AI-generated transcript of Communication, Stakeholder Engagement & Strategic Planning Subcommittee Meeting - Strategic Planning

[Kreatz]: Hello, everyone.

[Graham]: How are you? Hi.

[Cushing]: Hi, Jenny.

[Graham]: All right, I'm going to start reading so that we can get on to the meat of things as quickly as possible. Please be advised that on Tuesday, May 25, from 4 to 5.30, there'll be a communications engagement and strategic planning subcommittee held through remote participation via Zoom. Pursuant to Governor Baker's March 12, 2020 order suspending certain provisions of the Open Meeting Law and the Governor's March 15 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 and 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 at www.medfordma.org. For this meeting, members of the public who wish to listen or watch the meeting may do so by accessing the meeting link contained herein. No in-person attendance of the 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 on the City of Medford or Medford Community Media websites an audio or video recording transcript or other comprehensive record of the proceedings as soon as possible after the meeting. The meeting can be viewed through Medford Community Media on Comcast channel 15 and Verizon channel 45 from four to 530 today. Since the meeting will be held remotely, participants may log or call in using the following link or call in number. One of the call in numbers is 301-715-8592. And the meeting ID is 916-42890150. Um, our agenda for this evening is, um, we have just one topic, um, which is to review a draft of the strategic plan. Um, and I will call the roll. Uh, member Graham is here. Uh, member Kreatz. Here. And member McLaughlin. Melanie, you're on mute. Sorry, here. Thanks. Okay. So three present, none absent. Um, and I'm going to turn it over to the superintendent.

[Edouard-Vincent]: Thank you. I'm very excited too. make today's presentation. Today's presentation is going to be a partially interactive presentation. We do have a poll scheduled for you to be able to interact with us and give us a little bit of real-time feedback. So that'll be a little first time we're trying it out, but I think it should be fun to get a little bit of information in real time. We're also going to present the revisions and updates to the strategic plan, the district strategy for improvement. And as we presented, we are going to highlight a major initiative from each section. I am going to preface it by saying that as we begin the presentation, I'm going to ask that we can complete the presentation. We would like, as we address the four key areas of achievement, collaboration, equity, and support, we are trying to leave about 10 to 12 minutes per section once we get to that section. So we want to front load all of the information so that you feel like you have a fairly solid understanding of the information that is contained within the document. And then we'll open it up for any questions, clarification, et cetera. So we are going to share a slide deck with you. And I believe Dr. Cushing was going to be managing that.

[Graham]: And before you start, Dr. Edward-Vinson, I think what you and I talked about is that this would be an opportunity for us to dive back in in a level of detail that hasn't previously been shared with the committee And have this group really think about what we're seeing and hearing, as well as what we heard from all the roundtables that this group worked to get off the ground earlier. I guess that was just a month ago. and just allow us to start to think about the best positioning of this as it goes forward, not just with the school committee, but also the community. So I think at the end of this, after our questions, I'd like to make sure we just have a little bit of time to talk about those next steps as well. But I think other than that, the floor is yours.

[Edouard-Vincent]: Thank you. I also want to just start to think on the call right now. We have a good amount of our school administrators and leaders that are on the call right now and most likely we will have a few others be able to join the call, but this has truly been a collaborative effort. we have met for multiple hours, especially this past month, really going back over what had been in the original draft that was presented over a year ago, taking feedback that we've received over the course of the year, trying to simplify language in certain areas and really talk about and call out the high leverage initiatives that are taking place in the district. So I just want to thank all the administrators that are on the call. You know, at times we had close to 40 members of the team really demonstrating and sharing the areas, specific initiatives that we're doing as a district to advance the district forward, but also the specific areas of expertise that the administrators are they are the experts in those particular areas and those are key initiatives that the district is following. So I just wanted to thank all of them who are on the call right now and all of those who aren't on the call but were great contributors to this document. So this is a collaborative group effort of the actual work that's taking place in Medford Public Schools right now that is aligned and coherent, and that we as a district are moving it forward K through 12. So Dr. Cushing, I am going to have you start the slide deck. Thank you. So this is our district strategy for improvement. And contained within this district strategy for improvement, the key documents and data pieces that we did use. Using this district strategy for improvement plan, we used data from DESE. We incorporated data and feedback from city and district surveys. administrator feedback at multiple meetings. In addition, we took feedback from the mayor's education transition subcommittee meeting, which was at the McGlynn school and the Medford mayoral transition committee recommendations. Those things were taken into consideration, um, in addition to the additional feedback round table sessions that we had. Dr. Cushing, thank you. So the genesis of this plan, what is our district strategy for improvement? As part of the requirement for the new superintendent induction program, which is referred to as NISP, this was a requirement at the end of our first year and second year of NISP, where they asked all new superintendents to look at the district's goals for improvement. The document that we're about to share today takes those goals for improvement and actually puts it into a living document. Although we have amount of years listed on the document, it is not set in stone. This is a living document, which we intend to continue to bring back to this subcommittee, this body. to be able to give updates, make revisions and changes. So as we present, thinking about what point in time in the year should we be bringing the strategic plan back to the subcommittee to be able to say these are changes, these are things that were added, things that were deleted, because this document is a living document. Dr. Cushing, I just was going to mention that we as a district, we did participate in retreats, multiple meetings, which I said earlier, and cross-disciplinary team meetings to really make sure that we were not just addressing one population, but that we were addressing the whole child and all learners. And as a result of the pandemic, the pandemic has taught us so much. especially about areas that we had of concerns, but this past year, especially, we learned from the pandemic, we made shifts and changes as a district, which were necessary, but also just life events that happened over the course of this past year, we as a district have greater racial awareness, which did allow us to also incorporate those priorities into this living document. Thank you, Dr. Cushing. So what we presented to you, you may see a slight shift, but we presented to you the four areas of concentration in the Medford Public Schools. We talked about achievement, collaboration, equity, and support. Those being our guiding pillars, what is the glue kind of keeping us together as a district in order for us to, again, execute this district strategy for improvement. So at this point, I know I've been speaking for a few minutes, but at this point, I really would like to ask the participating audience who's there. We would like you to participate in a poll. Since last year, we had an original design. And again, over the course of the pandemic, meeting with many members of the team, we have come up with two similar but slightly different design patterns of the strategic plan. And we want you to look at the two patterns and you're going to see that both of these documents contain the same exact information, but it really is a request for feedback and input on the design. So Dr. Cushing, I ask you to present So before you, you are looking at two versions, option A and option B. Both documents do contain the same exact information organized in a different way. And so we would like the participating audience to have an opportunity to participate in a poll. Option A does not have the pyramid and option B does. So please take just a second to say which option you feel more connected with. And we would just love to see your feedback.

[Graham]: I don't think I can make a selection. I can only see the results. It must be because I'm a host or something.

[Kreatz]: I can't make a selection either.

[Edouard-Vincent]: I think it is because you are a host. And what we'll do is if I give another- Oh, there it is. I see it now. Oh, you see it now? Okay, excellent. I can't see it. Sorry, I don't have access to it. If you click on polling in your bottom bar. Oh, okay. I see. It says, do you prefer option A or okay.

