[SPEAKER_07]: There's no sound on Zoom or anything. We're muted.
[SPEAKER_04]: project that you've been doing at the Andrews this year, and I look forward to hearing more news next year as well. So thank you to the both of you for coming this evening.
[SPEAKER_21]: Member Ruseau? Thank you. I think there was a project at the high school on this as well, at least before the pandemic. I was wondering, who takes the compost bins out? In my own house, that sometimes is an issue.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a company called Black Earth Composting. So we have them pick it up.
[SPEAKER_21]: But I mean, like, from the building inside to the, I assume it goes.
[SPEAKER_08]: Mr. Zizzo has his hand up.
[SPEAKER_13]: Need to be in the microphone. Thank you. Thank you.
[SPEAKER_17]: So I had a contact with Black Earth and the custodian would bring the bin out for me. Once a week, they'd come pick it up. They'd put it out Thursday. They would usually pick it up Friday, anywhere between morning and before lunch. It would be put back at lunchtime, and then we'd start the week over again. So it was a weekly collection. Thank you. Sure.
[SPEAKER_13]: Great.
[SPEAKER_11]: Thank you so much. Great job, Mayor, Member Graham.
[SPEAKER_09]: You all worked with Mr. Zizzo to figure out what the cost for an entire year would be and that was $720 Is that correct. Yes. I think that is a really reasonable expense for us to consider. And tonight we are going to talk about the budget. And I would like to ask the administration to think about finding a way for us to fund this. But Violet is my daughter, full disclosure, so I didn't want to be the person to make that motion. If any of my colleagues would like to help me out.
[SPEAKER_15]: I can motion. I motion to look into the budget for the cost of the $720 for the school year coming up for the compost buckets. Second.
[SPEAKER_11]: Motion to look into the budget and that cost by member Kreatz, seconded by member McLaughlin. Member Mustone, would you like to?
[SPEAKER_08]: I just had a question that I know that a different compost company has the city of Method contract. We can check with them. So I don't know if they would give us a discount because they have the whole city. So if we could look into that, I'm happy to call. Yep, we definitely can. Thank you.
[SPEAKER_21]: question about the motion. Um, was that for all the schools? Uh, Kathy.
[SPEAKER_14]: Democrats. Oh, is this now? It's seven twenties for one school. Yeah, this is for one school. Okay.
[SPEAKER_11]: Um, we can explore it throughout the district. Explore throughout. Yes. If we could explore throughout the district. That's great. Second member McLaughlin. Second. Um, all those in favor?
[SPEAKER_22]: Aye.
[SPEAKER_11]: All those opposed? Motion passes. Thank you.
[SPEAKER_06]: Thank you very much.
[SPEAKER_09]: Motion to revert back to the regular order of business.
[SPEAKER_11]: Member Graham, seconded by Member McLaughlin. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? We will revert. Number five, consent agenda, bills and payrolls, regular school committee meeting minutes from 5-16-2022, committee of the whole meeting minutes 5-24-2022, and special school committee meeting minutes 5-25-2022. Is there a motion on the floor for a motion to approve? Motion to approve. By Member Kreatz, seconded by Member McLaughlin. All those in favor? All those opposed? Consent agenda is passed. Number six, report of subcommittees, rules and policy subcommittee meeting minutes 525, 2022. Member Ruseau.
[SPEAKER_21]: Thank you very much. So the rules and policy subcommittee met for the third time on the dress code policy, which we will look at later on in the agenda. I think, let's see, was there, oh, there was only one minor edit to the minutes that I would recommend. It says that we can prohibit something when in fact that should say we cannot. I'll send the exact line number. But other than that, I think the minutes speak for themselves. If anybody has any questions.
[SPEAKER_11]: Any questions or motion on the floor? Motion to approve the minutes as amended. By member Graham, seconded by member McLaughlin. All those in favor? All those opposed, minutes are approved. Number seven, report of superintendent, superintendent's updates and comments. Dr. Maurice Edouard-Vincent, superintendent.
[SPEAKER_04]: Good evening. Good evening, we meet tonight on the 78th anniversary of D-Day. On June 6, 1944, Allied forces crossed the English Channel and began to reclaim the European mainland. This date is important as it marked a turning point on the Western Front in World War II. We are grateful for the greatest generation whose heroism changed the course of history for the world. Also, I would like to share that it was truly a pleasure to witness our high school and vocational technical high school graduation last Thursday night at Hormel Stadium. So much happiness and good energy surrounded all of us, and it really filled my bucket. I want to congratulate once again the class of 2022. I know that they will be successful in their future endeavors. I also wanted to take a moment to commend and thank our Mustang Boys baseball team. They helped to place flags on the veterans graves throughout Oak Grove Cemetery in preparation for Memorial Day. It is gratifying to see our student-athletes volunteer to help our community at large, and especially to honor our veterans. Congratulations are also in order for Ibrahim Ahmed, a seventh grade student at the McGlynn Middle School. Ibrahim won the hardest math problem student contest. It was presented by Scholastic. The Actuary Foundation and the New York Life Foundation challenges students in grades six through eight to solve multi-step grade-appropriate math problems with real-world situations and engaging characters. The contest energizes students' perceptions of math with fun, challenging story problems that combine math reasoning skills with writing. Congratulations, a job well done. Additionally, in keeping with congratulations, the McGlynn Elementary School was selected to receive the mathical book prize collection development award. This award will allow the McGlynn Library to expand their collection of literary fiction and nonfiction books to encourage students to discover a love of mathematics. This $700 grant was awarded by the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute, MSRI, in partnership with the School Library Journal. So in the wake of many recent multiple tragedies, I feel it is incumbent upon me to mention that June is National Gun Violence Awareness Month. Clearly, the fight to end gun violence has never been more urgent. Despite the horrors across the nation, Over the course of this past year, weekend, there were 13 other mass shootings that occurred. No matter your views on guns, we must try to work together towards the goal of allowing all of us to feel safe, whether in a movie theater, a medical building, at a concert or a party, at places of worship, a grocery store, and most certainly our schools. While our seniors have graduated, the Met for Public Schools still has a number of events planned. Tomorrow, June 7th, is the Citywide Readathon. We will be presenting awards at six o'clock at the new library to all of our elementary school readers, and we look forward to celebrating you tomorrow evening at the library at 6 p.m. I also wanna thank our PTOs that have been actively involved in that process. On Wednesday, June 8th, it is our end of year CPAC business meeting from six to 8 p.m. It will be taking place by Zoom. CPAC will be presenting the school committee their end of year report at next Monday's meeting on Monday, June 13th. Friday, June 10th, are the Junior Olympics. The Junior Olympics are back and they will be held for all of our fifth graders at Hormel Stadium from nine to noon. We hope that many of you, the school committee members, the mayor, parents, and caregivers, that you will be able to come down to Hormel and cheer on our students. Also on Friday, June 10th, It is the Medford Family Network's Teddy Bear Picnic from 10am to 2pm at Victory Park. I know that we will have many elected officials there, including the mayor, school committee, city council, and state delegation. They will be in attendance. On Saturday, June 11th, the Medford Family Network is hosting a fill a truck with room to grow at Medford High School from 1.30 to 3.30, rain or shine. Donations are being accepted for gently used new baby and toddler items. Please contact Marie Cassidy if you have any questions at 781-393-2106. Also on Monday, June 13, that will be our next regular school committee meeting at 6pm. June is Pride Month. Last Thursday, I was happy to participate in Mayor Lungo-Koehn's flag raising here at City Hall. It was wonderful to see so many different faces from our community come together in celebration and in commemoration of our LGBTQ plus community, family, friends, and neighbors. This year, Pride Month's theme is Justice of Joy. I know that we are longer current director of diversity, equity and inclusion Francis the method planning committee high schools, GSA committee group. They have planned a number of events this month throughout the city. So please, if you're interested, please go to the city website and our school blog to have an accurate accounting of all the events that are taking place. And we did have our students speak last week. I also want to thank member Hays and all of the other elected officials who were able to come and participate in the flag raising ceremony. In closing, I want to just share a few remarks about safety. There have been several emails coming in, in light of all of the violent events that have been taking place across the country. And members of the community in some of the emails are asking for specifics regarding safety and what is Metro Public Schools doing. There are things that Metro Public Schools does do in order to maintain the safety. We do maintain doing fire drills, we're working closely and collaboratively with our fire department. We do do at selected times, shelter in place. But there are other pieces of our security protocols that we don't publicly or formally announced, so I did not have it listed this week as an official report, but at next Monday's meeting as well. I will be providing more guided information, follow up information. I do want the community to know that I work very closely with Chief Buckley and working with our administrative team and following the safety protocols that should be in place. So I want people to know that we prioritize the safety of the entire community. And it is our goal to keep our community safe, as safe as possible. And so I did want to say that there was also a district-wide safety team that administrators, special ed administrators, it's a collaborative group that does meet and discuss safety protocols, including building and grounds, and select administrators.
[SPEAKER_10]: Mayor, point of information.
[SPEAKER_11]: Member McLaughlin.
[SPEAKER_10]: Yeah, just regarding the Universal Safety Committee. Thank you for mentioning that, Superintendent Edward-Vincent. It meets monthly. It's been happening for the past several years. The mission is to address safety issues specific to students with disabilities, especially during lockdowns and other items, and lots of things have come out of that committee, and they also meet quarterly with the principals. Great, thank you.
[SPEAKER_11]: Great. Thank you, Dr. Edward-Vincent. Thank you, Dr. Is there a motion? It's not on the agenda.
[SPEAKER_08]: Derek, are you Derek? All right, so Derek and I haven't met in person. So Derek is a dad who has some words he'd like to share if there could be a suspension to hear from him.
[SPEAKER_11]: Motion to suspend the rules by member McLaughlin, seconded by Stone, seconded by member McLaughlin. Seconded by member McLaughlin. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Name and address for the record, please.
