[Lungo-Koehn]: in the governor's March 15, 2020 order 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 in the 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 on the city of Medford website, 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 aren't able to do so, despite best efforts, we will post in the city of Medford and Medford community media websites and audio or video recording, transcript or other comprehensive record proceedings as soon as possible after the meeting. The meeting can be viewed through Medford Community Media on Comcast Channel 22 and Verizon Channel 43 at 7pm. You can call in by using 1-929-205-6099. Please enter meeting ID 926-4083-5663 when prompted. Since the meeting will be held remotely, participants can log or call in by using the following link or call-in number, which I just gave. Sorry, that's at the bottom for some reason. 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. The agenda will be as follows. Discussion of the development of the operating budget of the Medford Public Schools for fiscal year 22, July 1st, 2021 to June 30th, 2022, as it pertains specifically to the elementary schools of the Medford Public Schools and discussion of the development of operating budget of the Medford Public Schools for fiscal year 2022, as it pertains specifically to secondary schools of the Medford Public Schools, signed Dr. Marice Edouard-Vincent, Superintendent of Schools. When should we begin? We've got a nice packet. that I think everybody got printed out.
[McLaughlin]: Mayor, shall I do attendance? Roll call, sounds good, thank you. Member Graham? Here. Member Kreatz? Here. Member McLaughlin, yes. Member Mustone? Yes, here. Member Ruseau?
[Unidentified]: Nope.
[McLaughlin]: Here I thought I had everybody.
[Unidentified]: Yeah.
[McLaughlin]: Member Van der Kloot. Present. Mayor Longo-Khan.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Present, 70 affirmative, zero in the negative. We could 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. Dr. Edouard-Vincent or Mr. Murphy, if you want to lead us off.
[Edouard-Vincent]: I just want to say good evening to everyone. I'm really excited about beginning this new budget process this year. As you all have received your wonderful packets in terms of how the budget is organized this year in terms of clarity and really being able to understand where the district is, the direction that the district would like to be moving forward in. So I really want to thank Mr. Murphy and the administrators. All the teams have been meeting, having their administrative meetings, but I just want to say thank you. to Mr. Murphy, Michelle Kingdon and the members of his team for really working tirelessly to get this to you at this point in time. Today we're going to be starting off with elementary schools and secondary schools. As you know, the principals worked together and worked collaboratively because as a school district, our first priority is educating students and prioritizing students. Everyone is important, but we felt that it was definitely important to start with our elementary and secondary schools to lay the foundation for our budget process. So again, I want to send a thanks in advance to Dave and the team for all the work that they've been putting into this presentation that you're going to see this evening. And the beginnings of identifying our priorities to continue to move Medford forward. And I believe that it will be a very comprehensive presentation. So thank you. I'm going to pass the baton to Mr. Murphy and members of his team and the administrators that will be presented this evening. Thank you.
[Murphy]: Thank you, Dr. Edward Benson. I'll just echo what the superintendent said with regard to our gratitude to The school leaders who are on the call this evening and the other members, particularly Michelle Kingdon, the comptroller of the district who works on the finance and operations team. And I say works on, but for those who know Michelle and knows the work that she does previously for the city of Medford and now for the Medford public schools, she certainly does more than just work on our team. to her and to Janine Camuso, our Director of Human Resources, and always an important part of everything we do when we present. There's no, we can't talk about the budget without talking about the people that are in the budget. That's what the nature of school systems. And that's both, that's challenging at times, but also it helps to remind us, I think, that while we're talking in terms of dollars and cents, we're also talking about hundreds of people who are the servants of the people of Medford and work every day to try to advance our mission and our singular mission of creating educational opportunities for students. So I'll just say that and there'll be other opportunities to sort of talk about what this budget means over the next several weeks as we put it together. But I want to start with that because as a reminder that As we get sort of lost in spreadsheets and tables and things like that, all of the decisions that are before the school committee and the work that the administration is doing right now, at the end of the day, the end result of that and the product is happening in classrooms across all of our schools. So our presentation tonight is focused on elementary and secondary schools. The Medford Public Schools are comprised of many different departments and areas with different focal points. The heart of the work and where the work really takes place are within our school communities. And so we're joined by the principals of all of our elementary and high schools, save for the Curtis Tufts High School, which will be part of our presentation, along with the rest of pupil services on Thursday. And also Dr. Cushing and Ms. Galussi, the head of secondary and elementary education, respectively, will be taking us through some of the high-level strategic priorities that have been identified by our teams as we've convened over the last several months to talk about FY 22. So before starting with elementary and before turning it over to Suzanne, I think the mayor and the superintendent have both referenced the documents that have been provided to the school committee. I'm gonna share my screen momentarily just for the benefit of members of the community who might be joining this conversation tonight. The school committee knows that we've been engaged in this conversation and preparing for the FY 22 budget as early as February, as we started to identify the different variables and some of the question marks related both to our internal and external funding sources. So as we pick up on that conversation, and just to be clear, all the documents that were made available to the school committee will also, of course, be available to the community. and will be published on our website so people can peruse them as we go through the various steps of the budget process. So on that note, and again, for the school committee's sake, this is the same content you've received just in a PowerPoint format for people that are watching at home. We've talked a lot about the different sequencing of the budget process. And so this is the flowchart that you saw at our last budget update. And this is a simplified version sharing where we are now. So we are developing the superintendent's recommendation leading to the budget hearings, which will ultimately go to the municipal government to function as the district's budgetary request. I said in my memo to the school committee, and I want to reiterate the first of two major process questions that, and we talked a little bit about this at our meeting on April 26th, where, folks have been asking, well, what is the budget number? The budget is really developed along two lanes, and they're both very legitimate and very important lanes. But there are times, I think, when people that are participating are only familiar with one or the other, and it can become confusing. So in one lane, the school administration is meeting every day, identifying priorities, identifying efficiencies, and determining how we can make the most of the investment that the Medford community makes in its public school system. That turns into our recommendations to the school committee, who in turn take a vote and make that request of the municipal government. At the same time, the municipal government is responsible for the funding priorities across the city, both in the school system and elsewhere. And so ultimately they are going to make a determination as to what can be appropriated. And just in the last several hours, we've received more information about that and that we'll be in a position to speak to at our next budget meeting. That number very well may be less than the number that the school committee ultimately requests. The school administration's job, as we sit at the nexus of those two lanes, is to identify not just the priorities and needs to inform the school committee as to what should be the basis of the request for funding, but also we are responsible for developing the contingencies necessary to operate the school district with whatever appropriation is ultimately made. That's not to say we don't advocate or we don't attempt to inform or try to make sure that the community has as much information as possible, but everyone should understand that we are responsible both for identifying the needs of the district and articulating them and operating the district based on the appropriation that becomes available. So that's one of two significant process issues that was addressed in the documents that went to you, but just for purpose of clarity, I wanted to reiterate that at the outset of tonight's conversation. You've seen this before. These are our funding sources, the federal, state, local, and obviously much more federal funding than normal this year. These are the priorities that staff members, as we were developing these goals and objectives going into the new fiscal year, talking about how do we repair, rebuild, and remediate the issues and challenges caused by the enormous disruption that our students have faced. over the course of the last two school years. And we're looking at those primarily in three sort of umbrella buckets. Personnel and staffing, materials and infrastructure, and training and professional development. So those are themes that we do have a miscellaneous category as well, but that's sort of like the leftovers category in Jeopardy. It's anything that doesn't quite fit into one of the previous categories. So you should see those common threads as we articulate these priorities this evening. You've seen this before as well, just articulating that further. You've seen this as well. This is what we presented on April 26th. Again, it's important as you look at this to understand that when we say the district will require somewhere between $3.4 and $5.8 million over and above what our FY21 operating budget is, there are two significant variables. One is there are external funding sources. which will ease this in some respect. We don't know to what extent that's, and we have to in many cases prepare for the worst, but that's one piece. And then the second piece is understanding that the second obligation of the school administration that I spoke to earlier, which is that whatever that appropriation is, whatever appropriation is made, we are responsible for educating 4,000 students. And so we also, we have a responsibility to articulate what will put us in the best position to do that. But regardless of what the appropriation is, we have to be open for business on July 1st, prepared for our summer programming and getting ready for the large influx of students who will come in the fall. Finally, this is the second process issue that I wanted to just briefly touch upon before asking Suzanne to walk us through some of the high-level priorities that will be featured in our elementary school communities in FY22. And that is this variable around the ESSER funding. That's the federal funding coming in to help school districts mitigate the impact of the pandemic. And as I said in the memo, there are sort of two schools of thought with regard to this ESSER funding. And I will say that the conversation that's taking place in Medford, based on my conversation with counterparts across the Commonwealth, is a conversation that's taking place in virtually every city and town in every school district. And theory one on the ESSER funds is that There are deficits across every municipality and the ESSER funds must be incorporated into the operating budget to help the school system function. That's theory one. Theory two is that the school districts have taken a disproportionate hit with regard to our mission and our ability to function from the pandemic. And therefore the ESSER funds should essentially be walled off and kept to specific COVID related initiatives and not considered part of the operating budget. And part of that theory also is that to do otherwise would create fiscal cliffs and structural deficits, because we know the ESSER funding will eventually dry up and will not be with us in perpetuity. And the problem, as I stated in my communication to the school committee, with adopting one of those two positions wholesale is that ultimately they're somewhat untenable. The flaw in the first theory is that the ESSER funding, unlike the ARPA funding, is specifically specific in ARPA funding, meaning the American Rescue Plan Act, which is funding that's going more broadly to cities and towns. The ESSER funding does contemplate the disproportionate impact on students and the disruption that has been felt by students from the pandemic. That is the rationale and the theory behind the ESSER funding. And so to just consider that part of the overall wave of education funding does a disservice to that fact. The flaw with the second theory of building the wall around ESSER funding as if it could not be used for anything that could be considered an operating expense is that ultimately, when you'll see as we talk about our priorities, operating expenses and expenses related to COVID ultimately collide. And there is inevitably overlap and integration between those two. And for that reason, to think of it completely segregated would also be misleading. And again, you'll see some of those cases here. And just with regard to structural deficits, which are absolutely something that we always have to keep in mind when we draw these distinctions between one time and recurring funds, there are challenges we are facing right now, and you'll hear from Suzanne and Peter about some of the specific ones at their respective levels, that are absolutely attributable to the pandemic. And they may well outlive the timeline of the ESSER funding. But we as the educational leaders in the community feels that we have an obligation to address them as best as possible with the understanding that we are on the clock for determining how these will be sustainable. That may involve finding efficiencies within the school system. It may occur based on revenues ultimately returning to some semblance of normalcy. it may be that they are in fact unsustainable. But if something's unsustainable three or four years from now, we are not in a position to condemn our current students to continue to live through those challenges, particularly after the disproportionate impact that they have absorbed over the course of the last two years. So my recommendation as the financial advisor to the school committee is to be mindful of the need for pragmatism both with respect to how ESSER funding will help us advance some of our operational priorities, and understanding that some of these challenges are absolutely related to COVID, excuse me, to the educational disruption caused by COVID, and we have a responsibility to address them, and we have a responsibility to address them with a great sense of urgency. As those who are joining us tonight who work in schools, help and run schools, and at sometimes, especially this year, are in classrooms covering it for various absences. They know that better than anyone. So with that, we are going to move to our elementary program. And Ms. Galusi, our assistant superintendent for elementary education, is going to talk a little bit about some of the high level and district-wide priorities and objectives in the FY22 budget. She is joined this evening by our elementary school leaders, all of whom are here. But for purposes of not wanting to keep the school committee up too late this evening, they have decided, as have the secondary principals, to have one representative of the principals speak on their behalf, along with Ms. Colucci. So, Suzanne, if you want to take it from there and talk a little bit about our elementary level FY22 priorities.
