[SPEAKER_02]: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Dr. Peter Cushing, Assistant Superintendent of Schools, and I'm going to read the agenda, and then I will hand it off to our Student Advisory Committee as we head into the topics for discussion, as well as members of the School Committee. So please be advised that on March 20th, 2024, at 2.30 p.m., there will be a Student Advisory Council meeting of the Medford School Committee held at the Medford High School in the Superintendent's Conference Room and via remote participation. The meeting can be viewed through Medford Community Media on Comcast and Verizon. Participants can join the meeting in person or remotely by using the following information. Medford Public Schools invites you to join a meeting with remote participation option and the Zoom link provided with meeting ID number 93394711986. We are also broadcasting to the district's YouTube channel. Um, and the agenda for this afternoon is a roll call for attendance of members and student representatives, which I will defer to number, um, yourself for that. Uh, and then the rest of the agenda is introduction of new committee member, John Toppa, uh, topics for discussion, backpacks, homework, policy, transportation, student voice, flow chart. Uh, I also believe it would probably be appropriate where neither the chair or the vice chair here, that I do turn over the meeting to member Rousseau as the secretary.
[SPEAKER_15]: Um, so which I have, well, thank you. Hi everybody. Um, you already read all this, right? Just have to do role in attendance. So if the lack of order, but since I didn't write it down, I'm going to just read off the screen. Um, and we're right now present. Remember in Tapa present.
[SPEAKER_14]: I'm all about a present. We're so present or present. We have a quorum. Thank you everyone. So we have a new member, whichever some of you may have already been watching other meetings.
[SPEAKER_15]: I remember a topic is, um, new as of exactly that date. Um, so these meetings, which are, um, and so I think it makes sense if everybody, on the table and everybody can just introduce themselves. I've already done that so.
[SPEAKER_11]: Hi, good afternoon. Shiela Freitas-Haley, Assistant Principal of Operations and Engagement.
[SPEAKER_04]: Hi, my name is Darian. I'm a senior at Medford High School. Hi, my name is Jayden and I'm a sophomore at Medford High School.
[SPEAKER_13]: My name's Noah, and I'm also a senior.
[SPEAKER_06]: I'm Maria Zeltran. I'm a junior.
[SPEAKER_09]: Thank you. I'm Dr. Maurice Edouard-Vincent, Superintendent of Schools, and I wanted to say, Member Ruseau, that all of our members on Zoom today are brand new members, effective January, so please, Member Reinfeld, Member Olapade, and Member Intoppa, introduce yourselves to this wonderful group of students.
[SPEAKER_08]: All right, I guess we'll go in the order that you called us. So hi everyone, I'm Erika Reinfeld. I am talking to you right now from MIT. I teach science communication here. I've worked in a lot of museums. I have background in astronomy and theater and museum education. all of the disciplines. I am interested in that. I'm also a Medford mom. I have a seventh grader and a third grader, and I am very excited about having all of these voices in our conversations about what our schools are going to look like in the future. So thank you for taking up time after school to be a part of this council. It is amazingly appreciated by us on the committee and also by your fellow students and teachers and administrators. So thank you so much.
[SPEAKER_00]: Uh, I can't tell if they can hear us because they were waving their hands. Can you hear us? All right, cool. I think I can see a thumbs up. Hi, everybody. My name is Aaron Olapade. I'm newly elected as like, like, uh, the thumb was down.
[SPEAKER_12]: It's really far away. I know.
[SPEAKER_09]: Let me run across the hall quickly, and then I'll come right back.
[SPEAKER_02]: OK, so we have been having, unfortunately, the Zoom Room software has just crashed on us. Give me one second here to unmute my computer. And can you hear us now? Thumbs up. All right, perfect. Member Reinfeld, whatever you were saying, I'm sure it was, if you could repeat, but I don't know if it was anything.
[SPEAKER_08]: All right, well, let me, can you hear me before I go on? Can you hear me? That's a yes. Excellent. Oh, hello there. All right. So again, I am Erica Reinfeld. I am talking to you from MIT today where I teach science communication, but I have also worked in museums for the Smithsonian and for MIT's Cancer Research Center. I have a background in astronomy and theater and museum education. So I am about all of the things that you study. I am so excited about the curriculum components, and I am so grateful to all of you for volunteering your time to be on a part of the school committee in a student advisory capacity. I'm also a Medford mom. I have a seventh grader and a third grader, and I just really appreciate this, and I know your classmates, your teachers, the rest of the committee does as well.
[SPEAKER_00]: Hi, everybody. My name is Aaron Olapade. Like the superintendent mentioned, we are all newly elected. So I'm really excited to be here. I'm a Medford High graduate of 2018. So about five years ago, and I'm a recent graduate of Boston College this past May, studying political science. So law, politics, government are my main focuses when it comes to academics, but I have interest in a majority of the subjects as well. So I'm excited to kind of get involved and be invested in your success. And thank you so much for having me here.
