term now. Um, so it I understand the questions about guarantee technically, but um that would be shocking to me. And as far as the $970,000
specifically from the Lincoln School playground project, that's unfortunate. Um, but sometimes I mean there are lots of things that that that don't get done. um and where when there are things that
the town wants to do that it can't afford to do um it doesn't come to the schools. So I think this this um stabilization fund and and this plan of of keeping it that way um it makes sense
to me for the the reasons that you've outlined. Um, and were this to be our choice, I'm I'm comfortable with that aspect of of the structure, especially knowing that in a worst case scenario,
which I would be shocked if it happened, um, that there is the wiggle room in the circuit breaker. And then I'll just sort of reiterate what we all know that generally this whole endeavor
is just not it's it's not good. We're not in a good place. Um having this kind of structural problem. So I will be looking for
um you know we we need to not continue to to do this. I don't know what the answers will be but um it certainly merits just saying out loud that uh you know I don't I'm not
comfortable with this um fiscally I don't love it. Um but that's where we are. Thanks Carolyn. Go to Mariah. Um, I had a I have two question or a question and a comment, but beforehand I
just want to say that what I another thing I liked about your memo, Chaz, was the upfront portion where you talked about some of those sort of long-term strategies. That was also really helpful. And I think, you know, it does behoove us, as you said, Caroline, it's structural. And so, what are we going to change structurally to get out of this
constant um being behind the eightball? Um I'll actually just skip my question my my question or sort of my question comment and go to my other question comment. So one of the things that we proceverating on the funds portion of
things as I um like to do sometimes one of the things we have been talking about and I think you might have been in some of these conversations maybe it's just been at school committee I don't think so though I think it came up in some of these conversations was the idea of establishing the special education stabilization fund. Yes. And I went to
look because um my recollection was that um that that fund actually and I'm just going to read this part. Funds in the reserve fund can only be expended or transferred out after a majority vote of both the school committee and select men or city council
um is what it says or I should say major because that's the regional school. Anyways, it's both halves of the house. So, um, what I'm wondering is, is there a reason we could not establish the special education reserve fund, which is a good practice anyway, hold those funds
in that account, have it then be subject to the same structure that the state establishes, and then if the funds aren't used this next year, it also allows us to seed the funding for this multi-year fund, which is a best practice as established by this 2020 uh,
I don't know if it was a change in law or whatever it was that allows these to be estab established and it would be a multi-year reserve fund but again it would have this partnership aspect to it. There would be the collaboration. I'm just wondering did you consider that and if so or or is it something you might consider as an opportunity? I
think it's absolutely something we should consider. It's something expenditures and revenue study committee is taking up. Um we need to consider that. I think it would be a good idea for us to take a hard look at that. I think it can be established over time. It's not something we could boot back up overnight. My understanding is at some
point we had some sort of special education escape valve in the budget and it went away. Um, and I don't know the history behind that. Um, we had a staffing thing. We had a staffing fund of like 475,000 that was stuffed in a random budget. Yes. That was like called
special education, but it wasn't labeled special. Yeah. It was referred to as Okay. Yeah. But something more formal, something that follows the state process, I think. But is there a reason to do that over time or given the situation we're in like put the 970 into
it again with this idea that it doesn't necessarily need to be spent in one year. It would have this checks and balances that you're seeking. It would not be placed into the operating fund and it would allow us to use that fund over multiple times. The nice thing about that that I like too is it ties into it's offsetting what we're doing to
circuit breaker if we were like we don't it's all special education reserve funds essentially. So then it's it's balancing if even if we need to put money into if we're spending more on circuit breaker which I guess we wouldn't even need to because this reserve fund would be there. I think the one aspect of this
where I can't say yes to it because the select the select board would need to talk through this is that it's that question of where the money ultimately winds up. um we would need to find an alternate way to cover in some way that so the the
$970,000 goes into that fund and in the current scenario if it's not used if some or all of it is not used it falls for free cash in this scenario if it's not used it stays in the fund is my understanding and seeds the fund which again long term that's a good practice and we should be thinking hard about it
but that immediate money the question is what is the select board's position on that does it make sense Um, and I think I need to take it back to them and have that conversation with them. So, I think in the immediate term, we should proceed. If we were to proceed tonight, you need to
proceed on this, but I think it's absolutely worth taking back to the select board. theoretically, right? You shouldn't need to touch this money until hopefully October or later, which is enough time for us to have these conversations over the summer and think about whether we want to go to town
meeting in November and not ask for it, but ask to move it into this fund instead. Um, so it solves your town meeting is going to have to appropriate into this fund one way or another, either as part of the budget now or later on. So you need the select board to sign off on that. uh and they are not
ne meeting next not meeting next week because of the election. So they would be two Tuesdays from now. Um so I'm happy to take this back to them and talk about this is a potential solution. I can't give you a commitment now because it's not something I've raised with the board and I don't want to speak for them. Thank you. But als just to add
also I think it requires an active town meeting to establish a reserve fund. Yes. So that would be a separate thing that would need to happen either in a rush as a special town meeting for May or as the November town meeting. Right. Another reason. Yeah. So we we want to take a look at that. The select board can call a special town meeting and wave
but yeah we'll figure that out. Suzanne and then oh Helen I have a question as well. Well this is about reserve follow up. Yeah and that would be a reserve fund which would lay where I assume it some Netherland that was
between both sides. I don't know. Yeah. And so my understanding is it's a separate account um that is subject to the control of both the select board and the school committee but not the advisory committee. I don't believe so. Correct. Not the advisor. Is that the way that it Oh, I'm sorry. Go ahead. I
think that's a great idea. kind of bridges the uh the issues that uh Chaz raised and also addresses a longer term issue that we have had here and has been talked at uh the expenditure and revenue committee earlier today. So, this could
be a wonderful opportunity to um take advantage of a terrible situation that we're in, but to have some kind of a positive outcome. Um either way, it does have to be funded. the school committee would have um you know control over it
as Chaz said in that case it would kind of lie more administratively as opposed to legislatively once the fund is set up and the money is appropriated over to it. So in that way um I think it marries you know these two um challenges that we
face in a way that that might have a positive end result. So it would be a school committee revolving fund but it requires a vote of select board also to release the funds. it requires a majority of both it or to to enable the
make an expenditure or whatever we can look at the details of setting that up you know there um and and get back but I think it's it's something that won't take long um and uh might be the the way forward here tonight either way we need
to take action um the circuit breaker is probably the only option that we have temporarily for tonight um and close our budget but then um pursue this um this this option which which seems to satisfy what the town's concerns are because it
would not be an appropriation um directly to our uh but it still serves the same function. So I think that would that might be something um there's an appetite for. Yeah. Okay. So I don't want to detain Chaz any longer than we absolutely have to. Um Suzanne Carolina
were these questions for for the town administrator? Um Probably not. Okay, Suzanne. Well, I was I was just wondering if you could say more about theou. Yeah, that was my question as well. Yeah, I'm not sure what what's in that. So, we're still we're still working on it. We talked about it today. So, it's
still fresh. I think you ultimately it would be anou signed between the select board and the school committee. And what it basically would say is we're approp you know the money is being appropriated here. Um the select board agrees um that we the select board agrees that in the
event the schools there's a need for this that the that they will go jointly to town meeting that if a special town meeting is necessary the select board will call it um and that the schools and the select board would meet um on or about October 10th to check in on where
the where the money was and then if it was not needed at that point on a quarterly basis thereafter um so that there would be the opportunity to gauge when it would be necessary to ask town meeting to reappropriate those funds. And then it would say that it just reaffirms that at the end of this fiscal
year that money goes back into the town side of the budget. Um there's no long-term impacts uh on either side. Um both sides agree that this is a one-time thing. Um and that um in the once the um
CLA deficit review is complete, I envision that there's probably going to be grounds for a grow a broaderou that will include both town schools and the advisory committee um the town and school partnership constituent bodies and that it just says at the end that this can be folded into that. So it
doesn't shouldn't confuse people that this is the this is theou. an agreement to give you some that sound over there some comfort. Yeah. I'm just wondering whether uh that means that as part of the overall package that we might vote tonight, I would ask the committee to authorize the chair to at least be
having discussions with um with town partners about what what would be in theou not not to sign it that would come back to the committee but to continue the discussion. Okay. Jesse. Yeah. I guess my question is um these
are a proposal to merge two things the 970 from the capital and about a million from circuit breaker to close a gap that is that exists. So I'm a little concerned about us
discussing the portion of it as if we're not going to spend some of it. I'm not sure why we don't think we're going to spend all the money that we budgeted. So why are we saying well maybe there'll be a little you know we said a few times well if there's some money left over we'll know where it is. Um I would estimate that you know with cost
increases and tariffs and everything else that we know is going on. Why why would we even consider the fact that there may be money left over? I mean all we need I mean I think Dr. Schmucker talked about it a few weeks ago. All we need is like I don't know one or two
students that have to go out of district and suddenly whoom on this bed cost. So, I mean, are we really realistically thinking that there's a chance that we're not going to use the money that that the that the uh superintendent uh profered as what the
budget needs to be in order to provide all the services to everyone next year? I think my concern is we are going to and it's not going to be available to us through this like the money will not be there because because of timing. Not because of timing because town meeting may choose not to. True. That's a risk.
Yeah, that's what my concern. All right. So, that comes to my second question, which is not really for CHZ, but my question is, and maybe this follows up on what Carolyn had said earlier, is that have we really exhausted all of our options on reducing the gap? If the answer is yes, there is
absolutely nowhere else to look. I mean, I'm ask Dr. Gillery this, but have we really gotten to the end of the list? And there is no other option before we start talking about some version of another way of closing the budget because if there is something to do
might be painful but I mean these are you know crisis times that will you know we know we know that we started at 8.2 and now we're down to 1.9 and if the 970 from the from Lincoln is clear then we're down to a
million. Um are there somewhere a position or two or is there there was a discussion tonight about you know potentially um increasing um class size by reducing section or something like that. Um are there other plans that I
mean this is a hard conversation to to bring up. I understand and I'm not happy having to bring it up openly but I I'm asking the question is are there certain things that we can still do that we haven't done yet? So, two things here. One is the that we
did work with the union to get an extension until tomorrow for notifications of riffs. Um uh and that includes the normal um allotment uh because we wanted to make sure see what
the school committee's actions were u on that given the timing of it there. Now, um it would be virtually impossible to go beyond sort of the standard non-renewals for performance one years
and those types of things. Um so that's that. The other opportunity that we have is as the budget um or as our processes proceed if there are adjustments or shifts uh along the way. So for example,
if enrollment shifts and and a section can be cond consolidated and a person can be bumped somewhere else. Uh those types of savings um um those types of positions can not go filled and be left
blank and you can res reduce uh some of the costs in that way. So I don't know that there are more reductions for us to take um on this end at this point um given where we are with the contractual obligations as such. Um the uh there
certainly our contracts um like our um par educators and those types of things, they have later notices um a later notification period than the uh teacher portion um which is May 1st which we got it bumped to May 2nd uh
based on what happens tonight. Um, so that's my thinking there is that if there are shifts that occur after tonight's actions that it would be my recommendation for us to look at not filling positions, take those types of
savings um in that regard and do it that way. Thank you, Carolyn. And then maybe um we should put some motions on the table. So I guess this is just sort of another
way of asking kind of coming back to our process. So the school committee went to the town school partnership along the way and said here's where we are. The town responded with Chaz's memo which laid
out three options that they saw, each of which also contained sort of sub options. Um, and then Chaz is here describing those, but it's not Chaz's job to
recommend I if I have right. So I guess I just want to hear from Dr. Gillery at what his recommendation is because that's my understanding is that's what we would be responding to if I do I have that right. Andy um
sure Dr. Gillery has left the room so I'm not sure you heard your question. So just well and it's it's more of a sort of just clarification of process wrapped in with a not not so much a direct question but I'm I'm trying to kind of summarize where we
are. Um and yeah just to be clear that you know it's not the process is not CHAZ asking us to do something. No no no we respond to Yes. to the superintendent.
