[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Dr. Maurice-Edouard Vincent, superintendent of schools. I know we do have a slideshow presentation that is ready.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Mayor, we should do the roll.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Please call the roll. Thank you.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: OK. Member Jenny Graham? Here. Member Kathy Kreatz? I can't hear you, Kathy, but I see you saying yes. Member Melanie McLaughlin? Yes. Member Mia Mustone? Yes. Yes. Thanks, Kathy. Member Paul Rousseau?
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Yes.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Member Paul at Vanderkloot? Yes. Mayor Lungo-Koehn?
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Yes. Seven present, zero absent.
[Melanie McLaughlin]: Mayor, do we want to do the Pledge of Allegiance as well?
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: It's not listed, but we should do it. So if everybody may please rise. 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. Thank you. I will turn it over to the administration. I know Ms. Marian O'Connor, our director of the Board of Health, is on or will be on very shortly. But Dr. Edouard-Vincent, do we have somebody specifically that will be starting this slideshow?
[Marice Edouard-Vincent]: Yes.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you.
[Marice Edouard-Vincent]: Thank you. Mr. Milucheski will be co-presenting this with me. Thank you, Mr. Milucheski. So good evening, Mayor, Mayor Lungo-Koehn, members of the school committee, Mustang Nation, and our community at large. This evening, I'm going to present to you our report on the MPS reopening, updating our COVID-19 reopening dashboard. In the summer, there were three guiding pillars that led the work that we've done with school reopening. And those pillars always were and continue to guide the work that we're doing today. Safety, equity, and consistency. Back in October, on October 14th of this school year, we had a school committee meeting where we approved, the school committee approved the Medford Public Schools COVID-19 Reopening Dashboard. This dashboard defined our evaluation of safety and it's used as a guide for our decision-making between the educational models that Medford offers, both our hybrid and remote. The dashboard outlines three prevailing safety evaluations. The first one is building classroom readiness. The second one, Medford community health metrics. And the third area, district and school specific metrics. On October 14th, or since that time, two things have changed. One, our experience working with positive COVID-19 cases in our schools. And secondly, the Department of Public Health had introduced an updated color-coded metric to outline community COVID-19 risk. So one thing that hasn't changed, and this is from the CDC, indicators should neither be used in isolation nor should they be viewed as hard cutoffs. by school departments, school administration, by all making these kinds of decisions. Rather, they should serve as broad guideposts of inherent risk to inform decision-making. In Medford public schools, each situation that we have encountered since the start of school has brought a level of nuance. Each situation has required us to be responsive to the individual circumstances of each case. Dealing with COVID-19, it has put us in a position where we must continue to be flexible because each situation is individualized. Additional CDC guidance from Dr. Robert Redfield. This was last week's guidance. I've listed a few quotes, but one that stood out to me was the truth is for kids K to 12, one of the safest places they can be from our perspective is to remain in school. Some of this data and what the CDC is recommending and what Dr. Robert Redfield was talking about, it holds true for Medford and our Medford context. So in Medford, we went through a collaborative process and through that collaborative process, we developed the metrics that are in place. But in addition to that, we have a database or a spreadsheet that I'm gonna share with you, which shows our positive COVID-19 case count to date. Thank you, Mr. Malachewski. If I just provide a quick overview, which shows the data for our students and employees, staff, But in particular, since the start of the school year in September, Medford Public Schools has had nine students test positive that are participating in the hybrid model and 18 students test positive that are participating in the remote instruction model. And so I just want to present these numbers because right now we have approximately 1,700 students in school. And so in our context, at this particular point in time, I just wanted to stress that we have noticed that we have had limited in-school transmission. At this point in time, I would like to have my colleague, Mr. Tom Mieliszewski, provide additional information about the metrics.
[Tom Milaschewski]: Thank you, Dr. Edouard-Vincent, and good evening, Mayor Lungo-Koehn, and members of the Medford School Committee, and members of the Medford community. It's nice to see you all. So as Dr. Edouard-Vincent shared, I'm gonna talk about this second thing that has changed since October 14th, and our dashboard was approved, and that's this highlighted part number two here, DPH's updated color-coded metric to outline community COVID-19 risk. Now, before I even talk about the shift, I would like to just make sure everyone's on the same page with sort of how this fits into our dashboard. So I'm gonna show the COVID-19 dashboard that was approved on 10-14. And you'll see that this is one of the three pieces that sort of how we evaluated safety was this DPH guidance, right? So first being building classroom readiness. Second being the Medford community health metrics, which here again using the Massachusetts Department of Public Health's color coded classification system. And then third, our school district and school specific conditions where we looked at what is the transmission like in our schools, what do we do if there's one case here or two cases here and making those decisions at the specific school level. So want to, before we dive into just the specifics around this shift, want to just emphasize that this is just, this Department of Public Health's color-coded classification system is just one of the variables that we're using to evaluate sort of safety and to guide our decision-making in terms of remote versus hybrid. So with that said, nonetheless, there was a shift since this was approved back on October 14th. I would like to quickly share with everyone what that shift looks like. So you'll see here, this is the new in the updated color code and classification system by the Department of Public Health. And we should be looking in the far right column where it says over 50K given around 60,000 residents in Medford. So you'll see that this color coded classification system brings in two variables. First, the average case count per 100,000 people over the past two weeks, and also the percent positivity rate. So we've looked at this a lot as a team and thought about this. And we've also, as we thought about this sort of new classification system, we've also continued to look back at CDC guidance, which there is a, as you can imagine, a pretty strong alignment between guidance from the CDC and what we're seeing from DPH. So you'll see here on the screen, this is a dashboard that was created by or titled CDC indicators and thresholds of risk. which analyzes just the community prevalence of COVID and then the risk that that poses for transmission in schools. You'll see here that this looks at two of the same variables that I just outlined. If you look in the left column, number of new cases per 100,000 within the past 14 days, and also percent positivity, right? So this system, right, or this dashboard is looking at two of the criteria that were also outlined here. Now, internally, as we've kind of looked at this, we've played out several scenarios, and we're going to walk through one today, is if, say, using the CDC guidance, we were to have 19 positive cases in the last 14 days per 100,000 residents and be at 4.5% positivity rate, that would put us in this range of the green, of the lower risk of transmission in schools. which is interesting when we compare that back to... sort of the DPH's guidance. If we had 19 positive cases per 100,000 in a four and a half percent positivity rate, that would put us in this bottom right quadrant right here in the red category. So we share that to say that we have looked at like the alignment between sort of CDC and DPH. We've also found that in our sort of, as we played out scenarios, that the DPH guidance has generally been more conservative than sort of the guidance from the CDC. So sort of where does that bring us for now? So what our recommendation and our proposal for tonight is that we update our dashboard to include the new color-coded classification system, which would look like this. I'm gonna stop sharing my screen for a second and bring you into the actual dashboard. So this was the dashboard that was approved back in the 14th of October, you'll see that it has the old sort of color coded classification system. And what we're proposing for tonight is that we update this to have, again, the same number one around building classroom readiness. update this number two to have the updated DPH guidance, and then keep this number three, which if you remember, this number three outlined specific scenarios in school related to if there's a positive case here or if there's a case in a cohort, if there's two cases in a cohort. Our recommendation is to keep what the school committee had approved in numbers one and three, and right now just update this number two to now say using the Mass. Department of Public Health color-coded classification. system. Now as I should I want to go through just one other thing quickly which is last time in our last school committee member meeting there were some questions around Tufts and the numbers of how like Tufts impacts the Medford numbers. So we have been able to work with Tufts and we are able to pull out sort of Tufts data and compare that and think about what's the impact of including Tufts in our Medford data and also what's the impact of pulling those out. And you see in a recent sort of two-week span from 10-28 to 11-11, with Tufts included, we're at a 0.96% positivity rate. But if we pull Tufts out, we're at 1.1%. So I think, you know, you could all decide about when and how would you want to pull Tufts out in certain circumstances and data analysis, but did just want to make it clear tonight that we do have the ability to pull Tufts out sort of as we're able to break down data. So I know I quickly provided an overview of what our recommendations would be for tonight, but I want to turn it over to Dr. Edouard-Vincent, who's just going to provide that with a little bit more clarity, sort of on our final slide.
[Marice Edouard-Vincent]: So our recommendations this evening are to continue to utilize parts one, building classroom readiness, and part three, district and school specific metrics from the original Medford Public Schools COVID-19 reopening dashboard as critical metrics in evaluating our safety and ultimately driving decision-making. Our second recommendation would be a recommendation to approve, would be our hope that as we update part two, the Medford community health metrics of the original Medford Public Schools COVID-19 reopening dashboard to include DPHs updated color-coded classification system. And so, in closing again, we are not recommending to overhaul everything that was approved on 1014 all the collaborative work the meetings that took place in the science lab the science wing and zoom meetings. to come up with our original NPS dashboard, reopening dashboard. But we are asking that we look at part two and accept the updated color-coded classification system from the Department of Public Health. And I look forward to hearing your questions and comments from the team and responding to those questions this evening. I also would like to say that members of the team, Dr. Cushing, Dave Murphy, Nurse Toni Ray, I think Marian O'Connor for the Board of Health, and Ms. Suzanne Galussi and or Joan Bowen, we will be more than happy to respond to any questions this evening. Thank you.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you for the presentation. Member Ruseau?
[Paul Ruseau]: There we go, thank you, I couldn't unmute. Thank you for the presentation, I appreciate it. I just wanted to disagree slightly with something that was just said that the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education is being more conservative. When I read the CDC guidelines in bold, they say that their indicators are dependent upon the implementation of school and community mitigation strategies. DESE does not have that dependency. All measures make no sense at all without, according to CDC, if you don't have a quality implementation of the school and community mitigation strategies, then the other measures are sort of unimportant. DESE just seems to be okay with just numbers. So I think that the CDC guidance is definitely far more conservative in that regard. So that's sort of where I want to go in our conversation. I won't just do all the talking, but I need to understand better our contact tracing. There's three pieces to this. There's the testing, there's the contact tracing, and then, of course, the isolation. And I feel like the testing is sort of a moot point. None of us can control. I know the mayor is working to get more testing and to get students tested and that'll be good. But all of that is simply a proxy for the assumption that we have a random surveillance testing of our community and that doesn't exist. But contact tracing to me seems like the big elephant in the room. I don't have metrics that tell me how good ours is, how fast it is, if we have enough staff, how much contact tracing could our staff do before we run out of hours in the day. So You know, the CDC is clear, metrics are dependent, meaning literally everything above that must be based on a implementation of school and community mitigation strategies. So I feel that that's the necessary part that we need to understand. Thank you.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you, Member Ruseau.
