[SPEAKER_06]: Good evening, Medford Parents and Guardians, and anyone who might be watching. We'll wait until we see the number of people really get up before we kick off. There we go, 23 people. All right.
[SPEAKER_07]: Hello, everyone. Like I said, we'll get started as soon as more people show up. My apologies for my normal look. A lot of you know me in a suit and tidied up, but being at home has caused me to wear hats because I haven't been able to get a haircut and other things. So if I look a little bit different than normal, just know that I'm doing it from the comforts of my home.
[SPEAKER_00]: You still look good, Mr. DeLeva.
[SPEAKER_07]: Thank you. Thank you. Coming back, I have my baseball cap turned backwards, so. Good.
[SPEAKER_06]: So for those parents who are in students and anyone else who's joining us, you're watching us on Facebook Live and we're using a functionality called StreamYard. And the way you can participate is by commenting in the comment box. and the comments will show up and we can then put you in with your ideas, your questions, and anything like this. So I'll just share with you a couple of the examples right now. So there's one. There you go. And then that way we can, That way we can hear your ideas and see the best ways to support. My name is David Cushing. I'm the assistant superintendent. For those of you who don't know me, this is going to be run by the headmaster and his team, as well as Mr. Fallon from the vocational side as well. So I'm going to add Mr. Fallon, and I'm going to back out of the studio myself. So I leave it in the more than capable hands of our leadership team.
[SPEAKER_07]: So again, good evening everyone. My goal here is to sort of moderate and use this as a way for us to kind of understand the outside what your vision is moving forward. I'll state it again as was stated in the school committee meeting that we have no intentions of canceling any events. We have more than our intentions of more is to doing postponement but what that would look like because school is now closed till the end of the school year may be different than what we normally have. And there could be virtual things that we can do. There also could be, you know, remote things that we do, or we do a gathering later down the, in the fall or in the summer, if we have the go ahead to congregate as a greater group. So again, tonight is more of a way for us to kind of here and see what you feel from the outside. I would ask and I see that Mark is joining in and he is the senior class president. So I would ask that we do this in sort of a three kind of step format. my first would be to really get some student input, because I think that's something that's very important of what they would like to see happen. And then get the parent input from there. And then we can start to figure out, you know, which road we're going to go down to hosting these events. So, Mark, are you there? I see that you are.
[SPEAKER_03]: Mark can unmute his mic, it looks like.
[SPEAKER_07]: This is a new platform.
[SPEAKER_04]: Hello, can you hear me now?
[SPEAKER_07]: Yes, Mark, we can.
[SPEAKER_04]: Thank you. Hello, I can't really hear Mr. DeLava, so I don't know if he really said anything directly at me. But I just wanted to say hello. I'm Mark Allen G. Mary. I'm a student. I'm class president. And I just wanted to really quickly just Thank you everyone for coming and sitting in meetings. We're aware of your concerns. And a lot of people have been messaging me being concerned about a senior event. And at the class office, we're doing our best to really try and get everything rolling. And just doing the best that we can with like the situation. And we have to remember that the main concern is safety. So everyone can play a role with being, because everyone is playing a role to helping bring down that curve. So that's the main concern. And social distancing does not have to mean not being connected socially. I mean, it's more of a physical distancing, but I encourage everyone to just keep talking with your friends, keep talking to one another, tell us where you're going. We have this page on Instagram where you could check out where all the seniors, their future plans, what their future plans are, and just share on social media, keep talking, and then everything is gonna get back to normal, but we have to play an active role. try to everyone is in this fight against the virus. So it's impacting everyone, but I'm encouraging you to make the best out of the situation. Thank you very much.
[SPEAKER_07]: Thanks, Mark. Mark, I have a couple of questions and maybe some seniors are on, can comment as well. Has anybody given you any thought to what they would like regarding COVID? I'm on for a while, but I can't hear Mr. DeLay. Oh, okay. So, yeah, that's going to be useless of me talking then with no response. Maybe if there are seniors that are on the, seniors that are on the actual chat here, do you want to post any comments regarding what you have for a vision of a prom and graduation?