[Galusi]: Yes, perfect. That was a wonderful segue, Mr. Murphy. Thank you very much. Before I start talking about the elementary school principals, I'm just going to introduce the elementary representative that will be speaking on behalf of the principals and that is Mr. Kirk Johnson. If he could just unmute for a minute just to address the school committee. Once that happens, I will move on to the elementary school priorities.
[Kirk Johnson]: Good evening everyone. Good evening Mayor, good evening school committee and Dr. Vincent. Thanks for the opportunity to introduce the elementary portion of the FY22 budget. There are a number of phases that led us to tonight's meeting. The first phase of the process involved the fall elementary principals meeting together to discuss the needs of our buildings. Through our discussion, the priorities of our schools are very similar. Majority of discussion revolved around the impact that COVID-19 has placed on our students. The second phase of the process involved a meeting with Ms. Galusi to review the highlights of our meeting and to discuss what we gauged as our priorities. The next phase of the process was to complete a budget survey for Mr. Murphy that pertained directly to our individual schools. The final phase of the process was a meeting with Mr. Murphy to fine tune any errors of the budget and to allow a time for Q&A. As the elementary representative, I want to thank all of you for your countless hours and the many efforts you provide in supporting the students of the Medford Public Schools. Thank you.
[Galusi]: Thank you, Mr. Johnson. So a result of that collaborative process are the key priorities that we have displayed here. So I'm just going to explain each one of them. And if there are any questions, just please let me know. So the first key priority at the elementary level is grade level paraprofessionals to ensure more inclusive programming. That is just to ensure the needs of students and to support them next year, no matter the setting. So these are grade level paraprofessionals that could be supporting students in special education, but also supporting students in general education. We know that students are going to have needs that are academic as well as social emotional, and having some additional support next year will be very instrumental. The next piece is the reading intervention specialist. So what we know will be needed next year is a little bit more support in terms of intervention. Having additional reading interventionists, especially to target those foundational years that were interrupted two years in a row. So what would be next year's second grade and third grade will be really key in making sure that we are giving the interventions and the supports to students that are having a little bit more difficulty closing that gap. Building-based professional development, that's something that I'm really excited to see part of the budget this year. As you know, it's something that's important for principals to be able to have some professional development funding in every year, but especially coming out of COVID. This will allow principals to be able to use some funding that will specifically target some training and professional development within their school buildings, which will be a little bit more drilled down and focused than district-wide professional development. Increased adjustment Councilor services. So in my work with Stacey Shulman and in speaking with her, this is something that she's also looking to do, which she'll probably report to you on later on in the week. What she's doing right now is she's reevaluating the support levels at each and every school and going to make sure that they are streamed line for support. instituting additional specials programming responsive to COVID-19. So as you're aware, Italian is no more, and at the elementary level, we will be needing a fifth special.
[Murphy]: This year, we were able to... Just to be clear, the fifth, the elementary class Italian previously offered in Medford is no more. The Italian language still exists, at least.
[Galusi]: Thank you, Mr. Murphy.
[Murphy]: People pick up the conversation halfway through that could be, you know.
[Galusi]: You are correct. So this year it was not a factor in terms of scheduling for students within buildings because of the remote academy and we were able to staff remote academy specialists. And that way students were able to get what they need and the schedule in the buildings were able to proceed. Next year in response to everything that is happening, I am also working with Stacey Shulman as well as some principals. And we are going to be working on a fifth special that will target specifically the COVID related needs of students. That means we are looking to make sure that we are supporting students' social emotional needs, health needs, and executive functioning needs. One of the things this year that I've tried to really make a priority is getting to the schools and speaking with students and speaking with staff. I also surveyed staff in regards to the fifth special and where they feel the needs are. And it was kind of overwhelming the supports that the educators feel that would benefit students next year is giving them a little bit more time focused specifically on learning and academics so that the SEL needs are continuing throughout the entire day. Also with a little focus on executive functioning skills that may have been lost this year. Finally, the Zaner-Blauser program, which I know was presented to the school committee prior to COVID and was part of our initial budget needs before COVID hit in March, that's circling back again. As you are aware, if not, just a little refresher, Jan Hollenbeck worked with the principals and assistant principals for the past year or two. trying to get the Xenoblazer program here, which would be a focus of printing in K1 with a refresher in grade two, and a cursive writing program for grades three and four. And that covers the elementary priorities. If you have any questions.
[Murphy]: Yeah, so I think, Mayor, my recommendation would be that we move to secondary and then we take the questions sort of as a group and navigate through. I just wanted to just put a few, a couple of punctuation points on the elementary stuff. You can see through this list of priorities and as they were spelled out in your packets on a school by school basis, that not every school is situated in an identical place. And our priorities essentially are meant to address that. There are some pieces like the development of a specials class to be responsive to the impact that the disruption has had, or the, I recognized need that was very much a common thread in our conversations with principals about the need for more intensive reading intervention at the elementary level coming out of these two years of disruption. Those are pieces that really do have to occur on a district-wide basis. But then there are other pieces where staffing levels are different. For instance, you'll see that it is our hope to recruit and retain paraprofessional support at two of the four elementary schools. That's because as we pick up this budget story in FY22, some of our schools have a more robust staffing in certain areas than others. And so both for purposes of making sure that we are overseeing an equitable environment in terms of our staffing structures, and also as Suzanne said, to make sure that each of our school communities are positioned to have as many students as possible in the least restrictive environments to which that they are entitled. these are some of the strategic decisions that we have to make. But, and in a theme that will be reoccurring throughout this evening's discussion, there are additional strategic decisions that have to be made when some of these variables are ironed out. The sort of easy example of that would be, we may identify something that is an operational priority, and so we don't intend to use ESSER funding to support that. But if our operational funding is not sufficient to support those initiatives, And if there is, in fact, a nexus that means that we are not restricted from using that funding, then we may have to reconsider that. And that is part of the complexity of this and why we need a certain level of, I would say, cognitive flexibility when it comes to figuring out how we are going to structure this and how we are going to advance these very interconnected and, in some respects, interdependent priorities and initiatives that are coming up in FY22. So as we move to secondary, and Dr. Cushing, I know, is warming up in the on-deck circle right now and ready to take some hacks to talk about our secondary priorities. And we'll see if Mr. Tucci can hit the timer with the precision that Mr. Johnson did with regard to speaking on behalf of the secondary principals. I will say that one of the things, and this was addressed in the communication to you, is that it is I think impossible to look at the Medford Public Schools budget and not recognize the degree to which we are a heavily departmentalized school district, particularly for the size of this district. We have a lot of departments, and we have a lot of money that would ordinarily be budgeted within school budgets that are living in other departmental areas. And that is particularly true at the secondary level. And so Dr. Cushing is gonna walk us through some of the secondary priorities along with Mr. Tucci, but there may be initiatives that you are familiar with from previous budget cycles or that have been discussed with the school committee and your various subcommittees that may not be explicitly addressed in some of what we're talking about tonight, but they will be addressed in our upcoming budget meetings as we get into some of those departmental budgets. That's certainly not a suggestion that you shouldn't ask about that. I would ask that you would, and you would pose those questions when we get to that point. But just understand that if there are things that have been common themes that you know are major priorities for the district, but are not explicitly discussed here, don't assume that we just forgot about it. So with that, Dr. Cushing, do you want to take us through the secondary world?
[Cushing]: Absolutely. Thank you, Mr. Murphy. Good evening, Madam Mayor and members of the school committee. I want to thank you for the opportunity to speak on behalf of secondary education today. I'd also like to take a quick moment on the eve of Teacher Appreciation Day and Teacher Appreciation Week to really give a shout out and kudos to all the Medford educators and the educators brought across Massachusetts. who have really done yeoman's work over the past year to double up iPads and computers and whatever else necessary to get our kids learning. And so I'd really like to thank them for that.
[Murphy]: On that note, I believe it's also Principal Appreciation Day. So for those of us who have principals in our lives who want... Hopefully we all remember that and have expressed that and communicated the important role that school leaders play. But I apologize for
[Cushing]: interrupting and I that's quite all right and I would actually like to throw it to one of our stellar secondary principals Mr. Tucci at this time Mr. Tucci would you be so kind as to take it away as Mr. Johnson did.
[Tucci]: Thank you very much, Dr. Cushing, and good evening, Madam Mayor and Medford School Committee. On behalf of the principals at the secondary level, the Medford Public Schools would like to collectively thank you for your support of our students and schools throughout the course of this school year. We're all certainly looking forward to a strong finish to the school year while planning for the next. In our budget narratives you'll find our high level strategic priorities in the area of personnel instruction materials and supplies and professional development, develop these budgetary proposals in a collaborative fashion, but the primary objective to rebuild repair and reaffirm our public education mission. We'd like to express our gratitude to the Medford School Committee for your leadership, support and advocacy of our students and schools. And if you have any questions for any of us after Dr. Cushing's presentation, please do not hesitate to ask. Thank you.
[Cushing]: Thank you very much, Mr. Tucci. So, ladies and gentlemen, the school committee and the public watching. So we have COVID has really created this, this sense of have and have not, you know, we've had this influx where we've been able to do a lot to be able to support students, but there were certain things that were eliminated in the last year's budget that are really fundamentally critical, especially at our middle schools. as we consider students returning to full-time education next year that are mission critical when it comes to reading and math. And so while we were able to restore our reading specialists at the elementary level, we were unable to do so at the middle school level. And so looking at our restoration of reading and math interventionists and specialists at the middle school is a fundamentally critical priority for us. As we consider the secondary level at high school, one of the critical things is two shop areas specifically. First, electrical. Electrical is one of our most popular chapter 74 programs. Chapter 4 programs are those career technical education programs that are critical for our students looking for post-secondary work or for that CTE experience prior to going on to college. The electrical program is well-subscribed and would benefit from having an additional electrical instructor. And space within the high school has already been identified and is currently being worked on to alleviate the current strains and stresses of that program. Another program, CCL, Construction and Craft Laborers, is one of only two of these Chapter 74 programs in the entire commonwealth. This positions Medford students to be highly marketable in this field when they leave Medford High School. We have a very strong association with the trade association slash labor union in the state, and they are very invested in Medford students and hiring them once they have graduated from Medford High School. Why is this important? Well, this position will actually offer our staff who are currently here, so starts branching out into other areas of CCO that I'll leave to Mr. Fallon to describe later, but it would be a tremendous opportunity for our students to be able to have these additional course offerings that would be available to them through this addition. There was a social studies position that was cut last year. at the high school, and so what this does is it limits the amount of electives that we can offer. For those of you who don't know, as I've mentioned before, the Mass Corps really locks up what students are able to do to a certain degree, and when they reach junior and senior year is when they start to have a little bit of flexibility in their schedule, which is where they want to start taking these exciting courses that are their electives, and social studies offers them some of these courses. So this position would allow us to start putting those courses back into place. One of our budget cuts was an ETL, an educational testing liaison at the Andrews Middle School. So the restoration of that position is fundamentally critical to support our students with special needs as we move forward from the pandemic. All right. Another area that is really critical for us as we consider secondary education, and Ms. Galussi spoke to this in elementary, but I want to make sure that you fully understand, giving principals fiscal resources to be able to support professional development within their buildings, and to be able to lead their staff with appropriate resources and appropriate supports to be able to make decisions in line with the district priorities around building-based professional development. It is really critical as a principal to be able to have these opportunities and to build staff capacity as we move out of the throes of this pandemic. Let me just look at my notes here real quick. And so the other big thing is, We hope moving forward, we'll be presenting curriculum initiatives and various assessments to be able to help support our students as we come out of the pandemic. Those we'll be discussing in future weeks with the committee larger. And then the other critical piece is that we're doing sufficient work to support the social emotional needs and health services capacity of our students. So that as we come out of the pandemic, the toll, the trauma that has been inflicted on our students, and to a certain degree, our teachers as well, that we have the supports in place to be able to support our students fully, both in the classroom and outside of the classroom. And so at this time, those are the primary high-level priorities that we've identified at the secondary level. But these are critical needs as we move forward into FY22.