[Marice Edouard-Vincent]: So if I were to respond in terms of the contact tracing that's taking place right now, it is our nursing department. And I want to just acknowledge nurse Toni Wray and acknowledge once again, Marianne O'Connor. The work that we've been doing since school has opened is not a Monday to Friday schedule. We're also working on weekends, closely monitoring the activity that's happening in Medford. And so I do want to thank the entire nursing department and the board of health for how they have truly partnered with us in terms of helping us get information quickly. And so for the nine positive cases that have happened since September, thankfully we have been able to do contact tracing, reach out to those families and reach out to the individuals. All of the contact tracing is done through the nursing department at the respective schools. And so whether it's students or staff that are helping to provide the information. And so what I can speak to is The contact tracing that is happening and that has taken place, we've responded and acted appropriately. Again, as I said earlier, we know that dealing with each case on an individualized basis, that there is a nuance and it does require some flexibility, but we have always, always maintained safety as a priority, not only for the students, but also for the staff. And so out of an abundance of caution, we've always taken a more aggressive stance. And so through contact tracing, if that required additional quarantining, we have always done that. So I can't speak to how the contact tracing is done, but I can say that the nurses, the nursing department, they've been trained, all that are doing it, they're working in collaboration with the board of health, and have received the same training that the Board of Health staff have received, which is an agreement with the Department of Health of how contact tracing should take place. And at this point in time, it has been manageable for the district, given the level of positivity that we've had as a district. Again, I will qualify it by saying at this point in time.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you, Dr. Edward-Vincent. Member Ruseau.
[Paul Ruseau]: Thank you. I don't want to let the other members have questions, but so I just had a set of questions. I'll just start to do a few and then let other people speak. How many contact tracers do we have for the school system and the city adjusted for FTEs? Because I know the nurses are not full-time contact tracers.
[Marice Edouard-Vincent]: All contact tracing happening at the school happens with the entire nursing staff at their respective buildings. So there were nurses at all of the schools and Toni Wray also oversees that and keeps a separate database to track all of the activity that is happening. And it is eventually reported out to, the department as well.
[Paul Ruseau]: Thank you. What's the software we're using to track contacts?
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: MAVEN is the name of the program that the state requires cities and towns to use.
[Paul Ruseau]: So our nurses are all accessing MAVEN. They're entering individual contacts, indicating whether they've followed up with them, the whole nine yards.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Ms. O'Connor, if you're on, you can, thanks.
[MaryAnn O'Connor]: So we have three school nurses right now currently on Maven. The school contact tracing happens in collaboration with the Board of Health and the school nurses. So that's the contact tracing done within the school building itself. Any information is then transferred into Maven. So these cases, what happens with the schools a lot of the time is these cases of self-reporting before we even see them in Maven. So then we're getting the call from the school nurse or from Tony saying this child has this mother call, this child has test positive or the mother has it or the father has it. And then they start their immediate contact tracing within the school building. The information they gather, if they're not currently on MAVEN is then given to my staff and resubmitted into MAVEN. Thank you. Yeah, definitely.
[Paul Ruseau]: So how does the nurse, within a building do contact tracing for a student that is not in the school building?
[MaryAnn O'Connor]: I'm not sure what you're asking, Sagan.
[Paul Ruseau]: So my kids are both full remote. If one of them becomes positive, how does the nurse at their school do contact tracing?
[MaryAnn O'Connor]: So if they're remote, it typically would fall back onto the Board of Health. The nurses are calling them. The school nurses are calling those families, I believe, and following up with them. But if they're not within the school building, then the contact tracing doesn't have to happen in the school building. It's more of a community contact tracing at that point. And that's when we call and we find out it's from the household. Mom had it, brought it home or whatever. Thank you.
[Paul Ruseau]: I'll ask one more and then let other people talk. So how many cases can you contact trace before you're out of capacity?
[MaryAnn O'Connor]: We keep going until we can't. So you have to understand the cases come in 24 seven. They don't come in just nine to five. So we will get them whenever, as soon as we wake up in the morning, you get the ones that came in from midnight on and you start working on that. We are onboarding because of the search that we're currently in. We are actually onboarding five more contact tracers this week, hopefully, to keep up with the demand because it is, yeah, happens a lot of the time it's not easy as far as you know you make a phone call they pick it up and you're all it's sometimes it takes several calls to actually get through to someone and you know may take a day for them to call you back so it's it's various you can't really say you know this is every case takes so many minutes or hours or whatever it's all different.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: And I think it's important to point out, there must be a timeframe, Miriam, that you can probably speak to on when the first call goes out from the Board of Health to a positive case. And if there was ever a chance we needed more help with that, the state is providing contact traces. So we do have that backup. Although I don't think we've needed to use the state.
[MaryAnn O'Connor]: I'm a little bit now lately with the searches, just particularly for the contacts, as opposed to the, you know, The positive case itself. We were following up on them. What we found recently like again it's mostly household transmission. So it's easy when you make that first call to the to the actual case. They say I live with three other people, and you do the contact tracing right there and then on the phone because it's the household transmission. But so the state does have what's called the CTC and now they're picking up twice a day. So I believe it's like two and I wanna say 6 p.m. So if we have gotten new cases in and haven't gotten to those cases by two or 6 p.m. that day, the CTC automatically grabs them and does the follow-up on them.
[Paul Ruseau]: I can't put the other one with questions, but I have more. I can just keep going.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Yep, keep going. And any member that has a question during can always raise their hand. I've got my eyes open.
[Paul Ruseau]: Thank you. So Ms. O'Connor, on the CDC website, there's a whole page called Evaluating Case Investigation and Contact Tracing Success that recommends a long list of canned reports to evaluate how the number and percentage of contacts that are being interviewed within 24 hours, the number of cases that are closed in a period. I won't go through the list because it's a substantial list. Are we doing, are we actually creating those reports? And I don't know if those would come out of MAVEN or if MAVEN is even designed to handle this stuff, but the, you know, I read through every one of the, I don't know, 30, 40, recommended reports for evaluating our success. And I couldn't find any that didn't seem really important. I suppose that's why they're on the CDC website.
[MaryAnn O'Connor]: So that's a yes or no question as far as MAVEN goes. So I can run reports out of MAVEN. I can run open cases. I can run closed cases. I can see when they were put into MAVEN. as opposed to when we were able to pick them up, contact them directly. Again, do I know that's because the nurse didn't get through for a day? No, I could never tell you that out of Maven. Or do I know that's because they just didn't get to it? I can't tell you that out of Maven. Maven's very limited in what you can get in and get out. So, so the answer is, you know, yes, we're keeping an eye on those things and yes, we'll follow up and I can look into Maven and I can see what's outstanding and what's not. And then it's just a matter of, I need to, I follow up sometimes directly with my public health nurse or whatever and say, how come this person hasn't been contacted or what's going on with this person? And that's when I'll hear, well, I left five messages, you know, and they haven't called me back or whatever. So I don't, does that answer your question?
[Paul Ruseau]: Yeah, I mean, you know, I don't know. MAVEN probably wasn't designed to answer this very large set of questions. So I'm not surprised.
[MaryAnn O'Connor]: Yeah, MAVEN was originally designed and we've been using MAVEN forever for all infectious disease. It's the state infectious disease reporting software. So it was not designed specifically for COVID and they're trying to add additional fields and add additional, you know, information. But even like when they ask about You know, is it indoor dining? Is it going to the gym? What is it? What's happening with it? There is no specific data field in MAVEN. You'd have to go through every individual nurse's notes to read. So it's not easily accessible. You can't pull it out. Now the state is adding that data field, I believe, the employment and other features like that. So it might make it a little easier going forward.
[Paul Ruseau]: Thank you. So I had a question for the superintendent. How do you know that contact tracing is happening 100% of the time for the students?
[Marice Edouard-Vincent]: I could only speak to the nine students. that we have the data for right now that once we're notified, whether it's by the parent notifying the school or we're given the information from the board of health calling the school department to say we have a student and their test results came in positive. Once we are given that information, the next steps are that the school-based nurses would begin the process of contact tracing. That's the information that I have for you for right now. But that's what we have. And once we have the information, it's given to the Board of Health, if it's done on the school side, and then it's entered into the MAVEN system. And I think depending on the individual, whether it's an adult, depending on the individual or depending on the information that you're given as possible close contacts, they follow the appropriate steps.
[Paul Ruseau]: Thank you. One of the slides we have, which I don't, there's that one. One of the slides in the slide deck Excuse me. Oh, I'm sorry, not that one. Too many slides, not that many really. The COVID-19 positive case count that you showed, I guess one of the things that was confusing to me was that all hybrid kids are also remote kids. And so I felt like this should actually be adjusted for days of in-school versus days not in school. I mean, we have hybrid kids when we send whole classrooms or cohorts home because of an infection, they don't suddenly show up on the remote group. They're still hybrid kids. So I just find these, you know, nine total for hybrid, nine out of how many kids? And out of how many days in school? Because every hybrid kid is also a remote kid. So, I mean, these numbers are, certainly important, but they don't provide any context or scale. I mean, if we had 18 remote kids in all, and all the rest of the kids were hybrid, then, I mean, DCF would probably be involved if literally every remote kid was positive. But we don't, these numbers imply that twice as many kids who are remote are becoming infected, but that doesn't tell you that twice, what percentage of the kids are actually remote versus hybrid. And the hybrid kids, we have the hybrid kids that are not in yet, they're in cohort that is considered hybrid.
[Marice Edouard-Vincent]: So right now we have approximately 1,700 kids in school. Of those 1,700 students, whether they're cohort A, B or C, of those 1,700, that are coming in for in-person instruction two days a week or four days a week, nine of those students have tested positive since the start of school. So since September 16th, nine students tested positive of the 1,700 that, approximately 1,700 that are in school right now. And we have another 900 or so that are online once we have our remaining high school students join the fold. So of the 1,700 students that have come into Medford Public Schools, whether it's four days a week and you were part of cohort A, two days a week if you were part of cohort B, or two days a week and you were part of cohort C, from those three cohorts since September, we have had nine students test positive in Medford. During that same time frame from September until now, students that are in cohort D, the fully remote cohort, we have had 18 students test positive. for COVID-19. So of the approximately 1300 students that have officially or students that have officially selected remote, a fully remote program, they make up those 18 students are from Cohort D. So, where you were saying the nine students, is it a Cohort A student or a Cohort B if they were in school Monday, Tuesday or in school Thursday, Friday, they're all classified for the purposes of just that table, so that people can't figure it out, I guess, but for the purposes of that table, if they come into Medford Public Schools for in-person instruction, at this point in time, nine students tested positive. I hope that provides a- It does, thank you.
[Paul Ruseau]: But I guess my question was, the eighth graders were the last group in, well, Let's just take the eighth grades, for instance, who just one of the last middle school, one of the last groups to come in. They have been in cohort B or C since school started. So if I'm an eighth grader and I tested positive in the middle of September, I am a hybrid kid who tested positive. I was nowhere near a building because I wasn't starting for weeks and weeks. So I just wanna know that the nine truly only means kids that have actually gone to the school building, or are we just simply dividing by cohorts, in which case this doesn't actually, this doesn't help us understand, does going to school have any impact?
