Here is a brief summary of what’s happening and where things stand right now.
- Despite many emailed requests, and despite my own public and private urging, Regional School Committee (RSC) Chair Ben Herrington has declined to call a RSC meeting to discuss the return of Superintendent Mike Morris.
- That said, the RSC has a scheduled meeting on Tuesday, August 22. This meeting has not been posted yet, but when it is you will be able to view the meeting information (start time, agenda, etc) here: go.boarddocs.com/ma/arps/Board.nsf/Public.
- By state law, public meetings must be posted two business days (48 hours) before the meeting takes place, so at the latest you should see it posted by this Friday evening, August 18.
- You can make public comment at that meeting by voicemail, text, email, or in-person. See my recent blog post about Public Comment Q&A.
- I don’t know what will be on the agenda for that meeting. The committee chair, in addition to being the sole member who can call a meeting, also decides what will be on the agenda. In an agenda planning document that I have access to, it does note “Subcommittee reorganization” as an agenda topic for August 22. (The RSC has various subcommittees that members are on, as well as commitments to have a representative with various external organizations, such as Amherst Media and The Collaborative. Since there are several new members on the RSC now, I assume we will be discussing the make-up of subcommittees and appointments to external orgs.)
- I don’t know if discussion of the superintendent’s status will be on the agenda, or if there is a plan to go into Executive Session. I don’t know if the reports from the Title IX and other investigations will be submitted before then.
- As you can see, there is a lot that I don’t know. What I do know is that I will continue to push for transparency, for listening to community voices, especially those most marginalized, and for accountability.
Jennifer Shiao's School Committee Blog 