School Committee And City Council Begin Dialogue

Members of the New Bedford School Committee and City Council are finally talking to each other.

It happened Wednesday night during a meeting at the Downtown library, organized by City Council President Linda Morad and School Committee Vice-Chair Josh Amaral.

Morad called the session, an important step for both boards. "There were good conversations for the entire 90 minutes, good back and forth, and I know we're going to build on that. Hopefully it gets to the point where we don't have to meet anymore. That's the goal."

The two elected-bodies have often been at odds with each other, over issues like school discipline and budget decisions.

There was one dust-up during the meeting involving City Councilor Brian Gomes and School Board member Bruce Oliveira.

Gomes asked if anyone had heard about a female student who was recently beaten up in school. Oliveira asked if Gomes had told anyone about the incident. When Gomes said no, Oliveira accused him of grandstanding, and then left the meeting.

Gomes told WBSM News, he wasn't grandstanding, he simply wanted to see if School Committee members were getting information like that. He said the student's father was working with school officials to get the issue resolved.