Acton Boxborough Regional School Committee Meeting 12/23/2020

001um I don't have theing in front of me but B yes you're muted I think you're noting the hour in the presence of a quorum that's like things noting the hour in the presence of a quorum I um call the actin boxboro Regional school committee to order um it is being broadcast right by I TV um via and you via the zoom link on our website remember I'm so not good at doing it without the script in front of me sorry Beth um so the meeting is being taped and it will be broadcast on the YouTube channel as well as on act and TV okay thanks welcome everyone to the special meeting that we've called uh I want to say a few words about the purpose of the meeting tonight and to remark on the

002absence of public participation what happened last Thursday night was vulgar and inexcusable it was a direct attack on the two black women on our committee our community is continually uh faced with the need to denounce racism but it's time that our committee go beyond condem condemnation and apology the work to heal from this incident as well as the countless others that have occurred in recent years needs to be done not just by our committee but our Comm Community as a whole as I reflect on my own reaction to the incident and my responsibility to my colleagues in our community I think back to one of the most powerful Concepts cleaned from my seed training I don't know what I don't know I need to listen and learn from the voices that represent different experiences from

003my own my reading of IX keny's book has taught me that I am a part of our racist Society has also taught me that I am in the privileged position of being elected to make policy Kandi States clearly that every policy and every institution in every community in every nation is producing or sustaining either racial inequity or Equity between racial groups he goes on to say that we all have the power to discriminate only an exclusive few have the power to make policy I recognize my power and pledge to use my position to further our school district and our community in their anti-racist Journey since the incident the outpouring of support from across our communities our region and our district has been heartening some people however have centered the conversation on themselves so I have

004decided to cender Evelyn and Kira's voices at this meeting they were verbally attacked they have been wronged and their voices should guide the rebuilding of our committee as well as our actions going forward I know that there are many individuals and groups who would like to voice their support for Evelyn and Kira and to denounce racism there will be time to voice those wishes however in an effort to minimize any additional trauma I have decided that we will not entertain public comment at this meeting because Evelyn and Kira's voices as well as their needs must remain the focus we deeply value public participation and our communities have a rich tradition of participation in local government but tonight is about Evelyn and Kira's experiences and the healing our committee needs to do in order to move

005our important we forward public participation will resume at our January meeting and in the meantime comments can always be directed to absc atab sports.org members will have an opportunity to make their own statements this evening and my hope is that we can vote on a joint statement regarding our response and our plans moving forward as we listen to each other tonight I'd like to remind everyone of some of the ground rules we used in our seed training in responding to each other I hope you'll consider the intent versus the impact of your words we began this work this summer and order to have these difficult conversations and we are all still learning so can someone mute I'm sorry there's a really distracting noise I don't know if everybody's hearing it I think it was Tessa's

006paper on the microphone oh I'm sorry okay sorry um sorry I hope you could hear what I most of what I said um I'll now allow members to share their statements um if they desire to share them and um so if you want to share your statement then if you could please uh raise your hand in the in the thing um okay Evelyn and K I'm happy to give you guys your opportunity to share first I know you're not raising your hands if you'd like to but that's that's your um your preference Evelyn sorry Cara I don't know I say say something don't need to go first I I don't need to go first i' actually think I'd like to go last if that's okay yep Evelyn what did you want to say I will

007go first since Cara wants to go last we can try it all together okay and then I and then I'll people that that have their hands raised in in the um okay in the participants um thank you um for the opportunity to speak and thanks to everyone on the public forum and to my peers on school committee um the incident that happened last Thursday did not feel good although I'm complet I was completely shocked in the moment I was surpris I was not surprised at all um as a community member for the last eight years I know how much hate is in this community because my kids have experienced it and even amongst people who I call my friends um as a grown up the incident Hit me hard in some ways it recentered my

008thinking about how issues of race in our community affects our children and folks who know me if you really do know me you know I'm a glass half full person I spend the time thinking about the incident and in some ways I believe that as a human it's often difficult to empathize when you don't walk in another person shoes so even though my own kids have experienced racism in many forms even though I know others who have in my 21 years in America I never really known how it truly felt to be called N word in your face I'm sure God put me in this situation last days day to help me feel the pain of others who live this um who live through this daily hence upon reflection I have renewed my commitment to

009this community to continue the fight for racial justice for all kids in AB no kid irrespective of race gender sexual orientation skin color religion should ever have to live through this pain the other thing this has brought forth is the realization that a good number of people in AB refus to accept this kind of treatment of their neighbors friends and peers when K and I were in distress people rallied the support K and I have received has been incredible we've heard from parents from and kids from almost all grade levels we've heard from Educators Town leaders and from folks from surrounding towns M Harvard sto and many others you know um change must come from the top so my call to action is that all leaders in both towns acting and box Bor Must Stand

010Up Against Racism anti-Semitism xenophobia sexism and all the isens it has no place in this community I cannot conclude this without saying a huge thank you to everyone in our community who have reached out to give me K and our family support people I've never encountered people from all walks of lives have reached out and my mind is blown from all the love we received you have included us you have said clearly and loudly we matter there's so many there's some there's some I know so there's there are some I know who are thinking of us and sending us your prayers and best wishes my heart is full of gratitude I feel even more connected to my community than ever my friends from outside the district asked if they could make a donation in my

011name to a charity I didn't even think twice I said they acting food pantry because I feel I belong to this community irrespective of of our skin color the blood is always red at the call we are all the same we may not always agree but that does not make us different we all want the same thing for this community that shall that All Shall Live to your fullest potential so when people say think about it before you move to acting wboro I I just think about it and I say well when people move to acting BB they're not thinking whether they would be accepted or not because in America everybody should be accepted to those who are getting Jo out of this you motivate me to keep fighting to keep fighting for equity for

012inclusion for diversity in our district this fight is not over this fight is not over we shall fight until everybody in acting boxboro is feeling included every kid in our district is feeling the love that they need to feel no kid is better than another black or white the great thing about America is that each and everyone of us contribute to making it great and when I came to this country 21 years ago with $35 in my pocket I couldn't have imagined where life would take me I am so grateful for every journey I am so grateful for every life experience because it all makes me who I am today I am a work in progress however I know if giv the opportunity every kid in this district will Thrive and that is what guides

013my work on the school committee every day happy holidays to everyone of you God bless us all God Bless America and at AB strong we shall Prevail this two Shall Pass thank you all right thank you Evelyn all right in the in our thing I I saw that all right let's see Amy would you like to go wow okay um Evelyn thank you so much for those words so I'm going to read what I wrote because I'm I'm normally um very comfortable speaking off the cuff um and saying all kinds of things but this time I I wanted to hopefully maybe get it right uh so Thursday night I witnessed an attack that shook me to my core I've never seen such a disgusting vile hateful assault on another human being much less two women

014that I truly respect and care about unfortunately one thing became very clear to me this was was not the first the second or even the 10th time Kira and Evelyn have witnessed and been the targets of such hateful acts and words you both along with other black indigenous people of color in our communities must be exhausted from being forced to fight these battles alone while words can often feel trite and insignificant I promise you you aren't alone I see you I hear you your voice matters and it is essential and I will do all within my power to support you and let you know that you don't have to keep fighting alone so thanks thanks Amy Nora I recognize that I I I truly cannot know what it was like for Cara and Evelyn um

015to sit in our school committee meeting doing their work last week and view the hateful speech that was sent to all of us words that seek to dehumanize and shame really to disempower any of us will not be effective here I will continue to listen to constructive perspectives broadening my own views and continuously learning made that commitment an inclusive community is a strong one when we all work to see each other as equals and understand each other there has been some concern expressed recently that this recent racist attack has been wrongly conflated with the discussion about retiring the colonial as the school mascot it is true that we do not know yet who is responsible for the hate speech that was messaged to the school committee that being said as a school Committee Member the

016context cannot be ignored our unanimous decision earlier this year to retire the colonial mascot has been met by surprise and confusion by many members of our community and hopefully it has led for others just as it did for me to a broader understanding of the multiple meanings that this symbol holds unfortunately there also has been strong protest from a handful of persons who've been Relentless in seeking to pressure a reversal of our decision our decision was meant to be a model for hearing multiple perspectives and demonstrating a willingness to care for and learn from each other unfortunately that model has not been emulated by a few who have instead tried to own the narrative and who demand that their view be upheld as the only correct interpretation of this very complex symbol in most cases

017those who see the colonial as symbolizing ing Liberty and bravery and many of the wonderful aspects of our nation's history have come to understand that while this is true for them there also are other valid truths some who have been very vocal have taken an extreme and unbending position in this topic as school committee members we have been informed of outrageous conspiracy theories false accusations of Mal intent personal insults including of committee members and children possibly record demands coercion cries of Reverse Racism and shockingly racist rhetoric all in opposition to our simple desire to retire the colonial as a school mascot as a way of embracing all members of our school Community last week during our meeting it was in this context that I heard that racist attacks were being made it is important for

018others to understand that most members of the committee didn't have the chat open and weren't able to see the comments that were made during the meeting it also is the typical Rule of Order that committee members do not reply to public comment during meetings that being said I've learned a lot since the meeting already I'd like to thank um Amy Bowman osner for sending a very helpful link about counter speech that can be effective um when dangerous speech is made in public and I and I've learned a great deal from that I've been encouraged that there has been a strongly voiced commitment to anti-racism across our two towns as a school committee we will continue to work deliberately toward valuing a diversity of voices and hope to create a committee in which our perspectives are

019continuously broadened with equity and balance of power as a specific goal thanks Nora Adam in thinking how I would respond to the events of last week I wanted to make sure that my experience did not overshadow that of Kira and Evelyn I thought about making a brief statement in support of them and that I should stand by them in this difficult time as I was gathering these thoughts the cuckoo clock in my office went off this is a clock I inherited from my grandparents at that moment I recall recalled an article sent to me about my grandfather Ray Klein Ray was a founding member and the first president of the Oceanside committee on human rights their goal was to bring about equality among the Races they worked locally to fight for equality and participated in

