[Roy Belson]: Madam Mayor and members of the School Committee, you have the paper in front of you. I'm going to call upon our Deputy Superintendent to make the introductions of Team Medford, who have been incredibly generous to us, not only this year, but throughout the years, providing school supplies to our teachers and our students.
[Beverly Nelson]: So this year, the past nine years, I'm happy to say, a highlight of our first School Committee meeting agenda has been the recognition and thanks to Team Medford for all their efforts in collecting supplies for our teachers and students. And I'd like to invite our team members here tonight with us, and that's Sam and Janet and Luke. Do you want to come up with me? Okay. As you all know, the supply drive is organized by Sam, who every year contacts my office asking if he can do the supply again this year, and of course, The answer is yes. In addition to collecting regular school supplies, he takes special requests. And this year, Diane Caldwell asked that they have some pencil cases for elementary youngsters, and we're happy to say that every elementary student did receive one in the supplies that came in. We always ask for copy paper. That's always in high demand. This year we got over 80 cases, and we give that out equitably to the different schools and departments. This year, we're happy to report that the dollar amount of our supplies was up to $27,000, and that's $7,000 more, I believe, than last year. So we thank you greatly. Staples is once again our major sponsor. Joe Arrabo is Team Medford's representative. He can't be here. I think he's in Italy, and I think those two choices, Medford or Italy, Italy won out on that one. And again, additional donations were collected by Kiwanis, Armstrong Ambulance, Cataldo Ambulance, Courtyard Nursing Home, and the Andrews Middle School PTA. Again, we had supplies delivered to the high school on September, I'm sorry, on August 25th. We are deeply indebted to John McLaughlin and his team for getting everything organized so that everything was packaged and ready to go to schools and Principals picked supplies up or had them shipped to their schools by the first day of school. Again, this wonderful effort is an example of how different constituencies in a community can come together for a very positive and powerful result. And we sincerely thank everyone who participated. And I'd like to turn this over to Sam, who obviously is a very favorite person of mine. So, Sam.
[Sam Tarabelsi]: Thank you so much. Hello everyone. So again, this is an exciting time. Every time June comes, I mean, I had it on my calendar, make sure you connect with Beverly and go through the process. But team Medford, you know, we've been, I would say since the merger that occurred back about 1998, the team has been put together with volunteers of multiple departments, employees like Lou and Janet and many others. And we take pride of what we do. We knew that we needed to communicate and connect the community to our hospital, Lawrence Memorial. And the idea came as far as, you know, how do we also connect to the school system? And back to school drive was really something unanimously everybody energize certainly thanks to Lou we keep him connected with us because staples he has been instrumental in getting staples to be our major sponsor that's been year after year after year for the past nine years so I really without this theme that's some of them are here and a lot of them are different meetings at home we do meet every month and we really have programs and we're already set up for You know, Tufts Community Day, the health fairs, and we're also going to be back at the school on the 28th. And we will have Dr. Chandler and a few others, because we really want to make sure that Lawrence Memorial Hospital is here to stay. And we have been members of their employees and staff. I have been with the system for 44 years. I know, Lou, you've, you know, 44. So we're all committed. And I hope and I know for sure that I will make that call next June to Beverly to try to get even more than 27,000. So again, thank you for allowing us to do this. And we're happy to do it year after year after year. Thank you.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: On behalf of the entire city, we thank you and the whole team. If I could just list the names of the other people. Natella Taylor, Courtyard Nursing Home, Derek Marshine, Courtyard Nursing Home, Kelsey Flynn of Armstrong Ambulance, and Meredith Lambrook, also of Armstrong, Jesse Calvo of Hallmark, Mark Nicholas, Cataldo Ambulance, and Paul DeLiva, the principal of the Andrews, Janet Peralt, Hallmark Health, Lou Bracco, who's here tonight from the hospital, Sam is here as well. So, Janet. Wonderful. Thank you all so, so much on behalf of the students and our entire community. We really appreciate the hard work you put in on the kids' behalf.
[Roy Belson]: And I'm here members of the committee. We did give you a preliminary report on August 29th and update that this evening and go over a few things that maybe you didn't get at that time. So we've had eight days of school. for the last two weeks, and the kindergartners had four days of school, and we've had a pretty good overall opening. Student enrollment is still emerging, as our parent center continues to receive daily activity, enrollees coming from many places. And as of Friday, September 9th, our overall enrollment is, at this point in time, 37 students less than last year at this time. The current numbers are as follows. Elementary, 1,882. Less, about two than last year. The middle school, 943, an increase of 51. And the high school vocational school, 1365, a reduction of 86. Now, last year's eighth grade class was much lower than the previous class. That explains some of it, but, you know, at this particular point in time, I think it's probably on percentage about the same going to the high school. Det är förväntat att de här utbildningsnivåerna förändras i september. Det kommer studenter att registrera sig, och några studenter kommer att flytta. Det här är typiskt. Dessutom måste distributionen mellan högskolan och vocational school fortfarande refineras. Det är för att vi samarbetar och gör saker samtidigt, så det är mer än 101 studenter i 9. klasse to the vocational school and exploratory, even though the vocational ninth grade is only about 52 students. So you get the idea that there's another 50 plus students, or there are around 50 students coming from the high school in the ninth grade exploring programs, and there's other youngsters in the other grades exploring programs as well. And there are students coming from the vocational school taking courses at the high school. So as we merge, some of these lines will blur a little bit, but we need to break it out for reporting purposes. Class sizes across the district are good and well within contractual limits. I've provided a chart to you that Diane's office has produced with Michelle Bissell working at it, talking to all the principals every day to make sure that we get actual headcounts. Diane actually went down and did some headcounts today to be sure that the number registered and the numbers actually in attendance are reconciled. And the secondary school looks pretty good also, but we'll wait a few more days until we see how classes are redistributed as people change courses and make some adjustments as to what they're taking. This year, we made four administrative appointments that filled vacancies covered by two resignations, one retirement, and one promotion. And we reduced one administrative position in the special education budget during budget time. There were 32 new teachers hired to fill gaps caused by resignations, retirements, leaves of absence, and non-rehires. And there were multiple shifts of teachers to different positions to better address enrollment and program needs based on individual building preferences. Additionally, we hired a few new positions based on our budget deliberations, including one middle school librarian, one math coach, one middle school adjustment Councilor, behavior specialist and three full-time kindergarten aides from previously part-time aides at the Robins. We were also able to cover both clerical reductions with internal transfers. There were multiple changes among paraprofessionals and we're working on a full listing that's still evolving a little bit and we'll provide that to you as soon as we feel comfortable that it's solid. School security plans are in place at all schools and principals have been conducting practice drills In the first couple of days of school, I visited the schools and walked over to some of them, and everyone was evacuating. So I thought maybe school wasn't going to happen, but they were actually practicing. And there was no disruption to school operations caused by the September 8, 2016 primary election at five of our school sites. We will be closed for the November election, since that's a much heavier election, being a presidential election, and the turnout should be close to 80% versus the 15% or so som kommer till primär. Transportation routes are going through the typical initial adjustments to reflect actual ridership and route timing. Pat is working very hard with the company. They're doing a good job, again, in making adjustments, trying to make sure that the buses are properly, let's say, filled but not overfilled, and making some adjustments based on changes in individual student situations. Initial reports indicate that there's increased ridership around the district, and that we've used the Transfinder system, which we used this year to help smooth out some of these routes. We also want to thank the Eastern Bus in Tatiana Hall, who coordinates with Pat on the bus routes for their close work with us. School supplies, as you just heard, and other budget education materials have been ordered and much is in place. a few more distributions to take place. We're grateful to Team Medford and other groups for their generous support. At our next meeting, we'll recognize other groups who have provided for our students as well. We have some nice substantial donations to augment what we have. We are implementing our revised supply list plan that reduces individual supply list requests of parents. In fact, this evening when we were down in the McGlynn, I talked to representatives of the PTO down there and they asked how they could Provide supplies without hitting parents up. And we talked about a methodology for doing that in a more generalized way so that parents, individual parents, don't feel obligated or coerced to providing supplies. And there are many parents out there that can't afford it. They have multiple children and we want to be fair. We have a new substitute software system, which we call ASOP. It's working well. We have more substitutes available to us than ever before. I think there were like 60 on the list, Pat. Previously this time we might have 20, 30 at the most. And so this is going to be an important year for providing full coverage to our schools. We are transmitting, transitioning rather, from our previous student information system, which is I-PASS, to our new system, which is called School Brains. It will take some time to work out all the particulars. Technology glitches are part of what we have to deal with. And we have a meeting on Wednesday to work out some of the information transfer that we don't think went quite as smoothly as we would have liked it to go. But we don't think it's going to, let's say, create any kind of problems down the road. And as teachers learn to use it, we feel it will reach its optimum utilization. We completed FY 2016 with a balanced budget. Final transactions are being implemented now. A report will be forthcoming when all records are reconciled with City Hall. We're entering fiscal 17 in good shape. We have to keep an eye on possible state aid reductions in our cost overruns for programs, services, and facilities. The state is seeing lower revenues, and who knows, it might trigger 9C cuts. It's always out there looming sometime in the late fall. Vi har fortfunding som kan tillåts från olika grupper. Det är inte klart om legislaturen kommer att förbereda nytta förfunding. Vi måste också se på alla typer av aktioner i Washington som fortgår i den här tiden. I de kommande veckor kommer vi att samarbeta om våra mål och vi fortsätter som vi har progresserat i året. Ni har några plattformar. Ni kan se dem. Det är plattformen för utbildning i distrikten. There's a chart broken out by actual grades. There's a chart broken out just by school and grade. And there's the elementary class chart that breaks out by teachers and the actual grade levels at each school. So, it looks pretty good. Happy to take any questions you might have.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: I just want to share, Mr. Superintendent, the class size, the average class size scheduled up as of today? Yes. Or as of Friday?