[Cushing]: Dr. Edouard-Vincent, I have removed, I believe, all the co-host options.

[Edouard-Vincent]: Okay.

[Cushing]: So everybody should be able to take a crack at it now.

[Edouard-Vincent]: Thank you, Dr. Cushing. Dr. Cushing, are you able to present the results. I am. Thank you. So just doing this quick informal poll, those of you who had the opportunity to participate, option A has 71% voting for option A, which is the option without the pyramid, and option B had 29% voting for that. So thank you so much for, participating in this little interactive session and giving us some feedback. So option A seems to have moved forward. So for the purposes of our slide deck, we are going to continue with what was the original design. And so over the course of a year, and having made it through the pandemic, you know, we were getting feedback and people were saying, let's do it. So it looks like that's gonna be our shift. So again, even though the slide deck is completed, option A was selected by our participating audience. So thank you for that feedback. I am now going to pass it on to Dr. Cushing, who's gonna give us a little bit of an overview, Dr. Cushing.

[Cushing]: All right, I am unmuted. All right, so we wanted to quickly share with you a, so the document itself is a cover page that then is hyperlinked to sub documents that actually carry a tremendous amount of the roles and responsibilities. There are several documents that will be crafted out of this for various plans that a district should have moving forward. So let's just go into one of the examples. So this is for collaborative relationships. And so one of the plans that I mentioned, establish a district marketing and communications plan. I think that this is extraordinarily important as we're finishing up a school in Maine audit of our interactions with our families and community. And so Using that information will be tremendously important. Mr. Tucci will speak about the substance of Community Collaborative Relationships Initiative 3 later on in this presentation, but you'll see here you have the initiative, engage in timely, thoughtful, two-way cultural proficient communication with the Medford Mustang community. You have our early indicators of success, some anticipated outcomes, the resources that we'll need, and then the leadership team that will move forward to navigate this particular initiative. At the top of the page, your 2021 to 2024 strategic plan phase one, as we move through the years and we move forward, this would be a good way to track this plan moving forward as it merges and morphs into future plans. Then you'll have the bottom of the action plan, which actually has the action item. This is cut off. There might be more below here, but this is just a sample. You'll have the action items. You'll have some outputs that are expected, the responsible parties or persons. And then target dates for completion. If something's ongoing and something that should be continually revisited revamped and should be a manner of practice, whereas they might be a target deadline to have a substantive product. Now, as we work in the world of education, it is a technical field requiring certifications and the like. And so that's where I want to turn it over to Ms. Galussi to bring us back to the glossary of terms that will be a part of this action plan. I'm sorry, as a part of this strategic plan.

[Galusi]: Thank you very much, Dr. Cushing. So you can just advance to the next slide in the interest of time. Thank you. You'll notice hyperlinked on the front page of the plan for our strategic improvement is going to be a hyperlink to a glossary of terms. This is just a small sample of what would be included in our glossary of terms. There are other educational terms that we will be adding to this. It is a draft, but just as a sampling to show you some of the terms, just to make sure that the greater community understands all of the language and terminology referenced in our plan. We have here the term and then the definition. So for example, you can see listed what a 504 plan entails and how you qualify for one. terms in terms of positions, you have the BCBA, BTA, the difference between the two. And one other example is the credit for life. So that is something that happens at the high school level with the junior class for financial literacy. So just so that the greater community has an understanding of all of the terms listed in the strategic plan. From here, I'm going to kick it off starting the, we're gonna dive into, thank you, the ACEs. So the first bucket, the A, is achievement. And the objective for the achievement part is to develop and implement strategic wide curricula, instructional strategies, and assessments that allow learners to reach their potential as knowledgeable, ethical, and critical thinking citizens. So today, myself and Dr. Riccadeli are going to present the achievement bucket. So the first one in achievement, there are four initiatives and I will speak to two and Dr. Riccadeli will speak to two. This first one, you'll see it's their listed initiative A1. So this is establish an ongoing curriculum review cycle. And so the anticipated outcomes for the curriculum review cycle would be to ensure that our curriculum is aligned and updated and current with Massachusetts frameworks. Assessing curriculum for bias and professional development to support curriculum. Now those are the the broad anticipated outcomes underneath the anticipated outcomes will be action items. So just as a brief example. For the action items that align to these anticipated outcomes would be right now. Currently, we are in the process. Many departments are in the process of updating their curriculum to the Massachusetts frameworks which have recently been updated so departments such as humanities and fine arts. health, world language. They're in the process of that now, and the action item would speak to that. We're also in the process of vetting and piloting to implement new curriculum based on making sure it's updated with the Massachusetts frameworks. Those, as you know from probably some of the budget hearings as well as curriculum subcommittee meetings, we have mathematics, science, and humanities in the process of that. Every year, annually, we use a rubric tool to assess our curriculum for bias, and that will continue, and professional development is part of the curriculum review cycle. I'm going to now pass it to Dr. Cadell to speak about A2.

[Ricciardelli]: OK, so good afternoon. So where initiative A1 had to do with curriculum, initiative A2 has to do with instruction. So people usually link the two, and there are a lot of links, but they have differences as well. So in initiative A2, we're looking at using evidence-based instructional practices to implement the curriculum district-wide, so using programs that work. using instructional practices that work. We want students to be challenged and supported at the same time. We want them to be taught within what's called their zone of proximal development, so that the work is not too easy, but it's not so hard that they get frustrated and they don't want to work. We want students to engage in academic conversations and metacognitive activities. So we want those conversations to be rooted in the language of what they are studying. When we go into classrooms and we do our learning walks, we are looking for that to be occurring. We want students to think about what they are learning. We want that metacognitive approach to be evident in instruction. We want all students to have access to instruction that benefits their learning style and their progression. So it kind of goes hand in hand with that second bullet. We want them to be challenged, but we also want them to have instruction that's really going to benefit them and is going to be adaptable to their learning style and what they need. And lastly, with regard to anticipated outcomes, we want instruction to be rooted with feedback that is rich, that's authentic, that's targeted. And we're not saying that that doesn't happen now, but with regard to our action plans moving forward, actually with all of these outcomes, we are, We really want to devote time towards professional development so that teachers and Councilors and other staff members have the training in each one of these areas so that these outcomes can come true. So we are, with regard to action items in this initiative, so we are looking at professional development, both for teachers and also for administrators. So one of the other action items we have here is focused in on professional development for administrators in good instructional practices. So in August, we have some significant PD that will begin related to the educator evaluation tool. So that's a sampling of some of the action items. It's not the whole project, but it's a sample of what is included in initiative A2 instruction.

