[Lungo-Koehn]: I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. We have negotiations and legal matters. Executive Session 515, a motion to enter executive session pursuant to General Law 30A, Section 21A, to conduct a strategy session on the basis that an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the bargaining positions of the Medford School Committee. Specifically, the Medford School Committee will be discussing ongoing collective bargaining negotiations with multiple bargaining units. The Medford School Committee will convene in public session immediately following the conclusion of the executive session, expected to be on or about 6 p.m. Is there a motion to go into executive session? Second. Member Mastone, seconded by Member Kreatz. All those in favor?
[lRR2dgf0NZM_SPEAKER_04]: Aye.
[Lungo-Koehn]: All those opposed? I'm gonna head into room 207.
[Ruseau]: Member Graham?
[Lungo-Koehn]: Yes.
[Ruseau]: Member Hays?
[Lungo-Koehn]: Yes.
[Ruseau]: Member Kreatz?
[Lungo-Koehn]: Yes.
[Ruseau]: Member McLaughlin? Absent. Member Mastone?
[Lungo-Koehn]: Yes.
[Ruseau]: Member Oso? Yes. Mayor Longo?
[Lungo-Koehn]: Yes. Six in the affirmative, one absent.
[lRR2dgf0NZM_SPEAKER_04]: Motion
[Lungo-Koehn]: We have member McLaughlin, who can be marked present, should be on Zoom by now.
[McLaughlin]: I am, but I can't open my video.
[lRR2dgf0NZM_SPEAKER_04]: It says I'm not allowed. So if Peter can fix that. Yes, I'm sure Lisa is coming back. One minute. So we're going to go on. Thanks for joining us.
[Lungo-Koehn]: We have the consent agenda, bills and payrolls and regular school committee meeting minutes from October 3rd, 2022.
[Ruseau]: Motion to sever the minutes.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Motion to sever, all those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Motion to sever has been approved. So is there a motion to approve the bills and payrolls? Motion to approve the bills and payrolls.
[lRR2dgf0NZM_SPEAKER_04]: Second.
[Lungo-Koehn]: If I remember, All those in favor, I suppose. Sorry. And then we have the regular school committee meeting minutes October 3. Yes.
[Ruseau]: Just on page two, there's a motion to approve the consent agenda in the minutes. And it says six slash one, I think it should say six slash zero slash one because I was absent at that point.
[Edouard-Vincent]: Six slash zero slash one.
[Ruseau]: Right, because the one implies a no. It'd be yay, nay and absent.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Motion for approval as amended.
[Ruseau]: Thank you.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Second by Member Ruseau, seconded by Member Graham. All those in favor? Aye. Thank you, Member McLaughlin. Motion for approval. Minutes have been approved. We have reports of subcommittees. I'm sorry, one second.
[Ruseau]: The printed one is missing a page.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Yeah, I think we're missing a page of the agenda. I have an additional one, I think, too. Oh, no, that's not it. Does anyone have a substitute for this?
[Ruseau]: No. No, there is no one.
[Lungo-Koehn]: OK, there are no reports of subcommittee. We have report of the superintendent. Superintendent's updates and comments. Dr. Reese Edward-Vinson, I'll turn it over to you.
[Clerk]: Good evening.
[Edouard-Vincent]: So first I just would like to share that October is both national bullying prevention month, and it is also national down syndrome awareness month. National Down Syndrome Awareness Awareness Month is a time to celebrate people with Down syndrome and make others aware of their abilities and accomplishments. As David Egan stated while serving as Special Olympics ambassador for the sergeant driver international global messenger down syndrome does not define us as people. It is a condition that makes it harder for us to learn, but with patience and persistence, we are able to contribute to our society. I also want to just thank member Graham and member McLaughlin for giving me a great reminder last week when I mentioned it in our weekly update. I also want to share that today, October 17 is Black Poetry Day, which was created in 1985 to honor the birth of the pioneer United States black poet, Jupiter Hammond, and call attention to the literary works and accomplishments of African American writers. Hammond was born during the time of slavery on October 17 1711 Mr. Hammond published his first poem an evening thought in New York in 1761. It was the first by an African-American in North America. He published both poetry and prose after that. Being a preacher, his works often discussed Christianity. His poem stated, now is the day, accepted time, the day of the salvation. Increase your faith, do not repine, awake ye every nation. I also would like to take a moment to congratulate our Medford Family Network, not only on their Yoki restaurant sponsored successful golf tournament, but also for being selected by the Monogram Foods to receive a $5,000 grant. And this grant is going to be used to help support and establish additional efforts I'm looking for at another location in Medford to help serve our growing family of immigrant populations. This new space will serve as a point of reference for families to call for assistance, hold education classes, and provide a place to store basic needs for families to pick up, such as diapers, formula, and clothes. I also want to say let's go Mustangs are inclusive basketball team open the season with an exciting win over Malden 48 to 40. Keep it up Mustangs. Their next game is on Monday, October 24 at home at four o'clock. Come cheer them on if you can. I also wanted to know that the first ever Special Olympics European unified basketball tournament was just held this past weekend in Italy. The teams that played included Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France. Germany, Greece, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Romania, Serbia, and Spain. Inclusion matters everywhere. I would also like to congratulate the Brooks PTO on a wonderful return to their Fall Fest fundraiser. I had the opportunity to be there yesterday and see member Rousseau, member Hays, member Graham. It was a lot of fun. My daughter enjoyed herself immensely and my niece and families had a great time. So congratulations to them. And I hope that everything was very successful. Also, I want to just acknowledge that last week was fire prevention week from the ninth to the 15th. And during that time, I, there were lots of activities that teachers worked on and talked about the importance of fire prevention. I did have the opportunity to visit some new classrooms with principal demos. And our meet students were able to wear fire hats and we're learning about fire safety as well. I want to thank our fire department for allowing our students to visit fire stations and learn about the importance of fire safety. And this coming Wednesday, October 19, the fire safety smokehouse trailer will be at the McGlynn school, where students will have hands on learning about what to do in case of a fire. I appreciate our strong partnership with our fire department. I also want to say that last week, this body the school committee had the wonderful opportunity to participate in an MSC training with Dorothy presser. It was a great training on the superintendent evaluation goals and propose next steps. I look forward to our continued partnership and a special thank you for Dorothy to come out for coming out and doing an excellent presentation. I just wanna share a few upcoming events that are gonna be happening in the district this week. On Wednesday, October 19th, it is also National LGBTQ Plus Awareness Day. As I mentioned earlier, the Medford Public Schools is a welcoming and inclusive district, which strives to build a strong system of support for all students and to be accepting of all people. October 19th, we are also holding a flu shot clinic at the McGlynn school from 2.30 to 3.30. On October 20th, it's the grade eight open house at the high school from 6 to 8.30 p.m. On October 24th, we are holding another flu shot clinic at the Missittuck from 2.45 to 3.45 p.m. October 26th is our college information night for students on IEPs and 504 accommodation plans. That's from 5.30 to 6.30 p.m. in the science lecture hall at the high school, immediately followed by the college and career night at Medford High School. And that's from 6 to 8.30 p.m. in the gym. So again, College Information Night for our students that are on IEPs or 504 plans from 530 to 630 p.m. and from six to 830 p.m. in the gym, College and Career Night. October 27 is jumpstart read for the record, it's going to be at the Miss attack. And the book this year will be Nigel in the moon. So I'm not sure if some of you heard from Dr. K hopefully some of you will be able to support that fun reading event. On October 27 is also an opportunity for parents and caregivers of students with ASD, a support group that will be on zoom at seven o'clock in the evening. October, October 27 is also our club. They are hosting the music bingo fundraiser, it will be at the Irish American club at 7pm so I hope those of you who enjoy that will get out to support the fundraiser. And lastly, in closing, I would like to wish a happy Diwali to our Hindu, Sikh, and Jains families who will be celebrating the Festival of Lights beginning October 24th for five days. Families enjoy festive lights, fireworks, and sweets as they gather together to celebrate the triumph of good over evil. I wish them a Shubh Diwali. or happy Diwali to all. And committee, I look forward to our presentations that are coming forward this evening, especially the in-depth MCAS presentation that's gonna be presented by the team. So I just wanted to mention that as a key report for this evening. Thank you.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you, Dr. Edwards. Thank you. We have second report recommendation to approve $1,000 orchestra donation from the Schmidt family, Haley relo coordinator of performing arts and Sophia Chang orchestra teacher here to present. Welcome. We're just gonna wait for your mic microphone to either. Thank you.
[Rello]: Perfect. Thank you. Good evening I'm coming to this evening with a recommendation to approve a donation. I would like to thank Mr. and Mrs. Schmidt for their support to the middle school string ensemble and the Medford strings program, their contributions over the years have helped fund our trips to perform at Micah gold medal showcases and Boston Symphony Hall and mechanics Holland Worcester, the experience to perform these prestigious has inspired some to pursue music careers in orchestral conducting, double bass performance, sound production, and music education. Thanks to supporting parents like them, the Met Republic Schools is known for their art and music programs. We hope to carry on the mission to provide a well-rounded education to many underprivileged children in the district. The department would like to extend our gratitude to the Schmidt family for an extremely generous donation of $1,000. I respectfully recommend that this gift be accepted by the school committee for your formal vote.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you very much. Motion to accept by member Stone.
[Graham]: Motion to accept.
[Lungo-Koehn]: I'll second. Seconded by member McLaughlin. Roll call vote. Roll call vote.
[Ruseau]: Member Graham.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Yes.
[Ruseau]: Member Hays.
[Hays]: Yes.
[Ruseau]: Member Kreatz.
[Hays]: Yes.
[Ruseau]: Member McLaughlin. Yes. Member Mustone.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Yes.
[Ruseau]: Member Ruseau, yes. Mayor Lungo-Koehn.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Yes. Seven in the affirmative, zero in the negative. The donation has been accepted. Mayor. Thank you for being here.
[Ruseau]: Could I ask that a letter be sent to the family thanking them from the school committee?
[Lungo-Koehn]: Yes, we can do that.
[Ruseau]: Thank you.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Wonderful. Thank you. Thank you. Yes, say up. Recommendation to approve the band trip to Disney in April 2023. Miss Rello, coordinator of performing arts. I'll get your microphone turned back on. Press the little button with the person. Perfect, thank you.
[Rello]: So I'd like to come to you tonight for the approval of a trip. Every four years or so, the band applies to the Disney Performing Arts Showcase in Disney World in Florida. And we've been accepted again to perform. It comes as part of a performance package and as well as an educational package. So the students are able to participate in film scoring workshops and performer workshops where they get to work with Disney engineers and they are able to kind of hone in some skills and learn some new things about being a performer and kind of how the Disney world works. Disney also has a college program that they work with a bunch of interns. So they kind of get an overview of that program as well, which is kind of nice to see what some opportunities could hold for things that might be interested in. I submitted a pretty, pretty detailed packet. Everything is kind of laid out. Are there any questions on there? Would you like me to talk about more? What would you like me to discuss?
[Lungo-Koehn]: Oh, that's great. Is this during April vacation?
[Rello]: It is. Yeah, we leave right before our hands. It is from the 12th to the 19th.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Wonderful.
[Rello]: So it's great. I had a question.
[Ruseau]: Member Ruseau. Thank you. I know that there's been some communications today about this. And I'm just trying to, this is really, I'm hoping you can answer this question. Sure. The registration form says Bennett Studios, student travel. And so families signed that some number of months ago. And then now it's not flying, it's Amtrak. And did Bennett make that unilaterally, even though there's contracts with each and every family? Who made that change that instead of a four-hour flight, it's a 30-hour train ride each way?
[Rello]: Um, we, um, so, um, we looked into what we do is we put out bids for travel. So we put in some bids for airline tickets and, um, we had budgeted a certain amount for airlines and the airline tickets came in around $1,100 per student. Um, so it could be a considerable, um, increase. We're looking at like around a thousand, probably 800 to a thousand dollars per kid. In addition to the package. Um, the thing that's hard about traveling as an ensemble is that we're not. just traveling for vacation purposes or for fun purposes, although we will have fun, we're traveling as an ensemble. So if we're missing parts of the ensemble, we're not going to proudly represent Medford as well as we could. So if we're like, you know, you just go down there with two flutes and a drum, it's not gonna sound like if the entire band was coming. So what we did is we kind of went back to the drawing board and we looked at a few options. We looked into taking a boat, we looked into taking a train, we looked into chartering our own plane, and we looked into buses, like busing down from Medford. So I got bids back on all of those. And the cheapest by far option was to take Amtrak, which would be an Amtrak train leaving from Boston to New York. And then we switch over and we go from New York to Orlando. We are trying to keep the cost down as much as possible because we want to make it accessible for as many students to attend. The round trip airfare was a little over $1,100. the round trip Amtrak was $282 per student. So that was a significant decrease. So what happened with that process is once we did that, I posted information on the band app. We have an application that goes out to everybody. I believe you're still on it. And from there, we had a Zoom meeting this summer and I kind of presented the different options on things. We had a few parents that were concerned Because there had been a group that had traveled to Florida and then their flight got canceled and they were stranded at the airport for a few days so. We had a bunch of things come up, we kind of addressed all those issues and we did take a vote at that at that meeting on zoom to see if people were interested in this and. And they were, and the kids really excited. After that, after we voted and kind of talked about it, I did ask for chaperones, which after you ask people, you know, to go on a train for 26 hours, I did get seven chaperones. So people are willing to go. The kids are excited. And for right now, we do have the Southwest has not released their dates yet for April vacation. They released those the 27th at the end of this month. So we will still look into, there are still a few options. We can try to get tickets to fly. But right now, our main concern is just making it accessible for students and making it affordable so that the most, you know, more members of the band can attend.
[Ruseau]: Great, thank you. And I have one other question. I have not been on Amtrak in a while, but I have been on Amtrak. And will the students be just, will we have reserved seats and cars, or will the students just be mixed in with the public?
[Rello]: No, so we book as a group. When you book as a group, they book all your seats together. So we have like a kind of a car to ourselves. There are a few extra seats. I can't imagine anyone who would want to sit in our car, but they're welcome to join. And then the students are within their, like, they'll be with their chaperone. So they'll sit like they're adults sitting in between them. And then they do have, they will have the availability to go into the restaurant car where they can walk around and get, they can eat their meals. They can go to the observation car where it's like more loungy kind of comfy furniture. And they're able to kind of like, you know, take in the scenery and see all the different States will be traveling through. And so we're looking at a few different things to do on the, on the train, but they're, they're excited. So.
