[SPEAKER_12]: Assistant to Kevin Harrington from Medford Community Media.
[SPEAKER_13]: Okay, the first regular meeting of the Medford School Committee, January 8th, 2024 at 6 p.m. will come to order. please be advised that there will be a meeting of the Medford School Committee held in the Howard Alden Memorial Chambers, Medford City Hall, and via remote participation. Meeting can be viewed through Medford Community Media on Comcast and Verizon. Participants can participate in person or remotely by using the following information. The Zoom link with the meeting ID, 927-1438-5504. I'll call the roll, I guess. elect a secretary. Okay, thank you. We'll call the roll. Member McLaughlin. Member Ruseau. Member Olaparde.
[SPEAKER_02]: Here.
[SPEAKER_13]: Member Reinfeld. Member Graham.
[SPEAKER_11]: Here.
[SPEAKER_13]: Member Branley.
[SPEAKER_11]: Here.
[SPEAKER_13]: And myself present, seven present, zero absent. If we could all please rise to salute the flag.
[SPEAKER_12]: I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, with liberty and justice for all.
[SPEAKER_13]: We have our school committee reorganization and we will proceed with election of the vice chair. Is there any member Branley?
[SPEAKER_04]: I would like to nominate member Graham for second.
[SPEAKER_13]: Member Branley, seconded by member Reinfeld is nominated. Member Graham, There are no additional appointments. I will call the roll. Member McLaughlin? Just state her name. State the name, yes. Please, Member McLaughlin, if you could state Member Graham. Just her name, thank you. Member Russell? Member Olapade?
[SPEAKER_03]: Member Graham.
[SPEAKER_13]: Member Reinfeld?
[SPEAKER_03]: Member Graham.
[SPEAKER_13]: Member Graham? Member Graham. Member Bradley?
[SPEAKER_12]: Member Graham.
[SPEAKER_13]: and myself, member Graham. Seven in the affirmative for member Jenny Graham to be our vice chair. Congratulations. Thank you. Next up, we have election of secretary.
[SPEAKER_06]: I would like to nominate member Ruseau.
[SPEAKER_13]: Member Ruseau nominated by member Olaparte. Second. Seconded by member Graham. Are there any of the nominations? Hearing and seeing none, I'll call the roll. Member McLaughlin. Member Ruseau. Member Olaparde.
[SPEAKER_06]: Member Ruseau.
[SPEAKER_13]: Member Reinfeld. Member Ruseau. Member Graham. Member Ruseau. Member Branley.
[SPEAKER_06]: Member Ruseau.
[SPEAKER_13]: And myself, Member Ruseau. 70 affirmative, zero in the negative. Congratulations to our secretary, Member Ruseau. We have number five, consent agenda, bills and payrolls, and regular school committee. Oh, good of the order, yes, number four. Does anybody have anything for good of the order? Member Graham.
[SPEAKER_11]: Thank you. I actually, you all received from me earlier today just a Google form that outlines what our committees are. Basically, the mayor and I worked on it together, and she was having some access issues to get it out the door, so I sent it. But it outlines a couple of things. First, it outlines our committees from last time, from the last session. We are under no obligation to keep them. So as you look at them, if you're like, I don't know what that committee does or why it would do anything, it's OK to say, I don't think we need that committee. So for example, in our last session, we had a personnel and budget subcommittee. They never met. And I think that's actually one that I will say I don't think that we need because we tend to operate a little bit differently when it comes to matters like the budget where we tend to all work on them together. So that's just going to be my vote. But there may be other people who feel differently about some of the other subcommittees that are listed. And so there's one component of the request is just to hear from you all what you think the committee should be, the standing committees. And then another piece for you to tell us what committees you want to be a part of. So subcommittees are comprised of three members. They can't be comprised of more than three members, because then that represents a quorum of this larger committee. And suddenly, you're not a subcommittee anymore. You're actually just the committee. So the subcommittees tend to do work that is sent there by this group. You there, there are some sort of exceptions, but generally something comes to the floor and we say, we want to send this to subcommittee to be to, to, to do X, Y, or Z. And so the way I set up the request, um, after we had some discussion about it was to say, please tell us what, how you want to be involved in these committees. Like you don't have to be involved in any committees. Um, you could be involved in all of the committees. It sort of depends on interest and time and all of that stuff. But I also provided a place for people to say, I'd like to chair this committee, or I want to be on this committee, or I'm willing to be on this committee, which I think is just a little bit different. And then I don't want to be on this committee for whatever reason. And then we can get all those results and then take a look at it. And in a future meeting, the mayor can present to us what her like proposed subcommittee structure is. And based on that feedback, and then we can have some discussion. We all ultimately have to vote on it, but it is just a good way for you all to say like, these are the topics that interest me. It's okay for you to say, I want to be the chair of something, even if you've never done it before. help you manage through those first ones. Like the subcommittees are a really nice place to do that because they tend to be sort of confined topics. Like you'll be working on a specific thing or reacting to something that came to you by the larger committee. So you all have that, I think, in your email box. And if you don't let me know and I'll send it. But really it's just a chance for us to say like, are these even the right committees for us anymore? If there's stuff you think we should be adding, like there's a space for you to do that too. The high school building committee, completely separate topic and not part of what we're signing.
[SPEAKER_13]: Yep. Thank you for taking the lead on developing that survey. Appreciate it. And then I just also, if you want to either send it to me separately or within that survey, you want to outline what your first, second, third, fourth choices are, because even if you want it to be on all of them, you probably won't be because I can only pick three per committee. So I do try to do it as fairly as possible, where you'll chair one or two and then be on one or two others. So please feel free to list your priorities as well.
[SPEAKER_04]: Thank you. May I? Yes, Member McLaughlin. Thank you. Yeah, thank you, Member Graham, for this. This is, I think, a much more efficient way of looking at the process and having people weigh in. So it's really helpful. There's just a few committees that I don't recognize from before. And I'm wondering, I mean, I know the superintendent evaluation was an ad hoc committee that we had sort of added for one of our goals. I like the idea of keeping it, but I just see that. And then there was another, which was, I think strategic planning was the same idea. And so are those ones that you guys have said, you want to try to move forward with? Or weren't those just unique to last year?
[SPEAKER_11]: So last term, we basically took what previously was family engagement, communication, and strategic planning and separated it, which I think there's just too much going on there for it to be one topic. So last term, we did separate it. Both did meet. There's at least one thing, I think, in strategic planning right now. And I was just waiting to schedule something to, like, move forward on that. So I do think those two things, those two make sense to carry over from last year. And I put superintendent evaluation on because it was an ad hoc last year. But if, if we think that we want to continue with that process, we should just make it a standing committee so that there's some expectation there.
[SPEAKER_04]: I just also wanted to put in for a point of information. While anyone can request to be chair or on the committee, even after three school committee members are on a committee, other school committee members can attend the committee meeting. They're just not able to weigh in, obviously, and vote. So you can still attend and listen if there are ones that you're interested in. That's it. Thank you.
[SPEAKER_13]: Yep. Member Reinfeld?
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I was curious, is there on our, I think there's a shared Google Drive that we got access to today, is there, does that have the archive of the meetings and kind of agendas of what these committees have done?
[SPEAKER_11]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_03]: Okay, great. Thank you.
[SPEAKER_11]: And so I had one other topic. Yes. I reached out to me I see because they do a whole variety of training. But one of the trainings that Tracy Novick will do on our for us is a training around Chapter 70. So Chapter 70 is how the state funds municipalities as it relates to education. There's a lot of changes happening in Chapter 70 because of the Student Opportunity Act. And we're like maybe a little bit more than halfway through the full funding of Student Opportunity Act. But Chapter 70 funding is wildly complicated. It's one piece of how our schools are funded in Medford. But Tracy is willing to come and do a training session with us about Chapter 70. And every time she does this talk, she picks she picks a community. So when you go to charting the course, you'll see her pick a community and then sort of dive through their chapter 70 and say, this is what's really happening. Like, this is what these numbers mean. This is how this impacts them. And every time I go and I listened to her do this chapter 70 talk, I'm like, she picked Medford because I would be really interested on her take on what is happening in chapter 70. So I reached out to her. She said, it's about like an hour and a half ish training. And she has pretty open availability in the month of February, which I think is good timing for us to do that before budget season really starts. And she I just told her that I would bring it to the group and we could decide if there was a date and time that would work well, but I think it's a nice sort of lead into the budget discussions which will become just a huge part of what we're doing here soon so. I think the question is really around scheduling and whether we want to try to find a time to do that as a group, not knowing. I think the other thing that would be helpful, I think, for all of us is to know generally when are people available? Can you start a meeting at 5 or 6? Are you not available at all on Wednesdays? Those kinds of things I think maybe we should try to understand better across this new committee, because I think you learn that over time. In the meantime, to schedule this, I think we would just need some date options that we could bring to Tracy and see if she can plan to come in and do this training for us on one of those dates. Sounds great. Thank you, Member Graham.
