total time: 27.69 minutes
total words: 831
[Danielle Balocca]: Hey listeners, this is Danielle. And Shelly. Shelly is a radical Dravidian and racial equity activist.
[Chelli Keshavan]: And Danielle is a community mobilizer and change maker. And this is the Medford Bites podcast. Every two weeks, we chew on the issues facing Medford and deliver bites of information about the city by lifting the expertise of our guests.
[Danielle Balocca]: Join us in discussion about what you hope for the future of Medford. And as always, tell us where you like to eat. Thank you both for being here with me today. If you could just start by introducing yourself with your name, pronouns, and who you are.
[Jenny Graham]: Sure. I'm Jenny Graham. I'm the vice chair of the school committee, and I'm a Medford mom.
[Patricia Chery]: Hi, I'm Patricia Cherry. I am an advocate, I'm a mom of a child with a disability and special needs.
[Danielle Balocca]: All right, thank you both. So before we get into what we're going to talk about today, I was hoping you could both answer the question that I ask everybody. Jenny, I know you've answered this before, but if you could just share what your favorite place to eat in Medford is and what you like to eat there.
[Jenny Graham]: So I am looking forward to eating at Mrs. Murphy's, which I know will be opening like any day now. So I don't know what my favorite thing to eat will be there just yet, but I'm really excited to have another fabulous restaurant in the square.
[Patricia Chery]: Mine is Bertucci's and it's the Tuscan chicken wings.
[Danielle Balocca]: Bertucci's is my son's favorite place to go out to dinner. And it's awesome. Yeah, no, and I did hear from Barry that he's hoping to open soon, like before the end of February. So great. Okay, so the main reason that we came together today was to talk about the override now that it's passed, to hear a little bit about kind of what happens now, like sort of how the money is going to be spent, how that is decided. And I know, Patricia, you have sort of like a personal story about how you've been involved in some of this. So yeah, I wonder if maybe Jenny, if you could kind of share like what the next steps are. Sure.
[Jenny Graham]: On January 13, the school committee heard a proposal from the administration that outlined their proposal for spending the money from question 7 and question 8 in this fiscal year. So as you probably have heard, override was retroactive back to July 1. So that is part of why people felt a bigger impact on their tax bills this quarter, because we were essentially only spreading over two bills what normally would be spread over four. And there's a whole bunch of other things that went on with the assessments, which I won't get into. But At any rate, the 7M dollars between the 2 questions is available to us this year. So, what we've heard about on January 13th was the proposal for, like, how to do that spending in this fiscal year and because it's the 1st year. So right off the top, we knew and were reminded that the city advanced Medford Public Schools $1.75 million. So that $7 million comes down to 5.25. So when the administration came before us, they were really dealing with that $5.25 million pot. So we went through that presentation and I'm happy to talk about the highlights and big elements of what we agreed to. Their recommendation was approved unanimously by the school committee. So that spending is already being put into action based on what we agreed to on January 13th. There is a piece of the $5.25 million that has not yet been allocated from a spending perspective. So it is within Medford Public Schools to spend. We have not yet heard a proposal for the whole $5.25 million. The reason being is that some portion of that money Um, is allocated under the under the law, right? To be restricted to supporting some of the schedule changes that we outlined as the reason for doing the override. So we are working right now actively with our bargaining partners in the union to talk about what that piece looks like. So we'll hear another presentation about what the district is recommending based on those negotiations. And based on that, the school committee will have to approve the spending that gets proposed. So we'll hear about that maybe, like, in another month or so. And then from there, right then, then we really quickly are in year 2. so all of this money will be folded in to the budget. When we talk about our operating budget for fiscal 26, which starts on July 1. so this this sort of, like. starting point this fiscal year is a little bit unusual because it's a mid-year infusion and an ability to do some things that we didn't know that we were going to be able to do. Once we get into the next budget cycle it will be wrapped in. So essentially whatever our budget was comes up by seven million dollars and then we will still expect that the city provide an increase to our budget for next fiscal year as they the city does.
