[Lungo-Koehn]: Good evening, Medford School Committee meeting, March 9th, 2020, in Council Chambers, 7 p.m. Roll call vote. Member Vander Kloot, please call the roll. I did, you turned it off, I think, by accident. Member Graham?
[Van der Kloot]: Member McLaughlin? Here. Member Mustone? Here. Member Ruseau?
[Ruseau]: Present.
[Van der Kloot]: Member Vander Kloot, present. Mayor Lungo-Koehn?
[Lungo-Koehn]: President, all please rise to salute our flag.
[SPEAKER_07]: 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.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Approval of the minutes of February 24, 2020. Motion to approve by Member Graham, seconded by Member Kreatz. Roll call.
[Van der Kloot]: Member Graham? Yes. Member Kreatz? Yes. Member McLaughlin? Yes. Ms. Stone? Yes. Russo? Yes. Van der Kloot? Yes.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Mayor Lungo-Koehn? Lungo-Koehn, yes. Approval of bills, transfer of funds, and approval of payrolls.
[SPEAKER_17]: Motion approved.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Motion approved by Member Ruseau, seconded by Member Kreatz. Member Graham?
[Van der Kloot]: Yes. Member Kreatz? Yes. Member McLaughlin? Yes. Member Ms. Stone? Yes. Member Ruseau? Yes. Member van de Kloot, yes. Mayor Lungo-Koehn.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Yes. All those in favor, none opposed, paper passes. Report of secretary. There is none. Report of committees. Curriculum subcommittee 22620, member van de Kloot. Yes.
[Van der Kloot]: There we go. So the curriculum subcommittee met on Wednesday, February 26, between 4.30 and 5.30 at the superintendent's conference room in Medford High School. In attendance were the subcommittee members, myself and Jenny Graham. Mia was absent. School committee member Paul Rousseau attended the meeting, as did Superintendent Maryse Edward-Vincent, Associate Superintendent Diane Caldwell, Assistant Superintendent Peter Cushing, Director of Curriculum and Instruction Bernadette Riccidelli, Director of PE Health Rachel Puri, and Middle School Parent Michelle Ciccolo. I called the meeting together at 435 and we saluted the flag. The purpose of the meeting was to review proposed additions to the middle school health curriculum. We received handouts from Rachel Puri, including the table of contents for the national health standards and a table reviewing the current Medford health curriculum with the national standards. Areas where we were not in alignment were highlighted. Director Puri reviewed the charts with the subcommittee. Currently we use part of the Michigan model, but now we should be incorporating more areas of the most recent Michigan model edition to cover areas related to sexual health. We are covering areas such as vaping, alcohol, drug education, nutrition, physical activity, safety, and other areas of social emotional learning. Currently, the state standards are not out. So at present, we need to rely on the national standards. Director Perry explained the health is offered for a half year in grade six, seventh, and eighth. The other half of the year, the students receive instruction from guidance in order to cover the new areas of instruction. In order to cover the new areas of instruction, one full-time health teacher will be needed. Member Graham asked about the trade-off between students receiving health versus the ability to participate in band or orchestra. Parent Ciccolo noted that her child had no health in sixth grade because of a conflict with orchestra, In seventh grade, her child traded phys ed in order to get health instruction. School committee member Rousseau noted that often students on IEPs miss subjects like health. Assistant Superintendent Peter Cushing said that our kids are under a constant bombardment on vaping and other risky behaviors. He believes a trained health professional is of highest priority, a must have. Guiding staff not trained to teach these health areas. The superintendent concurred and noted that budget decisions are going to be tough because of the many needs. Since the new curriculum covers areas related to sex education, such as gender identity, anatomy, puberty, and contraception, all parents will receive the opt-out notification, which the district has used for many years. The sequencing of the curriculum will be given careful consideration. The high school ninth grade health class will be reviewed and updated. Scheduling at the middle school is challenging. Member Graham offered the following statement to summarize our current position. We recognize that there are scheduling issues that mean parents have to make choices that we would rather they did not have to make. We are very aware of the issues and are working to address them. Motion by Member Graham, seconded by myself. The Curriculum Subcommittee recommends that the school committee adopt Growing Up and Staying Healthy Michigan model health curriculum with supplements in order to assure that we are aligned with the national health standards. Roll call was Graham, yes. Vander Kloot, yes. Ms. Stone was absent. Motion to adjourn at 5.30 by Member Graham and seconded by myself. And the motion passed. So we would like to make a motion tonight. We would ask that the school committee adopt, recommendation is that we adopt growing up, the subcommittee recommendation is that we adopt growing up and staying healthy, the Michigan model health curriculum with supplements.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Member McLaughlin.
[McLaughlin]: Yes. Thank you for that thorough report. Member Van der Kloot, I was wondering about the growing up and staying healthy Michigan model health curriculum with supplements. Are those supplements regarding students with disabilities or EL learners? Do you know what the supplements are?
[Van der Kloot]: I don't know. I think there were resources that the teachers would be using. They were not specified. However, we did address the needs of the fact that there was concerns about getting the curriculum to everybody. And that's one of the reasons why the recommendation is to add a full-time health teacher at that level, because we need to be more comprehensive in our ability to deliver the information to students, all students.
[McLaughlin]: Right. Thank you. And so I'm wondering about the special education and EL access for the curriculum. And I know, aside from scheduling, I'm talking really content. Ms. Perry, if you can help with that. Sure. You know, is it driven by, I guess that's question number one, and question number two would be that I don't know if the scheduling thing is driven by IEP goals, so if there are parents watching and they feel that their middle schoolers need sex education, they might be thinking about what the IEP, or any health education, what the IEP goals are to reflect that. Is that how it's driven, or?
[Perry]: Sure. So let me answer the special education piece first. So we have the Michigan model, which we will add to. I'm looking at other models as well for the special education piece. There's one called FLASH that I just started looking into, which is actually specifically for special education. So that's something that we could also add into what we're doing with the Michigan model. Thank you. You're welcome. And EL? And I'm sorry, what was the other question? English learners. English learners. We would also have to adapt for the English learners.
[McLaughlin]: For the English learners.
[Perry]: So what we're looking to do is, if we get this approved, I have a lot of work ahead of me. So we would have to get the Michigan model together, do a scope and sequence, add in the special education piece as well as the EL piece.
[McLaughlin]: Okay. Thank you.
[Lungo-Koehn]: And you're welcome. Through the chair, from the chair, I know Ms. Member McLaughlin just asked about the content. Is there paperwork we could review on our own before this is approved tonight to review what the content is of growing up and staying healthy, Michigan model health curriculum.
[Perry]: Sure. So you should have gotten a handout that actually gives the lessons. Did you get copies of that? You didn't give it. Okay.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Yeah. I don't feel comfortable voting on it tonight until I can actually read the content first.
[Perry]: Okay.
[Lungo-Koehn]: There was questions for me and I couldn't answer them. So, okay. We can get you copies of those. Please, if you could make them all of us. If member McLaughlin motion to, um, get the content emailed to all members of the school committee?
[McLaughlin]: Yes, please.
[Lungo-Koehn]: And motion to lay it on the table, thank you, by Member van de Kloet, seconded by? Melanie.
[McLaughlin]: Melanie McLaughlin.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Member McLaughlin. If you could withdraw your motion to table, unless, okay, no, never mind, you're all set. Motion to table, Member van de Kloet, seconded by Member McLaughlin. All those in favor? Roll call, please. Roll call has been requested.
[Van der Kloot]: Am I correct in saying when it's tabled, it's tabled?
[Lungo-Koehn]: You can request a roll call.
[Van der Kloot]: OK. Member Graham. »» Okay. Can I make a clarification? »» Sure. »» The reason I motioned to table it was because a member asked for additional information that I did not provide. Because typically when we've had a handout we don't always provide it that's not customary. But I didn't provide it and since a member asked for that information and we didn't provide it, that's why I made the motion to lay it on the table.
[Graham]: carry over to the next meeting. And then we have to review them in the next meeting. I just don't want this to go on. I'm totally fine with people having that information that they need. But Ms. Perry has a ton of work to do once we make this decision. And I just want to respect the fact that she can't implement a massive curriculum change unless we give her some room to start to do so.
[Van der Kloot]: Well, if I may, there's also a budget piece of getting a, whether we're going to approve the additional health personnel, which is going to make this possible. Um, I absolutely understand. I think that as soon as a member requests a piece of information, I mean, the mayor just said, I don't feel comfortable voting on it unless I see that. Um, so, uh, it would be as you and I both being on the subcommittee, we very, very much want to see this go through. Um, At this point, I'm willing to wait for two weeks. I would not have to read the minutes again. We would just have to bring it back up. So I'll lay it on the table to the next meeting. Member Ruseau?
[Ruseau]: I'm not really clear what you mean by information. I mean, I've received the Michigan model. It is a binder that would take most of us, if we're fast readers, more than two weeks to read, so I don't know what the request for information is. So two weeks from now, if you get the documents we got in our meeting, is that going to be good enough is really my concern. I also want to point out that this is a vote that is purely for the purposes of providing cover to our staff. We are explicitly forbidden in the law from approving curriculum. It's explicit in the 1993 Ed Reform Act. So I'm willing to vote for this, no matter what it is that we're going to be teaching, because it isn't about the content. It's about the fact that we're not teaching sex ed at all to our middle schoolers right now. And we are so far off of the national standards that I'm just not interested in a conversation about whether or not masturbation, menstruation, whether showing how to put a condom onto a replica penis, those are things that are going to happen. And in my mind, they're going to happen whether we approve this or not. So the law requires opt-out for parents. A form will be sent home, and parents are more than welcome to keep their kids from knowing the facts of life or whatever it is you want to call that. But I don't have the amount of work that is going to be involved with getting this done. Two weeks is just two weeks, but the school year is only 180 days long. We are talking about almost 10% of the time between now and the next time we meet. So I am not comfortable with waiting so that we can all know what the content is. The meeting?
[McLaughlin]: I understand and respect our co-members' positions, but I think that this is an important topic, at least for the rest of us to understand, especially as I'm considering our learners who are more vulnerable. And that doesn't necessarily mean that our parents want to automatically opt out. It just means that we want to be aware of and understand how this will be presented in a way that's differentiated, which I know we don't won't know that yet because we won't know how you're doing that. But I certainly want to see the big picture around like where we're going and how that's going to work. So respectfully, I would say that I'm happy to take the time over the two weeks. I'm certainly not going to read every single line item, but I want to have a broad understanding and picture of what it is that we're presenting to. So I would make a motion to, or second your motion to table.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Motion to table by member Van der Kloot, seconded by member McLaughlin. All those in favor? All those opposed? No. Paper is tabled for two weeks and motion by Member McLaughlin to get a copy of the content, seconded by Member Van der Kloot. All those in favor? All those opposed? Paper passes. Thank you. Thank you.
[Van der Kloot]: Mayor Lungo-Koehn. I'd like to ask for suspension of, oh, sorry, not yet. Hold on.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Okay. Okay. I know you told me when you were going to do it. So rules, policy, and equity subcommittee, March 3rd, 2020. Member Ruseau.
[Ruseau]: Thank you. So on March 3rd, we had a meeting that started at 3.31 PM. I won't read the entire set of minutes. We were discussing two new rules. Is it two? excuse me, the agenda's not here, two new rules for the committee itself. And these are procedural rules and then a new policy. I will just quickly go over each of them. The first was a rule on how to add an item to the agenda of the school committee. It is a very common experience for new members and even for those of us that have been around to wonder how do we get something on the agenda. I could not find any existing rules, so we have composed a specific procedure. It doesn't have a rule number yet because we have to find the current rules to know what to give it. And I won't read the full rule, assuming that you have all read these since you received them in your packets. I do want to make one minor amendment to it on page, it doesn't have page numbers, excuse me, under the why section. The last sentence is, this procedure aims to put an end to that question. Really, it should say, this procedure aims to provide an answer to that question. So I entertain a motion to accept this rule as amended.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Can you clarify your motion one more time?
[Ruseau]: Sure. The motion that I would like to have is to approve this as a rule of the school committee going forward with the slight change on the second page where it says the why, and the last sentence is to be changed slightly, where it says this procedure, well the entire section Y says, this procedure is needed to ensure transparency. One of the first questions a new member is often, how do I get something on the agenda? This procedure aims, and it should say, to provide an answer to that question. So that's the one amendment that I'd like to include. So since not everybody has this, this just provides a list of steps for members when we want to add something to the agenda, how do we do it, what we would send, who we would send it to, when we would send it, we would use email, why we even need this procedure, and then also outline some important some important situations that have happened but are unusual, such as what if there's an objection to adding something to an agenda? For instance, we can ask for anything we want on the agenda, but if we ask for something that we couldn't legally actually get an answer to, that objection would actually follow a process as well. And I think there's some questions.
