[Unidentified]: All right. Good evening, everybody.
[Lungo-Koehn]: It's 6.05, and we are recording. Medford School Committee, April 26, 2021, regular meeting, 6 p.m., pursuant to Governor Baker's March 12th, 2020 order suspending certain provisions of the open meeting law, chapter 30A, section 18, and the governor's March 15th, 2020 orders imposing strict limitations on the number of people that may gather in one place. This meeting of the Medford School Committee will be conducted via remote participation to the greatest extent possible. Specific information and general guidelines for remote participation by members of the public and or parties with the right and or requirement to attend this meeting can be found in the city of Medford's website, at www.medfordma.org. For this meeting, members of the public who wish to listen or watch the meeting may do so by accessing the meeting link contained herein. No in-person attendance of members of the public will be permitted, but every effort will be made to ensure that the public can adequately access the proceedings in real time via technological means. In the event that we are unable to do so, despite best efforts, We will post on the city of Medford or Medford community media websites and audio or video recording transcript or other comprehensive record of proceeding as soon as possible after the meeting. Additionally, 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. You can call in by using 1-929-205-6099 please enter meeting ID 91506415713 when prompted. Member McLaughlin, if you could call the roll.
[McLaughlin]: Sure. Member Graham.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Here.
[McLaughlin]: Member Kreatz. Here. Member McLaughlin, present. Member Mustone. Present. Member Ruseau.
[Van der Kloot]: Hmm, Paul.
[Ruseau]: Present. Did you not get that?
[McLaughlin]: No, we got it now. Member Van der Kloot. Present. Mayor Longo-Khan.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Present, seven present, zero absent. Please all rise to salute the flag. 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. April 12, 2021 school committee minutes. Motion of approval. Member Van der Kloot seconded by... Second. Member Kreatz, roll call please.
[McLaughlin]: Member Graham. Yes. Member Kreatz. Yes. Member Laughlin, yes. Member Mustone. Yes. Member Ruseau. He said yes, I heard him. Member Van der Kloot.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Yes.
[McLaughlin]: Mayor Lungo-Koehn.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Yes, seven of the affirmative, zero of the negative. Minutes are approved. Number three, approval of bills, transfer of funds, and approval of payrolls.
[Van der Kloot]: Motion of approval.
[Lungo-Koehn]: I remember Van der Kloot, second by- Second. Member Kreatz, roll call.
[McLaughlin]: Member Graham.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Yes.
[McLaughlin]: I'm a Kreatz. Yes. I'm a McLaughlin. Yes. Member Mustone. Yes. Member Ruseau. Yes. Member Van der Kloot.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Yes.
[McLaughlin]: Mayor Lungo-Koehn.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Yes. Seven in the affirmative, zero in the negative. Approval of payrolls has been approved. We have report of secretary number one, good of the order offered by member McLaughlin.
[McLaughlin]: Yes, thank you, Mayor. The good of the order is a category under Robert's Rules of Orders that we had voted in earlier in the year, essentially at our first meeting of the month. And I think on occasion, it's been dropped, but moving forward, I would ask that it is included on the first meeting of the month. And generally, it is to check in with the school committee as a group, as a whole, to check in on the good of the order. Essentially, how are things going? Are things going well? Are there things that folks feel we need work on? you know, are the meeting scheduling's going fine? Like, it's an opportunity for the committee to offer up anything they have, both positive or, you know, things that need to be worked on. So that's the good of the order.
[Ruseau]: Mayor? Member Ruseau? Yes, thank you. I appreciate the good of the order today. I would just like to suggest that we all take a refresher course on Robert's Rules. We typically allow members to speak for as long as they want to speak, which is actually a violation of Robert's rules. We don't let everybody have turns. Some members will ask six or seven questions in a row, leaving the other members who may have had questions to sit there silently and look like they had nothing to say, which looks bad for those of us that came with a set of questions. So I think as a committee, we can do an awful lot better at acting like a committee instead of as individuals approaching an election.
[Van der Kloot]: Mayor.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Member Van der Kloot.
[Van der Kloot]: Yes, I do agree that sometimes I think we would benefit by having some rotation. Like a member might ask two questions and then we might go on to a next member rather than just having one member. I think it might be more engaging for all of us. The other thing is I just bring up very diplomatically of saying our last meeting was six hours long. We had something like 23 meetings in the in March. I think what we are inadvertently doing is taking over some of the roles sometimes of the people who we respect and. of doing their job and we need to allow them to do their job and not take up so much of their time with our meetings. And I don't quite know how to, there's no way to legislate it, but I think we need to be very conscious as we get now to this last part of the year about how many, what our expectations are about additional meetings and the length of them.
[Lungo-Koehn]: And I agree with you member Van der Kloot. Member McLaughlin.
[McLaughlin]: Thank you. I think these are, you know, both through the chair, my colleagues I think these are both things that have been talked about, certainly, you know, individually or amongst less than a quorum with folks over time so I think these are both items that need to be addressed. Training and Roberts rules of order is, you know, highly recommended it's a really important, it's what how we operate and how we run and, you know, I know when I came on as a new school committee member there was no orientation there was no indication of how to do things. We had to seek out training and. I know MASC has an event. I don't know how many folks have gone and you know I went to it that one time pre pandemic and learn some things certainly there but I think a course in Roberts Rules of Order is definitely in order and I would also say we've talked about the length of our meetings in the past and there has been some conversation about you know, more frequently meetings for less time and folks sort of tend to say that they think that that would just mean more frequent meetings that are longer. So they don't necessarily wanna do that either. I don't know what the answer is there, but I think that clearly when we have to go two, sometimes three weeks in between talking to each other, it makes it very difficult because the items on the agenda get longer and longer, understandably. Thank you.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you. I know we have our student rep Mr. Colin Bailey on the call. If you have anything to add, please jump in.
[McLaughlin]: Yes, I'm sorry. I forgot, Mayor. Our new rules have asked that we include the student rep in attendance, and I did have it. I actually reached out to Colin Bailey to ensure that he was coming today, and then I get caught up in the roll call, and I apologize that there's the student rep here, so I will add him to the attendance roll. Thank you.
[Lungo-Koehn]: you. Thank you. Thank you, member.
[Kreatz]: Chris Oh, yes. Um I just wanted to say that, um. And sometimes I haven't been able to speak at some of the meetings because. Some other committee members have gone on to their questions, and I'm looking at the clock and I'm looking at the number of residents that want to speak, and I just you know, I just passed on my question. Um so I you know, it would be helpful if we all you Then before they got to ask their second question, it could go through maybe with some of the other members if they had a question. In the past, I have expressed that I'm not in favor of more frequent meetings. I know that it sounds like it would be helpful, but I found that some of the details in the meetings that we have, they're very comprehensive and meeting every week and doing the minutes and posting the meetings, it's going to ultimately take the same amount of time. And the administration is just gonna be getting ready for meetings every single week. So I'm not in favor of meeting more frequently and adding on more frequent, shorter meetings. I just wanted to say that.
[McLaughlin]: Mayor. I think the mayor's not here now. Maybe she got booted out by mistake. Will we go with the vice chair in the meantime?
[Van der Kloot]: I will take the vice chair, member McLaughlin.
[McLaughlin]: Thank you. through the chair, I would also agree. You know, I don't want more frequent longer meetings. I just want to clarify that I am looking for, you know, I'm hoping that as part of the good of the order, perhaps we can come up with some suggestions of how to how to, you know, make the meetings less than six, eight hours, especially as we're coming into budget season. Thanks.
[Van der Kloot]: So I would suggest that we at least try, and when the mayor comes back, we'll talk to her about doing a rotation for questions to see how that works. Maybe a question, and if there's a follow-up point, that would be understandable, but not a whole new question. So do I see consensus just with a shake of your head, or is everybody willing to try that? Great, okay. Can we move on to the next order of business? And I don't... Superintendent, can you tell us what it is? Because I don't have it out. We can't hear you.
[Edouard-Vincent]: Who's got the agenda right in front of them? Thank you. I have it in front of me. Oh, great. Well, McLaughlin raised her hand.
[McLaughlin]: Yeah, I just was gonna say that I had the agenda in front of me as well. So the report of committees, behavioral health and special education subcommittee meeting, which is myself for the report and bear with me one second, because I was going between tabs, it's gonna take a second.
[Van der Kloot]: while you're looking for that, Mayor, what we decided was that we would ask you to, that we would rotate questions. Perhaps a member would do their question and there might be a potential follow-up to that question, but not a new question. And we would go through members and we'd like to try that out and see how that works. Sounds great. And Melanie is going to give her report.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Yes, number five. Sounds great. Thanks. Sorry, I lost internet connection.
[McLaughlin]: Okay, thank you. The Behavioral Health and Special Education Subcommittee met on April 15th. That meeting was for, there were several members present. My subcommittee members are Member Ruseau and Member Mustone. Member Van der Kloot was also present in place of Member Mustone. The Director of Pupil Services, Joan Bowen, and Director of Guidance, Stacey Schulman, attend these meetings regularly. as does CPAC and several parents and other administrators. We have scheduled a presentation to the school committee for May 24th, where we will put forward what we hope we come to terms with a recommendation at our next meeting. for proposed policy in our next meeting is, sorry, it's the meeting right before our May 24th meeting. So I don't have the calendar in front of me right now. I thought it was at the end of these minutes. It usually is, but I can get back to that. And so we have been talking about building friendships and community and schools. And so we've had a lot of meetings over the course of the year where Members have come to the committee with various ideas and resources, and we've been talking about those. And one of the things that we're talking about is the common ground program that currently exists at the high school, and potentially using that as a model of building friendships. They use a reverse inclusion model right now. And so we would look to this next year at sort of showing what's happening right now, because it's not actually a course, but potentially creating a syllabus, but having the teachers, obviously, Mr. Skorka and Ms. Andre, potentially create a syllabus for an actual course that will work around building friendships and community. And we're still going to be pursuing the best buddies and a number of things now that hopefully will, you know, be getting better through the pandemic and being spending more time, being able to spend more time within the school and in the community to build those friendships, which are so important. And then we also had the latter half of the meeting is behavioral health. And again, we will be presenting as part of our May 24 presentation on policy recommendations for behavioral health. So we were talking about the Sandy Hook promise, which currently exists in schools and requirements by DESE for mental health training in our schools and behavioral health supports. So we are looking forward to presenting to the school committee on the 24th, our recommendations. Any questions or comments? Can I get a motion to?
[Unidentified]: Thank you.
[McLaughlin]: Okay, roll call. Member Graham?
[SPEAKER_02]: Yes.
[McLaughlin]: Member Kreatz? Yes. Member McLaughlin? Yes. Member Mustone? Yes. Member Ruseau? Yes. Member Van der Kloot?
[Lungo-Koehn]: Yes.
[McLaughlin]: Mayor Lungo-Koehn?
[Lungo-Koehn]: Yes. So the affirmative zero and the negative minutes are approved. Number six, community participation. Any citizen in the audience may be given permission to speak once at a school committee meeting regarding any item on the agenda for up to three minutes on any one item. A community participation portion of the agenda is established, which will give any citizen the privilege of placing an item before the school committee or be heard on any item. Any item to be present presented must be submitted in writing to the superintendent of schools by the Wednesday prior to the scheduled meeting at noon with a maximum of five minutes allowed for any one presentation. 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 Redford Street address, your question or comment. We have parent Maureen Ronane topic to speak for up to five minutes on dyslexia. Does anybody see Ms. Ronayna? And I do not. Do we have any other emails and public participation? We do.
