[Burke]: Meeting of the Medford School Committee will now come to order. The secretary will call the roll.
[Kreatz]: Mrs. DeMettis. Here. Present. Mr. Machero. Here. Mr. Rousseau. Here. Mrs. VanCook. Here. You may have her.
[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?
[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.
[Burke]: It's the third item down on page five, Christy.
[Patterson]: Yes, so I need to look at the nature of that.
[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?
[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.
[DiBenedetto]: And we'll get notification of that happening, or our secretary?
[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.
[DiBenedetto]: OK. And we don't get no, we don't not required to get no, I don't know how that works.
[Burke]: It goes through the auditor's office and city hall.
[DiBenedetto]: Okay. I just, when it comes up like that, I just question it. Okay. That makes sense.
[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.
[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.
[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.
[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.
[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.
[DiBenedetto]: Yes, and I have changes that Ms.
[Patterson]: DeBelsen brought.
[DiBenedetto]: Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt.
[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.
[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.
[Patterson]: Right.
[DiBenedetto]: And they've all been documented with personnel.
[Patterson]: Right.
[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.
[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.
[DiBenedetto]: Yeah, I have the steps listed.
[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.
[DiBenedetto]: OK.
[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.
[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.
[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.
[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.
[Ruggiero]: So you're asking for a committee of the whole specifically to handle, for these questions to be addressed?
[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.
[Patterson]: Longevity is paid differently for each group.
[DiBenedetto]: And again, see, the collective bargaining agreements have documentation that need to be identified.
[Burke]: Right.
[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.
[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?
[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.
[Ruggiero]: Could I make a friendly amendment to your resolution before, could we make it in two weeks? One week seems a little quick.
[Burke]: Okay, it's just that. The chair would call the committee in the fall.
[Ruggiero]: The chair will call it at a reasonable time.
[Burke]: If it's voted on. I'll second.
[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.
[Ruggiero]: So I'll second the motion.
[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.
[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.
[DiBenedetto]: I didn't do any teachers. Okay.
[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.
[DiBenedetto]: Right. But my understanding is that the budget book is presented after the increment step increments have been given.
[Nelson]: No, no, no. They're given mid year as well.
[DiBenedetto]: Okay, but then everybody would have that increase.
[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.
[DiBenedetto]: Beverly, you're talking more teachers than I'm talking, like, secretarial union.
[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.
[DiBenedetto]: I've said that three times.
[Nelson]: I did not.
[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.
[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?
[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?
[Ruggiero]: So the base can go up or down. We're not notified of those?
[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.
[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?
[Burke]: They negotiate it.
[Ruggiero]: Correct. Oh, so I see.
[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.
[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?
[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.
[Ruggiero]: Okay, that's all my questions. Thank you.
[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.
[Kreatz]: Mrs. McDone. Yes. Mr. Leggero. Yes.
[Burke]: Yes. 7 in the affirmative 0 in the negative motion passes report of secretary, miss Chris to share with everybody.
[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.
[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.
[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.
[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?
[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.
[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.
[Graham]: Can somebody hand me the remote? I feel like we're missing just some sort of power here.
[DiBenedetto]: Oh yeah, we did have it on earlier. It might take a minute to warm up now.
[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.
[DiBenedetto]: It is. I thought we should have movies.
[Unidentified]: Here we go.
[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.
[Kreatz]: Very smart.
[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.
[Kreatz]: Excellent. It's great. It's really, it's so easy to use.
[Van der Kloot]: Ms.
[Burke]: Van der Kloot.
[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.
[Burke]: Thanks.
[Van der Kloot]: Thanks.
[Burke]: Maver. Mr. Benedetto.
[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?
[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.
[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.
[Kreatz]: Thank you.
[Burke]: Ms. Nelson, I think the question is to someone in the office that could monitor and maintain this list.
[Nelson]: We certainly will do that. I just, we have to identify someone who will obviously be in charge of that.
[Kreatz]: It just seems like a lot of work for someone else to take on. It is.
[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.
[Burke]: Or by budget time because it may be a stipend or something.
[DiBenedetto]: Yeah.
[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.
[Burke]: Nice job to the committee. Great job. Thank you so much. Thank you.
[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.
[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.
[Burke]: Yes.
[Kreatz]: Yes.
[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.
[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.
[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.
[Burke]: Thank you very much, Jessica. You can stand up. It should catch you.
[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.
[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.
[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.
[Burke]: Is there a motion on the floor for approval of this resolution? Mr. Ruggiero, Ms. Van der Kloot.
[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.
[Burke]: Is there a second on the floor, Ms. Vandekloot? Second. Seconded by Ms. Vandekloot. Roll call vote, please. Yes.
[Kreatz]: Yes.
[Van der Kloot]: Yes.
[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.
[Nelson]: Good evening. We are very pleased tonight to congratulate Rosalie Howard on her success at the state level DECA competition. And because of the success, she has been invited to go to the international competition. So Mr. Fallon, would you like to present the details as we move forward?
[Fallon]: Yes, thank you. Good evening. I'm pleased to introduce tonight one of Medford Vocational School's finest, senior student Rosalie Howard. Last week during the snow day, Rosalie joined over 2,900 students from 63 high schools and seven vocational technical high schools across the state. to compete for a spot in the National Conference in Atlanta, Georgia. I'll let Mr. D and Rosalie tell the rest, but what I want to share is that I was asked to judge the written and the oral presentations on this day. It was my first time doing it at DECA, and I'm glad I did because it helped me understand just what they go through. I was judging the presentation for international business plans of 18 students, and what was so thrilling was that I now could better understand the level of commitment and preparation that students like Rosalie endured to get to that point. Of the 18 students I scored, I gave one perfect score. So to really understand what it takes to get there, which Rosalie was able to accomplish, I really applaud her. So before I turn it over, I have to acknowledge Mr. Frank DeLuisio for his commitment to our students, not only in DECA, but every day what he does in the business and marketing course, which I've had the pleasure of sitting in on numerous times this year. Mr. D is teaching these students not only the skills that transfer to the workforce, but a level of professionalism that help these students attain positions in their career, whether it be after high school or after college. So thank you, Mr. D. And I also have to mention that this project was a collaborative effort that Rosalie had between not only the program she's in, but also with students in the robotics and engineering program. So it was really a collaborative effort. And after she explains a little bit more to you, I will then ask for some funding and approval. Rosalie.
