[SPEAKER_04]: here in the Howard Alden Memorial Chambers, Medford City Hall. You can also access by Zoom, or you can call in by dialing 1309-205-3325. Please enter meeting ID 98303737210 when prompted. Member Ruseau, if you could call the roll. Member Graham. Here. Member Hays. Here.
[SPEAKER_14]: Member Kreatz.
[SPEAKER_04]: Here.
[SPEAKER_14]: Member McLaughlin.
[SPEAKER_04]: Here.
[SPEAKER_14]: Member Mustone.
[SPEAKER_04]: Here.
[SPEAKER_14]: Member Ruseau. Yes. Here. Mayor Lungo-Koehn.
[SPEAKER_04]: Present, seven present, zero absent. If we could rise to salute the flag. 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, 5 p.m. Upon motion, we will enter pursuant to general laws 30A, section 21A, to conduct collective bargaining in preparation for negotiations with local 25 administrators, custodians, and security monitors, as an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the bargaining positions of the Medford School Committee. Medford School Committee will convene in public session immediately following the conclusion of the executive session at 6 p.m. So motion to move to executive session by member McLaughlin, seconded by Member Ms. Stone, all those in favor, roll call, please.
[SPEAKER_14]: Member Graham?
[SPEAKER_04]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_14]: Member Hays?
[SPEAKER_04]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_14]: Member Kreatz?
[SPEAKER_04]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_14]: Member McLaughlin?
[SPEAKER_04]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_14]: Member Ms. Stone?
[SPEAKER_04]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_14]: Member Osoye? Yes. Mayor Longo?
[SPEAKER_04]: Yes. Seven in the affirmative, zero in the negative. We're gonna go to executive session.
[SPEAKER_06]: Dr. Maurice Edouard-Vincent.
[SPEAKER_16]: Good evening. So I will preface that I do have some lengthy remarks this morning, this afternoon, or this evening I should say, but a lot of good news to share a lot of wonderful things happening this month. And so I'm going to get started. March is National Disability Awareness Month, and tomorrow is World Down Syndrome Day. National Disability Awareness Month began in 1987, when President Ronald Reagan proclaimed it to raise awareness about the importance of inclusion of people with developmental disabilities in all facets of community life. It also brings to our attention the barriers that people with disabilities can sometimes face when connecting to the communities in which they live. In Medford, we are proud that we are an inclusive community for all, but we are constantly learning about how we can do better. And again, as tomorrow being World Down Syndrome Day, it's a global awareness day officially observed by the United Nations since 2012. This year's theme is With Us, Not For Us, which means people with disabilities have the right to be treated fairly and have the same opportunities as everyone else, working with others to improve their lives. As you are aware, those with Down syndrome have an extra chromosome. So often people will wear crazy socks on March 21st. I'm told that chromosomes are shaped like socks. So get your craziest socks ready to wear for tomorrow. On behalf of the Medford Public Schools, I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate one of our state representatives, Christine Barber, for receiving the Legislator of the Year award from the Massachusetts Developmental Disabilities Council and the Arc of Massachusetts. For her work with people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, Representative Barber serves as a member of the Massachusetts Autism Commission and works directly with advocates to address challenges facing the disability community. So congratulations State Rep Christine Barber. Yes. Thank you. Today, the Medford Vocational Technical High School students in the Early Childhood Education Program begin a story, song, and art activity event with the Medford Family Network. This program started today and will continue on March 22nd, March 27th, and March 29th. The early education students will lead the children in sing-alongs, art, and STEAM activities. They will also read them stories. Truly, this is a win-win partnership for both our students and our young student group community. This coming Wednesday, March 22nd is Crossing Guard Appreciation Day. We can't thank our crossing guards enough for keeping our students safe and helping them get to and from school. Remember to thank them, especially on Wednesday. Also on March 22nd, we'll be hosting a Zoom informational meeting for parents of incoming middle school students. These are our fifth graders rising up to sixth grade. We will discuss the lottery and middle school curriculum. Please join us from 5 to 6 p.m. The lottery will be live on Zoom on Wednesday, April 12th. Also on March 22nd, our CTE programs, our career technical education programs, will be hosting a showcase at Medford Vocational Technical High School from 6 to 8 p.m. All 8th graders and their families are welcome to attend this Wednesday, March 22nd. March is also National Women's History Month, and both Medford High School and the Vocational School have planned informational events for all of our students. The Vocational School kicked off Women's History Month on March 2nd, when they presented six guest speakers from the construction and technology industries. This panel focused on women and individuals who are non-traditional employees in their field. Students in grades nine through 12 from the construction cluster, electrical, carpentry, construction craft labors, and metal fabrication, and the technology cluster, which includes engineering, robotics, and programming, and web development participated in this event. Panelists shared stories about how their personal career paths led them to their current position. As one of the panelists stated, you have to get comfortable being the only you in the room. So get comfortable with being uncomfortable in educating others that you belong there. We thank the following panelists for taking the time to address our students. Whitney Crooks, who is the manager system test development at iRobot Design Assurance Engineering. Mackenzie Grammer, an electrician for IBEW Local 103. Stavrula Orfanas, a building inspector for the city of Salem. Kasai Sensel, technical program manager, RDST, Amazon Robotics. Nikki Slaughter, senior operational excellence manager at Vecna Robotics. And Shalini Vates, project manager, FBN Construction. I thank all of those panelists who came out to support us during that National Women's History Month event, and we will continue to have more events. Continuing with that theme, on March 31st, the Medford High School will present its second annual women's panel. Those participating will include Chief Justice Kimberly Budd of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, Commander Billy Fowler of the USS Constitution, WBZ News Reporter, Tiffany Chin. Dr. Jamie Chia of the Broad Institute. Lisa Flores, Director of Sales and Marketing, Columbus Hospitality Group. Dr. Asima Mohanty, Engineering Professor, Tufts University. our own Congresswoman, Catherine Clark, small business owners, Paige Boldini and Kelly Rose Sano, and our own Mayor Breanna Lungo-Koehn and myself, Superintendent, we look forward to another exciting event for our students on March 31st. I would also like to take this time to recognize some of our outstanding athletes. The winter athletic season has come to a close, and a number of Mustangs have been named GBL All-Stars and recognized for other outstanding achievements. For boys basketball, Sam Orcutt, Justin Marino, and Anthony Teixeira-Kugler. For girls basketball, Bella O'Brien and Marilyn McInnis. For boys hockey, Devin Page, Luis Pachilo, Nick Pasquarella, and Tyler Taddea, who was also named the MVP. For Girls Hockey, Avery White and Juliana Staritti, who was also named All-Conference. for gymnastics, Alexa Baran, Sebastian Karakabu, Alexandra Lombardo, and Jocelyn Marujo. In addition, the team won the GBL championship. For swimming, it's Clark, Barayuga, Marcos Pereira, Anaya Osius-Johnson, Lindsay Quinn, Kaitlyn Truong, and Sarah Youssef. For girls, indoor track, Anna Casey, Yasmin D'Souza-Vieira, Maria Colombo, and Savannah Nash. In addition, the team won the GBL Championship. And for boys indoor track, Dimitri Charles, Richard Gomez-McDonald, and Will Kelly, who qualified for the Nike National Indoor Track Championships held in New York last weekend. Can we give all of those wonderful athletes a round of applause? I do wanna share that Will placed 20th in the boys 400 meters, emerging in the elite division. By qualifying for indoor nationals, he also qualified for the outdoor nationals in June. Athletes that qualify for this competition often go on to be college stars and some represent their country at the Olympics. Congratulations to Roe and all of our winter sports student-athletes. You make us so proud. Today, spring sports begin their tryouts, so good luck to all of those trying out this week. Also, last week, I want to recognize our Director of Counseling and Behavioral Health, Stacey Shulman. She served as a panelist for our District Attorney, Marion Ryan's presentation, Dealing with Gun Violence in Schools. Over 130 people from law enforcement, education, and nonprofit fields attended from Middlesex County. Stacey spoke of the Medford Public Schools commitment to the Sandy Hook promise, which began with our partnership in 2019. As Stacey mentioned at our last meeting, prevention strategies such as start with hello and say something have been shown to significantly improve perceptions of school safety, foster socialization, reduce bullying, and begin to change culture from within. Stacey has been fully committed to providing the very best for our students. Her presentation provided great information for all in attendance. I would like to also say that the Mustang Physical Education Department has received a Project HERE grant from the Massachusetts Attorney General's Office. The grant will be used to teach physical education teachers the sport of archery in June. It will be added to our curriculum for the 23-24 school year. Additionally, the physical education department is pleased to announce that it will be adding a unified physical education class to the high school electives for the 23-24 school year. So I'm very pleased with that new addition for next school year. I'd like to let the community know that on Monday, March 27, the McGlynn Middle School will once again host screenagers, the next chapter, in the school auditorium from 6.15 to 7.30 p.m. So there will be a second showing of screenagers for families that were not able to attend the first showing. Next Thursday, March 30th, is our final Building Bridges to Kindergarten presentation. It will be presented at the high school library from 6.30 to 7.30 p.m. All are welcome. Again, this is for incoming kindergarten students that will be joining Medford Public Schools in the fall. Also, our Parent Information Center will remain open until 6 p.m. for any parents or caregivers to support them with their student registration needs. I want to recognize our spotlight productions that just took place. Wonderful, wonderful production of Annie Jr. I heard the students singing and practicing and they sounded absolutely fabulous. All the shows were wonderful. It ended this past weekend. I want the community to know that another presentation production is coming next weekend. That production is going to be Beauty and the Beast, and it will begin on Thursday, March 30, Friday the 31st, and on Saturday, April 1, there will be two shows, a 2 p.m. and a 7 p.m. I will also put that in my weekly update. Tickets went on sale today via Eventbrite, and I want you to know that many of our high school students are part of the cast, so it definitely will be a wonderful opportunity to support Spotlight Productions. I also want to recognize our Brooks 4th and 5th grade CCSR students that are leading a community headstone cleaning event for the graves of Medford's Korean war veterans at Oak Grove Cemetery on Patriots Day. That will be taking place on April 17th at 1230 p.m. They are hoping that many in our community will come out to join and support them. It should take about 45 minutes to clean a marker. The more hands that are available, the better. And I will continue to advertise that, but I just wanted people to know, save the date if you would like to support a community event. Mr. Coats at the Brooks School. His email is mcoats, m-c-o-a-t-e-s, at medford.k12.ma.us. Please email him by April 6th if you would like to participate. I would also be remiss if I did not mention that this coming Wednesday at sundown is the beginning of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. During this month, Muslim members of the community fast from pre-sunrise to sunset in the hopes of achieving greater consciousness of God, wishing our Muslim families a peaceful Ramadan. So in closing, Spring officially began today on this beautiful day at 5.24 p.m. And tomorrow is World Poetry Day. So I would like to close with this very short poem from an English poet, Robert Browning's poem about spring. The years at the spring and days at the moon. Mornings at seven. The hillsides do cold. The locks on the wing. The snails on the thorn. God's in his heaven. All's right with the world. Thank you.
[SPEAKER_07]: Thank you, Dr. Edouard-Vincent.
