[Lungo-Koehn]: 2021 at 630 to be held at the Howard Alden Memorial Chambers, Medford City Hall. This is also presented on Zoom. You can call in using the number 958-751-46257. And the meeting ID you would enter is 958-751-46257. we could please call the roll.
[Mustone]: Mayor, Melanie is not here yet, do you want me to? I will call the roll.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Great, thank you. In no particular order.
[Mustone]: Okay.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Member Mustone. Here. Member Graham. Here. Member Kreatz. Here. Member Van der Kloot. Here. Member Ruseau.
[Hurtubise]: Here.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Member McLaughlin, currently absent, and myself present, six present, one absent. All please rise to salute the flag.
[Mustone]: I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Number three, consent agenda. Does any member wish to hold any item? Member Ruseau?
[Ruseau]: I wish to hold the regular school committee meeting minutes of June 14th.
[Lungo-Koehn]: The regular school committee minutes from June 14 will be held. We have first up approval of the bills and payrolls.
[Ruseau]: I think we may. I think we just motion to approve all the rest.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Is there a motion for approval. Seconded by member credits. All those in favor. Hi, all those opposed. consent agenda is approved. Member Ruseau?
[Ruseau]: Yes, on the minutes for June 14th, I have only one requested change on page six or page seven, depending on which version you're looking at. There is a public comment speaker named Paul with no last name. This was not me and I just would like it to be reflected that it was not school committee member Rousseau. just for clarity. And if that's acceptable, I make a motion to approve these with that as amended.
[Kreatz]: Point of information, I think.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Yeah, we want to approve the consent agenda. So do you want to?
[Ruseau]: We held this item.
[Lungo-Koehn]: So we held the Okay, so this is the modification to the June 14 2021 minutes. Gotcha. So is there a motion by Member Ruseau, seconded by Member Kreatz as amended. Member Kreatz, I mean, by Member Van der Kloot. Member Kreatz, did you have a question?
[Kreatz]: Yes, because I think we got, and I might just be misreading some emails, but I think we got an email from Suzy. She made some changes. Is that right? It was a change after that. I've already put that change in front of her. Okay, all right, so we'll see that the next time.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Motion by Member Ruseau, seconded by Member Van der Kloot to approve the minutes from June 14, 2021 as amended. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Minutes are approved. There are no reports of subcommittee. Number five, we have the report of the superintendent. First up is summer programming in school opening update assistant superintendents for elementary and secondary education and the director of pupil services report on the conclusion of extended school year acceleration academics. and Camp Mustang during the summer of 2021 and the experiences of students and families in the return of fall in-person learning for the start of the 2021-2022 school year. Current enrollment data will also be shared at this time.
[Bowen]: Good evening. I will start with the extended school year programming update. Everyone has a report in their folder that they received. Can everyone hear me okay? So each summer the special education department provides extended school year services for students who are at risk for substantial regression or experience difficulty with recruitment of learn skills. Other factors may be considered when determining a student's need for extended school year services. Decision about ESY programming are made by IEP teams on an individual basis, taking into consideration the unique needs of the child. Students enrolled in a district-funded out-of-district placement typically receive any necessary summer program at those programs. However, the large majority of summer services are provided through in-district programming. This year we had 161 special education students, students with disabilities, and the method extended school year program during the summer of 2021. All of these special education programs were housed at the Roberts and at Medford High School. Due to the complexity of student needs, there are a wide range of programs operating this summer. They included the connections programs pre-K through five, MEEP, our developmental program, our access programs, including the elementary, middle, and high school, project transition, and the learning group program. We had several programs that ran six weeks. There were four week programs, and there were also tutoring and related services that were provided. As well as a range of specialized programs, there are a range of services that were provided. We offered tutoring in the areas of math, English, and reading. We also provided related services in the areas of speech, occupational therapy, physical therapy, counseling, as well as social skills groups. The staff required to meet the comprehensive needs of Medford students with disabilities who participated in this ESI programming are listed in your information. We had two program supervisors, they split the six week program. We had 17 teachers to her special education reading specialists, 27 power professionals, seven speech therapists. We have a teacher of the deaf, three occupational therapists to physical therapists, one school adjustment Councilor to school nurses to BCBAs and specialists. We also continued to collaborate with Summer Fun and Medford Recreational Programs to ensure that students were able to access both educational and recreational opportunities this summer. In closing, the success of the extended school year program was a result of all the hard work and dedication from our special education staff who continued their commitment in meeting the needs of our most vulnerable students. I would like to express my sincere appreciation and gratitude to all the staff who worked this summer. Also a special thanks to Kim Clinton and Aaron Pels, scheduling services and transportation, as well as ongoing collaboration with parents and staff. Thank you.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you, Miss Bowen. Member Ruseau.
[Ruseau]: Thank you. I just also want to reiterate the thank you to the staff working over the summer if ever there was a summer you needed to not work, it was this summer, like, in a whole lifetime, right, and these, these people came, because they were incredible. Yes, and it speaks volumes of them so thank you.
[Cushing]: Good evening, Madam Mayor and members of the school committee. Myself and Ms. Galussi will be speaking on our start of the school year and some really great opportunities that presented themselves as a result of increased funding from both the state and federal government. So I'd like to hand it over to Ms. Galussi at this time.
[Galusi]: Thank you, Dr. Cushing. I'm gonna ask just to advance, I'll speak on this slide, but I'd like the pictures to be shown as I speak. So at the elementary level, we had the wonderful opportunity to offer two accelerated learning programs over the summer per, as Dr. Cushing mentioned, the DESE grant. The first one was focused on early readers. So that was for students that would be entering kindergarten, first grade, and second grade, because we know that the pandemic caused a large disruption to those early reading skills. So the pictures that you see here are just snapshots of some of the activities that happened throughout the week. So these accelerated camps were a week long and it was all day. So it was like a typical school day, 8.30 to 2 p.m. It did involve a period of physical education and lunch and recess. At this camp, it was dedicated to early reading skills. So we have, as I've previously mentioned at a school committee meeting, we are partnered with a program called hill for literacy. and they are offering professional development year-long this year to our K-2 staff on their ECRI program, which is Enhanced Core Reading Instruction. And so we utilized the staff from Hill for Literacy to provide professional development to the licensed Medford educators that worked this camp. And they were able to work with Hill for Literacy and myself on streamlining the ECRI piece to go back into our curriculum and pull out those needed skills that would help advance them for the next grade. In going around to the schools, it was just wonderful to see how engaged the students were and how wonderful the teachers were. Each kindergarten, first grade, and second grade at each school held a program from a licensed Medford Public Schools teacher. Some classrooms, if needed, a paraprofessional was there for support. The second wonderful opportunity, if you don't mind Dr. Cushing advancing two slides. The second wonderful opportunity we had was to offer a math acceleration camp that was for incoming grades three, four and five students at every building. For this, we offered the teachers training from a company called Better Lessons, but specifically targeted on differentiation techniques in the area of mathematics. So the day and the schedule was set up the same way. It was a full day of school. Students were engaged in physical education, math and recess, but they also were engaged in various math activities throughout the day from core content knowledge to math games, centers, We wanted to get the core curriculum in, but also make it feel like it's summer camp, which increases engagement. So here you can see pictures. The one on the left was of a fourth grade classroom where they had to work on real life tiny house project, where they had to map out to scale. I believe it was called tiny house, but I believe this is a scaled school bus. And then on the right, you can just see some of the fun activities that students engaged in to help with the core content, but also make it that camp feel. And I think, and now I'm going to just pass the microphone to Dr. Cushing to speak about his.
[Cushing]: Yep, so the secondary math acceleration camps, that was the only option afforded to us by DESE. So it was for rising eighth grade students and rising 10th grade students. We were able to, I apologize, this is an error. We originally only had four math teachers for the middle school. We actually had five because we were able to continue to add students. Um, and this was actually the first opportunity for our engagement special, uh, re-engagement specialists. They really worked the phones, uh, to reach out to our high school students. Uh, we had really great response from our middle school parents, uh, and we needed just a little bit more support for our high school students. Uh, we ended up with about 30 students on the high school side and we ended up with If I remember correctly, just under 60 on the middle school side, so we had four math teachers at the middle school one special education teacher who co teaches. So she brought a really unique skill set to be able to support and assist our students as they went through these math acceleration camps. Over the next year, you'll hear a lot about acceleration, not remediation. Acceleration is meeting kids where they are, giving them just-in-time skills in order to move them forward as quickly and readily as possible, rather than spending time going backwards and trying to build on things that were missed. You're hopefully going to be able to accelerate the students with the just-in-time skills. And so that's why they're called math acceleration camps. So the standards that they were focused on were grade seven and eight content standards. What we did was with Fiza Khan, our math director, we went and looked at the specific standards that really bridged seventh and eighth grade, right? To really support students as they move forward into eighth grade. And once again, in 10th grade, we went and we looked at the various skills that could be bridged between two very disparate subjects, that are between freshman and sophomore year. And so we were able to put in, we were able to observe all the teachers in the program, and it gave us a really good opportunity to see the teachers in action, working with students, engaging them. And in small groups, the DESE grant limited the groups to no more than 12 students. So there was some really good interaction between the students and the adults.
[Galusi]: Thank you so the, the other wonderful opportunity that we were able to provide method public school students is camp Mustang camp Mustang which we had said connecting for a new school year had a social emotional. priority. So unlike the acceleration camps where we had to use data to invite students that we knew would benefit from that opportunity, Camp Mustang was open to all of our Medford Public Schools students. We had that at every level. So in the elementary, there were three days of Camp Mustang. at the middle school two and at the high school one. I will just speak, if you don't mind, please advancing to the, we're going to just show you some pictures from Camp Mustang. So because this was a social emotional priority, the whole point when we think of students that needed to have this transition to connect again to school, We wanted the students that may not have been in school for 18 months. We wanted the students that were a little anxious of what school would look like because last year was so atypical. And so when the students came in, our focus was on building back that trust and those relationships with the school, which is why our priority was to have Camp Mustang at every single building. not a district-wide program. We wanted the students immersed in their buildings. So some of those activities, we had activities where they were within their classroom, their grade-level classrooms, and then activities that were building-based. So scavenger hunts, or you can see here the use of the gymnasium, the use of the art rooms, so that they're getting used to those spaces all over again. There was a snack time as well as a recess time so students were able to work with their peers throughout that morning activity. The next slide shows some pictures.
