[0SdCkR9KuqQ_SPEAKER_06]: roll call.
[Van der Kloot]: Jenny Graham? Yes. Kathy Kreatz? Melanie McLaughlin?
[0SdCkR9KuqQ_SPEAKER_06]: Yes.
[Van der Kloot]: Miama Stone? Yes. Paul Russo? Yes. Paulette Van der Kloot? Yes. Mayor Lungo-Koehn?
[Lungo-Koehn]: Yes. Seven the affirmative, zero the negative. The minutes are approved. Before I call the next agenda item, I think we just want to acknowledge, do we have the Medford Boy Scouts on the call?
[Edouard-Vincent]: Yes, we do. I was gonna acknowledge them in the remarks, but I will say thank you. We have Boy Scout Troop 416, who's joining us tonight. They are working on their communication merit badge. I wanna thank member McLaughlin for inviting them this evening as well. They are a big part of, or a major part of being a scout is learning about how government works. Currently, Troop 416 is running the micro pantry in Haines Square and working with the city to produce some fitness videos. So I want to say welcome to Boy Scout Troop 416. We're so happy to have you with us this evening.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Yes, great job. Thanks for all your volunteerism. We appreciate it. Next up, we have number six, community participation by Brian Buck. president of the Medford Educational Foundation.
[Edouard-Vincent]: Yes, and I send a very warm welcome to Mr. Brian Buck. And I wanna thank member Van der Kloot as well for her introduction and letting us have this great opportunity. Medford Public Schools will be benefiting greatly, but I want you to do your presentation this evening, Mr. Buck. So thank you for joining us this evening.
[SPEAKER_16]: Thank you for having me. I'm going to share my screen for a minute, if that's OK, just so folks can sort of see. Let me minimize here. There we go. So I just wanted to put this on. I know some people are visual, some people are verbal, so I thought it would just help folks to know who we are and kind of what we're doing and what we hope to do in Medford. I wanted to start with a thank you to the wonderful teachers, staff, students, and administrative team at MPS, to the school committee for allowing us to present tonight, and to Anne and James Froningkusse for all their work at MEF and co-founding it, creating it, and moving it to this point. included this photo of them. They're actually in Norway, but it looks like they're in Maine because they've moved to sort of Maine. So this was the most Maine-like photo I found. So I decided to include that. I should also say that I jumped in on the ugly sweater theme. My wife determined this sweater was too ugly for an ugly sweater, but I thought it was just right. So a few updates and announcements. We have some new officers and new roles at the Medford Educational Foundation. We have an updated mission statement. We just went through and actually just sent out letters around our sentences for fall 2020 micro grants and then talk a little bit about the spring of 2021 and what we're hoping to do. EMAF officers are, I've been vice president for the last four years, I am now, was elected and chaired president. Chris D'Evada is the vice president, director of grants, David Sayers, who's here tonight with us. Hi David. Our clerk is Gail Ariesian, treasurer is Steve Hayes, and our founding member and the one who makes all of it work and all of our communication go is Paulette Van der Kloot, so thank you to Paulette. This is myself and my family. I just, I like sharing pictures. I'm a visual guy. So I thought I'd share this out. We always look like that. We're always dressed that way. There's always leaves wherever we go. So very representative of us as a family. My children always look at the camera. And then who, who we are. So this is just our mission statement and kind of what we do. It's been a little bit updated. So I wanted to share it. We support the Medford public schools through grants that fund innovative teaching and professional development. We enhance educational opportunities for all Medford students by giving them access to new ways of learning. We support innovative teaching of all types, including those focused on anti-racism, anti-bias and social emotional learning, both in the classroom and at the building level. So one of the goals are here tonight is to say who we are and what we're doing. It's also to say most recently, how we switched it up in the era of COVID and digital teaching. Historically, we have a application, it's physical, people fill it in. I'm actually a teacher, I teach at Arlington High School. And I know where teachers are at right now. And we decided as a committee and sort of approved that we wanted to make sure teachers had easy access to a form. So we made a digital form for what we called micro grants, which were grants up to $200. We asked teachers what they needed to improve student learning in their digital classrooms. We got 17 applications. They were from the elementary, middle and high school. They were all represented. They included innovative software and equipment to increase student engagement during remote learning. Everything from the tech school getting a lathe that makes it so they can demonstrate easier on the camera, to document cameras, to a lot of teachers requesting full privileges for Pear Deck and Zoom Pro as well, which I know have been approved through the school, which is great. And then purchasing books and exercise equipment, training and mindfulness and whole child initiatives, which has been really great. David, do you want to say anything else about the specific grants or anything like that? Or maybe just say hello?
[Lungo-Koehn]: Is David unmuted?
[SPEAKER_16]: All right, well, David, if you want to add anything, feel free to jump on and say hello. David is awesome.
[SPEAKER_15]: There he is. OK, so I was having trouble unmuting. But hello. Thank you to the school committee for welcoming us. I can certainly go through all the grants, but there are a lot and I don't think I have too much to add. I will add there was other specific software for English language learners and for math that we funded in addition to the school funding, Pear Deck and Zoom. And I guess the only other thing, I just want a personal note. I have two kids in the school system and I just wanted to thank the school committee and the administration and especially the teachers for all their hard work. I know what a crazy year it is to try to teach, and I just think they're doing a fabulous job making this work for all our kids. So I just wanted to say thank you.
[SPEAKER_16]: Thank you, David. And I have two, not quite yet in the Medford Public Schools, but will be starting next year, little ones. And so if anyone needs to contact us, one thing we would really like, we need to start fundraising. So we want to kind of replenish, build up and look at that. So we're looking at opportunities around that. We would also, if anyone is interested at all in sort of helping out in a number of areas, we could use more people. We would really love some more volunteers. That would be great. So reach out to us. MedfordEdFund.org is our website. MedfordEdFund at gmail.com. We're on Facebook at Medford Educational Foundation. Medford, Oregon took Medford Education Foundation, by the way, which is a little smoother. So we had to add the AL on. Just want to throw that out. But thank you to everyone for spending time with us tonight. Our goal is to do another round of funding in the spring to look at maybe some larger grants to work with administration around what some building-wide grants or what some district-wide grants might look like and areas we can chip in. So if you are a student in Medford Public Schools, if you're a graduate, if you're a teacher, if you're an administrator, if you're just a lover of education, Please let teachers know about us. I have a few teacher friends in Medford I always reach out to we reach out to administration, but if you have teachers who have innovative ideas that want to get students working with their hands that want to present, you know, things that they just don't quite have the resources to do. That's why we're here, right? We're here to bridge that gap, to make sure those resources are available. And the more requests we get, the better. And thank you so much for letting me take this time.
