[Erin DiBenedetto]: Would you please call the roll?
[Robert Skerry]: Mrs. Cugno.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Present.
[Robert Skerry]: Mrs. DiBenedetto.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Present.
[Robert Skerry]: Mrs. Kreatz.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Present.
[Robert Skerry]: Mrs. Mustone.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Present.
[Robert Skerry]: Mr. Skerry. Present. Mrs. Van der Kloof.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Present.
[Robert Skerry]: Mayor Burke.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Present. All please rise and salute the flag. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic
[Ann Marie Cugno]: under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: This portion of the school committee is our organizational meeting where we will elect a vice chair as well as a secretary. I open it up to nominations. Is there anyone who would like to nominate someone for secretary of the Medford School Committee?
[Robert Skerry]: Madam Mayor, I wish to nominate Erin DiBenedetto.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: for Secretary of the School Committee.
[Robert Skerry]: No. Vice Chairman.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Madam Mayor, I would like to nominate Robert Emmett Skerry for Secretary.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Do I hear any other nominations? I second. Hearing and seeing none, I close that portion of the meeting. Please call the roll.
[Robert Skerry]: Mrs. Cuno.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: We doing both at the same time? We're doing the Secretary.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: OK. All right. I just wanted to make sure. Robert Emmett Skerry.
[Robert Skerry]: Mrs. DiBenedetto.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Robert Emmett Skerry.
[Robert Skerry]: Mrs. Kreatz.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Robert Emmett Skerry.
[Robert Skerry]: Mrs. Mustone.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Mr. Skerry.
[Robert Skerry]: Mr. Skerry. I abstain. Mrs. Van der Kloot.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Robert Emmett Skerry, Jr.
[Robert Skerry]: Mae Burke.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Robert Emmett Skerry, Jr. A vote of six in the affirmative, none in the negative. One abstained. Congratulations, Mr. Skerry. You are the secretary of the school committee for this upcoming year. I would now like to elect a vice chair of the school committee. I'll open it up to nominations.
[Robert Skerry]: Madam Mayor, I wish to nominate Aaron DeBenedetto.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Are there any seconds? I second that. Is there anyone else that you'd like to place a nomination? Hearing none, I'll close the meeting and open it up to the roll call. Mr. Scari, please call the roll.
[Robert Skerry]: Mrs. Cuno.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Aaron DeBenedetto.
[Robert Skerry]: Mrs. DeBenedetto.
[Mea Quinn Mustone]: I abstain.
[Robert Skerry]: Mrs. Kreatz.
[Mea Quinn Mustone]: Aaron DeBenedetto.
[Robert Skerry]: We will now close the organizational meeting and move on to the regular order of business.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Approval of the minutes from December 21st, 2015. Move approval, Mr. Chairman, Madam Chairman. Motion for approval on the floor, seconded by Mr. Benedetto. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Minutes are approved. Approval of bills, transfer of funds.
[Roy Belson]: Move approval.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Motion for approval by Mr. Skerry, seconded by Ms. Vandekloot. Roll call vote.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Yes.
[Robert Skerry]: Mr. Benedetto?
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Yes.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Yes.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Yes.
[Robert Skerry]: Mr. Skerry, yes. Ms. Van der Kloot?
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Yes.
[Robert Skerry]: Mayor Burke?
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Yes. Seven in the affirmative, none in the negative. Approval of the bills and transfer of funds. Approval of payrolls. Motion for approval by Ms. Van der Kloot and seconded by Mr. Skerry. Call the roll, please.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Yes.
[Robert Skerry]: Mr. Benedetto?
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Yes. Ms.
[Robert Skerry]: Gretz?
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Yes.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Yes.
[Robert Skerry]: Mr. Skerry, yes. Ms. Van der Kloot?
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Yes.
[Robert Skerry]: Mayor Burke?
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Yes. Seven in the affirmative, none in the negative. Approval of payrolls. Report of the secretary.
[Robert Skerry]: There is none.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: No report. Report of committee. There are none. Mr. Superintendent. Community participation. I'm seeing there is none. Report of the superintendent. The first order is the recommendations to accept anonymous gift to the Columbus School. Mr. Superintendent.
[Roy Belson]: Madam Mayor, I don't believe I see Kathleen Kaye here, but I do see Diane Caldwell, who will represent Kathleen Kaye, to tell us about an anonymous gift to the Columbus School.
[Diane Caldwell]: Donors who would like to remain anonymous gave $2,500 to the Columbus Elementary School in the hopes that they could purchase something that is sustainable in the libraries, perhaps. Miss Kaye sent a thank you note, and I could read it to you if you would like. Please accept my sincerest thanks on behalf of the Columbus Elementary School for your incredibly generous donation of $2,500. This is such a special gift for the students and staff and came as a wonderful surprise. Please know that it will be put to very good use And as discussed, the teachers and I will pick items that are self-sustaining and will bring repeated benefit year after year. Once this item has been chosen, I promise I will inform you about the purchase. As procedures dictates, our assistant superintendent, Diane Caldwell, has made the school committee aware of your donation. Once deposited into the district account, it will then be used for our school. This gives us some time to make an informed and beneficial purchase. Words cannot effectively enough thank you for the help and support you have offered to our school. Have a healthy, happy new year. Ms. Kay has sent emails to Richard Trotta and to Molly Layden asking them for their help, especially in technology, to see what we might be able to purchase. So we're thinking about e-readers for the library or some additional iPads for our students.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Thank you, Ms. Caldwell.
[Diane Caldwell]: Ms.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: DiVenedetto. This is a repeated donation year after year.
[Diane Caldwell]: This is a different one.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Oh, this is a new one. Yes. Oh, cause I, I always hear of this donation every year for, for the Columbus school. So now they have a new, they have a new donor. That's, that's wonderful news. And it's good news. That's really nice. I'm so glad that our community is really looking at our schools as a place to really help children learn in creative ways that, you know, the doll is a stretch. So that's great. It's wonderful. It's nice giving back. Thank you very much.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: There's a motion on the floor for approval by Mr. Skerry. Is there a second? Second. Second. Second. Roll call vote, please.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Yes.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Yes.
[Robert Skerry]: Mr. Kreatz?
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Yes.
[Robert Skerry]: Mr. Stone? Yes. Mr. Skerry, yes. Ms. Van der Kloot?
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Yes.
[Robert Skerry]: Mayor Burke?
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Yes. And the vote is 7 in the affirmative, none in the negative. The motion passes. Recommendation to accept gifts from... Meadey. Meadey Corporation. Dr. Mathenos? Martinez. Martinez Van, I'm sorry, Van Schor to fund robotics team. Mr. Superintendent.
[Roy Belson]: Madam Mayor, members of the committee, we have with us this evening Carolyn Joy, our Director of Mathematics. who will come up and tell us a little bit about the blockball team. We also have Barbara Chin, the advisor to the blockball team, and also several members. They've done exceptionally well over the year. And Dr. Martinez Van Schor has been incredibly generous for multiple years, enabling them to participate in this wonderful event. I'm going to turn it over to Carolyn to give us a greater explanation.
[Carolyn Joy]: Good evening. Dr. Fan Shui, he is the CEO and founder of Mighty Technologies in Medford. And this is his fifth year when he is offering a donation to the robotics team so that they can compete in the 2016 Ball Ball Tournament, which is held up at the university, up at Lowell. The gift provides the funding necessary for application and registration for the team to participate. The gift, again, is to the students, and the students of both the high school and the vocational technical school are invited to participate. There are no qualifications to be part of the team. It's just a willingness to be there and a dedication to see the project through. And today, Ms. Chen has brought with her a representative sample of students for you to meet from ninth graders up to twelfth graders. So I'd like to ask Ms. Chen to come up and introduce some of the students. Ms. Chen.
[R49wqTZ5YIg_SPEAKER_00]: Today we have seven students show up. There are two seniors, Serena Doe and Chris Morristown. And then there are two juniors, Scott and Joe Bell. And then there are one sophomore, Scott, and then two freshmen. There are two new members.
[Carolyn Joy]: And what's very interesting is that we still have seniors who have already sent out their applications to colleges, but still are very dedicated to moving the team forward this year. So it's nice to see them kind of learning from each other as they grow in it. Last year we came in second place. So we're looking for first place this year.
[R49wqTZ5YIg_SPEAKER_00]: last year we have 23 schools and right now this year I think I look online it's about 14-15 school registered so I'm not sure at the actual game how many school will compete against.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: What's the date of the event?
[R49wqTZ5YIg_SPEAKER_00]: Is it already scheduled, the date of the event? Yeah, April 30th. And this next Saturday, we have the regional workshop that marked the beginning of the season. And that takes about eight weeks. I wish you the best.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Madam Mayor. I'd like to ask that a letter be sent out to Martinez Von Schor. Dr. Von Schor has been incredibly generous year after year supporting this, so please express our thanks from the Medford School Committee to him. And I'm thankful for the students who made a point of coming out tonight. Thank you very much, and we hope to see you again.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Madam Mayor, I also want to express our thanks to our teachers because without an advisor for this group, It wouldn't happen. And I know that this particular group takes a lot of hours and time to be ready for this competition. And in MedFed, I want to really tell the community how wonderful our teachers are and you exemplified our best. Thank you very much for your time.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Wonderful. Is there a motion on the floor for approval?
