[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Meeting of the Medford School Committee will now come to order. The secretary will call the roll. Ms.
[Robert Skerry]: Cuno. Here. Ms. Rendell. Present. Ms. Braxton. Here. Ms. Stone. Here. Ms. Sherry. Present. Ms. Vanden Heuvel.
[Unidentified]: Here.
[Robert Skerry]: Ms.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Haverly. Present. Seven present, none absent. All please rise and salute our flag. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Approval of the minutes of September 12, 2016. Ms. Van der Kloot. Motion for approval by Ms. Van der Kloot, seconded by Mr. Skerry. All those in favor? All those opposed? Minutes are approved. Approval of bills transfer of funds. Motion for approval by Mr. Skerry, seconded by Ms. Cuno. All those in favor? All those opposed? Approval is granted. Approval of payrolls. Motion for approval by Mr. Skerry, seconded by Ms. Cuno. All in favor? Aye. All opposed? Approval is granted. Report of the secretary. None? Report of committees. Committee of the Whole Minutes, September 12, 2016. There's a motion for approval of the Committee of the Whole Minutes from September 12. Is there a second? Seconded by Ms. Koretz.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Mr. Benedetto. So at that time, we visited the McGlynn School. And I was wondering if we had any dates set to visit any of the other schools.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: We will be setting some dates next week. I'll be in touch with each of you to try and coordinate an evening. OK. Thank you. You're welcome. Community participation. Cheryl Rodriguez, Roberts School.
[Cheryl Rodriguez]: Name and address, please. Hi. I'm Cheryl Rodriguez. My address is 281 Park Street. I prepared a statement because I want to make sure that I get everything that I want to say. So my daughter is a third grade student at the Roberts Elementary. I'm an active parent at that school. I appeared before this body in the spring to request funds for our mosaic mural. I helped run some of the enrichment nights at the school and the after school enrichment program for the PTO. So I'm very invested in the school. At the last school committee meeting, there were questions about the classes at the Roberts. And a comment was made that Mr. Johnson distributed his special needs students differently than other schools and no one knew why. So I wanted to explain a little bit and ask for some help from this group. The Roberts Elementary has the highest enrollment of all the elementary schools in our city. It also houses the welcome program for the English language learners, meaning those with no English skills, and our autism program. These are two very large programs, 92 and 75, respectively, as of September 16th, but these numbers are constantly changing. To put that into perspective, it is divided equally by grade. We would have 15.3 ELL students per grade and 12.5 autistic children per grade, so 17% ELL and 14% autistic. We also have 51% low income. On September 9th, our total population was reported at 547, but as of September 16th, it had already climbed to 555 and is perhaps even higher now. Conversely, the Brooks Elementary has 449. It was noted at the last meeting that the two middle schools, the one that housed the ELL population was deliberately kept smaller as new students enter the program constantly. The same is true at the Roberts, but we do not have the buffer of being the smallest elementary school with the largest. Our ELL students are taken out of class to receive specialized services to help them to learn English, so they are grouped in the same class in order to accommodate scheduling. Imagine trying to keep five third grade classes on identical schedules to pull ELL students out of each one. Our higher needs autism students are also placed together because some of them share an aid. It was made pretty clear at budget time that there's no appetite on this committee to have an aid in each class. I do think that this process needs a deeper look. My daughter has found herself in the autism inclusion class this year. I understand that there are some in the other classes, but there are higher needs students in her class. The children at the Roberts are the most empathetic children that you will ever meet. But the things my daughter has been exposed to since school started at this class has given me pause. Something must be done for these children. The teacher and aide in this class have been hit, furniture has been thrown, the classroom has been evacuated, and children have been physically restrained on almost a daily basis. Who is benefiting from this? Not the special needs children forced into a mainstream setting that is clearly overwhelming, not the quote standard students who are witnessing these events. None of them are receiving an appropriate education as all learning must cease when one of these episodes begin. But when I tried to discuss the wild stories that my child was coming home with, I hit a wall of privacy issues. If my child, any child, is being exposed to incidences that are traumatic and are violent in nature, the parents need to be notified. Parents should not hear these stories from their children. and hear nothing from the school. We want to help our children to process what is happening. We are empathetic to all of the children. All of the children in this situation need help. Is this unique to my child's class? I think no. Is this an appropriate setting for any of these children? Absolutely no. It is time that we stop acting as if the population of the Roberts as the same as at the other schools. Our school houses two high needs groups and the largest child population in the city. One of these programs should be shifted to a school with a lower population. If our class sizes were closer to the 15 to 16 mark that some of the elementary schools have, we would be able to have smaller classes for our autistic population. We could easily bring their class size down to 8 to 10 with no negative impact on any other classes. But as it stands, in order to try and bring a second grade class total Down from the 22 average for the autism emerging class, we were forced to have one class have a total of 24 students. As a comparison, the second grade class at the Brooks has an average of 17.25. My daughter is in grade three, which has five classrooms and an average class size of 19.8. Across town, the Brooks has four third grade classes with an average class size of 17.5. This population difference will only intensify when some of the 800 plus units permanent or under construction for the Roberts and McGlynn Elementary School begin to hold residents. The needs of all the children need to be considered. I care about all of them. I work with them. So I'm floored by the natural and easy way that they take care of each other and I'm asking the school department to step in and help them. My own daughter is suffering greatly as a result of her exposure in these classes, and I'm still finding out what she's witnessed in small pieces. She's confided in my parents, in the parents of some of her friends, and some in my husband and I. The first thing she told me was that she was worried for the children that were having the incidents. The second thing she told me was that she was afraid. No child should be afraid to go to school. Upon hearing that, I started a crusade to help my child and the other children in her class or classes like hers. I spoke to the teacher who directed me to the principal. I spoke to the principal, and other than the incident that required a student to leave by ambulance, he had heard of no other incidences, nor had the school department, nor the special needs department. Why? I suspect it is because nothing will come of reporting it. But despite my reporting it, nothing has come of it yet. The adjustment Councilor at the school has not even spoken to the children about the incident that was reported and happened a week ago, an incident that required an ambulance to remove a student from the school. The parents have not been notified. What is the protocol? What measures are in place to help these autistic children who are suffering or the other students? My daughter is refusing to go back into that classroom. We have been attempting to help her cope with what she has witnessed almost daily. She has been having migraine headaches. She's extremely anxious. This weekend, she had a panic attack, thinking about having to go back to class. She reports that her teachers have assured her that they will keep the children safe, and they neither need to worry nor be afraid because they will worry and be afraid for them. My daughter's takeaway from that statement is that the incidents will continue. that there will still be danger and that she's just supposed to ignore it. So please help us. I understand that there's privacy issues, but something has to be done. The teachers and Mr. Johnson are doing the best that they can with the tools available to them. They need more tools. They need a smaller population so they can adjust class sizes to accommodate the high needs of our children. We can't only worry about my one child, but I am worried about my child. We need to worry about all of the children. The needs of all the children are not identical.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Thanks. Thank you. Mr. Superintendent.
[Roy Belson]: So we met with Mrs. Rodriguez this morning. We went over all these things. We've prepared some materials for you. I'm going to call upon our special needs director and our assistant for elementary education to speak to the issues. There is a lot going on. There's a lot going on of response. Occasionally, in a given classroom, there's going to be some disruption. The year starts, some youngsters express themselves, and then we respond to it. When information comes to us, that classroom's been visited multiple times by both Diane and by Kathy, and there's some plans in place. So I don't believe it's undoable. I believe the Roberts does have some population issues, but so don't the other schools. If you're at the Columbus, you have the therapeutic learning program. At other schools, you have other programs that are there. Some years, the Brooks has had more people than the Roberts. In some years, the McGlynn has had more people than the Roberts. Population shifts are by geography to some degree. But having said that, let me ask Diane and Kathy to come up and talk a little bit about the specifics that Mrs. Rodriguez has raised. And I want to make it very clear, we're very concerned when things happen. We're not unconcerned. That's not a fair assessment of what goes on. but let them speak.
[Diane Caldwell]: Good evening. So I prepared a quick report for you to read just to let you know about the incidences that did happen at the Roberts Elementary School in that particular third grade classroom. We do have some children who are special needs children and some ELL students in that classroom. Two students that we are aware of exhibited loud and aggressive behaviors. that required interventions through the safety care support team. Neither of the students that we are discussing who had these incidences are special education students, and I think I need to make that clear. Prior to the start of school, staff were not aware of any factors that would have helped them anticipate the behaviors of these students. Both of them are linked to community supports, and staff is working to obtain information to expedite an educational evaluation. The third grade teacher has been working very closely with the safety care team to address the needs of these children. Mr. Johnson reviewed the school year mandates during the first weeks of school, such as he discussed de-escalation strategies and staying calm. When the high intensity behaviors occurred in this classroom, students were evacuated to the safety care team so that the safety care team could triage the situation. The evacuations framed as academic movement opportunities for the children in the building, in that classroom. More intensive incidences were not witnessed by the children, to my knowledge. The Roberts School does have a lot of support in their building. They have 19 safety care trained staff. They have a full-time BCBA, a .5 school psychologist, and there's a full-time school adjustment Councilor as well in the building. We do need to respect the privacy of the students. We understand that this can be disruptive to the class, and we know that it can lead to disrupting the learning process. After speaking with the teacher, and I have been down to the Roberts School three times since the very first incident, she has assured me that she is on par with whatever she's teaching in English, literacy, math, and reading, and she does give her children homework. We are organizing the following procedures for these children. We're conducting risk threat assessments. We will perform full evaluations of the students. We're looking at creating an abbreviated schedules when the students return. We will discuss and meet with community organizations. We will meet with the parents. And we will provide additional support in that classroom if need be. I think Mrs. Rodriguez knows me especially well enough to know that we will get things in place as soon as possible. The teachers, the support staff, the assistant principal and the principal along with Kathy and I have been working diligently since we found out the information. Safety is something that we definitely is first and foremost because children can't learn unless they feel safe in a classroom. Um, I've discussed this with miss Rodriguez and she knows now that the plan is in place to move forward.
[Kathleen Medaglio]: Kathy, is that, um, yeah, so I just like to mention around the enrollment of special education students at the Roberts is consistent with other buildings. And in fact, a couple of the other buildings are a little bit higher. I believe the McGlynn has a few more students than over at the Roberts, but it is consistent across all of the schools, all of the elementary schools.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: Ms. Cuno. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Rodriguez, to inform us of this situation. I guess one of the questions I have is that I appreciate everybody doing this diligently the minute you found out about it, but I guess what goes back to me is the fact of if we have children, whether or not they were in the vicinity or not, rumors start. One story, you know, is a domino effect and becomes a larger story. So I guess for me is why weren't parents informed of not necessarily giving out the information because of confidentiality and things like that, but if the students were talking about this incident that occurred and then they went home and they were telling their parents, why wasn't something like at least sent out saying, you know, we understand what happened. This is what happened. It's not this story. It's not that story. It didn't get into a larger scenario. And I think maybe parents would have been a little bit more confident in the fact that they say, okay, the administration knows about it, the kids are talking about it, but let's see what the story is. And I guess that's my biggest concern. And I know in the past when things have happened, and even though everybody's been really diligent about putting a plan together, It's at that moment that at least we hope that something goes out from the school saying we're very much aware what happened. And maybe even in that letter saying if there's a child who's having a hard time really understanding what's happening, send them and we'll speak to them. Have one of the Councilors speak to them on a one-to-one or something like that just to know that there's the help out there while everything is being placed in a process. And I guess that's really my concern. Anybody who knows us is always talking about the most important thing, whether it's bad, good, or indifferent, is to make sure that we're all on the same page. And that has to come from the top all the way to the bottom, including parents and students. And students, especially if they're afraid and they hear something, even though they weren't there, are going to go home. And the story is going to change. I'm not saying that the child, by any means, is lying or anything like that. But they're in their panic mode, and their emotions are high. So I guess that is my concern. I guess the other concern is that, again, I appreciate Ms. Rodriguez coming and giving us the breakdown, but as a school committee member, I would like to have Mr. Johnson come and speak to us and let us know what's going on in the school with the numbers, what he, you know, what he has planned. And again, this has nothing in reflection to Mr. Johnson. It's just that he is the principal and we need to get the information from him.
