001it's a great class es yeah you're good we're all good oh thank you all right he apologize for the technical issues public College meeting about the Berlin Boylston School District back to order um we did have some technical issues we resolved them we like them now and because of those type of fishes continuity to reread from public comments so I've been very brief tonight um just on two agenda items these uh school year calendar changes I wrote an email to the school committee last meeting um regarding adding and hyperlinks to the documents that are going to be meetings so communities community members can actually be aware of what's being voted upon or the changes that are being made also the second comic was on the appointment of Carol Costello's the next superintendent I listened during
002her interview last meeting and was very impressed with all of her answers and also for her dedication to the district but I think several community members brought up the point that no physician from the organization was posted and no committee inviting parents and I guess like the staff on silent staff members are involved in the committee members but no committee was created to hire for this position so I just like to consider that couldn't think you just appreciate your doing that place too so when we last dropped we were in the middle of a motion we had gotten a motion to approve the bbrsd from your calendar and we had a second and we were discussing it so I'd like to present what the changes are so on the old calendar October 6th which is
003now to Hunter's open house was going to be a half day at tejanto for their conferences so they've gotten rid of that half day it will now be open house in exchange on the 10th of November there was going to be a half day with conferences just for the elementary school what they've done is they've made that Thursday the 10th and a half day for every school in the district and the conferences will be on those dates so that isn't changed is there any discussion yes I know that um I already received from my elementary school child a schedule to sign up for conferences on that November 10th day I think it was um so we know that from the Hondo standpoint this isn't going to be disruptive if they've gone if they started to
004schedule a conferences they have not they're waiting to get those days to parents to the parents of secure the conferences for their elementary students so that they can then go and schedule a confidence where they are a lot of students and there are opening times that don't conflict between and your hours they have a half hour of um before the Elementary starts they also have come from three to six where there's no conferences at town until they would be able to schedule that time for the elementary school so we try to build that in without disrupting two days two half days for parents off so that was our thinking we want to try it and we'll see how it works we're trying to do everything you can to make this work well if we have
005any adjustments we'll have to reconsider that promotional well I think as a parent who had a child at the Es at one point and wanted to hungo I would have appreciated the half day for the both of them so I'm hoping that that works better for parents as well any other discussion okay uh all in favor and I as well the motion to approve the bdrsd school year calendar changes uh changes to passes could I have a motion to affirm the appointment of Carol Costello as the next superintendent of schools right discussion I know some people have prepared statements yes Adam thank you so I I'm very um afterwards um so uh on August 9th Sovereign on that date Mr James departure meant that he was for willing to file two years of his five-minute
006contract which was assigned in January 2020 in the consensus violence June 13 2025 two weeks later on August 22nd the school committee published a feedback form and invited the public input on this topic 112 people submitted valuable feedback I read all of it I stated it in our last meeting but the feedback or received was by far the most thoughtful and helpful that we've received since I was appointed thank you to everyone who provided feedback then and to everyone who has continued to provide you back in recent days whether by email felt someone in person thank you even to those who talked to Facebook to voice their opinions the most common responses to our survey even in the community of these priorities will first recruiting and retaining exceptional people second enhancing academic and extracurricular offerings
007and three improving the district's communication culture being created with the communities the school committee chose to begin by evaluating internal candidates before opening an external search Carol Costello was identified as a qualified internal candidate and if many proceeded the public leaders were like two weeks ago on best background my position on this so I was initially strongly in favor of us conducting a search to find the next superintendent a public search and external search I shared it with this heart and I went so hard to ask her to appoint me to chair that search I wanted to better understand though how other school districts handled superintendent vacancies through my own research I found that it is not uncommon for school committees to evaluate internal candidates before conducting an external search including recent appointments in nearby
008districts in March of 2018 the club and Regional school committee promoted assistant superintendents of York without considering internal communities in December 2018 school committee promoted its assistant superintendent Greg Roberto without considering external candidates in March of 2020 the West Boylston School Community promoting principal Richard Meader without considering external candidates in April 2021 the Fantastic school committee promoted its Associated superintendent Deborah Boyd without considering internal candidates I'll note that all those superintendents remain in their roles today despite the fact that the average superintendency is foreign so my mindset on this topic has evolved since the initial announcement registers and departure while I was initially a strong proponent of us conducting external search my mind has been changed the reason for that change is the quality of the candidate we have here in front of us all