[Robert Skerry]: Motion to approve.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Second. Seconded by Ms. Cuno. Roll call vote, please.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Yes.
[Robert Skerry]: Mr. Benedetto?
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Yes.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Yes.
[Robert Skerry]: Mr. Stone? Yes. Mr. Scaria? Yes. Ms. Van der Kloot? Yes. Mayor Burke?
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Yes. Seven in the affirmative, none in the negative. The gift is accepted. Thank you very much, Ms. Joy. Thank you. Good luck. Report on Medford Public Schools Enrollment Demography and Class Size, January 2016.
[Roy Belson]: Madam Mayor and members of the committee, as we approach a new term, and as we begin an opportunity for new members to become familiar with our school system, I thought it would be instructive to provide you with some brief information about the enrollment in the schools, who is our student body, and what are some of the things that we have to face going forward. So as we begin a new school term, it's useful to provide this snapshot about enrollment, demography, and class sizes. These statistics are basically the fundamental data that we will use, the facts that we will use to determine our program and our budget going forward, both now and in the future. So let's note some of the following. Overall enrollment is 4,462 students pre-K through 12 in all our school buildings. There are students who are outside of our school buildings for whom we're responsible, but these are the students in our school buildings. This number is down slightly from last year's count of 4,514. The number will fluctuate as the year goes in, as youngsters come and go. This is a snapshot of a number that we had last week when we prepared this report. Our school population is approximately 65.5% Caucasian, 15.3% Afro-American, 8.6% Asian, and 9.5% Hispanic, with the remainder being of mixed racial origin. There are slightly more males and females in the school system system-wide. There are 23.5% of our students whose first language is not English. The ELL English language learners student population is 7.8%, but that's growing all the time. Students with disabilities are approximately 18% of enrollment. Students are considered high risk by state guidelines of 43% of enrollment. And that includes disadvantage economically, special needs, people don't speak English as a first language. We have over 400 teachers in our school system. The student teacher ratio is 11.5 to 1 compared to the statewide number of 13.3 to 1. 99.7% of our teachers are fully licensed for their teaching assignments, compared to 97.4% statewide. So I've provided you some charts to look at a little bit, which will give you some idea of, you know, where these things are distributed. But let's go on a little bit more. Kindergarten enrollment by school teacher and kindergarten age fed inclusion designations. enrollment by school grade, grade level classification, elementary class size enrollment by school grade level, and teaching. Overall, middle school and high school vocational school class sizes are good. There's some variation based upon student course selection and specific student requirements. Periodically, we will provide you with additional data as the year progresses that will help us jointly plan programs, staffing, and budgetary matters. If you look at the first chart, you'll see how the students are distributed by grade levels. See that on that chart there. Happy to take any questions as we move forward. The next chart consolidates those numbers, so you can see it by levels and by specific schools. And the third chart is the elementary enrollment chart, which speaks directly to class size. Now the class size issues are always at the forefront of the school committee's concerns. But if you look at it, the class size in Medford are exemplary. They're better than most communities around us, better than more wealthy communities. And I think the school committee has made this a very high priority over the years. And I think it's well placed. And I'll be happy to answer any questions about that particular chart. And the last chart, if I can, I'm just going to finish one chart. The last chart is a look at the kindergarten aims list. And you can see that there are kindergarten aides, some are part-time, some are full-time. Normally we assign full-time aides in classrooms where there are students who require special attention. Part-time normally is in situations in general where there are students who require significant additional time. Since we're in negotiations with our paraprofessionals, and because it's a sensitive topic, we chose not to take any time away from anyone. So there are some classrooms which are not inclusionary right now that retain their full-time in. This is a topic undoubtedly that some of you would like to talk about some more and we should probably schedule some time to talk about it so you can decide what you want to do going forward in the future. There's some question as to whether or not the state will continue to provide kindergarten funding for expansion of kindergartens. It may not show up in the next statewide budget. It's approximately $143,000 and that's something we need to take into consideration. However, you may have the desire to make this a priority and do some other things with other resources. So I'll be happy to take any questions, Madam Mayor, or I'm happy to entertain any concerns anyone has.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Mr. Benedetto. Thank you. I have a few questions. First of all, in regards to the kindergarten needs, could you please provide us a report of what the difference in cost would be to up all the part-time people to full-time? That's my first request. Secondly, I want to know if the larger kindergarten classes at the McGlynn, with 23 students in two classes, are receiving, both of those have full-time kindergarten aides.
[Roy Belson]: As I said in my introduction, the reason for that is that there were people who were full time. Class size numbers sometimes go up and down. And because we were negotiating with the paraprofessionals union, and because we tried to maintain harmony in that situation, not bump people down or take hours away from people, we agreed to let it stand for this year until a more complete discussion could be had.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: So in those two classes at the McGlynn School that have 23 students in each class, there is a full-time kindergarten aide because that's a lot of kindergartners for someone not to have an aide with them in the afternoon.
[Roy Belson]: I would suggest to you that our kindergarten class sizes even at the McGlynn are some of the best in the state.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Overall, our class sizes are one of the best I've ever seen in the state of Massachusetts, and I agree with you wholeheartedly. But 23 is still a large number of little ones, and I personally believe that we need to look into having full-time aides in our classrooms, because kindergarten is the foundation of our education, and if you're tying shoes instead of actually teaching, That's detrimental to the classroom. So that's my opinion, and I would like to know whether those two largest classrooms have full-time kindergarten aides.
[Roy Belson]: Well, that's what it says. You can see it from here.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: I want to make sure those two rooms are the ones that have the full-time aides.
[Roy Belson]: We'll be happy to provide the information.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Madam Mayor. It says part-time at. Oh, no, wait a minute. I'll check it.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: One's part-time, one's full-time.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: OK. So we need to look at this.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: Ms. Cuno. Actually, the first two questions were the ones that Aaron just asked. We just want a breakdown of the full times and the part time and how much it would cost to have full time across the board. I do want to say, looking at the numbers, I know that we like to look at certain things and make sure that we keep them the way we are, but I have to say, When I'm looking at these numbers in classrooms, they are incredible. I just came off of a conference talking about this. And if I had shown them this, they would have been so happy. But again, as Erin mentioned, having the 23 students in a classroom, especially with the younger students, it is something that we really need to look at. And I know that you mentioned we would have maybe a meeting of the whole on this particular issue. But the other thing I am looking at is the middle schools. And I'm looking at the middle school right now, and there is a difference of about 30 students, and they keep on climbing. So again, I know that I've brought this concern up in the past. But I'd like to make sure that we also look at it for the year coming when September rolls around. If the numbers are going to be jumping up again towards one school rather than another school, I just don't want to see that. I'd like to see it equal across the board. I know that one of the schools does have the inclusion classes. Well, no, both schools have. Both have inclusions now. So I just want to keep our eyes opened on, especially the middle schools, because I do see those numbers going up.
[Roy Belson]: So from year to year, because it's open selection, some people will choose one school over the other. Another factor is that there are certain specialized classes which go up and down, special needs, ELL, and that affects it as well. We try to keep it as close as possible, but from time to time there are preferences. So the key for us is not to have the class sizes get too large in either school. However, it's highly possible that any given year, in a given classroom, or a given school, there's going to be a disparity in the numbers of youngsters who want to go to that school. So if you take a look at, for example, the Andrews in grade eight, it's nine students less than the McGlynn. But in grade six, it reverses itself. And some of this is a function of choice and what people would like to see. So we want to continue to have choice, We want to make sure that the classes are a good size, but on the other hand, we try to balance it as much as we can.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: I just was, Mr. Superintendent, when we looked at the kindergarten list, the one that does jump out is that one is a full-time and one is a part-time, and they've got the same number of students. So maybe we could have a further explanation at the next time.
[Roy Belson]: It could very well be that one classroom may have someone in it that requires more attention. It could also be that.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: I have a few more questions. First of all, I really appreciate the breakdown in the data. It's great. But I'm wondering, at the Andrews and the McGlen Middle Schools, how many children are in each class, like in English? I know you give me the total numbers of each class grade, but breaking down how many kids are in the chairs for science, for math, for, you know what I mean? I don't know that information. I don't think we've ever broken it down that way.
[Roy Belson]: We can break it down for you, so it's a little larger report because there's more of them. But remember, in every grade level, there are two teams. And those two teams will split the numbers of students, minus the numbers of students who are in specialized classrooms for various reasons. So if you take, for example, the McGuinn in grade eight. Let's start with grade eight. And you say to yourself, OK, in grade eight, there's going to be two groups. And those two groups are roughly 75 students apiece. All right, roughly. If you divide the fact that there are four sections for each, at least four sections, your class size is around 20 or under. Right. That gives you an idea. And then you have to minus out the students in specialized classes. I'll break it down for you, but that's a quick way to look at it.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: OK, no, I just needed clarification on that. I think that's sufficient at this point, as long as those numbers are And each team has four teachers? Yes. OK. And that hasn't changed? And they rotate. And for all three grade levels in both buildings, each team, there's not one team with less teachers or anything?
[Roy Belson]: We did in the past, but not this year.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: OK, great to know. So that explains that. I also want to comment on the vocational school, the number of freshmen this year. That's a great number to see that increase in students at Medford Vocational School. And it's overall increase from last year's enrollment. So that means that we're keeping children in Medford. And some of our high school kids are actually going to the vocational school, because our programming is really developing well. And we're making great offerings and great strides with our students in our school. And I know you've done a great deal of work for that. And that's great. I know I said great too many times.