[SPEAKER_04]: Next we have report on science. Mr. Rocco Sieri, director of science K through 12. First up, recommendation We have two recommendations for approval of donations to the Science Department. First, to support the Medford High School Vocational School Science Engineering Fair. And the second, to the Science and Mathematics Department, to the J.S. Lim Prizes in Mathematics and Science.
[SPEAKER_07]: Mr. Seary.
[SPEAKER_01]: vocational, technical, high school science and engineering fair that will be held on Thursday, April 13th throughout the school day. The donation is being made by Mabbitt and Associates. The following is the breakdown in funding that was proposed to Mabbitt and Associates and being acceptable for donation. We will have first and third prizes. given to students and eight honorable mentions, totaling $1,000 together. A collation for the judges that will be present to support students for 890, and then the entry fee for the regional fair that the students participated in at 110. So in total, it's $2,000. Mabbitt and Associates was founded by the Medford High School 1965 graduate alumnus, Arthur Mabbitt, In addition to being a graduate of Medford High School, he's a U.S. Armed Services veteran, bravely served our nation for over 19 years in active service and in the Army Reserves. Mabbitt & Associates is a leading provider of environmental consulting, health and safety, architectural and engineering design services nationwide. Mabbitt & Associates is making this generous donation to our students, and I'd like to recommend that the school committee accept the donation.
[SPEAKER_19]: Motion to approve?
[SPEAKER_04]: Motion for approval by Member Graham, seconded by Member McLaughlin. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Motion passes unanimously. Thank you for the donation, Mr. Mabbitt.
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you. I'm going to invite my colleague Faiza Khan, Director of Mathematics, for the next request. Dear members of the school committee, the following report is to apprise you of a donation of $3,000 to cover expenses for the 2024 MHS MVETH J. Limb Science and Mathematics prizes. The donation is being made by the J. Limb Foundation. Following is the breakdown proposed by the Limb Foundation. There's a mathematics prize to the student of $1,000, a science prize to the student of $1,000, And then there's a award plaque collation and presentation for $1,000. The mathematics and science prizes will be announced this year for awarding at a school award ceremony in the next school year, May 2024. So we announced it this year that this award is available. Next year, the student is selected from that junior class following the criteria that I'm gonna announce in a moment. And then we present the students with the award. The following criteria will be used. The student has to be enrolled in the highest level courses possible available to grade 11 students in the respective discipline, whether it's mathematics or science. The student's average must be in the top 5% of the class. for the respective discipline. The student will have been endorsed by their current teacher in the discipline, and the student will also have received endorsements from at least two members of the faculty of the respective discipline by vote at a department meeting. The student can only receive one of the two awards, so it goes to two separate students for the year. Jay Lim was an MIT professor of electrical engineering and computer science. He worked in the area of television systems and signal compression. He holds over 40 U.S. patents in the field. The JS Lim Foundation was established in 2010 and has funded a number of endowments, chaired professorships, and graduate fellowships. In addition, The JLM Foundation is to help U.S. students reach their full potential in these subjects through grants to schools and educational organizations. The JLM Foundation is making this generous donation to our students, and I'd like to recommend that the school committee accept the donation.
[SPEAKER_04]: Thank you. Motion to approve by Member McLaughlin, seconded by Member Graham. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Donation is accepted. Great.
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yes. Thank you. We're onto number C. We have report and acknowledgement of achievement of Medford high school students at the region for science and engineering fair held at Tufts university.
[SPEAKER_01]: On Friday, March 3rd, um, 2023 11 high school, uh, Medford high school students participated in the region for science and engineering fair at Tufts university. Our students represented our school very well. We had one overall award presented to students as well as several recognition awards for their projects. Owen Liao, Dan Khoi Nguyen, and Vina Lee placed 13th overall at the fair and received the Tufts University Science Fair Prize of $250. The other students received recognition awards from Starbucks. And in order to participate, students need to submit a research proposal for approval, as well as carry out research and register for the fair once the project is approved. Participation represents a multi-step process that's done voluntarily by these students outside the time of the curriculum at MHS. Students are both encouraged and supported by their classroom science teachers to move forward with the projects. and participate in the event. But I want to especially mention Dr. Warnes, the physics teacher at Medford High, who encouraged the participation of many of these students. I also should mention that they haven't had an in-person science fair events since 2019 at the regional level or the state level. So this was the first one that these students could have ever participated in. I'm really proud that the students took on this particular challenge and registered early, did their projects early. As you can see, we've decoupled our fair from the regional fair to be a much more inclusive fair at our level, allow many more students to participate. and if students want to participate in the regional fair, they have this sort of accelerated path to be able to participate in that fair. So many of them are here tonight. Some had other obligations, so they couldn't make it, but I'm really excited to be able to have them receive certificates of recognition from the school committee this evening for their achievements.
[SPEAKER_16]: When you hear your name being said, first congratulations to all of you. Please come on up and we will shake your hand. Clay Canavan.
[SPEAKER_06]: Not present. Julie Desotel. Rakshita Shankar Ganesh. Hopefully we can hear about a project or two.
[SPEAKER_04]: if there's any public speakers in the room.
[SPEAKER_06]: Dena Lee. Ding Khoi Nguyen. Oprah McKellar. Morgan Reynolds. Congratulations. Mary Schmidt. Charlotte Yanamoto.
[SPEAKER_04]: Can we get one of you to tell us about your project? Any takers, any takers?
[SPEAKER_16]: Come and share. Oh, fabulous.
[SPEAKER_06]: Hey, there we go. Thank you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Wait, okay. So our project, we built a Lego robot to see if you can measure things using probability. Anything else?
[SPEAKER_13]: We did the project last year, but we wanted to improve and so this time we did it with a robot to see if we can like standardize randomness and like use it to our advantage. Yeah.
[SPEAKER_11]: Well, for like the application of our project, for real world applications, we were thinking about on a lot like a really smaller scale, physicists can use this similar type of experiment to measure the size of small particles. We just did that on a larger scale so that it's observable and easier to experiment with.
[SPEAKER_04]: Wonderful, congratulations to all. We're very proud of you. And I think everybody wants to take a picture with you. Amazing students. So come on up. We're just gonna go right here. Next up, we have a presentation about Medford Public Schools Unified Arts. Ms. Haley Rello, Coordinator of Performing Arts, and Ms. Suzanne Fee, Coordinator of Fine Arts.
[SPEAKER_07]: Welcome.
[SPEAKER_17]: Good evening, everyone, Madam Mayor, Superintendent Edivar-Vincent, and school committee. We are thrilled to be up here to keep this happy, positive ball rolling this evening. So we'll be presenting on our Visual and Performing Arts program. So first, we have Fine Arts.
[SPEAKER_18]: I'm Suzanne Fee. I'm the coordinator of fine arts. I stepped into the role in July. And prior to that, I was the art teacher at the McGlynn Middle School for many, many years. And I'm excited to be in this new role. And one of the best parts about the role is sharing what our children are doing and making with the community. So with that, I'd like to give you a little update about things we've done this year. I think it's safe to say we hit the ground running when we stepped into our roles in July. Just as a review, our staff, all our elementary schools have a full-time art teacher, each middle school has a full-time art teacher, and the high school has two full-time art teachers, but we also have two teachers outside of the department teaching some two credit art courses, and I teach two courses at the high school level as well. So just to review some new and notable things that we've done this year. The National Art Honor Society, we established a chapter for the first time at the high school level, and we have 22 members this year. One of the great things about a National Art Honor Society is that one of the requirements is that you have to do 15 hours of art-based community service. So we have some students going into Kids' Corner and doing craft activities. We have kids donating artwork to waiting rooms and offices. We have some kids doing something called the Art Abandonment Project, where you leave a small piece of art for someone to take home and enjoy. And we have a lot of other projects going on. So that's been a great addition to the school community. It's also a really nice way for kids who aren't able to take an art course every year. If you have taken an art course in the past, or you plan to in the future, you can still be in the National Art Honor Society, as long as you're the proper grade level is maintained. So it's a nice way to keep students in the arts. This past month, I received grant funding to acquire supplies for students to create murals at various schools in the district. And also, the funds will be used to do some other student-directed visual improvements at the high school. And so that National Art Honor Society students are using some of those funds to do mural projects for teachers in their classroom and around the school. So it's been nice to have that cache of supplies that we can use. The online art gallery just got uploaded to the district website, and there's a separate gallery for each school in the district. And so each school's page has an art gallery, and then the fine arts page has the gallery of every school, and that will be getting updated and get new content as the year goes on. And we're really excited about being able to share the artwork with the community that way. And we had two, Mrs. Miller in web design at the vocational school and two of her senior students, Kevin Guzmo and Vibhav Saini were really instrumental in working with me to design the page and teach me how to upload the artwork and stuff. So it wouldn't have been possible without them. And it was really nice to have that student involvement. One of the first initiatives that I dove into the past summer was getting approved to be a site location for Lesley University art therapy students to conduct internships with us. Our main focus was to try to get a second year art therapy intern at the Curtis Tufts to work with our students. It didn't work out for this school year, we kind of applied too late, but we have a wonderful candidate lined up to join us at the Curtis Tufts from September to May and she's going to do some art therapy and small group, individual and whole group. And I think it's a great addition to that school. So I'm really excited about that. We've had various guest speakers this year at each level. At the elementary level, we had author and illustrator Barney Salzberg do a virtual Zoom with all elementary schools, and that was thanks to Jen Belandra, the art teacher at the McGlynn Elementary. He did an interactive Zoom, and he was able to look at some kids' artwork, and he talked about his process, and it was all based on his book, Beautiful Oops, which talks about how you could make art from mistakes and It was a great experience for all our elementary students to enjoy. At the middle school level, we had a professor of animation from MassArt. He's also a Medford Public Schools parent, Jesse Strauss, come in and talk to students about the process of animating and how to develop your story. And then at the high school level, UMass Lowell professor of graphic design and illustration came to talk to some art students, as well as the students in the graphic design program about some options at UMass Lowell. And she also joined the graphic design advisory committee this year. We're working with Susan Altman on the community mural mosaic project, which is going to be hung outside of Medford High. And we have had students from virtually every school in the district collaborating and working on the project with us. And we still have a ways to go, but it should be slated to be finished by the end of the school year. and I'm gonna share a mock-up of the design that was designed by three different students at the high school. And so we hope to have that finished by the end of the year. Ms. Arello and I also started our bi-monthly fine and performing arts newsletter called Color and Chords. The next issue will be coming soon, but you can find our back issues on the district website. We had a library display at Medford High that was really successful, and it was really a nice opportunity for students to see their work hung and framed professionally, and we'll be displaying there next year as well. We just started a photography club at Medford High, and Ms. Van Aken is going to be doing a photography contest and show later in the spring, and we have some professional photographers lined up to jury that show. Book Wonder and Medford Arts Council, thanks to them, there'll be an inclusive, diverse art library in Ms. Mazeka's classroom at the Missituk. The Roberts and the McGlynn Elementary have art shows coming up in the next few weeks. Ms. Shanley, Ms. Belanger and their PTOs have worked to receive grant funding to help defray some of the cost of mounting and displaying and hanging the artwork. Those are gonna be great shows. I think they're both in early May. The Fine Arts Hall of Fame has been in existence at the McGlynn Middle School for the past five years, and we're gonna expand that to the Andrews Middle School this year, and hopefully to other schools in the following year. Lastly, eight of our students have won Scholastic Art Awards this year, which I think is the most we've ever received in a single year, and we have a student who has been nominated for a National Award, so that's really exciting. And just really quickly looking forward to 2023 and 2024 school year, we're excited to be working with Mr. Fallon, Ms. Fitzpatrick and Mr. DeLeva to combine the arts into the CTE rotation for freshmen. It's a pilot program and we're excited to build the connection between the vocational school and our arts programs. Ms. Rallo and I would like to plan some sort of arts week or arts month next school year that would be dedicated to showcasing student artwork in various locations throughout the district in tandem with some music and performance events as well. So we'd like to try to coordinate that. We have a new photography course being offered at the high school this year for the first time in a while. And I'm thrilled about that. It's kind of been a void in our program. Virtually every school in the surrounding communities and similar districts do offer some photography courses. So we're starting with a digital photography course, and then hopefully in years to come, we can expand that to film photography. And we also have a new art history course. It's an art history and drawing course that's going to be offered as well. And lastly, just looking towards next year, I wanna try to increase community collaboration, pulling in some more of our, the city is full of professionals and artists who I'm sure are willing to share their expertise and real world knowledge with our students. So I wanna sort of explore that a little bit more. I'm working with Arts Collaborative in Medford and hopefully we can develop a partnership so they can provide some meaningful art opportunities for our students outside of school. And lastly, I wanna try to build some connections between our artists across grade levels. So maybe our high school art clubs and middle school art clubs can collaborate and do some stuff together. I think that would be nice to continue to foster that love of arts for our younger students. So that's it, I'm gonna turn it over to Ms. Rallo about performing arts.
