HomeMy WebLinkAbout2012-06-12-2020-min (Demographic Change Subcommittee)Town of Lexington
Subcommittee on Demographic Change
Minutes of the meeting held on Tuesday, June 12, 2012
Reed Room, Town Office Building
Present: Nirmala Garimella, Margaret Heitz, Bhumip Khasnabish, Dan Krupka, Peter Lee, Susie Lee -
Snell. Guest: John Wilson, Chief of Fire Department
The meeting was called to order at 7:35 p.m.
The Subcommittee approved the minutes of its meeting on May 15.
Action Items (to be reported on at the next meeting):
• Contact Chief Wilson to explore how the Chinese American Association of Lexington (CAAL)
might help the Fire Department to improve communications with Chinese residents in Greeley
Village who do not speak English well — Peter Lee
• Summary of steps taken by Chinese American Association of Lexington (CAAL) to increase
participation in Town activities — Peter Lee and Albert Huang
• Identify consultants who may be candidates to deliver diversity training for the Fire Department
— Nirmala Garimella
• Document experiences of three or four Asians who have been active in the Lexington
community — Nirmala Garimella
• Send demographic summaries of Lexington, its neighbors and other similar communities to
Chief Wilson —Dan Krupka
Discussion with John Wilson, Chief of Fire Department
• Emergency calls to Greeley Village occur at the rate of approximately once per week out of an
annual total of about 2,400. They thus represent about 2% of calls. Many of these calls involve
Chinese residents (currently about 50% of Greeley residents) who do not speak English well.
Chief Wilson is looking for help in communicating with this group.
• Peter Lee suggested that some of the concepts already used by Mass Health might be adapted
to help with the above. Peter will follow up with both Chief Wilson and CAAL to formulate a
potential solution tailored to the needs of the Chinese residents in Greeley Village and the Fire
Department.
• Communications with the other Asian communities in Lexington do not pose any special
problems for the Fire Department.
• The Fire Department remains the least diverse of the Town Departments despite attempts to
increase its diversity.
• Chief Wilson believes that the members of the Fire Department would benefit from an
appropriately designed course for respecting the cultural norms of the Lexington's Asian
communities. Nirmala Garimella volunteered to identify some consultants who might be
appropriate.
• Fire Chiefs in MA have set up a system for posting questions on line. This represents one way of
getting advice on how to communicate more effectively with Asian communities. Chief Wilson
cautioned, however, that towns prefer to seek advice from other towns rather than from cities.
• Chief Wilson is interested in directly contacting Fire Chiefs in towns with demographics similar
to Lexington's. Dan Krupka will send Chief Wilson demographic information on Lexington's
neighbors and other similar towns.
• The Subcommittee extended an offer to Chief Wilson to contact us if he thought we might be
able to help with other matters not brought up during this meeting.
Review of Action Items
• Potential candidate from the Korean community. Nirmala Garimella had identified a potential
candidate from the Korean community. Unfortunately this person is not able to serve at this
time.
• Asian members on High School and Middle School PTSAs. Nirmala Garimella has distributed a
document listing the members of these schools and identifying those of Asian origin. The
highlights are as follows:
• LHS: Bhavani Tirupati, Treasurer
• Clarke Middle School: May Zhuang, Treasurer
• Diamond Middle School: Janet Ye, Vice President; Betty Gau, Treasurer
• Asian members on elementary school PTSAs. Susie Lee -Snell distributed a document entitled
"Asian Parent Involvement in Leadership Positions in Elementary Schools." The highlights are as
follows:
• The only school with parents of Asian origin on its executive board is Bridge, where
Guorong Zhu is Vice President and Susanne Lau is Treasurer.
• There are many parents of Asian origin who serve on PTSA subcommittees
• Bowman:3
• Bridge:7
• Estabrook:3
• Fiske:7
• Harrington:9
• Hastings:3
• To put these numbers in perspective, Dan Krupka distributed a chart showing the percentages of
students of Asian origin in Lexington's schools. The overall percentage for the 2011 -2012 school
year was about 29 %.
• Protocol for inviting LPS teachers to our meetings. Superintendent Paul Ash supports our goals
and will be in touch with Dan Krupka after the end of the current school year.
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• Invitations to the Chiefs of the Fire and Police Departments. Candy McLaughlin, Assistant to the
Town Manager, invited the Chiefs to our meetings. Chief Corr of the Police Department will be
our guest at our July 10 meeting.
• Conflict of interest materials. All members of the Subcommittee are to sign their Conflict of
Interest forms and return them to the Town Clerk. A separate form is required for each Town
board or committee.
Our next meeting: July 10 at 7:30 p.m. in the Reed Room.
The meeting adjourned at 9:20 p.m.
Minutes submitted by Dan Krupka