[SPEAKER_12]: Derek Anderson, 16 Myrtle Street here in Medford. Thank you for the time, just wanted to comment, and thank you, Superintendent, for your comments. I do appreciate it. I'm going to moderate the words I was gonna use here due to the age of some of the folks in the audience. I apologize if there's any vagueness or unclearness. I did send you all an email. If there's any unclearness, please do read that. So while I do expect that you're all taking the threat of violence very seriously, and I know that you can't share all the details of that, as a parent of two young children in our school system, I just felt it was my obligation to let you know what I feel is very important to me. And I'm just going to talk about the four most important things that I think are evidence-based for safety. Number one is the American School Councilor Association says that we need one adjustment Councilor for every 250 students. So we can provide our children. the emotional support networks and mental health services that they need to implement evidence-based anti-bullying programs. So why Safe Schools Initiative reports that 87% of perpetrators left evidence that they were victims of severe and long-term bullying, 87%. 98% experienced a personal loss that they were unable to cope with. And the American Counseling Association also reports 78% had a history of suicidal ideations. These are red flags that we can act on, but only if we have the right Councilors to do that. By providing Councilors to address emotional health and bullying, we will also be tackling what the American Counseling Association has identified as far and away the leading cause of this kind of violence. While providing and while providing support networks that will allow our children to thrive academically, socially, and personally, and make our entire community safer and more vibrant. Two out of three of my neighbors with school-aged children are now sending their kids to charters because of this. That's unacceptable. If we don't have the money for the Councilors we need, then I ask you, Mayor Lungo-Koehn, to put up to vote a Proposition 2 1⁄2 Override so we can have the money we need for this. Second point, and the last couple of go a little quicker here. We need to give our adjustment Councilors the authority for them to lead the creation of threat assessment teams, to create and enact evidence-based threat assessment program, to identify who might be in crisis, assess that risk and intervene, particularly focusing on providing access to support networks and mental health services. This program should create systems to collect information about threats, including anonymous tip lines, and should include educational programs to help staff and students know the signs and be aware of tools available such as the extreme risk protection laws and section 12 mental health laws. Why FBI has reported that the far most valuable prevention strategy was the threat assessment and management team. And the Department of Homeland Security reports that detecting and addressing behavioral red flags are far more effective than any physical security measures. And third, as recommended by FEMA and universally agreed by security experts, we need a single comprehensive emergency plan to coordinate the efforts and lines of communication as it's decision-making amongst all emergency responders and staff, specifically for these kinds of situations. This should include mock training exercises by emergency responders and staff, but I will note that I am not supportive of including our students in these exercises. And then fourth, we also do need basic physical prevention systems, including internal door locks, ensuring external doors are locked, minimizing entry points, and monitoring and controlling access to the school. So, thank you very much for your time.
[SPEAKER_11]: Thank you, Mr. Anderson. Number two, we have report.
[SPEAKER_21]: No, we don't need to.
[SPEAKER_11]: Report on results of the equity audit for human resources phase one conducted by the equity process.
[SPEAKER_13]: Dr. Maurice Edouard-Vincent.
[SPEAKER_07]: Good evening.
[SPEAKER_04]: This evening, I'm going to be sharing a very brief, well, I don't think it's that brief, but I'm going to share a somewhat brief slide deck with you on the results of equity audit of human resources. Let's jump into the human resources audit I just want to recognize our students at the Curtis Tufts, who had a graduation ceremony last Wednesday, June 1 as well. And to acknowledge anyone who may be here any staff from the Curtis Tufts as well, and Mr. drowsky for leading the school and. hosting that celebration that took place last week at the Irish American. So congratulations to our students at the Curtis Tufts as well. Thank you. Thank you. So what I'm going to share with you are key recommendations and results of our equity audit of human resources. So in terms of framing, I was starting off saying, why is diversity important? It is important for us to consider perspective taking Developing a sense of belonging is incredibly important for all of our learners, our students, our scholars. A strong sense of belonging leads to higher levels of student achievement. So our why. The equity audit of human resources was the first phase of a greater body of work that will continue in Medford. Please keep in mind that in light of the pandemic, it wasn't prudent for us to begin the equity work of the district starting in classrooms. However, with our focus on students first, we began this journey by looking at our policies and procedures that bring talent to NPS. Our goal is to improve and build an inclusive culture within Medford Public Schools hiring system. So when we talk about a sense of belonging, sense of belonging is one of the greatest predictors of success. Educational research tells us that one of the greatest predictors of academic achievement for students is a sense of belonging. Increasing the diversity of our faculty is a measure to increase the sense of belonging for our students. I wanna share some data with you. This is Medford Public Schools student enrollment data from the DESE portal. We have slightly over 4,000 students. The first section of the blue bars is identifying student race and ethnicity. African American students within the district represent 11.1%. Asian students, 9.4%. Hispanic Latino students, 14.4%. Native American, 0.4%. White students, 59.2%. Native Hawaiian Pacific Islander, 0.1%. Multirace non-Hispanic, 5.3%. So in essence, we are almost a 60-40% split within Medford Public Schools. Under selected populations, we have 26.8% of our students, nearly 1,000 students in the Medford Public Schools, their first language is not English. 1,000 of our 4,000 students, significant. It's not English, meaning that they can be bilingual, speak other languages, and are equally conversant in English. However, our English learner population is 10.4%. These are students that are receiving intensive ESL supports. Our students with disabilities, 20.2%. Again, if we're thinking about 4,000, we are nearing the 1,000, 800 to 900 of our students within Medford Public Schools are receiving special education services in some way, shape, or form. That's a significant number. This number was a little staggering to me. Our students with high needs, 53.9%, more than 2,000 students in the Medford Public Schools are classified as students with high needs. More than 2,000.
[SPEAKER_10]: Point of information, Member McLaughlin. Thank you. Superintendent, would you mind defining high needs for us so that we know what's disaggregated in that data, please?
[SPEAKER_04]: So within high needs, it's taking into account also not only socioeconomic and learning needs, it's inclusive, I would say, akin to saying most vulnerable, that these are students within our community that face greater challenges And Desi identifies them according for us, that nearly over 2000 students fall into that category. And for those specifically classified as low income students, it's 40.5% that are classified as low income, which was also another staggering data point. This slide here shows our staffing in Medford Public Schools. And so we have over 600 staff that classify as or identify as white staff. And for Hispanic, Asian, and African American staff, and this is including more than the teachers as well, it's including other departments, we have very, very significantly smaller numbers than what was previously shown. But I just wanted us to be able to keep this data in mind as I continue to share some of the findings. So I wanted to talk a little bit about perception. If you look at the image, depending which way you look at this image, it can be confusing.
[SPEAKER_07]: I'm gonna show you another image. What do you see?
[SPEAKER_04]: What we know to be real is real. As you look at this image, hopefully you're seeing something. Am I able to ask one of the members of the committee to possibly just say what they think they're seeing in that particular image? There is no right answer. Can you say it again? A woman with a hat. A woman with a hat. Anyone else? Corral de Vil. Okay.
[SPEAKER_11]: Young lady.
[SPEAKER_04]: A young lady, thank you. Dr. Cushing, there is no right or wrong answer. What I love about that image is within the image, there are two pictures depending which way you see it. Some people see the young lady. Some people see the, elderly lady. They both are, they both are there. They both exist at the same exact time. It's just the perspective in which you're looking at the image. But both images exist, and both images are there. We touch a little bit upon implicit bias. We talk about ageism, because ageism can be a form of discrimination against a person based on age. I just want you to see, again, these two images existing at the same exact time. Dr. Cushing. I am curious if the audience would indulge me, how many people think they saw the young women? How many saw the elderly women? Okay. So here is some key vocabulary, thank you. Some key vocabulary that was used as part of this audit. Throughout the audit, members of the school committee were interviewed, administrative members were interviewed, members of human resources, a specific office, business office at central office, they were interviewed. The Race Equity Task Force were part of a conversation. So there were select conversations and surveys that took place to kind of gather and give us this information that I'm getting ready to share with you. But here are some key terms. Diverse learning communities. The definition of diversity.
[SPEAKER_07]: Equity.
