[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Meeting of the Medford School Committee will now come to order. The secretary will call the roll.
[Kathy Kreatz]: Mrs. DeMettis. Here. Present. Mr. Machero. Here. Mr. Rousseau. Here. Mrs. VanCook. Here. You may have her.
[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. Approval of the minutes of the March 5, 2018 meeting. Motion to approve. There's a motion to approve on the floor. Is there a second? Seconded by Ms. Van der Kloot. 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 on page 5 of 10. Third item down, it says Motty's Caterers, and then the account description says Textbooks DW. I'm sure it was just maybe an error. I don't think we're paying Motty's Caterers for textbooks.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: It's the third item down on page five, Christy.
[Kirsteen Patterson]: Yes, so I need to look at the nature of that.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: OK, and the other one is on the next page, page six of 10, about 10 items down. It says North Shore Rental, Inc. And it also says Textbooks DW. Other than that, they look great. So I think it just could have been clicked differently or some easy error. Oh, someone has something to say. Bernadette raised her hand like she wanted to say. Mrs. Riccadeli. So will we get a correction on that when the money's transferred from one?
[Kirsteen Patterson]: Well, the correction is that the journal entry will be made in the amount that the piece of credit collected. So yes, that will be within that account.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: And we'll get notification of that happening, or our secretary?
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: In the financial statements, not in this. Right. This is like a voucher. It'll be in the actual financial statements, a journal entry moving it.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: OK. And we don't get no, we don't not required to get no, I don't know how that works.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: It goes through the auditor's office and city hall.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Okay. I just, when it comes up like that, I just question it. Okay. That makes sense.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Motion to approve on the motion for approval as seconded by Mr. Russo roll call vote, please. Yes. Yes, 7 in the affirmative, 0 in the negative. Motion passes. Approval of payrolls. Mayor Burke. Mr. Benedetto.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Thank you, Mayor Burke. An item last week, last meeting that was brought up that was tabled asking for the payroll. Kirsten was nice enough to get that together and send it to us last Friday afternoon. So I put it, You know, it was a really busy weekend. I was looking at wedding gowns with my daughter, so I didn't get to this till late yesterday and was at work today. So I just emailed everybody a copy of this report that I put on your desk with some concerns on base salaries for some employees. And I know Kirsten didn't have a chance to review this ahead of time, and again, I'm sorry. Oh, Kirsten, I apologize. Yeah. So I have highlighted some concerns when I compared the salary to the budget book. And I didn't do everybody. I did like three teachers. They were all correct. I did some administrators. They looked pretty good. The areas that I saw a pattern, I kept looking more and more. And in the finance department, there were a lot of admin assistants or secretaries that their base pay didn't look the same as our budget book. So, I can give you a couple examples. I know you have the packet in front of you as well.
[Kirsteen Patterson]: Yes, so what you know is that that's a plan at that point in time when we're preparing those. So the appropriate adjustments, step increases, COLAs, have all been made throughout the year. So again, this is referencing the March 15th payroll as it applies to what was reported.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Right, in that budget, This book that was approved was including those increases for all staff. And not all staff received the increase, so everybody would receive an increase, and that's not the case. The differences are random. Some people got them, and some others didn't. So it would make sense to me if everybody got a step increase. But some people, it looks like it could be two or three steps, and some people are one step, and some people have no raise increase. So it's concerning, and we're responsible. We vote on this payroll. We should know what is right. And I'm not a CPA, but I put a spreadsheet together. I didn't look at longevity or overtime, because those are listed out separately. I just looked at base pay, because that's what I have in our budget book, and I compared them. And I took the salary for that week, multiplied it by 26, which would be the annual income, because I didn't get the year-to-date column. So I just, and I clarified that with you. I sent you an email saying, hey, do I multiply this by 24? Are we bi-monthly or are we bi-weekly? So you said we would buy things. So I, late last night, I did it on Excel. I put the gross wages you sent me, the PDF. I transferred it to an Excel document. I made a formula at taking the gross wages, multiplied it by 26, and got that column. I kept the check date so that way everybody knew exactly what pay period it was. Then I put in the budget book salary for the people that I checked that I saw differences. Some people aren't being paid enough, and some people are overpaid. And I don't want to say names, so I will, like for instance, I will use initials so you can follow along. It's all alphabetical. So like on the, Fourth page down, last name C, first name K, it's highlighted so you should be able to find it. Their weekly pay rate was $19.4742. If you multiply that by 26 to get the annual, it should be $50,632.92. The budget book that we approved, their raise included, should be $46,138. There's a difference that that person possibly could be overpaid by $4,494 based on this. That's not including overtime or anything. And I have 19 examples. I would have done more, but again, I didn't start this till late yesterday because I got it Friday. I had my aunt and I had wedding dress shopping, which was a lot of fun.
