[0:09] Welcome to our annual meeting with our federal and state legislators.

[0:16] We are a little bit behind

[0:18] schedule, so I just want to make sure that we go around the room and are able to introduce

[0:23] members in the room. Well, legislators, staff members, and school committee members, we will have

[0:28] of lots of conversations with her from all of you

[0:31] on your priorities and then share some of ours.

[0:34] I will, I'll do the TLDR as my kid would say,

[0:37] which is funding in the wake of about two and a half

[0:42] and health care and content rising health care costs

[0:45] like all three under the 51 cities and towns,

[0:49] we're struggling to keep up with revenue to our finances.

[0:53] So, too, then the minute I start down there

[0:56] and say, where you are and what is it for the district?

[0:59] Sure.

[1:00] I'm Susan Givens, so is the deputy superintendent

[1:03] or the administration panel?

[1:05] Five examples.

[1:07] I'm Robin Benoit.

[1:09] I'm the deputy superintendent for teaching and learning.

[1:12] I am Suzanne Ferrisfield, and I'm the school committee.

[1:17] Hi, I'm Bella Wong, superintendent of schools.

[1:21] Tommy Petrollo, the representative for mine.

[1:26] for a part of Brooklyn and you can.

[1:29] Carolyn Ball, Brooklyn School of Management.

[1:33] But why don't you have a full head of Brooklyn High School,

[1:36] now Brooklyn School Committee?

[1:39] Aaron Schmelke, interim deputy student of student services,

[1:42] seven, and seven.

[1:45] Ellen Gibson, what did you say, if anything,

[1:48] for a group of seven graduates?

[1:49] for us.

[1:50] Uh, symbols and letters they've paid for are not billed.

[1:54] I'll bring you a web, be in your policy advisor, and general capital grade semi-dream.

[1:59] And walking around, because of seat is, sorry, thank you, Sydney Queen, uh, said it, or

[2:04] for book one.

[2:06] Uh, Congressman?

[2:09] Hi, Jake Aachenclass, Congressman for Brookline.

[2:13] Karina.

[2:15] Hi, there, outreach director for Congressman Aachenclass.

[2:19] Um, Mariah, while you're doing your intro, we're going to bring in Mr. McGregor.

[2:22] Gregor?

[2:23] Great.

[2:24] Mariah and Obrega, member of the school committee.

[2:29] In comments in the room we have, uh, State Park Bill McGregor and his two little, beautiful

[2:35] girls.

[2:37] Um, at this part of our program, we do our legislative updates.

[2:41] So that's what's important to all of our state's federal partners.

[2:46] Uh, Congressman Plus, we're happy to start with you.

[2:49] You know, you have other things happening in DC.

[2:54] I appreciate it.

[2:55] Good afternoon, everybody.

[2:57] I regret that I can't be with you in person

[2:58] as I have in years past.

[2:59] I'm speaking to you from my office in Washington.

[3:03] I know that top of mind for the Brookline School Committee

[3:07] is funding.

[3:08] Here you'll add and clear.

[3:09] I know it's been a challenging year on funding

[3:11] for reasons both external,

[3:14] with all the pressures and volatility

[3:16] and also internal, which I've been following as well.

[3:21] The good news is we actually have passed now appropriations bills in Congress, which is

[3:30] one an important constitutional moment to exert power of the purse against a grotesque

[3:38] overreaching president and two important for stabilizing funding and creating certainty.

[3:43] I voted for these bills when they were first considered by the House, regrettably last

[3:48] week.

[3:48] They were paired with ICE funding.

[3:50] I voted against that package and strongly encouraged all my colleagues in the House to do so as well so we could have a moment of power and leverage over the speaker for reforms to ICE, regrettably, you know, that didn't happen about 21 Democrats pealed off and voted for that package.

[4:09] but these bills are at the President's desk now. Title I, a local grants, basically level funded at 18.4 billion.

[4:17] Idea state grants, which I know are particularly critical, 14.23 billion. That's an increase of 20 million.

[4:24] And then Title II, the professional development, level funded, English acquisition, and Title III level funded.

[4:31] Title IV, and the all-level funded. Now with inflation, obviously these aren't really level funds.

[4:36] These are modest decreases, but there is funding certainty and less, less

[4:43] draconian cuts, I think, than the administration probably wanted to do a year ago, not

[4:47] probably definitely wanted to do.

[4:50] We'll continue to advocate for federal funds for K-12 formula grant programs, and in particular

[4:58] the idea, which I know are really, really helpful in Massachusetts.

[5:02] I also know that the Brookline School Committee has been thinking about the role of personal

[5:08] technology in the classrooms and to what degree it can be a tool of pedagogy and to what

[5:13] degree it's a distraction. I think that's a very, very timely and important conversation

[5:19] to be having. I'm trying to lean into it as well. I've introduced a series of social media

[5:25] bills that are trying to bulldoze their business model of attention fracking our youth, fragmenting

[5:34] their attention spans and pairing their mental and development.

[5:40] One of those bills would levy attacks on the revenues of social media firms and use those

[5:46] monies for education, one on one tutoring and the development of career and technical vocational

[5:53] schools.

[5:54] There's also state-level efforts as well to do that in Utah and Maryland, and who knows

[6:00] maybe in Massachusetts soon as well as the state-level, but certainly at the federal

[6:03] level consider me a strong ally in forcing these tech companies to be tools of those who

[6:12] have children's best interests at heart and not to treat children like products which they

[6:17] had been doing for the last 15 years.

[6:19] members. I will pause there. Thank you, Congressman. Any question for the Congressman from staff

[6:27] or members?

[6:31] You have a quiet crew today. I have a question for Superintendent Susan. Does

[6:37] this, is this new information regarding some of the tidal grants or this? So that's really

[6:43] helpful. We had, we had assumed cuts in some of those tidal grants. So thank you very

[6:53] We'll send you the exact numbers, superintendant to catering them and make sure that we get you the exact numbers.

[6:59] It turns out that when Congress does its job, that things are better than when we let Trump just run roughshod over the Constitution and our laws as a nation.

[7:07] I don't know why my Republican colleagues have such a hard time understanding that, that we're Article 1.

[7:12] But these appropriations bills were an important step towards, as I said, not just a constitutional check on abusive power, but also just,

[7:19] is doing what Americans want, which is fund education.

[7:22] I mean, we should be funding it more,

[7:23] but at least we're putting a floor under

[7:25] some of the really draconian contemplations

[7:28] he was putting out there.

[7:31] Be happy to district.

[7:33] I just wanna say,

[7:34] so the subject is much appreciated.

[7:37] And thank you for your opportunity.

[7:41] So we hope that you are able to hang around

[7:43] when I'll understand that you have other

[7:45] appointments under calendar.

[7:46] So thank you for being with us.

[7:48] I am gonna listen in for a few minutes.

[7:49] I do have something coming up, but I do want to listen for a few minutes until I have

[7:53] to log off.

[7:53] Thank you for having me.

[7:54] Thank you.

[8:02] I'm saying Representative Tommy Bissolo, for real to be here today, and I just want to

[8:10] take off a few things and I'll take up too much time.

[8:13] And this is not my first annual meeting with the school committee, and so I fully understand

[8:24] the importance that the state offers in partnership on funding.

