Vote: Superintendent Hiring Process

Transcript (~40 min @ 23:08)

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▶ 23:01 Jennifer McAndrew: Excellent. We're moving right along here, folks. Um, okay. Next up is announcements of the chair. We have two items. The first is a continuation of our discussion from last time, um, about the path forward for the superintendent hiring process. Um, so just thought I would start out by giving a little summary of where we are. Um, uh, over the past several meetings. Um, we have discussed various pieces of this. We conducted a mid-year performance review of the interim superintendent. Um, and then last time we had, at last meeting, we had a discussion about the different, um, possible paths forward for us as a committee. At this time. There is a memo from Chair Withey and our council, um, Amy Lindquist in the packet that was also in last time around the hiring processes, uh, for superintendents. We had lengthy discussion at our last meeting. Um, we have heard from members of the public, um, before the last meeting and in the interim week between meetings. Thank you to everyone who wrote in. There's a wide range of views expressed, and I know that we all considered all of that feedback. Um, and appreciate it. We heard from some folks also in public comment last time. Um, so my suggestion now, um, would be, um, oh, I should also mention that I think the superintendent's resume documents, um, were added, um, in the packet as well, including a letter from Superintendent Berman. Um, so I thought tonight we could start with, um, a continuation of the conversation. Any, um, questions or comments, um, to or from the superintendent, uh, from the committee or questions and discussion amongst the committee. Um, and then, um, we can entertain any motions if there are any from the committee, uh, tonight. So that, that's a suggestion. Um, is there any discussion or questions? Anyone wanna get started tonight?

▶ 25:16 Speaker 1: Mr. Razzie Thomas? Um,

▶ 25:18 Speaker 6: Well, I'm actually eager to ask a lot of questions of the superintendent, so I don't know if we are going to discuss things separately or when we will actually get to ask her questions.

▶ 25:28 Speaker 1: Now is great. Okay.

▶ 25:29 Speaker 6: Um, so I'm curious, um, if you can help us kind of remind us of your vision that you've shared with us here, um, in two other meetings, but also I would like to specifically ask you about special education, um, given all of your years of service in Melrose, as well as your expertise in special education, having, um, prior to the position that you're in now, been the assistant superintendent for, um, student and, um, personnel, right. Student services and personnel. It's a very funny title. Um, I would like to understand now that we have had a very successful passage of this override what your vision is beyond being a compliance person. Because the last, at least for the last two years, if not since coming out of the pandemic, our district has been focused on compliance, um, and not really had the resources, kind of the time, the energy even to be able to put forward our vision for special education. Um, I think that the community has a lot of questions about that. Um, and I think it would be really helpful to hear, you know, if you were to become our more permanent superintendent, what would you be doing with this extra money that we have now through the override to build out a vision?

