[Unidentified]: You're welcome. I left you guys a message.
[Burke]: The meeting of the Medford School Committee will now come to order. The Secretary will call the roll. Mrs. DiBenedetto? Present.
[Kreatz]: Mrs. Kreatz? Here. Mrs. Stone? Here.
[SPEAKER_13]: Mr. Otero? Present.
[Kreatz]: Mr. Russo?
[Burke]: Present. Mrs. Van De Koop? Present. Mayor Burke? Present. Seven present, none absent. All please rise and salute our flag.
[Ruggiero]: I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
[Burke]: Thank you everyone. What a beautiful night to come to this illustrious chamber to hear the beautiful music being played, and at this time we would like to welcome the String Orchestra of Medford High School, led by Mr. Tony Zigny, to play a few more songs for us.
[SPEAKER_13]: It used to sit in Simpsons Tavern back in the 1800s where James Spear Blanche sat down with his cup of coffee and composed Jingle Bells right here. And I'd like to wish everybody a safe and happy New Year's holiday season.
[Van der Kloot]: Thank you so much Mr. Zigney and to the members of the string ensemble here with us tonight. This morning I woke up and I was thinking about my day and I'm thinking okay gotta do this gotta do this and I'm thinking oh yeah school committee meeting tonight and then I thought oh and we're gonna hear music tonight and they're going to be with us and it just made my day so much better knowing you were gonna be here tonight. Thank you so much we really appreciate it.
[Burke]: Ms.
[Kreatz]: Kreatz, did you want to say a few words? Yes, I want to say thank you very much. You sounded beautiful. I know you were here very early setting up and practicing, and I could hear you the whole time. It just sounds amazing. Thank you very much. Thank you.
[Burke]: Wonderful. Mr. Ruggiero.
[SPEAKER_13]: Oh, it was really quite wonderful. My son's learning violin right now, and so I was thinking of, I hope he has a chance to get as good as you guys. Thank you so much.
[DiBenedetto]: Mr. Benedetto. Thank you. This is my favorite night. When we sat on meetings with beautiful music and all of you donating your time to play for us and the community, just really puts a big smile on my face. I love to hear you all play, and it's especially important to me because this is one of the few times that we get to hear Mr. Zigny play as well, and he's not just conducting. So when I open the door and I heard the music, the minute you open the door, it goes all the way through City Hall. It just puts a big smile on everybody's face. And thank you for your time. And thank you for the parents for bringing your children here and sharing their talent with us. We appreciate it.
[Burke]: Thank you so much. And Happy New Year to all of you as well. Happy holidays. I know, my son just bought one of those, full suit. For Christmas, yeah. Thank you. Next up, we have the approval of the minutes of the December 3rd, 2018 meeting. Mr. Benedetto.
[DiBenedetto]: When I was looking through the minutes, I noticed that Towards the back, we were talking about the 5013Cs and how the superintendent assigned her new executive assistant, Emily, to work that. I was wondering if we could add to that, and I don't know if it's allowed, to just give us a report at the end of February to just see how it's going and making sure she's not overwhelmed and, you know, just a little add-on. if you don't mind. And motion to approve.
[Burke]: So you're requesting a report by the end of February on the status of the friends of all the groups that are filled with extra high school.
[DiBenedetto]: Yeah, like who registered, how many left, and how much work it actually takes for our staff.
[Burke]: Motion to second the minutes as amended by Mr. Benedetto, by Mr. Russo. Second. Second. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Thank you. Motion passes. Approval of bills, transfer of funds. Motion for approval by Ms. Van der Kloot, is there a second?
[DiBenedetto]: Seconded by Mr. Benedetto. Mayor Burke, I just had a quick question. Mr. Benedetto. Of course, right? Actually, it's on page 14 of 24, school committee dues, $247.98 to one member. I'm assuming it's for the conference, but I just want to make sure. 14 of 24, halfway down. The amount is $247.98.
[Burke]: Yes. OK. Thank you. Ms. Patterson, I sent you a note today. I don't know if you had a chance to look at it. I apologize. Just on the next page, 15. about halfway down WB Mason there's two for this identical yes that is correct that is two separate orders the exact same item is for the Roberts and the Brooks those were for chairs student chairs all righty motion to approve is a motion on the floor to approve I'm as being include second by mr. Benedetto roll call vote please yes Yes, 7 in the affirmative, 0 in the negative. Motion passes. Approval of payrolls. Motion for approval by Mr. Russo, second by Mr. Benedetto. Roll call vote, please. Mr. Benedetto? Yes.
[Unidentified]: Mr. Russo? Yes. Mrs. Vanderhoof? Yes.
[Burke]: Madam Clerk? Yes, 7 in the affirmative, 0 in the negative. Motion passes. Report of Secretary.
[Kreatz]: Okay, so last week I signed off on an invoice for, it sounds like a very exciting program that took place over the summer. Miranda Wilson from the Miffitt Transcript, she taught the students, the CCSR students, she led a journalism workshop for students at Miffitt High School in August, and the students completed the project of writing and publishing a newspaper article. I thought it was so interesting and I thought it was great, something that they were doing in the summer that was educational I just wanted to share with everybody.
[Burke]: Thank you. Thank you. Motion to receive and place on file, the report of the Secretary, seconded by Mr. Russo. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Motion passes. Report of Committees. First item, Buildings and Grounds Subcommittee, November 29, 2018. Ms. Mustone. Good evening, everyone.
[Mustone]: So I will try to bring the highlights. We did have a follow-up buildings and grounds subcommittee meeting on November 29th. It was a follow-up from our meeting last May to hear about updates in security and safety at the high school. So present were four school committee members, the superintendent, two parents of both elementary and high school age students. We had three Medford police officers, Lieutenant Covino, Officer Ziobro, and Officer Lokowitz. The director of buildings and grounds was in attendance, director of nursing, the high school principal, and the assistant superintendent, Miss Patterson. So we had a good representation of everyone at the high school building. First item that Officer Ziobro shared with us is that he does attend monthly meetings with the community-based justice coalition with the assistant district attorney. The director of nursing, Toni Wray, also attends, and it's to address high-level risk situations and highly troubled students that they are paying attention to. Second was the safe haven report at that time was not released to the public. It was understood that it is a Department of Homeland Security document and it is a privileged document. Parts that can be shared will be shared when it is available. Third was all the cameras have been fixed or are currently being fixed. So all the cameras in all of the school buildings are fixed or are on a list to be fixed happening currently. Next, oh, some question was asked. There are 95 cameras on the high school campus, and it is privileged information where they are. The other concern parents had was the doors being marked from the outside of the school buildings. Currently, there are doors that were unmarked that are now being marked by Mr. McLaughlin. The next highlight was that Mr. DeLava shared that on November 6, there was a training about safety care for kids in crisis. He wanted to thank the Medford Police Department for their continuing training and building relationships with students. Mr. DeLeva also shared that dogs from area police departments and the state police came to do some training in the building, both for drugs and ballistics. We did learn that different dogs are trained for specific sins, differing between drug paraphernalia and ballistics. We did, after the safety update, we did discuss the feminine hygiene products being installed in the high school, and that will be in a follow-up report with Ms. Diane Caldwell. I don't know if my fellow members, Erin and, I mean, Committee Member DiVenedetto and Committee Member Kreatz are both on the buildings and grout subcommittee and committee member Van der Kloot was in attendance and that is all I have to share.