[SPEAKER_04]: And before you, Ms. Rallo, before you start, I know we have a student spotlight, I see it in your presentation. Yes. He's here tonight.
[SPEAKER_18]: I already took his picture for the next day.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yes, our student rep.
[SPEAKER_07]: So I had to point that out.
[SPEAKER_05]: Great job.
[SPEAKER_17]: All right, so for performing arts, We really focused this year on three main factors. We embraced performance opportunities, we enhanced equipment needs, and we upgraded our facilities. So when looking at our... You have a copy of this in front of you, right? Okay, perfect. It wasn't on the screen. That's all right. So we started the year with our Jumpstart Music Camp in August. We had over 70 students participate in the camp this year. It's two weeks long with a performance at the end for all of our friends and family. Students worked in sectionals, had outdoor game and snack time, as well as ensemble time. And the wonderful thing is it's free to all Medford students entering grades four through eight, so. really tried to expand on that this summer. Last summer we had, the summer before, we had about around 50 students. So every time we enroll, we get more and more. So we're hoping to further that for the future. Then we moved into marching band, which went through August to October. This season, they attended five competitions and won nine trophies. They placed second at the New England Scholastic Band Association's championship finals. with a gold medal and best color guard for our division. So they worked really hard this season. They did really well. We moved into football games in October and November. This year, we got to go to Fenway Park. So the students got the opportunity to play the national anthem at Fenway, and they also got to play stand tunes during halftime, be seen on the big jumbotron. It was a big deal. We were really excited about it. From there, we moved into the fall play. We hadn't had a fall play since 2019. So we're really excited to bring this back after COVID. I know it's way too long, but it's okay. It all worked out. It was directed by our faculty advisor, Riley Jones. The students put on a really great production. They had a lot of fun and it was really nice to see some theater going on in our theater again. At the middle school and high school winter concerts, we head into that into December. They featured our six through 12 band and orchestra programs, so they were able to highlight the middle school and high school ensembles. We get to recognize our seniors and it's our last winter concert, so we get to kind of know, move through that. Moving on, we went to elementary winter concert, which is in January. This featured our fifth grade strings, our select fifth grade band, and our Roberts hand chimes. This is the very first time our fifth grade band ever got to perform in a winter concert. Usually they work all year and perform the spring, but now that last year was the first year piloting our fourth grade band program, we now have a second year of elementary school band it's a little bit more advanced, no longer beginners, so we threw this challenge at them and we had a bunch of students come play. Some students got up and played solos, some of them played one piece at the end of the concert together, so they worked really hard and it was a big milestone for us to get that first elementary winter fan concert out there. We brought back elementary assemblies. We hadn't had those since pre-COVID. The students were really excited. We hadn't had a chance to get them all in the gym singing and making music together and playing instruments and showcasing and showing their peers what they've been working on. So they were really excited about that. There was some dancing, there were some orphan instruments. There was lots of different exciting things. So they did those at the elementary schools between November and February. We're moving on to our Modern Music Ensemble, which is a class at the high school level that Ms. Farr teaches. They got to perform this year at MMEA, which is the Massachusetts Music Educators Association. So they were chosen to go perform there. In addition, Andrew Soule's original composition was recognized by MMEA's Contemporary Creators Festival. All seven students participated in a composition and songwriting forum that included feedback on Andrew's work from composition and songwriting professors from Berkeley, UMass Lowell, and Boston Conservatory. So they got to kind of break down his work. The students got to perform it. They had a really good time. I think they all caught the performance bug. So for some of them, they had never performed in front of people before, because it's a class during the day. It's not a performance, necessarily a performance-based class. they kind of got to get up and perform. And now some of them are looking for more opportunities and they're really excited because they really, really enjoyed it. So. Jayden Veal was selected to perform with the Northeast Junior District Orchestra. So Jayden is a freshman violinist at Medford High School. He auditioned and was selected from hundreds of students across the district to participate. The district orchestra has performed at Galvin Middle School in Wakefield, Mass. this past weekend. So congrats to Jayden. It's really exciting. Giving a little rep to Medford. And that's kind of our performance opportunities. So looking at enhancing our equipment needs. We also moved on to that to do some upgrades. So we got some new computers in the high school music tech lab from Tufts University prior to Prior to this year, we had 10 computers, so the class is maxed out at 20 students. We had two students sharing one computer, but now we actually have 20 computers. Now every student has their own keyboard, has their own computer, and can kind of work on their own projects, which is really great to expand that. We ordered some new keyboards for the McGlynn Middle School. Last year, the Andrews got keyboard updates. So this year, McGlynn got keyboard updates. We got some new ukuleles for the Brooks Elementary School. Ms. Turner does a ukulele program there. So we ordered some additional ones so that students don't have to share equipment. We can have extra resources. We did some new fourth and fifth grade string repairs. So we have a program where students in fourth and fifth grade can rent an instrument from the district instead of renting it from from an outside vendor so we can keep the cost down and provide more opportunities for students. But over the last few years, we have had a lot of repairs that needed to get done that haven't necessarily gotten done. So we jumped on that this year and started repairing them so we can have more instruments available for our students for next year. And we also received new touch view boards for general music classrooms. So now every general music classroom K through 12 has a touch view board. Two of them are already installed. The other ones are coming, but they'll be able to project on there. They can put class websites on there. There are pens that come with them. So the students can compose music and they can draw and they can write on them. It's a great visual and music tool that we can use in the classroom. you can split the board so multiple students can work at them at the same time. So a lot of other classrooms in the district also received them this year, but there's some really cool music specific opportunities we can do with them. So we're excited to say we have one. We will have one by the end of this year in every general music classroom. Moving on to facility updates, we have a new guitar storage closet. So over quarantine, we purchased additional guitars so that every student taking guitar at the high school level could get a guitar dropped off at their house and they could play and practice and get the experience of taking the class online with an actual instrument, which meant we had a lot of additional instruments and not a lot of space. So luckily, Buildings and Grounds is able to build a nice guitar storage for us. We took part of a hallway and made that. So now we have enough space there. So now if students want to sign one out or bring one home, they're able to do so. And we can maintain them and keep them in a nice facility. We have a new arts workspace, our conflab lab, which is a place where both art and music can come and collaborate. The term conflab means to get together for an informal discussion to solve problems. So that's kind of our little lab to do that. We are able to work together, have a nice big space where we can kind of just collaborate and solve all the problems of the world through art and music. We have some new bulletin boards to showcase things like our new newsletter, some student updates, schedules, things to keep the students informed. Ms. Fard has a new gig board outside her classroom. So every time she gets word of a new gig or new opportunities for college or different things going on in the community, she can put it on there and the students can come by and they can grab something so they can look for some more. performance opportunities. That was a big thing this year. And we have some new lighting for our high school trophy case, which was built by Alex Lee, who's an alumni. It was his Eagle Scout project a few years ago, and it's in this really dark hallway. So we purchased some lighting for it to kind of fix it up and make it look really bright and shiny when you walk into by the theater. I don't think you can go on, Peter. There we go. There's Sarah in her new closet, really exciting. All right, so moving on to what's coming up. On the first, our winter guard finals. So our winter color guard is currently undefeated this year. This is the, I know it's really great, they're awesome. Their championship finals are on the first. This is the fifth year in a row they've been undefeated, so they're kind of a force to be reckoned with, and they're coming in hard for finals, so we're excited for them. The high school orchestra is also competing at MICA on that day, so busy day for us. On the 15th, the band is heading to Disney World, and they're performing in Disney World on the 15th. The 27th and 29th is the spring musical. They're doing Urinetown in the theater at the high school. On the 6th, the band and orchestra is going to compete in a music festival at Six Flags. May 3rd to 17th, there are spring concerts this year. And we just received a grant, so the Boston Saxophone Quartet is going to be coming. We got accepted to their Noteworthy Scholars Program, where they'll be coming in and they'll be doing two clinics with us and a performance. They're going to work with the students on things like intonation and improvisation, performance anxiety, all kinds of fun things. So we have those two clinics coming up, but they have not been put on the calendar yet. Looking forward to the future for the elementary level for next year. We're hoping to increase more performance opportunities. We're hoping to bring back the troublemakers chorus, which is grades two to five. We're hoping to collaborate with the school principals and increasing and adding musical guests for assemblies and music related field trips. All elementary school students used to take music field trips in the past, but those obviously were taken out due to COVID. So we're hoping to kind of work with the principals to get those back in. It was really fun to kind of teach the students about live performances and how to be a good audience member and get to take them places and show them live performances. So we're really hoping to get that, get that back. At the middle school level, we're also looking to increase performance opportunities. We're going to continue upgrading general music equipment. So in the last two years, the middle schools have received guitars, they received ukuleles, now they both have received keyboards. So we're working really hard to maintain what we have and also increase more opportunities as the students come up with more and more talent. We're also hoping to collaborate with the principals to bring back the chorus at the middle school level and also develop a visual and performing arts day. As Ms. Fee had kind of mentioned, we're really looking at showcasing what we have and how to get more students involved and show them how they can get involved. So at the high school level, we're looking for collaborating with principals to bring back the chorus again. We are currently in chorus lists. We're hoping to expand our theater program and we're looking to develop the visual performing arts day. So the high school will go down to the middle school and they'll work with them and it'd be a really good collaboration. As far as outside of school, hopes and dreams go. We're looking to expand the Jump Start Music Camp to provide more offerings. We're looking to bring the Drama Club back to Drama Fest. That's something that we used to do in the past where we would compete in a one-act play and get to work with other schools as part of METG, which is the Massachusetts Education Theater Association, sorry, Guild. And we got to go to clinics and the students could enter workshops and different contests. It was really exciting. And we're looking for more clinics and workshops for the instrumental students. So we used to bring in a lot of guests in the last few years, but obviously COVID kind of put a little damper on that. So we're looking at having some guest conductors come back in, some clinicians, some masterclasses, so that the students can really get into furthering their performing arts education. But you're welcome.