▶ 26:56 Speaker 1: Okay. So I'll, I'll start

▶ 26:58 Speaker 3: and if I don't answer every piece of that question, I'll back to you can certainly, uh, bring me back to it. Um, so this opportunity, although I feel like over the last, you know, four and even five years, even in my role in as an assistant principal being part of like the district leadership team, I've gotten to have an understanding of the district. But, um, moving into central administration certainly allowed me to see that even greater. And then these last seven months, having, being able to actually step back from special education a little bit, um, and, and see it a little bit differently without being in the weeds has been really, really helpful. Um, we also have two very highly qualified and seasoned interim directors. So I've been able to, um, take some of, you know, what they know what our district has and to really start thinking about a plan to move forward that they actually have start to really put on paper. Mm-hmm. Um, so, you know, we could, we can certainly share that after the new year as well. Um, my time, you know, as assistant superintendent for Pupil Personnel Services, PPS, um, I feel like with the help of Ken Kelly and many other people, we were able to really stabilize the program. So yes, there was that compliance element, but we were able to budget appropriately. Um, which then resulted in, in stabilization of the funding, which then allowed us to prepay some tuitions this year, which was, was a goal that Mr. Kelly and I had as well as some other people. So we were able to do that with that. That also gave us a little bit of extra to start thinking even before, um, the override passed. So with thinking with, um, you know, mark Kbo and, and Linda Chase and, and thinking about some of their experiences and them coming in and, and hearing kind of what we had and what we've been doing, but also other things that they've done and having like three heads to come together as well as many other people as well, educators, principals, um, we've been able to identify some real areas of need. Um, and those fall under, I would say, um, early literacy. I would say early, early math also falls under there. Um, mental health, um, some looking, we, we have been able to hire some consultants, um, to do some program reviews that we haven't really had that money in previous years when I was in the role to ever think about like, Hey, how can we do a program review? So that is really helpful. I think this year we are able to create a plan and a vision. We, they have met with a number of consultants to be able to help, to help build programming, but also to provide some professional development, um, and to strengthen our existing programs. We're also looking at, um, doing a full, again, with some override funding that will help us hopefully do some, um, really examine the students we have out of district and what are their needs and can they come back. So we just haven't had that personnel. So using a consultant to help us do that. Um, so having a little funding through that p prepayment of tuitions, and that shifted some things. And then with the override, um, doing some digging into that to be able to, to bolster our programming and to identify our key areas and also to just ensure that we're using our personnel wisely and effectively. Um, I've been doing a lot of that work too, just even just looking at the number of students with IEPs, the case loads, the workloads. What does that look like for our educators? Are we staffed appropriately in every single building? Um, so I've had the opportunity to kind of step back and do that work because even in my old role, I was so compliance driven, um, and our budget kept us so compliance driven. Um, so, so that's where we are with special ed, and that's where I see, I think we need to, um, continue to build our program. I think, you know, again, I'll, and I'll keep saying this tier one instruction, so instruction that happens for all students in the general education classroom is paramount. If we can do that well from an early age with highly qualified, we have, we have really awesome educators. I say this all the time. We have really dedicated educators. We need to ensure they have the tools in their toolbox to, to meet the needs of our students. And we know our students look different, you know, post pandemic. Um, I think, you know, if, if I kind of like use that to kind switch and fall into like, some other goals, we need to get back to those pre pandemic scores, those pre pandemic levels. Like that is something that, um, you know, Ms. Acevedo and I talk about oft often, you know, she's an instructional specialist. Um, you guys all know, I, you can look at my resume. It's very detailed. Um, also provided that executive summary for those who want just a quick look. Um, it, you know, I am clearly a, um, a secondary person. Um, although I was involved in special education pre-K through postgraduate, so age three through 22. So I, I do, you know, I have had many interactions throughout my years, um, with, with that level. Um, but I, I'm not an elementary school person and that's something that I've been working on, right? I have been working on doing professional development, learning all about like early literacy and early math skills and, you know, trying to do those things and trying to be part of as much as we can do. But that's really, that's why we have a team, right? Because me, Melanie is an expert in that area. Mm-hmm. Um, I have a lot more expertise in, you know, special education. I would say even budgeting is, is a strong point for me. Even, you know, managing the, what special education budget of three, $9.5 million or what, averaging or whatever mm-hmm. 20 to 25% of our budget, not including the personnel, um, over the last five, four or five years. You know, just closing this, doing this work that we're doing with the supplemental budget. Mm-hmm. I feel, you know, very comfortable with that. So we have to be fiscally responsible. We need to ensure, um, you know, that, uh, it really comes down to those ABCs. I don't know that I'll ever let that go as an educator now. Like accountability, you know, sense of belonging and consistency. Um, so accountability, high quality materials. Make sure our teachers, teachers are licensed, make sure they're getting what they need. Make sure we have successful negotiations. Make sure they feel like they belong. Then that will trickle down, you know, into our culture and climate of our buildings, which will then, you know, trickle down to our students and families.

