We are ready to go ahead and start. Are we uh are we broadcasting out live? Yes. And are we is it all set on your end for us to go? Yes, it's all set. Go ahead. Good afternoon and welcome everybody to the uh Friday afternoon,
May 2nd, 2025 uh meeting of the school committee. Uh I just want to confirm that we are meeting remotely but this meeting is being recorded and broadcast so that uh people who are in the meeting should take care to to mute if you don't
want your um sound broadcast over hcam. So just want to confirm that everybody from the school committee is here and can uh has audio and um that's working and you can hear me. So Chris, can you hear me? Y no problem. Yes. Kyla. Yes.
and Susan. Susan, can you hear me? I think you're muted, Susan. I don't know if she stepped away for for a minute. Um, I'm here. Oh, fabulous. Okay. So, we are um I know
it's printed in the agenda that we're going to start with the public uh part, but we're actually going to start with the executive session. That was um should have come first in the posting. I didn't catch that. But I would seek a motion from somebody to enter into executive session for the reasons posted
on the agenda. I will make a motion to uh move into executive session to comply with or act under the authority of Mass General Laws chapter 38 section 21 A2 for the purpose of discussing strategy with respect to
collective bargaining with the new superintendent because discussing an open meeting will have a detrimental effect on the school committee's bargaining process and to adjourn an executive session. Oh, you're muted Nancy. You're muted so we can't hear you. Sorry. Um instead of adjourning in executive session, we're going to return
to the public session. If would take that friendly amendment on to your motion. Okay. So motion by Kyla. Is there a second on that? Okay, great. Second by Chris. We'll do a roll call. Uh starting with you, Susan.
Yes. Kyla. Yes. Jamie, yes. Chris, yes. And I am also a yes. We will um enter into executive session and we will come back to this uh link when we're done with our executive session. Um so for those who want to be here for the public
part, you can either hang in or um log back in. The rest of us have from the school committee, we have a link uh that Geette had sent out to get us into the executive session. Oh, good golly. I will see the school committee over on the executive session. All right, I'll
keep this one open for you to return to. Thank you. The heck? Come on. Come on. We're back. Hey, I made it. You're back. God, swimming in the air is hard.
I must say, I already got Evan his congratulatory socks. Oh, that's a good one. He can kind of uh keep up with Jeff. Well, that's gonna be a tough order. I was
gonna say, yeah, that's I told him that's the only I only way I'd vote for him is he he upped his sock game. All right, so just want to welcome everybody back to the public session. Uh we've just returned for those who are
watching uh from home. Actually, we're all from home, I guess, tonight or from the office. Uh we've just returned from an executive session uh and we are uh back here to discuss the Hopkin High School principal. So Dr. Kavanagh, if you'd like to lead that off. Sure. Thank
you. Um so I wanted to have this meeting today just so that we could work fully transparently about what's happening with the Hopkin High School principal. And as people know, we are, you know, unable to do anything with that position until, of course, our former high school
principal officially has a signed contract. So that that's very good. Um, Evan and I have been collaborating on this process because technically the high school principal is a hire of the superintendent, but I'm going to be the
superintendent until June 30th and then whoever the high school principal is um will be a very key player in Evan's leadership team going forward. So, um, we I really think that it's important that Evan Bishop is um very comfortable
with this hire and it's far less important that I'm comfortable with this hire, although I very much am um feeling good about it. So, just in terms of um transparency, uh we have been talking about how it is getting late in the
game. um it's May and sometimes um when you get later in the school year, what happens is the the pool of good candidates becomes um a little drier. Um and we Evan and I know that we have a very willing candidate currently at the
high school. Um and that is a person who has been with us for 11 years. He's very familiar. He is trusted. I think he's built incredibly strong and meaningful relationships with students and families and faculty and staff. And so what we
are proposing is that for a one-year interim position, we move assistant principal Justin Pomville into the principal role at the high school. I mean, at this point, we really believe that this is the most thoughtful and strategic path forward. Um, and we do
also have a plan to backfill Justin's position u with an internal candidate as well. Um, again, that's a person who has been with us for a very long time. She's been an educator at Hopkin High School for 23 years. She is a resident. She
grew up here and graduated from the high school. Um, and that person is Sarah Ell who has served as the um what some people would think of as the English department chair. She's been the English subject matter leader there for a very very long time. I think these two
individuals, people at the high school who work there, um would would feel very comfortable with these decisions because they are very wellrespected people. Um and so for the sake of transparency, I'd love to have a conversation with you about making those two moves um because
it feels good for the school um and good for Evans team building. Are we allowed to do that without a posting? It's part of this. It's posted as part of this meeting. Is Sarah's position Oh, sorry. I'm sorry. That posted so that other people
