[SPEAKER_13]: All right. We're tired. Is that me? Yeah, that's nice. It's very, very, very important. Yeah. Mayor, can you hear us in chambers?
[SPEAKER_04]: Yes, yes, yes, I heard you, yes, thank you.
[SPEAKER_03]: Okay, thank you everyone for your patience. Thank you everyone for your patience. We do have some exciting and welcome news out of executive session. We have ratified our contract with the security monitors in our schools and I will await a motion to approve and a roll call vote. Motion to approve the security monitors contract as has been ratified by the monitors themselves by Member McLaughlin, seconded by Member Hays. Roll call, please.
[SPEAKER_07]: Member Graham.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_07]: Member Hays.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yes. Member Kreatz. Yes.
[SPEAKER_07]: Member McLaughlin.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_07]: Member Mustone.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_07]: Member Ruseau. Yes. And Mayor Lungo-Koehn.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yes. seven in the affirmative, zero in the negative. We have an approved ratified contract with our security monitors. Second, wonderful piece of news. We've reached an agreement and the administrators have ratified their contract with the school district. So we have all of our administrators, assistant principals, department heads, directors of athletics, et cetera, all sit under the administrator's union and contract. And we are happy to announce that we've ratified their contract as well. And so I will wait a motion to approve. Motion to approve the administrator's contract by member McLaughlin, seconded by member Hays. Roll call, please.
[SPEAKER_07]: Member Graham?
[SPEAKER_03]: Yes. Member Hays? Yes.
[SPEAKER_07]: Member Kreatz?
[SPEAKER_03]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_07]: Member McLaughlin?
[SPEAKER_03]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_07]: Member Mustone?
[SPEAKER_03]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_07]: Member Rossell? Yes. Mayor Longo?
[SPEAKER_13]: I abstain.
[SPEAKER_03]: Six in the affirmative, one in abstention. The administrator's contract is ratified. Is there a motion to revert to the regular order of business? Motion to revert to the regular order of business by Member McLaughlin, seconded by Member Hays. Roll call. Yes.
[SPEAKER_07]: Member Hays.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_07]: Member Katz. Yes. Member McLaughlin.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_07]: Member Bestone.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_07]: Member Rossell. Yes. Mayor Lungo-Koehn.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yes. Seven in the affirmative, zero in the negative. We are back on our regular order of business. So item number two, the good of the order. I will see if any of my colleagues have suggestions, questions. Member McLaughlin.
[SPEAKER_05]: But maybe we put it on the next agenda. Okay, for the good of the order.
[SPEAKER_03]: Thank you. On the next agenda. There are other comments for the good of the order from the committee.
[SPEAKER_07]: Member Ruseau, I'll just volunteer to do that so that six of us don't send the same thing to the next agenda. The school committee. Yeah, so I'll just volunteer to do that. I'll be putting it on the agenda next time, so we'd all know.
[SPEAKER_03]: Thank you.
[SPEAKER_07]: Either nobody does it or everybody does it.
[SPEAKER_03]: Thank you for that. Any other comments for the good of the order? OK, moving on. Number four, we have the consent agenda. We have bills and payrolls and the regular school committee meeting minutes from September 18, 2023. Is there a motion to approve? Motion to approve by Member Hays. Second. Seconded by Member Kreatz. Roll call.
[SPEAKER_13]: Member Graham?
[SPEAKER_07]: Yes. Member Hays? Yes. Member Kreatz?
[SPEAKER_12]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_07]: Member McLaughlin? Yes. Member Mustone?
[SPEAKER_03]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_07]: Member Orso? Yes. Mayor Lungo-Koehn?
[SPEAKER_03]: Yes. seven in the affirmative, zero in the negative, the consent agenda is approved. We have no reports of subcommittee today, so we are on to number six, which is the report of the superintendent. Item number one is the superintendent's updates and comments, Dr. Maurice Edouard-Vincent.
[SPEAKER_06]: Thank you. Good evening. I just wanted to share that I can't believe that it is already October. And as I shared in my weekly memo last week, I've noticed the shifting leaves in our beautiful Middlesex fells, the chilly mornings, and of course the many football games on TV. So autumn is officially here for us. I also want to acknowledge that October is breast cancer awareness month. Approximately 300,000 Americans will be diagnosed with breast cancer in 2023, but early detection is a key to successful outcomes. This month, everyone should take time to learn about the signs. Consider visiting NBCF.org to get lots of helpful information from the National Breast Cancer Foundation or to get involved in their national advocacy work. And yesterday was the big breast cancer walk in Boston. So let's just remember that. I also have some sad news to share from the education community. We will mention it later, but I just want to take a moment to mention the recent passing of Mr. Charlie Lyons. He was the esteemed former superintendent of Shawsheen Technical High School and a well-loved and experienced public servant. He was actively involved in Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents. He was an incomparable advocate for all public schools, particularly career technical education, and his loss is keenly felt by those of us who are lucky to be his peers, colleagues and beneficiaries. I remember the last time meeting with him at the Medford High School campus. And so I just want to share that may his soul rest in peace. And, you know, I wish, you know, comfort for his family as they deal with his loss. I also want to share with the committee and the community that this Monday, October 9th, all schools will be closed in observance of Indigenous Peoples Day. Also on Saturday, October 7, we have the disability fair, and the Malden Medford transition fair. So on Saturday, October 7, please join the Medford community at Brooks Elementary School to learn about resources for those with disabilities. This event hosted by the city of Method commission for persons with disabilities will highlight resources and opportunities for participation, education, employment and public and private services in the city of Method for individuals with disabilities. Also, save the date, Wednesday, March 20, 2024. That is when the Medford and Malden Public Schools will join together for a transition fair to provide students, families, guardians, and professionals with information about community-based services for adults with disabilities. Under the Department of Athletics, we have a lot of good news to share girls varsity cross country is in the midst