[Roy Belson]: You're going to see.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: I'm so happy about it.
[Roy Belson]: OK.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Really?
[Roy Belson]: I'm glad you're happy.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: It happens once in a while.
[Roy Belson]: It happens once in a while. I've been talking to Joe in the background, and he told me that he would come up and talk to you if you were happy. Yeah. But the reality is that, yes, the vocational school is growing. And the integration between the high school and the vocational school is growing. We met today to go over even more options to increase that. So I think you're going to see that grow. And next year, I don't believe there will be any ninth graders going outside. the district, with the exception of possibly Essex Aggie, where there is a specialized animal husbandry childhood program. But that will further increase that number.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: It's been great work.
[Roy Belson]: You'll see some interest in our next meeting. I think you'll see some additional programming, too, coming into the vote.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: That was a lot of work by administration, by teachers, by the building changes, and by this committee. And it's been a lot of years to work for that. And we're seeing the fruits of that. Well, maybe not last, but two more, okay? On page one, number three, there are 23% of our students whose first language is not English. And our ELL student population is 7.8%. What's the average statewide?
[Roy Belson]: All right, the average statewide is slightly higher who don't speak English, who are ELL. It's about 8%.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Okay, so we're right on.
[Roy Belson]: It's in the same ballpark.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: And in the next category as well, students with disability. We're at 18% of our population.
[Roy Belson]: So special ed statewide is close to 17%. Right.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: So we're pretty close. We're pretty much in the ballpark. So with that in mind, So there's some changes at the vocational school and at our middle schools with different kids going to different places. I want to make sure that our other services are looked at, not just teaching staff. Our student services, our nursing, our ELL classes are meeting requirements in better than requirements, because we want better than. you know, the best we can. But I just think that we need to look at that too and don't just assume, like if there's a larger population going to one school than another, we might need more nursing staff at that school or more, you know, special education things. And I also know that we service different students at different buildings. Like I know for middle school, a lot of the ELL students are at the McGlenn. So those children are pulled out for a period of time for the day, but they're backing in. In our elementary schools, it's a bigger issue. We have one school that a lot of students are pulled out, but when they go back into the general ed classroom, how does that change the numbers of that classroom when you count those students in a C for the other parts of the day? Because that really increases class size.
[Roy Belson]: Most of the inclusion is done in the general ed areas as opposed to the regular academic areas. It's done in gymnasium. It's done in music and art and things of that type, the inclusionary practices with regard to that. Now, in some instances, it's done in the academic areas, but not as frequently. The numbers are still remarkably low.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: That brings more issues to me than what is our physical education class numbers.
[Roy Belson]: No, they're pretty good. They're pretty good.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: I'd like to know what pretty good. We can provide them to you. I would like to see that.
[Roy Belson]: They're pretty good. The thing you raised with regard to the nursing services, Tony Vento is here today to talk about the Narcan issue. But Tony and I attended the DPH nurse leader program in Marlborough not that long ago. And Medford has perhaps one of the best ratios of student nurses. A little bit of amusement, Tony will know what I'm talking about. Mary Cichikowski was the superintendent in Lexington, get up and bragged about her nurse coverage, and we got up and bested her, and I said, we're better than Lexington. So I thought that was pretty good. We got a good laugh out of that. We have at least two nurses in every building. That's almost remarkable with this day and age. And this year, to your credit, you added counseling services. So I think our support services are very strong. There's always room for improvement, but they're very strong.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: So I would like to know class sizes for our other classrooms, our physical education classes. Just because we don't get that data, and I want to make sure that we have enough people in place for our computer classes and our art classes, so those aren't overcrowded and that we have enough staffing. And we're looking at everything. District wide rather than just the everyday classrooms, because those classes are really important to the overall full child, which is what we look at here.
[Roy Belson]: We'd be happy to provide it. You noticed that if the number seven was the student teacher ratio, we're 11.5 to 1, the state is 13.3 to 1. So that alone gives you a clue, but it's not the total picture.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: I think that's all my questions. Thank you very much. No, just on this page.
[Robert Skerry]: Through you to the superintendent, just as a point of information, Roy, how many students in the last couple of years have left our Metro Public Schools to go to either a charter school or private school and have come back?
[Roy Belson]: So there were approximately 330 students in the charter schools right now. I mean, that number goes up and down a little. A few years ago, it was 315. It's come up, it's gone down depending on what's going on right now and people wanting different things. The youngsters at Minuteman, the vocational school, have come down dramatically. It's now at 35. It was at 50 a year or two ago. It will come down to half that, if not more than half that next year.
[Robert Skerry]: But no, do children leave Medford schools to go somewhere else and find out it's not a compatible fit, they come back?
[Roy Belson]: It's starting to change dramatically. And I suspect with the vocational school being ascendant in terms of what it's doing, in terms of some other programs we're running, in terms of our public relations activity that we're pushing and branding our schools in a positive way, that we'll see more youngsters coming back. Because there's more options in our schools than almost any other school around us. And that includes some of the towns that one would consider wealthy.
[Robert Skerry]: To put it succinctly, somebody that wasn't here in September, do we have any students that are here now?
[Roy Belson]: Hard for me to tell you exactly that because people do come and go a little bit. There are some people who've come in and some people that have left. Especially youngsters who come from other countries that moves back and forth very rapidly.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Are there any other questions for the superintendent on this report? Motion to approve. Motion to approve the motion as offered by Mr. Benedetto on the cost increase to go from part-time to full-time, the impact, as well as the class sizes for non-gen ed. On the motion, all those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Motion passes. Motion to receive and place on file the superintendent's report. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Report on Medford Public Schools enrollment. Oh, goodness, I'm sorry. Report on Spring 2016 Park State Testing and Parent Notification.
[Roy Belson]: Madam Mayor and members of the committee, I'm going to call on our deputy superintendent, Beverly Nelson, to deliver this report and bring you up to date on this matter.
[Beverly Nelson]: Good evening and welcome to our new members and welcome back to our veteran members. A happy new year to everyone. MCAS has been our state mandated test since 1998. We have some change that's come up in the last couple of years. The board of education, the Massachusetts board of education this past November voted to develop a brand new version of MCAS, which they've labeled MCAS 2.0. And the plan is that this new test will replace the current MCAS test by the year 2017. So this coming year, this test will be developed by the Department of Education. The new test, the new MCAS, will have different types of questions that will require students to perform tasks and process content at a different level than is currently done with MCAS, the regular MCAS. which many people feel has too many multiple choice, too many types of questions where students can guess. The new test will be something that is more process-oriented, requires students to perform more complex types of tasks. The types of questions that we're going to see on the new MCAS 2.0 are similar to the types of questions on the PARCC test. Now, the PARCC test was developed for states that had adopted the Common Core. And for a while, we were thinking about, the state was thinking about adopting the park as our replacement for the regular MCAS. This school year, districts were asked to decide which test they wanted to administer to students. And there were two choices. We could either stay with the current MCAS, which is the old version, or we could move to the new park test which is, again, that test that was developed for multi-states. The administration, with the approval of the school committee at the December meeting, chose to administer PARCC to our students since the new MCAS test, the questions on that test, will be PARCC-like questions. And again, we will be able to provide our students with some real practice as we move towards the new MCAS 2.0 in 2017. This week we're asking our principals to notify parents and guardians about the spring test, which will take place in late April through May. Attached to your report is a template, a draft letter. We're meeting with principals tomorrow. We'll present this to them. We will ask that they customize it, put it on their own school stationery, and get it out to parents this week so people are notified. Students who are on IEPs, may require adjustments to reflect some of the new PARC accommodations. In most cases, the accommodations will remain the same as currently for MCAS, but PARC is a different test and there are some differences. IEP teams will review accommodations that are part of each child's IEP and will notify parents of any needs for adjustments to the IEPs. The Office of Pupil Services will be sending out a letter to parents and guardians, notifying them of these differences, and offering parent information sessions to answer questions. This particular letter is also attached to your report. Over the next few months, we are in preparation mode. We've been meeting with our principals, our Director of Humanities and Mathematics, are working with teachers, giving them access to park-like questions, having students practice, We want to make sure that everyone's ready to take this. We feel confident they will be this spring. We also want to make sure parents have all questions and answers. So in addition just to handing out letters, we're going to ask that principals hold forums in schools so that people can get questions and answers answered. So again, you can hopefully review the draft letter. And again, we're planning to present this to our principals tomorrow and then to the parents later this week. So if anyone has any questions on our plan for testing or our plan for notification.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: Madam chair.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: So I wanted to mention that I've received quite a number of inquiries about this. People being disappointed that in fact that the school committee made the decision to have Park administered this year. And I think I just wanted to be clear because when I wrote back to the people and explain that, you know, to me this is a shell game. Mitchell Chester at the DOE was getting a lot of flack about PARC, and so very simply he said, oh, we won't do PARC, we'll do MCAS 2.0, but the questions are going to be very PARC-like. I feel as a school committee member, I made that vote because we would be doing our students a disfavor not to at least acclimate them to the questions. It's one of those things. It's parked by any other name. This name is now MCAS 2.0. So when I had the discussion one-on-one with people, I think that they understood where we were coming from, but it's frustrating to some level. I assume as usual that this letter will be sent out and it will be translated as necessary. Absolutely. Yeah. So, okay. Thanks very much. I'll take a motion to put this on file.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: Second. Thank you. First of all, do we have any idea when the principals are going to be doing their forums? Do we have any dates or anything like that? Will it be at night or will it be during the day?