[Marice Edouard-Vincent]: The nine students that are listed, those are the nine students that were physically crossed the threshold and entered one of the Medford public school buildings for in-person instruction. And while they were receiving in-person instruction or it may have been a cohort B child that tested positive on a cohort C day, but they're still classified as a student that's attending and participating in instruction as cohort A, B, or C, then that's the student that was counted. Point of information.
[Melanie McLaughlin]: So just for, may I, ma'am?
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Point of information, member McLaughlin, and then member Van der Kloot has her hand up as well. Oh, I'm sorry, member Van der Kloot.
[Melanie McLaughlin]: No, you have a point of information. So just if I understand you correctly, the nine students are students who physically crossed the threshold and went into the building, right? Yes. Yes. And the 18 are students who have not yet physically crossed the threshold and gone into the building. Is that accurate?
[Marice Edouard-Vincent]: Yes, that's my understanding, that the 18 students that are listed as remote are our remote-only students, and the nine were students that were physically on campus at one point in time.
[Melanie McLaughlin]: Or to member Rousseau's point, point of information, or to member Rousseau's point, the 18 could be an aggregate of students who are in, say, cohort B or C, but had not yet gone into the hybrid physical threshold model yet because they were at the time remote, right? That is a, I mean, I don't have the actual list of- Right, so the point of information is basically whenever the students were tested positive, they are in these two buckets. They had either nine been in the building or 18 had not been in the building at the point of testing. Okay, thank you. Yes, thank you.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Member van de Kloot?
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Yes, so I just wanted to go back to Mary Ann if I could, or Tony, I don't know who better to ask this question. So all together there we have 27 students. When the contact tracers call their home, Is it generally, like of the 27, do they know where they were in contact with someone with COVID? Do they have certainty of the, like you mentioned, well, the father had it or the mother, or do you have people saying, I have no idea?
[MaryAnn O'Connor]: Both, yes. We do have people who say, I work from home remote, like if the father gets it. I work from home remotely. We haven't done anything. You know, one of them, one of the remote children that sticks out in my head, that both parents worked home remote, the child's home remote. They said, the only thing that we do, we know that we do is we go to the playground. But, you know, other than that, so it's some people can say, yes, I was exposed to a coworker. So some people it's easier, but a lot of people give us that answer of, I don't have any idea how I could have gotten this.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Do you follow up and ask them if they've been going to the grocery store and other specifics?
[MaryAnn O'Connor]: Yeah. And obviously, most of them do go out and about and do what they need to do as far as errands go. But there's no way that they would say, I know I got it at the grocery store.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: So of the students, of the 27 students, if we could talk about in-school transmission, how many of those are suspected to be in-school transmission?
[MaryAnn O'Connor]: Right now we've only had one of those students. One of those students isn't in school transmission. The other eight, we are clear that it was not in school transmission because it was from a household member who had previously already had it.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: So in the in-school transmission case, and I realize we don't obviously wanna identify anybody, but how was it determined that that student, did they come to school sick? Could you just give us a better understanding?
[MaryAnn O'Connor]: So the only way we determine in-school transmission is because of the first case we had identified the close contacts we had put those close contacts into quarantine and then it was one of those close contacts who then became positive. So that's why we are saying that we assume it was from his close contact that he became positive and it was in school.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Okay, thank you, Maria.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you, member Graham. And then member McLaughlin.
[Jenny Graham]: Thanks. I'm looking at the chart and I just want to make, I think this chart deserves some definitions around remote and hybrid because I think as people look at this, you know, to look at September, it sounds great until you realize that a very small number of children went to school for three days in September. So it's good that there was no transmission, but like the even chance of that was very, very low because our our cohort A didn't come back until September 28th, right? And so I think what is complex about what we are doing here is we have students who have chosen hybrid who are still at home, and then we have remote students. And so when we say it's remote students, I want people to just be clear about who is in that category. So for example, like the question that I had based on some of the conversation we've been having is in October, Medford High School, which in October only Cohort A was in the building. There were three students who tested positive who are hybrid and six who tested positive who are remote. Does that mean that those three students were from Cohort A and the six were everybody else, or does it mean that the three include students who chose hybrid, but are still home because the high school has not welcomed students back. And the six is among those students who have chosen to stay remote. So I think that October line for the high school feels like the place where we can clearly sort of define this. because it's uncomplicated in that we were not rolling students in in the month of October. So I don't think that it's crystal clear, certainly not on this chart, what these categories mean. And I think it can and should be clear as we publish this data.
[Marice Edouard-Vincent]: So what you're asking, is that the October data that reflected the remote students to go and confirm that those six students truly were on the fully remote list or were they students that were waiting for their particular grade level to come into school as part of the staggered hybrid. So to possibly have a third column of remote waiting for, waiting to matriculate to in-person instruction is what it sounds like you're saying that.
[Jenny Graham]: I'm asking, yeah, I'm asking which way we are interpreting these headers. And I think the reason it's relevant is because if you're going to start moving students across the line, so to speak, the data gets really hard to digest and interpret, right? So if somebody, is on the right side of the line today, but when we welcome them back now they're on the left side of the line. I don't know that that is as helpful as if we had clarity about, you know, the students who are in and maybe it is as simple as having three columns like you're suggesting, but I just, I want the definitions, whether it's two columns or three columns to be really clear. and unchanging. So when we talk about our population, we can be clear about what the population is and means as we look at the number of four to conclude is four good or four not good based on that population.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Point of information? Member Grims, finish, you're up next anyway. Member McLaughlin.
[Melanie McLaughlin]: Oh, thank you. So I think what I'm hearing is that I think that it's an interesting point in terms of to the sort of denominator, if you will, of the number and the data so that, for example, if there are, you know, three students that were tested positive in and we know that the denominator there was 100 students total, so three out of 100 students total, because those were the students that had been across the threshold in that point, for example. So I think that if I'm understanding correctly, the denominator is helpful as well, so that three out of 100 is very different from eight out of 1,700, right? So I think that sort of denominator can be helpful. So maybe it's either, again, the denominator or some percentages that help clarify that information. But then I would also ask if I might, Marianne O'Connor, I don't see you, where are you? Oh, there you are. Hi, Marianne. Can you, just, you know, at the risk of being a little bit pedantic, would you mind just sort of sharing your, background, how long you've been doing this, sort of, you know, you know, what your role is, you know, just a little bit for especially for people who don't know, I would ask that. And then I would ask whether you think that this is a reasonable plan moving forward. Thank you.
[MaryAnn O'Connor]: So, as of August, I've been with Medford as the director of the Board of Health for four years. Prior to that, I was in Lynn, I was the director of the Board of Health in Lynn for 12 years. And prior to that, I was a vice president of a hospital system in healthcare. So for many years, I'm showing my age. What was the other question? I'm sorry.
[Melanie McLaughlin]: The other question, is it your professional opinion that this plan that is being proposed by the central administration is a plan that should go forward?
[MaryAnn O'Connor]: I do, because I think we're not looking at any one particular metric to move us. Like they had said, it's a combination. There's a lot of variation you have to look at. what's happening in the schools, but you have to look at what's happening in the community. So I think, you know, if we had an outbreak, God forbid, at one of our long-term care facilities again, our TAS or something, you know, we would have to look at that as a cluster that's separate and doesn't impact our schools, right? Even though it may impact our numbers and our positivity rates. So I think knowing that we're being nimble in what we do, But at the same time, we're looking at the whole picture and we're not saying this is the one thing. There is no silver bullet, right? If there was, we would have done that a long time ago. So I think looking at the total picture, I think the plan that they're presenting is sound, very sound.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you. Member Kreatz, then Member Graham.
[Kathy Kreatz]: Thank you. Thank you. I just got my mic on. Okay. Yep. So, thank you very much for the presentation, Dr. Edward Bitson and your entire staff, and a special thanks to Toni Wray and Marian O'Connor for everything that they do. So I've been, you know, following the news and you know, listening to a lot of the emails and all the correspondence, you know, the public health experts, the desi commissioner, and the governor have expressed in light of the current COVID cases, students should be in school in person. And I trust the medical professionals, health experts, the Board of Health, and the State Board of Health and the CDC. And, you know, I just, I really trust the experts. You know, I know there's the COVID numbers are on the rise, but from everything that's been presented, the spread has been, you know, there has been very little spread in transmission in the schools. And the spread has been related to either, you know, community and or family or indoor outings, you know, and we have said many times that the schools are very safe. Um, you know what I what I'd like to do is I'd like to make a motion to accept the superintendent's recommendations continue with The to utilize parts one building classroom readiness and three district and school specific metrics from the original member public schools Reopening dashboard and then update part two member community health metrics Of the original member public schools covid reopening dashboard to include the department of public health's updated color-coded classification system. So I just want to, you know, I want to definitely make that motion because I think that, you know, from hearing from all the experts and, you know, I just have to put my trust in the experts, the Department of Health, the Board of Health, the State Department of Health, the CDC, the governor, all their guidance. And, you know, I think we should continue to monitor you know, the numbers and pay very close attention, like what we're doing. And I'm just making that motion now.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: I'll second.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Can I- Member McLaughlin seconded by Member Van der Kloot to call the roll.
[Melanie McLaughlin]: I have a question. Friendly amendment.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: I'm not ready to do that. Me either.
[Melanie McLaughlin]: Can I make a friendly amendment? Yes. Member McLaughlin and then Member Graham. Thank you. The amendment that I was going to suggest is that the data include the information we were just talking about a little while ago with some clarification around the denominator number, if you will, and the sort of the cohort, that third column that we were talking about, just so that it's really clear. And then obviously in the other that's not included in this particular document. We had underneath each of the criteria we had, you know, remote or hybrid based on a different color criteria. I did see that that wasn't included in this. Particular dashboard. So if you could just add that to so that it's really explicit for the community. I think that would be great. So I would just, you know, make a friendly amendment that that, um, data is included in the dashboard. If member of
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: We can't hear you, Mr. Murphy. Sometimes this happens to me, but if you click on the little arrow near the mute, you can just reset your mic.
[SPEAKER_13]: Just give me one second. He's entered the room, and I'm going to make him a co-host.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: OK, thank you, Dr. Cushing.
[David Murphy]: Hi, sorry, how about now?
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Yes, we can hear you.
[David Murphy]: I hope my comment is worth the wait there, but the thing The thing that I wanted to say, and hopefully I'll be able to now without making everyone go deaf, is that with regard to this data, it can be disaggregated potentially with regard to the cohorts the way that Ms. McLaughlin and Ms. Graham have asked for. I just wanted to offer one point that you may want to take into consideration. So when we look back, that is information that it's somewhat easy to disaggregate because as members were saying, if students have not yet come in, they're not cohort B or cohort C in the sense that we would think about them as cohort B and cohort C as in being in the school buildings and being exposed and potentially exposing members of the school community. As we go forward, that issue should be of diminishing significance in the sense that we're only down to grades nine through 12. And when we, presumably over the course of the next several weeks, and potentially a little bit longer, but hopefully several weeks, nine through 12 are in, and therefore there are no more students who are still pending their return to in-person instruction. However, there may be situations where either programs are transitioned into remote or theoretically, under very extreme circumstances, a school goes into remote. At that point, this data, it would be that much more complicated to disaggregate that. It doesn't mean we can't do that and we'll disaggregate any data that the committee wants to see. But for community members' benefit, when looking at this, they may not be able to draw the conclusions that you typically would expect to draw based on that variable changing. And the fact that you could have someone who's B and C, but for some period of time is fully remote, they contract the virus, and then all of a sudden they're being counted in an account that is misleading. And so again, we'll disaggregate any data that we can that you'd like us to, but you should know that The unintended consequence might be additional confusion rather than clarity. And again, I apologize for if that wasn't worth the weight as I scrambled around my various computers here.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you, Mr. Murphy. Helpful. Member Graham.