020the March on Washington in 1963 my grandfather was a privileged white man from Long Island he didn't just stand by in support he stood up he took action and he used his position to make life better for the whole community so this afternoon I'm here to do the same I'm here to actively use my white privilege to highlight the racism around us yes racism exists in acted in boxboro local officials need to use their voice to not only denounce and push for investigations but to acknowledge that racism exists no one person or one racist act does not represent a town but just one person denying the existence of or minimizing the the Insidious nature of racism in our town is unacceptable our first step to improving is to collectively accept that racism exists in Acton

021in boxboro either overtly like we experienced last week or implicitly like we've seen in many public and private statements since racism exists in Acton in box par I commit to using my voice to highlighting the systemic racism around us and to lift up the voices of those marginalized because of their religion disability or color of their skin to adapt a quote from the boxboro select board statement Kira Evelyn You Are Not Alone Evelyn Kira you have value Kira Evelyn you are appreciated Evelyn Kira you belong here thank you thanks Adam John in this season of carolling I reflect on a well-known hymn how can I keep from singing and as I think of the racist attack on Kira and Evelyn last week I wonder how can I keep from screaming when Lori Lightfoot The Black

022mayor of Chicago suppresses information about a wrongful no knock entry why should we keep from screaming when Marty Walsh the white mayor of Boston is silent while a policeman with a history of poor judgment is not reprimanded after t boning the car of an elderly woman why should we keep from screaming how can it be that we are not all screaming ironically it is our diversity that creates our individual responses to racist incidents and our varied approaches to the work of becoming better I've told my children that the basis of a good relationship is speaking out about what you have on your mind no one is a mind reader the joys and sorrows of your days are unknown to me unless you share I have frequently needed to remind my friends that they should not

023be biased they should share their Sor sorrows and their pain with me that we might be better friends from this perspective I'm glad that Evelyn shared her raw emotion and her pain no response could be more honest I hope her words energize the work of change I stand with Evelyn I've also told my children that it is within their power to decide how to respond to any given incident it is their choice to laugh to cry to run to stay or to Bear Silent Witness I've gotten some push back as my children have said you feel what you feel you can't choose everybody is wired differently for me I think I almost always have the option to think slow there is an immediate catharsis that may be found in a tweet a Facebook post shouted

024words and slogans these instant responses are part of establishing the the need for change they will not go away however I believe that lasting change will be not be found in an immediate response durable change will be the product of considered responses and hard work I hope that my efforts both as a school Committee Member and as a member of the community will show my work willingness to devote time and energy to challenging conversations about race and bias willingness to embrace nuance and ambiguity willingness to be vulnerable and to show love an important type of letter is the unsent letter I quote an OBET Mark Twain was a famous writer of nonsense letters Twain once became angry with the Russian people and wrote a letter to the entire nation when they were too tolerant of

025their Zar saying apparently none of you can bear to think of losing the present hell entirely you merely want the temperature cooled down a little written never said for the avoidance of doubt I have my unsent letters I'm deeply angered and I am committed to laugh in change I stand with Evelyn I stand with Kira I love the experiences the perspective and the wisdom that their voices bring to our community and our committee thank you John Angie yeah thank you Tessa so I want to start by say to avelyn and Cara that you should never have to deal with this I'm just and just so sorry to you have to deal with I'm also so proud of you that you're strength and your spirit in standing firm in the face of this attack words are

026powerful in the internet and social media age people can abuse their weight and think they can get away and hide behind a screen words are also dangerous as they can have a different impact on different context I myself as a non-native speaker I can share multiple experience that with the same word it it is understood by me very differently simply because the different culture background and understanding but with the zoom bombing I hope it's very clear that our school committee um our school our school committee and Community are all on the same page at the hate speech will never be tolerated by anyone and that action needs to be taken to stop racism in our Community this will be very hard to do as resistent exist we'll do it together with policies with policies to

027educate and make sure that we all are all our students and no one will have to experience this but have the same opportunity to achieve that what they desire regardless of the race or whatever differences we also do it by listening and understanding that we were we all have different background therefore we can't imagine how other PE other people will feel we we'll do it by encouraging and learning from each other we'll do it by thinking about the words you will say and as if you will say to yourself so racism have no place here but inclusiveness and love does and baby strong thanks Andre uh don I first want to acknowledge the trauma that Evelyn Kira and many people of color are experiencing after viewing the hateful messages aimed at Kira and Evelyn last

028week coupled with other painful racial incidents that have played out in our schools our towns and across our nation in the last year I also want to recognize the burden of race-based stress that many people of color carry with them every day in 2001 former director of the National Coalition for equity and education Julian Weiss glass wrote good intentions and hard work are not sufficient to eliminate racism we need communities where it is safe enough for the invisible to be made visible where whites can listen to people of color talk about how they and their ancestors have experienced racism listening to one another's stories and emotions helps people identify what needs to change within their institutions their colleagues and themselves being listened to helps us heal we do not need to acquire new skills in

029order to listen to or to show compassion for one another or to understand how differences make our community stronger as individuals we must do our part to ensure that each and every one of our families and especially our families of color feel heard and feel that they belong last night at our Dei family advisory meeting Kira cook offered the most beautiful sentiment when she said let's build a town that is worthy of our children both personally and professionally I'm all in on that thank you Cara and thank you Evelyn um I know that Deb and Marie also have their hands raised but um I I I and I know I see that Diane and and um Jenny were both physically raising their hands so Deb and Maria if you don't mind if I if I

030call on the other committee members and I I see that your hands are raised so Jenny I I know yours was raised and then Diane thank you um first I I want to um push back on the false narrative that's circulating that this board did not listen to both sides um that's not true we did listen and to both sides and consider all sides but unanimously voted to retire the colonial second I want to note that this committee's unanimous decision was a response to a request that was brought to us by a group of current ad8 students who feel strongly that the colonial cannot and does not represent them and actually leads them to feel marginalized and unvalued I understand that there are people in this community who do not agree that the current student

031should feel that way about the colonial what I object to is any statement that demeans those students or call them to question their motivations for seeking to retire their mascot there is a fault oh sorry I have seen members of the group called save our Colonial refer to their uh Quest as a cause which itself is unfortunate I also note that two of the most and vocal members of the group are grown men who graduated from Ab years ago it makes me wonder in this moment of death and crisis in this country what it is that motivates grown-ups to devote their time energy and money to making sure that a school from which they graduated a long time ago keep the mascot that was current when they attended that school I think this question is

032answered in part uh by Kimberly Atkins and a recent oped in the globe I'm just going to read one one portion of a paragraph it was called the year of fear and the fragility of the white male men the denigration dismissal and eraser of women and people of color in an effort to preserve the enduring if inaccurate vision of American exceptionalism being a product of white men only isn't new history books taught us that the founders after all were fathers not the actual mothers sisters aunties or black and brown Brothers upon whose shoulders the actual labor of building a new nation fell that blind spot is necessary to perpetrate the myth and those who seek to dispel the LIE end up being blamed for the Social chasms in this country that are being stoked by

033the current occupant of the White House and others seeking to protect the white male homogeny at all costs for those who question whether the outrageous public and racist attacks against two members of our board are connected to our unanimous decision to retire the colonial I invite you to spend the many hours it took each of us to read through the 700 plus emails that were sent to us you will find that a very large percentage of those opposed to retiring the colonial spoke in extremely racist terms and felt completely free to do that so if you are in favor of keeping with Colonial as our mascot I hope you will consider giving some thought to the reasons that the colonial mascot is so important to you despite the fact that it causes pain to so

034many of our current students and closing I just want to say that I am very happy that both Hera and Evelyn have felt the outpouring of support um from this community um and I hope that that continues I want to be part of that support um and um you know just remind our community members that they are two members of the community um of that voted and this was a unanimous decision of of all members thanks jeny Diane thank you Tessa I want to I raised my hand in the beginning because I just wanted to bring up um a question that there are something like 300 million people on Zoom every day and the nature of our public meetings um perhaps renders us um really vulnerable to attacks like this um in the future and

035I I just you know you don't have to address that right now it is a huge concern of mine and how do we protect against um that kind of thing happening in the future um again not to be answered now I just wanted to bring that up um so I was thinking a lot about Kira and Evelyn um and the hate speech and the fact that it was not um it was done in the context of their role as elected public officials wasn't a passer by roll down their window it wasn't a personal email or even school committee email that was sent to them personally um whoever did this was moved to do so by Hayden with intention to publicly humiliate and verbally assault Evelyn and Kira as black women in positions of power and

036in Kira's case and I don't know if this is also true for Evelyn the first black woman ever elected to a governing body in the town this was clearly um it was this an assault of seismic uh it was a seismic event um and as I thought more about it um I really I really feel like it was it transcended that because of the venue that they chose or that person chose it was an assault on all black people and indeed on all who care about the Dignity of human life it was assault on the entire school committee as a collaborating deliberative governing body and on all elected officials everywhere who are brave and fierce enough to enter the political Arena and speak their truth Kira when you were running you had a concern that

037you voiced to me that this kind of thing would happen and I assured you that you should keep going and keep fighting and I want you to know that what I said to you then stands true today and it stands true for Evelyn as well I will have your back we will have your back I meant it then and we mean it now I am so sorry that this came true and happened thanks Diane Deb I just want to start by first saying that I am so incredibly grateful that Evelyn and Kira if you are my school community members we need your voice now more than ever I really strongly believe too that the words that we use um it shapes our thinking shapes our perceptions shapes our beliefs shapes our culture the language that

038we use matters and as Educators and as District leaders it's our responsibility to teach how to respond how to speak up against all forms of hate speech as well as how to engage in constructive conversations and while our students attend school for a good chunk of their day they live in homes they live in neighborhoods and they live in communities and so it has to be up to all all of us we all have a role to play to continue to build a culture of belonging especially now thank you both very very much for all you've done for our community and continue to do I'm eternally grateful Marie thanks sir Evelyn and Kiera I am so sorry that this happened to you this was a horrific and racist act of violence and I am so

039sorry that you were the target there is no excuse for what happened to you I stand with you I hear you I'm inspired by you and I learn from you I am committed to use my privilege and my position of power to fight the racism that exists in our community and in our schools this incident happened on my watch other racist and anti-semitic hateful acts against our students and staff have happened on my watch I reflect on that and I'm doing everything I can to think about ways in which I could have done better and we could have done better I commit to doing better in the future I have learned a lot since many of us stood on the field two and a half years ago in June in the face of a hateful

