[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: The meeting of the Medford School Committee will now come to order. The secretary will call the roll.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Mrs. Cunha? Here. Mrs. DiVendita? Present. Mrs. Vanderpool? Present. Mayor Burke?
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Present. Six present, one absent. All please rise and salute our flag.
[Unidentified]: I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Approval of the minutes of February 6, 2017. Motion on the floor for approval by Mr. Skerry, seconded by Ms. Cuno. All those in favor? Mr. Benedetto.
[Unidentified]: Mr. Superintendent, on the motion that the minutes be approved.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: All those in favor? All those opposed? Motion carries. Approval of bills, transfer of funds. Motion for approval by Mr. Skerry, seconded by Ms. Kreatz. All those in, I'm sorry, roll call vote.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Mrs. Cunha? Yes. Mrs. DiVenedetto? Yes. Mrs. Kreatz? Yes. Mrs. Estella is absent. Mr. Skerry? Yes. Mrs. Van De Kloet, yes. May I vote?
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Yes, six in the affirmative, one absent. Motion passes. Approval of payrolls.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Motion for approval.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Motion for approval by Ms. Van De Kloet, seconded by Mr. DiVenedetto. Roll call vote. Yes, six in the affirmative, one absent. The motion passes. Report of secretary. None. Report of committees. Committee of the whole meeting.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: The meeting was called to order by Vice Chairperson Anne Marie Pugno at 7.06 p.m. President Superintendent Roy Bellson, Deputy Superintendent Beverly Nelson, Assistant Superintendent Diane Caldwell, Vocational Principal Director Heidi Riccio, Director of Finance and Administration Christine Patterson, and Director of Buildings and Grounds John McLaughlin, parents Sarah O'Grady, Melissa McGinnis, Carolyn Montello, and Michelle Ciccolo, all rose to salute the flag. Vice Chair Cunha stated the purpose of the meeting was to continue our discussions on capital planning, projects for the Medford public schools. Vice Chair Cuno called upon the superintendent to begin the discussion. The superintendent reiterated the importance of understanding the difference between capital planning projects and general repair and maintenance issues. Capital planning is usually a multi-year group of projects. Such projects generally require a mix of bonding, grants, and revenues. The superintendent listed the capital projects that have been completed since FY 2000, which are attached. Secretary Van der Kloot pointed out that the pool and the boiler project should be added to the list. The superintendent stressed the importance of getting started. Capital projects often take multiple years to get approval from the funding agencies. Additionally, there are many non-school projects that need to be addressed. There must be a balance between city and school priorities as we go forward. Mayor Burke joined the meeting and assumed the chair. The mayor was attending a city council meeting. Oops. Each committee member was provided with a packet of materials. The superintendent identified capital plan proposed on August 5th, 2016 for the committee's reference. This discussion then reviewed the statement of interest, which was approved by the school committee at their last regular meeting. This is only the first step toward acquiring MSBA funding assistance. Dr. Heidi Riccio then detailed three grant awards that are moving forward to enable major improvements in program development. They are attached. The three grants are the Massachusetts Life Sciences Grant for $98,516, which will support the development of our robotics and engineering programs. Number two is the capital skills grant for $500,000 to support the development of our culinary and hospitality program. We will match this funding with both in-kind assistance from our partners in industry and labor. Also, we will use funding that is in the reserve contingency from the science labs project. This will require council approval. Third is regional services grant for $200,000 to expand our shops to accommodate enrollment increases. The focus of this grant will be on our electrical program and related areas. It will facilitate the inclusion with students from Everett who will pay a tuition. Currently we have 25 Everett students. We expect to increase the number of tuition students to 100 over time. We are also recapturing tuitions from Minuteman. The grants will be supplemented by in-kind work by the laborers and Wynn as well as the other industry partners. The development of our shop spaces will also enable us to serve adult learners and to maximize the use of our facility. The laborers will also help increase handicap accessibility. The discussion moved to the high school roof. See infrared roof survey. The high school roof needs some small repairs. that could be accomplished for about $25,000 to $30,000 this summer. We would expect to consider roof replacement beginning with 2020. This would be done in sections. The outside schools are still in good shape. They have another 10 years before possible replacement. Mr. McLaughlin was present to ask their questions. Mr. McLaughlin then discussed the emergency repairs to the heating system pipes in A building, which is attached. A financial account was provided. Member me I'm stony asked how we could fund find funding for this type of repair also why we are not finding money for building appearance projects the superintendent explained that He would have had to shut down a building if the repairs were not made. It is not uncommon to divert funding for emergency repairs. He also reiterated his plan to add additional funds to the operational budget next year for general repairs. Member Erinda Benedetto asked that the hanging wires in the conference room be removed from sight. Mr. Scurry urged more cosmetic work be done, and members Cugno and Van der Kloot recognized the need to do more with appearance, but supported the priority of emergency repairs. Ms. Van der Kloot asked for a report on the bleachers at our K-8 schools. The superintendent referenced the report from Mr. McLaughlin regarding the need to repair air conditioning compressors. While the schools are functional, there could be better efficiency. There's also an attached listing there. Curb replacement and parking lot resurfing was discussed with emphasis on the high school McGlynn and Andrews, a report is attached. Playground replacement at the elementary schools was discussed. Pricing is now being sought. There is some possible mitigation linkage from a developer to assist with the Roberts playground. The committee received the draft executive summary for our school technology. As we move forward, technology is central to our educational and operational programs. Testing, state, federal funding, reporting, and instruction are more and more dependent on a robust and reliable technology, sorry, infrastructure and tools. We are eligible for substantial funding from the e-rate program under tier two. This will require a 40% match. Technology capital investment must be an essential part of our capital plan. Almost made it. On the motion of Mr. Skerry, seconded by Ms. Cugno, the meeting was adjourned at 8.55 p.m. Respectfully submitted.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Thank you very much, Ms. Van der Kloot.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Are there any questions from the floor? Mr. Benedetto. Thank you. So there was a report requested from the superintendent, so we should add that to list to make sure that we get follow-up on that. The report of the condition of all the bleachers district wide that Ms. Van de Koot reminded us of at that meeting. Mr. Skerry. Mr. Skerry.
[Robert Skerry]: Mr. Skerry. Mr. Skerry. Mr. Skerry.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Mr. Skerry. Mr. Skerry. Mr. Skerry. Mr. Skerry. Mr. Skerry. Mr. Skerry.
[Robert Skerry]: Mr. Skerry. Mr. Skerry. Mr. Skerry. Mr. Skerry.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Mr. Skerry. Mr. Skerry. Mr. Skerry.
[Robert Skerry]: Mr. Skerry.
[Kathy Kreatz]: Mr. Skerry. Mr. Skerry. Mr. Skerry. Mr. Skerry.
[Robert Skerry]: Mr. Skerry.
[Kathy Kreatz]: Mr. Skerry. Mr. Skerry. Mr. Skerry. Mr. Skerry. Mr. Skerry. Mr. Skerry. Mr. Skerry. Mr. Skerry. Mr. Skerry. So I had been out to see the Brooks School, and when I was there for the visit, because I was doing this for the capital plan visit, I spoke with the assistant principal, and we looked at the outside upper play structure. There's a fence side, like a gate that's missing, so the children, like the ball will go outside the gate, so there's no, like one half where you can close the gate. One half is just gone. And that was in like October. So I don't know if anybody's been out there to repair it, but that really needs to get done. And they also needed some signage, you know, because I think some during school hours, you know, community, you know, people are just going to use the park, but during school hours that are operational. So they were just looking for some signage that they could put up. The intercom system wasn't working properly in their walkie-talkies. And I had done that.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: The playground equipment? The intercom and the playground equipment?
[Kathy Kreatz]: The intercom and the school wasn't working properly.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Inside the school, okay.
[Kathy Kreatz]: Yeah, so I don't know if I, this was during my own visit when I conducted in like October. So I wanted to mention that. And I did receive some calls from parents, they were very, curious and interested in finding out about the discussion we had. Some of them couldn't make the committee of the whole meeting. So I sent Mr. Belson a note in asking if we could put something together on blog similar to what Lisa Evangelista posted for the grant publications. If we could put together just a brief description of the capital improvements that have been done, very similar to what we got in the breakdown Um, even with the timelines going back to 2002 so we can have that nice breakdown that we can share with the community, including some of the new, you know, proposed capital budget, um, plans. Um, and, and a lot of the community was very interested and, you know, happy to read all the, um, the posts that we shared this weekend about the grants. Very good.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Thank you, miss. Correct. Their emotion to receive this report and place it on file. Motion for approval, seconded by Ms. Van der Kloot. All those in favor? All those opposed? Motion is granted. Would a school committee member move suspension to take item nine out of order? Motion for suspension by Ms. Van der Kloot, seconded by Ms. Disceri. All those in favor? All those opposed? Suspension is granted. Report on Medford High Ethics Bowl team achievements and recommendation to approve participation at National High School Ethics Bowl in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Mr. Superintendent.
[Roy Belson]: Mayor Burke, members of the committee. Nicole Chiesa, Dr. Nicole Chiesa is here. She's the head of the department, which oversees the Ethics Bowl team and the Ethics Bowl team is here. They've been very successful. They won the Tufts, they won the regional, and now they have an opportunity to go to the nationals and compete with 23 other school systems across the country. And I wanted to give this report, and then we'll make arrangements possibly to send the team to Chapel Hill to come back with a trophy from Medford.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Ms. Gaze, would you like to step up here so you can announce and then help give them out? Would you like to say a few words first? Certainly. Thank you.