[SPEAKER_04]: Mayor? Member McLaughlin. Thank you. For the good of the order as well, I just wanted to bring up the school committee goals. I know we're talking about Superintendent goals tonight, and I do think that we need to review school committee goals and have it on the agenda and talk about I think we had two goals last year. And I think we should, you know, talk about those and How we did on them and then think about what goals. This committee might want to set moving forward. So that just sort of something under the good of the order, but I don't know if we want to If you have an idea, Superintendent, on when you might wanna put that, or Mayor, on when you might wanna put that on the agenda.
[SPEAKER_13]: I think that was the school committee goals, so we can discuss it amongst the committee, or decide tonight, maybe the second meeting, or first meeting in February. And everybody can have about a month to think through what the goals are. In the meantime, maybe somebody from the admin can just send us the two goals we chose last year, so the new members have them. Thank you. Great. Thank you.
[SPEAKER_11]: We have the consent agenda, bills and- Before you go on, we probably should have started with like what the good of the order is in case you, the new folks don't know.
[SPEAKER_03]: You did tell us our first meeting we attended.
[SPEAKER_11]: It would be weird. Yeah. Okay. No, no, no. You said it. You told us.
[SPEAKER_13]: You told us. You explained it.
[SPEAKER_11]: Okay. Okay. Good, good, good. Okay. I just wanted to make sure like we're not leaving you in the dust as we explain. Okay. But I appreciate that leaving us.
[SPEAKER_13]: We've been out of it suit too for a while. So please let us know if you need us to Help out on that front as well. My first few weeks in office, I went home and just with my head spinning on all the acronyms, then COVID had snapped me into reality. Figured it out. I figured it out. Okay. So we do have the consent agenda, bills and payrolls, regular school committee minutes, December 18th, 2023.
[SPEAKER_03]: Motion to sever the minutes from December 18th.
[SPEAKER_13]: Motion to sever the consent agenda. So second. Seconded by member Graham. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? The consent agenda has been severed. I'll start with bills and payrolls. Is there a motion for approval on bills and payrolls? by Member McLaughlin, seconded by?
[SPEAKER_03]: Second.
[SPEAKER_13]: Member Reinfeld. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Bills and payrolls have been approved. Now we have the regular school committee meeting minutes from December 18th, 2023.
[SPEAKER_03]: I motion to approve these with the correction of the spelling of my name.
[SPEAKER_13]: Motion to approve as amended the regular school committee meeting minutes from December 18th, 2023 by Member Reinfeld, seconded by Member McLaughlin. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion passes as amended. We do not have any reports of subcommittees. We have seven reports under the superintendent's updates. First is the superintendent's updates and comments. Dr. Reese-Edward Benson.
[SPEAKER_07]: Good evening and Happy New Year. I would like to begin by welcoming our three new school committee members, Nicole Branley, Erin Olapade, and Erica Reinfeld. I know I speak for the entire Medford Public Schools community when I offer our warmest welcome, congratulations, and best wishes. Welcome back to the committee. Mayor Lungo-Koehn, Member Graham, Member McLaughlin, and Member Ruseau. I look forward to continuing our innovative work together for the Medford Public Schools. Because of the weekend snowstorm, the city's formal inauguration ceremony has been rescheduled to this Wednesday at 6pm. I'm looking forward to joining everyone to celebrate public service and the start of the new term for our mayor, city Councilors and school committee members. Now transitioning to school affairs. Kindergarten registration, it's a critically important time. This is very, very important for how our elementary schools function. So kindergarten registration for the 24-25 school year opens on Tuesday next week, January 16th, one week from tomorrow. If you know a caregiver of a child who will be starting kindergarten next year, please let them know they are invited to attend one of the upcoming informational sessions to learn about our kindergarten program and have the opportunity to ask questions directly. So the meeting next week in person meeting will be on Wednesday, January 17, and Thursday, March 28 at 6.30pm. Again, those are in-person meetings at Medford High School in the library. The February meeting on Tuesday, February 27th, that meeting will also take place at 6.30 p.m. That meeting will be by Zoom. So again, in person next Wednesday, January 17th and Thursday, March 28th at 6.30 p.m. and by Zoom on Tuesday, February 27th at 6.30 p.m. critically important, please spread the word so we can get accurate numbers of our kindergarten students, and for the new members that are here today. This past school year we had an unusual rush in August, increased kindergarten enrollment. that we were required to open for additional kindergarten sessions. So to the best of your ability, we're going to really try to make sure we register our kindergartners earlier. I do want the community to also know that during our information sessions, child care and interpretation services will be available at those meetings, and more information will be available on our school website. Another wonderful topic to just share some key highlights with you is in the area of athletics. I want to do the special recognition Medford High School's girls soccer team received national recognition by United soccer coaches. We received a silver level team ethics and sportsmanship award across the country 72 fall season boys and girls teams received either the platinum gold, silver or bronze version of the high school team ethics and sportsmanship award. which recognizes teams that exhibit fair play, sporting behavior, and adherence to the laws of the game, as reflected by the number of yellow caution cards or red ejection cards. They are shown by referees throughout the season. Medford girls soccer was one of 31 teams that claimed the silver award, which is given to teams that accumulate a percentage of cards, ranging from 11 to 30%. Only nine other Massachusetts teams were recognized with team ethics and sportsmanship awards this year. I want to send a special congratulations to coach Marco Siri, to our captains, Vivalyn Chavitana, who's grade 12, Josiah Kuyate, grade 11, Grace Mastromatteo, grade 12, and Isabella O'Brien, grade 12, and all members of the varsity and junior varsity teams. For the winter athletic season, our teams are off to a great start, and we're proudly cheering on our basketball, swimming, track, hockey, and gymnastics teams. Also another critically important announcement, our CPAC team, there will be a special CPAC workshop and upcoming tiered focus monitoring review. Please consider joining the Medford CPAC's parent workshop on executive functioning to be held by Zoom at 6 p.m. on Wednesday of this week. Mass General Hospital Inclusion Specialist, Elise Wolf, will discuss concrete strategies parents and caregivers can apply to help teach and foster independence for neurodiverse students at home and in the community. More information is available on the Medford Public Schools website. Also, a very important update. This is related to our special education triennial tiered focus monitoring review. This is taking place during the week of January, 29, the department the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education desi. Office of Public School Monitoring, PSM. They will be conducting a review of Medford Public Schools special education programming. DESE visits each public school in Massachusetts every three years to monitor compliance with federal and state special education and civil rights regulations. In addition to the on-site visit, parent outreach is an important part of the review process. The review chairperson from the Office of Public School Monitoring will send all parents of students with disabilities an online survey that focuses on key areas of their child's special education program. Survey results will contribute to the development of a report. And if caregivers would like to contact the review chairperson to arrange an interview, contact information is also available on our website. The Medford Special Education Parent Advisory Council, CPAC, will host a caregiver orientation to learn about the upcoming special education and civil rights review in our district. The Caregiver Orientation will be held on Tuesday, January 16 next week at 6.30pm by Zoom. Please join us. There are a few upcoming events this week. January 10 Wednesday is early release day for all students, middle schools release at 1130 and all other schools release at noon. On January 14. which is Sunday, it'll be the fifth annual Tufts Classic Medford against Somerville basketball games. That will be starting at 12 noon. And on Monday, January 15th, there will be no school in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day. So tonight's meeting, This evening's meeting will cover a variety of important topics, including a presentation from a recent Medford graduate. an update on the Roberts Elementary School from our wonderful new principal, Ms. Michelle Crowell, and a discussion on the school calendar for the school year beginning next September. I'm also looking forward to providing an update on my superintendent goals for the current year and recommending the approval of several generous donations to the Medford Public Schools. Thank you for your patience this evening.
[SPEAKER_13]: Thank you, Dr. Edouard-Vincent. Mayor?
[SPEAKER_04]: Member McLaughlin. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Edouard-Vincent. I had a question about the public school monitoring. I know it said that all families of students with disabilities will be contacted with that information. How are they being contacted?
[SPEAKER_07]: Ms. Bowen, can you please come forward? Thank you.
[SPEAKER_08]: Is it on. Okay. Yes, so we had to provide Jesse with a roster of all students with disabilities, and they'll be contacted via email we were only allowed to provide one parent name and one parent email. Those went out last week. If you don't receive them I'm asking parents to contact me or you can contact The desi program reviewer Joan Birkenhoff, who, her information is listed on our website with the update regarding the tiered focus monitoring visit.