[Beverly Nelson]: Again, we're going to meet with them tomorrow. We'll develop some plans for moving forward. And I think it really depends on the needs of the parents. There may be more, uh, one particular school, the principal might receive more requests. Uh, schools that have more special education students may have more requests, those parents, but we will certainly make sure everyone has a full idea. It is, it's very complex. Again, you know, they were going in one direction and they turned the corner. And I think that, Again, what we're doing for our students is we're helping them to prepare for the new test. To stay with the regular MCAS this year, I felt it was regressive. We want to move forward. We want to make sure by the time that MCAS 2.0 is operational that everybody has had some practice with it. So again, I believe that decision was a wise one. I'm glad the committee agreed to that. And again, we will make everyone comfortable. We have plenty of time. We will do things on our website. We can actually do things, again, live on the web, tape things on the website so we can, for those parents who can't make an informational session, we can have it available to them online. So we will do everything we can so everybody's comfortable with this, including our teachers and most importantly our students.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: You know, I know Mr. Van der Kloot just mentioned the frustration. I sat on this committee for two years, going back and forth with the Department of Education, and it is very frustrating because, you know, again, I think they think we're fools. Unfortunately, you know, I hate the idea that we're using our children's education for politics, but there's a lot of political background to this. I know that there's a huge, I shouldn't say huge, but there are organizations out there that are trying to focus on maybe not having this, but I'd like to know how many students do opt out when we get the response from this letter.
[Beverly Nelson]: Just out of curiosity, I'd like to know. I don't believe they can opt out at all. This is a mandated state test. Again, I think that would be very difficult because if we're going to have accountability levels and
[Ann Marie Cugno]: half the students. But I think you have to check into the fact that we by law would have to also send out a letter asking parents if they want to opt out. Please double check in that because I know that when we did it last year with the park and the MCAS.
[Beverly Nelson]: That was a little different. There was a time what park has been around it for a few years. We actually tested it. We were required to, do a pilot test two years ago. And then last year, districts could once again select between the regular MCAS and PARC. Many of them selected PARC. We felt that we didn't know which way the board was going to vote, that we were more comfortable just staying with what we had until something different was there. But one of the things I think we want to keep in mind, a very important thing, and that is once we get all through this adjustment and moving forward, I think we're going to be fairer to our students in how we test them, because it's not going to be guessing and multiple choice as much as MCAS is. They're going to be doing performance-based tasks. They're going to be processing things. I think it's a fairer test, even though I know there's too much testing and we don't like all the mandated testing. I think for the individual student, it will be fairer in terms of what they're going to be asked to do. And so if we keep our eye on them. The end product.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: No, and I want to make sure that we do. And that's the reason I think that we voted for this the way we did a couple of weeks ago. But I do want for, you know, if through you to the superintendent, if you could find out about this letter, because I don't want to find out that there are cities out there. I totally agree with you. I understand because, you know, We want to give the best we possibly can to our students, but I don't want to find out from other districts that there might be such a letter. And if there is, we need to know about it. I don't recommend that, even though I don't like the standardized testing, I don't recommend that we do have parents sign it. It is their choice, but I want to make sure that if that choice is there, we have to be transparent in letting them know that. We'll look into it. Can we just double check, please?
[Roy Belson]: I will double check. So let me just make it clear. There is no opt-out. Anyone who pursues the opt-out is doing it as their own individual initiative. Well, I just want to make it very clear. The only difference is that the state has not imposed a penalty on the lower grades because, quite frankly, they wouldn't know what to do with anyone who did opt-out. I mean, what are you going to do? If a whole school opted out, maybe they would zero in on that school and bring down a team to ask a lot of questions. But there's no official opt-out of this test, and anyone who does it does it, you know, basically as a, if you will, a maverick move, their own move. From our standpoint, we think that taking these kinds of tests prepares our students best for the future, because it will be, whether you call it PARC, or you call it MCAS 2.0, or you call it anything else, it's going to be more performance-based. And we need to give them practice, and we need to give the teachers practice. Let me add one more dimension to this thing. And it's probably a good time to put it in, because this is a discussion about notification of parents. This evening, I handed you two press releases that came out of our new Office of Public Information. there is going to be quite a bit of public information on this. And in fact, I'm already working with that office and other people to go to each school and hold time with parents and others, coffee hour with the superintendent, whatever the case may be, to solicit information and to answer these questions. So you can see over the next month or so, or two months if you will, because it may take a little bit of time to schedule it all, we will be out there talking to people to help them understand what's going on, so they appreciate why we're doing what we're doing, or if they have some concerns, they have an opportunity to express it. So I think this is the beginning of our way of increasing public information, public notification. This is a good example of where it will be a very effective initiative.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Speaking of that, I know the letter, I read the letter, it looks great, I think it's great. I know that parents get so much information. I know this has to be on here and all the information you included. But in general, I feel like parents like bullets and quick information and what dates are and those in bold. less is more, and as a former parent who used to get a lot of paperwork, so not in this particular case, but in general, I think that schools need to be aware of that when there's any more notices. So, or even on the back page, if it was bulleted, MCAS test no longer in place, park test, and the dates that they're planned at each school, as like a preview for parents, is an idea. My second, Our recommendation is possibly auto-call, because some parents just don't read a lot of the backpacked information, and they might hear it that way. Any additional ways that we can reach out to parents, we have to differentiate. We have to use all different ways of reaching our parents, just like we do in our classroom with our students. So an email if we're doing email blasts, Or I know that some schools are on Twitter. All those methods should be, this is an important issue. We're changing the standardized testing throughout the district. All parents should be made aware that this decision has been made. And that communication has to be sent out in multiple ways. So that's my suggestion.
[Beverly Nelson]: Excellent letter. Again, this is meant to be a start of a process that principals will pick up and, again, customize Hopefully, in all the communication to parents, the parents need a reminder of this. I just want to add one more thing, and that is, and it was in the letter, that there is no PARC for science, and there is no PARC for grade 10. So those grade levels and those subjects, science is administered in grades 5, 8, and 10, and high school. There's a high school option for multiple tests. That remains MCAS, because there is no PARC version. I anticipate there'll be an MCAS 2.0 version at some point. But that's just a guess.
[Roy Belson]: We also anticipate that some of the questions on the 10th grade MCAS will begin to overlap. They're going to change, right. So you need to understand that it's not going to be the same test.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Mrs. Burke, I just wanted to mention before when the superintendent was saying he was going to be out, a couple of years ago, the school committee met at different schools. And I think that there's a lot of value to doing that. And we might do it, you know, maybe over the course of this year, but do it as a plan, not every meeting, because the disadvantage is that then our it's more difficult to televise the meetings and have them on live and whatever. So, but if we could talk about that and think about that in the coming year of how we might get around to the different schools as well.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Very good. On the motion to receive and place on file, all those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Passes. Report on ELL school population and access testing. Mr. Superintendent.
[Roy Belson]: Madam Mayor and members of the committee, ELL English language learners. significantly growing part of our population, significantly needy part of our population in terms of services that are required. And tonight, we're going to give you a little bit more detail on that. And also, I want to tell you a little bit about access testing, another form of testing, which affects the placement of students in ELL programs or in other classrooms where they may, in fact, be able to take those courses. So tonight with us our coordinator, supervisor of English language learning, Leslie Trotter is with us to take us through information with regard to English language learners and access testing.
