The Scituate Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee announced the hiring of a new school director and began planning a public forum to gather community feedback during its January 20 meeting. Committee member Angela Galada, who served on the 17-person search committee, shared that Melissa Costa of New Bedford has been selected as the new Director of Support, Engagement, and Advocacy for Scituate Public Schools. Galada praised the candidate, noting, "She has a very strong impressive background in the mental health field... Everyone's like, 'Oh, this is someone we could work with and we could see, you know, fit in the Scituate community.'" Costa is scheduled to hold office hours at the high school on Friday for community members to meet her.

The committee began the meeting by approving past meeting minutes. Motion Made by the chair to approve the Tuesday, November 19th, 2025 minutes. The motion passed 6-0. Following the update on the new director, a discussion arose about a perceived void in town-wide cultural celebrations since the previous school DEI director's departure. Member Carrie Dre questioned the lack of recent events, asking, "I feel like Jamal used to do a lot of planning for MLK celebrations in the past... Was there any celebrations this weekend?" Member Elena Sun shared that her young children did not learn about Martin Luther King Jr. in school this year. "They should be talking about it in school. It's history, you know?" she said.

This conversation evolved into a plan to increase the committee's visibility and solicit actionable ideas directly from residents. Bob Adler championed the idea, recalling how a student's suggestion at a past meeting led to the town implementing gender-neutral bathrooms. "As soon as she said it... it just clicked. It was like, 'Yeah, that, you know, that's something it's low hanging fruit,'" Adler said. The committee coalesced around the idea of hosting an in-person public forum, framed as an "idea jar" session rather than a debate. Reverend Natasha Stewart stressed the importance of setting clear expectations for the event. "It's going to be really important how we frame it and how we message it," Stewart stated. "It's not a reason to come and talk about should DEI committee exist. It's... help us give input for what you want us to focus on."

The committee tentatively scheduled the public forum for March 3 at the Scituate Town Library. A subcommittee was formed to coordinate the event's messaging, promotion, and logistics. The chair expressed enthusiasm for gathering concrete proposals, noting the committee's limitations. "There's a lot of stuff that we can't do," he said, "there's a lot of things that are just not in our charge." The meeting was adjourned at 7:34.