[Rello]: Yeah.
[Graham]: Thank you. I'm just a couple more questions about the change that happened price change with the contract. The price went down. The price went down. Yes. And if there are parents out there who think that spending 30 hours on the train is not doable for one reason or another. Do they have other options? I think we've gotten some feedback today from parents who are feeling like this was not.
[Rello]: Yeah, unfortunately that parent missed our meeting that we had over the summer where we discussed all this stuff with the travel agent. But we are able to offer a refund for anyone who at this point is unhappy with the travel change. Yeah, for sure. Perfect, thank you.
[Mustone]: Ms. Stone? So three of our kids are going on the trip. I will be not chaperoning for a 24-hour train ride, but if you do get Southwest, then I would like to volunteer to chaperone if you get that flight. So thank you, but Teague and Nevin and Rowan seem to be very excited that they think it's the Orient Express that they're going on to Florida.
[Rello]: One kid's going to wear his pajamas the whole time. He thinks it's like the Polar Express. So I know they're all excited. We don't get a lot of trains around here, I guess.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you. That'll be fun. Thank you so much. Is there a motion for approval? Motion to approve by Member Mustone, seconded by Member Hays.
[lRR2dgf0NZM_SPEAKER_04]: Second.
[Lungo-Koehn]: All those in favor?
[lRR2dgf0NZM_SPEAKER_04]: Aye.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Opposed? Motion passes unanimously. Thank you. Thank you. We have number four report on labor relations. Mr. David Murphy, assistant superintendent of finance and operations.
[Murphy]: Thank you, Mayor. Good evening, members of the school committee. As we discussed in our executive session, and as was announced on Friday, the district has reached a tentative agreement with the Medford Teachers Association, bringing to a conclusion 11 months of negotiations, which I know has occupied a good amount of time in this forum and many others. I'm gonna briefly summarize the tentative agreement for you this evening, as I did in the executive session. and take your questions from a procedural standpoint for members of the community who have been following along as this process has evolved. The tentative agreement means that the members of the teacher's bargaining unit will be asked to vote to ratify the TA. It's my understanding that that's going to happen within the course of the next week, but that's certainly incumbent upon the union to schedule. At that point, subsequent to the ratification, it will be presented again for your approval, as we did with the previous TAs that we've reached so we just go through this first slide you've seen several times and thankfully We have an increasing amount of green represented in this table. You can see that the remaining, there's four remaining units, two of whom the negotiations have not commenced for different reasons. And then our negotiations with the custodial bargaining unit and the security monitors are ongoing. And there'll be additional meetings taking place this week. It's my hope that we'll have an update for you on that in the near future. The financial implications of the agreement that have been reached with the teachers, consistent with some of the numbers that you've, you've seen before, there'll be a 2.5% cost of living adjustment, and the three fiscal years, but of the agreement that's FY 22 which is last year that'll be retroactive. FY 23, which is the fiscal year that we are currently in and FY 24 which is the fiscal year that will begin this coming summer on July 1 2023. In addition, on the final day of the fiscal year and FY 24. There'll be a 1% increase that will take effect in the subsequent fiscal year and FY 25. And then there'll be the one time payments, which we intend to use one time funding related sources, including the answer grants of $, for each of the three years that the contract covers. With regard to language changes, it is a relatively reform-like contract, but you can see some of the highlights that the district is very pleased with, and I think that the union joins us in, obviously they join us in support of these changes since we negotiated them, but I think that there's consensus on the part of both parties that Some of these reforms that were the product of discussions that took place over the course of the last year will position us to serve students better, which has been our objective from the beginning of the negotiation as you know. First, there's a competitive and sustainable wage increase as you know that was one of our key strategic priorities. when the negotiations, when we were setting goals back in the summer of 2021. And I think that by any reasonable measure, we've achieved that. The most sort of real feel change that we'll be communicating out to families, I anticipate in the coming weeks, once the agreements are ratified and approved, will be a change to the elementary school day. Wednesdays will effective No sooner than January, it's our hope, no later than late January, Wednesdays will be a traditional school day similar to how Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays are, there will be scheduled at the district's discretion, some half days at the elementary level that will be used for professional development and other administrative purposes. it's sort of a work in progress as to how exactly that's going to be implemented this school year, given that the transition to the full school day Wednesdays will not occur until halfway through the school year. So we'll have some additional information for you in the coming weeks regarding that. A number of the other provisions have to do with consultation requirements, depending on the composition of various classrooms, particularly at the elementary level, when there's a higher concentration of need, and making sure that we're being thoughtful and strategic about our staffing alignments and making sure that we are utilizing teacher voice for purposes of establishing class rosters. It was a point that the union raised and I think that resonated with the members of the administration and the negotiating team. That's something that from a practical standpoint, we as an organization can do better. And so I've said before in relation to this point that we're grateful to the MTA for raising this issue. and advocating on behalf of their members in the hope that we can improve that practice on the district's part. There are some other additional targeted strategic professional development obligations some changes with respect to compensation for teachers that are picking up additional workload. I would identify that as a shared interest in the part of the district in the Union. Beyond the sort of obvious compensation implications institutionalizing various incentives that can lead to broader. Arrays of a broader array of electives and course offerings for students is something that we see as an objective and we hope that that. We hope that that interest will be advanced as a result of these changes. There will be an advisory committee that will be working throughout the course of this year, as they did last year, working to develop a reformed high school student schedule. The goal having to be greater alignment between the academic and vocational sides of the school. And then through that, more equitable course offerings for students that are pursuing a chapter 74 pathway, making sure that they have an opportunity to engage in of various electives from art, music, and to other courses that we hope to develop. It's also through a reform schedule, which is, to be clear, the reform schedule is not part of this contract, but the commitment to work on it in the life of this contract is part of this agreement. And so we'll also be working to make sure that we can develop a schedule that is more equitable from the perspective of high-need, most vulnerable populations of students who currently due to various services that they need to receive during the course of the school day, have fewer schedule options than they should, and then their peers enjoy. There's also some modifications related to performance evaluation. Again, another shared interest that the district and the union share, making sure that we're having a thoughtful and constructive evaluation process that improves practices and also instills accountability across the organization. In terms of what happens next, as I said, they'll be, the teachers will vote to ratify and we'll ask you to vote to approve. It's our hope that that happens before the end of the month. We are in the process now of implementing all the agreements that have been reached so far. That means retroactive payments for bargaining units that have been without a cost of living adjustment since the beginning of FY21, excuse me, FY22, which is all the way back to July of 2021. continuation of negotiations with the remaining units that I mentioned earlier, we have the two units that we still need to begin negotiations with. And then beyond that, we have some. discussions, deliberations that we will be engaged in, thinking back across this process and how we got to an agreement and the parts of that agreement that I think both parties can take pride in, in the hope that it serves the interests of students going forward, and hopefully some discussion and discourse about what, as an organization, we can do more effectively in the years ahead. So with that, I'm happy to take questions.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you, Mr. Murphy member Rousseau.
[Ruseau]: Thank you. It may not be a good answer for this but um, when can be the units that have already settled. Was it a week or two at this point now go. When could they start seeing their retro checks.
[Murphy]: sooner rather than later. We're working on that right now. There's a little bit of complexity when we're charging back to previous fiscal years, but we're working closely with the city on that right now. And it's my expectation that the units that we came to agreements with in September, it is my hope that before the end of the month, they will see some of that retroactive activity. It's certainly by the end of November, but it's my hope that it'll be by the end of this month.
[Ruseau]: Thank you. And just sort of a technical, is that likely to be like all of them drop at once or as they're processed one at a time?
[Murphy]: I think it's a good question. And part of that complexity with respect to the previous fiscal years, normally it would be separate. In this case, where the retros are coming both from some one-time funding sources and the previous fiscal year, there's a possibility we're going to be able to do more of it at once, which would just I think is the sentiment that had been expressed by our bargaining partners is that they would appreciate that. And so that's what we're working on finalizing right now.
[Ruseau]: Thank you.
[Murphy]: I don't expect a long delay between the two events, not simultaneous.
[Jim Lister]: Thank you, Mr. Murphy.
[Murphy]: Thank you.
[lRR2dgf0NZM_SPEAKER_04]: I didn't see any more questions, so I was going to move on. I just need the agenda. Sorry, the second page.
[Edouard-Vincent]: Yes, I just wanted to thank my entire senior leadership team for their tireless work during the negotiation process with the MTA and to also thank the MTA for coming to the TA that we have before us which is. a very good agreement and I look forward to getting the results next week, but I just wanted to sincerely express my thanks for all the hard work that went in over these past 11 months. Thank you.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you, Dr. Edwards-Vincent. Number five, we have report on MCAS and MCAS alternative results 2022. Ms. Suzanne Galusi, assistant superintendent of academics and instruction. Ms. Joan Bowen, Director of Student Services, Dr. Bernadette Riccadeli, Director of Professional Learning and Student Assessment, and Dr. Nicole Chiesa, Director of Humanities, and Ms. Faiza Khan, Director of Mathematics, and Mr. Rocco Sieri, Director of Science. Welcome, everybody. I'll turn it over to you.
[Galusi]: Welcome, thank you, good evening, Madam Mayor, members of the school committee and Medford community, Dr. Edouard-Vincent. Tonight I'm here with, I was going to mention everybody's name, but the mayor, I think kind of covered that. I just kind of wanted to start as like an introduction just to, I know that there's been a lot of discourse, a lot of media coverage around the 2022 MCAS results. Tonight, our goal is to, review the information that the Department of Education has set out regarding the format, the scoring, as well as the results. And then Dr. Riccadeli and I will also talk about next steps moving forward. So I'm going to pass it off to Dr. Riccadeli.
[Ricciardelli]: So good evening. It's nice to see everybody tonight. So I think at this point, Ms. Glusi just went over the agenda. So I think that the next part is I'm going to introduce Ms. Joan Bowen to talk about the MCAS results.
[O'Connor]: Good evening. So the MCAS assessment is designed to measure a student's knowledge of key concepts and skills outlined in the Massachusetts curriculum frameworks. but there are a small number of students with the most significant disabilities who are unable to take the standard MCAS test, even with accommodations, and they participate in the MCAS Alt Assessment. This is participation in the MCAS is determined annually at the student's team meeting using the decision-making tool for MCAS participation. And I've included that link in the packet tonight. The MCAS ALT assessment consists of a portfolio of specific materials collected annually by the student and the teacher. Evidence for the portfolio may include work samples, instructional data, videotapes, and other supporting information. Every fall, the teachers are provided training through DESE. And the identified students are giving a skill survey for each strand. The strands selected include ELA, there's one reading and one language. In math, there's three strands. And in science and technology, there's three strands. Based on the results of the survey, teachers select entry points or access skills. And then students participate in the same content areas as their grade level peers. Once a student is identified to participate, the skill survey is completed and the special education teachers have to perform the following activities. They set up the work folders, they select measurable outcomes and classroom assessment activities. They complete the binder following the DESE guidelines. And once it's completed, the teacher meets with the parent or guardian or caregiver, and they review the ALT assessment and the parent must sign off on it. We submitted to DESE by the deadline, which this year is March 31st. Preliminary scores are distributed in the summer, and then the results are mailed to the guardians, caregivers, when the standard MCAS scores are sent out to everyone. So this year, our participation We had a total of 15 in district students participate in the MCAS alt. There were four Asian students, three Hispanic, four white, and four black. Six students of the 15 were identified as low income. And then our audit district participation, we currently have 39 students in out of district, we had four students who participated in the m cast all and they were for white students and none of the students were identified as low income. So once the DSEE receives the ALT assessment, the students are scored based on the following. So there's the level of complexity, there's demonstration of skills and concepts, the level of independence the student has, a self-evaluation, which the student needs to reflect on their ability to self-correct, monitor and evaluate. looking at the identified strand, and then just their generalized performance. So based on that, there's the four categories that students get scored on, and it's progressing, emerging, awareness, and incomplete. And then the next couple of pages are just the district results. So the first, these are all of our district students, and I broke it down by school and grade level. And as you can see, the third graders took ELA and math. Fourth graders also did ELA and math. Fifth graders participated in English, math, and science. And then the next page is a continuation of our middle school, our secondary school, secondary level students in the sixth, seventh, and then we had three 10th graders who completed an ELA and math. And then the last page is our out-of-district students. I did report that there were four students that participated. We're still waiting for one score from an out-of-district placement. We're hoping to get it by the end of this week, but this is the results of the out-of-district. I did not list the name of the particular school because we may only have one student at that school. So these are just the students that participated in the alternate assessment. So I didn't know if anyone had any questions.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Member McLaughlin has a question and then member Ruseau. Oh, member McLaughlin.
[McLaughlin]: Yes, thank you. Thank you, Ms. Bowen for the presentation. I was wondering, we had a family ask, is there an option for if you want to opt out of MCAS alt?
[O'Connor]: I mean, there is an option. MCAS Alt is not required for graduation, but it is, we do wanna be able to have a baseline of the students' performance so we can see it as they progress through the years taking the MCAS Alt. Standard MCAS, there's an option to opt out, but it does impact the district scores.
[McLaughlin]: what doesn't impact the district scores if they opt out? Yes. In the standard MCAS. Oh, in standard MCAS, right, right. But in MCAS also doesn't. So in other words, there are, you can opt out of MCAS all just as you could regular MCAS. Anybody can do that.
[lRR2dgf0NZM_SPEAKER_04]: Yes, I believe so.
[McLaughlin]: Okay. That's what I needed to answer. Thank you. And thanks for the presentation.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Oh, you're welcome. Thank you, Ms. Bowen. Somebody else taking over page nine great.
