by Frank Schroth

Note: regarding the sale of the Womans CLub, the offer to sell was signed in March of 2013, not Deember of 2012 as recently reported in the Milton Times according to Ms. Deanna Seymourian, a member of the club.

At the last School Committee meeting a dispute began to brew regarding the review and revisions to policies. In effect, there appears to be a bit of a disagreement over the policy for managing policies. The policy subcommittee had made a series of recommendations to reword some existing policies and in some cases to eliminate them. Ms Sheridan who is on the subcommittee explained that there were two reasons for eliminating a policy – either it was a policy already covered by Massachusetts law or it was a policy that could not be enforced, “had no teeth.” Member Kelly took exception to how this was being handled and cited the school site council policy as an example. She also stated that her preference would be to compare any changes to any policy with the original policy to clearly identify the changes made. Member Walker, who is also on the policy subcommittee, said that redlined copies or side to side comparisons made sense for substantive or complex changes but if they needed to follow that process for every change large or small he saw no need to have  a committee. The committee has had a practice of a first reading, second reading then a vote. Walker questioned the value of that. He did not view that as a “productive” process. The subcommittee is tasked with reviewing policies in a timely fashion. It was acknowledged that such a review is not an insignificant task given the volume of policies. “I’d fall off my chair,” said member Bagley-Jones.

Ms. Sheridan moved to table the policies targeted to be voted on for elimination. They will take up the discussion at tonight’s meeting. You can find the complete school policies here.

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There is an offer to purchase the Woman’s Club from a local developer. The offer is progressing toward a sale according to the attorney representing the Woman’s Club, Robert Harnais. He said that the bid was the highest received by the club. Temple Shalom has also bid on the property. He noted that nobody wanted to sell but that it was being done out of financial necessity. The club’s intent is to use the proceeds of the sale to continue their ongoing community support work (e.g. scholarships, etc.).