Only three school board members turned up for Monday night’s School Committee meeting, the first held after the voters formally censured the board at the fall Special Town Meeting Oct. 10. One member, Jeff Shaw, had resigned the day after the censure vote, and member Stu Sklar could not attend. However, the three members left did have a small, but attentive audience, as several authors of the censure petition came to observe how the board intends to address the concerns voiced by townspeople over alleged wrong-doing by School Superintendent Tom Jefferson.
Petitioner Ron Ricci addressed the board during open meeting time, noting that the petition and vote of censure is now behind the town, but that the problems and issues raised in the petition have still to be addressed. He urged the board to move forward in dealing with these matters.
Board member Will Verbits responded, saying, “It’s important for us to look at this and figure out how to go forward. We need to not ignore it.”
New board member Virginia Justicz, said she believes citizens had a number of concerns with the board’s operation, including the issues surrounding the board’s support of Jefferson and other complaints. She urged the board to work harder at communicating with residents, and to respond better to concerns brought before the board by townspeople. Both she and Verbits suggested the board hold an occasional public forum, to communicate with the public better.
Chairwoman Willie Wickman told meeting attendees that she had asked Glenn Koocher, the executive director of the Massachusetts Association of School Committees [MASC], for advice on how the committee should proceed, and had invited him to hold a public forum in the Bromfield library on Nov. 8. She noted that Koocher is an expert on laws covering the operations of school boards.
“He’s great…he can facilitate a conversation,” Wickman said.
The other two members agreed that such a forum would be a good idea. However, because the School Committee plans to invite the selectmen to its Nov. 12 meeting to help select a replacement for Shaw, they won’t have a fifth member on board in time to hear Koocher speak on Nov. 8.
Anyone interested in being on the board should be encouraged to come to the public forum anyway, Wickman said.
The School Committee’s response to the vote of censure did not satisfy all of the audience members, however. When the committee went into executive session at the end of the public meeting, for the purposes of discussing possible litigation, some of the petitioners’ group gathered out in the parking lot to discuss the meeting.
Ricci told a reporter that he had gotten a sense that “it’s slightly sinking in” to board members that voters expect changes regarding the issues raised as part of the censure. However, Keith Cheveralls said it looks like “business as usual” from the board to him. Cheveralls said he’d hoped there would be “bold actions” taken at the meeting. “We’re willing to give them [the school board] some time,” to decide how to respond, but his group is not willing “to let it rest,” he noted.
“It’ll be a big mistake if it’s handled as a P.R. [public relations] matter,” Ricci agreed. When asked if any of the petitioners’ group were considering running for the vacant seat on the school board, Ricci and Cheveralls said that there were indeed several members seriously considering throwing their hats into the ring.
