[SPEAKER_01]: We call it gig economy.
[Robert Skerry]: Why is Connor having trouble focusing in school?
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Oh, yes. Yeah, sure. Be my guest. The Medford School Committee regular meeting of October 16 will now come to order. The secretary will call the roll. present, six present, one absent, all please rise and salute our flag. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Also, if the minutes could reflect that Sebastian Trindale, our Meckler High School representative, is present this evening. Welcome. The first item of business, approval of the minutes of October 2nd, 2017 on the motion for approval by Mr. Skerry and Mr. Benedetto. I'm sorry.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: That's okay. Okay, so there's a few things that I noticed on the minutes. On the second page, I had made a motion last week to have internal rankings and notifications made on the transcript, and that if they couldn't be made, then we needed to have an emergency meeting. So I was just wondering if the superintendent, we didn't call the meeting.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Well, the minutes stand on their own.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Okay, so it should have said by last week, by the end of last week, in the minutes. The emergency meeting was supposed to happen by the end of last week. So that's the first change.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Mr. Superintendent. Mr. Superintendent.
[Roy Belson]: At that meeting, you made a motion. Since that time, grievances were filed. The processes of legal matters were filed. And therefore, I want to discuss it with you in executive session because I believe it affects our legal status.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: So in the next section, it says, Mrs. Kreatz said that the robotics engineering team are presently traditional classes. And in 2019, it's scheduled to go on a cooperative plan. I think she made a motion to have that happen. And I just wanted, I can ask you later about an update on it, but I, I just wanted to comment on that.
[Kathy Kreatz]: the robotics engineering program and so if they go to the schedule which is three periods per day the the company who's actually doing the co-op with the students would be willing to accept the students in the afternoon and they could work maybe a 12 to 5 schedule so it would still be a cooperative program but it would have a different schedule so that the students could continue on with their like with the calculus and and the foreign language, which is something that like some of the students that are juniors and seniors haven't taken. So I think, you know, that would be satisfactory. You know, when I was speaking to, you know, to my son who's out on co-op, you know, because it's a lot to juggle getting all the classes in and then going to the co-op. But it's definitely something, you know, if superintendent wants to have a meeting, and we can talk about all the programs and just making sure that the programs who should be on co-ops are on co-ops on the A week and the B week. We did get a report in this package with who is going out on co-op, so I think that'll come up later in the program. I just wanted to share that point of information.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: My other two are exactly about the minutes themselves. On the next thing, community participation, there also was a motion made to have the teachers, the administration, and the school committee meet to update the action plan to make sure all voices were on that action plan. That note, that motion isn't in the notes. and that motion was made at our last meeting. And we can discuss it after, but as far as just the minutes, that's what you want, right? This- The motion for the amendment to be added to the minutes from last week prior to their approval. And then there's one more issue. It says on the motion of Mrs. Cugno, second by Mrs. Stone, that the meeting was adjourned. Mrs. Cugno wasn't there. comment on anything, that's fine.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: On the motion for approval of the minutes as amended, all those in, motion for approval, seconded by Mr. Benedetto. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? The minutes passed. Thank you. Approval of bills, transfer of funds.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: I just had a quick question on page 9 of 13. It says MMH Clearinghouse, and it's over $10,000, and it says youth opiate prevention. And I just had never seen that on our bills before, and I was just wondering what that was. Okay, and what types of things does that cover? Curriculum, for students. Oh, it's the curriculum? Yes. And that's taught through the, not you, the superintendent. What age group is getting the curriculum? The opioid grant.
[Roy Belson]: That's the opioid grant. That was the expansion of the Michigan model.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Okay, and that's great.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: All those opposed? The motion passes. Approval of payrolls. Motion for approval by Mr. Skerry, seconded by Ms. Kreatz. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Motion passes. Report of secretary. Thank you very much, Mr. Scarrion, for working on this. Community participation, Joseph Viglione, Open Meeting Law.
[Joe Viglione]: Good evening. My name is Joe Viglione, 59 Garfield Ave, Medford, Mass. Thank you, school committee, for hearing me. On September 19th, 2017, the Attorney General's Office found that the Chapter 74 board of the school had violated the open meeting law. Now this is a very serious offense, even though some people fluffed it off at the city council meeting. Very serious offense, especially in the light of the 650,000 or so dollars that were allocated from the old TV3 to the new station. So what are we gonna do about it? You have a board for a year and a half, The school committee, I don't believe, knew about it. The city council certainly didn't know about it. Flies under the radar, but it was so significant because Bob Penter and other citizens and myself were attending all of Mayor McGlynn's tribunals, which were talking about the new access station. And all of a sudden, the high school is talking about the access station, but the public doesn't know. If the MCC monies are here, and the educational monies are here, and the governmental monies are there, and the general fund, it's all convoluted. I've been on this project for 15 years. I'm not that dumb. I can't figure it out. The public can't. So I think that this serious, serious offense of not letting us know about this Chapter 74 board, which had people that weren't even from Medford, Revere and outside of Medford, all very, very, Smoky. So, I propose something. I propose, especially after the media day yesterday at the public access station, which seems so very educational-oriented. Politicians, neighbors of mine are saying, I didn't hear about it, Joe. Anthony D'Antonio, a significant member of the Medford community. Joe, I didn't know about it. I spoke about it at the city council. There was no outreach. I propose, because of this egregious offense, this failure, I mean, we have very smart people here. The mayor's a very smart woman. Superintendent Belson's a very smart man. We can't feign ignorance that, oh, we didn't know about the open meeting laws. My God, you people have to take tests for the open meeting law. I feel, sadly, that my opinion is it was intentional to keep me out, specifically, because I've been fighting for public access for in this city for 15 years, but many might know that I fought the good fight in Woburn for a good five years, and I'm a member in Stoneham, and Woburn airs my show. It was my strength that made that right up there, and we all know that it was my fight that shut down TV3. So I think it would have been prudent for this city to let me, Bob Penter, and D'Antonio, and other individuals know, and the city council, and the school committee. So especially yesterday, I feel very uncomfortable having it at the high school when a state rep acted in an inappropriate manner.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: And the mayor laughed.
[Joe Viglione]: I am staying within the area. Because you laughed at the sexual joke. You laughed. So you're shutting me off. Censorship.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Again, you can leave this meeting if you cannot be a responsible adult.
[Joe Viglione]: You laughed at a sexual outrage and you don't want to talk to me.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Through the chair. Ask a question through the chair. There is no recommendation. It went to, we've already taken care of it. It was a Chapter 74 advisory board. They don't deliberate. They don't make decisions for the school system. All the meetings will be posted. It's been taken care of. Thank you very much. Next item. Next item. Report of superintendent. Report on Nellie Mae Education Foundation grant. Mr. Superintendent.
[Roy Belson]: Mr. Mayor and members of the committee, you have a report on the Nellie Mae Educating Foundation Grant. With us this evening is our Director of Guidance, Amelia Jensen, along with Tim Kline, who's the recipient of the O'Toole Award. It's a very significant award. It's done a lot of very good things for us. We'll do even more. I'm going to let them explain it to you in great detail.
[SPEAKER_21]: Good evening Mayor Burke, Superintendent Belson, members of the school committee. I'm very excited to be here tonight to announce that one of our school Councilors, Tim Klein, has won the Lawrence O'Toole Educator Leadership Award and grant for This award is given to an educator who advocates for student-centered approaches to learning, not only in their classroom but within their practice. This award is sponsored by the Nellie Mae Foundation and this year was given to 12 recipients across New England. Tim has won this award as a result of his innovative pilot program, Empower, which was started last year at the high school. The Lawrence O'Toole Award is also accompanied with a $15,000 grant. And this grant will be used to bring innovative digital technology to the Empower Program, which will help us grow this program over the next three years. I have Tim here, and I would like to ask him to give you a brief summary of the program and to answer any questions that you may have of the work that he's been doing. Good evening, Mr. Klein.
[Klein]: Good evening. Thanks for having me. Yeah, I'm really excited to be here and to win this award on behalf of Medford Public Schools. So it's from Empower, which it started from the research partnership that Dr. Perella started with Harvard University and Boston College. And it's based in this emerging field in youth development called youth purpose. And so that's how do we ensure that all of our high school students are actively pursuing a long-term goal that's personally meaningful and also is beneficial to the world outside the self. So honestly, when I'm sitting up here, we want all of our students to be looking like Sebastian up here, who's obviously actively pursuing something that's meaningful to him. So Empower is really about asking students not just to consider what college they want to go to or what major or what career, but really to understand why they want to pursue those things, how it aligns with their core values, how it's going to allow them to build their strength and skills. So to understand the intrinsic motivators. So I'm really excited for this award because we've piloted this with seniors in the high school, and the vocational school. We did it last year with 25 students. We've tripled the number this year. But this award is going to allow us to really bring in really innovative digital technology and curriculum that we can bring. So it's going to allow us to bring in an application that not only me and our Empower students can use, but the entirety of the public school district can use as well when we get it out there. So I'm really excited to bring this to Medford Public Schools.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: Nice job. Ms. Cuno. Thank you. First and foremost, thank you and congratulations. This is absolutely wonderful. These are always the innovative programs that we're always looking for and I appreciate your department and Ms. Westmark, nope. I've known her before she was married. So just to say thank you to you for all that you've done. I was just wondering, I have actually spoken like in the past with the chamber and other organizations in our city. that it would really be beneficial, I think, and speaking to others, that I think this would go hand in hand if we're able to put, like, our students into the community and have them have, like, some type of internship with the businesses or fields that they're in. my concentration went away, but different types of businesses. So I'd like to see, if possible, maybe a collaboration that I know businesses are really interested in having our students and what better way to give our students that are here in the city the opportunity to maybe look into the field that they're interested in. So if you have like people that are interested in business, maybe do something in the business field or, you know, we have the vocational side, but I think it's nice to open up another I want our students to get the opportunity to go and see those fields. But if it's something down the road.
[Klein]: I mean I think it's a fantastic idea it's amazing I mean I tried working with Sebastian not to keep bringing you up but we tried doing the same thing with Sebastian and I'm all for it and it's greed it's you want internships that's providing value for our students what I've been It's been a struggle for me is around scheduling flexibility. So it's just having students having a flexible enough schedule. So maybe they could leave during the school day or getting credit for those internships. But I think it's a fantastic, fantastic idea. And if you know people from the Chamber of Commerce, let's definitely set up a meeting where we can start connecting with students who might be interested with businesses that would be a good fit.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: And even if it's something that if the students can't do during But again, something to really get your teeth into what you want to do. I just don't want to see kids, you know, I just don't want them going there and sweeping or anything like that. Not that you shouldn't, but I really want them to get the passion of what they're there for. Because I think it opens up their eyes to see if it's something that they're really interested in and they want to pursue, or if it's something
[SPEAKER_21]: students to come to Mr. Klein, because he is our school and community partnerships Councilor, so he makes those connections. Come to Mr. Klein, maybe tell them what they're looking for, and he can help make that connection. And we also encourage community members to reach out to us as well. Perfect. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Tringale.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Thank you.
[Sebastian Tringali]: Yeah, directly from a high schooler's perspective, working with the guidance Councilors, especially applying to colleges this year. My personal guidance Councilor has tons of students, and they're working with students from all over the school all the time. So I think it's great that Mr. Klein is here to be that extra hand. I worked with him almost immediately as soon as he came to high school to try to get some internships. And again, I'm a really busy guy, and so are tons of my classmates. I never followed through with that internship. But I think that what is already being done, I guess, is he's doing a great job with that. Thank you.
[Klein]: Well, I think from that conversation, you got into journalism and then you started the school newspaper, essentially, right?
[Sebastian Tringali]: Yeah, essentially, it was that conversation. And to give a back story, I was thinking about business and Mr. Klein talked me through it and I realized I didn't really want to do business and thought more about journalism, another field I was passionate about. So I don't think I would have had that conversation with my guidance Councilor, because I think she was just really wrapped up in getting kids applied to colleges and all of those things. So I think it's great. And I think it's great that you won this grant to expand your program. Thanks.
[Klein]: Thank you. And I'll just make one more pitch. It wouldn't have happened without Miss Jensen here, just allowing me, no, to do like a really innovative work that hadn't been happening before, not only in Medford, but it hasn't been really been happening anywhere. And I just want to make a plug for our guidance team as well. Like what you heard Sebastian said, it's, they feel very, very at capacity and it feels like they have a very high caseload and it's like, If we can build up more guidance Councilor capacity to have these meaningful conversations about what do they want their lives to look like, what type of impact they want to have, it can have a very profound impact on our students. So I just think the role of the Councilors is as important as ever now. And I'm glad to be one at Medford.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Thank you. Maybe you could add a little bit from that breakfast last year when you had the Chamber of Commerce in and vocational.
[Klein]: Ms.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Sawyer, I believe, was the one leading the charge over on the vocational side. Maybe just elaborate a little bit more about your outreach.
[Klein]: Yeah, so we had the Chamber of Commerce come in, and they came out for a breakfast, and the vocational students catered an amazing breakfast. And I did do a presentation about the need for our students and their desire to get out into the city of Medford to get hands-on experience. So I did some research on what the school resources we had now. And we have over 100 clubs at the school. And about 85% of our students are actively involved in the school. And we did a survey of students saying, well, what would you like to get more involved with? And the majority of students who said they wanted to do more, it was around meaningful employment. And if you look at research now about what When you look at what employers are looking for from recent college graduates, they're really emphasizing meaningful employment and job experience. So we're getting to a place in the world where it's not so much what college you go to or what grades you have, but it's really more about what meaningful experience in the field do you have. So as much as we can get students out into the field to actually give them experience, they can understand what they do want to do, what they don't want to do, and make really meaningful connections in the city of Medford that's going to help them help this city and get, and help our, a lot of our jobs are having a hard time finding meaningful employment. So it's really a mutually beneficial relationship for both. But yes.
[Kathy Kreatz]: Very good. Ms. Kreatz. I just wanted to say congratulations. Thank you very much. And I noticed that it said that you know the students have increased GPAs and post-secondary plans and you know I just wanted to bring attention to that and an increased graduation rate that's that's fantastic and it sounds like you're going in the right direction and and you're involving like both the vocational students and high school students it just sounds terrific so how do the students get in touch with you, should they email you, or do they go through their guidance Councilor? Which students? If students were interested and kind of spending some time with you to find out what their interests are, should they go through their guidance Councilor, and then they're put in touch with you, or? Yeah, I mean, I have.
[Klein]: This is probably not going to work out for me, but I have an open door policy, and I always have, so it's like they can come find me. So through Empower, I'll just say, it's being evaluated by Boston College right now. So right now, it's a randomized trial. So every single high school senior was automatically, randomly selected into the program. So we actually have an intervention, which is Empower, and then we have a control group as well. And we're doing pre and post surveys for both of them to see what the actual impact of Empower is. But just send them my way. I'm third floor guidance. And it's just like I have students coming in and out all of the time. So you can send them or go to their guidance Councilor who's doing a lot of the same work that I am.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Okay, thank you very much. Thank you. Mr. Benedetto. Thank you. It just really speaks to the approach of how we handle students in MedFit, the whole child, because it's not just about getting them through and getting them either off to college or military or to a job, but to really seek what they are looking for in their needs and trying to meet those needs. So I really think that having job experience, even if it's not paid position, it gives you so many life skills that a lot of our young people are lacking in that employers and colleges are looking for. They're looking for students that are prepared, that are on time, that show up when they're supposed to, or call if they're sick. can answer the phone in a professional manner, and all of those skills that you might not get in a day at school, but need to move forward and need to present yourself, not only yourself, your family, but also your community in Medford High. So when you move on, people are like, oh, look at that kid from Medford High. And that's a skill that all children need. not only financial skills, but just professionalism and all of those type of things. So I think it's great that we have this position now at Medford High. I know we struggled for a few years with amount of guidance people per student ratio, and we've increased them in the last six years. I know the superintendent's commitment to that department has been great, and I'm glad that we're taking a whole child approach at Medford High, as well as, you know, I'm very proud of the work you've done, that it's been acknowledged, and I'm very happy to bring in any dollars you want to bring that benefit our students. And thank you, and you deserve it. all the recognition that comes along with this. So maybe a note in someone's employee file will be warranted at this time, Mr. Superintendent, that the committee is impressed and appreciates the hard work of both Mrs. Jenkins, did I say it right? It's usually Ms. Westmark to me.