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, maybe one day if there are students tied into the presentation here, if those students can at least give a shout out and let us know that you're watching this right now. So if there's any kids on here and you want to add some things like some of the parents have done just to say you're watching right now, then we can see who's involved at the moment.
[SPEAKER_04]: Um so I have a couple uh yes so Leanna's has a post that's that's interesting that miss Donald mentioned the question concerning prom I don't know if miss Don you want to talk about it or do you want me to go ahead um well yeah you could you could talk about it well uh in our last meeting um we had this very same conversation and uh
[SPEAKER_00]: A lot of students feel that the two most important senior events are the senior prom and graduation. So we talked about, they know that the prom that we had arranged for at the Marriott can't happen at the Marriott. The Marriott's closed till June 1st. I also let them know that the manager of the Marriott could not have been lovelier. He was tremendous. He said he also had a daughter that was a senior in high school. And he said he would work with us. And if we wanted to put a prom together in the future at the Marriott, then we could make that happen. So one of the things that we did as a group is we talked not knowing that we would not be back at school. So we talked about doing something that wasn't just a prom and a graduation, something that was a series of events that could very closely tied together. So for example, where the prom would be one day a cookout or a breakfast or yearbooks the second day and then graduation the third day so that what I heard students saying was they didn't just want an event, they wanted a celebration, they wanted something that even if it was a non-traditional in many different ways, but that the one tradition they were holding on to was a black tie event where they could dance and, but that they wanted to have a multi-day sort of series of events. Mark, do you think that, does that pretty much summarize what people were coming for?
[SPEAKER_04]: And there's also a concern about some people already got their outfits. So we're trying to have it in a way that you can dress up if you want to, and still have that vision. Because some people have been thinking about their outfit for since last year, even before that. So that's a big concern of all is the outfit, can I still wear that outfit? So yes, we're trying to make it in a way that you can dress up if you want, or if you don't, you don't feel like going all the way, you can still, it's like there's level to really dress how you want. And it's mainly centered around having a closure and really having fun. So that's gonna be our priority to really bring together the event in that way.
[SPEAKER_07]: So the idea then would sort of stem from the graduation ceremony being the ending ceremony, is that the thought process, like if we do a series of events, the final piece would be the graduation.
[SPEAKER_00]: I believe so. I think that's what people were focused on.
[SPEAKER_07]: So then, You know, another thing that we need to bring up regarding graduation is that I think Tufts University is going to be in the same boat as what the Marriott is going to be at. So what we have normally done may not be the typical graduation that we usually do. Now, what's a good thing is that we are in control of Hormel Stadium and that we could definitely do something to that nature of hosting a graduation in that area. I know I mentioned it at school committee, and I kind of want to reiterate it, that for the seniors, and if you want to get that message out, Mr. Black and I have, we do have your caps and gowns. We would like to distribute those to you. We just have to plan that out. Right now we're in the middle of the search. So doing that at this point in time is probably not a wise move. on anybody's part. But when things start to settle down, I think that we could definitely do a kind of a social distance line for everyone to get their caps and gowns. I think that's a, you know, a normal tradition is to have your cap and to decorate your cap how you want to decorate your cap. Because if I hold those in possession, you guys don't have the ability to do what you want to do for the future. So I definitely want to get goes out to you so that you have it. Now, what I'd ask for the seniors is please don't lose it because we're talking of something that could occur in the summer or could occur in the fall. So something to kind of keep that in mind. And I didn't know, Ms. Donnell, and I didn't ask you, but would it make sense to also do the senior gifts when we do the distribution of the caps and gowns as well? I didn't know if that was something.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know what? I think we could do that. We could sort of promise them for whatever the first event is, like a memento of the event or senior year. I mean, we could do that either way, I guess is what I'm saying. I would only worry that if someone picks up their cap and gown and the senior gift, that the message they may take away is, well, they're done. We're done. And I wouldn't want that to send that message. Typically, the senior gift is given out at the senior breakfast where students get their yearbooks. I believe the plan is still on for yearbooks to be ready by the end of June. So there are some options there, I think.
