Hello everyone and welcome to this conversation one-on-one with candidate Paul Schlipman. Paul is a veteran member of the school committee who is up for re-election. Paul thanks for joining us. This is my pleasure. We got a lot to cover and time will go quickly so we'll get right into it. You recently in the wake of the debate that was held last week for school committee and some of the comments that were made in that debate you responded with an article that took issue with a lot of what was alleged or some of what was alleged by one of the other candidates and then in that in turn your writing has in turn elicited quite a number of responses from different members of the community including students and school officials as well as other members of the community. I wanted to give you a chance first off to just clarify this all is related to how widespread or if a disparity gap exists in Arlington schools and students between white and non-white students. That's very general description or very surface description but I wanted to give you a chance to both address the concerns of the people who responded to you and elaborate on what you were or clarify what it was that you were intending to say. Well let's begin by thinking about what it was like to be in the debate and I'm happy to talk about any issue including what we can do to make the school system more welcoming and more responsive to every student that walks through our doors. We were hit by a question from Ms. Martin that said how come none of the other candidates are talking about the extreme disparity gaps. So wait a minute extreme disparity gaps and because we're on Zoom because we're in this confined environment and because I had to answer first it's like okay how do I answer this and then after I had the chance to answer I went to my phone very quickly and she's claiming all our students of color are disadvantaged and quickly I looked at the data on my phone and the fact is 12 out of 12 African-American kids in the graduating cohort who started school with us in ninth grade graduated 100% of our Asian students graduated. There is no statistical difference in the district in terms of the discipline rates for Asian students where she claimed it was five times the white students and then she revised that to two and a half. The numbers are wrong. She threw out a lot of numbers which I wasn't expecting. Now I have a long history of dealing both with diverse populations and data. I worked for 20 years in the law public schools looking at disparities looking at student populations. I'm on the state advisory council the state board of ed on accountability and assistance. I know our data. I know where we have gaps. I know where we don't. I know the ones that they're measurable. I know the ones that aren't statistically significant and after that debate isn't what just happened. So I felt compelled to go and transcribe the debate verbatim to pull out the numbers and the statements and to refute the assertions that one we're not doing anything. We're not talking about it because we have in the past. Our override last year was based on addressing achievement gaps among other things. We're working on adding social worker psychologists and special ed teachers to improve the world. But we have to approach this in a way that is respectful and honest and to go and portray this district is having extreme disparity gaps, whatever a disparity gap is. I don't know. But to paint this as some sort of an extreme picture that we're ignoring is just wrong. Okay. Thank you. And moving on to what we're identified in the debate and what we all recognize are huge issues coming up. Specifically, here comes the fall. It will be upon us before we know it, I'm sure. And along with that coming out, we hope, from the pandemic in some way. How do you see things going in terms of the reopening of schools? Clearly you have no answers, but I'm wondering what do you see right now? What can you forecast are going to be the biggest challenges that we are going to be facing around that? And then also, are there any opportunities that you can see that will arise from either things we're learning through the experience of dealing with the pandemic so far or for any other reason? Well, every day that we're doing remote learning, we're learning about where we're doing well and where we're not. Now, obviously, at this time last year, when we set up our budget, our staffing, and we bought instructional materials, we had no idea that we were going to go out and march and be on lockdown through the remainder of the school year. So we didn't prepare the IT. We didn't prepare the software that would align to a remote learning environment. What we need to do now, we don't know where we're going, but what we need to do now is learn from our experience so that when we set up September and we budget for September, we're putting in place items that we could have available to us to implement a much better system in September because we'd be starting from scratch. I mean, we're hiring really good teachers whose skills are relating to kids in classrooms and to all of a sudden throw them into this environment where they have to do this remotely is very difficult. And a lot of what we're doing in staff meeting time is to work out the kings of how do we do this? So there's a lot of ongoing professional development. And if we discover something on Monday, it's going to take a little while to develop what kind of a solution is ordered, then cycle it through the next department meeting or grade level meeting to get it in the hands of the teachers to make adjustments so that adjustments are not immediate, but this is a recursive process. And every day, we're learning more and adjusting our strategies more. So you'll see some planning towards September to make sure that teachers are well prepared that the tools and resources are in place and that the expectations are set forth so that we know where we're going. Just to let you know, we're about halfway through the conversation now in terms of the time that we have. I know that there are two, at least other gigantic things that you are going to be juggling. We all are going to be juggling in some sense in the fall. That's a search for a new superintendent and also of course, the beginning of the work on the high school rebuild or that has already started at the continuation of the early stages. So taking those however you