 We're recording now. Go ahead. Okay. Good evening. It is August 28, 2023. This is a special meeting of the town council and the remaining members of the Amherst school committee. The open meeting law hasn't has been extended. This allows us to continue holding meetings remotely. But without a quorum of either body, physically present at a meeting location while providing the public with adequate alternative access to the meeting. This meeting is successful in real time via zoom by phone. And as a live broadcast on Amherst media channel nine. And through their live stream. We are not however in the town room tonight. Given that we have a quorum of the council present. I'm calling the August 28th, 2023 town council meeting to order at six 32. I will call upon each councilor by name at that time. You should unmute your mic and say present. This will indicate that we can hear you and you can hear us. Please remember to mute your mic after saying present. Shall any ball mill present. Pat DeAngelis present. Anna Devlin, got here. Present. Lynn Griezmer is present. Mandy. Joe Hanna key. Anika Lopes. Michelle Miller. Dorothy Pam. Here. Pam Rooney. I believe has informed me that she will be absent. Kathy Shane. I'm here. Andy Steinberg. Present. Jennifer Todd. Present. Alicia Walker. Here. At this time, I'd also like to welcome the two remaining air mass school committee members to this meeting. While I call your name, please unmute your mic and indicate that you can hear us. And we will know then that we can hear you. Her roads. Here. Jennifer. I am here. Jennifer. Did I pronounce your name correctly? Yes. Thank you for asking. Thank you. This meeting was originally posted. As a joint meeting of the Amherst school committee because of the time of the posting, there was still a quorum of the five members of the committee. There, however, is no longer a quorum of the Amherst school committee due to resignations of three members. I have not asked the committee to be called to order because at the present they don't have a quorum. And therefore they cannot be called to order. They cannot meet. And they cannot take action. And right there should give you a sense of the urgency of our job tonight. So, however, we welcome their full participation. And their thoughts in this discussion. And should we come to any vote, I will not ask them to vote, but I will just ask them. If they would concur. Okay. There's no chat room for this meeting. If you have technical issues, please let Athena and me know to make a comment to ask or ask a question. Please click the raise hand button. If technical difficulties arise every as a result of utilizing zoom, we will decide how to address the situation. Discussion may be suspended while we address technical issues. And the minutes will note if a disconnection occurred. I will be monitoring counselors and school committee members to make sure that there is no public comment at this meeting. And if necessary, we will pause the meeting until you are reconnected. There is no public comment at this meeting. And there is no change in the order of the agenda posted. At this point, the only announcement I'm going to make is that the next meeting of the town council is September 11th. We are going to have a meeting of three at six 30. With that, we're going to go along to our one agenda item for the evening. And it is to discuss. How we plan to proceed, how we would like to proceed with school committee vacancies. So each of you, it has, and it is in the packet. A draft memo with four attachments. And it is to be included in the charter section 4.1 C. And mass general law charter 40 chapter 43 section 36. Requires that the town council working jointly with the remaining members of the Amherst school committee must initiate the process to fill the vacancies. And we have to do so within 45 days of the resignations. The final draft memo was adapted from the process used by the town council and the school committee in March and April of 2020. When a school committee member resigned. And that process was originally used by the select board. Our goal tonight is to review the process, the timeline. And the vacancy notice. The follow up to this is to release a vacancy announcement tomorrow, if at all possible. I'm going to ask that we go in order of the items that are in the memo. And we will be glad to put them up on the screen. And, but basically the first one is the process. And I'm seeking questions, comments, suggested changes, et cetera. Please use your raise hand function, Jennifer. On the second page of the proposed process. The fourth bullet point. It says at least three days prior to the meeting. The town council president or designee provides all candidates, et cetera. But according to the timeline. It's two, two business days as far as I can tell it's 922 and 926, which is a Friday and a Tuesday. So just like, you know, they should be consistent. Yep. Thank you. Okay. I have two more things about. Okay. Please go ahead. So, um, It's on pay on that page, which is page four of the document. Add a subsequent meeting or after I saw, I know you have two meetings scheduled. You have one meeting and then a second meeting in case it's needed. How will it be determined if the second meeting is needed? It will be determined as we finish the first meeting, whether it's reasonable to finish that night. Unless in advance, we have so many candidates that we decide to go to the second meeting. And it's reasonable in this, like that, just the time. Is the, I'm sorry, I didn't understand that. Well, you said, is it reasonable to continue that night? Or is it to go to a second, to go to the second night? And is the reasonableness just regarding like what time it is or how long it has taken? Like what factors will be used to determine if that second meeting is needed. It will be the reasonableness. And how late we might go. We did not go to the second meeting. We did not go to the second meeting. And the last time we used this process, we did not go. We did everything in one night. We did not use. We took a break. We had a discussion and we voted. Okay. So my last thing is. Voting will be by roll call vote. The last bullet point on that page. And then each person will say. Asking each their first choice. But we have three seats. So like how actually will the voting go? I think that's a good time. Just, I think that needs to be clarified. That is a conversation that Athena and I have been having since. I think Thursday, maybe Friday. And, uh, we will, I would like to hear people's thoughts on it. But one of the options is when each person is each of the 15 people that will be voting are called upon. They name their top three choices. And then we do some level of calculation. Yeah, I think that makes sense. Um, and I, uh, so I think it makes sense for someone to, to say three names that'll be more complicated for Athena, whoever's keeping track of how people are voting. Um, I think that makes sense. Um, in a way that doesn't like say this is the order of my top three. I don't know. Just, it just seems like. To say three names. And then to that point on the final, this is my final point on the last page, the winning candidates plural. And then, and then this last little points, just those candidates, should be a plural. Yeah. Thank you. Okay. Athena, did you get all of those? No, are you making edits or would you like me to make edits? If you'd like me to do so, then I'll just need to. See on the dashboard to remind me where. Where they are. Uh, let's make those edits because I'd like to complete the night evening with as close to a finished document as possible. Okay. First edit was. Jennifer, please just remind me. At least two days prior to the meeting. As opposed to at least three days. It was page four. Yeah, right there. Yeah. So that should be two days, according to the timeline that's laid out. Thank you. Okay. And then your next one was, wasn't it. The Friday before. Yeah, it's Friday to Tuesday, which is two business days, right? Business days. Yes. Okay. And then the next one. Well, in the last two bullet points, it should be candidates plural. Voting. The next page. Sorry. Last two bullet points of this. Okay. Here. Yeah. Winning candidates. And on the lot in the next one. No candidates. Receive. And then my other question was just how to describe. The voting will be by roll call vote. And the previous page. Great. Okay. I just want to remind people who are going to stick. To the proposed process. So. Mandy Joe, you're next. Oh, so briefly, if I, if I might just save. And the roll call vote. So the final vote to fill the vacancies will be a roll call vote, but how. How the council and the remaining members take up indicating their choices and so on. Is a little bit different than, than the final vote, but it's still by roll call. Is that right? That's how we've discussed it. After we get done, we take one final vote where we name in this case, all three candidates. And that is a vote to just tie everything up. So that would be the final vote. Correct. So in, in the past, in 2020. There was a sort of first round where. Members indicated their preference. And then there was a formal vote. And that was by roll call. Okay. Okay. I'm sure we're going to need to spell out the voting process a lot more in a lot more detail. So anything else? Me, Athena. I think the voting process is clear. It's just that first round of how to, how folks indicate their preferences and how we come to the three names, if the council and members wish to vote them together or separately. That part is. We're working on figuring out how to do that. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah. So following up on that one, I just think that means based on what Jennifer said, the asking each their first choice needs to be highlighted because it needs fixed if we're going to be naming three in that first round. As we discuss that further. It was on page four, the last bullet point where you were. I'll start with page three. And I think that's what we're going for. If we do that, though, there probably needs to be a sentence added in into the, either the fifth or the sixth bullet point. I don't know which one's more appropriate. That the. The fourth bullet point on page three. That starts the clerk of candidate statements are due to the town clerk. Our timeline at all has them being submitted to the clerk of the council, not the town clerk. And I think that's what we're going for. I think that's what we're going for. I think that's what we're going for. I think that's what we're going to get. That the clerk of the council will forward the statements of interest to the town clerk for the purposes of confirming eligibility. Cause it's the town clerk that has to confirm the eligibility. And so I think that, yeah, that, that. That bullet point might be the best spot to put something like that. Yeah. And you're correct. This is basically except for the confirming. That's what we're going for. I think that's what we're going for. That's what I mentioned here is in fact. The clerk of the council. Thank you for doing all the typing. And at the end of that, the clerk's letter, it says would be submitted to the transmitted to the council and relevant. Remaining members or a relevant board. I would also suggest it be submitted to our clerk. To Athena too. So transmitted to the work of the town council, the town council. So that's what we're going for. So that's what we're going for. I just have two more things. Well, one more thing. And then a couple of questions and they all relate to each. There's, they're all questions sort of on the next page, page four. The first bullet point. Is there's no chair of the school committee right now. As far as I know. And so I think we need to discuss how the develop interview is going to happen. I think that needs to be reworded somehow. And we might be discussing that. During this meeting as to how that's going to happen. And the next bullet point. Has that the chair of the relevant board will also call a special meeting of that board. I think that needs to be reworded somehow. And we might be discussing that. During this meeting as to how that's going to happen. And then we'll also call a special meeting of that board. That's only if possible. You could add if possible or, or something like that. Yeah. Just, just to, I know normally that would be what happens. This is a rare circumstance when we're faced with so many resignations. And then the last bullet point, going back to what Jennifer was saying, if we're trying to get how this is going to happen. If we're trying to get it to happen correctly. Or how this is going to happen and written down in a way that's explained it as well as we can. I guess one of my questions would be. If on a first go round and every one of the 15 of us named three choices. One choice. One person that's named has more than eight or more votes. And no one else does. I mean, how, how do we write that in? I guess I, I would be under the assumption that that person is tentatively. Nominated as one of those three. And we're now naming two people in subsequent rounds to try and get to three people that have the support of eight or more members. But we haven't really talked about that. So do we have to go around and name three people until. Three. Three people receive at least eight votes. Or are we kind of doing it in this rank choice sort of way where once someone crosses the threshold, that. Seat is sort of presumed. Now. Nominated at least because I know we do a formal vote. And then we're dealing with two or one. So that's more of a question than a rewording at this point. So that, that's the second. That there's two issues on here so far that may need some additional discussion. One is. The gathering of questions in the other one is the voting process. Okay. Kathy. I think we're all on the same page. So I was just going to. You know, I think the. First one that Mandy flag, we should just artfully rewrite it that we don't, we know there were only two members. Of the school committee. So there is no chair. So, you know, trying to. Work our way around that you called the meeting today, Lynn, for tonight with the two members. So whatever process you did to get them in this is the same one I would use. It's just my suggestions. So I don't know how we word that. And then on the, you know, if. Depending on how many people we get applying. I think that suggestion of we each name three names with a one, two, three, and I, you know, if Athena can figure out some way. Of having an expel spreadsheet. Some easy way that she can do the one, two, three is next to our name and next to their name, the 15 of us. So she could quickly tell us. Whether there were someone had. Number one. Listed next to their name with at least eight. I think it does make sense then go to go to now name your top two. Because in, in a one and a two, because. You may vary if my. Well, everyone can see where I'm going. If my number. Three. If anyone else is number one. You've removed my number three, you know, so just some way of getting to now we do too. And then we're down to the last one. You know, it may be that we have a similar rank order. This is easier. So I'd like other people's thoughts, but I think that would go. The most quickly. And the other comments I have, I just saw on those two things. I have some comments on the timeline. So I'll just wait until we come back to the timeline. Speaking to the process for now. Okay. Andy. Yes. You were addressing course. So the points that I had previously thought about. One question that I have follows up on what Kathy said, however, and that is. I had assumed when I was thinking about it. That each voter would would cast three votes. And I analogized it to electing three counselors at large. You don't rank them. You vote for them. And so we're counting the number of people who received votes, but all votes are equal. So I just wanted to put that out because it is a different. It's a different interpretation that I understood that was being made. In Kathy's. Suggestion. And the other question that I have is that. I may be misunderstanding, but I thought. That. It was a vice chair of the board. And of the school committee. And is that person. Still sitting. And if that person is still sitting. She cannot be a way of solving the problem. Otherwise we have to come up with some. Other method of doing it such as the longest serving. Or something else. But anyway, those are what my thoughts were. So I just want to say, I agree with Andy. I didn't have to do a one, two or three. So I, I think we have those two options. So. Okay. Let me, let me just put that aside. And, and you have your hand up and I'm going to call on you because in fact, is the vice chair of. The board. And. I'm going to call on you. Eric, would you like to speak to that role at this time? Right. I mean, the. The policy says that. The vice chair serves and the absence of the chair. Now, there's nothing that says, well, when you don't have a quorum. That that does that mean that. The school committee does no longer exists. If it no longer exists, then there's no chair. If a quorum. If the quorum does not. Not having a quorum. Does not define whether the school committee still exists. Then the vice chair is the chair. And I have no answer to it. Okay. Paul, I know that you've spent some time looking at this. Do you want to speak to that at this time? Sure. So the, the, the position still exists that the school committee members still hold their position as school committee members. And I think we're just accurate in the sense that, you know, as the elected vice chair, who serves in the stead of the chair. Can take, can serve in that function. But they cannot call a meeting. Right. You cannot, there is no committee at this point in time until there's a third member that's appointed. So there's no meeting to be had. But there are, are some functions. At least I think I remember you telling me this ball. There are some functions that or can still perform. And then report on them publicly. Yeah. And I think the. My understanding is that the school attorney will advise them on what functions the school committee can, the school vice chair can take on those things. Some of those are practical matters. As we relates to the sign, signing of warrants, which is an ongoing process that we are, we are trying to work through now and get some answers to. Right. But my. If I, if I may, the school committee does still exist. And Irv is still the chair. So when there is. The acting chair. So when there is a quorum, Irv would act as chair. Once. A quorum is reached. So. But I think in this instance, it. It doesn't really make sense. That it would be in consultation with the chair because. There's just one other member. Right. Right. So at this point. Athena has suggested this. Let me go on and get the rest of the comments and then let's see if we have any reason to discuss either of these further or what we're going to do. Dorothy. I think that both members should be serving on the committee. For the reasons that have been stated. And. You know, when there is a, what's your call a committee then? Or would be the, the head. Just as simple. I also, I don't like voting for top three choices. It sounds like ranked choice voting. We do not have that now. I think we should do separate votes. Thank you. Michelle. Thank you. So starting tonight with tonight's meeting. I just want to make sure that. It doesn't seem other than electronically, that the public has a way to participate in this process. And perhaps that's the precedent that's been set previously. But I see that for all of the special meetings, there will be no public comment. There's no public comment tonight. So. I'm not sure if we're going to be sending an email. The public may have in terms of participating in the process. I am following precedent. We've set in the past. This is in the, I mean, there is an election coming up. That is clearly the election in which the public expresses their preference. And I think that's the purpose of this, which is an appointment that lasts a little over three months. In the past, we have not had public comment. So just to follow up, Lynn, on the last time this happened, I know it was a much longer period of time that the person was serving. And you're saying at that time. Even there was no public participation in the process. That is correct. I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, you can send us emails or do general public comment or anything else they want to do, but we did not have public comment at those meetings. Okay. And so I'm just wondering if this. This grouping of people has any thoughts on whether. Creating a method for public participation. I mean, I think we have the ability to do so with a special meeting. And we also have the ability not to do so. So I'm just curious what other folks feel about that. And whether it would be a benefit or make things more challenging. Thank you. Dorothy, you still have your hand up and Jennifer, I'm going to skip and allow other people have not spoken to the public. So I'm just going to go back to that. Thank you. Yeah. I had similar concerns to Michelle in terms of the, the way that we engage the public on this process. I know it's a short term and I know we have precedent, but we also only have one turn of precedent, right? I think that we also are in a place where we can always figure something out and do it better. And so I think that where I would like to advocate specifically for a special public comment or. I think that that's one really important place where we can ensure that we are asking the questions that. Our community is feeling passionate about and concerned about. So while I think we all have a good grasp on that. And while I hope and believe our constituents know how to reach us, I think that that would especially be a point where we, where we would seek out and possibly