I always just wait a minute or two to get started here.

Just in case.

I know in the past we've had some people who felt like they missed open forum.

All right.

Let's see.

Welcome to the December 6th meeting of the Sharon School Committee.

This meeting will be conducted remotely over Zoom. Attendance by board and commission members will be remote. Remote attendance shall count towards a quorum. The meeting will be broadcast live and recorded by Sharon TV.

If you elect to enable your webcam, your image, and background, maybe broadcast with or without sound.

We've got a light agenda tonight, and we do have some admin on available tonight, so we're going to be tabling a little bit.

But I think just right before we get to public comments and open forum, I'm going to real quick take a couple of the decision items just for the purpose of getting some of our admin out of here. So I would entertain a motion to accept the donation from the Heights PTO for the Heights Mural Project, $21,975.

So moved.

Second.

All right. Personnel.

Yes.

Veronica.

Yes.

Wynn.

Yes.

Julie.

Yes.

Shauna.

Yes.

And I don't see Adam.

And I'm a yes.

Motion carries 6-0.

All right.

I would entertain a motion to approve the new 2023-2024 student activity fund close.

So moved.

Second.

All right. Personnel.

Yes.

Veronica.

Yes.

Wynn.

Yes.

Julie.

Yes.

Shauna.

Yes. And I am a yes.

Motion carries 6-0.

All right.

So now I will go to open forum.

Some ground rules for open forum as always for anybody who's, if anybody's unfamiliar, two minutes per speaker.

You're welcome to speak about anything that you would like.

Please be respectful of the time constraint.

I know that there's certainly some passionate opinions and it's not something that we want to have to cut off at all.

Let's just try to keep it to two minutes a person. Do I have anybody willing to keep time or do you want me to keep time?

I'll do it. Julie.

All right.

Sounds great.

All right.

First up, Ahmed Mohammed.

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak. In the last school committee meeting, many Sharon residents expressed their disapproval with the school committee chair, a social media misconduct, and how he insulted and disrespected Sharon residents when they disagreed with him.

He used divisive language and spread this information.

I'm so disappointed how the school committee mishandled the petition regarding Mr. Shantov's great characters, which is not an issue. Since last meeting, there are heated discussion on social media about the petition, but the petition is still not on the agenda for today's meeting.

This petition is not on the agenda for today's meeting.

This petition is not on the agenda for today's meeting.

This petition is not about Mr. Shantov's character.

He is probably a very good person, but it's about his social media misconduct and how he is unfiltered and insulted people who disagree with him. Sharon residents expect the school committee to listen to them and take their petition seriously.

Mr. Shantov to show his great leadership and the support of the community.

He is not on the agenda for today's meeting. This petition is not on the agenda for today's meeting. Mr. Shantov to show his great leadership and unite the community by making a sincere apology, commit for DEI training and change his behavior for the future and update the school committee social media policy.

Otherwise, he should resign from his post because Sharon residents deserve better.

School committee members should not ignore residents' complaint.

School committee members should not ignore residents' complaint. They are here to listen to the residents and do whatever they can to fix the problem at hand, not to defend the chair of his misconduct.

Thank you. Thank you.

Next up, Mayor Belinky.

SPEAKER_UNKNOWN: Hi. Thank you, members of the school committee.

I'm here to talk about a book I learned that all Sharon high school students in 10th grade are going to be reading this year called Pet by Akwaeke Emezi.

This book is full of profanity.

The main topic of the book is hunting a child molester at a school.

And it describes in detail a sex change surgery that a young child has. I find this very troubling because it's part of a pattern of Sharon teachers assigning students books which are highly sexualized.

I keep being told when I bring this up that, oh, that I am exaggerating that this is just a few lessons here or there.

But it's really becoming a big part of the curriculum and I think it's absolutely inappropriate.

It's also inappropriate to be normalizing profanity.

There's a big difference between sex, profanity, and sophisticated literature.

The two are not equivalent.

Many parents here try to raise our children to speak properly, to speak cleanly, to act in a respectable way. We would not want people coming to these school committee meetings and swearing.

