[Unidentified]: I think so, yes.
[Cushing]: Member Tso, can you call the roll? I can.
[Unidentified]: Thank you. Member Graham?
[Lungo-Koehn]: Here.
[Unidentified]: Member Kreatz?
[Ruseau]: Member, I skipped so many, Member Hays, sorry. Member McLaughlin. Member Mustone.
[Unidentified]: Yeah.
[Ruseau]: Member Ruseau here, Mayor Mungo here.
[Cushing]: United States of America, to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
[Lungo-Koehn]: on the basis that they have a detrimental effect on the poverty and for litigating the issues of medical school pay, specifically the medical school pay.
[Unidentified]: I'm sorry I'm not hearing you. Did somebody unmute me for a reason?
[Graham]: hear you.
[Unidentified]: Member Hays. I'll come back to Member Hays. Member Kreatz. Getting a lot of... Yes, some of the affirmatives are negative. We are going to go to executive session. can you hear us?
[Lungo-Koehn]: I can hear you, yes, sorry.
[Ruseau]: Do you want me to call the roll? Or do you want to call the roll for each thing? I think I can do it if the audio, I think, is probably better now. But if it doesn't work out, then I'll. Great. Member Graham. Here.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Member Hays. For approval of the consent agenda. Oh, sorry. Yes.
[Ruseau]: Member Hays?
[4thVVEd7zdo_SPEAKER_02]: Yes.
[Ruseau]: Member Kreatz?
[4thVVEd7zdo_SPEAKER_02]: Yes.
[Ruseau]: Member McLaughlin?
[4thVVEd7zdo_SPEAKER_02]: Yes.
[Ruseau]: Member Musto?
[4thVVEd7zdo_SPEAKER_02]: Yes.
[Ruseau]: Member Ruseau? Yes. Mayor Lungo-Koehn?
[Lungo-Koehn]: Yes. Seven in the affirmative, zero in the negative. The consent agenda is approved. Report of subcommittees. First up, we have the superintendent's updates and comments, Dr. Marice Edouard-Vincent, superintendent.
[Unidentified]: Good evening.
[Edouard-Vincent]: Good evening, all. Despite all of the great things going on in Medford schools, I unfortunately must open my remarks tonight by expressing sadness and grief over this past weekend's mass shooting in Buffalo. Now designated a hate crime, the tragic killing of 11 and wounding of two at the supermarket reminds us all that racism and gun violence are scourges facing our nation. Targeting a supermarket in a predominantly black neighborhood, the gunman replicated tragic acts that have become far too familiar to all of us. I know teachers and Councilors are working hard with our students to deal with the emotional trauma caused by this terrible event. Although our nation aspires to goals of equity and inclusion, events such as this remind us of so much that has to be done. The students and staff of Medford Public Schools are striving to achieve these goals on a daily basis and are committed to eliminating discrimination of all kinds in our society. I kindly request a moment of silence for those viciously lost in Buffalo.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Please rise for a moment of silence.
[Unidentified]: Thank you.
[Edouard-Vincent]: I'd like to share some updates from what's going on in the district and definitely take a more positive note. Earlier this morning, I'd like to thank the mayor for coming to the high school to support our Italian students who have achieved great accomplishments in studying the Italian language. I want to thank the Italian consulate for coming to the high school today and members of the consulate that were presenting awards to our students. Dr. Riccadeli, who was there, and all of the world language teachers. Many of our seniors were recognized for the great work that they did with Dante's Inferno. And there was a poster that showed the level of work that the students worked on collaboratively. And in speaking with one of the representatives. He talked about the vocabulary and just the great level of work that our students did. And so I just want to congratulate them and congratulate language teachers for the outstanding instruction in Italian for our students that achieved very very high. levels of accomplishment, language accomplishment. Also, I want to thank the parents and grandparents that came out to celebrate with their children as well. Also, I want to take this opportunity to extend our congratulations to Ms. Rowland and Ms. Caldry's eighth grade ELA students from the Andrews Middle School who were selected as finalists in NPR's student podcast challenge. Over 2400 schools submitted their podcasts in middle and high school divisions, twice in the past three years, Andrew students have received honorable mentions. This year, the Andrews was recognized as one of the top 10 middle school entries in the competition. At the end of this week, the students will be notified if they are the grand prize winner. They are already winners to us. Great job, Mustangs. Also, I'd like to highlight that this month, the month of May, is Mental Health Awareness Month. And the girls lacrosse team decided to hold a fundraiser for the Youth Mental Health Project at their game this past Saturday in Malden. The specific organization has an emphasis on helping to improve mental health with teens and young adults. The team sold raffles and t-shirt sales, raised over $500, and that money will be donated to the Youth Mental Health Project. And to add on top of that, our girls did end up winning. The Mustangs won the game 11 to five. Congratulations, Mustangs. We are very proud to know that you are doing things to support the community at large as well. Speaking of giving back, some of you may have stopped by Medford High School today to see the wonderful project. I saw Member McLaughlin, Member Hays, Mayor Rungo Kern, and I'm not sure if any other members were able to make it, but thank you for coming out to the CCSR school-wide presentation where we were able to really interact with the students and see the wonderful contributions that they have worked on throughout the year. They did a fabulous job, and I just want to thank all of our CCSR students, our CCSR advisors, and community partners who work so closely with our students. Also today, District Attorney Marion Ryan came to the high school state representative Paul Donato came and the mayor returned to the high school again at three trips today thank you for coming to participate in the cut it out presentation, which District Attorney Marion Ryan presented to our cosmetology students and our health assisting students and really taught our students how to look for signs of domestic violence. And so we wanna thank the district attorney for having a strong conversation, but really sharing her knowledge with our students. We also just are very grateful for that partnership. I would like to say last week and the week before, I wanna recognize our wonderful band and orchestras. If you had the opportunity to go out and see our band and orchestras play over the past two weeks at Chevalier Theater, it was excellent. The strings and the band, I wanna thank our band parents All the parents that volunteered and supported the offense. I know I saw a member Hays and number my stone and I'm sure there were other members who were able to come. The Chevalier was a packed audience and I just want to thank again all of our fine arts teachers, and all of our students and families for supporting the arts. There are several recent events that are going to be coming up that we just want to recognize, and some which have just transpired. We just had the McGlynn middle schools, drama club presentation, super scary CCSR award ceremony. open houses at both of our middle schools to welcome our rising sixth graders, a welcome in person welcome for our newly arriving kindergarten students which was very successful and very high attendance at all of our elementary schools. And later today, Dr. Riccadeli will present a brief report on the Credit for Life, but just so grateful. It was a wonderful learning experience for all of our students. The Credit for Life Financial Literacy Fair that took place last week, actually almost two weeks ago at the high school. We also want to send a special thank you to CBS 4 News reporter, Tiffany Chan. Last week, she came on campus. She took time out of her busy schedule to come to our media class on the vocational side of the house to offer her tips and tricks on how to communicate effectively, efficiently, and with flourish. So those watching will be both informed and entertained. So we thank Miss Tiffany Chan for doing that. This week as you know we're winding down graduation is on June 1, we have several, several community events parent events that are happening tomorrow evening, we have National Honor Society induction at 7pm in the Karen theater. On Wednesday May 18 we have the Haitian flag day ceremony at 130, followed by a community celebration in the courtyard. On Thursday May 19 we have student leadership awards at 7pm in the Karen theater. On Friday, May 20, we have our junior prom at 6pm. That's taking place at the Reuben Hilton, and the up all night program will immediately follow the prom junior class parents we are asking you, and still looking for parent volunteers for that event so I hope you're able to make that a very successful event for us, students. As we go into next week, please know Monday, May 23rd, academic awards ceremony, 6.30 p.m., Caron Theater. Tuesday, May 24th, M-Club student athlete ceremony, 6 p.m., Caron Theater. Wednesday, May 25th, senior scholarship night, 6.30 p.m. and hundreds of thousands of dollars is given out at the scholarship so it's actually a wonderful event. Thursday, May 26th is our senior prom, 7 p.m. at the Burlington Marriott. Friday, May 27th is our senior day breakfast yearbook distribution and sponsor a senior gift distribution that starts at 10 a.m. in CAF II in the courtyard. Tuesday, May 31, as we have the long weekend, it's senior barbecue, 6pm West Courtyard. Wednesday, June 1, yes, a lot. Wednesday, June 1 is graduation. We have a private ceremony, a more smaller ceremony at 11am for the Curtis Tufts taking place at the Irish American Club. And at 6 p.m. we will be having our official graduation for the class of 2022 at Hormel Stadium. So in closing, I have to say that it has really been so nice to see more smiling faces this spring, but please be aware that COVID is rising again in Middlesex County. While we are not mandating masks at this time, I do encourage people to wear them whenever attending large indoor activities. So thank you, and those are my remarks for this evening.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you, Dr. Edward-Vincent.
[Edouard-Vincent]: Mayor?
[Lungo-Koehn]: Member McLaughlin. Thank you.
