[SPEAKER_17]: As we let folks know who is going, I'm not sure that we voted on it, but maybe my colleagues can remind me if that's other.
[SPEAKER_16]: Member Graham, we will have to take a vote at some point to identify who our delegate is to the Delegate Assembly and a backup. And I am planning to attend as well, but I was not planning to try to be a delegate, so. So I think we just need to figure out who all is interested in going, and then we can figure out how we make sure we have a delegate.
[SPEAKER_04]: Got it. Sounds good. Mark, member Ruseau present. Member Ruseau, we're just on the good of the order. We're talking about the MASC conference, November 8th, 9th, and 10th. And I think at a future meeting, we'll vote on who our delegate will be. But until then, just let the superintendent know if you plan on going to the conference, I think. Any other good of the orders? Member McLaughlin?
[SPEAKER_17]: I just wanted to bring up the, and I know that we have a deadline, I think it's of December, but I just wanted to remind folks that we voted at the end of last session on goals and just being able to report out on our goals. So I want to make sure that we're thinking about that this month as we prepare for reporting out. I think it's in December. Thank you.
[SPEAKER_04]: Thank you, Member McLaughlin. Hearing and seeing no other good of the orders, I'll go on to the number three, the consent agenda, bills and payrolls, and our regular school committee meeting from June 12th, 2023. Is there a motion on the floor for approval?
[SPEAKER_17]: Motion to approve.
[SPEAKER_04]: By Member McLaughlin, seconded by Member Hays. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Consent agenda is approved. We have reports of subcommittees, rules, policy, subcommittee meeting, minutes, from July 19th, 2023. And then we also have, if I'll give you another second, we have rules and policy subcommittee meeting minutes from August 14th, 2023.
[SPEAKER_08]: Member Ruseau. Thank you. Those are actually not subcommittees meetings. Those were actually special meetings and they're just filed on the agenda. And I'd motion to table those to the next meeting, because there are substantial edits that I think should be made.
[SPEAKER_04]: Motion to table by member Rousseau, seconded by member McLaughlin. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Reports of subcommittees has been tabled to our next meeting. Number five, we have our report of our superintendent. Superintendent's update and comments. Dr. Maurice Edouard-Vincent.
[SPEAKER_12]: Good evening, everyone. It's wonderful to be back. So before I begin my update, I invite you all to join me in a moment of reflection on the 22nd anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terror attacks. It is a very sad day for many Americans, especially those of us with ties to Massachusetts, New York, and Washington, D.C. The anniversary of 9-1-1 is a reminder for all of us that things can change unexpectedly in a moment. We need to remember that over 3,000 individuals who died an untimely death, untimely and senseless death at the hands of terrorism. May all their souls rest in peace and may their loved ones find solace and comfort in their memories. Furthermore, we want to honor all of our firefighters, police, EMS, and other first responders who run into danger when most of us would run away from it. There is no better time to say thank you to our first responders than today.
[SPEAKER_02]: Before I shift gears to discuss our return to school,
[SPEAKER_12]: I invite you all to reflect on a poem which one of my superintendent colleagues shared with me and all of the superintendents in Massachusetts this morning. It's called The Power of One by Cheryl Sawyer. As the soot and dirt and ash rain down, we became one color. As we carried each other down the stairs of the burning building, we became one class. As we lit candles of waiting and hope, we became one generation. As we fell to our knees in prayer for strength, we became one faith. As the firefighters and police officers fought their way into the inferno, we became one gender. As we whispered or shouted words of encouragement, we spoke one language. As we gave our blood in lines a mile long, we became one body. As we mourned together the great loss, we became one family. As we cried tears of grief and loss, we became one soul. As we retell with pride of the sacrifice of heroes, we become one people. We are one color, one class, one generation, one gender, one faith, one language, one body, one family, one soul, one people. We are the power of one. We are united.
[SPEAKER_02]: We are America.
[SPEAKER_12]: To honor the memory of all the lost, I respectfully ask that we all rise for a moment of silence to remember those who died on that dark day.
[SPEAKER_02]: Thank you. I thank you again.