have a special public comment period. And then I also, I think, I think you said we were going to talk about the voting process later. I do think it's going to need to be very clearly spelled out. And I do think that we have the possibility to go around in circles for a long time, if we only vote one candidate at a time and they don't possibly get a majority. So for, for me, the only kind of logical way to do it is doing round, they're doing three at a time and then going back through kind of doing second rounds. If candidates don't get the, the majority votes, which I think gets to my question, which was about that last bullet point. And I think Mandy, you maybe asked this or clarified it. Down a little bit more. The last one that highlighted one. I just want to make sure that it's clear that if one candidate does get the majority and the other two don't, we're still not taking them out of the process. And so for me, I think it's going to need to be, I don't know, the word smithing of it, I think needs to be done. That's all. Thank you. Thank you. Jennifer, you've not spoken. Yes. I just wanted to. I really like honest suggestion about a way to engage the public by giving them an opportunity to suggest questions. Because although last time in 2020, they still, the selected candidate was there for a long time, even though who's ever, who's selected in this process is only there. Maybe 12 or 13 weeks. Because some of, because we already have candidates who are running for the school board, it becomes very political because one or more candidates, we vote for will also be candidates on the next election and in November. And even though they wouldn't be on the ballot as an incumbent, you know, it gives them a certain exposure. So I think, I think it's even in some ways, it's at least as critical a decision as in 2020, even though the selected candidate was going to serve longer in 2020. So I think it's going to need to be, you know, critical of decision as in 2020, even though the selected candidate was going to serve longer in 2020, because it's just so political now. So I think we do, you know, owe the public an opportunity to weigh in, in some way. Thanks. Anika. Yes, I was going to hold, but seeing as we were talking about additions or what may not be seen and please direct to me if I'm just missing it. So I have also a question of a process, a little less political than as refers to the very short time period that we have here. And then even more so the time period that whomever the new school committee members would be coming into with a, with a lot going on, certainly not lame deck, lame duck season. So my question is around. What for, it's also fellow fellow counselors and Irv and Jennifer as well. What does the council need to do in regards to onboarding or prep to help this in the incoming committee members really ensure that they have all the tools to be successful. What can we do to help? Is there some, is there a period of time since this would be such a short transition that, you know, there would really be significant time to ensure that everyone is, is really up to date and again, having everything that they need to be successful within these roles for a short, but certainly a period of high stakes. Irv, you've not asked questions. And so then I'm going to go to you and then back to Jennifer. I'm just wanting to respond to Anika is that in our, in our rules and how we operate as a school committee, school committee, there is a requirement of doing an onboarding, onboarding process for new members. And we definitely will put that into play. Thank you for that. And could I, could I just respond? Thank you for that. And just, just please, I just would be very interested to know if there's anything we as council is going to do in our role to help with that. Yeah. Definitely will let you know that. Thank you. Jennifer, you have your hand up. I want to encourage the town council to have a public comment period when it comes to, when it comes to deciding which candidates to select. I'm, I'm neutral on whether I think there should be public comment on the questions that's, I'm, I'm, I can go with the way on that, but this is an important decision that's coming before the town council and the remaining school committee members. And we, you know, our, our town's practice is to, is to receive public comment on important decisions before we make them. So I would encourage you to have public comment at the meeting before the meeting or whatever at the meeting where this decision, the first meeting where this decision will be made. It's sure that this person, these three people are only going to be serving for a short time, but they probably will be involved in like setting up the superintendent search. Probably I mean, that's yet to be decided and that's a really important role. So I think it's, it's a short period of time, but it's really important. It's an important period of time. And I think this is an important decision and I would encourage you to have public comment. And then my second thing is just going back to the voting process. I agree with what I think Andy said that this is not ranked choice voting. It should not be implemented as ranked choice voting. What I was trying to say earlier is that it seems the most efficient thing to do is to have each person in roll call say three names. And I would even say something like each person should say three names, but the order that you say the names is not going to be interpreted as your preference order. Just say three names the way you get three votes when you, as Andy said, when you vote on a roll call. I think that's really important for, for at-large counselor. And then, Athena should be able to tabulate how many candidates got, how many just votes. And that seems to be the most efficient way of doing it. Thank you. Thank you. Anika, you still have your hand up, but Kathy has not spoken. I don't think. Yes, you have Kathy. Please go ahead. Kathy. I just, it, I'm only speaking to the issue of public engagement. I very much like the idea at the questions, the formation of the questions. To last time. When you, we have a set of the old questions. And when I looked at them, I'd want to redo them, but I'd really want to get a lot of input, including from everyone here. But because I think that will tease out what Jennifer is getting at. We, we need. To get to the point where the, the, each of the people who are interested. Say something. And then we're going to ask them a common set of questions. And last time around. We were inundated Jennifer with a vote for this person, vote for that person. We got hundreds of emails. It wasn't particularly helpful until you went through the interview process, because you didn't even know in some cases who the person was going to vote for. The person was going to vote for. The person was going to say when you talk to them. So we have to, we have to move so quickly on this. I think the questions are pretty critical. And Lynn has. In the current timeline. And I wasn't sure why, but she has two separate sort of a. A draft set that we discussed and then a final set. But during, if we said we want. Some interests. If people saw the initial draft set that we come up with, I think it would be a good idea to, I like the question. Question stage to get. Good solid questions. We'll probably be influencing the questions, the league and others. Post to these. These candidates. And this is a funny time of year that we're going to. An odd time of year, not ha ha funny. Time of year that we have to be. Conducting this process. Andy. I'm following up on what Kathy just said, the general discussion about. Public comment. I'm sort of in a quandary on it, but I think that I'm uncomfortable with the idea of having public comment. Because we're all in a very. Strange situation. And I mean, all being potential. Candidates applying as well as members who are present today. And I think that's a good question. Because of their membership on a body. I'd like to buy current elected body, but. The. This is coming at the time of the election. And I'm afraid the public comment. For those people who are applicants and our candidates on the ballot. That it is creating. An opportunity to make speeches on behalf of a person, which are not just directed at the council, but are directed at the community at large and are become a. Campaign tool. And I don't know that I want to open up. This meeting. To that dynamic. And I, you know, I'm hopeful that we get a range of. Applicants. And I'm hopeful that we get a range of possibilities. That includes some people who are candidates. May include some former school committee members. May include some others who have interest or expertise. But we won't know until we get there. So we're trying to create a policy. That works under any range of possibilities because we don't know. And. But I don't think that I want to see. I don't think that I want to see that. I don't think that I want to see that. I don't think that I want to see that. I don't think that I want to see that form. Or campaigning. In the November election for one of the elected school committee positions. Yeah. Are there any other comments at this time? On this process. I'm not, I'm going to go back. Okay. To issues related to that we've identified here. One is the development of questions, which has now come up in two different ways. Including the possibility of public input. And I would also like to point out that there are numerous ways to obtain public input. And we can perhaps look at all of those as well. Jennifer. Your action. Go ahead. Jennifer. I'll be quick. When with questions like this, I always think. I asked myself, what is the most democratic thing to do? And the most, in my opinion, the most democratic thing is to allow people to express their opinions. You know, we, you all, we all are elected to represent the public. And I think the most democratic thing is to allow public comment. I don't think we should fear. Or try to minimize campaigning or whatever. I'm not really concerned with what Gandhi is concerned about. Thank you. I want to go back to that bullet point on page four. That's about developing questions, but, but I also want to give my support to Andy's. Comments on. Public. Comments during the meeting. If. If. If. If. If. If. If. If. If. If. If. If. If. If. If we were to do public comments between say interviews and. Trying to make a selection or making a selection. Since we do not know who will apply. We have to be mindful of the fact that we are in open meetings, but also using town resources for these open meetings. And. It's my understanding that. Candidates for election need to be given equal opportunity to use. A town room or a municipal room for whatever if they are, but that in general, you're not allowed to use town resources for campaigning. So I think Andy's got. A very good, a very valid concern that, you know, since we do not know who will apply and that there could