Speaker 1: For my first time kind of running this meeting, be patient with me. I hope I'd like to call this meeting of the Natick Public School Committee to order at 6:02 PM and for the record, I'll note that right now the following members are present. Mr. Patel, welcome Ms. Flas, Mr. Brand Present. Ms. Collins here and Ms. Goeth present. And Ms. Bruell on Zoom. Speaker 2: Yes, I'm here attending remotely. Speaker 1: And I'll note that at this time, Mr. Fugman and Ms. Scott are not yet here. So we'll start with the Pledge of Allegiance
Speaker 3: And Speaker 4: IGI to the flag of the United States of America and to their Republic for Rich stands, one nation under God and invisible with liberty and justice for all. Speaker 1: We will now move to public speak. Do we have a list? Linda? Speaker 3: You have to read that. Anyway, Speaker 1: Public speak is scheduled for a period of 15 minutes. Each speaker will be permitted a maximum of three minutes during which time they can speak about topics within the scope of the responsibility of the school committee. All remarks will be addressed through me serving as the executive secretary of the committee this evening
until the committee names a new chair. Is there any person who wishes to participate in public speak? I see Dr. Mackenzie. Welcome. Speaker 5: Thank you. I'm Donna Mackenzie. It's wonderful to be here. And I just wanna for, I wanna do two things actually. First to formally congratulate my neighbor, Jamon Patel, who I am so glad I successfully talked into running for school committee. And I'm excited about the new ideas that he will bring, the possibilities he will bring, and we share degrees in bioethics.
So that's great too. And thanks to Ms. Burnell, I have the opportunity to speak about an item on your agenda, which was never a possibility before. So I just wanna offer a few thoughts on leadership as you go into the process of reorganization based on conversations with other former school committee members and my own thoughts and reflections. And first, I don't know if you've ever read, read ts Elliot's book, the Cocktail Party, but there's a character in it called Lavinia. And we used to reflect on her actually when I was doing my
MDiv, because one of her greatest gifts was being able to bring people together. So they were cocktail parties. And you're not bringing people together at cocktail parties. But I think one of your greatest calls or missions as educational leaders in Natick is to bring people together, is to collaborate and bring together, and again, I'm just offering a few thoughts as you go into your reorganization process that not everybody can be a chair. I, for example, will never be a clerk
and take minutes again for a couple of reasons. One has to do sadly with my eyesight at this point, but being a collaborator is an essential ingredient of a chair bringing to people together like Lavinia did in the cocktail party. And that's not an easy thing to do. Bringing people together, I mean, is just not an easy thing to do. I think the other thing that's important is respect the basic, the kind of respect. And that's not easy either because you have to listen to every person
and there are gonna be times that you're gonna disagree with people on the committee. Happens all the time. And you're gonna have to listen to their ideas and the person is gonna have to give them the basic respect, right? Because one former school committee member told me it made her actually a better person because she was forced to step out of her own viewpoints and listen to other people on the committee. So I think that's a great quality and I encourage you to look for
that in each other as you do that. And somebody who is also creative, who can think outside the box and somebody who's also good with working with, I guess it builds on the idea of collaboration, but working with good well with town partners. 'cause that's important too. And you are, you really are representing educators in Natick. And again, I don't, I don't think everybody can be a chair and I don't think that's a bad thing, but these are just a few of my thoughts on
what I think could be important in a chair. So happy reorganization. Speaker 1: Thank you Dr. McKenzie. Okay, seeing no further public comment, we'll close public speak and move to the next item on our agenda this evening, which is the reorganization meeting as outlined in school committee policy BDA through BDD. This organizational meeting is held following the annual town election for the purpose of electing officers of the committee per policy. As the executive secretary of the school committee, I'll preside until a chairperson is elected also per policy,
this meeting is held solely to elect officers to the school committee. Reaffirm legal responsibilities and prepare for the upcoming year. Nominations for chairperson will be made from the floor. The vote, the vote may be by, will be by roll call. Given that we have a member participating via Zoom, a nominee must receive a majority vote and if no nominee receives the majority, the election will be declared null and nominations will reopen. At this time, I invite nominations from the floor for the position of chairperson of the school committee. Speaker 3: Ms. Collins to nominate Mr. Brand position of chair
Speaker 1: There. Additional nominations, you Speaker 3: Need a second? I'll second that. Speaker 6: I nominate Ms. Goa for position of chair. Speaker 1: Are there any other nominations? Second. Thank you for remembering the seconds. Okay, seeing no further nominations, we can proceed to a vote. We have two nominees for chairperson. We have Mr. Brand and Ms. Goeth, we're going to conduct a vote when your name is called and I'll go alphabetical. Please state the name of the nominee you're voting for or state abstain if you choose not to vote for any nominee.
