AI-generated transcript of Medford School Committee of the Whole 01-31-24

[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Good evening, everybody. We have a Committee of the Whole meeting to go over planned presentations from now through June 2024 in budget cycle planning. Please be advised that on Wednesday, the 31st of January 2024, 5 p.m. to 6 p.m., there will be a Committee of the Whole meeting held through remote participation via Zoom. Since the meeting will be held remotely, participants can log in by using the following links. And then if they do need a meeting ID, it's 928-4337-7810. Additionally, questions or comments can be submitted during the meeting by emailing jennigraham at medford.k12.ma.us. Those submitting must include the following information, your first and last name, your Medford street address, your question or comment. and tonight's agenda meeting is being offered as an opportunity to review school committee plan presentations and annual reports at our regularly scheduled meetings through June 2024 and to prepare for our fiscal year 25 budget cycle planning. Member Ruseau, if you could call the roll, please.

[Paul Ruseau]: Certainly. Member Branley.

[Melanie McLaughlin]: Here.

[Paul Ruseau]: Member Graham.

[Melanie McLaughlin]: Here.

[Paul Ruseau]: Member McLaughlin.

[Melanie McLaughlin]: Here.

[Paul Ruseau]: Member Olapade. Here. Member Reinfeld.

[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Here.

[Paul Ruseau]: Member Rossell, present. Mayor Lungo-Koehn.

[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Present. Seven present, zero absent. We can move to start a discussion on our agenda. Thanks, everybody. We should turn it over to Dr. Edouard-Vincent. Is that you?

[Marice Edouard-Vincent]: Good evening, everyone. I'm going to try to share a document where I think we won't have everyone typing all at once. I think as an editor member, Graham, I'll probably have you in as an editor. And then it's a very rough, rough draft, but it's kind of like it's It's an Excel workbook, and it just has draft potential ideas at the back of that workbook. So I'm going to be sharing that with you momentarily, just one minute. And we also have a draft budget calendar. And Mr. McHugh will, Gerry McCue will be able to talk to the committee about that draft calendar. And again, both documents are drafts. So the committee, you'll be able to weigh in on those documents. Thank you.

[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Mayor? Yes, Member Graham.

[Jenny Graham]: Can I suggest that Jerry goes first because maybe he doesn't want to hang with us for this entire conversation? Sure, that would be great. Okay.

[Gerry McCue]: I'm here at your convenience, so it's however you want to do it is fine.

[Melanie McLaughlin]: And point of information, Mayor? Maybe we can ask for the community and anyone watching if Mr. McHugh could introduce himself so we know his role here. Thank you.

[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: So the question for Member McLaughlin is just to introduce yourself, please.

[Gerry McCue]: Okay. My name is Gerry McCue, and I'm the Director of Finance for Medford Public Schools.

[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Great. Thank you. Jerry, do you want to walk us through the budget calendar? Yep.

[Gerry McCue]: So right now, we're in the middle of developing the budget. We've scheduled a number of meetings last month and this month with principals and program directors. In March, we'll be putting those figures together. made some suggested dates for the school committee, but certainly for meetings with the school committee. And certainly those are subject to your input. But I chose May 6th for the school committee to actually vote on the budget and that to give the the sufficient time to put her budget together and get it to the city council. Backing up from that date, I suggested April 11, which is a Thursday, for a required public hearing on the budget. I noticed last year that that public hearing was separate from a regular meeting, so I kind of followed that. logic. So then I had three Committee of the Whole meetings before that, starting at the end of February, which is not a week for a regular meeting. But then in March, I had a meeting on March 4th or March and March 18th. And I suggested some topics that we could discuss. The first topic would be on enrollment projections and class size analysis. The second meeting could be on potential revenue resources. And then the third committee of the whole would be on what our proposed spending is looking like and any savings proposals we might have to offset the cost of new spending. And then I added as an alternative a Wednesday meeting And I'm assuming we'll probably try to keep those to an hour. But that's really based on tonight's meeting. And I'd be prepared to go longer if needed.

[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you, Jerry. OK. Member Graham?

[Jenny Graham]: Thanks. I think this is marked improvement from our past budget timeline. So thank you, Jerry, for that. I was wondering if on the on the 26th or the 28th, whatever that week is, in addition to class sizes and enrollment projections, because I think that's really important, it would also be, I think, super helpful for us to get an understanding of the staff complement that we have across our buildings, both like what we budgeted for last year and how many actuals we have, because I think that is sort of the other piece of that picture that helps us understand what's going on in the schools. And in the past, I feel like we've gotten that in somewhat of a piecemeal way. But I think if there could be some cohesive way that says, you know, across our elementary schools, we have X number of teachers, and we have X number of paraprofessionals, and we have X number of gym teachers, like whatever those roles are, so that we can see that across. And I think that will help us particularly rationalize who we have in total and who is being paid for in grant-funded positions, and do those grants still exist, or just to start to set up the staffing complement that we have currently and whether there are concerns or not. So I would love to see that added to that initial meeting. And I would also generally suggest that this committee doesn't ever really do anything in one hour, so we probably should budget accordingly and plan for an hour and a half, which I think if it's happening at the same time as our other school committee meetings, it just makes the other half of this conversation even more important so that that other half of the agenda still brings us into a reasonable timeline. And all the dates you propose work for me. So Mondays or Wednesdays, I don't have a preference.