[Burke]: Thank you, Mayor. Thank you very much, Madam Chairwoman. Are there any other comments on this report? Mr. Russo.
[Ruseau]: Thank you very much. Will the response to the sanitary materials and bathrooms, which I don't think that's actually on the agenda, is it? So maybe we should discuss it.
[Caldwell]: Ms. Caldwell. Good evening. So Mr. Russo, I'd like to thank you for bringing this to our attention earlier. And we have worked with some CCSR members to make sure that we have been responsive to the needs of our girls. So Director Toni Wray, who's our supervisor of nurses, and Director John McLaughlin of our buildings and grounds and I got together to resolve the concerns around sanitary products in our ladies' restrooms. It was decided that we will order five product dispensers that are coin-free and place them in the bathrooms in the following locations. So if you're in C building on floors 1, 2, and 3, they will be in the bathrooms outside of C building. We will also put a dispenser in the vocational school on the second floor. and we thought it might be wise to have one in the girls' gym area as well. These products will be free to our students. Buildings and grounds will supply and fill the dispensers. The estimated cost for the dispensers of these products will be around $1,100, but then after I got the quotes from John McLaughlin, it comes to about $950. Students can still go to the nurse's office if they're by the nurse's office on the second floor. And I know there's some question about whether we can fill them with tampons, but according to Director Ray, we cannot do that. But I'm happy to announce at least we can get free products for our girls in the ladies' rooms.
[Burke]: I'm happy to answer any questions. Mr. Russo.
[Ruseau]: Thank you very much. This is a lot of progress. I really do appreciate that. Is Miss Ray here now? She is not. She says that we cannot. But in New York State, they have a law that went into effect on July 1, mandating that from sixth through 12th grade, every single bathroom have both pads and tampons for free in every public school in their state. So we're a long way from that. And I'm hopeful that my work with the legislature to make this the law in Massachusetts soon will happen. I'm just wondering if we do some of what we're planning and then the legislature says we have to do effectively the same thing, will we be able to reuse what we've already done or will we have to start over?
[Caldwell]: I don't believe we'd have to start over. We can look at what we've done and I think can move forward with that.
[Ruseau]: Okay. I mean, so is there a change to the It says it's outside the assistant principal's office.
[Caldwell]: Well, that's just the location. It's right outside the assistant principal's office, but it's in the ladies' rooms. Oh, see, that's not clear.
[Ruseau]: It looked like it was in the hall.
[Caldwell]: No.
[Ruseau]: I'm like, this is not making sense. And how long does it take from the furthest point on building on 1, 2, or 3? What is the furthest distance to walk to one of these within the school?
[Caldwell]: A building. I guess it depends how quickly you walk. But I really don't think it's a long distance.
[Ruseau]: Well, let's say you need one of these urgently. You're probably not running.
[Caldwell]: It's a few minutes, I would reckon. It's about a few minutes.
[Ruseau]: Because I still get lost at the high school. So to me, it's like a 25-minute walk to try and figure it out. OK, good. That's good. A couple minutes. It's just a couple minutes. All right, that's important. All right. So I guess I would really like to hear a follow-up as to why tampons cannot... I mean, the dispensers themselves may not be capable of it, and so that is an issue if we need to pick a different dispenser. But I mean, it seems like we're making a decision for girls whether they can use pads or tampons. I'm already having that conversation with the fifth graders. So I don't think this is really a decision for the school system to decide.
[Caldwell]: I would have to speak to Ms. Ray about that. I think she knows more about it than I do. But we can have a follow-up conversation with her.
[Unidentified]: This is a possible answer.
[Mustone]: I don't know the answer. The only thing I could think of is maybe it's possible that because of toxic shock syndrome, that it's not something that the school feels comfortable, because then you'd be liable, God forbid, someone came with toxic shock syndrome.
[Ruseau]: I feel like one of the least qualified people around this space to talk about this, but I had to learn about toxic shock syndrome in the little books that I had to read for my own child. It's the frequency of changing them that is important. So not having them seems like we're setting ourselves up for a liability versus having them. So I don't really follow the logic that not having them is better because we just want to pretend nothing's going on. If we're putting the pads in there, then we are saying that we care about this issue. And if you make the decision as a girl to use tampons, Well, that's not our problem. And I just think that's not OK.
[Burke]: I think she's going to check with the nursing department to see what's legal in masks. I'll do that. I'll follow up. Maybe we're different than New York. I don't know.
[Van der Kloot]: Ms. Van der Kloot is next. I think we need you to check into that. We received an email just before the meeting tonight asking us why we were not providing both. It seemed to be well thought out and certainly convincing. And if the machine doesn't support, there's always a little basket or something that we might be able to provide. So if you would get back to us on that. On the other hand, as you said, Paul, we're making progress, and I'm glad that we are. And I certainly think the initial And I think the disbursement of in the locations that you described should say, let's see how it goes. But our objective should be to provide the supplies throughout the entire schools.
[Caldwell]: You mean for middle schools as well?
[Van der Kloot]: I think we'll start here. And I think in a short time we need to evaluate it. And, you know, I think that's our objective. My objective, now that it's been raised to us, it makes a lot of sense. So anyway, if you would get back to us on that question, and we'll... Point of information, Ms.
[Burke]: Mustone?
[Mustone]: Jonathan just shared that the current dispensers have dual capacity. So if the time comes that you need to dispense dual products, you can.
[Burke]: Very good. Thank you. Thank you.
[DiBenedetto]: Mr. Benedetto? I make a motion to accept this as is and revisit it in January and ask Ms. Ray to report on additional adding of other options for our students.
[Burke]: On the motion to accept this report as amended with a request for a follow-up on the status of t-cons in these machines. Is there a second, Mr. Russo? Second. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Motion passes. The Rules Subcommittee, December 3rd, 2018. Ms. Kreatz, chairwoman.
[Kreatz]: And we discussed the final draft copy function of the school committee. We were struggling with one of the functions, number five. So between our last meeting and this meeting, I went in and I met with city solicitor Mark Rumley, to get some help with him on the wording of what the possible consequences could be for a school committee member who was in violation of one of the policies. So we reviewed the draft together and I came up with the new number five, which I put a copy in front of each of your tables this evening due to the last minute meeting that we had. We also had another meeting this evening from 6 to 618 p.m. so that we could vote on the new final draft, including the updates to number five, and also including some different wording because we want to make sure that we weren't in violation with the law or the First Amendment. So what you have in front of you right now is what was looked at by City Solicitor Mark Rumley, and he said that the way it reads right now, we are in violation with the law in the First Amendment. So if everybody was in agreement with it, what we could do is we could, you know, ask maybe if we could put it on school letterhead, and then we could sign it at one of the future meetings, if there's something that you want to see in it differently, or if you have an idea that you wanted to see in it, You know, we'd be happy to hear from you.