[Galusi]: Thank you. And thank you. Now moving to a three. So we have the curriculum piece, and we have the instructional piece assessment. And so an achievement, a three initiative is to implement common assessments to inform instruction and make modifications to our current curriculum. So this is the piece that's going to drive a lot of the decision-making in the district. And our anticipated outcomes would be how we are utilizing this student data to inform our decisions. So that's kind of like the big umbrella piece to this particular initiative. So below that is data to better identify student need. That is if students that need remediation as well as enrichment. Determining the growth. and achievement of each individual student. And then streamlining and updating our district-wide assessment schedule. So what this looks like is we currently have some district-wide assessment pieces that we look at per grade level, per content. But we also want to try and work on coming up with a more streamlined district-wide assessment tool. that would be common from, let's say, grade three through high school, grade 10 or grade 12. That would be common, so we would have a common platform as well as common language amongst educators and administrators. This would give us streamlined data so that we could really drill down to the specific needs of our students as well as making sure our curriculum is filling the needs. And then the other piece is enhancing and building upon the data teams that we currently have at each of our schools. So that especially next year, that's gonna be very important to bridge the gap to this break in instruction that COVID has caused. So those are two action items in relation to the anticipated outcomes for assessment. And there's one more initiative in achievement, Dr. Riccadeli.

[Ricciardelli]: OK, so if you hear a buzz in the background, there's someone mowing the grass right outside my office, so I apologize. Perfect timing. He's walking by right now. All right, so just to provide a summary. So initiative one has to do with curriculum, initiative two instruction, initiative three is assessment, and then initiative four has to do with providing instructional technology, which is a medium. for which to deliver instruction. Not the only one, but an important one that we wanted to include in this plan. So with regard to anticipated outcomes, The creation of a district-wide technology plan has been determined as a significant need as we move forward. Another outcome is to engage stakeholders to support the effective use of instructional technology and learning resources. So we wanna know what other people think, other people in the community, other people within the district, parents, we want their opinion in what we are developing. Another outcome is the assessment of current technology management and infrastructure staff and the recommendations for further growth. So there's a connection there with the district technology plan. And then lastly, critical elements necessary for effectively utilizing technology for teaching and learning identified and implemented. So again, there's a connection here with the instructional piece. We just thought it was important to identify technology as a specific initiative separate from those other pieces. With regard to... specific actions for our action plan. So again, the creation of a district action plan, we need to assess the current technology that we have, assess the infrastructure, look at the personnel, look at digital resources, and we need to look at staff development needs. This is a plan that we believe will take a good part of next year. We expect it to be thorough and there will be many different members of the leadership team involved in that project. And then lastly for an example of an action item would be supporting a rich digital learning environment. So again, that's going to be the continuous assessment of teaching and learning and the evaluation of the use of instructional technology and digital resources. So what is it that works for our students? What works well? And what do we wanna, how do we wanna use that for the future? Okay, so I think at this point, that's a summation of achievement. Thank you.

[Galusi]: Thank you. Now it's back to Dr. Cushing and Mr. Tucci.

[Tucci]: Good afternoon, everybody. It's Dr. Cushing and I's turn to talk a little bit about collaboration. Before we delve into it, you know, one of the big things that we wanted to talk about as an objective for collaborative relationships was to create a culture of collaboration through consistent community engagements. And Dr. Cushing and I will speak to four major initiatives that will come out of this particular objective. of collaborative relationships. The first being build and sustain community partnerships that improve school effectiveness. The second being ensure all families are welcomed members of the school community. engage in timely thoughtful two way in culturally proficient communication with the Mustang community. And finally, working collaboratively with Community stakeholders to appropriate budgetary resources and what i'm going to do here to start. As I'm going to speak to the first one, which is building and sustaining community partnerships that improve school effectiveness but before I do so, I think what we were kind of talking about just in general with regards to this objective of collaborative relationships, is that we want to aspire to build a really a partnership between families and the community. And essentially, we want to create an effective learning environment that can work in partnership with those families in the community. Our hope was that through a lot of these initiatives, that we'll really focus on enhancing our communication efforts with families in the community to ensure that our work is really coordinated with students, families, so that we can all kind of feel confident, prideful about our schools, and feel like we're working collaboratively together. So without further ado, I'll jump into initiative one. So initiative one was to build and sustain community partnerships that improve school effectiveness. Our hope with our anticipated outcomes were really three pronged, you know, one of them being enhancing professional development resources for our educators. Essentially, our hope would be that by developing good partners, we can then provide great professional development that will in turn improve our student outcomes, which is certainly one of our anticipated outcomes. In addition, one of our other anticipated outcomes was to enhance our educational opportunities for our students. both during and after school as a result of having great community partners. So I'll just give you a couple examples of a few action items from this particular initiative. We spoke to leveraging our great role the Center for Citizenship and Social Responsibility is playing and in hoping that we are leveraging the CCSR projects to support greater civic interests. We're also hoping that another action item would be to leverage the co-op and practical internships in the field with our community partners, in particular through the Medford Vocational Technical High School and Medford High School, through the creation of maybe, you know, different programs involving the co-op and practical internships for our high school students. Another action item that would be coming out of this particular initiative would be to establish or cultivate relationships with local universities and organizations to offer educational opportunities to students and staff. And just a final example that I'll give would be to continue nurturing relationships with the community family networks in order to partner, for instance, with the Medford Family Network to increase levels of collaboration to expand offerings such as parent workshops and parent language classes. There are certainly some more and additional action items that are coming out of this particular initiative of community partnerships, but that's just a little overview of what to expect in this particular initiative and at this point I'm going to turn it over to Dr. Cushing who will talk about.

[Cushing]: I apologize for some reason the controls to unmute and turn on my camera were not available for a second there. So in C2, we want to ensure the initiative is we want to ensure that all families are welcome members of the school community and so the anticipated outcome so that families will report to us feeling included informed in district decision making. And then the other anticipated outcome is to develop pride and ownership in the school system, so that people really feel invested in feel as a part of this and so one of the actions about this will be to develop and further enhance family engagement events. and some of those include curriculum nights, school open houses, title one evenings, EL family nights, CPAC events in that partnership that has really been cited as an exceptionally positive relationship that has been built through hard work over a number of years. This is something that is yearly and ongoing and will really rely on surveys and communication with families about how we can make these events better, how we can make them feel more included, and how the information coming out of them can really be beneficial to them. And now I'll turn it back over to Mr. Tucci for initiative C3.

[Tucci]: Okay, thank you, Dr. Cushing. Initiative C3 is an initiative that states engage in timely, thoughtful, two-way, culturally proficient communication with the Medford Mustang community. Our anticipated outcomes are as followed. The first one being as a result of the school and main audit, the district will be better positioned to anticipate and support the school community. Second, improve communication and engagement with caregivers and stakeholders. Three, increase trust and support, and finally improve student outcomes as a result of this timely, thoughtful, too late, culturally proficient communication. So while much work has been done over the course of the past year, and some of our work is ongoing, we have some great goals and action items that we are looking forward to putting in place. First one being to improve and streamline parent communication. For instance, we have hopes as an output to implement the smartphone application as a resource and means of communication across all schools. We also want to increase translation services to improve caregiver and school communication. We want to be proactively communicating academic progress with our caregivers using our student information management system. We also have plans to evaluate existing mass communication systems and offering additional training to school administrators and our school staff. And then finally, we're gonna be looking to expand opportunities for families to meet with educators and the progress of their students using existing virtual meeting platforms to hopefully increase that level of communication to improve student outcomes. Now the one final action item I just want to speak to briefly here is that we have our hopes to create a district marketing and communication plan, where we're going to tap into establishing district control social media accounts, really working on updating our website and blog to meet all of our community's expectations. and consistently promoting and communicating district-wide events in order to be proactive with regards to our communications, and to just continually research products that are going to support family and community engagement as a whole. So those are a few examples of some of our action items that are going to be coming out of this particular initiative of engaging in timely, thoughtful, two-way, culturally proficient communication. Dr. Cushing, kicking it over to you.