[SPEAKER_12]: I am going to shift gears because I would like to take some time to talk about our school opening and just coming back to school. So although teachers and students reported back to the Medford Public Schools the week of August 28th, administrators and new teachers and staff returned the week prior. Central administration was happy to welcome back our administrators together. We're so excited and fortunate to welcome over 50 new staff to the Medford Public Schools community this school year. On Wednesday, August 23rd, Dr. Bernadette Riccardelli organized a tour of Medford for our new teachers and staff. The tour included stops at Tufts University, the Medford Public Library, and Medford City Hall. This tour wouldn't have been possible without the following individuals who I'd like to thank by name. Rocco DiRico, Maggie Carril, and Lorena Denise Liza from the Tufts University Government and Community Relations team. Nicole Perrault, our librarian and head of youth services with Medford Public Schools. Mayor Breanna Lungo-Koehn, and School Committee Vice Chair, Jenny Graham. Special thanks to Joseph's Transportation for the coach bus, and Lisa Evangelister, the former Medford Public Schools Public Information Officer, who helped to organize the tour. We are so grateful for our partnerships with our community members. So thank you all for that support during that launch week. Later in the meeting, I will acknowledge many of our new administrators, principals, and staff who are able to join us this evening. I also wanna take a moment to talk about the heat. Last week threw us an unexpected curve ball with unusually warm temperatures for New England. The heat showed us that there still are several pockets of HVAC challenges that have resurfaced across the district. Our maintenance and facilities teams have been working tirelessly to keep our systems online. And Dr. Cushing will discuss these items in more detail later on this evening. But despite the heat, our teachers, staff, and students made the start of the school year a great one for our students especially. And we're so grateful to all of our students and all of the educators for making it work despite the heat. I also have some good news to share about athletics. We were thrilled to start our fall athletic season with a big Mustang victory. This game took place at home at Hormel Stadium. Last week, it was our first football game. And yes, we did win. We stampeded to victory, as I said, playing on our Mustang mascot. 19 to seven, we played against Brookline. I wanna take a moment to thank our wonderful band that played wonderfully. They did a great job. our color guard with their flags and dancing and all the moves that they had to do, our cheerleaders who cheered their hearts out. And I wanna thank all of their coaches, all of their participation, even though we may not always think of them as sports, they're all our athletes and part of extracurricular activities with the schools. Medford students, Stevens Exeter, was even named the Boston Globes Player of the Week. So that's another just exciting piece of news for our Mustangs. Other early Mustang victories include two four to zero shout outs against Chelsea. by the girls varsity soccer team, and the boys JV soccer team. So congratulations to all of those athletic teams that really brought victory. Last week, in recognition of extraordinary academic achievement Last year's Mustang girls soccer team was one of 317 soccer teams throughout the United States to earn the special recognition. The United soccer coaches. presented our team with the high school team academic award this month for exemplary performance in the classroom as a team. During the 2223 school year. This is the first time that I recall ever mentioning this. athletic academic award. So essentially they're looking at our athletes and our last year's Mustang girls soccer team achieved strong academic outcomes as well. And they were recognized along with 317 other teams throughout the United States. So I just feel that's a great accomplishment and I would love to give all of our athletes a round of applause. Thank you. School meals. I hope, oh yes, and I see Rhetta here. I just wanted to let you know, Rhetta Smith, we'll be introducing her shortly as well with our new administrators on board, but food service, the kids are gobbling up the lunches. They're really happy. It's a definitely new menu. I hope you can look at the menu online. We're really happy getting healthy nutrition and the students are happy and they're eating their food. which is wonderful. So we're really optimistic and we look forward to hearing much more good news in our food department. I also wanna just share with the community that the Medford Public Schools has adopted a new messaging system. I did mention this in last week's communication, but we have migrated to Blackboard Connect. And so when we migrated and we sent out the first message on the new system, We were initially told that it would look the same so that our understanding was that it would be seamless. You would receive it in your inbox and just receive a new message. And it was quickly brought to our attention that it was saying no reply at notification. So for some people, it ended up going into their spam boxes. So once we got that information, we wanted to let everyone know that we migrated to a new system. And that signature that said in the past no reply at notification.com will now have a normal email address. So again, we have migrated to Blackboard Connect and this new messaging system will work collaboratively with our website and our other platforms. So I just wanted to notify the committee and the community of that.
[SPEAKER_05]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_08]: Yes, I just wanted to. I've received I think my first email from that new blackboard system today from the principal of the high school and it was like we stepped into the next century it was clear it was formatted it was beautiful. And I know that in the past you all have worked on your Friday updates and you have your actual update was Nicely formatted, but then we had to send it out and it turned it into plain text and looked. Not what you wanted, so I was extraordinarily happy today with the message that I got that i'm pretty sure I came out of blackboard so I want to thank everybody that did that work because. I know it's not simple, but it makes a big difference as a parent when I received it, I could read the whole thing and. a short amount of time. And I didn't get lost and endless text so it was fabulous. Thank you.
[SPEAKER_12]: Thank you for that feedback. We hope that as we continue to work on our official communications that everyone will see the quality of communications improving and the presentation of the communications really being beautifully presented as well. So that's going to continue to happen with the new platforms that we have, which now talk to one another. So thank you for that. Last week was a celebration of Brazilian Independence Day that took place on Saturday, and Medford hosted it at the Andrews Middle School, we want to thank Mayor, the mayor's office, the Board of Health, and Marilia Barrosa and Samia Bennett for helping to organize the event. And we are very lucky to have a thriving Brazilian American community here in our city. So I hope they had a wonderful Independence Day this past Saturday. Also, for the community to know, we have several curriculum nights coming up. Tomorrow, September 12th, there will be curriculum nights at the Roberts Elementary School and the Missituk Elementary School. September 13 at the McGlynn middle school, September 14 at the books elementary school in the McGlynn elementary September 19 at the Andrews middle school and September 21 at Medford High School, and they are being held from six to eight o'clock. And we have on September 19 as well. Mrs. Michelli's class and Mrs. Capraro Gentuso's classroom, Ms. CG's classrooms at the Brooks School. They will be holding their open houses on September 19 from 530 to 630 p.m. I just want everyone to know that on Wednesday September 13 is our first kickoff meeting for the Medford special education parent Advisory Council CPAC, they will be meeting in person at Medford High School at 6pm. Also, this Friday evening, September 15 until September 17 is the celebration of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. So we wish all of our Jewish friends in the community a very happy new year as they begin that celebration on Friday evening. And the additional updates will be in this coming Friday's memo. So I would like to pause there and ask, are there any questions based on what I shared this morning, or this evening, I should say.
[SPEAKER_04]: Thank you, Dr. Edward Benson for great updates. I think you said six to eight for some of the for the open houses but some might be 530 so I just make sure you look on the school website.
[SPEAKER_12]: Okay, definitely look as, as I introduced if the principles are here and they heard the incorrect time, please let us know. Thank you.
[SPEAKER_04]: And then if I just may, we have Brazilian flag day and the two ladies that you referenced our connectors and liaisons for the city they they speak resilient and they're out building trust in the community and helping families with any needs they may have, such as mass health or, you know, finding any type of services that the city offers or that outside agencies offer. And I mentioned it specifically for not only the people watching, but the principals and assistant principals that are in the audience, because if you have families that need support, the city of Method has think we're up to 10 community connectors and liaisons, Brazilian, Haitian Creole, Portuguese, there are a number of different connectors that we have so please lean on the city for some support if you need it. Thank you. Member McLaughlin.