[Van der Kloot]: Thank you, Brian. Brianna, can I jump in for a second? Yes. Oh, yes. Member van de Kloot. So as you can see, we have some terrific leadership in Brian Buck, who's joined us as president this year, and David in his continuing role as the grants chair. Diane Caldwell is going to join our little group. And what we are really in need of is we are in need of some fundraising people because that's a major piece of what we need to do. But it's exciting, it's fun work, it's fun to be able to give out money, and we really appreciate the teachers who take the time to put in a grant because there's no guarantee. One of the things though that happened on this is that because of the number of, you know, we saw a good number of requests for Pear Deck, And so I was able to go follow up and have a discussion about that and find out that, yes, the district is in fact going to supply that to our teachers. And when we saw such interest coming in from teachers, that was just a really great thing to know. There's a couple of people I'd like to thank specifically. I had long talks with Molly Layden, our Director of Technology, with Bernadette Riccadeli, with Chad Fallon. And I'm afraid I'm going to leave some people out, but I was very, very appreciative to get their expertise. So when we were following up on these grant proposals, we were doing it wisely. So anyway, thanks. This is the good news.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you, Member van de Kloot, much appreciated. We know you're a founding member of, how many years ago, Member van de Kloot? I don't really remember, four? At least four, yeah, at least four.
[Van der Kloot]: A couple.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Five. I think we're claiming five, we're claiming five here. Five, yeah, I'd say.
[Van der Kloot]: You know, time flies when you're having fun, so.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Well, thank you all for being here, and we appreciate the presentation. We have public participation emails, questions or comments can be submitted during the meeting by emailing medfordsc at medford.k12.ma.us. Those submitting must include the following information, your first and last name, your Medford Street address, your question or comment. Member Ruseau, do we have any emails? Yes, thank you, Mayor. Thank you.
[Ruseau]: We have, let's see. We have one email dated The 16th, there were a couple I think that came in after our last meeting. This is from Maureen Ronin of Winter Street. According to the last available MCAS results, only 35% of third grade students are meeting or exceeding in English language arts at the Columbus Elementary School. With the exception of the Brooks, the other school's scores are not much better. Students should be taught to read in school with evidence-based reading instruction. private and experienced Orton-Gillingham tutors charge between $100 and $230 per hour. Diagnostic testing is between $3,000 and $7,500 and it should be done frequently. This is not affordable for many families. Literacy should not be reserved for students that have families with resources. Literacy is a right. I am asking you to make literacy a priority for Metropolitan School students. I am requesting that the superintendent have a literacy outcome goal on her evaluation. Evidence-based reading instruction harms no one and is mandatory for some. Megan McLiman, not clear on her address. She actually submitted the same language, so I won't repeat it. but she did start her message with, as a parent of a second grader with a learning disability, I am quite disappointed with the poor support my child has received from the Columbus School. I have been forced to resort to outside tutoring at my own expense. The challenges of COVID have put new financial stress on my family and I fear I can no longer afford this critical tutoring. She deserves every opportunity to learn to read. The school is not educating her in the ways she needs. I fear she will fall further behind. And that is all I have. Let me just check messages before I say that. That is all I have tonight. Thank you.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you, Member Ruseau. We have number seven reports of superintendent, superintendent's updates and comments. Dr. Edouard-Vincent.
[Edouard-Vincent]: Thank you. Good evening, everyone. And I would just like to once again, thank our Boy Scout Troop 416 for being with us this evening. Tonight is the winter solstice, which means it is our shortest day and our longest night. However, it also means that going forward, the days will begin to grow longer. Our winter solstice. I also would like to take this opportunity to extend my sincere thanks to all of our MPS staff members who have responded so well to our latest weather related challenges. On Friday, our educators pivoted to remote only instruction in yet another example of the flexibility we are capable of showing when our children's education is dependent upon it. Meanwhile, our custodians, along with our partners in the city's Department of Public Works, worked around the clock to make sure our school buildings were ready for students and staff to return today. So thank you to our Mustang Nation, our staff, and all the hard work and our partners at the city with DPW helping us to get ready for school today. I do wanna announce that this week we have school today, tomorrow, and we will have a half day of remote instruction on Wednesday. And at that time, after our half day on Wednesday, we will begin our much, much needed rest and holiday recess. The holiday break will last until Monday, January 4th, when instruction begins anew. As we announced on Friday, when school resumes for all MPS students on January 4th, it will be by remote instruction. Similar to many other districts, we are beginning the new year in full remote mode in anticipation of additional surges in virus transmission, as we have seen both locally and nationally coming out of other holidays. We will resume in-person instruction for all students on Thursday, January 14th. Earlier that week, most likely on January 12th, we will hold COVID-19 testing for students in cohorts A and C and all MPS staff. All of this will be detailed in our public health update later tonight. We are working to ensure that all students and staff have the opportunity to get tested prior to returning to school buildings. And a more detailed testing schedule will come out as we get closer to the exact dates. Please note that due to public health considerations that led to this decision to push back in-person instruction, this slight delay does include cohort A students, our high need, most vulnerable students. So I just want to be clear about that piece. So in a recap, school will resume after the holiday recess on Monday, January 4th for all students. On January 12th, we will hold testing for students in cohorts A and C, as well as all staff. There will be additional testing days as well. In-person instruction will begin on Thursday, January 14th for cohorts A and C and On January 15, we will have testing for cohort B students who will resume in-person instruction on January 19. We also will be sending an update out a little later that we will be holding freshmen orientation that week as well, so that freshmen will have an opportunity to be introduced to the building and get acclimated. So that date is to be determined, but we will send out a communication regarding that. So as of now, when in-person instruction begins on January 14th, it will be for students in all grades. That includes ninth grade, 10th grade, and 11th grade of Medford High School, who have been waiting so patiently to return to school all year. So what I just talked about, or as I just mentioned, we have been working very, very diligently on safety. When we began this journey, we talked about our three guiding pillars of safety, equity, and consistency. I want to address how some of those guiding pillars have been met to date. So under the area of safety, we have upgraded our HVAC systems. We've socially distanced our classrooms. We've provided hand sanitizer throughout our buildings and required that all students and staff wear masks. These safety measures allowed us to welcome our students and teachers back, but we did so gradually following the health metrics. We have been consistent in our messaging to our families and in providing education to our students, whether remote or hybrid. As for equity, this is an extremely important part of our goals. With assistance from the grants and the CARES monies, we were able to purchase enough Chromebooks and hotspots so all students had access. However, during this pandemic, we also witnessed the tragic death of George Floyd, which spurred some peaceful protests and also some rioting. Despite pledges of reform, incidents similar