[Gerry McCue]: OK. Thank you. I noted that addition.

[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you. Member McLaughlin?

[Melanie McLaughlin]: Thank you. I'm not sure why I'm not able to see chat or raise my hand. Somebody raised my hand for me. So thank you whoever did that. I just did it myself. So whoever saw me, thank you. I'm not sure why. I'm not able to raise my hand, but I will just raise it manually as needed. So thank you for this. This is really helpful. And I think it's good to back up the timeline a bit so that we have more time and we're not up against it. So appreciate that. I did want to share again from meetings at the MASC, particularly at the conference when I was there this year. And they talked a lot about budget, but also sort of getting quarterly budget I would like to see a schedule and maybe it's a conversation for another day. I know we're talking budget schedule, so it's appropriate for the agenda, but I would like to see. some term updates on the budget. I know it's not a full quarter because we're a school year, but something that can be agreed upon. For quarterly updates where we're understanding because also technically if budget line items change substantially, we're also supposed to be notified according to MASC and that hasn't typically happened in the past either. I think it would be really great putting the right step forward as we're moving forward and thinking about What we're doing here and then just schedule wise for me, Wednesdays five to six are difficult. I have a pre-existing appointment at that time. So I could do, you know, prior to that or after that, but the five to six window is unfortunately not available for me. Thank you.

[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: While we do have everybody, too, maybe we could talk calendars, because I know Jenny was trying to pull that together. I know Mondays and Wednesdays are the best for Dr. Edouard-Vincent and I. Tuesdays, I sometimes have to focus on council meetings, et cetera. So you're saying Member McLaughlin, a 3.30 or 4.00 would work. But I don't know if that works for the rest of the committee on a Wednesday.

[Melanie McLaughlin]: Yeah, I'm just out 5.00 to 6.00. I have a standing appointment 5.00 to 6.00 that I have to attend. So I don't get out of work until four. So anytime after that is fine with me.

[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: So does anybody else have a conflict with four to five on Wednesdays? Just so we have a block of time that works for everybody, if need be, moving forward.

[Jenny Graham]: I think for me, four to five is mostly okay, but also in the middle of the end of my workday. So I would prefer after five.

[Melanie McLaughlin]: Can I also ask just again, Mayor, if I know, I think Dr. Cushions here or Medford Public Schools or Medford Community Media, I mean, can we put the captioning on please for this meeting? Whoever's behind the scenes.

[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Yeah, I just added it. Okay, and so it sounds like Wednesdays four to five or six to seven would be preferable to this committee, just to have a couple blocks on a Wednesday. And then Monday, it's always helpful to know, does everybody, after four, 4.30, sometimes we schedule meetings at 4.30 or five before our regular meeting, especially we'll try to make sure there's not too many reports at our regular meeting. That usually works for everybody. So any objections to that too? Erin? Oh, you're good. Okay. I'm also good, I think. Perfect. So there's two good days and two blocks of times each day that work for this body.

[Erika Reinfeld]: Perfect. Mondays are slightly better for me because I have alternating Girl Scout meetings every other Wednesday, but I don't have to be there. I'm just the chauffeur. Got it, got it. Dr. Edward-Vincent?

[Marice Edouard-Vincent]: Yes, I also just was going to say as we're just carving out these particular times and having this set up, one comment is to member McLaughlin just about her raise hand function. Zoom updated their software. So all you have to do is raise your hand and AI kicks in and it does the raise hand function for you, just in case that's probably what happened. It just happened for me as well.

[Melanie McLaughlin]: Thank you. Yeah, I was just totally trying to go into my settings and everything else to figure out why the upgrade was not allowing that. So thank you. Good old AI.

[Erika Reinfeld]: No show of hand votes then.

[Melanie McLaughlin]: Yeah.

[Marice Edouard-Vincent]: Is anyone else seeing captions though? Yes, I can see the captions on my screen. I think I'm one of the co-hosts.

[Paul Ruseau]: You have to turn them on yourself. They display for yourself if you click the show captions.

[Melanie McLaughlin]: Yeah, I have that, show captions, and I have it. I clicked it. It's still not showing. I don't know if it's being recorded, if folks can see. Other folks, are your captions showing you guys? OK, good. That's me. Thank you.

[Marice Edouard-Vincent]: I had just wanted to get a little more as we get into the next piece the the draft calendar piece and talking about the potential reports that are needed and just keeping in mind or to ask the committee as we go through that portion if when we get to that specific point, to let you know that I did try to slide in a few student achievements or student recognitions. And I just wanted to say, as you look at that next table, sometimes we do get donations. So there are recommendations to approve and other things that I didn't you know, put that in the draft, but they do happen and they come up. So sometimes that's what causes us to end up with a few more reports because it's like time sensitive travel or something that we didn't know was going to happen. So I just wanted to throw that out there as well. Thank you.

