The Danvers Library Trustees agreed to change how they conduct the annual evaluation of Library Director Noel, with the chair and vice chair preparing a draft evaluation and the full board reviewing it in executive session before it is finalized or presented to town officials.

Trustee Chair Jessica said she and the vice chair will continue to draft the evaluation and then "meet and we'll break into executive session, and then we will go over the evaluation. Everybody will have a copy of it. You'll see what Jessica and I agreed to, and then we can discuss each portion of the evaluation rather than starting from 0 and having to get consensus from all of us on every point." The change was proposed to address concerns about giving every trustee a chance to contribute without requiring the whole board to renegotiate every line in a public session.

Trustee Charles praised the revised process. "I think that's an excellent solution and would absolutely, positively, and unequivocally address the concern that I have," he said, adding that his earlier questions were intended to ensure trustees could bring concerns from the public to the chair, not to criticize the director's performance.

No formal motion or vote was required; trustees expressed agreement to the procedure and discussed logistics for conducting the review in executive session. Trustees also asked procedural questions about how executive sessions are handled with livestreaming; one trustee noted that meetings they had observed simply display a blackout graphic and disable recording when the board moves to executive session.

The board discussed making the evaluation form more specific if trustees wish, for example by tying goals to the strategic or action plan, but left the evaluation form unchanged for now. The chair said a blank copy of the evaluation form is digitized and can be re-sent to trustees before the evaluation cycle begins.

Noelle (Director) was not evaluated in public; trustees emphasized the review will include input from the whole board during the executive-session review phase before any outside presentation.