[Chiesa]: Good evening. We've had the Ethics Bowl team here in Medford since 2013. It originated as a partnership between Tufts University's Department of Philosophy and Medford High School. And since that time, Mr. Esner has been the advisor. We have reported some major successes this year. They competed at Tufts University. and did very well. They had multiple rounds of competition to face. They beat out different schools, including Phillips Exeter, Rosemary Choate Hall, and Newton South. So we were very, very proud of that accomplishment. That was the regional competition held at Tufts. That made these students eligible to participate in the playoff competition, which was actually done virtually through, I believe, Google Hangouts, which was kind of exciting in and of itself. And once again, the team was successful in winning that playoff round. So we are just so thrilled and pleased with all of their hard work and energy. It's an after-school club. They volunteer their time. Mr. Esner does as well. And I want to personally thank Mr. Esner for all of his hard work with everything. And we'd like to recognize the students as well. Excellent.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Very good.
[Chiesa]: Thank you, Mr. Esner.
[q-Y9QUDQ70c_SPEAKER_20]: Yeah, my pleasure.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: If we could have the students line up on the side here. The Medford Public Schools is proud to recognize Tamar Brandeskrug, Exemplary Participation, Medford High School Ethics Bowl Team. Tamar? How are you? Congratulations. Thank you. Congratulations. Tamar. Maria Camona. Sean Driscoll Gomez Raquel Fiorotti Mary Nagos. Congratulations. Great job. Congratulations. Tenzin Rigzin. Augusta Standeven. Sebastian Tringali.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: I've asked the students if they could just stay up here so perhaps we could do a photo. The other thing that I would like to do is I would like to make a put forth a resolution that the Medford Public Schools pay for our students to attend the competition in North Carolina. And if Mr. Eisner is willing, we certainly would certainly appreciate his accompanying our team in doing whatever we can do, because I am so, so proud of you.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: If you guys could come up. On the motion, as seconded by Mrs. Currie, roll call vote.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Mrs. Cugno? Yes. Mrs. DiBenedetto? Yes. Mrs. Kreatz? Mrs. Mustone is absent, but she'd vote yes, I know that. Mr. Skerry? Yes. Mrs. Van der Kloot? Yes. Mayor Burke?
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Yes. You're going to North Carolina? One absent, motion passes. Mr. Eisen would like to say a few words on behalf of these wonderful students.
[q-Y9QUDQ70c_SPEAKER_20]: Thank you. I'd just like to say what a great job you guys have done. And I'm so proud of you. And I can't wait to see how you guys do in North Carolina. And as you said, bring back the trophy. And thank you to the school committee for your support. Everyone else, thank you.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: We're very appreciative to all the work that you've put into this as well. And kudos to wonderful jobs.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Thank you very much. You're welcome.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: advisors, not to put any pressure on any of you, I'd like to know what type of questions do they ask you?
[Unidentified]: Absolutely, come on up.
[SPEAKER_09]: Macklemore, a popular entertainer, especially in the early 2010s, is it morally permissible for a white person to lead or be the face of an organization called Black Lives Matter. Another question we had, currently we're working on the heroin epidemic. Who should have access to Narcan? Who should be able to administrate it? And is there a big moral difference if you're taking away one of the greatest consequences of drug abuse, which would be an overdose? We have things of that nature.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: OK. And so when you answer these questions, is it in an essay form? How long do they give you to answer the question? You've won it, you might as well explain it.
[SPEAKER_08]: So the way we answer the questions is in a debate format. So it starts by there's two teams, Team A and Team B. And Team A is presented with a case and a question about the case. And then we have five minutes to present our main argument. Then Team B has three minutes, I believe, to either add on to our argument or present their personal view. And then Team A has another two or three minutes to respond to Team B's commentary.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: And how long does it take? Do the rounds usually last? 45 minutes a round? And how many rounds do you do? Wow. Wow. That's incredible. And just out of curiosity, how much is the trip going to cost? I know we're putting it in, but I'd like to know how much it does cost. For person or overall?
[SPEAKER_11]: With lodging and overall cost, we're looking at about between $5,000 and $6,000 total for airfare as well as lodging. Most meals are included in there as well.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: And how long is the trip?
[Chiesa]: Sorry, guys. You don't have to move out of the way. I just need to scoot in. I'm sorry. The trip, they're going to be leaving Friday morning, April 7th, with a return on Monday morning, April 10th. There's a nice reception there on Friday. Competition begins Saturday and Sunday, with the final round not ending until about 6.30 that night.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: Well, congratulations. Good luck. We're proud of you. We cannot be any more prouder. Well, when you bring back the other award.
[SPEAKER_09]: And let us know how you make out. I think we should acknowledge our captains, Mary and Tamar, and then our seniors, Raquel and Gus.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Very nice. Very nice.
[SPEAKER_09]: Thank you.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Good luck, and come back. Good luck. We're proud of you in any way, any way, shape, or form. Thank you so much. Thank you.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: I just want to say some food for thought. This particular year it seems like we've been really blessed with more and more students coming to us and achieving so much. It seems like we're having more and more students going out of state for these competitions. As Ms. Van der Kloot had motioned for us to pass and make sure that we pay for this trip I think it's just food for thought that we might start thinking about this when the budget comes around and really put a budget line for these types of trips because you don't want to be in a situation where we're approving one particular team and not approving the other. And we don't want to make anyone feel that what they're doing for us is any less worth what they're doing. So just as a matter of fact, just to make it as food for thought, that was it.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Very good. Thank you very much.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: Thank you.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Next up, community participation. I don't believe we have anything on the agenda for that. Okay. Report number one, recommendation to accept gift from Thomas Sutherland in memory of Jean Barry Sutherland. Mr. Superintendent, there's a motion on the floor.
[Roy Belson]: Members of the committee, Thomas Sutherland, the husband of Jean Barry Sutherland, would like to make a major donation to Columbus School area site in memory and in honor of former principal, Jean Barry Sutherland. Um, the gift would be a bench and a plaque to be installed on the Columbus ground. So we recommend that you accept it. Mr. Sutherland is here, I believe. Nope. Nope. I don't think so. I don't see him.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: There's a motion for approval by Mr. Skerry, seconded by Ms. Pritz. Roll call vote, please. Certainly.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: We all know that Jean Barry Sutherland meant an awful lot to this community. She was a remarkable woman, both in her life, and also as she was approaching the end of her life and was really an inspiration in so many ways for all of us. This is very fitting, and I'm thankful to her husband, Thomas, for making this a lasting tribute to her on our school grounds, which she loves so dearly.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Thank you very much. I had the privilege of meeting with Mrs. Sutherland, and he's just so thrilled to be able to recognize her years of service to the city of Medford and Medford Public Schools, and especially the Columbus School, which was her home school. And she was there when the new schools were opened, and she was a staple in that community. So she's dearly missed, but this will provide a reflective area for the students, the parents, and teachers, I would imagine, and administrators to pay homage to her deeds. So we're very proud to be able to do this for them. And as soon as we have a date, we believe it's early April, but we'll let you know. Sure. Call the roll. Roll call vote, please.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Mrs. Cugno, Mrs. DiBenedetto, Mrs. Kreatz, Mrs. Mastone, Mr. Scurry.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Yes.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Mrs. Vanderklift. Yes. Mayor Burke.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Yes. Seven in the affirmative, zero on the negative. The motion passes. Item two, recommendation to approve school calendar, a school year 2017-18.
[Roy Belson]: So as we get into this time of year, people ask the question frequently, When will school start? When will be the vacation periods and the like? This is a draft that requires your approval. I'm gonna call on our deputy superintendent to go over the particulars and to tell you why we picked certain dates the way we did.
[Beverly Nelson]: Good evening. We're asking tonight that we approve our calendar moving forward to the following school year so families can plan. Everybody has an idea of what's going on. As you can see, this year we've adopted a new format. My thanks to my assistant Jeannie Gliona for working very diligently, making everything fit nicely, and we feel that it's very readable and concise for everyone. The current teacher's contract calls for the school to start every year now before Labor Day, the Monday before Labor Day. Again, this is not a decision that administration makes. This is something that is set in the teacher's contract by negotiation. And therefore, the start of the school year for teachers this year will be Monday, August 28th. The contract was also very specific for how that first week would be organized. The Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday of that week prior to Labor Day, students will be in session. And then Friday, the Friday before Labor Day, everyone will have a holiday. So again, that was something that is in the teacher's contract. This is the second year that we've adopted this schedule, and we want to make sure that parents get that information. We know we've been asking principals to reinforce it so that parents understand that vacation really kind of has to stop at the end of August. Students, again, would return to school after Labor Day on September 5th, with kindergarten students beginning on the 6th. The calendar has the required number of days, with five snow days built in. And if we were to use those snow days, the end of school would be June 20th. If we don't use it, we back it up. And again, the calendar has the standard school vacations, legal holidays, the mandated, or actually the early release days that are mandated by the contract for middle and high school. And again, we have two full days of professional development, and we've set those for Tuesday, November 7th, and Monday, March 12th. We strongly recommend that the calendar be approved as early as possible, and if you have any questions or comments.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Yes, Van der Kloot. Beverly, I thought that the last year that we've been setting in more like seven snow days, not five. So I was surprised to see that this was, in my eyes, rolled back to five. I would have thought that we would have called the end of school the 22nd, for instance, so to set expectations that it could go that late. So I'd like the superintendent.
