Nolin announces Pledge of Allegiance will commence at School Committee meetings this autumn.
The June 10 regular School Committee meeting began with the Superintendent update, during which Superintendent Anna Nolin announced that starting in September 2024, School Committee meetings will begin with a Pledge of Allegiance to the United States flag. Dr. Nolin stated the Pledge is a “nice tradition that most of our governmental meetings begin with” and, in a response to a question from Tamika Olszewski (Ward 4), Dr. Nolin stated that Newton Public Schools (NPS) is “asking all of our schools to continue — by state law — to pledge the flag each day so we should model the same.” Ms. Olzsewski then asked if there was a policy or protocol for “some members whether now or in the future” who may not wish to recite the Pledge, and Dr. Nolin clarified the First Amendment rights of all citizens to decline the Pledge.
Anne Larner, a School Committee member during both 1990-1997 and 2000-2007, and civically active for many years prior, told Fig City News she did not recall the Pledge of Allegiance being recited at School Committee meetings since at least the mid-1970s, when she began attending them. She stated that during her School Committee tenure “we never discussed doing the pledge – no one ever requested us to consider it in those years.”
Later in her update, Dr. Nolin also discussed relatively low NPS staff turnover during “hiring season” by citing 55 total open positions (less than 3% of total NPS employees) having been filled with 27 onboarded hires and 28 in onboard queue.
After approving the consent agenda, the Committee approved granting Chris Brezski (Chair, Ward 2) the authority to replace the current School Committee outside legal counsel with a new law firm: Murphy, Hesse, Toomey & Lehane, LLP. During the discussion, NPS general counsel Jill Murray Grady cited the breadth of expertise at Murphy, Hesse and noted that NPS was already working with specific attorneys at that firm with positive results. Mayor Ruthanne Fuller noted that during the teachers strike many public commenters questioned the need for NPS to have outside counsel, and Ms. Grady explained the basic purpose of NPS receiving third-party legal advice.
Following the legal discussion, a substantive discussion ensued regarding Dr. Nolin’s 10-page memo recommending a decision framework the Committee could use to evaluate the future of Newton’s school buildings. Contained within the memo is a link to another 5-page memo from NPS Director of Planning Stephanie Gilman and Assistant Superintendent Liam Hurley summarizing relevant analysis performed this past school year. Dr. Nolin stated, “the Committee has been a little split on wanting me to give a forceful recommendation or not,” and therefore she said she “tried to thread the needle” in her memo.
Mr. Brezksi then addressed the first of Dr. Nolin’s “Recommended Actions by the End of June,” which is communicating to the Ward and Underwood communities that there will be no school building movements to those populations for the next five years. Mr. Brezski’s reasoning included 1) the City will not be financially able to consider a major new school project until the 2028-2029 school year at the earliest, 2) it would not be feasible to place the present Ward or Underwood populations in different school buildings, and 3) closing both buildings would leave the northeastern quadrant of Newton without an elementary school. A substantial discussion ensued among the Committee members about various priorities when undertaking long-range facilities planning, which concluded in agreement that the School Committee should communicate to the Ward and Underwood communities the unlikeliness of any school closures in the next five years.
The meeting ended with an update on the district’s systemwide goals. The meeting replay is available on NewTV.