001There you go. >> All set. Yep. All right, let's go. All right, so we'll call this meeting of the Brown B Regional School Committee to order. Please rise for the pledge of allegiance. >> I pledge allegiance >> to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Um, we're going to start our meeting off with our superintendent search finalist announcement with this Tracy Novik from MASC and Lauren Arachillian, the chair of the search screening committee. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm actually going to turn the the initial part of the report over to Miss Archilian, who will be reporting out on behalf of the search committee that she chaired. Um, while she's doing that, I'm going to
002pass around the paper map before you. >> Thank you for your time this evening. Uh, those appointed to be part of superintendent search committee met for training on October 15th. At this training, all were trained in open meeting law, conflict of interest, and confidentiality. All signed commitments to confidentiality. Those who are employees of the district also completed and signed their declar declarations to adhere to the state conflict of interest law. This paperwork is on file with the district as required. Applications closed on October 24th. 18 applicants were received. The search committee reviewed the confidential applications in independently on October 25th and the 26th. The search committee met on October 27th. At this meeting, I was elected chair of the search committee by my colleagues. The search committee brainstormed and agreed upon question topics. Moving into
003executive session, the committee re reviewed the application that applicants and agreed upon six semi-finalists to interview. The search committee met in executive session on November November 3rd, 4th, and 6th to conduct semi-finalist interviews. After the final interview, they deliberated in executive session regarding the selection of finalists. As as a result of those deliberations, the search committee unanimously recommends the following four finalists to you. Brent Connley, assistant superintendent of of the Pucket Regional School District. Dana Lab, the assistant superintendent of the Harvard public schools, Kim McCormack, superintendent of North Brookfield Public Schools, and Joanie Manard, assistant superintendent of Hollison Public Schools. Having been contacted by Miss Novik, all finalists have agreed to move forward in the search. They are planning to spend a day each in the in the district as well as planning a schedule
004for a visit for members of the school committee. Thank you. >> All right. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Um so Tracy, is there anything we need to know going forward? >> Certainly. So, um just a couple of things. I've given you a paper copy of the memo. Um that is now public because you have received it. Um that does include a brief biographical summary of each of the candidates. the school committee as well as the district will also be receiving um from me as soon as we get done with this part of the meeting a um copy of their application, their CV and their personal statement. It will be redacted and that's just redacted as to telephone numbers and addresses because of course if you have it it's public. Um that is something by
005the way this this school committee the school district is free to actually share publicly. Um might be worth um sharing. I have been in contact as mentioned with the finalists. Um they are in the process of of actually scheduling uh days for you all. So my first charge for the members of the committee and I know that you knew this was coming. Um I do not need it right at this moment but within the next 24 hours if you can let me know of your availability for visiting the finalist districts. That would be during a school day. um during the week of the 17th and or those first two days of the week of of uh Thanksgiving, the 24th and 25th. I will take any availability you have. Um be honest about it and we
006will put together nonquorum um groups to go visit those districts. They are in the process of doing that now. And frankly, the sooner I have that information from you, the sooner we can get it scheduled. Um we're actually very close to having um the finalists all scheduled in terms of their visit to the district. I still have one um feedback loop to complete with one of the finalists and then I'll be able to share that with you all. Um Mi Miss Fortune and Mr. Ganam have already been um working on sort of what a schedule would look like. The plan of course is that they would visit every school in the district. They would spend time in central office and then there would be a public meet and greet um for each of the candidates.
007Um and again this is all taking place not this week but next week and then potentially if necessary the first two days of the week of Thanksgiving. um things that I need from you beyond the availability. Um you will have uh three references for each of them that are available for telephone calls. Again, I do not need to know this this evening, but something for you all to sort out amongst yourself is how you want to handle it. One recommendation I do has have is that if any of you know that you won't be available to visit a district because you simply cannot be available during the day, that's a wonderful thing to outsource to that person and say could you please go make all these phone calls and I can get the report back.
