Everett School Committee (Monday June 1, 2026)

The Everett School Committee’s June 1 meeting was really two events stitched together: a long Everett High School showcase and scholarship night up front, then a short stretch of actual committee business before the body disappeared into executive session for litigation talk.

That is not a complaint.

If the schools are going to put on a ceremonial night, scholarship awards for actual students is about as defensible as it gets. Better that than another hour of adults congratulating each other for attending a subcommittee.

Everett High School Principal John Braga opened the scholarship portion “on behalf of the class of 2026,” with senior class president Danica Pham leading the Pledge. Braga said the headline number plainly: “This evening, we’re proud to award $126,300 in scholarship to deserving members of the class of 2026.”

Superintendent William Hart put the student count on it too, saying donors were awarding “more than $126,000 in scholarships to 77 very deserving students.”

That is real money. For working families, that matters more than almost anything else said that night.

Mayor Robert Van Campen kept his remarks where they belonged, on the students instead of himself. He called the night “about our students, the remarkable young people seated on this stage,” and told them, “Never underestimate the value of hard work. Never stop learning. And never forget where you came from.”

Chair Samantha Hurley got off the best line of the ceremonial speeches, telling seniors, “You have demonstrated that perseverance and dedication truly pay off, literally.”

Fair enough.

The transcript excerpt lists a string of scholarships and recipients, including the Albert N. Parlin School PTO Scholarship for Kirsten Carapaluci and David Flores Aguiar, the Alan Panaris Scholarship for Tessa Ford, the Anne M. Negro Scholarship for Haissa Castro, the Arnold Plotnick Memorial Scholarship for Grisnell Gonzalez Pena, the Carol Carbone Nursing Scholarship for Catherine Nelson, the Cheryl A. Liston Memorial Scholarship for Emma Perry and Brooklyn LaMonica, the Christopher Brienza Memorial Scholarship for Kensely Pierre, and the Class of 2024 Memorial Scholarship for Elsie Vega Perez and Gideon Legal.

After that came what was basically a staged walkthrough of Everett High School departments and programs.

Again, not a complaint. If committee members are going to vote on district priorities, they should at least hear what the building says it is doing.

Students and staff ran through athletics, English language arts, ESL, special education, social studies, science, and career-connected pathways. Some of it was the usual polished school presentation language. “Student-centered literacy culture.” “Leadership, commitment, and inclusion.” “The future of Crimson Tide athletics is bright.” Fine. That is how these things go.

But there were also some useful specifics buried inside the boosterism.

Kripi Mohajan, a sophomore, explained that ELA includes CP, honors, AP, and electives like myths and legends and the education pathway. On ESL, she said the program serves levels 1 through 5 and is aligned to WIDA standards. That is the kind of detail that tells you there is an actual structure under the slogans.

Mia Allen said social studies now includes AP African American Studies and AP Psychology, alongside intro to law, psychology, and sociology. Science students Alexander Angulo and Anna Pereira said teachers worked with MassBioEd and brought in “$40,000 of industry-level equipment.” That is not nothing. Pereira also gave the best example of the night, saying science means whether students are “dropping a ball from the main stairs or analyzing a crime scene, problem solving is the core.”

Special education student remarks were more grounded than a lot of adult policy talk usually is. Jasmine described programming tied to individual education plans, along with unified sports, civics and job-connected field trips, application skills, and a Friday coffee shop. That sounds like a school trying to teach students how to function in the real world, which is still the point no matter how many strategic plans get printed.

The committee later accepted the superintendent’s report, and one item drew genuine enthusiasm: the Worcester State University partnership tied to the educator pathway and practicum opportunities. One student speaker said, “getting to be in the classroom with the students is where you really start to grow the love of wanting to be a teacher.” Barros called the partnership “a huge deal,” and for once that phrase was not wildly inflated. If Everett can build a cleaner path from high school into teaching, that is a practical response to staffing problems instead of the usual hand-wringing.

Hart credited Assistant Superintendent Dennis Lynch, saying “he kept on it until we got to the point we were able to sign something officially.”

The committee also took favorable action on the revised district wellness policy.

Hart said the revised policy met “all DESE and federal guidelines,” and Health and Wellness Coordinator Julie Ann Whitson explained why it was back in front of them now. Districts in the school meal program have to conduct a triennial assessment of the policy. Everett did that this year.

Whitson said the existing policy was “pretty strong already” and “overwhelmingly positive,” but revisions were needed to write down practices already happening, add “monitoring and accountability,” and identify weak spots, especially staff wellness. She said the wellness committee had 25 members, including agency, parent, and student representation, and that she worked with athletic director Miss Turner on the assessment and edits.

That all sounds reasonable enough, though as with any policy document, the interesting part will be whether “monitoring and accountability” means anything six months from now or just sits in a binder looking official.

One genuinely nice moment closed the public portion of the meeting. The committee honored student representative Emma Perry for her service, thanking her for the “time, energy, and insight” she brought to “every meeting” and joking that her reports “may have rivaled those of the superintendent.” Hart gave her a graduation cord and said she had been “an admirable member of this board.”

Then came the part that deserved more attention than it will probably get: executive session for litigation.

Hart read the reasons into the record under Massachusetts General Law Chapter 30A, Section 21(a)(3). The committee went behind closed doors to discuss strategy in Janelle Ridley v. Everett Public Schools et al., a name-withheld MCAD matter, and “potential litigation that is demonstrably likely.”

Barros moved to enter executive session and adjourn from there, “not coming back for a public committee.” Lamonica seconded.

So the public meeting ended with scholarships, applause, and a student tribute, but the final official business was legal trouble.

That is worth noting.

The school side of the evening was upbeat and in parts impressive. But the committee also made clear, on the record, that it is dealing with active and likely litigation serious enough to shut the doors and end the public meeting for the night. What was not addressed in open session, of course, was the underlying nature of that broader “potential litigation.” Maybe there is a good reason for that legally. Usually there is.

Still, it remains the sharpest fact in the meeting: after all the talk about opportunity, pathways, and student success, the board’s last move was to lawyer up in private.