[SPEAKER_12]: Hi everyone, hopefully you can hear me all right. I've been having some mic issues, but my name is john and tapa. I am a also a recent grad of Medford high graduated in 2019 I also served as the class president of the class of 2019 so the senior class president. I just graduated also in May from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design and Industrial Design. which is all basically product design, toy design, medical design, you name it. Also, informational flowcharts. So, Darren Truong, really appreciate the graphic you have made for us that we will look at later in the agenda. But that's what I'm all about. My work, I work at MassArt now and I work in student engagement. While I was a student at MassArt, I also served as the student trustee for a year and a half, and then the student body president for another two years. So, for the last nearly decade my work has been in student advocacy and student success. So I'm really interested in working with y'all and treating y'all as a member of the table, because that's what I fought so hard for at MassArt, pulling the students out of the pandemic, because I was a freshman first year when the pandemic hit. So really excited to work with y'all, because that's what my background is all about. So thank you for taking the time to be with us and join this really important committee.
[SPEAKER_15]: All right. know who the superintendent is.
[SPEAKER_09]: Yes, I'm not sure if you heard me, but Dr. Marie Sedgwick-Vinson, superintendent of schools. I did pop in to say hi, and I just was taking it from this office here. Thank you again to all of you for volunteering and being part of this great group. Thank you, Ms. Greatest-Haley, for also being the administrator representing all of our high school students. We truly appreciate your contributions to this special grouping. Thank you.
[SPEAKER_15]: Darren, do you want to start over?
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, so would it be possible to move the... So the student advisory committee has been working alongside the site council and we're working on getting a petition out to the students at Medford High School regarding a backpack policy as the students have expressed that they want the current backpack policy repealed. So we've just been collecting signatures for that petition so we can present on Tuesday at the site council meeting. Yeah, that's pretty much it on the backpack. Awesome.
[SPEAKER_13]: There was one thing about backpacks has been, of course, very centered around the school, obviously, school policy, not so much around the school committee level. But we were told at one point that there was maybe some kind of discussion on the school committee level about it, or maybe there was like some kind of walkthrough. I wasn't sure exactly what it said. At some point, backpacks were discussed. And I wasn't sure exactly the contents of that discussion.
[SPEAKER_02]: If I remember correctly, backpacks may have been discussed as part of the dress code, but I don't, I might be off on that.
[SPEAKER_15]: Yeah. You know, we didn't address that specifically in the dress code. I think it was brought up as something to consider. And it was kind of like, are we going to boil the ocean or are we going to actually get the dress code part done? So we didn't go there. I believe just before the pandemic, there was conversation around the backpack policy, like many things that were happening when the actual pandemic began, we just forgot about everything because that wasn't what mattered anymore. And I believe before I was even on the committee, this is my seventh year, that that was a major issue that had been discussed by others. But I wasn't in high school then, I was here and I didn't have a kid here. And so I don't know how that conversation went. If there was any dialogue about it, I feel like at this point, everybody's new and doesn't even know what that was. Although John and Aaron may actually remember it, but it feels like we should just have whatever that conversation is again, because we're all gonna need to go up speed on whatever that was. And things may be different now anyways, because before the pandemic, we didn't have a school issued device. things were technically different as well. So that's just my thoughts.
[SPEAKER_12]: If I could chime in, because I remember if I'm correct, if the students can correct me, the current policy is there's a square chart in front of every door that says the bag can't be bigger than this, that you're allowed to carry around. Is that still the policy? Because that's how it was in 2019.
[SPEAKER_03]: I've seen one teacher have that box.
[SPEAKER_12]: Yeah, because I know the struggle like I when I was a seat when I was there, my floor was C2 and even C2 to be 3 was kind of crazy between classes with the 3 minute a lot of time. And I can't even imagine what the class below us, which I think was C1, I think 2020 class was C1 or C3. Because I know that's where the struggle was always talked about was with transporting stuff but now it's member or so as mentioned with most students having school issue devices like the Chromebooks, it's, it's an issue of carrying so many objects but also the fragility of if you drop that you're going to get charged if it breaks. So I think it definitely would be worth having a discussion, especially with students. especially making sure we have students who know that experience of getting from, again, dramatically from C1 to B3, seeing what that is like and where the struggles are and if we need to, how big we need to expand that policy or if we need to talk about just regular backpacks or if we, you know, I think the allocated size is only It's like eight by 24. It's some weird like basic purse size, I think, if I remember correctly. So it definitely would be worth, again, because of the new added responsibility of maintaining that piece of technology, it would be definitely worth relooking at in terms of making sure that that can be done safely and effectively. So I would be interested, as a note, as a petition. Also, like with an added element of the petition to see student comments specifically about what their specific struggles are so we can self identify right off the bat, too. So when that petition goes out, I'd be I'd be curious to see what the specific needs are. Because I don't want to try to solve a problem that no one has and waste so much energy on something that's like, no, we don't have this issue. It'd be great to see what, like to hear from y'all what that is specifically. Is it timing that's causing the issue? Is it amount of stuff you have to hold? It may be evident, but I would like to know specifically just so that way we can work efficiently. to design a solution to this issue that you guys are facing to the point where a petition does have to go out and we do have to have this conversation.
[SPEAKER_08]: And I think the other part that needs to be a part of the conversation is understanding some of the motivation for why the policy exists. Cause I've, I've heard certainly some concerns around, you know, is this, are we just talking about backpacks, but what about large totes? And there are some equity issues where some student populations are more likely to carry a large tote and some are more likely to carry backpacks and are those being treated the same way. But is this about the devices that can distract people in class? And so this is, an opportunity to not have those devices. And so how can we make sure that a new policy solves the problems that the initial policy was intended to have? So I think that's the other component. We see the burden that the policy can place on students, but then taking that away, what are the consequences of that for being in class, for being between classes? I think there are different concerns during passing than there are in class. So just making sure that conversation includes not just the impact on students, but on the entire class.
