[Unidentified]: All those in favor? Aye.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: All those opposed? Six in favor. Board of subcommittees, we do not have any. Next up we have report of superintendent. Superintendent's updates and comments. Dr. Maurice Edward-Vinson.
[Marice Edouard-Vincent]: Good evening. I'd like to start with a public health update. As we noted in the last two school committee meetings, I will be incorporating updates on public health and COVID-19 in my remarks going forward. But of course, Ms. Hines, Mr. Murphy, and other team members are available to answer any questions you might have. Members, you've received our COVID-19 update memo in your email packets, and that document is also posted on the district website. We did see a slight uptick in positivity in last week's surveillance testing, after we had dropped a minuscule 0.37% the week before. Our 1.54% positivity was reflective of both the concerning community-wide numbers and a cluster identified in a program unaffiliated with Medford Public Schools that our health services team immediately notified the Board of Health about last week. Despite the uptick in positive cases, we were very happy to report that we maxed out participation in our NPS students-only COVID-19 vaccination clinic that was held at the Andrews Middle School last Wednesday. Through our partnership with the Board of Health, we will be holding a second vaccination clinic for students ages five to 11 this coming Saturday, November 20th, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Medford High School. Please be sure to sign up and we'll have additional communication about this event in the coming days. It will be on the four-year side, so coming in through the main entrance, that is one piece of information for people to be aware of. Finally, with respect to public health, today we issued a survey to both staff and parents and caregivers. The survey which I have referenced in my last few Friday updates to the community was commissioned by Tufts University, who as you know, they have partnered with us to have one of the most successful coven testing programs in the state. The researchers at Tufts University are seeking to obtain data related to the barriers that districts faced in getting students back into school and how we can operate on a more equitable basis when it comes to COVID-19 and public health in general. The surveys are voluntary. of course, but all NPS community members are encouraged to participate. So please check your email for that survey. Also, being that November is the month of Thanksgiving, I have notes of gratitude to share with all of you tonight. A special thank you to the families of the five to 11 year old students who participated in a very successful COVID-19. Again, that was held last Wednesday at the Andrews Middle School. Nearly 300 students received their vaccinations. But we also want to send out some special thank yous. First to the Medford Public Schools nursing team, The city's Board of Health team who worked really hard to make this happen. I would also like to thank our own CTE vocational health assisting students who are actively involved in supporting the vaccination clinic. It is so wonderful to know that we are providing our health assisting students with real life experiences and training. And we are so grateful to be holding a second clinic this Saturday. I do wanna just make note that we were expecting 300 vaccinations for this coming Saturday, and we are going to have an increased number, possibly doubling that number if we could get up to 500 participants. So I do wanna just say that in that section here. I also wanna send a sincere thanks to all of our veterans who came to Medford High School last week. They took time out of their busy schedules to make presentations to all of our humanities classes on Wednesday, November 10th. We truly appreciate their service and we were so glad to have been able to welcome them back into our classrooms this year. So upcoming events, This Saturday, mark your calendars, the COVID-19 vaccination clinic. Please note that it is a location change. I did say at the high school, it will not be at the Andrew School. It is at the high school. And since the Medford Board of Health secured an additional 600 vaccines, which is fabulous news, we are really excited about increasing the amount of participation on Saturday. So please go back to the registration portal and sign up for a time. We will also have walk-in appointments available. So please do not miss out. In that same vein of talking about the vaccination clinics, medical help is wanted. We are looking for registered nurses, nurse practitioners, physician's assistants, and doctors who are authorized to administer shots to come out and help. Please reach out to Ms. Avery Hines, our health services director at 781-393-2292. or you can email her at ahines, H-I-N-E-S, at medford.k12.ma.us if you are interested in volunteering at the vaccination clinic this Saturday. Also on this Saturday, The Greater Boston Girls on the Run event will be taking place in Medford at Hornell Stadium between 8 a.m. and 11 a.m. I believe we are expecting nearly 1,000 runners, and Mayor will be participating in running of her team, so we wish them a successful run this Saturday between 8 a.m. and 11 a.m. On Sunday, November 21st, our Mustang football team will be hosting the alumni flag football game at Hormel at 11 a.m. on Sunday, November 21st. On Monday, November 22nd, the Medford Public Schools wants you to come join our Mustang family. The Human Resources Department will be hosting a job fair, an in-person job fair from 12 noon to 2pm and again from 3pm to 5pm on Monday, November 22nd. There are many opportunities throughout our pre-K district, including substitute teacher positions, afterschool aides, paraprofessional positions, kindergarten aides, teachers, and CTE, trade-specific positions for our vocational school. We also welcome retirees to join us at this job fair And again, it will allow for in-person interviews with select staff. Please plan to bring your proper identification and wear a mask again on Monday, November 22nd. We look forward to meeting you. Wednesday, November 24th, that is also our half day. It will be the Mustang pep rally from 1130 to 12. We are at this time still working out details, but the pep rally will take place outside in the field of dreams. Again, final details are being worked out. On Thursday, November 25th, it is Thanksgiving. We're going to say let's go to our Mustangs as they take on Malden. The game this year will take place in Malden for the annual Thanksgiving football game at 10 a.m. Tickets can be purchased in the athletic office during Thanksgiving week. Again, schools are dismissed at 1130 and noon on Wednesday for early dismissal. Friday, November 26th, there is no school, so it is a long weekend. On Sunday, November 28th, the Mustang Band parents begin hosting their annual Christmas tree and wreath sale at the high school parking lot from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Tuesday, November 30th. Medford High School will be hosting their first night of parent-teacher conferences, and those will take place in the gymnasium from 6 to 8 p.m. And on Tuesday, November 30th, the programs that will be highlighted are EL, our English learners program, science, math, wellness, and electives on Tuesday, November 30th for parent teacher conferences. Our second event will be Thursday, December 2nd for continued parent teacher conferences and they will be again in the gym from six to 8 p.m. And on Thursday, December 2nd, the parent conferences will be for English language arts, social studies, fine arts, and world languages. So all of this information will also be posted online, but for those parents that are listening, please mark off Tuesday, November 30th and Thursday, December 2nd for parent teacher conferences at the high school. November is National Native American Heritage Month, which acknowledges the unique contributions made by our first Americans for the growth and establishment of the United States. President Biden noted in the annual proclamation, we honor our Native American veterans and service members who have courageously served and continue to serve in our armed forces, including the brave Native American code talkers in World War I and World War II. This month and every month, we honor the precious, strong, and enduring cultures and contributions of all Native Americans and recommit ourselves to fulfilling the promise of our nation together. Lastly, since we will not meet again before Thanksgiving, I would like to take this opportunity to wish all of our families an enjoyable holiday. At the same time, Thanksgiving needs to be celebrated safely, and I am asking that all students, staff, and families rededicate themselves to our effective COVID prevention measures. It is important that we remain vigilant in our COVID awareness as we go into the Thanksgiving holiday. Outside of school activities could greatly impact our exposure within school. So please remember to wear a mask, meet with friends and family outdoors when possible, and stay home if you're feeling ill or recently exposed. So in closing, I do wanna just share one final announcement that this Wednesday, we will be hosting a small clinic, vaccination clinic at the high school. This is in partnership with an organization that also was part of the stop the spread sites. This vaccination clinic will be taking place between 1230 and 2pm on the vocational side of the house. And the preferred age group is for individuals who are over 18 years old or meet qualifications. We did ask if there were going to be additional offerings, and we will get final information for that. There is a possibility that we may have some Pfizer vaccinations available for students that are 12 and older. So we will have final details on that very small vaccination clinic. which is hoping to vaccinate approximately 80 individuals. We will have the final details on that tomorrow, and we will advertise it widely tomorrow. That will take place on Wednesday, which is early release day at the high school. And those are my announcements for the day. Thank you.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you, Dr. Edward-Vincent. If I may, just from the chair, the vaccine clinic on Saturday, because of the girls on the run race, we have moved that to the high school, which you pointed out. We just want to make sure people got a response that it would be at the Andrews. That's not the case. The vaccine clinic is at the high school. Change of location. Next up, we have The MCAS Alternative Report, Director of Pupil Services, Ms. Joan Bowen, will report on the district's result for the MCAS. The MCAS is administered to our students with significant disabilities who are unable to participate in the standard MCAS. alternative assessment monitors student progress over time. Ms. Bowen. Good evening.
