[Christina]: Can I just add, we have two other students here tonight that actually were the masterminds behind the video, Abigail Brady and Kayla Velmay.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Okay. Thanks for helping Christina do her amazing project. Nice job. Also, Ms. Vandekluw, while we're under suspension, did you want to speak on this a lot? That was part of the... Who made the puppet, Christina?
[Erin DiBenedetto]: That was part of the program. Did you guys make that? We had it in the program. Okay. I also want to comment on... These are fairly new programs within the method public schools and the vocational schools. And we have machinery in there that labs at the Broad Institute have, and that Tufts University even comes down and uses and teaches us children with. We give our students excellent opportunities, and I'm so happy. to see this move forward and to see the collaboration amongst different programs. I could not be prouder of our teachers and our students. Thank you for representing Method so well.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Ms. Van der Kloot? Yes, Mayor Burke, while we're under suspension, I ask that we bring up the Medford Teachers Association next. They've asked if we could move them up.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: They're under community participation?
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Yes.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Is there a member from the Medford Teachers Association that would like to address Ms. Charlene Douglas? Good evening. Your name and address, please, for our record?
[Charlene Douglas]: Yes, she needs her glasses. Charlene Douglas, 414 High Street, Medford, Massachusetts. And Gina Coppola, 54 Yeomans Ave, Medford, Mass. And I am president of the Medford Teacher Association. And I'm president of the Paraprofessional Association, standing here to let you know that our association wholeheartedly agrees with what you are about to hear from the MTA. Thank you.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Thank you.
[Charlene Douglas]: Thank you. So many people have come to me in the past two weeks concerned about Mr. Bellson's employment. That is not the reason why we are here tonight. We have no interest in his employment, and you will hear soon what we are concerned about. At this point, I'd like to ask all the members of the Medford Teacher Association, McGlynn School, and the Medford Paraprofessional Association to stand. and many are standing in back. So tonight, I am here to speak on behalf of all the teachers at the McGlynn Middle School and on behalf of educators everywhere who stand up for themselves and their students. I am referring specifically to statements made by Superintendent Belson to the Method Police as reported by Captain Kevin M. Fahler in the McGlynn School Investigation Report. dated April 6, 2018. I hope you are all as troubled as we are by the inconsistencies in the poor judgment documented in the report and by the unanswered questions that still remain. I'm going to confine my remarks to our deep concerns about statements made by Mr. Belson concerning teachers. Let's begin with the statement by Mr. Belson in response to questions about why he didn't report the discovery of the gun clip to the police. On page 24 of the report, he is quoted as saying, rightly or wrongly, I didn't see it as a danger. The report goes on to say, Mr. Bellson stated that after he got busy and quote, really did not deal with it, unquote. Mr. Bellson stated that Mr. Edwards is also quote, under a great deal of fire by his faculty unquote, and that Mr. Belson currently has an, that Mr. Edwards, excuse me, and that Mr. Edwards currently has an MCAD case and an arbitration case against him. Mr. Belson stated that his faculty is angry at him, quote, not happy with us at all. Mr. Belson then reportedly thought to himself, quote, this doesn't seem like it should be elevated. You know one more thing, unquote. Let's reflect on this. Mr. Belson is telling the police that he decided to downplay the incident to protect Mr. Edwards because members of Mr. Edwards' staff have taken legal action against him. This sends the message that when teachers use the proper legal channels to seek redress of grievances and improvements in teaching and learning conditions in their school, the administration may actually conceal information that could threaten the safety of our schools. That thought process, as described to the police, is very disturbing, but it gets worse. I will now read to you from a selection from the section of the report starting at the bottom of page 25. Mr. Belson stated, quote, I don't know if there's some sort of political setup here to get Jake. Jake is under a bit of fire, unquote. He reiterated, that Mr. Edwards does not get along with some of his teachers. He added that, quote, Jake is a decent human being. I don't see him doing that. That is knowingly throwing away a gun magazine. I just don't. Was he set up? Were they really trying to get him? Unquote. Mr. Belson is posing a theory to the police that the McGlynn teachers, who do not get along with Mr. Edwards, may have set him up to try and get rid of him. That is the most outrageous, insulting, and implausible theory I have ever heard. It is also a clear attempt to deflect blame from himself and Mr. Edwards onto the teachers. Let me say this clearly. The teachers and other staff at the McGlynn are not to blame. In fact, they actually could have been victims. along with their students if the loaded magazine had been placed in the auditorium for malicious purposes. For Mr. Belson to suggest that the gun clip incident may have been a setup by teachers who don't like Mr. Edwards is disappointing, discouraging, upsetting, disheartening, and false. In fact, that's how the McGlynn teachers feel this year, disappointed, discouraged, and disheartened. Here's the reality. The teachers at the McGlynn School have been working under adverse conditions Conditions that led them to come up with their own school improvement proposal called the ABC plan that has constantly ignored through the fall and into the winter of the school year until Mayor Burke took it on. Despite these conditions, the McGlynn teachers have never stopped doing what's right for their students. Following me, you will hear from our McGlynn teachers about how they contribute to the school, the Medford public school systems, and the community as a whole, even through years of lacking leadership, vision, and support. They are hopeful for change and grateful for the current principal who is in place now and proving to be a strong leader. Before I turn the floor over to the teachers, I want to tell you that we are asking for in no uncertain terms. First, we demand a public apology from Mr. Belshen. He should apologize for downplaying the gun clip incident in order to protect Mr. Edwards from criticism as he admitted to the police, and he should apologize by making that suggestion, obviously without a shred of evidence, that somehow teachers were behind the gun clip incident to make Mr. Edwards look bad. Second, we want to be assured that the school committee does not share the negative opinions about the McGlynn staff that Mr. Belson stated to the police, and we ask that you make a public statement voicing support for the educators in the McGlynn and indicating that these words are his own and are not shared by the Medford School Committee. Thank you. At this point, I invite Brian Villard up to the mic. And other teachers from McGlynn.
[Brian Villard]: Brian Villard, 716 Main Street in Boxford. Thank you, Charlene. As always, we appreciate your support. Good evening, Honorable Mayor Burke and members of the school committee. We are the teachers of McGlynn, and we're here because we care. First and foremost, we'd like to say thank you to those of you who have heard our concerns and have truly listened to us. There has been so much positive in the school this year. We are encouraged by all of your efforts to help our school continually improve. We also appreciate your recognition of the wonderful community the teachers and staff have created at the McGlynn. However, we felt that the allegations in the police report could not go unrefuted. McGlynn teachers were extremely shaken and disappointed when we read some of the comments contained within it. We honestly don't know how exactly to respond. We feel misrepresented. So we thought what better way to clear the air than by telling you a little bit about what we have been doing with our time. Teachers have been working hard all year, both in and out of school, to educate the youth of Medford. We have stayed positive and focused our innovations on innovations and solutions to make our building better. This year, personally, I stepped up and joined the McGlynn site council, working with administration, faculty, parents, and students to propose positive change. I continued building school community by running the morning show program and highlighting the accomplishments of students. And I worked with Angela Bellini to establish the first annual lip-sync competition.
[Sherri Flint]: Sherry Flint, Fay Street, Boston. This year, I wanted to say that I volunteered to host two different programs outside to help our science department. We hosted the Tufts biology department, and we also hosted Concord Consortium. I volunteered to have these groups into my room to give my students an opportunity to experience hands-on activities and curriculum and work with materials that they wouldn't otherwise be able to have And that's something that was very important to me this year. And I think our kids really benefited from that. Thank you.
[Amy Villard]: Hi, I'm Amy Villard, 716 Main Street in Foxhurst, Massachusetts. First of all, I love the McGlynn. The McGlynn is my second home. My best friends work here. I love it so much that I married a teacher there. But on top of that, I'm a sixth grade teacher, and I have an amazing team. And I'm going to read a couple of testimonials, not just from me, but from a couple of other members of my team who aren't here tonight. So some of the female sixth grade teachers on our floor in the springtime specifically, we work together to spend lunch with a group of sixth grade girls on Fridays in the spring. Being a middle school girl, As some of us know, it was really, really hard. We worked to help the 6th grade girls feel connected and supportive of each other by creating a safe space. Each 6th grade girl receives a hand-delivered personal invitation to join us for a girls' lunch by the end of the school year. This is an opportunity to celebrate all of our strong, and smart girls. Activities include I'm Awesome Because, goal setting, meeting new friends, and what it means to be a middle school girl. Over the past five years, I've organized a running club for McGlynn students. Many of the kids at our schools don't have a ton of things to do after school that are productive, and the kids really enjoy being active, being outside, setting goals, achieving them, and they culminate in a cross-country race in the fall and a little track race in the spring. This testimonial's from Michael Kremen, who's the sixth grade ELA teacher on my team. Over the 13 years that I've worked at the McGlynn, my team and I have purchased many items for students who are living in difficult situations at home. We have brought students shoes, boots, coats, and other clothing. This year, along with Miss Bradshaw, who's our school adjustment Councilor, we bought and collected dozens of winter coats, pairs of gloves, and mittens and hats for our students who did not have proper cold weather clothing. I routinely purchase food and snacks for the nurses who have told us how many kids come to school hungry. We do these things quietly. We are not seeking praise. We do them because our students need them to be done. And then finally, Mrs. Taylor, who's the science teacher on my team. She works with Mrs. Trumbull and Mrs. Bellini to start the GEMS Club this year, which is Girls Exploring Math and Science. It's a very unique club to get girls more interested in STEM fields. We've been coming up with a curriculum and exciting activities to get the girls to come back. We have a core group of about 10 students who have been with us since we started, and this includes a few students from the Andrews. We're excited to grow in the years to come. Thank you.
[Kristin Zeckman]: Hi, I'm Kristen Zeckman, 55 Dunboy Street, Boston. And I teach eighth grade English. And my goal as an English teacher is to get the kids to be more passionate about reading and writing. And wherever they are, that's where I want to take them a step further. And when we do this is through the Scholastic Writing Awards. It's a big deal for a middle school student to win. And throughout the past several years, we've had winners in the middle school level from the Midlands specifically. And they often go on to win again in high school, and I think it's a great way for them to be recognized both locally and statewide. I also wanted to mention something that my coworker, Brett, does. He's sitting over there. He raises money through a GoFundMe site so that we can bring in an acting troupe for Romeo and Juliet and give the kids this authentic learning experience so that they can actually see the show in person, not just act it out in school and things. So those are two examples. Thank you.
[Ryan McCarthy]: How you doing? I'm Ryan McCarthy, 46 Colonial Ave. I'm sorry, that was where I grew up, 176 Florence Road, Waltham. So I've been on staff at the McGlynn since 2004, and I'm very, very proud of my school, our school I should say, and all of the faculty that work there and the students and the work that they produce. Each year since I've been at school, and I've taken many of your, a couple of your children anyhow on the trip, we go on an environmental camp trip. And that's run completely by teachers. All teachers that attend the trip, you know, go, I think, above and beyond the call of duty. We, you know, we don't go home to our families that night. We create a very positive experience, a formative experience for the seventh graders each year. And we've done it, as I've said, every single year that I've been there. And we never have to take parent chaperones because we have, you know, hordes of teachers that are willing to step up and to do the right thing for the kids. Also, beyond that, just quickly, each year, the Medford Family Network, which is an organization, very local, they're looking for charitable donations around Christmas time. Mrs. Derding and others have organized this effort at our building, and each year, my homeroom coordinate an effort, and this year we were able to adopt a family of three, three children that is, and provide them with, you know, over $400 worth of gifts at Christmastime. That's, again, teachers stepping up, making donations, and also the students. The teachers are motivating the students. Very proud of the work we do.
[Patricia Kilbride]: Good evening. My name is Patricia Kilbride, 11 Interville Street, Woburn, Massachusetts. I've been a special education teacher in Medford for 11 years, first at the Columbus in the therapeutic learning program, and then I was brought to the McGlynn for the language base, and I now teach grades six, seven, and eight in combination classes. And I just have something to say from the special education teachers. For the past three years, special education teachers and paraprofessionals from the language base, connections, and access programs have worked to include our students in the talent show, lip sync battle, the New York trip, environmental camp, and other events. Teachers, paraprofessionals, and parents have collaborated extensively to make these events fun and accessible to our students with special needs. And I myself got to attend the New York trip last year with one of my students, and to see it through her eyes was phenomenal, and it was a great time. Thank you.
[Hong Liu]: Good evening. My name's Hong Liu, H-O-N-G Liu, L-I-U. I've been in the public school system, Medford Public School, for 25 years. And for the past five years, I've been teaching as an ELL and math teacher. All I can say is, McGlynn Middle School is one of the best. The teachers are the most highly qualified, most hardworking, teachers every single day. This year, I happen to have a heavy load, so I work late. Around 5, 6 o'clock, I still see many teachers working there, including Miss Robin Irving. She is the first to be there getting the coffee for everyone, and she's almost the last one to leave. Many teachers with their children, young children, they work there as if This is their family. So I want to give a bigger applause to the teachers. Also, I want to say, touched and inspired by the new principal, Mr. Nick Tucci, I helped CQO received two Red Sox luxury suite tickets to help inspire students to be the best and achieve the best with the Mustang Way. Thank you.
[Unidentified]: All right.
[Angela Bellini]: Good evening. I'm Angela Bellini, 68 Glenwood Road, Somerville. I've worked at the McGlynn Middle School for the past six years. During this time, I've dedicated myself to the school and its students. I've stayed late almost every single day, coming up with new, engaging, hands-on labs and activities that allow the children to not only have fun in science, but to access the science curriculum in a really dynamic way. As Mrs. Taylor's testimonial mentioned earlier, we piloted a new club called Gems to allow girls from both middle schools to explore and have fun in STEM fields through hands-on lessons. This year, Mr. Villard and I also organized the McGlynn Middle School's first annual lip-sync battle, which allowed the students to have fun expressing themselves on stage and to compete for a trophy. That was pretty awesome. For the past two years, I've also organized the environmental camp trip with help from Ms. Haas. And this trip has been recurring for the McGlynn 7th graders over the past 14 some odd years. This trip becomes a lifelong memory for a lot of the kids, and it went really, really well last week. I was really happy with the way that it turned out, and the kids, I asked them today, absolutely loved it. So it was really, really great. Lastly, myself and several other teachers spent countless hours after school, during vacations, and sometimes on weekends, putting together the thoughtful and comprehensive ABC plan, which was put together in response to the original McGlynn Action Plan that was brought forth to school committee earlier this school year. We want our school to be the best that it can be for the sake of our community and the students that we teach, and that's why we do what we do. We could go on and on. about the positive works of our staff, but we don't want to take up all of your evening. We encourage all of you to take the time to visit our school and to get to know the amazing staff at the McGlynn. Thank you so much for your time and for giving us the opportunity to express how much we care about our students, the school, and each other here at the McGlynn.
[Charlene Douglas]: Thank you for listening. Have a nice evening.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Thank you. Mr. Paulson?
[Roy Belson]: Mayor, members of the school committee, ladies and gentlemen, at no time have I ever said that the McGuinn was a bad school, that the McGuinn teachers did not accomplish things, that the McGuinn teachers didn't do a good day's work. From time to time in my role, Sure, I question certain things from time to time. That's my job. I'm supposed to ask questions. That's what I do. Now, when this situation took place, the one person who took the direct heat for it was me. So the comment that I try to deflect the blame is clearly not true, and everyone knows it. I didn't throw anyone else under the bus. I took all the heat myself and accepted full responsibility for it. Now, a police investigation is what it is. People ask a lot of questions, and I was asked a lot of questions about a lot of possible scenarios, and what the climate was at that school, and what might be possible. And if you read the report very carefully, you'll see there's a lot of gaps. And some of those gaps do raise questions. And before I go on at this point, Mayor, I'd like to ask the police chief to come up and explain the nature of a police report and to tell you that I answered questions that were put to me. There are some people who declined to answer questions and declined to reveal things, but I didn't. Chief, appreciate it.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Name and address, please.