[SPEAKER_19]: Any questions?
[SPEAKER_04]: Member Graham?
[SPEAKER_19]: We were talking actually at the last meeting about theater not being part of the school day. And it sounds like that's on the plan for next year. Is that true? It is, fingers crossed.
[SPEAKER_17]: So we're hoping that theater will be one of the tracks that students will go through as part of the freshman exploratory class. And then further than that, as a sophomore, We need to bring back the intro to American musical theater class and the advanced technical theater class. So the intro to American musical theater class addressed all the performance, um, opportunities to students that wanted to be in the spotlight. They wanted to learn dancing and singing and improvisation and stage fighting and combat and all kinds of fun things. Um, and then we had the advanced technical theater class, which is for everyone who wanted to be behind the scenes. That was like stage craft and lighting and sound design and programming. So, um, make sure we had a class for both students, because they're different needs, but hopefully that will run for next year.
[SPEAKER_19]: And do we have teachers in our rank to do that now, or is that something that we'll have to prioritize at budget time?
[SPEAKER_17]: We currently don't have any teachers in the performing arts besides myself that are certified in theater education. Okay.
[SPEAKER_19]: Thank you.
[SPEAKER_04]: That's helpful. Thanks. Member Ruseau?
[SPEAKER_14]: Thank you. I'm very excited by photography. My daughter is very excited by photography.
[SPEAKER_18]: I hope that- Yeah, the students are all abuzz.
[SPEAKER_14]: Yes, all abuzz. And obviously photography is a little different now than when I was a student, but we're doing digital photography because, you know, the other stuff requires a lot. Yes. But will students be, required to bring their own equipment and what kind of equipment requirements will be there?
[SPEAKER_18]: So we're trying to get some digital cameras, but we've structured the class so that everything could be done using their phones actually, which they do have pretty advanced phones now. And we used to have a dark room at Medford High that we're hoping to try to resurrect. We need to solve some ventilation issues so that the following year we could hopefully offer film photography as well. So it's an exciting new development.
[SPEAKER_14]: Thank you. That's exciting. I know when my daughter mentioned it when she was doing her fall selections, I did not know that you can buy for like 20 bucks, really amazing equipment to attach to your iPhone and turn them into like equipment that didn't even exist when I was a kid. So it's kind of amazing how the bar is much lower to be able to do some great stuff. So that's exciting. Thank you.
[SPEAKER_18]: And Mr. Kane started a photography club this year to sort of help generate interest. And he applied for a Medford Educational Fund grant and received a nice photo printer. So we'll be able to start showcasing the work right away.
[SPEAKER_06]: Excellent. Thank you.
[SPEAKER_18]: Thank you.
[SPEAKER_07]: Thank you for the wonderful presentation and all the hard work. We appreciate it.
[SPEAKER_04]: Next, we have an update on the before and after school program, Miss Megan Fiddler-Carrie, Director of Family and Community Engagement. Welcome.
[SPEAKER_10]: Hello, welcome. Good evening. It's nice to see you all. Thank you for this opportunity for my biannual update about before and after school, where I kind of give you A purpose for today will be just a snapshot on the state of the program for both before and after school, where we are, how many students we have, what the makeup of the students are that are currently attending. And then I have some proposals I'd like to run by you so that we can continue our discussions about keeping affordability for after school families, but also the retention rate for the before and after school staff who we know You've heard me several times say that it's kind of a tricky time period of the day to hire for. So I want to make it an attractive job for quality people, qualified applicants. So I'll just get into the current state of the program. I want to include some background in case there's anybody watching. who's new to the Medford public schools and hasn't heard me talk about that before and after school. I know that a lot of people are registering for kindergarten now. We'll talk about the applying for the lottery for people for next year. We'll talk about that a little bit later in the presentation. So before and after school programs are at all four of the elementary schools in Medford, before school for one hour and after school from dismissal until six o'clock. And it will be the same on the early release Wednesdays next year from dismissal until six o'clock. We have, it's broken down into four sections. We have snack, homework time, physical runaround education, physical time where the students can have an unstructured time to play, and then a structured block where we have our staff do organized activity that's either It can be a physical game if that's what the kids are interested in and the teachers are interested in, or it can be an activity or a craft. And we try and keep our ratios, our staff-student ratios, one staff for every 10 students, and that's recommended as best practice from surrounding areas and also from the Department of Early Education and Care. That's their recommended ratio for licensed programs, so we really try to stick to that. We want to provide families with affordable care so we we've got a competitive rate for tuition in place and when I say competitive, I'm always looking at surrounding towns. Many of you have heard me say a bazillion times that I'm on. It's called the network of extended day directors. It's a council of different after school directors from all over Massachusetts who have district run programs like ours. We get together every other month and we email each other constantly with questions. And we compare notes all the time about pay rates, tuition rates, best practices. So our rates are competitive compared to our surrounding towns. and also compared to Ned's data. We also have a sliding scale of financial assistance for families who demonstrate need and who qualify. So I've got some real details in here for you. This is our current state of the before and after school. Our current rate for before school programming is $140 a month if you attend for five days. and $104 a month if you attend for only three days. And that has stayed constant for more than five years. So I just want to point out that that rate has not moved in the last five years for before school. Our current daily rate for the afterschool program is about $26 a day. So families who have five days a week in afterschool pays $475 a month. I know I'm throwing a lot of numbers out. Let me know if I'm confusing it a little bit. But this, I know that this slide presentation is available on websites. So if anybody watching wants to go back and look at it, those will be available. In comparison, like I said, comparison to our other districts, we're neither the cheapest or the most expensive. We're about right in the middle. The makeup of our after-school program is we are overseen by Suzanne Galusi, the Assistant Superintendent of Academics and Instruction, myself, the Director of Family and Community Engagement, and my office is at the high school, but I spend a lot of time visiting the other schools to check in, to evaluate, and also to pitch in. You know, whenever we have staff out, I have the opportunity to pitch in and help out, which is actually really fun. And then at each of the elementary schools at the sites, we have a site coordinator who is sort of the principal of that program. And then group leaders, in some cases, senior group leaders for our bigger programs where we need senior group leaders who can mentor the other staff and the new staff. Group leaders who are like the teachers and they're the ones that plan that fourth block that I described, the activity, the structured activity. assistant group leaders, and high school aides. And our high school aides are invaluable. We love them, but we can't leave students alone with them. So they do not contribute to that 10 to one ratio that I mentioned earlier. I think that's really important to point out. They're very helpful with homework help. We give them a lot of training on how not to give the answers, but they are a lot closer to the math curriculum age-wise than a lot of our staff. So it's really imperative that we have those high school helpers. And the coordinators, and it's really important to note that all of These staff are budgeted, the pay for their salaries comes out of the tuitions that are paid for the before and after school program. So I wanna make clear that money coming in helps with money going out. Here are our current numbers. I know that this is, oh, can we go back one? Oh, no, the current, no, you're right. Sorry, these are current numbers. I thought that I had the after school first, but I put the before school numbers first. So we have 40 students at the Brooks, 20 at the McGlynn, 17 at the Missittuck, and 26 at the Roberts. We've been fortunate that we haven't had gigantic wait lists. We do at the Roberts because it's a staffing, it's also a capacity, it's about the needs of our students that are in our program and how much supervision they need. So when we think about taking students off of our wait lists, we have to think about the students that we have in front of us and which staff members we have to meet those needs. So staffing is challenging at the before school. It's all staffed by teachers and paras. We don't have outside people that only come and work in the before school program and then leave. It's before school paras. And I will note also, this will come up later, the pay for before school teachers also hasn't changed in several years. And I wanna talk to you a little bit about that. Okay, next slide, please. So this is the numbers for the after school program. You'll look at these numbers, but I do wanna, I would like all of you to recall that we had a discussion. I'm not sure if it was the last time I was here or when I was here in the fall. We've talked about, instead of talking about how many students are in a program, we talk about how many seats are in a program. So when we're talking about wait lists, it's really important to talk about seats, the number of seats, and that's how many kids are there on a given day, how many kids we have capacity to support on a given day. versus these numbers that you're looking at right now, which is how many students are on our roster. So not all of these students come every day. Students can come to the afterschool program two, three, or five days a week. And so these numbers don't represent a given day. They represent the total number of students that I have contact information for and emergency information for. So I'll give you a second to look at those numbers. you'll notice that the wait lists are significant, especially at the Brooks and the Roberts. And we do our best to look at them very closely. If there's any movement, we reach out to the people on the wait list, the next on the list. And if somebody who was only there for two days leaves, I call, and even if the person has told me they need five days, I call and say, well, would these two days be helpful to you? And if they say, no, we really only need five, I go down to the next person on the list. That's how it's been working. So this is the demographic information that has been requested for me in the past. So this is the whole before and after school program. We met about this as a team and I was starting to look at it and breaking it down by before school and after school and the different, the four schools. And we realized that we might be getting a little close to violating some FERPA confidentiality for students. So that's why you have it in aggregate for the whole before and after school programs.
[SPEAKER_09]: But we wanted to just show that information.
[SPEAKER_10]: Okay, now I know many, if some people have tuned in just for the before and after school program, they're probably interested in this information. For new students coming to Medford next year who are not current students in the Medford Public School Program, there is a lottery for the open spots that will start on April 1st. Application and sign up for that lottery will be open from April 1st until April 13th, and then the lottery will run on April 14th. There's going to be a Google form that I'll put up on April 1st on our website. It'll be on our main page. It'll be on the before and after school website. I'll have links to it on the Facebook page, which if you're interested in after school, I encourage everyone to follow us at after Medford. There's a, there's a final slide at the end with that information as well. But this, I don't want to put it up any earlier than that because I don't want to confuse people to think that if they've engaged with that form at all, that they've already signed up. So I'm waiting until April 1st to even put the Google form on the website, but that will be available on April 1st.
[SPEAKER_04]: And Ms. Fidlikary, is the lottery new?
[SPEAKER_10]: No, this will be the third year that we've run the lottery.
[SPEAKER_04]: Third year that you've run the lottery, but there's still a wait list proponent to it.