[Joan Bowen]: Tonight I will be presenting on the MCAS alternative assessment. As you know, students in Massachusetts are required to take the MCAS test and they can take it in three ways. So the routine standard MCAS test, also the standard MCAS test with accommodations or the MCAS alternative assessment. Students with disabilities take the standard computer-based or paper and pencil MCAS test, either with or without accommodations, at the grade level specified for assessment in that subject. But there are a small number of students with disabilities, with significant disabilities, who are unable to take the standard MCAS. Those are our students who take the alternate assessment. And this is about 1% statewide of all students with the most significant disabilities that take the assessment. Medford Public Schools had 17 students participate this year in the alternate assessment. And they all consist of a portfolio of specific materials that's collected throughout the school year. And when I say the school year, it's typically September to March, and then the portfolio is sent into the, to DESE, where they score it and then send the results back late in the summer. For each student that is on an IEP or a 504, their team decides how, not whether they'll participate in the MCAS assessment. The teams make the determination using the guidelines found in the principal's manual for the MCAS alternative. And our special education teams follow this decision-making tool. I've included it in your packet and it's just a flow chart that they go through at every team meeting to indicate or to decide which student will be participating in the standard MCAS and which students will be participating in the alternative. And then they have to make that decision for each content area that the student will be taking the MCAS testing in. So part of the process is we have our teachers go to the training through DESE in the fall. There are sessions throughout the school year that the teachers can go on to get further training or to have their students portfolios looked at and get feedback from DESE representatives. So once we identify the students going through the decision-making flowchart, each teacher will provide the student with a skill survey for each strand. So they have to do this for English, for math, and if appropriate, for science, depending on the grade level. So for English, there's one reading and one language strand. In math, there's three strands. In science, there's three strands as well. Based on the results of the skills survey, they select entry points or access skills. And then the students participate in the same content areas as the grade level pair. So if we're starting at grade three, it would be math and English. We also have our veteran teachers who have experience compiling and creating the MCAS alternative assessments, work with our newer special education teachers who are required to do this. So once the student is identified and the skill surveys is completed, the teacher has to set up the folder or the binder that will be presented to DESE. They select the measurable outcomes and classroom assessment activities, and they compile a binder following the DESE guidelines. In your packet, I provided you with an example from DESE, and it starts with the strand cover sheet. And this just is one strand or an example of a strand that the teachers need to do. So they have to provide the cover sheet, which tells the learning standard that the work samples will be addressing. They have to do include the skills survey. There's a bar graph with student performance that looks at accuracy and independence. And then there's also work samples that go along with it. So this is not a Metro public school student. This is just a sample from the department of education. I mean, Jesse, But this is the kind of work that the teachers are required to do for each one of their students. Once it's completed, the teacher meets with the guardian or caregiver and they review the binder and the parents sign off on it. Once we receive the parent's signature, it's sent to DESE, where they look at it, they score it. We get preliminary results in mid to late August, and then we get the final report at the same time the standard MCAS scores come out. And then the parents and guardians and caregivers also receive a breakdown of what the scores are, what they mean. And there also is a scoring rubric, which I included in your packet. So they're looking at five different areas when they score a student's learning standard and materials that are sent in. They wanna look at the level of complexity, A demonstration of skills and concepts. The level of independence that the student has exhibited when completing an assignment. Do they need hand over hand? Do they need visuals? Do they need prompting? self-evaluation, this is the student providing feedback on how they felt that they did on the actual task that was at hand, and then generalized performance. And that's a demonstration of knowledge and skills that they have provided samples. And then I broke it down per schools. Mr. Cushing, Dr. Cushing, if you could go ahead. By each school and the grade level that the students participated in, the content area, if you can go to the next slide, please. So this is the Roberts Elementary School, and there were two students in grade three and two students in grade four. And this is the achievement level that they received in those two areas. The next is the McGlynn Elementary School, and I broke it down the same. So we had three students at the McGlynn Elementary School that participated. There's a grade three student, a grade four student, and a grade five student. If you go to the next, which is McGlynn Middle School, which is the next two pages, we had sixth, seventh, and eighth graders, sixth and seventh graders participate. And they also participated in English, math, and some participated in science as well. And the last is Medford High School. We had three students. We had two ninth graders who took the science and then one 10th grader who took the ELA and math. There are several students that received an incomplete, if you see that on the chart, and we are looking at that right now with the teachers to determine why that was. Sometimes the learning standard doesn't match the curriculum framework, or there was not enough evidence that was submitted to support the student being able to receive the achievement of emerging, progressing, that sort of thing. So these are the scores. I do wanna let people know that we did not include the out-of-district results in this report. We are still collecting those, and I will be able to follow up with those results as soon as we receive them from all of the out-of-district schools. But the next steps for us is we continue to make these determinations on what students require the MCAS Alt Assessment. Staff will continue to receive support from DESE. We are scheduling check-ins with the special education coordinators for their specific staff who will be completing the ALT assessments, just to check their progress, answer any questions, make sure they're on track. The completed binders should be done by mid-March for the final review from the special education coordinators. And then we will obtain parent signatures and submit to DESE by the deadline of March 31st. Anyone has any questions?
[Melanie McLaughlin]: Member McLaughlin? Thank you. Thank you for putting this report together, Ms. Bowen, especially in the short amount of time that we had. So I appreciate that this will be an ongoing report. It's interesting information. So 17 students in the district entirely participate in the ALT based on the grade levels for MCAS requirements. And when you say a review with the binder with the parent and that there's a signature required in March. Do you know, like, have folks, because that's sort of the first I'm hearing about the review of the binder with parent and signature. So is there communication with CPAC around how that's working and whether that's working or with your coordinators around how that's working?
[Joan Bowen]: So I believe the signature is required. So last year was very different with COVID and some parents may not have been able to come in to review it. So they might've reviewed it via Zoom and then had the parents sign off on a different, like a separate sheet and send it in. But I know that's something that we are required to do is to, to meet with the parent and to review the whole binder to make sure that they understand why we're doing the MCAS and all the hard work that the student has done throughout the year.
[Melanie McLaughlin]: Yeah, that sounds like a really valuable process. I'm just, I want to make sure that it's happening for parents because it's, yeah, that's great. And we'll also, maybe we can check in with CPAC and ask. Thank you. And is the review with the binder and the signature happening? And when you get the OO at a district, can you check? if the review with the parent for the binder is happening with signatures on that as well, just to make sure.
[Joan Bowen]: Yeah, the other district should be meeting with the parent. If they're not, we need to know about that because they are submitting the documentation and the evidence. So we want to make sure that parents are aware that it's being sent in.
[Melanie McLaughlin]: I couldn't agree more. Okay. Thank you. And where did the portfolios live once they're finished?
[Joan Bowen]: So once the portfolios come back, we've set it up. So we, there's a cover sheet that provides us with the students results. We put that in their special education binder, and then we send the portfolio home because it is their property. It is their work. So we want the parents to have it.
[Melanie McLaughlin]: Oh, okay. That's great. Thank you. I think that's it. Thank you.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you, Ms. Bowen. Thank you. Next up, we have a report on professional development for administrators. Superintendent resident, Karen Williams will report on principal professional development programming that is occurring throughout the school year 21-22. Ms. Williams.
[its9IWYSDBY_SPEAKER_08]: Good evening, everyone. Thank you all for having me. I do have a PowerPoint presentation. that is coming. So this presentation is really an overview of the work that the district has been doing as a whole with its leaders. There have been several reports presented at committee meetings this year that explain the different levels of professional development and new assessments that the district has adopted. And this piece of the work is how we are building system coherence in the district. Next slide, please. I modeled the process of collecting data and determining the direction for this work based on best practice in education. Creating data cycles with student work is also important when you are looking at adult work. So we collected data and analyzed it through an entry planning process. When I joined the district, I had about 60 to 90 days of entry prep. And then there were goals set and that was done in some sense making meetings with the core team and the action planning. So this presentation is an overview of where we are to date and hopefully I'll be able to come back and share out how things are going at another time. So I guess this is an entry planning. So with the entry planning, I first began with a document dive. It was July and many people were still on vacation. So I was able to observe and review the newly adopted strategic plan and the ACES framework. I looked at the strategic allocation of ESSER funds and the budget, the current teacher contracts and other contracts, as well as expectations for leaders. And finally, student performance data. This was prior to the most recent score report, but still relevant because of the goals that are outlined in the strategic plan. Next, I went through all of the current initiatives and some of these are new. They're not all new, but definitely nuanced as a result of both the health and racial pandemic. So we know that there have been significant energy put towards parent engagement and social emotional learning. Next slide, please. I also conducted several interviews. I interviewed a variety of stakeholders, including some of our school committee members, leaders, teachers, and parents in the district. And I asked all of them the same three questions, tried to collect data along the way. And I want to share some of that with you today. I was able to summarize some of those points and a lot of them were consistent across stakeholder groups, but I did summarize statements for the sake of time and I wanted to bring your attention to the highlighted one. People are really proud of the school district's COVID response. They credit that to the leadership team, as well as the entire school community coming together. There are others here that I'm sure you'll want to read for the sake of time I'm going to move to the next slide. When looking at a vision for success what people wanted to see in the next five to 10 years. More than once it came up that clarifying roles, responsibilities, and expectations would help everyone move towards the same goal. So we know that the strategic plan was adopted in May. And so getting that communicated and out to everyone was really important at that point when I was collecting this data. Also, if you look at this, there's a strong desire for student-centered learning, data usage, autonomy and accountability, as well as a team culture. So now I want to slow down just a little bit and talk about the barriers to success. Again, I summarize the statements after collecting conversations from a variety of stakeholders. So this is my language, but the community sentiment. Communication is better, but not yet consistent enough or timely. There appears to be a gap in the pace of change and individuals' readiness for change, leading to fatigue, confusion, and frustration. There are too many silos for consistent collaborative work. There is a desire for explicit accountability systems that foster growth. And there is a need to communicate priorities and provide appropriate support through meaningful relationships. That data was so critical. to the district taking next steps with professional development for administrators. Next slide, please. So the goals for the monthly administrator professional development meeting, and when we say administrator, we're talking about district assistant superintendents, the superintendent, directors, principals, and assistant principals. So first we wanted to find instructional leadership with a focus of continuous improvement, not to say that that hasn't been happening, but to have a shared understanding of what that looks like, especially since the role of principal has changed in the last 20 years and we had a significant pandemic that has shifted the way we work completely. Develop data collection and analysis skills for decision-making. In the past, there has been several levels of high data like the MCAS, access for ELL, but now we have NWEA. We're looking at story as a valid data point. We're collecting surveys. And so it's more opportunities for us to look at data. Develop a community of practice and space for deep collaborative learning and transformation. This is important because in the past, assistant principals, principals, and directors had not all been in the same meeting at the same time. And so getting information from different places at different times means there's a little variation, and now they're all in one collaborative space. And then finally, developing symmetric structures of being and doing across the district. We know that we must honor equity. Every school has its own demographics, has its own needs, and we want to honor that. But we also know that there are best practices and quality around quality instruction for students. And we want to mirror those practices when we're working with adults. Next slide, please. So the current research, I won't bore you with a lot of details. But I have been researching adaptive and technical challenges, Heifetz's work, instructional leadership out of the University of Washington, system coherence, which is Michael Fullan's work, transformational coaching, Elena Arguella's work, and data analysis, which is data-wise in action from Harvard. So what we want to do is take all of those initiatives, the barriers, the goals from the strategic plan, and figure out the lens through which we can build system coherence. System coherence is not just about training and skill development. It's about adopting a mindset and connecting yourself to the impact that you want to make. So of these four dimensions of instructional leadership, improvement of instructional practice is our focus for this year. Next slide, please. That means our leaders need to take on an identity of an instructional leader where they are focusing on data. They're looking at data through multiple cycles, building a collaborative culture, evaluating teacher performance as well as student performance, and creating space for public practice for continuous improvement. So we're taking our time and building leader identity through this work. Next slide, please. What's really important is that we recognize that all of our roles have changed in light of the pandemic. And because of the additional operational focus that comes with maintaining physical and emotional safety in a school, we are asking our leaders to do more than they've done before. So we must support them. This grid comes out of the Achieve Leadership Academy, and it talks about how when we have too much accountability and not enough support, it feels like punishment. But if we don't have any accountability, you're gonna get yourself into either ignoring what's really the problem or enabling the status quo. So we recognize that though our students have progressed and we're happy that they are on target with the state, with MCAS, we still have goals, especially around meeting the needs of students and marginalized communities. So we must support our administrators as much as we wanna hold them accountable. That is the work of our meetings. And the end of my presentation. Are there any questions? Thank you, Ms. Williams.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: That was great. Thank you. May I just ask, so what do we do now? If you could just kind of explain where we go from here.
