AI-generated transcript of January 22, 2018 Medford School Committee meeting

[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Meeting of the Medford School Committee will now come to order. The secretary will call the roll. Mrs. Medvedev.

[Kathy Kreatz]: Mr. Russo. Present. Mrs. Vindman. Present. Mayor Clark.

[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Present. Seven present, none 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. Ms. Van der Kloot, you're blinking. Is that an error? You're blinking. Thank you. Approval of minutes of December 18, 2017 meeting. Mr. Benedetto?

[Erin DiBenedetto]: to know how the tutoring at the Columbus School is going. They're in the meeting minutes.

[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Mr. Superintendent, how is the tutoring at the Columbus School going?

[Roy Belson]: Diane will answer that. We've put things in place, but there's some things to go. It still has to happen.

[Diane Caldwell]: Hello, Mr. Benedetto. Hi. So the tutoring for the Columbus Elementary School students will begin next Tuesday. And we're excited. We have a lot of students in the third, fourth, and fifth grade. We have teachers, all the four third grade teachers would like to participate, plus we have some volunteers from the Medford High School that would like to come in and work with our third graders. We have two grade four teachers that are willing to tutor, and a special education, and a grade five teacher. So we're well on our way. We're still working with the Eastern Bus Service, and hopefully we'll have everything in place by next Tuesday.

[Erin DiBenedetto]: Great. And we are reminding that if we have extra room on the buses, that we're going to fill it up.

[Diane Caldwell]: You know, we have extra room. We've been saying that. But we just need to make sure that Tatiana is able to get the routes in place, because that takes a little bit of time. OK. But yes, we do have room. OK.

[Erin DiBenedetto]: And thank you so much. Maybe afternoon clubs or something, kids that wouldn't be able to access them. Now that there is a bus, if we can fill it with some of those students, it would open up those opportunities for people whose parents can't pick them up early?

[Diane Caldwell]: Absolutely. I'd be happy to provide you with an additional report once we get started with the tutoring, too. Perfect. Thank you for all your work on that. Thank you.

[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Very good. Ms. Mustone? You're blinking. No. Ms. Van der Kloot? Motion of approval. Motion for approval. Is there a second on the floor? Seconded by Ms. Kreatz. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Motion passes. Approval of bills, transfer of funds. Mr. Benedetto?

[Erin DiBenedetto]: I had a few questions. So I had a question on page 11. It says.

[Roy Belson]: So if I could, just before you go there, Christine is not able to be here tonight. So I may not be familiar with everything that's there. Maybe we could just hold it for another week.

[Erin DiBenedetto]: All right. Why don't I ask him if it needs each item, if we can resolve them, we can move forward and vote on them.

[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Or perhaps the secretary may know.

[Erin DiBenedetto]: Yep.

[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Page 11 of 19.

[Erin DiBenedetto]: 3 quarters of the way down. It says middle 6 pot middle 6 partnerships of or for and it's in the amount of $3376.81 and it says pending classification. So I was just wondering what that was for and what classification that would be under. And you may not know that.

[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: I think it's the grant. I think it's the grant.

[Kathy Kreatz]: I can answer that one.

[Roy Belson]: The Middlesex Partnership for Youth is a longstanding alliance we have. Originally started with the District Attorney's Office, has now moved independently because of certain regulatory requirements. But they provide multiple workshops and multiple collaborations with regard to substance abuse, child abuse, mental health, all kinds. We run all kinds of workshops. And that's an annual membership that allows us to participate.

[Erin DiBenedetto]: Great. So that explains that. It just was cut off, so it didn't say for youth. And I appreciate the clarification. So the next question is on page 15 of 19. And it says Commonwealth of Mass in the amount of $3,025.85. And it says return to grantor for classification. or account description.

[Roy Belson]: Let me take a good look at that one. Page 15 of January 12th.

[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: It's up above a third down.

[Roy Belson]: It's probably a function of funds that went unused because they could not be applied. Sometimes what happens, these things are for fringe benefits and the like, and if they're not applicable, we can't expend on them and then we have to return to the commonwealth at the end of the grant period. But I can get more specific once I get in behind it.

[Erin DiBenedetto]: Right, because we want to use every dollar that they give us.

[Roy Belson]: Well, sometimes, you know, the categories don't match up.

[Erin DiBenedetto]: And so my last question is similar to that. It's on page 17 of 19. And it says the Mass Department of Elementary and Secondary. And it's a refund grant for $32.50, $59. I just don't want to give money back once they've given it to us. Where is this again? On page 17 of 19. Up here. Under Mass Department of Elementary. It's about six or seven down.

[Roy Belson]: Again, it's probably for a category that we can't use. So sometimes it's more than most likely to infringe benefits. If a person doesn't take something, we have to put it in the grant. But if they don't take the benefit, we can't expend against it. You have to make a transfer, and sometimes they allow it, and sometimes they don't.

[Erin DiBenedetto]: OK. Yeah, I just want to make sure they use every dollar that we can. We'd like to.

[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Is there a motion on the floor for approval by Mr. Ruggiero? Question by Mr. Ruggiero.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I have three questions. Just walk me through them. If we can't answer them tonight, that's fine. The first is on page 1 of 19. The miscellaneous high school charges of $11,000. Can you just explore what that is?

[Roy Belson]: Where is that again?

[Michael Ruggiero]: It's the first line item. First line. First page, first line.

[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Student activities.

[Michael Ruggiero]: That's student activity accounts. I see, okay.

[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: And the next two that follow.

[Michael Ruggiero]: OK. And do we normally break down the schools by activity, or by group, or is it just all lumped in there? By school. Well, that's Medford High School. It's by school. OK.

[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Ms. Van der Kloot. I actually was the one who signed this particular warrant. And every time we go in, There's different groups of bills, and the activities account will say whether a club ordered pizza, whether money is put aside for the senior special day or whatever. So all of the bills are separate, but they're lump-summed in this one account when it reports out to us. However, the secretary, who's now Kathy, of course, will see every bill and sign the lump sum, but she sees every single one that we sign.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Is it possible in the future that we could have this broken down by club? Because I'd be interested to know if certain clubs.

[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: That's what's with the bill.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Ms.

[Kathy Kreatz]: Kreatz sees that with the bill signing. Yeah, so when you get the bill, it's this big batch. And every single receipt is behind. So the total amount will be $11,904. And then there'll be line items and receipts to match every single item. And I'd be happy to show you if you want to come down one day on Wednesday, then you can sit next to me. It takes about three hours, and we can go do it.

[Michael Ruggiero]: OK. Yeah. Just out of curiosity. Yeah. I mean, definitely.

[Kathy Kreatz]: And then it would be nice to have another person trained, because it is something you have to do every week in case I couldn't make it for some reason. It does have to be done by Wednesday, because then they have to run the warrants, and then they call Joe and invite him. So yeah, so anytime, just text me and you can come and see. It's really interesting because even glue that's 98 cents, there'll be a receipt for it. Honestly, 25 cents, I've seen receipts. Yeah, it's been very, very interesting.

[Michael Ruggiero]: This next line item, it's on the same page. This is the American Alarm Company. Is this every quarter or are these monthly charges? I'm just curious about that breakdown and how that line up works.

[Roy Belson]: So American Alarm is involved with our security and camera systems and the like. I don't know the specifics of each one of these, but I'm sure it's tied into the fact we've just installed additional security pieces. And I suspect that those are charges that are associated with that. I see, okay.

[Michael Ruggiero]: And I believe I have one more question. On the West Medford auto supply, this is the last page on page 19 of 19. So is this a wholesaler for our automotive department? I just wanted to clarify.

[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: The vocational program, yes.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Vocational for the automotive. That's it. Thank you very much.

[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: You're welcome. There's a motion on the floor, seconded for approval. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Motion carries. Thank you. Approval of payrolls. Motion for approval?

[Michael Ruggiero]: Second.

[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Seconded. All those in favor?

[Michael Ruggiero]: Aye.

[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Roll call.

[Kathy Kreatz]: OK. Mrs. DeVetta. Yes. Mrs. Stone. Yes. Mr. Ruggiero. Yes. Mr. Russo. Yes. Mrs. Van de Kloop. Yes. May I have a vote?

[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Yes. Seven in the affirmative, zero in the negative. Motion passes. Thank you. Report of secretary. None? Okay. The organizational, do I need this? That's the report of committees. There are none. None? I'm sorry. None noted. Report of committees. Report of organizational meeting January 3rd, 2018. Ms. Van der Kloot ran this meeting.

[Paulette Van der Kloot]: So the meeting was called to order by myself at seven o'clock. All the school committee members were present. I stated at the beginning that this was elected The organizational meeting was to elect a vice chairperson and a secretary for the year 2018. And I also that this was the only official task of the senior member. Ms. Kreatz, seconded by Mayor Burke, placed the name of Mia Mastone in nomination for the position of vice chairman. The roll call was called, and Mia was universally nominated. And then Ms. Mustone put the name of Kathy Kritz, seconded by Mayor Burke, into nomination for the position of secretary. And she was nominated for that position. So we adjourned the meeting at 7 to 1 under new leadership, and it went great.

[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Thank you very much. Is there a motion for approval of the committee meeting? All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Motion passes. Thank you.

[Roy Belson]: Next one is not quite ready yet.

[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Okay, the Committee of the Whole from January 3rd will be coming to us at our next meeting. Motion to table that report. All those in favor?

[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Aye.

[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: All those opposed? Papers tabled. Report of Committee of the Whole, January 16th, 2018. This is the size of that meeting. So this was quite a detailed meeting that we held. We called to order. All members of the school committee were present. We discussed several items, one being the school meals charge policy. Do you expect to vote on that this evening?

[Roy Belson]: It's on the agenda as a specific vote.