[Leo Sacco]: I live at 227 Elm Street in Medford, Chief here in the City of Medford. I just want to say one thing, if I may, Madam Chairman. I've said it in a number of forums before. The schools in Medford are safe. That has to be loud and clear. And they're safe, not by accident, they're safe because of all the people that are seated here tonight that work in those schools every single day, that keep a lid on things, they take care of business, they know who's causing a problem, they do what's appropriate to keep the schools safe. They deserve an awful lot of credit. And after this incident broke in February, when we first got the word at the police department about that, and then put a plan in place of how we were going to react from that point forward for a short period of time, I had the benefit of working a little bit at the McGlynn School. And I saw the love the care and the attention that the teaching staff give to every one of the children that enter that school every single day. Some of the coldest mornings, they were out there greeting them with a smile. I heard happy Monday, happy Tuesday. The young children running up, giving hugs to the teachers. You can't put a price on that. As the commercial says, it's priceless. But that's the type of staff that you have. They're a caring, nourishing environment for the children. The report, obviously you can't put every written word in the report, so it's better than a summary, but it's certainly not, you know, a big volume. Mr. Belson was very open and honest in his interview, very open. I mean, he suggested things. Captain Kevin Fowler was the officer that was charged with the investigation. He did a very thorough investigation. I have to say that Mr. Belson was very open in his interview and maybe to his detriment, maybe that's why we're here this evening because he said things that maybe some people didn't want to hear. I know in my conversation with Mr. Belson in the past, he wanted to make sure that we left no stone unturned. He wasn't pointing the finger of blame at anyone. He didn't want us to go with just the obvious, you know, what was obvious to us based on what was told to us at that point. Yes, as the police department, we know how to conduct an investigation. But I know that Mr. Belson cares very much about all of the schools, all of the teachers, and all of the students. And I think that's why he left it open-ended. He gave Captain Fowler somewhat of a climate of what was going on in the McGlynn School, just so that Captain Fowler had some kind of basis to say, OK, let's turn this other stone over and see where it leads us. I don't think there was an intent on Mr. Belson's part, and he can speak better than I can about it, to blame any one individual. He had questions. Captain Fowler ended his interview with Mr. Belson by asking him, is there anything that you want to add? Anything that maybe I didn't ask that you might want to put out there, and he reiterated some of the things that he had mentioned earlier about some of the climate in the school itself, which is probably not unlike any other school in any other school district. There's always something in play that causes someone who's not totally familiar with what goes on in that school to say, okay, let's go beyond just the obvious, what we have. We asked all of these questions early on. What was the motive? Why would someone, number one, how did it get into the school? Once it got into the school, how did it disappear from the principal's office? Did it actually make it into the principal's office? A number of people are in there. We heard from some of the people that we interviewed that school's pretty much an open building for a good number of hours after the school day is over with basketball teams, basketball leagues. children coming and going, various doors. Until this incident happened, we really didn't have to give much thought to it. Now it caused everyone to focus and say, you know, we have to tighten up on the security of the building. But that was only brought to light by the interviews that were conducted. If you have specific questions for me, I'd be glad to answer. I just want to clear the air. Mr. Paulson did not want to, he said it numerous times, he didn't want to put anyone under the bus. He accepted blame for not making the notification. And I know in working with Roy in the past, he tries to minimize things, not to disrupt the school system, to keep the learning environment as normal as possible. When we were forming the STARS program in Nemlech, that was Roy's main bone of contention. How do you deal with a major incident, but still keep the learning environment as normal as possible, so that the students aren't disrupted and the teaching staff is not disrupted? I think he realizes that, in this case, he made an error by not reporting it sooner. If anything, he would have got it off his plate. It would have been on my plate a lot earlier, and then the burden would be on me. What do I do about it? And quite honestly, in this interview, that's the avenue that he was coming from. It was his fault. He took the blame. Are we ever gonna find out how that clip got into the school? It doesn't appear unless someone out there who has knowledge and wants to come forward now. That's the only way we're gonna find out. Were there discrepancies by some of the other individuals that may have been interviewed? There were some discrepancies in the story in at least one individual's story of what they said about what they knew and what took place. But other than that, I have to say that Mr. Belson was just at the police station giving Captain Fowler a clear overview of what's going on, what the dynamics are in the city, and what the dynamics are at the McGlynn School as a whole. But at no time did he blame any individual group. I know there's quotes in there, and I know that maybe some things When you put a quote in and you don't put the full paragraph in that probably goes along with that quote, things can be taken out of context. And I apologize for that if I caused disruption in the school system for that reason. But I know that the avenue that Mr. Belson was coming from was that, please, don't just go with the obvious. Turn all the stones over and see where that leads. And that's what was done. That's why there was such a delay. in the investigative report. And unfortunately, we're all upset that we couldn't get a conclusion. There's nothing more frustrating to expend numerous hours and not come up with an answer as to how did the clip get there, who did it belong to, how did it disappear from the office, and just trying to find the whodunit patch. And that's what's frustrating. But the report speaks for itself. I'm glad to answer any questions that anyone may have, but I know that Mr. Bellson was not looking to, certainly not looking to cause this problem here this evening, and nor was I. Thank you, Chief.
[Roy Belson]: I'd like to continue for a minute. As the Chief pointed out, I didn't name a single individual at that school or anywhere else that I thought was responsible for anything. I took the blame myself. even though I never saw the clip, I had no chain of custody of the clip, and I had conflicting opinions coming at me from all angles. But I took the blame. Now, if anyone feels offended or upset, or feels that I did finger them inappropriately, then you have my apology, because that is not my intent. My intent was to aid the police department in their investigation, as the chief said, to leave no stone unturned. to let them know everything that was going on in that school, everything that was happening, because who can possibly know all the things that might have been possible at that point in time? My goal was to aid the police department. You know, it's tough enough some days for all of us in our very respective jobs, but I didn't go there with a lawyer. I didn't ask for any representation. I just simply answered the questions and provided the information that was asked of me. And once again, if there are members of the faculty who feel that I offended them, I apologize. I have no doubt that each of you is a dedicated professional. I have no doubt that each of you wants to do a great job for our young people. And in fact, as I look out, as I've been around a little while, I've probably hired most of you. probably was the person who signed your employment letter. Clearly, I believe that the McGlynn can be a good school and is a good school. We've had some differences this year. That's factual. This isn't brand new this month. But I believe going forward that good things can happen and that if we all put our mind to it, we're gonna make a difference and it's gonna work out just fine. So I appreciate you listening. I'm happy to answer any questions anyone has. Mike, do you want to say something at this point? Okay. I have a person with me.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Please step forward, please. Your name and address, please. Yes.
[Marilyn Blumsack]: My name is Marilyn Blumzak. I am a former resident of Medford for 52 years. My husband was the city solicitor for the city of Medford for 33 years. I am proud to say that I was a Medford teacher and still am a paying member of NEA and the Massachusetts Teachers Association. It's a distinct pleasure for me to be a teacher, particularly in this city that I love. I've resided here for 52 years. when I, my youngest of four was in junior high school, had the privilege of being president of the Lawrence Memorial Hospital Auxiliary. And at that point, I was doing a health career fair for the Lawrence Memorial Hospital when Mr. Bellison suggested that I come and help him write a grant called CETA, the Comprehensive Educational Training Act, and the city of Medford received monies for that grant. I wanted to tell you today, to remind you, that we live in very troubled times. I don't envy any one of you elected officials. You're doing the best job that you possibly can. Stephanie, all of the members of the school committee, the city council, The mayor certainly has a big responsibility, but so does Mr. Bellson. You trust him as voters. I trust him as a friend, as a teacher. He was a civics teacher many, many years ago before he became a teacher. He's always had the interest of his teachers and the children in this city at heart. He is a sincere, dedicated, trustworthy gentleman. He has served the city of Medford diligently for many, many, many years. He's apologized. He might have done wrong, but again, we're in troubled times. We have to trust the chief, Buddy Sacco, all of the people that we elect, and hopefully all of you in your hearts can see that this man deserves your praise. and all of you deserve your praise. I salute all of you and say to all of the people behind me that if you want to make a difference, go out and vote.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Thank you. I just wanted to address the McGlynn teachers. I appreciate their coming down tonight and telling the school committee what individually they've been up to in their classrooms and outreaching with students and to really take a hold this year and in previous years as well, but really to work and maximize the potential for every student at the McGlynn. It's unfortunate that it's under these circumstances, perhaps, but it's always great to hear from our faculty members. I do not make the leap that I think some have. There was a lot of tension. We know that. I think that's a fact that there was tension at the school this year, earlier, and in fact many of the McGlynn teachers came and addressed the school committee, but in no way, shape, or form does that mean or should it imply that we don't have the greatest respect for our McGlynn teachers, that we don't value their input each and every day, and that we aren't extremely proud to know that these are our staff, our people who are working at the school. I only see bright things. I know, you know, there's some turbulent times, but out of turbulent times, we will get better. And so I thank you very much for coming and appreciate the statements of those who came.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Thank you. Mr. Ruggiero.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Chief Sacco, can I ask you a question, please? So, reading through the report, I can understand some of the teachers' frustrations. I just want to make sure, this is absolutely clear. Do you or any of your officers believe that Superintendent Nelson floated a conspiracy theory that perhaps there was some sort of setup? I just want to make sure absolutely clear. I think the answer is obvious, but I want to make sure from your mouth. So none of your officers feel like there was any sort of a sense of Roy Belson trying to say there was some cabal to take down the principal, is that correct?
[Leo Sacco]: I don't believe it, nor do the officers that were involved in the investigation believe that. It was just something that was put out there as a reminder, as I said earlier, don't just go with the obvious, look at everything. That was not Obviously, if it was something, many more people would have been interviewed. We would have conducted the investigation in a different manner. So I think that tells you as of early March when we interviewed Mr. Belson, nothing further came from that. We didn't go to any other teacher, administrator, or anyone else that wasn't already on our list to interview based on what we had at that point. So as far as any kind of conspiracy theory, we never operated under that.
[Michael Ruggiero]: I just want to make, from my opinion, from talking, I've talked, had the opportunity, the blessing of talking to a number of the teachers, and I've also talked to a number of the parents. I've heard so many wonderful things about how hardworking almost, I can't even think of an exception, all of the McGlynn teachers I've talked with. And I just want to express my sincere gratitude for all the hard work you do. As a former teacher myself, I was never a successful middle school teacher. I find middle school teaching the most difficult of all teaching. And so I have a deep, deep appreciation for all the hard work you do, and I thank you very much. I hope that it's pretty clear that this is maybe a misreading or a misunderstanding of what the report was made. I do not believe that Roy Bellson ever tried to throw the teachers under the bus as if any of you would ever lay bullets in an auditorium in a safe space. I just can't imagine any of you doing that. So thank you, and I'm sorry about this miscommunication.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Mr. Benedetto. Thank you very much. I recently found out that I had read the report and the first time I read it, it didn't jump out at me that the teachers would take it this way because Roy has given, Mr. Bellson has given us different scenarios of what could have happened to have that gun clip be left in there, whether, It was this scenario or many others. He's given a few ideas for people to look at. So it didn't jump out at me. But when it came to my attention and I reread this section, I could see how you would feel and take this in this manner. And for that, as a school committee, I'm sorry that you felt that way. Because I value the work that you do with the students in our community more than I could ever say in words. I value the extra time, the extra mittens when they're cold, the hugs when their parents leave them at the door and they miss their mommy. And I don't care if they're kindergarten or eighth grade, there are days when you miss your mom. So you take care of the students both academically and emotionally. And if your emotions were hurt by this, I feel bad. And as a community member, I want you to know I, as a member of this committee, value your work every single day, every single night. And recently, I was just at your school on Saturday night, and I saw your new assistant principal there, working hard and late and missing an evening out with her family and her friends to make sure your school was safe. Ms. Lu, I don't know if you're here, but I want you to know I appreciate you holding down the foot in this very difficult year. You've done amazing work. And I was at the play the other night, and the kids had the biggest smile, and they performed, and it was so uplifting. And it was after a day I moved my oldest child out of my house, so I was so happy to see kids and see them singing and dancing. even though I was missing my own children being that age again. So it was joyful and happy, and I was glad to see that happening at the McGlynn. So again, I want to thank you all and renew my commitment to you as a committee member, that I am here any time that you feel that you have something to say.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: If I could just make a comment from the chair, I've had the privilege of getting to know quite a few of you over the past few months. And the job you do is amazing. How much you care about your school is outstanding. And we're just really, really proud to have you there. I hope that parents, fifth grade parents out there, see these wonderful people and change their mind about where they want to send their child. And no disrespect, Mr. DeLiva, but you guys are amazing. You do work every single day. A lot of it goes unnoticed. Mr. Kremen will be laying all the flags for Memorial Day in just a few short weeks. all on his own because he thinks it's important, and it is important. So there are things that you do on a daily basis that go unnoticed, but you touch so many hearts along the way. So just know that we respect your work, all of the administrators as well, of the work that you do on a daily basis. It's not just education anymore. I mean, it's way different than how when we were little. So things have drastically changed, and your patience level and your commitment is outstanding. We support you and we applaud your work. Thank you.
[Charlene Douglas]: So first, I want to say thank you, Mr. Belson, for doing the right thing and for apologizing for these comments that did offend many people. And thank you for the school committee for your support and continued support this year. And we look forward to working with you and making sure that the McGlynn is seen as a truly great school that it is. Thank you all very much. Hi.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: May I have the address, please? Ann Marie Cugno, 871 Felsway, Medford, Mass, 02155. I just want to say, as a former school committee member, I didn't have the opportunity last time the McGlynn parents came up. But it is, I'm sorry, McGlynn teachers and administration came up. But as a parent of the McGlynn, I want to say that your strides in your everyday, I'm sorry, it's addressing them, but what you do on an everyday basis is really immeasurable, and if you don't believe us as parents, just think when the older kids that are in high school and in college, when they're all coming back into your building and they're looking for you, that's gratification, and that shows that you're all doing the right thing. So unfortunately there's high emotions going on, but we are very proud of both of our middle schools. And as parents, I can say I've had them at both schools. And you need to find your fit. It doesn't matter how many children you have, you need to find your fit. So I just want to say thank you to all of you. Thank you.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: All right, thank you very much for coming tonight. Thank you. Also, while we're under suspension, we have Ms. Melanie McLaughlin and Angela Munsell-Moore regarding family and community engagement, a status update on the investigation, and the successful plan for superintendent and deputy superintendent.
[Melanie McLaughlin]: Hello school committee members, Madam Mayor, community. My name is Melanie Perkins McLaughlin and I live on Alston Street in Medford.
[Angela Moore]: Hi all, I'm Angela Moore and I'm on Vine Street in Medford.
[Melanie McLaughlin]: So we wanted to come before you folks and before the community to ask some questions that we had and concerns that we had. I know that you know Angela and I as regular attendees of the school committee meetings. We've been coming for several years. Also have children in the school district. I have two high schoolers and a elementary schooler. I'm also the co-chair of the Medford Special Education Parent Advisory Council, representing approximately 800 families in the district. And one of the things we wanted to talk about was it was really, really interesting to watch tonight's events because so much of what I feel like we all watch tonight is family and community engagement. And it's an important part of what we really need to have as Medford moves forward. I hope that Dr. Edouard-Vincent watches these archival meetings to understand what it is we are looking for and what we need. And everyone knows that we had a very unfortunate event and we had an unfortunate meeting that occurred in February where there was a lot of heated emotions and where there was a lot of And people talked about that for a long time in the community afterwards. And they talked about how terrible that meeting was in so many different ways. And what wasn't talked about, unfortunately, in my opinion, was what brought that about. Not so much the incident itself, but the lack of family and community engagement in our community. Even this context where you have to be willing to stand up at a podium and speak into a microphone. with your back turned to the rest of the community to be able to converse and express what your feelings are. I mean, I went on to the website earlier today to just sort of look at what the protocol is. And I understand protocol and the need for protocol. You have to get the business part of it going and the meeting moving along. You know, but the website is you have to submit in writing your request. You have to do it a week ahead of time. You have exactly three minutes. You can come up to the podium and you can talk to us. That's not family and community engagement. I had the benefit last year of going to graduate school, and I really enjoyed my time there. I had a great teacher who helped write for the Department of Education at the federal level the family and community engagement guidelines and some material there. And one of the things they talk about is family and community. We're all part of the community. So the teachers that came up tonight are the community. The school committee members are the community. Our shop owners are the community. The parents are the community. We're not just families. or teachers or people that don't have children. We're all a community together. I had this really great experience last week where I set up an appointment to talk with our new EL director, Paul Texera, and we had the best conversation. We sat in his office for just about an hour, and I learned a little bit about him, he learned a little bit about me, and we both walked away from that experience wanting to work together and really wanting to collaborate with each other. And I thought, you know, what would have happened if we hadn't built those relationships with each other, if we didn't know each other? And that's what family and community engagement is. It's about building relationships and about knowing each other. Folks might recall when this all happened a few months ago, there was a post on social media where one of Mr. Belson's family members talked about who Mr. Belson is as a man. And we heard from his friend earlier talking about who Mr. Belson is as a man. And personalizing Mr. Belson and personalizing each one of us is what builds community and relationship. And I think people are able to relate much better to who he was as a man because we learned about who you are as a man. Tonight, seeing you apologize, we learned about who you are as a man. And that's the important piece of family and community engagement. It's collaboration and communication. We're not doing it enough. And we can't say enough about that. And that's why I stand before you tonight for more family and community collaboration. Bring people to the table. I was watching Justin tonight. I'm so glad Justin's here. That's a relatively new thing. That's a great thing. More roundtable discussion, not having to come up to the podium and ask and talk. Or you guys were inundated with emails. I'm glad you were inundated with emails. I say to anybody watching tonight, keep them coming. Keep communicating, please, because we need you to communicate to make a difference and to make things transparent. So getting to the transparent piece, even in the past few months with everything that's been going on, there's still been sort of concerns around some of the transparency. And what you saw the night in February and what I witnessed, which was, frankly, traumatizing for me. I don't know about other people, but I was sort of shell-shocked when I left there at the anger and the vitriol that was there that night. But I was also really very clear what the message was. And it was, we don't feel like we're being heard. And in any relationship, as people can attest in their marriage or their relationship with their children or what have you, when you feel like you're not being heard, what typically happens? You yell. You're angry. You get out of control. But when you're being heard, you're collaborating. You're working together. So that's what we need to do. So in the most recent Committee of the Whole meeting, when we found out by social media that the decision to extend the superintendent's contract went from April to June, that was not family and community engagement. That was a really bad example of the lack of family and community engagement. And again, none of this is personal for me around Mr. Bellson. We've had everybody knows we've had our differences, Mr. Bellson, but we've always been very professional and respectful with each other. It's never been personal and it never will be. But in terms of having community transparency to find out on social media that this decision was reversed was so unfortunate. It was like, oh, it felt like we were moving forward and we were gaining some momentum and some trust, and then this happened, and you could see it in the response on social media, the way so many community members felt about that. But if they had just been consulted with ahead of time, if people had just had an idea, even the notice was, you know, that there's a committee of the whole meeting and that there was going to be some discussion, which frankly was at the same time as the National Honor Society meeting, which is what I was attending, that there was going to be some discussion that this might even be the case, you would have had a much larger turnout, I have no doubt. And people would have felt like they were invested in that decision and had some momentum and part of that decision. So I guess what I want to ask as we're talking about transparency and moving forward and, you know, hoping that you folks will hear us, and I know that we've done presentations in the past as a CPAC talking about family and community engagement and the need for it. And I think that this is really a fascinating study, frankly, in family and community engagement this past year that we've had here. But I guess the questions I have is, I have a few questions. One is how, also I want to mention that we also had a public records request in a few months ago that has not been responded to. And when we try to submit the public records request through the website, we get a mail or DM back that says the public records request is not accessible. And again, I just kind of feel like it's a metaphor for the scenario. And so I'd love for folks to look into that as well, because if a community member has a public records request, it shouldn't be a mail-or-demon back. And once we've notified the community, the school, that it is a mail-or-demon, hopefully it's fixed and people respond to that constituent. So questions we have. How is the community made aware that the vote would be to continue the superintendent contract from April 30th to June 30th, effectively reversing the February decision. I'm wondering how the community was made aware that that was going to be the vote. That's the first question. The second is, did any school committee members let their community or constituents know this would be a consideration. If so, how was that done? And if not, I'm wondering why. And then also we're wondering about the survey results for the superintendent and how or whether they were shared from the community survey that was done, asking folks what they would like. Thank you.