[Cushing]: So these are some of our high school students and middle school students and so what we were able to do was, you know, we put out the call to our teachers and our teachers responded really amazingly. And once again I think this really goes to a point where the grant money came in handy because we weren't turning teachers away this year. We weren't saying like oh that's too many teachers for x number of kids know we wanted the staff that we had to try to build as many connections to try to make it as small of a group to a teacher as possible, and to try to build those lasting relationships. so that a student feels truly connected to their school. You know, if you walk into Medford High School, a school of approximately 1200 students today or one of our middle schools that are each just under 500 students, you know, it can be an intimidating place. And so the point was to get as many students in as possible, so that they become comfortable with their school so that just the physical environment becomes something that they know, and if they were a sixth grader when they were last in the building, and because of whatever the situation may have been. They were remote since March 13 of 2020. They had the opportunity to get in and to feel their buildings above and beyond camp Mustang, all the principals throughout the district did a great job giving tours, providing opportunities above and beyond camp Mustang to go into their buildings to feel comfortable to know what their schools are going to be, you know, you'll see some of our students here doing the spaghetti challenge. I'm sorry, the Marshmallow Challenge with some minor adaptations for school. We make the Marshmallow Challenge, which you can see on a TED Talk. It's just a great way to build team with a couple of simple supplies. We gave the teachers the supplies they needed for games, for opportunities to really engage with kids in a way that may not be the norm. We would love to find a way to continue these types of activities for students moving forward throughout the next several years, and then on into the future, because while the delta variant through a monkey wrench in our planning, our staff proved that they were able to adapt. to really overcome that challenge. And while we unfortunately had to have masks in place and those types of things, we were able to have extraordinarily successful camps for us moving forward. Uh, the next thing I'd like to talk about is Medford credit recovery, uh, your more traditional summer school students, uh, program for students in Medford and other schools that may want to send their students. Uh, this year we had 96 total students with 160 course enrollments and two non Medford students. Uh, the courses offered are on the left-hand side of your screen, uh, along with the each unique. Individual enrollments for those courses. One thing that I'm very proud of this year is for the first time in our history, we added two positions to this, and the first is an assistant director. I think Mr. Russo mentioned it about the stress of the past year so rather than just having everything beyond the director. we were able to put in a director, an assistant director, and they were able to offset days so that it wasn't just the burden of, okay, the entire school year, the pandemic, we're able to split the rules and responsibilities, which really awesome about that is our assistant director was able to get some really good knowledge and skills moving forward. So we're able to spread and diversify our knowledge base. Secondly, for the first time ever, we were also able to add an adjustment Councilor. Why is that so critical? Well, as Medford Public Schools was recently featured on Fox 25 for our work on social emotional learning in the classroom, we wanted to make sure that we were ahead of the curve for our students coming back. And for those students who may have been remote or may have been hybrid or whatever it may have been, that if they were feeling a sense of crisis, if they were feeling a sense of Misunderstanding, we had clinically trained professional in the building to support those almost 100 students.
[Galusi]: Thank you. All right, so the next piece that we're going to present on is actually Dr. Riccadeli's Medford Jumpstart Instrumental Camp that she offered to families over the summer for rising students in grades four through eight. So as many of you are aware, our instrumental programs and our band programs start in the elementary schools at grade four and grade five. And so there has definitely been, because of COVID, a decline in enrollment and participation in instrumental and band opportunities. And so Dr. Riccadeli, really worked hard on this as a way to build up participation in our programs throughout the summer. And it was a big success. We have some pictures here that she supplied for us. But students, as you can see, strengthened their musical skills and techniques while covering topics including note reading, rhythm skills, sight reading, tuning, intonation, and instrumental terminology. The district supplied violins and various percussion instruments free of charge, so that was not a burden on families. If students were interested, they were able to join and were provided the instruments. At the conclusion of the two-week program, students presented everything they learned in the little theater up at the high school to their families. It was largely successful. The students were very happy to be there. I know that she's looking to continue a program like this next summer as well.
[Cushing]: I would just like to add that, you know, the picture in the lower right hand corner of the students in the parking lot. Unfortunately, pictures, you know, are usually a great medium to show. This picture does not really show how amazing this program was. We had literally, it felt like the parking lot was full of students participating. It felt so good to have that life and that music back into the building. And as Mr. Lucy just mentioned, the well Dr record Ellie is looking to continue it, what's awesome is once again the teachers are saying wow, how do we keep this going for the future. And I think that this type of thing. When you think of various summer camps that may be out there for Medford public schools to offer our citizens and our students is really a tremendous opportunity going above and beyond your traditional fun, athletic, or whatever the camp may be, this offers our students that true instrumental artistic approach.
[Galusi]: And so we just want to also mention, I know that we have reported on this before, but this year our big focus for school year 2021 to 2022 is on social emotional learning. And so at the elementary level, what does that look like? We have responsive classroom, which we were able to implement last year during the pandemic and continue this year. So over the summer, we were able to create support, responsive classroom support teams at every building, and they participated in a week-long training, like a train-the-trainer session this summer. It was very intensive, but it was very rewarding. And so what we were able to take away from that experience is not only support teams at every building, but district-wide trainers, so that we can continue offering responsive classroom training for our staff. We have continued with our schedule to maintain that morning meeting time where every student starts their day from 830 to 915 with their peers during morning meeting and academics and services begin after that time so that all students have that opportunity to be with their peers and start their day. collectively. That will build that trust, that community that we want learners to have so that they can take those academic risks and feel safe in their learning environment. So we are going to be continuing that training throughout the year with the use of that staff. We also made sure that we trained staff during the induction week. So some of those trainers went to the new teacher training and provided responsive classroom training for the elementary teachers. The other thing that we've done this year that I know I've reported on, but I worked collaboratively with Stacey Shulman, and we created the fifth special, which is called Nexus, and is, at the start, completely in response to the pandemic. And we know the need for targeted social-emotional assistance, as well as executive functioning skills that were lost during the pandemic time. So we know that this class may kind of like evolve over time to suit the needs of the students but at this moment for this school year. It is a strictly social emotional focus so the curriculum that we're using when students come once a week. is a Michigan model, which is our health curriculum as the district. And we only focus on the social emotional lessons of the Michigan model. So instead of the classroom teachers doing those lessons, the nexus teachers will now do those lessons. We're also using the zones of regulation, which has been primarily in grades K through two across the district, but we're going to expand that because those skills are just as important for grades three, four and five. And that program adapts itself to the appropriateness of the grade level. And just to give you like a snapshot, some of the things in the zones of regulation are not just how to work on self-management skills, but it's also, there's a whole piece on like growth mindset versus fixed mindset, which are important. important skills for students to have. And then the other piece, once a month, Stacey Shulman and I are working hand in hand with the Nexus teachers and staff every week. We're going to weave in a executive functioning skill that is appropriate for the grade level. So that was, those are also pieces that were lost a little last year. So how to pack your backpack, how to work with a two pocket folder, how to take notes in the upper grades, whatever the skills are, we'll be working in collaboration with staff as well to weave in some of those executive functioning skills that were lost, but crucially important for students to be independent learners.
[Cushing]: So social emotional learning. So it's a focus on student needs prior to diving into the curriculum. And while the elementary school is really focusing it on the six weeks, the high school and middle schools are focusing intently over the first three weeks of school. So we're pausing our traditional scope and sequence that we would normally have in place so that our teachers can build those relationships while touching on the curriculum, but not going full throttle ahead. And so, as was mentioned the responsive classroom at the secondary schools. We're really looking at restorative justice pilot at the Andrews Middle School, so that we can then see how that will take place there and then build a plan moving out for our McGlynn Middle School, as well as our high school approach. On the right-hand side of the screen, you'll see the CASEL social and emotional learning wheel that incorporates all the various aspects of students' self-management, self-awareness, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making while considering classroom, schools, family, and caregivers, and then communities. That's a well-known graphic that we're really adopting and pushing forward this year to make sure that it touches on many of the things that we're doing to really connect with students, to have students understand that this is their home. This is where they will learn, they will feed, and that they will be supported by the faculty and staff of our school district.
[Galusi]: So in closing, we just included the enrollment numbers for you as of last week. To note, some of the increases are at the elementary level. So we have increased one kindergarten section at three out of the four schools. So the Brooks and the Roberts have five kindergarten classes this year, and the Missittuck has four. We also increased, I don't know if you wanna speak to it, but some of Joan's specialized programming so that at the Roberts, there is an additional connections program. And at the Brooks Elementary School, there's also an additional language-based classroom. All of these increases were based clearly on student need and population. Thank you so very much.
[Cushing]: Thank you very much.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Member Ruseau, do you have a question?
[Ruseau]: I do, yes. I really love this enrollments document a lot. I like the layout. It's new this year and I appreciate it. Okay, well, thank you, Kim. We did also get another, there were several enrollment sheets in the past. And one of the ones I did like was, a per school, per a teacher's name and grade and how many students were in that class. That would be helpful if you could, you know, I mean, I'm sure you have that data already, so I don't, thank you. Sorry, I have one more question. Is this, looking at the middle school enrollment, are we actually in year one where all students have gone through the lottery now?
[Cushing]: Yes.
[Ruseau]: Good, excellent, thank you.
[Lungo-Koehn]: All set, thank you, can continue. All set?
[Hurtubise]: We're good, thank you very much.
[Lungo-Koehn]: We have number two, yes, member Van der Kloot. We are, number four, okay. So number two, public health update, director of health services and assistant superintendent of finance operations report on student and staff testing program, vaccination clinics, state and district mask mandates and physical distancing protocols, including during meal periods. Mr. Murphy.
[Murphy]: Thank you, mayor, members of the school committee. It's a pleasure to be with you once again, and hope you all had a wonderful summer. For those of you that we haven't spoken with. I'm joined tonight by Avery Hines, our new director of health services. Ms. Hines is a five-year veteran of Medford Public Schools, and as you know, is filling some large shoes. And I would say that even if I didn't see that Ms. Ray was watching. And we're certainly, it's an honor to have her here with us and as a member of the team. As I think you know the school committee typically takes a vote to confirm the health services officer for the district. The superintendent who of course could not be here this evening would like to formally introduce Ms. Hines at the next available opportunity and so we're going to ask you to hold off on that vote. until that time. But in the meantime, Ms. Hines and her team have picked up right where Ms. Ray left off in terms of helping to lead the district through a very difficult period and make sure that we're meeting all of our public health obligations as well as our educational responsibilities. And so she's gonna share some of the data that we have for you tonight. And then I'll be happy to walk through some of the logistical and operational challenges that we are currently meeting during this latest phase of the pandemic. So Ms. Hines.