[Kirsteen Patterson]: If I may, yes. Again, all of these items are addressed and documented through the payroll system. We have multiple changes, status changes throughout the course of a year. A budget book is not static. It is a plan. Going forward, there are changes that are identified.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Yes, and I have changes that Ms.
[Kirsteen Patterson]: DeBelsen brought.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt.
[Kirsteen Patterson]: There are many items that are explainable had I had an opportunity to review these. I can't read some of these items. They're darkened and black. So I can't respond accordingly to some of these inquiries that you have. Okay.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: And what I also have is in June 19th of last year, after the budget was approved, Mr. Belson came to a school committee meeting and we went into executive session and he brought forth a list of people he requested 2.5% raises on. And I have those lists. Some of them were principals, people who are not under union that he would need to do this for. Some of them were administrators. Yours was one of them as well. And then, He also came forward for some confidential secretaries or administrative assistants that he brought forward that he felt needed to be brought up. And they're not in bargaining. They're, you know.
[Kirsteen Patterson]: Right.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: And they've all been documented with personnel.
[Kirsteen Patterson]: Right.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: And so I have all those documents. So the ones that I'm talking about in these differences are union people who only should be going up the step and some have and some haven't. It should be all or none, because they're in line with the collective bargaining units.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: You've run through the steps in your years of service. So in some cases, you may get a bump for your step increase. If you've already gone through the steps, then you no longer get that bump.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Yeah, I have the steps listed.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Why don't we give Christine an opportunity to take this back to the office, look at your highlighted ones, and she can provide explanations.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: OK.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: It's not fair to put her, she just got this document tonight. It's not fair to put her. under the microscope this evening.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Right. And I can appreciate that. So I would request at this time that we have a meeting of finances as a committee of the whole. We don't have a subcommittee group, so I would like to send this to the committee of the whole to discuss finances. Now, I know it will have to be televised because we need to, it's public record and it's transparency. So in lieu of everything, I really think that it's very important that we're very clear and very transparent, especially lately, about what we're doing, and so that the whole community can see it. So I'm requesting that this meeting happen right away. This involves people's pay. Because if people are being paid $4,000 extra, What happens if it was a mistake or it was granted when it shouldn't have been? Do they pay it back? Do they continue to make it? We have big decisions to make, and this involves people's livelihoods, and I take that extremely seriously. As do I, as protector of the records and confidentiality.
[Kirsteen Patterson]: But these are public records, so it has to be done in public. They are, but a committee of the whole is not. typically televised. Some of these questions, I think, are out of line in nature, but I'm happy to go over these with you independently if that's your choice.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: No, I'm requesting and I'm making a motion for this to be sent to a committee of the whole. I need one of my colleagues to second my motion, please.
[Michael Ruggiero]: So you're asking for a committee of the whole specifically to handle, for these questions to be addressed?
[Erin DiBenedetto]: These are just the questions I looked at. These could only be a sampling. There's people that do owe money. There's people's longevity that aren't added here. Like there's people, when you figure out their salaries, their longevity is missing from this. And I don't know if that's a one-time payment.
[Kirsteen Patterson]: Longevity is paid differently for each group.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: And again, see, the collective bargaining agreements have documentation that need to be identified.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Right.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: No, that's what I'm saying. I'm saying some people are underpaid, some people are overpaid. So there's a motion on the floor, Mayor Burke, for us to meet as a committee to discuss finances within the next week. I think it involves people's pay and it has to be a priority within this committee.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Just another question of clarification. How long would it take you to answer some of these questions? I'm just worried that we're going to go a little too fast. I mean, I'm inclined to second your motion so we can debate it. But I'm just, I wonder, how long would it take you to get this payroll information?
[Kirsteen Patterson]: Again, not seeing the nature of some of these questions, it has to be, you know, it has to be reviewed. I'm committed, outside of the building, the next couple of days I have council meeting next evening, so there, my agenda is full at this point as well.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Could I make a friendly amendment to your resolution before, could we make it in two weeks? One week seems a little quick.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Okay, it's just that. The chair would call the committee in the fall.
[Michael Ruggiero]: The chair will call it at a reasonable time.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: If it's voted on. I'll second.
[Beverly Nelson]: I would just like to add that there are changes that happen through the year with teachers as they get salary increment. There was no teachers highlighted. There was no teachers. As people go out on maternity leave or they're not working, that's going to be an adjustment in their salary as well. I believe also that if somebody is being underpaid, they would have identified that with us, quite honestly. I know I would have.