[Paul Ruseau]: Sorry, Member Ruseau. Thank you. I went and looked at the policy we have on presentations and reports. And there's a significantly larger number of them than there are in the document that you shared with us. And I'm just wondering why that is.

[Marice Edouard-Vincent]: That document that I shared with you was We had, it was just an internal document that we were, that's kind of how we set up the meetings going along. So those were the amount of reports that we pulled over that we were trying to color code and highlight how many of them were we hitting every time we went forward. But you definitely, I think you have screen sharing access, so you could definitely show the entire list, member Ruseau.

[Paul Ruseau]: Yeah, I mean, I, yeah, I could show the whole list, but I'm not sure how we want to run the meeting. So I think it's like 40 or I didn't put a numbering system in that policy. So I have to count them by hand and it runs over several pages, but I don't want to bog this down by reading each one.

[Jenny Graham]: Mayor?

[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Member Graham.

[Jenny Graham]: Can I make a suggestion, Dr. Edward Benson, I think in the document that you shared with us if you can pull up a screen share and go to your school year 2324 projected calendar. I think that's a nice easy way to see. at for the first sort of pass of this conversation, like the superintendent's reports that you plan to bring forward and for all the meetings between now and the end of the year. And I think that's a good place to start in terms of how how we describe what our agenda is. Because our meetings are roughly made up of two things, right? They're made up of your reports and then any resolutions people want to bring forward. So I think if you go to that last tab, yeah, that one. And I hid all of the past meetings just to make it a little bit cleaner. But I think maybe what we should do is just walk through these and agree that these are, in fact, items that we are going to want to hear about. give people an opportunity to ask questions about what will be included, or at least give people some advanced understanding of what the topics are, so that if we do have questions that we want you to be answering in these things, that we can tell you what they are.

[Marice Edouard-Vincent]: Yes. So tentatively right now, what I'll be going through is from February through June. And again, these are drafts. The committee asked for every first meeting of the month to do good of the order. So we normally have a good of the order check in for the committee. This policy, I'm going to be, I need to relocate this report probably to April because we still have a lot of players to have sit at the table and further address it. Back in January, there was a comment about what is the status of the school committee goals. So for Monday, tentatively would be to present the status of the school committee goals that were voted for this school year. We would like to potentially give an MSBA timeline overview. There were some questions about that, but essentially just saying as we're entering phase one, we've talked about it at different points in time, but just to say where we are as Medford Public Schools right now and what we will be working on potentially working to our May 1st, first deliverable for MSBA. We would like to provide a brief update on the McGlynn Playground fundraiser on the website. We now, it's almost ready to go live and we just want to present a very brief report on how people go to the website, what the levels are going to be as the McGlynn Playground is well underway. We have a very brief social-emotional learning update, so we do use shorthand cell update. That would be by Stacey Shulman, just giving a few key shifts or key programming things that are happening with social emotional learning, behavioral health and school counseling. And then we have one job description that we would like to put before the committee, which is a recommendation to approve where you would take action for the assistant director of food services. position. So that that is just tentative. I will work with the chair and the vice chair to see if all of this makes it on to the agenda or not. And but that's tentative for Monday for February the 12th. There was talk about the school committee ad hoc, a subcommittee on the handbook review. So we're not sure if that will be there or if it'll need to be moved back a little further. But moving along to March 4th, it would be good of the order. We're going to bring back the excessive heat. presentation and I had thrown in a budget cow as a possibility as we work on ironing out the final dates for those so that's why it just has like the question marks there. And if we try to like not go over like five reports, those were just two things that were there. For the 18th, we had either budget cow or budget update. We have the district wide cell update. We have EL English learner enrollment update, which we do want to bring to the committee. We are closely monitoring that. and we have an annual obligation with DESE to have the committee take a vote on whether or not Medford Public Schools will be a school choice district or not. That report can always be moved up a little earlier, but the committee needs to take a vote every year, and we submit your response into the DESE portal. April 8th, We have good of the order again. The possibility of the budget public hearing, which would be a cow will be working on the substitute pay report, which was in last week's. agenda. We have a brief MSBA update because by that time we're getting closer to our May 1 deadline. Again, this is all tentative and potential school handbook review and approval. And we would like to provide a before and after school update around that time because the before and after school lottery will take place on April 1st. So again, these are all draft reports. On April 29th, We are expecting to hear from DESE. We just ended our tiered focus monitoring review today with DESE, and they have approximately 60 days to turn the report into us. So we have April 29th as a hold to report out on the district's performance on the tiered focus monitoring. That's our special education review. We have a brief MSBA update for April 29th. We also are being monitored by DESE for our English learner program. So by April 29th, we should also have the results of our EL monitoring results, how we're doing as a district with that programming. We tentatively had summer programming options to provide an update. We may try to bring that update a little earlier. In May, we have good of the order. We have Medford High School update as we get closer to the end of the year to allow the high school to provide an update. We have the school committee budget vote potentially on the 6th of May. We have an MSBA update and student recognition. So starting in May to start, you know, continuing to recognize students as the year is coming to a close for, you know, many different events that the students participate in. May 20th, we have an MSBA update, an arts update. I have to just double check, but I have my evaluation in there. It may need to be moved up a little earlier. Student recognition. And we want to provide a brief update on CCSR. Again, we've provided that update. It's a grant that the district receives totaling It was a multi-year grant totaling $100,000. for the district. We also have an update from the Bloomsack Award where we did have a presentation in January, but part of that grant philanthropic funding also requires that we present to the school committee what the project was for the student chosen at the high school who's participating in that special program at Tufts University. June 3rd, we're coming to the end of the year. That Monday graduation tentatively would be that first Wednesday. So it would be good of the order. We tentatively have CPAC end of year report. We have a McGlynn playground update or possibly groundbreaking. We're not sure on the status of everything. We would like to provide a SOA Student Opportunity Act update. student recognition and June 10th would be our final report of the year or final regular meeting to report our end of year NWEA map literacy data. have the school committee meeting calendar for the 24-25 school year and report out on district discipline, the district discipline report over the course of the year. So again, this is just a very, very rough draft. And I, you know, really, we really tried our best to keep it to three, three to four reports or presentations. per meeting so that we could not have too many meetings and have it run too long. I'm open to any questions and working with the entire committee. Thank you, Dr. Edward-Vincent.