[Roy Belson]: So let me just answer that. By rule, with the Department of Ed, we have to make allowance for five days, but we actually have another seven days if we needed it. So we really have 12 days available to us, not counting if we were to reclaim a professional day. So remember, if the last day with five days is the 20th of June, you still got to the 30th of June if we actually needed it. So we've really built in quite a bit of protection.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Yes, I guess I'm looking at it a different way. If I'm a parent thinking about making plans, if you say the end of the school is the 22nd, well, then I'm going to be thinking I'm going to make my plans starting the 23rd. If you say it's the 20th, then I'm going to start making them the 21st.
[Roy Belson]: We can put a one-liner in the notice out there.
[Beverly Nelson]: We can make that change. We can put seven snow days built in. This is just the draft.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: I'd like some other feedback, but I'm thinking that it's better to set people's expectations that there could be the possibility, because if we go back to two years ago in 2015 when we had so many snowstorms, I just, I think it's an expectation thing. What do others think?
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: We have built in this year, five?
[Beverly Nelson]: Yeah, we do.
[Roy Belson]: We should do five. We built in probably 11 days.
[Beverly Nelson]: Well, and the calendar itself says five. The calendar has five. But we know that we can go by teacher's contract to the 30th of June. So in effect, it's built in. But it's not a bad suggestion that we do this. We can make that adjustment if the committee wants to go that route.
[Roy Belson]: We can put a statement and should, you know, we require more days because of snow or other inclement weather or other reasons.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Yeah. If we just did some further clarification. Okay, fine.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Thank you, Mr. Benedetto. Thank you. You all set. Okay. And I agree with you. I think the comment at the bottom is an important piece that parents can, but most, most parents know this from being for a while, but it's the younger parents. I mean, parents of younger students. that might need that to be listed on there. My comment is just November 7th, it says professional development day. It seems weird to have a day off on a Tuesday and then on a Friday, I just want people, I understand that, but I'm not sure everybody reading this quickly is gonna say, oh, why is that? That seems like a strange week to have a Tuesday and a Friday off the same week. So, you know, maybe next to it, professional development day, put also election day or something so parents know that it can't be changed. It wasn't like a choice, it's like we do that for the safety of the schools and the students. So that way people aren't roaming the buildings on election day.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Okay.
[Kathy Kreatz]: Ms. Kritz. Oh, I wanted to thank Beverly. I ran into her at the school and we started to get inquiries already asking when we were going back to school and some parents really didn't know that, in fact, I didn't really know that it was part of the contract that the teachers had to start school early. I misunderstood, I thought it was administration also, so I'm glad you explained that. Would there be any way to maybe just put something under the bottom explaining that as per collective bargaining agreement, the start of school would be before Labor Day? There was a lot of communication about that. A lot of people weren't happy about going back to school before Labor Day, you know, I was getting inquiries myself, you know, why are we going back before Labor Day? I don't like that, you know, but yeah.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: So we used to go back in Medford after Labor Day. And in fact, many families preferred it. And certainly the teachers did. The fact of the matter was with them, we were running into a problem because we were going too late. too far into June because we were getting more snow days. We went through a period of years where we were getting a lot of snow days. And so, with the cooperation of the Teachers Union, we then moved it back. Is it preferable? Well, not necessarily. It depends on who you talk to, but it's because of — I mean, if we could predict snow days, we wouldn't be doing this, but we can't. And if teachers were unhappy, they were really, really, really unhappy if, you know, school went to June 30th or, you know, when it went that late. So, that's why.
[Beverly Nelson]: And this is quite typical of most school systems now. Most school systems are back before. There were a few times we started before Labor Day. The previous contract said school could not start before September 1st. But there were the occasions that September 1st was before Labor Day. So we did, a few years here and there, depending upon the fall of Labor Day, we did start before. But again, now it's pretty much cast in stone in the contract. quite honestly, this was something that the teachers' union kind of promoted more than we did. I think teachers feel it's much more advantageous for children to be out of school earlier in June, because, you know, it gets hot, they get tired, and so on. And so it's something that they promoted, and we thought it was a good idea, too, but it was promoted by the union. In terms of adding anything, pretty much everything in the contract, like the early release dates, is contractual, and there's only so much language we can add. I know Jeannie was trying to squeeze things in to get everything in. We can try if you feel that that's important to her contract to put it in, but just getting the word out that this is in the teacher's contract and principals have been promoting that idea. So hopefully people, and this is the second year. Okay, we did it last year. The teachers were very specific. They did not want a professional development day that first week. They wanted students in school for three consecutive days. So that was pretty much set by them. Thank you.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Okay.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Motion of approval. Mr. Benedetto.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Also, another point is a lot of school systems around the United States start earlier than we do in New England. And they'll all students take the AP exams in the SATs at the same time. So if we're not in school as many days as others, we don't cover as much material as others. And they're judged throughout the United States on their performance. So we need to be in school a certain amount of days to get the education in for them to be prepared for these exams. Some schools start early August, but and with our snow days, we could even have weeks less time to prepare for these exams than people in other parts of the country. And it's really important to get these days in and the education started for us. for our students. So that's another reason why I totally agreed with starting this before Labor Day.
[Beverly Nelson]: That's an excellent point. And also, you know, we have our regular state testing that takes place in April and May. Communities that start before Labor Day, the students have a whole week of more prep. And what you said with snow days, it's very hard to predict already. You know, we're saying we lost a few days here and there. Are we going to make it up? So it's for the AP exams and plus just the regular state exams, having that instructional time. I think most students are ready to come back. I think it's kind of gearing up that last week in August, so hopefully they are. In their parents.
[Unidentified]: In their parents.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: Ms. Cuno. Actually, everything has been asked, so I'm all set. Thank you.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: There's a motion on the floor for approval by Ms. Van de Kloop, seconded by Mr. Skerry. Roll call vote, please. Yes, seven in the affirmative, zero in the negative. Motion passes. Report on March 13th, 2017 professional development day. Mr. Superintendent.
[Roy Belson]: So our deputy superintendent, our assistant superintendent have led the charge in putting this program together. It's done with a great deal of input from the teachers and others, and it's a lot of work involved. So congratulations to both of them putting together a very interesting day and let them tell you about it.
[Beverly Nelson]: Diane and I have been emailing all weekend. She's tired of seeing my emails on Sunday. But again, Monday, March 13, a week from today, will be our second full day of professional development for teachers and paraprofessionals. There is no school for students that day. Again, there are lots of different activities. When we did this report last week, we hadn't ironed out as much as now we have together. And we'll give you a full report on the 20th. But part of the day, as all of you know, we had a very exciting professional development program this year for the first time, where teachers on November 8th, our first full day of professional development, they engaged in a round robin exploring three very important themes that were identified as themes that we wanted to pursue, teachers wanted to pursue further. And this was based on their own surveys. And one of those themes was at-risk students. The second one was special education. And a third was social-emotional learning. After November 8th, every teacher in the school district said, I want to go with one theme. And so they continue with that theme throughout the school year on our mandated PD days. And it's the elementary and the middle and the high school. Again, who facilitated those workshops? Our own staff. They were magnificent. It was wonderful. Teachers stepped up. They organized workshops. And they were very well received. So we were very excited about this because teachers were telling us that sometimes PD they felt was like one day and it was done and they wanted to have it more ongoing and sustainable and I think that we accomplished that. So on the 13th we're going to use half of the day to bring closure to whatever theme the teacher had selected for this particular school year. So teachers will be with their groups working on whatever they were working on throughout the school year. And then the second half of the day, we're going to have teachers going back to buildings, and in most cases, the principals are going to lead them in test prep, because we have the English MCAS, the new test, MCAS 2.0, coming up in April, and the mathematics in May. So this gives us an opportunity to go over those exams with the teachers more fully, not that we haven't been doing practice tests all along, But also, as you know, we have the online requirement. So all fourth graders, eighth graders, and the entire Andrews School, 6th, 7th, and 8th, are going to be taking the test online. So there's a certain amount of additional prep for that. So that's kind of our plan. We have a lot of other little things going on that we've been working on today. Diane, I don't know if you want to speak to anything else.
[Diane Caldwell]: Sure. One of the things that the teachers really wanted was choice. And so when we were going through the survey with the Professional Development Committee, there were the three topics that Beverly mentioned. And at the elementary level, we had almost 100 teachers who really wanted to work the at-risk group, which is a considerable, significant amount. But we made it work. We had administrators who stepped up to the plate to work with our teacher presenters. The second half of the day, our grades 3, 4, and 5 will be working on the MCAS 2.0. But I'm very excited to talk about what the K1 and 2 will be doing. As you know, they're not the test grades. But we still wanted to have professional development for them that was worthwhile. So you'll be happy to know we have Rocco Sieri doing science with our K1 and 2 teachers. Dr. Bernadette Rigodelli is here this evening. She's going to be working on some social studies with our K1 and 2 teachers in a round-robin format. And we're also going to do a workshop on what not to do in IEP meetings from a general education standpoint, and just in general, time constraints so you don't walk in with a cup of coffee and plop it down and chit-chat with your neighbor. So Mrs. Madaglio's daughter actually found this wonderful video on YouTube. And Cheryl Maiocco and one of our Teachers, Mariana Stewart, will be facilitating that workshop. So we're very excited about what we're doing in professional development on March 13th.
[Kathy Kreatz]: Very good. Ms. Kreatz. I wanted to just mention, I got to attend part of the session on the November 8th professional development day, and the presenters were excellent. I watched a very moving video. And I sat in a group with some other teachers. We discussed strategies, techniques. And we broke up into groups, and then everybody got to share their ideas. And it was really educational, and it was a good day. I had a great day. I wish you guys the best of luck on Monday.