[Hines]: Thank you for the introduction and good evening, Madam Mayor and members of the school committee. I'm very happy to be here. I don't think it's any surprise to you all that the positive number of cases in Medford is rising and it has been since June. In June, there were only 25 cases throughout the city for the whole month. In July, we saw an increase to 123 positive individuals. And then in August, it increased even more to 277 positive cases. So far in the first 12 days of September, there have been 125 positive cases. So we're looking at even more of an increase by the end of September. The Medford Public Schools started its COVID-19 testing program on August 26th and 27th for members of our high school athletic teams and those that participate in extracurricular activities. We tested 307 individuals with PCR testing, and in that we found one positive individual. On August 30 and August 31, the Bedford public school nurses administered 492 tests to staff throughout the district as they're welcome back present, and we were able to identify one positive individual prior to school starting with our students in our buildings. Our student surveilling testing resumed this year on September 9th, where 3,301 tests were performed. Of those tests, three positive individuals were identified, and them and their families were contacted by school nurses and contact tracing was completed in a timely manner. Outside of our scheduled surveillance testing, the Medford Public School nurses are working diligently to ensure symptomatic students that present to the health office get both a rapid Binax test as well as an individual PCR test prior to their dismissal. Between September 8th and September 10th, 16 symptomatic students were tested by the school nurses, and we were able to identify four positive students within 15 minutes of them showing up to the health office. This means that school nurses were able to identify and begin contact tracing before the end of the school day, which I think we can all agree is very useful and helpful and hopefully it gets our students the tests that they need and they can monitor for symptoms faster. Parents and guardians have also been proactively alerting the building-based school nurses of positive test results that they received outside of our school testing program. During the week of September 8th and September 10th, there were four students that had tested positive outside of school testing that we were made aware of and were able to contact TRES4. Through the first few weeks of school, the Health Services Department has noted that students are coming to school with illness symptoms. As we all know, even if you are vaccinated, if you're showing symptoms, you should immediately start quarantining and get tested. As a school community, we must continue to be vigilant in our masking, physical distancing, and hand washing to keep everyone safe and in school. Thank you.
[Murphy]: Thank you, Ms. Saenz. As I said, we've been attempting to communicate to the committee throughout the course of the last several weeks as we've experienced some modest adjustments in the various operational protocols that we're following. I'm happy to answer whatever questions the committee might have. Some of the high-level headlines that I know the committee is familiar with are on the screen now with respect to our quarantine and isolation protocols. And besides can certainly elaborate upon this if anyone has any questions but the short version is that they're the biggest distinction between last year, and this year. The biggest distinction between last year and this year is that those who are vaccinated have a different set of protocols than those who are not vaccinated. Now, for most organizations and most employers, that really sort of dictates the terms by which they are operating. For a school system, because of the age eligibility of the vaccine, there's a large swath of the population of individuals that we are interacting with who we know are going to have to follow the old protocols or the earlier protocols because they're not vaccinated. So, everything that we've sent out has tried to message that appropriately and draw that distinction. It's important frankly for families and staff to understand that distinction and we'll continue to echo that. With regard to physical distancing and mask requirements, the mask mandate at this point is mandated by the commissioner and so it's not a local mandate. There is a mandate from the superintendent as well. That mandate from the superintendent will extend beyond the, at least beyond the October 1st deadline. How long it extends, we don't know. Not that we're not being asked frequently, but we don't know the answer to that and all I can say right now is that we'll continue to follow the data and fulfill all of the various obligations we will have in the event we institute a change in practice with respect to masking. With regard to distancing, we are attempting to maximize physical distancing as much as possible. That's true amongst staff and students. When we learn of instances in which folks are not distancing in a way that is consistent with that we are communicating that appropriately to try to instill the prioritization of distancing, where that's most. Coming into play from an operational perspective is with regard to meal periods. Essentially all schools have modified their lunch practices in one way or another. We do have, as we did last year, some infrastructure obstacles at certain buildings and that It's not the case that lunch is identical across the district in every building, but what is consistent in every building is that we're maximizing the distance that students are from one another while eating, consistent with public health protocols. And then just the last slide here on some of the operational protocols. We will talk a little bit about the tentative agreements that we've entered into agreements now that we've entered into with our bargaining partners. Part of that is the expectation that we will be hosting additional vaccine clinics. We extend our gratitude to the Board of Health and to the city for the August 26th vaccination clinic that was put on and that we're gonna hope to drum up additional interest amongst students and staff for the additional vaccination clinics that we will either partner with the city or the Department of Education within the coming weeks and months. I put the bullet here with regard to communications. As Miss Hein said, we've had a number of positives in different school communities over the course of the last week. I do think and we have begun internally deliberating over what is the best practice with respect to COVID related communications. We have Developed early on in the 2021 school year, a form letter that I'm sure every parent in the medical public schools is now familiar with, because every school has has received them at one point or another. The frequency and the volume of those letters going out. I do think is calling into question the effectiveness of the communication and that was an issue that we wanted to raise with the committee tonight, and just essentially put the community on notice that we are internally deliberating as to whether or not we can improve upon that practice to continue to keep the community informed, have the information readily available and accessible, but not run the risk that some might say we're already running, which is that the letters become such a sort of pro forma affair that they're losing their effectiveness and their value. And I think that we're now beyond one year from issuing these letters every time there's a positive. As you know, there's very little information included in them. They're essentially building community on notice that there was a positive and that contact tracing has been completed. And that if you are have not been contacted, there's nothing for you to do. We are not changing that practice right now the letters will continue to issue. But I do think we need to flag this as there's going to come a point in time where we need to send a letter out and we need everyone to read it closely. And if we continue to issue these letters on a weekly basis. I'm not sure that that's gonna be the case. So we can sort of put a pin in that for the time being, but I do think it's something that we'll have to discuss in the near future. And finally, just a few other steps that we've taken as part of our layered approach. We have used ESSER funding to staff additional nursing positions. It was a clear necessity over the course of the summer when some of the partnerships that we were able to avail ourselves in the previous school year we're not going to yield as much personnel as they have previously. And while we still value the partnerships, we need people. And so if you follow the adage that there's never enough nurses, we have sort of subscribed to that in this point in time and added to the health services department in order to make sure that the testing program can continue to function and that Ms. Hines' staff has the support that they need. That's public health for right now, but we're happy to take some questions and before we move on to public health related labor information.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Member van de Kloot.
[Van der Kloot]: What are we doing to support that students academics. You know, I understand we have our limits, but it seems like now you know they're out for five days they're out for seven days, what if it's a second grader, what do we do.
[Murphy]: It's an excellent question and one that we have, we've been addressing on an individual, and when I say individual, I don't mean individual student, but at an episode by episode basis. And so within the last several weeks, we have had instances in which there was a positive in a school and a definitive number of close contacts identified. that was a sub part of a class. In that instance, those close contacts were treated similar to how students would have been treated in the pre-COVID time when students were going to be absent for a significant number of days. but beyond a substantial number of days, if that distinction could be made. We have had other instances in which, and the reason that that was the case is because when, and I don't wanna really be tied to very specific numbers here, because it really does have to be on a case-by-case basis, but in a situation in which three or four students have to quarantine, it would potentially be detrimental to the entire class to take what would be considered more of a drastic response. For instance, simulcasting the class and doing the instruction concurrently so that the students who are remote can follow along. we would be running the risk of diminishing the instructional impact, both for the students who are at home and for the students who are in person. There was another situation in which the number of close contacts essentially amounted to an entire class full of students. And in that instance, because there was going to be no benefit to having the entire class home, the class was permitted to function remotely And this happened to be a very, a class of very younger students. And so it was a modified schedule. I should add that that's another way instance of sort of having to do it on a case by case basis. And it is our hope that as the data improves, we will be able to continue to address these situations on a case by case basis in a way that serves the needs of both the students who are have to be home for a period of time and students who are coming in, in some cases for the first time in 18 months and need the sort of full impact of a teacher who is concentrated in that moment on the students who are physically present. But I think that if the situation deteriorates and this starts to happen with greater frequency, that may be something that we have to adjust to ensure that we're not having a additional detrimental impact that we that we're trying to avoid.
[Van der Kloot]: I think, obviously, you would understand my concern for a student who's come back to school and then all of a sudden is out and might be out again a few weeks later and a few weeks later. So anyway, I think that, you know, I know we've brought in some support people, I think we sometimes may need more, maybe as tutors for students who are out and so I This is something that I think we need to very closely monitor, and I'm most concerned about.
[Murphy]: I think we share the concerns, Ms. Van der Kloot, and I think you're right. I think it's something that we'll have to revisit periodically. As you know, a lot of the strategic priorities that we've put forth with regard to our ESSA funding have to do with extended school day programs, supplemental support, and making sure that we're meeting students' needs as much as possible coming out of this difficult period. The one of the challenges and I don't mean to be. I'm not pessimistic so I don't want to sound pessimistic, but one of the concerns that I have going forward as we try to develop these strategies is we are facing a multifaceted labor challenge and shortage. And I think you're right, we're going to have to look at how can we staff, and how can we invest as much as possible to make sure that the supports are being provided. But I think we're going to have to do so creatively. And to the point that was made earlier about the exhaustion that that we know the entire organization is feeling. I want to be realistic about how much help there is in the offing. So I think we're going to have to look closely at how do we maximize in there, I'm sure there are people listening to say that we already have, how do we maximize the human capital that we have at our disposal now to try to address some of these needs. In other words, I don't think there's a core of tutors, we can hire. I think we're going to have to be looking at our current staff and see how can we invest in that in that talent to provide the services that are necessary.
[Van der Kloot]: I have other questions but I'll yield to my colleagues, they can get an opportunity.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you, man. Yes, if we could do this member McLaughlin if we could mark member McLaughlin present.
[McLaughlin]: Yes. Thank you. Thank you, ma'am. I was also just wanting to mention, thank you to the chair, thank you to my colleague. I also wanted to mention, I know that we're, as we're thinking of remote instruction or whether there's an opportunity for remote instruction, clearly we have medically fragile students who are unable to attend school at this point with the variant. And so, I'd like to just, for the public's sake, let folks know how we're addressing that need right now, please.
[Murphy]: I didn't quite catch that question.
[Lungo-Koehn]: The question was, because of the Delta variant, medically fragile students, how are we addressing that virtually? How are we addressing it virtually? Miss Bowen.
[Bowen]: So one of the ways that we're addressing it is through home and hospital instruction, we would have a medical documentation, we would meet as a team to determine what the student can access and create an out of the box program for that particular student. We have several students right now that we're working on this. We may have, if the parents allow it, is staff members who are vaccinated to go into the home. So it's a lot of conversations that are going on with specific families to determine how we could provide these services, as well as, you know, how much a student can tolerate if they are medically fragile.
[McLaughlin]: Thank you, and I just would I would just would follow up with that that I know that we're all talking about the social emotional needs of our students right now and understandably so. And I just think about the isolation for those students, especially if they're not able to participate in a classroom setting or with peers. So as we're thinking of these, after school, before school, other aspects of social emotional support for our children, I want us to be thinking about how we're including students that we wouldn't necessarily otherwise automatically think of.
[Bowen]: That is definitely a focus that we have going forward when, when discussing these individual student needs, social emotional is for all students, and we will try to have them access as much as possible. Thank you.
