AI-generated transcript of MS Lottery - Superintendent’s Information Session

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[SPEAKER_03]: Good evening, families. I'm very happy to be here. It's five o'clock on the dot. I'm gonna wait about one more minute to two minutes just to allow a few more people to jump onto the call. This call is being recorded, so it will be available after tonight's information session. So good evening to everyone on the call. I would like to open to say thank you first again for joining us this evening for our middle school lottery update. I would like to recognize Dr. Bernadette Riccardelli. who is the lead administrator where if there are questions or concerns regarding the lottery process, she will be responsive. Also, we have Ms. Kim Miles, who is one of our data analysts who works with us in the district. She also will support middle school lottery questions. I'd like to thank Mr. Thomas Dalton, our Communications Director, who was on the call this evening, and both of our middle school principals. I'd like to recognize Principal of the McGlynn Middle School, Mr. Nick Tucci, and Principal of the Andrews Middle School, Ms. Jennifer Skane. I just want to recognize the both of you and recognize that you're on the call. Also, parents know that we have both of our wonderful middle school principals supporting us on this evening's call. Dr. Riccadeli, I'm not sure if there are a few words or comments that you would like to share with the parents and community members that are on the call this evening.

[SPEAKER_05]: Sure. Good evening, everybody are actually it's still afternoon so good afternoon, it's great to see some familiar faces here. And again I welcome you, this is a really exciting time for our grade five students, looking forward to middle school, the lottery. is coming up soon and we are here to get you prepared. I want you to know that there is a there's a team as the superintendent said behind this whole process. There's a lot that goes into it. There's a lot of reviewing that goes on behind the scenes so I just want to assure you that We are here every step of the way. And as the superintendent said, if you have any questions about the process or concerns about anything, you certainly can reach out to me. It's Bernadette Riccidelli, briccidelli, at medford.k12.ma.us. So I will put that, if we have chat enabled, I will put that in the chat. All right, so thank you again for joining us.

[SPEAKER_03]: Thank you, Dr. Ricciardelli. And Mr. Tucci and Ms. Gain, I didn't know if you wanted to just say a few words since you both are on the call this evening. Please feel free.

[SPEAKER_04]: I'll start off. Good evening, everybody. My name is Nick Tucci. I'm the principal at the John J. McGlynn Middle School. I'm super excited to welcome in the incoming crop of students to the school. This is my sixth year as the principal. I'm a proud graduate of the Medford Public Schools and spent my entire career in education in the Medford Public Schools, so I'm a proud Mustang. I can't wait to get to know your students, and I also want to welcome your students and you to our open house. If you're a chosen family to attend the McGlynn Middle School, our open house will be on May 2nd this year. And it will take place from six to eight. And soon after the lottery, he'll receive some communications from me, welcome you to understand a little bit about what that's going to be about. And that will be the first start to acclimate your student to the middle school experience. So thank you all for joining the call. And I'm happy to be a good resource for you in future.

[SPEAKER_03]: Thank you, Mr. Tucci. Ms. Gain.

[SPEAKER_02]: Good evening, Mrs. Skane. I am the principal of the Andrews Middle School, and I am excited to welcome all of you to the Andrews Middle School. Our open house is scheduled for May 6th, from 6 to 8 p.m. So if you become an Andrews Middle School community member, we look forward to welcoming you that evening, and you will also receive some communications from me as well, and I look forward to meeting you all. Thank you.