[Jenny Graham]: I actually have several questions about the dashboard. So to Member McLaughlin's point, what is the recommendation about how the colors relate to school closing.
[MaryAnn O'Connor]: Superintendent, do you want to answer? Go ahead. Sorry.
[Marice Edouard-Vincent]: Yeah, I was going to say in terms of the colors, when I think about the original metrics, when the metrics technical team met and we looked at the specific scenarios and cases by schools, all of that information that the group worked on at that point in time, we have not strayed away from those recommended scenarios. So that if at one of the elementary schools, which currently has approximately 250 students, you know, whether it's cohort B day, AB or AC, if you were to end up with, you know, like six cases or six students testing, you know, throughout in different classrooms, six different classrooms, we would do what we've been doing all along. If it's within a classroom, we would, you know, isolate or quarantine the classroom. But once we hit that number, we would revert back to what was stated in that document. So if the magic number was six students, then that would be the number, that would be the number that we would work with to say at, you know, I don't wanna say a school's name, but at so-and-so school, there were six positive cases within one day or two days as a result of, you know, a significant uptick at the school level, then we would, you know, make that appropriate decision. But thus far, we haven't had a situation where we've had multiple cases in one specific building, which was why we just wanted to show the data that we have at this point in time, where for October and for November, four students and five students over the course of an entire month, that's the data and spread out between four different schools. So that's the reasoning behind that.
[Jenny Graham]: I want to talk about section three in just a second, but my question is about section two. So community health metrics. In the original plan, red meant remote. And I think what member McLaughlin was asking is, does red equal remote?
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: the governor has stated four weeks in red, then you need to evaluate whether you should go remote. So red does not mean remote.
[Marice Edouard-Vincent]: It does not, red does not mean remote.
[David Murphy]: Okay, so- It doesn't mean per se remote.
[Jenny Graham]: Correct, it means somebody would need to make a decision, right?
[David Murphy]: After extended period of time in red, but it does not mean, and really nothing means remote per se, or per se remote, depending on which teacher taught you that phrase. But it is a combination of factors, which is sort of consistent with this overall criteria, that it is a totality of the circumstances analysis that takes into account these three prongs. The readiness of the schools, which we can somewhat control, the community numbers at large, and what's happening within the school communities. And for none of those things, is there a single variable that would trigger the transition to remote? Evaluating it in four weeks of remote that the governor stated, as the mayor just said, that would certainly happen. But if we're deep into the red, we wouldn't wait to assess this until week four. We would be assessing it on an ongoing basis. And certainly after four weeks, there would need to be a deeper discussion, but the discussion would build because we have to be vigilant about this and be looking at this continuously. But there is, I think that for the community's benefit, they should know there is no single variable that will trigger a district wide transition to remote. And the reason for that is everything has to be weighed together under the totality of the circumstances and at different points, different prongs will be weighed more heavily.
[Jenny Graham]: Okay. So that's what I thought this was actually saying, but it doesn't say that explicitly. And I think it's important for the community to understand explicitly that our color status from the state does not mean we must do anything in our schools. So to put it on the chart, I think it's important, but I think it needs to include language that talks about the fact that These metrics are, there's nothing about this color coding that drives a decision automatically. I think that needs to be clear on the document. I also think it needs to be clear on the document what happens when we do sort of get to the point of having to make a decision. So when we end up in red, for example, Like, does that mean that the superintendent is going to bring a recommendation in collaboration with the Board of Health to this committee where we will have a discussion and take a vote? Or is this proposal saying you alone will make this decision?
[Marice Edouard-Vincent]: All the work that I have been doing has always been in collaboration with the team and in collaboration with guidance from the Board of Health and working closely with our Director of Nursing, Nurse Toni Rae. If a decision like that, based on a shift in data, I would definitely communicate with the school committee as well. It would be an emergency communication or a phone call, we would definitely communicate with you so I don't want the school committee to feel that they would not be looped in or notified of a significant shift. We are closely looking at the data. I believe strongly in data. The data can do its own talking all by itself. But if something like that were to happen, we would make a decision based on what the data is saying, but we would definitely include all stakeholders. So if that were to be something where we needed, like back in, to say there's been a shift, the governor has said Massachusetts is no longer red, Massachusetts is now purple, and shutting down all schools, we would notify the school committee immediately, and we would call an emergency meeting and communicate first. and in collaboration with the team, the board of health and share the information that we have so that the entire school committee would be kept abreast of what's happening.
[Jenny Graham]: So, and I appreciate that sort of if the governor says sort of hands down, right? But I think what I'm getting at is there is a difference between you giving us a heads up of a decision that you've made and you asking this committee to collaborate on the best path forward. I just wanna be clear what you are recommending tonight so that I can determine how I will vote. So I wanna understand, are you going in those situations? Are you coming to this committee where we will listen to the experts? I don't believe anybody on this committee is suggesting that we not listen to the experts. So I take complete exception to continued references that people are not listening to experts. I think this committee wants to listen to the experts and has tried to do so pragmatically and carefully. I do think that this is a decision that has wide impact on our community and the purpose of the school committee presiding over the schools is so that the entire community has a voice. and a way to engage in what is really important to them as it relates to sending their children to school. If you are making a decision and you are informing us, there is no collaboration or discussion. I'm not saying that is or isn't a good thing. I'm just asking to be crystal clear what you are asking us to approve.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: If I may, we took a vote as a committee to give the administration Maryann O'Connor and Ms. Ray, that authority.
[Jenny Graham]: So- We gave them the authority to proceed with the staggered hybrid. That is different than blanket authority forevermore. I'm asking so that we are all clear about what and who and how we will make this decision.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Member Van de Kloop.
[Jenny Graham]: Yes, I actually am not done. I was hoping for an answer to that question and I have several more.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: I would think that the administration and Ms. O'Connor and Ms. Ray would be fully capable of making that decision. That's my personal opinion, but I'm sure the committee thinks has an individual opinion on that.
[Jenny Graham]: So when the motion asks us to approve this plan, what is this plan that we're approving in this regard?
[Melanie McLaughlin]: Can I make a point of information or information, Miss McLaughlin? Thank you. There's a couple of things that I want to sort of ask in response to this. query really is, you know, are we getting any public participation on this call? I would like to hear from community members, frankly, we do have a community member whose hand is raised. And then I did see that Mr. Murphy just raised his hand as well. So I'd like to sort of, I'm trying to really listen to everyone's perspective here and including member Graham. So I wanna make sure that we're able to hear from community members as well.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: let member Graham continue and then we have two hands raised as well as member Vandekloot did raise her hand so we'll take it in that order.
[Marice Edouard-Vincent]: So in response to your first question, member Graham, I'm gonna respond with a word that, and I don't want it to be taken out of context, but I am gonna say, I would like to ask the entire school committee to place their trust in me, that as a parent, as an educator of over 25 years, I am not trying to put anyone's life or health at risk, that I am gonna prioritize education I love school, and I'm very happy seeing kids in school. At this point in time, we don't have the data to support shutting down or operating differently. At this point in time, the data isn't there. The numbers are not showing that.
[SPEAKER_15]: And a personal privilege.
[Marice Edouard-Vincent]: I would, I would like to trust the school committee to be able to trust that I would be able to make a sound decision, but a personal privilege of information member Ruseau, actually, it's a point of personal privilege.
[Paul Ruseau]: I every meeting, we are continuously the school committee members, all of us are being attacked, frankly, that we don't want schools open, that we don't trust the administration, that we don't trust the Board of Health. And literally, if you want to go watch all those videos again, none of us are saying that. It is offensive, and it's got to stop. Either it's not a school committee member, and there's probably in this entire nation that doesn't want kids back in school. And it's a drum that is being beat endlessly, and it is offensive.
[Melanie McLaughlin]: Point of information, member McLaughlin. I have to say, you know, with all due respect to the chair I disagree with member Ruseau here. I think that there's been a lot of emotion and a lot of heated back and forth on both parts, frankly, and I think that we really need to put the children first. and not make this personal with anybody. So not school committee members, not the board of health, not the administration. I think we are all here trying our damnedest to do the best for every single one of our kids. And I have to say, I think that the superintendent has been leading that charge and that has been, this is probably the most difficult job anybody has been in. And I have to speak on that behalf and say, I don't think we should be making this personal. I don't think anybody's attacking anybody or if they are, request that we're not, and that we're really thinking about how we're all in this together, and we're really all trying to think about the best interest of all of our children.
[SPEAKER_15]: Point of order.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you, Member McLaughlin. Point of order, Member Ruseau.
[Paul Ruseau]: Points of personal privilege are not to be responded to. I just wanted to reiterate that as part of Robert's rules.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Overruled. Dr. Edouard-Vincent, would you like to finish? And then I think Mr. Murphy wanted to
[Marice Edouard-Vincent]: Yes, as I was saying, I do trust my judgment and my experience that if I had to call school, if that was a decision that had to be made, I would make that decision, but in collaboration with feedback from my colleagues, listening to the guidance of the board of health and working closely with our director, Toni Wray of nursing. I would also make it a point not after the fact to communicate early and clearly to the school committee that if we we saw a shift in the data, and that things were changing that that something possibly could be happening, I would. make that commitment to get that message across to you as soon as it was something that seemed like it could be a decision that was going to be made in the near future. But part of the responsibility of running the school district is to be able to make the difficult decisions and I know that I can call any of you, speak with you and bring it to you as well. But it is part of what is expected of a superintendent and I am prepared to do that. I am prepared to make those difficult decisions if that were to need to happen.
[Jenny Graham]: Thank you. I still have questions. I'm happy and I'm happy to take turns, but I still have questions. So I don't know how you want it. Do you want me just to finish my questions?
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Yeah, you do have the floor. Mr. Murphy, did you want to respond to that answer by Member Graham?