be some people who apply. For this that. Are going to be on the ballot in November and. Maybe everyone who will be on the ballot for school committee in November will apply, but maybe some will not. For whatever reason. And. If we're opening up that particular meeting and forum for public comment, but only on the candidates who have applied for. Filling the vacancy and some of them are also on the ballot. It could potentially be construed. An open public comment period about that that you can only comment about the candidates that were considering for the appointment. If it turns into campaigning in general, it could be construed as not giving all candidates on the ballot equal opportunity to use those resources. I don't know whether that's. Whether I'm thinking about it. Inaccurately or not from that legal point of view, but I think we need to give what Andy said. A lot of credence and validity that. That it could present some problems for. The town because of what's going on there. With the bullet point. That that is up here. The wording that I like Athena's with the input from the remaining members of the other board, but we also have these two meetings. And I think it's important to have the two meetings. And so I don't think this bullet point. Conforms with the timeline, as I guess what I'm going to say, but I think it's important to have the two meetings. I think it's important to have the two meetings. Because right now the timeline says. Remaining school committee members and counselors get questions to. Lynn. We'll have on September 11th a discussion on those questions. They will be a draft. And then on September 18th, a final version will be produced based on that discussion on the 11th and maybe any other comments that come in. And I just don't think this bullet point right now. I don't think that's going to be something that's going to be some rewarding because of that. So let me. Let me see. And for the moment, I'd like to stay on the issue of the development of the questions. And let me see if. Let me try something out. And then see where we are. So prior to the meeting on the 11th. I would like to make sure that we have a deadline using the town's website for people to submit questions. And in addition to that, I could consult with including counselors. Okay. And I could consult with the two members remaining members of the board and we could come up with a set of preliminary questions that would come to the council on the 11th. We can turn around but we don't have a choice. And then on the 11th, we can discuss those questions, and then possibly on the 18th, we would have a final set of questions. That way, we would seek broad input in the initial development of the questions, but not through public comment but rather through a electronic mechanism using our website that we have used for many other options of input. And that's one option and then trying to whittle it down so that again, if you've got 10 candidates you're not sitting there for gazillions of hours. I think we want to keep the number of questions down to a certain number and so forth. That, to me, that way you get a sense from the public about what they feel is most important in this interim. And at the same time, you get a sense from Jennifer and Irv who are both very involved in this interim period and will be very involved and are much more aware of the processes that are going on and all of them have input into what will be the most important things that could or will happen between the end of September and January 2. So that's just a suggestion. I, I, no suggestion of mine is ever sacred, so please take it for what it is. Andy. Yeah, I just wanted to point out while we still have that bullet on the screen. I think there's a redundancy that's unnecessary because it says the president of the council with input from the remaining members of the other board if any, and the chair of the other board and the chair of the commission with their respective members. It's sort of like is picking up the same. I just didn't delete the second part yet. Yeah, yeah, I think it was put there to just not to show it before we delete it. So we would now delete that. Okay. Okay, so again, I think we can delete the in consultation with their respective members because you delete that and you're not consulting with town councillors. So, what if we just change this to town council. Is it. Prior to the meeting, the town council with input from the remaining members of the other board if any will jointly develop interview questions. And that took that happens on both the 18th and the 18th. Michelle, you have a comment. Coming back to the public comment. I. So there are two regular meetings prior to the meeting, the special meeting, and I think our rules allow for during general public comment for folks to comment on anything that's within the purview of the council. Is that, is that correct? That is correct. Okay, so there would be an opportunity twice for folks who wanted to comment during those regular meetings. How do people feel about setting something up on the town? I'm blanking on the name of the other website we use when we go for questions. Gage Amherst. Thank you so much. If setting something up on engage Amherst where the public could submit questions prior to the fifth of the month or maybe even a little later. That satisfy the idea of having more public input into the questions. Ninja. It sounds like a good idea, but I caution us I would ask Paul whether he believes Brianna who generally has done all of the setting up for all engage Amherst stuff and monitoring much of it has the capacity in such a short period of time, given when she is leaving. Good question, Andy. Yeah, so we're flipping back and forth because of the order, but getting back to that bullet. I think that the better wording would have been to go the other way as far as what was being eliminated so to be prior to the meeting. The president of the town council and the chair of the other board and consultation with their respective members will develop interview questions. I just, that can be done. I'm just trying to make sure it can be done just the way I will send something out to you. I will ask you not to respond reply all, or I'll ask you to send things to Athena, and we'll compile all of it and then come up with a proposed process. So I want to be as transparent as possible. However, Dorothy. I don't think that an electronic bulletin board serves as sufficient public comment. Michelle mentioned sounded reasonable that people could comment during a regular town council meetings. Thank you. Paul, you put your hand up so I'm going to call on you. Yeah, I do have concerns about us being able to support the engage Amherst platform at this point in time with Brianna's departure. So I would really have to look into that see if we could support that before offering it. Okay. So, Pat, you have your hand up. Yeah, I don't, given that we might not be able to do the engage Amherst, I like putting that aside. I like the idea that the public could submit questions. And I also heard you, Lynn, initially, when you were talking about saying counselors could submit their questions there too. So could the two members of the school board. I think that sort of levels of the playing field between the public and the boards, the committees. The other thing that it seems to me is we're not talking about public comment when we're creating the questions. That's a separate process. Michelle came up with a good idea for public comment. But the question development, we need input from the public and the two boards. We need to move from there but we don't need public comment on those questions. That's a different thing. So, what's not stated here is that there would be a process by which I would receive suggested questions. Boy, this is getting complicated and I don't know about the rest of you but I do have other things to do besides run meetings. Jennifer. Yeah, that was just my question. If we couldn't use the engage Amherst, what would be the process? One process could be to use the general public comment feature that we already have. The other one that I can think of that captures it all and doesn't rely on an individual me, particularly having to make sure I've caught every email that is sent. That's that is an impossible task. It's as impossible as whatever. So is the way we would get word out to the public by through counters, you know, letting their mail and constituent mailing lists. Yeah. Certainly one of the ways we can also put post something, you know, post something on the town's bulletin board. If you have, if you there are questions you would like to see included. If the process is made, you would like to see included. Please submit that as general public comment, something like that. Mandy job. I, I'm, I'm feel like I'm digging a hole that is just not doable, but I just want to be honest about that. So, I guess I'm still trying to figure out what what this that the bullet point still doesn't I don't like the wording that was originally there. I think we're meeting prior to which meeting I think we're referring to the special meeting where we do the interviews in this bullet point, but I'm not sure right and so I think that's what part of my confusion is someone has to buy September 11 present the council, according to the next attachment attachment be or whatever or see or wherever the timeline is present the council with a list of proposed questions or preliminary questions and so we have a couple of questions to figure out or decisions to make or consensus to reach which is who presents the council who's gathering those questions and producing that document. And then the next question is, will the council be voting on the final list of questions right now in our on the way the council uses its policy for recommending ZBA planning board and finance committee. The committees themselves actually adopt a set of interview questions. So the question I would have is, are we planning on September 18 as a council with input because I know unfortunately the two school committee members cannot vote. Adopting a set of questions or is the way this one, this bullet point right now reads that original language is that the president would basically just decide what the questions were once receiving the input and I'm not comfortable with that so I think we need to come up with a consensus on what is on September 18 the council voting to adopt a set of questions and who by September 11 is drafting the preliminary set of questions to be discussed on September 11 before the final questions are brought the final proposal is to start back on September 18. I support finding a way for the public to give input in what those questions could be one way of, although then you get as I've done as a chair, you might end up with four pages or for this, you might add up with 10 or 11 or more pages of questions. And someone's going to have to present that many of them will