[Beverly Nelson]: Well, we really thank you. The teachers have been incredible. It shows you what you give someone some ownership of something, how they can run with it. And they've had some administrative support, but that was just initially. But once they got going, it was pretty much on their own, and they have been wonderful. And I hope, you know, our plan is to try to do a similar type of PD next year, too, because this worked very well. We're waiting to see our evaluations. We're going to have evaluations. One of the questions on the evaluations, and this is really important for us, what did you learn this year in your PD that you can basically take back and implement in your classroom? Because that's what it's all about. you know, learning good things, but also about implementing what you're learning. So we're going to get that feedback from the teachers. Also, what would they like to learn more about related to the topic? And again, we'll plan accordingly for next year based on what we get from, from them and the evaluations.
[Mea Quinn Mustone]: Yes. Thanks. Um, for the MCAS 2.0, all students in grades four. So all four elementary school kids will be doing it online. And then grade eight, both the Andrews and the McGlynn and everything's set to go. All the computers are up and ready? Oh, yes.
[Diane Caldwell]: We've been working on that.
[Mea Quinn Mustone]: OK. We're making sure. That's good to hear. The other thing, could you send us the video that you found about the IEP that you're showing?
[Diane Caldwell]: I can do that. Would you mind waiting until after we show it?
[Mea Quinn Mustone]: That'd be great.
[Diane Caldwell]: On March 13th.
[Beverly Nelson]: Yes.
[Diane Caldwell]: But I'd be happy to do it.
[Beverly Nelson]: Thank you. I want to see it, too. Yeah, that's great.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: There's a motion to accept the report and place it on file by Mr. Benedetto. Is there a second? Second. By Ms. Kreatz. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Motion passes. Pre-budget report guidance department. Mr. Superintendent.
[Roy Belson]: So we begin the process now of looking at pre-budget reports. Tonight starts and we'll turn it over to our deputy superintendent to introduce this first report.
[Beverly Nelson]: It's that time of year pre-budget reports are starting. Um, we will be scheduling them as we move forward with our meetings from this point on. And, um, our guidance director, Amelia Jensen has been the brave soul to come forward for the first one. tonight, but she always does a spectacular job. So we want to start with a star. So Amelia. Thank you.
[7DUlBp6f_Us_SPEAKER_21]: Good evening, Mayor Burke, Superintendent Belson, and members of the school committee. Tonight you have all received the pre-budget report for the guidance department, but I'm going to give you a brief overview of it. So I won't go through all of it, but I'll just highlight some important points. An overview of our department, this year our department consists of 10 guidance Councilors. We have five at the high school, one at the vocational technical high school, and two at each middle school. The mission of the guidance department is to ensure that all students thrive in the three areas of academic development, college and career preparation, and social emotional wellness. And that's really where our curriculum is focused. To deliver this curriculum, the middle school Councilors teach guidance classes, and at the high school, Councilors meet students in guidance seminars, which is through our advisory program, as well as individual meetings and large group pull-outs from classes and small groups. So this last year, the school year 2016-2017, we spent all of our funding on office supplies. We spent our money in our contractual services account for subscriptions and memberships, in addition to professional development in regards to English language learners and vocational technical education. Books were also purchased to support staff who are working with students. And the PSAT subsidy was used to pay for all juniors to take the PSAT free of charge. That was a huge success and I want to thank you all for providing that funding last year and this year. And for major accomplishments, I wanted to highlight a few. The first is that we have a new program through the guidance department called NPower. And this is a guidance-initiated program that was established not this year, but last year, to really support students who are at risk for not graduating and those who had no plans for post-secondary education. This program focuses on four areas of purpose, finding purpose, identity development, creating goals, and finding support and resources within the school. And what we found with this program is that students who are enrolled in this program, or I mean participating in this program, actually have increased their GPA, are twice as likely to sorry, increase their GPA at twice the rate of students not in this program. So we're finding great success with this. This is currently being implemented with our seniors, and it has got the attention of researchers at BC and Harvard, and so they are actually working with us this year to study the program. We're hoping to continue this program next year with our senior students, and possibly looking to expand it with our freshman and sophomore students, hopefully in the future. The department was also successfully trained in using school brains and implementing it in the scheduling and registration process. This was huge. We went through hours and hours of training, and we feel that it was very successful. And we're looking forward to a successful registration season this year as well. We also increased our partnerships and programs that improve post-secondary outcomes for our at-risk students. And these are really programs that help bridge the transition from high school to beyond. These are programs that provide more meaning for students and are more supportive. And finally, we had a successful C3 day in college fair in October. So this was really a two-week span when all juniors were able to take the PSATs, all seniors were able to engage in college, career, or community service activities. This is really a time when our seniors can leave campus and they can go and do college visits, they can do job shadows, and they can also get their community service requirement done. And then within that two-week span, we also had over 500 students attend the college fair. So that is a quick overview of some of our accomplishments for this year. So hopefully I didn't go over that too quickly, but I'd like to see if any of you have any questions.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: Ms. Van der Kloot?
[7DUlBp6f_Us_SPEAKER_21]: Sure. So the Welcome Project is a program through Somerville. And there's actually a lot of mini programs within that program. And one of the programs that we have used is called LIPS. And I'm sorry, I can't remember the acronym at this moment, but it's a program that comes in and it trains our students who speak English and another language to be interpreters. So a lot of our ELL students took advantage of that. They were trained in being an interpreter, and then they were set up with a job.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: That's great. I was also, if I can follow up, I was wondering if you're seeing students who are concerned about their family's immigration status, if that's causing any angst.
[7DUlBp6f_Us_SPEAKER_21]: We are seeing a few of those students. but for the most part, our ELL department has been working closely with the guidance department, um, and helping to support those students. Uh, we've been able to provide them resources and just information on their rights as students. Um, but yeah, it is, it's difficult this year.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Thank you.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: Mr. Skerry.
[Robert Skerry]: Uh, through, uh, through you to miss Jensen. I noticed that you have asked for an increase in counseling staff for social emotional needs in the elementary grades. How is it working out this year?
[7DUlBp6f_Us_SPEAKER_21]: In the, oh, you mean last year?
[Robert Skerry]: Last year. Well, this currently, do you have enough staff to meet the needs of the elementary children that may need help or counseling or just a shoulder to lean on? Can we approve the program?
[7DUlBp6f_Us_SPEAKER_21]: We currently do not have any guidance Councilors in the elementary schools. But we do have school adjustment Councilors and school psychologists. And at this current moment, I believe they are meeting the needs. But I would have to defer that to Ms. Modeglio, because I believe she might be talking about those services.
[Robert Skerry]: OK. Could you put together a small report and send it back to us, please? Of course.
[7DUlBp6f_Us_SPEAKER_21]: Yep.
[Robert Skerry]: Thank you.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Mrs. DiBenedetto. Thank you. So you talked a little bit about school brains and how everybody was trained on school brains. And my question isn't directed at you. It's really to the superintendent. I got a note from a parent in the last few weeks about teachers not putting the grades of students into the system so that they could see them. So I directed the parent directly to Dr. Perala, who was handling that one situation. But overall, could you please check to make sure that throughout the district and provide us with a report as to whether everybody's up and running and posting homework and grades on School Brains. And if not, a timeline for everybody to be up and running. I know we talked about this previously, but I'd like to know if there are any teachers in the district that are struggling that you need to help along this process. And if so, how many there are and where they're located. So I'm requesting a report, um, make it a motion for a port at that time. I need a second.
[Roy Belson]: So we had a meeting. God, I take the motion. Second.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: Second. So first, Mr. Benedetto second by Mr. Um, scary. Uh, all in favor. All opposed. Motion passes.
[Roy Belson]: So we had a meeting today on a number of issues, including certain elements of technology. And this came up and the feeling was, is that the teachers are making, very, very good progress in most instances using school brains to report out. Nothing is 100%, I'm sure, but I'll try to get a better, more definitive report for you.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Thank you so much. I just want to follow up with if one parent calls and there's other parents that are feeling the same way, it just haven't made that call.
[Unidentified]: Okay.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: I believe it's miss my stone first and then just, just to finish. I just want to thank you and your department. I know you run a lot of different things. I know your staff has increased in the last few years. Um, it sounds like there's more and more programming. How, um, how are you handling the merger with students with the vocational side as well as the high school side and children going back and forth? I mean, Are we sharing some of those students or how are we looking at that?
[7DUlBp6f_Us_SPEAKER_21]: Yes. So that's a very good question. Um, moving forward. So starting next year we are looking at completely integrating the students with all the Councilors. Um, up until now, um, students who have identified that they are attending the vocational school have been placed with the vocational school Councilor. Um, but the vocational school Councilor and the high school Councilors meet weekly. They collaborate. The high school Councilors are very much informed and trained in vocational education. And the vocational school Councilor has also been working on college applications and doing everything that a high school Councilor does. So I think that they're very prepared for this merger. And so next year, that's what we're looking to do. With the incoming ninth graders, it will be divided evenly among the Councilors. It still has to get final approval, though.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: So at a high school level, including the Curtis Tufts and the vocational school and the high school, how many students does each guidance Councilor counsel?
[7DUlBp6f_Us_SPEAKER_21]: I'd have to get you an exact number. I don't have an exact number, but roughly about 300.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: So each guidance Councilor is managing 300 students. Correct. That's a lot.
[7DUlBp6f_Us_SPEAKER_21]: I mean, obviously, at the Curtis Tufts, it's a smaller caseload. But on average, 300.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: OK. That's good to know for future staffing levels, if there are increases or different needs. What about ESL students? Do they have a specific guidance Councilor that might speak or help them in a different way? Or does the ESL teacher step in at that point? How is that managed?