[Van der Kloot]: I have one email submitted by William Giglio from Winthrop Street. This is to your school committee members. This is a short but two-part email request. One, with all due respect and after talking with many other Medford families who tune in to watch Medford Public School Committee meetings, we kindly ask that any and all subjects that do not pertain directly to Medford Public Schools, please be refrained from being discussed during the time of the meeting. We as parents tune in each meeting to keep up and stay in touch with what is going on within our school system. And we do not need updates on news stories that are going on within our nation that do not directly affect this school system. Example, at the last meeting, the news of a 20-year-old man in Minneapolis who was shot by police when trying to flee while being arrested was discussed when this had nothing at all to do with the Medford public schools. There are many other city community meetings and other outlets that have the time and place for these types of discussions. Two, I also kindly request that at the beginning of each Medford school committee meeting, when reciting the Pledge of Allegiance, that a flag be present behind or in view of at least one committee member during the time that meetings are conducted on Zoom and not in city hall chambers where flag is present. Thank you.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you, member Van der Kloot. We're going to move on because I don't see Ms. Ronain on the call. Number seven, report of superintendent. Dr. Edouard-Vincent.
[Edouard-Vincent]: Good evening, everyone. I hope everyone had a relaxing April break. During vacation week, both Administrative Professionals Day and IRF Day were celebrated. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of our administrative staff for all their dedicated service to the Medford Public Schools. As I said in my communication last Thursday, often the administrative staff is the first face of the district welcoming families to our schools. They are instrumental in helping to keep our district running smoothly. We appreciate you and thank you for keeping all of us better connected to our Mustang community. To celebrate Earth Day, I would like to extend my thanks to Aggie Tudin, Medford's tree warden, who will oversee the planting of some trees along Steve Miller Way. Additionally, I would like to thank CCSR students, Babin Gill, Eleanor Nicarra, Naomi Pierre, and Oprah Nicarra. who volunteered this past week to transfer both strawberry seedlings and cabbage seedlings into unused flower beds in the Medford High School garden. Special thanks to Ms. Retter-Smith for her guidance and support during this process. I want to thank all who actively participated in the Columbus School renaming process, either by submitting a new name for consideration or by submitting an application to serve on the renaming committee. It is my hope that this process will help to bring the community together as we move forward in deciding a new name for the school. National Honor Society Induction Ceremony. Our National Honor Society Induction Ceremony will take place this Thursday, April 29th at 7 p.m. via Zoom for our juniors only. I'd like to take this opportunity to recognize all our 37 students who have been invited to join this group. Despite the challenges of the pandemic, you are able to persevere academically, and Thursday is our day to honor you. An in-person ceremony for seniors only will take place on Tuesday, May 4th at 7 p.m. in the gym. This is an invitation only event and we are following all Board of Health COVID safety guidelines. I congratulate our 49 seniors who are part of this cohort. I'd like to extend a special thank you to Ms. DiPrizio, our National Honor Society advisor for supporting and encouraging our National Honor Society students. I'd like to share that 35 local organizations in Tufts host communities in Massachusetts have been awarded $35,000 in grants from the Tufts Community Grants Program. The annual grants are funded by donations from Tufts University faculty and staff. Two of our school-based groups were recipients of these grants. Our Center for Citizenship and Social Responsibility. for Medford's Food Drive to help supply bagged groceries and necessities to Medford Public Schools families, and the Strong Girls United Foundation, a student athlete mentor program at the Brooks School, which includes training materials and team shirts. The Medford Public Schools are grateful to Tufts University for their continued support. For everyone's information, Tufts University announced that it has acquired doses of Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine and is setting up a vaccination clinic for their students, faculty and staff in the Gantcher Center this week. Doses will be administered on April 28th through April 30th. In addition, the announcement by the University Infection Control Health Director, Michael Jordan, he also said that all students, all Tufts University students will need to be vaccinated before participating in on-campus classes or activities for next school year. I would also like to take this moment to thank Stop and Shop for their gracious donations of food bags to the Medford Family Network. At least twice a month, Stop and Shop delivers these bags to Medford Family Network, who distributes them to our families in need. Speaking of the Medford Family Network, this Thursday, April 29th, they will be presenting the 10th Annual Parent Cafe virtually from 7.30 to 9.30 p.m. This important discussion will revolve around stressing resilience in times of stress. They are hoping for at least nine more parents to register. Those interested should contact Marie Cassidy at 781-393-8255. As you are aware, last Monday, all Massachusetts residents over the age of 16 are now eligible to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. Our Medford Public School nurses are encouraging parents to vaccinate their children for COVID-19 as an important measure toward reducing the spread of the virus. Parents are encouraged to pre-register their child or children for a vaccine appointment at one of Massachusetts mass vaccination sites at vaccinesignup.mass.gov. I'd like to say that all of our fifth grade students should now know which middle school they will be attending in September. Please note that orientations will be held for students and their parents or caregivers at the McGlynn Middle School on Wednesday, May 12th from six to 8 p.m. and at the Andrews Middle School on Thursday, May 13th from six to 8 p.m. More details to follow. I'd also like to announce that Medford Public Schools has temporarily suspended the use of Google Hangouts. Due to some misinformation or cyberbullying and inappropriate exchange of information taking place on Google Hangouts, we have temporarily suspended the use of that platform until we are able to put in additional measures. So the temporary suspension of Google Hangouts is still in place while we are looking for additional security measures. Lastly, I feel I would be remiss if I did not mention the decision in the Derek Chauvin case. The jury returned guilty verdicts in the murder of George Floyd, which raises hope that our nation is changing for the better. According to a poll conducted by UMass Amherst, it is notable that a solid majority of whites, 56%, supported the verdict. In a nation with such a troubled racial history and present, it is extremely rare and perhaps unprecedented that a majority of whites support the conviction of a police officer for the murder of a Black man, said political science professor Jesse Rhodes, who helped conduct the poll. An Earth Day quote seems applicable here. We all share the same mother. It is about time we treat each other like family. I have said continuously that we are one Medford, one district, the Mustang family. Yet too often in our world, black and brown lives are devalued. We must all understand that no matter the color of one's skin, we are all human. As our Vice President Kamala Harris stated after the verdict was read, today we feel a sigh of relief. Still, it cannot take away the pain. A measure of justice is not the same as equal justice. As your superintendent, as an educator, and most importantly as a mother, I have said that change is hard and can be messy, but it is necessary. Conversations about race and injustice are complicated, but must be had, so the quality of life is improved for us all. As Tyler Perry said last night at the Oscars, let us reject hate. Thank you.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you, Dr. Edouard-Vincent. Number two, we have COVID-19 Public Health Update and Medford Public Schools COVID-19 Testing Summary and Update by Nurse Supervisor Ms. Toni Rae, Ms. Marian O'Connor, Board of Health Director, and Mr. David Murphy.
[Wray]: Good evening, everyone. I will provide the data tonight for the City of Medford and the Medford Public Schools. The City of Medford, the city is averaging 22.9 positive cases per day as reported on April 22nd, giving us a 1.19% positivity rate. As reported by the Medford Board of Health, 25 children less than 19 years old tested positive for COVID-19 between April 18th and April 25th. In the Medford Public Schools, school nurses administered 4,684 COVID tests during the week preceding school vacation, three of which were positive, a 0.06% positivity rate. We did not administer any tests during school vacation week. Testing resumed today in all schools with 227 pool tests submitted for analysis. I'd like to remind staff who received their COVID vaccinations that it is recommended that they continue weekly COVID testing. Vaccination prevents serious illness and hospitalization. Vaccinated persons can still get the virus and spread it to others despite not having symptoms themselves. I would also like to share a message from Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the CDC, who sums up the current COVID situation well. She says, we remain in a complicated stage. On one hand, more people in the United States are being vaccinated every single day at an accelerated pace. On the other hand, cases and hospitalizations are increasing in some areas of the country, and cases among young people who have not yet been vaccinated are also increasing. Therefore, I thank all of the parents and the Medford Public School staff who proactively informed the school nurses of their vacation travel plans, provided COVID test results prior to returning to school, and followed the travel advisories. The good health of our school community depends upon the efforts of all students, families, and staff to follow recommended Department of Public Health COVID guidelines and advisories, including wearing a face mask, avoiding large gatherings, maintaining social distancing, and most importantly, staying home if you feel ill or if a member of your family tests positive for COVID. Thank you.
[McLaughlin]: Member McLaughlin. Thank you. I also wanted to ask, I know we had the opportunity to speak last week to the chair, Nurse Ray, and I know that it had been mentioned that it'd be helpful to share if we have vaccine information. Do you want us, is there anything that you're asking for students to do that or not do that? Like, I'm curious.
[Wray]: So we are recommending that students over the age of 16 be vaccinated as per the current guidelines. Parents can sign their children up at the MassVax sites. I believe that website was put up on the chat earlier. And we encourage all parents to vaccinate their children over 16.
[McLaughlin]: Okay, and I guess, may I, Mayor? I had a follow-up. So I guess the question is, shall we send vaccine records to you or to the nursing office if they would like them?
[Wray]: Yes, please. We would like to keep track of students who have received their COVID vaccines. Thank you.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you, Ms. Ray. Number three, we have an update on the fiscal year 22 budget presentation. Mr. David Murphy.
