[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: the meeting of the Metric School Committee will come to order. Please call the roll.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Here.
[Robert Skerry]: Ms. DiBenedetto.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Present. Ms.
[Robert Skerry]: Kreatz.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Here. Ms.
[Robert Skerry]: Mustone.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Here.
[Robert Skerry]: Mr. Skerry, present. Ms. Van De Kloet.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Present.
[Robert Skerry]: Mayor Burke.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Present. Seven present, none absent. All please rise and salute our flag.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: At this time, I'd like to recognize Judy Lonegan, who I believe is in the audience. Judy. If she could come up, as we all know, Judy is instrumental in putting together the Jingle Bell Festival that we have right here in City Hall Chambers during the winter season, and also the Jingle Bell Fun Run, which raises money for many charities in our community, including the Buddy Copeland Center. So I'd ask Judy to come up and say a few words and present some trophies.
[Mn4KS2yu_8U_SPEAKER_26]: All right. Thank you. You're welcome. First of all, I want to say a thank you to all the schools who participated in making this the success that it has been. This is our third year. This year we will be giving a total of almost $23,000 to the schools. Want to get insurance in real estate pays for the race. We buy all the t-shirts and we pay for the timing and we pay all the expenses. So every penny that is raised by all the students and parents and PTOs or whatever goes 100% directly back to the schools. So first year we raised $12,000. Last year we raised $15,000. And this year we raised $23,000. So hopefully we'll double it again. I'd like to acknowledge a couple of people. I'd like to first acknowledge Maury Carroll, who did a breakfast after the race, and he did a night before the race, and donated half of the proceeds, and he donated $1,400 to us. So, which was a huge boost in our bottom line. So, I'd like to thank him. I'd like to thank Elaine Rocha. our secretarial, and all of that, because her ability is above and beyond what I certainly am capable of doing. And she, if you don't give her the money, your name does not go on anything. So we always need somebody like her. Before we start to present them, I'd like all of you, after you've presented with your checks, those of you that are here, would you go out in the corridor so we're not disturbing the whole meeting, the whole night? so that we can take pictures for the newspaper, okay? All right, I would like to present the top winner's first place for the monies raised goes to the Roberts School, and they raised $2,991. I would like Hunter Overberg and Liam Antoine and their mothers to come up. Jennifer Antoine, I mean Susan Antoine, I'm sorry, was a huge factor in the money raised for the Robert School. She went out and really knocked herself out to raise money.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: You can come in closer if you want.
[Mn4KS2yu_8U_SPEAKER_26]: You're welcome. All right, come over here so I can give you, come here, you two and your mothers. And you have to take your hat off so you have a good picture. All right, no, no, no. OK, why don't we hold it up here? There, OK? Cheese. Our second trophy is going to the school that had the most participants, and that goes to the Brooks School. They had 114 participants. Now these trophies... These trophies are going to be revolving trophies. And so everyone who is the winner in these categories each year, the trophy will be moved from school to school. And so we hope that it will induce competition amongst yourselves so that you have a trophy that you can. Liz.
[Unidentified]: Oh, I'm sorry.
[Mn4KS2yu_8U_SPEAKER_26]: This is Kevin Andrews, the principal. Liz White. The Brooks School raised, where are we? The Brooks School is getting $2,000. And the Roberts School is getting $3,000. We have checks here for, I don't know if, Elaine, try to keep track of everyone who was here to receive their check. The top winners at the high school were Skills, and they raised $14,780.
[Diane Caldwell]: So I want to present you your check.
[Unidentified]: Is Mrs. Riccio here?
[Mn4KS2yu_8U_SPEAKER_26]: How much did they raise? They raised a total of just skills. Skills raised $14,780. My son Jay is here, do you wanna come up, Jay? I just noticed him, he was late. All right, crew, anyone here from crew? All right guys, you raised $1,100.52. Crew. When you get finished, if you give Mrs. Rocha your names so that we can have them for the paper. Oh, good. Thank you. You're so efficient.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Congratulations. Thank you. Congratulations. Thank you.