[Cushing]: Thank you very much, Mr. Tucci. And the final initiative, C4, is working collaboratively with community stakeholders to appropriate budgetary resources. And so our anticipated outcomes, among others, are through budget documents in an easy-to-read, non-financial term, so the community isn't kind of bowled over with that financial literacy course that they may not have taken. and a transition to Munis. And so those outcomes really rest on a couple of action steps. You know, what we want to do is we want to create opportunities as one action step, create opportunities for community stakeholders to have input in school and district improvement processes. And so those improvement processes for schools are directly connected to our budgetary resources. And so what we're asking the school committee for what we're asking the city for, you know, is really driven through surveys, school site councils, school and district based roundtables that we saw first start during the the onset of the pandemic last summer, and then continue just as member Graham mentioned about a month ago, but to be able to continue those open, transparent ways to have people have input into the things that are important for them, so that then we can use the technical expertise and education to appropriate the budgetary resources. And this is critical to make sure that we have our community on board, as this is tied to every taxpayer in the city, and we wanna make sure that we are being completely transparent. Another action item is for us to adopt a software package, a budget software package that allows for ease of budget presentation and understanding. This is very connected to the city and how city hall and school district talk to one another. And it would be a shift to a program called Munis and hopefully we would be able to make this transition happen over the next year or two that would be able to assist our budgetary process as well as to pull out reports and other things that make it easy to show the public our fiscals. So at this time I'm going to click the slides and hand it off on equity to Ms. Susanna Campbell.

[Campbell]: Thank you, Dr. Cushing. Good afternoon, everybody. Core value E of ACES represents equitable learning opportunities. Specifically, the district's objective is to understand the needs of our diverse population and support the academic, social, emotional, and physical needs of our students. As a district, we are committed to supporting the whole child. And you will see through the five initiatives I'm going to review, um, that this support takes various forms. Before I dive in, I want to acknowledge Ms. Shulman's contributions to all of this work. She can't be here this afternoon, but she contributed greatly to this equity objective and to the initiatives that we're about to review. So I just want to make sure that, um, she gets credit for all of her hard work here. So the five initiatives that fall under equitable learning environments, the first of these is increase the support and understanding of health, wellness, and social emotional needs. As you can see on the slide, the anticipated outcomes of this initiative are a social emotional learning inventory to be shared with the public, social emotional learning resources for faculty, social emotional learning action plan, social emotional learning professional development plan, increased ability for students to access curriculum, increased students' social-emotional skills, establishment of data cycles and screenings, and increased evidence-based group counseling. So an example of one action item from this initiative is an annual assessment of the district's current social-emotional learning programming. Each year, the district will identify areas of strength and need, and this information will be used to develop social-emotional learning action plans, at school and district levels. The action plans will include professional development that will be put into place to address the identified needs. A monthly review of the social emotional learning initiatives will also take place to ensure that we are moving forward productively. And the timeline for this initiative is ongoing as this is an annual endeavor and it's conducted on a yearly basis so that we can address needs as they arise. Our second initiative is prioritize the development. Can we go on to number two when you have, thank you. Our second initiative is prioritize the development of systems that support a shared vision for disability awareness, anti-racism, anti-bias and cultural proficiency across the school district. The anticipated outcomes for this initiative are the emergence of an increasingly diverse staff, culturally proficient curriculum for all students, assessment of the state of our district with regard to diversity, district-wide disability awareness curriculum, and social justice curriculum for secondary education. Now, just to frame this when we think about and we speak about diversity, our district vision encompasses numerous stakeholders. We are working toward building a community that sees diversity as a strength, while also recognizing that bias is real. And we are considering many groups of people who are at risk of being marginalized. So this group includes people of color, people with disabilities, students of various religious, cultural, linguistic backgrounds, and more. So I also want to point out that for many students and members of our community, they may very well be a member of more than one of those groups as well. So I would like to highlight two action items from this initiative. First, our Racial Equity Task Force. This group of community members, parents, caregivers, teachers, and administrators is focused on implementing a means by which to diversify staff. To this end, we have identified a couple of tools that we will be using. One is the New England Minority Network, also known as NEMNET. And the other is the Massachusetts partnerships for diversity and education, and I will speak a little bit more about those under initiative five. But in addition, that the racial equity task force is also focused on assessing the district's cultural proficiency through an equity audit, and this is due to begin this fall. The results of the audit will provide us with information that we can incorporate into this living document, our strategic plan, to move forward and make progress in that regard. I also want to just briefly touch upon expanding our disability awareness curriculum. This will include further professional development to reach even more staff. In addition, we're going to be piloting a disability awareness curriculum for students beginning in grades K and one and high school levels this fall. All right, moving ahead to initiative three, provide equal access to academics, support and enrichment. Now just for reference, because on this slide you will see the acronym MTSSE. MTSS is an acronym for multi-tiered systems of support. This is a framework for how school districts can build the necessary systems to ensure that each student receives a high quality educational experience. In contrast, we used to refer to RTI, or response to intervention, and MTSS, which kind of grew out of RTI, is more focused on the whole child, whereas RTI was more focused on the academic performance of students. So under Dr. Edouard-Vincent's guidance, our task force has added an E to MTSS, and that's to reflect our commitment to enrichment. We understand that enrichment is also a vital component to meeting every student's needs. Everybody has different needs, and for some students, that includes enrichment. The anticipated outcomes of this initiative are defined and adopted MTSSE, Established common practices, procedures, terminology for screening, assessment, data collection, analysis, and focused evidence-based interventions. An expanded library of special education assessments and extended day opportunities. I'm going to touch upon two action items from this initiative. First, redefining a district vision for MTSSE systems. Specifically, this work will include an audit of MTSSE systems and the audit will lead to the formulation and implementation of one or more action plans. It will include some of the following items. We need to make sure we have common terminology that's used across the district. We need to make sure that we have training for administrators on these processes to ensure calibration across the district. More opportunities for professional development for staff. And also within this initiative E3, there are other action items related to MTSSE that are focused on data collection and evidence based instruction. But for the sake of time, I will just say that MTSSE is for all students, students with and without IEPs. our students that are EL, our advanced placement students. It's really for all students and these systems will benefit all of our learners. I also wanna highlight the work around the recently released Massachusetts Dyslexia Guidelines. To analyze this guidance, we are forming a team to review the guidelines, review Medford's current level of compliance and recommendations made in the Mass Dyslexia Guidelines. Our plan is to develop and begin implementation of an action plan that will target the items from the Mass Dyslexia Guidelines. that we are going to take on as we move forward. Okay, initiative four, ensure positive school culture. This has the following anticipated outcomes. We will have a demonstrated improvement of school culture based on data collection, responsive classroom implementation at the elementary level district-wide, and restorative justice implementation at the secondary level district-wide. Numerous strategic task force members weighed in on developing this objective and the corresponding initiatives and action steps. You can see from the anticipated outcomes that we were really considering the various developmental levels of our students and we thought critically about how can we create a positive school culture beginning in preschool and going all the way through high school. One of the specific initiatives speaks to promoting positive school culture by developing a culture climate action plan. And this action plan will include the following elements and probably more as well. But we will be compiling current practices with identified areas of strength and need. And then in collaboration with our parent caregiver groups, we are looking to increase our positive school culture experiences and practices, such as school-wide days of enrichment. These may be field trips, these may be field days, fun day, fells day, various performances, shared cultural experiences, etc. We also will be including responsive classroom. positive behavioral intervention strategies, inviting professionals from different fields to meet with students and give them background of their particular career, and inviting alumni in to meet with students and discuss the importance of the Mustang way and their Mustang way of life and everyday life. And when we think about positive school culture, we're also really thinking about building a community like I had said before, these all kind of intertwine a community that sees diversity as a strength. So these practices, they all work in tandem with one another, and we will remain inclusive on our thinking. So when we're thinking about enrichment opportunities, this is a great opportunity for students to learn about cultural experiences. You know, seeking out a diverse group of professionals to present to middle school and high school students about career paths will help break down stereotypes and give all students a role model. And when I say diverse, I'm really, you know, this is all encompassing. I'm thinking about all types of diversity, racial diversity, cultural, linguistic, disability, and having students see adults who look like them, sound like them, and somehow connect to the student can be very powerful. Our final objective, our final initiative, excuse me, under equity is recruit, retain, and develop an effective and diverse staff. And the anticipated outcomes of this initiative are to cultivate a diverse workforce and increase retention rates for all new employees. One of our specific initiatives included in this work is to expand our human resources recruiting activities to fill all positions and develop more diversity among staff. The district will use memberships with Nemnet and with the, as I mentioned before, and with the Massachusetts Partnership for Diversity to achieve this. They will also develop a more streamlined hiring process to help with this goal as well. Now, to highlight the importance of this initiative, I think we need to know what our current makeup of staff is. So at this point, according to the Human Resources Office, we have 484 teachers. Five of these teachers are Hispanic. two are black and nine are Asian. So that means that we have about 1% of our teachers who are Hispanic. And by contrast, according to the DESE data, 13.5% of our student enrollment is Hispanic. We have two teachers who are black, which is 0.41%. In contrast, 11.9% of our students are African-American. And we have nine Asian teachers, which is 1.9% of our teaching staff, whereas we have 9.5% of our students are Asian. So just looking at, you know, who our teaching staff are in contrast to our student body, it's important that we move toward having a diverse staff that better represents our students. Now, for your reference, NEMNet is a national resource organization. It assists schools in recruiting and retaining diverse teachers, administrators, and coaches, so they work across on the whole country. They cover over 500 public and private schools, K to 12. They also work with colleges and universities and nonprofit organizations. The Mass Partnership for Diversity, MPDE, is a recruiting consortium for Massachusetts. So this is more focused locally, and their mission is to locate outstanding candidates of color for teaching, administrative, and support positions. So in closing, the district's core value of equity is a huge umbrella, and there's many key initiatives that fall underneath it. Thank you so much for your time and attention.