of a for me winning streak undefeated so far this season. The boys golf team won their most recent meet handily playing against Everett. Boys and girls soccer have been busy with schedules. And I wanna just say kudos to our boys and girls junior varsity team, which won their most recent matchups. Middle school boys baseball is also playing a very busy schedule with a notable nail biter win nine to eight over Everett last week. Our middle school girls softball team continued their undefeated winning spree in games last week against Everett and Malden. Congratulations to all of our student athletes and coaches for their efforts, good sportsmanship, and love for the game. As always, go Mustangs. This week, Wednesday, October 4 is our unified basketball season kickoff. It's at Medford High School in the gymnasium at 4pm. All are invited on Thursday, October 5. It's the unveiling of our rainbow mosaic at Medford High School, right on the side of where our Medford family network is by the purple door that will take place at 3pm, all are invited Monday, October 9, again there's no school. and other events will be included in my weekly update this Friday. So for tonight's meeting, I just want to frame what you will see this evening and hear this evening. There will be a recommendation to approve generous donations to the Medford Public Schools, public private partnerships between our schools and the wider community make an immeasurable difference for our students, providing resources and opportunities which might otherwise be out of reach. We are incredibly grateful for the generosity of this community. Next, we look forward to welcoming Medford's own CPAC this evening. Medford Special Education Parent Advisory Council will be presenting their interview report. Working closely with our special educators and our Director of Student Services, Ms. Bowen, CPAC is an important bridge between our schools and families of children with special education needs. CPAC's advisory CPAC's advocacy and educational roles ensure that Medford parents can productively and proactively engage in the education and development of their children with disabilities. This evening, the presentations will take place with Ms. Tanya Sullivan and Alex Lorick, who will be the joint co-chairs of Medford CPAC. So we look forward to your presentation this evening. Thank you for coming out. After our CPAC presentation, Ms. Bowen is going to provide an update on the implementation process of the district's bullying prevention and intervention plan. I want to thank Ms. Bowen and our school principals and administrators for their work in implementing this important new policy. which this committee finalized earlier this year. We're eagerly anticipating upcoming professional development opportunities for all of our teachers to ensure that this policy reaches the entire Medford Public Schools community. While we're discussing school climate and safety, I wanna pivot and provide a brief presentation on the results from last year's Medford High School Culture and Climate Survey. I also will discuss in my presentation a snapshot in time, which I hope we can utilize as a benchmark and point of comparison against future student-oriented surveys and feedback. And lastly, I look forward to presenting to the committee this year, my proposed goals for this school year, and to share an update on this school committee's goals, the first set of goals that they have created as a body. So I look forward to providing an update on that. And those will be my reports for today. Thank you.
[SPEAKER_03]: Thank you. Up next, we have an approval of an educational funds donation from the Italian consulate to our world language department in the amount of 4,493 euros, which is $4,758 as of today. And we'll hear from Dr. Vilma Bibbo, the coordinator of world language, who is joining us on Zoom. Dr. Bibbo.
[SPEAKER_01]: Good evening. Can you hear me? Yes.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yes, we can.
[SPEAKER_01]: So good evening there members of the school committee, Dr. Edouard-Vincent and Mayor Longo Ken. I am very pleased to announce that the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation in collaboration with the Italian Consulate in Boston has granted us a fund of totaling $4,493. This grant will serve as an invaluable support for our ongoing efforts to support the Italian program here in Medford. At the beginning of this academic year, I submitted an application for this grant, which has now been successfully approved. And looking ahead, I hope to continue applying for this grant in the upcoming year, provided the funds remain available. Again, this financial support has the potential to greatly enhance our Italian program and benefit our students in numerous ways. Thank you for your attention and support in our endeavor to promote Italian language and culture in Medford schools.
[SPEAKER_04]: Thank you. Are there any questions from the committee?
[SPEAKER_03]: Is there a recommendation to approve?
[SPEAKER_13]: Motion to approve.
[SPEAKER_03]: Second. Seconded by member Kreatz. Roll call.
[SPEAKER_07]: Member Graham.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_07]: Member Hays.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_07]: Member Kreatz.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_07]: Member McLaughlin.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_07]: Member Mustone.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_07]: members. So yes, Maryland occur.
[SPEAKER_13]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_03]: seven in the affirmative zero in the negative. The donation has been accepted. If we could please send a thank you note to the consulate on behalf of the school committee. That would be great.
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you. Well done. Thank you very much.
[SPEAKER_03]: Okay, item number three, we have a recommendation to approve a donation from a private donor of office furniture and fixtures, including two refrigerators, two microwaves, a toaster oven, a conference room table, conference speaker phones valued in excess of $14,000. Dr. Cushing, did you have anything more you wanted to add?
[SPEAKER_00]: No, I just want to thank member Graham for connecting us with this organization that would like to remain anonymous. I also want to thank Sean Lally, John Howard, Mike Lazzaro, Mark Murphy from our custodial team, and John Bissell and Tom Long for the work that they've done to move it and reassemble the various items. So thank you. Thank you.
[SPEAKER_03]: That table was a beast, so it did take all of those people. And there's a motion to approve on the floor by Member Mustone, seconded by Member Laughlin. Roll call. Yes. Yes. Yes.
[SPEAKER_07]: Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yes. Seven in the affirmative zero in the negative, the donation is approved. Item number four we have the special education parent advisory council end of your report for the school year 2022 and 2023. This Tanya Sullivan and Miss Alex Clark, who are the co chairs of the medical feedback.