▶ 33:35 Speaker 6: Um, I think Great. If I can. Is that good? Yeah. Okay. I'm gonna, I'm gonna ask you a different question, but it's Oh, great. It's related to it. So, you know, um, you and Mr. Ro and Mr. Kelly gave us a great redesign of our, um, central office. Mm-hmm. Right? So one of the questions that's coming up kind of over and over again as special ed director mm-hmm. What, you know, if you were to remain in the superintendent position longer term, what do you, what's your vision for the, the structure? Because I don't think people understand it yet, or I wanna double check what you would see. Would there be a special ed education director and not have that person pulled in as many positions? It

▶ 34:16 Speaker 3: Would probably would not be an assistant superintendent role. Yeah. Um, I think we, you know, given our current structure, if that was to continue, then, you know, we have, um, superintendent, uh, in interim Deputy Superintendent Kelly. Um, it's a mouthful. A lot of Words over there. Um, You know, continuing with, with that model, um, I think we would have to, because we are such a small district, we'd probably have to call it a PPS director. Mm-hmm. Um, and, and give it a, a few more pieces. But some of the big compliance pieces actually move to that student relations director. Right. That's what I wanted, um, with looking at the, the McKinney-Vento mm-hmm. Looking at, um, you know, as the Title IX coordinator, um, looking at the DCF piece. So that, that also was a huge part of my position. So we were able to kind of take my prior position, um, and, and disseminate some of those pieces through the, the structure that we developed.

▶ 35:09 Speaker 6: Okay. Um, I know I'm gonna have more, but for now I'll pass the baton.

▶ 35:18 Speaker 1: Excellent. Any other questions at this time, Mr. Hartman?

▶ 35:24 Speaker 5: Thank you. Um, and this will just be my question phase. I have comments phase later. Um, I wonder if you could talk a little bit about, um, how, uh, you envision communications with the school community, uh, going and, and what sorts of things you'd, you'd like to implement, um, if you were in the role permanently and, and how you develop a, a more of a dialogue with the school community, more of a dialogue with our, our families and, um, even our educators. Um, what do you see as communication strategies that are helpful to, to start thinking about as we head into another budget cycle as we head into, um, another school year beyond that?

▶ 36:00 Speaker 3: Mm-hmm. Um, so I think that that is something that, um, I would want to really think about what people need. Um, I, I did get some feedback, you know, that maybe like a weekly thing was too much. You know, you hear from the principal, kind of let that fall on the principles. Um, so I would love to find that sweet spot about that. Anything that's really, um, I don't wanna say important 'cause everything's important, but Right. Anything that's, that's time sentence sensitive, important. Like, okay, it's gonna be 10 degrees outside, let's make sure that we, you know, put, put on our hats and gloves for all our children. Um, I, I'll certainly do those things in the moment. I, I, you know, I wonder if there's a more consistent way to communicate. I think what I would like for people to do is, and I, I try to, I think this is just who I am, but if people email me, educators, parents, um, you know, students, whoever that may be, I try to get back to them as quickly as possible. Have I lost an email once in a while? Sure, of course. Uh, have I realized I haven't responded? Sure, of course. Um, but I think if I can get the word out that if you have a question, then I'll do my best to answer it or, or to do those things. I think proactive as we get into budget cycle, um, we, we have to share that information. You know, we have to have those listening sessions. We have to get feedback from, um, you know, again, student, staff and families. So that would be what I would spend more time doing.

▶ 37:23 Speaker 5: Thank you. Mm-hmm. Um, I wonder if you could take a second and, um, your resume was quite extensive and detailed, and hopefully the community is looking at it as well. There's, there's a lot in there. Um, you came from a background working in the buildings and moved up to assistant principal, moved into the, the assistant superintendent role. Um, it's very spelled out very well. Um, and I wonder if you could just talk a little bit about that transition from, from working directly with students to working in the administrative side of things and, and give us a sense of, you know, you pursued leadership. Mm-hmm. Um, tell us a little bit why you're pursuing more leadership beyond that.