[Edouard-Vincent]: Thank you, Susanna. And thank you to all the members of the team that have presented thus far. And I, too, want to just thank Stacey Shulman. Although she's not online, she definitely very actively involved as a tactical team member. So thank you to all of you. So I am trying to bring us to the finish line. I hope to, not I hope, I know I will get to the finish line in under 10 minutes. So I'm gonna just set my timer. I've been trying to keep time as much as possible so that the balance of this time can be used for questions. So as we come to the S for support, This talks about us assessing, reviewing, and ensuring a safe and secure teaching and learning environment. Thank you. Under support, we have three key initiatives. Initiative number one, maintain and evaluate safety protocols. Some of our anticipated outcomes, and there will be more. Again, this is a fluid document. is to have a comprehensive safety procedures book. Have sample letters and examples of letters for principles. Creation of a commonly used statements that are translated. And lastly, equity and safety for all students and staff. And one particular example that I could think about, which I could highlight for us that falls under S1, would be establishing a multidisciplinary safety working group. And this group would be reviewing and updating district-wide protocols, such as COVID protocols, which are very relevant today. AED use policy, management of food, wellness policy, and field trip protocols, and creating additional templates for communication. A lot of this work would be housed under the, or the director of health services would be helping to ensure that we are maintaining and evaluating safety protocols. Another piece that I wanted to highlight that falls under this initiative is how we are understood. So again, we want to purchase a communication system that allows for multilingual communication to our multilingual families and to train administrators and interpreters in using this system to send messages home in languages other than English. It does go in two areas, but again, a way of ensuring that we are being supportive to all constituents in our district. So that's one, a few examples there. Dr. Cushing, could we move forward? So initiative number two, under support. We want to build and sustain partnerships with community organizations. This is critically important. We cannot do this work alone. So PALS is one of the partnerships that we've highlighted. And PALS stands for Partnership for Advancing Leadership Skills. We would like to scale that program up K through 12, district level work on the Mustang Way culture. It's very alive at the middle school levels. We really wanna make sure that it continues To to breathe life into Mustang nation K through 12, an annual report by the community stakeholder team, we would like to have data indicating consistent consideration for individualized emergency response plans, IER needs. Again, trying to meet the needs of all of our students and learners, and to implement consistent monthly meetings with public safety stakeholders. And if I had to call out just one particular initiative, that consistent consideration of the need for individualized emergency response plans, the IERs, what that would entail is the staff Our Director of Pupil Services, our special education coordinators and our 504 chairpersons to ensure that students who have an IEP or 504 meetings that at any time an individual has a change in status, be it mental, physical, communicative, health, et cetera, that we would be keeping that in mind as we think about building and sustaining partnerships and just making sure that we are not leaving anyone behind. So that is something that we just highlighted as a key initiative. I would like to also, key outcome, I'm sorry, can we transition to S3, please? Our third area under initiative S3 is to strategically utilize our finances to improve our learning environments. Two key anticipated outcomes. We would like to have the completion of a comprehensive and annualized capital improvement process and inventory. Also, we would like to have ongoing dialogue with the municipal government and MSBA regarding critical infrastructure priorities across the district. And so as we talk about that, the key piece, our capital improvement planning process We would like to have an annual inventory with designated priorities for all pending capital repair and improvement projects to be submitted formally to the Medford School Committee for purposes of advocacy before the Medford Municipal Government. So we are earmarking that as an example of how we would be Providing and supporting the district that s and and strategically use utilizing our finances to do that. Another area would be under you strategically using our utilizing our finances. is to improve learning environments on a literal sense, upgrading security systems. We are working on, we're actively working right now and hoping to have some of that work done by the end of this school year to be moving to some kind of a tap card system and moving away from some of the keys, which would ensure greater security for all. And again, the tap card system records who's going in, who's going out, whereas a key is not necessarily able to do something like that. So those are some of the things that we are trying to do under support. And those are the three key initiatives that were identified. So at this point, I really want to open it up the floor for feedback, input, questions. We are eager to hear from you. Thank you.