[Murphy]: Thank you, Mayor. I'm going to share a very brief deck, some of the material you've seen before. And that's not to be repetitive. But as I said in previous budget presentations, because we know that this is a topic of significant interest to the community, we want to be sure that we're being mindful of that and various folks picking up the conversation at various stages throughout the course of the budget development process. We want to be sure that we're keeping everyone as informed as possible, being as transparent as possible, and answering as many questions as clearly as we can. There is some new information in this, or at least some updates. And so at the conclusion, I'll be happy to take any questions that you might have. One of the pieces that we've discussed over the course of the last several months, and I know it's been of interest to some members of the committee, making sure that we're keeping track of the sequence that we're following. And so this is a simplified version of the flowchart that you saw at a previous budget update in February. We're in basically the top right corner in this timeline right now. We've completed, as stated in a slide or two, about 25 budget internal meetings with our various departments and are moving toward the public meetings that will take place with the committee of the whole over the course of the next several weeks. This is a modified version of a table I've shown you in the past related to the sources of funding and the budget development process with the Commonwealth, the city of Medford and the school district. I've added this fourth column to the right as I think most people, certainly the committee knows and members of the community are familiar with the, sizable amount of federal funding that will be flowing into cities and towns as well as school districts. And so we'll be touching upon that a little bit tonight and the implications for that funding. This is an updated timeline. I wrote to the committee on Friday. We had initially planned to begin some of the public committees of the whole meetings this week. And a few things became clear over the course of the last two weeks or so. One, There's still a significant degree of uncertainty with regard to restrictions around the additional funding that will be coming in. And the degree to which that has the potential to be intermingled with our operating budget, there's a need for greater clarity. And I know because I fielded several questions from members of the committee about how that funding will be used and the sort of, the concept of essentially bifurcating the operating budget from the COVID mitigation budget coming directly from the federal government. And we'll talk a little bit about that tonight and what the strategic questions that will be coming before the city and the school committee. But this is an updated timeline. We did add one meeting at the end of this process. We've tried to keep the dates consistent and we'll be sending calendar invites out members of the committee to make sure that that's built into your calendar. But we're thinking right now of a 7 p.m. start time to accommodate some of the subcommittee meetings that are scheduled on those days as well earlier in the evening. And then again, the May 19th date was added because we thought it would be a good idea to have sort of a catch all day in case we run out of time to the priority discussed earlier tonight about trying to keep the meetings more manageable. And so we have that as sort of a placeholder where we'll be able to pick up additional departments that need additional time to present or also for further discussion once the multi-dimensional budget has been presented and hopefully gives the committee the full context to discuss. This statement with regard to recognizing the one-time influx of funding, that's something that we've discussed before and something that will be sort of a common thread as we get into the strategic considerations related to operating budget versus COVID mitigation funding. And so as we get ready to open FY22, we've tried to keep you as informed as possible with regard to the close of FY21. This is not a major change since I presented to you in mid-March. We're comfortable with regard to our financial position as we move toward the end of FY21. I've said before that given the size of the budget, the sort of best practice target area is to finish somewhere between $100,000 and $300,000. We're a little above that right now. There are reasons for that. It has to do with some of the substantial deficits in the revolving funds that are contingent upon revenue generation, which has been significantly diminished this year. There's also been a few other variables, some COVID related, some sort of typical uncertainties as you go through the course of the fiscal year that have in some cases turned out favorably for us. And so that's what puts us at about a $500,000 cushion for lack of a better term. That is not to say we're able to release the current partial spending freeze, we're not in a position to do that because there are a few variables and potential emergency funding issues that we have to, we're keeping a close eye on infrastructure and otherwise. And so essentially we're in a good position, but not overly favorable. And, and the main reason for that is again, the food services deficit in particular, which on paper is $730,000. I'm comfortable. I'm confident that that's going to diminish over the next weeks and potentially a month or so as some unencumbered funds are released and as additional revenue is generated as a result of additional students being in school. We do still have two internal meetings left this week. I expect that those will wrap up by Wednesday or Thursday and we'll be in a good position to begin the public discussions next week. In terms of planning for FY22, we're going to talk about this in a second, but There are two major sources coming directly to the school district, ESSER 2 and ESSER 3. The ESSER 2 number, that's the 2.3 million that we've discussed previously in the federal legislation that passed at the end of calendar year 2020, and the ESSER 3, which is the subsequent federal legislation that passed last month. So as we get into the spending priorities, all department heads and principals with the exception of that last group that I mentioned a minute ago that will be convening this week. But all principals and all other department heads have been asked to focus on three specific areas with regard to budgetary priorities and how we as an organization can seek to remedy the learning and opportunity gaps that were either caused or exacerbated by the pandemic. And certainly there are priorities that are broader and expand beyond the particular challenges that have been caused by the pandemic. Generally speaking, we think of them in these three buckets as materials and infrastructure, personnel, and training and professional development, and all within the context of the significant challenges that students are experiencing as a result of the conditions under which they've gone to school over the course of the past year plus. You've seen this before as well. Again, these are just the buckets, the priority areas that we started the budget process with. They've been guiding our conversations and they will play a large role in the information that's presented to you in the coming weeks. And then these are the three categories, and this is the information that to some extent is new tonight. And these are approximations, and they are a result of the conversations that we've been having internally. You can see there's a significant amount of variability, and I'm happy to go into more detail than is articulated here on the screen as to why there is that variability. But essentially, there are a number of unanswered questions at this point as we look toward FY22. There are some things we know and that we feel very confident about. The first one being in what I'll call bracket one on the far left, we're looking at approximately two or $2.1 million in fixed cost increases. And those are made up of three subcategories. First, the contractually owed compensation. Those are steps and lanes that are part of existing collective bargaining agreements. There are compliance obligations and things that we recognize that we will have to invest in in order to both adhere to best practices and fulfill all of our various obligations to students and families. And there are some emergency infrastructure maintenance technology related expenses that we know we won't be able to defer past fiscal year 22. So that's what makes up the bulk of that $2.1 million that our Even if we do nothing different, if we have no strategic priorities, if we make no investments, and if we provide no compensation increases other than those that are contractually obligated to provide, we're looking at about $2 million in increased costs. This second category, again, there's a range because there are some strategic decisions that have to be made, and there is some overlap between how we can potentially fund some of these priorities And there's a domino effect. So if we make one strategic decision, there's potential savings that are realized. And so it's impossible at this point to put an exact number on what our instructional operational necessities will be. But at this point throughout the development process and after close to 25 meetings in which we've discussed all these issues, we can narrow it to a range of $500,000 to 1.75 million. What that essentially means is that If the increase is less than $500,000, there are difficult decisions that have to be made and savings and efficiencies that have to be recognized over and above our sort of normal fiscal stewardship responsibilities to identify those efficiencies on a yearly basis. And if we're north of $2 million, again, with no compensation increases beyond those that are contractually owed, then we're in a particularly healthy position. we want to make sure that we're making the most strategic use of all resources. In the third category, again, a lot of variability because there are things that are uncertain. We have to make some strategic decisions about, from a maintenance and technology perspective, what's the timeline in which we'll adhere to. So that's one piece of it. There's also close to 10 collective bargaining agreements that are expiring this year. And so there are no contractually owed increases, but we're beginning to, we'll be entering into those discussions with our bargaining partners in the coming weeks and months. And so we need to understand that there's the potential costs as we go into those discussions as well. And then obviously the uncertainty related to the federal funding, which we'll discuss on this next slide, which is that neither the district nor the city have received the guidance that we need to with regard to restrictions around the SO3 funding. And so we know that There are a series of COVID mitigation related expenses that the district is likely to incur, or not likely, it certainly has and will continue to incur. And we're grateful to have that funding available to us. But it's also the case that we have operating expenses that are going to escalate to some degree as explained in that previous slide. And so you've seen on the left the information before about how the 4.3 million has been broken down through our partnership with the city and through the funding that's been made available. both from the federal government and from the state. And what we're looking at here with regard to ESSA 2 and ESSA 3, it's $7.6 million, which is a healthy amount and something that we'll make sure that we make good use of in terms of those investments. It's also an amount that has to be spread out over a period of time. And so while it's always possible that there'll be additional funding sources that will be realized, our planning really has to encompass the next two to three fiscal years. And so hopefully, the economy improves, revenue improves, and so we're in a more favorable position in the coming years. But as of right now, we are not in a position to look at this as $7.6 million solely for fiscal year 22, which is just another piece of the equation that we have to take into account. And those bullet points you'll see on the right, those are what you're likely to see as we begin to present on those priorities and begin to have those discussions with the school committee and to inform the community. And so just a final takeaways here, with regard to input 21, again, we're projecting a modest surplus, more or less in line with where we hope to finish the fiscal year. We do have a food services deficit that at least for the moment is requiring us to maintain our current spending and hiring freeze, partial spending hiring freeze. We are approving emergency expenses that have a certain urgency with regard to this fiscal year. The range with regard to the projected increase, I'm going to estimate right now is 3.4 to 5.8. I understand that that's a wide window. But again, there are a number of variables ranging from collective bargaining to the federal stimulus to potential other efficiencies that we're able to recognize and enforce internally. And so that is what that delta represents and what it's attributable to. There will be COVID related expenses, we know that. And we also know that there's uncertainty that the city of Medford is facing and that all cities and towns across the Commonwealth are facing. And so as a result of that, we are continuing to explore all possible savings and efficiencies to make sure that we're able to bridge whatever gap we responsibly can. We do not have a 5.8 million. And frankly, we don't have a $3.4 million savings that is available to us internally. We know that. And we want to be honest and transparent about that. But at the same time, as any $62.3 million taxpayer-funded enterprise does, we have a responsibility to continue to look internally to make sure that we are being good fiscal stewards and recognizing and realizing efficiencies wherever we are able to find them. So I recognize that's a lot of information. I'm happy to share this information with you after the meeting. These numbers are relatively fluid, but the wide range between 3.4 and 5.8 is intended to create space for us to move within that range. So I don't anticipate you'll be hearing recommendations that would exceed 5.8, and I don't anticipate any recommendations that would would be less than 3.4 going into FY 22. And again, I'm happy to get into more details about any or all this information. Thank you.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you, Mr. Murphy. Member McLaughlin?
[McLaughlin]: Thank you. And I just wanted to add for members of the community, obviously the committee of the whole budget meetings are the place where a lot of this nitty gritty detail comes out. And I wanted to ask, I know with the pandemic last year, it was difficult to get binders around this stuff. And I don't know about my colleagues, but for me, I work much better with the tactile budget binders with the ability to move back and forth during the meetings, what have you. So will we be getting those this session?
[Murphy]: I don't have any reason to think you wouldn't be receiving bindings if that's the committee's preference.
[McLaughlin]: Thank you. That'd be great.
[Ruseau]: Member Ruseau? Thank you. We also passed the motion last June, July, August, it all runs together to get updated binders, because I mean, we do literally, I mean, I know most of us probably keep these right at the ready, but this is the binder we use to approve the budget that is absolutely not correct. So, you know, you put 62.3 million on that slide. This does not say 62.3 million, neither does the city budget. I go to the city's website. So, I'm not saying 62.3 is not correct, because I know that that is money that came in out of the normal process, but the documents that the public will look at 20 years from now, I looked at 20 years of our city budgets. They can't be lies, they can't be fictions. We need a budget document that actually reflects what the budget was, or a very rational person looking at the actual documents we approved will say in perpetuity that our budget last year was 61.3. And I don't want us to be in that position. I need to know what the budget was. And I feel like I still don't even know because there's this other number that we never approved. And I think we're the only ones who statutorily are allowed to approve a budget.