009today Carol Costello checks off all the boxes the community told us that their top priority is for us to attract and retain excellent people current and former teachers and administrators in this District have gone out of their way to express their strong support for Carols into the city they have sought us out several of them are here in the room today now because they have to be but because they want to demonstrate their support as part of Kansas City is we want to keep great teachers and attract new ones the best way to do that is there's Carol pastel while change is good we should balance that desire for change with the value of experience with the two internal principles in a relatively inexperienced senior leadership team I would be hesitant to appoint an external
010candidate as Superintendent at this time regardless of his or her qualifications or how well they can do experience as an educator experience in a regional district an experience in a community similar to ours or things we heard different priorities Carol has experience in the regional district and in the community similar to ours because she's been a part of this Regional District in this community for 15 years the third and final reason for my support of Carol's candidacy tonight is why I intend to vote and why I tend to vote for favor is because of her skills as a communicator culture community community engagement and communication where the third thing that came up most frequently in our feedback that we requested from the community and I've experienced and seen either one-on-one or data open many games
011how effectively she was able to communicate with build consensus and work with everyone that she interacts with so for those reasons and many others I'm going to be intending to support person in the senior agency I just had a comment as well so I took a similar uh Journey as Mr Wilbur when I began envisioning how we would find a replacement for Mr zangy I thought about my experiences in Industry finding uh replacement executives in the private private sector we'll often work with a search firm that spends several weeks or months building a pool of potentially qualified candidates those candidates are screened and those interested have an opportunity to apply and actually we'll go through a multi-phase contribute process all candidates including internal candidates are treated and considered legally the best candidate has been chosen
012and off the job my first impressions like Mr Wilbur was that this was the right approach for our superintendent search it would not only be fair but it also appeared there and transparent to our community spending more time considering this approach I learned that this process would take several months and would come with a heavy price tag actually thirty thousand dollars or more we also learned I believe from the mass Association of school superintendents that there's not a huge pool of qualified candidates to be found the process would be slow it would be expensive and it would potentially not Improvement in the meantime I became aware of Mrs Costello's interest in the position she's impressed me with every interaction I've had with her commitment to Learning and Development of our children was extremely apparently she
013has a unique vision for the district has earned the respect of her staff and colleges and was not afraid to Advocate that was important for our children she spent many she has many years of experience in a variety of roles within the district most notably assistant superintendent she understands what the district does well and also sees opportunities for improvement and she knows how to capitalize on those opportunities frankly I thought she'd make a fantastic superintendent and the likelihood that we would find someone who is close to as qualified so now I felt conflicted if I truly felt that Mrs Costello was the absolute best person for the job but it still makes sense to go to research and recruiting process would it make sense to compromise all of that time that could be spent empowering
014a new superintendent would it make sense to spend the tax day everyone included what would be the argument to do that well the answer from news Optics we do for objects we would do it to avoid criticism that we didn't look for them I chose to join this committee to influence decisions that will help Drive our school districts to give our kids the best possible educational experience and to maximize their potential regardless of objects from my perspective Mrs Costello will be an absolute rock star of Mr superintendent and a blessing to the school district and the children of them I concluded that I could not in good faith support but ultimately be a dog and Company show in the recruiting process delaying the opportunity for the new superintendent to start executive that does not help
015the children in our schools I'll say it again Mrs Costello will be a rock star on the superintendent she has years of demonstrated performances and the showings of support from those that have interacted with our audience I can certainly understand why some might wonder why not conduct a search I get it I felt the same way but looking through the lines of the atmosphere from this position we're really blessing to a good reason to do it and frankly if a private business had an internal candidate that was as a high performer with an impeccable track record like Mrs Costello they wouldn't they wouldn't do either lastly I'd like to point out that for those that haven't had the opportunity to see Mrs costell wooden action before the university I can tell you she has her
016own vision for the school district women I believe parents or community members would be very pleased she has the benefit of Legacy knowledge as well as a set of Ambitions for the district that are on their own I have three young daughters myself they're still in elementary school of EMS their education is a top priority I would not be supportive Mrs Costello for this process about anything he was in their best interests to proceed in this panel anything I was very well said I Echo what both of them said in a wonderful points I just want to add one thing uh everything said three elements and I agree with it to speak so enough for me but I'll just add that given everything we've experienced in the schools in the past two years with all
017the covet nonsense the learning loss and damage we've done to our students to add another year of uncertainty onto that by going through the search process we just send our kids back so to make this decision tonight to appoint an account at least it gives us one thing we know whether it's gonna hold for the next however many years it turns out to be there's still a lot of Uncertain things going around but the principles will be what the structure will look like or at least if we can get the head of the organization locked down I think that will go a long way to trying to claw back from this devastating situation we're in with what we've seen in the data coming out with recently so I agree with everything you said and people