[Diane Caldwell]: We can certainly invite Mr. Johnson to the next school committee meeting if you would like that. And to answer your question, I agree with you. I think that maybe something should have gone out to parents so that they were aware. I had this discussion with Ms. Rodriguez this evening, or even to have someone go into the classroom to talk to the children who are clearly upset by something that might have happened and wondering themselves what's going on.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Ms. Van der Kloot. I share my colleague's concern about the lack of notification to the parents to let them know what had occurred at school that day. I have to tell you that I still feel like I'm a little bit in the dark. I understand we very much want to protect the privacy of the students, but just a clarifying question. Am I to understand were these two students fighting with each other? No.
[Kathleen Medaglio]: No. It was a situation where there were two different students who experienced significant dysregulation during class time, which resulted in a call to the safety care team. So on different days.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: And they both happened to be in the same classroom.
[Kathleen Medaglio]: They both just happened to be in the same room, just random placement. And it happened multiple times. So it felt magnified. And I do want to also just mention just a slight correction. When we spoke with the teacher, and we spoke with Mr. Johnson, and all the other staff at the school, They said none of the students have been restrained because I know there was a mention earlier about restraint. So the level of disruption didn't call for that level of intervention. So it was settling things down, counseling, providing whatever support needed to be provided.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Did the students on these occasions hit either their classmates or was there any physical?
[Kathleen Medaglio]: No, but I do believe there was a situation where she was thrown. I'm afraid to give too much information, I guess.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: So I also heard a mention of, and I know we had gotten a call about a student being taken out to the hospital. Was that one of these students who was taken out because this is what was deemed to be needed to, were they physically?
[Kathleen Medaglio]: So typically when, um, if a student becomes very upset and it's become obvious that the teacher or the classroom staff will have or having difficulty settling a situation they call for what's called the safety care team. So each of our buildings has a team whose job it is. So they have other responsibilities within the building. But when something like this occurs, they come to the aid of their colleagues and they provide additional support to students. In many of those occasions, the school nurse is also involved in the triage of what the student's medical presentation and status is. So occasionally I suppose it could result in a transport.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Okay. But in this case there was a transport. So if I had a child in this class, I would have to say that I'd be very concerned because now they've witnessed two different kids have multiple incidents and would probably be concerned that my child would be thinking, what's next? And I'm wondering, again, I realize how dicey it is around confidentiality, but have people gone in and talked to the kids? Have there been any small groups talking to the kids? It sounded like these kids are going to return to the classroom. And, you know, as a parent, I can certainly understand why Ms. Rodriguez would be concerned about what the plan going forth is.
[Diane Caldwell]: So, yes, it was suggested that somebody go in and speak to the children, probably tomorrow, the adjustment Councilor.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Okay. So that's going to happen. And have both kids been out, or are they both going to be returning at the same time, or do we have any?
[Diane Caldwell]: Both children are out right now, but we expect that they will be returning at some point this week.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: OK. So I think the communication issue is key, and I hear you not being particularly definitive, and I understand why, but understanding how this is going to be resolved so that the kids aren't so fearful. Ms. Rodriguez speaks about her own daughter, but I can flash back and understand what it was like to be a parent when something happened in a classroom and know that kids do carry it with them sometimes. And some kids carry it a lot more than others. And we have to worry about them. So I am a little concerned.
[Kathleen Medaglio]: Actually, I'm a lot concerned. And I understand that. And I agree. I think that also adults in their effort to protect confidentiality and other just privacy needs, sometimes leave children with an incomplete story, so they fill in the blanks too. So I agree that that's something that needs to be done.
[Diane Caldwell]: The teacher has been extremely supportive when I talked to the teacher today. She told me how she supported the children and talked to them. and how she would keep them safe and that type of thing. So she's a very empathetic, compassionate woman. So I think she'll work with the kids as well as a school adjustment Councilor.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Mr. Benedetto.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Thank you very much. I'm actually a safety care trainer as well at my school. So I know a lot of it is de-escalation in removing the audience or the other children. so that way they aren't traumatized as well as the person who's acting out. And I know that Medford Public Schools uses that, and I'm sure that they had the children move, but I'm sure, as you stated, that your child probably witnessed stuff that made them nervous and anxious and a little afraid to go back to school. So I know that in this report it says more intensive incidences were not witnessed, But that's out of an adult's view of what happened. And each individual adult will deal with different situations. And it will affect them differently. And the same thing happens to children. So we're hearing from parents that their child was affected by situations happening in their classroom. So those parents, one, have to be notified. Two, have to have counseling services to make sure that they feel safe coming back to school. And I'm glad that both those things are happening. The main issue I have, and I had this issue before this incident arose, was the number of students in the classes at the Brooks School. We talked about this when we got the graph. And it's not about the type of children. It's a high number for elementary school. And I felt, I mean, I'm sorry, the Roberts School. Sorry, I misspoke. but the Robert schools numbers were much higher than any other elementary school when I looked at this and I brought it up. At that point, it was the only school that had 24 students in any class. And I understand that some had 21 because of how Mr. Johnson, which I know why and how he does his class allocations. And I agree with how he does it. Our job here, is really to make sure we're prepared to meet the needs of all the children in our care. That means all the children, children with disabilities, any child that walks through any classroom door, it's our responsibility that they are safe. That's first, that's last, that's always. We're here to educate them, but we have to do that in a safe manner. And I believe that a lower class size might help to ensure that. So I'm gonna ask the superintendent to look at that again, not at this moment, but I want him to go back with his team and really look at what's happening in this school and the population of the needs of the children within this school. And just look at it with clear eyes and observation and really see if this, is the programming specific for the special education students at that school? Is there a type, you know, like I know at, different schools, they have different populations of students. Is there a specific population of students directed towards the Roberts? I know the ELL students are there.
[Kathleen Medaglio]: Well, each of our elementary schools house a strand of special education services.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Okay.
[Kathleen Medaglio]: So the answer to that is yes. Okay. Um, but again, I just want to emphasize that this situation, none of the, none of the students involved were special education students. That's good to know. And the class, this particular classroom has 20 students enrolled in the classroom.
[Diane Caldwell]: And we do have an additional teacher. We made sure we had five classes. So there is only 20 students in each of the classes.
[Kathleen Medaglio]: And the classroom is staffed with a full-time paraprofessional. So this was an unusual sort of situation that no one anticipated, that everyone has responded to, will continue to respond to this situation. We will add additional staff if needed, and we will address the concern regarding notification of parents and ensuring that parents know that counseling is available to their children should their children require such a support. Okay.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: I think that's great, but I really would really rather be proactive than reactive, especially in this situation. So, um, even a meeting a night with the superintendent to the school or to the children affected or whoever needs to be there may be warranted. just to come and tell them what our plans are, so make sure that everybody is on the same page, and that they're notified face-to-face, and parents have a chance to voice any and all concerns. I think hearing them might help us to develop what's best going to work, because they're the ones who are dropping off their children in our care every day. Are there a greater number of calls for safety care team at one school more so than another? Do we have those stats? There is, but not this school. Okay. Just the information so we can decide whether we need to put more funding, more staff, what we need to do, that I'm not trying to, you know, No specifics about students, but we need to know specifics about programs and if we're allocating enough staff and money to a situation. I really don't want to go away from here and then something else happen if that's even more involved or any, you know, situation because we didn't act. So with that in mind, I'm asking the superintendent at this point to look at the class sizes again at the Brooks and the staffing, I mean the Roberts. Sorry, I'm having one of those nights. At the Roberts and really look at it with an objective eye and keeping in mind the needs of the students and the population of the students. Not only their, all their needs. You know, 51% low income, how many ELL students and special needs are in each room. I really want to see that information looked at with an objective eye. And I'm sure you've looked at it once, but I'm asking you to look at it again. I want to ensure the safety of all the students. And if things need to be shifted, let's not do it because that's where we've always done it. Let's do what's right and move things or fix things or add another class or decrease the size for this year. If we're seeing, you know, there are trends, just like with Park or MCAS, you see one class does a little bit below one year, you look in the next year and see if they're doing a little bit below the next year, well maybe that class needs a little more academic. So maybe this class needs a little bit more hands-on. We need to look at trends and see if it will happen last year, if it's happening again this year, and look for those patterns so we can meet the needs of these students and the parents. Thank you. Mr. Skerry.
[Robert Skerry]: Madam Mayor, uh, just like to say, I echo the concerns of my colleagues and knowing that the Roberts is a tight knit community. I'm somewhat dismayed that the parents weren't contacted, you know, so that this incident could have been explained to them. We've always worked on the premise of the home and school work in unison and we're not fulfilling our part of the bargain. If we don't contact people in a timely manner towards what's happening, I would suggest that the, uh, So through you to the superintendent, if possible, we could possibly have a meeting with the parents, meet with Mr. Johnson and the team to, you know, allay the fears of the children. I don't want any child going to school, you know, under a cloud of the not knowing what's going to happen next. And I just think would behoove us to, you know, work on this situation. Although it's an isolated incident, uh, I think we should repair it as quickly as possible. And by that, I would strongly suggest that the administration, at the parents in that class, you know, in general as to what happened. And if they or their children have any questions, they should have a person they could contact or we could have an evening where the parents that are concerned or that have fears for their children could come in and they could be dismayed because, once again, the Robertsons are a tight-knit community. And, you know, over the weekend, we've heard two or three versions of the story. And I would rather see one concrete piece go out to the parents to allay their fears.
[Roy Belson]: So just if I can comment on that for a minute. A situation happens. People are responding to it. Let's not escalate it up and get more people feeling like there's something tragic going on. There isn't. Some years, a place like the Columbus had the therapeutic learning program. Some people used to call it the behavior management program. And some of those youngsters had some serious issues, and they were making noise, and some people said, well, gee, you know, we're gonna move those people. We deal with it, we work with it. We will contact parents. We'll meet with people. We'll do what we have to do to allay the fears of students, but let's not escalate it at this point in time. Let's deal with it. This is a situation that occurred in a single classroom at a point in time at the beginning of the year. The two students who weren't on the radar, who aren't IEP students, So let's find out. We'll do the diligence. We'll look at the makeup of the classes and make some recommendations. But let's keep it calm, and let's be surgical about it, rather than try to raise and elevate concerns where they may not exist. Some people may be more anxious than others. So we'll talk to people about it. We'll talk to people about it. But we did meet with Mrs. Rodriguez, as she's coming to the microphone. We did meet with her today. We talked with her today. We will talk to other people, but let's do it surgically. Let's do it, you know, directly that way rather than try to expand it.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Ms. Mustone is next in queue.
[Mea Quinn Mustone]: Um, I want to thank Cheryl for being here and for bringing those numbers. And the other part that we haven't even begun to address is the EL students, which I know my four year old takes speech therapy at the Roberts in his class that he was in last year. was downsized because they needed that for EL students. So I think I don't have the education on special ed law, so I don't feel comfortable talking about that piece. But for EL students, I think at one point in our pre-budget meetings, the director of EL had said possibly moving the older grades of EL students from the Roberts to another school. Because that, Cheryl, you know the numbers better than I. What was the number of EL students at the Roberts?
[Cheryl Rodriguez]: They said they told me the last number I heard was 92.
[Mea Quinn Mustone]: Right. So I think that's something that I feel more comfortable that something that we could work on to have the older grades of EL. Um, I just am very uncomfortable talking about the special ed kids and their own lives.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: So thank you. Ms. Van der Kloot.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: to that. The only problem with doing that is that we have ELL students then who have been at the Roberts for the younger grades, who have friendships, who are comfortable there. And now we're, you know.