[Murphy]: Well, the first thing I'll say just because the word lies was used is that I really can't say strongly enough that there's no intention to provide any lies to the school community or the community with regard to this budget. The second thing I will say is that this school district budget, like all school district budget, is comprised of multiple funding sources. The 62.3 is, as was discussed in these slides and previous ones, the operating budget comprised of the Chapter 70 allocation and the local contribution from the municipal government. There are external funds, as there are every year, Title I, Perkins grants, 242 grants, and special ed a variety of other sources that come in that in this district amount to in the range of $2 million or so. That also does not include the 4.3 to 4.6 that was represented here with regard to the COVID relief funding. And so everyone will have a binder and it will spell out in as much detail as possible. I wasn't here, so I can't speak to where those inaccuracies what they might be attributable to. I will say that my team and I have spent a significant amount of time and I imagine we'll be spending a considerable amount of more time in the coming weeks and months attempting to align the budget lines with the appropriate budget categories. And there are four budget $63 million and eight or 900 employees. It does seem to be that historically there have been a number of budget charges, meaning people's salary being charged to the wrong lines, which I think creates confusion and a lack of transparency. I have no, I've seen no evidence of any intent on anyone's part. I think there are probably, So usually the way that happens is that there's a year where there's an account that's short. And so someone's salary is charged to a different account, sometimes off the operating budget into revolving funds. And then the next year somebody else's is, and then it just sort of compounds itself and nobody goes through and actually cleans it up. We've spent a good amount of time this year attempting to clean that up. And so when you look at the binder that's being discussed and it has the columns for FY21 versus FY20 versus FY22, you'll see some variability that doesn't necessarily represent any type of strategic decision on the part of the district, as much as it represents an attempt to put people in the appropriate groupings so that it can be clearer to the public, both contemporaneously and historically, where the personnel was sitting, what they were doing, And I think it's just, it's a necessary correction that has to be made for purposes of transparency. But the committee should know there is a significant amount of that. And I can't frankly say with certainty that we're gonna catch every single one. I can tell you that we've caught a number of them and I think it will be more accurate and I think it will be more transparent. But it's $63 million. And I can't say I can't make a guarantee that there won't be times where you'll find something that should be charged through a different account. But in terms of the total number, it's 62.3 plus the external funds. And I have no basis to think otherwise, at least at this point. What I want to be clear is, again, I know there are They're members of the community for whom this might be the one discussion about the budget they hear. I don't want people walking away thinking that you as members of the committee have a binder of $62.3 million, but there's actually 72, and we just don't tell anybody how we spend that other 10. It's that there are other funding sources that are all discussed publicly that are deliberated on and I think we're transparent about. it's not all as neat and tidy as just the 60.2.3 and nothing else.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Mayor? Member Van der Kloot.
[Van der Kloot]: Yes, thank you. Just this is kind of a housekeeping comment. Because of the change in the budget meetings, the curriculum subcommittee meeting is going to be this Wednesday from 4 to 5.30. We're going to be discussing the science curriculum as well as the fine arts curriculum. Additionally, and I particularly want to highlight this to my co-members, Jenny and Mia on the curriculum subcommittee. We'd like to set up another one for May 4th, Tuesday, May 4th, also from four to 5.30 to discuss health and PE. And that would take away the May 13th meeting and give us the opportunity to hear from those departments prior to the instructional portion of the budget. So after the meeting, if Jenny and Mia would let me know whether that Tuesday, May 4th date is acceptable and whether they can attend, I'd be most appreciative. Thank you.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you. Member Graham.
[Graham]: What is the city's allocation to the school district this year?
[Murphy]: I don't have that information. I've had ongoing discussions with the city CFO and as we've reported to the committee previously, we have meet routinely the two finance teams. And so I have shared this information with the city's finance team with regard to essentially the three brackets and what we're projecting as a range for a likely increase or a necessary increase. but I don't have an official number at, to the best of my knowledge, I don't have the official number and I don't, to go back to the sequence that we discussed the previous presentation, the committee will vote on a request that will go to the city, excuse me, the superintendent will make a recommendation to the committee, which will then make a request to the city, at which point an appropriation will be made.
[Graham]: So we've changed the process because it used to be that the city provided the number and we worked to it.
[Murphy]: So what I'm talking about is the formal process that is sort of reflected by the Massachusetts law with regard to the sequence that the city informally provides a number of employment. They're certainly welcome to do that.
[Graham]: Okay, I'm glad to hear we're following the law as it's been laid out. The other comment that I will make for my colleagues is that when I think about the budget and how we move forward, we need to be thinking about the funds that we did not receive last year, and then a modest increase on top of that, which does put us into the neighborhood of A plus B plus C on Mr. Murphy's slide. As far as I can tell, that really represents restoring the district from the layoffs, the pink slips, and all the other things that we had to do last year, given the funding issues. And I will be looking to make sure that we are funding the things that we promised last year, like middle school health and reading specialists and addressing dyslexia in the budget. So I'm hopeful and we've had great conversations on the curriculum subcommittee. So I am hopeful that the city is preparing for that, especially with the significant infusion of cash from the federal government coming our way. So that is what I will be looking for as we go into the budget meetings and I hope that we don't have to pink slip hundreds of teachers again this year. Oh, and the last thing I'll say is I'm also hopeful that we can Um do right by the staff across lots of bargaining units that have helped us navigate through this pandemic as we talk about, um, the negotiation of many collective bargaining agreements and central to those discussions. Of course, and reasonably are cost of living increases, and we as a city need to be prepared to Come to those conversations in good faith.
[Murphy]: That's all. Mayor, if I could just, in response to Ms. Graham's questions, I think it would be worth bringing up the slide with the three buckets again. I think it sort of dovetails nicely up those comments. Would that be okay if I shared that very briefly?
[Lungo-Koehn]: Yes, please. Thanks.
[Murphy]: So to Ms. Graham's point, if you look in these three categories, on the far left, Bracket A, we'll call it. It's a good label. I should have put it on there to make it more easy to read, I think. That's the 2.1 million increase. That is the increase that is coming regardless of any decisions that we make. Essentially, the decisions that led to that 2.1 increase have already been made in the past. Either they're collective bargaining agreements that have been engineered into, some of which decades ago, and others are strategic decisions with regard to investment in various types of maintenance via any ranging from HVAC to technology. These next two brackets, B and C, there are some strategic decisions that can be made there. And that's why there's a range 500 to 1.75 and 750 to 2 million. But the committee and the community need to understand that if we go in the low range of that, then there are implications to that. So, and you could be looking at essentially going multiple fiscal years with no cost of living increase. Typically not considered a prudent strategy, but under, you know, these are uncertain economic conditions. And so we need to go in understanding that, you know, ultimately the allocation and the product of the collective bargaining negotiations could land somewhere within that. With regards to the middle column, bracket B here, that restoration of the FTEs is connected to exactly what Ms. Graham was saying and making sure that those positions are restored appropriately. And that is obviously a chief priority going into these discussions and trying to make sure that we're able to be made whole as much as possible. So those are the three categories. Again, there is a range, there is a variability. That's not unusual, frankly, at this time of the year under this form of government. the uncertainty is exacerbated a little bit this year, or magnified, I guess, by the fact that we have this potential influx of funding, both the city and the school, on the school and city sides of the ledger, for which we don't yet have full guidance on with regard to restrictions. And so that leaves us, in some cases, with more questions. And I know that, frankly, sometimes with these budget discussions, I think everyone's a little more comfortable if we either come in and say the sky is falling and everyone has to panic. Or we come in and say, this is a really good year conditions are favorable. We're going to be able to fund all these priorities have been waiting. We've been waiting for years on and we're not in either of those situations, frankly, we're not. This is not a time to panic and it's not a time to rejoice. We're somewhere in the middle with some legitimate questions that we still need to have answered, but hopefully with this information tonight, people can start to get a sense as to what the range is that we're talking about. If our increase is below $3 million, that is going to be a significant, significant challenge. If our increase is above $6 million, we're going to have to do some additional strategic planning, frankly, to make sure that we're making the most of the investment. Somewhere within that range, in 3.4 to 5.8, is a number in which we will be able to make good on the investment, maximize those resources to benefit students, and also these sound fiscal stewards. So thank you for allowing me to just go back to that briefly, but I felt like it was a good opportunity to sort of reaffirm that point.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you, Mr. Murphy. Number four, we have report on summer funding. I had my hand raised. Member McLaughlin.
[McLaughlin]: Thank you. Thank you for the PowerPoint. I was going to ask if it could be, I didn't see it in the drive, so I'd love to have it sent to the members if you would as well. And then I know that we've had discussion in the past, and I just wanted to double check because of the conversation around the process again. And we talked about a flowchart, and especially for the community that is trying to understand the process, I think you know, we have meetings ourselves and we have a lot of conversation that we may understand things more than, say, the layperson does. So I really do think we need this visual. And I don't know if that's in the presentation or where that is, but we need a visual of a flowchart on what the process is and how it works. So I know to remember Graham's conversation earlier around, you know, when's the appropriation? What's the appropriation? How does this work? from the city, what have you. I think the flowchart really helps with that. So I'm wondering what the status is, if I can. Will people be getting that? I know there was some discussion, we'll be getting it before the budget meetings, which are May 3rd, but that means the public didn't necessarily get it in tonight's meeting. So that's the point is I really wanna make sure that the public understands the process, please.
[Murphy]: So beyond the flowchart that's in this presentation, you mean?
[McLaughlin]: Can we go back to the side of the flowchart that's in the presentation?
[Unidentified]: I'm happy to.
[Murphy]: Is there a piece of information not in this flowchart that you would like represented in the flowchart?
[McLaughlin]: Yeah, I think the process of how the decisions are made. So in the flow chart that we had worked on together, I was under the impression that the process around when the city appropriation, how it goes, what happens if the school committee votes yes, what happens if the school committee votes no, whose decision it is, where it goes, because we don't have any information on that. And we had this situation last time where it was a very where there was a closed vote on there was a potential no vote on the budget and the community you know wanted to know what the impact of that would be and it was not clear and it wasn't clear to committee members and it's still not clear to me so I would like to know that yeah I think it's a fair question it's one that at least in the abstract has been um discussed that I've certainly been part of the conversations a few different times and uh including in recent months as
[Murphy]: Um, some of the, you know, budgets picture, um, a couple of months ago when it was even less clear than it is now. Um, but under the city form of government, if the school committee's role, while there is a vote in the statutory required, statutory required vote to adopt the budget, um, that is ultimately appropriated by the municipal government. If the question is what happens if the school committee refuses to vote to adopt the budget that the municipal government appropriated, then there really isn't a specific sort of how-to with regard to that. The administration would be in a position where the governing body that we report to has not approved spending for fiscal year 22. We would then consult with the Department of Revenue and get guidance as to how we should proceed. I think you can expect what you would typically see in a situation in which there's, functionally speaking, a government shutdown. It's not common at all, again, in a municipal structure like we have in the city of Medford, because there isn't really a good offering at that point. So the committee's role is in making the initial request to the municipal government um, articulating and really it's the administration's responsibility to make sure that we're articulating a defense to that. Uh, request. And then the municipal government ultimately makes is, is the, is the spending branch of the municipal government. And ultimately that's the appropriation that's going to be made. I think the reason that there isn't clear guidance spelled out today is because if the school committee were to refuse to accept the budget that was allocated from the municipal government. there wouldn't be sort of a plan B for the school department. The municipal government ultimately would, you know, could decide, you know, how it was going to respond to that. And I guess there could be some type of breaksmanship where the municipal government then decided to appropriate more. But just frankly, the way the municipal governments operate and the timing that's involved here in terms of the start of the fiscal year, that wouldn't be a strategically prudent route to take, which is why committees typically don't take that route. So again, that's a, I think trying to articulate that and sharing that type of doomsday scenario, I'm not sure I would say that it would help inform the community. I think in large part, it would be articulating an option, creating the perception that it's a viable one when in fact it's really not a viable option and one that, I just, I'm hesitant to incorporate more information into this type of presentation that I think is just going to confuse people. But the committee is certainly, I'm not trying to substitute my judgment for the committee. The committee would like to articulate the step-by-step what would happen if the committee voted to not allow the administration to spend the money that was appropriated. certainly entitled to do that. I think my recommendation at the time would be to adopt the budget that was appropriated and continue to advocate for a supplemental appropriation to help bridge whatever gaps the committee recognized. I think that would be a significantly more prudent strategy than shutting the school department down on July 1st.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Member Ruseau.
