[Unidentified]: Good evening, everybody. We'll just give Paulette one minute.
[Mustone]: Dr. Maurice, I could change my name without your help tonight. After 18, how many months? I couldn't figure it out myself.
[Edouard-Vincent]: Now you're an expert. Good evening, everyone.
[Unidentified]: Good evening.
[Edouard-Vincent]: Hi.
[Unidentified]: Good evening.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Hello. Okay, we're recording and live. We have a meeting that was posted on June 22nd, 2021, meeting date, June 24th, 2021. Special school committee meeting. Please be advised that on Thursday, June 24th, 2021 at 6 p.m. there will be a special school committee meeting held through remote participation. Pursuant to Governor Baker's March 12th, 2020 order, suspending certain provisions of the open meeting law, chapter 30A, section 18, and the Governor's March 15th, 2020 order imposing strict limitations and 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 in our parties with a right and a 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 members of the public will be permitted, but every effort will be made to ensure that the public can adequately access the proceedings in real time via technological means. In the event that we are unable to do so, despite best efforts, we will post on the City of Medford and Medford Community Media websites an audio or video recording, transcript or other comprehensive record of 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 at 6 p.m. Since the meeting will be held remotely, participants can log or call in by using the following link or call-in number. One of the numbers, 1-929-205-6099. Please enter meeting ID 917-8155-7347 when prompted. 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 with your question or comment. The agenda will be as follows. 2020-2021 evaluation of Superintendent Maurice-Edouard Benson. That is our first agenda item. If we may take the roll, please.
[McLaughlin]: Member Graham.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Here.
[McLaughlin]: Member Kreatz. Here. Member McLaughlin here. Member Mustone. Present. Member Ruseau.
[Ruseau]: Present.
[McLaughlin]: Member Van der Kloot. Present. Mayor Long-Term.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Present, seven present, zero absent. Dr. Edward-Vinson, I'll turn it over to you.
[Edouard-Vincent]: So good evening, everyone. I am pleased to have presented my goals and my self assessment form to you at our last meeting. And essentially, I had one key goal, which talked about safety. equity and consistency, all of the things that we did to have a successful launch to the school year, from creating schedules to eventually testing and making sure that what we did was done in an equitable way to meet the needs of our students that were both hybrid and our students that were fully remote. followed by one student, key student learning goal, which was a focus on mathematics and elementary mathematics. And I talked about the shifts and changes that will be coming down the pike for us this coming school year moving forward, but what we have done thus far. And I provided one professional practice goal, which was the new superintendent induction program. I completed the third year of the formal training of the program. In addition to being part of an affinity group through on monthly equity sessions, and that final outcome or final product that was produced. was the district strategic plan, which was presented, the draft plan, but it was presented back to the committee a few weeks ago. And so those were the three goals that I presented to the committee and the committee was going to share their responses. Thank you.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Mayor. Member Van der Kloot.
[Van der Kloot]: So looking at the, I don't know whether Mr. Rousseau who tabulated the responses wants to say anything at this point, but looking it over, I see that my colleagues hold you in the same high esteem that I do. Because as I look over the different scores, all of which are often 3.5 or above with four being the highest, you can see that's truly a remarkable standard. And so that, I think that we all value so much what you set out this year, your achievement in getting kids back to school, holding the safety of our students to the highest level. And I think you should be really proud of yourself.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you. Thank you, Member van de Kloot, Member Ruseau, and then Member Krath.
[Ruseau]: Thank you. Yes, I did the compilation this year and I will say one of the things I'm, you know, I'm a bit of a nerd. So I'm very, very interested in things like big discrepancies and how individuals might grade the superintendent on the 42 things that we grade you on. And certainly some of us are harder graders than others. but I was happy to see no gigantic, you know, like nobody said you were a one, and then other people were saying you were a four, like there were none of these giant gaps, which I think is really, well, I think it's a great, I think it's a great thing, because when there's a giant gap, I think that there might be questions about, you know, the review process itself, which is still fairly new, and I think has, I think we're still kicking the tires. I hope that the state, the DESE, does some more fine tuning instead of waiting for 25 years like they did the last time before making an update. But the one of the things about the current review process that I still find very challenging is that when you read the review process that they lay out, it's all about your goals. And that's great. That makes so much sense. And then we get 42 things to grade you on which seem to have nothing to do with the goals. So to me, it's still a very, very confusing, it's a very cute dog, but it's a very confusing process even after they've made a huge improvement, but I was very happy to see that there were not giant discrepancies in any of the grading by the individual members, which I know you don't see all that, but I just wanted to say that. And I appreciate all the members for sending me your scores and your comments. I integrated the comments as best I could. Some of them didn't make it in because they might've been duplicates and I wanted to make it sound like one voice because that's the review is just one voice. It's all of us. So thank you.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you. Thank you members. So memocrats.
[Kreatz]: Kathy, please. Yes. So I'm sorry. I'm just having some trouble locating the complete document. When I click on the link I got from Susie, it keeps on bringing me into just my evaluation. I can't see everybody else's. Before we began the process, I could see the prior. So it came today, Kathy?