[Michael Ruggiero]: So I'll second the motion.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Just a point of clarification. If someone's covering for someone else, they get an overtime salary. They can't change someone's base salary if they're a union person. And you can bring someone in at a higher step, but you can't change someone once they're working more than one step or whatever's negotiated through bargaining, collective bargaining. You can't do it for one person and not the whole group. So that's my understanding, and I'm happy to be corrected if that's not correct.
[Beverly Nelson]: What I'm addressing is the fact that there are changes in the yearly salary based on people, if a person goes out on a leave of absence, they're no longer being paid. Right, that could be the money that I think, and I don't know they're out. So there are a lot of things. With teachers, mid-year there are salary increments, and they're not equal. Some people are bumped up two salary increments, some are bumped up one. So you're going to have that inequity. Right.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: I didn't do any teachers. Okay.
[Beverly Nelson]: And I kept it. I just want to be proactive on this, but I'm just being clear that there are legitimate reasons why we do have changes.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Right. But my understanding is that the budget book is presented after the increment step increments have been given.
[Beverly Nelson]: No, no, no. They're given mid year as well.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Okay, but then everybody would have that increase.
[Beverly Nelson]: No, they would not. Salary increment goes according to the graduate credits they've earned. And people submit those twice a year at the beginning of the year. We can budget for those, but then they can submit them mid-year. And again, depending upon the level of credits the person has accrued, they get bumped up, and that's per contract.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Beverly, you're talking more teachers than I'm talking, like, secretarial union.
[Beverly Nelson]: I'm just being clear with you. I understand that, but if you are looking at teachers, let's be proactive. I'm not.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: I've said that three times.
[Beverly Nelson]: I did not.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: I did not look at teachers, and that's not what I'm questioning. That's not what's highlighted, and I would like to keep it focused on what I brought forward and not distract from that. And I would like to see if one of my members would please second this. Mr. Ruggiero seconded your motion. OK, I didn't hear him. I'm sorry. Ms.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Van de Kloof. So, you know, I don't have any problem with having a committee of the whole to discuss the payroll questions. I do have a huge problem with the feeling that some wrongdoing, the charge of wrongdoing. So let's, just going to be very clear, I'm going to vote for the meeting because I think it's always appropriate for us to ask questions. But I'm not, there's, I'm going with an open mind to hear explanations, which I believe will be reasonable explanations. and have always been in my, when I've gone and asked specific questions. But having a committee of the whole is, it's no big deal. Why, why not spend yet another night together?
[Michael Ruggiero]: Mr. Ruggiero. I just have some questions for you cause you know, I'm concerned if there are issues. It's okay if we, if this is not the appropriate time for these questions, I just trying to get my head around all of this. So, If the administration raises a base salary that's not a step increase, the school committee is notified. Is that correct?
[Michael Ruggiero]: So the base can go up or down. We're not notified of those?
[Kirsteen Patterson]: On a daily basis, no. We've got hundreds of status changes that occur during the course of a year. So everything is documented. So there's no issue with that. And I can safely attest that overtime does not go into a base salary and is not adjusted upward in any type of percentage. So there's some inaccurate information here, and I think it's important that the collective bargaining agreements be reviewed and be understood by those that are going to be reviewing and questioning some of the payroll items, because these are followed in conjunction with those CBA documents and individual contracts as they are established. In terms of non-unit employees, the COLA blended rate was the 2.5%, and that was established during the budget process last year. So are things done during the course of the year? Yes, they are documented throughout, and the changes are recorded. There are many different implications between what is considered eligible and ineligible for retirement purposes. All of those items are being addressed and being monitored very closely and being reviewed very accurately at this point for a limited staffing that we have.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Could you send us copies before the meeting of the digital, I have the digital teacher's contract, but it would be nice to have the other collective bargaining contracts. If you could send that to all of us, that would be useful so I could review the information in advance. And so every contract has different rules for step increases. Is that correct?
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: They negotiate it.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Correct. Oh, so I see.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: You could be a January 1st increase, in which case you're looking at a payroll dated March. Right. You're projecting it for 52 weeks when the raise may have taken place January 1st. So it's only a six month increase. So without having all the backup, you can't say that something is wrong.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Right, of course. And so you can have multiple step increases at once or would it just be one step at a time? Like every year you would get no more than one step increase?
