HomeMy WebLinkAbout2025-05-14-LHRC-min.pdf
Town of Lexington Human Rights Committee
Meeting Minutes for Wednesday, May 14, 2025
LHRC MEMBERS PRESENT
Christina Lin, Chair (CL); Stephanie Hsu, Vice-Chair (SH); Stephanie Ryan (SR); Judy Zola (JZ); Hafsah
Syed (HS); Mamata Banerjee (MB)
Liaisons in attendance - Mark Sandeen, Select Board (MS); Colleen Dunbar, Lexington Police (CD); Dana
Bickelman, Director of Human Services (DB); Juanica Buchanan, Human Services Outreach Coordinator
(JB); Andrea So, Lexington Public Schools, Director of Elementary Curriculum (AS)
Guest:
The minutes recorded by
● Welcome/Call to order - 9:02 am
● Minutes for April 09,2025 and April 24, 2025 approved by unanimous vote by committee.
● Housekeeping
○ Meeting Minutes - The chair proposed committee members take turns recording meeting
minutes and listed upcoming meetings. Additionally, the Chair suggested that meetings
utilize Zoom’s AI summary tool to support minutes and to seize video recordings.
i. May 14 (SH), May 28 (SH/CL), June 11 (SR), June 25 (JZ), Sept 10 (SH), Sept
24 (??), Oct 08 (HS)
○ LHRC Meeting Schedule for 2025/26 -
Finalized to be 2nd and 4th Wednesdays from 8:30-10:30AM.
Committee members had filled out availability on a form in advance. No single time slot
worked for all members. A member suggested other possible times including trying
Fridays. For working community members, evenings were best, but other committee
members were not able to make evening commitments. Likewise, midday and afternoon
meeting times were not feasible either for work or family reasons. 8:30AM was a
compromise to help those with less flexible working schedules to squeeze in the meetings.
Additionally, the committee agreed to a suggestion for evening meetings on a quarterly
basis to bring in the broader community who are typically not able to attend daytime slots.
The Chair will set dates based on the parameters agreed by committee members.
Two comments by committee members worth noting are (1) that daytime meetings are
difficult for working volunteers - especially immigrant working volunteers (2) future
volunteers should be sure to confirm if they can make the meeting times before applying for
the committee.
● Spring Roundtable planning
SR and JZ are organizing the Spring Roundtable. The event is aimed at all members of the
community whereas the Fall event prioritized community leaders. The program aims to
develop skill sets for “How to have Difficult Conversations” difficult conversations which is
1625 MASSACHUSETTS AVENUE • LEXINGTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02420
work that JZ is very familiar with and has done professionally. Max capacity will be 40
people. The event was rescheduled to the following dates:
○ June 10 in person - 7:00- 9:00 pm- Lexington Police Station (Community Room)
○ June 12 virtual - 7:00- 9:00 pm
● Preparing for LHRC May 28, 2025 meeting on Q&A on LPS Barriers Report
The Chair reminded the group about preparing for the May28th Q&A and asked all questions to
be submitted by May 23rd. Community groups were notified of the meeting. The Chair will
check to make sure Commission on Disability was in the email notification. EJ shared that the
report does not cover as much curriculum work that is part of the Social Justice Standards, but
LPS has made a lot of progress in this area. AS shared that the district continues to work on
curriculum and instructional piece - (windows and mirrors) and are working to improve on
instructional practices where results show a disparity between marginalized student groups
such as SPED or Black students.
Meeting Adjourned
1625 MASSACHUSETTS AVENUE • LEXINGTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02420