[Roy Belson]: As of Friday. And some of today's, we just, we made some adjustments.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: And I had received a couple of calls from Robert's school district, and they were talking about class sizes in the 25 numbers, so I just wanted to just spell this out. Kindergarten is the average 21.5, grade 1 16.75, grade 2 22, grade 3 19.8, grade 4 18, and grade 5 18. So that is the average class size as of today. Right.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Thank you, Madam Mayor. So that was exactly my question, because I've also received calls. And I just spoke to Diane about it, and I'd like her to come forward and give a clarification, because I was told that there were classes where there were 25. And I believe it was grade two. And also, I think it was the kindergarten as well, or 24 or something. And it does look, I do have to say, I do have a concern If you look at the numbers in kindergarten and look at the numbers in grade one, it looks like the average class size in kindergarten is higher, quite a bit higher than in grade one across the board. And, you know, it's always been, particularly in kindergarten, that those were the places where we're looking, you know, for low numbers and in, you know, At the Roberts, even with average class size, 21.5, so there's 22 kids in the class. That's a lot of little five-year-olds all together. So I am concerned about our kindergarten numbers. Diane, could you address the concern about the numbers at the Roberts specifically?
[Diane Caldwell]: I can definitely do that for you. So in kindergarten, I guess I can start with the good news is that we have full-time kindergarten aides now at the Roberts Elementary School. So there are between 21 and 22 students in each classroom, but at least we have a full-time kindergarten aid. With respect to grade two at the Roberts Elementary School, Mr. Johnson, if I can say this, divvies up his classes a little bit differently than the other principals. Most principals will do the average, so if you have 88 students, then each teacher gets about 22 students per classroom. Mr. Johnson looks at his children and if he feels that there are children with more needs in one classroom, he will say, let me put 19 or 20 in this classroom and bump up another classroom to maybe 24. There has never been 25 children in any of the classrooms.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: But there is 24?
[Diane Caldwell]: There is 24. I went down there today specifically and counted grade 2.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Are the teachers Do they feel that's a very amenable way to divide the children fairly, or is that causing... I mean, I understand, but clearly there were parents who were reacting to it, so I'm somewhat curious about the staff.
[Diane Caldwell]: The staff has never complained to me. Mr. Johnson's been doing this for years, so I haven't had any teacher come to me and say that they think it's unfair. I know in the other buildings it's not done in that way, but Mr. Johnson has been doing this for years.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Yeah, thank you. I'm not quite sure what to think yet. I guess part of it depends on How many more kids come into the district in those classes? Have you been receiving concerns, Diane?
[Diane Caldwell]: I have not received one phone call from anybody yet. And obviously I welcome them because they will call me. But today when I was down at the Roberts School, there was one classroom with 24 students. One with 19, one with 20, and one with 21. Sometimes at this time of the school year, there are no-shows, children transfer out that we are unaware of, so that could still be happening. So we're just waiting for the dust to settle right now. But there was one classroom with 24, but the others had 19, 20, and 21 today. Okay.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Thank you.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Thank you.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Ms.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: DiVenedetto.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Thank you. My question is, students that leave the classroom, is there any additional children on top of the 20, 21, 24 coming into the classroom for other subject matters, or is that the maximum that's in that classroom at any time during the day?
[Diane Caldwell]: You know, I'm not sure. I don't have the answer to that question, but I can find out for you.
[Roy Belson]: Let me answer it, because I know what you're asking. Those classrooms are for integration of special needs youngsters, and that might happen in a gymnasium, that might happen in an art class, It may happen in some other, let's say, elective type class, but not in the regular classroom.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Could it happen like if a child that has special needs though comes in for English and math and science, but not English and social studies, so it could bump up those numbers even higher?
[Roy Belson]: I don't see that at this point in time. Generally, the classes down there, if they've got inclusion, they're part of the original count.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: What about the ESL students?
[Roy Belson]: Same thing.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Så det är inte... De kan samlas för en generell aktivitet, men inte generellt för reglerna.
[Roy Belson]: När de samlas, kommer andra lärarna med? Ja, de kommer med. Även med full-time-aids, i kindergården, tror jag att det är fortfarande högt.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Vi använder full-time-aids baserat på de antal vi har, inte på de större antal. This is still concerning. I mean, it's better because we do have the full-time aides, but the full-time aides were to help the number we already had in existence. And kindergartners need a lot of extra time and help from adults. I'm just putting it out there.
[Roy Belson]: So I feel obligated to say this. We're spoiled in Medford. We are spoiled in Medford. You should see the class sizes around the Commonwealth. We are spoiled in Medford. We are so used to having low class sizes. that any time it peaks a little bit higher, it becomes a major issue in some people's minds. These are very good class sizes for public school. And if you look around the Commonwealth, you won't find better. So I know we'd like to have less, but an additional teacher with benefits and everything is gonna cost you in a classroom, cost you another $100,000 for one or two students. I think that we can adjust the actual instruction I can ask the principal to carefully review from time to time whether the 24-21 makes a lot of sense. If it really becomes an issue, maybe we can talk about an aid. But I don't think we should be in the business of just simply adding teachers and adding classrooms when we're at this level. It's easy to make the argument, but I can tell you that our class sizes are among the best in the Commonwealth, much better than our neighbors.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: One more question, please. Okay, so I'm looking at the middle school as well. The Andrews has a sixth grade entrance of 178, and the McGlen has 148. I know we had a big difference at the beginning of sixth grade last year, and that looks more even now as I look at the seventh grade numbers, but there's 30 more children at one than the other. I thought we were hoping to keep them somewhat equal.
[Roy Belson]: Well, remember, some of these are a function of youngsters who do have a need to be in certain schools because of certain, let's say, programs that are at that school, as opposed to others. But, you know, clearly they're close enough, you know, for us to do it, and it's certainly well within the class size limits. In each grade level, 25 students in a class would be 200 students. If you had 25 students in a class, you'd have 200 students in that grade level. Så du har åtta klasser i varje skola, som är delade i det numret, och det visar dig hur stor klassen är. Dessutom har du några specifikeringsproblem, som kan ta den numren ännu mindre. De klasserna är väldigt bra.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: –Jag vill, men jag vill vara försiktig, så att vi inte gå ner i vägen
[Roy Belson]: that, you know, every time someone says, well, it's a little too high, that we start saying, okay, add a teacher. That takes away from other things.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: To still go back, I might need Ms. Caldwell to come back up, if she doesn't mind. You keep on saying, or you've kept on saying, that the other schools actually do it in a different manner. They do. So, I guess my question is that, I mean, I don't want to dictate the principles of the school, but if this might be an issue that is occurring and it might occur again, and it has been something that people have been worried about, why doesn't he do it like the other schools?
[Diane Caldwell]: I wish I had an easy answer to that, Anne-Marie. The other schools equitably distribute the children if it was 22 per school. And you have children who are ELL or SEI children, or you have special needs children, and we have push-in with some students. They distribute them equitably among the four classrooms. The superintendent and I have had conversations before, but Mr. Johnson feels that this method best for him in his building.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: Because my concern is that now for putting, let's say, all the children with special needs into one classroom, that's a lot for that teacher to be handling. And so that, you know, it contributes to everything. It's a domino effect. My concern is now, you know, one, is it fair to that teacher? Does he change the teachers around each year?