[Burke]: Is there a motion to send this to Committee of the Whole, or do you want to send it to the floor?
[Kreatz]: Actually, if we talked about it this evening, and we feel like it's ready to go to the floor, if everybody's okay with the way, it's supposed to be the key functions of the school committee, not the policies. So it's not a listing of everything that we do on school committee. It's the key components. So I'm not sure if you want to have a committee of the whole, that is something that we could do and we could talk about it some time in January or February. If, you know, if this evening, if everybody's reviewed it over the last couple, I think you've got to draft another time. We did take out some language that wasn't legal or was in, it was in violation with the First Amendment. So that's why, you know, if we were going to add anything else, we'd want to have either cities or both city solicitor Mark Marmoley and Howard Greenspan review it just to make sure we are, you know, legally incompliant before we put anything on our website and sign it.
[DiBenedetto]: Ms. DiBenedetto. So I have to say I don't love number five. If a school committee member acts in a fashion that is unbecoming, may be subject to censure by two-thirds of the vote of the body. Well, what items are unbecoming? Who decides that? Like, that just can be anything. And censure. I don't report to my fellow members. I report to the people who voted for me to be their voice at this seat. And so I would pull off item five totally. And I wouldn't sign off on this document with that on there. And I think people would have a hard time censoring me anyway. Good luck. because that's my job as a committee member is to speak my mind for the people who are elected me. And if other people get a right to censor what I say or find that what I say is unbecoming because they don't like it for any way, shape, or form, or my attitude, or the way that I might present it, or how passionate I am about an issue, I think is very dangerous to put in here. And I think it would be so impossible to regulate Because I think you know me for eight years. I'm hot enough to regulate. It's just not going to work.
[Ruggiero]: Mr. Ruggiero. We spent a lot of time thinking about the idea of consequences and what the consequences are. And this is something we debated back and forth. According to Robert's Rules of Order, we have the authority now, whether we sign the document or not. And what is activity on becoming a member is actually a subjective element. The idea, though, is censure has, you are ultimately responsible to the members of Medford, and the citizens of Medford. So what you say is not, while we can censor you, it's what your authority is to the people of Medford. So, I mean, the idea, we wanted to add some element that we debated this idea back and forth quite a bit. Ultimately, we came down on the idea that there should be some sort of provision for a member that we felt acts in violation with the things that we're signing. Otherwise, it's just a piece of paper.
[Burke]: And I think in the sessions that we had over the last several months with our association of school committees, they spoke about setting up guidelines for behavior, not behavior, but in what our role really is. And what are we trying to deliver to the school students of our community? And I didn't see it more as how we were acting, but if we were going astray to bring us back into what our role is. So censure to me is a very harsh word, but I do recall her saying that. And I guess I'd be interested in seeing some examples from other communities that she had given to you all. Ms. Superintendent.
[Edouard-Vincent]: Thank you. And these five rules were based upon the samples that other districts are currently using. So it was kind of like a potpourri, but the language that was removed. Mark Rumley said, you know, the pieces that needed to be removed were removed. But again, there's always a possibility of doing a committee of the whole. And we can also revisit this in another retreat Dorothy Presser, also talking about norms and rules of engagement, going deeper with that.
[Burke]: Can I make a recommendation that someone send it to Committee of the Whole so that we can deliberate it and there's other things that have to get done this night? Okay, motion to send to Committee of the Whole, offered by Mr. Benedetto, seconded by Ms. Kreatz.
[Van der Kloot]: Before I call the roll, Ms. Van der Kloot. Yes, before you call the roll, there's just one other sentence that I wish the committee to look at, because I kept on reading it and kept on reading it.
[Burke]: Well, it's going to be in Committee of the Whole now, so we can all look at it collectively. Oh, it's going to go to Committee of the Whole? Yes.
[Van der Kloot]: Okay.
[Burke]: If it gets voted on to go there. I'll second. Okay. Roll call vote, please. Send this paper to Committee of the Whole.
[Ruggiero]: Mrs. DeVantage, yes.
[Unidentified]: Mrs. Graves, yes. Mrs. Stone, no. Mr. Regano, yes. Mrs. Chew, yes. Mrs. Vanderbilt, yes.
[Burke]: Mrs. Vanderbilt, yes. I believe Mrs. Stone was a yes or no. No, I was a yes. You were a yes. 7 in the affirmative, 0 in the negative. Motion passes. Community Relations Subcommittee, December 11, 2018. Mr. Jarrell.
[Ruggiero]: safety involvement and volunteering, but that's something we're still doing some more research on. There are three papers that we would like to have considered in the entire meeting, so I'll just go through the first of them right now. The first item that was referred to us many months ago was about digital documents being posted online. Currently, many parents have asked me to post items personally, but we as a committee felt it would be best if we had a unified policy. So, originally we wanted to do a number of research, which we did. First, we spoke with Dorothy Presser. She's our representative for the Massachusetts Association of School Committees. She has no official position. There's no official guidance on digital documents being posted online. However, she hasn't heard any negative feedback from the communities that do it. They also don't track it, but she said probably a sizable minority, maybe 40%, maybe 30% of communities do post online. So after that, I called a number of different school committees and mostly superintendent's offices to see their position and see what effect it had in their community posting these documents online. There were basically four major areas that I asked them. First, I asked them to describe their posting process. All of the communities I had a chance to talk to had different processes. Second, I asked, did it help or hurt the community? And what problems have you had in the implementation? Thirdly, I asked, what system did you use to post? And finally, I asked, did they have any unforeseen problems that arose? In short, all the communities I spoke to felt very positively about posting documents online. None reported any significant problems from people using documents in a way that was not becoming or productive. First, I spoke with some people at Melrose. I spoke to Diane Hogan. She's the assistant to the superintendent there. Overall, she believed that they had a positive experience of posting packets online. Their community posted packets 72 hours in advance, and they use a program called Grayness, which is used by the entire community. Diane, or Ms. Hogan, believed it helped the community in real time. And they've been doing it since 2012. They also felt that there's a tendency for rumors to sort of spread through a community. But with the digital documents there, she felt that those kind of rumors were stymied. I left a message with the people at Danvers, but they weren't able to get back to me. And I also called a couple of other districts and weren't able to get back to me. But the people at Redding, whose name, the last name of this lady I unfortunately forgot to write down, her name was Linda. She was also an executive assistant. She believed that they had a very positive experience. They posted 48 hours in advance of meetings. And they used PDFs. So they don't, they do not pay for any expensive system. They just post PDFs online. Franklin Public Schools, I spoke to Denise Miller. They've had also a very positive experience with posting. They felt like there were no problems with doing anything online. What they did was a system, actually I'm going to recommend that we do, they send a link to school committee members first. School committee members have a few hours to review the materials in advance, and then the link is sent to the community at large. They don't send presentations or superintendent notes beforehand, and they also use just PDFs. Finally, I spoke to the people at Lexington. Ms. Calvino is the executive assistant there. She was the most enthusiastic about posting documents online in advance. She felt that it was very helpful to members of the community, and she would have actually parents call her back if they were spelling errors or typos online, so that was something that they had. She believes lots of parents use the documents and look forward to the packets to make sure that when they come to school committee meetings, they're prepared in advance. She did have or their community had a little problem with posting PDFs on a timetable that the community understood. So they just recommend that maybe we have a trial period first to make sure that all the wrinkles are ironed out and yeah. So there's no confusion about when things are posted. So our committee unanimously voted to do a similar program as they do in Franklin. We would like there to be a link sent to all school committee members at 12 noon to all school committee members, and then a link sent to the community at large at 4 p.m. These links would be in our entire packets, but what is confidential or materials that need to be presented and put in context?