[Howard]: Take it away, Rosalie. So my name is Rosalie Howard, and my project is Cubit. So it's a toy for hearing and impaired children. And the whole idea came up for my cousin, because he was born premature and nothing developed in his ears. So the whole project is basically that there will be sign on it. So they'll learn their sign, and then the toy will vibrate once they get it right. If you want to try it, you can feel the vibration. So it will reinforce. They got the sign matched with the right piece. And each piece will have their own magnetic piece on the bottom. So there's like the mechanics inside. So you can see how it will vibrate. So that's what I did. Excellent.
[Burke]: Congratulations. Thank you. Now, Rosalie, can I ask you one question? Yeah. Did they use a 3D printer on that? No, they used a laser cutter. A laser cutter. Awesome. Yes. OK, cool. Wow. Motion to accept.
[DiBenedetto]: Motion to approve the request of $2,700 to send Rosalie forward.
[Burke]: Roll call vote. Chad, your work is done. You've done it. That's easy. Roll call vote, please, Ms. Kress. Did you get a yes?
[Kreatz]: Yes.
[Burke]: Yes, 7 in the affirmative, 0 in the negative. Motion passes. We wish you the best of luck during April vacation, is it? The week after. The week after April. Very nice. Mr. D, would you like to say a few words?
[Fallon]: I just want Mr. D to say something. Thank you.
[SPEAKER_02]: So this was all Rosalie. Everything about DECA is academically based. Administrators and school community, they just see a bunch of kids going off. This project was entrepreneurship innovation. And on your packets where I summarized, you're going to notice when we went to states and internationals, it moves from competition to career development conference. So everything Rosalie has done and accomplished now is part of her career. So I appreciate the support we've had from you. We were fortunate to get a judge. And Rosalie came back. I always have the kids come back where I'm working. And I asked them how they did. She was very calm. And she said, Mr. D, this judge was waiting for me. And I said, what do you mean? She goes, he stood up, shook my hands, and pulled the paper out. on his desk. And then he went on into the presentation, and he bored in on her passion. And lastly, he said, I can't tell you how you're going to do, but what are you going to do with this after you graduate? And she got a perfect score, which is sort of unheard of.
[Burke]: Is it already trademarked? Not yet. We'll get you a lawyer. You're going to need one.
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, that's how it went down. And I felt after she came back that she was definitely going to qualify. But when she walked away with first place, that itself, the whole thing is moving on, the first four slots. But when you take first place, that's differentiate yourself. So I thank you for the support, and have a good summer.
[Burke]: Congratulations. Nice job. Excellent. Mr. Ruggiero.
[Ruggiero]: Is it possible that we could have an official appreciation certification that we could do through the school committee?
[Burke]: Why don't we wait until after April, and we'll bring her back. Very good. Next report on McGlynn Middle School Principalship. Oh, I'm sorry. It was making a hum.
[Nelson]: We are pleased to report that Mr. Nicholas Tucci, Assistant Principal at Medford High School, has been appointed the Senior Acting Principal of the John J. McGlynn Middle School for the remainder of this school year. Mr. Tucci is in his fifth year as an administrator. He's with us tonight. Gonna let him come up because he's had some exciting days. He's a graduate of Medford High School and very accomplished, highly respected. We had the open house on Thursday evening. He was there to speak to the fifth grade parents and students. We were meeting with the teachers Friday afternoon after school and today was his first full day and he met with students. So Nick, would you like to tell us more about how it's going so far, but we thank you.
[Tucci]: It was my second first day of school this year, so I got another one knocked out of the way. So it's been a whirlwind of a week for me, saying goodbye to my high school seniors who I supervised over the course of their four years. I left Medford High School on Friday to an ovation from the senior class, which made me feel very nice, and headed over to the McGlynn Middle School. And I've been equally as received. I'm very pleased to say that the students meeting with each one of the classes today was an awesome experience. I had a chance to meet with each one of the classes in an assembly format, share with them my story. share with them my expectations and my hopes for a very successful spring finish to the school year. In addition, on Friday I had the opportunity to meet with all the teachers in the library and share with them my vision, my hopes to work with them in a collaborative fashion, and really have a great school year too as well. And as Miss Nelson said, Thursday evening was also a special one. It was a filled auditorium at the McGlynn Middle School, a lot of excitement in the air, It was very special to hear fellow faculty members talk about one another, about how special of an experience they have working together with one another, and how much passion they have for what their field is. And it makes me feel very excited to be the principal of that school, the acting principal. I'm looking forward to the opportunity. While at the same point in time, I am a little sad to leave Medford High School, I am very excited about these new beginnings. But I can probably just say that it was an awesome day today, very exciting, and look forward to many more to come. I thank you for the opportunity.
[Burke]: What was your feedback after the open house? Did you get to talk to many parents?
[Tucci]: The parents were very excited. I think the passion from the faculty members really exuded. Also the student ambassadors were terrific in showing me around and also a lot of the projects in the school were very, very exciting. I look forward to working with Ms. Evangelista to highlight a lot of those great projects too as well over the coming months. really showcase what is really excellent about that school and building upon the success they've had in the past and trying to make sure that we continue upon them and create an awesome vision for the future.
[Nelson]: We'll do a report. We have the Andrews open house tomorrow night and I was planning to do a full report on both open houses at the next meeting. We had a great turnout on Thursday evening. I'm hoping to have a great turnout tomorrow night and We have actually, you know, we have attendants, so we know how many people actually showed up in families. So we'll present all of that to you when we finish up with the open house tomorrow night.
