Amherst School Committee

001you [Music] one minute to get that going hey let me check with a worse media they already I'm asking them right now can I ask does anybody know I clicked on my three buttons now I can see the I have the screen versus people five but I can't figure out how to mute myself anymore that disappeared so you can't get back to the screen oh poor you scroll to the bottom with your cursor yeah that's no longer working oh it was working before so I changed yeah amber to meet you just let me know they're ready okay the live stream is working and they'll be on Channel 15 trying to look bring you else and that happened where the bottom my screen doesn't pop up with the three buttons the meet will drop call and

002then the video on our I have the capacity not that you want me to necessarily but to mute you at least I'm oh no I Harry's good alright so I think know if you're ready else and getting the okay from all the recording streaming people so whenever you want to start you're welcome to start okay um so with a presence of a quorum and I call this meeting of the Amherst School Committee to or at 4:05 p.m. and we are being recorded and live streamed on the web and in an Amherst Nene on Channel 15 thank you very much immersed media and then thank you for coordinating Mike and the district i esteem for coordinating us being able to meet virtually this is a grand experiment so I saw you just shared the the meeting

003packet should I present that our first order of business is to approve our minutes from our last meeting March 2nd which is in the packet does everybody have that so just give a moment for folks to look at that I did have one comment and under item 3 um it said miss McDonald discussed the sealed by literacy group it was the bilingual Advisory Committee was that was the group and talking about the the presentation of the seal of by literacy so that was the only correction that I had anybody else yeah I was it you wants to raise our hand when we want to speak that's a good idea yes okay mr. Daly thank you on item G joint capital planning committee I think it was myself and Miss Pitzer that volunteered it just says

004mr. Delman yep okay any other at Yankton on the section to approval of minutes this was seconded by mr. Harrington I'm hvr rigt Owen not HEA yeah and also in the attendance list as well okay anything else okay does somebody want to make a motion mr. dimly I moved to approve the minutes of March 2nd 2020 moved by mr. Demming seconded by mr. Harrington any further discussion um Oh since we're on screen I think I'm gonna ask for a voice vote yeah I was gonna say I think part of the instructions that we got from at least that I saw from mas see is that every single vote in a remote meeting has to be a roll call vote great so I will proceed accordingly mr. Harrington yes mr. Demming yes miss Spitzer I'm Anne

005McDonald I approved for zero next on our agenda is our school choice votes dr. Morris do you want to introduce this i think there's item 2a a new business yes yes so our first order of business after that is to vote to temporarily suspend policy B EDH which is our public comment period and just as background the rationale for this is right now we are still working on figuring out a technical solution to enabling public comment and until we have that solved or addressed we would like to temporarily suspend public comment for for this meeting any questions discussion no mister Oh sir I have the chat window open and I couldn't see your hand up there um mr. Demming yeah just briefly to say that I think given literally the state of emergency that we're

006operating under it makes sense and if I'm not mistaken I believe this is consistent with what the Town Council is currently doing and you know there's nothing that prevents us as we move forward depending on how long we have to be meeting remotely to figure out a way that's that's Amina bowl and manageable and certainly there's a lot of different ways that public can get in touch with us I would still encourage anybody on any topic even if it's not related to the current emergency situation to contact us at school committee at arcs org or just contact us our individual school committee emails are also on posted on the website so you know we remain open for business and open for input from the public it's just that I think as we're ramping it up

007and starting up on this it it's just another layer of complication that doesn't make sense so that's it and I just to add to that I on my and my walk this morning I ran into a town councillor man Dido hanneke and I understand from her that they are working on a solution for Monday's meeting to be able to have public comment so more more to come on on there so we'll be learning from them as well as our own experience here any other comments or discussion okay so I'll make I'll make the motion um I moved to temporarily suspend policy be EDH on public comment for this meeting of the Mr School Committee is there a second second end by Miss Spitzer there any further discussion okay so moved to a vote mr. Harrington