[Paul Ruseau]: Mr. Russo. I can speak quickly to the survey results, like five times now I've written down. Get those results out to the public. The challenge is that they're the open-ended questions, or the other, where you could then become open-ended, is printed like this. And I at least feel a responsibility, although I don't know that it's technically a responsibility, to at least read them all before dumping them into the public. Because a quick search of a couple of words that you might see in a survey, if you have kids, you've probably seen these kinds of words. You know, personal attacks on staff members, that kind of stuff. Like, I feel like some things deserve to at least have a conversation about whether they should be redacted from the release, or to ask, you know, our lawyer, should this be included in the release? And I just have not been able to get through. Now, I do believe I released to the committee, I don't remember if I released it to the public, the purely, you know, the statistics kind of stuff, which doesn't have anything interesting, like what percentage were men and women and all that other stuff. So if that hasn't been released, I can certainly release that. But honestly, the important and interesting stuff is not in the numbers. There's just really very little surprising in the numbers, although you should still be able to see them. It's in that really detailed stuff that people had to say. And believe me, people had a lot to say on the 470 responses or so. There was nobody who didn't have a lot to say. So that's what I had to say about the survey.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: If I could just add on the survey, it was used for the search committee purposes to get the search committee off the ground. Everything that happened in the search committee was executive session, basically, the equivalent of it. So now that we're out, you should turn them over and we can redact if there's something offensive. But otherwise, it's benign. Ms. Van der Kloot?
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Melanie, I just wanted to mention one thing. I think that your call for community and family engagement was heard very much by the school committee and is reflected in the choice of our new superintendent. Certainly, as we went about interviewing people and talking to them, that was a major concern. And in fact, we've picked someone who we feel will be able to broaden family engagement and reach into communities that perhaps have been, not perhaps, but have been underrepresented. So I think that that is an extremely important point and that we heard you very clearly and know that that is a concern that we would like to make sure that we're broadening community and family engagement. By the way, one of the things that you mentioned about the podium and the way you come here, that's one of the reasons why many of us actually prefer committees of the whole, because it's a much more feeling of collaborative discussion when we're around the table versus here, which is a much more formal presentation. And remember, as you speak, part of the thing is your face is to the camera. And so while you're here, it's always awkward because your face is, you know, your back is to the community, but there's the larger community at home.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: And as far as that meeting, it was a special meeting of the school committee. It was not a committee of the whole, It's a nomenclature, right? Same thing. But that was posted the way all of the meetings were posted. And I know there were some parents that did show up at that meeting. And we held it before the Honor Society meeting, because three of us went over to that right from the end of that meeting. So it was public. It was as public as any other meeting that we hold, just like tonight. Mr. Ruggiero.
[Michael Ruggiero]: How the issue was brought up It was, I was under the impression that we were going to discuss the transition strategy. That is the notice that was made. I didn't, it would have probably been more helpful to the community and to me as a member if the discussion was about continuing Roy Belson's contract. Because I wasn't, personally, I wasn't really prepared to have all the reasons and to rehash through the argument other than what I did. But I share your concerns. because I do believe that it was an important decision to make, and I think more community input would have been very helpful, as I made clear during the meeting.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Actually, if I could, the meeting posting said the purpose of the meeting is to determine administrative leadership of the school system from May 1st to June 30th, 2018, and to take appropriate actions to implement the same. Further, the school committee may discuss relevant transition plans consistent with the completion of the superintendent search and selection process.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Yeah, but it doesn't say that Roy, just a clarification, it does not say that in addition, Roy Bellson's contract may be extended. The idea of the, while what we, I do not claim that what we did was a violation of open meeting law, I don't think so. It wasn't. But it would have been more clear to the community if that issue of Roy Bellson's extended contract was made more clear.
[Melanie McLaughlin]: And thank you. And Madam Mayor, respectfully, I agree. I think that I didn't go to the meeting myself because I thought that it was a sort of procedural interim, you know, what we were going to do, which I thought was pretty clear that it would likely be deputies. Obviously, I was uninformed, but it didn't say specifically about Mr. Belson. Had it, I would have been at the meeting.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Excuse me.
[Melanie McLaughlin]: So I think that that's the point. I'm sorry.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: The committee could vote anything that night. It wasn't dictated what was going to happen.
[Melanie McLaughlin]: Right. I understand. I totally understand that. But I guess what I'm saying in the interest of family and community engagement, we didn't hear that and we didn't hear what we needed to hear to be at the meeting. And so from a family perspective, it wasn't communicated effectively.
[Michael Ruggiero]: And to add on to that point, I mean, I would like to suggest that these important decisions are made during regular committee meetings. I understand that sometimes we do need to go into executive session or committee of the wholes, but that particular issue should have been televised so the whole community could hear it. It's unfortunate that the community had to sort of hear about it secondhand. It creates an environment of mistrust.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Thank you. Mr. Russo's next.
[Paul Ruseau]: My question, you mentioned about this format, which I don't think anybody actually thinks this is the most enjoyable format, especially that one spot. This is actually much less of a challenge than that spot. But I'm just curious, and I'm not a history teacher, and I have no civics education other than the one I got in high school, but are there other formats for this are implemented in this country that people know of? Or is this really, I mean, I just sort of assume this is the default format everywhere.
[Melanie McLaughlin]: I think that you look, there can be something as simple as handheld microphones and people could stand at either end and address all of you. It's simple if you think outside of the box a little bit about, well, what feels welcoming and this is not welcoming. It's intimidating. And so what do we do to make somebody feel less intimidated? And I couldn't agree more. I think Dr. Edouard-Vincent is going to be all over that. And I'm really happy and very pleased. And thank you all very much for your hard work on that. I know how hard you worked on that. And thank you for the privilege of being on the superintendent search committee. It was a great privilege. Yeah.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Thank you.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Mr. Benedetto.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Thank you. I actually requested the meeting. I requested the meeting because May 1st was coming. and my understanding that Mr. Belson was retiring as of April 30th, and that we needed to have an official person named as acting superintendent to get us through the transition. So I had no idea that there were other options at play that were gonna be presented that evening, so I too was shocked that this came up at this meeting, I assumed the vote of the committee, and when the committee voted to extend him to April 30th, I took on that as that's my new role, is to support him till that point, and then make sure our district has somebody at the helm. So I really pushed to have this meeting. So it was a little quicker than some, and it was a special meeting to discuss it, my understanding that is someone within the district would step into that role, whether a deputy, a principal, someone we felt confident, you know, to help us through because Mr. Belson was also going to be present. And knowing him, as we all do, we know he works way beyond the hours required, and he was being contracted to continue for 25 hours. So he was accessible to help with any bigger issues, and I'm sure with his dedication to this community over all these years, that he would wholeheartedly do that. So I honestly was shocked by the outcome of that meeting. It didn't even enter my mind as a possibility. Had I thought that that was a possibility, I would have, like I do usually, hey, important things are being discussed and put it on social media, please come. right, please come, or I would have requested that the meeting be televised, because I have done that also in the past. And I know we're getting new cameras in different areas, so we can do that. Because transparency is extremely important. And people not finding out important information online is, they feel insulted to find it out that way. I don't know what to say about the outcome of the meeting, but I can own that I did bring it forward and did not tell a push for it to be, because I thought it was just an interest, you know, an interim person stepping in for two months.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Thank you. Ms. Mustone. Thank you, Maribel.
[Mea Quinn Mustone]: I don't know about everyone, but likewise, I thought someone who was in administration was going to step in. not realizing that's not in their contract. So when we did receive multiple angry emails that night and the next morning, I did respond saying, I went in assuming, shame on me, that someone in administration would step into that role per contract. The other option was that the Massachusetts Association School Committees can take someone almost like an emergency superintendent. So to me, having a middle man or middle woman come in for eight weeks, try to transition, while we have, I almost feel like Dr. Maurice is like the Phoenix out of the ashes. Like this is going to be a whole new public school system. And I did not think that was the best choice to have a middle person, um, that I think Mr. Velson is, has the knowledge and the history to give our new superintendent and just looking forward that we needed that transition to be smoothly done. And, I know people don't agree with that, but I think it would have been more detrimental to our school system to bring someone in for eight weeks, and I stand by that decision.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Mr. Tseng. Do you have a microphone there? I don't. Okay, step up. There you go.
[Justin Tseng]: Okay, well, I thank you for coming up and saying what a lot of our community is thinking and has been thinking throughout the past few years. And I'll say, when I read the notice for that meeting, I also didn't take it as you would take the vote that you took. And a lot of adults didn't take it that way either. And I think the notice did say exactly what the meeting would be about. It didn't lie. There were no lies in it. It stated the truth. But there's a part of it that includes communication. communicating to school committee members, to the general public about what the meeting might entail. And because of laws, you can't talk outside of a meeting. That's the problem. Yeah, and that's a huge problem that acts as a roadblock. But maybe allowing the public to know via social media, which you guys are all very good about, but to know via social media what might happen in a meeting, and to tell people, come. Come to this meeting. I think that really helps out. I'll say, from the student perspective, when we read that on Facebook, or when our friends texted the news, there were two reactions, generally. One was, what the heck? How did this just suddenly happen? And the other reaction was, oh, he was in for it. We knew that this would happen anyways. And, you know, both reactions aren't positive for our community. It's not positive for the school community, not positive for the general public, not positive for Mr. Bellson and his leadership. And I think a more open culture. the so-called new Medford, I think that's what we want to try and foster, what we want to try and sponsor, and how we deal with these issues going on. So being more open about what meetings might entail, and even, I would say, try more to advertise the committee of the whole meetings, because they're kind of put aside, and they allow for a more relaxed context, but I think it's important for people to know that these are important meetings, important stuff gets done in these meetings. I think that's super important. And I know Mr. Rousseau does this. He does town halls. He does meet the school committee member. And I think that's a great way for people in the community to engage with school committee members. So I say we have to take a step back, look at the bigger issue. It's about trust. And we need to build that trust between the general public and the Medford School Committee. And there's trust, but it can be stronger.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Thank you, Justin.
[Melanie McLaughlin]: Very eloquent, Justin. Thank you.
[Kathy Kreatz]: Ms. Kreatz. Yes, so I, too, that night, I knew we were having a meeting, and we hadn't been able to talk about who would be the interim superintendent, so we got to talk that night, and I thought maybe somebody would be stepping up into that place, but we did have to make a decision in the best interest of everybody, like the students and the staffing, while we waited to hire our new superintendent. So, you know, I stand by my decision, and it was more of in the best interest of the schools and the students to keeping, you know, so we would have the training until the end of the school year. Because I have been getting a lot of questions from parents, who's gonna be the superintendent? And there's also been confusion. Some people thought we already hired a superintendent. So it's just been a little bit of confusion all around. But so, I stand by the decision that I made that night, as well.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Thank you, Ms. Kreatz. Mr. Benedetto?
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Thank you so much, Mayburg. I still have some questions, so I need some transparency and clarity on what exactly the superintendent's role is for the rest of this year. Will he have whole power as the superintendent? Will he be hiring and moving people and promoting people and providing raises? And I also heard a few rumors that he's telling people that he's going to be here beyond June 30th. Is that a possibility? Is there something about that happening? I just want to put it all out here while we're on camera and everybody's in the room. I just have these general questions and if someone could answer them for me and any other questions that come up. I just want to know are the rules we put in place in February for him to continue to April 30th still in place? or have they been removed? I'm really not sure what we voted for that night.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: None of those other restrictions have been removed.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: So he cannot hire people or move people or give raises or promotions unless it's like something to just provide services till June 30th. Anything beyond that, our new superintendent would be making those choices like department heads and all of that. Yes, of course. And the rumors that I'm hearing that he's telling people that he might be staying past June 30th, has anybody talked to him about doing any consulting beyond that point? No, this body has not talked about that.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Ms. Van der Kloot. Mayor Burke, I just think that there may be positions that we want the superintendent to move on, and so I'm not, excluding that as a potential. But they have to be reviewed by us. Yes, but they would be, we would be part of that discussion. Now, of course, you know, um, and you know, I think the superintendent has made it very clear that he would also want to include, uh, the superintendent elect as well. Um, but to say there's going to be nothing happening to, um, until July 1st, I don't want that to be, um, the feeling there, there, there certainly needs to be movement. For instance, we might very well want to solidify our principal at the McGlynn, for example. We don't want to wait until July 1st to do that.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Well, I would like to see the new superintendent make those choices. If that superintendent told us that they had flexibility in coming forward, I'm sure Mr. Belson can give the information, but the final decision, even restructuring of the central administration, you know, putting those positions back in place, I think that should be the new superintendent's place. I don't think that a new superintendent should step in and, you know, have to work with what's been hired from an outgoing superintendent. His input can be done by June 30th, and then the new superintendent should have the final decision.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: We have positions like director of foreign language. Interviews are scheduled to begin. It's already been posted. We have applications in. Neil from City Hall on diversity is going to be sitting in on the interviews. And then when they make a recommendation, it will come to us. We need to move forward. We cannot just go into freeze.
[Angela Moore]: These sirens are going off everywhere. Is there a way to include the new superintendent-elect in those?
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: I asked her the other night if I could. I asked her the other evening if she would have an opportunity to assist us, and she said she would try to the best of her ability. This is before we offer her the position. That she has a commitment to Boston through the end of the year, but she would make every effort to rearrange her schedule so that she could help us get through things and possibly even be part of the budget process.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: So, Mayor Burke, can I answer that question about the director of foreign language? For instance, so say the new superintendent wants our foreign languages to develop in a different road than we currently have in MEDFED. Maybe a different language. So say the new director of foreign language teaches a program that we might not be moving forward for for the next five years. I would hate for that to happen when the new superintendent, like she talked about Mandarin in one of her interviews, I remember her. speaking about that. So she might have a new direction and new programs in her mind of how to move MedFit forward. And if we hire someone in a role that has what we currently have and what not our future is going to be, we could be tying our hands. So that's why the importance of not hiring directors are important to me. So I really would like to either let her make those decisions on, you know, bring the finalists to her, maybe do the preliminary work, but really have some more input from the new superintendent and what her vision for our school district is gonna be rather than the outgoing superintendent, and someone have to work within those restraints.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: What we have to wait. Mr. Superintendent.
[Roy Belson]: So let me try to address this a little bit so we can clarify these things for everyone's benefit. I have had a very extensive conversation with Dr. Edouard-Vincent. She met with us before she toured our schools. We had a good exchange of ideas of what was necessary to happen so that when she came aboard, she wouldn't be mired in doing a lot of functional and organizational things that would take an extraordinary amount of time. We have a number of open positions. Any departmental position that got hired would be subject to the professional status law, which means they only have one year. So if, in fact, they did get hired, they could be replaced within that one year. The second piece is that to leave all these things for an individual to come in would destabilize the school system. We have after school programs. A director of early childhood is leaving. They run the after school programs. They oversee the family network. All these things have to be taken care of. I can assure you that the mayor And I have talked considerably about including people in the discussions, including Mr. Osborne, so we can promote diversity. But I can assure you that the way we hire administrators is they always come before you, remember? These major administrative positions. And you get a chance to input. And I'm sure that Dr. Edouard-Vincent will have every opportunity to input. But if we stop our business right now, in July, Our successor is going to have one heck of a responsibility to put things together in two months, less than two months before school opens. And that's not a desirable outcome. Secondly, there are a whole pile of responsibilities with teachers and other things of that type. Leaves of absence, maternities, all kinds of things that have to be dealt with. Got to be dealt with. You don't want to drop that on your new person. I can assure you that you're going to be involved. I can assure you that Dr. Edouard-Vincent's going to be involved, because I'm rooting for her success. That's what I do. I want to finish strong. The only reason I'm needing to stay on is because there is a gap, not because I wouldn't have something to do if I wasn't in this role. As Mrs. DiBenedetto pointed out, I probably wouldn't work 25 hours a week. I'd probably work 80 hours a week or 60 hours a week. I'm going to work it anyway. But having the level of authority to do what needs to be done, to put things in place, to handle the collective bargaining that has to go on at this point in time is in your best interest. I can sit back, not do anything, but that means my successor is gonna have an awful lot to do. I would rather she comes in to a stable environment and have the opportunity to move her ideas and programs forward, and I will root for her. And I will work with her and give her as much support as she needs. But not to take care of the routine business of this school system, not to ensure that the partnership, some of the things that are on tonight's agenda, won't go forward, would be a disservice to you, to the community, and to her. So I respectfully request that you allow me to do what I have to do. I can assure you that you'll be involved. I can assure you that she will be involved. And I can assure you that any decision we make will be something that's collaborative and not an individual decision on my part, except for the routine kinds of things that have to happen day to day to keep the school system in place. So I appreciate your concerns. I want to assure you that that's my intent. Let's finish strong together. Let's have a good balanced budget. Let's put a budget together next year. That's going to be reflective of the things that you want to see and that will give our new superintendent an opportunity to innovate and do the things that will make the school system move forward. I appreciate you listening.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Mr. Benedetto.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Um, a few things. Number one, can we get a list of those positions that, um, are necessary to move forward so that—I know we asked for a list of retirements. It wasn't added to the back of the agenda for reports, so we had asked for a list of retirements or open positions for next year, so that would be helpful for us to know what interviews are happening, what's going on, because, like, I did not have any idea that those interviews were happening for the foreign language department at this point. That would be helpful as committee. Also, I'd like to, through you, to address the superintendent about the rumors that he plans on staying after June 30th. Is that your intention, Mr. Belson?
[Carolyn Joy]: Rumors?
