By NEIL ZOLOT
WAKEFIELD — The School Department Facilities Director Tim O’Brien briefed the School Committee on capital projects and security at the schools, at their meeting Tuesday, August 8. “Security is the most important thing we do,” he said in regard to entry systems and surveillance camera setups. “We’ll continue to make improvements in all areas.”
A risk assessment was made by the Edward Davis Security and Management Consulting, the first made by an outside party. Superintendent Doug Lyons reported previous assessments had been made in-house but not by a “third party” during his tenure.
“Is that the Ed Davis?’ School Committee member Stephen Ingalls asked, wanting to know if it was the Boston Police Commissioner from 2016-2013. O’Brien answered it was.
Lyons also said the school system would be looking at its cyber security protocols and would get a briefing from Technology Director Jeff Weiner in the fall.
O’Brien also told the members about various upgrades at the schools, including adding a wall to the High School mail room to create office space, work on the HVAC system at Galvin Middle School, cleaning of ducts and new L-shaped supports for library shelves at Dolbeare, parking lot paving and new fencing around the playground at Doyle, a remodeled and reoriented playground at Walton and a new gym floor at Woodville.
Elaborating, he added a new grassy area at Walton will be fenced off to allow “healthy grass that can be played on” to grow and that some grass will be replaced by pavement because “teachers want to line up students without dragging a lot of dirt into the building. It’s not going to be exactly on the existing space. We’ve remodeled how we’re going to use the space.”
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In other items, the School Committee amended its policy on Public Participation to accommodate free speech even if rude and uncivil. “The main focus is to ensure we weren’t telling people things they weren’t allowed to talk about,” Policy and Communications Subcommittee member Peter Davis explained. “The only thing off-topic involves complaints about personnel, which are not appropriate to talk about in an open meeting. Other than that, it’s fair game.”
The adjustments follow a state Supreme Court ruling stemming from a case in Southborough in which the Selectmen chair recessed a 2018 meeting after public comment accusing board members of spending town funds like “drunken sailors,” which he deemed disrespectful, rude and slanderous. In a more recent decision on the matter, the Supreme Court ruled “such civility restraints on the content of speech at a public comment session in a public meeting are forbidden. Although civility is to be encouraged it cannot be required regarding the content of what may be said in a public comment session of a governmental meeting.”
The School Committee eliminated a clause reading, “Improper conduct and remarks will not be allowed. Defamatory or abusive remarks are always out of order. If a speaker persists in improper conduct or remarks, the Chairperson may terminate that individual’s privilege of address.”
Davis interprets the Supreme Court ruling as meaning “there’s no such thing as improper remarks.”
In discussion, the members affirmed public comments would not be the subject of discussion at the same meeting. Usually the subject is placed on an agenda at a subsequent meeting. “If we engage in dialogue on the topic, we may be in violation of open meeting laws,” Davis pointed out. “We can’t discuss a topic that isn’t on the agenda.”
An exception was made for clarification, generally at the discretion of the chair. “It’s very important the School Committee not engage in dialogue, but if a comment was made and there’s a question of the meaning of the comment, I wanted to make sure a member will be able to clarify what the person meant,” Davis said.