Draft: January 22, 2004

Approved: Jan. 28,2004

School Committee meeting January 21, 2004

Under Report of the Secretary

Business Meeting

Mr. Radtke called the meeting to order at 6:57 p.m.

Members Present: Jonathan Radtke – Chairperson, Walter Rumery, Stephen Spring, Teri McRae, Kim Matthews, Ben Meiklejohn (arrived at 7:05 p.m.), Tae Chong, James DiMillo, Otis Thompson

Report of the Chair

Mr. Radtke:

Indicated that the report on the Terra Nova data will be rescheduled to the February 4, 2004 meeting
Mentioned that the first Community Conversation was held on January 14th prior to the School Committee meeting. He extended an invitation to any interested citizens to attend the next Community Conversation scheduled for February 25, 2004 at 6 p.m. in Room 250 prior to the School Committee meeting.

· Announced a community forum to be held on Tuesday, January 27^th at 6:30 p.m. at Adams School to hear an update from the architects on the new EEAS to hear an update by the architects and plans for programs and learning designs!

Report of the Superintendent

Superintendent O’Connor:

Announced the resignations of Sally Loughlin, Director of Educational Planning who has been in Portland Public Schools for 5 years, effective July 1, 2004 and Margaret Parish, Math teacher at Deering High School, effective April 16, 2004.
Introduced Fran Schneit, Social Worker, who provided a brief overview of the work that social workers do in the Portland Public Schools.

Reports of Committees

East End Area School Building Committee – Mr. Rumery indicated that the last meeting of this committee was cancelled. The subcommittees are continuing to meet. The next Building Committee meeting is scheduled for Thursday, January 22, 2004 at 5:30 p.m. at City Hall.
Policy Committee – Mr. Meiklejohn indicated that the Committee met last week and the next meeting will be February 3, 2004 at 4:30 p.m. at Central Office.
Finance Committee – Ms. Matthews indicated that Central Office staff is collecting information on the budget and that public meetings would be held in March.
Legislative Committee – Mr. Thompson indicated that the Committee met prior to the evening’s School Committee meeting and decided that 1) the Legislative Committee would contact the Portland delegation to schedule a meeting to discuss issues that will be coming before the legislature and 2) discussed options for litigation against state and federal governments for inadequate financial support.
Facilities Task Force – Ms. McRae reported that this group has been meeting and plans are to complete the work in February. The group is looking at elementary schools and discussing relocation of Central Office. The next meeting is February 4^th at 6 p.m. in Room 240 at PATHS.

Report of the Secretary

Ms. Matthews moved, seconded Mr. Chong and voted unanimously to approve the meeting minutes of the January 7, 2004 and January 12, 2004 meetings.

Consent Items

Superintendent O’Connor reviewed the donations and thanked the contributors.

Old Business

1. Consideration and action remove policy JRE - Flyer Distribution Policy from the table.

Mr. Radtke reviewed the process that would be used regarding this agenda item. The

Committee may ask clarifying questions and Mr. Pringle, school attorney, would be

available to clarify questions.

Mr. Rumery moved, seconded Mr. Thompson and voted 7-2 to remove policy JRE – Flyer Distribution Policy from the table.

After the policy was removed from the table Committee members discussed this item-

Asked if item E were removed from the proposed policy could groups then have limited access and could schools define groups that could send flyers home.
If a group such as KKK wanted to send home a flyer they could not be refused.
City has an anti-discrimination ordinance. Is it unconstitutional?
Suggestion was made that possibly groups could combine with the rec. program to get information out to students.
Limited open forum – if a district allows literature or building usage then can’t discriminate based on free speech rights.
NCLB Act includes wording regarding Boy Scouts of America having equal access – no school can deny or discriminate against Boy Scouts.
Suggested the possibility of sending home with students Portland Public Schools nondiscrimination policy.
Suggested possibly having groups sign a form indicating their support/compliance with the non-discrimination policy.
Suggested possibly sending out something at the beginning of the school year to parents asking them if they want flyers sent home.

Mr. Pringle indicated:

that there would need to be in writing specifics indicating what programs would be allowed to distribute flyers.
that having the disclaimer added to flyers would show that the organization does not necessarily reflect the views of the school system.