[Kreatz]: Member Kreatz? First, I want to say thank you to the committee for putting these instructions together. I did have just a couple of really simple questions. So do we follow these same procedures to add subcommittee meeting minutes to the agenda? Because I know quite often we have to send a request to add our meeting minutes. Would we follow the same procedure, I'm assuming? Yes.
[Van der Kloot]: Member van der Kloot. I had a question about the timeline. I also, I guess my first question is, did the subcommittee endorse, I don't see a motion for approval. Was there, sorry, where is it? And was it a three to one vote? Or a three to zero vote? Okay. So I have a question about, okay, here, I see it now. I have a question about the timeline. It appears that it gives the superintendent or her designee within two normal school days to respond with the following. You know, when I'm up there signing the bills on Wednesday, I have to say that my observation is that people are running, running, running, juggling so many balls in the air. I don't think two normal school days is sufficient. I understand everybody thinks that whatever they have, as do I, is the most pressing issue. But I don't think that's real to hold the superintendent to, and I don't want her to be under pressure to simply designating something to everybody else. And then sometimes she may need to think about it. So I don't find two days to be sufficient. I would ask the superintendent, since this affects you directly, is what sort of timeline you would think would be reasonable?
[Edouard-Vincent]: So in the spirit of trying to give feedback in preparation, I would like to double that from two days to four days because we meet every two weeks. So I would need to, I'm going to try my due diligence, my best to respond as quickly as possible. But if we could increase that from two to four to at least be able to say whether it could be on that, I hope that's considered reasonable. I'll let, have Mr.
[Ruseau]: I would just point out that switching to nine days, because there's a five-day window before the meeting by which you would have to have submitted this, that would mean it would be impossible to put something on the next agenda. The when says that you cannot request something beyond the agenda closer than five school days before that meeting. So if we wanted something on the next agenda, we must have it in by this Friday. Two days before that is this Wednesday for the very next meeting. So that's my concern. We put that big five-day window out there. Because you've got to put the posting, you've got to whatever documentation, whatever the thing is that is going to be on the agenda, it takes time. And right now, we sometimes have members, and I'm guilty as charged, who submit things on Wednesday afternoon for a Monday meeting, or Thursday afternoon for a Monday meeting. And they get on the agenda. And I'm always happy when I shove something in at the last second and it gets on the agenda. But there is no time for planning, there's no time for saying, well, the meeting is now going to be six hours long, as happened last time. So I mean, the five days is already a huge change, in my opinion, to when the last time you can hit your Send button to add something to an agenda. So that's sort of my response to that.
[Edouard-Vincent]: I was going to say, let's allow it to go through as is and in a year's time we can or six months time review or reconvene in subcommittee to see if it if it really is too tight or the the it becomes very, very difficult, then we could review it, revisit it again as a compromise.
[Ruseau]: I'd also just like to respond to the two day thing. I actually completely agree that two days, like I have plenty of unread email that's more than two days old. However, if I send something that I want on the agenda, I might be asking parents to come or, you know, engaging the community on a topic. I send this email and days just go by, and I don't know if it's going to be on the agenda. That's a real problem, for me at least, when I've had that experience. Two days is already, in my mind, is a long time. Two full work days to simply say, yes, it'll be on the agenda. You can just respond and say, I'm too busy right now. Give me a couple extra days or something. It doesn't have to be. definitive, but getting a response of some sort is really part of the goal of that. So, thank you.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you.
[Kreatz]: Member Kreatz. Yes, I just had just a couple of quick questions. So, I just wanted to know, when we send it in the subject, should we put specifically, please add to agenda, you know, something that will stand out that will be unique for people adding to the agenda so that the superintendent and the mayor know that, oh, this is an item for the agenda. I should make that a priority over some other emails. I just don't know. That was just my thought at my work. We have certain subject procedures when emailing, but that was just a thought. And also, I wanted to know, who is the designee while we wait for a replacement for the executive assistant, which is just recently developed? And then I think Ms. McLaughlin has mentioned this a couple of times with some other procedures. Are we going to put these procedures on the websites once they're approved so that we can easily access them for reference? You know, because like, I mean, I think we come across one of the documents which is functions of the school committee and I had the final version, but you know how like there's multiple versions everywhere? Where is the final one? You know, so I was just wondering where will this be? Yeah.
[Ruseau]: If I might respond.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Point of information?
[Ruseau]: Yes.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Point of information, member Rousseau.
[Ruseau]: One more time? There we go. For those that weren't in the meeting, I forget that you didn't hear this part of the conversation. But all of these procedures, especially the new ones, I fully expect these are not perfect. And that if three meetings from now we're like, this isn't working, We just send it back to the subcommittee for changes. These are our working rules. If they're not working, then we can change them, because we change them for ourselves. So that's how I look at all of these procedures and policies, that achieving a perfect outcome on the first run is, I think, a heavy lift. And if two days, or five days, or if the whole procedure just doesn't work, any one of us can just speak up at the next meeting and say, this doesn't work and here's why, and send it to subcommittee for changes. But having something written down so members know which ends up, I think is really important.
[Kreatz]: I guess I did want to know, you know, who, like, who should we be, like, just to, you know, to start the process, like, Going forward, we have to schedule some meetings. So am I going to send it to the mayor, the superintendent, and who else while we wait for a replacement? Is it going to go to Pete?
[SPEAKER_07]: For the time being, you can send it to me. And we'll make it work.
[Kreatz]: OK, so the mayor and superintendent. Mayor and superintendent, chair and superintendent, yes. Thank you. OK. And it doesn't matter, just put anything in the subject. Agenda item. OK, agenda item. Member McLaughlin.
[McLaughlin]: Thank you. I appreciate the conversation. I was on the subcommittee, and this is why it's so good to have the conversation after subcommittee, because other things come up, and we get an idea of what questions we maybe didn't vet in the subcommittee. So one thing that's come up to me and might come up for community members is, what happens when there's obviously, say, a really pressing issue, like we have a pressing issue, that's come up in the community and we have an agenda list. We just, what?
[Lungo-Koehn]: Like the coronavirus?
[McLaughlin]: Yeah, like a coronavirus. I didn't want to say it, but yes. Like something like that, that's sort of a pressing issue and sort of, you know, prioritizes over all the other agenda items. What is the process for that? And should, and if there's not one, should we be including one in the subcommittee?
[Lungo-Koehn]: If there's an emergency matter, the chair can rule to take that under suspension.
[McLaughlin]: Okay. And then so, and then maybe including in the policy what that process is so that, you know, for notification for, you know, whether things get rippled down or totally re assigned or, or why I just think we should be thinking about it.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Yeah. Through the chair, I spoke to a law firm today about that very matter and it could be taken under suspension from the chair. But if you have something to add, member Ruseau.
[Ruseau]: This is not the only way things get on the agenda. The superintendent and the chair are more than, they add things to the agenda all the time that we have nothing to do with. So, I mean, we're all welcome to send an email saying, can you put coronavirus update on the agenda? We also can just not do that because I think it'd be weird if that wasn't on the agenda. So, I mean, the adding emergency things doesn't require us to do that. It's not an emergency for me.
[McLaughlin]: Point of information, Member McLaughlin. Point of information, yeah. But I guess the question was then how it ripples down for the others. So how is that affected? And I thought the point was that we were going to be knowing ahead of time what was on the agenda and how things rippled through. So obviously if the superintendent or chair have things that they're including on the agenda, that also includes our line items, our agenda items that were put in with these great notations that we have next to them about who submitted what and when and all those things. How then is it after they've put their things on the agenda and an emergency comes up, how then is it addressed and communicated to everybody to know what is in fact on the agenda, what's not, what's going to be reprioritized, and what's not?
[Ruseau]: If I may. So this is for this particular procedure. is only for members who want to add something to the agenda. There is another issue in this subcommittee that hasn't been scheduled yet, which is looking to redesign our entire agenda, how it works, and all that. So in my mind, that is very much a part of that conversation. The agenda is getting changed and built out, and how do we all know what's on the agenda coming up in two weeks before it gets posted? But that seems very separate, in my mind, to the procedure of, I want to talk about XYZ on April 9th. And so this is what I would do under that circumstance. But emergencies, I mean, this isn't really intended for emergency situations.
[Lungo-Koehn]: That's it.
[Van der Kloot]: Member van de Kloot. Sure, so first I want to say I do appreciate the work that the subcommittee did on this. The superintendent has indicated her willingness to try it out. My concern, again, just stands, perhaps I would change it to three normal school days. I'm trying to work through my head. Okay, it's written on Sunday, it gets sent so it's received Monday. That means the expectation is that it would get answered by Tuesday. afternoon, but all hell breaks out loose on Monday and Tuesday they're running about. So, you know, again, part of me just, I absolutely understand, you know, what the intent is and I think we are all reasonable people, but I'm always concerned when we write policy like this that someone then could come along and be holding, hold the superintendent to something that we agreed would be flexible and we're trying out. And so, to me, it just seems very quick. And I'd be more comfortable with a three-day return, personally. I would go, certainly, with asking the rest of the school committee whether, you know, I'll make a motion that the response within three normal school days as opposed to two, and you either vote up or down, and I'm happy to take whatever the consensus is. So I make a motion, if anybody wants to you know, approve it or second it, that'd be three. Okay, thank you, Kathy.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Member Ruseau? Yeah. Oh, motion. Yes. Can I?
[Van der Kloot]: Member Kreatz?
[Lungo-Koehn]: Motion to approve.
[Kreatz]: To extend it to three days.
[Lungo-Koehn]: As amended with the change of three days. Yeah. Motion by Member Vindiclude, seconded by Member Kreatz. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Paper passes. Number three committee of the whole wages and high school tour on March member or so Confident on that there were two more parts of this report.
[Ruseau]: There's a new ad hoc report request procedure if if members would like another We'd like to table this to our next meeting to read it through and really get your thoughts on it. It is complicated and is a very big divergence from our current procedure for asking for ad hoc reports. So if anybody would like to make a motion to table that particular rule to the next meeting so that we can move along.
[Lungo-Koehn]: OK, I make the motion to table it.
[Ruseau]: Second that.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Motion to table by member Van der Kloot, seconded by member Rousseau. All those in favor? All those opposed? And I will. Papers tabled.
[Ruseau]: And the last is the policy review policy. And I have four edits that I'd like to make. So in the interest of time and the fact that we have people here, I will also request that perhaps we table this to the next meeting.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Motion to table policy review policy by member Rousseau. Seconded by? I'll second. Member McLaughlin. All those in favor? All those opposed? Paper is tabled. Committee of the Whole Meeting, Wages and High School Tour, 3-4, 2020. I will give this report. We took a high school tour from 530 to 630 on Wednesday, March 4th. We visited the library. We visited, looked at the lighting, at the paint, sailing tiles. We went to the C building. We went through the bathrooms. We also went through the lecture halls and the locker rooms. There was some definite paint needed, fresh paint is needed. Locker rooms are being redone by the vocational students, so it's not operational as of yet. I know Member Kreatz took a number of notes and helped us out with what needs to be done. And the motion was, to request a committee of the whole meeting to discuss the scope and mission of the newly formed vision committee that was passed at 6.30. That was the first, that was one part of our meeting and the second part was the minimum wage issues in the schools and that was discussed with a number of students and employees present. We discussed the those employees making $10 an hour and moved to increase that and dated back to January 1st, 2020 to minimum wage, which was motioned by Member Mustone, seconded by Member Van der Kloot, and all in favor. I don't know if anybody else has anything to add. Motion to approve, Member Van der Kloot? Yes, I make a motion to approve the recommendation from the subcommittee. Motion approved by Member Van der Kloot, seconded by Member Kreatz. All those in favor?
[Van der Kloot]: Aye. All those opposed? It should be a roll call. Roll call. Member Van der Kloot. Member Graham? Yes. Member Kreatz? Yes. Member McLaughlin? Yes. Member Mustone? Yes. Member Ruseau? Yes. Member Van der Kloot, yes. Mayor Lungo-Koehn? Yes.
[Lungo-Koehn]: All those in favor and in opposition, paper passes. Community participation. Maureen Rohan. on dyslexia. Come on down.
[Ronain]: My name is Maureen Ronain, and I have a third grader in the district with severe dyslexia. He needed to leave his neighborhood school in order to access a language-based classroom. I want to thank you for taking a proactive approach for the K-2 second graders by screening for dyslexia and providing remediation. And there is more work to be done for our older students with dyslexia, and we'd like to help you. My friend is not here. Sorry. She's sick. We propose the creation of an ad hoc dyslexia committee comprised of parents of students with dyslexia, teachers, administrators, and an independent dyslexia expert to identify needs and create an action plan so that our children can close the gap in reading in one year. We also propose the development of a dyslexia protocol so that all students, regardless of their neighborhood school, receive access to appropriately intensive services. And then we also propose that the language based classrooms proactively offer an end to annually administer grade and age appropriate standardized norm reference evaluations such as the West Gort 5 Tower Intel toll. It's my understanding that the district already owns these evaluations. This will be used to measure progress and provide guidance and the students treatment plan. The statistics for students that can't read by the end of third grade are depressing. These students typically struggle throughout school, develop emotional problems such as anxiety and depression, are less than their non-dyslexic peers, and unfortunately have a higher rate of incarceration. These tragic outcomes are avoidable. Evidence-based reading instruction in alignment with the science harms no one and is mandatory for some. Parents and teachers that suspect dyslexia or are concerned about reading failure are urged to act quickly. Decoding Dyslexia and the International Dyslexia Association are fantastic resources for education. Locally, there is a Medford Mass Parents of Children with Dyslexia Facebook group that can also be contacted by emailing medforddyslexia at gmail.com. On Saturday, March 21st, from 2 to 4, there will be a presentation at the Winchester Public Library about dyslexia and evidence-based reading instruction. I am asking you to continue your efforts to support dyslexia and expand the focus to the older students so that all can read.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Member van de Kloot?
