← School Committee · 2026-07-28 · School Committee Meeting
Vote: Memorial Naming Proposal
Agenda original PDF
Minutes original PDF
op School. She discussed: the timeline to have the playground completed this fall, the stakeholders involved in the planning group and their work on selecting the equipment for the new playground. 4. Vote: Memorial Naming Proposal Chair Kelley noted an error on the agenda, clarifying that the item was scheduled for discussion, not a formal vote. Superintendent Berman presented a memo from Principal Galante regarding a proposal to name a reading corner at Hoover School in memory of a teacher who had passed away. She noted that the School Committee Policy states that "the Superintendent will maintain a procedure for recommending district facility names to the Committee." As no procedure has been in place prior, Ms. Berman requested guidance from the Committee on next steps. Discussion included: Ways to honor teachers in the district that have passed away, how this looks different at the secondary level than the elementary, and the plan to look at the current School Committee Policy and bring back at the August meeting. 4. CONSENT AGENDA Ms. Driscoll requested the removal of warrant S27007 from the Consent Agenda and Ms. Razi- Thomas requested the removal of the meeting minutes of June 23, 2026.
Transcript
▶ 15:35 Speaker 1: Thank you. Any other questions? Okay, before we go on to the next one, I just want to point out we made a slight mistake in the agenda. We will not be voting on number four, even though it says vote. So I'll turn it over to the superintendent, no vote tonight.
▶ 15:50 Speaker 5: And this may have gone in a little bit prematurely. I think that I will just preface it by saying that there is a memo in there that we have placed, and it's a memo from Principal Galante that she submitted in the spring, and we've kind of finally gotten it into your agenda packet. And it's regarding the proposal of naming a reading corridor at the Hoover Elementary School for one of our beloved teachers who passed away during the school year. So I'm happy to participate in a conversation regarding this proposal, but I really want to be very upfront in terms of reading the specific policy and sharing that the policy states that the superintendent will maintain a procedure for recommending district facility names to the committee. In full disclosure, I wasn't passed a procedure to align with this, frankly, and nor have I created one to date because it really hasn't come to fruition. So I do wonder if this would be best if we put a procedure in place, and then kind of bring it back to you. But certainly, I leave that to you in terms of how you'd like to move forward.
▶ 17:01 Speaker 1: And I think the intention when we were planning out the agendas for the summer was to announce this tonight and then potentially put it on the agenda in August for a vote, if that was the will of the committee. So if anybody has any questions or wants to share their feedback now, or you can individually reach out to the superintendent or me. Ms. Driscoll.
▶ 17:21 Margaret Raymond Driscoll: Yeah, thanks. Just a couple of things to think about, and thank you so much, Superintendent. I don't think anybody here would've expected you to have procedures that you would bring forward tonight. So all grace on that. I think you've been pretty busy working on many things. So appreciate your comments on that. I have just thought a lot about this and thinking about teachers who we've lost in the district over the years, and whether we've named for them, whether we've named for children, whether we've named-- Like who do we name something for? Where does that come from? And I think a lot of thought went into this policy in 2023 to really be thoughtful and respectful of this. So that's just one thing I've been thinking about And I've also been thinking about what are the different alternatives when we do lose someone who we care about very much and is part of our district family. It can be a place, it can be a scholarship, the permanent scholarship fund. So it can be something like that. So there are a wide variety of ways, I think, to honor people who we have lost and care about. I just wanted to share some things that I'm thinking about as we walk through this process. Thank you.
▶ 18:43 Speaker 5: Yeah. And if I could just share something else. You all know that I've spent all of my life or most of my life at the secondary level. So I think in terms of what, Ms. Driscoll, you just mentioned, I think it looks different at the secondary because it often results in some type of award that goes to a student, or some type of scholarship. Or even every couple years, they do the memorials for the bricks as a fundraiser. And you see a lot of those bricks will say, "In loving memory of." So I think that at the secondary, it maybe looks different. I obviously haven't had the lens into the elementary as I have in the last four or five years in the same fashion. But I do think it's something that, just think about globally and what that looks like. I do feel like it-- I don't want to say it's easier at the secondary, it's just different.
▶ 19:36 Speaker 1: Okay. Any questions? I just had-- Oh, so sorry. Oh, no. I'm sorry, Mr. Hartman.
▶ 19:42 Speaker 7: Just to clarify in terms of what our next steps are, the intention is to bring back the memorandum to talk about implementing the name? Or is it that the procedure would come back in August for us to understand what the superintendent's procedure is in August before we-
▶ 19:55 Speaker 1: I think our original intention was to bring it up for a vote- Mm-hmm ... in August. I know that only four people will be here. I won't be one of them. But if that is maybe... Do people want to express that they would like to see written procedures first, or are we comfortable moving forward? I know how I feel about it. I think I've already given away my feeling on it but we can kind of talk about this now just to get the temperature. Ms. Rozy Thomas?
▶ 20:21 Speaker 2: Well, I think it's important for all of us on the school committee to review what our policy is. Right? So rather than the procedure, we should look, we're responsible for policy, not procedures. So we should just double-check that within our policy, this proposal makes sense. And then we hand it over to the- ... the school community through the superintendent. It's either yes or no from us. But if we're following our policy, I don't think you need to do anything procedurally. We have to check if we're following our policy, and then you decide how it's going to proceed. That's how I understand it. So I think that's just what we have to do on our own time, is double-check that we're living within our policies. And then we say yes or no based on our policies, and then the superintendent and her team and the Hoover folks will do what they can based on our vote.
▶ 21:13 Speaker 1: Any other questions or feedback? Okay. The mayor?
▶ 21:19 Jen Grigoraitis: Just to your question about timeline, in the memo, the desire was to have this in place in September, so I would certainly want us to move forward to be able to meet that timeline. If that's sort of an expectation of the community, I don't want us to hold that up.
▶ 21:34 Speaker 1: Yeah. Any other questions?
▶ 21:37 Speaker 2: Can I just make a comment? Sure. I think it's a beautifully thoughtful and well-written proposal, and I think it's a lovely idea, and I want to just double-check our school committee policy.
▶ 21:48 Speaker 1: Sure. So it's policy FF naming- ... for those of you who want to check it out. Okay. Moving on. Anybody else want to speak before we move on? Okay, moving on to the consent agenda.