[SPEAKER_02]: It came today around 3.15?
[Kreatz]: Yeah and I like I'm in the Google Sheets share drive and I open it up at 608 and it's just my, it's just my evaluation.
[Unidentified]: Okay.
[Ruseau]: I know. Yes. Member Ruseau. Thank you. I do see that you're in that evaluation, Kathy. Yeah. Member Kreatz, sorry. That's not yours. That says SC folder copy 2020-2021. Okay. It doesn't have all of the individual scores, because we're not supposed to share all of our individual scores. This is the combined one. OK.
[Kreatz]: OK.
[Ruseau]: Yeah, this is the averaging. Yeah.
[Kreatz]: Oh, OK, because I think the last time we did it, there was like a tab for all the individual scores, because that's what I saw before. But that's fine. I think it's just a little bit different. Or maybe I'm just not remembering, even though it was just a few months ago. But yes, no, I mean, I'm happy to see that the scores are very consistent with what I did for my evaluation. So I think we're all on the same page with, the remarkable job that the superintendent has done this school year during the pandemic, you know, transitioning from fully remote over to hybrid, then in-person, then the return to school, the staggered start, and just making sure all the classrooms were ready and safe for all the students and the teachers. You know, I think know, with all the different bulletins that Lisa Evangelista sends out, you know, there was just communications, pictures with you at every school, where you were, you know, helping out here, you know, giving out meals, computers, you know, not computers, but the Google Chromebooks, and You were there when all the students returned. You made sure you went to every classroom at all the different events. I'm just grateful for your leadership and what a great successful school year that we had despite the pandemic. And I look forward to another successful year of learning. Thank you.
[SPEAKER_02]: Thank you.
[Kreatz]: Member McLaughlin.
[McLaughlin]: Thank you. Yes, through the chair for member Kreatz, in the last occasion, I had tabulated the numbers and I did do different sheets for each of the members, which I think is helpful. And maybe, you know, later we can see the evaluations in that form as well. Again, through the chair for member Ruseau, because I do think it's helpful to sort of see each other's feedback as well. I know that this is a remote meeting, so it's a little bit different, but just wanted to sort of put that out there as well. But regarding Dr., and I also want to thank my colleagues for the process, for helping to create this process, to create this form. It's made it so much more streamlined. I know when I was putting the data together, it was really interesting to look at the data and also to see the tabulation and have that form already created. I think that could be marketed, frankly, Member Ruseau. to the chair. I think you could get that to other school committees and they'd be really valuing it. It's a really helpful form. So thank you. And then to the superintendent, I also just wanted to reiterate the leader that you've been throughout this process and how much I value you and how lucky I think our district is to have you. And one of the things that I thought was really notable about our experience this past year with you is the way that you remain steadfast in your morals and your values. And I think that's what differentiates individuals. I think that's what differentiates politicians and leaders and what have you is, you know, who stays with their morals and their values. And you do that even when the going's tough. And I think that that's a sign of a true leader. And I thank you for that and I want to, you know, tell you I know that and I recognize that that has not always been easy. And then also I wanted to say and just share with the community you know last week we were at the middle school. graduation ceremony. And we have the privilege of being out on, in this instance, out on the field, and we're facing the audience, but the students are facing us. So they're back to the audience, but we have the opportunity to look at the students and watch the students during the ceremony, which is really quite remarkable as well. And I was so proud when you were speaking to the students, because I could see so many of the students sitting up in their seat and listening to you and really watching you. And I think that they've been doing that. some time and to have a leader such as yourself, a woman, a woman of color in this role and have our students to be able to see you and look up to you in that role I think is quite remarkable. So I think we're very fortunate and I want to say thank you.
[Edouard-Vincent]: Thank you and I would be remiss if I didn't say in this evaluation that I share this evaluation with my team If we think about the strategic plan that see for collaboration, I strongly, strongly believe in the power of the team and collaboration and that the collective is greater than the individual. And so, although you see me, I have a phenomenal team. that is supporting me and I just want to thank them so much for supporting me and helping me to be able to execute this vision for the Medford Public Schools.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you. Member Graham.
[Graham]: Thank you. To that point, Dr. Edward Benson, I just want to also point out that as a leader, you acquire a staff, and then you have to sort of assess the staff as they are and think about how to move forward as the organization shifts and evolves. And I think one of the things that you've done remarkably well is bring the right people onto the bus with you. I've been so impressed with the work that you've done as you've hired new folks into the district to really be a compliment to the team and the strengths that already exist, and really to find those folks who are as invested in moving Medford forward as you are so that. decision making is often one of the most complex things you do as a leader and one of the most impactful but I think you are doing an exceptional job as you decide and recommend us who those folks are and make hiring decisions really all throughout the district. So I want to say thank you for that and certainly you know as you review somebody, it's very, it's sort of counterintuitive to reflect the work of others into somebody's review, but that is often something that, you know, you look at leaders as the sort of sum of the parts. And, you know, when I think about the strategic plan and even just the dramatic shift in the strategic plan in one short year, it's really been very remarkable to watch you all work. So thank you.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Member Mustone, you echo the sentiments, I'm sure, of everybody else.
