Commissioner Maureen Griffin used the Dec. 18 board meeting to present a formal proposal for a Multicultural and Multilingual Support Initiative (MMSI) after noting that multilingual enrollment has grown sharply and that the district continues to face challenges meeting English-language-learning obligations for some language groups.

Griffin described alleged compliance problems in recent years — including cited instances of students taking English-language exams in incorrect languages — and recommended a district multilingual resource team, translation and interpretation infrastructure, expanded ELL programming, culturally responsive instructional materials, community partnerships with refugee and immigrant-serving organizations, and a data dashboard disaggregated by language group. She suggested Title III and culturally responsive-education grants as potential funding sources and asked the board to consider establishing an ad hoc oversight committee.

Several commissioners questioned whether board members should propose or direct operational change that belongs to the superintendent and administration. Vice President Malloy and others said academics and literacy are legitimate board concerns but cautioned about crossing into day-to-day management; the state monitor noted ongoing work and revision of bilingual curriculum and cited one outstanding RIA (RIA-program) issue requiring attention. Commissioner Griffin and others pressed administrators to accelerate services and improve translation/accessibility; Griffin raised concerns that some staff had been provided outdated "flip phones" for translation assistance, a point the state monitor said she would follow up on.

The exchange underscored tension between governance and operational roles: commissioners agreed the issue merits attention and asked administration to present the Department of Teaching and Learning’s existing ELL and multilingual work in a future session.