at the superintendent. I would just say that I think Susan articulated it already earlier which is she believes and I think that was sort of the presentation earlier that basically the only path forward tonight is to vote it from the circuit breaker. And it seems
like also in our conversation subsequent to that um you know there might be other opportunities for how this is the 9 we have future opportunities for 970 but tonight we need to vote to fund it from circuit breaker. And I would add to that um asking the committee for author like
that the chair be authorized to pursue these discussions along the lines that um that the town administrator was outlining for us just now. Helen. Um, so I I have two questions. Um, first of all, how much is is in our
circuit breaker or will be in our circuit breaker next year? We've used Well, somebody either of you, I don't care who answers it. Um, so in the circuit breaker by the close of this year will be about $4.2
million and that's that's what would be available for us to spend next year. What this motion essentially does is say that the additional reimbursements which we would acquire over the course of next year that we we would be um spending
against that. Right? So that's essentially what the the vote would be. Wait a minute. Then I'm confused. The 4.2 is what we've allocated for next year is already in the budget. Correct. Next year we expect to get we know we are getting well a like amount a like
amount for I think it was 4.4 that would normally it's a recurring revenue. So let's just be clear. I just want to clarify a few things. Technically the the circuit breaker revolving fund is a recurring source of revenue. It is not a one-time revenue. Right? So what what we're doing is leveraging a reoccurring
revenue that then we will not have for the following year, right? Or may have more. We won't have we're pre-spending it, right? And so we're spending next year's revenue. In other words, is what we're doing. So it's not one time. Um so I just want to
be clear, it's not onetime revenue. It's a it's an action that will push forward the structural deficit that we have. the FY27. That's really what it what it will do in full, like in full, right? The two million alto together, even if we get
the the one-time money from the town. And what I like about that suggestion to put it in a reserve for special education is that you know it jumpstarts um this process where we would have access to in those cases when we do not
have um control and we cannot uh budget for some of these expenses in special education that there is a is a mechanism for us to access resources beyond this shear. So I think the reserve fund in that form would be would be positive,
but it does not take away the structural deficit. We'll still have to deal with next year. It just would um maybe have a positive side benefit. Um but either way, you're going to have to fund it out of next year's uh operating budget. And one more question. So if I remember
correctly when we were talking about the out of district monies that we have we took some of that to use this year for our budget there was some amount that didn't we in one of our help me Karen um
re basically re reooked at the projections for out of district and said we could reduce it by 415 20 17,000. So that was there was still money left there for outofd district placements but as Karen reported she's had several of
them come in and we had to place uh I think we have five paris that we've had to hire this year so what was here yesterday is not here today right and so that's kind of the nature of the so is there any I think there's back 100
thousand left go ahead a little up just take it off. Um so you know I think I mean these questions you know just in terms of in this couple of months just speaks to the volatility of as we know special ed tuition um in terms of you know why there is circuit
breaker it's exactly for that um so in terms of we did we had a lot of reserve um right now we probably are going into the fiscal year with about 250,000 [Music] um in contingency from if you remember initially it 800 um at the time and that
just speaks to just how much kind of movement is and sometimes it's in and sometimes it's out right um but I think that's as I think you all know that's the risk in terms of utilizing circuit breaker in terms of the strategy um is that it's not what it's necessarily
intended for. Okay. All right. I'm going to invite our finance chair to make the motions with the numbers filled in. I don't think Well, you can put it up. Susan, do you care if I make it as one big massive motion or can I do I have to put in two? Can I ask a question first before we have a motion? Can I make the motion and
and then you ask a question? Sure. Okay. I'm going to make a motion to Wait, you took away I need to look at the cheat sheet on Okay. So, okay. So, to adjust the [Music] um to reduce the There's another slide
that had the language. No, it's not I don't think it had the language. It just had a It had a blank for the number. Oh, yeah. But Well, do you want to pull that other one up? I think I need to take these out. Exactly. It was It was So, I'm going to say that we're going to make the We're going to make the the
adjustments as shown on this slide. Betsy, does that work? Is that enough, Betsy? Okay. Read the number. And then I'm also in addition going to um add to this motion that we um take1,943,64
um from the circuit breaker revenue fund. Uh nope. Susan, I got the test wrong. If you would you kindly use the motion that I present. Oh, it's not on the Okay. Sorry. Okay. to allocate
$1,943,64 of out of district tuition expenses in the FY26 operating budget to the circuit breaker revolving fund. Is there a second? Second. Yes. All right. So, that's on the floor and we have questions from Val and
Carolyn. So, Val, thank you. Um, so question on the motion we just made. My understanding of circuit breaker is that we can spend it on any high needs cost in special education. So APA and other things. Is there a reason we're only
moving for tuition is the first and then the second is my understanding is we always spend this I think goes to clarify what Helen was talking about. We always spend all of our circuit breaker or near all of it. Is that correct or not correct?
should have stayed up, but I do need my steps tonight. So, um, okay. So, the first question was, um, why, uh, we can we can spend it on other things, right? I just want to make sure that that we're talking about all
the categories of things that we can use circuit breaker on. Yeah. So the way that circuit breaker has been used here in Brooklyn is to offset the out of district tuitions. So I'm just staying consistent with the practice here. Um
what we get reimbursement for or any costs above what is it 50 50,000 is it somewhere in that neighborhood? Yes. Any costs? Yes. For how much? 531 53451
431 431. So any cost that we have um for um associated with a student that is exceeds that four you know right right that amount of money um
the u commonwealth uh provides us with a percentage um as a circuit breaker uh reimbursement for those costs. Right. And so that's it would be all costs associated with that student including
transportation. Um so Susan, would you take it as a friendly amendment to just say of eligible expenses rather than out of district? We would I I would I mean that could be true, but I'm trying to make it clean because I have to make a budget transfer now. And if we take it from one those expenses and we have like
expenses still in the circuit breaker fund, it just makes it much cleaner. Well, I think you can do that on your side, but that wouldn't what our action takes wouldn't affect you moving it in one account, right? If we just said eligible, you could still do that. I would recommend the language that I
proposed. Okay. And then the second question, Susan, was we generally spend all of it, right? We're not Yes, we do. Y that was just clarification for Helen. This isn't something that's like a revolving fund that has money in it at the end of the year. So, I just want us to be eyes open
on the structural gap that we're putting ourselves in for FY27. We're just kicking the can. Yes, Caroline. Thanks, Angie. And this is just looping back a little for clarification on this
idea of establishing a special education um reserve fund. um which I support in in theory. I just want to make sure I understand um that the expectation were we to do this in
the near future or even medium future, we're going to draw it down completely, but you're just saying that it would be good to get it on paper. It would because the first action has to be taken by uh town meeting to establish the
fund. I see. Right. And so if we it would be efficient also. Exactly. Okay. is a great example of why you need one of these and and so therefore I don't know if it can be queued up for this town meeting but certainly by November
and we could put that in theou you know with the town that this this would be the um you know our our recommendation going to town meeting and then we could set it up and then if the money is set aside as Chaz has suggested in in the meantime in a different kind of
stabilization then at the same town meeting they could establish the fund and then move the money over to it. I mean, it it seems like a kind of a win-win situation. Would you not agree? Yeah. I mean, also like even if there's a a penny in there at the end of the year, right? It's like, you know, it's a
little better. It would be great to have that to be able to offset future expenses. And and and you can't put any money into it or maintain it if you don't have it in the first place. Yeah. No. And and I I really like the idea. I just want to make sure I'm understanding
that the that the excitement is the idea, but we're at some point we still have this structural gap and at some point it would be nice if there was some way to put money into it, but we'll at
least I I got it. Thank you. Right, Sarah? And then I hope we can vote. when um Val was saying that we're just kicking kicking the can down the road, I I think that um we need to just spell that out a little bit more is that we still have work to do in order to I
don't know if it's model change or some of the ideas that were put into this memo that's in front of us right now. We have work to do in terms of figuring out what it is that we're going to change for next year given this structural gap. So, I don't know if because these um all
of the proposed ideas take so long to get to. I don't know if that means that we want to form a working group to address them, if we want to go further with that. Probably not for tonight, but I just wanted to spell out a little bit more what Val was saying about this problem of we still do still have a
problem in front of us. All right. Thank you, Sarah. Let's vote. Um, one, well, I just want people to be aware. I'm I'm going to vote for this. I think it's the right thing to do to take it out of the um circuit breaker. However, I think people should be aware
that the Lincoln School had been pushing for this playground and it's 30 years since that playground has been touched and there are a lot of structural issues within the playground. That being said, um, it just
I worked really hard to try and get that money into the CIP. It's been a long time coming with between parks and recon and we all came to the same decision. So just you know to follow up then just one quick question. Is there is the only
reason we chose the Lincoln school money because it's related to the school in the CIP and if so to follow that's Chaz's question. Okay. Well, some steps come in here. And and then and then the followup to that, the followup to that
is rather than use um money that needs that really needs to be used maybe even for safety reasons for refurbishing a 30-year-old playground if we're going for capital funds across as I read the that section of the um not the combined reports yet, but the preview that I'm
reading, you know, that came out from Ben uh a month ago or so. As I read through each of those, I'm sure um well, I'm not I shouldn't say sure this is being recorded. Um but but um there were other things I might circle as well, saying this would be a nice to have. And
if I had to compare it to a playground at a school that's 30 years old, maybe from a town gestalt, I'm saying, "Oh yeah, this that's the schools have has a problem. The school should take the hit." Even though there's a neighborhood, as you pointed out, that's been dying to have that fixed up as
well. So, so why aren't we um sort of prioritizing across the CIP items, you know, of like 45 or 48 of those things to find it somewhere else or even find all of the money that we need for this year and re and remove this issue of the circuit breaker money. You don't have
enough to make it all the way this year without starting to impact townside things. You know, this is the cleanest way of doing it is basically what it is. the other projects that are out there are not it's not it's not this level of money or if it is it's something that will get you in trouble in town meeting
like roadways you know like you can't on the well I meant another park maybe not roadways yeah no even with other with other parks and you're just the the the logic is hard to refute you have one
right project I absolutely we understand the work that's gone into this but I think the other the benefit of this too is this is what this does not wipe it off the CIP. It pushes it back a year. Um yeah, I agree. Thank you.
Let us vote. Um so let's start with Jesse. Yes. Sarah, yes. Stephen, yes. Mariah, yes. Suzanne, yes. Helen, yes. Carolyn, yes. Val, yes. And I vote yes. Um, Mariah, would you also like to uh
move the budget? Oh, Susan, where's my cheat sheet for that? Okay, thank you. It was on another slide. In the meantime, thank you again, Charles, for helping us through this.
And after this, I'll I'll also move uh that the chair be authorized to pursue those discussions. Uh, okay. Thank you. Uh, okay. So, I'm going to move to approve the FY26 PSB budget in the amount
of What's the secret? What's the number I'm saying now? 130. It was on an earlier slide, right? It was on a slide. Yeah. There you go. What? There's no number. No.
Nope. That's not the number. No, she's pulling it up. She's pulling it up. Andy, did you want to make your motion in the meantime? Yeah. Why don't we switch motions? Oh, okay. So, while we're waiting for that number to be generated, um, this Suzanne, did you want to move about theou? Sure. I I move
that we uh appoint or give permission to our chair to uh work on theou friendly amendment. Oh, sorry. Oh, go ahead. Just to add Mariah to that as well, the chair and the finance chair. I'm fine to do that, but um I presume
we're all going to get a crack at it before it like you're just sort of doing not signing anything. Yeah, exactly. So although I can't speak for what the next chair might do. Yeah, you or the next finance chair. Next finance. Um
either way is fine with me. Whatever the committee wants, right? So, the motion is currently just for the chair and that that got seconded from over here somewhere, Stephen. All right, Andy, you could always informally consult with me if you chose, right? I suppose so. Yes, you could. Yeah.
All right. So, it looks like that's still the motion, the original one. Um, so shall we vote on it? Uh, Val? Yes. Can I make a comment just before? Sure. Sorry. Um like yes I am pleased that you andor the next chair
andor the finance chair will all work on this. I think that the conversations tonight have informed the content of the clauses the whereas or whatever they were I can't remember. I only briefly saw it um enough that I think it'll be just like it's going to be a new
document in a lot of ways. I would presume the next version of it that we see. So just keeping that in mind. No. Okay. All right. Uh, it looks like we're ready to vote. Val, yes. Carolyn, yes. Helen,
yes. Suzanne, yes. Mariah, yes. Steven, yes. Sarah, yes. Jesse, yes. And I vote yes. Um, all right. Do we have a number for the budget? Oh, to me or to Lionus? Me. Okay. Me. It's here.
I am to make to approve the PSB FY26 budget in the amount of 142,148,452. That was 142148 452 452. All right. Any second? Seconded. Okay.