▶ 38:03 Speaker 3: Um, I have found in Melrose that there have been opportunities that have been opened that I'm like, I could be a good fit for. Um, that's really just my honest, frank answer. Um, I did not go to school, as you'll see, to be an educator. I totally fell into education. Um, after nine 11, I decided I didn't want, wanna work in downtown Boston in an office building anymore. Um, I started subbing and fell in love with it, you know, two years later, three years later, whatever it was. I can't remember. COVID brain, I still call that, um, you know, got that master's degree. Had seen a lot of turnover in administration in the roles of like that special education coordinator. And I think my first 10 years, I think we had nine. We called them ETFs and I was like, it went up. I'm like, I can do this job. Like I wanna do this job. Right. So stepping away from students is hard, hard for me. 'cause I, I really do love teaching. Um, I do have the opportunity. I teach adults now. I teach for both. I, I shifted from UMass Boston. Um, it's now shifted to Fitchburg State. So I do teach teachers, um, you know, a class addressing the needs of students with special needs right at my alley. So I do still get to teach, I still get to practice all of those teaching practices. I love going into the buildings. I mean, kids at the high school, they probably think I'm crazy. 'cause like, I walk down the hall, I'm like, hi, how are you today? You know, put your phone away. But, um, yeah. So I mean, I think it has come from, from opportunity. I, I have never said maybe until I put it in writing a couple days ago that I want to be a superintendent. So

▶ 39:38 Speaker 5: Thank you. Yeah. I'll yield for now. That's Great.

▶ 39:44 Jennifer McAndrew: We're in a mode of questions for the superintendent. So are there other questions for the interim superintendent at this time? Ms. Razzi? Thomas, did you have another one?

▶ 39:52 Speaker 6: Well, I didn't think it was gonna get back to me this so quickly. We,

▶ 39:56 Jennifer McAndrew: I think folks also have some comments as well, but we'll do questions first. There are some,

▶ 40:02 Speaker 6: Well, you know, one thing I I wanna keep kind of drilling, um, down on is there has been a big shift in early literacy back towards phonics, which is definitely the right way to go. And I think that's where we're at right now. And we're gonna spread that out into every, into every elementary school if it's not already there already. And then there's this big problem of dyslexia. Mm-hmm. And so you're, one of the challenges of that is getting everyone trained to Orton-Gillingham. Right? So one of your solutions this year was to use the final appropriation that we got prior to the override to fund a, some training in that. And you have 36 educators that have signed up. Correct. So

▶ 40:46 Speaker 3: When the state is also doing some free training, and, and we have some educators who have applied for that as well. They have to, they have to get in, but they've applied for it. Yeah.

▶ 40:54 Speaker 6: Yeah. Um, so I'm wondering, you know, how you see that paying off in terms of how that's gonna affect change across the district and how that's gonna impact special education in particular?

▶ 41:06 Speaker 3: Well, yeah, I mean, the goal, so I guess that that parallels that tier one instruction. So if we can get, um, if we can catch kids early and we can do interventions early, and we can teach 'em the skills and the strategies, um, in order to access whatever that may be in this case, reading, um, that which will then, you know, lead to comprehension and all of those other things. Um, but, but that's, that's what we need. Um, you know, we all have to be able to read, right? We first learn to read and then we read to learn, um, all of our children as they, you know, get to that, you know, third, fourth grade, fifth grade level. They need to be able to read and comprehend words so that they then can access the rest of their curriculum and content as they move throughout middle and high school. So, um, putting a supports in place early, doing progress monitoring for students early, communicating with families early, um, and, and really ensuring that we're doing those interventions. Because if we can do that, and if a student is making progress, um, then we may not have to find them eligible for special education. Um, that's, that's the goal. We can have children who are dyslexic, who may not qualify for special education, um, because they're able to make effective progress given the supports and the tools that we can provide in the general education classroom. So we really need to bolster our general education classroom, um, focus on those skills and then hope that, um, we can close some gaps and do better.

▶ 42:36 Speaker 6: How would you know if you're actually making progress in providing better tier one instruction for our students at earlier ages?

▶ 42:45 Speaker 3: Yes. I mean, that's all, that's all gonna be all, all of our, all of our progress monitoring that we're doing, um, through, whether it's like our DIBELS assessments and, and different things, our IXL assessments, and we can certainly, you know, those are giving our growth trajectories for each student. Their families can, you know, we can provide reports for their families. Educators can see that. Um, and, um, and we'll know that they're meeting targets and, and, and meeting standards and not, um, that they're proficient.