[SPEAKER_02]: Good evening, mayor, school committee members, superintendent, and everyone else. Thank you for allowing us to present tonight. We just wanted to kind of give a brief synopsis of what's happened in this past year and some of the things that we are trying to move forward and some of the things that we're interested in starting fresh to move forward as well. The CPAC board members are myself, and Alex Lorak are the co-chairs. Anne Herzog-Rousseau is our secretary, and Jamelian Johnson is our treasurer. Our membership includes students, families, and guardians of children on IEPs and other interested parties. The CPAC is always looking for interested parents and guardians of children with special needs and any other interested parties, which could be students or anyone in the community that has an interest. If you would like to learn more about how to get involved with the Medford CPAC, you can email us at medford.cpac at gmail.com. And we would love to hear from you. Our mission, what is CPAC? The CPAC's purpose is to fulfill the directive stated in Chapter 71B of the Massachusetts General Laws, which requires a school district to establish a PAC and assigns both an advisory and a participatory function to the PAC. So in meeting the requirement, the mission of the CPAC is to advise the district on matters that pertain to the education and safety of students with disabilities by seeking input from special education parent members, guardians. We meet regularly with the school officials every month. We participate in the planning, development and evaluation of the school district's special education program and participate in planning workshops and activities as prioritized by the CPAC board. Some of the highlights from our 2022-2023 school year. We offered several content rich presentations throughout the year and our presentations typically qualify as PDPs for teachers and staff. So it's really nice to have kind of a well-rounded participation, including everybody. We did offer a meet the central and special education administrators. We offered a presentation on CVI, which is cortical visual impairment, basic rights from the Federation for Children with Special Needs on comprehensive introduction to special ed laws and procedures, transition documents made easy, special needs trusts, IEP writing strategies, and understanding and managing anxiety in your neurodiverse child. So the CPAC concerns and recommendations, this is the page that we are most interested in sharing with you. So at our last presentation on May 2022, CPAC brought before the school committee the issue of disciplinary referrals and incident reports added to a student file without parental notification. These policies have the potential to disproportionately impact students with high needs and their families. We appreciate the work that was already done and the work that's currently underway to strengthen our discipline policies and introduce unambiguous language regarding parental notifications. CPAC is focused on moving forward the disability awareness training for staff and the disability awareness curriculum for students in all schools. This is an ongoing CPAC concern and recommendation. Despite continuous discussions, the formation of the special education subcommittee in August of 2018 and a pre-pandemic year long focus on establishing a disability awareness program, the school committee and district has yet to commit to identifying and implementing a disability curriculum for students in Medford. Despite a pilot started during school year 21 to 22, there is currently no plan to implement a disability awareness curriculum for students in our school. An additional CPAC initiative moving forward will be working toward an adaptive health education for our students with disabilities. Students with intellectual and developmental disabilities in particular need to learn about healthy relationships, recognizing abuse, consent, and sex education using lessons and materials that are adapted to their level of comprehension. Currently, wellness classes are very large, prohibiting participation for students who might not be competent learners and making it hard for teachers to reach individual student needs. And another item that we are really wanting to move forward is the Thrive Act. This calls for an end to MCAS as a graduation requirement and to establish a graduation requirement based on coursework rather than the standardized testing. While the MCAS assessments and reporting will be maintained for accountability requirements The Thrive Act would end high-stakes testing as a condition of graduation, which affects disproportionately high-needs students, including minorities, English learners, and students with disabilities. On September 11, 2023, Malden School Committee voted a resolution in support of the Thrive Act, and we are asking the school committee to consider supporting the Thrive Act for the benefit of all students of Medford.
[SPEAKER_04]: and we'll take questions if there are any. Are there questions for the CPAC folks?
[SPEAKER_05]: Yes. Member McLaughlin. Thank you. Member Kreatz, I think you had your light.
[SPEAKER_11]: I think I forgot to shut my light on. Sorry. I don't have any questions, but thank you very much for the presentation. And I always appreciate hearing from you with your updates and all your meeting and communication. It's always wonderful. Thank you.
[SPEAKER_03]: Member McLaughlin?
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, thank you for all you guys do. We really appreciate it. I also want to make sure that families that are listening or that watch later on understand that CPAC is available for families and for individuals, for people to consult with, to have parent-to-parent sort of peer program mentoring around how to navigate school districts, navigate school systems, in addition to sort of the regulatory requirements. I know that you guys spend a lot of time talking to families on the phone about how to support them and how to help them and build relationships with the school district. So super appreciative of that as well. Questions I had were, so as part of the mandate, the legal mandate for districts to have a special education parent advisory council, one of the items that was mentioned would participate in the planning development and evaluation of the school district special education programs. And I'm wondering, has that actually happened? I know that last year there was a discussion that there would be a tour, that the CPAC would have a tour to understand the programs and what the programming is, and if there's gonna be any changes in programming. Ms. Bowen, I know that that's been a discussion as well, and I'm wondering if this is anything that's been happening with CPAC in the district?
[SPEAKER_02]: There has not been like a tour solidified as of yet. That is still on our agenda to do with the school district. We actually just had our first in-person CPAC meeting recently. So kind of getting back into getting out there and into the community and with administration to kind of see what those programs look like, what's working, what can be improved.
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, I think that would be great. And I don't know how many of my colleagues here understand the different programs within the special education department. Do you guys, anybody? Not like what different programs are, what the structure of the special ed programming is? No, not for which schools, but within the schools, how the learning programs are structured. So what the differences between language-based classroom or connections program or access or any of those programming. So that's the sort of programming that we're talking about and how those are working or not working, what they look like building wise, you know, how materials being differentiated. So access students or students or classrooms where students have significantly modified materials. And so that's one of the issues that were being discussed around the health care. I mean, the health and wellness program for differentiation of materials. Part of what we talked about a lot in our strategic plan has been equity, and I'm wondering how we're actually addressing the issues of equity when we're talking about new curriculum, in particular, the healthcare curriculum. And I know that one of you guys was on the healthcare advisory. Do you mind telling us, introducing yourself?