[SPEAKER_47]: Thank you.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Thank you very much, Mr. Klein and Ms. Jensen for your hard work. Yeah, I'll put that out there.
[Klein]: Is anyone needing employ? Anyone out here is looking to partner with us. I'm all ears.
[SPEAKER_21]: So thank you very much for all of your support.
[Klein]: Yes.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Thank you. Is there a motion on the floor to receive in place on file offered by Ms. Cugno, seconded by Ms. Mastoon? All those in favor? All those opposed? Motion passes. Report. Thank you very much. Report on online Be Good Academy.
[Diane Caldwell]: Good evening. On Thursday, September 28th, four eighth grade students from the Andrews Middle School and their teacher, Mr. Chris Tremonti, attended a day-long program on social media for social good. Rick Rendon, founder of Empower Peace, asked me if we could gather a group of students together from Medford to participate in launching an innovative use of social media. So the following students attended WGBH, at this conference, Sophia Zimanski, Andre Perez, Luke Gatti, and Sarah Biannimi. In addition, Mr. Twonte and myself were available for this conference. The students listened to John Rendon, President and Executive Officer of the Rendon Group, discuss strategic communications in the 21st century. Macon Phillips Skyped from Spain to talk about social media for the social good. There were other interactive panelists and discussions. The highlight for many of us was listening to Andrew Frady's Brother of Pete Frady's. The discussion about how the Ice Bucket Challenge came about and how social media from people all over the world participated and spread the word. Mr. Frady said his brother continues his fight in finding a cure for ALS. The students told me what they learned from the conference. Statements like, what you put online is there forever, even if it's not, even if you take it down. So be careful with what you say. It can hurt you for years later, especially when you're looking for a job. And don't always focus on the negative in social media. The students are here with us this evening to tell you about what they learned for social media for social good. They have an action plan. Their issues will focus on communicating with their peers about online fake accounts, bullying, and protecting privacy. They will be working with sixth grade students, and I've provided with you in your packet the program for the day and a copy of the agenda and the action plan. I'd also like to take a moment to thank Mr. Paul DeLeva, the principal of the school, who helped me put together this group of students and is also here with us this evening. So at this time, I would like to ask Sarah Bien-Aimé and Andre to come up and discuss what they have learned and I'd like to thank Chris Tremonti as well. So Sarah, why don't you come up and Andre as well.
[SPEAKER_31]: Hello. Hi, how was your day today? Great. Was your day great today? Is it good? We're good. So the online for goods group had been an eye opener for us. And it taught my peers and I that it taught my peers and I the uses of the internet and how it affects us in our future. not only did it provide background information, but it also provided fun activities to grab the youth's attention. And one major thing that really, one major thing that I loved about this group was that you see, you saw several schools, like in the Massachusetts, in the state of Massachusetts, come together and try to make a difference, not only in reality, but in online use. And we learned how the ice bucket began, and how it represented ALS, and how the FedEx, the FedEx sign, if you look at it, there's like an arrow which means delivered, that can symbolize the deliverance. And yeah, but it was a really great experience for us, personally.
[SPEAKER_10]: Good evening. I'm Andre Perez from Andrews Middle School, and I'm in the eighth grade. And I wrote a short paper on my experience at Online for Good. The time I had at Online for Good was very fun and a great learning experience. The day started off with being picked up early in the morning and heading to the WGBH building in Boston. My friend Luke and I met up with the two other students who were joining us on the trip, Sarah and Sophia. The four of us picked a table to sit at and we talked for a little bit and then got right into the lecture. The lecture was very good, and we learned a lot about online safety and the power of the Internet. One example that was given was the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. After the activity was over, Mr. Tramonti and the group decided that we were going to try to pursue an activity where the four students in the group go into a sixth grade room during RTI class and talk to them about what to do and what not to do on the internet and how to stay safe. We as a group would like very much to have this activity run through the Andrews Middle School system.
[SPEAKER_31]: Excellent. Nice job.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Mr. Benedetto. I actually have a question for the students. First of all, thank you for going and representing Method so well, and thank you for presenting this evening in such a professional manner. I'm very impressed by both your presentations and glad you're Method students. My question to you is, since you've gone there, what different things have you done on your social media since you've gone there? How have you taken what you learned and it changed your everyday life?
[SPEAKER_31]: To be careful on what you post on the internet and not to entertain in things that are not appropriate.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: And you've changed how you speak and what you post?
[SPEAKER_10]: Things on the other side of social media, like as she said, the FedEx sign, you look at it carefully and you can see an arrow between the E and the X. Ever since that, I've looked at other things more carefully to see if they have any other symbols inside of them.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: That's great. And even your contract with your friends and your schoolmates, has it changed how you speak and what you might say? Does it make you rethink before you hit post?
[SPEAKER_10]: Yeah. It helped a lot. Because sometimes you can say stuff that aren't nice, and it gives you a chance to reassure what you're going to say before you send it.
[SPEAKER_31]: So I have a request since this is seem to have touched you both not only would the Andrews kids
[Erin DiBenedetto]: benefit from your presentation, the McGlen Middle School would as well. And since they don't have representatives going, I'm going to request that you maybe get a chance to present to the sixth graders at the McGlen as well. And I'm going to ask Ms. Caldwell and your principal if they could make that happen, because I want to squirt you over and do that presentation well. And I would really love to see students from both schools attend next year. So that we have representatives talking about this. Because this is what we hear is a big problem. Bullying, cyber bullying, cyber issues. They happen at night, but then they come into the school every day. And the school's in a very tricky situation on how to handle things that happen outside of school. And we have to set policies and procedures. which we're still working at because things change so quickly. So if we have students like you, strong professional students talking to other students, they might hear you. And so I think that your work that you've done and what you've learned is very valuable and I'd love you to share it to the other building as well. That's my first motion on the floor to make sure that these children get the chance to do that. So I'll need a second. Thank you. And then to make sure that both schools have the opportunity to attend this next year, and we do more of that collaboratively. That's my next motion, is to make sure both schools get a chance to partake in this next year. So.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: Very good. Thank you. Ms. Cugno? Thank you. First of all, let me just say that I'm sorry that I didn't get the opportunity to really speak to you about this, because I really wasn't 100% sure before we started the meeting, and I sat down with you really quick. But I would have asked you a thousand questions, because when I started many years ago, one of the first things that I really wanted to do was, it was the anti-bullying. And so we brought in a lot of forums to not only children, and not only our students, but for everybody. I think some people, maybe even adults, might need a refresher course on this. You know, trying to tell children all the time, or anyone, just to be careful what you write. You know, I get it all the time. The Snapchat is only there for a couple of minutes. I want to know from you, what have you learned as far as, like, these sites that they say they're only on there for a couple of minutes and then they disappear. Have you now had a different way of thinking about that?
[SPEAKER_10]: Yeah, like as an example for Snapchat, things that you think are only there for like up to 3 to 10 seconds, people can take screenshots or save them and they can never go away.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: I am really happy that you have had the opportunity and will have the opportunity to continue with this. As my colleague said, I think this is a wonderful way of really starting to share what you learn. It's important that, you know, your peers hear from you. Sometimes as adults we'll say it and, you know, oh no, it's not true or you don't know about it or you have no idea about it. I know when we dropped off my son many years ago to college, actually that was one of the biggest things, is students were doing certain things, you know, just fooling around or whatever in college, and then they were going to look for jobs afterwards, and the employers are looking into So it has to be something that you really, I hope, will continue bringing to your peers. And every opportunity you have, I know your friends are probably going to be tired of listening to you, always saying, no, be careful what you're going to do, but keep on doing it. Even if you just change one person or a couple of people, you've done a lot. You really have. And actually, going and learning and educating yourselves, you've already superseded what you needed to do. So thank you for representing us. Thank you for absorbing what they're teaching you and actually understanding what they're saying. Thank you.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Very good. On the motions, that this information be shared with the McGlynn Middle School as well, and that the McGlynn participate at the next forum. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? The motion passes. Thank you very much for contributing this evening. Wonderful job. Great. Report on Global Scholars Program. Mr. Securitas.
[Roy Belson]: of the committee, this report is in two parts. The Global Scholars Program is now in its fourth year. The program is integrated into the seventh grade geography curriculum. It's an initiative of the Global Cities Program of Bloomberg Philanthropies out of New York. Medford has been a pioneer school system in Massachusetts with this program. We were the first to do it. Most of the involved cities are large metropolises around the globe. There are over 20 major metropolises around the globe participating. And as such, we've had the opportunity to help shape the curriculum and methodologies involved in the implementation and development. Our Curriculum Director, Dr. Bernadette Rigodelli, and our Director of Humanities, Dr. Nicole Kieser, have supervised the outstanding work of our seventh grade middle school teachers. This year, the program will focus on the global food system. I'm going to allow Dr. Riccadeli to tell you more about it, and then I need to come back and talk about the upcoming symposium that will take place in Paris, France.
[Ricciardelli]: Good evening. I've been here a number of times to talk about the Global Scholars Program, and each time I am excited because, again, it is a wonderful program. So just following up on the last presentation, we were talking about social media. This is a program that has its own portal. It has the Haiku portal system. So all of the communication that occurs between our seventh grade students in the program and students around the world is protected and the students know ahead of time the teachers can go in and they can look at all of the dialogue that occurs among the students. So I just want you to know that it is a highly protected system. So as the superintendent mentioned, it includes Medford. So we're considered Medford-Boston. We now have other schools in the area participating. There are some Boston public schools, Everett, one school in Chelsea now. There are a couple of schools in New York. Jacksonville, Florida. So we were the first school here in the United States to participate in this program. So not only is it worldwide, but it really not only has it grown worldwide, but it has grown here in the United States as well. So as far as the curriculum is concerned this year, the focus is on food and feeding our cities. So this is the yearly curriculum. So it began October 1st, or thereabouts October 1st, and it will end at the end of May. There are five units. So classes, again, all seventh grade students at both the McGlynn and the Andrews. have participated in Unit 1, which is the introduction to the program, including introduction to the eClassroom. And again, the responsibilities that come along with that. Unit 2, which we'll be getting shortly, has to do with nourishing ourselves and our cities. So students explore the basic principles of nutrition and investigate the health impact of processed foods and sugar. They'll learn how to deal with such issues such as obesity and access to healthy food. Moving on to Unit 3, which probably will be towards the beginning of the new calendar year, growing the food we need. Students will learn of the global system that produces our fruit, vegetables, grains, meat, and seafood. They will consider how climate impacts our ability to grow food. Along the way, they'll be doing a lot of writing, a lot of critical thinking, again, a lot of communicating with their partners around the world. As they move on to Unit 4, probably around late February, early March, they will be studying delivering food to the world. That is that unit theme. Students will learn how food gets from the farm to their plates through a network of global food supply chains, which I think is a great lesson because many of us don't appreciate how difficult it is for our food to be transported to us. And lastly, as is true with all of the curriculum projects in this program, there is an action plan or an action project called Community in Action. And students will reflect on what they have learned about nutrition and food security and they will design a project that addresses one of these topics. So again, in a nutshell, that is the curriculum. I certainly do have more information if anyone is interested, but in the interest of time, that's a snapshot. This program has a lot of professional development embedded into it. So the teachers who are involved at least once a month are involved with online professional development through a webinar. most of the reviews have been very positive. So not only are they getting professional development in pedagogy, but they're also getting professional development in content, which we know our teachers want and need for their relicensure. There is a symposium that is occurring in just a few days, really. I believe it begins on October 22nd. So select district personnel were invited to participate in this project in Paris. So this is really exciting. So the title of the symposium is Students and the Global Edge, Evaluating the Global Digital Educational Experience. So we're really excited, Superintendent Belson and one of our 7th grade teachers, Frank Zizzo, who is at the Andrews, will be participating in this symposium. Frank Zizzo has been instrumental in bringing the Skype aspect to these interactions with these other schools around the world, and he has been a model, so he was invited to participate in the program. So at this point, I think Superintendent Belson wanted to add something to this, to the symposium part of this presentation.
[Roy Belson]: So, the program's a terrific program. really connects people you saw a little bit with the previous program, people talking to other students, peers around the world, and talking to each other, solving social issues, talking about the kinds of things. This is cutting edge activity. And there's going to be 50 cities represented in Paris this week. And there's going to be incredible exchanges. Michael Bloomberg will keynote. There will be professors from around the world, the London School of Economics, Moscow, Columbia, coming to this symposium to discuss the outcomes. And you have some of the materials in the brochure that I've provided to you. In order for me to be compensated under the ethics rules, I need your approval for Bloomberg Philanthropies to pay for my expenses to go. I've covered Mr. Zizzo because I'm his appointing authority. You're my appointing authority, so I need your approval for me, but Mr. Zizzo has my approval to attend and we anticipate that this is about a $1,500 expense on the part of Bloomberg Philanthropies, the airfare, hotel, and the like. I also intend to stay for about a day and a half more, enjoy the city with my wife, and I will pay the expenses for anything associated with my private time in So I look forward to this activity, and I ask your approval to Bloomberg Philanthropies allow me to attend at their expense.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: Very good. Ms. Cuno, before we even do that, I think it's important that we disclose also, the program involves participation with the following collaborating cities. And I think it's really very important. I'm going to go through them really quickly. But to hear the cities that I'm going to be talking about and to hear that Medford is part of this is just an incredible achievement, I think, and fortunate opportunity for all. So it is Taipia, Moscow, New York, Melbourne, Buenos Aires, Prague, Tel Aviv, Brazil, I'm sorry, Belize, Warsaw, Manila, Jakarta, Madrid, Delhi, I can't even see it, St. Petersburg, Istanbul, Hyderabad, Accra, and Kurskov. So when we're looking and we're hearing at these, I mean, it's incredible. So I think it's very important that we have representation. Do I have to make a motion? Motion for approval. So motion to approve that the superintendent goes.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Is there a second on the floor? Second. Seconded by Ms. Kreatz. Mr. Benedetto.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: So I was just wondering, are we the only Massachusetts school attending this conference?
[Roy Belson]: There's a representative from Boston, and there's a representative from the Everett Public Schools. We introduced the program to Boston and Everett at the request of Marjorie Bloomberg-Tibbitt.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: And is it typical for a superintendent to go as well as a teacher? Absolutely. I'm just checking. I'm just asking.
[Roy Belson]: Oh, absolutely. It's, you know, obviously they're looking for educational leaders to discuss the impact of outcomes on these kinds of programs.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: I think my colleague has a question. Ms. Quinn? Ms. Stone?
[Mea Quinn Mustone]: Ms. Friccidelli, so Mr. Zizzo is the point person for the Andrews. Is there a point person at the McLennan were they invited as well? No.
[Ricciardelli]: There were, to my knowledge, three people invited. I was invited. I declined the invitation. They did not select four schools. Mr. Zizzo was selected because of his contribution. Outside of his regular duties, he introduced the entire program to how Skype could be used in it. So that's how he differentiated himself from the rest. The other teachers are fantastic. They do a great job. the other teacher, there's several teachers involved, at the Andrews and the McGlynn. But again, what set him apart was his contribution with the Skype.
[Mea Quinn Mustone]: So there's four seventh grade global scholars, right? Two at each middle school, A and B side? That's correct. So should that be something we should think about, that to let a McGlynn
[Roy Belson]: This is an invitation on the part of Bloomberg Philanthropies. Marjorie Tiven, who is the executive of this particular program, selected Mr. Zizzo for his contributions. All the young people, all of our teachers did a good job doing things, but Mr. Zizzo added some technological capacity, advanced the concept a little bit. Remember, we're the first school system in Massachusetts to do this. They were looking at us for ideas. I provided them with some positions, papers on project-based learning and other things like that. So Mr. Zizza was selected for his contributions as opposed to being in a school, a particular school. But there are teachers and administrators and professors and business people from all walks going to this particular thing to have this symposium to trade ideas about how we can leverage international digital learning. and create some outcomes that are there. So it was a selection of the program.
[Mea Quinn Mustone]: And I mean, I think Mr. Zizzo's great. Teagan has him this year for seventh grade. So then is Mr. Zizzo, does he come back and teach the rest of the three seventh grade teachers about the Skyping tool?