[Danielle Balocca]: You know, nearly every year, I have 2 follow up questions. When you say the proposal from the administration, who's who is that?
[Jenny Graham]: So, led by the superintendent and the director of finance, right? They sit down really with their, with their leadership team, the assistant superintendents, building principles, et cetera and say. You know, and this is typical of any budget cycle where they sit down and say, what do we need? Like, what are the proposals? What. Has to happen next year that's not happening this year. that is going to cost mon budget for and get approv we need to stop doing? Wh anymore? What should we n So every every year, even you you should see like savings proposals and spending proposals right and hopefully those things sort of work in concert with each other um so you don't get to crisis which we've been there we've done that hopefully we're charting a better path yeah so my second question was um i think in some of the uh support of the override there was a talk about like if this doesn't pass teachers losing jobs so what are we what's happening there Um, so if the override didn't pass, the biggest thing that would have happened is that advance from the city would have. Been in question, right? So the city advanced 1.75M dollars and. That allowed us to save positions. in this fiscal year, that without that advance, we would have had to cut last year. So had the override not passed, those positions would again be on the chopping block to be eliminated. Does that make sense?
[Danielle Balocca]: Yeah, that makes sense. They knew there was funding coming in, so they could lend it to you in the short term.
[Jenny Graham]: Correct. Or we were planning for a successful override, right? So that money, what that money was used to fund was half a million dollars to update our technology portfolio, right? So if you think about Chromebooks, they have a very short shelf life. They're not expensive, but there's a lot of them in the district. And we have never in Medford Public Schools had a replacement budget for technology. So anytime we needed to replace technology, it was like, Really, really hard a really, really hard to do, or we waited for it to be so bad that we would then go and say to the city, like, we need this huge amount of free cash. To fix our technology situation, what. A district needs to do in this day and age is have a replacement budget. So we now do so. In FY24, we did not have a replacement budget. We had some other sources that we were using to plug that gap. That went away with the pandemic funds expiring. So now, going forward, we have a half million dollar technology replacement budget. So that's one big thing that happened. And if the override hadn't passed, we would again be in a situation where we could not replace our technology to the tune of a half a million dollars a year. So that's a big deal. The other thing that money that advance allowed us to do was keep 14 positions that would otherwise have been cut at the end of last year. So we would have seen. two elementary school teachers, two high school teachers, two literacy coaches, one nurse, four curriculum administrators, and three behavior specialists. Their positions would have been eliminated on June 30th. We saved them with the advance. Now they can now we can not worry about having to save them again. That becomes permanent and not just in advance anymore. Does that make sense?
[Danielle Balocca]: It does, yeah. And it sounds like there's now a little bit more flexibility in what you can plan for the future. And I guess I'm wondering, maybe Patricia, you can talk about how community input has been taken for some of those things.