040anti-semitic act and symbols that were painted on our wall I know I have much more to learn in there's much more I need to do to help eliminate racism and hate from our schools I am grateful for our Community Partners I have been reading and hearing the feedback from you and many community members and reflecting on what we can do better going forward Evelyn and Kira I am so grateful that you have the generosity of spirit and are brave enough to donate your time take time away from your family and give your experience to serve on this committee with a vision of a better school district where each and every child in Acton and boxboro can be included can know that they are loved and know that they belong I look forward to continuing to

041do this work with you to learn from you and I am committed to doing better thanks Mar all right Carol you thank you Tessa welcome I am here first and foremost to say thank you since Thursday my phone has not stopped ringing my mailbox is full of messages of Love encouragement and hopes to do better the strong statements of support from superintendent light and the ab leaderships team chairwoman McKinley the High School faculty representative Goa the ab United Way and other members of our community were deeply meaningful during this trying time I've received emails from Ab students as young as fifth graders telling me they know what happened they are so sorry they hope we all do better and that they care about me the idea that our diverse and dynamic student body knows about

042what happened to Evelyn and me and cares enough to reach out in grief and support has so much meaning for me and for us as a town what happened and what followed we'll have a lasting impression on my sons Evelyn's daughters many of our district students and maybe even your kids watching at home and that impression could last last perhaps for a lifetime my favorite history professor in college started all his courses with a simple sentence that has always stuck with me ideas have consequences so let me talk for a moment about ideas and their consequences what we have seen over the last week is that we all have very definite ideas about are uh about our town and those ideas have dictated how we've behaved and maybe we should all be a little less

043certain about the ideas we hold dear and maybe this town is a little more complicated than our ideas have led us to believe maybe we should make a point of exposing ourselves to new ideas which will in turn affect our conduct and have concrete consequences what I saw in action this weekend is that sometimes the consequences of our ideas can be unplanned unintended and still powerful the people who stood up to show support for Evelyn and me to show show support for people of color in Acton and boxboro including our students have helped reclaim the narrative I want you to all know that I see you and I appreciate you I know that you are what Acton is all about we're a dynamic changing Complex Community we are demanding and have high expectations we are

044smart sophisticated and beautiful our children are poised bold and forward thinking I've said it many times since Thursday and I'll say it again I am so proud to have been elected by this town to serve and fight for our students I am so proud to be a resident of Acton Acton is not just a white Community with black people in it it's not just a place where people of color are Interlopers in someone else's Community we have been here a long time in some cases we've been here all along even if we haven't always been noticed I chose this town for my boys in their future so many of you have gone out of your way to tell me that my family and I belong here and I will forever be thankful I know that

045there are still consequences to some of the well-worn yet now exposed and debunked ideas that still linger in our community there are still neighbors Among Us who are scared and who need more support to feel seen heard known and welcome in our towns we need to continue to be there for them and there will be instances when bigoted ideas resurface we need to continue to reject and rebuke the small minority of people in town who would try to marginalize any aonian for the color of their skin or the language that they speak or the religion that they practice or where they were born and so we move forward when we look back on this moment I hope we forget the incident itself and only remember how our community came together to reject racism I hope

046we can feel a bit of pride in ourselves and our neighbors for refusing to be byst standards in the face of a heinous violation of our Civic life and I hope we can all be more fully committed to the idea of trying to make our committee better I mean Community better than it was the day before I know I am and I am grateful to you all for Lending me your strength to do that thank you thanks Kira um I apologize for the beginning of the meeting when apparently I was rustling my paper in front of the microphone and that it was distracting from the message that I had but I I do want to say to both Kira and Evelyn Evelyn you apologize to me for to deal with this and Kira you said

047to me that I changed the course of your life and you know to the both of you well both of those things may be true I'm I'm sorry we all have to deal with this and it is my honor as your colleague to deal with this and Kira as much as you may feel that I changed the course of your life both of you certainly have changed the course of mine and my reasons for being on the committee and my reasons for agreeing to chair and do the work that that um is tiring and is exhausting but certainly it is an honor to do it by your side and to do it in a way that I can use my white privilege to further the causes that are important to all of us so thank

048you to both of you for remaining on the committee for running for the committee for doing things that you knew were going to be hard and Kira you told me the same thing that you told Ian I will not forget sitting in the Legends Cafe and you saying to me this is going to be hard this is going to put me in a place that is going to be hard and and you were right and I I I am sorry that that that is the truth but I am so glad that you decided to take the risk and and go on this journey because your voice is so important you are so unbelievably eloquent and listening um to both of your voices really adds weight and importance to all of the work that we're doing

049so thank you um mind if I just yeah right ahead jump in um and and I will not talk for very long um you know Cara and Evelyn I will just say to both of you um what an enormous level of respect I have for both of you and the work that you're doing um you were two of the first people I met coming into this District um through very different means um you know Kira I wish I could tell you I remembered anything about the superintendent interview process um but you know that was just a big cloud um at the time you know and Evelyn I do remember very distinctly sitting with you early on um and talking about race and racism um and experiences that you had um and you know throughout the

050time I've just developed such a level of respect for you and you know this is not a written statement because I kind of wanted to hear um what everyone was saying but what what struck me in all of this is you know knowing you having the level of respect I have for you um has has really I think not only for me but for all of us um caused such an emotional response for us and we can't fathom what you're going through but we know the emotions that we have around this and I guess the commitment that I want to make sure I keep going forward is you know regardless of how well I know someone I need to maintain the same emotional response um because you know what happened to both of you in

051that meeting um is it in excusable and we need to make sure that we don't ever think it's any less excusable that it happens to someone we may not know as well um and you know I just want to make sure you both know how committed I am and how committed we all are to making sure that none of our students and none of our community members have this experience um so thank you both for all you do thank you for your service thank you for your continued commitment thank you for your great to use your words Kira um you know in light of just such a a really um unacceptable terrible terrible situation um and I'm just so excited to be working with you as we move forward okay so um I shared with

052Beth um a draft that is really just meant to get us started um my goal for tonight is that we we've all taken the time to Express um our denunciation of this of of this act and everything else and now is the time for us to move forward and decide what we're going to do with our reaction to that so um I shared with Beth a draft to get us started it is you know it's meant to be discussed and it's meant to be shared and it's meant for us to make edits and changes to it um so that it BEC something that is um the work of all of us and that we can all agree to um My Hope Is that we can vote on it tonight um so that this can be

053our our our work going forward um so Beth I don't know if you want to share the screen did did I don't know if anybody if everybody had an opportunity to read it ahead of time um if you did not when it when it goes up it certainly give you the opportunity John do you have a question comment comment go right ahead um so I did actually send to yeah Beth Peter I don't think I can share my screen you need to change that please so evidently our enhanced security settings that we configured for the meeting don't allow me to enable others to share their screen so I'm I'm G to go ahead and I actually have the word version that John sent us um John put your version Tesa into a Word document um

054so that it could be edited so if it's okay I can go ahead and share my screen and I'm happy to make the edits sorry yeah and and and John broke the rules which was you're not supposed to send your comments ahead of time because that would be considered deliberation so so just just so you know in order to avoid any of that I actually took the word version John sent but deleted out any comments that were in there um and we're happy to take them verbally okay thank you um and Angie the same as you I believe that you sent um a comment but um that you'll have to share verbally tonight as well okay so so I have my uh my participant thing open Peter we can only see what are you looking

055at the zoom screen that you are looking at not that's not helpful is it no not really um let's see what what I was gonna say is I'll be looking at the participant thing with hands raised because when Peter's sharing the screen there's no way for me to see everybody who's at the meeting so if you want to add something or contribute something or make a comment about something then it's imperative that you use the raised hand feature um so now can I go yeah go right ahead okay first of all let me explain exactly what I did so what I did was I took Tess's version I put it in word I added a couple of track changes that I liked and I sent it to Beth with the idea being that we could

056do exactly what we're doing now put a word version up and then as people say things people can see the track changes and that would make that would give us a better discussion than taking sort of a long statement and just you know hacking at it verbally so um although I copied Peter and Tessa on that email that was was simply to say for convenience to save some typing here are my track changes so with that being said um let me make John John you may go but just so you know I sent a word version to Beth with the very intention that she share it so that we so that no one would do what you did so anyway so can can I make a suggestion for for process because we're you know we

057we could really um go in some different places on this um it would be helpful to me um if you know someone makes a comment or suggestion I can try and capture that in the document but if before we move on to different comments we resolve the feedback around that one portion I don't know how you feel about that I'm just trying to make sure we're clear in what we're doing and I don't lose track of things I think that that makes sense so John if you would like to make did well let me ask this question and I can't really see everyone to tell me if you're if if you did but has everyone had an opportunity to read it yes yes okay yes but I I'm sorry I so I I think we

058need to start with what Tessa what you sent I don't I don't want to start with already in introductions of other comments comunion sorry my cat is eating my cookie trying to Eat My Cookie that my kids gave me Amy you're looking at Tessa's original version right now know great thank you okay so let me make a general statement and then I'll provide the specific you know comments that I I made the the general statement is that um we rightfully said a lot about hate and racism and I think it's really important in our statement that we include um the words inclusion and love um and and those words actually were also used you know in the runup you know to the discussion of this formal statement because um you know what kicked off actually

059the whole Colonial discussion was the idea of inclusion and inclusion you know rightfully was an important objective it remains an important objective you know it extends to this discussion about making sure that our school committee feels inclusive and throughout all of our community so I really you know want there to be some positive words in the statement so what I suggested specifically was there was one sentence that struck me as a little bit runon so in the middle of the second paragraph um I would propose putting a period after the word intimidation striking the word and and then starting a new sentence that would read mere kindness welcome and tolerance are no longer standard uh the standard for the type of community our students deserve um and then in the uh second to last sentence

060in that paragraph um it talks about becoming an anti-racist um community and my preference would be that what our objective is to become a loving Community um and then the last comment that I had on the document was um in the uh John I'm just wondering in terms of trying to capture them all I'm almost wondering if we want to get to all of the comments someone would have or try and resolve some as we go I think we should because I I I I'm a little concerned like I don't want to put the changes in there yeah this is going to be difficult with with 10 of us doing this and um I'm not sure that I want to put changes in there until there is kind of a common sentiment that we're going