[Van der Kloot]: Yes. Can we take a copy of your statement? Sure. Is that OK? Yeah. I would recommend that we take this and put it under consideration so that we can take a look at in-depth of your proposals. And I'm also very glad that you acknowledged so much that the district has made grave strides in these last months. So thank you very much. Can I take that one and we can make a copy and send it back to you maybe? I can have it. Thank you. Thank you.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Member McLaughlin.
[McLaughlin]: Yes, thank you for the report. Actually, I was going to say maybe we could, if Ms. Ronay wants to type those up and send them to us, would that be better or easier? No, that's OK to just use that? OK, great. And I guess we can take the time to review and ask that it be put on the next agenda. Maybe a subcommittee. I'm sorry. Subcommittee for this disability special education. So I ask that this be moved to the subcommittee for the special education and behavioral health.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Motion by member McLaughlin, seconded by member van de Kloet. All those in favor?
[McLaughlin]: Aye.
[Lungo-Koehn]: All those opposed? Paper passes. Thank you, Maureen.
[McLaughlin]: So we'll be in touch with you from that subcommittee to follow up. Thank you.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Motion for suspension of the rules by Member Van der Kloot to take a resident who would like to speak.
[Van der Kloot]: All in favor.
[Lungo-Koehn]: What did you say? All in favor.
[Lerner]: All those opposed. Hello Mayor and School Superintendent, members of the school committee. My name is Eileen Lerner and I'm here as a representative of Safe Medford, because we have questions about the committee that was constituted to create a vision for the Medford High School, and we wanted to know why it wasn't publicized, why wasn't there more outreach, why are there only white people on the committee, and you know, it just seems like the time that we need to really be concerned about having people of color. We have 40% of our students are children of color. I understand that some of the people on the committee, or all of the people have varying degrees and expertise, and that's all well and good, but I think that a mother who lives in public housing is just as capable of having a vision for the Medford High School, and I don't think advanced degrees should be you know, the standard necessarily. So I would like for you to give us an explanation of why that occurred and if more people can be added to that committee who are more representative of our community.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Member McLaughlin and then we'll explain.
[McLaughlin]: Thank you, Ms. Lerner. This was an important point and one that was brought up before this meeting as well by both community members and school committee members who are concerned about this for the vision committee too. And so the process was such that the applications were, for lack of a better word, blind. So there was no indication, partially of the differences in capabilities or abilities or race ethnicities or economic backgrounds or what have you. And I think that that is a place to start in terms of where we're thinking about being proactive. And I think we clearly have work to do to be able to do that. But I'm glad to say that I believe that we are reaching out to several groups. and stakeholders in the community to add some folks to the vision committee so that we are being more aware of that. And in the future, moving forward, I think that that's something that, especially with community members like yourself coming to the podium and people emailing us and other items, that this will be something that will be done proactively. So we thank you for being here.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you very much.
[Edouard-Vincent]: Madam superintendent can explain the question about the outreach and how people were able to apply that happened before my time as mayor so it started at the tail end of last year and so the applications did come in to To central office so when we received the application similar to what member McLaughlin just shared that it was The 30 something, 42 or 43 people who applied, a lot of them had experience in construction and those types of things, but we really weren't able to tell it was a blind, a voluntary application process.
[Lerner]: So we- Wasn't that thought to be an important consideration?
[Edouard-Vincent]: I think it is always considered an important consideration. I think at the time when we were looking at trying to balance male and female and not trying to have an ad hoc committee consist of 40 people in terms of trying to bring the number of participants down, we're trying to get to a manageable number. But when this came to our realization, we definitely realized that we needed to be more proactive. There will be meetings next week with members of the NAACP. We're willing to reach out to the West Metro Community Center and other diverse groups within the community so that we can add additional seats so that this vision committee will be more reflective of the population as well. And I know the mayor is scheduled to have some meetings as early as next week regarding that. So there will be a revised vision committee with additional members, diverse members from the community added to the vision committee.
[Lerner]: Okay. Thank you, Dr. Murray. Thank you. Thank you. Member McLaughlin.
[McLaughlin]: And I just wanted, as a point of information, to add an apology to the community that that wasn't considered in advance. And we'll make sure that we are more proactive about that in the future. Thank you.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Report of superintendent. Motion to revert to the regular order of business. All those in favor? All those opposed? Paper passes. Madam Superintendent.
[Edouard-Vincent]: First time, it got away from me at our last meeting. So I must take this opportunity to congratulate our associate superintendent, Mrs. Diane Caldwell, who after 45 years of outstanding and dedicated service to Medford Public Schools, will retire in June.
[Caldwell]: and superintendent, if I could just say that it has been my honor to serve the families and the children of Medford Public Schools. I certainly will miss all of the children and the families and the staff, the teachers, my administrators, thank you so much. It means a lot to me, thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Member McLaughlin.
[McLaughlin]: all these years and for our families. And I'm sure that there are parents here who you were in the schools while they were educated and appreciated. And we all appreciate your service and thank you very much for your time here. And we know we'll see you in the community. Thank you.
[Van der Kloot]: Member van de Kloot. I also wanted to add my thanks Diane and not only for all of your years but I have to emphasize for the last two years because you really were the constant in the office who helped us through the transition of superintendents and that was just an incredibly important role for you to play and you know you could have looked around and said oh I don't think so but instead you chose to stay and to be the transition link and so I think for that not only for that but also for your many years back I remember when you were teaching at the Curtis Tufts and I always thought you were something special so thank you very very much.
[Kreatz]: Member Kreatz? I just wanted to say thank you for your years of service, Ms. Caldwell. It's very much appreciated and congratulations. Thank you.
[Lungo-Koehn]: On the chair, congratulations, enjoy retirement in July. We'll have you till then. Madam Superintendent.
[Edouard-Vincent]: Thanks. So I wanna give a little bit of a short resume. I paused, but I do wanna share this. Ms. Caldwell's background is in elementary education and special education. And she has been the administrator of numerous educational grants. She began her career in Medford teaching at the Dame Elementary School. Later, she taught at the Curtis Tufts and Medford High School. Moving into administration, Ms. Caldwell served as a professional development coordinator and the title one director. 14 years ago, she was appointed assistant superintendent for elementary education and two years ago, was elevated to associate superintendent. When I first arrived in Medford, Ms. Caldwell opened her arms to me and shared her wealth of information while providing guidance and advice when needed. I quickly learned that Ms. Caldwell was an integral key in how the Medford Public School community was running so smoothly and working collaboratively together. Her knowledge is something that cannot be replaced. She has guided and taught so many Mustangs, both in this room and throughout the district. However, her focus has always been with her kiddos, the many students who have gone through the Medford Public Schools. Ms. Caldwell's eyes have always been on the prize, and that is the students who come here to learn. To say she will be greatly missed is an understatement. I know I speak for everyone when I say we wish her nothing but the best in her retirement. We thank her husband, Jack, along with her children and grandchildren for allowing us to have her as part of our family for so long. Thank you, Ms. Diane Caldwell, for your 45 years of devotion to the students, administrators, faculty, staff, and parents of the Medford Public Schools. wishing you every happiness in your retirement. Please know, we still have your phone number, so we still plan to use it to ask questions. Thank you again. Another highlight that happened back on February 23rd, that was our beautification day that took place at the high school. And I would like to thank the mayor and her transition team who took the time to help beautify the entrance to Medford High School. Mustang graduate, Bill Carr Jr., who chaired this committee, met with Headmaster DeLeva and John McLaughlin, our Director of Building and Grounds, to put together a plan for the day. Over 40 volunteers and current students cleaned, painted, and refreshed the entrance. We appreciate and thank everyone who took the time to devote to this important community project, including Mr. Paul Rousseau, Ms. Kathy Krutz, Ms. Melanie McLaughlin, Ms. Paulette Vander Kloot, all of the school committee, City Councilor Michael Marks, Neil Osborne, the City's Director of Diversity, and Acting Human Resource Director, and from my team, Associate Superintendent Diane Caldwell, Assistant Superintendent Dr. Peter Cushing, and Mr. John McLaughlin, again, who assisted throughout the day. Thank you all for that dedication of time and beautifying our high school entrance. I do have a very brief update on our coronavirus, COVID-19. We continue to work very collaboratively with City Hall. Myself, Nurse Toni Wray, we're working closely with the Medford Board of Health, Mary Ann O'Connor, and I know the city's doctor as well is here. keeping everyone up to date and informed. As you are aware, Medford did have, well, I should preface it by saying the CDC gave us guidance last week about to impose a 14-day quarantine for anyone who traveled to the countries of China, South Korea, Italy, and Iran. So in particular, when we got that notice, we did have two staff members that had traveled overseas during February break. And in order to honor the new guidelines that we were given, they had to quarantine for the remaining days to get to 14 days. I can report that there were no symptoms, but again, out of an abundance of caution, we were following the guidelines that we received, and those staff members have already returned back to work. But I just wanted to announce that We are very busy and very focused on that. We do have a special machine called the Jenny O machine, believe it or not, which helps to sanitize and kill germs and bacteria. So that is being used. And when I was leaving today, we are continuing to do that. We also have requested outside cleaners, which we used over February vacation when we had the first deep cleaning that took place. Our outside cleaners that we used are so booked, we cannot get them to come back again until at least the 18th of March. So Mr. John McLaughlin, who's our Director of Building and Grounds, is working very diligently trying to get on the roster to have them come back, but in the meantime, we are using the special cleaning agent to sanitize and disinfect the air. So we are taking it very seriously and nurse Toni Wray is encouraging again that hand washing, making sure we're using soap and water, singing happy birthday twice, using those strategies that are being selected to help keep our community healthy and safe. If there are any new developments to member McLaughlin's point, working collaboratively with city hall and the mayor, we will definitely send out a communication robocall, put it up on our website. We're recommending that everyone goes to the city's website to get up to date notification about anything related to COVID-19. So I did want to just share that information with the community. You're welcome. The libraries of Medford Public Schools are pleased to announce that they will be the first libraries in Massachusetts to host the Welcoming Library Traveling Book Exhibit funded by the Massachusetts Library System and created by imyourneighborbooks.org. The Welcoming Library Exhibit, also funded in part by the Medford Educational Foundation seeks to promote a culture of belonging and welcome in the school library for all students. The collection brings together books focusing on all types of immigration stories and explores the commonalities of all families. The traveling exhibit is part of this year's middle school library program. Libraries are for everyone and will be hosted by the Andrews and McGlynn libraries to start and then move to each of Medford's school libraries from now until the end of April. On Friday, Medford High School and Medford Vocational Technical High School students participated in the Region 4 Science Fair, which was held at Tufts University. The students participating included Albert Farah, William Enriquez, Campbell Tracy, Andrew Oliveri, Al McEvaney, Harjot Singh, Albert Farah took home both the second place overall prize and the first place physics award. So congratulations to all of them. For sports, a brief sports update. We would like to congratulate all the winter sports athletes who competed so well this season. Boys and girls basketball, boys and girls indoor track, boys and girls hockey, swimming, gymnastics, and basketball cheerleading. The GBL All-Stars for the winter season are Indoor Track Girls, Anaya Crump, Carissa Andrews, Anna Casey, Maria Colombo, and Isaim D'Souza Vieira. Indoor track boys, Tristan Howard, voted GBL MVP. Also, Iago D'Souza Vieira. Boys basketball, Riley Brine and Alex Valera. Girls basketball, Shakira Young. Boys hockey, Sean Nestor and Chris Freeman. Girls hockey, all conference, Raeann Forbes. And all stars are Erin Allen and Lizzie McDonald. Gymnastics, Megan Sullivan, Jillian McElhaney, Ava Mastricola, and Julianne D'Orazio. Boys swimming, 200-yard freestyle, Peter DiPlacido, 100-yard butterfly, Brendan Sheehan, and the 400-yard freestyle relay, Alexander Nguyen. Samuel Cluggish, Peter DePlacebo, and Brendan Sheehan. Girls swimming, 100-yard freestyle, Dishan Ansah. Also, Tristan Howard placed second in the 55-meter dash with a time of 6.48 seconds at the New England Regionals. He also won the Division II State Championship in the 55-meter dash, completing that race in 6.4 seconds. Tristan qualified to compete in the nationals in the 60-meter dash. Tristan has committed to the University of Rhode Island for next year. So I just want to congratulate all our athletes. We're almost there. Last week, I conducted two middle school lottery visits at our two elementary schools, both the Roberts and the Brooks. This week, on Tuesday, tomorrow evening, I will be at the McGlynn Elementary School from 5 to 6 o'clock and the Columbus Elementary School from 6.30 to 7.30 p.m. tomorrow evening. The next important dates regarding the middle school lottery are Wednesday, March 18th. Each grade five student will receive a lottery number in a letter to their parent or guardian or caregiver sent home with the student. And on Thursday, March 26th, the lottery drawing will take place at Medford High School Library from three o'clock to 4 p.m. This Wednesday, March 11th is the 10th Annual Transition Fair. It will be held at Winchester High School. The Medford Public Schools and the Winchester Public Schools Offices of Special Education collaborate together to host this informational fair designed for students 14 years of age and older with disabilities to help plan for life after high school. This free event will discuss community-based services available for young adults with disabilities. Exhibitors will include information regarding support for independent living skills, vocational training, educational programs, housing, and recreational opportunities. This Saturday, March 14th, at the McGlynn School, the Medford Family Network, and the Greater Boston Reading Council will present a character breakfast with Curious George. That's from 9.30 to 11 this Saturday. The event is free, but you must register with the Medford Family Network. Finally, the Building Bridges to Kindergarten meeting. We had an exceptional turnout last week. Over 100 families already registered for kindergarten during the first week, and that number is growing. The next and last week, There was a packed library at the high school with parents asking wonderful questions, excellent turnout. So I would like to thank our PIC for the work that they're doing, Ms. Maria Ibrahim and Ms. Jeannie Gleyona who is also supporting her right now with kindergarten registration. Please save the date, Tuesday, April 7th. We will have another Building Bridges to Kindergarten event from 6.30 to 7.30 p.m., and that is my update for the evening. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Superintendent. Member McLaughlin.