Suzanne beat Jesse to it. Right. All right. Any further discussion? I see Caroline's hand up. No problem. I do. So, um, I just want to say and I've raised this before and obviously it goes without
saying I'm I'm recognized completely all the work that Susan and others have done. I remain concerned that now we are and this has been done by previous school
committees voting on I mean we're voting a number but this number is based on the initial budget um proposal that we were given back in whatever it's in my bag I don't have it and so because we had to
go through this cutting process we really haven't sp spent spent a lot of time talking about what what the program what the structure programming etc is and we've made a lot of changes to what
was published and so I I I feel uncomfortable um sort of voting for something we have this document that isn't actually our structure and program so I would just like to know if we can expect that to be
updated at some point. I don't know if that can be You mean the budget book, Carolyn? I mean the budget book. We call it the budget book. It's called the initial budget. Yeah. So, so what will happen? I won't do the whole budget book over. There is no time or capacity to do
that. I will adjust um and do an executive summary like I did last year before town meeting, you know, uh that will include incorporate the changes that you have made. And so then going forward and throughout the
year, what the public has is the book and the executive summary. We don't have like a dashboard. We don't have access to the line items, etc. Well, when we do our quarterly reports, we'll give you the update with that
information in it and it will tie to the adjusted budget. So, I will do work on that um for sure. Okay, have that and and we'll we'll adjust and as we did last year um to incorporate these changes, but in terms of programmatic
and understanding, you know, the impacts these cuts have, that is going to take us some time to work our way through. Yeah. And just to follow up on that question really brief, do you remember that we created like a 19 pages of questions and
things like that? Did we ever get the the the loop closed with answers to everything? Is does that exist somewhere? So, we have it for our purpose. There were two batches of questions which I believe answered them in a synthesized manner. My guess is
that if you still have a question that you think wasn't answered, you could still ask it. But my understanding was their first trunch and the second tranch of questions were intended to cover the entire scope of your questions. And I see Susan nodding. Yeah. The only
questions that that we didn't follow up with on an FAQ because at the time we didn't have anyone to write them were the ones in student services which have subsequently been answered during your deliberation process. Okay. Thank you. Let's vote. Jesse, yes. Earra, yes.
Steven, yes. Mariah, yes. Suzanne, yes. Helen, yes. Carolyn, yes. Belle, yes. And I vote yes. All right. Well, that concludes for now a very lengthy and often painful process. So, yeah. All right. Well, thank you again,
Chaz, for joining us tonight. Uh, it was well, very helpful to have you here, and we've gone way over time, but I think it was well worth it. So, yeah. Okay. So, let's move on to our school committee actions. Uh, firstly, we have
the first reading of the exterior surveillance camera policy, and this is a brand new policy. Uh, Stephen, you want to lead us through this? Sure. Do you want to bring it up, Betsy? And I see we're joined by Hal Mason as well.
Um, Hal, do you want to give a little context for it before we start? Sure. Uh, this is something that we've been talking about for a long time. Uh it's a recognition of the changed nature of the high school campus and how
there's so much more traffic on the street and we really feel it's important to expand our uh eyes on what's happens out on the the street especially along Tapen Street. uh you know there was a the high schools always had an open campus. The high schools always had
students moving between buildings on the public way but it was a much smaller number. It was a few hundred kids uh if that going back and forth between the UA building and the main building, the tap and gym and the main building. With the
opening of the 22 building, it's hundreds and hundreds of kids at every passing time walking on that public way. And uh we've now recognized that the expansion of the campus really required
us to add something like uh cameras to have an eye on what's happening along TAP and as well as all around the building uh to to really understand and see and have a recording of what's happening around the building uh during
the school day. Thanks H. And Helen, is there anything you want to add from a capital from a capital point of view? Um, on the procurement of cameras, my understanding is it would come from the high school budget because it was originally in that the the renovation
budget. Did you hear me? How? I did. Yes. Uh, he nodded. He nodded seriously. We're we're confident that we can pay for this uh as part of the uh the budget from the
renovation. Um and uh Charlie and I have talked and we have a bid from the the vendor. We have to use one specific vendor in this case because it's a uh state contract I believe and ties in with the other
cameras that are in town. Uh and we've had that team out to survey. So, we have a good idea of what the costs are and we're pretty confident that we can add that in and and expend that from the um from the building project. So, just so people know with the
procurement you usually have to go out for three if it's under a certain amount uh you can get three bids or you just put it out to bid. However, if the state has a contract, they've already done the work on the bidding. So, we don't have to worry about that. we can just then
work it uh with them just so people understand how the process works. We do that with furniture sometimes. We do that with other um items. Thanks. So just a little bit more context when uh when drafting this
policy um we had a few examples of it. I believe we looked at Newton's and was it Cambridge's? Yeah. Yes. And that this one is much closer to I think Newton's right that was the much and that was the shorter one with the important difference that ours does not
cover interior cameras proposing exterior cameras no interior cameras uh the Newton proposal had a lot of wording and uh provided for interior cameras right that's that's the one thing I wanted to highlight I think the one the
only topic really of conversation on the policy subcommittee was the reservation um that people will have about camera surveillance that it might infringe on people's sense of privacy and that is delayed in in large part by the fact
that cameras will be pointed uh only outside the property not inside the property. Um there was one other um issue which I I think I raised at the policy subcommittee before this came here uh in the second to last bullet point uh where it talks about uh
recordings should primarily be reviewed only in response to specific incidents involving suspected violations of law or school policy. Um so I understand that the intention here is to be reviewing things only when there's a a possible threat to health and safety. My worry about including or school policy there
is that it's too broad. We might have a school policy like an attendance policy or a policy against vaping. And I don't think the intention here is to be catching kids who are late to class or catching kids who are vaping. Right. It's it's for more serious things. Um so I would personally like to see the the
language tightened up to avoid um inadvertently pulling in things like that. I I'm going to go ahead and capture this and then make uh make changes make commented changes to it and then leave that in the policy for the
next policy subcommittee since I'm not going to present on this subsequently. So I'll make a note of that. Um the other the other thing that we discussed briefly that um I realize I don't really have enough information on myself is I I
was asking about um police access to the recordings because there's a line in here saying um third bullet from the bottom of the second section. Third bullet from the bottom of the second section. No, there's another one saying that it's
governed by town policy. And I realized I don't know what the town policy is. It says by for district and town agreements. Stephen, for district and town agreements. Yeah. And I don't know what town agreements are operational. Um and when we discussed it, there was a
lack of knowledge on this in general. So I think that if if anyone shares that concern, it would be something that we would need to I know that town policy is 11 pages long. That's what I I don't know what's in there, but there's a lot there. But what I what I think I learned
today is that it's not clear what um what governs um police uh ability to request school footage. If there's anything in there that would uh be that would that would
augment state or or other law. Yeah, Mariah. Wow, that was fast. That was Thanks. I'm actually still in my car. Um, goodness. Go ahead, Mariah. Go ahead. We can't hear you if you're
talking, Mariah. Okay, let's We can't hear you, so we'll go on. The hesitency of Can you hear me? Okay. Yeah, now we can hear you. Okay. the hesitancy of victims sometimes to come forward. It seems like a short sorry a short amount of time and
again reviewed and storage of data is relatively cheap. It seems um like a good idea to retain records for a longer time. Um and then my second question is and I'm a little bit vague. Does this apply to the existing cameras that are
in the K8 schools? Uh yeah, this would be for all schools. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So, um has it been has it gone to the schools that have cameras already? No, this has not been shared yet. Okay. Because I think
it would be helpful to make sure. Yes. Okay. Thank you. Mariah, you were cut off at the beginning. I assume you were asking if the if there was a possibility to store for longer than 30 days. There is. There is some additional cost involved in that, but costs for storage of course are far lower than they used
to be. So, it probably would not be too much of an issue to change that number higher. Would you have any objections to changing that number? Hal, would you have any concerns about changing that number? I have no objections to changing that number.
Okay. So, Mariah, would you be um would you would you be considering something like in the 90day range or I'm not good. I mean, it's the first reading, so I would I defer to Yeah, but we'll check. Yeah. And we can certainly ask the vendor to give us exactly what the difference is. If it's, you know,
marginal, obviously, you can change that to 90 days. And Suzanne, were you suggesting that there might be guidance in the in the 11page uh town policy on I'm sure there's some I'm sure there's some Yes. guidance. Yeah, that would be worth checking.
Okay. We I have not done that. Okay. Yeah, I would check with town council what because I think a warrant article a number of years back about um cameras those concern the town cameras and out on streets and stuff like that. And
there was a lot of discussion back and forth. So somehow it would be nice to have these two work together. That was facial recognition, Helen. And it um is incorporated under the implementation and monitoring. The the Warren article was about facial
recognition technology. Okay. But this was this was before that, wasn't it? I I think so. I this was like 2013 or something, I thought. Anyway, yeah, Caroline, you check with town council. They would know. Sure.
Caroline, go ahead. Um, so Andy, I was interested in your question about the um fourth bullet point under storage and access that reads as a standard recording should primarily be reviewed
only in response to specific incidents including violations of law or school policy. And you expressed um a question or concern about the school policy aspect of that. Um, so I'm just interested in your thinking
there, like are you saying that you um, and you might have said this, so sorry if you did, that you think you might not be comfortable with the school policy aspect. Um, and if so, I'm just I'm curious to hear more because like we
just talked about the whether it's going to be called the civil rights or protection against discrimination where there are let's say sexual harassment that might not rise to the level I think of a violation of law um but it might be
an important policy. So I'm just curious what your thinking is there. Yeah, correct. So um I think when we discussed this at policy you know Hal confirmed that the the idea here was only to be looking at this in case of like suspected health and health and safety
issues right um and the example I had in mind was like you know suppose we have an attendance policy we do not intend to be using security cameras to monitoring to monitor kids who are skipping class right who are violating that policy by skipping class or who are vaping perhaps. Okay. Right. So, you're
thinking of different a continuum of seriousness of policy violations. I think Hal has something more to say on this. Yeah. I I I thought we changed some of that language to serious violations of school policy. Uh because we had this exact discussion in policy
and we certainly the idea that we're not looking to to catch kids vaping out on the street, right? We're looking for something that's more serious. And I thought we had changed some of I thought we had changed that language in that bullet. I'm I'm just make I'm wondering if this is not the most
up-to-date version. Betsy says sorry Betsy is sitting next to me and she said she just Oh, I see. So it's changed up under purpose of surveillance cameras under the third bullet, but we didn't carry that change down to the penultimate bullet. So we can we can
reflect that change further. That can be a change we carry down. Sorry, which is the bullet where it was already? The third bullet under purpose of surveillance cameras. We we strengthened that language to deterring illegal activities and incidents that threaten the health, safety or welfare of members
of the school community. That's the language we came up with. Yeah, that's the language we used. And then we left uh the penultimate bullet of storage and access that still reflects the the less stringent language. Yeah. So, I guess it'd be great if those could match.
Yeah. So, we can make them in parallel. One thing you had said something about elementary schools having um cameras. The only cameras that I'm aware of that any of the elementary schools have are exterior cameras and at the doorbell or the different doors to allow people to
come in. I don't think there are any other cameras other than those. I believe Roman Ridley has some around the building in the building by the doors. No. It's not just the front door. I think it's more than just doorbell cameras.
No, I think it's the front door, the side door insteadman, and the back door. So, I think this is okay. This will just continue to govern our camera surveillance. So, if more cameras are procured, that would just govern their
usage even under K8. Can I just get a response from the committee on um the conversation between Andy and Carolyn if there's agreement with Andy's point that it should be strengthened. I guess we're just carrying that
recommendation down from the strong language of the first section down to the bottom section. Yeah. The difference here is that the the bottom section one includes the word only, right? So that the review is done only in those cases. It's sort of it's a bit tighter than
just saying that that's the purpose. Yeah. May maybe we don't have to deci discuss or decide this now, but maybe even later um when the next iteration of the policy
we've been discussing gets approved, we could even reference that policy if that seemed appropriate. But just throwing that out there. So Andy, you're saying the only word also is uh problematic. No, I I find that's that's what makes it
important to have to to change the third bullet as well as the second the penultimate bullet as well as the the one above. So this really restricts when we're going to go. I'll add that the third bullet up under purpose of surveillance cameras.