[McLaughlin]: Thank you, Dr. Edward-Vincent, for the comments. And I just wanted to mention at the CCSR project exposition today, Representative Donato was there as well, but I just wanted to highlight a couple of the projects that the students are doing, because I just do think that for folks who are listening or online, CCSR is the Center for Citizenship and Social Responsibility, and this is a group organization across the middle schools and high schools where students volunteer and they create community-based projects. being there today just, you know, it was so inspiring and gives me so much hope for our students and for our district to see what CCSR does and what the students bring to the table. There was an English language give back project where students help with interpretation for families who are English learners. There was a veterans recognition where they're sharing stories of veterans from the war. There's a stand with Ukraine where the students raised, I think, thousands of dollars to support folks in Ukraine, the Mystic River Cleanup, Seeds to Feed, Seeds to Feed, they built a garden with food in the quad at the school and they brought the food, the produce to one of the food pantries. Period Poverty, where they're helping other students who experience period poverty, the CCSR Memorial Garden to recognize those in our community who have passed during COVID. So much of it was just so inspiring and I just think that our students and Rich Trotter and Michael Skorka and all of the folks at CCSR that do this work should be just lauded for all of this and for the community members for next year when this happens, encourage community members to come and see these projects and see the students that are working on them because they are really inspiring and something that I think can bring us all further together.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Absolutely. I want to just echo the sentiments of member McLaughlin and our superintendent. Mr. trotter is just a huge advocate for the program and Mr. squawker is inspirational and such a role model for our students and he was there today, along with two representatives from the cummings foundation which could make makes this possible $100,000 was given. to CCSR from the Cummings Foundation, so we wanna thank them. I loved seeing the projects and all great things for our community, and we just hope this continues to eternity. Yes, member Hays.
[Hays]: I just wanted to add that it's also at the elementary schools.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Yes, thanks. Thank you, thank you. Next up, we have presentation on professional development for administrators, Dr. Carmen Williams, HGSE superintendent resident. And a congratulations, I believe, is in order. Yes. And maybe you can explain what the congratulations is about.
[Edouard-Vincent]: So Dr. Williams, I am proud to call her Dr. Williams. She successfully defended and completed her Harvard Graduate School of Education doctoral program in ed leadership and school administration. And so that was a great accomplishment, and what Dr. Williams is about to present right now is the body of work that was also part of her dissertation but the body of work that she did working with our administrators, this school year, and that work is going to continue. And so I don't want to steal any of her thunder. I wanted to be able to present the body of work that she did this year, and the work that is going to continue. Thank you, Dr. Williams. Nope.
[SPEAKER_08]: There you go. There we are. All right. Thank you very much, Dr. Edouard-Vincent. Thank you, Mayor and committee members. Yes, I am. Back, I was with you in the fall and I'm here to share what I've learned and what I've been able to do in my time here at Medford. But before I do, I really want to thank the team who definitely welcomed me with open arms, allowed me an opportunity to learn and grow and practice leadership with you all. And I don't take that for granted. It is a huge leap of faith and trust to invite a resident for a year. But it was a privilege. So thank you. I am going to try to summarize my work with by sharing some highlights. And I want to go back to July. So when I entered the district in July, I did a round of entry interviews, I had a complete plan to learn the context of the district, learn the needs and and most importantly, determine how I could best support you all. as well as my own personal growth as a leader. So in those interviews, I've summarized here what people responded to when I asked, what is your vision for success in the district? I asked a variety of stakeholders from parents, school committee members, leaders, and teachers, and I summarized the statements here. And I really wanna highlight just a few things. Number one, We were coming out of an unprecedented year. We had just completed a year of remote and hybrid learning. And while folks had been working very diligently, they had been working in isolation. A lot of the priorities of operations had gotten in the way of collaboration and being able to work together around instruction. And so I feel like that definitely influenced the interviews at that time. So this idea that folks want to clarify roles and responsibilities and expectations in the wake of a pandemic makes absolute sense to me. Begin with the end in mind and have a narrow focus. Increase collaboration and communication, and definitely use data to support our students. All of these things, including a team culture, were pretty important to the majority of folks that I spoke with. When I asked about the barriers to success, Again, not surprising. So though communication had been increased around operations, there was still a desire to get more frequent and timely communication. There was a gap, a seemingly growing gap in the ability for folks to change at the same pace. And so typically that meant that there wasn't enough information or relational trust, or there was some kind of gap in understanding And that led to fatigue, confusion, and frustration. Though there were many who had the passion and the drive, a clear direction was needed. Folks spoke about silos and how that got in the way, past practice often got in the way of doing work together and doing it more efficiently. There was a desire to be more explicit with accountability systems for the purpose of growth, not more oversight, but more support. And definitely a need to communicate priorities. Again, context matters. And so the district had recently, and some of these prior to the pandemic, adopted quite a few initiatives because there was an understanding of this mission to serve all students equitably. And to do that, our folks on the ground, our teachers and leaders needed more professional development, more coaching, and more support. scientific and research programs also became a part of that. And so you've heard all year about the science of reading in our NWEA map assessment adoption and how important that will be for the future of the district. But now it was time to put all these pieces together. So I shared in the fall four main goals for how I would work with the leaders of Medford. And when I say leaders, I'm including the superintendent, the assistant superintendents, the curriculum directors and coordinators, our building principals and assistant principals. I won't read all of these to you because this is a review, but all of these goals were a direct response of the entry interview process. So after all of that data collection, I did some additional research from experts in the field looking at both theory and practice, and this symbolizes my theory of action within the district. My goal was to create virtuous cycles of professional development. I'm sure you all are familiar with a vicious cycle and how harmful and often you feel trapped, feel like you're not going anywhere. And so we wanted to create virtuous cycles of improvement through professional development that helped us change and shift are being and doing together. So the parts of this include developing a shared vision, building identity and capacity to do the work, committing to an implementation strategy that can then be monitored and assessed for learning, and then creating space for introspection and debriefing. so that we can really study our practice, not just student outcomes, but the how of the work and continually move towards improvement. This table gives you a glimpse into what our monthly meetings look like. I met with administrators for about two hours, once a month, and I incorporated multiple activities. Again, we wanted to create these virtuous cycles. Often these protocols or activities were repeated over and over again so that we can not only practice our doing but change our being and believing as far as how we are approaching the work. So opportunities to reflect through journaling, build our identities through peer coaching, and understanding a protocol that is aligned to values, the values of empathy, equity, and collaboration. We had opportunities for teaming through check-ins and sense-making sessions. So creating trust by being vulnerable with how we're seeing data and what we can do with it, and then data analysis protocols that gave us time to pause and really think about what are we seeing, get curious about what we're seeing, and be empowered by the fact that we are the levers of change. All of our meetings, again, took on this same pattern to create virtuous cycles and practice. So, at the end of every monthly meeting, I know the leaders love this, I gave them a feedback form and I asked them two questions. What was a plus or a benefit of our meeting? What did we do well? And what was a delta, something that we might do differently? And I collected this particular data from the month of September through December, I've coded the responses. They were open-ended responses to the questions, but I coded them so you can have an opportunity to see what are the priorities that came up for leaders after participating in these meetings, and then a sample response so you could try to understand their thinking. And so when it came to the activities or protocols that were definitely established to build this collaborative adult learning community, We have responses like different activities focus talk with colleagues clarity of purpose of the meeting felt like a manageable amount of work for things that they would like to do differently would like to break into grade level groups to data dive with our individual school. For collaboration, if you look at this one, it says, I enjoy the time to work with peers. It helps for us to understand that we are not alone in our struggles. This helps me personally with moving beyond operational aspects of the job and looking at the leadership role I aspire to be. For Deltas, the request was more, a lot of more, more opportunities with content, with data, with discussion groups. requests for time, and so all in all, I found that the activities and protocols and the frequency helped leaders deepen their value for working together and collecting and assessing analyzing data as well. when I asked them individually in January, how are you doing with this? This is a sample or a data chart that shows responses. And so 75% of leaders agreed or strongly agreed that they are an active participant in our collaborative learning community, that they appreciate their colleagues' contributions and that they believe that their contributions are valued. 75% agreeing or strongly agreeing. For this question, I can confidently facilitate conversations using data to assess and adjust for continuous improvement as an instructional leader. We had, I'm sorry, the last one was 80% and now this one is 75%. Again, strongly agree or agree that in January, we're moving in this direction and leaders can confidently carry this out. And this question, I can confidently coach others in their self-selected goals using the conversation guide practice in our professional development sessions, 75% agreeing or strongly agreeing in January. And I say that because this was a work in progress. As you know, we had just adopted NWEA MAP as an assessment and leaders were in the process of learning how to administer the assessment learning how to read reports and then communicate those reports with their staff and families. And so all of this was a work in progress. Through my research, I looked at Michael Fullen and Quinn's coherence framework, the right drivers in action for schools, districts, and systems. And he talks about there are a lot of wrong drivers that build coherence public education have used such as high stakes assessments and mandatory professional developments, often these things cost frustration and cause leaders to feel overwhelmed. But these drivers actually support districts in building coherence and actually achieving their shared goals. So I want to share how the work I did in Medford aligns to this coherence framework. And then again, you're gonna see that all of this plays into the virtuous cycle. So for the first one, focus direction. It was important to have a purpose driven points or plan, and that's where the entry interviews came in to help clarify my work. Goals that impact and needed to be important to the stakeholders that were involved, clarity of strategy and change leadership. So these are the things that we were able to do by collecting feedback on a regular basis, we were able to maintain that we were all still committed to the goals of the sessions. And we were able to also learn by doing. So the same activities that leaders participated in my monthly meetings, they were asked to go to their buildings or departments and practice those same protocols with the