I would not. We don't want our children coming to school and swearing.

I don't understand why they're keeping given these books which are full of curse words. We had a community member come last year read from a ninth grade book called The Hate U Give, also full of curse words, full of sexual behavior.

I think this needs to stop. If you want to teach sexual classes, they should be in a formal sex ed class and they should demonstrate positive behavior, not negative, profane, vulgar behavior that we do not want our children to emulate.

We should normalize normal.

Thank you.

Thank you. Mohamed Masoud.

Avi, can I ask a quick question?

Sure thing.

Sorry.

Mira, what was the, I didn't catch the name of the book that you had mentioned. Sorry.

The book is called Pet, as in like a pet animal, but, and it's called, it's by Akwakey Emezi.

Okay.

And it was read at what grade? It was just assigned to 10th graders.

I believe they started just after Thanksgiving.

Great.

Thank you so much. Sure.

SPEAKER_UNKNOWN: All right. SPEAKER_UNKNOWN: Mohamed Masoud. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to talk. I was looking to the agenda and I was looking for the petition that I have signed and I spoke last week during the November 29th. It is sad to see that, again, I signed it. It's not just me, but you know, as a shadow resident, I felt we should be treated equally.

And when many people spoke about concern, it should be taken, concern is a formal petition.

It should be taken formally and responded by the school committee.

So it is disheartening to see that it is not there. But also I'd like to thank you that, you know, even last meeting, Mr. Shemtov, you have responded very passionately.

And I really appreciate that one. And I follow the social media as well. I've seen you have tried, you know, responded, you know, kind of clarify some of the concerns and try to bridge some gaps. I appreciate that one. But this was a formal petition and I was expecting to trade this one as a formal agenda, formal responses.

And by not seeing that one, I felt our school committee probably could have done better and treat members fairly in equity in this district.

That is one.

Another thing I just want to add that what my previous speaker talked about that one. My son, he's in 10th grade and actually he came to me this week, actually last week. He said I talked about this book and I was concerned.

The reason is that was in his English class and I'm fine. They can read any literature or anything is fine. But after that book, the teacher actually had a presentation to explain biology.

I said, like, is it a biology class or sex ed class? He said, no, it's my English class. I don't know. Is it is it agenda is to teach kids English or something else?

And again, he's doing the opt out on stuff is fine. But can you finish the thought, Mr. Masud, you're out of time? Yeah.

So just to make sure that, you know, our school committee really looks into that one. Like the study should be focused, not like mixing sex ed biology and English together.

Thank you very much. Thank you. Next up, I see Judith Weider.

Thank you for recognizing me.

Like Mr. Mohamed and Mr. Masud, I'm deeply concerned that the school committee is not addressing the comments the committee chair has made online that directly conflict with SPS and school committee policies.

The school committee website describes it as, quote, committed to ensuring that every child, parent and staff member has the best possible learning environment, end quote. And the footer is the same as every other SPS page, affirming that Sharon Public Schools does not discriminate on the basis of age, color, disability, gender identity, homelessness, national origin, race, religion, sex or sexual orientation.

School committee policy AC supports this with a set of six commitments that includes in a bridged form, quote, promoting the rights and responsibilities of all individuals, end quote, quote, encouraging positive experiences, end quote, between those of differing socioeconomic, ethnic and racial groups, end quote, working toward a more integrated society, end quote. The comments that Mr. Shemtov made did not show that he's upholding these values.

Writing these things online makes it clear that he will prioritize one nationality's children over any others.

And referring to those who do not believe exactly as he does as, quote, self-hating Jews, end quote, is conduct unbecoming an elected official and counter to the commitments stated above.

I am a Jew, but I'm not Israeli.

And I found his comments divisive and alienating.

They make me question whether he will treat my children's needs in SPS as important because they don't check certain boxes for him.

You're each elected officials and your conduct has to be held to a higher standard than that of a person not elected.

The expectations are baselined by the policies.

And I'm assuming that you're going to contribute your own unique perspectives and expertise, but you're going to set aside personal biases for the good of the town.