[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: It goes in order for me. Member Mulholland, then Member Ruseau, then Member Graham.

[Melanie McLaughlin]: I think Member Graham had her hand up first, then me, then Member Ruseau.

[Jenny Graham]: No, no, it was left out.

[Melanie McLaughlin]: So you're in line first. Oh, okay. Thank you. Thank you for this. And I'm assuming right now we're just sort of talking roughly about the calendar schedule for the rest of the year as we went through. I know this is a lot to absorb for folks. It's a lot for me to absorb as we're sort of thinking about it. And I guess I have some, or actually structurally, how are we gonna be talking about other reports perhaps that we're looking for interested in that have not happened yet this year and are not on the schedule for the remainder of the year? What's the process that we're planning on for that team?

[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: I think that's part of what we're doing here and as you come up with resolutions that it probably would fit into this calendar. So if you have ideas of that you want to talk about tonight, maybe add them or adjust them or substitute. But I think the point is, like, what do people want to see? Is this what everybody hears about?

[Melanie McLaughlin]: OK, just making sure that that's what we're about right now. So thank you, Mayor. Appreciate that. OK, so I have a couple of things that I'm sort of asking. One is, and this is something that we've asked for in the past and have not yet received it. I'm hoping we're still going to receive it this year. We wanted information on our credit recovery program and how many of our students were having to pay for credit recovery, how many of those students were economically disadvantaged and having to pay for credit recovery, and so on and so forth. I can be more specific if folks need me to be more specific in a motion moving forward, although I'm not sure I'll do that in the time frame tonight, but I can give it a shot if we need to. The other is, You know, this is a discussion and it's partially for budget, but but partially not. So, when we do this special education sort of update report, what have you? And again, I think that some of that was in the beginning of the year, but 1 of the things that I've asked about in the past, and certainly have had lots of constituents ask about is. legal fees for special education and hearing requests. So getting an update on, you know, how much are we paying in legal fees for for our special education team and what hearing requests are coming forward, what kind of hearing requests we're having, if we're having any. So there's a process where families can ask for hearing and that usually initiates the legal fees. So understanding those I think would be good. And also I think it would be a really helpful understanding of what things we can be potentially working on and what we can be Improving and also just giving us a line item on that cost to help us understand better and then. Yeah, and then lastly, I just was gonna add, I'm sure there's gonna be more things that'll come up, but lastly, I was just gonna add, and I'm sure this is also on the radar, but I wanna say it again, that wherever we're using acronyms, especially once this goes public, that we spell out the acronym first with the acronym in parentheses after, and then can use the acronym after, but just that we're really spelling out and being conscientious of the acronym so that we're being inclusive for folks if we could. So that's me for right now. Thanks.

[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Point of information. Point of information, member Graham.

[Jenny Graham]: As you were talking, I was just trying to capture some of these requests. And I think my question is whether a report in our packet would be sufficient in your mind, or if you are looking for an actual full presentation, just so that we can give the superintendent that guidance. And once you clarify that, maybe you can just make a motion to to add these two things for schedule consideration or something like that.

[Melanie McLaughlin]: Sure. Mayor, would you like me to respond or do you want me to get in the queue again? You can respond. Okay, so I would be okay and I, you know, defer to my colleagues as well on terms of what they would be looking at. But for the credit recovery and the legal fees and hearing requests, I would be okay with a report in our packet, which obviously is made public on our website for the community. But, you know, with the With the caveat that obviously if there's material in the report that needs further discussion, which should be the case with any of these, I would imagine that are in our packet that needs further discussion. We either make a motion for further discussion or we add it as an ad hoc item on future agendas. So do you guys need wording for that? No. Making a motion for those?