[TQ69v4m8ftY_SPEAKER_00]: Good evening and welcome to the new school committee members and the new mayor. How exciting. So, um, Mr. Belson already gave you the introduction, so I'll just go right in. The access test is ongoing right now. And so I'll start with that. It's been a bit exhausting, but we're getting there. So it's the first year we are doing the access testing online. And first, I really want to take a minute to publicly thank all the people who have helped put it together. Mr. Belson, Central Office, and the principals for their support. Alan Arena for networking the computer labs district-wide and troubleshooting during the actual testing. Rich Trotta for organizing the tech support during the testing. Joan Bowen for helping with accommodations. The technology staff, Maria D'Orsi and the library staff. All of my test coordinators in each building. Teresa Castagnetti has been the first person to have to deal with all of it and she's been really incredible and very helpful. My secretary has done a ton and all of the rest of the staff, the ELL staff, who have had to take their own personal time to train for this new test and to prepare the students and to administer the test themselves. It's been a big undertaking. So as you've seen in the report that I gave you, access is a state-mandated test. It's very important for the ELL students in terms of placement, hours of support that they receive in ESL, and whether or not a student can be exited from the program. So the state's very clear about that. They must reach certain benchmarks in this test or they do not get exited. And it's the thing that we have to go by, along with some other parameters. But that's the key. You cannot exit them until they reach a certain point. So the test has four sections. There's a listening, speaking, reading, and writing section. All academic domains are included. English language arts, math, science, and social studies. The test determines the English language proficiency level of ELL students. And in the past, our kids have demonstrated very good progress on this test. We will see how the online assessment goes. We have encountered a couple of challenges so far, but we're getting through it. So with that being said, let's move on to a quick overview of the ELL department in general. We service students in grades K through 12 in six schools. So all schools but the Andrews have programs. The descriptions of the programs in each building are in your report, along with the approximate numbers of ELLs in each school. That number changes literally daily. We have had incoming families literally almost every day this entire year. It's been kind of incredible. Our newcomers, which is the kids who don't speak any English, those classes have grown significantly. We've also lost quite a few, so it's this crazy fluctuating situation. So note that the Roberts is now over 100 ELL students. That includes newcomers and the pull-out kids who are partially mainstreamed. The predominant languages spoken by our students, like the handout I just gave you shows, the predominant languages are Portuguese from Brazil, Haitian Creole, Spanish and Arabic, and then there are many, many other languages represented. This year, oh, I already said that, so I don't need to go over that, okay. Mr. Belson did allow me to add some elementary staff. So that has helped with the newcomers classes there. That's really in good shape at this point, other than space has become a little bit of an issue. But, um, on the other hand, the middle and high school for what you would want for a newcomers class, the classes are very large. Um, So that's not anything that the state mandates anymore. They used to strongly recommend no more than 14 in a newcomer's class. Um, and we're over that, uh, and, and a number of classes at the middle and high school. Um, so hopefully we can find a remedy for that situation. Um, the last thing I wanted to just give you a quick update on is the retail initiative. So the retail initiative was a Desi mandate. to get mainstream teachers trained in teaching ELLs when they are mainstreamed into their classes. We have been very successful in Medford. After doing a survey last year, I found out that there were still 100 teachers who needed to get the SEI endorsement. So I was able to get three more classes taught at Medford High this year. So our teachers should be in very good shape. One of my teachers, Lisa Beaulieu, will be teaching the spring class. And this is the last year the state will be providing free SEI classes for our teachers. So that's all from me. If you have any questions, I'm happy to try to answer.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Mr. Benedetto.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Thank you. I always have questions. First of all, thank you for your report. It's very thorough and it's very good to know. I'd like an update after the spring is how many of our teachers still need SEI? Sure. I mean, retail certification in that. Also, I'd like to know, not directly to you, I want two questions. First of all, are we in compliance with the state guidelines for the teacher ELL student ratio?
[TQ69v4m8ftY_SPEAKER_00]: You know, they used to have a more specific guideline. They really don't. have a particular guideline anymore. Do they have a recommendation? Recommendations has always been about 14 in a newcomers class.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: And are we there throughout, even the middle and high school?
[TQ69v4m8ftY_SPEAKER_00]: No, middle and high school we're over. Not in every class, but in a number. A large amount we're over? By a couple at the middle, in almost all the newcomers classes, because that group keeps growing. and maybe four or five classes at the high school.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: So over means how many students over, do you estimate?
[TQ69v4m8ftY_SPEAKER_00]: No, I actually know. The biggest class, the most worrisome class is the high school first level kids. So the complete newcomers who don't speak any English is up to 22. Wow. So if we get new kids, we have to figure something out.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: OK. Through you, Mayor Burke, to the superintendent. OK. What things are we planning moving forward for the large influx of newcomers? And are we planning for our new budget to look at these and really look at staffing needs And is this so high right now that we need to make a change right now? I mean, that seems almost, it's not quite double, but it's pretty close to double the recommendation. I know there's no, I know ELL and DSEE is very vague. There's a lot of play and there's not good regs that we have exactly adhere to yet, but they're coming. Whether or not it's there, we're well over the recommended amount. That's not what we want for our children's education as a district. So could you look at that and please come back to us with some type of plan?
[Roy Belson]: All right, so let's talk about this a little bit, because I think it's important for you to understand that DESE recommends a lot of things that they don't fund. If you look at all the recommendations that come out of DESE, you would have to put hundreds of thousands of dollars into all kinds of things because they're not terribly realistic. Secondly, the movement of youngsters to our schools at this point is accelerated. And so it's very difficult to know how many come and how many stay. It could very well be that sometime in February a whole pile of youngsters go back to Brazil and change everything all over again. This discussion really belongs at the state level. because the state has made a whole series of demands on schools but not provided the resources or the technical assistance to bring it forward. So we're not by ourselves. The ideal is always the ideal. But clearly there's no absolute violation of what we're doing. The rule is are the youngsters getting sufficient number of hours, not are they in a certain class size. I understand that certain class sizes can be advantageous, but if those numbers keep shifting on us, we're putting money in and then we're not necessarily getting it. And getting the right person in the middle of the year to take on a class with that specific licensure is not so easy. They're not standing out there. So let's go one step further. The state's goal was to develop this retail initiative to the point where these youngsters could be more easily included in regular classes because then teachers in those regular classes would have the knowledge to work with youngsters whose language was not English. That has been very successful in Medford and very active in Medford. Our hope is that a lot of these youngsters will progress very quickly. But trying to predict the numbers of youngsters who come into Medford in any given year is very difficult. So that's a budgetary discussion we should have. It will affect other allocations we make, because we're going to have to decide what's more important at any one time. Should we put more money in this pocket or more money in that pocket? But I don't think we're derelict in our responsibilities with these numbers. It would be ideal to have the numbers recommended by DESE, but we're certainly not far afield of almost every school district that has any kind of urban rim population or urban population with these numbers of youngsters coming in. So I think it's a balancing act as to what we do, but we'll certainly look into it and give you more information.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: In my experience from being here and hearing it every year, the need is only growing throughout the commonwealth. So I just want to make sure that going forward, we have in place what is in the best interest of the students so that way they get the help as a newcomer and get back into the general education classrooms with the teachers that are trained in retail. So that's also my goal, but we need to have really good beginner classes to get those children back into the classroom. And we need staff to do that. So I just want to keep in mind moving forward. And if there is a bigger influx coming in, I would like to be made aware of it if those numbers change or increase.
[Roy Belson]: So I'm just going to put that as certainly in giving you this report tonight, that's what we're doing. We're telling you this is an area that's growing and we're paying very close attention to it. But again, This is something we've got to plan for going forward because it is a growing area and there will be some tradeoffs.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Ms. Van der Kloot.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Thank you. I have three questions for you. The first thing you mentioned was the testing, the SCI training. And I wanted to ask about if you said we still had 100 teachers who needed that training. What happens if they don't get that training, and by when do they have to have it?
[TQ69v4m8ftY_SPEAKER_00]: So as of last year, we had 100. OK. So we've had three different classes going this year, which would cover probably that many people. or close to it, and they can also take courses outside of our city. When do they have to have it? They have to have it by July 2016.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: And are we looking for, do we think we're going to get to 100% of our teachers?
[TQ69v4m8ftY_SPEAKER_00]: So the way the ruling reads is if you have a current ELL, you must have the SEI endorsement. Many of our teachers never have an ELL. The English teachers don't. Once in a while, the people at the Andrews don't. But many of them have still gotten endorsed. So I would say we're close. We're very close to 100%. How about our music teachers? They don't have to do it. Only core academic teachers. And that's a pretty long list, but it basically covers English, math, social studies, science, special education. Phys Ed? No.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: So I guess I would just encourage all of our teachers, because I would see value for our other teachers to have this training as well.
[TQ69v4m8ftY_SPEAKER_00]: So the newest thing is they have to get 15 PDPs in ESL or SEI content before they get re-licensed next time.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: OK, so that's how we covered the other.
[TQ69v4m8ftY_SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: OK. Second question is, there were a lot of newcomers at the Roberts, all together listed now at 58. So are some of those students then shifted over to the Brooks and Columbus? Are they moved? No, because they don't have newcomers programs. No, I'm saying after they... Oh, definitely, yes. When they are ready to be transitioned, yes. So wouldn't it be... So what we're doing is we're asking a student who is new to Medford and non-English speaking to perhaps be in grade one and two at the Roberts and then go over to the Columbus or Brooks. To me, you're taking them out of a comfort area with people who know them, with their friends. And to this population, who might be more vulnerable than many of our other, you're asking to do them an adjustment that other parents certainly wouldn't want their children to do. Since we have so many newcomers, why are we exploring the idea that perhaps we ought to have a newcomers program at another school so that we're not pulling them out?
[TQ69v4m8ftY_SPEAKER_00]: We've discussed it. So the problem is staffing. So to have a good newcomers program, you need a good staff. I mean, they're exceptional people. And we could split it. We've talked about that, about having lower grades, upper grades at two different schools, something like that. But you can't have a newcomers program at every building because you don't have enough kids to support it. You don't have enough kids to need a staff at every school. But if you've got 58... But that's grades K... No, there's no K, I'm sorry. 1 through 5. Okay, so it doesn't break down evenly is what you're... I understand what you're saying.
[Roy Belson]: Right.
[TQ69v4m8ftY_SPEAKER_00]: It's actually relatively even at this point, yeah. Okay.
[Roy Belson]: The difficulty comes in the fact that You have to concentrate your services in one place, because we're not big enough to have every place have an ELL program, a special ed program for certain types of language-based programs, a special ed program for therapeutic learning. So we have to split it up among the different buildings. Each building has certain specializations. Otherwise, we can't concentrate our staffing. And then there's an economic reality having to add more staff and also space, which is not available to us.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: I remember the conversation from before, but now as the numbers increase, part of me just says that it's never been particularly comfortable that you're going to ask those kids to uproot, which is what you're doing.
[TQ69v4m8ftY_SPEAKER_00]: I agree.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: As the program goes, I think it just needs to be always an ongoing question of, are we doing the best thing for these students? My third question is, Does the staff feel that the access test is accurate? Do teachers agree with the placements, like when they come back and they get the results? Because we talk about testing, and we've got concerns about other tests. Here's a really interesting sort of testing. Are your teachers, do they think the test accurately reflects where the student is?