[Mea Quinn Mustone]: No, because then they're pulled into regular ed, so they're not in the ELL. So if they came in, correct me if I'm wrong. Point of information. Oh, sorry. Ms. Mustone. Mr. Velson, correct me if I'm wrong. If they're in ELL in first and second grade, then they, I mean, Teagan's best friend was in ELL first and second grade, and then she was in a regular ed class. She wasn't in the ELL program. So then she was in the class with them third, fourth, and fifth.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Yeah, but they would be moved out of that comfort. But anyway, it's almost secondary. Mr. Superintendent, I just have to say I disagree respectfully with you a little bit. I don't think that the urge here is to up it. I do think that all the school committee members heard that events happened last week and parents weren't notified. We're into a new week and we're looking back and parent notification when there were incidents in the classroom that were of this serious, I believe should have happened in a much more timely manner. So because it didn't, it's harder to feel great faith that everything will go forward in the best possible way. Because for many of us, that's a stumbling block that we're hearing. So I would like to make a motion. I heard you saying you made a motion. I didn't hear it.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: I have three motions right now.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Three motions.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Maybe I could read them right now.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Yeah.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Mr. Benedetto, motion review the allocation of all of the students in this third grade class. Ms. Cugno, that Mr. Johnson appear at the next school committee meeting to address us on this topic. And Mr. Skerry, that Mr. Johnson and the team meet with parents ASAP.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: OK. Well, my motion must be slightly different. I just want to make sure that this isn't falling through the cracks for us. So I'd like to make a motion to make sure that we receive a report at our next school committee meeting and at our meeting after that so that we have some ongoing understanding of what's going on.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: Very good. Ms. Cugno? Yes, I'd like to basically reiterate what my colleague Paula just said. I don't think, with all due respect, it's not the fact that we're trying to hype it or make it into a different story. I think it's just the fact, again, of something happening a week ago, or I don't know at this point if it was a week ago or two weeks ago, and putting myself in those shoes. And I think that's something that we all have to think of, too, is that as we speak, we're always saying, special needs, and they have their confidentiality. And even though we do have confidentiality for all students that come to our district, I think parents need to understand that when we're talking about confidentiality, we're talking about all students and not just the students that are in a particular group, because I think that is, again, extremely important. And again, it's just basically the fact of I get everything that's happened, but I think it was just the fear of listening to your child come home, we're different. You know, it happens to everyone. It happens to whether you're young or even adults. One person says one thing and then another one adds on and another one adds on. And as a parent, you're home, you really don't know what's going on in the school itself because you weren't there. And now you have all these different stories. So again, I mean, something should have come out from the school saying what had happened. And I guess my other thing, too, is that this is a very isolated situation with two students that happen to be in the same classroom. Since it's already happened, is it possible or is it something to think about maybe trying to separate these two students? That's in the works. OK. Thank you. That's all I need to know.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Final comments, Mr. Benedetto? Yes, I want to second all the motions except for mine and move forward to put them on record.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: And there's a second. Would you like me to reread them or are we all on the same page with them? Motion for approval on all of the motions made including a report update be added to our school committee agenda. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Motion passes.
[Cheryl Rodriguez]: Thank you very much. OK, I just wanted to clarify something about the incidences. The latest and largest incident was last Monday. It occurred in the cafeteria. There were several incidences before and after, and we never got notified of any of them. So the reason that I came forward and started speaking to people was because of the larger incident that had happened in the cafeteria. But as I went through and spoke to the principal, and I spoke to Diane Caldwell, and I spoke to someone in the special needs department, And I spoke to Mr. Belson and no one had heard of any of the incidents other than the one that had happened in the cafeteria. So that's really concerning to me that these issues, maybe they don't know how to report them, who to report them, because these issues hadn't gone beyond the classroom or the safety team. No one else was aware of these instances, which is why I'm saying we really need to look at what's going on for the protocol and what we should do.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: That will be dealt with. Thank you very much. Thank you.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: Okay, well, tonight, really quick on that, Mr. Johnson is going to appear before us in the next meeting. I would also like for him to have heads up on all the situations that Ms. Rodriguez brought here, only because I don't want him to come here next week or two weeks, whatever, and say, gee, I'm not aware of it, I'll come back to you. I want to make it very fruitful. Okay.
[Roy Belson]: No question in my mind they don't know about it.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Well, if I could, from the chair, I want to give some accolades out to Cache, who ran a fabulous event this past Saturday. It was the Mystic River Celebration. It was a family-friendly event. Many of the parents and children I saw were there all afternoon with great music, great dance, great activities for the kids. So it was just a really beautiful event. And I want to congratulate Laurel Siegel, Laura Beratin, the Medford Arts Council, Allie Fisk, and their major donor, Brookline Bank, for pulling off an amazing event that I hope everybody got to come to, and if you didn't, make sure to put it on your calendar for next year. It's a fabulous day, so kudos to Caché for pulling that off.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: To mention that, I think that it's appropriate also to mention the wonderful celebration for the dedication of the Crystal Campbell Peace Garden, and to thank everybody in your office who was responsible to make it such a wonderful event, because it truly was great, and I know how much the people enjoyed it and appreciated it, and I felt very blessed to have been able to attend.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Thank you very much, Paula. It was a beautiful afternoon. I think if we all heard one common theme, it was peace and it was faith and it was what gets you through the day, basically. And the things that these people endured is just horrendous. But there is a place now for people to reflect and meet and talk and look to the future. So it was a very proud day for the city of Medford. My staff did an amazing job, as did others in City Hall, DPW, the state. I mean, all hands were on deck for this event, so it was quite a nice afternoon. Thank you. And we have a special commendation for a lovely lady that is leaving our school district, so I'd like to ask Ms. Padvilli to step forward. I'd like to say that we have had this woman in our school system for the last 35 years, but it's only been two years, three months, four days, and she has accomplished so much in such a little amount of time. You're just an amazing woman. You've brought some ingenious ideas to our school system, and you've certainly automated and made us a more productive system. This doesn't even reflect how we all feel about you. You know we adore you. But it's congratulations that Medford Public Schools is proud to recognize Patricia Bailey for outstanding service as the director of administration and finance, signed by all of us. So we wish you the best in Minnesota. Yeah, Michigan. Michigan. And we know that you and I can make another very proud.
[Roy Belson]: So that she doesn't forget what's really important in life.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Here you go.
[Roy Belson]: While you're watching those pitiful lions play.
[5T-XCQueORE_SPEAKER_06]: Stay in touch. Thank you.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: I know we've been trying.
[Roy Belson]: We've been trying. We bought a bracelet so that she will find whoever she is.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: We've been trying really, really hard. And just one other item, if you don't mind me taking it out of order. I'll give up. Would someone make a motion that we take item? Thank you, Ms. Tuscari. Motion to suspend the rules to take paper number eight of the reports out of order. It's a report on complete streets. I hope that the community is aware that the city of Medford was awarded $400,000 for complete streets projects within our community. This was part of a community compact that we signed with the governor's office and the lieutenant governor, which allowed us to basically get $90,000 worth of grant money in order to do studies of our streets. With that money, MAPC coordinated a team of traffic engineers and traffic advisors to come out and look at a lot of the issues that we are aware of and then to rank them based upon need. Once we accomplished that, we had to put together a policy to submit to the state. Once they approved, we were eligible for some extra points on our application. We were awarded the full amount that you could for this process, which was $400,000. The number one item on our list was the traffic walk in front of the Brooks School. We realized that the width of that area is just a tremendous amount of space and it's a safety hazard. And as recent as, I think, a week or so ago, A child was grazed, but it could have been much worse. It wasn't because of the width, it was a glare issue. But in any event, it's a very wide crosswalk. So the people at the tool design, which was our traffic consultants, they went through and they looked at it and they made a host of recommendations for this project, including rapid flash beacons, which is basically if you were going to cross, you press the button and blinks go off on both sides, curb bump outs so that you're basically tightening the street, and a host of other signage and striping. But in the interim, we're also going to be painting High Street because it is a very wide street going all the way down with cars being allowed to park in certain segments of it. So we will be doing some immediate changes to the street to try and tighten it up a little bit and slow down the cars. We know cars are an issue. The chief has guaranteed that he's going to have more enforcement on that street, and he will be addressing it. But we had six items that were approved, one including Salem Street. We're doing a traffic study in the Salem Street, Haines Square area. Medford Square, we're tightening up the area in front of River Street. We're going to make that a tighter walkway as well. And there's a host of others in South Madrid in front of Tufts Pool. We know we have a very dangerous crossing section there as well. So if you look up on the website, you can see the list of items that we're doing along with some analysis. But we're just really proud to announce this. And we're also going to be looking at lowering the speed limits, which the state passed in August that the cities now have the authority to lower the street mileage on roads. before we couldn't touch state roads like Route 60, 16, 38. And now they have passed that. We are able to. So we're very pleased about that. We've tried it in the past, and they've come down and taken down our signs. So we will be intensifying this process.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: I'm particularly happy to hear about the part which deals with the Brooks School. There was a group of parents from the Brooks who have met with former Mayor Mike McGlynn, brought their concerns. This has been an ongoing issue for some time and it's very good to see that there is a resolution
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: This intensifies it, this complete street. This funding source really does exemplify... Is there a timeline? It has to be spent by June 30th. So we have an engineer looking at the... When you do curb cuts, you have to have the proper radius and all of that. So someone actually has to spec out the plans that have to go on the street. So we'll be specing that out over the next month. The money's in hand right now. And then we'll be putting it out to bid to start as soon as winter's over, as soon as we're able to get in the ground, and then it'll be done probably by April, May.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: That's great.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: The long-term plan. The short-term striping, we're going to be getting on that very shortly.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: And while we are under suspension, could I ask that we also address the addendum that we received this evening regarding the recommendation to accept a gift from Urban Sheds of Medford? Yes, certainly.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Oh, I'm sorry. Mr. Benedetto. Thank you so much. And I'm really glad that this is in place. This is perfect timing, especially with the events that happened recently, um, and that we're going to put, um, um, some issues in some corrections in place immediately and not wait for this to be completed. That was a concern from me. Um, so with this brought up, a memory of an update. I need an update from the crossing guard on the Felsway.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Did we ever, you know, figure that out with... We had a meeting Thursday with a lot of the team from City Hall as well as some of the parents that were involved in the school. And this issue was brought to our attention at that meeting. And we also had Senator Jalen and Rep. Garbally, who was going to speak to Rep. Donato. It's his district. And they were going to look into the DCR issues, because that's a DCR road, to see if they could, number one, get a crossing guard down at two locations on the Fellsway. So they were going to take that in their bailiwick, and they were going to address that.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: OK, great. Because we've been trying for that crossing guard for about a year now. We've been asking about updates. I know we've reached out to the DCR repeatedly and that we really weren't getting anywhere. So before something happens there, I would like that addressed. And I'm glad that Rep Donato will be handling that because I think he'll do an excellent job and look forward. Superintendent, could you please give us an update at our next meeting on that? So I'm making a motion to have a report. Thank you.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Motion to send to rep Donato and Senator Jalen, a request for a traffic guard at the crosswalk on the fouls way between Salem street and Fulton street. I believe that's the correct. Yes.
[Roy Belson]: There are, there've been several requests made. This is not a new request. And representative Donato has a bunch of stone wall with a DCR. But if we get multiple, um, reps requesting it, perhaps that will get a little bit more steam on it, but it's been difficult because this is not a new request that we've been making this request. When St. Francis closed, DCR determined it wasn't necessary, but we think it's necessary and we just have to keep banging your way at it. But that was part of the meeting the other day.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: So thank you. We're going to make that a motion to our state delegation on that motion. All those in favor, all those opposed. Motion is passed.
[Kathy Kreatz]: Ms. Kreatz, did you wish to speak? I had written down the same exact question about the Fells Way, because that was what we were talking about last school year. Yeah, so I mean, everything Erin mentioned was exactly what I had written down. And this is a great program. And I'm so glad that we got that funding. It's just terrific with all the crosswalks, so dangerous. I just want to know, Stephanie, do you know in the square also where you cross over where Colleen Brigham's is? I know that's a really high traffic area also. My mother actually got hit in that crosswalk a few years ago. And I think there's a lot of traffic, you know, with people crossing over to go to Colleen's and over to the other side. And it just seems like a really congested area. So I wanted to just mention, I know it's not really part of the school zone, but where the money was going to be funded.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Complete Streets isn't strictly a school zone area.
[Kathy Kreatz]: It could be anywhere. So I wanted to mention that.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: They went in and they evaluated the level of severity, and they came up with the list. This professional, not the city, the professional engineers did. So they've ranked them all, and the state basically took our first six plus a study, seven items, and that's what they funded. So we'll be applying again for another grant, and we'll be going down that list and hitting more and more. And then whatever we can accomplish on our own striving to do that as well.
[Kathy Kreatz]: And do you know, has, um, has the traffic improved at the Brooke school? Um, I know they wanted to get, you know, police, um, enforcement out there, um, until something is in place. And, um, I did talk to the crossing guard who does that, you know, that, that section. And she said, um, it's still really busy and people aren't stopping or they're stopping, but then they're going and then they're stopping. You know, it's not like really, I don't know why, maybe because it's a busy section. Yeah.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: I just know whenever I go there and I use the crossing guard, the cars always stop. I don't know. We have a parent here in the audience that maybe she'd like to address, but I haven't seen that issue when the crossing guard is on premise. The problem that I've heard is that when she's not there is when they have issues. Okay. So the chief said he's going to do additional traffic enforcement. We're going to trim some trees as well so that people can see the sign that blasts what their speed limit is. So we think the issue is when we don't have a traffic guard. Okay.