[Murphy]: Thank you, Peter. And so I'm just going to put one, I'm going to advance one slide so folks can see an excerpt from, I'm going to try to advance one slide. So hopefully that says the Brooks because I can't really see it where my, how my windows are. This is an excerpt from the packet that you've received previously. And this just goes to the point that we've been making that we are identifying both what we see as the most critical priorities that can have the most profound impact on student outcomes, and also attempting to bucket some of the pieces that we know have the strongest nexus between the impact of the pandemic and what it is that we're trying to do as an organization. By identifying those, we are in the process of essentially building our ESSER II and ESSER III budgets. Understanding that these are one-time funds, and we have to always keep that in mind. And also that the funding right now, it's a healthy amount of money, $7.6 million between ESSER II and ESSER III combined. But that's to extend over a very long period of time, at least from a budget cycle perspective. And so making sure that those are sustainable and are being prioritized accordingly is part of the strategy work that we are involved in right now. So hopefully through Dr. Cushing and Ms. Galussi's presentations there, the committee and members of the community can see some of the common threads that are helping to inform the development of the FY22 budget. As I said before, that we are a heavily departmentalized organization. And so some of the funding priorities that you're seeing here are very much related to and hopefully congruent with some of the priorities you'll hear as our department leaders present over the course of the next two weeks. And our responsibility is to sew together these different priorities in a cohesive and coherent manner so that the FY22 budget advances those strategic goals of eliminating or reducing the learning and opportunity gaps that have been caused or exacerbated by the pandemic. So that's the common thread, that's the narrative, that's what our objective is. And we'll be happy to field your questions and take your input as we continue this deliberative process of putting together a recommended budget that you could then approve and turn into the Medford Public Schools budgetary request.
[McLaughlin]: Member van der Kleef?
[Van der Kloot]: Thank you. I had a question regarding the paraprofessionals. I wasn't quite sure whether the request was paraprofessionals at every grade level for every school, i.e. 20-something paraprofessionals. Could you clarify, please?
[Murphy]: It's a great question. And I would say, to some degree, it's intentionally vague. Because as you probably could guess, there's a budgetary impact as to how many ultimately is requested. And so I don't think anyone thinks that there's anything feasible about funding an additional paraprofessional for every grade level at every elementary school or every school for that matter. Would that be a good investment? Yes, but it's not something that, well, we have an obligation to identify priorities. We do have an obligation also to be pragmatic. And so you'll see that the bullets in the budget narratives that you've received are specific to two of the four elementary schools. And that is reflective of the fact that there are existing grade level paraprofessional positions at the two in which it is not listed. And so progress, which is what this is really about, we're not gonna get to the promised land in this particular budget cycle or any other budget cycle, frankly, but progress would be represented in investing in grade level paraprofessional or paraprofessionals at the two elementary schools that currently do not have as many on staff. And for the community's benefit, I would just say that our paraprofessionals who, if you work in a school, if you've ever stepped foot in a school, if you went to school, you know that in many respects, they really are the lifeblood of the school. They're individuals who are, in many cases, serving students of the highest need and some of the most vulnerability. They cultivate invaluable relationships with students. And they really make the school function in many ways as many of our other staff members do. But they are also frequently assigned to substantially separate special education programming. And what happens in when our entire paraprofessional staff is concentrated in those substantially separate environments, then there are instances in which it makes it more likely that a student may not be able to be in a general education classroom if that additional adult supervision and support might be what would be the thing that would open up the door to that less restrictive environment. And so that's why that's part of the pieces that is being prioritized here to make sure that we're structuring ourselves consistent with our obligations to students and families, and also making sure that we're giving flexibility to school communities where it's necessary and it currently maybe doesn't exist as much as we'd like it to.
[Van der Kloot]: I have more questions, but I think we should rotate.
[McLaughlin]: Member McLaughlin? Thank you. I just want to actually expand on the last question as well. I'm wondering about, first of all, I just want to sort of ensure that the community knows that least restrictive environment starts in a general education classroom and is only changed when the nature or the severity of the disability is such that the student is not able to be educated in general education. So that's the free and appropriate public education in the least restrictive environment. So we should be starting there obviously first. So I think that begs the bigger question of how many substantially separate classrooms we have and what that is for equity in our system as a whole. But that's another conversation that we'll have I'm sure over the course of the budget overall. And I know that the departments themselves we'll be speaking, I mean the, yeah, we'll be having this continued conversation. So we're going into the, you know, bits and pieces of the schools themselves, but I would also ask of the schools that we're talking about for additional paraprofessionals, which I've seen the bulleted list, and I think you mean in the individual budgets, is that right? The bulleted list? Because I'm looking at the cover sheet and it's not the bulleted list that you mean, you mean within the individual budgets, correct? For each of the elementary schools? Yes, Mr. Murphy. Yeah. So, I would also ask, you know what the special education programming looks like at those schools and again, you know, just for to sort of ask folks to start off on the appropriate mindset if you will is that you know there are. No special education students, as our special education director Kathy Medaglia would always say, who I really appreciated for saying that. Every student is a general education student. Some students receive special education services. Same with English language, right? Every student is a general education student. Some students receive English language services. So just that we can put it in that light would be super helpful. you know, as we're thinking about these additional paraprofessionals across these schools, I would like to know if there's an equitable distribution currently, and it doesn't have to be for tonight, we can have this for the next meeting in terms of the departmental, but within these schools, are there equitable special education programming in the schools? So that would be something that I would want to, you know, know as well if we could.
[Murphy]: Yeah, I just really briefly in response, I think, as Ms. McLaughlin mentioned, this will be a large focus of the budget presentation that we make this coming Thursday, May 6th, where the pupil services budget will be presented. And we will be talking about how the programs are currently aligned within each school. And the point that Ms. McLaughlin makes is a really, really important one that making sure that there is an equitable distribution of programs is necessary if those programs are going to run and run well and serve the interests of students. And so to the point about every student is a general education student, I would say that this particular piece of the proposal that we're talking about right now with regard to the need to eventually investment power professionals is evidence of our recognition of that. If you were to ask me, do I think we're organized right now in the most equitable manner, frankly, I would say no. I don't know that we are, which is part of why we have to start looking at this and looking at these staffing models. Some of the information we've tried to provide for you, and I think this is just, I'll just make this point really quick. As we go through the budget process, the budget process is one of our most significant organizing processes of the school, of the year, right? It's when we look at ourselves as an entire, as an organization and ask these types of questions are, are we being equitable in the way that students have both a right to, and I think families have a right to expect. And are we organized in a way that is actually advancing the mission and being true to the types of values that Ms. McLaughlin was just speaking to. So when we do this process, there's a lot of sort of trying to kill multiple birds with, as many stones as we have. And I wouldn't say one stone. So one of the things that we're taking a look at is you'll see in each of the budget narratives we've articulated what the staffing allocation is. And I know that I've had questions from some members and some administrators who have said, what does it mean when we say we've budgeted 32 positions at a school, but there's 95 positions serving in that school? What that means is we have a heavily departmentalized and siloed budget in which If just looking at a school budget, you are not going to really be able to tell exactly what's happening in that school. And just to be clear, budget documents are not necessarily designed to tell every single bit of information about a school. So we should be realistic about what information we can convey in a spreadsheet, okay? But I will say that given the level of departmentalization of this budget, those types of questions, are we organizing our special ed services in an equitable way that serves the interests of all students? do our staffing models, are they consistent with our obligations to students with regard to the environments in which they're learning? I would say at a minimum, there's not as much evidence of that in our current budget structure. And I would say there are reasonable inferences that could be drawn that there are improvements we have to make in that regard.
[McLaughlin]: Thank you. Thank you. Member Ruseau, then Member Graham.
[Ruseau]: Thank you, Mayor. Are we assuming for this entire budget that elementary students will be coming back, all of them in the fall, since there probably won't be a vaccine for them yet?
[Murphy]: I think we are assuming that we will be fully in-person as a district with the exception of essentially exemptions for medical reasons. That is the guidance we have more or less received from DESE that absent a medical exemption, the expectation will be that we will run school as we would in the before times.
[Ruseau]: And are we planning to continue pool testing until vaccine is generally available to all students and grade levels?
[Murphy]: We're definitely planning to continue testing. I expect it will be pool testing. We have had some conversations in recent weeks about some potential, the technologies around testing are evolving. And so, exactly what testing will look like by September. I don't know right now, but I don't, I think testing is unavoidable, inevitable, a certainty, at least for the beginning of the school year. I think there's a chance as the school year goes on, we will have to sort of measure that and determine, you know, what is it exactly we're testing. And hopefully by, you know, some point that I'm not going to speculate about, but I hope it will be in the 21, 22 school year. we'll start to ask the questions about how do we move to a system in which we test when it's necessary, as opposed to our general surveillance testing of just by coming in the building, you're having your nose swabbed.
[Ruseau]: Thank you. And I'll ask one more question before letting others ask questions. In our June of 2020 budget, we created a document that was sourced from the department heads you know, that document identified over 25 FTEs just at the elementary level, you know, nine tier two interventionists, literacy leaders, math leaders, lots and lots of staff at the elementary level. And I know we restored, we have some people restored. I guess my question is, can we take that list which is only a few pages long and sort of create another column, indicate what of that has actually been included in this budget or restored through other methods between then and now so we can have a differential. And then perhaps have a conversation around why did we just say we needed nine tier two interventionists at the elementary schools and we're adding one per school or none. And I think that would be a useful conversation. So thank you.