[TQ69v4m8ftY_SPEAKER_00]: Generally, yes. a little bit of a hesitation because sometimes students with learning disabilities are unable to get beyond the benchmark. Some of our American kids wouldn't pass it, to be honest with you. It's not easy if you get up to the higher levels of it. So to get to a 6.0, which is equivalent to a native speaker, it's a very difficult test. So there are some students who either have cognitive issues or reading issues or whatever their issues might be, emotional, who tend to stay in the program a little bit longer than they might if it weren't for that strict cutoff. Yeah. But generally, overall, we'll see how the online is. I'm holding my breath.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: But it works that way rather than the other way where students are promoted too soon.
[TQ69v4m8ftY_SPEAKER_00]: If anything, they're not promoted soon enough.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: OK. Yeah. All right. Thank you very much, Lisa.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: Did you have a question? Yes, please. I know that we just went over the numbers at the high school. What about the middle school?
[TQ69v4m8ftY_SPEAKER_00]: Middle school has also grown. It's up to 50, I think it's 54. When I left teaching at the middle school, we were at 38. So it's gotten bigger.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: How many classes is that divided into?
[TQ69v4m8ftY_SPEAKER_00]: So the class, that's an interesting program. The classes are sixth, seventh, and eighth graders all together. And depending on their level of English, they stick with one group. They're the newcomers, the ones. Or if they've been here a year or two and their English is a little bit better, they go into the level two. And all classes are, they're basically together all day with different teachers, but the same kids, same group of kids. And then we have a third level where they're mostly mainstreamed into regular ed classes with only English with an ESL teacher.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: And out of the 54, do you know what the numbers are in the first, second and third level?
[TQ69v4m8ftY_SPEAKER_00]: Yes. The ones are at about 15. I believe we're getting another one, so that'll probably be up to 16. The twos are at 16 and the threes are fine. You know, they're like 10 or, eight or around that range.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: And going back to the high school, the 22, are we talking, they're all 22 in one class, correct?
[TQ69v4m8ftY_SPEAKER_00]: That's the level one language arts. Are they also divided up over there? Is the high school divided up in different levels also? Oh yeah, definitely. So the high school's a little different. Those are also grades that are mixed nine through 12, depending on the student's English level. And so we have four different levels of language arts classes. We have all the standard math classes, only sheltered for ELLs, taught specifically to ELLs, plus a general math for the kids who come in with very little schooling. And we have three different courses in social studies, one with two different groups. World History II has two groups. In science, we created an integrated science class, again, for the students who've come in with limited school background. And we have an SCI biology, we have an SCI chemistry, and an SCI physics, internal physics.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: So when you're saying that we have 22 students in one level, Are you talking about level one?
[TQ69v4m8ftY_SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: Okay, so you definitely have the 22 students in level one?
[TQ69v4m8ftY_SPEAKER_00]: Yes, in the language arts class.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: Okay, and what about two, three, and four, do you know those?
[TQ69v4m8ftY_SPEAKER_00]: Those didn't stand out to me, so they couldn't have been too bad. What I did was I went through each class number, you know, the class lists and the numbers, and wrote down the ones that stood out that were too big.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: And I know it's difficult because of the mobilization with students. Yes. And as the superintendent said, he mentioned something about certain parts of the year, certain students leave, and then they come back. Do we know what the trend, like these 22 students that we have in level one, have they been with us for the year? Have they started last year? What is the trend?
[TQ69v4m8ftY_SPEAKER_00]: A few of them started late last year. Most of them came this year. Nobody's left of that group that I know of. We've only gotten more in that group.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: And do you see the trend in this particular group that come down another two months or so, all of a sudden from 22 students, we're going to go down to 10?
[TQ69v4m8ftY_SPEAKER_00]: I think that's unlikely with this group, but who knows?
[Ann Marie Cugno]: And I respect the fact that ESI numbers are good, but 22 students in a class with how many teachers? One. One teacher.
[TQ69v4m8ftY_SPEAKER_00]: speaking how many different languages? That's the problem. You know, many languages, many grade levels, you know, it's, it's, it's a lot to deal with. It's concerning.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: Yeah. It's very concerning. And I know that these numbers do change. I know that because of the mobilization, we go in and out, but I also do know that over the last couple of years, we've had a lot of students come stay with us and the mobilization really hasn't changed in this particular level. I do recommend that we do look at this particular level. Maybe we could look at, I don't know, at least, you know, if we can't find the money for breaking this particular level up even into two classes, but at least some type of assistance in that class. Because I mean, you know, we brought up the kindergartners a little while ago that 23 students in a class, it's difficult to tie shoes and, you know, put on coats and try to teach them. But on the flip side of this, try to be a teacher. try to teach 22 students that are, you know, at a different language level. That teacher needs help. the mayor through to the superintendent. If there's something that, I mean, I know that we're going to be looking at this at budget time, but in the meantime, budget time doesn't come until me, uh, for, you know, the discussion of budget doesn't come until we really sit down later on in the year. And if these numbers, especially are going to be rising, it's something that we definitely have to look at.
[Roy Belson]: We'll look at it.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: Thank you.
[Mea Quinn Mustone]: I just want to, Paulette, I feel the same way about the kids at the Roberts because that's before my children are presently and they have friends who are the newcomers program. And Mr. Bellson, correct me if I'm wrong, a lot of times they've stayed. So they've come out of the newcomers program and come into our classrooms that they don't get shifted to the Brooks or the Columbus.
[TQ69v4m8ftY_SPEAKER_00]: It just depends on which neighborhood they're from. OK.
[Mea Quinn Mustone]: So I was just going to say, they don't all get shifted out.
[TQ69v4m8ftY_SPEAKER_00]: No, no, no. They get to stay in the community of the Roberts. If they're in the Roberts district, then they stay in the Roberts. Otherwise, they go back to whichever their neighborhood school would be.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Is there a motion on the floor to receive and place on file? Motion to receive. Motion to receive. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Motion's granted. Thank you very much. Recommendation to accept revised policy on student restrained protocols.
[Roy Belson]: So Madam Mayor, members of the committee, special education, as you know, has many, many needs. And one of those needs is to work with youngsters who may need to be restrained at different times during the school day. And there are certain regulations that have been revised by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. And these need to go into effect immediately. The school committee must actually approve the revised protocol. We reviewed them very carefully. Kathy Medaglio, our director of pupil services is here to present this report and answer any questions you may have.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: I was just going to ask before you even start. Sure. I know that we have the changes, but do we have anything that we would see what the changes are like from what they were to what they are? from what we had prior?
[Kathleen Medaglio]: Okay. So if you read the recommendation, um, the recommendation report, it outlines most, most of the regulation was clarified. So, um, different aspects of restraint procedures were clarified and the requirement to report are the significant changes. Um, in addition, there's emphasis around, uh, intervention prior to utilizing a restraint of any kind. There's, um, the emphasis on not using prone restraint, which has been proven to be very dangerous for children. So if you'd like, I could read through the report.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: No, you can do it. That was the only thing I was going to ask.
[Kathleen Medaglio]: OK. All right. So one of the major, there were several reasons why the restraint regulations were updated. And one of which is clear evidence that there were risks associated with restraints. And the Department of Education wanted to make sure that all of the regulations around restraints were uniform across all of the different departments, the early childhood, the health and human services, as well as the school age population. So all of the agencies have revised their regulations to make them uniform. There's been research around restraints and how dangerous that can be for children. But sometimes it's just as it's necessary that we utilize restraint as a tool to protect children, to make sure that they are safe and others around them are safe. So the definition of restraint has been clarified and redefined to be a direct physical contact that prevents or significantly restricts a student's freedom of movement. Restraint is an emergency intervention A student's behavior must pose a threat of assault or imminent serious physical harm to self or others. It's a last resort after all other methods of de-escalation have been attempted. It is not to be used as discipline or punishment. When the student cannot be safely restrained, restraint should not be used. Sometimes there are health matters that could make a situation worse if a child were restrained. and should not be used as a response to noncompliance, property destruction, or verbal threats. It's not to be used as standard response for any individual student. And for that reason, any direct connection or identification of restraint as an intervention for a student has been taken out of all, needs to be edited out of all IEPs, 504s, et cetera. So it can't be the first thought. It should be the last thought when working with children. The goals, of course, were to place emphasis on the emergency nature of a restraint, to align the regulations, to reduce the overall use of restraint for students in Massachusetts, to improve reporting regulations surrounding the collection and reporting of restraint data, to significantly limit the use of prone restraint and to provide guidance to better distinguish between timeouts and the prohibited use of seclusion. Seclusion is where an individual may have been placed in a location where they would have no access to anyone, like sort of putting someone in a closet, shutting the door, and that they could not see outside. And that was a strategy that I mean, certainly in Massachusetts, we have not utilized that strategy, but it had been reported in other venues. And so again, Massachusetts wanted to make it very clear that that is not acceptable and cannot be used in our district. There is key elements, increased emphasis on prevention, including individual crisis planning, alternatives to restraint with a focus on positive behavior interventions, staff consideration of known and suspected trauma history must be considered. Um, what that means is that schools really need to understand the history, um, for students who may struggle behaviorally and make sure that once again, um, that individuals who could potentially be providing restraint will understand how that may be perceived by a student. There is, um, Again, the prohibition on the use of prone restraint except under very specific circumstances and conditions. I don't think we've had anyone who has required a prone restraint in the district, and we certainly would not engage in a prone restraint here in the district. But it could potentially be utilized in other programs with severely high needs or behaviorally disordered children in, say, a hospital setting. Mechanical restraint, medication restraint, and seclusion are prohibited for behavior management purposes. Inclusion of a definition of time out to better distinguish it from seclusion. Staff training programs to include instruction on the impact of physical restraint and the impact on the family as well as on students. Monitoring and reporting requirements include that as soon as a restraint occurs, the principal needs to be notified within the building. Principal and the designee would then notify parents. Parents receive a written report. within a couple of days of the incident. The principal must now conduct weekly reviews of individual restraint data. So as a report is filled out at the end of the week, the principal will convene a meeting to review any restraints that have occurred. And there'll also be a monthly review so that the principal can see if there are any patterns that need to be addressed within the building, maybe a potential need to retrain staff or to consider revising protocols. So as we move forward and implement the new regulations, we have provided all of our staff have already engaged in the annual restraint training that is required by law. The administrative team has received a legal overview at the December administrative meetings to remind everyone of this changeover. The principals will now review these changes with staff to remind everyone that the new regulations are in place at the January meetings. DSE has provided districts with PowerPoint presentations to be able to reinforce the changes to assist local districts with implementation of the regulations. We have to date trained more than 90 staff in safety care training to support our students And principals have identified who the fully trained staff are within each building so that they can be the resource to staff if they have questions around a child who they may have a concern, may require restraint, or they may require de-escalation strategies so that they know who to go to to ask questions on the spot. And as we move forward, any new staff who are hired will receive the general training as they come in within the first 30 days of employment. So the attached policy here, physical restraint and behavior support policy, it parallels the regulations and the requirements that each school district are required to implement with the new language of the law. So do you have any questions?