[Roy Belson]: Well, he's already done that, but he'll come back and as I will too, and also meet with people to talk about the things that were discussed and how it can be advanced and where we can grow from it and what other people have suggested. It's really an attempt to exchange ideas and bring back advancements to the program. Remember, it's only in its fourth year. And as you might imagine, with the revenues or the resources behind Bloomberg Philanthropies, it can grow substantially. And so we bring back some ideas, and these are things that we'll try to do and try to advance and try to do even more than we're doing now, incorporate even more people.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: Can I just follow up? I just want to say that the way I've read this was that it wasn't invitational. And so the people that were selected for this were selected from the Bloomberg, not from our city. So with that being said also, I'm hoping that when the superintendent and Mr. Zizek go, You know, if discussion comes up as far as what will be done in the future, maybe they could open it up even to maybe asking for students that actually participate in the program to be part of the type of symposium that they're doing. As you said, it's only been four years. I don't think that you've gone to any of the other symposium, and I don't think that they've had anything going on, that Mr. Azuz will go before, not to Europe.
[Roy Belson]: Participated in a teleconference Earlier in the year and his contributions were such that they felt that needed to be shared in a more let's say complete setting
[Ann Marie Cugno]: I just want to ask though really quickly, I know we've said it in the past, when do our students really have the opportunity to Skype because of other countries being at different times and stuff? How has that worked?
[Ricciardelli]: So it's not easy, it's a very good question. There are some cities around the world we are who we are not able to Skype with because of the time difference. So we have heard stories of schools around the country actually coming back at 6 o'clock at night so that they can Skype with our students. So it's kind of taken off on a whole new life of its own in other countries, and they get excited to do it. OK. Have our students done that too, just go back to school to accommodate the time frame? Not to my knowledge. No. OK. Not to my knowledge. Can I just want to? just so everyone hears, the selection of Mr. Zizzo was done by Bloomberg Philanthropies. It had nothing to do with Medford Public Schools, and I think that is important to make very clear. They selected him, they selected Superintendent Belson. That's what I figured. Yes, thank you.
[Roy Belson]: One of the interesting things I just shared with you, and I think it's fascinating, is that virtually everybody from everywhere else speaks English. Whereas, you know, we don't typically speak all the languages that we'll be communicating with. It was interesting, I think one of our groups, we had some Greek students who were able to speak to students in Athens in Greek last year. And a few other examples are where some of our students who come from other countries or non-native language speakers were able to communicate in the language to the communities they were at. But it's more likely that the communication will be in English, and our students will be able to speak their own language as opposed to a language that belongs to another country.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Very good, Mr. Benedetto, follow up you. So I'm very glad that you're going, Mr. Superintendent, for a few reasons. Number one, I've seen you represent us very well in very official capacities, and I know you'll represent us well. And I know that you will take every opportunity to talk to Mr. Bloomberg and bring him and his money back to Medford where he started and where his money belongs. And so make sure you
[Roy Belson]: I'm going to tell you one quick story, which I'm not sure I should, but I will anyway, is that several years ago when he was running for mayor, One of our assistant principals, submasters at the time, made a serious mistake and released this transcript from Medford High School. And it showed up in the Boston Herald and the gossip pages. And it turned out that he got a D in French. So one of the questions I won't ask him when I'll see him is, how's your French?
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Very good. Mr. Tringali.
[Sebastian Tringali]: Yes, I was wondering in what ways are students allowed to communicate with each other like student to student?
[Ricciardelli]: So they text each other. So they have a common lesson. So all of the lessons are formed well in advance. It's, again, on that Haiku portal. So they have prompts, they have questions about a lesson. So in this case, it will be a lesson about food. So they're responding, so students are asked to critique, in a pleasant way, to critique the writing of the fellow students on the other side of the world. And a lot of times there's a conversation that develops about I can imagine conversations about, this is what we eat here, and we have farms here. So it starts off as a very defined conversation, but oftentimes, it evolves into, what would a 10 to 13-year-old want to talk about with regard to the content area? So again, it's defined, and it's prescriptive, but there's a little wiggle room for the kids to express their personality. All in a protected environment.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Yes, six in the affirmative, none in the negative, one absent. Motion passes. Thank you. Thank you. Next up, recommendation to accept the Buddy Bench donation.
[Roy Belson]: So we'll call upon our assistant superintendent to tell you about the Buddy Bench donation.
[Diane Caldwell]: So as you know, we have buddy benches in all of our elementary schools, and we're very proud of that. But Mr. Mark Tonello is donating a buddy bench to the Brooks Elementary School. This will be an indoor buddy bench, in memory of his uncle, Victor Lepore. Mr. Lepore taught English and reading for 30 years in Medford. In his early years, he taught at the Dean's School and then at the Hobbs Junior High School. And I'm very proud to say that school committee member Robert Emmett Skerry, Jr. constructed this bench for the Tonello DiPaolo family, so thank you very much, Mr. Skerry. There will be a dedication taking place on Friday, October 20th at the Brooks Elementary School at 4 o'clock, and you're all invited.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: Ms. Cugno, could we make sure as a committee that we send a letter of gratitude to Mr. Mark Tonello, please, and his family? And Mr. Skerry? We're saying thank you to him. We'll save some paper and we'll say thank you in person.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Is there a motion on the floor for approval? Ms. Cugno? Motion. Seconded by Mr. Skerry. Roll call vote, please. Yes.
[Diane Caldwell]: So I have to say this is one of my favorite times of the year. Although it happens at the end of the school year in June, I am so very proud and we should all be very happy that we have Kiwanians in our community that give back to our schools on a regular basis. So we'd once again like to thank the Kiwanis Club of Medford for their generous donation of books to our first and third grade children. The Kiwanis Club has always gone above and beyond for the children of Medford. So in June, members of the Kiwanis Club visited each of our schools and gave each child a bag filled with books for summer reading. So I know I've said this before, but you have to see the students. They get their books and we say, now don't open your books till you get back to the classroom. The words even out of our mouths, the kids have opened the books, they're looking at the, and they're trading already, which is very, very exciting. So once again, I have some Kewaneean members here. I'd like to call, if they can all come to the podium, Kelly Catalo, Andrea Bates-McGrath, Rick Herviello, and Chuck Veneziano. So you have to be there to watch this happen. Chuck does this song and dance with the kids. He's so entertaining. But if you don't mind, if I could read some of these letters, because they are priceless. So our teachers obviously have the kids write letters to thank the Kiwanis. These happen to come from Ms. McKay's room. She always gets these out right away. Dear Kiwanis, we love you. We love that you spend your free time with us. I will be sad that I won't get to see you anymore. She must be a third grader. But we'll always cherish you in my heart and in the books. By the way, I wrote a book myself. It's called Zoe in the Class School Bus Adventures. And just after that inspirational speech, I finally know what book to write. Thank you. Love, Regina. A second letter of only read three. There could be a lot here. Dear Kiwanis members, thanks so much for the books. Thanks for spending your free time with us. When we get in the classroom, we get to trade. I got rid of Skateboard Party, apparently didn't like that one. Where did you get those awesome books? You're the best book givers in the whole universe. This was from Sarah. And the last one is one of my very favorites. I mean, you see it. It's all in caps. Dear Kiwanis members, I'm very grateful for the books you gave me and my friends. You guys are very, caps, bold, helpful. You are also very inspiring. You show people to have hope when they're down. You help people with moving soft drinks and bills. You're a caring group of people who want to make the world a better place. If you keep doing what you're doing, the Kiwanis might go worldwide. Should we tell her you're already worldwide? You help people know that they're safe when they're around you. Medford is a better place to live in it with you guys here. Sincerely, Jayden. P.S. I'm going to ask my mom if she can post a video picture of me reading one of your books. So on behalf of Medford Public Schools, grades one and three, all of our teachers and staff and families, thank you so much.
[SPEAKER_40]: It is actually our honor and privilege to contribute to the children of Medford, because that's what Kiwanis is all about. It's all about serving the children of the world, and our job is to serve the children of Medford. And it's not just the literacy program that we hold dear to our heart. It's our scholarship program. It's our contributing to the graduation ceremony at Curtis Tufts, providing a scholarship to a Curtis Tufts student. It's giving to Medford High School athletics, Medford High School band. This year we picked up the culinary arts program and provided new aprons and jackets to them. And more than half of our fundraising budget goes to the children of Medford. And we are committed. Thank you. And I'm glad that my fellow Colonians, our current president, Chucky Veneziano, Rich Caraviello, as all of you know, is our past president. Kelly Catalo will be the president next year, and my presidency just ended. Thank you very much.
[Richard Caraviello]: Good evening, Madam President. Tonight, we have the honor of welcoming a man who was a student from Italy from 1983. And he stayed with a colonial family, John Sotrano's family. And Sotrano's and DeFracchi's stayed friendly for all these years to the kids or anything and tonight he was our guest at the Kiwanis and he is the mayor of St. Ambrose in Italy. We were proud to have him there tonight. The family just keeps growing.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: What a nice story. I got to witness firsthand the event at the Roberts, and it is an event, I've got to tell you. I was quite surprised, but the kids were so elated to see you all come in and just to hear the stories and Kelly's enthusiasm, and it was a fabulous afternoon, so thank you for letting me share with you.
[Beverly Nelson]: And thank you to the City of Medford for helping us put on Jail Day 5K and shutting down the streets so we could do that.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Very good. On the motion that this report be placed on file, seconded by Mr. Benedetto. All those in favor? All those opposed? Motion passes. Can we send a thank you letter to the Quantians as well? Report on Professional Development Day, November 7th, 2017. Ms. Caldwell.
[Diane Caldwell]: So as most of you know, our professional development day is coming up on November 7th. It'll be our first of two days. The elementary staff will be meeting at the McGlynn Elementary School. And of course, we've asked them to park at Hormel because it's voting day. We don't want that to interfere. And they will be participating in grade level workshops on response to intervention. You may remember this was one of the district initiatives that you wanted to see us do and our teachers want to be trained in. Teachers 21 is a consulting firm from Newton, Mass., who will work with our staff to build a shared understanding of RTI fundamentals and help us consider our next steps. Staff will understand the structures, processes, and instructional practices needed for successful implementation of RTI. In addition, staff will work collaboratively, self-assess current capacities, and plan for the next step for implementation of RTI. The middle schools will participate in Study Island as a universal screening behavioral intervention tool. Teachers will learn to utilize Study Island questions and develop a fall-winter screener exam for grades 6, 7, and 8. Administrators and teachers will review behavioral interventions and develop their own pyramid to determine what is considered Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 3. The Andrews and the McGlynn Middle School will meet at Medford High School. Medford High Vocational School and the Curtis Tufts staff will participate in workshops regarding specific building-based data collection in focus group discussions and identify topics from their ongoing partnerships with Harvard University and Boston College. Paraprofessionals in Medford will collaborate with each other on online curriculum in three research-based modules, Independence, Positive Behavior Supports, and Effective Communication. The Fine Arts Department will focus on teaching pathways through the music curriculum, as well as concepts in art education. Nurses, physical education, and health education staff will participate in safety care training. There are many other groups of specialists involved. There are guidance people and psychologists that we're just getting information on them. I just couldn't put them all down at one time. So after Professional Development Day, we will provide you with a report letting you know how we made out on that day.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Very good. Mr. Benedetto. Thank you. Thank you for the report. I just had a question about the RTI fundamentals. I know we were considering adding additional help last year at budget time, so I just want to make sure. At that time, we identified additional staff members that may be helping with the RTI. Will they be helping with this training? I know that we, you know, I don't know exactly what staff members at the top of my head we identified as helping out with RTI, but I just want to make sure that if we are providing any training and insight to make that program better that all staff members are invited, not just the regular teachers.
[Diane Caldwell]: So it's not just the classroom teachers. We have title one. We have literacy specialists. We have special education teachers. We have our EL staff. Most of our elementary staff will be participating in this RTI. So it will be grade level, so it will be K1 teachers with one consultant, two, three, and then four or five. And we're all learning this together, so that when they have their RTI block, that everyone jumps in and helps the students to progress.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: And it says here, help us consider our next steps. Would you provide us with a report of what, you know, those steps are? Because we want to keep track of this this year in case it becomes a budget issue for next year. Absolutely. Okay. Absolutely. So I'll put that on my request of reports.
[Diane Caldwell]: So we're beginning the pilot in January with first grades and with fourth grades. And we'll probably know by the end of May how that's working out and then how we can roll that out to K-5.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: I just really want to make sure, because teachers spoke about how important RTI is in making those changes. So before budget times and if we're going to allocate additional funding, I want some data and updates throughout this year. So maybe-. Maybe in January, we can have an update of how it's going and what it's looking like. So by March, when the superintendent's thinking where I'm allocating funds for next year, if we do see any concerns, he can keep it on his radar, because I'm keeping it on mine, Mr. Bellson.
[Diane Caldwell]: So I would think that by the end of January or February, because we're just beginning January, we need about four to six weeks to get it started. So I'll put by February 1st on my paperwork.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: On the motion that reports do be listed for RTI next steps.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Yes.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Added to our agenda. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Motion passes.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Mayor Burke, there was a request that you had made for a report at our last meeting that I didn't notice on our... There's one on there that you can run off to. Okay. Yes. So I just didn't know if this was an appropriate time to make a comment for that. Sure. Is that okay? You had asked for a breakdown of the male-female concussion report. at our last meeting, and I didn't see that report on the list of requested reports, so.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Male, female concussion reports by sport.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Right, and also just to keep in mind that we asked that non-athletic concussions be followed if we're notified at that same meeting. So just as a reminder that that data is important for all students, not just our athletic students. Thank you.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: On the motion of this report to be placed on file, all those in favor? All those opposed? Thank you. The report is on file. Report on elementary science program school year 17-18. Mr. Seary.
[Diane Caldwell]: So this evening, Rocco Sieri, Director of Science, will update you on the efforts to realign the science and technology engineering curriculum, as well as the variety of science programs that are being piloted in our elementary schools. The following topics will be discussed, information on science programs, professional development and materials, surveying staff, administrators, and parents on said programs, professional development for current school year, and additional resources. So I just want to take a moment to thank Mr. Cieri for his very hard work in science. He spent a lot of time working with not just our elementary staff, but parents who wanted to be a part of looking at what we might pilot next year. So thank you, Mr. Sierra.
[Rocco Cieri]: Good evening, everyone. Thanks for having me here tonight. I'm pretty excited to be speaking about K-5 science rather than high school science, middle school science. We're finally here looking at K-5 science programs. The report you have in front of you sort of highlights a little bit of what we've accomplished since last year. Starting in April 6th through the end of May, we invited vendors in with their most current science programs and had teachers review them, look at the materials that they provided, a whole series of things, let them do presentations. Parents were there, administrators were there. Myself and 24 teachers from all there were representatives from every elementary school at every level so it was a very Sort of cohesive group that showed up on a regular basis after school You know some chocolate and snacks were provided as often as I could put them in place, but they were always there and it was a really Very productive group So we looked at five programs, Know Adam, Inspire Science from McGraw-Hill, Elevate Science from Pearson, Carolina Science presented a program called Smithsonian Science in the Classroom, and Delta Education, which is also a part of school specialty, these are all companies, showed us FOSS Next Generation. The teachers filled in at the end of each presentation a survey, and then they filled in a survey at the end where they provided sort of like, now that you've seen all the programs, which ones would you, you know, want to pilot. And three sort of emerged out of those. The top by far was the McGraw-Hill Inspire Science Program. The second two were essentially tied. the Pearson Elevate Science Program, and the Delta Education FOSS Next Generation Program. And I inquired further with those three companies about what was possible for the pilot, what they would provide for us as you had requested last year. McGraw-Hill agreed to pilot with full access to the curriculum online, gave hard copies of the teacher guides for two teachers per grade level, all the student consumable workbooks that we need for all the students, And the small group hands-on group activity kits. So per teacher, it's about $1,600 worth of materials. They provided the training, which is ongoing, and we have 48 teachers this year going through that particular program. A second company I pursued a bit was Pearson, asking them what they could do. They would allow us to pilot with full access to the curriculum online and hard copies of teacher guides, but their pilot was to start in January of this upcoming year. They also weren't going to provide hands-on kits because they would never be available in time. Their program is brand new, and the teachers had limited access to see what the table of contents of those programs were. So with all of that kind of information, we're kind of waiting to see what Pearson provides, and they said they were interested in providing at least a bid if in the future there was something to do, something to look at. We could also look forward and say, okay, well, maybe we'll pilot in a future year with that particular program. just allowed us to pilot one unit. It would include the materials, the professional development. One unit for them is about 12 weeks worth of instruction, 12 to 14 weeks of instruction, so it's a fairly large SWATH, and they only give you about three units per year, so we're piloting about a third of their curriculum for the next 12 to 14 weeks. That training will start at the end of this month, will continue into the next month, and we have eight teachers piloting that from K to four, and they will be trained as well. It sounds like a much smaller pilot, but we can still sort of give them some superdelegates as they provide us information about what FOSS is like and how the implementation goes. So I'm not sort of concerned about the number difference as much as I am the quality of the information that we get back from them as we make decisions moving forward. So those are the pilots that are ongoing at this time. I want to make sure I have like a bullet list and making sure that I touch everything rather than give you a summary, just read through. Okay, so I mentioned McGraw-Hill, Foss. We should be prepared to consider adoption at the end of this year, looking at the two programs. We'll bring back that information to the school committee to make a decision about which direction to go and whether or not there's enough information for us as educators to make a good, solid decision. As I said, we've got another opportunity that was provided. It's at the end of the report. I still see a bit of a need to help elementary educators understand the engineering design process and engineering thinking. This is part of the curriculum frameworks, but it's not something that most elementary educators are trained in. Generally, a trained engineer will work in engineering and not go to K to 5 education. So there is some support for us. in being able to train teachers using the Engineering is Elementary program, which is produced by the Museum of Science in Boston. It's a phenomenal, well-research-based program. Whether or not we choose to purchase that program for our teachers is something outside of the the discussion, it's really about what the training would give to the teachers in terms of how to understand engineering design. So that's available to us for March 12th, and we plan to offer that as one of the PD's opportunities. cost us anything, so. There you go.