[Ruseau]: Thank you. I know that there's a lot of logistical things to work out. I've just heard some, a couple of families reporting that their students are still in line when lunch period ends and they don't get to eat. They're not allowed to just, it's not like voting. So I just, I'm not sure what we can do about it, but I do feel a bit like if you're in line to eat, It doesn't matter what your next period is should be or maybe we allow kids to bring food around the building and, God forbid, the mess, they should be allowed to eat.
[Murphy]: So, I, the expectation is that it will be treated like voting in the sun, and we'll do it now. I should preface this by saying. We're adjusting the logistics of testing in each building. So, we've had only one day of testing in most buildings, so far, and there are revisions taking place as there was last year after the first couple of days of testing so I know most of the logistical challenges. I think it's fair to say most of the logistical challenges were concentrated at the high school. That testing routine has been completely revamped as of this morning, and other revisions will take place at other buildings throughout the week. So if any, it should be very clear, every student is entitled to lunch. It is the same as voting, absent some of the statutory and constitutional rights implicated. So we'll make sure that that message is circulated appropriately.
[Ruseau]: Thank you. And then I have one other question around. Most of the school committee members were able to do a tour recently, which was wonderful and greatly appreciated. And I don't know about all the buildings, but the buildings that I visited, the Missittook and the Andrews, the temperature in much of the building was quite surprising, especially since it wasn't even a terribly hot out or hot out the day before. Can you just clarify that, well, first of all, that temperature and air changes per hour are completely unrelated?
[Murphy]: That is correct.
[Ruseau]: Okay, thank you. Just from a COVID safety perspective.
[Murphy]: I'm not sure that the air engineers that we spent a lot of time with last fall would use the term completely unrelated, but they are distinct. And the air change per hour rate, which is how we measured the heightened air quality standards, is distinct from the actual temperature. That part is definitely true.
[Ruseau]: Thank you. And then I'm sure your offices working on a plan around the temperatures, they were kind of staggering, really, for our brief visit in some of these rooms. I can't really imagine teaching in them, let alone. And and so I'm, I know that from our tour, which you are on with me and. member Graham, that some of this is quite a substantial expense. And I'm. Do you have the resources, whether it's extra funds or whatever or do you need to come to us for resources and other other things such as supply chain problems that will actually get in the way because, you know, the cool seasons coming. But so is June.
[Murphy]: That's a fair question. And there were some areas of the buildings that we toured that were warmer than we would prefer. There's sort of different tiers of challenges that we're facing related to our air conditioning. There are some that have been addressed even since our visit last week. And there are some that are going to take a significant amount of investment that I will be briefing the committee on in the coming months there. Some of the, there'll be some sort of traditional capital infrastructure projects that will will need to identify as priority so. I can't speak to whether we have the resources because we'll have to come back to the committee to discuss with you how all of those priorities fit together. I can tell you that there's some technology related infrastructure priorities that you'll hear about before you'll hear about air conditioning, and I would anticipate that happening at your next meeting. With respect to the air conditioning, I'll just say to the mistake in the Andrews. The Andrews has had two problems, one of which is my understanding has been addressed. It is the air conditioning on the third floor, and a another problem in the gymnasium that has not been addressed and will not be addressed until we discussed with the committee that the capital improvement priorities so. I think if the third floor at the Andrews is still as hot as it was that day, I'm not aware of that. I suspect now that I've said this publicly, I will be made aware of it quickly if that's the case. But it's my understanding that that's been addressed. The gymnasium is a longer term project that we will need to discuss. And it is my hope that we'll be able to resolve that prior to the spring and the next warm season.
[Ruseau]: Thank you. Well I was the message that I heard from today that it was, I didn't say that quite hot.
[Lungo-Koehn]: So, yeah, I think the message is sort of a mix, frankly, and it's a little more complicated there but thank you to the chair the Andrews technicians were in the Andrews on Friday, and it was serviced and working correctly after after that message I'm not sure.
[Van der Kloot]: Yes, I just want to say I'm really glad that the high school testing is being revamped because that was one of my concerns after our visitation so that's good news. The other question I was just curious about is whether it may be too soon, but I'd like to know if what percentage of our, and I'll ask it as high school students but of our high school students are vaccinated do we know at this point.
[Hines]: At this time, we don't have an exact percent to be able to give you that. It would take a lot of time looking in. Right now, we've just been relying on parents and students to give us their vaccine cards, which I don't know if you've ever met a high schooler, but it's not always easy to get them to come to the health office during the day and hand you something. Sometimes there's things lost in translation, but that is something that once the logistics of COVID testing get ironed out and we're in a more stable place to start doing some of these things, that's something that we would like to look at and get that number out to you guys for.
[Ruseau]: Thank you, Mayor quick follow up on that member result. Thank you. I thought it I mean I think I've been hearing in other districts that the state's database of who's vaccinated is used to just generate this information without us dealing with pieces of paper and photocopies.
[Murphy]: We have access to the data but in reference to the staffing challenges that we alluded to earlier. where we have not allocated the staffing resources necessary to actually collect that data, in part because we're still in the process of actively encouraging people to get vaccinated. And we are collecting the data, we're just doing it at a slower pace. But before the end of this month, I anticipate we'll be able to report on what our vaccination rate is amongst both the student population and staff.
[Ruseau]: Thank you. And that report will be based on the database from the state, not on. There's just been too many news stories about fake vaccination cards. I don't want anybody to believe that it can be verified through the board health, right?
[Lungo-Koehn]: And just so you know, Miss Hines and Mr. Murphy, the city is doing two vaccination clinics This Thursday the 16th and Thursday the 23rd at the farmers market three to seven so you may want to push that out to all staff can talk to the Board of Health and Steve our communications. COVID communications professional. Thank you. Yes, cover that term of the contract. Number three, labor relations. Yes. Oh, sorry. I can't you have to call Yeah, I can't see. Oh, okay. Member Graham, the Democrats.
[Graham]: I think my question was just whether the Board of Health had stats that they could provide us for the 12 plus population across the city, which is obviously bigger than our school population, but I am interested in what our 12 plus population looks like right now. And I don't know if the Board of Health has or can report on those numbers for us.
[Lungo-Koehn]: We can the last I heard it was like 47% of middle schoolers and a little bit higher for high schoolers, but we can get them more recent update from hopefully the next meeting. In the 50 percentile for high school if if that's my that's my recollection, yes. Member Kreatz.
[Kreatz]: Thank you. Thank you. I just have one question. So it's in regards to the high school. So how many students are allowed like in the restrooms, the bathrooms at one time? Did the number increase? Is it one? Is it more than one?
[Murphy]: It varies by size, but not more than two.
[Kreatz]: Okay.
[Murphy]: There's some larger restrooms that two are permitted, but if it's a smaller one, it's one. And that's true across the district. I don't believe there are any restrooms that, based on size, we've permitted more than two.
[Kreatz]: So no more than two?
[Murphy]: No more than two in any restroom across the district right now.
[Kreatz]: But some restrooms might be a little bit larger, so they- The larger ones, two are permitted.
[Murphy]: The smaller ones, only one.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Are you all set, member Kreatz?
[Kreatz]: And I just had another question. So if a student is going to school and they just forgot their mask, do they get asked before they go in the building or do they go through the building and somebody sees them and says, oh, do you need your mask? I'm just curious, is there any sort of protocol for that?
[Murphy]: I mean, they're typically their administrators at each entrance in each building. So there shouldn't be anyone walking in without a mask or if they are, they'd be directed to check in with health services to pick one up.
[Kreatz]: Okay. And there are definitely this ample supply of extra masks. We still have them. Okay, great.
[Murphy]: Thank you. Yes, that is definitely true.
[Hines]: Thank you.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you. Member Ms. Stone, then Member Van der Kloot.
[Mustone]: Thank you. Nurse Avery, could students take a picture of their COVID vaccination card and just email it to your address or the school that, if it's middle school or a high schooler, like what's the best way to get it to you so you know who's vaccinated in our school? Something you can do when she gets home.
[Hines]: If comfortable emailing it, that is probably the best way to get it to us. I mean, it is not as confidential as some people prefer. Paper copy is what's going to be the most confidential, just handing it to us. But middle schoolers lose paper copies all the time. So if a parent wanted to drop it off, we would also allow that. We could get the copy at school in the health services or health office. But if you felt comfortable emailing it, they could email it to me or their building
[Mustone]: Okay, just as you know, I have two middle schoolers and a high schooler, I'm okay with the vaccine being out there. So if people aren't comfortable, a paper copy sent to the office with the nurse office on the envelope, or take a picture and email it to any school nurse. Okay, thank you very much. Thank you. Member Van der Kloot.
[Van der Kloot]: Yes, just to follow up on member credits question, we had received a letter from a parent expressing concern that there were at least three kids in the bathroom when her daughter walked in periodically so you know I know I know it's tough to monitor at all but you know, I just wanted to your attention yeah the high school.
[Cushing]: have better monitoring on those situations as they come up.
[Van der Kloot]: Okay, I think we might have all gotten it, but I'll make sure I forward it on to you.
[Ruseau]: Mayor?
[Lungo-Koehn]: Member Ruseau?
[Ruseau]: Can I make a motion to suspend the rules to take item 8.8, number two, out of order?
[Lungo-Koehn]: And a motion to suspend the rules, seconded by? Second. Member McLaughlin, all those in favor? I opposed. Motion to take paper number item number 200 new business pursuant to 603 CMR 50.07 10 two thirds of Medford member school committees must approve collaborative capital improvement plans. The short educational collaborative is seeking the approval of this plan from the members which includes the Medford Public Schools. Member school districts are not being asked to fund this plan. The regulation requires us to approve this so that the Shore Educational Collaborative may implement this plan. See additional documentation titled Shore Educational Collaborative Capital Improvement Plan Fiscal Years 2021-2031 provided for the details of this request. Offered by member Ruseau. Member Ruseau.
[Ruseau]: Thank you, ma'am. I am the Medford school committee representative on the shore educational collaboratives board of directors and the chairman chairperson excuse me, and our executive director Jackie Clark is here to answer any questions about this plan. And I'm going to assume she is on zoom so I have no idea how to get her on zoom so she can answer questions that we might have. But who's running is Dr. Cushing running this. Do you see Jackie in there.
[Mustone]: Member so I mean member of the stone. While we look for the executive director Paul you might know how long has Medford been in partnership with short collaborative.
[Ruseau]: I believe we were founding member, but Jackie will know that off the top of her head.
[SPEAKER_01]: I am here and unmuted. Jackie Clark, the executive director of sure. So thank you for having me. Sure was established in the late 70s and and Medford has been a member since then so well over 50 years.
[Van der Kloot]: Thank you.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you, Member van de gloop.