[McLaughlin]: Thank you for the update, Superintendent Edward-Vincent. I just had a couple of community members that asked questions, and I wanted to ask and clarify if we could for the community. First, I want to say thank you, especially to all of you, but also to Dr. Cushion for his work in keeping folks updated on social media and providing the frequently asked questions listing and to the mayor's office for doing that as well. It's a really important list that folks can access, especially around, I had some folks calling me about compromised and vulnerable populations and and our student population and what they should do. So they should definitely be going to the frequently asked questions on the website. And there's information there as well as provided by our nurse. But regarding the cleaners coming, the outside cleaners coming in, I think there was correspondence that went out last week, right? that said that there was going to be a deep cleaning or a thorough cleaning over the weekend. And can we just clarify for the community that that didn't happen and that it didn't happen because the, if the information I have is right, that it didn't happen because of the scarcity of the outside cleaners, but that it will be happening. Is that right? Yes. Yeah.
[Edouard-Vincent]: Yeah. Yes, so the deep cleaning was not able to take place. We will not be able to have the outside cleaners come until the 18th. Their phones are ringing off of the hook. They did come and do a deep cleaning over sanitization over February break, and we actually do have some of that product, the Genio product, so we are using that as well. And if Mr. McLaughlin is able to step out to join us, he could give you some specifics on that. But we were unable to secure the outside cleaner. They will not be available to come back to Medford Public until the 18th of March.
[McLaughlin]: Thank you. I just wanted that for the clarification. And thank you, Mr. McLaughlin. I think I was told that this agent, this cleaning agent might like folks might come into the school or to the classroom and still see, you know, say dust or what have you in the, in the, in the area because the deep cleaning didn't happen. But this agent is a misting agent that would sort of go over the dust and still sanitize, if you would, I don't know, I guess the dust.
[Mr. McLaughlin]: That's exactly 100% correct. It's a mist. It goes in. It's a green chemical cleaner called Geneon. You mist it into the room. You don't have to wipe it. And it just does the job. It kills all of the bacteria. Thank you. We've been using it in the other schools during the vacation breaks. And just an update, we basically have about 95% of Method High School done right now. Our guys have been on it. I also had all the custodians, they have spray bottles with it. And they were instructed tonight when they were cleaning their areas in the schools to spray down everything on their way out of the, after they have completed their dusting and their trash pickup. The contract cleaners are going to spray down at the McGlynn. They normally do wipe, disinfect doors and windows and such. They're going to take extra care in doing it. The problem happening is the chemicals are running out everywhere. Clorox 360 woman come in. She emailed me and says, hey, can I come in and talk? I said, yeah, why don't you come on in? And she says, well, I don't have anything back. Everything's back ordered for two months ago. Well, I don't need to talk to you then. So we've been dealing with it, and we're dealing with it good. We do have some product. All of our products are green. Plenty of disinfectant in our utility closets that mix by themselves with water. So we're just going to keep at it. It was unfortunate that we were running out of time. We wanted to get the word out, but I hadn't yet heard from the contractors. And I was running around Friday and Thursday night. So it was unfortunate that that information went out like that. But I will say that we are 100% caught up on what we feel good about.
[McLaughlin]: And while we, well, thank you very much. And while you're here, can I just ask also that I'm assuming that there's soap in all the bathrooms?
[Mr. McLaughlin]: Oh, yes. Last week, we did an audit, 19 cases of soap. That's 19 one-gallon jugs that go into the dispensers. We just ordered 10 more cases, so we're good.
[Van der Kloot]: Thank you. Thank you. Member Van der Kloot. Yes, I'd like to go back and talk about the coronavirus more. What I'm particularly interested in is our proactive plans to talk about education if we were to have to close the schools for a week or two or whatever. I mean, at this point, I understand it's speculative, but I think planning would help.
[Edouard-Vincent]: So we have all administrators tomorrow is an administrative professional development day for school leaders So they will be at central office tomorrow where we're going to be working all school leaders have been talked already creating documents of what would happen in the event that we would need to close what would homework look like, and so tomorrow will be our first opportunity to be together to finish working on finalizing how we would be able to do homework packets, etc., for students in the event that we would need to close down a school or all schools.
[Van der Kloot]: Great, I'd love to see homework packets put together, you know, and if possible, or even, you know, read with your child two times for 20 minutes every day or something while whatever break we're on.
[Edouard-Vincent]: So it is, it's, depending on the level, high school uses Google Classroom, but the principals are working collaboratively and Ms. Caldwell
[Van der Kloot]: And the other concern I have, just with that, that goes hand in hand, is that some of our students are reliant on two meals a day through the public schools. And at least, like I'm thinking at the high school level, we've got the pantry. could those students be encouraged to take more? And if the pantry needs more food, could you put a call out to the community so we can fill it up right now so that there's more food available? And I'm thinking about other things. I mean, all of a sudden, you know, we have students who would be home and not accessing our food. How can we make sure that we're being proactive and thinking about supplying some food to families that might be in a particular vulnerable place. So anyway, I'm glad to hear the administrators are getting together tomorrow. Thank you.
[Caldwell]: If I could just respond as well. We sent out a message to all of our principals at the beginning of last week to inquire about what they would send home if, in fact, we had to call a day or a week off from school. and all of our principals have already responded to us with Google Classroom or Blizzard Bacs. My concerns are not only the food for our students who might need it and the families, but for those children who don't have access to the internet, we need to make sure that our special education students, our EL students have access to Chromebooks and then of course if they have internet service, that's just another problem. So as superintendent has said, we will be working on that tomorrow.
[Van der Kloot]: So I'm hoping that we will do this, send home information so that we don't get to a Monday morning and all of a sudden cancel and the kids haven't received anything on Friday afternoon.
[Caldwell]: Sure, we'll work on that.
[Mr. McLaughlin]: May I just add something to Mayor Lungo-Koehn, you opened up a mobile food pantry out in front of City Hall. We also just recently, in the last day or two, opened one up in front of the Columbus for the community outreach to help in case we did have to stall at Medford High School. Or, worst comes to worst, we could take what we had up there, I would go get it, and bring it to where it needed to be.
[Lungo-Koehn]: And from a city side, we already did meet emergency management planning meeting last week. We have our second one on Wednesday with Armstrong Ambulance, the school department, police chief, fire chief, DPW director to go over any and every issue. We've sent out, we asked for organizational charts of every department to make sure we have contacts and backups. We have cross-training city hall staff, so we are going to go through every school-related issue, city hall-related issue, city issue that could arise in hopes to make sure we're prepared. I also have a metro mayor's meeting in the morning on Wednesday, and they're going to give us up-to-date information. Toni Wray and Marian O'Connor from the Board of Health worked with my chief of staff on the question and answer portion of last week's updates, that was any question and every question we found on social media that people had so that they worked for, I think, four or five hours, doing the best they could to make sure every question was answered accordingly. And we're going to continue to work and monitor the situation and be as prepared as we can if something is to happen. Member Ruseau? Oh, Member Graham, I'm sorry. And then Member Ruseau.
[Student]: Yes, you go. Just like bring some clarity too, because as a student, like, We use the internet a lot, so like if we were to miss school, it wouldn't be that much of like, if like, we wouldn't get behind that much, because even with school right now, we use the internet, like Google Classroom. I use Google Classroom for like most of my classes, or like for psychology and physics, we have like our website, she has a website that she posts everything on anyways, or like in my economics class, she ends up emailing us everything anyways as well, so like, even if we were to miss a couple of days of school. I understand that there's people out there that don't have access to internet or access to Chromebooks, but I feel like that could be something. I mean, that's special cases because that's not a great majority of our student population, I don't think.
[Graham]: I'm just I'm like just to like give a little bit of a clarification on to like or insight into like thank you so we should cancel for a week member Graham it's like being a senior and wanting a snow day I suppose but so I have a couple of questions the first one actually really sort of dovetails nicely do we even know what our families do and don't have access to. Like, I think we speculate quite a bit about what they do and don't have access to, but I don't think we know. And maybe there's a way to start to know so that we have some indication of what our reality really, really is. So we may find that people have more access than we think. We may not find that. But I think it's important to understand what does access mean? Do they have a Chromebook or a laptop at home? Do they have internet at home? Do they have a smartphone? What are those access components that could become important as we go forward? And then I think the other thing from an emergency preparedness perspective is, We have never deployed Chromebooks for individual use to my knowledge. So I'm going to assume that we don't have a deployment plan to sort of manage equipment like that. So that's a whole other sort of work effort to think about technology deployment that we should be thinking about. I was also curious whether the food security task force, I know it's forming, but if they're involved in your upcoming meetings to talk about the students who do rely on us for food and what deployment options there would be where we have to call off school. And then finally I saw an update from the commissioner of DESE today about guidance around makeup days that came through my email. So there is some guidance out there that talks about The 180 days is still in play officially right now. There were some different levers in terms of if the day is after a certain time, then it sort of changes. And I just saw that today, but I would definitely sort of caution against us thinking blizzard bags are the option, because I don't think they are. I don't think that I'm necessarily equipped to teach my Children the way that the educators in this community are doing that. So I know that doesn't, you know, sort of make it easy to deal with something like that. But I think we have to carefully weigh those pros and cons of you know, just tossing homework at people and expecting that that can pass for learning. Is it just to make sure that people stay sharp? Is it just in cases where we're asking somebody to self quarantine? Like what are all of those remote learning components? And when, as you build your plan, I'm just hoping that you guys will sort of think through all of those things and then tell the community what you're thinking about those things so that people have an understanding of, The fact that we are thinking about this stuff. We do have a plan. Here's what's not perfect about our plan. And what have you just so that people understand? I mean, the situation seems like it changes every single day. Maybe more frequently than that. So it's hard. I know it's a moving target and I appreciate all the hard work. I would just want to make sure that we. have these other components of the plan flushed in so that we are really ready if we have to mobilize. And it goes far beyond cleaning buildings. Yes. Thank you. Yes.
[Edouard-Vincent]: I wanted to say thank you, Mr. McLaughlin. And I wanted to ask Nurse Toni Ray and the city's doctor if you'd like to come forward.
[Mr. McLaughlin]: Thank you. I'll get back to my area. Thank you.
[Wray]: Good evening.
[Edouard-Vincent]: And so I know I gave an overview, but I'm so appreciative of you both being here. And I did not know if you just wanted to give a medical update to the school community and the listening audience.
[Wray]: So I'll say as part of the city task force, we are communicating on a very regular, almost daily basis, watching the CDC updates. And our plan is to implement any of the recommendations and updates into our practice as advised.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you. Thank you. Member Ruseau.
[City Doctor]: No, I agree. We're following the CDC guidelines. Concerned with the Department of Public Health.