to what happened to Mr. Floyd continues, continue to happen, and this is quite shocking. The Medford Public Schools, we are committed to racial equity, and to that end, we established the Racial Equity Task Force, made up of students, staff, teachers, parents, administrators, community, The racial equity task force has been meeting consistently every other week. We have a goal of wanting to improve culture and climate and race, bring about racial awareness in the Medford public schools throughout the entire district. The task force is looking to partner with members of our community, agencies and nonprofit organizations to help offer professional development for teachers, for staff, and eventually for community. And things for our students as well. These are our larger overarching goals. Additionally, a few task force members are also serving on Middlesex District Attorney Marion Ryan's Anti-Racial Antibias Task Force, which she established in October of this year. Back in 1965, Dr. King stated, our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter. 55 years have passed since then, and our country continues to grapple with these issues. People of color need to feel welcomed, considered, and cared for in our district. This is difficult and uncomfortable work, but it is work that needs to be done. For change to happen, we all must be committed to it. In the new year, I will discuss more in depth about the Racial Equity Task Force, the members that are on it, but I wanted to just give you a brief overview tonight. And I wanna thank all of the members of the Racial Equity Task Force that have been meeting every other week consistently. So I thank you for your sacrifice of time and your commitment to helping us improve the Medford Public Schools. On a different note now, I would like to just highlight some other pieces of things that are happening within the district. For those of you who are getting ready for the holiday season, tomorrow, between the hours of 11 and 2 p.m., our school store at the high school will be open So the Medford Vocational Technical High School's marketing program will be open. The Mustang Mall is open tomorrow between 11 and two. For any of you who wanna come by the school, pop in to just grab a holiday item, 11 and two o'clock tomorrow. We will monitor closely how many people want to come in at the same time. You may need to wait in the lobby, but we will do it safely. So I'm extending that invitation. to all of you. Also, I wanted to share some very, very good news. According to Principal Paul DeLeva and Assistant Principal David Blauk, over $550 was raised for gift cards for our most vulnerable students and our students in need during this holiday season. It started with a random donation forwarded to Mr. Blauk, and he contacted the PTO to see if they wanted to assist. President Celia Lee donated funds and looked to the community for donations. Within two days, the PTO had over $400 in gift cards and donations towards gift cards. So altogether, Mr. Blouk will be able to distribute $550 in gift cards to those in need. Additionally, I wanna highlight our Medford Family Network, The Medford Family Network, if you weren't aware, today they were highlighted on the news, but our director, Marie Cassidy, she is coordinating along with her entire team, donations, which included clothing, gift certificates, toys, books, toiletries, and so much more. Things that are needed for the cold weather, hats, mittens, boots. And so with the support, all of these people that I'm gonna mention who have supported our Medford Family Network, Mayor Lungo-Koehn and the Wonder Fund, the community at large, Ms. Hennessey from the McGlynn School, the Chamber of Commerce, Kiwanis, the Firefighters Union, Gilbane Architects, Greenline Extension, Former Mayor McGlynn, Six Acres Preschool, Grace Works Daycare Center, Sanctuary UCC Church, Teamsters Local 25, Medford Police Department, staff and the Medford public schools. What really warmed my heart today was hearing that former recipients made donations as well as grandparents of many of the MFN children. Medford is truly a very special community that always assists those in need. This outpouring of support during a pandemic is just so very special and is really beyond words. It exemplifies the true meaning of the holiday season. I just want to quickly share this picture with you. I'm going to just quickly share it. Sorry. These are just two quick shots from the Medford Family Network today. If you think this is a lot of toys, this is our wonderful Marie Cassidy with our assistant principal of the high school, a new addition, Ms. Charose Walker. She was downstairs visiting the Medford Family Network. This is the room full of donations. And here is another picture of just more donations. The outpouring from all of our community partners who went above and beyond to try to make this holiday season a special season. I myself had the opportunity to be at the Medford Family Network today. And I was there with Officer Hartnett and his family. And many of our police officers donated gifts. And I just wanna thank the entire community for their overwhelming support in giving back. So thank you to all of you. I do want anyone who's watching or our listening audience, if you are, if not you or you know a family in need, please have them reach out and call our Medford Family Network. We have a lot of toys that people will be coming in to pick up, but we have toys that range from zero years old, zero to, You know, I would say elementary age and there are actually a few that that I think could could make it into the middle school range, but if you have a need. That is a wonderful, wonderful resource and they will be open all day tomorrow, probably from about eight to four and on Wednesday as well. So if you're able to call the Medford Family Network and go over there and see if you can get something for a family in need. I also would like to just take this quick moment to congratulate Patrick Gordon. He is our manager of Medford's Community Media Network, who recently received the overall excellence award for community media for the Northeast region. Patrick is so wonderful to work with and is a complete professional. He is a great addition to our community. Keep up the good work, Patrick. Your award is well-deserved. Congratulations. I just want to say, in 1850, Jingle Bells was written in Medford by Mr. James Pierpont. He wrote the song based on the slave races he witnessed that took place on Salem Street in the early 1800s. It remains one of the most popular Christmas songs in the country. And I would venture to say nationally and internationally because it is such a great song. And I am wearing my bells today. So yesterday was National Wreaths Across America Day, a day to remember and honor our fallen veterans during the holiday season. Originally, this annual effort was canceled due to COVID. However, the Army Secretary reversed that order and the wreaths were able to be laid at Arlington National Cemetery and numerous other national cemeteries across the country. In closing, with this being our last school committee meeting prior to the holiday break, I would like to take this opportunity to extend my sincere best wishes to all of you who celebrate Christmas, Kwanzaa, and a happy new year. Kwanzaa is not a religious holiday, but an ethnic and cultural event that is celebrated December 26th through January 1st. It is based on African Harvest Festival traditions. Although our celebrations will not look like years past. My hope is that you can enjoy it with your immediate household, as well as celebrated virtually with family and friends. As the new year begins. It brings with it the realization that a vaccine is going to be coming in the future, and that will help all of us eventually get back to our normal lives. Until then, please be well, stay safe, and don't gather in large groups. Wear your mask, and in the words of Tiny Tim from Dickens, A Christmas Carol, God bless us, everyone. So I want to just share those are my remarks and I have a very, very special presentation for the school committee and for the listening audience. Normally, under normal conditions, we would have been in for a special, special musical treat from our high school orchestra. However, However, with COVID, we're on a slightly different schedule. And since we're on a slightly different schedule, we have no choice but to listen to a very, very short clip. It's only six minutes and 42 seconds long. This is our Medford High School Orchestra. I'm going to play it for you. And I wanna recognize our teacher, Ms. Emma Baptist. who will be able to speak once the performance plays. But I want you to see the hard work of our orchestra students despite the COVID virus. It warmed my heart and I want this presentation to warm yours as well.