[Mn4KS2yu_8U_SPEAKER_26]: So we can get our big ones in the back. Asian, is anyone here from the Asian Club? Jody Lee. Mrs. Lu, I'm sorry. The Asian Club raised $1,031.08.
[Unidentified]: Congratulations.
[Mea Quinn Mustone]: Do you want to be in the picture? National honor.
[Mn4KS2yu_8U_SPEAKER_26]: Jody is also in charge of that. National Honor receives $865.35. Congratulations.
[Unidentified]: Thank you very much.
[Mn4KS2yu_8U_SPEAKER_26]: Boys basketball, anyone here from boys basketball? No, they raise $839.51. Foreign language club, is anyone here from foreign language? Yes. Congratulations, Moody. Foreign language gets $812.63.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Mr. Belson just asked me if the check was written in Spanish, French, and Italian.
[Mn4KS2yu_8U_SPEAKER_26]: Elaine only writes in English. You can tell when it gets down to $0.63, $0.24, $0.82 that Elaine's in charge. Is there anyone here who we haven't recognized? What club are you? OK, come on up. Gymnastics is getting, where am I? Gymnastics is getting $696.60.
[Roy Belson]: You're asking Roy.
[Unidentified]: Here, do you want to use mine?
[Roy Belson]: You probably got something in front of it. It's OK.
[Unidentified]: It's good.
[Roy Belson]: Just don't put your finger in front of the... Back up.
[Unidentified]: Here, do you want to use mine?
[Mn4KS2yu_8U_SPEAKER_26]: Ask the younger ones. I'll text them to you. Elaine, just turn off your phone.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Turn off your phone and put it back on.
[Mn4KS2yu_8U_SPEAKER_26]: Does anyone here who has not been recognized to get their checks? Two schools? Okay. All right, come forward. What school are you? Oh, okay.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Have you got it? Okay. You're being presented with $1,700.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: In St. Joe's, okay.
[Unidentified]: And Columbus is getting $12.70.
[Mn4KS2yu_8U_SPEAKER_26]: Wait a minute, do you know who you're going to address that with? Oh, I'm sorry, I'll get out of the way. No, don't go far. Don't go anywhere. This is the Columbus School, and they are getting a total of $1,275. And last but not least is, somebody else just came in?
[Unidentified]: St.
[Mn4KS2yu_8U_SPEAKER_26]: Rayfields, okay. All right, St. Joseph's is next. And St. Joseph's is getting a total of $2,750. Thank you. St. Ray's? These guys did the water stand for the race as well. And they are receiving a total of $1,475. Now has everybody been recognized that's here? because we do have checks left over, which we will get to them. I'm asking if all of you who are presented checks or are representing, would you just go out in the hallway so we can take a picture, a group picture for everybody.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Madam Mayor, while we're doing this, while people are gathering, I just want to give my thanks to Judy Lonergan and all the people who help her. She does a tremendous job. It's a fun event. It's been incredibly successful and we thank you very, very much, Judy.
[Mn4KS2yu_8U_SPEAKER_26]: While they're setting up, I'd like to acknowledge my son, Jay, and my daughter-in-law, Liz, who did tremendous work. Rosemary Adagna, all the people who worked on the committee without them, this would never have been the success it was. And we hope that, what are you two doing in the back? So many people, it's not a one man show for this or for the festival. It's a show of hundreds of people that support these events. And hopefully next year will be even bigger and better. Somebody will have to kneel down.
[Roy Belson]: Susan! Why don't you come up with the trophy? While we're under community participation, we'd like to invite Jen DeSales to come up and say a few words about the Medford Children's Art Showcase.
[SPEAKER_17]: Name and address of the record, please. Jennifer Destels, and my address is 21 Nolwood Road, Medford. Stephanie, can you just hold it a minute, please?
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Just hold it for a minute.