[SPEAKER_09]: Hi, so I'm Anne Herzog-Rousseau, and it is weird to hear your name. I kept hearing your name, I'm like, ooh. And I knew you reacted when you heard mine. We're not related, but. So I was part of the health education curriculum review. We didn't talk a lot about differentiated education in that. We covered a lot of ground. I personally am a parent of a significantly disabled 13-year-old child who's physically developing quite well. So that's actually one of the reasons why I chose to be part of that committee. I would- You're also a nurse practitioner. Yes, by trade, I'm a nurse practitioner. I can tell you if we have a dearth of lesson plans that are differentiated, we are not alone. I know one of the big initiatives was comprehensive sex ed. Happen to work in college health for the last 18 years and have done my share of sex ed to college health people. And it's very important. And I was very much I am driven to to support comprehensive sex education, my impression. And again, it's my impression. So bear with me was that as a district, we are just getting there. And so I do ultimately want to have differentiated sex, comprehensive sex education, but I think just getting it into the system is where we're at right now. Does that answer your question?
[SPEAKER_05]: I think so. But I think that what I'm hearing in terms of the wellness classes, that they're very large and that students with disabilities aren't really accessing the material that's currently there because of the size of the classroom and the access to the material. I don't know if Ms. Bowen can speak to this or if anyone else has direct experience that they want to speak to that. But this is a concern and an ongoing concern, if I may, for the district in not only my opinion, but the experiences of, you know, we have 20% of our students are on IEPs or 504s, significant portion of our population that we're potentially not addressing if we're not addressing equity around curriculum for them.
[SPEAKER_10]: Sure. So I just want to say that part of the concern that we put forth... Can you... To the microphone.
[SPEAKER_05]: Sorry.
[SPEAKER_10]: So it's kind of like a twofold concern. One is how students on IEP access that go into the general education and are including in wellness. How do they access that curriculum? Is it modified by the teacher? But it's not only that question. Does our current curriculum lend itself to being modified actually in a way that can be accessed by students with disabilities? That's one of the questions. The other question is, What happens with the students who are not included in the gen ed? How are they accessing in special education programs? How are they accessing this information?
[SPEAKER_08]: And... Yes, I think one of the questions too was opting out. So what do the special education students who aren't accessing the wellness class, what happens? So we had our first CPAC admin meeting and we brought this up as a discussion. I have brought it to the superintendent and the assistant superintendent. We're looking at different curriculums that are out there for students with disabilities that are already differentiated for them. So it's a work in progress. We're starting these discussions, but I think it's very important to look at what can we implement within the district. So is there a specific curriculum that we purchase for our students with disabilities? and what does that look like for instruction? So we're at the beginning phases right now. The health classes are smaller. It's our PE classes that have a larger number of students in them. But this is a discussion that we're having about that and going forward, what we can put into place.
[SPEAKER_05]: Because we have adaptive PE, but we don't have adaptive health. Is that right? Correct. Okay. So may I, Mayor, Member Graham? So Okay, so this is all information gathering, sort of understanding a little bit better at this point, how we're addressing these issues. And then regarding the disability awareness curriculum for staff and for students, if I remember correctly, that was part of our strategic plan as well as a district as a whole. So the other thing I just sort of want to mention too, specifically for my colleagues to consider is as we're talking about students, all students obviously are general education students, some students receive special education supports and services, some students receive English learner services, what have you, but everybody is a student of equal value, of course, in our schools. And as we're thinking about how this applies to students with disabilities, I want us to really be thinking about how it applies to our other populations as well. Because if it's not addressing this particular population, perhaps it's not addressing other populations. English learners, for example, other populations. So I know that that's not the presentation tonight, but I'm just asking people to also be mindful of that. So toward that end around the disability awareness curriculum, both for staff and for students, I understand historically there was a curriculum that was created. Is that right, Ms. Bowen?
[SPEAKER_08]: I believe so. There was, I think it was piloted pilot kindergarten or first grade, I believe, so.
[SPEAKER_10]: The implementation of a district wide disability awareness curriculum for students, it is part of the district strategic plan, it is under the equity initiatives it's one of the initiatives. and it's attached with very specific benchmarks. One of the benchmarks for the year 21-22 was to create a pilot for grades K and one, and that happened as far as I know. And then for the next year, 22-23, that pilot was supposed to be deployed to all K and one, K and grade one classes district wide, and an additional pilot done for grades two and third. So this did not happen. Is there a reason that that didn't happen?
[SPEAKER_08]: I just feel like there was, I don't have an excuse as to why it didn't happen. We had tried to get people to be involved and with our disability awareness workshop that we have, we've had like really low enrollment. So we are trying to promote this to get it started. I have had a conversation with the new principal in the district who they rolled out a disability awareness curriculum So I'm reaching out to her to see what that specific curriculum was and what the implementation would be.
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, and I think the data is really interesting because I believe Susanna Campbell was sort of leading a lot of this and it's having a leader that really cares about it too, right? Like, not that you don't, Ms. Bowen, but I think you have a lot of things, a lot of, you know, things that you're having to work on. So I think it's having a leader that really is working on the implementation of this. And I know that the numbers for the disability awareness program for staff, the training, because it's not required. They do get PDP, right?
[SPEAKER_08]: Correct.
[SPEAKER_05]: For participating in it. Previously, there had been as many as 40. I've been to ones where there were 40 or more, and it's gone down to something like 10.
[SPEAKER_08]: Correct.
[SPEAKER_05]: Which is pretty substantial decline in one year.
[SPEAKER_08]: Well, we've offered it several times, but the enrollment has been a lot lower. So we haven't been able to run the program.