[SPEAKER_04]: Thank you. And so to be clear, it's parent email, not through the students portal or school directly to the parents email.
[SPEAKER_08]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_13]: Thank you. We have number two leadership for social change pre college program accessibility to Performing Arts, Ms. Tegan The Stone, MHS graduate from 2023. Welcome, Tegan.
[SPEAKER_10]: Thank you for having me. Yes. Well, I was going to mention that, but yes, I am a graduate from this June, so not too long. But good evening, mayor, superintendent, school committee members, school administrators, and committee members joining us from Zoom. My name is Tegan Westone, and I'm a graduate from the Medford High School class of 2023. Thank you for making time for me tonight to shine a light on accessibility to the arts in Medford Public Schools. So a year and a half ago, I attended a lovely Tufts pre-college program entitled Leadership for Social Change. And at this two-week program in July, I attended classes and lectures by Tufts professors focused on coalition building, social barriers, and of course, community activism. This is all thanks to the generosity of Marilyn Blumstack and each year she supports a Medford student with a scholarship to this program. She's a true agent of change in our community and responsible for cultivating a more civically minded student body. And luckily she and her granddaughter are here tonight. So just give her a round of applause. Thank you. So over the course of the program, I created an action plan with the guide of the directors to address an issue in my own community of my choosing. I decided to focus on a place I knew very well, classroom A125, the music room of Medford High School. My project targeted increasing accessibility to the performing arts with the focus of the marching band and concert band. One of the lessons of the pre-college program was an asset-based approach, harnessing the resources in the community to create a sustainable social change. The Medford arts community was already home to passionate and hardworking students. And I knew that effective change would not be possible without their vision and determination. One element of this initiative that I'd like to point out is an elementary and middle school music camp during February break and summer vacation. These camps were offered completely free of charge to the Medford public school students, thanks to the hard work of the music band and orchestra teachers of this district. They're also possible because of the vision and determination of Ms. Haley Rallo, the band director, one of my role models and biggest supporters. In addition, the camps were run by dozens of high school student volunteers. The upperclassmen made these camps exciting by sharing the love of music and giving personal attention to students. The best part of the performance at the end of each camp was seeing a stage full of students from all different schools, backgrounds, and social classes playing together in harmony. The umbrella of performing arts also includes the drama club, choir, and percussion ensemble that were once a part of the vibrant MHS community. I believe that reestablishing these programs in post-COVID times are important by hiring more music and arts teachers. And this should be a priority for the next fiscal year, if I might ask. I also understand the importance of a dedicated and full-time staff to music programs. Currently, the only paid staff for the marching band are Ms. Haley Rallo and Ms. Jackie Gaffney. This past season, five recent high school graduates joined the staff as volunteers to lead the percussion staff. And I believe going forward, all who put time and effort to this program deserve a stipend, if only small. Despite all odds, the marching band took first place in New England Regional Competition in 2023, And this season marked a new chapter of the performing arts in Medford. It was more diverse, more welcoming, and more powerful than ever. I hope that you will continue this momentum and help the marching band. And before I end, I would like to especially thank Ms. Stacey Schulman, the director of school counseling and behavioral health, for her assistance and leadership through this program. Thank you for having me tonight, and I look forward to another successful year in the performing arts open for all students. Thank you.
[SPEAKER_07]: I want to say thank you so much again for coming back to share your report with us. Would you mind, and I want to just once again thank Miss Marilyn bloom sack for your generosity, your partnership your collaboration with the Medford public schools, and you're continuing to do it. This presentation that I didn't say at the beginning. is a little deferred because you are out of the country. Would you mind sharing with the committee your wonderful learning experience?
[SPEAKER_10]: I definitely can. So this program opened my eyes to Tufts and how powerful it is to our community, especially because I'm a, I would say I'm a Medford resident first, a Tufts student second. And this year was my first semester at Tufts, and I went abroad to Peru, which is a part of Tisch College, which is the umbrella that this program, Leadership for Social Change, is also directed under. So not only had I known some of the staff when I went away for my first semester at Tufts, thanks to Ms. Blumstack, but also I just had amazing civic-engaged experience abroad.
[SPEAKER_07]: Thank you so much. And I just also wanted to say thank you again. student that's receiving this special scholarship to participate in this program. And we look forward to hearing her presentation at the end of the school year. But thank you, and thank you for sharing your wonderful learning with us.
[SPEAKER_13]: Thank you, thank you. Thank you, Ms. Bonsack. We have our school update. Roberts Elementary School Principal, Michelle Crow.
[SPEAKER_12]: Welcome. Thank you.
[SPEAKER_00]: All right. Thank you so much for having me here tonight to share the amazing happenings at the Roberts School. As I transitioned into the role of principal at the Roberts, we started the school year with a popsicles with the principal event. This was an event that the entire Roberts School community was invited to, and it was an opportunity for me to meet with parents, caregivers, and students. With the help of my PTO, we purchased about 600 popsicles, which I thought was, wow, 600. Well, by 645, we had no more popsicles left. And at that point, I was like, this is it. The families were amazing. This became a whole family event for me. My husband was passing out popsicles. My boys were passing out popsicles. As I walked around the playground and met our students and families. So our school year started off on a really positive note with this event that was held in the summer. right at the playground. As the school year started, we identified a set of four core values that directly related to responsive classroom. These core values are kind of what we live by at the Roberts School. We say them every single day. They're all around our school, and those words are be kind, be responsible, be respectful, and be safe. These core values are discussed during our daily morning meetings in our classrooms. They're posted in the hallways, they're posted in the cafeteria, they're posted in the main office, they're posted everywhere. And our kids know, and our kids talk about it, and they'll say, you are being so kind today, and I am being responsible. So the kids are getting it, and it's teaching them how to be responsible citizens. Additionally, we recite them every single day on our morning announcements. I'm super excited to kind of introduce to you a new initiative that is currently in full swing at the Roberts School right now. It's our Schoolwide Mascot Symbol Project. This is a fully student-led project that has been incorporated into the students' weekly art classes. The students have been working with Miss Diorio, our art teacher, on learning about logos. So this project started with what is a logo? So she pulled various school logos, company logos, they looked at lettering, they looked at coloring, and students had to design a mascot or symbol that reflects our values as a school. So part of the assignment wasn't just to draw a symbol, but really, what does this symbol mean in relation to our values? We are now in the process of developing a teacher student committee. This committee will meet, we have hundreds of entries into this project, so our teacher and student committee will be meeting to narrow down our choices. Hopefully we can narrow down to a top five. This is going to go to a whole school wide assembly and students will be voting on the new mascot or symbol of the Robert school. Um, As you can see on this slide, this is a sneak peek of a few of our entries. So our top right corner, this is one that a student drew. I believe this is a second grader. So their idea is the Robert School Gators. So in their research, they saw that a lot of symbols kind of were in this circular shape with the illustration in the middle. So possibly we could be the Robert School Gators. The bottom left corner was the Robert School Lions. So this student in particular was really into color design, so super colorful on the mane of the lion. In the bottom right corner, there's a few of these lingering around the Roberts School. The Roberts School goats, because the Roberts School is the greatest school of all time. So these are just a sneak peek of what we've got, and hopefully it will go to a school-wide vote sometime in February. The next new addition to the Roberts School this year have been student-led morning announcements. Every day, students in grades K through five have the opportunity to lead the announcements. During this time, students will say the Pledge of Allegiance, they share important announcements, present the lunch menu, various fun facts, guess the state, joke of the day. This has become such an exciting part of the day. Kids keep me on my toes, so usually I do the announcements about 8.45. If I'm at 8.46, where's Mrs. Kroll? Because they're so excited to see who is going to be doing the morning announcements for the day. It's been pretty fantastic to see the student growth throughout the year so far. So when we started with the student-led morning announcements, we started with fifth grade, we went down to fourth, third, two, one. K, so our earliest readers. When we got to kindergarten, they had seen and heard the models of their peers in the school. They also kind of knew some of the things that just always stay. So like, good morning, Robert School. Please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. So they knew the Pledge of Allegiance. Then we always do, please stand for a moment of personal thought. Thank you. So they knew all of these parts. So our kindergartners got right involved in the rotation. And it's also been pretty interesting to see how kids are applying what they're learning in their literacy class into their oral reading. perfect example, when we got to our grade two rotation, my second graders were the most excited students when they were doing their morning announcements. So the students would say, good morning, Robert school. Today is pajama day, super excited. So I said to my second grade teachers, wow, your students are reading with such emotion. And they said, yes, because we're doing our unit on exclamation points. So students were taking what they were learning in the classroom and applying