staff that they supervise. So overall, I feel like this was a strength in our work and that the routines and rituals of returning to this moral imperative gave leaders opportunities to own their work in a deeper way. And again, data is the name of this story. helps convince people that we're moving in the right direction when they can actually see it and make sense of it. The second piece is cultivating collaborative cultures. There was a desire for the leaders to come together, work more collaboratively, and yet still have their own identity. And so in building this cultural growth and adult learning space, We did quite a bit. We used storytelling through artifacts, something that hadn't been done yet. And so I asked leaders to bring in just an artifact from their scope of work, whether that be a meeting agenda or a letter home to parents, something that represented who they were as an instructional leader. And they had the opportunity to tell their story and the impact it had on their communities. We made sense of data using three protocols in large and small groups, and I also introduced a coaching protocol to support leaders in having very intentional coaching conversations, which are very different from mentor conversations or friend conversations, very intentional to support growth. All in all, I believe that we had great success with these protocols. We are definitely taking steps towards a more collaborative community, though there's always work to be done. And I think that had a lot to do with this idea of a community of practice. When you bring a community together with a specific goal in mind or task, and you have opportunities for regular practice, again, that virtuous cycle, it tends to help you go further together. The third framework piece is deepening learning. And while we had all kinds of opportunities to co-create professional development through that feedback survey, demonstrate vulnerability by learning alongside and experiment with the protocols, I think all of this gave the psychologically safe space for leaders to pilot and practice and understand their learning along the way. We definitely made gains. However, I think more time is needed for true mastery, identity and creativity to occur. And this is the definition of deeper learning according to John Mehta and Sarah Fine. Oh no, sorry about that. And the final one, securing accountability. So internal and external accountability is important if you want to sustain this work. And as you know, I was a resident here for 10 months and my time is coming to an end or has come to an end. But I believe the groundwork has been laid for securing accountability with these practices. And so developing the rituals and the repetition will definitely help having all leaders of the organization participate and have a shared language and understanding of the goals was helpful. And again, the district had just adopted the strategic plan in May of 2021. That was fresh and keeping that as a North Star is definitely going to support accountability along the way. The one thing that I do wish could happen for the organization is coaching for the top leaders of the organization. And so in my research, I found that when organizations commit to symmetrical structures, those structures that are repeated or reflected across the organization, that internal accountability is stronger. And so if we value relationship building in the classroom between teachers and students, and we value a mentoring and coaching relationship between leaders and teachers, We want central office staff to be strong mentors and models for the leaders. Then that means that the top of our organizational chart has to be provided with that same psychologically safe space to learn and grow and practice their craft. So that is my recommendation. And this chart just illustrates how the protocols either affirm or support internal. Accountability measures and then some of the external accountability supports that the district also has. Moving quickly, so where are we now, how do we maintain this work, keep it sustainable and ensure accountability moving forward. My last meeting with the leaders, I worked with them on an action plan for next year. This is just a screenshot of what was started. And so the strategic plan is the guide for this work. And this is just one of the goals that they came up with, the leaders collectively. And that was a goal to provide clear and accurate information regarding data collection, analysis, and usage. And we thought about Who's the audience? If the message needs to be clear and accurate, who's the audience? How do we cater our messaging to meet the needs of the different stakeholders and audiences? What are the media supports that we would need to do that? And who would be responsible? So again, this is a work in progress. It's a draft. I know the leaders are planning to come back to it to continue working on the action plan in June, but this is their work. They own it. I think that takes us one step closer to sustainability. Additionally, I charted out an outline of a data inquiry cycle process that leaders can participate in over the course of the 22-23 school year. And so similar to a unit plan that a teacher would use, there's an objective, there's things to consider prior to, during, and after each meeting in order to prepare data, analyze it collectively, and then make decisions based on that data for continuous improvement. So that is just a portion of how I've spent my time in Medford. I've learned a lot. I've had the opportunity to work with several individuals and groups and stakeholders. But as I presented earlier this fall, this was the majority of my work, the strategic project and the work I defended for Harvard. So I will end with asking if there are any questions I can answer or comments you would like to share.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you, Dr. Williams. We've loved having you. You've been a great addition to the team. I know Dr. Musa, Edouard-Vincent, and all the admin, really, we're so thankful for all the work you did for us over the last year and great job on defending. Thank you, Harvard.
[4thVVEd7zdo_SPEAKER_02]: Thank you.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Impressive.
[4thVVEd7zdo_SPEAKER_02]: Thank you.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you. Member McLaughlin.
[McLaughlin]: Thank you, Dr. Williams. Congratulations. Thank you. It's wonderful that we have this excellent partnership with Harvard and we're getting the best of their leaders to come and help Medford identify problems of practice and theories of solutions. And you've been really such a value added to our system. So thank you so much. I can't wait to see what you do next. And I hope that you'll keep in touch with us and we can see your growth as well as ours. Thank you.
[4thVVEd7zdo_SPEAKER_02]: Thank you.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Great. Thank you. Number three, we have report on the Credit for Life event held on May 6, 2022 at Medford High School. Dr. Bernadette Riccidelli, Director of Curriculum and Instruction. Welcome.
[Ricciardelli]: Good evening, Madam Mayor, members of the school committee and Superintendent Edouard-Vincent, I would like to ask Lisa evangelistic to join me. We were a three person team, and I, I certainly. want them to shine along. Gail Trainor, former assistant principal at Medford High School, was the third person of our team. She recently retired and she really was an incredible asset to our group. Financial literacy is what she taught when she was a teacher, so we really capitalized on her expertise. So as you probably know, or you may remember, we began this program back in 2018 when we got a grant from the state treasurer's office. And we did the fair in 2018, we did it again in 2019, we began planning for the 19-20 school year, and obviously we could not hold it in 2020 and in 2021. So the money that we received in 2020, we were able to push forward and use this year. So we use that $2,500 to run the fair in part. So moving on here, the fair occurred The fair occurred on Friday, May 6, and the gym at Medford High School. We extended it to all grade 12 students. It was not mandatory. It was voluntary. About 237 students did participate. One of the things that I'm really proud of, in addition to the student participation, which I'll get to a little bit more in depth, was the relationships that we've developed with many of the community members. And Lisa had a lead role as our public relations specialist in the district in reaching out to those members. So Lisa, did you wanna mention or talk about any of the volunteers? Because you did a lot of the outreach to them.
[Evangelista]: was a little different this year some of them had some coven issues in the sense they were nervous about being in an area, which is why we put it in the gym but I do have to say that our sustainers were. with us since 2018. Right. So Brookline Bank. East Cambridge Savings Bank members plus credit union. We had. Our newer member of the Community Brocklin Trust who served through Bernadette, served as the lead sponsor because they provided the app. And I think Bernadette will explain why we went that route. Goldilocks Bagels, obviously a community resource. They provided the breakfast along with Wegmans, another huge community supporter. Armstrong Ambulance, they never say no. Bates Insurance, Kelly Catalo from Cosmopolitan Real Estate. They were all with us from the very beginning. And this year, School Committee Vice Chair Jenny Graham joined us and sat at one of the tables regarding part-time jobs for the students. And she really enjoyed herself. And the students, I think, got a lot out of it. And it was nice that we could have an in-person event. So I really thank our community sponsors. I hope I didn't miss anybody, but we can't do it without them. The school department really, really can lean on them and they always come through for us. So thank you all very much.
[Ricciardelli]: So one of the reasons why Rockland Trust played a really integral role in this year's fair is that, you know, as late as December, we weren't sure that we were going to be able to do the fair in person. Given the rising COVID numbers, we needed to be able to have some way of holding it remotely if we needed to. Rockland Trust, along with the consortium of banks, developed an app, along with the support of the state treasurer's office. So in the event that we needed to flip over to an online version, we would be able to do that. So this was the first year we used the app. There were some great aspects to it. And there were things that I think you know, could be improved upon. You know, we've gone through this once, and I think as we move forward, if we do this again, which hopefully we can, we will definitely use the app to its best and enhance it with with some supports. So this event, probably should have started off with this. This event is a real life opportunity for students to make decisions. So learning is about making decisions, going into those scenarios, being faced with having a budget, staying within that budget, having a salary, making decisions. How much can they spend on housing? What can they spend on insurance? What can they spend on different things that they wanna buy? So it's about making decisions and the community volunteers that we had aided those students in making those decisions. So it's a lot of give and take between our volunteers and our students. So in preparation for the fair, the students did engage in some modules during their advisory period in the weeks preceding the fair. So they didn't come to the fair just, you know, with no background knowledge. They had engaged in several of the modules. There were some modules that we just didn't get to, but I would say we covered the most significant ones. So new this year to the fair we actually added a couple of things that I thought were kind of fun. We had an interview table so Dr. Peter Cushing. Thank you very much so he and Neil Osborne who's the city's director of human resources were at the interview table and engage with students on basic handshake, interviewing skills, how you act with people in real life scenarios, making eye contact with your interviewer. I think they even suggested that the students send thank you notes after an interview. So I think that was a nice added touch. Something else that actually started as an idea from a CCSR project of a student that I was working with He really wanted to increase the number of voters among the seniors, getting seniors to register to vote. So his original plan didn't come to fruition, but what we were able to do was to get Sandy Gale from voter registration to come to the high schools. We had a voter registration table. So it kind of, the civic piece enhanced the financial literacy piece. just don't wanna miss anything. The superintendent spoke to the students along with representative Paul Donato and Dr. Peter Cushing. And one of the interesting things, and this is something that I'm glad they walked away with. So when asked what they learned most, the overwhelming comment was that credit scores are really important. So I think, you know, hopefully they learned, you know, more than that. And I think they did. But to walk away with that concept, that having a good credit score, you know, making sure you fill your obligations, that you can't spend wildly without any repercussions, if they walked away with that, I feel really good. So at this point, I would be happy to entertain any questions or comments that you have.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you so much for organizing the event and for the presentation. Member McLaughlin?
