[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: 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, 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, legal matters were filed. And therefore, I want to discuss it with you in executive session because I believe it affects our legal status, and I believe that should be taken into account before any meetings are scheduled.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Okay. 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 just wanted to comment on that.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Is there, there isn't a question. Are you all set with your?
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Ms.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Kurtz, did you have an amendment to the list?
[Kathy Kreatz]: about the robotics engineering program and so if they go to the schedule which is three periods per day 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 some of the students that are juniors and seniors haven't taken. So I think that would be satisfactory. When I was speaking to my son, who's out on co-op, 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, you know, 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?
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: This- The motion for the amendment to be added to the minutes from last week prior to their approval.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: 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. So that couldn't have been her. That was the only other correction on the minutes themselves. And if the superintendent wanted to comment on anything, that's fine.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: On the motion for approval of minutes as amended, All those opposed, the minutes have passed. Thank you. Approval of bills, transfer of funds. Motion for approval by Mr. Skerry. Is there a second on the floor? Yes, second. Second by Ms. Krutz. All those in favor? Mr. Benedetto.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: I just had a quick question on page nine 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,
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: on our bills before, and I was just wondering what that was.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Okay, and what types of things does that cover? Curriculum. Oh, it's the curriculum? Yes. And that's taught through 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. I just hadn't seen it on the bills, and I just like to know what's going on. Thank you. That's my only question on bills.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Thank you. There's a motion on the floor for approval by Mr. Scarey, seconded by Mr. Benedetto. All those in favor? All those opposed? The motion passes. Approval of payrolls. Motion for approval by Mr. Scarey, seconded by Ms. Kreatz. All those in favor? 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. 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 seemed 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 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 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, and the mayor laughed.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: I am staying within the area.
[Joe Viglione]: Oh, you don't know 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 it talked about.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: The mayor will rule you out of the water. Please leave the building. Thank you. Ask a question through the chair. There is no recommendation. 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 Educators Foundation grant. With us this evening is our Director of Guidance, Amelia Jensen, along with Tim Kline, who's the recipient of the O2 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.
[7DUlBp6f_Us_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 MPower 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.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: 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. 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. 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 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 people that are interested in business, maybe do something in the business field. You know, we have the vocational side, but I think it's nice to open up another door. But I've also spoken to the businesses that we want to be very careful. I want our students to get the opportunity to go and see those fields. But if it's something down the road that they could continue working in, then our students need to be paid. They can't just always do everything voluntarily. So I was just wondering what your thoughts were on something like that.
[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 I don't know if there's any time in classes. Maybe there's something that could be worked out like after school, or maybe in a Saturday, or if the business is open. 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 they thought they were interested in.
[7DUlBp6f_Us_SPEAKER_21]: to come to Mr. Kline, because he is our school and community partnerships Councilor, so he makes those connections. Come to Mr. Kline, 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.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Mr. Turingale. 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 the high school to try to get some, you know, internships and again, you know, I'm a really busy guy and so are tons of my classmates end up not, you know, I never, you know, followed through with that internship. But I think that, you know, what is already being done, I guess, is, you know, 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. 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 Ms. Jetson 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 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. Ms. 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 want 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. I just wanted to bring attention to that and increase graduation rate. That's fantastic. It sounds like you're going in the right direction and you're involving both the vocational students and high school students. It just sounds terrific. get in touch with you, should they email you or do they go through their guidance Councilor? Which students? If students were, you know, interested and, you know, 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 MedFed, 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 and that employers and colleges are looking for. They're looking for students that are prepared, that are on time, that, you know, show up when they're supposed to or call if they're sick or, you know, can't 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 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 MF&I 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, you know, and you deserve all the recognition that comes along with this. So maybe a note in someone's employee file would 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? I was usually Mrs. Westmark to me. Thank you.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Thank you very much, Mr. Klein and Mrs. 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.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: So thank you very much for all of your support. Yes. Thank you. Thank you. Motion on the floor to receive in place on file offered by Miss Cugno, seconded by Miss Stone. 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 from 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_04]: Hello. Hi, how was your day today? Great. Was your day great today? Is it good?
[7DUlBp6f_Us_SPEAKER_31]: 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 sign, if you look at it, there's an arrow, which means delivered. That can symbolize the deliverance. But it was a really great experience for us, personally.
[7DUlBp6f_Us_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. Tremonti 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.
[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?
[7DUlBp6f_Us_SPEAKER_31]: To be careful in 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?
[7DUlBp6f_Us_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?
[7DUlBp6f_Us_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.
[7DUlBp6f_Us_SPEAKER_31]: Also adding to that, it helps us think before we say something. Things before you speak. That's one thing that also improved. And it helps us not entertain things that are inappropriate.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: So I have a request. Since this has seemed to have touched you both, not only would the Andrews kids benefit from your presentation, the McGlenn 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 to present to the sixth graders at the McGlynn 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. 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, you know? 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 very good.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: 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 a hundred percent 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 is 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?
[7DUlBp6f_Us_SPEAKER_10]: Yeah. As an example, for Snapchat, things that you think are only there for 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, 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. Superintendent.