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Reporting on rumors.
[Roy Belson]: The world is filled with rumortism, and that paralyzes everyone. The reality is that this is my community. If my community needs me to help, I'll be available. If my community doesn't need me to help, with or without compensation, of course, then that won't be there. I certainly won't be intrusive. But I've got to believe that a new superintendent is going to have a lot of questions once they get into the weeds. I'm a phone call away. I live down the street. And I'm more than happy to help, because this is my community. I've been superintendent and been in the school system longer than some people in this room have been alive. And this is my community. And I don't intend to reject my community. I don't intend to walk away from my community. But I don't expect, necessarily, that I would ever intrude on the prerogatives of my successor, on the school committee, or anyone else. But will I be helpful? Of course I will. I expect the school system to build on a very firm foundation. I expect the school system to progress and do well. So I'm not walking away, but I'm not intruding, and I'm available if I'm needed, and I will help wherever I can.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Thank you. Ms. Van der Kloot, are you all set? No. Yep.
[Michael Ruggiero]: I wanted to address a couple of the other points that we've sort of moved past, including the public records requests. It's important that the public, as being a public body, we are under all the laws that govern public requests. So we have a subcommittee of community relations, but I think this issue is sort of, I would like to have all the members present. So I'd like to make a motion that we have a committee of the whole meeting where we can address, go through all of the items that are important, including maybe having a mic stand in the back corner. So, you know, if there is a disabled person, we could just hand them the mic. or talking about public requests, where all these issues can be addressed. So like I said, to make a motion that we have a committee of the whole meeting to address all community engagements.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: But there is an individual at the school that is responsible and at the city that's responsible on our side as well.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Yeah. I mean, I've made public requests and people have been very helpful, but it's unacceptable that emails bounce. But beyond that, there are other issues that we need to discuss about community engagement, community relation. I'd like to do that as a body. So that'd be my motion.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Mr. Russo.
[Paul Ruseau]: Can you be clear as to what this meeting would do and be about? because we just had a conversation about an agenda item that was too vague for people. So once people read this agenda, they need to know whether they care and they're gonna go there. So this list, that's not anywhere good enough in my mind to vote for a meeting.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Well, we can work with the chair and just sort of add items on the agenda, like we normally would when we have a meeting request. But basically, the broad outline would be how to discuss increasing community engagement on the school committee.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: That is exactly what this committee is about. So it really does belong with the committee. And we follow Robert's Rules of Order. And that's how we conduct our meetings here, these public meetings. It's all through Robert's Rules of Order. So that's the structure. And most formal committees adopt those standards.
[Angela Moore]: Can I just continue with what we also wanted to speak about, and something that I brought to your attention two years ago, and if it had been properly acted upon, we would not really be in the situation we're in right now. And two years ago, I did ask for a solid succession plan for the superintendent position. At the time, I do believe it was misconstrued, and people thought it was simply me saying about Mr. Bellison, but it wasn't. It could have been anybody sitting up there. And now we're poised to hire a new superintendent and there's still no plan. I felt at the time the request was definitely belittled and ultimately the plan that was presented included the scenario we're actually placed in now where there's an untimely or unexpected vacancy. And I just want to read exactly what the plan that was put forth actually says. It says, if the superintendent is unable to perform his duties for any reason, the deputy superintendent would become the interim superintendent. And then it goes on, but we wouldn't have to do a school committee search, obviously. The current school system administration is an experienced team that can handle transition and maintain operations for an extended period of time. We have an assistant superintendent, director of finance and administration, director of pupil services, director of building and grounds, as well as assistant principals, and departmental directors in place. Each would be able to carry out their essential functions. So with that being said, I'm not really sure why we're in a situation where we had to reverse a decision if this is what was put forth as the succession plan. If a proper plan had been in place, I don't think it could have been proposed or justified that your decision was reversed because of a lack of a succession plan. or that their people that were supposed to be taxed with the job were not available to do so. Ultimately, I think it just highlights what our community is feeling, that we're not being heard, that you're unwilling to actually be proactive. I mean, it was almost exactly two years ago that I asked for something to be done, and it's still not done. And now we're hiring a new superintendent, and we're still going to be at ground zero for what happens. I mean, we know now what a search involves. and we know what we want, but all of this needs to be in place before, I believe, before Mr. Belson leaves because you're obviously going to need his input. So what I'm asking for you tonight is an actual commitment and a date to have an actual solid succession plan. Like I said, I believe Mr. Belson's input will be invaluable because there's just a lot of policy and knowledge in his head that needs to be put in writing somewhere. There's boilerplate plans that you can get that are fairly inexpensive that can sort of bring this along more quickly. Ultimately it needs to be done now and it all just ties back to a better engagement of engaging your community and like I said, I know I was belittled and it's just a lack of respect for community participation. It's the we know better, how dare you ask, we can handle it. And that's unfortunate.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Ms. Van der Kloot, you want to?
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Sure. So I just want to mention a couple of things. I think that at the time, as we consider potential people who would fill, at least in my head, and I guess I have to speak for myself, clearly the assistant superintendent, as it is outlined exactly in that, would have been the person who would have been most likely to step into the role. However, she's retiring. The deputy. The deputy superintendent. Beverly Nelson.
[Angela Moore]: Yeah.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: So she's retiring.
[Angela Moore]: You said the assistant, sorry.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Sorry. She's retiring. This is not the time to ask her in her career, as she winds down, for her to all of a sudden step into a very difficult role at the last minute. Another potential would have been Dr. Perella. Well, I don't think it's appropriate to then ask the guy who you just didn't forward on to the finalists to step into the role. Things change. I don't think that the superintendent is able. I believe that if, for example, had he taken ill, which thankfully he did not, but had he been taken ill, that people would have put any personal consideration aside because the loyalty to Mr. Belson is extreme amongst the people he's worked with. So I don't think, Angela, that we did not think about the succession plan or that we belittled it. I think we're going to have to look at it again as we do a new administration comes in to make sure that it all makes sense and look at our people, whatever. But I don't think that was the intent of the school committee just to overlook it. I think that they were extenuating circumstances. In my mind, there was only one thing that was important, and that is, what is in the best interest of the Medford Public Schools right now to ensure an effective transition to the next superintendent? So, if it, in the, as we now make that transition to a new superintendent, I have no problem at all revisiting that policy, taking a look at it, but essentially, it's going to stand. But, you know, For me, the big question of who do we hear, school committee members heard from a lot of people, a lot of people. And of course, there's been a very vocal segment of the community who's been very out there, who's been very upset with Mr. Belson, and there's been a whole lot of other people who've supported him. I feel that we are elected in the most difficult circumstances to keep our eye on the prize and be able to separate ourselves from all the different opinions we hear, no matter how difficult it is, and say, what is the most important thing going forward? For me, it was to say, how do we make the best transition? And in my mind, It was at this point, given the circumstances that presented itself, it was to keep a experienced superintendent who had dedicated his life to Medford to move forward through the next eight weeks.
[Angela Moore]: And I understand where your reasoning comes from, but with all due respect, you've known for months that the deputy was retiring. You've known for months now that Mr. Belson was going to be retiring early, and there was never a mention, not that any of us have ever heard, that there was not going to be a person to fill the position.
[Melanie McLaughlin]: And I want to add, I do just feel like I need to add in this situation. I was at the school committee meeting two years ago when Angela came up to the podium and asked very respectfully what the plan was. And it was embarrassing. And I think there was only probably one or two other people in the audience, but there were lots of people watching at home. And it was embarrassing and humiliating. And I felt terribly for Angela in that experience. I remember writing an email to the school committee after that meeting. I actually befriended Angela as a result of that meeting. It was entirely unfortunate and it was two years ago. Ms.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Van der Kloot. So I understand that that evening was unfortunate and did not play well. I think that you meant the question now, you know, in a respectful way and that responded by saying, hey, this is the plan, okay? There were extenuating circumstances which happened, okay? There's another person who might have been a potential, but it wasn't a good time for her to take the role. We need to look at the large picture. and determine what was the best course. And I understand there are a lot of people who disagree with us. The only thing that I can say is that there are five people who are extraordinarily different in many, many ways, and yet five of us agreed that this was the best path. Two did not, and I respect my colleagues for their decision. But this is the way it operates in our public discourse of majority rules. Five of us agreed that this was the best way. In going forward, absolutely, especially if we have any changes in the way that we operate at central administration, we'll need to come up with a new succession plan in case we have, and hopefully we won't, hopefully we won't in the future. We wish our new superintendent-elect a long and hopefully blissful reign as being superintendent. Mr. Russo.
[Paul Ruseau]: Thank you. So I'm a software developer and have been for 20 years. And one of the things that I learned probably a couple of years ago, quite surprisingly in an article, was about 80% of what I write for software, if I'm doing my job correctly, is exception handling, is handling the unexpected. And the reason I bring that up is that as a body, when we write policies, We have a choice, not sure it's always necessarily a conscious choice, but we have a choice about whether to make the policies robust to handle the unexpected. And in software, where literally the entire environment is completely controlled by me, 80% of what I'm writing is to deal with the wild, crazy things that are happening. But in a human endeavor, which is everything we're talking about, it's probably 99.999% of the possibilities are not within the control of anybody in this room. And my point is just that when we write a policy, if we try to write policies that are truly robust and can handle endless scenarios, and the people in this room could write for months and never finish coming up with scenarios for how any policy probably won't work. So we can either focus on a single policy for weeks and months and probably years and still never get it right, or we can rely on the fact that we're going to come together when it doesn't work right and then deal with that, maybe make a tweak to the policy and move forward. And in my mind, there is just not the bandwidth. I don't just mean my personal time, but I mean this meeting to get our policies perfect, or even close to perfect, because that's not a reality, even in situations like my job, where I am in control in a way that is not a reality in the human experience. So, you know, do I think it's better to have a one or two page policy that has holes you can drive a truck through if the building burns down? Or if, you know, all the superintendent and deputy and everybody with a superintendent license goes to a conference and, you know, they shut down the airlines. I mean, we could go on and on for how the policy could be better and more robust. But then the simplest of policies would be a book. that nobody will read, nobody will know what it says, and you won't be able to use it when you actually need it. So I want our policies to be as simple as they can be without, too simple. Like, you know, a succession plan that said if we needed a new superintendent for an unfortunate reason was we'd get a new superintendent. Like, that's obviously too simple. But the number of people in our district that have either a superintendent license, or we could use the MASS to get an emergency superintendent. I mean, that's good enough for me.
[Angela Moore]: One pager's plenty, but we can't cover all the scenarios, and so... I definitely don't want all scenarios covered, but I would like the major scenario of... If position one cannot be filled, who's going to take control? Because right now, this is what there is, and then you're saying tonight that, well, it doesn't really matter because it's not in the deputy or even the assistant superintendent's contracts that they would step up. So this, what is on file as the succession plan, is wrong.
[Paul Ruseau]: So it can be improved, I agree.
[Angela Moore]: Or just start over.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Ms. Stone, we have a full agenda as well that we need to get on.
[Mea Quinn Mustone]: I just want to say a parent did email the next day and say, you definitely need to put in the new deputy superintendent's contract that they will step in so that we have to add that because that isn't currently in the contract. So that doesn't work, which I was a shame on me that I didn't read their contract to know that they did not have to be are forced into taking that superintendent's job. So that's, we can add that to make sure the next deputy superintendent is their job.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Final comment, Mr. Benedetto?
[Erin DiBenedetto]: To be clear and transparent, thank you. It's been a long night. I just want you to know, this didn't come out at that meeting.
[Angela Moore]: No, it didn't.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: We didn't pull out this paperwork and read the policy. Because if we had, we would have went down to the assistant superintendent when the deputy said that she wasn't able to take that position. I didn't bring it forward because I was floored by what was being proposed to me at the time. It didn't enter my mind until someone asked me for a copy of this. And I went, oh my gosh, I can't believe I didn't bring this forward. And our new members probably have never seen this or read this. So yeah, you're right. This should have been implemented. I'm surprised it wasn't. I would have loved to seen this implemented because I know Mr. Belson wouldn't have left us hanging and he would still be there for vital information. And I made that point at that night. So I'm being transparent about what I did and what I didn't do. I didn't bring this forward. I didn't think about this item. This should have been implemented. This is our policy that we voted on when you brought it forward, when I left you hanging that night, and I apologize for, because I should have said something that evening as well. So I own what I've done, and I'm going to try to do better. So, you know, that's all I can do. And we need to make sure that, you know, we have people like you reminding us, hey, we did this, because we can't remember everything.
[Melanie McLaughlin]: Thank you. And thank you for everyone out there tonight that's still here. And for folks that are watching at home, we really want to encourage you to remember to come to the school committee meetings. Let your voice be heard. Your voice matters, and your vote matters. Thank you.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Thank you very much. Next item up, recommendation to reject school choice for school year 2018-19. We have a paper. Traditionally, we have rejected school choice in this community. Is there a motion on the floor to reject school choice? Mr. Russo, seconded by Ms. Vander Kloof. Roll call vote, please.
[Roy Belson]: quick summary is that under school choice people can come to our school district for a very low amount of money if we have open seats. And the cost that we would receive or the compensation received is not worth it to us, and we would have to educate people that would take seats from other people. It just doesn't work under the current rule. If you're a school system that has such open seats and you have no revenue coming in, maybe it makes sense. That's not our situation. We have to notify the state by a certain date.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Roll call vote, Ms. Kreatz, to reject school choice. Yes.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: I was just waiting for the wording.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Yes, seven in the affirmative, zero in the negative, motion passes. Report on middle school, school year 18-19 enrollment and selection. Ms. Nelson.
[Beverly Nelson]: Good evening. From the report, you can see a little bit of the history of what we've been doing over the past several years. Since the new middle schools opened in 2001, parents of students in grade 5 have been allowed to choose the middle school that they would like their child to attend, starting in 6th grade. This system worked very well for a number of years, back and forth a little bit, sometimes the McGlynn had more kids, sometimes the Andrews went back and forth, until this year, when we really had a big difference in enrollment. And as you know, this past school year, we had several more fifth graders opting to go to the Andrews. In total, that was 43, which is more than one class, almost two classes of youngsters. So as we began to think about moving forward and how we were going to handle the choice situation. With your approval, we put the following items in place for this year. We made some changes. I will say, too, that the numbers of the Andrews of the students in grade six going to grade seven appears to be constant. So they're still going to have that larger group in moving into grade seven. There doesn't seem to be any movement out at this point. Again, this year we decided to do things differently because there had been some things that we felt could be improved upon, one of which was the returning of the choice forms. Up until this year, parents had options. They could return them to the school, they could return them to the parent center in person, they could return them to the parent center by mail. And this led to some confusion because there were deadlines and people felt that they truly had sent it in by the deadline, but it didn't arrive. So there were all kinds, whenever you have choice of how you do something, there always leaves room for issues. So we decided to have a process that was uniform. And we said this year, all forms would be returned to the school where the child was going to school. And that's worked very well because we could track all the forms as they came in. We also wanted parents to have verification that they had actually turned their form in. So every school, in their own way, gave the parent a number or a form that said that the form was passed. And so nobody could say, gee, I sent it in, but it must have gone somewhere else. So again, we felt that process, by tightening up that, that was very helpful. The second thing that we made changes on is that we decided that the open houses, we'd make them more consistent in the presentation. And Dr. Riccadeli and I, as you know, And we basically facilitated the presentation for the McGlynn, which was first, and the Andrews, which was second. And again, we had the principals there, because we don't want them to be hidden, and we had the tours of the buildings. But we gave a presentation to really emphasize to parents that the education opportunities at both schools were equal, and that students were going to get an education, the same education, curriculum-wise, in either school. So we felt that was an improvement, and we asked parents to return forms to the schools, their child's elementary school, by April 2nd. All right? And then again, we also put in place that there would be choice. There was almost like two steps to the process. There would be choice, but if the choice resulted in imbalance, a large imbalance, the committee voted that they would have a partial lottery, so to even out the numbers. And again, we were hoping that the choice, the numbers would be even, but as you can see from the data that I gave you at the second sheet, they're not. In fact, in reviewing some of the items with special education today with Joan Bowen, we actually have two more students that need to be placed at the Andrews. So it brings it to a total of Entering sixth grade is at the Andrews, 176. Entering students at the McGlynn is 118. So we're looking to the committee for next steps. Parents are waiting to hear definitely what school the children will be attending. And obviously, principals are eager to start scheduling. And you really can't start the scheduling process until you have numbers. So again, moving forward, we, again, need some guidance on how to conduct this partial lottery. You can see the different schools where the imbalance is the greatest, and we have to go from there, and I think we probably need to give it some thought, but not too long, because people are eager to move forward.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Mr. Rousseau, sorry.
[Paul Ruseau]: Thank you, Ms. Nelson. Some parents did not submit a form back. Very few. Were there efforts to contact those families to find out what their preferences were?
[Beverly Nelson]: There were very few that didn't return them, and I'm not quite sure what individual principals did. I can find out, again, at their age, from school to school. But again, what we did is we found that, again, as you can see, that there were some that had no requests. basically the programs like the EL students did not have choice because they do have to go to the McGlynn, so there were things like that. And again, with Joan Bowen today, we were able to make sure we had the students who needed to be placed in certain special education programs in the appropriate building.
[Paul Ruseau]: spent entirely too many hours on these numbers this weekend. Thank you for getting this to us as early as possible. You know, reviewing this was not really very fun, because the imbalance was so pronounced. And I just, you know, when I was trying to figure out how we would handle this, other than the fact that we would have to have a partial lottery, you know, I was trying to figure out, like, what are the principles that I feel are important, The basic principle that I felt was the only one that I could stand on was that each school sends half their kids to each middle school. And because the selection between the schools from the individual elementary schools is very pronounced in a couple of the schools, that means that a couple of the elementary schools will have a much greater amount of getting their non-preferred school. And I just want to make sure that So I've never had any doubt that this process is perfectly fair and there's no shenanigans going on. But for this year in particular, I really think it's important that when the randomization is happening, that there is at least one school committee member present, that the public is free to show up if they want. and that this randomization is done live with people present, whether it's recorded or not. Because it's randomized, they go, you're the brother of that person, that's why you got to go to Andrews or whatever school. And those things are gonna happen, but not because of that. And I've never felt that I had concerns that this stuff wasn't being done honestly, but I just feel like there's no reason we can't shut that down by saying, look, here's the video, you can show it if you want. I realize there's some planning involved in that, but I just think it's worth it, because there's gonna be a lot of unhappy parents, at least, maybe students too.