[Ruseau]: Thank you. Thank you. My questions actually weren't specifically for them. So I just wanted to add, you know, we I'm concerned that we need to make sure that by the time we have our next meeting that anything that requires the school committee to take a vote to implement plans that you prioritize anything where we need to be involved. If we close the schools for two weeks and pay the teachers for two weeks, and then we need to tack on two extra weeks of school, we have to pay the teachers for two weeks of school. That is not budgeted for today. So we're not going to close the schools for two weeks and say, good luck, teachers, and not pay them. That doesn't seem reasonable or rational. So if we're going to run into situations where we have to close a school for two or three or four weeks, and ignoring the issue of the kids getting an education, just the financial impact of that is something that this committee needs to be involved in. So I just want to make sure that we need to front load those concerns so that we don't have to have emergency meetings unnecessarily. So I just want to make sure that those, when you're looking at the plans and there's lots and lots of details, somebody needs to be paying very close attention to, does the school community need to vote on this? And get that to us as soon as possible. And I also was wondering if we've heard anything from our state or federal delegation about perhaps providing some money for this. I mean, I know there was like $8 billion to the CDC. I haven't heard a peep about money for anything else. You know, I know some parents would like us to be doing a full-blown disinfectant of the entire building, all eight of our buildings every day, practically. You know, that would be millions of dollars after a couple of weeks. And I've heard nothing from anybody in any higher levels of government to provide us some money. And I think that that, I'm just wondering if there is anything. Mayor, have you heard anything from anybody?
[Lungo-Koehn]: I have not heard from the state delegation, but I can reach out to them. I'm assuming they're kind of preparing for this too, but they haven't released anything. Oh, thank you.
[Ruseau]: And then the last thing I would like to say is I was listening to NPR or WBUR or whatever it was today, and I screamed in my car. not really, but I wanted to scream into my car, into the radio about everybody is talking about the inconvenience if we close our schools. And I just want to be clear, it's going to be an inconvenience to me because I'm going to have to wear headphones because my kids are going to be obnoxious about how bored they are. But it is not an inconvenience to families who depend on going to work at an hourly rate, and don't get insurance if they don't go, and don't have food if they don't go, and now they can't go because their kids don't have any place to be. This is not about an inconvenience. And when people think about how we're weighing the importance of whether to close the schools or not, for me, in my house, whether the schools are closed is like a yawn. It's not that big a deal for my family. But there are a lot of families in our community where closing the schools will devastate them. for many months or even years financially and so we need to really be following only the guidelines coming out of CDC and the recommendations from the feds and whoever else is giving us those and not ever responding to how many emails we got about why we haven't closed the schools because That should not be driving this, because the impact is so severe for so many people. So I just wanted to hope that we can stop using the word inconvenience. It would be really appreciated. Thank you.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you. Thank you. Member van de Kloot?
[Van der Kloot]: to something my colleague said that there would be our teachers and staff and whatever would continue on their regular pay scale as per contract whether we close or not that that would not affect our personnel in terms of being paid and it I'm not sure that's what you said but that's what it sounded like okay just want to be clear
[Lungo-Koehn]: Member Ruseau, point of clarification.
[Ruseau]: Certainly we would pay them during a closure, but because of the 180 day minimums, we may have to have school past our current end date, even after the contractual end date. And if we need them to work more days than we have a contract for, we're going to have to find the money to pay them because they're not going to just show up for free. We wouldn't want them to either. So that was my concern.
[Van der Kloot]: The blessing is right now is that we have quite a number of days still left. So because of the light snow. But saying that, I probably, there was a year, so I won't say anything.
[Edouard-Vincent]: Thank you.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Member McLaughlin.
[McLaughlin]: Thank you, I wanted to thank our health professionals for all your support right now. I know this is a crazy hectic time for you guys and appreciate that. I also wanted to, the mayor's point on the Wednesday emergency preparedness meeting, we have a universal safety committee that's been working in our schools for the past two years and we meet monthly. And we started meeting quarterly with the leadership teams as well. And we are hosting a safety night on April 28th at the McGlynn Auditorium from six to eight, where we'll be talking about these very things. What do you do in a man-made disaster, a natural disaster? What do we do with our vulnerable populations? How do we prepare in advance? But that's been in the works for the past couple of months, so folks should know that that's happening and that we are proactive about looking at safety for all our students and thinking about how we're thinking again about those most vulnerable populations I appreciated your quick response on our medically fragile students. And we hear all the time about this COV, whatever, coronavirus, COVID-19, about how it affects our most vulnerable populations more even than our typically healthy population. So really being aware and mindful of that is important. So I appreciated your quick response on that, Ms. Ray. So thank you. Thank you.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Member Kreatz.
[Kreatz]: Yes, I wanted to say thank you Ms. Ray and Dr. Sabe for being here and thank you for the frequently asked questions to the mayor's office and last Friday's bulletin. It was excellent and I found it so useful and some of my questions were answered and I really appreciate it and I know there's a lot of people out there that are, you know, just you know, concerned, anxious, worried. Can they get it? And, you know, it's just there's a lot to think about every day. We're getting the reports and just it's updating all day long. It's all we hear about. So it can be a little nerve wracking. And I really appreciate everything that everybody's doing to keep us updated. Also something that we want to think about is the methods of communicating if we have to cancel And if schools have to dismiss, I did hear of some schools that had to dismiss at the last minute because a parent had come into the school and was tested positive and they had to get in touch with everybody to send the students home. So I don't think we've ever had to do that either. So there's a lot to think about and consider in the planning stages. And I appreciate everything that everybody's doing. It's really a tremendous amount of work everybody's doing. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you for being here to answer questions Reports of superintendent number two recommendation to approve 2020 2021 Most member Kreatz
[Kreatz]: last couple of years we've been going back to school three days in August and this year we're not and I was just wondering if that's going to be the start of a new trend if we're gonna you know kind of we're not going to go back in August anymore or did that just happen with the calendar this year I wasn't sure so it's just I just happen to notice so I just thought I would ask.
[Caldwell]: It's it's really because Labor Day is so late this year in August but it's because Labor Day is late. Okay.
[Lungo-Koehn]: All right, thank you.
[Caldwell]: Thank you.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Motion for approval by member Ms. Stone, seconded by member Rousseau. All those in favor? Aye. Paper passes. Recommendation to approve cancellation of international trip to France, April 2020. Dr. Bernadette Riccadeli and Marie Nyland. So sad. I know. Good evening.
[Ricciardelli]: Good evening. We're here tonight. We wish we weren't here recommending the cancellation of the April 2020 vacation trip to France. So with the increased concerns of the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus, both here in the United States and internationally, and with the advice of government officials, school administration is recommending the cancellation of the high school April vacation trip to France. Governor Baker has urged all schools to cancel upcoming organized trips and stated that, quote, while the risk of COVID-19 is low in Massachusetts, out of an abundance of caution, all schools have been advised to cancel all upcoming international travel for the foreseeable future. Per district policy, all students participating in overnight travel and field trips must purchase travel insurance. The full travel insurance policy, including the CFAR option, which is the cancel for any reason option, is included in this report. We understand that this is a great disappointment among our 38 students, which includes 36 seniors, one junior, and one sophomore, and the six chaperones, but the safety and wellness of our Medford School community is our top priority. And I stand here beside the teacher who put an immense amount of work into this project. Marie Nyland is an outstanding teacher. She has looked forward to this trip for the past four years. She's been very emotional about this. She's very, very upset, as we all are. And she really had her heart set on this. And I know there's great disappointment amongst the students. Again, we are following the recommendations of the governor. And it is with great sadness that we make this recommendation to the committee.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Member Kreatz?
[Kreatz]: to all the students. I mean especially like 36 seniors and you know it's senior year and it's just so unfortunate with the coronavirus. And I understand it's very disappointing. And at the same time, I'm torn because I just want to make sure that the students, their safety and well-being. And it's a really tough situation. And I really feel for you and all the students. And I hope that there's something that maybe another way or an event that we can do here to celebrate maybe not going to France, but just doing a nice cultural event here. I mean, it wouldn't really make it better, but just something that we could do here. And I just wanted to express how this is very sad. And I did hear from some parents, it's very disappointing. But they understand. And they understand that it's a risk. And they don't want to kind of put their student, their child in that situation. It's a really tough. And I'm sorry that we have to do this.
[Nyland]: I understand.
[Kreatz]: Member van de Kloot.
[Van der Kloot]: So did all of the students buy the cancel for any reason insurance?
[Nyland]: Yes, they did.
[Van der Kloot]: OK. And at this point in the time window, do I understand they'll only get 50% back? Yes. And we've had no talks with the company to say whether that could be?
[Ricciardelli]: So if I could just clarify, it's 50% of the tour cost. So that does not include airfare. So right now, the estimate that we have from the travel agent, the tour director, is a refund of $1,050, so $1,050. The total cost that each family has put forth was $3,100. So the airfare, again, is not included in the CFAR policy, which is illustrated on this form. It is tour only. So you're correct. When we look at the days out, we're more than 31 days out, so it's 50% of the package price.
[Van der Kloot]: So within that, In terms of the airfare, some airlines are allowing waves or will give credit for future trips. What were you planning on flying?
[Nyland]: Delta. And that is, believe it or not, just came to my mind this evening as I'm sitting there, which is something we could look into. And maybe the families can receive a voucher. And that would have to be through the tour company. But that is something I could, so they can get a voucher, for usually vouchers last six months, maybe sometimes up to 100, 364 days, something like that. That is something we can look for that could be salvaged.
[Van der Kloot]: I hope that we could look into that, because it's quite a hit for a family. I mean, it's a disappointment for students, and I feel terrible about this. And so anything that we can at least get the most money back for the families. thought or discussion of saying, could we do the trip during the summer instead?
[Nyland]: Correct. That was an option we had, and he's given an option to all his schools that he had to cancel. for at least the month of April, because that's usually when a lot of schools do their trips, is June-April vacation. But, you know, we're looking at, you know, the month of May, and we're going into June. Our seniors finish school on June 1st. And after they leave us, we basically don't have a lot of leverage with, you know, their behavior, let's be honest, in Europe. You know, during April vacation, you know, there's rules you have to follow. They represent the school. So that was something the chaperones and the principal made it known on the first meeting when we had with the parents. And then who, you know, my next question, who would want a chaperone after the summer? Like which, you know, staff wants to take their summer at 36? And of course, you know, another big blow is that these were seniors, because if they were, if there was five seniors and 34 juniors, we could have gone in September. You know, we could have gone in October. We could have, you know, have a one week approved where we're not in school, you know, beginning of September, if that was allowed. We would have done that, whatever it took for these students. And I've looked at all those options. I've looked at all those options. I've even looked at a week in May, you know, but there's AP, there's senior prom, there's, I was looking out day to day, you know, even myself, I have my son's senior prom, like, oh, I can't go, you know, my baby, my final, My little baby's graduating. I don't want to miss his prom. So there's my, you know, for myself and, uh, you know, and the six chaperones of five of us are teachers. And one is the Dr. Burnham was one of the chaperones. So what about taking the week off from school? Who would substitute? There's so many issues. There's so many issues. And for me, yes, I was, she said, Marie, take a calm this weekend. No anxiety. I mean, I had to grade and all that. And I was like, I can't even deal with this. This has never happened in, I think, the history of Medford High. We're known to take a lot of trips, a lot of April trips, February, the whole world language department. We do February and April, February and April, every single year. So this never happened. But I want to look into the Delta. At least they can get a voucher for that.
[Van der Kloot]: Thank you for all your work and effort. And I can feel your pain. So I really appreciate your thoughtful answer and the fact that you had to make this tough decision. Oh, yeah.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Yes, but you have to come up and speak on the record. You're welcome to come up and speak on the record.
[Green]: Bob Green, live up the hills. 36 Ridgeway Road. Anyways, a couple of things. First of all, I'd like to thank Ms. Riccardelli and Ms. Nealon. Nealon, see I taught with Nealon. Anyways, for all the work and effort they put into this trip. Now a couple of things. First of all, I have the travel insurance thing here, which doesn't say anything about the flight being excluded. But one of the things it does say, which has already been expressed, is the fact that it says cancellation charge from 60 to 31 days is 50% of the package price. So I was thinking the package price would be the $3,100. which would be 1550, right? Which I didn't like anyways. But now it's down to 1050, because I guess the flight isn't included. I don't see anything on here about a flight. OK.
[Ricciardelli]: It just says land package.