[Patricia Chery]: So what I can add is that when a group of us parents, all who have kids with special needs and disabilities, we heard that they were planning on proposing these overrides. So in that, we reached out and asked to see, you know, some of the, I think Jenny had put something out that was showing what the overrides would cover, like specifically what was under six, specifically what was under seven. And, you know, no disrespect, but of course, our group was not under any of those questions. So that's when the wheel started turning and us as parents were like, well, this is the perfect time that if we're going to be voting yes to these overrides and adding more money to the budget, we want some of that money to go specifically to our kids. We hear a lot all the time about, you know, teacher aides and raises and, you know, positions to be held. We wanted to see something that actually tangible, something that went to our children. So I reached out to Zach and Jenny, Um, we had our initial meeting probably about eight months ago. Um, and from there we broke it off into a couple of different subgroups. Um, I was meeting with Jenny and was it was Aaron, right? Yep. Yep. Aaron, um, on the school committee side and on the city council side, we were meeting with Matt and Anna. Um, with Jenny, we had, we had conversations with Jenny. We came up with, You know, after I think one or two meetings, we came up with exactly what we wanted to ask for. And our asks were to have the Best Buddy program implemented in our public schools, to have an inclusion specialist hired. to one inclusion specialist for all the schools. We're hoping in the future to get one for each school. And then we wanted more bus monitors, because buses are a huge issue for our kids. We told her our three asks. Again, we had multiple conversations and We went to the school committee meeting on the 13th and we were, you know, a bunch of us parents showed up to, you know, say why we wanted these things and that it was time that, you know, our kids had a spot, had a seat at the table. You know, we hear, like I said, we were always hearing about, oh, the aides and the aides that have to take care of these kids and the specialists that have to take care of these kids. And it was always, it was never the kid about, something that was going to the actual kid. Yes, we need parents. Yes, we need these teachers, but we also need programming. We need social activities for our kids. We need places for our kids to go and to, you know, be productive citizens and grow as the humans that they're gonna be, you know? So we went to Jenny, went to the school committee, and we were ready to get up and say everything we needed to say. We didn't need to because it was already put in the budget and they passed it. So that's pretty much how I came about with the school committee part. We also did meet with the city council regarding the overrides on that side of it. Their budget doesn't go till May, but we are asking for an inclusion specialist and more programming for kids in the city. So we are very, very happy with the three asks and getting those done right now. And we're not stopping there. We're gonna continue. This isn't the last time you've heard from this group of parents. What did I call us? Parents in the park. We'll be back to ask for more because I think this is showing good faith to us anyways, as group. When you read about the, the overrides and what it's going to entail. A lot of it is all the behind the scenes stuff. People who are paying for the overrides don't actually see these things come to fruition. It's all behind the scenes stuff. And this is something that you're actually seeing. The Best Buddies program is starting in the high school. They just identified both teachers, a subseparate teacher. and a gen ed teacher to start running the program. It's now going to go to the kids to sign up. So this is going to be something that you're going to now see in our community, finally, you know, something for us. So that's where we came from. That's what what I have gotten from the override. So I'm very happy with it. And I will tell you, I was a person that was on the fence. I was not You know, I was very much, I have no more money. You know, I can't afford this. You know, Jenny kept saying it's a cup of coffee. I'm like, girl, sometimes I can't afford a cup of coffee. So it really, after doing this with her and she, it was so easy. It was not easy, but it was it wasn't confrontational. It was never a negative vibe. They all, she always worked side by side with us, like helping us to get what we wanted. It wasn't an us against me, which is how I've always seen those things. Cause you watch those meetings and it's like, but no, if you, if you, if you talk to somebody and civilly and, and, and ask for, you know, Hey, this is what I'm looking for. Most of the time, the people on, on these committees are willing to help out and abide. That's, what I've received, so.
[Jenny Graham]: Yeah, and I think, you know, the interesting thing about sort of what you see on TV or on Zoom versus like how things happen, it's just, there's sort of two worlds that collide, right? And when we talk about like how a budget gets prepared, It's really easy to be like, well, the administration does or doesn't like this thing. But the truth is, the administration does work really hard to say, what do we need and and they actually know, like, they. They are thoughtful leaders in their own right, and they know what their priorities are. They know what they are seeing is needed and not needed and all of those things. But they also spend a lot of time talking to everybody about what other people think that we need. Like, every year that we build a budget, the school committee gets asked, like, what are our priorities? What are the things that we're looking for, right? And unfortunately, when you are in a universe where you're just cutting the budget one year after the next, people start to feel bad about asking those questions about, what do you think we need? Because they're like, I know I'm not going to be able to give you this thing because I know I'm going to have to cut the budget. So the administration