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Any questions? Mayor Burke. Mr. Benedetto? Thank you. I just want to say that this is done very well, Kathy.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: Thank you.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Very well. It really has, it really does completely explain our policy and procedures throughout the district and the fact that we have almost 25% of our teachers, Jacinda,
[Kathleen Medaglio]: Like, about that.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Yeah. That's a lot of people.
[Kathleen Medaglio]: Some of the staff who are trained are paraprofessional staff. OK. Since we have many paraprofessional staff are key in assisting students within classrooms, playgrounds, the lunchrooms. Right. And if there is a call for help, they're sometimes more readily available than the classroom teacher who has students in front of them.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: So as a trainer of de-escalation and restraint training by, I really looked through this to make sure it was done well, and it's excellent. And again, all your reports usually are very thorough and very excellent. I motion to approve this, and this is great work. Thank you for all your work on it. Thank you.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Ms. Vander Kloof.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Hi.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Kathy, is the security guard trained at the high school trained in this as well?
[Kathleen Medaglio]: I don't know if he participated in the last set of training, Certainly, he was one of the prioritized staff. I just, I don't have the list in front of me, so I can't reference that. Okay.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Yeah, I just wondered what other groups of staff in particular came to mind?
[Kathleen Medaglio]: Guidance Councilors? Well, when we went through the November training, we prioritized staff who had children who were individuals with individual behavior intervention plans or may have been associated with programs where there could potentially be the need for de-escalation strategies. So we wanted to work first with the teachers and paraprofessional staff, the behavioral specialists. We actually, we sent nine different, nine staff out to become trainers. So now we have 10 safety care trainers in the district. And they're in the process of doing round two. So right now they're working on guidance Councilors, school psychologists, school adjustment Councilors, all of whom have previously participated in CPI training. But we want to use a uniform program. So that's the need to have everyone have the safety care training.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: How about vice principals at the elementary schools?
[Kathleen Medaglio]: All of the vice principals have participated. They're all fully trained. The principal group and curriculum directors will participate in training probably during the June, the June and or August staff meetings that we hold after school. Okay, great. Thanks. And again, thanks for your work too.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: If I could just ask one question. Sure. Who provides the general restraining training?
[Kathleen Medaglio]: The safety care instructors.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Who are they?
[Kathleen Medaglio]: Okay. So we, we sent out, we sent staff out for training. and they became trainers so that they can now provide training to all of our staff. So they participated in in-depth training on strategies. So the reason why we moved to safety care is because of the emphasis on de-escalation and teaching replacement behaviors to students. So persons who participated, we had our BCBAs, So we had three BCBAs, behavioral specialists, several Councilors. We had a gym teacher, a nurse. So we tried to pull people from different aspects of school life so that they could then be the resource for the rest of the staff.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Is there a reason why you don't do training before they enter the classroom? You have 30 days to do training for new hires?
[Kathleen Medaglio]: Well, first of all, we're required to do the general overall restraint training, which is primarily review of strategies and et cetera. But the safety care training itself to become certified safety care is a minimum of 12 hours.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: So it's... A new teacher just coming into the system, you have 30 days to train them? Within 30 days you train them?
[Kathleen Medaglio]: We provide the basic general restraint training. That is basic strategies, what to look for, who to go to, basic technique on how to respond in a situation. It's not the in-depth training, which includes holds, protective procedures. It goes into much more detail.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: My question is, could the training take place before they're placed in the classroom for this general training, not the in-depth?
[Roy Belson]: One of the problems is that, just saying this in general, is that there's so many retrainings required of people coming into schools today. There isn't time in the day, either during this time that they're hired or before, because obviously they're coming out. If the school of choice where they're coming from hasn't provided it, or hasn't done it the way we would want them to do it, we'd still want to do the retraining. It would be nice if the part of the licensure that they came out of the schools had the training provided to them, but since it doesn't, it makes it almost impossible to cover all the trainings required of a teacher coming in, this being one of them. You saw some things with ELL, being another of the retail kinds of things. There's gonna be a special ed requirement. It's reaching a point where there's so many requirements that are there. it's almost impossible to do that in front of it.
[Kathleen Medaglio]: But for the most part, the general overview training does take place before the teachers enter the classroom. So, or within that first week of school, because each year the principals are required to conduct a review of mandated trainings. And in many instances that will happen on opening day before the students arrive. And then if not, during that September meeting,
[Roy Belson]: When we have a new person who starts in the middle of the year, it's part of their assignment. You know, they're filling out their employment forms and they're doing the ethics training and
[Kathleen Medaglio]: They run through a series of mandated trainings that everybody else has done. So that is part of it.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Wonderful.
[Kathleen Medaglio]: Thank you.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Just a point of information. When there's an acting person in the school or in the classroom, usually they call the safety care team. And then people who have the in-depth training come to that student. And they take over that situation because they're the ones trained. So the teacher that's teaching that class doesn't necessarily have to have that in-depth training. They just have to have the de-escalation techniques and be able to identify that it's escalating to a point that they need to call for the team. So I don't know if that helps.
[Kathleen Medaglio]: OK. So since I'm standing here, I just did want to announce a couple of parent events. So this Wednesday, January 13, we have a CPAC event, agreeing to disagree. how to effectively resolve disputes. That is at 7 p.m. at the Andrews Middle School. And on Thursday, January 21st, we will have a special education park parent information center session. That will be held again at the Andrews Middle School beginning at 6.30 on Thursday, January 21st. And we will cover what is park, why is Medford adopted park um, for spring 2016 and a review of alignment between park and MCAS accommodation policies.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Okay. Thank you.
[Kathleen Medaglio]: Thank you.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Motion on the floor for approval by Mr. Benedetto. Is there a second? Seconded by Ms. Cuno. All those in favor of the policy. So roll call. Roll call vote please.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Yes.
[Robert Skerry]: Mr. Benedetto.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Yes. Ms.
[Robert Skerry]: Fritz.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Yes.
[Robert Skerry]: Mr. Stone?
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Yes.
[Robert Skerry]: Mr. Scherry? Yes. Mrs. Van der Kloot?
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Yes.
[Robert Skerry]: Mayor Burke?
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Yes. 7 in the affirmative, 10 in the negative. The recommendation passes for the policy. Recommendation to approve the protocols and procedures for school nurse management of potential life-threatening opiate overdose.
[Roy Belson]: Madam Mayor and members of the committee, obviously this is a topic that we've had previous discussions about. And the school committee authorized our staff to go out and actually acquire the Narcan and to do the training. So tonight we're going to get an update from Tony Vento, our supervisor of health services. But before Tony gets into it, I just want to bring you a quick update. Today, the governor announced an $85,000 grant to the city of Medford for five-year periods, a year for five years, to assist with opiate addiction prevention programs. And also today, the House announced that it was prepared to pass legislation that was somewhat similar to the governor's bill. Not totally similar, but somewhat similar, on sometime on Wednesday. The Senate has already passed a bill. It differs from the House bill. The Senate bill requires screening at the public school level. They'll have to resolve that in conference committee. But there's a lot of action on the bill with regard to opiate prevention and intervention activities. But tonight, Tony is here to tell us about system that we put in place based on our last vote to implement this system. Good evening.