[Mustone]: I think that's exactly it. And Dr. Edouard-Vincent, I do want to say what I appreciate most is that you always see the best in everyone. And you tap into that. And that, I think, is why you have such a strong team. And it's been a pleasure seeing you just really go for it here at Method. So thank you.
[Lungo-Koehn]: And just from the chair, I want to echo the sentiments of my colleagues. I think you've done a really great job. I think the communication from three years ago to today is just really out of this world. To be able to hear from your superintendent, even as a mom, once a week, and then to see it trickle down to your assistant superintendent, who we're hearing from, it means a lot as a parent. I know it goes a long way with the staff, the teachers and all that, you know, work in the schools. So that's been a real highlight for me. Your strategic plan was extremely thorough and I can't wait to see you fulfill it, which I know you will do. I know you're working on curriculum and a number of other things and just great job, just great, great job. Thank you.
[SPEAKER_02]: Thank you.
[McLaughlin]: Motion to approve the evaluation. Oh, I'm sorry, Paula. I'm sorry, nevermind. Member Ruseau?
[Ruseau]: I actually was gonna do that, so Member McLaughlin can get to it.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Motion to approve by Member McLaughlin, seconded by Member Ruseau to accept the evaluation. Roll call, please.
[McLaughlin]: Member Graham? Yes. Member Kreatz? Yes. Member McLaughlin, yes. Member Mustone.
[Mustone]: Yes.
[McLaughlin]: Member Ruseau. Yes. Member Van der Kloot.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Yes.
[McLaughlin]: Mayor Lungo-Koehn.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Yes. Seven in the affirmative, zero in the negative. The evaluation is approved. Thank you. Congratulations. Next up, proposed fiscal year 2022, Medford Public Schools operating budget. Assistant Superintendent of Finance and Operations David Murphy, and this is the district administration will ask the Medford School Committee to approve the proposed operating budget consistent with the mayor's recommendation to the Medford School Committee conveyed on June 1st, 2021. And the superintendent's recommendations posted publicly on June 18th, 2021 for a fiscal year 22 operating budget for the Medford Public Schools of $67,461,003 contingent upon the eventual appropriation by the Medford City Council. The district administration will ask the Medford School Committee to endorse a series of strategic investments made possible through the use of ESSER II and ESSER III funding aimed at mitigating the impacts of school year 2021-2022 of the instructional disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic during school year 2019-2020 and school year 2020-2021. Mr. David Murphy. Thank you, Mayor.
[Murphy]: Members of the school committee, this is one final budget deck prior to the fiscal year 2022. I'm gonna share my screen now. I'm gonna move relatively quickly through this presentation as it's information that as we have discussed at length in a series of public meetings since late April, the ESSER funding priorities are Also information that we've shared with you in various parts, but we're asking you to endorse the use of these funds. That will be followed by our submission to DESE of the grant application and the distribution of the ESSER II funding. If this were to stretch into ESSER III, we would consider your endorsement to apply to ESSER III, but based on the total numbers that we're looking at, in all likelihood, this will be specific to ESSER II. linked in the presentation that you were provided are the DESI descriptions of restrictions on ESSER 2 and ESSER 3. They are largely similar. I don't believe that those distinctions are relevant for tonight's discussion, both because of the nature of the priorities transcending the ESSER 2 and ESSER 3 funding, and as I said, we don't anticipate needing to tap into ESSER 3 funding based on the numbers that we're looking at. First, with respect to the operating budget, you've seen this chart several times over the last couple of months. Each time we've presented, we've tried to clarify where in the process we are. As you can see, we are at the end of the process tonight asking you to adopt an operating budget contingent upon the city council's appropriation. I will just speak very briefly now about with regard to this process, because I know it's something that we've discussed at length many times at this forum. but it is something that has been discussed publicly very recently. The distinction between this budget process and the budget processes that, as it's been related to me, you have engaged in in the past, primarily boils down to the fact that you as the governing body of the school system directed us and then engaged with us in a process to authentically assess the needs and priorities of the district. That process, or that phase of this process culminated on June 1st when we recommended to you to make a budget request of approximately $68.2 million. As we told you throughout that process, and as we said publicly throughout that process, the school administration understands its responsibility to prepare for all eventual contingencies with respect to the actual appropriation. And understanding that the municipal government must balance the needs of the city in its entirety, we were prepared to operate the district with less funding than was originally requested on June 1st. We are grateful that that gap was a relatively narrow one of $760,000. And on June 14th, we advised you of the modifications that we would recommend are made to the budget in order to account both for that $760,000 Delta and other amendments or changes that we felt were in the best interest of the district. and had been developed between June 1st and June 14th, based on the continuous scrubbing and scrutiny that a 67 or $68 million budget of taxpayer dollars must go through during this, at this point of the process and throughout the fiscal year. So what you're voting on tonight is essentially giving the district authority to implement the budget as it's been presented to you, totaling $67.4 million. Of course, there will be fluidity within that $67.4 million. And we've spoken about that on a number of occasions. And what taking this vote does, it essentially means that once the city council appropriates the funding, provided they appropriate the amount recommended by the mayor, you won't have to keen mean again to adopt that budget because that will take effect based on your vote. tonight. So that's where we are with regard to the process. I will say, as I did my communication to you, should the city council exercise its right to reduce the school department's budget, we would need to reconvene and present to you a new plan, essentially. So the number you're looking at is $67,461,003. That's the operating budget. Again, there will be fluidity. There will be grants that will come in that will offset some of that. that is expected, but this also builds in the necessary contingencies for unexpected costs. That's particularly true in the area of special education, as we discussed at that committee of the whole and subsequent to that. And also this does provide capacity to address expiring collective bargaining agreements as well. As you know, we have nine of them. Mayor, I'm gonna pause here to see if there are any questions specific to the operating budget before we go into the ESSER. budget unless you or the committee would like me to continue and move through the proposals with respect to ESSER.