[Diane Caldwell]: So I believe he does do that. So he probably has two classrooms that may have lower numbers, and those might be what he would call his inclusion classrooms, although we all know we have children with needs in all classrooms. So he may put more students with special needs or ELL needs in two out of four of the classrooms, and he does change them every year.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: It's something that I think we really need to look at. Again, we don't want to sit here and dictate what the principals are doing in their own schools, but we do have the right to start questioning this. And this isn't the right, I don't think the way this is done. is probably, you know, thank you, equitable. It's been a very long day. I'm sorry, guys. Equitable, and it just doesn't seem fair to the students. It doesn't seem fair to the teachers, and there's just so much coming on, and I just, I feel bad for that particular teacher, even though he might be changing each and every year. It's still a lot on that one particular teacher that particular year. So I think that's something that we really need to look at. And the other thing also is to bring up the middle school. I'm not saying to change anything around this year, but I have looked at the numbers and the Andrews has 178, the McGlynn has 148. I know that it's because of, you know, certain students have to be at certain schools, but it's a difference of 30 students. And I think there was a difference last year also. And I just, I'm not saying to change anything. I'm just saying on the record, I want to make sure that we're looking at these numbers for even next year, because if this is going to becoming a trend that, you know, it goes from 10 to 30 and next year might be 50, there might be a reason why so many students now want to go to one school rather than the other. And again, we're trying to keep the middle schools especially very similar to each other because eventually all these students, we hope, are going to come up to the high school and we don't want to have any animosity between the two schools.
[Beverly Nelson]: If I could just direct a comment to that response. I believe the inequity is basically at grade six. Det är några saker. Först och främst, kan varje gradnivå tillgång till 200 barn. Så det är inte så att Andrews är överkröjt, det är bara att fler personer har optat för att återgå till grad 6. Om man tittar på grader 7 och 8, så är de mer tillgängliga. Den andra faktorn är att alla våra ELL-studenter återgår till McGlynn. Så vi måste lämna plats i McGlynn, för de studenter kommer i skolan under året. Och det är där våra ELL-programmet sitter. a lot of kids that come in. So we try to, again, keep the numbers lower at the McGlynn to accommodate those ELL students because there are no ELL student transferred and goes to the Inders. So that's another factor with that.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: But that's a huge factor.
[Beverly Nelson]: It is huge and it's very hard to predict. You know, right now, I mean, the balance in grades seven and eight is pretty equitable, but I know as I talked to the parent center, I said, when students are coming in now, transfers, Any non-ELL, you have to put in the Andrews, because I need to leave space in the McGlynn for the ELL youngsters who will come in during the year. But you can't predict. We might have five, we might have 50. If we have 50, it's a problem. I'm hoping not. I'm trying to try to go in the past years. But that's probably part of why you're seeing the imbalance in 7th and 8th.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: I know the transition is on an everyday basis too, but at least if we have another number in a couple of months just to see have we received more children into the McGlynn and how it's looking. That's all we're asking. Right.
[Beverly Nelson]: We already, I know last week, I think we had eight or nine youngsters coming in. I think all of them were ELL youngsters, so it does Ok, that does fluctuate.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: But I'd like parents to understand that that's the reason why. You just don't want people thinking, oh, everybody's going to one school rather than the other and causing a situation that there isn't. So thank you for the clarification.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: So I just wanted to go back to some of the numbers and if I could ask Diane to come forward again. So, Diane, there is a difficulty here because we're sort of seeing numbers and, you know, it's kind of us second-guessing the principles, which we understand the fallacy of that. I could probably make a strongest argument supporting the way that Mr. Johnson divvies up kids. saying it may be in fact the most equitable way, because we all know that one very difficult student, a teacher might prefer three easy students in comparison. But it does raise some questions. One of the questions I see elsewhere is that at the Columbus on the first grade, we are as class size as low as 14 students, while the kindergarten is up to 21. And playing around, I almost wondered, gee, would we have better off to have an extra kindergarten teacher and divide it up in a different way. So I'm curious why that decision was made.
[Diane Caldwell]: The students grew at the very last minute in the kindergarten for the Columbus School, and then I looked at the grade one numbers at the Columbus, and I checked out the teacher licenses, and I had no teachers here. who actually had a kindergarten license, or I might have thought about transferring one of those teachers down to kindergarten in a heartbeat to help the kindergartners. But it's sort of, what happens is we get a flow of children for registration, and so we base our teacher numbers based on what we have, and then, I don't know, the superintendent can tell you as well, last week and the week before, we got a rush of numbers which increased at the Columbus School in the kindergarten.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Do all of those teachers at the Columbus School have full-time aides?
[Diane Caldwell]: They do not. Three out of four have full-time aides in the kindergarten, yes, not all of them.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: So three out of four. And does the fourth teacher have the same 21 kids?
[Diane Caldwell]: Yes, she does. But what they do is they share an aide off and on so that at times she does have a full-time aide.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Well, you know, again, looking at the number, I think that that's where we might be saying, hey, I understand the superintendent saying, look, you know, We've got great class sizes, and I've certainly spoken to other people in other towns, and I know we have great class sizes, but still, my expectation was more that they're in the 17-18 range. When I see going up to 22, that's definitely concerning to me. In the Roberts School, one of the things I want to ask you about the kindergarten class specifically, since the principal told us that, you know, are there any kindergarten classrooms with 24 or 25? No.
[Diane Caldwell]: No, no, no.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Okay, so they're divided equitably? Yes.
[Diane Caldwell]: In fact, the rest of the classes, I think, are the same. I don't have 24 in any other classroom at the Roberts Elementary.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Okay. Okay? Yeah. Well, I mean, if I look at this sheet at the second grade, it says average class size 22, but you've told me that there's some with 24. And if I look at kindergarten, It says average class size 21.5, i.e. So would one kindergarten class have 20 and the other have 24? No. Okay. Thank you.
[Diane Caldwell]: And if you want to finance kindergarten aids, I'd be happy to take that. Thank you.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Well, I really think that looking at the numbers, we might look at how that Columbus, that one class which doesn't have a kindergarten aid in equity seems like a need there. At the Columbus School, you mean? Yes. Yes.
[Mea Quinn Mustone]: Happy to help. Thank you, Ms. Caldwell. I just wanted to clarify my experience at the Roberts with Mr. Johnson, who now I have two who are on to the middle school, three who are still there, one to soon be there. We've always had wonderful class sizes, wonderful teachers. My children have had the same teacher different years, and sometimes that teacher was the inclusion class, Other years they were not. So I do think there is a method to his madness. I trust him and his judgment. I do think before we dictate anything to him, I think it'd be fair for him to come here if we have more questions directly for him. So I just, I really am a strong supporter of Mr. Johnson, and I just want to give those words. Thank you.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Thank you. Ms. Kurtz?
[Kathy Kreatz]: Oh, hi. I just wanted to mention I was looking at the numbers. I have the numbers from last year on my phone. The Columbus did have the average class size for kindergarten was 17. So that is a jump for the Columbus School in the kindergarten. You know, that would be four students, you know, average per kindergarten class. That is a jump. You know, that was the significant jump in all of the different elementary schools. The other schools stayed the same. It seems like the population is growing in the Columbus area, you know, for kindergarten. So I agree with Paulette that I think we need to kind of take a look at it and make sure that the teachers are okay. And if they need any aids, because that would be a four students in kindergarten. That's a lot. Yeah. Um, but the, I did look at the other numbers in the middle school, um, was comparably very much the same as last year. So, I mean, it was like significant jump, but not a lot. Okay.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Thank you.
[Kathy Kreatz]: Thanks.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Mr. Skerry.
[Robert Skerry]: Just to put an information through you to miss Colville. Uh, how many parents requested, uh, Not their school they were assigned to, but to go to another school. for the kindergarten, and how many of those requests were on it?
[Diane Caldwell]: I don't have the numbers on me right now, but I can certainly get those for you.
[Robert Skerry]: I appreciate that.
[Diane Caldwell]: But honestly, this year, because it was so equitable across with our numbers, I couldn't make any transfers. Sometimes it's possible for me if I have one school that only has maybe 17 children, and I sort of at another school have an overload, that I can make transfers to that school. But this year it was pretty equitable across with like 21, 22 students. And I'm happy to see that the Columbus School is growing, actually. It's a great school.
[SPEAKER_14]: Thank you.
