[SPEAKER_11]: Good evening.
[SPEAKER_10]: May 1st, 2023, our regular meeting at the Howard Alden Memorial Chambers, Medford City Hall via Zoom, and in person at six o'clock. You can watch by Zoom or on Medford Community Media, or you can call in by dialing 1305-224-9000. You can enter meeting ID 945-8662-7148 when prompted. Member Ruseau, if you could call the roll.
[SPEAKER_16]: Member Graham?
[SPEAKER_06]: Here.
[SPEAKER_16]: Member Hays? Member Kreatz? Here. Member McLaughlin?
[SPEAKER_09]: Here.
[SPEAKER_16]: Member Mustone is not here yet. Member Ruseau, present. Mayor Longo, present.
[SPEAKER_10]: Six present, one absent. For now, please all rise to salute the flag.
[SPEAKER_09]: 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.
[SPEAKER_10]: I don't believe we have any student representatives on tonight yet. Okay, Mr. Bruno will be here shortly. Wonderful. We have number three good of the order. Anybody have any comments? Member Hays.
[SPEAKER_04]: Thank you. I did have a I guess a question for longer term members about a policy I came across as I was looking at some of the the updated policies on mask. There's a policy, JIB, Student Involvement and Decision Making, about having us meet with a student advisory council once every other month or some such thing. And I didn't know if that ever existed or whether it's something we need to look into how we create this process. I was hoping someone might know. Repeat what it is one more time, student. It's called Student Involvement in Decision Making, and it says, as required by state law, the committee will meet at least once every other month while school is in session with its student advisory committee.
[SPEAKER_06]: J-I-B. Now, member McLaughlin?
[SPEAKER_05]: I have not heard of that previously, and I think it's a great idea, and I thank you for noticing. So I would obviously be, I don't think we need to make a motion if it's already in policy, but I would be wanting to ensure that we're doing that starting in September.
[SPEAKER_11]: Dr. Cushing.
[SPEAKER_15]: The district has been meeting with students on a student advisory council. I just shared the definition roster with you first member Hays, and I'll share it with everybody else when I go back to my seat. But we have about 25 to 30 members at the middle school level, which is not required by law. We have about 25 or so at the high school level. From that, we pull the rotating members, four or five, for the students who come here. So most school committees have delegated to district leadership. And so we do meet and have conversations focused on student needs and helping them to be part of the decisions in the district. So I did just share the description with you and I'll share it with everybody else.
[SPEAKER_10]: Great. Thank you, Dr. Cushing. Member McLaughlin, if Member Hays is done.
[SPEAKER_04]: I guess I'm not clear on whether that well satisfies. Yes, I'm not sure when it says that it's required by law that the committee meets with them. I guess I don't know historically, is that something that the committee decided sometime in the past that it would be the responsibility of the school administration to do that? And if so, that's fine. I just, I didn't know anything about this. And so I was just curious if anyone had the history on it.
[SPEAKER_10]: I'm point point information because member mobile phone is next. Unless Dr. Edward was going to answer so I don't know.
[SPEAKER_02]: My answer was going to be that this to my knowledge, at least since I've been here the students did not meet with the school committee members I know that Dr. Cushing has been, but since there is a standing schedule in place, I don't see why it happens during the school day. So, depending on availability or flexibility I don't see why we can't extend it. to school committee members, I'd have to go back and look at the policy, and I don't know if it's one member or if it should be a rotating member, but we definitely could add that.
[SPEAKER_05]: Thank you. That was actually what I was going to suggest. So thank you, Dr. Avey, that if we could have either rotating membership, or I don't think the students necessarily want seven school committee members coming into their meeting on an every other month basis, but I think know, a rotating visit would be really nice so that we can hear directly from them. And I know that you this was really sort of implemented last year, a year before last, right?
[SPEAKER_15]: Because I last year, last year, I think member Ruseau made a motion about two years ago. And I could be off on my timing. Thank you.
[SPEAKER_10]: Member Graham, the member Ruseau.
[SPEAKER_07]: I was just going to suggest that As a committee, we should probably just revisit the policy and make sure that we still agree that it's the right policy for us. Any delegation of that to the administration predates more than likely every person here. So I don't think we can assume we know what their intentions were or what the dynamics were, but I do think our students always have really valuable things to say, and I don't wanna like interrupt what is happening already, but I don't think that necessarily is the same as a collaboration with us. So I think, you know, at some point we should put a resolution on to have the rules committee, take a look at that policy and figure out like, what do we recommend going forward? Thank you. Member Ruseau.
[SPEAKER_16]: Thank you. I'm actually reading the law right now. Um, and actually member can not do it. It must be the full committee. And, um, I'm quite surprised by this language because how the full committee can have a publicly posted meeting with the student advisory council. which meets during the school day when we cannot meet as a body because we have jobs and other things that would prevent us from doing that. It's a very strange way that it's written that this whole body must meet with the student advisory council every other month. So I don't know how we can get the student advisory council whether we do it as part of our regular meetings or as a meeting before our meetings, but it is not individual members, it is a regular meeting. So I'll reach out to the association and ask how folks actually implement this, because while I certainly agree with the intent that's clear, How does anybody get this done in practice, because we can't mandate the student advisor five members of the student advisory council come to our meetings, every other month. We, by law, we cannot pay them to be here for their time. which we talked about a couple of years ago when we were talking about student participation. So, it's a very strange requirement. And I know that as far as the six years I've been here we've never done it. And I'd like to thank member Hays for pointing it out, because never noticed it. I'm quite curious how you came to know about this policy, or this law, which I mean the policy is literally just a copy of the law for the most part.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, I was just looking through some of the updated this wasn't an updated policy but in looking through. the updated policies, trying to match the letters. And I just, I happened to stumble upon this one, so I thought I'd bring it forward.
[SPEAKER_16]: Well, I will certainly take it from the meeting to go to email MASC and look at other districts to see how or if, or how I just, you know, my head can't wrap around how we can do something this substantial every other month and drag a five student member body to a meeting. Does anybody else think that that seems like quite an exact a lot to require by law, that we will make this happen. I mean, we can't compel. We're not like the Congress that can like compel people to be here. But that's just very strange. Thank you for bringing it up.
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, I appreciate members those willingness to check in with ma SC on this and see what other folks are doing. I would imagine, you know, wouldn't necessarily having to compel students. I would think that there's, you know, lots of students out there that want to talk to us. I don't know that they want to do it in a public meeting per se, but obviously we need to. So I think we could make it potentially if it's not every other month, we could explore making it you know, something else after you get back from the MISC, but I envision it, you know, either an early, you know, before the regular meeting, you know, see, you know, Cal meeting or something like that, where we're having some pizza and some, you know, conversation with the students, which I think could really work out well. Thank you.
[SPEAKER_10]: Great. Thank you very much. We have consent agenda bills and payrolls and minutes from the regular school committee meeting on April 10th, 2023. motion for approval. Motion to approve by Member McLaughlin, seconded by Member Hays. All those in favor?
[SPEAKER_11]: Aye.
[SPEAKER_10]: Member Mustone is present. You can mark her, Member Mustone, present, please. Six in favor, one silent. I know she's driving, so. Reports of subcommittees, minutes from the Rules and Policy Subcommittee meeting on April 12, 2023 and rules and policy. Members for self.
[SPEAKER_11]: Thank you, Mayor. One moment.
[SPEAKER_16]: Um, yes. Thank you. The rules and I'm just doing the minutes for the folks that we were just doing. I'm sorry for the delay. Um, so the rules and policy subcommittee met. last week, was it? I'm sorry, I forgot the dates.
[SPEAKER_11]: 25th.
[SPEAKER_16]: 25th, thank you. And we had our attorney present and we went through all of his comments on the current version of the policy. And I thought we had, we made good progress. So as a result of the meeting, we've decided to pass the current draft version over to member Graham, vice chair Graham, take a pass at making the document make sense, which I look forward to that. And we will schedule the next meeting, which will hopefully be the last meeting on this topic and subcommittee as soon as she's had a chance to go over the document. I don't want to schedule it too soon, but my guess is by the end of May, this is May already, isn't it? By the end of May, we'll have the last another subcommittee meeting on that document, which we can hopefully approve and send to the full committee for consideration.
[SPEAKER_10]: Member McLaughlin.
[SPEAKER_05]: Thank you. Yeah, as a member of the Rules, Policy and Equity subcommittee, I also wanted to just note that there were some items in the document that Attorney Greenspan was able to address. And then there were some that were outside of his scope related to special education. And we have a different law firm that represents the district regarding special education. And so I had respectfully asked that the Director of Pupil Services reach out to the, to me, Cassian Lehane, and to just follow up on a couple of the items that needed legal consult as well, just because Attorney Greenspan, it was out of his scope. So I just wanted to let members know that that will be part of the next conversation, I think, as well, hopefully. And Tumi Hassan-Lahin can get back to us on that. But just because there's so many nuances when it comes to legislation and other legal issues related to students with disabilities and other needs that I want to make sure that we're addressing, pressing our T's and dotting our I's in that capacity as well. Thank you.
[SPEAKER_10]: Thank you. So I think the motion is still in committee and the motion just to approve the minutes by member motion to approve the minutes McLaughlin seconded by second member Graham, all those in favor.
[SPEAKER_07]: I know you have to roll call because members don't as remote.
[SPEAKER_10]: Oh, I did say I. Okay, great. So we're gonna okay. Roll call has been requested by member Graham.
[SPEAKER_16]: Thank you. Member Graham. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.
[SPEAKER_10]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_10]: Yes, seven the affirmative zero the negatives, the minutes have passed. We have minutes from evaluation subcommittee meeting on April 27 2023 pass that over to member Hays.
[SPEAKER_04]: Thank you. Yes, we met on April 27th. We went through. Okay, so we had to, well, we just wanted to finish up both the form, the template that members will use to evaluate the superintendent and also to make sure that the instructions that we have that we will be sending along with the template were clear and included everything that was necessary. This has been passed out to the members before the meeting attached to the minutes that was passed out is the form itself or a copy of the form and a copy of the instructions and I think that it At this point, we needed members to approve. Is that correct?
[SPEAKER_03]: Approve the template. We needed the full committee. Was that the purpose at this point? I thought that was the end of our meeting. Point of information. Yeah, no, I guess, well, yeah, I guess I question this.
[SPEAKER_05]: Yep. You know, I, it was my impression that we were going to have this shared so people could look at it between now and the next meeting because it's a lot to look at in this meeting. And I wanted to also as a member of the committee with member Graham and member Hays, I wanted to thank the committee for their work on this and also member Hays' work on really sort of putting all of the documentation together. And I think we have, if I'm not mistaken, one more meeting. between this and the next school committee meeting that we would, right?
[SPEAKER_04]: We meet again on, well, we meet on the eighth for the superintendent's self-evaluation at that point. Originally, we had planned to present the template to members then, but so we're presenting it now. So I suppose that would mean at the next meeting, members will have a chance to look at it and bring any questions or concerns they have so we can talk about it then.
[SPEAKER_07]: motion to approve. I'm sorry.
[SPEAKER_10]: For motion for approval. Member Graham.
[SPEAKER_07]: So, what we agreed to on Thursday was there needed to be a motion to approve this process and the templates today because next week is a committee of the whole and we cannot vote things in committee of the whole. So, this needs to happen so that all the members can then fill out their on the, I believe it's like the 21st. So we do, I thought it was on the agenda, but I don't see it.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, there is a revised agenda. Just give me a moment to find the right version.