[SPEAKER_17]: Yeah, thank you. I just wanted to regarding the cultural brokers the community liaisons I guess one question, one comment. One is, I think this is fantastic and much, much needed and eager to work with them from the school perspective as well. If a family is needing help or their assistance, can we understand the process?
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, I don't know this, the school obviously has their own supports to but through the city, we have our office of prevention outreach under the Board of Health, so you would call you call either number and reach out to them that way, or we have our multilingual resource lines where you can speak any language, leave a message. and somebody will return the call that speaks that language to provide you assistance. So there's many ways to, but not many people know about it. And obviously we want the people in need to know about it. So we're trying to push it out as much as we can. So any help, and I know the superintendent's great with doing that through her Friday updates, which she was a leader in making sure those are translated. And that's one way we've been able to partner to make sure the word's out on not only the school offers, but also with the city's offering as supports. for families, children, seniors, all of the above.
[SPEAKER_17]: Thank you. And just to follow up, several of them are also MassHealth certified application Councilors.
[SPEAKER_04]: Multiple are and a few more. I think the rest are getting trained currently.
[SPEAKER_17]: So that's great. So just for accessing MassHealth for families within our schools as well. I'm a certified application Councilor in my day job. So I just understand the responsibility involved in that and the folks that here are doing it. I think it's super important for the community to know about. Especially there's a mass health redetermination process underway right now where everybody is getting re determined, and a lot of people are losing insurance so it's super important that we share that. Thank you.
[SPEAKER_12]: Yes, we can, we can definitely be explicit about that in this Friday's communication as well to let, let the community know so we can work together to do that.
[SPEAKER_04]: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Next up we have a welcome of all new administrators to the Metro Public Schools again by presented by Dr. Maurice Edouard-Vincent, our superintendent.
[SPEAKER_12]: So this is, I'm really excited. We have a lot of people here tonight because we have a lot of new people on our team, which is wonderful. And so there's really no particular order, but as I call you, I'm gonna ask you to come forward. So the entire committee gets to see you and the community gets to see who all the new administrators are, the new members of our team. So I'd like to invite the Andrews Middle School principal, Mrs. Jennifer Sking to come forward. Yes, perfect.
[SPEAKER_07]: The microphone's on. Perfect. Good evening. I'm excited to be here again to say hello. The Andrews Middle School started our first week actually our first day with some balloons and music and welcome back celebration, despite the rain, the students really had a great first day. This past week, we introduced start with hello, which is a outreach through the Sandy Hook promise collaboration. And this week, we also started our map testing for ELA. So our students are working hard at that. I guess I will say one of the most exciting things is that we welcome 10 new staff members to the Andrews Middle School. So it's been exciting to watch them already become integrated in the Andrews community. And I don't feel so alone being the new guy on the street. So thank you for having me and I look forward to working with all of you moving forward.
[SPEAKER_12]: Thank you. Can we have from the Brooks Elementary School the new assistant principal Michelle Burke.
[SPEAKER_02]: We just have to wait for them.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_04]: Member McLaughlin, could you turn on the mic if you could. John.
[SPEAKER_12]: There it is. There we go.
[SPEAKER_05]: Good evening, everyone. It's a pleasure to be here. I just want to say that I anticipated a warm welcome just from the interview process at the Brooks Elementary School. And I was just overwhelmed with the warm welcome that I got. I was completely blown away. I feel like I'm already a member of the Brooks family. The staff, the administration, the families, the students have all been so welcoming. and it really is a wonderful start for me. I've had the pleasure of greeting families at the loop in front of the school, which has been a highlight of my recent, my past assistant principal position. So I am delighted that I still get to be outside and greet students and families. I've been working diligently in the cafeteria, supporting students and helping them to, set some procedures in place and really enjoy their lunchtime because I think that's important. And I look forward to supporting Shannon and everybody at the Brooks and I'm thrilled to be here. Thank you so much.
[SPEAKER_12]: Thank you. Thank you, Shayla. So Medford High School, Ms. Marta Cabral. the new principal, and then we have three brand new members of your team. So Marta, what would you like? Yeah, as long as the lights on, you're good.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay. Hi, everyone. Thank you for welcoming me again. I am so excited to be principal of Medford High School, and I feel honored to be part of the Medford community. along with the caregivers and students that I interact with each day. A couple things about Medford High School this past week, there's definitely some energy back in the air, I would say, in the high school, especially in the mornings. It's great to see everyone come in and all the kids interacting with each other in the mornings and just really excited to be there. Despite the heat, we had an attendance rate on Friday after our third day of heat of 94%, which is something that we were extremely proud of. Our PTO, amazing PTO at the high school, served ice cream for all staff. I asked them, I think at 10 in the morning and by 11 in the morning, we had ice cream for everyone that we served at the end of the day. Athletics kicked off this week, which I was extremely excited for being my first time going on the soccer field, as well as the football field. And we had a couple wins, which was really exciting. The superintendent mentioned that we had the football player named in the Boston Globe as the athlete of the week. We know we have a lot of work to do at the high school. We're really excited. We're eager. There's a lot of positivity in the air, and we're just ready to get to work. I'm excited to also introduce our new team as well at the high school. Thank you.
[SPEAKER_12]: Thank you, Marta. So we have three new members of the high school team. So I'm going to ask for Ms. Allison McDonald, Mr. Patrick, without a K, Hamilton, I love to say that, and Ms. Sheila Freitas-Haley. So these are three new assistant principals at the high school this year. Allison since I mentioned you first you can have the floor first.