[Graham]: Thank you, Dr. Edward-Vincent. I will start by saying, even last night as we were listening to the principals provide their commentary about this year, and I don't, maybe it just like sort of struck me differently last night because we had heard from really all the schools at that point, but it was, pretty remarkable how many new things have happened this year in a year where there's like no reasonable way to expect new things to be happening right like other than the pandemic but but the things that sort of struck me were that we're installing new curricula, we are changing the way we assess students, like there was just like, I don't know, it was just sort of like an interesting like reflection point that everyone sort of thinks of this year as like the year where we like navigated the pandemic and the rules that changed like once a week. But there's been a lot more going on at the same time, and it's pretty remarkable. So I would say that the same goes for this presentation. It's really quite clear how much work has gone into this, so thank you. Kathy, did you want to say something?

[Kreatz]: Yes, I wanted to, I don't have any questions. I wanted to say thank you to everybody for this extensive presentation. Thank all the administrators for their time and efforts preparing this draft. I really enjoyed it and I especially enjoyed the interactive piece taking the poll. I didn't know that was something that could be done. The presentation was incredible. Everybody spoke beautifully and just thank you all. Thank you.

[Graham]: Member McLaughlin.

[McLaughlin]: Thank you. I agree, this is really interesting report and really thank you all for sharing lots of exciting things. I love seeing the drill down and I definitely have some feedback and some questions, if you can bear with me, because it was so comprehensive and also just trying to think about it from a lay person's perspective. I think more of the polling definitely, Maurice, I felt like I was in grad school again. And that always gets a good reaction from the students. So I think you should do that more with your even school committee. They'll probably really like that. A little technique. So the strategic plan, I just wanted to ask about, I appreciated very much that you guys were going to do the glossary at the beginning. I think that's important. I would strongly recommend that you guys have a non-educator read your documents before you do that, because there were a couple even on this one that I was like, oh yeah, there's a couple here that, you know, and just because you're so fluid in the language, you're not, in my opinion, you're not really thinking of it. And again, going to grad school three years ago, I was totally initiated into this foreign language. And I was like, what the hell is going on with these acronyms? I mean, with these acronyms, they're almost like, it's almost as bad as special education or as bad, you know, it's just another layer, I guess, of it. So I would just really recommend that. There were a couple that I noticed along the way, but whenever you see, you know, initials, I would just encourage you to define them in the glossary. And it's I was so happy to see the equity piece later and all the things that you put under equity, because most of the issues I had under achievement came under equity later, so I was really glad to see that and namely around you know accessing curriculum. Assessing curriculum for access right, so you know I appreciate that you're assessing curriculum, but I also want to be thinking about. for access for all learners and I'm sure you guys are, as was evidenced in the equity piece which I was glad to see and so I wonder about those crossovers and how you, I guess maybe when people see the whole presentation they'll understand but there are things that could go under multiple buckets obviously so there was that. Oh, I would also say for the curriculum frameworks, I would really encourage you folks to get the frameworks for students with disabilities to all your educators. So I know that that was a project that we had undertaken a few years ago, and those were paper copies. I don't know if those frameworks have changed recently or not, but in any case, I would say just to your special educators, but to all your educators, because I think that's a really important component, and a lot of people don't even realize that they exist. I felt like the PD fell into this bucket under A2, and I would just really say for PD, I was so fascinated, Bernadette, when I sat down with you, I think it was, was it pre-COVID? It must have been pre-COVID, I can't remember, but when we sat down and talked about curriculum, and you were sort of showing me I'm in a curriculum about PD, and he was showing me all the PD pieces. And I was like, this is so fascinating. I had no idea I was such a nerd for PD. And helping families in the community know what is really happening for PD in the community. Because it's really cool to know, oh, my teacher just went to, or the staff had PD on X subject, and I know something about this. So I can talk to my teacher about it, or ask them about it, because I want to know something about it. So I would really encourage. I know that we had a motion that a PD list would have a biannual report on PD, but I just want to again sort of say that I think that's really, you know, great and important I'll be quick initiative a three. Again, modifications to current curriculum. I was, again, asking about sort of access for curriculum. And when you're talking about modifications to the current curriculum, just some clarification or maybe even a better wording there, because I think what you're talking about is changes to the current curriculum. And when you say modification to the current curriculum, it sort of can confuse the aspect of accommodations and modifications. So I would just think about that. Are you following? Yeah, OK. And then initiative equal technology plan family training and technology I think is critical. I know that we've mentioned that a number of times but we've got to figure out some way for giving you know technology we're going to have to have some training for families that don't sort of understand that collaboration. Let's see ensure all families are welcome. I was happy about the collaboration. Oh, Munis was an example of not knowing what that was. So in your glossary. Equity whole child data cycle screenings. I have no idea what you're talking about. So screenings I can, you know, deduce data cycles. I'd like to know more like sort of what you mean, you know, you don't have to answer that necessarily now but know if you want to email me that because I want to make sure that member Graham has her questions addressed as well. E2 curriculum disability awareness lesson plans. So again around curriculum I was just thinking about I know that Susanna has been building a bank of books and adapted and modified books which is really great for access to curriculum and I'm just thinking about again there's lots of resources for lesson plans what have you. Racial equity, let's see, disability awareness. Oh yeah, so the disability awareness curriculum for the students, the pilot program for K-1 through high school. I guess I was a little, and I was excited about the MTSS. Oh, I wanted to ask, under NTSSE, do you want to include athletics in there? I know you have enrichment, but I was thinking about the equity around athletics as well. So I don't know if it would be under enrichment, but something to think about. And I just wanted to say, for the individual education response, emergency response, all those things, I didn't know the difference between the Universal Safety Committee and the Comprehensive Safety group that you want to create. So I wonder if there's some intersectionality there. And I would definitely just say, you know, that group should, you know, be considered because they've been doing a lot of work of which I'm a member, just to be forthcoming, but they've been doing a lot of work over the past few years on exactly this issue. And I love, love, love the fact that you guys are saying we wanna create a community that sees diversity as a strength because it is our strength. Medford, one of the reasons I sent my children to our high school is because there's so much diversity at our high school and I wanted our children to be familiar and comfortable with diversity and to encourage it. So I think it is a huge asset for Medford and I love that you guys wanna highlight that. So that's my feedback. I hope it's helpful. And any questions that I had, if you wouldn't mind emailing me so that I don't have to take your time up in this. meeting. Thank you.