[Beverly Nelson]: I agree. This is not easy. You know, people have had choice and I think we had our fingers crossed. You know, we made it clear to parents, we didn't want to say you have choice and then turn around and do something very different. We made it clear in the letter that went to them that, you know what, we're going to try the choice method, but if it doesn't work, we're going to have to go to something else. So I think we've warned parents. So we're not, I would not advise doing something, a third option, but certainly people, If we had to go to the lottery, people want it to be fair, and I think what you're saying in terms of people seeing that it's a fair process would be the way to go. But this is the committee's decision, and like I said, I mean, you might want to give it some thought, but people are kind of calling up and saying, what am I going to know? And the principals, too, need to begin to schedule buildings.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Ms. Van der Kloot.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: So I just have a couple of thoughts on this. If, I'm reflecting back on the presentation by our superintendent elect and what Dr. Eduard Vincent suggested was that we first appeal to people. Now, I don't think we can appeal to people and ask them if they might consider moving their child to the McGlynn unless we have. And so I would want to see us move on, I understand there might be some negotiations involved. I don't know whether the person who's there is ready to want that position. Obviously, he's been met with a lot of favoritism, and I think that if it was clear who the principal was, when we did this, it was, oh, there's no principal, while the other schools had a principal. I mean, I wouldn't have selected my school if, well, here there's no principal. So the first thing we have to do, is move on that appointment. That would be my number one. The second is, the most obvious is that we have a group of students, there's 21 students at the McGlynn, and many of their peers already traditionally stay at the McGlynn. Now maybe not all 21 would go. but certainly if there's, because of the proximity, that principal who we put into place might be able to make a bond with the kids and family. So, you know, I'm just wondering whether it isn't worth putting a little bit of effort into saying it's not going to be quite equal, there'll be some imbalance that we're going to live with this year. But over time, And Mr. Martelloni did this very well. He showed us in his graphs how it had changed. We put a strong principle into the McGlynn, we're going to see a change. So I think that, and down the road, we might want to do something completely different like Dr. Maurice floated to us as an idea out of the box. But I definitely think that we should at least send out letters To parents we need to put a principal in place. We need to have and we need to at least target Maybe the McGlynn elementary students saying would you be willing now again? There may be some parents who aren't for particular reasons that their kid needs to change But then maybe on the other hand someone's gonna be here who the principal is and the rest of the group and they're gonna say Hey, I kind of like him for my kid. He would be a good match So that would be my first thought
[Roy Belson]: So let me add a couple of other dimensions to this thing. If we take the next two weeks, remember the principal, who we are all talking about a little bit, needs to think about it in terms of his own personal needs. I mean, he's obviously a person who has to weigh all his situations. But we've had discussions. And I think over the next several days, we'll get an answer. That's one. Second piece is that we haven't done the numbers, but I have, is that the class size is at the McGlynn right now. If you were to go to class size, you're probably like 14, 15 in the class size, whereas at the Andrews, it's closer to 20. So maybe smaller class size is another attractive feature that's there for some people, not everybody. And thirdly, you know, if people would like to consider staying there with their friends and they go in a cohort, as Paul mentioned, you know, and if their friends go with them, because we've heard that before, that might do it. So a suggestion. Over the next two weeks, we do what we have to do. We talk to people. We go over the principalship. We make a serious effort. But at the end of two weeks, when we come back on the 21st, you've got to act. You've got to act, because we've got to get in the business of doing business. There's things to be done. And sometimes hard decisions have to be made. Now, we don't need a one for one at the schools. They don't have to be exactly even. But they have to be close enough. within 15, 20 kids. I mean, that's a reasonable differential.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Okay? Thank you. Mr. Ruggiero.
[Michael Ruggiero]: So I just want to make this clear. Right now, we have a disparity of 29 children. So if 29 of the 100- 58. No, 29 of the 176 went to the McGlynn, it would be equal. Is that correct? That's my math. If we were
[Beverly Nelson]: Because we subtract 29, add 29, it works out, okay. Okay, I believe you.
[Michael Ruggiero]: So I'm just trying to, once again, trying to get the 15 to 20. So if we're in a buffer of 15, that would work. So one school has... Right.
[Beverly Nelson]: We've also asked Mrs. Guarino to identify the students, the 21 students who opted to go to the Andrews, and perhaps they may reconsider, again, to go back to the McGlynn, and that would be 21. additional that would move back into the McGlynn.
[Michael Ruggiero]: So we need to convince 14 students, basically. Yep, 14 on the, that would be the most, if we can convince 14 students, are there any incentives that we can offer other than low class size that we can offer to those 14 students? Like is it possible we could identify the cohorts? So these are 10 kids that just definitely wanna be together, they're buddies, and so we're gonna make sure that they go over and we can get to our 14.
[Beverly Nelson]: Well, we have a meeting with principals tomorrow. I know the elementary principals come in with Diane at 930. We can maybe put something out to them and encourage them maybe to go back. I do think that the leadership of the school would make a difference. We have talked to Mr. Tucci, but I have to give him time to make his decisions. It's a big decision for him. I think if he were to be appointed that we'd see an influx of people back in. But we have to kind of wait that out a little bit.
[Roy Belson]: So one more thing. Tonight you saw some teachers come in from Lumbergoyne. As we said before, and as I think we all agree, there's some terrific people there. It may be that we send a few emissaries over from Glen Middle to talk to some of the elementary school kids, and maybe they can talk about their programs a little bit. Talk about some of the things they'd like to do, and maybe that's a piece too. So there's four or five things we can do. It's not a guarantee, but it's worth a shot. You just have to be prepared that some people will say no and some people will say yes. Another issue that we've got to deal with is not specifically this one, but it's an issue, and that's the seventh grade. You have emailed me and other people have emailed me ad nauseam, no offense, about a person here and a person there. There are 12 people who wanted that shift. If we do it for one, you know, out of turn, it's going to send some other people unhappy. So we've got to look at that. Let's see what the numbers actually present in the seventh grade. We'll get a better sense of what the seventh grade is like. Maybe with the new principal, that would be a positive too. But before we start taking any one person out of line, I think that's something else we need to be careful about.
[Michael Ruggiero]: My question, so I just want to know when is the deadline we have to decide exactly on the lottery?
[Roy Belson]: I would say the 21st we should be ready to make a decision. We should, you know, give you an idea towards the end of that week. Okay. You know, that it's either happening or it's not happening. Mr. Russo.
[Paul Ruseau]: I would just like to speak to the issue of the 21. McGlynn Elementary students that have selected the Andrews, I am actually quite uncomfortable with them even being contacted to see if they would switch. The goal of 50% of the kids from each school is an incredibly important one we should be working towards. And we should be thankful for the 66 kids that selected the McGlynn for reducing the pressure that we're currently experiencing because if the McGlynn had done a selection very similar to the other schools, this whole mess would be a much bigger mess. So I'm not really thrilled that there's a greater number of students from the McGlynn that are going to stay in the McGlynn, but I sort of thank them anyways. But the 21 kids from the McGlynn that have selected the Andrews, to me, are not the families that should be at all looked at for finding more seats. And at the Columbus, as Mr. Belson alluded to, I know some families at the Columbus who got together, talked to each other, and decided, look, we want to be together. And if we all select the Andrews, who knows? And they decided after going to the open houses, look, these schools are both great. And they decided to take the safe bet based on what was going on at the time. and they selected, as a group, to choose the McGlynn. And they all got the McGlynn, of course, and they're super happy. So I would just recommend to the families that have selected the Andrews, that the Roberts, Columbus, and the Brooks, that if you have even thought about this, talk to your friends, your kids' friends, which is, you know, and start this conversation right away. and then raise your hand right away so we can get this stuff going earlier. Because if we can get the numbers down low enough where we don't even need a lottery, that would be great. But also, wouldn't it be nice if you have a child with four friends who have never been separated since preschool, and you want them to go together to one school. If you don't decide to go to the McGlynn together, and you go into the lottery, one of your children, maybe yours, is going to be going to the McGlynn And the other three are staying at the Andrews. And yeah, that is awful. But that's not really one of our choices to not do that. So families need to think about that. Really think about that.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Ms. Nelson, do we know if any PTO meetings are coming up? The elementaries?
[SPEAKER_07]: We had one tonight.
[Beverly Nelson]: It's tonight. Yeah, that's right. But again, we do have the principals in tomorrow morning. We will bring it up with them and maybe we can get a little more, but it's like not huge numbers. We don't have to move 50 kids, 60 kids, but just enough to make it a little bit more equitable.
[Mea Quinn Mustone]: Ms. Mustone. Back in January when our meeting was in the media studio in the McGlynn teachers spoke about their improvement plan. Someone mentioned almost, I don't want to call it gifted and talented because that's not what they called it, but it was, does this sound familiar to you? And they were saying that could be a way to attract that. If you spoke to the four elementary school principals and said maybe you could, kids who want to be pushed more or kids whose parents want to push them more, maybe it was talked about having a program at the McGlynn. Does that sound familiar to anyone else?
[Beverly Nelson]: Yes, and we did put clubs in place.
[Mea Quinn Mustone]: No, this wasn't a club. This was a curriculum. They would be tracked, more or less.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Mr. Benedetto, are you finished?
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Yeah, I'm just trying to help clarify. I believe it was a company that was coming in and offering a specific program.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: And that is there.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: That is there.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: That is at the McGlynn, Mighty, I call it Mighty, Midday.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: That's there.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Meety.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Odyssey of the Mind.
[Beverly Nelson]: I think Miss Lou did do a club that was a club, but not a separate, but again, the idea was there. Gifted and talented, full program now. requires a person who has not licensure but endorsement to do it, so it's somebody specialized that would have to get that endorsement through DESE. But I think, I'm pretty sure Ms. Liu did generate something related to the Odyssey of the Mind this past year, and we did. We really thought that a lot of the things that we put in place, like the clubs that everyone had access to, would improve some of this, but I really, I think it boils down to the unknown leadership, and I think if that is solidified, we may have something happening.
[Justin Tseng]: It's interesting to see this kind of come full circle with me at the end of my school year. And yeah, I think it does boil down to unknown leadership. I think that's a huge part of it, and the incidents that have happened at the school this year. And I know earlier in the year, we talked about launching a PR campaign, and not necessarily diminishing the role of the Andrews, because they've done some amazing work as well, but highlighting the achievements of the McGlynn. So I think that's super important, and that we should try to use that to attract people back. But we also have to keep in mind the concept of equity. And we have to make sure that the student populations at both schools are reflective of the community as a whole, and not disproportionate towards ELL populations. that's a separate program, but towards certain populations and certain income groups. And I think, you know, Mr. Russo raised a really interesting idea of doing half and half of different schools and, you know, we need time to explore that option, but that does ensure in a more fair way that we have a fair representation of different income groups and different racial groups and social groups there at both schools. So we have to keep in mind that equity is super important in making sure the reputation of our school. If you have more challenged population in one school, that's going to be reflected in your test scores. And parents are going to look at that and choose one school over the other. So we need to make sure that looks fair. And another good idea is we talked about cohorts. And I know Ms. Van der Gloot at the beginning of the year talked about how a lot of parents are choosing the injuries because their friends or the friends of their kids are going there. And that's the reality. I mean, they are going there because of their cohorts. I'm just throwing this out there, and I'm not saying this is a perfect solution by far, but I know Harvard does blocking groups. They have cohorts sign up together and request a certain dorm together and certain houses together. And I think maybe exploring something along those lines, making sure that we have equity in our lines. And I'm not saying it's perfect by any means, but looking at the importance of cohorts in distributing your students.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Very good. Thank you, Justin. Ms. Mustone.
[Mea Quinn Mustone]: More suggestion or just to think about. So if we did move half the ELL students to the Andrews, the numbers would be equal.
[Beverly Nelson]: The numbers would be equal, but you'd have an issue with staffing. This is why we consolidated to one school. There are 36 ELL students. There are different levels of language proficiency. you have your newcomers program and they again have to be housed together. Where the McGlynn right now has more space, the new model for the EL, which is something that Mr. Tixera had to do because of CPR, is that we're moving those kids into the regular classes. And right now, because of the low class size, there's more room to do that at the McGlynn. So there's all kinds of logistical things, but mostly it's staffing because you'd have to have more ELL teachers to be over at the other school.
[Mea Quinn Mustone]: With the Roberts, we had the program grades one through five. You had the newcomers. For a few years, we were maxed on physical space. This year, grades one and two went to the Brooks. Roberts retained three, four, and five. I haven't heard much feedback one way or the other, but it freed up physical space in our building at the Roberts. just thinking of the 50 families, well, or 29, who end up not getting what they desired in our school choice. And if you, the Andrews used to have an ELL program, and we have the staffing for it, maybe that's a way to, and Justin, I guess Justin is what made me think of it, is that you don't want the McGlynn to be almost stigmatized, and if the Andrews has it as well, then we're helping there too.
[Diane Caldwell]: So if I could address the transition of grades one and two over to the Brooks. That has been very successful.
[Mea Quinn Mustone]: Oh, good.
[Diane Caldwell]: The Brooks is doing well. They love the kiddos over there. And the Roberts has now a little more space to work with, which is great. The issue is that's a clean mix. So you take two teachers and move two teachers. I don't think it's as clean when they go to middle school because they're a different content area. So there may be more staffing that they need.
[Mea Quinn Mustone]: I know, but we're going to get our hands dirty one way or the other. Either we're going to have 29 really angry families, or we're going to be dirty our hands with staffing with ELL.
[Diane Caldwell]: But I think one of the good points that Beverly mentioned is that the class size is so small at the McGlynn right now. With an average class size of 14 and putting more kids in it, that's a great attraction for some families. But I love Mr. Russo's idea of friends, because that's a huge draw, I think. So if we were able to get to our families and say to our families, do you want to take the chance of the lottery, or do you want your four friends maybe to go together? I think that's a great idea.
[bCMsj8WYK14_SPEAKER_08]: So we might be able to bring that up tomorrow. Absolutely.
[Beverly Nelson]: So I think if people knew that the lottery is a reality, because I don't think people believed us, that we would go to step two. But if we put that out tomorrow, that it is indeed the way we're going to go, unless we have people who volunteer to move groups of kids. We'll work on that tomorrow, and that could be the simplest solution, and hopefully we'll be all done with it. But we'll keep exploring it. Paul, did you want to speak about the EL? Yep, of course you could come up and speak. Of course.
[Paul D'Alleva]: So just to make it clear, there's also civil rights that are involved regarding the EL program. For example, you have different levels of students with English proficiency, as was also stated in all the subject areas. So yes, you can say, OK, we can move two teachers over to the Andrews, but that's not going to make the content.
[Mea Quinn Mustone]: Oh, I understand if we have to hire four additional teachers. I understand that if you don't have the staffing, but we're all just trying also.
[Paul D'Alleva]: And we can also take a walk around the Andrews and see what space is available because I can tell you right now I'm housing every single classroom possible. So we're going to have to get real creative with, with spacing as well. Just something to throw out there as well as when you're thinking. about doing it, not saying that that's never going to be the case. Now, again, we're going to be talking at the admin meeting, but there's also new accountability rules that are coming out as well, as well as, you know, yeah, equity between the two schools. If you have four there, you need four that, you know, you need four at the other one, but we also have to make sure the program's working in the right way, making sure that we're covering every student's civil rights as well and getting what they need.
[Beverly Nelson]: And I believe, you know, Mr. Tixera's not here this evening, but I believe that we, that the superintendent, he did explore that earlier this year, and Mr. Tixera did not recommend it, so we'll have to go back when I see him tomorrow to his thinking on that. But we'll have the discussion, because we'll all be together.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Mr. Russo, wanted a follow-up on that?
[Paul Ruseau]: Yeah, just one follow-up. So I just wanted to be clear, you know, that we could send half the kids to each school, We could have a policy that half of the children from each school will go to each middle school and move no programs. All ELL students could stay in the McGlynn. The TLP students could all stay at the Andrews. Those are not in conflict. There are sufficient spaces if we decided that half the Brooks kids will go here, half will go there, half the Columbus kids. There are more than enough spaces to accomplish keeping the programmatic stuff where it is and get half the Brooks kids to each school, half the Columbus kids to each school, half the Roberts kids. We will run into the issue of the McGlynn children that were looking for the K through 8 experience. And so we would have to explore how that would work out.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: That was one of our options. but I think at the time we thought we would at least try this one last time so that we could see if voluntarily people would make a commitment and go over to the McGlynn. Based on everything you heard tonight, there's enough reason to try it, but I do understand they want to know that the school is in solid hands. There's trust right now, and I think people need to continue that, but hopefully they get that commitment in the very near future, and I think that could sway things.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Mr. Benedetto. Thank you. There's a lot of good ideas and a lot of things we need to do. What we need is what we discussed with our candidates, is a short-term plan for next year, and we need to look at the bigger environment, because other than bodies, There are a lot of different things that we need to do, but I don't think doing that in May for September is feasible right now, even though I agree with your long-term idea, okay? Because I think that will handle a lot of the other demographics that need to be addressed, but I don't think we'll have enough time. I like your idea. I don't want to target one school to stay there, because I think opening it up, as you suggested, is gonna be, more productive for our community and not targeting people directly. And I liked what you said about clinging to people on your microphone and saying, please step up now because we do need this help. We don't want to make these decisions for the parents. We want parents to be a partner with us deciding how to handle this situation that we're in. And that's all I really have to say.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Just two things. I think first, part of my thinking about the McGlynn was simply because the hopefully principal elect, I'll say that, was a proximity. However, clearly it does make more sense for him also if he takes the position to reach out to other students and other families, and we might need to figure out a way to do that. Also, ultimately, when we made the decision, it was really based on finances and put the groups of ELL students together. That did disrupt our racial balance plan, which I do have a copy of, and really was these schools came out, there was an initial racial balance plan and how we're going to do it and how we select schools. And it might be beneficial for the committee to just be aware of what that plan is. So we'll talk about that at our next meeting too. I'll make sure that people get a copy of it.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Very good. Motion to table this paper? No, one more. Ms. Mostone.