[SPEAKER_15]: So I'm Allison it's nice to see me, meet some of you again I've met some of you already. It's been an amazing two weeks, three weeks, I am happy to come to work every day I love the kids the smiles in the morning it's my favorite thing in the morning to go outside and say just good morning to all the kids and Hopefully that sets their tone for the day. And I have been welcomed so warmly and I already feel part of the community. So thank you all very much.
[SPEAKER_09]: Hi, I'm Patrick. Thanks for having me. I'm thrilled to be in Medford, thrilled to be assistant principal for your kids, for my kids now too. I've been a teacher for over 20 years and making the switch over to being assistant principal has been Believe it or not, super fun. The kids are a joy to be around. You know 99% of the time and I feel like we're really starting to gel as a team and I think we can make a difference here. So thank you for giving me the opportunity. I'm thrilled to be here.
[SPEAKER_12]: Thank you Patrick.
[SPEAKER_13]: Hello, it's nice to meet all of you. I look forward to working for your community. I've worked in two districts my entire career, 20 plus years, Fall River, Massachusetts and Somerville. Please don't hold that against the Somerville thing. I want to retire a Mustang. I was at that football game and to see one of your athletes be the Boston Globe athlete of the of the week is just fantastic, and I've been welcomed warmly by everybody in Central. Marta is amazing, Chad is amazing, and I am so excited and look forward to retiring a Mustang. Go Mustangs.
[SPEAKER_12]: Thank you. Roberts Elementary School, this is Michelle Kroll.
[SPEAKER_00]: Hello everybody. Um, we've had a great start at the Roberts. Um, I think the number one thing that sticks out for me right now is just the sheer level of excitement, not just excitement with the kids. So my kids are sitting in the classrooms and they're excited to be there and they're participating, they're writing and they're doing math already. And there's just this level of, um, engagement that is so impressive of the kids already. My staff, the staff is ready and they are super positive right now and ready to tackle the new curriculum that's in front of us. And just ready to get right down to work with all of their students. I think the way in which I've been accepted by my families and the school community has just been Amazing. Um, I held a popsicle event right before school started. I had hundreds of families show up. We ran out of popsicles at quarter of seven. Um, it was a full family event for me. So my husband and my kids served popsicles to everybody. Um, it was a great event. And then just the parent coffees that I've had and the participation and the families are so ready to open the doors to the Roberts. to get everybody involved and really bring some activities back to the Roberts. And they're just ready. We're ready to kind of bring on the new school year. And we're just, we're excited. We're really excited. So thank you.
[SPEAKER_12]: Thank you. Thank you, Michelle.
[SPEAKER_04]: Ms. Crowell, if you see a nine-year-old blonde ugly mullet, please make sure he's in line. Thank you.
[SPEAKER_12]: We have one administrator who couldn't be with us today, Mr. Gerald McHugh. He is our new interim director of finance, but he is another very welcome, positive addition to the team. I also would like to, at this moment, welcome Ms. Gabby DaCosta, who is our registration specialist at the PIC. Ooh, Gabby.
[SPEAKER_14]: Hello. Thanks for welcoming me. I wasn't expecting this since I started in June. Since June, we have received over 300 registrations. And the last three weeks have been very, very busy. And, you know, staying afloat, you know, we're getting on track. And this has been a little bit less busy, but it's good. We're welcoming families from all over. And yeah, thanks for welcoming me.
[SPEAKER_12]: Gabby, can you share with us how many languages you speak?
[SPEAKER_14]: I speak four languages.
[SPEAKER_12]: Can you share with the committee your four languages?
[SPEAKER_14]: I'm French-Canadian, so I speak French. My parents were Portuguese, Spanish, and French, yeah, and English. I forget about that one sometimes.
[SPEAKER_12]: Gabby, thank you. Thank you so, so much. I wanted to make sure that everyone knows who Gabby is and she's able to, you use your multilingual skills every single day in the PIC. So thank you so much. I would also like to introduce Mr. Thomas Dalton, who is our new communications director. Thomas.
[SPEAKER_10]: Thanks, Dr. Vincent. Good to see you all. I've had the chance to meet most of you at this point. Started earlier this summer, but really excited to be here in the district in this new communications director role. There's so many good things going on in Medford Public Schools. Makes my job pleasantly simple. My job really is just to take the good news and get it out there. And so that means that we're, as the superintendent already discussed, updating some of our email systems, making sure the website is in great working order. I'm crazy about the website. It was very exciting for me when I came here to see the terrific website and excited to continue to build on that, that work that's been done, I know, very diligently over the last couple of years on the website. And just in general, working with all of the great leaders and educators across the district, like I said, to keep getting the good news out. So excited to work with this committee, already having a great time working with the school community. And look for me in your inboxes, check your spam folders maybe, and we'll make sure we keep getting the good news out. So thank you.
[SPEAKER_12]: Thank you, Thomas. And I'd like to invite up, last but definitely not least, Mrs. Reva Smith. our new food service director. Come on up, Brenda.
[SPEAKER_06]: Hi, I was told that I did not have to say anything, so thanks for that. I'm really happy to be back at Medford Public Schools in the food service department. So there's a lot of work to be done, but I have gotten a lot of nice feedback from kids, parents, administrators from every school. So that's been really reassuring. And I'm just, if people are happy now, just wait.
[SPEAKER_08]: Mayor. Member Ruseau. Thank you. So I'm beyond thrilled. I mean, we finally have universal free meals and that's been something I've been harping on continuously for nearly six years. So I'm very excited that that's there. I look forward to hearing how that affects your budget and, you know, You have enough work to do today, but someday it'd be nice to know how that, because I've certainly received questions like, how does that change how much money is there to spend in the food services department? And that's not a question for now. But I do want to also say that.