[7DUlBp6f_Us_SPEAKER_21]: So our EL students do not have a specific guidance Councilor that would be an EL Councilor. However, they have specific support courses that we try and put them in, where one is actually called college and career preparation. And so I believe it's called College and Career Preparation. I can get you the exact name of the course. That's OK. And they also have summer programs that are available to these students as well. So we do do extra outreach for these students, but they don't have a specific Councilor for EL. They do have their Councilor, though.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: And they help them through the process. Correct, yes.
[7DUlBp6f_Us_SPEAKER_21]: And we did some training this year. We actually did two trainings in working with the EL population, just providing our Councilors resources to use for these students, background on different laws and legal regulations. So they are very knowledgeable in it.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: And my final question is about the PSATs now that you've taken it two years, are you seeing an increase in scores on SATs because all students are taking that prep?
[7DUlBp6f_Us_SPEAKER_21]: Yes, thank you for bringing that up. We are seeing an increase in scores of about 100 points on average. Wow. So that's huge.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Significant.
[7DUlBp6f_Us_SPEAKER_21]: Yes. And we're also seeing students signing up for the SATs sooner than they had in previous years. So the average student would sign up for the SATs either June of their junior year or October of their senior year. And now students are signing up in January and March of their junior year, which leads them to also end up taking an additional test and get higher scores.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Well worth the money. Yes. It's good to hear that.
[Mea Quinn Mustone]: Ms. Mustone. Yeah, thanks. Um, thank you for the report. The last bullet where it says middle school guidance assisted in the implementation of the umbrella project. I've not heard anything about it. What is the Umbrella Project's role at the middle school?
[7DUlBp6f_Us_SPEAKER_21]: So the Umbrella Project is a program that is happening at the McGlynn Middle School, and it's being led by the guidance department and Ian Charles, the assistant principal there. And it's really a support program to help identify students who are at risk, whether that's social, emotional, or behavioral, and putting them on plans that help support them throughout the year. So kind of doing an early intervention with those students.
[Mea Quinn Mustone]: Do you know how many kids are enrolled in the Umbrella Project?
[7DUlBp6f_Us_SPEAKER_21]: I don't know how many are currently, but I know that last year there were about 25 that completed the program.
[Mea Quinn Mustone]: Are there plans for it to go to the Andrews?
[7DUlBp6f_Us_SPEAKER_21]: I'm not sure about that. I know when Ian Charles came in, he was a driving force with this program. And the Councilors jumped on board and really did all of the support work for it, because they provided the extra space for the students to do the work, to do their homework, to be pulled from their exploratory courses. So I'm not sure if it's going to be going to the Andrews. I haven't heard. We could look into that, though, because I know that they're moving in.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: The question is whether or not it could be moved to the Andrews. To the Andrews.
[Roy Belson]: Well, I think any program can be moved. And really, principals have to weigh in as to whether they believe it would be effective for them or whether they want to do something else. So the Andrews uses things like Study Island and other things like that. So we want to give principals some degree of autonomy to make decisions that they believe are in the best interest. It could very well be that they adopt something from another school that they believe would work for them, too. So we'll check into it. We'll get back. Okay.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: I'll set me up. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Skerry.
[Robert Skerry]: I made it through to the superintendent, uh, including this report was, uh, the fact that they have one computer that's not working as long as we get in touch with Mr. Trotter, see if we can get that replaced and also try to get a new computer for the secretary sooner rather than later to help the office run efficiently.
[Roy Belson]: Let me check on it to make sure that I understand what really isn't working or what is slower than might be desired or, you know, an upgrade or whatever the case may be, but we'll certainly give you a report back.
[Robert Skerry]: Okay. Because I think we, we owe it to our staff to make sure that they have equipment that works every day, every time that they want to use it. And it benefits not only the guidance department, but the students. Right.
[Kathy Kreatz]: Thank you. Ms. Kreatz. Oh, hi. Thank you, Ms. Jensen. The poll was great. I wanted to mention one of the goals for this upcoming year, which is the online program to assist students' graduation rate, offering enrichment courses and the alternate programs. I wanted to know now, the information, I think it might be out now, is it online? Do the students, was a message sent out so the students know? they can take advantage of it, or is it more of the guidance department might approach a student or parent and let them know they think they might be a good fit for something like that?
[7DUlBp6f_Us_SPEAKER_21]: So currently, right now, the district is piloting the Ingenuity PLATO program. And so we're using it with our juniors and seniors, not yet with our freshmen and sophomores. any student who is looking to make up a course, whether that's going to be in summer school or in the past they had come to the guidance office and asked to make up a course and we had referred them to Somerville online school or we had referred them to BYU online school. Now we will be referring them obviously to our school. They can be taking this course with us. So we haven't yet, this isn't something that we have put out to the public yet, but when students come to us or when the guidance Councilors approach the students about needing a credit recovery course, this is the option that's given to them. And we're looking to also expand this program for students to take quarterly enrichment courses, so not just credit recovery. So that's something that we're continuing to grow this year.
[Kathy Kreatz]: Is there a cost associated with it?
[7DUlBp6f_Us_SPEAKER_21]: The cost is $125 for the course, which is cheaper than the other online options that they were given in the past.
[Kathy Kreatz]: And how long is the course? Is it a six-week course? Is it a three-week course? I was just a little curious.
[7DUlBp6f_Us_SPEAKER_21]: So the courses are self-paced. The students can finish them as quickly as they would like. And it is all dependent on the course. I know over summer school, Mr. Ciari had used this online program, I believe, for biology. I think it was biology. And he had gone into the biology course. And the great thing about this program is that the teachers can go in, and they can look at the standards that the course is teaching, and they can take them out. They can put in their own standards. So they can really modify the course for what they believe the need is for the student or for the class that's being offered. And so this summer, that course was offered for six weeks. But the benefit of it is that if students didn't finish within the six weeks, they had until the end of the summer to take it. So we're looking at that moving forward. I know Dr. Perla and the central administration has been working with the directors to have them go through and look at some of these courses and modify some of these courses. They were just trained, I believe, it was in January.
[Kathy Kreatz]: Thank you. Thank you. Sounds exciting. Thanks.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: Thank you. Ms. Cugno. Thank you. And thank you, Ms. Jensen, for the report. It is very particular and a lot of details. I'm looking at the coffee with the Councilors. Yes. How did you promote that? Was it just by being online or was there a robocall made out to parents? What time was it scheduled and is it individual?
[7DUlBp6f_Us_SPEAKER_21]: Yeah, so the history of the coffee with the, well, I can give you a brief overview. So the coffee with the Councilors is something that we're doing this year based on parent requests from previous years. They said there are so many night events, there were so many games or sporting events that they had to go to, that they really would like a time to come to the school during the day. And we realized that this isn't necessarily ideal for all parents, but we wanted to provide this opportunity for some of them. So we're doing this quarterly, and each quarter there's a different topic. The Councilors are giving a mini presentation, about 15 minutes, going over some current information. And then it's also a time for the Councilors to break out into groups with their parents. And the parents can talk to one another, they can talk to the Councilors, they can get grade-specific information. So, so far, it's been pretty popular. We've had a good turnout. And the way that we've advertised it is through the blog, through Lisa Evangelista posting, the website, and then we've also done a robocall home.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: That sounds great. The other thing I was going to ask is, it says you've connected over 75 percent of at-risk seniors, which means It's 2.5 GPA or lower, so I don't want people thinking that it's a 1.5 or anything like that. But I'm just wondering, how did you connect and what is the plan?
[7DUlBp6f_Us_SPEAKER_21]: So we've really utilized our Councilor who's in charge of school and community partnerships. And what he does is he really looks at programs that have a proven successful track record and ones that will meet the most needs of our students. And he's been able to bring in a lot of outside programs, which are some of them that I've listed. During the day there will be many assemblies or many meetings, whether it's during lunch or during a class, where these students can come down and learn about these programs and sign up for them.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: Okay. And I see that you've had the second C3 day. Yes. And how did that go? Did you have students that really took advantage of going off to different colleges or did they stay?
[7DUlBp6f_Us_SPEAKER_21]: Yep. So the majority of our students ended up going and visiting a school. So in order to get the excused absence, they have to bring proof back that they did one of those activities. And the majority of them do visit a college. But we did have some students who did other activities as well, like a job shadow. Some of them did community service. And then we also had an admissions officer from Tufts come to campus and give an essay writing workshop.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: I know that my colleague asked the Councilors at the high school have about 300 students apiece correct correct and We are still doing it that it's not we're doing it with alphabet in alphabetical order So that way not everyone has there's no there's no longer a class of 300 of seniors, correct Okay, and so with that being said how many seniors does each Councilor have do you know?
[7DUlBp6f_Us_SPEAKER_21]: depending on the year anywhere between 60 to 90
[Ann Marie Cugno]: 60 to 90. Thank you so much.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Is there a motion on the floor to receive and place this report on file? So moved by Mr. Benedetto, seconded by Ms. Van der Kloot. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Motion passes.
[7DUlBp6f_Us_SPEAKER_21]: Thank you. Also, I'm sorry, can I mention one more thing?
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Sure.