[Burke]: And thank you to the McGlynn teachers that are here this evening. Thank you for your support and working through to make this school as great as it can be. So there's a lot of buzz out there. So we're very proud of all your work and yours as well. So thank you.
[Nelson]: And I want to thank Ms. Lu because she has, you know, assisted a great deal this year. Mr. Scholar is staying on with us until the end of March. helping with the transition, but again I do want to acknowledge Ms. Liu for all the support and I know you two will work very well together.
[Burke]: If we invite you back for graduation Mr. Tucci, would you like to sit up on the dais? I'm sorry? Would you like to be at graduation this year?
[Tucci]: You know what, I promised the seniors that I'd be at each one of the senior events, the major senior events, so you can count on me at graduation. It's a date then. I very much look forward to that.
[Burke]: Thank you. Mr. Russo.
[Ruseau]: Yes, I just wanted to provide some feedback. I received text messages from a number of parents that went to the McGlynn open house, and they were beyond excited. And they just could not believe how wonderful the event was. I didn't get to go, so I can't really give more feedback than what I received. But they were universally very excited. So thank you very much.
[Burke]: Excellent.
[Nelson]: And I want to thank Dr. Cadelli, too, because she put together the PowerPoint, and it was really a collaborative effort with administrators, with students, with parents, and the teachers, of course. And I think with everybody together like that, it was a very powerful evening. Excellent.
[DiBenedetto]: I just wanted to make one comment. Mr. Benedetto, then Ms. Krutz. First of all, I think Mr. Tucci's placement over at the McGlen is an excellent choice right now. I know parents came forward at our last meeting with concerns of spreading Mr. DeLava too thin. So I appreciate the administration making a thoughtful and really appropriate choice to send him down. So I wanted to say thank you very much for really thinking about good choices. And I appreciate the high school making arrangements and filling in so that way he could step in this position. And I know it's a growth potential for Mr. Tucci as well, and a well-deserved one. I've observed him over the years as a committee member, and I've seen him grow in his career. And I think that he's a great professional from what I've observed. And I'm really happy that he took this step for himself and for the McGlenn community as a whole. So I wanted to start by saying thank you. and if you can convey that to others who I'm sure had a role in that. Also, I wanted to say I did attend the open house at the McGlen, and I was extremely excited. My children both went through the McGlen, and I saw all the projects, and there was a landscape of people's yards, and one of them had a pool, and that's the one I liked the most because I really want a pool. I got outvoted by my family, so we don't have one. I don't think we have enough square footage either. So it was really fun to walk the halls and see the people and see the community. And yourself and Dr. Riccadeli did an excellent job. And I look forward to seeing tomorrow nights because I'm going to try very hard to be there as well. Um, I do think that it was pretty full and I would have loved to seen it like filled to the capacity, but it is a big auditorium. So, you know, we'll see what tomorrow night brings and um, Your presentation maybe could be posted online. I don't know if anybody recorded it, but it's worthy of that. It was very good. You went through everything that parents could have for questions. I liked you bringing someone down who graduated from McGlen. I think it was Sebastian. I'm sorry, I can't talk tonight. I'm very tired. Sebastian Tringali did a wonderful job. And he spoke beautifully. And so did the parents of current teachers. They were very impactful. And the whole flow of the evening was very well done, and you represented our district very well to the parents moving on. And I think parents left there like, this is a great place to bring my children, so.
[Nelson]: Thank you. Good job. We appreciate that. We are a team, and I will have to say that Dr. Perella deserves a lot of gratitude, because he was one of the people that said, you know what, I know you need Nick at the McGlynn, Sacrifice, it is a sacrifice to him. It picks up the work pace for the rest of the people that are at the high school. So I thank Dr. Perrella for also being very generous and sharing Nick with McGlynn for the remainder of the school year.
[DiBenedetto]: So I just had one final question. I don't want to ruin all the love fest, but we need to speak about graduation. And usually Mr. Belson speaks at graduation, but since he's retiring April 30th, I'm just asking, would that be you, Ms. Nelson?
[Burke]: That would be... We can rename acting superintendent.
[DiBenedetto]: Oh, okay. I didn't know if it... That's why I was just bringing it up for something to think about for future because it was mentioned earlier and just brought it to my mind. So just something for the committee to put in their mind as a thought and maybe we should speak about it soon because graduation is coming. Thank you. Thank you for your time.
[Kreatz]: I wanted to say, I was at the open house, and it was great. It was just fantastic. And I loved how it was so personable with the parents and the teachers speaking and the students. And I actually learned a lot about Mr. Tucci, that he was a baseball player, and he was on the San Diego Padres. I was so impressed. I found that out at the open house. And the students did a great, great job taking people around. The groups were filled. Going up to the classrooms, the classrooms were filled. The teachers did a great job with the setup of the projects that were out, and just going over everything, asking questions. It was just a really, it was a very fun evening. I had a really fun time. And I wish the McGlynn the best, you know, and all the luck.
[Nelson]: Well, I want to thank, too, my administrative assistant, Jeannie Gleona, who had all the cards arranged. A lot of it was organization. Ms. Liu obviously helped a great deal with that, doing the groups, as did the teachers. But Jeannie showed up in the evening and had all the cards. And everything went pretty flawlessly. And she's still making the cards tonight, I think, in preparation for tomorrow night.
[Burke]: It was good.
[Nelson]: It was perfect.
[Van der Kloot]: No, again, I just wanted to add my thanks to Mr. Tucci. And also just to say that parents came before us at our last meeting. And it was difficult because we didn't respond to them. We didn't say anything about, I think, After they left, I said, I just want to say I hear your concerns. So we really, we did hear their concerns and took appropriate action. So thank you. And I'm glad the open house went so well. My colleague, Mr. Russo and the mayor, we were, we were off at the superintendent search committee that evening. So I didn't get to go, but I'm glad that it went so well.