I have no wish or right to restrict the chair's speech on his personal social media accounts. But freedom of speech does not grant freedom from accountability.

Our children are watching. I call on each of you individually and collectively to recommit to the promise to serve all of Sharon's children, parents, and staff members.

Failing that, you've failed us as a community.

Jason McLaughlin.

I want to address one of the school improvement plan goals presented by Dr. Botello, specifically number four DEI. It reads, By June 2025, we will develop and implement mechanisms to assess and improve students' sense of belonging and equitable access to learning opportunities, especially in co-curricular activities and clubs.

This will be evidenced by the analysis of related equity data in a multi-year plan to increase students' sense of belonging and equitable participation among diverse economic, cultural, and ability learning profile groups. This edubabble nonsense means nothing.

Have we not been improving students' sense of belonging all along? How does one measure sense of belonging and equitable participation?

Do we need several overpaid administrators to implement this?

Has the overwhelmingly female faculty all along been elevating white hetero oppressors and just not realized it?

And what happened to the last DEI director?

Where's all that data? Let's see some actual measurable outcomes for once.

Next, find me a single study that shows that DEI brings people together.

They don't exist.

Equity used to mean enforcing equal standards for all, regardless of background.

Now equity means applying unequal standards to ensure preferential outcomes for individuals based on race, sex, and gender identity, regardless of their respective qualifications.

How do they do this? By framing everything through the lens of oppressed versus oppressor.

Good guy versus bad guy.

No wonder we're so divided.

You're literally cultivating a generation of mentally inept perma-victims who don't believe in their own merit and compete amongst themselves for oppression points.

Who lack any sense of inner resilience and forfeit hard work for unearned entitlements.

Want the answer? Want the answer?

Reduce the administrative bloat and instead hire another school resource officer that can deal with problem incidents as they come up on a case-by-case basis.

Excuse me, Ms. McLaughlin, you are over time, so can you just finish your thought?

And get your kids off social media because that couldn't be the problem.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Judy Crosby.

Thanks.

Thanks.

So I had a couple of things I wanted to address.

First off, I want to reiterate that there has been substantial pain and fear created within the community by Avi's comments on social media.

And despite claims that he's apologized, what he's actually said is that he's sorry that people feel hurt. And he has actually since then said that he stands by everything he wrote.

And he's reiterated some falsehoods about the imam, which is harmful and worrisome and really needs to be addressed.

We do have a new DEI director.

There are six other people on the school committee.

Four of you can vote to have a special session or put it on the agenda.

But ignoring a large component of your community who is saying this, who are now, they've also had to speak with the police due to safety concerns.

Like, do you all realize that?

And that is since Avi's comments.

I know this because I met with some of them.

Something none of you have chosen to do.

It's sick and it's wrong. Okay, so please address it.

Next up, if we're going to start talking about books and swear words, I hope everybody can reconsiders reading Shakespeare.

It's one of the most swear filled bits of literature you can hand a child.

They're old English swear words, but they're all swear words. And by the way, there's also a lot of sex in them.

In all of his plays.

The same is true for Homer.

The same is true for Aristophanes.

So I just want to be careful when we start calling out books and saying that there's profanity.

Because, you know, we're fine with it when it's a white guy who's written it, an old white guy from a really long time ago. And we're concerned when it's modern day. But it is, you know, let's be even in fair.

Ms. Crosby, you're out of time. Please wrap it up.

Thank you, Julie.

The third thing I just wanted to share was I think everybody could really benefit from a return of the belonging circles that Carols Perez started.

I know we now have a new DEI director.

You're still over time, Judy.

Come on. It's not fair. Time to finish a sentence.

I finished it. Thank you. Thank you.

Alan Metenko.

Alan Metenko. Good evening.

Thanks for the opportunity to speak.

As a fellow 2006, excuse me, 2002 Sharon High School graduate, I wish to speak about the petition calling for the Oscar of the school committee chair and address the concern that it reflects in the community and our schools.