[SPEAKER_07]: suggested that Mr. Tucci is debating on whether he would like to stay as principal? We've had conversations, and again, I want to give him the freedom to make a choice.
[Beverly Nelson]: So we've had conversations. He's entertaining it.
[Mea Quinn Mustone]: But it's not like you said, by Friday, so we can tell the public that the Magdalene will have a principal in September. No.
[Beverly Nelson]: I've asked, I talked to him, I believe it was last week, and I've asked him to take two weeks and think about it.
[SPEAKER_07]: So we want to make sure that... So the end of next week. at the end of next week. So that is the 18th? It's close, yeah. Okay. Or I can talk to him sooner.
[Beverly Nelson]: I think that would be helpful. I will talk to him sooner. Mr. Ruggiero. I will talk to him tomorrow. Okay. We'll see.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Mr. Ruggiero, you all set? Yeah. All set? Is there a motion on the floor to table this paper for two weeks from tonight? Offered by Mr. Ruggiero. Seconded by Ms. Van der Kloot. All those in favor? All those opposed? Motion passes. Tabling the paper. It'll come back two weeks. Of course. OK. Report on trainer issue and MIAA policy related to soccer game at Beverly High School. Mr. Superintendent.
[Roy Belson]: So as you remember in the fall, there was a situation in which one of our players got hurt and there was an issue about whether the trainer at Beverly High School properly attended to this individual and what was going on. So subsequent to that, we've done a number of research items and we've talked about things and I want to read a statement so that the record is clear as to what we think happened and that Mrs. Simonides has some comfort as to her considerations. This email is intended to provide, or an email at the time, information regarding the soccer injury that occurred during the game with Beverly High School this fall. Consultation with the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association tells us that the organization considers the situation to be a local matter. The requirement to provide certified trainers does not cover all sports. Football and hockey do require a trainer to be present but other sports do not. This includes soccer. The MIAA suggests that coaches and referees must take responsibility to determine if a player should not re-enter a game after an injury. The cost for certified trainers at every game would be prohibitive. As a result, Medford will intensify its training of our coaches and consider hiring an assistant trainer for certain sports to supplement our current staffing. Coaches will be instructed to exclude any Medford player who suffers a concussion or any other major injury unless the player is properly examined and cleared by a qualified trainer. Any student who suffers such an injury will require a written follow-up report and a subsequent examination by a qualified physician. It is also important to note that under MIA rules 56.4, that a trainer, if present, is responsible for both teams when the medical person for the visiting team is not on site. The Beverly Public Schools has indicated they will not be rehiring their current trainer going forward. They have advertised for contracted training service for next year. The Medford Public Schools will initiate a discussion with the Northeast Conference Schools on the issue of appropriate trainer coverage. I believe that the above steps are a significant response to the issue, and additional steps may emerge after those kinds of discussions. I'd like to thank Ms. Simonides for her diligence on this matter. Our on-field cameras, evidence, and subsequent investigation supports our interpretation of the events at Beverly. We appreciate her commitment to ensuring safety for student athletes.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Mr. Russo.
[Paul Ruseau]: I just really have to, I mean, the MIA's statement about this being cost prohibitive, This sentence rubs me so terribly, because what it really is saying is the financial cost is acceptable to be borne by the risk to the student's safety. And those two things, one has risen to be more important, and that is the money. What is the purpose of MIA? Is it really not safety? So I'm just really disturbed by that statement. I mean, I bet it's cost prohibitive to have them for football. Is it cheap for football to have trainers? No. So why is it, in one way, one situation acceptable and the other one not? And I'm just beyond disturbed that that's their excuse for why it's not their problem. And I just wanted to rant. Thank you.
[Roy Belson]: So I just would say that ultimately it doesn't need a problem because we'd be paying the bill. See, I think they could say, oh, you've got to have one. But the reality is, is that how many sports do we have, Bob? 21 sports, and let's say in every season there's four or five sports. I mean, you'd have to have people at every event. There's JVs, there's freshmen, there's all kinds of activities. It would be difficult. So one way to do it is to differentiate staffing. We do that with education too in many ways, is to make sure that the people who are on site know enough to respond. to take youngsters out of games and not, you just listen to the kids saying, I wanna go back in, I wanna go back in. Or to call for medical help and get the youngster to medical help on site. Some sports are obviously more combative and more physical. There's a higher likelihood of injury. So there's a balance wheel here that we can think of. If we hire another assistant trainer or some of the time for some of the sports, we will have gone a long way. If we intensify our coaches training, And we worked with the trainers who from other communities will have gone a long way to at least cover the basics that need to be covered and then move from there. But I think, you know, if you think about a trainer, a trainer is going to cost us $60,000, $70,000 a piece. So, you know, it's not like it's a, you know, a small investment.
[Paul Ruseau]: Just a quick question about this. So is there no model for communities to work together? whoever, the conference that we're in, I mean, our soccer players are presumably going to Canada. We know who we will play. Is there no model for sharing this particular, I mean, the idea that sometimes teams come together and they both have a trainer at $60,000, $70,000 a year, that's kind of insane. And why wouldn't they be sharing resources and schedule, I mean, the schedule for games is not like every morning you wake up and you guess where you're going.
[Roy Belson]: So typically the home team provides the trainer, but on that day, for example, there were at least three games going on simultaneously. So trainers on three different fields, moving back and forth. So, you know, it's obviously a situation where, you know, more is always better, but still, there can be a lot done to mitigate an injury by a person who's watchful, not putting a youngster back in the game, calling for medical help, doing what they have to do. We can go a long way with that. And I think it's very rare that we have a situation that would be totally medical. Like in football, you have the ambulance on the field. The ambulance is there. Other sports, it's more of the, let's say, less, let's say, lethal. all kinds of injuries.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Soccer is known for concussions. Soccer and lacrosse and the other two sports, they don't hurt.
[Roy Belson]: Yeah, you get concussions and the like, but usually it's not, you know. Well, it depends on the injury, I guess.
[Kathy Kreatz]: Ms. Kreatz. Oh, yeah. I just wanted to make sure that Ms. Simonettis received this report. She'll get it. She did? Okay, and I want to- She will get it. Okay, she will? She did?
[Roy Belson]: She already has it now, because I gave it to her.
[Kathy Kreatz]: Okay, all right, I just wanted to make sure, and I just wanted to also thank her very much for her diligence you know, communicating all this information to us. It's been a long time and, you know, I'm happy to hear and receive this report tonight. Thank you.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Mr. Ruggiero? I just want to remind the body that soccer is the leading cause of concussion among women and girls. And it's also in the top two or three among boys. So there's a serious concussion risk in soccer. People don't think it's a contact sport, but it really is. And it's often caused, I mean, my wife sees it.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: So motion to place this report on file by Ms. Mostone, seconded by Ms. Vandekoot. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Motion passes. Report on partnership with Lesley University. Over the past several months, the city of Medford, school department primarily, and Lesley University, high-ranking officials in Lesley University, in addition, Bob Maloney, Mark Grumley, it's been kind of a full-court press of meetings with this university. What brought them to Medford was a desperate need for some athletic space, predominantly the wood floor. They would like a wood floor at the high school. and also tennis courts. That's what brought them to Medford. But once they were in Medford, we realized how much more they can offer to this community. I've been meeting with several organizations that try to train coaches and school systems in how to deal with trauma. Leslie's training people to do that type of work. So they have students that will be looking for internships and co-ops. to learn in the field how to be great teachers, how to be great social workers, et cetera. So we think it's a great idea to move forward with Lesley University. The one contractual item would be for the use of the courts in the cages at Medford High School. NCAA requires they be wood floors. We do not obviously have wood floors right now. So they would be making an investment in our cages to put in state-of-the-art wood floors, also the scoring mechanism. What other things in the cages?
[Roy Belson]: Well, they'll be cleaning it up, they'll be painting, they'll be doing lighting.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Painting, cleaning it, lighting, plus paying us a fee every year to basically rent the space through this partnership. Duggar would go through the city side of things. Right now they have a permit to use Duggar Park. for their tennis courts, but they also would like to have a commitment going forward. So we will be working with them on an agreement and likewise, they will be making improvements to the tennis courts, which our high school team plays on. That's their home courts. So we look at it as a win-win opportunity. We think We wanted to speak to the school committee about it to get your thoughts but we think it's really something very positive for the school system and to have that partnership with Lesley University for our students as well. Hopefully it'll be a matriculation opportunity and we're just very excited about it. Mr. Superintendent.
[Roy Belson]: So one of the things that we've talked a lot about is inclusive education. Lesley has a center for inclusive education. Lesley has specializations for the kinds of things that we have been talking about over and over again. They've got specializations for social and emotional learning and trauma and things that we can't have the expertise locally. It's just too extensive. But we can work that out. President of Lesley College actively participated in this. This is not low level. And we think that their proximity to us And the type of programs that they specialize in, the type of university they are, because universities have specializations, is a great fit for what we're doing. It also provides us opportunities for professional development for our teachers, professional development for other staff members, and it provides possible some opportunities for adult learning as well. So there's this tremendous potential here that will be cost effective and that will not interfere with our otherwise operations, and will help us upgrade our facilities. This is a win-win. So we've got to move forward, because I don't think we're going to get this opportunity again, because they're going to try to find something else if they can't work with us, and they've got a short window. And we just want to, we just think it's something we should be supporting.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Mr. Benedetto. First of all, the mayor has said that she's been working on this for months, and this is the first that this body is hearing of this proposal. There is such a lack of information given to us this night. When will they be using our facilities? How much money will they be providing? How many courses will our teachers get to take? This one-page thing does not tell me anything about this program. And if we need to act quickly, then maybe we should have heard about it before the middle of May. I'm sorry, but I'm really not happy. And we're trying to talk about security. Is this for their games? Is there going to be spectators in our school gyms? When will they be played? How is security going to be handled? This is a big commitment. This isn't a one-pager at the end of a night So I would like to table this discussion until we have more information from the district so that we can review a lot more questions and not have this brought before us in this manner at this late time of the evening. Thank you.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Will you withdraw your tabling just so Ms. Vianna Klug could make a comment?
[Erin DiBenedetto]: No. I said no.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Tabling is undebatable. On the motion to table the paper, all those in favor? The chair is in doubt. The chair is in doubt. Roll call, please, Ms. Kreatz. Yes. This is a motion to table the paper. It's undebatable. We can't talk about it right now. Well, if she withdrew it or if it fails, we can talk about it and we can still re-table it at the end. Yes. Yes. No. Two in the affirmative, five in the negative. Motion fails. Ms. Van der Kloot.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: So, because I think there are a lot of questions surrounding this. Of course, there should be. And we definitely need more information. I would move the paper to a committee of the whole so that we can discuss it as soon as possible.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Ms. Mustone. Division three.
[Mea Quinn Mustone]: Yes.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: they do have other sports, but that's predominantly what we're talking about. Really, we're talking basketball and cages.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: We would also, at that meeting, is very much want to make sure to have an understanding the impact on our student usage at the same time. And security, obviously. Obviously is a priority. I have a thing about the windows in the gym, and man, if they would replace the windows.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: The cow wall?
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Of course. Yes, yes. So.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: On the motion that the paper be referred to Committee of the Whole, authored by Ms. Van der Kloot, seconded by Mr. Benedetto. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Motion passes. Thank you. Report on ALICE program feedback.
[Diane Caldwell]: Staff? And the first question is, what are some of the key points learned about ALICE in the presentation? So I'm just going to go through a few of the points that I thought were pertinent. And one was that teachers have options in crisis situation using ALICE. It puts students in a safe place, and then they are to alert authorities. They can learn developmentally appropriate responses. And I think that was important for me. with my pre-k to grade five hat to make sure that we're appropriate developmentally with our children. And what I thought was very interesting was that you call police instead of 911 and you would get a quicker response. The second question that was asked was, what do you believe are some of the benefits of ALICE? And our staff said the options for safety, different solutions for various age groups, alerting staff with common language, which I think is very important, and they felt it was a proactive approach. What concerns do you have about implementing ALICE in the district? One of the main concerns was the cost with our staff, the timeline for approval and for training, reservations at the elementary level, and the raised level of anxiety for students. Once again, I was very passionate about that, because I worry about the little ones. The timetable moving forward, we don't want to scare or frighten our children, and we need a lot of parent input on this. And the last question that we asked was, please list suggestions or statements for future district trainings related to school safety and security. And our teachers said security is up to date and the training is effective. The meetings on communication, what to do if, additional school resource offices is something that teachers would like to see. All drills should be taken seriously. We need to create potential preventative measures and look at the mental health of our students as well. So interestingly enough, I've been in touch with Tewksbury Public Schools. They are going to have a training or a drill, a real drill. Excuse me. End of the night. Can't talk anymore. on May 18th. So I would like to take a team of teachers and maybe some administrators over to one of the schools in Tewksbury. Shannon Demos, who's one of our assistant principals, is from Tewksbury, and she's setting this up for me, for a 5-6 drill and for a 7-8 drill. And unfortunately, the K-4 was done in November, so there's no opportunity to see the little ones, but that is something that I'm looking forward to doing on May 18th.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Great. Mr. Russo.
[Paul Ruseau]: Thank you very much. Well, there was one thing on this report that sort of jumped out at me. In all conversations around ALICE that I have heard from the community and from proponents of ALICE, it was, why isn't Medford doing it? Literally everybody does it. And to see 100 schools, I mean, are there more than 100 schools in Massachusetts? I think there's a lot more than 100 schools in Massachusetts. So I just think that the hyperbole of we're the only ones not doing it needs to be called out, because it really angered me when I read this. I thought we were literally the only ones not doing it. The drills twice a year, I mean, if we're going to do it, then we've got to really do it. And how many more drills can we put our kids through when they're all doing MCAS all the time, too? You know, the other issue I have, oh, can you invite me on the 18th in case?
[Diane Caldwell]: Absolutely.
[Paul Ruseau]: I mean, we have a quorum, but I actually am available, so I would like to go. That's all.
[Diane Caldwell]: Thank you. I'd like that.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Ms. Van der Kloot.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Going forward with this, if that's what we ought to do, I mean, I would really, this is something where I really would like to have the superintendent-elect involved. I think they've done by something that part of the discussion is I think they've done Alice in Boston. So, and so I just, you know, I, I think it will be, I'm very glad you're going out. I think that if we, if the new superintendent elect has had, some experience with this, that we want to certainly be talking to her right now about this specific item, and wish that you would bring it up, and experience and whatnot. I will say, Doctor, I'm sorry, at the Fisk School in Lexington, Mr. Martelone, just, they were doing it, and you know, I hope that he would at least be willing to still have a conversation with us. He just might be very useful in saying how it goes. I do know a teacher who's out there, and I certainly will pursue that to have a conversation with them. But if we could reach out to him as well.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Very good. Thank you. Thank you. Motion to receive this report and place it on file by Mr. Giro, seconded by Mr. Benedetto. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Motion passes. Pre-budget report mathematics. Thank you so much for your patience.