[lq25S5HOVFA_SPEAKER_10]: Yes, that is the case. Can you name and address please? I'm sorry, Elizabeth White, 280 High Street. And it's especially bad when parents are leaving after school, if they're picking their kids up between the after school hours, 2.30 and 6, whenever they're getting their kids, and there have been incidents. I mean, no one's been hit, but it's just so wide. But typically, I mean, I think when Nicole is the crossing guard, when she's there, she does a phenomenal job. And I've actually seen other people there who have replaced her, even police officers who don't do as good a job as she does. She's excellent. Thank you.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: She'll be glad to hear that. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Kreatz.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: basically echoing what has been previously said, but I was looking at the report and I just want to make sure that, I mean, first of all, I want to say, great. I love the idea that we were able to get this funding. Um, and I know that we are looking at the Roberts, I'm sorry, at the Brooks right now, because especially the situation that occurred, but my biggest fear is always I don't wanna wait till a situation that occurs. So I also wanna make sure that we're looking at the high school on Winthrop Street because even though we've been trying to put some signs and things up, again, there's a lot of trees that are, they're really low and you really can't see what you're putting on. So I just wanna make sure that we're also looking at Winthrop Street.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: We can anytime ask Forestry to turn some trees if they're sinking.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: Yeah, and we wanna make sure that we have the proper signage out there, okay?
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: On the motion to receive and place on file this report, all those in favor? All those opposed? Motion passes. Motion to revert to the regular order of business. Oh, no, not yet. Hold it. Hold it, Mr. Skerry. Ms. Van der Kloot.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: We received as an addendum in our packet a recommendation to accept gifts from Urban Sheds of Medford. It asks that the Medford High School Garden Club was asking permission to receive a donation of a garden shed from Urban Sheds of Medford. And they're going to build, they've offered to build a custom four by six foot shed in the inner courtyard adjacent to the garden free of charge. Anyway, it's signed by Rhetta Smith, the Garden Club supervisor, the biology teacher, and the Medford High School Garden Club members. And so I'd like to make a motion of approval. that the garden club be able to accept the gift of a shed from Urban Sheds, unless there's any concerns that I don't know about.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Does the school committee accept the gift? Mr. Superintendent, does the school committee accept the gift? It's a motion for approval, seconded by Mr. Skerry. Roll call. Roll call vote. It has to be, yes. Ms.
[Robert Skerry]: Cuno, Mr. Benedetto, Mr. Kress, Mr. Stone, Mr. Skerry, yes, to continue to approve. Yes.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Yes, seven in the affirmative, none in the negative. The motion passes. I look for a one minute recess.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: The next item on the agenda, reports from superintendent. Recommendation to accept school supply backpacks from Aguero.
[Roy Belson]: Madam chairperson, we're going to call upon our assistant superintendent to deliver this report.
[Kathy Kreatz]: I think it's, I think it's, it's my Michael. I think my mic is on. Yeah.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Well, now everybody's mic is on.
[Diane Caldwell]: We're on. Medford Public Schools would like to take this opportunity to thank Mr. Sidney Wolk, founder of Agero, and the cross-country group, David Farrick, CEO and President of Agero, Sandy Savage, the Vice President of Human Resources, Sandy Reyes, human resource business partner, and all the members of the corporate giving committee for their generous donation of backpacks and other school supplies to our students. Ajero donated more than 60 backpacks, three times what they gave us last year. filled to the brim with supplies that include educational games, composition notebooks, markers, rulers, pencils, glue sticks, binders, folders, lined paper, colored pencils, and highlighters. These items have been distributed to our elementary schools, and we had enough to distribute some of them to our middle schools as well. In addition, pencils and spiral notebooks have been given to Medford High School and the Vocational High School. Our principals have decided that the backpack should be disseminated to the most economically disadvantaged students. And in fact, at our elementary schools, the principals actually open and take all the supplies out, and then the teachers can come and bring them to their classrooms. Principals and teachers and students and families were elated when they received their school supplies. We are fortunate to have such generous community partners, such as Ajiro, who come to make such a difference in the lives of the children in our school district. I was hoping Mr. Sidney Wolk would be here tonight, but he is unavailable, and Miss Sandy Reyes is homesick. Otherwise, we would have thanked them publicly for their gifts.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Could we please send a letter of thanks to them an appreciation from the school committee members?
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Thank you. Motion accepted and placed on file. Next item on the agenda report school screening brief intervention and referral to treatment.
[Roy Belson]: Madam Chairperson, Tony Vento, our supervisor of health services is here. We brought this to your attention last year when we got involved with the opiate intervention activities. And Tony's going to bring you up to date on SBIRT, which is the acronym for this long title, and let you know what we're doing and how it's going at this point in time.
[Toni Wray]: Good evening. I hope everybody received one of the booklets that our team put together that really explains what SBIRT is and what the process for implementation will be. This year in our high school and next year we'll expand to the middle schools. So in January, Governor Baker signed an act relative to preventing adolescent substance abuse by expanding SBIRT. And it mandates the use of a verbal screening tool for adolescents in the school setting and starts with grade nine this school year and expands to grade seven next school year. And the, um, the act also provided funding to public school districts and Medford was fortunate to receive almost $15,000, um, that provided, um, training for the school nurse, the high school nurses, the adjustment Councilors and guidance Councilors, and also permitted us to buy some resources that we would be able to use. So SBIRT is a verbal screening tool. It's evidence-based. It's used with adolescents. And it's administered during a private one-to-one conversation. It consists of a few questions. And the goal is to promote prevention and identify early those students whose patterns of drug or alcohol use are presenting, putting their health at risk. Use of the tool allows the screener to determine a level of risk. For students who have a very low level of risk, the screener will support and encourage their positive, healthy decision making and lifestyle. For students who screen higher level of risk, the screener will either provide a brief intervention or the highest level would provide referral to treatment. So it's a tiered level of approach. The screening entails students meeting with a trained screener. They meet one-to-one. We are taking them out of either health ed or physical education classes. And the screener will go through the six questions and then make a decision on whether it's just that we're saying, great, you're doing a wonderful job, you're making good choices, or probing a little bit further with the students. Students and parents have the option of opting out by submitting a letter. And we will be notifying parents during the fall that we will be starting these screenings. That letter is included in the booklet. All the interviews are confidential. No results will be placed in any student records. permission to disclose the information can only be granted by the student. So students will be informed that if their health is at risk, if we are really concerned about them, then we will reach out for referral to treatment or we would reach out to parents. So that will be made known to the student at the beginning of the screening. And there's no disciplinary action associated with any results of the screening. The goal is really identification and harm reduction. So where are we now? The staff has been trained. Last spring, the staff at the high school was trained. We convened a small team that worked together to pull together the resources in that booklet. We are looking at this fall, we'll be setting up the schedules for how to pull students out of class, and we expect to begin the screening in mid-January. Let's see. Does anybody have any questions?
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: So, I read through the material and I just wanted to be clear. So, if a student does reveal information which is alarming, they will be told that what they're saying is not confidential? It depends on the level of harm risk.
[Toni Wray]: At the highest level, yes, that the student would be told, I'm concerned about you. You're putting yourself or others at danger, depending on the answers on the questionnaire. I would like to refer you on for further treatment. I feel it would be beneficial to inform your parents because we will be an alliance to making sure that you get that treatment. Students do have the option of refusing, and that's all part of the process of coming to terms with your degree of substance abuse and your readiness for treatment. But that all follows the models of the SBIRT program.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: I guess I was thinking in particular about one of the questions was about getting into have you ever driven with anybody who's under the influence. Right. And if a student says yes, my dad.
[Toni Wray]: And that brings a whole different level to that. Yeah. And I think there would be further investigation and the team would have to decide where you go with that. referring to Department of Children and Families. It may be a conversation with the parent. I mean, it will lead to different levels.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: I'll be very interested in hearing how this all works out and what the response is.
[Toni Wray]: From the experience that I've heard about in other districts that are using it, Natick is using the model, Gloucester, North Andover, Bill Ricka. They have found very low numbers of students that need referral on for high level treatment. If we get them early, 7th to 9th grade, we do really more education and prevention than we do identification of significant illness. You're building good, positive, healthy decision making. Okay.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: I have a few questions from the podium. My first is, are the children told that the outcome may not be confidential before they begin? They will be. OK. And then, are we sending the op-out form to parents? Are we sending them a form if you don't want your child to?
[Toni Wray]: Yes. we have a letter that if that gives them instructions, if they would like to opt out, how they go about doing that.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Okay. It's not like a cutoff on the bottom.
[Toni Wray]: No, no.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: We're asking that they email us. Okay.
[Toni Wray]: And then we'll, when we set up the schedules, um, then we'll take that into account. We'll remove those children who have, whose parents have opted out.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: or a phone number for parents that don't have these. That should be in there as well. Okay. And then my last question is about staffing. So our nursing department is really going to be taking care of this. And I know our nurses work extremely hard already, and this is a new initiative for them to undertake.
[Toni Wray]: Who's doing their job while they're doing this? Well, we will be tag teaming nurses and Councilors. So when we set up the schedule, We look to set up two nurses and two Councilors pulling students out of the classes. That leaves, at the high school, one nurse in the high school office, along with me, unless I become one of the school nurses. So I think we will be adequately covered. So we have considered that. And the same with the Councilors. If we have a plan set up ahead of time, they can adjust some of their schedules so that their freedom to do that.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Okay, and if not, is there budgetary funds allotted with this to like get a sub-nursing?
[Toni Wray]: There is not. All the funds were specifically for training. Okay. All right. So we will be looking to do this without, you know, without the use of substitutes if possible. It will be all about very succinct planning.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: So my request is that you track that and how many, um, absolutely. How much coverage one nurse is taking on and like any, the increase in incidents. So we make sure that we're covered well because we have a lot of students with a lot of different needs. Absolutely. So I want to make sure that all students are safe while we're planning to do this. Any other questions? Mrs. Cugno.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: Thank you. I guess the thing is that when you said that parents are going to be asked if their children want to opt out or not, and then you also mentioned that if the student decides to do this, they will be informed that depending on the level, some of the information will not be confidential. Right. So I guess in between that, is there something, is there a form that they're going to sign saying that you definitely informed them?
[Toni Wray]: No, that, that, um, That has not, we don't have that looked into it.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: Because my concern is that if we say it verbally, if something comes out that the child doesn't want really to be exposed, they could turn around and say that they were never told. And my other concern is also if the child is 18 years old and older or if the child is 18 and younger. No, it's all students have the ability to opt out. No, but I'm talking about if there was a form. Oh, a form, right. If there's some type of form that they have to sign, releasing the fact that they know the outcome, if it's going to be higher, it's not going to be confidential. If the student is 17 years old and they sign the form, then the parents need to sign that form.
[Toni Wray]: Actually, the way the state has set this up, students older than 14 can give consent or opt out.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: It's just that little piece of confidentiality because they could at that moment say, sure, I'll give you, you know, you ask me and I'll do it. And then just in case they don't like the, I don't want to say reaction or the restriction from it, I don't want us to be liable saying it's a he said, she said situation. We can do that.
[Toni Wray]: We can put together a student form that if a student says, no, I don't want to do this, we can ask them to sign it.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: OK. Motion to accept the paper and put it on file. Motion so moved. Thank you for all your work, Tony. Thank you. Thank you for all the work. Report on district priority educational costs, SY 2016-2017.
[Roy Belson]: So at this time, we'll call upon our deputy superintendent to present this report.