[Murphy]: I agree, Mr. So I'm happy to put that together and circulate that to the committee. It's certainly that document was informative in terms of sort of spelling out the universe of needs that had been identified during that budget process. I will say that when we provide that documentation to you in the coming days, one of the things you'll see as you suggested, a number of those positions were addressed or in some very few circumstances are in the process of being addressed. And so you'll see some of that list has been whittled down, not to, I don't wanna suggest to a enormous extent, but certainly some positions have come off the list and gone back onto the staff roster where they belong. I will say the other thing is that I do think the question that we posed to our staff members in the course of this budget process was more narrowly tailored than as I've reviewed some of the language that was circulated in FY21 or in preparation for FY21. At least in some cases, what was communicated to department heads, not necessarily by the school committee, but what was communicated was to develop the list if there were no financial boundaries. And we have not posed that question in part because one, there are always financial boundaries and also because we felt like we wanted to get a sense as to what people felt were the most pressing and most urgent. Now, at the same time, I think the principals and department heads would attest to the fact that there was strong encouragement to be ambitious with the idea being that without knowing what the restrictions were and when this really started, even the total number of ESSER funding, in some cases more so than ever, there was the opportunity to sort of dream big. And so I don't think we did anything to sort of curtail those ambitions, but I do think that the questions were slightly more narrowly tailored to fit the objectives of the FY22 budget, which again, that is to eliminate or reduce learning and opportunity gaps caused or exacerbated by the pandemic.
[Ruseau]: Thank you. I don't have another question. I just want to point out ambitious is what I hear parents want us to do. So, you know, I think that's actually a good thing. I'm asking people, you know, how can we make something 0.1% better? I mean, I don't think any of us on the school committee ran so we can make things 0.1% better. And I don't think people who, the voters are interested in that kind of level of incremental improvement. So ambitious to me is absolutely should be a pretty major goal. Thank you.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you. Member Graham, then Member Kreatz.
[Graham]: I think my first question is, are we going to talk about high school tonight? Because I thought we were going through the whole presentation before we fielded questions.
[Murphy]: We did. That was included in the secondary. So the reference to the Chapter 74 positions, the electrical position, the construction craft laborers, the humanities position on 12th grade, I think we can expand upon that. Although I will say, as I mentioned, I think that departmentalization of the budget affects secondary and especially high school more so than the other levels and the other schools. So some of the initiatives, I think, that you would expect to be hearing, you'll probably hear more at the departmental level. But certainly, if there are any specific questions, I know Mr. DeLayber, Mr. Fallon, and Dr. Cushing and myself are happy to weigh in.
[Graham]: OK. I think that the main question I had about elementary. I mean, I think there's plenty of questions to be asked, but when we talk about this restoration of this special. I understand in concept. What you described as the need, but I do not practically understand like what does that mean from a staffing perspective like I don't see a staffing ask associated with supporting this special. or like, I can't picture in my mind what it looks like. So I was just curious, like, is there a budget implication to what is being recommended?
[Murphy]: I'll speak to the budget implication first and maybe Ms. Glusk, you could speak more to the instructional component and why this is critical at this time, particularly. There's a few different elements to this. One is we wanna, I'm sorry, I almost just dived into the instructional piece that I just said I wouldn't try to answer. So I'll stick to the budgetary piece. It's gonna be about three FTEs. That's our estimation in order to be able to fund the positions across all four schools and have a staff member positioned to be able to logistically schedule this. There are some contractual compliance issues related to this, although that's not what's driving it. And again, we do see a nexus here with regard to COVID. So in terms of the just sort of basic question of a budgetary impact, you're looking at $180,000 to $190,000. Suzanne, do you want to?
[Graham]: And is that represented in this packet somewhere?
[Murphy]: It is, yes. I will say, and this brings up another point. So all of this, you know, there's no line item that doesn't have personnel implications. And as you can see, we are not coming before you today and saying that we have to prepare for a substantial reduction in force. In my conversations with union leaders over the recent weeks, I've said that this is sort of where we are right now, but that, you know, we're not in a position now or really ever to make representations to say that there would never be any type of, you know, adjustments in that sense. But when we look at where there are, how we're going to, what we can do in sort of the existing budget and what is going to require our using other levers to free up funding, we typically are able to get to a place where we are able to say, this is the potential add on if we move in this direction, adding up everything else for the time being. So right now that would be about a net gain of three FTEs if we were to have a fifth special incorporated into the elementary schedule. So it probably says something like, sufficient staffing for the equivalent of, or something like that. I'm not sure it says explicitly a 3.0 FTE, but that is what that would amount to.
[Graham]: Okay. And I think my other question in general is, This is informative, but it's not a budget. Like it's not yet a document that says here's what we're asking for, or is it? That was, this was like not, this is just a really different format and I'm fine with the format. I'm just trying to understand like, is everything on this list going to appear in a budget document on May 19th that we're gonna be asked to
[Murphy]: Well, I mean, we're gonna take into account feedback from the school committee with regard to what ultimately is incorporated into a recommendation. But I go back to sort of the two lanes in which that we have a budget developed. One is we are looking at what the facts on the ground are and what the priorities are to develop for you a budget that authentically represents the needs of the district. As based on what we know so far after several months of these meetings, we forecasted for you on April 26th that that would represent somewhere between a $3.4 and $5.8 million increase. Obviously, the high end of that is a very, very substantial increase. But if you recall, we talked about the three buckets that represent that potential increase. And that includes fixed cost increases, things that are coming in this next budget, regardless of the strategic decisions that we make. That's contractual increases. There are some fixed special education increases that we'll talk about on Thursday. That's about $2 million. Then there are up to $4 million, which there are decisions to be made. But as we pointed out last week, with nine expiring CBAs, that is a significant variable that we will need to take into account one way or another. And then the third variable is this idea of the sort of collision between the COVID-related expenses and the operating expenses and the fact that they can't be completely walled off from one another. We can trace them and we can sort of assign them as to say, this is the potential funding source for that, but there is inevitably some degree of overlap. So if you were to tell me right now, if you, for some reason said you wanted to take a vote tonight as to what the request should be, I mean, that's really up to the school committee. I wouldn't necessarily based on the facts we have recommend requesting something in excess of $6 million over the FY21 budget because based on the facts that we have right now, again, as I said before, I think the way I put it was we would need some additional strategic planning to happen in very short order in order to make good on that investment. But I certainly wouldn't suggest that you make a request that is less than the $3.4 million over the operating budget because fixed costs and the bare minimum of the priorities that we've identified would represent a $3.4 million increase over your FY21 number. And I think in terms of where do we land between 3.4 and 5.8, I think that's what these conversations are about. Understanding that, that everything I just said is in the first lane of you developing an authentic request reflective of the district's needs. We understand fully that the city, that the municipal government has budgetary priorities and needs that have to be addressed across the city. And we will be prepared to operate the schools based on the appropriation that is made. And we will do so to the best of our ability. And given these various funding sources are available, I'm confident we're gonna be able to do it well. And I say that because, as I said last time, it's sort of easier to live in a budget world where either we're pushing the panic button and saying, we're in a lot of trouble and we've got to call whatever the equivalent of the budget 911 line is. And then there's the world in which we're flush with cash and it's just a matter of identifying priorities. We're not squarely within either of those two polarized camps right now. We have opportunities and we have some strategizing to do, but we understand that there are, given the economic conditions that we're living under, there are significant expenses within the school district and across the city. And we're cognizant of that as we go through this process.
[Graham]: Yeah, and I would say, you know, just sort of comparing this to past budgets, this budget is more ambitious than any budget I've seen the district put forward before. And I think in part it's, due to sort of our alignment with the best practices and how budgeting should come together at the school level. So I do think when I read through this, I was like, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. All these things are needed. They seem on target with what we need to do to restore the cuts that we incurred last year and to start to think about how to address students where they are when they come back. So I think overall like there was not a single thing on this list that I said we don't need that. We could live without that. I frankly think the whole list is a yes, if we're saying what we like or what we think is needed. And I appreciated the cohesive nature of this. I think the other question that I had in my mind is, when I think about the process, I'm sort of anticipating that come May 19th, we're going to want to be in a position to send up a budget that is approved by this committee so that the city has adequate time to review and ask their questions and react. And that there is time for the allocation to come back and for us to react to that number, whatever it may be. So in terms of like, How does this translate into the thing that we will be asked to approve on May 19th? I think the priorities the superintendent has outlined are on point and do a pretty remarkable job actually of lending sort of moving forward with restoring damage in lots of different ways. So thank you for the hard work and I, looking forward to seeing all these numbers come together. Thank you.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you, Member Graham. We have member Kreatz, member Stone, member Rousseau, member van de Kloot.
[Kreatz]: Thank you. Thank you for the reports, and it's been a great presentation so far. So I was looking at the details that we got in the draft recommendations for the elementary schools. I'll just start with the elementary schools first. And something that caught my attention was under the additional budgetary priorities, it was listed, three of the elementary schools have listed a water filling station. and procurement of additional playground equipment to coincide with plans for additional organized play and social engagement. So my first question for the water filling station is I think that's a fantastic idea. I definitely think it's more sanitary to have water filling stations where they can't go to the bubbler and they need to fill their bottles. So is that something that we are going to get funding from COVID funds and we could wait and we you know to get that funding and then maybe possibly install additional water filling stations at each of the schools in the entire district?
[Murphy]: Yeah that's a great question Ms. Kreatz. I appreciate you raising it. I think I hope that well so this is an example as I mentioned earlier about how some of the schools are are in different places and so Certainly, it's going to be a key priority for us to make sure that sanitary, healthy, accessible, clean water stations are available at all schools. But it may be the case that some schools are for various reasons. Sometimes it's PTO funding. You know, sometimes it's log sometimes it's there's a lot of reasons that sometimes schools get out ahead of each other from time to time on these types of expenses. So we'd want to look very carefully to make sure that whatever we're doing, we're doing consistently across the board. And in terms of whether that particular issue, and I think it's in the row of additional funding priorities that are worthy of consideration. So what that essentially that category, if you remember the table, there are four rows. There's the piece that says long term, which basically means we have to do this, but there's no sort of like, practical plan to do it in FY22, although, again, we keep an open mind and we see what happens with regard to that. And ultimately, it's the school committee that decides what you wanna ask for. There's the FY222 priorities that we say, from an operational perspective, and I'm using the term operationally broadly here, this is something that we have to, one way or another, figure out how to do in FY22. And then there's the COVID piece, which we say, this may not be realistic or practical absent that injection of federal funding, but we have the federal funding. And so we have to build a strategy and a plan to use it and use it wisely. And then there's the additional category. And that's one where a lot of times you'll see those are in most cases, they're lower dollar amounts. And they're ones that we do wanna prioritize. And it's either that we will determine sort of once the dust settles. And the reality is, as you know, the dust settles throughout the course of the fiscal year. So we can have a very, very precise budget of our 63 plus million dollars laid out and then reality hits and all of a sudden we have personnel needs we didn't anticipate, we have retirements that we didn't anticipate, it fluctuates. And so this is something that we'd want to do one way or another, but whether or not that was something that was ultimately an operating expense, something that we prioritize because from a health perspective, if there's a nexus with COVID and that's where there's funding available and we're we're permitted to use that funding, so maybe we would, or maybe if it's got something that we're gonna do on a district-wide basis, we could probably potentially, not probably, potentially incorporate into one of our capital priorities, which would essentially be utilizing other funding that was available. So I think the answer to your question is we want everyone to have access to good, clean, healthy water. We want it to be consistent across schools. We want our method of water distribution to be consistent with the times in which we're living, that speaks to a potential COVID nexus. And exactly how and when I think it's to be determined, because it's not, while it's important, it's not as important as restoring literacy intervention specialists or some of these other things. So it does need to happen. It has to happen consistently, but we would likely sort of wait to strategize around that when we have some of these other unanswered questions resolved. And so I know there was the water question, but was there a... Yeah, I just had another question.