come in with very similar ideas and all and so I would support creating a document that has every question submitted to the council by counselors by remaining members of the school committee by the public, but then someone needs to essentially condense that into a logical number of questions to present to the council to so that there'd be two documents on September 11 is how I'm foreseeing it one that has all of them that were submitted and one that is the draft preliminary set of questions whether it be seven eight nine 10 figure out that number. Okay, so major. First of all, this has to be done prior to the interviews, it, and it has to be done and voted on by the council with him, and with, you know, some comment or whatever from the two remaining members. Let's back it up from the 18th. The 18th is when we have to finalize these, because our process is to make those public those questions public, and to make those questions public to the public to the candidates to the school committee members and to the council. The second thing is that. I mean, I, having done research using content analysis. There is a way to condense even 11 pages of questions it's not fun, but there is a way to do it using content analysis and grouping and coming up with a way to come up with questions. I, I need to think about the best way to get that done. I really have to say that is not a small task. It is a huge task. And it's not a task that we can, we can't assign it to a committee no committee has that kind of time. So, um, but without question. I believe that the council and the two remaining members of the school committee need to be looking at a draft on the 11th and adopting a draft of adopting adopting the questions on the 18th. So that's firm, how we get to those questions is still a question. I still, well, it is the question Jennifer. Well, I'm hearing Lindsay that this is getting really complex. And from what I'm hearing, like, it's, I, I, it sounds like I don't need to over engineer the process of coming up with a list of questions. I, I'm going to maintain that. First of all, I don't think this body needs to. Well, maybe this body will need to vote to approve the questions I, we don't. It needs to be simplified as Lynn said, I think that the decision before this body, the most important decision is choosing the appointees. That's from my, that's my priority and getting input from the public. I don't really think we necessarily need to prioritize input from the public on the questions. I mean, you know, we were elected to serve the public like the and every other decision that this body that the two bodies make. We come up with information, we get input from the public on what, what, what our, what our decision should be, and then we make the decision. I think we can simplify this by having Lynn as the president and herb as the vice chair, take input by September 5th. Have the two of you come up with, with both of what you know of the job and the town come up with a proposed list of questions. I don't need to see every question that everyone has submitted. All of that. You to come up with a proposed list of questions presented to us on September 11, we will discuss it. I'm going to say at that September 11 meeting. There should be public comments the way there is at every town council meeting so that the public can comment on the questions then. And then we talk about September 11. We vote on at the 18th. Like, I think that we can streamline this a lot by just, but just empowering the president and the vice chair to, to come up with a draft list of questions. Thank you. Dorothy. I agree with a lot, but Jennifer said, I think there's been talk as if these questions are magic. They are not these questions have the questions that are needed for this job have been asked again and again. And there's records are written down. So I really the idea that we're going to take all this time thrashing around for the magic questions is to me a waste of time. And I don't, and I don't really want to do it. So I suggest that we go and find the questions that have been asked in the past, and that the committee of two that Jennifer suggested, look at them. And that town council members be asked after they see the list if they want to submit an additional question. And that should be pretty quick. That's my thought. Thank you. Thank you. Michelle. I'd like to further support that. And I've seen Lynn Newark magic. That's a word we're using to condense and group questions. And I think that if there's a missing question, if there's an error, it will be known somehow some a counselor or somebody from the council committee that's remaining or a public person will will let it be known. So I'm not as concerned about about that and Jennifer, I think you said, so September 11 is a meeting of the council and so I think then public comment would would be part of that process as well. One of the things we may consider is if we're going to invite the two other remaining members of the school committee on the 11th is we may call a special. No, we may call a special meeting in which there is public comment before our regular meeting, just, I'm trying to make sure that the town council with all of this on its plate continues to attend to its other business. So that's important for us. So, in terms of developing the questions. The reason for having public input on that is, if that is a value of the council to have public input on this particular issue. You should carry through on that value by asking for for public input to develop those questions. But that's all the value. That's your values that you have to decide is that a value in terms of practicality, the questions that have been asked before. can be definitely use and utilize and be as as as good as any of the questions are going to come. The other thing is, it really doesn't matter if you go out and say we want public input and so we want you to suggest questions. So send them in to us. I can assure you that chat GP team can do a great job of reducing those questions down to what we need. I was looking for a place to apply this now I've seen one. It, I can tell you from experience. Recent, they're taking mounds of data and input and putting into chat BGP to reduce to a set of questions, principles, topics, etc. It is amazingly good. Interesting. Alicia. Thank you, Lynn. I actually don't disagree with her. I think that could work. But I originally was going to say that I think a process similar to what Dorothy described would work and that we have you all draft up the questions and then have another meeting where if we have questions that we feel strongly about that were forgotten that we have those added. And I do also agree with Michelle's, Michelle's suggestion and that we should still have a public comment period after that. I'm going to come to that issue in a minute. Alicia, any other comments on question development. I agree with what's being, I agree that we need to understand what is important for a residence. I don't have a sense of what's on their minds but I think I am with the people are saying we need to ask people in get input about questions that we should be asking. I also want to acknowledge what Andy said that by allowing people public comment so I we can have public comment generally, but with, but not at the point of where we are discussing the specific candidates because of what Andy said that if some of the people who are running for the committee in fall are, I'm just saying that repeating this in case it was missed but this is how I'm thinking about it, that if people are running in November and they are here and then we have public comment, promoting those people and we're just, you know, it is highlighting and giving them extra publicity that's not going to be democratic and fair to all the candidates that are running. I think it's very important to hear our public and residents what it what do they want from the next round of, or at least for this interim. This is a very important role they're going to be playing. So what are the questions that they want to have answered. And, and then they have elected us and trust us that based on what's on their mind we're going to have a discussion and make the selection that is best. I would like to edit the sentence that is below, prior to the first discussion of the questions. No, not the interview questions. Yes, thank you. At a joint meeting of the town council and the remaining members. Okay, and then take the word interviews out, but leave a comma the president of the town council and the chair of the other board in consultation with their respective members. The consideration of public input will jointly develop a first draft of interview questions. We may need to address what happens then, which would be at the second council at the second discussion of the council. The second discussion of the interview questions at a joint meeting of the town council and the, and the remaining members members of the other board. The vote will be taken as to the final set of questions or something like that. I'm word smithing is always welcome. Mandy Joe you have your hand up. So I hate to throw a wrench in that wording. Watch, I don't care interview questions. When there were two separate boards, you could potentially argue that maybe they were doing it for their own separate meetings. But I would like Athena's input on whether that wording creates a subcommittee. That requires compliance with open meeting law meeting where you have the town council meeting jointly. No, the president of the council and the chair of the other board will jointly develop interview questions. Do we say if you have more if you assigned the task to more than one person you develop, you've had a subcommittee in the past. It's always been the two chairs and you've been having a joint meeting so you could argue that each chair is developing the questions for their own separate meeting, but we're in this weird situation where there isn't a separate meeting for one of the bodies. Athena thoughts. I think it sounds like what you're trying to achieve is that you and you will compile the interview questions from counselors and remaining members of the school committee with public input and present them to the council and remaining members of the school committee on the 11th and then the council will adopt them on the 18th. Is that correct. What we need to do is say, prior to the first discussion of the interview questions at a meeting of the town council remaining members of the board, the president of the town council with input from the remaining members of the other board. So in other words, Irv and I will not meet. You're going to compile questions with input from counselors, the remaining members of the board. So we're going to take a look at some consideration of numbers. That's correct. Right. Okay, so we're going to take what Mandy Joe is concerned about. We're going to take. Audio. No, I'm just typing. We're just amazingly quiet or. Now the only thing is it should be. Yeah. There you go. Of the other board. Does that. I don't know if that captures it, but I'm looking for others input. Irv, you have your hand up. I just, I really appreciate all of this. And I also wish people to understand. That when this process is over. We will be. Into the budget price budget making process for the average schools. And that the uniqueness of the situation is that the people who will be dealing with them. The budget for the average schools. The school committee, average school committee. All five of us could be there in January, January. Or none of us could be there in January. And it could be a completely different group of people. There. Right. I just want people to understand and appreciate. The uniqueness of this situation and the challenges. That the average school committee. Is facing and will be facing going forward. So. Jennifer, do you give a comment on this particular item? Please go ahead. I just. It seems like this new text seems to remove the vice chair. Of the school committee from. Involvement and compiling the interview questions. It doesn't remove them. It has them providing input. Like as, as. Does it also include you giving input, but it avoids the issue of whether or not we have created a committee that then meet needs to meet in public. That's what. Is concerned about creating a committee of two. Yeah, exactly. I don't love it. Well, I don't love a lot of things, but I'm trying to also get to a process where. We can live with it. So. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Mandy Joe. None of us generally love it, Jennifer, but I want to say what we normally say in council committee meetings is nothing in this wording prevents. The president of the council from. Consulting with anyone. She chooses before she presents the document to the council. So that's what we're trying to do. And that's what we're trying to create. Right. So I'd like to move on to the other issue. And that is. The issue. No, I don't want it. I want to actually take a segue to the issue of public comment. And I. I also was on the council at the time we replaced the last. School committee member. And I think that's what we're trying to do. I think that's what we're trying to do. I think that's what we're trying to do. The election was of the future committee was in way in the future. I want to point out to the two people who are presently on the school committee who are with us tonight. First of all, thank you. For hanging in there. But I also want to point out that if we start having people make public comment. About the candidates as we're interviewing them. They're not going to interview us. Because we are not going to interview you that night. And right there creates. An uneven playing field. Because you as candidates. For office. Since both of you have taken out papers. I'm aware that your intention. Would be disadvantaged because we wouldn't interview you. And so I. Really hesitate. We have a general election for. Offices. Across five different. Boards and or point. Or. Positions. Coming up soon after this. To create an uneven playing field. For you. And for any candidate. Who decides not to apply. To the interim position for whatever reason. So that's. Something I just felt I needed to say. Dorothy. I think we've gone around the room now. We were going to have public comment on questions. Now we're not going to have public comment on questions. I don't see if you decide that two people as a committee, I don't see anything wrong with their being a meeting with public comment. I don't see anything wrong with their being a meeting with public comment on questions. And now it's out of the question. I don't like it. Putting the vice chair of the school committee. Out of any official role. So I just think that you're making things more complicated. Not easier. We are going to have public comment. We will have two council meetings at which we have public comment. Anybody can make public comment. I don't think there's anything wrong with that. I don't think there's anything wrong with that. I can't. You have a meeting that you originally put forward before Mandy said that would be a committee and you can't have a committee if there's no public comment. I'm saying, okay. Have a committee have public comment. That's what I'm saying. Are you suggesting Irvin? I should meet as a committee have public and have public comment. And the two of us sit there for. 10 hours and listen to the public. I doubt that there'll be very many people tuning in. I truly do. I don't think there's anything wrong with that. I personally think there is magic in these questions. So that's, it's, it's the public. What you brought up was public comment when candidates are being voted on. I totally agree with you. That would be not. The only time, only place I have mentioned public comment. I have no problem with people coming to town council meetings. Making public comment about anything they want to make public comment. And we have two council meetings at which there will be public comment. So we're not, we're seeking public input to these questions. I, I think I mentioned earlier, we could use the general public comment form as a way of doing it. And that puts the burden on. I'm expressing some concern over the fact that the town council, the city council, the city council, the city council, the city council, the city council, the city council, the city council. So not to have the existing vice president of the remaining councilors in an official role seems to be putting it in an off balance situation. So I'm just in terms of what it looks like. So I think that's not a good move. That's my suggestion. Jennifer. So regarding public comment, I had originally thought there would be no public comment. Like there was no public comment tonight. But I think there will be a public comment at the beginning of the meeting or meetings when it in the one or two meetings, when we vote on the appointees. But I think you're, I'm hearing that they're going to be regularly scheduled to town council meetings and there will be a public comment period at the beginning of the, no. Yeah. Let me clarify, Jennifer. Okay. At the meeting. In which we interview the candidates. And discuss and vote. There will be no public comment. That is the plan at this point. So I think we're going to have a public comment at the beginning of the meeting. And I think that meeting and now the council has two regular meetings coming up. And we will have public comment at those meetings. Okay. But I believe those meetings are both going to be before the list of candidates is finalized. So I want to encourage you to have public comment at the meeting when we will be voting to appoint the candidates. I hear you. I hear people saying they're not in favor of that, but I think we're going to have a public comment at the beginning. Maybe I don't, I don't think it needs to be like during the deliberation period, like we don't need to ask questions and then have public comment. And then we're just like, have an open public comment session at the beginning of the meeting, the way you do for all town council meetings. That's, that's what I would like to see the town council do. But I want to comment on what Lynn said about how it would benefit Irv and me as candidates to not have public comment about the appointees. I'm a, I'm trying to wrap my head around that. I'm trying to wrap my head around that, that we should make decisions based on what might help or harm us as candidates in a, I can't, I'm, I'm, I'm speechless that that would even come up that Lynn, you would suggest that we should make this decision to not have public comment because it would benefit us as candidates. I, that that's completely inappropriate and possibly unethical. I'm, I'm really surprised that that came up. I think you misheard me, but that's okay. Pat. Yeah, I'm, I, I'm a little concerned about the comment and I may have misheard it too. I heard it differently than Jennifer, but it seems to me that Jennifer and Irv are on the school committee and anything that happens publicly, whether they're involved in a council meeting or anything else can benefit or harm their candidacy because they're running in November. They're, they're incumbents. So I don't think that they should be kept out of things or, or, or they're just a part of the school committee. And so it does seem to me that there is a concern about fairness that is misplaced. I think it's coming from a very good place, but I think it's misplaced. Again, I think I was misheard, but go ahead. Andy. Yeah, I mean, we're going around in circles on this question about comment. About the candidates. And I really think what it comes down to a large part, beside is an additional question is whether there's, and Mandy did touched on this, whether there's a violation of campaign finance law. And I think that we really before even considering a vote on this topic. I'm not saying discussion tonight, but before voting this topic, I think that we need to consult town attorney. And we possibly need to consult the office of campaign finance because there's what's happening. If we do head to a public comment. Is we're allowing a certain level of politicking to take place with public resources. And that's flat illegal. Thank you. Alicia. Thank you. So I would be in favor of having an additional public comment period during the selection phase. And I don't think I quite. I'm quite like I hear and understand the political aspect because it's so close to a campaign to like an election season. And because some of the people who may place their name as someone interested may also be running for office. But regardless of whether or not we have a public comment period, those individuals will have this extra platform, if you say, because they will be answering the questions. Those questions will be made publicly available. They are already putting themselves on a different kind of display than candidates who might choose to not submit their name for this. So I don't think that that will be amplified any more by having people come in and public comment and let us know how they feel. Maybe we can add some specifications in terms of when we have a public comment. They can't say we want you to vote for this person in the election. But I think that's very different than having people public comment and say something along the lines of, you know, based off of their answers to these questions, we would like this person placed in this specific role of the interim or the placeholder or whatever you call it. But I think that it's very different. And I would still be in favor of having another public comment. So I think that's very different than having a public comment comment period. And I think I'm looking at it in terms of what just happened when we needed an interim superintendent in the school committee level. I know that's a little bit different, but there was public