[Burke]: Can I interrupt you for a second? Absolutely. Is that in your committee report? Because I don't see that.
[Ruggiero]: No, we haven't voted on the minutes yet.
[Burke]: So you're going to go back to committee?
[Ruggiero]: No, no. We voted to send it to school committee. I wasn't sure. Can we send?
[Burke]: But we didn't vote on those minutes. So we didn't get that committee report yet.
[Ruggiero]: Yeah, we haven't voted on those minutes. But I believe at this point we've done a good amount of research on this issue and we can move this forward.
[Van der Kloot]: Ms. Van der Kloot. We don't have that in front of us. Michael, I didn't realize that you didn't have the written minutes for this meeting.
[Ruggiero]: So you need the minutes for this meeting.
[Van der Kloot]: Right. So you are reporting on things. The only thing is that there is one item that, because of a time constraint, needs to be reported out from the subcommittee right now. So in some ways, the other stuff you're providing for us on this topic, we don't have a report on. The piece that we need to report out because of a time constraint, if I if I can proceed, or do you want to go with it? Well, I, oh, we can go ahead. You can speak to that. Okay, so there's the piece that we need to proceed on is that the subcommittee suggested, Michael's been talking about other ways to make us accessible to the community, and the subcommittee had a long discussion about this. And one suggestion was providing, rather than a formal meeting, an opportunity for the community to have a meet-and-greet for school committee members for the community. And to that end, we were thinking about what events already brought the community out, and there's one coming up in February. which is the Medford Family Network Valentine's Social. And so we discussed the possibility of having a meet-and-greet hour before the Valentine's Social, so that at the Valentine's Social, we customarily go and we scoop ice cream, and it's really nice to see people, but it's not an opportunity to get into much conversation. I did speak to Marie Cassidy about this, and she understood, and she said that if we were to proceed on this, she could put a line in her flyer to say prior, you know, from 2 to 3, come meet the school committee, or whatever, from 11 to 12. But because she's getting that information out to the public, we should That's the piece that's critical for tonight.
[Burke]: So is there a motion to have the school committee hold a meet and greet the day of the social? Yes. That was the recommendation of the committee?
[Ruggiero]: Well, absolutely. Yeah. I'm just, I'm a little confused on the logistics of this matter. So the minutes of the meeting haven't been posted because we haven't voted on our last meeting yet.
[Burke]: You vote at the end of your meeting.
[Ruggiero]: We did vote at the end of our meeting to send these, to send the digital documents meeting forward to the whole committee.
[Unidentified]: Okay.
[Ruggiero]: So there's two items I would like to be reviewed. that we vote for the meet and greet, and two, also, that we start posting digital documents online, which we've cleared with the administration. That shouldn't be a problem to do.
[Burke]: We don't have a report.
[DiBenedetto]: Mr. Benedetto, does two items on up, I second having the meet and greet on February, would have a day that, is it actually Valentine's Day?
[Van der Kloot]: I can't remember what date it is. I think it's the second Saturday.
[DiBenedetto]: OK, so at the Valentine's Day social that the Method Family Network provides, I second the motion on the floor for us to have that.
[Burke]: Let's move that motion. That's separate from the committee report.
[DiBenedetto]: Right.
[Burke]: On the motion offered by Ms. Vandekloot, seconded by Mr. Benedetto. All those in favor to host a meet and greet an hour before the Valentine social. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Motion passes. OK.
[Van der Kloot]: confused because he thought he was bringing the report to it. I have to explain that when you talked to me about it, I thought that the report that was on my desk was the report of this past meeting that we had on December 11th.
[Burke]: We didn't have this in our packet on Friday either, this one, the November meeting. Okay, so that can hold over until you can bring it to the floor at the next meeting. Okay, and the motion that the November 2018 report be accepted and placed on file by Ms. Vandekloot, seconded by Mr. Russo. I was gonna call it Ruggiero. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Motion passes. Thank you very much. Community participation. I believe we have members of the Citywide PTO in attendance this evening. They've been hard at work over the last several months. If you'd like to go into detail on your efforts, please.
[Kristy Avino]: Hi everyone, thank you so much for having us here. I'm Christy Avino, this is Jenny Graham, and we are so excited to officially conclude our Disney Vacation Raffle. When we came together this summer as a group of a dozen, between 12 and 20 parents, and volunteers from the four elementary schools. We decided that we wanted to do just a few things to get started. There were some things that we thought were too big, and then we decided to do this Disney raffle, and I think you'll find that this has set the bar really high for sure, so we're really thrilled. Before we announce the winner, we want to say thank you to a few people who were really, really critical in our effort. Thank you to Mayor Burke, Superintendent Edouard-Vincent, also to Allie Fisk and Deanna Devaney in the mayor's office. Kevin Bailey and Danny Folks from the Recreation Department were very supportive, as was our City Clerk, Adam Herdeweis. Our elementary school principals were really critical in supporting our efforts, so thank you to Principal Johnson, Principal Guarino, Principal Kaye, and Principal Galusi, as well as their staff and all of the teachers who helped support us. We also want to thank the PTO boards at the schools, and most importantly, I think, All of the parents and kids who sold tickets and spread the word about our raffle. Some of our parents sold hundreds if not thousands of dollars worth of tickets in support of this effort. So we were really thrilled. Some enterprising elementary students spent hours. I promised my son I would give him a shout out. He spent about 12 hours over six or seven events wearing his little Mickey ears. And I think we can say safely he has a great career. in either sales or politics. He knows about half of Medford now. So thank you all to those people. Our community was really, really gracious and supportive of us as well. Many welcomed us into their space and their events. So we want to thank St. Francis of Assisi Church, the Friends of Medford Public Library, Atlas Liquors on Mystic Ave, Bertucci's on Mystic Valley Parkway, Metro Rock Gym in Everett, 4 Good Vibes on Main Street, Friends of the Fells, Salem Street Studio. This was a really great effort from our community. We also want to thank Wegmans for a very generous supporting donation. And thank you also to the Irish American Club because they lent us this fabulous little raffle wheel. I'm going to turn it over to Jenny to tell you a little bit more. Thank you, Kristen.