Mr. Brand, Speaker 3: Mr. Brand. Speaker 1: Ms. Brunell. Speaker 3: Elise, Speaker 1: Ms. Collins, Speaker 3: Mr. Brand, Speaker 1: Ms. Lathers, Elise, Mr. Folkman, Speaker 3: Mr. Brand. Speaker 1: Ms. Goeth. Speaker 7: Ms. Goeth. Speaker 1: Mr. Patel, Speaker 3: Ms. Goeth. Speaker 1: So the votes have been recorded as follows by my count, Mr. Brand three votes and Ms. Goeth four votes with the majority vote. Ms. Goeth is elected as chairperson of the school committee.
Congratulations. And I now move the meeting over you to conduct the election of the vice chairperson. Speaker 7: Thank you. So we'll now move on to taking nominations for election of the vice chair. Do we have any nominations? Ms. Lathers? Speaker 6: Nominate Catherine Brunell. Speaker 7: Second. Speaker 3: No second. Sorry. Speaker 7: Oh, you were gonna second. Okay. Any additional nominations, Ms. Collins? Speaker 8: Mr. Brand? Speaker 3: I'll second that. Speaker 7: Additional nominations. Okay, so you did this Alphabet. I liked your method. You went alphabetically, alphabet. Sure.
Okay, so we have two nominees. We have Mr. Brand and Ms. Brunell. So as we did with the chair position, we'll go alphabetically and please just state the name of your preferred candidate. So Mr. Brand, Speaker 9: Mr. Brand, Speaker 7: Ms. Bruell, Speaker 3: Ms. Bruell, Speaker 7: Ms. Collins, Mr. Speaker 8: Brand, Speaker 7: Ms. Lathers, Speaker 8: Catherine, Speaker 7: Mr. Fon, Speaker 3: Mr. Brand. Speaker 7: Just writing down Ms. Goeth, Ms.
Brunell and Mr. Patel. Speaker 9: Ms. Brunell. Speaker 7: So we have four votes for Ms. Brunell and three votes for Mr. Brand. So Ms. Brunell is elected vice chair, so we'll move on to clerk. So do we have nominations for the position of clerk? Would anyone like to nominate themselves as clerk? Speaker 8: I'm happy to do it if nobody else wants it, but I don't wanna stand in someone's way. Speaker 3: Okay, thank you. Speaker 9: I'll nominate Ms. Collins. Speaker 7: Second.
Speaker 9: Second, Speaker 7: Okay. Any other nominees? Okay, so we'll do a roll call vote. Mr. Brand? Speaker 9: Yes. Speaker 7: Ms. Brunell? Speaker 3: Yes. Speaker 7: Ms. Collins? Yes. Ms. Blathers? Yes. Mr. Folkman? Yes. Myself. I'm a yes. And Mr. Patel? Yes. Okay. So Ms. Collins, and now our, our clerk. So now we have to do the recording. Secretary. So can we have a nomination to appoint a recording Secretary, Ms. Collins? Speaker 8: Hold on. Lemme get my notes. Move to point.
Linda McGrath is recording. Secretary for the NA school committee. Speaker 9: Second. Speaker 7: Any other nominations for recording? Secretary? Okay. Seeing none, we'll take a roll call vote. Mr. Brand? Yes. Ms. Brunell? Speaker 2: Yes. Speaker 7: Ms. Collins? Yes. Ms. Flas? Yes. Mr. Fesman? Yes. I'm a yes. And Mr. Patel? Yes. Okay. If you accept the No. I should have asked you if you accepted the nomination. I do. Nominated. Will you serve? You're really nervous. Okay. Thank you. Thank you.
And that's it, right? No, no. Speaker 8: Counsel, we need to reaffirm legal Speaker 7: Counsel. Reaffirm the, oh, okay. Yes. I Speaker 8: Will give you that nomination if you would like it. I Speaker 7: Would love that. Thank you. Move Speaker 8: To reaffirm Murphy. Hessey to and Lehan is School committee. Council. Speaker 3: Second. Speaker 7: Okay. Roll call vote. Mr. Brand? Yes. Ms. Brunell, Speaker 2: I'm gonna abstain. Speaker 3: Okay. Speaker 7: Ms. Collins? Yes. Ms. Lathers? Yes. Mr. Fesman? Yes. I'm a yes. Mr. Patel? Yes. Okay, so that's six. Yes. One abstain.
And so we've reaffirmed our counsel and then I think that's it. We need one more Speaker 3: Motion to adjourn. Second. Speaker 7: Okay. Roll call. Mr. Brand? Yes. Ms. Brunell? Speaker 2: Sorry. Yes. Speaker 7: Ms. Collins? Yes. Yes. Ms. Lathers? Yes. Mr. Fugman? Yes. I'm a yes. And Mr. Patel? Yes. Okay. And we are now adjourned.