Franklin Matters: School Committee - recap

Sunday, November 17, 2019

School Committee - recap - Nov 12, 2019

Unlike the Town Council meeting on Wednesday, the new School Committee members were not sworn in during the public meeting as scheduled for 7:00 PM. Apparently, there was a pre-meeting before the public session to take care of the swearing in.

As for the public meeting, it was opened at 7 PM as scheduled by Superintendent Sara Ahern who after the blessing and pledge of allegiance, facilitated the nomination and election (unanimous) of the new Chair, Anne Bergen.

The Chair, then conducted the nominations for Vice-Chair. There was one for Denise Spencer that was not seconded, and one for Mary Jane Scofield that was did receive a second. Scofield received all 7 votes for Vice Chair.

The Actions Taken document as posted in incomplete in at least two items. One as noted here on the vote for the Vice Chair, the other nomination without a second is not acknowledged. The second item is in regards to the Consent Agenda, as 5 members were not present for the meeting covered by the minutes up for approval, these minutes were separated from the other consent agenda items to all the five new members to abstain. The minutes were approved 2-0-5 (approve-no-abstain). The remaining Consent Agenda items were approved unanimously (7-0-0).
https://www.franklinps.net/sites/franklinmaps/files/news/scagenda_11-12-19_actions_taken.pdf

Also of note, on a similar vote for prior meeting minutes for the Town Council on Weds, the new members were allowed to vote (rather than abstain). Town Attorney, Mark Cerel, approved of this action. For further research: there are differences between School and Town but I don't know if this is one of them, it would seem likely to operate on this matter in the same manner.

The Superintendent's report
https://www.franklinps.net/district/news/superintendents-report-111219

Documents released for this meeting
https://www.franklinps.net/district/meeting-packets/pages/november-12-2019-school-committee-packet

Additional details can be found in my notes updated after the meeting. I used Twitter and my pen and paper notebook to capture notes during the meeting (along with the audio recording)