[SPEAKER_06]: That's on how many meals. It's how many meals are eaten.
[SPEAKER_08]: So hopefully more people will be eating more meals.
[SPEAKER_06]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_08]: So I did receive several unsolicited texts, and I Honestly, I did not think that already the food would be better because you started like eight weeks ago, six, seven weeks ago, not long ago. Yeah. And, but I did receive several unsolicited texts from parent friends of mine who were like, I don't know if it's possible, but my kids have already said the food is better. And then someone who's a para at one of the elementary schools says, yeah, there's, there's fresh food to eat, like fresh fruits and vegetables. And I just was like, dearly in tears with happiness. It's like if after less than two months, this is what we have moved towards. I'm beyond excited for what's to come. So thank you so much.
[SPEAKER_06]: You're welcome. Happy to do it.
[SPEAKER_12]: Thank you. So can we just give a round of applause for all of our new administrators? Thank you for coming out. Thank you for joining Mustang Nation. We're so glad to have you.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yes, thank you for joining us tonight, and we have high hopes. I know we're going on to number three. I see our president of the union here, who I know has a long commute, so I don't know if we want to move anything out of order. I'm not sure.
[SPEAKER_08]: Mayor?
[SPEAKER_04]: Member Ruseau?
[SPEAKER_08]: Motion to suspend the rules and take item... Once I find the item number. Four. Item number...
[SPEAKER_04]: operations update.
[SPEAKER_08]: Oh, I thought it was going to be one of these.
[SPEAKER_04]: We could do it under a number four. Take number four out of order out of order. Second motion by Dr. Christian. Oh, Dr. Christian, we're gonna take out of order number four out of order. operations update by Dr. Peter Cushing assistant superintendent operations and enrichment and innovation We know this has a large part to do with the air conditioning, but we have the union president here to speak on that. So thank you.
[SPEAKER_08]: Do a roll call or just a favor to take number four out of order.
[SPEAKER_04]: Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye.
[SPEAKER_11]: Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye.
[SPEAKER_02]: Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. It's been a while.
[SPEAKER_11]: All right, so I'm gonna cover several areas that were detailed in the report that I issued to you last week. So transportation first, all of our bus drivers, we are thankfully fully staffed. We are going to be issuing, for the first time ever, Medford Public Schools identification badges to our bus drivers so they're easily identifiable when they enter buildings. We conducted ride-alongs on elementary school buses last week, 13 buses, school leaders, engagement specialists as well. The bus I had had six full empty rows behind me. Students were overall exceptionally well-behaved and very respectful, and the driver was phenomenal. Currently working with a new manager at Eastern Bus for the first time since I've been with MedPrep Public Schools. So that's a definite plus sheet, did start the week before school. So she is getting up to speed very quickly. We're also currently working to add a new stop for a private new afterschool program that's on High Street. It poses a challenge because that bus may be facing some overcrowding on. So because of this, it's a good problem to have that our kids have afterschool care available to them. One other thing, met with the chief of police as we do every other week. He is requesting anyone interested in a traffic supervisor position That should be posted on our Facebook page at seven o'clock tonight. So if anyone's interested, it's a great position through the city of Method. That is a really has a lot of benefits to it. And late buses will beginning tomorrow for the middle schools. So that's a quick overview of transportation. We've also identified some overcrowding areas and we're actively working with the new manager to fix that. So maintenance and cleaning district wide summer cleaning really involves floors stripped and waxed, bathrooms deep clean, floor tiles replaced at various school locations. Primarily the Missittuck had a significant floor tiling done and replaced. Security office at Medford High School is being moved to be more centrally located with our students. Science labs had some HVAC work done in the computer controller that needed to be replaced. High school offices are being updated Principal's Office as an example and Assistant Principal's Office being converted from a conference room to spaces that can be really used for meetings and the opportunity to engage with community members. We're currently doing an assessment of the Brooks Turf and we'll be working to bring in the repairs to have it re-seamed and re-sanded. For those of you who are aware, the Brooks Turf was installed about six years ago. And we're going to make sure that that is part of our update moving forward, not update our annual maintenance program moving forward. The Brooks and Roberts through grants of the CPA had playground money allocated as well as Esther money allocated so we spent $32,000. between all of those funding sources to make sure that the playground equipment has been updated. It is finally shipping. It has been a high level of consternation getting the playground equipment actually shipped to us. And just the delays, I guess, post pandemic, I honestly can't say because we haven't gotten an answer, but it is finally being shipped. It should be at Medford High School. And now we're actively hounding for an install date so that it doesn't just sit on a loading dock for an extended period of time. It does need to be installed by professionally licensed installers. It's not something we can do on our own liability reasons. McGlynn Playground, we went out to bid. We have a bid secured and we're really excited. that this project is about to lift off. And so it's really awesome. I want to thank member McLaughlin, member Graham, Shanine Peliquin, the mayor, and Alicia Hunt, and everyone else on the committee. Can't name them all right now, but really, thank you, thank you, and thank you. And just really phenomenal. I do want to say Denise Desjardins for being the teacher's representative who saw the project through as well. All throughout the district, we had rugs cleaned and shampooed. We're currently going through a on bill repayment of school lighting upgrades. So the Andrews is completely done from previous work, but we're currently working to have Medford High School have buildings A and C. Right now, the It's parabolic lighting, so it focuses down. It doesn't really provide much lighting in the hallways and the hallways have kind of a dungeon feel to them at times. So hopefully this lighting will really give a better feel to the hallways as students move through them, as well as other areas of the building. So that's on bill repayment with mass save, saving us money and not costing us anything. I believe the electric rate went up about 30% last year. So this will help us as time moves forward. We're also reviewing options for a work order system. We're looking at two right now, but considering probably a third option coming up. One is called operations hero. Then we have our school today, which right now manages