008That is that is again it's not something I need to know now and it's also not subject to public deliberation. So it's something where we can work it out via email. Um there are uh two questions that though that we probably that we do need to deal with this evening. One is that um the attorney general has determined that the creation of questions is subject to open meeting law. Um needs to be done public session. So I will be asking and again I don't I don't need to decide this today but I want to put you on notice. I will be asking for you to um figure out a time when we can get together. It can be even electronically. This does not have to be long for you to agree to what topics you
009want to cover during the interview because that is something that needs to be done in public session. Um you then can we can then sort out in that meeting who is ch who is covering which topic and then we can assemble the interview from there. Okay. Um so again that's something that would need to be happening pretty much between now and Thanksgiving. So because you are scheduled for interviews that first week of December. Um, I know that you didn't know how many finalists you have, so I'm not going to put you on the spot this evening as to how how you want to handle it in terms of evenings for that week of December as whether or not you want to try to do four in one evening or you want to do them over
010two. Again, don't need to know that now, but realize that that's a conversation that needs to be had in terms of scheduling. Remember, scheduling is an exception to open meeting law. That is something where we can send around an email and say who is available which evenings and figure it out from there. Um, and then the the question that I would have that I would be interested in getting feedback from you this evening is um, not uncommonly school committees do want some feedback from the community um, as a result of the visiting days. It is not a requirement. It's up to you. Um, I can easily put together a form that would then be available and actually be part of the announcement. And I want to give Miss Fortune a lot of credit here. She
011was already sort of on to that in terms of are we doing this and how do we make sure it's ready? Um, we would make it part of the announcement of the days that they're coming and make the link available to the public. Once you have met someone as part of that visit, it would be a standard form. And what I would recommend that we do is we actually make it um reflective of what you actually posted in terms of what you wanted for a superintendent. So, does this person demonstrate XYZ? Um, again, within the experience that they had, but that is a useful thing. So, I'd be interested in that. Um, and also I'm happy to take any questions that you have. Mr. Chair, >> does anybody have any questions? Tracy, >> Tracy, what
012was the week um in December? >> December. >> So, you are scheduled for interviews the first week of December. >> Okay. >> And we suspect those will be in the evening or >> I would I would recommend that they be in the evening mostly because this is obviously a matter of public interest. Yeah. >> And they're all obviously open. >> They are open to the public. Yes. The only other thing I'd like to add is that that week that they're coming to visit our um our district um we're coordinating Jen myself with Tracy and the candidates obviously but also how it impacts all these people to our right right what their day look like what they have scheduled for their um because if you have four different people coming in throughout that week we're really
013trying to be mindful of that we have a quick meeting this morning looking at days that work really well we gave that information to Tracy what days don't work so law firm. We have a lot of things going on even here at the high school with plays and we have strategic plans. So, there's a lot of lot going on. We're just trying to coordinate as everyone knows scheduling all of these people's schedules with our candidates, but we're Jen and I are working with all of them on that as well too. And Tracy obviously thanks and then um so the question about a feedback forum. >> Yes, >> fine with it. >> Yeah, >> I like it. >> Yeah, sounds good. Okay, I'll plan on putting that together and what I'll do then is I will
014uh share that with Misfortune and it will be part of the announcement essentially that goes out to the district of these are the days each of the candidates are visiting. Again, we're very close on that. I expect POS probably by sometime tomorrow we'll actually know that. Um and then this is the link and I mean the first question then becomes here what which candidate did you see? So we use the same form um and people can fill it out more than once. >> So when they visit our district we don't have to the school committee doesn't have to do anything. I very much appreciate that. So, in fact, it would be wonderful if you did not. Now, you certainly can attend the meet and greet, although this is one where you want to be sort