[Kirsteen Patterson]: Again, it's dependent on the collective bargaining agreement and what might have qualified for the step and or a status change. Again, with the teachers if they have additional degrees, yes. So there's a number of factors.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Okay, that's all my questions. Thank you.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: There's a motion on the floor to send this paper to the Committee of the Whole, seconded by Mr. Benedetto, seconded by Mr. Ruggiero. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Motion carries. So keep these documents. We will not ask them to spurnish them to us again, so keep your papers. And the payrolls are tabled. Roll call vote, Ms. Krebs. Mrs. DeVetta. Yes. Mrs. Krebs. Yes.
[Kathy Kreatz]: Mrs. McDone. Yes. Mr. Leggero. Yes.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Yes. 7 in the affirmative 0 in the negative motion passes report of secretary, miss Chris to share with everybody.
[Kathy Kreatz]: So far this month, I signed up on typical invoices related to heating, electricity, pupil transportation. Also, there was an invoice for an elevator repair. Also in the first week of March, I signed an invoice for prospect building services. The total combined of all the mini vouchers was $35,704.48. And what Prospect did was they performed a disinfecting mist spray at all of the schools in February. The cleaning also included the high school pool was cleaned, the culinary arts department machines were degreased and scrubbed, and the cosmetology was mopped, washed, buffed, and stripped, and refinished the tile floor. I thought it was interesting, so I wanted to share with everybody.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Thank you, Ms. Kreatz. On the motion, this report be placed on file. Is there a motion by Ms. Benedetto? Seconded by Ms. Van der Kloot. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Motion passes. Report of committees. Rules committee. Yes. Report. Yes. And it's February 26th, 2018.
[Kathy Kreatz]: Yes. Yes. So I have a report and so I'm the chairperson on the rules subcommittee. And we met on February 26 in the superintendent's conference room at Medford High School. The purpose of the meeting was to review the revised proposed reporting requirements for PTO, PTG, Friends of organizations. Ms. Jenny Graham, who's here tonight, was instrumental in helping the committee create a softer online version of the oversight guidelines for PTO, PTG, and other internal 501c3 organizations, other organizations that support our public schools. In your packets, please be advised that this evening, everybody got revised copies of the guidelines and they were left on your desk this evening. So if you could just be mindful of that. There was a couple of typographical errors. There was multiple versions of the copies and accidentally, I think, you know, the wrong one got printed in the packet. So just, you know, be on the lookout for that. And what I'm gonna do is I'm just gonna read briefly the objective The document is rather long, but it's very detailed. It's excellent. If anybody has any questions afterwards, I'll be happy to go over any questions. So I'm going to read the objectives, and then I'm going to invite Ms. Graham up to show everybody a demonstration of the online form. OK, so the objective of the PTO-PTG guidelines is the school committee recognizes that there are a significant number of organizations that operate within Medford to augment and supplement the educational and extracurricular experiences of our students. These PTO, PTG, other 501C3 organizations will be referred to as organizations throughout the document. The committee appreciates the hard work and the dedication of the organization of volunteers and wishes to foster an environment of collaboration and shared vision. To do that, it's important that the committee understands the number of organizations in the goals of each operating to the benefit of the Medford Public Schools. It's not the goal of the committee to centralize, stifle the efforts of the independent entities, many of which are 501c3 registered entities, but rather support their efforts through transparency and collaboration. And you'll notice that there's a section on organization identification, which includes the online form. There's a section on the bylaws, which has some best practice information in it, and it's detailed. There's information about fundraising and expenditures. Training is offered and available. It's not gonna be required, but it will be offered and strongly recommended when needed. There's also going to be an annual update, and there's compliance with the policy. So at this time, I'd like to invite Ms. Jenny Graham up. And she's been extremely instrumental. And she's just been a great help and amazing. And she's going to demonstrate the online form. And you'll get to see how easy and user-friendly it is. Thank you, Jenny.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Mr. Benedetto? I just want to thank my colleague. This is great. This is really, really nice. I wanted to start with that. I just had a few questions. Are all groups now registered with the school department or will be by April 1st, like the friends of and BTOs?
[Kathy Kreatz]: It's not going to be this April 1st. So what we're doing is tonight, we are reviewing the guidelines. That's what we're making a decision on tonight. We're going to review the guidelines. You're going to see the online form. And then I'm going to hopefully make a motion to accept the guidelines, the online form, so that we can roll it out. We're going to have it put on the website. I already got in touch with Superintendent Belson. So once we approve this, he's going to get in touch with the people who can put it on the website so that we can start collecting the information so that we'll have all the registered groups by October 1, 2018. Because they're going to have from now until October to get registered, because this is a new process.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: And my follow-up question is about the compliancy policy I read. So the only, like if someone doesn't register from us, they just can't use the school name. They can be, they'll just no longer be affiliated with us, but they can still run and raise money under a different name, just not like the friends of type thing. Okay, I just wanted to be clear on that. I really, I like this. This is really, really good work to all involved. Very. Thank Jenny and Paul and Mike. Excellent work. Thank you for bringing it forward in your time on that. And I'm happy to.
