e good evening the school committee special session of March 20th 2024 will now come to order secretary please call the RO member daglio presid member Keegan present member Maxwell present member shilia present member wette present mayor Perry president thank you all president accounted for May I have a motion to accept the agenda as presented so moved second move by member we let seconded by member doag any discussion this would be the time where you want to talk about what you want to do with the nomination so so um thank you Mr chair I would think that in the process of U the nominations once we nominate um both nominees should come up present themselves their credentials and what they would bring to school committee yep and then then we wrote my only suggestion would be in the uh you know in the rule of fairness that we restricted to the five minute rule which is typical for public participation if everybody's are we so do we need to vote on that or I think so um I do apologize but we we skipped the flag salute I forgot to put it on the sorry that's okay no no no it's on the agenda if we want to do the flag salute and then we don't have anybody for public participation so we can go to the discussion and determination yeah and then I can help you guys through this thenor the agenda first we did um we're in the discussion phase yeah we should probably accept it then we can do the flag a so uh but I want to just go back to what member said um so there's I don't know if it's a motion on the floor but an idea on the floor that each of the candidates would have five minutes upon nomination to talk about you know know what they bring to the school committee or what their you know their background and why it's Unique provides for the school committee yeah and I think that's okay I don't know that we have to vote on it it's up to you guys I'll defer defer to the chair okay I think yeah all right so we'll follow that process okay so um I've got a motion and a second to accept the agenda as presented uh have we got everybody here yes okay all those in favor speaking above by saying I I I oppos say nay thank you carries unanimously um all right now the flag flag salute I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you nicely done has anybody signed up for public participation I think the answer is no there is none okay thank you if there's anyone in the audience that would like to participate or if you're watching on TV and you'd like to participate in the future remember all you have to do is either come to the meeting and uh sign up for public participation or you can uh email your public participation to um I was gonna say Dodie runch I'm stuck on that's a blast from the past I know I know don't wrap me out might be watching that was you know don't wrap me out secretary yeah right so I love you Matha wherever you are all right um at this time we'll close the public participation portion of the meeting at this time we'll start the discussion and determination of the selection process of acting school committeemen um so I think you know this ties into what we were talking about earlier right so uh to me and I'm just speaking frankly unless any there'll be um Mo um will'll open a motion to nominate candidates um upon completion of the nominations the candidate or candidates will have an opportunity to address the school committee um and then afterwards we will go into a vote does that make sense okay no so we nominate someone we nominate a second someone yeah they both speak yes we take a vote on the first nomination if the first nomination passes the second nomination is void moot no so maybe I I so I thought um we not Nate both candidates both candidates get to address the school committee and then we take a vote on S I'm sorry yeah singly so like I would go and say Frank Cilla then K yeah vote and then so on and so forth okay so we'd only vote once if that's okay yeah all right as long as we're on same you have a different idea I'm open anything I got nothing okay and excuse to you Mr Mayor however you only vote once no in this case the chair only votes as a tiebreaker tiebreaker I read the rules I was just I yeah I understand he doesn't want me vote all right so um at this time um you know uh we'll open the process for um select the school commitment uh and I say acting school commit because they whoever whoever we nominate is not an official until they go to the city clerk and are sworn into the position right and that's the only reason it says acting so good catch by MAA or the superintendent whoever put this together so uh at this point uh we will open up the nomination process for um members to the school committee to replace Luan Santos who I nominate Mary Beth Donovan grassy and I'll second that we have a motion and a second uh to nominate uh mayor Beth dunan if elected m d will you serve yes okay and she has accepted that nomination um any other nominations yes thank you uh Mr chair I would like to nominate Frank cillo thank you I will second that for you Frank cillo was nominated and seconded by member Maxwell uh where is Mr sill I can't see if if if nominated would you accept the position okay and he has accepted the nomination with that my suggestion is we go on to uh have the two candidates come up and address the school committee Mr Mayor I'm sorry I I would like to say that I was unaware that we were making nominations I thought that people were just brought to us yeah um so I I know that it's I don't know if I have to do it through city hall or through us but I'd like to nominate alisandra winette since she was a right in candidate y um but that's y stand so this U so go ahead and nomin go ahead and nominate so I would like to nominate um alisandra winette thank you second and seconded by member the unfortunate part is she not here though right so I can't ask if she's willing to serve yeah that makes it difficult it does I know I just wanted to put it out there okay no I appreciate it yeah um so we'll move on um and go into the so I I'm open to however the two candidates want to come up and address the school committee we can flip a quarter figure out who wanted to talk