[SPEAKER_07]: Yes, in the notes, it talked about approval of the process. So Member McLaughlin, did you make a motion to approve the minutes?
[SPEAKER_05]: Motion to approve the minutes, yes. And also, yeah, we need a motion to approve the process. So motion to approve the minutes, please. Second.
[SPEAKER_10]: Motion for approval of the minutes by Member McLaughlin, seconded by Member Graham. Roll call vote.
[SPEAKER_16]: Member Graham.
[SPEAKER_10]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_16]: Member Hays.
[SPEAKER_10]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_16]: Member Kreatz.
[SPEAKER_10]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_16]: Member McLaughlin.
[SPEAKER_10]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_16]: Member Mestona.
[SPEAKER_10]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_16]: Member Rossell. Yes. Mayor Long-Gokern.
[SPEAKER_10]: Yes. Seven in the affirmative, zero in the negative. Before you move a motion to approve the process, I know we all talked about it in the last committee of the whole meeting, but can somebody explain just the difference? Is there any major differences on what we'll be doing on the 8th?
[SPEAKER_04]: Differences from last year?
[SPEAKER_10]: No, I know we all agreed on the sections that we'll be evaluating on, which are the last like four pages of this document, but is there anything that was discussed in your meeting specifically that we should be aware of? before we take a motion tonight to approve the process?
[SPEAKER_04]: On the form itself, there were no major changes. I mean, we are using the DESE forms. There really isn't room for huge changes to it. We did fill in the superintendent's goals and we checked off and highlighted the specific focus indicators that we're using to evaluate the superintendent.
[SPEAKER_10]: Member Graham.
[SPEAKER_07]: In the packet attached to the minutes, there's a couple of things that I think will be helpful. The timeline that we had previously agreed to did not change. There is a step-by-step how to for members in the packet that talks about each step in the process that I think will be really helpful. The committee voted to use the DESI template. So it will be delivered electronically, and everyone will be able to fill it out um according to the specific focus indicators that we had previously agreed on. So, all that has happened is the the indicators we agreed on were laid into the template and highlighted. Everyone will fill this individual PDF out and follow the process that is outlined step by step. Okay. Okay. Thank you.
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, I just wanted to reiterate that. Yeah, what we're, I believe the motion is for tonight is to establish the process of sharing the template with you all and the instructions prior to the superintendent self-evaluation. So that was really the process we're talking about.
[SPEAKER_10]: Yes, it is on the amended agenda. Motion to approve superintendent evaluation template instructions and process for consideration. So is there a motion on the floor?
[SPEAKER_07]: Motion to approve.
[SPEAKER_10]: Motion to approve by member Graham, seconded by member McLaughlin. All those in favor, we will take another roll call. Thank you.
[SPEAKER_16]: Member Graham. Yes. Member Hays.
[SPEAKER_10]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_16]: Member Kreatz.
[SPEAKER_10]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_16]: Member McLaughlin. Yes. Member Mustone.
[SPEAKER_10]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_16]: Member Ruseau. Yes. Mayor Lungo-Koehn.
[SPEAKER_10]: Yes. On the affirmative, zero on the negative, the process has been approved. Next up, we have reports of superintendent. First up is updates and comments by Dr. Maurice-Edouard-Vincent, our superintendent.
[SPEAKER_11]: Good evening.
[SPEAKER_02]: So as we meet tonight, first day of May. We do so on School Principals Day. I must wish all of our principals and assistant principals our sincere thanks for all they do for our students. Additionally, this week will be both Teachers Appreciation Day and the beginning of School Nurses Week Appreciation. The nurses actually get a full week from May 6th through the 12th. All of our staff's dedication and attention to detail make them an integral part of our Mustang community. They're our top priority. And since education, their top priority is always the education and health and safety of all of our students. We want to commend and thank them for always going above and beyond the call of duty. So again, congratulations to all of our principals our teachers our nurses. Last week we recognized our secretaries and so it's an administrative assistance, a time just to say thank you for all of their hard work. Also I want to bring to everyone's attention that on the Friday communication, the adjustments to the school calendar, this past Friday we linked the updated school calendar for next year that elementary schools will no longer be having the early release Wednesdays, that their dismissal time will be 235pm on Wednesdays. Please be advised that we're also going to be keeping a similar schedule as our secondary schools, which means there will be one noon dismissal. Each month, there are two exceptions during December, and in April, there are none due to vacation week. Please refer to the school calendar posted on our website for a listing of the dates. Also in order to accommodate transportation needs middle school dismissal on half days will be at 1130 am high school dismissal will be at noon. And we hope that everyone understands the new schedule, if you have difficulty understanding what the new schedule is stating, please reach out to your respective principal. Also I want to just give some positive highlights athletes are continuing to do wonderful things. We want to first congratulate our boys outdoor track team. In the 4 by 200 relay, we had the following students, JT Mastracola, Dimitri Charles, Ricky Gomez, and Will Kelly for setting a new school record of one minute and 36 seconds. So congratulations to our outdoor track team. on the four by 200 relay, and the girls were not to be outdone at the distance medley. We want to recognize Emma Casey, Anna Casey, Yasmin D'Souza Vieira, and Maria Colombo. They also set a new record with a time of 13 minutes and 24 seconds. So congratulations to our girls medley long distance team. excellent efforts on both of their parts so keep up the great work. I also want to just recognize our drama club, this past weekend they performed you're in town. They did an excellent production Bravo to all of our actors stage hands and of course, their advisor, director, Miss Jones and I know Miss rebel, helping to oversee as well so congratulations to our MHS drama club. I also wanted to recognize that on Patriots Day, one of our CCSR classes, Mr. Coates, at the Brooks School, his CCSR students took on the challenge of cleaning the Korean War veteran gravestones. Despite the rain, over 112 stones or able to be cleaned. This thoughtful gesture honors our veterans and lets their families know they have not been forgotten. And I want to thank all the community members who also volunteered to help with that cleaning event. Thank you to all of you. We also want to recognize a brand new e sports team, the Mustang eSports team. This is new, I have to catch them in action but thanks to their advisor, Mr. Maldonado and miss later late in the director of technology, they work together to make this a reality. Medford had both a varsity and junior varsity team. And the game that Medford competed in was Super Smash Brothers. Next year, the goal is to expand both the teams and the games. Medford was a member of the plays league, similar to the GBL in sports and finished in 17th place out of 60 teams. So for the first time out the gate, that's not too bad. And there's always room to move up. So congratulations to them. Our junior varsity finished in 30th place out of 60 teams. Congratulations to our varsity members, Dominic Catino, Dante Suchecki, Chauncey Alabre, Samuel Buxton, Chase Smith, and to our junior varsity team members, Terrence Russell, Gage Gagne, Gabriel, and Nathaniel Hopper. Mr. Maldonado would like to thank the team manager, Liam Antoine and Henrik Roni for his technical support. Esports is one of the fastest growing school sport programs in the country. So go Mustangs and keep up the good work. I also wanted to just share that members of the McGlynn middle school global scholars were honored for their exemplary work by global cities, a program of blue bird philanthropies. The students worked on a curriculum world of water. which studies the importance of water in our lives, our cities, and our world. The sixth grade students whose projects were selected are Gianna Dip, Fuad Aldib, Isaac Hull, Jack Jomgatchian, Maria Eduardo Justino, and Jennifer Viana. Their selection means that their projects may be utilized on the global cities website or social media as an example of exemplary student work. Congratulations to Mr. relied in his hard working students. I also want to say that last Friday I did say in the memo that we are continuing to work on the school budget. We want to thank the families who participated in the family budget listening session that took place last week. Your ideas and feedback were important to us as we continue to build the budget for next year. Please note that our next budget meeting will be on Monday, May 15 from 430 to 6pm. Moving along the month of May is a busy busy month. And so I just have a few key updates to share key events that are taking place between now and May 15. Tomorrow, May 2. is going to be the McGlynn middle school open house from six to 8pm. So again, any rising sixth graders that are invited to the McGlynn middle school. I hope you're able to attend the open house it's interactive and a lot of fun. On Wednesday of this week. Excuse me. It's national bike walk road to school day. So I hope we have many students that are able to participate in that. And it's, it's a wonderful event and it takes place nationally. Also, on Wednesday is our all city. Citywide middle school orchestra in the high school string orchestra. They're hosting their spring concert at Chevalier at 6pm. On Wednesday, to avoid standing in line before the concert you can buy tickets ahead of time at the high school lobby from three to 4pm this week. $10 per ticket cash only. And Medford family network is going to also be presenting think outside the book of virtual meeting to discuss race, gender and disabilities for young minds, please sign up with the MFN to obtain the link. This week as well Thursday, May 4 is the McGlynn Middle School, excuse me, not the McGlynn, the Andrews Middle School open house for students and caregivers from six to 8pm on Thursday. Also the McGlynn Elementary School on Thursday is presenting their Festival of the Arts, 530 to 7pm so there's going to be a lot of activity. I hope parking's okay between the two schools. But hope you can come out and support those events. May 5 is happy Cinco de Mayo. And that evening the McGlynn Middle School will be hosting their neon dance for sixth graders from six to 8pm in Medford's community choral youth and young adult chorus, they're going to be presenting at our current theater at 7pm. This Saturday, high schoolers get ready, it's SAT Saturday. For our high schoolers, SAT begins at 7.30 in the morning. For our younger students and families, on that same day, MFN will be hosting a character literacy breakfast at the McGlynn Playground from 9.30 to 11 o'clock in the morning. Reservations are required. May 9th, Mustang Girls Lacrosse. They're hosting the second annual Mental Health Awareness Game at 6 p.m. at Edgerly Field. May is Mental Health Awareness Month, and the team hopes to erase the stigma associated with mental health needs. This is a great example of our Mustangs leading in our community. Also on May 10th, we will be welcoming our kindergarten students and their families to our kindergarten open houses, which will be taking place at all of our elementary schools from two to 3 p.m. And in the evening of May 10th, on May 10th, our fourth grade students, fourth through 12th grade band concert will also be at the Chevalier Theater, 6 p.m. on May 10th. May 11, the National Honor Society is hosting the Mr. MHS event. It's a big crowd pleaser, it's taking place at 630, it's a fundraiser, and I believe the proceeds go to support Children's Hospital. May 12th, I can't even believe it, but May 12th is Junior Prom. That's gonna take place at the Woburn Hilton. Again, May 12th from 6.30 to 10.30 p.m. Finally, I just want, oh, I want to just give an early announcement. For those of you who love music, our musicians out there, at the end of the summer, we will be bringing back Jumpstart Music Camp. It's going to run from August 14 to 18 and August 21 to 25. Those are for our students in grades four through eight, who want to have an opportunity to be introduced to instrumental camp. And it has been a big success when it's happened in the past, I will be putting it in my weekly update but I just want to get it out there, so that the community knows jumpstart music camp is going to take place at the last two weeks of August. May also is Jewish American Heritage Month, Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, and Haitian American Heritage Month. We in Medford are an inclusive community that welcomes all and celebrates all. As the author Maya Angelou once said, in diversity, there is beauty and there is strength. Thank you.
[SPEAKER_10]: Thank you, Dr. Edwards. We have recommendation to approve no school choice district school year 2024, Dr. Maurice Edouard-Vincent, listen to approve.
[SPEAKER_05]: So, actually I think it's helpful for the community to know a brief summary.
[SPEAKER_10]: Great. Thank you.