[SPEAKER_21]: Mr. Skerry.
[Robert Skerry]: Through you to Mr. Skerry, would it be possible to supply us with some of the samples that you've been given so that we can see what we could possibly look at down the road as far as instrumenting a new program? Absolutely.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: Thank you. Ms. Cugno. Thank you, Mr. Chesteri. Could you tell me what type of feedback you've received? Have any of the teachers been involved in any of this?
[Rocco Cieri]: So as I said, there are 48 teachers currently piloting. They've received all the kits, the teacher materials, teacher guides. They were initially trained at the end of September. So they've gone through one training that sort of gives them an overview of the program. We're training again in October at the end of the month. The feedback's been really positive. It's very aligned to the curriculum. And teachers were really, when they expressed through last year's pilot that they wanted a full year or sort of uninterrupted time of using a program, I honored that and didn't try to find one that was a half measure along that. Also, the They requested that, especially at the K-2 level, that the materials were sort of hands-on. The initial sort of program explanation is a lot of the workbook-based or the teacher guides. And so they were concerned that it wasn't a hands-on program, at least for McGraw-Hill. I thought they've shown something very different. Every grade level has hands-on kits. The workbook is supposed to be like a notebook. It is scaffolded, but it's really sort of like a science notebook that students use and write in. So it's a pretty interesting program.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: even across the board?
[Rocco Cieri]: It's two per grade level, per school, so it's essentially half the faculty across the board. And most of the kids, believe it or not. Yeah, because some schools have three teachers or have one teaching science, so it captures all of the kids in some grade levels. Yeah, the kids really like it. Some of them are saying that it's finally science time. They're getting excited, they're moving ahead. We're getting requests for other materials and things like that, so it's a bit positive.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: Any feedback from parents?
[Rocco Cieri]: Not yet. Looking forward to it, though.
[Mea Quinn Mustone]: I'm curious, so Ms. Nostal. Thank you. Thanks, Mrs. Seary. For the FOSS one with the eight teachers at the Brooks, that hasn't started yet?
[Rocco Cieri]: That has not started. We want to train first, provide kits, and then the teachers can start.
[Mea Quinn Mustone]: OK. And then the other that just caught my attention, because I know it's been a while that we've been waiting to pilot, the Inspire Science Program was adopted this year by Stoneham Public Schools of the K through 5. So they didn't pilot programs. They just went with it and started this past September.
[Mea Quinn Mustone]: And are they having any regrets? Do you have a contact there?
[Rocco Cieri]: I don't know, but I can find out.
[Mea Quinn Mustone]: Okay. Right. They kind of threw the dice and bought a whole curriculum for a whole school system. Okay.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Very good. Is there a motion to receive and place this on file? Seconded by Ms. Cuno. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Motion passes. Report on vocational technical advisory committee schedule.
[Roy Belson]: So earlier this evening, an individual came up and complained about the vocational advisory committees. Chapter 74 programs require us to have advisory committees. They've existed over the years. But with the advent of Dr. Riccio, they became much more pronounced and much more involved, and many more people were involved. They're supposed to meet a minimum of two times per year, and the committee members serve as resources, the school administration, the very shop instructors. And they're composed of a wide variety of expertise and experience categories include business owners, managers, technicians, university instructors, engineers, teachers, students, and parents. They're also very helpful in finding co-op learning opportunities for our students. I've attached a public notice of the two meetings that will be held this year, and that's already posted so that there's no problem this year about the meeting being posted. Last year it was posted on the vocational website, but that did not meet the state requirement that it be posted at the city clerk and on our own website. where we're in violation, but this attorney general, and you can see I gave you a copy of that earlier in the front end, indicated just don't do it again. I've listed the number of members of each of these advisory committees. That number can go up and down depending on who's available. I've also given you a listing of some of the co-op locations that our young people go to. At this point in time, it's still very early in the year. There'll be more as we get into the late fall. And I've also given you a listing of the various members of the various advisory committees so you see who's actually involved at this point in time. Now again, these people can change, they can come and go. But we feel that there's a great representation and we think that the co-op program is a tremendous asset to our vocational program. And I think that it gives young people some real world experience in their senior year, in some cases their junior year. You can be sure that our current administration of the vocational school uses them to learn about various things that are developing in the trades and the technical areas, and we get good feedback. So I'm very pleased with what's taken place with our advisory committee. There's 16 different working groups, although there are 20 curriculum areas, some of them combined because of the affinity for each other, they're really crossover areas. So happy to take any questions you may have, but I think you have sufficient information to get an idea that we have posted the advisory committee meetings two times for this year, and we've also provided you with information about who's on them and
[Ann Marie Cugno]: Ms. Cuno. I'm looking at the co-op employers. Is that the employers that are involved in providing the co-ops to our students?
[Roy Belson]: We have students right now. We actually have students in their businesses right now.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: Okay, because there's a couple that don't have anything, so I was just wondering, like construction doesn't have anything?
[Roy Belson]: Right, well, construction, most of it is done through the laborers. Okay. And we've got activities over there, so it isn't really mostly business activities, mostly with the laborers.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: Okay, what about business, tech, and marketing? I'm sorry? Business, tech, and marketing?
[Roy Belson]: I can't tell you right now, except the fact that I know that Joe is working on filling all these areas.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: Okay, and the same thing with the graphic arts? Okay, and the media? Media tech, I'm assuming will be utilizing our media? No, not necessarily.
[Roy Belson]: They could be outside. There'll be expansions of this. It's very early in the year for this.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: Okay, thank you.
[Kathy Kreatz]: Ms. Kreatz. Yes, when we do get the next report, could we get a breakdown of how many students are in the co-op at each program? I was just curious about that also, thank you.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Is there a motion to receive and place this report on file? Moved by Ms. Cuno, seconded by Ms. Mostone. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Motion passes. Is there a motion from the floor to move negotiations and other legal matters to the end of the agenda? Moved by Ms. Mostone, seconded by Ms. Kreatz. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Motion passes. Old business, selection of delegates alternate for MASC, MASS conference. Mr. Benedetto.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Actually, it was it was before you started talking about this issue. I just realized that there was another report on the reports requested list missing. But I'll I'll wait until after the superintendent talks about the.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: I think we tabled this so that people could have an opportunity to look it over to determine whether or not they could attend this conference. Are there any members that would like to be nominated as a delegate or an alternate?
[Unidentified]: Delegate or an alternate?
[Ann Marie Cugno]: or not, but to really try to get to the conference. There's a lot of beneficial things that go on, not only to network with other members throughout the state of Massachusetts, but also it's really a huge learning experience. There are vendors there. There are opportunities on workshops. There's really opportunities of getting to know what our positions as school committee members are. I know that there's a lot of talk sometimes that people think it's a particular person who's trying to do certain rules and regulations. or it's a particular city that tries to do that. There's a lot more involved than that. There's a lot of rules and regulations that come through the state for our positions here. The Roberts Rules of Order, there's a lot of other things that if you have the opportunity to go, I really strongly suggest that you go and learn the policies and procedures. I'm not saying we don't know them. I'm just saying it's always good to learn more.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: So, is there a motion just to receive this paper and place it on file? By Ms. Kreatz, and seconded by Ms. Stone. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Motion passes. This is received and placed on file. Okay, new business. School committee resolution be it resolved that the Medford School Committee express its sincere condolences to the family of Al Canava. Mr. Canava was the father of former school committee member Richard Canava and former art teacher Christine Canava. He also served on our licensing commission for several years, which is our liquor commission. Be it resolved that the Medford School Committee express its sincere condolences to the family of Rosemary Sweeney. Ms. Sweeney was a paraprofessional for the Medford Public Schools. Be it resolved that the Medford School Committee express its sincere condolences to the family of Officer Luis Remigio. Officer Remigio was the brother of Brooks School Librarian Natalie Pereira and uncle of Ms. Pereira's two children that attend Medford High School. Be it resolved that the Medford School Committee express its sincere condolences to the family of Ian Volpe. Ms. Volpe was a former elementary teacher at the Kennedy School and the wife of the late Larry Volpe, former director of Vocational School. Be it resolved that the Medford School Committee express its sincere condolences to the family of Eleanor DeMos. Mrs. DeMos was the wife of James DeMos, former Director of Pupil Services, and the mother-in-law of Shannon DeMos, Assistant Principal of the Brooks School. If you could all please rise and have a moment of silence on behalf of these citizens. We also have one other amendment to the requested reports. Mr. Benedetto?
[Erin DiBenedetto]: I had requested an update of the number of students taking the bus from North Medford to the high school and back in the evening. I did send an email to the headmaster of our high school, and he said that they have been monitoring it. think that some days there's less than, there's a few open seats on the bus leaving from the high school going back, but there's some days that overcrowding is happening. I would like some more significant data. I just want to make sure that all our students have a ride home. I know there's over a hundred students taking the bus on any given day. So I want data and I'm requesting that for the next For the next meeting, I can read the email that I received. That's OK. We can add it to the reports list.
[Roy Belson]: And Christine can comment on that, because we've done some work on that. We can give you a quick idea, and then we'll give you a formal report. Yes, thank you.
[Kirsteen Patterson]: Just for a brief overview, we have been monitoring the activity for the bus from the high school. And there has generally been between 40 and 45 students that are routinely taking the bus, so we have not seen the overcrowding since we have been monitoring that on a pretty much daily basis. So there has been representation out there at the bus and making sure that the overcrowding is not taking place. And we have adjusted for some of that on other routes as well.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: I would and I just because it's different from what I had gotten from an email and also I would like to know how many passes are given out for that bus because I heard that they have IDs to get on and off that bus at this point.
[Kirsteen Patterson]: So that's a new implementation that we have done to monitor the usage of the bus and ensure that there are not overcrowding for the students that are actually intended to ride that bus. So the bus passes are being monitored as well. So I will confirm the count with the headmaster. OK.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Because the email that I have in front of me, it says we currently have 104 eligible students that live in North Medford Heights area that have rode the bus at some point over the past three weeks. eligible and that they issued bus passage to eligible students. Um, so I, there are days that are a couple of open seats and other days we are over capacity by a few students. So I just want to make sure nobody's over capacity driving and riding in any of our bosses, especially the high school kids. Their backpacks are huge. The kids are bigger. There's only two to a seat. realistically not three. And so I would just like some data or like on Mondays, this is what happens. And on Fridays, this is what happens. And Wednesdays it goes crazy. And if it rains, it's impossible. I want to know so that way we are transporting our students, you know, safely. And, and, and that's all that matters. So I would like a report of that in that, in that way. And it's on the reports do list. And I would like that soon because we are, you know, halfway through October, and we need to make sure all our children are transported safely. I would hate to have something happen.
[Kirsteen Patterson]: If I may, just as a follow-up, we do work very closely with the bus company to ensure that safety is the number one issue for all of our buses. So that has been a priority, especially with the high school, given the size of the seats and the reduced counts that are available. Again, the eligible count does not mean that they're all riding. So we have many MBTA bus passes that we issue as well. So on a given day, there's not 100 students that are trying to get onto the yellow bus.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: So again, that's why I'd like the numbers if you can provide them. I appreciate it. Thank you.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Very good. Thank you. This motion for suspension of the rules. All those in favor? All those opposed?
[Mea Quinn Mustone]: Good evening. We had a late resignation just before the start of the school year.
[q-Y9QUDQ70c_SPEAKER_08]: and we have been actively looking for a replacement. We've been interviewing individuals to replace that position. In the meantime, we do have two other BCBAs and two other behavioral specialists in the school district, and the responsibilities have been evenly divided. So all IEP services and all evaluations are on target and all being done in compliance with regulations. There haven't been, to the best of my knowledge, there are no students who have gone without any service that is to be provided by a BCBA. I do realize that school teams oftentimes depend on people when a disruption occurs in the moment, but we are well staffed with school psychologists, school adjustment Councilors, and other support staff who are equipped to be able to manage those situations.
[Mea Quinn Mustone]: And I'm unclear of the roles of everyone, but In the McGlynn, they said the adjustment Councilor is doing some of what a behaviorist would do. So is the adjustment Councilor the same schooling as a behaviorist? Okay, so a BCBA is an analyst.
[q-Y9QUDQ70c_SPEAKER_08]: So their role is not necessarily to do the direct hands-on work with the student. It's to respond to situations. after they've gone through a school adjustment Councilor, school psychologist, and other members of the team to analyze the situation, to look at it from a behavioral perspective, and to design intervention plans. The intervention plans then get carried out by, say, a school psychologist or a school adjustment Councilor, maybe teachers, paraprofessionals, other members of the school team. the school adjustment Councilor should be the person who's on the ground working with students directly.
[Mea Quinn Mustone]: And is there a shortage of behaviorists in our area?
[q-Y9QUDQ70c_SPEAKER_08]: Well, I think there's, um, there's a growing, there's a growing, um, presence of BCBAs in the school setting. So in past years, I mean, as you know, here in Medford, I mean, we didn't have, three BCBAs until two years ago. So we added a BCBA two years ago, we added the second BCBA maybe four years ago, and prior to that we had one, and if you went back ten years ago, we didn't have any. So it's, BCBAs are very, they look at things from an analytical perspective, they break down a behavior to identify the cause, and recommend interventions to mitigate that need. So it's just that schools are seeing, with an increase of individuals with social behavioral presentation, they're seeing a greater need. So, yes, schools are hiring BCPAs, so that creates a shortage. But we are doing what we can to hire qualified staff to replace that position.
[Mea Quinn Mustone]: Is our salary comparable to areas around us for our behaviorists? And have you had any leads, or is it some?
[q-Y9QUDQ70c_SPEAKER_08]: Yes, we've been interviewing, and it's just we haven't identified a person who could fit our needs, what we're looking for in a BCBA.
[Mea Quinn Mustone]: And in the meantime, you're confident that kids are all getting their services met, that we don't need a subcontractor for behaviors?
[q-Y9QUDQ70c_SPEAKER_08]: Nobody has reported that there are any students with IEP services to me that have not been provided for. And the evaluation load, like I said, has been redistributed, and all of the evals, we've been monitoring the evaluations, and they have been coming back on time, within the required timeline.
[Mea Quinn Mustone]: So the three that we have, one's full-time at the Roberts, One shared between the Andrews and the Columbus? They're all district-wide staff.
[q-Y9QUDQ70c_SPEAKER_08]: So we place staff when we need those staff. So right now we have a large need for BCBA services at the Roberts. So Mr. Corman's home base is at the Roberts. But he can provide services to other students around the district as needed. And then we have another individual who has their office over at the Columbus, because that's a high-needs building, but also provides BCBA services across the district. And then the individual who had left primarily had an office over at the McGlynn, so that's why they're feeling the loss, because if your office is in a building, you're easier to obtain contact with and come to somebody's aid in an immediate way. And then where's the third one's office?