want either in combination all three or at least I'm curious. Well, let's do it this way. Looking at the superintendent search, what I'm curious about is, are you in your own mind or having to as a school committee, will you have to prioritize as between all of the stuff that's preparedness coming out of the pandemic versus the search for superintendent? In other words, might it have to take a back seat in some way? Oh, no, no, no, no, that's why we have seven members of the committee. And a lot of the work in terms of preparing for September is going to be the enhance of the professionals. And as a school committee, we're board of directors. We don't get involved in the day to day operations. We give feedback, we set direction, we set policy, we adopt the budget, but we're not doing the actual day to day work. The superintendent search, however, is totally on our backs. And this has long term implications. And we are moving forward. The meeting that's happening tonight, this is May 14, we should be approving a consultant and moving forward. There are good candidates out there. The trick is, is we're going to need to have community input. So when we when I wrote the RFP for the superintendent search, and some of the things that I wrote into that was engaging all elements of our community. We are a diverse community and we want to make sure that the outreach in terms of what people desire in a superintendent goes beyond the usual suspects and the very vocal folks who make themselves known to us. We want to go out and find the people who have an opinion, but aren't vocal in terms of talking to the school committee. And then we also wrote in the requirement that the consultant engage a pool of diverse candidates with experience in districts similar to Arlington. So I think that people will be very happy with the process, very happy with the outreach that we're going to get really good candidates because the committee itself has a very good reputation. Superintendent candidates appreciate a stable collaborative committee that isn't at war with each other, that is working together to craft solutions that they don't want people throwing rocks at them. If they see a contentious environment, they're not going to apply. If they see a good solid collaborative environment in a cooperative community that has support, they're going to apply. And the override vote last year is a huge signal that this community supports its school committee, its leadership, and its schools. They voted to build a $291 million high school and an operating override in the same ballot. That is amazing. That is a lot of faith in the leadership in the town. And superintendent candidates see that, respond to that. So I think we're going to have an outstanding pool of candidates to choose from. Were you involved with the last superintendent search? Were you on the school committee at the time that happened? No. In fact, that was quite the opposite experience. We had a very contentious committee and we didn't have a lot of applicants. We ended up, or actually the school committee at that time ended up tossing the search and elevating Dr. Bodie from statuses interim superintendent to giving her the job full time. So this is going to be entirely different process. You are going to see something drastically different because as far as things are going right now, we've got a very well respected committee and we're going to attract good candidates. And you're going to see a process where the community is going to engage with these high quality candidates. We're going to get feedback. And I think that we've got a shot of hiring somebody wonderful. Good to hear. In the two and a half minutes or so that remain, I did want to ask, so what is, what are some of the effects that you might be able to foresee right now that the, that this could have on the rebuild and vice versa that, you know, are going to, you know, effects the rebuild will have on all of this? Well, the good superintendent is going to come in and not throw a rock in the pot, especially in a very high functioning district like Arlington. They're going to take the time to understand what's happening. And one of the things we want to make sure is that whoever we hire recognizes the talents of the people who work here. We have hired some really great principals, really great teachers, really great educators in this district and it goes so well on that level. That's our strength. Our strength is in the people who are working for us. And the one thing I want to make sure is any superintendent coming in recognizes this and supports the people we have in place and works with them to move it forward. The last thing we need is the superintendent to come in to throw a rock in the pond and mess things up. Well, I understand that in terms of the superintendent, what about, you know, again, can you, has there been anything already that's happened because of the pandemic either having pushed things forward, pushed things back or allowed certain things to happen because the school's not occupied at the moment? Anything you can tell us about how the rebuild, how close to what was planned or anticipated it is likely to conform? Well, a lot of this is happening under the high school building committee, which is not us. It's a separate committee, but the bulk of the work is scheduled to start in July. And I think that the putting in the structural steel and getting the front part of the building up started at the very least is going to go without any interruption. Having students out of the building actually is an advantage if that should happen into the school year as it'll give the construction folks a lot more latitude to what to do when they're not sitting next to classrooms that are in active use. So this could be an advantage for us in terms of putting the building together if our closures extend into the next school year. Right now, there's been no impact in it. Okay. Thank you very much for your responses. It was a very full 15 minutes and it's done. Thank you. So appreciate your being here. I've been talking to Paul Schlickman, who is a candidate for school committee. He would like to return to his work there. And again, we appreciate you taking the time to sit with us, Paul. And we appreciate you tuning in and urge you remind you that the vote is coming up on June 6th. So for Jay, I'm James Milan for ACMI. Thanks again to Mr. Schlickman and we'll see you later.