[Jenny Graham]: Can somebody hand me the remote? I feel like we're missing just some sort of power here.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Oh yeah, we did have it on earlier. It might take a minute to warm up now.
[Jenny Graham]: I still see it flashing, so I'm not sure what that means. There we go. If you can kill at least one of those lights, it might be a little bit easier for people to see.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: It is. I thought we should have movies.
[Unidentified]: Here we go.
[Jenny Graham]: OK. So as we talked about putting this form together, one of the things that I was concerned about as a member of the PTO was making sure that whatever we put together is really simple and streamlined for the people who were asking to do this. So in the spirit of fostering collaboration between all of these groups that work so hard and the central office and the school committee, I felt like it was really important to be able to say to folks, this is what it looks like and this is what we need from you. And really to be able to demonstrate how easy it is. Largely, what you see here is just the beginning of the Google form, and it's exactly what Kathy just read to you, so that there's a link between what this form says in its intent and the actual policy, which will undoubtedly go somewhere else. But as you fill this out, we don't want people to forget over time exactly what we're trying to do. So the vision is that each year, the organizations would provide this information. Anything you see that has an asterisk next to it is required. There are things that are required by the end of the year, but they're not listed as things that are required in the form because the vision is that this form will be used at multiple steps across the year to be able to give information. So up front, when you first put this information together, just some basic information about the organization. So who are you? What is your purpose? What's your mission and vision? Do you have a website? Are you a 501C3? So just really very simple. We also put in a place for the MPS staff liaison. So whoever is your either your building principal or your band advisor or whoever that person is that is your connection point to MPS would be listed here, as well as some sort of primary email for the organization. Anything that's got a parentheses stating public, the vision is that those fields would be made available on a larger list so that the community could go out to the NPS website, they could see who all of these organizations are and there'd be some way to contact them. So there'd be some aggregation of some of the information in these forms. Then we talk a little bit about the organization specifically, so fiscal year end. And that's really so that the superintendent's office has some track of the fiscal year end. I would assume that most would be June 30th. But in the event that there's something different out there, they shouldn't be looking for financial documents if the year end has not come and gone yet. And then Kathy referenced training. And one of the things that we talked about as being really important is providing some sort of support for folks who may want to take on a role as treasurer. In particular, if you're a 501c3, there's real legal requirements associated with that. So even if you're good with numbers, it may not mean that you are equipped to be a treasurer. So this field allows the superintendent's office to know, I've already been trained by the superintendent's office, or I don't need to be trained because I am, in fact, a professional in this field, and I know everything I need to know about doing this correctly. Or, in fact, I do need training. So that will allow the superintendent's office or whoever ultimately does this training to be able to say, OK, these are the five people for this year who need this training. When you flip forward, oh, I guess I have to answer these.
[Kathy Kreatz]: Very smart.
[Jenny Graham]: So you can see, especially if you're somebody who has a website, a lot of this information would be available there anyway. and it shouldn't take but a few seconds to fill this out. Okay, now we're ready to go. So then here you would be saying, OK, so for this school year, what am I telling you about? And you'd go through and you'd say, this is for the current school year, for example. There would be an opportunity for you to say, yes, I already have provided the superintendent's office a copy of my bylaws, because that's part of the policy. Or there are updates that are needed. So if I say that there are updates needed, I can actually just go ahead and add it right here, snap it in there, and then it's ready to go. If you scroll down just a little bit, there is some information here about your elected officials, so name, title, email address, and phone number, with a caveat that only the names would be listed on the public listing and that that central mailbox would be listed as the contact information for the organization so that we're not kind of publicizing personal emails and phone numbers of the folks who are working on these committees. It's too smart even for me. A couple of other things that we identified that would be important to know from a transparency perspective, does the organization carry insurance? Yes or no? And if so, what kind of insurance is it that the organization carries? And then as you go forward, there's space for the financials to be uploaded. whatever your approved budget is can be uploaded, your end of year financials, and any regulatory filings can be updated. So you submit this, the information goes to a central drive, and that would reside wherever you guys decide to put that. And then if I needed to go back, I could go back and edit my response to add those other documents as they come through. So really simple, everything in one place, really intended not to be burdensome, but provide a level of transparency so that you all know exactly what is happening in the organizations from a fiscal and from a reporting perspective.
