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Webinar Presented by Murphy, Hesse, Toomey & Lehane Education Partners

 

On March 31, 2020, Murphy, Hesse, Toomey & Lehane, LLP, partners Mary Ellen Sowyrda and Alisia St. Florian held a well attended virtual meeting to review the current DESE guidance. MHTL’s virtual meeting took place following the March 26, 2020, virtual meeting with Russell Johnston, the Senior Associate Commissioner of the Center for District Support at the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. Johnston’s meeting issued guidance from the Commissioner of Education as well as FAQ’s.

 

Attorneys Sowyrda and St. Florian discussed the FAQ’s handed down from DESE along with their expert outlook on how schools can confront these issues going forward. Sowyrda and St. Florian also discussed documenting all communication sent to students and parents while schools are closed. Privacy/confidentiality issues were also addressed as communicating with parents during school closure will take place virtually or over the phone as a result of COVID-19. As stated by St. Florian; “the ability to engage with clients through the chat function resulted in a productive exchange of questions and answers. I look forward to scheduling more virtual meetings as new information and guidance is issued by DESE.”

 

Murphy, Hesse, Toomey & Lehane LLP has an extensive education law practice representing more than one hundred and eighty public, private and nonprofit educational institutions from pre-K through the college and university level.The firm is also known throughout New England for its labor and employment practice as well as its expansive municipal law practice.

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  On April 11, 2023, MHTL Attorneys Peter Mello and Madison Harris-Parks represented the Town of Dracut, and successfully obtained a preliminary injunction order requiring, among other things, that the Defendant homeowners cease renting out their pool to the public. The case, Town of Dracut by and Through Its Building Inspector vs. Nason, Gilbert et al., was initiated by the Town after the Defendants failed to comply with the Town’s associated underlying zoning enforcement order. The Town requested the injunction Read More

Legal Updates

EXTENSION OF MUNICIPAL RELIEF MEASURES - INCLUDING OPEN MEETING LAW REMOTE OPTION - SIGNED BY THE GOVERNOR

The option for public bodies in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to hold public meetings remotely or in a hybrid fashion, which came into play at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, has been extended by the General Court for another two years, until March 31, 2025. The Governor signed the legislation, which will be codified at Chapter 2 of the Acts of 2023, on March 29, 2023. Because of the inclusion of an emergency preamble, the law goes into effect immediately.

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