Hull School Committee Elects New Leadership, Votes Against School Choice
Conley takes chair position with Hedrick as vice chair and Yakubian as secretary; committee delays school choice decision to evaluate impacts
HULL - May 27 - The Hull School Committee has elected Kyle Conley as its new board chair during the committee's annual reorganization meeting. The leadership team is completed with Liliana Hedrick as vice chair and Regan Yakubian as secretary.
The committee also welcomed newly elected member Brendan Kilroe, who brings professional experience working with 280 schools across the country.
"I'm very excited. Lots of work to be had and exciting things to carry on," Conley says after accepting the position.
In a unanimous vote, the committee decided against becoming a school choice district for the upcoming year, opting instead to continue building programs that will attract and retain students.
The school choice decision comes as the committee faces a June 1 deadline from the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE). According to Superintendent Michael Jette, if the committee doesn't report a vote by that date, the district would automatically default to being open for school choice.
"Our feeling is the recommendation needs to be that we say no tonight because we're just not ready to commit to yes and allow us additional time to explore the question of school choice and how to best proceed," Jette explains.
Conley supports the decision to vote against school choice at this time.
"The correct order of operations here is that we build what will continue to build a world-class school district where we have offerings that we feel really confident are going to attract more students and are also going to retain the ones that we have," Conley says.
These initiatives include coastal studies programs and rebuilding extracurricular activities to pre-COVID numbers.
Kilroe, who joined the committee following the recent town election, requested more background on the school choice issue.
"I would like to actually get the pitch. I don't really know what it is," Kilroe says.
Conley explains that becoming a school choice district would allow students who don't live in Hull to attend its schools, potentially increasing enrollment.
"Unless we feel very confident that what we have in place is going to retain our students and only attract more, it could potentially not be a net positive for our enrollment numbers," Conley says.
*editor’s note: while a district has the right to not enroll choice students from other districts, it cannot prevent its own students from attending another choice district. M.G.L. c. 76, § 12B
The committee plans to revisit the school choice question next year after developing a more comprehensive strategy.
Jette also alerts the committee to a planned high school opening in a neighboring community for the 2027-28 school year, which could potentially draw students from Hull.
"There's a massive potential to draw from within our community, and I want to put that on the radar because we're still trying to figure out what that means," Jette says. "Losing one student is one too many, but this has potential to be a much bigger draw."
Kilroe emphasizes the importance of community engagement and communication as the committee moves forward.
"When I talk to people when I was running, a lot of people are interested, a lot of people want to help," Kilroe says. "I think we should figure out what our communication plan is, how we want to engage the community and how they have a seat at the table."
The committee agrees to include communication planning in discussions at their upcoming retreat, scheduled for August 11.
Other items addressed at the meeting include:
* The Hull Teachers Association announced Mark McDonald as the new co-president representing high school staff
* Updates from schools included the return of the senior banquet for the first time since COVID, numerous field trips at Jacobs School, and the completion of MCAS testing
* The committee expressed gratitude for the town's support of the school budget at the recent town meeting
* The committee agreed to participate on a rotating basis in the town's master plan committee
The meeting was the first following the town election, which had been delayed by a week to ensure newly elected members could be properly sworn in before conducting business.
"We originally had this meeting scheduled for the day after the election," Jette explains. "We ended up postponing it because we were not able to get our newly elected members sworn in by the town clerk."
The committee plans to adjust next year's calendar to allow a week between the election and the reorganization meeting to ensure proper procedures are followed.