[SPEAKER_13]: But what I've heard this is just from like my talking with the teachers every now and then the biggest concern that I know of is like just sort of being a clutter either in the hallways or like on by the side of the desk because obviously you want to keep keep walkways clear if you're like saying. In a lab, you want to keep yourself away from any chemicals you're using, anything like that. And so what we kind of thought was a reasonable sort of limit on that would be like just being able to fit it under the desks. There's sort of like a standardized desk that we've used for quite some time. And there is a spot under that desk to put materials. So it would make sense if you could just fit your backpack in there, then it would fulfill the same purpose of just putting your supplies there. And it would still allow kids to carry around stuff and also still keep the walkways clear. Yes.
[SPEAKER_07]: Thank you.
[SPEAKER_04]: I guess I can speak to that. So for the petition, we currently have roughly 130 signatures, and that's been roughly like a week we've been collecting signatures. However, it's like we're also short on people, so it takes time to collect signatures. As of currently, the petition, it's only a signature, and it doesn't have like an option for input, so we would likely have sent out another survey with specific options for input for students to be able to put in their suggestions or concerns regarding the backpack also.
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, like just going around for petition, a large problem that I see with students is like the amount of stuff they have to carry because a while back ago, like kind of accommodate the backpack policy, there was like these, like kind of like knapsacks handed out, like a little drawstring bag you can use. But while I can like fit different folders and stuff, the issue like the big binders we have to carry like the one and a half inch, the green binders that we have to carry in between classes. And like the timing, going in between classes, like it gets worse, like when you need to go from like D3 to like C1, for example, or like across, up the stairs, across hallways and stuff, like The timing kind of just adds on to the struggle of trying to carry all those binders. I have to carry a bunch of binders between my classes, and you're always trying to make sure, oh, you don't drop it, for example. And you're trying to get by in the thin staircases, too. And you're carrying all that stuff, and it's kind of hard to try and navigate that getting by. So being able to at least have some tote bag or backpack that can carry all that stuff in a more condensed manner would then facilitate that transportation.
[SPEAKER_08]: Yeah, sounds like you all have a fairly good idea of the issues and the reasons that we want this. So I wonder if rather than doing another survey, you might think about once we, you have a proposal for what this would look like, asking people to respond to that specific proposal rather than having another open-ended feedback that comes in, but make it more of a feedback than an input response situation. I'd say here's what we think would solve the problems we know about, what have we forgotten?
[SPEAKER_12]: Could another, you know, we talked about informational hierarchy and informational services would another element of this of the interest of the students would be of, I hate to use the word life hacks but other suggested ways of cutting down time between classes of like past precedents of what other students have found effective. Like, I know that doesn't, it's not meant to be proposed as a cop-out of reforming the policy, but in addition to looking at the policy, would students find it helpful for there to be some kind of information on what other, you know, students, alumni have found effective to go between? Like, I know for me, my cheat was that I always had my locker set to the first two, and then I could set it to the third and pull it and go, which isn't the safest option sometimes, and I learned it from a TV show on Nickelodeon when I was eight. And that's the classified. But something like that where it's like where people find opportune times in their schedule, where people, because once I had a rhythm going, I knew what to do. But that was bestowed upon me by another peer. So if they don't have that, so would an informational suggestion be of other usage to the students, essentially? In addition to re-looking at the policy. But I wouldn't want to exclude that. Informational sharing is a beautiful thing. Just curious if that would be of interest as well.
[SPEAKER_04]: I guess I can speak from a personal perspective. We as students, we get three minutes passing time. So between getting from class to class and in the hallways, there's quite literally this traffic, because sometimes you have people blocking the entire hallway, and you can't get past them. And that makes us late. So if we add on trying to get to our lockers in between classes, it makes it very difficult for us to get our materials. Or if we forget something, personally, what I do is I just get all my classes or materials that I need up to lunch, and then I go during lunch. But then there's another issue, which technically during lunch, we're not supposed to leave the CAF after 10 minutes. So if you factor in getting your lunch and waiting in the lunch line, then we're technically not supposed to leave the CAF. But yeah, that's just from personal experience. But I haven't been stopped from leaving the CAF. So I don't, I don't think, I think it's just a rule that's like there, but it's not enforced in my personal experience.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah. I think in the schedule, it was like a five minute time period between third period and like four periods. Last one was like supposed to give us time to like go to our lockers and stuff. But like, depending on where your classes, like that might not exactly really help, but I think that's there to try and accommodate for that.
[SPEAKER_12]: No, that makes sense. Thank you for sharing.
[SPEAKER_04]: So we're going to be shifting to the homework policy, if there are no other questions or anything. Would it be possible, Dr. Cushing, to stream the Google Doc?
[SPEAKER_02]: Sure. Are you on? Would you like to just share your screen?
[SPEAKER_04]: Whichever is easier. I also shared it with you as well.
[SPEAKER_02]: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Dr. Peter Cushing, assistant superintendent of schools, and I'm going to read the agenda and then I will hang up. We are having a host of technical issues. I apologize for anyone who didn't hear that anywhere.