[Mea Quinn Mustone]: We have Island Buckley's up at the high school. So then has the one that's housed at the Columbus or the one that's housed at the Roberts gone to the McGlynn? Well, I don't know specifically.
[q-Y9QUDQ70c_SPEAKER_08]: What we did was we sat down and said, these are the evaluations that need to be conducted, and these are the students with direct services oversight, and those children are covered.
[Mea Quinn Mustone]: Okay, so what I'm, just so we're all on the same page, what I'm hearing is that the one at the Roberts is at the Roberts, doesn't go anywhere else. The one at the Andrews and the Columbus only goes to the Andrews and the Columbus. There must be one at the high school. I didn't know anything about that one. So that the McGlynn doesn't have a behaviorist, that the person, the kid's IEPs, what they're asking, the adjustment Councilor is doing what typically the behaviorist would be doing. If the behaviorist was, I was still building.
[q-Y9QUDQ70c_SPEAKER_08]: Okay, so. In the world of BCBAs, students who typically have a BCBA service on their IEP are typically children with autism who have ABA discrete trial programming or oversight from the BCBA. So the populations of students who have those needs are primarily located in those buildings that you just mentioned. I mean, there are some students from different disability categories in buildings such as the McGlynn Elementary School, but they don't have the level of direct service that you would see on some other students' plans. So, I mean, I don't want to get into comparing all the children. I don't either, but I just want to make sure. But I can assure you that we've looked into this, and I think I explained this to you in an email. Yes, I have it.
[Mea Quinn Mustone]: But I don't know how we can help. I mean, it's been a few months since the person left, and I'm just wondering what can we do to attract people here better.
[q-Y9QUDQ70c_SPEAKER_08]: I don't know. We put laced ads on School Spring. We have ads on the website, and ads have gone out to the other venues that we typically put ads out to. We've had some bites. This is just a very unfortunate time of year to require a key staff person where you don't have hundreds of people applying for these jobs. We've had maybe six. We thought we had somebody who didn't work out, and we have another interview tomorrow with somebody. Another individual, we called him for an interview, and they just got snagged by Malden. So we're not the only community who's out there looking for these professionals.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: Ms. Cugno, just for clarification, the ones that you just went through, do they have the ability, if they're assigned to those particular schools and they have offices in those particular schools, does that mean that they can't leave those schools to go to a school that doesn't have one at this moment?
[q-Y9QUDQ70c_SPEAKER_08]: No, they absolutely can go to the other schools as the need arises, and that's what they've been doing. Okay, so that's the clarification I needed to have.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: So we are down at the McGlynn. We've been down since what we've had in the past, correct? So you're looking for someone for the McGlynn.
[q-Y9QUDQ70c_SPEAKER_08]: OK, so the person who was assigned to the McGlynn was assigned to the McGlynn Elementary, McGlynn Middle, some students at the high school, out of district, some out of district students, the Brooks. So it's all of the, it depends on what their area of expertise are. Because some BCBAs are ABA discrete trial specialists. Other people might have their strength in the area of social emotional dysregulation. So we try to match up people with what they do best.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: Okay, so then, but the person that you're looking for is to replace the person from where the school office was located, which was at the moment.
[q-Y9QUDQ70c_SPEAKER_08]: Well, right now that's where there is a hole, but if the person who we hire ultimately has a different skill set, we might need to do some moving around so that we make sure that people are aware. where they need to be to support the students. Because that's the most important thing for us is supporting the students.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: So at this point, then you are saying that the last two months that we haven't had that particular person, the Councilors from the other schools or the BCB from the other schools have been going to accommodate the other students that needed that.
[q-Y9QUDQ70c_SPEAKER_08]: If there is an evaluation, if that need arises, of course, we've covered what we need to do to cover to make sure that IEPs and our evaluation timelines have been completed. within regulations.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Thank you. Very good. Thank you. Thank you. And we have one item. Ms. Nelson would like to explain something about our upcoming committee of the whole meeting regarding the new MCAS.
[Beverly Nelson]: Good evening. Uh, this is MCAS season again. And once again, we have a very, short time frame to get things ready for everyone. Uh, this morning the results were made known to the administrators. Uh, they have been working very diligently all day trying to put the figures together. Uh, the department of elementary and secondary education has provided us with information related to the release, the public release. And again, um, we have the results today. The public release is scheduled for Wednesday, October 18th, and again, we are planning that individual student scores will be mailed home when they're sent to the superintendent's office around October 24th. As all of you know, in the spring of 2017, All students in grades three through eight were administered the Next Generation MCAS. This is a new version of the 20-year-old MCAS, which is now known as the Legacy MCAS. So we're really working with two different assessments, one which is grades three through eight, which is the new generation, and then the high school is still, and the science exams, five, eight, and the high school science, are still with the older version of MCAS. Again, that legacy MCAS was administered in grade 10, students in English language arts and mathematics, and all students taking the science exams. On Thursday, October 12th, DESE held a webinar containing information related to 2017 MCAS accountability ratings and student score reporting. We've attached the PowerPoint from that webinar And again, we plan to report specifics of our scores on Wednesday evening. We're planning a meeting at 6.30, is it? 6 o'clock or 6.30? 6.30. Very brief meeting. I know there's another meeting at the high school that most of you want to attend. This particular webinar and the PowerPoint speaks to a few different issues. one of which is accountability. Now, as you all know, in years past, schools get accountability ratings and the district gets a rating, which is only as good as its lowest schools rating. Because the next generation MCAS was a new test, the state has decided that this year we will have a very different way of reporting accountability. And it's not based on student scores for grades three through eight. it's going to be based upon participation rates. So as long as you have a participation rate of 90% or better, the school remains in a level two, which we currently were last year. So they're not going to come out and look at student scores to reassign accountability levels. Again, we will have that, um, information for you, um, on Wednesday when it's publicly released. This will serve as the new baseline. So next year, the DESE is projecting that we will go back to a different kind of accountability rating. Now, what that's going to be is not yet decided on. So we're still waiting for details on that. The second area that the webinar discussed, the PowerPoint discussed, is that the new MCAS exam, again, For many of our students, they took it on computer. Some students took it on paper and pencil still, which was allowable. And gradually, it's all going to go to a computer-based. So this year, in the spring, we're going to have more grades that will be required to be tested students on the computers. And by 2019, all the exams, except, I think, for the science high school, will be computerized. So we're moving more and more towards that. And we're preparing with our equipment and all that to make students ready for that. Okay, so we had a lot of trial runs last year. It went pretty well, so we're hoping to have similar results this year. One of the major differences that I want to call your attention to is how the scores are reported under the new exam. So in the PowerPoint, if you, turn to the section on scoring, the categories are not going to be advanced, proficient, needs improvement, or failing warning. We have four new categories, and so as we're getting the reports in today, the data is organized into those categories. We have, to replace advanced, we have exceeding expectations. Proficient is now being replaced with meeting expectations. Needs improvement is being replaced with partially meeting expectations. And warning is being replaced with not meeting expectations. So again, we're dealing with very different proficiency or different categories of rating, so we want to pay attention to that. And the state makes a very important point when they state that the proficient—meeting expectations, the requirements for that, the rubric for that, are more rigorous than the rubric for proficient. So again, it's not quite equatable, you know, equally. You can't say that Proficient and meeting expectations is exactly the same, because the expectations are going to be higher for meeting expectations than they were for proficient. So we're getting all of the data together. Tomorrow we're meeting with the directors and Dr. Riccadeli and Mrs. Caldwell and myself to put things in a format for you for Wednesday evening. Everything is embargoed until Wednesday, and so we'll have all of that for you, as well as a preliminary report on Wednesday evening. So if you have any questions on the PowerPoint, the information there, I'd be more than glad to answer those for you. Again, there are still questions that are unanswered, that we're waiting for some clarity from the state. The high school still remains with the same categories, advanced, proficient, needs improvement, and failing. So we're still working with the older version of MCAS at the English and mathematics and science levels at the high school. Any questions?
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Are there any questions? Motion to receive this paper and place it on file. You have a request?
[Ann Marie Cugno]: Say if it's possible maybe to put the PowerPoint on our website so that way parents will understand how this is going.
[Beverly Nelson]: Right. I want to mention too, and I'm going to ask principals tomorrow at the very last slide, they have actually some, um, information. Desi's posted information for parents. So we'll ask principals to put that on their websites because that information is specifically for parents where this information in the PowerPoint might be more technical. We can do both, but I think the, um, the resources for parents would be the bet more useful. Okay.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: As long as we can make sure we put something. Cause I know that, you know, there's going to be a lot of questions, especially with parents that have already gone through this with, you know, the same child or even with older sibling, uh, older children. So at least they could get an understanding of what's going on. Right.
[Beverly Nelson]: Thank you. Because the student score reports will look different. One of the things that I'm still questioning, and I don't have an answer for it, is that they are going to give student growth percentiles, even though they really aren't using the same instruments to measure the student growth, because we've had different exams over time. But they say they're still going to give a growth percentile. How they're going to equate that, when you have apples and oranges, once again, they do this to us all the time, so we're kind of used to it. We'll take a look at that, but parents will have that data too. Although I wonder how valid it is when you are using two different instruments and you're trying to equate things between two different instruments.
[Kathy Kreatz]: Thank you. Ms. Krutz. Hi. Thank you, Ms. Nelson. I just have a question. So if we have good participation rates and we're above 90% and we have good graduation rates, And if our students are in partially meeting expectations, would that affect us and put us into a different level? Or is it going to be strictly by participation rates and graduation rates? I was a little, I just didn't really know.
[Beverly Nelson]: It is very different. I think they didn't know quite know what to do with the accountability this year. So they came up with something that, um, you know, in their way is a compromise. It's our understanding that grades three through eight, it's participation. You have to have 90% or higher participation to stay in level two. Now my question, which again I can't get an answer to, is how can you get in level one? Because they really don't explain that. If they're not going to use student scores, because that's what we always relied on. So they're not really giving us a clear response to that right yet. Again, it's participation rate and graduation rate is our understanding as the sole criteria for the accountability levels. And then the data from the student scores this year will be used as the baseline data, and next year they're going to go back to some kind of a different system, which again, still haven't made all the guidelines for that, which will probably factor in student scores, since we'll have a year of baseline data on that. That's my understanding, subject to change by them, not us.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: You have a pretty good idea right now of participation.
[Beverly Nelson]: We really, yes, we really feel very confident that participation rates have been met. One of the things that's tricky with participation, it's not just the aggregate, it's each of the subgroups. So we have to be careful when you have a subgroup that's very, very small, that you need more students in that smaller subgroup to participate to get that 90%. If you have a subgroup with 10 students, nine out of the 10 have to participate, where if you have a hundred students, it's a lot less students. So we have to watch those numbers very carefully, but we're pretty confident that we've met it all around.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Very good. Thank you. Is there a follow up? One more.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: Apologize. I know everybody wants to get out, but the fact is, is that now the 10th graders that took it this year, that didn't change for them or were they grant? Cause I went back and forth with this.
[Beverly Nelson]: 10th graders, nothing really changed. It was the old exam. It was the legacy MCAS, which is the older exam. They are still going to be rated on the old levels. Advanced, Proficient, Needs Improvement, and Warning. You'll see in the reports that we're providing for you that those categories are different for the high school testing. And so that hasn't changed. in terms of that exam. And again, the students are pretty much taking everything on paper at the high school level. We're waiting for some more direction with that and when they're going to actually transition to computers and when they're going to transition to the newer version of the test. All things that the DESE still hasn't, I guess, decided on.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: And they haven't come out with any type of plan about how they're going to gradually put, I know we've discussed this in the past, but especially the high school students, I mean, if they're taking, you know, these MCAS in the ninth grade and then all of a sudden the tenth grade it changes, I mean, are we going to make sure that we grandfather these students in? Because I don't want to set up the students, and I'm sure none of us do, to fail. So, I mean, I just hope, I mean, I know I've been on the boards with them. I know how they change their things overnight. But, I mean, we really, as a committee, as a city, try to get our voices out there because I just don't want to see our kids taking them all the way up until the 8th grade or 9th, and then all of a sudden... We change it overnight on them, and now that determines whether they're not going to pass or not. So I just want our eyes and ears open for that, because I'm sure, I mean, I know the administration does. I just want to make sure that we're all on the same page.
[Beverly Nelson]: I think we have to advocate for that, because that's really high stakes. That depends on your diploma, and that really is, you really shouldn't be doing that to students unfairly. Yeah, and it's not fair.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: It's not fair to those students. It's not fair to anybody, but those students especially.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: on file by Mr. Skerry, seconded by Mr. Benedetto. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Motion passes. I just want to make a general announcement. At 5 o'clock on Thursday, we're having a birthday party for this building, as well as dedicating several unique spaces within it. So come on down. It should be a fun night. Birthday cake and food. So come on down. And there's a motion to adjourn this meeting. Oh, no, no, no. We're going into executive session. Motion to go into executive session, seconded by Ms. DiBenedetto. Roll call vote, please, Mrs. Skerry. Yes. Yes. Six in the affirmative. None in the negative. One absent. Motion passes. We'll now enter executive session. Thank you very much for participating tonight.
[SPEAKER_01]: down. That's what she used to write about and that is what people are angry about.
[SPEAKER_18]: Matthew Schwareb, Head of News at the Times of Malta newspaper. Six months after reports emerged of gay men being detained illegally and tortured in Chechnya, a young man has spoken publicly about his ordeal for the first time. Maxim Lapunov is from Siberia and was working in Chechnya. He's described being held, beaten and threatened by police. Mr. Lapunov reported it to the authorities, but activists say nothing has been done. Many other men who've had similar ordeals have since fled Chechnya for their own safety. And Moscow correspondent Sarah Rainsford reports.
[SPEAKER_04]: Maxim Lapunov says he was held in a cell soaked with blood for 12 days. There, he was beaten with sticks across his back, legs and ribs by police. And every day, he says they threaten to kill him. The reason? Because he's gay. Maxim Lapunov is one of dozens of men who say they were tortured in Chechnya in what's been described as an anti-gay witch hunt. But he is the first to detail such abuse publicly, and crucially, the first to report it formally to the authorities here. When such allegations first surfaced in spring, Vladimir Putin referred to them as rumours, but he ordered law enforcement agencies to investigate. Almost a month after Maxim Lapunov came forward, his lawyer says nothing concrete has been done. Human rights activists argue that points to a lack of control over Chechnya, whose strongman leader, Ramzan Kadyrov, has called the claims nonsense because he says there are no gays in the republic. Maxim Lapunov has received multiple threats for suggesting otherwise, but he says he is still haunted by nightmares about what happened to him and he wants those responsible to be punished.
[SPEAKER_18]: Sarah Rainsford reporting. Now, it's part of modern life, but how secure is the Wi-Fi connection at your home or office? You might have passwords and encryption and think, oh, I'm pretty safe. But new research has found that networks around the world are at risk of being hacked. A glitch known as crack affects an authentication system that's commonly used to secure wireless connections. Here's Professor Alan Woodward, a technology expert from the University of Surrey.
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, whenever you first connect to a Wi-Fi router, say, from your laptop, There's a little conversation goes on, which is where basically you agree what the secret key is going to be to encrypt the data to scramble the data. And what the researchers have found is that there's a particular step in that conversation that you can take over. and you can thereby hijack the conversation. It's to do with repeating something that should never be repeated. And in encryption, when you repeat something, it's actually really very bad, because it weakens it terribly and allows you to easily break it. It's something that seems to affect the vast majority Wi-Fi devices, Wi-Fi-enabled devices. The problem being, it's not a particular vendor that's done this wrong. They've all done the right thing. They've followed the standard. It's the standard itself, the so-called protocol, that appears to be flawed. It's been around for 15, 16 years. So why we haven't all spotted it before, we don't know. But these researchers did. So it's something that we're all vulnerable to, all our routers. But it's a very targeted attack. So somebody would have to come after you specifically. It's not like a massive virus or something that we're all going to be subject to. It's if somebody wanted to get at you, they could.
[SPEAKER_18]: Professor Alan Woodward. Fiona's here now with some other stories from our news desk.