[its9IWYSDBY_SPEAKER_08]: Absolutely. So I'll work with the administrators for the rest of this school year, and then I'm collecting data on my work with them and they're collecting data on themselves as instructional leaders. And so hopefully we'll be able to report out some qualitative data on how they feel like their leadership has changed, how support in the district has increased for their role.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: So with your data collection, you're still in the process of your review, but have steps been made to, I know, sorry. barriers to success. So have steps been made to make positive changes? For example, I know we had issues this past couple of weeks with our bullying policy and how we all just need, especially the administrators, principals, vice principals need to be on the same page, need to set policy, need to set guidelines together, review the policy together so that everybody's consistent. So are there any positive changes that have come out of this or is that something you expect to give results for say mid to the end of the year and then move forward from there.
[its9IWYSDBY_SPEAKER_08]: That's a great question. I think that policy needs to be set for so that everyone is clear of the expectations. But when you get into each building and each leader, there are some nuances. on how to discern a specific behavior situation. And that's where the collaborative space really comes into place. And so if a leader has a specific behavior incident, there might need to be some conversation on how others are handling it in order to both meet the expectations of the policy, but also meet the needs of the student. Because we know that no tolerance policies do not work for our students. So that level of discernment cannot be done in silos any longer. We need a collaborative community to say, these are our children and this is how we can move forward together.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Great.
[its9IWYSDBY_SPEAKER_08]: Yeah. Thank you.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: At the end of the year, I'd love to see your suggestions too, like once a month meetings between vice principals, even if it's on Zoom or just different examples of how our superintendent can make positive change for our students and staff.
[its9IWYSDBY_SPEAKER_08]: Yeah, meetings have begun and leaders were asked to interview teachers and students and hear their story. They brought that to the table and we analyze that data. We've also looked at teacher observation data. It was blind as far as no names, but we're steadily collecting data that we have immediate control over so we can put data inquiry processes in action now. We can't afford to wait another year for MCAS results.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Wonderful.
[its9IWYSDBY_SPEAKER_08]: Thank you.
[Melanie McLaughlin]: May I? Yes, Member McLaughlin. Thank you. Thank you for this initial report. I appreciate your data. I also just want to ensure that the data collection and interviews with students and community members, what have you, are happening across all subgroups, which I'm sure they are, but I just want to make sure and put that out there that all of our subgroups, including our EL, economically disadvantaged, students with disabilities, minority students, obviously, all across the board.
[its9IWYSDBY_SPEAKER_08]: Absolutely. Thank you for making that comment. Again, we want to mirror best practice and create symmetric systems of listening and collecting data. And so we've talked about different levels of data and story being part of that. And so just like I've modeled that by doing a variety of entry interviews, we're also doing that as an admin group. Thank you. Thanks.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Number four, we have Engagement Hub Report. Assistant Superintendent of Finance and Operations David Murphy and Director of Family and Community Engagement Ms. Megan Fidler-Carey will report on the creation and ongoing development of the Medford Public Schools engagement hub providing for the coordination of services meant to foster and deepen the relationships between students and their respective school committees. Mr. Murphy, Miss.
[David Murphy]: Thank you, Mary Good evening members of the school committee. You'll recall that last June we presented before you as part of a series of presentations, with regard to the use of our SR funding, and one of the initiatives that we were undertaking as a district through the use of that funding was. the establishment of an engagement team and essentially an engagement department which would change how we as an organization were organized with respect to the deployment of high-touch student service and family engagement. And so what Ms. Fidler-Carey, and I are updating you on this evening are the initial steps we've taken to put that plan into place. And you'll see as we go through the slides this evening that there's both been some accomplishments with respect to our organization and a number of aspirational goals that we still have as we continue to further implement this initiative over the course of this school year and hopefully beyond. So on the screen now, you see our graphic that we rolled out last spring showing how we're taking the existing offices and departments and helping to essentially fusing those offices together in a hub model that Ms. Ridley-Carey serves as the director to helping to facilitate cross-departmental initiatives and meetings with the other departments that have the high volume connections with students and families. The underlying purpose and goal of the engagement hub and the engagement team that we've established this year is in response to what we know is an exacerbation of challenges that families have with regard to the nexus between the school community and the student and the family. This is work that, as I said to you last spring, has been happening in pockets and quarters and corners rather across the metro public schools, but not in the type of cross departmental intentional way. a big part of the engagement hub. So the sort of new piece of the work that didn't necessarily exist previously is the team of engagement specialists that we assembled over the course of the summer, bringing together a very thoughtful, very well credentialed, very diverse team of individuals that Megan's going to speak a little bit about tonight in their organization at the various levels of the elementary middle and high school levels. So that is essentially, that's one of the teams. And Mr. Beccari will talk a little bit about how those teams are interacting with the other departments and offices that we have. So I'm happy to take your questions afterwards, but I'd ask Megan to talk, as she's the person leading this work on the ground level, to talk a little bit about how that work is going and where we see it going from here.
[Megan Fidler-Carey]: Hi, it's nice to see you all again. Thank you. So some of the things that we do have in place are, like we said, so the, what we're calling the hub directors are, so I'm there as the director of family and community engagement, the EL director, director of people services, the director of health services, and the director of counseling. So the five of us have now established a regular scheduled meeting every other week so that we force ourselves to mark time in our calendars to sit down and kind of calibrate. So that those decisions that are happening in silos where you think, oh, I better check with the EL department to make sure that they're on the same page, but then life gets in the way or work gets in the way and we're not getting to it. Now we're forcing ourselves to sit down at a scheduled time so that we can make sure that our systems are aligned. if there are concerns from one to the other that we're addressing it before we, you know, before it gets to be some sort of fire. So the immediate things that we're addressing are looking at the registration process. So part of what is part of the engagement hub is the Parent Information Center, where families go to register their students, families that are new to Medford, or families that have students that are just starting school. And we're, you know, working across all of those different departments to find out what's you know, what's important to them or what they're finding from their constituents or barriers and confusing in the registration process so that we can address them all together and sort of problem solve. So we've been really working to streamline that process, simplify that process, make it equitable so that it's not kind of confusing for some but not others and try and reduce opportunities for mistakes. And then the other thing that we're, the next thing that we have on our agenda to work on is employing these re-engagement specialists from the re-engagement team. So the next thing we have is the re-engagement team. We've worked together to develop an organizational structure where we have them all seated in the schools. So, you know, we explored ideas about them all being working for all of the schools so that different personalities might jive better with different students. But what we realized was better was to have them become part of school communities. So we've got them deployed to the different they each own a school. So we've got Kelsey, who works at the Brooks and the McGlynn Elementary. We've got Craig at the Misitech Elementary and the Roberts. We've got Jamal and Stephanie, who are both working at both middle schools. And then we've got Cullen at the high school. Someday, I hope to have a chance for you all to meet these guys, because they really have done a good job, in my opinion, of really becoming part of the school community and really getting to know a lot of kids and reaching out to a lot of families, which is wonderful to see. We still have a lot of goals set that we're still working towards. We really want to get some systems in place, systems around referral processes for the engagement team specifically. Systems, we're still working on perfecting that registration process. And then, you know, with the hub directors, we're still, figuring out what else we can be working on. We know that there are a lot of systems that need to be designed and perfected, but it's a matter of like getting all those down and figuring out what all of those are and sort of challenging the way things have always been done and really, you know, looking in the mirror and examining the way we've been doing things and trying to decide whether there's a better way to do these things. So we have a lot of work ahead, but I think we're really getting, going in the right direction.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Yeah, I think that's it.