[Diane Caldwell]: Thank you.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Ms. Vanden Heuvel? No, it's okay. You're all set? Yeah.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Is there a motion on the floor to proceed with the press on file? Second. Seconded by Ms. Vanden Heuvel. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Papers placed on file. Report on Administrative Meetings and Teacher Induction Week. Mr. Superintendent.
[Roy Belson]: Madam Mayor, Members of the Committee, our Deputy Superintendent will bring you up to date on the Administrative Meetings and also our Teacher Induction Program.
[Beverly Nelson]: Thank you. The week of August 22nd to 26th was extremely busy for both administrators and for our new teachers as both groups had a variety of activities going on with different meetings and trainings. I'll start with the new teacher induction program. This used to be a one-day program, but over the years, we expanded to two days and three days, and now it's four. There are just so many things that we feel that our new teachers should know about, the district and programs that they should know about before they enter the buildings day one, so we do have a pretty expansive program. We have two wonderful mentor coordinators. Our mentor program has been in existence for many years. The coordinators this year are teachers Jody Lu from the high school and Donna Lasky from the McGlynn Elementary. And they help myself, Diane, and Bernadette Riccadeli plan all of the activities for the four days. We also have a lot of our administrators stepping up to the plate and, you know, presenting different workshops. I know Dr. Riccadeli and Mr. DeLaver did a wonderful workshop on the educator evaluation system. Dr. Perrella and Dr. Riccio did a wonderful presentation on professionalism, which was well received by the teachers. And again, the four days give our teachers a great opportunity to know our people and programs. The teachers were very pleased when Mayor Burke showed up on one of our days and had a photograph opportunity with the group. And just to kind of give you an idea of how you have the agenda for the four days, but how it was received, Dr. Riccadeli did I collect and collate the valuations of the week by the new teachers, and I've included those under new teacher reflections. And you can see, day by day, we did the first day do a complete workshop day on technology. All of our teachers, our new teachers received iPads, and you can see that they were very appreciative of that and the training. You can see that on the other days, they enjoyed learning, meeting department heads, putting names and faces together, which we feel are very important. So if something comes up with special education, they see Kathy Medaglia's name, they've met her. And I think that's important for our new staff. They also felt it was a great time to meet other new teachers, to network. Other remarks, it was warm, reassuring, and welcoming, which makes us happy that I think we're doing something right with this. And just to kind of, you can kind of read through this, a whole lot of different comments. The last day, we focus on school culture and professionalism and the social emotional initiative that our district is so, you know, dedicated to. And you can see from the remarks, I learned a lot of valuable tips and lessons pertaining to professional dress for success. And it was a great closing day. And again, this person left feeling confident and encouraged. And I think that's what we wanted people to feel by the time they walked out the door on Friday. So it really was, I think, a very successful week for our new teachers. As far as the administrators, we split the week up between allowing administrators to do their own thing in their own buildings and departments. We did have two full days of meetings. There are many things that The administrators, we wanted to get them up to speed on. There were several legal issues. We had some training on ASOP, which is our new substitute teacher system that the district is currently using. And again, we basically spoke with them about the programs that took place during the summer, and I'll be talking about those a little later on this evening. A lot of time and effort is put into planning these days by everyone, and I think that we feel that the planning time is well spent, and it helped to ensure a smooth opening of school for our teachers on August 29th. And we thank all the teachers, the administrators, and the consultants who took a part in making the week so successful. Any questions, comments?
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Thank you very much. Now, motion on the floor to receive and place on file, seconded by Ms. Kreatz. All those in favor? All those opposed? Motion passes. Report on new state curriculum frameworks for science education.
[Roy Belson]: Madam Mayor and members of the committee, our Director of Science, Rocco Sierra, is here to brief you on that. I'm just going to show you the booklet that contains the standards that everyone's supposed to learn. So we'll make sure you get a copy so you can study them on your own in your own leisure. Meanwhile, Rocco will tell you all about it.
[Rocco Cieri]: Good evening, Madam Mayor and school committee members. Before you, you have the report for the new curriculum framework for science and technology engineering. The Massachusetts Board of Education approved a new science and technology engineering framework and made the publication available in April. This framework replaces the 2006 Massachusetts framework, STE framework, and articulates some statewide guidelines for science, technology, engineering, learning, teaching, and assessment for the Commonwealth's public schools. The 2016 STE standards, and I'm just going to use the shorthand because it comes up quite a bit in the report, maintain a lot of the content of the prior standards. men there have been some changes over the past 15 years and there have been some really important things that we've learned about engaging students in STE disciplines for academic programs as well as civic life and their post-secondary opportunities. The following changes, I've broken them up by grade level. The first thing that has changed is that the standards integrate disciplinary core ideas, and science and engineering practices. These were two separate kinds of things, and if you look through the standards and compared the two documents, you would notice that the standard itself is written as though there's already an embedded sort of hands-on component into it, whereas the older standards did not have that. In addition, there's another change. Beginning in pre-K and continuing through grade 8, standards are divided by grade level rather than grade band. And that's a pretty significant change, considering that when we try to coordinate our content instruction from grade to grade, there may be a tendency to teach some of the standards at different, you know, repeated standards. So this should alleviate some of that and allow for teachers in any district to be able to teach very specific standards. There are also changes which will require district-wide curriculum alignment. For example, the new framework adds 15 standards to pre-K to 2nd grade and 14 standards to the 3rd through 5th grade level. Whereas at the 6th through 8th grade level, there's actually a net loss of two standards. While there is some removal and reworking of these standards, there's a net gain of standards at the elementary and middle school level. and that's sort of significant because it goes along with what I would like to speak about later on. At the high school level, it generally remains the same. It's subject-specific courses in biology, introductory physics, chemistry, earth and space sciences, and technology engineering. And currently, our current resources can be very well adapted to meet those standards. The MCAS. Students will continue to be assessed using MCAS in grades 5, 8, and in high school. Beginning in 2017, the grade 5 and grade 8 science MCAS will pilot some new questions that reflect the standard. At the high school level, the subject-specific MCAS will continue using the old frameworks at least until 2019. Not sure if it's squeaking because of where I'm standing, or if it's the mic, I apologize for that. For our district-wide curriculum, the report breaks it up from elementary and middle school, and then at the high school level. Medford's curriculum resources require some updating. primarily at the elementary and middle school level. The area of most need is the K-5. Over the past two years, we anticipated addressing some of the engineering practices by purchasing two units from a highly rated program entitled Engineering is Elementary, and this was designed at the Museum of Science in Boston through the Center for Technological Literacy. The school committee also allocated an additional $10,000 in this year's budget at the elementary school level. And this is reflected in the instructional science supplies budget line item. At the same time, we're going to need to identify some new resources to address the disciplinary standards described in the 2016 STE framework that I've sort of outlined at the beginning of the report. At the middle school, students will require new textbooks as the current texts are outdated and don't reflect the requirements of the new frameworks. During the school year, myself and Dr. Riccadeli, the Director of Curriculum Instruction, will oversee a curriculum committee. We'll meet to identify, review, pilot textbook programs that align with the new frameworks and make some recommendations in the upcoming years. At the high school level, we've gained quite a bit from the current programming and facilities at Medford High School and the Vocational Technical High School. City of Medford successfully funded the Science Lab Initiative, which allowed the 17 state-of-the-art labs in the facility. And at the high school, the curriculum is poised to maximize student learning in line with the 2016 STE frameworks. There is a need to update high school chemistry and biology textbooks, and that can come in the coming years. The framework isn't changing, so we can still wait on those materials. Vice-chancellor, our approach should be multi-year, involving school community, families, and educators. And beginning this year, we will form that curriculum committee to review the details of the framework that you have in front of you, identify some content gaps that are in our current district-wide curriculum, priority concerns, and begin the process of reviewing resources to recommend to you. It's clear that the elementary and middle school level, however, will need to be a priority in the current and upcoming school budget so that the curriculum programs at that level can be adopted.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Very good. Are there any questions? Ms. Mestone? Ms. Mestone?
[Mea Quinn Mustone]: Sure. Thank you for all this information. I know we've spoken in the past that that's been a concern for parents at the Roberts and other elementary schools that the books are from 1997. The only thing that struck me is that it says the MCAS this spring for grades five and eight will include the new state standards.
[Rocco Cieri]: They'll pilot some questions, but those questions won't be reflected in the student scores.
[Mea Quinn Mustone]: Okay.
[Rocco Cieri]: We're too early in the process for them to roll them out.
[Mea Quinn Mustone]: And then when you talk about upcoming years and a multi-year endeavor, when do you think actual new textbooks will be rolled out in the elementary schools? Just because parents constantly ask about science curriculum.