[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: So we discussed that. That'll be discussed in greater detail later on. We also talked about the superintendent search. If I could try to go through this. Member Van der Kloot expressed the following. She made a motion during our meeting that due to the number of unexpected internal local candidates, potentially there's only two persons. Since we all want the best options, we should consider opening the search to external candidates as well. Rather than a two-tiered search, the school committee should conduct one full search, which would include both internal and external candidates. We voted during the committee meeting to adopt that, and that is the way we are moving forward. We also had the McGlynn PTG Issue that came into our committee of the whole and we heard from the committee treasurer Jane Wright In regards to the various topics that were discussed both in the press as well as in social media And we moved that the school committee adopt some policies and procedures which will be discussed later on in our meeting as well But found that there were no No issues with the actual financials of the PTG during the period that was in question. During our subcommittee meeting on the superintendent search, we also looked over the application form, which we approved. We approved a survey that the committee had been charged with putting together that will go out to survey a monkey at some point. We also voted to utilize the Mass. Association of School Committees to be our administrative arm for the search. I actually met with them this afternoon, and they are aware of everything that we did. We'll be sending them PDFs and Word docs of the documents thus far that the committee has worked on so that they can work with those and then input some of the dates. I have a litany of dates that I could list to you, although I'd rather type them up and get them typed tomorrow and I'll circulate them. But the search committee orientation, we're looking to start on February 7th. As you know, we did a press release today including a copy of the application for those that are interested from the public to apply to be on the search committee. And that has a closing date. I believe the 29th is when we should get all applications back in. So please check out the website. If you need a hard copy, call the superintendent's office or certainly my office and we can mail one out to you. And I will get a list of the dates and we'll get that posted up to the website as well. Is there a motion for approval of the committee report? Yes. Thank you, Ms. Mustone, seconded by Ms. Kreatz. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Motion passes. Thank you very much. OK, community participation. Cheryl Rodriguez, Roberts PTO Community Preservation Project. Ms. Rodriguez?

[Cheryl Rodriguez]: Hello. Hi, I'm Cheryl Rodriguez, dean of my address. I live at 281 Park Street. I'm an active parent volunteer involved in the Roberts PTO. And one of the things that I do for the school is that I apply for grants. So since I'm here, I wanted to let everyone know that we did receive a $5,000 grant from the Lowell's Toolbox for Education. It covered about 90% of the cost for 25 Google Chromebooks, the software, and the cart that is now in the school and will be ready for circulation at the end of this week. Excellent.

[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Very good.

[Cheryl Rodriguez]: And we used money from the Jingle Bell Festival to cover the rest of that cost. We made, I don't have the exact figure, but it's a little under $7,000. We were the number one school this year.

[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Very good.

[Cheryl Rodriguez]: So that was great for them too. So today I'm here to ask for support and help for the Roberts PTO's grant application to the Community Preservation Commission for the restoration of our school playground. The Roberts Elementary School is one of the most populous elementary schools in Medford and our playground, as are all the elementary school playgrounds, is in need of replacement. The worst item in all our playgrounds seems to be the surfacing. So I applied for this grant for a few reasons. One was that I saw the mayor's capital improvement plan at a city council meeting, and it included line items to replace one school playground per year, which was great. And I thought if we coupled it with community preservation money, we could replace two playgrounds per year, and everyone could have a new playground in two to three years. So that would be about 2,400 students in our elementary schools that would all have a shiny new playground to play in. So that benefit would radiate out through the neighborhood that each school is in, because it will allow their family members of the students to enjoy the playgrounds as well as people that just live in the neighborhood. We've gone through the eligibility phase, and we now have to prepare a complete application. So we don't know exactly how much it's going to cost. And we need help from the district in order to figure out the parameters of what you'll require, companies that we have to go through. This is outside of my scope of expertise, as well as my authority as a parent volunteer at the Roberts Elementary School. We were able to apply with a supporting letter from the principal at our school. But in order to go forward, we need approval and help from the school committee and the district. So I'm hoping that we're going to be able to do that. The application needs to be submitted by March 2nd. I'm hoping that we'll make it through the first round because that will allow for completion to happen in the summer when the students are not in school so that they won't have any interrupted recess time and they'll be able to start September with a shiny new playground. If we do receive community preservation funds, there are other grants that we can apply for to help supplement, but we're not eligible to apply for those grants until we receive funding from the community preservation. So I'm hoping that you guys can help me out.

[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Pretty much why I'm here. Superintendent, are there estimates for the new school year?

[Roy Belson]: Well, the estimates vary. It depends on what we decide should be the surface on those playgrounds because we may not want to go with the same surface. We may want something different, something that maybe is a newer product than what we put in place. 15, 16 years ago. And we need to get a better estimate on that. So while this may be an interesting opportunity, we're also looking at the community preservation grant for other issues as well. Going forward, generally for us in the second round, and I was going to give you some materials on that at a subsequent meeting, because the second round will be coming up as well. and to look at a larger picture. But I think if we, since it's March 2nd, I think we can put it on the table tonight. I'll come back with more specifics and try to give you an idea of whether this is feasible under the Community Preservation Grant or whether it needs to go through some other process. I think that's probably the best way to go. Obviously, we're glad to get any funding we can get, appreciate your efforts. But to do this right, this is not a $5,000 or $10,000 expenditure. This could be $75,000, $100,000, or more. So this is not something that's going to be easily acquired from any one source.

[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Is there a motion on the floor to request an estimate from various entities? Mr. Ruggiero.

[Michael Ruggiero]: In addition to that motion, I would like to ask that we move this issue to two of our subcommittees. The first is the building and grounds to see how we can move forward on this issue, and also to see if we could do community relations to see if there are any subcontractors in the town that would be willing to donate grounds.

[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Generally, a paper goes to one committee, not to two. So if you send it to Building and Grounds, they could do their homework there with Mr. McLaughlin.

[Michael Ruggiero]: But in addition to the estimate, I'd like to suggest that we send this issue to Building and Grounds for more research.

[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: On the motion that the paper be seconded by Ms. Mostone, sent to the Building and Grounds subcommittee. Mr. Benedetto, did you wish to speak on this?

[Erin DiBenedetto]: I remember recently walking the playgrounds and that some of this preliminary work, John John might have already done and had ideas for different materials. So it's not a new idea. It's something that we know that we're in great need for. And some of the research might have been done. But we need to decide what products are best. But I believe that we should work with Cheryl to move this forward right away. This was on my wish list when I saw. Thank you for taking it and running with it and making it come forward. So I would like to move forward with this. And I'm sure Mr. McLaughlin already has some ideas of where to call and what types of materials people are using.

[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: There's a motion on the floor, seconded by Ms. Mustone to move this paper into subcommittee building and grounds. All those in favor?

[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Aye.

[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Speak on this? Yes. Ms. Van der Kloot?

[Paulette Van der Kloot]: I just wanted to thank Cheryl for coming before us. Cheryl, you're great at searching out opportunities to get money for the students at the Robertson. I really appreciate that.

[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Thank you. On the motion, all those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Motion carries. Thank you, Ms. Rodriguez.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you, Ms. Cheryl.

[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: In a clarification is my stone.

[Mea Quinn Mustone]: I can call a subcommittee for buildings and grounds. Aaron, Kathy and I are on it and we invite Cheryl and we can all and John. There she go, Cheryl. We're gonna so we'll meet. So Aaron, Kathy and I are on the subcommittee for buildings and grounds and then I'll just email us all to get together.

[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Public meeting, it will be posted for 48 hours.

[Roy Belson]: Got it.

[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: In compliance with open meeting law. All right, thank you.

[Roy Belson]: If you want it on the next agenda, it has to happen in between now and the next thing. So she has a March 2 deadline to submit. So before February 2. Right. So before February 2. Yeah.

[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Very good. Report of superintendent. Report on MASC participation in superintendent search. Mr. Superintendent.

[Roy Belson]: So Mayor and members of the committee, earlier in the minutes you heard that we approved retaining Massachusetts Association of School Committees to be our agent to advance the search. This afternoon, the mayor and I met with Glenn Kuchar, the executive director of MASC, and went over all the different functions and activities that they can assist us with. And it's quite substantial. And as you know, because we pay dues, we're not incurring an additional charge, which we might if we contracted with someone else. In the interim, We've put a pretty aggressive schedule together, as the mayor indicated, we'll clean it up tonight and get something out to you over the next day or so. But the first schedule was obviously the search committee, and the mayor's put something like that out. But in the interim, just to give you some information with regard to this particular activity, Glenn Kuchar indicated to us that he could distribute our brochure, he could distribute our applications, he could take in the applications as they came in, turn them around very quickly, give us a tiering as to who's eligible and not, just simply by licensure and a few things like that, get it over to the search committee, generally within a day, believe it or not. and create the circumstances in which this would go forward. We'd also work on creating focus groups and other aspects of this search site visits and other things that you may want to do or not want to do. But clearly this will take us into high gear with the idea being that a decision would be made sometime at the beginning of April. And this is the path we're on so The report I'm giving you right now gives you an idea that he'll get it out to a wide audience to help us screen the applicants to make sure the people are eligible. The search committee will get every applicant, whether they consider them eligible or not, in hard copy as well as electronically. The survey developed by the school committee, I want to talk to Mr. Rousseau about that. He will assist in getting that out and pulling those results together along with the focus groups. Again, pulling it together so that it takes the burden off any one member to do that or the administrations to keep it clean. He'll assist in the preparation of interviews, questions for you to help you develop questions and appropriate information so you can group them properly. I went through a process of how they do that. And then, of course, following up with contract negotiations with the successful candidate or the candidate that you select. So there's a lot here. Clearly, having an agent on board moves it forward, takes the burden off us to do it, and it keeps us on track to have a decision by April, hopefully. Now, the one thing we've got to understand is that when materials come in, it's confidential at this point in time. Just because you get something doesn't mean you go talking about who applied, because people are entitled to a certain amount of privacy. Once it reaches the final stage, privacy's off. And then people can see it, there'll be public interviews, there'll be all the kinds of things that will give the community total transparency as to the process. It's very extensive, and I think that based on the discussions we had today and based on what you will learn in the next few days, that you'll see this is a very, very wide open search. It's intended to bring in candidates around. He's in Lexington tonight. I think Lexington's about to make a decision tonight on its selection and a few other communities that'll be moving forward. And I think we'll be excited to see pools of candidates come into our program. So with that, I think that gives you an update on MASC's involvement. Quickly came to the table with us today. Remember, we only did it last week and quickly came to the table today to work out some details.

[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: At this time, I really would like to thank the committee that got together to put together this survey, led by Ms. Vandekloot, Mr. Russo, Ms. Kreatz, formerly Ms. Cuno, also served prior to January, along with Jenny Graham, a parent who stepped up and actually put the brochure together, a really nice-looking brochure demonstrating the strengths of our community. So I just want to thank all of you for your hard work in such a tight little time frame. And if you do have any of the documents, including the survey, if you could get it to us so that we can get it to Glenn. So he can start to get them formalized and out the door.