[SPEAKER_45]: The German car maker Daimler has now said that a potential airbag safety issue in its Mercedes-Benz cars has affected more than a million vehicles worldwide. The company announced the recall of certain vehicles built over the last six years. After it discovered in rare circumstances the driver's airbag could be inadvertently deployed. South Africa's parliament is today beginning an inquiry into alleged corruption at the highest levels of government. Whistleblowers and prominent officials are expected to be called to give evidence into what's become known as state capture. Our correspondent Andrew Harding reports from Johannesburg.
[SPEAKER_55]: Ministers, tycoons, the President's son, and many other witnesses are likely to be summoned and, if they show up, grilled by MPs investigating claims of a giant corruption conspiracy. It's widely alleged that a powerful business family, the Guptas, have bought influence at the highest levels of government in order to win lucrative state contracts. The Guptas have denied such claims, as has their friend President Jacob Zuma. Some South Africans see a parliamentary inquiry as a poor substitute for police investigations, arrests and trials.
[SPEAKER_45]: And while the old adage says red sky at night shepherds delight, people in the UK and northern parts of France reported an unusual reddish sky and red-looking sun throughout Monday. The phenomenon was caused by remnants of Hurricane Ophelia dragging tropical air and dust from the Sahara. Debris from forest fires in Portugal and Spain also contributed.
[SPEAKER_18]: People in North Korea once risked three years hard labor for gambling, but in an abrupt change in policy, they'll now be able to bet on local horse races. It's being seen as a way of generating some much-needed cash for the isolated country, which is facing economic sanctions over its nuclear and missile programs. Alice Porter has more.
[SPEAKER_08]: The North Korean leader's love of horses is well known, as Kim Jong-un is reported to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on horses, and he's repeatedly been filmed riding them in videos broadcast on the country's state-run news agency. In the communist North, horses, especially white ones, have traditionally been a propaganda symbol associated with the ruling Kim family. But this weekend, it was other North Koreans who were allowed to take to the saddle at the Mirim Horse Riding Club, one of Kim Jong-un's flagship leisure developments. He was shown watching the race with hundreds of spectators filming it on their phones as horses and riders stormed out of the starting gate. But while the race is a good way of showcasing the government's power, they're also a way of earning much-needed foreign currency as the wealthy inside North Korea have to pay in US dollars or Chinese yuan. Na Jung-won is head of the North Korea Industry Economy Research Institute in Seoul.
[SPEAKER_16]: Despite the sanctions against them, the number of rich people in North Korea has increased and the gap between the rich and the poor has been widening. They may have reached the level where the country is capable of running a gambling business on the back of local demand.
[SPEAKER_08]: This horse race follows proposals made last March for new casinos near the border of China. The United Nations' latest round of sanctions over Pyongyang's missile and nuclear weapons programme bans any further joint venture with North Korean companies. But it remains to be seen whether other countries will obey.
[SPEAKER_18]: Who's afraid of the big bad wolf? It's an image many of us have grown up with since nursery stories. But new research casts doubt on that negative portrayal. Scientists in Vienna say they've found wolves are more tolerant and better at cooperating with each other than dogs are. Our science reporter Helen Briggs has been looking at the findings.
[SPEAKER_29]: They did this test which is called the rope pulling test. It's used quite widely in animal research. What the animals have to do is work as a pair And if they can pull the rope at the same time, they pull food treats towards them and they can eat it. So they tested wolves and they tested dogs and they found that wolves were pretty good at it. Pairs of wolves managed to get this food reward about one in four times, but dogs were pretty terrible. They only managed it about once or twice in 400 attempts. So it seems that our image of wolves as these aloof, uncooperative animals is wrong. They're actually very good at cooperating and much better than domesticated dogs.
[SPEAKER_18]: Well, I'm sure the wolves will be delighted that their image is being upgraded, as it were. But what practical use is this finding in terms of what it could be used for?
[SPEAKER_29]: is another piece in the puzzle about this hotly debated area, really, about how wolves came to become dogs, if you like. Wolves are the only big carnivores that have actually turned into something that we would welcome in our homes. What they thought happened was that dogs over this time would become naturally much more cooperative. They're certainly more cooperative with people. The idea was that they'd become more cooperative with each other. but that from this research doesn't appear to have happened.
[SPEAKER_18]: Did they compare how well the wolves performed in comparison with other animals?
[SPEAKER_29]: Well, they've done this sort of work on a lot of different animals, actually. They've done it on elephants and hyenas and all sorts of animals. It turns out that wolves are actually quite like chimpanzees. They did pretty well. They did as well as chimpanzees do in this cooperation test.
[SPEAKER_18]: Well, now you know. A reminder, you've been listening to The Newsroom from the BBC World Service. This is Ben Bland. We've been broadcasting to you from London, wherever you are in the world. Thank you for listening.
[mgC3PACaQmc_SPEAKER_72]: This is the BBC World Service. Now take a moment to listen to this.
[_Q1KmNS3O8k_SPEAKER_62]: What intrigues us? Dogs have a really unique, special ability to read and understand us. What alters our view?
[Ann Marie Cugno]: Every time we look around, we just say, it's a homeless people. But they have names, they have dreams and paths and everything.
[_Q1KmNS3O8k_SPEAKER_11]: There are stories that make us wonder.
[_Q1KmNS3O8k_SPEAKER_61]: They talk about having an intimate, not just a sexual, relationship with the robot. And that's hard because it's a one-way relationship. The machine can't love you back.
[_Q1KmNS3O8k_SPEAKER_11]: And ones that defy all belief.
[_Q1KmNS3O8k_SPEAKER_55]: I found members of different communities, Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs, stabbed, lying on the street.
[_Q1KmNS3O8k_SPEAKER_11]: The more we know about the world, the more we understand about ourselves.
[SPEAKER_50]: Many of us didn't really think bisexuality existed.
[SPEAKER_37]: Inhaling and exhaling, everyone does it. No breath means death. I'm Lucy Ash and on this week's Why Factor, why do people hold their breath? Free divers train themselves to swim underwater for ages with no equipment on a single gulp of air. Some say it's a good way to manage stress. But what happens when small children unconsciously hold their breath? That's on the BBC World Service after the news.
[SPEAKER_45]: BBC News with Fiona MacDonald. The US State Department has called for calm after Iraqi government forces seized the northern city of Kirkuk and nearby oilfields from Kurdish control. The State Department spokeswoman, Heather Nauert, said there was still much work to be done to defeat the Islamic State group and tensions between Iraqi and Kurdish forces distracted from what she called a vital mission. US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces say the former Islamic State stronghold of Raqqa is now under its control, with only a few dozen militants remaining near the national hospital and stadium. Fighting is reported to have stopped, and the SDF says its forces have retaken Naim Square, where IS once held public executions. More than a thousand people have taken part in a vigil in Malta for a journalist murdered on Monday by a powerful car bomb. Daphne Caruana Galizia was a leading investigative journalist. She highlighted alleged corruption by senior politicians. There have been protests in Barcelona over the Spanish High Court decision to remand in custody two pro-independence Catalan leaders. People banged pots and pans in the streets and honked car horns after Jordi Sanchez and Jordi Cujart became the first senior Catalonian separatist figures to be jailed, pending an investigation for possible sedition. Wildfires in Portugal are now known to have killed at least 36 people. Thousands of firefighters are tackling outbreaks in central and northern areas, where more than 600 separate forest fires have been reported since Sunday. Fires have also been causing widespread damage in north-western Spain. And the Canadian aircraft manufacturer Bombardier has entered into a partnership agreement with the European company Airbus to sell its C-series jet. Bombardier has been under pressure from a trade dispute with its American rival Boeing. BBC News.
[SPEAKER_50]: So I exhale. Almost a full exhale and then I inhale with my nose. Then I use the throat and the clavicular bones. And now I'm all full and then I pack with my tongue. Hi, I'm Stig Severinsen, and in 2012, I held my breath for 22 minutes.
[SPEAKER_37]: Breathing. It's a vital life force. We do it or we die. It's our most natural reflex. We take about 16 breaths a minute. That's around 23,000 a day. So why would anyone consciously restrict it? And what happens to our minds and bodies when we do? This is the BBC World Service. I'm Lucy Ash. And on this edition of The Why Factor, why do people hold their breath? Stig Severinsen is tall and muscular, with a clean-shaven head and piercing blue eyes. A Danish marine biologist in his early 40s, he's been called the human dolphin and the man who doesn't breathe. Here, he's just sawed a hole in a frozen lake in Greenland before plunging into the icy depths, wearing nothing more than his skimpy swimming trunks. He holds the record for the longest free dive under ice, 72 meters or 236 feet. But how does he survive so long without air? Rule number one, don't think about time, he tells me, or the end result. Otherwise, your ego gets in the way.
[SPEAKER_50]: It's very important to understand that you have to change the frequency in the brain. You also learn to change into what I call your inner dolphin. You know, you tap into this mammalian dive response and it's a beautiful reflex.
[SPEAKER_37]: The mammalian diving reflex. That's when blood is diverted from the limbs to the vital organs, the heart, brain and lungs. In the world of mammals, it allows seals and other warm-blooded aquatic animals to conserve oxygen. For the first six months of life, humans do this too, which is why small babies find swimming so easy. When their heads are submerged in water, they naturally hold their breath.
[SPEAKER_50]: You change your brain frequency from beta, from everyday life thinking, boring, analytical, skeptical thinking, into beautiful alpha state of playfulness. And that's where everything's become soft and it becomes engaging. It becomes meaningful and time dissolves.
[SPEAKER_14]: I'm Toby Hillman. I'm a chest consultant at University College London Hospital. Every time you take a breath in, you're lowering the pressure inside your chest by using your inspiratory muscles, the main one being the diaphragm. And then that draws air in, which is oxygen rich. And then through processes at a cellular level, there's an exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide. And then as you breathe out, that carbon dioxide is taken away, and that's the exhaust gas from what we call aerobic respiration, which is the process by which our cells get their energy.
[SPEAKER_38]: Somebody told me that if you stretched your lungs out they could cover a tennis court. Is that right? Or is that just an urban myth?
[SPEAKER_14]: No, no, that's very true. The area of the lungs is huge because the way that oxygen gets into the bloodstream is through diffusion and that has to happen over a very short distance. So the distance between the air that you breathe in and your blood vessels is around 1 250th of the width of a human hair.
[SPEAKER_37]: Like Stig, as a child, I loved picking up bottle tops from the bottom of the local swimming pool, but I could never collect that many before popping back up for air. So can I train myself to hold my breath for longer? I've gone in search of my own inner dolphin in a small pool in London with Liv Phillips from the British Free Diving Association. She's the reigning UK free diving champion for the 10th time. Big breath.
[SPEAKER_48]: When you're at the top of your breath, hold, put your face in the water and relax. Get used to having the water all around your face. Relax your body. Good. Let your head fall.
[SPEAKER_37]: Liv has a soothing voice. I'm trying to stay calm and zen-like and be at one with the water.
[SPEAKER_48]: You can come up any time you like.
[SPEAKER_37]: I fight the urge to emerge, but I just can't take it much longer.
[SPEAKER_47]: There you go. Feet underneath you. Good. Deep breath in. Big breath in before you speak. Good, good. And again. That's it, lots of colour.
[SPEAKER_37]: Once I got my breath back to normal, Liv confessed she'd forgotten to time me, so I realised I'd have to try that all over again. Some dive for fun, some out of necessity. Kim Ok-ja is from Jeju Island in South Korea. She's one of the traditional women divers, or haenyeo, meaning sea women. On a single breath, she dives to depths of up to 15 meters in search of seafood.
[SPEAKER_07]: When I started diving at 15, it was for stuff we could sell in the market. Octopus, sea snails, abalone. We even used spears to catch fish underwater. And by the age of 17, I was good enough to make quite a bit of money. Then, when I was 33, my husband died, and I had the burden of raising our four children on my own.
[SPEAKER_37]: Free diving in Korea goes back to the 6th century, but for the past 300 years, it's mainly been done by women. Intrepid wives and mothers like Kim Ok-ja have long been their family's main breadwinners, harvesting the lucrative seabed while their menfolk farm the land above.
[SPEAKER_49]: Back then, when I had my first daughter, we were really not well off.
[SPEAKER_07]: So, just five days after giving birth, I volunteered to go out to sea. And I left my newborn baby with her grandfather. And I dived to the sea bottom to collect seaweed, the type that's worth quite a bit of money. But that dive took its toll on me. I was sick. My body and face became really bloated.
[SPEAKER_50]: The first rule of any diving, whether it's freediving or scuba diving or swimming in general, never dive alone. I lost my best friend and it was a Horrible loss, obviously. He just made that one mistake one day. He went freediving alone and he never came back. A blackout is not a horrible experience. You don't know that you're blacking out. That's the danger. It's like pulling the plug from a computer.
[SPEAKER_37]: In the past decade alone, at least 40 sea women from Jeju Island have died on the job.
[SPEAKER_07]: I've never had to go to hospital myself, but there was a lady in my village who died a couple of months ago while out diving. Sometimes things can go wrong. Maybe your tools get stuck, or you might get snagged on something. And if you miscalculate and stay under too long, it can be fatal.
[SPEAKER_37]: So far, we've been talking about people who consciously hold their breath. But some do it involuntarily, says lung specialist Toby Hillman.
[SPEAKER_14]: When people are asleep, the muscles of the neck and soft palate are actually a bit floppier, so they have less tone. And you can get obstructions to the airways. So that's not necessarily breathing control, but it's more of a mechanical stoppage of air moving. And that's something which is called obstructive sleep apnea. And what we see is that people have their sleep significantly disturbed. It can be really quite dramatic, sort of having 60, 70 breath holds per hour. And sometimes those breath holds can be really very long, so 45, 60 seconds.
[SPEAKER_37]: If some adults stop breathing in their sleep, some young children stop breathing when they're fully awake. Usually these spells don't last long, but that doesn't make it any easier for parents like Samantha Vanderpal.
[SPEAKER_05]: My daughter had been suffering with a virus. It was around about November time and she was around about 10 months old. I was getting into bed and I heard a noise on the video monitor It just didn't sound right to me. Something told me to go up to her bedroom, and as I did, she was gurgling and thrashing about, and she just didn't look like my daughter. It looked like a completely different child in that cot. I scooped her up and ran down the stairs to my husband. Then she went limp and stopped breathing. Her eyes rolled back, and she just went from blue to ashen, and I just screamed at my husband, call an ambulance, she's died, she's died. Within about a minute, she had come round. I was a mess, my husband was a mess, and she went off to hospital for some tests, all of which came back absolutely fine, and for maybe two days, three days, she was absolutely fine, and then we encountered it again.
[SPEAKER_37]: Such fits can happen when a small child has a temperature. That often provokes these breath-holding spells. But Samantha's daughter has a number of triggers.
[SPEAKER_05]: Usually it's down to emotional stress. So if she has a tantrum, sometimes she just won't take that breath and she'll go blue and boom, there goes one.
[SPEAKER_37]: So in total, Samantha, how many of these episodes have you had?
[SPEAKER_05]: Over 200.
[SPEAKER_38]: Really?
[SPEAKER_05]: We were having up to eight in a day.
[SPEAKER_38]: And what do you do?
[SPEAKER_05]: Everything that goes against how it feels to be a mother, I have to leave her on the floor and monitor her breathing, lift her legs up, count, because if it goes beyond 10 seconds, then I have to call an ambulance if she hasn't taken a breath in that time, when all I want to do is cuddle her and soothe her. But realistically, that is actually the worst thing I can do. It will prolong the episode.
[SPEAKER_38]: You must be in a terrible state of panic.
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah. Obviously, I'm trying my hardest to keep calm because if my daughter wakes from a seizure and sees that I am distressed, it will put her into another one. So it's a case of keeping everybody calm, which is especially difficult if it happens in public.
[SPEAKER_37]: And has that happened?
[SPEAKER_05]: Yes. It was shortly after we saw the neurologist and my daughter had a seizure in a supermarket trolley. I was asked if I could video episodes for the neurologist so they can see exactly what's occurring at that time. And the looks I got from other people who must have thought I was crazy. There is my daughter blue and limp in a trolley with me making no attempt to soothe her, but standing there videoing her. I remember after the seizure, scooping her up, going outside, sitting in my car and just sobbing because I felt like the worst mother in the world.
[SPEAKER_49]: Hanpun, dupun, bohing, geumjeon, jeongdeonim sulgaburo da deureoganda.