[Rocco Cieri]: Right. We're going to form the committee, hopefully pilot some materials as early as possible. och när budget kan stödjer det så kan vi rullar ut det. Jag kan inte tala om det. Det kommer att vända sig till kommittén själva att besluta på det.
[Roy Belson]: Så om du minns från våra budgetdeliberationer, vi kommer att bli klar med att betala för InVision i det här året, och sen det pengar kommer att flytta över till Science at the elementary level.
[Mea Quinn Mustone]: Riktigt, så kan vi vänta till september för ny science?
[Roy Belson]: Vi vill se på nästa året om vi kan lägga pengar in i curriculum science elementary. envision which will be over.
[Mea Quinn Mustone]: So September of 2017. OK, great. Perfect. Thank you.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Yes, there's a motion to receive in place on file by Mr. Skerry, seconded by Miss Van der Kloot. All those in favor. All those opposed motion passes a question on that paper.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Mr. Benedetto. I just want to say we added a lot of new technology and labs at our high school. Do we have enough equipment and materials? Because I know the materials go quickly in those labs. I just want to make sure that they have the actual enough supplies.
[Rocco Cieri]: So our curriculum supplies are supported by the current budget. We replace anything that's consumable, and then we have some materials that last for many years. For example, if we take the freshman introductory physics, those materials are durable and last for many years. The things that need replacing are maybe batteries and wires and some of the materials that go along with it. och vi har kontinuerligt anpassat det med konsumable material supply budget line item som skolanskommunikation förbjuder. Så vi är ganska up to date på det, och vi har också tillräcklig tillgång till att få studenter och klasser att jobba i grupper av två eller tre, aldrig mer än det, i nästan alla kurser som vi lär oss. Vi har också fått en hel del andra hjälp genom granter. Vi har fått granter från Bioteach, The Massachusetts Life Sciences Group, and additional things which have supported the budget in quite a significant way. So we do make up for a lot through grants and things, and there's a lot of materials available for teachers to use.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Okay. Even in the chemistry classes and all chemistry?
[Rocco Cieri]: Yes, we've always replaced anything that breaks any chemicals. We keep control of inventory there. So all of those things are really pretty well maintained.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Okay, great. Thank you. Report on the before school program.
[Roy Belson]: Madam Mayor and members of the committee, our assistant superintendent will tell us about before school.
[Diane Caldwell]: Good evening again. So we are very proud to say that the Medford Public Schools B4 School Program has been up and running since the very first day of school. Informational letters and packets were sent out backpack express in June to our families and all of our information was posted on our Medford website. Each before school staff member is provided with an attendance sheet, list of staff contacts, completed health forms for children with known allergies or health concerns, and some emergency contact information, which is very important. We work closely with Tony Vento, who is our supervisor of nurses, to collect our documents, provide us with EpiPens, and hopefully we're going to have a CPR and first aid class for our teachers. As we did last year, we met with the before school staff in June and in August. This past June we wanted to evaluate the program because it was our first year. Our teachers were very happy with it, we got positive feedback from our parents, and our students were happy with the activities that were provided to them. We have given each elementary school a cell phone and they also have a website that you can go to to place absences. I've provided you with materials that are attached. For the most part, I'm happy to say that our numbers have grown a little bit. The Brooks is at 45 last year and 45 this year, although I must say I have about five to seven students on a waiting list there, and I just need to check with the staff to make sure that they can fold them in without any problems. So that would give us 52 students at the Brooks School. The Columbus grew from 12 to 18 this year. The McGlynn started at 12 last year, but I actually think the number is 13 this year because we have a few more students added since I did this. And the Roberts has grown from 10 to 18 students this year. The before school staff arrive at their locations at 7.25. The children play, read, complete art projects, or talk to the teachers. And then at 8.15, the students go to the cafeteria where they have breakfast. Feedback I received from parents is that they're very happy that they have a place to drop their children off, where they know they're safe. I want to thank Michelle Bissell, who goes above and beyond for me on a regular basis. She works tirelessly on this program. She explains to parents the fax payment system, collects health care information that will go on to our lead teachers, and orders any needed materials for our before school staff. We give each program $50 for whatever supplies they need and we order the supplies for them. Also, my thanks go out to the superintendent who has always been very supportive of this program and to you for your continued support. So the information that's in your packet is a letter that we sent home to our parents explaining the fax system, the registration form that is online as well as sent home, Backpack Express, and another registration form, the parent handbook, and at the very end, I believe you have a list of the before school program contact information. I'd be happy to answer any questions. Thank you.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Is there a second on that?
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Would you like to speak, Mr. Benedetto? Yes, please. Thank you. Diane, I just have a few questions. My first idea was to ask Carmack Health if they'd come down and train both the before school and after school CPR and first aid, since it's so generous with us in every other way. and they just declared this evening how they wanna be a big part of the community, that that's a good way to get our people trained. Thank you, that's a great idea, thank you. Also, my other question was about a wait list, so thank you for filling in that information. Is this program self-subsidized? Does it pay for itself? It does pay for itself, yes. Does it generate an income?
[Roy Belson]: Yes.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: It does?
[Roy Belson]: And of course, we need to keep it for situations where there may be a shortfall, someone doesn't, or can't pay at some point in time, there may be some scholarships that are generated because of low income.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: That's my next question.
[Roy Belson]: Whatever's left over is figured into our overall revenue plan, because obviously we have to offset our budget with revenue, as you know.
[Diane Caldwell]: We do scholarship some children in. I received scholarship applications from a few families across the board.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: I also had another question. Are we noticing any parents that are dropping children off early but not enrolling them in the program?
[Diane Caldwell]: So it's interesting that you ask that question because the answer is yes, specifically at the McGlynn School. So I find that parents who have children at the middle school will sometimes drop their elementary off at the same time and it becomes a safety issue for us really because they want the children, sometimes they tell them just to sit on the side, which I want them in the building. and usually they get forwarded to the office area. So one day I was over with Ms. Guarino and I said, there were like four children, four or five children, and she said, yeah, the parents dropped them off. So I've asked her to contact the parents to say that they cannot do that, but if in fact that they need some help with scholarships, we're happy to do that for them.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Okay, that's really my major concern and that's why I asked about whether there's income and space for those parents and if we were reaching out to them. I think, you know, as the darkness gets darker earlier in the morning, my concern is that and as it gets colder, I just don't want children waiting outside of any school. So I'm really glad that these programs are run and that there are adults there that are aware of that. I think it's great. I think the information is great and how you roll it out. I really appreciate this program and what it's doing for our community. Thank you. Thank you.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Thank you. There's a motion to receive and place on file, seconded by Ms. Vandekloot. All those in favor? All those opposed? Motion passes. Report on the after-school program, Ms.
[Diane Caldwell]: Caldwell. So, as you probably know, I am assisting Shelly Gross, who I have to give a lot of credit for because this is her baby, this is her program, so I'm trying to be helpful here. We are proud to announce Medford's after-school program is flourishing. All of our families are grateful and really very appreciative that they have a place to send their children after school, Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday from 2 to 6, and then on Wednesday it's from 1.30 to 6 o'clock. The children have opportunities to participate in fine arts and computer activities. Our staff understands the needs of each child. Once again, we work very closely with Tony Vento so she can provide us any health care information on each child. Currently, at the Brooks, we have 130 children. And actually, Ms. Feely and I met with the after-school staff today, and D.L.C. Avadi, who is the site coordinator at the Brooks, said, actually, Diane, we have 135 students. And so that's a lot for one school. The Columbus is up to 53, the McGlynn has 74, and the Roberts has 74 students. There are three levels of help in the after-school program. The site coordinator has the primary responsibility to oversee the daily program, safety and well-being of the children. I had the opportunity to go see Dale Ciavatti last Friday and watch how she manages 130 children with five different classes of K-1, 2, 3, 4, 5. And it was at the end of the school day on Friday. So there was someone standing at the door saying, Mrs. Benedetto is here for her daughter. And then another walkie talking on the other end said, Billy to the front of the building, and parents have a responsibility to sign their children out so that we know there's a check system there. Each site coordinator has a cell phone, and recently they've asked us for texting because it's easier to do in a school system, and Ms. Feeley has provided our site coordinators now with texting on the phone. It is not always easy to staff this program. I mean, when you think about it, it's from two to six. So it's not for moms who have children who are coming home, but it is for those people who in the middle of the day maybe want to work. Some of our people are retired. D.L.C. Abadie is a retired school teacher, so she does a tremendous amount of work. Kathy Hunt has been very instrumental. She runs a little daycare herself from 9.30 to 12.30 and then comes over to our building afterwards. We also have group leaders who are responsible for the classroom itself and curriculum and children and make sure the children's needs are met. And we have group assistants that work with the kids. And sometimes these are some of our high school kids who are able to get down to the schools or children, students from colleges. We actually try to get students from Lesley, Tufts University, Salem State. Problem with those kids is that after a semester, their schedules change. så att vi behöver anlägga andra i plats. Jag vill tacka den här möjligheten att tacka Dale Ciavatti, Cathy Hunt och Sheryl Alpers som har varit instrumental i att hjälpa mig med att samarbeta med all den här informationen. Pat Velie och jag har jobbat samtidigt med den här programen. I've supplied you with some information about the descriptions of the different leaders, pre-registration forms, letters, and the number of site coordinators and group leaders at each school. I'd be happy to answer any questions.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Thank you very much, Ms. Calva. Is there a motion to receive and place on file? Offered by Mr. Benedetto. I'm sorry, by Ms. Vandesluis, seconded by Mr. Benedetto. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Paper is placed on file. Report on summer program, Ms. Nelson?