[McLaughlin]: Yeah, thank you for the presentation. And you said there was 237. And did you say from all classes or from the senior class? Senior class. Senior class, so that's good. That was a good turnout. And it was volunteer, you said?
[Ricciardelli]: It was volunteer. So when we did this a couple of years ago, we had, I think the first year we did juniors and seniors. We decided to stick with seniors this year because of the bandwidth. We had, you know, technology set up specifically in the gym and we didn't think that we'd be able to handle more than 250 users.
[Edouard-Vincent]: Yes, I just want to say thank you for the credit for life and thank you to, again, all the volunteers and community partners. There is an excitement or energy. I was surprised at how quickly the apps allowed the students to go through all of the stations. But I am hoping, I think it's such a great learning activity. And when the students did respond and say like, your credit score is everything. And I said to them, yes. And that's not only just now, it's for the rest of your life. Your credit score is very, very important. So I felt like it was such a great aha learning moment for them. And I hope that we're able to continue doing the credit for life. And if possible, do it for juniors and seniors so they have the opportunity to do it junior year and then senior year before they go off to college or their careers. It was, I think, a great learning experience for our students. Thank you.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you. Welcome. Great job. We have number four fiscal year 23 Medford public schools, operating budget update assistant superintendent of finance and operations, Mr. David Murphy.
[Murphy]: Thank you, Mayor members of the school committee it's good to be with you again. As the committee knows and for members of the community that have been following along this is our, our third substantive discussion related to the developing FY 23 budget. I do have some slides this evening, many of them are very familiar to based on that familiarity I'm going to try to move through them with efficiency, with the expectation that will be convening again in the coming weeks to ultimately move forward with the apply 23 budget request. Thank you, Dr. Cushing. So, just with respect to our objectives and I won't go through the entire statutory process that we've discussed in the previous budget meetings but for those looking for that context with regard to The chapter 70 appropriation from the state that supports approximately 20% of our budget and the local contribution from the city of Medford that supports approximately 80% of our budget. And just know that either our main ninth or may 10 budget meetings. We had a somewhat detailed recitation of those and again happy to answer any questions for the committee but for purposes of efficiency. I'm going to try to move past those quickly this evening. So on the. So again, this is our third discussion. I wanted to pick up on a point that a couple of points that we were discussing at the end of our May 10 meeting, where we were talking about. sort of a couple of parallel facts, and I think it was in response to member Hays question related to the budgetary priorities that had been articulated through the budget surveys and the point that I was trying to make and I wanted to. reiterate tonight is that the budget development process is an attempt to balance transparency, where we articulate for the committee and to the community, the collection of budgetary priorities that we feel could benefit the organization. And at the same time, it is not a contest to see how high we can drive the number up that we ultimately request from the municipal government. And so, because there is a long standing tradition and I think a good one of transparency in the budget process and the Medford public schools, we provide you a tremendous amount of information in response to survey data and ideas, not all of which frankly are Dr Christian we just zoom in on that just a little bit. not every single idea that you're receiving with regard to the survey data is necessarily equally baked with regard to our goal of having coherency. So ultimately what we're trying to drive toward and what we'll discuss a little bit about tonight is taking the committee's feedback so that we can present a goal, a recommendation rather from the superintendent to the committee that fits together and is a coordinated strategic and coherent budgetary request. The other point that I, and there's some sub bullets there on the screen that I wanted to make is that as this budget process develops, our obligation is to continue to try to identify efficiencies and to look for areas of potential savings in the FY22 budget that can help us to sort of develop a budget that's within realistic expectations. So at the same time, we're starting with a tremendous amount of information. We're trying to identify for you why it is these are priorities and how they fit together in the context of our strategic plan. And then we are internally scrubbing these numbers on a daily basis to see if we can identify ways in which we can free up additional flexibility and or fit within the parameters, the budgetary boundaries that are ultimately established for us by the city and state governments. With regard to the objectives, and again this whole intro is so we can move through the slides faster I promise this is an attempt at efficiency, is that, first and foremost, our budget like everything we do here has to be focused on the well being of students. If we can't connect the budgetary priority to a concrete way in which student outcomes will be approved, then that's a way in which we have gauge the overall value of the implications of that budget. It has to be strategic in the sense that it has to fit together. It has to be responsible because again, it is not a contest to just see how far up we can push the number. And it has to be ambitious because we have high ambitions for our students and for our school district. So when we go through these numbers tonight, we're gonna go through the categories that you saw on May 9th and May 10th, identified in terms of what their budgetary impacts would be estimated to be right now. but I would ask you to please remember that point that as we continue to look and to try to find efficiencies, it is possible some of those numbers might come down. And I'll get to a few examples of that in a second. Thank you, Dr. Cushing.
[Unidentified]: Thank you again. Thank you so much.
[Murphy]: So a point that we, nope, you gotta go back, sorry. A point that we can't emphasize enough with nine open collective bargaining agreements and 54 out of $67 million going toward personnel because those negotiations are ongoing. Our budgetary numbers are very fluid and we have to keep in mind that context. Thank you.
[Unidentified]: Thank you. Thank you.
[Murphy]: Right. So, I mentioned right now so I fixed costs right now projected at 2.6 million I am hopeful. that when we present before you again, that that number could be lower. It's not going to be significantly lower because we know already that some of these costs that are built in, we know that there's $1.3 million that are built in and contractual personnel costs that the district is already obligated to fulfill. We know that there's a contractual increase in our primary bus vendor of $50,000. That is an obligation that's preexisting that's going to be there in FY23. We're estimating right now, With respect to special education fixed costs that's specialized transportation and tuitions, we're estimating that at $750,000. But again, that's another area that we look to on a daily basis to see how there could be some fluctuations there. You'll notice that it's a very modest decrease, but as we factored in the RICO agreement that I've mentioned previously, that fixed cost was able to fall from 155 to 135. Obviously, $20,000 on a $2.6 million fixed cost increase is very modest. My hope is that as we present later in the budget process, we might be able to identify greater savings. Thank you. Looking at these charts again, these are numbers that you've seen before, but I've mentioned before the $65 million represents our foundation budget. 67.4 is inclusive of our ARPA funding, our current operating budget in FY22, and then $70 million factors in those fixed costs that I mentioned a moment ago. Again, Just for by way of transparency, the FY, the current operating budget for FY 22, as well as our projections that we've laid before you during this budget process for FY 23, both include a 2% cost of living increase. And you've heard me say this parts of this before but there was a point in response to some questions that we received subsequent to our last budget meeting that I just wanted to emphasize the projected 2% cost of living increase which has not yet been implemented in FY 22, it is merely projected for FY 23 because of those ongoing negotiations that I mentioned a moment ago. We are we base that off of the essentially the property tax limitation in the state of Massachusetts, and the, we know that anything over 2% the on the either in the municipal government or in the school department, we are taking on some degree of risk. That's not to say that there's never been a cost of living increase in excess of 2%, but it's to say that we have to gauge anything above 2% against the risk of revenues not necessarily being there in succeeding years and the compounding financial impact that that has on wage scales in an organization that, as I said before, is driven primarily, as all school districts are, by personnel costs. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. So as we get to our priorities here again, you heard me say last week that this is not a strict hierarchy. With regard to priorities it's not the case that we would want not want to pursue anything in Category B before we fulfilled everything in Category A. There is a correlation with respect to priorities in terms of in descending order from A to F, but this is more about. identifying how essentially how to pay for something. And what I mean by that is the significant variable in our current budget process as compared to pre coven is that we have a large injection of temporary funding. You know, of course about the opera funding that's helped sustain our operating budget and FY 22 on the school department side, it is the Esther budget estimated to be approximately $6.2 million over the course of the next three years that we can put toward eligible expenses. And generally speaking in this analysis, it is the priorities listed in category B or category C that the administration suggests is both eligible and it would be prudent to use the ESSER funding. Generally speaking, the two sort of prongs for that analysis are a nexus between the investment and the impact of COVID-19 and the disruption caused to students, and whether or not the investment is of a temporary nature. The third piece of that analysis though, we talked a lot about this in developing the FY22 budget, is that if there is a urgency because of the impact of COVID-19, there are instances in which while we might prefer to recognize something as a recurring cost, we will use the ESSER funding to make sure that we address the immediate needs of students coming out of the pandemic. Thank you. Thank you. And so, in response to questions from the committee last week, this, these slides will that I'll provide to you this evening, organize the priorities, based on category. So you can see here that this is category A. And again, we've discussed these and the sort of underlying rationale behind them. This amounts to less than a half million dollars, but these are the items that, well, frankly, we can make an argument that anything is related to COVID. These priorities that really do transcend the specific challenges caused by the pandemic and are more about just making sure that we're instilling best practices and or capitalizing on other funding decisions. And by that, I mean that the math coaches funding, one of the top priorities, coming into FY 23, not just because we believe the organization is now well situated to benefit from that personnel, but because in order to fully capitalize on the investment in the investigations three funding priority, we need to make sure that we have corresponding staff. Thank you. So on category B, these are the items that, again, we