[SPEAKER_37]: The haenyeo divers of Jeju Island sing mournfully about how their men are drinking, while the women do the heavy lifting underwater. These real-life mermaids have a tough existence, and they seem to be a dying breed. In the 1960s, there were around 26,000 haenyeo. Now, fewer than 5,000 are left. Last year, UNESCO officially recognized the women as an intangible cultural heritage of humanity. Many, like Kim Ok-ja, are already grandmothers. Younger women on Jeju Island would rather work in offices or hotels than don a wetsuit and hold their breath in the icy Korean straits.
[SPEAKER_49]: I always take painkillers when I go into the water.
[SPEAKER_07]: Divers like me often take painkillers because there are a lot of stresses on the body. And I'm having to increase the doses because I've taken this medicine for so long, it's becoming less and less effective. But, you know, next year I'll be 80. I'm still going strong. And even though I've not completely recovered after my first child, I still feel diving hasn't affected me too badly. And one of my granddaughters now wants to learn to dive like me. She's been to a special dive school on Jeju where they teach the new generation of women. She's carrying on the family trade. So are you proud that your granddaughter's decided to pick it up? Well, it was her decision. And while I'm very proud of her for making it, there is a part of me that feels worried about her safety, because I know how tough it is. But she said, I'm strong. I want to do it.
[SPEAKER_37]: Breath holding may carry risks, but it's also a powerful force for good, according to former world record holder Stig Severinsen.
[SPEAKER_50]: When you do breath holding, you're actually stressing yourself and you are actually provoking that stress response, you know, because you're kind of moving closer to death, you know, when you're holding your breath for two, three, four minutes. But then when you learn to control that stress, It gives you a tool that you know you can use and you don't have to go to the gym, you don't have to call your mom or your doctor. You know that with your breathing, you can resort to that 24-7 and it's reliable.
[SPEAKER_37]: Stig's record breath hold of 22 minutes has since been broken. It's now over 24 minutes, longer than this radio program. Just imagine that.
[SPEAKER_47]: Okay, well done. Go, go. Signal. Well done. Well, that was the best time you did it yet. Do you want to know how long? How long was that? OK, it was 1 minute 59, so we can put a two by the time I stopped it. Oh, it's nearly two minutes! Oh, no! I could have just hung on for one more second. I could have done two minutes.
[SPEAKER_37]: I was trying to remember. 1.59, just one measly second short of two minutes. Not bad for a first-timer, I'm told. Stig's been doing this his whole life. Actually, I found the discipline curiously invigorating. When breath-holding is involuntary, though, it can be frightening. It feels a bit like staring over the abyss towards the end of life. You've been listening to The Y Factor on the BBC World Service with me, Lucy Ash. The producer is Ben Crichton. If you liked this, you might want to listen to episodes on other bodily topics, such as the kiss or six packs. And we'd love to hear your ideas for future topics. You can reach us at yfactor at bbc.com.
[SPEAKER_35]: Hello and welcome to More or Less on the BBC World Service. I'm Charlotte MacDonald and this week we're talking about the latest recipient of this year's Nobel Memorial Prize for Economics, Richard Thaler. He's Professor of Behavioural Science and Economics at the Chicago Booth School of Business in the US. Now all we need is an economist who could tell us more about him.
[SPEAKER_52]: Uh, Charlotte, um, I'm an economist.
[SPEAKER_35]: Aha, Tim Harford. Really, you care about undercover? Do you know about Thaler?
[SPEAKER_52]: I do know about Thaler. I've interviewed him, I've met him, I've read his books, I've written about him. Alright, well that's good enough for us. So, well, tell us, who is he? Who is this person? He's a professor at the University of Chicago and he is, I suppose, the leading behavioural economist in the world. And behavioural economics is this It's really an attempt to introduce a sort of psychological realism into economics. Classical economics has these quite formal, perhaps unrealistic assumptions about how humans behave. And the behavioral economists say, well, we could add psychology, or maybe just add a bit of common sense, and that would make economics work better.
[SPEAKER_35]: Can you give us an example? I mean, what is behavioral economics?
[SPEAKER_52]: Sure, so one of Thaler's favourite examples is the bowl of cashews. So he describes having guests over for dinner and while the main course is cooking in the oven they're having drinks and as you do he puts a large bowl of cashew nuts in front of his guests. And they're sitting around having their drinks and they're hoovering up the cashews. They're just getting through them at a real rate of knots. And after a while, Thaler realizes they're going to spoil their appetite. So he removes the bowl of cashews, takes it off to the kitchen where they can't touch it. Now, they're grateful that he's done that. They're happy that he's removed the temptation. Now, Thaler's point is, This doesn't make any sense in the framework of classical economics. Because in classical economics, if you don't want to eat the cashew nuts, you just don't eat the cashew nuts. And if you do want to eat the cashew nuts, you won't be happy that they've been taken away. There's no way of saying, well, it makes sense to remove the cashew nuts and put them in the kitchen. But of course, common sense says, well, yeah, of course, I totally understand that. Now, Thaler's insight. is not something magical about the cashew nuts. Thaler's insight is, these seemingly trivial examples about human nature, they might turn out to be really important. They might help us understand, for example, how financial markets work. Or the example that Thaler is most famous for, they might help us make better pension policy. Because we're always wanting to save for a pension, but then when push comes to shove, we're tempted to do something short-termist and not save. So it's these trivial, common-sense, everyday examples made economically significant and economically relevant.
[SPEAKER_35]: You've described what he was spotting, something that humans do.
[SPEAKER_52]: Yeah, so Thaler originally started with this list of behavioural anomalies on the blackboard in his office, like, stuff stupid people do. Right, let me rephrase that. Stupid stuff that people do.
[SPEAKER_35]: It kind of goes against what they think they should want, but what they actually end up doing.
[SPEAKER_52]: It's stuff that doesn't make any sense in the standard economic paradigm. Then he takes it to the economics profession in a column called Anomalies, which is published in the Journal of Economic Perspectives, which is a well-respected journal, where every issue of this journal, he points to something that people do that makes no sense in the framework of regular economics. And he debunks all the attempts by economists to rationalize this behavior. And he shows that it's economically significant. So examples, for instance, there's the December effect. So if I remember rightly, stocks fall in December, and then they rise again in January. But it shouldn't happen. In perfect markets, that shouldn't happen. But Thaler identifies it. And he said, this is important. And there's no straightforward way to explain it. So he's pointing to these examples. And he's saying to economists, you have to pay attention to this. This stuff really matters.
[SPEAKER_35]: OK, well, Richard Thaler's book Nudge was an inspiration to governments around the world. For instance, the UK government set up the Behavioural Insight Unit in 2010. Its remit was to develop ways to get more people across the country to engage with government policies. That should help them in the long run, but maybe perhaps they've been putting off. Tim, could you tell us a bit more about that?
[SPEAKER_52]: So these units were trying to take ideas from behavioural economics and from social psychology, to be fair, and turn them into policy relevant ideas. So how do we persuade people to pay their taxes? How can we reform pension policy? How can we get people to insulate their lofts? Well, the way that happened, it started with a research paper that Thaler published with a guy called Cass Sunstein, who's a legal scholar. They identified this thing they called libertarian paternalism. Libertarian paternalism is this idea that we keep people's freedom to choose. We respect that people may know what's best for them, but we also have a paternalistic side. So maybe people don't know what's best for them. Maybe we need to nudge them into doing the right thing. So, you know, I give you the freedom to opt in or opt out of a pension, you know, whatever you want. But maybe I'll nudge you to have a pension by making that the default option.
[SPEAKER_35]: And then you have to opt out.
[SPEAKER_52]: And you have to opt out. Now, in classical economics, it doesn't make any difference. You either want a pension or you don't want a pension. Exactly. Exactly. But according to behavioral economics, the default probably does matter. So he introduces this idea with Cass Sunstein of libertarian paternalism. And then they give it this much catchier title, nudge. And they publish a book called Nudge in, if I remember rightly, about 2007, 2008. It's about 10 years ago. And this book becomes very sexy for politicians. And if you recall, David Cameron was elected prime minister in 2010, Barack Obama president in 2008. And both of these men were talking about nudge ideas because it seemed like just a smart way to make better policy. And as they won their elections, then Thaler and Sunstein became highly policy relevant and these behavioural insight units were set up.
[SPEAKER_35]: Can you give an example of something that a policy that has come to fruition that we think may have had a successful nutshell effect?
[SPEAKER_52]: One of the other things that Thaler says, it's a very straightforward point, is if you want people to do something, you make it easy. You actually have to think about how things are designed, so what happens by default, how many boxes do I have to fill in, could some forms already be filled in by default, because the government, say, wants me to fill in my taxes, and they already know a lot of stuff about me, so maybe all that stuff should be filled in automatically, and I can just correct it if there's a problem. So, you know, behavioral economics has been used to redesign tax forms, for example, in the United States, basically to try to make it easier to do the right thing.
[SPEAKER_35]: One of the other things I was reading about Thaler earlier is that some of his work that he's done helps us spot some of the naughty tricks that marketers and advertising use. It's going back to the cashew nuts thing isn't it? It's like I don't really want cashew nuts but if they're there I'm going to eat them.
[SPEAKER_52]: Yeah so I mean in in the book Nudge, Thaler is talking about you know nudging people to do the right thing but of course you can nudge people to do the wrong thing and advertisers and marketers have known this for a very very long time. You can nudge people to smoke, you can nudge people to eat fatty, salty, sugary food. These days they have the the term evil nudges And Thaler also talks about something else. He calls it sludge. So sludge is basically just noise when you're trying to make a clear decision and companies are just confusing you with all kinds of irrelevant information or just making it hard to unsubscribe from something that you want to unsubscribe to. So yeah, I mean, these tricks have been used for a very long time for good and for evil in the private sector. Thaler is saying the public sector needs to take them seriously as well. And ideally, one would hope, Our enlightened governments are going to use nudges.
[SPEAKER_35]: In the right way. I love it. It's a force for good or evil. Please governments, use it for good.
[SPEAKER_52]: But it is a powerful force. It is a powerful force. It's worth paying attention to. And it has been a blind spot in classical economics that we've ignored these design factors and these psychological factors. And I think Thaler has, he's not the only one, but he's done more than anybody else to convince the economic profession to take these behavioral factors seriously.
[SPEAKER_35]: Thank you very much, Tim Harford, for being an expert for us.
[SPEAKER_52]: My pleasure.
[SPEAKER_35]: That's all we have time for this week on the programme. But if you want to hear an interview that Tim Harford did with Professor Thaler back in 2015, then check out this week's podcast. If you want to get in touch with us, then email more or less at bbc.co.uk or tweet at BBC more or less.
[mgC3PACaQmc_SPEAKER_72]: This is the BBC World Service, where we're looking for solutions to the problem of domestic violence.
[_Q1KmNS3O8k_SPEAKER_11]: 100 women on the BBC World Service.
[SPEAKER_23]: The domestic violence will always happen if the men keep thinking that they have the right to hit the woman and if the wife keep thinking that they deserve to be hit by the man.
[mgC3PACaQmc_SPEAKER_72]: Behind closed doors. Listen to the whole series at bbcworldservice.com slash 100 women. We're in the studio in 30 minutes.
[SPEAKER_19]: Join Itay Mautner, the artistic director of Mekadeshit, as he prepares an arts and culture festival in Jerusalem. From smoking volcano artwork high on the rooftops, to a concert bringing together musicians from all sides of this beloved and disputed city.
[mgC3PACaQmc_SPEAKER_72]: BBC World Hacks is next. This is the BBC World Service, the world's radio station.
[SPEAKER_36]: After the news, it's World Hacks, the programme where we test out solutions to the world's biggest problems. And this week, William, we're looking at something that's quite difficult to talk about.
[SPEAKER_53]: Yes, not the sort of thing that you would want to bring up with your colleagues at work, for example.
[SPEAKER_36]: No, I don't think I've ever told my colleagues this information because it's all about pay. I don't know what you get paid. Hopefully you don't know what I get paid.
[SPEAKER_53]: No, I don't. I don't want to know. Don't tell me.
[SPEAKER_36]: It's a secret. But it is important to talk about it because in every country in the world, no matter where you go, women will be paid on average less than men.
[SPEAKER_54]: But I have been to Iceland, which is trying out something new. The government is going to force companies to change the way that they pay men and women to stop them from discriminating in their salaries. and companies that play ball are going to get a nice sticker for their website. So I've met a few women who've had playwrights and I've met some HR professionals who've tried out the new system.
[SPEAKER_36]: That's all coming up after the BBC News.
[SPEAKER_45]: Hello, this is Fiona MacDonald with the BBC News. The US State Department has called for calm after Iraqi government forces seized the northern city of Kirkuk and nearby oil fields from Kurdish control. Armoured vehicles moved into Kirkuk on Monday in an advance that took less than 24 hours. Peter Bowes reports.
[_Q1KmNS3O8k_SPEAKER_83]: A spokeswoman for the State Department said the United States was calling on all parties to coordinate military activities and restore calm. Earlier, Donald Trump, speaking at the White House, said, we don't like the fact that they're clashing. He added that the US was not taking sides. The State Department said it supported the peaceful exercise of joint administration, consistent with the Iraqi constitution. Washington arms and trains both Iraqi federal forces and the Peshmerga, the Kurdish forces, to fight Islamic State militants.
[SPEAKER_45]: U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces say the former Islamic State stronghold of Raqqa is now under its control, with only a few dozen militants remaining near the national hospital and stadium. The SDF is expected to declare official victory in the coming days. More than 3,000 civilians have recently escaped Raqqa. On Saturday, 100 local IS fighters were allowed to leave with their families to other areas, as Saeed Shahata from BBC Arabic reports.
[SPEAKER_12]: there's two destinations. The one is Idlib, where most of IS fighters left homes, and other cities where there is having truce between Syrian Democratic Forces and the IS. And the other destination is Turkey, because Iraq is very close to the border with Turkey. It is symbolically destroying the idea of the Islamic Khilafah on the ground. And materially, it will be a big boost for the Syrian Democratic Forces from one side, from the Americans supporting them, and the Syrian regime.
[SPEAKER_45]: The U.S. Defense Department says its forces have carried out an airstrike on two Islamic State training camps in Yemen, killing dozens of militants. In a statement, the Pentagon said its assault was a serious blow to the organization's ability to train new fighters. More than a thousand people have taken part in a vigil in Malta for a journalist murdered on Monday by a powerful car bomb. Daphne Caruana Galizia was a leading investigative journalist. She highlighted alleged corruption by senior politicians, including Malta's Prime Minister, who has denied any wrongdoing. Addressing the mourners gathered in the town of Slima, a family friend said she was a fearless journalist.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is undoubtedly a dark and sad, sad, sad, sad day for Malta as a Maltese citizen. I think Daphne was not only a journalist and an absolutely fearless human being but a fourth pillar of our democracy and I know that her life was definitely not for nothing and I'm sure that the torch will be carried by somebody else. Hopefully it will be carried by everyone here and everyone would like to be here.
[SPEAKER_45]: There have been protests in Barcelona over the Spanish High Court decision to remand in custody two pro-independence Catalan leaders. People banged pots and pans in the streets and honked car horns after Jordi Sanchez and Jordi Cujart became the first senior Catalonian separatist figures to be jailed pending an investigation for possible sedition. In an address recorded before he entered detention, Mr. Sanchez called for permanent protest until an independent Catalonia was realised.
[SPEAKER_03]: Unfortunately, the judge's decision is to take away our freedom. It's an act that doesn't correspond to any principles of justice. It's an act aimed at frightening us and punishing us for defending freedom and peacefully taking to the streets, as we have done so many times. That's why I want to sincerely ask that you respond with permanent protest, which will lead us to the proclamation of the Republic. They can't defeat us if we remain strong.
[SPEAKER_45]: The governor of the U.S. state of Florida has declared a state of emergency ahead of a public speech by a white nationalist leader later this week. Governor Rick Scott said his executive order would ensure the security forces had all resources necessary to police the event at the University of Florida on Thursday. In August, Richard Spencer helped organize a demonstration in Charlottesville in Virginia, which ended in violence and one death. The new UN envoy for the disputed territory of Western Sahara is visiting the region to assess the possibility of restarting peace talks between Morocco and the pro-independence Polisario Front. Reports say Horst Koehler, a former German president, met the Moroccan foreign minister in Rabat on Monday. The Canadian aircraft manufacturer Bombardier say it's entered into a partnership agreement with European company Airbus to sell the C-series jet. Bombardier has been under pressure because of a trade dispute with Boeing. BBC News.