[Ruseau]: Thank you. I'm feeling a bit of deja vu here. I've literally watched videos in this last year of communities that have school committees that send budgets up far greater than their municipal appropriation and the world doesn't come to an end. Can you explain to me why that isn't actually an option for us?
[Murphy]: I think it's a very reasonable option with regard to your vote to make that request. I'm talking about the scenario in which the budget has passed through the municipal government and where we get to the point at which the new fiscal year is going to start. And what I'm saying is rather than refusing to adopt that budget and therefore freezing the administration's ability to expend any of the resources that have been appropriated, I think it would be a more prudent strategy to adopt that budget and then continue to advocate and lobby the branch of the municipal government that does have spending authority to supplement that budget.
[Ruseau]: I'm sorry, I wasn't clear. So if the mayor through her office gives you a number, the school committee's authority around the budget is to vote yes or no on that number. That is our entire, we have all these meetings, we have all this process. At the end of the day, we're voting yes or no on the number that the mayor gave us. And that is the entirety of what we do. I'm saying in other communities, we develop a budget based on the school committee's priorities and obviously, with the administration and we send up an $85 million budget. And the mayor says in her budget, it's 65 million and sends it to the city council and they approve it for $65 million. And we can go to sleep with a good conscience because we talk about priorities, getting to the priorities that have been on our lists. We talk about that like it's like new uniforms for the band. No, we're talking about, reading services for kids in high school that are not on IEPs that can't read well enough to get through life. We have zero reading service providers for kids that are not on IEPs that do not read properly, sufficiently. That's not a priority. Those are kids for going out into the world without basic skills. And, you know, I mean, there's the middle school sex ed that we don't have. We don't have any physical ed We don't have an adaptive physical ed person. We keep talking about priorities, like we're talking about whether to get a new car this year or wait a year, like it's our personal budget. There are actual children on the other end who are going off out of our schools, not prepared to survive. And so I would be able to go to bed if we sent an $85 million budget up, just picking a number randomly, that reflected what we said we needed. And then it's on the mayor and then it's on the city council and it's on the taxpayers who will then not be able to deny that this is what we need. But every year we send up a budget that is the exact to the nickel number we're given from the city hall. And it doesn't matter what we need. It doesn't matter. And that's true. So I just, you know, this notion that we are in a, we're in a machine and we have no other options is just not true. and other communities have figured it out. They send a budget up that is ethical and reflects the needs of the kids. And if the community isn't willing to pay for it, then it's on the community. But if we won't send that budget up, it's on us. It's not on the community, it's on us. I'm just tired of this talk about priorities. It's like whether or not to paint your house this year or next, or this year or not.
[Murphy]: Mayor, if I could just respond briefly. I just want to be clear in this presentation, we've used the word necessity, not priority. So I think that I understand what you're saying that I would say I would rather use the term strategic priority than wishlist. And that is something that we've talked to within our internal budget meetings, we've made that expectation clear, because I think a wishlist, frankly, doesn't sound credible. And I think that you're not in a position to be able to advocate on behalf of the school department, if we are asking everyone who works for us to say, just tell us what you dream about at night. I don't think that helps the cause in any way. But I hope, Mr. Rousseau, you're not taking this presentation to suggest that we as an administration believe you don't have any options. The presentation tonight says there's a range from 3.4 to 5.8 that we can make very good, very prudent, very student-centered, investments in. Now, as you hear from department heads over the course of the next several weeks, you may well say 5.8 seems, you know, important, but we really think it's 6.3. I can't, frankly, I don't know why you wouldn't make that request if that's what you think is necessary. Because to your point, the sky is not going to fall in if the committee says, look, we've summed all this up. We think the vote should be at 6.3. should be 6.3 is ultimately it is the school committee's request to make. You should make it as you see fit. I would say I have a responsibility to tell you that if we get much further past the range that we're talking about here, again, there's a lot of planning that would have to go in. And so I would be mindful of that for purposes of making sure that we as an organization have the credibility to advocate on behalf of students. I think that that's sort of how this works when you have multi levers of government involved in the development of a budget. But I think by all means, you can make that request. I don't know why you wouldn't. Understand that we're going to be able to operate if we end up with less than that. And what we as an administration can't do is, and I don't think anyone is asking us to do to be clear, but we can't say, we can't light our hair on fire if you know, if the request comes in below $6 million because we are going to be able to operate, we're going to be able to do right by students. If we get lower than that low end of the number, no, I don't think we can. I have a responsibility to tell you from based on what I've seen so far, including a lot of these fixes that we're making and trying to be more transparent and be more honest and taking into account that those uncertainties, if we land at a number that is our current budget, less, you know, with less than a, a $3.4 million increase. At this time, I would not be comfortable with that. We would have to make a series of decisions that I don't think would be in the best interest of students. But I also would say, I don't think there's a magic number that somehow if we cross that threshold, all of a sudden, we're going to do right by every single kid. I don't think that number exists. I think right now, it's a range. I think there are a lot of variables that we have to take into account. I think there are questions that we have to answer. But I don't think, I just want to be clear that There's two stages of this process. You can make whatever request you think is appropriate, but I, it is hard to imagine a scenario on June 30th where not adopting the budget that's been appropriated is the best course of action. That was my only point. But prior to that, I think you should make whatever request you think is in the interest of the district.
[Ruseau]: Thank you, Mayor. Mayor, may I just have a quick follow-up? Member Ruseau. Thank you. Can we get an attorney who can answer the questions about this onto a meeting? Because I was under the impression from our last round was that if we had voted the budget down and the city appropriated the funds anyways, our voting it down would have no impact at all on people getting paid. So, you know, the notion that we shut the building down on July 1st and you all just go home wait it out while the politicians get raked over on Facebook or something, I don't think is reality. And I think there is certainly a time when it becomes a problem. I need to actually have an answer to what happens if we refuse to approve a budget that we don't feel is adequate. And I don't wanna find out after we are there, what the consequences are. I think we need an answer. The, you know, several members last year were like, well, what will happen? And here we are coming up on another year where several of us are asking what will happen. And I can't believe that in Massachusetts with 351 communities. And I know there's very different forms of government that nobody has ever refused to pass a budget. That just doesn't seem plausible.
[Murphy]: So just be clear. It doesn't seem like it's there. Absolutely. The school committees that are refused to adopt the budget. Okay. And I'm happy to seek outside counsel and provide you with a legal opinion. I will say, I am an attorney that's done this. I have talked to other attorneys that have dealt with this. And the issue is that in this form of government, with this timing, it is so nonsensical that there isn't a clear path forward. There are various options, some of which I think are of questionable legality, but there are absolutely paths forward at that point. In some of the other forms of government, there are contingencies that are built in And there are levers that can then be adopted. In this form of government, there aren't as many. So there aren't gonna be, there will not be a good option available, but that's not to suggest that there will be no options. And I really, really wanna be clear that there are two points in the budget sequence here. No one is saying that the school committee must only take a vote on a number that's handed over from the city. I don't know what the point of the school committee would be if that was the only thing that you were empowered to do. But that is a different question than whether the administration who works for the school committee can legally spend money if no vote has been adopted. I will tell you that in a lot of school committees, and this is sort of the ugly truth of school governance, they often forget to take the second vote. That is not uncommon. And I think the school committee association probably is more familiar with this than I am. But once the request is made, and the municipal government ultimately makes that appropriation, most school committees just consider their previous vote to have been their approval of the budget. And then administratively, the funding flows in and people get paid and off we go throughout the course of the fiscal year and we live happily ever after, okay? There is a statute that makes it very clear that there's an expectation that the committee adopt a budget after that appropriation is made. And I think it would be a best practice to follow that And I don't think it would be the best practice to not expend the funding that was appropriate, especially when you are in no way closed off from continuing to advocate. I understand there could be some symbolic value in just saying no, but I don't think there's any legal or strategic value in that. And again, if the idea is you have complete control over where the money is spent, because there's an absolute prohibition on the municipal government telling the school committee how to spend within the eligible expenses, you, it seems to me that the more prudent strategy would be that adopted money, especially when there's a two month runway before most students are even in the buildings and then continue to advocate for a supplemental budget. I mean, that, that is a, that is the path that is, is going to constitute a best practice, whether we can through some type of DOR regulation, expend funds technically without facing the sort of unfortunate end of an audit. Yeah, possibly we could do that. But I think those of us who are administrators reporting to the school committee, no, we don't really wanna be spending money if the school committee hasn't ultimately adopted a plan to spend the money. And that's one point. Thank you.
[Graham]: Thank you, member Graham. Yeah, I just wanted to acknowledge that this two-step process that is both a best practice and supported by law and regulation, I think is something that Medford just hasn't done before, which I think is why you're getting all of these questions, Mr. Murphy. Medford has not operated in this best practice fashion in the past. And I think it's time that we start doing that. And that means two votes. And that provides an outlet and an ability for the school committee to tell the city government what we need to support the students in our charge. And it also allows us a way to acknowledge whether we're doing everything we can with the hand that we have been given. Last year, those two things were horribly muddy together. And I think my comments at the time were about trying to make sure that my no vote was not construed as a criticism of making the best of a very bad budget situation and being supportive of the budget overall, which to me were two very different things. And so I am completely supportive of this two-step process. It is a best practice for lots of good reasons. And I am happy to have you on board to guide us through that best practice process so that we can do better for the students of Medford than we have been able to do in our past budget discussions. So thank you.
[Murphy]: I appreciate it. Just to be clear, you're probably alone in that again, whether it's most or not, I really can't speak to, but it is absolutely not uncommon for the school committee to take a vote. think of it as a budget approval when in effect it's a request because the actual appropriating happens on the other side of town, the appropriation is made, and then they never convene again. And frankly, just because it's sort of a cycle, I don't know this, but I suspect a big part of why that second vote doesn't occur in a lot of school committees, it's because the committee has already recessed for the summer when the appropriation is actually allocated. But again, it's really, really not uncommon. It's just that I think that What I'm hearing from multiple members is that they want the budget vote to be a clear articulation as to what the committee sees as the needs of the school district. That's completely fair. Again, that is why school departments are unique within the municipal structure. It's why there's a semi-autonomous body that is elected to have that independence and to advocate on behalf of students, right? But there's also a reality. that within the composition of a municipal government, there are competing needs, there are competing priorities, and there's a limited amount of money, even with an allocation like this coming in from the federal government. And so the municipal government has a different mandate and needs to make those decisions and ultimately make an appropriation. My only point is once that need has been articulated, and when the right to continue to articulate that need and to advocate continues even after that appropriation is made, I'm hard pressed to think of a scenario in which voting down the appropriation that has come in is going to put us in a more favorable position, both to operate the district and to advocate for the additional investment that the school committee believes is necessary. And so I think that that's sort of the sequence as it plays out over the course of the next month.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you. Thank you. Number four, report on summer fun and community schools. Dr. Peter Cushing, Mr. Robert Maloney.
