Summer's over.

If you haven't watched last night's joint School Board/Town Council meeting, I encourage you to do so. Though I have been critical of the process, I applaud the efforts of both the School Board and Town Council Chairs thus far. I was impressed with Mr. Bell's responses to many of the questions and think he will be an asset to our community. Overall, the biggest takeaway from last night should be that the entire School Board and Town Council met together and in the end, the proposal to hire the consultants was approved unanimously. This is a very important first step.

With that said, I have a few thoughts about the meeting I would like to share:

• More effective communication is clearly needed. It's apparent that there is some communication among the School Board, but mentions of emails discussing agenda items that were unanswered by the Chair and the case of all School Board members not being aware that they would be voting on the proposal last night are examples that there is a breakdown in communication somewhere.
• It was clear that Mr. Evangelista was unaware that action would be taken and his frustration was understandable. For whatever reason, both the School Board and Town Council Chairs have not been as forthcoming as they could be regarding this proposal and getting information from them has been difficult. The Town Council is not perfect, but at least when we head into meetings we typically have a clear sense of what we will be voting on during that particular meeting. This allows for adequate preparation. I don't agree with what Matt did last night, but I do understand his frustration. For some reason, getting clear information on this issue has been challenging at best. For example, there was no mention to the Town Council that we would be voting on this proposal either, until I questioned the Chair at the end of our regular Town Council meeting on Wednesday. I am hopeful that this issue will be rectified moving forward. 
• People need to stop talking about the "three failed school votes." There were two school votes, one in 2006 and one in 2014. The other vote was for land.
• I'm glad the 2 boards were able to meet and I hope that can be a somewhat regular occurrence, but I do think we need to adjust the format. It's cumbersome with such a large group and I think some points were lost because of it.
• The School Board's leadership is struggling. Ms. Durocher-Wentworth lost control of the meeting, allowing comments from the audience and from the Town Council Chair, losing track of votes and allowing her frustration to distract her. Asserting one's authority without being perceived unfavorably is not an easy task but the Chair is going to need to find that balance moving forward. Another meeting like last night is unacceptable.
• The consultants will need to look at the totality of documentation in order to move forward. This should include the most recent new school proposal and add/reno drawings that were done. One of the complaints is that those buildings were over-designed for the needs of our district and I think it would be valuable for the consultants to use those as a starting point. There is nothing to lose by reviewing past efforts that we invested so much time and money in. It was not my impression from reading the proposal that we would be asking the consultants to evaluate any one plan, but to help our community decide on a course of action that will best fit both our educational and economic needs.
• "It's ok to disagree without being disagreeable." 

The School Board has a huge task in front of it and it is as clear as ever that they need to figure out how to work together or this process will fail.