[SPEAKER_17]: Thank you. And I have two kids at the Columbus. Two kids at the club? Yeah. Congratulations. Thanks. Yeah, I got some money. So I just wrote everything down, so I'm just going to read it. Thank you, school committee members, for this opportunity to speak about the 2016 Medford Children's Art Showcase. With the support of the Medford Arts Council, this seventh annual citywide exhibit will be on display next month. As in previous years, art teachers from all Medford public schools were invited to submit work at specific grade levels. This exhibit is non-competitive and inclusive so that over the years, every child in the Medford Public Schools has an opportunity to participate. This exhibit has grown since 2009 from 29 pieces to hundreds from across the city. In this exhibit, you'll find that our art educators have guided our students to accomplish many things, multiple creative responses to the same parameters, connections to literacy, social studies, math, and science, thoughtful choices about spatial relationships and design, expression of abstract concepts, humor, and visual wit. This happens every day in our schools, and this public exhibit offers a glimpse of it outside the classroom walls. Sadly, because of reconstruction, our exhibit will no longer be located at the Meadow Glen Mall, as it had been for the past five years. I want to acknowledge the Meadow Glen Mall and Mr. Tim Therot, who helped coordinate this exhibit behind the scenes. And with help from the former Mayor McGlynn and our new host at the beautiful Rivers Edge office building in Medford, students will not miss out on taking part this year. This year's exhibit will be on public display from February 8th through 26th, Monday through Friday, during the hours of 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. School committee members are invited to the exhibit reception on the evening of Thursday, February 18th, 5.30 to 7.30. Local sketch artists will be donating quick portraits, and talented Medford High School student Fatima Lemos will give a short musical performance. Just to close, I wish to share a brief personal story about why this exhibit is important. Perhaps you know someone with a similar background. My family moved often when I was a child. This meant that I had to make new friends often. It didn't help that I'm rather quiet, as you can probably tell. In second grade, it happened that I transferred schools twice. So try to imagine this. It's my second time as the new girl in the middle of the school year and all these 7 year old strangers are eyeing me with curiosity. We exchange introductions, but it's generally a little awkward. But later that day comes a shining moment that quickly dissolves the tension. My new classmates gather around to look at a unicorn that I drew during art. It might not even have been that well drawn. This is nothing momentous for the world, but maybe it is in a small way. My drawing started a conversation. We suddenly found voices to talk about it and share a common interest. Even as a child, I learned that art is a way to make connections with others. It's just an everyday example of why art education matters at all levels.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Thank you very much, Jen.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Could we send a letter thanking the managers or the owners of the Medical Inn Mall for their past five years, allowing us to have our children's exhibits there. And I also want to thank No, no, but it was at Middle Glen Mall. And also, I just want to thank you for your commitment to doing this for our students and our community, so our community gets to see the beautiful work that children create during their school day. It's another way that we get to show the community what's happening in our schools and the beautiful things that we create through our day. Thank you very much for your time and your energy. Thank you.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Thank you very much, Jen. We'll refer to the regular order of business. Approval of the minutes of January 11, 2016. Motion to approve. Motion for approval on the floor. All those in favor?
[Mea Quinn Mustone]: Aye.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: All those opposed? Minutes are approved. Approval of bills, transfer of funds.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Motion for approval.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Motion for approval. There's one question, Mr. Benedetto.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: I had a question on page 13, National Grid. It says rink expense for the amount of $12,971. Is that for our use of the rink for both our hockey teams or is that something else?
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Page 13. If you notice, it's a 114 account. That's not a school budget. The first numbers in the account, that's actually a revolving account.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Oh, right. I just hadn't seen that before in a budget.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: OK, thank you. You're welcome. There's a motion on the floor for approval by Ms. Vanden Heuvel, seconded by Mr. Skerry. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Bill's transfers are approved. Approval of payrolls. Motion for approval by Mr. Skerry. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Payrolls are approved. Report of the secretary.
[Robert Skerry]: There is none.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: There is none. Report of committees.
[Robert Skerry]: There is none.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: None. Item seven, report of superintendents. Report on project 351 program 2016. Mr. Superintendent.