it directly to real life situations within our school. It was fantastic. Another new thing, new to the Roberts School, Mr. DiClemente and I have started responsive classroom whole grade assemblies. We run three 45-minute assemblies per month, and this focuses directly on the real-life application of our core values. So our teachers are teaching about core values, and Mr. D. Kalente and I are really teaching them, like, how do we actually put that into practice? In September, we focused on what is kindness and identified the importance of inclusion and kindness at school and in their daily lives. We read the book, We're All Wonders by RJ Palacio. Students had the opportunity to turn and talk with their peers, and then they shared out. So we provided the students with the sentence starter, so I can be kind by, and then they talked about asking a friend to play on the playground, but they were making that connection about kindness and how do they actually be kind. October is National Bullying Prevention Month. So during our responsive classroom assembly, we continued our discussion on kindness, but with a focus on being an upstander instead of a bystander, if they see bullying occur. We then played a game where students focused on what is alike with their peers. So we played a game called Find Someone Who. The November responsive classroom assembly, we continued to discuss bullying, but we also did a super fantastic activity about spreading kindness like confetti around school. Each student received a colored sticky note and wrote messages of positivity for students around the school and for staff. They left the sticky notes on lockers, in the teacher's room, in the nurse's office, and students found them as the day went on. Our next slide just kind of shows our red box. This is me working with some first graders where they're presenting out to their grade level. The middle box is Mr. D. Clemente reading to a group of fifth graders. In this particular assembly, we were talking about what is it like to make sure that our peers are feeling included in a sense of belonging in everything that we do. And then our brown box are some of the sticky notes, the spreading kindness. I know it can be hard to read, but I've got a couple for you. Again, kids didn't do any research here. This was just their thoughts on kindness. You brighten my day. You are awesome. Keep smiling. And this last one I found outside of a kindergarten classroom. And the student wrote, let your smile change the world, but don't let the world change your smile. So throughout the school, kids found these all over. And it truly brought a sense of just overwhelming happiness across the school. Kids, you know, did you get a sticky note? Did you see this sticky note? Mine said I was awesome. And they were given by their peers. So this was a fantastic activity that we completed. Continuing on with the theme of kindness, I wanna highlight the amazing work of my fifth grade student council members. All fifth grade students have the opportunity to sign up for student council. Student council meetings take place once a week on Thursdays during the school day. Every month they organize one civic or community learning project and one school-wide theme day. All community projects and theme days are totally determined by the students. So at our meeting, we talk about what are some of the things that we can do to give back to our own school or to the city of Method. And then what kind of fun theme day can we do throughout the month? The students are responsible for organizing the activity and communicating to the entire school community through posters and after school announcements. Attending student council meetings have been the highlight of my day. So in my calendar, this is a weekly meeting that I have set in my calendar every Thursday at 11 o'clock. I actually tend not as the principal of the Roberts, but I am the support staff for the students in my connections program that have signed up to be on my student council. And being able to participate with these group of kids has been amazing. The thoughts that they have about how to give back to our community are on point. They know, they know how to be kind and they know where the need is. And so they're coming up with fantastic ideas. So we're still determining our January community project and our theme day, but I can tell you they're already super impressive on some of the ideas that they have. A few examples. During the month of October and November, students at the Roberts organized a food drive. Students decorated the boxes, they delivered everything to classrooms. During weekly meetings, students collected the donations, packaged them up for delivery. And prior to Thanksgiving, the Roberts delivered a generous amount of food to St. Raphael's Food Pantry. During the month of December, our students decorated ornaments and made cards for Medford senior citizens. The cards and ornaments were wrapped in wrapping paper and bows and delivered to the Courtyard Nursing Care Center. Our theme days, these are just two examples of the theme days that the school has organized. We had a sports day, pajama day, crazy mixed up day. Again, they're just fun themes that the students organized for the kids. I want to highlight the work of Kathleen Keehan and her staff for running the Roberts School Afterschool Program. In December, students in our afterschool program had the opportunity to work with Ms. Susan Altman on a mosaic project. All of the materials the students used were recycled. Each student planned how they wanted their mosaic to look before completing their final design, and the students' creations will be added to a quilt made entirely of recycled materials. Beautiful project. I attended the day that they made these and they're like, Mrs. Pearl, what do you see here? And they had their little mosaics and like, it's a river with trees and a sun and they put so much work into these mosaics. They came out fantastic. And I really wanted to highlight the work that they're doing in our afterschool program. I also wanted to highlight math and science and action at the Roberts School and the incredible work of the teachers who are implementing project-based learning into their classrooms. To finish up the what is all around us unit grade one students sent parachutes flying down the main lobby of the Robert school that's in our blue box, they stood up on the second floor, they designed the prototype for their parachute they dropped them the kiddos that are sitting on the floor practice observational skills they wrote what they saw how the prototype worked. Fantastic, super, lots of excitement this day as students were dropping their parachutes down one floor. In my green box, I have grade four measurement and data. Grade four students have been generating and describing measurement data. groups of students work together to create their own data projects. They collected measurement data, they determined what materials they would need and conducted their own investigations. They then turned all of their information into posters in which they presented to their classmates. And lastly, in my pink box, this was my grade two tower building challenge. Second grade students, they put their knowledge of properties of different solids to the test by constructing towers. The challenge was to build a tower that stood at least 45 centimeters tall and was stable enough to sustain wind. The third, fourth, and fifth grade at the Roberts had an out-of-this-world experience, thanks to the PTO, who sponsored Sky Dome Planetarium. They visited the Roberts School on December 20th. If you look at the photos here, they brought this gigantic silver dome in which the students entered through a tunnel. They experienced a star-filled sky, so they sat around in the center of the dome. There was a projector. The presenter taught the kids about the stars, the planets. There were rocket ships that launched. Amazing experience. The kids loved it, the staff loved it, and really kind of brought some hands-on learning and some practical science work right into our gymnasium. I quickly want to give a shout out to Miss Kelly Malloy and Jimmy Giddings, who have been approved for Medford Education Foundation grants. Miss Kelly Malloy received a $1,500 grant to buy Botley coding robots and Dash coding robots to be utilized during our technology time. And this will be to teach students coding within that block of time for students in grades K through five. The Botley robots are like hands-on robots where they can press buttons on the device. The Botley robot is the one that has three circles. You press the buttons and then you can code where you want this robot to go. And the other, the Dash robots are more on a platform. So they go onto a computer program and they learn how to code through an online platform. Mr. Jimmy Giddings is a kindergarten teacher at the Roberts School, and he received a grant of 250 to purchase furniture and materials for a calming corner for our kindergarten students. And this is just gonna be a spot where students, when they're just feeling like they just need a minute to kind of sit and step away and just take a deep breath, putting together this little calming corner within the classroom. So I wanted to congratulate Kelly and Jimmy for their hard work in writing these grants. Um, I wanted to just talk about my walking school bus in October. This was on each Wednesday in the month of October the Robert school participated in walking Wednesday, each of the Wednesdays had a fun theme to encourage students to walk or bike to school. On October 4th, this was kind of the kickoff event. It was Neon and Rainbow Day, which was one of my favorites. And yes, those are my socks that you see there with the turquoise shoes and the pink tutu. That was me. It was a fantastic event. We had a great turnout. Other themes were wear your Robert school gear, your Mustang blue or white. Class Day, where students with the most participation won the Golden Sneaker Award. and Wacky Hat Day. I just wanted to thank Sarah Reinfeld who worked so hard to make Walking School Bus such a success at the Roberts. The Roberts Elementary girls on the run team had another great season. Approximately 50 girls participate during the fall and spring season. They joined 70 teams in 1600 girls from the greater Boston area in a 5K at Suffolk Downs. The girls had so much fun and made lifelong friends with their teammates and classmates. Such a fantastic. Such a fantastic program.
[SPEAKER_13]: Is it too early to tell you that I'm doing a boys on the right track team for the spring?
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, fantastic. So that will be in my next update. Great. And just lastly, and I wanted to put this on because I know there was lots of excitement about our new playground equipment. So we finally have our new playground equipment, our bouncy bridge, our cargo net and canyon bridge are repaired, along with our kindergarten spinners on the structure. The students were so excited when they saw the repair workers come with all of their materials. It was like, The kids were super excited. Oh my gosh, what's going on? They're utilized every single day. The kids love it and I just wanted to give a shout out and a thank you to the Medford Community Preservation Commission for making sure that this project gets completed.
[SPEAKER_13]: Wonderful, thank you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you.
[SPEAKER_13]: Member McLaughlin.