[Ricciardelli]: Okay, so with regard to context setting, so setting the context for looking at these scores and determining meaning from them. So we are gonna look at statewide data released by the Department of Ed. Please know that the district receives its own data from the Edwin system through the security portal. There's also data that is reported on the public Department of Education site. It's important obviously to understand these achievement scores because it helps us detect where there needs to be adjustments to curriculum and instruction and in plans moving forward. As we look at the MCAS test administration from 2019 to the present 2022. So just to give you a visual here, in 2019, all grades had a full test administration. And then going back to 2020, no tests were administered. In 2021, half tests were administered for grades three through eight, and full tests were administered for grade 10 in 2021. And for 2022, for all grades, full tests were administered. So I think that is important in looking at historical context, because it does have implications for growth and for accountability. The Department of Ed has publicly released some information prior to the release of individual data, I should say, data for individual districts. So according to the Department of Education, in 2022, overall math scores increased. English language arts scores declined across the state. Of course, there is impact in the lower writing scores. we, you know, we've worked to do with regard to getting those scores up. And certainly there are early literacy challenges and, you know, working to remediate those students who in those very young, in their very young years missed out on the in-person instruction. Science scores increase slightly. When we compare these results to pre-pandemic levels, again, we have a ways to go. We have a lot of work to do to recover learning loss. Across the state, student absenteeism was a challenge and still, to a point, remains a challenge. Moving on, more information from the Department of Education. During the last three years of the pandemic education, access to instruction has been a barrier for some students. Chronic absenteeism increased in the state 138% in 2022 for students in grades three through eight. 18% of all students missed 18 or more days in 2021. 28% missed 18 or more days in 2022. So keeping in mind that COVID was still occurring, students and staff needed to be absent. So that's where these high percentage, high absentee percentages come in. Statewide students missed 1.7 school days due to COVID positive cases. This data does not include students who missed school as close contacts and staff absences.
[lRR2dgf0NZM_SPEAKER_04]: Member Graham.
[Graham]: Can I just ask a quick question before we move on? How did our absenteeism compared to what happened across the state? Like, was it more? Was it less? Was it similar?
[Galusi]: So it's so interesting you've asked that question. So Kim Miles, our data analyst, is working on that data right now, which takes some time because if students were absent because of COVID positive or even close contacts, they weren't really, it's a separate accounting system because in our system, that was like, it wasn't counted as an absent necessarily. So she's working on that and I'll be able to give that information to the district. It just takes some time for her to parse it out.
[Edouard-Vincent]: And member Graham, just to build upon what Ms. Galucci was sharing, we now have a new coding for COVID. We have COVID for quarantining, COVID-Q and COVID-S. But when it first came out, all of that was kind of kept confidential with the nurses of what was going on. So that's also part of the unpacking of trying to see how those absences were coded. Because it was something that I had requested, but it's labor intensive because we used a different coding system. But definitely between quarantining more than once, potentially if you are exposed, and possibly getting sick from COVID itself. There were significant absences, and just to see 1.7 million school days across the Commonwealth, that's like an unbelievable number.
[Galusi]: And that was just for COVID positive.
[Edouard-Vincent]: Yes, that's unbelievable.
[Ruseau]: Mayor?
[Lungo-Koehn]: Member Ruseau?
[Ruseau]: Thank you. I don't want to beat this dead horse too much, but the state's 138%. That's inclusive of COVID.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Correct, correct.
[Ruseau]: So we will get the numbers once the pain of figuring it all out is done. What was the COVID ones? What was the total?
[lRR2dgf0NZM_SPEAKER_04]: Yes.
[Ruseau]: I guess I would just wonder a bit about, I don't remember exactly when it happened, but reporting a positive COVID for your kid has always been a little, I believe that, science has updated that on the website to make it possible, but when one of my kids was positive, I went to the website and I sat through many meetings where we were told how all this worked. But of course, until you have to do it, you don't memorize it exactly. I went to our website in May, and I could not figure out how to report that my daughter had COVID. And I mean, she hadn't missed much school. I could have just been like, whatever. So I just do want to make sure that the 2022, which is the one that ended in June, that it The caveats around that are gonna be pretty substantial because I'm sure that lots of people did not report it.
[Galusi]: Correct, which is why it's taking Ms. Miles a little bit of time because there was some of that just to coordinate as well with Avery Hines.
[Ruseau]: So the regular absence system wouldn't even show a student who was COVID positive. Correct, but it also would show students who are positive but told nobody. Correct, and they wouldn't be in the positive pool either so I guess I'm just kind of questioning how much effort is involved is it worth that I guess is sort of my.
[Galusi]: Well, the curriculum directors will report later the percentage in terms of how many students per grade level participated in the MCAS scores, in the MCAS tests, which is very high. We just wanted to have that additional data as a counter to this for how it impact, what the impact was in Medford. It's just gonna take some time to get that information. But it's a great segue to talk about the chronic absenteeism due to the pandemic. to talk about student growth percentile. So typically when the Department of Education through MCAS determines student growth percentile, it's based on two years of data where like that first year is worth 40%, that second year is worth 60% and a percentile is determined. The difficulty now is that there's been this break and there hasn't really been a formal way to do that. So what the Department of Education is trying to encourage is that this last year's 2022 serves as the new baseline in which we move forward in terms of achievement and accountability. But they are using the same recording as you can see here, as they used last year, which we have in bold that for parents at home, when reports come home, which they were mailed out last week, so I'm sure they probably maybe came over the weekend. The typical growth range is still 40 to 59 percentage points.
[Jim Lister]: Member Ruseau?
[Ruseau]: just mentioned it, that's what I'm going to ask. We mail them to families?
[lRR2dgf0NZM_SPEAKER_04]: Yes.
[Ruseau]: So who mails it to a family for a student who's now at a district? Because would we be mailing it still?
[Galusi]: Yes.
[Ruseau]: Okay. Have they all gone out?
[Galusi]: They went out on Friday.
[Ruseau]: Oh, it's only Monday. Okay, thank you.
[Galusi]: No problem. Okay. So in terms of the other going from, from the student growth percentile, typically the MCAS results, there's an accountability piece that isn't applicable due to the disruption of data. So there will be no overall district accountability determination. What they're doing is just continuing the determination that districts have had in the past. We have not been, so those underperforming districts, that will continue. And districts that aren't, we're still held harmless for that. Because the Department of Education has not set targets. Typically for MCAS, there's a target that the Department of Education will set for each school and for each district that they want them to meet. They have not done that due to the pandemic. So therefore, there's no progress towards any targets. There's no, new accountability for this year's scores.
[Ricciardelli]: Okay, so moving on to the next slide comparable districts. So, in the past we've used Dart, which is a it's a tool that the Department of Education puts out. in which districts that are similar in demographics and other features are compared to our own district. The Department of Ed has not put out a 2022 DART listing yet. So what we did was we went in and we looked at what the comparable dark districts were for last year and the previous year. And we used those communities. And you can see in yellow where Medford is compared to the other districts. So we used to compare, we compared Medford to Methuen, Peabody, Quincy, Somerville, Weymouth, and Woburn, which again have their basis in what the Department of Ed has used as comparison sources before. So you can see where there are percentages in which Medford is higher, and there are percentages for achievement, where it is lower. So the first, the first column we have English language arts that's grades three through eight. If they chunk it those those grades three through eight are together for English and then we have math grades three through eight. Then we have ELA math and science, technology and engineering for grade 10 then the next chunk is grades five and eight for science, technology and engineering. So those are the MCAS percentages of meeting or exceeding expectations. Moving over to the right-hand columns, we have the growth. So if you remember back to the last slide that Ms. Pelosi showed, or maybe it was two slides ago, in which she talked about typical growth, typical growth is 40 to 59. So you can see that our scores are between the 40 and 59. and 59.
[lRR2dgf0NZM_SPEAKER_04]: So we're well within that typical growth.
[Ricciardelli]: So with this, I'm not going to go over every number here unless someone had a question, but you can just see comparatively how Medford rated compared to some other communities. So unless there are any other questions for that, at this point, we're going to segue over to the individual subjects. And we're going to start with science. And what we will ask you to do, if at all possible, is to hold your questions until the end of the science section. And then again, at the end of the math section, the end of the ELA section. So at this point, Rocco Sieri will discuss the MCAS science, technology, and engineering results.
[Cushing]: Good evening, Madam Mayor, superintendent and school committee members. It's nice to be in person, be able to see you all face to face. There are, I do wanna go over the test design since it differs a bit from the ELA and the math test. And you received a print report that goes over some of those details. As said before, the content standards are the main component where the questions are developed. In 2019, the grade five and grade eight exam were fully operational. and tied to the next generation MCAS exam was released. As you know, in 2020, the exam was canceled. And in 2021, the exam was one half of what, it was just one session. And so 2022 was officially only the third administration of this exam, but it was only the second fully operational version of the exam. For grade 10, I just wanna find the notes, so don't misspeak. The next generation MCAS science and technology exam was given for the first time at the high school this past spring. In August of 2022, this very past August, the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education benchmarked the exam. And the exam achievement levels now use the current next generation MCAS levels, just like the ones that are used on the ELA and mathematics exam. They use the exceeds expectations met expectations partially met expectations and not meeting expectations. The state did release. some comparative data for the legacy MCAS benchmarks. And in the report, it's listed as a table, but I have a fairly large bar chart that's gonna appear that I'd like to spend a little time on once we get to grade 10, so that I can fully explain that particular slide. So that's the test design. And then I'm just gonna do some very high level highlights from the grade five, grade eight, and then speak on the high school exam. So as you can see in this graph, it reports the percentages of students at the exceeding meeting, partially meeting and not meeting for the district and for the state. The district is in light blue, and the state is in dark blue. At grade five, the state led the district by five percentage points at the exceeding and meeting expectations. There were more students at partially meeting this year than there were the prior year. So looking at the table that's reported in the report, you'll notice that there are more students at that partially meeting than there were the year before, year over year in the district. And there were also this year in 2022, fewer students who are not meeting this year. who were not meeting expectations than the prior year. So year over year, the results are better. However, we still trail the state in the exceeding and meeting category when you add them up. In terms of looking forward for this year, I think one of the items that we really need to keep in mind is that we would like to see greater implementation of FOSS with the hands-on activities. It's something that we invested in several years ago as the pandemic hit. We had a lot of decisions to be made and time to be spent in other classes and there was a lot of absenteeism as has been noted and some uncertainty around what was going to be covered. So it decreased our ability to focus on the hands-on components to the FOSS program which is it's a pretty critical way of learning science in elementary school. So that's one area which we'll be looking at a little more deeply. Also, we began the NWEA MAP exam last year, and it's gonna be a great tool for us because we will administer the science version grades three, four, and five twice a year. and it will give us an opportunity to progress monitor for kids and do some diving, a little bit deeper dive into the science data for classroom and grade level standards. We'll also be conducting instructional rounds to observe classroom implementation and the needs at each grade level, and then some continued work with the special education department, the EL department, to continue to support the needs of the learners in our classrooms for science.
[lRR2dgf0NZM_SPEAKER_04]: Scroll to the next slide.
[Cushing]: In middle school, there isn't great differences between the state and the district. At grade eight, the state did lead by four percentage points at exceeding in meeting, but you can see that Even visually, we are very close to what the state has in terms of its achievement on the exam. The state, in fact, had 42% at meeting and exceeding. And there is some differences at the schools. The Andrews has 42% meeting and exceeding, and the McGlynn has 37% meeting and exceeding. However, we as a district house, the population at the McGlynn middle school, and that represents about 50 students of the hundred and 72 that took the exam this year, so it's something that can impact the score. These are students that are either very recently in the country and learning English or a few years out. So these kinds of things will appear in the data in those particular grade levels. And so there's a greater number of action items for grade eight. Well, really it's for middle school, not just for grade eight, but grade eight, the grade eight exam incorporates grade six through eight curriculum. So we will be looking at the new types of questions that have been asked on the MCAS exam and we began this last year with one half of the exam questions that were available. The state had released them now we have a full exam, so there will be more. sample questions that we can look at, and we'll incorporate those into teaching and looking to see if we can progress monitor the students in the current year. Again, we'll use the NWEA map for science twice a year at grades six, seven, and eight, and it'll allow us to see, to identify the content areas where students are stronger, where they might need additional support, and progress monitor. We'll also be working on professional development, looking at high leverage instructional strategies, which include hands on inquiry, incorporation of science practices, something that we've been doing more of in the writing side of things, which is a claim evidence and reasoning, it's a way of writing paragraphs for short writing assignments in the discipline, and then looking at how we can plan phenomena-based lesson plans. Again, it's another approach being, it's found in the materials that we have, but it's also something being promoted sort of in the US as an approach for science teaching. We also provide the item analysis to the teachers on the test, which is in the appendix of the report. And also looking at both the standards and domains and the individual question item analysis. And then we work as a team to identify if there are any questions that might have confused students on how they were phrased, but also looking at the curriculum to see when that particular topic is addressed in grade six, seven, and eight to see if we can make it a more robust approach as the students approach the exam. We also work with some of our community partners, whether they're academic or business-based to try to identify activities that really excite kids to study and continue to learn about science, technology, engineering. I'm gonna move on to the third chart. And while this one uses the same information, I need to sort of explain what we're looking at. To the left with the blue, light blue and dark blue is the data from the exam using the exceeding, meeting, partially meeting, and not meeting expectations achievement levels. And on the right with the orange and teal colors is the exams results with the legacy scale. Students in the class of 2025 and 2024 were held to the legacy standard scale, which means that our students overall actually outperform the state by two percentage points at the advanced and proficient levels. So we would have to look at the right side of the bar chart to see what our performance level on achievement is for the high stakes version of the exam at grade 10. The new version of the exceeding meeting, partially meeting and not meeting, was set in August. And it's the same test and the same students, but you'll notice some pretty interesting differences that are revealed in that data. One thing that I noticed when I looked at it was that our students perform slightly lower than the state at the meeting and the exceeding, whereas in the legacy, they perform better than the state. The second thing I noticed was that both the state and the district perform about 47% 47% of the students perform at the exceeding or meeting achievement levels. When I think about that and look at the other scale where I see 64% of students being advanced and proficient, I sort of have a lot of questions raised in my mind about how the setting was done. And I don't think I can personally do much about it because the standard setting is done at the state level, but I do wanna bring it to your attention that these two scales represent the exact same, the exact same exam administration and the exact same students with two different scales. In the future, it will be the MCAS 2.0 achievement scale that will be used. This year, our students are experiencing the legacy scale. I don't know what that speaks to in the future, but it is a little bit something that is troubling to me as an educator. I just want to show you the data so that you can make your own decisions on it. That being said, Students took the next generation MCAS with a comic book. They needed to attain a needs improvement or above to be eligible to earn a high school diploma. 89% of our students at grades 10 and 11, the current grade 10 and 11 students, classes of 2024 and 2025, earned their competency determination. As I had mentioned, August, 2022, the DESE had set and released these next generation achievement levels. The new achievement levels exceeding expectations, meeting expectations, partially meeting expectations and not meeting expectations use the same 22 MCAS exam. The students of the class of 2025 and those in the class of 2024 who took that 2022 MCAS biology will receive a competency determination based on the legacy achievement levels. but that will change for the class of 2026 and beyond, who are the current grade nine students and then anyone who comes up after them. So at this point, I kind of put that in a bracket in terms of understanding what happened at grade 10. It's our first experience with that particular exam. and that grading scale, so we have to sort of anticipate it and move with it, but we really wanted to understand what it was. And this year we do have at least some data to look at and also some test questions that we can look at. Our action items at the high school, we're gonna continue to support students taking the MCAS exams and the MCAS retakes. administering the NWA map for science in grades nine and 10 to allow us to just do some early identification of some content area readiness, whether that means at grade 10 we're looking at what potential elective courses or pathways that students want to achieve, whether we can get them ready for those, or at grade nine, trying to identify early which standards might need some additional support for the upcoming 2023 Biology MCAS. We'll continue the professional development that we began earlier this year. We're going to do some more data dives with the NWA map results and refine our pacing guides for biology and chemistry and the other subjects as well, and then work with the other departments to make sure that our content area is accessible for students that are EL and students with special needs.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you, Mr. Siri. I know we have member McLaughlin online who has question right.