[Burke]: Very good. Is there a motion on the floor to accept this report and place it on file by Mr. Ruggiero, seconded by Mr. Russo? All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Motion passes. Recommendation to approve grade 8 New York City field trip.
[Nelson]: So again, it's that time of year that the grade 8 students at both middle schools are preparing to go on their New York City field trip. It's been a tradition since 2001. Again, both middle schools have planned the same time period to make sure that the kids don't miss a lot of school. They miss just the Friday, and they return on the Sunday, and it's June 8th through the 10th. Again, we're here tonight to request that you approve the trip. It's a little bit later, but again, we had that situation where the field trip policy was under review and so we wanted to wait until that was approved to bring this to you. So we have teachers, we have administrators who can explain anything about the trip and I guess we're ready to go in June, right? Okay.
[Burke]: It has not always been New York though. No. You've gone to other locations.
[D'Alleva]: We have gone to other locations and I think to note that Sometimes cost is always a factor, and going to Washington happens to be an increase in cost. It's already, I feel somewhat of an exorbitant amount that we asked for, so to go even further would be difficult. I'd like to introduce Mr. Michael DiClemente who is our new New York City Trip Advisor who took over from Ms. Lavin. Ms. Lavin who is currently at the high school and he's been great keeping in touch with me regarding things. I'll say if you've got a look at our itinerary Every year we go by the Intrepid and I keep saying, we gotta get on the Intrepid. Every year I say that. Take a picture of it, we gotta get on there. We have that on our itinerary, which is something that's exciting for us to do as a science guy. I love going to see the space shuttle Columbia that's hidden in the actual carrier. So as was stated, at the Andrews we have 83 students that are currently enrolled going. Cost is at $550 per student. We do have a couple of financial scholarships that we are providing to some students as well. Again, due to confidentiality, I'd like to kind of keep the number down, but we do have enough to provide coverage of the cost for some families that are struggling. I'm trying to think of what else to say. I mean, if you see the itinerary, the plan is, I think this year we cut out the Bronx Zoo because we did not hit that 90 percentile mark. And again, we did not want to raise up the cost because it would have cost us more in order to do that. So we had to take the Bronx Zoo out of the mix. Again, just something that you have to do to figure out to make sure that people can all go. If you remember last year, we were over. This year, we're under. So it's a trip that can go either way, dependent on interest and what the thoughts are for people that, you know, during that time, some people just don't want to go. And we understand that, you know, it makes sense. It is mostly a weekend trip. There is that Friday, but we allow people to have that choice to decide what they want to do. I can let Mike talk more because he's been doing more of the, the legwork.
[DiClemente]: Yeah. I mean, I don't know if there are any specific questions. I basically took over from Miss Lavin. So the itinerary that's there was something that she had set up the previous June. That's why we're a little bit slow going and getting the approval, um, this year. And we did have to cut out the one thing that she had set up last year just because we didn't have enough, um, students. I mean, if 15 kids came right now and said they wanted to go, we could have the Bronx who again on Sunday, but for right now it'd be cut out, but I'm happy to answer any specifics.
[DiBenedetto]: Mr. Benedetto. Thank you. How many children, uh, uh,
[DiClemente]: book at the end was right now, 83 in the McGlynn 57.
[DiBenedetto]: Um, and Mr. Delaver mentioned that the Andrews, um, students received financial opportunities to attend if they didn't have it. Does the McGlynn have a fund that's big enough to make sure every student with financial need that wants to go can go?
[SPEAKER_01]: So this year we actually had two anonymous donors donate a full ride for two different students and we were able to actually split one of those up so we were able to help more families with those two scholarships. So we did something a little bit different with that this year. We opened up the scholarship opportunities to all students who wanted to participate and they were allowed to write a letter explaining their interest in going to New York City and that based on a committee of 8th grade teachers who helped with input with backgrounds of families and students and we kind of chose students who were weren't actually able to go on their own. So we have three students going that probably wouldn't have been able to make it. So that's great. However, we would always love more, but that's what we have right now.
[Burke]: Excellent. Well, keep us posted if some come through that are in need.
[SPEAKER_01]: So it did every student that is in need that wanted to go able to go at this point? Good question. Yes, every student that wrote in with a request or that we got requests from parents did receive a partial or full scholarship.
[DiBenedetto]: I just want to make sure that every student, no matter of their income or their parent's situation, has an opportunity to not miss out on all of this. Not only the educational piece, but the social piece as well. So that's very important. And I'm very glad that you were able to meet that need. If that changes, just The mayor already said, you can ask her for money. Sorry.
[D'Alleva]: If it would be okay to interject, Sherry and Michael have been working together, actually. When we had this number, we tried to do what we could do to combine both groups. I think going forward, I think it's going to be more that we're going to start together as a group. Andrews and McGlynn, I think we should just call it a middle school New York City trip. Not just the Andrews, not just the McGlynn, it should be the middle school trip. So I just wanted to let you know that, that we tried to work together. We really worked hard as much as we could. You know, hotels got booked. There's a lot that goes behind the scenes that involve a lot of things. But I think if we come together early, we're talking October next year, and we all come together, we have the same meeting, we have the same meeting with parents, we discuss everything, I think that should alleviate a lot of the other inequities of numbers.
[Van der Kloot]: I think that kind of answers part of my question. How much is the McGlynn trip this year?
[SPEAKER_01]: So ours is slightly, this is something that's a little bit different. So we have per kid, it's total, all in is 580. And we did have to increase the cost of the trip because the bus situation. So this happened last year as well, and we were able to keep it down. But this year we had too many kids for one bus. And once you add a whole second bus, that's a huge expense. And because we couldn't say kids could not go, we couldn't cap the number, we ended up with 57. And the largest bus you can get is a 45, 46 passenger. And last year, we It just worked where we had every single seat on that bus full and we were able to keep the cost down. And that just wasn't an option this year. And it really did make it hard because I did have to go back to the families and ask for increase. So we ended up being slightly more than the Andrews this year due to that, unfortunately. And again, it's not for anything else other than the bus is the most expensive part of this trip. And we just couldn't avoid that cost, unfortunately.