[Lungo-Koehn]: I think you can continue unless anybody has questions.
[Murphy]: OK, hearing none, I'm going to keep going with ESSER. So our ESSER funding, again, and for the community's benefit, as I know we've discussed this before, but just want to be clear, there are essentially two very significant funding sources derived from the federal legislation designed to ease the burden on municipalities and school districts related to COVID-19 and the disruption that our students have faced over the course of the past two years. The ARPA funding, American Recovery Plan Act, is funding that goes to, in our case, other places as well, but for our case, to the municipality. Our operating budget includes approximately $3.7 million of ARPA funding. That's money that does not need to go to the schools, but has been recommended by the mayor to the city council to help offset the challenges within our budget and some of the difficulties from a financial perspective that the pandemic has wrought. The ESSER funding is funding that is earmarked specific to school districts. So the rationale is that school districts have taken on disproportionate burdens and challenges as a result of the pandemic and those instructional disruptions. And so ESSER funding is specific to the school system. And what we're presenting now, and often you'll hear us talk about ESSER I, II, and III. ESSER I, the funding that was available to us in FY21. ESSER II and ESSER III totaling for Medford's purposes, $7.6 million and extending through FY25. So it's $7.6 million. But as we'll discuss momentarily, that's the intention of the legislation is for that to be funded over the course of the next four fiscal years. These are typical funding sources. You've seen this slide before, just pointing out the fact that this is a significant variable in our budget, not something that happens every year. We have to think of it as one-time funding. But as we've discussed many times, we also know that there's an urgency to providing the remedial support that our students need. And that is, those are the things that we have to balance as we build this budget. This slide just details the ESSER I funding and the other external sources that have come in. As you can see, a significant portion of this, we were the beneficiary of a significant amount of external funding. And as you can see here, a significant portion of that went toward our instructional technology, which is why, as we discussed last night with the city council, there's more of a focus on some of our urgent personnel needs because a lot of our infrastructure and the things that we would normally want to invest one-time funds in, we've put a lot of that money toward things like HVAC improvements, infrastructure improvements, and instructional technology to the tune of $2.3 million. This is a bunch of stuff that you're welcome to read. It's about ESSER II and ESSER III and the priorities as we look toward the upcoming fiscal years. And this gets into what we're saying now would be our general plan with respect to utilizing this funding. And the rationale here, I'm happy to go into greater detail as we did last night with the city council, but the thinking here is that we know right now students are experiencing a pronounced impact of this disruption that's occurred over the past two years. We also know that in the second fiscal year, they will both be experiencing the impact caused by the disruption, and we will, because of the investments that we will make through the operating budget and having more tools at our disposal with respect to district-level data and assessments, we'll have a better sense as to where we can target that funding. And so while ESSER III, at least, is funding that is available to us for the next four fiscal years, we're thinking along the lines of wanting to concentrate the expenditure of those funds in the first two fiscal years because we want to mitigate that impact as rapidly as possible in as sustainable a manner as possible. I do just want to pause here for one second to say, I think that the 35% number in FY22, constituting about $2.1 million, I think there's a chance, maybe even a significant chance, that that will prove to be somewhat inflated. I'm saying that because I would rather you endorse the use of the $2.1 million. And when we report back halfway through the fiscal year or at the end of the fiscal year, we're able to say that because of some shifts, because of capacity in the operating budget, because we were able to fine tune some things, we're only going to spend $1.6 or $1.7 million. That's good in this case because unlike operating funds, the ESSER funding is going to roll over and we're going to have the, it will just expand our capacity in FY23. Why is it better to spend it in FY23? as opposed to FY22, because in FY23 and FY24, we're going to have better data and more reliable data to say, this is what our students need. This is where they need it. This is how they need it, so on and so forth. So this should be very much seen as sort of a very tentative plan of 35, 35, 2010. Very easily could turn into 25, 35, 30, or something along those lines. I think that just in terms of every time you're budgeting, you can either do it, you know, in a very conservative fashion or not as conservative fashion. And I would say this is a very conservative fashion in terms of wanting to leave ourselves some runway space for the subsequent fiscal years. So these are the total numbers. I did add that third row there because the district recently received a summer programming grant in the amount of $106,000. With that funding, we're planning literacy and math acceleration academies that will take place in late August. Students will be invited to participate in that programming and it's something that we're in the process of hiring. We've discussed this briefly here before. The rate of pay for staff in these acceleration academies by the direction of DESE will be significant as compared to normal summer pay. We've been speaking with our collective bargaining partners and the teachers union about that and wanting to make sure that we're both keeping a focus on equity and also