[SPEAKER_04]: Thank you. Thank you, Principal Kroll. That was really helpful and the Roberts is such a great school. It's awesome to hear all the things the students are doing and makes me back to elementary school, or go back into education. I just had a couple of questions in mind. I was just actually trying to look on my phone and it wasn't coming up easily enough. So I figured I could ask you, can you share, especially, you know, not just with us, but the community that's watching and others, what the demographics are for your school?
[SPEAKER_00]: Sure, so we currently have about 571 students, this was based on my October one sims I think right now i'm at like 575 ish. I have about 8.9% on el students, which I think roughly is about 5050 students. Students with disabilities and at 19.4%. So I think that brings me to about 110. Again, this was from October. I'm definitely a little bit higher than that right now. We do house the Connections Program.
[SPEAKER_04]: Can you tell us what the Connections Program is?
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, the Connections Program is the district-wide program for students with autism. We have a program for kindergarten through grade five, and we currently have 28 students in our program. with two or three that may be entering shortly.
[SPEAKER_04]: And the 28 students over the K through five, just, can you explain how that can work in terms of, you know, students are grouped together?
[SPEAKER_00]: Sure, so right now, due to numbers, my kindergarten and grade one students are grouped together, and then I have a full grade two group, because they're the largest group, and then my third, fourth, and fifth graders are grouped together.
[SPEAKER_04]: Thank you. You're welcome. And then for the 8.9% EL, is that a newcomer program?
[SPEAKER_00]: It is not a newcomer program. So after they leave the newcomer program, they can come back to the Roberts and they receive the EL instruction. I have two full-time EL teachers that support through a combination of pull-out services and push-in services. Okay, thank you. And then economically disadvantaged? Economically disadvantaged, 28.4%.
[SPEAKER_04]: Thank you. You're welcome. May I, may I? I just had a couple more. Thank you. And then, so for the responsive classroom, which, you know, I know is a great program and I love the emphasis on inclusion and kindness, which I think are so needed in our world in so many ways today. And I'm wondering how that is, differentiated for your 19.4% and your 8.9% so you're 110 and 50 160 students. That are both neuro diverse and. different languages.
[SPEAKER_00]: Sure. So, um, many different ways. So I think that some of the things that we are doing is not only are they getting this presentation. So if we're pulling, if we're doing a whole great assembly, there's also lots of work that are being done in the classroom. So making it that it's really super great appropriate, um, really kind of pulling out these key vocabulary words for them. So when we talk about kindness, What does kindness actually look like? So what does it actually look like? And what does kindness actually sound like? And that's some of the work that we're doing. Because we can say kindness, we need to be kind. And for some kids are like, yep, I've heard that. And there's all kinds of t-shirts that say, be kind. And they're seeing that. And they know like, that means that we have to be nice. But how do we actually apply that? So we're doing lots of, this is what it looks like. And this is what kindness actually sounds like. So we're breaking that down for them in many different settings. So have it be in a whole group setting, but then in also that small group setting. A lot of our kiddos are also, not only are they getting that whole group assembly, but for some kids, they're getting just pushed in for that morning meeting time with the classroom teachers. So there's within that block, lots of differentiation that's going on just specifically regarding the responsive classroom and the core values and breaking it down into kid-friendly language through the responsive classroom curriculum.
[SPEAKER_04]: Thank you. And recess and lunch are integrated? Awesome. And then two more questions. What do you, what do you, it's awesome hearing all the wonderful things. And I know this is your first year. Welcome to MET. Thank you. We're super excited to have you. I've heard really great things from your colleagues from previous places. So I'm really excited that. You're here, and I'm sure you've gotten thrown right into it, which is always the best way, right? You learn right away. So I loved that you were talking about the connection students being part of the student council. I just wanted to comment on that as well. But what is it that you feel like you need? We're hearing all the great things about our elementary schools, which we want to hear. But it's also really important for us to understand what is it that you need? Are you fully staffed? Is your building operating well? You know, sort of those things. how we can help them, what it is you need.
[SPEAKER_00]: Sure. So I think that for the first time, you know, as I have done kind of my talks with teachers and administrators and families, I do think for the first time our Connections program is fully staffed, which is huge. So full staff for paraprofessionals and for teachers. However, my enrollment has gone up. So I am at, again, I want to say I'm at like 575 today. So my enrollment has gone up. So there are so many wonderful things going at the Roberts School, but I do think there are some pockets of some additional staff that I need so that I'm fully supporting students in an inclusive setting, specifically some inclusion type work. I think that we have to look at numbers and have conversations about the numbers of students that we service at the Roberts and just making sure that there's just equity amongst the schools, just to make sure that, like, again, I'm growing, my school's growing, and we're getting more diverse students on many different levels, have it be English language learners, special education, And I just, I want to make sure that we're addressing the needs of all of our kids. So I do think that there's some conversations that we can have regarding staffing and making sure that we're appropriately staffed kind of moving forward. Because with some more staff, obviously, I can do even more great things and just make sure that students are growing and that we're giving everything that they need and deserve.
[SPEAKER_04]: Right, and I think that comes from leadership, right? And I appreciate you saying that. And I think it's important that we continue the conversation because we need to hear the things both that are positive and the things that are needed. So thank you for sharing that. And then lastly, and I thank you to my colleagues and to the mayor for indulging me here. So this is a really, really last one, I promise. How can the school committee be involved in your school? In other words, are there opportunities for some of the events that you had, for example, that school committee members can come to, or reading in any of the classrooms, and all of the classrooms, and all of the programming.
[SPEAKER_00]: I would love to invite any of you to come down to the Roberts. I think it's important when we're talking about our special programming, I can stand here and talk about the Connections program, and I can talk about our EL program, and our inclusion program, but for you to see it in action, I think that just puts a whole other lens on, huh, now I know what she's talking about, right? So I welcome if you pop in, send me an email to come down and take a walk and see the things that we are doing and the needs that we have so that you can live it and see it. Because I do think that that's the way in which, I mean, I would love for any of you to come down. You can read to any of our kids. They love it. You can attend any of our assemblies, I can let you know when those are. But I think just coming down and living it and seeing it, I think will just give a perspective of setting priorities when we're talking about budget. You're welcome.
[SPEAKER_13]: Thank you so much. Thank you.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're welcome.
[SPEAKER_02]: Thank you.
[SPEAKER_13]: Hopefully my son's behaving. Recommendation to approve a donation from the Consulate General of Italy for $4,851.77 for the Italian language program. Motion to approve. Motion for approval by Member McLaughlin, seconded by... Second. Member Graham, all those in favor? Do we have to roll call this money?
[SPEAKER_12]: Roll call, Secretary Russo.
[SPEAKER_13]: Okay, we got a microphone issue. Oh, you can you can use a member of office, please.
[SPEAKER_02]: There you go.
[SPEAKER_09]: I'll take that button. It's the left button. It's always been the left button.
[SPEAKER_13]: One less email I have to send.
[SPEAKER_09]: Thank you. It's not my first rodeo here. Anyways, what am I doing? Member Branley? Yes. Member Graham?
[SPEAKER_11]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_09]: Member McLaughlin?
[SPEAKER_11]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_09]: Member Olapade? Yes. Member Reinfeld?
[SPEAKER_13]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_09]: Member Ruseau? Yes. Mayor Longoker?
[SPEAKER_13]: Yes. Seven in the affirmative, zero in the negative. We accept the money. Number two, recommendation to approve a donation of classroom supplies to all Medford public schools, estimated value of $1,200 by Elizabeth Cronin, a member of her mother, Eleanor Cronin, a former teacher at Medford High School. Motion to approve. Thank you to the Cronin family. Motion to approve by member Reintel, seconded by- Second. Member Graham, roll call please.
[SPEAKER_09]: Member Branley.
[SPEAKER_11]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_09]: Member Graham.
[SPEAKER_11]: Oh, wait, what? Did I say the wrong thing? Did you say me? Yeah. It's a little hard to hear you.
[SPEAKER_09]: Is it? Yeah. I said Member Branley and Member Graham.
[SPEAKER_12]: Oh, okay. Sorry. Yes, yes.
[SPEAKER_09]: Member McLaughlin is absent. Member Olapade? Yes. Member Reinfeld?
[SPEAKER_13]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_09]: Member Ruseau? Yes. Mayor Longo?
[SPEAKER_13]: Yes. It's the affirmative. One absent. Motion to approve the donation acceptance has been approved. Number six, revised superintendent's evaluation goals, school year 2023-2024, Dr. Maurice Edouard-Vincent, our superintendent.