[SPEAKER_03]: Thank you, Ms. Gane. And so without much further ado, since I appreciate everyone jumping on the call, I'm going to share my screen and start a presentation for you. So good evening, again, this evening is going to be an information session about our middle school lottery process. Again, as I start this presentation, I'm gonna go through and share a little bit of our history with you. Medford Public Schools has two excellent middle schools. And when I arrived here in 2018, There was a challenge going on between our two middle schools. The two middle schools were not were not balanced. key differences that were highlighted between the two middle schools and it was a task that was given to me by the Medford School Committee to say how could the discrepancy and the imbalance between the two schools be addressed. The imbalance involved not only socioeconomic differences, income differences, but it also involved racial differences that the schools were not evenly balanced to the extent that they could be. And so that was what began the lottery process in 2019. So I'm sharing some data with you. To start on this slide, you can see 2019 and you can see 2024. Again, when the lottery went into place, the intention was to try to correct an imbalance. And so shifts took place at both schools. This is the data for the Andrews Middle School. 2019, and it shows race and ethnicity. Purple representing white, turquoise, green, African-American, light blue, Asian, a darker green, Latino, and a darker purple for all other races. And so at this point in time, when the lottery originally began, there was an over-representation of white students at the Andrews. And that was something that was noted by the community and by the committee at that time. This slide shows the McGlynn Middle School. This provides their race and ethnicity data in 2019 and 2024. So until 2019, non-white students were significantly overrepresented at the McGlynn Middle School. The 2024 current statistics at the McGlynn Middle School closely reflect the overall racial and ethnic diversity of the entire Medford Public Schools. And so this is similar data just for the McGlynn Middle School. So you can see that. From A socioeconomic standpoint, the terminology has changed. It used to be called economically disadvantaged, and now the official terminology, according to DESE, is low-income households. This is what the data looked like in 2019. On the left, your right Andrews was at 21%. The McGlynn was at 37%. And after the lottery, this is how the schools are more evenly balanced between the Andrews and the McGlynn in terms of low income households being distributed between both school buildings. So this is the policy summary. What happens when the middle school lottery takes place? This is what will take place. 50% of students in fifth grade at each school will be assigned to the Andrews and 50% will be assigned to the McGlynn. Now there are a few exceptions. If a student has a specific program level educational need, they're going to be placed at the school that offers that program. Again, this is on an individualized basis. Program level educational needs supersede sibling preference. Parents may opt to have their fifth grade student attend the same school as a sibling, or parents may choose to have their fifth grade student enter the lottery. The condition is that the older sibling must still be enrolled at that current middle school in August of 2024, meaning that they're currently a sixth grader or a seventh grader, and they would be moving up to those grades, seventh or eighth grade in August. This year, sibling preference will not include younger siblings attending the McGlynn Elementary School. And that was, again, because there was a significant uptick in the amount of siblings that were there in the lower elementary schools that would impact the numbers and a lottery would not be able to take place for McGlynn families. And in our attempt to provide 50% of seats at both schools to do our best to balance them equally, that was the reason why we had to stop younger siblings attending the McGlynn Elementary School. One other key piece about our policy is that for each school, we do add three buffer seats for our English learner population. And I will continue to explain that on the next slide. So this slide explains a sample school. In this sample school, we have 103 fifth grade students. We add three buffer seats. These three buffer seats are for people who don't exist, but we know that they may be coming on a rolling basis over the course of the year. So this simple school has a total of 106 seats that are allocated. And I want to just show you how these 106 total seats would be entered into the lottery. In this particular sample school, 20 students are English learners, EL. They will attend middle school A, which houses the EL program. One student has a middle school A sibling preference, meaning a student that's either in sixth or seventh grade at the time of the lottery. and the parents have chosen to activate sibling preference. Seven students have a middle school B sibling preference. So seven families from this particular school have activated sibling preference and they would like their child to attend middle school B. Two students have a special program requirement to go to a middle school A special education program. One student has a program requirement that allows them to attend middle school B. So those first set of students right there are going to be excluded from the lottery process in essence, because they have specific programs that require them to attend middle school A or middle school B. 12 students have an IEP, and those students will need to have their own draw. So this could be students that might receive resource room services, and resource room services are provided in both schools equally. So where there are 12 students that are on an IEP, those 12 students would be entered into a separate drawing where six students would be assigned to middle school A and six students would be assigned to middle school B. Once all of those deductions are made, 60 students will be entered in the general lottery. Again, we were working with 106 total seats. So the next slide I'm going to show you is the exact same information as a table. Oops, I spoke too soon. 50% of students from each school will be assigned. So I explained middle school A from the previous slide is going to receive 20 EL students two special education program students, one sibling preference, and six IEP students from that number of 12. That means 29 students are already accounted for at middle school A. So there will be 21 students drawn from the lottery plus three buffer seats, equaling a total of 53 students. Again, the number we were working with was 106 total students. Middle school B is going to receive one special education student, program student, seven sibling preference, and six IEPs from a separate draw. They will have 39 students that will be drawn from the lottery for a total of 53 students. Again, 53 plus 53 gives us that 106. This is the information as a table. So when the lottery takes place in Medford Public Schools, all of these data points are taken into consideration. So each school will receive 53 students and the lottery takes place, middle school A, 21 students will be in the lottery and for middle school B, 39. I want to note that the Medford Public Schools, we do have a growing EL population. That's our English learner population across the entire district, K through 12. So Medford Public Schools has specialized programming for our newcomers, students who arrive new to the country who do not have any English skills or maybe very limited English skills. So during the lottery, we reserve 12 seats for students that can attend the Medford Public Schools. And in this context, it would be the McGlynn Middle School because the McGlynn Middle School houses the EL program. And so when the lottery takes place, we hold open 12 seats for students that are to come. And I can assure you, we receive more than 12 students, but we hold 12 students in order to try to maintain as much balance as possible. And That allows the two schools to remain fairly balanced. And currently right now, our two schools, in terms of their enrollment numbers, they're fairly balanced. Andrews Middle School currently has 457 students in attendance, and the McGlynn Middle School has 454 students. So the difference at this point in time is only three students. In a month's time, it could be the reverse. The McGlynn could be three students over the Andrews. But I just wanted to let you know that by allowing these buffer seats, it does give us that little bit of wiggle room to keep the two schools as balanced as possible. So here's a timeline of key events. Today is Wednesday, March 20th. Again, I thank you all for jumping on this Zoom call to provide the information about what to expect with the lottery. This Friday, March 22nd, The sibling opt-in, opt-out form will be sent to parents through email. The email is going to come from MS Lottery. That stands for middle school lottery at medford.k12.ma.us. And that sibling opt-in, opt-out form will contain a Google form link. Kindly click on that link and complete the form electronically. It will go to specific households. Again, I wanna just remind everyone on the call that sibling preference will not include younger siblings attending McGlynn Elementary School. Friday, March 29th, The sibling opt-in, opt-out forms are due for submission. Again, it's a Google form, so we'll be on the lookout for that electronically, but we do need to put in a deadline. So Friday, March 29th, that form needs to be submitted. And there will be communications to remind you, all of our fifth grade parents, to be on the lookout for those things. Thursday, April 4th, each grade five student entering the lottery will receive a lottery number in a letter sent to you, the parents and caregivers. Students will carry this letter home. On Tuesday, April 9th, that is the day that the drawing will take place. The drawing will take place on Tuesday. The results will be posted on the district website at 3 p.m. You will receive an email with a link to the results at three o'clock, and it will also be on the website, and you'll also, for fifth grade families, get a notification if you use that function, the text message notification, you'll receive that on Tuesday as well. Wednesday, April 24th, that is the day that the official letters will be sent out with your middle school assignment. So you will know your middle school assignment on Tuesday, April 9th, and on Wednesday, April 24th, those school assignment letters will be sent out to you, the parents and caregivers. Please mark your calendars. The two middle school open houses orientations, as both principals stated earlier, Thursday, May 2, is the McGlynn Middle School, and Monday, May 6, is the Andrews Middle School. Both orientations will take place from 6 to 8 p.m. It's a fun time. to be had for all. And again, I just want to end this presentation by saying that we know the lottery system is not perfect. However, it's our attempt at balancing the scales and correcting the imbalance that was once in Medford. And at this point in time, I will stop the screen share and say thank you for being an excellent listening audience, and I will respond to any questions or comments that you have, because we have. more than one page of, as I'm looking at the Zoom link, if you're able to use the raise hand function and you're on the second page, please use that so you pop up to my front screen. And if you have any questions, I'm happy to answer them. Dr. Riccidelli has kindly added her email to the chat box. If you are looking for Dr. Ricciadelli, it's B-R-I-C-C-I-A-R-D-E-L-L-I. Briccidelli at medford.k12.ma.us. Any questions? Don't be shy. From Deepa. So the afterschool clubs, students definitely when the open houses take place, there are a lot of clubs and opportunities for students to actually participate in both programs. Mr. Tucci, I don't know if you would like to like take a small stab at that one.