Mariah's hand is raised. Oh, okay. I see Mariah and then Suzanne. Um, I just thought also you might want to affirmatively put in the bullet about technology that sort of addressing technologies that are yet to be developed or commercialized that
essentially unless the technology is affirmatively included in the policy, it's not to be used. Do you think the language facial recognition, automatic tracking, and similar technologies will not be used? Is that not strong enough? I don't like the word similar in the
same way I don't like the word serious although you all are talking about it because one person's serious and one person's similar. It's not a universally clear term. So I think it should be more explicit on both cases. What about excuse me what about something like and
similar or new or other technologies or emergent maybe I think that the techn the way you have it is written is fine but just saying other technologies are not to be are also not to be used unless specifically included like they're it's
not an automatic opt-in school committee has to explicitly opt into any technologies that that could have the the perverse effect though of of um keep keeping user friendly harmless
technologies from use like say no because school committee just adds them in they modify the the tech the policy to allow them later on you know modifying policy requires docketing edit and it's can be a cumbersome I mean it's just like small technology updates can
be considered and you know I mean like what what what would be a new is am I being semantic here well I don't think like imagine I agree with you in principle. I'm just looking for the right words. I don't know. We don't have to do it now. This is a first reading. I'm just
saying that I think it leaves it open to assuming the technologies are opted in unless they're facial recognition or automatic tracking and I'm not sure you want to do that. Okay, I'll make a note of that. Maybe maybe something along the lines of other surveillance technologies because that's that word would capture
anything that surveills and yes it would cover all Jesse suggested or other surveillance technologies. Yeah. Which I think is the spirit of what you're talking about Mariah. Right. I think so. Yeah. But I'm not I want to
you know mull it. Okay. All right. Uh Suzanne and then perhaps we can move on to our next school committee action. So, H, I have a couple of questions for you. I'm wondering how many cameras do we presently have on campus? We have zero cameras at Burke
High School. You have doors. The doors. You have the doors. We have one camera, two cameras at 22 at the doors. We have no one zero. We have we have a camera down at the uh at the at the plaza elevator and
a plaza at the front door at 22 that are little cameras that buzz into the secretary's office so someone can see who's ringing the doorbell. And you don't have any We don't have anything on 115. Zero. Okay. So So how
much will the cameras cost? You're talking about like 22 or something, right? 23. It's it's approximately um uh it's between 100 and 150 depending on how many how many uh uh cameras
ultimately get put in. So that's the cost of the cameras itself. And then what is the what would be the cost for the service? Installation in well not installation after the installation. Well the installation and then also this the
maintenance of it. I lost him. Looks like Well anyway there. Okay. Sorry I I I'm sorry I had to pop up for a second. What was the question Susan? I want to know uh
what what it might cost for I think you had like 22 or 23 cameras that you were going to install and then what is the cost for the maintenance maintenance of it for the storage and the access? Uh it's a license. I'm not sure what the annual cost is. It's not it's
not nowhere near that number. The the main cost is the installation and the uh uh the uh initial license. So is it so that's about 150,000 was the initial he didn't say the cost of installation
that installation is I believe somewhere between and 150. Okay. Okay. Thanks. I appreciate it. All right. So we have what we need on policy. Yes, Stephen. Great. All right. This takes us to our second school committee action which is
to consider a resolution regarding the MTA's curricular materials on the Israel Gaza conflict. So Jesse has drafted a resolution for us to consider and I believe you have a presentation as well. I do. Thank you and thank you uh Andy for putting
chairman for um putting uh this resolution on our um agenda for this evening. Um first question that might come to mind on the next slide is why a resolution now and the answer uh simply
is that it's the right time. Um there are students um who are being exposed um can be exposed to some of the curricular materials that have been identified that we're going to quickly review. There are teachers who have access and may not be
aware of some of the um as we heard in public comment tonight may be not may not be aware of the import of some of the resources that are there and their parents um and curriculum coordinators etc that within our school community who
may be uh misled or or um uh uh access this information without a full full understanding. And um and secondly, uh we want to express our concern um as a school district to the MTA about um a a
persistent and recurring situation that's been clearly identified by u many organizations and and and uh and individuals um across the state. If we go to the next slide, um Andy asked me to be brief, so I'm going to try to move through these several slides pretty
quickly. So yeah, so to set the stage um after the kamas attack on Israel um a year and a half ago, the um MTA did assemble a set of resources for its member teachers and I quote from their site to help educators engage with their students on
this crucial and difficult topic. Um, according to a uh opinion piece in the Globe um this year, the list is dominated by Palestinian and anti-ionist voices, while voices humanizing Israeli experiences are representing a Zionist
narrative are minimal. So, this is not to say that there aren't um some resources for each of the different viewpoints. What it's saying is that there's a terrible lopsidedness um at least as we start to look at this in the resources that were um create that were curated. Next
slide. An example here from a summary report of the American Jewish Committee. New England said that the MTA introduced a dramatically one-sided set of resources to its members on the history of Israel and occupied Palestine, which served to demonize the only Jewish state and threatened to politicize classrooms.
Of the 89 resources listed at the time in the MTA site, several have been taken down. uh 67 of them or so somewhere in the range of 80% characterized Israel as an illegitimate state and reduced to complex conflict allegations of wrongful
occupation. There were others that discussed definitions of anti-semitism, Islamophobia, how to teach difficult issues and and modeled balanced presentations on this conflict. But in the overall view by people who were able to look at all this material, it was
terribly lopsided. And the parts that did discuss Israel tended to be ones that spoke a certain narrative about um the occupation of someone else of other indigenous people's lands, etc. Next slide. And there's a URL at the bottom to read the whole thing. Uh one one more
slide here that the um the governor set up uh earlier um earlier this year, a little late last year, the um special commission on combating anti-semitism, the only one in the United States. And during a hearing a few months ago in February, the House chair uh Representative Simon Catalo called the
resource page um as there was a public hearing on this on the page that we're talking about that's up on the MTA site for its members virilently anti-Semitic and his co-chair John Va said the materials uh were incredibly one-sided. Again, a link there to the information.
On the next slide, um I'm going to show you just a few of the resources. What I did is I put some uh sort of frown faces next to ones that are clearly problematic. Um I'm sitting here tonight not to do not to enter into into a debate nor to uh specifically call out
the details of each of these. Um that's a discussion for another time. The um there here we're seeing sort of about half are sort of problematic, half are are potentially um neutral, but there aren't any that are sort of positive. um
uh let's say to the state of Israel. Um the next slide, these are directly from the exact resources that existed on the website as of March 30th. Uh the Zen Education Project is mentioned. Uh this organization under Howard Zinn um
published some history work, a lot of history work. One of them actually we discovered was in the fish tank case and in discussions with Dr. Fortuna has actually already been removed um once once uh she and I saw that um the project offers free resources to help
educators this project. But if you look at the only four examples that are given at the bottom um they're quite uh one-sided. Uh teaching about Palestine, Israel, and the genocide. That's a code word for a very anti-semitic kind of statement against the Jews in Israel. Uh teaching the seeds of violence in
Palestine, media literacy on Palestine, independence or catastrophe. So we'll go to the next slide. Um and and these the these are all available right now on the MTA site. Um on the visuals and art section, the only example given by the folks who curated
is the Museum of the Palestinian people. Um and the um NEA for National Education Administration um has a very long page in there with lots of information, but its only suggestion about where to send money is to collect humanitarian aid for
one half of the conflict and not the other. Um and these are the only resources the MTA lists under these headings on visuals and art and efforts for humanitarian support. Uh not a single word about Israel. the next page and we're almost at the end here. There's a whole page on doc do document
documentaries and films. There's 17 listed as of the end of last month. Um and there's only one documentary about Israel and that is not about Israel per se. It's history, culture, accomplishments, but only about the mass only about I mean it's the massacre movie about what happened at the Nova
dance festival taken from tens of thousands of videos uh that were taken on the cameras of the people many of who whom were killed. But the uh they've assembled those into a movie. Um on the Palestine side, at least 13 of the other 16 movies are are um all through
critical reviews of those uh movies are follow a pro Palestinian narrative. Again, a terrible lopsidedness here. The next slide um is the last one I think on this and that uh there's a section of books uh that that educators could pull to use as resources. There are 11 books,
at least seven are uh problematic. All these have been critically reviewed. Um and when you look at the titles um or if you study um what these books are trying to do, they're again engendering a certain narrative. Um so we'll go to the next
slide. And so as a result, what I did is I um I put together this resolution. I have two versions of it um that just became uh today actually. Uh the first one is more of a a broader one um saying that we as a school committee um caution
school districts across the state about um utilizing this information and and and to caution them because of the dangers that it presents. The second one is actually written from the perspective of um our school committee um making a statement um about what we will do and
as this goes uh in the plan at least um as I've talked to other school committees across the state already would be to have each of the school committees um sign on as a independent school committee to this and then assemble those as we um have more school committees um
um rat ratify this resolution. solution. So, um I'm going to take the um the um option here before we wrap up of um reading reading just a couple of interesting things about the second one so you sort of see where we're going. Um and I want to thank several of the school committee members who I've spoken
with in in you know indiv individually so as not to do anything about OML here to um help me get some of the wording right and to make some really uh great changes. So the first is on the first line that the MTA um has curated and disseminated these resources um which
are deeply one-sided and contain unambiguous anti-semitic elements. This has been proven by many many many many sources. Um and the um the second one is that um rather than say these particular materials present an extreme and biased
ideology that hurts or um that hurts or that's hurtful to the Jewish community, uh we we we changed it to just say that impacts the Jewish community in various ways. Um the the third repeats what we know that the governor special commission has um unanimously um thought
to be issues with this. The fourth is that using these in a school district could create an environment that undermines our values uh in in areas of impartial education and mutual respect and that we we endeavor in the fifth whereas to um foster within our schools
a setting that's respectful and historically accurate and free from discrimination. And so the resolution in in this mode would allow us to put our school committee in here. We'd be the first in the state, although there are other school committees waiting in the wings to to to move through this. But I
wanted us to have the first opportunity that the Brooklyn skew committee strongly cautions, we're not forbidding it, we're not prohibiting it. It's not a violation necessarily perhaps of policy, although that needs to be discussed a little further down here that we're strongly caution the district from utilizing these materials related to the
conflict. We also as a committee would call for um an instructional materials policy. We don't have one in our current I read through our policy manual. Uh there are at least uh 12 to 15 communities. I quickly checked online at MASC that have an instructional materials policy that actually describes
what our approach should be when discussing international matters. We don't seem to have that in the Brooklyn policy. So, I had to change it a little bit for us that calls for that such a policy that prevents the dissemination of this discriminatory content. And the and the last one is that we we call upon
our district to follow the guidelines reiterated by the United States Department of Education, Office of Civil Rights, in a letter that that we as as as as school committees, um helping and supporting our schools have a legal obligation under under the Civil Rights Act, Title Six, to um to provide all
students, including Jewish students, an environment that's free from discrimination based on the um race, color, national origin, shared ancestry, or ethnic character. istics and so this is a one that would fit um very neatly into our our own uh school committee. I
think the last slide just I think that is the last slide you uh unless sorry uh yes these are four resources that are now attached that weren't in the original one I sent um a few weeks ago that actually provide the actual sources. I I I was told recently, please
download them all because with our IR in the Trump administration, these could, you know, disappear any any time. And so most of them I've downloaded, I show you there in number three um in a policy manual file J under instructional materials. We don't have that in Brooklyn, but here are at least 12
communities um that that have exactly almost the same language that discuss how we should be more more more fair, balanced, um and nuanced in our discussion about international uh international um situations. And so, um
I think that's the last um Oh, okay. And then, um okay, so what's next? Because someone will ask, uh you know, what are we doing with this? So, um, uh, assuming that we can, um, agree to pass to pass this in Brooklyn, which would be the first in
the in the state of Massachusetts, um, and perhaps in the United States as a school district as opposed to another kind of a group. Um, we'd certainly want to internally first share this with our school district curriculum staff because now we're getting towards the end of our of our school year and people will do
planning and PD and stuff for next year. So, this gives them some guid some guidance. Um, we want to share this with uh MASC because they have access to other um committees across the state. Um, as I said, the special commission uh that we are lucky to have here in
Massachusetts on combating anti-semitism would would um uh would want to know about this and could utilize it as part of their efforts. and then Desessie and the state office of civil rights would want to know about it because it's an effort to say um to give voices to our teachers and give voices to our students
and their families that the um that we recognize that the information provided is while uh providing a view on both sides really um after careful analysis is terribly lopsided and uses a narrative which is uh which can be very
discriminatory and hurtful. Thank you. All right. Thank you very much, Jesse. And I'm sorry for going a little bit. No, no, it's it's important. Um, yeah. All right. Are there any questions, responses, comments?