[lRR2dgf0NZM_SPEAKER_04]: Member McLaughlin. Anybody else from the floor have any questions?
[Lungo-Koehn]: Remember Graham and then come on up.
[Graham]: Just a quick question about the implementation of FOSS. Will we be able to say we're done implementing FOSS at the end of this year? I feel like we've been talking about this for a really long time. And I know COVID has interrupted in the middle of it, but I want us to get to the point where we can close the book on feeling like we're still in implementation mode because there are so many other things that we have to implement at the elementary school. I'm just trying to figure out there seems to still be stuff to do there from an implementation perspective. And it seems like that's unusual at this point.
[Cushing]: Yeah, so when we began looking at it, I believe it was back in 2017 2018 it was our pilot year 2018 we we adopted we trained teachers 2019 was our first like full year implementation 2020 we all know what happened 21. We had some modified schedules. in terms of when science was being taught. And so I feel like this year is the year we're okay. We can say all teachers have one year of solid implementation under their belt and we can move on and just kind of, like you said, close the book on it and have the expectation that this is the model program we're using. It has been difficult. There's no way of getting around the facts that have sort of transpired over the last couple of years as we went through the implementation. But for sure, we're in a better place than we were maybe five years ago when we had a curriculum that was pretty old.
[Graham]: Yeah, I mean, my kids are done with elementary school at this point. So that's the concern, right? Like when this stuff takes five years, you lost a whole building full of kids through the implementation process. So I just want to make sure that going forward, like, and again, there's so much to do at the elementary level that I just want to make sure the teachers feel properly supported, that they've had the right PD, they have the supplies that they need, like that just literally were good by the end of this year, because I just next year, it's going to be math and ELA and all the other things. So I just, I definitely want the teachers to feel like they've had, they've gotten what they need to feel good about delivering this curriculum, which the kids love, because it's hands-on with some fidelity.
[Clerk]: Thank you.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Noah Brewer, our student rep, has a question. And Mayor, I'm back on. The question went.
[SPEAKER_18]: Noah, go ahead. So I was just wondering what the data collection process for the NWEA map looks like.
[Cushing]: Once students take the exam, there's about a 24-hour turnaround for those results to be available to teachers and to administrators. And we sort of look at how it breaks down by category. by subject area and then by strand, which is the test. I don't recall if you've taken it yet or not, but it does have a variety of subject areas. So you'll see in that one test, a little bit of life science or biology, a little bit of chemistry or physical sciences, a little bit of earth and space sciences, but the questions themselves can then be broken down and looked at with pretty good detail for each student. And we use that data, we kind of put it together and look at it by class to see what we can do to help students.
[SPEAKER_18]: So it's just like its own exam?
[Cushing]: It is its own exam, yes.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Member McLaughlin, and then Member Kreatz.
[McLaughlin]: Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Mr. Seary for the presentation. I also just wanted to ask, I really appreciate you putting on the presentation, the collaboration with other departments, specifically growing the collaboration with the EL and special education departments. And it's really great to see that. I think we talk a lot about sort of breaking down silos and working collaboratively. And I really think we need to see more of that, frankly. Um, even to be able to have the MCAS alt presentations these past two years has been super helpful. Um, but I would like to know just collectively, not just from you, but collectively, I guess, and it could, I'm sure it's a bigger question, but I would like it to be part of the presentation or follow-up is how are we addressing our achievement gaps, right? So we know that our lowest performing subgroups are our students with disabilities. Our English learners are economically disadvantaged. And so what is our achievement gap and how are we addressing it in terms of being able to bridge those gaps? I know that we have a bigger gap now, obviously with COVID and the COVID numbers, but I'm wondering how we're really thinking about this in terms of equity, which is one of our core values in terms of our whole district wide plan. So not to put you on the spot here, I know you're one of several, but I just think collectively as a team, how are we thinking about this?
[Cushing]: I can tell you from the perspective of the department and the teachers that we do discuss the subgroup data. And just as the school committee views the subgroup data in tables, the teachers get the same information. And we try to address looking, First we look at the data to understand what it's trying to inform us about, but then we also look a little bit deep. That's what the data dive is for. We look at the questions that are causing some challenges and also whether there are curricular approaches that we can use to to improve our our approaches, especially for all the different learners that we have in our classrooms and that's a really sort of broad statement. you're probably asking a bigger question as well that would be addressed. by, you know, by the central administration.
[Edouard-Vincent]: Yeah.
[Cushing]: I wanted to also just say.
[Edouard-Vincent]: that the achievement gap is incredibly important to us and we will be looking at ways to constantly improve instruction and using that data analysis cycle to go back and revisit topics where students may have had difficulty. So using data to inform instruction is going to be critically important. But I do wanna emphasize the importance of looking at our student growth data. Because students all start everyone has a starting point. So, irregardless of socioeconomic race, wherever you are, whatever your starting point is, we want you to show growth at the end of the year. So even if a student is not starting the year on grade level. they can still show a year's growth. And that's that number that was shown earlier on with the 40 to 59. That's the number where it's taking the student, especially for our students with disabilities, students that are English learners that we know that they don't have the same starting point as a general education student. if you look at their growth, you want to be able to see growth for every student. And for our students that we could say, well, they are general education students as a parent or as a member of the community, you could say, I wanna see even greater growth because they don't have some of the other barriers that could limit them at this point in time. So I do wanna say that as we look at our data and review our data, that it's critically important for all for us to also be looking at student growth percentile, and that's kind of. what I've been paying closer attention to, because it looks at each student on an individualized basis, and you can see whether growth is taking place and learning is taking place. So I just wanted to stress that piece, and I'm sure member Galusi, Ms. Galusi, Assistant Superintendent Galusi has something else to add. Thank you.
[Galusi]: No, you, you pretty much said what I was going to say, but additionally Dr Rick and Ellie and I are going to cover a district wide kind of next steps and where we go from here. And with all due respect to the Department of Education. This is a test that's administered once in a year. There has been a big disruption in the past two years. And so right now it's even more difficult to see growth. But what we're really going to be looking at, and that will be in the next meeting, is the NWEA map, because that's administered three times a year. And that's going to give us the progress monitoring and the growth that we're going to really be able to use to drill down to make sure we're supporting all of our students. We're going to talk a little bit about that at the end of the presentation. I think maybe just to be fair, if we could.
[McLaughlin]: Yeah, can I just actually follow up with one thing, Mayor, just in response?
[Lungo-Koehn]: Yes, Member McLaughlin.
[McLaughlin]: Thank you. So thank you for that. And I appreciate student growth percentiles as well. I think it's important to look at. It's important, obviously, to be positive and especially amid a pandemic and all the work that's been done. So I want to stress that I understand that as well. I also just wanted to add that I know that we all know that every student is a general education student and some students receive EL services or special education services. So we're all general students, but also just wanted to hope that even with the NWEA presentation, which is great that it's three times a year and I'll do respect to Desi as well. This is a one-time assessment annually. And part of the assessment is to look at what the achievement gap is and who is or is not achieving and what that looks like. So I guess I would just ask respectfully in presentations, if we can also, or even maybe there's another presentation, I don't know, I would defer to Central on this as well. If we can talk about what the achievement gap is and how we're actually addressing it, I think it would be really helpful. Because I think if we don't name things, then they can just be ambiguous and people don't really understand them. So I would really encourage us to think about talking about that as well. So thank you. Thank you.
[Lungo-Koehn]: So member Kreatz.
[63m6ohF-DtU_SPEAKER_07]: Thank you for the report. I just had a question because I know I've always been concerned with, you know, when your high school student got to take the exam, And if that percentage that student doesn't fall within the range, you know, that they need to be eligible to get the high school diploma. that can be very stressful. So I know it's really early on. So as part of the process, is there gonna be any planning to assist those students who didn't, are they gonna have to retake it? Will there be some assistance?
[Cushing]: So unlike some of the other exams, there's a lot of retaking in science. We try to anticipate the, the ability of students to pass an exam in science early in grade nine, that was always our mark, to get kids to pass the science exam in grade nine, and then allow them as many retakes as we can possibly get them if necessary, as we move forward. So that opportunity is still there and they get support, whether it's after school or during school through scheduling, that addresses, it's more targeted to the standards that they may have had as challenges or particular strategies that they might need to pass the exam. So there's, yeah, there's a lot of work that happens behind the scenes, I guess, to support the learners and to make sure that by the time they're in grade 12 that they've mastered or passed the exam so that they can graduate from high school.
[Jim Lister]: Thank you. Thank you very much. Appreciate it.
[Cushing]: Thank you.
[Jim Lister]: Next up we have Miss Khan. Welcome.
[lRR2dgf0NZM_SPEAKER_04]: Thank you. Good evening, everybody. Thank you for having me here. Okay, great, thank you.
[Khan]: So good evening, everybody, and thank you for having me here. The first slide that I have up is in regards to the student growth percentile. You can see that five out of six grades that are listed here or shown here basically fell within or more of typical growth One of them is even in high growth, that's our 10th grade. I'll move on to the next slide because that will give more of an insight into our meeting and exceeding expectations. So the state outperformed the district in the combined category by 7%. We don't see any SGP for third grade because the district, the state doesn't report it. There is no baseline for third grade. So we don't see it on the SGP graph. And one school outperformed the state in the combined exceeding and meeting expectations. What we have seen and I just I'm happy to see that myself in the in the math department is that when we are looking at the district percent possible points and the state percent possible points We are seeing that the district has closed the gap from previous years. And that's very much in line with what Dr. Riccardelli and Ms. Gallucci had mentioned is coming to us from the state as well. And that it started in third grade that we saw the gaps closing in. Then when we reach the fourth grade, it's basically the same thing that we see the gaps closing in, but we see a larger gap in meeting and exceeding expectations of the district versus the state. What we notice also, even though we do notice that trailing behind, is that two schools outperformed the state in the combined exceeding and meeting expectations at this grade level. At the fifth grade level, the state outperformed the district by 3% points, but the SGP at this grade level, as shown on the first slide, was right on the boundary of typical and high growth. And one school outperformed the state, Actually, it wasn't 40, it was 66.
[lRR2dgf0NZM_SPEAKER_04]: Yes. Was it 66? I'm sorry, is it 48?
[Khan]: Oh yeah, the SGP of one school was 66, but overall we had 48 SGP for the district. So the action items are pretty much as you guys approved investigations three by Turk that it being more inquiry based and discussion centered approach to math that it will be a good feeder program into our middle schools, our students at the elementary level will learn how to discuss math. how to problem solve, how to explore, rather than watching a video and just learning from the video or learning more from an I do approach of a teacher, they will be working on you do approach, where they explore the concepts. And this year, we also got a grant and we are going to be implementing ST Math as an enrichment and as a remediation tool both. Teachers are getting trained this coming Wednesday, 2 to 3.30. At the middle school level, our sixth grade trail behind by 11% altogether, even though our exceeding expectations, we were 2% above the state level. We are working on our sixth grade scores and I will go in more detail when it comes to the action items. Seventh grade, I'm extremely pleased with the seventh grade scores. We feel that the schools, one school's SGP was in high growth range and the other was on the higher end of the typical growth, which usually did not it actually was didn't used to be the case at all in the past. Seemingly, they have worked on a certain piece of curriculum more. They have moved it up in the pacing guide, and that seems to have worked for us. One school matched the state in exceeding expectations category. basically both meeting and exceeding expectations for the district was 3% off from the state. The eighth grade is where one school matched the state in meeting expectations category. When I look at the closing the gaps for the district, for the content area, for the percent possible points, I see that eighth grade is the one that has more gaps than in any other grades. Everybody else has closed the gaps. It has stayed the same, so we have some work to do in that particular grade level, so the action items for the middle schools are continue using illustrative mathematics for the standard classes and big ideas for the pre algebra algebra group. reorganizing the acceleration by teaching half of eighth grade standards in seventh and others in eighth grade, along with algebra one standards. We were teaching two grade levels in one. And this actually last year was our first year and we have had much success with it. So we will continue with that. We offered a math extended day opportunity for 10 weeks to support student needs. We feel like that made a difference at the middle school level, especially definitely at the seventh grade level. There was a four day math camp for grade six, seventh and eighth. But we do feel that the math extended day opportunity made a bigger difference. So for the math 10th grade level, the SGP for the district was 61%, not percent, I apologize, it was 61. So it barely made it above the typical growth. And that is something we are, very pleased with. For the graduation requirements, this is where it gets a little bit tricky with the DESE is that if you earn a score of 486 or higher, we see that you have met the graduation requirement, aka competency determination. Based on the scores that we have at the high school level, 61% of the district's high schoolers who achieved the partially meeting expectations met the high school graduation requirement. Even though it showed that they are only in the partially meeting category, the scores were such that they do not have to be taking, be on an EPP or the Educational Proficiency Plan. For 2022, DESE allowed those with a score of 469 to 485 to go on an EPP and not retest. And based on this, 21% of the district's 10th graders who achieved not meeting expectations do not have to retest and will be on an EPP to achieve the math high school graduation requirements. And action items for the high schools high school is review great pacing guides and modify sequencing, which is what worked for us in a couple of grades. And we want to make sure that spiral learning continues on and improving student performance. will be our goal. Grades K through five will use program specific pacing guides for program assessment purposes. And we want to continue that for the high school as well. Developing and updating the core syllabi. We did that this year to make sure we have the existing, you know, we are current with the 2017 frameworks. We'll be extending the educational opportunities through the committee recommendations, which will continue to work throughout this year. We'll be exploring options for the electives category. And we have already introduced a personal finance course, which is five credit elective. And it's mostly for the seniors this year. We ran two sections of it and both of them are all full. We are looking at introducing integrated mathematics pathways for integrated math two. We already have introduced it for integrated one. We have about 60 plus students in three sections. We will be keeping a track of the data, we'll be looking at it, we'll be analyzing it through the committee and in department meetings. We are and we will be providing additional resources to teachers so that we can have more elective courses. Some courses that we are looking at are business math and data analytics. They're supposed to be courses that are picking up And we hope to have an introduction done within the next couple of years. We would like to have the math extended day opportunity for our kids. I feel we all feel that that made a difference. And then the four day math camp that ran through the grant for grades nine through 10, if it comes back, that will be awesome as well. The action items for K through 12 are basically the emphasis needs to be and will continue to be on inquiry based problem solving. strategies because that's a life skill that our students need to have and we recognize the need for it. We wanna make sure that there's a departmental vision and mission statement that is based on the problem solving skills and development of those in our students K through 12. We will continue to research the best math practices We want to make sure that we provide our teachers with the professional development in line with the goal of the department. We are incorporating data-driven strategies through NWEA MAP growth. We continue to analyze the data and come up with action plans based on the NWEA MAP data and the MCAS data. and the two sub steps are listed below. And that's where we are at with the math department. So thank you.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you. Thank you very much. I know member McLaughlin has a question.