[Roy Belson]: Mayor and members 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 Riccardelli, and our Director of Humanities, Dr. Nicole Chieser, 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 where We're considered Medford, Boston. We now have other schools in the area participating. There are some Boston public schools, Everett, I think there's one school in Chelsea now. There are a couple of schools in New York and in 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 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 one, which is an introduction to the 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's 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 seventh 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]: The program is a terrific program. It 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 Paris. So I look forward to this activity, and I ask your approval to have 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 I mean, 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, 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. Um, so I think it's very important that we have representation. And, um, with that, do I have to make a motion for approval?
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: So motion to approve that the superintendent is there a second floor seconded by Ms. Crutz, Mr. Benedetto. Um, so I, I was just wondering, um,
[Erin DiBenedetto]: 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-Tiven.
[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 a question.
[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, must don't.
[Mea Quinn Mustone]: Ms. Riccadeli, so Mr. Zizzo was the point person for the Andrews. Is there a point person at the McGlennan where they invited as well?
[Ricciardelli]: No. 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 were 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 is great. Tegan 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. This is, 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, you know, 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]: 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]: Mr. Zizzo actually participated in a teleconference that was earlier in the year, and his contributions were such that they felt that they 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. 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. And it was interesting. I think one of our groups, we had some Greek students who were able to speak to the 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 cute 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. 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? 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]: On the motion to approve the Bloomberg Philanthropies to pay for Mr. Superintendent's expenses, there's already a motion for approval by Ms. Gugge. 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-DePaolo family. So thank you very much, Mr. Skerry. There will be a dedication taking place on Friday, October 20 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. I am. That's why I'm standing here.
[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 until you get back to the classroom. The word's even out of our mouths. The kids have opened the books, they're looking at them, 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 Harvey-Yellow, and Chuck Veneziano. 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 Miss 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, Jaden. 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.
[7DUlBp6f_Us_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 a 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. 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 Pawneans, 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 Mayor. Tonight, we had the honor of welcoming a man who was a student from Italy from 1983. And he stayed with a Kiwanian family, a John Sotranos family. And Sotranos and the Frakes 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. So we were proud to have him there tonight. And I say, 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 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.
[Kelly Catalo]: 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, second 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 7, 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 six, seven, and eight. Administrators and teachers will review behavioral interventions and develop their own pyramid to determine what is considered tier one, tier two, and tier three. 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, off 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 I, 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. 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 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 requested 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 to 5.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: All right. And 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 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. Belson.
[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, we add it to our agenda. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Motion passes.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: 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 walk to. Okay. Yes. So I just didn't know if this was an appropriate time to make a comment for that. Sure. 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, this report be placed on file. All those in favor? All those opposed? Thank you. 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. 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 that would sort of will 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 for the teachers at no cost. It won't cost us anything.
[7DUlBp6f_Us_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. Thank you.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: Thank you. Ms. Cugno. Thank you, Mr. Skerry. Could you tell me what type of feedback you've received? Have any of the teachers been involved in
[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 from 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 grades. 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 been positive.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: Any feedback from parents?
[Rocco Cieri]: Not yet. Looking forward to it, though.
[Mea Quinn Mustone]: Curious. 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.
[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 various 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. Okay. 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 to 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 at 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 what they do.
[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 actually 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.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: Okay.
[Roy Belson]: And we've got activities over there, so it isn't really mostly a business activity, it's 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?
[Roy Belson]: Not necessarily.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: It could be internships and co-ops.
[Roy Belson]: It could be outside. There'll be expansions of this. It's very early in the year for this.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: Okay. All right, 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? Sure. 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?
[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, you know, 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 Robert's 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? 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 Miss 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. Miss 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.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: That's okay, we can add it to the reports list and Christine can put it together.
[Roy Belson]: 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.
[Kirsteen Patterson]: 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.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Very good, thank you. Do you still, do you still like a written report?
[Erin DiBenedetto]: I would, and I, 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, 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.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: OK, 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 in 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 buses, 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 is 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? Ms. Stone would like to discuss
[Mea Quinn Mustone]: I don't know if we can subcontract.
[q-Y9QUDQ70c_SPEAKER_08]: Good evening. We had a late resignation just before the start of the school year, 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?
[q-Y9QUDQ70c_SPEAKER_08]: Okay, so a BCBA is an analyst. Okay. 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 a growing, there's a growing 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 10 years ago, we didn't have any. So BCBAs, 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 BCBAs, 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?
[q-Y9QUDQ70c_SPEAKER_08]: They're all district-wide staff. So we place staff where we need those staff. So right now we have a large need for BCBA services at the Roberts. 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?
[q-Y9QUDQ70c_SPEAKER_08]: Well, I don't know specifically. 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.
[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 a 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. 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 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]: 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 12, 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? 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 ratings. 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.
[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. Thank you.
[Beverly Nelson]: 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.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Thank you. Ms. Krutz.
[Kathy Kreatz]: 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. It is very different.
[Beverly Nelson]: I think they didn't know quite know what to do with the accountability this year. So they came up with something that, 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]: 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]: Tenth 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 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 9th grade and then all of a sudden the 10th 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 should be doing that to students unfairly.
[SPEAKER_14]: Yeah, and it's not fair. It's not fair to those students. It's not fair to anybody, but those students especially.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: 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, Ms. Scurry. 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.
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