[SPEAKER_14]: Report placed on file.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Summer's over. Motion to, is there a second? This is second by Mr. Benedetto. All those in favor? All those opposed? It's a motion to place on file and seconded. Papers placed on file. Report on new cleaning service contract. Ms. Bailey or Ms. Superintendent? All those in favor? All those against? There's a motion on the floor for reconsideration of the vote. All those in favor for reconsideration? The paper's back before us. Please present your summary on the summer programming.
[Beverly Nelson]: Okay, summer programs. Vi presenter you in May with the report of all of our planned programs and we're happy to report that all went very well. All programs were delivered as they were planned. We have, the report I presented here was really put together by the individuals who oversee each of the programs and they gave you a short little summary of number of students and how the program went, the dates and so on. Starting with special education, which was prepared by Cathy Medaglio. Basically, this program is for students who are with IEPs that call for summer programs during those months, and over 120 students were enrolled in their programs that were held at the Roberts and Medford High School from July 5th through August 12th. And again, the programming was really based on individual needs of those students. English Language Learner Program, Leslie Trotta, director of ELL, prepared the information here. Over 90 ELL students, and we had elementary, middle, and high school students participating in a variety of different programs, including the Newcomers Program. The goal of these programs is, again, to improve the skills of these students through the summer so they don't lose some of the skills that they achieved during the school year. as well as to move them forward. Again, there were field trips that were taken. The good news about this program is it is free of charge because it is funded by a Title III grant. So again, that was a very successful program for those youngsters. The Summer Fund Program, and this report was prepared by Anthony Petrellis, who is directing the program. He's very happy to report this was the 10th year of this program, and it ran for eight weeks. Beginning June 27th until August 15th. And the students are 5 to 12 years old. And again, even though the program has been in existence for 10 years, there were some new twists to this year's program. And Anthony goes on to explain they added a few new elements to the camp. They hired a full-time sports director who helped organize games for the individual groups. as well as prepare scavenger hunts every Friday. So that was another fun activity. They also opened up a camp Facebook page, which helped to keep parents informed about all the activities that were going on throughout the week. And as Anthony reports, overall the year was a success, and he's looking forward to 10 more years and beyond of this particular program. Middle School Computer Science Camp, run by Molly Layden, And again, this is a program that is funded through another grant. And Molly had 15 students completing an app design program. It was held at the McGlynn Middle School from June 27th through July 1st. And the students developed 10 apps that were published in Google Play Store. And the topics of the apps are parks in Medford, healthy eating, and wind turbine and solar panels. So again, those youngsters had an opportunity to really improve their skills and technology. Our regular summer school this year was facilitated by David Blau, who's assistant principal of Medford High School, and Jill Sawyer, who's assistant director of the vocational school. We had over 140 students. This program serves students from grades six through 12. Again, it offers basically the core curriculum subjects for make-up. Again, the courses, we run two courses, 8 to 10 and 10 to 12. One of the new things that was very successful this year, we had a pilot program, our online science courses. We decided this year that we would try to get more into this type of programming. Så med hjälp av Råkviseri, som tittade på kurskursen online och tvekte den, så matchade den vår kurskurs mer tydligt, så hade vi studenter som skulle göra forskning online. Och det visade sig att vi hade några succesfulla saker som vi inte hade tänkt om. Så en av dem, till exempel, var att vi tog in studenter från utanför distrikten, för distrikten som de var inne i, did not offer the summer program, let's say in chemistry. så vi var able att bring in outside tuitions to the program. The other thing, it allowed the students really to have a longer time to finish. You know, when summer school is over, it's over. And if a student has mastered the content, they don't pass. The students were allowed to take more time in August to finish because they could do it on their own online. And so we had a few extra success stories that we would not have had had it not been for the online components. We're looking to develop this more fully because we see it has a lot of potential. And the students seem to like it. They all like technology. They like to kind of progress at their own pace. And again, it was a very successful pilot. Okay. Again, the only thing that we saw we could improve in talking and debriefing with David and Jill is that we need to think of something that is a little different in structure for grades six and seven. Those students really struggled. It's hard for them to sit there with the attention span. And we're thinking next year, we'll bring it before the committee before any changes of maybe restructuring the program. It works well with grade A kids, but for some reason, the sixth and seventh graders get very antsy. So we're thinking of maybe having a longer program that is broken up with things like, you know, activities, so that you can break up the academics with the activities, because that was the one area of improvement. We're always looking to in order to debrief and improve the areas that we can. Obviously, one of the best things about the program is that students who didn't get their diploma in June because they were still deficient in coursework can get it once they make up the courses, and we had 12 of those youngsters who did receive diplomas at the end of summer school, so that was very successful. Okay, other programs.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Can I just ask you a quick question? Did those 12 get to WAC graduation last June? I'd have to check. If not, can we invite them up?
[Beverly Nelson]: Okay, will do. Thank you. High School 101. This program was started a few years ago, and again, Nicole Kieser and David Blow oversee this program. It's designed for students in grade 8 who are going into grade 9 who have been having trouble with academics, and they've made it to grade 9, We know they're going to need kind of a head start. So what we do is we basically, the summer work for all youngsters, all incoming ninth graders is reading, is English work, and there is math work. And so what happens is these students at the end of the school year, they're given their school work, and then they're invited to come in a few days early to have teachers work with them and go over their summer work and make sure it's done. and make sure that if they need help with something, they're getting that help. So we basically run this program. It's just a few days in duration, and then it ends with the regular orientation day for freshmen. So these youngsters come into high school a little bit early, get some academic support. They actually get a chance to meet some of the administrators a few days before, and then they kind of transition into the orientation day with all of the rest of their peers. So it's been very successful. This is a program that we used to be able to fund through academic support grant, but when that money kind of dried up, and again, this year we don't have academic support money, unfortunately, we, the district decided to support us. So we thank you for your support because it has been very helpful to those students. They feel like the first day of school they're not behind because many of them used to come in and they hadn't done the summer reading or they hadn't done the math work. So this is a real help to them. At the vocational school, we had two programs, one for students, middle school students, and one for adults. The middle school summer program, and again, Jill Sawyer prepared this report for us, 27 middle school students, they were both from the Andrews and McGlynn, pretty equally split, and it provides students the opportunity to get a taste of what happens at the vocational school. Because oftentimes, by the time they get to grade eight, they've made up their decision without really knowing what is out there for them at the vocational school. So this gives them a chance to get into the vocational school, to see the programs, actually experience the programs. And again, it's been very successful. It started last year, and again, it was continued this year. And their students were very, and parents were very receptive to that one. So that was another success story. And the adult program, the adult summer construction program, Dr. Riccio provided us with information on this. This was an eight-week program that ran July 8th, I'm sorry, July 11th through August 31st. Fifteen adult students participated. They received OSHA construction certification, CPR, and first aid certification, and entry-level training in both the construction and carpentry fields. The end result was to prepare them for entry-level positions at corporate and union entities. Fifteen participants graduated last week from the program and are now beginning the interview process with industry. So that was our summer, busy, productive, and a lot of students did benefit from these programs.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: Very good. Ms. Cuno. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Nelson. First of all, this report was wonderful. It really gave us an insight. It gives everybody an insight of really what was going on during the year, that it wasn't like the doors closed and everybody went off on vacation. I want to thank everyone for really thinking outside the box and really bringing in new and vibrant ideas. and it seems like it was very successful for many people and for a lot of our students. summer time program 10 years and running. That was a little personal baby of mine, so I'm really happy about that. I'm thrilled that we were able to get students to really see what the vocational school is about and showing them the jewel that it has. It has always been the summer program for our adults. It just it gives us a little bit and it gives I think everyone a little bit of an insight of. Yes, maybe we didn't have the money for certain things, but it didn't stop anyone from going and achieving and providing. And I think this report is really an extraordinary important report in that it gives everybody that information. So thank you, and thank you to everyone who really participated in this.