[Graham]: So there are a number of people who definitely won't win anything tonight, namely our raffle captains. So there were 10 folks who were identified as captains at the outset of this effort who were expressly prohibited from buying tickets, although they were asked to spend lots and lots and lots of hours helping other people be eligible to win. Our raffle captains included Christy Aveno, Jen Conti, myself, Melissa Maywalt, Maureen McSweeney, Doug Nagengast, Gary Pabst, Cheryl Rodriguez, Bob Russo, and Bailey Schendel. A special thank you to Tamara Morrow, who is the treasurer of the Brooks, and she is a raffle captain and the person who is responsible for the finances, the reporting, and raffle compliance, which is no small feat. We've learned a lot about raffles. But she has done an immensely huge task with ease. So we sold 4,824 tickets and received some donations along the way. Our gross sales were $24,178. Yay. After we pay our raffle expenses, and we filed our required tax returns, and we pay our gaming taxes, our schools will each receive over $4,000, which is a huge addition to all of the PTOs. So that's $4,000 to each elementary school, give or take. the end of the bath. We're just getting started. We have two more events planned this spring. Our electronics recycling will return, and we'll have a Wizards game in the spring as well. And there will be more to come on both. But the reason that we're here is to pull the winner. So the raffle wheel is there. It's quite full. We did mix everything around and shake it up and the wheel can be spun a few more times for good measure. The first prize that we would like Dr. Edouard-Vincent to pull is the grand prize winner. The grand prize of the raffle is $5,000 in Disney gift cards or a cash equivalent. The grand prize winner can, at their option, use the gift cards to book a vacation at a Disney resort or Disney cruise. Shannon Demos, the assistant principal at the Brooks School, is a local resident Disney expert and has volunteered her time to help the winner plan their vacation, if they so choose. The $5,000 grand prize may or may not cover the whole cost of a vacation, including airfare, accommodation, and dining, subject to the winner's booking preferences. You can go to Disney all kinds of different ways. So $5,000 is kind of a blank canvas for whoever that winner is. The winner must be 18 years of age or older and a US citizen or lawful permanent resident. The winner must claim their prize in seven business days, so excluding Christmas, which is a federally recognized holiday. This means the prize must be claimed by December 27th at 5 or we will draw a new winner. So if you would do the honors and pull the winner. Spin that drum. Reach in there really good. Whoa, that is hot. It is quite full.
[Unidentified]: Okay, the winner is Lynn Freitas, 26 Stearns Avenue, Medford. Woo, all right.
[Graham]: Does anyone know Lynn? Does anybody know Lynn? We will take that and call her. And then if you would also pull one more ticket, there is a second place prize. It is a $250 Disney gift card. The same rules apply about claiming the prize and US residents and all of that good stuff. But the second prize winner will be pulled now. It is packed.
[Burke]: We needed a bigger drum.
[Graham]: So next year we'll also be on the hunt for a slightly bigger drum.
[Burke]: We can get you one of the recycling bins. Composting.
[Edouard-Vincent]: Alright, the winner is Mara Kennedy. Mara Kennedy. 49 Salton Stall Road, Medford.
[Burke]: Nice job.
[Graham]: So thank you very much for playing along here and pulling our winners. So we'll take those from you, and we will take the wheel and empty it out and get it back to the Irish-American as well.
[Burke]: I know you all worked very, very hard. I saw you at so many events, including election day, pre-election day. You guys were everywhere. So kudos to all of you for what you've done in investing in your schools and our schools. So thank you. Thanks. Thank you very much.
[DiBenedetto]: Mr. Benedetto. Thank you. Under community participation, I got a note from the daughter of Lena DeGentema, so regarding the event we had, those of you who don't know, We named the music room the Gigentmaso Music Room.
[Burke]: I think the superintendent had it in her comments.
[DiBenedetto]: Oh, good. So from her daughter, she just wrote, Erin, thank you again for the wonderful evening last night. The ceremony that the district provided was truly humbling. And my mom loved this dedication more than words could tell. Thank you for a wonderful, memorable night. And please tell Lisa Evangelista we realize how much time and effort she put into the event. So.
[Burke]: Very good. Thank you. Pass that on. On the motion for items, did you like to speak on this? Oh, I'm sorry.
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, hi. That's OK. Sorry it was a little slow coming up for the participation. Hi, everyone. Hi, Mayor Burke. Hi, Superintendent. Hi, members of the committee. I'm Carolyn Montello, 108 Ashcroft Road. And this evening, I wanted to bring up the issue of heat at the high school. After a few recent very cold visits to the high school's Karen Theater and gym, I began to look into what might be the issue with the heat at the high school. I was told that the heat in the theater is broken. It sounds like a part has been ordered. and should be installed soon. But I was also informed that the gym only has one unit left working. That's the unit in cage three. And the others are basically gone and have been that way for years. I also heard from parents recently that the school, that the pool area seems to be having heating issues as well. And for years, I've heard from students as well as teachers that some of the classrooms are so cold in the winter that students need to wear their coats inside. And a student this year told me that in one classroom, students are allowed to bring in blankets because it's so cold. So I think most parents assume that their school is heated when they send their kids off to school in the winter. So I don't think that people even think to ask the question. I would like to ask a member of the committee to make a motion to immediately audit the current heating system throughout the high school, and provide an update at the next school committee meeting, and make any repairs if and as needed.
[Burke]: So moved by member Van der Kloot. Also, just regarding the theater, a coil is on order, and it will be installed over the holidays. the holiday break. So that's the worst case it will be installed. And two out of the four heaters are working in the gym. Does it say enough heat?
[Edouard-Vincent]: It's sufficient heat in the gym area?
[Burke]: It's two out of four. Two out of four. So you're going to hear a little later from the superintendent on an item that we applied for MSBA school funding. She's going to be making not a great announcement, unfortunately. Member Van der Kloot, just move your motion. Is there a second to the item? Seconded by Mr. Benedetto. Did I miss you? I'm sorry.
[SPEAKER_02]: Okay, thank you. And just with the heat in the gym, it's definitely, I don't know if they don't turn it on on the weekends, but I'm there for basketball games on the weekends and the gym is freezing. Everyone has down coats on, people from other communities. coming to the games, comment on it, so.
[Burke]: I was just there, like, what, a week ago? We were both there, and we had coats off, and comfortable, but we'll have an audit done.
[Unidentified]: Yeah, that would be great. We'll investigate it further. Thank you. Definitely.
[Burke]: Thank you very much. On the motion. Thank you, Ms. Mantello. On the motion. All in favor? Aye. All opposed? Motion is granted. Report of the superintendent. Madam?
