School Committee and City Councilor Clear the Air

The school committee and a city councilor aired out a recent conflict surrounding the circumstances of their absence when a group of educators from the People's Republic of China visited on November 11.

During the open forum, Attleboro City Councilor Duff White addressed the committee to say that efforts of the teachers who organized the visit has been ignored because of conflict over who was invited on the visit.

 "The public feuding over this issue has over shadowed their work," White said. 

White also accused the committee of giving out his personal cell phone number to an unnamed former member of the school committee. White said that this former member called him and "interrogated" him about the situation, which was not directly addressed by the council.

The councilor took responsibility for not extending an invitation to the council, saying that the visit was arranged very quickly and caused the school committee to not be notified of the event.

"Something fell through the cracks," White said."I am in error here if anyone feels slighted."

The committee made it known that did not feel slighted or offended, but had received complaints from parents about their absence.

Ironically, a Bullying Prevention and Intervention Plan was presented to the committee by Director of Special Education and Student Support Services Lisa Martiesian.

The plan focuses on preventing bullying from a teacher and parent standpoint with a strong emphasis on training and professional development for all school staff, including bus drivers and monitors.

The proposed plan is available on the Attleboro Schools' website and a copy is available in each school. Parents are encouraged to give their feedback on the plan by Thursday, Dec. 2 as the final proposal will be submitted to committee on December 13.

Another topic that required clarification among the school committee members was the status of the renovation of the elementary school computer labs. The council had been under the impression, from statements made by Marc Furtado, during an August 16 meeting, that each of the area's five elementary schools had received 20 new computers.

The committee misunderstood Furtado's statements as the computers have not yet been distributed.

"The number 20 was not meant to be misleading," Furtado said.

Furtado had intended that number to be an estimate, not to be taken as a specific detail of the renovation plan. The renovations of the labs and the number of computers that will go in the labs was placed on hold because Furtado wanted to address the question on complaints from the committee members.

"I'm not going to have my staff walk a plank until we know it's safe to walk it," Furtado said.

Adding to the issue was the fact that committee member Teri Enegren began to question why the computers that were bought were not newer models and instead were refurbished 2006 models.

The 2006 models, though not brand new, was a huge leap from what schools are currently using, Furtado explained. Additionally, by using the less expensive older models the district will be able to replace more of the outdated computers.

The next school committee meeting is December 13 at 7 p.m. at Attleboro High School.