[Unidentified]: you
[Edouard-Vincent]: I just want to thank our wonderful orchestra. And I want to thank Ms. Emma Baptist. She is on. In order to pull that off, I mean, it sounds wonderful. I almost felt like I was there. But to imagine every student being at their own home, in their own bedroom, or living room, wherever they were at, to combine all of that talent was hours and hours and hours of work. That short six-minute video clip that we saw, Miss Emma Baptist spent a little over 30 hours to just give us six minutes, a six-minute concert. And so I just want to thank you and thank all of the chorus members and Ms. Baptist, I would love for you to just say a word or two or for us to just be able to thank you for the great work that you're doing with the kids. Oops, you're on mute. Let's see if I can find you. I'm trying, yep.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Got it, there you go.
[Baptiste]: I can't tell.
[Lungo-Koehn]: You're all set. You're unmuted.
[Baptiste]: Okay, thank you so much. That was so, so kind. And thank you so much for everyone taking the time to watch. I have to just say I had to quickly do some last minute editing for like consent forms and stuff like that. So I was kind of mortified in like the first song with a couple of the kids were like overlapping a little. So I'm not taking my talents to Hollywood. That's for sure. Like this was all very brand new to me and to the kids. I really wanted to, I'm new to the high school orchestra. This is my first year with them. So I've never even really met any of them in person yet. A couple of them at the meet and greet, but it was really important for me to, to kind of bring back that sense of ensemble that just hasn't been there since March, not to any of our faults, you know, it's the world and how it is right now and, you know, and for all that is just so uncertain, you know, this is such a huge time in for music teachers and you know we're always putting on concerts and shows and performances and I really just wanted to keep that going for the kids and and also for them to have something to look back on that was you know a happy memory from just this whole year in our world and um you know most concerts aren't recorded or or something that you know is filmed or something like that and um so for them to have this and to look back on it um and to recognize all the hard work. Like this was a hundred times harder than putting on a concert in person. And I know we're all eager to be able to do that again at some point, but it was a lot of fun. It was a huge learning experience and we all learn new skills from it and there's nothing wrong with that. So just thank you. Thank you again for taking the time to air this today. I really appreciate it. And I hope everyone has a really nice holiday season and winter break and all the good stuff.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you, Ms. Baptiste.
[Baptiste]: Thank you.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Member McLaughlin, then Member Van der Kloot.
[McLaughlin]: Thank you. Thank you for that wonderful show, Ms. Baptiste, and to the students. That was really lovely. I love Auld Lang Syne. It's my favorite song. It was just so nice to hear and celebrate and be festive. And you're right, the ensemble piece is really wonderful. And I happen to be at the actually at the McGlynn School today and I was. looking longingly at the auditorium and remembering the days when we were able to go in and watch our students perform and any number of exhibitions and missing that and looking forward very much to when we can do that again. So thank you for that little bit of that tonight. And I also wanted to say to the superintendent's point regarding the Medford Family Network and all their hard work around this, the toy collection and the community members who have contributed from You know the firefighters to local Union 25 and police and Kiwanis and all the folks that the superintendent mentioned, you know, going over to the metric family network today was really remarkable. You could see the toys were literally from floor to ceiling. in each of the rooms. It was just so overwhelming and so moving and just made me feel so proud to be a part of Medford and also made me realize just how much work really Marie Cassidy puts into this. It's not just collecting the toys from a number of different very willing contributors, but matching families to those toys, delivering those toys. it's a huge, huge undertaking. So I would also just like to add that if there are folks who are available and interested and willing tomorrow, who might be able to help with any distribution, I'm sure Medford Family Network would welcome the help for any of the toy distribution for folks who are not able to come and pick up the toys. So the way to reach them is 781-393-2106. Again, 781-393-2106. And Heather and Marie have just been doing such a remarkable job with everybody there and just makes you proud to be from Medford. So thank you to them.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you, Member McLaughlin. Member Van der Kloot?
[Van der Kloot]: Thank you. I'm sorry I didn't realize it was muted. I couldn't unmute myself but thank you. I just wanted to thank Miss Baptiste and the students for bringing us that lovely presentation tonight. Earlier I was thinking about how much I missed all the holiday concerts that they, for I've gone for many years, and they've just always added that certain sense of time and celebration. And it really felt funny. I walked into the high school this morning for another reason and saw the empty auditorium and wished I was going there. So I really appreciate that this was brought to us. I was speaking to a friend who is a member of the Boston Gay Men's Choir. And they had done a piece, and he was explaining the process of how difficult it was to get everybody coordinated. And hearing our teacher doing this work with our students is particularly heartwarming to know that they've gone through the same process and all the labor, a labor of love, and thank you for it. Yes. Member Kreatz?
[Kreatz]: Yes, and I just wanted to say thank you to Ms. Baptiste and the students. It was a beautiful performance. I really enjoyed it. I know my fellow committee members, we've sat through many live orchestra performances the winter season, and this has just been amazing and wonderful, and it sounded absolutely beautiful and flawless. I loved it. Thank you very much. Happy holidays.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Yes, great job. Thank you. We have a COVID-19 public health update and Medford Public School COVID-19 testing summary and update offered by Ms. Toni Rae, Ms. Marianne O'Connor, and Mr. David Murphy.
[Wray]: Hi. Oh, Marianne, are you starting off? Yeah, I don't know. Whatever you want, Toni. Go ahead.