[SPEAKER_36]: Imagine for a minute working in a big, open-plan office. If you're actually in one, then you can stop, have a quick look around. Now imagine it's a Monday afternoon in autumn. It's a clear day and there's sun streaming through the windows. Suddenly, all the women in the office start moving. Without saying very much, they log off their computers, they pop their coats on and they file out of the door, leaving the men in the office at their desks. It's exactly 2.38 in the afternoon and it's not just your office. Women are filing out of buildings up and down the street. This happened right across Iceland on October the 24th last year. The women left work early, shaving 30% of their working day because in Iceland they take home on average 30% less pay than men. And in Reykjavik, the capital, lots of shops and schools closed as all the women headed down to Parliament Square. The crowd numbered around 20,000 and Marianne Traustadottir was one of the organisers.
[SPEAKER_15]: The atmosphere was really fantastic. We had speeches, we were singing. We put our hands as far away as we could and we said, inequality should be out. So you had like thousands of women and men, you know, here at Østuvel, everybody shouting, everything should be out. It was like some magical happening.
[SPEAKER_36]: Since then, the government has brought in rules that will make Iceland the first country to put in place a rigorous system to try and force companies to provide evidence that they're paying men and women equally. Is this tiny Nordic island nation about to show the rest of the world how to eliminate unequal pay once and for all?
[SPEAKER_45]: Well, perhaps.
[SPEAKER_36]: This is World Hacks on the BBC World Service. I'm India Rackson. On this show, we travel and scour the surface of our troubled planet, seeking the people and the ideas that could actually change or improve the way we live. And the solution we're exploring today is all about a big difference between men and women. Because whatever country you go to in the world, one fact will be true. The women there, on average, will not be paid as much as the men. Yep, we are today talking about the gender pay gap. For decades it has remained a seemingly unbridgeable issue despite advances in female education and the number of women working. Globally, on average, women take home just over half the wages of men, according to the World Economic Forum. But what exactly does Iceland have up its sleeve to address this? Our reporter William Kramer has been there to find out more. Hey, William. Hi, India. Thanks for joining us. So you've been out in Iceland, William, probing today's solution. Why Iceland? How bad is it for the gender pay gap?
[SPEAKER_54]: Well, actually, Iceland is rated as the best country in the world by the World Economic Forum for gender equality generally.
[SPEAKER_36]: Well, that's good.
[SPEAKER_54]: Well, yeah. But as far as the gender pay gap is concerned, they're only number 23.
[SPEAKER_36]: Globally, 23 is not a bad number.
[SPEAKER_54]: Yeah, I mean, there's over 100 countries in the ranking, so you might think that's quite good. But they're determined to improve, and the government has pledged to eliminate the gender pay gap completely by 2022.
[SPEAKER_36]: So we heard just then that women left early because they got paid 30% less than men, but that figure's not taking into account hours, part-time work and things like that, because of course a country's pay gap isn't just because of how the companies pay women, there's also a matter of different lives that women have to men, so career choices, breaks in career, maternity leave, part-time working, that sort of thing.
[SPEAKER_54]: But here's the thing, even when you look at women and men doing similar jobs for the same hours, there's still a gender pay gap. Though it is much smaller. This is sometimes called the unexplained pay gap and it's still an issue all around the world. In Iceland it's reckoned to be about 6 or 7%.
[SPEAKER_36]: OK, but it has been illegal for decades, hasn't it? It's been illegal here to pay women less than men, and in the States, and in the EU, across the world.
[SPEAKER_54]: Yes, and in Iceland it's been illegal since 1961. Despite this, it hasn't gone away. So even though it's illegal, and quite possibly companies don't want to pay men more than women, they still are doing it.
[SPEAKER_36]: It's still a really big issue.
[SPEAKER_54]: Still an issue everywhere. And we heard at the beginning of the programme from the organiser of the women's protest, Mariana Thrustadóttir. She works for the Icelandic Confederation of Labour, an umbrella group for trade unions. Mariana has been supporting workers on this issue of unequal pay for decades now. About 10 years ago, she got together with Business Iceland, the organisation that represents employers, and they were also keen to tackle the issue.
[SPEAKER_15]: We at the Union, we saw that law didn't work. Awareness campaigns did not work. So we decided that we would turn to the, some say, boring world of bureaucracy. And we came together with the business community and the government. to develop a certification scheme for equal pay which workplaces could apply.
[SPEAKER_36]: Excellent. William, we haven't had a little tinkering with bureaucracy on the programme in a while. So what exactly is this hack?
[SPEAKER_54]: Well, it's called IST 85 colon 2012. Nice and catchy.
[SPEAKER_36]: It's a good title.
[SPEAKER_54]: It's also known as the equal pay standard.
[SPEAKER_36]: That's better.
[SPEAKER_54]: And it's a, what is it? It's a set of guidelines. I mean, it's a booklet, a management standard, which took four years to write. It's the first of its type in the world. The Equal Pay Standard was published in 2012 and a pilot to implement it was carried out the following year. The very first organisation to be accredited with the Equal Pay Standard was the Customs Office. I met their friendly head of HR.
[SPEAKER_11]: My name is Unnurir Kristjánsdóttir and I'm Director of Human Resources at Icelandic Customs.
[SPEAKER_54]: So just take me through, what did you do, how did you actually implement the standard?
[SPEAKER_11]: You evaluate all jobs that's within the organisation. After the evaluation, you look at the pay, just the salary, go with the points that you have evaluated.
[SPEAKER_54]: First of all, you're looking at the jobs in the organisation, not the people. You're looking at the positions and assigning them a value.
[SPEAKER_11]: Yes, and it's very important that you look at the position, the core value of each position, not the individual doing the job.
[SPEAKER_54]: And then after you've done that and you've re-evaluated all the jobs in the organisation, then you start looking at what you're actually paying people, is that right?
[SPEAKER_11]: Yes, then we do sort of a salary analysis to check that we are paying equal wages for equal jobs.
[SPEAKER_36]: So, William, how did the Customs Office decide on these core values that they're talking about for each position?
[SPEAKER_54]: Well, Una and her colleagues came up with a set of criteria and then they got the managers in the Customs Office to agree to those definitions.
[SPEAKER_11]: The core criteria of knowledge, we have a sub-criteria of education and then another sub-criteria of work experience.
[SPEAKER_54]: They were looking at things like, for example, how educated you needed to be to do a job, how much responsibility was required, whether you could do it at your desk or whether you had to go outside in the famously bitter Icelandic wind.
[SPEAKER_11]: main criteria is the work environment and then we got there mental and emotional stress, physical strain and work conditions and environmental stimulus.
[SPEAKER_36]: So you've got all these categories like responsibility, working conditions and different jobs can score higher or lower amounts in these different categories, is that right? Yeah.
[SPEAKER_54]: But very different jobs can end up with the same total score. So if you think about it, India, this system has the potential to elevate completely different types of work in a company or an organisation that might have been previously overlooked. So next, Una had to agree how each job was scored with the managers in the customs office. And frankly, this sounds like it was a complete nightmare.
[SPEAKER_11]: Well, it took lots of meetings. Most managers think their jobs is very complex and maybe more complex than other jobs. We were looking at it over and over again and the main challenge of it was also that managers tend to go and think of the person doing the job and that's not what the standard is about. You have to evaluate the job, not the person doing it.
[SPEAKER_54]: Finally, after months of internal wrangling, Öner had a massive Excel spreadsheet.
[SPEAKER_36]: Oh great, so she's now living the HR dream with a whole new set of data.
[SPEAKER_54]: Exactly, a huge, great big data set showing every job in the organisation and how many points each one was now deemed to be worth. She had to put the names of her staff next to all the jobs and basically everyone got their salary checked. And that's a key thing, it wasn't just the women, it was everybody in the organisation.
[SPEAKER_36]: That makes sense because she's got this whole new data set and so she can look across it and see whether there might be discrimination in other places. So this could act as a brake on discrimination of all sorts.
[SPEAKER_54]: Yeah, it ought to.
[SPEAKER_36]: But a question, William, isn't this sort of communism or at least making jobs very prescriptive? So why wouldn't you just do the job that you're being paid to do?
[SPEAKER_54]: OK, that's several questions. Sorry. So no, it's not communism, because I mean, we do talk about equal pay, but you're not paying everyone equally. What's equal is the mechanisms for paying everyone. The decisions that you are taking when you are paying people are the same for whether you're talking about a man or a woman. So in actual fact, there is some wriggle room within the standard. It allows for different kind of salary systems. So you could have, for example, bonuses, or you could have like a commission-based salary system. That can all be accommodated within the standard, but it's just that all those decisions need to be transparent.
[SPEAKER_36]: Still a good reason to kind of go above and beyond your job and to work hard.
[SPEAKER_54]: Yeah, there's absolutely no reason why you shouldn't have that.
[SPEAKER_36]: So it just has to be fair, basically.
[SPEAKER_54]: It has to be fair and you have to be able to document that decision-making process.
[SPEAKER_36]: So what happened at the customs office?
[SPEAKER_54]: Okay, drumroll please. Well, 10% of women had a pay rise and 1% of men did.
[SPEAKER_36]: Oh, OK. And were they big pay rises?
[SPEAKER_54]: Apparently they weren't huge pay rises.
[SPEAKER_36]: Any pay cuts?
[SPEAKER_54]: Pay cuts? No, apparently not. I think Una could have gone about it that way, but she chose to raise people's salaries instead. But there was one quite interesting example relating to customs officers. You know the people that are at the airport, you know, they want to look in your bag?
[SPEAKER_36]: Oh, they check all the sort of goods coming through and yeah.
[SPEAKER_54]: So when they did the standard, those people have quite a bit of training that goes into their jobs. They have to go outside in all weathers. They've got quite a lot of responsibility. So they're at quite a lot of points and actually they get paid quite well. They're also, for whatever reason, very often men that do that job. The pattern that had developed over a period of years at the customs office is that when customs officers were approaching retirement, they were allowed to come out of the cold weather and go into the HQ.
[SPEAKER_36]: Nice cosy desk.
[SPEAKER_54]: Yeah, but you can see the problem is that they ended up working alongside clerical workers who were very often female and doing very similar work to them, but being paid much better.
[SPEAKER_36]: Yeah, that's going to be a big problem, isn't it? So what do they do? Do they take a pay cut?
[SPEAKER_54]: No, they were sent back outside to do the job they were being paid to do.
[SPEAKER_36]: Right. How do they feel about that?
[SPEAKER_54]: I didn't speak to any of them, but apparently they were a little bit grumpy about it.
[SPEAKER_36]: Yeah, we can see why. That's a bit of a bit of a shock to have to go back out to the job.
[SPEAKER_54]: It is, yeah. But you know, fair's fair, I suppose.
[SPEAKER_36]: So is it now in the customs office, some sort of pay slip utopia? Is there now complete equality there?
[SPEAKER_54]: Well, actually, I couldn't tell me what the current adjusted pay gap was for the customs office.
[SPEAKER_11]: Well, it has gone down a bit because we have done the immediate actions that we need to do. We are still looking at it and how we can get it better. Yes, of course it should be zero.
[SPEAKER_54]: Una told me that she'll find out more when they do their next salary review.
[SPEAKER_36]: And what about the other organisations that took part in the pilot?
[SPEAKER_54]: Well, again, the Icelandic government couldn't tell me precise figures on how much the adjusted pay gap reduced across the pilot. They just said that two thirds of the organisations that took part had to raise some salaries.
[SPEAKER_36]: You're listening to World Hacks on the BBC World Service, and today we're talking about Iceland's attempt to bring down the gender pay gap. William, we've gone over how the equal pay standard is supposed to work. Now please, I would like to hear from someone who's had a pay rise.
[SPEAKER_54]: So let's meet Sigfridur Gunnlaugsdóttir. She's the international affairs manager at the customs office, so it's a pretty senior position. She works quite closely with the director. When they were implementing the standard, Sigfrida found that she'd been underpaid. Her basic salary was the same as the men on her level, but unlike them, she and another female colleague were not being paid for their overtime. Were you a bit annoyed?
[SPEAKER_26]: Well, I wasn't annoyed so much, but I just thought, OK, this is a reflection of reality as it represents itself in our society. I mean, there's a reason for the gender pay gap. Potentially, I could have gone and said, well, I'm working some overtime. I should get paid for it. I didn't look at it that way. I just thought, OK, I will just have to try to limit the overtime that I do. In retrospect, I probably should have. asked for that.
[SPEAKER_54]: You're blaming yourself?
[SPEAKER_26]: I'm not blaming myself in that sense. In a way, I think it's a good thing that people are not expected to work a lot of overtime because it's not good in terms of your private life, in terms of your family. But then again, a male should not be expected to do that either.
[SPEAKER_54]: And have you thought about maybe working out how much overtime you've been doing for the last few years and asking for back pay?
[SPEAKER_26]: No, I've not thought about that.
[SPEAKER_54]: That thought hadn't occurred to you?
[SPEAKER_26]: No, no, it hasn't. It hadn't.
[SPEAKER_54]: Are you going to now, I've suggested?
[SPEAKER_26]: Probably not. Probably not.
[SPEAKER_36]: I actually hadn't thought about back pay at all until now. So that's going to be quite big, isn't it? So companies could have been breaking the law before the review. So obviously money is going to be owed. That sounds good for workers, but perhaps quite expensive for businesses.
[SPEAKER_54]: Yes, and we were laughing in that clip, but it's not really a joke. When the UK tried something like this with local governments about 10 years ago, it led to claims for back pay from hundreds of women running into millions and millions of pounds. And I understand that legally this could be an issue in Iceland too, though to be honest, no one I spoke to about it over there seems very worried about it.
[SPEAKER_36]: But what's Iceland doing that's different in this case? Because you just mentioned a similar pay review in the UK.
[SPEAKER_54]: OK, so salary re-evaluations themselves are not new, but I think there are three things that make what's happening in Iceland different and special. Firstly, the fact that the work is laid out in a management standard, the equal pay standard, Una told me that by putting it in terms that businesses understand, it does make it easier for them to implement. And the standard has now been translated, so in theory it could be put in place by any company in the world. Secondly, after carrying out this equal pay work, the results are certified by an external body and then employers get a certificate to prove they do not discriminate and they can display a special logo on their websites. So India, this is the equal pay logo.
[SPEAKER_36]: Oh, OK. So this is what they get if they've been certified. So it's a black and white, round image with bold lines crossing through it and curving through it. Yeah. Sort of a bit like a stained glass window.
[SPEAKER_54]: Yeah, it does look a bit like a circular window. What it's supposed to be is two smiling faces, which are different but equal, that have been brought together. And it's also supposed to resemble a coin a little bit.
[SPEAKER_36]: That's clever. It's quite abstract, but I can see that, two different faces in it. So what's the third thing you mentioned, William?
[SPEAKER_54]: Okay, so the third thing is actually the most significant. Earlier this year, the Icelandic government went a step further with all of this, and they made it mandatory for companies to implement the standard. So basically, they're going to be rolling it out over the next four years, starting in January. And if companies don't comply, they could get fined.
[SPEAKER_36]: OK, so it's a bit like going to the dentist, either you get a really lovely sticker for being very good or some sort of nasty pain in the face. How big are these fines?
[SPEAKER_54]: So the figure that's in the legislation is 50,000 Icelandic krona a day. So that's almost 500 US dollars. But my understanding is that the fines are going to be pretty much a last resort. There's also talk of specific targets, so, for example, companies will have to get their adjusted pay gap to under 3%, I also heard the figure 5%, or they'll get put on some kind of special measures.
[SPEAKER_36]: And how do businesses feel about it?
[SPEAKER_54]: Well, making it mandatory like this has been quite controversial, and not just with businesses, with the people that actually designed the standard in the first place.
[SPEAKER_36]: Well, why are they concerned about it, though? Because they made it.
[SPEAKER_54]: Well, the managing director of Icelandic standards told me that management standards are by definition voluntary and they don't generally contain sort of set targets like this. There's also practical concerns. So next year, about 150 companies, large companies in Iceland are going to need to be certified. And there's currently only two companies that can check that they're compliant. Okay, it's a lot of work then for two companies. Exactly.
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