comment after the questions were answered. And so that's why I'm not understanding why it would be different in this position. If we can just indicate that we can't have people saying vote for so and so in the upcoming election. Yeah. Yes. Thank you. So I just, you know, I just wanted to know it's eight o'clock and just about, and I know we're here for as long as it takes. I'm wondering if we could just get some clarity around what is and what is not. Allow this in terms of campaign regulations. So we know and we could have that guy, the public comment. I think we're all on board and we all support as much. Engagement with the public as possible and hear. What they want, but we also, you know, this is extremely important and I don't think we want to make mistakes based on what we individually think can or cannot happen or agree with. And so I'm hoping that if we can just get some clarity, we don't want to, you know, eye ourselves into maybe having someone disqualify because we thought it was okay or, or wasn't okay. So, you know, again, maybe some clarity just around that we could that can facilitate and guide when we have the public comment in the event that we may need to have it as soon as possible. I mean, it may from what we're hearing and don't know, don't have clarity to it might be something that we need to have as soon as possible. Maybe before we have submissions or before submissions are made public, if that's even possible at this point. I think we can get clarity tomorrow. I don't think we can get clarity tonight for one thing, the office of campaign finance is not open. So, but I do agree with that we need to get clarity on this particular question. Anna. Yeah, I'm really, I'm kind of, I'm not going to lie. I'm still a little stuck on how enabling public comment could lead to a campaign finance violation. We have public comment now candidates for office can make public comment now. I think we're, I don't understand how that couldn't be a really, really slippery rabbit hole there. And I think that my second point is this is one of the, this is kind of one of the reasons why I had initially said where I would like to see public comment is when we generate the questions because that is honestly, in my opinion, how we minimize politicking in this, if that's what we're seeking to do, because we're seeking input not on candidates, but on how we are looking at those candidates when we seek comments on what people want us to be asking on what people want us to be considering when we look at the, at the candidates. It's not even about which candidates are there. It's about how we are approaching this task and how we're basing those decisions on, on answers, right? Making sure that we are asking everything that is important to our constituents. To me, that is the most important part of this because it doesn't, it's not that it doesn't matter who the candidates are. Of course it matters to the candidates are, but the best way to understand who the, the best folks for this job are is to make sure that our questions are fully reflective of what our community needs. So, and that we're consistent in that ask. That's why I do think that the most important time to gather public comment is when we're generating the questions, what matters to you that you need us to ask as we go through this process. And I, yeah, and I, I'm really concerned about the discourse around public comment and. Politicking and we have public comment now people can do that now, if they really want to. I don't, I'm a little lost on that one. So apologies if I'm missing some major source of information that would enlighten me there. Thanks. Sorry. Michelle. Hi, I'm also feeling a little bit lost on that. So I appreciate your comments on that. But I, if there is any concern and of course, we'll only learn that through legal counsel. Given that nomination papers are due on September 19th. I would imagine that nobody is considered. I maybe they are considered a candidate, but until those papers are submitted with the appropriate number of signatures. We don't have any real candidates. I think so September 18th is a meeting that happens before that date where there will be general public comment available. So I do think it's worth looking into, but I also want to agree that it feels that I'm not quite sure I understand the way that election finances work enough to say that that would be something that we should hold with high concern. Thank you. Herb. The issue that you raised Len is real. It's a real obviously if you're, if we're having a voting, for instance, there are two, there are two times when two important times where public comment are going to be taken. That the collection of question stage, the question collection stage and two on the night and the evening where the votes are going to be taking place. Now, for the first one in terms of question collection stage, that's a public comment is, that would be no different than almost other meetings. However, on the evening when votes are going to be taken in terms of who is going to be on the school committee and you are, and if you allow public comment, and I'm saying nothing, whether you should or should not, but if you allow public comment, then what Lynn's saying is a possibility. That is that there will be people who will be coming forth to make public comment who will be supporting those people who have applied for membership on the school committee and therefore they would be promoting that person. If they are then promoting that person and any other numbers of people who there will be promoting, that would in effect disadvantage those people who are incumbents from that kind of exposure. That's what I understand Lynn to be saying. And is that something that should be a question that is considered? I consider it to be a fair question and that it's an issue. And whether it is an issue that rises to a level of, wow, we are stifling the operation of democracy. I am not sure. Thank you. Kathy. I just am going to make a real quick comment. If people look at this schedule, we have very little time to do any of this. Lynn has tried to squeeze in all of our questions are due six days from now, seven days from now, September 5th, whatever we think should be asked. We're going to be meeting six days after that to get the draft of questions from whoever put in, put in to discuss them again. Candidates are going to be sending us an SOI. They'll know tomorrow that they have to write something. And then we're going to meet on them six days later. I mean, this is because if we don't, we're going to miss the timeline to appoint for the bend slot for each of these slots. We're under the gun to do this. So I think we are going to get public comments. And the question there, the questions we come up with will generate quite a few. And I think that should be the place where we get whatever we get, however we get it. And I want to assure you last time around in 2020. We had a huge number of emails. We had emails coming in and I was a new counselor. We had emails coming in for people that I didn't even know, because they hadn't filed their statement of interest yet. You know, I mean, it was really a, oh, so we are going to be getting those from the people who are starting to campaign for particular candidates. We're going to get a lot of them. I don't think any of us have time for a really, really, really long meeting about specific candidates. So I think this question time and there are two points, the 11th and the 18th are going to be two entry points, including people can start sending Lynn questions now. You know, whoever is listening, that can start right now. I wrote up a draft of a few based on last time around, and that's about as far as I can get. So mine are going to be in already, but all of us need to step up to the plate if we have ideas. Because we're in just a totally different world than we should ever have hoped to be or expected to be. So I just want to stress how short the timeline is. Let me try to summarize where I think we are. Essentially, we have agreed to the change here in terms of the development of questions. Essentially, we may not like it completely. But I will try in addition to providing questions. I will try to have a summary of the gazillions of input and people I've talked to. Or types of people. The second thing is we will consult with the campaign finance. And then we will talk to the department of campaign finance. And also our town attorney. As to the legality around the issue of public comment specifically related to the night of the interviews. And the third thing is, and I'm going to suggest that Athena and I will discuss various options for voting. And we will bring that back to the meeting on the 11th. And we will also include this section so we can move on to the next. Jennifer. So you're going to consult with council and the office of campaign and public finance, even though I don't think it's necessary, but about whether it's problematic at all to have public comment. And then at the September 11th meeting, are we going to decide then whether there will be public comment at the meeting at which we vote. The meeting at which we vote is not until the 26th. And at the September 11th meeting will be deciding whether or not to have public comment at the meeting and which we vote. Well, I'm sorry. Yes. Thank you. Okay. And Nica, you have your hand up, but I think it's left up from before. Okay. Thank you. All right. Then we're going to move on to the timeline. Jennifer, do you have any adjustments to the timeline based on what is here? Are there questions and comments on the timeline? Jennifer, you have your hand up. The, at this page seven, I believe the deadline to fill the Harrington vacancy is October 2nd. According to my counting. 