[SPEAKER_04]: Absolutely. So, you know, all students at the McGlynn and Andrew schools are welcome to attend clubs and activities together. That's one of the great ways that we can kind of bring the students together if they were kind of, you know, separated during the lottery system. That's not only true for clubs or activities, but it's also true for sports too as well. So, you know, we love and encourage students to get involved in clubs, activities and sports to find a way to get involved in the life of the school. In fact, that's one of my biggest suggestions for any incoming middle school student to get themselves in the life of the school and join a club activity sport. And certainly it's a great way to connect with a student that may have been placed at the other school. Thank you.

[SPEAKER_03]: Thank you, Mr. Tucci for that, and I see we have two wonderful hands lifts live, raised. I do want to just respond, thank you I hope I say it the right way deeper Thank you deeper shot for throwing that question in there. Ken Ho has asked, are the two school buildings roughly the same age? Yes, they are. And different layouts, but approximately the same age. And Angela Mercer asked a wonderful question about twins. And it's funny that I talked about twins earlier today when we were preparing for the presentation. We love twins in Medford. We love all kids. But twins are, if you have twins, You have double the opportunity. Both of your children are given their own lottery number. And as a parent, if you are the parent of a twin, If by chance, both of your children do not get assigned to the same school, which has happened, then at that point in time, you as the parent, working with your children are able to keep your twins together, essentially activating sibling preference at that point in time. But we do allow each student to have their own number. So I just wanted to say that each child goes into the lottery and some years both students get assigned to one school, some years one gets assigned to one school and another gets the other school and then we figure it out to keep the twins together. So thank you for asking that question, Angela. I definitely didn't have that in on the slide. We probably should add that for the next go around. And I want to ask Shelly and then Michelle. Shelly, would you... Oh, it's Shelly, good to have you. Okay. Are you able to unmute yourself? I'm not sure.