[SPEAKER_15]: As far as the recording, we'll have that.
[SPEAKER_10]: Sorry.
[SPEAKER_08]: If this is the if this is the same Google Doc that was shared in the last meeting, I believe I have that.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yes, actually, member, if you could share, that would be great. It's a different one. All right. Let me share that right now.
[SPEAKER_11]: And yeah, this would be great because we do have feedback on it.
[SPEAKER_08]: Sorry, am I sharing the one that that we had last time?
[SPEAKER_02]: We have a different one.
[SPEAKER_08]: Okay. Close that window.
[SPEAKER_02]: Sharing screen.
[SPEAKER_16]: All right.
[SPEAKER_11]: And I'd ask any of you, if you would like to provide some feedback, like member Ruseau, we would love to see that.
[SPEAKER_16]: I actually, I don't think you can have more. Okay. Okay. You can take another two of them. All right. It's okay.
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, but meeting long, right?
[SPEAKER_13]: One of our biggest concerns as students obviously is balancing homework with sort of like home life and other academic work because one of the biggest things that we see as students is that when we're deciding at the end of each year when we're deciding say what classes we want to take next year Obviously there's a certain importance placed on the classes that we take, sort of the academic rigor that we choose to strive for, but at the same time a lot of our choices are very much dictated by how much homework we perceive or how much homework we believe that class is going to give us because On top of being academic, we also have a lot of responsibility. And I don't want to speak for everybody, but I know I've got a lot of things outside of school. I have a job. I have personal hobbies. I know other people have almost responsibilities. And families, maybe their families need an extra source of income. Maybe they need to care for a loved one. And homework is a really important way in which school interacts with home life. And we feel that there are certain things, not everything, but we feel like there are certain things that can be improved upon and refined to better sort of like protect students from an overbearing workload of homework. And that's sort of what we have in the document here. A lot of it is sort of justifying, sort of saying why these certain things are issues, why we believe they need to be addressed. And we do have, and just very similar, we are going to update the format of everything in the next version, but we have interspersed specific wording, things that we specifically like to address. So the first thing on there. Yeah, let's read the, um, yeah, including here what the current homework policy is this supply provided by. And I see and the laws there. Um, I, I will take the time to read through to read through the datum. But essentially, the biggest thing that we get from here is that sort of homework. by the definition set forth here is supposed to improve the learning process and aid in the mastery of skills or otherwise stimulate interest in a topic. Obviously, there are provisions already in there, but the biggest thing that we want to try to address in this is what we call busy work, which is a very informal term. But busy work is just homework that's given to the sake of keeping students busy. It's homework that necessarily might have a purpose, but at the same time, isn't necessarily linked in a strong way to what's being learned in class or what students are taking out of that class. And if that makes sense, it's kind of like a loose term to pin down again because it's such an informal term, but at the same time it is also sort of the biggest issue we experience as students and it's something we really want to address here. So just some things we wanted to bring up, some suggestions almost of different wording we believe could help. Busy work, again, although enforcement of whatnot will have to be case-by-case basis by schools, but for example, one of the things we have is homework should always have a discernible purpose, meaning students mastering and understanding of a specific topic, or We saw the definition of homework was above. No students should not be given the sole purpose of keeping students busy. And additionally, this is one thing I included based on enforcement, the responsibility of individual teachers and school administrators to ensure that homework given is used to aid students' mastery and understanding of the topic. Sort of verbatim of the first suggestion there, but also including sort of the idea of who's enforcing it and whose job it is to enforce that. Um, so I'm kind of moving a little bit quickly, but. Yes, but I know we don't have a time and I don't want to repeat verbatim. I think something written here, of course, obviously, it's available to you guys. So, the other thing that we. Often deal with as students is. unreasonable due dates and due dates that are very close and sort of like, again, not reasonable to what can be expected or what's expected of us for that. And that can be unreasonable due, it's got to be like learning by the test, before it's due, getting an essay to do, like, at the end of the day, and it's due tomorrow, things where the level of work required vast exceeds the amount of time we've had to complete it. And uh certainly yes and so like a couple of suggestions we have adequate notice of homework assignments given few days must be reasonable for the level of work and time expected to complete it that's another thing too is sort of like the expectation of how much time students should be giving to a specific uh topic to a specific homework assignment because everybody works at different rates and so the teacher expects There's students who spend like 20, 30 minutes on an assignment. That student shouldn't be spending upwards of an hour, even if it means they can't fully complete it, because it's just not reasonable for that amount of time to be spent. One other thing in terms of vacation and vacation time, a lot of times we What we see as students is it will be an assignment due, not necessarily right after break, but a large enough assignment that we have to continually work during break to finish it by the due date after break. So obviously, number one, we want to make sure that that scheduled vacation time is respected by all teachers. And if they do decide to get homework over that break, that they get at least a week's worth of notice for that work. So that way students have the opportunity to get ahead of that and to perhaps not have homework for that break. The end. And then also one final thing that we also believe that that kind of homework should be only reinforcing what students are bringing in class and not like learning entirely new things.