[0SdCkR9KuqQ_SPEAKER_06]: OK. So hi, all. Thank you for having me. Good evening. I guess I'll just give the community update, but as we continue through this holiday season, it's more important than ever that we heed the guidance of the experts in our State Department of Public Health and CDC that we're all asking Massachusetts residents to follow. The spike in cases and hospitalizations we saw following the Thanksgiving holiday should serve as a sobering reminder of the stakes of this pandemic, as difficult as it may be to make the decisions we need to make around this Christmas holiday that'll keep all of our families safe. Earlier this month, DPH did release updated holiday guidance, which can be found at mass.gov slash holidays. The lowest risk recommendation is to only celebrate in person with members of your immediate household and to hold virtual celebrations if possible with friends and family out of state. If you do celebrate in person, please utilize proven COVID-19 prevention methods, such as mask wearing indoors, staying six feet apart from individuals outside of your household, and celebrating outdoors if needed in a well-ventilated space. As always, please remember the gathering size restrictions, face covering requirements and the travel testing requirements remain in effect. With that, as you've probably all seen the last state report which was released on 12-17 from Medford included data from 11-29 to 12-12. At that point, our total caseload since the beginning was 2,480. Our total positive cases in the last, those last 14 days was 635. And our positivity rate was 2.73. Since that report was released, from 12-12 till today, we've had an additional 234 cases. From Thanksgiving, from 11-27, which would be the Friday after Thanksgiving till today, we've had an additional 862 cases. So I'm really asking people to heed the warnings and the guidelines and the recommendations not to gather, not to travel. If Thanksgiving is any kind of a indication as to what the holidays could bring and the surge that we have and we are experiencing right now, I really hope that people have learned from that and that Christmas and New Year's will be different.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Thanks. Thank you, Ms. O'Connor.
[Wray]: Good evening, this is Toni Ray, the supervisor of health services for Medford Public Schools. And I'll give a snapshot of what we've been seeing in the school community. In December, we saw a steady increase in the number of positive tests for both students and staff. And that was in alignment with the public health expectations and the warnings following the Thanksgiving holiday. For students, the positive cases were scattered amongst many classrooms across the district, and the contact tracing identified household transmission as the most frequent mode of transmission. For staff members, the number of positive cases doubled between November and December. And the contact tracing, again, identified community and household transmission as the most frequent modes of transmission during this timeframe. With regards to our district metrics, we made a decision to place the Brooks Elementary School on remote learning for the few days leading into the holiday recess. There were a few variables that went into this decision that I just wanted to state tonight. We had seven staff members who tested positive over a 12 day period. And as a result of our contact tracing, we seriously considered whether this was an in-school link amongst the staff. In addition, it was a very unique situation that we had not experienced in the community to date. So we made the very cautious decision to put the school into remote learning for the few days. I stress the same words that Mary Ann O'Connor says, you know, make sure you heed Governor Baker's safer at home warnings and his recommendations for holiday celebrations. We also ask if you are feeling ill, please quarantine at home and arrange to get a COVID test at a stop the spread site. You can find a list of multitude of sites at stop the, mass.gov, stop the spread. There are a number of new testing sites in Cambridge where we have heard that the lines have been on the shorter side compared to other sites. So I wish everyone a happy, healthy, and safe holiday.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you, Ms. Ray. Mr. Murphy?
[Murphy]: Thank you, Mayor. I'm going to share my screen, but I promise this is a brief presentation and no one should lose faith in the pace at which this meeting is moving along, but there are some facts and figures that we'll be sharing that we wanted to make sure that you had this in writing and it was presented to the community as such. So I'm gonna be just providing some background on the COVID-19 testing program that we have administered in the Medford Public Schools through our partnership with Tufts University, the Broad Institute and Armstrong Ambulance. We've talked in this forum in the past about the gratitude we feel toward those partners in making this testing program available. And it's certainly our hope that this program is going to continue through the remainder of the school year. And just because I don't know that we've actually fully articulated in the past, we wanted to make clear that the goals of this program are obviously to keep the school communities safe. It's also to instill confidence and so that people can have the peace of mind knowing that they're entering an environment in which there is this type of robust testing program. And then importantly, something that's been very important to us. And I think a goal that we've largely achieved is to minimize the instructional disruption that takes place when you are administering hundreds of tests a day on multiple times a week. So our staff testing began on September 24th and our student testing began on November 30th. And as we move through this, We've said before, this is the non-invasive testing that we've been doing through the PCR tests. Of our staff testing, we've administered 4,100 COVID-19 tests to Medford Public Schools employees. Of that, there have been 18 positive results. The larger numbers in this presentation are approximations. You should be mindful of that, but also Some of the numbers that Ms. Freire was just referencing encompass some of the outside testing that's taking place as well. And so this deck is specific to the Medford Public Schools testing. We did reach an agreement with the Teachers Union earlier this year for mandatory COVID-19 testing prior to a resumption of in-person duties. That agreement has now been extended through our tentative agreement to include mandatory testing. on a weekly basis, subject to funding availability, and that is a position that the district will be taking with our other bargaining units in the coming weeks. With regard to student tests, there have been close to 3,000 student tests, COVID-19 tests administered to students, and there will be several hundred more administered tomorrow. The testing takes place in each school site on Tuesdays and Fridays. And that structure that we've established is anticipation of our hope to move toward pool testing, which I can talk a little bit about momentarily during the winter and spring months. We've seen marked improvement with regard to our consent forms. We have close to 1,700 consent forms have been submitted now from Medford public schools, students, families, we still have a bit of a gap that we need to bridge and we'll be working with school leaders to do that in the coming weeks. Anecdotally, I expect within the coming weeks we'll have exact data on this, but anecdotally at the elementary level where students are coming down as part of a class and the class is traipsing down to the testing station, we're seeing about a four to five minute disruption in the class, which again is sort of a point of pride that we've been able to Through the work of the principals and the teachers who are helping to facilitate this, along with Tony's staff and some of the outside partners, we've been able to minimize the amount of time that students are out of class and doing this. Because the secondary students are self swabbing, it's taking place during the lunch block. And as proud as we are that the instructional time at the elementary level is being minimized, we're also proud that We have not heard a wave of complaints of middle school students that were disrupting their lunch so that's that's more evidence that it's running relatively efficiently and smoothly. With regard to what you can expect, and there's a couple of tweaks to some of these numbers, I think in the