[David Murphy]: Two points about the question that Ms. Graham raised. One, there was a question as to whether we should explicitly say that there's no one variable that would trigger a transition to remote. I think that is articulated in slide four And it's a quote from the CDC. So my recommendation would be to take that language and incorporate it into the dashboard. So there is that clarifying piece that while these are the three prongs, none of those prongs are dispositive in their own right. And I think that will provide the clarity for people looking at the dashboard for that purpose. And just with regard to the actual decision, to the superintendent's point, we monitor this continuously. And there have been instances, and I recognize we're talking mostly about a district-wide transition to remote, but there have been instances in which the superintendent has needed to decide, because of transportation and communication implications, on extremely short notice to transition a program into remote. It is not inconceivable that something of that nature could happen on a much larger scale. And for that reason, the superintendent has to retain the authority to make that decision on a very short term, sometimes a matter of hours, to which a deliberative body like the school committee is not equipped to necessarily convene to make that decision. That being said, we have this agenda item on the agenda at every meeting, and this discussion takes place. And for that reason, and the committee's privilege to convene on 48 hours notice or less in the case of an emergency, the committee certainly can convene and make this decision because of the district-wide implications that could happen. But in that circumstance where the deliberative body needs to assemble on such short notice, in all likelihood, the superintendent would have already had a responsibility to make a decision of some kind for purposes of safety. But I think the point is a little moot in that we're convening either every week or every other week discussing this agenda topic with the superintendent and the school committee present. And so that dialogue and that discourse is going to continue. It's not like this is a situation where the committee can't convene for an extended period of time and therefore only the superintendent can make that decision. So I think the point is that this is monitored on a daily basis. If the superintendent needs to make the decision, she certainly can, she will, and frankly, in the case of some programs, she has. and the committee will continue to convene on a regular basis and discuss this issue because of its importance and because of its district-wide implications.
[Jenny Graham]: So I feel like we are sort of muddying section two and section three. So I'm gonna ask my questions about section three and then I'll circle back to section two. In section three, what I wanted to say is that I, want to commend A, the fact that our transmission has been so low, even as we have brought people back. I think that is commendable. And it is a testament to the hard work and the really thoughtful, pragmatic ways that you are making these decisions every single day. So I don't want anybody on this call to think that I disagree with your decisions to date about programs, that have to go remote for various reasons. And to my knowledge, your decision-making has been exactly what I would have done myself, which is there is no more trust than that. So I wanna say that in section, as it relates to section three, I think we did a lot of hard work collaboratively as an organization and with community members and with community input to really sort of flush out those scenarios and they're working. And I wanna see them continue to work. What I would ask in section three is that we circle back to the intent of what is in the language in section three, and that instead of this blurb that is here, that is not super meaningful week to week, that this section three going forward outline whether there are buildings where there are special conditions happening. So for example, the McGlynn Middle School there is a sixth grade classroom or the Brooks Elementary School, there is a third grade classroom. Something that gives people who come to look at this dashboard, some indication of what is happening across the district on a regular week for those programs that have had to be sent home remote. It's not, the goal of that is so that Everyone just doesn't sort of run around on pins and needles wondering when the shoe is going to drop when they're going to get a phone call when somebody is going to make a decision, but instead we are doing this, we are following our own rules in this particular instance section three. All I'm asking is that we outline them here. So if the motion that goes forward, if this needs to be a separate motion, that's fine. If it needs to be part of the complete motion, that's fine. But I do think it's really important that this section outline what was intended of the section. And I feel like I can speak about the intent of the section because I helped author it. So I know what we intended to put here I want the community to have the benefit of seeing the hard work that we are doing to keep community spread and school spread low by making good decisions as those situations come up. So as it relates to section three, the superintendent, according to our rules, has always had the complete authority to make these decisions. And I don't think there's any reason to change section three. What I am asking about is when we are making decisions based on section two, that is outside of just the scope and control of the superintendent or frankly the school committee. That is where we are saying what is happening in our community is noteworthy enough for us to make a decision about schools. And in that case, I do actually think it's reasonable to want to collaborate in some fashion about that decision. Whether my colleagues agree with me or not remains to be seen, but I would say if we can make an update to the language so that we are clear that red doesn't mean anything nor does any other color in isolation. And I think we should remove the conclusion because I think the conclusion implies that the colors mean something and alone they do not. I think that what people are really wanting to know is who and how will this decision get made. So for example, we just said the governor has said if you're in red for four weeks, then you should be talking about this. I think that would be worth putting on this dashboard so people understand that that is the point at which they could expect some sort of action to change outside of what is happening in our schools, right? And back to like the issue of who makes this decision because this decision is not solely about what happens in schools. It's not solely about making a fast decision based on staffing, transportation, whatever have you. All I'm asking is that we have a collaborative discussion about that on a regular basis when the time comes. I am not asking you to close schools. I am from four people this weekend that we were gonna make a decision tonight to go remote. I don't believe that we're making that kind of decision and I don't believe that's ever been discussed as a reason for this meeting. But this is what happens when we're not clear about how we plan to use the data. All I'm asking is that we be clear about how we use the data and who will be making this decision and that this committee tonight vote on how those decisions will be made going forward. Does that make sense?
[Marice Edouard-Vincent]: I, I listened to what you were saying and I guess, as I'm hearing you speak about section two, and I know that you were deeply involved with us as part of the team on section three. When I think about the entire three areas, we're not looking at one particular category or metrics in isolation and referring back to the quote that was there, that probably wouldn't be a wise move to do. But if a decision has to be made, whether it's based on section three or a decision that's made based on section two, I still feel that I should be able to make that decision in collaboration with my team and communicate it out to the school committee. So I still feel that that should be the same approach, whether it's section one, section two, or section three.
[Melanie McLaughlin]: Can I ask a point of information, Mayor? I'm not sure that everybody is following section one, two, and three, so maybe we can just use a title for each of those since we don't have the document up in front of us, but if folks could just, you know, section one, is, you know, this section two. Thank you.
[Marice Edouard-Vincent]: Building classroom readiness, section two is Medford community health metrics. That's where we had the color coded red, yellow, green and gray. And section three is district and school specific conditions.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you. we have four residents. Member Van der Kloot, do you wanna go before the four residents? I know.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Well, I know they've been waiting an awful long time, but what I would do is I could just ask Member Graham one question for clarification, and then if you would call upon me after we let the residents speak, I don't want them to have to wait any longer. But the clarification is, Jenny, you mentioned maybe I should make an amendment, maybe it should be a new resolution, but I wasn't sure what, precisely you are either amending or what your resolution would be. So could you give us the wording so we understand?
[Jenny Graham]: Sure. So as the superintendent pointed out in our last meeting, we never voted to change what is listed as section three. So section three is district and school specific conditions. It currently reads Our top priority is to monitor the safety of our students. We will use the Medford Board of Health and MPS managing local COVID conditions in our school buildings framework to guide our decision-making as we work with the Medford Board of Health to recommend plans and next steps as cases are identified. We will follow state-issued guidelines in regards to notification testing, quarantine protocols, and COVID-19 positive persons and close contacts before a final decision is made. On the district or school closure, the superintendent must advise Jesse and will communicate with the school committee. So the point the intent of this section was that there was a box that could say, for example, there's a special condition right school specific condition that exists in a certain building so it's you know. School A, and it's a classroom in grade three. So that if somebody comes out here and takes a look at it, they understand, does that apply to me or does it not apply to me? Does it apply to my child or does it not apply to my child? And it also gives the community at any given time, a glance at what are all these decisions that we have made to keep our students safe? across the system. So what I'm asking is that a box be added, the language is fine, but the box that is added should reflect those classrooms, programs, grades, whatever they are, that are full remote because of a decision that the superintendent has made. So all I'm asking is that as those decisions are made and somebody is sent home remote for some amount of time, that it be listed.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: So to clarify, if there was the Brooks School classroom, second grade was sent home, it would say, you know, so sort of a red flag, current closures, Brooks School, grade two. So if we- Select grade two or something like that. Right, so that's just a total hypothetical to be clear. But then the question is when we do that, and this goes back to Marianne, is the whole confidentiality issue. And are we really giving people more, I mean, if grade two is closed at whatever school, okay, wouldn't automatically, you know, parents would be notified, let's face it, the school would soon know, what are you really accomplishing? I mean, yes, it is a way of, it would be one way of seeing it across the district, and from that, I like that. You know, Brooks grade two, Roberts grade four, you know, Cohart C, you know, that would work.
[Jenny Graham]: I think the value is to be able to see it across the district to, provide information for families so that they understand that we are making good rational decisions about this stuff. And, and frankly, as you said that I would rather us. publish official information, then allow that information to go out by the rumor mill, which generates the calls that say, hey, I heard you were going to make a decision to send everybody remote. All I'm suggesting is that being clear and upfront about this stuff allows Medford Public Schools to overwhelmingly be the source of information on what is happening in our schools, rather than allowing that out to social media.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: So if the box said, or if the next current closures, okay, so the box said current closures, and right now, do we have any closures, superintendent? Let me ask the confidentiality question first.
[David Murphy]: Mr. Murphy yet has we have we may have a program that is remote right now that it would not be ideal to identify so. And that is often going to be the case, so I think that we share the desire for transparency and I think there is value in the Community just that from a confidence perspective, seeing as these sort of situations accumulate, but I don't see the value in identifying a specific grade level because if there's a grade level or. some demo constituency of students that has been transitioned to remote in a school. I think to miss predicates point. Every people who need to know that information going to have it and we can provide equally helpful information to the community by not getting into the level of specificity as to which grade level it is or which are certainly which program it is and so I think that we could, and I would, again, I'd like to hear from Ms. O'Connor on it, but I think we could say and have this, what is essentially like a tracking system so people can see what's gone remote and identify something happened in a school. We're not telling you how many students, we're not telling you how old they were, we're not telling you anything else really, but the Brooks has got something that went remote, the Roberts has something that went remote and so on and so forth. I don't personally see how that would be a potential uh, privacy invasion. But again, Miss O'Connor is the HIPAA licensed person. So, but that seems to me like it would both give the community some information without going down the road that I think we all want to avoid.
[MaryAnn O'Connor]: I agree wholeheartedly with that, Dave. Giving a building situation is fine. I mean, the fact that we are hybrid now, the classes are very small, right? They're split in half. So going down to a class level at a hybrid level or a cohort level, that's That would be, I would not recommend that.
[David Murphy]: But a school community is, you know, they're all, I mean, just to be clear, we do have a school, one school community that is very small in terms of its total student population. I think that would have to be exempted somehow. I don't see how we can identify. But with that exception, I think everywhere else we're talking about hundreds of people. And I think that would be unsafe ground.
[Jenny Graham]: Yeah, and I think if we, you know, created an asterisk that said that we are not reporting, you know, we are not reporting special conditions due to confidentiality issues at a given building. I think that's fine. I think that's really a really reasonable way to provide information that is not going to disclose anybody's confidential information, but still provide the community at large some information about what is going on across the system, that would be helpful.
[David Murphy]: Yeah, I think the one, and I'm sorry to make this even more complicated, but like, if I think that is a necessary thing for the particular school we're referring to, but I think the same rationale could be extended to most of the programs in cohort A. There is a higher level of privacy at issue, and some of the programs have very few students enrolled. I, so my recommendation would be that it would be school community based, but there, it essentially say not just that this particular school is exempted from this, but that essentially cohort A would be, would be exempted from this with the rationale being that if you are affected by a transition to remote, you have been, we have personally communicated with you. Again, some, it's not, it's not cut and dry. It's, I don't think it's black and white. I just, I have reservations about identity, just any type of asterisk that applies to ways one specific school community. And so I'm trying to think about how that could be broader to provide the necessary privacy and installation. I don't know if my suggestion is the answer to it or not. There are other complexities with it, but I think there's consensus from what I'm seeing that we're not gonna identify beyond the school community level, correct?