[SPEAKER_07]: Good evening. So this evening, in your packets you should have received on over the weekend, you have highlighted sections in orange. So I did first present my goals back in October to the committee. And when I originally presented my goals, the committee gave feedback at that time. Everything that is listed in orange is either a revision or redaction or an addition. So under the district improvement goal, During the school year 23-24, the Medford Public Schools will improve the systems and structures that directly impact student services, student and family and communications, and school facilities and operations. And so the goals listed are in the left hand column, and under key actions, I'm only going to speak specifically to the changes that were made under key action number one, we eliminated the word physical and just said improve accessibility at school facilities and develop a maintenance ticket system. Under number four, reestablish the capital planning committee to examine building systems and create a replacement timeline for individual systems. Bullet number six, enhance human resource practices, such as job posting, hiring and payroll management, and to also be inclusive of labor relations. Bullet number seven, preparing and presenting to the committee a timely budget process for FY25. Bullet number eight, or number eight excessive heat protocol for the Medford public schools to be presented to the committee. Number nine, a revised middle school and high school schedule revised middle and high school schedules. Number 10 evidence of full implementation of the new bullying policy. Number 11 outcome of the high school climate study including measures of improvement in number 12, the strategic plan developed with the engagement of a wider audience of stakeholders. Those were all of the additions that were recommended by the committee under key actions, and then outcomes to finalize the employee handbook, which is significantly underway under increased accessibility of parking. pedestrian routes, restroom facilities, building signage and navigational aids, ASL or language interpretation, and closed captioning for video content. So additional verbiage to be more explicit about what the outcomes could be for that bulleted outcome. Under the communications platform, the feedback was to communications platforms such as some more and final site mass notifications are used regularly by all schools and to eliminate the language and student servicing groups because I think it just didn't belong there. Under outcomes on the back of page two on the final bullet was to have increased two way communication with families with a minimum of five additional events for this school year. Moving over to student learning, learning goal under literacy. The goal was to remain intact, but the committee requested that when the data is presented at the end of the year, that the data be disaggregated to show at each school under accountability. And so that language was added at each school for NWEA MAP and at each school for DIBELS, showing the growth from September of 2023 through June of 2024. And my professional practice goal was approved by the committee. So I apologize for the delay in not being able to present these goals before December, but I wanted just to let the committee see this, everything that's highlighted in orange. was the specific feedback that the committee provided at that time. And we carefully replayed the video and the audio to make sure that we captured all of the additions. And so my request to the committee is it's recommendation to approve so that I can actually start executing this work. Thank you.
[SPEAKER_13]: Thank you, Dr. Edward-Vincent.
[SPEAKER_11]: Member Graham. Thank you. Thank you for this. I had one question and perhaps one amendment if my colleagues are so inclined. The first question I had on the first page under number four, reestablish the capital planning committee to examine building systems and create replacement timeline for individual systems. Who do you envision is on this committee?
[SPEAKER_07]: We would definitely need to have Yes, I it and from city building and grounds, working with. Maybe you could ask for Paul, Ricky or someone from the city team to support us and as many members as possible, who would like to be part of the capital planning, and the feedback last time was to make sure that it was about the individual systems. based on the video. But I'm I am open to having other other stakeholders be involved, just, you know, for certain meetings. If it gets too too large, then it's it's it's hard to manage and it's hard to accomplish as much as you would like to accomplish.
[SPEAKER_11]: Sure. My, my major request is that this committee participate in that process actively versus sort of get something when you all think you're done. So I think we just need to think about that, especially with the subcommittee structure, like just figure out like the right way to do that and make sure that the committee can be apprised of like the consideration and the work that's being done because all of those things. You know, add up to either surprises where we're having to say to the mayor, like, hey, we don't have money for this. And does the city have money or we have to find money in our budget. And so all of that sort of So I would like this committee to have some way to know, like, when the meetings are like what what the meetings are happening about what the content is and then some way for us some portion of us to participate, whether that's like the building and grounds committee or the strategic planning committee like there's places where. those updates could happen in subcommittee, which I think is totally fine. I just want to make sure that we're on the same page that we need to participate in that.
[SPEAKER_07]: I was actually going to suggest as you were asking about that, which subcommittee could it possibly be folded into or kind of repurpose one of the subcommittee or ask two members of a particular subcommittee to be sitting members or permanent members.
[SPEAKER_11]: I think we can like work all of that out once the subcommittees are established and defined and all of that I just wanted to make sure that was on your radar that we should be participating in that process.
[SPEAKER_07]: Yes, definitely.
[SPEAKER_11]: And then my possible amendment is on page two. number 12 around the strategic plan and I think what you added to that was developed with the with a engagement of a wider audience of stakeholders which when we do strategic plan that's absolutely how we should do it. I am questioning whether that is reasonable to accomplish this year and I say that really specifically with In mind, some of the strategic work that the administration is going to have to do in preparation for MSBA so I think I'm concerned that there's just no way that you that the administration can do both of those things well. Between now and the end of the year so. when I think about the strategic work that has to happen on the MSBA side, right? Like there's, it's sort of a wide ranging set of activities, including like counting classrooms, but also talking about like, what's the educational plan we're trying to provide, collecting up past enrollment and looking at future enrollment. And because we have a vocational school, there's a whole complexity around the vocational school and the programming that we offer and what we want, what the capacity is right now and what we want the capacity to be. And then new programs we might want to sort of provide for in addition to a whole maintenance plan. So there's so much strategic work there. I know there's like a scheduling thing going on right now as well in terms of updating the high school schedule and the middle school schedules. All of that has to get done in order for us to meet the requirements of our eligibility phase. And if with all of that work that has to get done, I just don't see how you also can have a meaningful community engagement process around the strategic plan. So I would like to make a motion to approve this with the amendment that we strike number 12 completely, because I just don't think it's reasonable for you to accomplish that right now.
[SPEAKER_07]: I support that. That recommendation.
[SPEAKER_13]: So motion on the floor for approval as amended, proposing to strike number 12. Member McLaughlin.
[SPEAKER_04]: Thank you. I appreciate the concern with too many things to do, especially with the MSBA and the work that is trying to be done there. At the same time, if there's work being done on the strategic plan, I still would wanna be thinking about how a wider range of stakeholders are being engaged with that. So again, maybe it's the Family Engagement Subcommittee or something, but maybe it's not necessarily Superintendent has to specifically plan something, but maybe it's a subcommittee could do something and not as vast as maybe is what the expectation is here. I'm assuming that it's actually not clarified on the right how that would actually be done. So I'm curious about what that would actually look like developed with the engagement of a wider audience of stakeholders. Like how do you actually break that down into action items? And so I hear you in one sense that yes, there's a lot of work to be done, but in another sense, I don't wanna sacrifice family engagement and community engagement at all. So I'm wondering if there's some kind of a happy medium or something in between.
[SPEAKER_07]: If I may, through the chair, at the time when I presented in October, we hadn't yet received the wonderful news of December that we were actually approved this time for the MSBA. When I originally presented my goals, I had six key actions. and the six key actions jumped doubled from six to 12. And member Ruseau kind of shared at that time with the committee that there were so many hours in a day. But I'm not afraid to list if there were 25 things that are listed by the time June rolls around, it's either I can make all 25 or you do or you don't. So we're gonna try to do it. In terms of the strategic plan, I have been working with administrators, we have started new programs, curriculum programs. So there is work that is happening, but the fact that we have now been approved to participate in MSBA, there is a lot of work that we're gonna have to do for that. So it's, strategic plan it's not that it's going away that is still our kind of guidebook our blue book that we're referring to, but at the same time, it would make sense to defer it. Like, you know, I can focus on the 11 and then for the beginning of next year which we, you know, will be in that MSBA. phase one process. So all of this work will end up being done like almost again. So we could do something and then what ends up happening as a result of the MSBA is like, throw all of that out and let's start over with something new.
[SPEAKER_13]: So I... Member McLaughlin, then Member Graham.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, thank you. I just, in response to that, I appreciate that. And I guess what I'm feeling is that it's about integrating some of this work with, not just specifically the strategic plan, which I know that this is the line item in particular we're talking about in terms of engaging stakeholders, but I even am wondering like, and I know there was a great flow chart in here about the MSBA process, and I think that's really great, and I know that there was outreach and communication in the letter, and I'm thinking about how we're actively engaging people and even what is the MSBA process, right? So I think it's, again, family and community engagement and thinking about how it's integrated in all of these things, not necessarily about in this one strategic plan and reaching out to stakeholders. And so crossing that off the list, I think can give the interpretation or the impression that we're not engaging stakeholders. And I don't want that obviously to be the case.
[SPEAKER_07]: But under outcomes, we did add five additional family community engagement events that will be, those could be about budget, like creating additional opportunities for the community to have that two-way communication. So I do think that there will be additional opportunities for greater community engagement.
[SPEAKER_13]: And I think we have the plan of a new high school which will bring about much community engagement from the committee to the open the public meetings will be having for input throughout the course of the next two years. Remember, Graham.