[7DUlBp6f_Us_SPEAKER_21]: We did have our eighth grade course selection night last week, so this is something separate other than the guidance board. And this was last Tuesday. It was the eighth grade course selection night. All of the eighth graders came to the high school. We had a huge turnout. The entire Caron Theater was filled. Parents got to listen to Dr. Prella and Dr. Riccio give presentations the integrating of the two schools and where are schools going in the future. They also got to hear about the registration and scheduling process of the high school. And I wanted to let you know that we received very positive feedback from parents on the integration of the two schools and the additional opportunities that this is going to be affording students. So they really like to hear that students could graduate with a certificate program from the vocational school, that they could also graduate with dual enrollment credits, and those same students could graduate with AP credits. So they were very, very excited about that. They also liked the simplicity in the scheduling process that we're pushing for for this year, which includes a limited option of electives for freshmen. So our freshmen are going to be offered the CTE Exploratory, an art course or a music course, which will be band, orchestra, or chorus, and we're limiting that for freshmen because we really feel that in order to explore and in order to have a freshman year that is not as overwhelming, it would be better to limit those courses. So we're hoping for a big turnout in the CTE Exploratory, which would allow students to explore 20 different careers. Very good. Thank you.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: Ms. Cuno, follow-up? Yes, please. A follow-up to that. So if we're going to limit our freshmen, then what happens with our other classes as far as the electives? Are they still going to have a good amount of students in them, or are we going to have electives that we only have a couple of students in them?
[7DUlBp6f_Us_SPEAKER_21]: Well, we will be having. So all the freshmen will be in some sort of elective, whether it's music, art, or a CT exploratory. And then the other electives, we are assuming that a few are Fewer students will be in them, but we're still offering all of our electives. We're just going to be offering them alternating years, some of them on alternating years. And then when we ran the numbers, it doesn't look like the classes will be 15. They will be more like 20 instead of 25, 26, 27.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: How many electives do we have in all?
[7DUlBp6f_Us_SPEAKER_21]: I think almost 70.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: And how many are we going to limit to the freshmen? Is it 20?
[7DUlBp6f_Us_SPEAKER_21]: So the freshmen have a choice of five different electives, but if they take the CTE Exploratory, they explore 20 different career technical programs.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: Okay, thank you. You're welcome.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Ms. Van der Kloot. I'm not quite sure what you said in that. So a freshman can't take art and band together?
[7DUlBp6f_Us_SPEAKER_21]: So in past years, they've never been able to take art and band together because art is four credits and band is four credits. They would have to choose. So that's pretty much the same. The only thing that's changing is we have a lot of mini courses, a lot of two-credit courses. So when freshmen came in, if they took a two-credit course, they'd have to take two of the two credit courses, and it was just a lot of courses for them to balance. So we've really limited the courses that we're offering to the freshmen, and each one of them is gonna be four credits. So they won't be bouncing around from elective to elective to elective their freshman year. They'll have one elective. But they still have all of those opportunities for them sophomore, junior, and senior year. So it didn't close off on any pathways for students.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: So is that for the whole school year, they would just have one elective? Yep. So if one of the electives was guitar, they would take guitar for the whole school year? Correct.
[7DUlBp6f_Us_SPEAKER_21]: And that's how all of our courses right now and all of our electives do run for the full year. It's just they would meet two times over a six-day cycle instead of four times over a six-day cycle.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: And the pro of this is, I mean, the advantage?
[7DUlBp6f_Us_SPEAKER_21]: The advantage of this is that students are not balancing eight and nine courses. They're only balancing six to seven courses.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Okay. So just, you know, the opposite of that is I got into an elective and I don't really like that one, but I love the other one I'm taking. So there's pros and cons.
[7DUlBp6f_Us_SPEAKER_21]: Yes. Many of the other electives were very academic heavy, which was very overwhelming for freshmen who were getting used to the high school setting. So we really wanted to find something that got them more hands-on experience, something that was a little bit of a break from the day. And the CTE exploratory class gave that to them. And they also rotate through 20 different technical programs. So if they don't like their current technical program, they wait a week and they get to change.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Will they get graded in that CTE exploration?
[7DUlBp6f_Us_SPEAKER_21]: Yes, they're all graded. Okay.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Thank you.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: You're welcome. Mr. Benedetto. I remember when my children were picking and when they loved art and music and they couldn't do both and at that point they had to decide whether to do each. My concern is that with the opportunity to explore so many different shops that they could take, that it could hurt our band and our orchestra. So we just wanna be careful of that and make sure, I know personally that the evening orchestra would still accept students if they were taking band during the day and vice versa, but I'm not sure how that's going to affect those groups. So could we be careful and mindful of that when sign-ups come?
[7DUlBp6f_Us_SPEAKER_21]: We're also allowing students to take CTE Exploratory their sophomore year if, for some reason, they missed it their freshman year and would like to take it. So that would open up the possibility for students who want to stay in music all four years. OK.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: All right. Thank you. Thank you.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Thank you very much. Ms. Cuno.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: How does the technical side work into this schedule as far as when you have students coming in their freshman year, they have that opportunity to go over to the technical side to explore? So how do you work that into the CTE?
[7DUlBp6f_Us_SPEAKER_21]: I'm sorry, I don't quite understand the question.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: So you know how students are going to have their choice of taking an elective?
[7DUlBp6f_Us_SPEAKER_21]: Yes.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: OK. But we're also giving them the opportunity to go over to the technical side and maybe explore over there. So is that incorporated into those 20 or the five that you mentioned?
[7DUlBp6f_Us_SPEAKER_21]: So the entire freshman class is not divided by vocational school, high school. It's going to be one group of students. And no matter which, if a student has the plan of eventually going into the vocational school, they can take the CTE exploratory. If they don't have any plans to go into the vocational school, or they don't have an interest in that, they can take some of the other electives. But even if they don't take the vocational exploratory, which is the 20 rotating programs, even if they don't take that, they can still opt to apply for the vocational school the 10th grade year.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: All right, that's what I needed the clarification on, because I think that's the confusing part of there's so many balls being juggled. I didn't think we were going to be able to do that. So this is now at least a clarification. And thank you. I won't do any more follow-ups. Thank you very much, Ms.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Jensen. We appreciate your being here. Thank you.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: Thank you.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: You voted on that, correct? Yes. Ms. Vanderbilt, yes. Report on transgender student rights. Mr. Superintendent.
[Roy Belson]: Mayor, members of the school committee. You know, on February 22nd, 2017, the federal government, using an executive order from the president, rescinded guidance and determined that Title IX's prohibition on gender identity discrimination was null and void. The president took the position that the protection of transgender rights should be left to each state. Massachusetts law already protects the rights of transgender students in schools. Chapter 199 of the Acts of 2011 went into effect in July 2012. The Medford School Committee approved a local policy affirming the Massachusetts law on April 11, 2016. We had taken a previous position on the 13th in 2013, but we updated in 2016. In your packet, you have information from Mike Long, who is the legal counsel to the Massachusetts Association of School Committees. You have guidance from the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. You have your own policy, the Medford Public Schools policy that was adopted in 2016. You have some guidance from the MTA, the Largest Teachers Union, and you have a copy of the bills that were enacted. Clearly, in Medford, And clearly, throughout Massachusetts, transgender rights are protected. Sometimes federal laws supersede, but not in this instance. Because in this instance, the executive order said, let the states decide. In this instance, the state has decided. And we have an active plan in place. And at this point, we have really no problems with what we've done. and what we're doing in our schools. So I want to bring you up to date on that. I would like to, if I can, Mayor, also comment on the immigration rules, because I believe that's also tied to equal access to education, which is part of the same vein of thinking as the transgender rule. I've given you an advisory from Mara Healy, the Massachusetts Attorney General, on equal access to public education for all students, irrespective of immigration status. In Massachusetts, the Supreme Court of the United States recognized Brown versus Board of Education, and it is true today as it was back in 1953. The advisory that the Attorney General has provided you is very, very clear. There has been a case in Massachusetts, Filer v. Doe, in 1982, where the Supreme Court held that public elementary and secondary schools may not deny any child residing in the applicable jurisdiction access to public education, whether the child is present in the country legally or not. Filer made it clear that a child's immigration or citizenship status, or that his or her parents Our guardian is not relevant to the child's right to a public education. So irrespective of any rulings that come down, Massachusetts law, states rights, made the decision that we will accept anyone who resides in our community. We will not ask them what their status is, visa or otherwise. We will not pursue anything other than the fact they are not living in the community. If they're not living in the community, it's a residence issue. But if they're living in the community, whether they're living with their parents or they're residing with some other responsible adult, we will provide them free and public access to our educational system. So I want to clarify that I am not allowed to ask what a person's visa status is. I'm not allowed to ask what their immigrant status is. I'm not allowed to ask for some of these things. And in fact, In some instances, there are people that are homeless, and I might have to accept that just simply based on homelessness. We just had a webinar today on homelessness that dealt with foster children. More guidance is coming out on that. So I want to make it clear that we're an equal opportunity school system, whether it's transgender or immigrant status. If a youngster resides in our community, they are entitled to free access to our public education system, and that's the way we will treat them. Happy to take any questions.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Thank you, Mr. Superintendent. Motion to receive the report, place it on file. Seconded by Ms. Kreatz. All those in favor? All those opposed? Both reports are placed on file. Report on compliance with state defibrillation law.
[Roy Belson]: So effective July 1, 2018, all schools must have automated external defibrillators on site. The good news is we have them in every one of our schools. An automated defibrillator, or an AED, is a medical device that will analyze heart rhythms and can deliver electric shocks to help a heart reestablish an effective rhythm during a sudden cardiac arrest. The American Red Cross recommends that AEDs be readily available and applied within four minutes of cardiac arrest. Now, under this law, We have to have trained people on staff. We do. We have nurses, we've trained our coaches, and we'll train even more people to use these items. Tonight, we will have a moment of silence from somebody who could have used one. Obviously, this is important. It's good to know that we're ahead of the curve. We have them in every school. We'll review them to see whether or not we should be adding. We have had good fortune working with our ambulance providers and others who have donated equipment to us. They get checked every day for battery effectiveness. And we have to keep that up because you never know when the equipment's there, but the battery doesn't operate. So you have to check this on a regular basis and we have to continuously train people. So I want to make sure you're aware that we're in compliance with this law well in advance of its implementation, but there's obviously more work that we will do. to make this a more efficient and effective, uh, system for utilization. Should it be necessary?