[SPEAKER_02]: The brief summary is that Medford at this point in time we are no school choice district so other communities that may want to enroll or other communities that have medical programs and things like that those are school choice districts. We are not one of those districts. And so it's required by Jesse that every year. This memo comes before you to ask the committee into ensure that the committee is in agreement that were no school choice district. And so the vote that you take this evening will be reported to Jesse and added to their portal. So it's it's that's the requirement. I don't know. Do you need any additional information? Thank you.
[SPEAKER_10]: Thank you. So member Rousseau approval seconded by member Hays, I believe. Roll call, please.
[SPEAKER_16]: Member Graham?
[SPEAKER_10]: Yes. Member Hays? Yes.
[SPEAKER_16]: Member Kreatz?
[SPEAKER_10]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_16]: Member McLaughlin?
[SPEAKER_10]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_16]: Member Mustone?
[SPEAKER_10]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_16]: Member Ruseau? Yes. Mayor Longo?
[SPEAKER_10]: Yes. Seven in the affirmative, zero in the negative. Motion passes. Number three, recommendation to approve Recommendation to approve travel to Italy, Dr. Vilma Bobo, Coordinator of World Language, and Ms. Nicole Shalafo, Metro Public School teacher. Thank you both for being here. Welcome.
[SPEAKER_11]: It's on.
[SPEAKER_12]: Okay. How's everybody doing tonight? Good. Thank you for having us. Again, we're here to propose the travel trip to Italy next spring 2024. I'm just here to support Ms. Chalafour. Ms. Chalafour is actually done this trip many times before, about three times. And this is the same company that we have used recently to go to France, the trip to France. And it's a company that we have used here in Medford for Italy since 2015. But I'll have Ms. Chalifour talk a little bit more about this trip, as she's going to be the leader of the trip.
[SPEAKER_10]: This is how many students are going. How many students are going?
[SPEAKER_18]: So this is still just initial approval. I haven't officially advertised waiting for the go ahead to be able to do so. So based on. We don't know yet, but we shall see hopefully. So it is a little bit of a combination tour that we've done. From North to South, kind of, but it's still unique. We haven't done this exact route before. You all have a copy of the itinerary? Yes, okay. And the calendar did come out, so it does, these are the correct dates, right? I just saw in the superintendent's email from last week. Okay, so day one, depart, go to Venice. So it starts in Venice. We continue from Venice as we get on the coach, the ferry. Nice bus, if you will, across the, where is it? Maybe to Verona, is Verona on here? No, straight down to Bologna. No, on the way from Venice, we're gonna stop in Bologna, an afternoon, see, but it's not gonna be an overnight peace in Bologna. From there, we'll continue down to Florence. Florence will be home base for two nights, at least, I believe, two nights, and then continuing on down to, but in the past, we made a switch here. So in the past, we would stop in Rome and then continue further south, but we're going to go further south and then circle back up to Rome for the actual departure. So this is where I was just messing up my stuff. From Florence, we're going to go straight past Rome down to near Naples, which is Sorrento. Not actually in Napoli, but Sorrento, and stay there for two nights. And then we'll go back up to Rome, which is where the main airports are, and we'll depart from there. So that is a rough draft, I guess, of what I'm trying to articulate from this paper right now. So the price itself varies depending on how many students actually do sign up. So you can see that there is a little chart here with the different price quotes based off of a group of, say, 40 to 45 students, people. The flight estimate included land suggestion or land estimate, the suggested supplement would be if anybody wanted to right, right away decide that they want to room individually. So that would be an additional supplemental fee. So depending on how many students we have, we're looking around what 3300 33 fish as a base price for the trip itself. Gratuity as it's been in the past is an additional thing. And that is usually collected in a cash form based off of, again, how many students are signed up. So I don't know what that exact number would be at this moment, but it is probably $100 or something like that on top of this estimated price here.
[SPEAKER_09]: questions.
[SPEAKER_16]: I just want assuming we're going to approve this mass that the, the, we have a form that has to be filled out before the trip actually happens. I, it's been filled out many times in the past. I think you don't have the information at this point to fill it out, because it's usually like how many students, has the nurse signed off on everything, those forms, we do have to approve those before you take off, but certainly, I know that some forms were being redone over the past couple of months, perhaps, so I don't know, I haven't seen them yet, but from the last time that I did the paperwork myself,
[SPEAKER_18]: I know that there were some different papers that Marine Island did use also recently for the trip to France.
[SPEAKER_16]: Those are the ones, yes.
[SPEAKER_18]: Those are the ones, all right.
[SPEAKER_16]: Thank you. So I'd make a motion to approve.
[SPEAKER_10]: Second. Motion for approval by Member Ruseau, seconded by Member McLaughlin. Roll call vote, please.
[SPEAKER_16]: Member Graham?
[SPEAKER_09]: Yes. Member Hays? Yes.
[SPEAKER_16]: Member Kreatz?
[SPEAKER_09]: She stepped out for a moment. She stepped out absent.
[SPEAKER_16]: Member McLaughlin?
[SPEAKER_09]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_16]: Member Mustone?
[SPEAKER_10]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_16]: Remember so yes Maryland occur.
[SPEAKER_10]: Yes, six in the affirmative one absent paper is approved.
[SPEAKER_09]: Enjoy.
[SPEAKER_10]: Yes, thank you enjoy the planning and say share but stay tuned. Yes. Thank you for being here. Thank you. We have report on high school and medford vocational technical high school safety security and school climate review, Mr. Michael Welch is here with us this evening administrative consultant to medical public schools, welcome.
[SPEAKER_13]: Thank you, Madam Mayor, and thank you all for allowing me to come present my report. I just want to make sure that we have the technical aspects set up. Dr. Cushing, if you want to be able to do it from there, I wasn't able to get in just now on Zoom. Okay. While we're sort of getting things ready from a standpoint of technology, I just want to thank the committee and all the members of the Medford public schools for allowing me the opportunity to come and create a, an opportunity to really comprehensively review Medford High School and vocational technical high school. I assume all of you have seen the report that I presented, I created a very brief presentation. Thank you, Dr. Cushing, to be able to sort of summarize the different pieces the report is rather lengthy. I wanted to make sure that all of you had an opportunity to see that in advance and I did get the opportunity to meet with a tremendous number of people and do a lot of work looking at trying to make sure I understood everything. And if it's pleasing to the committee, I'll spend maybe 10 minutes reviewing different pieces and then we'll go right to questions because I know that the general public does not have a copy of the report. The only people who have seen it at this point are the superintendent and Mr. DeLayva, the high school principal. I wanted to make sure that they could provide me with any corrections if I had any factual errors. they did not make any changes to any content. So I wanted to make sure that you all were able to see it as soon as that was done. So if we could, Dr. Cushing, to the next slide. Just a brief project overview. Administratively, I was at the school from January 3rd. In fact, prior to January 3rd, during the Christmas break, I was there for a couple of days just getting to know folks at the school. And concluded around March 17 there were a couple of additional meetings after that that I returned to the school. What happened was there were a number of people who specifically individually reached out to me over the course of doing the interviews and asked to either revisit a conversation or initiate one. There were 40 individual one hour interviews as all of you know, I met with each of you on the school committee as well as everyone in the district administration, the high school administration and all the K to 12 district directors. In addition, I conducted faculty staff focus group interviews. Using educators from all the academic and career and technical and special education departments. What I tried to do was make sure that everyone had an opportunity to provide input. So those interviews were rather extensive. In addition, I met with Councilors building security secretaries and administrative assistants buildings and grounds athletics, a number of other groups. in focus groups, so that they had the psychological safety to be able to speak honestly and openly with me. And I think it's really critical that I was able to establish that confidence, so that people would speak openly and I believe that they did. In addition, I did student focus groups. The way I did this, as you may have read in the report, I asked Mr. Duleva to basically make me a substitute teacher. So when teachers were out, I essentially was doing what a substitute teacher would do. I was assigned to, in some instances, five classes in an individual day. And I would go in and essentially be the teacher. And the administration would additionally assign a teacher, as they typically would, And I would take a portion of the class in some instances I took the whole class and let them know what I was doing had a conversation with them about what their experience was like and really had an opportunity to get to know all of them. The reason I did it that way is because it was a completely random sample students from ninth 10th 11th and 12th. from electives from lowest level classes to very high level classes. It was really a fascinating experience and the kids were very open. And in addition to that, I did individual interviews with English learner students. Mr. Texera was able to nominate a bunch of kids to come and meet with me. And those interviews were conducted with the assistance of an interpreter to make sure that we could get honest opinions from students in those instances. And I believe we were able to successfully do that. I could tell because the kids didn't wanna leave. They asked if they could stay and continue to talk about their experiences. And again, I did some individual interviews via direct request, some folks that weren't necessarily directly associated with the high school but we're more of district wide positions I met with some of those folks to not wanting to have anyone feeling unheard. And finally, I spent a tremendous amount of time in classrooms. in the hallways, the cafeteria, the drop off and pick up line to make sure that I understood essentially everything that was going on in and around the school. So it was in excess of, I want to say more than 33 school days that I was there. And then a lot of time spent revisiting some questions that I had as I was starting to do the write up portion of the report. So what I tried to do was use an analysis model framework that I hope you were able to review. It's called the lipid Nostra model for managing complex change and I just being that it's on the screen right now I wanted to take a moment to talk about this. This is something that is used in educational circles quite a bit when looking at models for school wide improvement strategic planning, various aspects of change, and essentially consists of six different components that all need to be satisfactorily established. In order for change to succeed, and this would be a good time for me to have my glasses on because the print is a little bit small for my eyes. Some of you will correct me if I'm wrong. So you can see across the top, there is vision consensus skills, a word I can't read. You can see the words across the top, and in the absence of each of those categories, if one of those is absent you see the resulting deficit that could result. If all six of these issues are addressed you typically would see some form of success. If you are missing a vision, the resulting deficit would be confusion amongst faculty and staff. If you are missing consensus, the result could be sabotage where people who don't feel that they're a part of the vision, simply trying either not to do it through benign neglect or actively try to sabotage the effort. In addition, if you don't have the skills, you would end up with anxiety and fear about what potentially could happen if you are asked to do something you don't have the skills to complete. If you don't have the third category that I can't see, because the text is too small, you would end up with resistance. And again, you can see each of the six categories, and I try to analyze all of the different pieces in my review, in essence, using that model framework as an analysis. If you could, Mr. Cushing, Dr. Cushing, to the next slide. So the different focus areas that I chose to look at after spending a little bit of time in the school were the categories that you see listed on this slide, the district and school organizational structure. I wanted to make sure I fully understood both the staffing and the philosophy around the way that the school was structured. In addition, I wanted to look at the leadership structure and all of the transitions that have occurred over the course of the last five to 10 years. And you'll see that in a moment. In addition, I looked at specifically all of the DSEE data around enrollments and student achievement, as well as student-faculty demographics and trends. I think that's a critical piece that is not unlike a lot of places in Massachusetts, particularly around the differences between the student demographics and the educator demographics, but I wanted to provide you with that analysis also. I then looked at specifically the behavior and discipline referrals, specifically for the time I was in the school. So I believe it was about 33 days and I aggressively dug into the discipline statistics and provided you with that information. I then looked carefully at the buildings and grounds, structure, security, and access to the building, as well as district and school policies, procedures, and processes. schedules, logistics, the collective bargaining negotiations. I know that's been a difficult issue here in Medford, as it has been in a number of other communities. So looking at those contractual agreements and the potential constraints or advantages that those present, as well as some school committee policies, and then I provided overall recommendations at the conclusion of the report. Moving on to a couple of pieces that I would like to highlight without going through the 59 pages of the report as a whole here tonight publicly, I think a key piece that really is important to acknowledge are the leadership transitions that have happened over the course of the past seven or eight years. And I provided you with the slide that's on the screen right now, a grid that shows the different district level positions, as well as the high school specific positions And the transitions that have occurred in those areas. And I think anyone can see that there have been a tremendous number of changes in the personnel, not to mention the coven pandemic that we can all talk about exacerbating some of this, but I think it's important to note that is there is only one single person who has remained consistent over the course of the eight years that are in that study. that creates a tremendous amount of need for there to be a lot of conversation and teamwork so everyone's