[SPEAKER_04]: So the next section talks about it's basically how homework has the possibility to have detriments towards a child's education if they lack the knowledge to complete it. So the intent For homework, it should be used as a reinforcement, and it should be a logical extension of what is learned in class. So students should be able to complete the homework, and it should not be an entirely new subject. So that's just a little bullet point that we suggested, and then I'll just take the next section as well. Taking into account the diversity and background for students attending within Meckler Public Schools, We often find that a lot of times we have school holidays, but teachers will assign assignments over those religious holidays, even when they're not supposed to. So we just have a suggestion that that be added for that reason, to ensure equity for all students of all religious backgrounds and cultural backgrounds. And then just another thing that students, we as students encounter is sometimes teachers will assign assignments like into the evening and it'll kind of put us in a scramble to get the assignments done for the next day. So we just suggested that any homework assignments, faculty posts, or teachers rather, that posts be posted by the end of the day to give us adequate time to complete the assignment. And then on the subject of sick days. We found in our survey, which was, I believe, brought up at previous meetings, that there's a sizable amount of students who come in sick to school because they don't want to have to make up the work. And we believe part of that reason is because of the inflexible policy regarding makeup work for students who are sick. So we just have this bullet point to address that to ensure a sense of adequate time to complete work that they would miss if they take a sick day, so that students can take sick days without having to worry about being overwhelmed by schoolwork.
[SPEAKER_13]: So this is a point that we are still kind of workshopping. We still need to do a little more research on. But it is, as of now, the policy of Medford High School that homework is graded on completion rather than accuracy. And again, we do want to do more research for suggestions on the school committee level, but we do believe there is a distinct benefit to grading homework on completion rather than accuracy, mainly because it encourages students to strive to continually try and try their best as opposed to trying their best and getting marked off for it. For example, a student may try their best and not understand the topic and then grade it poorly, whereas another student may understand it perfectly and immediately get that good grade. And that kind of creates a disparity between the two. In addition to that, what can happen as well is that a student may skimmed out on homework and may not necessarily do all the homework and get answers from their friends. And if things are greater accuracy, then a student who's overwhelmed with homework may be more encouraged to take that easy way out for the grade, as opposed to at least trying something on their own and getting credit for that. And so that's sort of like, again, we do want more research on that, but that is something we want to push for. The other thing we want to talk about is snow days. Final thing is that we believe that if there's a snow day homework on that snow day, additional homework should not be assigned on that snow day. Obviously we'll need to rework that a little bit more, taking into account whether or not there's like multiple snow days in a row, or say there's like a big snow storm, maybe like a week off, obviously we'll need to put some sort of quantifier on that, just sort of the idea that if we have a snow day, we should take that day to either shovel, relax, sort of just like take that rest day and not have additional work to do on that day. And then the last step in here is that sort of more justifying, more derby is about everything, about all the different topics we've been, which I think I, me and Darren have sort of summarized in words.
[SPEAKER_16]: Yeah, that's about the size of it. So that was homework. So, okay.
[SPEAKER_08]: Thank you. This was very thoughtful, very well researched, and I appreciate what's gone into this. Can I ask, have you spoken to any of the school, the faculty, teachers about the alignment, any of your advisors about the alignment with their, with learning goals and course goals?
[SPEAKER_04]: Um, currently we have not reached out. Um, well, we currently have not gotten any response. Uh, I recently reached out to, I believe Mr. Green, who is the teacher union representative at the high school. Um, so we're looking to meet with him and potentially have them look over the, um, the homework policy. Cause we have one for a district level and a local level. Um, so it's just, we have to find the time to meet with them. Um, but yeah, that's, we are looking to get feedback from teachers, parents, and students as well.
[SPEAKER_12]: Yeah, I think that'd be great. Meeting with Mr. Guillaume, Mr. Green is also at a former position was also a proofreader so he'll be able to help. If there's anything that he feels like should be added as well. I love how much thought has gone into this, especially I think I heard someone I think might have been knows like quantifiers in terms of. missing homework, especially on snow days. And then, you know, at what point do we go, okay, we kind of need to start instruction back up. I think that's an incredible thought to be brought into it. I did have a question. There was a comment made about homework assigned. Is our, backtracking for one second. Was a point made, has this been happening where faculty members will assign homework like way after hours to be completed for the following day is that what that was referring to where like homework will be assigned at like four or 5pm to then be completed during the school day is that like I don't want to get. you know, into something if that's not the case, but is that, was that, is that a reoccurring thing that's been happening?
[SPEAKER_13]: That's more of like an extreme case, but that does happen like on occasion here and there. What we see more often is say a student will, a teacher will be absent for a day, maybe we'll go to the lecture hall, but at some point after that class time has happened, after our allotted class time for that class has happened, then we get sort of an announcement on Google Classroom, hey this is sort of like homework for tomorrow or class work for today or something like that, and it feels like we don't have that in class time to do that, it's kind of difficult to either expand upon that homework or even just like finish it by the next day.
[SPEAKER_12]: I gotcha. So it's more of looking to, especially in those lecture hall, which are usually like the last worst case scenario situations of having the work be assigned so that way you're not sitting there playing with playing cards and just kind of doing other classwork. It's in that instruction period where your mind is set to work on American history to be working on a push homework essentially is what the thought is with that so it's more about that and less of like. you're getting an email at 4pm that saying hey this is actually doing eight now okay just just checking to see what that was I wasn't sure what was going on, so I appreciate the information. But overall, a lot of thought has been going into this, and I really appreciate the research that's done with the National Parents Union, within district and local wide, within quantifiers looking at, sometimes there may be certain situations where, thinking about the faculty member, if there is an extreme case in their end, they may just not be able to get it. So the understanding of working with people, I'm talking in circles right now, overall just really appreciate the work that's being done and looking forward to seeing what will be presented in the discussions we're having.