061in the right direction because for instance I would really push back against CH changing the word from anti-racist to loving because I think that they have two entirely different meanings so that I think that it will be hard for us to not see the changes in in real time as people suggest them but I think that we should do a good job listening to each other and and then I I think people should have an opportunity I think to make initial comments and then we can go back maybe and um and and Hammer out the the actual language changes okay okay in that case the last change I have is really more of a word Smith in so I I'll drop it and you can move on to the next person okay Diane I I

062saw Adam's hand go up I didn't know if he was goingon to react to John because I'm gonna take this in a little bit different direction so I wanted to make sure that you know I think it will be really hard for me to police who's raising hands so I think I will just encourage people to really hold on to your thought because I think it will be impossible for us to as as it would be easy I if we were all looking at each other sitting in a meeting room and able to raise hands and then it would be much clearer but for me because I can only see like two of you when uh while I'm doing this and and I can see like I know Jenny just figured out how to raise

063her hand and you know all this stuff it's it's sort of it's a really hard thing to manage so Diane go right ahead then I will call on Adam and then I will call on Jimmy okay thank you I like the draft I like it a lot um I I'm not in a rush to vote I think it should be voted quickly um but it if it's not today um I'll be okay with that um I have one concern and it's really just from you know many hours of observing what is going on in the community and what I'm hearing from other school committee members and staff and you know employees of the district um so I what I am observing is some of the most close-minded polarized discourse especially on social media but not

064exclusively on social media about about the mascot and about race that I have witnessed ever witnessed since moving to act in in 1999 okay and it's on both sides both sides we we seem to be taking Candi seriously uh in that there is no such thing as I'm not a racist and if you are you if you are working to dismantle racism you if you're not doing that you're implicitly endorsing it the unfortunate outcome of this appear to be who gets to set the agenda and if I'm not if you're not with me you're against me and so what I want to bring up is is something that um have stayed with me from um the khis warnham talk she was the keynote speaker at the delegate assembly in the morning program and she does

065a ton of work on uh cultural proficiency she works with schools Etc and she was fantastic she said no significant growth can happen without significant relationship that's what she said in her talk and in and in talking specifically about how teachers become more culturally competent in their classrooms she said one of the most powerful things I've ever heard she said students will learn your content But first you have to see them and in fact she actually took on like the perspective of student said I will learn your content but the first thing you have to do is see me and I feel like the same thing is true for our communities and Leadership teams and all that I I hope I hope the people on Facebook are listening to this it in a hard conversation

066about race we need to see each other otherwise there will be no movement at least no peaceful Mo movement and you don't have to like it but that's the way it is I'm looking at this statement that that um the draft which is wonderful um I'm I'm a little I'm worried when because I don't if like so just with the mascot discussion if I don't don't agree that the mascot is racist and I believe that the colonial for me was a symbol of what is good and right and possible am I a racist even though I voted to retire it and I would do it again for the reasons that Peter and Larry Dory stated on October 16 and what does it so in the context of this statement what does it mean to engage

067in the work to be anti or anti-racist community to empowerer Educators and school leaders to commit to establishing policies that support anti-racist work to craft budgets that improve educational equity for all to work hand inand with the administrators it's it's that whole paragraph three and the last sentence in paragraph two I'm not sure we need to kind of lay it all out in detail but there's a there's a a discomfort on this polarization where someone gets to set the agenda and if you don't agree or you want to really deliberate on it and and you don't share that view whatever it is you're labeled labeled and I think it's it's causing a lot of people to not want to engage and I don't know how to even talk about that in here but I'm wondering

068if other people are noticing this and feel like it's important enough to say something about the importance of no significant growth is going to happen without a significant relationship and and I will learn what you have to say and I will I'll I'll I'll engage in other words but first you need to see me and I need to see you so that's that was my reaction and I'm sorry I don't have like a beautiful sentence that's in synct and to add to one paragraph but I wanted to um I wanted to just share my thoughts on that thank you thanks Diane just want to clarify because I want to better understand um you're just suggesting not that what was written here is specifically Fanning those Flames but that you want to add that we need

069to be able to see each other I I'm just I I just change any of those things that you said okay okay that's what I wanted to I as I start to kind of like experience what that means concretely as we as we have these really difficult conversations about race and and you know the mascot or whatever I'm I'm I'm worried that people will interpret that to mean they can't engage for fear of being labeled okay understood Adam yeah I I'll Rift for a quick second off of what Diane said because I think um it does make a lot of sense so I think that maybe what we want to add somewhere in here is is acknowledgement that um this work needs to be done with empathy for viewpoints from from uh the entire community

070of stakeholders that we represent um so I think I I agree with you Diane um in general Tessa I think that this is an excellent statement um and my suggestion in terms of how we move forward is maybe um after everybody gets an opportunity to to give some overarching feedback that we maybe go through sentence by sentence so that we're you know we have a structure do the first sentence then do the next and and sort of check those off as we get through them thanks Adam Jenny I agree uh W with Diane and I think that um you know something that you actually said to me Tessa the other day when I ran into you at the post office is you know the there's a lot of false narratives out there which which are

071driving me crazy because I don't feel like we've um effectively responded to a lot of it um you know some for reasons of you know the rules that that um apply but you know we it's not true that we canceled the colonial I mean there will still be Fifer's day there will still be Minutemen there will still be Patriots Day anybody who you know feels you know proud and empowered of the colonial can you know certainly participate in any of those things and um you know I don't think that you know that's none of our business is not under our purview and it's not something that anybody here has is seeking to you know alter in any way um so I agree with Diane I mean I think you know obviously there is a lot

072to celebrate about the um quote unquote founding of um Aton and boxboro um and um you know the the um people who lived here in colonial times and the amazing things that some of them did so I I don't think that we you know I don't want obviously this statement to turn into you know anything about the colonial specifically but I agree that we have to um you know communicate that we're not saying that if you you know want to celebrate the colonial you're racist um and and you know nor do we want to you know silence any voices um and and I think that it is is important I I like the suggestion by Adam to go through sentence by sentence um you know so that we can try to incorporate some language that

073it's not like our way or the highway it's you know we we will have processes um you know by which we listen to all stakeholders and consider carefully consider as we did in that case all the different viewpoints and then you know do the job that we were you know hired to do which was vote to the best of our ability um you know on what to do next so I think it is important to make it a a statement that invites um and and Promises to you know carefully consider with respect um all man maners of viewpoint you know as long as obviously they're you know appropriate and not completely um you know out of bounds I appreciate all that I just want to clear when I when I crafted this it it was

074meant to be an outline and a starting point um I I intentionally left out any language about um the mascot decision because I do think that this needs to be bigger than that um this is you know a a reaction and and you know to to the work that we that we have ahead of us whether that includes you know further discussion of the colonial or not I mean I think that I think it's important to consider I agree with Diane about adding language so as as you're listening to to everybody Express their overarching opinions I hope someone's working on Crafting a sentence or two that we could add that would reflect that Evelyn yeah I just wanted to say that um you know um the whole Muska situation is just one sliver of of

075issues that we've encountered our community and I intentionally left that out because I don't think that it's a focal point for where we are today because we have had issues in this community and and maybe um that has exacerbated these issues but I don't hold it responsible um I also do think that you know racism has had such a bad rra that anytime you speak it people get defensive and it shouldn't be actually we all know that [Music] racism exist and it's is due to the institutional structures that have been built over the years that have skewed people's thinking against other people and and when I see other people people of color and minority backgrounds so I say that and I also want to add that and people like me and K have our biases

076as well and our fears and our distrust right so we all have to just accept that it exists and I always think that the first step to making a change is accepting that a problem exist and when they say somebody is racist it doesn't necessar I I think we view it as an insult it shouldn't be and and there are a lot of people I have a lot of friends white friends who say I'm not racist I couldn't be racist I invite you to my parties I invite you to things I I speak to you I come to your house but I'm not racist but innately they are they probably are not treating every black person they encounter the way they treat me somewhere in your subconscious is sitting there and if you don't acknowledge

077it and say the systems have really skewed my thinking have taught me how to act and I want toact that way no we can't get there and so I don't see anything wrong with really saying we want to be an anti-racist Community I see that in some ways as a compliment saying that we acknowledge that not all of us are thinking the way we want to think and not all people are treated equally and so we want to think differently we want to do things differently we want to make it inclusive for every member of our community and I say that because I have my Liv experiences in this community prior to the mascot situation and it hasn't felt good and I know many have and so how can we make it better so that

078people who do not look like each other can live alongside with each other with mutual respect and that's all that I'm calling for from my PS and from and from the community how can we develop a statement where people in this community realize that we need to get away from the divisiveness divisiveness of whether the mask represents people of color doesn't represent people of color but get to a central point where we all agree that there's an issue that exists and now we need to change that and then we need to teach our Educators to think differently we need to teach neighbors to think differently we need to teach friends to think differently so that people are feeling included I I received letters from kit that said I want to B you know I I

079was called out because of the color of my skin so many stories in support of K and I but also tell and ask the things that they have experienced no kids should have to live like that so that's just my and I I do I I actually truly want to spend this time really listening to all of you and thinking through what the best situation is and the best way to move forward is rather than talking so uh this will be my last word out day thank you thanks everyone Nora and then Kira um I thought that this was really fantastic Tessa I I um read it and felt like it was more than just a really strong start I I really could get behind this I I like the strong language around um acknowledging

080racism and being anti-racist um I kind of felt a little bit maybe the way John did that I would like to add some of the positive aspects of that um including how one of the uniquely valuable things that AB School Community has is its diversity and that we really only all benefit from that diversity if we pay attention to it and listen to each other um and learn to be a community and so something some language about you know this is our intention because as Kira said we need to do the right thing it's also Our intention because it benefits all of our students um to to learn from each other and to um see anti-racism modeled and to learn about anti-racism from their their leaders and hopefully from each other so I don't know