[Kathy Kreatz]: Excellent. It's great. It's really, it's so easy to use.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Ms.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Van der Kloot.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: It's just great, Jenny. Thank you for all your work and the work, Kathy. You're welcome. That's easy to use. I'm thinking, of course, just that it just makes things so clear and it's great work.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Thanks.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Thanks.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Maver. Mr. Benedetto.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Are the financials a requirement? I didn't see the asterisk next to that section. Yeah. Is that something that's being part of the policy? Maybe, Kathy?
[Jenny Graham]: Yeah. So they are required. You just can't, if we require it on the form, you'd be required to attach something when you fill out the form. And the vision is that that demographic information would be filled out at the start of the year. And the financials for that year wouldn't be available till almost a year later. So it's just that the forum isn't that smart and can't do that. But the goal would be that whoever is responsible for making sure this information is coming in, if they're not seeing it 60 days after that fiscal year end that's listed there, that they'd be able to reach out and say, hey, where are your filings? They're not uploaded.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: And that brought up a good second question. This is going to the superintendent's office. So do we have someone there that's going to be making sure that all the groups are registered and that this is followed through. It seems like an extra task for someone in that department. So maybe that's something that we need to think about and bring forward and talk about in some way. Maybe we can, maybe the superintendent's office will, maybe Deputy Superintendent Nelson can advise us to in the future give us a report on who would be in charge of monitoring this information and bringing it forward and like just keeping it. I get it.
[Kathy Kreatz]: Thank you.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Ms. Nelson, I think the question is to someone in the office that could monitor and maintain this list.
[Beverly Nelson]: We certainly will do that. I just, we have to identify someone who will obviously be in charge of that.
[Kathy Kreatz]: It just seems like a lot of work for someone else to take on. It is.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: It is. So I just wanted to be aware to you and maybe you could provide us a report by October 1st, like who's going to be the responsible person.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Or by budget time because it may be a stipend or something.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Yeah.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Part time. Yep.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Okay, so we'll definitely consider that. I'll put it on my thing to the back of our agenda list as a report. So that way there, we remember to make, remind you that it, you know, we'll help each other remember. So we are, I'm requesting a report as to who and how we're going to allocate this additional work to.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Nice job to the committee. Great job. Thank you so much. Thank you.
[Jenny Graham]: And I know that there, I think we're planning for this to go into implementation next year, right? Um, if there's any interest in a group to volunteer to go first to do the presentation to you guys, the Brooks PTO would be excited to do that sometime later this year. So we would be happy to, put together what we want to tell you and bring it to the meeting. If there's room on the schedule for that, we'd be happy to do that just to give people a sense of what that would look like and that it's not that scary. Thank you.
[Kathy Kreatz]: Ms. Kritz, you wanted to make a motion? Very good. There's a motion on the floor to accept this policy, seconded by Ms. Van der Kloot. Roll call vote.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Yes.
[Kathy Kreatz]: Yes.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Seven in the affirmative, zero in the negative motion passes. And also Mr. Benedetto's, uh, report to find out who would be doing, keeping up with this inventory of organizations. Is there a second on the floor for Mr. Russo? All those in favor. All those opposed. Motion passes. Thank you very much. Community participation. There is nothing on the agenda for this evening. Mr. Ruggiero. So motion on the floor for suspension of the rules to take paper on the library out of order. Is there a second? On the motion to take this paper out of order. All those in favor? All those opposed? Motion granted. Recommendations submitted by member Michael Ruggiero that the Medford School Committee go on record in support of the following project and any loan order associated with said project. Whereas a functioning library is an essential institution to the education of an entire community, and whereas the $12.3 million grant from the Mass Board of Library Commissioners, which has been acquired to finance the construction of a new library, will expire on April 10th, and an additional green library incentive of $430,000, Now the FOB has resolved that the School Committee of Medford go on record in support of this project and any law and order associated with said project.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Mr. Ruggiero. 44,954 children's and young adult books. A mountain of material. But only one small part of what our library provides to the children of Medford. Beyond these books, or CDs, or DVDs, or curriculum support, hundreds of story time hours and tutoring sessions, the most important parts of our city library are the safe halls sheltering the students of our schools. We have all seen the pictures. We need a library without a leaking roof or rotting floors or flickering lights. And it is for this reason that I ask you to request that the city council approve the construction of a new space. A place where children can not only study for the MCAS, but also a space where WIM can take a child to the dialogues of Plato or the history of DNA. Yes. Let's build a new dry home for the greatest minds and a place for children to wander amongst them. A few members wish to speak on this resolution. I'd like to invite them to speak. And if anyone has any questions.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Mr. Brousseau, do you yield? Would you like to speak? You don't want to speak, okay. Thank you. Your name and address for the record, please.