on the same page. And that is almost impossible during a COVID pandemic when students are fully remote and then in hybrid format. Next, I provided a brief snapshot of an original proposal for the consolidating emerging of Medford High School and Medford Vocational Technical High School. I received this from Stacey Shulman. She had found it when she was in the position that she is currently in. And I asked her if she had a copy of it electronically, she did not, but I found it to be very informative in terms of what the goals were when this process started way back in the 2013, around that time period, and what the ideal sequence would be. So I only had a paper copy of this, and I went back to Stacy to see if we could dig up the actual electronic copy, we could not, but I thought it important that the committee see this and that we use it as a basis for what the vision was essentially back when Heidi Rick Riccio and john Perella were both the principal and director of the schools. I then went into a lot about student demographics and. if you can see, this is a sea of numbers, but you hopefully are able to see it a little bit better in the actual report. And essentially what I did was go back to 30 years ago when the Department of Education started requiring public schools to submit data around their student enrollments. And what I did was look at that not only as an enrollment history from in that 30 year period, but also the number of students in each of the grades as well as the Curtis Tufts School and the vocational technical versus Medford High School breakdown. So I thought that an interesting piece to provide historical perspective for all of you. The yellow diagonals represent the cohorts classes as they transition through the district. And it's often convenient to look at the number of students who started out in kindergarten and first grade, and ultimately how many students ended up graduating as seniors. Next, I wanted to highlight for everyone some student demographic trends. And I think this would not surprise any of you that are here tonight. But again, there's been a significant amount of change in the demographics of the student population. So what this chart shows is the percentage of students in each of these categories that are traditionally measured by the Department of Education, and I think it's important to point out a couple of things. First, the Department of Education has changed the way that they that they code individual students when they come in, what the options are. So you can see that the population in Medford has diversified quite a bit. These are in about five year increments when you read from left to right going backward. And I wanted everybody to see exactly what the demographics of the student population look like. You'll see some confusing information around ways to categorize students by income level. And I think it's important to note that these were changes that occurred at the Department of Education, based on the way that kids families income could be classified for a while, the free and reduced lunch, where the numbers that were used. Eventually, the department went to a category called economically disadvantaged, and you'll see that as one of the categories in 2017-18. And finally, the Department of Education has reverted back to a low-income status. So you'll see some changes in there, and I wanted to point out why that occurred. The thing that I really would like you to notice is the percentage of high-need students. High-need students are classified by the Department of Education in one of three categories, either students with disabilities, students that are English learners or former English learners, and students who are low income. So a student can be classified as high needs if they have any one of those characteristics. If they have all three of them, they're still only counted as one high need student. So I think it's important for folks on the committee to understand that. It's really good to look at historically where the district has gone, because that can give you a sense of where the district is headed. Next, I want to contrast that with the demographics of the teacher force. And again, I want to make sure that the committee knows this is not unique to Medford. Having worked in a number of different districts, there are very few districts in Massachusetts whose demographics reflect even remotely close to the demographics of their students. So I don't want you to beat yourselves up and think that we haven't done our work here, because there are virtually no districts that are successful at this. As many of you are aware, the Boston Public Schools has a mandate for the percentage of teachers of color, they have struggled to meet that mandate over time. So I think it is important to point out the stark difference between the demographics of our teaching force and our student population. I wish I could say that there were a solution here that could make this turnaround very quickly. I know many districts are working in this area, but I think when you look at the numbers, there is a tremendous difference. And I provided simply the data from 2007-8 and current most recent data that we have from 2021-22. I didn't provide all of the other areas in between, because essentially there has been very little change in the demographics of the teaching force. Next, I think it's important to recognize that the vision of having a more combined Medford high school and Medford vocational technical high school over the course of the past 10 years. has created increasing student enrollment in the vocational technical edge of the house, if you will. This graph was presented at a faculty meeting late last year, and it shows the increasing percentage of students only in grades 10 through 12. Now, this does not include ninth grade students, but the overall number of students that are progressing toward a career in technical education, education. So I wanted you to see that those numbers are increasing, and I believe students are recognizing the value in that form of additional training, yet that creates some challenges for the school because of the scheduling conflicts that come into play. And I won't go deeply into that tonight because I think the report does that a little better, but I think that's a critical area that needs to be addressed. Next, I delved into discipline data, and I think it's important to recognize that what I did was look at every single discipline referral that came in from January 3rd to February 17th. And those numbers I broke down by the house that the student was in, because as you know, the high school is structured in houses M, H, and S. Each house has four grades, and about one third of the students And I think it's important to look at the total referrals that came in and the number of students that were involved. So about 80% of kids had no referrals whatsoever, which is typical. It's very frequent that the vast majority of kids are doing the right thing and really not causing any sorts of need to be addressed in any way. About 20% of kids had one form of referral or another, and a very small percentage of kids had quite a few. So that is not unique. In addition, I provided a little snapshot your report has much more in depth analysis of what the referrals were for Dr cushion if you just click one more, it provides this is just the top 15 reasons why students were referred. And I think it's very easy to see that the vast number of referrals for disciplinary action were for kids who simply were avoiding going to class. And that is not a surprise, and again, not something that is unique to Medford High School. In my conversations with other schools in the metropolitan Boston area, this has become a significant challenge across the state and the region. So I don't want everyone to believe that this is completely unique. However, it's very clear what's going on. I believe this is a result of the pandemic and kids having the opportunity to not be told what to do for a significant chunk of time during a developmentally difficult period. And now it's created a situation where kids who don't wanna go to a class they don't wanna go to, don't go. And they figure out a way to try to avoid that. And that's a challenge administratively to try to address those issues. Next, I'll just jump into recommendations and call it quits and answer questions. Again, there are, I believe, 11 different recommendations that are in here. Embedded within these are some multifaceted pieces along the way, but one of the most critical issues I believe the district and the high school specifically have to address is the collective bargaining agreements and the move toward a unified schedule. This was something that was mentioned in the initial vision for having some kind of collaboration between the two schools and it continues to be a challenge and it will continue to grow as a challenge as more students choose the vocational technical track. The schedule, I'm sorry, the contract that was settled in December this year has within it some language that acknowledges the need to do this. So I think the time is right to aggressively pursue a schedule that is unified and it can be done that works for everyone in those two schools, but that's going to take some significant discussion. Next, I think it's critical that a clear district safety and security leadership team is established. I know the superintendent and I have talked about this a good bit. There have been groups that meet on a regular basis, but I think that needs to be expanded and codified in a way that is much more deliberate about the way the school and district prepare in any sort of safety or security event. Number three is providing additional support for assistant principals in each house. I think most members of the committee are aware there had been a staffing reduction in the not too recent past. And with two of the three assistant principals new within the past three years, that has created just an overwhelming amount of work. for them to be able to address, and it is simply unsustainable. So I believe there needs to be additional support in that position. Next, creating collaborative norms for student behavior. There was an overwhelming amount of feeling amongst educators and folks I met with that people aren't being listened to. Now, I believe a good bit of that is a result of the acrimonious contract negotiations that the district is just coming off of. That is not unusual to see people feeling unheard particularly in the context of a contract negotiation year. However, I believe it's really important to come together and create those collaborative norms in a collaborative way so that everyone has consensus and everyone feels an ownership in acting those out. Next, the fifth recommendation I made is creating a building wide associate principal role. I know this is asking for additional staffing, but I believe that currently, Principal DeLava and a number of other folks are doing work that is not at the level of a leader's responsibility. For instance, the scheduling process is primarily scheduled by Mr. DeLeva himself. Assignment of substitute teachers on a daily basis, that has been really problematic. There are a number of roles that have evaporated over time that I believe should be consolidated in one role. Next, establishing a faculty homeroom advisory committee. Homeroom advisory is a great program that is recommended by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges as a part of an accreditation process. However, right now it is a missed opportunity. There's an opportunity to provide better training and better service for kids through the use of a collaborative committee. Next, providing individual and collective mentoring for assistant principals and deans. The dean position is a proposal I made that I believe could be very, very impactful. And some mentoring for those folks in those roles who in many instances have not been in that role for more than a couple of years. And during COVID, there was precious little opportunity to get on the same page about what those roles should do and communicate that well across the school. Next, number eight, recruit, train, and hire four building-based permanent substitute teachers. Over and over, teachers lamented that they are being pulled from their preparation time to cover classes for teachers who are absent. While they were willing to do it, it is not their first choice. And as we all know, the labor market is extremely tight, and it's very hard to find people to fill substitute teaching roles. I believe the amount that the district is spending to cover those, classes using current teachers and paying them for their prep would be more than enough to cover four positions of that nature. I don't have those numbers for you in terms of what it's costing, but I think a review of that would validate my belief. Finally, the last slide, leadership committee focused on diversity, equity, and inclusion. There are a number of folks within the school who are working valiantly trying to make sure that we are using culturally relevant teaching practices and supporting our students throughout the high school experience in a way that is more inclusive. I believe that a formal committee around that work would be an important next step. Number 10 should come as a surprise to no one, aggressively pursuing an MSBA, Master School Building Authority core program grant. The high school is not getting any younger and is a very, very large cabiners facility that is showing its age. And there are a number of aspects that need one replacement. And I know the committee is aware of that. I think continuing to aggressively pursue that is important. And finally, leveraging the existing administrative vacancies. Over the course of my time in the school, it became clear to me, I became aware that there are a number of administrative vacancies that now are about to be filled. I think it's really important to get that next leadership team together and provide them the support that they need to move forward. And I provided one last slide with those administrative vacancies listed. for the 2023-2024 school year as of, this is as of a few weeks ago. Prior to April break, I was traveling and during the break was not around. So I think that explains a little bit of why this proposal is coming, this report is coming to at this time. And really, I'm not gonna speak anymore. That's probably more than 10 minutes. And I'll go to the next slide, which is questions and next steps. And I'd be happy to answer any questions the committee has developed. Again, I wanna thank the Medford Public Schools for being proactive and allowing me the opportunity to come and aggressively analyze its systems. And I hope that this has been helpful to the group. Thank you.
[SPEAKER_10]: Thank you, Mr. Welch. Member Ruseau. Thank you very much.
[SPEAKER_16]: It was a lot to digest. And I have an awful lot of sticky notes probably more than we have time. I do have two corrections on page 51. It says that we approved the resolution on October 14 2021 we actually approved it on October 14 2020. I have the minutes here. And on page 52 it says October 2022 and it's actually October 2020. It's quite relevant that this committee, when we made changes to the discipline policy, put a very long runway to implementation, because we were not ignorant of the fact that we were making substantial changes and the district needed time to prepare. So I think that having those dates be correct is really quite important. But those are the two easiest things I'll have to say.
[SPEAKER_13]: If I may, Mr. Russo, thank you for that because part of my task was going in and looking at school committee policies that were relevant. And I may have simply misnumbered or misread some of that. And there were a couple pieces in there that I think were recommendations that the school committee is within your purview. And I don't want to imply that there was not sufficient conversation in my conversations with Principal DeLeva. He mentioned a number of opportunities for there to be input around those policies.