Pull the slides down. Yeah. Okay. I see Sarah's hand. So, this is difficult to talk about. Um, I I think that Jesse and I have already had a a a little bit of a background on discussing things. And so there's a couple of things that I'm going to state
going into this just that Jesse already knows about me. So, um, when I got these materials, I read the AGC report that was super helpful with this. um in in what we deal with on the school committee,
um our schools don't teach about Zionism and the Arab-Israeli conflict. And so I feel a little bit like that isn't, you know, that this isn't really an US issue. Um I would be comfortable saying to a teacher, you know, don't use MTA U
resources. that I I understand. But um we we don't have we don't talk about Zionism and we don't talk about the Arab-Israeli conflict and I really think that you know I don't trust anybody else. This is such a big issue to me. I
don't trust anybody else to talk about Zionism with my children other than me and my family and our family in Israel and our relatives. It's like it's it's just that difficult and that that um that hard for me. And I'm not even sure that I see these issues exactly the way
that you see them, right? Like so if I I haven't seen these materials and if I would were to look through them, would I be against the 16 that express a pro Palestinian narrative? I mean, is that just that they do they express a pro Palestinian in the idea of the
Arab-Israeli conflict or are they just pro-human beings? I don't know. So, I can't get to the point of calling for a policy on on this because I don't think that my Judaism would necessarily be
represented by the way that other people see this issue. Um, as far as I can get on this is that I would advise other people not to use the MTA resources, but again, I don't really think that that is um our issue because we don't teach the
Arab-Israeli conflict and Zionism in our schools. Andy, thanks Sarah. Yes, I see Val and then Carolyn, then Suzanne. Thanks, Jesse. I really appreciate you working on this. Um it's a a critical issue and and for anybody who watched the hearing
and I recommend that everybody watch the February 10th hearing in its entirety um it it was pretty horrifying to to see what the MTA has for resources available um to educators and to see the select
halfozen or dozen that the commission was able to present. Um, Jesse, I'm wondering if you could click on the instructional materials policy link because I I I think it might help Sarah to see it. It's not only it's a broader
the curriculum guideline number three. So, I didn't see those when I went through the resources before otherwise I would have looked at them. So, I think you might maybe have a different perspective. Oh, it's a PDF. I'm not sure that the
link is. But you don't need my vote. There are other people here. I mean, I I think it would still be helpful for everybody to see it. It's um it's sort of a a pretty Oh, there you go. There it is. That one. That one. That one right there. Yeah.
Yeah, that one right there. If you can get to the Yeah. I mean, this is something that, as you can see, that's Framingham, Lynn, Plymouth, Newton. Stop sharing because it didn't come up. Let me see if I can pull it back up.
Do you want the PDF, Betsy? I can send you the PDF. Sorry, I just got to There you go. While this is coming up, Val, is this a policy that's consistent across all those communities? Yes, it sounds like you Well, I went Yeah. Um, so Carolyn, to
answer your question, um, actually I looked in the Brooklyn policy for a copy and I couldn't find it and then I started going through the outlines every town I went to as the same one. So when pretty much without getting a phrase change, they're all exactly the same, just missing from
ours, I think, was was initial and um, and then others follow. Are they nearly identical because they stem from an MASC template? Yeah. Oh, it could be. It could be. You mean from their samples? Well, this is a recommended, right? Uh policy. This is
not the sample one. This is February. This is February's I mean, sorry, Framingham's. Yes. Okay. It says MC. It's on the MASC. I I thought that initially when I was looking at it and it's it's hosted on the MASC website
like all of our policy manuals are. And this is just sort of their hyperlink. Um, but this this one in particular is um I think if we scroll up, you can see Framingham actually in the um URL in the
address. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's Framingham. So it's not just Andy. This is a sort of framework for um
so it I you know me well Val and you and I see like number five that helps me out a lot right to get to the point where um where we're thinking about all different groups when we're thinking about this. I
just I'm not tonight going to be able to um come along. But again, it's not just about me. So, okay. I think the order of hands was Carolyn, Suzanne, Mariah. Okay. I was just on on this very point. Quick
question. I'm not sure I understand the point of calling for ourselves to pass an instructional materials policy. Why Why have that resolution in here? I I understand uh resolving to do
something with an external body, but why we're us. We don't have to call on ourselves to do something. We could we could change that to undertakes. Undertakes to something like that. Sure. Val, were you done?
Um for now, go ahead. I want other people to speak and I'll chime in again. Okay. Um so thank you Jesse. Um this is a really impressive um undertaking and
um I did um I also watched the hearing that was shocking. It was absolutely shocking. Um and this concerns me greatly. Um Sarah, I'm not sure and you don't
have to answer, but I I would disagree respectfully. I'm not sure why you're saying our schools maybe technically our schools don't teach about the Arab-Israeli conflict. Um but it's addressed all the time. Um it's
addressed at the high school. Um, some of these resources um have actually been part of our high school. They may still be. Um, there's a a course that had the rethinking schools
Zen project um as a resource on a website. Um, and the stuff on on there is it's just really um strong and
[Music] um I think this is really important. Um the MTA materials specifically um are e extremely troubling.
Um, I think that generally speaking, as I've observed, um, in our district since October 7th, 2023, um, our own OTL and OEE recommended
um, egregiously biased resources to our educators in the immediate aftermath um, of October 7th, um, that are similar uh visualizing Palestine, decolonized
Palestine, which has a myths section. Myth: Israel is a democracy. Myth: Israel was a created as a penance for the Holocaust. Myth: Israel has a right to exist.
Um these were recommended in our district. So, and this is something that's not been acknowledged in a robust way, in a way that other forms of bias
and discrimination and discomfort and harm um have been treated in our our district. Um and so where the MTA is saying that these materials are specifically created
to help educators engage um I think we need to to comment uh on that um and participate uh in in that content. So, I I I support
this as a step in that direction and and as Brooklyn leading as a school district, as a community um on something that that's happening that's important um and and that hasn't uh
received the attention and and work that that it should. and the the environment content activities um have caused harm um that's been reported and
um so thank you for this work. Thanks Carolyn. Uh Suzanne then Mariah then Val then Helen that's the order I saw the hands. So I am wondering if the BEu has commented or said anything on this.
Not not not that you know of. Okay. So I really do appreciate all the work and I do I have not seen the uh hearing that they had. I should listen to that. I understand that. I do feel that we are a little bit out of our lane telling the
MTA what they can do or not do. um they have made maybe they made some bad choices. Um I don't know what their intent was or why they think that that was a good thing to do, but uh and I don't know that uh we as a school
committee should weigh in on what the MTA does. I I feel like it's the membership. It's a union. They have to their leadership is responsible to the membership. There are other groups such as the hearing that talked about whether
this was appropriate or not. I think that's fine. I'm not sure that we as a school committee and the only school committee that would have done this is is really the next step and the right thing to do. I'm wondering if council has had a chance to look at this if
there's anything that would be over the line or not over the line. I don't know. So, those are just some thoughts that I have at this time. Sorry, can I just quickly clarify? Yeah, I was going to, but go ahead. So, my understanding of this resolution is not telling the MTA
what to do. Rather, be it further resolved that the school committee calls for school districts um to prevent the dissemination of this type of material. So, it's it's us dealing with our own
school district. Are we talking about resol version one or version two? Uh or Jesse, are you proposing that we do both or just the second? No, no, no. The second. Oh, yeah. So, that one conversation a little simpler. So, that one is trying to set the tone for our district. It's not telling the MTA what
to do. Correct. So, we we just got this tonight, right? I didn't see the second one. You we do we get this earlier, Betsy? No. No. Okay. So, so I would need a little more time. Yeah. The only change is that um rather than say um urges all
school committees across the state, I just simplified it to only our committee so that we're not telling other school committees what to do. We're simply saying that we as a school committee um res resolve to um make our educators
aware of the fact that number one um we support their concerns about the curricular material that they've been presented and that we as a school committee are following on our responsibility to help direct policy
determinations about materials that are taught in our school district. That is one of our responsibilities. All right. And Mariah Val is not curriculum. Right. Thank you.
Um I I had a lot of concerns about the first version just because it felt like it would turn all the school districts into a wild west of sending each other resolutions that we expected them to be reading. and when we already have a polic or a system in place through MASC
to consider resolutions as a group. So, I feel much better about the second one and also because like we want to be able to have our own autonomy over our district and not have other districts weighing in for us. And so, the second one to me feels much um more appropriate and I thank you for bringing that
forward, Jesse. Um with and I have some thoughts on it, but in general, I appreciate it and I appreciate the work in it. And um and my question is what is our like what is the goal for tonight? Are we just reviewing this? Is this the
equivalent of a first reading or is there an expectation that we are voting on this tonight? It's docketed for a possible vote. So if someone were to move it and it were seconded, then we would move to a vote. I see. Okay. Okay. Well, then in that
case, if we do vote, I would probably abstain because or vote no because there's word smithing and things that I would need to understand much more deeply myself before I was sure that I had the um the appropriate background to understand it fully and to make sure
that um it represented my thinking on on the overall issue. All right. Um, Val, thanks. Um, I going back to what Caroline said, I we really bungled this
coming out of the gate on October 7th. If you look at our district response to other communities, other school districts, other universities, other just community groups. Um, we really put not our best foot forward. Um, and
there's a lot of pain and a lot of hurt in the community in the community here in Brooklyn, in the Jewish Israeli community here in Brooklyn. And I I think we need to address that with real steps. Um and and for me this resolution is one way of
um starting to address that hurt, starting to engage in conversations in education um that is more balanced that um provides resources that aren't these
horrific resources. I really really urge everybody to watch that hearing. Um those resources are horrible. Um, they're appalling. They are they're they're traumatizing. Um, so I I I would like for us to vote
this tonight. Um, and I want to thank Jesse again for the work on this. Helen, yes. Um, I agree the resources are propaganda basically. When I saw them,
when they came out the first day, I I felt that way. And we actually the second day took them off the um the what? Well, there was a message sent out to staff to not use those resources and
I think the day after there was a decision to use facing histories resources. So they were out there for a day. There's no doubt about that. But it was taken back. So, just as a clarification, I think that's important for people to know here and at home.
Um, I actually do like the change to the Brookline School Committee. I think that is an important one. Um, I think for me I it's interesting that the MTA would put out something like this about this
particular conflict when there are a number of conflicts throughout the world that one could say the same, you know, put out issues, put out um materials. Why pick this one? And to me that it's not what a union is supposed to be
doing. I think they're supposed to be basically helping their members, getting good contracts, and um providing backup to to the different unions across the state.
Um so, uh I I am inclined to vote for this. Um I think it it tells us what we need to do and certainly if MASC wants to follow suit, I think that would be a good idea. can certainly present it as a
resolution to them um under the resolutions thing if we get enough districts to sign on or they may determine to do that themselves. Yeah, I would just add on the MASC part that um I did have one conversation with executive director Coocher. um he got
this to look at and um reviewed some of the materials and um feels very inclined to act as I think Val said uh when when looking at this um there the um there was a very early
version of this um Suzanne that actually asked MASC as part of the resolutions to actually resolve that MASC will support it. um I felt it was would put them in an uncomfortable situation to mention them before they've had a chance to review it. And so I'm hoping next week
to meet with their board to discuss it with some of the individuals on their board just to get their feedback. But that should not hold us back in moving this because we're not mentioning them yet because you know that that would be a later thing. Typically the resolutions go through the um delegates right and
the annual meeting and everything. Although although the board can bring forward resolutions as well as particular school committees, right? So that would that's the logic in going to them. Thank you for the clarification.
If the board puts it out, then you don't need to get 10 communities to sign on. If the board doesn't um put it out, then you need to get I think it's 10. Yeah. Sometimes recently it's just been one or two or three. Really? Yeah. Yeah. Okay.