008yay mr. Demming i / ue / yes miss fit sir hi mcdonald i carries for zero okay so now we move on to the school choice vote sure so at the last meeting we had the school choice hearing what was my recommendation is to be remain a school choice district really looking only a great kindergarten and a pretty limited number of students you talked in the neighborhood of 8 to 10 just because we know with future building projects and in future other plans we want to make sure we're not boxing ourselves in in terms of the infrastructure but with 8 to 10 students we certainly we feel comfortable and confident we wouldn't be doing that and it maintains both the financial impact of school choice but also the community impact of school choice which both

009of which are in my opinion are positive so my recommendation is that there be a vote to for the amorous public schools to be a school choice sister for the 2021 school year and of course if those questions are come so I'm you to myself but if there's any questions I'm happy to get any questions from the committee mr. Demming yeah I just just briefly comment but I appreciate the way that we're using school choice at the elementary level topping off the spaces and the the teacher resources that we already have and not adding space and resources and as dr. Morris has said in multiple meetings it enables us hundreds of thousands of dollars of services and staff to enrich what we have available for fraggle and so I appreciate that we're using it judiciously

010and you know I'm happy to vote in support any other comments or questions somebody want to make a motion and I I will make the motion and I move to approve the school choice proposal - for immersed to remain a school choice district for school year 2021 so I am moved by McDonald second and by Deming I'll go the other direction miss Spitzer you're muted hi Spitzer aye mr. Demming hi mr. Harrington I'm McDonald I carries four to zero next is the student opportunity plan act vote sure still the background on this is the in the fall as was talked about at the amur school committee the Legislature passed the student Opportunity Act you know I'll say personally and professionally I think it was the right thing to do it will not merit a result

011in the amorous public schools getting funds that that weren't anticipated the exception perhaps of tarter although that I think that's a it's a moving target so we'll see how that that goes but as a requirement of the student Opportunity Act each district and the Commonwealth had to come up with there has to come up with a student Opportunity Act plan and what you're seeing for a Murs is for all three districts actually because we're not getting significant new funds it's called the short form so it's a two-page plan for districts getting over a million and a half of new income which there's about four or five of them in western Massachusetts like Holyoke West Springfield Springfield Chicopee they have a seven or eight page long form it was much more detailed but there was some

012acknowledgement by the Department of Education which I appreciate that there would be some differentiated expectations for deserves it had large streams of revenue at least it looked at the time coming in versus districts like our own so what you see is a two-page document which was the expectation of the Department for districts like ours it as I said relatively brief it follows kind of their template so all their their templates in blue and the writing of the district was in the black font and I think the short story is there is a question about whether this date will be pushed back it was really due to be voted by April 1st that being said the plan has already been developed shared by our administer tene shared with every parent Guardian and every staff member for

013feedback in maybe two three three weeks ago I believe in the my newsletter so if the committee is comfortable I you know voting to move forward that's great if the committee would like to wait it seems like that time little pushback but for me the inertia is it's been drafted and if the committee is comfortable I just as well have it submitted because we think it's it's there it's right for a district that's the right direction to go in we could always go back and make an edit later you know and revise it as things change with our budget or other matters but it's really up to the will the committee whether you want to take it up tonight and have it voted or you'd like more time which it looks like will be granted

014by the legislature to vote at a later date any comments or questions from the committee seeing mr. Demming uh yeah just I mean I know this is small money compared to the overall budget but I do appreciate that it's targeted at math intervention given how many different student groups that affects and that we're rolling in a new math curriculum at least at the sixth grade level so I appreciate that it'll be interesting to see what this becomes in future years even though it is small money from what I understand of the student Opportunity Act there was supposed to be targets that does he provided or at least the Commissioner provided that these were then drafted towards so without those targets it's a little hard to understand exactly what they're looking for but I'm assuming in