▶ 43:13 Speaker 6: You and I have had some conversations that are more private, and I'm not gonna suggest that we talk about like, private personnel issues, but I think one of the things that's so important for people to understand is that as a superintendent, you have to be the face of the district, and you also have to make really, really tough decisions sometimes. So without harming anyone in terms of personnel stuff or privacy and confidentiality with students, can you give us an example of one time when you had to make a very tough decision that you would feel sharing publicly?

▶ 43:51 Speaker 7: That's tough. Um, so

▶ 43:54 Speaker 3: as a special ed person, director, assistant superintendent, I actually often had to say no. Um, I don't really like saying no, but, you know, you kind of, I, I guess I would just root everything. I don't know that I could give a specific example that I'd feel comfortable with, like, in this forum. Um, but there have been hard decisions that have, have had to have been made. Um, whether it's it's personnel

▶ 44:25 Speaker 3: or, um, oftentimes it's, you know, we're, we're in the business of people, so all of our decisions, when you have to say no, somebody's gonna be unhappy. And, and, and you have to go kind of back to the process and the why. Um, you know, so if it's for a student, we're using our code of conduct or our expectations, you know, if it's for a teacher, we're using our, our policies that are outlined, um, you know, so clearly through our, um, through all of the policies that have been developed.

▶ 44:56 Speaker 6: Um, so yeah. Okay. Thank you. Yeah, That's good.

▶ 44:59 Jennifer McAndrew: Thank you. Um, okay, moving on to some discussion, comments from the committee at this time? Any Mr. Kelly?

▶ 45:06 Speaker 4: Sure. So, um, I think no surprise to anybody that heard my comments last week, but I think, you know, on reflecting on Ms. Berman's leadership for the last six to seven months, I really do think she's the best person, uh, for the Millers Public Schools. She's a longtime employee who clearly has a trust of the school committee and the staff. At the, our last meeting, it's, I think it was noteworthy that both key administrators and the union, uh, to paraphrase them, basically said she has the loyalty and knowledge of Melrose that nobody else has. I think for me, stability is also extremely important. We talked last week about the number of superintendents that have cycled through here. We've talked about some of the challenges with doing, um, full superintendent searches where either we've come up empty handed in the last couple years, or maybe the person hasn't actually been been the best fit. So I think we're very lucky with having Ms. Berman here and her being interested in taking on this role. Uh, she's been with the district for over two decades. She knows all of the challenges that come to leading our schools, which include our kids, our parents, staff, and our budget. I think she's really jumped into this role and has really been willing to lead us with all the challenges she knows that Melrose has. So I'm very comfortable moving forward, um, as a committee with, um, offering a position to Ms. Berman, but of course, I'd like to hear what other people here have to say. So thank you,

▶ 46:32 Speaker 1: Ms. Thank you. Just wanna start off Ms. McKen by saying you did a beautiful job recapping where we've been. Uh, we provided strong mid-year feedback based on the experiences we've had thus far with interim superintendent in your leadership. We've heard from educators, I believe when they came last week, they said there was an overwhelming super majority in support and in favor of appointing Ms. Berman. We heard from one administrator, and we also heard from our deputy superintendent, again, all in favor of us moving forward with an appointment. For me, educator voice and perspective matters, and so does the voice and perspective of our community members. And if I'm being honest, we've heard from our community, and I think they've expressed a desire to hear from interim Superintendent Berman a bit more too. So if we were to move forward with an appointment, I would hope that the interim superintendent would schedule community outreach activities, meet with families with caregivers, hear what they want from a superintendent, share your vision and make a plan, and then share it proactively. I think we have the opportunity right now to create a plan that can go beyond just a year based on the stable leadership you've already been providing in the district. So, with your expertise and with your understanding of Melrose, I would hope that we would think about this plan and also think about what we're hearing from community members as well to really make sure that we're doing best for kids and for families that are in this district.

▶ 48:02 Jennifer McAndrew: Thank you, Ms. Withey. Any other comments at this time?