Right. But we're we're not we're not Excuse me. Just to respond to car to Suzanne. Um the the overarching goal of this resolution is not to force the MASC to do anything. what we're looking to
possibly do and in discussions I've had with our colleagues and other school districts across the state already just in talking about it is that there is a um pretty strong agreement from either members of school committees in different cities and towns or their
chair people to to to do this. Um so they weren't asking none of the other cities and towns asked like what is MASS doing? I'm I'm sort of trying to do that separately and work with Glenn on that. But um but there are other communities ready to to to to um approve this like
right away. And I felt I wanted Brookline to have the opportunity to uh be a first and then and then go from there. Stephen, did I see your hand up? Yeah. Um thank you. So Jesse, thank you for
your attention to this. Um, I too am alarmed about the rise of anti-semitism in the US. I'm alarmed about the rise of anti-semitism in our schools. Um, and I oppose this resolution as it's written. Um, I oppose
it because so first I spent time looking through the resources that are currently on the MTA website and I found what seems to me unambiguous
anti-Zionist elements. I don't think any reasonable person could argue that their resources do not reflect a strong anti-Zionist ideology. there to be sure are resources from the
ADL, from Desi, from facing history. Um, but the majority of the resources as you noted come strongly on one side. However, and this seems to be a change
from the the um the commission which I did not see I did not see um resources that reflected unambiguous anti-semitic elements and I personally distinguish anti-ionism from
anti-semitism or at least feel that failing to distinguish the two does not protect Jews. So the way that this resolution is phrased by saying that the materials present an extreme and biased ideology
that is harmful to the Jewish community to me does not get at the core of the issue. The core of the issue is that ideologically presented materials are harmful to learning. We don't want to have classrooms using resources that draw
heavily from an ideological point of view. As you correctly note in your fourth and fifth wherees, I think those are dead on. Where I think this resolution overreaches is in striving to make this
a statement that protects Jews. There I can't sign on. I also don't think that we should be resolving to instruct our policy subcommittee. I
think that is an incursion on the privilege of the future policy chair who should have the right to set the agenda. I think we can have our opinions what should be docketed but I don't think we get to resolve what should be on the docket for the future policy
subcommittee. So for these reasons, I oppose this resolution in its current form. But I do agree with the core idea that we should oppose the MTA's recommendation of its current materials on Israel Gaza and we should oppose
their use in classrooms as they are currently. But I don't think that anti-Zionism that opposing an anti-sionist resource library protects Jews. And I think this resolution says
that it does. And I think that's a mistake. So, we've heard from two members so far who sound like um you want some ch you would like to see some changes. I'm not asking you how you would vote or exactly what the changes would be. So, I guess I would
ask Jesse, you know, would you prefer to move ahead and try to pass it now in its current form or would you want to take more time and in Mariah's case do some word smithing in Steven's case? Well, I guess Stephen, this is your last meeting, but yeah. Um, so yeah, just to
just to say I I would I would support it in its current form and and we'll we'll vote to to pass it if it comes to a vote. Uh Mariah, just to say that while I've been sitting here since it sounded like there was interest in not in moving ahead, I did mark it up for some
consideration by the committee. Uh is it the sort of thing we could consider now in order to uh get it done or do you think we would need to come back? I think you could consider it now. Um Okay. I just didn't I had my hand up. I was waiting in line. I just want to
mention that. Yeah. So, if I was to move it, Andy, then would Mariah in discussion be able to make suggestions? Would that amend? Yeah, it could be moved, seconded, and then um and then amendments made. Um or
we could hold off on moving anything until uh until it's been workshopped. I'd like to move it, but I don't want to jump across. Jesse, that's fine. Do you want to make a motion as well or do you want I'll make the motion?
So my motion would be Yeah. Sorry. Oh, that's okay. Motion's been made by Carolyn to adopt the resolution as Jesse is the second to be clear. The second version of the resolution as drafted by Jesse. Yeah. And seconded by Val and
Mariah now has some proposed amendments. Well, I don't want to I know I was like third in line. Is it okay you walk? You're now first in line. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So um my modification for the first whereas would remove the words has
curated and so it would read whereas the Massachusetts Teacher Association MTA disseminated resources related to the Israel conflict Israel Gaza conflict and its history which and then it deletes are deeply one-sided and and then says
which contained unambiguous anti-semitic elements. Then I would remove the next two. So I would skip to the fourth one, leave the fourth one exactly as it is. Um, and then I have a change to the
fifth one, which is like this. I'm I'm okay either way, but I would feel more comfortable if we talk about PSB striving and not trying to assert what other Massachusetts public schools are doing. I can live with it either way. It's just again about staying in our lane. Um, or that could even move to be
a therefore clause then. Um, are you following me so far on those changes? We are. So, so the on the Massachusetts public schools, you're suggesting changing changing that to just be about Brooklyn or Yeah, but I'm okay kind of either way. It's just like
I can't speak for every single school in the in the country in the state, you know, striving to foster that. I just don't I don't have that knowledge. I would love that they are, but I just don't know. So, that's why I am confining to our district. Yeah, I
would say um um Mariah that if we a striving is not a you know it's just a goal, a striving. So I think if you leave it as is um we're not imposing on any district to do anything. What we're saying is um that schools strive. So I
just don't know that they do strive. I have no idea what all these do. Yeah. So then um the first therefore clause I only tweaked the wording. So strongly cautions our district staff about utilizing it's just a little minor word thing and capitalizing district. Then
the second one rather than saying calls for I said commits to docketing. I I hear I heard what Stephen said too. We can't necessarily bind a future school committee, but we and I agree we shouldn't call on ourselves, but it's really that we would begin to at least discuss this whether or not we I don't
think you can commit a future chair to docket anything, but you could say something like intends intend intends to create some wording like that. And then I would just add um in the where it says anti-semitic at the end of that sentence, anti-semitic and other
discriminatory content. Those are my only changes. Thank you. Was that helpful? I hope none of that's, you know, I hope that's Mariah, could you go back to the beginning because I know you took the curated, but what was this? The deeply
one-sided phrase. Yeah, Helen. I mean, my the second line that said that is we saw materials, they were sent to us at one point and I found them to be deeply offensive and anti-semitic. whether or not they are currently on the website. We know that the internet like things go
on, things are saved, things are discrimin disseminated, things and they were distributed and they were really awful. So I don't want to make about what's currently on the website because the website might have evolved, but the fact is it happened and the fact is they
were promoted and disseminated and they were unambiguously anti-semitic. And so I removed the things that I thought like I made it about the point in time which was absolutely true for me. Would you be comfortable with taking the
word deeply out and just leaving it as which are one-sided? So from my perspective, Jesse, I never went at the time nor I could now and say like do the exact count and I feel like you know someone might read something and say it's fair, someone else might say it's
not. the materials that were like the one that I don't even want to say what they are. I found them so offensive. But the things that we also discussed earlier tonight that I think Ruth brought up, they were offensive like and unambiguous in my mind. I don't I don't want to get into the one-sided or not. To me, the important thing is it doesn't
matter if they were balanced. I don't want deeply anti- any group, deeply discrim discriminatory things to be distributed by the MTA at all. So, I guess to me it's not that it's one-sided, it's that they were like offensive on their even if they were balanced. I don't know. That's my
thinking of it. But then what did you do after that? That's what did you say taking out? Oh, sorry. The first whereas clause for me now reads whereas the MTA disseminated resources related to the Israel Gaza conflict in its history
which contained unambiguous anti-semitic elements. And then did you say you wanted to take out the two next whereas clauses? No. Is that what you said? I would remove those because I think that, you know, there's a there's again I'm just trying to make
the whereas clauses completely factual as opposed to unam um as opposed to any sort of opinion in them because that's what whereas clauses are supposed to be is the background facts, right? So, I mean, are you are you um
suggesting that there's some factual error in the public um critical analysis that was done by the the governor's commission? I just don't know that we can speak to I and maybe you can. I don't know that like when we refer to the MTA in that case, there are members
who may not have agreed with that. I just don't know. And the MTA to me is a very amorphous body and I just like their agenda and releasing them. I can't say what their agenda actually is. I can agree that they they that commission wrote something, but I don't know that
that necessarily adds anything to the resolution. It tells you that the MTA the first clause says this MTA did this. And then the fourth one says those are not good resources for education. The the second one and third one aren't necessary in my opinion.
Again, this was just my draft of it to to get you through to the story, which is that these materials that were distributed were were disturbing and inappropriate for education. And that's where your fourth clause so elegantly takes you. So the third one,
sorry, and I think Jesse just said this. Um, and so Mariah, I appreciate your engagement here. Personally, I wouldn't be inclined to accept removing the two clauses
entirely. Um, and the third one, the statement of fact, is that the materials have been have been criticized Not that. No, the agenda is that this is written has been criticized. No. Oh, the
it says the We can take the agenda materials. It says the MTA's agenda has been criticized. Oh, we could we can if it said something like the Mass Governor Special Commission on I understand what you're saying. Yeah. Yeah. I just don't want to attribute intent when I don't
have clarity on that intent. Mariah, the only thing with your I I I if it were the first, fourth, and fifth whereas, I would be for it, but then the first therefore wouldn't make sense because it refers to an ongoing
uh resource, which is the MTA library, right? I mean, you're saying, that's why I said, but I was okay because the language caution staff. It doesn't say not use them. It says caution them. And I think that's appropriate for people to have caution. It doesn't mean that the material is entirely bad. really had asked them to put their critical
thinking hat on. Yes. So, I felt very comfortable with the way it was framed. I see. I understand now you're thinking on the third one and I would be interested in Jesse's response. Um I personally would not I I don't feel
flexibility on the second one. Well, I I sort of agree with uh Mariah's um in concept to say that simply say the MTA's materials have been critically and publicly exposed by the commission. Can we that's a fact and it doesn't talk about their agenda. Okay, great. So that
we can keep the third one. Jesse, I see Scott Gladstone in the audience. I think he could probably speak to what's current on the MTA website in a way that we don't have visibility into. Is that possible, Mr. Chair? Um, all right. Go ahead.
Hi. Scott Gladstone, town of medium precinct 16, but answering the question uh with my head as associate director of the New England um office of uh American Jewish Committee, where I've been studying this topic for quite a while.
So, um, it'd be better if I answer a question. So, what what's the specific question that, um, that I can be helpful with? The the question that was just addressed right now was what is currently up on the site.
So, the only thing that came off of the site um were the specific um Oh, okay. What um became sort of infamous was all the uh posters which had
virilently anti-semitic content in it. Um those were the product of two websites um that had a lot of posters in them. um those my understanding is that those are now no longer on the resource
list. So um the issue and speaking a little bit to Stephven's um question, the issue is not so much is this anti-semitic or non- anti-Semitic. Um the issue is really the one that Jesse is really talking about, I think, which
is um the lopsidedness. Uh it speaks to Steven's issue that these are um um it it is it is an indoctrinal political it's does it's not based on um
a pedagogy that's inclusive and recognizes the value of all the students in the district and um so there there's a lot of reasons that it's just bad pedagogy and um would violate I think
the standards that procla stand for and as um described pretty well in that Framingham um um that framework that um Val was um you know had you all look at. So I think
that's important. Um Mr. Gladman, I just want to make sure that we're not shading over into advocacy here because this wasn't announced as a public hearing. So I don't you know I don't So I just want Thanks. I appreciate you're answering a factual question about what is still up on the MTA website. Yeah, just trying to share
a little bit about the implications of that. Um, if I could just say one more thing on on that issue. Um there are certainly things as Steve was talking about that are that are balanced and actually in addition and the reason this
is answering the question is they didn't just take down things they actually added some things as well and they added some things that um are either balanced some literally have some sidebyside um
arguments um or are um very critical of Israel but completely legitimate types of criticism from wellrecoognized sources who are not like paras or anything. The problem is that there are the
materials that have been discussed um still include things that are really anti-ionist and um for instance the materials that call Zionist bullies. Um that has a direct effect on what could happen in our schools because most Jews
are Zionists. depends on how you you I don't want to get in the definition of Zionism, but this the surveys show that and we have a lot of Israelis um so that's really what um I think the resolution is getting at these MTA
resources are harmful um and should not only not be recommended but should actually because directions have gone out in the past as Helen was pointing out um to use materials like this. It's Brooklyn's in a little bit of a hole in
that way and this is a way to sort of dig out of the hole. That might be a little bit of advocacy. Sorry about that. Yeah. All right. Thanks. Thank you, Mr. Gladstone. We should leave it there. Hey, Andy. All right. Who has the floor at the moment? Mariah. Yeah, we're still going through your proposed changes,
right? Yeah. One I think that the one way I think we could keep maybe the second one or at least I would feel comfortable with it. Um, I think we've reached conclusion on the third one, or at least something that I think Jesse was okay with, which was making it about the materials rather
than the agenda. Correct. And for the second one, I think we could say, this is my first cut at it. Um, stopping like basically deleting everything after offensive because then it just says whereas these particular materials present an extremely biased
ideology that impacts the Jew Jewish community and are offensive. Like whether or not you're seeking a balanced and fair understanding of the international issue, the materials are offensive. Those posters that were just described were offensive. Full stop.