[SPEAKER_10]: So this is a great question. I'm glad you brought this up because this is very worth clarification. So wait lists, It's not one spot for one spot in our afterschool program. We have grade groups, because for example, if a spot opens up in fifth grade, but there's a kindergartner on the wait list, we can't put the kindergartner in the fifth grade grade group. So it's really important to note that our wait lists, so the open spots we'll have available are mostly at the kindergarten level, because as everybody's graduated up, the fifth graders have gone on to middle school, but the fourth graders are now fifth graders, and the people on that wait list are still on that wait list. They can't have a kindergarten spot because it wouldn't work to put fourth graders in the kindergarten grade group. Thank you for asking that question. So while we're talking about waitlists, and like I said, it's only for new students. The lottery is only for new students who are not currently enrolled. Anyone who's currently on a waitlist does not have to enter the lottery on April 1st, because their waitlist currently, where they are on the waitlist will transfer till next year. They move year to year and they stay right where they are and just move up. So I'm gonna take this opportunity to take a break in the presentation to ask, to offer a proposal, something that we've talked about in many different circles about possibly changing that format for the wait list. I wanna run this by you. Instead of a ranked list where students, I'll run it by the lottery. It'll give me a list. The top people on that list get the open spots and everybody else is put on the wait list in that order. anybody added to the wait list, instead of calling it a list, it'll be like they stay in the lottery. So they'll be put in their grade group. But as soon as a spot opens up, I'll run that lottery for the students who are in the wait list through the lottery generator. I mean, the generator again. So it's as though they have a fresh chance every time. I'm sure this will have questions. So we can either take a break and take questions now, or I could save, I can go through the rest of the presentation. We'll do questions about that at the end.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, that's, that sounds good. So let that jumble and come up with your questions. I want to let that digest in my head because people at the bottom of the list would love that plan. People that have been waiting for years that are at the top of the list would hate that plan. Right. Member Ruseau.
[SPEAKER_14]: So the change, though, is not for anybody currently on a wait list. It would just be the new kindergartners.
[SPEAKER_10]: We could talk about that. We could decide. OK. Yeah. I mean, if that could be the recommendation.
[SPEAKER_14]: So my understanding of some of the problem with a wait list, everybody gets a number when we do the lottery, is that if you're number one on the wait list, well, that means something different than if you're number 142 on the wait list. At least it does to the parent. In reality, I mean, if I was a parent and I was number one on the wait list, I would make decisions very differently than if I was number 107, I'm sorry, 107 at the Brooks wait list. I would not behave the same. I would be like, somebody's gonna leave. Somebody's gonna, something's gonna happen. I'm gonna get a spot. I'm not going to find additional, I'm not gonna be looking for another option. And if I'm number one, it doesn't feel terribly risky. If I'm number three, it's sort of as a risk. And as you move down the list, it becomes pointless. If you're number 107, to say it's risky to just wait for a spot is an understatement. The problem is being number one on the wait list does not mean you're next. And I think that that is an impossible logical thing for most families to comprehend. Being number one on the wait list does not mean you get the next spot. So if a kindergartner is doing two days a week, And they move and now it opens up and the next person needs five days a week or three days a week or two days a week, but a different two days a week. Those two days cannot work. They're number one on the list. They don't get a spot. And I think this is too complicated, frankly, for even when we've had this conversation before and I have to like, am I saying it correctly? Because it is complicated. And I think it's unfair for people who are number one, two, three, four, five to be put in a position of- False hope. What do you do? False hope. It's like, do you have to communicate with you at least 72 times over the summer in hopes that number one will, you'll go from number one to having a seat. It feels like it sets a situation up where you look, not you personally, but the program looks bad and it gives false hope. And so that's sort of my big problem with this list. I also think that we've talked about who's in the list, meaning are there people who aren't even applying because they know we have not anywhere near enough spots. And my mind, we wanna know how big is the actual demand. And we do not know the actual demand right now. I mean, at the Brooks, if you take all of the kids that are in the program and everybody that's on the wait list, that's like half the student body. But the other schools, it's not anywhere near that. And without knowing the demand, it's really hard to make decisions. I think if everybody was, we picked the top, the kids that are getting a spot and everybody else gets to sit in the pile, well, then there's this like, it could be my turn. And it would feel like I would wanna throw my name in the hat and maybe get a much cheaper program than I'm gonna get at a private provider, which is really a different conversation we'll have later in the slide deck. I just think that, and correct me if I'm wrong, but other districts do not do wait lists. They do a lottery every time a spot opens up.
[SPEAKER_10]: That's correct. There are several districts that don't do wait lists at all. There are some that have finite wait lists that they'll take a wait list of five students and then they turn off the wait list. So that's a possibility. a waitlist as long as I've been asked to, because I'm like you, I'm curious. I want to know what the actual demand is. I'd like to know the true data about it. But to your point, there are several families that I've never heard from. So I don't know that they don't need it just because they're not on my waitlist. And I don't know that some of the people on my waitlist actually do need it, or they're just thinking, you know, I'd rather my child hang out with friends at school instead of come home. to just me, so they don't necessarily need childcare, but they want socialization and all the other benefits that afterschool programs have. So it's not completely accurate data, but I keep the long wait lists for that reason.
[SPEAKER_14]: So if we did away with the wait list, the lottery situation right now is we run it, we create the wait list, And then I moved to Medford or I hear about this system after the date of the wait list gets generated now. And I would know to not apply because there's 107 kids on the wait list. I will be number 108. I'm not filling out a damn form so I can be number 108 on the wait list. That's not how I like to use my time. But if we get rid of the wait list, I find out about this after the selection has happened. I move to Medford after the selection has happened. I fill out the form in June, July, August, September, any time I get added into the pile, and I have the same opportunity as anybody else to get picked the next time a spot opens. And that feels particularly fair to me because Well, I mean, communications isn't our biggest strength, but even if it was our biggest strength, there will always be people moving into the community or people who are just completely unaware. And it doesn't feel like, well, frankly, always knowing what's going on is a very privileged position. And so for people that do not have that privilege to also lose the opportunities that we offer just seems like a double whammy. I'll wait for my motion because I realize that other people have something to say, but it feels a lot fairer to me, both to a parent that would know to not get this false hope, but also to all the people who don't know in time about this two-week period to have the same opportunities to use the services that we're providing. And everybody should have those same opportunities, so thank you.
[SPEAKER_19]: Thank you. Member Graham? Thank you. I like where this proposal is going for a bunch of reasons, not the least of which is we, we get a lot of feedback about communication with the afterschool program, right? We get lots of requests for data. We get, we have lots of really interested parents. And one of the things I hear from parents when they're frustrated is with the best of intention, you're trying to set expectations. and it's received really, really badly. And so suddenly you are the actual problem, right? Because you have said you're 107 on the wait list, like you should make other arrangements, right? And I think that's true, accurate and factual, but it's putting you in a position to constantly be peppered with questions about, am I getting closer? Am I getting closer? Am I getting closer? And I think that's, intended to be a satisfying thing for people to know that progress is being made. But I don't think it actually bears out that way at all. I think it just constantly creates this frustration. So I'm hugely in favor of not pulling a wait list for all the reasons that Member Ruseau talked about and that we've talked about over a long period of time. I would like us to think about Today, if we're going to take a vote, being the line of marcation, right? So if you are on the wait list today, you can stay on the list, right? We'll process you in and through. But I don't want to create a window. for people to rush to sign up because then they get on the list. And then the lottery like becomes this really hollow thing because so many people rush to get on the list that like the lottery can never actually happen. And obviously with the kindergartners, like that's like the fresh start through to start setting that precedent. But I think even for families who may have a first grader or a second grader, like I don't want to create a situation where we're sort of inflating the number of people on the list because people perceive that that's the way to combat the fact that we're going to move to a lottery-based system. So I think it probably makes sense to think through that as well and to provide some sort of line of demarcation that comes from us so that you don't have to be the arbiter of that decision or be in a position where you have to be the like voice of disappointment again and again and again as we make this transition because these transitions are hard for people and I totally like understand and appreciate that. So I think this has a lot of merit. And I think when we talk about wanting to serve as many people as possible, I think that's it's great. And it's something we should continue to work toward. But I think the process while we're not there has become a bit untenable for the district. And my concern is that if it continues to get more and more and more untenable, that we will do what lots of districts do and just say, we can't do this anymore. And we can't afford for that to happen in Medford because Medford doesn't have other options. Lots of these other communities have lots of options and we do not. So we can't create an environment that continues to like set up this discontent. Um, so I think people maybe be unhappy about this shift, but I would rather like sort of withstand that in the short term, then create a situation where a year from now you all are coming to us and saying, we can't do this anymore. Like we can't make this work. It is too much. That is what I really want to try to avoid. And so I do feel like we have to take some active measure to, to get us there. So I'm totally in favor of it. I just would want to make sure that we're super clear about what it is, who gets to stay on the wait list, and who is subject to lottery when that happens.
[SPEAKER_10]: Yeah, if somebody looks back a couple of slides, they'll notice that that was one of the things that I said. Other districts have opted to not have a district-run program for reasons like this.
[SPEAKER_19]: It's a real concern, especially in Medford. Lots of communities face the same issue in their school-based programs. Lots of other communities have lots of other options, and that is not something that we have here in Medford. We just don't.
[SPEAKER_10]: Although I did want to share the good news about, um, there is one new program coming to Medford and as promised, we're doing everything in our capacity to partner with them. Um, so it's a program called Ready, Set, Kids. And I believe some parents actually were instrumental in helping to sort of them to the city and they'll be opening up in West Medford with a small program. But it's something and it's an alternative to help us with the waitlist, number one. And number two, as we've said before, an in-district at-school program is not perfect for every kid. There are a lot of kids who need a change of scenery for whom staying in the same building for possibly 10 hours if they're in the before and after school program. is really not ideal. So I'm delighted that there's another alternative opening up. I'd love to see more. And again, I will, the superintendent is committed to this. We'll do anything that we can in partnership with them to help ease the transition, whether that's providing transportation from the elementary schools to those programs, or I invited her to join on the Medford Family Resource Council with the Medford Family Network so that we can all kind of work together and share resources. So we're still committed to that. So as far as, thank you. Any other questions on the lottery until we get to it?
[SPEAKER_14]: Do you want to wait for my motion to the end? Do you want to make my motion now?
[SPEAKER_07]: Let us process. We'll do all motions at the end if you can. Thanks.
[SPEAKER_10]: Okay, so now I've given you sort of the state of the program and who the students are and where we are with the students, but now I'd like to talk to you about the budget of the program. As a reminder, and to people who are watching who don't know about this, the district-run program is fully self-supported. It's a revolving account for people who know that parlance, but it's the outgoing money for costs is supported by the incoming money from tuition. So with that in mind, I have some presentations on the budgets. So this is my projection for next year. Total personnel costs, and that's counting those at the school personnel that I mentioned, the site coordinators, group leaders, assistant group leaders, and high school aides. And then supplies and this is for our crafts and our games and we share with the schools, a little bit, but we try not to because we understand that those are sort of belong to the phys ed teacher belong to the art teacher so we like to have our own supplies and that way if we wreck something we're not feeling guilty about it the next day so. supplies, miscellaneous expenses. Of course, at every school, we have cell phones for emergencies and for dismissals and administrative personnel. So this is for me, my salary comes out of this revolving account and my administrative assistant. And then you'll recall school committee members that as part of the budget, I believe last year, we talked about including the wraparound paraprofessionals. and wrap around, this was suggested by you, this has been suggested by our superintendent, I think we're finally gonna make it happen with the paraprofessionals union, that we're gonna have a paraprofessional position that is from 11 to five. So they support the school for the second half of the school day, but then stay to support the afterschool programs for the afternoon. And I think this is instrumental because these are people who are in the building and know the school, they know the students, they can come to the after school program having, you know, been a part of the tenor of the day, they can say there was some incident that might make some kids agitated and they bring this information to the after school. and they work those lucrative hours. So there's money allotted that has never been allotted from the afterschool budget before for those paraprofessionals. That's the new cost. Another new cost is the Office of Family and Community Engagement Program Manager. So this is a woman who she works partly to support the before and afterschool programs and partly for the Medford Family Network. And she's really helping in the Medford Family Network with grants and grant reporting. And she's gonna be doing some funding searching for lots of different programs in the family engagement offices. So she'll be looking for more funding for Medford Family Network as well as professional development and funding for the afterschool programs. So some of her salary comes from there too.
