total time: 27.56 minutes
total words: 3290
[Cushing]: And I am admitting the guests. Good evening, members of the fifth grade family at Medford Public Schools. My name is Dr. Cushing. I'm the assistant superintendent for secondary. Thank you very much for your patience as we've let everybody in just shortly after six o'clock. We've disabled the waiting room at this point so that you can, if you do get knocked out for whatever reason, you'll be able to reenter with ease. Thank you very much for joining us this evening for Dr. Edouard-Vincent's presentation on the Middle School Lottery. I'd also like to ask our other guest from Central Administration to introduce herself to the team gathered here today.
[Ricciardelli]: So hi, everybody. My name is Bernadette Riccidelli. I'm Director of Curriculum and Instruction. It's great to see some familiar faces. I hope you enjoy tonight's program, and I hope it is informative. Thank you.
[Cushing]: And at this time, I'd like to turn the evening over to Dr. Edouard-Vincent. The chat is open if you do have questions. We'll also be able to take questions at the end of the presentation. I'll put my email in the chat as well in case anyone has any questions that you would like to email directly to us. Thank you and Dr. Edouard-Vincent.
[Edouard-Vincent]: Yes, good evening Mustang family. It's wonderful to see so many of you on the call. I'm really excited this evening. I'm going to be sharing a slide presentation with you. It has been a fairly similar slide presentation that we have shared in the past. We have updated some of the current dates to reflect the school year. And so I hope as I go through this presentation that I'm able to answer some of your questions. regarding the lottery process and expectations and things for next year. Dr. Riccadeli and Dr. Peter Cushing, as they've already both spoken, are also here to support me in responding to any of the questions that you may have. So without much further ado, I'm gonna begin going through the slide deck and take you through the steps moving forward.
[Unidentified]: Thank you.
[Edouard-Vincent]: So when we started this process, We talked about correcting an imbalance. And so when I came to Medford in 2018, this was what the schools looked like between the McGlynn Middle School and the Andrews Middle School. And so what brought about the birth of the lottery was, Not a perfect science but an attempt to balance the schools. And so, Dr Cushing Thank you. Right now you're looking at the pie chart of the Andrews Middle School. And this is the racial breakdown that you're, you're looking at. And the next slide is going to show you the economic status between the two schools. So this was the McGlynn school with the blue being again, the percentage of students that received free lunch. And Dr. Cushing, thank you. The Andrews, being a school from the socioeconomic status breakdown. So it was this discrepancy between the two schools that prompted us to say, let us come up with a way that we can try to better balance the two buildings. So the policy that was approved by the school committee was that for each of our four schools, 50% of students in fifth grade at each school would be assigned to either the Andrews or the McGlynn. Now, there were a few very minor exceptions to this rule. If a student were to have a specific program level requirement, where they had program level education needs, then they would be assigned to the school that had a specific program to meet their needs. And so program level education needs do supersede sibling preference. So some of you may be saying, what do you mean by program level? So for example, if a student were to have an individualized ed plan educational plan and IEP, or if a student were to be identified as an EL, an English learner. then those students would be assigned to the school that carries the program. So I want to just say that that was the, it's an important factor as I continue to go through the slides, because the schools, and as you see the slides going forward, where we just talk about it as like, you know, school A or school B, the schools do carry different programs. So if you were a parent and you have an older sibling, an older child in a school, and you may say, you know, the schools are right next to each other. Each child has their own individual personality. I'm not interested in sibling preference. Let them go through the lottery process and let's see what school the child gets assigned to. So, this was an example, and in 2019 the following school year in August of 19. That was where that fourth bullet talked about. So I want to talk about, we call it sample school, school A and school B, but what I will say to you is we have two schools. So as I'm talking about the school, it could be the Andrews or it could be the McGlynn middle school. The Andrews school carries one set of students, It houses one of our specialized programs called the Therapeutic Learning Program. That program is housed at the Andrews School. Our English language, excuse me, our English learners, that special programming is housed at the McGlynn Middle School. So I wanna qualify that because as I start to talk about the sample schools, I wanna explain what this particular sample school could look like. So at this particular school, there were 103 fifth grade students. However, we need to include three buffer seats for a particular school. So when the lottery takes place, we would be calculating 106 total seats. And I'm gonna explain to you what the buffer seats are. Of these 103 students, 20 students are identified as ELLs, English learners. They will attend middle school A. One of those students has a middle school A sibling preference. Seven have a middle school B sibling preference. Two students have a program requirement in special education that is housed at school A. And one student has a special program requirement that is housed in middle school B. We have 12 students that have an IEP. These are students that just may be receiving resource room services, but they do have an IEP. They're not in a specialized program, but they do have IEP needs. So when the lottery takes place, The 20, the one, the seven, the two, the one and the 12, all of those numbers, those students are going to be assigned to a specific program. So of the 103 students, 60 of them will be entering the general lottery.