015this year they're not going to be that picky so happy to vote for tonight yes and in even prior to the the crisis that were in the health care public health crisis were in they were pretty clear they weren't gonna have all those ducks in a row before April 1st that we were supposed to do our best and know there was a multi-year plan I think now that MCATs and generals and that's probably being generous at the moment I think you know I think there's a lot of things the state will have to figure out and this is relatively low on the totem pole but you know for me I believe you know we believe in everything that's in the document for all the reasons mr. dummling said we believe that we need to do

016more and provide a more equitable outcome for it particularly in in all subjects but particularly in mathematics and if there was no student Opportunity Act we'd be doing the same things that we're talking about doing here so it's a it's a box that might get a check and we can send it off and they may not look at it for months but from our perspective we if the committee agrees we'd rather check the box then have to I'm seeing nodding heads so I'm taking that to mean that we would like to move to a vote if no one's going to make a motion and I will um I move to vote to approve our submission for the student opportunity plan act is there a second Harrington just change it up a little moved in the

017second and is there any further discussion seeing none we'll proceed with a vote mr. dimly alright mr. Harrington Oh miss Spitzer I and McDonald I carries my vote for 2-0 thank you so much appreciate it and moving on to item D appoint budget coordinating group members this was a question that dr. Morris and I were talking about whether we already have people appointed to this this coordinating group but also given the current emergency in crisis and situation there there is a need for us to ensure that we do have members appointed to this group and dr. Morris maybe you can provide a little bit more introduction on this absolutely so the budget coordinating group is a group that has both elected officials and a more limited number of staff from different departments in the town

018so the library you know the other town staff the schools and they get together to look at the state of the finances in the community and they're often years and coordinate between the needs of different departments this year was a had been a relatively quiet year so that's changed for all sorts of reasons but including financially and budgetarily so this is a group that we'll be meeting in the next couple weeks we'll be meeting shortly to look at the current situation the financial and again this isn't to minimize the health and human safety aspects of what people are dealing with but we also have to be looking at the other aspects as well because that's we do have a fun age Duch iary obligation in our community and the the impact is significant I think

019I think everyone can see that if they drive through downtown Amherst and so we want to make sure that the school committee is represented with two members who meet again with other town staff members as well as other elected officials board of trust the library trustees Town Council and I to be honest I'm not sure if it's the Finance Committee or how the Town Council has it as well as staff to be able to have conversations about what the impacts going to be and how we're going to manage it so in the past and that's been a request that I had received from the Town Manager there's typically two members from the amur school committee who sit on this group you know I do want to caught what's the word be honest that this groups

020probably getting meeting quite frequently in the next four weeks the Town Council voted to extend the timeline of when budgets have to be passed by you know this body to May 1st instead of April 1st that's why budgets not only in one reason why the budget the agenda tonight but this is it's a crisis in all sorts of ways and one of those ways is financial so I do want to be candid that it will be pretty I'm guessing pretty regular meetings over the next couple weeks on the flip side you know it's incredibly important there's a lot of concern about the budgets I'm hearing it from staff as well as community members and what did the implications gonna be and this is a group that really works in Kimber you can bring back to

021the school committee a broader understanding of the town's finances and how that would influence the school budget thank you miss Spitzer apologies um I just have a question if you could give any guidance on the timeframe do you know if these are going to be daytime meetings evening meetings my understanding is that has not been established historically they were in the morning but historically we didn't have a town council and we weren't in a crisis so I really don't know exactly how it'll go and historically we didn't do virtual meetings which for some people actually makes it more flexible for some less as you experience a couple minutes ago right so I don't think the time has been established historically I think it was like 9:00 or 9:30 in the morning but I would say

022in the communications from the town manager seemed like getting the group together and then you know figuring out the timing was probably the second element I'm sorry I don't have total clarity on that so I be willing to volunteer as one of the reps on the cordilla group so would love [Music] partner on I'm serving I'm just concerned about my ability being fully present that I have three kids at home to work during the day so I don't know what other people are out there that this is something I have an interest in and I think I'd be happy to serve but I I'm just trying to figure out how to how to like my work mr. Demming um I mean I'd be happy to be alternative backup if the Spitzer would like to join