[SPEAKER_03]: OK. I want to, I just want to introduce one thing to all the listeners. Please keep the comments coming. Those are great. You know, what we're seeing is we're having, you know, sort of this conversation and what I'd like to see concurrently is if you keep filtering those ideas in, we will keep a good log of everything that people suggest and also continue using the Facebook page that the parents have set up. Thank you to the parents who took the lead on that. And I continue to use that as a forum to share ideas. Um, you know, as Mr. DeLava has been saying consistently, we are very interested in really doing as much as we can safely, um, as soon as we can. And in a way that is, uh, is truly, you know, honoring and recognizing, you know, all these great kids. Okay. So just want to interject, just keep the information like, especially right now, I just see, uh, you know, the comment down there from Anthony and the good ones that came up from the others initially. Thank you.
[SPEAKER_07]: Mr. Fallon is present on this call. So if you. um there's some questions regarding the vocational banquet and I don't think that again that's not we're looking to do as many events as we possibly can. I know that a lot of focus is on prom and graduation and again I say that because this is where a great group of students or our mass number of students will be attending these These events so The other thing I think we didn't mention regarding this calls if I'm sure this this is actually being recorded So whatever comments we don't address we can always go back as as a group here and review what you've put down I've seen a lot of people saying things about Hormel and thumbs up to Hormel so I the fact that that's something that you feel very comfortable with, that kind of guides us in a direction on how to kind of figure out how to manage that next piece as well. So thank you for those comments and to keep them coming. Mr. Fallon, do you want to say anything regarding vocational events?
[SPEAKER_05]: Just that at this time, we're looking at all ways to still have all the events we wanted to have, our senior awards, some kind of recognition for all the seniors and their 15 programs. It's all in the works. All of us have been meeting weekly with all your teachers. We're meeting again Friday to talk next steps now that we know we're going to be over the year. So hang in there, guys. We're thinking of you.
[SPEAKER_00]: One of the last comments was about combining events. I think that's, I think it's a great suggestion. I think combining things like a breakfast, yearbook, senior gift, maybe with some music, something very similar to what we did at the holiday breakfast where, I mean, we could, I think, most definitely combine events.
[SPEAKER_01]: Can I jump in really fast? Yep, go right ahead. I saw a couple of comments about the yearbook. And something I actually looked into and I noticed a couple of towns are doing this, Arlington being one of them, Stoneham being another one, is they're releasing the yearbook. And then in the fall, students are invited back for an addition to the yearbook. So obviously, yearbook might feel a little bit incomplete right now. But a lot of schools are going with the option to give um, like an addition to the yearbook free, um, if students pay for the yearbook, um, and get the schedule yearbook. So that's something that, uh, that I saw the town were doing on Facebook. I know it came up, like, are we looking at what other, um, places are doing not, uh, like instead of reinventing the wheel. And I, I did see that from, from Arlington specifically, they're releasing part of their yearbook and then another part of the yearbook. So that's, that's an option.
[SPEAKER_07]: Just to jump in on a question, we have had some discussion about a senior parade of what that would look like. I think we just, for doing it for the elementary schools, it's a little bit more manageable with the staff. There is talk, but we have to involve the police in order to shut down roads, things like that. So that is an idea that we are kicking around as well of doing something as a parade. around record around graduation time, if that's something that we can figure out, but it needs to have more outside agencies involved as well to make sure that it's handled correctly. And again, you're talking a greater number of cars, you know, if you think about this about 300 students in the senior class, you know, and everybody takes a car that's That's a big group going around Medford. So just want to keep that in mind as well. And there's been talk about having parents doing the driving in place of that as well. So there's a lot to think about. It is a very good idea, but it needs a lot of organization for it to come to fruition. Not saying I don't want to do it. I just want to make sure that we plan it correctly so that everyone's safe as well.