[Unidentified]: Dr. Cushing?
[Edouard-Vincent]: So of the remaining 60 students that are entering the general lottery, 50% of those students would be assigned from the different schools, would be assigned to each middle school. And so this is the same exact information that I was sharing with you on the previous slide, but what ended up happening was middle school A, these are the students that would be assigned. Middle school B also shows you the breakdown. So there are 20 ELs, two students that are in a specialized program, one sibling preference, and six students that are on an IEP, possibly receiving resource room services. That means 29 students are already accounted for at middle school A. So the remaining number, there will be 21 students drawn from the lottery. The three buffer seats, I wanna explain that. The three buffer seats are actually imaginary people who are not yet enrolled in the Medford Public Schools, but will be enrolled after the official lottery takes place. At middle school A, Because it does house our EL programming, we allow three buffer seats because we have, it's almost like a rolling registration process where students are coming to the school every single month new students are being assigned to the district and we need to account for that growing population. So middle school A will have 53 students And the remaining 53 students will be assigned to middle school B. And so this is the breakdown. We had one student assigned to a specialized program. There were seven sibling preference requests and six students on the IEP, which is a separate draw. So there are 39 students from the lottery that are going to go into this lottery process, leaving us with a balance between the two schools in terms of the total number of individuals. Dr. Cushing, here is another way to look at the exact information that I was explaining in a table format. Remembering that this particular sample school had 106 total fifth graders. This is the breakdown of what happens. Again, middle school A houses the EL program, middle school B does not. That is why you see a zero. Both schools have specialized special education programs. So there are two students assigned to middle school A, one student assigned to middle school B. that classifies as the specialized education program. Students that have an IEP need, we had a total of 12 students. And so we conduct a separate draw for those students and to balance the numbers between the schools, this particular example was 12 students. So six would be assigned to middle school A and six would be assigned to middle school B. The next line shows sibling preference and the EL buffer. Since middle school A houses the EL programming, there's a three there, but middle school B does not, there's a zero. So the actual students who end up going into the lottery are what you're looking at, that bar in yellow. 21 students entered the lottery going into middle school A, And 39 entered the lottery or part of the official lottery and were assigned to middle school B. And in keeping with balancing the numbers, each school received 53 students.
[Unidentified]: So here we talk about our incoming L students.