[David Murphy]: So again, there's a number of different sub threads to the engagement hub in terms of how these departments are working together and other places in which essentially it is new work that we are developing as we go. And that's a big part of the work that Megan is leading. And she spoke a lot about the sort of systems development piece. What's, I think, challenging and fascinating about this initiative is we are simultaneously looking to develop the structures and systems that will be sustainable beyond the current team, frankly, and years from now that this work will live in a place in which there will be an expectation that the departments are talking to one another, that they are collaborating and that they are working together. And while we're also while we're building those systems and structures that we hope are sustainable and last long into the future. We're also on the ground, and when I say we, I really mean Megan's team, are on the ground attempting to provide support in discrete situations every day where building administrators or school Councilors or teachers are identifying cases in which there are students whose relationship with the school is not as strong as we'd like it to be. And so I think that's why Megan and I spent a lot of time over the summer interviewing a good, competitive, diverse applicant pool. And what we feel strongly about is the group that we've assembled has demonstrated a capacity both for frankly having the patience to work with us as we develop these systems and rolling up their sleeves and diving into these school communities and building the relationships with staff, students, and families that we need them to in order to provide that discrete level of support that is particularly important this year as we come out of, hopefully come out of the pandemic. And so this is something that we feel very, as I think as an administration, we feel very strongly about, and that we think has a tremendous amount of potential. There's still a lot of work to do. We had Megan assembled very eloquent and concise biographies of each of our engagement specialists that we'll send to you later in the week. And we did consider having the team here tonight. But frankly, like, we're not looking to, we're not looking to just bring this office out and show you like a good group of people that are very well-intentioned. What we want to do is come back to you and report on with hard data and say, here are the number of cases that the engagement team has taken on. Here's some anecdotal information as to how they've been able to move the needle for students and families. And here's why on the whole, we think we're better off as an organization and better positioned to serve students and families going forward. And that's frankly, just gonna take more time. We know what's happening. Some of you, I know we've been in buildings on tours with you and we've bumped into engagement specialists doing their work, but it's still a work in progress, and we're looking forward to reporting back in the coming months. But as I said, or as Megan said, there's a lot of work that hasn't been done so far. We're proud of it, and we're hoping that this will be a dialogue that will be continuing as the year goes on. So happy to answer any questions or respond to anything you'd like.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Member Mustone's hand went up first, then Member Ruseau.
[Mea Quinn Mustone]: Thank you, Mayor. Can you just explain how the referral system works for people to see these hub leaders?
[David Murphy]: How the referral system will work, you mean?
[Mea Quinn Mustone]: But they're in the schools now, but are they not seeing kids directly yet?
[Adam Hurtubise]: No, they are. They certainly are. They are. That's sort of what I said. There's simultaneous work going on at the same time, right?
[David Murphy]: As most simultaneous work is. One is building the structures like a sound referral system in which every staff member, whether it be an adjustment Councilor or an assistant principal or a teacher or anyone in the building knows that when a particular set of facts line up, this is where that case is best positioned. And then there'll be times when the facts don't line up perfectly and it's not clear who in the organization will be best suited to serve that student and family and reestablish that relationship with the school. And in those cases, That's why the cross-departmental work that Ms. Fidelicari referenced with regard to the hub directors coming together is so important, because part of what happens in those meetings is they're gonna be looking at cases and saying, based on this set of challenges, this particular student and this particular family, this is how the organization can best respond to make sure that we give that student and that family the support that they need. So that is the vision, so that we have sort of a flow chart, if you will, of who gets what case and when, And then the hub is there to catch the cases, which there'll be many of that don't fit squarely within that particular equation. And that's where the directors have to come together and figure out how we best support that student, that family.
[Mea Quinn Mustone]: But is there a ballpark of how many students say they've seen at the four elementary schools combined?
[David Murphy]: So it's one, right now at the elementary level, it's one engagement specialist per two schools. And so there are situations where a family has raised a particular concern and the engagement specialist is an additional team member that a building administrator can defer, can refer a case to, and they can essentially connect with the family or the student, find out exactly what the problem is, and then help them troubleshoot through the organization. to find out what we can do to support them. I don't have a specific number on it, because it happens every day, almost every hour, where there are another staff member who's there to help. But what we want to get to is a place where we know, based on these circumstances, this is how we can best respond.
[Mea Quinn Mustone]: All right, I guess I'm just, I'm trying to figure out, is there an epidemic happening that there's a lot of families that aren't engaged and we need more than five team specialists? Are they seeing five kids a day or are they seeing one a week?
[David Murphy]: It varies by the day and it varies by the school. And frankly, seeing a student varies by the situation. Sometimes to reconnect the family to the school community, it's one conversation or it's sitting with the child at lunch to get them, you know, where they can, they feel as though they're in an environment in which they're, they feel welcome or whatnot. Other times it's a year long process of continuing to engage the family and exploring all the different strategies that we can employ to try to rebuild that relationship. I think your question as to whether there's an epidemic of disengagement, I don't think, I don't know that we have a official definition of what constitutes an epidemic, but I would say we are, the pandemic has exacerbated pre-existing challenges with respect to the relationship between students, families, and schools. And part of this initiative is our response to that, to make sure that we're having a whole of organization response to making sure that we're keeping families and students connected with their schools. I don't, we will never solve this challenge and we never would have even without the pandemic by assembling teams of engagement specialists. We're not going to have like a Marine Corps of engagement specialists. What we need is for the organization as a whole, to understand our responsibility to work together to not be siloed and to understand this is a primary fundamental responsibility we have as a district to keep families connected with with their school communities, right and I understand it's more of a triage, but I guess I'm thinking now okay see.
[Mea Quinn Mustone]: specialist has met a family and they need a lot of assistance. So then do they then meet weekly with the adjustment Councilor? Do we need more adjustment Councilors? Or I guess it's too early to learn what we're going to need after the engagement specialist are meeting with all these families and students?
[David Murphy]: I don't think anyone, given what we're seeing and how we're prioritizing, know that we need to prioritize social emotional learning. We'll say that there isn't a need for more adjustment Councilors. But to some extent, that's always been true and always will be true. And so I think more than just sort of identifying a specific number and saying, well, if we get to this ratio of Councilor to student, we're going to be fine. It's more about understanding that we have to, as an organization, prioritize engagement. Because if we don't, we know we'll never get them to feel connected enough to have the academic progress that we know they need to have in order to be successful or to receive the supports and services that they need to be successful. So I'm not trying to, I'm not trying to dance around your question. It's just that your question sort of gets to the heart of everything we're doing as an organization, particularly in this particular time period. There isn't like, well, if we just have this many people, we're going to be fine. It's more about understanding that this is an ongoing and continuous challenge that we have to recognize. And I think this initiative is one of the ways in which we do that, but it's not the only way.
[Mea Quinn Mustone]: So then at the end of this year, will the initiative tell us what we should be prioritizing with staff? I imagine there's going to be a need for more staff. there's many families being referred to the specialist.
[David Murphy]: Yes, except that the specialist will never have a monopoly on this work. It will always be a team approach of Councilors, of teachers, of administrators, of engagement specialists, of community partners, of mental health support.
[Mea Quinn Mustone]: The specialist is like a caseworker. So they're not seeing students one-on-one.
[David Murphy]: No, they could.
[Mea Quinn Mustone]: They are. Okay. I didn't realize that. So they can meet with students one-on-one.
[David Murphy]: Sure.
[Mea Quinn Mustone]: to have a counseling session are.
[David Murphy]: I mean, I don't know that I want to get into a defining as a specific counseling session because there are some licensing issues there, but like certainly there could be an instance where engagement specialist is is meeting with either an individual student or a small group of students, sometimes with family representatives. Their work is their utility players essentially, I guess I'd be curious if maybe another meeting to hear what their day looks like because I'm, I guess I'm not grasping what their role is and how they're being utilized in one, I think that's a fair question I think in some ways it's, it's in development, but I think if you look through the deck and I think in the last slide how quickly we can pull it up, but there is a recitation essentially of the sort of like core job duties that range from the sort of like individual discrete case management to working with the district to try to figure out what type of system could we most efficiently and most effectively identify the supports that a student needs.
[Megan Fidler-Carey]: So I meet with the team weekly and one of the things that we're really exploring is how they can collect data and so they're all working together and sharing. the way that they're recording their data from the students they work with, and students they work with either one-on-one or in a class or in the lunchroom. So they're doing, you know, first of all, they analyze the attendance records and for students that are out of school, they're definitely addressing those students first. That's their main mission. But then also what can they do preventatively for students that seem to be sort of disengaging from classes, or in different ways, they're reaching out to those students. And we're talking a lot about how they're collecting the data about that work and with whom they're sharing it with. It's really important to let the Councilors know if you've made some sort of relationship breakthrough with a student so that the Councilors can get that too. So we're, we're perfecting that. I mean, it's definitely, it's not like I could show you this is our system of data collection, we're talking about that weekly, and, and, you know, improving it and perfecting it weekly. So hopefully, by the end of the year, we will see some serious trends in what we've collected that will tell us some sort of stories. But something that stood out from the school in Maine where was like engagement is not one person's job. So definitely, it's not It's not something that they've passed off to the re-engagement team. That's still starting with the principals and the assistant principals and going through everybody. And this is just sort of yet another safety net that we're adding on to make the screen a little bit tighter.
[David Murphy]: Thank you. If I could just add one last point, everyone in the district now is taking on operational duties as well. So these are not well compensated monitors for the building. But at the same time, because of staff shortages, there are instances in which engagement specialists are covering various types of duties. they're doing it with the lens of identifying how can they continue to have that relate, build those relationships with students, because that's their, that's their primary focus. I just want to add that because I think particularly when you have something that's new and a new approach, there are cynics who will be essentially looking for us to say they're out, you know, building relationships with kids all day. And they'll say, well, I saw one of them doing lunch duty. And so to save us all time, I just want to add that occasionally that happens as well, as it does for administrators, as it does for teachers, as it does for paraprofessionals, and given our staffing shortages, as it does for everyone. But that is absolutely not the primary way in which they're spending their time.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Okay, thank you. Thank you. Member Ruseau, and then Member McLaughlin.
[Paul Ruseau]: Thank you. My questions have been answered.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Member McLaughlin?
[Melanie McLaughlin]: Thank you. Thank you for the chair to my colleagues for the questions that were answered as well, because I have the same and have a few more. So I'm wondering how we have engaged. So it sounds to me like the goals for the engagement hub for this year are re-engagement around already diminished relationships. around academic learning. Is that accurate?
