[Danielle Balocca]: Hey listeners, this is Danielle. And Shelley. Shelley is a radical Dravidian and racial equity activist. And Danielle is a community mobilizer and changemaker.
[Chelli Keshavan]: And this is the Medford Bites podcast. Every two weeks, we chew on the issues facing Medford and deliver bites of information about the city by lifting the expertise of our guests.
[Danielle Balocca]: Join us in discussion about what you hope for the future of Medford. And as always, tell us where you like to eat.
[Chelli Keshavan]: Hey, Charlie.
[Danielle Balocca]: Hi, Daniel. So we're sitting here just a couple days before the holidays. We're going to be recording our last episode of the year.
[Chelli Keshavan]: So exciting.
[Danielle Balocca]: Yeah. So we just want to mention, we know a lot of stuff's been going on in the city this week. We did hear, just to follow up on our last episode, that the teachers ratified their contract. It sounds like it's a very similar proposal as we heard the Teachers Association talk about on that episode. So they did amend some of the plans for Wednesday for extending the day on Wednesday for the elementary schools and it was a similar or the same proposal in terms of payment and payment increases over the next three years. And what I did not understand, I don't think when we were talking to them, was there's a percentage that they're asking for for a raise, so something around 8%. And that is split up over three years. So they'll get a portion of that raise the first year, a portion the second year, a portion the third year, and then it sounds like the piece that they were a little on the fence about was, last 1% would they would get on the last day of the contract so technically counts for the next year. So that was helpful to get some understanding around but it sounds like we heard in City Council or School Committee, City Council, School Committee this week that they did ratify that but you know obviously there was a lot of other things happening in that meeting that uh Chelly and I did.
[Chelli Keshavan]: It was certainly a heavy meeting.
[Danielle Balocca]: Yeah heavy meeting. It was heavy week I think. Yeah, I don't know if you have anything you want to say about it.
[Chelli Keshavan]: I mean it's clear to me that folks feel very passionately about all of the ongoings this week and that everyone is wanting to offer a solution that they feel will sort of mitigate the issues at hand. I think understanding around the structure of leadership and what different roles can do is important to kind of grapple with is think understanding what funding sources are available and for what and what timelines is important to think about. One of my biggest takeaways from watching the school committee meeting was to really be thinking about our learning beliefs as a district and to pursue what it would look like to imagine a school system that is built from the lens of critically thinking students and building folks who are resilient learners, pie-in-the-sky thoughts, big thoughts. And I also realize that people are looking for immediate kind of solutions that will support some peace right now. So lots of space between those two thoughts.
[Danielle Balocca]: Yeah I was up early the morning after that meeting just like running through everything that like I wish that I'd been able to say in that or just contribute to that meeting and I think like In my real life, I work with victims of trauma, and it just was really striking to me that next morning, like, really sinking in that, like, all these people were really traumatized on Monday, right? The students, the parents wondering what was happening to their kids, teachers, school committee members, just community members knowing that this was something that was going on in our city. And I, like, talk a lot in my job about, like, anger, right? And anger being a very normal response to situations like this. And it's anger not necessarily being a feeling that we have a lot of control over, though I do think where we can have some control is like how we express that anger and this distinction between destructive anger and constructive anger. And I think what would be helpful for us as a community is to find some ways to express that anger or to sort of have that anger process a little bit, but to also get to a place where we can use it in a productive way. I think that there is an importance to having those feelings, understanding those feelings. And like we heard some people say, having that be a force that unites us, because I think I was hearing a lot of the same things. We don't want this to happen. We never wanted this to happen. We want to find a solution, and also, we're kind of overwhelmed by this problem. We don't know that we totally understand it, and it's not going to be one person or one body that fixes it.
[Chelli Keshavan]: Sure, and also the notion that obviously this week feels so pertinent to the here and now, but to understand that these pieces have moved in the Medford school systems for many, many years, and that we're seeing patterns. Also, I just wanted to kind of highlight, there's a lot of talk about the good kids are doing X, Y, and Z, and other kids are doing something else. I spent a lot of the meeting wanting and wishing that I had said that there are no good and bad kids. There are kids who have been served in one way and there are kids who have had other experiences. And by the time you're bringing weapons to school, likely you've been failed by systemic reasons or failed by adults or both habitually. So to move with that understanding as well as we think about what are good next steps or strong, salient next steps.