023you and then if what's the meeting scheduled if it doesn't work out very for your schedule you know I could I could step in so if that's a flexible you go wet yeah and can I follow up is this going this isn't a just addition to jcpc which has been temporarily suspended is that I mean just a yeah yeah yeah I was just gonna say so JC PPC talks about capital funds the budget coordinating group typically talks exclusively exclusively but the primary piece is the operating budget not the capital budget well I'm happy to volunteer with the caveat of what I just said that I'm kind of in a unique I mean all of us are in this situation right now but and my partner has very limited flexibility and a schedule right now so

024to the extent that I can be there I will be able I'd love to okay so we'll proceed with miss Spitzer and myself as being the representatives pending the sched the meeting scheduled for that coordinating group and have mr. Demming and on-call as backup if if the meeting schedule does not work out with Miss Spitzer schedule sounds good okay I'm seeing thumbs ups great thank you everybody okay so I'm now moving on to our next item which is the School Committee vacancy process there's two items in this which is the suggested interview questions as well as whether and and if yes what selection guidance we would like to offer to both ourselves and and the Town Council dr. Moise I think Lynne Griesemer has called in we came to your image but I see a

025phone number on mine so I just wondered if Lynne was here because because this particular topic is a joint one between the end topic is joint between the amur school committee in the amherst town council so I just I've lent it here if you could introduce yourself just so that the school committee is aware that you're on the call hi this is Lynne and I did phone in after not successfully being able to come in by Chrome so it's fine I'm mostly here to listen but more than glad to ask answer questions and I'm also taking notes as you have your conversation I probably will mute unless I'm answering a question because otherwise I get an echo great thank you no we would folks like me to project the share on screen the questions would

026that be helpful yes let me see if I can pull them up give me just a sec and I closed my email so now I have to go back in sorry okay um oh thank you hey you got to it faster than I did and since I'm not gonna participate orally in this part I'm happy to just leave my screen with the questions and for anyone who wants to look at the questions if you click on me and there's a little pin and it if you hover over it it says pin to screen if you pin me to the screen you should be able to just see the questions if you want to look on in enlarger in a larger size so again if you hover your cursor over my over me and there should

027be a little like thumbtack pin if you click on that that'll pin this image to the screen it actually pinned you to the screen so today hmm that is curious let me see does that help and OH hit the pin on the screen there we go okay yeah yes okay great so this this collection of questions is includes all of the questions that were submitted by school committee members and Town Council members before by a week ago and it has been discussed already once with oh sorry and then ms Greece Meyer and myself met over the weekend to consolidate overlapping questions and collapse them into what you see here this this set of questions was discussed at the Town Council meeting on Monday and after our discussion tonight miss grace Meyer and I are meeting

028tomorrow to wrangle this into what could hopefully be a final list of questions for our candidates and it's in just to remind everybody about the the processes we'll be meeting on the 14th of April the candidates have until the 31st of March to submit their statements of interest and then we'll be meeting and a special joint meeting with the Town Council on the 14th to interview the candidates miss Brees mer and myself will be asking the questions from this list of questions or whatever our final list of questions will be and that's that's sort of the next next steps of the process and what we want to do is come to that list of final questions that that we can use in interviewing the candidates I think there was also some discussion about holding back

029one or two questions that the town council president and myself will ask of candidates during the interview but will not be published as part of the packet ahead of time so these adjusting overview of the questions they're grouped into sort of buckets of similar similar angles if you will we're themed attic and then roughly in an order that we might propose asking them during the interview meeting so the first question is is basically about the the reason for applying and reasons for interest and the second set of questions is what is about experience with the public schools the next bucket of questions is aimed at the their understanding of the role of the School Committee and Mike I don't know if you can scroll so I can see the the folks can see the next