[Beverly Nelson]: I thank all my colleagues. I didn't put this together. You saw the names of the people that and providing me with all the information, so I thank them.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: And a little side bit of the students who didn't maybe walk. I knew of a student who actually, not this year, but had received his certification after he had done his summer program. and I insisted that he wear my son's cap and gowns just to take pictures. And at first he was like, no, but it really made a difference and he sent them back to his mother. And for some students, that's the only opportunity. So if we do have our students that have not walked and we are able to do maybe a cap and gown, even to show some pictures and we'll give them the diplomas here, I think that would be really nice. I'll get you Mr. Blow tomorrow, first thing. Thank you.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Thank you, Ms. Nelson.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Yes, I just also think the report was great. I think this is one of those good news reports, and it's important that we that we hear it. I particularly also liked hearing, you know, that there was a challenge and that's and we're looking at our summer school for grades six and seven. I think that's very valuable for us to hear as well. So I appreciate the delivery of the report. Thank you, Mr. Skerry.
[Robert Skerry]: I would ask my colleagues to Looking at the possibility of having a formal exercise for any student that receives or completes his diploma requirements after his graduating class, so that they can be properly and formally recognized as graduates of Medford High School.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: That's why I asked that question. Specifically for that purpose, because they deserve that honor of crossing. Even if it's here, this is quite nice as well. Yeah, I'd offer that in the form of a motion. It's a special moment in a youngster's life, so. Motion on the floor, Executive. All those in favor?
[Robert Skerry]: Aye.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: All those opposed? The motion passes. Thank you. I'll report on the new cleaning service contract. Ms. Bailey.
[5T-XCQueORE_SPEAKER_06]: Good evening, Mayor and School Committee. Good evening. Cleaning janitorial services RFP 17-0206. This is a report on the contract award. It did go out for proposals. We had quite a few responses. In fact, we were very pleased with the number. We actually got a competitive look at cleaning services. Out of those, we interviewed the top four. The top four were evaluated by John McLaughlin, Buildings and Grounds Director, and he evaluated them using a format where he was fair and impartial across the board. We brought MP Building Services, GCA Services, Empire Cleaning, and Prospect Building Services in for a interview process. with the superintendent, John and myself. Not only did the four make our evaluation top four, there was actually a tie for number three, but they had to meet our budget constraints. So upon that, they were all asked the same questions. We looked into background security review, union shop versus non-union, experiences in cleaning public buildings, uniform requirements, safety training, student-staff interaction training, Vendors had the opportunity to ask additional questions of NPS. After all was said and done, we met one more time and we evaluated the rating system. There really wasn't any change in how they rated initially, but by the time we got done and looked at their rating for evaluation and their rating for budget price concerns, we then selected Prospect as our vendor. And they were deemed a responsible contractor. Yes, they were. John followed up with references as well. Point of information, Mr. Skerry.
[Robert Skerry]: Has Prospect Building Services ever worked for Metro Public Schools before and where are they located?
[5T-XCQueORE_SPEAKER_06]: They have not, but they have worked for several other school systems and still do.
[Robert Skerry]: Okay, where are they located?
[5T-XCQueORE_SPEAKER_06]: They're in Malden.
[Robert Skerry]: Do they have a contact person if we get calls that something has to be adjusted to or should we just direct everything to the business office?
[5T-XCQueORE_SPEAKER_06]: No, we have our own on-site supervisor.
[Robert Skerry]: Great.
[5T-XCQueORE_SPEAKER_06]: And we also have our own contact person.
[Robert Skerry]: And at some future time, could you provide the name of that person to us in case we have to get in touch with them?
[5T-XCQueORE_SPEAKER_06]: Certainly. I'll have that come out of Dr. or out of John McLaughlin's office. Okay.
[Robert Skerry]: Thank you.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Thank you very much. Is there any other questions from Mr. Benedetto?
[Erin DiBenedetto]: It's not in regard to this, but I wanted to ask Pat while she's there. I know transportation has been happening throughout the community. Is it okay if I ask that at this time? Okay, thank you. So I just like, I know that there was a little update on it. I just wanted to hear from you like how things are going and if our homeless students all have rights to school at this point.
[5T-XCQueORE_SPEAKER_06]: I ask this every year. You do, you do. It has been our typical startup. You know, we always have the transitions. We have the tweaking. We have routes stops that we had eliminated, only to find that there were still indeed families using them. So we had to bring them back down. We have to reshuffle the routes. And then, of course, the middle school routes four and nine were very crowded. And so we brought on bus number 17, which was on duty for an elementary run. So it's now making a middle school run. And that's alleviated the crowding on that side. Otherwise, I think we're in pretty good shape. This morning, knock on wood, It was very quiet, which is always a really good sign. We still have a little more tweaking to go on. I have a couple parents that are looking for a change in their route. And as I tell them, the first couple weeks of school are always more about safety and overcrowding. I then deal with the cosmetic things a little later on. And our homeless students? Our homeless students, it's getting started up. It's a slow process. As you well know, it's about finding out the data. making sure that what we're looking at is the true situation, and then finding out where we need to be sending them to. It's a long process, and sometimes it's very difficult to get to the very basis of what's going on with homeless transportation. But those students that we are successful with at this point do have transport.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Okay, great. I just want to make sure that every child's able to attend no matter where they might be sheltered. Especially if they lose their homes, they really need their school and their community and that stability in their lives. So that's why I always ask that at the beginning of the year, just to make sure that I know it's much more complicated and much more expensive than people think. And it's just so important and it touches my heart when we can't get a child to school. So that's why I ask that every year. And I'll keep asking you over the next few weeks that as soon as everybody has arrived Please just let me know and I'll just let you know.
[5T-XCQueORE_SPEAKER_06]: And as you know, Medford makes it a priority to take care of our families that do have real need, right?
[Erin DiBenedetto]: And I know we do, and it is a process. Sometimes it takes, you know, a month into school to make sure that every child has arrived in different situations. So and I want to say thank you to you, because this is a big undertaking at the beginning of the year, as well as getting us informed about all the budgetary things. And I appreciate that effort on on the behalf of all of it. All of our administrators do that. I mean, getting up and running isn't an easy task. And then, you know, you have to look at us and have our reports ready.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: I appreciate it.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: You're welcome. Thank you.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Is there a motion on the floor to receive and place on file? So moved. Seconded by Mr. Benedetto. All those in favor? All those opposed? Motion passes. If I could ask that someone make a motion that we move negotiations and legal matters to the end of the calendar. So moved by Mrs. Scarry, seconded by Ms. Vanden Heude. All those in favor? All those opposed? Item 9 is now at the end of the calendar. Old Business. Appointment of Director of Administration and Finance. Mr. Superintendent.
[Roy Belson]: Madam Mayor and members of the committee, after our deliberations and interviews on August 29th, you gave me your input and this evening it's my pleasure to recommend to you that the Director of Finance and Administrative position be awarded to Kirsteen Patterson, who is currently in Southern Middlesex Vocational Tech, and she's here this evening, and you have the documents in front of you, and that I'd ask for a formal vote nominating and electing Kirsteen to the position for two-year contract at the rate that's stipulated.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Is there a motion to receive, to accept, to offer the contract by Mr. Skerry? Is there a second by Mr. Benedetto? Roll call vote, please. Yes, seven in the affirmative, zero in the negative. The motion passes. We'd like to congratulate you, welcome you. Welcome you to our city. We're very proud to have you. You're very hardworking. You have a great background, and we know that you're going to do some wonderful things in this community.
[Kathy Kreatz]: Thank you very much for the opportunity, and thank you for the vote.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Thank you. New business. Selection of delegates to MASC Fall Conference. Mr. Superintendent.