[Danielle Balocca]: Yeah, and saying like that sort of not minimizing that whole child, right? Like what are they being exposed to outside of school? What are they hearing inside of school? And how does that all kind of come together? How can that also be part of the solution, right? How do we think about that?
[Chelli Keshavan]: And frankly, like to your point, We may or may not have been displaying adequate decorum as adults in this city. And we've had several years now of recorded behaviors that might be less than we can be. And our kids are watching.
[Danielle Balocca]: Absolutely. I also just want to mention that we had planned to talk to our mayor today. We decided to sort of give her some space. I think she's working on a lot, going through a lot, so we want her to be able to focus on that and we'll hopefully be able to connect with her in the new year. We'd hope to hear a little bit about the teacher negotiations, but obviously new things have come up and evolved. So yeah, we'll hopefully earmark that for next year.
[Chelli Keshavan]: For sure. And if there are folks, we realize that people have big feelings on a lot that's gone on this week. So if folks feel like they'd want to reach out to Medford Bites and have a conversation, we're super excited about anyone who wants to talk.
[Danielle Balocca]: Yeah, reach out to us. It's pretty easy. You can find us on Facebook, Instagram, and also you can email us at medfordpod at gmail.com.
[Chelli Keshavan]: Email us.
[Danielle Balocca]: Right. And so, um, we're going to transition to kind of our end of the year. episode. So we'd asked folks to share with us highlights of this year and hopes that they have for next year. So we, I actually had the great opportunity of going into an eighth grade classroom and talking about podcasting and showing them some of the ways that I do my work here and we got to practice doing that by then. So you'll hear from a bunch of students from Ms. Wayland's class at the Andrews as part of that, but also some other community members that have shared their thoughts.
[Chelli Keshavan]: I love it. Thank you to folks who shared, especially those eighth graders.
[Danielle Balocca]: Yeah, they're great. They're doing some great work in that class. We'll hear from it in a couple of episodes, but they are very creative, very dedicated teachers that they have, and she's worked with them a few years in a row, I think, doing this podcast project, but it's really innovative and really cool, I think. Do you want me to go first, Shelley?
[Chelli Keshavan]: Um, sure. Ping pong.
[Danielle Balocca]: Ping pong. Popcorn. Yeah.
[Chelli Keshavan]: Just kidding. It's definitely called popcorn.
[Danielle Balocca]: No, we can create our own.
[Chelli Keshavan]: We have Medford Bites Target.
[Danielle Balocca]: Yeah, I think highlights of the year for me, definitely this collaboration. So, Jelly and I, we began working together on the podcast this year, and that's been really, really fun and helpful to me and to the podcast. It's been great getting to know you a little bit more, Chelly.
[Chelli Keshavan]: For me as well, it's amazing that we're already coming up on something that looks like a year as far as this collaboration is concerned. I have been able to use the Medford Bites platform as a space to explore what I've learned in wearing the multiple hats that I have for the city. Just learning about what it logistically means to produce and being able to Occupy a collaboration that is safe and innovative and forward-thinking has been amazing. So hats off to us for killing it.
[Danielle Balocca]: Yeah. Any other highlights for you?
[Chelli Keshavan]: I'm sure. So this year has meant a lot of transition for me. One of the most exciting possibilities is that next year potentially means graduate school. So I'll take all of these multiple hats and pursue some classroom hours and think about what a master's in public policy could look like. My kids had a very solid this is not a semester, I don't know what they're doing, public schools, but they have also experienced transition and I think they are in a much better place emotionally, socially, academically, and I'm grateful for that. There are others.