our facility for rentals and things like that. So that's kind of our league leader and we'll kind of consider another one as well moving forward. Technology mass communication system, as was mentioned, it connects with our website as final site was our website, blackboard and final site merge. We also purchased a three year license with s'more so that our principles, athletics and central office can deliver s'more newsletters that also has an integration with blackboard final site. And we're really excited about that. And as Thomas and Superintendent mentioned, we are working through that no reply at to hopefully get that resolved as quickly as possible. So we also have implemented incident IQ. There are 7,600 devices across Metro public schools right now, and 98 pieces of equipment that might be a one of the smart touch boards or projector or various things like that. So we have more projectors than that throughout the district. We're still loading equipment in, but 7600 devices across the district, Chromebooks, desktops and MacBooks for teachers. So it's a help desk and a technology management system to manage our extensive equipment. Huddle cameras, they'll be installed in the field house for basketball and other events, basketball, volleyball, and also at the Field of Dreams and Cormel Stadium. so that anywhere in the world parents will be able to log on and view their child's athletic events. So that's a nice little upgrade there that we're working on. I do want to say just real quick, going back, I do need to thank Kim Miles for all the work she did to help deploy Final Sight, Blackboard, the messaging, and Thomas as he came on board. The project started previously, but Those two really helped me to land that project successfully in a really short runway. So just really excited about that. Security, we've done a comprehensive review of all security procedures and security devices across the district as the community is aware. We're working diligently to make sure that we can make things happen on that without going into too much more detail for security reasons. All principals have been trained in what's called the standard response protocol, It's moving away from the older language that shelter-in-place and various other things like that that might be confusing and fear-inducing for a lot of families. Shelter-in-place comes from Cold War era atomic concerns. So we're moving from that and we're moving to the I love you guys foundations. Hold, secure, lockdown, evacuate, shelter. Essentially, mostly would be a hold of secure for things that we need. And it didn't move forward or back. I apologize. So all principals were trained. We're going to deploy training for all staff throughout the district. They were given a brief introduction on day one. We are having ongoing meetings with the Medford Police. We've initiated meetings with Medford Fire. We're revamping our fire drill procedures to account for all staff and students as they evacuate the buildings. That may not have happened on the first. However, it is going to be moving forward. Our principals and assistant principals were assessing and will be making those changes as we go forward. All principals and assistant principals are being issued confidential immediate response protocols so that they can deal with things in a standardized manner. We've initiated school and district crisis teams to be formed at those levels. And I'm gonna be working with our municipal partners to create a municipal safety council for the schools that would meet quarterly. Training is scheduled for September 30th and all remaining half days for our door monitors in the areas of CPR, standard response protocol, and various other trainings to make sure that they are well-versed for their roles. Human resources, over 70 teachers and paraprofessionals, seven school leaders that you met this evening. Our director of food services, can't say again enough how awesome that is, personally. Communications director, interim director of finance, registration specialist was June, but still, and other security monitors, just to name a few. We've got some custodian jobs posted as well for anyone who may be interested. Food services. So we have a new first services director, as has been previously mentioned now three times. Universal free meals. I would actually ask for this body to motion for the Metro Public Schools School Committee to issue a formal letter of thanks to our state delegation. I can't tell you how important this is for our students, and how critical it is in an era of food insecurity. And it's gonna offer so many opportunities for the Medford Public Schools and other schools to really be in families' corners in helping their kids get those two important meals a day. And we have exciting things to come, but that's something I would request that the committee works on. We have a comprehensive equipment audit going on. It turns out there's a lot of equipment that needs to be addressed across the district, and we've already started on that work. We've already got purchase orders moving out. We're replacing six of our milk coolers. We're examining a gradual shift to electric cooking over gas as we need to make replacements. We have an improved menu and we have new point of sales machines within online portal called School Cafe. All of your balances for families that may have been zeroed out last year have been restored and moved. If anyone sees an issue, please feel free to contact me or meals at medford.k12.ma.us. We also have, for the first time ever, a climate controlled food delivery van to actually move food between buildings on hot days so it doesn't spoil while in the back of the van. So that was purchased last March and has been now put out into service after some minor modifications last year by our CTE students. Again, need to really thank Kim Miles for all of her help in getting the new point of sale, all the data uploaded for that. So she's been really helpful to Redder and to everybody to make sure that that has been taken care of. All right, HVAC. So, HVAC stands for heating, ventilation, and air conditioning. During the pandemic, the work was focused on air movement. A significant amount of the equipment at Medford High School was not functional at that time. that much of the work during the pandemic was on getting air A moving and B, filtering it. The filtration at that time was recommended to be upgraded to MERV 13 filters. That is above the specification of almost any of the equipment in the district. And I say almost, because I'm not 100% sure on the science lab that was updated in 2013, I also do want to make clear to everybody that I am not an HVAC expert. However, since last March or so, I've done a lot to really educate myself. So those are two really critical things. It's air movement and air filtering during the pandemic. It was not the conditioning of the air, be that heat or be that cooling, right? In 2010, the Environmental Protection Agency banned R22 refrigerant as an environmental, I guess, hazard, if I can go that far, in new construction of HVAC equipment. In 2020, they banned it completely for production and importation. So what does that do? It makes the existing supply, all right, a scarce resource. The product has escalated tenfold. A 30-pound can that may have cost $100 before may now cost as much as $2,000, which is 20-fold. But we're seeing in the neighborhood of about $1,150 to $1,400 