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah. So I'm curious from a from a central administration perspective, why that is and what what can be looked at, not just from you, but from all of our central administration, because if we're going to say equity is a priority, and we're going to put it in our strategic plan that I think we really have to act on it. And that's not happening. And I want to make sure that we're ensuring that it is in any way that we can help make that happen. And the awareness program that's existing now is for staff, but it's not the curriculum in the school for the students, which was the other piece of it. Is that accurate?
[SPEAKER_10]: So one of the issues is that we are considering this and we are thinking about it as a special education issue, the disability awareness for students. And I don't think it's a special education issue. It's a general education issue.
[SPEAKER_05]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_10]: And it's a curriculum issue. And it needs to be part of the ELA curriculum or the social studies, because if it's Ms. Bowen who's putting forth a curriculum, there is just not a piece of work that we are asking our teachers to take on. And I think this is why we are failing in moving this disability awareness curriculum for students specifically, is because we are not thinking of it as general education.
[SPEAKER_05]: Thank you. Well, that's really helpful. So how would you, what would you recommend for next steps for the school committee. I mean, concretely, I understood you wanted us to think about the Thrive Act. And, you know, I would, I'll get to that in a moment about making a motion maybe for the subcommittee. But so to look at the Thrive Act, is that as a consideration? And then you're asking us for next steps to look at adaptive health education. And
[SPEAKER_10]: Yeah, we are asking questions now and kind of hoping to work with the district in getting answers to the questions. So maybe making this a subject of the special education school committee would be a good idea. And then we are certainly hoping that the disability awareness group will move on as part of the plan. I mean, it was voted by the school committee and we're hoping that's gonna happen.
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, I'm wondering, thank you. Thank you. So I would make a motion that we have a, at least specifically to the disability subcommittee that we bring the issues, the three issues that are being recommended for the recommendations to the diversity, equity and inclusion and behavioral health, sorry, not the diversity, equity and inclusion, the special education and behavioral health subcommittee. Give me a second.
[SPEAKER_03]: So there's a motion on the floor to bring the three items outlined in the CPAC's concerns and recommendations slide to the Special Education Subcommittee by Member McLaughlin, seconded by Member Hays.
[SPEAKER_13]: Roll call. Member Graham?
[SPEAKER_04]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_07]: Member Hays?
[SPEAKER_04]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_07]: Member Kress?
[SPEAKER_13]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_07]: Member McLaughlin?
[SPEAKER_03]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_07]: Member Mustone?
[SPEAKER_03]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_07]: Member Hussow? Yes. Mayor Longo?
[SPEAKER_04]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_03]: Seven in the affirmative, zero in the negative. Those three items have been referred to subcommittee. Are there other questions and comments from the school committee before we let the CPAC get on to the exciting part of their, the more exciting, most exciting part of their presentation? Are there other questions, comments? Thank you all very much.
[SPEAKER_02]: So the floor is yours. Thank you. So every year, the CPAC awards presents an award to members in the community who for the current school year have embodied what it means to go above and beyond for our students and families. And we have two recipients. We'd like to have Charlotte Heim. And CPAC recognizes Charlotte Heim, Occupational Therapist, Transition Specialist at Medford High Schools, and unicorn, because you do way more than just that, for so many years. Charlotte's been working with our most vulnerable students to smooth their transition from middle school to high school, help them succeed in high school, and then get them ready for their next adventures beyond high school, working on skills for independent living and career readiness. Collaborating with neighborhood districts, Charlotte is always gathering resources for students and families, demystifying the complexity of transitioning to adult services and providing support in a time of much anxiety. So thank you, Charlotte, for everything that you do.
[SPEAKER_03]: Our second recipient... And this time, please don't leave. We would like to take a picture with everybody as soon as we're done.
[SPEAKER_02]: Our second recipient is Anthony Petrellis. We also recognize Anthony Petrellis for his leadership at Medford Summer Fun Camp. and honor his children as well, so cute, which functioned under his guidance for several years. Finding good camps is challenging for every family, but for families with children with special needs, it's almost impossible. We are so grateful that such a great program, which is truly available to all families, exists in our city. Building on his extensive teaching experience as a fifth year teacher at McGlynn Elementary School, Anthony has created at Summer Fund something that is unfortunately still rare, a genuinely inclusive environment in which all children thrive, make friends, and want to come back year after year to camp. Thank you, Anthony.
[SPEAKER_04]: Thanks, guys. Thank you. All right, so now we get to do pictures.
[SPEAKER_03]: And then can everyone come up here and we'll take a picture with the entire committee?
[SPEAKER_13]: All right, everyone look at me real quick.
[SPEAKER_00]: On three. One, two, three. And one more. One, two, three. Thank you.
[SPEAKER_03]: Okay, up next, we have item number five, an update on the bullying prevention plan and implementation. Ms. Joan Bowen, the director of student services.
[SPEAKER_08]: Good evening. So tonight, I'm here to present an update regarding the bullying intervention and prevention plan throughout the district. The following is a timeline activities that have been completed since the revised, I don't have a PowerPoint, it's just a report. So after the revised plan was approved in July 19th, we met with our district administrators during the administrative week. We provided them with all the documents and asked them to review them for a second meeting that we had in September. And this was a district-wide meeting. We went through the plan. We went through the necessary documents. It was fully, All the administrators were present for this, for this day. The next steps in regards to the bullying intervention and prevention plan is by October 15, the building principals are to present the plan to their staff, and to go through the reporting forms and what needs to be done in the process so it's consistent across the district. November 7th is our district-wide professional development day, and there will be a morning session that we will be reviewing. There'll be a presentation from Mass Partnerships for Youth regarding bullying, and that will be from eight to 1030 on that morning. And then November 14th, we'll be doing a parent presentation We've been able to identify Elizabeth Englander and she will be presenting. She's what we consider the guru in regards to bullying intervention and prevention and her presentations to parents. And we are doing this with the, in collaboration with the city of Method's office of prevention and outreach. Dr. Cushing and I met with them last week and they are funding her to come and speak to all the the parents. So that will be via Zoom. We will send out all the information. We will have it widely distributed and advertised so as many people that can attend as possible. And then in addition, I've created a Google Drive that has all of the necessary documents for easy access for all of our administrators, as well as a tracking form so we can track how many bullying reports came into the district, what the findings were, and what the outcome was, because we have to report this to DESE at the end of every school year. So that's the update up to this point. If anyone has any questions, I'd be happy to answer them.