[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Dr. Edward-Vincent do you want to do you need a motion or did you note it just that we at some point?

[Marice Edouard-Vincent]: You know I noted it I'm writing notes longhand and Lisa, Ms. Malone is also capturing.

[Melanie McLaughlin]: If it's okay, I appreciate that, Dr. Edward-Vincent, but I think just in terms of the record and what we sort of record so that it doesn't get lost in the mix, that maybe I will, if you don't mind, just make a motion and then it gets coded into our motion database where we can go back and look at it, because I feel like that's super helpful and then it doesn't fall off and I know we all have so much to do. So if I could, I am gonna just make a motion that we include information on credit recovery, in a packet in our report to include how many students are part of credit recovery, how many of those students are economically disadvantaged, how many of those students have received scholarships, and by default, I guess we would realize how many have not, and what the cost of the credit recovery is. So that is one. And as a separate motion, just to divide them in for clarity, I would ask that we motion. Oh, so let's vote. I guess maybe we should vote on that motion. So I'm going to do a second motion. Can I get a second on the credit recovery?

[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Motion for approval by Member McLaughlin, seconded by... Second. Member Graham. A roll call, please.

[Paul Ruseau]: Member Branley. Yes. Member Graham.

[Melanie McLaughlin]: Yes.

[Paul Ruseau]: Member McLaughlin.

[Melanie McLaughlin]: Yes.

[Paul Ruseau]: Member Olipate. Yes. Member Reinfeld.

[Melanie McLaughlin]: Yes.

[Paul Ruseau]: Member Ruseau. Yes. Mayor Longo. Yes.

[Melanie McLaughlin]: Yes, 7 in the affirmative. I think you missed member Bramley, did you not? Nope, she- Oh, you got him. Okay, sorry. She's first, yep. And then Mayor, may I just make the other motion and then I'll- 7 in the affirmative, 0 in the negative, motion is approved.

[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Member McLaughlin.

[Melanie McLaughlin]: Thank you. And then second motion is I make a motion that we have a report in our packet to include special education legal fees and hearing requests I suppose, yeah, at the end of the year, or maybe midway in a year. So that we're understanding where we are midway. So, you know, by January 31st of each year. Yes, so that I would make a motion that we include legal fees and hearing requests for a special education as a report to be added to our packets by January 31 of each year, please. And if I could get a second, that would be helpful.

[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: So first one being January 2025? Yes, ma'am. Okay, motion for approval by member McLaughlin, seconded by? Second. Member Reinfeld, a roll call, please.

[Paul Ruseau]: Member Branley.

[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Yes.

[Paul Ruseau]: Member Graham.

[Melanie McLaughlin]: Yes.

[Paul Ruseau]: Member McLaughlin.

[Melanie McLaughlin]: Yes.

[Paul Ruseau]: Member Lapate. Yes. Member Reinfeld.

[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Yes.

[Paul Ruseau]: Member Ruseau. Yes. Mayor Lungo.

[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Yes. On the affirmative, zero to the negative, motion passes. But we have Member Ruseau, then Member Graham.

[Paul Ruseau]: I'm all set.

[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Member Graham.

[Jenny Graham]: Superintendent, I was hoping you could tell us what is going to be different between the two social emotional learning presentations that are on the calendar, one for this coming week and then one for the 18th of March.

[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Can you repeat that one more time, Amber Graham?

[Marice Edouard-Vincent]: Yes. What ended up happening is Ms. Schulman would be presenting on some of the new additions that they've done, new services that have been added to Medford Public Schools, wraparound support, cell services, whether it's additional Councilors or additional programming that is supporting our students for cell. And I believe the second presentation, she would be able to provide an update on what has been happening with our anonymous tip line and those kinds of things. So it would kind of be different different buckets. But if that's something where you would prefer one update and another update to be to be handed into the packets, then I can work with Ms. Schulman on that. And again, that's just a tentative hold. We don't have to have it this week. We could move it and have her present on the 12th or on a different date, and I can just follow up with her.

[Jenny Graham]: Thank you for that. I think my preference would be that we get one update about social-emotional learning so that we can hear about all of it at the same time. And I know that will make for a longer presentation, which I think is okay, as long as there's not too many other things going on that same day. So I would like to make a motion that we consolidate those two reports. Second.

[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Motion for approval to consolidate by Member Graham, seconded by Member McLaughlin. Roll call, please.

[Paul Ruseau]: Motion to consolidate which two reports?

[Jenny Graham]: The two SCL reports.

[Paul Ruseau]: Are these reports on our current policy or are they new reports?

[Jenny Graham]: They're in the spreadsheet that we're looking at.

[Paul Ruseau]: Right, but we have a policy with 40 or 50 reports. We named them, and I'm sorry, I know it should be taking the vote, but I don't know what we're doing. So are those existing reports?