[Roy Belson]: Just if we will, we have to go over a couple of things because it's on your account and we need to move it over. A couple of technical things that we're going to have to do.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Superintendent Belson, is it possible that Glenn could put on a presentation for the community? Because he's seen a lot of these superintendent searches. It would be really helpful. He is.

[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: He's going to actually put together focus groups for not only the citizenry at large, but also internally for teachers and administrators. We will not be at the administrative meeting, because they like to kind of do things with just him. But we certainly, he will be putting something on for the public, as well as the school committee, and the ultimate search committee as well, to say like the do's and the don'ts. If certain questions are legal, you cannot ask. So everyone needs to be apprised of that and stick to that, because it's a discriminatory practice. So he will give us all guidance as we move along. And tomorrow, I'll have a group of dates that shows when we think we're going to hit these milestones.

[Roy Belson]: Thank you. I think, you know, the multitude of activities that you'll see will indicate this is going to be a very public process.

[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Ms. Vandekloot. Thank you, Mayor. I just wanted to mention, though, and I'm all for the MASC taking over this. When we voted on it last week, I put it forth. However, I do think that there is a cost incurred, and it's an appropriate cost. I don't think that all of these services are completely free. So since you said free, I just don't want to mislead anybody in that.

[Roy Belson]: Well, there'll be some cost for materials that we have to pass out and things like that, but we're not talking about search consultants. Based on what I've talked about. Right.

[Paulette Van der Kloot]: I think he gave us the number around 9,000 or so.

[Roy Belson]: That's for full search done by them, totally by them. We've already put some things together. We've already done quite a bit. So it's different. We'll get a number, but the number is not what would have been for a full search if they did it from scratch.

[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: OK.

[Paulette Van der Kloot]: I just want to be clear.

[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Very good, is there a motion to accept this report and place it on file? So moved. So moved, Ms. Argyro, Ms. Kreatz. All those in favor?

[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Aye.

[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: All those opposed? Motion carries, thank you. Recommendation to begin search for foreign language director, school year 18-19.

[Roy Belson]: So I'm telling you tonight that Rita DeCarlo, done an outstanding job for us in foreign language, has announced her retirement. It's an important area for us. She spent over 30 years. And I'm telling you that I want to begin the search at this point in time for a replacement. And we will do it the usual way we do it, where we have some candidates come in, we screen them down, and then we give you a chance to look at the top three candidates that come to you. And you'll give us feedback, and then we make an appointment. I'd like to get going with that.

[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: And I've actually spoke with the superintendent and asked that our diversity and inclusion director, Neil Osborne, be a part of the preliminary interviews. There are a motion to receive and place this on file. So moved by Mr. Benedetto, seconded by Ms. Van der Kloot. All those in favor? All those opposed? Motion carried. Mayor Burke. Ms.

[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Van der Kloot. I'm sure we'll have an opportunity later on to congratulate Mrs. DiCarlo and thank her for her work. But I can't let the moment pass. She's been an asset to our community. She's a great lady. And we will certainly need to celebrate her tenure with us and her retirement.

[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Very good. Item three, report on DESE, Leading the Nation initiative. Mr. Superintendent.

[Roy Belson]: So the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education has launched an initiative which will celebrate Massachusetts and Massachusetts' achievements as leading the nation. Massachusetts, as you know, leads the nation in typical test scores and other kinds of indicators. Also, if you look at the PISA results, the international results, if Massachusetts counts itself as a nation, which we do in the rankings, we're always very close to the top, if not on top. Massachusetts has decided through the department to celebrate that and they've begun a project to provide a statewide platform for public schools in Massachusetts to celebrate their great achievements. We've already begun to pull together highlights and other things that are particular to us that go beyond testing. that highlight the kinds of educational programs that we're running, that we believe make Massachusetts not only tops in those categories of testing, but actually makes Massachusetts, in places like Medford, renowned for doing some terrific programs, whether it's Global Scholars, CCSR, or other things that you have heard about over the years. I want to make you aware of it, because we're going to start to ramp up very soon. And we hope that you'll all participate. And you can see some of the things that are going to go on statewide at the Statehouse and other activities, which will give us an opportunity to highlight our school systems. We'll also use our various media to talk about the things that are going well in our community and neighboring communities and the things we collaborate with. So that's just an informational piece for you right now to let you know and welcome any ideas that you may have.

[Erin DiBenedetto]: Mr. Benedetto. Thank you. On this subject, first of all, I think this is great in any way that we can highlight the work that our children and our community does. I think it's marvelous, especially not only through this, but in general, I think we need to publicize more and more about the great opportunities that children of Method have and the great learning experiences they they show our community. Based on that, I also wanted to ask you about the new commissioner for DESC, and they finalized the last, down to three.

[Roy Belson]: We've actually got some interviews going on, I believe, the end of this week. They'll be interviewing, they've narrowed it down to three finalists, a person who's a deputy commissioner in the state of New York, a person who's a deputy commissioner in the state of Texas, and the current superintendent of the Lawrence Public Schools have been designated as the three finalists. The board will interview them and potentially even next week, they'll make a decision and make their recommendation to the Secretary of Education, Mr. Pizer. will have an affirmation or a veto at his discretion. Hopefully we'll have someone in place very soon in that role. When that person will actually take office, I don't know. It probably depends on their current contracts and their current obligations. But I assume that in the interim, Jeff Wilson will continue to be the acting commissioner until that person can actually assume the role. So we expect that to happen fairly soon. And I'll get you posted as soon as I know.

[Erin DiBenedetto]: So in addition to that, any idea of what direction any of these new commissioners are going to go?

[Roy Belson]: They've named three finalists. So if I want to speculate, I might have thoughts, but it would be inappropriate.

[Erin DiBenedetto]: OK. I just want to keep a close eye on this. And I know that you do. It's just when a new commissioner comes in, new regulations, new mandates, different things. And not only do you have to advocate for that, but our next superintendent also has to have the wherewithal to do that as well.

[Roy Belson]: I'll keep you posted.

[Erin DiBenedetto]: Thank you. Is there a motion to accept the report and place on file?

[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Seconded. All those in favor? All those opposed? Motion passes. Report on statewide accommodations for culturally responsive religious observances.

[Roy Belson]: So as our community becomes culturally and religiously diverse more so than It has been, although, you know, it's quite a change. In 1982, 4% of our school population were persons of color. Today, it's close to 38%. You have an idea of what's taken place over time. But as we become more culturally diverse and religiously diverse, it's incumbent upon us to actively ensure that our students, employees, citizens are treated with respect and dignity, and that they celebrate their personal cultures and religious observances. So adopting appropriate inclusive holidays, observances, protocols does not violate the establishment clause of the Constitution. There's a difference between establishing religion and just allowing people to celebrate. It's a distinct difference. Rather it protects it by recognizing the rich diversity of people's experiences. Massachusetts laws prohibit discrimination in all its forms. The best way to ensure that discrimination does not occur is to educate our students and community through positive learning and experience. We must always seek to move forward, to go beyond toleration to understanding, an enlightened understanding for both our diverse and common human heritage. The topic is far too involved to have a broad discussion this evening, but we need to invest more time through focus groups and additional sessions. In the interim, I've provided you with some materials in preparation for a more robust discussion. And we certainly will include people, and I've listed holidays and other things that deal with inclusive practices that have been put out by various agencies that are known for their expertise in this area. Obviously, this is not only a local thing, it's a national thing, it's a statewide thing, and for us to be in the forefront of it is very important. A lot of good things happening in our community already, but the price of doing the right thing is eternal vigilance. You have to be diligent with it, you can't let it slip, and we have a lot of things going on. And different things will occur, and there'll be some people that perhaps don't understand it, but it's our job to make sure that everyone feels protected, feels safe, and that we don't have any situation where a person feels isolated because of the policies and practices of our school system.

[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Very good. Motion to receive and place on file. Ms. Mostone, question? Sure.

[Mea Quinn Mustone]: Um, so you had listed on our packet, the state of New Jersey has a resolution, the list of religious holidays permitting student absence from school and there's a long list. So is that something that we could consider?

[Roy Belson]: Well, what we do is you, I'll probably recognize the fact that if a person's out for those holidays and documents it as an excuse.

[Mea Quinn Mustone]: Right. But we don't have a resolution on fire. No. So is this something that we know?

[Roy Belson]: We've actually had a practice of doing this.

[Mea Quinn Mustone]: Okay, so you're just showing us. Okay, thank you.

[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: On the motion, this report be placed on file. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Motion has it. Thank you. Report on protocols for school closing due to inclement weather.

[Roy Belson]: So every year we go through various stages of why we close school and why we keep open. And some people understand it, and some people agree, and some people don't agree. I found the last little while, the people who are more aggressively emailing me are generally students.

[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: High school students, in particular.

[Roy Belson]: High school students. Generally around 8 o'clock or the morning before a storm, I'm getting things being told that their life is being put in peril, and we're endangering them and their families. And I write back to them as courteously as I possibly can. But for the most part, people do understand it. But I want to take a little bit of opportunity in between storms, if you will, to go over a couple of things. So if people are listening, and we'll put it on our website again, they'll get an idea as to how we make these decisions. We want to keep open if we can. There are many youngsters out there who have no one supervising them if we close the schools. There are many youngsters out there who have no one feeding them if we close the schools. On the other hand, if conditions warrant it, having youngsters out in the cold and driving snow, possibly with vehicles sliding on the road, has to be balanced. with our decision to open the schools. Parents always have the opportunity to make a decision. And if they documented that they kept the youngster home because of the weather, and we have a reason to believe that the weather was that way, we will provide an excused absence. If, in fact, a youngster comes to us late on a day when conditions are such, rather than delay the whole day, which could mess up a number of things for a number of people, We won't mark them tardy to the extent that there's a reasonable arrival. If they come in two minutes before the closing, we might think that that's not reasonable. But if they're an hour or so late, that's not a bad problem for us to recognize that as part of travel conditions. So we're entering the winter season. We're in the winter season. And from year to year, we may have more or less closings because of weather, or cold, or any other number of reasons. Or for some reason that there's a building problem, or a safety problem that's different. We will use our media to inform people. We use all the television media. We use our own media to put things out. We use robocalls. We do everything we possibly can to let people know as soon as possible. Now this last storm, had to wait till almost six o'clock in the morning to take a good hard look to see what would come in. Now I knew in this area, we weren't going to get much snow. But a little to the west and a little to the north and the southeast, they got snow and they got bad conditions. So that was a tough one because we weren't sure what actually would happen, how we would track. The one before, people asked me, why didn't you call off school on that Tuesday when it was cold? If I had called off school on that Tuesday when it was cold, we would have been out Thursday and Friday anyway. We would have had one day of school that week because Monday was a holiday. So sometimes you just have to balance it a little bit and think about what's going to happen. You also have to think about the fact that teachers and others come from distance. And if they have young people of their own that have to stay home with, they may not come in. Or if they have the travel arrangements coming from the north or the south, it may not work for them to be in and on time. It may not be a productive day. So these are all kinds of considerations. We have to pay attention to whether DPW and the contractors can clear out lots, whether we think that the bus buses can actually make it up and go in the various routes, whether the bus stops and the sidewalks have had an opportunity to be cleared to the greatest extent possible, although it's never perfect. It's very rarely perfect. So there's a lot of considerations that we have to look at. I do talk to area colleagues as we come into this kind of season and we take a look and see what's happening and we try to make decisions that way. But it's very important for people to understand that schools provide safety, it provides warmth, it provides nutrition to many youngsters. We don't take school closings lightly. But if we think that safety is an issue, if we think that we can't clear the lots, we don't think we're going to have a productive day, we will call it. And I will try to call it as early as possible, often the night before. But some days it's not, we don't know until five o'clock in the morning, just the way it is.

