MANCHESTER – Welcome to our live thread for the January 8 Board of School Committee meeting. As we continue to test out live meeting updates, we are trying different platforms to determine which works best. This blog post will be updated throughout tonight’s meeting.
This is the first regular meeting of the Board of School Committee in 2024, which also makes it the first regular meeting for Mayor Jay Ruais, the chair of the board, and several new members. You can find the full agenda for tonight’s meeting here: https://5il.co/2bo5i. The meeting is being held in the Aldermanic Chambers at City Hall, and is also being broadcast on Manchester Public TV Channel 22 and streamed at https://www.manchestertv.org/22.
Jewett students meet Mayor Ruais, lead pledge
Students from Jewett Street School joined the Board of School Committee on Monday night to lead the Pledge of Allegiance. Before the meeting, students Brooke, Brooklyn and Isaiah had an opportunity to meet Mayor Jay Ruais and check out his office. Students were joined by Principal Peter Lubelczyk and Board members Chris Potter, Jessica Spillers and Bob Baines, who represent the wards Jewett students live in. Great job, everyone!
Action agenda items approved
With no presentations or recognitions on Monday's agenda, following the pledge, the board moved right into the action agenda items.
The action agenda items included:
- Contract for the interim assistant superintendent
- Waiver of Fiscal 119, related to bidding procedures for "priority one" items in the long-term facilities planning project.
You can read more about these items in the full agenda: https://5il.co/2bo5i.
Consent agenda items approved
Monday's consent agenda included items approved by the Policy Committee and the Teaching & Learning Committee at each committee's final meetings of 2023. Most notably, this includes job descriptions for the multilingual district staff who provide direct support to families, as well as the pilot for a new African American Cultural Studies course for Central High School.
You can read more about these items in the full agenda: https://5il.co/2bo5i.
Superintendent's communications
In the superintendent's communications section, Superintendent Gillis provided updates on requests for proposals on long-term facilities planning. These include the modular classrooms and a consultant for the facilities work.
Superintendent Gillis also noted that the District will be announcing community meetings focusing on the schools impacted in the long-term facilities plan at Wednesday night's meeting of the Finance and Facilities Committee meeting.
Early ending
After quickly moving through the agenda, the board moved to non-public shortly after 7:00 p.m.