[Edouard-Vincent]: We have English learners who come to the Medford Public Schools that are speaking, you know, different languages. And by, according to DESE, the same way we are required to provide special education services for students that are on an IEP, students that are English learners are also entitled to special education with special licensed teachers who have their ESL license. So this particular slide where I talked about the three buffer seats, when we look at all four elementary schools and each school is given three buffer seats, it's a total of 12 seats that are reserved as buffer seats at the McGlynn Middle School. That is to accommodate new students that will arrive over the course of the year. So, the conservative number that we had selected in 2018 was three seats per school totaling 12 seats. What I can say to you is right now we are seeing a large influx of newcomers coming to the Medford Public Schools, and we have far exceeded that number, 12 seats. So I want you to know it's a conservative number. Even though we're holding three seats, we've actually exceeded that number, even this given year, significantly. Dr. Cushing? So I wanna go through our timeline of events. On Friday, March 11th, the sibling opt-in, opt-out form will be emailed, was emailed to parents. The email was sent and that email address is mslottery at medford.k12.ma.us. Today, Wednesday, March 16th, is the information session that you are participating in right now. Tomorrow, Thursday, March 17th, the sibling opt-in, opt-out forms will be submitted. On Thursday, March 24th, Each grade five student will receive a lottery number in a letter to you, the parents and caregivers. Students will carry this letter home. So a week from tomorrow on Thursday, March 24th, you will receive a lottery number for your child. On Thursday, excuse me, on Tuesday, April 5th at four o'clock in the afternoon, we will be on Zoom and we will actually conduct the lottery. On Tuesday, April 5th, while we are conducting the lottery, it's a very quick process. We will conduct a lottery and Dr. Riccadeli I'm going to ask you to jump in and kind of weigh in on what they can expect to see during this lottery drawing and what will take place because we want you to understand that it's not something where I'm, you know, putting everyone's name in a bucket and I'm pulling names out randomly. We use a true lottery process so that it's up to the lottery when it goes in and we use a random number generator where Dr. Riccadeli, I'm gonna have her jump in to explain that process to you so you can understand what takes place again on that day, Tuesday, April 5th. Dr. Riccadeli?
[Ricciardelli]: Sure. Okay. So the program that we use, the random number generator is stat track. We've used it for the past four years. So it will just randomly generate the numbers that are assigned to the McGlynn and the numbers that are assigned to the Andrews. So in the past couple of years, what we did was we structured the lottery. The first year was in person. but because of COVID and since then we've done it virtually, we had been scheduling it so that the first school would take place at three o'clock, the second school at 3.15, the third at 3.30 and the fourth at 3.45. But what we found is this happened so quickly that we did not need that amount of time. So it's super fast, it probably will be 10 minutes. I think people sometimes feel underwhelmed when they see it because there's no big fanfare. You will see our data manager, Kim Miles, she draws them. So you will see those numbers. We will post them to our blog. We will put them on our website. And the letters with the official assignments are going to go out as you can see from the schedule on Tuesday, April 12th. You are certainly welcome to join us on that day, Tuesday, April 5th at four o'clock. Or if you want to not attend and then just wait for them to be posted onto our blog, you certainly can do that. Again, the letters with the official assignment will be mailed out on April 2nd. So it's up to you whether you decide to join. We'd love to have you there, but just know it's a really quick event.
[Edouard-Vincent]: Thank you, Dr. Riccardelli. I also want to ask Dr. Cushing, where we have listed the middle school welcome or orientations. Dr. Cushing, would you like to speak from the middle school perspective for us?
[Cushing]: Absolutely, so those are two evenings your children will know which middle school they are going to be attending. And this is an opportunity for you to go tour the building, meet the principals, the assistant principals, some other members of the staff. I'll be there both evenings as well. And, you know, you really get to get a sense of your child's school and the type of community that it is. I would also like to say that the, The sibling preference, the opt-in or opt-out per school committee policy, that's required as an affirmative yes or no. We need to have those forms back from everybody. So if you don't submit it, we'll be giving you a phone call from one of our schools. We'll give you a phone call and just ask what your preference is so that we can make that determination. I haven't honestly looked at it, but I'll be looking at it tomorrow. We'll resend that tomorrow morning as well, just so if you missed it, but it did come from MS lottery at Medford schools last Friday night at eight o'clock on the dot. So if by chance it ended up in your spam or your trash or for whatever, feel free to look for it there. It was a limited population that received it this year.
[Edouard-Vincent]: Dr. Cushing, thank you for that. I was hoping you could put up slide 13 for us, please.
[Cushing]: Yes, I can.