[SPEAKER_14]: Mayor.
[SPEAKER_04]: Member Russell.
[SPEAKER_14]: Just to point out that when we look at a budget like this, there's a gigantic line item that does not exist that would exist in any private program. And that is we, the program pays exactly $0 for the building, $0 for heat, $0 for electricity. These are incredibly expensive that the district provides and are free to the program. And that's fine, but I think it's important to consider when we talk about how On the next slide, you'll see that there's more income than going out. But it is, in my mind, not a reflection of just like a cash cow, like to have these programs in a facility where you are paying rent and you are paying your own utilities would far outstrip the deferential. So I just think that's really important when looking at this budget to recognize that, that the excess cash is not just, it's not play money. It's like, we're providing something as a district, the taxpayers are. And so it is, in my mind, very appropriate and rational that that is essentially coming back. I'll let you get to your next slide where you'll see that, but thank you.
[SPEAKER_10]: No, that's a great point, because in addition to utilities and custodial, services, we have payroll services, we have lots of, you're right, lots of work that is done. That's a great idea. I should include a kind of in-kind line in there next time I do this, I will. Because that is, it's appreciated and it's extensive, especially because I have so many people coming in and out of the before or the after school service throughout the year. So I'm constantly in the human resources office like, Hey, I have another new person, you know, for two days a week, but you still have to do the same amount of work that you would do for a salaried person who works every day. So that is, that's definitely worth noting. Okay. So this is our anticipated income, especially depending on, you know, conversations we have a couple slides later. But so we are fortunate to have for the last several years received a grant from the city from the community to community development block grant. They have different grants that meet the needs of residents who qualify for as low income residents. And so we've qualified for tuition subsidies for our students. Last year, their funding, the city's funding was cut. So all of their grantees funding was cut a little bit, but typically we've enjoyed $10,000 a year. So we see no reason, fingers crossed, that we won't get that full 10,000. Hopefully it'll be back up. for next year to subsidize and, but otherwise we'll have the income from the tuitions. It's important to note that we, we have to keep this, this is a revolving account and all of our expenses come from the tuitions. So we need to keep this healthy and keep on top of it and make sure that we're, you know, always in the black. So the proposal that I have for, I did after school first, because this is one that we ask for every year. Historically, we've asked for only two to 3% increases. And that was in line with what the state increased for what they would reimburse us for vouchers. So you'll recall last year was the, we stopped taking vouchers from the state because for several reasons. And this year we are doing financial assistance on our own sliding scale. But because it's our own sliding scale and we're not reliant on reimbursement from the state, we don't necessarily have to follow what their reimbursement minimums or maximums rather are. So this year, I'm proposing going up just a little bit more than 3%, the 3%. And it's to get us closer to closer to the middle top of where other districts are to help us cover our costs that we're anticipating for next year. And the biggest cost that I'll talk about in a minute is pay rates to the staff. And I'd like you to consider that. So look at, you'll have those numbers for the afterschool tuition. And then again, before school tuition, as I've said, has not changed in several years. Certainly not since I've been working as the before and after school, which has been five years. So I propose raising that to an even $10 an hour.
[SPEAKER_09]: I think it's the next one. Okay, are there, before I go on to pay rates, are there any questions that jump out?
[SPEAKER_10]: Yeah, keep going. Okay, sorry. Okay, so pay rates, again, I outlined all the different positions that we have in the afterschool program. So I've struggled with retention of staff for years since I've worked in afterschool, which was five years here and before that in a different district. And it's a tricky time of day to hire for, but also we have to compensate well. We have to understand that they are planning for these students. They're keeping them safe. They are the nurse. There's no nurse on staff. They're the parents. They're the communication with the parents. They're often delivering messages from the school when parents pick up. So it's really imperative that we right size their paychecks. And I feel like they've been. Underpaid, I think we did a big service to them two years ago. We gave them a significant pay rate that was fantastic, and we were ahead in Massachusetts. But then everybody did what we did. Everybody said, wow, look at Medford. They've got something going. And so everybody has risen to us. So we're no longer in the lead for our pay rates. We are right in the middle. And I'd just like to propose right-sizing our pay for site coordinators and group leaders, which is where we were sort of dipping.
[SPEAKER_19]: I just also want to point out that I don't think the takeaway should be that we raised our rates so everybody else did too. There's an entire economic set of factors at play that make jobs like this a completely different animal today than they were two years ago or three years ago. And so if we want to compete in the economic reality, like we I think we did the right thing two years ago and what you're proposing here is the right thing in the right now because wages don't go down. That just really doesn't happen. So if we don't do this, I think we're going to be able to service even fewer kids next year because we will have fewer staff. So we need to make sure that we're prioritizing serving as many kids as we possibly can.
[SPEAKER_04]: And if I may, from the chair, Your slide for budgeted estimates for 2023-2024, does that take into account us approving? Yes, I was being very optimistic.
[SPEAKER_10]: I wondered if maybe that slide should have been in different order.
[SPEAKER_04]: So the revenue would be, okay, the 1.5. If we approve the increases in the rates and the estimates for the budget, that's as if we approved the pay increases. Okay, thank you.
[SPEAKER_14]: So, thank you. I know I might be a little bit out of step on this from other people, and that's why there's a committee and not just one person in charge. But, you know, what's, you know, we live in a end stage capitalist society. I think that's really not a, that's not a controversial statement. And the private companies, nationwide private companies providing these services are paying dramatically more than we will ever pay and charging families, you know, $40,000 a year. So, you know, this program is in a weird space where it is not public, not private, but also somehow competing with private. So I don't, you know, I look at these wages and I see none of these wages making somebody leave another job to take these jobs. I just can't fathom anyone leaving any job at any pay to take these jobs. So if our goal is competition for workers, which, you know, it's like been front page news for three years now that everybody left the workforce. not everybody, but a lot of people, and they're not coming back. So, you know, in my mind, we have to get workers that already have jobs elsewhere. That's how you get your workers. That's how every private business does it. And, you know, just wishing that they're gonna show up. I don't know how that, I'm not saying you're doing it, but just wishing that they're gonna appear to me seems, fantastical, really. And I know that, you know, I've talked before with you one on one, like, you know, we go to $100 an hour, do we get a bunch of workers? Yes. And then two years later, every other district has $100 an hour jobs. And it's the same size workforce. But at some point, we do start peeling people off other types of employment. And And in my mind, until we start peeling people away from other employment types, we're just sort of running in a circle here. At best, we're going to keep up, and it's not going to fall further behind. But I don't really envision us somehow producing more employees. That just is not an option. So I look at these wages, and I say, OK, these are not 40 hour a week jobs. So unless you are independently wealthy or living at home and don't wanna work a full-time job, or, I mean, I'm incredibly grateful for every single person that does work for us in this program, but there is, I mean, without knowing any of them, well, I know a couple of them, I'm assuming none of them are paying for rent or a mortgage in Medford on these wages. they're probably not even able to eat on top of all the other stuff. So I just think that as a public body trying to provide a public service, reality has to come into the room a little bit here. And while some of these, I mean, $36 an hour, I mean, that's not nothing.
[SPEAKER_10]: Well, it's important to point out too that those guys only work 26 hours a week. So it's not, to your point, point that should be clear. It's not a 48 for, you know, for 40 hours of work.
[SPEAKER_14]: Right. So, um, I mean, I look at those increases and I'm just like, why not more? Um, and you know, when we talk about the sliding scale, you know, I'm not sure I've talked about this with you or not, but you know, when we did the superintendent search, we asked for incomes of people filling out the survey and I will never forget the results. And I understand that it's not a generalization of the city of Method and what the incomes are, but by far the number one income level of the people that filled out the superintendent search were households with more than $250,000 in income. And this was five years ago. So I just really have an incredible problem with people who are residents, the people we serve, if they have incomes like that, paying these rates to me feels absolutely wrong. Absolutely wrong. And if they lived in places that don't have this, they'd be paying $40,000 a year for the same services, or they'd be getting a nanny. And I don't know what a nanny costs, but not what we're charging. So I'm all for dramatically increasing these rates and then providing a steeper sliding scale so that we are not making anybody who can't afford it. Look, if your household income is 50,000 or 70,000, like you can't afford the high end of these rates probably. And I mean, I don't know what the scale looks like. So in my mind, we take the curve and we turn it up. And if some people whose household incomes are 400,000, $800,000 a year, and there are plenty of people in Medford where that's their household income, that are actually applying to be in these programs, let's not pretend that's not the case, they may go and say, I'll just get a nanny. And if we diminish demand, then the people that are on the present day waitlist future lottery pool have a greater chance of actually getting a spot. And those people are less likely and able to afford expensive options. So, I mean, I'm not looking to like, say, put an income cap, because if you're paying at the high end of the scale, you're supporting people at the bottom end of the scale. And I think that's wonderful. I think that's great. But I don't see this increase of 3% when inflation is through the roof. We're never going to buy a building in Medford to make a childcare center less than many millions of dollars. I don't know I just don't know why we are going a little bigger with this. That's that's my opinion on that.
[SPEAKER_07]: Thank you miss look area think you have one more slide. But member Graham. I'll remember it.
[SPEAKER_19]: No problem.
[SPEAKER_10]: That happens. It's getting late. Sorry. One slide left. And that's just to talk about, as I said, the before school pay rate, which again, has not been increased in at least the last five years. So it's again, just right sizing the pay rates. We have two positions. We call them in the before school. There's the lead teacher. They're the ones that are in charge of reaching out to all the families to tell them, you know, how the process works. They're in charge of getting payroll to me and then their support staff. So. These are the two different pay rates to increase them. Before I leave, I'd be remiss. I want to just give a shout out to thank all the site coordinators at the after-school programs, because they're amazing. Marissa Davis at the Brooks, Kathy Hunt at the McGlynn, Kathleen Keenan at the Roberts, and Jacqueline Salamone at the Mississauga are fantastic. And I want to publicly thank them. But thank you very much. That's all I've got. And now I'm ready for questions.
[SPEAKER_04]: Thank you. I think we have a few motions and questions. Member Graham?
[SPEAKER_19]: The new rates that you're proposing would not include any change to the sliding scale rate that we created last year.
[SPEAKER_10]: Correct. The sliding scale I used based on what the Community Development Grant Office uses to determine their low income. So I've used the same one.