030group the next big bucket is around the MSB a project and our new new elementary school building project and a bucket of questions around current and upcoming issues facing the district in the School Committee there's several in that one and then a last question about Community Engagement and during the interview meeting candidates will get the opportunity to give an opening remark of two minutes and conclude closing remarks of two minutes and each candidate will be offered the opportunity to answer each of these questions with one minute as a time limit for their responses I think some of the feedback from from the Town Council which is also perspective that miss breeze myrrh and I shared but we wanted to bring the full list to the to both groups was that this is a very long

031list and would be a very long interview for any and it could even if it were just one candidate so ideally we'd get to some sort of prioritization of what are the most important questions are sort of collapsing of these questions that's my personal opinion but we'd love to hear sort of thoughts and comments from from this committee on these questions can I also just add one more thing yes please okay the Town Council also has suggested that perhaps given that we're doing all of this remotely virtually excuse me that perhaps we might want to some questions that we would ask for the answer in writing and others that we would do on the phone so that if there is a technology glitch and we had a terrible one last Monday night that we at

032least are able to get some feedback from both all candidates besides their letter of interest great so presumably we would go through if there's questions and like I said Miss Mary myself are meeting again tomorrow to to coordinate and the input and feedback from both the Town Council and our in this committee and we happy to make that decision about which ones would be best in writing and which would be during the interview but would love you know any any feedback that you all have on that as well miss fit sir again sorry for the delay I'm still getting used to this I fully agree my first take when I saw this was this is a very long list of questions and depending especially on the number of people who submit statements of interest I

033could find it a bit overwhelming and in order and also I could think of our our ability to pay attention over a long period of time and I'd hate to be if there are 16 questions and also four minutes of opening and closing remarks total I'd hate to be that last candidate who everybody's really tired and spent on a conference call for hours and doesn't get their full attention so I really would support this idea of breaking it into maybe a written component and a oral component and and the other thing I was thinking is if we could even ask people to like make the videos that we used to make when we you'd go into amorous video do your your statement as a candidate you know maybe we could even have it recorded enough

034in a way if you wanted to but um I guess I would just start by highlighting some of the questions I think we might be able to cut is that useful yeah so then the number five which is what role does the school committee play in school or district decisions such as math I mean that kind of feels like a quiz you know like we're trying to test whether or not they've prepared but then ideally the answer would be the same from every candidate and that one seems less interesting to me I guess if I had to choose one of the MS ba questions to cut and it would be number 10 but I you know I'm the the other one I was thinking of with the comandante's dual language program I you know I'm

035curious about this question but I'm also feeling like it's such a very focused question that I'm not sure I'm not sure of its utility compared to some of the other ones and so those would be some of the ones I would consider just off the bat maybe thinking we could we could take or ask for written responses rather than an oral response and I want to thank everybody who's submitted questions and thank you and Lynne for putting this all together I can tell it it's reflects a lot of work on everybody's part so thank you yeah I should add should add when this started out as four pages of questions I can't see everybody anymore so I don't know um if anybody else's I'll just call on mr. Demming or mr. Harrington if you want

036to speak oh yeah sorry I didn't hear you Alison is it okay to go ahead now yes please okay um it's funny I had the exact same questions that I was gonna highlight for the exact same reasons this misfit sir great minds think alike um yeah I mean these are all interesting great questions it's just a matter of in what will even in the best case be a challenging technical environment with 17 plus people on a conference call trying to listen to and thoughtfully consider lots of input it's gonna be challenging so um I mean I would say it's I would I would suggest that you and the tile council chair should be should feel empowered to be ruthlessly pragmatic about whittling this down I mean and I totally understand and support the idea that

037if you cut a question it's not because it's not a great question it's just that I would rather have you know seven or six questions rather than have you know thirteen that were that were more comprehensive I think between the statement of interest and whatever written portion we asked from asked about and these you know what we should get a pretty good chunk of input so I stress too hard about you know not including certain topics I think I think including a number of general generalized questions like the ones about what are the you know three biggest issues and and how do you engage the public about big decisions those are broad enough that candidates can take them wherever they want to right so if a candidate is really looking for an opportunity to highlight