[SPEAKER_04]: equality, inclusion. Diverse learning communities are learning communities that support collaborative partnerships between students and staff and attempt to restructure the curriculum to address structural barriers to educational excellence. They are inclusive of all races, ethnicities, genders, creeds, sexual orientations, and abilities. The next slide shows diversity hiring. Diversity hiring is hiring based on merit, with exceptional care taken to ensure procedures have reduced biases related to a candidate's age, race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, and other personal characteristics that are unrelated to their job performance. Diversity hiring is what we are going to be aspiring for here in Medford. So we wanna be in our endeavor to improve our policies and procedures. I want you to know that this audit was not about myself. Maurice-Edouard Vincent, or my professional values. What we are aspiring to do is align to the 2030 goals that are outlined here for the city of Method, that are outlined at BSE, and that are outlined in the national 2030 global education goals that are both national and international. What we are aspiring to do here in Medford We're not on an island unto ourselves. So there were some key recommendations that were based on the survey data. I'll just read a few of them. One of them under survey data was developing a hiring process that includes questions grounded in equity that meets the needs of our diverse populations. We want to work with supporting our building-based leaders by allowing them to lead and focus on instructional leadership. We want to be able to host informative community events that keeps all of our stakeholders up to date and explain to them the difference between diverse hiring and hiring for diversity. Dr. Cushing, next slide please. These were some recommendations based on facilitated discussions. talking about creating inclusive standards that include accountability and confidentiality for all staff who work in the HR department. Creating a structure that fosters a sense of belonging for all staff while centering those from minority groups. Dr. Cushing. Creating a system for training building base leaders on equitable hiring practices and procedures, including but not limited to diversity hiring practices and processes. Creating a process that allows for competitive hiring. The hiring timeline, to have it begin as early as February or before. and to be able to end in June and seeking approval from the school committee to see if that's something that we could continue to do and do it in a more formalized way. We wanna be able to also create exit interview processes that tracks and records all exit interview data. Dr. Cushing. We identified some inconsistencies that currently exist right now. One of the things that we do not have yet but we will be working on is creating an HR human resources handbook to consist of policies and procedures and expected practices that include but aren't limited to. So we do not have a handbook that houses everything all in one place. And that's something that we will be working on. We would love to have a diversity statement that speaks to the environment that Metro Public Schools will create to support, empower, and celebrate members of our community. We also want to include statements and processes on our values, performance management, talent development, confidentiality, constructive and cooperative discipline, dress code, the evaluation process at all levels, clear and transparent expectations of reciprocal communication between human resources and staff. Dr. Christian. For school committee recommendations, We want to be able to set the smarty goals. Again, this is from Desi, that is Jedi driven. And I put at the bottom Jedi, that is one of the key vocabulary words, justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion. Reminding us that we have over 4,000 students within the district and always putting our students first. Centering policies practices procedures around their needs and expected outcomes. Recommendations based on our current district vision and mission statement to co-create a simple, simplified district vision and a simplified district mission statement that is aligned to the 2030 global education standards. Dr. Cushing. Here is a continuum. I have participated in significant professional development this year. This particular slide is from the professional development that I was part of that was based out of Desi, and it worked with 25 superintendents and equity directors across the Commonwealth. Half of those superintendents were BIPOC individuals of color, and half of them were white superintendents. And we engaged in this learning together. They would separate us, and they would bring us back together to share our learning. Diversity, belonging, inclusion, and equity. Looking at those four buckets, I want to preface it to say that this takes about eight to 10 years to achieve. Under diversity, it says you've been asked to the party. Under belonging, you feel welcomed and comfortable going to the party. Under inclusion, you've been asked to help plan the party. And under equity, it redefines what the party entails, who has the power to plan the party, and if there should even be a party. We are just embarking, I see Medford in the diversity bucket. We're just starting there. Dr. Cushing. So the bigger picture for us here in Medford, our North Star. Yes, you might see the Little Dipper or Big Dipper there. What do we need to do next? We need to set our intended priorities based on the audits recommendations. This was only phase one. We want to create and continue to foster an HR department that embraces diversity hiring in the 2030 goals. We wanna be ensuring that our students are centered in a part of our creation. We want to work closely with our internal and external stakeholders to ensure that we are inclusive and objective during our processes. And we want to be building stronger partnerships with our community organizations. Dr. Christian, this work takes time and thoughtful planning. We can get there together. I want to say a special thank you to the race equity task force. for their support and feedback throughout the year. I would like to thank the Medford School Committee for your support, for commissioning this audit, this first phase, and allowing us to start looking at our own policies, practices, and procedures. And I would like to thank the equity process for working with us this school year. Thank you.
[SPEAKER_11]: Thank you, Dr. Edward-Vinson, any questions?
[SPEAKER_09]: Member Graham? Is the consultant's engagement complete?
[SPEAKER_04]: Can you say it again, please?
[SPEAKER_09]: Is the equity process organization's engagement with us complete?
[SPEAKER_04]: For phase one, there's a few things that we're working on throughout this month, but we are finishing phase one by the end of June. We'll be done with them for this first phase.
[SPEAKER_09]: Okay. I want to start by saying I'm completely supportive of this work, but this is not what I expected to receive at the end of a paid engagement from a consultant who is an expert in this.
[SPEAKER_04]: have a document that will be coming next week. I just wanted to present the findings because I had said that I would get it out the first week of June.
[SPEAKER_09]: So I want to be clear that we asked for a couple of really important things. One is a roadmap of how we would go about implementing all of these recommendations in some sort of sequential order that makes sense for our district. I don't see that here. We can't do this with just a list of things like it's, we are not going to be able to do that. So my expectation was that there would be a clear roadmap that reflected our priorities and our realities. and that's missing. I think we also specifically asked the consultant for commentary around our wage scales and whether they were supportive or not supportive of our goals around hiring and retention by POC staff.
[SPEAKER_03]: There is some of that in the report that I, the version that I was looking at, the last version.
[SPEAKER_09]: Okay, I would like to see the full report before we continue to engage this consultant further because this isn't enough for us to act on, as far as I can tell. Thank you. Thank you, Member Graham.
[SPEAKER_11]: Mr. Petrella, you did request to be on the agenda. Name and address for the record, please.
[SPEAKER_18]: Oka Street, Method Mass. And I have to agree with you, by the way. The equity audit, the company that did this audit, can I ask how much that cost us? I'm just curious, what was the cost? Anyone know? had an audit done, but we don't know how much it costs.
[SPEAKER_11]: Yes, 17, 18,000. In the $17,000 range. Okay.
[SPEAKER_04]: It was not an equity audit of the district, it was an equity audit of human resources.
[SPEAKER_18]: Yes, okay. And I know you questioned the school committee, they questioned human resources, did they question the people that matter?
[SPEAKER_09]: Point of information. Point of information, member Graham. Can we just clarify when we have speakers how long they have to speak?
[SPEAKER_18]: I know my time's limited. That's another problem we have with the school committee. It's very limited. We had a meeting at four o'clock in the afternoon back in March to verify the new rules and you guys all voted on them. which did nothing but cut people like me out from speaking. I've been trying to speak up here for about seven, eight weeks. Not angry at anybody, not mad at anybody. I'm really not, okay? But we just did an equity audit. The company is equity processed. We know who the company is, right? Is everyone aware? Did we vet them? Did we look at them? Did we? And you looked at all four people that are the offices on this company?
[SPEAKER_13]: We had the CEO before us.
[SPEAKER_18]: And the other three that are listed on it? Because one of them leaves a lot... I can't even repeat some of the things he said. But yet... we went with this. And then the other thing, I understand we needed, I guess you guys think we need the equity audit. I don't know what it's all about. I'm trying to figure out what it has to do with education. I didn't hear a word about education, which is what we all care about. I mean, my kids went to school. I didn't care about any of this stuff.
[SPEAKER_10]: In the presentation, there was information on the DESE standard for the equity audit and other educational institutions.
[SPEAKER_18]: No, but we didn't discuss anything about education. That's all, we just, we didn't. I mean, you guys, you know.
[SPEAKER_11]: This is more about diversity within education.
[SPEAKER_18]: Yeah, diversity equity. Is this diversity? What sex are you assigned at birth? Well, is that equity, diversity? What does that got to do with education? It has a lot to do with diversity. Diversity, how? I'm asking you a serious question. Diversity, how? What sex were you assigned at birth? This is a survey that went out to kids in Medford. To me, this is bothersome. You have one more minute, Mr. Petrella. Yeah, I know, I know. That's the other thing. That's very bothersome. The people in the city can't come up, we can't speak, we're shut out of everything. It's a fact, it's a fact. It's very frustrating, very, very frustrating. I mean, it's like, you're not gonna listen, you're not gonna pay attention. We don't matter anymore. We have something we want to discuss about the kids and to me, this equity audit didn't accomplish anything. Why don't we do an audit on education and what's going on with the education of these kids? Why don't we talk to the teachers and get their opinion on what's happening?
[SPEAKER_04]: In light of the pandemic, we were not going into classrooms.
[SPEAKER_18]: There's no pandemic anymore. Right? There's no pandemic, so we weren't going into classrooms a while ago. That's over. We could have went in and asked teachers what's going on in the schools.
[SPEAKER_11]: This was an HR audit.
[SPEAKER_18]: Thank you. There's so many things that are going on that just aren't right. What happened last week? Now we're hearing about school security. That should have been like priority one. The security of the teachers, the kids, nothing. I mean, I'm sitting home and I'm like, oh, this is horrible. You watch it, your heart breaks for everybody and everything, the teachers, everyone that lost their lives. What did Medford do? What do we do?
[SPEAKER_11]: Thank you, Mr. Pichella. We're discussing it now, that's what we're doing. No, we have a safety plan. Number three, we have fiscal year 23, Medford Public School operating budget update, Assistant Superintendent of Finance and Operations, Mr. David Murphy.