I come at this from the perspective of a tenure professional in the career professional in the field of DEI and EO work and somebody who has a deep passion and commitment to both and respect for both. I believe it's unreasonable to expect Mr. Shem Tov as an Israeli or any of the signatories of the petition as Palestinians or Arabs or anyone else for that matter, not to be able to voice their strong personal opinions about the war between Israel and Hamas. But if the signatories or anyone else in the community to use those opinions as basis to presume that Mr. Shem Tov or any other members of the school committee who may more quietly share his views will discriminate against those within the Sharon community who are Palestinian or support Hamas or who are, as I might call them, self-loathing Jews is unreasonable.

Similarly, a school committee member who silently or vocally supports Hamas in their actions on October 7th cannot be presumed to discriminate against Jews within the school community or those who oppose Hamas. Individuals can have views about war and separate those views from their personal views.

Excuse me, let me say that again.

Obviously, you can tell I'm reading off a set of remarks.

Individuals can have views about war and separate those personal views from how they do their job.

More than presumption is needed to prove otherwise.

If the town adopts one's view on the Israel-Hamas war as a litmus test for serving on the school committee or any other elected office in our town, our ability to self-govern will be in peril.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Amr Amozali.

Sorry, can you hear me now?

We can hear you.

Perfect. I just wanted to add this.

I think there is some confusion going on.

I'm one of the people that signed the petition, and I'm proud that I did sign the petition.

In my mind, it's really not a political issue, so I just want to clarify that. I know the easiest defense is to play the victim card and try to make it a political issue and then basically export or import now the Palestinian issue that is going on.

This is not a political issue. Let's just get the facts straight.

The petition is not about politics.

It's not about who stands with Israel, who stands with Palestine. The petition is about the chair of the school committee and ignoring a big segment of the Sharon community, making statements that are offensive to those people in that segment, as well as undermining some of the kids that go to that school.

And in addition to, as I said the last time, saying false stuff about the imam, continuing to spread that false lie, not even calling and talking to the imam and getting the facts straight, just the idea of somebody in that position.

That should hold that role and that should hold an ethical standard that is way higher than just saying, oh, this is just a political thing and he has his own opinion.

We expect better from the chair of the committee.

What we expect is, one, vet your facts because people listen to you.

People listen to you because you have that status, because you have that position.

People are going to listen to you. So vet the facts.

Make sure you don't target a specific segment without having the right facts. You can easily have requested a meeting with the imam and got everything straightened out if that's what you wanted to do.

But again, as a Muslim person, I feel undermined by what Mr. Shantov has done.

I feel that as of now, he's not trying to even listen to what we're trying to tell him.

And what he's listening to is what he's doing. And the strategy that I'm seeing in front of me is very obvious, which is just continue the division.

Make it a political issue so that you get the people that support Israel on one side.

And that's Mr. Elmosay.

I'm sorry, you're out of time. Can you just wrap it up? I'm concluding.

I'm concluding.

I'm concluding.

So again, what I'm asking for is please, Mr. Shantov, step up to your responsibility and take that on your shoulders.

And I'm asking the school committee, please also feel your responsibility and respect everybody that has voted or not voted for you. Thank you.

Thank you.

Julia, since you don't list your last name, if you could just mention your last name and start to speak.

Hi.

My last name is Martin.

So I just want to reiterate some of the things that others have said here. I was kind of surprised and disappointed that the complaint wasn't listed on the agenda today.

I had assumed, based on some of the comments that were made last week, that it would be.

If it's possible to address that, at least explain why it wasn't, that would be great.

I do also want to mention that, you know, I didn't think this petition was about a particular viewpoint.

There are plenty of town officials who hold all sorts of views.

I think that the petition was clear.

It was about particular words, particular ways of expressing things and particular comments that weren't about, you know, supporting one side in a war. It was about supporting one nationality of families that a lot of people were really upset. But, and I'll say, like, before the petition was written, I have friends who were really upset by that before there was a petition.

So this is not, like, about one sort of move or political game that I think I've seen on Facebook.