[Carolyn Joy]: No problem at all. Thank you, everyone. I'll be brief and just go through my overview. I think everybody has the full report. This is the pre-budget report. And our program in mathematics, again, is based on the Massachusetts State Framework for Mathematics, which was revised in March of 2017. So I've been in the process of revising all our curriculum documents, elementary report cards, in order to reflect the changes. Some were cosmetic, but there was a few standard shifts in our K through 12 program. And our practices are aligned with our program materials at all levels. At the middle school, we have 13 mathematics teachers. And at the high school, 15 instructional teachers all have their math licenses. And the highlights of the school is, like I said, the curriculum revision. The middle school is still reviewing programs. They have some pilots that they feel very strongly about that they want to continue for another year. because changes have been made. Some program materials they just received in April as new additions, so they want to be very responsive to the needs of the students, yet on the other hand, they want to be responsible fiscally. So this is a big dollar amount. So all the teachers have the new materials in the classrooms. We're trying to do an even split on two of the pilots. and they're also looking at an online program that's available that is highly rated nationally. We're in our second year of implementation of the new program for Algebra I, Geometry, and Algebra II at the high school, and all students participate in this, our English learners, our special education students, and things are going well. There's quite a bit of collaboration. amongst the faculty. It's very healthy. They work on common assessments. They talk about pacing. So our students are really benefiting from their collaboration. The professional development this year, again, focused in best practices. One initiative that we've just started, which will go into the next school year, is on math protocols. And it's a partnership between the mathematics department and special educators. And this is K through 12. And learning different procedures and protocols for teaching mathematics that will benefit all students. So we just finished a train the trainers. We did a leadership training. They will be doing a planning meeting in June or late May. We're still looking at some dates. and how to roll it out to the entire K-12 faculty. In addition to that, at the elementary level, we had our professional development focused on the standards for mathematical practice, so what it actually looks like in the classroom, and the rigor and such. And at the middle and high school, we're going back and taking a look at what was working for us pre-Common Core. And it was, we wrote a lot. We used manipulatives. So kind of stepping back a little bit from virtual manipulatives and knowing that with the diversity in our population, sometimes it's best to do hands-on. So we're focusing on that and in writing and mathematics to increase achievement. The teachers, some of them are using this as their student learning goal and they are showing improvement in their students. They're documenting and collecting data on that. We, so as I said, we have an integration of students. At the high school, it's the vocational technical students or the high school students are taking the same math courses together especially the algebra one and geometry. And when the vocational students are more academic program, they're able to filter in in some of the other courses because they don't do the week on week off. So it's easier to promote that. And then we have good integration of EL students now at the high school. It's really mostly newcomers. that have a substantially separate classroom, but that teacher collaborates with the teachers in the department, and the classroom is with and among the other math teachers. The, let me see, I'm going through this quickly for you. A collaboration outreach is very strong. Really, one thing that's most noteworthy is that just crossed my desk this week was we have seven students who will be going to MIT this summer for, I'd say, a program with Lincoln Labs, no cost at all to the families. So the students, what they've done is they've, in partnership with their program, they are taking online courses in programming. In the background, we have people at MIT who are watching their progress. And then the students are invited into the summer program if they're successful. So we've been very successful to have seven students invited in, and I believe six are definite to go. We're still waiting on one, because these are mostly sophomores and juniors, and some of them need to work during the summer. So that's kind of the trade-off, but it's a great experience. MIT had approached me last year. Last year we had four students accepted, so it's great this year that we have seven. And it's a national program, so students are coming from all over the country to participate. So this is a great one. Tufts University continues to be a good partner. So they come whenever we call. We have an intern in the department, and we had one previous year. And then we also have speakers come in, and a nice relationship there with the computer science department. Wentworth Institute, they come in, and they've talked to the high school students in the area of applied math, and that's for all levels of students, but mostly juniors. They want them to start thinking about where they're going to be going to school the next years. We have a partnership with Harvard University. It's an Algebra I project, and it is two years, so next year will be the second year of our involvement So we have teachers at the middle and the high school level who are involved with that. And it's learning different strategies to teach Algebra 1. And again, MIDE has been wonderful to us. Their program at the McGlynn Middle School is to help strengthen students' application of engineering And in that, with science and mathematics. So the students are seeing what they're learning in those content areas, then moves into the engineering. They have been great partners for our robotics team, our BAPO team. They fully fund their participation. This year, Medford came in fourth in the double elimination. and the other teams were quite strong. They have that, usually their schools have a course where we just have the course in our vocational technical school. The students who participate come from both schools, but they do this after school as a club. So we're really proud of what they've done this year. And we've tried to increase our participation with the parents and to bring them more into the classroom to see what the mathematics is about. So we had early in the year, we opened up elementary classrooms in every school and parents and guardians were able to go through and kind of experience a typical math class. And we did that also at the high school level for the first time this year. And it was very well received by parents that came away. learning a little bit of the math. And I think all of those who were able to come down and attend, I know it meant a lot to the teachers. Um, and like I said, this is new. We hope they hope to be able to do more again. It's just that everybody's schedule is so tight. Um, there's so many things going on in the city that people have to choose. And, um, so, so it's kind of in, in a nutshell, some of the things that we've been doing. Use of our funding from last year. Again, we were paying for our textbook adoption at the high school level, the instructional program materials, and that goes K through 12, but primarily middle and high school. And then the allotment for the office supplies is for departmental purposes. So how the budget requests differ this year to next year is more on the area of personnel. So I'm requesting that we put in place a math teacher and a math lab at the McGlynn Middle School. We have that at the Andrews. but it does not exist at the McGlynn. So we would like to have a licensed teacher put in place there and, um, you know, to help with the math program, um, do some intervention and, uh, just kind of help moving students along before, you know, they get too far behind. So we'd like you to consider funding a position there. And I'd like to put out a strong call. I ask for this every year. But there is a need for math coaches in the elementary schools. But if we had one in every building, they could serve more purposes. We need data specialists, and they could help the principals take a look at data, examine the data. And then they can also help with the intervention. you know, identify those students, prescribe what's needed for them, and if their schedule allows, actually work with the students. So that's something that I would like you to think about. Those items are very costly because it comes with salary, benefits, and everything else. We're aware of it. But every year, we look at scores, and everyone's wondering, you know, how are the students doing on MCAS? And math comes up, but we have to realize that there are some supports that are needed. And, you know, I think when you talk to the new superintendent, they'll be familiar with the role of math coaches in Boston schools and then our surrounding location. But I think those would help move us along. So the textbooks budget is the same as last year. We still owe one payment. on the high school. Instructional materials could stay the same. Even if we added the personnel, I should be able to get some of the materials for those people out of the instructional piece and the office supplies. So if you have any questions.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Mr. Russo's first, then Ms. Van der Kloot.
[Paul Ruseau]: Thank you very much. So other than the data analysis, What is a math coach doing?
[Carolyn Joy]: So the math coach goes into the classroom, makes observations of what the needs might be. So actually looks at teacher's practices and how the students are responding to the practices in the classroom and sits and coaches. So then they find a common planning time where they sit and they meet and improve upon the teacher's practice. Sometimes the coach will actually teach the lesson and show this is what a model lesson looks like. So it's a very close dance that they do together. And that's the primary role of the math coach is to improve teacher performance, which again will improve the student performance. Thank you.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Thank you. Ms. Van der Kloot.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: I just want to ask whether the collaboration with Midday is expected to continue next year.
[Carolyn Joy]: That is our hopes that we will continue it. We started small. They didn't know how many engineers that have available. I think it's been a big success story all around. They've been welcomed, as you heard earlier this evening, by the teachers and found a good fit for those classes. So those conversations and how to schedule, then we can bring in the principal. and do the scheduling.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: I just think that that's such a strong addition right now, and that's something that we should be marketing, if you would, to prospective students of saying, hey, you know, and I've seen photographs. I was over at Midea one day. I've talked extensively to them, and they see it as a positive, a win-win. their engineers are having a great time with the kids. So I just, I think that many parents don't know that it exists. So I would like us to see that. I'd also like to thank you for all of your years of work with the Medford Public Schools and leading the department. We know that you're on the retirement list and I'm sure that must be a little bittersweet, but I just want to make sure that I take a moment to thank you.
[Carolyn Joy]: Thank you. It's been quite a journey because I came in when accountability started in MCAS and standards. It's been nine years in this particular position, leadership position. And then we were with the superintendents. We put together that science lab that we're all used and love. And again, that was a lot of work, several years, many hours. We let that happen, and now we're going into the next iteration of, you know, what are the needs and actually moving things forward and, you know, getting new programs in place. All those things take time, but I've enjoyed it. That keeps you going. You know, listening to everything that's happening, it's like, oh, do I really want to leave? But I told my family. Yes, it's time. Thank you.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Thank you.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: I realize that. Mr. Benedetto.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Thank you. I also want to thank you for all your years of service. You were my daughter's teacher.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: My daughter's too. In AP.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: And you were very tough, very fair. They learned a tremendous amount that they carried forward with them, not only to college, but in their life. I appreciate that as a parent. And as an administrator, you have always been very receptive to the committee and any questions. And thank you for all your years of service to the community. Thank you. It's been a privilege.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Mr. Ruggiero.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you once again for your service. I just had a quick question. Do we participate in the American Math Competition, the AMC 8s, AMC 10s, AMC 12s?
[Carolyn Joy]: We have math teams, but they're not in that particular competition. But we do have a math team at the high school. We sort of have a varsity and junior varsity. And so they, it's most, they don't do the face-to-face competition. They test and they just send in their scores.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Yeah, the MTAs are just tests.
[Carolyn Joy]: Yeah, and with that, We encourage all students to participate. So it's not so much about winning and getting the highest scores. It's about being part of something and extending their learning.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Do we do that in the middle school, the eighth grade AMCs?
[Carolyn Joy]: I don't believe. It's not through my office if it's done. It could be done as a club. I can check on that for you.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Motion to accept this report and place it on file. Seconded by Mr. Azzurro. All those in favor? All those opposed? Motion passes. We also have the pre-budget report on physical education.
[Unidentified]: We have an award.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Okay. Recommendation to accept gift from the, I'm sorry, J.S. Lim Foundation.
[Carolyn Joy]: So I would like to read this so that it's part of publicizing the award. The JS Limb Foundation has generously offered a gift of $3,000 to Medford High School to encourage students to engage in rigorous mathematics and science studies. The gift recognizes students for academic excellence in these subjects. Acceptance of the gift requires announcement to the sophomores in the spring of 2018 to promote awareness. Two prizes of $1,000 each are presented to juniors who demonstrate top performance in mathematics and science for the 2018-2019 school year. An additional $1,000 is designated for administrative costs at the discretion of the awarding committees and headmaster. The mathematics awarding committee will consist of the director and teachers of the mathematics department. The science awarding committee will consist of the director and teachers of the science department. Criteria and selection will meet with the headmaster's approval. And this foundation was established in 2010 by MIT professor J.S. Lim. It's located in Winchester, Mass. The foundation expresses that in a global marketplace, mathematics and science skills are critical for the next generation of American professionals. One of our missions is to help U.S. students reach their fullest potential in these subjects through grants to schools and educational organizations. In the process, we hope that our initiatives inspire others to make contributions in their communities. This is the second year that the foundation audited this gift to Medford High School, and the first awarding of prizes to members of the junior class will take place on Thursday, May 17th at the academic awards evening at Medford High School.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Excellent. Mr. Benedetto. Motion to accept this award. I always want to take in money. And thank, could we send a letter of thanks to the foundation? as well as invite the junior class members to our next meeting that will be receiving these awards, just so we can honor them as well.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: And the first awarding of prizes will be held on May 17th at the annual academic award evening at Medford High School. Oh, okay. There's a motion on the floor for approval of this gift, seconded by Ms. Van der Kloot. Roll call vote, please, Ms. Kreatz.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Yes.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Yes, seven in the affirmative, zero on the negative. Motion passes, and we'll also send out a thank you letter. Thank you, Ms. Joy, for your years of service. Thank you. Thank you. OK, report on pre-budget presentation, health and physical education. Good evening.
[Rachel Perry]: Good evening, Mayor Burke, Superintendent Belson, members of the school committee. It's been a long night for everyone. I'll be as brief as possible. I'm just going to go over a few of our accomplishments and then what we're looking for going into next year. One of the things we got this year was the Youth Opioid Prevention Grant. That was for $18,000. And what we did with some of that money is we purchased Michigan model kits for every elementary teacher. So every elementary teacher at all four elementary schools have their own kit. So they are teaching the social-emotional learning unit in grades K-5. We also received the USA Field Hockey Grant for all four elementary schools. where we were provided curriculum and field hockey equipment to each school, and field hockey was actually added into our curriculum there. We've also added it at the middle schools, hopefully to gain a little bit more interest in that sport. We also received the Game Change grant through the New England Patriots, and that was a $3,000 grant, and that's an anti-violence grant. We had people from Game Change come in and train about 25 high school students, And they actually brought that down to the middle school students as well. We've also incorporated some of those lessons into our freshman health curriculum. So within the past two years, all of our freshmen, all of our sophomores have been trained in it as well. And we'll continue to bring that down to the health classes at the middle school as well. We also have introduced lifeguard training course as a physical education elective at the high school. our course selection catalog for this year. So next year, students will be able to take that as a physical education elective and get certified right through that class. So the last thing, we've added yoga units to the K to 8 physical education curriculum. So I've done one training with my staff. We're doing another one next week. So that's K to 8. We already have it at the high school. We have a yoga 1 and a yoga 2 class. Looking forward to next year, I'm looking for level funding for travel, office supplies, textbooks, educational supplies, maintenance of equipment, and for fitness center supervision. What we are looking for is to increase staffing by two positions. I have asked for these positions in the past. Last year, I asked for two health teachers at the middle school, where we got one. We're looking for one more so that we have one full time at each school, which will help us with scheduling and making sure that all of our students are getting the Michigan model in 6th, 7th, and 8th grade. The next piece we're looking for is increase in physical education staffing for an adaptive physical education teacher. And this is not to take away from inclusion. We're still including our students. But this is in addition to help maybe a push-in or co-teaching model where we have that adaptive teacher that can go into classes to help our physical education teachers. with students that might need extra help. Does anyone have any questions?
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Excellent. Are there any questions? Mr. Russo.
[Paul Ruseau]: I was a little surprised by, thank you by the way for the report, I was surprised to see that the Brooks and the McGlynn only have one full time PE teacher and then the Columbus has one and a half. even though the Columbus has like a hundred and something students fewer than the Brooks and even more fewer, if that's a thing, than the McGlynn. Is there a history? Like, why is this situation this way? To me, it seems a little odd.
[Rachel Perry]: So when I started the position, that's what we had. And we do have the... Our teachers' schedules are full. going back and forth in both schools. I don't know if there's anything else.
[Diane Caldwell]: So I think there's a balance with the specialists in every building. If you look at maybe the art teachers in the different buildings, they may have more than the Columbus and the McGlynn have. So I think it's a balance that they do. I'm not sure how it began, it was before me, but that's what it looked like years ago. Mr. Superintendent.
[Roy Belson]: So another aspect of it is the fact that in some cases we have programs like the TLP program that needs its own person to cover it. And I mean because you can't mix those kids in as easily as you might like. Some other specialized programs so that the schedule around them requires a little differentiated staffing. Thank you.
[Mea Quinn Mustone]: Ms. Millstone. I think I've never even heard of an adaptive physical education teacher, so that seems very exciting. Is the plan that they would co-teach with Mr. McGlynn at the Roberts? Yes. Would they go in and tell Mr. McGlynn or share ideas with Mr. McGlynn and travel the schools or?
[Rachel Perry]: So it would be a teacher for the full district. Okay. We could co-teach and have that teacher go in and teach with physical education teachers. It could also be a point where we still have students in inclusion, but we give them also an alternative where we also pull out and are able to work one-on-one.
[Paul Ruseau]: that your staff have. I was under the impression that this body had adopted safety care across the district, and I wasn't sure who has been trained or has not been trained on that, and you probably don't actually have the answer, but is this new for your staff to do this?
[Rachel Perry]: So I know my staff has been trained. We've been doing it for the past two years, and they have to retrain every year.
[Paul Ruseau]: It's an every year training.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Mr. Benedetto. Thank you. That's run out of the special education department is my understanding under Kathy Medaglio and that student services. I know because at my school, I'm the trainer in safety care and in CPI. So what happens is that you need a team of teachers that are able to respond to an emergency situation so you can be called away. And a gym teacher or a physical education teacher or other specialists are usually on that team because they have the most flexibility in their schedule and can respond very quickly to different situations. Whereas a classroom teacher might have at any given time 20 students in their care and not be able to respond easily. I call them classroom teachers because they do teach classes of children, but they just have a little bit more flexibility about being around the building. And they're alone sometimes in different areas of the building, so it's good to have them trained.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: There's a motion to accept this report, place it on file by Mr. Giro, seconded by Ms. Kreatz. All those in favor? All those opposed? Thank you very much, Ms. Perry, as always. Thank you.
[Paul Ruseau]: Thank you, Rachel.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Financial report. Good evening, Ms. Pabst.
[Kirsteen Patterson]: Good evening. I had hoped Rachel would offer up some exercises in between. I know, wake us up a little. Yeah, we'll keep trucking along here. So the first item we have for you is the financial report. As a reminder, the document that's provided is the expanded document, budget document, that focuses on the DESE reporting. by function category, schools, departments. The bottom line that we are looking at is the total appropriation amount plus the revenue that the schools balance their budget. So open budget lines were in concert with our past budgets to identify some of those DESE categories and our revenue offsets will be adjusted at year end, just going into the financial reporting. So again, as the financial report identifies, we approach the final two months projecting a balanced budget for the fiscal year ending 2018. This has been a very challenging year. We've had to deal with multiple unexpected and increased cost factors, significant. Still with those challenges, we've had some resourceful development and applications of supplemental revenue that we will be enabled, the school system to meet its obligations barring any additional major unforeseen situations that could occur in the next two months. As we prepare for our upcoming fiscal year and with the new superintendent budget process, we do need to augment several accounts and sustain our resources and revenue generation abilities. New expenditures must be carefully prioritized and choices will have to be made. Again, as we hear all the great things that every department and schools want to accomplish, that does impact the budget and what we will be requesting at the end of our FY19 budget process. We are also, as you are aware, in collective bargaining with our union personnel, which is significant and going into the FY19 budget without any indication. Every year at this time, we freeze discretionary funds to monitor the balances through year end. There are several unexpected additional budget drivers that are being carried at this time without known ending dates, with security overtime as a prime example. The following we've identified have incurred post-budget approval from fiscal year 2018. The first item was our regular transportation. Again, we had been proactive to reduce one bus and we had to add more than one route back into the schedule for those important programs that were identified post-budget, which were for the newcomers, the additional after-school runs, and new Columbus after-school tutoring programs. Additionally, homeless transportation continues to grow despite efforts to mitigate costs by utilizing mileage reimbursements and shared rides and consolidations. This is an area that impacts many school districts in the Commonwealth, not just Medford. Audit expenses were significantly different. We had a new auditor, so those are charged to the schools that are within the school committee area. Specialized one-to-one nurses for severe needs students. Those required hiring of nurses that were not anticipated in the FY18 budget. Additional staffing for the consolidation of the high school and vocational school. That did also impact the budget, and yet it has been very successful in that implementation and transition. Security over time, as we know that continues to be a cost factor. And as we go through the general fund, as we looked at the approval for FY18, it was the $56,431,000, of which we are at 82 percent. So if you categorize that over 12 months, we are right on track for the last 20 percent over May and June. We did have the approved free cash vote for security and E-rate items that is added to our bottom line budget, increasing the total amount to $56,925,000. So again, we identify how many pay periods each bargaining group has received. When we review the specific categories, salaries is always an area that has fluidity. The undistributed salary line has been expensed and dispersed to various account deficits in line with where some transition and movement has occurred. So the special ed categories have historically not had an affiliated budget amount as much of those amounts are supported by some of the outside revenue offsets that we project and plan as part of the budgeting process. Again, as we look at the expanded document, those are DESI reporting categories, not necessarily our bottom line item. We have numerous retirements that will have some contractual vacation and or sick time buybacks that will occur, some within the FY18 and others that can be planned for FY19. and that's in accordance with their collective bargaining agreement language. Security continues to be a priority. We continue to demonstrate the commitment for ensuring the safety at all the school site locations. Again, we've added the cameras, locks, and door monitoring coverage. However, the unanticipated level of overtime in this category continues to impact the budget right now. and was not planned for in reference to the additional overtime component. And a long-term funding solution will need to be addressed and or planned going forward. Technology, the commitment of infusing $102,000 of funding into the schools at the beginning of the year was accommodated in order to have that utilization over the course of fiscal year 18. that did provide additional support for testing and instructional support district-wide, and we will continue to make those technology improvements with the E-rate funding and the upgrades that are intended to take place over the summer to be ready for the FY19 school year. Our utilities, we always try to be conservative in budgeting and projecting in that category, and we encumber based on historical years usage and what we anticipate the contractual amounts to be going forward next year, beginning in November of 2018. We will have a change in the electricity rate, so we will have to plan and project for that. Currently, the natural gas rates are favorable. However, we have seen an increase in our therm usage due to some of the cold winter months, and we will have expenditures higher in that line item prior than the previous year. for that purpose because of the higher therm usage. The second half of the expense activity was timeframe January through March, so we still have April, May, and June of utility bills to be processed. So we do, again, maintain an encumbrance to accommodate the anticipated invoices that will come through the end of June. Again, best estimate at this point. We do not know what those actuals will be, so we are keeping those encumbrances in place right now. So our year-to-date expense, again, is trending slightly higher than our midpoint last year, about $47,949 higher, and we will likely expend the full budget amount in our electricity line. Again, the city and schools are in communication and cooperation trying to identify other energy improvements that will continue to help maintain and hopefully reduce some costs with other projects in line. So in summary, we are working very hard to contain the costs for this year with all of the unexpected items that have occurred and minimize the year-end purchases to offset some of those identified challenges. As we prepare for the 18-19 budget, it's imperative that we recognize the increases in some of the major categories and prioritize with the anticipation of collective bargaining settlements, our continued investment in security and transportation, as well as all the variable costs. such as the staffing needs that we've heard about that are so important, utilities that are going to hit, and all of the other important areas for our budget.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Thank you very much. Mr. Benedetto. Thank you.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Thank you for your report. Do you happen to have a breakdown of the additional security costs since we added the dual monitors?