[Van der Kloot]: Thank you, I read the document that member Ruseau provided to us in detail, and as a former representative to with shore. I am very familiar with shore. And in fact, remember, Hank Owen, the director. of many years, very rightly, is a wonderful wonderful person. The question that came to me is that this is basically calling for a fund to be put aside for capital improvements for sure, which makes a great deal of sense, but I didn't see anything addressing the potential for, if by any chance, something should happen to the shore such that it would cease to exist, what would happen of the money? And so there was no, I didn't see any line item which suggested that it would be split back between the districts or anything else like that. And while it is perhaps far-fetched to believe something will happen after the successful run of shore, it seemed to me that some some notation should be made about what would happen to that account in the future if it was not used.
[SPEAKER_01]: Would you like me to answer that, Mr. Russo? Sure. Yes, please. As part of our larger establishing agreement, our articles of agreement, there is a whole section devoted to the dissolution. very theoretically, we hope, of shore should have come to that. And I believe the assets, including this fund, is restricted for capital use. But obviously, if shore were dissolving, it would be an asset is divided sort of pro rata based on the, the member district's share of percentage of students and tuitions paid in the previous years. I can certainly, it's on our website, but I can make that available to the committee, our full articles of agreement, but that is accounted for in that document.
[Van der Kloot]: Well, my suggestion is that simply that should be added to this document. And again, I'm happy to refer it to your attorney as to whether that needs to be or not. But that was my one concern. Otherwise, I would make a motion to support this paper. Second. Motion.
[Lungo-Koehn]: in favor by member Van der Kloot, seconded by member Graham. All those in favor?
[Ruseau]: Aye.
[Lungo-Koehn]: All those opposed?
[Van der Kloot]: Should it be a roll call?
[Ruseau]: We should call it a roll call.
[Van der Kloot]: I think it should be a roll call as regards to finances.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Roll call has been requested by member Van der Kloot.
[McLaughlin]: Member Graham?
[Lungo-Koehn]: Yes.
[McLaughlin]: Yes. Member Kreatz? Yes. Member McLaughlin? Yes. Member Mustone?
[Van der Kloot]: 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. Paper has been passed.
[Ruseau]: Mayor.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Great, thank you. Thank you.
[Ruseau]: Thank you, Jackie.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you. Thank you, Jackie. Sure. Member Ruseau?
[Ruseau]: Yes, motion to revert to the regular order of business to revert to the regular order of business.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Second by second member of Scotland. All those in favor. Motion to revert has been approved. Number three, labor relations update. Assistant superintendent of finance operations report on tentative agreements reached with various collective bargaining partners regarding mandatory weekly COVID-19 testing and proof of vaccination requirements. Mr. Murphy.
[Murphy]: Thank you, Mayor. As the committee knows, the district did enter into tentative agreements with the majority of our bargaining partners over the course of the last several weeks. As the was noted in the agenda item, the two most substantive and consequential items in those agreements are the obligation to test for COVID-19 on a weekly basis. as part of our free testing program that we have instituted in partnership with Tufts University, as well as an obligation to show proof of vaccination. The obligation to prove vaccination. So those are the two core pieces. With some of the units, there are a few additional components, including a health and safety committee, the vaccination clinics that were referenced earlier, as well as electronic means of reporting health and safety concerns. I do want to say and I said this in my communication to the committee that these agreements really were cultivated. In the, in the sense of a partnership and a constructive dialogue that we had with the bargaining units. We often use the term bargaining partner and I think that sometimes that can sort of become sort of. We can become a lot of things but in this in this instance this really was a true partnership and I want to extend my gratitude to on behalf of the superintendent to all the unit representatives who joined in this discussion, and. And I think these agreements really do serve the interests of students and staff. So these agreements have entered into through the superintendent's signature. I would recommend that the committee take a vote to endorse them. It's essentially a symbolic vote, but I think it's important to demonstrate the support of the governing body. And if there are obviously any questions related to the agreements, I'd be more than happy to answer them.
[Van der Kloot]: Mayor? Member van de Kloet. I was asked to inquire about this. So the original date that employees were supposed to give you documentation was September 8th, and then it was put off to the 17th. Could you explain why that happened?
[Murphy]: The date was September 8th. So as part of the agreements, that is the date. But as is often the case with respect to performance under these agreements, it takes some time to collect this type of documentation from hundreds of people. The parties have been, from a legal perspective, performing under the terms of the agreement in the sense that we've been facilitating the testing program. Employees have been participating in the testing program. A large, significant number of employees have already turned in their proof of vaccination. There were ratification votes that took place, either, I believe, on the eighth, and so from a maybe the day after the eighth but from a practical perspective. That is why in our communications to staff. We've emphasized a hard deadline of September 17. The reality is, our priority is making sure that we have an accurate accounting of our vaccination status. And that it was always going to take some time. And so it's really just a question of the sort of a rollout with respect to performance.
[Van der Kloot]: I think that perhaps the interpretation might have been by some people that it was, oh, people aren't getting their stuff in, so we're giving them extra time, and they're dragging their feet. So I wanted to make it clear that, in fact, we are having great cooperation with our labor units.
[Murphy]: If that was the misinterpretation, I really truly appreciate you pointing this out, because I really can't speak enough. of the cooperation and partnership that we've experienced with the bargaining units that we've entered into agreements with. So I think this is sort of a classic example of a shared interest on the part of both union and management. And it's my hope that that positive discourse and dialogue continues, because we know that there are many other issues, some of which very much related to those that are addressed in these agreements that we will have to tackle in the coming weeks.
[Van der Kloot]: Right, well I think we're all very thankful to our labor units and I'd like to make a motion that the school committee endorse the agreements that were set forth around. Would you say around the mandatory coven 19 testing and proof of vaccination requirements.
[Lungo-Koehn]: I think that's a fair question for approval a member of and include seconded by member so all those in favor. Paper passes. If there's no further questions, we can go to number four, operations and transportation update. Assistant superintendent for finance operations reports on adjustment to transportation protocols and challenges experienced by families with respect to transportation during the start of school, as well as a pilot program instituted at Medford High School in response to the mandate by the Medford School Committee to increase access and improve equity of transportation options available to Medford high school students, Mr. Murphy.
[Murphy]: Thank you, Mary, as the committee knows the beginning of every school year there are inevitable operational challenges that each school community faces and that's true with or without a pandemic. This year, we've had, I think what would be accurately called a pretty smooth and efficient opening of school. That's certainly thanks in no small part to all of the staff members who have worked tirelessly over the coming weeks to prepare for the arrival of 4,000 students, including a large percentage of whom, as you know, has not been in school doing in-person learning for approximately 17 months. So on behalf of the whole team, I just want to say Again, how grateful we are to the school leaders and to the teachers the paraprofessionals administrative assistants custodians and everyone else who has made this opening of school successful on the operational side. With regard to this the general operational update here. tried to systematize and we're continuing to try to systematize the way in which the operational side of the district serves our instructional interest and so you'll see the link to our operational request form that is an internal request form for staff members so that we can inventory catalog and then track our progress in terms of being responsive to the various issues that pop up. There's a high concentration of issues that pop up at the beginning of the school year. That's to be expected. We are working our way through them and working closely with school leaders to determine their priorities within each school community. We mentioned earlier the air conditioning challenges that some of the schools are facing. I think all schools are facing some challenge sporadic air conditioning issues but we're continuing to address those as expeditiously as we can. We do have some critical infrastructure projects that we're making progress on will be updating the committee on that. Most likely next month to give you an update as to where we stand on some of the issues that we've discussed. in this form previously. I'm going to save transportation for the last for last because I suspect that's where a number of questions might be but with regard to food services. This was referenced in the superintendent's weekly communication on Friday, that even though school lunches free. for the 21-22 school year per the federal government. It is incredibly important that families fill out the free and reduced lunch application. The state and the federal government make a number of determinations based on the percentages and we want to have as accurate data as possible. So that communication has gone out in a few different mediums already but we'll continue to be pushing that out at both the district and school level to try to get as much as much as accurate data as possible. With regard to just will also be reporting later about some of our engagement efforts through the newly created engagement office, and which we've established as we discussed spring, the engagement hub and we're asking offices to coordinate and have a whole of organization response to the challenges facing students and families who have felt more disconnected from their school communities as a result of the pandemic so Ms. Fidler-Carey will be reporting on that in the coming weeks, but I did just want to say that that staff and that organization are off to a good start. I know some of you had the opportunity to meet at least one of our engagement specialists on the tours last week, and that team is working hard in the various school committees to which they've been deployed. With regard to transportation, and I think in most districts, the person in my role, usually has a bit of reservation in his or her voice when they report on transportation at the beginning of the school year. And that is to some degree the norm, but I do want to stress that it is. It is to the degree families are experiencing challenges, and some of the, the typical obstacles, I was going to say hiccups but I think that would be understating it so I don't, I don't want to do that. Some of the obstacles that families have faced over the course of the past couple of weeks. Well, it is true that generally speaking, we've also had a smooth opening with respect to transportation. There have been pockets of challenges and problems that we've been working with our primary bus vendor, Eastern Bus Company, to try to resolve. There have also been a few instances in which students with disabilities who are receiving transportation outside of the primary vendor have experienced challenges that Ms. Bowen and her team have been working to iron out to ensure that those don't continue past don't continue period. So, I can talk a little bit about if the committee would like some of the specific changes that we've put in place with respect to organization. We've instituted a pilot program at the high school to expand the free transportation options that students have. We have essentially planned for that. for a three-month period in which students living beyond a two-mile radius from the high school will receive an MBTA pass with no charge. That's contrasted to the tradition or the historical discounting of the MBTA passes, and the school committee voted last spring and directed the administration to try to expand those free options. So in addition to the MBTA program, we've also have doubled the amount of Eastern bus company transportation coming to and from the high school. Unfortunately, due to some of the challenges that I was just referencing across the district primarily attributable to the nationwide bus driver shortage that the governor addressed today and the activation of the National Guard, which I think speaks to the extent of the issue. We are going to have to curtail the afternoon route out of the high school. Now, at the moment, that bus is not particularly well populated, I believe there's a handful of students at most we've been taking it. The shortage of drivers was resulting in the bus not leaving the high school until significantly after dismissal time. So I don't think we really have a sense yet as to how many students would be serviced, if we were running that on the schedule that we would like to. The other structural change that we're in the process of putting in place is reactivating our partnership with the vendor trans finder. That is a data tracking system that many districts use to essentially plot their transportation map. It is my understanding that Medford had this partnership in previous years. It appears to have expired at some point in the 1920 school year. And so, we are in the process of reactivating that partnership and have communicated to families throughout the start of the school year, that as not in the detail about trans finder but we've communicated that there may be fluctuations in the routes and stops over the course of the next several months there's always a sense of some fluctuation in the first couple of weeks. That's going to be the case over the next week or two. We're going to continue to communicate to families as thoroughly as possible so that they are aware of any modest changes that might go into effect. My hope is that as we get to the end of the pilot program at the high school, the partnership with Transfinder will yield potential efficiencies that we can then use to reallocate resources and to both expand transportation at the high school, but also ensure more efficiency at the K-8 schools. So we've sort of, through the ESSER funding, budgeted for ourselves a three-month pilot program in response to the direction that the committee gave in the spring. And it is our hope to come back to you with a more long-term plan once we're able to sort of see exactly what the Transfinder Partnership might produce. So I know that's a lot of information, but there's been a lot going on in the operational side as we've gotten this clear off to what I think is a relatively good start. And I'd be happy to expand upon any pieces of that if anyone would like me to.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you, Mr. Murphy. Member Ruseau. Member Ruseau, then Member McLaughlin.