[Beverly Nelson]: Good evening. Every year we set educational goals, priority goals. I know there are a lot of different categories of goals for school system. These really deal with the educational elements. And the reason why we get this out really early is because it's tied into the teacher evaluation system. Every teacher starting right now is formulating his or her own educational goals, which is part of the requirement for their evaluation. They're supposed to be establishing one professional growth goal and one student performance goal, and these are in the form of SMART goals so that they're measurable, and again, they've been doing this now for a few years. So each year, what we do is we take the goals we've had the previous year, and we take a look at how well we've accomplished those goals. Dr. Cadelli is here tonight, She and I kind of worked on this report collaboratively. She took the goals from last year and just took a look and went to different people responsible for different areas to see how well the goals were met. I think in most cases, you will see from what she reported out that we did meet the goals. We have, again, the district priority goals and then within each district priority goal, there are a number of SMART goals. And then with that, we met again with the administrators, got their input as we began to update the goals for this year. And so, I'm just gonna call your attention to just a few of the things that we updated. One second. So, with regard to District Priority Goal 1 under B, we added another item to the technology piece, and that was informational literacy. So that's a different bullet if you were to compare the previous year's goals to these new goals. The district SMART goals for District Priority Goal 1 under 1 that have to do with professional development, A, B, and C, special education strategies, working effectively with at-risk students and social-emotional learning. Those are the main areas that our new professional development committee identified as being important. So we felt that we should incorporate what that committee did in terms of making those focal points for professional development. We also added under district priority goal two, Rather than talk about the negative things, suspensions, we wanted to focus on positive. So under District SMART Goals 3, under Goal 2, the district will design and offer alternative educational opportunities for students providing for credit recovery and positive behavioral supports. So that language was made to be a little bit more positive. We added a fourth. item to that particular goal because we know this is one that's been very important this past year. We want to make sure that we focus a lot of attention on it. And that fourth one is the district will continue to promote programs and initiatives that seek to educate students on issues related to substance abuse. So we wanted to make sure that that was clearly delineated as a separate entity. District priority goal three. In the past couple of years, we focused on English and mathematics because those were the newest frameworks. And again, we were aligning our curriculum, we were purchasing our materials to reflect those changes and those frameworks. We feel we've made a lot of progress. As you know, the committee has supported materials at the elementary level. The directors have done a lot of work on working with the standards, making sure that the Standards for each grade level are taught and that they are supported. This year we have a new framework to be concerned about and that is the science frameworks. They were just adopted last spring and again our focus this year under district priority goal three, which deals with curriculum, is to focus on these new frameworks for science and engineering. Now that doesn't mean we're gonna forget about English and math because again we're still working on different units of instruction, but again, these were the newest ones that we need to pay attention to. We will continue to support our curriculum with materials, and we come to the committee every year asking for different materials to support the curriculum. And we are still updating the curriculum areas that have no recent, or actually their frameworks are quite old, and what we do is we look to other sources, so for example, The frameworks for health education, the last ones were written in 1999. There are a lot of health issues that are post-1999, so we look to our health supervisor to make sure that what's being taught in classrooms is reflective of the health needs of youngsters in 2016. We look to national standards, for example, to help us out. We have the Michigan model, as you know, the new curriculum for health, which focuses on a lot of these new topics. The same is true for foreign language. Those frameworks, the last iteration of those was 1999. They haven't updated them. They haven't updated the fine arts. So again, we are attentive to those simply because the state doesn't choose to update them doesn't mean the district doesn't. So those directors are at work looking at seeing what's happened up to date and making sure that those items are incorporated in our own curriculum areas. As we move along District Priority Goal 4, we've changed the language to reflect the new upcoming test, which is MCAS 2.0, and we anticipate that that will be the test that youngsters are being assessed on, assessed with this coming spring. So again, we took out the old language of the old MCAS and the PARCC, and we know this will be the only test that will be mandated by the state. The whole language on district determined measures, DDMs, which were assessments that we were supposed to be developing, we did develop them, and teachers were supposed to be using them as part of their own evaluation. The state has kind of gone backward a little bit on that. And even though they are not quite sure that we will be using those for teacher evaluation, they believe having common assessments that are standard for different courses, that's a good idea. So we renamed the DDM's common assessments. Okay, so again, we're still working on them and just changing a little bit of the language. And moving ahead, district priority goal five under district SMART goal number three. Again, the positive behavior that we want to emphasize is reflected in that goal as well. District priority goal number six, again, we put in language that, under goal one, that is reflective of what the professional development committee suggested we focus our areas on, and that would be, again, special education strategies, working effectively with at-risk students, and social and emotional learning. So we incorporated that language. And the last district goal seven, we re-emphasized the increase in online communication. This is under collaboration between the school, family, and community will increase by so many percentages during the school year. And again, because we have the new school brains, and in the teacher's contract, they agreed to be using that for parent communication. We're getting that up and running. That's my next report is to report out a little bit on school brains and our progress. But again, increase in the online communication. That language wasn't reflected in the previous year's goals, but we felt it was important to highlight this year. So what you have in your packet is just last year's goals, how well we did meeting those, which overall I think was great. I guess Bernadette wants to address those. She can. And then moving forward, how we are Presenting this to the teachers these goals will go out to the administrators They can give them to the teachers and then the teachers can start to formulate their own professional goals and student goals for their own evaluation So that's kind of the process and we again had to get this out very quickly this month Because we have a timeline in the contract teachers have to do this by a certain date this by a certain date and they need to get their plans and their goals in within the next couple of weeks, I believe is the deadline. So any questions on that or anything you'd like Bernadette to address? Ms. Van der Kloot.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: I just want to say thank you for all the work that this entails. I went through it and saw how much work, because it's not only articulating them, it's also making sure that we're planning all of the appropriate activities that go along with them. Does this need a motion of approval to approve the goals? I'm guessing yes, so I'll make the motion to approve the goals, set forth the district priority educational goals for school year 2016-2017. Any other questions?
[Erin DiBenedetto]: I have a few questions if you don't mind. I compared the goals of what you met, what your goals were for last year and what this year's goals were. I'm very happy to say you met a tremendous amount of the goals that you set forth. There is a few areas that you either didn't meet them as of yet and or you read, you alternated them with other things. And if something isn't working, it's great. I was very happy to see that you took that initiative and moved them forward. There was one on Smart Goal, District Priority Goal 2 from last year, number 3. No, not number 3, sorry. Number two, alternative direction for the goal. You have the minimum of 10% of educators in each school work with central administration in planning and preparing professional development programs for mass social and emotional curriculum. And you went the alternative direction. I didn't see that in the next, this year's goals. Did I just miss that?
[Bernadette Ricciardelli]: I will address that. So the alternative route was the direction, we took that direction from what was in the new contract. So prior to the contract being finalized, we thought we would go with the members from each school, and then we changed it. So moving forward, I'm going to move forward to goal number two in the new goals. Perhaps we just implied this. You know what, we did not put it in a goal, but that team is functioning. The team is comprised of six teachers and six administrators. I'm one of the administrators on that group. The team is up and running, and we do have a plan. We've actually met a lot, but we did not. Do you think that's necessary to be added at that point?
[Beverly Nelson]: I think we referenced the Professional Development Committee, and it is in the contract. And as Bernadette said, prior to that being an entity in the contract, we had the language about having participation. But now it's written in the contract, and it's kind of like what we did before is kind of null and void, because the contract kind of supersedes what was formally in that language. We could put in, again, I think we did reference the Professional Development Committee. People are pretty much aware of it. There are teachers serving. actively on that. We're planning our November 8th professional development day with a lot of teacher involvement. Quite honestly, having a committee is nice, but it adds another layer of work because you have another group that you have to work with. We're meeting on Thursday, all the administrators and teacher facilitators. We have quite a group going on. So the professional development committee has kind of replaced anything else that we had been doing to solicit teacher involvement in professional development.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Okay. That totally equals that. So on the next page, district priority goal four, section three, It's stated, by the end of 15-16, the district will have fully developed two common assessments for content error, which aligns with requirements of educator evaluation. And it says approach the goal for how we've met. Common assessments have been developing in most of the areas, at grade level areas. And we're in the process of finalizing assessments for hospital grades. So I just want to know if those assessments will judge the programs that we purchased, like the journeys and the math program. Will it evaluate how far we've come because we purchased them? And I'd like to see some of that data.
[Bernadette Ricciardelli]: So the intent of the common assessments is to show student growth. So certainly those results for student growth will be available. The process by which we're going to go through is kind of gray right now because we're not sure what the state is going to require in terms of the DDM and its implementation. So, for example, in any grade that has MCAS, that needs to be used as one of the measures of student impact. It is possible, I'm trying to remember some of the assessments. There are a couple of assessments that are program-based. They come from Journey. They come from Envisions. The intent was not to measure the effectiveness of the program, but rather the effect on student growth. So I will tell you that that is evolving. Again, we feel like we're being pulled in different directions with what the state is requiring of the implementation of the DDMs. I guess that's the closest I can get to an answer to you. I know it takes about three years and I know our ELA program that we bought is a little bit more than three years now.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: So I would like to know, as a committee member, you know, the progress and growth we've made because of that purchase and how it's worked out. That's all. So it's different from this?
[Bernadette Ricciardelli]: Yeah, I think that such an evaluation of the program needs to occur. The intent of the common assessments is not to measure the program. But I think your suggestion, as I'm taking the suggestion, a need that we have is to measure the program is understood.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: So I'd like to make a motion at this time that through the superintendent, we have a report of these programs and how well our children, how we're performing either way, with the value of those programs and how it's helped our children throughout that project.
[Beverly Nelson]: If I could just add, the intent of the programs are to better support the curriculum. Where you're going to see the results would be in the state assessments. Okay. Okay. Now, again, within each program, there are a lot of assessments that are built in. along the way the teachers are using. But, I mean, the reason why we put new programs in is to support the curriculum. So that's where you're going to see the results. The DDMs or common assessments or whatever they're going to be called next week are a different entity.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Okay. So we will get that when we get our results, which are due. which were released at 535 which I'm going to talk about a little later on okay so moving forward to next year's goals I had a few so at least you know when you do a report that I actually read it I know we all do but district for priority goal I just thought that there could be another goal on the district's mock goals to increase our citywide level, which I'm hoping we have good news this evening about anyway, in rating and to move to make all schools a level one. Could that be added there? like a goal for our community. And I just thought that that was the right place for that.
[Beverly Nelson]: OK, remember, the intent of these goals are to guide teachers in formulating their own goals. So the only way a teacher could really use that is the teacher would say that he or she is working towards a level one priority. I think we see in this goal that we want to support the curriculum. We want to make sure that we get continued improvement academically. Accountability is not necessarily always tied to academics. As we're going to learn tonight, there are other factors that go into accountability. So to say as an educational goal that someone is going to work towards making level one, I don't know that one individual person can do that. And so to link this in and have teachers pull out from it, I think would be a little bit of a stretch. I think that we all are committed to doing better whether it's moving from, you know, level three to level two to level one. Level one is obviously the, you know, the gold standard that we all would like to be up there. But it's more than just academic.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Just on the next goal, priority goal five, item three, there is not a percentage listed as there was in the previous year. So by June 2017, each school will implement a positive behavior intervention plan to promote learning and respectful interactions as evidenced by a reduction in student suspensions. Last year's goal had a percentage of 20%. I'd like to sit, had a goal for people to hit, like a number, like so it's quantifiable, right?
[Beverly Nelson]: We, you know, we start out with SMART goals. The very meaning of a SMART goal was measurable and numbers were obviously an important requirement. The state has kind of gotten away from that. The teacher's union is not too happy with having a teacher put, you know, quantify something within his or her own goals. So we kind of didn't put that in there. We could go back. and add in a certain percentage. I'm not sure if that's.
[Roy Belson]: So let me jump in on that one. Every school has got a different reality. You would expect more suspensions at the high school and the middle schools than you would typically at the elementary schools. So it can't really be system wide. It's really got to be looked at in terms of the specific school. And then the specific teachers are different than the specific school. So teachers don't suspend youngsters. And these are teacher goals. These are evaluation of teachers. So I think you're by putting percentages, we're giving them an unrealistic role to play because they don't really do that. It's really done through the, through the office in conjunction with them. They don't have total control of that. So I think what you're going to see from us coming up next after this is system wide goals would have nothing to do with specifically the teacher goals, but rather what the school system is trying to do. And then you might find that as a more realistic percentage.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: OK. I just saw that in the previous year, and I was just curious why we weren't.
[Roy Belson]: More of a refinement.
[Beverly Nelson]: We changed most of the language of that entire one, too. And again, working with Kathy and Daglia, we've tried to talk more about positive behavior intervention supports. versus looking at the negative suspension. What can we do in a positive way that results in, you know, reduced suspension? So we kind of made that goal more holistic and more positive in nature too. That's we kind of changed the whole nature of that one.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: And my last one is district priority six. Number two, educators deemed unsatisfactory are needing improvement in standards one and or two. on their formative or summative evaluation will participate in professional development offerings. Contractually, is that possible? Like, can we require that? Because I read from previous, the explanation from previous year that you couldn't do that.
[Beverly Nelson]: Well, we can. What we did with this goal, too, is that we looked at last year's and we said, gee, the language was only for educators deemed needing improvement. But they were the ones that are unsatisfactory. So we expanded that to include them. So when an educator is in that category, they're usually put on a plan that they do by contract have to follow. And that plan would include going to other classes and watching behavior being modeled. So yes, you can enforce it if they're on a plan that calls for that.