[Kreatz]: It was in the same section. And I was just curious what the additional playground equipment was that coincides with the play and social engagement. So that's something that stuck out that, is that something that we need to do for the playgrounds that's related to COVID so that the children can play keeping socially distant. Yeah, I was just really curious about that where I have my upcoming school committee meeting. Is that something we should be discussing where, you know, we are in COVID, if everybody's going back to school, I'm just very curious what is the additional playground equipment that would be needed for the social engagement?
[Murphy]: Just keeping in mind. That's another great question. I think it's a great opportunity for some of our principals, without putting anyone on the spot, potentially speak to some of the key educational implications of that type of investment. And while Suzanne picks a name out of the hat to call on as to who's going to speak to that, I'll just say very briefly that this is another example of how something that can be clearly emphasized and necessary because we are coming out of the pandemic and we need to make sure that students are given the opportunity to re-engage socially in the way that you need to when your age is four to whatever, in your 40s maybe. But in order to do that, while there is that nexus at the same time, it may be the case that we fund it through, it could be a capital priority, it could be an operational priority, but this is something that is always important. Students will need to have playground equipment and engage in cooperative play long after COVID is well, well in the rear view mirror, but it's even more important now. And I think maybe Ms. Kay might want to, if that's okay with you, Mayor, speak very briefly to why this is not just a critical priority, but a critical priority right now in this context.
[Graham]: Can I just make a quick point of information, Mayor? of information. Member Kreatz, I just wanted to highlight for you that the four elementary schools intended to submit grant requests to the WIN. for water filling stations. I think one for each floor in each building. I know that some of the elementary schools were successful, but there was a problem with the application, which was due Friday. It was shut down on Friday morning. So I'm not clear that all of the elementary schools got their grant request in. It was the intent that they would all send the same thing and I'm just I'm not sure that they all got in because of the application issue. But the intent was to to try to lever that grant funding to provide some support there across all four elementary schools.
[Unidentified]: Thank you.
[Graham]: Thank you for providing a question in that point of order. I it was a point of information. I was just trying to provide member credit information.
[Lungo-Koehn]: you just have to request information on a point of information. Just pointing that out, because I know I've got it confused in the past. The city council used to do it wrong.
[Murphy]: Well, if the request was whether or not that happened, we'll look into it and get back to you.
[Lungo-Koehn]: That's my request. Thank you. There we go. OK. Thank you.
[Murphy]: My request shall be granted. But in this case, she's off my screen. But she's still, did she leave? She's ready. OK.
[Kathleen Kay]: My turn, yes? So to the playground equipment piece of it, it was definitely noted that what we did at the Columbus was we had some things that the kids could structure play. So there were two curved handles with a beanbag that they could throw back and forth to each other. We had some relay race areas that we were able to set up, hula hoops, jump ropes, those kinds of things that we sanitized between play. And what I noticed was the kids were outside, they were actually arguing less, playing with one another more, getting a lot more exercise, a lot less injuries were taking place. when the kids were using these things. So oftentimes when they go outside, you know, the kids, I want to play ball and someone else wants to play something else. But if someone's a little bit more forceful, then there's a child who maybe doesn't get to play what they want to play on a regular basis. And arguments might ensue and, you know, this was just it was structured so they went out there the teachers took the kids to a station, and they rotated through it all. So like, like structure is the basic word there, rather than just okay it's recess time go outside and play. They could play on the playground equipment, and that was part of their rotation, but they had these other things available to them as well. And they just seemed to really be having a much better time, a much safer time, and they were playing with one another and arguments were less. I am talking with my gym teacher to find some equipment that would be best suited for that. We did borrow a lot of things from the gym. And so I wanna make sure that he can get those back too.
[Murphy]: Okay, thank you, Dr. Case. Thank you. And I think that's a good, as we said at the beginning about this, behind all this sort of dollars and cents discussion, there are implications for how children are learning and I think That's a very sort of real illustration for that. So I appreciate that, okay. Flushing that out for us.
[Kreatz]: Thank you. Thank you very much, Ms. Kay. That was really helpful. And I hope that we can get some of these items so that the children, when they get back, you know, in the fall can, you know, participate in these different rotations. It sounds like a lot of fun and I love that they're arguing less and they're getting more exercise and probably just enjoying their time out and getting the fresh air. Thank you very much.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you. Member Ms. Stone.
[Mustone]: Thank you, Mayor. Mr. Murphy, I don't know if it's possible for you to share one of the slide decks that talks, has the superintendent's draft recommendations, any school, anyone, just so people know what I'm referring to.
[Murphy]: I'm happy to do that.
[Mustone]: Thank you. hard to get a visual or for me to explain it accurately.
[Murphy]: This is the cover sheet, and as we scroll through, you'll see that. Right.
[Mustone]: So you can just go to the first one you see that has the... Yeah, that's great. Where'd you go? Down further. The one that lists critical FY22. There we have it. That's great. So I just want to talk about this slide or this part of the budget, because it's for all the schools. And as people can see, it says critical FY and the example of textbooks and the next one long term budgetary priorities, literacy and math coach positions, which we all know are necessary. And then additional, like said, the water filling and playground equipment, which we know is important. So, Mr. Murphy, I'm just wondering, because I understand that everything is so departmentalized here. So these numbers on the right were not in this school's budget at the end of this part of this school. So are these line budget items going to be under a different department or are these something we would add to the end of this elementary ed budget?
[Murphy]: That's a good question. And there isn't really a uniform answer to that because I do think there are some decisions that should be made after this budget is adopted. with regard to how the budget is organized. Okay. I am not necessarily suggesting at this time that we uproot every line item in the $63 million budget and align them with better practices in part because frankly, the departmentalization of this budget is reflective of the departmentalization of the district itself. And I think we have to make some strategic decisions about the district. And then the budget has to reflect that. I wouldn't suggest that we should redo the budget and then dictate from the, from this. There's a limitation as to what you can get out of a budget. So I'm not suggesting we uproot all that. So in some cases, in some cases, these would be line items that are added to the school budgets, but there's very little, as you know, there's very little on the school budgets themselves. And so. you know, as we went through, we did see some instances in which there was funding that was tucked away in particular line items at schools that didn't necessarily have the, well, I'll call it the most airtight rationale. And so there's some shifting with regard to that. You'll see in the spreadsheets that you have that we've reduced the, and this is again, after consultation with everybody affected and understanding the history of some of these lines, but the, there was a supply line for the high school that was like 35,000. And then it was like 2000 at an elementary school, or maybe like 1000. And so now there was a rationale to that, but it's not necessarily one that you would understand just by reading the line item. And so you'll see some movement in those lines. But if you talk, if we're talking about personnel, in many cases, again, a little different at elementary versus at middle school, but that's if there was a personnel investment, it would typically land in one of the department budgets, despite the impact really being felt within the school community.
[Mustone]: So there's- Okay, just so I know how to move forward.
[Murphy]: Yep.
[Mustone]: Building-based literacy and math. Coaches are specialists or interventionists, whatever. Would that go under Ms. Kahn and the math department? So then I just have to make a mental note when Ms. Kahn presents to make sure there's math specialist in there or do I just make a note when we go through it at the end to make sure there's literacy and math specialist? I just, I love the superintendent's recommendations. I think the critical ones are a definite and the long-term budgetatory priorities are a definite. So I just wanna figure out how I can work with everyone to make sure at least those two top portions of the recommendations make it at the end of this.
[Murphy]: Right, so at the elementary level, they will be on the school budget. And I'll like to, at the secondary level, they will be in the departmental budgets as well. And that's generally true with regard to personnel items. One of the things that this brings up, and again, if I could just scroll down really quickly to show, I think this is a place. But wherever we talk about the grade level paraprofessionals. So the grade level paraprofessionals, right now, that would be budgeted within the pupil services budget in one of the special education linings. And paraprofessional work is frequently, inextricably linked to work with students with disabilities. But that's not necessarily true. And I think, frankly, the fact that all of our paraprofessionals are currently budgeted within the special education umbrella, I think is inconsistent with the points that Ms. McLaughlin was making earlier about how we should be structured and what our priorities are. That doesn't necessarily mean because we put something on one spreadsheet as opposed to another that we're not thinking of all students as general education students. That would be a gross exaggeration of this. But the way the budget is structured is reflective of how we're currently organized. It does manifest itself in ways that I don't think our movie's driven entirely by student interests. And we are pointing, we as an administrative team are pointing some of these things out to the school committee and to the community as a way of communicating to you that we have some changes that have to be made over time and they have to be done responsibly. So the paraprofessionals, perhaps they would live on the elementary school budget if that was something that we were able to prioritize and invest in. But that would be a change from how we've done it in the past.
[Mustone]: OK. All right. Could you scroll up for a minute just to another slide above this one? Just, nope, one more up, sorry. Just right here, just for parents and community members, because I was confused when I read this this morning, where you have grade levels pre-K to five, budget FTEs 28, actual FTEs 82. Could you explain that to our community members? Because I had no idea what the heck that meant.
[Murphy]: Yep, I appreciate you asking, and I will say that I think this is important information, it's here in part in the book that someone would ask. So thank you, thank you, Ms. Bichon for asking. If you walk into the Columbus Elementary School, there are on any given day, 82 members of the Metro Public Schools community who are there serving the interests of Columbus School students. If you look at the Columbus School budget, there are 28 people who are budgeted to serve the interests of Columbus School students. Now, some of those 82 don't spend 100% of their time at the Columbus. That's part of why it might make sense to live in a departmental budget or a district-wide budget. But most of those 82 do. And so if part of our objective with the budget is to be transparent as to what we're investing in, that is a little bit of a challenge. I wouldn't say there's a right or a wrong way to do this. And I think, again, if somebody really wants to understand the school, the spreadsheet that details how much everyone in the school is getting paid is probably not the best place to go to really absorb that information. But 28 and 82 is a fairly sizable discrepancy. And I do think that it's reflective of some of the things that we as an organization have to ponder.
[Mustone]: Thank you.
[Murphy]: Sure.
[Mustone]: All right. I'm good. I have no more questions. Thank you, Mr. Murphy.
[Murphy]: Thank you.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Member Ruseau, Member Van der Kloot, and then Member Kreatz.
[Ruseau]: Thank you very much. And I greatly appreciate the explanation about the discrepancy in those two numbers. I think the middle school one is the most fascinating one, which appears to show four people working at each middle school.
[Murphy]: I think that's different.