[Cushing]: Good evening, everyone. I apologize right now. I'm on a computer that has no audio and my other computer just went down. So if you would just bear with me for one moment, I will read the report and hopefully get audio back momentarily. So. All right, so right now this report is updating on Summer Fun and the other community schools programs that are being offered this summer. First, Summer Fun, Mr. Petrellis is on the call, but we are offering Summer Fun this year. It will start on July 5th and it will go through August 13th. We have six weeks of availability this summer. One of the things that all of the summer programs are competing with are staffing issues, as well as issues with just the pandemic and looking at how much staff have been through over the past year and just a level of exhaustion. So currently, we're working to bring people on board and make sure that we have the appropriate nursing staff and other supports necessary to make sure that all of our programs across the district are running very well and very efficiently. Secondly, we are with summer fun, there will be a cost increase this year to go up to $200 per week. We cannot accept walk-ins due to the fact that we're looking for students to have a negative COVID test, which you can get at a stop the spread site free of charge prior to students enrolling. Um, the the summer fund program will be moved this year to the Columbus school. Um, as we're looking to spread out as much as possible from the high school to look at the number of programs that are just give me one second. I'm actually coming Um, so one of the things that we're doing by moving to the Columbus, we will have the, um, we'll have the opportunity to use the Tufts pool, um, at Tufts park near, um, just make me give me one moment. I apologize. All right, I can't apologize enough for the technical difficulties I had over the last couple of minutes. So hopefully you actually heard me over the last couple of minutes. So by moving it to the Columbus, we've got a large field there. We've got a fully renovated playground available to our students and then the availability to go to the Tufts playground. Uh, we also have, uh, several programs that are partner programs that will be leasing space from Medford, uh, public schools through the community schools slash partnering with community schools. Um, and those include the spotlight program. Uh, that's a $325, um, per workshop, uh, cost. They give a specialized singing mask. to students, they will be able to sing, be able to act, be able to do the things they've been normally doing. There are certain CDC guidelines that we will be following. These have been published by the city of Medford as well. And they were updated late Friday night. So we're going to cohort individuals as much as possible. Attendees must remain three feet apart during normal activities, six feet when eating. We're going to schedule activities outside as much as possible. We'll strongly encourage all of our camp staff who are 16 and older to get vaccinated as soon as the opportunity is available, which is now. We'll be ventilating interior spaces as much as possible. And the district's work on HVAC is definitely helping in all those areas. and mask wearing at all times, with the exception of swimming, eating, and drinking. And in the report that I submitted to you this afternoon, I do quote from where they do not want students wearing a mask in areas where they will get wet, such as at a beach or a pool, as a wet mask can make it difficult to breathe and to also not work. So these programs are enriching and offer a great opportunity for our students. One of our problems that we have is that the GBL league made the decision to get as many kids involved in athletics as possible. The problem is, is that that meant that we waited for other school districts to get out of the red to really be able to start participating, which is awesome. It was a great league mandate, but we're going to be pushing our athletic seasons later than ever before going to July 3rd. And then fall season start back on August 15th. And many of these programs utilize facilities that our athletics program would. So just let me run through this again. We also have a Medford basketball summer camp run by our varsity programs. It's available to all students, kindergarten through grade nine, three weeks, June 21st to the 25th, June 12th to the 16th. and August 9th to 13th. Spotlight Productions is also running July 5th through the 13th. And then the Boston Celtics have expressed interest in returning to Medford High School. They were there two years ago to run camps. And we're currently just waiting to make sure that we have all of our scheduling settled before we open to outside vendors. So that's summer fun in community schools at this point. I'll take any questions if you have them.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Member McLaughlin.
[SPEAKER_02]: Thank you, Mayor. I guess I'm confused, because I thought, is Mr. Maloney here?
[Cushing]: Mr. Maloney is currently supervising volleyball, and so was not able to join.
[McLaughlin]: OK, so do we know what the status is going to be on the cost of the summer fun camp this year, what the staffing is gonna be, you know, sort of how that's gonna, I'm thrilled that it's happening. You know, we're definitely gonna be going.
[Cushing]: I think it's a great program or my child's gonna be going, I won't be going, but I think it's a great program, but I'd like to- I'm not gonna lie, I wish I could go, but no, right now in Mr. Petrellis, I know is flying solo with twins at this point, But we are charging $200 per student. The additional cost is related to PPE and other things that all of these programs now gonna be responsible for. The initial conversations were probably capping at 75 campers just because of the need to distance and for the additional staff. If we can expand beyond that we will, but we've just got to be very careful about the number of students that are coming in.
[McLaughlin]: Okay, may I may I follow up question or do you want to let okay.
[Lungo-Koehn]: So keep going.
[McLaughlin]: Thank you. And so I know that in the past, we've worked with community schools to ensure that there is a obviously clear statement on all applications that Medford Public Schools does not discriminate based on ability, blah, blah, blah, so on and so forth, so that the community members know that if you have a child with a disability who you want to attend summer fun camp in our school district, they are fully able permitted should be allowed to attend summer fun camp, because it is a community program community based program which is obviously accessible and open to all individuals so. We had something similar. I know Mr. Petrales is on the line and he was very thoughtful about how that was written into the applications in the past, but just want to make sure that that's really clear to the community because it's an important program where another opportunity to build friendships between children with and without varying abilities. So thank you.
[Cushing]: I would definitely say absolutely. And then, you know, also any community members who would feel generous enough to say sponsor students. always feel free to reach out and make a contribution on behalf so that we can be able to offer those types of things which we would do anyway, but it just helps to make sure that we're meeting in the black, but we would never deny a student.
[McLaughlin]: Thank you. One last question. And when are the applications available?
[Cushing]: They should be available at the end of this week. We were just clearing up a few things. We would love to be able to offer credit card payments in the future and a few other things, but just given the timelines for this year, it wasn't very realistic. And there are certain challenges if you accept credit cards as the refund isn't immediate, it needs to go through the city warrant process. and things along those lines. So what we'd like to do is have the applications available toward the end of this week, make sure that they're back as quickly as possible. And then, yeah, we'd like, what we can't have this year though, I can't stress this enough, is we can't have the walk-ups that I think people are very accustomed to.
[McLaughlin]: Right, and so may I ask again, Mayor, one more question?
[Lungo-Koehn]: Yes, member McLaughlin.
[McLaughlin]: And so are there opportunities for camp Councilors or what have you? I know in the past, Mr. Petralos has been really great about recruiting phenomenal adults to be Councilors within the camp. And I'm wondering where we are at on staffing with that and whether or not there are opportunities available for our rising seniors, rising juniors, folks who may be looking for a summer job, what have you?
[Cushing]: There will definitely be opportunities for them, although they may be slightly limited just because of the smaller number that is going to be available. But we'll be looking at the staffing in the coming week to week and a half and hiring as well, and then onboarding anyone who is not currently in the onboarded system.
[McLaughlin]: So if individuals are interested in applying for a camp Councilor position, what would they do?
[Cushing]: We'll be putting out an email to all the students to let them know through the district email. And then I'm sure Mr. Petralos will be reaching out as well to make sure that he's trying to connect with those Councilors that may actually have gone elsewhere last year because some programs ran. And then just the last summer there were really
[McLaughlin]: know, it's a great example, another shining star in Medford's crown or shining jewel in Medford's crown of, you know, an example of diversity and affordability and accessibility. And Anthony has really led the charge on that. And I want to say thank you to Mr. Petrales and Mr. Droschke and others who have been so critical in that program. Thank you.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you, Member McLaughlin. Thank you, Dr. Cushing. Number five, we have recommendation to approve 2021-2022 school year calendar.
[Ruseau]: Motion to approve.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Motion to approve by member Ruseau, seconded by.
[McLaughlin]: Member McLaughlin.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Member McLaughlin, roll call.
[McLaughlin]: Member Graham.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Yes.
[McLaughlin]: Member Kreatz. Yes. Member McLaughlin, yes. Member Mustone. Yes. Member Ruseau.
[Unidentified]: Yes.
[McLaughlin]: Member Van der Kloot.
[Lungo-Koehn]: member Van der Kloot just unmute yourself, please. Yes.
[McLaughlin]: Mayor Longo-Khan.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Yes, seven in the affirmative, zero in the negative. New calendar for 2021-2022 has been approved. And that will be up on our website, I would assume in the next couple of days. Member Ruseau.
[Ruseau]: Thank you. I just wanted to thank the administration for their work on an entirely new calendar this year and the way it's being done. I'm quite proud of the work that went into that new calendar. So I'm very excited. And I love that the calendar itself includes the statement of how much we value our community. So just want to thank everybody that did the work on that.
[Edouard-Vincent]: Thank you. Yes, great job. I'd like to thank Susie for all the extra time she put in to really beautify the calendar as well to make it more user friendly. Thank you, Susie.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Number six, we have update on discounted MBTA bus passes for disadvantaged students, Mr. David Murphy.
[Murphy]: Thank you, Mayor. This was a request from the committee that we share an update on this. And I know this was discussed at a previous meeting. So if the beginning part of this is repetitive or redundant, I apologize. I think the committee knows that we, like many districts, offer discounted MBTA pass at a cost of $30. This year, we've been seeing about 50 of those passes per month. That's, I know, a reduction than normal, as would be expected, given the reduced occupancy of the building and just generally fewer people taking public transportation. But we were asked to look into the potential for expanding this to potentially offer more passes, the idea being that we want to make sure that we're giving as much access as possible to students and not depriving anyone of the benefits that come with the MBTA pass. And so we've had some preliminary discussions internally with the building leadership. And we have reached out to the MBTA in the hope of beginning a conversation about the possibility of getting further discounting if we were to buy the passes in bulk. I will just say I'm not optimistic necessarily about those conversations based on some previous experience I've seen in other districts that were buying thousands more passes than we would likely purchase, but we at least want to have that conversation and potentially we've considered reaching out to other districts as well to see if there might be some other strategy for procuring additional passes. And right now, what we know is just sort of the basic numbers. If we were to draw the line at our economically disadvantaged population of students, we'd be looking at a potentially $150,000 budgetary impact that would need to be absorbed. If we were to expand that as some districts have to all high school students, we'd be looking at what we estimate to be a $350,000 charge. There are other strategies that are probably worth exploring, particularly if it was the committee's priority to consider doing the $350,000 charge. Typically, that is a program that would be tied to a city as a classroom type program in which you're trying to encourage the use of the MBTA pass to explore more experiential learning opportunities And so if that were to be part of a larger suite of offerings or initiatives, we'd probably also want to take a close look at our current transportation contract with our primary vendor to see if it may be cost efficient to expand the yellow bus usage at the high school. My understanding is certainly right now and historically, the high school has been serviced by one yellow bus from the primary vendor. And so that is what is contemplated by the current contract within the first of three years within that contract. But that might be something that we'd want to take a look at depending on the level of investment the committee would like us to consider. And so that's sort of where we are in terms of the internal discussions we've had as to whether we should consider this. You may have seen the last bullet there that we've also talked about the possibility of essentially creating an application process. There are inherent issues with that, as you can imagine, making sure that we're being fair and equitable with regard to how those applications would be reviewed and potentially How the either further discounted or free passes would be allocated, but we're certainly open to that. And if the committee has other questions or direction that you'd like us to take we can certainly explore this further. But primarily, we just wanted to provide this update to see if there were any other questions or direction that the committee would like to provide.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you, Mr. Murphy. Member Graham and Member McLaughlin?