and the finance people, they definitely have a rough job because it's usually their job to say, I know we want all these things, but we can't have them right now. So that's painful for them. But they do take a lot of time and care to say what is the best way to spend this money? Where are the prime needs in the district and how do we do that? So, in the background, after talking about these needs, the inclusion specialists in particular, that's a bigger expense, right? That's a whole person versus Best Buddies is a stipended position, so a little bit easier to like get off the ground. When we were talking about these things, And I was talking to the administration about these being things that I wanted to see. There was no objection. There was no disagreement. There was no strong arming that the district would be a better place if we could hire an inclusion specialist. There was no disagreement about that at this time, or frankly, probably ever. But what was different in the right now is we actually had Enough money that doing that would not mean not doing something else or saying goodbye to some other professional that we weren't prepared to say goodbye to. So this money gives us a unique opportunity to say, how do we sort of. How do we do this a little bit better and more productively? And where are those places where we should invest? And some of them, you know, some of them will look like an inclusion specialist that works with teachers and buildings and with kids, right? And others will be sort of invisible to the to the community or to the kids, but really important, like. You know, the example I'd like to give people is, um, our payroll office until recently has run with two payroll specialists. We have 800 employees. They do like 10 payroll runs and they pay. weekly paychecks, they pay bi-weekly paychecks, they pay teacher schedule paychecks, and then everything under the sun, overtime, all the things. So these poor two people have been trying to like hold the district together and the very first thing you do to have happy employees is you paint them on time, right? So for these two folks like It was, it's impossible. It was impossible for them to ever not be in crisis mode. So one of the changes, one of the investments that we made that we approved was a third position. Now, students aren't going to see that person, but without that person, we're not supporting teachers. And when you don't support teachers, you're giving them cause to have to step away from the work that they're there to do to go fight about some question about their paycheck. Right? And. When you pay people accurately and reliably and fairly, things get better, right? Things improve for everybody. So that's a position where it's like, yes, it's an administrative position. That person is in our administrative assistance union. But the work they do is so important to enabling everything that we need to happen so that teachers can focus on kids. So there are some things like that that are being proposed and were approved, like some swing shift custodians to support our programming. That does not just happen during the school day. So there's all kinds of things and reasons why this money is going to be put to good use. And we're trying hard to make sure that the vast majority of the money is used in a way that as directly as possible benefits kids. We're not looking to spend this hard won money frivolously. We're not cleaning the bathrooms in gold, and we're not laying down cobblestone walks. We are doing things like, Fixing the elevator at the high school because it's broken. Like, we're, you know, we're do we're going to fix the flashing at the McGlynn elementary school. Finally. That causes it to rain inside a 1st floor kindergarten classroom when the rain comes sideways at the building, like. These are really important things. It's going to be amazing for that kindergarten teacher and all her students to be able to go to school after a sideways rainy day and not have a classroom full of buckets and ruined carpets. Right? Like, but that fix was that's not a. That's not a minor fix that's like over a 100,000 dollar fix because we have to. Pull the roof off and pull bricks away from the, from the side of the building and fix it. Like, it's, it's not a small change and it. It will mean so much to 1 kindergarten class. But just 1, so those are the kinds of things that when the whole system is constrained. You, they, they get left. and people feel neglected and it's not untrue, but it's not for lack of interest in fixing the problems. But often what the school committee ends up doing is having to make choices. Like we know what we want, we want all the things, right? But we can only have 10 things and we want 15. Well, we have to then decide which are the five we're not going to go forward with. And I think, you know, when you hear the community come out in support of the things that they're worried about being cut, rightfully so, what you hear about is why that thing is important, but we sort of are a district where there's no obvious like, well, we don't need to do that thing anymore. Nobody comes with like ideas on the thing that we don't need anymore. And that's partially because we've been a very bare bones district for a really long time. So, It changes, you know, sort of the opportunity to do some of the things, like, take care of our buildings. We were able to make some mid year hires like, mid year hires are really hard to do in a school, but there are some places where we felt like we could do it. Well, the inclusion specialist is 1 of them. And then there are others where we will look at whether there's hiring that has to be done starting with the FY26 budget, right? So there's still more to come in terms of the full effect of all of this as we figure out the spending on the remaining bucket of money that has not been earmarked just yet. And that amount of money is $3.7 million. So there's a sizable piece of spending on the table for this fiscal year that we are still having to do. And a lot of that is wrapped up in the changes that we're trying to see come next school year with longer days and fixing the high school schedule and all that good stuff.