[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Thank you, Mr. Superintendent. Recently the DESC put out some new, I don't know, they didn't come up with regulations yet, but new discussion about possibilities of having students do work that had been prepared for them so that if we had an elongated time out, there was an option other than tacking on school days at the end or whatever. I haven't read it completely. I was thinking that we would be talking about it. I definitely think, though I understand that it's complex because you need to make sure that all students can access the work that the teachers prepare for them and that is tricky in our community where not everyone necessarily will have access to a computer, but many will have access to phones now. You know, we're in a different age and all the kids that come in to volunteer at the hospital, they're all doing their homework on their phones. So if you're not prepared to talk about that in depth tonight, I think that we should talk about it in a curriculum subcommittee meeting and plan. I see this not so much for the one or two day absence. I see this in the, how to figure out in the event that we have a prolonged week, say a blizzard, that keeps us all home, how we're going to be proactive about this.

[Roy Belson]: I would just tell you that there are people who, not what you're telling me, we should talk in the long term, but there are people who rush to do what they call blizzard packs. I find that unproductive. We pay our teachers to teach 180 days of school. It's not a trade-off to give kids some homework. They're supposed to do homework anyway. The reality is that we want our teachers in front of students, and they don't want to trade days. Now, if we get hit like the storm of 1978, we're out a whole week or ten days or something like that, we could probably have a plan in place to send materials out, especially with today's electronics. I think we should be very careful that we start trading days for short-term days off. But I hear what you're saying. If it's long-term, maybe we should consider it through a meeting.

[Kathy Kreatz]: Ms. Kreatz? I had a question. I did receive several calls from parents who mentioned that the day that school was open, because it was very, very cold, that there was a lot of teachers absent. And most of the kids were sent to lecture halls that were not heated, and they were freezing. The children were just freezing. This is at the high school. And for example, one student, one of his teachers was in, and all the other classes, he went to freezing cold lecture halls that were not heated. And it was just really, really, really, really cold. And students were wearing gloves, and they had the, you know, the little, I forget what they're called, the heat warmers. Right, they had, you know, hand warmers, passing them around, and a lot of kids got sick. And I got a lot of calls about that, and I'm not sure if, you know, I tried to identify, like, what area, you know, and, you know, I just don't know, but it was mainly that it was really, really cold in the high school.

[Roy Belson]: Yeah. We sent you out, you know, on that particular day, I sent you out attendance. And the high school was not badly attended that day. It was over 80% of the people that were there. That's pretty good since normal attendance is in the low 90s, you know. And so, you know, plus teachers, there weren't that many people. There were people out, but there weren't that many people out comparatively to what could have been out. As far as the cold goes, part of the issue was the fact that it came on so suddenly. Certain areas of the building were still trying to adjust. But we can work on the heating system. We can work on different aspects of it. But a lot of people were in school. And for the 80% plus of the people that were in school, I think it was good to have them there, as opposed to shut it down and then everyone's out. We'd end up making it up, and I think it was a day to have, especially that week. Because remember, again, if we called off school that day, we were in school potentially Wednesday. That was a whole week would have been gone. So at least we got a couple days in. I hear what you're saying. We'll certainly work on that. John and I will check.

[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Or check the rooms before students are sent to them.

[Kathy Kreatz]: Yeah, that was my suggestion. If the lecture halls were not heated, maybe have them go to the cafeteria.

[Roy Belson]: We'll certainly have the principals review that as a practice so that they understand that, check the room out. Put them in the warmest place as possible.

[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Mr. Benedetto, then Ms. Van de Kleef.

[Erin DiBenedetto]: So going back to the blizzard bags, this year, actually, throughout Western Mass, there are a few school districts that are piloting blizzard bags. And with today's technology, there is a lot of online learning happening, especially for, I believe, our high school students who have AP exams. And they take that exam no matter how many blizzard days or how many snow days we take. They have to have so much curriculum covered by that date. And that's the date everybody in the nation takes that test. So by losing days for snow, we are behind kids like in Georgia and California that aren't losing that learning time and who actually might start school in August. They're at an advantage of some of these exams. So I believe the future in education is more electronic learning, more interactive learning, and I believe our teachers are savvy enough to teach those in that way. I know that we don't have a per child device at this point. And I know that our district would love to move forward with that, but that's a very expensive thing. But if other school districts are doing this in learning, and we can see how they're using it effectively, for all students. In Western Mass, there are children that are in all different socioeconomic things and they don't all have it. We can learn from them and maybe, I brought this up a year or two ago, actually, when we did have a bad winter about two years ago when we were going late, late into June and almost into July. It might have been three years ago. I think it is coming towards method, and we have to have an open mind with this and start looking at it and seeing what options are out there and planning for our future rather than wait and see what happens. So I don't agree. I think that we should look forward to this, if not for this year and the next year's coming. Thank you. Yep.

[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Ms. Van der Kloot. So yes, I just wanted to formalize my thought then and along with Erin's. I'd like to ask that the curriculum subcommittee review the recent DESC paper on alternatives for snow days so that we can begin this discussion.

[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: It's seconded by Mr. Giro. Mr. Tringali, would you like to speak on the matter? You can step forward if you'd like to a mic.

[SPEAKER_03]: So just to speak to the AP, teaching over snow days, most of the teachers already kind of take their own initiative individually as to, you know, what what sort of assignments they can give over that snow day. One of my teachers just says, well, it's going to be three days ahead so that in the case of catastrophic blizzard, we'll still be remotely on track. And so mostly the teachers are doing this already. But what I do worry about is candidates who don't have as much accessibility to technology.

[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Fairness.

[SPEAKER_03]: have access to technology, and that's not something that all do, but teachers kind of work with the students already to kind of work through the simple things. So just to give you some sort of perspective.

[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Good to hear. Thanks.

[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Mayor Burke.

[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Ms. Van der Kloot.

[Paulette Van der Kloot]: I just want to congratulate our representative from the high school, Sebastian Tringali, on his recent acceptance to Tufts University.

[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: and drags.

[Paulette Van der Kloot]: It means he'll be nice and close.

[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: I know. Mr. Ruggiero? Are you blinking? No? My motion is second. Second the motion by Ms. Van der Kloot that this paper be sent to the curriculum subcommittee to investigate the DESE findings on alternative ways of conducting school business on snow days or emergency days off. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Motion passes. Item six, recommendation to adopt oversight guidelines for PTO slash PTG and other 501c3 organizations that support our public schools.

[Roy Belson]: Mayor and members of the school committee, we had an extensive discussion in the committee of the whole. And again, just to briefly summarize it, The organizations that exist to support our schools are all good people. They're working hard. They give up a lot of their time. They generate a lot of support for our schools. We're very grateful and thankful. However, in order to optimize it, in order to make it more efficient and more effective overall across the city, and in order to tie it together with our own work, it's important for us to adopt some guidelines, adopt some training protocols, so that we can help these organizations do that much better. and to dovetail much better with us. So I've put together for you some recommendations to adopt oversight guidelines for PTOs, PTGs, and other 501c3 internal organizations. And I say internal organizations because I'm not talking about if a major corporation's 501c3 gives us money, I'm not going to ask them to audit their books. But I'm talking about groups that technically work with us or use our name. So if Michael Bloomberg gives us some money. I'm not going to ask him for his financials this week. I guess he probably wouldn't send them to me anyway. But having said that, our Cummings Foundation, things like that, they give us money and I'm appreciative that they do. But I'm talking about the internal groups that are clearly ours. And so I've listed eight items and I would ask that you approve them. I can read them off or you can accept them as they're written. Let me know what you're... Would you like me to read them?

[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Okay. Would you like me to read them?

[Roy Belson]: Up to you. I can read them. One, all PTG, PTOs, and other internal 501c3 organizations affiliated with the Medford Public Schools must be registered with the superintendent's office annually. All registrations must be renewed by September 1st of each year. A registration is simply a process of recognizing that an organization exists, and if they're out in the street, that there's a number they can have, and if a person who's a member of the community wants to donate, they know this is a valid organization. And we also know that they exist, and they're using our name and raising money using our name. To all registered organizations.

[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Ms. Mustone.

[Mea Quinn Mustone]: Is it the same number every year for the PTO? That's the federal ID number?

[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: That doesn't change. That doesn't change. This would be an internal registration.

[Roy Belson]: MPS 1234, whatever it is. OK.

[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: I'm just curious what the registration form you have.

[Roy Belson]: Just a very simple thing, but I want to know they exist. Who they are. You'll see it as it comes down. Well, it'll come down. You'll see it. You'll see the things that will be on the form. Who the officers are, and so on and so forth. Where they're banking, and the likes of this.

[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Just let me continue. Some of it will flush out, and then there could be questions at the end.