[McLaughlin]: Actually, I wanted to thank you, Dr. Khan for the presentation. I know you're always so thoughtful in the pieces that you do and thank everyone else there. But I also wanted to ask, if there is any intersectionality around EL curriculum and special education curriculum and the varying curriculum departments, particularly in terms of like professional development, differentiated instruction, you know, those sorts of things, how that's actually happening, or is it happening? Thank you.
[Khan]: That's right, thank you for asking that question. So our department meetings, every other meeting, we have our special education teachers, educators join us and a sampling of what takes place in those meetings and the professional development opportunities that that we provide within our department includes questioning techniques from your students, culturally responsive teaching, how to differentiate instruction, how to write your content and language objectives so that they serve your EL population and that they're also helpful to our students special education students, and so on and so forth. We have also have professional development on student centered techniques and strategies. We discuss during our department meetings what's working for our overall population, not just for the general education. students and we do a lot of peer observations and strategy implementations, discussions as well in our department meetings. And I'm happy to take further suggestions and work on them, but that's what has been going on so far in the department.
[lRR2dgf0NZM_SPEAKER_04]: Very helpful, thank you.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you, member Hays, then member Rousseau.
[Jim Lister]: Potato potato.
[Hays]: I just had a quick question about the investigation program at the elementary level. I recall the early versions of investigations that some of the criticisms were that they lacked some of that procedural like a real emphasis on that in the early math facts and things has that been. remediated or are we adding extra in to make up for what it might be lacking since it's very problem solving based and sometimes does, or at least in the past, it didn't have.
[Khan]: That's right. So investigations three has had several versions of it. This version, as far as the committee reviewed it, and that's why they choose this particular program over bridges is because one of the reasons was that It provides a good balance between the two because I definitely see the need of procedural. You know, emphasis on procedures and I also see definitely the need for inquiry based and problem solving now. When we talk about the balance it really. It depends on our student population, it depends on our educators, the professional development that's being provided to them and and so. I believe that it is providing a balance now only time will tell so we'll continue to revise it and get feedback on it from the teachers, I have already been in a couple of classrooms and it has been an awesome. awesome experience because they invited me and I saw a good balance. Now is everybody every day going to be like that? I'm not too sure. But I do see that this is one of the best that's out there in terms of providing balance.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Member Ruseau.
[Ruseau]: Thank you. I'm confused a bit on not meeting expectations. The 21% of the district's 10th graders who achieved not meeting expectations, which is a score of 469 to 485, right? Or 469 and below.
[Khan]: Yes. So if I go on, let me just move to that. Oops, right here. Yes, so either, yes, it's between 469 to 485, actually.
[Ruseau]: So for students that had a 468 and below?
[Khan]: Yes.
[Ruseau]: They're not included in the 21% of students?
[Khan]: No, they're not.
[Ruseau]: How many, what percentage of students were 468 and below? 468 or below, so we, so,
[Khan]: When we are talking about what percentage, are we talking about the overall or we can just deduct 21 from 100? And I would say that about 79% of the students who were not meeting would actually be retesting.
[Ruseau]: You're saying 79% of our 10th graders couldn't pass the math MCAS.
[Khan]: No, I'm saying 79% of those who scored 469 or below will be retesting.
[Ruseau]: But I'm asking the question of all of the student body who are 10th graders and took the MCAS test. what percentage of them must retake it because they could not get a score that the state will accept for competency under any circumstances, whether you do EPP or not? Is it one student? Is it a hundred?
[Khan]: Well, I would say that if that's, let me calculate that and I will, because I don't wanna do the math in my head and then make a mistake.
[Ruseau]: This just seems like the, this seems to me like the, the banner number. I mean, of however many 10th graders we have what like 300 and something of every case. If you told me that half of our 10th graders are not going to get a diploma. I think we should all stop talking about other things for a while. I can't tell from so I mean what I see is 21% of our 10th graders had a score that in any other year they're not getting a diploma until they retested the state has decided. We won't make you take the test again. So 21% is like 60, 70 students who normally would not get a diploma without another passing test in math, but now can simply do this EPP instead. So that's 60 or 70 kids, and I'm just making numbers up roughly. But what, I mean, I don't know whether of the 79% of the other students, what percentage of them are not meeting expectations and are below 469.
[Khan]: So a total of 294 students tested this year for 10th grade. 77 were the ones on ep 77% 77 of those do not have to take the exam at the they don't have to retest then plus another 99 plus another 27 so let's do that.
[lRR2dgf0NZM_SPEAKER_04]: hope that's not right, because that means 91 students.
[Ruseau]: didn't meet expectations to the point where they won't even get a diploma if they can't get a passing test.
[Clerk]: Oops.
[Lungo-Koehn]: No, no. Let's check that math. I think that's a little off.
[Khan]: Yeah, probably. Well, I'm doing it the other way.
[Ruseau]: Let me get back to you because I just- My next question, of course, will be is how does that compare to the state? And I mean, the ones that are not meeting expectations and will not get a diploma until they pass a test or get to the 486 plus EPP in 11th or 12th grade or something.
[Galusi]: So page 11. Page 11 in the report gives a breakdown for grade 10. so that you can see that not me the only thing that I would yes so the number will be actually 14 percent of our students did not meet expectations where it was 10 for page 11 our page 11 has
[Khan]: My report.
[Galusi]: Not in the slide deck, in the report. Page 11 has a table that shows that 14% of students, Medford students, do not meet expectations, and it was 10% of state. That was about 42 students.
[Ruseau]: And without spending all night on this, from your past experience, is that a dramatic increase or is it three times as many students or, I'm not asking for an exact number, but is it normal that there's two students and now we have 40 something students?
[Khan]: No, it's not a dramatic increase. We have seen these numbers before and that's the group that we are gonna be focusing on more, but this is not, out of the norm, which is not a huge number. You can see on 2021, it was 16% for the district and 12% for the state. So that 4% stays in that. And you can also see for 2021, it was 52 students in that category. yeah that's less is better yeah so our numbers people students who will be retesting will be definitely be lower than 42.
[Ruseau]: Okay, this not meeting expectations 42 is all. of the not meeting expectations.
[Khan]: That's right. And then you take out from this number of 42, you take out the students who got right on the boundary, which is 469, which is about nine students. So then the rest of the students.
[Ruseau]: So nine students were in the safe zone.
[Khan]: They were in the EPP zone.
[Ruseau]: Okay, the EPP zone.
[Galusi]: They don't make it easy. Thank you.
[Jim Lister]: Mayor.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Melanie, yes. Member McLaughlin.
[McLaughlin]: Thank you.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Move on to English Language Arts.
[McLaughlin]: Oh yes, we have ELA. Okay, I'll wait till ELA. Okay, thank you.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Dr. Chiesa.
[McLaughlin]: Thank you.
[Chiesa]: Good evening, everybody. Good evening, everybody. Am I on? Yes. OK. OK, so I am the last of the presenters for the subject areas. And we're going to follow a similar format to what Ms. Khan had done. So we'll begin with the student growth percentiles. I think I'll do this way. As you can see, and as you were already told, the graph on the right I'm on the student growth percentile slide. This is Ian, thank you. That has the legend of what low growth, low growth, typical growth, high growth would be. It's the same as it was for mathematics. You can see that for all grade levels, we were within what DESE has determined as the typical growth area. Of course, there were a variety school to school, but this is the overall for grades four through 10. And as Ms. Khan said, There's obviously no data for grade three because there's no comparison point. As we move into third grade, we see that our students were on par with the state in the combined exceeding and meeting expectations performance levels. There's no SGP, as I just said, for grade three, and three out of our four elementary schools were able to exceed the state's combined performance level. For grade four, Medford outperformed the state in the combined exceeding and meeting expectations performance level by three percentage points. Two out of our four elementary schools exceeded that state average by 11 percentage points, which is quite significant. And grade four's district mean SGP was 47, which is defined as typical growth by DESE. All four elementary schools had an SGP of 43 or higher, which again is within the typical growth category. Moving on to fifth grade, we had a little dip compared to the state. We were three percentage points below the state in that combined exceeding and meeting expectations performance level. The SGP was still within the typical growth as defined by DESE at 45. And the SGP for the four elementary schools which you do have in the narrative more detailed report which you received range from 42 to 51 again falling within that typical growth category. The action items for elementary I know there's a lot listed there I won't go through each one unless you'd like me to. but similar to what Mr. Seary and Ms. Kahn said, we will be actively using NWEA MAP growth, which is our diagnostic assessment to support our students in K through five. At the elementary level, we'll continue with the strong implementation of ECRI, which is for our K through two students, but obviously has the impact, lays down that foundation for all elementary grades. We will be selecting our new district elementary reading program, which I'm happy to talk more about as I go through the presentation. We'll continue with our grade level data meetings and we're hopeful to have an MCAS extended day opportunity to support literacy needs. And we will continue to work with our special education and EL staff as well to make sure that we're supporting all of our groups of students. Moving on to our middle school. We had a dip in sixth grade, which we definitely have to look at and do some work with. So we were 10 percentage points below the state for grade six. We were still within the mean SGP for typical growth, but obviously we wanna be on par and ideally exceeding the state, which we have done in years past in grade six. So some work to do there. Grade seven. was where our seventh graders scored seven percentage points above the state. It was significant growth to years past, although we try not to compare too much to 21, given that this was a full year test and 2021 was half year test. The mean SGP was 53. I'd like to point out that at the Andrews, the mean SGP was 60, which fell within the high growth range. And the McGlynn stayed strong at 46 for typical growth range as well. So we ended overall with typical growth in grade seven, and we were able to outperform the state in that category, in that combined category. Grade eight trailed six percentage points in exceeding and meeting expectations. We still had a strong SGP of typical growth within 48. and both schools did attain typical growth with 51 at the McGlynn and 44 at the Andrews. For action items at the middle school, we are, again, extensively going to use the NWEA map growth. We are going to be able to look at the students. We have literacy tier two support staff, one at the Andrews, one at the McGlynn, So this data will help keep us informed on the needs, the varying literacy needs of our students. Because as we know, there are a lot of different literacy demands on our students. Each teacher receives specific data related to their own classrooms. They have the opportunity to look at how their students grew or didn't grow as much in the past. And that helps us reflect on what curriculum and or instructional shifts we'll need to make. They also have the opportunity to look at the students they currently have. That takes a little bit of time. Desi doesn't give us this pretty report and says, here's the students you have now and here's their scores. But I think it's extremely important to reflect on the year before, but also the students in front of you. So I do create data drives so that the teachers will have that information. And we will look at that in department meetings throughout the year. We have We definitely have Newsella implemented, which allows for students to access informational information, which we know is very important in the ELA test. Newsella helps students access informational pieces within their own Lexile levels. And we will continue to refine our curriculum. And again, of course, always working with our special education and English learner administrators, teachers, staff, to make sure we are engaging in a cohesive effort to support all of our students. Let's see, at the 10th grade level, the district's 10th grade across the district trailed the state by six percentage points. The district met the state average in exceeding expectations, but fell six percentage points below from meeting expectations. and the grade 10 mean SGP held strong at 54 within the higher end of typical growth. Touching upon what Ms. Khan just talked about and what Mr. Russo, what member Ruseau asked about was competency determination. So what's interesting is the state has decided to label our students as partially meeting expectations. So if we go back to that grade 10 slide for just one moment, we see that 34% of the district's 10th graders partially met expectations, which in previous years has meant that those students go on an EPP. However, the state has made a shift and they have said, if you get a 472 or higher, and 472 to 499 is within that partially meeting range. So if you get a 472 or higher, you're done, you've passed the MCAS. So you've met the competency determination rate, but we're still putting you in the partially meeting expectations, which is difficult to understand. I will say that the Department of Education sends a nice cover letter to explain this to parents as well. But for us, just thinking about that, you know, I think it's something important to point out. Now, what does this mean for Medford? So within our partially meeting expectations group, and I could pull this out for our high schoolers. So the numbers aren't, you know, the first number is the district. So includes out of district, it includes everybody. But within our high school, we have 94% of partially meeting expectations who met the competency determination graduation requirement. That means that within that partially meeting range, only two students will go on an EPP, or thereabouts, you know, thereabouts. Similarly, in the past, if you got not meeting expectations, you automatically retest it. The state has also changed that. They're saying if you have a 455, to a 471, you can go on an EPP to meet the competency determination graduation requirement. That leaves us with a very small number of students at our high school level that need to retest in order to achieve the competency determination. I point that out because it confused me a little bit as well. If I see partially meeting expectations, I assume that there has to be more to meet the graduation requirement, but the state has made these changes. Action items for the high school level. The use, again, we're looking really closely at the NWEA diagnostic tool that is given to our ninth and our 10th graders. We're able to use that data to place students in what we call literacy challenge classes, which are tier two classes that meet two out of the six cycles, not graded, to help support their literacy needs. Similarly to the middle and the high school, excuse me, to the middle school, we try to provide as much data as possible. I do want to keep in mind that the 10th graders, our current juniors, the 10th graders who took this test, the last time they took the MCAS was when they were in seventh grade. So when we're looking at that data, the teachers have to keep that in mind that it's been three years since they had tested. So comparisons are a little tricky. But we definitely make sure that the teachers have data of the students in front of them, which would mean their grade eight tests, which they did take, and the data of their former students as well. From there, we can look. We can say, did they fall short in informational understanding and main idea and vocab? And we start to make some changes based on the sequencing. That concludes. I hope I didn't talk too quickly. When I go last, sometimes I go a little more quickly than normal, but I'm happy to answer the questions that you have.