[Patricia Chery]: And I think for us, that was probably just what she just spoke of is that that was our biggest kick in our pants is that our particular group of kids were the ones when the cuts needed to be made, were always the ones that were mostly affected. You know, it was the AIDS being cut. It was everything, you know what I mean? So, so we, we were tired of that. We were tired of like, okay, we're getting cut AIDS. Now we got, 20 kids with all different learning abilities with one teacher and one aide stuck in a classroom because the cuts once again came to our group of kids. So that, yes, I agree 100%. The override is going to take care of that. I hope that our kids most vulnerable, as we always talk about how we always wanna help the most vulnerable, that the most vulnerable will no longer be the people that are getting the cuts because we don't have the money. know so that that is great and the inclusion specialist I want to add it's it's bigger than just a position. An inclusion specialist what we're hoping for this inclusion specialist is to finally build a bridge and a gap that MedFed has always had between kids with disabilities and Gen Ed kids. That gap in the city of MedFed and to be honest with you the reason why I noticed this gap so much is because my daughter isn't in district. She's out of district. And I would come, I would take my daughter to school that, you know, seventh grade when she first started out of district. And I would come back and see all my friends who was still in district. And I'm like, Oh my God, my daughter has cooking classes. She has the best buddies program. She's, she's getting swim lessons. They go out into the community every Thursday to learn how to use their money. And, you know, I'm talking to somebody who's like, yeah, my son's in a class and there's 22 kids and they don't have any aid and there's only one it was it was it was it was it was just so horrible to hear, you know. So this is a really, really, really big deal. And I know that this is going to affect so many kids and so many parents.
[Danielle Balocca]: And hopefully what Jenny's describing creates a shift. It seems like before this, people were fighting over, well, I need the things for my kids, so I can't possibly think about what you... People are pitted against each other, right? Or the different needs are pitted against each other rather than how can we help everybody and how can we be inclusive of everybody? We didn't have the money. And it sounds like now we're in a different position where we can address these priorities in a better way.
[Patricia Chery]: Yeah, I agree. And I think as far as the pitting goes, I don't think that there was too much pitting because that was one of our big talks in front of the school committee is that, you know what, before you give to the programs that already have, we just wanted one program that didn't exist. So we just wanted something before everybody else got more. So that's where we were at.
[Jenny Graham]: No, but I mean, it is a fair point to talk about. Because since the beginning of being on the school committee, it's always been very clear to me that the real need of the district was like $10 to $12 million more. And what we just did was do seven more. So we made a huge dent in that number. But there will still be, as we go forward, there will still be change. There will still be hard decisions. I just am really hopeful that we're not at the catastrophic level of hard decisions that I feel like we've been at ever since I took office, really, for any variety of reasons. So we still have to do hard work to say, where could we save money? Um, how could we do something better? How could we be more efficient? Like, I think all of those things are so critically important. Because there is not an endless amount of money, right? Like, this the. So, we, we moved the, you know, we expanded the pile of money to, so to speak, but it cannot keep expanding that way. Without more overrides, and that's not something anybody's particularly interested in doing. So, you know, we will again go into a cycle of the district needing to figure out how to self fund the new things they want to do because. We know that the city's revenue is capped. At 2 and a half percent a year, plus new growth, so short of, like, explosions and new growth, like, the, the universe of what's possible year to year to year is quite. Finite, right? So. You know, I think about some of the things that are happening in the city when they, when, when we're talking about, like. Proposed zoning, which I know is a very hot topic right now. 1 of the things that happens in that discussion is. When we're opposing zoning changes, whatever they might be, that again sort of restricts and confines what the city's growth can be or how quickly it can happen. And that's not to say it's entirely the reason you should just say, yes, do anything you want. There need to be rules. But when we talk about how communities sort of grapple with Proposition 2.5, Um, if you have land, you build right? Like, if you are in Western mass, like, a developer can go put in a new. 25 lot something, right? There's not so many spaces around Medford