[David Murphy]: I think it's a very important part of it. I think it's probably, I would say it's a The goal is slightly broader than that, because it's not just identifying the subset of students for whom the early warning indicators would say that this is clear diminishment of the relationship between the student and the school. As Megan said, there's also preventative work that's happening, and so that could be getting involved in extracurricular programming or other ways in which we're trying to keep the relationship strong so we don't have to do the level of re-engagement that would be necessary. In light of the post-pandemic context, I would say, yeah, that's a very critical part that is unavoidable, just based on the volume.
[Melanie McLaughlin]: Yeah. So I just would say that this deck really feels heavy on the re-engagement sort of specialists working on consistent attendant, chronically disengaged from learning, attendance and residency duties. So I'm hearing that as sort of a focus of this year anyway, and I'm wondering, again, sort of stepping back a moment and asking ourselves, like, where did that come from? And how did we engage stakeholders and what that was going to look like? So how, I know you have the hub directors, which I think is great. I think you definitely need the inter, you know, departmental collaboration, but how were families engaged in that process in terms of identifying what the goals would be for the hub for this year is, is one of the questions I have. Cause I mean, I do feel like it's kind of the irony of family engagement is that We're saying we're doing family engagement, but we're not engaging families and what the engagement is going to be sometimes.
[David Murphy]: Yeah, I mean, there was no family engagement department per se, prior to this, so I think it's creation is a good step in the direction of family engagement. And I think in month three, I would say, I think it would be premature to say that there's been no family engagement. And that's particularly true because depending on the levels, the engagement specialist work can vary. And so particularly at the elementary level, there has been a decent amount of direct family engagement. But I think, I take your question to mean more helping to inform the vision of the work that's happening. Absolutely. And I think that's true, but I just, I wouldn't say it's limited solely to the engagement hub. I think it has to be an organizational wide priority that the hub is a big part of, but not to the exclusion of all the other facets of the organization.
[Melanie McLaughlin]: Right. How, and how is this different? Are these engagement specialist positions differentiated from school adjustment Councilors?
[David Murphy]: Various ways. I mean, I think one, it's the sort of the utility of the engagement role is that it can be, it can be broader essentially. Whereas the adjustment Councilors have a more of a defined portfolio that is based specifically on, on counseling within the, whether that be adjustment Councilor support or guidance Councilor support, it's sort of an established lane of support. It's not unintentional that some of the engagement specialists bring social work and counseling background, because I think that is a really important part of the work. But generally speaking, I think the idea with the engagement team is to be a little more nimble in terms of both background and in terms of the types of supports that they would offer students. Thank you.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: And just as a point of information. Sorry.
[Paul Ruseau]: Point of information.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Point of information.
[Paul Ruseau]: Thank you. We did approve the job descriptions for the engagement specialist earlier this year, correct? Correct. Yep. Thank you.
[Melanie McLaughlin]: And so for the, what are the qualifications for the engagement specialist?
[David Murphy]: as outlined in the job description that the committee approved, but I think that was intentionally done to have a broad array of backgrounds. And so our staff, we have individuals with extensive school-based experience working as a paraprofessional to someone who was a practicing attorney working in a district attorney's office and eventually a school system. So again, I would say that it's intentional in part because, and I think this is one of the things that for Megan and I was really sort of a great opportunity over the course of the summer, is that we were both looking for talented individuals that would add to the organization, but also thinking about how the team would complement each other. And for that purpose, we wanted a diverse set of professional backgrounds because we knew that this is a department that was going to have to be nimble and flexible and respond essentially to the situations that we were seeing in schools. And I think that's, again, as we said, there's a lot of work that has to happen in order to really bring this vision to fruition. But I think we were successful in assembling a team whose background complements one another.
[Melanie McLaughlin]: Thank you. And so that's great. And so they have a college degree required, not yet required?
[David Murphy]: to be, again, I don't have the job description that the school committee approved in front of me. I don't remember it, so I'm asking. I would assume that there's a bachelor's degree, but I can't, and I'm pretty sure that as it happens, I believe all five individuals do have a bachelor's degree, but I can't, we certainly interviewed individuals who didn't have a bachelor's and that there's, I could envision circumstances under which someone without a bachelor's degree would be successful in this.
[Melanie McLaughlin]: Okay, so it's a case by case basis on family engagement qualifications is what I'm hearing.
[David Murphy]: I think it's, I think what's critical from our perspective is to have a team that complements each other and family engagement obviously has a very wide array of responsibilities and duties. And I wouldn't want to create barriers to an applicant pool. I don't, by the way, I'm not sure we're hiring for this role right now, because it's a position to fill, but I'd like to keep it that way, I won't say. But I just, I have a, I guess a general aversion to rigid academic barriers to positions that are more based on someone's capacity with- Yeah, no, I'm not saying academic, yeah, I appreciate that.
[Melanie McLaughlin]: Qualifications can be about lived experience for sure.
[David Murphy]: I thought the question was about a bachelor's degree.
[Melanie McLaughlin]: Yeah, no, I was wondering if that was part of it. And we don't know because we don't remember is what I'm asking, right?
[David Murphy]: I believe it's a preferred requirement.
[Melanie McLaughlin]: And then thank you for the response and for engaging me for this moment. And then can we have, I know getting back to some of the colleagues' questions as well, it would be great if there were some data-driven goals and some flowchart for a referral process. And so maybe that's something that could be, Megan, yeah, Ms. Wilson, if we can think about what that would look like and how that could be visualized for the community in a visual flowchart sort of form so people know. So I guess I'm thinking about it from a family perspective. If you have a concern and you wanna be proactive, not reactive, right? And a family is looking for some answers, they don't know, are they going to the guidance Councilor? Are they going to the school adjustment Councilor? Are they going to the engagement specialist? So I think there's a lot of confusion around who I think it's great that we have options on who we can go to, but I think there's a lot of confusion around who we can go to and in what circumstance. So I think some clarification around that would be super helpful. I'm really excited about this and I know that The school in Maine, we'll be talking more about the school in Maine survey, but one of the biggest outcomes of the school in Maine survey was building capacity for staff. And that was sort of, they said, if we're not accomplishing that, then nothing will be accomplished really. So I thought that was really an important piece. And then lastly, I wanted to ask, sorry, building. Oh, and in addition to all of the other responsibilities, that the director has, I see that you're also doing oversight of before and after school care and functioning as the district's transportation liaison. So I guess I'm wondering how does one person do all of those three, it sounds like three jobs, and more.
[David Murphy]: I guess as the person who had those three parts of my portfolio and then a few other things, I would say it's a real challenge. And part of the organization that we did was to understand that yes, Megan is the point person for these issues, but there's a team supporting her. So first we had the five engagement specialists. We have two specialists that work in parent information center. We have the bus vendor and who I think Ms. Fidler-Carey and I both have the opportunity to speak with on a regular basis.
[Melanie McLaughlin]: I'm sorry, the bus vendor, is that what you said?
[David Murphy]: The bus vendor, the bus vendor. So if the question is, does Ms. Fidler-Carey have a very broad and challenging portfolio, I would say the answer to that is yes. And we've tried to structure the offices of which she has oversight in a way that will position her to be, her and those teams, to be successful.
[Melanie McLaughlin]: I guess the question is, and this is my last question, I guess the question is, is, is the need being met as a transportation liaison, particularly in addition to family and community engagement? I know that transportation was one of the biggest issues we've been having. And I also, I think, are you also addressing the special education transportation? No.
[David Murphy]: Yeah, I think if you were if there was an area that we would be like a staffing priority transportation would probably be at the top of that list. It's, it's not a priority that stays at the top of the list 12 months a year, which is why In our conversations leading up to the eventual establishment of budgetary priorities for FY23, we've talked about what might some options be with respect to building out that capacity in a way that makes the prudent use of resources. So that could be a part-time position. It could be some external support. But I do think in that umbrella, it's the area right now that would probably be at the top of the list in terms of staffing priorities.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you, thank you, Ms. Feather Perry for all your hard work. Thank you very much for the presentation. Oh, I had a question. Oh, member Van der Kloot. Sorry.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Yeah, so thank you. I think this sounds like very interesting and challenging work. A couple of questions. First, where were the engagement specialists housed in the schools? Have we found offices for them all? Because I can't believe that wasn't a challenge.
[Megan Fidler-Carey]: It was definitely a challenge. They all have somewhere to sit and somewhere to be. Some, depending on the school and what else they have to also house in their building. Some of those offices are more sort of desirable than others, but they do all have a space. The principals have been really very welcoming to the re-engagement specialists and definitely want to make them feel very comfortable and a part of the team. We realized that that was the most important part was to make them part of the school community so that the teachers and Councilors would, you know, utilize them and put them to work and so that the students would, you know, trust them and want to be great.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: That was actually my second question was, you know, part of this is, is that they have to find their place within the schools, right, and to a point that Mr. Murphy made earlier. Sometimes they've had to be utilized as coverage, but frankly, that sometimes is the time when you really get to see a broad view of students, and this can be very very valuable to whoever works in the school so I actually think, especially at the beginning of the year. That's an asset, even, you know, I understand it's time consuming, but it does allow someone to come in. Now, my other question is so let's suppose said person, one of your reengagement specialist is something that we as adults understand the terminology. What will the kids call these individuals? Where do they fit in there?