081if it's uh something added or something changed but um that was my only real suggestion when I read through it was that something about the valuing of of why we're doing this not just because it's right of course that's the main reason it's the right thing to do and we're in a position of power that we can do that and then the second reason is because it does you know as a school committee member we're always thinking about our students and how is this best for our students great thank you uh Kira I um I I wanted to just Echo um Adam's suggestion that we just kind of start at the top and you know just like read a paragraph out loud and you know say like are we cool can we so that way

082we can just um like keep it otherwise we're going to be here I got to be at a 7:30 meeting I I just am as a writer I'm like oh okay we're writing by committee this is actually what it is so I I'm I'm suggesting that we we scroll up get to paragraph one and uh and so that way we can be here before everybody's term is up you know Amy did you have something to I agree with you car Amy did you have I I just wanted to very quickly say that I completely agree I think this statement is I I think the statement is great and um I but I completely agree with everyone just because I haven't said any I didn't you know voice my opinion so yes let's let's move through

083it Angie did you have a question or a comment before we start line by line oh line by line we're g we're gonna start at the top so that so that unless you have an overarching statement around this that you'd like to make which you may because that's what everyone else did but but when everyone has done sharing those sentiments then yes we're going to start at the top I will read the first paragraph and anyone that has a comment or a change can contribute that okay so I'm just gonna say two things just I agree with Diane and Evelyn I just want to make sure that uh because maybe I misunderstand but I want want to make sure that we're focused on the racism issue with this incident and until and let the police

084investigation for the case so I kind of what I my view of the colonial topics is is is related to racism and it this things is 100% about racism but we should treat it independently at this point I just want to make sure that we are on the same page with that and uh we are and my my only comment actually is at the end which is if we're going to go sentence by sentence I can do that when we when we are there okay great so then I think what I will do is I will read the first paragraph aloud everyone that has their hand up right now are you raising it already or you did did just not put it down because otherwise it'll really be hard for me to figure it out

085okay I'm I'm yeah I just I we're gonna clear the deck okay thanks Peter sure you're the only one that can do fast yeah no problem all right we the Acton boxboro Regional school committee condemn racism in all its forms we acknowledge that there is racism in our schools and community and that we must be active participants in the work to move away from being innocent bystanders to becoming active participants in anti-racist work we are a committee of individuals imperfect and vulnerable with a diversity of beliefs and experiences yet we must work as one in service to our fellow neighbors and to all of our children Adam all right I have some suggestions on the second sentence okay um so great first sentence was awesome second sentence um after the word uh Community I suggest

086that um we stop that sentence there and then we delete and that we must be active participants in the work to move and replace that with just we must move so it reads we must move away from being innocent bystandard so Tessa I have a question I'm happy to capture that do you want me to capture everyone's comments or do you want to discuss it like it's really hard for me to make that decision because while your screen is shared I can literally only see like four people so I can't say is everyone okay with that and see if they're nodding their heads unless you can see everybody like that I can see everyone um I have two screens up so I have the document on one and everyone on the other um so I'm

087happy to make the change so people can see it and then but okay well my only my I I I stick to that whatever seems easiest to do that's fine but I can't be the Arbiter of whether or not the the committee agrees because I can't see so a suggestion Peter I think if you if you split your screen then Tessa would be able to see both you know what if you minimize the dot I think that she could see both if you have both open on yours I can try um pet the document down to half I'm also I'm also fine if Peter is the Arbiter and people are just active in their nodding or thumbs up or whatever is easiest for Peter to see I think I think probably a visible thumbs up

088is the easiest way so um Adam why don't you suggest um why don't you what you said again and Peter why don't you can I ask question yeah go ahead is the and does anyone have a issue with the first sentence okay no no C can we just incorporate can we just incorporate and I'm sorry Tesla I know I'm jumping in but you know that's how I do it sorry but can we just incorporate the the comments and that assume that everybody agrees with it unless somebody raises their hand and says wait I don't or or jumps in and says wait I don't like that because because you know I think I think it would be faster if we just kind of yes what Adam said it's not a big change it's just you know

089it makes sense okay I would say in general my changes are are around Clarity and not substantive okay good to know so the second sentence you wanted to read how Adam so at at the end of community yeah we're at a period there and then we delete all the way up to um the in the work to move including the words to move um and replace that with we must move so it could be just there yeah and then after the word uh bystanders um I deleted two becoming and replac that with and dedicate ourselves to being impactive [Music] by the way I do type with two fingers so I'm just gonna apologize yeah Peter just add the word active after being and the word and in front of dedicate and that's all the changes

090that I'm suggesting in the first paragraph okay all right so then my my question to everyone is if you agree with that change just give Peter a thumbs up okay I think we're good okay so does anyone have a suggestion or a change to the next sentence we are a committee of individuals imperfect and vulnerable with a diversity of beliefs and experiences gessa I can see everyone it's Marie so if everyone just gives a thumbs up I can let you know and if anyone objects just okay raise your hand you got thumbs up okay so then we have another sentence yet we must work as one in service to our fellow CH fellow neighbors and to all of our children you got thumbs up okay so first Parra is does does anyone want to add

091something to the first paragraph no okay great keep going Cara is saying okay great as we approach our work in the areas of budget and policy we will be guided by the idea that we can no longer be no longer just be tolerant can I add hold up on one second can you raise your hand Diane put her hand up and then call on you Diane y i just want to say um you know I'm toying maybe getting rid of in the areas of budget and policy and just say as we approach our work we will be guided by because we do do goal setting and and work other than policy and budget you know if you want to add and goal setting you know that's fine with me too but you know that's my

092input on that one okay Angie what did you want to say oh not there yet go ahead oh we're not there yet okay Kira did you have something about that sentence uh can we replace just with merely or simply or you know a stronger word please yep thank you what would you like to suggest I I I I would use merely or I would use simply um uh we use I would use either we use Mir later on so I'd go with simply thank you Angie's hand is up Angie the tolerate hate or tolerate of what tolerant of everything like that's the that's we are a tolerant community and I think that that is the problem that this sentences is saying that we need to go beyond being simply tolerant okay so it sounds to

093me like we need to Define that in a sentence the next sentence okay so as we approach how do how do does everyone agree that we want to take out I I don't I don't disagree with taking out budget and policy I don't want to limit ourselves I just was looking for a way to be more specific about what our work is and so I don't I'm fine with taking it out Tessa because you mentioned it in the beginning of the next paragraph which is a paragraph that really talks about the actions we're going to take okay as we approach our work we will be guided by the idea that we can no longer Simply Be tolerant here then do you have a suggestion of a next sentence uh I just think a next sentence

094needs to Define what tolerance is so that way we're just very clear that it's uh you know tolerance in our view is uh is simply um uh you know tolerance in our view means you know only means that people can be in our space or you know or something like that I we just need to make sure that readers know what tolerance means and I'm not sure see Adam has his hand up so he's going to be really helpful thank you Adam so I I wonder if we just start the next sentence with instead of we can no longer accept we say we can no longer be tolerant with stoic Silence of a culture of silencing yeah that's good here does that work to Define tolerance for you uh I'm not I'm not delighted that

095we use silence twice I don't know how that happened but otherwise I I hear you yes we can change that agree we you silence twice said ad you got this you know okay so so let's say go for it so we're gonna um we're say we can no longer be tolerant of a culture of silencing shaming harassment or intimidation can can I just say can I say before you do that um I think that that sentence does Define some acts of tolerance so um you know so it's kind of already there so we'll be guided by the idea that we can no longer uh Simply Be tolerant um and then you could say something like um for example we can no longer accept with stoic silence a culture we can no longer you know accept

096um without uh reaction a culture of silencing shaming harassment or intimidation um and mere kindness welcome and you know what I'm saying like it's already I think the the definition is already there in that sentence you have to connect the thought explicitly I think that she's right about adding for example thank you Jenny so just add for example at the beginning yeah for example comma the reason it says so the reason it says silence twice Kira is because it's our silence and a of silencing so there may be another word for silence just what the oh that's a great idea who said that Geniuses yes yeah a rer yes yep [Music] yes love it yes okay although Cara loves it I I do want to jump in and say I'd be sort of a fan

097of going with an active verb and say we will not tolerate rather than you know to have this more passive constru ction will also good with that instead of saying we can no longer accept accept with toic silence John I agree with that John yeah I would I would um get rid of the for example and I would just we will not tolerate and then I'm not too agonized about exactly what comes after that but you know the whatever you want the list to be so I'm hearing it can you all see what I just highlighted yes yeah just for example what John is saying that remove for example and they say we will not tolerate right so all of this would go and what I think I'm hearing is John suggesting we will not

098tolerate and then skip over a culture of AAS or shaming harassment yes I think we I think we keep think what I think we keep with stoic silence we changed the second silencing to a rers so that we could Define our still ex Silence of all of these other actions we will no we will no longer tolerate with yes public silence a culture of AAS or shaming harassment or intimidation right yes okay what's wrong with the for example though because that that connected the tolerance well now we don't have to say for example because we literally just said we all right okay and I think you need a comma after tolerate with Stoke silence is a prepositional phrase yeah oh look K's the the the professional author here so we'll go to her gr hey

099you know actually sometimes these things are just about style actually Dawn is our thing and Dawn loves commas so not as much as you love passive voice though I would personally not put a comma there but you know listen we're literally writing by committee so let's let's not get hung up on the comma okay I love commas I think commas should be everywhere and I wouldn't put a comma there either so I think we should divide up into a pro and against T um comma Camp Angie has her hand raised I think that should be yeah okay Angie yeah so um like my statement so my was different culture background that um sometimes that for the same word or anything that you have you're going to have a different um understanding and interpretation how we

100avoid the uh the danger of misunderstanding or miscommunication before we do anything are you suggesting a change to the language that we used or are you just making a a comment or something want that because because right now I agree that we will not tolerate you know with this silence but this is based on that we under that's on a mutually understanding that what people are saying you know because maybe this is an opportunity to put um what we were talking about earlier in between those two sentences like we will we you know will endeavor to always invite um and try to understand different voices and different perspectives from stakeholders in our community and then but we will not tolerate however we will not tolerate with st silence any culture or well but but my