[Bernadette Ricciardelli]: Can I just add something to that? The reason why we approached that goal last year, we could not enforce having a teacher who was having trouble in standards one, standards two. We could not require them to go in another teacher's classroom, a veteran teacher who could model that. We also could not require that model teacher to make a novice teacher go in. That is what was not contractually, we couldn't contractually require that. So for next year's goal, we've broadened it. So it includes the observation of model practice, but it also goes beyond that. It extends into other PD offerings. So we can require people to participate in other PD in best practices, but what we couldn't do, again, is to have them sit in another teacher's classroom and then, even more importantly, have the veteran teacher have another teacher sit in their classroom. We can suggest it, and I will tell you that most people do it, but I think we cross the line if we're going to require that. Okay. Thank you for the explanations.
[Robert Skerry]: I don't have to read the whole thing.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: I can just kind of summarize
[Beverly Nelson]: Basically, as you know, we're transitioning to school brains. Anything new takes time. And we really want to support our teachers. We have a very good relationship with the union. We meet on a monthly basis. We have a joint labor management committee. There are several of us that sit on that, along with the president of the union and several members of the executive board. And we work out problems. And one of the things that came up is that teachers Although they felt, on the first day of school, we gave them training. We gave them training, actually, in the spring. But the first day of school, they had their own data, which was really important. And they began to be able to really use the system. And they're able to take attendance. Everything went really well with that. And that was the most important thing. School brains, what we have to think about is rolling it out in tiers. And so the first thing was very important for teachers the first day of school to be able to take attendance. And they were all able to do that, because we had that training. before the students came in that first day. We heard from the union that teachers at the middle and high school level who used grade book were a little less comfortable with that particular aspect of school brains and they were looking for more training. Now last year what we did is we rolled this out, we decided that one of the best ways to support teachers was to have individual teachers in each building be the support assistant. So we actually gave them a stipend, we trained them, and they're the individuals that would be the first line of support in a building. Those people too felt they needed more support. So what we did, we met with the School Brains representatives earlier this month, and we worked out a training session. So what's going to happen Wednesday afternoon is that we are going to have a training session for the building trainers and many of our administrators, because we obviously know they have to support this too, on the use of gradebook. And the school brains representatives will be there as well. That's an early release day for middle and high school, so we're gonna have the training during that time. So now those individuals, hopefully on Wednesday, will be very confident in the use of gradebook. And on October 19th, which is a mandated early release day, as you know with the new contract, we gained back some of the early release days as mandated, days for professional development, October 19 is one of those, and what we're having is a school-based, again, middle and high school, because elementary aren't using Gradebook, we're going to have the trainers, the school brains people, we're going to have the administrators who have been trained in the buildings with the teachers, and we're going to retrain them on Gradebook so that they leave that session confident to be able to use that. So again, as we roll this out, we know that there are going to be little snags. We kind of are dealing with them as they come along and working out ways to get around them. Paul DeLavis stepped up, put a big part of taking a big role with this. He is helping us to organize this training. He's actually going to help deliver the training on Wednesday. So we feel that with that training on October 19th, we'll be able to get by that segment of school brains and move on to the next phase of the training, whatever that brings. So any questions on that?
[Ann Marie Cugno]: Yes. Mrs. Cugno. Thank you. I know with any software program that especially when it rolls out, there's always going to be glitches. And I'm happy to hear that you have a lot of this in the planning session of it. What I have heard is, though, I know that what teachers put into the system and what secretaries are putting into the system and what certain administrators are putting into the system is all different. So even though they have building trainers that they could go to sometimes, especially when it gets really busy, We really can't pull certain teachers out that have, let's say, learned the program to go and help someone at that moment. And I know that I've heard a lot of Mr. DeLaver and actually Mr. Tootin have been helping out tremendously. But one question that did come up, speaking to a few people, Is it possible, maybe, if there's some type of hotline or something that, I know myself, we're actually, where I am, we're rolling out a totally different program, so we're piloting it, but I guess the question is, is there a hotline that you could actually be doing something, and at that moment, if you have that question, you could actually call someone and say, could you help me through this, because sometimes it's difficult, though, to go and grab someone in the building, and you're at a standstill, because you can't get to the next step.
[Beverly Nelson]: The individuals who are primarily in charge of the school brains are Jean Irwin, Curtis Tootin's assisting her with that. Mr. DeLave has stepped up. He's really good with technology, and he understands the system very well. So if a building trainer was unavailable or unable to answer a question, the next line of communication would be to Jean Irwin or to Curtis Tootin. So they're there. The hotline, the school brains people, quite honestly, have been very responsive. Anytime they've had questions, they're right there because they're local people. The other thing, too, is that there's lots of tutorials. School Brains doesn't just do these live trainings and that's it. Teachers can access, you know, review trainings, but they've got to access them. I mean, they're up there, they're available. Those are some of the topics we identified as issues with the School Brains representatives who came out and met us a couple of weeks ago. So there are different layers of support. The answers should be able to come either from the building person, and I understand they may not always be available, but through Jean, Curtis, and the School Brains people.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: And there's this other program that you're saying that you could actually go into the School Brains system and actually look up the question that you might be having.
[Beverly Nelson]: Well, there are tutorials so that there'd be a way a person, let's say the person has a training on gradebook. I know that sometimes, you know, you see something, you might be paying attention sometimes, but you maybe missed something. There's a place you can go online and get that instruction, review it. So there are ways that you just don't have to make sure you get everything in one session. You can review it online.
[Kathy Kreatz]: OK. OK. Good to know. Mrs. Craig? Yep. Oh, I have a question. I was at the curriculum night last week, and Dr. Riccio and Dr. Perla mentioned that they're going to be giving the parents their IDs and, I guess, passwords. the same night as the open house. And a lot of parents, the night of the curriculum night, mentioned that they wanted to have the school brains maybe on a different night, because there would be too much going on the same night as the open house. And it can be a little busy. So I wanted to mention that. If there's going to be plans to have maybe a couple different sessions for parents, who might need help or have questions when it's rolled out to the parents, because I don't think it's rolled out for parents right now.
[Beverly Nelson]: Is that right? Yeah, that's another segment of it. I think that we have a meeting with our administrators, our regular meetings next Tuesday. I think each principal will develop his or her own schedule for that, but we will address it with the group and make sure that parents are supported by having the time and the meeting time at school to do that. And if we need to have Gene and Curtis and even a school brains person to be there, we'll arrange for that.
[Kathy Kreatz]: Okay, thanks. I just didn't know if there'd be enough time for everybody to do the open house.
[Beverly Nelson]: I'm not aware of the schedule, quite honestly. Right, yeah.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: Okay, we'll look forward to hearing about it, thanks. Point of information, I did forget about Jean Irwin, so I don't want you thinking that I didn't hear good things about her. I did know that there were the three of them, I just forgot about her, so. Okay.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Motion on the floor to accept, report accepted and placed on file. So moved. Everybody who agrees say aye.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Thank you. Report on Minuteman project.
[Roy Belson]: Madam Chairperson, members of the committee, just an update on what's going on in Minuteman. There was a district wide vote among the Minuteman communities. 16 communities voted on September 20th. 10% of the population in those 16 communities came out to vote. Some communities only had 2%. Some of the communities are withdrawing. There were 16 communities in Minuteman. It's down to 10 now and by the end of this year. And then Belmont looks like it will withdraw, so it'll bring it down to nine. This gives you an idea of what's going on, but they will get to build their building, but they'll build it for a number that I don't believe they're going to fulfill. The one thing I want to bring to your attention is that our population is decreasing at Minuteman. And I think within two years, we'll have no one there. But should we have someone there, one of the provisions of the new regulations called for a capital fee, which we feel is an unfunded mandate, and we will contest with many of the communities that are on this back sheet. But the commissioners put it out, and it gives you an idea of how many communities are involved. There's like 34 outside of the district communities, most of whom will object to that fee. We think that they've underestimated the actual cost. We think that Minuteman could cost a place like Arlington, New England, $30,000 to $40,000 per student. Going forward, I think it's absurd, but it is what it is. And we think we'll be out of it, but informed, and I want you to know that we will, with other communities that are out of district, be initiating appropriate legal action through the Division of Local Mandates, and then, if necessary, through the courts, to avoid any kind of possibility that a capital fee could actually come home to roost at some point should an individual come in. We don't believe that's appropriate. We don't have equity in the project. We don't believe the number is appropriate. We believe that it's an overbuilt school. But nevertheless, it's in place and keep you posted. We think our vocational school is doing extremely well. And we think that in a couple of years, we won't have anyone going anywhere outside of our own school, except for possibly an agricultural school, which is beyond us unless you're prepared to buy a cow and a horse. If you are, let me know. We can look at that, but I don't think that's a good idea. Okay? Any questions?
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Report accepted, in place on file. All those that approve, say aye.
[5T-XCQueORE_SPEAKER_06]: Aye.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: All those against? Motion approved. Next item, financial records, FY16, current year FY17.
[Roy Belson]: Madam Chairperson, making her final appearance before the Method School Committee, Pat Villiers.
[5T-XCQueORE_SPEAKER_06]: Good evening. We'll start with FY16's wrap-up year-end summary. You'll find attached the financial report, the final summary for the GL for the period of July 1, 2015 through June 30, 2016. We completed the fiscal year as planned, ending the year carrying $100,145 in encumbrances. These are expenses for which we did not have an invoice at closing. However, the expenses are attributable to the FY16 year. Utility usage reports are attached. As you can see, we did end the year at about 4% over last year in electricity cost. And we did end the year under on the natural gas as we planned by almost 24%, which was indicative of the nice warm winter we had. Can't guarantee that this year. The budget includes a city appropriation of $52,933,000, and $1.7 plan revenue was expended as follows, $52,933,000 general fund expenditures plus $1.5 for planned FY16 general fund expenditures, as well as $238,000 offset entry to school revolving accounts. You'll also find attached to your reports the year-to-year comparison budget versus actuals Any questions on FY16? Any questions?
[Robert Skerry]: Do we have to give any money back to the city?
[Erin DiBenedetto]: No. I did have one quick question, or one quick note. I noticed at the end of the year, the fiscal year 2016, that there were three areas in the budget that were more than 10% over their initial budget plan, and those areas were the high school, the middle school, and security. My request is that we keep an eye on these for this year and make sure that they stay within their project parameters. Through you to the superintendent.
[Roy Belson]: So one of the things you need to remember is that in this report, the way it's set up, the distribution of undistributed due to contract negotiations was moved after the fact. So that when that gets moved, they're not over the top. They just simply reflect that contract negotiations took place. and that those contributions went over there. So that's just the way it is. That's the way we report it, so you see it in totality in the raw score rather than move the money around and then you just balance it out. So we just show it to you the way it is. But in a non-negotiated year, in a year where we're not negotiating a contract, those numbers have already been worked in. So you won't see that this year, but you might see it in another negotiated year, okay? Set the report place on file, Madam Chairman.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Those who accept say aye.
[Robert Skerry]: Aye.
[Kathy Kreatz]: Could I just ask one question? I'm sorry. I almost missed it. Sorry. Oh, Pat, I want to thank you for the report. And I just wanted to ask just a couple of questions for the upcoming school year, you know, in terms of the transportation. I know last year there was a planned field trip between the elementary school and the high school, and I almost missed the opportunity to ask for the funding. So I wanted to mention it now. I don't know if it's a good time. But I wanted to mention that I did talk to Ms. Lasky, and she was interested in doing another field trip between the elementary school and the vocational school, like the biotech. She's going to be having another aquaponics. And I wanted to mention, I don't know if it's something that I should put on the agenda. Because it would be something that we would be doing in the spring. once they're all set with their program.
[Roy Belson]: So that would be more appropriate for the current fiscal year, as opposed to the one that we just passed, because that year's over. Right. Now we're looking at this year's report to date. Okay.
[Kathy Kreatz]: Okay, so okay, that's what I'll probably do. We'll just accept 2016.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: All those in favor of accepting the report and placing our file, we can move on to the next agenda item, which is the current year 2017, and we'll start with Mrs. Kreatz's request.
[Kathy Kreatz]: I also wanted to mention that I wanted to make sure that it was extended to all the elementary schools who wanted to plan a field trip, The ideal grade seemed to be like the fourth grade or fifth grade level, because they could understand, and they were doing the science program very similar to the vocational biotech and engineering. And they also went for a walk in the fells. So they were old enough to understand in the same type of science program. So I just wanted to make that mention. I haven't heard from other elementary schools, but I think it was a great, great and it was just wonderful. I loved it and you know, I don't wanna forget and miss the opportunity, so I wanted to mention it. And yep. Mr. Superintendent, would you like to?
