Outreach Reports (5 minutes)

Transcript (~10 min @ 36:08)

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▶ 35:32 Margaret Raymond Driscoll: Uh, thank you Ms. Withi. Uh, next on our agenda as the announcements of the school committee chair. First, we will take up the regular meeting minutes of October 24th, 2023, and I would certainly entertain a motion, uh, for approve. Motion to approve. Motion for approval by Ms. Macand, seconded by Ms. Desal. Is there any discussion? Seeing none. All in favor? Opposed? And abstentions, that motion carries with six in favor. No. Um, opposed. And one abstention. Thank you for that. Um, next I would like to invite, uh, comments on our outreach reports. I'm going to invite Ms. Desel to go first, please.

▶ 36:18 Speaker 5: Colleagues, uh, this past week there was the M-A-S-C-M-A-S-S joint, uh, conference on the Cape, uh, happens every year, uh, immediately following election day. Uh, so, uh, it, it can be bittersweet for some who, uh, are attending for the last time. Uh, of course I am, I was attending for the last time, um, but you elected me as the delegate to the Delegate Assembly for MASC. Uh, for those that have not had the pleasure or privilege, the MASC Delegate Assembly is in fact just one very large school committee meeting. And it has all of the drama that you might expect,

▶ 37:08 Speaker 5: uh, when you combine 200 plus, uh, school committee members from different districts all in the same room. Uh, urban, rural, regional, Vogue, all the stripes, all the colors, all present and accounted for. Uh, this year's resolution package, uh, we had, uh, one change in the bylaws, which was approved unanimously. Uh, the change in the bylaws was to, uh, sunset every three years on a three year ruling cycle, uh, resolutions that had been passed previously so that the resolutions list didn't just continue to grow and grow and grow, uh, with the understanding that, uh, the needs of our students change on a year to year basis. And it doesn't make sense to be arguing still at the State House. For something that we voted as a resolution in 2015, today, in 2023 that passed unanimously. That was perhaps that. And, uh, resolution two, which was regarding investment in trans, uh, investigation in and recommendations for transportation bidding procedures. As we know, uh, we don't have a good bidding system for our buses. And so, uh, between, uh, that resolution, uh, to authorize a push to investigate and revamp that requiring a bidding system, uh, and the sunset clause, those were the only two things that passed very quickly and more or less unanimously resolution one.

▶ 38:52 Speaker 5: Uh, typically how these things go is, uh, they present, they call a role on each of the resolutions. And, uh, with the hope that we're gonna get a slate of them, that we can just push through without any comment, question, or otherwise deliberation that happened with exactly one, resolution two, uh, resolutions, 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, and seven, and eight. All required discussion. This was a four hour delegate assembly. Wow. I know you wish you were with me. Um, resolution one. Full, stable, uh, full stable funding for metco. This was all about creating a pot of money that is stable at the state level, uh, so that METCO understands on a year over year basis what they will have. As we know here in the chamber, METCO was level funded for us. Um, that is not always the case across, uh, the participating districts. Uh, this was contentious. Only in it was those who are in METCO who participate in METCO and those who don't. Um, and, uh, regardless of the contentious nature of the discussion, uh, it passed 92 to three. Uh, resolution three was, uh, resolution three was, uh, regional transportation. Um, there was a push to, uh, allow for, uh, essentially it was a push to, uh, provide flexibility to regional districts for busing. Uh, this was hotly contested because, uh, the state says that regional districts should get funded fully for their busing. And, uh, raise your hand if you remember the last time the state fully funded anything promised to schools. Right. Uh, so they wanted the ability to, um, either charge for empty seats to the families that they have to provide them for, or otherwise not be able to provide those seats. In other words, have fewer buses. Um, this motion, uh,

▶ 41:13 Speaker 5: this motion failed. Um, opponents were generally anti-free, which is fine. I, we generally would agree with that. Um, but overall, there was a large sense of we're letting the state off the hook if we, uh, pass fees on to the parent parents. Uh, and what we really should be doing is arguing to the state that you guys should live up to your promises. Uh, motion four, or I'm sorry, resolution four was, uh, where is it here?

▶ 41:49 Speaker 5: Oh, diversity, equity, and inclusion. Uh, this was all about creating a, uh, DEI coordinator point person in district. John was this thrilling, I promise. Um, what became of this resolution is that we all as a, uh, massive body agree that DEI work is important. Nobody has an idea of how it should be done universally. The motion was eventually tabled after three amendments. And what essentially was a Roberts rule fail. Um, it was, it was not good. Our parliamentarians got lost and it just, it was bad. Uh, relu resolution five, Massachusetts School Building Authority after lots of deliberation, and again, we're letting the state off the hook was tabled. Resolution six school bus stop. Armed surveillance. This is the idea that we want to push the state to actually have some teeth and enforcement around school buses when they stop and put that stop sign out. Apparently people are just driving right by. It was tabled, um, resolution seven with related, that was related to MCAS. Uh, it was essentially, um, pushing the resolution essentially was written to push m uh, MASC, to argue at the state level that we should, uh, do away with MCAS and replace it with something that is more relevant to our students in today's modern age. Again, lots of different opinions in the room. Everyone agrees that MCAS has to go. Nobody agrees how it should be done. It was tabled. Uh, by this time behind me. There was an argument over a bag of chips. I kid you not, you've got chips. You didn't bring me chips. We're three and a half hours into this meeting. It's going crazy.

▶ 43:59 Speaker 5: Um, resolution eight, safe storage of firearms. Uh, we all, everyone again, all agreed that firearms are, uh, second amendment and blah, blah, blah. But there's already laws that firearms should be stored properly. And at this point, the chips people have left. And about half the rest of the delegation had left because dinner was being served in the room next door. This one actually passed by a voice vote. And we went to adjourn. So it was a lot of fun. Thank you guys for sending me one last time. I know that you wish you were there. I hope,

▶ 44:37 Speaker 4: I hope the chip people weren't armed.

▶ 44:41 Speaker 3: Thank you for that very illustrative reward, Ms.

▶ 44:45 Jennifer McAndrew: McAndrew. Well, I Was just gonna say, I think we see why Mr. Sal got the big award indeed

▶ 44:50 Speaker 4: At conference Indeed, well deserved

▶ 44:54 Jennifer McAndrew: For this Year in many years of being our delegate. Thank you.

▶ 45:00 Margaret Raymond Driscoll: Thank you. Thank you so much. Did you bring your award? I did. She Did, indeed. Okay. Let's, did you show it to the whole class?

▶ 45:06 Speaker 5: Uh, so then whole class and camera. Uh, I was, um, nominated by you, uh, to represent, uh, our district in, in the Allstate School Committee. Um,

▶ 45:29 Speaker 5: I feel, I feel to an extent, uh, somewhat unworthy. I didn't do this on my own. I did this in committee by committee and with committee. Um, and so this is not merely my award, but all of ours. And so thank you so very much. Thank you.

▶ 45:43 Speaker 1: Thank you. Thank you.

▶ 45:56 Margaret Raymond Driscoll: Very well deserved Mr. Desel. It was a lovely evening. And, um, there was much applause and, and many smiles. So that was, that was super duper. Um, any other outreach reports? Anything else to share? Uh, seeing none, uh, point of personal privilege. I would like to, uh, share my interest in, uh, being your chairman, uh, again next year, um, if that is the will of the group. But I wanted to let you, uh, know that now