[8:28] In the past, I think our delegation has under promised no over delivered last year.

[8:34] We were able to ratchet up the minimum student aid considerably by the end, and we know that

[8:41] The bulk of funding for Reclined Public Schools comes from Reclined Property Taxes but

[8:47] still the States of Partner and of course we are happy to try to find every dollar we

[8:54] can to support public schools throughout the state, including in Reclined, but it's

[9:00] tough sledding, of course, budget's aren't easy federally, the Congressmen are not easily

[9:08] and hopefully they're not easy at the state level either.

[9:10] In terms of legislative priorities,

[9:13] this is not a numbered list, it's not a ordered list,

[9:16] but it is a list.

[9:17] I'll tell you that ICE is a legislative priority.

[9:23] The idea that poorly trained federal agents

[9:28] are hanging around places where young people are learning

[9:33] and scooping pigs up, scooping parents up, it's reprehensible, and I'll tell you there's

[9:40] not, there are a lot of things that the state government can not do about that because

[9:45] the federal supremacy, I will also tell you that we are actively working to figure out

[9:50] what we can do, even just to slow down this terrible and really disgusting behavior

[10:02] from federal immigration.

[10:04] I believe we should have an immigration enforcement.

[10:07] I believe we shouldn't look anything

[10:08] like what it looks like right now.

[10:10] And of course, that affects the students in our schools.

[10:15] And of course, it's something that we are gonna work on.

[10:19] Another item that we've been working on in the House,

[10:22] the Senate has taken the lead on and we're grateful for.

[10:24] And I hope Senator Creme will tell us about her contributions

[10:28] is data privacy.

[10:30] Convent and we're going to get a data privacy bill across the finish line in the house and then House and Senate will conference.

[10:39] And that's really important for all people including our learners.

[10:45] They deserve to be people in their community and not commodities to be bought and sold.

[10:54] their data belongs to them, and some of it is philosophical, some of it is technical,

[11:00] some of it really may relate to personal safety for our learners, and we do want to maintain

[11:07] that. I expect the House will be coming forward with an energy bill in the coming weeks.

[11:14] One was floated in November and it went to Houseway's means. It is a balance of environmental

[11:20] priorities and cost saving measures. And we know that, for example, public schools of Brookline

[11:27] and the county of Brookline have considerable energy bills. You've got a lot of big buildings,

[11:31] and they've got to keep me warm. And so that's an area where state legislative action may have a

[11:37] small impact on the budget. And again, it's a real challenge of balancing these climate priorities with

[11:44] with people's bills and with the bills of local governments.

[11:50] Finally, I just want to mention, I'm going to look at my phone for a minute because I've

[11:52] gathered down there.

[11:54] The house passed a trio of education bills in late 2025, age 4670 and act relative to personal

[12:03] financial literacy education.

[12:06] I think it's a modest expectation for middle and high school students and personal financial

[12:12] literacy, age 4671, an active student access to the state seal of bioliteracy will allow

[12:21] high school graduates who are literate in two or more languages to have that reflected

[12:27] on their diploma.

[12:28] It's something to really be proud of and something that's worthy of the diploma.

[12:33] And then I think the one that's the most meaningful statewide, although not an unfunded mandate

[12:41] for Berkland because Berkland was ahead of the game, is age 4672, an act relative to teacher

[12:47] preparation and student literacy. And this was a bill about evidence-based learning

[12:55] phonics, learning to read using the techniques that we know work based on analysis and data.

[13:05] And it turned out that many school districts have come away from using reading techniques

[13:10] that were known to work in favor of reading techniques that don't work as well.

[13:17] And many teachers or even districts were reticent to go back to the things that worked.

[13:23] The House passed a bill and said, you're better.

[13:25] The good news is Brookline was ahead of that curve and so I don't think this will have a practical

[13:30] impact on superintendent Wong on down to the teachers themselves. I think that

[13:37] for mine is ahead of it, but I'm proud that we did it because you know we've got

[13:42] kids coming out of third, fourth, fifth grade who aren't able to read proficiently

[13:46] how can it possibly expect grade six to 12 to go very well. So that's some things

[13:51] that we did in the past year. I'm hopeful that the Senate will pick up some of those

[13:55] and those will become law in 2026 and I think I'm more than enough time, so I'm going to pass the law.

[14:02] Senator, thank you for having us.

[14:06] I'm happy to jump in. I wasn't sure you wanted to tell us what you wanted before you heard, but we got it.

[14:14] I'd like to hear from you first. You've seen what we want.

[14:17] Okay, so let me talk about a few things there.

[14:22] where you said our legislative objectives,

[14:25] we both ascended in the House that passed

[14:28] the literacy bill.

[14:30] I'm proud because I grew up in one

[14:32] to the frontline schools in graduate and high school.

[14:35] So I'm glad that we've had other fur above literacy.

[14:39] But I'm pleased that the frontline has a new bill,

[14:43] but not every community is sophisticated

[14:46] or forward to the superintendent who've seen other schools,

[14:53] That's an important goal and I know that it will be both parties will come to some agreement on it.

[15:00] We did a few things in the Senate. The data privacy bill was my bill. I filed it and we passed it in the Senate. I think the relative part of it is that it's certainly important for everybody. It may not be specific to school district, but it does make a statement that we want to minimize the amount of data to begin with. And we want to say that there is data that's sensitive and that data can't be sold.

[15:26] their health, your sector, who you are and who you love and all of those things in a day

[15:33] and age, I mean, political, but boy, everything we believed in is up the grabs.

[15:40] We passed a bill in the Senate that would limit the amount of data, prohibit the sale

[15:46] of sensitive data.

[15:47] And what really I was proud about is we have a piece of it that says that your location data

[15:53] is sensitive.

[15:54] So for those that travel to the Massachusetts, because they need services, there are legal

[16:00] and Massachusetts, but may not be legal in the state like Texas, their location is

[16:05] protective and consider sensitive and not be something that they can buy.

[16:10] I mention it because I think it's a great bill.

[16:13] I hear that the House can take it up and look forward to having a bill on the government's

[16:21] test.

[16:21] Yes, the Senate also did a great bill on cell phones trying to ban them into schools and

[16:29] have a method of understanding that there are instances where there are emotional needs

[16:36] or specific needs for some people to be able to reach their children.

[16:40] We've made those exceptions.

[16:42] I think it's a bill that the schools really care about and I'm proud that the Senate has

[16:49] on that, and I hope that we'll be taken up in the house.

[16:53] Again, everything that the governor signs is something that has been taken up by both

[16:59] party, both branches, so nothing becomes law unless we have something that everybody

[17:04] agrees to, and that's an important one.

[17:08] Another bill that I was involved with was a bill that would forgive the book then, and set

[17:15] up a system where in schools, books would have to be approved by, according to a standard

[17:21] that the American Library Association had, know how to standard that somebody, who

[17:26] knows who we have.

[17:28] And part of that bill, I took some credit for because I was very excited, and it allows

[17:35] an author to have a right to bring soon as well as other people.

[17:39] And in the spirit of transparency, I have to say that my son-in-law wrote a book for

[17:46] an out-young adolescence at the Berlin Boxing Club, and that book won awards.

[17:51] It was very successful, and it was a story about a young boy during the World War II who

[17:57] was bullied as a result of these Jewish, and they sent him, the Boxing School with Max

[18:03] smelling to help him strengthen himself so that he can fight the kids that are bullying him.

[18:09] It won awards at number one adolescent book and all of a sudden my son-in-law saw that the book was

[18:15] banned in several states and when he invited this young man's father has a friend who appears as

[18:25] an ancillary character in the book, and he's transgender. And as a result of that the book was banned in

[18:32] certain states and certain flyers, the young adolescents, that's sort of reprehensible,

[18:38] but in any event, I really was excited about that bill, that bill, that related to book

[18:44] family.

[18:46] And now, I'm, I'm ready to go on a new bill, which sort of talks in relation to what the

[18:53] congressman was talking about, it's a bill on addictive social media feaks.

[19:00] And while that, we talked about why that importantness school, it is important and it is parents,

[19:07] local parents that came to me and said that their children had one problem or another.

[19:13] They went on social media and then they started getting all these other social media from

[19:19] areas that they didn't want all night long that were getting things.

[19:23] And this bill would, first of all, have a way to have age identification, the Attorney

[19:30] general would have to come up with some method that you would need to show that this was

[19:35] age-related. And there would not be the social media between six at night and in the morning.

[19:41] It's a great bill. It's my thing to try and get the Senate to pass. My pal over here is trying

[19:49] to do it in the House, Representative McGregor. And I said, well, yesterday with the congressman

[19:55] who has some great federal bills.

[20:00] So some of the problems of these lobbyists,

[20:03] particularly like the data bill

[20:04] and this social media bill is the argument,

[20:07] oh, why not wait until it happens at the federal level

[20:13] rather than having different ideas at different states?

[20:17] And you told me that would be great

[20:19] because we should all do it there.

[20:22] But these things are not going anywhere

[20:25] the federal level. And so it's my hope that we can please do them in a place like Massachusetts.

[20:34] And this one walkbook again may not be the kind of thing we talk about here, but

[20:41] so the House and the Senate work together I work to

[20:45] represent a parish and we passed a resolution that would wipe out prior

[20:51] requests for constitutional conventions.

[20:55] So, it's kind of an interesting thought.

[20:58] It actually came to me from the common cause.

[21:02] So, from time to time,

[21:05] different legislators in a particularly in Massachusetts

[21:09] have requested a constitutional convention.

[21:12] And if 32 states, if requisite number of states

[21:16] ask for a constitutional convention, they will be more.

[21:19] It's never even though under the Constitution they were entitled to do that, there's no rules.

[21:25] So anything can be held up.

[21:27] And we as Massachusetts had on the books a request a long time ago to ban abortion.

[21:34] And that was a request to have a Constitutional Convention.

[21:38] And we were amongst the states that had listed outstanding things that we wanted.

[21:44] A Constitutional Convention, if called, could give the President another term.

[21:47] A lot of things can happen in a Constitutional Convention, and we represent a patient I worked

[21:54] so that it can out of both the House and the Senate, that we got rid of whatever we

[22:00] had requested, but I no longer one of the states.

[22:04] A lot of states have done that, and if we can make sure that we don't want a Constitutional

[22:10] Convention out one, then we don't know what would might be out there.

[22:13] With respect to funding, which I know is your number one and all of our number one priorities,

[22:21] I will say that over the past years, we have done well with funding.

[22:27] It may not be enough, but we really look deep.

[22:30] This is a bad time.

[22:34] I'm not coming bearing bad news, but you know that we don't know how much money people are from the federal government.

[22:41] We're actually lucky that we have the millionaire tariffs because the funding that is coming

[22:47] in for schools education is the funding that's coming for the millionaire tax point.

[22:53] We are out a lot of money and a lot of people are not going to have the health insurance

[22:58] that they had before and we've been trying the stuff is still low at all so that we can

[23:03] keep our money rules for health insurance.

[23:06] but the governance budget, so everyone knows that the government does a budget first,

[23:14] then the House does a budget.

[23:16] Then the Senate and the House and the Senate get together with one budget,

[23:20] and then that goes to the government.

[23:23] And the government's budget works quite well.

[23:26] We don't know because we haven't seen the House and we haven't that House.

[23:31] And I understand I mean things like,

[23:33] But it's been a priority for me to cover all the benefits that have been spent to make

[23:40] sure that we've covered my communities are so into funding for things like that versus

[23:48] other communities.

[23:50] And I know that we've done better, we've put the circuit plate around.

[23:54] I'm hoping that we can do that.

[23:56] I'm hoping that you can fund this through an opportunity.

[24:00] The thing on the horizon that I always say is that I don't know how it's going to turn

[24:09] it out is, for example, in chapter 7, my community is all over, my Rosley are all in the

[24:17] same position.

[24:19] They don't depend entirely on stake funding for their school budget.

[24:26] And my colleagues whose communities depend on that funding are saying that Boston,

[24:36] you can go find you all the way, Boston and Europe being a symptom of things, are communities

[24:42] that don't depend as much on chapters FD funding.

[24:46] And as we wrote that, we're doing that, I think we're going to have to pay attention to

[24:53] what effect it's going to have on them for a while and mention that because I think it's

[24:59] something kind of the real idea not all looking because it is somewhat maybe bothers

[25:07] them to the community set out of the set. I hear any other questions or we're all ready.

[25:15] We're going to come back to questions as we make sure we get through all the updates.

[25:20] Thank you, Ron.

[25:22] Good to see you.

[25:24] And, of course, my campaign manager for my first campaign.

[25:27] That's the tragedy.

[25:28] So I have nothing to say about that, but I'm not your first campaign.

[25:34] My very first, well, I'm sorry.

[25:37] It just popped up on one of the social media that Kevin is in his 40th year, sorry.

[25:45] That was your first job.

[25:47] And it was for us after a nationwide search, my brother's girlfriend.

[25:56] That's how she got broken into that.

[25:59] Anyway, a pleasure for me to be here with all my colleagues.

[26:04] We worked very hard on education, but I should start with the ice issue that Tommy had brought up.

[26:11] So in my neighborhood, we had the Austin Cow wash, so on an election day, not to want to go.

[26:18] Nine people were arrested, put down on the ground, handcuffed behind it.

[26:23] Bad, so it was just an awful, awful thing.

[26:27] And I know all the people who owned that gas station in the Cow wash.

[26:34] So I went over with the local city council and a check in on them, but it was just disgraceful.

[26:40] because the people who were there worked so hard,

[26:43] and they can't do this country for a better life,

[26:46] and there's a rest of the chair of it.

[26:49] So if there are a number of,

[26:51] well, a couple of bills up there,

[26:54] the Protect Act and the State Communities Act,

[26:57] which were all co-sponsors up,

[26:59] and they're still developing,

[27:01] trying to keep ice up,

[27:03] schools out of religious institutions,

[27:06] medical institutions,

[27:08] and we're still developing it. We have in meetings pretty regularly to develop a final proposal of the House on that and I'm sure you're working on that to on the Senate.

[27:20] I'm on the steering policy.

[27:21] Yeah, I have no doubt.

[27:24] So we're working on protecting people who want to live here.

[27:29] And I was the chair of housing 17 years, and that's when I was working with Val.

[27:35] So who was at the Ulster Brighton Community Development Corporation.

[27:40] And we put through the MBTA Communities Act as a chief sponsor of that, and that's made

[27:47] a lot of progress.

[27:48] There was a resistance to affordable housing and basically any kind of housing here in Massachusetts

[27:55] and where it is over underdubbed, you know, this is what we need to be.

[28:00] So that's the zoning piece of housing.

[28:04] And it went through a few years ago with Charlie Baker, who had his proposal,

[28:09] which was the two-thirds vote one, the housing choices bill.

[28:15] So if his bill sought to allow the municipal level,

[28:21] Bill's that used to have a two-thirds vote, but his bill, which for a simple majority,

[28:26] and that went through, and when that was going through, we reported out favorably pushed it.

[28:31] We tacked on the MBTA community set to try to help in that area.

[28:36] And that was a pretty successful thing.

[28:39] I had a bill that became a law last year on cameras on school buses because it was passing.

[28:45] And it's a local option built, and the number of communities have adopted that one.

[28:53] And the thing that impresses me always about Brookline is your school system is fabulous.

[28:58] You just had an article in the globe about one-third of the Boston students are not reaching

[29:06] compliance to the graduate.

[29:08] So every time I'm here, I hear more in Brookline that we need to make more progress.

[29:14] So you folks always have your foot on the accelerator and it never happened.

[29:19] You always want things to be better, which is a lesson for other communities.

[29:25] And many of the bills that Tommy had mentioned and the senator had mentioned,

[29:30] you're already doing the changes in learning how to teaching reading and comprehension.

[29:38] You're ahead of us.

[29:39] I also have a sponsor of a bill, the congressman had mentioned vocational education, and maybe

[29:47] you can talk when you do about vocational education.

[29:51] We have, it used to be the Duke at Huffrey Occupational Resource Center, which is now in Madison

[29:57] Park.

[29:57] And it might be receiving.

[30:00] Location, bill, and so on. But I had sponsor the bill to teach two students how to be bus drivers. And I think there's a good career with a pension. I meant it's mass transit. So it's something that's pretty important. I part to two different headmasters of Madison Park. In the last five years and others, a third headmasters. So this is kind of an issue that needs to be

[30:30] worked on, but the stability of the school, but it's wonderful. They teach

[30:37] everything over there. Maybe you can talk to me about what Brookline is doing on

[30:41] that area. I am very impressed with your sports. I went to a basketball field

[30:49] recently. Brookline, I against Burntree High, I like the school spirit.

[30:59] It's

[31:00] I'm sorry, I said the past Dean of the Education School and he said one of the things that was

[31:05] most rewarding to him was to come to the Brookline Schools and he spoke at the

[31:10] Council of the Class and said, I think you should reach out to him again, right Tommy? Tommy,

[31:16] you're at your PhD or I did. So I met his panel for his PhD.

[31:23] Anyway, they were wanting to

[31:26] volunteer over here. So you reunite that partnership of robots and the students are very

[31:32] enthusiastic. I think that could be a good partnership. So on the reading bill that was mentioned,

[31:40] you're already there. You're already doing it. You've already implemented it before. The

[31:45] graduation requirements, the states working on that since there's no MCAS. So there's a bill

[31:53] We'll put the oil on that, and we all know that in almost every area of government, now

[32:00] people will consider about financing and getting revenue from the stage.

[32:05] So we'll all work together to try to help get 70 and other things we've made for our

[32:10] last budget.

[32:12] So we'll continue to work with you on that issue.

[32:17] And, yeah, the one we mentioned was net goals.

[32:23] So, net goal, look at birth 3.1 million dollar increase over last year.

[32:29] There's 60 of the anniversaries coming up, and I know you have a wonderful relationship with net goal.

[32:35] So, we would look forward to helping net goal.

[32:38] Thank you.

[32:43] Thank you.

[32:44] Thank you, Madam Chair.

[32:46] Thank you.

[32:47] Well, great to be here with everyone.

[32:50] So for those of you who don't know me, this is actually my third one here.

[32:55] But the number of the 10th St. Representative, so I covered my journey to West Rocks,

[33:01] or half a rosemary, for instance, and Jamaican plain,

[33:04] and one precinct, precinct, 16 in total, so for five.

[33:09] So I'm proud to have that precinct.

[33:13] I was hoping to take a couple of them from Rup Schwartz,

[33:16] but that's okay.

[33:21] So for five in total, obviously,

[33:22] and I think I've mentioned this since that's near and dear

[33:26] to my heart, I actually am also a for five school graduate.

[33:30] I went to Driscoll and in Washington Square I haven't visited the new building yet so I

[33:37] got to get it over there but and then my sister was a Brooklyn school teacher and for special

[33:45] edit and you know I just have a lot of family history and so yeah you know but so I am happy

[33:56] to be here. I think I want to score a few things. Obviously, let's say I mentioned the

[34:01] cell phone ban, which I think is very important. My nephew, who actually goes to, he's a freshman

[34:08] at Brookline High. Southmore. Southmore. Southmore.

[34:10] Southmore. Southmore. Southmore. Southmore.

[34:17] Southmore. Southmore. Southmore. Southmore.

[34:19] Southmore. Southmore. Southmore.

[34:25] Southmore.

[34:25] he is actually one of the people that needs to make sure he has his phone on,

[34:31] it monitors his insulin and whatnot. So I wanted to make sure that was something that was in the

[34:35] center. So before I came to the house and you know I appreciate this senator and all this I was

[34:42] working for making sure that's in there because you know many medical exemptions they have to make

[34:47] you know we have to make sure that there wouldn't be a complete bill about having that amendment in

[34:52] there. So the book band, ProLiberty having book fans is something that I'm

[34:59] supportive of. The rapper Moran, John Moran, who came in with me. He is the sponsor

[35:05] on the house side. And, you know, you know, anything that I can do to like support

[35:11] that. I've been very supportive of my girls as you see Ellie's milling. I actually

[35:18] And there is one of the books that I read into their class recently, it would be one book that would probably be a book that was just, you know, like, so I want to make sure I picked out a book that was, you know, important to just show that, you know, families can be different.

[35:37] So I will go into all that and I know that the center mentioned the social media

[35:45] Bill so I was I was very excited that she let me partner with her. She's really been leading on that charge and

[35:52] I'm

[35:53] I'm her Robin

[35:57] On that and

[36:00] But it's been a lot of fun

[36:08] Maybe I'm running dog, but it's, but it's been it's been great to see all the work that's going on and seeing how far it's moving.

[36:23] I know that the governor mentioned in her state of the Commonwealth that is one of her priorities.

[36:28] She called both of our offices to let us know that, you know, she liked the legislation so much that she wanted to bring something forward.

[36:36] That is, you know, social media is really affecting kids, they say it's, you know, that,

[36:41] what type on average a child will be scrolling through rails five hours a day, which is about

[36:48] 72 days a year.

[36:51] And when I went to go testify on this bill, I brought an intern with me who wanted to really

[36:58] speak on it.

[36:59] And I give her a lot of credit for being so courageous.

[37:01] just, but her testimony was mentioning how social media worsened her eating disorder.

[37:09] And you know, these are the reasons why that, you know, we need, I know if he wants to

[37:15] do that at a national level, but I have something that we don't want to delay on a state level.

[37:20] We don't want to wait for someone else to do it.

[37:22] So I'm happy to partner the center on that.

[37:25] I did do a bill, as you might imagine, to have two kids and day care to deliver expensive.

[37:34] And I know that we do a child tax credit, one myself and Rupp's Book of Read proposed

[37:41] doing a tax credit for child care and dependent care.

[37:46] So I know she is a person that her mother depends on, and it's sometimes hard to find

[37:57] a assistant, but you know, she and myself, obviously my kids go to the daycare.

[38:03] What this bill would do is kind of mirror what the federal government does unless the administration

[38:08] takes what, but it would give like a pop and all tax credit for those that have to use

[38:15] child care at the end of the year. It's no, that's not a lot. I know, you know, the child care

[38:21] for me is over 55,000 dollars a year for two kids. So it's, but you know, every little bit helps for

[38:31] everyone. And so, you know, that bill has been extended in committee. So I'm looking forward to

[38:38] working with the committee and seeing how far we can get it going. In regards to ICE,

[38:44] I know that I won't spoke on it and I actually recently had an incident in my district in

[38:52] Rosendale, which many of you might have heard where they took someone who was in a car

[38:59] and they took them and they left the car idling in the middle of the road and that was

[39:06] I believe Thursday and, you know, I have spoken out on, you know, on ice. I've been, I think

[39:16] among Ari and Kai is legislation. And the Black and Latino caucus, you know, will protect

[39:22] that. I mean, we still have to do a hearing and, you know, and just have it reported on. But we've

[39:31] met with leadership, we met with the black only team of caucus and, you know, I'm a sponsor on that and it was important to get met through the house and, yeah, so, honestly, that was very important.

[39:45] I proposed a bill on telehealth, and I know I still see this very quickly.

[39:53] The one thing, when I was Jordan, when I went in for the seat, I remember going to some of this house and she mentioned how her child,

[40:00] was going to the University of Connecticut

[40:03] and how she conceived her state of therapists

[40:06] because of the state of clients.

[40:08] So I know that there are a few other elected

[40:12] that have proposed similar bills,

[40:14] which I mean I wasn't aware of that at the time,

[40:16] but this is something that I think would be very important,

[40:20] very beneficial.

[40:21] I know personally how hard it is to grow a relationship

[40:25] with a therapist or a doctor in a general.

[40:29] I don't know, so I would love to make sure that we can,

[40:33] I trust that we do an industry, one, and say,

[40:36] and yeah, following regards to the budget,

[40:40] I don't think I need to tell anyone that's gonna be a top year,

[40:45] but we're gonna do our best to be as helpful as we can.

[40:50] You know, I have dual citizenship in Brookline,

[40:56] and that's what it's all like.

[41:01] And I want to just make sure, you know, we can help every, every name of it or every town in the city as much as possible.

[41:11] You know, we got the federal government style, you know, but whatever we can do right here.

[41:17] Thanks, Billy, and last but not least, I'm afraid it is going to be a glee because everybody said everything already.

[41:24] But I'll do my best to play clean up here.

[41:28] Thank you so much for having me.

[41:29] I was really thrilled for a couple of years,

[41:31] so I'm on that table.

[41:33] I'm used to being the youngest at the table

[41:35] and the fourth question is, I'm going to all set.

[41:40] But yeah, so Greg Schwartz represented from Metal 612,

[41:44] which is pre-615, 14, 13A, and parts of five

[41:49] as well as parts of Newton.

[41:52] really glad to be here for my second year.

[41:55] It's very nice to see some folks from before

[41:58] and miss some new places as well.

[42:00] Hoping to continue this conversation

[42:02] not just today, but throughout the year.

[42:05] Ellen, with mention Ellen Gibson is my legislative age.

[42:08] She's available anytime that we get into a vehicle.

[42:11] So I'm just going to touch on a couple of the points that have been made

[42:15] and just add a couple of my priorities.

[42:18] First of all, as a father of a high schooler and a recent high schooler

[42:21] in Newton, I can tell you that a lot of the issues that we've just been talking about

[42:24] are near and dear to me, whether it's primarily it's social media, like we've been saying,

[42:32] to mental health, and the impacts of both of those on our students, our children's development.

[42:43] And it doesn't stop at high school, obviously we're focusing on that today, but the college

[42:49] experience is also very important and I have a recent graduate, so she's in college and I can

[42:56] tell you that the issues don't stop at the graduation.

[43:02] One of the things that I want to thank

[43:04] Senator Cream and my colleagues, Dean Bonin and Tommy, and Bill, for all their leadership. I'm

[43:10] learning from them every day and I appreciate their leadership and especially Senator Cream, we really

[43:16] depend on you on the Senate side and we've got four of us and just one of you but you've got

[43:21] a big gaville over there and a really big job and you've been incredibly helpful when it comes

[43:25] to every issue but also budget budgets especially so we've got to say that I'm sure of all of it.

[43:37] So if we found that point budget is very important we're right in the middle of budget right now

[43:44] we're just getting started. And as has been mentioned, the Student Opportunity Act funds really

[43:50] important for districts, such as Brookline. I know the Glassager and the governor came in with a

[43:55] low ball for the minimum eight communities, $75. We got up to 150, which is a really, you know,

[44:03] big impact, $17 million for the district. So this year also has come in 75 from what I understand.

[44:10] So we're going to have to do a little bit of fancy footwork, especially in the difficult

[44:13] a whole bunch of times, but hoping that we'll get that back up.

[44:17] You know, outside of budget though, there's literacy bills that we passed.

[44:24] You've heard enough about that.

[44:26] The data privacy and cell phone bills, really important.

[44:30] As I mentioned, for mental health, as a health provider myself for many years,

[44:35] more than 20 years as a private care physician, mental health, super important.

[44:40] and we are, there's much more to do on that, and so if we can get the cell phone bill through

[44:47] the house, the Senate has already gotten there, we can get that on the desk of the governor.

[44:53] As far as data privacy, you know, in addition to the location privacy that was mentioned, we did pass

[44:59] That's in the house.

[45:00] It's a health care privacy piece of this, which I think Senator Green alluded to, which is when folks come to vestuces for things that are legal in vestuces, whether it's reproductive care and gender care, they should not have those records be available to folks back in their own states if they're going to be prosecuted. So our legislation made the medical record more explosive and more of how it helps.

[45:30] I'm sorry, opt in so that people will not be subject to persecution when they go back

[45:35] home.

[45:37] As far as some of the other issues on the medical side, I might say, you know, we talked about

[45:44] some of the non-education specific issues like immigration and I don't know if we touched

[45:51] on housing, but that's a very important factor, obviously, but another is health and with

[45:57] If the cuts coming from the federal government on the Medicaid budget, which can be, you

[46:03] know, we're talking 250 to 300,000 people may lose their Medicaid coverage in 2027,

[46:09] we're going to be affected by that, both more people to take care of at the state by the

[46:16] providers, but also the funding that we get from the federal government has reimbursements

[46:20] for that care that we provide through the Medicaid program will be reduced, so that's going

[46:25] to be a big noxic cracked down the road.

[46:29] One of my priorities being health care

[46:31] has been to try to improve the primary care crisis

[46:35] that we have and that be a sponsor of my,

[46:39] the author of one of the house bills on this issue

[46:42] that's a Senate bill by Senator Creeper,

[46:45] City Freedman that both of our bills would,

[46:50] if I were to improve the access to primary care

[46:53] by increasing the expenditures in the global spending on health care, just to increase the

[47:03] rebalance some of the growth and spending so that primary care actually does not become

[47:07] a smaller, smaller proportion, but actually it comes with a large proportion of the total

[47:11] and that will affect the availability of providers to patients.

[47:16] Just a couple of other things, I think that, you know, as I mentioned, college is also

[47:22] very important.

[47:23] And so very happy that we've been able to support the Bright Act and pass that through the

[47:27] House, which is a large funding bill that will give $1.5 billion to the state colleges and

[47:36] UMass.

[47:37] It has an environmental impact as well because it's largely for rebuilding their physical

[47:42] plant and many of those buildings are very large carbon footprints. On the carbon side there's a

[47:49] bill that I've been a supporter of by colleagues from Newton, Amy Central and I,

[47:54] the supporters of the EV school bus bill to try to improve and take away some of the

[47:59] distance centers for buying EV school buses by reducing the sale tax on them.

[48:06] And, just, you know, finally, you know, we can touch on mental health a couple of times,

[48:13] but it's really important to continue to work with students, make sure that they have

[48:18] available counselors, no matter where they live, like Bill would say, and make sure that

[48:24] those relationships aren't interrupted when they move.

[48:29] I guess I'd be remiss if I didn't mention in this community as well as you can say the

[48:34] recommendations that we received from the Special Commission on Antisemitism, which will

[48:39] be implemented by Dessie and those include trying, among other things, but trying to make sure

[48:45] that part of the understanding that we're trying to create among students includes and understanding

[48:52] the Jewish experience in America and what Antisemitism looks like. So I think it's part of the

[49:02] And I hope that they handle the very challenging issue with a lot of care.

[49:08] And when that can implement it, we will see sort of improvements to that throughout the software.

[49:13] So thank you for your time. I know that I'm the last to five.

[49:17] Oh, thank you.

[49:18] I appreciate you. That's you before I do any further.

[49:22] Was was our document posted?

[49:24] Yes, okay. I'm just not going to read it and go through everything.

[49:28] it that's been posted for the public. Our legislative leaders clearly know what included,

[49:33] so I just want to highlight a couple of pieces. Of course, as a minimum eight community,

[49:39] the chapter 70 that you're all talking about is hugely important to us, eliminating

[49:44] that inflation capital in a long way. It's a big group line from a little special edge.

[49:51] Moving the circuit breaker, a random return percentage to 90 percent would be, again,

[49:56] and something that would be incredibly important

[50:00] and helpful for our budget, as a minimum aid community.

[50:05] We are covering the majority of this

[50:08] as opposed to other communities where we can say,

[50:10] you know, hold on a good portion.

[50:12] So that would be extremely helpful

[50:14] as with lowering the thresholds of costs

[50:18] that are available for circuit free,

[50:21] very diverse things.

[50:24] So, I've also gone back to our state of technology,

[50:29] so I want to label those, I've

[50:33] already pre-payed.

[50:35] We've heard from some of the trainers talk about these lovely daughters who are pouring

[50:39] away over there.

[50:40] So, yeah, I've probably done that really, it's basically blabbered in laws, and I've been

[50:47] It's 5 or 5 now from here, so I hope this is all volunteer hours.

[50:53] I'll open it up to questions from the committee or let me show you story here.

[50:59] Okay, so these are questions that they said in the comments.

[51:04] I want to go shout out to some people.

[51:07] So I want to start by saying, I hope it's okay if I do this because you're terrible.

[51:10] But so I would love to invite people to come and see some of the programs all legislated.

[51:16] So, you know, I've seen the high school.

[51:18] We love showing it off.

[51:19] I want to see a public thing when I go back, and this is just going wherever it is.

[51:23] We'd love to take you through.

[51:25] So, we can make that happen, for sure.

[51:27] But just a few names that happen very recently.

[51:31] So, Magibirah is a head school psychologist.

[51:35] It teaches us to receive national recognition for the work that he has been doing here.

[51:39] and it has made a huge difference in terms of talking about our students in a sense of

[51:44] the law.

[51:44] That is not part of our daily goal carry limit, and so it was probably set up that.

[51:49] Ritz Stevens does a lot for our career in technology, and she's working on pathways

[51:54] so that students can start to think about not just a single force, but how is that a pathway

[52:00] to something beyond secondary education, or anybody who's a secondary education or technical

[52:05] call a phone call and whatever they want. So she's doing some really incredible work.

[52:09] And her cafe is really fabulous. And that's what I'm just seeing. So I'm taking over the

[52:15] end for some lunch if you come to visit. Sasha Palmer is doing great stuff in our food services.

[52:21] So we're very thankful for the money that we get, you know, that it's universal three breakfast

[52:26] and lunch. It's a huge difference to our children, our students. And these treatments in the high

[52:31] school, I think, in particular, because everybody gets it, you don't have to worry about

[52:36] spending money on that kind of thing. And then I went as much as Patricia Laham, who is

[52:40] our head nurse, and she really has been working on our wellness plan for the last couple of

[52:46] years with the whole team of people. I have to be on that subject, but we have a received

[52:50] recognition that's a model wellness plan certainly within the state and even in the region.

[52:56] So I just wanted to get some shout out, because some of the things that are going on

[53:00] I'd like to invite you to come, and we'll work something out with a diversity of children

[53:06] and we'd love to show along with it.

[53:08] Also, we should introduce Bella Wong.

[53:11] The rest of you guys have been here for five years at this point that you need no introduction.

[53:18] At least since July.

[53:22] Would you like to introduce yourself to the legislators?

[53:24] Sorry that we're doing this part so late.

[53:26] That fabulous. I have seven. I think I'm good fun. So I'm also a bookline alum. I

[53:36] would want a Boston and my family came here when I was in second grade and I have always

[53:41] been really proud of being an alum. That's stuff to describe. And I have served as superintendent

[53:55] other districts, but I think this one is I'm just so very pleased to have this opportunity

[54:01] and feel quite privileged to be able to serve this role. And I have a wonderful team that's

[54:08] sitting around the table. So Deputy Superintendent Dr. Karen Schmeckler is over there on one end

[54:14] and then circling around to Robin the noise who's the Deputy Superintendent of Teaching and Learning.

[54:20] And the three of us, Karen, Robin and myself started in this year from the spring

[54:28] future.

[54:29] So we are anchored by the veteran, Susan Gibbons, Deputy Superintendent of the Office of

[54:35] Administration of Finance, who is in her third year.

[54:39] So we are a new team, but I feel we are working very well and I would agree with all email,

[54:46] First, I'll email leadership team for the Ten of us, and proud to be able to be here to work with you all.

[54:55] And I'm really impressed to hear all that, you know, share today about the different projects that you're on in the field that you are waiting for.

[55:04] That by my, just please, I understand, I understand there are a lot of pressures that everyone wants something.

[55:14] and the budget. But there is nothing like our pre-K-12 opportunity to play the groundwork

[55:26] for equitable outcomes for all students. Nothing like the pre-K-12 model to do. We have

[55:37] all the students all the way from the beginning to the end. And it is our purpose, our mission

[55:43] to lay the groundwork for them, to have best outcomes, to be best citizens, to be autonomous.

[55:52] But you know in the early education, the more we invest in the early years,

[55:58] the less we're chasing the gaps later. So if you think about all the programs that you are

[56:03] looking at and the challenges, the best place to invest is early in the pre-taxable.

[56:11] Thank you for letting me say that.

[56:18] I'm really not thinking about what's the difference.

[56:20] Oh, Carol.

[56:23] Carol's, oh again, I'm thinking about what's the difference.

[56:28] Thinking of some of what's the difference in terms of things

[56:31] we're proud of.

[56:33] I think that was a point you talked about going to a Zask of all games.

[56:37] We also have a fabulous, and I feel really proud about this,

[56:42] unified sports program. Maybe Dr. Schmuckler can describe more of what that is and then

[56:50] if that's something I'm really just proud and it's wonderful and I think we'll try to grow it,

[56:56] yeah. So you're going to find sports and it's really good and my school will be current

[57:02] for you on duty. So that's inclusive sports for students with disabilities with disabilities

[57:09] opportunities and the current year, the possible teams, the ball team, the track team, and

[57:16] the game for five.

[57:22] It's an amazing opportunity for all students where you participate in and where a

[57:31] I don't think we should be able to develop this for our middle school as well to really

[57:36] invite a group of students to do this.

[57:39] And so in terms of shout-out, a lot of that shout-out goes to our high school step-in-room

[57:44] special education director, Robert Fabiano, who was really scared at the start of this work

[57:49] in the district.

[57:50] So we are very proud of that.

[57:52] Great.

[57:53] I have the legislation to more influence the sports as well.

[57:56] So Alex, Alex is my aide, I know there's a lot of state aids around, but I have, I have

[58:04] help to sleep to produce more of that, yeah, with the special 100 others, but we'll

[58:10] get back to being able to speak one more time. So I did housing, as I mentioned, and three

[58:17] of the last four housing bond bills, well, I sponsored to get in there, just mentioning it,

[58:24] you went passing it will be helpful probably to the delegation at the school

[58:29] committee members just you don't have to ask this question just tell us which

[58:32] your priorities are and it's like us to work on it. Yeah and Kevin all right check.

[58:37] Yeah you got it you're the doctor but I don't say any chance. You're right

[58:56] I have a bill and I have someone that was very interested in changing the public school

[59:05] through social media, through social-emotional learning particularly in sports and I don't

[59:14] know what I'd be interested in seeing how maybe you feel about that, but this bill would require

[59:20] a desi to issue guidance, to help school districts create middle and high school,

[59:26] curriculum creating safe and supportive bias routine, because we've had instances in light of

[59:34] the discussion of antisemitism. We had the football team at Andrew. We had various

[59:43] incidents in sports and this field will deal with that and I just wonder what

[59:52] The point has, if you love a God, I'm asking the question, well, no, but if it's helpful.

[1:00:00] It's been, I mean, I think what I think it's really important, and I think we try and throw in socially

[1:00:06] much more earnings or everything we do. And so sports is such an unique opportunity to do that outside

[1:00:13] of the day as well, and to really continue to sort of bridge and make those connections. You know,

[1:00:19] it's a competitive environment. And so I think that is a wonderful idea. We also have our

[1:00:26] Our high school athletics director, Kyle Williams is another, I think, huge asset in the

[1:00:34] district, also Brooklyn-born and raised, married to Brooklyn-born and raised, who runs

[1:00:40] our food bank, so, and he's always innovative and wants to do more and more and so, very

[1:00:53] I would think he would be really interested in something like that, just to make it interesting.

[1:01:02] I also, sorry, can I ask a question too?

[1:01:05] And without getting too much, just unfortunately, go back to the ice.

[1:01:12] My son was very excited to run into Mayor Wu in Brutucci's in Westrop Surrey, a Friday night.

[1:01:19] and it was there in just a friend he'd send a picture around to everybody and she I don't

[1:01:27] know if you have it guys but she said that Boston was talking to Brookline maybe Brookline

[1:01:35] just wondering sort of what kinds of cross what are we doing oh I'm sorry I'm going to talk

[1:01:44] my schoolgirl and talent was the, I don't know, they were in the lab now, the mayor of

[1:01:52] New York, the mayor, there was an executive order, the governor didn't, which was great

[1:02:01] for Massachusetts, and then two parties, she filed a bill to, it includes certain things

[1:02:08] that we can make same places in schools and she signed it and accepted water. I know because

[1:02:18] the mayor of Newton has publicized that he was with Mayor Wolfe and they filed, he also filed an

[1:02:26] executive order that says that ICE couldn't go into public spaces such as schools and without a warrant

[1:02:34] but they couldn't use those public spaces.

[1:02:38] I don't know that what you're talking about,

[1:02:40] but I know that they're that.

[1:02:42] And then we're so several towns there as well.

[1:02:46] I was town administrator, I tried to do a very much after.

[1:02:48] So yeah, so I attended and yeah.

[1:02:53] But yes, and a lot of times I tried to stop in a park,

[1:02:57] which is part of the public.

[1:02:59] So that's something that, like, you know,

[1:03:02] And, you know, like the sellers that tried to find every avenue, we can do the federal government, you know, this is, we can't get involved, or it won't happen.

[1:03:18] So an interesting thing, I just, I didn't think we were going to talk about this, but obviously,

[1:03:25] this is what everybody's interested.

[1:03:28] But it relates to representative Owens' discussion about the car wash, because I use that

[1:03:37] car wash, so I'm familiar with it.

[1:03:39] so there's a law that when ice comes into a business, they give the employer three days notice that there's no law that the employer has to give the employees three days notice.

[1:03:55] And many employees are, they just haven't updated their papers.

[1:04:01] I'm not we're not talking about the cartel. We're not talking about criminals here. We're talking about ordinary people that might have been here on the temporary status or they needed to upgrade their papers and they're being picked up because they have done that. And if they didn't have that notice, they could.

[1:04:20] and so I'm on a steering and policy committee that's responding to the

[1:04:27] comes at 2025s on one of the things we're looking at is that the prior

[1:04:33] is the three days to be placed. I don't know if that would have helped.

[1:04:39] It's an

[1:04:40] interesting concept that they don't have to be placed really. One thing I would add

[1:04:44] and I think that it's really important to with messaging because there are people in

[1:04:49] in our communities who don't understand exactly what this

[1:04:53] station is, which is a very working station,

[1:04:55] between criminal activity or criminal warrants

[1:04:58] and civil enforcement of our immigration laws,

[1:05:02] almost all of the efforts that we've been talking about,

[1:05:06] whether it's the governor's executive order,

[1:05:09] governor's post-language or the supplemental budget,

[1:05:12] the bills that we're looking at right now

[1:05:17] protect acts that the legislative, Hispanic, and Black Caucus, but forward are all about

[1:05:25] trying to clarify that with non-priminal violations of the immigration laws,

[1:05:32] there just cannot be a coordination with a low law enforcement. It is not required by federal law,

[1:05:39] and it is not the precedent of the Supreme Court to require it. And there's

[1:05:43] investments that this city and towns and states can refuse to cooperate, as long as it's not a criminal, serious criminal activity.

[1:05:52] So this is about public safety because when ICE operates in those situations without judicial warrants, on civil matters,

[1:06:01] they create more havoc that helps.

[1:06:04] And in fact, when it's court houses, and this is one of the main points that our legislation that we're looking at

[1:06:10] that with the Protect Act points to is that when it's pork houses, people who are needed

[1:06:16] to go as victims or as witnesses and to drives need to have that safety to come without

[1:06:23] the threat of being picked up and deported.

[1:06:27] That actually improves public safety when they come without fear and not stay home and not

[1:06:33] be absent from those proceedings.

[1:06:35] So all about public safety, this is if you're angry.

[1:06:39] So, if you're saying that you're for publicization, you should actually put your mind behind

[1:06:44] it, which is protecting the people who need to be there to enhance and protect public

[1:06:50] safety.

[1:06:51] So, I was very, I need to say, give credit here, as part of steering on policy, we, the

[1:07:00] members of that committee of the Senate, reached out to Lord Wilson and Lord to see how they

[1:07:06] felt about things we could do because I'm telling you that it might, in Brookline, Newton

[1:07:14] and Wellesley were of one line, but when I talked to some of my colleagues in the

[1:07:19] House field for as the same issue, out in the western private state, out of the

[1:07:23] passing state, you have legislators who've lost in Brookline, Newton, there are all on board,

[1:07:30] but then you talk to the legislators that represent the middle part of the state, the western

[1:07:34] part of the state. They're constituents. I know where my constituent died, but I did reach out to

[1:07:42] chief pastor in Verkline who might think it's ready and she sent me the policies that Verkline has

[1:07:52] and they're pretty strong about doctor operating. It's pretty impressive and we went through I went

[1:08:01] to do endless, who's been at least advised that those, you know, I said to my colleagues

[1:08:08] that were on my committee to say, well, you can, you know, why can't you go to town

[1:08:13] instead of that?

[1:08:14] Two weeks.

[1:08:16] I'm going to graduate, a little bit later.

[1:08:18] Brooklyn.

[1:08:19] Yes, she's great.

[1:08:20] Senator, another thing to report, hopefully, it's a sentence.

[1:08:23] There were three days notice the workers at the car washroom said they had to pay the lives,

[1:08:27] pay the visits with them, said they were in a locker and they would let them go get them.

[1:08:31] Right. Right. Eight out of the ninth. Eight out of the ninth.

[1:08:35] A haveling of papers. A haveling of papers.

[1:08:38] Thank you. Thank you.

[1:08:40] Bob and Superhead of all.

[1:08:42] Yeah. The quick question in the comment.

[1:08:43] County manager and general. So I'm just wondering, I know that it was some

[1:08:47] interference with tape. Can you add some administration?

[1:08:50] What's the status of that? So the interference was with

[1:08:53] Vingerman and the most recent court

[1:08:58] decision was that when could the wind blades on the turbine for the several remaining unfinished

[1:09:10] turbines and the expectation is that we will be complete by the end of this month and all

[1:09:16] 16 or 16 or 16 of the course decisions? Yes and my comment is just my family and friends

[1:09:24] frequently say we are so appreciative that we live in Massachusetts in this rather dark time

[1:09:32] in our nation's history and I just I just want to say to all of the presenters and their

[1:09:37] representatives here that you will have a reason that we feel so we're sure it is safe and

[1:09:45] satisfied to live in the state of Massachusetts and I want personally thanking to one of you

[1:09:50] We're up everything that you're doing, your aspirations today are incredibly positive and helpful, and so thank you.

[1:09:59] It seems to me all of the success of Massachusetts government starts with school committees.

[1:10:03] So right back yet.

[1:10:05] Right back yet.

[1:10:08] Since we were talking about it and also the mentioning a chief pastor,

[1:10:12] I just want to say how much I appreciate Chief Pastor and also collaboration with the

[1:10:22] 10 Administrator, Charles Kerry, and also our Chief John Sullivan, our safety officers,

[1:10:30] and I'll also argue to help you.

[1:10:32] But on the issue of ICE, it's something that I have talked about with our 10 Administrator.

[1:10:38] We have our protocols.

[1:10:39] I mean, we meet as a senior leadership team with our principles, generally on those

[1:10:44] Monday afternoons, and it has been on our agenda the last few times, mostly assurance

[1:10:50] that everyone knows what the protocols are, what to do, but also take knowledge that it

[1:10:56] ever had to initiate our protocols, that things that may not always go as orderly, and to

[1:11:06] to even talk about that, and to make sure that they do their best, even if a warrant is

[1:11:14] present, even with a warrant present, that they can't wait until someone has registered

[1:11:21] office for the peace department, and then we will be there to support that.

[1:11:26] So it's something that our community will want to love out.

[1:11:30] I also want to make clear that anyone who works for the public schools, actually has to have citizenship paper.

[1:11:42] So, everyone that works for the district has that, but there is still some concern that, despite what you may have,

[1:11:50] this documentation, the vulnerability that our colleagues build as they live and do what

[1:11:58] they need to do to expand themselves. So it's a very real, it's kind of an air, unfortunately.

[1:12:08] And so I appreciate all that you have said and come out your samples and know that we,

[1:12:15] I feel supported by the other town leaders and our leadership in the schools, but we still

[1:12:23] feel, we still feel vulnerable.

[1:12:29] It's a national feeling, but I thank you for all that you have said.

[1:12:35] So we are a little bit overtime, I know you all have other things to do, but I want to thank

[1:12:39] all of you.

[1:12:40] We are so fortunate that year after year, our fire state delegation shows up for this event

[1:12:46] And you know, we don't think that for granted, that you all show up and sit with us for an hour and a half to go for a priority.

[1:12:52] You're really, really good at taking our calls.

[1:12:55] So we pick up the phone at that other time.

[1:12:58] And we're sending one and your team. I want to thank you.

[1:13:02] And then I'm talking to close time.

[1:13:04] Yeah, I'm going to have that on Tuesday, March 3rd at 7 p.m. at the Coolidge Corner Branch Library.

[1:13:13] online practice hosting a conversation with Brookline's legislators and so it's a wonderful

[1:13:19] opportunity for follow-up questions on education or any other topic that'll be at the

[1:13:25] coolest corner of the French Library at 7 o'clock, so you wouldn't welcome to follow-up.

[1:13:31] Thank you, and thanks, and thanks for as always for working on it, thank you very much.

[1:13:40] Thank you, and have a great evening.

[1:13:42] I'll tell you what's going on.

[1:13:42] I'll tell you that.

[1:13:43] I'm going to leave myself.

School Committee Meeting with Legislators - February 9_ 2026

Transcript