[Roy Belson]: So why don't we take that under advisement and see how we can do it, okay? We'll get right back to you.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: All right, thank you. A motion on the floor to have the superintendent provide a report to the committee as to whether or not we can provide the elementary school children transportation for a field trip to our high school building. by Mrs. Kreatz, anyone? Second. Second by Mr. Skerry. Motion to approve. Aye.
[Robert Skerry]: Aye.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Aye. Motion approved.
[Kathy Kreatz]: Thanks. I have one more question that's different. It has to do with the, and I know Pat, you, you helped answer the question. It has to do with the MBTA, the S pass. And I didn't know if there was, You know, if, you know, do we previously, you know, provide the middle schools with the S pass, like the MBTA S pass for students at the discounted rate? I know I reached out to my niece who was, you know, when she was at Arlington in her middle school, she got the, you know, the discounted student pass. So I didn't know if it was something that, you know, we did or we didn't do, and maybe some people are using it, you know, in addition to the high school. Because I know we had the parent who was, asking if we did provide those passes. And I just didn't know where that stood and if it was something that we were going to explore, getting those S passes for the students. I did check around with the MBTA, and it is something that would have to go through the school system, not necessarily the MBTA. But it would be something that would be managed between the school system. you know, to, you know, to get those passes. So I didn't know if it was something that we were going to pursue or maybe do like a survey to find out how many middle school parents would be interested in getting the pass, you know, to see if it was worthwhile to put forward for the next school year. We have received emails. Yes.
[5T-XCQueORE_SPEAKER_06]: And as I responded to, um, to both of your, all of your emails, I had several people, uh, we sell between three and 400 bus passes a month for the high school students to transport outside of the heights area. And, um, we charge $30 a month for those passes of which we do not see any money. We keep nothing. It all goes back to MBTA. A few years ago, we did do the middle school passes as my understanding. We are taking it under consideration. The need is very small. I've literally had a handful of people ask for them only in the last two weeks. And we're looking into whether or not we can do that and what it requires from us. We don't have specialized MBTA equipment. We do it all through our own computers and internet. So it can be a little cumbersome because we're not using a Charlie card machine. So we are looking into it. And we should be able to get back to you in the next few days with a decision.
[Kathy Kreatz]: Perfect.
[5T-XCQueORE_SPEAKER_06]: Thank you.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: So there's a motion on the floor placed by Mrs. Kreatz for a report from the superintendent as to a follow-up as to whether we can provide S passes to our middle school and any students attending Method Public Schools. All those in favor?
[Robert Skerry]: Aye.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: I just had a question about it. Okay. So the question was, I guess I didn't really understand one thing about the yes pass to the kids. Um, can they get the physical pass and loaded at an MBTA station or do they, do we have to, do they have to bring us the money to load?
[5T-XCQueORE_SPEAKER_06]: No, but they do have to be tracked and monitored by us. So if they come and check out a card, And if they lose the card, we are the person responsible for reactivating a new card and putting a stop on the old card. So if the card has any money at all left on it, and they come in and say it's lost, then we have to do the actual tracking, stopping, reinitiating. So it is a cumbersome task. And I have to tell you, that our ratio of lost cards is quite high. It's the population.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: OK.
[5T-XCQueORE_SPEAKER_06]: Thanks.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: So there's a motion on the board, second by Mr. Skerry. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. All those against? Motion passes. Current fiscal year 2017 report.
[5T-XCQueORE_SPEAKER_06]: All right. Attached you'll find the summary financial report as of September 21. 10-month biweekly employees have received two checks since August 29. While our 12-month employees have received six paychecks since July 1, most hiring has been completed, and new employees have finalized paperwork with a requisite Cori check and request for fingerprinting. Homeless, currently NPS provides educational programming to 18 homeless students, of which nine require transport. All students requiring transport have these services in place. Online payments, the district continues the online payment system and this year has added the after school group to the FACS online payment system. FACS provides families with the ease of their annual tuition divided by 10 equal monthly payments. E-Community, a MCC product, handles fee-based programming online payments. Special education. Contracts and purchase orders are in process for all approved programming. FY 17 budget is initially established as 1.2 million general fund, 1 million idea grant funding, and the balance circuit breaker. Additional encumbrance details provided at the close of the first quarter, which is right around the corner. Telephones, the VoIP system is established for the district. Internal changes due to room moves and name changes are handled internally. And to date, all changes have been completed. Transportation MPS utilizes 18 buses running 2 a.m. Routes and 2 p.m. Routes serving st. Joseph Catholic school st. Raphael Catholic school That pick up at 230 stops routes have been reviewed for use and overcrowding we have made a few adjustments MPS k8 buildings and Eastern Bus Company are in the process of completing a manual student count that information will be used to update our trans finder system and and provide us with the emergency list that we are really looking forward to. I would also like to add that in response to the mayor's earlier report on the updated crossings, we added a stop to the route where the Brooks route goes by a high in Alston. And we've made it so it's all right side pickup along that stretch. That's great. Utilities the initial three months of the FY 17 budget year have been uneventful for utilities as In the past all buildings within district will be monitored and updates provided on a quarterly basis in Closing the first quarter of the school year is busy with grant closeouts and preparation to complete the state's end of year report FY 17 is progressing as expected And MPS will move forward with continued monitoring of the budget by my colleague, Ms. Patterson. I would like to thank all of you for the opportunity to serve Bedford.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Thank you. Thank you, Pat. Thank you. Any questions?
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Motion of approval.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Second. I do have one question, or one comment. Homeless transportation increased $50,000 in our budget for this year. It's telling of the times that our families are going through. I did speak with Representative Christine Barber about this yesterday. There was an amendment in the state budget to set up a committee to track transportation and how we're paying for it as a commonwealth. And I am hoping to be placed onto that committee. It hasn't been decided as of yet. It's an increase in costs, and we have more and more homeless children in our districts. And I know how difficult it is to get rides for all of our children. And I want to personally thank you for the work that you've done to make sure all our students have a ride to school and all the effort that you've put in, in transportation especially, because I know it's not generally something you would assume is your job. And thank you for all your years of service and all the tremendous change you made in automating our school district. in making things more easily understandable, and specifically, personally, teaching me how to read some of these papers and things, so I don't, while as a superintendent, owe so much.
[Roy Belson]: So, that's my own- Do I click Charter how to read this stuff?
[Erin DiBenedetto]: So now I figured out a few of my questions before I come here. It was a little less stickies, but, That's my only comment on tonight.
[Roy Belson]: Christine, don't make that mistake.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: And thank you again. Thank you, Pat. Motion is on the floor to accept and place the file. To accept and place the file. And all in favor? Aye. All against? Motion passed. negotiations and legal, oh, no, I'm jumping, report on 2016 MCAS Park test results and school accountability ratings.
[Roy Belson]: So we're gonna call on our deputy superintendent to deliver this report. Good or bad?
[Beverly Nelson]: Hot off the presses, okay? We just, you don't have these, so don't look for these in your package yet. Science. I'll take a three and a half ounce again. So I think good is the overall word as we start to analyze all of this. The information you have we couldn't give to you earlier because actually we just received it Thursday. We had access to our scores on Thursday and again we started to analyze things as quickly as we could get things prepared. All of this was embargoed until 5 o'clock this afternoon. So this is why we can share it openly with you right now. This is the first of what we anticipate to be several reports that we are going to give to the committee. As you know, there are a lot of different layers of analysis dealing with the state testing. So we will, again, present what we have in terms of preliminary information in this report that we prepared for you with Carolyn Joy, Nicole Chiesa, and Rocco Sieri. Again, as you probably know, MCAS this past year was administered to just 10th graders in Medford in English and Mathematics, and it was the test, the only option for Science. The Science MCAS exam is very different than the English and Mathematics. The English and Mathematics MCAS is administered in grade 10, It's kind of a test that's a cumulative test of what students have learned through the years up through grade 10, where the science high school test is different. The science high school test a youngster takes after they complete a specific science course. So what we try to encourage is that our ninth graders, most of whom take introductory physics, take the science MCAS introductory physics. However, if a student doesn't take that, they can take the biology when they take the biology course, or they can take chemistry when they take the chemistry course. So science MCAS is a little bit different, and it's been that way since its inception. As you also know, we opted last year, we had a choice for the rest of the school district whether to take MCAS or to take PARCC. And we decided to take PARCC We realized that the new MCAS 2.0 was coming quickly and that the old MCAS was not going to resemble that. And the new test was going to be more park-like. So we opted in grades three through eight in English and mathematics to have our youngsters be taking the park exam. So what we have tonight are really two different reports. One of them deals with accountability. All right, school and district accountability, and that again was embargoed until this afternoon. And we're happy to report that we have moved up from a level three to a level two. As you know, last year we had one school that was at level three, and because it takes just one, the entire district was into level three. That school has moved out of level three into level two. We're quite happy to report. and the district is now level two. We'd like to be in level one, but again, we'll work towards that this coming year. So, let's see, accountability. How do they determine it? There are really two factors, and it's very complex. One of them is obviously student performance on the exams. They give scores depending upon how students rate on the exams. However, there's a second part of accountability rating, and that is your participation. And this is where it gets a little bit tricky, because what they look for is a certain level of participation for the aggregate in the school, that's all the students, and then each subgroup that's reported out. Every year, they report out, they lower the number of students required to report out a subgroup. It used to be 40, so in other words, you would not get a report on, let's say, special education unless you had 40 kids in the school. They gradually over the years lowered it, so now it's 20. So the threshold for reporting out is now 20. So that's what we're getting reports on. So you get more and more subgroups reported out because more and more kids are making up 20 kids within that group. So what happens with participation is that is factored into the whole accountability. So again, we basically have done well again with this meeting level two. I wanted to share with you, we just got this just as we left this evening. We were able to get the comparative accountability ratings of some of the districts. We thought we'd like to share that with you because you might be interested in seeing how some neighbors. All right. You can see once you get the sheet that, um, we're actually compared to neighbors doing quite well. Um, Arlington, you see most of the accountability ratings are to, uh, Belmont is a one, but you have Arlington, Burlington, Lexington, Linfield, Melrose, North Redding, Stoneham, Wakefield are all level two. You will also see that other districts nearby, Somerville's a level three. Malden's a level three. All right, so those are a little bit lower than we are. Again, many communities that are, you know, demographically don't have the challenges that we have, are at level two. So we feel that we're a pretty good company being able to hold to that level.
[Robert Skerry]: Point of information, Madam Chairman.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Point of information, Mr. Skerry.
[Robert Skerry]: If Salem's rated four, are they a prospect for receivership?
[Beverly Nelson]: Salem actually moved from four to three. So what you have here is 2015 and then 2016. So you can see the movement. in communities. So Salem actually kind of get itself out from under that four level because they were under scrutiny as a level four, but now they have progressed to level three. All right.
[Robert Skerry]: See the Malden hasn't made any changes, but state pumps all kinds of money in there and it's nothing's happened.
[Beverly Nelson]: What does that tell you? Um, you know, you have, you, you have to work with the students that you have. And I know that, Every teacher in Malden probably works very, very hard with students. When you have ELL students, and I'm going to share with you what happened at the high school because it kind of highlights some of the problems that we have with this whole system, is that, you know, a place like Malden has a lot of ELL students, and those students are required to take the science test. They're required to take the math test. If they arrive the day before the test is administered, So again, the only opt out they have is English, and that's only for one year. So it's really, I mean, is it fair to these students for them to take this test? No. Are they required to? Yes. And therein lies the problem. So I think what you're seeing in other communities, it's not that they're not spending their money wisely, or they're not following the curriculum, or their teachers aren't doing their jobs. I think they all are doing that. But the students that they're working with, sometimes the rules around who has to take the exam are not fair. And I think we're seeing this. So just to kind of share with you what happened at the high school, because high school is level two and it was level one. And that's a concern for us. But it's nothing to do with academics. Because as we look at the scores of the MCAS scores, the high school did quite well. In fact, in many cases, we moved a lot of kids into advanced from actually the lower levels. What happened is the participation rate. And it was only for one subgroup, okay, was the Latin Hispanic subgroup. And there were only 30, what, 32 kids in that subgroup. And it had to do with the science test. And what happened is because the smaller the sample you have of students, the more the statistics are going to be skewed by one or two students. So we had three, four students who did not take that test. And the reason they didn't take it is because they were ELL students and you can't take the science test unless you've taken the rigorous appropriate science course. These ELL students, no way could they take introductory physics or biology the first year in this country. So what we designed was a course called general science to give them science, but to build them up slowly so they could take the more rigorous courses. There is no general science MCAS. Those students couldn't take the test even if they wanted to, okay, because they didn't take the appropriate course. So what happened is that we To be level one, you have to have a participation rate of 95%, which means that we have 32 kids, 30 kids would have had to take that test to get to the participation of 95%. And again, we didn't have the kids taking the test, and that's what happened. So we don't want to have the misconception that the high school academically declined. It did not. It actually, in many cases, made improvements. This participation rate is very tricky. This is a subgroup, by the way, that was not reported out to us last year. And this is a subgroup that tends to contain a lot of ELL students. So, again, having no knowledge that this was a problem area, again, we need to pay attention. We need to, as silly as it sounds, if we're going to try to reach for the goal, the level one, we have to put kids in courses ELL kids in rigorous science courses, which I don't think is the right thing to do, and if we want them to take the exam. Otherwise, they can't take it. So it's a catch-22. It's a terrible situation that I don't know how we can work around. They're talking about changing accountability. Let's hope they change it in that direction, because it's not fair to those kids.