[SPEAKER_16]: Great, thank you. I think I did find the Google Doc that has the policy that a copy of which was probably given to you. And it does say October 14, 2021. It's just wrong.
[SPEAKER_13]: Okay, so you didn't make that up.
[SPEAKER_16]: Okay, but I found the minutes and we did in fact approve it in 2020. I was just confused because in the resolution it said, and in May of 2021 you'll bring your recommendations for any additional funding or anything that you need, which makes no sense that we would say to do that in the past. So that's what confused me but anyways. So as for. What to say? I will tell you that this is my sixth year on the school committee, and I learned a lot about the high school from your report. And I want to really thank you for that because my kids were not in high school when I first got on the school committee, and I didn't go to the high school. So this is weird lens of a parent, a parent whose kid goes during the pandemic. And while I can see an org chart, really understanding how everything fits together. Your report does a fabulous job of that. It's a little embarrassing that after six years, I'm learning this much about the high school, but I greatly appreciate it. I did have, it's like how to approach this. I have too many sticky notes and there's a lot of us. I do have two motions that I'll make because in your recommendations around policies, I thought both of those things really excellent. I was a little disappointed that there was a lot of confusion about the discipline policy as well as the dress code policy, considering every single school leader across the district was present for every single subcommittee meeting or committee of the whole we had on it. And so when they literally are present and paying attention, we're on zoom, we all knew we were paying attention to have that message somehow missed really, it really bothers me a lot actually, that the people who sat in the meetings spoke on the topics themselves, somehow walked away and were unable to communicate to our teachers and the rest of the staff what the policy was, or communicated something different than what they in fact had heard and even spoken about. So that part really, disappoints me, I know that's a reality, and this is not the first time I'm hearing about it. And I don't think it's, I think it's really a disservice that the teaching staff and the rest of the staff didn't have that message coming down strong and firm as to what the policy was. The issue of hats and hoods, the reason we actually brought the policy up was about hats and hoods. We talked about hats and hoods to the point where I wanna just smacked my head into a wall about hats and hoods, and that anybody who works for Bedford Public Schools is confused about whether hats and hoods are allowed, is really very, very concerning about our ability to communicate to our staff what the policies are. We, as the school committee, are barred from communicating with the staff about what our policies are. That's against the law. I can't send an email to the teaching staff and say, here's the policy that we passed. That's not allowed. We passed the policy and the superintendent and her staff get that message out. And the message did not get out. And I think it's really unfortunate that the teaching staff is sort of left to just wonder this description of piles of backpacks stacked outside of some teachers' classrooms and not others, that could be solved in an email in five minutes. And here we are a year and a half after that policy went into effect. So there was a lot in your email that was upsetting and that it was often very easy to solve, but still hasn't been solved. I'll let my colleagues have a chance cause I could go on all night, but thank you for that. Oh, the motions. I'll make my motions cause I think they're totally non-controversial and I won't want to forget them. The first motion is that the Rules and Policy Subcommittee will provide recommendations for changes to the dress code policy that clarify the carrying of backpacks at Medford High School. This recommendation will be returned to this body by June 30th, 2023. Yes, the Rules and Policy Subcommittee will provide recommendations for changes to the dress code policy that clarify the carrying of backpacks at Medford High School. This recommendation will be returned to this body by June 30th, 2023.
[SPEAKER_10]: second motion for approval by member russo seconded by member mclaughlin roll call either way either way it was both tied so i went
[SPEAKER_16]: Member Graham.
[SPEAKER_11]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_16]: Member Hays.
[SPEAKER_11]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_16]: Member Kreatz.
[SPEAKER_11]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_16]: Member McLaughlin.
[SPEAKER_10]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_16]: Member Mustone.
[SPEAKER_10]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_16]: Members, so yes, Mayor Lungo-Koehn.
[SPEAKER_10]: Yes, 70 affirmative, zero negative. Motion passes.
[SPEAKER_16]: And the second policy, second motion is that the Rules and Policy Subcommittee will provide recommendations for changes to the dress code policy to clarify the wearing of hats and hoods. This recommendation will be returned to this body by June 30th, 2023.
[SPEAKER_10]: Motion by Member Ruseau, seconded by Member Graham. Roll call, please.
[SPEAKER_16]: Member Graham.
[SPEAKER_10]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_16]: Member Hays.
[SPEAKER_10]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_16]: Member Kreatz.
[SPEAKER_10]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_16]: Member McLaughlin.
[SPEAKER_10]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_16]: Member Mustone.
[SPEAKER_10]: Member Mustone. Yes. Yes.
[SPEAKER_11]: Thank you. Mayor Langaudere.
[SPEAKER_10]: Yes. Seven in the affirmative, zero in the negative. Motion passes.
[SPEAKER_06]: Thank you.
[SPEAKER_10]: Questions. Member Graham.
[SPEAKER_06]: Thank you for your report. I also have a lot of questions and I'm trying to think about where to begin.
[SPEAKER_07]: I think one of the things that came out in your report was this idea that the assistant principals are overburdened in their caseload, and you go on to recommend some strategies to provide additional staff to support them. You also recommend an associate principal. And I think within your report, you say that there's approximately three to 500 students for an administrator and that our assistant principals have 400 students. And so I'm just, I'm trying to piece it all together because when I got to page 54, M55, where you talked about some of the duties of a potential position for an associate principal. I just was left wondering, what does the principal even do if all these other people are doing all these other things? And we have a pile of department directors who I think really, at least in my mind, are responsible for some amount of instructional leadership within their own departments. Like what does the org chart look like? in its totality. And I don't disagree per se with any independent thing that you suggested we explore. But I think what I'm really looking for is a cohesive picture of what a successful Medford high school slash Medford public schools might look like. And that has to include all of the department heads. It has to include all of the assistant principals and what their responsibilities are. And we'll talk about job descriptions later and all that good stuff. it's not my sense there aren't enough adults in the building to do the things. And maybe I'm completely wrong about that. And it just didn't jump off the page at me. Like what is the reconciliation of what all the things that you're recommending and how the total delivery of duties would parse out? Or is there something else that is contributing to their workload that doesn't come across in those like caseload numbers?
[SPEAKER_13]: I think I would respond by saying there are directors that are K through 12 in their responsibility that are primarily in the academic departments, and they have a district wide level of responsibility. They are not involved in the student discipline and behavior end of the house. And that has, I think, many aspects of why the culture and climate is where it is right now. responsibility falls on to those three individuals, primarily, I think the district has invested in additional social emotional support for students in the form of Councilors and psychologists and social workers, and that has is laudable, but the first line of defense is always those assistant principals I think your question is a good one. How do we prioritize our resources and look to make that a comprehensive review, because right now the K through 12 directors primarily are not responsible for student discipline and student behavior. A couple of times I asked teachers, who do you go to when you need help. If you're having trouble with classroom management, who do you go to, and teachers did not immediately say I go to my department head or my K through 12 director that was not typically the response I received it was, we go to the vice principal or the assistant principal I'm sorry. And so I think there's some delegation of duties in there that could happen in the way that if I'm a new teacher, how do I deal with classroom management issues in my class? And some of that must fall onto the teacher training, the mentoring program, and the responsibility of those K-12 directors. But the teachers themselves, the ones that I spoke with, did not see that person as the one to go to in that instance.
[SPEAKER_07]: Yeah, and I can totally understand that because it's, I guess my thought is if you look at the role of the department heads, they're instructional leaders. And so by extension, the role of the assistant principal is much more narrow as an instructional leader so that they have time to adequately be the disciplinarians in the building, right? So I don't, I wouldn't expect anybody to go to their department head when they have a classroom management issue or a student issue. But like the folks that are responsible for those things, I think, should have increased capacity if they're not carrying an instructional leadership role at the same time. And that's like the bigger picture that I think we need to be clear about in what the responsibilities are. And like I said, I was left reading after I read, I was like, well, what is the principal even do at this point? And I'm not to suggest we don't need a principal. We absolutely need a principal. But if we need a principal and we need an associate principal and we need an executive director at the Vogue and we need assistant principal at the Vogue and we need three assistant principals at the high school and we need deans of students in a part-time capacity to support them all. Like, is that a typical amount of people administering essentially like discipline and overall school management for building of our size, it seemed like that's the question that's unanswered.
[SPEAKER_13]: And I think I would, I would argue, in addition, your initial comment about why a teacher would not go to their department chair if they're having classroom management issues, I think that is a responsibility. of the department head director as overall instruction in a classroom. That's a critical piece that right now teachers, I don't believe see that person in that capacity, but they should. That's an example of one way that this can happen. For instance, I'm struggling with my, you know, period two geometry class there, they're misbehaving. department chair, why don't you come in and look with me? In addition, assistant principals are also evaluators for a huge number of staff. So the evaluation responsibility also falls onto the assistant principals. And they're usually collaborating with the K through 12 directors in that capacity, but it is still an additional obligation. I would say yes, that the addition of deans is an additional resource that I think is critical given the current state of the number of discipline referrals that are coming in. So I would say, yes, that is a generous staffing. I'm not disagreeing with you in that capacity, but I think given the current state of where the school is, I think it's appropriate to not have an under-resourced situation to make sure that stabilizes because some of this is a result of turnover. There has been significant turnover in those positions, and I think we've lost our sense of what is referral based when should I write a referral, what should I do in this instance, and there are some instances where teachers are filling out a tremendous number of referrals, more than one a day. and the assistant principals are just completely overwhelmed with that. And that frustration I think needs to be addressed. So I guess I'm saying, yes, I agree with you to an extent, but I think resourcing that part of the school right now is critical moving forward. Yeah.
[SPEAKER_10]: If I may piggyback on that member Graham, because I think you answered the question for the most part, but is that the staffing levels for other high schools or
[SPEAKER_08]: Is it an issue with the fact that we need to mentor we need to train we need to hold people accountable, we need to professionalize the organization, which one is it.
[SPEAKER_13]: I think it's both in the sense that all of those pieces that you just mentioned, clarifying roles, making sure there's good leadership around explaining what the role is of the assistant principal. When do you have a referral? When do you not? When do you deal with that on your own? That aspect of things does need to be clarified and it needs to be a smooth, consistent message across the organization.
[SPEAKER_07]: Thank you. Thank you. On the topic of referrals, I think the other thing that struck me was frankly how unmanageable this list of potential referral reasons is like there's like 17 different ways to call somebody cut in class and 17 is an exaggeration, but there were many and. It just, it's way too complicated. So I think that makes everybody's job harder. But I was really struck by the fact that in, you know, in your 32 day period, 27% of teachers submitted no referrals. 27% of teachers submitted one to three. Over the like zero to nine referrals submitted in 30 days, that's 80% of our teaching staff. So, and I guess my question in that group is. are they not submitting it because they gave up, or are they not submitting and they're just not doing it, which I have heard repeatedly, and it is so frustrating and something that needs to be addressed, or are they not doing it because they don't have these issues in their classroom? Like I can't parse that from this information, and I suspect you'd have to go back and talk to people, but I don't know if you had an overall like sense of like, Where does that like fall line sort of draw?