[Megan Fidler-Carey]: I'm glad you brought that up. They'll be glad you brought that up because they have, we've spent a lot of time from their perspective, thinking about how they'll introduce themselves. They, and we've said re-engagement works for, you know, the academics in the room, but how will they introduce themselves to families and to children so that they, it's much clearer. So they're working on words like outreach and advocates and So that I think they use outreach specialists, the most are family outreach or family advocates or family support specialist specialists, that's how they like to talk about the work that they do. Because they understand that it's it's sort of confusing to use as you speak with families and. And frankly, they want to be the kind of non, depending on what the issues are that are making the kid not engaged to school. You know, if it's, especially at the elementary level, it's the family that's not engaged more than the student that's not engaged. So these, the re-engagement specialists understand that they need to establish trust and establish relationships with the family. So they really make it clear that though their paycheck comes from the school, they work for the family.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: I guess, you know, I'm just thinking for the youngest kids, something like a, helping hand or something. Yeah, you know something, something that something, even a helper I'm a helper that someplace I can just see them being in the school and trying to say, how do they define their place with the title, which is child friendly helper. Anyway, just curious.
[David Murphy]: It's a good, it's a good question. Megan and I were talking the other day about how sometimes some of the most important relationships between a student and the adult start with assisting in the opening of a milk carton. And you don't necessarily need to flash a badge to say you're with the engagement office before you do that. The student just wants his milk. And I think that's the type of mindset that was evidenced to us and the individuals as we were interviewing people that we really wanted to see. And I think our building administrators would attest that that's the mindset that they've exhibited as they've gone out and started to build their relationships within these individual school communities.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Thanks very much.
[David Murphy]: Thank you.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you. We have number five hot water heater at Medford High School, Assistant Superintendent of Finance and Operations, Mr. David Murphy, will provide an update on the awarding of a bid contract for the repairs and or replacement of a hot water heater at Medford High School. Mr. Murphy.
[David Murphy]: Thank you, Mayor. Provided in the committee's packet this week was information related to the response to the invitation for bids that was put out by the city's procurement office. As I mentioned in the memo, the capital repairs presentation that you received a week ago this evening was designed in the hope of having as few surprises. in capital repair projects as possible for the remainder of the year. Unfortunately, and I think in my conversations with Mr. McLaughlin and Ms Maxwell in the procurement office with the city, it does appear as though our bids are reflective of some of the late stage pandemic pricing that we're seeing in a variety of sectors in the economy. And so while the estimate that we had initially received was for $170,000 for the replacement of the hot water heater at the high school, the lowest bid came in just a little under $370,000. That is obviously disappointing. But at the same time, this is a critical infrastructure repair. That was put out as our first request for for bids and proposals this year due to the fact that we have some critical services that we will not be able to sustain if we don't make this repair and so our recommendation tonight would be that the committee approved the awarding of the contract. The enterprise equipment company incorporated is the company that was both the low bidder and we received a positive reference checks on and we are eager to get this work moving forward. I'd ask if you do consider the motion if you grant us this approval. I would ask that the motion leave the administration flexibility with respect to the particular budget line that we charge. At the moment we have capacity within the capital repairs budget that was allocated in August of 2020 by the Medford City Council to address this issue. It would be my hope that whether, and it likely would have to be a post-expenditure reclassification in order to do this, but my hope would be that the revolving funds associated with the services that the hot water heater allows us to provide would be able to defray that cost. Given the scope of the price that we're not going to be able to, we're not going to find $368,000 in revolving accounts to pay for this in its entirety. But as I said, we have the capacity we need to in the capital repairs budget, and we'll just try to minimize the use of that, if possible, due to the other capital priorities that were articulated last week. So I'm happy to answer questions to the best of my ability based on that.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Member Ruseau, and then Member Kreatz.
[Paul Ruseau]: Thank you. I have one question. How quickly can they get going on this? Because I mean, my next statement will be a motion to approve this, but I mean, I don't want to hear in 2024, we're discussing that they finally are able to start the work.
[David Murphy]: Yeah. I'm basing my, so In a variety of areas, we have seen how supply chain issues and some of those other external factors are affecting timelines. And so I'm not really inclined to attest to any specific timeline as a result of that. My understanding based on the reference checks and the scope of work that was articulated in the invitation debate is that the plan would be for this work to to begin in a matter of weeks and to be completed in the month of December. So even though I just said I'm not going to establish a timeline, so please remember that. Qualifier, it certainly is our, our hope is that this work is completed in a matter of weeks.
[Paul Ruseau]: Thank you. Motion to approve.
[Kathy Kreatz]: because I went through my notes and I was surprised by the increase in the price and you answered that question also. So, I had in the notes from the building grounds meeting that it was possible that when we approve this in May that there might have been a possibility of getting a rebate.
[David Murphy]: Yes.
[Kathy Kreatz]: So, I kinda, I was just curious about that.
[David Murphy]: That's, thank you, miss Gretz and I, I should have added that, that part of the other reason I'm asking for the flexibility with regard, with regard to exactly where it's charged to is that we are hopeful that we'll be able to defray based on a rebate working with other offices within City Hall. So those conversations are ongoing. I'm certainly happy to report back on what the actual budgetary impact ends up being, but because we don't have full clarity on the potential rebates yet, nor do we have the revolving accounts. Revolving accounts obviously vary based on participation and a variety of other factors that we can't control. But I don't have any, I don't, I can't say specific numbers with respect to what the potential rebate could be. There's some energy efficiency rebates which is part of what we're exploring. And I don't know what the capacity for the revolving account will be. My hope is that. we fix this, first of all, so that we don't avoid an interruption with respect to the services of the swimming pool or, you know, with respect to food services, which we have some makeshift strategies to avoid, but it's still, it's taxing. And then come back and I'll be able to articulate how we were able to reclass based on revolving accounts and rebates and whatnot, and then hopefully not dip into the capital repairs budget to the extent that we might have to. So, yes, we're looking at that. And it's, frankly, I wanted to get this before the committee as soon as possible to get your approval and then figure out later how we can defray part of the cost. Thanks.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Motion for approval by Member Ruseau, seconded by Member Van der Kloot.
[Unidentified]: Please call the roll.
[Melanie McLaughlin]: Member Graham. Yes. Member Krantz. Member McLaughlin, yes. Member Mustone, yes. Member Ruseau, yes. Member Vanden Heuvel, yes. Mayor Lungo-Koehn, yes.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Seven in the affirmative, zero in the negative. The paper passes. We have presentations of the public now to begin before 7 p.m. Regular meeting minutes of the Medford School Committee include this presentation 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 the item be added to the subsequent regular meeting. The details for submitting a presentation can be found within the policy, public comment, and presentations of the public. Pursuant to the policy BEDH public comment and presentations of the public, any resident in the audience may be given permission to speak once on any item on the agenda for 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 their 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 medfordkp.edu. .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 rec in less than three minutes or the comments will be summarized by the secretary of the school committee. A welcoming inclusive community is both the 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, the number and name of the item on the agenda, your first and last name, your Medford Street address, where you reside, your question or comment.
[Unidentified]: Member Vindicu, do we have any emails? Thank you.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Okay, we'll check on that, but thank you for the update. Number six, continued business update on maintenance of McGlynn Elementary Kindergarten Classrooms requested on November 8th, 2021. Mr. David Murphy, Assistant Superintendent of Finance and Operations.
[David Murphy]: Thank you, Mayor. The committee voted at your last meeting to receive an update related to some of the repair work that's necessary at the McGlynn Elementary School. As I noted in a memo to the committee last week, We have identified a firm, gr la design and ESA waterproofing masonry incorporated, which has been retained to complete this work, it was scheduled. And I believe I said this in the memo scheduled originally to be completed the day after Thanksgiving. We run into some scheduling difficulties with that and are currently exploring. Just to be clear what this is, this is the water testing of the area that had the leaks. So if you'll recall, a member of the community spoke quite passionately about the challenges that were encountered by a kindergarten class that needed to be moved out of an area of the building due to some leaks. As I stated at the meeting last week and as noted in the memo, we understand as an administration, this is completely unacceptable. We don't want Our kindergarten students or frankly our students in any grade level, having to combat these types of infrastructure based disruptions to their education. We have had multiple storms, since the one that presumably precipitated the leak. and it has not reoccurred. But based on the history of the building, I've been advised that that's not something that we can count on going forward. And so that's why we're doing this higher level water testing. But we want to do the water testing at a time when the, obviously when the students are not there. And there are some challenges to scheduling that in a holiday period or on a weekend. So we're navigating that right now. The very latest that this work would be completed would be during the holiday recess between Christmas and New Year's. But it's my hope that we'll be able to identify a way of getting it done sooner. But there are a few procedural hurdles that we'll have to go through to complete that, but it will not be done later than the New Year.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Through the chair, when you say water testing, you're going to figure out where the leak is coming from, even though some patchwork probably has been done.
[David Murphy]: I'm going to hire people much more well qualified to do this. I'm not personally going to, but my understanding is that they will essentially be testing both water and the direction that the water is coming in. So the inference is that we have trouble in this particular area when it's a combination of rain and wind. torrential downpours that are not blowing sideways has not caused the damage that you saw in those photos last week. The combination of rain and wind appears to be what the area of the building is susceptible to. And so that's the specific type of test, as I understand it, that needs to be run to determine exactly what needs to be reinforced in order to prevent this from happening again.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Member van de Kloot.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Just to clarify, so the students were moved, or was this an event where the teacher came in and found the water in the?
[David Murphy]: Yes.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: After the evening or weekend?
[David Murphy]: It may have been identified by a custodian or administrator prior to the teacher coming in.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: And the students were moved?
[David Murphy]: To a different area of the building. They were not there when they didn't have a ceiling tile come down in the middle of the classroom. Right.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: And then are the ceiling tile has been replaced at this point?
[David Murphy]: That's my understanding of this.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Are the kids back in that original classroom? Yes, they're definitely back in there.
[David Murphy]: It may have a temporary patch over that particular area. Sometimes that happens before the matching ceiling tiles can come in. But they're definitely back in their classroom and have been, I think, since the day after the initial damage was done.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: OK. And this was one classroom at the McGlynn. Is that correct?