[SPEAKER_03]: I want to put a question out about virtual versus live. I think Ms. Corrado had a great suggestion around looking at different communities. And you trial the internet, you see a lot of places are doing virtual activities. But I'm reading, what I'm seeing here as a subtext is that our group here is looking for live and that seems to be more of a feel. I'm just curious if any parents want to take a time to come up with some thoughts virtual versus in person. And if there are any virtual activities that you are interested in.
[SPEAKER_07]: So Leanne Puccio, Leanna put out a question. I don't know if we can post it because she has a very good point. You know, there are some students that would probably be heading out towards the military. So that's something to keep in mind. You know, you know, unfortunately, again, we're kind of held hostage to when we can kind of gather in a group again. And that could be summer and that could be fall. It just doesn't know when the ideal time is. But I do want to put that out there that I do know that, especially as Mark mentioned, there's that future MHS 2002 group that I've followed. And there are a few students that have put out that their intentions are to start their military enlistment. That's why I think the parade part may be good because that's something that we could get everybody involved before they need to go. But again, who knows what happens with us getting together.
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe it would be possible though to distribute the senior gifts sort of at the end of a senior parade, you know, I mean, that's something to think about too. You know, that if we were able to distribute cap and gowns so that seniors participated in that parade in their cap and gown, And then at the end of the parade, every senior was given the senior gift. I mean, that would be an option too.
[SPEAKER_07]: So to answer Mr. Blount, to answer Your question there, it looks like live seems to be more. But if it's not possible within a reasonable time, maybe considering a virtual alternative. Just for those.
[SPEAKER_03]: I think just one thing I'm curious to hear from parents and students is if you are interested in having things happen sooner than later. I think we all know if something happens sooner than later, it will have to be more virtual or more socially distanced. I'm looking at, we look ahead, it's late April, we look ahead and say, if there's something you'd like to see happen in May, and we probably know more or less what to expect in May, it's probably a little more along the lines of virtual or virtual hybrid. So I'm just curious what the thoughts are might be around that, where we're probably coming to a little more of a consensus around things that you do in person, hopefully summer or fall, Um, again, just curious to see if anybody likes the idea of doing something sooner and the parade, uh, you know, I'm for it. I like that idea. It looks like a lot of folks.
[SPEAKER_07]: Um, so a question I would like to throw out is if we had to do the fall, let's just say we had to do the fall. You know, in my mind, there are two options. Obviously there's the Columbus day weekend. And then there's the Thanksgiving day weekend. My feeling is you get more on the Thanksgiving day weekend because a lot of colleges and people are coming back home. I'm not sure about Columbus day weekend in some cases. And I don't even know where all our students are going if they're going across country and can't get back at a certain time. So if we were to do, this is just an F and I just need to know for myself, if people could comment of a preferred date, would you think of, um, If we can't do it in the summer, would Columbus Day be better or would Thanksgiving Day be better? Sooner than later. Thanksgiving, I'm seeing Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving.
[SPEAKER_01]: A lot of teachers talked about this possibly becoming a homecoming-like event, and that definitely brings a very Thanksgiving kind of vibe. I can see where that's coming from.
[SPEAKER_07]: Yeah, I can tell you Thanksgiving seems to be the winner right now. So that's good for us to kind of have a good direction of what to think about. Yeah, I don't know if everyone can see that Thanksgiving keeps coming up.