[MaryAnn O'Connor]: I would say building, right?
[David Murphy]: When I say school community, I mean a building.
[Jenny Graham]: Yeah, I think that's really reasonable.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: So, Mayor, I actually had the floor, but I wanna get to, I know Mr. Began has had his hand up for a long time and there are others, but, and then I'd like to make a statement afterwards.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Sounds great, thank you, Member Van der Kloot. Mr. Began?
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: I don't think he heard you.
[Sean Beagan]: Can you hear me?
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Yes.
[Sean Beagan]: OK, great. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Mayor, members of the school committee. First of all, I just want to say congratulations to the superintendent and her staff and to Miss O'Connor and her staff and to Miss Ray as well. You're two months into this opening and you have one case of in-school transmission. I think that is unbelievable. And really that's the number that, that's the only number that matters to me tonight. You have one case of in-school transmission. For my purposes as a parent, I don't care if there's 20 kids that show up in school and have COVID, if they all go home and no one got infected, I'm happy, people are gonna get this disease, but we gotta keep opening these schools, because the kids need it really badly. I have two daughters in high school who are ready to bust through the walls to get into that school. And I hope that you continue to let it happen. I think that the person you have in charge here, there could be no better for us right now. Just let Dr. Edouard-Vincent use her sound judgment and her common sense. And I think we're gonna be fine. I think these schools are gonna keep opening and I think transmission is gonna remain low. And I think this meeting should really be a cause for celebration given the numbers we're looking at two months in. So thank you very much.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you. Next up, Roka. Jean Gatza, COB Host, she or her): Yes, hello, can you hear me.
[6kKbcFkpEqA_SPEAKER_07]: Yes. Okay, so I would say that the principle here is not about trust. There's been a lot of talk about trust, but this is really about the community that you serve having a voice. So the school committee is supposed to represent us, represent families, but all decisions are now in the hands of administrators instead of there being a vote that actually reflects community voices. And at this point in time, you may not have the data for full closure, but cases are rising exponentially and will continue to do so through the winter. So there needs to be a plan and families need to have a say in that plan. And to say that essentially nothing means remote is irresponsible and it gives you the room to keep changing the metrics. So how much is going to be enough, right? So are you going to wait until hospitals are overloaded until there's no ICU beds or what? Because at this point, you know, families really need to be able to prepare and you've given us no clarity on how to do so.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you, Miss Rooker. Miss Moretti.
[Nadeen Moretti]: You should be unmuted now. Hi, can you hear me? Yes. Thank you. Oh, thank you, Mayor. Good evening, everybody. I just want to put out there that I do trust the superintendent and the administration and the decisions that are so difficult for them to make thus far. It's been really grueling for everybody involved. The only thing that worries me for my junior, who's a vocational student in electrical, is they're missing out on the hands-on, all the vocational students. So he actually had gone in last week for two days for four hours, Thursday and Friday, and it was wonderful. It was really, it felt really good and a little normal for once. And then we're shut down already because I believe there was one case. But I think that I think that we have to put our trust in the superintendent and with the CDC's new information that the safest place for the kids is in school, I would have to agree. So I really hope that that's the case. And just going off of what the woman who spoke before said, We might have the seven school committee members who are great, who are the voices of the people that vote for them, but remember, you vote them in and there was how many other candidates. So they don't, they may not necessarily speak for everybody. So you have to take that into consideration too. They do, you know, they do respond to everything well, but I think the kids really need to get back in school. So I hope that the high schoolers can get back in school finally, because it's been really long time. but great job so far getting all the eighth graders, up to the eighth graders in, so thank you. Thank you.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Thanks. Mr. Carbone?
[SPEAKER_13]: Yes, can you hear me?
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_13]: Okay. My name is Christopher Carboni my daughter, Rachel attends the high school my daughter Sarah attends the school formerly known as the Columbus school. Um, I want to just reiterate what has been said by two of the last three speak, the three of the last four speakers the um, Mr. vegan and Miss already. Um, it does appear from the data, as limited as it might be. that the safest place for a child to be in is a school that is properly following the protocols set by both the CDC and by the Commonwealth's health agencies. That those industries, those places are doing the best work. If you take nine students that are doing hybrid and you divide them by 1,700 students, that's half a percent. That's half percent. If you'd go outside the school to the day-to-day that's going out here in Medford, we're at about 1.5%. Inside a school is three times as safe as outside the school. If you take 1,300 students, and you take the 18 students that have got it remotely, and you divide by 1,300, that's 1.5%. In other words, that makes complete sense. Mathematically, it all seems to work out. I completely agree with what Mr. Beacon said. This is actually a cause for celebration. Why we're not treating it like that, I think it says a lot more about what's going on with the school committee than it does anything else. Parents should be particularly happy about this. Medford school committee, but most importantly, the superintendent should be doing a victory lap right now. And the parents should be grateful to them. We came into this, What are you going to do? How are you going to do it? And what are your measures going to be if it's gone right or wrong? Everything they say they've done, they've done. They've followed all the protocols and procedures. They've given us the metrics and we're under them consistently. Why are we treating this like this is anything but great news? And so I just wanna end by saying that I hope the school committee continues to follow our superintendent's lead. She is clearly head and shoulders above the last person we had in that position. And I think it's about time someone said so. And I feel very enthused by these numbers. And if we're gonna all say, we go out in our day-to-day lives and we say things like, we're gonna listen to the experts and we're gonna follow the numbers. Well, I suggest we start doing that, because the numbers seem pretty good.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you, Adam. And then member Van der Kloot.
[Jessica Healey]: Can you hear me? Yes. Hi, I'm sorry, my name's Jessica, that's my son's name. Yes, I just wanted to reiterate what Mr. Carbone, I believe his name was, just said. I believe the superintendent and her team have been doing an amazing job My son is in cohort A, so he's been back since the very beginning. And he was considered at one point a close contact. And I got notified right away. The nurse was right on top of it. I went right down to the school and got him. He did have to stay home for the two weeks, but they got his work to him. Everything that needed to be done was done. He got his services. Everything went great. So what they needed to do, they did very quickly. And given that he was cohort A and it was only like two weeks in, they were right on top of it and knew exactly what to do. I have full trust in the superintendent and her team, they are following the guidelines, they're with the Board of Health, and they know what they're doing. And I think we need to give them that credit and let them do the work. Thank you.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you. Member van de Kloot, and then I'll take the two additional speakers.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Thank you. So, some of the speakers made points that I wanted to make and first I will start out with Mr. begins point that the really great news is just the one in school transmission. And that's, that's just fantastic news and. we can certainly hope that we can continue that. To the speaker who talked about the role of the school committee and us representing, well, we do. And when I was elected, I always take that a certain amount of people at least have enough faith in my judgment. Sometimes we will disagree, but overall, you have listened to me enough and you have some level of faith in my thinking and in my judgment. As a school committee member, I have watched our superintendent and her team very carefully. We looked at the policies that we've outlined and I see them following them and working very meticulously as many of the speakers made reference to. I have personally no reason to question her judgment on making a call if we were facing a situation, I believe that she would evaluate with her team and with the city people, and also maybe a call to the school committee members, because we certainly would want to be kept in the loop, but I've never felt that I've not been kept in the loop by the superintendent. But I wouldn't need to be called into a special meeting. I wouldn't want to put that as this body, the school committee, now would be the ones who make that decision. I have trust that the school committee has selected our superintendent to carry out our policies and I have every reason to believe that that's what she would be doing. So I would support the motion by my colleague and also like to thank everybody for all their work on these issues. I would support the clarification that member Graham spoke to. In the general sense, not specific, because I think we went through the discussion about that. And so I think that's good. If you wanted to do an analogy, we could talk about snow days. And some might say, well, Paulette, you're making it so simple. But frankly, when there's a snow day, a superintendent makes a call with a lot of different inputs about the safety of the travel for our students, travel for our teachers, the conditions. She confers with other experts. She might confer with other superintendents as well. And there's always going to be people who are going to disagree with the superintendent. And there's always going to be people, and luckily we've heard from some of them tonight, which is nice that you've taken the time. who's going to support the decision. Yes, it's a simplification, obviously this is far more difficult. To the speaker who said you're not giving parents enough, well the problem is that this is a pandemic and all I can say to parents is At any point, we need you to think about your backup plans. I am sure many of you, all of you, are thinking about that on a day-to-day basis. We are in a circumstance that calls upon families to be flexible and nimble in the most difficult ways, which obviously none of us would possibly choose. So on saying all of that, I would support leaving the decision. I always feel that as a school committee member, ultimately, as I vote on the superintendent's contract, that is my probably most important role in so many ways besides making policy. And this superintendent, Dr. Marisa Edward-Vincent and her team have showed extraordinarily dedication and also have worked very closely with the school committee to make sure that they are doing what we are asking of them.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you, Member van de Kloot. Ms. Willard?
[Kate Willard]: Hi, I also am really glad to hear that the transmission and the numbers in general have been so low. I was really worried about what would happen when kids started going back to school and so I'm glad that it has been low. What I am really concerned about is going into the holidays. I know, you know, I know a lot of families and staff are planning to travel this weekend and obviously, you know, next month as well, but this happening this weekend, and then students returning on Monday. I'm just wondering what the administration and the nursing team, other than I know at my school, I teach at the Andrews Middle School, I know there were permission slips sent out for students to be tested when they came back in. But that's not mandatory. I'm just, you know, I agree with what I've seen, what it sounds like people, you know, the data is showing that schools have been very safe places. However, we're now going into a situation where there are families who are go into different states. They're gathering in groups, family members that are getting risky, even small groups are risky at this point. So I just wanna make sure that this continues to be mitigated at school. So I wondered if there was a plan in terms of that with people traveling.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: The city and the school department has been messaging, asking people to keep Thanksgiving within your immediate family, and definitely less than 10 people. We're following state guidance. We're asking people not to travel. You're right, we do have the testing set up for teachers and staff every Wednesday. Yesterday, I think we had a record number of four to 500, and I'm sure that will be the same next week. And we want it to be because we wanna make sure people are getting tested to keep our schools, staff and children safe. As of December 1st, because we need to work through the logistics, we are gonna start testing the children once a week. It is not gonna be mandatory, but we are gonna strongly encourage it. It is not the invasive test. It's gonna be quick and easy and done within the school. So that is something more than other districts are doing. And we are hoping we need to finalize a number of details, but we are hoping to start pool testing sometime in January as an additional step that's going to cost a lot of money. So we're working on funding partners right now. There's a lot that needs to be worked out, but we are taking every step we can, testing-wise and obviously Board of Health and admin-wise, doing everything they can to keep everybody safe and healthy and to keep our children in school in the safest way possible. And to continue, I know we don't have specific date, but hopefully be coming out this week to start that Medford High School in-person hybrid model. I know there's a lot of questions as to dates, and hopefully that will be coming soon if we continue on this path. So just if people are listening tonight, please, for the safety of our children, our teachers, please do the right thing on Thanksgiving and the holidays during December. so that we can continue on this path of very little to no in-school transmission. I don't know if anybody has anything else to add, but Ms. Lied.
