At Worcester School Committee meeting, Sue Mailman puts focus on abuse-allegation policy

WORCESTER — With the culture and climate, and health and wellness being key priority areas of Superintendent Rachel H. Monárrez’s strategic plan for the district, School Committee member Sue Mailman sees an opportunity to protect students from potential abuse.

At the School Committee meeting Thursday, Mailman briefly commented on the response she got from district administrators related to her agenda item she submitted at a meeting in November related to the district’s response to students alleging abuse.

“The response was exactly a very legal response,” Mailman said. “If that doesn't answer the bell, then what are we going to do? Because holistically, it can't be what it was before.”

More: Worcester School Committee member Mailman urges stronger action on sexual abuse

At the Nov. 16 School Committee meeting, Mailman submitted two items to the agenda.

The first requested that the school administration report “generally, how it responds to the concerns of a student alleging abuse or about whom a MGL Ch 119, s51a report is filed.”

Section 51 A of the Massachusetts General Laws outlines the punishment a mandated reporter can receive for failing to report child abuse or neglect.

The second, which was sent to the governance and employee issues standing committee, requested a policy revision be considered “so that volunteers for book drives or similar events are held to the same high standard as are parents who volunteer at our school.”

Administration provided a response to Mailman’s item Thursday night, giving both the exact policy in place in the district, as well as an outline of the steps followed when a report is filed.

The policy and process was the same the district shared with the T&G previously.

Paid leave

All school officials and employees are required to report any suspected case of child abuse or neglect. If a report is filed against a staff member, the accused person is immediately placed on paid administrative leave.

“Then, the WPS Human Resources Office will begin an initial investigation which may include contacting law enforcement or appropriate authorities, such as the Department of Children and Families, if there is evidence of potential abuse,” the district previously said. “If the filing is unsubstantiated, HR will review and determine next steps.”

However, while the response was “very legal,” Mailman said she feels confident that Monárrez and her team of administrators understand that “we still have responsibility to do something if we know that there is hurt going on or harm that has been caused to our students.”

She said she thinks that Monárrez’s strategic plan, which she and district administrators provided an overview of on Thursday, will, “mandate that we cannot have the same response as happened many years ago.”

While still a draft, the committee got a presentation on the superintendent’s 2023-28 strategic plan draft for the district, which the committee will vote on at the Dec. 21 meeting.

Six priorities

The plan contains six key priorities of the strategic plan, as well as the aims and goals of each priority.

Those priorities are: Equitable Resources and Educational Programs, Family and Community Engagement, Culture and Climate, Acquire and Retain Talent, Health and Wellness, and Modernized and Safe Facilities.

Administrators took turns going over each key priority, giving an overview of what the district is aiming for, and the goals that fall under that.

For example, under Acquire and Retain Talent, administrators said the aim is to increase retention rate of staff members to ensure “access to high-quality instruction.”

The goal, by 2027-28, is to increase the retention rate from 80% to 85%, and have all hiring managers “fully” implement the district’s “Human Resource Guidebook to ensure consistency in supporting the growth and retention of staff.”

Mailman pointed to the Culture and Climate and Health and Wellness priorities as areas where administrators and the committee could focus on making changes to protect students from potential future abuse, she said.

Under Culture and Climate, the district is aiming to create a more socially and culturally inclusive environment for students and other members of the school community. It also aims to expand the use of “restorative practices to create a more equitable learning environment for all students.”

For Health and Wellness, the district is aiming to “build a systematic health and wellness approach to authentically engage historically underserved scholars.”

One goal is to, by the end of the 2027-28 school year, implement a “comprehensive and evidence-based K-12 counseling model.” The other goal is to ensure counseling services are accessible to “historically underserved” students.

The district is also aiming to “strengthen” how wellness opportunities impact students and school community members “by dismantling systemic and institutional barriers.”

The goals are to ensure students and school community members have access to “high-quality wellness opportunities,” and increase spaces that promote health and wellness through community partnerships.

After the presentation, committee members, including Tracy O’Connell Novick were able to give feedback about the draft and changes they wanted to see made before the committee voted on it at the next meeting.

For Mailman, the strategic plan, and those to areas in particular, provide an opportunity to address the issues raised in her two previous agenda items.

“It’s so hard for me to understand how things were before, but that is not the world we live in now,” Mailman said. “There’s so much about culture and climate, and health and wellness that will help make sure we catch something in the future.”

Foley recognized

At the beginning of the meeting, former School Committee member Jack Foley received a Life Membership Award from the Massachusetts Association of School Committee.

“This lifetime membership, I hope I’m a member for a long time,” Foley jokingly said during the meeting.

While speaking on the work he and other committees have accomplished over the years, Foley made a point to thank Mailman for her recent agenda items.

“Of all the great work accomplished by the School Committee, I especially want to note the recent items filed by Sue Mailman and endorsed by the committee to assure our students are protected from sexual abuse and support properly by the district,” he said. “The first priority for any School Committee is to protect all of our children. Heather, your courage inspires all of us.”

Foley seemed to be referencing Heather Prunier, who discussed allegations she brought against former principal and School Committee member John Monfredo when she was a student in the 1990s in independent journalist Bill Shaner’s newsletter Worcester Sucks and I Love It.

The story was also referenced when discussing her agenda items at the November meeting.

Prunier, who was present at Thursday’s meeting, deferred questions to a spokesperson.

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Worcester School Committee member Sue Mailman puts focus on abuse-allegation policy