015of on the outskirts rather than right. Um, but no, and in fact, um, what I I I spoke with Mr. Ganam about this when we initially were setting this up. um it is a good experience for them to sort of um be doing the circumnavigation a little on their own um in terms of so the principles or whoever it is that they arrange will presumably be taking them around the building making introductions and so forth. Um but this isn't one where they sort of have a a minder all day long. Um they have a little bit more of a um maybe real experience at the district as a result of that. And similarly when you visit the district um you may see the candidate they may initially greet you but they are not with you
016for the day. This is very much you're meeting their people. Um and you know sometimes people say well this looks this sounds like something that's going to be a dog and pony show. Um I would tell you that in my experience both as a field director and also as my personal experience as a former school committee member um you have some very real conversations on those days. So I think they're very valuable. Just one last thing, when they're coming to visit in district, we're rotating the schedule so they're not always at nine o'clock going to Berlin, nine o'clock going to Bolston, right? So we're just trying so it doesn't always hit lunchtime at the hot, right? So we're really Jen and I are really trying to make that schedule so it works for everybody here
017on the right hand side as well too. And just the last thing I'd ask uh is to school committee, would you like Jen and I to post this on the district website, the candidate finalist? >> Sure. Yeah, >> I'm okay with that. >> All right. Anything else, Jason? >> Uh, I just I I want to um just represent to you all that uh the search committee, as you know, obviously worked very hard. Certainly present members included, those of you who on it, but um and they were um they were really a very collegial group. I think they actually did you proud. Um, and so I want to thank them for their um, they were on top of things, they were on time, and they also were very good humored um, and really were very united
018in in working hard for the district. So, I wanted to make sure that you heard that as well. >> Thank you. >> And like, some of them are in the room right now behind us. We are. So, do you want to introduce yourselves that were on the on the >> please? Yeah. Who is it? Well, we don't even know. >> Hi, I'm Hillary Cune. I was on the search committee. I'm a for the B I was a Berlin parent on the city. >> Thank you. >> Jason Carol. Um I was the school choice representative for the parents. Jason. >> Uh Joseph. I was there representing the elementary school. >> Anybody else? >> I was Rob Pelarsi. as the principal for elementary representing me. >> And perhaps we should have the chair's parents also introduce themselves
019as much as I know. >> Please, ladies and gentlemen, please should be very proud of your daughter. >> Chris County res. >> Great. >> All right, >> that's all I have for you, Mr. Chair. again within 24 hours if I could have your schedule that would really be ideal. >> Thank you. >> Can I just make a comment? I Lauren did a phenomenal job for someone who is you know has less world experience than the rest of us. She handled it so beautifully professionally but with good humor and it was just we were really proud to have you represent us. I think Jess feels the same. >> Absolutely. Well done. >> I also, by the way, want to give credit to the school committee. Um, it is rare for school committee members to serve on
020the search committee and not have a school committee member actually serve as chair. Not only did that not happen in this case, but it was actually your school committees, I understand, who did some lobbying behind the scenes to encourage the students to actually put themselves forward. Um, Lauren was actually nominated by her fellow student, which then was seconded by the committee. So, um, there's some there was certainly some trust and leadership in the search committee, but there's it's a a credit to that actually coming in fact from the school committee um, from the very beginning. And it does, by the way, absolutely make an impression on those who are applying for the superintendency to be greeted by a student in that position. It makes a real comment about the value that this district puts on
021student voice. >> Excellent. >> Thank you. >> No, this was >> and thank you to the central office for providing food. in the table. >> All right. Uh, next we're going to vote to go to executive session. We will be returning to open session afterwards. Executive session pursuant to Mass General R, Chapter 38, section 21A, purpose board to discuss the security of the Berlin Boiler Regional School District emergency safety plan. If an open meeting could have a detrimental effect on the security of the Berlin Boys Regional School District, >> may I have a motion to enter executive session? Megan session. >> Lisa. Okay. Uh Lisa, >> Roll call vote. >> Beth. >> Hi. >> Lori. >> Hi. >> Megan. >> Hi. >> Jess. >> Hi. >> All right. So, we're going to enter executive session.
022Thank you. You guys can stay.