Can I comment? I have a thought. That's interesting, Mariah. Um, and although I think this could probably pass without these changes, I appreciate what your your your participation. And so
um sorry and is offensive is is offensive are offensive. Thank you are offensive. Mariah, would you be comfortable and
Jesse with something like comma and undermine a balanced and fair presentation of this international issue? To me, that makes more sense. Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine.
So you say and undermine a balanced and fair presentation of this international issue. Yeah. So that it's not applying the word offensive to the seeking. Yep. But makes the
but still [Music] um and then beyond that I believe the the other things that I at least I captured Mariah that you suggested maybe changing Massachusetts public schools to the public schools of Brooklyn at least
that's my idea of how to fix that. Um and then the first be it resolved uh the Brooklyn school committee strongly cautions our capital D district staff about utilizing then and the second one uh the Brooklyn
school committee intends to create an instructional materials policy wait I have a question going back so the first whereas now is proposed to be referring to the materials that contain contained
unambiguous anti-semitic elements. Is that what we're currently that's the draft we're currently working off? Yeah. So, we're really referring to the materials that like the posters, the stuff that was really nasty,
right? So, the second whereas is not about materials that present an extreme and biased ideology necessarily. We're just referring to straight up anti-semitism. Are you talking about anti-semitism as an ideology? I mean, I don't know why we
can't then start the second whereas whereas these particular materials impact the Jewish community and are offensive to etc. Like I like your change because um I think it makes it clear that we're referring to those things, right? I
interpreted the anti-semitism as the ideology, but I agree with you. was possibly open to other interpretations. I I don't know though if Jesse you like that change what's being because now it sounds like we're narrowing your resolution to a condemnation of the use
of the materials that have explicitly anti-semitic caricatures for instance and it's not really about the anti-ionist ideology that still is up on the website. Right. So we're limiting this to Are you comfortable with that narrowing of the resolution? No, I don't
think that's what I thought. I think I think we need to recognize that while there could be um I don't know say books or websites that are listed that notionally may try to present a view
let's say about Palestine that is um um normative um in looking at a lot of the material you will find uh recognition statements um directionality that either speaks about having your
land having been taken away from you, having your land being occupied, not being able to go back to your ancestral home, um being the indigenous people. Those words as you see them and as you read them sort of sound um sound like a
story, um sound like a narrative, but it it there there's an agenda behind it. they're they're being written from a certain point of view which doesn't really address the fact that there's a conflict. It it it almost reads as if something really bad happened and now I
can tell a story about what's been happening to me, what's been happening to my family. Um I think we have to recognize that um anti-semitism um as the virus it is presents itself in all different kinds of ways and post October 7th um
everywhere you look and um the materials and you could see it I watched the hearing you could see it as um Mr. Paige and Miss Antelene, the teacher from Lexington, attempted, and
that's all they could do, attempted in most cases to try to address the anti-semitism that not only the poster part, but even um other statements that uh both um Representative um Catalo and Senator Vis pointed out to them. Um they
attempted to try to explain what might have been behind it, but it was impossible. It's so clearly problematic and so clearly troublesome that at some points um as um as Miss Kaplan mentioned earlier, they simply could say nothing.
They simply could say nothing. And that's very telling. What it what it what it what it demonstrates is that they were put into a point, unfortunately, into a corner where as in front of thousands of people, thousands, the head of the head of the union organization basically was speechless.
And this was not only about the dollar bill, you know, um uh anti-semitic element. This was about other information that had been asked and and they sort of, you know, the crescendo went up during the the um the hearing. It was fascinating um and very troubling
that um as material that was placed for example, I mean just just another really simple example. Okay, we'll say it was someone's mistake. I don't think so. um Newton at Arab I was looking at Arab ArabAmerican Heritage Month which just
finished yesterday and um I got a call from someone about a display in a school in Newton that um erased Israel from the map. it chose Palestine. And when I looked into it with a group of other people, again, not
not as a school committee member, but just as a public citizen, um, this was current information being shown. This Palestine is there, Israel's wiped off the map. So, is that anti-semitic or not? Well, as as an as a celebration of ArabAmerican Heritage Month, it
certainly didn't have anything to do with America. And so in looking down it, it turns out the explanation was that there was an individual um asked to pull down some material for Arab her Arab American Heritage Month and they found a map online about Arab heritage and that
map basically uh took Israel out of the out of the um out of the map and so it shows this area over there where Jordan, Israel and you know northern Egypt and southern Lebanon are and the blob became Palestine. This was very very hurtful to
the Jewish students in Newton and to the Jewish teachers in Newton. The Jewish teachers were fearful for mentioning anything because of retaliation and because of standing out. Had it been a ra I I really am uncomfortable having to say this, but if it had been a um a
racial incident of some other type or a sexual um preference orientation view of another type, it would have been dealt with immediately as in our own school district in exactly the same case where in one case it was a sexual orientation
um violation and the police were called the same day and when it was an anti-semitic incident, not an anti-ionist ism incident, an anti-semitic incident. It took our district two weeks and and the results are still not acceptable. And so it's in our faces and
we need to treat it as the virus it is and as the serious serious problem that it is. It's really easy to think, you know, if we're not impacted ourselves, well, you know, you hear about it, you read about it. This is here. This is everywhere. Everywhere. And so I think
our and and and I can tell you in speaking with teachers in our district who feel throttled, they feel speechless. They get no answers from the MTA. They are trying to form groups to try to discuss
it with their leadership. Nothing. Nothing. It would never happen. I'm sorry to have to say it. It would never happen with another group. But when it's unfortunately the Jewish community, um there are these um lapses in our social
fabric in America as free and free free for all and liberty to everyone. There are these lapses. There are these gaps. there is this lack of compassion and understanding that um the special commission um recognizes and is trying
to act on um as well as um many many organizations and groups, you know, around around Massachusetts and around the country. This resolution is designed to give those teachers in our district a voice. It's designed to tell those teachers, "We hear you as a school
committee and we feel your pain. we feel your uh lack of ability to be heard and that we are going to essentially join with you as it were at least symbolically to say to your union organization this is unacceptable. Now,
it may not to Suzanne to the point you made earlier. It may not make the MTA do anything, but it'll certainly help our our Brookline community, our parents, our teachers, our faculty, BHS faculty terrible, terrible issues in trying to get their voices heard on Jewish topics.
So, this is a small step. It's not going to solve the whole world's problems, but it's incredibly powerful for us as a community to take a tiny step and say, "Look, these materials are clearly problematic. We can call them um
extremely lopsided or we can just say they're problematic." It's important for us to take that step and and make our voices heard. And I think as well in discussing this with school committee members in smaller towns that don't have the benefit of a a larger Jewish
community with advocacy and support who really are struggling because they might be in a tiny community and this material might be something their child brings home or whether it's a coloring book or whether it's pictures of flags or whatever it might be. Parents are sort of unprepared. How what do I do with
this? How did it get to me? this material's been um invited and and and and offered to teachers and teachers that are not as um you know able to sort of wait through it might actually do some problematic things and even you
know uh uh violate some policies with some of this material. So we're we're not trying to call the MTA in here and say ask you know what did you do want to know everything. What we are saying is that we recognize as an educational enterprise all of us that this is problematic and that we are cautioning
we're warning our our district uh this is this this is important this is this is important to be to recognize and and to refrain from using. All right I think it might be time to move towards some votes. Um, so, uh,
Betsy, do you think you've been able to capture the, um, the wording changes that I have them written down? Okay. And Jesse, you as well. So, um, Mariah, do you feel ready to propose them maybe as a big block as an amendment?
Sure. Do you need me to repeat it or No, I don't think so. Okay. But we could see it. What? I just I was marking up a piece the piece of paper by hand. Oh, okay. Yeah. Yeah. I did the same as help. No, I think we've all been doing that. Yeah.
So, Maria, would you like to move that as a as an amendment? Sure. As I will move that as an amendment. Okay. Um, anyone like to second that? I will then. Um, so that's uh so let's vote first on whether to accept
the amendment as the main motion. Yeah. Well, okay. So, you haven't been marking up your copy. Well, I did, but I want to make sure what what Okay. Um, accepted by Jesse, what wasn't what we where we ended up. So, Jesse, would you like to
read out the entire resolution as you currently understand it, including Mariah's amendments and and Mariah or anyone stop me if I mis misnote misanotated anything. So, this is version the one that's listed as version two. Uh whereas the Massachusetts
Teachers Association, MTA, disseminated resources related to the Israel Gaza conflict and its history which contain unambiguous anti-semitic elements. And whereas these materials
impact the Jewish community and are offensive and undermine present uh under undermine No, that's for the next one. No, no, no. It's that one. I think it was an undermine a Yeah. Sorry. Undermine a
pres a val. Did you say valid? Um balanced balanced balanced and fair presentation of this international issue. Right. Okay. A balanced and fair. Yes, I had that. I had too many arrows. I apologize. Uh seeking Yeah. And under Okay. So starting from the left side
again uh and are offensive comma and undermine a balanced and fair presentation comma and uh whereas the MTA I think it's presentation of this international issue. Oh you wanted to continue I think so. Okay thank you.
Thank you. That's again okay. Okay, we'll read the second whereas again. Whereas these particular materials impact the Jewish community and are offensive, and undermine a balanced and
fair presentation of this international issue. Suzanne, is that good? I mean, you're you're caught up. unlikely and under and undermine a balanced and fair presentation instead of understanding and then the rest of it stays as it was
of this international issue, or semicolon. And whereas the MTA's materials have been critically and publicly exposed by the Massachusetts Governor's Special Commission on Combating
Anti-Semitism. We're good on that one. Okay. And whereas the use of these materials in any school district could create an environment that undermines the values of impartial education and mutual respect among students and staff of diverse backgrounds. And whereas the public
schools of Brooklyn that would public schools would be capitalized as well strive to foster an educational setting that is respectful, historically accurate, and free from discrimination. Therefore, be it resolved that the Brooklyn School Committee strongly
cautions our staff, our district staff, I apologize, capital D. Andy had told me, okay, from utilizing our district staff from utilizing the MTA's materials related to the Israel Gaza conflict, I
think it's about Oh, Steph instead of from instead of from instead of from Oh, okay. I had two crossouts. I'm sorry. Let me start again. And then the Brooklyn School Committee strongly cautions our district staff about utilizing the MTA's
materials related to the Israel Gaza conflict. And be it further resolved that the Brookline School Committee intends to create and now here's there is an issue here. We have an instructional materials
policy. I think a section I um Etsy I think it's I yeah it's it's it's in there but if you read through the entire thing it talks about teaching students and protocols for how to get materials to students who need them and kids with disabilities stuff like that. It's great but it doesn't pause you one second
please. Um back up that that's not the governor's commission. That was a legislatively established commission. Thank you. You must be looking at my screen, Val. Yes. So, I was just googling. Right. So, you want to take out the Massachusetts special commission on
Oh, take out the word governor. So, yeah. Okay. Gone. Thank you. Um, okay. So, the penultimate one there. So, we could change that if we already have the policy. It could become intends to update its instructional materials policy so as to prevent or Yeah, that's
good. I also think that you could leave it as it is because the policy does not do that currently. We will create a the policy that has that. So your your wording is essentially it's it it's it means the same thing. You could leave it as is. Just leave it as is. You're
right. You're right, Maria. Just calls for an instructional policy that prevents the dissemination of anti-semitic and other you had added and other discriminatory content in our district. Sorry. So it's still it's as except for the words and other after the word anti-semitic,
right? Because we do have a policy. We're just saying that our policy is missing something. And so we're going to add that we're going to we're going to in we're going to um call for a policy that includes this, which would be again this gets us back to why would we be calling on ourselves to do something? We
just should signal our intent to do it. We did. We said intents to create an instructional materials policy. We don't. But that's the version we're reverting to. Okay. No, we're not. We're not. Right. Right. We're we're reverting to the intents to create. Okay. Perfect. Okay. Yes. Intends to create an
instructional materials policy that prevents the dissemination, etc. And other discriminatory content. Okay. And the last one there was no change. Right. Can I actually make one small other thing that I actually think would make this a little cleaner? Of course. which
is if instead of the last whereas clause if you made that the first therefore be it resolved then all the resolve clauses include the local stuff and the whereases don't. So it could say therefore be it resolved public schools of Brooklyn strives to yada yada be it
further resolved that the Brooklyn school committee strongly cautions etc. And from there it stays the same. I love that. Okay that way that's so much Yep. Yep. So much cleaner. Thank you. Mhm. So will can we to add that as a friendly
amendment to the whole thing? Yeah. So the be it resolved will move up to the fifth whereas correct and then it'll be you know and and and Okay. Yeah. That's a great idea. It puts the Brookline public schools in each of the four. Yeah, that's so much smoother. Thank
you. All right. So we now know what the amendment is that um that was moved and seconded. Um so let's vote on it. Oh, Stephen has further comment. Yeah, sorry, but I I have to respond.
