← School Committee · 2025-11-18 · School Committee
PUBLIC COMMENT
Agenda original PDF
Minutes original PDF
Present Margaret Raymond Driscoll Member Present Cari Berman Interim Superintendent Present Also in attendance: Interim Deputy Superintendent, Ken Kelley. With a roll call vote with seven (7) present, the meeting convened at 7:00 PM. 2. PUBLIC COMMENT Without objection, the Chair opened Public Comment. Melrose resident Gerry Mroz expressed his concern that without a change in how the override funds are allocated, the school system would not see a meaningful improvement. He urged that the money be directed toward resources for students and that a clear spending plan be established to prevent the need for another override in the near future. Without objection, the Chair closed Public Comment. 3. REPORT OF THE STUDENT REPRESENTATIVES There were no student representatives present this evening. 4. ANNOUNCEMENTS OF THE CHAIR Chair Withey opened the meeting by thanking the community for passing the historic override. Interim Superintendent Berman detailed the plan for the new funds, announcing a proposed appropriation of over $3.8 million for instruction and learning, with additional benefits coming from DPW and IT budgets for maintenance and technology. Ms. Berman discussed the
Transcript
▶ 0:45 Speaker 1: Just a note before we begin business this evening. This meeting is being broadcasted by our friends at MMTV. And again, this meeting is being recorded. First up on our agenda, we have public comment, so if anyone would like to speak tonight, we ask that you take a moment to sign up. Um, with that, and without any objection, I'll now open public comment.
▶ 1:12 Speaker 3: Hello, how are you? How are you?
▶ 1:23 Speaker 4: Great. Hi, I am Jerry Merose. Um, I was surprised to see on tonight's agenda that there wasn't a comprehensive plan for using the monies from the override to put back the schools the way that you want them put back. Um, you know, the, the, as we all know, the override was, um, retroactive to July 1st of this fiscal year. Um, I'm hearing rumors that you're not gonna put necessarily back in department chairs in the high school or the, the whole secondary schools. I don't know whether that's true or not, but, you know, with all the effort that went into the override Across the whole city, um, I just can't imagine that we aren't jumping forward today with a plan to doing something. I do wanna call out a few things that I wanna caution you about. If we don't do anything different with the new money, we won't have a different school system. We heard a lot of in the o override process about, oh, we want, you know, world class school systems. Well, money doesn't do it alone. It means doing something different, not the same if we have another teacher's contract and put a lot of the money toward the teacher's contract, which I expect is gonna happen. But we don't require teachers to be there for more time so the students can have a longer recess so that we don't have to take away, you know, ha half days for, um, um, professional development time you take, you're subtracting time from students to do something that the adults should be doing outside of school. Students deserve the time in school. In fact, I would love to see an extended day and an extended year. We know that extended days and extended years get high performing charter schools to where they are. Melo students deserve the same. Please don't start a negotiation with the teacher's union without taking these things into account. And I know the teacher's union has every right to push back on them, but at some point, you need, we have never seen the district actually respect the children of Melrose in those contract negotiations. We've seen time and again, that what comes out of negotiation is more of the same, more money for the adults, less, fewer resources for the children, both time and money. So, I, I urge you, please have a plan. Why aren't we hit? Why haven't we hit the ground running already? But don't blow the override on teacher salaries that are unsustainable again, because then we'll be looking for another override in three or four years, because we'll need another override to sustain what you just did. And, um, and, you know, I don't know what your timeframe is on that. Uh, it's not on the agenda here, obviously, but, um, but please do that. Thank you.
▶ 4:09 Speaker 1: Thank you. Is there anyone else this evening? Let me also check online. We don't appear to have anyone joining us, uh, virtually tonight for public comment. Um, so with that, I'm going to close public comment. And while it may be closed this evening, again, please know that you can always email us with any questions, concerns, opinions, or ideas. The next item we have on the agenda is the report of the student representatives. I'm recognizing that they may not be here this evening. I know things are pretty busy. Um, so we'll go ahead and move forward with announcements of the chair and then continue on with our agenda tonight. So, I just wanna start off this evening, um, taking just a moment to say a sincere thank you to our community for passing a historic override that will benefit both our schools and our city.