[SPEAKER_08]: What would you most like to get from the school committee members who are in the room right now? I'm aware of the time and that there are more things on the agenda and obviously as an educator I have a lot of thoughts on how this all plays out and I don't think this is the moment to go into depth in every point because there's a lot to be discussed and Um, hashed out, but you know, is this something that we would want to schedule a subcommittee meeting with the curriculum? Subcommittee and instruction to, to talk about this with teachers and students in the room. What would be most useful at this point with limited time for, in terms of either in this meeting or next steps that you would like to see?
[SPEAKER_04]: I guess it's from like. My perspective, it would be nice to try and fast track this, just because homework is such a pressing issue for students, not only at the high school, but at the district level. So we feel that if we can get this policy thoughtfully completed as a priority for the school committee in terms of students' handbook policies, that would be nice to have that priority.
[SPEAKER_08]: Thank you. That's really helpful because I think school committee can set policies and obviously that does take some time. There's a limit to, especially with open meetings, of how fast a fast track is. But also there's the stipulation that the implementation falls to the schools themselves and we can't tell teachers how to teach, but we can set some of those parameters, whether it's about the homework, about the expectations per syllabus. A lot of this seems to be about laying out what are the expectations and knowing what's coming over the course of a year. But thank you, that's really helpful. I see how urgent this is on many levels.
[SPEAKER_04]: So with that, we're gonna hand it off to Mandy and Maria to talk about transportation at the high school.
[SPEAKER_06]: Hello, I'm Olivia, and I'm currently working with Mandy on the transportation conflict. So for this, we have not drafted a policy yet because we just wanted to get the proper approval for this first. Currently with the transportation conflict, we have five main issues. The first one and the biggest one, student safety, of course. Personal experience, I think a lot of us have seen this. When we're waiting for the buses, There's not a proper line for the students getting into the buses. This wasn't like this before. This year, especially, it has gotten really bad. Students crowd and they push into each other trying to get into the buses. And I have seen people get hurt near the doors of the buses. It's a big mess. I think there needs to be some sort of a physical barrier or a line of some sort for us to maintain the order when the students get onto the buses. We can talk about that more. But the second one issue that I have is we need a designated bus departure and arrival position. Because there is no set position for the buses, sometimes when we are going home, and the buses just come line up either at the front or the back. Some students are not used to the different positions every time. So they don't see the buses from the doors and they miss the buses. And there's just a lot of issues with that as well. And this is another reason why people like the students are crowding because as the buses move down the road, the students are also moving down the road in a crowd and it's just a really big mess.
[SPEAKER_05]: And not only that, our question would be, there's three types of buses, four actually, and there is a different amount of buses that come in. There's say like four 101s and then two or three 134s and only two 95s and the yellow bus that people in North Medford take. And we were wondering that, yes, it's because the MBTA don't really go into the North Medford area. Is there another alternative slash can we add more buses to people who are not accessible to bus cards or any location near that? Because that might also be a reason why people are late to school because there's not enough MBTA bus stops around where they live. And also, I understand that the majority of people take the 101, but also the time intervals between them are very out of order. Say the 101 has four buses. The time intervals between how they arrive are about five to 10 minutes. And we're just curious if we can decrease the amount of 101s and have set arrival times for people who are, say, staying after school for extra help. And that way, students can know when to leave specifically, unless they have other issues, so that they can take the bus on time and not miss it, and possibly wait for another bus And also, I take the 95. And I've seen that sometimes it comes from 230 to 245. And sometimes it comes early as well. And it's very difficult because I live like almost across West Mefford, which is difficult for me to get rides and take the bus. And I would just like to clear if there's any concern any any aid that we can get to the number of buses and the schedules.
[SPEAKER_06]: I just wanted to add on to the 95 part. We both take the 95 and honestly it is extremely annoying because as she said um the 95 the first one comes very early. There are only two 95s and I have seen a lot of people get up to the 95s like honestly there are I would say there are almost more people on the 95 than there are in the 101. And only two buses. A lot of students crowd onto the first one because the second one comes so late. And like I for one have work right after school and I can't get onto the last one because it's really late, but I also can't get onto the first one because there are too many people and I can't fit. The 95, another problem when going to school, The first one comes in time. I always go on the first one, but the second bus, it's supposed to come at 705. It doesn't come until like 718. If I mistakenly miss the bus one day, I almost miss school time. Yeah.
[SPEAKER_11]: So this was a topic that just came up in our previous meeting. And I want you to know that I did reach out to Vivian Ortiz, who is Safe Routes to School. And I had CC the students to ask her some questions and see if she would like to come and do an audit on our drop off and pick up. and see basically what her recommendations would be for drop off and pick up with safe routes to school.