[SPEAKER_03]: Can I also just toss out a question about, you know, what parents and students who are involved in athletics or activities or students who, you know, might be, might have been looking forward to, you know, some great athletic experiences or opportunities to be recognized for academic achievement. You know, I feel like prom and graduation kind of end up as the big two. But also we have, you know, traditional events where we honor kids' achievements. And we are curious about your thoughts around how you might like to see your kids honored. You know, and there's, again, those are some things that maybe lend themselves to the possibility of virtual, whereas something like a graduation, you know, it seems like the feel is that that's better off live in some way. So again, give us your thoughts on that as well. Other recognition, you know, activities for seniors. Okay, some good suggestions there so far. You know, something else to throw out there as well, and this sort of resembles what's going up on the Parent Facebook page, what have you seen and read? You know, what are you learning about from your families, you know, in other places in the state or the country? You know, what has struck you as a great idea, you know, now and later, because, One thing that is happening, I suppose we're all reading a lot more news and we're probably seeing a number of these sorts of things. So think about that too and give us your ideas.
[SPEAKER_07]: I like what Ms. Corrado is saying. Honors as a virtual event, make it like an Oscar night.
[SPEAKER_03]: I couldn't be there to receive my Oscar in person. Give you an award.
[SPEAKER_01]: I actually like that idea a lot. We can bring it up in our department meetings and see if other teachers would be into doing something like that. I can see a lot of teachers putting together a video for everybody and then releasing it or doing it live.
[SPEAKER_05]: I like that idea. I mean, and the good news is we have the capabilities to do some high quality things like that. You know, Bianca, I see you on the call. Liana, you guys are part of that media technology team. So we certainly could put together a very well produced event if we go that route. So I wrote that down. Good ideas.
[SPEAKER_07]: So to answer Mrs. Miguel's question there, we're using this forum to actually kind of come up with some kind of survey too. to send out, because we know that everybody can be part of this event, so that we have more data to go through what needs, well, where people are thinking. Again, this is kind of a forum start, but there's other planning that needs to go on, so exactly as soon as we review everything that we're talking about here, then we can come up with the correct questions for a survey.
[SPEAKER_01]: I saw something come up about a survey. That's something that we talked about quite a bit in a couple of different meetings. I'm not sure what direction we want to go in with the next couple of questions. But I have a Google Doc open here, sort of creating a couple of potential survey questions if you guys want to go into doing some of that. That option came up a few times in our meetings about releasing a survey. So I thought this would be a good place to maybe generate some thoughts on that.
[SPEAKER_05]: Also, we just want to keep in mind, too, for us, that this is our first graduating class for our programming and web development students. So we're going to want to make sure we do something. But we're already thinking about things we can do, whether it be virtual or not. But it's a big year for us, too. So if there's any people on the feed right now, we are thinking about that.
[SPEAKER_03]: So I also see, I don't know if Mr. Labar spoke to this, but there's students who are asking about getting into their lockers. And that is a question that I think that we'll have an answer sooner than later for. I mean, again, we don't have, wish we could get clear cut answers on it. It's a totally logical thing. Teachers wanna get in their rooms, kids wanna get in their lockers. There's valuable things in there. That's something that as soon as we know about that, some sort of way in, like with anything, it looks like we're gonna need to wait. But listen, I mean, a lot of you have sent me an email about that asking. And again, as soon as we know about how we can do that, But that is a very logical concern, cleaning those out and getting your personal effects.
[SPEAKER_07]: And, um, you know, I just want to put this on people's radars as well. Um, where I know there are a lot of families that are willing to donate a lot of. Finances to this. There are also families that can't do that. And the other part of it too, is, you know, I know that we could reach out to some businesses, but we also have to be mindful that businesses are struggling as well. Um, so the finance piece of it is something that we do have to kind of plan out. And again, it's not something I'm trying to be a downer on. I'm just trying to be a realist on, um, with, with, you know, with luck with graduation, I will say that we, we include that as a line item in our budget for the high school. So that money has not been touched, uh, for graduation and can be, has been mentioned actually at the school committee to be used for graduation. for next year, but depending on how much we have, I'm sure we can disperse some of that money differently, especially if we're going to go to Hormel. But I do want people to kind of also keep in that mindset. I understand fundraising. I understand a lot of things. I just want everyone to understand there's different sides to the coin, even when it comes to asking businesses right now. from money to help support us. So just be mindful regarding that. We'll obviously keep everyone in the loop regarding our finances and where we're going. I know like the senior class activities fund has a line in it. I have the graduation line in the budget there as well. So it's something that we can figure out, but costs of things can get a little bit pricey. I know people wanna do the, the banners on the light poles, I can tell you, you know, the cost of that, if you're thinking of 300 students, is going to be astronomical in a lot of ways. And we can say that we can help everybody, but we have to be realistic too. So again, I'm not trying to be a Debbie Downer. I'm just trying to kind of put everyone in the mindset of, you know, there is cost to these things as well that we need to be considerate of.