get into that sort of strategic conundrum of identifying personnel that may be temporary and may be permanent, but what we know is that there's an urgency to it, and there's a specific correlation between, and perhaps even a causation, between the need for this personnel and the work that they'll do and the pandemic. Thank you. Category C, these are generally one-time expenses that all things being equal, we would recommend that we do avail ourselves of the grant funding that is available. And we do have a few other specific pieces along the lines of the professional development initiatives that we discussed on May 10th that we still are working to identify specific cost associations. And so, That is something that we will have more details on. We can move to the next one as well. Thank you. We'll have more information on that the next time that we meet. Again, I do not anticipate anything in category C being a recommended portion of the operating budget. Probably some of the most difficult components of this, thanks, we can go to the next one. Category D, I think is the one that is sort of the most challenging, frankly, because these are the priorities that we may well be situated to pursue right now. But in looking at all the uncertainty around the collective bargaining component, and ultimately understanding that one way or another, we're going to have to fit the operating budget into certain financial boundaries. These are priorities that, We think that they should be discussed and there should be an awareness of the their implications for the organization, but they're ones that even more so than anything else we're talking about the administration is engaged in contingency planning, so that if in fact we don't have the capacity to address, we will have plans in place to make sure that students do not bear the brunt of that impact. Thank you. Thank you that's just a continuation of D and then category is part of an extension of the exercise that the committee has been very clear with the administration. That is a priority of you as the governing body is making sure that we're continuing to articulate priorities, even if there's a general awareness that it's not likely to fit into the capacity of this operating budget, but we want to make sure that the community is aware. that in order to fully realize the goals of our strategic planning. These are things that have to be considered at some point. And it's this is part of just keeping that conversation going. It is also frankly an opportunity for the school committee as the governing body of the school system to inform the administration with respect to our priorities, so that we can make adjustments as necessary, either in terms of the categorization of individual priorities or in capitalizing on flexibilities or efficiencies that are identified as part of that scrubbing process that I mentioned before. Thank you. And then I committed on May 9th to returning to you with more information as it was developed and I told the committee on Friday. in our update that right now, the school lunch program initiative that we understand is a top priority of this district and of the school committee right now. And this is this this estimate of 600,000 to 1.1 million That is, it's still a work in progress, and I would ask the committee's indulgence to return to you with more specificity in the coming weeks, understanding that, as I said on May 9, there is an unavoidable financial impact of having doing the free lunch program at the local level. It's something that the administration completely concurs with the school committee on and something that it would be a tremendous value to our school communities. It is something that thankfully at the moment is part of the developing state budget. And we're hopeful that that will continue to be the case and that will be realized in FY23. But I will say that it is of a scale and of a magnitude that I think would be better addressed at a state or federal level. given the uncertainty of the financial implications at the local level so we're still in conversations, both with other districts and some of our outside experts that we consult on these types of issues and the hope that we can come up with. potentially some more creative solutions to advance the well understood goal of the committee. But right now, if essentially if the free lunch program is not included in the state budget and Medford chooses to go forward in FY23, so the 22-23 school year, we would be looking at a sizable budgetary impact that it will be difficult given the full context of all the priorities we've been discussing here to address in a responsible fashion. So before we go to the next slide, I will say that we're gonna be looking at the estimates of these categories. I wanna emphasize what I said before, as we continue to look at how we can identify potential efficiencies and savings, which is our responsibility, frankly, as a school administration, it is my hope that the overall budgetary impact can be lessened so that there are more goals that can be advanced, but all of that is qualified significantly by the uncertainty that comes with the open collective bargaining agreements. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. So, this is what the budgetary impacts would be. If, if we were to pursue each of these categories, and. It's presented to you like this, again, understanding that if the fixed cost increases are each lessened, then all of these budgetary impacts would see a corresponding reduction. And that's, we've sort of built this information so that you have the totality of the priorities that could be pursued. You can provide us the feedback that we need. We will then go continue to look for the efficiencies that potentially can lessen that overall budgetary impact. The other thing I wanted to point out, and I think there's just sort of a strategic question here that I'll defer to the committee. In none of these options will you see category C. Category C, as I mentioned as we went through, is the items that, regardless of the strategic implications of it, we would recommend are included as part of the ESSER budget, not the operating budget. So to submit those as part of, excuse me, as part of a request to the municipal government, I think could be confusing and sort of imprudent. So I wouldn't recommend it. The same could, but not necessarily needs to be said for category B. Because category B are the items that, well, if we lived in a perfect world, at least a perfect budgetary world, they would be part of the operating budget and we would recommend that they be part of your request to the municipal government. But in a world where we know that there are financial boundaries in which the municipal government has to operate, and where we think we have the ESSER funding that is both available and appropriate, it would seem prudent to potentially just plan for that to be part of our ESSER budget, as opposed to advocating for something that we have another funding resource available to us. Again, all things being equal, it would be better if it was part of the operating budget. But the reality is we have a series of priorities that we want to advance. We know that the municipal government operates within financial boundaries. And I think that there is, it would be a potentially more strategically prudent course to plan for that to be part of the ESSER budget. I'm confident that the students that will benefit from the mental health Councilors, I think we're good on the slides. Thank you, Dr. Pershing. The students that will benefit from the additional school adjustment Councilors, from the additional newcomer strand, or for the floating nurse, will not get hung up on whether that personnel is being charged to the ESSER budget or the operating budget. And so to go back to where the original goal of staying focused on the best interests of students, it would seem that the ESSER budget, planning for that to be part of the ESSER budget
[Unidentified]: Yep, member Rousseau then member Graham.
[Ruseau]: Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Mr. Murphy for the presentation. I do hope that when we whatever we send up the city council, at least as it is currently constituted is certainly going to want to discuss food insecurity, that was the resolution came from them as well as the school committee. So those numbers that we just saw on the last slide excluded free universal food. So I think you should be prepared at the meeting for those kinds of questions from them about how you know, how we're as a city going to meet our commitment to this resolution to make Medford, to resolve food security in Medford, it's only going to happen through actual action and spending. And so I think we've kind of beaten it a bit in this meeting in the last couple of meetings to death, but we should be prepared for them to also have a little something to say on the matter, since we're not Those numbers do not include that, and I just think you should be prepared for that.
[Unidentified]: Thank you.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Oh, can you press it yourself, Mr. Murphy. It's a little person's face, or Mr. McLaughlin Can you turn on Mr. Murphy's microphone please.
[Murphy]: Thank you. I recognize now that it is. I thank you, Mr. So I appreciate that. And I think, again, this is a work in progress. And I think as a school department, we want to continue to think about if there are budgetary limitations that are going to prevent us from realizing the full stated goal. As articulated by the committee's action, I think our responsibility is to see what we can do to potentially advance that goal. Also, it may be a moot point, as I know the committee knows, because if this is incorporated into the state budget, then it's not something that we will have to address at the local level. That would be our preference. I think that would be more appropriate. And all I would say is that, well, I don't know that I'll be able to provide answers that are considered favorable or good answers, I will do my best to provide consistent answers whether I'm in front of the school committee or the city council.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you.
[Graham]: Member Graham? I actually didn't have my hand up. I'm still thinking, so I'll yield the floor to somebody else if they have questions. Okay, thank you.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Member Graham, we'll give you a couple seconds. I think we're good for questions.
[Graham]: Oh, okay. I think my question is really about the next steps. So I think based on what you've outlined here, we will need to take a vote to send a request. Is it one of those numbers on the final summary page? Is that what you're suggesting? And I think my question is, when can we do that?
[Murphy]: Sure, I would say a couple things, I think, feedback as to how it's organized would be helpful so that we can try to bring forth a recommendation that's in keeping with the committee's expectations. The other thing I would say is more time will be helpful as we continue to scrub this process and go through where potential savings could be identified. One of the, one of the members commented at one of the meetings last week that a constant refrain that you've heard me say is the administration's responsibility to plan for any contingency. And that's true that is part of our responsibility. At the same time we want to support the school committee and providing as solid a basis for your request to the municipal government as possible. In order to do that, it will be helpful if when we present to you that superintendent's recommendation, probably at your next meeting, that we not have overestimated any potential costs. We haven't overestimated any potential costs by a substantial magnitude, but again, it is a day-to-day process of going through the 67.4 that we currently have the 2.6 projection that we have for costs that we can't control and the incorporation of potential increases. And if there's a way in which we can identify those efficiencies, it both gives you as a committee more flexibility in terms of the priorities you direct us to pursue, but also I think builds a more credible request and recommendation to the municipal government and that will take some time. So feedback on sort of the strategic Dr. Cushing, if you want to go to slide 26 really quickly, if we could do that.
[Unidentified]: I think it's 26.