[Toni Wray]: So as Superintendent Belson said, in November I was here and presented a lot of information about opioid abuse. Everybody had a packet that they reviewed and strategies that we can employ on the preventative and the intervention sides of that for our students and our community. And at that meeting, um, Mayor McGlynn and the school committee overwhelmingly supported for the school nurses to be trained in Narcan. Um, given that in December we conducted Narcan training. Uh, it was presented to the school nurses by a representative from Armstrong ambulance. Um, and they are very skilled and often, um, administering Narcan in our community. So we gained a lot from their experience, um, in, in that procedure. So Dr. Kristen Goodell, our school physician, and I wrote a protocol and procedures for school nurse management of potential life-threatening opioid overdoses. We strictly followed the Department of Public Health recommendations and guidelines in this protocol. So as you read through it, everything is very clearly marked out for how a school nurse would proceed in determining if a person was suffering from a potential overdose, and then what steps to take to support that.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: I just have one quick question. Sure. Are our high school nurses and middle school nurses, is there someone in the building most times that have this training?
[Toni Wray]: The entire nursing staff was trained.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Everybody?
[Toni Wray]: So everybody, including the elementary level nurses. Because while we may not expect an elementary student to be In that situation, we don't know if a parent may be in the building. We don't know if somebody in the community would be on school grounds. And a school personnel would be notified that there's somebody on the playground or on the school grounds that needs assistance. So at every level, all school nurses were trained.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Great, thank you very much.
[Toni Wray]: You're welcome.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Are there any other questions, Ms. Vento? Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. um, strong ambulance training to your nurses.
[Roy Belson]: Absolutely.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Thank you very much.
[Roy Belson]: Thank you. Before we go on the next item, while Tony is here, just inform the committee that tomorrow, uh, Tony and members of the police department and the fire department are going to Lexington, uh, to participate in a multi hazard training program over two days, dealing with our updates on how we respond to multi hazards. We'll give you a report after the training is done. to give you some of the latest things that have been recommended or the changes that we will look at in our policy. But over the next two days, they'll be spending time looking at all the things that can happen, whether they be violence-related, natural disaster, fires, any kind of thing that might affect a school or a school environment going forward. So you can see that this is getting very sophisticated, very complicated, this whole health field, because basically people have to be up on almost everything. It's not just opiate. It could be combinations of factors that are actually affecting an environment. Now, it's rare that these things happen, but it's not rare if it happens in your neighborhood. It happens in your school. We stay on top of it and Tony will be leading the team of police and fire tomorrow and the next day to go over our multi-hazard response programs.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: So we better send her home.
[Roy Belson]: Two long days.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Thank you. report on March 1st, 2016, Professional Development Day, Superintendent.
[Roy Belson]: Madam Mayor, members of the committee, we'll call upon our Deputy Superintendent to tell you about our March 1st Professional Development Day.
[Beverly Nelson]: We have in our contract, our teacher's contract, two days, two mandated days of professional development. Usually we schedule these days on the calendar at the very beginning of school. This year we scheduled one. It was November 3rd. It was a very productive day. We had input from the Medford Teachers Association based on what they thought teachers would like to hear about. And we focused on several district initiatives. TeachPoint, which is the new education evaluation tool management system we're using. We did some workshops on instructional technology. We reviewed School Brains, which is going to be the new student management system that is coming into play. It was a very productive day. We touched upon several different topics. We didn't schedule the second day because we were waiting to see what happened with the weather. And as you know, last year we had a lot of snow days and we went almost to the very end of June. And we didn't really want to schedule a professional development day and use up a student day until we knew what the weather was going to be like. And our plan was that if we really had a winter again, that we were using all of our days at the very end for students, that then after students left, we would have our professional development day for teachers, because teachers by contract go longer than our students, 180 days. So that was our thinking. So as we're moving into the winter, and things seem to be going okay so far, we'll keep the fingers crossed, And also, we started before Labor Day, so we have some extra time, and we feel fairly confident now that we can schedule that second day for March 1st. So that's our plan. Right now, we're still on the report. I know we mentioned that all events will be held at Medford High School. We're kind of rethinking that a little bit. We're meeting with our principals tomorrow, brainstorming some of the topics. There are many things that have been put forward, but we need to prioritize what's important since we have such limited time for professional development. So again, with this, we will notify the principals tomorrow to notify the parents that there is no school, there will be no school for students on March 1st, and the teachers that they will have their full day of professional development on that day. Any questions?
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Motion to receive and place on file. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Papers received. Item 9, negotiations in legal matter, a motion to suspend the rules offered by Mr. Skerry to place this at the end of the agenda. All those in favor?
[Ann Marie Cugno]: Aye.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: All those opposed? Suspension is granted. All business, none. Communications, none. School Committee Resolution. Be it resolved that the Medford School Committee express its sincere condolences to the family of Benjamin Nickerson, who then was a 1995 graduate of Medford High School, who was the son of Jane Pompeo and the grandson of the late Alfred Pompeo, Sr., who served on this board. Also, school committee resolution, be it resolved that the Medford School Committee expresses sincere condolences to the family of Judge Henry Tamponi. Judge Tamponi was a graduate of Medford High School, where he was an outstanding soccer player. He served for many years as Justice at the Somerville District Court, where he acquired a reputation of tough, but severe. All please rise for a moment of silence. Shannon has a few announcements for us.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Before we move forward, during this moment, I'd also like to show some support to a very dear friend of mine who's living with cancer. And her friends and family are all taking pictures at different areas throughout the community to show our love and support. So to Mary Pierce, I wish you luck in your battle. And I just want to say, Pierce strong.
[Roy Belson]: Madam Mayor, members of the committee, you don't have to stand up while I'm talking. I appreciate that. There are a couple of things you have to pay attention to. In your packets, I provided you with a copy of the open meeting law. You need to read that over very carefully, and you need to sign at the end of it that you have read it and you are certifying that you are aware of the rules in that, and I need the copies back. Second matter is that I've also provided you with the Ethics Commission's requirement to take the ethics online exam. If you haven't done it in the last two years, you need to do it again. So that's a requirement of law. You can do it online. If you need assistance doing that, come into our offices. We can assist you with that going through. That's the third. For new members, it's important that we talk about the chart, the course requirement, which is an eight hour requirement of law. MASC provides a course. There are other options as well, but it must be completed within the first year of your service. It can be done at a conference, or it can be done through one of the MASC conferences, or it can be done through actually one of their specialized programs. We can talk about that individually as to what's most convenient for you. It's advantageous to become familiar with these rules governing school operations. And also, in many instances, to talk to colleagues from other districts who may provide you with perspectives on how they feel the best way is to conduct business. And the last couple of things I want to introduce tonight, we have a guest with us tonight. Sitting over there, Paresh EC. Paresh, why don't you stand up for a minute? Biresh is the head of the Pioneer Charter School in Everett. Biresh is spending time with me as he's working to get a superintendent's license. And we're working on deals to bring kids back. Actually, Biresh is very interesting, and the two of us have very good dialogue, and I look forward to spending good time with Biresh as we talk about the relative merits of education and the like. I appreciate Biresh attending tonight to get a feel for how the school committee works, and I'll certainly spend some time visiting Pioneer to find out some of his top secrets so we can incorporate him in our program. Thank you, Biresh, I appreciate it. And lastly, I mentioned it earlier, but I'll mention it again. Tonight you have two press releases, the beginning of a very series, a very significant series of press releases coming out here tonight. One of them is about Ketty Toussignon. Ketty is the top student in the vocational school. Ketty is in the health assisting program. She's now spending nine different sessions at Harvard University in a medical preparation program. She came from Haiti, didn't speak English at all as a 10-year-old. Today speaks English very, very well, is the top of her class, and someday hopes to become a physician and to open up a hospital in Haiti. It's a wonderful story. It's out there. That's one of our stories about students on the move, students doing things, success stories. And I think it's the kind of thing you'll see coming out of our public information office. The second piece you have is a piece that summarizes the teacher contract to the public to let them know what's been done. I think it was a very good contract. There's a nice quote in there from Charlene Douglas, the president of the MTA, affirming the fact that it was good negotiations. And one of the key factors that I want to emphasize is the fact that the teachers embrace the idea of rigorous professional development. We've talked about professional development tonight, the importance of it, all the things that they have to learn in order to be an effective teacher in today's school systems, not just academics, but their ability to work with special students, their ability to understand the laws of the Commonwealth and how it applies to them, and their ability to effectively use technology and other innovative techniques. And the ability to improve our professional development initiatives and to put some real money behind it was a great improvement, and I appreciate the committee's support on those matters. And I think that story will speak well to the public, so happy to put that out there as well. So look forward to some more terrific press releases. Alex, take note. We expect to read it in the paper someday. Someday. Maybe tomorrow. Thank you.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Thank you, Mr. Superintendent.
[Robert Skerry]: We revert to executive session.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Item nine, negotiations and legal matters, update on personnel discipline action, and an update on negotiation with collective bargaining unions. We will adjourn it following the executive session as all items have been addressed on the calendar. And that will now go into, all those in favor of going into executive session, say aye. Mr. Scherry, please call the roll.
[Robert Skerry]: Mr. Scugno?
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Yes.
[Robert Skerry]: Mr. Benedetto?
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Yes. Ms.
[Robert Skerry]: Kreatz?
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Yes.
[Robert Skerry]: Mr. Stone? Yes. Mr. Scherry, yes. Mr. Vandenbrouck?
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Yes.
[Robert Skerry]: Mr. Vandenbrouck?
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Yes. Seven in the affirmative.
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total time: 27.9 minutes total words: 1699  |
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