[SPEAKER_16]: Good evening Mayor, there's a school commits pleasure to be with you as always. This is a short deck. This is the fifth or sixth time over the course of the last three or four weeks that we have briefed you on the developing f y 23. operating budget. There are some well the deck is short tonight there are some significant substantive updates with respect to the fiscal forecast and so I'll be happy to share that with you and answer your questions as best as possible so If we go to the first slide you see that on May 25, the school committee approved the budget request. And as we've said throughout the course of the budget development process. The first step is the school committee making that request based on the identified needs of the district and strategic priorities, as presented by the administration, the price tag for that package that the school can be approved which you'll recall included strategic priorities and categories, a, b, B and D, and I'll offer a brief refresher as to the implications of each of the categories momentarily, but that came out to approximately $71.8 million. Remember that the initial price tag to that was $72.4 million, but as we continue to examine the fixed cost increases and a few other components of the budget, we were able to ultimately identify that as an operating budget that would be inclusive of all of the strategic priorities identified in categories A, B, and D would be $71.8 million. You'll notice in that table on the right, in the top row, that that includes a budgeted cost of living adjustment of 2% across the board for all employees. And that is, as I said, also inclusive of the of the fixed cost increases those are the contractual obligations steps lanes, transportation and a few other vendors to for which the district is obligated to, to, to see increases based on existing agreements. This weekend, we did receive from the city administration the anticipated recommendation for the school department's financial authorization. You can see that there is a significant discrepancy between those two numbers, the $71.8 million that the committee voted on and the anticipated 68, essentially, we're gonna call it $69 million. It's a few thousand dollars below $69 million appropriation. That has a delta of $2.8 million, or thereabouts. That's on the table on the left. You can see that. And so you heard me say several times, we had several, I think, thoughtful discussions about the school administration's responsibility to plan for a variety of contingencies throughout the course of the budget process. It is not a surprise that the budget request that this committee made exceeded that which the city could the mayor's office can recommend to the city council. And that's why we have to go through that contingency planning process and it's also why, as was the case last year, there's a budget reconciliation process that we now need to engage in, in order to align those numbers and to prepare to implement the FY 23 operating budget. So the first step of that contingency reconciliation process was, I hope, communicated very clearly throughout the budget development process, which is that for category B priorities, of which there are only a handful, but they are priorities for which there's an urgent need to address the newcomer strand being one of them. And then I didn't bring the list of priorities with me, but I think you're pretty familiar with them at this point. It amounts to approximately $600,000. And due to the nexus between those spending priorities and the pandemic. We've determined that they are so appropriate, and also that they are, we think, time limited, and that as we move further away from the pandemic. the likelihood that those costs should subside. It is possible, as we've said throughout last year's budgeting process and throughout this year's, that they will be identified as continuing needs that extend beyond the life of the ESSER program. And if that's the case, it will be incumbent upon the school district and the city to determine how it is that we can absorb those costs within our operating budget. But we have some time to do that due to the availability of that temporary funding through ESSER. The category D priorities, our priorities are things that we identified that would be important and that all of which we think will advance the district's goals and strategic plan, but they are not of a as much of an urgent caliber as the category A and therefore on that hierarchy they were they were considered lower. And so, the first step in in record reconciling this budget consistent with the recommendations we've made from the beginning of the process would be for category B to move to answer in category, D, either to be deferred to subsequent fiscal years, or to be charged through other sources of revenue or one time. or one-time funding. So over the course of the next week, as we publish the draft budget book, you'll see that there'll be a reconciliation memo that will essentially identify which are ones that we've been able to, which priorities of category D we'll be able to identify other sources of funding for, and then which are ones that it would be our recommendation that they be deferred to subsequent fiscal years. With respect to category A, those are the priorities amounting to about a little under $500,000 that it would be our hope to pursue in fiscal year 23. But in light of the magnitude of this discrepancy, there's a likelihood that we will need to potentially resort to other external funding sources if we are in fact to pursue those strategic priorities. And again, I'll just, I'll finish on this slide. Did I already finish it? No, I will finish on this slide just by saying that again, this is an operating budget that while we strive to close that $1.4 million gap, we are retaining as a fixed priority the as yet to be negotiated cost of living increases, which we'll talk a little bit about in a minute with respect to reiterate the sort of primary drivers behind our operating budget and the nexus between those and the collective bargaining process that is underway. when we get to that $1.4 million reconciliation, it will include still a budgeted 2% increase across the board. There's only two more slides that we need to go over. The next one, this is again, how will we bridge that $1.4 million gap prior to next week's budget hearing? Again, it is possible that there'll be some fluctuation with respect to the $69 billion number, but at this point we have enough information basically that it's a responsibility on our office's part to prepare essentially a $69 million budget. And we'll be sharing with you how we're going to align try to advance at least the goals, if not the specific priorities of category A, as well as the existing obligations that we have. And to go to the point that you've heard me say many times over the course of the past several months, that our strategic objective of ensuring competitive and sustainable wage increases, and for that reason, that 2% increase will continue to be incorporated into that operating budget. That being said, there will be things that, if it's $69 million, will not be incorporated into that budget. So there will be priorities that we've shared. There will be things that I think both in the administration and in the committee, and I'm sure in many parts of the community, that we would like to be included in this budget. But at $69 million, there is going to be a significant reconciliation process. So just in the last slide, and then I'll be happy to, next to the last slide, actually, I'm going to ask to go to one more. momentarily. These are the next steps. This is the timeline that we would anticipate over the several weeks. I don't have a specific timeline from the municipal council yet, but I know that that, or I assume at least that that invitation will be forthcoming. I would anticipate doing our statutory budget hearing next week, and then we will go on from there. The remaining slides, Dr. Cushing, if we want to go maybe two more, These are all slides that you've seen in our budget process and our timeline that we've gone through. That's good right there, thank you. So this is a slide that you've seen before that I presented to you on May 2nd in a conversation that we've had both before, during, and we will have for a long time after this particular budget process. When, like every other school district, we are primarily a personnel-driven organization. And so we're at $67.4 million this year, approximately $55 billion goes to personnel costs. The vast majority of our employees are in bargaining units, and the vast majority of our employees are dedicated public servants that help, as we've said in other forums, turn our school buildings into school communities. And for that reason, and because we have a responsibility to try to maintain our competitiveness, it is our responsibility to do whatever we can to maintain both competitive and sustainable wage increases. That being said, wage increases that are not sustainable will have an impact on our ability to staff schools appropriately. And it is because of how schools are organized, it is a, it is a fact of life, essentially, that if we are unable to. land in a place with sustainable wage increases, we will not have the staffing structures that we need to support students. And that's particularly true amongst student populations that are considered most vulnerable or high need. That is what has driven our priorities throughout the collective bargaining process. It is what will continue to drive our priorities throughout the collective bargaining process. And I would say, I'm happy to take your questions and I'll answer them as carefully as I can. because in light of the budgetary context that we find ourselves in, I think there's a responsibility on all stakeholders' part to communicate information that is accurate, that is based in fact, and that is not contradicted by the clear guidance that we've received from a variety of legal authorities. And with that, I'm happy to take your questions.
[SPEAKER_21]: Mayor? Member Ruseau? Thank you very much. In the May 25 presentation, the level funding, meaning we do not one nickel of more anything, was $71.1 million. So how is the number we're looking at? I understand that figuring out how we can add those those category A items is obviously critically important. We have to have enough EL teachers for the number of EL students, et cetera. But if we ignored that we have to add those, where are we cutting? $2.2 million.
[SPEAKER_16]: I don't think it's 2.2, but I think when you see the book and the reconciliation memo, you'll see that some of what was initially determined to be a $2.5 million fixed cost, maybe $2.6 million cost increase, that number is lower on the basis of identifying existing capacity within the FY22 budget that can essentially absorb some of those fixed cost increases. I can think of two examples of the top my head and the transportation line and in the math department. There were some unrealized expenditures that positioned us to be able to absorb the cost of investigations three more easily than we had initially anticipated. And so there's some there's some fluctuation there. The second part of the answer is that over the course of the past several days, and it's only been in the last several days in which this processes has unfolded the magnitude of that discrepancy is significantly greater than anyone in the school or city administration. anticipated. And so in light of that, there has been, you've heard me use the term scrubbing before, there's been a more intense scrubbing of the budget to identify what expenses can be moved to other appropriate sources of revenue. So there are personnel associated with revolving accounts that we've, for purposes of stability, tried to incorporate into the operating budget as just a matter of more sound fiscal practice. And unfortunately, to get to the number we're going to, at this moment, believe we'll need to get to, to implement an operating budget, some of that, some of those decisions have been made, which is resulting in some of that fluctuation.
[SPEAKER_21]: So in 2020, the schools, we laid off dozens of people and the rest of the city laid off zero people. I'm trying to understand how we're not in the same boat because getting a level number, if you have 10 open spots, don't hire your 10 open spots and everybody gets to come to work tomorrow. When you have no open spots or just a couple and you need to shave off millions of dollars, you're giving people notice that they're not gonna have a job. So I guess I'm trying to figure out how, I mean, do you, and I know it's only been a few days, but in 2020, my understanding is we scrubbed to the bone. We got rid of people that we didn't want to get rid of. We asked like people who wants to volunteer to retire early, you know, We did things that nobody wanted to do. And last year, we didn't go on a spending spree. So who else is there we're going to be able to get rid of? That sounds really crass, but if we're short millions of dollars, running a single dollar deficit is illegal, am I correct?
[SPEAKER_16]: We can't run a deficit. That is a true statement. We can't finish the fiscal year. And it's part of why when we build the budget, you know, generally speaking, you can't on approximately $70 million plan to land right at zero because to your point, landing just beyond zero is really problematic. That's also why I update you on a quarterly basis. It's why we try to, you know, try to keep you as informed as possible with regard to our financial position. I think, I wasn't here, as you know, during that particular period of time. I think my answer would be sort of multi-part. One, I think it's absolutely true that there's not a lot of fat in this budget, okay? It's also true that When the entire budget and the entire organization is made up primarily of personnel. If you need to reduce, it's inevitable that they're going to be personnel implications to that you just think there's not enough money being spent on things other than personnel to bridge the type of gap that we're talking about. we did implement a quasi hiring freeze earlier in the year, not frankly because we were anticipating a $1.4 million funding deficit, as much as we were just being cautious with respect to closing the fiscal year in the black and knowing that with nine open collective bargaining agreements, there were potentially significant expenses that had not yet been realized. That puts up to some degree I think insulates us from the type of massive personnel sort of catastrophe that I think it's not you sounds like you've lived through in this district and as many districts are very familiar with. That's not to say there aren't going to be personnel implications to this. I think there will be. And I think that to sort of as a forecast as to where that pain is expected to be felt, I would go back to the overarching budgetary priorities that we've articulated here several times, which the really short version is we want the pain to be as far removed from the classroom as possible so that it can have the least possible impact on students. At the same time, As you know, and as has been discussed in a variety of ways. When we have operational deficiencies, there is a ripple effect that eventually has a negative impact on classrooms and on teaching and learning. And I think that to your point about having already sort of trimmed to the bone. That's where I think it's going to be problematic because there are not an infinite number of places that are away from students that we can look to cut. And I think that will be clear as you start to see the ways in which we've looked to reconcile these numbers. Last point, I promise, and then I'm happy to take more questions. The goal is not necessarily to just slash and burn the budget down to that number, particularly given the timeline that we're on. This is obviously a very condensed timeline. I know that pressure and that frustration is shared by our colleagues in the city administration as well. And so a lot of the sort of strategic work will be around identifying other funding sources But I think what that means is there will need to be significant scrutiny and analysis over the course of FY23 so that we can make some prudent decision making over the long term and hopefully not be in a place that is more problematic than it needs to be a year from now as we prepare for FY24.
[SPEAKER_21]: I have just one more question before. I know we have a meeting next week, and hopefully, if you don't sleep, the next week you'll have more clarity for us on where adjustments might have to happen.
[SPEAKER_16]: I anticipate that clarity before Monday, just to be clear.