[lRR2dgf0NZM_SPEAKER_04]: Thank you.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Member Hays, then Member McLaughlin.
[Hays]: Hi, I have a question about looking at the anchor strand analysis, which I know you don't talk about at this point, but we had it in our binder. And one thing that stood out to me is that our lowest scores pretty much by far are in any question that involves writing, whether it was an actual essay or constructed response, they call it, or, you know, and to be fair, it matched the state really that that's true for the state too. But I'm wondering for our district, what are we doing to really focus? I mean, we should focus on all of reading obviously, but clearly that's a, difficulty for our kids. And actually, if you could also explain to me, what does production and distribution of writing refer to?
[Chiesa]: It's funny you ask that, because I thought that might be a question that the group asked, because it's a little funny. So can I start with that one, and then go back to your question? Production and distribution of writing falls within the English language arts standards. And it has three different pieces that fall under it, two of which can't really be tested on. One is, can use technology to produce writing, that's not gonna be something we see presented in the MCAS. Another one was able to publish work. We're not really gonna see that as a percentage in here. What production and distribution of writing is for the MCAS is about how are you organizing your ideas? How are you setting up your body paragraphs, your intro, your conclusion to create some structure within there? That's what production and distribution of writing means on the MCAS. If we think about it more in the English classroom, it's going to mean a little bit more beyond that. With writing, you know, I saw that it varied. It did hit the state. It did hit or surpass the state in some grades. It did fall below the state in other grades. What we try to do, what we've seen with the writing on the MCAS over the past few years is that we've realized that writing is now defined as writing in response to reading. So no longer is it, they used to in fourth and seventh grade have the writing test and it would, you know, allow you to have some creativity within your writing, expand on your ideas a little bit more. Now the writing is usually, we don't know which one we're going to get, but it's usually a narrative, which means that not, but not a personal narrative. It says, take the story and retell what you just read in a different point of view. or continue the story, but you have to have fidelity to the original story. And I think that where we have a lot of creative students, I still think that, you know, I love creative writing. So, you know, I think, you know, our tendency would be to go that route. So we do have to work with the students to, um, use the way the state has defined narrative writing. So that's, that's something that we've, that's been a shift and that's something we're working on. I think the other challenge with writing, and again, I do think, you know, some grades we dipped that seem to be in grades where we dipped in other areas as well. So it seemed kind of consistent to me across the board, but the other area of writing that is definitely a struggle for some of our students is most of the passages, even the fourth grade passage that they allowed published online, asks you to not just write about one piece of writing, you're reading, it gives you two passages and it forces you to write about both. So if there's a question about explain how the use of recycling is important as evidenced by both texts, the students have to pull information from both excerpts. And if they don't, they automatically lose points. So they have to understand what they're reading, which is a huge part because they can't write what they're reading about. And we are definitely our assessments are definitely doing that within the classroom to prepare them. But I still think it's a challenge to navigate three sometimes hard reading passages, and then to have to write about all three of them and be penalized without so something we're still continuing to work on. I don't know if that explains some of the changes we've seen over the past couple of years with the MCASA.
[Hays]: Yeah, thank you.
[Chiesa]: Thank you.
[Hays]: That makes a huge difference in what kids can do. It's a completely different task than writing a, used to just be the essay. That's what I was used to seeing.
[Chiesa]: I know. And it's not always a change that we love because we do like creative writing and we do have our students engage in it, but the way we sequence our writing, we have to, you know, have that fall at a different time of year for the students so that they are prepared for this.
[lRR2dgf0NZM_SPEAKER_04]: Thank you.
[Chiesa]: Thank you.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you. Member McLaughlin.
[lRR2dgf0NZM_SPEAKER_04]: Thank you. Thank you for the presentation, Dr. Chiesa.
[McLaughlin]: Um, I was wondering if you had same going back to do the chair what number was so was saying earlier just about, you know, the number percentage wise and I apologize. I'm actually not in a position where I have my, my book in front of me. But if there's a number that has sort of what is the 10th grade rate of students that did not meet expectations on the exam. And then I guess getting back to the other curriculum pieces as well, and this is what I was getting to earlier, is that disaggregated by demographics of who is not meeting expectations? You know, I just want to sort of look at, is there, you know, are we talking about, you know, trauma informed schools? Are we talking about, you know, more, of one population than the other, I don't know. So I guess it's two questions in there. How many students, if you broke down your percentage, for 10th grade did not meet expectations? In other words, i.e., unless they test and pass again, would not get a diploma. And is that then disaggregated further in terms of the demographic?
[Chiesa]: So I think you're hitting upon, Member McLaughlin, conundrum that we're seeing this year with the percentages and the numbers. If I look at the, sorry, if I look at Medford's data for 10th grade, 13% of our district did not meet expectations. However, in a normal year, that would mean that those students must retest. Now the state has said a 455, which falls within not meeting expectations or higher just simply has to go on an EPP, doesn't have to retest, goes on the EPP, and then meets the competency determination. When I pull out what that means in terms of the number of students who have to retest, that leaves us with a very small number, below five that need to retest within our high school. which is positive news. But of course we wanna be in the meeting and exceeding, but that hopefully gives you a sense without being too specific given the smaller, I don't wanna be too specific given the smaller number of students. And I, okay, I'm not exactly sure on if we pulled out what that small number of students looks like in terms of subgroups. I'm not sure if that's what you're asking. I don't have that information at the time. I have the subgroup information within the packet but that is a little bit more holistic.
[McLaughlin]: Right, and since the numbers are different as an odd year, maybe the data next year would be better in terms of knowing what the disaggregated data is. Correct.
[Chiesa]: And the class of 2026 will be crystal clear as you can see from that slide 49 too.
[McLaughlin]: Okay, thank you.
[Chiesa]: Thank you.
[Hays]: Member Hays. One more question. Yes. Has it been implemented across the board now? I know that you mentioned that as one of the action items. Is it in every classroom now?
[Chiesa]: K through two. Yes, it's in K through two. Okay. Ms. Galussi has worked very hard on making sure that the professional development with Hill for Literacy has been there every step of the way so that the teachers felt really supported. And the initial data from NWEA shows growth in phonics, but I know we're not talking about that tonight, Certainly it is implemented K one and two at this point. Okay, thank you. Did you want to add anything?
[Galusi]: I think the only thing I would add is that it was fully implemented last year as well. So this is we're now going on year two. Yeah. Great. Thank you all for a great presentation. Thank you.
[Edouard-Vincent]: Thank you everyone.
[Chiesa]: I think that they have a little bit more time.
[Galusi]: We'll go really quickly. Sorry. Just the last, Dr. Riccardelli and I, the last three slides just talk overall, which I know that all of the curriculum directors spoke about. I think the only thing that we would just high level, because presentation, would just be that to recap a little bit, our focus here at the public schools has always been on the whole child throughout the pandemic. And so that balance of making sure that students social emotional needs are met will also increase their academic outcomes. We had a lot of responses to make sure that that balance was there for students in terms of the responsive classroom and Nexus and Camp Mustang. So the list of things that we've done to help mitigate that learning loss to meet their social emotional needs will continue for next year. And then all of the curriculum directors spoke, we've had questions about the NWEA, but that is the progress monitoring piece just to remind you that is three times a year, so that that allows for the progress monitoring so that we can triangulate that data. One of the things we are doing is having the data teams to talk about that. The curriculum directors are doing with their departments, but principals are also doing it with their staff. So that between the MCAS data, as well as the NWBA data, we're able to have data team meetings for progress monitoring, bring in the SST or the student supports plans, if need be, in order to create the supports that students need to make growth.
[Ricciardelli]: So, so as we as we move forward. We've talked a lot about what we're going to do. We reflected back on our strategic plan. So our strategic plan is our map forward that we can we constructed a couple of years ago we did not forget it. It provides. A roadmap. So in looking at that we. It's taken right out of the strategic plan is to support instruction that focuses in on evidence based responses productive struggle academic discourse access for all in feedback. So standard two, when it comes to evaluating teachers is instruction. So along with that instruction, we are providing professional development, the focus in on those areas. So we want to enhance faculty understanding on how these five core actions apply to the various content areas. We want to support a classroom culture of productive struggle and academic discourse. So by productive struggle, we're talking about that instruction that makes students reach, that it's not right there, but it's not so far away that they get frustrated. And that's a zone, a zone of proximal development that is different for every student. So that's where the differentiated instruction comes in. written and conversational evidence based responses by students, along with progressive and supported targeted feedback by educators. So we're really looking for our teachers to give significant strategic feedback to students. to provide supportive and targeted feedback to instructional staff, consistent with district-sponsored supervision and evaluation, which is a two-year professional development program that our administrators have been going through. So not only do we want our teachers providing strategic feedback to our students, we want our administrators, including myself and my colleagues, to give that targeted feedback to teachers and other staff. We want to expand opportunities for peer observation through learning walks. If you remember, the superintendent started the work learning walks a few years ago, it's been on a hiatus for obvious reasons, but we do want to bring that back in a robust manner. We talked a little bit last time I was here, at least about the enhancement of our district's new educator mentoring and induction program, specifically for our newest staff. So we're hoping with the targeted feedback, with the focus on providing instruction that is, you know, a reach for student, but not so far of a reach that it's frustrating, along with support for them and our staff, we will be able to move forward in a positive way in our three MCAS tested subject areas. Thank you.
[Hays]: Amber Hayes. Hi, thanks. I just had a general question, and this is why I waited until the end. Looking at the data, when you do disaggregate by school, and I've only gotten so far at this point of doing elementary ELA, but there is a trend when you look back through the years of certain schools having higher scores than others, and it seems to mirror needs of the population in those schools. So I'm curious about how that figures into your, you know, your data dives and what you're talking about and how you determine then equitable distribution of resources. You know how you level the playing field for those who are starting maybe with less.
[Galusi]: I think first, I would probably speak to part of the shift to the data is that's something that we're still kind of honing that practice in terms of like the data teams. The trend, so three of our four elementary schools qualify for Title I services. And so that is, so the two schools with the neediest population, require the more support in that area. So they have more staff put towards servicing students in those areas. I think as Dr. Riccadeli spoke to it, the need for the support is there, but there also is still the need for like the continued professional development and the focus on standard two, because the tier one piece is, really a big focus of where we're going right now, because the standard one is professional knowledge, and that piece I think is there, but the standard two of teaching all students and meeting students where they're at is the piece that is our continued work, so that we're also focusing, because for the standard two and meeting students where they're at, ensuring that we're meeting the needs of all of our students, that's general education students, that's our subgroups, that's the supports we're talking about globally and across schools, across grade levels, and across the district, and the enhancement of the professional development, the student support teams, the SSTs, the data dives, all of that is the work that we're putting in place right now so that we have clear student support plans that are going to meet those needs and then also uncover if there are other layers of support that we can add to those buildings that are going to be beneficial and meaningful.
[Hays]: Yeah I guess I would hesitate to um a classroom teacher can only do so much if they've got a lot of needs in their classroom and they can be a wonderful great teacher who does all the things that a teacher needs to do to meet the needs of their students. But if you've got more of those needs in your classroom, it's just going to be harder. And so that's what I mean, I guess, in terms of looking how we spread out our supports. So I'm just hoping that's a part of that. We've got limited resources, but it's just a question of, are we using them? When I look at the data and I see that we're really not leveling very much, at least as far as I can see from the data. between the schools and, you know, how we try to do that when we're, you know, our focus is on equity and are we looking at how to, how we use our resources equitably?
[Galusi]: We are, we are. But I think that's part of something that is not going to be done overnight. That's part of the, the partnership here between Dr. Rigodelli and myself in doing, and with Joan Bowen and Paul Texera and having looking at the data and having those meetings to see where the supports are needed. That is definitely a part of the conversation. Yes. Mayor?
[Graham]: Member McLaughlin?
[McLaughlin]: Yes, thank you. Thank you for the overall summation. I would love to, there was, I had a couple of questions. One was on the second page. I think there was a listing of items that were being done and one of them was advisories. And I was wondering if you could elaborate on what the advisories are, like what is that?
[Ricciardelli]: So the advisories at the high school, Oh, okay. All right.
[Galusi]: I'm advisories at the high school.
[Ricciardelli]: Yeah, I think that that it says advisories. I know what she's talking about. So, um, You know, I'm trying to think of the frequencies of the advisories. I believe they're every two weeks at the high school. There are different topics that are brought up. They focus mainly on social emotional needs of the students at the high school. I don't remember what the last topic was at the last advisory, which I believe was the last week. So I guess I have limited time. information on that.
[McLaughlin]: What are they? I don't understand what the advisories are.
[Ricciardelli]: So they are. So it's a time built into the high school schedule. It's approximately every two weeks, where I believe it's 30 minutes. The advisory teacher, which is also known as the homeroom teacher, will engage students in different activities focused around could be social-emotional health, it'd be some presentation that the high school administration is putting on, but it's to provide a more well-rounded opportunity for students. So it's not focused in academics, it's focused on other, again, social-emotional wellbeing enhancement.
[Edouard-Vincent]: The advisories work collaboratively with Miss Stacey Shulman. So, sometimes the her team, the guidance team and others are also deeply involved in what happens during advisory blocks. So it is definitely a self focus at the high school level, I can't say it's the exact equivalent of a nexus but if you were trying to you know, make a connection, I would say it's the high school version of Nexus that takes place like twice a month or something like that.