Some people assuming there's some political game going on, a personal vendetta. And everyone I've talked to who signed it, that's not the impression that I've gotten at all.

Thank you.

All right.

Seeing no, oh, I see Matt Goyette.

Yeah, sorry to be there for the last second. But I'd actually yield my time to see if Avi has anything to say for what folks are calling hateful speech.

Sure. So as a matter of procedure, I don't, I'm the chair of this committee.

I don't need you to yield time for me to speak, but I appreciate the sentiment.

I see Khalid Mahmoud.

Hi, this is Khalid.

I just want to reiterate the sentiments that were expressed before about the comments of the chair of school committee.

There are a couple of things I want to say. In the last meeting, when the minutes of the meeting came out, it said that Sharon residents, it didn't say Sharon residents.

It said Muslims had some concerns about the comments of the chair.

I just want to iterate that it was not Muslims.

And nobody in that meeting expressed that they were Muslims and they were trying to bring some concerns about the comments.

These comments were corrected when one of the residents wrote an email to the, or a message to the minute taker.

So I would suggest instead of putting words into the minutes, like your own interpretation, the real thing should be put, what was said in the committee meeting.

The second thing.

Yeah.

I apologize.

I'll give you back your time. I just want to clarify. I think I haven't seen what you're discussing, but as a, again, as a matter of procedure, the school committee minutes wouldn't have been out already.

I imagine it's a third party recap that you're referring to.

So I do just think it's an important clarification that I don't want anyone listening to think that the official school committee minutes, which are taken by an administrator.

I hold in high regard said Muslims.

Again, whoever did say that, I apologize.

You know, I don't know.

It wasn't me, but again, I, your point is well made. I just want to be clear that the official minutes of the school committee did not say Muslims.

That's just the minutes of the school committee meeting or not have not been reviewed, voted on or released.

Your time is back.

Go ahead.

Okay. You have, you have 45 seconds, Mr.

Okay.

The second thing I want to say, the chair of the committee last time said that, acknowledge that, that a petition had been received, signed by 160 people.

And he commented that some of them signed with, as shadow resident, and some of them signed with their initials.

Um, my point is, even if one person signed with their full name, that, uh, petition should have been on the agenda of the meeting.

And, um, I'm not aware of the timelines.

Uh, but I think there should be a timeline.

Um, I think there should be a timeline to respond to such complaints.

Um, that's, that's all.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Susan E. And again, if you could just state your last name for the record. Um, yeah.

Hello. Um, Suzanne Kahn. Um, I, um, I must say I'm, I'm pretty disappointed in the fact that there was a petition that was signed with over 160 signatories.

And it didn't make its way on the agenda.

This week, there are plenty more signatories.

And it still has not made its way on the agenda.

How is it possible that the people who've signed it can feel recognized under your leadership?

If you do not take the adequate steps to address their concerns by putting space on the school committee's meeting to address the very valid concerns that have been raised.

The other point that, um, a school committee member last week has also mentioned that also mentioned that she was not aware of the comments, nor was she aware of the petition.

Um, and I would like this to be clarified.

It was it because there was some conflict of interest that she was not given the adequate information of some of a committee that she is serving on. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thanks.

I see a hand raised, but the name says iPhone.

Um, I'll call on this person, but please give us your first and last name.

Yes, sorry.

I'm driving.

It's Isaac Zisblatt.

Okay, go ahead.

Uh, firstly, Avi, I'd like to thank you for all the work you've done for the staff. I'd like to thank you for all the work you've done for the town and for the school committee. I can't imagine the countless number of hours you've put in just on the school committee itself.

And I just want to say thank you for it.

Furthermore, I feel like if we want to continue discussing a petition that was signed with a certain number of signatories on it, that all sign it. Be read for the public record so that this way that can be validated otherwise as actual town residents and registered voters in this town.

Thank you. SPEAKER_UNKNOWN: Thank you. SPEAKER_UNKNOWN: Thank you. SPEAKER_UNKNOWN: Not a hash me. SPEAKER_UNKNOWN: Not. Um, there you go. Yep.