[Edouard-Vincent]: Good evening everyone. So last Thursday, prior to the winter high school orchestra concert, we enjoyed a wonderful event celebrating former school committee member Lina DiGentimasso. The Medford High School Music Room was dedicated in her honor by Mayor Burke. Lena and her family could not have been more appreciative. I would be remiss if I did not thank our Fine Arts Director, Tony Zigny, for his gracious assistance, and the Medford High School Orchestra for their wonderful musical selections. I'd also like to recognize Principal Chad Fallon and the Culinary Arts Program for providing the pre-ceremony reception. It was truly a collaborative effort between the school committee the city council to honor Ms. DeGenta Maso, who devoted a great part of her life to the Medford Public Schools and our community. The plaque is in place right now over the door of the music room in A building. So I wanted to just recognize that. I also wanted to talk a little bit about CCSR. Our CCSR students have been quite busy of late. The Medford High School members have been visiting with students in both, the high school students have been visiting with our students at the elementary and middle school levels to discuss CCSR goals and objectives. And they were assisted, again, by Rhetta Smith and the Garden Club in planting the new orchard that we do now have in place, and we'll hear a little bit more about that in detail. And some of them are here with us. We had 10 pear trees. planted, blackberries and raspberries were planted. Not at this point in time. You'll come up a little later for a separate report. And currently the CCSR are in the process of collecting toys for Tots. So I just want to put that out there as well. Our Spanish II honors class at the high school, they have Skyped with students in Bolivia. and our students were able to practice their conversational Spanish, while their students were able to practice conversational English, and our students truly enjoyed this learning experience. This unique learning experience, I should say. Hope Chest, so last week, the Medford High School Vocational School Hope Chest Food Pantry, Priscilla's Pantry, opened. and the pantry is available for all students and is free of charge. The pantry has shelf-stable foods and household goods. It will be open Thursdays after school from 2.30 to 3.30 with the hopes of expanding operating hours in the near future. The pantry is located next to the third floor lecture hall in C building. And I would like to thank the following who made Priscilla's Pantry possible. the Hoff Family Foundation, the Greater Boston Food Bank, in partnership with the Malden YMCA, along with the district's nutritionist, Retta Smith, and teachers Annie Saulnier, Emily Polini, and John Wilson. This is another great example of collaboration that benefits our students and families. Empowering Girls Conference. So on Wednesday, November 28th, a group of 8th grade students from the Andrews Middle School attended the Empowering Girls 2018 conference at the Cary Memorial Building in Lexington. It was hosted by Middlesex DA, Marion Ryan, and the all-day program was designed for middle school girls with the theme of She Persisted. The students and their chaperones, Katie Fumara, who's an adjustment Councilor, and Yvonne Santos, a guidance Councilor, were met with opening remarks from Marion Ryan. who discussed the importance of persisting through difficulties and going after the career you want. The Andrews students listened to guest speakers, asked questions, participated in activities, and left feeling empowered and invigorated about their futures. Thanks to D.A. Ryan, the Empowering Girls 2018 program, it ended up being a huge success, and the Andrews will definitely return next year. On the sports venue, Medford High School and our vocational school combined, our winter sports season has officially begun. And our La Conte ice rink is offering expanded public skating over the holiday break. And all of that is listed on our website and our blog. I continue to have a focus on looking at instruction. I am really trying to stick to my goal of being in schools at least twice a week. And I am continuing to witness and observe instruction. Over the past two weeks, I have been at the Columbus, the Roberts, the Brooks. It's really uplifting to see how devoted our teachers are. in terms of implementing their curriculum and really being focused on our students. Additionally, earlier today I was at the Columbus and I was able to spend time with one of our math coaches. As you know, math is one of my goals and a serious focus of a lot of my instruction, although it's not exclusively mathematics. And I was able to work with Ellie O'Leary today. And I spent time with the fifth grade team at the Columbus School. I had the opportunity to observe inclusion math and special education teacher Wendy Anderson was working collaboratively with the teacher, so it was wonderful to see inclusion at work and instruction happening and students focusing on math and having an opportunity to productively struggle. and be challenged, but know it's for a good reason, a good cause. So as I've been looking at instruction, I've had the opportunity to look at instruction with principals. When I was at the Brooks, I got to walk this last time with the assistant principal and members of my leadership team, and I also go to schools independently, so just continuing to keep my eyes on instruction. Another important thing happening in the district right now is ACE advisors and coaches in education. This past week, Associate Superintendent Diane Caldwell, Principals Nick Tucci of the McGlynn Middle School and Michael Downs, Principal of the Andrews Middle School, Assistant Principal David Blouk at the high school, as well as Penny Funiali and Lisa Bandonian, met to discuss the ACE project at the middle schools. The ACE project, again, Advisors and Coaches in Education, is a project of the Medford Health Department, Team Medford, and Medford Public Schools. The purpose of the ACE project is to educate and train club advisors and coaches on how to effectively build meaningful relationships with students through search institutes, evidence-based model for developmental relationships, which will help to reduce substance abuse and other risky behaviors in youth. Medford High School already has ACE in place, so this is now moving down to the middle schools. on safety. Our principals and administrators have been actively working together on upgrading our building security plans. All schools-based principals, Officer Ziobro and John McLaughlin, we met in a closed-door meeting session to discuss our current security practices and measures and examining the Safe Havens reports from a district perspective of what things we can do to continue to keep Medford safe. Additionally, last week, Officer Ziobro, Lieutenant Paul Covino, Principal Nick Tucci and Principal Brian Toomey, They all attended safety workshops that were conducted by Safe Havens last week. And they reported out on the workshops, and they shared with the principal group when we were discussing our security and safety plans. MSBA, which is the Massachusetts School Building Authority, The MSBA did announce at the end of last week that they awarded their award recipients. They awarded 14 districts. Unfortunately, at this time Medford was not selected this year. However, we will continue to apply. for funding to renovate our high school complex. In light of not being selected, we will continue to work collaboratively with the city for targeted capital improvement projects. So it's something that we're gonna continue to work on and work at. Another very important topic that has surfaced and the school committee members were requesting an update on vaping. And vaping is definitely a serious concern that the country is facing and Medford is not excluded from this challenge. We take this very seriously as a district and as a city. Our school administration is very aware of the public health issues and how it's affecting our students and the community at large. Here is, I'm going to share just a few brief overview of steps that we've taken thus far and that we're going to continue to address the issue of vaping as a district. with a focus on the whole child. We have engaged in specific student education around vaping. They are addressing it in some portions of the curriculum that we're using, the Michigan model. Student support to assist students who are at risk and engaging in risky behaviors. Community partnerships in collaboration with the Medford Board of Health. and frequent ongoing education and outreach for parents and staff. We are also looking into providing in collaboration with the city, providing like a parent support group that could be available to parents at the high school and offer that. So those are some of the things that we're trying to do. So knowing that vaping is truly a serious concern. I wanted to just put it on the floor that it is something that we are taking very seriously, but because this is truly a large issue, we did not have enough time to prepare a comprehensive report. on specific numbers and statistics of things that are happening. So we're in the process of combining that to come back to you in January to give you a more robust presentation. And we would like to, we are trying to ask Dr. Schuster and Team Medford from the Department of Public Health to come and share their wealth of knowledge with us. So I'm shooting for the second meeting in January. Dr. Schuster has already conducted professional development with members of Team Medford at the high school to all school leaders and director-level administrators, and that was a very, very informative training, a lot of positive feedback, and they would like her to come back, and we would like her to also be able to come and present as an expert in the field. So that is where we are with our work around vaping. On another note, I wanted to just say today I had the pleasure of being at the Roberts School. I was invited to see their hand chimes concert. And their music instructor, Mr. Jim Connors, is truly masterful. Our arts department as a district is phenomenal. And today was another special treat by fourth and fifth graders. They played the hand chimes. In addition to that, musical pieces, drums, xylophones, recorders. And I saw for the first time today tenor recorder and a bass recorder, I had not seen them. So students were not only playing traditional recorders, but tenor and bass recorders. So I could definitely see that under Mr. Connor's leadership that we definitely have additional, the band pipeline in the making. hear the band music playing as I observed them. So that was truly a positive experience. And I want to just thank the Roberts School, Principal Johnson, and the team that were there to during the concert, it was really a great experience. And then lastly, I would like to wish all of you, the school committee and the members of the community, a happy holiday season, a restful break. I know Hanukkah has ended, but happy Hanukkah to all of those who did celebrate the holiday. I'd like to wish merry Christmas and happy Kwanzaa, and a healthy, happy, prosperous, peaceful new year to you all.