[SPEAKER_06]: Thank you, I'm sorry. My question, so my son has a quite robust IEP and I am wondering if there is a mechanism in place whereby the sort of elementary school IEP team has an opportunity to kind of communicate with the middle school team or if that's something that I can navigate or I'm just wondering what the options for scaffolding forward are.

[SPEAKER_03]: Yes. So definitely for our students that do have IEPs and for any parents who are on the call, there are definite you know, depending on the program that the student is part of, that will take place. Once the assignments are made, the special education teams do work together. And of course, we always encourage the parents to be involved as well. But that is something that, you know, we take into special consideration. and work closely with the special education teams and the administrators on that. So rest assured that the information, the appropriate and necessary information will travel with your child. Thank you for that excellent question. Michelle Clark. Oops. Michelle, are you able to unmute? I'm not sure.

[SPEAKER_01]: There we go. Hi. Sorry, it wasn't letting me unmute initially. So one question was already answered, which was about extracurriculars. But I also, you know, I'm a novice to the middle school. I have not done enough background research, unfortunately. In the classes as well, is there differences in, like, I don't know, are there language taught differently? Are there the same languages available at both schools as far as classroom curriculum? Is there any significant difference between the two?

[SPEAKER_03]: There really isn't that much of a difference. Some of the schools have different programs, but in terms of curriculum, the schools are aligned. That's something that we worked really hard to do in terms of Each teacher delivers the instruction in an individualized way, their own personal style of delivery, but the content, the standards, the state standards that are being followed, everyone is following the state standards. And again, if a student's on an IEP, then there will be accommodations made for those students, but they are the same programs that are being taught. The teachers participate. when they have district level, department head level meetings, they are together with the same department head. So it is similar, the same program, just the delivery may be different. Thank you for that question, Ms. Clark. Well, I want to say thank you to all of you again for jumping on this brief call. Dr. Riccidelli has left her email. in the chat box. So you're able to grab her, um, contact information. And, um, you also should have received, you know, the letters and the notification. And again, this Friday, um, will be the first form going out to, um, specific parents that have siblings that are already current, um, middle schoolers. And that really is the end of my presentation for you. I don't know, Dr. Riccadeli, if there's anything else that you wanted to say. Mr. Tucci, Ms. Gain, I don't know if there are any other comments you wanted to say to our wonderful fifth grade parents and caregivers that are on the call.

[SPEAKER_05]: No? I think you covered, I think you were pretty thorough. I think you covered everything. The questions were great. And we look forward to welcoming you to the middle schools at the open houses after you find out where you're going. Thank you.

[SPEAKER_04]: And I'll echo from Dr. Riccadeli too as well. Certainly we're really enthusiastic about meeting our new students and families too as well. And wanna highlight the importance of our open house orientation, which is a fantastic venue for you to be able to ask further questions to not just folks like myself, but also our teachers, guidance Councilors, and most importantly, our students who will be student ambassadors helping to lead folks throughout the building on a scavenger hunt. That'll be really exciting and engaging that will help to inform you and your child to help them make this important transition. So welcome once again, I'm looking forward to being a resource for you if your child has been selected to attend the McGlynn Middle School.

[SPEAKER_02]: Ms. Gain. Yeah, I just wanna say thank you for the informative information. I look forward to welcoming and meeting our families and students. I'm excited and looking forward to supporting the transition to middle school, which can be exciting and also a little bit scary. So we are happy to support that in every way we can. So have a great day.

[SPEAKER_03]: Thank you. Mr. Ho, I saw that you raised your hand. Are you able to speak?

[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, I just have three simple questions. A is air conditioning in both of the schools? Yes. Yes. Okay. Next question is French taught in one or both of the schools?

[SPEAKER_03]: Yes.

[SPEAKER_00]: And is Spanish taught in one or both of the schools?

[SPEAKER_03]: Yes.

[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, great. Thank you.

[SPEAKER_03]: Thank you. I was glad I was able to answer all three of those questions. Thank you so much for raising your hand, Mr. Ho. Anyway, families, caregivers, thank you so much for jumping on the call. I look forward to seeing you. And next year is going to be a great year as your wonderful young people enter middle school. Have a great evening. Good night.

[SPEAKER_02]: Bye.



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