SPEAKER_UNKNOWN: I was, um, muted. SPEAKER_UNKNOWN: I spoke last week. And I just want to kind of iterate a couple of points.

Uh, one is that this is a sentiment of many, many people. There's no issue in terms of making the names public around that or anything, but there is a huge sentiment that many of the people do not feel protected or will feel targeted.

And if there's any kind of targeting or doxing or anything of that sort, because this is being made into a political issue. I want to bring that to the attention.

And again, this is safety of everybody is very important.

And I find that kind of being neglected at many levels.

Second of all, I do want to point out what is and what is an acceptable apology. We do not feel that this is a matter of hurting our feelings.

I speak for myself and others.

We matter.

We feel this is a, an apology in terms of the actions and the repercussions of some certain words and certain kinds of conduct and behavior.

And again, as people have said, this is not political.

Uh, an SE is being held to a higher standard.

And we also find it rather concerning that there is no social media policy as of now that would have further guidelines in terms of what officials can or cannot post. And that is also very concerning.

This is my concern again.

Um, and again, I'm not going to bother going into the, how the whole SE has kind of reacted that in itself is a whole different ballgame of the disappointment of having no action and not being on the agenda. We want to reiterate all of that. Thank you. All right.

Uh, Khaled Issa.

Hi, this is Khaled Issa.

Thanks so much for giving me a chance to speak. Um, I'm going to be brief, uh, just a few points.

Um, again, I'm, I'm just want to express my extreme frustration by, um, turning this petition into a political issue. This is just gonna make the division in the town a very deep and really encourage the school committee members and Mr. Shintous, please, please. Uh, we need to handle this, uh, in a, in a way that will heal the division in our community.

Uh, that's number one. Number two, I would like to ask the school committee or whoever, uh, that, that this test should be assigned to that. We should have a policy that, uh, guide, uh, the town officials, uh, elected and appointed, um, uh, in terms of the social media interactions.

I think for the future, this is just gonna hopefully, um, keep our community from, from getting into the similar situations in the future.

Uh, thank you so much.

Uh, most of this black.

Yeah, um, I was want to ask everyone who voted for this petition, if they would feel the same way about our elected officials in Congress and Senate, who are making these comments.

Uh, excuse me, are we making these comments on social, um, and in public as well, if they would feel that they should step down from their positions.

Um, I don't really see how it's any different when, when we have people calling for, um, you know, in support of the death of the Jews, you know, from actual Congress and Senate people.

Thank you. Uh, I see Johanna's iPhone.

Can you just please state your first and last name? I guess your last name. Johanna, oh, is it on?

Did it work? Your Honor.

Okay, thank you. Johanna Rothenberg.

Um, it's just, I'm listening to, um, a number of people saying that this is, um, not a political issue, but I mean, in a way it is because it, I mean, this entire thing that we are here discussing, Mr. Shem Tov's, um, comments that he's made on social media are related to political issues.

And these are things that he feels very strongly about. He is Israeli by heritage.

He is Jewish by heritage.

And these are things that are passionate to him. And they are passionate to many of us on both sides, I understand.

But as, um, some people have just stated, there have been people, um, individuals in Congress in law that have made their opinions very well known and they are calling for all sorts of atrocities and violence.

This is not what Mr. Shem Tov is doing. He is speaking passionately about the concern of his people on his private social media page. I understand that people, it's a small town. We read these pages.

We know everybody.

We see everybody.

But this is his private space. He has not said anything necessarily inappropriate.

He has said what is in his heart. And I really would like everybody to, instead of just jumping on the bandwagon, saying, well, he said these things, now he must leave. He hasn't apologized.

He has apologized.

The apology has not been accepted.

And as I'm understanding, it was a sincere apology.

We also should not, we should not forget all the things that Mr. Shem Tov has done for the Sharon Public Schools, for the school committee.

All of his projects are passionate.

All of his actions are passionate.

And that passion has given us very positive outcomes.

Thank you. SPEAKER_UNKNOWN: Thank you. All right.