[David Murphy]: I think it was three kindergarten classrooms.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Three. Three. Three kindergarten classrooms were affected.
[David Murphy]: Same, but they're rooms next to each other, but yeah.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Okay. So one of the things which I'm just going to comment on is that I feel almost like our rules and regulations about how we address something, I think we're unfortunate in this case because we had a member of the public come up and show some photos, and it says we're not supposed to respond. And yet it was very clear to me that the superintendent had been down, that she knew a lot about this, that you knew a lot about this, but because it says we're not supposed to respond, that family who was sitting here walked away without any answers, just, and we did what we could do. We said we referred it and asked you for information today. To me, there's a process thing, which is difficult for me, only because if we're following our rules, then we're not responding to a person with an immediate concern. And I think it doesn't speak to the strength of the administrative team who knew everything. You could have answered the questions last week with a follow-up today or whatever. But I find that to be, as someone who's been on the committee for a long time, a very difficult place. And I understand we're following procedure. To the end, the only thing I could think of, frankly, to the superintendent is to say, please be more proactive. This was a situation you knew about. It probably should have been in your report, so we could have spoken about it. So if something like that's the thing, the only thing my sort of plea to you is to be, I think you guys did everything right, that you were on top of the situation. But unfortunately, when it was presented, because we were following our rules, it didn't look like you were as on top of the situation as you actually were.
[David Murphy]: I think that's a fair point. The only thing I would say is for the members of the community, I don't think any answer I give tonight or any answer I could have given last week are going to erase the fact that three kindergarten classes had to move out of their room and that the photos were taken mid-repair, so they were never going to be aesthetically pleasing, but I just I think your point is perfectly well taken. And I think particularly when we know that there's going to be an agenda item and someone who's going to speak. I think providing that information beforehand will be helpful to the committee and to the community member. I just don't want anyone to infer that I think tonight's response somehow fully remedies the challenge that those students and families faced, because I recognize that it does.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: It doesn't, and it never will, because when things happen like that, it's going to be a problem for all of us. But on the other hand, since we did know it was going to be on the agenda, if it had been included In the superintendent's remarks, we could have said, we're going to hold that until later. I mean, frankly, I'm trying to do a workaround around our rule, which makes sense for other reasons, but is sometimes challenging. And I'm not going to be here to do it, but I am saying to my committee members, this is an interesting dilemma.
[David Murphy]: In this particular instance, we knew the agenda item was on there, we could have added our own agenda. So I think you're right, and I think we as a team, and particularly this is an area that myself and the Buildings and Grounds Department are responsible for, we have to be a little more forward leaning in making sure that you have that information.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Because I guarantee you that when there's something like this particular problem, it's going to get to the committee. I mean, it's going to get, you know, it's not a surprise. Sure. And so, and it also leads us to just ask the question right now, is there, are we experiencing, there's always leaks?
[Adam Hurtubise]: Yeah.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Are we experiencing anything else that you've got your eye on, that you're concerned about in another?
[David Murphy]: Yes, I mean, we have a number of infrastructure challenges, particularly with regards to the high school. So I don't know of a specific spot right now in which there's water coming down, but I know there are areas that need to be addressed in a very comprehensive fashion. So this is- Let me define my question.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: In terms of, this seems like possibly this is a roofing issue, is that?
[Mea Quinn Mustone]: It's been years.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Say it again?
[Mea Quinn Mustone]: So I'll let you finish, but then.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Is this a roofing?
[David Murphy]: It's a reoccurring leak problem. I'm not sure if it would be considered walls or roofs, but I believe where the two meet, essentially. That's not my area of expertise. It's probably obvious, but it's an infrastructure issue that I believe is presumed to be a design flaw. But it's not one, I just also want to be clear, this is not something that happens on a weekly basis. There have been instances in which situations like this at the McGlynn and at least one other school that have happened, as I understand it, historically, and we do our best to respond, but I think it's certainly It's somewhere between, I don't want to say it's isolated because I don't want to suggest it's the only time that we've ever had a situation like this. It's not, I have no evidence to suggest that it's rampant.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Specifically, this isn't something which is going to be solved by putting on a new roof. Is this saying we need a new roof?
[David Murphy]: I don't know the answer to that right now. So I think that's part of why we need the testing to take place to understand the extent of it. So that will be part of the assessment to determine whether it's a new roof or a piece of a particular piece of the infrastructure. I don't know. It's just something that we need to do more testing on.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Okay. All right.
[David Murphy]: Thank you. Thank you. Sorry. I wish I had more specifics, but I think when the testing is done, we should be able to have more details.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Member Mustone, then Member McLaughlin.
[Mea Quinn Mustone]: Mr. Murphy, I know it was long before you got here, but the teachers from those classrooms have been emailing for years that periodically they had flooding. So I am a little upset that it took a parent to come here with pictures to finally get the ball rolling. And this is long before you were here, Mr. Murphy, but I guess moving forward and Kathy and I can both speak from being on the building and grounds committee over the years, that not administrators, teachers or staff members would complain of a building issue and it never was addressed until it seems like a parent came and then it was addressed. So I'm trying to figure out moving forward, how does the school committee, when we hear of these concerns, get the physical building concerns addressed without having to have a parent come out on a school night, take photocopies 18 pitches times the eight of us here to move forward on our physical structures.
[David Murphy]: So I think there are two answers to that. One, as I think you've heard me say before, I think we do need a more extensive and more strategic capital repairs calendar. That's, as I mentioned last week, the documents that you received last week, was it sort of the first sort of step in that process of just identifying broadly the list of things that we know need to be addressed from a structural perspective. I think that's step one, and I think that leads to a capital improvements process consistent with how the city has started to look at their capital repairs in strategic planning. And I think we need to do that, and I think we have to do it built into a calendar that we know on either a quarterly or a semiannual basis, you're being updated so that you know what's in the pipeline and what needs to be addressed. The second thing I would say though is that Because the problem has persisted, I don't think necessarily suggest that there was no response. And as you said, this was before my time, but I can tell you that there are a number of instances in which there have been reoccurring problems and challenges that the district through the buildings and grounds department has addressed, but has not had the capacity to address the underlying structural issues. And so I think that's an important point because I have not been witness to situations in which situations like this have been ignored. I have seen a number of situations in which a situation like this has been addressed with a band-aid level solution that then inevitably reoccurs. And I think that, to go back to my first point with regard to a capital repair strategic planning process, I think that's how we get away from that mandate type approach.
[Melanie McLaughlin]: Thank you. I just a couple of comments I guess on to the chair and some of the discussion that's been had I think that to the chair again to member band includes point about a family. Community member coming up and sharing information with us, which I think is a very difficult thing to do for a lot of people, not to mention the photocopying and everything else, but getting up to the podium and being on the screen and having your back to people and, you know, facing us can be very intimidating and so I applaud anyone who's able to get up there and do that, and especially to point out things constructively in the way that the person did last week. So I think if I'm not mistaken, and I'm not an expert, but I do believe in Robert's rules of order, which is the governance that we are held to, you can suspend the rules and ask that an imminent issue be addressed. And again, we can double check on that, but just to, again, through the chair, to member Van der Kloot's point, there are ways that issues can be addressed if they are imminent on the floor. So I think we can look into that ourselves and the training around Robert's Rules of Order is really critical for the body. And then I would also mention that the good of the order that's supposed to be on our monthly meetings is another way that we can sort of address some of these issues potentially. So that should be on the first meeting, I believe of the month. And then I just wanted to mention So for the, sorry, I just lost my train of thought. Oh, as for the building and ground subcommittee, I know that, again, through the chair, Member Mustone was talking about the work that Member Kreatz and Member Mustone do through that subcommittee. And I think that there are opportunities to work with stakeholders in the community to be part of the subcommittee for regular updates. So that's part of what I know some of the other subcommittees are doing, just in terms of regular updates for buildings. where then there could be some feedback in the report back to the rest of the committee. If that's a process that wants to be established, it could be done potentially through the subcommittee. Thank you for listening.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you, Member Van der Kloot and then Member Ruseau.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Yeah, I just want to go back. In fact, as I recall, as my brain fog lifts, Mia's absolutely right, my colleague, Ms. Mastones, because I do, in fact, remember that we fixed this problem before. And that, you know, that's part of the problem is that we fix problems, and they happen again, and they happen again and with all good intentions that people thought that they got to the root of it the last time we had put together, if we, if we go back at least two, four years when we were doing the. planning over what would infrastructure planning over the next couple of years, what project we would see. At that time, the roofs were on that saying well they probably have a shelf life of another five years or so well that's back for at least four. years, if I recall. So I think that document is one that should surface again. It does exist and that those were items of concern back then. And again, it's difficult because they're big ticket items. Thank you. Member Ruseau.
[Paul Ruseau]: Thank you. I just want to clarify that Robert rules of order is part of our charter actually in the city that that's how we will operate. But open meeting law supplants Robert rules and every every way we cannot suspend the law. We could suspend Robert rules of order, but the law does make it quite clear that we can't discuss something that on the agenda. Unless it's an emergency and emergency a leak that was already done. There's nobody who believes that would be considered an emergency. If we had a fire in the school building this morning, we can talk about it tonight. That's an emergency. But a leak that is no longer happening, I certainly wouldn't want to be at the attorney general's office trying to explain why that's considered an emergency and that the law should be suspended. So I just wanted to clarify that, no, we cannot discuss or suspend the rules because suspending the rules does not suspend the law.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Point of information. Point of information, member McLaughlin.
[Melanie McLaughlin]: And I guess the question to that is whether that folks knew that that leak was fixed or not, and whether that would constitute an emergency. And I think that the body votes on that, not an individual. So I would say that it could be put to the body for a question for suspension.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: could be pushed to the body for a vote but I think the administration's heard us loud and clear, you know resident has an issue that is, we have an answer to. put it on as an agenda item or in the superintendent's updates so that we can discuss.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: If I could go just one little part. It's not if a resident has an issue. It's asking the administration that if something like this occurs again, where children are moved out of the classroom because of a major issue like this, that you included in the report of the superintendent. Because I think that's the easiest way to to have it on the agenda.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Or have it as a report that we can discuss. That's just my thought.
