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Votes at a glance: Cumberland School Committee (Feb. 13, 2025) — calendar, handbook, bills and resolutions
Summary
The Cumberland School Committee approved the 2025–26 school calendar (Option A), amended the high school handbook search/screening language, approved payments and multiple resolutions, and took other personnel and procedural votes. A summary of formal actions, movers, seconds and recorded outcomes follows.
This summary lists formal actions taken during the Cumberland School Committee meeting on Feb. 13, 2025. Each motion below is drawn from the meeting record; where the transcript did not provide a clear numerical tally or provided conflicting tallies, that is noted.
- Approve agenda — Motion by Miss Smith, second by Miss Feather. Outcome: approved, 7–0 (recorded at meeting).
- Approve consent agenda (minutes, bus inspection report, enrollment and transportation reports, residency/truancy report) — Motion by Miss Shea, second by Miss Smith. Outcome: approved, 7–0.
- Executive session: approve issuance of subpoena (as modified by council) in response to a request from a party to an appeal under policy K5 — Reported vote in executive session: 6–0 (committee report out to public session).
- Vote to seal executive session minutes — Motion by Ms. Seay, second by Mr. Bacon. Outcome: approved, 7–0.
- Approve 2025–26 school calendar, Option A (full February break) — Motion by Miss Feather, second by Mr. Dean. Outcome: approved 6–1 (Ms. Smith recorded as opposed in the public vote).
- Overnight field trip: Cumberland High School chorus student to Eastern honors chorus in Cromwell/Hartford region (one student; parent-arranged chaperone; funds from fundraising/donations) — Motion by Ms. Shea, second by Mr. Reagan. Outcome: approved, 7–0.
- Approve amended high school handbook relating to searches/screening (definitions and confirmatory breathalyzer language added; refusal to submit treated as admission for event-entry purposes) — Motion by Ms. Feiler (Feather read the language), second by Ms. Shea; amendment to add the definition subsection moved by Ms. Smith, second by Ms. Goldstein; amendment approved 7–0; final motion approved 7–0.
- Approve teacher A separation agreement / retirement resignation per proposed separation agreement — Motion by Ms. Shea, second by Mr. Bacon. Outcome: approved; transcript contained conflicting tallies (one announced line said "that carries 7 to 0" and another nearby line stated "6 in favor, 1 opposed"); committee record should be checked for the official tally.
- Approve homeschool instruction requests for 2024–25 school year — Motion moved (mover not specified in transcript), second by Miss Feather (per record). Outcome: approved, 7–0.
- Approve amended policies I12, I13, I15 and B2 (multiple measures, proficiency-based grading opportunities, curriculum assessment/grading mapping, and school committee governance/operations) — Motion by Miss Feather, second by Miss Smith. Outcome: approved, 7–0 (policy subcommittee had previously voted 3–0).
- Approve payment of bills — $2,273,221.27 — Motion by Miss Smith, second by Miss Shay. Outcome: approved, 7–0.
- Approve resolutions heard in fiscal subcommittee (SC PR 2-2025-09, -10, -12, -13, -14, -15); resolution SC PR 2-2025-11 was tabled — Motion by Miss Smith, second by Miss Shea. Outcome: approved (those listed), 7–0; #11 tabled.
- Vote to go into executive session under R.I. Gen. Laws § 42-46-5 — Motion by Ms. Smith, second by Mr. Dean. Outcome: approved, 7–0.
Notes on procedure and records: where the transcript gives a clear mover/second and tally, that is recorded above. Where the transcript records conflicting tallies (notably the teacher separation vote), the committee's official minutes and clerk's record should be consulted for the authoritative vote tally. All motions, where named, are attributed to speakers listed in the meeting transcript; if a mover or seconder was not spoken aloud in the record, that field is recorded as "not specified."