[Roy Belson]: Madam Mayor, members of the committee, project 351 is a project that was originally started by Governor Patrick. It's been continued by Governor Baker. It's an outstanding project. It takes place, it begins on Martin Luther King Day. It's a project which brings 351 students from across the Commonwealth, from all the cities and towns, together to celebrate the idea of community service and to perpetuate the ideals of Martin Luther King. It goes on all year. And tonight, our principal, Paul DeLaver, is here with the representative from the city of Medford, Joelle Brown, and her family. And he's going to come up and tell you a little bit more about the program and about the participation of Joelle. And she'll tell you a little bit about what her first day was like.
[Paul D'Alleva]: Good evening, committee members, Madam Mayor, Superintendent Belson, as you know we participated in this program since my tenure of principal. It's always been an honor to go through the selection process for picking that eighth grade student that will represent the Andrews Middle School. It goes by nomination and then selection by teacher and Joelle Brown gets it hands down here for the Andrews. She's a great student and a wonderful person. Great face to have at the end. Great person to have us representing a face down at 351. And I don't want to take the spotlight here because it really is about Joelle and her lovely family that is always there in supporting of the Andrews. So Joelle, you explain exactly what happened when you went down last Monday.
[SPEAKER_12]: OK. So last Monday, I joined another whole group of students at the Taunt Hall and Funeral Hall in Boston. And we did a bunch of projects at IBA. So it's a Hispanic church in Boston. We painted murals, made scarves from the homeless. And we ended our day at JFK Library where Charlie Rose came and spoke to us about community service and recapped our whole day. And it was really fun there. I was proud to be a representative of Medford.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Congratulations to all of you.
[Paul D'Alleva]: And as I must add, this project is still ongoing. She actually missed a conference call tonight to be here with you guys. But we called ahead and made sure that it was OK for her to be here as well. So she's going to be taking up that venture. But this project does continue throughout the whole year. So the kickoff is really on Martin Luther King Day. But the project still goes on all the way through the year.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: I just want to say I've had the privilege of actually being involved with 351 and seeing the students That I've seen every year. I Was not at the town hall this year, but I know What goes on and it's just amazing. It's amazing to see the amount of students that are there. It's amazing to see how just it's a joy. Everyone just wants to help each other and the experiences that our kids get is incredible. And I can't express how happy I am that we have Medford at the table and we have our representatives of our city go down and be part of this wonderful project. So I thank you and I keep on thanking all the students that are always involved. So thank you very much for this.
[Paul D'Alleva]: Don't forget her little sister. I have a funny feeling she'll be a representative someday too.
[SPEAKER_01]: Hi, I'm Jackie Brown. Thank you so much, Mr. DeLaver, for having selected her. It's such an honor. We're just blown away that this little preemie that we thought would never live is just outstanding and is standing before us. Thank you.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm Mike. Thanks for all you do for Medford and for the schools, Mr. DeLaver and the staff at Andrews Middle School.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: Does she want a taste? I'm sure she wants a taste.
[Roy Belson]: So Madam Mayor and members of the committee, I also attach to this a press release on the Martin Luther King Day activity at the community center in which several of our students participated. This is informational for you. We'll schedule another time for them to come down and be recognized for their work as well. But this evening, it was not appropriate for them to come down at this time, not possible.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: While I was not able to go this year, I did attend last year, and altogether this year there were 20 Medford students. And I know last year when the kids spoke, it just blew everybody away. And I happen to know one of these students, and he's such a fabulous kid. And these are the sorts of things which, again, makes Medford awfully proud when our students go out and speak like this.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Well, I was honored to be in attendance that day at St. Rayfield's Parish Hall, which is a beautiful facility. And the young students did an amazing job. They spoke so eloquently. I'm so very proud of what they had to say about community and giving back and recognizing that they may have been through some difficult times. But in order to move forward, you have to address the issues that are before you. And they did a fabulous job. So congratulations to you all. Make us proud. Report on Focus K-2 grant program.
[Roy Belson]: Mr. Mayor, members of the committee, I'm going to call on our assistant superintendent, Diane Caldwell, to tell you about this program, which we're doing with the state.