Seeing no more hands. I do.

I have something that I would like to say that I had prepared to. I had been prepared to say prior to this.

I'm trying to be respectful of public forum. I see hands coming up now after I had called for the end of public forum.

But, you know, again, I just, sorry, I won't waste too much time talking about why I waited until after people spoke.

But I just want to be clear. This is not a response to folks speaking.

That's not what we do here. It's, as I'll explain now, a response to conversations I've had in the community.

Last night, I had a two hour conversation with a mom here in town who was a petition signer who was hurt by the things that I said, who was offended by the things that I said, who disagreed with some of my social media posts.

And we spoke for two hours.

And first of all, I was incredibly appreciative that this person gave me my gave me their time. And I've indicated from the first time that the email came in that I was looking for a conversation, many conversations, as many or as few as people are comfortable with. And I was looking for a conversation with, because truly, I am open to the idea that there is something from a different perspective than mine that I have to learn here. In the conversation that I had last night, it was very clear and obvious to me that my angle, my view, my perspective of the things that I shared and said were limited to my perspective.

And that I wasn't seeing the things that I had said, the impact that they had from the perspective of some of our neighbors, my neighbors, who were involved in this petition.

I was a communications major for a short time when I started college.

And I always tell people that the most impactful thing that I learned in college was that communication is 100 percent the responsibility of the communicator.

It doesn't matter how much you think you said something.

What matters is what was heard.

You're responsible for that if you say something.

Those are my posts.

I share those posts.

I've responded up until now.

From the perspective of somebody who never intended to hurt anybody who knows in his heart how he feels about all of his neighbors, including in this instance, my Muslim neighbors, my Arab neighbors.

But it also is very clear in this conversation that I had with this fellow parent here in town that that was not what she heard.

She saw the chair of the school committee say things that made her feel alone and unwelcome, that made her feel like her children did not belong here from that person's perspective.

And in this case, that person being me. So that's wrong.

And if I'm the person that did that, which I am in this case, then I'm wrong.

I accept that.

I apologize for that.

My goal here in running for school committee was never to be divisive.

I think actually when I ran for school committee the first time, one of my platforms was to not be divisive.

It's been a rough few weeks from the perspective of being a story.

You know, this is this committee has worked really hard to do a lot of good things. I'd like to believe that I've worked really hard to do a lot of good things.

This town, I think, has done a really great job of building a warm and welcome place where a lot of people with a lot of different backgrounds can feel safe and comfortable.

And I'll be honest with you, for me, I never believed.

And this was something that that jumped out in this conversation.

You know, this this woman said to me, like, I've lived here for X number of years and this has always been an amazing place to be. What happened?

And I I said the same thing.

I grew up here. I've been back here for seven years.

You know, again, I hope at some point there's a trust that can be rebuilt for folks to understand that it was never my intention to become the story. It was never my intention to hurt people's feelings. It was never my intention to make people feel unsafe, unwelcome.

But I accept that the things that I said did that.

I own that.

You know, as far as procedurally running a school committee is not an easy thing.

And so, you know, as chair, it's it's never my intention to limit people's voices or keep something from an agenda.

To be frank, this meeting was slated to be canceled.

And I chose to hold it because I believe that folks still had a lot that they needed to say and that they needed to hear this from me. And I didn't want to take that opportunity away from people who I think very genuinely and sincerely are sharing their feelings and their thoughts and their requests.

But I don't plan to agenda this item because the advice that I've been given.

Is that this is not a school committee matter.

It is a community matter.

And again, I don't want that to become a divisive statement either.

I'm here trying to tell everybody very clearly that.

Through the conversation that I had last night, I understand that the things that I said.

Could have been said in a very different way, could have just not been said at all. And I I understand that the things that you all heard, I'm responsible for having said and I accept the responsibility for having created that division.

I'd like to see the division on social media go away. I'd like to see the division at these meetings go away.

And I don't know if that will happen, but I hope that it does. I will play my role in making that happen.