[SPEAKER_19]: I meant the tuition rate. So what we created, so last year, right, we said if you qualify, you keep the rate from the prior year, and now everybody else sort of ticked up. and everyone else is gonna tick up again, is that rate flat or are you saying that's also going to tick up?
[SPEAKER_10]: Well, I had thought that would tick up in the way that I was looking at it was everybody's percentage off or percent discount would be determined based on the full rate. So I'd be willing to entertain either option, the full rate and you can get either 20, 50 or 80% off.
[SPEAKER_09]: I'm now I'm getting the percentages wrong.
[SPEAKER_19]: So in other words, the way the program works is based on your income threshold, you get a percentage off. Yes. Correct. Right. So if we do what member Rousseau is suggesting, and we make that rate much higher than those percent, that does make the program less affordable for those folks that are at that, at that, um, at those tiered levels, right? The sliding scale.
[SPEAKER_10]: It makes, I mean, if they're paying 20% now, it'll be 20%, right, of a bigger number and it'll still go up for them, yes.
[SPEAKER_19]: So I wondered, maybe I'll just try to like spit out a motion and you guys can tell me if you love it or hate it. Can I make a motion that you will investigate what the financials could look like to keep the sliding scale cost flat while providing an increase to the market rate that is bigger than what you've outlined here and bring that back to us. Does that make any sense at all?
[SPEAKER_10]: might need it repeated.
[SPEAKER_04]: How would it affect your bottom line if you kept this the sliding scale the same as the last two years for the low for the low income?
[SPEAKER_19]: So yeah in other words how could you keep the sliding scale like actual cost yep the same and what would a corresponding increase to the market rate need to be increase over and above what you have here in order for all of your financials to still work, right? Because your program has to be liquid in totality. So we can't like say yes to one thing and no to another thing without understanding, does it all work together? So I think my request is a slightly different cut at this that preserves the actual dollar cost for the sliding scale. And that might just mean changes to how the sliding scale works. I don't know. But what would it take to offset and keep the program liquid all in, assuming the staff rates and all of that? I don't want us to make one-off decisions, because you can't operate the program if we make a series of one-off decisions that don't actually work together.
[SPEAKER_02]: Okay, ma'am.
[SPEAKER_04]: Member McLaughlin.
[SPEAKER_02]: Thank you. So if I understand what member Graham is proposing is trying to be inclusive of economically disadvantaged families to keep them at a rate that would be reasonable for them to be able to access the program while also considering an increase in the rate for folks who are not economically disadvantaged to make it more market value so that we can therefore afford more of the things that we're talking about. But you just want to come back with that at this point. Okay, so I'll second that. Okay, thank you.
[SPEAKER_04]: Okay, motion on the floor by Member Graham, seconded by Member McLaughlin.
[SPEAKER_14]: Would you like me to read it again?
[SPEAKER_04]: I think we all understand, and that's gonna, we're not gonna be able to vote specifically on any of the substance tonight, but we can put it on our next agenda once we get these answers. So, got it. All those in favor?
[SPEAKER_14]: Aye.
[SPEAKER_04]: Aye. All those opposed? Motion passes. Thank you for the presentation.
[SPEAKER_14]: Mayor, I have a motion.
[SPEAKER_04]: Member Ruseau?
[SPEAKER_14]: I'd like to make a motion that beginning with the 2023-2024 school year going forward, incoming kindergartners that we will change the wait list to an on-demand lottery, and that the lottery will remain open.
[SPEAKER_07]: Second. Member McLaughlin.
[SPEAKER_02]: Can you say that again? I'm tired, I think. Sure.
[SPEAKER_14]: I'll summarize it.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, in a little different language. Yes. Thank you.
[SPEAKER_14]: So the incoming kindergartners that are going to be in the lottery in April, that the lottery will happen, and that everybody who does not get picked will be left in the lottery, and that anybody who finds out about it later can just simply fill out the same application form. So there's really not an end date to the application.
[SPEAKER_02]: So there's no wait list.
[SPEAKER_14]: There's no wait list.
[SPEAKER_04]: That's correct. If there's an opening spot midway through the year, it would be a lottery. Correct. Motion is already seconded. Motion on the floor by Member Ruseau, seconded by Member Graham. All those in favor?
[SPEAKER_19]: Aye.
[SPEAKER_04]: Aye. All those opposed? Motion passes.
[SPEAKER_19]: Mayor? Member Graham. Can I just invite you to join us on Zoom next week if you would prefer that? We would love to have you here because there's plenty of chairs, but we get it. If you want to join us on Zoom, I think that's totally fine, and I just want you to do what you need to do. We can hear you. whether you're on the camera or not, as long as my colleagues are in agreement.
[SPEAKER_04]: And I think that'll be in two weeks. You have two weeks to get the data formulated. That'll be April 3rd.
[SPEAKER_14]: All right.
[SPEAKER_04]: Member Ruseau?
[SPEAKER_14]: I have a question about the before school pay, where we're paying teachers. Is that in the contract? And if not, how are we kind of getting around the fact that we pay them outside of the contract to work for the district? Did I just make a terrible faux pas and say that out loud? Sorry.
[SPEAKER_04]: We'll take that under advisement and look into it.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yes. I mean, I think I would probably have to maybe look back. I think when before school started with just each individual school running their own before school program. So if Ms. Fidler-Carey is saying that the price has not increased since she assumed this position, I think that's something that we can look into. We just have a newly agreed upon contract through the teacher's union, typically things that are outside, you know, contractual time. That's the difference here. Things that are during contractual time, there's like a pay associated with that, but that's something that we can look into.
[SPEAKER_14]: Thank you.
[SPEAKER_04]: Thank you.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_04]: Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Fidelicari. We'll see you on the third one way or another.
[SPEAKER_09]: All right.
[SPEAKER_04]: Thank you so much for your time and consideration and support. Absolutely. Thank you for your hard work. No, we do not have any presentations of the public or continued business. We do have number nine reports requested follow up presentation on Medford high school action plan. Dr. Edouard-Vincent, superintendent.
[SPEAKER_16]: Yes, so the following report is in response to some specific questions that were asked about some of the changes that have taken place at the high school. And so there were a lot of questions regarding how long are students waiting to use the restrooms, you know, regarding the, the new structures that are in place at the high school. And so at lunchtime, we have the cafeteria bathrooms open on all floors. And sometimes during that time, due to the volume of students that are eating, a line of three to four students can be there waiting anywhere from two to three minutes. But usually the lines are moving fairly quickly. As for other periods throughout the day when we don't have a large number of students eating at the same time, I'm not really noticing lines and neither are the administrative teams aware of that. At the end of the day, sometimes during period six, there are some students that do request to use the bathrooms at that point in time, but we've been working with them. on that. The next question that was asked was, how do we know that it's working? The two-person maximum for the time being right now, we really feel that it's truly ingrained. The students know what the expectation is. And so they go in, it's two students at a time outside of all of the larger bathrooms. We now have hooks that the students come, they hang their placards and they go into the restroom. So at any given time, you can see there are two placards outside. And when they come out, they take it and they do that. We've added the hooks because it helps to keep track. but also we just felt that it was more sanitary to keep the placards outside of the restroom as opposed to inside the restrooms. So the next question was, is there evidence that fewer students are outside of the classroom? And so the administrators pulled the data going back to the beginning of the year, and you can see the noted reduction in cuts that were taking place. And so not only do, when you're physically walking the halls, it's completely different experience, but there is hard data to support what we're seeing. And so we're very, very encouraged by that. Moving along, there was a question regarding about the availability in our last meeting and how do we solve this problem in a permanent and sustainable way? So we currently have seven building monitors at the high school. And so between the cameras being monitored and supervision and support throughout the high school and a designated monitor, at least at the front door, as students and guests or guests come into the building, we do feel that we have a good amount of coverage at the high school. in addition to the teachers that signed up to take on some of these additional duties. We've encountered a few glitches when we've had coverage where maybe someone was absent and that could be one of the building monitors or if someone was feeling ill, not well. So in those cases, we've had to shuffle around And if we're short coverage, then the additional administrators will step up and support with additional coverage. But again, we do feel at this point in time with the seven monitors that are currently working at the high school, that we feel that it is a manageable number and sustainable. So question two, again, was about do we see fewer students roaming the hallways? And again, if you refer to the same table that was in question one, yes, it is definitely very obvious and there is a difference. And a culture shift is taking place at the high school and we are paying close attention to that. So the next question was about the sustainability and the distribution of the school IDs. And that which I shared in my last update is an area where we are looking at other options and one of the possible suggestions was is there an opportunity to provide electronic IDs or some kind of ID, given that smartphones are everywhere, which we thought was a, you know, excellent suggestion. And so we are, you know, willing to look at other options and that could be because again, Almost every student has a telephone, so it would just be a question of them potentially being able to show their identification through an electronic ID of some sort. So we are trying to explore and look into that as an option. Question three was, has there been an increase in the report of bullying? And so for the 21-22 school year, there were seven reports of bullying. And as of March 15 of 2022, there were two confirmed bullying situations. During the school year. We have had 10 reports of bullying, bullying, two of them have been confirmed at the high school. And so, some of you may wonder why is there a discrepancy. With the reports that go forward. There could be a variety of solutions. There have been restorative circles they have been meetings with students and families where bullying report was. submitted but you know the parties came down, came together sat down, had conversations and families chose not to go further with the bullying investigation that happens sometimes. We also have some students that a bullying report may have been started for a student and over the course of the investigation and looking into additional supports for those students, that some students may currently be placed in other settings. So they received other settings that would provide additional support to them. And so in those cases, sometimes the bullying report, because the student was receiving additional supports elsewhere, that that's why that number does not show. Also, sometimes when the bullying investigation takes place and it runs its full course, that in the end, it may not be identified or found it to be bullying. So that's also another factor. But at this point in time for the high school for this year, there are two official confirmed bullying reports that are on record at this point in time. The next question was, has there been an audit of appropriateness of prior decisions to ensure that prior decisions were made in compliance with our definitions and policies? So the administrative team debriefs regularly, including conversations with our medical staff, our school Councilors, engagement specialists, and other building administrative members to ensure that appropriate disciplinary measures are being meted out based on the needs of the specific child or student. So I can say that not every situation is a one size fits all. There are special situations that are taken into consideration. And so we do collaborate consistently with other members of our team, again, including our medical staff, our Councilors, our adjustment specialists, our engagement specialists, our adjustment Councilors, school psychologists. We bring in many different stakeholders as we look at situations that arise. Has the district been responding in a timely way? So the district is responding in a timely way. The responding administrator follows up with the reporter within 24 to 48 hours or sooner, depending on what the situation is. So there is frequent communication between teachers and administrators, and there is a response within 24 to 48 hours. And again, decisions are made as soon as practicable based on the details and complexity of what is being reported. Question four, when will the handbook be presented to the school committee for review and approval? So the high school site council reviews and makes final recommendations at the beginning of May. This handbook can be presented to the school committee anytime once the site council review is completed. We anticipate bringing an updated version before the committee with revisions by late May to early June of this year. And again, the date can be changed at the discretion of the committee, but since it is something that the site councils do look at, there are periodic Revisions that may have been done but in light of the greater substantive changes that took place this year. We want to be able to just work with the site council and then bring it to the committee by late May early June. And the percentage of acknowledgement forms, they have been signed by students and families. The hard copies are kept in the assistant principal offices on file. So each house has approximately, you know, 400 students, give or take. So we are just working on getting those tallies. And I can work on getting that to the committee, what the final percentage was. How will we know that this worked and what will be or look different if this action was effective? So I do feel the hard referral data to the assistant principals has gone down at a significant rate. This has allowed them to effectively manage and address student behaviors in a timely fashion. Students are reporting during monthly listening sessions that they feel safer now at the high school with the changes that have been made since January. Staff are also reporting that they visibly see less roaming in the hallways. and students spending more time in their classes. Students are following the protocols, using the placards when they need to use the restroom or if they need to go visit one of the other offices. So that is really being fully used. And the eHaul pass system is also giving us additional accurate data. When a student leaves the classroom and returns. So, the other piece is the change in tardy check in process. It's allowed us to consistently see which students are coming to school late in real time. And I think all of these changes have significantly contributed to more calm and greater consistency and clarity around expectations at the high school. So I just wanted to make sure that I responded to all the questions that I had received. Thank you.
