WESTFIELD – The Westfield School Committee met on July 16 to discuss reopening in the fall and to name Deb Ecker the interim administrator of special services and student support.

The first order of business at the meeting was approve EckerÕs  appointment.

After the committee approved the motion, Ecker jumped into the call and said, "Thank you for the opportunity, I've really enjoyed my time at Westfield so far. I'm grateful and I will try my hardest for the district."

Superintendent Stefan Czaporowski added that Ecker would be perfect for the job. "Deb is very knowledgeable and has a tremendous amount of experience and was also a teacher. There is also a sense of compassion and willingness to work with parents that is part of our message as an administrative team," he said.

With Ecker's appointment out of the way, the school committee then approved a motion to allow Czaporoswki, Ecker, and Shannon Berry, the interim business manager, to sign contracts. The motion also allowed Berry, a school committee member, and the director of transportation and business, to sign warrants.

The next order of business was to approve the job title of business office specialist.

Czaporowski explained that the position would help with bids and the grant manager as well. "This person will be helping out processing bids but also working with the grants manager. This person will also be helping with the end of the year report and coordinating process of entry with payroll," he said.

Berry then jumped into the call to explain that this position would be more in-depth than a clerical position.

She said, "It's a different level of support, it is not merely just a clerical function. WeÕre relying on this person to do much more analytical work and keeping the grant administrator as well as the interim school business administrator apprised to different situations."

During a discussion with Czaporwski over what model the district will be returning to school with in the fall, committee member Heather Sullivan expressed her concern over an immediate in-person return.

She said, "I am concerned about us coming full in, we know just by dealing with our union how much of our staff is 55 or 60 years old. We also know how difficult it is to teach students under normal circumstances, so I am very concerned about bringing everybody in to learn."

In order to approve any model, the Czaporowski said that the school committee would have to vote on the model along with the phased-in approach.

He added that the priority for the district is safety for everyone. He said, "Our top priority is the safety of our staff and students. We have to be pretty confident before we bring everybody back."

During the discussion, committee member Cindy Sullivan suggested that teachers be able to teach from their classrooms, even remotely.

She said, "If we do a hybrid, I do hope teachers can come into their classrooms and do some or most or all remote learning from their classrooms to be able to establish a sort of normalcy for the kids."

Czaporowski said that that was one of the ideas the district was already looking at and planning on testing.

School committee member Ray Diaz closed the discussion by thanking the administration for their work. "Thank you for all the work you are doing, these are crazy unprecedented times. There's a lot to consider, you guys are swamped and we appreciate the work you are doing," he said.

The Westfield School Committee's next meeting was on Aug. 4, but they will also meet on Aug. 10 to approve the plan for reopening in the fall.