[SPEAKER_02]: Something that also might be appropriate after we've done an audit or an assessment like that is because the MBTA is a Massachusetts state agency, once we have some data that we can point to as well as these helpful anecdotes, and kind of qualitative analyses of it. We can also consider going to our state legislative delegation. Our state reps and our state senator would be able to, you know, help us advocate with the MBTA potentially for changes or additions to schedules. There's a whole process on the MBTA side, you know, for that we can't, it's not a decision we get to make from Medford, although it's certainly a petition that we could raise. So I think we should also be thinking down the road about getting in touch with our three reps and our senator. We actually have just been awarded a grant from Safe Routes to School for bike racks at the Andrew School as a test pilot. So we are working with them. And I think that's a great, we are launching a survey with Safe Routes to School later this week on Friday that'll run for about two or three weeks. And we're really looking for a lot of participation from across the districts, from our district. to make sure that we're getting as much information as possible. I really appreciate you bringing it to us. So you mentioned, Maria, five things. I just want to make sure I got them. And so you're going to have to fill in some blanks. So the first is safety. The second is crowding at the bus lines as they're coming up Steve Miller Drive to the West Courtyard area. The third is that there should be some type of signage that says where buses pick up. like the 101, we'll always pick up at this location. All right. And essentially we'll pull forward to a stop point. The fourth thing is the erratic times. Equity purposes. For equity purposes around that. And then the fifth, just so.
[SPEAKER_06]: The number of buses.
[SPEAKER_02]: The number of buses. OK.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah. And I think the safety and the crowding with the signage, if we're able to do that, so that all the students aren't standing on the sidewalk waiting, but also coming up with some sort of procedure of how we do dismissal. I think the bell rings and everyone goes out there and especially with the nice weather, there's more students out there. So making sure that we're putting in a protocol for dismissal and getting on the bus, I think is great.
[SPEAKER_11]: And one of our other student advisory council students when talking about this did ask, it's a bottleneck at Medford High. Has it always, now for the people who went to school here, has it always been that way? In terms of like people trying to funnel in? Yes, pick up and drop off, okay.
[SPEAKER_12]: So in terms of pick up, I don't recall. So drop off to the school, I don't recall. I drove or got driven in full transparency in terms of hiccup. The side where community schools is where that like stone courtyard is, that is what we're talking about in terms of like students funneling in. It's always been a mess. I remember students like standing on the hills. They used to line up on the hills and try to balance themselves. But also in terms of the buses, I am a victim of the North Medford Heights. I live in the North Medford Heights. I live right on the border of Malden. So if I had to take the bus home, I was on the yellow school bus. So I also know that and that picking up at a way different location was always weird to me of why that picks up by the Vogue automotive shop where the MBTA buses pick up at the community schools entrance. So yeah, it's always been crowded. It's always, I don't, I never viewed it as a safety issue at the time. So I don't, I haven't been up there during drop off. So I don't know if it's getting worse in terms of like people just not knowing where to stand, how it looks. It sounds like from the student representatives that it is getting a lot worse. So if we can figure out ways to channel students to understand where to go or if the line gets too long where to wrap around and make sure you're still in the same line of the 95 versus the 101. But yeah, also wanted to give my thanks for this for the students who are working on this issue because it has always been an issue. It was an issue when I was there. It sounds like the safety part is a bigger issue that I had never heard of. So thank you for bringing that up. But yeah, the whole the North Medford bus is a whole nother issue with the MBTA not offering their services really up in our, our neck of the woods, so.
[SPEAKER_08]: I have one question and one comment. One question is, are these conditions exacerbated during inclement weather? I ask because I personally am a most seasons biker, and so I'm curious about alternative transportation in terms of biking as well. Are there more people riding buses? Does the weather affect these issues?
[SPEAKER_11]: No, I don't think so, no. And we have quite a few students who do bike to school, absolutely. But there isn't really a difference in inclement weather.
[SPEAKER_08]: That's good to hear. And then the other, the comment that I wanted to make is that this is really good timing to have this meeting because we have a strategic planning subcommittee meeting scheduled for Monday about a district-wide transportation survey. And so if there are particular questions that you think we ought to be asking more broadly in the community. I would certainly love to receive those from you in anticipation of this meeting on Monday. Absolutely. And that can happen over email. I'm not trying to put anyone on the spot, especially at 331.
[SPEAKER_11]: We'll definitely, I'll work with the students and we'll get some out to you.
[SPEAKER_07]: Thank you.
[SPEAKER_11]: I believe that's it for transportation. Go ahead.
[SPEAKER_02]: So I know we are at 330, but if members are able to stay for the last piece.
[SPEAKER_04]: So lastly on the, I think it's in the email as well. Student organizations So basically, I've been working with other members on this advisory committee to make this because we find that students, not only at the high school level but also the elementary level which I've met with Mr. Allen, who is a teacher advisor for the student council at the Brooks. But we find that students don't really know how to get their voices heard and how the I guess the system works for student voice. So we've just made this flowchart and we're trying to get them printed. We're in the process of getting a larger one printed and hung up around the high school and hopefully at the other schools. Which is outlies to students how they can get involved and how change occurs. Throughout the district. And I just want to cycle back to the transportation. As someone who's biked to school, the bike lanes are not safe. Yeah, so that's all I have to say on that.