[Danielle Balocca]: Yeah, kids are a big thing for me, like my older son He's a first grader at the Roberts and he has had just a great year and it's just been really nice to see him adjusting to school and just can't say enough about his teacher and the teachers at the Roberts. Our other son had more of an interesting year in which he had surgery to remove a tumor, which was not something that we were expecting to go through this year. Would not recommend for anyone, but he had really great care at Boston Children's Hospital. Also a place that you never want to have to go to, but they are excellent. Yeah, yeah, excellent. And he's been doing great since then, but just, you know, so very grateful for that. Definitely getting through that was a highlight of our year. Lots of support from our friends in Medford, though, and our family. So to anyone who's listening who was part of that, thank you so much.
[Chelli Keshavan]: I mean, I think the Medford community is a highlight. This platform has given us a chance to connect with folks, build relationships, maintain older relationships. It's a blast.
[Danielle Balocca]: Yeah. And one more thing I wanted to do, just give a shout out. Every Friday I do a workout group, um, at car park and that's really sustained me through the pandemic. And those, the ladies in that group have been really supportive of the podcast and of my mental and physical wellbeing. So I couldn't have gotten through these two years without them. Yeah. Love it. Awesome. So you want to think about hopes for next year?
[Chelli Keshavan]: Yeah.
[Danielle Balocca]: What are you looking forward to? Um,
[Chelli Keshavan]: I am looking forward to intentional excitement. My life has answered to requirements that I haven't been able to design and I am looking forward to the opposite of that where I am building strategic plans for my own life and having a better sense of what's coming my way and having a better way of being able to share with my kids what's happening next in life and hopefully reaping benefits and advancement because of knowing what's coming. I think that is routine, exercise, better eating, sleep, more coffee, more wine. Yeah, a good place to be. All the things.
[Danielle Balocca]: Good intention there, for sure. For me, I'm looking forward to more podcasting. The library, I'm going to be doing a workshop for kids on podcasting in February, March.
[Chelli Keshavan]: Oh, don't miss it.
[Danielle Balocca]: Yeah. I think you can sign up through the library, I'm assuming. Yeah, I don't know. I'm looking forward to just what the rest of the year is going to bring or what the new year will bring. And yeah, I think. My wife talks about it later on in the comments, but just looking forward to adventures and spending time with my family and yeah, just also being part of the Charter Review Committee, I'm not exactly, I always get the title wrong, but being involved in the city in that way and really kind of digging into just the way that our city government works.
[Chelli Keshavan]: Absolutely.
[Danielle Balocca]: And you're involved in something as well that seems very important.
[Chelli Keshavan]: Yeah, Riverbice is busy. So Daniel's on the charter review, and I am on the health curriculum review committee. So we are in it.
[Danielle Balocca]: Yeah. I'm not sure how much we'll be able to talk about on the podcast, but two exciting things to look forward to for next year.
[Chelli Keshavan]: Absolutely. Signing off. Yeah. Happy holidays and wishing everybody a really peaceful, beautiful new year.
[Danielle Balocca]: Yeah. Happy holidays and enjoy the comments from the rest of the people that are coming next.
[SPEAKER_12]: This is Shannon Heaton. I live near Wright's Pond where we now have a safe lacrosse walk. And I just love that this year the bike and walking paths expanded even more and connect us all over the place to towns all over the place. I look forward to more infrastructure, more expansion of stuff for humans, not for cars. And also, I want to say that I'm really grateful to all the Medford drivers who are so gracious to bikers and pedestrians. There are a lot of us out there, so I hope we keep that up in the new year too. What's your name?
[SPEAKER_15]: My name is Jack.
[Danielle Balocca]: Jack, and what was the best part of your year? I played with cars at Denise's. Playing with cars at Denise's. And what are you excited for for next year?
[SPEAKER_15]: Going to bees.
[Danielle Balocca]: Going where?
[SPEAKER_15]: To bees.
[Danielle Balocca]: Going to the beach?
[SPEAKER_15]: Yeah, to the beach. That's right. My name is Cole. My pronouns are he and him. I'm first grade in the Waterbirds Elementary School. The best part of my year was New York Beach and what I'm looking for next year is New York Beach.