deck that you received earlier today, it said that there were 2,200 students that are currently comprised of cohorts A, B, and C. Looking at the data, it looks like there might have been some double counting there amongst cohort A, so I think it's closer to 1,900, which is obviously a larger percentage of the consent forms. In terms of what we're looking at going forward, We, our expectation right now, and there's still questions that have to be answered and we're still actively engaged in conversations to try to make sure that this program continues to be a reality in the months ahead. But what we are confident of right now is that we'll do baseline testing for all students and staff returning in person on January 12th and January 15th, respectively. As Dr. Edouard-Vincent mentioned earlier, cohorts A and B along, excuse me, A and C, along with staff will test on January 12th prior to returning to in-person instruction on January 14th. We'll do cohort B testing on January 15th prior to that cohort starting in person on January 19th. And because we do anticipate a transition to pool testing on January 19th, there'll be a significant amount of communication that we will be engaged in in the coming weeks to make sure everyone is up-to-date as to what changes when we move to individual testing to pool testing. The short version of that is the only thing that changes is there's a obligation on the part of those participating to participate in the follow-up test if a pool tests positive. And again, there's going to be a lot of communication about that and a lot more information about that. I'm happy to answer questions tonight, but The short version is we'll be sharing a lot of information in the coming weeks with families and staff so that they understand what that means. There won't be testing the first week back for instruction. For the remote week on January 4th, there won't be testing in the Medford Public Schools. And so for that reason, we wanted to reaffirm and reiterate the responsibility that all members of the Medford Public Schools community have to adhere to the public health guidance with regard to traveling and congregating in groups over the holiday period. And while it is our hope and expectation that everyone will adhere to that public health guidance in the event a staff member does not, the expectation is that that person will avail themselves of the Stop the Spread program prior to continuing any type of in-person work or responsibilities on the week of the 4th. This last bullet point is sort of forecasting potentially for a future discussion, but there was a change in the guidance that the CDC provided and was then related through DPH and DESI with regard to quarantine periods. That change is essentially that up until, I believe it was last week, it may have been the end of the week before, the guidance was that a 14-day quarantine period that is the result of a close contact could be shortened to 10 days if an individual tests negative after the eighth day and has not and does not present with any symptoms. That has been shortened to ending a quarantine period after day seven if the person tests negative after day five and does not and has not presented with any symptoms. As of this time, our standard operating procedure is to maintain the more conservative approach within the Medford public schools, which is that a quarantine period would not be reduced below 10 days and to essentially not take the more liberal approach that is the current CDC guidance. That does pose an operational challenge, but all of this poses an operational challenge. And in our discussions with the Board of Health, that is our current position that is to maintain that status quo. But it's essentially not relevant right now because we're gonna be remote after tomorrow for the next three weeks. But it is something that we wanted to make sure that the committee was aware of and the position that we're currently taking with regard to that. So I'm happy to answer any questions and I will keep my responses as brief as possible.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you, Mr. Murphy. Member Ruseau, do you have a comment from the email?
[Ruseau]: Yes, thank you very much, Mayor. This is from Leticia Rocha of Mystic Valley Parkway. I had the following questions and a comment. In a recent communication, the superintendent mentioned They were forced to transition the Brooks School building to full remote mode due to circumstances that were specific and unique to that building. What exactly are those circumstances that led to the Brooks School to go full remote? It is important that the community at large is aware as cases continue to rise in the city. There actually are four questions. I don't know if I should just take the questions and get the answers.
[Murphy]: Mr. Rousseau, would you mind if I just answered that one really quickly? I think Ms. Ray may have mentioned it, but there are two variables where the suspected in-school transmission amongst staff and the total number of quarantining amongst staff that was posing an additional operational challenge. Those, while we had not seen the in-person transmission in any school community, but we had certainly seen operational challenges in every school, frankly, but the, Severity of the operational challenges due to the number of individuals quarantining and the suspected in-school transmission were the unique variables at the Brooks.
[Ruseau]: Thank you. Question number two is, in the state as a whole, a total of 591 students learning in-person or in a hybrid plan tested positive in less than a week, from December 10th through the 16th, as did 418 school district staffers. This is the second week in a row where these numbers rise dramatically. Science has proven across various studies that community transmission rates influence school transmission rates. Since the city of Medford has had 571 cases and counting in the last two weeks, how will the district keep up with these rates when rates that we all know will only rise as the winter continues?
[Wray]: Okay, I was just going to say we we have built in many layers of prevention and protection for our students and our staff. I mean we're, we, from the beginning we've been expecting everyone to wear masks to maintain the six feet social distancing. to engage in frequent hand washing. We've added on the additional layers of testing of the staff weekly and now biweekly and students as well. And then we finally appeal to everybody in the community to be following the very clear public health guidance that the Medford Board of Health puts out and the Massachusetts Department of Public Health puts out. So we engage in diligent contact tracing, which includes extensive conversations with teachers and teaching staff and administrators in the building when we identify a positive case. So we see that as steps to minimizing in-school transmission.
[Murphy]: I would just add to that that I think if you look at the numbers that we shared tonight that we've administered 2900 student tests over the last three weeks, and have had five 15 positive test results. I mean, I think the peace of mind comes with one. that the number is as low as it is. And I think that's a testament to the enforcement of the protocols that have taken place within each school community with regard to distancing, mask wearing, and so on and so forth. I also think the piece of mind comes with the fact that we know that when individuals do test positive, they are separated from the school community for a period of time to ensure that there isn't the type of in-school transmission that we're trying to avoid. That being said, there are risks involved here, which is why all of these efforts and this vigilance is on a continuous basis. And we've made some of the strategic decisions that we have that we've talked about tonight, both with regard to the BRICS and with regard to the resumption of in-person instruction in January.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you, Mr. Murphy. Colin?
[s_2IiM5UIbM_SPEAKER_06]: Yeah, I would add that I am in the remote cohort D, and in cohort B and C. I would like to give the school committee and the members a big pat on the back as the students are saying the school is very safe. They feel very comfortable there. Every single one of them that I've talked to has said how strictly social distancing has been enforced, hand sanitization. They've all been very comfortable with the situation. I would just like to add that from a student's perspective.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you so much, Colin. We appreciate that.