[Jenny Graham]: I am only asking that instead of Ms. Schulman coming twice to talk to us inside of four meetings, that she comes one time and provide her whole SEL update. So this is just all I'm looking at right now is what the superintendent has brought to us. I think our list of reports is a second part of this conversation.

[Paul Ruseau]: I understand that, but if the public is reading the language of this motion, the public will have zero ability to know what the hell it means. Sorry to just be, I mean, that's the point. Like you look at the minutes of a meeting, you should know what happened. They say two lines on a spreadsheet you can't look at should be made into one thing. I don't know why that's considered, I'm not disagreeing one bit.

[Jenny Graham]: So then one is about new programming and one is about existing programming. Right? I think that's what I heard. Yes.

[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: So motion to combine the two SCL reports, one being about new programming and one being about existing program, cramming together into so we can get that in one report. Motion by Member Graham, seconded by Member McLaughlin. Roll call.

[Paul Ruseau]: Member Bramley.

[Melanie McLaughlin]: Yes.

[Paul Ruseau]: Member Graham. Yes. Member McLaughlin.

[Melanie McLaughlin]: Yes.

[Paul Ruseau]: Member Olapade. Yes. Member Redfield.

[Erika Reinfeld]: Yes.

[Paul Ruseau]: Member Ruseau. Abstain. Mayor Lungo-Koehn.

[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Yes. So in the affirmative, zero in the negative, the motion to consolidate has been approved.

[Melanie McLaughlin]: Mayor, can I ask a procedural question?

[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Procedural question by Member McLaughlin. Then if Member Graham's, you still have the floor, Member Graham?

[Melanie McLaughlin]: Yes. Okay, Member McLaughlin, point of- Just procedurally as we're talking about this, so I'm unclear like what procedurally we're doing. So we have this list, as we said, of, you know, 40 or 50 reports that we've asked for in the past. But right now we're just looking at the rest of the year. We're not looking at all of those reports, obviously, or are we in the 16 minutes that we have left? I'm not sure what we're, so can someone clarify, please?

[Jenny Graham]: Well, I mean, I think the goal would be to do both, but I think if we try to do both at the exact same time, we will get nowhere. So I was hoping we could focus on this list that the superintendent has presented to us so that we could get this piece taken care of and then figure out how do we want to proceed with the reports list, which is quite long. And there might be a way for us to ask for a volunteer to take a crack at what that might look like and present it to us. I don't know. I just was trying not to sort of commingle the two because I think it's too complicated to try to talk about all of those things at exactly the same time.

[Melanie McLaughlin]: I agree. So I appreciate the process question. And thank you, Mayor. So just in clarity to for clarification, we are working on the remainder of the year for reports based on what the superintendent has presented. That's in what we've requested. That's correct.

[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you. Member Graham, the member Reinfeld.

[Jenny Graham]: Thank you. I would also like to make a motion that the before and after school update be moved forward in the calendar because we are responsible for rate setting for that program. And if the lottery is going to run on April 1st, at some point before April 1st, rates are gonna be communicated and those can't be communicated until we approve them. So that I believe needs to be moved so that the rate conversation can happen before the rates are published to the community.

[Unidentified]: Yes.

[Erika Reinfeld]: Point of information, the rates change every year or when were they last set?

[Jenny Graham]: They historically change every year.

[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: We always have that discussion, Member Reinfeld.

[Jenny Graham]: So motion to move the before and after school update to March 4th.

[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Motion for approval by Member Graham, seconded by Member Reinfeld. Roll call, please.

[Paul Ruseau]: Remember Branley?

[Jenny Graham]: Yes.

[Paul Ruseau]: Remember Graham?

[Jenny Graham]: Yes.

[Paul Ruseau]: Remember McLaughlin?

[Jenny Graham]: Yes.

[Paul Ruseau]: Remember Olapade? Yes. Remember Reinfeld?

[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Yes.

[Paul Ruseau]: Members say yes. Mayor Longo, carry.

[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Yes, 7 in the affirmative, 0 in the negative. Motion passes.

[Jenny Graham]: I have two more questions, but I'm happy to just get back in line.

[Erika Reinfeld]: I have a, how does this work question?

[Jenny Graham]: Okay. Um, so the, the next question I had, um, the CCSR end of year presentation on May 20th, it says it's a grant requirement. Um, I was hoping the superintendent could tell us what the grant requirement for this presentation is.

[Marice Edouard-Vincent]: I know for they, they, they have to publish a book at the, um, There needs to be a published product at the end of the year to turn back into the Cummings Foundation. And so I know that the the published book of reports that the students work on. And normally we have had, whether it's one or two students or something as a presentation to come and share maybe their key learning. So it could be something that we do during student recognitions, whether it's recognizing students for the seal of biliteracy or If our mock trial students are successful, some other event, we could also recognize some of our CCSR students. So I know definitely we have to complete a report, end of year report. And normally it was the end of year report and a school committee presentation. But we could submit the end of year report and have that in your packets if that's

[Jenny Graham]: Yeah, can I just make a suggestion? I think, obviously, I want to read the end of your report. And I want to be able to digest that. And I love hearing from students. But the last time we had this presentation, we didn't actually hear from students. We heard from adults talking next to students. And I would really love if we're going to dedicate time to this student-led program that we hear from students exclusively. And it does not have to be a regurgitation of the report, because we can all read that. But whatever the students want to tell us about their experience and their year, that is what I want to hear about. But I want to hear it from the students.