not disincentivizing participation in some of the other programs that don't have this backing and directive behind it. So with regard to the categories broken down, our strategic staffing investments, our professional development training, ensuring that we have an effective expanded school day program to provide that year-long remedial support that we know our students will need going into the 21-22 school year. Summer programming, which I just spoke to a moment ago, that, frankly, is one of the numbers that we have 106,000 coming from the DESE grant. So it's about a $200,000 hit to ESSER as we're looking at it right now. I think that's going to turn out to be a little high. And I think there's a good chance that the total summer budget will end up being significantly lower than $314,000. But we just want to make sure that we we're budgeting in a conservative fashion. Supplies and infrastructure. We have a stockpile of pandemic-related infrastructure that I'm frankly confident is going to last us to the next pandemic. And I hope that's a very, very long way away. But just for purposes of making sure that our reserves are where they need to be, that's where that is. And then there are some miscellaneous pieces that we just discussed as part of the budget process. I'm gonna walk through these categories again. I'm moving quickly because we've discussed this several times publicly. I'm more than happy to stop. I'm more than happy to go into detail. I don't want anyone to think that we are rushing through a $2 million expenditure. So with regard to strategic staffing, you heard our presentation regarding the re-engagement specialists. You know that the reading intervention specialists, one per elementary school was a key budgetary priority. That, along with the instructional coaches that we want to scale up to, were the biggest pieces of reconciling the $760,000 delta that I mentioned a few minutes ago. Behavior specialists, adjustment Councilors. There is an ESSA requirement. It's a very modest requirement, frankly, of a set amount that must be spent on mental health support and coaching for students. We are exceeding that to a very significant And we're doing it because we're looking to see how do we make sure that the social emotional supports that students need as the foundation of their educational experience are there so that they can make the type of academic progress that the conditions over the course of the past two years have stymied to some degree. With regard to professional development training, there's $164,000 change from the information you received yesterday related to the Hill Literacy Professional Development Program that we're very excited about. for our staff in kindergarten to second grade. These other pieces are professional development and training programs, again, with a heavy focus on SEL that we discussed as part of our priority. It would be my hope that you would see the consistency between the ESSER-based priorities that we're discussing tonight and the budgetary and strategic priorities that we discussed over the course of the budget cycle. With regard to the expanded school day program, many of us believe very strongly from a philosophical perspective and making sure that we have expanded school day and we look at the variables that we have flexibility over and how do we create a well-rounded wraparound environment for our students. There is a urgency to that coming into the 21-22 school year that I think is far exceeds the urgency of any school year any of us have ever worked in. We can't think of school in the normal traditional fashion because our students are coming in with experiences that are not by any stretch of the imagination normal or traditional, and we need to maintain the flexibility to meet students where they are and provide the individualized learning experiences that they need. We are going to spend a good portion of our summer building out our expanded school day program. Does that going to mean one two-hour day at each elementary school or two one-hour days at each elementary school? What does it mean for after-school program? How do we incorporate enrichment programming physical activity along with the literacy math supports that we know students are going to need. These are all questions that the ESSER budget is going to position us along with the time during the summer months to answer and that we'll be prepared to support our students with coming into the new school year. COVID-related infrastructure, again, we have a lot. We're going to buy more just so that we can maintain some of them. We're going to be Advising the district of some modifications to our public health protocols within the next several days, consistent with changing DESE mandates. There are going to be some pieces like additional sanitation, like sign-in, sign-out sheets, most likely some of the tape in the hallways to keep students and staff from bottlenecking too much. These are things that we're going to put in place both because the pandemic is still technically happening and because we think they're good practices And in order to do that, we are going to use some of that as our funding. Summer programming, I thought we already did this. Did we? We're going to do a bunch of, the summer program, I think we've already touched upon, but we're looking at, typically our summer program consists of extended school year programming. It may be because I've just talked about this so much today that I thought we had already presented on this, so I apologize for that. Our summer programming typically consisting of ESY, extended school year, summer fun and credit recovery programs. This year, that is going to be, as well as EL Enrichment Program. This year, that's going to be coupled with Acceleration Academies, Camp Mustang, a program focused for three days at elementary, two days at middle school, one day at high school on social and emotional supports, as well as instrumental band camp being put together to make sure that students who have had some gaps in their music instruction because of how the past year and a half have gone we'll have an opportunity for a two-week intensive program there. We're