who would be interested could apply. Well, it's only an interim for the principal. Correct. Yes, it's an interim position. My question was, is Sarah's position interim or is that permanent? No, Sarah's would also be interim because Sarah's movement into the
assistant principal role is contingent upon Justin staying where he is as opposed to coming back into that role. So, it's really two interim roles that we're creating today. And then in the interim process, do we then have to open it up and do a formal
um search or can we internally convert them from interimm to permanent? Oh, you mean down the road if that is something that that you wanted to do? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. What's the What's the process in going from interim to
permanent? Um I So I think that if that were to happen, we would probably want to check with legal counsel, but I I think you can just do that. I've seen people Okay. But I would I would recommend we to ask counsel. I I think I I'm just understanding Susan's question right now. You're
talking about the the posting for the interm Susan. Is that what you mean? I know Chris is talking about for the permanent, there's actually precedent for this. And because it's not our it's not our specific hire, but um back when Evan was hired, um he was initially the
interimm principal of the high school and that was done um it was on a short timeline at the time. It was something that needed to be done very quickly. uh he was I I believe hired as the intern without um a larger search being done
for the same reason of timeliness. Now I don't remember if they opened it up to a larger search at the end of that first year or not, but um that that predates my school committee experience, but um I think talking with legal would certainly be an
advisable piece. Yeah. because I I wonder if it's not nepotism, but it's um some people might feel I didn't get a fair chance or fair shot at that job. Well, for the interimm I think the issue
is and I understand the interim. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think we might want to decide Well, I mean, again, it's not our position, but we might have a discussion with Evan to decide that we do open it up during that And you probably wouldn't even be
thinking about that until February, right? We all heard the news last night. The Worcester school committee did that with a permanent superintendent. Yes. Really? That's something from within. They without doing a search. Without
doing a search. Wow. I think the superintendent is going back to California where she came from. Yes, she Yeah, she's leaving for another position. Yeah. So, I you know, having I've known Justin through having had
kids at the uh high school and I, you know, I think he's very wellliked and I'm excited that that's a transition that that is um going to help us through the interm piece right now and and excited to see kind of what what the future holds. Yes, I agree. All of my
interactions with Justin Pommenville have been I mean remarkably professional, but also he's a very deep thinker. He's cautious before he makes a decision. Um but he's not a person who waffles. He's very strong in his convictions and he's a good relationship
builder. Um I think that he is just right for that role right now. I think it would be good because he's going to carry on the kinds of philosophy Evan has. Yes, he and I did have conversations and
you know, we talked about um the the idea of having someone from within or having someone from the outside. Um and and we agree I think Evan, Justin, Sarah, Laura Ty is the other assistant principal that um the the trajectory
that that school is on right now is pretty wonderful in continuing the work u makes very good sense to us. They do have a really excellent team. I I also would be remiss if I didn't say I think Sarah Ellen is also an excellent choice. Um just I think it's really
cool. We'll have two female assistant principles. Yeah. And I don't want to lose sight of Laura Tyson in this because she is amazing in her role. Yeah. We're very lucky with the leadership we have at Hopkins High School. She is. So,
all right. Well, appreciate that. I would assume u by now that the high school faculty probably has has had some communication with Evan or will have some shortly. Um, I know he's not in the was not in physically in the district
today, but I would assume that there's something for Yes, I think we we tried to schedule the information going to the high school um concurrent with this meeting. So, I think while you were learning about this, his faculty and staff were as well. Great. Yeah, I appreciate that. Yeah. And then on
Monday, um I know that he has a plan, we both have a plan to send something out to the entire high school community to parents, uh and students so they're aware of um the new roles and responsibilities. That's great. Yeah. Very good. That
feels like a good place good place to be. We've made a lot of big decisions in the past couple of months and it feels like this is just right for going forward. Yes. And just so you all know, I did have an opportunity to meet today with Jess Bey and we're working through things. So things seem to be very
positive. Great. Yes, Jess. The student services director, Jessica. Oh. Oh, okay. When we just Okay. I I hired yesterday. Yes. Yes. So, as soon as Do we have to do anything besides you
getting her on board with a contract? Nope. Your vote last night was all we needed. Okay, good. All right. Well, any if anybody else has anything they want to add, um otherwise, uh we
could entertain a motion to adjurnn. I move that we adjourn this meeting. I'll second. Second. Motion by Susan, second by Kyla. We'll do a roll call since we're um remote and start with you, Susan. Yes. Jamie? Yes. Kyla? Yes.
Chris? Yes, I am also a yes. I hope everybody has a fabulous weekend. It feels like I've seen everybody every day this week. So, uh it'll be a different couple of days, but we will see everybody uh hang out Monday night. Monday. Monday. Have a good weekend,
everyone. Okay. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye.