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One, it is seven o'clock. This is a special school committee meeting in between our regular meetings. The date is September 23, 2026. The main purpose of tonight's meeting is an appointment of an interim director of finance. We also have some other topics added to the agenda that have come up in the past week or two.

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So first, I know it's not explicit on our agenda, but you know, in the spirit of public comments

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which is, do we have a correspondence summary to read tonight?

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We do.

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Okay.

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Please go ahead.

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One second.

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Okay.

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So the school committee received six pieces, of course, one is between September 16th at 9 a.m.

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September 23 at 9 am. A community member express concerns regarding the early release date change

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in November and the availability of aftercare, a parent notified the committee about a link

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not working on the school website, several community members express concern about the release of

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a document on social media from school council and one community member also express concern about

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the appointment process of the next superintendent. And one of our administrators sent notice

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to the committee concerning the schedule for student services being increased during the upcoming

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next month or two. And that scores once. Okay, thank you, Alan. We will have public comment

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after our first two topics tonight. And then so that's so that the public can have the benefit

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of hearing what those topics are about and hearing the resume and discussion around the director

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finance, in particular, and then the vote will be after that.

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So we have two main topics tonight.

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One is unpleasant nature.

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Shall we say the other is potentially very pleasant

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and nature will do them in that order.

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So the first item on our agenda is that I want to address

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a recent open meeting law complaint and the districts

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response to it.

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People noticed it was posted on a local Facebook page

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then removed. We received some correspondence asking about it. I want to explain what happened

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tonight. So on August 28th, school committee received an open meeting law complaint. It was

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associated with the recent superintendent selection. And then on September 2nd, the next

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bill, meeting the committee met and authorized legal counsel to respond to the complaint. The response

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letter explains that counsel conducted an internal investigation and reviewed the available documents.

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interview to all seven committee members and found the committee did not violate the open meeting law.

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This included a legal analysis and finding that the agenda for the July 29 meeting

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complied with open meeting law. It also included a finding based on interviews with committee

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members and review of the documents that no improper deliberations occurred outside the meeting.

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Last Friday, Council submitted the response on behalf of the committee. Council submitted

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the letter to the office of the Attorney General as required. The complainant got a copy. I got

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a copy and I forwarded copies to the rest of the committee that afternoon. Council has confirmed

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that the letter became a public record upon submission to the Attorney General last Friday.

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I shared the response publicly on Friday because I knew it had shown up on our agendas. I knew

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the public was interested in that.

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And I felt it was important to share

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the findings like I'm doing now.

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Unfortunately, there was an email address,

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included in the letter from the, for the complainant.

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I thought it was a business email address

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and it is publicly available elsewhere,

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but I now understand that didn't matter

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and it should have been redacted

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before it released the same way we redact

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email addresses and other contacts.

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I would never intentionally release

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personally email address without authorization. I had no malintent and I really sincerely hope

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it didn't cause any hardship. I regret it happened. When I became aware of my error, I immediately

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asked that the document would be taken down from Facebook and it was taken down that same meeting.

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I know this raised questions about if the district protects school records. I also understand

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this comes at a time of extraordinary scrutiny for school committee. I can assure everyone the

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district respects family privacy. No student information was shared and that was this was

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solely my error. I promise to make sure any question about a document's readiness to share publicly

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goes to Council first in the future. So this is really about me acknowledging my mistake and

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letting the public know exactly what happened, but if any committee members want to

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discuss it or ask any other questions, this is also an opportunity to do that.

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Yes, Georgian, let me.

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I got it.

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Okay.

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I'm good.

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Thanks.

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Well, I appreciate the explanation and that new kind of owning the messed up.

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I guess,

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although I appreciate it, I don't really feel good about the fact that it happened.

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I'm a little confused.

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I think there's a process once things become public like that.

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We've just actually recently had a discussion about this that there should be a FOIA request for any public documents.

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We as school committee members should not be sharing things out from our email.

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So it's no secret. There's a lot of things going on and there's not a lot of trust in this committee right now.

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And it certainly felt like an intentional move to kind of say face.

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I don't know how well so I can kind of feel about it because this has never happened.

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We don't even usually get these dispositions in the email.

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So I'm going to be honest, when I got it, I was like, why am I getting this in an email?

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And my time on this committee, that's never happened.

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I have to like, when Obby was cherished to make him crazy calling him, asking him for updates.

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So although I really do sincerely appreciate you all in this Dan, we all make mistakes.

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I'm still having a hard time questioning the whole why the whole thing would you play, why you would think that was okay.

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just it's not sitting right and it's done and it's over with and I appreciate you only

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it I'm sorry to the person it happened to and you know but so the public knows

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moving forward the correct processes they should be making a records request for public documents we

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should not be handed them out is that correct because I think that's going to be the big question

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Georgia

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Can I get to an email? Can I just be like, hey, you know, you wanted to know about this? Can I hand it out? Or is there a formal process that we all should be following? I think that's the question that I'm going to get 2,000 times over. So I'd like a definitive answer here while we're alive if you wouldn't mind. And then I'm going to just leave it there because I don't want to worry you. Thanks.

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Yeah, that's completely fair Georgian and I agree I guess what I would say is there are some

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of those questions I don't feel comfortable answering because I just don't know or you could

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get a better response from Council and I really encourage anyone to ask Council if you have

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specific questions but I'll just say that the context of this is I get a very this is not

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This is not excuse. I'm just explaining. I get a very large number of documents from Council, as Chair, asking for basically authorization to send it out, file something,

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this was my first instance of an open meeting law response. I've never experienced that before.

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public records, we've been doing lots of those, so those come and go all the time.

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When I discussed with Council, my understanding was, we filed it, it's public and, you know,

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you can send it to the committee and if they want to release it, they can too, because both that was not accurate.

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So it was my mistake, I misunderstood, and I guess I'm not sure how to answer the question because there are so many

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public documents that we all understand their public, like all of our policy documents and

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you know, agendas and stuff that you can share with the public. You just got to make sure,

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and I didn't make sure, and that was my error. So I guess I'm just not sure how to like

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delineate, you know, what you can share and what you can't, but maybe our council would be a better

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person, or maybe some of our other committee members can fill it in, but yeah, Adam.

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I mean, I guess to that question, I would just distinguish between something that's publicly

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available.

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So kind of routing someone to our policy, policies online or something else that's in a public

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place and providing a document that is not publicly available.

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And I guess I'd raise my hand to follow up on what Georgian had said, I think also as we

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as FOIA requests, we have a, at the very least, an internal process that we follow, where

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the request is handled by the records officer. And so I think even as we, as we get

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or even if we get a formal records request, I would say the committee members should not be

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responsible for fulfilling that themselves other than maybe to point to something that's publicly

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available. But that should go through the records request or the records officer.

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Obviously.

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Yeah, just to Georgia at this point in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, um, reference that

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when I was chair, um, in Georgia, you didn't drive me crazy at all asking for those things,

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um, but yes, you, you, you always had to ask for things and I would always just make sure,

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especially when it came from Council that I was, um, authorized to disseminate that there

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are times where Council provides the chair with, with information and says, hey, we need

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of meeting in order to provide that information, there are times where they say, please disseminate

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this out to Council. I mean, sorry, out to the rest of the committee, either way anything

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provided to the chair would be something that the rest of the committee was able to see, but

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there are, in my experience, there were just different processes at different times the council

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asked me for. As far as the overall question that George Ann is asking, my understanding, at least

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my directive, since the day I joined the committee for our council was always exactly what

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George and understands it to be, which is that just even if it's legal, it's just a

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clean, much cleaner process if everybody submits a FOIA request or a public record request

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because I think the problem of fairness to the people asking for it is a question of access

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who has access to ask someone directly, why in some cases would we provide something directly

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to someone in other cases, not.

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So for sure, just my understanding was, and my practice personally was always to, as Adams

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said, point people to where something is publicly available, or direct it to our public

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records officer for a former request, and that was true for a document that had to be created.

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It was also true for a document that was readily available in my drive.

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I just always was told, it's just the cleanest and fairest way to make sure that everybody

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as the same access, you know, and so I do think like obviously, you know, you stayed here

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yourself, Dan, that you would handle was differently in the future, I think that, you

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know, everybody has the right at every parent in this district, every person, you know,

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every journalist, every, and any person who's asking us for something has the right to feel

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that they're being directed to the exact same process, and we're treating everybody the same.

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Yeah, absolutely, and I think the part of where I went wrong is that I have always been

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so eager to just respond to anybody, whoever contacts me or I'm aware of wants documents

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to just, you know, get them what they need and most of the time that worked out fine, but

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this time it didn't, and I made an error, and I agree with everybody that it's a much better

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process to just write everything the same way and be clean and what won't happen again.

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Okay.

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I appreciate it.

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And I'm sorry to distract from the main topic tonight, which is much more important

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than me is getting a new finance director.

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Okay.

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So Dr. Battello, I think we have a, are you planning to do,

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What is your plan for tonight? I know you've been working behind the scenes to facilitate this hire.

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I was planning to share my recommendation for a hire for a new interim finance director.

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Her name is Brenda Moynihan. She's worked the last eight years as the assistance superintendent for finance and operation in the content public schools.

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She retired at the end of the year, but as we've spoken with her, and she is willing to jump out of

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retirement in order to work with us for the remainder of the year. She's got a tremendous amount of

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experience in all layers of finance, as well as operations itself, and I think it's considering

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the timing and the birth of bindings directors were very fortunate to have someone who's willing

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to teach them about retirement and work with us. So I would like to recommend it for hiring

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and that's for your vote.

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We all have a copy of the resume that you distribute to Dr. Patel. I hope everybody has had a chance to review it, but are we allowed to share the resume or not, or we don't know.

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Or should we just discuss it?

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Yeah, I think we should just discuss it and check with,

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okay. Yes, Georgian.

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Thanks. Dr. Patel, I just really want to thank you. I know you've been working tirelessly to fill this position for her idea reasons.

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So I'm glad that you were able to locate someone that's willing to come out of retirement to get us through this time.

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So I just wanted to recognize.

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I know how hard you've been working at this.

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So thanks.

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I enjoyed the resume.

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I think it'll be a good fit for now.

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So I appreciate it.

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Does anyone else have any questions or comments?

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Yes, Adam.

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I also just thought it was a very strong, strong resume, strong candidate, so I think we are,

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I don't know, I'd be very supportive and very pleased that we were able to find someone at this

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calmer.

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Yeah, I don't want to be redundant, but I just as bugged you chair, I guess I felt like sitting

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here quiet was probably maybe perhaps strange, I especially, I think it's a strong candidate,

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I appreciate. I go through a Jamestead. I'm going to talk to Patel. I appreciate how hard you've worked.

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Look, you know, speaking of multiple candidates in order to get somebody in here who's willing to take this task done.

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And for me, I know that the budget subcommittee has been waiting for this position. It will be filled before meeting.

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So I especially, I'm eager to get this higher on board and get ready. You know, the timing is obviously it would have been better.

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the start of the school year, but certainly at least we haven't let a full month go by,

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and we can get meeting right away on a budget process. I think that just want for folks

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that are here from the public to hear that my goal as much chair will be to have some agendas

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early on that focus on format and presentations so that that way as we onboard a new person,

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the public will have an opportunity to influence how it is that we go about presenting to the committee

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and what those graphics and what not look like.

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I think the same thing for Fincom obviously is an opportunity to bring them in and have some

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discussions really early on about what format we're presenting budget items in.

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And I know that Dr. Battello has been going to extraordinary lengths to identify and bring

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on candidates for this much needed position.

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And there's a lot of, there's a lot of things that people are working miracles, keeping things

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running right now.

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But it's on a skeleton crew, and we really desperately need this position, and it sounds

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like you've identified a good candidate, Dr. Patel, so I'm supportive.

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Do we have a motion to authorize higher of the, for the finance director position?

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Don't move.

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It's back in.

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Georgian?

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Yes.

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Adam?

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Yes.

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Harvey?

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I mean yes.

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Alan?

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Yes.

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I'm sorry, did I skip anyone?

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Yes.

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Yes, I thought I skipped you.

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Julie?

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Yes.

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And I mean yes.

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The motion passes 6-0.

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And now we have our public comment.

219
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Do we have any public comments today?

220
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we're going to as usual limit them to three minutes and I will take them in the order.

221
00:19:17,600 --> 00:19:21,580
I see them and I can keep time today.

222
00:19:29,640 --> 00:19:30,640
Okay. Yes, Ms. Crosby.

223
00:19:32,300 --> 00:19:36,840
Hi. A couple of things. You just went out of order on your agenda. The vote was supposed to be

224
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after public comment, which might have actually made it seem like you had sort of maybe kind of learned

225
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about transparency, but never mind.

226
00:19:45,540 --> 00:19:47,560
I wanted to point out, thank you, I'm sorry.

227
00:19:48,160 --> 00:19:49,620
You can't, no, you took the vote.

228
00:19:49,820 --> 00:19:50,080
It's done.

229
00:19:50,620 --> 00:19:55,220
I wanted to point out that your comments earlier

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do not ring true for multiple reasons.

231
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First, you claim that you looked at the email address

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and thought it was a business email address

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and that that was okay.

234
00:20:04,980 --> 00:20:07,320
The email address was comprised of a first name,

235
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a last name, a number at gmail.com.

236
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I'm really curious how many businesses you know have email addresses of that nature.

237
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I also note that you very intentionally handed this to somebody who runs a 7,400 person

238
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Facebook group comprised of Sharon's citizens to suggest that it was in oops is really

239
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to strain crudulity and let's be clear it absolutely was intended to intimidate the person

240
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filed, but not just the person who filed. Anyone else who has dared to speak out against

241
00:20:46,220 --> 00:20:54,100
how this committee has behaved. It's shameful. It also very ironically violates your own social

242
00:20:54,100 --> 00:21:01,180
media use by school committee members' policy, policy BK. In item number 5 of the policy,

243
00:21:01,520 --> 00:21:06,700
it says school committee members should post only content that the district has released through

244
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proper channels to the public. Using a cutout in the form of the administrator of the social media group who's

245
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clearly your very close friend, because no way that person knew that this had arrived in your

246
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inbox and had it within like 30 minutes, to get it posted, to try and make the five of you look

247
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better than you do is 100% against that policy.

248
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You should resign.

249
00:21:37,380 --> 00:21:40,460
On top of that, your next vote on media engagement

250
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is completely unnecessary.

251
00:21:42,740 --> 00:21:44,940
Because you also have a policy on that.

252
00:21:45,200 --> 00:21:48,460
And your policy explicitly says that the chair

253
00:21:48,460 --> 00:21:52,220
of the school committee will be the spokesperson for the committee

254
00:21:52,220 --> 00:21:55,060
except as this duty is delegated to the superintendent.

255
00:21:55,060 --> 00:21:58,740
So you literally do not have to take that vote.

256
00:21:59,260 --> 00:22:03,880
It exists in an existing school committee policy.

257
00:22:04,600 --> 00:22:07,200
What I might suggest, it's policy KDD,

258
00:22:07,940 --> 00:22:11,180
is that every single member of the five

259
00:22:11,180 --> 00:22:14,260
who seem to have a very fragile relationship

260
00:22:14,260 --> 00:22:16,500
to the policies of this district,

261
00:22:16,540 --> 00:22:19,300
despite some of them having significant longevity,

262
00:22:20,560 --> 00:22:23,300
take the weekend to read your policy book.

263
00:22:23,300 --> 00:22:29,960
But Dan, don't pretend that this was a mistake, don't pretend that you didn't.

264
00:22:30,000 --> 00:22:36,220
We didn't know better. You worked for the government. Just stop lying. It's embarrassing to everybody.

265
00:22:40,620 --> 00:22:49,340
All right. It is absolutely correct that we don't have to take a vote on the item later to authorize a chair,

266
00:22:49,980 --> 00:22:59,880
but I thought it was appropriate to get the buy-in of the committee on this item, given its significance to the committee.

267
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So I think it's appropriate to discuss it

268
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and formalize it in the sense.

269
00:23:11,040 --> 00:23:12,960
I'm not sure how much I should say,

270
00:23:13,700 --> 00:23:14,920
but since this is on the agenda,

271
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the email address is posted on a state government

272
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website as a business address.

273
00:23:28,520 --> 00:23:30,900
I don't know if that was the same context

274
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as was in the document,

275
00:23:38,040 --> 00:23:42,650
but in either event, it was certainly not proper for me to

276
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go outside the normal channels. So that's just explanation, of course, the complainant didn't

277
00:23:50,860 --> 00:23:56,920
do anything wrong by any means, and it was my error either way. I'm just just answering the question.

278
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And I do take exception to comments about intent because there was no malitan on my

279
00:24:05,320 --> 00:24:08,200
party. It was there was an error, a bad one but an error.

280
00:24:11,610 --> 00:24:13,150
Yes, Jessica, why not?

281
00:24:20,890 --> 00:24:26,070
I have a question. Can I make it come a public comment about something else or is it only about

282
00:24:26,070 --> 00:24:33,950
the items on the agenda this evening? Is it related to school business? Yes. Okay, please go ahead.

283
00:24:33,950 --> 00:24:44,550
Okay, so my issue has to do with the manner in which it feels that these committee item agendas or decisions are rushed.

284
00:24:46,210 --> 00:24:59,450
I spoke previously about the school committee and how the next superintendent was picked and my next or most recent issue is with regards to the policy that is looking to be changing the policy meeting.

285
00:24:59,450 --> 00:25:06,710
And it was sent with 28 hours notice that there's a meeting tomorrow at 5.

286
00:25:07,450 --> 00:25:12,390
The school committee published a calendar in February or March, I apologize.

287
00:25:12,550 --> 00:25:19,610
They don't have the date on hand with open house for all three elementary schools being at 530 tomorrow.

288
00:25:19,890 --> 00:25:26,290
So I'm not sure why tomorrow had to be picked at the scene date and time for an important meeting like that.

289
00:25:26,290 --> 00:25:34,950
But it doesn't seem fair or inclusive or responsible to be having parents make a decision

290
00:25:34,950 --> 00:25:39,270
in terms of choosing to go to open house or this meeting, that's being held tomorrow.

291
00:25:39,390 --> 00:25:45,190
So I would recommend that you revisit and possibly change the meeting date.

292
00:25:45,250 --> 00:25:46,410
So thank you for listening.

293
00:25:48,730 --> 00:25:48,890
Okay.

294
00:25:49,510 --> 00:25:50,270
Thank you.

295
00:25:50,330 --> 00:25:55,930
We'll make sure that consideration is routed to the proper channels.

296
00:25:56,690 --> 00:25:56,950
Yes.

297
00:25:56,950 --> 00:25:58,570
Rachel Dan.

298
00:26:01,000 --> 00:26:06,280
Hello. I'm not sure that it's really a good form to be referring to

299
00:26:06,980 --> 00:26:13,200
school committee policies as the most publicly available information. It is, but that

300
00:26:13,200 --> 00:26:17,480
means that we all know three of the current school committee members were members when

301
00:26:17,480 --> 00:26:24,160
the last policy CBB was revised, but they did not follow their own policy in this last

302
00:26:24,160 --> 00:26:31,580
process of appointing a new superintendent. So why are we, you know, adhering to a

303
00:26:31,580 --> 00:26:36,380
or why are you referencing people, referring people to publicly available policies that the

304
00:26:36,380 --> 00:26:43,360
authors are not even following? I'm also concerned about why we are so desperate for

305
00:26:44,760 --> 00:26:49,360
an administrator in the finance position. Why do we have a skeleton crew? Why are we in this

306
00:26:49,360 --> 00:26:55,240
position where we have such administrative turnover, you know, your teachers, your teachers

307
00:26:55,240 --> 00:27:00,320
and your for the long haul, we kind of have no choice, but we do really want to be here.

308
00:27:01,180 --> 00:27:07,060
Why are we so desperate to hire people for administrative positions, which by the way, also

309
00:27:07,060 --> 00:27:12,660
change titles frequently to fit the needs of a certain contract? Thank you.

310
00:27:18,190 --> 00:27:24,210
Thank you. Okay, seeing no further public comments. We did, oh yes, go ahead, Georgian.

311
00:27:24,810 --> 00:27:34,450
Sorry, can we Dr. Metallica, can we just clarify for the public the finance person was already you already know to fight people who are higher on that.

312
00:27:34,490 --> 00:27:37,110
This is like procedural for us to approve it, correct?

313
00:27:38,270 --> 00:27:42,550
No, the school committee has the authority to hire the finance director.

314
00:27:43,030 --> 00:27:43,750
So I'm not ending.

315
00:27:44,530 --> 00:27:49,710
Okay, but a announcement was made to the teachers that one was already hired.

316
00:27:50,110 --> 00:27:51,130
So I'm confused now.

317
00:27:51,290 --> 00:27:52,190
But by whom?

318
00:27:53,170 --> 00:27:54,950
It was in the email I was told.

319
00:27:55,310 --> 00:27:57,090
Okay, that's almost hard.

320
00:27:58,350 --> 00:28:00,950
Um, I just wanted to make sure we're on the same page.

321
00:28:01,270 --> 00:28:01,910
Because now I'm confused.

322
00:28:02,310 --> 00:28:03,190
Okay, thanks.

323
00:28:04,330 --> 00:28:07,130
No, we had a system director of finance that we wrecked,

324
00:28:07,630 --> 00:28:09,330
which was the duty thousand position,

325
00:28:09,830 --> 00:28:10,590
which was hired.

326
00:28:10,610 --> 00:28:12,190
I think that's probably where you're talking about.

327
00:28:13,390 --> 00:28:14,650
Maybe I'll follow up.

328
00:28:14,750 --> 00:28:16,170
And if, maybe I'll just email you.

329
00:28:16,290 --> 00:28:16,530
Thanks.

330
00:28:17,110 --> 00:28:17,370
Yep.

331
00:28:30,400 --> 00:28:30,900
Yes, Harvey.

332
00:28:32,920 --> 00:28:33,400
Thanks, Ian.

333
00:28:34,500 --> 00:28:38,400
I was going to ask, and obviously, you know,

334
00:28:38,400 --> 00:28:41,320
due lead of the policy, so committee chairs, so you're right.

335
00:28:41,480 --> 00:28:42,880
But as a member of the policy, so committee,

336
00:28:43,260 --> 00:28:45,840
we did receive an email to our email address

337
00:28:45,840 --> 00:28:47,460
about the conflict of the open house.

338
00:28:47,600 --> 00:28:49,320
I don't know that there's a sense of urgency

339
00:28:49,320 --> 00:28:53,420
or a reason for an urgency regarding the specific policy

340
00:28:54,120 --> 00:28:56,980
that we'd be discussing, and so I would,

341
00:28:57,180 --> 00:28:58,540
as a member of the policy committee,

342
00:28:58,720 --> 00:29:02,440
I do think that there's a logic to rescheduling that meeting.

343
00:29:02,440 --> 00:29:13,080
I think the purpose, I know I was asked if, you know, how late of an evening I could make it and that was unfortunately the latest I could do, so I might have been part of that timing issue.

344
00:29:13,760 --> 00:29:19,800
But certainly the purpose was to be as available to the public as possible in the night of open houses, unfortunately, I'm thinking that's true.

345
00:29:20,460 --> 00:29:29,660
So unless there's a reason not to, I guess I just would say, having heard from people, let's not exacerbate the pain we're causing and let's reschedule that meeting.

346
00:29:32,280 --> 00:29:39,440
Julie, are you prepared to answer that already? You want more time to consider it and discuss with Edmund?

347
00:29:42,870 --> 00:29:43,390
Sorry.

348
00:29:46,150 --> 00:29:52,070
I just want to say one thing which is I think the meeting noticed it go out last Friday.

349
00:29:53,210 --> 00:29:59,970
What went out today was the draft of the policy. I too saw a couple of emails today.

350
00:30:00,000 --> 00:30:29,780
I understand it is true that the priority in setting a subcommittee meeting is the availability of the other members of the committee, and then in this case several members of the public have repeatedly asked to hold subcommittee meetings in the evening, and so that's why it was a five o'clock and five o'clock this Thursday was the date that we picked.

351
00:30:30,000 --> 00:30:39,840
I apologize. I did not know it was the elementary school open houses. I unfortunately know

352
00:30:39,840 --> 00:30:45,760
all of them have an elementary school student. So it was on my radar. So I apologize

353
00:30:45,760 --> 00:30:52,240
and Adam, if you are okay with this too, I can definitely have the meeting reschedule.

354
00:30:55,500 --> 00:31:02,320
I'm upon reschedule. Okay. Well, but both of you guys have to text me back with when I text

355
00:31:03,040 --> 00:31:06,840
your availability. So if it's a deal.

356
00:31:08,000 --> 00:31:09,580
That's fair, let's fair.

357
00:31:11,340 --> 00:31:13,600
Okay, thank you everyone for your responsiveness.

358
00:31:16,350 --> 00:31:21,870
Okay, having already voted on the finance director position.

359
00:31:22,950 --> 00:31:24,250
I'll be at out of order.

360
00:31:25,070 --> 00:31:26,850
We now have a vote.

361
00:31:27,550 --> 00:31:28,430
I'm sorry.

362
00:31:29,030 --> 00:31:29,490
I just can't.

363
00:31:31,630 --> 00:31:32,750
I'm sorry.

364
00:31:33,750 --> 00:31:35,010
Oh, Georgian has a hand up.

365
00:31:35,010 --> 00:31:42,830
Sorry, I just wanted to apologize to Dr. Telet was the assistant position, it was there's some confusion. So thank you.

366
00:31:47,800 --> 00:32:00,820
So we now have a vote to authorize the chair to work with district administration and council to respond to any media increase related to the 10 22 26 special time meeting.

367
00:32:01,860 --> 00:32:06,940
I guess it's true that we have a policy that authorizes the chair to speak with media.

368
00:32:07,620 --> 00:32:13,280
I just wanted to bring it to the group because we all know this is an event that's significant

369
00:32:13,280 --> 00:32:23,120
all of us and I have heard from a town that has experienced this before that either right before

370
00:32:23,120 --> 00:32:30,800
or right after this meeting media can take an interest and often when they reach out to you

371
00:32:32,520 --> 00:32:57,380
The email says it's 330 p.m. right now and I'm running a story and please get me any comments you have by 430 and that doesn't really leave a lot of time for a school committee meeting and I didn't feel comfortable and it would be good to have some sort of a statement ready so that we can actually participate in these news stories in a constructive way.

372
00:32:57,380 --> 00:33:05,480
So, I ask Council about it, you know, so we agreed to just put on the agenda and talk about it,

373
00:33:08,690 --> 00:33:18,590
but basically it would authorize us to develop a standard type statement to respond if we got those kinds of

374
00:33:18,590 --> 00:33:20,110
increase on very short notice.

375
00:33:21,150 --> 00:33:23,250
Do anyone have any comments or questions?

376
00:33:27,380 --> 00:33:27,960
Yes, Georgian.

377
00:33:29,260 --> 00:33:36,200
Thanks, um, as you were reminded me on many occasions, so there's your per view, I share to address the press.

378
00:33:36,580 --> 00:33:39,700
I think it was mentioned you don't need our permission.

379
00:33:41,240 --> 00:33:49,740
With that said, given this last transgression, I have some serious concerns about you being the person to do that.

380
00:33:51,320 --> 00:33:55,760
So, I really don't know what that leaves us, because that is your, I guess that's for you

381
00:33:55,760 --> 00:34:00,740
an atom to figure out, but I did want to say that out loud and it's unfortunate that

382
00:34:00,740 --> 00:34:03,840
that's where I'm at, but that is where I'm at right now. Thanks.

383
00:34:06,120 --> 00:34:07,460
Well, that's where it is.

384
00:34:12,030 --> 00:34:16,870
I'm happy to include Adam in the process, if that helps.

385
00:34:20,690 --> 00:34:23,290
As a as a co-equal contributor.

386
00:34:24,650 --> 00:34:25,070
Yes, Adam.

387
00:34:26,750 --> 00:34:31,590
of the same. I'm having to be included in the process. I think as I've shared with you,

388
00:34:32,470 --> 00:34:39,730
I'll not be available immediately before or after the special time meeting, so I won't be

389
00:34:39,730 --> 00:34:43,890
in a position where I'll be able to be responsive if there is a media inquiry.

390
00:34:44,690 --> 00:34:53,130
Okay. I think the idea was to develop a statement that's kind of ready to go, so maybe we can

391
00:34:53,130 --> 00:35:01,950
that in advance. Okay. Do we want to take a photo or just kind of rely on the existing policy

392
00:35:01,950 --> 00:35:02,650
them?

393
00:35:08,840 --> 00:35:14,740
Okay. Can I just, oh, sorry. Can I just add one more thing? Yes. Whatever get said or

394
00:35:14,740 --> 00:35:19,880
record, I just want to make sure that we're protecting the integrity of the records officer

395
00:35:20,840 --> 00:35:26,060
because that didn't get brought up and I apologize on it to bring up earlier with an email going out

396
00:35:26,060 --> 00:35:29,080
not going through that process, I feel like it draws

397
00:35:29,080 --> 00:35:31,880
undue spotlight to Dr. Johnson, who is the records officer.

398
00:35:33,320 --> 00:35:37,120
So I want us to be very mindful that we have our eyes

399
00:35:37,120 --> 00:35:40,680
dotted in our T's crossed moving forward with anything.

400
00:35:41,840 --> 00:35:42,140
Thanks.

401
00:35:45,560 --> 00:35:46,240
Thank you, Georgian.

402
00:35:48,750 --> 00:35:48,990
OK.

403
00:35:50,130 --> 00:35:53,050
If there is nothing else, I would entertain the motion

404
00:35:53,050 --> 00:35:54,430
to adjourn.

405
00:35:54,430 --> 00:35:57,700
Tell me if it's back in.

406
00:36:00,240 --> 00:36:00,520
Julie.

407
00:36:01,260 --> 00:36:01,720
Yes.

408
00:36:02,400 --> 00:36:02,620
Adam.

409
00:36:03,960 --> 00:36:04,180
Yes.

410
00:36:05,000 --> 00:36:05,280
Alan.

411
00:36:05,980 --> 00:36:06,280
Yes.

412
00:36:06,840 --> 00:36:07,060
Georgian.

413
00:36:07,940 --> 00:36:08,360
Yes.

414
00:36:09,420 --> 00:36:09,720
Abby.

415
00:36:12,720 --> 00:36:13,420
Oh, do we lose Abby?

416
00:36:14,340 --> 00:36:14,940
And I am, yes.

417
00:36:15,080 --> 00:36:16,340
So motion passes five.

418
00:36:16,520 --> 00:36:16,840
Zero.

419
00:36:17,440 --> 00:36:20,080
Thank you everyone for joining this special meeting tonight.

420
00:36:21,000 --> 00:36:21,540
Good night.