[Roy Belson]: All registered organizations must submit bylaws, names of officers and board members, annual fundraising and expenditure plans, and a year-end financial statement. Obviously, we want to know that every organization has some rules. We want to know that they have a plan, that it's not just something. Now, if they want to modify it, they can let us know they want to modify it. I'm not running around trying to second guess every move, but they should have a plan. And another reason for that is the fact that if everyone hits the same bank, And everyone hits the same business over and over again. We're working on our community pretty hard. And also, when the school department goes to them for various things, they might say, but I already gave. So it's important for us to know who is being asked for money, who is being repeatedly asked for money, who is being repeatedly asked for services, and whether or not it interferes with something that might be a larger project that the school department might be able to do for the greater benefit of all.

[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: If I could just interject, I just asked you guys not to, but you don't know who you're going to go to at the beginning of your year. You have an idea. That happens over the course of the year. No, you generally don't know. You hit everybody, sometimes you focus on one, but it's dependent upon what you're trying to accomplish.

[Roy Belson]: You can modify it. You can make changes. It's a projection. It's like our budget. We project certain things and changes happen during the year. It's just nature. You can just send in a note, say we did something different or we added something. Maybe it doesn't have to be that tight. Let me keep going and then we can hit it all. Some of these things intersect with each other. Three, bylaws must clearly identify how a person becomes eligible for membership and how a person becomes a voting member. Distinct difference. I mean, a person comes to a meeting, they may be a member, but if they've been to one meeting in three years, do they have the right to make decisions for a group of people that have been working on it for an extended period of time? That's a decision people can make. Bylaws must identify what is a voting quorum. Some of them, three people in the room could be a voting quorum. Is that a voting quorum? Do you have to have so many members of the executive board to be a voting quorum? Do you have to have so many members of the established membership to make a major decision? Bylaws must provide detailed information how, when elections for officers and board members will be implemented. When is it going to happen? What is the process? What is the distribution of information so that people know that an election is coming? Expenditures of funds must be done in coordination with the principal to ensure that supported programs, activities, and materials are consistent with the school's program and do not distract from the main mission of the school. We can't have an organization decide to buy a new curriculum that is counter-indicative to the ones the school system has adopted. We can't have people planning trips that get in the way of testing or planning trips that come just as the testing season's about to begin. We're planning trips that are not tied to the curriculum in an important way. Maybe once in a while, but not all the time. Remember, we only have 180 days of school. We want to make sure all of them are used properly. The public schools through the superintendents offer training to each entity. We want to make sure they all know what forms they have to fill out, if they're raising funds, if they're a non-profit. We want them to understand regulations and ordinances, what they can do. If you pay somebody money, and you pay them a certain amount of money, guess what? You've gotta give them a form where technically you're paying them under the table. It's not acceptable. If you're giving people money as reimbursement, reimbursement for what? What are you requiring? I mean, tonight you asked about slips and things like that. It's all heavily documented when it comes through the school system. Are we documenting these things? Gives us an idea of those things. And if a person doesn't participate and doesn't become these things, then we maybe decertify them and say, look, we're not going to register you. You're not going to be an allowable organization because we can't track what you're doing. And then an annual report should be made to the school committee about all the organizations that exist. And the general thing, there may not be every expenditure they have, but it certainly should give you an idea of what started the year, what ended the year, and the main activities and the like that they had, and if they had an election, did they change officers, if there were special circumstances, was it reported. And I think if we do something like that, we'll have helped these organizations be that much better. And we'll help ourselves as we try to coordinate their activities with our initiatives as well. So I guess the floor is open for discussion.

[Erin DiBenedetto]: Mr. Benedetto? Thank you. Thank you for this. I think it's a good place to start. So in the title of it, recommendation to adopt oversight guidelines for PTO and PTG. I would like to have friends of as well listed, not as under other, but directly PTO, PTG and friends of groups. Because I just want them to realize that they are included in part of this and the oversight will also include them. And I would like to add a number nine. Register any event that uses our building through community schools so we can track how much our schools are being used and which schools are being used the most. So that way we can allocate funding for maintenance and repairs and custodial services and extra paper towels and toilet paper to those buildings. And extra cleaning if that's necessary. And to track where in the city we're using a lot. And maybe we need to move it to another side of town so other people in the community can go that don't drive or have an opportunity to attend different things, especially if it's a big event. OK? So those are the type of things I'd like to see added. Thank you.

[Paul Ruseau]: Mr. Rousseau. Yes, thank you. The response I got from some PTO members when they saw this was interesting. It was sort of like, well, that's it, I'm done. That was pretty much... I'm sorry, you didn't hear that? That's it, I'm done. I'm not doing the PTO anymore. And most of this seems to be solving a problem that doesn't exist. The financial aspects about having some kind of a reporting on the finances makes perfect But, you know, the voting stuff, you know, I know of a PTO that nobody can remember having an election because there has never been enough people to show up to fill all the spots in the six years that they've been participating. So it's fine to say we should have elections, but when you have three people, four people, or five people filling the six spots year after year, adding one more thing where they have to post that there's going to be an election, print it, get it distributed to all of the families, have an actual meeting so that the three or four of them can come together with their cookies and say, I guess it's us again, but don't forget to take a roll call. And that kind of effort doesn't seem like that big a deal. But when you add things like the training, so if it's going to be the same treasurer for seven years in a row, Are we going to make them go to training seven years in a row or we decertify that organization? I mean, we can certainly do that. going to have a lot of trouble finding any treasurers.

[Roy Belson]: I think we're looking at people who don't have experience. Obviously, if a person's been doing it and doing it successfully, you don't have to go to things. We don't have our teachers take courses that they've already passed and know. Sometimes there's a refresher. Sometimes there's new rules. Sometimes there's new forms that need to be filed. Sometimes there's changes. That may work. As far as the governance structure goes and elections, if there's no one running, you just simply certify it through the principal's office that we only have so many people. But you've got to let people know because, I mean, one of the complaints that we heard, rightly or wrongly, I'm not taking sides on this thing, was that people didn't know how you become an officer or how you participate. And theoretically, under the school councils, you're supposed to have that election every year. It's required. by the statute. Now, I know it doesn't always happen 100%, but it should. You know what I mean? Or at least there should be some declaration that the only people that applied for these offices or want to do it are a handful of people, but after a reasonable attempt. I think we've got to do that, or else people say, well, I'm not involved. I don't get involved. They don't consult me. I mean, what's part of the discussion? Are people consulted? Do they have a chance to participate? I mean, one of the issues I think you raised during the campaign was community engagement. Well, does the PTO engage the community that it represents? I don't know. So I think there's a balance there. I don't think we have to make it into a very rigorous process, but I do think there should be some notification that there are officers available, there are board positions available. Would you like to participate? Just a thought.

[Paul Ruseau]: Can I continue? I do think the sort of slightly off that topic, the issue of other 501c3s, I mean, I think about like the Medford Education Foundation. I mean, they are about Medford public schools.

[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: There's like Friends of Baseball, Friends of Rowing, Friends of that do a lot of things.

[Paul Ruseau]: But we don't want the MEF to have to go through this. Or do we?

[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: They're using the city of Medford's public schools name.

[Paul Ruseau]: We do. OK. So that kind of gets back to my very first kind of question they didn't ask yet was, so the PTOs were not consulted for this, correct? No, we haven't done a wide sweep on that. So I mean, I just feel like that this should at least, that they should be part of the conversation on what would work.

[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: You can make a motion that this be tabled, pending, or send to a subcommittee if you... I'd like to make a motion that this be sent to the... Is it the rules subcommittee? It could be rules.

[Paul Ruseau]: I'm on support services, so I would certainly be happy to send it there, if that's okay.

[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: It's your motion.

[Paul Ruseau]: At this, I'd like to make a motion to send this to support services to create a form.

[Roy Belson]: Is that the appropriate subcommittee? Let's, you know, let's, let's understand what these subcommittees are supposed to do. Support services deals primarily with services that support the educational program. This is more rules of, this is more of the rules of the operation. You know, I'm just, you know, I'm just trying to clarify for you because I mean, if you want to keep some integrity to your subcommittee assignments, you can do what you want.

[Paul Ruseau]: I'd like to make a motion to send this to the Rules Subcommittee.

[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: On the motion, as seconded by Ms. Van der Kloot, did you also wish to comment prior to calling? I did.

[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Ms. Van der Kloot. So I have first, the first thing I wanted to suggest or say that it also included all of those booster clubs or athletic support groups as well. I think September 1st is a bad day to pick because it's, you know, off on Labor Day weekend, I think it would make more sense to change it to September 15th or September 30th. I understand that you're in financial support, saying the relative wealth of where they stand. However, I get really uncomfortable, and you and I have had this discussion many times, when you start wanting to sound like, Mr. Superintendent, micromanage who's going to go to what bank and whatever. We can't do that. We just can't do that. We understand. And if you were seeing all of them and you wanted to draw people together and have a discussion, that's be one thing. But I get really uncomfortable with the thought that you're going to tell the Medford Educational Foundation, of which I belong, or a McGlynn PTO member or Columbus whatever, that, well, they can't have that fundraiser because somebody else is doing it. So I just want to put that out there and say, makes me real nervous when you went down that path. And I don't think it's appropriate. I think when you get to number six, expenditures of funds must be done in coordination with the principal slash administration or whatever. Because, for instance, the Medford Educational Foundation, we don't We have a principal sign-off sheet, however, we've been known to work closely with administration to make sure. that we are, in fact, not funding a program that would not be appropriate. And when I spoke up before, I do believe that the Educational Foundation would, in fact, benefit from something. Because we are a 501c3, and I think everybody who is a 501c this, you are required to have bylaws. Now, how formally you play them out is another thing. But somewhere in your organization, at some point, you have had bylaws, because if you're a 501c3, You needed to have that. You needed to specify how the offices worked. So even though, Paul, I understand what you're saying and your concerns, some of that actually is called for by the nonprofit status. Anyway, otherwise than that, I think that we can send it off. But those were some of my initial concerns.

[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Thank you. Mr. Ruggiero?

[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you, Mr. Superintendent, for putting this forward. I'd like to, seeing that we're sending this to subcommittee, I just want to add another item that we draft material that can be used to help these groups, maybe like a sample bylaws. Could be set up, not that anyone has to follow them, but just like a template. We have a recommended set of best practices that we could put, maybe a binder, that we could put together for different PTOs, just to help them have the best process possible. Yeah, I'm just making, we're adding items on the list, right? We're at nine, so.