45 days. Since the vacancy. I could be wrong because it, because it, if you earlier it said Harrington submitted his. Resignation six days prior to McDonald's. So it makes sense that the date is six days prior. Maybe it doesn't matter, but it is like an important date since the first deadline. But maybe it is. And we'll check those dates again, but the, the town clerk received the resignation. On Friday, the 18th. Am I correct, Paul? That's effective of August 21st, which is only. Okay, so that the effective date versus the resignation date. Thank you. It was effective the 21st. Yes. Okay. Thank you. Mandy Joe. Just, just one question, one, one comment on page six. The SOIs, it's going to be like the third to last bullet point that Wednesday, September 20th, four PM statements of interest are due somewhere in there. I think we need to indicate that the clerk forwards all statements of interest to the town clerk for the purposes of confirming eligibility. Yes. So, so right after she receives that will insert a bullet there that says the clerk of the town council Wednesday, September 20th, three four o'clock PM or four or five PM EDT, Eastern daylight time, the clerk of the town council, forwards all statements of interest to the town clerk. So take care of it. Are used to semi-colon just. Thank you. I, I'll do, I'll do that as they come in, but I think that's fine. Okay. Are there any other comments on the timeline? Okay, seeing none. Then we're going to move to the actual advertisement. It was drafted, there might be changes, but I'm looking for comments specifically as it relates to page eight and nine. Jennifer. At the bottom of page eight, where it says the new Amherst School of Committee members will also serve on. I don't think it, and it ends with the BCG. I don't think it's necessary to specifically call out the BCG because there are several subcommittees that school committee members may sit on. So I might change that to and other school committee subcommittees instead of and on the town of Amherst Budget Coordinating Group. Okay, I think that's a very good suggestion. We kind of deliberated over that. Depending on the time of the year, they might also serve on JCPC, but JCPC doesn't meet until after the first of the year. So are you? And I have another comment on page nine. All right. So in the second paragraph there, interested in serving out the remaining term on the school committee and the relevant skills and experiences they will bring to the body. So like having relevant skills and experiences is actually not a requirement to be a school committee member. The only requirement is getting enough votes and being a registered voter. So someone may want to share their relevant skills and experiences, but I don't think we need to ask them to put it in the letter. I would propose changing it to and why they should be selected for the appointment instead of and the relevant skills and experiences because then someone who has relevant skills and experiences can share that, but really we wanna hear like, why should it be you? That's it, thank you. Okay. And if there's any disagreement with those changes, please raise your hand, but meantime I'm going on to Mandy Jo. Yeah, just a couple. It's a special circumstance and I know we took this from the prior one where there were joint meetings, but because we don't have a form of the school committee, I suggest maybe we get rid of the reference to joint meetings and just refer them to special meetings. There's two in the first bolded paragraph on page eight. There's another one on the second bolded paragraph and then there's one in the second to last paragraph on page nine. Yeah, very good. And as Athena finds them, no, I don't think there's any in that paragraph. I think the only other one Athena is on page nine, the very last big paragraph. Right before contact. On the Friday, yeah, those special joint meetings. In the second bolded paragraph on page eight, it references just broadcast the meeting on live on channel nine. I would put a parentheses S in there in case we have a second special meeting. And then the final one again, refers to this who's collecting and submitting to the clerk. So it's the second full paragraph on page nine that talk about, that starts with the statements of interest once submitted. So they're being submitted to the clerk of the council and then it says once submitted, the town clerk will confirm. I suggest once submitted, the clerk of the council will request the town clerk confirm a candidate's eligibility. Yeah, good changes. And I think you just get rid of that. Yeah, that though. And that's it from me. Okay, Jennifer. Sorry, one more thing on page nine. The second to last paragraph statements of interest will be available to the public on the town website by September 22nd, which is stated earlier in the timeline. Just so that people will know on what date they can go look and see who the candidates are. It's on page... Yeah. So I mean on page six, we do say that they'll be verified and you're saying and posted. Yeah, so it does say posted for the September 22nd meeting, but I don't think people necessarily know when, just so people will know when they can go look. Yep, got it. Dana, do you have that? Yes. Got it. Good catch. Anything else on this? Okay, I don't feel that this group is... Well, I should say I don't feel that 13 members of this group are 12 tonight. That excludes Jennifer and Irv. I personally don't have any knowledge that allows me to make any changes to the Amherst School Department description. I did ask a previous member of the committee to provide updates like when meetings were and so forth and that's what you have before you, but if there are changes, please let me know. And Mandy Jo. Just a couple of questions with it. Should we mention that I think it's three members of the Amherst School Committee are selected to be Union 26 members in that sort of second paragraph? Do we wanna mention Union 26? I would leave it up to the school committee members to make that decision, but I thought since Union 26 might be doing a lot in this time period, it might be wise to mention that. The bullet points, there's an extra one. That second bullet point is just a hanging one. I think it should be deleted because it's part of the first bullet. And I had a question about that because I actually don't know. This all talks about in-person meetings. And so I just wonder if it should, I don't know whether the school committees are meeting solely in person or solely virtually or a hybrid method, but whatever method they're currently meeting should probably be listed within those bullet points. I just don't know what that correct listing is. Thank you. Jennifer and or perhaps you can answer, let's go back to the form of meeting at this point. Yeah, in terms of the Union 26, Union 26 is composed of three officers from Amherst School Committee and three officers from the Pellum School Committee. That's basically, and those officers are the chair, the vice chair, and the secretary. Okay, Jennifer. So I don't think it's necessary to call out Union 26 in this description. It is mentioned earlier and it's true Union 26 is gonna have a lot of work, but like everything Union 26 is gonna do, the regional school committee is also gonna do, so it's not necessarily extra work. So I think it's fine to leave it, leave that section the way it is. Regarding the bullets, so I would strike in the first bullet, I would strike or in the town room at town hall because we don't meet there. And I would also strike the current meeting schedule just posted on the committee webpage because it's not. So everything after, everything after and including or in the town room or town hall, yeah. Can we say meeting schedules are generally posted on the committee webpage? Okay. I mean, I realize they're not now because I went to look the other day. Yeah, you can say generally, meeting schedules are generally posted. Yeah. Yeah, and you would also wanna do the same for the next bullet point at the end, the current change that sentence. I have a few more pieces of input once Athena's done with this. Thank you, just give us a moment. So take out the word current in that sentence. Got it, okay. On the next page under duties, I wanna add or add or add it, I don't know, make hiring decisions regarding the superintendency or regarding the superintendent because that's gonna be something that, maybe it's a new bullet point. It's a new bullet point, yeah, okay, gotcha. And then I think we should add the stipend. Just add that like, according to the charter, Amherst School Committee members receive whatever stipend, I assume it'll be prorated or whatever, but just add something about the stipend. Yeah, I think that's a separate question. I think it's a separate paragraph or with one of the others, but not a bullet. Because it is not a specific duty. I've just put it at the very end. Amherst School Committee, for the charter or whatever it is, we'll find the citation, the Amherst School Committee members receive a stipend. I believe right now it's 3,000 and then 4,000 for the chair. That's right. Is that okay, Jennifer? Yes, that looks fine. Okay. All right, other comments or questions? Irv. Most of those things that you put down there up there come almost directly from the policy manual in terms of the roles and responsibilities of the school committee member. So I'm totally comfortable with those. And it's there, they're part of our policy. Do you think we should have a link to that policy? I mean, it wouldn't hurt. I mean, it all goes to board docs. So on board docs, there's a whole section on policies. Okay, so it's in board docs? Yes. Okay, so we cite board docs up at the very beginning, right there. Here you go. All right, are there any other comments on the description? Okay, so I'm now going to just ask whether anybody feels we need to take a vote on any of this, like for example, do we need to take a vote to post the vacancy or do we just trust that tomorrow morning, Athena and I will make it happen. I'm not seeing anybody raising their hand. Believe me, we will make it happen. All right, then let me just say, this has been a very, very good discussion. And I really want to thank all the counselors and our two school committee members for making time for a special meeting for this very, very important discussion. And I want to note that from different times during the night we've had about 17 people in the audience including a couple of members of the press. We have reviewed the process, the timeline, the announcement and the updated school committee description. I want to encourage you as we have talked earlier today to please forward all proposed interview questions to me. If you would like to see, see Athena, that's always a good idea. And I would like to receive them no longer, no later than Tuesday, September 5th. There will be discussion at the meeting on the 11th and again on the 18th. We will meet at, as a town council along with the two remaining members of the Amherst School Committee on Tuesday, September 26th at six o'clock p.m. At which time we will interview the candidates who have submitted statements of interest and been verified by the town clerk as registered voters in the town of Amherst. If we're unable to complete the interview process and the voting on September 26th, we will continue the meeting on Monday, October 2nd, 2023 at six o'clock p.m. Are there any questions about key dates or anything else? Okay, seeing none, I again, just want to thank everybody from the council and the school committee. Kathy? I just want to thank you, Lynn and Athena for the enormous amount of work that you did to get us to tonight. Because I saw the draft a week ago, which was just the old draft. So really thank you a lot. This is enormous. And I'm just trying to figure out how I mark up my calendar to capture all the dates. But thank you very much. Thank you. And Athena and I jokingly thank Derek and Nakajima for actually residing two terms ago because we had something to start with and the select board before that. With that, I'm going to adjourn the meeting. The meeting is adjourned at 826. Thank you.