018support as well I have the same interest rate it's not nearly as elegant but and I took it I took parts of it from an email from a parent that had reached out last week asking about why we were seeking the appointment versus the full search why we're considering it so the summer I learned that the school committee has the right to appoint rather than to do a large-scale search it's something we have discussed in executive sessions as well as on the floor trying to determine if that was the appropriate approach to take and our Quest is more adopted to interview Ms Costello at our last meeting with the vote on appointment following two weeks later this was intentional because we wanted to give ourselves the necessary time to consider this important decision while giving
019the community time to share how they felt about both the applicant and the process to be honest I had always assumed that we would do a large scale search however given the great resignation that has been happening across the country we had to really think this decision through scores of superintendents have retired and many of the people seeking to fill superintendencies have never worked at this level given this Miss Costello's vast expertise in curriculum and testing the wonderful relationship she has with both the community and the staff having been a former teacher and administrator having been an assistant superintendent in working with the administrative team and having nearly two decades worth of experience in our district she has a lot to offer us we have three interim administrators and only one who is a veteran
020um I do uh administrators and only one who is our veteran State thank you a new Director of Finance and facilities manager and I still kind of new director of people and Personnel due to all of that flux we need someone who can help guide these leaders and the permanent principles we hire at the end of the year rather than learning along with them by hiring internally Ms Costello doesn't have to spend a year familiarizing herself with how things are done we're building trust as an external hire would need to do she can get right down to business and while she works well with Mr zangy they are completely different people with different approaches and Visions it reminds me of that old one adage we'd be getting something old and something during contract negotiations this
021past spring my my respect for her group and I saw how well she worked with both sides she had a wonderful way about her but was no pushover I credit her with setting a nice tone and keeping the peace and negotiations it's definitely moving us forward making the whole process an effective one this brings an important Point anyone can tell us what we want to hear in an interview with Ms Costello she has proven her capability and her excellence we've received a handful of emails requesting we do a full search but we've also received an overwhelming amount of support and gratitude for the possible appointment of Miss pastel I've had many district teachers as well as parents from Berlin where Ms Costello used to be a principal reach out to share their enthusiasm for our
022consideration of such a qualified candidate in person a veteran loyalty teacher that I have great respect for said to me Carol is the only candidate being a former educator myself I knew how waiting words were in closing a winning friend warned me that I'm pointing care without doing a whole search might cost me a seat in the upcoming election it is important that the community know that I take this position seriously my job is to do what's best for the students given my bird's eye view of the situation it is without hesitation and with great confidence that I feel Carol should be honestly okay thank you I'm sorry does anyone else have anything that they wanted that was great thank you and then it wasn't there it wasn't right it was great thank you so
023it is clear that we've gotten a lot of feedback from you and it falls on both sides but something you're wrong and I mean I've seen some of these details I've considered them and I have medicine I have to consider him absolutely I think it's important that a lot of the feedback we got it was about to process yes the feedback we thought about the person the candidate was overwhelmingly positive right and so I think that's important [Music] yeah we have not heard anything negative about Carol it's just I think people want to say they want to feel heard and while I can understand that point of view I think I'm in the same boat as what Bob was saying about the time and the money that we would spend when we already have a
024great person over here who already knows the ropes it just doesn't make sense not not just for the sign it doesn't make sense for our community for the children because I just I think he's just a no-brainer would you understand you don't have to but no I'm sorry you know I I thank you for all your kind of words you know I I love this sister I told you that about the children here in the family and said I will work very hard for everybody visible and open to two differences to different opinions and different ideas of all the answers for everything you know I'd love to hear the new ideas for how we can help here are those who are at home watching [Music] thank you so I think we're finishing that discussion um
025so we have a motion on the floor on the floor to affirm the appointment of Carol Costello as the next superintendent in schools all in favor um and I as well opposed the motion to approve the appointment of Carol Costello as the next superintendent of schools passes thank you thank you all right before we enter executive session I would like to remind everyone of our upcoming meeting dates we're going to meet on October 11th and we have October motion to enter executive session to conduct strategy sessions and preparation for negotiations with non-union Personnel superintendent Danny assistant superintendo Costello not to return to open session second discussion oh sorry no discussion um is there all right the motion to enter executive session to conduct strategy sessions and preparation for negotiations with non-union Personnel passes we will
026not be returning to open session thank you