[Edouard-Vincent]: Which was the final slide. And Dr. Riccadeli knows this is my favorite slide of the entire deck, because it talks about the process, but it actually, when I think about the lottery, it's actually, This is my favorite slide because it, it's not exact. It's not a perfect science because we know that we've included the buffer seats, we know that we do have a few students that, you know, for the purposes of going through the lottery, a few students, and maybe a few of you on the phone call, you will receive more of an assignment letter because of where a specific program is housed. So I want to be fully transparent about that, that some of the schools, as I was mentioning earlier, because they have specific program, specific programming and specific teachers with the official license that is needed according to, you know, our state regulations that some students will be assigned to a particular building. But other than that, everyone else who goes through this lottery process and participates and goes through the random generator process, the chances are that you could end up in either school. And it's really our closest attempt at having it be a 50-50 chance of your child being assigned at one of the schools. And we have been working very, very diligently Thank you, Dr. Cushing. We have been working very diligently to have very similar programming between both schools. And Dr. Cushing can really, really talk about that. Although they are two freestanding separate middle schools, afterschool program offerings, course offerings, scheduling, those kinds of things, they really, really mirror one another. And so children, students in either building would be having a very similar middle school experience. And Dr. Cushing, would you mind speaking to that?
[Cushing]: Yes, I have meetings frequently with our middle school principals to make sure that one is not doing you know something maybe completely different than the other, that if we're offering a program at one school that it's being offered, or something similar is being offered. at the other school, there is a lot of work that's done on behalf of the principals and the PTOs to really provide a really great experience for the students in a social sense with dances and activities and other things along those lines, where say the Andrews one week might have a dance, the McGlynn might have a game and movie night. And then a few weeks later, it might be that the McGlynn is having a dance and the Andrews is doing an outdoor movie night and a pizza night, given whatever the weather might be. So there's a real opportunity for them, for the students to be involved. There's a tremendous there's a joint club fair that last year it's held at both schools. So students will travel between the two schools for the club fair. They'll go visit some of the clubs in McGlynn. and then they'll go visit some of the clubs in the Andrews Gymnasium to see what they might be interested in. We have a, I don't wanna say unified because that's a specific term, but we have a united middle school sports team. And then we also have some intramural sports as well, like soccer. We've added to our GBL Middle School League this year, the opportunity for students to participate in volleyball. And so that's upcoming. and we're looking for other ways.
[Edouard-Vincent]: Sorry, Dr. Cushing, could you tell them all the sports offerings that are available for our middle schoolers, which is this, this united team where we play against other districts for those that don't know what GBL is all about?
[Cushing]: So GBL stands for the greater Boston league, uh, the greater Boston league, a few years ago, uh, if you went to Medford high school, the greater Boston league looks a little bit different than it did when you went to Medford high school, it's gone through some transition over the last few years. And, actually I would say was on life support for a while there, but communities like Medford, Revere, Everett, Chelsea, and Somerville came together to resurrect the league, and the league has recently added Lynn English, Lynn Classical, and there are several other communities that are also looking to onboard with us. in the next couple of years. We offer a tremendous amount of, of sports for our middle school students, basketball being some softball, baseball, cross country, and I'm blanking on some others but we do have a crew club. um, that has operated in the past. It has been suspended during COVID, but we really hope to bring that back. We offer intramural soccer. Um, and, uh, I apologize that I'm blanking on the other sports offered. I'll be happy to put that out and email to all the fifth grade parents and guardians. Um, and so, um, really do have a great program at both middle schools for our students. And, uh, I apologize if you hear bedtime starting in the background with my three and five year old.