[Graham]: Thank you. Thanks, Melanie. Superintendent, the other sort of thing that struck me as I was listening to all of this, I have some specific questions, which I think are honestly less important. But one of the things that I think is a huge opportunity to include in this plan is to talk about how you will include the community as you unfold this plan. So, you know, we had these, I thought, really great discussions about our mission and vision statement. And I think, I'll be honest, I've never liked them. I think somebody 20 years ago wrote them and nobody has thought they were important enough to like revisit. But I think we heard so much great feedback when we asked the community what they thought about our mission and vision. And my takeaway from that was, if we try to like do that right now, we will do it badly. And so I didn't really want to sort of push to make that change. But I would like to see us commit as part of our strategic plan to doing that work next year that like we we have this like opinion that we want that this is a like a starting point and that there's a lot of work that has to be done you know that has to be done that the school committee needs to approve but as you were all talking I sort of had in my mind the notion of like some sort of like state of the school district address That would provide an update on this plan. And I, you know, as I was thinking about some of the things that like, you know, I would word differently or that I feel like the like the meanings there, but it's like the, the. Text is like the message is like the text and the words are like really heavy and they're sort of a mouthful. Like that sort of finessing to me doesn't need to be done to say, yes, we agree with like where this is going and we need to start. But I do think it would pay off in spades to think about collaboration in particular, to start with this plan and to say, how do we intend to collaborate with the community around us to take this plan through its first year? We're going to redo the mission and vision, and we are going to ask for feedback and reactions to the words and statements that we use, not to necessarily change the meaning, but to like crisp it up, right? And I think if you look at how you draft something, it starts out with like the full thought of what you're trying to accomplish. And then the more people look at it, you sort of refine, refine, refine, refine, refine to get to something that's like, powerful and compelling and I think there's still opportunity to do that in all the work that you've done without derailing the work that is ahead. So, I would like to see some explicit commitment to that kind of collaboration with the community over the next year that frankly takes this document from Like a requirement of your induction as a superintendent to being like a real grounding source, not just for you and your staff, but for the entire community and the community just hasn't been able to participate in this at all just yet, and that doesn't mean. You, you can't get the agreement of the school committee and do the work, you know, begin doing the work but I do think we need to think through some of those things and make them explicit parts of the plan so that it's clear that we're not we're not looking for all of that work to be buttoned up. you know, this year in June so that you all can start, but instead to say, like, part of the work ahead of us is to take this document to, like, its next iteration or its next life, whatever that might look like. So I think there is opportunity, and I think it all fits nicely in the, like, spirit of collaboration and partnership as, you know, as, like, an anticipated outcome of this plan and a set of action steps in its own right. So I think, you know, maintaining this plan has to be part of the plan and I think like on the academic side I have no questions that that will happen but on the like there being a grounding document that people come back to and say yes this is still our plan for the next five years or six years or whatever I think that's going to take its own kind of commitment and I want to make sure that we're talking about that when we talk about You know, approving this plan is not because we think it's like the perfect be all end all plan it's because we believe that this is the right direction and part of that direction is really about. endeavoring to get to version two of the plan, right, as one of many objectives. So I had a lot of like, I had a lot of thoughts as you all were going through about like verbiage and language and those kinds of things, which, you know, I think I have like one set of opinions about that. I think if you talk, if you like had a task force of people, they'd all have opinions about that and sort of out of that would come something. really amazing, particularly if you engaged a bunch of non-educators in terms of how do we speak in a compelling way to the community. You might see something slightly different even though the work doesn't change at all. I had a lot of thoughts around that and instead of trying to talk about like where we could change words like that just seemed like it just seemed like we were like we would only nibble around the edges right now if we got into like a wordsmithing exercise of any kind. So that wasn't like I don't want that to become like the thing that this subcommittee does or even that the school committee at large does because I don't think. like nibbling around those edges is gonna get us sort of any further ahead than what the document as it basically stands has. But that commitment to that like next step and that version two, I think could be really powerful in many regards. And certainly be another signal to the community that we actually do value the input and the feedback that parents give, which is a C level change for this district, like in the minds of parents. So being able to demonstrate that I think would be hugely powerful.

[Edouard-Vincent]: I think we are able to make those commitments. I do feel that the partnership with DESE, School in Maine, which just, you know, has been happening this week, last week, those kinds of opportunities to continue to improve and evolve as a district. As I said earlier, this is a living document and my intention really would be for us to be able to I wouldn't say wait until this point in the year, because I know just with this being the pandemic year, but to give us time to actually implement several of the key initiatives and action items that were listed, and probably by January, I would say January, February, because we do have some December deliverables, to be able to report out to this body or to the larger school committee body to say we presented, you know, phase one or the key presentation to the school committee in in May of 2021, and now based on what was presented, to actually look at what was accomplished, so that it really could be, whether we have to highlight it in a different color, or people could see like, wow, a year ago, this was something that we wanted to actually accomplish, and here we are in January or February, it's already been completed, or three quarters of the way done. So I do feel this should, from an accountability perspective to really be able to say and demonstrate these are all the areas that we are working on moving the district forward. This is our district strategy for improvement. The initiatives that are housed or contained within this document are happening K through 12 across the district to bring about increased outcomes for all of our students. And so when people say what is happening in Medford, they're going to be able to go into this document and say, wow, this is what they're doing to provide supportive and safe learning environments. This is what they're doing to create equitable opportunities. This is what the district is doing under the umbrella of achievement, whether it's professional development, whether it's curriculum, whether it's instruction. This is what the district is actually doing. That's C for collaboration. This is a collaborative document. It's something that I've said to the team, in the entire team of administrators, that I did not want to do something that everyone, first off, didn't know where they fell in the kind of puzzle that everyone has skin in the game, no matter what your role is within the district. And so this is something where I feel collectively we collaborated. So not only are we saying we believe in achievement collaboration, equity and support. But at the senior level, working with the administrative team, we are actually doing it in order to execute and present this document to you today. So I am committed where you asked member Graham about a commitment. I definitely am committed to working on the mission vision portion of this document and to have it be an inclusive experience for the community and for us to be able to, you know, let school get off to a good start, but I would say late fall for us to definitely put some things in place to have active participation. in the mission and vision statement and to hear and give the community opportunities to be familiar with all of the initiatives that are taking place in the district. We are really doing a lot and to have it housed in this living document is now letting everyone know it's going to be made public. This is the work of Medford Public Schools. This is Medford Public Schools district strategy for improvement. And that that's kind of like our why why are we here. We're here, not because we want to be here but we're here to bring about improved increased outcomes for our students, and to be inclusive, because we know that we have all kinds of learners within the district. And so I do feel like this document says, this is the work that we're going to do. and this is what we're going to do for everyone. And so when Susanna presented under equity on the MTSSE, it is a multi-tiered system of support and enrichment because we have all kinds of learners. We have English learners, we have students with disabilities, and we have students that are capable of taking You know honors or advanced placement coursework who are asking to be challenged are asking to be pushed. And so we also want to remember that they are learners in the district as well. So we are looking at the entire district and where member McLaughlin said, let's think about When we're thinking about inclusivity, also to think about athletics, and how I would see athletics falling under enrichment, but to specifically call it out and say that we want athletics to be available, not only for students. that are naturally inclined to play sports, but for students that might not play sports the way we would originally think about it, but for us to be able to broaden our horizons, expand our thinking, and think outside of the box and say, yes, if we're going to offer the athletics, offer it for our students with disabilities or other students who would play sports in different ways. So we are definitely definitely involved in that and committed to doing that. And I just wanna thank one more time the entire, all of my administrators, but I want to call out the smaller group that really dedicated a lot of additional time above and beyond working with the larger group. And that is, you know, Dr. Riccadeli, Dr. Cushing, Suzanne Galussi, Paul DeLeva, Susanna Campbell, Stacey Shulman, she's on the call, I saw her, Principal Nick Tucci. And I think I got everyone in that group who really contributed, gave us feedback, pushed us to get it to this level. to get it to this place. I also want to thank Susie for taking my challenge on to look at the original design of the strategic plan, which goes back to 2018-19. And I want to thank Dr. Cushing for the original design, Dr. Cushing. I thank you for the original design. And I thank Susie for also looking at the original design and thinking about our Mustang colors and saying, is there a way to come up with a different palette and see if we could really make this a beautiful living document. And just from our small poll today, it does seem like from the formatting perspective that the majority of people did poll and vote to kind of go with the the newer style, but it's the same content that's contained within. So I just wanna say that and thank you. Thank you again to all of you. I applaud you and I thank you just for taking this journey with me.