[SPEAKER_04]: Member McLaughlin.
[SPEAKER_05]: Thank you. Thank you for the presentation. I have a couple of questions. One is, and thank you for all the work. I know that this has been a lot of work. One is for the October 15th, principal review with the staff. Can we ensure that there's also the understanding of the incident reports in that presentation?
[SPEAKER_08]: Yes, that was part of their presentation about notifying parents in a timely manner if there's an incident report. Yes, thank you.
[SPEAKER_05]: And any behavior incident reports. Correct. Thank you. And then for the November 14th presentation, And I don't know that it's been considered yet, but I would love for folks to consider it, or I would ask that folks consider it, and I'm happy to help in any way I can, if I can, that there's interpretation provided.
[SPEAKER_08]: So I'm working, I will be working with Paul Teixeira to see what's available. We have to get a look at what the presentation is going to be ahead of time. So we're trying to work out the logistics of how that would work but all the documents are on the Met for public school website and they are translated.
[SPEAKER_05]: That's, that's good if we can offer. If, if, sorry, excuse me if the Federation for children with special needs can offer support around the interpretation just in terms of advice or anything that in terms of what they do for breakout rooms or headsets or. any of those things, they're happy to offer that service to any school district. Just to let folks know what they do, because they have multiple translations, interpretations, I mean, going on all the time. I do think it's one thing to have the material on the website and another all together to be inclusive and have it presented to families from all walks in our district, especially as we're looking at the climate report shortly. And we see some of the feedback on the data there. So yeah, thank you.
[SPEAKER_03]: Other questions? I just had a couple of questions from the chair, if I might. Sure. Can we be sure to record this session on November 14th so that it can be posted? And I think it will enable translation. So if we have a recording, it can be subtitled and translated into other languages quite simply if we have the initial recording.
[SPEAKER_08]: Yes, she is recording that. So that definitely is happening.
[SPEAKER_03]: Great. I was just curious when you reviewed this with principles, what was the feedback from them and what were the questions that they had? And what was the overall feeling about the work that we did?
[SPEAKER_08]: So I think they were pleased that the plan is very, it's a lot shorter than it was previously. It's a very clear, concise process that I think everyone welcomed that they can follow that process. And like I said, it can be consistent across all schools that this is what's happening. And then with the tracking form, knowing that we have to keep track of any time that there's a bullying, the process that the district is gonna have. Some of the questions were more around incident reports. How do we store them? And a question too came up about confidentiality. You know, what if a parent is really concerned about a bullying situation, how do we handle that? How do we not disclose the other, you know, the other student's name? And we said, you know, this is the federal law, this is what they need to follow, but offer what sort of supportive measures that we can put into place to make sure that their child is getting the support that they require. But there weren't many other questions beyond that, but I think they really liked the straightforward process, being able to have the forms with the QR code so they're easily accessible. So everyone has the links that they need to have for easy access.
[SPEAKER_03]: Great. And the other question that I had was around the use of a Google Form instead of like school brains for the tracking of all this information, I would assume that you've previously tracked somewhere other than a Google form, but I don't know, I'm just curious.
[SPEAKER_08]: So there is, there is the tracking ability on school brain, but this was more necessarily easier to pull from school brains that I would have, that I would be able to take a look at it and be able to help Kim Miles, who's our data manager to look at that. But we are looking at school brains and that may be the way to go. I think it's more in depth than the steps that people have to take. So Kim and I are going to meet to go through that. So we may do away with the tracking form and be able to pull that information out of the school brain system. So we're still looking at that.
[SPEAKER_03]: Okay, great. Thank you. Any other questions? Okay, thank you. Thank you. Item number six, we have a report on Medford High School Culture and Climate Survey from school year 2022 to 2023, Dr. Maurice Edouard-Vincent.
[SPEAKER_06]: Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Cushing. We have a slide deck that I'm going to go through the slide deck this evening to discuss our results from last year's Medford High School culture and climate survey. I want to thank member Hays for working with me and with members of our team throughout this process. and helping to make sure that we were on track to present the outcomes of the Culture and Climate Survey. So I'm pleased to share this presentation this evening. So this is going to be, you know, the key highlights from the Medford High School Culture and Climate Survey, which was conducted in the spring. So on this first slide, It's important to note that the survey questions were developed by the Medford Public Schools and in collaboration with the Medford Department of Health. It was open to all of our high school students and the survey window was open from May 18 until June 6 of 2023. We had 736 students who responded to the survey, which is just over 60% of our total population. At that time, it was 1,222 students at the end of last year. Students were provided designated times during their English classes to complete the survey. The survey was available in Arabic, Haitian Creole, Portuguese, and Spanish, which are the four most popular languages currently in the district. And I wanna note that these results reflect a snapshot in time from spring of 2023, and do not necessarily reflect up-to-date attitudes and perspectives on Medford High School's culture and climate. So the survey question categories, there were eight categories that the students responded to questions. Cultural awareness and action, diversity and inclusion. So under cultural awareness and action, it was how often students learn about, discuss and confront issues of race, ethnicity and culture in school. Under diversity and inclusion, That address the level of diversity, integration and fairness for students of different races, ethnicities, cultures, abilities, or identities. School belonging addressed how much students feel that they are valued members of the school community. School climate was the overall social and learning climate of the school. School engagement looked at student attentiveness and investment in school school safety addressed students, physical and psychological safety within the school student teacher relationships addressed the strength of the social connections between students and teachers within and beyond the school. And the eighth category was valuing of school, how much students feel that school is interesting, important, and useful. So those were all of the categories that all of the questions fell between. I wanted to state that this survey is a benchmark I think it's critically important, it is not a report card. The responses will be most meaningful and impactful when used to measure change over time. We believe that the reforms, remedies, and improvements already underway at Medford High School will lead to a more favorable response in future culture and climate surveys. So the next slide shows you how we as a district performed in the eight categories. Green is identified as our strengths. The areas where as a district we performed very well were school belonging, school engagement, and valuing of school. The yellow area varied were areas that we had mixed results, cultural awareness and action, school safety, and student teacher relationships. And the area that was an area for growth, the red area, is diversity and inclusion in school climate. And so I'm going to share key highlights from the survey.