[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: If I could just, from the chair, item two. I think it goes back to your question, Ms. VanderBloom. All registered organizations must submit bylaws, names of officers and board members, and then it says annual fundraising and expenditure plans, if that could just be an annual budget. And at the end, in a year-end financial statement, including the Form 990 and state filings. You have to do it to be a 990. To be a 501c3, you have to file with the state, and you also have to file with the IRS. So why not make it part of the package? At the end of the year, they submit it to us. And then we have everything's copacetic as far as filings. So if we could send this document as amended to the Rules Committee, which Ms. Kreatz will chair this year. There's a second on the floor by Ms. Van der Kloot. Motion by Mr. Russo. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Motion has it. Do you want me to list the amendments that were discussed just now? You're all good with it? OK.

[Roy Belson]: Why don't we get it from the minutes, and then we'll move it over.

[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Ms. Van der Kloot.

[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Before you move on, though, I do know that there are members of the Are there any PTGs out there that would like to speak on this topic?

[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Certainly, if you'd like to step forward. Your name and address, please, for our record.

[SPEAKER_00]: My name is Louis Perdomo, I live at 44 Washington Street. Just on your comment, I'm sorry, I can't see your name.

[Unidentified]: Mr. Russo.

[SPEAKER_00]: Mr. Russo, on your comment on the sort of three, when there's three members at a time, and they're always there at all times, and usually nobody else joins, it's usually those three people. The problem with that is that they're not engaged in the community. When there's three people all the time, that means those three people are not doing whatever they're volunteered for. So they're not, in a sense, engaging the community. So in the sense of looking for that, when you see just three people there all the time and nothing is being done, that's when you sort of say, okay, what are you guys really doing? And that's sort of for the comment that you were saying is like, why these people need the training or another stuff? Well, maybe they do need training to actually address those deficiencies that, that, yeah, they're not engaging. They're not talking there because I've been a parent from the McGlynn school and I I cannot recall the one time that somebody from the PTG approached me and said, hey, listen, you're a parent. Would you like to join this organization? And that's why I'm sort of saying this now. Thank you.

[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Thank you. Is there anyone else that would like to speak?

[Cheryl Rodriguez]: Hi, I'm Cheryl Rodriguez again, 281 Park Street. I am an active member of my PTO. No one personally approached me, but I can tell you that my PTO sends constant flyers. They have events almost monthly. Every PTO does this. We have Facebook pages. Some of us have Twitter accounts. We make every effort to have people join. I'm not a board member on a PTO. I went to a PTO meeting and I raised my hand and volunteered. I've added programming to my PTO on a voluntary basis, and people do the best that they can. I've gone to meetings where there's been three people, and I know for a fact that a flyer's gone out, that a flyer's been on the window at the school, that we've posted it on our Facebook page. And there's three people there. And that's not because we're not engaging our community, because we have signs up at every event that things are going on. We send out emails. There's only so much that you can do, but you have to be realistic. When I had my first child, I worked full time, and I did not volunteer at the PTO. I did not have the time or the bandwidth. I'm lucky now that I can and I do. And I appreciate that a lot of people are not able to do that, and I don't think that we should be disparaging people on either side, people that do have the time to volunteer, great. People that don't, you know, that's fine too. We're here for all of the children. We do fundraising for every child. in all the schools, and we're not singling out and go, oh, Johnny's mother didn't help, so he doesn't get a t-shirt on field day. So I think we need to remember that. And I hope that some of your recommendations will include ways to help some of our PTOs, especially those of us that are in high needs districts, high needs areas, where our parents do work two jobs, or our parents don't speak English, or they have special needs children they have to attend to, or they have three or four children, and packing those kids up and coming to a PTO meeting is impossible. We even tried to do our meetings on Facebook Live. And it didn't increase our attendance. So we're all doing the best that we can. And I hope that the district is able to help us. Because from year to year, some PTOs find that it's really hard for them to afford that $8,000 to $10,000 that we need for the buses, or that field day event, or that in-school enrichment. And we do the best that we can. Sometimes you run a fundraiser, and you think you're going to make $1,000, and you make $500. And you have to add another fundraiser on the fly, because you're not going to cover those bills at the end of the year. Thank you.

[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Ms. Van der Kloot. It would be a shame if this conversation ended with any thought that we're not appreciative of the extraordinarily hard work of our PTOs, PTGs, booster clubs, and any other organization that gives up their time and effort to raise money for our students. I know from experience, I know from my time on the school committee and before that, how hard people work and how often it is a very small group of people in the end who really bust their butt night after night making sure that all of the money is raised that the kids get the opportunities. And so I just think that it's really important. You know, many of you won't remember this and the only two maybe in the room right now might be the superintendent and Diane Caldwell, remember that before I was on the school committee, one of the things that I did was an event called It's Your Night to Shine. And that was a thank you to all the volunteers, all the PTO members who busted their butts, because way back then, as someone who was just beginning in all of this, it was so clear to me that there were a few people who just kept things going. And they were all, blessedly, that it's always somehow worked out that we have a group of parents at each and every school who will take this. And sometimes it's because the void, they see that no one else is there and they step in and they make it happen. So within all of this and this discussion, by putting in something like this, ultimately the desire is not to just oversee and enforce and say you have to do one more thing, but to be helpful, to be positive, and always to say thank you so much for the work that you do.

[Erin DiBenedetto]: Very good. Mr. Benedetto on this topic. Yes. Thank you. So on our agenda on the back page, there's a listing of reports that we've asked for. And if you look under requested reports, the first one was a report on PTOs, including how they're helping the community and what they are working on. And that was requested last April, April of 2017. Now, it needs to be amended because when we spoke at our committee meeting recently, the superintendent said that he is planning to have all the PTOs come before the school committee between the month of April and May. So I would like that amended, that line item. And the goal that I had when I requested that last April was to bring the PTOs forward to celebrate the things that they have done for the school district, and to bring them forward so the rest of the community knows, like, hey, at the McGlynn, this is some of the things they've run, and they've run it for 10 years, and the kids still love it. Or, you know, second graders get to go to the science museum, and the PTOs throughout the district have paid for the buses. Let's celebrate some of these things. And that was my goal back in April, because I just felt like, less, people have less time to do that. And they're so involved with trying to get by and things are a little harder for families now or they're busier. And it was just a way to bring them in to celebrate the work and the time and the effort they did. My history has been started as a PTO president, co-president with Ian Ricucci, who is amazing. And I had a big mouth then, and I wasn't ready to be quiet. So that's why I ran for school committee. and I'm here in front of you now, and didn't run till my youngest graduated, because I felt like I had a big voice as a parent, and you all have a big voice, everybody has a voice. Show up at these meetings, say what you need to say, ask us for what you need and what your children need, that's what we're here for, and we need to celebrate the people who have volunteered, have done so much already, and before we ask them to do more, we need to show them that we do care and we are here to help support you. I just want to applaud the people here tonight and encourage more people in the community to come forward and ask the superintendent to amend that piece. So that way, we do have the PTOs come in April and May of 2018. And we should invite the press so that they get a list of all the wonderful things that have been happening, not only this year, but years past as well. I think it's time to celebrate some of the happenings in our community. So that's my request, Madam Mayor. Thank you.

[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Thank you. Ms. Wright?

[SPEAKER_11]: Good evening, Mayor Burke, Superintendent Belson, and school committee. I'm Jane Wright, treasurer of the McGlynn Elementary PTG. I was not planning on speaking tonight after last Tuesday's school committee meeting when Superintendent Belson reported there was no malfeasance found in the finances of the McGlynn Elementary PTG. However, Mr. Ruggiero continues to perpetrate lies and misunderstandings on social media. I had anticipated after last week's meetings that there would be an effort to move forward with Superintendent Belson's recommendations, as reported out in his findings. I look forward to that effort. However, it seems that Mr. Ruggiero feels compelled to continue waging an assault on my integrity and the PTG, notwithstanding the superintendent's findings and recommendations. Last Friday night, Mr. Ruggieri wrote on Facebook how going to the press was, I quote, a hard choice on how to alert the public to lost donation money. There was no lost donation money, for if there was, it would have been reported in the investigation into the finances. At last Tuesday's meeting, I refuted Mr. Agero's numerous quotes on how he tried to contact me many times over the course of a month. I produced my cell phone records from October 1st, 2017 until January 13th, 2018. Mr. Agero called me once on December 14th. Still, as he posted last Friday night, he is continuing to claim he made numerous calls, now texts, and Facebook messages. I received one call from Mr. Agero on December 14th, and no other attempts were made by Mr. Agero to contact me or anyone else on the board. On the phone, Mr. Agero did not speak with me in a strong way, nor did he say that he had financial concerns that he needed to talk with me about regarding the PTG, as he asserted in one of his recent posts. As I said at last week's meeting, if I knew people were questioning the finances, I would have met with them that night, and I would not be here again. At no time prior to December 22nd, when one mother asked me about the financials, was I approached to discuss the PTG finances. And yet, the article came out a few days later, alleging, as Mr. Giro still claims, I was asked multiple times about financials. This is simply not true, and I have made my phone records readily available to substantiate the fact. I rescheduled one meeting on December 28th. not a whole host of meetings, as was written by Mr. Ejero. Even though I rescheduled that meeting, I sent that information to be shared via email. Mr. Ejero continues to post about the bylaws the parents asked for multiple times. Yes, they should have been made available sooner, and I take full responsibility for that error. In fact, I apologized to the parents in our December meeting before the transcript article was published. Further, the current executive board had began discussing how the bylaws need to be amended even before we heard the Superintendent Belson's suggestion in his report. We look forward to incorporating Superintendent's recommendations. Bylaws were not mentioned in my speech when I addressed Mr. Giro's accusations and defamations. Mr. Gero claims that the PTG buried the fine for late taxes. However, the executive board at the time did not. It was reported immediately to the principal of the school, who is no longer there. We paid the penalties and have been in compliance ever since. Mr. Gero is now claiming on social media that all of this went down before he was sworn in, and he therefore was acting as an ordinary citizen. If that were true, he would not have introduced himself to me on the phone as Mr. Ejero, Medford School Committee member. The transcript article on December 26, 2017, was titled, New School Committee Member. Parents raise questions about McGlynn Elementary PTG. The transcript editors wrote on Friday, if newspapers fail to report on statements and actions made by our elected officials, whom we vote for, and whose salaries we pay in taxes, everybody loses. Mr. Ruggiero was identifying himself and acting as a school committee member despite not being sworn in yet. Part of the role of the school committee for the Medford Public Schools is to vote to set the policy, set the budget, and hire the superintendent and evaluate his or her work for the Medford Public Schools. Whether he was acting as a school committee member or member elect is utterly inappropriate for him to publicly berate and single out a member of the PTG, especially when based on unfounded accusations and misinformation. Even after the investigation's findings of no malfeasance, he continues to perpetuate the lies and misinformation on social media as recently as Friday. Mr. Ruggiero seems to want it both ways, running for cover as an ordinary citizen when criticized for his handling of the situation, and then asserting as a public official he has a duty to get involved. As a public official, doesn't he have an obligation to set all the community Doesn't he have an obligation to all in the community to set an example and exercise sound judgment and ensure that which he elevates as a public concern is carefully reviewed before making unfounded accusations and personally attacking individuals in the community? I would like to also make you aware of a parent among Mr. Ruggiero's group who sent a threatening and harassing email to our president last Friday morning. I have copies of that email here for you to review. In this email, despite the discussions and recommendations last week, this father continues to berate the PTG and threatens to call the school department officials and the Medford transcript if his demands are not met and on his timeline. I think that we are in agreement there are improvements that can and should be made, and I and the rest of the PTG board look forward to making those improvements with the administration and updating the bylaws and reporting procedures. However, in the meantime, it is concerning that we continue to be threatened and harassed by parents who are unwilling to accept that there was no malfeasance. Again, we are all volunteers doing the best that we can to plan, facilitate, and staff events and fundraisers for all of the students in our school. being threatened and harassed is unacceptable and it is counterproductive. I thank you for your time again this evening and hope that this matter can move on to more productive discourse and results in benefits for all stakeholders, most especially our students and teachers. Thank you, Ms. Wright. Thank you.