[Kirsteen Patterson]: Well, as you can see, the overtime is roughly $30,000 between the two line items. And that's just in this line item, so we do have other overtime costs that are in other program areas, such as community schools and other areas as well that have door coverage.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: I was just wondering what the total cost was that, and I don't know how difficult that'd be for you to get to us. Just an idea so that we can use that figure to pre-plan for next year, if that's the route that we're gonna go. It would be helpful. Also, could you provide us a copy of the last audit? I know it was requested at one of our... It is just being finalized right now.
[Kirsteen Patterson]: Okay. So it hasn't been held, it just hasn't been completed. Perfect.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Thank you. Um, so can we have that on the requested reports list, please? The, um, a copy of the audit, the last financial audit. Okay. And, um, while we were talking about security, it brought up a question that is really not for you, um, miss Patterson. Thank you though. Um, it's for the mayor. Could she please, could you please, with all respect, give us an update on the report from the Martha Coakley law firm.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: We have not received the report from Foley-Hoag, Martha Coakley's report. It obviously, the police report came in much later than we anticipated, so she wanted to make sure she had that information. So we are hopeful that we will have it in the next week.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Okay. And a follow-up, it's not so much a financial follow-up, but a few more reports that were requested that weren't on the requester reports list. So while I was talking about it, I thought I'd bring it up to Mr. Belson. A report on the traffic pattern at the pool door so that way we can make determinations if we're moving that person at nine o'clock in the morning down to the vocational school. Could you add that to the list so that can be provided to us? It's just a tally, really. The community school usage I just received now. So I'll look at that. I mean, we got this tonight. This has all the rentals for the community schools for the year, I believe. Is that what this report is?
[Kirsteen Patterson]: That's rentals and just general usage of the building. And again, there was no ill intent of not providing that. It was this sheer volume of not being able to, and we utilized our graphics department.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: No, I appreciate you having it. I'm gonna look at it, and if I have any questions, I'll bring them up at our next meeting. I just wanted to say thank you for providing that for us, and I know the financial report on that is coming up next. Mr. Belson's report on the cost analyst feasibility study for the items suggested on the building and grounds meeting, that report is not listed here. Remember, Roy, you were talking about giving us a feasibility study and prices for the buildings and grounds items that were suggested.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: He's having trouble understanding. You want something, can you write down the reports that you believe are missing?
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Yep.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Instead, then submit it, just email him tomorrow and he can look them over.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Yeah, and I just want to announce them so everybody knows as well. In requested number of bullying reports completed by school, that was requested by someone I noticed in the minutes that wasn't added to the list. Bullying reports. The number by school. And again, the list of retirements coming forward, so that way we have that data as well. Thank you. I really appreciate the report you provided to us on the finance budget and the time that your department took to present this to us. Thank you. Motion to approve report and place on file.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Motion to accept this report. Place it on file, Ms. Ruggiero.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Yeah, I just have two questions. Thank you so much for putting this together. On page one of 13, this is of the financial year budget expenditure. Could you just explain what errors and omissions, what that line item is?
[Erin DiBenedetto]: That's insurance coverage for the school district.
[Michael Ruggiero]: I see, I see. Okay, thank you just for clarifying that for my brain. I'm a little sleepy right now. And also, on page two of 13, I had a question about the photocopy lease and purchase.
[Kirsteen Patterson]: Yes, that was a renewal of the leases throughout the district, and there was a slight increase. It's a contractual increase, so there are two payment installments left, roughly $11,000 each, so the encumbrance stands correct at $22,000. Thank you.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: There's a motion on the floor to accept this report and place it on file. Is there a second by Mr. Russo? Ms. Van der Kloot, did you have a question?
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: I just wanted to thank you for staying so long tonight. I know it's a long drive home too, so I really appreciate it.
[Kirsteen Patterson]: I'll be getting breakfast on my way home. Yeah. Thank you, Kirsten.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: We also have up next is the financial report on community schools programs.
[Kirsteen Patterson]: Yes. So again, this is a recap of the activity that has occurred to date. Again, it's important to understand. I gave this a little bit more of a learning curve for some of the new members just so that you understood how the revolving accounts and which community schools falls under is handled. So again, your packet included the community schools programming, which you received a large packet this evening for all the dates and times and locations of everything throughout the school year. You also received the program documents for the rentals, the athletic revolving, the Conti rink, Edgerly Field, and the swimming pool. So again, the program managers have provided summaries of all of their recorded revenues, expenditures, and as I went through and did what you could call a pseudo-internal audit, they do a very good job, a thorough job of keeping their records and knowing what is out there and what hasn't been posted at the hall with regard to some of their physical deposits and or things that are in transit. a good handle on what the activity is. So also provided is the, again, the large packet is from our facility scheduler. It's an online product that is maintained by Rachel Perry. That's a huge undertaking. So as you can imagine, all of these items had to be hand-keyed by each school and each activity level. So there's a significant amount maintenance that goes into these and oversight for all of these programs under community schools. So these community schools are revolving accounts. They have continuous activity, which rolls over year after year with any applicable fund balance. Again, their mass general law intent is a self-supporting program, should have receipts and revenues to cover the related expenses. And as a cost structure for nonprofit entities, it's considered a break-even model, if you will. So your activities should support what you need to pay out. However, there are unexpected issues that occur within a program area, just as there are within a general budget. So there were some significant areas that had some high levels of maintenance and things of that sort. So the intent of the program, again, is to provide services to the greater Medford community, engaging with parents, staff, and outside organizations to facilitate partnerships between the schools and our constituents. So again, as we think of community schools, we think of the engagement with our parents, our community leaders, and the like. So as we go through the additional by category, we first have the edgerly fields, and that's program number 321. And the account purpose is to collect rental fees for the use of the fields. There was a major renovation project for this, and so there is bond and interest payments that is automatically charged and absorbed. And for this year, it was 90,500. So against our operating receipts and expenditures, that program also absorbed that additional component. But we have a balance in that account, roughly 43,000, and the spring is a very active rental season, so we anticipate additional expected growth in that fund balance for year-end through June. Our athletic revolving program is 361. Again, the account purpose for this program is for sport user fees and gate fees for all the various fall, winter, and spring sports. I think it's important and noteworthy to identify that the athletic programs on both the general budget and the revolving account are significantly underfunded at this point in time. We are in a new MIAA league, and there are significant costs that go with that, including transportation that takes us further up and down the coast where the league that we used to be in was right in our backyard, Malden, Medford, and the like. So we have some significant costs with the new league. We also have additional coaching. We have additional officials expense. So this is a program area that struggles to sustain itself, so I think it's important understand that. While it currently shows an $8,000 deficit, many of the spring user fees have not yet been collected, and it's anticipated that we will break even at the year end. Again, we are part of the Northeast Conference with 16 schools that go up the North Shore as far as Gloucester, and it has created additional burdens on our regular athletic accounts and impacts the revolving fund due to some low home team attendance for gate receipts and the like. So moving forward into our community schools, the community schools is the revolving program 362, which its account purpose is to collect rental fees for use of facilities at all buildings, the high school and all of the outside schools. While this program shows a deficit of roughly $29,778, we have many annual rental fees that have not been collected, such as our AIC rental here at the high school, Tibetans, a new renter for the Redemption Church, as well as some summer camp deposits that we would anticipate a break-even status for year-end. Our community schools engage many participants, ranging from the Japanese language school, some not-for-profit recreation groups, independent functions and the like that truly enhance the community involvement. And I would guess that in your interactions with your constituents that they always have good things to say about the extracurricular events that take place at all of our buildings. And this is where those funds are received and the expenses are taken out. And that includes for the summer fun camp and the vacation camps as well. The Loconte Rink is a revolving program 365 whose account purpose collects the rental fees for the use of the ice rink. The rink shows a fund deficit of $79,000. However, we do have revenues that are outstanding, totaling $73,600 that will bring the program toward a break-even status at year end. Again, this is a difficult area to project out and maintain. There's a significant amount of maintenance that goes into this facility with the ice and utilities that it costs to run and keep the facility cold. So there are significant costs that will impact that program area. The swimming pool is program 631, whose purpose is for the use of the pool by community groups, individuals, and the like. The pool has sustained significant unpredictable charges this year, including $13,000 for the lane and motor repairs, as well as a spike in the custodial overtime due to the unexpected security component. So the pool shows an approximate deficit of 44,000, but we do have 8,800 in physical deposits that are in transit that we are researching with the hall, and we do have the spring months coming up that do provide more pool activity. People see the sunshine, they get excited, they want to swim, they want to use the pool for upcoming birthday parties and the like. So it is also noteworthy that the pool, when it was brought back online, that it may not generate the highest level of revenue, but it is an important offering to the community recreation department, and there's substantial use during the open swim hours, and I think that's important to share that you do have people from the community using the pool during those additional hours. So from the words of our committee member, DiBenedetto, it's not necessarily what we want to hear, but this is the truth here this evening on the community schools. So we are going in with our best foot forward and collect everything that we possibly can and hope to break even on all of these accounts.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Thank you. So I went by each item. I found it easy to do it that way. So with Edgerly Field, I took the total deposits of $142,374.50, and then the expenses that were listed were $162,916, which means a difference of $20,000, a little bit more, in the red. but we had money in the account prior to that, right? So we're not really in the red in that thing. Does that include the bond and the insurance? Because I know- The bond and the interest, yes.
[Kirsteen Patterson]: Yes, that includes everything. The 90,000, yes.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: I know a few years ago we got into a little trouble with that and the city helped us out and I'm glad to see that added in. Yes. I just want to say thank you for that. I just want to make sure that the revenue coming in, that we're really having everybody pay for all the things. I'd also like to see the personnel in the payroll issues listed when we get these reports. I know that's a lot and I don't know if that's easy to do or not easy to do. And I got the usage, that was my other note. You provided us with the usage of who's on Edgeley Field as well as any buildings, right? Correct. Okay. And you know what I really was hoping to see in part of this is donations of use time on our fields. Like a list of people in the community, we donate time on the fields, on our buildings, because that's a PR thing, like we care about the community, we donate. I know Mr. Maloney definitely provides many people in our community time, to use our facilities and donated, and that was part of the computer program that I had hoped we would get that. And maybe that's in that. I just haven't had a chance tonight. There's been so many goings on to read this. So maybe someone could clarify that for me if that's in this or how that's being tracked, because that was requested a couple times throughout the years.
[Kirsteen Patterson]: If I can respond, as we reviewed all of the data and information, I did not come across a significant amount of donated time. As you can see, the schedule is quite booked. So the majority of our usage is through a true facility rental and paid accordingly.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Okay. Just in general in the future, I mean, people tell me all the time about different things going on I don't see some of those things listed, so that's why I thought they were more of donation. So we can move on to the athletic revenue expenses. So I just wanted to be forthright and clear, the income for the athletics department was $81,974.25, and the expenses were $93,044.78, so the difference there is $11,000 but that's not the end of the year, like you said, the gate things. And as far as employees for the athletics department, they're usually under the school employee people and not generally listed under athletics in this capacity.
[Kirsteen Patterson]: Right, for coaching and the like, those are a budgeted item.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Right, just getting through it all. And then community schools. So this is the biggest amounts. So my first question is AIC, Japanese schools, the church, those ones that you listed, we don't know what those amounts are, and we also don't know when those payments are coming in. Could you provide us some of the information?
[Kirsteen Patterson]: They had not been issued as of this time. Again, as indicated, they're an annual rental invoice, so those are just being produced and going out shortly.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Do you mind just telling us an update as those go out, so just like when they went out, how much they're being charged, and how that affects their budget. Also, the community school's income is 201,146.41, The expenses here are only $18,310.08, if I did my numbers right. So the total income is $191,836, is that correct?
[Kirsteen Patterson]: The item that's not listed for community schools expense is their payroll. So that would be an additional component.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: That does not include the payroll? No. All right. Could we get that number when we get the updated list of people? That would be helpful. And maybe just add it to this so we see it all at one time. That would be great. Moving forward. I also thought that there was a theater group that was using the high school theater at the same time that the high school musical was trying to be put on, because I think they rented it, or I don't know if it was donated, I think some of our other members' children were in that program, so I don't know the name of it. There was a theater group that was being, they were practicing up at the high school. Mr. Belson, do you know about that? But their practices were at the same time. Oh, okay. Oh, there was some production up at the high school using the theater. Was it an Arlington group? Oh, it wasn't. So there was an Arlington group that using the Karen Theater, and I'm assuming that they rented it out, and there were conflict in timing. We got an email about this, Mr. Maloney, about the high school kids when they were, a parent sent it to us.
[Robert Maloney]: Bobby Maloney, 61 Sheridan Ave, Medford. I talked to an individual, I talked to Mayor, the way the little theater rental works, Tony Shashikni, Dr. Perella, Aaron Keith, Sarah Grant, they give us their dates they want, then we go to the public. What happened was, I believe, I think it was Sarah Grant, changed her dates, and the Islington group had the theater booked, so they already had a contract, they paid, and they paid handsomely, by the way. So I spoke to one of the parents at Method High School and I said, you can come into my office, you can look at the way we do the, and she was very happy with the phone call.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Oh, okay. Thank you for reaching out to that parent. I appreciate it. Um, what Arlington group is that? Cause I don't see it listed as, um, on the community school rental.
[Robert Maloney]: I'll be happy to email you in the morning.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Okay.
[Robert Maloney]: I want to say it was the troublemakers. It was a play. I can get you the information in a moment.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Okay. I'd appreciate that very much. Thank you. And so with what was presented, there is the $191,836 in this area, and other than the personnel. personnel. We'll come back to it. We'll come back to this. We'll just table it until we get that additional information. I'm almost done, sorry. The La Conte rank, the income is $157,600. I'm having trouble reading my writing this late. And the expenses are $227,049.63 with a difference of $69,449. I know that this is a benefit to have a rink in our community. I don't know if we can advertise more rink time or how we can help change that deficit, and maybe it will change by the end of this 17? Okay. Okay, great. And the last one is the pool, which is income of $149,025.50 and expenses of $173,657 with a difference of $24,600. And I don't think that's terrible considering all the extra security over time. Was that allocated to the pool? Yes. So I think that's pretty good because we knew when we opened those pools that it was going to be a tight thing because of the cost of running a pool. So, and I think it's a value to our students and to the community, well worth the investment. I just want to thank you for providing me with these reports. And if you could follow up with those few questions, I'd appreciate it. And thank you for staying so late to answer some of these questions. I really do appreciate it. having a good understanding of this area. So any extra money, how is that allocated? Where does it go to? Okay. So do we have a balance in that account?
[Kirsteen Patterson]: No, this is the report for you. These are the balances as of right now. We have two months remaining that we're hoping to maximize our collections and get to a break-even point. Yes.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: just real quick. On the annual rental fees, I guess it makes me a little nervous that we only collect them once a year. Can we insist that they be paid twice? Because if one of these goes out of business or something like that, we could really be left holding I don't know how much each of these, AIC, Tibetans, Redemption Church, I don't know how much they pay us, but I'm just concerned that maybe going forward it would be a better idea to collect.
[Kirsteen Patterson]: Certainly, that's part of the review of the contracts. Again, this was in place, so following that protocol has been an annual invoice.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: When are they due? I'm sorry? When is the payment due?
[Kirsteen Patterson]: Before the end of June.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: It just makes me a little nervous.
[Kirsteen Patterson]: The concern or the issue with some of the groups is that if they don't have their utilization at the end or if there was correction in dates or times, they want to have that flexibility to be able to review and identified for the last couple of months because we're pre-billing in that respect for the last couple of months. Right.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: But I guess I'm just suggesting a twice a year collection as opposed to... Again, these were contracts in place, so I didn't have that option.
[Kirsteen Patterson]: So I think that's something moving forward we can review with each of the groups. Okay. Thank you.
[Kristin Zeckman]: Great, thank you. Great, thank you.
[Unidentified]: We have a motion and a second. We have a motion and a second. We have a motion and a second. We have a motion and a second.
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