[Ruseau]: I guess my other question was around the elementary school and the need for an additional special, you know, the three FTEs, Well, that won't be free, of course. And I feel like we can easily identify a nearly endless number of additional staff we want for other reasons. I feel like I know the answer to this question, but why are we not considering a second recess? These kids, you know, as the learning loss is what Jesse wants to talk about day in and day out. And the academic journals have sort of turned a bit towards, maybe learning loss isn't actually the biggest issue and this need for social emotional learning and recess, which I've sort of been on for the last three and a half years, even before the pandemic. And I feel like, you know, DESE has time and learning requirements and, you know, we as a school committee could vote to add another recess. But the only way to technically do that I understood was to make the day longer. because the number of hours, minutes of learning are restricted to what they are. So I guess my question is, has there been any conversation that you all are aware of with the Department of Ed around whether or not the time and learning requirements are going to remain the same for the upcoming year, or is there actually a chance we can add another recess? When I heard Dr. Kaye, talk about the structured learning. That all sounded really fun and interesting, but I mean, I don't have to tell the educators here that structured learning and unstructured free play are completely unrelated skills, and our kids are gonna need those unstructured free play as well. And so, adding some more academic time might sound like a good idea, but, you know, you know, the teachers might really suffer, frankly, if their kids have yet more academic time when they really just need more recess time. So has that been looked into as an actual option?
[Murphy]: I think I'd like Ms. Galussi to again, speak to sort of the instructional implications and benefits of the programming as it's currently being developed. But I'll just say really quickly, first with regard to DESE, I would be shocked based on the information we've heard so far if there was a loosening of any kind with regard to time and learning restrictions. It's entirely possible. They certainly, you know, on occasion they've been known to shift positions after articulating one policy during the pandemic and then moving to a different one. So anything is possible, but that certainly wouldn't be an expectation I would have going into the school year. I would also say with regard to the length of the day, as you make that point, I think one of the things that's important as we think about our ESSER budget And as we think about combating some of the COVID-related challenges going into this next school year, we have to be open, I think, to looking at every single variable within our control. And so that might mean that part of our NSERC funding, and this is articulated there if you look through the documents, that we're looking at some type of extended school day option. But in extended school, that does not, just to be clear before I clean that mess up that I just created really quickly, that does not mean we're going to be going to extend the school day for all students every day at every school. That's not at all what I'm suggesting. But what I am suggesting is that the length of the school day for individual students is one of the variables that we potentially can control. And so we might have to look at that to see what are the after school options that we're offering. And when we look at those options, we have to look at students' needs in their entirety. So that might mean free play within the safe confines of the school. It might mean additional academic support for students who have are suffering from legitimate learning loss over the course of these two years. And it could mean a variety of other things. And it might mean something different at different parts of the year. These are all the variables that we have to think about. And I think that, as Suzanne can speak to much better than I can, that when we look at this fifth special, this is not a skill and drill type program that we're looking at. We're looking at what are the comprehensive needs of students. Pre-K is absolutely one of them, and we have to provide space for that. But the multitude of needs that students are coming in at, and the varying levels of need, and the way in which the pandemic has affected students in different ways, is something that we have to try to take into account as we develop this. So Suna, do you want to just expand upon that a little bit?
[Galusi]: You're doing such a great job there, Mr. Murphy. Um, all I would say is that I think in listening to people speak this evening, the SEL thread starts in pre K and goes all the way through 12th grade. One of the curriculums that we have at the elementary level is also zones of regulation. And if students aren't in the green zone and their social emotional needs are not taken care of, then they're not going to be ready to learn. And so we know, I mean, I'm a mother myself, I have two very different students. And one fits very nicely inside the box and has done well. the past year and a half and one of my children is not even anywhere near that box and has had, you know, her struggles. And so I think we know that when students come back to school, they're all going to be at different places. And part of this special is going to focus on those social emotional needs, in addition to what teachers are doing on a daily basis, six hours that they have those students. but also weave in some of the executive functioning skills that were missed and lost during children being at home. And part of those executive functioning skills are also social skills. It's not just the executive functioning skills that relate to academics. Some of those are the social skills that will also be worked and enhanced. The other piece that I do wanna say where there is somewhat of an unknown for next year, Currently right now, and you know the principals could speak to this as well, but I know many of the grades, especially on nice weather days, they're taking the students outside for a snack. It's an opportunity to have another mask break. It's also an opportunity to get some fresh air and after the recess run around for a little bit and get that kind of second burst that you're talking about, member Ruseau, I would imagine that if we are, time and learning is very important, but if we're also returning next year with masks still in place, a similar schedule and requirement is still going to be happening where we're going to take those opportunities for lessons as well as snack to be outdoors.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you. member van de Kloot and then member Kreatz.
[Van der Kloot]: Thank you. As I'm listening to this discussion, I can't help but feel the word that Suzanne just used was opportunities. And there is here an incredible opportunity. Part of it will depend on how we structure it and how creative we can be. in terms of meeting the needs of our kids, but also providing that sort of what Paul suggests, extra outside time, extra time where social and emotional needs are met. And it's really very interesting just to think about as this conversation has taken a place. Now, of course, that's gone a little bit far from the budget, but it's been worthwhile to Listen into to think about going back to the budget, I just really many of my colleagues asked questions that I already had on my list, but I just wanted to be clear if before you were on. For example, it happened to be the Columbus School, but there were other things listed, like replacing outdated Chromebooks so that we could maintain the pandemic purchases, or replacement tiles. I assume that we'll be discussing things like that in the particular, under different parts of the budget.
[Murphy]: Yes, I mean, certainly, I mean, The broken tiles is one of those ones that could really sit at the intersection of a maintenance and a capital budget, but it will be one way or another, it will be addressed. The Chromebook question, we will have a discussion when we talk with the technology department about some of the priorities and some of the investments. But I will say that you've all seen the slide of the $4.8 million put in as part of our FY 21 COVID related allocation. And there's a, I believe either 2.3 or $2.7 million that have been put into our technology. And so there's, I don't think there's effort for as long as there's a public school system, there's going to be technology investments and initiatives articulated as part of a budget. There will be probably different and potentially fewer technology priorities listed in this budget, at least in terms of sort of student usable devices and things of that nature, because we have made such a tremendous investment over the course of the last year. And we've built up a reserve of Chromebooks and we have addressed some of our other technology needs. But there are more capital related technology pieces, sharing up our Wi-Fi networks and making sure that our switches and our access points are all in place and our subscriptions are up to date. Those are pieces that you would hear either on the technology side of the operating budget, or in some cases on the capital side.
[Van der Kloot]: Yeah, so and also to follow up and I realized that Principal Kaye has been very detailed here, but she did mention in her pages replacement of walkie talkies for the TLP program.
[Murphy]: I guess that's it. That I believe we will update that we'll have when we do buildings and grounds we'll talk about the walkie talkies, but we are To the best of my knowledge, we're in the process of addressing that in FY21.
[Van der Kloot]: Okay, Chris, I would certainly be concerned that if there were broken equipment for that particular need, that it would not wait for next year, but it would, in fact, we would find a way to do it this year.
[Murphy]: It's my understanding that it's happening now, but we'll confirm that prior to the next presentation. Okay, thank you very much.
[Galusi]: But could I also just add on that, um, Dr. K just let me know that the tiles actually were already fixed. That illustrates what Mr. Murphy was talking about when these things come up, they're just addressed.
[Murphy]: Yeah. And I think it's worth noting for the community's benefit to that, um, this, the presentation includes both the superintendent's draft recommendations to the school committee, but also the firsthand account of, uh, principals. And so sometimes there'll be cases where the firsthand account can be updated because we've been able to address something, but we also want to provide the school committee with as much sort of authentic and raw data as possible from the people that are closest to the work. At the same time, the table of the superintendent's draft recommendations are really sort of the critical part of the conversation because we have a responsibility to pull all of the priorities together to factor in all of the various perspectives that are represented here and then put forth a coherent and a coordinated set of proposals to the school committee. So that's why both of those tables are there.
[Van der Kloot]: And I very much appreciate the coordinated presentation at the beginning. There's just some of these details and it's actually quite good to hear that, yes, that's taken care of. Yes, that's taken care of. So I appreciate both.
[Unidentified]: Thank you.
[Van der Kloot]: I see that Principal Kaye has her hand up.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Principal Kaye, is it on this or do you want to talk after member Kreatz?
[Kathleen Kay]: It was in reference to the walkie talkies, if I may. sure so i think uh for for us in the tlp program the idea would be to kind of like um as the elementary principals we've all asked that we keep our chromebooks current so that the ones that are old and outdated we we constantly have enough for the children same thing with the walkie talkies batteries die sometimes they get broken so everybody who needs a walkie talkie uh has one right now we we did have um two in reserve and so that's helped us but I think I just want to make sure that we keep in mind that there needs to be a little bit of cushion money every year for me to be able to do that when those needs arise and that's that's why I put that in there just to clarify. Member Kreatz.
[Kreatz]: Yes, I had a question and I know it's it's a personal priority. It's in regards to the vocational school. It was something that seemed concerning to me. It's it's noted here that the method vocational school is not currently part of the cleaning contract. with the school and they are requesting additional allocation of funds to ensure that all the CTE vocational shop spaces are included. So that seemed concerning to me. How are the other classrooms getting cleaned if they're not part of the cleaning contract?
[Murphy]: That's a good question and I'm happy to ask Mr. Fallon to provide an on-the-ground very concise perspective on that. But I will say that when this was identified, it is something that we immediately looked into. And I have reviewed in recent days, the current vendor contract that does the cleaning services. And there are some ambiguities that I think we're going to have to address with the vendor. It is a new contract, I believe it was renewed last year. And so we're going into, I believe, I may be mixing this, I believe it's on the same cycle as the transportation contract, but I can go back and look at that. But it's definitely, it is rolling into the next fiscal year and it is part of our fixed cost increases. And so if we are to expand the definition of the area that is covered by this, it is an issue that we have to address with the ambiguity of that language. But in light of this being both a contractual issue with regard to the ambiguity with our agreement with the vendor and the labor implications of which certainly we would have to address, I'm happy for Chad to speak to sort of in a very concise way, the immediate impact of what he's seeing as the administrator, but just keeping in mind that we're likely to have discussions with two external entities both the union representing our custodians and the vendor contract that we have. Again, with some ambiguity. So bearing in mind the sensitivity of those conversations, Chad, I would invite you to thread that needle and speak to it. Are we able to unmute, Mr. Fowne?
[Unidentified]: I'm looking.
[Murphy]: Sorry.
[Fallon]: There we go. The cleaning contract and specifics. So there are several of our academic classrooms are included on that, but many of the CTE shops, if you will, are not. It's no one's fault. It's probably years ago, back when we think of vocational ed, it was different. And maybe there was more involvement with students in the classroom doing the, things have changed over the years. We need, better cleaning, we need the garbage emptied on a daily basis. There's just, there's many reasons why we need this. So I brought it up because I knew that it was going to be an issue and I knew that would have some financial implications. It's not all the classes though, Cathy, it's just, it's really more of the shop. So, you know, I want the floors done each night. I want things picked up. I want, you know, above and beyond what the students will do each day during their own cleanup time. This is more of a sanitary clean.
[Kreatz]: Yeah. And I would like that too, Chad. Yeah. Thank you so much. And, um, you know, I really, you know, I hope that we can allocate some additional funding so that we can, we can take care of that. Um, it's very important that we do that, you know, especially during the COVID times, you know, we, we just need to make sure that, you know, the classrooms and the CT shops are getting just, you know, sanitized every day.