[SPEAKER_21]: Thank you. I just hope that the school committee can be a participant in that guidance, because our parents are adjustment Councilors are nurses. all of our support staff, while not at the front of the classroom, while the paras sometimes are, they are as close to the students as the teachers are. Not all of the students all the time necessarily, but the notion that they're not, I mean, there's plenty of, and I'm sure there's plenty of classrooms where the teacher without a para would be pulling their hair out. So it's, I'm deeply concerned that we, and as you said, you know, the way this stuff rolls, it has to be the non-educators, whatever the technical terms are first that go, except they're not actually far from the classroom either. So, and I know you know all this, I just hope that if we have to choose between paras or I don't want to get into that exactly, but between different categories of people that we actually have an open conversation about it, because one para, you know, because para pay is a problem. One para, one, you know, person making, you know, a PhD level person or something, making a good salary might be five paras. I would have a hard time saying, keep the person over there. Five paras is, significant impact on a lot of kids.
[SPEAKER_16]: Just to put it really bluntly, we're not going to bridge a $1.4 million gap by cutting Paris. That's not going to happen.
[SPEAKER_21]: That too.
[SPEAKER_16]: I don't think I'm giving away any secrets there. It's not going to happen.
[SPEAKER_11]: Any other questions? Member Graham?
[SPEAKER_09]: A couple things, I'm shocked and disappointed that it's June 6th and we're just learning about this today. This is the first time I've seen this number in writing. And Mr. Murphy, that is, The school committee has done its work. We've been proactive. We have outlined and articulated very thoughtfully for the city about what we need to help our kids recover from this pandemic and to run a school district that we all deserve. We have done our work here in the school committee. I am extraordinarily disappointed that our city couldn't come to the table sooner than this to make this happen. Two years ago, I voted no on a budget, which feels a little bit like deja vu at this moment. And in my comments, I said Medford needs to step in and say that our kids deserve better. I've heard from folks for weeks about the things they see as critical and the truth is it's all critical. The how have more money is not the purview of this committee, but I am proud of the work that we've done and continue to do for the last three years to shine a light on our needs as a district in this in this joint memo which we issued a couple years ago. Our needs are now well documented and clear and they have been for three years. As a resident, I will support any and all actions by our mayor to prioritize schools and raise revenue. She has my full support should she and the council determine that a proposition two and a half override is required. It is my hope that every person who has voiced a concern or will voice a concern about this budget or any other budget cut that we have to make will stand with our mayor on this as well when she's ready to raise revenue. We can't continue to say that this is just going to be a lean year and maybe next year is going to be a lean year like we have to prioritize the students of Medford. And I think the city is ready to do that and I would ask the mayor to step up to that plate and do better.
[SPEAKER_13]: Any other questions?
[SPEAKER_11]: Dr. Cushing, was that for the, was that, has that been up for a while or I haven't seen it?
[SPEAKER_13]: Okay, oh.
[SPEAKER_19]: Hi, yes, this is Melanie Tringali, 1116 Forest Street. I actually have my hand up during the diversity, equity, and inclusion presentation. So I don't know if I can ask a question now or not, but that's when I have my hand up.
[SPEAKER_11]: We're talking about budget right now.
[SPEAKER_19]: Well, they didn't talk to me at the end of the thing. I don't have any comments on the budget. I had questions on the diversity, equity, inclusion, and that's when my hand went up.
[SPEAKER_11]: We've moved from that topic. Our apologies.
[SPEAKER_19]: So then how do I get my question answered?
[SPEAKER_11]: If you wanna make a comment, you can, the committee's.
[SPEAKER_19]: Yeah, well, my comment was in the presentation, she talked about the diversity of the student body and it was an HR presentation, but there was no diversity or reporting out on the actual people that worked in the administration of the school. So it would be helpful to have that as a comparison. When you're talking about diversity in HR, and what, what that makeup is of the host of the whole administration of the school, school, school body and administration. Be helpful as a comparison.
[SPEAKER_04]: There was a slide that showed the diversity of the staff for the entire mid for public schools district.
[SPEAKER_19]: Oh, I didn't see that so I apologize I didn't, I don't remember seeing that so if it was there I didn't see it I apologize.
[SPEAKER_11]: We can make sure the slides are up on the website. Make sure the slides are up on the website so you can take a look. Thank you.
[SPEAKER_16]: Anything else on the budget?
[SPEAKER_11]: Just just for my end. This is the first time we've ever went through a pandemic ever had a revenue dump of $48 million into city coffers. The first time we're dealing with revenue replacement so and to explain like I did to the committee a bit earlier. Last year we were very lucky we were a revenue replacement figure came out to about $12 million. It gave us the ability to do we did with the school budget which is Obviously, my priority, it's how we were able to get through the tough times of the economy. This year, our revenue replacement number would be $7.669 million, which would be much better than what we are experiencing, running numbers and continuing to do the work. But for a large donation that came in for the library of $3.4 million, which cannot be which is being calculated as revenue and there's no way around it. Our revenue replacement number is down to $4 million, giving us a budget gap of 8 million, which we learned of very recently. And I've been spending my days cutting and level funding and or cutting some of the most of the, or all of the city departments. It hasn't been a fun week, but I committed to giving the schools as much as we can. We just are, appropriations and are outweighing our revenue that we take in year by year. So we have to plan for the next year where we maybe can use anywhere from zero to 4 million in revenue replacement, and we're in the same position having to cut, but there is, that's hard decisions to make and a hard thing to do. So I just wanted to let you know that our CFO, we do have a CFO came on, a month and a half ago and has been working tirelessly to get us this number, along with consultants that we've had for months and months, but we we just learned of this recently, so I'm just wanted to point that out.
[SPEAKER_16]: Thank you, Mary, I just add on from the school side that, you know, we have a continuing dialogue with with the city administration and, as the mayor said, it's been a difficult three or four days in trying to position us to get to a place in which we will be able to implement a a budget that's consistent with the priorities that we've discussed here and to advance the goals. You know, it's frankly it's not the school administration's place to be talking to discuss like overall capacity but what I, I can say is you've heard me say several times before, we will implement the budget that we have to the best of our ability to advance the interests of students and I think that while this is a more significant shortfall than any of us anticipated, and it puts us in a difficult position, we have sort of a twofold responsibility. One, make sure that we don't lose sight of the impact that this budget is having in classrooms and in learning environments. And two, we have a responsibility to understand to the point the mayor is making with regard to the ARPA money and the revenue replacement component of that, that investing one time resources in reoccurring expenses creates greater pain down the road. And that's not to say we don't make that sacrifice. As you know, category B is made up of things that we would prefer to be in the operating budget. But we understand that the direct impact on kids requires it to happen, you know, by essentially by any means necessary. And that's why we'll use the ESSER funding for it. And that is what will guide the reconciliation recommendations that you receive. So this is not a good situation. This is not going to be a good next few weeks. And my hope would be that both administrations and this school committee and all other stakeholders will approach the set of challenges that we now have before us in as thoughtful and collaborative way as possible. And I think that is the best, that will increase the chances of thoughtful decision-making occurring. So thank you again.
[SPEAKER_21]: Mayor.
[SPEAKER_11]: Member Ruseau.
[SPEAKER_21]: I just can't let pass the absurdness that a billionaire giving us three and a half million dollars for a library means we have to cut school funding. It's absolutely beyond comprehension. The building is built. I doubt Mr. Bloomberg will come and physically remove it send the check back. I'm not even kidding. Is it legally possible to send the check back because somebody in the finance department that didn't know this until a week ago, didn't do their job, I just want to say, I think this is a city finance questions.
[SPEAKER_16]: Yes, it is. You can go sit down.
[SPEAKER_21]: Honestly, I mean, and I get it, we needed three and a half million because Medford refuses to pay for anything of ourselves. So we had to look for other people to pay for it and now we're being screwed, okay, by a donation of three and a half million dollars. It is beyond comprehension. I think it's also beyond comprehension that it was a failure to know that this would happen before we even requested the funds from him. I just cannot even believe that we're just going to roll with it that it's we took three and a half million for the library now we have to cut, whether it's 2.2 or 2.8 or 1.4, it doesn't matter what the number is we have to cut from the school, and the kids. After two years of a pandemic where the second and third graders who are now fourth and fifth graders, a huge number of them really can't do math because I've sat with parents whose kids sat The teachers did their best, but the kid was one of 20 tiles being taught math. And every time their name came up, they thought they were being yelled at and they were just being talked to. These kids, a lot of these kids didn't actually learn any math for two years. And when are we gonna do it? We're gonna cut the math interventionists. We're not gonna do that. We're gonna not worry about whether they're fed so they can come to school fully capable of engaging in the education they are getting. It's just beyond comprehension that we would even hear that a $3.5 million donation means we have to cut school funding, send it back. I'd like to see somebody come and try to physically remove the library. He can have his name on the building, I don't care. Is it legally not possible to send it back and why has that been investigated? Mayor, that's a question for you.
[SPEAKER_11]: No, we can't send it back.
[SPEAKER_21]: Who said we can't send it back.
[SPEAKER_11]: Why can't we defer the payment till July is use free cash up to that to that number is the plan, the 7.669, we're going to use free cash but then we're going to plan for next year when we have to continue to decrease the revenue replacement number, so that we are not using one time funds, we only have three more years to not have to use one-time funds.
[SPEAKER_21]: But if we delayed it till July 1st, and you could use the free cash and the revenue replacement, you wouldn't be cutting this budget. And between July 1st and the next fiscal year, you could do an override, and then we wouldn't be in the hole. But you won't do an override.
[SPEAKER_11]: Thank you, Mr. Murphy. We have presentations of the public, not to begin before 7 p.m. Ms. Charlene Douglas, MTA president.