038one or or or more aspects of their experience background I think I'll have the opportunity to do that so I think it's pretty flexible and you shouldn't stress about trying to trying to get eight million questions into mr. Harrington do you have any thoughts that you want to add yeah I guess we're all pretty much on the same page as far as the ones that have been highlighted so far the one the one that I would add to it because it's it's just based on on personal experience would be number seven in terms of how will you handle you know criticisms and differences of opinion publicly I think as a candidate I would have given one answer and then actually understanding what we do and you know kind of experiencing it I'll give completely different

039answers now and I'll be giving you two words before and I would give you a book now so I I kind of feel like that one's a little extra but yeah I'm I'm definitely in favor of whittling it down to seven eight questions may be a little more tolerable and easy to digest get to 78 questions so that that's helpful a target number Misfits or mr. Demming do you you sort of have a target number that you you'd suggest as seven to eight and miss spitzer yes I'm saying what's up for mr. Demming miss spitzer but one thing I wanted to add was just I mean we could go with a time frame so if we think that 15 minutes per person is reasonable and we're giving four minutes for opening and in closing remarks

040then that leave in a minute for each question I guess that 7 or 1 to 2 minutes for each question I think that 70 would work ok great that's helpful thank you okay so I'm hearing resounding support for deleting questions five ten and fourteen and possibly also seven four and then guidance on staying with the questions that are higher-level broad general questions that give the candidates room to go down specific during the news that they would like to do to go in their responses but miss Spitzer I would just add that I think it's important we do ask about the MSBA process you know that's specific I think that's such a big piece of what's gonna be coming down the pipeline we need to ask about it okay I really never Mogi function on this

041on this webinar so that's a plus one on that one yeah okay great any other thoughts on the questions that anybody wants to add before we move on No okay great thank you and I should note I did as well I think so the the next piece of the process and there's there's differing I'd say one of one of the things in the process that has been discussed was the potential for the school committee to weigh in and make a statement about how we will be evaluating candidates or what sort of guidance or criteria that we're using as we evaluate the candidates to inform how we were going to vote and there's been conversation in terms of modeling this process off of some of the other processes that Town Council has put into place for

042filling vacancies for example in the Planning Board or the Zoning Board of Appeals so which includes this documentation or creation of a document called selection guidance or criteria for effective characteristics of effective members and so we've been asked for this I will say you know it's up to us it's a it's a it could be a mechanism for us to sort of alert the town there are counselors as to what we think is important in selecting a candidate we could also opt not to do it it's it's not like we're forming the process as as we go you know in a way so the document that I drafted I think the other thing too is we want to be we don't want to be dictating sort of how people should be making their decision obviously

043every one of us all seventeen of us are going to be making our own decision so the document that I drafted as a way of sort of saying here's how we're going to think about these candidates but in a way that really just restates the description of the roles and responsibilities as opposed to getting into you know some anything more specific than that there's also a school of thought that says that the only requirement that we had in running was that we were residents of Amherst which I can you know see that as well however as voters we made we used other things in you know in voters used more than that to make a decision on who they're going to vote for so I just put this out there I haven't had the opportunity

044to talk about this with anybody other than town councillors so I'm interested in folks opinion on the you know the first question is do we want to submit or prepare a document that outlines our our guidance or our thought process for evaluating candidates and if yes what how do we want to we can use the document that I drafted as a starting point for for finalizing that what are folks thoughts mr. Demming so reading through the list and I mean so maybe for that if for the folks at home I could just quickly read down the list because it's a pretty short list that would that be all right yeah okay so it's a Murr School Committee selection guidance list of characteristics of effective school committee members intended to assist the committee and Town Council

045and evaluating candidates and so it's six bullets it's committed to the mission of the Amherst and Amherst poem Regional schools commitment and flexibility to attend all meetings of the school committee or most as practically feasible will we miss an ability to participate and contribute to the work of the committee's in between meetings including subcommittees and other ad-hoc work understanding of the responsibilities and roles of the committee's ability to listen to ideas and opinions different than their own and willingness to work collaboratively with those whose views are different than their own so when I read this list I like I agree with every one of these principles I think they're very high level very positive non-controversial guidelines and so I mean I have no trouble supporting it as a general document the only place I hesitate