[0SdCkR9KuqQ_SPEAKER_28]: Hi, yes, thank you. Some of you may remember my name. I certainly emailed everyone on the school committee and the mayor about the testing facility and some of the administration. I've worked almost 10 years at the Broad Institute So this is very important to me. And I just wanted to say thank you when I saw the email that testing of students was going to be implemented. I was really, really happy. This is definitely the way forward. And this puts our community at an advantage over other communities. Wellesley and a few other towns, less than five of them, were part of a pilot program starting a few months ago. And I have a coworker at the Broad Institute who was a parent there and involved in the decision-making in that school district. The high school, I believe, is currently shut down because they had a few cases within community, within the school transmission, and they were successful in shutting it down and preventing an outbreak. I personally as a scientist, I believe that's the only way we can move forward is to have that. I also checked with them because I was concerned as the last speaker said that our testing wasn't going to be mandatory for students. And I understand that's an age thing under 18 and medical permissions. It is also not mandatory at Wellesley. So I just wanted to reassure any other parents like myself that program was successful in Wellesley in preventing an outbreak right before the holidays. So I believe it can be the same here. That being said, I do hope to see more encouragement of participation. It is very non-invasive. I take the test myself for work once every four days. It's very, very simple. It's definitely appropriate for children. And the other thing is the alpha med survey. I don't know how well that's being enforced at the school. We certainly fill it out every day, but I wonder a couple of days I've been late filling it out after drop off. I'm not sure how well that is being pursued. I think those participation in all of those things would add confidence to the parent community. And I just had a quick question since we're talking about metrics, maybe for the Board of Health. Now that the testing will be in place, I wonder what percent participation you think you'll have and will that change, will that factor in with the decisions that are made? Because it is possible and likely that with the increased testing in the school that the rate of in-community transmission will be lower than the rest of the Medford community? So is that gonna be taken into consideration into keeping the schools open if testing, if the number of cases within the schools is lower than it is within the general community? Thanks.
[MaryAnn O'Connor]: Hi, I think all of that will be taken into consideration. You know, I'm hoping we get great participation. I think this is a huge advantage and something that I hope parents see as a huge advantage and allow their children to participate. Because this is, like you said, this is really going to help us as far as slowing the spread or catching outbreaks. But all the data, again, will have to be looked at aggregately and then separately, I guess, to see where we're going.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you. And I know that we did send out the forms to all parents, so we just want to encourage every parent that is interested in their children getting tested, and we strongly encourage it. It's going to be safe, and it's going to be done by professionals that you fill out that form so that we can start that process immediately on December 1st and make sure it's as effective as possible.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: I'd like to move the question.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Okay, Member McLaughlin, and then we're gonna move the question.
[Paul Ruseau]: Mayor, I'm sorry, there's five questions from the public as well in email.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Okay, Member McLaughlin.
[Melanie McLaughlin]: Actually, I was making a motion to move the question but I also had a question for the superintendent that I just wanted to, I wanted to first of all say thank you to the community members who came out tonight and encouraged the staff. I think it's desperately needed right now so thank you very much for that. I think that was to see, good to see, and absolutely true. And I also wanted to ask the superintendent, I did get a question about sanitizer in the schools and whether the dispensers actually had alcohol hand sanitizer in them, or whether there was alcohol hand sanitizer elsewhere or what. And I was wondering, could you just address that for the community? Well, it's part of, I feel like it's related to the metrics, Mayor, because we're talking about school closures and if not, that's fine. I can move it to the next school committee meeting. It's up to you.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Dr. Edwards-Vinson, if you could address that briefly.
[Marice Edouard-Vincent]: I just wanna say that we do have sanitizer. The sanitizer, the lemon scented hand sanitizer is hospital grade approved. sanitization or sanitizer. But however, based on the most recent guidance of having hand sanitizer that contains at least 60% alcohol, we made an additional investment and purchased hand sanitizer jugs with pumps for all of the schools. And that was distributed to schools over the past two weeks. So if there is a staff person or someone saying that they don't have access to hand sanitizer with alcohol in it. They just need to speak to their school administrator because it was delivered to all of the buildings.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Vinson and Member McLaughlin. Member Ruseau, if you could please read the emails that have been submitted before we call the roll.
[Paul Ruseau]: Sure, thank you very much. This is an email from Megan Bayer, I'm sorry, there's a long email here, sorry. All right, here we go. Sorry, there was a few responses that got mixed in, one second, okay. Hello, I am ready to provide my public comment for the November 24 school committee meeting. I may not be able to attend the meeting due to conflict. As you meet to take another look at the metrics, that are used to determine whether to continue the hybrid model and if and when to move to full remote, I continue to urge you to prioritize in-person school. At work today, I had the benefit of listening to public health experts from Harvard University and Boston University. Their message was clear. Even in light of the current COVID-19 cases in the state, students should be in school in person. These experts shared that more of the kids who are testing positive now are in full remote school. then are in school in person. They share that the science supports that with the safety measures our schools have in place, schools prevent transmission. Even without the access to these experts that I have, I was afforded through my job. One does not have to look far to see that this is an issue. that that is an opinion shared by public health experts. Many recent articles have included interviews with or opinions from public health experts and children's health experts who have shared the opinion that students should be in school in person. For example, in The Globe on November 12th, the chief of infectious disease at several local hospitals wrote in support of in-person school. These expert opinions are consistent with the latest guidance from the governor and from DESE. Accordingly, the metrics that Medford schools use to determine whether to have students in person or whether to switch all or any cohorts to full remote should take into account the expert opinions that students school should be school be in school in person, and it is spread within school, if any, that should drive decision-making rather than community spread. In addition to looking at the metrics that guide whether school is remote or in-person, it is important to have protocols for responding to any COVID-19 cases or suspected cases within a school, which I believe Medford Schools has in place. DESE released revised protocols today. DESE's protocols include protocols for potential school closure, partial or full, or district closure. DESE's protocols for school closures require that the school administration consult with a local board of health in making these decisions. In some situations, school administration shall consult DESE. Medford schools should look to DESE's protocols as a model for its protocols and its metrics that guide school decision-making. Additionally, DESE's instruction to school districts to consult local boards of health highlights the importance of relying on the experts in making these decisions. I encourage the school committee to rely on, to look to and rely on the city's director of Board of Health, the school department supervisor of school nurses and the school administration. The school committee is a body, hired superintendent Edouard-Vincent, and now the school committee must trust and reliance on superintendent Edouard-Vincent. On that note, I know that not everyone may agree on what the next step should be in light of the rising COVID-19 case numbers in the community, but I do know that everyone cares deeply about our students and wants what is best for the students. I commend the work of the school committee, the school administration, the administration, the city administration, the teachers, the school staff, and our community. Some communities around us still have not even gotten kids back in school in person at all, including high needs students, and Medford schools have grades K to eight in some tech programs back in the buildings. Medford teachers all started the school year remote, and then many had to adjust to their grades transitioning to hybrid. And that clearly required a lot of work to the teachers, but the teachers did it and continued to be there for their students. Medford schools have gone back and looked at the full remote cohort and looked at what changes can be made to make that option work better. Recently, I have heard fellow parents speak favorably about their kids full remote school. Medford schools have been offering testing to teachers since August and are going to be offering weekly surveillance testing to students, which seems like a very valuable tool to keep everyone safe. This late summer and into the fall, many communities around Medford had increases in the numbers that sent them into the red, but from mid-August until November, Medford's numbers stayed in the designated yellow range, despite fears of the school committee back in August. Medford community members have given of their time and resources to help Medford students by conducting school supply drives, making masks for students and teachers, and recently conducting food drives to help those in need. The community has done a lot for our children during a difficult time, and I hope that we can continue forward on this path and not have to take the step backwards of having the schools go full remote. That option would be a step backwards and would disadvantage many students, and at this time, based on expert opinions, is not a necessary step. Okay, the next email is from Jim Donovan of Boston Avenue. School committee members, I know that the subject of tonight's meeting is the matrix the MPS will work under going forward. I implore upon the school committee to make in-person learning its number one priority and adopt a matrix that allows the MPS administration the flexibility to decide on school closures. As Governor Baker has said on numerous occasions, the only data on spread in schools is that schools are not COVID spreading events, that children are actually safer in a monitored school environment, and in-person learning should be our main priority. To my knowledge, we have not quarantined any cohorts in the MPS. The only recent incident I'm aware of is four teachers quarantined after having lunch together in the staff lunchroom. This information was provided by the Mass Teachers Association website. we should prioritize our successes and continue to move forward, move towards getting all our children in schools. Please keep in mind the success our surrounding private schools have had with full attendance with arguably inferior school structures and ventilation. Next one is from Leticia Rocha of Mystic Valley Parkway. Will the positivity rate without cuffs be utilized for decision-making? You also used data that was not from the last two weeks. Therefore, the 1.11 positivity rate is not reflective of the current situation. This should continue to be publicly updated as part of your dashboard. It was announced that all MPS students will have access to COVID-19 testing. Is this for any student or only students that have entered the school buildings and exhibit COVID symptoms? How will asymptomatic transmission be addressed? And administrators have not made clear what is meant when they state that there is no school transmission. How is school transmission defined? I don't know if anybody wants to answer any of those from Leticia.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Mr. Murphy.
[David Murphy]: With regard to the testing, and I think we can't stress enough the importance of getting the consent forms. And so all families of cohorts A, B, and C have received the consent forms. They are, they were, I think they were technically due today, but all that means is we're, we'll stop calling and emailing to try to get them back after today. So, you know, we want to get, we want to get those consent forms in, if there are parents, families out there, come back to the school on Monday. If you're cohort A or B, please bring your consent form in. The testing is for all students who receive in-person instruction. So that's cohorts A, B, and C. It has nothing to do with symptoms or or anything along those lines. There is a separate testing pilot that Ms. Rae will be able to speak about at a future meeting that will be a rapid testing program that we'll be engaged in, which is completely separate from the surveillance testing that starts at the McGlynn on Monday, and then generally after that will be Tuesdays and Fridays going forward for cohorts A, B, and C. So it's all students who receive in-person, not included are students in cohort D Students that are fully remote will not have access to this program. The rationale for that is it is a public health initiative for purposes of keeping transmission out of school communities. And if you're not attending school in person, then you're neither at risk nor represent a risk.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you. Is there any other emails or gonna move the question?