[Burke]: So will you balance out the buses with both schools?
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes. So next year we will do that. You won't have one bus operator. Right. And that's what we tried to do this year at the beginning when we started to see the numbers. But then we couldn't stay at the same hotel, so we couldn't have the same buses. So we just ran into We hit a wall this year, unfortunately. And that's why I think next year it's going to be much better to plan together. And so we won't have any of these issues. Excellent.
[Van der Kloot]: Ms. Vandiver. Yeah, no, just I think that ultimately taking that step also so that the kids then get to meet each other before they go on to high school, you know, and there will be familiar faces. So clearly that is the progression. I hope the kids and the chaperones have a wonderful time.
[Burke]: Thank you. We always take chaperones. We always take chaperones.
[Van der Kloot]: We kind of like to go.
[Burke]: Not to put you on the spot. There's a motion before us, recommendation that the Medford School Committee approve the middle school New York City field trip to take place June 8th through 10th. Is there a motion for approval? Mr. Russo, seconded by Ms. Kreatz. Roll call vote, please. Yes. Seven in the affirmative, zero in the negative. Motion passes.
[Unidentified]: Thank you. Thank you very much.
[Burke]: Thank you. Report on early release professional development, March 21st. Ms. Nelson.
[Nelson]: Wednesday, March 21st is one of our mandated half day professional development for all schools, elementary, middle and high school. And this day is actually a postponement from February 7th, which was canceled because of weather. We let people go home at the end of this, the actual half day of school. Again, as we were planning for this day, we did have plans for the 7th of February, but given the situation with the community wanting to know and the teachers wanting to know more about the ALICE protocol, we've arranged for that half day of PD to be dedicated to a presentation of Alice and the police department will be coming in. They will be actually, the middle school and high school will be together at the high school. They'll have an hour presentation from quarter of one to quarter of two. And then we have breakout groups arranged where the teachers will go into smaller groups and discuss what they've learned about the protocols, and give us some feedback as to how to move forward with this. The elementary teachers will be coming into the high school at two o'clock, and they will have the same presentation, again, by the police department from two to three, and then they will remain three to four, which is their schedule, for a Q&A session with the police department. So that's our plan to get started with the ALICE, to get feedback from teachers, because we think this is important, too, to hear what people are thinking about it and how they would like to move forward with the trainings. It's a very extensive training as we're learning more about it. It's a full day and a half, which probably will, again, if it's going to be for all teachers, will have to be during the mandated days. And again, it's something that has to be repeated every year. So I know we have a professional development committee. If we are gonna move forward with this, they have to understand that this is a priority and that as much as we would like to do everything they want us to do, that if we go forward with this, we have to dedicate the time for this.
[Mustone]: I just want to share with people at home that the Medford Community Coalition had emailed the school committee and other members in central administration about suggestions they had for communication and safety. So I just want to clarify for them that one of their suggestions was to find out if a training was happening with Alice, what's hopefully the timeline so we can say hopefully a professional development day in the near future. But this is just a short one. Yeah, an intro is March 21st and then further on. Their other suggestion was about the safety advisory committee that we had spoken about that is going to fall under the building and grounds subcommittee, which I chair. And we did set a date, thank God, for Doodle. So our safety advisory committee first meeting will be Thursday night, March 22nd from 7 to 9 at the superintendent's office. It will be posted tomorrow. Everyone is welcome to attend. And then their other suggestion was just having streamlined communication, which is something that is being addressed and working on with central administration. So I want to thank the Method Community Coalition for giving us those great suggestions.
[Burke]: And all the principals have been invited to this meeting on security, and also the president of the Teachers Association was notified as well.
[Burke]: Along with people in administration. Thank you, Ms. Mustone, for calling that so quickly. Actually, Mr. Ruggiero.
[Ruggiero]: Thank you, Mayor Burke. I just have one question. So I wanted to know, and maybe Member Mustone explained this, but I just wanted to know would parents be able to also get an introductory meeting like what Alice is and why it's important and why we're choosing this? That is a good question.
[Burke]: Could be separately, not on this day.
[Ruggiero]: Is it possible I'd like to make a motion that we pursue a community event because a number of parents have been asking me this very question. So we can actually have a full forum on what Alice is, why we're moving toward it, and why we think it's important for the city. Can someone second that?
[Mustone]: I can second it. Sorry.
[Burke]: On the motion as seconded that a meeting be held with parents to give them a higher ratio Alice Training from my medical police department all those in favor. I was opposed that motion passes On the on the early professional professional day Mr. Russo so if we would have to do one and a half days annually to keep everybody fully trained how many
[Ruseau]: professional development days do we have a year?
[Nelson]: We have two full days. And then we have, there are built into the calendar several middle school and high school early release days, and the elementary have early release every Wednesday. The mandated days, the way we worked it out with the contract, the past contract, now this could change as we're negotiating a new contract. is that I believe there are four mandated days out of the 12 early release days for the middle and high school. So again, we have some half days, four right now. I think as we move forward in contract negotiations, we may need to look for more PD time if we're going to be doing this kind of training and then we want to acknowledge some of the other trainings the teachers might want in addition. This might be something moving forward in the contract we might want to get. But right now, it's two full days, four mandated PD days for middle and high school. Elementary mandated is also four, I believe, Diane. Or do you want to?
[Unidentified]: They're only two two-hour segments, so it's not like a full day of PD they have.
[Nelson]: Right. The middle and high school, too. It's two hours. And so again, that's what we have right now.
[Ruseau]: considering using the majority of professional development on something that is virtually, like the likelihood is incredibly low and will thus delay RTI and all the other trainings that we want to do which will affect our children right away.
