Policy Accomplishments and On-Going Work

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One of my first Policy-related actions as a School Committee member was conducting research, drafting, and ultimately collaborating to create and implement a Social Media Policy and Procedure for the Reading School Committee. Throughout the process, I independently researched the Division of Open Government Open Meeting Law rulings to establish a fact-based foundation for the new policy. I worked with our legal counsel and the Massachusetts Office of Attorney General. Finally, in June of 2020, the Policies and corresponding Procedures were approved by a vote of 5-1 for adoption by the School Committee.

This policy sets a standard for School Committee member involvement on Social Media and clears the path for the School Committee to create its own Facebook page. The Policy was created to help the Committee respond to challenging commentary on Facebook pages while adhering to Open Media Law limitations on deliberation.

During the 2021-2022 School Year, as Chair of the School Committee, I led the effort to establish a Policy Subcommittee with the express purpose of developing a process to review the Reading School Committee's policies for updates regularly. Including specific policies at the time, the Policy Subcommittee was charged with the following:

• Catalog the remaining School Committee Policies, gather input from the Superintendent and legal counsel, and prioritize policy review and updates.
• Build a calendar of Policies for review and hold public meetings in alignment with the Open Meeting Law, including proper agenda posting, minute-taking, and minute submission to the appropriate bodies.
• Where necessary and appropriate, collaborate with legal counsel, the Superintendent (or their delegate), citizens, and students to update policies.
• Vote on policy changes to agree on recommendations to submit to the School Committee.
• Provide notification to the School Committee Chair so policy amendment notification to the rest of the School Committee can be appropriately executed in alignment with Policy BGB – Policy Adoption.
• Present recommended policy changes to the School Committee as a whole during a regularly scheduled School Committee meeting.

Following the creation of the Subcommittee, I appointed three members of the School Committee to the Subcommittee, and they carried out the charge for the remainder of that school year.

During the 2022-2023 School Year, I joined the Policy Subcommittee and became its Chair. I created a prioritized list of 50 Policies for review that year. Working with the Policy Subcommittee, legal counsel, the administration, and ultimately the rest of the School Committee, we created seven new policies, reviewed and updated 26 existing policies, and revoked one. While we didn't complete the reviews and updates of all 50 policies, this was the most significant update to our policies since they were first developed in 2006.

This year, we have cataloged an inventory of 158 policies that require review and update. Of those 158 policies, so far:

• Five have completed the entire process, including approval by the School Committee.
• Five more have been approved by the Subcommittee and are awaiting approval by the School Committee.
• Six have completed the legal counsel review and administration review and are currently under review with the Subcommittee.

While I don't expect us to complete the review of all 158 policies during this school year, I do expect that we will complete approximately 20 policies entirely through the process and set the foundation for further policy reviews in the future.