[Paul Ruseau]: Two more. This one is from, thank you, this is from Mike Burgholzer of Lewis Street. Could you touch on the Tufts data again? According to the Tufts website, the Medford-Somerville campus tested 7,196 times last week. If we were to double that to represent two weeks of testing, we are around 14,000. Do 2,500 of those 14,000-ish really only live in Medford? Also, according to the state, Medford had 16,428 tests the last 14 days, while Malden has only tested 7,994 times. I hope we are testing twice as much as neighboring communities, but that seems like an outlier statistically.
[Marice Edouard-Vincent]: Oh, I do not have the current data. The data that we presented in the slide deck, we had requested from Tufts. So that was the previous week's data based on the number of tests that they conducted at that point in time. And so that's what we had used. So I don't wanna give misinformation, but what's in the slide, we have that specific timeframe noted based on the other tests that were taking place in Medford. So there were an additional approximate 13,000 tests that were administered in Medford that were not part of Tufts University, but I don't have this week's data.
[Paul Ruseau]: Thank you.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Any other questions?
[Paul Ruseau]: There's one more, but it looks like Allison wants to actually respond. I don't know. I don't know.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Allison, yes, briefly, please.
[0SdCkR9KuqQ_SPEAKER_28]: Yes, I'm so sorry. I just wanted to comment after Mr. Murphy said something there, clarifying some wording that he used, I think unintentionally. He mentioned that the school testing for children was a rapid testing program. And I've noticed that there's been some confusion among other parents that there's something known as a rapid test, which can be done in a doctor's office for 15 minutes. And it's a very unreliable test. And this testing that has been proposed in this program for students in the schools is only rapid because the results come back quickly, but it's actually the very accurate PCR-based test, as far as I know. I just wanted to clarify that. I know there's some misunderstanding about that. Thank you. We appreciate the clarification.
[Paul Ruseau]: Thank you. And I have one more question. One more email, excuse me. Let me just hope that's true. Yes. This is from Gary Klein of Sagamore Avenue. I wanna thank the mayor, the members of the committee and the administration for all your hard work. I also particularly appreciate the teachers who are working so hard under the difficult circumstances to teach children effectively and creatively. I have the following questions and comment questions. Has there been testing of students who are attending school in person? Is there a plan for such testing? Isn't it possible that a lot more than nine students have had COVID in the schools? Absent a meaningful testing program, do we really have evidence of any kind whether the virus is spreading in the school? And I can read his comment first, unless somebody wants to answer that.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: I think we've answered that question a couple minutes ago.
[Paul Ruseau]: Thank you. All right, and then the comment is, in light of exponentially increasing numbers of cases in Medford this month and the expectation that the numbers will continue to increase, it's fair to extrapolate a situation where schools will need to close, either by an order from the governor or because the school system itself decides to close. We need a plan that anticipates that eventuality so that parents get enough notice to arrange for childcare and to plan for managing their children's remote learning experience. If schools close, we don't want to have a situation like Boston or New York City in which parents get little or no prior notice. We also need a plan that does more than we did in March to transition kids, including kids with special needs, to the best possible remote learning plan. Are those plans in process? I understand the importance of in-person learning, especially for students who are already present in the schools. Does it really make sense over the next few weeks of surge to continue to bring more kids back into the schools? Thank you for considering my views. Thank you.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you. Member Van der Kloot, if you could call the roll.
[Jenny Graham]: Just can somebody reread the motion? And I think there is another community member with a hand up.
[Melanie McLaughlin]: And just for information, the motion is will include the recommendation of memogram and the discussion around the Dave Murphy, the discussion around the identification of various schools. As the as the second addendum, right? Disaggregated data was the first addendum and then the second addendum If I'm not mistaken, am I mistaken? Member Graham, did you ask for that to be an addendum to this motion? Yes. Yes.
[Kathy Kreatz]: And that would be the broad statement with the name of the building? Correct. Do you want me to read the motion again, or do you want to take the hands raised?
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Do you want to do the amendment first?
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Yes, let me. OK. The hand's been lowered. Yes, you can take the amendments first by roll call, please.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: OK. On the amendment, can we just lump them together? Please. OK. On the amendments, member Graham? Yes. Kreatz? Yes. McLaughlin? Yes. Ms. Stone? Yes. Rousseau? Hall?
[Paul Ruseau]: Yes, sorry.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Vanderclute, yes. Mayor Lungo-Koehn.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Yes, seven in the affirmative, zero in the negative. Paper passes. Amendments pass. And then a roll call. I don't know if we're gonna take a roll call on giving our superintendent, obviously with the help of Ms. Ray and Ms. O'Connor, the authority to continue contact tracing and making decision-making on our schools.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Yeah, Kathy, what was the original motion?
[Kathy Kreatz]: Yes, so the original motion was a motion to accept the superintendent's recommendations continue to utilize parts one building classroom readiness and three district in school specific metrics from the original member public schools COVID-19 reopening dashboard update. reopening dashboard, update part two, Medford community health metrics of the original Medford public schools COVID-19 reopening dashboard to include department public health updated color coded classification system. And it was amended as noted per Melanie McLaughlin to include the disaggregated data of the students who were actually in-person or remote regardless of assigned cohort. and to include the amendment from Ms. Graham, adding an asterisk to note the name of the building affected in the color-coded chart, I believe. Is that right, Ms. Graham, in the color-coded chart?
[Jenny Graham]: Yes, we just voted on that. Yeah, the two amendments were already voted on, so we're good there. I think it's just Kathy's motion.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: The main motion as amended to give the superintendent and her team authority ever. Yes, most motion to sever. So we'll take the amendment first, giving the administration and the health team authority to have decision making.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Continued authority. Yes.
[Melanie McLaughlin]: Okay, just a point of information. Point of information. Didn't we already vote on that?
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Do we need to vote on it again? If we already... We voted to give them decision-making on... Member Grimm stated, it was clarified, it was to give them decision-making on the staggered hybrid. So I think we should make it clear to give them decision-making on school closing and contact tracing ability.
[Jenny Graham]: Okay, member Graham. Which motion are we voting on? Are we voting on Kathy's motion?
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: We're voting on the amendment first.
[Jenny Graham]: The amendment. And okay, can somebody reread the amendment?
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: To give the superintendent and the health team authority for decision making when it comes to school classroom or school closures.
[Jenny Graham]: Based on section two community health metrics or section three school specific conditions?
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Based on collective information that they have before them, because every situation will be different given the different variables?
[Jenny Graham]: The reason that I ask is because I don't think anybody is posing questions about section three. The superintendent is doing that today and I haven't heard anybody suggest that she should not continue to do that. I think the clarifications that we are talking about are solely around the community health metrics driving a closure.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: It's still giving authority to the superintendent. But authority for what I think is what I'm trying to be clear about. to determine whether the schools need to close or should remain open.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Classroom, school, or district needs to close. We need to be clear on that. And I think that was in question. So if there's a motion on the floor and it's seconded, I think we need to take a roll call on that.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Jenny Graham?
[Jenny Graham]: Who's second? I'm still not, I guess I'm just not clear on what we're saying. Like if we're saying classroom, if we're saying school based on section three, which are school specific conditions, but if we're saying based on our like red, yellow, green, our positivity rate, et cetera, to me, those are two different questions.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: I think it's all encompassing, classroom, school, district, based on our metrics, based on the decision-making by our board of health and giving the superintendent the authority.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: We're affirming the superintendent's authority too.
[Paul Ruseau]: I'm not sure what we're voting on either. I mean, somebody has to write it into the minutes. Does the person who has to write it into the minutes know what they're writing?
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Ms. Wise, are you on the call? I think I've stated it a few times. I just wanna see what you have written down.
[Paul Ruseau]: She may not be able to unmute.
[David Murphy]: Mary, it may just be- She's got it now. It's recognizing the continued authority to make decisions about closures, correct?
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Yes.
[David Murphy]: I think we have clarity on that.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: I know, but the two committee members need more clarity. OK.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: I don't think that separating section two with section three makes any sense. I think that it's the whole thing. So I don't understand my colleagues' Um, lack of clarity on this. I mean, to me, um, we're saying, yes, the superintendent is the one who's going to make the final call. We're, we're saying the superintendent, the school committee is not going to be called into session to make, to make, to take the vote.
[Jenny Graham]: And I think the nuance is that that's true today for pro classroom program level closures. Um, And I don't personally have any issue with that, but I do think that this committee should convene if we are going to make decisions based on our community health metrics at the very minimum to take public comment before we make such a decision. So to me, I don't want to say, I do not want to vote no to a blanket. Does Dr. Edouard-Vincent have authority, yes or no? I do not want to have to do that, but I am uncomfortable that we could foresee a situation where we go red, we are red for four, five, six weeks, and no formal discussion of this committee is had. To weigh those decisions.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: That's just an unreal place. I mean, we have meetings every two weeks.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: At least.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: It's not like this committee is just going to abdicate and walk off. We have continued meetings. We're talking about this at every meeting. I think that you're trying to define something so specifically is kind of losing the forest for the trees. Well, that's your opinion. That's fine.
[Jenny Graham]: That's your opinion. I think it's very different when we are talking about things happening inside a school building versus what we are talking about when we are making decisions about the impacts on our schools of metrics that are reflective of the community around us. I don't want to close schools. I don't want anyone to think that I want to close schools. What I do want is if we are faced with a real possibility of that, I want to have a conversation about it and a collaboration. I feel like part of the reason why we have been so successful is because we started out in a collaborative fashion. I do not feel comfortable putting this all on Dr. Edouard-Vincent's shoulders because as soon as something goes sideways, everyone will be caught in the community will not be praising her anymore. They will be calling for her head. And it is unfair of us as a committee to put all of that on her personally. when all I am asking is that before such a decision is made, we have a collaborative conversation about it. That's all I'm asking. I don't think that is unreasonable.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: And there's a motion on the floor, so we can call the roll.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Okay. Member Graham? No. Member Kritz? Yes. Member McLaughlin? Yes. Member Muson? Yes. Member Ruseau? No. Member Van der Kloot, yes. Mayor Lungo-Koehn.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Yes, five in the affirmative, zero in the negative. The paper passes. Two in the negative. Sorry, five in the positive, two in the negative. Amendment passes. Now we have member Kreatz's main motion. Roll call, please.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Member Graham. Yes. Member Kreatz. Yes. Member McLaughlin.
[Melanie McLaughlin]: Yes.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Member Bistone? Yes. Member Ruseau? Yes. Member Van der Kloot? Yes. Mayor Lunko-Kern?
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Yes. Seven in the affirmative, zero in the negative. The motion passes.
[Paul Ruseau]: Motion to adjourn.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Motion to adjourn. Happy Thanksgiving, everybody.
[Melanie McLaughlin]: Happy Thanksgiving, everyone. Happy Thanksgiving.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Call the motion to adjourn. Graham? Yes. Kritz? Yes. McLaughlin? Yes. Bistone?
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Yes.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Rousseau?
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: I think he left. Yes, mayor. Yes. Affirmative. One absent motion to adjourn is approved. Thank you, everybody. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving.
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