[Graham]: Thanks for this update. I think what I would like to see as we talk about the budget for the transportation is what are those options and how would they fit into our budget when the transportation budget is presented to us because You know it may be that the MBTA buses are not the most cost-effective way for us to provide free transportation to all students. My understanding is the MBTA buses are also the reason that sort of hinder us in a regular year from doing late starts and all kinds of other things. So as we kind of consider start times, late starts, snow days, all of those things. I think it's a conversation worth having, but I would want to have it in the context of the larger budget so that we can understand what those options are. I mean, this option sounds fine, but there may be a better cost-effective option we should pursue, and I want to make sure that we look at all of those.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you. Member McLaughlin, then Member Ruseau.
[McLaughlin]: Yes, thank you, Mr. Murphy, for putting this together. I appreciate the time you've taken to meet with me on this as well. I would love to know, I guess one thing was, I understand that in the past, teachers have been funding some of these passes. Is that right?
[Murphy]: I know that there are, there have been some situations in which teachers have put together some essentially private efforts to to fundraise and make sure that some students are provided with those. And certainly that's something that's a testimony to, or it attests to their extent to which they care about their students in a very comprehensive fashion. I think everyone also understands that that's not a prudent long-term strategy for providing transportation. It's that it's not a responsibility that we ever could expect of teachers. you know, that that extra effort and extra funding could be going toward other needs that that students have. And I'm sure that that is, I know that, frankly, that's what some of those student teachers would prefer. It is a significant potential financial commitment on the part of the district. So it's also not something that we could do, I think, without looking at, as Ms. Graham points out, the broader budgetary context, and make sure that we consider all the potential options and sort of what is the specific objective. that we would be looking to achieve with that. But yes, I mean, certainly there have been teachers that have done that. I do believe there have been some other outside organizations that have done that. And we don't want this to be, we don't want any students' ability to bring in $300 in the course of the school year to preclude them either from being able to get to school easily or move around the community and experience some of those experiential learning opportunities. So that's why we have to take a look at this, but I think, the underlying point of the question is like, that's not a good long term plan. We certainly agree with that. Thank you.
[McLaughlin]: So Mayor, may I get in the queue again after Member Ruseau for a follow up? Or however you want to do that. Did we lose the mayor again? I think we did.
[Van der Kloot]: Yes, let's see, member Rousseau, and then I'd like to get, we do have a hand raised by Leticia Rocha. So member Rousseau.
[Ruseau]: Thank you. When I talked earlier about like the budget we actually need, this is a prime example of something that without any question should just be in the budget. The word free is literally, I think, almost all legislation around a public education. And it's also a joke. It's actually a joke. It costs literally hundreds or even thousands of dollars a year to send your kid to free public school every year per child. And so, and I think of that as a failure of society, frankly, but also perhaps a failure of us to just imagine that schools should actually be free. It seems so obvious. awful to have to say it, but so, you know, when we talk about the budget and we talk about building a budget that's bigger than our allocation, I don't know why this wouldn't have just been on the list. Of course, we're going to provide kids a way to get to school. If some kids just didn't show up to school because of this in a course of a year, if just 10 or 20 kids didn't, how much money would the public have spent on courts and And, you know, officers to go to their houses and like all of that stuff will add up to more than $350,000 pretty easily. So I certainly think never grams point about like looking at this in the context of the actual transportation budget. And is there an opportunity to make this number smaller? I mean, I am not looking to spend all the money that we can possibly spend. That's not my goal, but getting kids to school should be part of a free public education. So I really appreciate that you did the numbers on this because they're actually even bigger than the numbers I had come up with on my own. But I think we need to solve this and hopefully soon, and it seems like a good time to do it because we can build a budget these next three years that show the public, the residents of Medford, the taxpayers, This is what your public school system can provide if we have the resources. And it's a heck of a good way to also market it at the time to say, look, if we can't get more revenue from wherever, this is the list of things we're taking away from your kids. I mean, that's, you know, we talk about what we're not gonna give them, what we don't talk about, but if we are giving it to them, so that they can actually get to school and they don't have to have six-figure incomes in their houses to be able to do the things that we think of as part of school. It's a lot harder, Phil, to swallow to tell people, we're gonna take this away from hundreds or thousands of kids. And I think that that's a motivation we should put on the taxpayers.
[Unidentified]: So thank you.
[Van der Kloot]: Yes, may I call on Leticia Roca, please? Leticia, are you there? Can you unmute yourself?
[SPEAKER_07]: Hi, can you hear me?
[Van der Kloot]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_07]: Okay. So I see that Mr. Murphy has discussed the discounted MBTA passes for disadvantaged high school students, which he's not even optimistic about. And I'm here to state that this measure is simply not enough. It's honestly shameful that the administration thinks that this is even close to providing relief to families who struggle to get their children to school on a daily basis. Maybe this issue has been shoved to the back burner during the pandemic, but since the expectation is that school will be functioning as normally as possible in the next school year, the matter of equitable, and I mean equitable transportation for high schoolers, needs to be addressed now. All high school students should have access to yellow buses, not only those that live in the predominantly white and wealthy neighborhood of North Medford. Medford's history has made it so this city is incredibly segregated, and I'm fully aware that North Medford is provided with yellow buses because there technically aren't any MBTA stops in this area, but this is really just an excuse the school administration uses over and over not to address the issue. You continue to provide resources to an area where most residents have the systemic supports, advantages, and privileges to get to school without an issue. The MBTA is not a reliable or safe mode of transportation for our high schoolers. There are many students in South Medford, which is a much more racially and economically diverse population than North Medford, who struggle to get to school on time because the MBTA is completely unreliable. When students come in late repeatedly, what happens to them? Well, because they have no other options than to use the MBTA, they're given detentions over and over, which leads to eventual suspension. And we all know that these kinds of disciplinary actions directly impact students' chances to pursue a college education. So since this district likes to claim that they value equity so much that we are one Medford, right? Then they must find a way to provide yellow school buses to all high school students that need it, particularly those that live over two miles from the school. You can't claim to value equity without providing all students with the opportunity to get to school with a reliable and safe form of transport, which has shown time and again to be yellow school buses. We need action and not performative gestures. Thank you.
[Van der Kloot]: Thank you. I see the mayor is back, so I'll hand the reins back to the mayor. You need to unmute yourself.
[Lungo-Koehn]: I know. I just need to catch my bearings. Where are we? I apologize.
[Van der Kloot]: We were discussing the transportation for high school students.
[McLaughlin]: And I'm in the queue, Mayor. Member McLaughlin, I think.
[Van der Kloot]: Yes, Melanie would be next. Member McLaughlin.
[McLaughlin]: Thank you, Mayor. Yeah, I was going to say regarding the budget meeting, thank you for folks that mentioned that. Mr. Murphy, thank you for this report. I think that the information we need is really important for the transportation budget meeting so that we have it. And so I would ask that it be disaggregated so that we have both the, I know that you gave us the numbers, but I'd love to know how many economically disadvantaged at the high school if we do that initially, or if we do all. So those numbers specifically would be really helpful. And then I would also like to know which students, if possible, which students are actually outside of a two-mile radius, if there are any, because I know that the law requires us to provide transportation to students outside of a two-mile radius, if I'm not mistaken. I was under the impression that that was required. So I was also told when I asked this question in the past that we didn't have students that were beyond a two-mile radius or that for those that we did, transportation was being provided. So I would just love that issue addressed through the budget meeting. And if I'm wrong around the legal requirements that that be addressed as well. And clearly we all know from McKinney-Vento students, which are homeless students, we are required to provide transportation for those students. So I know that you put them on there, but that is clearly also a legal requirement. So I guess my question is for the budget hearing on the transportation where we will have this topic, can we please have the disaggregated data on these numbers to include any student population beyond a two-mile radius. So the three disaggregated pieces would be economically disadvantaged at the high school, total at the high school, and any students outside of a two-mile radius. If that would be acceptable, I would appreciate it. No problem. Thank you, Mr. Murphy.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Sounds great. Thank you, Mr. Murphy. Number eight, we have any old business? I don't believe so. Number nine, communications. Number 10, new business. We have number one, resolutions. Mayor? Yes, member.
[Graham]: Number one was on our agenda and approved last week. So I think it was just left there in error. We can move on to number two.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Best news I've heard all night. Thank you. Skipping page three then, we're on to number two, whereas the current school committee policy, GCA professional staff position states, all professional staff positions in the school system will be created initially by the school committee. Is this committee's intent to activate a sufficient number of positions to accomplish the school system's goals and objectives? to provide for the equitable staffing of each school building. Although such positions may remain temporarily unfilled, only the school committee may abolish a position it has created. Each time a new position is established by the committee, the superintendent will present for the committee's approval a job description for the position, which specifies the job holder's qualifications and the job's performance responsibilities. The superintendent will maintain a comprehensive set of job descriptions for all positions. Note job descriptions for professional staff positions that are available for review in the office of the superintendent. Be it resolved that the school committee amends policy GCA, professional staff positions, to ensure transparency, relevancy, and accountability across all professional staff functions. All professional staff positions in the school system will be created initially by the school committee. Is the committee's intent to activate a sufficient number of positions to accomplish the school system's goals and objectives, and to provide for the equitable staffing of each school building. Professional staff is defined as the department head, central office staff, nursing, or nursing. Superintendent will maintain a comprehensive list of positions and a set of job descriptions for all positions. All job descriptions will be reviewed every three years and presented to the school committee for approval. Job descriptions will contain a last review date. Superintendent will establish a review cycle for all positions descriptions within 60 days of the adoption of this policy. The initial review cycle will last for no longer than three years and conclude by September 1st, 2024. Effective September 1st, 2021, the comprehensive list and current job descriptions for professional staff positions are available for review by the public on the Metro Public Schools website. Each time a new position is established by the committee, the superintendent will present for the committee's approval a job description for the position, which specifies the job holder's qualifications and the job's performance responsibilities. Although such positions may remain temporarily unfilled, only the committee may abolish the position it has created. All positions unfilled for the entire school year will be reported to the committee annually no later than June 1st with an explanation for the vacancy. All positions that remain unfilled for more than two consecutive years will be presented to the committee to be abolished no later than June 1st. In the event the superintendent wishes to maintain any positions that have been unfilled for more than two consecutive school years, the superintendent must explain the rationale and plan to fill the position and get approval from the committee to continue the unfilled position for an additional year. offered by member Graham and member Ruseau. I will turn it over to you.
[Graham]: Thanks. So I actually was asked by a member of the community about which person in the district did a certain thing. And it got me sort of wondering about our official job descriptions, which I wasn't able to put my hands on. But I did go and look for our policy because I knew that we had one. And it struck me that it was very outdated and doesn't reflect what I would consider to be best practice around roles and responsibilities, making sure that we are evolving positions as education changes and shifts as is just typical in any job. And I wanted to put this forward as a recommendation to this policy because it was on my mind at that time. And I think just overall focusing on best practice and hygiene will really benefit the students ultimately, but all of us in the clarity of who is responsible for what, which allows the administration to hold staff accountable to their roles and provides clarity and transparency for the community.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you. Anything to add member Rousseau? and then move it to approve?