[SPEAKER_02]: Thank you, thank you. So, I don't even know where to begin. The school committee members, the mayor, honorable mayor, it was with a very heavy heart that I find myself before you again today. You know, I sat there. I remember 2020, it was 111 teachers and no one else that was let go. I remember those days well, and they were let go on July 15th, the very last day. We lost diverse staff. We lost so much in the city. I hope that doesn't happen again. You know, I find it very interesting and almost unnerving that tonight at the 11th hour, we learn of this $8 million deficit when all but two labor unions are in the midst of long and tedious contract negotiations. This is when we learn of it? How sad. You know, a month ago, we rallied to call your attention to the struggles in our negotiations for a fair and equitable contract, a contract that would show that the people of Medford love their children and respect the people entrusted to teach them. Members of the community stood before you and asked you, where have you been? And why don't you show that you care about teachers? Teachers shared the struggles they endured, they have endured and how the complete lack of support they received, they have received. Sorry, I'm just so. and how the complete lack of sport, they struggled, they have endured and how the complete lack of sport they received led them to leave teaching. We had already this year, five teachers in the last month resigned from this profession and met with five teachers within the last month.
[SPEAKER_22]: Was it six?
[SPEAKER_02]: Okay, I don't know, but I know that's within the last couple of months. But anyways, in my 30, whatever years it is, within this system, I don't remember receiving teacher resignation letters. I'm not saying we didn't, but we have. We, the teachers, the parents, and the community asked, even begged for your help, but to no avail. And this is not about money. This is about basic fulfillment of your duties as the elected officials. According to the Method Teachers Associating Contract, you, the school committee, the mayor, are our negotiating partners, not the superintendent, not the finance director, not the superintendent's intern. We have worked without a contract for a year. and not once has a member of the school committee showed up to negotiations. For the last two months, we've staged walk-ins. at the school to call your attention to the lack of progress at the negotiations table and not a single member of the school committee or the mayor has shown up. We came here by the hundreds last month to get your attention and still not a single member of the school committee showed up. All of you as elected officials ran on the platform that you support union labor and public education. We ask, where is that support? Instead, you've delegated the negotiations, as is common, I will say, to your representative, the superintendent of school. She has yet to turn on her camera in our Zoom negotiations, let alone speak. In fact, our only real negotiations have been with the assistant superintendent of finance and operations. One of the major asks from the school committee, which you may not know, was for a revised schedule for the high school and the vocational school. This was so important that an agreed to joint task team was formed to work out the details, agreed to both by the teachers and administration. Yet the only representative on the district's negotiating team on that task force was the superintendent's intern who completed her internship in May. While it may not be allowed for you not to be involved in negotiation, we are approaching the end of the school year and I needed to bring this negotiations to a fair conclusion Last month, a member of this body accused the teachers of violating the rules of these negotiations. In fact, teachers were called untrustworthy in violation of the decorum rules of this chamber. What that member would have known had they had shown up at any part of the negotiation process is that the agreed upon ground rules require us to give 24 hour notice before going public, which we clearly did. as we were published on the school committee agenda. You know what's untrustworthy? Untrustworthy is throwing out accusations against your negotiation partners and calling them names when you haven't even attended any part of the negotiations process. Untrustworthy is the mayor mischaracterizing the negotiating timeline to make it seem like the MTA was unavailable to meet until November of 2021, when the facts clearly demonstrate that the MTA formally requested to negotiate in October. After completing the COVID MOA, the response from administration was, okay, untrustworthy. is getting the endorsement of Our Revolution, an organization that has teachers, that organized for workers, teachers, and organized laborers, and then trying to have teachers removed for publicly meeting because they are exercising their First Amendment rights of freedom of speech and freedom of assembly. Untrustworthy is betraying the trust of people who elected you by not showing up. Last month, we felt disrespected and underappreciated. Now we feel angry and betrayed. We are losing many of our veteran colleagues to career changes because one of the great rewards of teaching was feeling of doing something special for the community, for the future, and for the children. We don't feel special anymore. We feel trivialized and you made us feel trivialized. Even tonight, other people could speak. You never recognized any of us until we were on the agenda. You always put us last. In my years, In my years as president of this union and as a teacher in this city of Method, for 30 plus years, when we came to this podium to speak, the rules were suspended and you let us speak. Now you make us wait. Is that the respect you want to afford your teachers? Is that how you see us? We are second class citizens. Is that it? If it is, then I feel really sorry for the city of Method. We have only one question. What are you going to do to fix it? There are only three more weeks until the school year ends. When are you going to show up? My teachers, our teachers, the Mass Methodist Teachers Association is willing to do whatever is necessary to get a fair and equitable contract. We ask for your support, we ask for your help. I have shared with all of you where we believe there is financial flexibility to provide a fair and equitable contract. contract on cost of living increase. We the MTA are going to share and go through that PowerPoint with you. We based this whole thing on the 2021-22 budget. So we didn't even look at the, because we didn't haven't seen the budget book yet for the 2022. So that's what we based this on. So I'd like to introduce two of my, well, I'll start it, but two of my negotiating team members, I'd like to let them speak about this. Mr. Anthony Guillen and Ms. Jennifer Regano.
[SPEAKER_20]: I hope so. There you go. Thank you, Charlene. My name is Anthony Gann. I work at 489 Winthrop Street, Medford High School. In case you didn't know. We'd like to start with the premise of this by saying we care deeply about the long-term financial health of these schools. It does us no good to have short-term goals. We're here for the long-term. I'm here for the majority of the rest of my life, hopefully. and as well as Mr. Garner. We have carefully analyzed the finances and we have come to the conclusion that there is sufficient room to get a fair cost of living increase. If we could go to the next slide. So careful analysis of the MedFed's financial 2022 budget book reveals capacity for a $962 cost-of-living increase for the MTA. This equals about to 2.25% cost-of-living increase. This is cost-of-living, this is longevity, mentoring, advanced degrees, new steps, new positions. Go on. So, our current ask, where we stand for financial year 2022 is a 4% cost-of-living increase. We analyze that currently you have the ability to do 2.25%. That is a $727,679 difference. You can go on. So, where are we gonna make up the difference? I'd like to call your attention to the first square. This should be taken as an umbrella. cost of school funding. The second square is a letter from the Department of Education, which says that ESSER funding may be used for teacher attention and cost of living increase. The Department of Education has given three rounds of ESSER funding representing $8.3 million. The funds needed to reach our ask of 4% in 2022 is again, let's see if I can do it right this time. $727 and six, no. You get the English teacher to do the numbers. All right. We have here projected sustainability. The black in that graph represents the ESSER fundings, which we do understand is limited. What is factored in after that is the Chapter 70 money. That Chapter 70 money will sustain our COLA increases. That Chapter 70 money has been passed through the Student Opportunities Act and has been passed through other funding. Go ahead.
[SPEAKER_22]: Can I just add to that?
[SPEAKER_02]: Go ahead.
[SPEAKER_22]: Can I just add to that?
[SPEAKER_02]: So if you look at what you see in front of you is that and I can't because I'm blind, but if you look at it, you see that the student, Chapter 70 money, which was something that this committee supported, and we wanted to have that increase, that was the Student Opportunity Act that we worked very, very hard for, that you supported, you see that it increases every year significantly. So by the time we get to the year, I think it's 2020, five, or 2026, that whatever ESSER funds we need to use will then, 2025, whatever ESSER funds we need to use will clearly be available in the Chapter 70 funding.
[SPEAKER_20]: Thank you. On to the next slide. The city of Method invests, by our estimations, 37.4% of the city budget from the 2020 due data that was available. This was the most recent data that was available to us. This is beaten by Belmont, Malden, Arlington, Taunton, and Everett. The city of Method has room and should continue to grow its investment in its public schools. Go ahead. I'd like to now share a quote from Mayor Kern. This is taken from the patch in June of 2021. You stated, with a more sustainable financial outlook, I am proud to say that thanks to the hard work of the superintendent of schools, Dr. Maurice Edouard-Vincent, the entire school administration team, and with the hard work and unanimous support of the Medford School Committee, we are proposing a significant increase to the support of our schools of the upcoming year. That was June, 2021. All right, ahead. In conclusion, the Medford Teachers Association is sharing this information based on the facts in front of us. These facts includes by law, Medford's Chapter 70 money funding will increase dramatically. The federal government encourages districts to use ESSER funding to increase permanent compensation and teacher retention. And the city has the capacity and will to increase spending in our schools. Increased compensation improves student outcomes. We encourage the school committee to discuss this further with the NCAA's bargaining team. We look forward to seeing some of you tomorrow when we go into bargaining.
[SPEAKER_02]: Do you have any questions? Last time I walked away and I wanna do that this time. Do you have any questions? Any concerns about our presentation? Anything that you think that is misrepresented there?
[SPEAKER_09]: Mayor? Member Graham? I just had a few questions and I wanted to make sure that we're on the same page about some of the numbers.
[SPEAKER_02]: So just let me get, let me, can I just pull it up on my computer? Please give me a second, because I can't see that. Even with the glasses. These 65-year-old eyes, not what they used to be. Okay.
[SPEAKER_09]: Okay, so I wanna start by saying, I agree with you that Medford has room to prioritize education. This committee can't do that. So all we can do is ask and I feel like we're doing that every year. So we're with you, I'm with you. I think that the city needs to do more for education and we're ready to spend it as soon as that materializes. Having said that, a couple of questions. 906962 equals roughly a 2.25% cost of living increase from the FY22 budget book. My question is, does that leave funds available for all the other staff who have unnegotiated contracts?
[SPEAKER_02]: I think it was, yes, because what it said, if you read it, it says analysis for cost of living budgeted for other units. So we put all the other units in there, longevity, mentoring, advanced degrees, new positions, step lane increases.
[SPEAKER_09]: Okay, so we put all of that in there, great and we included that, and that comes out to 2.25% comes out to 2.25% calculator. Thank you. Second question. I saw the press release from Secretary of Education Cardona, right? So it's a press release and it talks at a high level. My understanding of the regulations that have been promulgated from DESE provide a lot of qualifiers about how ESSER money can be used and explicitly using it sort of to straight pay for COLA is like not in the list. Now that's not to say ESSER can't be used in various ways to compensate teachers for things related to the pandemic. But my understanding of the DESE regulations is that they go well deeper than the press release from Secretary Cardona. Is that your understanding of the DESI regs as well?