to get those. To recharge parts of the system, once again, not an expert, but talking to the people that work for us and our contractors, as well as our maintenance team that has done a great job, that may take four canisters for one recharge of a system. So there are skyrocketing costs for those existing and reclaimed supplies. The only way that you can get R22 in the United States now is it's either existing or it's been reclaimed, recycled, and I'm forgetting the third one, but that's what it is. In 2019, we spent about 208, sorry, about $206,000 to repair a number of compressors and other components of the equipment at the Brooks, the Roberts, and the Missituk. That same $206,000 and talking to our consultant on Friday for about 45 minutes driving in, Thursday, it was Thursday, would probably cost north of 700,000 for the exact same repairs. So the exact same repairs, you're talking between three and four times as much for those repairs. Knowing that we had an issue with the Andrew system, not fully knowing the extent of any other issues that we may have had, but knowing that we had an issue with the Andrew system, which is part of the building the future schools, 22 years old. It's not like a classic automobile. These are building systems that will eventually need to be replaced. Why do I say that? Well, Alicia Hunt was really good when I started talking to her. about how do we really look at and address these problems? She committed $50,000. We, as a school, looked for the overall cost of the study. There were a couple of add-ons that we pulled out of ESSER funding in the neighborhood of about $14,000. And we expect that report, I was hoping to have it about this week. It'll probably be the first week of October after receiving an update from the organization. Um, but it's going to give having this assessment done is going to give us the best information as how to replace not just the Andrew system, but all of the other aging systems across the district. And while we may not be having major issues right now, I'd say the miss a tuck in the Roberts, the Brooks overall is doing fairly well. But there is one A. C. C. U. Air cooled chilling unit. I think our air air cooled compressor unit. I apologize. It's in the report. I don't have it in front of me. Um, so four of six compressors and I think a CC one have gone down the McGlynn has a lot of work that needs to be done. The there are two systems that cool most of these buildings. Now there are two systems that cool all these buildings, with the exception of Medford High School and the Curtis Tufts. Sorry. Um, and the first is what's known as a chiller system that moves cooled glycol liquid throughout that system. Um, and then gets blown. The air gets blown over through the unit ventilators. Our maintenance department has done an amazing job maintaining and keeping these things running to a certain degree. But there comes a point of capital investment. The B two Q assessment report is going to give the public schools in the city of Method, the understanding to actually know what we need to do to fix these challenges ahead of us.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_08]: I just want to thank you I just want to be clear so the report will include both the how to get all the parts that are in this report functioning, but it will also include, which is really, I mean, they're both interesting, but, you know, you can't just replace the R32 with something else in the current system, you tear the old system out of the building and put a new one in, is what I think we've talked about in the past. You know, when I did the math and assumed $50,000 per piece of equipment for each thing here, it was nearly $1.5 million just to get the current equipment running minus charging it, which makes me shudder a bit at what it would cost to tear these systems out of the schools and put new systems. I mean, I just, that report is gonna tell us in today's dollars what that would be?
[SPEAKER_04]: I asked direct time member. So just for a couple sentences exactly to understand what the assessment at the Andrews will do. And that was commissioned. I don't think you have a date in this flyer, but this has been months in the making. So they're doing an assessment obviously to see where the Andrews is that which we then can implement in the rest of our schools that were built about a little bit over two decades ago. and an assessment comparing the cost benefits for replacing the HVAC system with code compliant equipment versus energy efficient versus all electric, including all utility rebates, professional cost estimator will provide a solid estimate for each option and two options in kind replacements. And or number two, heat pump partial electrification replacement is option number two. And then I just wanted to add that for several months, myself and Director Hunt And now we're taking the city's building facilities maintenance director. It's a new position the city hired. Dr. Cushion's been in the loop. We've been meeting with the Greater Boston Labor Council monthly, along with two to three neighboring communities. And we're trying to partner with the Greater Boston Labor Council. And Alicia and I have been pushing at those meetings that the project we apply for the infrastructure money on is systems at the schools. So fingers crossed that we can get this assessment, we can apply it to the Medford Public Schools, join forces with a few other communities, plus the workforce development aspect of what will make the grant very strong with the Greater Boston Labor Council. And we do have high hopes that we'll be able to get this done. Unfortunately, and from the chair, I sat in my office last week and just felt completely terrible about what was going on in our schools, getting texts from my daughter and emails from parents. I know we all felt the same way. So this is something that is a priority, along with security, along with Medford High School. There's a number of them, along with the McGlynn Playground. But this is something we are committed to getting done and working towards. So I just wanted to throw those two cents in, because I asked the same question from Director Hunt earlier today.
[SPEAKER_08]: Thank you very much.
[SPEAKER_11]: And so to address your first point, I will be completely honest and just say that I don't know how viable any repairs might be based on the age of the systems and that throwing good money after bad.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, we need new systems. Yeah. Member McLaughlin.
[SPEAKER_17]: Thank you. Yeah, I have two questions comments. Thank you, Dr cushion for the report. I'll start with the HVAC situation first and go backwards. Can you address for the community, how and what remediation efforts have been applied for helping our students and our teachers and our kids in those settings when it is unbearably hot, so I know that there have been some, I just don't know that the community understands what some of those are specifically and I'm wondering if, if you might be able to share I know that there's been some cooling rooms for example, you know, some of the other examples that you might be able to share of what has been done because, you know, if it continues, hopefully it won't work, you know, coming into the end of September, but we'll probably have a few more hot days. What sorts of things have been happening to help our families and kids and staff?