[SPEAKER_03]: So it sounds like Mr. Donlan is collecting survey questions. So something else that parents and students can consider is if you have a suggestion about what to survey. For example, surveying would people want to make a donation or surveying kids about their priority activities. you know, or ideas that we have found to really stand out here, you know, such as the idea of a parade or signs. So just something else to think about, you know, that we might want to be serving because it looks like that is something that we'll take as a next step in creating that survey.
[SPEAKER_01]: And just so everybody knows, I'm writing down. You can't see me writing, and I have a Google Doc open on the side. But I'm collecting just some of the notes from on the side. So if you write something and submit it, but we don't talk about it immediately, I've never used this app before. I'm not sure if it saves. But I'm collecting a lot of the ideas that come up on the side panel if you guys write things. And I have a lot so far. I should just let you guys know.
[SPEAKER_00]: One of the comments just to jump in on it was, could we have one large banner printed and hung over the square? I mean, that we can explore getting that done and that might be something that the class funds could field. So- That's what actually sent me the
[SPEAKER_07]: The photo that we do by my office up above of everybody. Yeah So I I have that photo. I just have how we're going. It's got to get edited a little bit and understand to He was bringing up to me that the resolution the bigger you go could get tight in a lot of ways, but I think what I like about that photo is that has a group of students and Yeah, it does. So that's something that I have in the works of thinking about, too, that we can talk about further.
[SPEAKER_08]: OK.
[SPEAKER_02]: Someone else. There's some comments here about, oh, go ahead, Nancy. I'm sorry.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt, but someone's commented that about holding the parade and that celebration, anticipating that the prom and graduation may take a little while. So, I mean, I think that, I mean, I think there's just a, a strong feeling that we should do something sooner than later and not put everything off till summer or fall. So maybe we could simultaneously think about the parade, the banner, senior gifts, and then for summer or fall, prom and graduation.
[SPEAKER_07]: And the thing with the parade is, and I saw this mentioned too, and I guess that was the same with my vision, is they could wear their caps and gowns in their cars. At least showing that this is the reason of the whole parade as well.
[SPEAKER_03]: And I think, I know Mr. Leyva said this, but just to let you know, the caps and gowns, they arrived weeks ago. They're in the building. I mean, they are It'd be great to get those to the kids sooner than later. That's one tangible thing that we have. I wanna respond to a question. I think somebody mentioned around if students, if we were looking into lawn signs or the like and students have a residential setting where they don't have a lawn or they're in a multifamily building or an apartment building that perhaps we could discuss some sort of sign that can go open the windows. At least that way there is a consistent outlook to that. So I appreciate that suggestion. I think we definitely need to you know, look at where our students reside and be sure that we reach out to everybody. And, you know, I think we can commit to that sort of thing. So just to respond to that idea.
[SPEAKER_07]: You know, I like, I saw our, uh, Mr. Conley's idea of, of, you know, if we can get the photos, the yearbook photos that were taken, um, and run them through, uh, T just the TV station, you know, at least having those pictures cycled through. I think that would be a good another way of, um, connecting for the seniors as well.
[SPEAKER_03]: Is there perhaps if Miss Evangelista, I could step out if she wants to jump in to give us any info around cable TV, getting graduation pictures up or that sort of thing. I'll step out in case you do want to come in Lisa.