[Diane Caldwell]: Good evening. So I am very proud to announce that Shore Collaborative, along with Medford, Cambridge, and Malden Public Schools, has been awarded a Focus K-2 grant for $112,000 for school year 2015-16. This grant supports the statewide goal of improving literacy from kindergarten through second grade and will enhance the role of educational collaboratives as a partner with the ESC and school districts in early literacy. The grant is part of a four-year plan to improve literacy in the state. The grant allows Medford Public Schools to participate in professional development training on effective early learning literacy practices. These practices are designed to improve curriculum and instruction and assessment approaches exemplified by Focus K-2, a research-based curriculum developed by Boston Public Schools Early Childhood Department and its higher education partners. Boston Public Schools is currently piloting a similarly structured curriculum for the first grade and the second grade curriculum is under development. Educators will learn about effective practices in early literacy through the integrated developmentally appropriate approach to curriculum, instruction, and assessments. The practices and content are aligned with the mass curriculum frameworks in English language arts, social studies, and science, as well as the National Association for the Education of Young Children, otherwise known as NIAC, standards and the WIDA standards. So this grant will pay for the following, training provided by Boston Public Schools, district school participants' attendance at two statewide conferences as well as two regional conferences, reimbursement back to districts for substitutes for the days of the training that the staff goes to, staff mileage expenditures, classroom supplies, $500 for kindergarten teachers, who participate in the grant, and there's a literacy specialist who will work with our teachers to begin preparing and laying the foundation for implementing the Focus K-2 project. Medford Public Schools is committed to a one-year So it's just from January to June and we just found out last week that we were awarded this grant. And it's an exploration approach. Training will provide an introduction and overview of the principles as well as instruction, assessment and practices embedded in the curriculum for kindergarten through second grade. We'll have a team of teachers, K through two, that will be attending two conferences and the regional meetings. Each teacher will select at least one practice or principal from the state conference to work in their schools and then attend the regional networking meetings. We will meet towards the end of this school year to decide if this approach to learning warrants a continuation of three more years for this grant. I have brought with me this evening, well actually they came by themselves, but Maria Skiffington and Amanda Gass have piloted this grant since September. On their own, they went to Boston Public Schools this past summer and learned all about Focus K2 and were so excited about the thematic changes in the developmental approach to kindergarten that they got me on board with this in a hurry. So I'd like to ask Amanda and Maria to come up. Inside your packet, I have provided you with an introduction to Focus K2, an integrated approach towards teaching and learning, Amanda and Maria's daily schedules and their kindergarten curriculum map and a list of the literature used during the school year. Ms. Gass and Ms. Giffington are here to answer any questions you might have. So we're looking at this as an introduction for us. We already have a lot of other kindergarten teachers who are very interested in attending the conferences that will be coming up in the next month or two. And these are my stars. They've been doing this since September. So if you have any questions, I'm sure they'd be happy to answer them.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Madam Mayor?
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Thank you. I just have a question how this relates to the journeys program that we recently purchased and how we're going to use both programs.
[FZrFYASlUZo_SPEAKER_15]: Journeys is actually a separate program that is wound into it through literacy. We have a literacy block too, but focus is an integrated center based kind of approach. whatever we learn in Journeys is brought into the integrated centers.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: So you're using both programs at the same time?
[FZrFYASlUZo_SPEAKER_15]: Yeah, they're integrated. And I think in the document that you gave us, there's a curriculum map, and you can see exactly how Journeys fits into it along with them.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Perfect. I just want to make sure that we're utilizing the program that we just recently purchased, because we really want to give that program time to build from our really beginning foundation grades up because I believe that that program will help raise our scores for both MCAS, but not even that, but will help, you know, all of our students in vocabulary and in so many ways. And if every student across the district is learning from the same program, I really like that. So that way, as they get to different grade levels where they, they mingle together. they've all had the same basics and that goes smoothly.
[FZrFYASlUZo_SPEAKER_15]: Absolutely. It was designed to be able to incorporate whatever literacy or math program you have. Um, so it's kind of like an overall approach center wise and then these things get plugged in and we, we follow the journeys. program, Boston follows whatever theirs is.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: That's terrific. I'm really happy to hear that. And I think it's a great opportunity for us to learn more.