[Roy Belson]: I remember the committee every year we select a delegate and alternative alternate to the M.A.S.C. conference in Hyannis and it's important that we do that so we can submit it to M.A.S.C. and let them know and also to let you know that if you expect to attend I would like to register you as soon as possible so we can get the optimum rates for the conference and we can move forward. It's an important activity. There's so much going on right now. There's so many changes. There's a new federal law. You need to be involved. I can tell you a lot of things, but you need to have an opportunity to interact with your colleagues in those settings and see what other people are talking about. and get an idea of what's really happening in the Commonwealth and the federal government as we move forward with public education. This year is particularly significant. A couple of things in front of us that could alter the nature of what we do, especially ESSA, charter schools, other things that could happen. It's important that you interact with your colleagues. So I would ask that you nominate a delegate and an alternate, and at the same token, Give me information as to whether you intend to attend, so I can make appropriate arrangements on your behalf.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Thank you. Is there anyone that would like to be nominated as the delegate? Ms. Van der Kloot.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: No, I have it at home, but I don't know which of the three days the delegate assembly is. It's Wednesday.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Is there anybody, anyone that would like to be the delegate? I'd like to be the alternate.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: I'd like to be the alternate.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Is there anyone that would like to be the delegate?
[Ann Marie Cugno]: Miss Cugno. To be honest with you, this is 11 years. It's been 11 years I've either been alternate, well with Paulette, either alternate or delegate or president of the organization. And to be honest, I don't know about anybody else. If anybody else would love to do this, I would love to see them there. Honestly, I haven't checked my calendar. I know I'm going down. I've been going down for 11 years, but either that Either that or we just check our calendars to see who's definitely going to go. And maybe we'll table this to the following week. We should have one, but we can certainly... But to definitely urge people to tell you if they're going to the conference.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: I definitely know I'm going to the conference.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: The following week, aren't we?
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: 26 motion to table this paper pending. I just want to say you have an interest in being the delegate. Please submit your name.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: Yeah, but it's very important that you do tell the Superintendent ASAP who is going down because that way they can book the rooms.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: The cost Mr. Superintendent.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Do we have it here?
[Roy Belson]: I don't believe it's on this particular, but I'll certainly provide it to you.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Provided in our next packet?
[Roy Belson]: Sure.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Okay, motion on the floor that the superintendent provide the cost, and all those in favor? All those opposed? The cost will be provided. Motion to table the nomination and selection of delegate and alternate. All those in favor? To table. Aye. All those opposed? Take this table. Okay, school committee resolutions. Be it resolved that the Medford School Committee express its sincere condolences to the family of the Honorable John J. McGlynn. His honor was the former Medford Mayor, City Councilor, State Representative, and World War II Ghost Army Veteran. He was the devoted father of Attorney Jack McGlynn, Jr., Attorney Dickie McGlynn, Karen McGlynn-Devine, former Mayor Michael J. McGlynn, Bernadette Davis, and Kevin McGlynn. If I could just say from the chair, we all know what a champion this man was for our city, as is his family. He will be sorely missed. He gave a lot of advice to a lot of different people, and we're going to miss his face around our city. We also have others. Be it resolved that the Medford School Committee express its sincere condolences to the family of Willard Bill Sampson. Mr. Sampson was a retired school department custodian. He was the head custodian at Medford High School for many years. Mr. Sampson is the father of vocational teacher James Sampson. Be it resolved that the Medford School Committee express its sincere condolences to the family of Camille Mazzoni. Mrs. Mazzoni was a teacher in Medford for 35 years. And be it resolved that the Medford School Committee express its sincere condolences to the family of Robert L. Ryan Sr. Mr. Ryan was the father of District Attorney Marion Ryan. Be it resolved that the Medford School Committee express its sincere condolences to the family of Margaret Weigel. Ms. Weigel was a long-time Medford resident, educational technology consultant, co-founder of the Farmer's Market, and member of the Chevalier Theatre Commission. She also served on the Medford Public Schools Technology Committee. And lastly, be it resolved that the Medford School Committee express its sincere condolences to the family of Margaret Haynes. Mrs. Haynes was a long-time teacher at the Gleason Elementary School. Also, we know yesterday was the observance of the 15th anniversary of September 11th, so if we could all please rise for a moment of silence on the loss of these Medford residents, former teachers and educators, and also commemorants of 9-11. Mr. Skerry would like to say a few words.
[Robert Skerry]: Yesterday was the 15th anniversary of 9-11. And he taught for a couple of years at Forest Park School. John was at his desk when the first plane hit the West Tower and they never were able to recover any of his remains. But John was a true son of Medford, bled Mustang blue and Eagles of maroon and gold, and I hope that the Medford residents won't forget that we did lose somebody very close to us on 9-11, and that this travesty never happens again.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Thank you, Mr. Skerry. Ms. Vandeglut?
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: I'd also just like to add a comment. Tonight, before the school committee, the members of the school committee were down at the McGlynn and Andrews property, which, as you know, is on Freedom Way. And it was named Freedom Way because our schools opened in 2001 on 9-10. And on Tuesday morning, I happened to be there dropping off my child and, you know, doing those things. And it was sitting outside of the Andrews School that I had my radio on and heard the report and went into the schools. And so as I sit there and sat, and of course this being such a, you know, important anniversary The schools to me are also so very closely tied to that memory. And our commitment to each and every one of our students and families in Medford to have a free, wonderful education, because that is what I think is the most important thing in our democracy for all our kids.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Thank you, Ms. Gandicloup. Mr. Benedetto, did you wish to speak on? No, thank you. Mr. Superintendent, you wanted to make an announcement in regards to some programming for the school system?
[Roy Belson]: Yes, thank you, Madam Mayor. This evening you've received a packet from our public information office. There are many terrific activities going on in our city over the next couple of weeks. I urge you to pay attention to them because I know you want to participate. I appreciate that Lisa has put all this together for you. And to let you know that there's many events and that, you know, our people will be participating. Community Day, it's Tufts Community Day. The 25th is... Crystal Campbell unveiling is September 25th. Crystal Campbell unveiling, former Medford High School student who was lost in the Marathon bombing. So there's a lot going on. And I also want to point out to you that varsity teams are undefeated right now. And anybody who thinks that the Patriots win or the Red Sox win yesterday was important on the weekend. The Mustangs winning on Friday night was the most important win of the weekend. We came back and beat Revere 30 to 28. Great win for our guys. And we're off to a great start. We're looking for number two next Friday at Belmont.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Excellent.
[Roy Belson]: So we'll look forward to it. And also, the boys' soccer team traveled to Ludlow. And Ludlow is a perennial state. They've won 17 state soccer championships for boys. And Medford has been in the state championship game three times. And each time we lost a lot of them. Well, I played in the first one and we got beat the worst. So I'll take I'll take the heat for that. But the reality is is this time for the last two times we played them, we've tied them one to one. The next time we play them, we're going to win. So just so you know what's going on.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: Excellent.
[Roy Belson]: All right.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: Thank you. Miss Cugno. Just to piggyback on what the superintendent said, again, I want to congratulate the football team. It was a great night. It was a great community night. It was a beautiful weather night. Our cheerleaders did an amazing job. The marching band did an amazing job. And our new organization that's out there that's kind of taken over a little bit of the old pep group that we used to have are now called the staying gang. And it was just a great, great night. But with that being said, you know, first of all, definitely, if you have the opportunity to go on the website, it's mpsa, I'm sorry, mpsadvantage.education. Please go on. It shows and tells you everything that's going on. But just a couple of things this week. If you just want to go out and help our schools and help the community, the crew team is having their first fundraiser at Salvatores on the 13th. from 7 to 9. Our foreign language club is having their car wash at the high school on the 14th from 2.30 to 4. On the 17th, we have the fourth Crystal Campbell motorcycle run that starts at 8 o'clock at the VFW. And then after that run, we urge you to come to Hormel Stadium. No, a motorcycle run.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: It's not 8 o'clock.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: It starts at 8 for registration, but 11 o'clock for... Much later, yes. Well, if you're going to be on the motorcycle, you have to be there at 8. Medford High School Marching Band is having their huge fundraiser at Hormel Stadium. It starts at 5 o'clock. There are nine bands from all over New England that come. I think I have everything else. And I also want to congratulate Mrs. Van der Kloot and her husband, who are the grand to a newborn, well, he's a few weeks old now, six weeks, to Charles Scott Ryan, who was born on July 31st, and that is her second grandson, and he's absolutely beautiful, just like her first. So I just wanted to say that.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Congratulations. Thank you. Is there, the item that we put to the end of this calendar is Negotiation and Legal Matters. Is there a motion to go into executive session? Offered by Ms. Mustone, seconded by Mr. Sperry. Roll call vote, please.
[Robert Skerry]: Yes.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Yes, and in the affirmative, none in the negative, we will now enter executive session.
[Roy Belson]: We may come out to vote a contract.
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