101only issue about that is we have never we at least in my time on the school committee we have that silence other voices other voices that have come forward have been heard and so I guess what we're bumping against and Andie I don't want to go back Damascus situation but what we are bumping against here is that folks did not come forward at the time that they needed to come forward with their concerns it wasn't because somebody said I wanted to come and present to the school committee and we dismissed it so we have to make that clear I feel like putting that in there is saying that we have always marginalized a set group from speaking up whilst we echoed the voices of other people and that has not at least been my experience

102in this cool ComEd so we if somebody comes and say they want to talk to us we've listened right who listen and and anyone that was Pro or again we listen to the pro people and the against people never came so I know that that's a narrative on the street that we didn't afford everybody equal chance but I cannot recall at least to my knowledge that anybody who was against came and said wanted to come and talk to us and we and that could have shifted our thinking and people need to take responsibility for that we heard from every single person I W to get into a bit no no no I don't wantan to I don't want to do that okay so Evelyn I heard what you said I my I guys you can't

103raise your hands unless you're gonna raise it in the panelist thing because I can't there's no way for me so Tessa before you say something the point I'm trying to make is that I disagree with the addition that um Angie is trying to inser in there because it makes us seem as though we are not echoing the voices we are not giv equal opportunity to everybody's voice which is not true I understand I understand 100 per. Adam was raising his hand and then Nora raised her hand sorry no that's okay thank you Marie Adam so so structurally I think that we um we need to add something about um understanding the diversity of views of our community but I think that this first half of the paragraph is really talking about setting the stage about

104what we're no longer tolerant of and it isn't until we get to the sentence that says we must actively participate and there that we would add something else about diversity of lived experiences of which I have a suggestion for when we get there okay Nora if we said we will continue to listen to a diversity of perspectives me I think it is valuable to say it but I agree we don't want to say it's something new that we're doing well yeah I mean I whatever you want to do or put it later okay let's if everyone is okay with that sentence the way it is now we will not tolerate with so ex silence a culture of eras or shaming harassment or intimidation and mere kindness welcome and tolerance are no longer the standard for

105the type of community our students deserve is everyone okay with that no Adam I feel it it runs on I would suggest that after the word intimidation we add a period and we start a new sentence with the word near which is funny because that's how it was before Peter and I looked at when Peter and I looked at it this morning but we we have added things since so fair enough yeah so I feel like if we start that as a new thought and then the other the other thing in the second half of this sentence is um welcome doesn't feel like a an active enough verb maybe here and I think maybe switching that to acceptance um flows better how do people feel about acceptance put your thumbs up Marie yep okay you

106got thumbs up so change welcome to acceptance Nora did you have something else no sorry I forgot to lower my hand okay so now is everyone okay with those two sentences we will not tolerate with soic silence a culture of eraser shaming harassment or intimidation and M kind yes okay all right great so uh the next sentence is we must actively participate in the transformation of our town in collaboration with our dynamic student community and the families that entrust us with their education yes thumbs up okay should town be plural towns yes yes yes perfect okay we must engage in the work to be an anti-racist community and understand that this work will be either will be neither easy nor Swift nor without discomfort in transformation we have hands up um Adam I think your

107one up first and then dian's I want to monopolize this but I'm going to give you my suggestions as to how we we manage this um sentence uh so after uh anti-racist community and understand that this so after the word this uh I would insert uh the following phrase that this transformation should be considerate and empathetic of the diversity of lived perspectives that make up our community good luck Peter that was a lot my wife hates when I do this to her too transformation of what should be transformation should be [Music] considerate and empathetic of the diversity of lived perspectives that make up our communities period this will or this and then delete the word work that's my suggestion on ending the paragraph gorgeous amazing love highly Endor I agree so the last sentence this

108work will be neither easy nor Swift nor without discomfort in transformation um and in fact requires multi multi-sided dialogue maybe instead of do you want to take out the word transformation since we said transformation already and just add what Diane said and requires yes thumbs up say it again Diane requires multi-sided dialogue okay excellent collaboration people all right thumbs up John do you have something yeah I still you know the the comment that I made earlier you know is about this question of being both for something as well as against something um so you know I don't know where people would be interested in fitting it in you know but I would like us to have the explicit goal of you know having you know people who join this community in the future to join

109it because they find it to be a loving community so I because that's where I think we want to get to you know so part of that is getting rid of something but part of that is you know establishing you know a positive you know loving Community would that be appropriate like towards the end when we are because that that I didn't really put I mean I don't know I don't know how others feel if anyone has an opinion about where to put that are you still raising your hand or did you just not put it down no okay well here's my thought unless you have a specific place in mind John why don't we continue and then everyone keep that in mind as we move forward so does everyone give that paragraph a thumbs

110up yes okay so all right therefore we will work to empower the Educators and school leaders across our district does everyone feel about that uh Diane's uh comments disappeared at the end of that when Peter accepted the stuff just want you to know y there we go okay thank you job Peter all right therefore we will work to empower the Educators and school leaders across our district to sorry there it just says that nor I I found that a little bit confusing um I just felt it needed to be specified again even though obviously what we're talking about but therefore we will work to empower the Educators and school leaders across our district to work in an anti-racist way or Empower them to I don't disagree with you that's it it was a different sort

111of sentence before so now everything that was like initial kind of as as different people have commented so that that's fine Amy did you have a suggestion about that it just sounds a little passive it sounds like then we therefore we will Empower I mean I it feels it feels very passive there's there should be some much more of a there should be a stronger declaration that this is what is happening how about therefore we charge the educated thank that's great yes okay therefore we charge the Educators and school leaders across our district to do what do what exactly yes yes Jenny wey I think wait something that is missing at the end of that okay Jenny what was your suggestion going to say that you know the the policies kind of come first so

112should we say can we commit to establishing policies that support anti-racist work um and empowering our Educators and school leaders to you know carry them out or something like that we're charging them to do anti-racist work um we charge the Educators and school leaders across our district to engage in this anti-racist work that sounds good I think Jenny had the the right idea I think it really is we create policy because that's where school committee lives and then um you know we will work hand inand and then finally we charge everybody to go off and do these things okay so you're saying we start we take that sentence the charge and move it yeah so so I I'm sorry I'm gonna jump in and say you know this is a very bold statement one that

113I completely agree with but but we have to understand that this is not I mean this is not something that is said kind of in a bubble this is a very strong state statement that we are putting forth to all of our Educators across the district um and I I think that it's important that we word it in a way that um provides for success for our Educators okay and not one that we kind of flip I don't think we're doing flippantly but it's not one that we can just like flippantly throw out there this is what we want no this is really what we want and we're going to support you through this and you know so I mean I I think this is this it's it's a shift it is a shift okay

114so Peter take out take the first sentence and move it after the second sentence to begin with yeah okay so we commit to establishing policies that support anti racist work crafting budgets that improve educational equity for all students and working hand inand with the administration to be accountable for taking Brave and Bold actions that challenge our existing structures and systems is everyone okay with that sentence as written yeah thumbs up okay so now I don't know if we have to say therefore anymore we charge the Educators and school leaders across our district with carrying out this anti-racist work to doing the same to doing same something like that therefore we charge our Educators and school leaders across our district to do same I don't know we don't have to because it complement the the sentence

115above I think we say to join us in this commitment yeah I like that okay and I would actually keep the there I think it's powerful okay agree okay therefore we charge the Educators and school leaders across our district to join us in this commitment okay can I provide my feedback even if I'm not a Committee Member of course you can be um educators are you're the ones crafting the policies and enacting budget but the Educators it might be charging the Educators and school leaders across our district with you know more you know looking at curriculum um you know and looking at I I something El there there's something else there that maybe we challenge maybe we we we challenge our um Educators and school leaders to do this because we don't have purview enough

116to say this is what you have to do this is like we're Challen we say this is our belief and so we challenge you to do this yeah Amy you have to follow the rules because like five people no I'm sorry I'm you have to because it's too hard to do otherwise okay uh John so I think you know what we could charge them to do you know is to accelerate our efforts or to prioritize our efforts um to make you know all of our educational program an anti-racist program or something like so I'm not addicted to the last part but we charge them explicitly in an implementation sense Jenny you're you're muted put my hand down sorry oh you put your hand down sorry uh Adam and then Diane oh uh I I I

117hear what Peter's saying we can charge them technically we can't charge Educators to do anything because they're not in our purview so I think that we want to charge them to join us I think that that kind of balances out this and I think that um maybe instead of joining us in this commitment we charge them to join us in anti-racist work or something that is not this commitment but something that defines what we're all doing together because um I I their anti-racist work is different from ours yeah and they have different levers to pull than we do Diane yeah I was just going to suggest the words you make actionable I mean they you know we we we craft the Pol we build the policies and you know we set the budget priorities you

118know we don't run day-to-day operations but they're really making actionable the the the tenants and the principles that we lay out so therefore we charge the I like that therefore we charge the Educators and school leaders across our district to make this commitment actionable or to make to make what actionable I agree with you Diane the tenants and the principles that we set out to make the tenants and principles actionable so anyone feel free to improve on that but that oh no I like that okay so if everyone is good with that then put your thumbs up if you have something else to add to that then or change K is saying no K so so first of all um hand in hand has dashes um it's hand Dash in dash hand and then there

119it is yeah thank you and then to be accountable to Brave bold actions that challenge our existing structures and systems we charge the Educators and school leaders across our district like shouldn't it apply to their classrooms or you know we charge the Educators and school leaders across our district to make these tenants and principles or or to to um to to um uh Infuse their these principles in their practice or or apply them in their practice or do something else so that it's on that level it's pervasive it touches every class room it they're you're right that they're outside of our purview but it's an invitation to be bold and and and a recognition of their expertise and professionalism so like in I would use Infuse or um apply or experiment I don't even know

120I I confus making it I think that um the fact that we're saying make this the actionable piece at least in my mind and I'm not a writer and English is my second language I something I think that when we say actionable we're saying that then the teachers can take it to and make it actionable at least that's what I hear what you're saying but I think the actionable piece covers that but I may just be wrong I don't like that it's a dictation on on on on individuals who are experts and professionals I think that asking bringing them in like inviting them to be part of it and and recognizing ing that their work is an art and a science and a practice and putting that into the language here is a recognition of