[SPEAKER_11]: Yeah, I just wanted to offer maybe another suggestion to one thing that family and community engagement subcommittee could do this year is sort of articulate and map out what a strategic planning process that includes meaningful community engagement looks like for next year. Because I think in my mind, I would just like everyone to just keep working at the strategic plan that exists right now, hit pause on the idea of creating something new for just a couple months so that we can get this MSBA process off to a good solid start. And in that time, subcommittee could meet and say what would it look like for the community and families to be meaningfully engaged in a strategic planning process and outline that so that at the beginning of next year when we say okay we're ready for the strategic plan we can say and this is what we sort of think and recommend that this looks like from an engagement perspective. So I think something like that probably could be accomplished in like a meeting or two, and also provide sort of good preparation for when the administration's gonna turn their attention to that next year. So that is sort of what I'm thinking, because I agree, I don't think we wanna say, we're not trying to say that we don't want community engagement, that's not it at all. I think what we are saying though is, There are only 24 hours in the day and strategic planning is really hard, earnest work, and there's just not time to do it well. And I would rather us just push it off a little bit if it means we have an opportunity to do it well then, rather than do it now.
[SPEAKER_04]: I think that's reasonable. And as long as we're talking about the subcommittee and family engagement and making sure that we're being strategic about that, then that would be okay.
[SPEAKER_13]: Second. Motion for approval as amended by Member Graham, seconded by Member Ruseau. All those in favor?
[SPEAKER_07]: Aye.
[SPEAKER_13]: All those opposed? Motion for approval passes as amended.
[SPEAKER_02]: Thank you.
[SPEAKER_13]: And last under updates is a recommendation to approve the school year 24-25 school calendar presented by Dr. Peter Cushing, Assistant Superintendent of Enrichment, Innovation, and Operations.
[SPEAKER_12]: Welcome.
[SPEAKER_01]: Good evening, Madam Mayor, members of the school committee, thank you very much. This year, we're presenting three options for the committee to consider. The first is really focusing on the committee's wishes to honor the religious holidays through the Jewish, Islamic, and Christian faiths. The last day of school, I'm sorry, the first day of school for all calendars is Tuesday, August 27th, 2024. For the last several years, we have begun on a Wednesday. The last day of school on this with no snow days would be Tuesday, June 17th. The second option we're presenting is no religious holidays observed in the Christian, Islamic or Jewish faith structures. We recognize and affirm all of our students and families religious beliefs, but provide them the opportunity to take religious observance days as necessary and to really work to ensure that there is no work assigned as is actually under state law, not just school committee policy, but also state law. So the last day of school for this would be Thursday, June 12th. And then we also considered an earliest possible release. which would get us out on Wednesday, June 11th, but that would mean that the half day before Christmas vacation would be Monday, December 23rd. I also wanna say that I realized that that half day would probably have exceptionally low attendance in all categories of constituents of the Medford Public Schools, and I will leave it at that.
[SPEAKER_13]: Mayor. Thank you, Dr. Cushing. Member Ruseau.
[SPEAKER_09]: Thank you very much. we, it's not our wishes, it's our policy, which we approved two years, December of 2020 is when we approved this policy and it went through our standard processes and was deliberated and there was plenty of input from the community as well as the committee at the time and the administration had plenty of opportunity to speak at our meetings. I won't pretend that it's not an uncomfortable conversation to have to suggest that we're gonna honor some religious holidays and not others. So while it was an open meeting, I do acknowledge that it's a difficult conversation. I will say that I disliked the use of your preferred calendar. The committee has a policy. So frankly, the administration's preference is not a real thing. It's the committee's policy. So I was a little taken aback by, the administration having a preference to not abide by the policy of this body. But that aside, I'd motion to approve calendar A, which abides by our policy. That's the calendar I would motion to approve. And the second motion I have is to send calendar options B and C to a committee of the whole, so this whole This whole committee can sit down and, and discuss what are our goals around calendars and observations and there's clearly some people want to get out of school as soon as possible. And I think that if that is the goal we should be talking about more than just the religious holidays, frankly. There's February vacation is an utterly ridiculous thing. And my understanding is teachers hate it. They finally figured out how to start teaching kids after Christmas break, winter break as we pretend to call it. And then suddenly we're all gone again. So I think it's worth another conversation to revisit this calendar policy. So those are my two motions.
[SPEAKER_13]: Just from the chair, if I could ask that they be separate. I think I agree with which calendar you want to choose and why, and I think that's been fully vetted. I second calendar A. Motion. You'll second calendar A motion. So motion by Member Ruseau to approve calendar A, seconded by Member McLaughlin. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? calendar A has been accepted. Now members, so you wanna give a motion to potentially send this to committee to discuss?
[SPEAKER_09]: Calendar B and C, the calendar policy.
[SPEAKER_13]: Okay, so if I could ask for a roll call on that.
[SPEAKER_02]: Sure.
[SPEAKER_13]: Point of inquiry.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm getting, sorry.
[SPEAKER_04]: the whole or to the policy subcommittee? I thought you said Committee the whole, right? Okay. Committee of the whole. Yeah. Thank you. Second.
[SPEAKER_12]: Roll call, please.
[SPEAKER_09]: Member Bramley.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_12]: Oh, sorry.
[SPEAKER_09]: Memogram. Yes. Remember McLaughlin?
[SPEAKER_13]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_09]: Remember all the potting? Yes. Remember? Reinfeld?
[SPEAKER_13]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_09]: Remember? So yes, Marilyn. Okay.
[SPEAKER_13]: No. So six in the affirmative one of the negative motion to send B and C to committee has been approved. Thank you, Dr. Cushing. We have no presentations of the public. We have no continued business and we do have one item under new business 2024-01 offered by member Graham, whereas the Metropolitan Public Schools recognizes the vital role of play in the development and wellbeing of students, whereas the current playground facilities at McGlynn Elementary are in need of replacement to create a safe and fun environment that meets the growing and diverse needs of our student body. And whereas the creation of new inclusive and engaging playground is a priority of the enhancement of our educational environment, now therefore be it resolved that the Medford School Committee, number one, establishes the McGlynn Playground Replacement Initiative and a donation campaign pursuant to policy FF, policy for dedication and naming of school buildings, facilities, and grounds. Number two, requests the administration establish a mechanism to account for and report on the donations, and three, request the administration set up a public relations campaign to solicit donations to the playground fund to offset the cost of replacing the playground. The promotion of the initiative will occur through school newsletters, local media, social media, and community events. The campaign will have the following objectives and donation tier structure. Objective, to raise funds for the construction of a new playground at McGlynn Elementary. that fosters a safe, inclusive, and stimulating environment for all students. Donation tier structure. Hopscotch Hero tier, donations 50 to 250, sorry, 249. Swing Set Superstar tier, donations 250 to 499. Slide Savant tier, donations of $500 to $999. Climbing Frame Champion tier, donations of 1,000 to $4,999. and the merry ground mastermind here donations of 5000 and above donor benefits will be the recognition in a district wide press release personalized thank you note signed by the school committee superintendent and school principal name on a plaque is a good one name on a plaque at the playground entrance and invitation to the playground ribbon cutting offered by member Graham.
