Updated: What’s Happening With The School Committee?

Jennifer Shiao’s School Committee Blog

Editor’s note: . Jennifer Shiao is a member of the Amherst School Committee. Her original posts can be found here.  An archive of her blog posts in The Indy can be found here.

Update: Meeting Scheduled For Thursday, August 17
I was notified by Peter Demling, Chair of the Union 26 School Committee, via email on August 15, that there will be a virtual joint meeting of the Union 26 and Regional School Committees on Thursday, August 17, starting at 5:45 PM. He indicated that the meeting would be posted as an Executive session “in accordance with MGL c 30A section 21(a), to conduct strategy sessions in preparation for negotiations with nonunion personnel, Michael Morris, with no intention of returning to open session.” 

The email further indicated that more information would be shared with SC members in the Executive Session, and was signed by Demling and Regional School Committee Chair Ben Herrington.

You may be wondering, “What is this all about?” I am wondering the same. I have not been given any other information by Chairs Demling or Herrington about what this last-minute meeting will be about. I was not contacted ahead of time as to whether I am available to attend. In fact, I have gone to considerable lengths to change my weekend travel plans (since March, my daughter and I have had an out-of-state trip planned for which we were supposed to leave Thursday evening; I was supposed to be on an airplane on Thursday evening). Though the committees will vote to enter Executive Session, the meeting will open publicly, and the public may attend (virtually). You can access the Google Meet link in the meeting posting. (It is not very intuitive, but you click the Video button to enter the Google Meet.)

Original Post
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.

This blog reflects my own views about the Amherst and Amherst-Pelham Regional School Committees – it does not represent the view of the committees, the district, or the superintendent. This blog complies with Open Meeting Law, as long as a quorum of School Committee members do not engage in deliberations in the comments. Comments are welcome. I may respond to comments, but I will not respond to all comments. Sign up here using the “follow blog via email” form to be notified when I post a new entry.  You can email me at jennifer@jenniferamherst.org.