[Green]: Oh, air non-refundable. OK, I finally found it. OK. All right, so basically what's happening here is the following. For 3,100, we'll get back $1,050. Okay? And my concern is this. I mean, obviously, because of the safety of the children, you have to vote it down. I know that. I agree with it. My whole thing is how can we get some money? You know, if it was me myself, I'd call their bluff because No, no, no, no, no, no. What I'm saying is this. When it comes to April, how do we know if there's even going to be flights going out there? As of today, there were 1,000 people infected. You can look it up. It's like 969, 1,000, OK? I'm a mathematician. I round. Anyways, 16 people dead. I'll bet you within another month, unless something happens, it's going to get much worse. And if it does, OK? They're getting off easy, because thank God we're not going to send our children, because thank God one of them isn't over there and has to be quarantined. What would they have done about this? We're saving them money by cancelling. Okay, if two or three kids, they have to quarantine them, they have to make all these things, that's a cost. That's a cost. It's so, therefore, what I'm trying to say is, all right, there's $1,050 from the insurance. The travel agency, okay, makes a nice penny out of this for nothing. I think we've got to look into somehow getting them to, you know, give back some of that money. They're making $2,050 a person. Okay? And, as I said, obviously, you know, I wouldn't have let my—even if the trip were going, I wouldn't have let my daughter go. Okay? Don't tell her. Anyways, I mean, if things get worse, they would have had a much harder situation. This way, they're coming up with $2,000, not bad. 38 times 2, $76,000, plus the 50 I'm not even talking about. They're making that off of this trip and off of all of her hard work and your hard work. They should be willing. Okay. And I don't know if there is some way that we can, you know, if the governor is saying, okay, can we, uh, you know, please not send these kids abroad. Maybe. Okay. The governor's office or something can put some pressure on these travel agencies. You know, it's, it's funny that we're doing this because my son came home today. He wants to go on a trip to Scotland next year. Okay. And what am I going to say, no? But at the same time, I don't want to lose another $2,000. In this case, of course, we'll know what's going on with this virus and everything like that. Probably have a vaccine by then, things like that. And not only do I feel bad for you two, but I especially also feel bad for the kids. I know my daughter is devastated by this. She really is. I mean, it's her senior year. Other kids have gone on trips in their junior year or whatever. Well, I'll wait till the senior year to go to France. You know, and her girlfriends were all going, and they really, really feel bad about it. Now, I have another idea, OK? $2,050, right? The insurance is paying $1,050. OK, they're doing their part according to this. All right, I didn't see the flight thing here. All right, these are my eyeglasses for seeing far, so I didn't see the flight thing. But out of the $2,050, are they willing to give us some kind of credit or something? If they can't give us actual money, some kind of credit so these kids could get together, and, you know, basically take a trip. I know that other travel agencies are doing things like that, I've heard, okay? But... Crew ships. I just think that, you know, there's got to be something done. And, you know, as of today, they said, like, cruises, they're cancelling all kinds of cruises, they don't want people going on cruises. By April, who knows? Hopefully it'll all get better. Okay? But we have to make a decision now. Absolutely. However, okay, if it gets worse, they're making blood money because, you know, they could never run that trip if it gets worse. So I'm hoping they'll listen to some reason, the actual travel agency, whatever. And once again, I thank you very much. All right. Now you're going to have to go home and wash your hands. All right. Thank you.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Member Ruseau.
[Ruseau]: Thank you. Understanding that the families are getting $1,000 back, I mean, I just think it's fascinating that the insurance costs 10% of the potential. I mean, wow, we should just self-insure and forget about this in the future. I mean, $100 to possibly get $1,000 back, I'll personally take that game. That's really kind of an insane, I mean, the reason we all probably thought it made so much sense is that it was, oh, it's $100. $100 doesn't sound so bad. But I'm just a bit shocked at the cost of the insurance for what it is you can actually get back. And I don't remember the name of the speaker here, but I mean.
[Ricciardelli]: Mr. Green. Mr. Green. Mr. Green, if I could say, was a former math teacher at Medford High School.
[Ruseau]: Oh. And now a parent. Okay. I mean, to his point though, each student is covered for $100,000 worth of evacuation and repatriation services. if we decide to not cancel them, to send them. I'm not suggesting we send them, but $100,000 of their money times, what is it, 28 people. That's some pretty bad math on their side. So, I mean, the thing is that I don't know, is there any other game in town? you know, can we truly threaten them and be like, this is kind of ridiculous. Next year we're not going to use your services anymore if you can't do any better. I mean, I don't think there's any reason we shouldn't say that to them because I mean, if they're not the only game in town, this is not a great, this looks bad.
[Ricciardelli]: No, it's not a great policy. What I will say is that there's been a lot of information going back and forth among superintendents in the state about this very issue. Medford is not alone. So lots of school districts around the Commonwealth are struggling with the reimbursement. So there's a lot of talk. There's a lot of chatter. Hopefully there's some movement on this, because there are large numbers of students that are affected by this. who are getting similar refunds. Some aren't getting any refunds at all, which is a worse situation that we have. So I like to think that there is going to be some movement on this. We want to fall within the window of getting that 50%. If we wait to less than 31 days out, then we're jeopardizing ourselves to a lower reimbursement. So we don't want to do that. is planned for April 15th, I believe. So, you know, there are a few days, but we don't have a great amount of time.
[Ruseau]: I mean, and it's worth noting that I discussed this particular policy with member I remember Graham earlier today, and I just noticed that the 60 to 31 day window, and a 20 to 15, and a 14, there's no 31 to 20 day window. The policy just doesn't exist if you cancel during that time. It's a pretty bad, poorly written policy. I certainly agree. Yeah.
[Nyland]: And you know, you're right. Should we have looked at this way more carefully when we all started? But something like this has never, ever happened. And we've taken so many trips. I even used Educational Foundation, the EF. Like you said, there's so many other companies. And they have the same, believe it or not, the same policy. And we went with the company that offers the best service with the least money. I've traveled with them for Italy, and they were so fantastic. And I also went with EF, and the kids weren't getting as much for their money. And that's why I went with this. But you're right, you're right. Like for example, getting insurance for the airplane. I do that when I travel. So right now I have a voucher that expires July 31st. So maybe, I'm gonna call, I'm gonna work on that in the next few days and call and see if Delta can just give them a voucher. We'll not give the money back, you know they won't do that. But they'll give a voucher, so I'm gonna try for that.
[Ricciardelli]: Thank you. This is just an idea. So going with what Mr. Green said about calling their bluff, and maybe what we could do is make the official cancellation date a few days from now. No, no.
[Green]: The only thing I was saying about calling a bluff was me, myself, I call a bluff. But I wouldn't send my kids over. I mean, I wouldn't send these kids. I'm just saying. What I'm really saying is, look it, all you have to do is, if we could call them up, okay, we got two issues here. The insurance, we got 1,000 out of, okay, it'd be nice if they give more, but maybe we could get more, I don't know, considering the circumstances, okay? But unfortunately, in a lot of these things, I'm leaving on Wednesday for California, okay? I could, I have two grandkids, I gotta see them. I haven't seen them in eight months. So I'm going out. But I looked at the policy to see the cancellation. It actually says in there, no pandemics or epidemics. It says it right in the policy. All your regular airline things. Okay, getting away from that. We have 1,000 with the insurance. Delta, what's the flight, 1,000? $1,100, okay, so that's where the $1,100 comes from. If we get a voucher for that, you know, some kind of voucher, that would help, okay? That would help. If we get a voucher, that would help.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Ma'am, you can come. We have to speak through the chair. Mr. DeLeva, you've got to speak through the chair. Would you like to say something? Would you like to come up?
[Green]: The only other thing I said, then that leaves 900 left. Are they going to make 900, so the tour agency is going to make 900 a piece office? I don't know. I don't know how that works.
[Lungo-Koehn]: I think we can maybe give our superintendent some authority to, through a vote, to try to work on these things.
[Green]: I'd like to vote to cancel, yes. I agree with them 100%, OK? At least get the 1,050 back. But I think there could be a travel voucher in the future from Delta. Delta, yes. I think that would be reasonable, given And it's goodwill, goodwill helps in a time like this. I mean, I know a lot of people aren't going to want to lose $2,000 with their kids going to college. And those people have retirement things. Those went down today, too.
[Lungo-Koehn]: And we do have a school attorney. Let's let the other members ask their questions, and we will give the superintendent the authority. Member Graham. Member Graham.
[Graham]: So I just had a couple of questions. On the airfare topic, it's more complicated than just how you might buy a regular flight, because if you bought a regular flight on Delta, there's a $200 change fee. You can personally use that ticket going forward. But a lot of these tour companies go through a consolidation process, and it radically changes what your ticketed options are. It could be good. It could be bad for us. There's some digging under the covers that needs to happen with the tour operator to understand what those implications are because they may well be quite different than what the commercial airlines are saying. Right now what they're saying is if you buy a ticket right now, they'll be super flexible with you going forward because they want to take your money right now and not have sales come to a crashing halt. But they aren't allowing people to cancel trips right now and receive refunds on stuff that has been booked in advance. So there's a lot of nuance in that flight stuff that we would probably need to work out. I found this policy incredibly confusing. I had to work really hard to understand it. So I would like for us also as a committee to revisit our field trip policy and talk about the kinds of information that has to go home to families so that everyone is really, really clear what the insurance means. For example, the report says that this insurance is required, and on the form it says that cancel for any reason is an option. So is it an option, or is it required? I understand that forms may be different, but I just want to make sure that the information that we're sending home to families proactively is clear, and it's clear that it's not clear, because there were questions tonight about that. But I also, I do support the notion that we need to talk to the Attorney Greenspan and understand what those options are and really think about the best course of action for our families, who this is a lot of money to lose. And a lot, you know, there's huge benefits to going through tour companies, but this is sort of one of the downfalls of going through tour companies. Like if you just booked a hotel, Many, many times you can get out of it, especially this far in advance. But once you're inside a tour company's package, it's very, very hard to decouple. So I think we really need to have a lot of conversation with the tour company. So I'd like to make a motion that we give the superintendent the authority to make this decision before the 31-day timeline, but only after she has a conversation with our attorney. He has ample time to get in touch with the travel company and explore how we recover more money for our families than just simply $1,000.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Motion by Member Graham, seconded by Member McLaughlin. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Paper passes. Member Mustone? She beat me to it. She beat you to it. OK.
[SPEAKER_19]: Yeah, I guess everybody said everything that should be said. But with all my coughing, I did want to get something out. As representative for the students and the families, I was going to make the recommendation that we use the attorney. But thank you. I'm glad that that's going to go forward. I do want to. To be clear, though, that we did present this fully to the committee, not this full committee, on June 3rd of last year. And the insurance policy was part of that presentation as well. And it was. Whether we were all looking at the fine-tuned comb or one of the things that we push for with the policy is that there is insurance before we approve any trip that's there. But I just want to make that clear that, you know, June 3rd this was approved. So with that documentation.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you.
[Edouard-Vincent]: So I just. I just want to first thank you ladies for your presentation this evening. And I too as a senior got to go to Paris in April. And I remember being so excited at the Parent Information Center meeting that had happened sometime last year. But at the same time it's very unsettling to see how the illness is spreading at such rapid rates, especially right now in Italy and in different parts of Europe, that we do have to operate on the side of caution to keep everyone safe. But what I can assure you, not only with what the motion that did go forward, But we are going to do our due diligence and Assistant Superintendent Dr. Cushing talked about also wanting to notify our delegation to see if they can put forward some legislation to find ways to get greater compensation for families because it's not only Medford, it's the entire state. And again, where Dr. Riccadeli made reference to the Super's listserv to see all of the districts with all of the European countries that students were going to travel to next month. And that they're all, almost all of them have been canceled. And then with the recommendation of the governor that we can't ensure what could happen once you get there. But I can just assure everyone that we're gonna do our best to try to get more back for our students, and we will take up that conversation, that battle with Delta as well. And hopefully if the delegation can support that movement, that it won't only be Medford as a beneficiary, but our surrounding communities that are all in the same exact situation.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you. Member Ruseau.
[Ruseau]: Thank you. I just wanted to not You don't need to stand up here for this, but I just wanted to really point out that this doesn't impact all families equally, and that if we had a no-fee school system where what we considered part of our education was actually covered by the taxpayers, that this whole situation would be a very different situation. We would all be mourning the loss of the experience, and that would be the end of the conversation. Instead, we are in a situation where some families are probably very unhappy to have lost a couple thousand dollars. Other families may well have worked an extra job, given up weekends for a year to find this money. So it is not impacting all families equally. And I think it's important to really call that out. I'm assuming that not everybody that is going has a $300,000 household income. And I'm not saying if you do, this is no big deal either. I just think it's important to note we make a lot of stuff that we consider part of our education fall into families. And when stuff like this happens, it is even more, it's like pouring salt into the wound of some families. So I just want to be clear that I don't, that families that this is really hurting from a financial perspective, that you are not unseen.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you. Member McLaughlin.
[McLaughlin]: I wanted to offer my condolences. I'm sorry. I know what a drag that is and that real first taste of disappointment that you get as a young person is so palpable. It's just really sad. I'm sorry for that. I also wanted to ask from your perspective and from the superintendent's perspective whether a letter from the school committee also expressing our disappointment in both the travel policy and the airline, and also how this is affecting our students, and also the cost benefit that we're saving, really, included in that letter, whether that might be helpful.
[Nyland]: Absolutely. As a matter of fact, that would be absolutely fantastic. Thank you for bringing that up. Okay. Thank you.