[Roy Belson]: So you might want to know that Boston Latin is level two. Gives you an idea. It isn't an academic issue. Participation. It's a participation issue. And we see it in Andover High School and a lot of other places that you would consider to be immune to this. They're not. This is a whole discussion that has to happen. You may remember when AYP, annual adequate yearly progress, was the benchmark and everyone was going to be proficient by 2014. At some point around 2012, 80% of the schools couldn't make it, so they had to scratch it because it was an unrealistic target. As long as you're going to set up some of these, these parameters that don't work for certain youngsters, you're going to have difficulty making it on the participation level or on the achievement level as well. But this is what we're facing. So there'll be some discussions at the state level about this. The new federal act ESSA gives the states more flexibility. Let's see what they do with it. Let's see how, what kind of discussion they have on that level. Because obviously, if they don't have a discussion, you're going to see the same phenomenon as you saw with AYP. There's going to be more and more districts that drop down. And that's not going to fly.
[Beverly Nelson]: So I guess that comes down to, as a district, do you make an ELL kid suffer through a year of coursework that they can't understand at all? Or do you put them in a more reasonable course where they can really learn something? But then we run into this problem. This is the catch 22 that we're dealing with. But again, we are level two. We'd like to be level one, but I think we've made progress on that. And again, you have what our neighbors have done as well. The state assessment. The only comparisons we really can make right now would be with the MCAS, because we don't have data from PARC from last year to compare with the results last year. So what the directors did is they prepared Summaries, they did the highlights of the MCAS for grade 10. Because the science is grade 5, 8, and high school, Mr. Cieri did all three grade levels. You can kind of read over the highlights, look at the data. We have the data for you. The park, because it's so new, we're still in the process of examining it. We have numbers, but we're still trying to put some meaning to the numbers. One of the things that you should know is that park is scored very differently. than MCAS, where MCAS has the four categories. Advanced, Proficient, Needs Improvement, and Warning, or Unsatisfactory. The park is judged on a five point scale. And so the designations are that somebody has exceeded expectations, met expectations, approximated expectations, partially met, and so on. So it's a very, and we don't quite understand all of the meaning behind that. And that's what we're looking at next. Now, we were told that there's not gonna be a state report in terms of how the students did statewide because some of the students still took MCAS. So to do a comparison with state park results would leave out a lot of districts. So we've been told, although I'm not sure that could change, that the state's not gonna give us a comparison figure. So we may not even be able to say Medford did So much better or so much worse in each category than the state, because we don't have that data right now, and we've been told we're not going to get it. But we will be looking at that. The student reports, all of them, MCAS and PARCC, will be arriving at our doorsteps in the next couple of days. Our plan is to get the results out to parents by the end of the week. So that's kind of our plan.
[Robert Skerry]: Educators and teachers indicated the Department of Education, if the kids are having a problem with the science, why can't they take it in their native language? It might give them a leg up so that they can further progress.
[Beverly Nelson]: They used to have MCAS when it all started. They used to have a Spanish version of it. They did away with it. This is for English and math. They, the thinking with ELL is that, you know, these students have to be fully immersed in the language as soon as possible. The testing though is, is it just bothersome because it's just like, you know, someone giving us a test in Arabic and we've only been here for, you know, it would be advantageous if they know there's a certain test that the kids can't pass.
[Robert Skerry]: Why not, you know, make it a little easier for them and then they can pick up speed along the way.
[Roy Belson]: There's a, um, discussion between the house and the Senate. They're both, have different viewpoints on the bilingual or ELL laws. Um, the Senate would like to change what the uns amendment did. The house is still moving around on it a little bit and they haven't been able to reach a, uh, any kind of consensus. So there's a lot of ferment around this stuff right now. The other, the other thing I think that that becomes obvious to us is, is that, uh, these tests, you know, Last year they tried to use something called the equity percentile to try to find some sort of crossover between MCAS and park. We think it was a very full attempt to try and compare two very different tests and notice the state isn't going to do it this year.
[Beverly Nelson]: Right.
[Roy Belson]: Obviously somebody came to the same conclusion, even though, you know, last year we said to them, we don't think this works. And, um, I think they came to the conclusion that since they couldn't really compare all the districts, and we think to some degree that impacted our scores last year and impacted our rating last year. That's just our thinking about it, but I can't prove it. So, so be it.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Mrs. Vanderhoof.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Madam chair, since the results were just released this afternoon and school committee members have only received the preliminary report. I think that with the information that was provided so far, um, by, uh, the deputy superintendent, that at this point, it seems like it would be appropriate for us to move this to a subcommittee meeting when the rest of the analysis has been done. So I'd make a motion to move it to the curriculum subcommittee meeting.
[Kathy Kreatz]: Second by? Oh, could I just ask a question before we do that? I had a question I was waiting to ask. So I wanted to know, because I know the results are coming out this week. And so the parents or the students who are 10th graders, who are now juniors, they're going to get their results. And they need to know if they have to take the retest as soon as possible. How quickly is that information going to be made available to those parents and the students? Because I know that there was prep work that was done, MCAS prep that's done. And what are the plans for that? And are those students, if they have to take the retest, where the MCAS 2.0 isn't going to be out till next spring, the students have to take the retest coming up this November? Because that's, I don't know the exact date, but it's November. So what are the plans? I mean, my son's a junior, and this is the big grade we're waiting for. And I know there's a lot of other parents out there, so it's, you know, a lot of anxiety around that, you know, scoring and, you know, and where is the new test, you know?
[Beverly Nelson]: Right. The retest, first of all, would be the old MCAS test because the MCAS 2.0 is still in the developmental phases, okay? So that's not ready. I think they're very ambitious to think they're going to have it ready for the spring, but they're telling us they are. The results will go home to parents. As soon as we get those in tomorrow or the next day is when we've been told by the state, we'll get the principals to pick them up. Labels are made. Our goal is to ship them out. If we get them on time this week, we're going to ship them out by Friday to everyone. So people will know by next week. In terms of the plans to do the retest, again, this is just the high school level, obviously. As you know, we don't have our academic support money. They did away with the grant. And the academic support grant used to support the MCAS prep, both for the 10th grade test and for the retest. But I know that Mr. Blau and Dr. Perrella and Dr. Riccio are looking for ways to get those kids, whether we have to put some of the district money into this to get some tutors, we try to get those kids ready for that retest as soon as possible. So they'll have a good month. to be able to prep. And I know the high school's already trying to be creative in finding ways we can use, find money to make sure these kids, because the MCAS academic support money was really very helpful. It's gone.
[Kathy Kreatz]: And that's a concern, because that was a great program. It was like a six-week program for the students who needed help with either math or the English. And I don't know if I could make a motion that we can make some budget money available for those students to get the prep and the assistance they need to help them so they can graduate. Because this is a big deal, and students need the assistance. Some of them struggle with testing. A lot of the strategies I know that the students learned was helpful, and the repetition. And where there was a break over the summer, You know, things are getting back into the swing of things. I think it's definitely something that we need to make a priority for the students.
[Beverly Nelson]: I will be with the high school. As soon as we get the scores in and we see where we stand with the number of kids who have to take the retest, maybe we don't have anybody. Maybe they all passed, which would be very nice. But I'll meet with the high school staff next week. We'll work something out. There's usually not a huge number of kids. So we'll find something that works, because we want them to get diplomas. Thank you.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: So there's currently two motions on the floor. The first motion is to conduct an academic committee subcommittee meeting, where we can go over all testing results that were recently released. Curriculum subcommittee. Curriculum subcommittee, sorry. All those in favor?
[Kathy Kreatz]: Aye.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: And we have a second motion by Mrs. Brents for the superintendent to provide us a cost report of implementing a six-week MCAS prep program, so that way, as quickly as possible, so we can help all of our high school students.
[Roy Belson]: I'm trying to assess how many students are involved.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Yeah, because we'll have to find out. Do an assessment and a cost analysis of what you'd need from the school committee to be able to provide that program. We'll get to that as soon as we get the results.
[Beverly Nelson]: Yes, exactly.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: I need a second on that motion. Second by Mrs. Cugno. All those in favor, say aye.
[Kathy Kreatz]: Aye.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: All those opposed? Motion passed. Both motions have passed. I need a motion to accept and approve
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: file.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Second. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Motion carries. Our next item is negotiations on legal matters. There are none. Old business. We have selection of delegates for the MASC fall conference. Mr. Superintendent.
[Roy Belson]: just up to you to decide who you want to be the delegate on the, on the alternate to the conference. At this point in time, we put it off from last meeting. So we're on tonight.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Mrs. Vanderclue.
[Robert Skerry]: Madam Chairman, I nominate Mrs. Vanderclue to be the alternate.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Mrs. Vanderclue.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Um, I accept the nomination. And after discussion with Mr. Scurry, where he assures me, he will attend the meeting. I nominate Mr. Scurry to be the delegate to the MAFC full conference.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: We have two nominations. Do we have a second? Do we need a second on that? Oh, oh, okay. I second. Second by Mrs. Kreatz. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. All those opposed? Motion carried.
[Robert Skerry]: Roll call.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Roll call vote. Mrs. Cugno? Yes. Mr. Benedetto? Yes.
[Robert Skerry]: Mrs. Kreatz? Yes. Mrs. Stone? No. Mr. Skerry? Yes. Ms. Van der Kloot? Yes.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: So also on this report, we have a report from the superintendent on the cost involved in attending. Mr. Superintendent?
[Roy Belson]: So we gave you a report on the costs that are actually spelled out for you. And if someone wanted to only go for one or two days, MASC indicated that we could talk to them about it, depending on what their numbers look like.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: I just want to say that I'm really happy that both of my colleagues are going to be able to get there for the vote. That's an important and very important piece of this conference. It gives us some room at the table, which is nice for our opinions to be seen and to be heard. I'm not going to commit to the whole four days because I am actually working right now on trying to get unpaid leave to get down there, but my cost will be less. And I believe Paulette's cost will be less because we're both lifetime members. So I will inform the superintendent of the days that I'll be going.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Any other questions? I'd like to make a motion at this time that the superintendent report back to the school committee, the total cost of all expenses. with attending this conference. I need a second. I second. Motion carried. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. All those opposed? Motion accepted. Item approved to be placed on file. All those in favor?
[Robert Skerry]: Aye.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: That's accepted. Communication? None. Oh, there is one. I'm going to ask Mr. Skerry to read tonight's motion. Mr. Skerry.
[Robert Skerry]: That the school committee extend its condolences to the family of Frank Andre, who passed away this week. Frank's daughter, Kara is a teacher in the special ed department. Frank was very active in civic affairs in the community. He had two great passions, horse racing and youth baseball. He was a little league coach in North Medford for many years. Later years, he lived across the street from the park on Fulton Street. And he was a 24-7 watchman and always had plenty of advice for the youngsters. I consider Frank a good friend. Frank would always call me and let me know what we're doing right here, what we're doing wrong, and how things should change. Frank was also a candidate for this austere body in 1951 when my dad was serving. He'll be sorely missed. And again, our condolences go out to the Andre family, and I ask that we observe a moment of silence for Frank.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: All those in favor? Condolences to the family. Thank you, Mr. Skerry. That concludes our business for this evening. Meeting has been adjourned. Motion to adjourn.
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