[Burke]: Thank you so much. Thank you. Ms. Van der Kloot.
[Van der Kloot]: I just want to mention within all of the things that you mentioned, there also was an incredibly great middle school concert last Thursday night, which I had the pleasure and opportunity to attend. And as you know, our middle school select ensemble has been gold medal winners many times over. All of the levels, the 6th grade, the 7th and 8th, and the ensemble really did a terrific job. And Ms. Chang is just an amazing teacher. So I wanted to mention that tonight too. Thank you.
[Burke]: Thank you. Superintendent's updates and comments. Thank you so much for all that information. Report on planting of orchard at Medford High School. Ms. Caldwell.
[Caldwell]: Hello. Well, as you know, you voted this past year to bring an orchard to Medford High School to beautify our grounds even more than they are. We did have some difficulty about where this was going to take place, but I think we've worked out a solution thanks to Retta Smith, who is our nutritionist. Would you come up, please, Retta? And I'd like to introduce to you two very important people who have who are from CCSR who spearheaded this as well. Kaylee Boulay and Prabhiti Rama would like to say a few words. Girls?
[SPEAKER_09]: Good afternoon. In the beginning of last year, we connected with Food Service Nutritionist Specialist Rhetta Smith about our interest in addressing food insecurity through our project with the Center for Citizenship and Social Responsibility, also known as CCSR. The original plan was to apply for all grants with the hopes of establishing a fruit orchard on the MHS campus. Sean Driscoll Gomez joined the group shortly after and the plan then developed into a larger scope project. With goals of beautification the exterior of the school through murals and creating an outdoor classroom in addition to planting the orchard Sean has since graduated, but we have picked up additional CCSR students, Emily Gotti in the spring of 2018 and Jenna Matarazzo in the fall of 2018. The project garnered much community support, but there were concerns among the school staff and its administration regarding the proposed location for the orchard. After much discussion, it was decided the best location for the orchard would be in the interior courtyard of the high school. My peer, Kaylee Boulay, will explain.
[SPEAKER_08]: Hi, so I'm Kaylee Boulay, and on Friday, December 7th, we had the opportunity to plant 10 Asian pear trees, 10 blackberry bushes, and 10 raspberry bushes. I, now a sophomore in Medford High, along with sophomores for B.D. Rana, Emily Gotti, and Jenna Matarazzo, with assistance from sophomore biology students, Dorven Edward, Enrique Ramos, Gabriela Paz-Luiz, and Jose Avelar Serrano, were able to join in in the planting. We, the students, planted three of the ten trees and all ten blackberry bushes. We all enjoyed being outside, and despite the cold, working in the sunshine was surprisingly pleasant. We hope to continue the project in the spring by creating a simple, low-cost outdoor classroom space so that teachers will be able to hold class in the space if they like. Tufts College students are working on lesson plans that meet Massachusetts learning standards that teachers of various disciplines can utilize to integrate the Orchard with their class of desire. The project was partially funded by CCSR and the Cummings Grant.
[Burke]: Wonderful.
[SPEAKER_08]: Great job.
[Burke]: Excellent. Look at that. Well you can see the enthusiasm and such a great idea and we're so happy that this has come to fruition. I know you worked hard on it and you had a couple of setbacks but you kept going and that's the big learning lesson. You kept pushing through so congratulations. Can't wait to see the fruits of your labor.
[DiBenedetto]: Ms. Domenedetto. Was part of the reason you chose the interior courtyard because of the deer that come out in the evening? And now the bear.
[Caldwell]: Now that we have a bear in the midst, too. That was part of the reason, because we could better you know, confine what we needed to. We were worried about rodents and small animals. And if we put it outside on the field, the kids practice and play on the field. And there's another area where younger children play. So this seemed like the perfect place for it. I think it's a great idea.
[Burke]: More convenient, too, for the classroom aspect of it.
[DiBenedetto]: I really like the idea. I think it's going to look beautiful. And that courtyard needed a little sprucing up. So thank you.
[Burke]: Very nice. Thank you. Is there a motion on the floor to accept this report? So moved. So moved by Mr. Bennis, seconded by Mr. Russo. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Motion passes. Congratulations. Report on BotBall, New England Regional Robotics Tournament.
[Patterson]: Good evening. So this is under my header for finances acceptance, but we have Faiza Khan here, the supervisor director of our mathematics department, to give you more information on this project.
[Burke]: Excellent. Good evening.
[SPEAKER_01]: Good evening. Thank you for having me here. And I'm so sorry for my voice. Thank you for giving me the report. I'll try to.
[Burke]: Of course, the heating system goes on when you start to talk.
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you. Thank you. I'll let Ms. Chen, who is the advisor of the club, read the report and then do further justice to the information. Thank you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Method High School's robotic team has received a donation in the amount of $2,000 from MeDay Technology to compete in the New England Regional Bot Ball Competition 2019. The robotics team at Method High School engaged students using science, engineering, technology, mathematics, and writing skills to design, build, program, and document robots in a hands-on project that reinforced their learning. It has been competing with support from Midday Technology in the ball competitions since 2012 and has won many awards over the years.
[Burke]: Excellent. Well, once again, we want to thank Midday. They've been a fabulous partner with us. They came through again on this most important item. And we know that they work with our McGlynn students all the time. They have a program there. And they're invested in our community. They're up on Boston Ave. And they've been fabulous, fabulous corporate partners. So thank you, Midday. Can we send out a thank you letter to them as well? Motion to, it is recommended to accept the donation for the use and purpose of the schools for the spot bowl. Motion by Ms. Vanden Heuvel, seconded by Ms. DiBenedetto. Roll call vote please. Yes. Yes. And that is a $2,000 donation that we are gladly accepting. Thank you so much. Great job. Ms. DiBenedetto has a question.