[Farrell]: My name's Jessica Farrell. My address is 29 Martin Street. I agree. Thank you so much for bringing up the resolution, Michael. I just wanted to come up and speak in support of this resolution. Obviously, the library, I think, provides some educational support for people of all ages, not just through the K-12 system. They are open for hours that are different from the schools. They provide meeting spaces and community spaces for the rest of us that maybe aren't in the K-12 system but need the library for other reasons as well. These days, librarians deal with a lot of issues that a lot of people would be surprised about, some more like social work issues. They're helping people apply to jobs. They're helping people access information, get through the crazy bureaucracies that we have to get through every day to live our lives, and some people just really need a lot more support for that. And so I think that the library is one of our foundations of community support, especially where people can't get that support from others in their daily lives. I think when libraries and the librarians that work in them have to deal with structural issues, they can't focus on those really important jobs that they have to do the things that are great for our community and increase their programming. And I know as a librarian myself, not here in Medford, but elsewhere, that we always have a million more ideas than the resources to actually put them through. And I'm sure that everyone that works at a library has a million ideas for things that they'd like to do. Having a sound structure is just like the most basic thing to realizing those potentials. I also think that as far as funding goes, there's been a lot of discussion about the funding for the library. And I'm really excited for the city council to go ahead and approve this so that we can actually look at some creative ways to fund it. I think one thing that I haven't heard many people talk about is our payment in lieu of taxes with Tufts. It's a really crappy agreement that we have right now. Tufts is one of the worst colleges in the area with their payment in lieu of taxes. And so Medford's getting really stiffed on that. And so I think that that is one of many creative places that we might be able to look to get a lot of support for these matching funds for the library renovation. It seems kind of crazy to leave $12 million on the table. I know you guys have no control over what the city council actually does. But I think this sort of symbolic gesture of putting forth a resolution to support it is really powerful. And it shows that this most powerful educational decision-making body in the city supports this, and I think the decision would hold a lot of weight. So that's all I've got. Thank you very much.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Thank you very much, Jessica. You can stand up. It should catch you.
[Matt Hughes]: Hopefully so. I'm Matt Hughes. I live at 76 Boston Ave. I wanted to speak to some political possible misgivings that y'all might have about the prospect of making such a resolution in favor of the new library plan. One, which is the possibility of pushback for the community, that this might be an overly symbolic gesture, and that the school community doesn't have direct control over matters that aren't related to school issues. But in my view, this is a school issue, because public libraries often have... programs which operate between school libraries and the public library system of the surrounding city. So building, like, showing support for and getting this project off the ground would be one great first step in making sure that our school libraries can be better supported, which absolutely is your purview as an organization. or as a body, I guess. Another political concern is related to something that my compatriot just mentioned, which is the possibility of maybe finding more funding for this by pursuing more funding from Tufts as an institution. It's unfortunate that the political situation currently is one in which the city council seems to be of the mind that they're forced to choose between city services, like the police and fire stations, or a new library, public education. And one thing that I would really, really be excited to see happen is for Tufts to step up and make it so that those two things are not mutually exclusive for the city that it inhabits. This is well within Tufts' power to help us with, and I think it could be just a simple matter of asking them to make this not a problem anymore. So I would love to see this resolution passed tonight to see as the first step in making sure that our agreement with Tufts is one that's strengthening our community and also that we have a nice, lovely library that we can all enjoy. Thank you very much.
[Sednick]: Hi, my name is Sam Sednick. I'm at 47 West Wyoming Avenue. And I just wanted to come today to, I guess, thank you and your committee for taking just a slice of time to, uh, I guess offer an endorsement for the building of the public library. The, um, the mayor has been with us from the very beginning when she kind of like gave us the push to go out and get the grant. And the sport means a lot, both to us in the library community, but also to your children and to your teens and to your parents and your grandparents. The library really is one of those places where we're there for literally everyone. We are the first place new families bring out their youngest member. We are there for the preschoolers where they learn how to paint, beautiful Jackson Pollock paintings. And, you know, we are there. I just watched some first graders do their first independent reading with Calvin and Hobbes the other day in the library. We love it when your families come in and celebrate Harry Potter's birthday with us. And it's just a delight to see you guys every day all the way through. And once they get up to be teenagers, you know, we have first blind dates in the library, and we get to be the ones that tell teenagers what not to do on a blind date in the library. It's a really wonderful place, but we do need a building to be in, and so I do look forward to hopefully moving on with a new and stronger building. We hope to always be the community center. And just a weird aside, when children's librarians start, we always kind of pinpoint that first kid that's born after our time. And I am just now hitting my five-year mark at Medford Public Library. So the kid that was born shortly after I arrived here in this town is going to be going to kindergarten soon. And so I will be passing him on to you. And he's a delight and a lot of fun. And so we're always happy to be your partners in education. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Sednick.