[Ruseau]: Thank you, Mayor. Trying to think how to write a word all this. Sometimes we have students that don't get specialized transportation, but that's because they can get on the bus and get off at the right stop and be met by a parent or or the stop is right in front of their house or whatever. And that works. And I experienced this in middle school where nobody knew where my son was and it happened several times. And I guess my question is around, I'm sort of afraid we're gonna end up like taking dozens or a hundred students and saying they need specialized transportation because just getting on the bus and getting off at the right stop, which might move day to day, isn't gonna work. You know, students on IEPs that, I mean, I would never imagine that my son needed to be on a specialized bus. However, if he just gets dropped off at some random other place because of the, because of a shutdown of a road or because of all kinds of other reasons where there's an assumption, he'll just find his way home, he's a high schooler. That can quickly turn into me making it part of his IEP and dramatically jacking up our transportation costs. I mean this was sixth grade he's not it's not really an issue anymore but I'm wondering what is the responsibility when a kid gets on a bus, who's responsible for for knowing where the kid is? Is it Eastern Bus who's responsible for every child that gets on a bus and where they're supposed to get off? Or is there short of an IEP statement or some kind of specialized transportation? And I know nothing about how that stuff works, forgive me. Are all students just, if it's regular transportation, you get on, you get off, not our issue. Sure.
[Murphy]: So I think the question is ultimately who is responsible for making sure students get to where they're supposed to be. And what I would say to that is, number one, I don't think the district is ever in a place where we can say, we're not responsible, that's on the vendor. We hired the vendor, we are responsible. And I wanna start by saying that the Medford Public Schools is responsible for making sure that students get to the bus stops that they are assigned to. And the one that, and they're assigned to the bus stop that in the case that you raised, where they're familiar with, they know how they're gonna get home. Like it is not acceptable for a bus to drop a kid off within the boundaries of Medford and say, well, it's a pretty small community. They'll find their way. That's completely unacceptable. And when there are instances of that, it is the responsibility of the district to take that issue up with the vendor. And there are isolated incidents where those things happen. And we address that. I think that the vendor, practically speaking, obviously they have custody of that student. during that period of time. And it's part of the partnership with the district is they have to perform and perform means get the students there safely. So one of the things that we tried to do, and I talked about trying to sort of systematize some of the pieces of our operational approach is we had sort of a school by school approach to signing up for a particular bus and identifying the bus stop that you plan to go to and probably a little stricter for younger students and a little looser for the older students. And it's not that we want to create a system that is so strict that if a high school student is going to his or her friend's house after school, they can't get there. That's not going to work or a job or whatever. But we do, through the system that we've put in place, in which each family has been asked to identify the specific route, and then we intend to match that data with the data that we extract through TransFinder, it is our hope to know at all times exactly where a student is supposed to be. And so that if there comes an issue, at a minimum, we can identify where they went off track. So I think that, And I don't mean to respond to each. I feel like I've said we have to handle on a case-by-case basis a lot tonight. But in this situation, I think our responsibility is to create a system that reliably gets students to and from school safely and efficiently. And if there are specific issues that come up, like a student being dropped off at the wrong stop, we need to address that with the vendor. That's not, I mean, if some time of us, you know, you end up at one corner versus another, That's going to happen on occasion, but generally speaking the buses have to follow the routes that the district has sanctioned, and they have to get the kids to the stops that they're, they're signed up for.
[Ruseau]: Thank you. I would just add one little additional comment on that question on this. I know that there was a case where the student was brought back to the middle school. It was today or whatever the day was. And, you know, the we have in previous years, you know, we've done the wait till eight to get kids to not have cell phones and kindergarten. And, you know, wait till eight means there's lots of middle schoolers that don't have cell phones. Well, ideally. By the time a kid is brought back to the school, if they don't have a phone, do we always have staffing for at least an hour or two after school ends? Okay, I just wasn't 100% sure, thank you.
[Van der Kloot]: Okay, member McLaughlin is next.
[McLaughlin]: Thank you. I have a couple of questions. Thank you, Mr. Murphy, how many students beyond the two mile or two miles plus are getting MBTA passes you have a number on that yet.
[Murphy]: actually received the passes. Yes, I believe 152 were without charge.
[McLaughlin]: Excellent. Thank you. And then, um, I just wanted to know because I know that we personally have had some issues with transportation, just at the start of the year and there's a couple of things that we discovered. that I discovered that was sort of surprising to me, and I want to make sure that my colleagues in the community understand is that there's no central dispatch for transportation within the district. So right now, if I understand correctly, for the Eastern bus, the newly hired family and community engagement coordinator is managing the transportation from that standpoint. And for students with disabilities receiving specialized services. One of the special education secretaries are managing dispatch and transportation. Is that accurate?
[Murphy]: I'm sort of and I can expand upon that a little bit. I just want to correct my previous answer. I said 152, but I was I wasn't counting the last day that we were the last day to date that we were passing them out. So it's actually 230. Oh, good about where now I'm just messing up my math 260. That'll be my final answer for tonight. Okay. I'll take it. Thank you. 295 passes. 295 total passes, 260 free. Looks like 35 were people that were within two miles but still wanted an MBTA pass. The question is with regard to the dispatch. I think that. So, Miss bone can speak to the, to the, the special education, transportation, and how, and that's managed but generally speaking, her offices is responsible for that. And it tries to be as responsive as possible to families and works closely with the various vendors that support our specialized transportation system. With respect to the eastern bus, our primary vendor. It is true that the dispatcher is a eastern bus company employee. up until July, there really wasn't a transportation liaison with that specific portfolio. That was something that the superintendent and I spoke about very early in the year last year as something that from a structural organizational perspective we really needed to address because Myself as assistant superintendent, functioning as a de facto transportation liaison, I think is inefficient. And had we been operating at 100% capacity with regard to ridership last year, I probably would have urged that we do something about it sooner. So going into this year, part of the reorganization and creation of the engagement office was to essentially divide those responsibilities up between Miss Fiddler-Carrie and myself, which is essentially what we've done and so Miss Fiddler-Carrie is working closely with principals, and in most schools I think the actual de facto transportation liaison becomes the assistant principal. I don't think that's necessarily a strategy or a structure that we ever sort of intentionally put in place. But it's something that, as is the case in school systems, it falls to building level administrators when there's no other sort of structure established for it. And so, in order, but that what that means is you're building level administrators are not doing something else that they should be charged with doing. And so I think we've made progress with Incorporating that into miss feathers fiddler carries portfolio and I think it will always be there, to the extent that the work is about addressing family concerns and working with the external partner of Eastern Bus Company. There's another body of work. related to the TransFinder investment, in terms of making sure that the actual routes themselves are organized and plotted in a way that maximizes efficiency, that I think we may have to look at a potential personnel investment, at least in the short term, to get us to a place where there's a system that Ms. Fridley-Carey can actually administer. Because frankly, she's running into the same challenges that I was, just at a different level. in terms of there really isn't a system for us to administer. It's just sort of bus routes passed down over time, you know, from the time they were written on the cave to the time that we created a more aesthetically pleasing PowerPoint. And I think we have to address that as an organization in the near future. But, Joan, I don't know if you wanted to comment on that.
[McLaughlin]: Can I just respond before Ms. Bowen, just to say, may I, Mayor? Yes, Member McLaughlin. Thank you, thank you, Mr. Murphy and I just, I just would respectfully ask my colleagues again to the chair that we recall this information when it comes budget time because it is, in my opinion and from what I've seen talking with families and especially if your child is, you know, not available for an hour or two and you're not really sure where they are and the angst and all the other things that that can cause this can be a full time job. for one person, never mind, you know, a family and community engagement coordinator newly hired to really engage families around a number of issues so I think that's really important for us all to consider. And then I would just also before Miss Bowen responds I just also want to mention that You know, my concern around silos as well, Mr. Murphy, and I know you and I have had this conversation before and you've been very gracious in this conversation, but I do want to make sure that we're, you know, that it's not always sort of when there's a special education question and no reflection on you, but that it's deferred to, you know, to Ms. Bowen, because I, again, want to just remind folks, and I know that it can sound like a beating a drum, but all of our students are general education students. Some of them are receiving special education services. And I really think we need to be thinking about how we're breaking down these silos so that we're not having. different segments. And that said, Ms. Bowen, before you speak as well, we also have this out of district element. And so in my instance, I have a child who happens to be out of district on our recent holiday that we had revised our calendar. Medford didn't have school on this particular day. My child is not a district placement. They did have school. There's confusion around transportation. The transportation didn't show up because they were confused that Medford didn't have school, what have you. And in that instance, there's actually no one to call because, you know, Medford's not in school. So how are we really thinking about a general program across all of our community in terms of dispatch and transportation and being thoughtful about all of these ideas instead of still compartmentalizing or making subsections of people's jobs that already have full-time jobs. So with that said, I guess I would ask Ms. Bowen, and I know Ms. Bowen, you and your staff have been remarkably responsive to a number of concerns that families have had, and especially for our more vulnerable students, where the risk can be heightened and the fear can be heightened for families. So I want to thank you for that first. I just want to make sure that my colleagues are fully aware as we're considering the budget around these issues. One, that we're thinking about a person for this position, and two, that we're thinking about how we are breaking down silos to create a more equitable and inclusive school district.
[Bowen]: Thank you. Did you want me to address the transportation specialized transportation. Yes, please. So, as people are aware there was a story on the news about how there is a significant shortage of transportation and drivers, especially for students with special needs. Um, we are working with multiple vendors to we combine rides with other districts we communicate with other districts if they have a run that's going to the same out of district program, we try to combine them as much as possible. It is has had a significant impact on our transportation. We communicate. with the transportation companies multiple times a day to figure out what happened, how can we fix it? How can we communicate better with the families? This is hopefully going to be improved. We did get a message from one of our vendors stating that they are hiring more staff with the hope of some of these being able to expand the amount of runs that they do across the state, which will really help the districts in their transportation. We do continue to work with these companies as issues arise. I strongly suggest that parents contact my office so we can communicate with the different companies as these issues come up. It's not perfect. This is a real result and the reality of the COVID pandemic, but we are working really hard with these transportation companies to make sure our students get to their schools and in home in a timely manner.
