The Falmouth School Committee took a series of formal actions at its Oct. 27 meeting, approving a new coaching position, agreeing to remove one school from active use, and recommending indefinite postponement of a petitioned audit request.

The committee unanimously approved a memorandum of agreement with the Falmouth Educators Association to create a head wrestling coach position so Falmouth can field an interscholastic wrestling program shared with nearby districts. The motion to accept the MOA was moved by Sue (committee member) and seconded; the committee approved the agreement by roll call with all present members voting yes (calls recorded in the meeting transcript: Mike — yes; Kelly Welch — yes; Kevin — yes; Sebastian — yes; Cohen — yes; Keith — yes; Logan — yes; Maderas — yes). The MOA places the new coach in contract Category E and will let the program begin this winter.

The committee also voted to take Morse Pond School offline (to return the building to the town for non-school use). Committee members who supported the motion cited declining enrollment and projected maintenance and utility costs as the principal reasons for the action. The motion passed on a committee roll call; the transcript records multiple members voting in favor. (Transcript discussion and rationales appear in the meeting record.)

A petitioned warrant article asking the town to fund an independent outside audit of the school department (Article 15) was discussed. The budget subcommittee and the town finance committee recommended indefinite postponement, citing existing town and DESE audit processes and lack of a dedicated budget for a third, external audit. The committee voted to recommend indefinite postponement (finance subcommittee recommendation recorded and supported at the meeting; recorded roll-call outcome: 7 in favor, 2 opposed, 0 abstentions).

Policy votes: the committee advanced several policy items on second read and returned others for additional work. The committee approved BDER and GBEBC, accepted KBE and JQ as presented, and referred JJE to the policy subcommittee for further edits. The committee asked the policy subcommittee to revisit policy JICA (student dress/appearance); public commenters had urged the committee to retain MASC-recommended language in that policy and several committee members requested additional policy work before final action.

No binding fiscal appropriations for the audit article were made at the meeting; the committee recorded its recommendation for indefinite postponement to the town warrant process.