that. Where that is possible, so we're talking about. redeveloping things that are already developed in some fashion. So it is a really different conversation. Our toolbox is just more limited than some communities that have many more options at their disposal to grow their tax base. So that's one thing. The school committee in Arlington has put forward a request to change the the taxation structure that is available to communities so that when the communities required spending on education, it goes up more than 2.5% that the community has some leverage to be able to like move the tax rates accordingly. That will go to the legislature. I don't know what will happen or whether they will be successful, but at the end of the day, If everything is going to cost more money and communities can only. Collect 2 and a half percent more than they did last year. You know, like, this is this sort of a vicious cycle, right? And what you see in many communities is that. They, they have an override cycle of, you know, every X years, they, they're doing an override to support what has happened in the community at that time. We've never done this before, so I think we're not in a cycle so much because this was the first time. When you see communities in a cycle, they tend not to be as big. They tend not to be $7 million big. They tend to be much smaller. But you see a different cadence than what has happened in Medford. So I'm hopeful that some of the development discussions will be productive. We'll see some amazing new development, like a Mystic app. As long as they don't take my yoga studio away. We can use all the tools in our toolkit and not just have to be asking for more money to support basic operations. But this was a huge step in the right direction.
[Danielle Balocca]: Thank you. Is there anything else that you're excited about that will be changed or added because of the overhead?
[Jenny Graham]: Um, yeah, so if I was to think about some of the things that are, like, the. The most, um. Sort of tangible for folks, um. There's a number of teachers that we were able to fund and pay for where. The district had to hire the teachers so that our class sizes did not explode based on last minute enrollment. So we're able to pay for those and not have to cut something else between now and the end of the year to sort of balance the budget. Right? and that includes a district wide music teacher. Um, we also, um, we'll be adding another administrative assistant, um, to the McGlynn complex. That's very visible. Um, we'll have a nurse that can sort of float and cover, um, the nurses across the district. Um, we will be doing some changes, some changes to security around, um, how staff enter and, have access to buildings. So instead of having actual keys, we will be moving on into the modern day around, you know, access and security and knowing who's in the building and all that good stuff. Um, we've got a whole bunch of, um, maintenance things that are on the list. Um, we'll be replacing $12,000 worth of instruments, um, across Medford public schools. That's a big deal. Um, we also, um, let's see, And then we will be like, really preparing for. This shift in the schedule that we're working through with our bargaining partners and that that will be a big deal. There's a ton of work to do to make that happen. But. Increasing the amount of education we're able to provide to students is huge. And that's to be able to create more access for, like, electives for the high school. Yes. So 1 of the, it will change the schedule substantially at the high school. So that. Our vocational students have more access to things that they just can't access today, like the arts. My daughter is at the in the robotics program, and she takes Spanish online, which is like a really terrible way to learn the language. And, you know, there's things like that where the schedule and and the other big thing. To Trisha's point is that some of the support that our students need academically is really, really hard to accomplish in the current schedule, particularly if they're at the book. So we should be able to open up. More academic support for students who may be struggling. And so that will be a very big deal as well. So there's lots to come this, you know, we're, we're hard at work doing what we can to get ready and working with the teachers to negotiate all the changes to the contract that will have to happen in order to enable all of this. But. There's, there's a lot, there's a lot to do.
[Patricia Chery]: And you guys also took the first step that I have to say that I've seen in a long time of actually trying to be inclusive.
[Jenny Graham]: Thank you. I appreciate that.
[Patricia Chery]: There was not inclusion before, and this is the first time a lot of us feel like, okay, they're going in the right direction and they want to see this happen, happen to. So I have to say, you know, you guys should pat yourself on the back because you took that step and you're actually standing behind the words that you guys always, everybody throws around most vulnerable, inclusive and blah, blah, blah. It's just words. You're actually doing action and that's got to be commended.