[Marice Edouard-Vincent]: No, we definitely can do that. I noted that. We'll definitely have it be student-led.

[Jenny Graham]: Okay, thank you, appreciate that. And my last item is that I think there probably needs to be one more placeholder on the last meeting in June for the school committee to present you its evaluation. So I am interpreting the May 20th date to be your self-evaluation, but we will need to present and approve our view of your evaluation as well. So I think that needs to be added to June 10th.

[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Motion to add superintendent evaluation by the school committee to June 10th by member Graham, seconded by member McLaughlin. Roll call, please.

[Paul Ruseau]: Member Graham.

[Jenny Graham]: Yes.

[Paul Ruseau]: Member Graham. Yes. Member McLaughlin. Yes. Member Olapade? Yes. Member Reinfeld? Yes. Member Rossell? Yes. Mayor Longo?

[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Yes. Seven in the affirmative, zero in the negative. Motion passes. Member Reinfeld?

[Erika Reinfeld]: Yes, I have a question on the time frame for requesting new reports on new policies and or curricula that have been put into place. What's the usual lead time to check in and see how implementation of things have gone? Is that a one year interval? I'm just thinking of a lot of the new policies that have come online that I suspect this committee is going to want to know how that how they're going.

[Paul Ruseau]: Member Ruseau. I would say when we do the policy updates, this is not related to curriculum, but when we do policies, we have a section at the bottom of new policies for the last four years, I'd say, policy information. And in there, when we're passing the policy, we specify when it should be reviewed.

[Erika Reinfeld]: So for something- So those updates match, would those updates match with a report from district administration?

[Paul Ruseau]: Not particularly, but it's like if we think this is something that's a big change, like discipline or bullying.

[Erika Reinfeld]: I know people put a lot of work into the bullying policy last year.

[Paul Ruseau]: Yeah, and we put a one-year review, meaning like, look, this is so big. After one year, we all need to have a conversation about it. Now, whether that ends up being a presentation or not probably depends. But then like other policies, like the school attorney policy we just did, I mean, I think we should have set it to 10 years because they haven't changed for 50 years.

[Erika Reinfeld]: I'm just trying to think about what I might be adding to new or additional reports requested and how that would fit into the calendar, knowing that a certain policy went into place here or the literacy curriculum came in. So what's an appropriate interval for reviewing how the implementation of that is going?

[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Member Graham, is your hand up to answer? Member Reinfeld?

[Jenny Graham]: Yeah, I guess I think we should, I think we should get into the habit when we're passing policy, like, not just to say, like, when are we going to look at the policy again, but articulate Whether we expect the administration to come back to us with a report about the implementation and how it's going, and I feel like we've sort of done that sometimes. But maybe not as a consistent question, so that may be just a consistent question we need to ask ourselves so that. the superintendent can know that in September of next year, because that's really the one year mark of the bullying policy, she needs to be ready to tell us how the year went and what's working and what's not. And I think that's a good practice for us to get into. And there's a couple of big policies that I feel like we haven't done that with. And we should think about how we do that. like the dress code policy, for example, like I think there are people who have a lot to say about the dress code policy, but I don't think we've ever heard a cohesive set of feedback from the administration about that.

[Erika Reinfeld]: And I will say with the caveat that I don't have member, I don't have the list that member Ruseau is referring to of these 50 policies in front of me. So I don't know what is and is not on there in terms of previously requested reports.

[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: member McLaughlin.

[Melanie McLaughlin]: Thank you. Yeah, it makes it a little bit harder when we don't have the requested reports in front of us. So I totally feel that as well. And I just, you know, something that hadn't been discussed, but as we're talking about reports for the remainder of years, something that has come up for me, Dr. Edwin Vincent around the passed the prevention package that was included as part of the teacher training this year with MassKids and the Cummings Foundation, and that they got a substantive grant from the Cummings. MassKids is a child abuse prevention organization, nonprofit, full disclosure, I'm on their board. Prior to me being on their board had secured a grant from the Cummings Foundation to work in Medford and Lynn or to offer Medford and Lynn a curriculum on child abuse prevention in schools in particular, because there's a very high incidence of. Data shows that there's very high incidents in schools. And so that was Dr. Edouard-Vincent worked with MassKids and Janet Bernier at the beginning of the year to offer professional development training. During onboarding around that and mass kids has reached out as part of their grant requirement to which I think was like 100 K. so it was 100 K program that we got for free based on the Cummings grant. I believe that they wanted to be able to do a presentation to the school committee and talk about next step. So that is a. a brief report that I know that MassKids wanted to do, again, based on the Cummings Foundation grant. So I don't know if that's something that can be feasible for the remainder of this year or not, but it is based on that. And I don't know, Superintendent, if you want to add to that or if you have anything to say about that.