[XXXXXX00077_SPEAKER_01]: My name is Brittany. My pronouns are she, her. The highlight of my year was getting a clean bill of health for my little son. And the best part that I'm looking forward to next year is all the adventures we're going to take together.
[SPEAKER_09]: Hello, I am Thomas, an eighth grader at Andrews Middle School. I am male, but I basically have a metric. And, yes. This year was, it is a year. We have less COVID around, which is nice. And, yeah. I only have one hope for next year, and that's that I don't get sent to Catholic school.
[SPEAKER_14]: My name is James. My pronouns are he, him. I'm in eighth grade, and I go to Andrews Middle School. I don't really have any specific highlights of a year, but I enjoy almost every day, because I get to see my friends. So my hope for next year is to play basketball.
[SPEAKER_06]: My name is Sydney, I'm an eighth grader at the Andrews Middle School, and my pronouns are she, her. Some of my highlights over the past year were that I learned a lot in school, and my hopes for the new year are to learn more and to continue to succeed in school.
[SPEAKER_05]: My name is Sharon, my pronouns are she, her, and I go to the Andrews, I'm in eighth grade. My highlight of the year was being chosen to play for a softball tournament team, and my hopes for next year is to keep my grades up. My name is Sophia, I go to Andrews Middle School, I'm in 8th grade and my pronouns are she, her. My highlight of the year was summer vacation and next year I'm excited to go to high school.
[SPEAKER_07]: My name is Avery, my pronouns are she, her. I'm in 8th grade at the Andrews Middle School and one of my highlights of this year was playing hockey and one of my hopes for next year is to choose the right high school for me.
[SPEAKER_16]: Hi, my name is Dominic. I am 13. My pronouns are he, him, and the school I go to is Andrews Middle School. This year, one of my highlights is going to Fan Expo Boston and meeting a voice actor for my favorite video game. Next year, I'm looking forward to going to high school and probably my birthday, too.
[SPEAKER_10]: My name is the Angel. My pronouns are he, him. The school that I'm in is Angel Middle School. I'm in grade eight. I was new to this school this year, but now I'm happy here. I'm looking forward to joining a drama club in high school.
[SPEAKER_17]: Hi, my name's Kian Morris. I'm an eighth grader at the Andrews Middle School. I'd say the best highlight of my year was going biking around local area with my friends over the summer. I know I live in North Medford. We got to bike to West Medford a lot, and we even biked to Burlington Mall, which was the furthest away we've ever done. I thought it was really fun. What I'm looking forward to next year is probably the same thing and getting around to new places and trying to explore.
[SPEAKER_11]: My name is Harry. My pronouns are he, him. I am in 8th grade at the Andrews Middle School. The highlight of my year was joining marching band, and I'm looking forward to the next season of marching band.
[SPEAKER_18]: Okay. My name is Bronwyn. My pronouns are she, her, and I'm in 8th grade at the Andrews Middle School. Uh, the high- probably the highlight of my year was walking from the school to the Medford Public Library with my friends. It's pretty cool that such a cool library is just walking distance from the school. And this one time, one of my friends wanted to come with us, but the thing is, she didn't tell her parents, so they ended up calling the police. But it was all worked out in the end. Uh... My... I'm... The thing that I'm excited for for next year is probably just high school in general. They had like a open house thing where you got to go around and see all the classes. And I thought it was cool that you could learn stuff like woodworking and culinary in school. So that's pretty interesting.
[mbymTt2FVd8_SPEAKER_08]: Hey Medford Bites listeners, this is Teresa and Mike from reimagined and we're wishing you all a wonderful 2023. We here at reimagined have had a really grateful 2022 with filled with lots of community events and just community in general here in the gym. We have met so many of you at various events, and so many of you have reached out and or joined our fun and quirky gym community, and we're so very thankful for that. We're planning to continue to partner with various Medford events and Medford Recreation over 2023. We will be doing our free sweat into the 80s class all through the summer, through the Medford Rec, and we hope to see you there. We're also looking forward to expanding our team in 2023 and offering more trainings and classes. So if you want to be part of our team, hit us up. We'd love to hear from you. And we hope to see you out there and continue to have a wonderful, awesome days.