first y please introduce yourself if you would uh um good evening school committee members my name is Francisco cillo a24 ride drive you want me to start okay um so so I hold two master's degrees from one from Springfield College and one from Cambridge College and second one is the master education I am currently the I'm the former chairman of the great Lawrence technical school committee representing me the first person from meor had that position in over 38 years one of the biggest accomplishments we've done as the school commandment we've raised the number of enrollments from methan um and the glts work worked on together to create the after to bring the after dark program to City of meor as well and one of of things we're working on worked on we're currently working on is the expansion of glts as well I serve as the chairman of the methan housing authority and I'm open up to questions if anybody has any thank you any questions for the candidate z y thank you Mr chair Mr cello um can you give a background of what you know about working with the state legislators as well that's a loaded question sometimes it's going to answer it for you um I am also a former member of the governor's Latino visor convention under Governor Baker so a lot of the policies have come out throughout the last couple years have done been done because of work I've done so working closely with the legislators is one of the biggest things and one of the that process is understanding the state budget in the budget process um especially when it comes to education and understanding that the governor made a several cut to a couple of school districts is just one cut but is also being able to have the advocacy at the state level to see what kind of funding we could bring in in even after those cuts because it's a plary process M Willet U thank you Mr chairman do you have Frank any direct experience in the classroom as an educator as an administrator working for a school system yes and no um in adult education for Lawrence Public Schools I was the adult Esau specialist also facilitate the mayor's Esau task force for the City of Lawrence I am currently the economic development director and one of the biggest things is understanding not only What policies are but also how curriculum can affect education and you got to understand when there is a curriculum change in order for you to see fruits of a curriculum it takes two to three years before you can start seeing that what if the process is working if changes need to be done but on also understanding that when that changes happen you also have to understand that you almost back to the drawing board when it comes comes to that as well thank you no problem so unfortunately I feel underprepared to ask questions in a normal nomination process we would have gotten resumés and everything else last cycle and we'd be prepared to ask questions today so I just I want to make note that if any Poor Unfortunate school committee has to go through this in the future we uh we're better prepared next time agreed yeah um one of the those things so I answer I'll give you a question for you one of the other experiences that I have is also contract negotiations um especially when it comes to education and teachers one of the biggest things competition have done at glts was also negotiate all the contracts for the teachers and and the par the clerical staff as well contracts we just did a three-year contract that everybody said would take at least a year I've done it in less than three weeks but you have to understand what the needs are of the school districts as well as the staff and what is the foreseeable which we all at the end of the day is is money at some point and the financial impact that's going to play and you have to predict what the cuts are moving forward when it comes to the state budget because that's also going to determine everything that happens with when you're doing contract negotiations Dan tough question you can always count on me for at least one okay I appreciate you thank you appreciate it no problem thank you for your time a couple minutes yep here Beth well good evening U my name is Mary Beth Donovan grassy I live at 15 coolage Street I retired December 31st after 23 24 years in methan public schools as a classroom teacher associate principal and then supervising principal our two children went through withu in public schools and I currently work part-time for Mar College as an ad junk lecturer I'm a program supervisor where I supervise coach and mentor and evaluate aspiring teachers so um thank you for the opportunity to be here tonight uh I really want to start out by sharing how I got to this moment this evening my interest in this position started a few months ago as some of you know back in the fall when it became apparent that the school committee was going to be down a person um and it looked like there would be a right an election I started the process to be a sticker candidate I was scheduled to retire December 31st from methan and I thought I could ease right into the new year continuing my passion my work for methan public schools as a member of the school committee I contacted the city solicitor the state ethics board to learn about potential conflict conflicts and being a sitting employee of the you know of the city and then campaigning for an elected position the ethics folks shared the guidelines with me and told me I would have to follow some specific rules during the campaign but it was doable and I started to figure out how to print my name on those little stickers to hand out to people I know you understand Mr wette and I gave it a lot of thought ultimately I decided against the run it was a tough decision for me I knew my head and my heart could not and should not be in two places that the Penny grammar school the place that I love so much deserved my full attention as we prepared for a new principal after 10 years some folks knew I had the Deep interest in continuing my work with the schools in a totally different perspective and that is why I'm here hoping to be appointed but the loss of an experienced and dedicated committee woman like Miss Santos