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Thank you. Um, Mr. Benedetto and then miss. Um, thank you. So I have a few questions. Uh, I, I really believe that these should be up at near our fields and somehow some way. So people don't have to run back and try to get into the building to get them. I don't know how, what an appropriate trainer will bring them to the field.
[Roy Belson]: It will be brought by coaches and trainers. We'll have them available on the fields.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Okay. And also a list near every defibrillator, who is trained, like a list of people trained to use it. So that way, if it's a need, they know who to immediately go to. Because we, and I also would like a list of all school employees of who has been trained, how many people, where they are located, where they're working. This is an important thing that could save people's lives. And I think that, We need more information than what's provided.
[Roy Belson]: I think it's important to recognize that I don't want people who are afraid to use this thing to use it.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Right, well then we need a list.
[Roy Belson]: I want people only who are comfortable using it to use it. There are some people who- Who are certified. Yeah, and certified. There are some people who would be very uncomfortable taking this device off the wall and using it.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: So I'm making a motion right now.
[Roy Belson]: Every building will have people, and we can provide you with a list of who's trying to use it.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: I'm making a motion right now hopefully second by one of my colleagues, to have a list of all people certified and trained in using this and having it posted next to the defibrillators. So when an emergency happens, they have the defibrillator and they're like, okay, who knows how to use this? There's a list of people right then and there and they say, oh, he's on the other side of the field, go get Joe. And you're not going to the wrong direction to get somebody. So I think it's imperative. So I've made the motion, seconded by my colleague. Roll call vote, please.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Thank you, Mr. Benedetto. Ms. Vandekloot, still speaking on this topic?
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Yeah, I just wanted to make sure that we have enough people in the schools. I know you're saying you're working on it. I was thinking about a meeting I attended recently down at one of the middle schools, and at that point, there was no school nurse present. There was, in fact, maybe the only person present might have been a principal. So that if I was a parent attending, or for that matter, a school committee member attending with a history of heart disease in the family, you know, just make sure that it would be great if we could really encourage as many people as possible to learn how to do this.
[Roy Belson]: I just want to be careful that we have sufficient numbers, but that we don't put people in situations of doing things they're uncomfortable doing. It's very different than an EpiPen. A lot of people can use an EpiPen very effectively.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Mr. Superintendent didn't say anything about forcing people to do it who didn't want to do it. I'm thinking that there are people who, in fact, would like to learn how to do it.
[Roy Belson]: I understand what you're saying. I just want to make it clear that this isn't one of those things like CPR that everyone is going to be trained in. It's something that you really want to make sure that the four or five people in the building who are the go-to people are the people that are really comfortable using a device like this. This is a very sophisticated device.
[Mea Quinn Mustone]: Miss, miss, you all set this band clue, miss, miss John, the nurses.
[Roy Belson]: I don't know that, but I will check that. I don't know that, but I'm told by Tony Vento that they check them every day and that's their, one of their responsibilities. Now, Could it be that one day went by when they didn't entirely possible, but we will certainly reinforce that. But I want to make sure that, you know, the people that use this know what they're doing, but we'll provide that.
[Kathy Kreatz]: I just had a question. Um, do the schools, um, conduct like practice drills to prepare for an emergency? Um, so they can time themselves because it does, I guess, the device has to be applied within four minutes of the cardiac arrest. So I was just curious, like, if you're in the high school and it's in the front lobby and somebody's way down and they have to, you know, walkie-talkie that person, come down here, we have an emergency, they have to go get the defibrillator and then get to the person. You know, I was just curious, like, how that was going to work.
[Roy Belson]: Well, you know, again, four minutes is the guideline from the point of which the heart stops. It's not when a person's starting to feel chest pain, or starting to feel dizzy, or things of that type. So it's tricky. I mean, obviously, we have a 500,000 square foot high school. And things can happen anywhere. But obviously, our goal is to get people to the scene as quickly as possible. Same thing with CPR, same thing with any other, with EpiPens, anything that requires a medical intervention to get them there as quickly as possible. I'll go over it with Tony and with other people and see exactly if we can give you more specifics as to how they would respond.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Thanks. Very good. Point of information, Mr. Benedetto. Each floor.
[Unidentified]: who I want to be on the way back.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: We hope. Ms.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: Cuno. Thank you, Mr. Benetton. Well, one point of information is that on the fields, our athletic director, I'm sorry, our athletic trainer is always there. And I know that she knows what she's doing. I know that when we have games and when she's not able to be at a particular game because she's at some, you know, another game, we also have EMTs that have to be on the field to make sure that they're there. So, but I know that part of it. I guess the curiosity of that is, like, we can't mandate everybody to take it, and we have to make sure that we are letting the people that want to do this learn it the correct way. So is Tony Vento going to be providing the courses, the classes?
[Roy Belson]: I'll sit with Tony, and let's go over a list of people who are more likely to be available and capable, and then we'll approach them and try to add to the list. It's unlikely that we're going to be able to get every person in every corner, nor should we try, because I think inappropriate application is more dangerous than none at all.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: But Armstrong is more than willing, I know, in this building as well, to train whoever wants to learn. They were more than willing to train people that want to become certified. Okay, thank you. There's a motion on the floor of it by Mr. Benedetto seconded by Mr. Skerry. Roll call vote has been requested. As well as Ms. Stone's question. I actually forget what your question was, I'm sorry. The list by school and to also have a list posted next to the defibrillator if it's checked every day and if it's signed off on. Maintenance.
[Mea Quinn Mustone]: On the motion, roll call vote, Ms. Vanden Heuvel. Yes.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: That's good.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Yes, seven in the affirmative, zero negative. Motion passes. Update report on elementary class size, Mr. Superintendent.
[Roy Belson]: You asked for a report that broke it out by actual classes. You have that report in front of you. It was appended to the previous report. It shows you what each teacher has as of the same date that the previous report was provided. Happy to take any questions.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Motion to accept this report in place on file by Mr. Skerry. Is there a second on the floor? Ms. Van der Kloot. All those in favor? All those opposed? Motion passes. Oh, I'm sorry.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Mr. Benedetto. Oh, thank you so much. First of all, I want to thank you for providing us with this court report in timely manner. Secondly, I would like you to present it to the city council as they requested the numbers. And I ask that they get the breakdown as well so that they can see all the transparency and that where our schools are highly populated in certain areas, okay? Also, this report will become very handy as well when you provide us the other report on any new developments in the city and where kids are. If the new developments are in the area where our numbers are higher, that will give us some information and some planning for our budget and for our space, because we want to make sure we have enough space for all the children. The next thing I wanted to say is, having looked at this report, I'm wondering does this include children that may be in a supported class and come into the regular classroom? Do the numbers go up during the day?
[Roy Belson]: If a youngster comes from a substantially separated class, they come with the teachers or the staff that's with them. So these numbers could, during the day... The number could increase mostly for gym or for some of the larger activities, but certainly not for classes that are substantially contained.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: So not, not most, most generally not for academic classes, but more social classes.
[Roy Belson]: Occasionally a youngster may try. They may try to put a youngster in the class. Okay.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: I just want to be clear and put it out there because that, you know, that's a question that's always asked.
[Roy Belson]: The other thing you got to keep in mind is on a given day, you know, with not to say that we encourage this, but any given day, a hundred percent of the pupils aren't always in attendance. So if you have 20 youngsters in a class, you might have 18 on a given day, you know, on that day and then another day you might have all 20. So it just depends on who's there on any given day as well.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: So my, my other comment is that just looking at this is that the second grade class is, is pretty, it's a pretty big class. So we want to keep that in mind when, um, the, as they get older. You know, because that's a large grouping of students. You have almost.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Almost across the board.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Across the board, an average of over 22, except for the Brooks School, which is a little bit smaller.
[Diane Caldwell]: So would you like to address that?
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Absolutely.
[Diane Caldwell]: Just this past month, we've had a bubble in our second grade. So at the McGlynn and at the Roberts in particular, We had five new students just for second grade. So yes, there is a bubble that's going on in that particular classroom. We have students moving into Station Landing and students, you know, where the Malden-Metford line is, where all the apartments are. We had one or two students moving in from that area. But it's just unusual that we would have five, particularly in second grade. Those students were all designated for the McGlynn Elementary School. And I actually had to split them up because I couldn't put five new students. As you can see at the McGlynn Elementary, we have 23 and 24 students. But the Roberts has always been high in second grade. So if there's a way we could transport students on a bus, we will try to do that just to make sure our numbers don't go over 24.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: The only concern I have with that is siblings or, you know, if they've already been in a building for a while and they're comfortable there to at some point switch them because of the number of students in that particular school. So, I mean, that's not my hope is to have to do that to any family or any students.