[Nelson]: I think we're going to have to get creative. I think we haven't decided that. You know, we basically, we want to see how the teachers, many of them are learning about this for the very first time. And this is why we want the sessions where They're going to have some discussion. We also have developed an online survey that they're going to be taking at the end of the day to give us additional feedback, because obviously we can't do all of that in two hours. And then we have to make decisions on moving forward. If we can get more time, that's great. If we can't, how are we going to allocate that time for PD?
[Ruseau]: I just want to make sure we're not going to say, if Alice's training, which is what we're going with, is one and a half days a year of training. We're not going to just wave a magic wand and give it a couple hours a year and think that's enough. So if we have to give up most of our professional development for all of our teachers, for all of the things that we currently do, I think the community really needs to understand and make a choice.
[Burke]: We are in negotiations as well. So there's moving pieces that are happening.
[Van der Kloot]: Hands? Ms. Vandekloot. So I too was surprised to hear how long this training was. At my workplace, Winchester Hospital, just up the road, Winchester police came in and did run, hide, fight. And those are the three words that you use, run, hide, fight. And it seemed much more targeted and concise. I personally will be speaking with Officer Convino so I understand the differences. And we might also I don't know if he's planning on coming to your subcommittee meeting, but if not, perhaps he could come to another one. Anyway, just because we've been using Alice because it's kind of been the original catch word, but I'm not sure that's the only approach, whatever. I'm a little puzzled about the time commitment, because it does seem extensive. I also wondered whether Officer Covino has, for Rennheide Fight, we have there's a movie, which is maybe 15 minutes long.
[Nelson]: It's a video that I know that's part of the presentation.
[Van der Kloot]: Yeah, I think if there's a way for the committee to access that video so we can see it too, would be very useful. So I will reach out to him myself to ask my questions around it. But maybe if he could be included.
[Mustone]: And I guess we'll find out more once we go through training. But a friend of mine works in a different district. She was only trained once for ALICE. So it's almost, I don't think you'd have to use a professional development. It would be for new hires, maybe during their new hire orientation, they would be trained for ALICE. She was trained once three years ago. She's still a teacher. So I don't know if it's something that you have to be trained, it's the same training year after year. So that's something we can look into. So it might not be, it could be part of that week of orientation for new teachers. Because I don't, but we'll have to clarify if you have to be retrained every year.
[DiBenedetto]: Very good. Mr. Benedetto. I'd like to pass it this time. A lot of my questions have been asked. Thank you.
[Burke]: Mr. Ruggiero.
[Ruggiero]: Yeah, I just have a question about professional development days in general. So you would, usually the different topics be scheduled in advance. It was just because of the current situation that we decided to move this up. Is that correct? Correct. So in terms of the ALICE program, I just wanted to know a little bit about how the decision was made to move forward with ALICE versus like these other programs that we're mentioning. Yeah, that was part of it.
[Burke]: It was requested that we look into it and this is the first opportunity to display it back to the teachers so they get an understanding of it and then determine whether or not between the police station, which the police department's fully supportive of this. So to balance it out.
[Ruggiero]: So we know that the Medford PD fully approves this program the most? Yes. OK, thank you. That helps me understand the situation. Thank you.
[Mustone]: So the meeting when you were in Colorado, the chief supported it. A young man who was an EMT spoke about it. And a mother of three children who professionally is an ALICE trainer spoke very eloquently about it. So that's how it came.
[Ruggiero]: I just wanted to clarify from my mindset. Thank you.
[Burke]: Very good. Is there a motion on the floor to accept this report and place it on file by Mr. Ruggiero, seconded by Ms. Van der Kloot. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Motion passes. Report on pre-budget guidance department.
[Nelson]: Okay, we're continuing on with our pre-budget reports. Again, we're still moving people in different slots. I'll try to give the schedule as soon as we have it actually finalized, but tonight we do have guidance. As you know, Ms. Jensen had her baby in November, little Agnes Olive, and she decided that she would like to stay home the rest of the year with her, so she's taken a leave of absence. So we've invited Mr. Howard to come back. We need a licensed guidance administrator, especially with the CPR going on this year, and Mr. Howard has come back in to help pick up with the guidance department, and Ms. Glasser has really filled in wonderfully doing some of the extra work that Amelia was doing, and so between the two of them, and I think Tori did most of the work, they prepared this report for you on what their budget needs are. Okay, so Tori, thank you very much, and you can present what you are looking for.
[Glasser]: Good evening, Mayor Burke, school committee members, and Deputy Superintendent Nelson. So the guidance department consists of 10 Councilors, two at each middle school and six at the high school. This year was our first year fully integrating the Councilors as both high school Councilors and vocational. Alice Beth is now in C building with us, so all of the guidance Councilors at the high school are together in C building. All of us have ninth grade students throughout the whole alphabet, so going forward, that will be the goal, will be that all of the Councilors have students, whether they're in traditional academic tracks or vocational programs. This is the second year of us doing the credit recovery with students, so in 2016, the graduation rate was 83.9%, and in 2017, it went up to 90%, and so we're hoping for a high number such as that or if not higher this year. We have continued partnerships with Europe, Match Beyond, Rockland Trust, a lot of those. And then we're continuing to use the money that the district has graciously provided for the PSATs. So all of our juniors take the PSAT free of charge. And it's open to any sophomores that want to take it for the small fee of $15. So the funding that we're asking for is just pretty much the same as last year, just with one stipulation or change. We don't need any money for textbooks this year. So we're asking for that $1,000 that was previously used for textbooks to be given to AP exams, particularly for students that are on free or reduced lunch. The fee, which is $53 for students on free or reduced lunch, can still be a barrier. Students normally pay $94. So even that $53, we've noticed some students are not signing up or maybe not even choosing to take the course because that fee would stand between them and taking the test.
[Burke]: Thank you. Are there any questions from the body? Mr. Benedetto. Thank you.
[DiBenedetto]: Do we have any data on? Since we started giving all students PSATs, how many more students are taking the SATs because they had that first opportunity?