[SPEAKER_13]: Sure. I think all of those pieces that you mentioned are a part of this. There are some teachers who said, I don't bother filling out referrals anymore because I never know what's going to happen. And I don't, there's no consistency around the reaction. Other teachers do all of this work themselves. They make calls they stay they keep kids after school they talk to kids after class they speak with parents, they do a lot of that work on their own. And some decide that that's a more effective way to do it, depending upon the type of class and the age of the student, there are some classes that teachers workloads are simply not in a situation where they're struggling, that the kids are, by and large, able to much more aptly go through their day without creating issues there. The kids were very honest with me, they said when they don't like going to class they don't necessarily like the teachers they don't go. And I said, I did say to groups of students, suppose all of you next period, after we finish our, I'm your substitute teacher and I'm having this conversation with you, suppose all of you didn't go to class the rest of the day, what would happen? and they had all different answers as to what could happen. And some of them admitted, yeah, there are classes I don't go to, because I don't like the class. Where do you go? Well, I go wherever I can, where there's not an adult, and I can find a place to hide. And the response to that in some instances, yeah, the assistant principal got on top of it, called me down, called my parents, had a meeting, and that's the way it should work. The volume is such that it's just not possible.
[SPEAKER_07]: Yeah, and I have heard that, you know, from a whole variety of sources, and I hope that we can move to a place where not liking a class or a teacher is not a thing our kids have to experience in Medford Public Schools. But, you know, I guess the other thing that I'll say as I read this and really your entire report is that the failures that we're experiencing are all implementation failures. They're all failures of implementation, the dress code, the house model, student discipline, the referral model being wildly complex, returning to school post COVID. I can't tell you how many times I've heard people say the school committee wouldn't let us discipline students on the return to school. And we've had a lot of hours of meetings and I don't ever, I really, truly don't ever remember that being said. And certainly there is nothing in writing to substantiate that, that I was able to find because I did a little bit of digging, but even, you know, emergency preparedness, all these things, something is missing in terms of how directives get implemented or not. And it is the central thing that has to change at the high school in order to move the high school past where it is. The dress code, was not unclear. The dress code was quite clear. Everybody was involved. Many, many meetings. We talked extensively about hats and hoods. That there's any confusion is absolutely mind blowing to me. And so the only answer there is that the implementation failed. That there's this confusion that the handbook says something that is in conflict with the policy. Like, these are the kinds of things that You know they, I think they seem small at the time but they're really, really important when you want to sort of move six or eight or 12 months down the road from a change and say did it work. The answer will always be no if you don't take the time to implement without exception. And the last thing I'll say is I actually enjoyed the picture of your model and the consequence of lacking various components. And I think if you use that model and you look at any of the challenges we have, you can really clearly point out what was missing. It is not a surprise that we're struggling. So I do thank you for this report. And I am, I just finished serving on the principal selection committee and I'm really hopeful about our candidates for next year. And I'm entirely on board with making sure that that incoming principal has the resources that they need to really make a difference here. Thank you.
[SPEAKER_10]: Member Hays and member McLaughlin.
[SPEAKER_04]: And then member grants. Thank you. Thank you. One of the things I really appreciated about your report and member so kind of already spoke to some of this was the history you gave because I certainly did not. I have new bits and pieces of the history and, but having it all put together. really helped a lot to provide some context to some of the issues that we're having, because they're not just based on what's happening right now or even in the past two years. There's a lot of history behind all of that that leads us to where we are today. And one of the things that struck me a lot was the turnover, the amazing turnover in the various administrative positions, because it's very hard to implement or to get anything to stick if you don't have some consistency in those positions. And so I'm wondering, did you have a sense, well, two questions I'm wondering, and one of them may not be exactly for you. One, do we do exit interviews when people leave so we can have a sense of, is there some pattern, something we can understand to why we seem to have so much turnover? Did you get a sense from any of the people you talked to who maybe knew some of these people was there any sense of why we seem to have so much turnover? And I guess in your experience, is that amount of turnover typical? I know there's a lot of administrative turnover at all levels of K to 12 education, but that just feels like so much. And when you think of the things that we haven't been able to get done, so much of that, when you've got people who are new to the system, and then also some, I think you mentioned some of these people maybe were just even new to that particular position. anywhere. So it's hard to get much traction for things if people are new and just trying to get their bearings and then a couple years later they're gone and somebody new is trying to get their bearings and did you have any sense of what that why that turnover was happening if there was any pattern to that.
[SPEAKER_13]: So typically, just to briefly answer that, I think you're looking at instances where folks are making lateral moves, where they're staying in the same position and simply moving to another district. I didn't see that occurring. In many instances, I think going back to the previous superintendent's administration, Mr. Belson, there had been such a long period of stability. When that happens, everyone gets used to that because there's familiarity with the individual or individuals. And I think there had been a long stretch of tremendous stability. And when you start a little bit of turnover, the whole thing shifts, all of the pieces shift and reconnect and realign. And I think there has been a succession of those instances that I think it's more than typical for a district like Medford and Medford size, but there is this is an era right now have a lot of instability and a lot of districts, there's a lot of people who are choosing to exit the profession. I teach in a program that recruits teachers to become administrators and people don't want to do it. It's a hard time to be moving in that direction. So I would say Medford has had more than its share of transitions. I have not seen people fleeing because they were unhappy. That was not a part of what I saw. And I think there are so many people who are so committed to staying in Medford. I saw that repeatedly amongst the educators, as well as the support staff. They love working here. Some of them have had a difficult stretch, like everyone has in education over the course of the past three years. It's been hard, but there has been, Medford has had more of its share of turnover in strategic positions where there had been a long period of stability. And I think because of that, it's a bit more of a shock for this district than in typical situations.
[SPEAKER_04]: So I've already requested this information from administration, but I'm curious whether you looked at it too. The discipline data or the referral, the chart that you have from the period that you were here from January 3rd to February 17th, I think was the stretch of time. That, of course, period of time is right after the new procedures were put in place. I'm curious, did you look at all back before those procedures were put in place to see how the data, was it comparable, did anything shift with the new procedures that you noticed? I don't know if you did that or not.
[SPEAKER_13]: Yes, and the kids told me it is so much tighter during that stretch than it was prior to that. And the data bears that out. And I think the resources that were devoted to this in terms of mere supervision of the common areas of the building, there was significantly more resources put in place during that stretch. And that really pushed kids back into classrooms in a way that they had previously been able to get away with it. And they admitted that to me, they had seen so much more tightness that had occurred in a good way. And again, I don't think that, I don't have a good sense of exactly the referral frequency prior to this stretch, because I really didn't study that, but a quick glance at it would say to me that anecdotally, it is far less than it had been.
[SPEAKER_10]: Member McLaughlin and Member Kreatz.
[SPEAKER_05]: Thank you. I thank you for the report. I also appreciate coming from the education world, the framework and framing systemic change. And I think that we all know that systems level change is painful and difficult and arduous and time consuming. And I think that, you know, putting in perspective as well, as you said, the long term of stability with the previous administration. So the fact that we have, you know, new administration turnover central administration turnover as a whole, really, and also a global pandemic. In the past couple of years, I think that it says a lot as well as to what's going on. I think that it's important to also put things in context in place. Because I think that we all know there's a lot of work to be done. But I think we also need to sort of look at it in terms of perspective as to in terms of what else has been going on. And, and, and thinking about how change actually happens, and how it needs to happen over time. And I think we also know, both with the frameworks that are used, that if you do change too quickly, you know what can happen, right, and that things can really sort of blow up as well, which is part of what I think we're seeing around having such turnover and you know all of this churning. But a couple of questions so I appreciate the frameworks and I and I say that just because there are other frameworks that talk about change and you know the systems change and how, what, what can happen. As you know, so I wanted to ask about just a couple of questions. One was, did you also happen to interview or include the annex to the high school, the Curtis Tufts, which has, you know, a long history of, you know, maybe some students who have been marginalized or for various reasons and staff that could really share some of their experience.
[SPEAKER_13]: I did not personally interview the folks at the Curtis Tufts. However, I did speak at length with the previous director of the Curtis Tufts. I'm trying to remember of the hundreds of people, I wanna say Doug Bowen Smith. No. Craig, right. I spoke at length with him specifically about that issue and how that school has changed over time and the target population and the experiences he had, but I did not visit the school and talk with the staff there. However, we did have an extensive conversation about that.
[SPEAKER_05]: Thank you. And I just think it's, you know, I think some of those students and families there probably have experienced very directly some of the policies and procedures that have been in place and I think it could be interesting and I appreciate Mr. Jarski sharing his perspective with you. I'm sure it was valuable. And to that end, I'm wondering about, I did want to say I appreciate you mentoring the mentor program. I think that, you know, across the board, mentor programs are so essential and Having worked with the committee on education at the state level and really reviewing mentor programs and schools, knowing that you know if folks feel like they really have people to rely on in terms of the mentor program, then that is one of the ways that they're able to, especially new teachers feel like their belonging so I appreciate you mentioning that and I think it's an important piece to consider and I also really appreciate your mention of the need for building based subs I think that I've heard that more from families than anything in terms of, particularly from families whose children may fit the high needs categories and who are not having necessarily staffing there that might've been appropriate in terms of, you know, building base subs who can actually get to know students and also the cost analysis compared to what you were saying, I think is really critical. So I appreciate that. And then I wanted to ask you about the leadership committee on DEI, and if you had talked to any of the folks about sort of what had existed and sort of didn't exist after a little while, basically last year, as far as a DEI committee.
[SPEAKER_13]: It was not something that came up in my conversation. So the fact that it wasn't mentioned by folks in a comprehensive way to me said that it wasn't a priority that was being recognized across the school. Now I say that knowing that there are individuals who are very committed to this work. and a number of teachers individually talked about their efforts along those lines. I didn't see in any conversations that I had or in any references, people seeing that as a huge priority or any sort of formal training that was being conducted for teachers, or the sort of efforts that I think are all districts are now in the need for this work. Some districts have hired an individual to champion this work, and that has not always met with success. In other instances, it is seen as an add-on. Now, quote, they want us to do this too. It can't be presented that way. It needs to be embedded in everything that we do. So there's a tremendous amount of training that needs to go on. and someone needs to coordinate that. So how that ends up moving forward is not exactly clear to many districts. There are different ways that people are approaching this. And I don't see any sort of gold standard of way to set it up. I've seen instances where it has made some inroads, looking at recruiting a more diverse staff. Every district in Massachusetts is trying to do that. And it is not easy to do because the teaching pool right now is simply not deep, and it is not diverse. Secondarily, simply providing training to those who we currently have and are going to continue to be in the district for many years, coordinating that, doing it in a way that enlists an outside provider, perhaps it might be the way to go, because I've seen different districts try to do it with an individual appointed in that role, and that tends to not be as successful.
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, thank you. I was asking the question because we did have a committee that was appointed that was community members, school-based members and others. And it's sort of, it's unclear to me what happened to that. And it, you know, I know that it sort of fell apart, I think a little bit. And I think those people would have valuable input as to why that fell apart. I think it was well-intentioned and I'm sure there are a lot of people in the district that really do wanna do the work. But I think that there's a lot of, after review that could be done with that committee or that no longer committee, however you want to look at it, that could really inform that information. So I think it's interesting that you didn't know that there was one. So that speaks volumes to me. And then I also would want to know about how in the report family engagement was considered.
[SPEAKER_13]: Originally, the original charge was to have parent engagement too. And at the time, as I started moving down that path and speaking with Megan Fidler-Carey, I believe there was a goal of having a survey that would go to parents. So I backed off from individually looking at individual parent interviews. So that was the reason I moved away from that, knowing that at the time that I know the district was looking to try to engage in a survey tool to be providing to parents.
[SPEAKER_10]: Thank you, Member McLaughlin. Member Kreatz?
