Bedford School Committee Defers DEI Vote After Divided Public Comment

BEDFORD — September 13, 2021 — Bedford School Committee defers vote on DEI advisory recommendations, hears ESSER spending priorities. The committee opened its September 13 meeting with a public hearing on roughly $960,000 in remaining federal ESSER III relief funds, presenting survey results from 1,626 Bedford residents that ranked HVAC upgrades as the top spending priority, followed by mental and social-emotional health supports. Superintendent Mike Fournier said the district had already begun engaging engineers for a replacement system at Peter Woodbury School, whose HVAC is 49 years old, though construction is unlikely before summer 2022 at the earliest. Assistant Superintendent Tom LaLiberty outlined two learning loss programs — a reading boot camp for grades one through four starting in October and summer 2022 programming — totaling just over $100,000 of the roughly $147,000 federally required for learning loss. At the regular meeting, roughly two dozen residents delivered sharply divided comment on the 90-day DEI Advisory Committee's 11 to 12 recommendations; board member Bill Foote pressed for greater weight to be given to a June community feedback survey in which 136 of 231 respondents expressed opposition, while members Sue Gennaro and Mindy Bader said the feedback was used to shape the committee's work. The board voted 5-0 to accept minutes and the consent agenda, and deferred any DEI vote to the next meeting, with Fournier warning that without a board vote he retains authority to implement several recommendations administratively.