[SPEAKER_11]: So we purchased 8,000 bottles of water. We added slush to the menus both Thursday and Friday, thanks to, again, Food Service Director Rhetta Smith. making sure that those things were added as quickly as possible and then she was delivering them. We had the custodians go around and at night open the windows. We were planning to run the equipment so you can open the dampers full, all right, and just run the fans and the idea is to suck in outside nighttime air. The problem is we weren't really able to do that because of the high humidity levels. So it would have sucked high moisture air in that would have, it would have caused us to do it. We, we deployed fans as, as we could, it was limited. I'm not going to stand here and tell you it was, um, we moved classes, um, as best we could. There were teachers who reached out to help their peers to say, Hey, I'm in an air conditioned room, I'm free this period. We also moved our phys ed classes to rather be in a stifling gym, Andrews and McGlynn, to then move them to the auditorium or say it might be better to be outside. But yeah.
[SPEAKER_17]: And thank you. And if there are student, may I follow up there to that? If there are students and staff for that matter that are experiencing symptoms of heat, illness, heat stroke, anything like that. What can be done? I know for myself, I went for a walk on Friday. I did not anticipate coming back in the afternoon. I came back in the afternoon for the walk. It was like a five mile walk halfway through the walk. I honestly didn't think I was gonna make it. And I started shivering, which is a clear sign that something's wrong if you're shivering in the 90 plus degree heat. So how are we sharing with families and staff and others how to recognize examples of heat exhaustion, heat stroke, referrals to nursing, like are we doing anything that can help remediate any of that?
[SPEAKER_11]: I know the superintendent did put out a message to the community last week. Our nurse's office, every single nurse's office is staffed with a minimum of two nurses, save for the Curtis Tufts, so they're available to help families, but I do know the superintendent put out a message last week as to that as well.
[SPEAKER_17]: Sorry. So if there are issues like that, they can go to nursing, let staffing know, go to nursing and nursing should be able to help support our families.
[SPEAKER_11]: They're the best able to assess a student or staff member's health.
[SPEAKER_12]: Yes, and then in addition to for the heat, a lot of the classrooms and hallways used reduced lighting shades down, we recommended kids were loose light fitted clothing, and no one was being encouraged to go outside and like run like you're running in the, you know, running a marathon. It was really, if they went outside, they could get some fresh air, but not to overexert themselves. But if students didn't feel well, they definitely had access to water to stay hydrated. And if they needed water breaks, they definitely could go and get that. And then the nurses again were there. So everyone really tried to not have the students become overexerted or to overexert themselves. And if that were to happen, the nurses were able to support those students.
[SPEAKER_17]: Thank you, Mayor. Yes, Member McLaughlin. Thank you. I just had another question, if I may. I don't know if there are other colleagues with their lights on.
[SPEAKER_04]: Graham's right after this question.
[SPEAKER_17]: Okay, thank you. The other was the safety protocols, Going back to that, I know that you mentioned school safety teams and district-wide safety teams have been established, and maybe at some point a municipal safety team, which I think is a good idea. For the safety teams that currently exist, I'm wondering about those students and staff who are sort of outside of the typical box, if you will, and how or whether there are representatives on those safety teams. and district-wide safety teams to address, for example, our English learner population, our students with disabilities, our students with special healthcare needs, you know, thinking about all of those ways to address our varied student population. Are there folks that are... Yeah, absolutely.
[SPEAKER_11]: On the templates that we've provided, there's room for people to add, but we've also made sure that our director of people and personnel services or, you know, EL coordinator, Mr. Teixeira or others are definitely going to be included in that. so that we hopefully can minimize any blind spots we may have. Also looking forward to being an active part with the Universal Safety Committee to make sure that we're having those conversations as well.
[SPEAKER_06]: Thank you. Thank you.
[SPEAKER_11]: Member Graham.
[SPEAKER_16]: Thank you. I'll circle back to HVAC in just a second. the conversation about the Brooks field. I just want to reiterate for those of us who are newer to the conversation that when that field was installed, it was after years and years and years of failure of what was supposed to be a place, a green place for kids to play. And it was actually a brown place for kids to play. And the PTO made a significant investment in that project. They did not pay for nearly anything that led up to the actual like total cost, but they did, they were asked to contribute $15,000 out of their raised funds. And in doing that, we were promised that that field would be maintained on the same contract that the field of the high school is maintained. And it seems like maybe we're on a better path to that now, but that predated me being on the committee. So I've been here for four years. for more than four years, that field has not been maintained, which means that we are doing it to ourselves again, where we're not maintaining things that are going to be expensive and cause problems like that field five, six years ago, however many years ago it was, it was like $100,000 then. So we can't keep doing this to ourselves. It's not wise financially, it's not good for kids. Um the other thing I will say about that project is we were also promised there was a phase two of that project which was to address um the runoff that comes down the hill so that um our own runoff down the hill did not does not um further deteriorate the field with all the as rainwater washes things off to my knowledge that has never been done. So, my understanding and I could be completely wrong was that we were just waiting in a queue somewhere with the DPW and they I don't even know if it's on the DPWs list and it's just the list is seven years long and we haven't gotten there, but that hasn't been done. It's gonna continue to run and wash dirt and everything else down the hill. So it's gonna continue to be a problem, but we have to start doing something differently because this lack of maintenance is just, it's wildly expensive to not maintain big critical pieces of infrastructure. And we just like, we can't, we can't keep doing this. Like I almost fell out of my chair when I saw that there were 29 failed compressors and more equipment than that, even that is broken. Like that didn't all break last week. Like this stuff has been broken like since forever, I'm assuming. And I don't even know, but I think we have to do a better job of understanding what our maintenance issues is. are like this committee has been asking this question in a lot of earnest for the entirety of the time I've been here. Like we've been talking about what's the capital plan, what are the capital needs, like none of that work has happened. So I'm not, sadly not that surprised that we have 29 failed compressors because we've never had an inventory of like what is the equipment that needs to be maintained and is it being maintained? So we have to