[SPEAKER_02]: Can you share that with me and I'll post it up? And I know that, I think it was Bike Medford, but for anyone listening, I don't wanna misspeak, but I do know that they were really hoping for a protected bike lane on Wentworth Street. And so I think as you leave Medford High School and become members of the community and those of you still here to still advocate for those protected bike lanes as the city moves through various construction projects.
[SPEAKER_08]: Yes, it was protected. I was in that meeting that that those protected bike lanes went away because a lot of people spoke out against having bike lanes on Winthrop Street and the compromise was that the bike lanes not be protected. And that was because people showed up and fought against protected bike lanes. So if this is important, please do continue to show up at meetings to advocate.
[SPEAKER_02]: All right, let me share my screen and, and Darren, I'll allow you to, so that you can control as you speak or whoever wants to.
[SPEAKER_04]: So just starting from the top, we just have a little bit, I guess, FAQ for students on why their voice matters and how the student organizations work within the elementary, middle school, and at the high school level, as well as how they can get involved. So just a little bit of a blurb. And then we have the flowchart here. Oh, it's not scrolling. really not cooperating. Okay. Basically, it starts from the bottom and at the high school level, we have the Newly Formed Student Involvement Organization, which is similar to the Student Council. Basically, it's just like organization, they work together to get students involved in the kind of like the outreach branch of student involvement at the high school level. That's what it's envisioned to be. And then we also have the student governments, which work more to address grade level concerns. And then at the middle school and elementary school, we have these student councils. And then that gets forwarded so that we envision that the Medford High School Student Advisory Committee would be more of like a legislative body since legally speaking, we can only have five people on it. So the idea would be we would be just drafting stuff and we'd rely on the student government, student councils, student involvement organization to do the actual boots on the ground outreach, which we've also, that's part of a larger plan that I in the student advisory community working on to get more students involved and improve these student organizations at the high school and district level. And then stateside, which we haven't established yet, but we're working to, we plan on implementing a system so we can get statewide changes as well, which is outlined here. And then more on the local level, we have, after we drop the policy requests, letters, et cetera, they'd be sent to the corresponding administrations based on the level, whether that be elementary, middle school, high school level, and or the Meckler School Committee. And that's the upload trait, which I believe is also the genome.
[SPEAKER_08]: Thank you for the work in putting it together and for presenting it. I'm gonna ask again, so what are you hoping to get from this group at this time in regards to this document?
[SPEAKER_04]: In regards to the document, I guess just, we have a bunch of draft documents outlining the responsibilities of these students' organizations. And I guess a big thing we would like is to have these documents on the school committee website under the student involvement. That way it's in writing, not on the school committee level, but also on the local school level. So it's there for us students, as well as faculty and parents. So there's more involvement as well as responsibilities that are clearly outlined for us.
[SPEAKER_02]: And if I could offer, I only looked at it last week, but if I could offer a friendly suggestion that I think that bigger posters might be better to help follow the lines. So as you're doing around school, that that might be very beneficial. And I know you said you were working on one of those, but just so that, you know, multiple in multiple places.
[SPEAKER_12]: No, I think this is great. Like I said, my, my education, my background is in user interface user experience. How do we tell people what the information is. So I'm looking, I'm looking at it right now. That's why I'm on my phone. I love the color coding. I'm just going to like The fact that we're talking about state level changes how that because what this does is it does a great job of how you know how would you connect the mass legislature to an elementary school, like, how does that work that feedback gets there and this is a really good job of showing how this actually goes through the channels and the ways we need to get it done. definitely support having this in terms of on the school committee website in terms of how student voices are heard, and how that process happens. Because it also helps empower the students to show that you know your voice does matter and sometimes that can be hard to convince students of how. you know, even at student government level, like, why does it matter? Why does it matter what I say? Nothing gets changed anyways. Well, this is how it matters. This is how it goes up the ranks and we work together and we get what we need to be done changed. So I really applaud you all for taking the time to actually take a lot of complex information and ideas and put it into a very visual, very visual chart. So thank you for doing that.
[SPEAKER_09]: I just want to applaud you guys as well. I think the visual is excellent. And not just words, but for those who can follow the pictures and follow the dots and see the connection, I think you guys really did a great job designing it and making it user-friendly and accessible for all levels. Thank you.
[SPEAKER_08]: I asked member Ruseau and Mr. Dalton what kind of protocols need to happen for something like this to be reviewed and put up as an official. This is my new member hat going. How would this work?
[SPEAKER_15]: Well, I mean, the website is implementation. It's not policy. So it has nothing to do with us. It has nothing to do with me.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, it would be totally straightforward to to set up a subpage of the school committee to be a site for documents from our student representatives. I think that would be a relatively straightforward matter of just getting me the content that we need, and then we can just talk about what we want it to look like when it's done. But certainly the infrastructure is there. whether it's this flowchart or work on pre-documents or anything else.
[SPEAKER_07]: Thank you.
[SPEAKER_16]: That's it. All right.
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much. Do we need a motion to adjourn? Yeah, we do.
[SPEAKER_15]: All right. Motion to adjourn.
[SPEAKER_08]: Second.
[SPEAKER_15]: I said first, but that's OK. Oh, great. Remember Einfeld? Yes. Remember Olapade?
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_15]: Remember Tappa?
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_15]: So yes, for the affirmative, this meeting is adjourned. Thank you, everyone. Have a good night.
[SPEAKER_12]: Thank you, everyone.