[SPEAKER_04]: Hi, my name is Charlotte Tatey. My pronouns are she, her. I'm in eighth grade at the Andrews Middle School. My highlight of the year was probably playing volleyball at the club with my friends. And what I'm looking forward to is probably the volleyball team at the high school next year.
[SPEAKER_13]: Hey Medford Bites listeners, this is Justine Myers, pronouns she, her, hers. I had the honor and privilege of being featured in a Medford Bites podcast episode this past March discussing my business, Acupuncture Together. I want to share some highlights from this past year, both personally and professionally. First of all, I am glad that life is feeling more normal these days since the arrival of COVID. January and February at the clinic were very quiet, I think due to fears of the Omicron variant, as well as numerous snowstorms. As the year progressed, it seems that many people became comfortable going out and to various places, including acupuncture together. I've been so pleased to reconnect with my former patients this year who I had not seen since before COVID once they finally felt comfortable coming back in. Our business is back to operating at a sustainable level after having had a couple rocky years following the COVID lockdown. This year, I completed several continuing education courses, including three courses on the treatment of infertility, a course on the treatment of perimenopausal transition, and a course with six different instructors discussing the treatment of shoulder pain with various methods. I'm currently in the process of finishing a course on using acupuncture to support breast cancer patients during and after their breast cancer treatments. On a personal note, I had some tremendously fun and fulfilling athletic achievements this year. I competed in my first open water swim race in August, the Glen Lake One Mile Swim, followed by the Title IX Sprint Triathlon this September, which was my first ever triathlon. At the triathlon, I ran into our very own mayor, Breanna Lungo-Koehn, before the start of the race. We chatted while we waited for the start and entered side by side in the swim portion. Later this fall, I competed in the Loco Half Marathon and the BAA Half Marathon. This was very special for me because for many years, I haven't been able to compete in these sorts of events due to some health problems. Finally improving my health and being able to train and compete was truly a joy for me. I also enjoyed some wonderful travel this year with my family. With my husband, 9-year-old daughter, and 7-year-old son, we traveled to Aruba over February vacation week and to Colorado in August. We enjoyed some incredible sightseeing and many firsts for my kids, including horseback riding, snorkeling, and seeing mountains and all kinds of wildlife. My children are thriving at the Brooks School this year, and we are grateful that school feels normal for them once again after all the changes that took place for COVID. My husband Chet, who is an engineer and project manager at Massport, won two awards this year for his work on the Birth 10 project in Boston, where large container ships come in. One award was presented to him in Hawaii, so we had the good fortune to take a trip to Hawaii together, where he received an award and presented two papers on his work. Although this year started out a bit difficult, it ended up being a truly great year for me and for my family. Happy holidays. I wish you all the best in 2023.
[SPEAKER_02]: My name is AD. My pronouns are they, them. I go to the Andrews Middle School, and I'm in eighth grade. Um, the highlight of this year for me was probably learning how to solve like five types of Rubik's cubes. Cause it's fun for me. I like doing them. Um, next year I want to like learn Yoruba, which is the language that my family speaks. And my grandpa said he'd help me learn. So I'm excited for that.
[SPEAKER_08]: I'm Sophie, my pronouns are she, her. I go to the Andrews Middle School and I'm in eighth grade. The highlight of my year was probably getting kittens and I hope that I can keep doing good in school next year.
[Danielle Balocca]: Thanks so much for listening to today's episode. The Medford Bites podcast is produced and moderated by Danielle Balacca and Shelly Keshaman. Music is made by Hendrick Guidonis. We'd love to hear what you think about the podcast. You can reach out to us by email at medfordpod at gmail.com, or you can rate and review the podcast on Apple Podcasts. Thanks so much for listening.
[SPEAKER_18]: Guys, what's the name of the podcast? Never Bites.
[SPEAKER_15]: Never Bites.
[SPEAKER_18]: Good job.