046is is whether this is something that the town council wants or not and so the point you brought up towards the end I think is at front of my mind which is well I don't think anybody would want to evaluate a candidate who is not committed to the mission of the schools for example right it's not really a debatable anything any reasonable person wouldn't want I am I am cognizant that this is you know it's a joint meeting of the time amaura School Committee and you know people on both committees and the School Committee and the council have a right to evaluate and come to their own judgment based on whatever principles and guidelines they think is appropriate so if this is something that the Town Council is really asking for because they're struggling to

047get a framework around this I'm more than happy to you know wordsmith this up and and and get something of consensus here but but I certainly wouldn't want a town council to feel like where we're trying to you know box people in our frame into how they ought to evaluate people so I don't know if I'm if I if Lynn has anything that maybe based on that discussion time yeah we've got there's been some discussion of this in the Town Council but not that there's certainly not a consensus some councillors believe that when you put your name forward to be elected the only criteria is that you are a resident of Amherst and registered to vote that's it okay and so therefore having any other criteria in written form is pretty kind of why okay

048and I think Peter you've also reflected what many counts with some councillors feel and that is will all be evaluating people based on our own criteria of what we think of the candidates and what we think is important having said that if you can even provide us with this account wants to totally recognize that we go to your for but this is somebody almost two years okay and that's I don't think people are people aren't going to sit there and rape candidates based on the criteria okay it is a way sometimes to have a conversation after a meeting that basically says you know as I look at the candidates after the after the interviews look at the candidates and tone so it seems to be fully comprehending the role of a School Committee somebody else

049might say you know candidate X or Y certainly seem to grasp and as shown through their previous activity with schools that they're really out there and willing to be on committees I mean it is sometimes it allows you to formulate if you want to have a conversation between the point that you finish the interviews which I want to come back to a moment and the point which you actually vote so let me just mention two things that I just want to go back and reiterate for the School Committee we actually will be interviewing both candidates at the same time so candidate one will ask answer the first question our candidate a will answer the first can question candidate B will answer the first question candidate seam will answer the first question then when you get

050to the second question you start with candidate being see an egg you keep doing it so the same candidate doesn't always get to go first okay the other thing that is very important for you to realize and that is in the protocol that we've written up for this the School Committee votes first which was another one of our ways council saying we really want to hear what you have to say we want to really hear where you are on this okay that doesn't mean you're going to get all the same votes the council it just means they won a respective school committee and the fact that we're selecting a committee member for your committee okay that helpful hello yes yes hmm I just talked to thin air got it yeah right no I think mr.

051Harrington had a question or comment yes so so kind of my thinking like like when I was reading over this is that we weren't necessarily held to this standard right I mean we we absolutely may have been by individuals but there's no way of establishing that so like for me I kind of have issues with being withholding someone new coming on so a standard that wasn't even available to us at that time right so what I'm kind of sort of more in favor of is us giving our opinion of what we think makes a good committee member and maybe presenting that maybe we do that as individual statements maybe we do that as a collective statement but but not to have any sort of binding guidelines that's that's kind of my my input I guess

052I guess my other concern is like I generally agree with all of these like Peter centered their qualities that you would like but I'm also worried about the way in which implicit bias in terms of gender or race could end up as making people making assumptions about somebody's commitment and flexibility like oh I see a mom here she doesn't have the flexibility that this you know male person is I'm just thinking like some of this is gonna potentially in ways that we don't actually think about and and that's gonna come into all of this interviewing process but just because we as a district are doing so much work on implicit bias when we're hiring and trying to get a more diverse group of people working in our schools I'm kind of thinking the same thing

