Resident urges focus on staffing, parent communication and school climate; another resident praises staff

At the beginning of public comment on Jan. 27, resident Sarah Palling told the school committee she had read the budget was on the agenda and urged the district to consider "customer satisfaction"—parents' and students' views—when allocating resources.

Palling raised several concerns she said were contributing to families leaving Greenmont School: declining enrollment, staffing shortages that force the district to hire less experienced candidates, language-translation expenses, regular emergency-vehicle responses without community explanations, and classroom-rule changes she described as upsetting to students. "If you were running an assembly line, creating a product, and even just one of the ten pieces didn't work correctly, then the entire product would be affected," Palling said.

Palling cited enrollment figures for Greenmont, saying the school had about 285 students four years ago and about 210 at present. She asked the committee to consider surveying current and former families to identify what she called "broken" parts of the district's service.

Later in the public-comment period, Eileen Ryan spoke in praise of individual staff members. Ryan named "Mrs. Curtis," who she said showed warmth and professionalism when the family visited the building, and "Mrs. McGinnis" at Richardson Middle School, whom Ryan described as "a breath of fresh air" and credited with running the school like a "tight ship." Ryan said those interactions increased her confidence in the district.

A school committee member moved to allow Palling to finish her remarks after the timer was called; the motion passed by voice vote.