[Murphy]: I completely agree with that. The one thing I would say is it's not clear to me that we need to allocate additional funding for this. I think it may be, I want to start with attempting to clarify for the external entities responsible for our custodial services, what the expectations are and to the degree that there is any type of change in what the previous expectations that have been articulated. I want to make sure that we do that in an appropriate way with those external entities. I think there's no question that this has to be done. it's not clear to me that it's going to require additional funding. If it does, we will certainly advise the committee of that. But I think the critical thing here is this is something that needs to get done.
[Fallon]: Yeah, and just so everybody knows, the sanitation part, the daily cleaning and the spraying by our buildings and grounds crew, that's being done. I don't want anyone to think that that's not being done. This is completely different. This is more in-depth surface cleaning and things above and beyond.
[Kreatz]: Thank you. Thank you both. Thank you.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Any other questions? I have a question about the, not necessarily budget related, but in a way, you mentioned the district and DESE's recommended fully back to school for all students, unless a medical exemption, but that wouldn't be, how would we, do we know how many we're expecting to potentially have a medical exemption? And what does that look like per grade level and the cost too? Or how will we manage that? Will that be streaming from home while the teachers are in school?
[Murphy]: For the students who are on a medical exemption? Yes. I think the variable that you've identified there in terms of how many students is really the critical question. And frankly, we don't know the exact number. dramatically fewer than the students who are in cohort D right now and learning remotely. That's somewhat, I would be, they were confident of that. And so, but what that number is and what services we potentially attempt to procure, certainly at the secondary level, there are options that we might want to explore. There are districts, that have discussed partnerships of some kind in an attempt to pool resources, depending on the size of those numbers. So those are important questions. And certainly, there's a nexus there between the COVID-related expenses and virtual schools that would otherwise not exist. So I don't have a specific answer for you other than If right now we're at, I believe, 36% or 37% or something like that, in terms of our students being in cohort D, it's going to be significantly fewer than that. And the question becomes, do we have one approach at elementary level where we can essentially have a virtual academy? the way we have this year at the secondary level, do we have to look at potential vendor options to service those students?
[Lungo-Koehn]: Okay, so are we ready to make that decision with regards to no remote, put the definition out and then kind of take a survey of our families for next year so that we can kind of get an idea before June 30th when we have to make the budget official?
[Murphy]: I think we're getting close to the surveying step in the sequence. I think that there's, DESE has, I think, done a lot of foreshadowing of what the requirements are going to be, but I've not necessarily said definitively, you know, from a regulatory policy basis, what the sort of options, if any, will be. And so I think surveying is fine. I think we're ready to do that now, understanding that there'll be a non-binding element to it, and there'll be pieces of the communication and the survey that we're not necessarily well positioned to communicate, because it's better if we would be able to reference explicitly to exactly what Dessy has said. And if they've been even to some degree ambiguous, we can't be as clear as we'd like to be, but I think you're right. that even starting to sort of get a general sense as to what the magnitude of that would be, would probably be prudent at this point.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Dr. Edouard-Vincent, did you want to say something?
[Edouard-Vincent]: Yeah, I just was just, I think, piggybacking on what Mr. Murphy was just sharing with the way that we returned to school very quickly. The guidance that we received as the data started to show that spread among students and in schools was more limited than what we thought it might have been, you know, My preliminary feelings is that it definitely is not going to be strongly encouraged to have an identical model to what existed this year, and that it would function at a significantly lower rate or lower percentage. But we have not received official guidance. I don't know if DESE, I expect them to be saying something in the coming weeks. that we will be able to definitely present at a regular school committee meeting or another budget meeting to be able to provide a clearer update. So I was agreeing, we could definitely gather information, but we wanna be able to provide a clearer update. I think function differently for next school year and get back to some sense of normalcy where the majority of adults will have been vaccinated. And, you know, the mask mandate for outside was lifted as of last Friday, maintaining distance, but, you know, not having the requirement of the mask and the anticipation of more of the Commonwealth opening up over the course of the summer. So I do feel for some of the information we're gonna have to be on standby, but I can definitely try to start asking at DESE at that level to see when we may get guidance. Thank you.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you. No other questions from the committee. We have Andre. You have two minutes.
[SPEAKER_12]: Yeah, hi, can you hear me?
[Lungo-Koehn]: Yes, we can.
[SPEAKER_12]: Great, thank you. So I just wanna start by thanking the school committee and city and superintendents for the work that's been done already in addressing some of the challenges that a number of parents are facing around afterschool care One of the things that we did here as we were investigating through the current and past situation was that the money that parents pay into the afterschool program goes into a revolving account. And the funds from that revolving account traditionally have been used to offset some of the operational budget for the school system. So one thing that we'd like to ask is that, you know, it feels like we have made steps forward in addressing this, this challenge and after school care, but that we keep in mind that, you know, allocating money from that revolving account that parents are paying in at an increased rate to try and provide after-school care that's available and accessible, that that's not used to offset operational budgets moving forward that are going to continue to leave us in this challenging situation. So I guess that's my one request. I didn't see sort of that covered here. I don't know if that's covered as part of other breakdowns, but kind of understanding sort of what funding is, like how much of the school budget is funded by the city and what's funded out of these revolving accounts where parents are paying in for afterschool care and that's being used for just the operational budget of the school system.
[McLaughlin]: Okay, make a point of parliamentary procedure, please. Ma'am. Thank you. If we could just ask for name and address on the record for any speakers, please.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Name and address, Andre, please. Andre, if you could just give us your name and address.
[SPEAKER_12]: I'm sorry, I think I did it muted. So Andre Quena, 19 Johnson Ave, Medford. Thank you very much.
[Murphy]: Mr. Murphy. Thank you, Mary. There's no intention to fund any of the priorities articulated this evening via the Before Next School revolving account. The Before Next School revolving account, as we discussed in the presentation on Before Next School programming, will be used to support the operations of that program, the intended expansion of that program, and also to ensure that there's sufficient funding to respond to any unanticipated personnel needs. that arise as a result of our obligation to service the needs of students. So I think we will, in time, touch upon the state of the revolving accounts and where they are and what our strategies are to make sure that they're both growing at a responsible rate, but also that funding is being allocated appropriately, consistent with the laws governing the use of revolving accounts. And so I don't anticipate the operational or COVID-related expenses that have been discussed this evening being supported as a result of revenue generated via the performance school revolving account.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you, Mr. Murphy. I know our next meeting is Thursday night, same time, 7 p.m., Thursday, May 6th. which has been posted, I believe already, if not.
[Van der Kloot]: Mia has a question.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Member Mustone.
[Mustone]: Just because we're coming up, it's 8.56, I would, just because things move quickly and items are added or items are discarded, could I make a motion that at least the top two parts of the superintendent's recommendations are included in the right budget, whether it's under special education or transportation or math department or elementary. So under it would be the critical FY22 budgetary priorities, and then the next group, the long-term budgetary priorities.
[Unidentified]: Anyone want to second? What pages are you referencing?
[Mustone]: So it's really, it's the summary at the end of each school that shows the superintendent's recommendations and it's by priority level. So I think the first two priority levels are definitely necessities. There's a third that says additional budgetary priorities worthy of consideration that I think we can consider at a later time. And then it's COVID mitigation priorities. So there's a recommendation for each school, but I would just like to see the top two levels included under the right department or grade level just because I think the superintendent has listened to us over the past year and knows this is what the community has shared with us and teachers have shared with us and these are things that are necessary to move our children forward in September.
[Lungo-Koehn]: So your motion just states again is that it should be placed in the correct budget for then a final review at the end of the month? That's correct. Thank you. Motion for approval by member McLaughlin. Seconded by member McLaughlin. Roll call.
[McLaughlin]: Member Graham.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Yes.
[McLaughlin]: Member Kreatz. Yes. Member McLaughlin, yes. Member Mustone. Yes. Member Ruseau. Yes. Member Van der Kloot. Yes. Mayor Lungo-Koehn.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Yes. Seven in the affirmative, zero in the negative. the paper is approved. Yeah, with regards to, I don't know how much guidance you've got on ESSER 3, although I know you've got it on ESSER 2. Can you give us a breakdown of what would be covered for all four boxes through ESSER 2 and 3, such as the first thing I can think of is just the water filtration systems. to refill water bottles where you don't want kids touching this, you know, putting their mouth close. So if you could give us a list of that for one of our upcoming budget meetings.
[Murphy]: So that's sort of the point that I was gonna raise. We have guidance that we could provide tomorrow related to ESSER II. It's very broad. I think it could encompass most of what we're discussing here tonight. ESSER III, we don't yet have guidance. Although from the conversations I've had with people from the state and other districts, doesn't appear as though the restrictions are going to become more narrow. And so most of this could be encompassed by the ESSER budgets. But I want to go back to the point that we discussed at the beginning of tonight's presentation is that there's a tension here. And I think a need to not adopt wholesale either the idea that ESSER is fully walled off or that it's fully integrated is somewhere in between. And so I take the committee's motion to say, This is something that the committee wants to pay for, that it's a priority, that we have to make sure that we provide this service, fund this position, so on and so forth. We will return to you and the hope is we have more guidance on ESSER III by May 19th. And so this will be reflected in a budget based on the feedback we've received from the committee. Now, the committee could then say, no, we want to hold off on funding source A, we want to request that it be in funding source B. That's the committee's prerogative. But the point is that it's gonna be included in a budget. We're gonna figure out a way to do it. And then when we figure out where there are some restrictions, but not in others, and as some of the other priorities get realized, there could be shifting in terms of the actual funding source. And that's the conversation that we'll continue to have in this forum and with our counterparts at the city, as we begin to understand what is our capacity and what flexibility do we have regarding these various funding sources. So exactly which line item it sits in, I would ask that we defer on for the time being, but I take the committee's motion to say that you agree that this is in fact a legitimate priority. I'm not surprised that you say that, because I know in some cases, these are things that you have been advocating for for some time. But I think in terms of the sort of technical piece of this, which I know people have very strong feelings about, and I think I understand why, That's a conversation that will continue to unfold over the coming weeks. Does that make sense to everyone? And Ms. Buston, is that consistent with the intent of the motion that you offered? Thank you.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Yeah, and I hear you loud and clearly about the ESSER money, and I think it's important that we don't overspend it, but that we do spend it before, 2025, so it would be beneficial to this committee over the next couple of weeks to have a list of what qualifies through ESSER.
[Unidentified]: Yeah, like I said, we can do that now for ESSER.
[Lungo-Koehn]: We cannot create a structural deficit, so I hear you loud and clear. We can't put in 50 new positions and then come 2025, cannot be able to afford them.
[Murphy]: That's true, although as I said, it's also true that we can't neglect the immediate and urgent needs, that there's a balance, there's an equilibrium that we are attempting to strike with these proposals, and hopefully we're doing it correctly.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Is there a motion for- Mayor? Member Graham.
[Graham]: Thank you. To that end, I just also wanted to make a motion that the COVID mitigation priorities outlined in this presentation are prioritized. I think sort of my assumption is that they would align well with ESSER funding, but would defer that to the administration in terms of how best to do that. But in the end, when I look at what the school year looks like next year, I would like to make a motion that we see these things in real life in our schools come September. So I would like to make a motion that these COVID mitigation priorities also be presented as part of the final budget for review and approval by this committee.