[Diane Caldwell]: So I-. Well, the other thing we need to be cognizant of is that if they have siblings, then siblings we would just out of courtesy, move the siblings with the family as well. So it could be conceivably two or three students in one school move.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: It just seems like the numbers are somewhat higher than I anticipated for our second and maybe third grade. Looks a little high in some schools to me, and a little bit in fourth. Just to keep an eye on this, and if more students in that age level come into the district, We just want to be very, very aware of those class sizes and keep an eye on them throughout the calendar year. So I'm glad that we are now getting this report twice a year. I think that was a motion that was passed so that we get it in early September when kids settling in and then again in January so we can keep an eye on this. Thank you for the report, Mr. Superintendent. Um, when you present us with the new development report that was requested, could you also include this with it? So that way we have both reports together at the same time. I think it would be helpful too. And thank you for sharing it with the city councils and being so transparent about everything.
[Roy Belson]: So just so we have one understanding that we have to have all the time, I never send anything to the civil city council like this until you get it first. Right. So it may be a little bit of a weight sometimes when they ask for something like this, but you always get it first before they get it.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: And I appreciate that. Okay.
[Roy Belson]: And then we send it through the council just so you understand the process.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: On the motion that this report be received and placed on file. All those in favor. All those opposed. Motion passes. Recommendation to approve reasonable use policy.
[Roy Belson]: So this, uh, policy was in front of you, uh, earlier and we went, took it back to review it to make sure there were no situations that we were missing using current, you know, let's say legal opinions that were out there. We vetted it at this time. We believe that this is ready to go. So I recommend that you approve it.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Mr. Skerry.
[Robert Skerry]: Just a one question through you to the superintendent. Uh, Roy, I've reviewed the document and it indicated two places that the individual that had the document, uh, I've read and understand the rules. I understand if they break any of the rules, I may lose the privilege of using the internet and may have other consequences. Uh, is there space for a signature line in the date?
[Roy Belson]: There will be. When a person gets in state, they sign off on the, uh,
[Robert Skerry]: Okay, and the copy that goes out to the individuals, could you please provide us a copy of it also?
[Roy Belson]: If you look on the cover page, all users must sign off on the reasonable use policy each year.
[Robert Skerry]: Right, but I just didn't see a sign, a line for a signature or a letter. Okay, and it's done individually, it's not done on one sheet by each student? Individually. Good, thank you.
[Kathy Kreatz]: Very good. Ms. Kreatz. I just wanted to share some helpful tips. I think it's a good idea for all of us to make sure we keep our kids safe at home by monitoring their sites and limiting the time they spend on their devices, even when they're at home. Kind of implement something similar to this in your own household. I think it's a good idea.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: Very good. I just want to make sure that where it says here like this is for grade 5, but I'm assuming this is for everyone. Yeah. Also to send it home so a parent and a guardian could sign and make sure that they are.
[Roy Belson]: Once you're approving it, we will. then we work on distribution.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: Okay. But I just want to, it wasn't clear here if it was just the student or not. And I just want to make sure that we incorporate the guardian or the parent to sign off also. So that way they can't come down the road and say, gee, I wasn't aware of it. I didn't know about it. All right.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: And on that motion as amended to accept this report that Mr. Skerry, is there a second? Yes. Second by Ms. Cuno. Roll call vote. Yes. Yes. Seven in the affirmative, zero on the negative. The policy is approved. Negotiation in legal matters? None, Mr. Superintendent? Certainly, Mr. Scari. Point of information?
[Robert Skerry]: A few months back, we met in an executive session regarding a couple of contracts. I wondered if we could get an update on those. I mean, it's coming. I would rather see it sooner than later because these poor souls have been in limbo for a number of months and I think we have to get this done.
[Roy Belson]: The unions to come in and work with us until they're ready. We can't, I can't push it. We should expect something very soon.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Thank you. Mr. Benedetto. Thank you. Um, under requested reports, um, the quarterly financial report, you said that we would be getting it soon. We voted, um, as a committee to get these, um, the community schools financial report on a quarterly basis. And we haven't had one since before last June. So we're almost a year out, Mr. Superintendent.
[Roy Belson]: So I'm just going to answer what I answered before until the hall straightens out the accounts. I'm not going to give you a report where co-mingled money is. It can't be, can't be separated out. So I can actually give you an accurate report. They're working on it. We have major changes. The financial administration of the city and major change in the financial administration of the schools and they're working on that right now I would hope to have it soon But as late as last week, I'm down there talking to The people in the City Hall trying to get that broken out so we can give you an accurate report The good news is that we're not in jeopardy of anything financial The bad news is, what do you call it, I'm still trying to get this separated out so that you can see each account very cleanly as opposed to having four or five accounts somehow consolidated together, which doesn't give you a real picture. Right.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: They're tracking through a couple of years of revenue deposits to make sure they're in the proper program.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Okay. I'm just asking for an update. I asked for this in January. It's two months later. I, you said in a few weeks, because the city, the mayor said that the city was done posting what they needed to win the last time I asked. And now it's been more than a month since then. That's the reason. And so I am, I am asking for a timeline.
[Roy Belson]: Soon as it, as soon as I get the numbers, the way they should be given to me, I will be happy to give you the report and I hope it's soon.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Okay. And I'm asking you through the, um, from now to the next meeting, just look at a few of these items and see if you can clear any of them up from the list that we have. Okay. Thank you.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: All right. A new business school committee resolution be resolved at the metric school committees expressed sincere condolences to the family of Roger Wint. Mr. Wint was the former Metro public schools director of building and grounds. Be it resolved that the Medford School Committee express its sincere condolences to the family of Margaret Yarrati. Ms. Yarrati was the mother of Medford Public School's math teacher, Janet Forty. Be it resolved that the Medford Public School Committee express its sincere condolences to the family of James Coughlin. Mr. Coughlin was a retired Medford Public School physical ed teacher. He was the husband of Paula Coughlin, a Kids' Corner preschool teacher. Also the mother of Chris Coughlin, who's one of our Medford police officers. And their other son, Mark, and Carrie, daughter. Ron Corbett, a Medford High School graduate, star athlete, pitcher, baseball player in Oakland as system. Is that what the? Oakland A's system, I'm sorry. He's in the Suffolk Hall of Fame and the Medford High School Hall of Fame. Please all rise for a moment of silence in passing of these Medford residents and or teachers. A couple of announcements by the superintendent.
[Roy Belson]: So I want to thank Anne-Marie Cugno and the Italian Consul General Nicola De Santis for Italian Day. It was a great event up at the high school. It was exciting and the youngsters enjoyed sitting in the Ferrari and the Maserati and listening to La Traviata and maybe sampling some food from Italy to getting a sense of Italian culture. I think it was a great day. Dovetailed with the science fair, with a few other things going on with Dr. Seuss. A lot going on in the public schools. You have a March handout from Lisa, which gives you some activities in March. It's very busy. You can't make everything, but the ones you can make, it's worth it. And there's a lot of good things going on in the schools. And at our next meeting, there'll be a number of other presentations to students who have achieved some exciting things. And we want to recognize them in public. And we will do that on our meeting on the 20th. A lot of good stuff going on. You did get a handout tonight from the actual presentation by the governor on Friday of the $495,000 grant for the culinary arts and the hospitality program. We expect another major announcement coming up this week, possibly later this week or early next. Another major grant which dovetails with our SOI requests and other requests for funding for capital planning. We'll be working on when we go to the council fairly soon and we'll get back to you and let you know what's going on.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: We received the other $100,000 grant from the Life Sciences for Robotic Gums and that the vocational and the high school
[Roy Belson]: And you also have something on Middle School Mathematics Night, Pathways to High School Mathematics. Important because a lot of people aren't sure of how the progression of courses take place. And I think that this is a good opportunity for people to become aware of that so that there's no misunderstanding of what a youngster can take for coursework.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: Are we utilizing the the city calendar because this is a situation where I'm aware of it But on Thursday April 6 from 7 to 8 the method high school is having a science lecture and then on the same night We're having a method high school, oh I'm sorry, it was a math. One says math, one says science. I thought it was two separate things. I apologize. So I guess that's all one. We have two of them. And then just to piggyback, I just want to take the opportunity to say thank you to the Italian consulate. and to Cassidy who helped us out last Friday. It was just a great day. This was a program that I was approached on. They are trying, the Italian consulate is really into education and he really wanted to showcase as much as he possibly can not only in helping us out with the CASA grants, but also to incorporate the culture of where the Italian background is really from. And so he wanted to showcase different schools. We were fortunate enough, there was 14 schools that they showcased. We were fortunate enough that they selected us as their first, which I believe was very beneficial for us because We really got to showcase the technical side, which our Ferrari people came in and were very impressed by. The students, the opportunity to see the cars was open to everyone. It wasn't just open to one side or another side. All students had that opportunity. We were able to showcase Cafe Electra, who were very generous enough to provide lunch for everyone who attended, which was the Italian consulate, his staff, Casa President, the Ferrari people, and also the opera singers who actually had just come in from Italy. So there was a lot of discussion, and I was happy to say that The staff and the Italian consulate are really thinking of trying to pilot a lot of different programs. And because we have a different jewel in our city, which is the technical side and the academic side of a school, they were really talking about doing this much more in the future and really more partnering, which made me really happy. And I just want to say thank you to the administration, to Dr. Perrella and Dr. Riccio, who really helped me at the last minute trying to organize it. to Miss Nelson, Miss Caldwell, and of course, our superintendent. It was a really nice day, and I loved just seeing the kids' reactions when they saw the vehicle and, you know, walking into the Ferrari and getting pictures. And it was a good day. It was a very good day.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Very good. Thank you so much for your hard work on this. Oh, thank you. Miss Day.
[Unidentified]: Will you send a letter of thank you to them for coming? We will. Yeah. Thank you. We will.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Miss Van de Kloop. Very good on the motion that we adjourn all those in favor
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