121who they are um and not a dictation from on high so all those things that you said are correct but it's it's just something else it's not us telling those people to do something it's it's recognition and and elevation and um and seeing um in the language that will Echo I like Peter's Change he just wrote In instead of charge which is a much nicer which is a much nicer verb we invite challenge that was challenges no yeah so my problem with invite is that it it um it it doesn't make it as bold a statement I mean it it just says like we invite them and they don't have to participate if they don't want to um we ask so kir I understand what you're saying but to me tenants and principles are pretty

122are pretty open ended and that asking them to make those actionable is respective of of the work that that they're doing in their classrooms and you know using the levers that that they would use to to to bring these things I don't know John you had your hand up and then Alam a different way to resolve this would be to say therefore we charge the Educators and school leaders across our district to embody these tenants and principles so you get rid of the word actionable and then you want them to embrace these well or yeah if you don't like ody then you could go with Embrace but I see Kira shaking your head because then it's just about I mean it's about their lifestyle and it's about everything else again I just think there's something

123about making it so that it's about the professionalism and expertise teaching is a practice in an art any a science and I think that there can be language in there that that recognizes that and and gives them gives our teachers the the leeway to do that to practice this and Infuse it into their practice it is an elevation in the invitation Adam okay so I I prefer the word charge I think from the school committee I think that that is a more powerful um word to use so uh I I would say that we charge the the um schoool leaders across our district to apply these tenants and principles to their professional practice um and that captures what Kier is trying to say about this is a practice this is a science um and that

124we want them to apply it to that thank you Adam thank you so much laa and then Don raised your hand as well say I I I didn't pick all of that up sure so uh after the words uh our district to uh instead of the word make we're going to use the word apply and then um uh instead of the word actionable we're replace that with to their professional practice professional practice yep Don I was going to just suggest compel instead of charge perhaps Cara says no Cara what no you're you're muted I'm sorry keep charge charge is so great it's so great it's so great thank you Dian just I just wanted to ask Peter um you know in the senior leadership team like are we like roping people in to make their

125professional practice goal like you know I mean like this is kind of like contract language e and I'm worried about it so I need reassurance that this is okay from your perspective I yeah I hear what saying Diane I can't say that I didn't think a little bit of the same thing um I charge the educator and school across our district to apply these tenants I like everything right up to the professional practice piece sounds a little too linked to Ed ofal how about in their classrooms well but there it says School leaders I mean to be quite honest I know Peter you and I have had lengthy lengthy discussions about how you know things work and how we move from policy to practice and everything else and to me if we really are if

126we really are taking you know this as Amy noted a a big step forward that I I would expect Educators to make this part of of their professional practice goals I mean you know I don't I don't know how this stuff moves we aren't sitting in classrooms and sorry we aren't sitting at at you know at meetings with principles we we aren't in charge in any capacity of of that kind of work and so you know we we can say all we want at school committee meetings and we can write policies but at the end of the day the impact is going to be in the classrooms and so I don't know that's my feeling and and and K I know I I hear what you're saying but what I'm struggling with right now is

127if we don't say that is we expect them to do this and I know yeah you know at least I have the high school experience if if what if teachers de said they don't want to do it how do we hold them accountable other ones holding them accountable and I think think that if folks know that is an I know I and I'm not an educated educator so I I respect your opinion a lot but I'm worried that if we don't say that we expect that to do this we're going to be bumping against it people that say we don't want to do this and and um what do we do with that done Don are you still raising your hand yes okay no you're not raising your hand okay Amy I think it needs

128to be very clear that we are not responsible for holding accountable that the the teachers in any way I think that we can charge and say to the administration to we can say I mean really within our perview we can say to Peter listen we want you to do these things and it's his responsibility to pass it down but ultimately we can only say that this is what we believe in and this is what we would like but we this is not our purview to demand certain actions from our teachers it that that is that is not um we have no we have no standing to do that but I I I do know that that we have hired and support administrators that believe in the same things that we believe in and we just

129have to step back and trust that these you know the the people that are in charge are are going to follow through so then um Evelyn you have to raise your hand because otherwise I can't do it and like three other people still have their no no no it's okay Adam yeah so first thing I I want to recognize the the challenging position that we put our administrators in right now because you Peter is actively editing a document that um is our thoughts and feelings but is ultimately going to come down to him to to implement so I think that that causes a little bit of discomfort um but that being said I I think I kind of want to dance on both sides of the line here and with the understanding that our our

130power is limited to policy and superintendent evaluation and budget um I think we need to be bold here and charge the Educators and the the district leadership um even if it's a a you know somewhat Hollow charge because we all know that we don't have the power to do that but I think we have to make this statement because that's what this is this is not a policy this is not um you know any binding superintendent evaluation document either this is our statement this is our statement to the community and our statement to the teachers and I think that that's how I view this sentence is under that that umbrella Nora John then Evelyn what Adam said I agree with that I think I like saying that that we charge the Educators um because we

131do and this is this isn't policy this is our statement and we're saying that it is a goal that we are setting in this statement that Educators and school leaders will will take these principles in their professional practice that work is already being done it's you know that's that's for Peter to set it as a goal for the district and make it happen which he's done already taken those steps I like it John um in terms of people that we can speak to Adam sort of intimated that you know we can speak to people Beyond um people that are just strictly part of the school and in a statement of this type we can actually also directly address students and we all also have the ability to directly address the community um and regardless of

132what language you want to use you know with respect to students um and the community but it seems to me that there is a place here to say that you know we invite the students you know to join us in this work and we invite the community to join us in this work so I'm not addicted to language but um I think that sort of resolves this because it becomes clear that you know who are we asking to help us do this that would be everyone k um I I just want to I'm such a writer I'm sorry I just want to um defend charge in that it is it's more powerful than an invitation but it's still not a dictation right so we we are giving people we're giving teachers and and school leaders

133everybody running room right you you can interpret that how you want to interpret that um an invitation uh implies an opportunity to completely opt out which I don't think that we want to do I think that we want to um we in charging we Empower uh participants to to do with this what they will we also recognize that there are Educators in the district who are doing it already um and then we we we give a pretty big window or door for those who maybe have not stepped completely through or crossed the the threshold yet it's a beautiful word for this sentence it's it's super crazy powerful um yes thank you Marie I just agree I I totally agree and I don't think there's a problem with the school committee saying this I don't think

134there's a contractual problem Etc Great Amy did you have something else your hand is up in the thing no I mean after no I mean I I just I'm gonna follow Marie because she absolutely knows the contract I I think it's important that we we hired Peter you know we we trust We Trust in what he's doing we we we trust in Marie We Trust in Deb and Dawn and what they're doing and I think the charge should be to them and you know and that we should have you know a sense of faith and trust that you know that they're going to do what we you know we very strongly believe in because we know that they very strongly believe in it too okay fine okay Diane yeah I'm not comfortable with professional practice

135that's jargon it's right out of the educator evil I think you know teachers need to have the freedom not not to feel pressured you know by anybody including us to like choose that one you know because they're all in a different place and they all need to kind of like figure out like what they need so I'm going to suggest we say therefore we charge the Educators and school leaders across our district to infuse these tenants and principles into their practice I'm good with that okay I'm fine with it too could I push one step further on that sure I I I think to infuse it into their practice is the interim step but what I think we want them to do is to infuse the tenants and principles into our schools and classrooms across

136our district okay I don't know I I don't know how you feel about that and I'm okay with practice but I I no I I think it I want it to be as strong as it can be without you know offending anybody or or boxing anyone in but I I do think it's fair for this to be an expectation that that the school committee has and that that school I think this makes a a strong statement to School leadership that we support them in their efforts to ensure that this is done so therefore we charge the Educators and school leaders across our district to infuse these tenants and principles whatever you said Peter if people yeah yeah well write write that and then I think that that's stronger than just practice Adam I'm sorry Evelyn

137Adam I'm gonna call Evelyn first because she she actually used the raise hand feature so how about I just have a suggestion how about we say there therefore we charge District leaders to empower Educators to infuse the talents because I I heard what folks said that Peter and his team are actually the folks that are supposed to be leading this charge so therefore we charge District leaders to empower educated to infuse these tenants and principles into the school and classrooms throughout our district I don't know I think personally I feel like we're already at that step and that school leaders have been trying to empower teachers by providing a lot of the tools and things that that I mean this work is partially underway I mean it's not that we're starting from absolute scratch so

138to me this is like okay they've been empowered and now we want them to do it I don't know I mean Adam what do you think uh I hear what you're saying Evin but I think it's it's powerful to be speaking directly to the Educators so that's that's my response to that edit I like that the the edit that I would make to the back half of this sentence is to make it more possessive um so instead of into the schools and classrooms I would just leave it as into their schools and classrooms and that way you speak to each educator and each school and building leader um and that implies that it's in the district but then it's it's their work that they're doing in their space Marie are you still are you raising

139your hand again or was it still up from before no okay so everyone let's like put our thumbs up for or whatever for this if you agree with it except it doesn't say their school oh that should that should say there yes that should powerful yes you want their or our their their hour why not our schools because the Char too big the charges to them all right all right I'm I'm good I'm good fine oh people you're doing a good job all right we recognize the dynamic nature of our student body and the interconnected multifaceted World they will enter after they leave our campuses Nora sorry I was just trying to raise my hand in the thing this might I I see you raising your hand because you're one of the three people that

140I'm looking at so oh that's so nice um so I was thinking this would be a good place to add um John's invitation um why it's valuable that that we believe that this is something unique and valuable about our school community that um is Central to the education that we want our students to attain while here or I don't know something like that after that sentence instead of that sentence after that we recognize the dynamic nature I I like that sentence a lot and that might be a good place after it to add the positive thing that we were looking for um about why it's important for that everyone to learn to be anti-racist it's um important because it's the right thing to do it's also important because it you know when we think about

141the whole student and I forget the name of the model that we were using about the student um yeah I know picture of a picture of a graduate um that it fits in with that I agree with you who wants to write the sentence so or Adam I nominate you guys John what did you have to say because that's this was your John's idea it was John's idea yeah so so I think yeah because this sent sued me as sort of hanging so I think we could start that the sentence that follows just says we invite you know our students to help us build an inclusive and loving Community I like that and then if you add recognizing that this is um uh Angie said this one time in a previous meeting I don't remember