[McLaughlin]: I make a motion that we provide a letter from the school committee as well, supporting any remuneration we can get from these agencies. And I know that the superintendent is going to be charged with that, but I think also having a collective voice from the school committee and letting folks know. And then I wonder if there's an opportunity, I know that folks said that the superintendents across the state, Dr. Riccadeli, you were saying. are talking about it, so maybe there's an opportunity to also address the Mass Association of School Superintendents and ask if they would collectively be willing to write a letter to, you know, as a whole, either to Governor Baker or to the travel agencies so that we're supporting each other in this movement, because it is a lot of money.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Yeah, it really is. Before we call the roll, President McGilvrey?
[McGilvey]: Harry McGilvey, 4 Piedmont Road. I'm in the middle of my shift, but I came up because I heard what was going on. Obviously, my family's going to be out upwards of $2,000 because of this. I would expect the selected body to make sure that this never happens again to any family in this city. That's a lot of money. I got one in college and I have one going to college. Being out $2,000, I'm not happy and I don't think this is acceptable. I get what's going on. But if the governor of Massachusetts is ordering people to cancel these trips, I think that the attorney general's office should step in and do something. Mr. Green said that company's making $72,000 on this. That's outrageous. And I expect this body, going forward, to not do business with that company and to think about this a little bit more carefully going forward. Because that's not acceptable, losing that kind of money. Thank you.
[McLaughlin]: Thank you. So I made a motion to write a letter from the school committee to the travel agency, to Delta Airlines, and to others.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Before we take the motion.
[Carla]: Hi, my name's Carla, 6 Benjamin Circle. I just want to say that on behalf of a lot of my friends that are going on this trip, myself included, I had to pick up a lot more shifts at my old job. I had two jobs, actually, for a little while. And it's just very frustrating and upsetting to see that thousands of dollars, I know I split it with my parents, but some of my friends, their parents can't even afford it. So they themselves have been raising this money for over a year. We have all been waiting since our sophomore year, that's two years ago for this trip. I've been with Ms. Nyland the whole way, we've been helping her, and I just think it's important to stress to, like what Mrs. Father was saying, if Governor Charlie Baker is suggesting to cancel these things, I think we have the right to put pressure on them to somehow help us get this money back and put pressure on the the industry that is taking the money from us. These corporations do not care that they're hurting families like ours. This is a public school, not some rich charter private school. So I think it's important to stress that a lot of this money is from the students themselves, not even just the parents, but the parents included too. So thank you. Thank you.
[Lungo-Koehn]: I'd love to vote another motion.
[McLaughlin]: I wanted to amend it.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Okay, motion to amend?
[McLaughlin]: I wanted to amend the motion to offer students the opportunity to co-sign on to the letter if they want, if you would be willing to facilitate that. If we got you a copy of the letter and we wanted to have a signature page for the students or their families. welcome that, and then we can, and I'm happy to, you know, facilitate. I don't mean to give you or anybody else extra work. I'm happy to type up a letter and pass it along, whatever, if it's helpful. But, and collecting students. So I'll make the motion to have a letter from the school committee that can also be signed by students and their families to the governor, to the airlines, and to the travel agency to try to get money back.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Motion by Member McLaughlin. Seconded by Member Van der Kloot, amended by Member McLaughlin. All those in favor? All those opposed? Would you like to speak? Member Graham? Motion passes.
[Graham]: I would like to make a motion that we send our field trip protocols back to the Rules Policy and Equity Subcommittee. I totally hear your point about we all weren't looking at this fine print and there is a big difference between having insurance and having good insurance. And I feel like we're sort of caught in that trap right now. I'm not an insurance expert. You're not an insurance expert. But I think we have to do something to make sure we have the right guardrails in place so that an actual insurance expert can help us weigh the pros and cons, or frankly, make decisions to self-insure in these cases, which is another insurance option. You know, more complicated, it's a different thing altogether, but I think we really have to sort of investigate all of those options. So I'd like to send this to the Rules, Policy, and Equity Subcommittee so that they can take a look at it and come up with some solutions to be productive about this going forward.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Motion by Member Graham, seconded by Member McLaughlin. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Paper passes. Thank you very much. Recommendation to approve no school choice district 2020. Motion to approve by member Rousseau, seconded by member Mustone. Roll call has been requested. Yes. Yes. Seven in the affirmative, zero in the negative. The paper passes. Report on Student Opportunity Act, Dr. Peter Cushing.
[Cushing]: Good evening, Madam Mayor, members of the school committee. I'm here today to present on the Student Opportunity Act and its implications for Medford Public Schools. Moving forward, if you'll remember, the Student Opportunity Act provides $1.5 billion to schools and districts across the Commonwealth. in order to right the inequities and to close achievement gaps for those students that history has shown the achievement gaps are being closed in isolated areas. 37 of the state's districts will be receiving 85% of the funds. And so the information was released by the commissioner February 18th was the webinar and the plans are due April 1st. We are receiving $138,660. As part of my verbal report, I prepared for you just a quick comparison earlier this year. We all presented on the MCAS data and there were certain districts that we compared to. I went back to that report and we are receiving the minimum per student at $30 per student. Everett is receiving $768 per student for a total of $5.8 million. Malden is receiving $298 per student for a total of $2.1 million. Melrose, $262 for a total of $1 million. Reading, $30 for a total of $119,250. Revere, $1,305 per student for a total of $10.4 million. I'm averaging these at the millions just so you know. Saugus is receiving $153 per student for $427,388. Somerville $30, $158,520. Wakefield $37 for $129,249. Watertown, $55 for a total of $147,516. Wilmington, $30, $96,600. Winchester, $86 for $400,375. Winchester was $86 per student, and it's $401,575. Sorry, my blurries. And Woburn is $54 per student for $241,675. While I have a doctorate in educational leadership, I do not have a doctorate in advanced mathematics to explain to you the formula on the calculations. Know this, though. We have a great need, obviously. There are districts across the state, Brockton, my hometown of Lynn, respectively, getting $100 million and $30 million. I mean, there is tremendous need for those 37 districts. But we do have work to do in the next several weeks. We have to submit our plan by April 1st. We're going to be putting out a survey to families for them to rank order some of their choices based on, if you look at the next page, they're looking for evidence-based programs. It's not good enough anymore just to have research-based programs. What they want is programs that have been researched but then have success that's evidenced. And so these are the four main areas, enhanced core instruction, targeted student supports, talent development, and conditions for student success. Interestingly, targeted student supports doesn't have any of the bolded areas, the commissioner's hot button issues. It's numbers one through three and then number 10 that are the areas that they're saying are priority. This is the short form packet that we would be expected to fill out. Districts who receive under $1.5 million will only have to fill out a two-page succinct. The plan should not be a comprehensive strategic plan. They're not looking for that, but we do have to open it up for public involvement and for the public to be involved in the development of this plan, even though we're receiving the minimum the minimum of the $30 per student. The key areas, also just so that you're well aware, the four key commitments that were mentioned in the webinar that they want to really focus on is intentionally focusing on student subgroups, adopt, deepen, or continue specific evidence-based programs that you might be doing. And so our conversations have actually been around that thus far in the infancy. Monitor, I'm good, but thank you. Monitor success in reducing disparities in the achievement of student subgroups. And then engaging families, particularly those families representing our subgroups. And they're looking for high quality implementation as part of this. So those are the, and to focus on doing a few things well. Not trying to do this huge plan, but to focus on doing a few things well. Once again, where our total amount is $138,660. Sometimes I've been saying $137,000, but it's $138,660. All of this is available at a web link. Every single district in the state's numbers are available at a web link. If you search Student Opportunity Act at the DESE website, they have a web page dedicated to it with the two webinars for the short form and the long form and all of the financials that I mentioned.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you. Member Graham.
[Graham]: A couple of things. I think it's also important to note that our charter school bill will increase by about a half a million dollars next year as well. So $138,000 isn't going to go really very far in the big scheme of things. I didn't know Mayor Lungo-Koehn what information you've received from our state delegation because one of the central things that I think does stand to impact Medford is one of the final measures, which was funded at only 4% of the seven year phase in instead of 14. So every other measure was funded at 14%, which includes special education, English language learners and health care costs, but support for support for High needs students was only funded in the governor's budget at 4% in year one. So it's a drastic shift down from how the rest of the equation is funded. I'm sure it's why towns like Winchester stand to make more money than we do. In all of this But I would like to know from the state delegation what they're doing to Affect change in the Ways and Means Committee process as they put their budgets together and how we can help and then Finally I make a motion that this report be sent to the engagement, communication, and strategic planning subcommittee for further work in support of the submission, and as importantly, the requirements around having a plan for engaging families across the district, which is critically important.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Motion for approval by Member Graham, seconded by Member Ruseau. All those in favor? And they asked to take motions one at a time. Do you have a question on this before you vote on it?
[McLaughlin]: Okay.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Member McLaughlin.
[McLaughlin]: So moving this to the subcommittee for engagement, we know that this, it's March 9th. This is April 1. We have a timeline of getting our, whatever family and community engagement we're able to achieve between March 9th and our next school committee meeting to have this budget, I mean, to have this report approved before it's sent to DESE, right? So that's, what are those school days? So what's that? Our next meeting is the 23rd. And so what are the school days? So from the net, from... So we have 10 days to engage the, to meaningfully engage the community with our stakeholder groups that are our most high need stakeholder groups. So our English learners, our individual families of children with disabilities, and our economically disadvantaged students. I'm just asking, do people really think that that's meaningful engagement for those stakeholder groups?
[Cushing]: So we're going to make it as meaningful as we possibly can. We have been, first of all, the guidance coming out of the state was delayed. The Mass. Association of School Superintendents even said it was supposed to be on this day and it'll be out. It was only a few days later, but then the webinars and various things. And given where February vacation was, the last school committee meeting, Essentially, there was six weeks to begin with, if that. But I do want to make sure that we are focusing on that family engagement piece. I think getting the survey out tomorrow, Wednesday morning at the latest will go a long way to providing families an opportunity to engage in that manner, and then also reaching out to specific stakeholders through the various organizations that there are will help us build that. DESE did also say that while the plan has to be submitted on April 1st, If there is cohesive work in the subcommittee, that the full vote of the school committee can come after the April 1st deadline.
[McLaughlin]: Interestingly. Thank you. So that would be something that I would ask, whether it's an amendment to the motion or a separate motion, is that we actually ask DESE for an extension so that we can meaningfully engage our community and our families. I think, you know, speaking as a family of a child with a disability and knowing the extra demands that are put on our families with children with disabilities and the extra demands that are put on our families that are. second language and our extra demands that are put on our families that are working two or three jobs, I don't think it's reasonable to expect that we're going to respond to a survey in 10 days because of a deadline that's being presented to us based on whether it's $100,000 or $10 million, how it's going to be spent in our schools. I think that we should be asking, if we're not prepared to do that, which I would say, I'd venture to say, 10 days is not meaningful family engagement, then we should be asking for an extension on this report.
[Edouard-Vincent]: That's the motion that motion extension on the report. Yeah. I'm not sure if that's an option. So, uh, uh, member McLaughlin, I, I don't have a problem reaching out to Desi, but based on the fact that they gave a clear expectation that they want us to do the short form and the amount of money that we have been allocated, which is probably the equivalent of one FTE plus professional development, I do not see DESE granting an extension for the amount of money. If we had received millions, I could see DESE saying, yes, you need more time for that. The amount of money that we have received is truly such a small amount that we have been kind of scratching our heads to say, like, how can we realistically use this amount, which is going to decrease over the next seven years? So it's not even going to end up being the same exact amount every year. In terms of community engagement, I embrace and I welcome community engagement, but the community does need to understand that we are not receiving millions of dollars. We're receiving $138,660, which really doesn't yield that much for us. I understand and I respectfully
[McLaughlin]: have to say that, you know, when we're talking on the other side of the budget and we're talking about $130,000, everybody's talking about how much money that is. And whether it's in comparison to a school district that's getting $10 million or us that are getting $130,000, it's still $130,000 that families should be engaged in about how they're being, it's being spent in our community. And I think it has to be meaningful engagement. And I have to say, you know, that I don't find this meaningfully engaging families. And I think that it's reasonable to say that we have some work to do on family engagement as a whole, which is why we have a subcommittee on community engagement, and that, you know, I'm happy to be a part of, and I think that this is work that needs to be forward. But I think that this body needs to think a little bit more thoughtfully, respectfully, about how we can really expect to engage these marginalized families within a 10-day deadline.