[McLaughlin]: Thank you. And then getting back to, again, through the chair, member Hays' point, and this is sort of what I've been saying throughout the presentations tonight around the demographic piece and really looking at, you know, teasing out the data in terms of what we're seeing on paper as well as we're talking about equity, because there are some schools who regularly score higher than other schools. And we all know that that's not because the students at a particular school or the teachers at a particular school are smarter or else than the other schools. There's reasons for that. And I think we need to dig into what are the reasons for that and how are we equitably looking at our schools so that all of our students and all of our teachers are being, you know, equitably represented. And so to that end, I was also wondering, I know you guys are, you know, always plan exceptional and professional development. I know there was discussion around using experts that are already within the district for professional development. And I had seen at some point a spreadsheet on what professional development is offered sort of annually. And I'm wondering if there's an opportunity for the school committee to see that as well so that we can be informed as we're looking at the MCAS reports and the governance sort of overall of the district, how the professional development is lending itself to the equitable piece as well. And in terms of resources for teachers and how we're using expertise within the district. So is there a spreadsheet or list that can be shared with school committee in terms of what special, what professional development is being offered?
[Galusi]: Yes, we can compile that list. Some of them were highlighted in this presentation this evening. Again, it will be reiterated as we present the NWEA map results in terms of our focus. I do think it's important to note that in part of the restructuring that the superintendent did over the summer, and Dr. Riccadeli and I Working even more closely, one of the structures that we are implementing starting this year is having those leveled conversations with building principals. So that we're going out once a month to meet with the middle school principals to meet with the high school principals to have some of these conversations about data and using the data to inform instruction. and what they're doing in their buildings to build those support systems and how they're working with their teachers. So that's something that we're starting this year and will be ongoing. And that is an opportunity exactly created for what you're speaking about member McLaughlin, so that we'll be able to have those really deep conversations about supporting all of our students.
[McLaughlin]: Thank you. And yeah, I think it's about diversifying as well. So I appreciate that. And I know that there's a commitment to equity, as you know, part of the bigger plan. So I'm excited about what the future holds for us in that realm. And I also just sort of wanted to ask, yeah, I appreciate the product, the professional development, as well, just so we can understand sort of how Again, the cultural competency just all the stuff that we're talking about how that's actually being applied so we can see, you know, because the governance does sort of go hand in hand with how that how that looks and what that you know what that is working and I just also wanted to add that when we're talking about populations and the differing populations in our school. that, you know, we're talking about our vulnerable populations. Right. And so we talk often about what equity is. And it's not that everybody gets the same. It's that individuals get what they need. Right. Everybody gets what they need. Some people need more. Some people need less based on what their backgrounds are based on what you know where they're at. And so I think I don't necessarily wanna classify or categorize our students as the neediest students. I wanna ensure that we're saying that our students can be more vulnerable in varying situations. So we wanna make sure that there's a big difference in terms, and words matter, right? There's a big difference in terms of looking at people as needy, as opposed to people that have different learning styles and that have additional resources or what have you. that are vulnerable. So I would prefer, you know, that we're talking about vulnerable as opposed to neediest. But I just wanted to put that out there as well, because I think that that words matter.
[lRR2dgf0NZM_SPEAKER_04]: Thank you. Member Mistel.
[Mustone]: Thank you. Thank you everybody for all the presentation. I do feel like I'm kind of in a time warp because it was probably more than five years ago, or maybe just about, I don't think many people in this room were there then. There was a concern with MCAS that the Brooks had nailed it in every area, in every grade, in every subject, and unfortunately other schools did not. And what came up was Title I, the three schools had Title I, but the Brooks still had a reading specialist that did the work of Title I, but wasn't paid for by Title I. At the Roberts, I know firsthand, oh, I can figure it out, because Quinn was in second grade, and now she's a sophomore in college. So that's how long ago it was. So she tested for Title I. Unfortunately, she was not the lowest of the seven that made it to Title I. So her teacher said, unfortunately, she's not the lowest of the seven. You're right, she definitely has a reading hiccup. So I said, so if she was in another class or another school, she might have been the lowest of the seven, depending who her peers were. So I think, and tell me if I'm not saying what people are thinking, but I think that's where the concern is like we have schools that have much greater need, but they still have the same staff as the Brooks who's doing great. So I think that's where the frustrations coming from like shouldn't we put the support for the school that might have 14 kids who really need title one but only seven of them are eligible.
[Galusi]: So that's a great question. First, there is a mathematical way in which I have to put the supports based on the grant. So first, and of course, again, it's supplement, not supplant. So if I take where you just mentioned the Roberts, the Roberts has one Title I teacher, two remedial reading. The Brooks has two reading. not associated with title one and then the needs increased so the staff increases across the district. One of the shifts we've done during the pandemic is we're no longer using that ratio in order to determine students eligibility for receiving those tier two services. That's great. Because just like that calculation where it used to be the lowest six students. Right. And so what we're doing is we're looking at the student need across grade levels. And so the lowest percentage of students We're assessing those students for their eligibility to receive the services. That way we're able to really service the students that require it the most. And again, also, I know I've said it but I'm just going to echo it again, or punctuated because of member McLaughlin statement is that. The tier two services need to be there to support 100%. That's one of the things that I'm looking at. But there also still is a need for the tier one, which is what is happening in the classroom, and what may be missed opportunities or what can we do to enhance like the, the tier one instruction to make sure that all teachers have what they need in order to meet their students needs within the classroom. Because sometimes if you do look at the data, sometimes there are blips in where it's not necessarily a school with the most vulnerable where we see a dip. And so we have to look at that data too, because, oh, there might be something going on. this school at this particular grade level.
[Mustone]: And right, we have math. Remember what the yeah, the teacher had been out and then the replacement was out.
[Galusi]: And then yeah, there's a lot of variables. It's not that that's just my only point. But I don't know, I probably got a little off track.
[Mustone]: But no, but it's a good conversation.
[Galusi]: Yep. To be continued because that's one of the things that we're looking at right now. And I think it's also a dance in terms of, so last year, the McGlynn Elementary was, per the data, the school that required the most services. And now for this school year, it's back being the Mississauga.
[Mustone]: That's good news too.
[Galusi]: So both of those schools are the two that need the greater assistance.
[Mustone]: You said they're back? Sorry, I thought you meant they increased their numbers.
[Galusi]: No, meaning that now this year, I'm sorry if I was not clear. This year, the MSITUC, in terms of state data, is the school in which required, has the most need, yes.
[Mustone]: So more support should go there.
[Galusi]: Yes.
[Mustone]: Great.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Mayor?
[Hays]: Yes, yes. Sharon, you're mic'd. Sorry, I just asked if you are able to actually shift the supports depending on, as you just said, if one school needs more than the other, but the next year it's a different school, you're able to shift the supports around like that? Thank you.
[Graham]: Member McLaughlin.
[McLaughlin]: Thank you. And I just wanted to punctuate to the demographic piece of it. So I think it's really important that we're looking at certainly the tier one, two, and three. But I think, and again, I think that this is a very important conversation and one that needs to be ongoing and continued. And I just want to punctuate again, the demographic piece. I'm really looking at, you know, which populations are at which schools and how does that affect, you know, the outcomes in our scores. So thank you. Thanks for the report.
[Graham]: And if I may, I just have one question or maybe a comment associated with this whole conversation, which is that the introduction of MAP really gives us actionable data in real time that MCAS doesn't. So I'm hoping that at budget time, you will be able to tell us based on what we have seen through MAP, this is how many kids require extra support, and this is how many people are needed to provide that extra support, and that the budget ask is commiserate with the number of students who have the need based on the data. So I'm hoping that that is where we're headed, that it's sort of viewable to all the rest of us that these shifts are happening, and really that the data is informing the budget. Is that in the plan?
[lRR2dgf0NZM_SPEAKER_04]: Yes.
[Graham]: Good. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Thank you.
[Edouard-Vincent]: Thank you.
[Mustone]: Do you want me to read? Yeah. Okay. You want to go home?
[Graham]: Okay, item number seven continued business. We don't have any. And item number eight new business selection of the school committee representative for the health education curriculum analysis team that he cat Dr. Cushing.
[lRR2dgf0NZM_SPEAKER_04]: Good evening.
[Cushing]: So as presented at the last meeting, we are simply looking for your nomination of a person to serve about four, four hours a month, approximately two meetings per month through the remainder of the year as we move through the heat path. So looking for your nomination, the request for other members of the community will be going out on Wednesday of this week. seeking to fill in the boxes that were shared with you on the graphic previously. So we'll be opening up to the wider community just later this week.
[Mustone]: Are the meetings in person at the high school?
[Cushing]: We're going to offer a hybrid model. It just seems right given where society has moved. And hopefully we'll get greater participation for people who might not be able to make it out of work. And then we'll be able to have both the in-person and the hybrid as well. Thank you.
[Ruseau]: Member Ruseau? Yes, I'd like to express interest. Sex ed was the health curriculum was one of the very first things that I met. Actually, I met with the administration prior to even being sworn in. And I won't say I've read every page of the Michigan model because the binder was like, six inches tall, but this has been a major concern and interest of mine. I had to send my own children off to the OWL program because frankly, we're not doing it. So I have a lot of interest in this topic. So I just want everybody to know that I'm interested.
[Graham]: Member McLaughlin.
[McLaughlin]: Thank you. Yeah, I also wanted to express interest, but also just to share that, you know, I'm okay, and I appreciate member, through the chair, member Rousseau, through the vice chair, member Rousseau's longstanding interest as well. And I've reached out to Dr. Cushing just to be really clear that we are, that there is at least a representative that is addressing the English language and special education need in this realm. and how the health curriculum will be adapted for those populations. If it's not, you know, me as a school committee member or, you know, in that realm or what have you, I wanna make sure that there's somebody in the community, whether it's a CPAC representative, another parent or, you know, expert, special education, somebody, an EL, somebody, so that we're really thinking about, particularly around, you know, our students in access classrooms and in connections classrooms, so students with ASDs, students with intellectual developmental disabilities, how are we going to be presenting this information to them as well?
[Ruseau]: Member Ruseau? I just have one question. I was reviewing the HECAT assessment tool. That's part of the word, it's like the system system. Anyways, and I was noticing that there is nothing in there that I could find referencing English learners or special ed, and maybe I'm not looking in the right place. But when I do searches on those words, I kind of come up empty, and that surprised me. So I'm just wondering if you know much more about it, and you can tell me. It's a separate section, and I'm not looking in the right place.
[Cushing]: No, so I mean, I can't specifically address it. I do know that the heat cap is published by the CDC. The CDC, as a federal government agency, does, you know, pay homage to all 50 states. And so some things may not have been included. However, given where we are, both as Medford, Massachusetts and the Metropolitan Public Schools, EL and special education will not be overlooked. And we will look to actively seek out members of those communities to help us with that. Great, thank you.
[Graham]: I'd like to make a motion to nominate member Rousseau for the committee. Motion to nominate member Rousseau by member Graham, seconded by member Stone. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Motion passes. Congratulations. Thank you members of the committee. Okay, the next step, we have a number of policies that have been put forward. And as a reminder, under our rules, we read policy changes twice before they are formally approved. So these are all first reading. So I will give Mayor a break for tonight and read these policies.
[Ruseau]: I have a man. Yep. So I just want to give a little background on there's a lot of policies here. And I was joking with I believe the mayor and the superintendent that this was just a half an hour of work in the morning for me to come up with this many policies, we have easily a couple of hundred policies that we must adopt that we just haven't adopted through the decades. And so we receive, I believe all of us probably received the once or twice a year policy updates from our professional association, where they list a long list of policies that have been updated, whether the law has changed or whether there's been some rolling in a court somewhere. Or the policy is simply written in the 1950s and they realized they needed to update it. So we get this list, once or twice a year, and it just lists the policies and tells us, here's the new suggested policy. And many of the policies in that list are Almost all of those policies are changes amendments suggested improvements to language. But what I'm finding often is that Medford never adopted the policy in the first place. So when I submit these to the, to the agenda. I put at the beginning. you know, if we just look at the first one, it's, you know, will be adopted as new policy, which means that we have don't have the policy at the moment. And when it's an update, I just usually say it's an update or a replacement. Sometimes it's easier to just do whole language replacement rather than strike this line, strike this line. So these policies that are in this agenda are I won't say the verbatim from the policy manual, because sometimes they'll say things like, insert your name of your school committee here. But there's nothing that has been edited to reflect Medford specifically, other than perhaps changing the name. The one exception is that sometimes the policy will say, if you're a regional school district, do this, but we're not a regional school district, so that's not included. But I want everybody to know that these are the, standard policies that come from our template system from the Massachusetts Association of School Committees. And that's why I'm putting them forward. And I'm more than willing to make a motion to waive the readings, although I don't know what everybody thinks on this particular set of policies is all finance and dry, no offense to Mr. Murphy. So just some background.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Motion to waive the first. with an explanation.
[Graham]: Sure, so item 2022-44, policy DK, payment procedures will be adopted as new policy based on the Mass. Association of School Committees for September 2022. There's a motion to waive the reading on the floor. Second. Member McLaughlin. All those in favor? Aye. Okay, the reading is waived. Is there a motion to approve?
[lRR2dgf0NZM_SPEAKER_04]: Motion to approve.
[Graham]: Motion to approve by member McLaughlin, seconded by member Kreatz. All those in favor, oh. Yes, sure.
[Ruseau]: Absolutely.
[Graham]: So before we vote, is there something Mr. Murphy you'd like to add on this one or are you wanting to make a more global statement?