[Van der Kloot]: I had some questions about, first of all, there's a timeline September 1st for comprehensive lists and current job description. And I just wanted to understand whether that was realistic given all the demands of going in right now. So I was just curious about that from central administration, what their reaction to that is. I'm a little concerned, I find this, in many ways pretty confusing and very prescriptive. I'm sort of wondering if there's a way we can simplify it to make it more accessible.
[Lungo-Koehn]: If I may, from the chair, I don't disagree with you about it being a bit confusing, although I agree with the premise of making sure. Yeah, I agree with the premise of that. They're updated. But I also agree that we should probably ask the administration a reasonable timeframe, because we're doing this on the city side, trying to update all job descriptions, and it does take some time.
[Graham]: Mayor?
[Lungo-Koehn]: Member Graham, then Mr. Murphy.
[Graham]: So the only thing by September 1st was a list. That's it. That was really, and that they be posted to the NPS website. I recognize that A, you don't want to be revising everybody's job all at the same time because it becomes an implementation problem if you are in a position of having to make changes at any given time to some number of positions. So you want to, you don't want to big bang, the changes or the review of every job description in the house at the same time, which is why I provided for like a three year like roll in of the first iteration of this. with at least in my head, I would do that so that on an annual basis, there's some number of job descriptions that the committee is revising or saying is okay without it ever being like a process where we're looking at every single one at the same time. So to me, providing a list of the job descriptions that the community pays for as part of the school district should not be, prohibitive, which I think is the only ask by September of this year. And then really providing a three-year ramp in to a good cadence of hygiene around how we hold our senior staff accountable makes a lot of sense. And I think at that point, you have the ability to do it in manageable chunks and to execute on change. and you never get into a position where job descriptions are widely outdated, staff, and I'm not saying this happens here, but it happens all over the place, say, that's not in my job description and I'm not going to do it and what have you. So making sure that we have good structures in place in terms of policy from this committee so that the administration has our support as those changes are made and there's an expectation that it'd be done frequently, I think is to me pretty important.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Member van de Kloot.
[Van der Kloot]: Well, let me see. I was going to say Kathy's had her hand raised.
[Kreatz]: I had the same concerns about the date where, you know, going back to school, the first day of school starts, I believe I just saw on the calendar. I think it was like August 30th or it could be August 31st. I'm thinking that we're just getting the kids ready to get back in school. It's teacher induction week and it just seems the timing, the date, September 1st, seems a little bit too close to the start of school. I also wanted to ask the superintendent or the administration, if they felt that date was doable, you know, even just to get the comprehensive list, which will still maybe take some time where they're working throughout the summer, getting everything ready for back to school and getting the kids back to school, you know, for the beginning of the fall.
[Edouard-Vincent]: Mayor? Yeah, I just wanted to say, Hearing what Member Graham was saying, she wanted a list of the job descriptions added. I agree with the comments that have been said thus far. With the September 1st deadline, that will be right at the same time with potentially onboarding last-minute hires, but from an accountability perspective to know what the jobs are and the job descriptions. We definitely have, you know, nothing to hide. We want to have that. We're in compliance with DESE. But I guess I'm just thinking we have a completely different platform called Frontline, which is where people apply for jobs. And we, you know, our HR wing of the district uses the frontline system. And so where you were saying that you also wanted something added to the website. I was actually going to be asking for greater clarity, because I do think it's, I think it's something if it's just giving you a list of jobs that were posted. I think that may be able to be doable, but I just think at this particular point in time, it's gonna be a tremendous lift on our human resources department. And I know Mr. Murphy probably could speak to that as well. The amount of stress that will happen just to get school started smoothly and how much activity takes place on the 1st of September.
[Murphy]: We don't really feel stressed down at the center of the building. We don't even know what that means. But beyond that, what I would say is, Mayor, I promise it's only one slide, but if I could just show the org chart that we developed at the beginning of the year. I just want to say, I think this is a really important thing that we as an organization have to do and have to do soon. So Ms. Graham and the superintendent used slightly different phrases, and I just want to get clarity as to what the intention here. If the idea is a list of the jobs, then I personally, I don't have a problem with September 1st if it's a list of the jobs. If it's a collection of job descriptions, even ones that, to Ms. Graham's point, are antiquated and need to be adjusted, September 1st is not realistic in part because we're going to have obligations to confer with bargaining partners in many instances. And we're just not going to be able to dictate that short of a timeline while we're also involved in negotiations. So that would be my only hesitancy. This has to get done and it has to get done soon. The goal of this org chart is to eventually get to a place where by clicking on any of these departments or positions, you're getting to both sub org charts and ultimately to job descriptions. And then obviously we'll have a centralized list too for people that like, you know, the centralized list that that's another format that would be necessary. But this is absolutely a shared priority and something that we have to get to. And again, if it's, if it's a list of jobs, we can, we can accommodate that, you know, October 1st would probably be better than September 1st, just because of the opening of school and because there may be there's oftentimes there are roles that are tweaked or changed just as school is beginning and we recognize where there are gaps that have to be filled. So I'd probably recommend a little bit later just for the list, but ultimately we have to get to a place where you can, any member of the community can very easily go to the org chart, click on an area of the organization, see how the organization is structured and ultimately get to the individual job description for each position. And that is, absolutely an objective that we have and one that it's my hope that we'll be able to achieve in the coming months. But I'm not, I don't see a problem with just a list of the jobs. I just think for, so that we don't have to amend it two weeks later, I would say, let's do it for October 1st.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Member Ruseau, then Member Vandekloot, did you?
[Ruseau]: Thank you, Mayor. I'd just like to, again, motion to approve as amended with the amendment to move the date to October 1st.
[Van der Kloot]: Member Van der Kloot? Yes, and I would second that. I'm also just gonna throw out one thing. So, you know, I just, the terminology, professional staff, what, the rest of our staff is unprofessional? There may be no way around it. It may just be the common thing, but I'm just going to mention it to say to me, it just sounds so funny.
[Murphy]: It might be worth amending to permanent staff with permanent being defined as not a temporary position we created to fill some gap for a three month period. And I don't think it'd be necessarily we should be running to the school committee to say that we have someone filling in three days a week to bridge a managerial gap. We may have an existing temporary worker type position. But I think the idea is it's a position that is not specific to a sort of a discrete project that's going to be completed. It is the positions with the type of durability that you would expect to be there until the needs of the organization change.
[Graham]: And Mayor, the nomenclature actually comes from the existing policy. Yeah, I know. And I was making an assumption that it was important because it seemed like an odd word to me too. So if it's not important, I think permanent is fine.
[Lungo-Koehn]: And to that point, I mean, I don't, I don't know if I'm missing a part on my sheet, but it just says defined as department head, central staff, nursing, and the sentence is incomplete. So I wouldn't even know what the rest entails. That should just probably be a period. Oh, with an and. Okay, so motion for approval by Member Ruseau as amended to October 1st, 2021 for a comprehensive list and a list of the current job descriptions. Seconded by Member Van der Kloot, roll call.
[McLaughlin]: Member Graham. Yes. Member Kreatz. Yes. Member McLaughlin. Yes. Member Mustone. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. of out-of-school suspensions policy, C, the focus on hiring and recruitment of BIPOC candidates to teaching and administrative positions, as well as maintaining our current BIPOC staff members. I request that the letter be entered into the record and would like to read the letter in its entirety. Offered by member Paul Russo.
[Ruseau]: Thank you, Mayor. So yeah, so we received this, well, the mayor's office received this letter on March 16th, and I will just read the letter. Dear members of the Medford School Committee, and then it lists us all. The Education Committee of the Mississippi Valley NAACP would like to express its appreciation for the June 2020 decision of the Medford School Committee to erase and replace the name of Columbus from the Columbus School. The Education Committee agrees that Columbus is cruel, barbaric, treatment of indigenous people disqualifies Columbus from being honored in this way. We applaud the democratic search process that has been established to find a more appropriate name for the school, once called the Mystic School in honor of the mystic tribe who inhabited Medford before the colonial period. The education committee also lauds the school committee for the unanimous passage of the resolution eliminating out of school suspensions. For years, this destructive policy has disproportionately victimized black children, and other children of color and special needs children. Medford's in-school alternatives and mandatory education is positive and welcome evidence of progress in the right direction. In addition, we understand that there's a commitment to recruit and maintain black, indigenous and other people of color who will more accurately reflect the increasingly diverse Medford community as administrators and teachers and that school staff have received anti-racist trainings. The success of these initiatives will improve educational equity While the evaluation of the clothing code has taken a backseat to the COVID-19 crisis, we trust that the Medford School Committee will, when possible, review and revise the clothing code to avoid the discrimination Black students and students of color identified at the Duggar Park rally last summer. Sincerely, the Mystic Valley NAACP Education Committee, Eileen Lerner, Regina Caines, Wendy Cliggett, Pearl Morrison, Vincent Dixon, Erga Pierret, Susan Girard, Jillian Harvey, and Greg Bartlett. Thank you.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you, Member Ruseau. Number four, as required by Mass General Law, Chapter 71, Section 38M, that the school committee must designate a student outreach coordinator. The school committee hereby designates Dr. Peter Cushing, Assistant Superintendent of Secondary Education for Metro Public Schools to the role of Student Outreach Coordinator, offered by Member Ruseau. Member Ruseau.
[Ruseau]: Yes, Mayor. Thank you. I don't think there's too much to say other than this is in the statute and is related to integration of the student representatives and holding elections for student representatives. So that's why I put this forward and I hope that Dr. Edouard-Vincent doesn't mind that I picked somebody on her staff without actually having talked to her. But he seemed like the right candidate considering his role in secondary, so.
[McLaughlin]: Motion to approve.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Second. Motion for approval by Member McLaughlin, seconded by Member Van der Kloot. Roll call.
[McLaughlin]: Member Graham.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Yes.
[McLaughlin]: Member Kreatz.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Yes.
[McLaughlin]: Member McLaughlin, yes. Member Ruseau. Yes. Yes. Member Ruseau, yes. Yes. Never hand a clue.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Yes.
[McLaughlin]: Mayor Long-O'Connor.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Yes, 70 affirmative, zero in the negative. Congratulations, Dr. Cushing. We'll work. Number three, we have a number of condolences, if you don't mind if I read. Medford School Committee offers its sincere condolences to the family of Edward Michael Hunt, father-in-law of Rosen Hunt, Administrative Assistant for Athletics. Also, the Medford School Committee offers its sincere condolences to the family of Therese Sweeney, wife of the late James Sweeney, who was a longtime teacher at Medford High School. Also, the Medford School Committee offers its sincere condolences to the family of Joan Lee Mullally, a teacher in the Medford Public Schools for over 30 years. If we all may take a moment of silence. Thank you.
[McLaughlin]: Motion to adjourn.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Motion to adjourn by Member McLaughlin, seconded by- Second. Member Graham, roll call.
[McLaughlin]: Member Graham. Yes. Member Kreatz. Yes. Member McLaughlin, yes. Member Mustone. Yes. Member Ruseau. Yes. Member Van der Kloot. Yes. Mayor Lungo-Koehn.
[Van der Kloot]: Yes.
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