[Murphy]: Because again, there is that open question around the category B. Before that, I think that's it right there. Yeah. So again, so I think that if you look at these rows. The second, third and fourth rows include a category that we've identified a funding source that would not require municipal appropriation. For purposes, and again, since it's not a contest to see how high we can get the number to go, I think some feedback as to whether the committee concurs with that assessment would be helpful. And you can send us an email. You don't need necessarily, you can think about it. We don't need to decide at this moment. And then I think the question of understanding that not every priority that we've shared with you, as I said, is equally baked. And by that, I mean, It's, we want to have a coherent budget, and we even if there are things that would be a good idea in a vacuum. We want the pieces of the budget to fit cohesively together so that we can maximize the investment of every dollar. That is why last year, when we initially identified the math coaches but you had not yet adopted a new math curriculum. It was not that was not a critical priority and when we needed to bridge the delta between the municipal appropriation and the request that was sort of an easy an easier cut to make at that time, now that we have the math curriculum that would be a harder cut to make. but there's still room for flexibility there. So I think feedback on whether that makes sense in terms of the category B piece. And then I think there's the other strategic question again. I don't think category E is the ones that we feel as strongly about as we do in category A and D. I'm not being transparent if I don't acknowledge that. And so in the event that the request exceeds the appropriation, which again, we'll be completely prepared for, That would be the area in which we would plan to right-size.
[McLaughlin]: Mayor. Member McLaughlin. Thank you for the presentation, Mr. Murphy. And if you could just articulate again, just sort of, and maybe it's in an email as well, just sort of specifically what feedback you want from us and when. and then also when we'll have the budget books so that we can offer feedback in sort of the, in a macro way.
[Murphy]: Yeah, I think the draft budget books by next week, understanding that if we were to print your traditional budget book right now, and I have no reason to think that this will not be the case next week, the salaries reflected in the budget book are not accurate. Excuse me, they are accurate right now, but they're not what we're planning for. And so that's, there's sort of a different implication in the budget book than there has been in years past, given the sort of timing of the negotiations. And then with regard to the feedback, I think it's specific as to one, if the committee concurs with the assessment around, if you want category B included in the recommendation. I think there's a, I think you can argue that one either way and understand that category B are things that we're prepared to do. We have a funding source, we're going to do that. And then I think the same sort of question around category E, that our... E. As in it would be excellent to have all the money in the world, but we don't. B and E, correct. Category B, we have a funding source identified. So I think it's a strategic question and I'm not trying to, I don't think I can, truthfully can understand on a principle basis how the committee would feel one way or another. So I'm not trying to lead you to any particular conclusion, but understand that if category B is not included in the appropriation, we have a funding source identified for that. And so I think there's, it's worth the strategic consideration as to whether to include that in the request.
[Unidentified]: Thank you.
[Lungo-Koehn]: And just to be honest with everybody on the city side, we're working through, our CFO came on a few weeks ago, we're working very actively to figure out our revenue replacement number, which will be much less than fiscal year 22. But once we have a better picture, hopefully in the next week or so, we will update the school finance team and the school committee. So just being upfront about that. Member Graham.
[Graham]: Thank you. In terms of the questions about the presentation of the information around our request, I think, I don't know, I feel like I'm of the mind that the budget book in its prior form may be more appropriate when we are talking about, down the line when we are talking about how We will implement the city's appropriation, then in the right now I think my fear about putting out a big giant book right now is. those people who are interested in like digging in and thinking about what's happening it's misleading like everything you need to know about the strategic priorities really can be summed up in this presentation. I would say making sure that you know when we decide on you know which combination of items belongs in our request that we should absolutely make the City Council aware of how much ESSER money we also plan to use and what those priorities are on the same page. And I would say make, you know, make it clear on that same page what the the free lunch costs could be so that they're clear about what our request is, what an additional request might be if the legislature does not come through with their free meal request, and then what other money we're planning to use out of our ESSER funds and what that brings our ESSER balance to so that they have that full picture. I think if one slide could tell that story along with the details of what the things are that we're saying we think are going to go up in fixed costs and then the strategic priorities, I do think this presentation is a more concise way to tell the entire story of what our request is and that the details of that budget book almost seem more appropriate when we're saying, specifically, we have this amount of money, specifically, this is how we're going to spend it. I feel like doing that right now is Maybe. just too early and I think it could just send people sort of down the rabbit hole without much value and really trying to understand what's going on. And I guess the other question I had was you said something about our June 6th meeting. Does that mean you're not thinking that we need to send this request to City Hall sooner than June 6th? I guess I was thinking there was some urgency to us getting our request finalized so that the request in its sort of unfettered form can go to the municipal government and give them enough time to do the work that they need to do on the city side and then through the council and then to get back to us all before June 30th. So I guess I was sort of expecting we might need to meet before June 6th.
[Murphy]: Yeah, when I said your next meeting, that's the next time you can meet. I would expect your request to be prior to June 6th. Okay, I don't think it needs to be and I wouldn't recommend that it be this week. But I, I do think that we would need to convene prior to June 6.
[Graham]: So I, I am wondering if the rest of the committee sort of shares. Um, my thoughts about the timing of our request. Maybe, maybe we meet next Monday to do that. And then that the budget books would wait with our final hearing, which is statutorily required into June when we have our appropriation number.
[Murphy]: I would, so if it's possible to wait at least a few days as to the scheduling of that meeting, I think that might be helpful. What I don't want to do is convene on the 23rd. I think that would be a week from tonight and. convene to tell you that we want you back here on the 25th. I don't think that would be I'm guessing that wouldn't go over well with everyone. So, I think we'll have a clearer sense of that timeline though before the end of this week and then I, we could report back to the, to the committee on that.
[4thVVEd7zdo_SPEAKER_02]: Okay.
[Murphy]: But I, I concur there would be, it would be before June 6th and there's only so much time between the 23rd and June 6th. So, it's a limited, maybe, maybe it'll end up being on the 23rd but I think a little more time to make sure that we're presenting you with as factually based assessment as possible, I think would be good.
[Graham]: Thank you. So I am wondering what my colleagues, my other colleagues think about the timing of this presentation and the changes that I suggested versus what we'll ultimately do in June.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you, Member McLaughlin and then Member Hays. Member Hays. Thanks.
[Hays]: I had a question about, so what we got in our pack this week was the slides from the first two meetings, I found, especially tonight the slide that actually kept put the priorities out by categories, because I think, I don't know, I might have some questions about some of the categories.
[Murphy]: Yeah, absolutely. No, you need that, just that, understand that, like, if I gave that to you an hour ago, it would look different than it did when it was just up on the screen. So you'll have this version, and then it gets updated through the week. We'll continue to update you.
[Hays]: Okay, I'm just curious, so obviously this is my first time going through the budget. In terms of the timing and the process, as Member Graham was talking about, when would be the opportunity to ask questions about some of those, some of the detailed priorities, things that might be in category C or D or, you know.
[Murphy]: Sure. I think right now or at our next meeting and also, you know, you're available to answer your questions anytime.
[Hays]: So, okay. I do have, I mean, if we have a moment or if we want to, I don't remember Graham had something else. If we could go back to look at some of the category D, I think it was category D and E. Can I ask a question while we're doing that?
[McLaughlin]: Member McLaughlin? So is there an opportunity for, I know we talked last time for an opportunity for public feedback. Is that going to be the sixth or when is that going to be?
[Murphy]: Again, I defer to the committee on that, but I think from a statutory perspective, it would be better to have the hearing when we have a census to the actual budget that we'll be managing as opposed to the one that we're requesting.
[McLaughlin]: But that's definitely out in the sphere, we have to have that.
[Murphy]: Yeah, we have to have that. I just don't want to have a, I just, we've tried to have as transparent a process as possible, but as a result, I think it can lead to some confusion if there are things that we know ultimately we're not going to have the capacity to do. We want to address, we want to advocate, we want to inform, but we don't want to lead to confusion and people say, you know, what happened to the register?
[Unidentified]: It's an easy one.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Dr. Cushing, you had to put the slides up for member Hays, which slide? You looking for a member Hays? Please. So the category D and E. Category D.
[Unidentified]: You just scroll through to category D. It's right after C. There you go.
[Hays]: So the question I had, and I've already asked this privately of a couple of administrators, and I don't know if it's on this slide, but I did have a question about the math interventionists.
[Murphy]: It's in the next one. Go to the next one, Dr. Cushing. Sure.
[Hays]: I'm just trying, I guess.
[Murphy]: The one between the last one and the one you're on now. There you go.
[Hays]: Thank you. So it's in category D. Right. So that might be different than what I remembered before. I think it was, might've been a lower case. So I did want to just bring that up as, you know.
[Murphy]: So I just say, you know, we've received feedback on an ongoing basis. And so some of these things shift. So that is part of how it ended up in category D was the feedback that we heard from members of the committee. I'll just speak very briefly about this. Last year in the FY22 budget, we discussed as part of the way to try to combat the impact of the pandemic, we funded or attempted to fund four literacy intervention positions at the elementary level, one per school. It was an ESSER funded position at the time, even though if we had used the exact same system last year, probably would have been category B, because of the urgency we felt with students having been outside of the school environment for so long and needing to have that foundation reading capacity established in order to continue to move through their educational career. that a very similar argument can be made with respect to the math interventionists. And it is something that we think would have value. Like every priority, it has to be weighed against all the other personnel needs. And with the combination of the math coaching and that will support staff, and the new curriculum that we're adopting, we're looking at it right now as something that may have more value and that we'll be able to capitalize on more in succeeding fiscal years when that curriculum is more ingrained within our elementary system. So, you know, the other thing I would say, the other sort of variable, and this is true for most, but not all of the priorities that we've listed, that's a four FTE priority with a hefty price tag of $280,000. Again, these are all estimates, these are projections. It may well be the case that at some point between now and throughout, FY 23, we identified some capacity that is not that is not equal to 280,000. And at that point, based on what we're seeing in terms of learning gaps and. what the data is showing us as to other areas that we may have to bridge, I think it's entirely possible that that may be something that we want to pursue. The purpose of discussing it here in this forum is that when we think that we engender greater trust from the community in terms of the sizable investment that Medford makes in education, if we're able to be very transparent and talk about these objectives and the strategic priorities as early as possible, essentially. Is that helpful?