[Jenny Graham]: Thank you. I appreciate that. This is, um, you know, this is a really interesting, complicated job. Um, And often you're just the sort of bad guy that says no. So it's nice to be able to think forward a little bit for change.
[Danielle Balocca]: Yeah, Patricia shared with me before we started recording that she's had, she has a kid, she has kids in like in three different decades, and that she's been doing this sort of advocacy for a long time. And so I feel like that's a meaningful statement to say, like, in all that time.
[Patricia Chery]: Yeah, I was saying to her, I said, I've gone through the Medford public school system, my oldest is 33 years old, my second is 24, my third is 14. So I've been down this road, not with, they don't have any disabilities or special needs, but you know, other things. And it's just been the same old song, the same old dance, you get told the same old things. And that's why I think you get a lot of the hostility that you get, because nobody actually steps forward and takes actionable steps.
[Jenny Graham]: to things it's always words it's always words you know yeah it means a lot when you start stepping up it does people notice and they're like okay well you know yeah it's it's really interesting i you know my kids are in eighth grade and 10th grade now and the district is it really is a very different place than it was you know when lila was in kindergarten um There's a reading curriculum in elementary schools. There's a science curriculum in the elementary schools. There's a math curriculum in the elementary schools. There's new textbooks. We use computers. There has been so much change. If you get to sit back and reflect, we really are a district that is in transition and is moving forward. But it's very easy to get stuck in what we're not doing yet or what we can't do. And I feel like that's sort of where we've always been, and we're trying to break out of that. So it's a work in progress, but I think we're moving in the right direction at this point. So my kids have had a good experience here. Lila's in the vocational school, so I look forward to making some changes that make the schedule better for not just her, but for all the half of our students that are involved in vocational education at this point. It's not a minority of students. It's not what your vocational school used to look like when we went to school. It's a really different place, and there's just so much opportunity. for the kids that go through the district. So bringing that opportunity to more kids is sort of the name of the game for me and making sure that all kids are feeling like they have that opportunity and that it's not like a one size fits all picture of like what opportunity needs or looks like.
[Patricia Chery]: And that's definitely something that is my goal. I would like to see my daughter at some point before she graduates back in a Medford public school within the city that she lives for and lives in in the city that you'll actually probably work in, which is another area that I'm working with city council. There is no jobs or nothing in the city of Medford right now that would accommodate my daughter. We don't have any transitioning programs that are linking up. And that's why this little bit opens to bigger things. When you start seeing these kids walking around together in groups, it means a lot. To start really being inclusive means a lot to a lot of people in this community. You'd be surprised how many people in this community this is going to benefit. So one day, hopefully, before she graduates, she'll be back in a Medford public school. That's your next goal, Jenny.
[Danielle Balocca]: Well, thank you both. Is there anything else that you want to add before we wrap up?
[Jenny Graham]: I don't think so. I'm happy to come chat anytime, as you know. But it was nice to have a partner in crime this time. So thanks, Tricia, for joining me.
[Patricia Chery]: And I'd love to come back and talk about the city council.
[Danielle Balocca]: Oh, excellent. An open invitation.
[Patricia Chery]: Before their budget in May is finalized.
[Danielle Balocca]: All right, well, that sounds like a plan, but thank you both.
[Unidentified]: Thank you.
[Danielle Balocca]: Thanks so much for listening to today's episode. The Medford Bites podcast is produced and moderated by Danielle Balacca and Shelly Keshaman. Music is made by Hendrik Idonis. We'd love to hear what you think about the podcast. You can reach out to us by email at medfordpod at gmail.com, or you can rate and review the podcast on Apple Podcasts. Thanks so much for listening. Guys, what's the name of the podcast? Medford Bites. Medford Bites. Good job.
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total time: 27.69 minutes total words: 831 |
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