[SPEAKER_06]: So I'll just jump in for a quick second. The parents are welcome to send to info at medford.k12.ma.us. Um, we're going to be posting, we've got about 10 of them in so far. We're creating a backdrop to put in the senior picture. If you guys want to send some accomplishments, where your child's going, their best memory, um, something along those ideas, we'll start posting the Facebook and then we'll start sending them over to our, to the Medford community media site as well. Um, we'll be happy to do that for you. Um, we want to make this as awesome as possible, given how bad the situation is for our seniors. So I'm going to step out again, but just so you guys know, it's info at medford.k12.ma.us, and I will post that in the comments. Please send a picture, a couple of accomplishments, and what your child's next plans are, maybe like their best memory of Medford High School, Medford Vocational, Curtis Tufts, or wherever they want from their time at Medford Public Schools.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, it looks like a great deal of some wonderful suggestions and ideas that I think we definitely can weave into a survey, get it out to people, and then synthesize recommendations and what people are thinking, and then try and tie them as best we can to what we can do right now in terms of the virus. But as I'm looking on the side, there's just a great number of wonderful suggestions. Like someone is suggesting Mr. Fallon, the media tech students. I'll assume you have no students in the building. Is that right?
[SPEAKER_05]: No, there's no students in there, but there's a lot that can be done remotely. And they've actually been meeting frequently with the teacher, Patrick reached out. So I think we really do have the benefit of that program because they can work. A lot of them can do, you know, they can work remotely. So I'm encouraged by the comments. And yes, I agree, Angela, for sure. Okay. Same with you, Nancy, I agree.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm seeing a lot of people talking about when some of these events would occur, either in the summer or the fall. So just for the survey purposes, I hope this isn't coming off as an either or with some of these events or some of the decisions that we make. we're going to try to hold events as we can. The problem is that we're at the mercy of when we can hold events and open things up. And also, we want to make sure that it's accessible for everyone. If it's late, late in the summer and a lot of kids are going off to school and college, then that changes things a little bit. But of course, I think this is the beginning of us really figuring this out. together. We want to make sure that it's something that everybody can go to, or at least a majority of students can go to. Right.
[SPEAKER_07]: And, you know, again, not to be a downer, but we are at the mercy of when it is safe to gather again. And I don't want to say that I don't just don't know when that is. If it's in the summer, great. We'll move towards the summer. But, you know, I can't speculate you know, when those will be. But I think, like you said, Mr. Donilon, if we have at least an idea of which direction people are going, we're going to shoot for either or. But again, please note that, you know, I just don't want to promise something that can't be delivered because the higher ups above the school have a different vision of when we'll be able to gather again.
[SPEAKER_01]: And we want to make sure that we do this right. I think one of the challenges that came up when earlier in the spring when we were discussing the prom was, even if we did go back to school, which obviously the news kind of changed our narrative on that, would we still be able to hold the prom at the same date? So just something to consider, you know, it generally takes us a long time to get word out. to really plan an event and sell tickets and make sure all of the boxes are checked off. So these events do take considerable planning. I definitely wouldn't expect if all of a sudden the news were to say, okay, events are open again, us to have an event that weekend. It takes us a while to make sure that we plan and can communicate with everybody accordingly.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, just to piggyback on that, it might just be prudent to plan backwards so that we don't run into a situation where we're yet again planning events that we're not going to be able to pull off because of the social distancing. So I think late summer, early fall, I mean, those sound like they're doable. you know, timeframes. And I think also that if we were to do our senior parade, I think we probably could get that set up simultaneously to the time that our seniors would have been graduating. which would be kind of nice that so that would sort of sort of hold those that time frame and that sounds like that would be the kind of enthusiasm and joy from the whole Bedford community that I think our students very much need to feel. So But let's get the survey out. Let's get it out to as many people as we possibly can. I mean, all ideas will be valued and we'll share the results with everybody and start to pare it down and let people know what we're looking at. Mark, do you want to add anything to that? He's radio silence.