[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Mr. Shiro.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So this statement will not change any minds, those that know me. in my commitment to transparency already know my work ethic. I shall try my best.

[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: We're having trouble hearing you.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Oh, excuse me. I'll speak a little louder. This statement will not change any minds. Those that know me in my commitment to transparency already know my work ethic. For the rest, I shall try my best to open my heart and write as honestly as I can about this situation. Words matter. I've spent the past few weeks meditating on the words I've settled upon. I've prayed to help me see any terrible mistake that I might have made. I've spent sleepless nights rereading the article in the transcript and my quotes in them and searching my motivations. While I now have access to more means of dealing with these situations in the future as a school committee member, As a private citizen from the bottom of my heart, I really, I regret nothing. Here's why. I want to live in a city where every resident is free to challenge those in positions of power, even me. It may seem like a silly thing to believe that a treasurer or a president of a PTG occupies a position of power, but they do. Every group that works inside of our schools and inside of our city government occupies a position of power. As a candidate, I came across a $6,092 mistake that many, many people did not know about. While I appreciate the treasurer's statement that she made the community aware, it seems that the issue is buried. In my opinion, This mistake should have been reported to the parents of Medford in 2014 when it happened, and not just maybe a small group of members of the PTG, but to the wider community at all. To my knowledge, neither Roy Belson nor many, many of the other parents knew about their losses of their donations. So after great deliberation with many of the parents involved, thinking about what kind of example we wanted to set our children, we decided to report the Ed Rarer to the people of Medford. I never once labeled any member of the McGlynn PTG a crook or a criminal or a monster. As a matter of fact, I never mentioned any names in any of the correspondence that we had in the transcript. In my heart, I knew that hard-earned money was wasted, and the people of Medford deserve to know. So we called for transparency. To the undecided in this room, I ask you, did you elect me to stay silent when I found evidence that money was wasted? Would you have preferred that I stand mute? If I find evidence that our schools have not used money properly, I'm going to speak up. I serve at your pleasure, but I forever stand as a fierce defender of the values I cherish and the city I love. The treasurer and the president of McGlynn PTG seem convinced that they run a tight ship. God bless them. They have worked very hard, and I appreciate all the time they have invested. But here are the facts. The laws of their group demand they present financial information when asked. They didn't. The laws of their group demand they keep their rules and their ledgers handy at every meeting. Didn't happen. Their rules require a budget at the beginning of the year, but it wasn't provided. Mothers felt belittled and humiliated. How dare parents ask questions, eh? I have no doubt that every single parent at the McGlynn PTG loved the children and want to help our city grow. Nonetheless, you can't play fast and loose with the rules. You would think that after stumbling into such a chasm with the IRS, people would be a little more cautious. Those are the facts. But before you go, I think it's really time we can move forward. There's a great proposal on the table here. Parents will have financial information now when they're asked. Our school committees will work to help parent groups become as effective as possible. Training will be provided. Never again will thousands of dollars be lost into a hole. I think this is an exciting time and I think we have a great proposal here. And I hope everyone, both sides of this issue, look forward to moving. Thank you.

[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Thank you.

[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Ms. Van der Kloot. Mr. Ruggiero, as a new colleague, I want you to know that I have no doubt at all that you meant no harm. You meant to be speaking up for parents, and in fact, were responding to parents' requests. I know that. And I know that you did it thinking that you were doing the very best thing. I have no, absolutely no doubt about that at all. I don't think you meant to be heavy-handed. I don't think you meant to cause this uproar. I don't think so at all. I do think you were inexperienced, and frankly, you learn. Because you see, you know that it's caused great upset. That was very evident the other night. We agree that we've now got some new things that have come out of this, maybe, and maybe that's all for the better. But there were some really hurt feelings. The treasurer has asked for an apology. Saying I'm sorry doesn't cost you anything, and it would help to move on. I understand that you didn't mean to hurt, but frankly, you did. It happened. It's happened to me. I didn't mean to, but it did. And I said, I'm sorry. Sometimes those two little words are just the easiest thing to say if they're heartfelt and meant, because I truly believe, I truly believe that you meant no harm. I look forward to working with you. I look forward to figuring out what it means to be a team. You and I have already had some discussions about personal styles, whatever. And in my view, it is time to move on. But in order for that to happen, you need to say something.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Do you want to say something?

[RCBmbH4HOvE_SPEAKER_00]: Hi, my name is Bailey Shindell. I live at 46 Washington Street. I am a parent of a kindergartner at the McGlynn School. At the beginning of this year, I started going to PTG meetings and was very excited about being part of the McGlynn PTG. I've done lots of kind of community building work in the past in lots of different forums and so I was excited to share my skills with the PTG. I felt the need to speak tonight, I don't have anything prepared because I feel like this situation has been, I've gathered with other parents to work with McGlynn PFTG and I feel like our position has been misrepresented in this forum. I feel like we've been looked at as parents who came in and just tried to take over everything without listening or trying to get an idea of what the process was for participating in this organization. I've spent the last couple days, it's not finished yet, but putting together a timeline of how we engaged or attempted to engage with this organization that's well documented through emails and summaries of meetings. I mean, I basically have a practice from my from my experience of writing summaries after every meeting that I attend. So I just want to say that, you know, we have documentation to show that each step of the way we approach and continue to approach the leadership of the McGlynn PTG and ask them to work with us and we are still being met with contention even to this day. The, there was, I personally felt, I mean, the most recent thing was these minutes that happened from the last meeting were posted. There wasn't any process or approval of the minutes before they were posted in a public forum. The minutes were not representative of the meeting that we had. I felt specifically like I had, asked for certain information from the McGlynn leadership and that was not recorded in the minutes in any way. I then have emailed the McGlynn leadership, again, in each email really trying to say how much I just really, still to this day, really want to work with this group and know by whatever process put in front of me to make changes and to to provide things for our children. And my email was not, or has not been responded to, or my concerns have not been addressed. There's been, throughout this entire process, I've received conflicting information on how things are done, which then that information, after finally receiving the bylaws, was conflicted with the bylaws themselves. These are very concerning things that were happening. I also want to say that while, I mean, when we started looking at the finances, it was only because we wanted to get an understanding of what the money was being spent on. Mostly so we could be like, yes, this is what they do. told, you know, we do stuff, but we haven't, we've asked several times, like, let's get a list of what you do. And we do stuff, the finances and the minutes from the meetings that I've requested several times would help me put together a better picture so I could brag about what they do when I try to promote the McGlynn PTG. I don't think it's unreasonable for me to want to have a better understanding of the organization that I want to get involved in. And I think right now I'm speaking for myself, but I think the sentiment I'm putting forth is representative of other parents that I've been working with. We want to grow this organization. We want to do great things for the McGlynn students and we want to do that by working with these women and We need to be brought in. That's I guess that's all I actually want to speak to the $6000 mistake. And I absolutely believe it was a mistake. But I'm really concerned about the fact that That money had to be paid out of McGlynn PTG funds and McGlynn PTG funds are raised from the parents of our school. The parents that we've already talked about not necessarily have a lot of finances. So I do think it's important that if we as a group are asking parents for money that we're telling them where it's going. And I don't think any of the parents that bought pies in 2014, 15, whenever that fund was actually paid, like were aware that $6,000 of their money was going to pay for this mistake. And I think that's a fair thing for them to have knowledge of. Thank you so much. Thank you.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I'm going to respond briefly.

[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: On the motion, this has been, is there another individual that would like to speak?

[SPEAKER_16]: My name's Carrie Cropper. I'm at 61 Dudley Street and I was also one of the kindergarten parents. I wanted to say that we keep getting referred to as for kindergarten parents. That makes me sound like I'm not knowledgeable. Three of the kindergarten parents own their own businesses. we are well aware of how finances should work. Anyone here is going to say it's just as important what comes out of the kitty as what goes in. And that was the question we were asked. When Bailey was just talking about the meeting minutes, to put in the meeting minutes that I asked about pizzas, I think is not a fair representation of when I say what do we spend our money on for expenses, for fundraisers. I didn't get up to speak last time during our last meeting because I realize that our PTG board has every right to protect the culture of the PTG. And Jane had every right to speak about that she was hurt and that she was offended and she felt attacked. That's their right. It was my right and our parents' right to be given bylaws. It was unfair. when we asked five times over the course of 30 days, which is standard, to be given bylaws, and we were not given them. It was unfair to stand in their presence while they held the bylaws and did not give them to us, and said, we're not sure if this is the correct version. We will get back to you. That was unfair. Since then, we've seen that the bylaws are not always what we're told. The night that they held the bylaws and didn't give them to us, we clarified, what are our voting rights? And we were told, you don't have voting rights. You have the right to vote us into the board. We will listen to what you have to say. But you don't have voting rights. This is America. It's a democracy, right? We should have some sort of voting rights. Bailey asked after that meeting and we got the bylaws. It clearly says, at least by our interpretation, that we should have some voting rights. It said there should be a budget. Anything outside of that budget, we get to vote on. And that's what we've been fighting for. You guys don't know me, but my family, my mom was a commission human rights relation person for 25 years for the state of Delaware. And my dad is a retired police officer. I grew up in a family of civil service. And I've never stood up and talked. It's not who I am. But I find myself angry and standing up and unable to sit down because I feel like this is not what it's about. It's about doing this for our kids. And if, when was the last time you were at a meeting and the two people beside you said, I will get in and help. I will build you a website. I will throw some fundraisers and pay for them out of my pocket and grow this community that is the McGlynn and we really can be great. And you look around at Medford and we all chose to be here. We chose to be parents at the McGlynn. We all, if you talk to us, we all looked at private schools. We all talked about, well, maybe we'll petition to go to the Roberts. We live closer. And we chose the McGlynn. So I don't think I should be maligned because I need to buck up under this is the way it's always been, and this is the way it will always be. Medford as a city is energetic, and it's changing, and it's a really exciting place to live. And I think looking at these PTG laws, and moving forward with them, it would be a really, you know, I'm just excited about it. I feel like it's a good starting place. My only request is maybe you can also, you could also encourage a mission statement for these groups that does not strictly say it is a top-down policy, but that it is also a bottom-up listening structure. Thank you.