[SPEAKER_03]: Sorry, member Rousseau.
[SPEAKER_07]: Thank you. I think this report is not interpreting the data correctly. We received the raw data as well. Under cultural awareness and action, the questions were students at this school are teased or picked on about their race or ethnicity. And 31% of our students said they agreed with that. So the actual Favorability would be 69, not 31. It's more favorable that that is not true. Correct. We do not want more kids teasing and picking on students about race or ethnicity. And the same is for the other question in that category, which says, students at this school are teased or picked on about their cultural background or religion. 7%
[SPEAKER_05]: Sorry, point of information, I have a question. I just have a comment. Point of information, Member McLaughlin. Thank you. I think it may be that I thought, the way I was reading it, Member Ruseau, through the chair, was that the favorable rating was whether or not it was favorably rating the school on that particular item. That's how I saw it, not as whether the data was favorable to the question. So I saw it sort of like a grade, that in that question, we would be getting a 31%. Yeah, they agree strongly, right. that students at the school are teased or picked on, they strongly agree. Yeah, 31% strongly agree on that. So we got a 31% as a grade on that, which is not a good grade for the school.
[SPEAKER_07]: 69% of our students said that is not true.
[SPEAKER_05]: that they're not getting teased or picked on. Correct.
[SPEAKER_07]: So whether the question is a positive or a negative, we've in this report, we've just taken the top two and given it the favorability. If we look at the end, we have a question like, my teachers often connect what I am learning to life outside the classroom. And 54% of our students said that was true. And that's a 54% favorability. We want more of that, not less. When we look at the question about the one I was just reading, we do not want more students to say that students are teased and picked on. So the word favorability implies that's what we want, right? Favorability does not mean you want more of what's favorable. And that is listed in the red. I think this, this graphic that's showing areas for growth. Well, first of all, everything's sort of an area for growth. But if you look at student strength, school belonging, the questions are in a positive. So that isn't wrong. I'm just saying that the way the questions are formulated, the data is not being interpreted based on how the question is being asked. I mean, you ask the same question, a positive and a negative, and you get the same answers, that would be a very different and concerning thing. So I'm not sure that the report that you're presenting is reflected in the data that we received and it's not shown on the screen, so I apologize to the folks at home.
[SPEAKER_06]: If I may, I would like to present My hope would be that I could present it and provide some of what my thinking was about the results, because even under students at the school are teased or picked on about their race or ethnicity under cultural awareness. Even the fact that 30% actually feel like they're being teased. and picked on because of their race and ethnicity. And if you think about the totality of the district, and if it's 60, 40, and if 30, if 30% potentially of the 40% feel like they're being picked on, I didn't feel like that was.
[SPEAKER_07]: I certainly don't think that's good. I'm just saying that from a raw data perspective, we have just chosen the agree and strongly agree And those are what we called good forgiving scores. We have a list of scores that we got. Those scores are, there's no reason to have any scores if they're not going to actually be meaningful in relationship to each other, and they're not. This says 90% for school engagement. That could be good, that could be bad, depending on how the question was asked. So we don't give grades out and be like, your A in this class might be a good thing, it might be a bad thing in this class. And your D in this class might be a good thing or it might be a bad thing. Like there's a point to the scores meaning something. And so maybe if we just got rid of all of these percentages, that might make sense. But by including them, it just is a very weird thing to have a report that seems to be mixing and matching what's considered good.
[SPEAKER_03]: If I may, I don't think that answers are what is being called to question. It's the interpretation of what the answers mean, and they are inconsistent across this report. So I would not want this report to be broadly published where somebody could take it and say, oh, 30%. think that only 30% of people don't think that kids are bullied and picked on when really 70% of people don't think that. So some of it is about the design of the questions is problematic because some of them are positive and some of them are negative. And so whether you agree or you disagree, the right answer, like the yes, things are good answer is different from question to question to question, which is not great like survey hygiene, because it makes it really hard for people to take the survey.
[SPEAKER_13]: Hi, everyone. We're back.
[SPEAKER_04]: We lost internet. Mayor, can you hear us?
[SPEAKER_13]: Yes, I can.
[SPEAKER_03]: very happy to hear that. Okay. Um sorry about that. Everybody who was watching the internet here in Council Chambers went down and disconnected us from Zoom although it looks like you all were able to mostly stick with us. Um before we recessed, we were having a discussion about the report on school climate that the superintendent was providing and I Internet, I did ask the superintendent if her preference would be to finish delivering this report or if she wanted to table it to sort of just do the double check of the data to make sure it is accurate. And I think, you know, we don't need or want to do it twice, but I will defer to you in terms of whether you want to proceed or if you would like to table.