Race, gender, religion are all equal.

Public Comment – Mr. DiMillo requested no extensions.

31 people addressed the Committee regarding the Flyer Distribution Policy.

Public comment was closed at 9:14 p.m.

Mr. Thompson moved, seconded Mr. Rumery to delete item E from policy JRE.

Public comment on the proposed amendment. Ms. Matthews moved, seconded Mr. Chong and voted 8-1 to limit public comment to 1 minute.

Ten people addressed the Committee regarding the proposed amendment.

At 9:26 p.m. Mr. DiMillo moved, seconded Ms. McRae and voted 6-3 to take a 5 minute recess.

At 9:31 p.m. Committee came back into session. Mr. Radtke indicated that there was a motion on the floor to remove item E from the policy.

Committee discussed the motion on the floor:

Some members indicated that this would affect low income families, outside agencies are hard pressed to distribute their information
Parents have responsibility to teach values
Some members indicated support for amendment

Ms. McRae moved, seconded Mr. Dimillo and voted unanimously to call the question.

A vote was taken on the proposed amendment: It was voted 3-5-1 to delete item E from policy JRE. Motion failed.

After this vote the Committee again considered the policy as written.

Mr. Spring read excerpts from policy AC and ACAA and addressed social justice.

Mr. Spring moved, seconded Mr. Meiklejohn to add to policy JRE as item F- Information and notices concerning activities and programs offered by youth oriented and civic oriented organizations provided that such organizations’ policies are in compliance with all federal, state, and local laws and ordinances.

Members discussed the proposed amendment by Mr. Spring. Mr. Pringle was asked his opinion on the proposed amendment and if it was enforced what would the likelihood be of the School Committee ending up in litigation. He indicated that there would be the possibility that the courts would hold the amendment unconstitutional and that the possibility of litigation would be high.

Public comment – 8 people addressed the Committee regarding the proposed amendment.

Committee members discussed the proposed amendment:

Spoke to freedom of speech and practices
Equal access to full participation in society
Deplores discrimination by Boy Scouts, take proactive position – send home school department non-discrimination policy.
Some great moments in history have taken place due to civil rights
Portland Public Schools endorses non-discrimination and teaches tolerance.

(At approximately 10 p.m. Mr. Thompson left the meeting)

Mr. DiMillo moved, seconded Mr. Rumery and voted 4-5 to call the vote.

Roll Call vote on proposed amendment: to add to policy JRE as item F- Information and notices concerning activities and programs offered by youth oriented and civic oriented organizations provided that such organizations’ policies are in compliance with all federal, state, and local laws and ordinances.

Ms. McRae – No Mr. Radtke - Yes

Mr. Spring – Yes Mr. Rumery - No

Mr. Chong – No Mr. Meiklejohn - Yes

Ms. Matthews - No Mr. DiMillo – No

Motion failed.

Committee was again back to the original policy.

Ms. Matthews proposed an amendment to be added to the bottom of policy JRE.

Ms. Matthews moved, seconded Mr. Chong and voted 6-2 to add the following wording to the end of policy JRE - Once, near the beginning of the school year, Portland Public Schools will distribute a flyer to all students stating the non-discrimination policy of Portland Public Schools. Policy AC states that “discrimination against students because of race, color, sex, religion, sexual orientation, ancestry or national origin, or disability is prohibited”. The flyer will also state that because the Portland Public Schools distributes flyers for civic and youth oriented organizations, it must by law distribute flyers for all civic and youth oriented organizations, even those who do not comply with our non-discrimination policy.

Public Comment – 4 citizens addressed the Committee on the proposed amendment by Ms. Matthews.

Committee was again back to the original policy. Members spoke to the original policy on the table.

2. Consideration and action to approve policy JRE - Flyer Distribution Policy

It was moved, seconded and voted unanimously to approve policy JRE – Flyer Distribution Policy.

At 11 p.m. Mr. Radtke requested unanimous consent to table all remaining agenda items to the next Business Meeting.

It was moved, seconded and voted 7-1 to adjourn the meeting at 11 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Mary Jo O’Connor

Superintendent of Schools