[SPEAKER_02]: No, it isn't, because we did some research and I did share the actual, and I can share it with you, the actual press release. I don't believe it was a statement, it was a 10-page statement, or I think it was, I don't remember the exact amount of pages, but is that he stated that, and it was clear that when this money was given to the cities and towns, that that could be used because of the concern of the vast majority of teachers leaving this profession and those not going into the profession, young teachers, senior teachers. We have teachers leaving this year going at 72% of their retirement. They're not waiting to get to that 80%. I had three teachers come up and say that to me. I can't do this anymore, Shalini. I just can't do it. And that saddens me. That really saddens me. Because I stayed beyond that time. And many of us have, but not now they're counting the days. And why is that?
[SPEAKER_09]: Okay, couple other questions I just want to make sure again I'm understanding the numbers so 2.25% is what the 2022 budget can bear. Correct. Okay. You all just sat, I know you just sat through a really ugly presentation about our budget for next year where there's a $1.4 million shortfall.
[SPEAKER_02]: Correct.
[SPEAKER_09]: So that picture gets worse next year. And it sounds like it's going to get worse the year after that as well.
[SPEAKER_02]: So what I don't understand is last year's budget was 61 point something, right? Was it 67,000? Okay. So we are going up two million to 69. Is that projected? Okay. So we are increasing to 69, but I, so I don't, I haven't, for me to intelligently look at that, I need to have all that information. I cannot respond to something that I don't have. I have all the slide decks and all of that. We don't have budget books yet. I guess they're not ready, right? There's not understanding. It sounds like we have a lot of cutting to do before the budget books, unfortunately. I hope I, if you know what, cutting, In education, why don't you just put, why don't you just, why don't you just close the schools? Why don't you just put out a big playpen out there and let us all just play all day? Why don't you really seriously, I could go on and on about some of the hardships these teachers have been through. I can tell you about the professional development day where we all sat 627 people and listened to a presentation on equity and diversity. That's our professional. I could go on and on and tell you how slighted we feel as teachers, but I'm not going to. I'm gonna tell you that they're angry and I don't know. And if you cut teachers, I have no idea. I don't even know what to, I don't even have a comeback to that. You talked about our paraprofessionals, the lowest paid people, $17,000 a year, some of them make. We don't even have paraprofessionals, how many teachers here. Can I ask this question, how many of my teachers here this year, have students that did not have a individual professional Charlie, Miss Douglas if you could just talk into the microphone. didn't have a paraprofessional for either one-on-one, in their classroom, were being pulled to cover substitutes. How many teachers here experience that on a regular basis?
[SPEAKER_22]: Stand up.
[SPEAKER_02]: If that doesn't save volumes, I don't know what does. My teachers, I know there were students whose IEPs, I don't even wanna discuss, but I don't know. No one-on-one aids, not being pulled, not in compliance. What are we doing here as a district? Do we really care about students? Do we really? Do we really care about students tonight? And this may not set well, but really? Do we recognize our tough students in the newsletter that went home this week? No. Do we finally say something after everybody was recognized? Yes. Why? You answer that question. I'll let you make that decision. That's why we feel unappreciated and unrespected. And teachers tonight came up to me from the Curtis Tufts, and they were hurt that their students who are high needs, high needs, really, you wanna talk high needs, what are they? If they are not our most neediest of students, and those teachers work tirelessly with those students. and they graduated, what an accomplishment for those students. I know, I service those students.
[SPEAKER_09]: So just, can I ask one more question and then I will cede the floor to somebody else. I know that as part of the discussion, we are not, in the same place about wage colas, which is why you're here, right? And I just want to, I do want to say as much as I love hanging out with you all on Monday nights, I do care deeply about the children of this district. And that is why I do this job. And I think my colleagues would share that sentiment. So I love hanging out with you all on Monday nights, but I also care about the 4,000 kids in this district and I'm not okay with the cuts we're going to be asked to make. I'm not okay with it. I'm not okay with it. I've never been okay with it. I voted no on the last budget that cut too deep and I will do it again. These six people can't do anything about it. So how do we get to this $8 million? How did we get there? All of a sudden, we're talking like the last time. Ms. Douglas, I did want to say, I know that we're not in the same place about these wage increases, but the district has proposed a way that allows us to use ESSER funds that is permissible under the DESE regulation to provide stipends to your teachers for two of the years. And I know that's not, let me finish please. I know that isn't ideal. I recognize fully its limitations. However, we cannot use that money if it is not a defensible and permissible use. And that may be the compromise we have to think about and explore in the right now when we're faced with a $1.4 million surprise deficit here in Medford. We should do lots of things as a community to fix that so we don't have to do this again. And as I said, I'm ready to pound the pavement for that two and a half override that is gonna fix this structurally. But until then, I would ask that the district, think about how to use that money in a permissible fashion to with the proposal that's on the table. And I would ask you all to think about how we can make that work. Because I'm it's if it was my pocketbook, it would be different. I we cannot this committee cannot spend money that we do not have. So I want to make sure that you all know We, I recognize fully that that proposal is not ideal, I get it, but there's nothing ideal about this situation that we are in and I'm terribly sorry about it and I really do hope the city can find a way to do better as we go forward because we can't we can't keep having this conversation like we're, we're out, we're out of things to cut.
[SPEAKER_02]: So one of the things and you know I didn't get enough detail into it. be able to look into it, but obviously a proposition two and a half percent override, our property values have increased significantly. I mean, we're selling shacks in the city for millions of dollars, right? Let's be honest, okay? I mean, I have a home in the city that I own. I mean, it needs some work, but I know that I could get a million standing on my head and I know it needs work, okay? So that increase in property value Increase tax, 2.5%. We don't do that. We don't reevaluate. We don't look at that 2.5% increase. So can anyone address that? Yeah.
[SPEAKER_13]: Member McLaughlin was waiting to speak. Do you have an answer? No, I don't have an answer to that.
[SPEAKER_10]: I have something else I wanted to comment on. If you want to respond.
[SPEAKER_21]: If I see this in my neighborhood house across the street, just sold for $1.1 million and I'm just like, what is going on? But because of prop two and a half, we can tax that house more, but we gotta tax other houses less because we cannot increase our taxes more than two and a half percent. So it doesn't matter if a whole quarter of the city sold their houses that were fully paid off and bought 30 years ago, for a price that now looks amazing. So if we sold all those houses for millions of dollars each, the taxes will go up exactly two and a half percent anyways.
[SPEAKER_02]: So we don't re-evaluate properties?
[SPEAKER_21]: We re-evaluate.
[SPEAKER_02]: Even those that are not sold? Sure. We re-evaluate.
[SPEAKER_21]: That's how come this year Some people's taxes went down because those million dollar homes are getting taxed appropriately for the sale price. But because we cannot collect more taxes than two and a half percent from the previous more than the last year. We got to subtract that from somebody else's property taxes. Is it absurd? The whole system is absurd. And honestly, I can't I get really. Yeah. worked up about how crazy the law is, but in the aggregate, the total amount of revenue collected from residential property tech property cannot increase more than two and a half. And it doesn't matter if somebody walked in and started paying by every house on the street for $10 million, they'll pay a lot of taxes, somebody else will pay less. to compensate for the increase in one place. It's crazy and it's gross, frankly.
[SPEAKER_02]: All right, so hopefully we can see you tomorrow and we can really discuss this. And I will bring some of that information that my questions too. I just don't have it all available to me in front of me right now. Member McLaughlin.
[SPEAKER_10]: Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Douglas, for the presentation. I wanted to just comment on a couple of things that were said as well for the folks that are here. just through the chair, I want to concur with my colleague that we do very much care about our children, our teachers, our paraprofessionals, our staff. I think it's really commendable that you're standing up for the parents here. I appreciated the folks that did that. I hope that you'll continue to do that. $17,000 a year is not a livable wage. $50 a day is not a livable wage. And as a caregiver of a child with an intellectual and developmental disability, I can tell you how hard that work is from a personal perspective. So I want to say that I think it's really important that you folks are doing that and appreciate that very much. I also want to say, if you're looking at a $71.67 million budget and $55 million is for personnel, we roughly have $12, $13 million to spend on the entire rest of the district. So how do we cut that pie? How do we decide who gets what, when, where, when everybody wants more? And so, you know, again, as we're talking about each other compassionately I hope with some empathy, seeing things from your perspective I'm also asking you know that you see things from this perspective as well, nobody's doing this job up here because, you know, it pays a lot, or because you know, you know, for the notoriety for the for the friends, I don't think so.
[SPEAKER_02]: That goes for me. I'm retired. And if you want to know what my stipend was, it's a lot less than yours. And I do this really, really because I do care about this city. And I do care about these people.
[SPEAKER_10]: So I just think getting back to that point about caring about our children, I think we all care for our children. And I hope that we can move forward with that in mind together. Thank you.
[SPEAKER_02]: Thank you. Are there any other questions? Okay, I'm done. I think there might be other people who want to speak, but I'm done.
[SPEAKER_08]: Thank you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Hi.
[SPEAKER_13]: Hi.