[McLaughlin]: Thank you. And so may I may I just what's the plan for Thank you. So what is the plan for out of district families if in the audience since that our schools are closed, but an out of district placement is not and then there's a transportation issue? How do what what do families do in that instance?
[Bowen]: So I would ask them to email me, I checked my email even when we're not in school, I have the transportation numbers that we can call and look into it. They can reach out Emery also when she is off she responds in regards to so if we are made aware of it we can respond. Thank you.
[McLaughlin]: So even on days when you have off, you guys are sort of also having to work the transportation as well.
[Murphy]: We have a day off. We'll make sure that we're not going to take a day off when it comes to being needed to be responsive to families. But just to be clear that this particular incident, we made a mistake with regard to our level of coverage and I take responsibility for that mistake, given that my oversight of human resources, the district adopted a calendar in which there are more holidays being recognized and that's certainly within the purview of the committee to do that. But in attempting to stay as consistent as we have, as we could with how we have function, based on the closest precedent we had the offices were closed. I said to the bargaining units that I don't think we can continue that practice and I think we need to engage in the necessary steps of ensuring that doesn't happen. for a variety of reasons. And this is one of them to make sure that we always have the office coverage that we need. So this particular instance was a mistake. There were multiple offices involved in responding to it and there'll be multiple offices involved and make sure that it doesn't happen again. And I apologize to the committee for the fact that it did.
[Van der Kloot]: Mayor.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Member Van der Kloot.
[Van der Kloot]: While we're under the topic of transportation, it would seem we received a letter from a member of the public, which would be appropriate to read at this time. Please, thank you. So community member Eleanor Klein wrote us to the school committee account regarding bicycle racks. And she wrote that she wants to draw our attention to the bike racks at the middle and high school. She included some photos of the bike racks, which she says the racks are outdated models and unusable and difficult to use. In addition, they represent a very small percentage of available space dedicated to students alternative non-fossil fuel dependent transportation options. She says she knows that the ones at the high school are frequently filled. I'm sure the bike commission CC here can be valuable resource for ideas. With the partnership connector she writes the opportunities for middle schoolers to bike to school safely will be expanded. In addition, we as a city need to work on ways to encourage more cycling. I would love it if we could start by making sure an ample quantity of usable racks are installed at our middle and high schools. Is there a plan or discussion around bike racks currently in our budget transportation planning? If not, please make sure that this is added to the mix. Thanks very much, Ellery Klein. And I do want to note that Dr. Cushing did respond and is willing to further the conversation and work with whomever he can to make this happen.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you, Member van de Kloot. PB, Lupita D Montoya?s iPhone2?s iPhone2?s iPhone2?s
[Graham]: So, just a confusion around what parents do when there is an issue and an overwhelming feeling that parents have been told over the years, I'm not saying by any of you that it's not our problem. So, and to call the bus company and I just want to make sure that as we think about how we're directing families to communicate these issues like. I don't personally see sending a bunch of individual parents to the bus company in a one-off fashion as really a way to systemically solve any problems, but I just wanted to raise that to your attention so that we could perhaps get some communication out from the principals about what to do if these things happen and make sure that the principals are aware. So I just would ask that you all think about how to do that so that parents even if they have in the past absolutely been told it's not our problem, that you all can set a better message for the community of consistency in that regard. Dr. Cushing?
[Cushing]: Thank you very much for bringing that up member Graham. What I'd like to really say to all of our parents watching is that if you have an issue with the Met for public schools, the best place to go is the Met for public schools. If you have an issue with your classrooms teacher or question please ask your classroom teacher, if you have an issue with transportation or something along those lines, please start with your assistant principal your principal and then we can forward up the chain as need be. And so that then the process has started with the people closest to the problem and we can offer solutions. And if for whatever reason you feel that you're not getting a response, as Mr. Murphy just mentioned, there isn't a day that goes by, including Saturdays and Sundays, that many of us aren't communicating with, talking with, and speaking with parents, either via email or telephone, for extensive periods of time. It is our problem because these are our children, and whatever the problem is together we're going to find a solution to make it better. And so I only just saw that communication on social media, while I was sitting here. And so, you know, as great as a medium as social media is please feel free to reach out to your building principal, and then always myself Mr. Lucy Mr. Murphy were available as well to make the situation better.
[Murphy]: Thank you. We've had a relatively good opening of school. Yes. So I understand there were some comments on social media tonight. I may part ways with Dr. Cushing a little bit about how great of a medium I think social media is but I think it's, I do think it's great that folks can raise issues and make sure that we're aware of them out by whatever means necessary. But, by and large, this has been a successful opening of school, transportation included. We have issues that we need to iron out. I, unfortunately, I think we're going to have more issues over the next couple of weeks than we've had in the previous two weeks. And so I think that's why it's really important that we set expectations because when you get to the point where the governor is activating the National Guard to address an operational issue being discussed with the school committee, that's an indication that we have some significant challenges upcoming. So we will be communicating aggressively with families to make sure that they are aware of some of the challenges and some of the short-term problems that they are going to encounter. And then we will we will address them. And again, we'll try to systemize our approach as much as possible so that we're not getting into sort of one off issues here and there, that I think could easily give a misperception to the community at large. So you have our commitment that we'll be working on that. And as Dr. Cushing said, it is definitely our problem.
[Graham]: Thank you. I do want to say I don't want any of the comments that we've been making about transportation to be construed as that certainly I don't think it has been a rocky transition to school I was actually so surprised when I did the tour last week with you how Much of a very normal school day building, I entered into times three. So I just wanted to say thank you for that. I do think I saw there was a district somewhere offering parents money to drive their own kid to school. I do not endorse that process, because I happen to be driving by Medford High School this morning and I thought to myself, do any students get to Medford High School on time because the backup, really in both directions was just stunning. So less cars would be better. And to that end, the other thing I was hoping that we could think about as we talk and work with Transfinder is whether, what the impact would be of changing that two mile radius to a mile and a half or one mile, what that would do for us as a community, what it would cost, what that impact is. There was, I had a discussion with some parents who in my mind, you know, I live near the high school, in my mind, they're way more than two miles away from me because it would take me 20 minutes to get to their house. And in fact, they're not. In fact, they're well within the two mile radius. And they are students who are either having to pay for bus passes or get transportation to school. And it just struck me especially this morning as I happened to be sitting at that stoplight and every stoplight between my house and Winthrop circle that these are all families, trying to get their kids to school they're all late at this point they're all very late, through no fault of probably their own because even I was sort of shocked at how long it took me to get out of Medford. To go where I was going this morning. So if we can think about what that impact would be of bringing the radius in line. I think that could be really a productive conversation for us to have as a community for students for attendance for timeliness. for public transportation and all the rest. So if we can think about that as Transfinder does their work, so we know strategically what our goals are and what our options are so that we can have a good productive conversation at budget time, rather than doing what we did with the bus contract last time, which was issue the same RFP we had always issued, say yes and move on. I think that would be a meaningful step in the right direction.
[Murphy]: Yeah, no, I appreciate that. I think you're right. We have to look at all those. We won't be able to have, forgive me for saying it so bluntly, but we're not going to be able to have an intelligent conversation about this until we have that partnership in place and we have real data to work with. We've tried to buy ourselves some time with this three-month pilot program, which we're able to do because we're able to, essentially, the need to re-engage students in school and make sure that we're getting there, as quickly as possible, hopefully on time, makes it, I think, an appropriate ESSER expense. So we're able to use that and fund, if we have to extend the three-month pilot program, we can do that. But I think the more systemic approach, and I will note that the contract was extended in the spring of 2020, and so we're going to have to look at sort of what is the capacity of this vendor or any other vendor eventually to really improve the system the way that we want to. But first we have to identify whatever internal efficiencies we can to try to address this situation. We want to expand access. We want to make it as easy as possible to get students to school at every school So far it's been good, but to the points that have made, you know, certainly it's a great opening of school unless your student is the one that got returned to school because they didn't drop off the bus. And we're very cognizant of that as well. And it's, we want to make sure that there's as few of those issues as possible. Thank you.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you. Number six, presentations of the public. Regular meetings of the school committee include this presentations of the public agenda item to give any resident the opportunity to place a presentation before the school committee. A resident may only present once at any meeting. These presentations are an opportunity for the public to make a presentation to the committee, but are not opportunities for dialogue with the committee. If one or more members of the committee wishes to have a conversation about the topic presented, a member may request that the item be added to the subsequent regular meeting. The details for submitting a presentation to be found within the policy be DH public comment and presentation of the public. Tonight we do not have any public participation, public comment, pursuant to policy. public comment and presentations, the public, any resident in the audience may be given permission to speak once on any item of the agenda up to three minutes. The speaker is expected to keep their comments to the item on the agenda. The speaker must begin their comments by providing a full name and full Medford street address where they reside. Residents may also submit their comments by writing to the superintendent of schools prior to the meeting or by emailing medfordsc at medford.k12.ma.us. prior to or during the item on the agenda written comments must be kept to a length that allows for them to be read into the record in less than three minutes, or the comments will be summarized with the Secretary of the school committee, a welcoming inclusive community is both a value of the school committee and an aspirational goal. We ask for your help in achieving this goal and value your perspective. When writing or emailing please provide this required information. Number one, the name and number of the item on the agenda. Number two, your first and last name. Number three, your full Medford Street address, where you reside. And number four, your question or comment. I believe we addressed the one email we had. Number seven is continued business. We have two more items, nothing under continued business, two items under number eight, new business. First up, the Medford school committee may send one delegate and one alternate delegate to the MASC slash mass annual joint conference for the purpose of voting during the delegate assembly on the resolutions of the MASC. The conference is Wednesday, November 3 through Saturday, November six with the delegate assembly being held on Saturday, November six voting is presently only allowed in person and this is recommended that only members that are able to and are planning to attend the conference be nominated, offered by member Ruseau member Ruseau.
[Ruseau]: Thank you, Mayor, I know if I should nominate myself I will be attending the conference this year and if any other members would be coming with me or would like to be nominated, I'm happy to do that too.
[Graham]: I will also be attending this year.
[Hurtubise]: I'll also join. Wow.
[Kreatz]: I can't make it either.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Member Ruseau, Member Graham, and Member McLaughlin will be attending as delegates.
[Van der Kloot]: We're allowed one delegate. Right. Excuse me, Mayor.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Member van de Kloot.
[Van der Kloot]: Yes, we need to nominate our voting delegate in an alternative. And every school committee member is welcome to go. This is just the particular voting portion of the resolutions.
[Van der Kloot]: Yeah, go ahead.