[Marice Edouard-Vincent]: Yes, I think we had close to 600, I can't remember off the top of my head right now, staff who participated in that MassKids training. There was a small, there was a fee that we did have to pay for, but I don't have those exact numbers right now, but MassKids did work with us and the training generated a lot of discussion and just gave us a lot of other things to be on the lookout for. So it was informative for all the staff that did participate. There was pretty positive feedback from that training.

[Melanie McLaughlin]: So maybe it's a mayor, may I? Yes, Member Waffling. So maybe it's a report that is added to our packet or something, but I'm not sure and I'm deferring to the rest of the committee members if they want to hear about the program and the extension of the program because I do believe MassKids will be applying or has applied for additional funding and or may be getting additional funding. So I would ask my colleagues what they would prefer around the program.

[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: OK. Thank you, Member McLaughlin. And member Rousseau, then member Graham, I think that was the order.

[Paul Ruseau]: Thank you. I would just recommend we stick to the agenda, which is not to add any new reports. It is to, well, I don't want to read the agenda to everybody, but I think each of us could easily think of 100 new reports we would like to see. That's not the agenda of this meeting, so.

[Melanie McLaughlin]: Point of information, Mayor, can we read the agenda? So I'm curious, does it say to discuss reports that have already been proposed? Or I'm not clear, I just would love to hear that, because I'm not sure. Thank you.

[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: I think we did add a report at the beginning of this meeting, so... Yes, Mayor. I'm just finding the agenda, but go ahead, Member Ruseau.

[Paul Ruseau]: I can read it. I have it in front of me. This meeting is being offered as an opportunity to review school committee planned presentations and annual reports through June 2024 and to prepare for FY25 budget planning. We've added actually several so far this meeting, but I'm just suggesting we stop.

[Melanie McLaughlin]: Yeah, so I'm just not clear on the agenda where it says that we can't do that. If I misunderstood, Mayor, through members, so through the Mayor, if I misunderstood what the issue was, was that, and I agree, there could be lots more that we could add on. And again, if we're only talking about the rest of the year, the concern is with the grant, you know, ending this year. So if we're gonna be meeting again, which it sounds like we are process-wise, to talk about the 50 plus other reports that I believe You know all of us are interested in and perhaps even more that will end up on that form that some of the members don't have or didn't have prior to the meeting so I couldn't agree more I'm sure there's lots more and I know that we have a minute left to the meeting. So, but I don't think that there was anything on the agenda that said we could not add reports.

[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you member Graham.

[Jenny Graham]: Thank you. I think the other suggestion I was going to make was a motion to have somebody look at our extended list of reports and Take a shot at classifying whether these are things we want presentations on or just reports in our packet. And maybe like, you know, clarifying timelines so that that can come forward at a future meeting whenever said volunteer might be ready to do that. And I see laboring this. Instead of like continuing to try to plod through 50. Reports like I think the vast majority of them are probably reports in our packet, but. And I think member McLaughlin just volunteered so motion to ask member McLaughlin to go through the list and offer it up as a resolution when she's ready.

[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: sure before I call it the motion I just also believe we did vote in December for the ad hoc report about updates on the recommendations from Mr. Welch I know that yes thank you for that reminder for February I'm if there's more time I'm happy to have that move to March but I didn't see it on the the list.

[Marice Edouard-Vincent]: I did have I had the high school update because okay as May 6 and that was just to give miss Cabral the opportunity to just do the survey again and have close to almost a year of information so she could provide that high school update which would be inclusive of things that were mentioned in Mr. Welch's report. So it was just to give them that that runway of time to see how many things they've actually been able to implement that they're doing or new things that they've done which are aligned to what was in the report. We have been in frequent communication and working closely with high school administration. Central office has been, so I feel confident about how we've been working together. And I would like her to be able to have just a little more time and more data to be able to come and present to you the new data for the high school. So that was where, I did not refer to Mr. Welch in that, but that was inclusive of what was suggested.

[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you. Member Graham? Oh, sorry.

[Jenny Graham]: My hand's in the air, sorry, sorry.

[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: So there's a motion on the floor for Member McLaughlin to review this document, help decide what she believes could just be an update in our packet and information on our website for the public and what should be presented. So motion for approval by Member Graham, seconded by... Second. Member Reinfeld, roll call please.

[Paul Ruseau]: Member Bradley. Yes. Member Graham. Yes. Member McLaughlin. Yes. Member Oliphanty. Yes. Member Reinfeldt.

[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Yes.

[Paul Ruseau]: Member Rosselli. Yes. Mayor Longo.

[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Yes. Seven in the affirmative, zero in the negative. Motion passes.

[Paul Ruseau]: Motion to adjourn.

[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Motion to adjourn by Member Ruseau. Second. Seconded by Member McLaughlin. Roll call, please.

[Paul Ruseau]: Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.