[Lungo-Koehn]: If you could repeat that, Member Graham.
[Graham]: Sure, the COVID mitigation priorities outlined in the presentation will be presented as part of the FY22 spend, whether it's part of the main budget or our plans to spend against our ESSER grant.
[Lungo-Koehn]: I don't understand what you mean. Can you just, I'm sorry.
[Graham]: Everything that's listed in the COVID mitigation priority buckets is in, we can see it in real life at the beginning of September, which means we, as a committee, will have been presented with a budget that approves the spending of these items.
[Murphy]: Mayor, could I just ask another clarifying question?
[Lungo-Koehn]: Member Murphy, Mr. Murphy.
[Murphy]: Thank you. It's basically the same question I posed with regard to Ms. Mustone's motion that I take this to mean that this motion would indicate that the committee endorses the budgetary priorities, but whether that it's an operating budget priority or an ESSER budget, the point is that it gets realized. And to the mayor's point, we understand that the ESSER funds are one-time funds. And so the committee should know that prior to May 19th, when you take a final vote on what that budget request is, we will map out for you sort of everything in terms of what it is, what it means and what it's being charged to, so that if it's the case that we have six positions that are going to be charged to the ESSER account, we will know that we essentially have, depending on how many positions and what they cost and everything, we have a three-year runway that the particular funding source that are supporting these positions is not going to last in perpetuity. To the mayor's point about structural deficits, that means, frankly, one of three things. either revenues recover and we can offset that charge as the COVID funds expiring, or we as a school district look, or revenues expanding. So that's sort of a one A, I guess, in terms of that path. Option two would be, we look within the school department and say, over the course of the time period in which we know we have the ESSER funds that are supporting these positions, that we have to identify the savings necessary to to offset that when those funds expire. The third option is that these are positions that we understand we may only have a three-year shelf life with, but understand that over the course of three years, there are other strategic decisions that can be made and positions can morph. We can look at roles differently. And so those are all the variables that we control, but understand that ESSER funds will not last in perpetuity, which means that we either need a different strategy to provide the services. And maybe it's the case, sometimes it's the case that we find ways to provide the services, but we don't need the positions. I mean, that is the reality of a budget year in and year out. We always have to take a fresh look at those needs. But I think the point is that what you're saying is that these are the things that we need. We identify now how to pay for them and understand that there are implications one way or another going forward. So, and also last thing, as we get guidance related to ESSER III, you know, it may be the case that we come back and say, you know, theoretically, we could go back and say, look, you said you wanted to do X, Y, and Z. Well, we now know in order to do X, Y, Z, our funding options are more limited. And so we would come back to the committee and the committee would have the opportunity to weigh in and understand that if you tell us to do this, it means that we're not doing something else. And that's, I think part, that's why this process is going to unfold over the next several weeks. And then ultimately, again, the appropriation will be what the appropriation is, and we will find a way to make it work. And I want to make, I think the community owes, I think we owe it to the community to provide that message as well.
[Graham]: Yeah, so just like with member Mustone's motion, we would be saying that we are in support of the COVID mitigation priorities outlined here, and that you all will advise us about how to put them in the right category in the final budget.
[Murphy]: And what the implications of doing that would be.
[Graham]: Correct.
[Murphy]: Yep.
[Graham]: That's the motion.
[Murphy]: We can do that.
[SPEAKER_12]: Oh, member cuts his hands, I'm sorry.
[Lungo-Koehn]: member. I think I couldn't remember Chris and member McLaughlin.
[Kreatz]: Yes, so I just have a follow up question. So, you know, just looking at these numbers. So, if the motion that's put forth right now. we're going to account for like let's say the Brooks has $140,000 here and then I go to the um I'm just going to quickly go to the other page one second here 140,000 so are we is this vote to allocate the total of the funds in all the different categories right now this evening not knowing what the appropriation is for this upcoming school year i guess i'm a little confused or or we already know that the covid mitigation funds are going to come out of the essar and mr murphy is going to identify what's what we would be able to do so for example like support staff in transportation needs for the extended school day you know that's definitely something i want um i guess i'm a little confused about what we're voting on yeah i think i take the motion to mean that as we move toward may 19th the committee is endorsing the priorities that have been articulated to them this evening and so as we get to may 19th we have greater guidance with regard to the
[Murphy]: the city's capacity, greater guidance with regard to the availability and use or restrictions on the federal funding. We will present a budget that reflects these priorities and explain to the committee what it means, if anything, in terms of other efficiencies that have to be identified. And if it's the case that some of the funding, that we are restricted from use of the funding for some of the purposes articulated here, which I don't frankly expect, But it might be the case that as we look at the budget in totality, we have to make some decisions. And for instance, the committee has endorsed multiple things for which there's only one funding source. And if you look at the timeline that the funding source is available for, we have to choose between option A or option B. In the subsequent budget meetings, particularly on May 18th and May 19th, we'll come back and we'll ask the committee and we'll say, look, you said you'd like both X and you like Y. If we do both, it means we can't do Z. which presumably we already know that we want to do Z, we would then ask the committee to weigh in on that and make that decision, both in terms of whether you want us to pursue that priority and whether you're comfortable with the funding source that's been identified. And that would be up to the committee at that time. And again, keeping in mind that all of this is about, with regard to the operating budget, it is about the request that goes to the municipal government. The ESSER funding, frankly, it's a slightly different process because those are district, those are, that's funding that is controlled by the school district with restrictions in place under federal legislation and most likely state regulation as well. And so we, you know, that will not necessarily be a request. It'll be a decision that the school committee just has to make. And that's the information that we'll present to you. With regards to the ESSER funding, those decisions may very well, they may extend beyond May 19th. I think the request certainly wouldn't go beyond that point, but there's gonna be a lot of movement when we, I mean, for instance, we're gonna have an influx of grant funding that will come in as it does every year related to special education. That will be a time where there will be shifting within the budget and we will have to go back and we'll have to continue to work with these decisions. But right now, this motion, as I understand it, and as has been confirmed by the folks that have offered it, is to endorse this set of priorities and for us to continue moving forward, building both an operating budget request and an ESSER budget in practice that is reflective of these priorities.
[McLaughlin]: Thank you. Member McLaughlin. Mayor, my question is not related to the motion, so I don't know if you wanted to move that business forward first and then refer to me.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Okay, so the motion is to have the last COVID section in each department added into the budget for the final review at the end of the month.
[Murphy]: Is that correct? I think what I hear it saying is for it to be funded one way or another. And so as we get more information and as we clarify this, the subsequent presentations will continue along these lines of including these priorities. They may live in the ESSER budget and they may live in the operating budget, but the point is that these are the priorities that this motion states the committee would like to see put into practice and realized in the new school year.
[Unidentified]: With the final review at the end of the month.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Okay, I'll vote for that if it's just has that language, no problem. Motion for approval by member Graham, seconded by member Ruseau, roll call.
[McLaughlin]: All right, I gotta get my spreadsheet. Member Graham.
[Graham]: Yes.
[McLaughlin]: Member Kreatz. Yes. Member McLaughlin, yes. Member Mustone. Yes. Member Ruseau. Yes. Member Van der Kloot. Yes. Mayor Lungo-Koehn.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Yes, so in the affirmative, zero in the negative, the motion passes. Motion to adjourn.
[McLaughlin]: No, Mary actually know would love to be referred if I can I have my hand up I deferred to the motion. Thank you, man. I was just wondering if for the in the. I want to thank everyone for all their hard work first of all the principles and everyone that put all this work together it's clearly a lot of work. and a lot for the community and all of us to digest, of course. And I know that it gets smoother over the course of these meetings. So I want the community to be patient in the literacy aspect of it and understanding sort of what folks are talking about. But to that end, I would love it if we can have some definition, if we might, of some of the terminology that, again, the community might not know. And I'll do this, obviously, next week with some of the special education programming. But for instance, What is the designation of instructional support staff? What is that defined as?
[Murphy]: In terms of in the staffing table?
[McLaughlin]: Yes.
[Murphy]: Is it non-instructional or instructional?
[McLaughlin]: Instructional.
[Murphy]: It may be that it's supposed to say non-instructional, but it's the building. I believe it's the building substitutes. Is there about one per building and maybe one or two buildings for zero?
[McLaughlin]: Yeah, no, I don't see any with, I don't think I see any with a one, but so far I've seen them with zero. And so I was wondering what they meant, but is that what they mean? It substitutes?
[Murphy]: Typically that would mean a building substitute.
[McLaughlin]: Okay, so it's not related to reading specialists because reading specialists, I don't see disaggregated in these.
[Murphy]: In those tables, they would be included as part of the teachers because they're in the teacher bargaining unit. Okay, thank you.
[McLaughlin]: Okay, thank you.
[Murphy]: Yeah, that's a good point. I mentioned that we're trying to resolve a few organizational deficiencies in the course of building this budget. One of the things that is sort of a common experience is when we administrators say like, okay, we need to look at the staff rosters. And then we have eight different schools and we get eight different staff rosters and eight different formats. And so We are, in the course of this budget process, developing uniform staff rosters to use as both a communication tool and also for purposes of just being able to identify where staff are and where they're supposed to be. And so those tables come from that in the expanded version of the staff rosters that we have. Those are delineated more specifically. Yeah. The tables are designed to be able to fit in the upper left-hand corner of those documents.
[McLaughlin]: Yeah, I find them super helpful, and I want to thank you for that. I'm definitely a visual learner, and I find it to be very visual, so I appreciate that, and the disaggregated data in terms of breaking it out of the narrative. So it's a nice sort of, what do you teachers call it, the graphic organizer, right? So thank you for those graphic organizing skills. But I also guess it would be helpful, and not obviously tonight, but moving forward. And I'm sort of building a spreadsheet right now Mr. Murphy that is doing sort of the comparisons between the schools based on those based on these items, but also delineating you know that teacher category because it's big right because it's like it would be good to know like how many special ed teachers how many gen ed teachers how many EL teachers how many reading professionals right so like how that breaks down and I know that That's again, a little bit more of a disaggregation of the data, but I just wanna be able to compare apples to apples. And so if we could do that, that would be super helpful. And I know that just even working on the spreadsheet as we're talking tonight has been really helpful for me again, as a visual learner to get a macro picture of the district, which is what you're really, if I'm not mistaken, asking us to do because we've been so departmentalized. So how are we looking at this from a macro perspective? And I just wanna say, I really appreciate that tonight. Thank you.
[Unidentified]: Motion to adjourn. Motion to adjourn. Seconded by Member McLaughlin. Roll call, please.
[McLaughlin]: Member Graham?
[Unidentified]: Yes.
[McLaughlin]: Member Kreatz? Yes. Member McLaughlin, yes. Member Mustone? Yes. Member Ruseau? Yes. Member Van der Kloot?
[Lungo-Koehn]: Yes.
[McLaughlin]: Mayor Longo-Khan?
[Lungo-Koehn]: Yes. Seven in the affirmative, zero in the negative. The meeting is adjourned. Thank you, everybody.
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