[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: We're going to move this. We have a lot on our agenda tonight. Thank you so much for being here and giving your side. And we certainly will move forward with the committee on rules. The subcommittee will be looking at the policy and procedures going forward. Next item up is item 7, negotiations and legal matters. I asked someone to move suspension of the rules to move to the end of the agenda. Mr. Russo, seconded by Mr. Benedetto. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Negotiations will be at the end. Old business. Recommendation to adopt USDA revised required school lunch charge policy. As you know, in our committee of the whole last week, we asked Ms. Patterson to make a few more adjustments to the policy. Tonight, we have with us the final version. Mr. Superintendent? Just briefly?

[Roy Belson]: I believe we made the adjustments you asked for. The amounts and thresholds in the area, so I'd ask that you approve it.

[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Is there a motion on the floor for approval? Offered by Ms. Mustone, seconded by Ms. Kritz. Roll call vote on the policy change. We announced them in the Committee of the Whole, and we'll publish the policy online as well.

[Kathy Kreatz]: Yes, seven in the affirmative, zero in the negative.

[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Also, during our Committee of the Whole, we voted in Executive Session to adopt a wage increase for our sub-cafeteria workers, who are currently being paid $11 per hour. It will go up to $13 per hour. That paper has been moved out of Executive Committee and is before the body to adopt. Motion for approval by Ms. Van der Kloot, seconded by Ms. Mustone. Roll call vote, please.

[Kathy Kreatz]: Yes, I'm in the affirmative.

[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Communication. Recommendation to approve overnight field trip. We have an overnight ski trip with Tufts Mountain Club. The trip has been approved by the headmaster, this is from Medford High School, and the required forms have been submitted and approved. Is there a motion for approval? Motion for approval by Ms.

[Erin DiBenedetto]: Kreatz. Mr. Benedetto. Thank you. On this, I reviewed it, and I didn't see a sign off from the school nurse, so it says the email is attached. And the email that it's attached only says, please provide me with a list of students so that way I can let you know if there's any medical. There was no official write off.

[OQKxfahlemU_SPEAKER_22]: So if you look. I don't have the list of students yet because I wasn't able to finalize the list until I got approval of the committee.

[Erin DiBenedetto]: So this is my point with the new paperwork that we just required everybody to fill out is you need a list of students going before you send it out for permission slips. So you don't have the list until it's approved. So it's like a catch-22?

[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: No, aren't we supposed to approve the trip before they can go to their students, too?

[Erin DiBenedetto]: Right. But the way that the form does, it asks for the list of students when they're filling out the form, so that way they can get the approval from the nurse. And I think other schools are having this issue as well, that I've been told about. So like you can't, the nurse can't tell you how many children or if any children have any medical issues that my nurse may be necessary or medications may be necessary or delegation of medications may be necessary. So we might need to re look at this event. Yeah. So we need to, we need to change this. And I'd like you to look at that issue. I know we've talked about it on the phone this week. Um, Superintendent Belson and so like if you if this I'm noticing this problem here So we need to get our initial approvals going and then provide a list and then the nurse thing which is difficult because then you get a estimate what the cost of the trip is with or without a nurse so We want to make it we want to make it

[Roy Belson]: I mean, let's keep it simple. Let's keep it simple. Obviously, if there's a situation that requires an additional cost, we'll bring it back to you. But if there's no such, you know, cost, let's not make people come back and forth five times. I mean, the goal of this was to be inclusive and to provide appropriate care. If it turns out that we have a situation, we'll bring it back.

[Erin DiBenedetto]: Right. I agree with that, but just make sure that all policy, everybody approving this, and all teachers filling this out know that, like it says here that you have to have a nurse's signature, and if someone's trying to fill this out correctly, the teacher is gonna say, I can't get the signature or curriculum director's signature, and it only says one is, what if it's, you know, it's getting tricky for people. I'm getting phone calls about it, so it's getting tricky for people.

[Roy Belson]: Well, we'll move through it. I mean, there's some people that resist any, early this evening you're telling me that I'm making things too bureaucratic for the PTO. Right. I'm telling you you're making things too bureaucratic for the teachers and everything like that. No, no, no. We'll work it out.

[Erin DiBenedetto]: But this is a bigger issue. I want, if there's a change necessary because we just approved this, then we need to make those edits and make it easier for our staff. I'm not trying to make it harder.

[Roy Belson]: I'm trying to take it down. I think, you know, obviously the nurses indicated it's okay until she sees something specific. And if something comes up, we'll come bring it back.

[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Is there a motion on the floor for approval of the trip by Ms. Kreatz, seconded by Ms. Mustone? Roll call vote. Mrs. DeSantis, yes. Yes, of course they can vote. Ms.

[Erin DiBenedetto]: In addition to that I would like a motion to send this to the Rules Committee to review this paperwork and make it more streamlined for all of our teachers.

[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: On the motion to send to Rules Committee, seconded by Mr. Russo. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Motion carries. All right, new business. School committee resolution. Be it resolved that the Medford School Committee express its sincere condolences to the family of Karen Pirro. Mrs. Pirro was the mother of Medford High School Administrative Assistant Lisa Bowler. Be it resolved that the Medford School Committee express its sincere condolences to the family of Peggy Dunford. Ms. Dunford was the wife of vocational teacher Robert Drobnik. Be it resolved that the Medford School Committee express its sincere condolences to the family of Colleen Hallisey. Ms. Hallisey was the owner of Colleen's Ice Cream Shop and an active community participant. Be it resolved that the Medford School Committee express its sincere condolences to the family of Joseph McAdam. Mr. McAdam was the father of retired high school teacher John McAdam. If we could all, we have an addition.

[Roy Belson]: Joseph Navetta was the husband of Angela Navetta, our retired secretary.

[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Also, condolences on the passing of Joseph Neveda, who is the husband of Angela Neveda, who is a retired school department employee. All please rise for a moment of silence on the passing of these citizens. That actually is the end of our meeting. We did have negotiations and legal matters, which were the cafeteria workers, that we took a vote on.

[Erin DiBenedetto]: Mayor Burke? Motion for... Before we close, can I just remind the superintendent there are a couple items under requested reports that were due in January 2018. So the update report on enrollments in January 2018, including prospective number of students and new developments with units of 100... That was requested September 18th, and it was due in January 2018. Can you update us with the prospective date? Okay, and my last one is an update of next steps for RTI requested for February 1st. This is just a reminder, it's not February 1st yet, but I will be expecting that report soon.

[Diane Caldwell]: Through the mayor to the superintendent to change the date till February 28th.

[Erin DiBenedetto]: I'm not sure if it's leap year.

[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: We'll amend requested reports, the fourth bullet down to be due February 28th, or end of month.

[Erin DiBenedetto]: And I look forward to the report on the enrollments including the prospective number of students in new developments at our next meeting. Thank you.

[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Before we leave tonight, I wanted to bring up one other discussion, which I thought Mr. Ruggiero might. Today, Mr. Ruggiero put online our packet of information, and I think that there was One piece, which I was uncomfortable with, which actually had to do with the ski trip, it didn't have names on it, but if there was names, I wanted that to be posted. I wasn't certain that I wanted everybody in the public to know exactly where the kids were going, what time they were going, whatever, just as a safety thing. I think that it's long been a thought that I know other school committee members share, that some of our documents, rather than having this big stack of papers, could be online for us as well. And so I think that we should take both things together, figure out, there were some questions about afterwards, which people in the public raised, which I certainly wouldn't have thought about. So it was interesting input of saying, how do you best post our information for our meetings? So I'd like to make a motion, maybe in conjunction with Mr. Ruggiero, that we search how we're going to effectively put our documents online, both for the public and also so that we can minimize the amount of paper that we have for our meetings. As a long-term school committee member, I can tell you that I could devote, I mean, whole rooms, buckets fills of these exist, and frankly, it's just way too much.

[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: As I mentioned to Mr. Ruggiero earlier, I spoke to the superintendent earlier today about that, the possibility of us going paperless with an iPad to do our work, and at the same time, when they're uploading the files for us, they can upload it to a separate the school website for all to see what the backup is to the agenda item. So the superintendent and I are going to work on that.

[Paulette Van der Kloot]: OK, I made a motion. Do we want to just officialize it?

[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Sure.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Can we move that issue to the Community Relations Subcommittee? Because a number of people have talked to me about how can we publicize our policies more effectively in conjunction with our own services?

[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Sure. We'll include that in the amendment.

[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: On the motion that this be moved to the Community Relations Subcommittee. On the motion. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Motion carries. Motion to adjourn.

Stephanie Muccini Burke total time: 15.93 minutes total words: 2785	Kathy Kreatz total time: 2.67 minutes total words: 427	Erin DiBenedetto total time: 13.71 minutes total words: 2287	Roy Belson total time: 30.3 minutes total words: 5622
Michael Ruggiero total time: 7.27 minutes total words: 1217	Paulette Van der Kloot total time: 12.95 minutes total words: 2013	Mea Quinn Mustone total time: 0.66 minutes total words: 138	Paul Ruseau total time: 2.65 minutes total words: 439