[Edouard-Vincent]: Thank you, Dr. Cushing, I just quickly looked in the chat, and Miss Rotolo was saying what about the after school programming that's available. So, now that your child will be transitioning, and should we be signing up now. Excellent question. Unlike a elementary school where you know you sign up and your child is an after school program until about six in the evening at the middle school level, the after school program is really, I would almost describe it as enrichment special projects that the kids are able to do. So for example, students can play chess, they can do some robotics. There are all different types of activities that are offered in on both campuses. And again, if There was a club and your child was in one building and that club was not offered in their building, your child is allowed to go right across the way to the other school and participate in the after school club program programming and we do have a late bus for students who participate in the afterschool programming. Again, remembering that the students are older, more mature, so they are able to take on greater responsibility as they get ready to eventually come up to the high school. And Dr. Riccadeli or Dr. Cushing, please feel free to add to that.
[Cushing]: I actually, I don't have anything to add to that I think you did a really great job with it. We also have, I also received a question by email regarding students on IEPs, so I'd like to provide some clarity on that right now. So, if your child has a, an IEP that requires a specific program. Um, you know, whatever that may be for your specific child and that program is housed at the Andrews or it's housed at the McGlynn, your child will not participate in the lottery because that specific program is only at one school. If your child has an IEP that does not require a specific program. But they have a disability that requires them to receive academic support and interventions under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. Then they will enter a separate lottery with other similarly situated students who have an IEP but don't require a specific program. They will then be drawn and they will be split between the two schools. So, just want to, and if, if the person who emailed me wants more clarity. I'm happy to provide more over a phone call, but if you have a specific need. then you would go to that middle school and will not participate in the lottery. If you have an IEP that can be serviced at either school, you'll go into a separate lottery that will then equally divide the students between the two schools. Any other questions? I saw one just come into the chat. Let me check that. So the question is, could you please show the charts of the MEW social economical distribution from the last three years after the lottery? Is there a clear difference meaning this is working?
[Edouard-Vincent]: So we actually had, the first year we did it, we did a presentation to the school committee, which showed that the socioeconomic status was more balanced. It wasn't perfect, but the, The differences between the two schools did show a shift but every every single year when you do the lottery. You can have different results, different outcomes, but we definitely did see a shift. between the schools, where the schools were definitely better balanced. I remember doing that presentation the first year out after we had completed the process. Since then, I don't really recall doing a follow-up presentation because at first there was a lot of concern of would the lottery work, and we know that there is a fluctuating population from year to year. So in the sample school, we gave you an example, and sometimes that number can go up, and sometimes the number can go down depending on the school and depending on the school year. So there is some variability, but, you know, we at least try to level the buildings together. So I wanted to at least give some context for that.
[Cushing]: The other question that we had come through the chat was, how many students do you anticipate participating in the lottery this year across the elementary schools? We have about 3% of students who if everybody were to select sibling preference, that would be 3%. I would like everybody to know that there are two great middle schools that are quite literally right next door to each other. The students walk to the Andrews to pick up the buses. I mean, it is there is if you choose sibling preference, I respect it, but they are two great middle schools and that's your choice. But I just can't say enough. They're two great middle schools that we're really working to make better and more awesome each and every time. We've got two great principals, two great assistant principals, and some really amazing staff. But if all students who have the option for sibling preference choose it, that's about 3% of the, I think it's about 316 students across the district right now in grade five. If I were to take a guess, All right, we haven't run the numbers right now because that will be what we look at in the next couple of days. I would say we're looking at between 85 and 90% of students participating in the lottery outside of our EL, our special education population, and the sibling preference. Those are the three outliers that we have to take into consideration. Great question. And yes, the I is the lottery schedule for the kids with IEPs that receive support services, but not special programs the same. Yes, it is. The draws actually, Bernadette, actually, if you want to speak to this. You're muted.
[Ricciardelli]: Okay. So, It happens at the same time. So there are two draws for each school. There are actually eight draws. It happens so fast that you don't even realize that it's happening. So as the superintendent indicated in her presentation, there are two draws. So those students who are on an IEP that can go to either school because either school can service them, because we wanna make sure we balance the special ed programs at the schools, the two schools, that's why we do the additional lottery draw just for those students. So you're not even gonna notice, it's not, it happens so fast you don't even realize, but yes, two draws for each school for eight draws in total.