[DiBenedetto]: So I just wanted to take an opportunity to say thank you as well.
[Burke]: Thank you very much, both of you. Thank you.
[SPEAKER_01]: I just want to add one thing. Thank you so much for acknowledging Ms. Chen. She has worked incredibly hard. Only last year I did it because Ms. Chen's sister was going through some health issues and we lost her eventually. So that was the only time that Ms. Chen has not been the advisor. But other than that, She has been doing an amazing job. She puts in immense amount of volunteer hours. So thank you for acknowledging.
[Burke]: Thank you very much. Very nice. Item 4, report on advanced placement curriculum honor for Medford High School. Ms. Caldwell, please.
[Caldwell]: The Medford Public School has been named to the ninth annual AP District Honor Roll, which recognizes schools that increase access to and performance on advanced placement programs. Only 373 school districts around the United States and Canada were selected for this honor. The AP District Honor Roll is administered by the Advanced Placement Program, which enables willing and academically prepared students to pursue college-level studies while still in high school. The program consists of college-level courses developed by the AP program that high schools can choose to offer. Corresponding exams are administered once a year. The AP District Honor Roll recognizes schools that are committed to increasing access to AP for underrepresented students while simultaneously maintaining or increasing the percentage of students earning AP exam scores of 3 or higher. The distinction of being named to this honor roll means Medford is committed to expanding the availability of AP courses among prepared and motivated students of all backgrounds. Medford High School has increased the number of students participating in advanced placement courses over the past three years, while also increasing or maintaining the percentage of students earning scores of three or higher on AP exams. Per the college board, reaching these goals shows that Medford is to successfully motivating and academically, thank you, preparing students who are ready for AP. Medford was one of 19 total schools recognized in Massachusetts, which included Brookline, Natick, Newburyport, Pembroke, Linfield, Shrewsbury, Mattapoisette, Norwell, Menden, Marshfield, Lunenburg, South Deerfield, Ternus Falls, Belchertown, Kingston, South Hadley, and Westborough. And as you know, in the state of Massachusetts, we have approximately 354 districts right here in Massachusetts. So this is quite an honor for Medford High School. Wonderful.
[Burke]: Very nice. There's a motion to accept this report and place it on file by Ms. Van der Kloot, seconded by Mr. Rousseau. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Motion passes. Item five, recommendation to approve FOSS science curriculum. Ms. Patterson.
[Patterson]: So this is just a revisit to the original approval back on October 1st, but it was important to make sure that everybody understood the cost impact of this. It has increased based on the number of required items needed. So the new timeline that we have been negotiating with the company is a three-year payment term. We did get, we're still fine tuning the legal terminology within the contract, but year one would be $139,326. Year two and three would be $69,663. So that would provide us the opportunity to begin the training, get the materials now to roll this out for fiscal year 19-20. So the revised quote came in at $278,652. which we are requesting to proceed and recommend this additional amount.
[Burke]: So moved by Mr. Benedetto. Is there a second by Ms. Kreatz? Roll call vote. Mr. Russo has a question. Mr. Russo.
[Ruseau]: What does SRB option mean? I see it mentioned a few times. It's on page 103 on the right under bonus, then there's requires SRB option. It's not so obvious today.
[Patterson]: Are you referring to just the shipping costs? Requires SRB option. So that would be something that Rocco Sieri would have identified as needed for the components. So the complete kits, the teacher materials, the living materials, and the miscellaneous items. So that would be all inclusive of what the packet would entail. I apologize, I don't know the science acronym for that particular area.
[Mustone]: I'll get it later.
[Mustone]: Just to make sure, we will have these books for September.
[Patterson]: The intent is that they will be shipped out for the spring for training. This spring?
[Mustone]: Yes. Great, so full rollout September 2019.
[Patterson]: Yes, full rollout.
[Mustone]: Great, thank you. Ms. Patterson.
[Burke]: Very good. Thank you very much. There's a motion on the floor. Roll call vote, Ms. Kreatz.
[Kreatz]: Ms. DeMantek. Yes. Ms. Kreatz, yes. Ms. Mustone.
[Burke]: Yes.
[Kreatz]: Ms. Turgell. Yes. Mr. Mustone. Yes. Ms. McNeil. Yes. Ma'am Rowe.
[Burke]: Yes. Seven in the affirmative, zero in the negative. Motion passes. Ms. Mustone.
[Mustone]: Just rereading my notes, I made an oversight at our Buildings and Grounds Subcommittee. Officer Bill Mazzacca was present, and I do feel remiss if I don't say that I appreciate his input at that meeting as well.
[Burke]: Thank you. Thank you very much. Under New Business, School Committee Resolution. Mayor Burke. Mr. Rousseau.
[Ruseau]: I would like to ask a question perhaps of Ms. Patterson about our MSBA application. Oh, sure. Do we get feedback or do they just simply give us a no? Like is there something about our application they dislike or think that we can do differently?
[Patterson]: No. I did call MSBA directly and inquired if there was something terminology that could be more aggressive or make us more needy in that context. The short answer is no, that each year it's a new year. There are districts that have been filing since 2008. It just is a matter of the significant need based on enrollment factors and the conditions of the building of whichever project that they are looking at. Again, the core projects, core projects alone were over 70 projects. So only a small amount based on the amount of funding per the state is available. There are accelerated projects that are available, but again, those are for roof, boiler, and windows only. So that is something to explore down the road, but again, we keep our... capital improvement listing, and we can certainly update it and address it. We did fine tune it based on the merger of the vocational and high school this year. We will, again, go out for the application period that opens at the end of January. Submissions typically go in for February, March, and April.
[Van der Kloot]: Yes, just one question on that. One of the concerns that was brought to us is the heating in the gym, and I've always been concerned about the windows. Have we included those in our submission? Yes.
[Patterson]: And again, that's the core program.
[Burke]: That wasn't a separate application just for the windows. Correct. So we have to look.
[Patterson]: Right. And the heating is really infrastructure. It's the HVAC system. So that is a significant cost. So we're going to be looking at that.
[Burke]: We do have new boilers that we put in three, four years ago.
[Patterson]: Correct.
[Burke]: Not the boilers. Yeah, right. The handlers and all those other gadgets. Ms. Bustone.
[Mustone]: Any of the 14 school districts that were funded? The 12 will be listed. They will? Yes. Okay.
[Burke]: Thank you. Under new business, be it resolved that the Medford School Committee expresses sincere condolences to the family of Julie Green. Ms. Green was the sister of State Representative Christine Barber, representing Medford and Somerville. If we could all please rise for a moment of silence, please. motion to adjourn this meeting I want to wish everyone a wonderful holiday season happy new year we'll see you back though I think the second week of January we're back I think so second week because it's New Year's Eve is the first yeah yeah so enjoy everyone stay safe and look forward to seeing you next year
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