School Committee member cautions colleagues against ‘weaponizing rules’

A routine review of a prior meeting’s minutes turned into accusations of silencing of voices at the School Committee meeting on February 4.

After requesting that the January 21 committee minutes be pulled from the consent agenda, School Committee Member Michael Williams read from a prepared statement. 

“At that [January 21] meeting, Chair Herchek attempted to silence my comment when he cut me off,” Williams said, referring to a moment when Acton School Committee Chair Andrew Herchek jumped in as Williams brought up a Bias and Hate Incident Reporting Work Group meeting.

“What you’re about to talk about is not on the agenda,” Herchek told Williams at the time, “so you’re violating Open Meeting Law, and that’s up to you.”

Williams expressed frustration that the exchange was omitted from the record. 

“I want to go on record and remind the chairs and our committee that to make statements such as these and issuing threats of ruling members out of order for simply asking our body to discuss issues of pertinence to our community seems directed towards limiting, rather than promoting, deliberation,” Williams said at the February 4 meeting. 

“Weaponizing rules, especially against people of color, as a means to silence them and paint them as lawbreakers is unacceptable,” he said, “and should not be tolerated in any community that is serious about equity, inclusion, belonging, and anti-bias work.”

Herchek did not attend the committee’s February 4 meeting. He told The Acton Bridge in a February 5 email that “Mr. Williams is free to speak on any issue in any forum he chooses” as a citizen. “But as a Massachusetts elected official, he is limited by law to discussing topics listed on the agenda or otherwise within the confines of the Massachusetts Open Meeting Law.”

He said last week’s exchange was “not based on any personal views or feelings.” He wrote, “As chair, I am required to follow Open Meeting Law and ensure that all of our meetings comply. Any member of the School Committee may disagree with the chair’s ruling, but my rulings are based on that obligation and the state-mandated training I complete each year, and was confirmed last week by counsel.”

Ahead of the meeting, Herchek also submitted a letter to the editor of The Bridge on the topic.

Wording in the law

The Massachusetts Open Meeting Law states, in part, that public notices “shall contain the date, time and place of the meeting and a listing of topics that the chair reasonably anticipates will be discussed at the meeting.”

School Committee METCO representative Ayesha Lawton said she was happy to see Williams air his concerns.

“I ask all of our committee members, when we see the disrespect and discriminatory acts done at these meetings, that we speak up and don’t just let this happen,” she said after hearing Williams’ statement.

Regional School Committee Chair Tracey Marano said it’s “very hard in the middle of a meeting … to just put a discussion item on for everyone to be prepared for the discussion,” adding that there are ways to get items on the agenda in advance. 

Williams, in response, pointed out that during the February 4 meeting, committee member Brian Waterson had brought up grant opportunities being explored by the Campus Completion Subcommittee, a topic that was not on the published agenda for that night. 

Marano replied that Waterson had simply asked her before the meeting if he could raise the topic and she had approved. Several people in the audience gasped; one said, “Oh, my God.” 

In a phone conversation after the committee meeting, Williams said he’s previously tried — in vain — to get items on the agenda. “I’ve done that numerous times over the past nine, 10 months, and it’s never worked,” he told The Bridge. “That’s my experience.”

At the meeting, Marano told Williams, “I totally agree, we should do better,” adding, “I hope we can move forward from this.” 

Williams said he would submit his suggested edits to the minutes via email for review at the next meeting.