[SPEAKER_00]: Name and address of the record, please. Jamie Taylor. I was going to say I live at school, but Anthony took my joke. So 47 Burnside Street in Medford. The word unprecedented has been used numerous times since March of 2020 by administrators and city officials to describe the efforts being made by Medford Public Schools. When the email was sent out on March 12 of 2020 notifying the Medford Public Schools community of its temporary two week closure, its teachers swung into action. They met with their students daily on Zoom, they delivered schoolwork to apartments, they organized car parades so they could see their students and let them know how much they missed them. Two weeks quickly turned into three months and teachers continue to show up every day for their students. On the last day of school, June 15, in an unprecedented move, over 100 public school educators received a letter of termination. On August 30, 2020, an unprecedented school year began. Over the next several months, teachers adapted to numerous different learning models with minimal notice or instructional support from administrators, and continue to provide meaningful and engaging lessons to a wide range of students and circumstances. Teachers were subjected to unprecedented experiences in the classroom and field of education, but persevered nonetheless. This school year, once again, could be described as unprecedented, with students' emotional and academic needs at an all-time high. Despite this, teachers continue to show up for their students and continue to meet and exceed their contractual obligations. Now, however, teachers have been working for nine months without a contract. Teachers are often expected to adhere to the narrative that they are willing to subject themselves to challenging and demeaning work conditions because they do it for the kids. However, only doing it for the kids is simply not sustainable for these unprecedented times when met with disrespect from administration within our district. One of the most important things the district can do for the kids is support its teachers so they in turn can support their students. The pandemic was and remains a tough, very tough for Medford families and it's been very hard for the teachers of Medford as well. Many have decided to retire early, others are choosing to leave the district and even the profession of teaching. If Medford wants to retain its teachers who kept the community afloat during the height of the pandemic, it needs to look no further than its masthead. Medford Public Schools MassTED states that it's a caring educational partnership of school, family and community. Teachers call on the Medford community school committee members and city officials who pledged their commitment to upholding the sentiments of Medford Public Schools to now show their commitment to the pledge they made when running for office. We hope with their support and partnership, it can be, as our superintendents constantly say, a great day to be a Mustang once more.
[SPEAKER_13]: Thank you. Thank you. Any other questions from the committee?
[SPEAKER_11]: If there's no other comments from anybody in the audience, any teacher, any school committee member, no questions.
[SPEAKER_05]: stuff.
[SPEAKER_11]: We're going to go on to continue business. We have dress code policy approved by rules policy subcommittee on 525 2022 motion to accept. Yep. Remember, so you want to want to page three and we can, you can always switch off with me if you thank you.
[SPEAKER_21]: We did just adopt rules that require two readings of policies and while I think it's fine to wave the reading of policy updates. I think an entirely new policy of this nature does need to be read. Just this one time when we have it next time around I would hope we could perhaps wave the reading. So thank you, everyone. This is the dress code policy that we approved in the Rules and Policy Subcommittee on May 25th, and I will begin now. It is the policy of the committee that the student and their parent, guardian, or caregiver hold the primary responsibility in determining the student's personal attire, hairstyle, jewelry, and personal items, e.g. backpacks, book bags. Schools are responsible for ensuring that student attire, hairstyle, jewelry, and personal items do not interfere with the health or safety of any student and do not contribute to a hostile or intimidating environment for any student. The core values. In relation to student dress, the district's core values are the following. Students should be able to dress and style their hair for school in a manner that expresses their individuality without fear of unnecessary discipline or body shaming. Students have the right to be treated equitably. Dress code enforcement will not create disparities, reinforce or increase the marginalization of any group, nor will it be more strictly enforced against students because of racial identity, ethnicity, gender identity, gender expression, gender nonconformity, sexual orientation, culture or religious identity, household income, body size or type, or body maturity. Students and staff are responsible for managing their personal distractions students should not face unnecessary barriers to school attendance, the universal dress code students must wear. One, a top, which could be a shirt, blouse, sweater, sweatshirt, tank, tank top, et cetera, bottom, pants, shorts, skirt, dress, et cetera, and footwear. This policy permits additional student attire requirements when necessary to ensure safety in certain academic settings, e.g. physical education, science, or CTE courses, as well as recess. Additionally, this policy allows for reasonable variation in required student attire for participation in activities such as swimming or gymnastics students may not wear clothing jewelry or personal items that contain. that are pornographic, contain threats, or promote illegal or violent conduct, such as the unlawful use of weapons, drugs, alcohol, tobacco, or drug paraphernalia. Demonstrate hate group association or affiliation and or use hate speech targeting groups based on race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, religious affiliation, or other protected groups. intentionally show private parts, nipples, genitals, or buttocks, or undergarments, with the exception of bra straps. Clothing must cover private parts in opaque, not able to be seen through material. cover the items that cover the student's face to the extent that the student is not identifiable except clothing, headgear worn for religious or medical purposes, or demonstrate gang association or affiliation. Attire worn in observance of a student's religion is not subject to this policy. Clothing that displays profanity or other vulgarities can disrupt the learning environment. School leaders reserve the right to address disruptions on a case-by-case basis. Enforcement. This is the last section member of stone principles are required to ensure that all staff are aware of and understand the core values and associated guidelines of this policy. Staff will use reasonable efforts to avoid issuing dress code discipline to individuals in front of other students. staff will use reasonable efforts to limit disciplinary, that disciplining or removing students from class as a consequence of wearing attire in violation of this policy, unless the attire creates a substantial disruption to the educational environment, poses a hazard to the health or safety of others, or factors into a student behavior rule violation, such as malicious harassment, or the prohibition on harassment, intimidation, and bullying. Further, no student shall be referred to as a distraction due to their appearance or attire. Typical consequences of a violation of this policy may include parent, guardian, caregiver conduct, or reference conference and the directive to cover change or remove the non complying attire. A student may be instructed to leave their classroom briefly to change clothes. The principal or their designee will notify a student's parent, guardian or caregiver of the school's response to violations of student dress code policy. And if I may just add a quick commentary, I really wanna thank aside from the members of the rules committee and Policy Subcommittee, Member Graham and Member McLaughlin. I also really want to thank the students of the Andrews Middle School, Mr. Scimante and Ms. Whalen's class. They worked on this project about the dress code around hoods. That was their angle. And of course, with this policy, hoods and hats will be allowed. And I just can't thank them enough because they also provided feedback that was really useful in fine tuning this policy. I also would recommend people listen to the podcast, No Caps, which was an NPR finalist. And there was a new version of the Medford Bites podcast this two days ago, I believe, which is again on this policy. Thank you to all of the students and the staff and the teachers that helped them. Thank you.
[SPEAKER_09]: Motion to accept the first reading.
[SPEAKER_11]: Motion to accept the first reading by Member Graham, seconded by Member McLaughlin. Would you like a roll call? All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? First reading is approved. Offered by Member Graham, 2022-36 under new business be it resolved that the administration provide a report of NWEA map results to the school committee by school grade and subgroup each time MAP map is administered. Currently three times a year, the report will show the progression of results across the school year and include a summary of actions being taken to act on the results. The report will be provided no later than 30 days after the conclusion of the round of map testing. Member Graham. Approval.
[SPEAKER_09]: Motion to approve.
[SPEAKER_11]: Seconded by Member Ruseau. All those in favor?
[SPEAKER_09]: Aye.
[SPEAKER_11]: Aye. All those opposed? Motion is approved. Offered by Member Ruseau, Member Graham, 2022-37, whereas the best way to help working families and build a stronger economy for us all is to make sure that we have quality public schools for our children, affordable public higher education, and a reliable transportation system, whereas students need a well-rounded education founded on a rich and varied curriculum that includes science, technology, engineering, and math, STEM, music, art, and athletics, whereas major investments in public education are needed to help students recover academically, socially, and emotionally from the COVID-19 pandemic, whereas tuitions and fees at our public colleges are among the highest in the country, and students are forced to take an enormous debt to receive a degree. Whereas for Massachusetts to compete against other regions around the nation and the globe, we need modern, reliable transportation, safer roads and bridges, public transportation that works, and safe ways to walk and bike around town. Whereas we have a large backlog of neglected and structurally compromised bridges, tunnels, roads, and public transportation infrastructure in need of repair. Whereas new state revenue is necessary to rebuild crumbling roads and bridges, improve our public schools from pre-K through college, invest in fast and reliable public transportation, make public higher education affordable then and expand opportunities for healthy walking and bicycling. Whereas Massachusetts needs new investments in our transportation and public education systems, even before the COVID-19 pandemic. And now those investments are needed more than ever to lift our economy into an equitable and long lasting recovery. And whereas our Commonwealth's highest income residents who have seen their collective net worth skyrocket in recent years pay a lower percentage of their income in state and local taxes than do the rest of us and clearly have the ability to pay a little more for the investment we all need now, therefore be it resolved that the Medford School Committee supports the proposed fair share amendment that would create an additional tax of 4% points on annual income above $1 million and dedicate the funds raised by this tax to qualify, to quality public education, affordable public colleges and universities and for the repair and maintenance of roads, bridges and public transportation. Member Ruseau, Member Graham.
[SPEAKER_21]: Thank you, Mayor. I would say it speaks for itself that you're the doll that's speaking. So the fair share amendment is, is going to be on the ballot this fall and I urge everyone to vote for it because it will add a 4% additional tax for those with incomes, greater than a million dollars a year. For most of us, it's hard to conceptualize what that even means, but that additional 4% will be used for schools and roads and. We just had a very interesting evening about the lack of revenues. So to alleviate some of that burden coming from the state would be nice. So I do ask that everybody consider supporting this, not just tonight, but when you're talking to your friends and family and they're like, what is this fair share amendment? It is just on income over a million dollars. So if you have a million dollars in the bank, that's not income. These are people who are getting a paycheck throughout the year that is more than a million dollars. So it's 4% on that is not a lot of money, but it will add up to, I can't remember how many billions of dollars for education, so. Motion to approve.
[SPEAKER_11]: Motion to approve by Member Graham, seconded by Member Ruseau. All those in favor?
[SPEAKER_07]: Aye.
[SPEAKER_11]: All those opposed? Motion passes. Reports requested is number nine, number, sorry, 11. 2022-27 update on implementation of NWEA map offered by members Sharon Hayes, member Melanie McLaughlin, and member Mima Stone from our March 21st, 2022 meeting.
[SPEAKER_21]: I don't think that one's ready yet. I think we might want to have a rule update next time around to indicate when things are just here to be carried forward versus when they're actually ready. But we'll get to that next year. Gotcha.
[SPEAKER_11]: And then number 12 as condolences. The Medford School Committee expresses its sincere condolences to the family of Angela Modica, a Medford Food Service worker at Medford High School and McGlynn School Cafeteria. We all may rise for a moment of silence.
[SPEAKER_07]: Thank you.
[SPEAKER_11]: Our next meeting will be next Monday, June 13 6pm regular school committee here and all the F. All the memorial chambers Medford City Hall and also by zoom motion to adjourn.