[Jenny Graham]: Member Graham. I think last week we also talked about revising the ongoing process of capital planning, and we talked about doing that in January, February, pre-budget time, which I still think is a good time to do it. And I think we need to start to be exceedingly clear about when we're putting band-aids on things and when we're fixing things systemically. So if we say we fix something three times, we put three band-aids on, we did not fix it. And I think it's misleading and problematic when we tell the community we spent money and fix something, and then we have to tell them we need more money because we actually, turns out we didn't fix it. It calls to question the competence of us as a district, which I think is hugely problematic. I think there's lots of cases where things that are unforeseen happen and band-aids are the actual only thing you can do in the moment so that you can continue to operate. But as a committee, we need to get serious about all the things that require money in this district, roofs among them. We have a whole bunch of buildings with end-of-life roofs. The community is going to be shocked when we have roof problems. If we don't start to tell folks proactively what our plan is to fix the roofs and replace them. So I think, you know, I know all of this costs money. I know that's wildly unpopular to discuss, but I think our kids deserve to go to school and buildings that don't have roof problems that don't have leaks. and that we are committed to the amount of preventative maintenance that allows us to make the most out of the life of our infrastructure. And when that life is over, we need to be in a position to take care of it before it's five years past the end of life. So that we are not faced with situations like we frankly are right now across a myriad of issues where we have things that need to be replaced and haven't been so to me like it's we can't keep saying we fix things if we put band-aids on them. We have to do capital planning in a serious way and in a thoughtful way so that we can contemplate the real cost of things and then we can communicate that through the budget process, through the capital improvement process, to the mayor, to the community, and to all the other people who are gonna ask to support us financially. So it's past time for us to do this and we need to start expeditiously.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. We have new business motion for updated budget schedule to ensure competitive hiring practices, whereas Medford public schools has historically conducted the annual budgeting process commencing in April and concluding in June, whereas there's a substantive substantive increase in code related funding and fiscal year 22. Whereas hiring practices in many districts are finalized by March, April, you resolve the Medford Public Schools budgeting process commence in January and conclude in March with budget recommendations presented to the City Council in March. Submitted by Member McLaughlin and Member Ruseau. Member McLaughlin?
[Melanie McLaughlin]: Thank you. I think the motion speaks for itself and especially after just hearing from Member Graham about the issues needed to address the budget. I think it's imperative that we address the budget sooner and get on a cycle that we have competitive hiring processes for our staff.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Member Van der Kloot.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: I just would like to ask the administration as to whether a timetable like this is doable, realistic, and what, if not, what would be realistic given the obvious desire of the committee to move the budget discussions up earlier.
[Marice Edouard-Vincent]: So in response to that, The third bullet about whereas hiring practices in many districts are finalized in March and April, it would be our desire to be able to be equally competitive with other districts. A lot of the strongest candidates are scooped up right in the middle of whether they're new graduates, but they're scooped up much earlier than when we have access to trying to recruit competitive candidates. It's going to take a lot, a lot of work for us to be able to move the timetable up, but I think it will put us in a stronger, more strategic position to be able to recruit stronger talent to bring to Medford. So we will work hard to meet the new deadline, but in the end it will benefit us as a district.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: has, if I may, from the chair, has the budget discussion started internally? Is this, like, January date feasible, or? I just want to make sure we're not setting anybody up for failure. Like, would February- Mr. Murphy, would you- February, or? I just want to be realistic, because I know the city's gonna, side's gonna have to give a number, and that's gonna, we usually do that in January, so I just need to get on this myself.
[Unidentified]: Just your microphone. Thank you, Mayor.
[David Murphy]: I think what I would say is that our budget process is a continuous one, and so it's ongoing throughout the year, and I think it's necessary. I take the motion based on what I've read on the agenda to indicate that the school committee would like the public discussion and examination of the district's budgetary priorities to occur earlier in the year, which is something that the administration has spoken about with regularity, about the need to do that. With respect to the hiring process, I would actually say that there's going to be variables that are beyond our control with respect to the budget process both at the city and state level, frankly great potentially the federal level. And so I think it would be more accurate to say that we are, whether it's through this motion or just through the practices that we're attempting to develop that we forecasted last during last year's budget process to decouple the budget process with the hiring process. year in and year out, generally, how many positions we're going to hire for and on occasion there's a question about well, this is going to be a staffing strategy that we're going to pursue, if we have the budgetary capacity for it. And in those instances we likely would need to wait until final adoption of the budget which for whatever process plays out at the school committee level, we'll need, as I said, we'll need the city and the state to finalize their processes before we can truly make those types of commitments. But at the same time, every year there are, at the beginning of the budget process, we know whether it's because it's top priority of the committee or because we have a general understanding as to what our capacity will be, We know, or frankly because we know there are impending vacancies that will need to be replaced. We know that there are staffing priorities that we can pursue by changing our recruitment strategies, and those timelines that are not frankly interwoven with the budget, and I think that that's something it's imperative that we do that's what's going to put us in a position to be more competitive and if the committee would like us to present publicly on budgetary priorities earlier in the year, we can absolutely do that understanding that there are variables and judgments that evolve over time. I don't know if the budgetary priorities, which reflected a significant increase in investment in FY 22, would have been the same if we were somehow locked into priorities as early as March. I suspect they wouldn't be. But that doesn't mean that we can't begin that process, begin that public discussion, and begin that scrutiny earlier. And as a general rule, I think it's a good idea that we do that. The answer to the mayor's question is that yes, the budget process has started in the sense that it's never stopped. In terms of the more formal public process in terms of the presentations to the school committee or to subcommittees or to committees of the whole, I would suggest that I think we need direction from the committee as to exactly what form you want those to take, because it's not gonna have any impact in terms of the quality of our advocacy our budget number or our hiring process, if we just take everything that we used to do in April and May and move it up to January and February, that's gonna be irrelevant. It's not gonna be problematic, and I don't have any objection to this motion, but it's the other practices that we'll have to adjust in order to truly put us in a more competitive position.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you. Okay, motion on the floor, Mayor? Member Grim.
[Jenny Graham]: So I agree with you. I think There is no reason that the committee is prohibiting you all from hiring the best candidates. And if that's not happening, that's a process issue that can be fixed. And you actually don't need our permission to do that. So I hope that you will because having competitive hiring process is more important than it's ever been in the right now. So I think that's critically important. Two years ago, when we kicked off the budget process, we had a committee of the whole. And one of the things we did in that committee of the whole was talk about what should the process look like and be. And I'm not personally wed to the way that we handle our budget meetings or historically have. I think that if we want to have a discussion about how we want that public process to work and where and when it happens, what I would suggest is that we have a committee of the whole that is dedicated to that discussion. We all agree on what that's going to look like so that when you give us documentation. It meets sort of what we were expecting it to meet. And we can talk about a reasonable schedule that does not include having five meetings in the month of May to jam this in. And maybe it does or doesn't include 25 or 30 administrators coming before us. So I think there's a whole bunch of opportunity for better process than we have today. And I am open to that discussion in January.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: If, if we want to schedule that amended, as we approve this in concept but have a committee of the whole meeting in January to discuss the, how the process will lay out, I think I, I think I appreciate that I think it's a, it's a, it's a
[David Murphy]: I think it's a good suggestion, a good point by Ms. Graham. What I would suggest is that at the Committee of the Whole, the administration bring forth an initial presentation for the committee to consider, and then I think that will help to have a thoughtful discussion about what the budget process as a whole could look like. I think as a general rule, I hear agreement with regard to the resolution that the committee wants the process earlier in the year. As I said, I think that's something that the administration has spoken about with that we think we should do that, but understand that the finalization of the budget involves variables that are beyond our control. And what I don't want is for the community to have a misunderstanding as to what the school administration or the school committee can do as early as March. We can identify priorities, we can advocate for them, and as you did last year, you can take a vote to make a request to the municipal government. but the state allocation and the municipal allocation ultimately lives in a different body, and we just have to be clear and transparent about that. But yeah, I think preparing for a committee of the whole meeting in January that starts with essentially a proposal as to what the budget process could look like, hand that to the school committee, allow you to discuss to make sure that it's consistent with your expectations and the expectations of the community, and then we execute that process with an understanding that we want as much of it sort of front-loaded as possible so we have as clear a picture as possible by March. I think both gets to the essence of the resolution before you and some of the better practices that we've all said that we want to pursue in future budget years.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Great, so motion for approval as amended.
[Melanie McLaughlin]: I'd like to restate the motion then so that it's that the motion is as is with an amendment that it commences with a committee of the whole meeting that will lay out a proposed process for the January through March. So that's for Susie's notification if she's taking notes over there. Is that acceptable?
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Motion by Member McLaughlin, seconded by Member Grimm. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion passes. Number eight, reports requested. Report on superintendent's goals tabled, which was tabled on November 8th, 2021.
[Marice Edouard-Vincent]: Yes, it's tabled, and I will try to bring it forward at our next December meeting.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Main table, okay, thank you, Madam Superintendent. We have condolences. The Medford School Committee expresses its sincere condolences to the family of Anthony Tony Martin, Brother-in-law of school committee member Kathy Kreatz, if we all may rise for a moment of silence. Our next regularly scheduled meeting is Monday, December 6th, 2021. I'm here in Alden Memorial Chambers at 6.30 PM. Everybody have a wonderful Thanksgiving. Go Mustangs. Have a nice Thanksgiving. Motion to adjourn by Member Graham, seconded by Member McLaughlin.
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