trying to do this in a coordinated way, make sure that we have appropriate levels of health services support, custodial support, and food services support. By early July, the general rule will be if you're involved in a Medford Public Schools program, there'll be a nutritional focused snack at 10 a.m. and a lunch to go for all students participating in summer programs or lunch to stay if your program is continuing into the afternoon. And we're trying to do that in a very coordinated fashion throughout the various weeks in which we have summer programming coming in, in summer 2021. And then some miscellaneous programs in terms of making sure that some of the other pieces that in other situations might have been included in the operating budget, we're able to include in the ESSER budget with the understanding that it's certainly our hope that these pieces, again, we're only talking about $60,000 here, but this is an example of an ESSER funding priority that we're funding for ESSER now with the expectation that in time it'll be incorporated into the operating budget and we'll make it sustainable in order to make sure that that is always the case. So the total ESSER, again, ESSER 2 or ESSER 3, but my expectation would be, because I think this number is going to turn out to be a little high, I think this will stay within the confines of ESSER 2. Theoretically, as we go through, if we get additional guidance that narrows the restrictions on use for ESSER 2, theoretically, we could tap into ESSER 3. But I'm, at this point, pretty comfortable that this will stay within the ESSER 2 budget. And the total amount that we'd ask for your endorsement of is $2.1 million and $68,000. So thank you. for your patience throughout this presentation and several that preceded it and we're happy to take your questions.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Member McLaughlin.
[McLaughlin]: Thank you. Thank you for the presentation. It's very helpful. I'm particularly interested in the summer programming, especially as, you know, I have been talking to a lot of families regarding ESY, ESY for folks who are watching that might not know, the extended school year program is often affiliated with IEPs, students on IEPs or other programming, summer fun, the EL enrichment, the camp Mustang, the SEL supports. I'd like to hear more about that. And then the, the health services, oh no, you're saying health services and what have you will be involved in early July. I'm really curious for both the superintendent and Mr. Murphy, as we're thinking about how we are including all students in these opportunities, both the summer programming and the enrichment programming after school for next year and others. And I know that you said there's 25K for EL and 25K for unified sports to sort of be thinking of the inclusion opportunities, but out of 2 million, I wanna be thinking about, or I wanna be asking about, how are folks being trained to ensure that our more vulnerable populations are actively participating in these programs? For example, Summer Fund just started receiving training, I think it was about three years ago, from the Special Education Department. The Summer Fund counseling and staff were receiving training from the, expertise of folks in the special education department to ensure inclusive practice and best practice around both the American with Disabilities Act and also, obviously, you know, IEP supports, what have you. So as we're thinking about these expanded school days, these, you know, wraparound environments, the enrichment programs, I'm wondering how are we thinking about all of those programs being accessible to our students that are most vulnerable from our students who are currently enrolled in access programs to students, you know, with autism to English learners to, you know, all of the above sort of What is the strategic and proactive plan for making sure that we are truly being an inclusive school district? As I know that equity is one of our big aces in that we're looking at how our staff is receiving appropriate professional development and training to make sure that these programs are all inclusive so that all families and all students are able to access and be enrolled.
[Murphy]: Well, the first thing I would just say is that I don't think some of those miscellaneous funding priorities should, I hope no one infers from that that the bulk of the funding is not being geared toward both students with disabilities or English learners or students of any other category or group because all of this funding is about making sure that students in some of those more vulnerable constituencies are being provided with as comprehensive a set of supports as possible. So I think the first thing to your point with regard to making sure that we're being a fully inclusive district is that if there isn't access to a program, then it shouldn't be on the priority list. It shouldn't be something that's funding because we want to make sure that whether it's during the school day and it's the reading intervention supports that we're prioritizing or whether it is after the school day, all of this programming is meant to be for all students and it should be accessible to that point. So it's certainly not the case that there's a sort of $25,000 learning environment that's specific to students, to English learner students. And the idea is that hopefully all students are participating in those programs. it's something we have to be very vigilant about and making sure that as this programming is implemented, it's not being implemented and benefiting some subgroup. I think that, I see Ms. Galuzzi's hands up, so I'm happy to defer if there's anything specific in the elementary world, but I think the sort of first point has to be that all of this is on a foundation of equity and not something that we're sort of putting in place and then hoping some students with disabilities or English learners or whomever are able to participate. The idea is it's for everyone to begin with.
[McLaughlin]: Thank you. And if I may, just as a point of privilege, may I just respond before anyone else, if I might?
[Lungo-Koehn]: Yes, Member McLaughlin.