is huge and it must have been so hard for her to make that decision and I appreciate her commitment to our community but for me it's a bit of serendipity the right place at the right time working in the schools has been my vocation and my advocation making sure our students afforded quality instruction in a safe learning environment making sure they are empowered by their literacy having worked in methu as a teacher and administrator I know how hard our staff works and how hard that work can be I will bring a bit of instit knowledge to the table I know what the literacy data shows I know our every changing Ever Changing student population the concerns of the parents how we staff and program to meet our students needs I have sat in on countless budget meetings building the budget book I have sat in countless budget meetings cutting the budget book I know educational law special education law and the state laws to tell us how to discipline our students I have supervised within the collective bargaining agreements with all our units and have lots of expertise in teacher and program program assistance evaluations you know I just realized there are too many eye pronouns in what I just said and I'm sorry about that but my point is this the information the knowledge the history that I could bring to the board I think would be helpful to the committee and everyone brings a different perspective and this perspective would help inform our decisions on our major responsibilities establishing budget and creating policy I promise to base all my decisions through one lens one of that is fair and Equitable responsible and best for our school Community not all of those decisions will be easy or popular there is so much work to do here and a lot of homework ahead for the school committee budget negotiations with all the units the budget the return of our media centers pushing forward with our literacy efforts using uh using evidence-based practices maintaining safe buildings and school cultures and of course the upcoming School audit all challenges but all opportunities and I very much would be like to be part of that so thank you for your time if you have questions I'll try members questions I'll jump on the elephant in the room okay as someone who just retired end of December can you speak to what folks May perceive as an emotional conflict I mean you I I was on the PTO at the Tenny I know the relationship you had with the staff I know that yourself and Dr kuang go way back and I want to be able to make sure that people are at ease in knowing that if you are the the nominee that there won't be um any issue there for you or for the committee so you know I really do appreciate that because I know everyone was thinking it that's why it's the elephant it's no longer an elephant because we're it's here we're talking about it so that said when I was principal supervising principal assistant principal I often had to make some very difficult decisions and I couldn't think about it I I kind of knew to do my job I couldn't make everyone happy so that said I prided myself on always making the decision that was right by the students that would move the education of our kids forward I can say Dr Quang and I didn't always agree on things and sometimes parents and I didn't always agree on things but we all came from a place with the same goal to do what is right by our kids so frankly I have no problem making decisions that or or having difficult conversations because that is the most important thing we can do right now especially in such tough times this can't be about popularity or getting along or personalities okay thank you member wette thank you Mr chairman and you lauded many important goals uh literacy yeah test scores Outreach to uh majority minority Community uh parent teacher conference budget negotiations and and budget additions and cutbacks the question I had and I'm back to the school committee again and during my seventh year what I'm noticing at the beginning is that there's a concern about the disciplinary law and the changes to the disciplinary laws in Massachusetts so from a perspective as a former principal affiliated with the methan public schools and dealing with the implementation of that new law in the disciplinary issues do you feel personally coming to the school committee that that's something that as a school committee and working with our legislative delegation is that we should be prioritizing because I'm noticing issues with how fights are design ated how people are treated under the new laws maybe too much in terms of protection of the bully versus the victim so from that perspective I was just curious your personal thoughts on it something if you are appointed to the school committee um that you would bring a a personal approach to it you're your your insights on it yeah well I certainly have lots of opinions on it and lots of experience okay with the laws that came out of nowhere a few years ago where we have to everyone it's a state law we have to follow a very specific protocol in responding um you know school committee deals in policy I I'm not quite sure if I'm answering your question um but I know when you look at what is going on through massach around Massachusetts there is a discussion now at a state level level of maybe we need to tighten things up a bit maybe there needs to be some reflection of how these laws impact a school community and I think obviously that has to come from the state level we can't change how we deal in our how we deal with some of these disciplinary actions because they are so specifically laid out to us um so that I know is a real challenge at a number of schools I I not quite sure if I answer that's an honest answer as school committee members we're going to be dealing with cutbacks to the state budget oh I see that was thrusted upon us I see where you're going and when we make recommendations and we do Outreach to the legislative delegation one of the the concerns that might be brought up or you might agree or disagree um and I know it's been reflected at numerous school committee meetings is the issue of dis lary matters I see and I think there