[Hays]: It is. I guess I just wanted to make that or to suggest from my point of view, or from thinking about the math interventionists, I'm concerned if we wait, you know, I think we have, we have at least two cohorts of kids who were not physically present in school at a time when the hands-on math foundations are built. So those kids will now be going into third and fourth grade, second, third, fourth grade. If we wait another couple of years and those foundations are still shaky, it doesn't matter what the math program is because the foundation is shaky. Now, I don't know, we haven't talked a lot about what the math assessments may have shown. Maybe I'm wrong in that assumption that kids don't have that foundation because they weren't in school at that time physically full time. But that's, I just wanted to put that out there.
[Murphy]: I think you're onto something. And I think the data will bear that out at what this really comes down to and it's true for large, maybe all of category D, is that this whole process is about making difficult choices between. a variety of very compelling priorities. And I think that your articulation of the basis of the math positions definitely is well taken. We have to anticipate budgetary boundaries. And in order to plan accordingly, why should we plan for every contingency? But if we're going to have effective planning, we have to have some degree of prioritization. I think that's really what this issue is. Yeah, understood. Thank you. Thank you for your comments. and for your advocacy for all the future mathematicians of Medford.
[Unidentified]: Or people that have jobs that have to fake it. Member Ruseau? I'm okay, thank you. Thank you, Mr. Murphy. Thank you, ma'am.
[Graham]: Mayor, before we move on, can I just ask one more question? Oh, sure. One more question, sorry. Member Graham. Sorry. When I'm thinking about, you know, I think with the question we're being asked to think about is like, which sort of combination of these things are we going to send as the component of our request? I think as I looked at those lists, I'm sort of like, I feel like my brain is heading towards saying A plus B plus D, but I would also say there may be some things in D that I might sort of throw into E to make that D slightly smaller than it is. That's sort of where my head is at in terms of what the request might look like. And we can definitely talk about that at the next meeting, but I just didn't, I wanted to share that with my colleagues and on the floor in terms of like, just trying to have a framework of thinking about all like there's, you know, any very, any, you know, number of options of how we could put this together. And I just thought I might put that out there for us to be able to start somewhere.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you, Member Graham. I don't believe we have any presentations by the public. So I'm going to go on to continued business. We have 2022-11 policy BDG school attorney be referred. to the Rules and Policy Subcommittee for recommended updates. The policy below was thereby approved by the Rules and Policy Subcommittee on 4-25-22. Committee attorney.
[Ruseau]: Member Ruseau. I'd like to waive the reading of this policy as it's a particularly non-controversial policy and it's printed on the agenda.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Second. All those in favor? Aye.
[4thVVEd7zdo_SPEAKER_02]: Aye.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Aye. Policy. reading is waived. Would you like to speak on it, Member Ruseau?
[Ruseau]: Sure, I'll speak briefly. So we did change the name of the policy. It's sort of the biggest, most noticeable change, frankly. I guess school attorney is a historical, has some kind of historical reasons for being called that. makes me feel like was this back when there was one school in a school district. But the policy that we have before us, our current school attorney, committee attorney, which we're gonna continue to call school attorney, thought it looked great. And I don't really have anything to add to it other than I'd motion to approve the policy.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Second. Motion for approval by member Ruseau, seconded by member Graham. Roll call, please.
[Unidentified]: Member Graham? Yes. Member Hays?
[4thVVEd7zdo_SPEAKER_02]: Yes.
[Ruseau]: Member Kreatz?
[4thVVEd7zdo_SPEAKER_02]: Yes.
[Ruseau]: Member McLaughlin?
[4thVVEd7zdo_SPEAKER_02]: Yes.
[Ruseau]: Member Mustone?
[4thVVEd7zdo_SPEAKER_02]: Yes.
[Ruseau]: Member Ruseau? Yes. And Mayor Longo?
[Lungo-Koehn]: Yes. Seven in the affirmative, zero in the negative. Motion passes. Under new business, we have 2022-29 offered by member Rousseau. The policy on public comment and presentations of the public will be the following section appended. Number four, employees of the Medford Public Schools are exempt from the residency requirement of this policy. The voice of our employees is welcomed on all matters before this body. When non-Medford resident employees participating in public comment or submitting a presentation of the public, they will include their home address and identify themselves as an employee of the Medford Public Schools. Submitted 5-3-2022, meeting date requested is tonight. Is there a motion for approval? Motion by Member McLaughlin, seconded by? Second. Member Hays, roll call, please.
[Unidentified]: Second, sorry. Member Graham? Yes. Member Hays?
[4thVVEd7zdo_SPEAKER_02]: Yes.
[Ruseau]: Member Kreatz?
[4thVVEd7zdo_SPEAKER_02]: Yes.
[Ruseau]: Member McLaughlin?
[4thVVEd7zdo_SPEAKER_02]: Yes.
[Ruseau]: Member Mustone?
[4thVVEd7zdo_SPEAKER_02]: Yes.
[Ruseau]: Member Ruseau? Yes. Mayor Longo?
[Lungo-Koehn]: Yes. Seven in the affirmative, zero in the negative. Motion passes. And I did let somebody know there's no AC in here, so they will make sure the rest of the meetings are covered. 2022-30 offered by member Rousseau, the following changes do not change the policy of the member school committee, but merely bring the language and clients with our recently approved updates as part of our rules adoption on March 21st, 2022. Member Ruseau.
[Ruseau]: I'd like to make a motion to waive the reading of the details.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Motion by Member Ruseau, seconded by Member McLaughlin. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Aye. Reading is approved. Member Ruseau?
[Ruseau]: Yes, this is when we when we finalized our rules One of the motions we had was to authorize me to go through and look for policies that were no longer up to date based on our adopted rules. And this is an example of that. So in the current policy in the policy manual, it says a bunch of things that are no longer the case. So I won't go through the gory details, but we do not accept public comment as in the form of an email, where the secretary or vice chair reads it out loud. We get away with that. And this just brings the policy up to date.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Motion for approval by Member McLaughlin seconded by Second. Member Haynes, roll call, please.
[Ruseau]: Member Graham? Yes. Member Hays?
[4thVVEd7zdo_SPEAKER_02]: Yes.
[Ruseau]: Member Kreatz?
[4thVVEd7zdo_SPEAKER_02]: Yes.
[Ruseau]: Member McLaughlin?
[4thVVEd7zdo_SPEAKER_02]: Yes.
[Ruseau]: Member Mustone?
[Lungo-Koehn]: Yes.
[Ruseau]: Member Ruseau, yes. Mayor Lockhart?
[Lungo-Koehn]: Yes, so it's in the affirmative, zero in the negative, the mover passes. Offered by member Graham 2022-31, be it resolved the school committee will hold a committee of the whole no later than 5-27-2022 to receive the superintendent's self-evaluation. Be it further resolved that committee members will individually complete their rankings no later than 6-3-2022 using the Google form created for this purpose and sent to the secretary for compilation. Be it also resolved that a second committee of the whole will be convened no later than 6-10-2022 where the school committee will discuss and deliver its evaluation of our superintendent. Is there a motion for approval? I have a question there. Or is there questions? Member McLaughlin.
[McLaughlin]: Thank you. I just wanna reiterate, I know the process was new last year with the Google Docs and it took a little while for everybody to sort of get up to speed on that. And I don't remember, did we, maybe one of my colleagues might remember, did we, especially for new members, did we have like a primer on the process that went along with the document, just sort of that people could understand, or do we need to create that? Does anybody remember?
[Lungo-Koehn]: There was an outline.
[McLaughlin]: I, there was my recollection described it. So if I understand this motion correctly, the secretary is going to As, as was the case last year the Secretary will sort of initiate this process with the rest of the members with a sort of description of what needs to be done is that accurate assumption to the chest.
[Graham]: Okay, yep. So the Secretary would. send it out to us, make sure that there's enough time for us to complete, compile, just like we have done in years past. And I assume that if member Hays needs to be read into the process that I'm happy to do that or member Ruseau could do it as well.
[McLaughlin]: Thank you. And I guess I just would ask that we have it for posterity so that in the event that member Hays, myself, you, member Ruseau aren't around, in any time in the near future, just that it's sort of there. So I'm happy to help with that too, but just that there's a description of what we're doing and that it's outlined for everybody. If I might make a friendly amendment to that, if we don't already have it, that there will be a description of the process for the using the Google form that was created last year that the secretary will initiate with the rest of the committee, if I may.
[Graham]: I'm fine with that amendment.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Motion for approval as amended by Member McLaughlin. Motion to approve. Motion for approval by Member McLaughlin, seconded by? Second. Member Kreatz, roll call, please, as amended.