142Angie if you remember what you said but about how we have the opportunity in AB for students to learn how to live in a Global community in a world of rich and diversity um something like that sort of language but words are failing me right now I'm sorry too many great writers in the space should we started by saying therefore we invite our students and then there's a there's a d at the end of build an inclusive we already said therefore so if we want to have a a connection where we have to choose something other than therefore because that's two sentences above we invite our students to help us build an inclusive end say end and end so yeah and and maybe then the next word would be um we invite our students to

143help us build an inclusive and loving Community recognizing that this is a uniquely valuable aspect of an AB education and then somebody can make that better Kira you're making all kinds of facial recognition facial things and wav I'm so happy I'm trying to make it so I'm not like yes but I was like yes to that addition so great no that's awful like let me make that beautifully poetic in the way that you can okay Angie did you have something that you wanted to to contribute uh I just want to say that I was using Global citizen yeah right that was something that we talked about yeah in the portrait of a graduate back when we were talking about that I remember that was recognize the dynamic nature we invite our students to help us

144build an inclusive and loving Community recognizing that this is a uniquely valuable aspect of the a education all right I think that that's a lovely sentence does anyone want to change that or add to it it doesn't mean we can't add another sentence too or put up your thumbs if you like that sentence and you want to keep it you got thumbs up all right okay we're almost there peeps almost there ACX bro has long been a model in the pursuit of excellence and education and it is important that this Pursuit evolve to best serve our increasingly diverse student body and Community Angie I know you had um a thought about this so I'll let you go first okay can you hear me y oh okay so somehow it sounds kind of passive to me

145so instead of that I I said grow to better serve our increasingly diverse student body and Community uh will enable us to continue to this pursue for acum bosal excellence in education for years to come okay so instead of having just because there's three people with their hands raised don't change yet Peter we'll listen to what Angie said then then John then Adam and then we'll come back to the language itself John yeah so I I thought that the the challenge in the sense was the use of the word model um because what I thought we were doing was establishing a standard for excellence so my suggestion is that we would start this out um AC and box barel has long set a standard for the pursuit of excellence and at that point I'd be

146good with the rest of it Adam yeah my only comment was I thought there were two ideas here and that we we separate the idea of us setting a standard or being a model for the pursuit of Excellence from the the second thought that it is that we it's important we pursue um our increasingly diverse student body um to evolve them so I'm happy to take some of the thoughts that Angie had but I think it's two different sentences Amy I think Angie Angie had you know some really important thoughts I I think I really like really like what she had to say that um that we will continue to pursue this excellence and and this is only a part of how we are going to improve going forward Kira I actually wonder if this

147is if it's appropriate to lud ourselves right now for our excellence and call ourselves a model or Pat our back ourselves on the back in any way shape or form I just wonder if you know I I understand the why I'm just not I'm just not totally convinced that that this is the um the Forum and I agree with Adam that it's two separate thoughts so my suggestion would be to separate the thoughts and maybe perhaps leave one be okay so I actually think that Angie's language kind of removes that lotting of ourselves and makes it sound a little different so Angie why don't you say again for Peter the way that you thought that that sentence should read and then maybe we can move off of that sentence rather than the one that we

148have now my sentence is growing to better serve our increasing diverse student body I'm sorry my I froze for a second there what was the first word growing growing growing yeah growing to better serve our increasingly diverse student body and Community will enable us to continue this pursue of active box girl excellent in education for years to come uh sorry pursue act boxboro EXC there's a word excellent in education Excellence acting box excellence in education of act excellence in act and bar act well I think let's just play with this sentence to make it sound if that's the I think we're getting closer Kira you you want to Wordsmith that or is there a part that you still I I agree I don't know that we should be saying that you know it isn't excellence

149in education for everyone to be TR to to be truthful and you know that's something Peter and I have talked about a lot is excellent for who it is excellent for a portion of our population and not really for everybody I think it should say something more like striving for excellence you know and that doesn't fit into the sentence the way it's written but um I think that John um I want to push back on this a little bit because you know we can always beat ourselves up and I you I'm happy to do that you know on a very regular basis but you know I like to think about most of this change activity in the sense of we want to be better I want to make that positive statement we want to be

150better and I don't want to go too far down the road of you know intimating that we're bad I mean it's clear there are some things that are bad there are some things that suck you know but um judged against all of the things in the world against some reasonable standard we're doing a decent job we can do a much better job and there's certainly students for which we need to do a really much better job but I I think it's okay to feel you know some sense of pride in what we've done while at the same time being completely dissatisfied with where we are Adam um I guess my first question is to Angie about the the word growing um I'm curious what you mean by that um and maybe suggest instead of growing

151to better serve we strive to better serve growing in to me is that we because we need to make changes right so we growing is changes we need to change we're making a change now yeah I I hear what you're saying I I feel like this sentence though where it is in the paragraph is one that want to sort of conclude the thought and the the idea of needing to make a change to meet the diverse needs of our students is almost like a new idea above and beyond what the the thought of this paragraph was about uh but we're making all this changes right we're all the whole thing we're making all the changes so that we are able to um serve our diverse student body right yeah so I I think then that

152instead of growing I think we a more active way to say this is we strive to better serve our increasingly diverse student body yeah yeah okay so take out growing and change it to we strive to better serve our increasingly diverse student body and community and maybe put a period and not say anything and not say anything about the Excellence because I don't I don't know that it even has a place here I don't think it's saying that we're bad if we take it out I just think that it is a little bit more honest I like that I think it's short and sweet and it ends the thought of the paragraph As called so Peter you can also take out where it says the sentence Act of boxboro you can just delete that um

153and then this does really become but we've invited our students it becomes about us and what what our commitment is we strive to better serve our increasingly diverse student body and community okay um is there anything else that we need to add to that paragraph okay I think just make that go yeah delete it till I guess it's there you go all right okay so the last sentence is we renew our steadfast commitment to the students of the actin box for Regional School District and their families and affirm that we seek to serve them to the best of our ability yes Adam uh I think we need to reaffirm because affirm would imply that we've never done it before okay I agree yep right all right is there anybody that wants to add anything else

154to this Maria I can't see so let me know if there's anybody that does I don't see good we good okay okay so I'm okay with if people don't want to vote on this although it would be pretty anticlimactic if we didn't given the amount of work that just went into this I want to vote I move we vote okay then then make your motion I don't know how to do that I'm sorry boxboro Regional school committee um endorse this statement as presented by Peter screen second double second okay so Peter would you mind stopping the sharing of your screen so that I can actually see everybody so I can do the vote okay all right we will do a roll call vote Nora yes John yes Adam yes with gratitude El yes with gratitude

155to my community peace and love Amy yes and happy holidays thank you guys so much Diane yes and I hope that Peter's screen isn't in actual motion but yes Angie yes Kira yes with gratitude Jenny yes and myself yes and I have to say that was an incredible um presentation of working together and I'm really proud of all of us for being able to pull that together yes John I'm gonna can I just jump in I'm sorry John you can't because John raised his hand can I can I jump in after John yes am me I wanted I wanted to say thank you you know three very special thank you one you know thank you Tessa for arranging this special meeting which was a super important activity um and then you know I want to

156make the statement that I think everybody wanted to make which is just the simplest statement thank you Kira you know it is great to have you here thank you Evelyn it is great to have you here and then because of course you know I have an editorial comment I did of course take your draft through the I know you did I saw I saw that you s the readability Checker um and and it clocks in at um a college level thing and I'm pleased to say I checked my statement it clocked in at grade eight and the reason that I mentioned that it's important because you know we spent a lot of time on these words and for you know the seven people that hung in there to the end some of the details of

157the words matter but when we go out into the community we need to when we can find simple direct language you know that can really that everybody can hear and understand Amy um I I have been on this committee this is my eighth year I could not possibly Express how proud I am of the the fact that you know we have an incredibly diverse committee we have completely different experiences completely different um you know view points and and yet we have all come together in this really um amazing way and I'm I'm so proud that that to be part of this I'm so proud to be part of um of this committee and and what we're doing here and I believe I believe that it will have a lasting impact on our kids throughout this

158community thank you to everyone thank you for giving up this what it started as vacation for our kids many hours ago and so I appreciate the fact that everyone gave their time to come to this meeting and um to do yes noran I'm sorry to interrupt that um I'm just realizing that Yan's not here and I'm feeling like he didn't get to participate in this and did we want a unanimous vote Andes do it make sense to um how does that happen so so Yan did Express in an email that he was incredibly sorry that he couldn't attend this meeting I don't we don't we don't hold votes other times I I think that you know Yan has expressed his support for the sentiments that have been shared by everybody and I think that he

159would be in support of of the statement um and all the hard work that went into it and I appreciate you acknowledging that he isn't here but he he has um he he has expressed in in an email that um he was sorry to miss this and that he was in support of what the Community Committee is trying to okay great so anyway thank you everybody I know I have to do a roll call vote bath to adjourn yes motion to adjourn no so how are we Distributing this do you want me to post it on the website do you want me to send it to the boards of Selectmen the fincom where how I usually distri distribute an agenda or or do you want to let me know to tomorrow or I think it

160should be distributed the same way that all of the other statements were distributed which is widely and if it want if I believe that we should send it to the community because I don't think it should get buried and I know that only seven people have I'm very appreciative that they've hung in to watch the committee meeting but I do know that this was a tough time for everybody so um I I I think it should be sent out the way all the other statements have been sent out I will do that thank you okay yes John one of the issues is just as you noted we're going into the holiday week so this can get lost in a lot of other activity so I'm hoping that not only will we distribute it now contemporaneously

161with a vote but that as we start the new year we can find a way to refresh these sentiments okay here now I will take your motion motion to adj please and happy holiday holidays holidays and I had a second I can do that all right now we're doing the roll call vote nor wor Nora yes you have to yeah okay John yes Adam yes Evelyn yes we gratitude Amy yes happy holidays Diane yes and strong work Tessa thank you Angie yes happy holidays Kira yes happy holidays uh Jenny yes and myself thank you to everyone I really appreciate it I hope everyone has a wonderful break and a happy holiday if you celebrate thank you thank you Tessa thank you so much Tessa you're amazing thank you