[SPEAKER_11]: Thank you. I was not necessarily planning for this to happen on the same day as the playground groundbreaking but it was exciting it's sort of exciting that it is. So, when we, when we talked about. the adopting our policy around dedication and naming of buildings, facilities, and grounds, which is FF. And I did ask the superintendent to put this in your package just so you had it. Last year, sort of right at the same time, we were talking about the McGlynn playground and I offered to draft a resolution, which I have finally done. So my apologies for the delay to open up a donation mechanism for the community to participate in funding the playground. So while the vast majority of all the big components of the playground are funded, there is an opportunity for additional funding to offset the overall cost of the playground, but also to help us do things like put mature plantings in instead of much younger plantings that are going to take longer to create the shade that we're looking for or the structures that we wanna see. So there's plenty of opportunity and we know that money is not endless for these kinds of projects. So I put this forward totally not wed or tied to really any of it, except that the playground committee has talked about wanting to make sure that how people donate to the playground can be recognized in one central place and that we not be offering up naming rights to individual like pieces of equipment because it was the team's belief that we shouldn't, you shouldn't be able to buy your spot on a, an inclusive playground. I felt like a plaque on the outside that says, here's all the people who donated is a great way to do it. And maybe it's going to be a big plaque. I think that's okay. Maybe it's a sign instead of a plaque. I think that's totally fine. But I think providing some sort of mechanism so that we can create a way for people to participate is important, but sort of stopping short of like naming things and bushes and pavers and cobblestones and I'm trying to stay away from that. I was trying to stay away from that in terms of the structure that I set up. So totally open to suggestions or changes and hopefully we can do this.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, thank you. We were both part of the playground committee, so I appreciate the background and sharing the information about the intention of the donations and the community engagement involved. And I just want to make sure, again, that particularly it being an inclusive playground, that we are being inclusive. And so a few things. I think the plaque is obviously fine. Not naming individual things I think is clearly important. I also want to share with the committee and the community some of the gestation really of some of the inclusive playground work as well. I think I may have shared this, I know I shared this story with the playground committee, I'm not sure I shared it with school committee, but years ago, there was a student here who had significant medical needs and disability and was in a wheelchair and did not communicate with words and was in an out of district residential placement. In out of district residential placements, the students do come home during school vacations and on some occasions. And when that would occur, the student, had no opportunity in the community really to be engaged and involved, and was not able to really be part of the community and in the schools and mom in particular shared that story with us, the family was. from Brazil initially and had emigrated here. And mom was a single mom and had done a tremendous job and had shared that at a leadership, disability leadership program that we were in and they were Medford. The little girl passed away when she was 15. Her name is Emily Oliveira. She's actually in the Oakland Park Cemetery right next to Crystal and her picture's there. And I think she deserves to be remembered in particular around this inclusive playground and in particular around the swings. Mom really wanted a swing that was accessible for her wheelchair. And I would like some commemoration to Emily and her mom for what I feel like the community should have done for them a long time ago. And I know that mom would be really thrilled to see something like that for Emily.
[SPEAKER_13]: Maybe some sort of picture of Emily. Thank you for sharing. Member Ruseau.
[SPEAKER_09]: I just wanted to second it, but since member McLaughlin has just spoken, I think I completely agree. I hope that this doesn't come across as any kind of like no names anywhere kind of thing. It's just like, you can't buy your name and it's the point. But I think that's an absolutely great idea. And I don't know if we or the naming committee or somebody else should be involved in doing that because it's just an exceptionally good example of how you know, there is a place and a time for naming or names to be in a space, and that seems like an exceptionally good example, so thank you. So anyways, I seconded that.
[SPEAKER_13]: And just from the chair, I don't know if we wanna leave it a little bit open-ended. If we have hundreds and hundreds of people donating five, 10, 50 to $100, just leave it open-ended for either a subcommittee or the superintendent to decide whose name would go on a plaque. A lot of times, Or do we just put it on the website? I just think if you have hundreds and hundreds of names, I don't know how you're gonna, it will take up a whole fence.
[SPEAKER_04]: A wall. A whole wall.
[SPEAKER_13]: If that's what we wanna do, that's fine.
[SPEAKER_04]: I just... May I ask a follow-up question? Just particular to the donations as well. And I don't know if the process needs to be thought out at this point or if it already has been memorandum and you wanna share. I'm wondering, so where are the funds going and who's allocating this expenditures for improvements on the playground and that sort of thing.
[SPEAKER_11]: Sure. So, my expectation would be given that we don't know what we will generate in terms of revenue that once we have an idea of what that looks like, the playground committee will work with the builder or the contractor and the architect to figure out like are there features that needs that can be added like where do those mature plants go, etcetera that sort of makes sense or is it that we need to draw less from CPC or like what's the recommendation? So I would expect the playground subcommittee chairs to help lead that in concert with the city.
[SPEAKER_04]: Thank you. May I may I just so is there a timeline or is that will the motion have a timeline on donations or do you want to just deal with that later? So it sounds like I hear what you're saying, and I think that's a great idea, especially with the committee having worked for over a year on this and knowing a lot of the conversations that have occurred. So I think that sounds great. That said, is there a window for the donations that the community can know about, or is that something that's still being thought about?
[SPEAKER_11]: I was sort of taking the approach that we'll always take your money. But I think to your point, like perhaps there is a timeframe where we say like, we'll, we'll like plan by this date and the playground committee might need to give us what that reasonable date is to say by that all the money received by this date, and maybe that's the like sort of one of the qualifiers like that we can add to this so we can maybe just add a placeholder for like a date certain that we will know finalize the plaque and do all of that stuff.
[SPEAKER_04]: So motion for amendment with the motion to have a date to be determined regarding the donations just to that end because if it is the developer of the playground committee that is talking about how that money is being spent and certainly money will be accepted after I'm sure but the monies that could be spent for the playground improvements and I guess really even thoughts of some mechanism for how it's going to work after if people donate money after where does that money go like I just don't want it to end up in some, you know, major fund at the school level necessarily not that they don't, it's not needed, but if people are donating specifically for the playground that it really should go to the playground.
[SPEAKER_13]: Maybe I'm going to let Dr. Edwardson but maybe a maintenance account for the playground.
[SPEAKER_07]: Yes, I was going to say on the school side. Once we had access to the resolution. I was working with the business office and they are working on creating a playground, a playground account where people would be able to go online. Since there will be a press release and all of the other steps that were kind of detailed in the resolution we are working on having something where if people want to give to the playground there will be a specific account created for that so the money would go into that particular account and it is tax deductible so it would be properly documented and so we're working on that but again we just started the ball rolling on that but we would be able to have it on the school side so it could be properly documented, and then kept in that one area, specifically earmarked for the McGlynn playground. So, you know, anyone, any entrepreneurs out there, Miss bloom sack and others. Other wonderful friends and members of the community who want to be part of donating towards the equipment, it'll be there and kept in that sacred account.
[SPEAKER_13]: Thank you. Member Ruseau.
[SPEAKER_09]: Thank you. So for the language, let me know if this sounds okay. The playground committee will determine a date for which donors having given will appear on the plaque. I'll rephrase that to make a little more sense when I'm not just writing it in.
[SPEAKER_13]: Date to be determined based on the plaque. Yeah, whoever's. Right.
[SPEAKER_09]: So on the amendment. I'll second that.
[SPEAKER_13]: And also just, Dr. Watt-Vincent pointed out, maybe it should just say plaque or sign. If we have 5,000 people who might want to sign. So motion for approval by Member Graham, I believe, amended by Member McLaughlin, seconded by Member McLaughlin.
[SPEAKER_09]: Oh, we're just going to do it all at once? That's fine.
[SPEAKER_13]: Seconded by Member Ruseau. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Motion is approved.
[SPEAKER_04]: I'd like to make a motion, if I could, that we have some, I'm making a motion that we have some way that the inclusive playground at the McGlynn School memorialize the memory of Emily Oliveira, student from Medford Public Schools.
[SPEAKER_13]: Motion by Member McLaughlin, seconded by Member Graham. All those in favor?
[SPEAKER_12]: Aye.
[SPEAKER_13]: All those opposed? Motion passes. Thank you, Member McLaughlin. We do not have any reports requested, and we do have a number of condolences, if you'll bear with me. The members of the Medford School Committee expressed their sincerest condolences to the family of Judith Granara, retired elementary school teacher for the Medford Public Schools. Mrs. Granara was the wife of former school committee member and state representative, Attorney John Granara. and was a cousin of former Mayor Michael J. McGlynn. The members of the Medford School Committee expressed their sincerest condolences to the family of Ernest Ernie A. Artelino Sr., former head coach of the Medford High School girls basketball team, former assistant coach of the high school football team, and longtime Babe Ruth baseball coach. The members of the Medford School Committee expressed their sincerest condolences to the family of Michael Jay Hamilton, father of Medford High School assistant principal Patrick Hamilton. The members of the Medford School Committee express their sincerest condolences to the family of Patricia M. Walsh-Devor, mother of Michelle Kingdon, former comptroller for Medford Public Schools. Members of the Medford School Committee express their sincerest condolences to the family of Anthony Milley, father of Debbie Donna Aroma, a former kindergarten aid at the Brooks School and currently works at the Brooks morning program. We all may rise for a moment of silence. And Ernie Artelino was my basketball coach and he was very memorable. I remember he benched me for dying my hair pink. And he didn't let me play again until a bunch of parents started wearing pink wigs to say, okay, let her play, let her play. So if we could take a moment of silence. We have our next meeting on January 29th, 2024, 6 p.m. Alden Memorial Chambers, Medford City Hall. In addition to Zoom, this Wednesday night is our ceremony, our inauguration ceremony. That will be live. People are also welcome to join us in person. That's at 6 p.m. this Wednesday. Hope to see you there. Have a great week, everybody. Thank you. Motion to adjourn by Member McLaughlin, seconded by
[SPEAKER_05]: Second.
[SPEAKER_13]: Graham, all those in favor?
[SPEAKER_05]: Aye.
[SPEAKER_13]: All those opposed? Meeting is adjourned. Thank you.