[Howard]: No, I don't think we have a number on the number of taking the SATs, but we certainly have a large increase with the PSAT, which is primarily for the SAT. We've just recently gotten into that, but we will have those results.
[DiBenedetto]: Great. I think it's a great opportunity because that we're offering to all children now to take those PSATs so they're less frightened of taking the SAT and it builds their confidence and they always do better when they have that practice time and I know some other districts have done that for years and I'm very pleased that we're offering that. I think your budget, it looks great and the idea of using your What you received last year in a different way is good. I do see the increase for the AP studies and any opportunity that our children has to, because we complete globally now. We don't just complete with people from Massachusetts or our neighboring districts. Kids that are going up at Tufts, they're from all over the world. And if our kids are going to get there, they have to take those higher end classes, and they have to pass some of those exams. So I'm more than happy to approve this motion for later. OK, sorry.
[Burke]: Yep, there's many questions. I'm rushing it. Ms.
[Mustone]: Stone? Sure. Thank you. On the second to last page, just the last sentence, just as we think of pre-budgets, it says, while there are school adjustment Councilors at the elementary level, there may be the need for additional guidance Councilors at that level as well. So is that recommending guidance Councilors for elementary schools?
[Glasser]: It is in the future. At this moment, neither myself or Mr. Howard were comfortable speaking for Amelia in that role. But I know many districts, Peabody, Lexington, it is becoming a growing trend to have school Councilors at the elementary level.
[Mustone]: So I know we at the Roberts have an adjustment Councilor that is great and works nonstop. So she does the social, emotional well-being part. Are you suggesting a guidance council for elementary for more academic part? I'm just not sure. Just to think of staffing.
[Howard]: Basically for socialization and for family situations. The adjustment Councilors do a fine job, but I believe that the guidance Councilors are the first line of defense. And what happens is we live in a society today where the homes, there are some dysfunctional situations and the students come to school many times not fed properly or dressed properly and so forth. And we want to catch it at the early stages. So when we get to the ninth grade or the middle school level, we can have that profit.
[Mustone]: Does the high school have adjustment Councilors?
[Howard]: Yes.
[Glasser]: We do, but not nearly enough.
[Mustone]: And who does the adjustment Councilors, what department does it fall under? Special education. Okay. So that's another budget that we'll hear about.
[Glasser]: And also just on that note, at the elementary level, a lot of times the adjustment Councilor might only see students that are on a 504 or an IE.
[Mustone]: Okay.
[Glasser]: So a guidance Councilor is charged with serving all students.
[Nelson]: Everybody. Okay. That's good to know.
[Glasser]: All right. Thank you.
[Nelson]: And if I could add to, um, you know, I, when I went to my license as a guidance Councilor, it was really college and career stuff. It's really more, more social and emotional. Their, their responsibilities. And I think Tori put this in her report that the American school Councilors association talk about the responsibilities of guidance Councilors being academic college and career, but personal and social development. So, Basically, the school adjustment Councilor role and the guidance Councilor's role are kind of intersecting. And so whether we have more guidance Councilors or adjustment Councilors, there's the need for that domain to be addressed. Thank you.
[Howard]: If I could just make a statement. On Tori Glasser, just so people know, she's going into her ninth year. And recently, Amelia guidance director gave her additional work to do to make her head towards her guidance director certification. I recently signed off on that because she has been working with me as well and has been submitted to the Department of Education. And just to give her a little background, she just taught a class at Salem State tonight. She teaches one class over there. She's a past president of our school Councilors and she's also an active member of the American Association of School Councilors. Okay, and I just wanted to mention that we do have another high school Councilor who's been out three weeks now. She just had a baby, Crystal Normandy. So we are running a little shorthand, but I think we're doing really nicely. And Tori is the head Councilor, and eventually she'll be a guidance director somewhere.
[Nelson]: And Mr. Howard's her agent.
[Howard]: Mr. Howard. He's her agent. It's 10% cut, yeah. But also, I would just like to mention the mayor's office sent somebody down to the high school regarding a scholarship. We already have students accepted to Harvard, to the Tufts, Boston College.
[Glasser]: UCLA today?
[Howard]: UCLA, okay, so we're doing very well, UMaine, UNH, UMass Amherst, and so forth. So, you know, for all practical purposes, we're doing well, but from the mayor's office, one of her friends came to see us at the high school. And Thelma and James Conner Scholarship, for the immediate area, they're offering $53,000 scholarships. And I just wanted you to know at the present time, we have 51 applicants. Excellent. Very good. So I think we're on target to do the right thing. We met with Middlesex Federal Bank Friday, and they're giving us three $1,000 scholarships, and we're in the process of streamlining their application process. They've been very nice to us.
[Burke]: Excellent. Thank you. Mr. Rousseau.
[Ruseau]: Thank you very much. That was a lot of information. I was wondering, because I was confused about the fact that the elementary schools do not have the guidance Councilors, for the middle schools and for the high school, what is the guidance Councilor to student ratios right now? About 300 on average. That's not terrible.
[Glasser]: Yeah, it varies. It's anywhere from 250 to 320.
[Ruseau]: OK. I was just looking on the, I don't know which Department of Ed website, showed us in the 420 range, but I think that might have been including students that are in elementary school or something was weird about that. So this number is much nicer. I have one other question, though, about the, so the additional $1,000 Is that enough or do you know?
[Glasser]: You want me to be honest? No. $2,000 would cover the fees of all the students on free or reduced lunch taking AP tests totally. If it was only $1,000, we were looking to cover the additional tests past that first one. But I did the numbers and in 2017, it would have been a total of 29 tests for $53, so $15.37. In 2018, we have an increase of students on a pre-reduced lunch taking AP, so 14% as compared to 10, and it would be $18,055.
[Burke]: Would you like to amend your report?
[Howard]: Since this is your... Keeping in mind, we do have 15 AP classes offered at the high school, and certainly we would encourage each of those students to take an AP class to take the advanced placement exam.