[Ruseau]: Okay, Mayor, shall I continue? Okay. There's just two more questions. Thank you, sorry. The superintendent spoke about all students coming back in January, which is an incorrect framing that does not reflect the families who have chosen fully remote education. This framing sends a clear message to families that are already apprehensive about the quality of remote education decreasing once all grades are in the building. Remote students are simply not the administration's priority. And I'll just add the last part of the email real quick. Sorry, I follow up with regards to the Brooks after Ms. Ray's statement that the seven staff members at the Brooks who tested positive over a 12-day period could be school transmission. Can she clarify whether it was school transmission or not? Also, how is is specific to the Brooks building, is this not something that can occur in other district buildings as well? And that's the end.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you very much. We have recommendation to approve donation to robotics department of Medford Vocational Technical High School, Mr. Chad Fallon.
[McLaughlin]: Mayor, may I comment on the last? It's Member McLaughlin. Member McLaughlin. Thank you. Sorry, before we moved on, I wanted to comment on the last question slash comments. I first wanted to just start out with really thanking Toni Wray and Marianne O'Connor. It has been a long road for everyone, and I think The two of you have just been standouts in the work and really appreciate all of your hard work. We're coming up to mid-year now and it's been a lot. I just wanted to say thank you to the two of you. Then also, we had office hours recently where we spoke with families who were in the remote cohort. who are in the remote cohort and who expressed similar sentiment as the letter writer in the email. And, you know, there was some brainstorming around, you know, how to help individuals in the remote cohort feel more included and more welcome and I would like to explore that on Superintendent Edward said if we could a little bit and and one of the suggestions was, you know, perhaps creating even just sort of, you know, either support groups at the school grade at the school level. You know at each of the school levels elementary, middle and high school, whether it be through you know a closed and private Facebook group or some other avenue but being able to connect families to each other I think that we've heard over and over that, particularly the remote cohort is feeling really left out and isolated. And I think we're all feeling isolated. So if you can imagine what it feels like to not be in a setting where you're getting to see your colleagues, as some of us are at work every day, or talk to people outside of your home, as many of us may be, how isolating that can be. And I just would like to consider ways that we might think about that and help alleviate that situation. And then I just wanted to end with to the superintendent, my senior went back last week. And was so, I've never seen a 17 year old so grateful to be in school again in my life. And it was really remarkable to see for someone who had struggled with school before. So it was, it was remarkable, but also that, you know, there was, there was commentary made about how much students can see how much you care to the superintendent at Wedminsent. And I wanted to let you know that that had been reflected and you don't often hear that from teenage boys. So I thought it was remarkable and something that I wanted to share with you. So thank you.
[Edouard-Vincent]: Thank you, Member McLaughlin, and I am definitely open to trying to put up a structure, whether it's a support group or something more formal for remote families. I don't want the Medford Public Schools community to feel that whether you're in Cohort D, and that you're not part of the Medford Public Schools community. I see us as one large community. My own family, my sister, my niece and nephew, they are part of the remote cohort, Cohort D. Yes, they do have access to Auntie, so they get to talk to me in person, but I am saying that I do not I am not intentionally trying to have anyone feel excluded or not valued. That definitely is not my intention. So I'm definitely open to trying to come up with intentional ways to have remote families connect or feel connected somehow. And so I'm definitely willing to work on that. To your other comment, about the seniors being back and just seeing more bodies at the high school and just seeing their happiness. Again, I, you know, interacted with them. They truly are appreciative of being back on campus. They know they're graduating at the end of the year and this is their last their last hurrah before they go out into the big bad world, whether it's college or career or military. And so I appreciate that feedback. I know that I'm not going to be able to please everyone, but I will just know that I'm going to continue to try my best for all, you know, for all of Medford public schools. And I will make, definitely make an intentional, an intentional reach out to our remote families. So I thank you for the feedback.
[McLaughlin]: Thank you. And maybe it's something that, you know, Stacey Shulman can also just sort of offer some feedback on or, you know, Mia and I did office hours together and there was some parents there that had some suggestions and we can check with them and see if they're okay with us forwarding their names along to you too. But I think that would be really helpful. Thank you, Superintendent.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you both. recommendation to approve donation to robotics department, Medford Vocational Technical High School, Mr. Chad Fallon.
[Unidentified]: Can I acknowledge Little Graham's on the phone, on the call too?
[Lungo-Koehn]: We can hear you now. Oh, we can hear me now. Hello, Little Graham. I hope Santa's good to you. Do we have Mr. Fallon on the line? Let's see. I don't see him on the call. Dr. Cushing, do you see him on the call?
[Fallon]: I do not. I'm trying to reach out to him right now to see if he can jump on quickly.
[Lungo-Koehn]: OK, anybody motion to table that one until we can try to get Mr. Fallon? Motion to table. Motion to table by Member McLaughlin, seconded by? Second. Member Kreatz, roll call.
[Van der Kloot]: Graham? Yes. Kreatz? Yes. McLaughlin?
[McLaughlin]: Yes.
[Van der Kloot]: Ms. Stone? Yes. Russo? Yes. Van der Kloot? Yes. Mayor?
[Lungo-Koehn]: Yes. Seven in the affirmative, zero in the negative. The paper is tabled. Number four, recommendation to approve donation from the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Dr. Bernadette Riccadeli.
[Ricciardelli]: Hi, good evening. So I am here tonight to deliver a report on an award that the Metropolitan Public Schools received from the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. So I just want to give you a little bit of a background to funding for our Italian program. So it was last year that we found out that our partner group, CACET, lost their funding, the funding was significantly decreased, and as a result, their support for our elementary Italian program ended unexpectedly. CASSID had been supporting our Italian program for about the past 20 years by contributing approximately 50,000 a year for that program. In late May, early June of 2020, my lead teacher, Vilma Bibo, and I applied for a direct grant through the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. I remember it vividly because we needed to apply in Italian, and I don't speak or write Italian, and she does. So it was very helpful to have her assistance. We were informed in early fall that we were probably going to get the grant, and it adds up to 27,000 euros, which when the conversion takes place, that comes out to about 32,000 U.S. dollars. We were also told that Medford had been the highest awarded, received the highest funding of any school in the United States that is supported by the Italian Ministry So I just, I thought that was something special. So when we applied for this grant, we needed to put down, we needed to identify the number of students who were taking Italian in the district. And during the 2019-2020 school year, that number was significantly higher than it is now. Last year, our elementary Italian program enrolled about 900 students in total. Because that program has ended, we – this year, we're down 900 students. Our middle school program and our high school programs are still very strong. We have told the Ministry of Foreign Affairs through the consulate that that elementary program does – no longer exists, and they are willing to continue the funding even though that program does not exist. So we will be using the funds to defray the cost of our advanced placement program of the high school for the 2021 school year. And tonight we do respectfully ask to approve the acceptance of this gracious gift of approximately $32,000 from the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. And again, that is to support our advanced placement program. I would like to extend my big thank you to Federica Serrini, who's the Consul General of Italy, and Adamo Castelnuovo, who's the Director of the Education Office at the Consul. as well as the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the gracious support of our program. Both Federica Serrini and Adamo Castelnuovo have been to Medford High School. They came two years ago. I remember we had a nice lunch in the bistro. They met the superintendent. They are very gracious, and they really expressed an interest in supporting our program. And we hope this continues beyond this year.