[SPEAKER_07]: He's got some audio things going on. I just want to also let people know that we have ordered the diplomas. The only thing that we didn't do was put the dates on them deliberately because we wanted to make sure that whatever date is decided that that date is what's there. So we do have that as well. I think we could keep going, but I think as a group, and if this group agrees with me, I think we've sort of expressed what we want. It looks like we're getting a lot of feedback. I think the next step in my mind is that we come up with that survey, we distribute that survey, you know, we could come back together again and share that survey out and then move forward in a direction that is based off of what people are thinking.
[SPEAKER_00]: That sounds like a plan. And in the meantime, I would be happy to work with you, Paul or David and Mr. Donlon and Mr. Fallon to figure out what would the logistics of a senior parade have to look like. Because I think if we decided to add that to the other plans, then we would need to sort of have some of that information sooner than later.
[SPEAKER_01]: So this is from Mark. You can just give us a thumbs up if you're having trouble with the audio. I know we've had a lot of success, at least the class officers have, reaching the students with the media. So what we thought we could possibly do is maybe send a copy of the survey early to you, and you can put together a poll on Instagram or something like that. Is that doable, Mark? I don't know.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah. You know what? You know what, Mr. Don? We did that earlier in the year, so I know they have the capacity to do that.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it went through a Google form, and it was a great response.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we got a great response. So we have the, they've done that really, really successfully a couple of times. So let's do it. That sounds, that sounds good.
[SPEAKER_07]: Okay, so I've seen a lot. I think we do what we said. We'll compile. We'll definitely message out when we'll meet again. And, you know, that's not going to be late. It's going to be, you know, sooner. Okay, there's a lot of questions about the last day of school. I can't give you that answer right now. That answer has to be discussed with the superintendent. So we're in works on it. So I know that people want to know, but as of right now, this meeting was intended for senior events. We'll get into the other logisticals of when the last day for seniors will be soon. So you'll hear from me soon about that. Thumbs up, we're good to go?
[SPEAKER_00]: It's awesome to see the kind of support and enthusiasm for our seniors. And it's just heartwarming to know that what we planned the community will help us pull off. So that's, I mean, I feel even more hopeful than I did already, to be honest. So it's good.
[SPEAKER_03]: And I just want to, one last time, obviously thank everybody. We definitely miss you. I miss you too. I miss the kids, but I miss the many of the parents too, who've gotten to know over the years. You know, and I think that let's keep things going on that Facebook page. And maybe what you can do is try to invite a friend or neighbor who you know is not on it. Let's try to get as many of the parents as possible on that page. So that way you can continue to use that as a forum. And I just know from the, you know, from the brain bank, I mean, all of us are smarter than one of us. So, you know, we take all those ideas, we keep shaping and coming up with things that we think are really good, you know, respect our kids and the work you've done too. You know, this is a long time coming. especially for those of you who've been with us in Medford from the very beginning. And I know there's a lot of people who have a lot of interest in trying to do this right. Okay, so keep the ideas coming and I appreciate it. Thank you for hearing what I had to say. You can email me too if you have some questions or thoughts. Okay, thanks everyone.
[SPEAKER_07]: Thank you and thank you families and students as well. I see all the thank yous. We really appreciate your input. And again, we're gonna keep this ball rolling, so stay tuned.
[SPEAKER_05]: Thank you everybody. Nice to see you all.
[SPEAKER_06]: I want to thank you for this. We are just, you know, we're going to work this for the eighth grade in the future, but our focus is really making sure that the class of 2020 gets the respect and the dignity that they deserve after 13 years of hard work getting to this point as they move on to that next milestone, whatever it may be. So ladies and gentlemen, keep your ideas coming. Please send a picture of your child, your child's name, plans for next year, and maybe a memory or something else, some of their accomplishments, while at Medford Public Schools to info at medford.k12.ma.us. And I just want to thank everybody for being here and any feedback is good feedback. So we're going to end the broadcast now and thank you everyone. Thank you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you.
[SPEAKER_06]: Bye everybody. Bye.