The School Committee will hold a public hearing TONIGHT at 6:30 p.m. in Room 210 on the proposed FY2020 Budget following an Executive Session beginning at 5:45 p.m. regarding the Decter et. al. litigation Please note that the School Committee took a straw vote at its last meeting and voted 9 – 0 to approve. The proposed $236,297,312 budget represents a 3.8% increase over the FY2019 budget. The Superintendent’s proposed budget can be found here.
School Committee to hold public hearing on FY2020 Budget tonight
by Amy Sangiolo | Apr 1, 2019 | Newton | 3 comments
I’m wondering whether the Newton School Committee will be FY 2019 budgeting to cover what will be substantial legal expense in defending against Dechter et al. v. Newton School Committee, Fleishman et al., or will that legal defense be part of the City of Newton’s budget to cover the outside legal help since it’s doubtful the City’s Solicitor’s Office will be able fully to handle litigation which appears (having read the complaint) this extensive and complex both in fact and in law.
In that connection, at the March 25th School Committee meeting there already was addressed during the public comment period, local and national news accounts of the lawsuit which was filed last week against the School Committee, Mayor and Superintendent over Newton’s high school curriculum — over alleged antisemitism and bias against Israel.
And, at that meeting, I understand that a number of Newton high school students got up and spoke, relaying that they were aware of the lawsuit, which is what gave them the support to speak up, stating that there is antisemitism (at least in their view) in the curriculum, one reportedly a senior, saying they were taught that the Israelis are committing genocide.
In any event, most of the news accounts link to the actual complaint which I have read is comprised of 61 pages of 209 separate allegations, with a total of 469 pages including numerous supporting materials and documents, as exhibits. So some were perplexed — actually incredulous — that within a mere day of the apparent receipt of the complaint, the named defendants (including the School Committee, Mayor and Superintendent) were able to issue a public statement on the lawsuit that they “strongly disagree with the accusations and stand by the message [they] shared with the [Newton Public School] community last fall” that “[T]hese baseless claims, often reliant upon materials and documents taken out of context, are misleading… .”
Seems at least to me that the School Committee, Mayor and Superintendent may have merely reiterated their pre-lawsuit stance as the post-lawsuit stance — with no real consideration of the 61 pages of 209 allegations, with a total of 469 pages including numerous supporting materials and documents.
Correction, FY 2020 budgeting (rather than FY 2019) by School Committee to cover the Dechter case outside legal help.
I’ve read Amy’s post three times and can’t figure out what the April Fool’s Day joke is!