[McLaughlin]: Thank you. Motion to approve. Second motion to have questions, Mayor.
[Lungo-Koehn]: So.
[Ruseau]: Thank you. This is always exciting to get money, and I appreciate that Cassett has and, um. The Italian consulate has has been able to help us out, especially since the ending of the funding earlier in the year was a bit of a I just feel it's necessary to ask, are there any stipulations other than that this is spent on AP, there's no year two expectations or any reporting requirements? It's a lot of money and I just want to understand that it truly is, there's no strings at all.
[Ricciardelli]: So we are allowed to spend it on AP testing. So any of the students who are taking the AP Italian test can take it for free. It can be used to defray the cost of the salary for our AP Italian teacher, just as the other funding could be used to defray the cost of our staff to teach in the elementary program. Again, this one can defray the cost of the high school teacher. I'm sure I will need to report out, but it's not a US government grant program, so the reporting is a little different. I'll probably have to reach out to VILMA again. It's probably going to be in Italian. But beyond that, they give us a lot of discretion on how we spend it as long as it's for that AP Italian program.
[Ruseau]: That's wonderful. Thank you so much.
[Ricciardelli]: You're welcome.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you both for filling out that grant. Motion for approval by Member McLaughlin, seconded by? Second. Member Ruseau and Member Vanderclute, roll call.
[Van der Kloot]: Jenny Graham? Yes. Kathy Kreatz? Yes. Melanie McLaughlin?
[McLaughlin]: Yes.
[Van der Kloot]: Mia Mastone? Yes. Paul Rousseau?
[Unidentified]: Yes.
[Van der Kloot]: Paulette Vanderclute? Yes. Mayor Lungo-Koehn?
[Lungo-Koehn]: Yes. Seven in the affirmative, zero in the negative. Paper passes. We could have a motion to take number three off the table.
[McLaughlin]: Motion to take number three off the table.
[Lungo-Koehn]: By member McLaughlin, seconded by member Vanderclute. Roll call. Sorry. Graham? Yes.
[Van der Kloot]: Kreatz? Yes. McLaughlin? Yes. Mustone? Yes. Russo? Yes. Vanderclute? Yes. Mungo Kern?
[Lungo-Koehn]: Yes, 70 affirmative, zero in the negative. We're gonna take number three off the table, which is the recommendation to approve donations to robotics department, Medford Vocational Technical High School, Mr. Chad Fallon.
[Fallon]: Hi, good evening. We recently had a donation from Sam Christie, who's one of the teachers in the robotics and engineering program. He was part of a nonprofit that he belonged to, and he wanted to take the proceeds of the company. It's been dissolved, and he wanted to take the proceeds and donate them to Medford Vocational Technical High School. to be used in any program, not just his.
[Lungo-Koehn]: That's wonderful. Do you know how much that totaled?
[Fallon]: It was 4,000. I don't have the figure in front of me, but it was just over 4,000.
[McLaughlin]: Motion to approve. That's wonderful.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Second. Motion for approval by member McLaughlin. Tied for second, member Van der Kloot, member Kreatz. Roll call.
[Van der Kloot]: Thank you. Jenny Grant? Yes. Kathy Kretsch? Yes. Melanie McLaughlin? Yes. Mia Mustone? Yes. Paul Russo?
[Ruseau]: Yes, absolutely.
[Van der Kloot]: Paulette Van der Kloot?
[Lungo-Koehn]: Yes. Mayor Lungo-Koehn? Yes. Seven in the affirmative, zero in the negative.
[Fallon]: Thank you, Jen. Happy holidays, guys.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Mayor? Thank you. Yes, Member Graham?
[Van der Kloot]: Can we send a thank you note to Mr. Christie? That's very generous of him to think of us. Yes.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Absolutely. Next up, do we have any old business? Hearing and seeing none. Communications, number nine. And again, nothing. And number 10, new business. Do we have anything else besides our last item? No, just our last item. School Committee Resolution, we have two condolences. The Medford School Committee offers its sincere condolences to the family of Nick Tomaszuk, husband of Marion and father of Andrew's middle school parent and community volunteer, Cheryl Rodriguez, and father of Lauren and Lucy Rodriguez. Also, the Medford School Committee offers its sincere condolences to the family of Anne Marie McNamara, mother-in-law of Mustang baseball coach Mike Nestor. If we can all please take a moment of silence. Thank you. I don't think with negotiations and legal matters. No. Member McLaughlin.
[McLaughlin]: I just wanted to say, I think we might have a record for our shortest school committee meeting.
[Unidentified]: Don't jinx it, it's not over yet.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Yes, Merry Christmas, everybody. Thanks to the Boy Scout.
[Kreatz]: Merry Christmas. Happy New Year. Happy New Year.
[Van der Kloot]: Melanie, can you see the flashing lights now? I don't know if you can see them. Nice, Jenny.
[McLaughlin]: I was complimenting Jenny on her sweater. I said it wasn't too ugly, and then I didn't know they had flashing lights, so. Yeah, that's ugly. I take it back. Melanie, what's yours? Mine was actually loaned to me, given to me by the superintendent today because I didn't get one, but gifted. I'm a present, see?
[Lungo-Koehn]: Nice.
[McLaughlin]: So yes, that was mine.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Oh, Rudolph, I love it.
[Van der Kloot]: I love the glasses. Oh, nice, Paul.
[Lungo-Koehn]: I thought it was the Grinch. Awesome. Thank you, everyone. It's Santa Mia Science.
[Van der Kloot]: Thank you, Merry Christmas. Bye everyone. Bye.
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