[SPEAKER_17]: Thank you. Thank you very much for the report. And I thought it was great that you were substituting in the classrooms when you just mentioned that. That's wonderful. Yeah, so I thought it was interesting because going over the history of the high school and the vocational school, I've been on the robotics engineering advisory committee, and I've heard, and my son has told me, for many, many years, there's been discussions about the two schedules, how the five day and the six day, and it's such a challenge. And I've heard from students that were in my advisory committee that it's so frustrating. Some students couldn't take a foreign language. I know my son didn't take a foreign language because the schedules were too restricted. There wasn't enough room in their schedules. So it's interesting that you discovered this. You know, it is something that is contractual that, you know, we're working on or that's going to be worked on, you know, as another task coming up. I mean, it's going to be, you know, I think challenging, but I think at the end result, it will, you know, open up the schedule so that there'll be more opportunities for students. And I was just wondering if you had the opportunity to talk to any of the students, you know, did they share any of their experiences or, anything with you, if you could share some of that.
[SPEAKER_13]: Oh yeah, very much so. And I would also piggyback on the statements that you made about the schedule. I heard a lot from special educators about the difficulty with trying to make sure that all students were able to get their needed services, particularly if they were following the week on week off schedule in the vocational realm. So they express frustration trying to make that work. And the world language piece is well documented that that's been challenging to be able to allow kids to have all those options. And I also heard from the career and technical education teachers that they wanted more time with their students, if you will, particularly around advisories and around the 900 hour requirement in their core areas. So that was challenging. And by and large, kids are proud of the school, they have seen many instances that they enjoy about the school, and they also feel that there isn't the tightness around behaviors that They are able to figure out a way around things and I think there are so many different reasons why that happens. it's just an enormous building there isn't I talked about how teachers are not obligated to have duties and that's a that's a very traditionally in other schools in medford their obligations around duties, with the exception of homeroom advisory. There aren't any for teachers unless there's pay associated with it. So that's a huge bargaining chip around the collective bargaining agreement that I believe has to be adapted in some way. And I believe the time to do that is when you look at melding the schedule. Because I think there's a way, and I think there's a willingness, teachers know this. Teachers know they need to be doing this work. But they're also aware that when this was negotiated out of the contract, it was a form of compensation. And I think they're not willing to volunteer to do that type of work, because those are hard won negotiations that resulted with the contract they have now. So I think the time is right to be able to look at the two schedules, meld them, and institute some form even in a small way of non-instructional duty for teachers. I just think that has to happen. And the kids know how to get around it.
[SPEAKER_17]: Great, thanks. And it's nice to see the enrollment numbers increase. I can just remember doing promoting and commercials for the vocational programs. And we have the excellent open houses. And it's really great when We do have the open houses and everybody can come out and see in going to the various shops and explore and it's a really nice event that we put on. that's that's all graded here too and and then I I know, Miss Graham had talked about the associate principal position and. I did receive some emails from parents, just mentioning that they felt as though we needed to have, there wasn't a particular name, but another assistant principal, because they felt as though there wasn't enough supports at the high school. And that was just something that was brought up recently. I had put it in, the budget survey. So I thought that was interesting that there was a position that was a recommendation for the associate principal in it would that be one position or would that be because it does say this, the associate principal role would be a full-time role. So it would be one new position.
[SPEAKER_13]: Yes. And again, I'm sorry.
[SPEAKER_17]: with the other four assistant principals?
[SPEAKER_13]: No, so I see these as distinct and different, that the assistant principals are dealing with student behavior, discipline, and overall looking at the emotional and academic progress of all their students. That piece is very clear. The associate principal would not be dealing in behavior and discipline in any of those aspects. There's the management and operations of the school. For instance, advanced placement testing, MCAS testing, all of the issues that are listed in that list. That's a lot. And that's a lot of stuff that normally would be sort of parceled out this assistant principal will do this piece this assistant principal will be that piece, and then you get a very dispersed sort of responsibility for all of those pieces. I believe that consolidating that under one individual is the way to go. Again, it used to be that there were four assistant principals. Now there were three. And whether or not those duties were adequately distributed, especially to people who are coming in new, a new person coming in, trying to be able to do those is doomed to failure without the support of mentoring and an understanding of historically how these things are done.
[SPEAKER_03]: Thank you. Thank you very much. Member Ruseau.
[SPEAKER_16]: Thank you. There's a lot in here around security and cameras and the building and our 55 exterior doors. Thank you for the number. I just think about what it costs to make an exterior door a high tech modern exterior door with access control and alerting when it's not closed. take that number in my head, which I don't have a real number, and I multiply that by 55, and I know that number is just too big. So that is a bit startling to imagine. And I mean, you do point out, and one of the teachers are quoted as like, the place is just too big, and we cannot hire enough staff to make all the hiding places not hiding places. That's just not one of our options. So it's sort of a problem of enrollment and the school size kind of coming together. There was someplace in the report, I couldn't find it quickly. You said something really important about how when the teachers and the students came back after being remote, that the behaviors were, Well, we planned a lot for coming back into in-person, but I don't know that we planned for the student body to largely be unrecognizable. And for teachers that have been teaching for many, many years to have like, it's like they showed up and it's a different planet or something, like all of the things going on that they had not experienced. And maybe did not have training and supports and you know we didn't suddenly multiply the number of people in the assistant principal's office. That like we did try our best to support them in coming back, but I feel like this would probably be like you know, in the history books will be one of the areas where we didn't. So it's not that we didn't provide like. adjustment Councilors and all those other people, but that's sort of for the students, but finding ways to support the teachers who just came into this situation. A friend of mine is a, I think she's a second grade or third grade teacher. And during the pandemic, we talked about like how there were not being, there were not a lot of special ed referrals coming in. And she was, I was, I mean, I mentioned this on the floor, like I'm terrified that the referrals are down because there's no, Well there's eyes on the students but eyes on a webcam is not the same thing. And sure enough September arrived, and it was a madhouse of all these students who are completely undiagnosed or on untested for what they needed. And how much of that could have ever really been supported is will be interesting thing some people I'm sure will study but, you know, we couldn't just magically create a second teacher to sit in every classroom or whatever that those people don't exist so I just think it's really important to recognize that the teaching staff wasn't prepared because they couldn't be prepared because we didn't know, none of us have been through this pandemic. Even if we had pandemics every 25 years, we never would have had a pandemic on Zoom. So it's like, no matter how more common pandemics become, this will be the first one where kids actually kept going sort of. And I hope we can take a lot of these things away because the global authorities indicate we can expect more pandemics. So maybe we can do a better job. I'll stop talking about that. I do just want to point out on page, 41, there's a paragraph, I'm gonna read it, it's one paragraph. I'm just really tired of this conversation and you probably don't know, because you haven't been to all of our meetings, but we have been having this conversation over and over again since returning from the pandemic. Bathroom access and availability, and yes, I rolled my eyes, sorry, has been a significant issue in the overall supervision of students. Bathrooms are scattered throughout the building and periodically are not functioning due to maintenance needs. Some bathrooms are routinely closed deliberately to limit supervisory requirements for staff. This is a relatively common practice in large comprehensive high schools. but the number and location of open bathrooms at Medford High School changes on a daily and sometimes hourly basis, creating frustration and confusion for all involved. These changes are usually a result of lack of monitoring coverage. When monitors are not available, bathrooms are locked and students are sent to other bathrooms. A couple of questions in there. Students are sent to other bathrooms. If there's nobody to cover it, they're not sent. They're left to wander to find another bathroom. Am I correct?
[SPEAKER_13]: I believe in most instances, there's a sign placed on the door, indicating where kids should go and they, those are the attempt is to try to this is, I don't want to imply that this doesn't happen in other schools. There are bathrooms in other remote areas of schools that typically are not open to the public, and to students, I should say. So I think the challenges have been trying to bring a system up to speed immediately after this incident that occurred in December that would provide coverage across the building. That was a lot to try to maintain. And sometimes somebody had signed up for coverage and they happened to be out that day. And then that would result in a scramble to try to find somebody to cover. And if they couldn't, that bathroom was closed and the kid's sign was on the door and they'd be directed somewhere else.
[SPEAKER_16]: Thank you. Reasons make sense to me. We have all had to go to the bathroom and not been able to find a bathroom though. And, you know, the changes happening sometimes on a daily or hourly basis. I mean, are we really getting signs up there on the fly in the moment that are always accurate to tell a student where to go? Because, you know, my daughter doesn't go to her locker anymore. She just violates the policy, whatever it is, or at least in the handbook and carries all of her books with her in a backpack all day. And, you know, that's partially related to scheduling and our lovely asbestos challenge we had in one of the halls that took out her locker area. But when I think about three minutes, I mean, my high school was a similar number of students, dramatically smaller footprint, and we had four minutes I still remember thinking four minutes was nuts. Like, how can you get anywhere in four minutes? And if you're like ninth grade is in this wing, maybe that makes sense. 10th grade's in this wing. But we have students traversing like the entire building in their three minutes. So, you know, when I think about that, and then I think about they go, the bathroom is closed. Is there, I don't think 100% is an unreasonable expectation. that every bathroom has a sign 100% of the time that correctly says where is an open bathroom, not 95% of the time, 100% of the time the sign is correct. Like we have an awful lot of people working in that building. And it's one thing that matters a lot to somebody who's looking for a bathroom. And when we talk about student behaviors, well, one thing that's important is that we might wanna consider respecting our students. And while I agree we can't have all the bathrooms open plenty of very good reasons. If the bathroom is closed and the sign says to go here and you go over there and that one's closed and there's no sign telling you where else to go, I would feel very disrespected as a student who is supposed to be in class learning. I mean, we can ignore the fact that that means they're not getting an education while they're on the hunt for a bathroom. It's obnoxious that I'm talking about bathrooms, but we have talked about it so many meetings that you have been lucky enough not to participate in. And I'm just I'm really exhausted and I'm not running around looking for a bathroom. So thank you for answering that one question about like the why is there there's coverage all set up everything is lined up and then somebody's out sick or somebody You know, there's lots of other reasons why a staff member couldn't make a coverage, but I just want to make sure that the signage issue is, you know, NASA level accurate, because it's a big building to be running all over the place. And by the way, having to go pee isn't the only thing our students need to use bathrooms for, which, you know, we still don't have menstrual products in all of our bathrooms, but that's a different conversation. Thank you.
[SPEAKER_10]: We have a resident S Diaz, if you could state your name and address for the record.
[SPEAKER_19]: Hello, can you hear me. Yes. Hello. So your idea, 143 Lake Street in Arlington. I was one of the teachers meeting with Michael, and I wanted to thank him because he was, I don't know, and I'm speaking for myself, but a lot of people in the building agree with me, he's the first person that really was listening to us. uh a lot of the a lot of the I mean everything Michael said is uh is correct and uh he's just presenting to the committee what we teachers have been saying for months and I remembered in the last meeting In the meeting we had after the stabbing, one of the teachers said, please listen to us. And everything Michael said is correct. But we have been saying that for so long. And I'm not saying that the school committee is not doing their job or anything. No. What I want to reiterate is that we need We need everybody to be on the same boat. We teachers, and it's very funny what Michael said, well, some teachers do the referrals, others gave up. And it's because we don't have all the APs working together. And sometimes when we see, oh, who is the AP of this student? And we are like, oh, great. I'm going to be supported. He's going to do something or she's going to do something. And then we take, oh, what is the AP? Oh, no. And we give up. So we need consistency. We need everybody working together. And Mr. Rousseau, I know you don't want to hear about the bathroom, but the bathrooms are a big, big problem. There are no signs. There's no consistency. And we need strong leaders. We need strong people in front of the bathroom. We cannot have someone that sits there and have eight to 10 kids. And some of them, I'm sorry, are kids. We don't feel comfortable being around them. And he cannot have a group of kids just talking to him and hanging out there. We need strong people. And yes, we need another AP. I told Michael, I said, we need an AP per grade. and they focus on their grade, and then they don't need to be thinking, is this ninth grader or 10th grader? I think it will work a lot better. Thank you so much for listening. I know you heard this before, but I really needed to share. Thank you, thank you so much.