[McLaughlin]: Yes, thank you. And I appreciate you saying that, Mr. Murphy, and you're always really thoughtful about that. And I appreciate your response. And I guess my sort of response to that would be with effective training, right? So there needs to be training to make sure that these programs are inclusive. It's one thing to say we're inclusive and everybody can come, but then when you have children who need supports and you show up and their supports aren't there or staff hasn't been trained, it's not really. So, you know, where is this sort of effective, you know, the planned training around how to make sure that these environments are inclusive? And so I think to just the after school program, there's a lot of times where, you know, families are unfortunately, you know, asked to leave because there's not enough supervision for the child with a disability. Or I think about you know, the enrichment programs where the academic enrichment programs, some of these students might be, you know, seventh grade students working on a second grade level. And, you know, there's enrichment opportunities for them too, but there has to be teachers and staff that are trained to be able to do that participating in these programs. So I'm wondering how we're strategically thinking about that. I think that I'm glad to see that the hearts seem to be there now. And now I wanna make sure that the minds are there. So the hearts and minds in terms of thinking about this in a way that, we're being thoughtfully inclusive.
[Murphy]: I just appreciate someone acknowledging that I have a heart. That doesn't happen always in this role, so I'm going to take that as a plus. Yeah, well. I'm sorry, Ms. Guzzieri, I didn't want to cut you off there.
[Galusi]: No, no, I was just going to echo what you were saying, Mr. Murphy, and just add, you know, one or two points, which was because you did such a great job, but which was, of course, we're taking the same approach. Um, with camp Mustang, as we will with our other summer camps. And so it is in collaboration with Joan Bowen and the, and the training that she offers the summer fun. In addition, we were very mindful of the week that we picked to run this camp because we wanted to make sure that it was after the ESY programs and the EL programs were completed so that all students would be able to participate in this social emotional camp. Thank you. And may I, Mayor?
[McLaughlin]: just to follow up to that? Yes, Member McLaughlin. Can you explain to the community camp Mustang and the SEL component or you or Mr. through the chair, either Ms. Galusi or Mr. Murphy, please?
[Galusi]: Sure, no problem. Camp Mustang was born out of the need that we know some students are going to need a transitional period back to school. So for some of our students, they missed 15 months of school working remotely from home. And so we know that that transition back, just the transition back into a building is going to be a lot for students. So the whole point of Camp Mustang is a social emotional camp where students can get re-acclimated to their surroundings and working alongside their peers. So it's going to be activities that are school-based and using all of the locations within the building so that you may be playing in the gymnasium to remind them of what that is like in that space. We'll be eating in the cafeteria. We'll be doing scavenger hunts throughout the building. We'll be doing team building, collaborative. It will start at the elementary level with a morning meeting, which is how we start the day every day. So just to build in those routines and locations to just help ease their transition back to school.
[McLaughlin]: Thank you. And if I could also just ask how parents or how families engage in that process.
[Galusi]: Sure, I had sent an update to all current families last week. I mentioned the summer offerings and I had said that more information about signing up will be coming out at the beginning of July.
[Kreatz]: Member Kreatz? Yes, thank you. And thank you for the presentation, Mr. Murphy. And I just wanted to say I did watch most of the city council meeting last night until I fell asleep in the middle of the meeting. But everybody did a great job. The questions were great. The answers were great. And so I'm getting to the email that you sent us this afternoon with the color-coded itemized budgetary The memo where you have everything shaded in light green or dark green, and then there's some light blue. So I just wanted to ask if you could touch on that memo that you sent us. And I noticed that there were some things here that are still listed as discretionary or necessary. Some items are funded. Would you be able to just give an overview of that memo?
[Murphy]: I'm just, if it's okay, Mayor, I'm just gonna share my screen very quickly. I think typically I don't spend a lot of time using the, the memo usually doesn't serve as a good visual, but in this case, it might be helpful. So in June of 2020, going into fiscal year 21, the school committee conveyed as part of its budget process, an itemized list of funding priorities. Earlier in this budget cycle, you asked the administration to take that memo and identify, excerpted from that memo, identify what has been funded or what will be funded as part of the proposed FY21 budget, excuse me, FY22 budget. And so if you go through this memo, you can see this is the actual list excerpted, and dark green indicates something that is, whether it's through ESSER or through the operating budget, we anticipate funding in FY22. Light green, like the Chromebooks and the, laptops for teachers are items that we were able to fund through funding sources in FY21. And the light blue, of which there's only a few items, indicates, and as I said in the memo, this is a pretty lengthy list, and there's a few items that they're either the price tag or the description are a little different than what we would probably articulate now. And so I probably wouldn't want to submit this document under oath, frankly, but it's a pretty accurate summary of what was funded or what was adjusted as we went through FY 21 and prepared for FY 22. So the light blue, for instance, is an example of where a modification was made, where I'm just seeing one from my office right in front of me here, where there was a desire for two accounting specialists. We hired one very high caliber accounting specialist and That's a modification that was made just to indicate that. And there's a few other instances. The 340 access points we funded, I think it was like 70, but I could be wrong about that. A significant investment was made in FY21, and additional access points, additional access points are planned in FY22. So if we were to go back to this now and make a list of priorities, we wouldn't have a $340,000 price tag associated with it, but it would still be something that eventually we have to pursue. So this is just, again, I provided this just in response to the committee's question. There are some items here that, as you can see, we have not yet invested in. And some of these, I think, as you obviously, we noted a difference in the scrubbing of the budget between June 1st and June 14th, 2021. So you can imagine that between June 29th, 2020 and June 24th, 2021, there were a number of priorities that we would likely think differently on if we were to make this list today. And so, you know, this is a great list in terms of something that we're able to keep track of at all times and understand sort of where the budget process is sort of a continuing narrative. But this is just to give you a sense as to where we are looking back on the list that was generated at the end of FY20. I hope it's helpful.
