School Comm. will release executive session minutes
Published on March 13th, 2002
STONEHAM – MA, To release or not to release. That was the question at the School Committee's uncharacteristically brief meeting last Thursday as members struggled with a task that has not been addressed in a decade.
While approving minutes of past meetings is standard fare for each meeting, releasing information previously held confidential is not.
In a recent extensive policy review, however, the School Committee discovered an existing policy that calls for release to the public of executive session meeting minutes when the information contained would no longer cause substantial detriment to the Town, the school system or an individual.
That was news to most members.
Committee member Dan Moynihan called for a legal definition of substantial detriment.
"My concern is for leaving it in the discretion of the School Committee without some definition of what substantial detriment means," Moynihan said.
Moynihan agreed, however, with the majority of the Committee to release those executive session minutes that appeared to pose no detriment or that involved no ongoing litigation.
Committee member Marc Grimaldi abstained from voting on any releases, stating that he objected to "releasing...without a standard or rule of thumb."
"This is a subjective standard...I don't know how this is going to be helpful to boards in the future," Grimaldi said.
Instead, he suggested that the Committee wait a week for a legal definition and then apply it to all the executive session minutes.
But Committee member David Sheils disagreed, stating that certain issues contained in executive session minutes were dead issues and could be released publicly without any question, such as the past tenancy of the Visiting Nurse Association in the East School building.
"There can't possibly be any detriment over that. It's more than ancient history," Sheils said.
Christie said that this was the first time in 10 years that this issue has been addressed.
"I've been through this...It's the first time for most of you...but it's not a big deal," Christie said.
Despite Grimaldi's objection, she said, "We've got to start somewhere."
Motions were made and approved to release some executive session minutes while continuing to hold specified others confidential.
Grading the boss
Christie and Grimaldi will serve on the subcommittee to coordinate Superintendent Dr. Joseph Connelly's annual performance evaluation.
On March 14, Connelly is scheduled to present a summary of his accomplishments over the past year to the Committee. Each Committee member then has five days to submit his own evaluation of Connelly's performance. Christie and Grimaldi will then compile the individual evaluations into one composite and review it with Connelly prior to a public presentation on March 28.
Spelling bee
Spelling should be no problem on those written evaluations since the Committee is pretty confident in its ability to excel in that area. To prove such, the School Committee is sponsoring and entering a team in the town's annual Spelling Bee on Friday, March 22.
Moynihan, Grimaldi and Vice Chairman Jeanne Craigie plan on teaming up, along with Secretary to the Superinten-dent Ruth Cronin.
Assistant Superintendent Joseph Casey will serve as Spellmaster, Connelly will judge and Christie helps run the event each year.
Sheils can not make it but will likely be there in spirit to root his team on.
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