[SPEAKER_10]: Thank you, Ms. Diaz. Lou, name and address for the record, please. Spagnolia.
[SPEAKER_01]: Hello, Spagnola. I'm at 86 Gore Road in Revere, Massachusetts. I'd like to say just, because even though if we're not going to talk about bathrooms, it still needs to be added. The problem was, it's a big thing. When you have kids that are leaving class, and then kids are walking around the school, and then if bathrooms are not monitored, that's where they're going to go hide. And so I am somebody that I was walking in the bathrooms whenever I walk around the school. And the record, I threw out 14 kids from a bathroom. Three of them were eating lunch, sitting on the floor, and one of them was trying to go to the bathroom. Actually, two were trying to go to the bathroom. So I don't know. You can blame or we can try and circle the wagons, whatever we're going to do, but there's really no one person to blame. It's let's take a look at the situation and let's react to the situation as opposed to, you know, well, let's put signs on bathrooms. I'm the graphics teacher. I did follow the direction of superintendent and the principal who asked me to print signs that said a maximum of two allowed. And then we went around me and my students, we'd put them all up. It's, helpful if we know what bathrooms are open, but the problem is we don't have enough people to monitor them. And then if we don't monitor them, I've kicked six kids out a couple of weeks ago because they managed to get into a bathroom. So I don't know what else we can do outside of a complete reform. But I figured as long as we're talking about bathrooms, I just wanted to say that everybody that's trying to do their best sees that the bathroom is a huge problem and outside of monitoring them, we're gonna have to lock them. So I just wanted to add that, that's all. I just wanted to give some clarity as somebody that does walk around the school anytime I can and try and help out and try and get these kids to get to class. So that's it, thank you.
[SPEAKER_10]: Thank you, Mr. Spagnuolo. Mr. Giglio, name and address for the record, please.
[SPEAKER_14]: Hi, Bill Guglielmo. At first, months ago, I had my reservations about Mr. Wells, but I have to say this presentation that he put together was very thorough, very good. I'm very, very impressed. I'd like to thank him for that. That's very good. And I think we should all need to listen to everything that he has to say because he's bringing up some very valid points on things that really need to be addressed. And again, Mr. Wells, I'd like to thank you very much. You did an excellent job. Thank you.
[SPEAKER_10]: Thank you, Mr. Guglielmo. Any other questions from the committee, I think we just received it so i'm sure some some of you read it sorry Sunday Monday, so I think we need a little more time to digest digested to so sure we can reserve some more questions if we have them, but thank you for the presentation.
[SPEAKER_13]: Thank you for the opportunity and again. If there are additional concerns or issues, I've more than exceeded the allocation that was originally made by the school committee, but I felt very committed to making sure I saw the process through. And if there are additional concerns or questions that come up, I'd be happy to return and help out in whatever way I can.
[SPEAKER_10]: Thank you.
[SPEAKER_13]: Thanks.
[SPEAKER_10]: We do not have any presentations of the public. We have continued business 2023-01 offered by member Graham. On April 26, 2021, the school committee voted unanimously to amend policy GAD, permanent staff positions. The amended policy included this language. All job descriptions were reviewed every three years and presented to the school committee for approval. Job descriptions will contain a last reviewed date. Superintendent will establish a review cycle for all positions descriptions within 60 days of the adoption of the policy. The initial review cycle lasts no longer than three years and conclude on September 1st, 2024. Back to October 21 2021, the comprehensive list of current job descriptions professional staff positions are available for view by the public on the Medford public school website. Each time a new position is established by the committee, the superintendent will present the committee's approval job description for the position which specifies the job holders qualifications and the jobs performance responsibilities, although such positions may remain temporarily unfilled, only the committee may abolish position it has created. All positions unfilled for the entire prior school year will be reported to the committee annually no later than June 1st with an explanation for the vacancy. All positions that remain unfilled for more than two consecutive school years will be presented to the committee to be abolished no later than June 1st. In the event the superintendent wishes to maintain any positions that have been unfilled for more than two consecutive school years, the superintendent must explain the rationale and plan to fill the position and get approved from the committee to continue the unfilled position for an additional year. Be resolved that the superintendent provide an update and timeline to comply with the September, 2024 completion of the initial view cycle here in member Graham.
[SPEAKER_07]: Thank you. As I was referencing earlier, this has come up multiple times in the last couple of weeks. Certainly, as we were talking about the roles and responsibilities of the high school principal for which we are interviewing, it came up, we were asked questions by candidates and things like that. But we did, several years ago, try to establish a process that would make sure that we are thoughtfully looking at these positions on a regular basis. So my request really is not that there's an answer tonight, but that before the year is out, we do have a plan for actually reviewing these job descriptions. I think it's incredibly hard to figure out and not clear to me, you know, who does the, does the director of such and such a topic have responsibilities for supervision? Do they have responsibilities for duties? All of that is very muddy and it's not easy to even know where to go to look for those things. So my request is just that at some point we get back to this thing we originally unanimously supported and make sure that we're on a better path forward. Second.
[SPEAKER_11]: Sorry. Member Graham? Yes.
[SPEAKER_16]: Member Hays?
[SPEAKER_11]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_16]: Member Kreatz?
[SPEAKER_11]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_16]: Member McLaughlin?
[SPEAKER_10]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_16]: Member Bestone?
[SPEAKER_10]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_16]: Member Ruseau? Yes. Mayor Longo?
[SPEAKER_10]: Yes. Seven in the affirmative, zero in the negative. Motion passes. Offered by Member Graham, 2023-02, whereas the Medford School Committee heard a presentation from the Andrews Middle School Global Scholars Program. on June 6, 2022, regarding the results of their composting pilot, including an annual cost to the Andrews School of $720, whereas the school committee unanimously voted to ask the administration to investigate the cost of composting district-wide for possible implementation in school year 2022-2023 via resolve that the administration provide an update on composting efforts in Medford Public Schools this year and plans for the upcoming 2023-2024 school year. Member Grant.
[SPEAKER_07]: Thank you. I know there has been a lot of work going on behind the scenes in our food service area as a result of an audit and other changes that are happening. So I thought it would be a good time to remind everybody that we were interested in pursuing some more information about composting based on the report that the Global Scholars presented last year. I've been asked about it by my daughter, who was one of the presenters several times, and I keep telling her, I don't know. So I wanted to put that back on everybody's radar. And again, just, you know, if there are things happening in the district that we're unaware of, I think people would be happy to hear about those things. But I think also, you know, what is our plan for next year? And is composting part of the food service plan, I think is the question. So it doesn't have to be today, but as we talk about food service.
[SPEAKER_10]: And if I may, through the chair, I met with the chair of the Energy and Environment Committee. I believe it was maybe Thursday or Friday, and they have five goals. And one is to learn more from students and get more active in the school system. So maybe your daughter can go to the committee, one of their meetings. I think they're on Monday nights. But they are looking to interact more with students and try to get more involved. And they could be a huge asset to trying to get composting in our schools. And I will also talk to Director Hunt. And on the city side, we're working on, we have a task force in place, because we're doing a new RFP for recycling, composting, and trash pickup in the city, as we want to encourage more composting and recycling versus trash. So we'll see if they have anything in mind for the schools as well.
[SPEAKER_07]: Great. So just looking for an update at some point.
[SPEAKER_10]: Update from the school system. Yep. And motion for approval by Member Graham seconded by Member Hays. Roll call, please.
[SPEAKER_16]: Member Graham?
[SPEAKER_10]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_16]: Member Hays?
[SPEAKER_10]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_16]: Member Kreatz?
[SPEAKER_10]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_16]: Member McLaughlin?
[SPEAKER_10]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_16]: Member Mustone?
[SPEAKER_10]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_16]: Members, oh yes, Mayor Lungo-Koehn?
[SPEAKER_10]: Yes, 70 in the affirmative, zero in the negative. New business, we have member Graham and member McLaughlin, 2023-08, whereas the Medford School Committee seeks to increase transparency and community engagement, and whereas Medford Public Schools has recently relaunched its website on a modernized platform that enables regular maintenance, be resolved if the Communications and Family Engagement Subcommittee meet to discuss updates to the website that would promote family engagement improve accessibility and ensure transparency for all medical public school families and residents of Medford, be it further resolved that the communications and family engagement subcommittee will invite miss Lisa Miller and her students who work to launch the site, and are currently working on plans for phase two, two of development.
[SPEAKER_07]: I think we talked about this when we had a presentation for the website that there's potentially some connections to some of the school committee's goals around accessibility and translation that probably just warrant a little bit of understanding. I think on our part about what the website's capabilities are and really talk about what those next phases might look like for phase two. So just officially asking the committee to push this to committee so that we can work on it.
[SPEAKER_10]: Motion for approval by Member Graham, seconded by Member McLaughlin. Roll call, please.
[SPEAKER_16]: Member Graham?
[SPEAKER_10]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_16]: Member Hays? Yes. Member Kreatz?
[SPEAKER_11]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_16]: Member McLaughlin?
[SPEAKER_11]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_16]: Member Mustone?
[SPEAKER_10]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_16]: Member Rossell? Yes. Mayor Lungo-Koehn?
[SPEAKER_10]: Yes. Seven in the affirmative, zero in the negative. Motion passes. We do not have any reports requested and we have a few consult condolences. The Medford School Committee expresses its sincere condolences to the family of Charles E. Douglas, father of Charlene Douglas, Medford Teachers Association president, and Rory Klein, cafeteria manager at the Missittuck Elementary School. The Medford School Committee expresses its sincere condolences to the family of Mary V. Bowler, mother-in-law to Lisa Bowler, former Medford High School administrative assistant The Medford School Committee expresses its sincere condolences to the family of Teresa A. McManus, mother of Monica Caluso, McGlynn Elementary School teacher, and mother-in-law of former girls softball coach Charlie Peglia-Rullo. The Medford School Committee expresses its sincere condolences to the family of Beverly A. Oliveri, mother of Kathleen Keenan, site coordinator at the Roberts Afterschool Program, and the school pretty expresses sincere condolences to the family of Alan Hodgkin, father of Dr. Lori Hodgkin, principal of the Curtis Tufts High School. We all may rise for a moment of silence. Our next meeting is the ninth regular school committee meeting will be held on the 15th of May in the Alden Memorial Chambers, Medford City Hall, in addition to Zoom. Everybody have a wonderful week. Motion to adjourn by Member McLaughlin, seconded by- Second. Member Graham, all those in favor.
[SPEAKER_16]: Roll call.
[SPEAKER_10]: Roll call.
[SPEAKER_16]: Member Graham.
[SPEAKER_10]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_16]: Member Hays.
[SPEAKER_10]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_16]: Member McCrads.
[SPEAKER_10]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_16]: Member McLaughlin.
[SPEAKER_10]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_16]: Member Mustone.
[SPEAKER_11]: Yes. Member, so yes, Mayor Landau-Kerr. Yes.