▶ 48:08 Speaker 1: Mr. Hartman? Um,

▶ 48:09 Speaker 5: Thank you. And, and I, I really agree with the, the comments of my colleagues here in terms of, um, where we're headed and, and how we're evaluating this decision. This isn't an easy decision by any means. I think anytime you choose a, a district leader like this, it's a, it's a challenge to think about how you should go about it. Um, I think we're all kind of navigating that as, as we work through this. Um, you know, I think there's been a lot of really great values that have been listed off that we wanna see in a new superintendent. Um, discussions about budget, strategic thinking, long-term interest in staying in the district, I think is, is one that we really need to be focused on. Um, and then we, we've certainly heard a lot about the importance of support from within and, and what we've heard from our educators, from our other district leaders is really important in that. Um, and I think, you know, we've also heard from our community, I, I agree with Miss Withey around, um, what we've heard and what they desire is, uh, you know, I made a comment at the last meeting about how we get to know Ms. Berman through this process, and I think to some extent we've, we've learned more tonight. Um, I, I hope that we can build in more opportunities should we move forward in that direction to give the community that, that direct kind of relationship as well. Um, I think she spoke a lot of tonight about, um, what types of communication she's interested in doing direct communication, listening sessions. Those are things that I think are really important in maintaining that community trust and support and building it, um, as we go forward. So I, I would like to see that happen as well. Uh, I agree with Ms with you on that. Um, and reflecting on, on this as a, as a place where we are, um, I think putting myself in, in, in where I am as a school committee member and, and having seen, worked with now three different superintendents, um, and thinking about how we continue to move the district forward, one of the things that is really weighing on my mind in, in terms of how we make that happen is that with each of the superintendents that I've, I've worked with, I've had to get to know that superintendent. I've had to figure out what is their operating process, what, what are, what are their goals in the next few weeks and months. Um, and I know our educators have to do the same thing. Our administrators have to do the same thing when we bring somebody in. So if we delay and, and, um, you know, further put out a process and maybe we find somebody who, who seems like they're a really good fit, um, we'll be in this situation where, again, we have to start from whatever their zero is and start to build back, uh, our steps going forward on, on what our, our district is gonna look like through their eyes. Um, and, you know, at this point, I've had six months to work with, uh, superintendent Berman, and, and I've gotten to know her working style. I've gotten to know, um, how to, to speak with her about ideas and, and hear how she's receptive to them. Um, these are all things that, that, um, on top of the fact that I've enjoyed working with her, I wouldn't want to have to redo again. And I think that's an important part. I I want to echo that to our community. That, um, that is a really time consuming and labor intensive process to figure out as a committee to work through. Um, and, and certainly in the buildings as well, I'm sure it is, to, to figure that all out. And I, I really wanna make sure that at the center of this, our district is, is focused on, um, providing the best quality education for our kids that we can. And you know, I think we've, we've, as I mentioned at our last meeting, we've had so many things hanging over our head for so long that we've got an opportunity here to, to take the funds that our community has generously provided for us. Take the, the leadership that exists here, and start to turn it into really the next generation of our school district and think about how we can really deploy that, uh, you know, potentially through the leadership of Ms. Berman. And, and I think, you know, we're in a place where we want to get going as fast as possible on that. And, and, you know, from what I've heard tonight and from the, the, the information in front of us, the, the resume and so forth, I, I think we have a well qualified person, a person that, um, I feel comfortable in moving forward as this stage and, and, um, you know, I just want to make sure that folks understand where I'm standing on that. So that's, that's about all I have to say at this moment.

▶ 52:07 Speaker 1: Thank you, MRK.