[Sharon Deyeso]: Good evening. My name is Sharon Diaso. I live at Mass Avenue and Circuit Road in Medford. I also am in the field of education, was a member of public schools once, and now am a lecturer of literature and writing at a college. I am, of course, very, I would say, not aggressive, but maintaining a whole ideal of the whole aura of the library being a wonderful atmosphere for families and children to grow up in. However, I do have to admit, I would be very disappointed, very disappointed if anyone on this committee tonight, or even the council that I will be speaking to regarding this matter soon, sponsored, supported any building in plan by any architect or engineer that had a flat roof. people who are calling me and saying, can you believe it? Can you believe it? Do you see the picture? So you really need to take a lot of focus in mind. The other thing I'd like to mention, I really think before you put the car before the horse, any building that gets constructed in the city or reconstructed We think that the exterior of that building is very much intact. In fact, I asked two librarians one day, I won't mention who they were, if this were your home and you were driving out of the driveway going somewhere to work, would you tear this down? They said, of course not. And I said, well, you know, you have to do these things and come before the committee and the council before major, major projects are actually endorsed. Am I for improving that facility? Of course. We've heard too many woes. Dangerous things could have happened there, just like at the Forest Park School. I'm sure the mayor herself remembers some of those stories. I'm older than probably anyone in this room. But we're really imploring you. to look at these guidelines. Also, you should be aware that before anything is reconstructed or built, that you need to make sure that you have a maintenance fund established before, how did we get here in the first place, with the huge expenses, again, because we don't have a maintenance fund, you know, to go by. Thank you for your time, and sorry to ruffle your feathers.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Mr. Benedetto? I just had a point of information about Tufts. Tufts University is holding a community presentation on Wednesday the 21st to inform the community members about programs and resources available to them and provide an overview of recently completed upcoming projects. So it's at 6.30 on the 21st at the Alumni Lounge in Medford Somerville Line up on the campus. And they invited the public to come. It's 40 Talbot Ave, 630, Wednesday the 21st. Tufts is going to go over what they offer the city. And what I find very interesting is they're doing Method and Somerville at the same time. So we can see what they're offering Somerville a little bit and what we are getting. And so my goal was to go to that meeting and just, I live in Tufts. neighborhood right there. I live at the feet of Tufts. So I'm always up on campus, and I'm always interested in how they're giving back to the community. I also am a parent of a Jumbo, and you get a great education there, and they are good to our students. So they do do some positive things, but we just need to make sure that we're getting what we need from them. A couple people spoke on that, so I thought they might be of interest for them to go. Thank you for the time.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Is there a motion on the floor for approval of this resolution? Mr. Ruggiero, Ms. Van der Kloot.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: I just want to say that it's not been unusual over the years for the school committee to occasionally comment on something that's coming before the city council and vice versa. The city council also comments on, um, stuff that comes beyond us, so I feel comfortable in supporting the resolution. I see the library as an essential element in any community, and I particularly want it to be a beautiful library in mine. And we all know that the library needs some updates. It's not particularly a surprise or a shock to any of us who have been in it, and we want we would like to see improvements. I think in terms of being members of the school committee, it just goes hand in hand with our caring about and dedication to our Medford children. So I appreciate the resolution and I certainly will support it.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Is there a second on the floor, Ms. Vandekloot? Second. Seconded by Ms. Vandekloot. Roll call vote, please. Yes.
[Kathy Kreatz]: Yes.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Yes.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Yes. 7 in the affirmative, 0 in the negative. Motion passes. And please, Ms. Nelson, if you could forward this along to the City Council. Also while we're into suspension, we have a new business. Be it resolved that the Medgar School Committee expresses sincere condolences to the family of Jennifer Tucci. Ms. Tucci was the mother of Harmony Tucci, a seventh grade student at the Andrews Middle School. If we could all please rise for a moment of silence. Motion to revert to the regular order of business by Mr. Azzurro, seconded by Ms. Van der Kloot. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Motion passes. Report on DECA competition award. Recommendation to approve expenses for national competition. Ms. Nelson.