This is my last meeting. Um I I'm still voting against it because I still think we're conflating too much here. I I I I support a focus on not
using materials from a website that a have unambiguously anti-semitic materials and b have uh tilted ideological materials, but the way it's phrased, I think, comes from the speech you just made, which is that you're
advocating against the virus of anti-semitism. And I feel like that courses through the language. That's what this is really all about. And that's frustrating to me. And that's because I I also am terrified of anti-semitism. I also come from a family
whose relatives died in the Holocaust. But I feel like there's we we can't be driven by that on the school committee. We have to be driven by a focus on the educational environment and all the vulnerable students in that environment and making
sure that all the kids have access to quality education in that environment. We're we're not doing things like this for autistic kids who are under attack by HHS director who doesn't believe in autistic adults or trans kids whose rights are being decimated or our own Muslim population who are equally
terrified right now or the black kids in our community who are falling behind academically in our own community. This isn't a priority for the school committee, but we're MTA but the M with all different the behind this is behind is is coming out against an MTA website
that's since changed the materials on it that's not even really being used by the school. I I'm for condemning the use of those materials, but so much energy and passion is being moved into this. I just want to make sure we're doing this for all vulnerable groups in Brooklyn trying
to get an education, but I see it being directed so much for for for this one use. And it's it's worrying to me. I want to make sure we're we're distributing this passion, but we're not sending we're not setting a precedent. If if we're setting a precedent,
Stephen, it's that any vulnerable group deserves to follow your logic, a resolution. I wasn't planning to write a resolution about civil rights. I'm writing. But that's a perfect example. When we try to work through civil rights, that gets bogged down. And when
we talk about like gender rights or when we talk about all these other categories, that gets bogged down in bureaucracy, but this flies through. We words smmith in in a minute in a meeting when it comes to the the vulnerable group that we feel passionate about. But when we we spent two, you know, sessions
on a policy, and I'm not criticizing you personally, Jesse, you know, I'm not. God forbid. Yeah. When we we spent two policy subcommittees slogging through a civil rights policy and we barely got through section three, you know, like Okay. I I think we need to move to a
vote. By now, all nine of us have made our views very plain. I don't think we need to go second, third, fourth round on the same ideas. Okay. All right. So, let's start with uh Val. This is voting on the amendment. The amended the amended version, not the
amended version. We're voting to accept Mariah's amendment. I forget who actually moved it. Okay. Um so, Val, come back to me. I'm reading through it again. Okay. Um Carolyn, yes. Helen, yes. Suzanne,
abstain. Steven, abstain. Sarah, abstain. Jesse. Yes. Val, are you ready to vote? Yes. Yes. Okay. Well, I'll come back to myself at the very end. I vote yes on the amendments. Okay. So, that becomes I get to vote. Uh
oh, sorry, Mariah. Because you started off being in the room, so I no longer was thinking of you as a being a vote. Mariah, you're voting yes on your own amendment. Good. I'm voting yes on my own amendment. And I'm also voting yes because in part it's not
it also added in I think an important policy that was an instructional materials policy that prevents the discrimin the dissemination of anti-semitic and other discriminary discriminatory content. So I'm excited about this policy that will really look at this. We've only done it on an ad hoc
basis. That's great. Thank you. Thank you. All right. So that is now the the main motion. Um, let's start with Jesse for a vote on the main motion. Yes. Sarah, no. Steven, no. Suzanne, no.
Helen, yes. Carolyn, yes. Val, yes. And I vote yes. What about me? Sorry, Mariah. Yes. All right. So, the yeses have it. 63.
Okay. Can I just Thank you for rejoining the meeting. You're welcome. Yeah. Can I make a meta comment? All right. Meta comment. Okay. A meta comment which is that um it was great that we wanted that this
you know that there was a a a desire to act quickly. My concern is the result which is a not a very strong endorsement. 63 is not a strong endorsement. So I
just am putting that out there. Um as thinking about how this might go better in other places. Given the views expressed though, I'm not sure any modification of a statement like this one uh could have attracted more votes. I'm just saying I won't speak for
others, but everyone has spoken for themselves and I'm just reporting on what I heard. Yeah. All right. End of school committee actions. we move on to a discussion of the process for identifying an interim superintendent. So with um with Dr. Giller's resignation effective June
30th, uh we'll need to uh first search for an interim superintendent, the idea would be that uh someone would be serving uh for the coming school year 2526 during which we'd undertake a search for a a long-term superintendent. Um, so, uh, thank you Betsy for sort of,
uh, digging up materials from the last two times that we we did this, uh, searching for an interim. This we had to do in 2019 when Superintendent Bot resigned and then again in 2020 when um when, uh, Superintendent Lumis uh, left.
So in both of those cases, uh the chair appointed um a screening committee of four members that was able to meet uh in executive session under purpose 8 to conduct interviews and then the um one candidate was advanced to the school committee for a public interview and a
vote. Um so uh I don't think we should be appointing that committee right now like right before the election. I would rather wait to do it until we know who's who's even on the school committee. Um, so my proposal right now would just be that um uh that the chair and vice
chair, so Suzanne and I be um uh be tasked with at least posting a job description um and beginning to reach out to potential applicants. Um and then we would wait to constitute the screening committee until after the election. So that's my proposal. I
believe Suzanne is on board with that. So I'm wondering what other members feel. Which job description for the interim superintendent? I understand that. But you're you're writing it full cloth or I imagine we'd be we'd be pretty much
taking it from previous versions. I don't believe the job has changed that much. You look unconvinced, Val. I I think that there's a little bit more to it that we could probably look at. I'm not sure the job description that we've used
historically is what we want to use. Is is there a possibility perhaps of um sharing the draft of what you're going to be looking for within with the whole committee or that's because of OML? Is that a problem? Do we have to wait till our next meeting or can it be some
thing? I don't want I don't want to wait until the 15th to do anything. Um cor right. So I'm saying how could we all get a chance to see it sooner than that like you know I don't know if it's a if Betsy has it and we can have it tomorrow. We can look we can look at it individually tomorrow.
if it exists. But if to Val's point, if the um if the um the the the what do you call it like the the the prototype or template for the interim request is um is old or out of date. We should get a
maybe you know put it somewhere where we can in you know in in one drive or something where we can um begin to make comments on it or something like that. Except that we can't do that as a because of OML. Yeah. So it's just interim, not just, but it's important. I
very important. Um, however, interims are pretty standard. It's, you know, we're not we're not looking seeking somebody who's going to make changes and put us in a new direction or, you know, we're looking
for someone who will come in, write the ship, you know, help us get to the place where we're ready to do um a superintendent search. So, um it's probably pretty boilerplate, pretty standard in terms of
what an interim responsibility is. Um, so there probably won't be many changes to what you would see. Yeah. Just just maybe one little tweak on that, Suzanne. Yep. Um, if if a person was to come in who had a set of skills a little
different from what we have currently and was to make um suggestions as to how to make part of our processes better, say a month or six weeks in or even third day on the job kind of thing, wouldn't we want to um work with that person to do that? I mean, we're not
really just asking them to just No, I know, but I'm saying the description of the job is very generic. Oh, you mean what a superintendent should do? Yeah. Yeah, sure. I agree. Well, that I thought that's what we were talking about, the job description. We're talking about the job description. We're not talking about hiring. We're not even
talking. All I'm proposing is that be in order to get the process underway, right? We only have a couple of months. Um that we can Yeah. We can post a job description, start to reach out to potential applicants. We would wait to appoint the screening committee until after the election so we know well after
next week. Yeah. So the 15th is our next meeting. Perfect. That sounds do it then. Oh I'm okay for what you said. Yeah. That's fine. Sorry I had up. Um two things. So you're only asking whether
we're No, you're asking to post the job description. Whether you whether you're okay with just delegating the chair and vice chair list to job descriptions. I guess I'm now intrigued if it's if Val is comfortable and it's appropriate. I'm intrigued with
what what you know. I don't know what the job description is, but Val, I'm curious what you're thinking about. I I don't know what what the current one is either. I just I I wanted to make sure that um it's reflective of Brookline
2025 and not something that we've sort of upcycled from two decades ago that we've and and maybe it's fine. I I just I haven't seen it. So I just I'm not Nor have I. So I guess I'm going to move to support the chair
and vice chair in doing this. I said I think we've heard we've heard that like we don't we should take another look at it and make sure that it actually reflects our understanding of what the district currently needs. Yeah, that was what I was going to say with their with their guidance and care and updating it
as Yes. And I think you know there's an urgency because the longer you wait people sign up and sign contracts for other jobs so that candidates who you might want won't be available. And so I think it's really it's it's
it's important to begin this as soon as possible and um and start collecting names and and start the process as soon as possible. Okay. U move to Is this a vote? No, we may as well take a vote. Yeah. Oh, you sure? Sorry. I'm trying to
help move us along. Um didn't I move anything already? You did. Yeah. Was that a motion? I'm sorry. Sorry. Sorry, I seconded it if if need a second. Several people second. Oh, okay. It's third and fourth then. All right, so for voting, let's start with Jesse.
Yes. Sarah, yes. Stephen, oh, yes. Stephen, Steven, oh, he was eating. Sorry. Sorry. Epstein. Um, Suzanne, yes. Helen, yes. Carolyn, yes. Val, yes. Mariah, I remember you.
Yes, that's me. Yes. And I vote yes as well. Okay, so thank you. Um, this brings us to subcommittee and leazison and reports. We're an hour and a half behind schedule because we had two very substantial discussions and I judge very poorly how long those would take. Um, so
I would suggest that we severely curtail these liaison reports unless somebody has something very urgent uh to report. something that is time sensitive. Um in terms of capital um I was involved in a discussion with the sustainability
director and um uh about um photovoltaics and with a number of other people um some people that we had worked with for the Driscoll school uh roof. Uh and the the discussion was around purchasing
versus leasing. Um, and my understanding is the ZAB will be meeting next week to put out a recommendation about uh leasing our roofs versus purchasing for the schools. And then we keep all the
benefits of the uh the the monetary benefits of the uh solar power within the system. Uh so that meeting is next week, Wednesday. I'm pretty sure it's at 5 o'lock. Um, but you can look on the
town website to see when that is. And if I I can also send out an email to everybody so that you know. But I think it's an important meeting because it will not only talk about the um Driscoll school roof, which which is ready now to
accept uh solar panels, but also talk about um the possibility for Pierce in the future. We wouldn't do it now. It's not in the project right now. there's money in the project. Remember, we voted it. Um but um we wouldn't put it out to
bid now. Uh we would wait until we're closer to the the timing and hopefully tariffs are gone. Um or may not be there. Maybe they'll be manufactured here in the states. So that's the um and Driscoll Pierce had
a um school building committee meeting where everything is moving along on time and still under budget. Thank you. All right. Thank you, Helen. Um new business. Anyone have new
business? Oh. All right. So I move to meet in executive session. Announcement. I'm sorry. I should have written it down. I didn't. Okay. Go ahead, Helen. Um the steps to success um is this Saturday night. Um I'm hoping people
will be able to attend. It's uh usually a great event and it's going to be held at the Tapen Street gym. All right. I'll move to meet ex in the uh glass window area. Right. Order.
Are we done? All right. I move to meet an executive session pursuant to Mass General Laws chapter 30A section 21A for the following purposes. Purpose three to discuss strategy with respect to collective bargaining with ask me American Federation of State, County,
and Municipal Employees if an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the bargaining position of the public body. And the chair so declares and purpose seven to review and approve executive session minutes from the April 10th, 2025 meeting. Do I have a second?
Thanks, Suzanne. Right. Mariah, yes. Val, yes. Carolyn, yes. Helen, yes. Suzanne, yes. Stephen, yes. Sarah, yes. Jesse, yes. And I vote yes. And we will not be returning to open session.
Betsy, will you send me the link? I don't have it. Thank you. Yes, I will. Thanks.