To the editor:
The following is what I said at the Aug. 11 School Committee meeting during public
comments. Several people suggested that I send it to the Current for publication.
As I try to step back and look at the uproar that arose in the past couple of weeks, I want to
express some hopes that a lot of good people have going forward since what is done is done
and we must move on.
Here’s what I hope can happen going forward:
1) I hope that the School Committee will be up front with your agenda – spelled out
honestly and clearly for all of us so that we don’t have to guess at what you might really
be planning next.
2) I hope that you don’t have a hidden agenda such as banning books or disparaging DEI
(Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) workshops and staff, that help us all better recognize
our built-in cultural blind spots.
3) I hope that you will look for someone with true vision in a new superintendant, not just
someone you can manage easily with your own biases and certainties.
4) And, finally, I hope that in the future you will indeed be truly transparent and not just
cleverly politic in what you think you can get away with not disclosing, as happened in
this past election. It’s the hidden agendas that caused the current uproar.
I speak as one who, like you, spends many hours a week as a volunteer for important work
in our town.
Mimi Hollister
Glover Square