▶ 52:08 Margaret Raymond Driscoll: Thank you so much. And I agree, um, with the comments that have been made, and I would add a couple of things. One is, um, I think of things, um, in terms of return on investment. So we do, um, have options and what is the return on the investment. And I think everyone, um, has spoken at one time or another about the challenges that are, um, our investments relative to capacity, um, expense and so forth about conducting a search and the chances of getting a what is perceived or real, you know, better, if you will, superintendent, and I'm, I'm just not seeing the return on investment. Um, given our experiences in the past of, of doing an extensive search, um, I would say two things about, um, interim Superintendent Berman. And that is the first is that, um, her, I believe that her core values align with the district's mission, mission and values. And to me, if they did not align, that would be a complete showstopper. So, um, that gives me great faith and hope. Um, the second is we're going to expect our superintendent to see the future and not react to it, but respond to it. That is a heavy lift. Artificial intelligence is a game changer for society, and certainly in education. I believe that the way that students learn, experience a classroom, experience their classmates, um, and interact will profoundly change. So I believe that we'll be expecting her to not only follow that trajectory, but navigate it for the students of Melrose and meet us where we are and bring us to the next level with help and support from a variety of stakeholder groups, I have every confidence she can be successful. Um, it means that the onus is on us in many ways because we help each other. We are codependent and interdependent, and if we don't help each other, then we have all failed each other. So I believe that Superintendent Berman can be successful in this, and that it is our, uh, privilege and opportunity as, uh, parents, as community members, as a committee, um, as faculty members to come together and, uh, find a path forward. Sometimes fail, sometimes make mistakes, because we're all going to fail. We're gonna need to give ourselves some permission to do that, and then we're going to need to potentially shift gears. But I have every confidence that those things can happen.

▶ 54:50 Speaker 1: Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Driscoll. Other comments?

▶ 54:54 Jennifer McAndrew: What is the will of the committee at this time? Mr. Kelly?

▶ 54:57 Speaker 4: I'd make a motion to appoint Carrie Berman, the Superintendent of schools pending successful negotiations.

▶ 55:03 Jennifer McAndrew: Second Motion made by Mr. Kelly, seconded by Mr. School on discussion. Mayor gti.

▶ 55:10 Jen Grigoraitis: Thank you, Madam Vice Chair. Um, just like my colleagues, just wanted to summarize my comments from last time. Um, obviously in my day job, I play a slightly different role. I'm the CEO of the city. The city and the schools do not always do things the same. We know there are many good reasons for that. I do have reservations about our lack of a process. While I appreciate the questions that were asked tonight and Ms. Berman's willingness to answer them with possibly zero prep, so good job. Um, I, you know, I, I do feel like that is not how I've wanted to conduct things as a chief executive, but I'm not a chief executive here. I'm one of seven. That's the joy of a legislative body. So I certainly respect the comments and thoughts and approaches of my colleagues. Um, I think very highly of Ms. Berman. I know many of those hard decisions that you're making, we are often conferring on, and I'm grateful to have you as a partner. I also just wanna say, as a parent of children in this district, how nice it is to hear someone say that we're their first choice. Um, I think having watched other searches on the outside, not having been in the seat, it often feels like we are not the first choice. That for whatever reason, somebody goes somewhere else or they get a better offer. And I think Melrose is pretty great. Um, I know our community's made a huge investment in us, and it's really nice to have someone say clearly and plainly, I want to be here. Um, so that really means a lot to me personally as a parent. As a, um, parent of students here. So just wanted to offer both of those perspectives.

▶ 56:32 Speaker 1: Thank you. Any other comments, Ms. Razzi? Thomas?

▶ 56:35 Speaker 6: Um, one last one. So, um, last week we talked about the process over the last, you know, seven, eight years. Um, you know, we had Cindy Mour for seven years as a school, as a superintendent. Then we had Julie Gutenberg for three, then we had John Ro for one year. Then we had Adam Delany for one year and less than one year. And now we have interim, um, Berman. Um, and I just wanna say that our whole system, our whole education system has been dealing with uncertainty since the pandemic. So we had the pandemic, we had a superintendent. Um, and there was a lot of uncertainty during that time. And now since that time, we've also had a lot of uncertainty because we have had a failed search. We've had, um, in short interim leaders. And I think the reason, the very clear reason why that Melrose Education Union said wholeheartedly, they want Carrie Berman is, first of all, they know her, they trust her, but they're also really sick of uncertainty. Like we're all kind of sick and tired of uncertainty. 'cause we all had to deal with it through the COVID years. So I just think like we are putting students first, and we're putting educators first. If we go with what we know. And what we know right now is Gary Berman as our superintendent, who's willing to go forward and learn with us as a community and as a committee to commit to putting the students first, improving our school's district and improving our systems. So I think you're ready, and I think we'd be lucky to have you continue to serve.