[SPEAKER_04]: Thank you, Dr. Edouard-Vincent.
[SPEAKER_14]: Thank you. There's one question. Thank you. Sometimes I ask questions that make me laugh because I'm the only man in this at this table, but I'm guessing all of you have stood in a line to use the bathroom as women while there's no line for the men's room. And the women's line is not true. I'm just saying like, I just was talking about this with Jenny the other day. I don't even remember what we were talking about, but that you know, the line, somehow society has still not figured out that women need a little more time in the bathroom. And I guess I'm just, from my own students' perspective, you know, and from other students' perspectives, students used to not want to use the bathrooms because they didn't think they were clean enough or they weren't safe enough. And now it's just not worth it sometimes for the amount of time it takes to use a bathroom is what I'm hearing. And so students not drinking and eating isn't really conducive to the best being prepared for an education. So if you're telling me that the girls can get in and out of the bathrooms just as fast as the boys, You're all the professionals on what it means to be a female waiting in line for a bathroom. I'm obviously not. And as a man, I will say that I just don't know how you all put up with it. Every single time I go to any place where there's crowds, I cannot believe you don't revolt. And so- I still can't believe that two people, and honestly, I don't know what the lawyers would have to say if we said the rule is different for the girls versus the boys, but I certainly can't believe that two girls at the time is enough. to get all of our students through the bathrooms that are open?
[SPEAKER_16]: So there were only three stalls, but not only that, I think now that there are the new rules in place and the students are hanging their placards, they're going in, they're doing their business and they're coming right back out. I think before they were going in and Yes, that level of socializing, if you don't have a group of people to socialize with, there are only two people, you're gonna just go in, do your business and come out. So even the times that I've done bathroom duty, it's pretty quick. They go in, they know they might see two or three people waiting, they go in, they come out, they go in, they come out. And where you have the bathroom stacked, If one area were to have a slightly longer line, they know they can just go up one floor, which some students have done. Okay. Or up a floor or down a floor. I mean, I've seen it happen.
[SPEAKER_14]: I'll just have to trust you on this, because I don't really spend much time in women's bathrooms, but thank you. I appreciate it.
[SPEAKER_04]: Member Hays, then Member Graham. Member Hays, you first. It's who I see first.
[SPEAKER_15]: Thank you. I'm just wondering two things. Will the student survey that we're going to do, will that be asking some questions about their current experience with the new rules in place? And do we have an updated timeline for that or when that's going to happen?
[SPEAKER_16]: So the answer is yes, the survey is in the Panorama portal and the translations, Dr. Cushing, are the translations in the portal as well? That was the last piece we were waiting on.
[SPEAKER_12]: We're currently working on the translations as it's our own tool, just trying to work on getting those translations done. So Penny Bruce has those as well. It's just making sure that I'm correlating the one-to-one to make sure that they're matching. So that's just a little bit of a timely process. But the hope is later this week is the hope and no later than the beginning of next week. Great.
[SPEAKER_04]: Thank you, Dr. Cushing. Member Graham.
[SPEAKER_19]: Thank you. Thank you for the support. I know I've peppered you with a lot of questions and I just wanted to like read this out for people who don't have this in front of them and we should make it available. One of the questions was like, how do we know what evidence do we have that there are fewer students out of class? And the superintendent provided us a chart on this report that we have. And in September, the average number of classes cut per day for the student body was 19. In October, it was 31. In November, it was 35. In December, it was 43. In January, it was 14. And in February, it was 16. So I just wanted to point out that this is a really great example of data telling us that it worked. or it's working. I think it also tells us that things weren't working between October and December, which is unfortunate because I think we had ample warning in October that we had an issue that was not responded to in the best way possible because now we're seeing that when we respond with rules and structure for our high school campus, things get better. So I think that's really great news. The other thing that I wanted to point out is I think I think that the conversation around having seven building monitors, um, but also being limited to the number of bathrooms we can open tells me that that equation is not quite right. Um, so I think, I'm not sure there's much to do about it like right now in this moment, but when we talk about the budget for next year, like I do want to know, like, how do we open the bathrooms? Because we as a committee have talked about this. multiple times a year every year since I've been on the committee. And I would really love not to talk about whether the bathrooms are or aren't open again at some point in time. But I don't say that to mean that I don't care that it's a lawless land inside the bathroom. That's not the point at all. But in order for there to be ample open bathrooms available for students wherever their classes are, seven may not be the right magical number based on the information that's provided here. So again, I just would like to see us think about that during the budget and figure out like what really is sustainable because, you know, relying on people to fill in who also have to be expected to fill in for teachers that don't come because we have no substitutes seems like it's actually not super sustainable. So I just want to make sure that as we head into next year, as we begin a principal search that we're going to set up whoever our new principle is for success with like systems and structures that work and are sustainable. So I think that's really important for us to think about as we go forward and as we build the budget. So thank you for this.
[SPEAKER_07]: Thank you. Ms. Branley.
[SPEAKER_06]: Hello.
[SPEAKER_08]: Can you hear me?
[SPEAKER_04]: Ms. Branley? I'm here. Can you hear me?
[SPEAKER_08]: I do. Can you hear me?
[SPEAKER_06]: You must not be able to.
[SPEAKER_07]: No, we can't hear you. Any other questions?
[SPEAKER_09]: Hello?
[SPEAKER_09]: Nope. All right, she can't hear me.
[SPEAKER_08]: Can she hear me?
[SPEAKER_07]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_08]: Oh, here I am. Okay, so my question, hello. So my question was, I was just wondering if I can have a copy of the superintendent's report, if that's possible for the public and not just for the committee.
[SPEAKER_04]: Absolutely, well, are we gonna put it on the website? Oh, actually member Ruseau just sent it to you.
[SPEAKER_08]: Oh, thank you. And then my other question is for, The numbers for the reports and the bullying, I'm just curious, how do we know, I guess we don't know, but I just wanted to make this, just put this out there that, you know, in a lot of cases, I don't think the bullying reporting was happening. So I think the numbers look good, but was all the bullying reporting actually happening? So I think that that's something just to think about that the numbers don't look bad, but was it actually accurate? So I know in our situation, we did not have a bullying report until after an injury. And I know in another case, a bullying report was handed to a parent and said, here, read this and fill this out. But I'm not really sure who's responsible in filling that paperwork out. I know the nurse did it for us. But, um, in her case, it was handed to the parent and said, fill this out. So I'm not sure, uh, how that bullying report is supposed to really be reported and by who, um, and if that those steps have really been taken in the past. So I just wanted to, um, throw that out there.
[SPEAKER_04]: Thank you, Miss Friendly.
[SPEAKER_08]: Thank you.
[SPEAKER_04]: I'm assuming bullying reports are all funneled through to the top, and that's how we got the data, but whether or not some, yeah, at the principal level?
[SPEAKER_07]: It goes to the, yeah, of each school.
[SPEAKER_06]: When it's turned in. Dr. Cushing and then Member Graham.
[SPEAKER_12]: For the last, at least, two plus years, we have instructed any time that a school leader or any time a member of the assistant principal or principals hears the word bullying, that we immediately hand them the forms and the policy, which I know is being worked on right now. Traditionally, it's the forms. Generally speaking, not generally speaking, per policy and state law, anyone can fill out a bullying report and submit it and can be submitted anonymously. In large part, if, as Miss Branley just said, if in large part if it's being handed to a parent or someone else to fill out, that's because they are probably the best person with the most accurate information to be able to you know, perhaps give screen captures or to give text messages or to give other people that they are the one most, if they're uncomfortable and they were like, no, based on what I have, then a school leader can also do that. But realizing that there may be a significant amount of firsthand, very important information that won't be captured and, you know, should be captured by the reporting party, as opposed to, um, You know, someone who doesn't have necessarily firsthand knowledge and also may then be required to further investigate it. So that's why giving it to the reporting party is usually the best practice to make sure that that happens. Thank you, Dr. Cushing.
[SPEAKER_04]: Did you want to say, member Graham?
[SPEAKER_19]: Thank you. I think the other thing, the rules and policy subcommittee is working on a refresh of the bullying policy. And we had a lot of conversation in the last meeting that we held around the district's obligations in terms of awareness and making sure people understand the steps and making sure that there's some proactive measure happening when parents are talking about or students are talking about how they may be struggling so that people know what those options are and what the protocol is. So I do think that the revised policy that comes out will have some additional steps to try to like close the gap, because I think the gap that Ms. Branley is talking about is real, which is if you didn't know that that was the thing you were supposed to do, you didn't do it. And we can't, we can't know how many people fall into that situation, but we can be aware that it happens. It happened at least, you know, we're hearing that from one person, but we have heard that from many people. And I think as we do finish the policy work, it'll be important to make sure that when we talk about that policy and the translation to practice, that there is a way to sort of close that gap that doesn't dilute the meaningfulness of the information that you need to actually properly investigate a bullying report, but does close the gap around the unreported, which is what's really, really hard to get at. Thank you.
[SPEAKER_04]: Thank you. Member McLaughlin?
[SPEAKER_02]: Yes, thank you. Yeah, and I think that really parent information is obviously very important. We had a training last week that Medford Public Schools collaborated with on the CPAC for a training for parents and professionals on bullying, and I think that having more of those is important. And, you know, again, even, you know, quarterly or at the beginning of the year and middle of the year or something so that folks do know this. And I think we just have to also keep an open mind and ask ourselves if we're doing that, how we're getting that information translated to families that need to know. So all part of the process, I think, as we're looking at the policy piece. Thank you.
[SPEAKER_04]: Thank you very much. Thank you for the report. We have one condolence of the Medford School Committee expressions its sincere condolences to the family of Anthony A. Teixeira Jr., United States Navy veteran and father of ESL Director Paul Teixeira. If we all may rise for a moment of silence. Thank you. Our next regular meeting, which is the sixth regular meeting of the school committee, will be held on April 3rd in the chambers, also on Zoom. Is there a motion for... Motion to adjourn. Motion to adjourn by Member Graham, seconded by Member Kreatz. All those in