was a loosening of the rules in terms of people that may be classified as bullies or causing fights and the and the victims are not as protected as maybe in years past and that was the perspective I thought that you might have um and then again you you have a totally honest answer on it it's it's a complex issue and that was why I just wanted to pose the question to you sure from your standpoint I see what I I follow you now yeah and I I think a response could be I know at the district level there has been some you know uh different approaches and how to help support students on every side for instance I know the high school does um Saturday detentions or they used to you know there there's a number of different ways to respond to concerns no I I I appreciate the and there there's no again it's it's a fluid situation it's a complex situation and it's we're mandated yeah there's a mandate from the state on how to respond yeah I just thought that um again what I was reviewing in different districts is that they're experiencing problems with the law as a as a whole and that might be cause for Change and that sometimes that percolates from the local leadership from absolutely that was in conjunction with that question so sure sort of another elephant in the room you know and I certainly would would enjoy being part of that discussion yeah doubt thank you Mr chairman you're welcome any other questions all right thank you thank you so uh that brings us to the um the process and I want to explain something you know here publicly so the the member you nominated U she would be eligible for nomination she is not um she ran for the school committee though right so the charter specifically lays out that um if nobody got if the next candidate didn't get more than 20% of the vote that it has to go to either after 21 days of determination process by the senior member of the school committee or what we just did right so I just want people understand this is not done under WS at least not from my perspective we've talked about it in a couple meetings now now and um it's unfortunate I wish the young lady was here uh because I don't know I'd love to meet her so uh maybe another day so um but I just want that said having said that um it's time to come to the the toughest part of the agenda for us and that is the roll call vote so I'm going to turn it over to you just a reminder that the chair only votes if there's a deadlock all right okay so Mr secretary if you would I'm Miss Matha uh member do zaglia I am going to vote for Frank cerillo member Keegan I'm voting for Mary Beth Donovan grassy member Maxwell I'm gonna vote for um Mary Beth member shilia I uh my vote goes to so it's unfortunate because I know both these candidates I know they would both do a fantastic job but my vote is for uh Mary Beth Donovan member Willette Mary M Donovan grai and since there's no tie that that completes it I don't have to vote correct all right let me extend my thanks to both nominees I'm sorry yeah uh uh one vote for uh Mr cillo and four for m d thank you one vote for Mr cillo you said will let that's him is did I hear that did I say Willette I thought I said said Willette no maybe it's my ears then all right um so um Mary Beth congratulations uh you now have to go to the city clerk's office before the next school committee meeting and get sworn in that's Monday for the record yeah yeah yeah 8 to 8 to 4:30 except for Friday yeah I just want to say thank you yeah sure I just want to say thank you so much I look I've worked with many of you in many different ways and I look forward to uh spending Monday nights thank you yeah so thank you there will be no discussion of the field trip to Baltimore though none all right all right um if there is there any other issue that the committee wish me will yeah I I just wanted to bring up for the record um and you brought it up briefly is that the Chata language on this is ridiculous it's asine it's undemocratic y so to have one person after 21 days regardless of the status make the sole determination of appointing the member is the checks and balances of our constitution I think would be unconstitutional so I know councelor uh DJ borgard and chairman Ferrera are working on this with the charter commission and the mayor and the mayor sir thank you and I also want to say for the record at no time did any member indicate that they were in favor of having one person make the final determination this has been open transparent and accountable to the voters of methan we had a fair process it was during a public meeting and we took roll call votes any insinuation otherwise I'm going to say diplomatically as best as I can and I love using the term was asinine so thank you y no I appreciate that thank you so um it it's always difficult right and and for the record I 100% agree with you on the charter language I wish I could tell you that's the only section of the charter that I see that's wrong but there's um so there will be a charter commission yeah and hopefully they'll finish it this time versus getting it to the former mayor and then having it die as it goes to um you know house for a look so um you know that's that's an important thing that's on the agenda we discussed it this past Monday night at Council so my hope is though that the charter commission picks up where that last group looked and said okay what were they looking at the changes do they make sense right and versus and then you know takes a a a longer look at the charter because a lot of good work was done and to me was wasted because um there was a failed handoff between um the mayor at the time and our representatives to get it you know addressed at the state level so um more to come on that appreciate it thank you any any other comments okay hearing none um I can take a motion for adjournment some Mo second motion by member wette seconded by member all those in favor signified by oh excuse me I got to do roll call vote sorry Mr secretary member doam yes member Keegan yes member Maxwell yes M shilia yes member Willette yes mayor Perry yes unanimous the meeting is adjourned at 6 o'clock pm thank you all thank you good night Mur