[Burke]: Is there a motion on the floor to amend that report to be 2,000 increases? So moved by Ms. Vandekloot, seconded by Mr. Russo. Ms.
[Van der Kloot]: Vandekloot. Yes, I just wanted to ask if you could recall when the deadline for the Connors scholarship is.
[Howard]: It was February 28th. Okay. But before that deadline, we made a massive push because somebody from the mayor's office came down to inform us and we made a push to all the students, the seniors, and we do have 51 applicants in.
[Burke]: Mr. Ruggiero.
[Ruggiero]: Yes, thank you. Thank you very much for this report. I have a question for you guys. So do you, if there is someone in the community that has the ability, like a retired individual, would it be possible that they could help tutor kids in these AP classes? I've had a couple, when I was knocking on doors, reach out to me. They were retired professors of physics that might be interested. Or if you had someone in the community that was able to help out with tutoring, would you guys?
[Howard]: That would be a policy that would have to be funded. If I could add though, the AP curriculum is very prescriptive.
[Nelson]: In order to be able to offer an AP course, the teacher teaching the course has to submit to the college board their actual curriculum for the year. Now certainly someone can come in and help out with some of the content of that, but the curriculum is kind of set. And again, if a teacher submits this curriculum to college board and they reject it, we cannot offer the course. So we have to be very careful about people just coming in and teaching AP. But certainly if they were working with the teacher who had the approved course, that would be something we could entertain.
[Ruggiero]: Could I ask the deputy superintendent to look into how we could create such a program?
[Nelson]: Sure. For the time I have left.
[Howard]: I think that's a good idea.
[Glasser]: Even if it wasn't for AP specifically, we have students, freshman students take physics. And some of them are really challenged by it. So as long as they were quarried and approved by the district, I think having a list of professors or people from the community that are willing to help, especially for free, would be an amazing resource.
[Ruggiero]: Perhaps we could look at something doing in collaboration with the library.
[Kreatz]: Very good. Ms. Krex. Yes. Thank you for the report. I just want to know how the transition is going with the vocational students over centralized in the 1C building. I've just heard from some students and parents, the students who are in the vocational school getting over to the guidance council office, it's just a little farther of a distance. And where some of the students are on co-op, they're only in school like every other week, so I wanted to know if, and I don't know for sure, but if there's afternoon hours for the guidance, so that the students who are in the vocational side, where they have like the one week of academics, they really can't be kind of pulled from their classes to go down to the guidance, but they do want to participate in the scholarship programs, and they're getting ready for colleges and applications, and it does take some time, so I didn't know if there was any assistance or aids that help out with that process.
[Glasser]: I know that Alicebeth, I often see her leaving around four o'clock. I'll go for a run and she's with her kids. So she does stay late a lot of the times, particularly she has the vocational students that are juniors and seniors currently. But I have heard that there's some growing pains where her office used to be located there and now it's over by us. But I think as we transition and become one school, it's important for us all to be together so we can collaborate with her. Honestly, my office is right across from the bathroom, so if they wanted to look at moving us all to a new location in the middle, in general, I think it's important for us to be together, and the students are getting used to it. Plenty of times they'll come down, and if one of us aren't there, then they can ask someone else a question, so it is helpful for her not to necessarily be in isolation anymore.
[Kreatz]: What about getting copies of the printed transcripts Because I know if you're going to be filling out a college application or scholarship, you have to get the official transcript. And I was just thinking it might be helpful if somebody else in the office, besides the guidance Councilor or assigned Councilor, could print them out for the students. But it would be an authorized person. Or Secretary Andre. Andre?
[Howard]: OK. If I may just add something. We have an exceptional secretary, Andre Pierre. She not only speaks French, which helps us with the Haitian population, she does the translation, she does the original transcript that is attached or sent off to the colleges and so forth. So she does a lot of work that is not visible, along with her secretarial duties. But she's a wonderful secretary.
[Kreatz]: And then I just wanted to know, because I was reading in the report and I did get to talk to some of the guidance Councilors at the high school and I think there is actual like more like social emotional. And so I was thinking in terms of the budget that, you know, do we have enough Councilors at the high school? You know, I'm just, I was really, you know, thinking that myself and I had it highlighted in the report because, you know, I've heard that there's more social emotional is taking a lot of the time to spend with the students. And that was just my thought in thinking, do we have enough Councilors to assist all of the students?
[Glasser]: I think we could always use more, to be honest. If we don't get more guidance Councilors, do we need more adjustment Councilors? Definitely. Looking at having a re-entry program, definitely. That's not our department, so that would come out of half of Medaglio's budget, I believe. And I think Stacey Shulman's working on a report. We definitely, I've had a lot of students hospitalized this year, if they don't already have an adjustment Councilor, that their reentry, all of that falls on guidance. So there is way more social emotional need that comes up each and every year that is falling on us. So if it's that we have another guidance Councilor to spread that out or the supportive adjustment so that when things are becoming overwhelming, if it's clear, if it's, social emotional needs that are coming up daily with the student that we can refer them to adjustment and have that need be filled. But right now, the adjustment Councilors are, I believe, very overburdened.
[Howard]: But we are leaning towards the guidance Councilor, additionally.
[Burke]: Thank you. Thank you. All set, Ms. Koretz? Yes. Ms. Vandekloot.
[Van der Kloot]: I think that all my questions have been covered. Thank you very much.
[Burke]: Very good. Is there a motion on the floor to accept this report as amended? by Mr. Benedetto, seconded by Mr. Ruggiero. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Motion passes. Thank you very much.
[Howard]: Thank you.
[Burke]: OK. Is there a motion on the floor to enter executive session to discuss negotiations and legal matters and MTA grievance, update on pending legal matters, and discussion of collective bargaining? Motion on the floor by Mr. Ruggiero, seconded by Ms. Mostow and Ms. Kreatz. Roll call vote, please.
[Howard]: Mr. Benedetto.
[Burke]: Yes, seven in the affirmative, zero in the negative. We will now enter executive session.
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