[Ruseau]: Member Ruseau? I have a lot of thoughts. One, the Student Opportunity Act provides no opportunity for extensions. It also provides no consequences for failure to submit your form on time either. DESE has a long history of things that if you just don't do it, It's sort of like many of our laws in this state. Do it or nothing happens. So I don't really honestly care whether we submit this on time. From a purely practical perspective, we cannot develop a family engagement plan and figure out how to reach out to our marginalized communities in particular, which we've never been able to successfully do in this city. And I don't just mean the school system. We cannot develop that muscle in 10 days or even in a year. We have to spend money, whether it's creating an office of community and family engagement or whatever it is, and spend a lot of time, money, and people on the ground to develop that. It does not happen because we want it to happen. It happens because we take actions to make it happen. And I honestly don't think that because we're going to get $380,000 or $370,000 less from the Department of Ed next year that we're going to use that, which is the real, you know, the total number is going to be less next year, not more. And figuring out how we're going to spend $138,000 when we're really going to have $307,000 less. It's just a mind game. I mean, I'm not interested in how we're going to spend the $138,000. I'm interested in what we're going to cut to make up the $300-something thousand, which is what I think we should all be talking about. We aren't going to do better family engagement, and we aren't going to close any achievement gaps with $300-something less thousand dollars, which is what's going to happen. So I just feel like this administration, our central administration is, you know, they can only work, there's only 24 hours in a day. And we definitely have to improve family and community engagement, but I don't think 10 days is the time to get it done. I think we do a, you know, I'm terrible with analogies, but you know, one of those, we just give it a, the best try. And clearly, since DESE has set up this short form and said, don't fill it with lots of stuff, they get it, that $30 per student, which is really not what we're getting because we're losing so much more money, isn't enough to do anything. And they don't expect us to do anything. So I'm just not, you know, we should be very concerned about parent and family engagement. But that has nothing to do with Student Opportunity Act in my mind.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Member Graham.
[Graham]: I agree that there's not enough time for any of this. But one thing I do want to mention is that one of the central questions were asked in this plan is What is our plan for ongoing engagement? And I don't believe we have one. And that is someplace we could start. So what we could do between now and April 1st is draft a plan. It does go on to say that they are specifically wanting us to engage organizations that represent some of our marginalized families, our PTOs, our CPAC. our English language learners pack, title one, so there are teachers, so there are some specific people that I think we could reach out to between now and April 1st to start to have the conversation. And if we've started to have the conversation, Surely we can write a paragraph that talks about what our ongoing plan is with the notion across this room that it is just the starting point. But you're right. We cannot meaningfully engage people we've never successfully engaged before in 10 days or even in 20 days to be honest. This isn't a March problem or even a January to March problem. What we can do though I think is to move it to the subcommittee and talk about what those plans might be, start that brainstorming and get this thing submitted and behind us so we can get back to doing the real work of family engagement without money to do family engagement. Thank you.
[McLaughlin]: I also feel like it's sort of a little bit of what we heard earlier from the community about having a number of, frankly, white engaged families around the table making decisions for brown and black and disengaged families who aren't around the table. And I don't feel comfortable doing that. And I do feel like we really should be thinking about how this is affecting our families and whether it's, and I understand it's, you know, robbing Peter to pay Paul, if you will, in terms of moving money around and what have you. But this Student Opportunity Act is explicitly requiring us to have those engagements. And even if it's in this one paragraph where we're talking about reaching out to CPAC, or we're talking about reaching out to the LPAC, which the LPAC is barely existing, is existent at this point. And again, those are our already engaged families. And so how are we thinking about how we're representing this? And I think that, okay, it's not reasonable for DESE to be asking this, and we all understand that it's not reasonable for DESE, and it's not fair that Winchester's getting more money than Medford is, or whatever else. At a minimum, we have to be thinking at this subcommittee, if we're doing this in the next 10 days, who are we engaging in this community that is going to be very representative of those people? And we should not be, frankly, sitting here discussing it amongst ourselves. I think that we have to be thinking like tonight, who are we engaging and who are we bringing to the table on this? Because I think we're hearing far too often from our community members that we are not engaging these constituents. And to say, Like that our PTOs, while our PTOs are great and they're doing a lot of work in our schools, our PTOs are our already engaged family members. They're not the people who aren't able to come to the PTOs because they're working two or three jobs or because they have children with disabilities at home or because they don't speak English and don't feel comfortable or what have you. So the other thing is, how are we translating the survey? So I appreciate that you're ready to send a survey out, and I think that's great. How is the survey being translated? How is it going to be getting to these families? I mean, these are all really important questions that I just feel like, you know, I would rather say to Dessie, no, we're not submitting this plan April 1, because you didn't give us enough time to really meaningfully engage this constituency. And if you don't like it, sorry, but that's where we're at. I'd rather say that to the commissioner than try to give us 10 days at this point. We won't even, I mean, if they want to say, well, you've had since February 18th, well, you know, there's been some things going on, whatever. We've had people resign. We've had coronavirus. We've had whatever. It's not reasonable.
[Van der Kloot]: I believe I can concur with Melanie on many of the points that she makes. It's not reasonable. It never was a reasonable timeline. It seems ludicrous that they're asking for such a quick return across the way. My mom used to say, it never hurts to ask. So I think putting together a well-crafted letter saying we would respectfully ask you for more time, we don't believe that this is an adequate amount of time for us to engage our families and whatever. I mean, I would absolutely submit it. I would actually go further and talk to the other superintendents who are also grappling with this. Maybe there's a few who've managed to figure it out, but I bet there's a whole lot of superintendents trying to slam this together, as we will be doing. But on the other hand, I'm not willing to leave money on the table. And so I think we need to go ahead and send it to the engagement committee. I think we need to write the letter because nothing ventured, nothing gained, okay? That we should do that and hope for the best. And in the meantime, do whatever work we can do so that we are prepared to file what we have, whether it's perfect or not, because I'm not going to leave $138,000 on the table. I can think of many, many different things that we've talked in the budget. that might be helpful to our students and to all students. So, yeah. Point of clarification, member Ruseau.
[Ruseau]: Whether we submit this or not has nothing to do with getting this money. This is just our new chapter 70 formula. Yeah. This is the amount of the increase that will happen in the formula and it is not related to whether we submit this plan. I just wanted to be clear on that.
[Van der Kloot]: So if we don't submit the plan we automatically still get the money?
[Ruseau]: The Chapter 70 formula is the Chapter 70 formula. It has nothing to do with anything else.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Motion. I have a point of clarification.
[McLaughlin]: Point of clarification, member Laughlin. So yes, and I would also encourage any folks that are watching from home out there or what have you that are these marginalized communities to reach out to this body, to this constituency to let us know. that you want to be involved and how you can get in and you'd like to have your voices heard and ways in which we can engage you further to make sure that these funds are being spent appropriately for those high needs families. And I think that, again, respectfully to the committee, if we're talking about how these funds need to be spent, I think it's pretty clear it needs to be family and community engagement. And that's just, again, my two cents, because we're already talking about how we don't have family and community engagement, and here's money. And then we're talking about, well, how else can we spend this money that we don't have? So I just think it's a circular conversation, and just had to add that. But I appreciate your work, Dr. Cushing, as always. I appreciate you taking our phone calls and clarifying questions for us. And clearly, I feel passionately about this. I hope you don't take any of my passion personally. But I feel that this is an important matter, and I wanted to speak up. Thank you.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you, motion by Member Van der Kloot to send this to the Engagement, Communication, and Strategic Planning Subcommittee, seconded by... And to send a letter to the Department of Education. And to send a letter for requesting an extension, if that's possible. Seconded by Member McLaughlin. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Paper passes. Thank you, Dr. Cushing. Any old business? No. Communications?
[Ruseau]: Member Ruseau. I apologize, this is new business. Correct.
[Lungo-Koehn]: So no old business, any communications? Nope. New business, school safety procedural update. Nothing.
[McLaughlin]: No, I will table that. I will table that.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Member McLaughlin, motion to table, seconded by Member Van der Kloot. All those in favor? All those opposed? Paper is tabled. Status of outstanding reports. Member Ruseau.
[Ruseau]: I apologize. I actually have to wait because we didn't approve the ad hoc report procedure tonight. So at the next meeting, I will actually suggest that each of these gets kind of wrapped up into the procedure that we have if we adopt it so we can get this list into something we can actually wrap our hands around.
[Lungo-Koehn]: So motion to table. Motion to table by Member Ruseau, seconded by Member Mustone. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Paper is tabled. Number three, under new business, the function of the Medford School Committee 2020 to 2022 document update. Motion to table. Motion to table by Member Ruseau, seconded by Member McLaughlin. All those in favor?
[Ruseau]: Aye.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Paper is tabled.
[Ruseau]: I gotta update it.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Offered by, okay, be resolved that a playground advisory committee shall be created to oversee the completion of work associated with three CPC grants related to the Columbus and Brooks Playground Repair and Resurfacing and the McGlynn School Design Study. The work will include collaboration and review of the RFP for the McGlynn Design Study and the execution of the study. The advisory committee will also view all four school playgrounds and make recommendations regarding increased accessibility of playgrounds to all students to be completed within the existing scope of funding or provided to the school committee as additional recommendations. The advisory committee shall provide a preliminary update to the school committee no later than June 1st and then quarterly thereafter for up to one year from the date of creation or sooner if work is completed. Dr. Peter Cushing will issue a call for interested applicants and recommend members for the Playground Advisory Committee to the school committee no later than April 6, 2020 at the school committee meeting. The Playground Advisory Committee will include school administrators, at least one parent from each elementary school, and individuals with expertise in inclusive play and play spaces offered by Member Graham. Member Graham, would you like to say anything else on that?
[Graham]: Member Graham. So one of the things that I'm thinking about in terms of the timeline, I know it's tight, but we have a really short window of time and opportunity to mobilize, particularly on the Brooks and Columbus play spaces so that those can be ready to be acted on this summer when kids are out of school. And I also think we have an equally short timeline on the RFP to engage the proper partner to do the McGlynn design study because that study needs to Be sent out to RFP. We need to select a bidder. That bidder needs to be engaged. They need to do their work. And then we need to have our eye on the timeline that by November of this coming year, if we are going to be preparing to go back to the CPC, we'll need to be ready with information. I know there was a lot of talk. We had a meeting a couple of weeks ago, a number of us and a number of other interested parties who want to make sure that this committee engages the right design firm, particularly for the McGlynn Playground that knows how to engage the community, how to engage with kids, how to engage with students of all abilities, and how to really sort of balance all the various needs across our student populations and really our community population to do that. So I think there's interested folks across the committee, across the community, But I don't think this committee has to be particularly small. I just think they have a lot of work to do to shepherd this through its process and make sure that along that process the right people are engaged for their input where it is particularly valuable rather than what I don't want to do is bog down folks who want to be part of the conversation in feeling like they have to sign on to review and write RFPs in order to be involved in the process. So the committee is really there to do that work to make sure that folks are appropriately engaged along the way. And in the interest of time, I'm suggesting that Peter, who has been front and central on all the CPC grants, sort of act to collect applications, vet them, and provide a recommendation to us.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Member McLaughlin.
[McLaughlin]: I had some questions. I was also part of this conversation and I think it's really important for the community to understand that the opportunity at the McGlynn is a unique one in that we're bringing in a person or an entity to look at this playground space and to consider how we're making what would amount to be the first inclusive play space in Medford, which is a big deal. So by inclusive, that's thinking about, as member Graham was saying, children of all abilities and backgrounds, and that they have expertise in that. And there's a line item in there that there's an expert in inclusive play and play spaces, which I much appreciate. I think it's very important. I would also encourage Dr. Cushing to, same as with our other committees, as we heard tonight, to be thinking about how we're addressing diversity. in our selection for committee members, and I would also advocate for a person with a disability, or somebody from the Disabilities Commission, or somebody with a disability from the Disabilities Commission to be on this committee, especially if we're thinking about how we're including children with disabilities in this playground space. So is that an amendment, or I request an amendment to this, or?
[Lungo-Koehn]: Sure, an amendment by Member McLaughlin, and I can work with Dr. Cushing as well with a meeting with the NAACP next week, you can join me, and then I also have additional people on the Disability Commission that weren't put on because there's many people that wanted to be on it, and there's some parents that I can refer, so we can work together on that. I can help however I can. Motion for approval by Member Graham, as amended by Member McLaughlin, seconded by Member McLaughlin. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Paper passes. We have four condolences. I will read them all. We can stand for a moment of silence after that. Be it resolved that the Medford School Committee express its sincere condolences to the family of William, Mr. Caraviello was the husband of Ann Marie Caraviello, a retired Medford Public Schools secretary. Be it resolved that the Medford School Committee express its sincere condolences to the family of Priscilla Morse. Ms. Morse was the mother-in-law of Medford Public Schools staff member Pamela Morse and the mother of Hank Morse. Be it resolved that the Medford School Committee express its sincere condolences to the family of John Jackie Hamilton, Mr. Hamilton was the brother of retired elementary teacher, Judy Granara, and the brother-in-law of former school committee member, John Granara. And finally, be it resolved, the member of the school committee express its sincere condolences to the family of Shirley Van De Kloet. Ms. Van De Kloet was the mother-in-law of school committee member, Paulette Van De Kloet. If we all may rise to take a moment of silence. Yes, negotiations and legal matters. Our last two matters of the night will be dealt with in executive session and we will come out of executive session in room 207 and adjourn from there. So we will not be back before the podium tonight. Motion by Member Ruseau, seconded by Member Graham to enter executive session. All those in favor? All those opposed?
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