We, as adults, know what hurtful or hateful speech is. As adults in children's lives, we model and teach our children what hurtful speech is. Following the October 7th, 2023, brutal, massacre of over 1,200 innocent people perpetrated by the Hamas terrorist organization, students in the Public Schools of Brookline brought before the School Committee, testimony about their experiences with incidences of speech used in front of them that they felt was hateful.

Why did these Israeli and American Jewish students feel that the language expressed towards or in front of them was hateful? The students felt that the comments being made targeted them, delegitimized them, and made them feel traumatized, angry, and scared. In some cases, the students were so uncomfortable they began to feel unwelcome in their school community.

Why are the two examples in the question provided unambiguously interpreted by the students as hate speech? "River to the sea" is a catch-all phrase symbolizing Palestinian control over the entire territory of Israel's borders, from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea. This phrase is hurtful to Jewish students since it is a rallying cry for terrorist groups and their sympathizers from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine to Hamas which called for Israel's destruction in its 1988 charter.

The term "Colonialist State" when spoken to Jewish students is hurtful because it implies that an occupying force, meaning the Jewish people, is exploiting, and displacing a native population from their home to settle and form a permanent society. The fact is that the Jews are native and indigenous to the Land of Israel going back to the Bronze Age.

The Public Schools of Brookline are mandated by state regulation to include within their policy handbook three specific policies: bullying, harassment, and discrimination. The fact is that no policy yet exists within PSB to address hate speech. A recommendation was proposed to create a Hate Speech Policy. The School Committee declined to adopt this recommendation.

If I am elected to the School Committee, I will work collaboratively within the Policy Subcommittee to build consensus around a comprehensive Hate Speech Policy that would be supported by a majority of the full School Committee.

The Select Board has established in recent years a Brookline Fiscal Advisory Committee with the following charge:

• Review and evaluate Brookline's fiscal and financial projections looking forward
• Examine Town and School budget principles and financial policies
• Suggest actions that address misalignment between projected revenues and expenditures

The volunteer members of BFAC had significant experience and expertise in finance, accounting, budgeting, financial controls, economics, economic development, land-use planning, purchasing, and strategic planning.

The Committee recommended that the Select Board, School Committee, and Advisory Committee adopt a financial and budget process requiring periodic summits among the Select Board, School Committee, and Advisory Committee.

A key observation was that Brookline's annual expenses are projected to grow faster that its annual revenues, resulting in a steadily deepening "structural deficit" that the Town administration has projected to reach $33 million by FY 2027.

Given Brookline is legally prohibited from incurring budget deficits, the Town must implement measures to increase annual revenues and/or reduce annual expenses to close the portion of the projected gap that occurs each fiscal year. For example, the FY25 Financial Plan recently published by the Town Administrator reports that "although local receipts beat expectations, a significant growth in healthcare costs, as well as inflationary pressures on the cost of utilities, specialized student services, salaries, and benefits, leave the Town with a municipal operating shortfall of $553,800 and a PSB gap of approximately $2.2 million between the School's initial budget projection and their actual allocation. These amounts must be offset by cuts in services or other realizable savings."

There are different initiatives currently underway in Town to explore ways of increasing revenue through economic development. Departments, including PSB, must implement procedures to manage costs while optimizing outcomes. Further, making the Town's budgeting process more coherent, comprehensive, and transparent will assist all parties in understanding the fiscal pressures. However, all Departments in Town "require careful financial management and prudence in order to expand operations where the community seeks to do so while still meeting our sizeable and growing obligations."

In my capacity as School Committee member, I will bring my experience in planning, budgeting, and managing outcomes to the PSB's portion of this enormous challenge. Let's seek to understand every aspect of the school Budget, not only how much of the allocation is being spent but how well those funds are being used throughout the year. From this, we can develop an understanding of what is working well and what might require adjustments.

Problems with literacy are longstanding and widespread. The good news is that, with recent in-depth reporting by the news media and the global impact of investigative education reporter Emily Hanford's podcast, "Sold a Story", many schools and districts are grappling with how to improve teaching to ensure strong literacy outcomes for all kids. This issue includes PSB.

Office of Teaching and Learning Deputy Superintendent Jody Fortuna has hired a consultant firm, Hill for Literacy, to conduct a needs assessment that will result in a set of recommendations to the district by the end of 2024. This is not a solution but just an opportunity.

Teachers are at the core of helping to solve the literacy puzzle. They need to adopt better methods and practices to address this challenge. This may mean improvement in new assessments, new curriculum and training in the science of reading, and possibly dropping practices that are currently in-use. All children should be in a classroom where the teacher knows how to teach them to read. Children should not linger in "intervention" for years without sufficient progress.

PSB must implement a preventative mindset and practices to catch students before they fall and not wait until they are struggling. This requires continuous PD and instructional leadership from school principals. Consistent and cohesive practices must be implemented for identifying and addressing the needs of early readers (but not only limited to early readers).

We need transparent, clear, and honest communication with parents and caregivers about the specifics of how reading is taught, how their children are learning, and what families can do to support their kids.

PSB is planning to hire a new K-8 ELA curriculum coordinator who, within their background, will have knowledge and experience in successfully implementing an overall literacy program.

Let's set a goal for our students and let's make it happen - it can be done!