[McLaughlin]: Oh, yeah. I just wanted to ask what the process was for next steps, but I think maybe member Graham was okay. What's the process for next steps? Thank you.

[Graham]: Yeah, so I mean, I think this we as a subcommittee can vote to ask you to present this to the larger school committee at an upcoming meeting. I would love for it not to be the meeting on the seventh because I think there's a really full agenda there already. So I guess that leaves the 14th, but we can certainly take that vote. The only other question that I had that I did want to mention to this group was, We haven't heard much from the Racial Equity Task Force as a committee yet. And I did hear you mention an equity audit in the fall. I don't remember seeing that in the budget particularly or in a called out way. But I am completely on board. But one of the things I would like to ask the Racial Equity Task Force to really explicitly weigh in on is, When we talk about the PALS curriculum and our collaboration with law enforcement, I would really like to hear from the Racial Equity Task Force about those concepts and their either support or non-support of those activities. I think, you know, The police in schools is a very hot topic right now, and has been for a year. And, you know, frankly for much longer but certainly schools taking active and drastic measure over what they've ever done in the past. to act, especially since the death of George Floyd one year ago. And I would like to hear from the Racial Equity Task Force about where they are at in terms of the role of police in our own schools. So, and I know that is a hot topic and it will be the source of much conversation. And I'm not even suggesting that we do that this school year, but I would like to hear from them at some point as they do their work in terms of what explicitly they've considered in that regard. Member McLaughlin.

[McLaughlin]: Thank you, yes, I'm sorry I can't tell if you can see the raised hand or not because it's against this white background so. I would raise my hand as well. I also just wanted to sort of, you know, think about, I mean, I'm looking forward and I, to members Graham's point, the racial equity task force, we haven't heard from and we need to, and I thought that is a really good point. So thank you for bringing it up. And also an equity audit, I think is really great idea. Something that CPAC has been talking about for a number of years and just something I'd like you to think about, you know, as you consider, I guess, the next strategic plan or sort of where we're going with things is an inclusion audit. So also to be thinking about sort of what we're doing around inclusion in our community in our school. And, you know, I think some people often think of that as like, you know, just literally how much time is spent in a gen ed classroom, but it is so much more than that. And I think we all know that. So I think we also talk about, you know, disability is diversity and equity is inclusion. And so it's, you know, I know we're dealing specifically with race around the anti-racism task force, but I just want to also add that because it's something they've been asking for for some time. And I think it addresses equity on a number of levels too. So I'm so glad that these things are moving forward. Thank you.

[Edouard-Vincent]: And I just wanted to say in terms of the work that's been taking place with the Race Equity Task Force, we have one final meeting of this year and then we're going to pause and then restart up again for next year. One of the things that we realized as a group was that without the absence of not having an official audit to be able to weigh in on the state of the district, that the members of the race equity task force have been very active, very involved, but also in light of the fact that this was a pandemic year, that we had nearly 1300 students that were not physically on campus, including, you know, many staff that it was kind of an anomaly and to go forward with trying to get information during this year, it would not have been valid information about the state of the Medford public schools. So one of the positive pieces about having the conversations and working with the members of the task force has been about knowing that next year we will be back in action, working full time, really having everyone on board and gathering that data from the audit, that that would give us the correct information and data to be able to make recommendations formally about the district and to the school committee. So we definitely will keep that in mind, those requests. And I just wanna say that, although I know that there's a lot of conversation about different programs that are taking place, I truly feel at least in Medford, the PALS program really is an opportunity of, reading with students, connecting with students in a school environment. where the children are younger and developing, providing students with positive opportunities interacting with the police. And a lot of the police officers, you know, read to the students, positively engage with the students. And I think based on, it's falling under the umbrella of social emotional, the cell umbrella. learning and I feel that creating conditions for positive proactive collaborations, interactions with the police. in partnership with the schools will in the end yield better results for all. And so I do think that although I know there are challenges and things that happen in other places, I do feel like here in Medford, we truly have a collaboration. Chief Buckley was on campus today. The police were here today meeting and planning with our transportation. So there is a lot of positive collaboration that is taking place. And I think Medford is in a position to demonstrate what positive partnerships can look like and how it will benefit and can benefit the community. Thank you.

[Graham]: Thank you. So is there a motion to bring this to the full school committee?

[McLaughlin]: Motion to bring this to the school committee.

[Graham]: Seconded. All right, motion to bring this report to the full school committee by member McLaughlin, seconded by member Kreatz. So I'll do a roll call. Jenny Graham, yes. Melanie McLaughlin?

[McLaughlin]: Yes.

[Graham]: And Kathy Kreatz? Yes. Great, three in the affirmative, zero in the negative.

[McLaughlin]: Motion to adjourn.

[Graham]: Sorry, we're late. We may have taken some of those minutes we got out early last time. Motion to adjourn by Member McLaughlin, seconded by Member Kreatz. Member Graham, yes. Member McLaughlin, yes. Member Kreatz, yes.

Kreatz total time: 0.56 minutes total words: 79	Graham total time: 14.92 minutes total words: 2330	Edouard-Vincent total time: 31.48 minutes total words: 3989	Galusi total time: 5.76 minutes total words: 846
McLaughlin total time: 8.04 minutes total words: 1619