[Cushing]: We had another question. Hi, will students in one school be able to participate in another school's activities like dances etc. So the answer that is yes we do hope to go back to that. It is not though a complete open door policy where, hey, everybody at the McGlynn if you want to come to the Andrews dance. Having been a middle school principal, dances at middle school are part rodeo, part carnival, and part dance. And I would say that that's probably a 40%, 40%, 10% split with 10% being the dance part. As the kids get older, it's more of a dance. As the kids are younger, it's more a lot of running around. So it's not just an open door. Oh, all 600 kids together. There's a guest form. And if a child's friend wants to bring someone, then by all means, we have done that in the past, that was not something that was done the first year but that's something that I brought on. I really believe in bringing these schools together and bringing our kids together as much as possible so that when they enter our high school experience, we're as much one Medford and one community as possible.
[Edouard-Vincent]: Thank you, Melissa, saying thank you. I we are here. We hope that This presentation was able to answer any burning questions that you may have, but again, the purpose of the lottery is really our work at trying to balance the schools and maintaining similar programming, after-school programming, united sports between the teams. I think if I were to say anything about the sports, It's hard when you have to pick, when you have so many to choose from, when you're building a team to represent the district. So I know they can get a little competitive, but for those students who love being part of sports and athleticism and just thinking about when you eventually move on to high school, playing sports, it's a great, I think it's a great way to connect and make great friendships. and participating in all of the afterschool programming and activities that are available. It'll be a completely different experience from elementary school, but I am sure very enjoyable experience for the students in middle school. And again, the open houses will take place. I believe it was May 10th and 11th, Dr. Cushing, correct me if I am wrong. May 10th and 12th, thank you. May 10th and 12th, you will be invited to those welcome orientation sessions. And they're a lot of fun. And you and your child have an opportunity to go on campus, walk the halls, and kind of imagine what the middle school experience will end up looking like. So it's a lot of fun, and it's enjoyable. As the summer comes, we end up, now that we're in a much better place, we've done summer barbecue, the parent, the PTOs, in collaboration with the principals. conducted a barbecue in between the two campuses. So all the kids were together and it was really like a wonderful kickoff. And that took place in August. I can't remember, a little bit before the official kickoff of school, but it's also another great opportunity for all the kids to be together, see each other and have the opportunity to go and look at their school building and realize like, this is real. I'm starting middle school very soon. So, Those were some great opportunities. And yes, Dr. Cushing is assistant superintendent of secondary schools. So he just put his email in there if there are specific questions about, you know, middle schools or more information. Dr. Riccadeli, her email is briccadeli at medford.k12.ma.us. Dr. Riccadeli is the lead on coordinating the actual lottery process and will, you know, work with families to make sure that you receive your number, and you have your number. And if, for whatever reason, if, if the envelope gets lost between the backpack and making it to the kitchen table. please reach out to Dr. Riccadeli and she will be able to help you with your number assignment. And also Ms. Kim Miles, who will be coordinating the data and really she's the wizard of the lottery process, managing the backend for us and conducting it. So that's our presentation for this evening. and I will look to see if I see any raised hands or any other questions in the chat box.
[Cushing]: The other thing that I would like to say is that the lottery will, all of our Zooms, I shouldn't say all, the overwhelming majority of our Zooms, be they school committee or anything else, we are also automatically broadcasting to our YouTube channel and they are automatically recorded and archived there. I put that in our chat. So if you wanna go and fast forward through parts of this presentation to see something you think you may have missed, or if you wanna share with a friend, by all means, please do so. Please feel free to share my email with any of your friends who may have missed that, and they want a specific individual conversation. And finally, the lottery itself, you can also watch via YouTube as it will be broadcast. I look forward to seeing you there. Thank you, everyone.
[Edouard-Vincent]: Have a great evening. Bye. Oh, when is the lottery, Phil Contanzo was asking? April 5th. April 5th. It's coming up soon.
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