[Ruseau]: Member Graham. Yes. Member Hays.
[4thVVEd7zdo_SPEAKER_02]: Yes.
[Ruseau]: Member Kreatz.
[4thVVEd7zdo_SPEAKER_02]: Yes.
[Ruseau]: Member McLaughlin.
[4thVVEd7zdo_SPEAKER_02]: Yes.
[Ruseau]: Member Mustone.
[4thVVEd7zdo_SPEAKER_02]: Yes.
[Ruseau]: Member Ruseau. Yes. Mayor Leclerc.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Yes, seven in the affirmative, zero in the negative. Motion passes as amended. Number 2022-32 offered by member Rousseau. The Medford School Committee will add a regular meeting on June 13th, 2022. And are we eliminating the holiday June 20th, 2022 is my question. I know that's a holiday. Member Ruseau.
[Ruseau]: Thank you, mayor. I looked at the calendar, we don't have another meeting in June scheduled. So that's why I added the 13th. And I think when we approved our official calendar schedule, there were some things up in the air. So I'm pretty sure we need to have another meeting in June.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Motion to approve. Motion for approval by member McLaughlin, seconded by? Second. Everybody, member Kreatz, roll call, please.
[Ruseau]: Member Graham.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Yes.
[Ruseau]: Member Hays.
[4thVVEd7zdo_SPEAKER_02]: Yes.
[Ruseau]: Member Kreatz.
[4thVVEd7zdo_SPEAKER_02]: Yes.
[Ruseau]: Member McLaughlin.
[4thVVEd7zdo_SPEAKER_02]: Yes.
[Ruseau]: Member Mustone.
[4thVVEd7zdo_SPEAKER_02]: Yes.
[Ruseau]: Member Ruseau. Yes. Mayor Locker. Yes.
[Lungo-Koehn]: On the affirmative, zero on the negative, motion passes. Offered by Member Graham, 2022-33, be it resolved that the school committee will meet in a committee of the whole to discuss the superintendent's goals for 2022-2023 school year no later than 6-17-2022. We had further resolved that the school committee finalize and approve the superintendent's goal on a regular school committee meeting or special school committee meeting no later than 9-30-2022. Motion to approve. Member Hays.
[Hays]: I'm just wondering about that turnaround time from the 10th. No, I'm sorry, what are the dates?
[Lungo-Koehn]: 6-17-2022, not to 9-30-2022.
[Hays]: Well, from the 10th that we give the evaluation and then the 17th for the new goals, I'm just curious. It's a little tight.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Yeah, how's the superintendent?
[Graham]: Mayor, could I respond to that?
[Lungo-Koehn]: And then I think Dr. Maurice Edwards.
[Graham]: So I think, you know, in thinking about the timeline, always run out of time to do all these things at the end of the year. And as I was discussing this with the superintendent back and forth, you know, I originally was really wanting us to agree on goals between now and the end of June, so that in my mind, the administrative team can spend the summer thinking about how to implement those goals. And the superintendent did aptly point out that, you know, there is a lot of considerable amount of data that comes in over the summer and that you know we we'd really be best positioned to provide some space to allow that that set of information and data that's going to come in over the summer to help guide the the ultimate and finalized goals that we hold her accountable for which I think is great. I think what this does is sort of change the process. So in the past, the superintendent brings us a draft of her goals and then, you know, it's usually sometime in the fall, the year has already started. There's not, you know, there's an opportunity for us to sort of tweak here and there, but there isn't really a great opportunity for her to be able to hear from the committee in a wholesale way what we want to see the goals be. So I think what this does is say, you know, Between now and June, the school committee will have a discussion, that's it, we will have a committee of the whole, where we will talk about the kinds of things that we want the superintendent to take into consideration as from a goals perspective, as she heads into the summer. so that she can then pair that with the data and the work that her academic team is doing, but that we not finalize or ask her to put anything in draft until September. But I think it's critically important that she hear from us proactively about what we think those goals should be. And that piece has always sort of been missing in our process. So I think this, adding this now gives us an opportunity to do that without really expecting the superintendent to draft or document anything along the way between now and the end of the school year. But really, I think it's more an opportunity for her to be able to hear from us.
[4thVVEd7zdo_SPEAKER_02]: Dr. Maurice Edwards.
[Edouard-Vincent]: Yes, I had the opportunity to talk with member Graham about this, and I welcome the conversation and the discussion with the committee to be able to get an idea of what the committee members are thinking about for the following school year. But I did share that it's critically important to take time over the summer months to look at our data, to reflect as a team, to regroup, and be able to make data informed decisions about what our priorities are going to be, whether it's a district improvement goal or the student learning goal. And that it's the data that comes over the summer. Yes, embargo data that comes right at the end of the summer and into September. So the September 30th date, that will give us time to at least have a good amount of new data. to feel more confident in the recommendations that are being made to the committee by that date. And it is in keeping in agreement with many other districts, because I did consult with other superintendents to figure out what timetable they were on. And most of them said September, October, they submit their goals for the year. So I look forward to that discussion next month with you all.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Can I second? Motion for approval and seconded by Member Hays. Roll call, please.
[Ruseau]: Member Graham?
[Lungo-Koehn]: Yes.
[Ruseau]: Member Hays?
[4thVVEd7zdo_SPEAKER_02]: Yes.
[Unidentified]: Member Kreatz?
[4thVVEd7zdo_SPEAKER_02]: Yes.
[Unidentified]: Member McLaughlin?
[4thVVEd7zdo_SPEAKER_02]: Yes.
[Unidentified]: Member Mustone?
[4thVVEd7zdo_SPEAKER_02]: Yes.
[Ruseau]: Member Rossell, yes. Mayor Long-Lockern?
[Lungo-Koehn]: Yes. Seven in favor, zero against, motion passes. Offered by member Graham, 2022-34, be it resolved that the communication and family engagement subcommittee will review and recommend updates to the school committee related to Medford Public School attendance and truancy policies, which include high school class attendance policy, middle school attendance and tardiness policy, uniform registration and attendance policy, duties of the supervisor of attendance, truancy. Member Graham.
[Graham]: Thank you. This is this is the list of policies that we talked about at our last subcommittee meeting that didn't make its way onto the agenda formally last week. But these are the policies there. As you can see, there are quite a number of them are at that circle attendance and truancy. So the my request here is that we that we send this to the communications and family engagement subcommittee so that they can look at this work in tandem with the work that we are doing over there on our communications around attendance to families.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Motion for approval by Member McLaughlin, seconded by Member Kreatz. Roll call, please.
[Ruseau]: Member Graham. Yes. Member Hays.
[4thVVEd7zdo_SPEAKER_02]: Yes.
[Ruseau]: Member Kreatz.
[4thVVEd7zdo_SPEAKER_02]: Yes.
[4thVVEd7zdo_SPEAKER_02]: Yes.
[Lungo-Koehn]: The wellness policy for K-8 students is referred to the rules and policy subcommittee for revision and that it be revised as necessary to ensure unrestricted free play recess is available to all K-8 children daily as part of their social and emotional wellbeing. The curtailing of unrestricted free play recess shall be tracked. This information shall be returned to the school committee twice each year and be disambiguated by school grade gender, race, disability, and socioeconomic status. The subcommittee shall invite at least one teacher and administrator from grades K through five and six through eight, as well as the director of student services or her designee to ensure their views are considered. The current policy and recommended revised policy will be returned to this committee no later than our first meeting in November, 2022. Member Ruseau.
[Ruseau]: Thank you, Mayor. This may be causing you all some deja vu. In June of 2020, this was on the agenda and we decided that since we weren't sure anybody was going to be going to school, recess seemed kind of far away as a concern. Excuse me. So I have brought this back as it's very important and recent yet more news articles and more research keeps coming out, making it very evident that taking away recess has the opposite desired effect and harms all the children, not just those that actually had their recess taken away. So that's why I wanna get this work going in subcommittee. Thank you.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Motion to approve. Motion to approve by member McLaughlin, seconded by member Hays. Roll call, please.
[Ruseau]: Member Grant.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Yes.
[4thVVEd7zdo_SPEAKER_02]: Yes.
[4thVVEd7zdo_SPEAKER_02]: Yes.
[Lungo-Koehn]: 11, reports requested 2022-27 update implementation of NWEA map offered by member Hays, member McLaughlin, and members Stone from March 21st, 2022 meeting. Member Ruseau.
[Ruseau]: I believe this is just one that's continued on here. I don't think there's actually anything to discuss yet.
[Lungo-Koehn]: And next we have condolence The Medford School Committee expresses its sincere condolences to the family of Virginia F. O'Neill, who served as a lunch mother at the former Franklin Elementary School and the Roberts Elementary School. If we could rise for a moment of silence, please.
[Unidentified]: Thank you.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Our next meeting is, Regularly scheduled meeting is Monday, June 6, 2022 at 6 p.m. It will be in the chambers and also by Zoom. Everybody have a great night.
[Unidentified]: Motion to adjourn?
[Lungo-Koehn]: Motion to adjourn by Member McLaughlin, seconded by Member Kreatz. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Meeting is adjourned. Thank you, everybody.
[Hays]: Thank you. Melanie, are you going to National Honor Society? The teacher's just asking. I think I am.
[Unidentified]: She just wants to put cheers on the stage. Yeah.
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