[Murphy]: I do need some clarity. And I think as Mr. Rousseau said, most of these are strictly procedural matters that over the years, the Massachusetts Association of School Committees have just recommended that committees adopt in order to maintain practices consistent with the law. And I think there are four financial control policies that are here, and three of the four are sort of blatantly obvious things that we already do. I think one says we have to keep the manual in my office, which I think was probably authored at the time before all the manuals were put online. I assure you we have access to that and a variety of other manuals. The, the budget transfer policy is the, the, the one that I would like some clarity as as from the committee as to whether or not there's an intention for a change in practice of any kind because different committees and different school departments can define a budget control center. differently. And so the exact application of that policy in Medford could be different from where it might be in a different district. I'm sure there's an intended model, but I know that the practice varies considerably, which is why in some committees, excuse me, in some communities, the school committee can spend a significant amount of time walking through each line item that occasionally needs to be transferred. And Where I would, I would be inclined as most finance administrators would to recommend against that level of specification. For a couple of reasons, your time and the time of the community is is one reason but the second reason is that. I find that what often happens between an administration and a school committee, that if the policy becomes too burdensome, then the administration is inclined to just structure the budget in a way that is different, that avoids the policy, essentially. Now, the committee, obviously, as the body approving the budget, can then push back on that. But I think it leads to sort of needless tension. And while I, as I said, the past two budget cycles, And we sort of made some progress in this this past spring but haven't really reached completion on it yet. I think that the district would be well served with a more transparent and a slightly altered organization of the budget, and more, the resources are being spent in schools and so I think the school budgets should reflect that. But that migration is a process heavy migration. And what I don't want, if we're able to make further progress on that in terms of having a more transparent budget process, and frankly, the conversation tonight around how the resources are allocated at schools, I think sort of speak to this issue. I don't want our change in that organizational process to run into this change in policy in a way that either surprises the committee or makes it impossible for the administration to do our job. So other than that, having a grants manual making sure that we follow procurement procedures, all of those things, I think I would agree with the summary that this is not really earth shattering changes, but the budget transfer one, I think would be one that I would probably recommend we spend a little more time on so we can clearly articulate and make sure that we're acting consistent with your expectations, but also acting in a way that we can actually facilitate the work of the district.
[Ruseau]: Member Ruseau. Thank you. That's actually the most interesting one to me as well. As you know, I go to virtually every training MASC offers and I get looks of shock when I mentioned that we have never approved a budget transfer from everybody in the room. It's worth noting it's a self-selecting group of school committee members that goes there, that is obviously interested in policies and procedures. So in fact, I don't take that to mean that the whole state, everybody does it this way. But when I think about this particular one about the budget transfer authority, I think about a scenario like this, and I don't mean to imply this is happening here, but the school committee has priorities. We set a budget, we wanna spend, I don't know, $800,000 on staff for something. then those people don't get hired, whether because they don't exist or because nobody's pushing to try and find the staff, because the administration doesn't agree necessarily, that's how we should be spending our $800,000. Six months, nine months into the school year, there's $800,000 of unspent money. You all spend it on what you think is important and want it to be spent on. And in the current setup, you can do that, none of us will ever know. It's not about trust, because I do trust you and the superintendent here. It's just this sense that with no budget transfer happening in this committee in the four and a half years I've been on, that you could be squirreling away millions of dollars of staff that you're not hiring, because you don't think we should be hiring that way. And we've all said that at the budget time. And the end of the year comes and you're doing your, your magic to finalize the year. And there's that money that didn't get spent, which happens every year, because you can't find staff that you really want. And we're none the wiser. We're just like, we wanted this to happen. You can say we couldn't find the staff or we didn't hire the staff. And that money got spent some other way that you wanted that we didn't want. So I want to know what the middle, but I've also heard at these conference sessions, that some school committees and they're in town meeting town in places with town meetings, where there's a thousand different budget categories and every nickel has to be coming before somebody for votes. And it's like, they're like, nobody wants that. Nor does anyone want to work there often, but so, I mean, I think it does sound like perhaps a conversation is a good idea to try and find where's there a middle ground, because I think we should be doing some budget transfers and less hard budget. is so flawless that you can execute, and there's no need to move money around. But I've never heard that.
[Murphy]: No, in fact, I would say, Mr. So it's the opposite in that I agree with you that there has to be no for purposes of transparency, some degree of at least quarterly. And at a minimum, a notification process is required, right? Now, One of the conversations I think should be what are we obligated to notify the committee of and what are we obligated to come to the committee and seek permission for, because number one by notifying you as the governing body with the authority to over whatever we do, we're inviting you the opportunity to tell us like, thanks for the notification you're not doing that anymore. Right. So, I think that's in, given how quickly some of the decisions have to be made for efficiency purposes. as a typical administrator, I would lean toward like the notification requirement versus the permission seeking requirement, because ultimately you're giving us permission when you approve the budget in the previous spring. To Mr. Rousseau's point, variables change from the spring until the next spring, and you have a responsibility to be informed about them, and we have a responsibility to share that information with you. That's why we have, at least in the last two years, given at least quarterly updates on the budget. The only reason you haven't received quarterly update from the budget for the first quarter of this year is the budget just changed dramatically with the agreement of a variety of MOAs. And so I think it only made sense to get the labor piece and those variables settled before we moved on to updating you on how the budget is being spent. So I think frequency, permission versus notification are things that we need to discuss. I think the scope of the costs of the control centers is a critical variable that we have to identify. And I think we can achieve all those things. I concur wholeheartedly that we have a responsibility to be discussing this information and seeking your input. But it is one that it can very, inadvertently become just from a mechanical perspective, all we do in this forum and I think I think there's a shared interest in avoiding that, if possible, so I would just ask that we continue that conversation and I think last thing I'll say, part of why this, the sort of. The authority piece is not a topic that I've broached previously in the last two years is, as I said, I don't think the budget is structured right now in the way that it should be from a transparency perspective. And I didn't really want to get into advising you on budget transfers, when we're transferring to control centers that may or may not. possibly shouldn't even exist because they don't necessarily reflect how we're structured as an organization. So I think we have to address that issue before we get into sort of like moving things from like one code to another. But I don't want you to infer in any way that I'm hesitant to share this responsibility with you because I agree with you. I think it's intended to be a shared responsibility beyond just the sort of six weeks we focus on in the spring.
[Lungo-Koehn]: So motion for approval for all three papers and motion to table 2022-46. So we can work that out.
[Ruseau]: Could we, if it's a table, I can't comment.
[Murphy]: I think the question is whether it's being tabled or referred to the subcommittee and I don't have an opinion either way, as long as we can keep talking about this one that I've just flagged for it.
[Lungo-Koehn]: I'll withdraw the motion to table.
[McLaughlin]: Referred to which subcommittee, RPE?
[Murphy]: I would assume either the policy.
[Graham]: Is there a motion to refer that the control policy to two. So a motion by Member Mustone to refer that policy to the rules policy and equity subcommittee seconded by Member Hays does your just for clarification does your motion include approval of the other policies listed on the agenda. That's fine. I will just before we do that, I will just read the names just for clarity. Thank you. So 44 is 44 is payment procedures. 45 is the one that will be referred to the rules, policy and equity subcommittee, which is policy DBJ, budget transfer authority. 46. Okay, I'm sorry about that.
[Edouard-Vincent]: We've got a The version on the online version is accurate. So, forty-five is the budget transfer.
[Graham]: Okay. So, twenty twenty-two forty-five is DBJ budget transfer authority. That is the one that will go to the rules policy and equity
[Ruseau]: Chair?
[Graham]: Yes.
[Ruseau]: I'm looking at it and see different numbers.
[Jim Lister]: Me too.
[Ruseau]: Me too. I see 2245 is the payment procedures.
[Lungo-Koehn]: I think it's 44, 45, 47. There's no 47.
[Ruseau]: You're missing the online, the printout is missing things.
[Graham]: Yes, and I'm looking at the one that was posted.
[Mustone]: Is 46 the one that goes to the subcommittee?
[Lungo-Koehn]: Yes. Approve all except, approve the three except 45, budget transfer authority.
[Graham]: So I think this printout that people are referring to is the inaccurate piece. Okay. So with that said, 44 is payment procedures, 45 budget transfer authority, which will go to the rules policy and equity subcommittee under the motion that's on the floor. 46 is policy DGA authorized signatures, which is a replacement of the policy update for DGA. And then Scrolling, scrolling, scrolling. 47 is policy DI, which is fiscal accounting and reporting, which is a replacement of our DI fiscal accounting and reporting policy, which is also on the motion for approval of the first reading. Is that right, Member Mustone?
[Hays]: Yes.
[Graham]: Okay. So on the motion to approve 44, 46, and 47 and send 45 to the Rules Policy and Equity Subcommittee, the approval being for the first reading of those three policies. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. All those opposed? Motion passes.
[Ruseau]: That's what I have, yes, that it's passed. There's actually another policy in the agenda that's online.
[Graham]: Is there, hold on.
[Ruseau]: There's a fiscal accounting ability and reporting.
[lRR2dgf0NZM_SPEAKER_04]: I'm sorry, no grants proposals and special projects. Yes, I'm sorry.
[Graham]: So 2022 48 offered by member or so policy DD funding proposals and applications will be replaced and renamed. with the policy update from the Mass Association of School Committees for September, 2022. Is there a motion on the floor to waive the reading?
[Lungo-Koehn]: Motion to waive the reading.
[Graham]: Motion by member Lungo-Koehn, seconded by member Mustone. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Okay, motion passes. Is there a motion to approve the first reading on the floor? Motion to approve the first reading by member Hays, seconded by member Mustone. All those in favor?
[Clerk]: Aye.
[Graham]: All those opposed? Motion passes. I believe there's hold on. I'm just going to keep scrolling here. Policy number 2022 49 offered by member Rousseau policy DDE subcommittee of the school committee will insert special before subcommittee in item six of the policy resulting in number six, a special subcommittee will be dissolved by the committee upon completion of its assignment, or it may be dissolved by a vote of the committee at any time.
[Ruseau]: I just want to speak on that real quick. Member Ruseau. I was reviewing that policy because there were some other updates we had made, and then it became very clear in this sentence that we meant to include special, because special subcommittees is another name for our like for the renaming committee. We don't dissolve subcommittees when they finish their work. We'd have to restart them every single time. So that's just a fix.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Okay, move approval. Second.
[Graham]: Motion to approve by Member Lungo-Koehn, seconded by Member Mustone. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Motion passes. Number nine, reports requested, suspension and discipline update report offered by member McLaughlin. Member McLaughlin, did you want to speak on this?
[McLaughlin]: Yes, I just wanted to let the committee know that I was looking for, based on some recent suspension and discipline and concerns. And I think there was in the packet, there should have been a handout on sort of disproportionality and discipline, particularly for students with disabilities and some of the processes that should occur under those instances. I'm looking for something about the rate of suspension and discipline, and again, the demographic data and the grade level data. specifically, you know, with concern with some elementary suspension and discipline. And so I was reaching out to the superintendent as well to see what that might look like and what a time they might be for that. And I want to put that out there. Thank you.
[Graham]: Thank you.
[Ruseau]: Member Ruseau. I actually very much want this data as well. We have a rule number 44. which we adopted whenever we adopted it earlier this year, that says that we have to use the ad hoc report request procedure. And looking over that, I mean, when I, you know, member McLaughlin was not present and neither was member Hays when we created that procedure, but the goal of that procedure is to make sure that superintendent doesn't go create the report and then, you know, you wanted this piece of data and this piece of data is not in the report, so then they create another one and then your questions aren't getting answered. So, you know, the ad hoc report request procedure lists out, you know, you have to specify what is the data you want so that you get it because There's too much data, too many ways to do the data. And so I would just ask that Member McLaughlin review in the rules addendum two and submit it again to include that so that we can, because the other key element to this procedure is to make sure that if the request is for the superintendent to create a report that's going to take two people a month and a half of time, the committee should know that we're asking for that kind of a request of resources versus if the report could be something that the, you know, superintendent can get in five minutes, in which case, then that's a very different kind of scenario. But as we know from our financial and HR systems and the disconnect there, some reports are truly massively labor-intensive. And so understanding what are the questions that we're trying to answer and what are the data elements that are desired before the committee decides whether to expend those resources in the superintendent's office is why we created that rule.
[lRR2dgf0NZM_SPEAKER_04]: So thank you.
[Lungo-Koehn]: If I then may, through the chair, Member McLaughlin, do you have specifics you want to outline right now? Or do you want to pull this back?
[McLaughlin]: Oh, yes. Sorry, I had my I didn't realize I was on mute. I was responding. I was asking to respond. Yeah, I can be more specific if the superintendent feels that she needs that. I guess part of what I understood for the ad hoc report, and maybe I misunderstood, there was a lot of policy that we were going through last year, as I'm sure everyone can remember. I thought the report form request was optional. I didn't think that we had to necessarily fill out a specific form for the request, but if the rest of the committee feels that that's what we agreed to, then I'm fine with filling out a form to get the information. Essentially, what I did understand was that we wanted to present to the school committee the request for a report and have some dialogue with the superintendent around what that timeline could be like or what the labor, how labor intensive that report would be. And I know that suspension and discipline data is required annually anyway as a report to DESE, but I guess this is more specific to, you know, recent events and also with regard to recent policy, you know, as that we had last year as well around, you know, clarification around you know, are we doing suspensions? When are we doing suspensions? We, you know, had said under certain circumstances. So there's a lot of ambiguity around some of the policy as well. So I am happy to have a discussion with the rest of the committee to have folks weigh in and hear what they would like. But I think that this is an important report and I am reluctant to delay further, but I'd like to hear from the rest of the committee.
[Graham]: Is there anybody else who would like to speak?
[Lungo-Koehn]: Member, Mayor Lungo-Koehn. Yeah, through the chair, maybe we can give our suggestions to Member McLaughlin on what data we would like to see over the next week or so and just compile a new resolution and place that on to be more specific so we can vote for approval and get the report, you know, sometime in the early winter.
[McLaughlin]: Superintendent, does that work for you through the chair?
[Edouard-Vincent]: Yes, that will work.
[McLaughlin]: Okay, thank you then. That's what I will do. I will look for any feedback from the rest of you and submit for the next meeting. Thank you.
[Graham]: Thank you, Member McLaughlin. Thank you. We have two condolences. The Medford School Committee expresses its sincere condolences to the family of Joan Celia McCann a former first grade teacher at the former Gleason School. And the Medford School Committee expresses its sincere condolences to the family of former state Senator Salvatore Albano, a special educator himself who was known as an educational leader on Beacon Hill.
[lRR2dgf0NZM_SPEAKER_04]: If we could all rise for a moment of silence.
[Graham]: Thank you to those of you still in the audience bearing with us as we had some printing snafus that we had to work through there with all those financial motions. Our next meeting is Monday, November 7th. It's a regular school committee meeting held in Alden Memorial Chambers at Medford City Hall in addition to on Zoom. Motion to adjourn.
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