053with our lens should be applied to what we're putting into our selection guidance and I don't know how to do that properly and I'd almost therefore I don't know better to err on the side of doing nothing do you know like to not have this statement or if it's better to try to apply that lens and think about how we could write it in a way that tries to not trigger some of these potential pitfalls and I haven't had the time to think this through thoroughly so um I'd almost wish kind of like Tareen were on the call because I know she's kind of our in-house expert on this in the schools but I'd be open to anybody else's thoughts on this issue mr. Demming yeah I appreciate those observations from misfit sir and I

054mean I kind of went into this thinking that if we weren't all immediately on the same page that it's probably not a great idea I mean like I don't doubt for a second that everyone on this committee supports the mission of the public schools for example but I think if you know and it's not like we haven't already signaled what's important to us and in a pretty definitive way I mean we have a very specific question for example about the MSB a project in process that's you know a question right right in there and we also have a fairly detailed roles and responsibilities document so I think I think there's been enough articulation of those kinds of you know principles from us as a committee and also individually you know we've spoken of these things

055now at multiple meetings I think there's enough content out there I would also be a little wary of working up what we are presenting as an important document this late in the process you know it's like five days to go before applications are due applications may have already been submitted and so I was you know more comfortable with kind of going through these draft documents at the start of the process but now that we're kind of approaching the end of it I guess less so so it's no comment on the content I think it's they're awesome principles and I certainly think any town councilor who's you know really looking for a base level foundation or guidance could review that responsibilities and expectations document they could watch the recording of this meeting in which we all

056gave the virtual thumbs-up to these general principles but I think beyond that it's probably so it sounds to me like it's it's it's most practical to to not go forward with something like this I'm seeing general head nodding yeah and thumbs up Amy okay so Lynn I think what we'll do is we'll move forward with or not move forward with this document so move forward without preparing a any sort of selection criteria or guidance for the meeting but use our voting as the way that we're signaling what we think is important in a candidate and so during during the actual vote voting process is when will will be sort of making a signal to how we are evaluating our candidates that's perfectly great and I will communicate that as well on Monday night when we

057meet again and the other thing is just to give you a heads up at this point based on the number of candidates applications that we have we will probably only be meeting on the 14th we will probably not use the 16th so that's on the 14th we will actually meet do the interviews and vote unless there's a flurry of applications between now and Tuesday that close of business ok yeah I think it's important to note that it's not only because we have only two candidates but also because everybody's schedules have been upended and now all of our voting members are going to be able to be present virtually on the 14th right right yes yeah thank you okay I really appreciate the time you've all put into this it's important for all of us I'm

058going to sign off if that's ok yes thank you and go to my map go to my next conference call yeah all right yeah thanks okay so with that I think we've come to the end of our agenda um just pulling up the packet we didn't have any sort of discussion of future agenda items on on our agenda so um miss dr. Morris I just wanted to share that the state of emergency called by for the town manager has limited public boards and committees some many for meeting and even those like this group this body who's able to meet the reasons for their meeting so that that was sort of an intentional why there wasn't future agenda topics because while we're in this current state of emergency it's not so open-ended as it typically is

059in terms of why this body would come together and for what reason certainly we talk a lot to Paul I talk a lot to Paul multiple times a day these days and we've been in communication and the chair as well you know we've been in frequent communication throughout this time period but certainly any committee members can be in touch with the chair or myself about that but there are some limitations to what bodies can meet and even the bodies that can be what topics or would be would warrant a meeting during a state of emergency that has been cotton called for in the town of Amherst so I just wanted to note that good thank you that's helpful so does anybody want to make a motion I move to adjourn moved is there a second

060second second owned by Spitzer and moved moved by Deming and seconded by Spitzer there's no discussion so we'll do roll call vote mr. Spitzer aye mr. Harrington Harrington aye mr. deadly my guy and Mick down I say that is for zero we are adjourned I don't have my gavel thank you everyone and this meeting was recorded and will be shared with Amber's media reviewing okay thank you they say for everybody yeah stay safe stay healthy