[Kreatz]: Yes, thank you very much. Thank you for the clarification.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Member van de Kloop?
[Van der Kloot]: Yes, thank you. First, I did want to thank the team, those who presented yesterday to the City Council. Thank you for representing us so well and answering all the questions that were brought to you last night. I just want to go back to Suzanne. When you were talking about the camp, sort of reintroducing kids back to school and whatever, what are the numbers that you Anticipate, how many kids can you accommodate? I would hope that everybody who wants to go gets to go, but I wanted to understand how you're facing that.
[Galusi]: But that absolutely is our hope. That's, that's the whole purpose of the camp is for students and families that feel students would benefit from this experience. So, um, once we send out the, uh, signup forms, we'll have a better sense as to how to adjust staffing and what the groupings will look like. But I mean, we want to keep the specific groups, um, to a manageable number, but then that would just mean bringing on some staff, some additional staff. So. We'll just wait and see what the enrollment looks like. Okay, thank you.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you. If there's no further questions, we have one more item on our agenda, executive session.
[Murphy]: Mayor, if you could just take a vote to adopt the budget contingent upon the city council's appropriation and if the committee would be willing to offer a vote for endorsing the ESSER priorities would be appreciated as well.
[Lungo-Koehn]: OK, is there a motion on the floor? I take a motion to adopt the budget proposal. Second. Motion to adopt by Member McLaughlin, seconded by Cranston van de Kloet. Roll call, please.
[Graham]: Can I just ask a question real quick?
[Unidentified]: Oh, sorry.
[Graham]: Does the motion include both the budget recommendation as outlined and the ESSER funds? Are we taking one vote on both?
[Lungo-Koehn]: Member McLaughlin, is that your- I've been splitting it. Sorry, Chair. Oh, you would like to split it? Okay, so we will take the recommendation on the budget first as approved, motioned by Member McLaughlin, seconded by Member Kreatz. Roll call on the budget.
[McLaughlin]: Member Graham. Yes. Member Kreatz.
[Van der Kloot]: Yes.
[McLaughlin]: Member McLaughlin, yes. Member Ms. Stone.
[Van der Kloot]: Yes.
[McLaughlin]: Member Ruseau. Yes. Member Van der Kloot. Yes. Mayor Lungo-Koehn.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Yes. Seven in the affirmative, zero in the negative. The budget is adopted. Is there a motion on the floor to approve the spending of the ESSER funds as recommended by the administration? Member Kreatz. Second. Motion to approve. Seconded by Member Van der Kloot. Roll call, please.
[McLaughlin]: Member Graham.
[Edouard-Vincent]: Yes.
[McLaughlin]: Member Kreatz? Yes. Member McLaughlin? Yes. Member Mustone? Yes. Member Ruseau? Yes. Member Van de Kloop?
[Lungo-Koehn]: Yes.
[McLaughlin]: Mayor Lungo-Koehn?
[Lungo-Koehn]: Yes. Seven in the affirmative, zero in the negative. The spending of the ESSER funds as recommended by the administration has been approved.
[Unidentified]: Thank you.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you, Mr. McLoop. Thank you for all the hard work. Appreciate it. We have last agenda item, executive session of the Medford School Committee pursuant to General Laws 30A, Section 21. The Medford School Committee will convene an executive session to discuss strategy and preparation for pending litigation before Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination, MCAD, and United States District Court. as well as to conduct a collective bargaining strategy session on the basis that an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the litigating and bargaining positions of the Medford School Committee. Motion to move to, oh, sorry, Mayor. Oh, no, that's okay. One second, the Medford School Committee will not convene in public session subsequent to the executive session. That was signed by Dr. Marice Edouard-Vincent, Superintendent of School, and there's a motion to go into executive session by Member McLaughlin, seconded by Member Van der Kloot. Roll call, please.
[McLaughlin]: Member, sorry, Member Graham.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Yes.
[McLaughlin]: Member Kreatz. Yes. Member McLaughlin, yes. Member Mustone.
[Mustone]: Yes.
[McLaughlin]: Member Ruseau. Member Van de Kloop. Yes. Mayor Lungo-Koehn.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Yes, seven in the affirmative, zero in the negative. We will go into executive session and not reconvene after.
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