I've seen some things said towards Muslim neighbors in the last few days that I don't stand behind and believe, you know, and and I want to I want to move forward from this hoping to earn back the trust of the folks that signed that petition, no matter what their background is, who lost faith in me.

I don't plan to resign.

It's certainly this group's purview to remove me as chair if that's how they felt. I don't plan to resign as chair.

I certainly don't plan to resign as a school committee member, but I plan to work as hard as I ever have with the hopes that folks in this town, no matter what their background, will believe in me and will trust that I that I care about their children.

I did just want to take one more moment to say that the gentleman, I think his name was Ashaz, who spoke at the meeting last week. I don't see him on the call now, but.

He was very impactful on me as well.

He was obviously very sincere.

He stayed on the meeting on screen the entire time. It was clear that he believed in in the representation of the students who he spoke for.

He made it clear that it was not just the Muslim students that he was friends with. It was non-Muslim students as well that had been hurt by the things that I said.

And, you know, again, when I ran for school committee the very first time, I said one of my goals was for the students of this district to believe in me and to feel like I support them.

And I had lost.

His faith in my leadership and that mattered to me.

So, you know, again, I've sat with these things. I accept them.

I apologize.

And, you know, just before this meeting started, I received a message from a member of the community who had been frustrated with me, who would express those frustrations.

And for some reason, by the grace of something other than me, he was reaching out to let me know that he'd heard I'd had a conversation with somebody.

He welcomed having more conversations with me. And he hopes to rebuild these bridges.

And that gave me a lot of hope that perhaps going forward, we can put division behind us and we can all work together towards being the community that I know we are, to being the community that perhaps I never should have torn apart on any level.

And also, again, I apologize.

And I guess that's where I'm at.

Julie, I see your hands up. I don't know if that my statement negates your statement, but you're welcome to speak.

I'm unmuted now.

I'm not sure whether anyone's interested in hearing my statement, but it was really in regards to some of the correspondence that was discussing, you know, like different measures.

And so I don't know if that's appropriate now, but I can save it or I don't know if someone's interested.

But I thought I it isn't really.

It's parallel to what you just said. Well, I think if you're comfortable with it, I think the summary of feeling that you feel the same way I do is good enough for me.

But if you'd like to read it, feel free.

Okay.

Wait.

Okay.

I'll try to go through it quick.

All right.

I'm going to address.

First of all, I wanted to say a few words about tonight's and last week's correspondence.

Some people have levied criticism that some of us didn't talk last week.

And that's because I really wanted to think about what I wanted to say first.

And it's not because I wasn't listening.

It's because I was listening.

And I wanted to think about it. I think one thing that was brought up in the correspondence is a request that Avi resign from the school committee, resign as chair, or be censured by the school committee.

Avi's statements have caused hurt to many in our community.

I think he just acknowledged that. And I think that hopefully this was a successful apology.

I do not think that Avi should resign from the school committee.

He was elected not once but twice in the past couple of years.

He finished a one-year term and then a three-year term, both competitive races.

Avi's always been himself.

And I think we love him for that.

I think that we do receive requests for school committee members to resign.

Indeed, in October, we received a request for the resignation of a different school committee member for comments made in a meeting.

I think that's a very extreme measure.

I don't think that Avi should resign as chair of the school committee.

The rest of the committee voted unanimously for him to be committee chair in both May of 22 and May of 23. And, you know, we all know Avi's passion and his temperament.

I do not think the school committee should vote to reorganize itself.

This vote to reorganize traditionally is held after elections in May. There was an exception at the March 10th, 2021 meeting when the committee voted to reorganize with a different chair.

And for the record, we did not do this because of anything she said in or outside of a school committee meeting, but rather her poor decision to refuse payment for our vendor for the school superintendent search.

And we felt the chair had ignored the will of the school committee and violated her duty.

And that is that is why we voted to reorganize.

So it was something directly related to school committee business.

I also don't think that Avi violated any school committee policies.

We have policy BK, social media policy, which really focuses more on potential violations of the open meeting law. One letter writer contended that Avi violated policy AC, which is non-discrimination policy, including harassment and retaliation.