▶ 58:19 Jennifer McAndrew: Thank you. Any other comments? Um, seeing none, I have a few comments I'd like to make as well. Um, thanks for the indulgence. Um, thank you all for your questions and comments throughout this process. And to everyone who reached out to us, um, over the last few weeks, I support this motion. Um, and let me just say why, um, I did speak to some of this last week, but I wanted just to go over a couple of things. Um, I've served on the committee for eight years, as I mentioned last week. During that time, there's been five superintendents and four mayors. Um, and again, change can be a very good and powerful thing and often is. Um, but it's also true that during that time I have seen tremendous leadership and professional growth and also deep care for students from our own school leadership team here in Melrose, including Interim Superintendent Berman. Um, my tenure on this committee also means that I have personally, um, been through several superintendent search processes. I have interviewed, um, many candidates to be our superintendent of schools over the years. Um, and we have had some really highly qualified education leaders come before us. People who dedicate their careers and their lives to children and to teaching and learning. And I applaud all of them. But the truth is, and has, has been mentioned here by several of my colleagues, Mel Ross has had a pretty mixed track record in landing these processes. We've had a failed search during time, my time on the committee. We've had finalists drop out at the last minute, et cetera, et cetera. We've hired another interim before Carrie Berman during my time on the committee as a result of all of that. And I also wanna say, and I think we have not talked about this tonight, so I wanna add that that track record is not particularly unique to Melrose right now. Um, especially right now actually, communities are experiencing leadership turnover and failed searches. Some, um, are elevating internal candidates or appointing their own interims or deputy superintendents. And, you know, you can read, um, the education press, uh, search online and, and learn more about that if you want, including in some of our neighboring communities. Um, I would also add that we have a lot of momentum right now in this district. The override was a tremendous achievement and a historic investment in our schools. This has been mentioned in our city departments and in our community. And it should be a big point of pride and hope. I know it is for me. Um, and the interim superintendent and her team are already acting on that investment, uh, presenting. And tonight we approved a plan, a budget plan to begin to implement those much needed funds that the community has trusted us with. Um, we have appointed an interim deputy superintendent and an excellent one in Ken Kelly. We're kicking off negotiations with our educators. Um, we are in, we are a third of the way through a school year. Um, so plans are being made, plans are being implemented, and they're, they're being done well. Um, and all of those reasons, and all of the ones expressed tonight are very good reasons to appoint Gary Berryman to be our superintendent of schools. And they've been closely considered, I know by all of us. But for me, all of that is important. But it's not the most important reason to appoint her. Um, the most important reason is that she is an excellent candidate. She has served this district with distinction for many years. She has led us as assistant superintendent and then is interim superintendent with skill, knowledge, and care. She has served 10 years as a teacher in this district, 10 years as a Melrose High School based administrator, and five years in central offices, an assistant superintendent. In interim, she has deep education, deep experience in special education, which we heard about tonight. And of course we know. And that is one of the most challenging parts of public education today. She knows our teachers, she knows this community. And most important, she knows our students and she leads with that. I hold Carrie in very high esteem and she has my trust and full support. I just wanna close on a personal note. Um, tonight is my last regular meeting as a school committee member. Um, and I have made some very tough decisions in this chamber during those years. Um, I have come into votes here or during the COVID time online. Uh, not sure what I will do. Looking forward to listening to my colleagues and heavily weighing different outcomes and risks and considerations. Um, so there have been many tough votes over the last eight years, but for me, this is not one of those, actually, this is not a tough vote for me. This is a very proud vote for me, and I believe this is a very proud vote for Melrose as well. And so with that, we have a motion to appoint Carrie Bermans, uh, subject to successful negotiations made by Mr. Kelly and seconded by Ms. Driscoll. All in favor? And that motion carries unanimously. Congratulations Ms. Berman. Thank you.