A community forum inviting the public to weigh in on the district’s cell phone and dress code policies was the topic of a spirited discussion at Tuesday’s School Committee meeting.
Promotional materials publicizing the forum described it as an “open forum led by Superintendent (Tom) Geary to discuss cellphone and dress code policies with the community and sub-committee.”
With respect to the cellphone policy, it soon became clear that Geary and committee members did not agree on the role that the community – and parents – play with respect to the drafting and implementation of school policies.
Sub-committee member Kate DePrizio said the forum is “for the community to come out and speak with us and that Assistant Superintendent Adam Federico said the best way to hear feedback from the public regarding implementation of new policies is through community forums where parents can ask questions and share their experiences so that we are reviewing this… and look at how the implementation was.” She noted that Geary had sent out a survey to staff members asking for their input.
Committee member Jamie Hayman asked why a survey was not sent to parents, saying, “we say we want parent input… It seems like that would be good data.”
Geary disagreed.
“We want teachers’ opinions on how this year has gone and we got that through a survey,” Geary said. “It’s a classroom management issue.” He said he consulted the district safety team and that 90% of teachers “agree or strongly agree” with the policy.
“That’s the data I need to use,” he said. “I am happy to have parent conversations, but I don’t want to be disingenuous and say that I would take parent data when our administration, our teachers and our public safety team through law enforcement strongly, strongly feels a certain way.”
Hayman pushed back, asking, “Then why hold community forums? It feels like we are doing community forums so that we can say that we are trying to get parent input.”
Geary said he felt that a case for considering parent input may be “stronger” on the dress code policy. While he stopped short of saying he will not consider parents’ input regarding the cellphone policy, he again made it clear that “for the cellphones specifically and electronic devices, I’m going with law enforcement, teachers and administration.”
Committee member Jim Dillon backed Geary, saying both policies are “strategies to improve classroom management… We’re not the how. We don’t want to be disrespectful to the teachers, principals and all the leadership. Going to parents and saying ‘how do you think we should do it?’ would be, I think, a little bit insulting.
“If you were going to the parents and asking them which math curriculum should we pick, how should we teach it, that would really be insulting to the professionalism of your staff and you would not be able to lead this district anymore. There would be a vote of no confidence against the teachers and the principals.”
Hayman disagreed.
“It is just good practice to get input from parents when (we) are making general policy decisions. It’s about getting the impact of how this is rolled out from a parent perspective,” he said. “We have a lot of constituents. We have students. We have teachers, but we also have parents. It’s important that we engage with them and ask them how this is working.”
Committee and Policy Sub-Committee member Kim Baker Donahue said having a community forum “doesn’t preclude also having a survey (and) to say we would not use that feedback, I would disagree. It’s simply addressing what we hear,” adding it’s important to know what other concerns may be with the cell phone policy “so that we can address it.”
Donahue defended the community forum as a “positive, productive way” to hear input. She said she doesn’t understand what “downside” is associated with soliciting more feedback.
Dillon said asking parents for feedback would “undermine” teachers’ professionalism. “No doubt… It’s Tom’s call, and he said he doesn’t want to do that.”
Donahue said she doesn’t understand what the “pushback” is on this issue.
Geary stuck to his guns.
“I’m going to talk to take law enforcement. It’s a safety issue and a teaching issue, a classroom management issue and those are the two areas that I see that this really meets,” he said. “Yes, parents may be concerned for a variety of reasons… But for this particular thing, I believe the teachers and law enforcement are the experts.”
Committee Chair Kristen Elworthy agreed with Geary that the cellphone policy is about classroom management, adding “the policies are working.”
The forum took place as scheduled at Panera at MarketStreet from 9-10 a.m. and 6-7 p.m.