[SPEAKER_13]: Thank you.
[SPEAKER_06]: I think based on some of the questions that were starting to be surfaced, again, as I said, I interpreted this data as a benchmark, not a report card, but hearing some of the questions and concerns, I do not mind going back over the data again to review it one more time and see if the information can be looked at or presented with a slightly different interpretation. I don't mind going back to the drawing board to do it again and bring it back before the committee at our very next meeting.
[SPEAKER_05]: Member Graham? Member McLaughlin? I think I was also called on just before the blackout, the internet. I just wanted to to say that I appreciate the work on the survey and I know that a lot goes into these things and that oftentimes data, at least the interpretation of data can be subjective. And I do think that the strength in areas for growth by category based on the superintendent support report told me that there was an understanding there of a lot of the material. I certainly also don't think any of us are qualified PhDs other than Dr. Edouard-Vincent and Dr. Cushing, who I know had to go through a lot of data to get that degree. So the understanding of that is clearly much more on your end than on our end, but I guess it's the interpretation for us, much like we interpret other languages, interpreting this for the lay person, I think would be super helpful. So one of the recommendations I might make is that, you know, with the question and the answers that maybe there's an affirmative percent and a negative percent. So the question is this, this percentage answer in the affirmative, this percentage answer in the negative. And then we can decide how we want to, instead of having just a favorable and then it'd be subjective. That's what I would recommend. I'm sure you have plenty of colleagues that would recommend other things, but that's just how I would see it so that every question has an affirmative and a negative percentage wise. And we could see sort of what that means. I think we do see it on the graph. I think a lot of other people don't. We can see it on the graph and I think that's helpful. And also your interpretation has been helpful. But again, I just want to say, I very much respect your and Dr. Cushion's doctoral degrees in research and statistics and understand all that you had to go through for that. So I appreciate you interpreting. Thank you.
[SPEAKER_06]: And I just want to recognize the entire team both Suzanne, Joan, and Tom Thomas for helping with the presentation and the language to be able to try to keep the language, clear and understandable. But I will definitely take that feedback I hadn't The packet that I gave you says favorable, I don't have a problem presenting it as, going back and representing it differently so that the numbers are there, what it says, either remove the favorable completely, the percentages, or add both so that people could look at it I'm definitely willing to go back and do that. If it will provide greater clarity, and not lead, make people lean one way or the other. I will say that I did try to do the color coding to kind of simplify based on feedback that we've received other times of kind of what we felt was really strong in the middle, an area for You know, varied responses and then the areas that clearly were areas identified as serious world, but I'm willing to go back and shuffle.
[SPEAKER_05]: Thank you.
[SPEAKER_06]: The essence of it but take away those percentages if it's definitely confusing.
[SPEAKER_05]: Thank you member grandma respond. So I like the color graphs and the bar graphs. I think it's super helpful. I actually think the percentages are helpful. I just think, again, in the affirmative and the negative, but that's my perception, but obviously you'll have another opportunity at this. And the other thing is I want to ask how, and if it hasn't been, maybe we could think about how this has been presented to our students in our connections program and our access program. how they access the survey, and I'm not sure if they have. I don't need an answer to that question. I want to make sure that they do and that their input is included. So I think that I can think of a number of ways that that can happen, and I'm sure Ms. Bowen can think of a number of ways that can happen if it hasn't already.
[SPEAKER_06]: I also would be remiss I want to thank Mr. Paul DeLava as well who's been working with us in a data capacity, helping us look at data, a little differently as well so I just want to recognize him as well for working with us so we will continue. I will go back to the drawing board to. Try to take the feedback that you have just given and see if that will help to make. substantially change the ratings that I had, but at least the numbers that the essence of what we felt the survey was saying. Again, there were clear areas that we were very strong. And again, areas that we want to work on. And then areas that need immediate attention. And I'll also be working, continuing to work with the high school team because they also, Ms. Cabral and Ms. Schulman also helped to look at this data as well. And they're just helping us to look at it and see where are we going in terms of next steps. So I will take it back to the drawing board and represent it again.
[SPEAKER_03]: Okay, before we make an official motion to table I did see a hand on zoom, Jessica. And Jessica just to be clear, we will talk about this in its totality at our next meeting. But if you had something you wanted to say tonight. I wanted to welcome you to do so. And provide your name and address for the record.
[SPEAKER_04]: Hi, yes, I just want to let you know that there's an issue with Zoom. Everything's repeating, and we can't understand you guys.
[SPEAKER_03]: Thank you, Jessica. Thank you.
[SPEAKER_03]: Can we entertain a motion to table the remaining items? Motion to table the remaining items. Motion to table the remaining items by Member McLaughlin. Seconded by Member Hays. Roll call.
[SPEAKER_07]: Member Graham.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_07]: Member Hays.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_07]: Member Kreatz.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_07]: Member McLaughlin.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_07]: Member Mustone.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_07]: Member Ruseau, yes. Mayor Longo, correct.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yes. Seven in the affirmative, zero in the negative. All remaining agenda items are tabled. Is there a motion to adjourn? Motion to adjourn by Member McLaughlin, seconded by Member Hays. Roll call.
[SPEAKER_07]: Member Graham?
[SPEAKER_03]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_07]: Member Hays?
[SPEAKER_03]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_07]: Member Kreatz?
[SPEAKER_03]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_07]: Member McLaughlin? Yes. Member Mestone?
[SPEAKER_03]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_07]: Member Rossell? Yes. Mayor Longo?
[SPEAKER_03]: Yes. Seven in the affirmative, zero in the negative. Our next meeting is on October 16th here in Alden Memorial Chambers and hopefully a new and improved Zoom so you all can join us. Have a good night. Thank you.