[Ruseau]: May I? Member Ruseau. I have been the delegate before, and I found it to be very rewarding. I don't believe member Graham or member McLaughlin have yet been to the conference. So I certainly would be happy to nominate one of them as the alternate. I think it's helpful to go as an alternate before being the one in the hot seat. It's not that hot seat, but you know, I don't know if either one of them is interested. I wasn't prepared for three of us to go. Normally it's me and then Paulette shows up.
[Van der Kloot]: And I'll still go. I just don't want to be the delegate.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Okay, so member Van der Kloot is out. She will be attending. Is there anybody else that?
[McLaughlin]: Mayor? Yes, member McLaughlin. I am fine with observing. I don't have to be the second for the delegate. So I would nominate member Graham to be the alternate if that is acceptable.
[Lungo-Koehn]: So it seems like member Rousseau is nominated for the position and member Graham as the
[McLaughlin]: alternate delegate is their motion on the floor make a motion to nominate members so as the delegate and number Graham as the alternate for the MSC convention November 3 through November six, seconded by circuit member Vanderquist all those in favor.
[Lungo-Koehn]: All those opposed, paper passes. Thank you. Number three, given that 10% of the human population is left-handed and in some classrooms, Medford Public Schools utilizes half desks, which are designed for the handedness of the individuals using the desk. By January 1st, 2022, every classroom will have sufficient left-handed desks in place for the number of students that are left-handed in that space. If information cannot be ascertained to the number of students that are left-handed, then 10% of the desk count in classrooms that have These types of desk will be for the left handed students, offered by member so member Graham and member McLaughlin, who would like to speak first, as the South as a South by myself.
[Graham]: I went, somebody brought this to my attention I was like. What? What? There's no left-handed desks. Even we had left-handed desks when I was a student. I will also say that I hated left-handed desks as a student. They didn't particularly work for me. Left-handed folks tend to learn how to write in really creative ways because right-handed people teach us to write. So left-handed desks are great if you write with a hook. In your hand, if you don't write with a hook in your hand, you end up like this and your elbow is sort of wiggling all around. So what I would say is, if we're going to purchase desks to meet this mandate please can we purchase desks that don't require a handedness because those desks also don't work for everybody. I assume that right-handed desks also don't work for all right-handed people. I just know that as a lefty my whole life, I always struggled with the resources provided to me in school. So thank you.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Mayor. Member Kreatz and then Member Van der Kloot. I saw what you like going first.
[Kreatz]: My husband's a lefty, so in his sister and, you know, his father. So I, you know, I have to deal with the obstacles with him and he struggled. And yes, I think I did, you know, have noted that I think it would be I talked to my sister-in-law, my husband to have like a universal desk, that would be, you know, that would be ideal, you know, if that's something we could do. And I was just curious, if we know, you know, not like the necessary the number, but do we have an idea of you know how common are the, like this, the left hand side desk like do we have them at every school or just remember, I mean Mr. Murphy.
[Murphy]: Thank you, ma'am, that Miss Chris appreciate that question and when this issue was brought to our attention. We did pull the, the principles to get a sense as to what the landscape was. So I'm happy to report that the. sort of L-shaped desks that are sort of at issue here that are advantageous or presumably advantageous to left-handed or right-handed individuals are only used at the high school. So at all other schools, I think it would be fair to say that the workspace is universal and You don't need to be left handed right handed or am I just to utilize them so it is an issue that's only at the high school at the high school there is a considerable number of these desks in use over 1000. In fact, and so they are generally. constructed in a way that would make one presume that they were built for right-handed individuals. And any additional investment, we certainly could, I think to the point that's being made, we really want to get to a place where it's not a disadvantage to anyone based on any learning style or any type of sort of disposition with respect to that. So I think the answer is yes, this won't be an issue for us and something that would be a worthwhile investment when the time comes to have additional desks.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Murphy member Van der Kloot.
[Van der Kloot]: Yes, so I certainly would support this but I do want to let you know that it isn't the first time that it's been discussed that when we in fact built the new schools there were discussions about accommodating left handed students at that time. It came up again over a period of time. It's one of those things that it's just always good, though, to check on whether they're in the right place at the right time. And do we need more just because of the particular population? And of course, some of the deaths have bit the dust, so to speak. So we might be replacing them. We might have, I don't know, with right-handed deaths rather than left-handed. So I support the resolution. I think that it's appropriate for us so since there is an expenditure potentially for us to get a report back so that we understand what we're asking for in terms of if we have an additional purchase.
[Lungo-Koehn]: And if I made just from from the chair as well. One of you could amend this to potentially have a plan presented to us so that we are efficient with our finances and we try to accommodate all children, whether you're left handed or right handed. I think there should be a plan sometime in the summer where you would know where the left handed students. will be placed in each classroom and we make accommodations depending on what desk works for them rather than just requiring 10% in each classroom. Just a thought I wanted to throw out there. Mr. Murphy. Sure.
[Murphy]: I think that that makes sense. And I think with any type of action like this, we would be inclined to make sure the committee is informed as to sort of how we have put the motion into action and what the investment is likely to yield. In this instance, my reading of the motion is that It is the district would be required to purchase 10%, a number consistent with 10% of the student population, unless we were able to ensure that any student who wanted a different type of desk had one. I don't think this is going to be too difficult for us to comply with. So, what I would say is. We'll read the motion to include the plan that the mayor is suggesting. We'll come back to you with an update as to what investment we're going to make. I don't think it's going to be a hugely substantial one, but I do think that we will be able to make sure that there is no student who would like a left-handed desk or a universal desk who is currently using a right one. I think it was mentioned earlier, perhaps Ms. Graham, there are students who are left-handed that actually might prefer the desks that we have. The only sort of logistical challenge is that the nature of the high school, the only school for which this is applicable, the students are moving around all day to different rooms. So there's definitely a logistical angle that we have to look into, but I'm comfortable that we'll both be able to report back to the committee and address this issue that's been raised in the next several months. And if for some reason we're not, we'll come back and we'll notify you.
[Ruseau]: Thank you. Member Ruseau. Thank you. Yeah, I mean, you know, when somebody has missed all of ninth grade at home and the first experience of Medford High is they go to every classroom and they can't write. I don't know, it just, that seems pretty devastating to me. Welcome to finally getting to your high school and you can't use the desks in every classroom you go to. I mean, I just think we wouldn't put up with that for a whole host of other things. I'm not left handed so I don't know the experience. But, you know, I mean, I don't know that being left-handed has ever been considered a disability, but I certainly think if we just said to somebody in a wheelchair, well, you know what, we'll just, you'll have to make do with that classroom, even if it's not accessible to you. We would all find that to be highly offensive. And I think asking every, at the beginning of every semester, having the teachers, everybody who's left-handed, raise your hand so I can then get the right desk in here. That also just seems a little, I mean, I don't know that lefties anymore are ashamed of being lefties.
[Murphy]: I mean, I don't think that's a thing. I don't think, as far as I know, I don't think that, I think it's important to distinguish this is not a disability. Right. Because it doesn't mean we don't have responsibilities to it, but there's no, it's just a, there's a difference in terms of obligation and perception and risk and everything like that. But I think that the point that Mr. Russo makes is that we know students are coming into a school environment, some of whom for the first time in a long time. some of whom are coming in for a new school, okay? And some all are coming in under like circumstances that none of us went to school in. And I think what's important is that at the building level, the staff and administrators who are closest to the students are communicating with students and listening to them to get a sense as to who needs any type of accommodation, any type of support, any type of service. And I think we can definitely communicate to our teachers and to our administrators that to be mindful of how left handedness or any other characterization may be having an impact on a student's ability to access their, their programming, and then we and then we can respond I'd be hesitant to sort of broadcast. that we want to get new desks, because I suspect there will be some students who, whether they're right-handed or left-handed, might just like some new desks. And I'm not sure we're going to have the most actionable data with regard to what type of infrastructure we get. But I do think that handling this at a building level, class level, even at a student-by-student level, we can make sure that this is not a barrier to anyone's education, because to Mr. Rousseau's point, we already have enough barriers, we really don't need any more. And I think it's important that we prioritize this type of access issue, which is really what we're talking about, and make sure that we're eliminating barriers, not perpetuating them. So we will definitely have this conversation with our building level administrators and make sure that this is something they're being cognizant of. Thank you.
[Lungo-Koehn]: So there's a motion to approve. Motion to approve by Member Graham. Seconded by Member Ruseau and Member McLaughlin. All those in favor?
[Unidentified]: Aye.
[Lungo-Koehn]: All those opposed? Motion is passed. Number nine, reports requested. We don't have any. Number 10, condolences. The Medford School Committee extends its deepest sympathies to the family of Paul T. Kavanaugh Jr. His wife, Diane, was a Brooks Elementary School kindergarten teacher, and their daughter, Carrie, serves as an anchor for Fox 25 News. The Medford School Committee extends its deepest sympathies to the family of Raymond J. Buckland, a former Medford High School coach and a member of the Medford Mustang Hall of Fame. The Medford School Committee extends its deepest sympathies to the family of Ralph D. Sunfrey, father of MHS swim coach, Mary Judge. The Medford School Committee extends its deepest sympathies to the family of attorney Robert J. Jordan, husband of former Brooks Elementary school teacher, Louise Jordan. The Medford School Committee extends its deepest sympathies to the family of Tina Palladino, mother-in-law of City Council President Richard Caraviello, Also, the Medford School Committee extends its deepest sympathies to the family of Warren Joseph Bud Yeager, husband of former Columbus Elementary School principal, Joan Yeager, and father of Mrs. Katie Shampoley, coordinator of the MEET program. The Medford School Committee extends its deepest sympathies to the family of attorney Robert Gilligan, who served as a member of the Building and Future Committee, as well as served as an advisor to the Mustang Mock Trial Court. The Medford School Committee extends its deepest sympathies to the family of Daniel J. Bates, Jr., a former school department custodian and father of Mustang Boys hockey coach, Sean Bates. The Medford School Committee extends its deepest sympathies to the family of Peter Corbett, father-in-law of McGlynn Elementary School teacher and Summer Fund camp director, Anthony Petrellis. The Medford School Committee extends its deepest sympathies to the family of Stella Santoro McParland, former secretary and lunch mother for both the Medford Public Schools and Shore Collaborative. And last, the Medford School Committee extends its deepest sympathies to the family of Margaret G. McGrath, a former teacher at the Brooks Elementary School. If we all may rise for a moment of silence. The next meeting of the Medford School Committee will be Monday, September 20th, regular school committee meeting here in the Alden Memorial Chambers, Medford City Hall, as well as by Zoom, and that can be found in the school calendar. Is there a motion to adjourn?
[McLaughlin]: Motion to adjourn.
[Lungo-Koehn]: By member, Ms. Stone, seconded by member McLaughlin. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed?
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