Month: May 2023

There have been some questions about Public Comment at School Committee meetings recently, so here is a Q&A on this topic.

Q: What is Public Comment?
A: Public Comment is an umbrella term covering comments and statements made by members of the public at a public meeting. If you wish to address the School Committee, and you wish to have your comments be heard or read by the general public, you could do so during the Public Comment period.

Q: How do I make or submit a Public Comment?
A: There are multiple ways to make or submit a Public Comment at School Committee meetings. 

• Send an email to SCPublicComment@arps.org before 3:00 pm on the day of the meeting. Your email will be displayed on the screen during the Public Comment period, and it will be posted as an attachment in the Public Comment agenda item for that meeting on the School Committee’s Boarddocs site.
• Send a text to 413-362-1891 before 3:00 pm on the day of the meeting. Your text will be displayed on the screen during the Public Comment period, and it will be posted as an attachment in the Public Comment agenda item for that meeting on the School Committee’s Boarddocs site.
• Leave a voicemail at 413-362-1891 before 3:00 pm on the day of the meeting. Your voicemail will be played during the Public Comment period.
• Attend the meeting in person and make your comment in person during the Public Comment period. There is usually no sign-up for in-person Public Comment.

Whenever there is Public Comment at a meeting, the instructions for how to make or submit public comment can be found in the Public Comment item on the agenda. (Here is an example.)

Q: I sent an email to the School Committee. Why was it not shown during the Public Comment period?
A: There are a few reasons why emails may not be shown.

• If you sent the email to a different email address (such as AmherstSchoolCommittee@aprs.org or RegionalSchoolCommittee@arps.org), it would not be considered Public Comment. Some people want to contact the School Committee and do not want their email displayed for the public. In order to be certain that an email is intended for Public Comment, individuals are asked to send it to the specific email address for Public Comment (SCPublicComment@arps.org).
• If the email was not received before 3:00 pm on the day of the meeting it may not be shown. There has to be time allowed for the chair to compile all emails received into one document, so we ask that comments be sent before 3:00 pm.

Q: Is Public Comment required at School Committee meetings?
A: No, Public Comment is not required by law. But the School Committee’s practice is to have a Public Comment period at each meeting. This is at the discretion of the chair.

Q: Is it super confusing, or is it just me?
A: It’s not just you; it is super confusing! Different public bodies have their own policies and practices about Public Comment. For example, the Amherst Town Council does not accept Public Comments via voicemail. They also do not display email or text Public Comments at their meetings, but they do make them available for viewing by the public on their website.

The best way to get the most up-to-date info on how to make or submit Public Comment for a School Committee meeting is to look at the Public Comment agenda item for that meeting. (Here is another example.)

At the joint meeting of the Regional School Committee (RSC) and the Union 26 Committee* on Thursday, May 18, ARPS Finance Director Douglas Slaughter was appointed acting superintendent to fill in for Michael Morris while Mike is on medical leave.

The Regional School Committee voted 7-1-1 and the Union 26 Committee voted 5-0 to appoint Slaughter acting superintendent until September 20, 2023, or until Morris returns, or until the committees decide otherwise by majority vote. Doug’s additional compensation (on top of his existing salary) will be $700 per week.

Doug was present at the meeting and accepted the appointment. The RSC and Union 26 chairs (Ben Herrington and Peter Demling, respectively) will finalize the details of Doug’s contract.

Votes:
Regional School Committee:
Herrington YES
Shiao YES
Demling YES
McDonald YES
Sullivan ABSTAIN
Wolf NO
Stancer YES
Rhodes YES
Kenney YES

Union 26 Committee
Demling YES
McDonald YES
Rhodes YES
Stancer YES
Hall YES

Watch the video recording of the meeting on Amherst Media: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUd3mNDIRuU

* The Regional School Committee and the Union 26 Committee (made up of three representatives from Amherst and three from Pelham) make decisions about the superintendent role.

At last night’s joint meeting of the Regional School Committee (RSC) and the Union 26 Committee* the bodies jointly decided the following:

We identified eight people as potential candidates for the acting superintendent position. The person in this position will fill in as superintendent while Dr. Morris is on medical leave. These eight people each had at least one committee member “nominate” them for the position:

• Trevor Baptiste
• Faye Brady
• Mary Custard
• Mikki Gromacki
• Marta Guevara
• Susan Hollins
• Doreen Reid
• Douglas Slaughter

Today, Wednesday May 17, each of these folks was contacted by the RSC and Union 26 chairs and asked to confirm their interest in the role (or not), and provide a CV and a written statement of interest, with a deadline of 5:00 PM today.

After 5:00 PM today (possibly Thursday morning), the list of candidates who have expressed interest will be published, along with their CV and statement. Members of the public will be asked to send input and feedback via email.

If you are an ARPS family, keep an eye on your email for this message from the chairs. I will do my best to post here when the list is published.

THEN on Thursday, May 18 at 7:30 PM there will be another joint meeting open to the public to discuss the remaining candidates and vote to appoint one as acting superintendent. It is the intention of the committees to vote on Thursday, and not delay this any further.

TO SUM UP: The final list of candidates for the acting superintendent role will be published by Thursday morning. On Thursday evening the school committees plan to appoint one individual to the role.

* The Regional School Committee and the Union 26 Committee (made up of three representatives from Amherst and three from Pelham) make decisions about the superintendent role.

It’s been challenging, even for me, to keep up with what’s happening this week, when and where the meetings are, and what will take place.

Here is what I know:

• There will be a meeting TONIGHT, Tuesday, May 16, starting at 5:30 PM in the library of the Amherst Regional High School (to access the library entrance after hours, go around to the east side of the building and enter through those doors).
• This will a joint meeting of the Regional School Committee (RSC) and the Union 26 Committee (made up of three representatives from Amherst and three from Pelham). These two bodies make decisions about the superintendent role.
• The agenda states that we will vote on going into Executive Session (a meeting not open to the public), then there will be public comments, then we will discuss appointing a temporary superintendent.
• The chairs of the Regional School Committee and the Union 26 Committee have already stated that we will not discuss appointing a temporary superintendent in Executive Session. That discussion will happen in open session.
• My guess is that the committees will not approve going into Executive Session, and that the entire meeting will be open to the public.
• If you want to make a live public comment at the meeting, there probably will not be a sign-up list. You will probably just step up to the microphone when the Public Comment period opens. (I could be wrong about this; it’s possible the chairs will institute a sign-up list at the meeting. If that is the case, they will announce it at the start of the meeting.)
• Here are three other ways you can provide pubic comment (do these before 3:00 PM today to ensure they will be included in the meeting tonight):
  Send an email to SCPublicComment@arps.org
  Send a text to 413-362-1891
  Leave a voicemail at 413-362-1891
  Emails and texts will be displayed at the meeting; voicemails will be played at the meeting.
• If you would like to send an email on this topic that you do not want to be displayed as public comment at the meeting, I suggest that you send it to both RegionalSchoolCommittee@arps.org and PelhamSchoolCommittee@arps.org.

I hope to see you at tonight’s meeting!