[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: The special meeting of the Medford School Committee will now come to order. Mr. Clerk, please call the roll.
[SPEAKER_18]: Mr. O'Neill.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Here.
[SPEAKER_18]: Mr. Benedetto. Here. Mr. Ritz.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Here.
[SPEAKER_18]: Ms. Stone. Here. Ms. Geary. Present. Ms. Vandenbroek.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Present.
[SPEAKER_18]: Ms. Vandenbroek.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Present. Seven present, none absent. We will now rise to salute our flag. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America.
[SPEAKER_20]: The United Republic, for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Before we start this meeting, we're all aware that we lost a very special Medford citizen this past weekend, John Jack McGlynn, and it was a heartache for this community. He was our former mayor and he certainly drove this city forward during the time that he spent leading this city. So if we could all just take a moment of silence and dedicate this meeting in his memory, please rise.
[SPEAKER_20]: Thank you.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: This is a special meeting of the Medford School Committee Monday, August 29, 2016 in the Library Resource Center at Medford High School. The purpose of the meeting are to discuss the following. Update report on the opening of the school year. Item number one, Mr. Superintendent.
[Roy Belson]: Madam Mayor, members of the committee, you have a report in front of you. It's a preliminary report. As you know, school opens tomorrow for grades 1 through 12. Kindergarten will come in next week on September 7th, on Wednesday. In preparation for the opening of school, administrators have been meeting all last week and all throughout the summer, hiring and reviewing necessary policies, protocols, and programs. We've also participated in meetings with our new teachers, staff, contractors to ensure they're off to a great start. Enrollment in the school is increasing. We'll reserve judgment on the need for maybe additional faculty or staff until we see who actually shows up in the first week or so of school. And we'll calculate actual attendance at that time, which is typical practice for us. Transportation routes are posted online. We used Transfinder this year, our first time using that. As usual, adjustments are made during the first month to reflect actual ridership. And we're working to consolidate at least one bus and possibly downsize one bus to a smaller vehicle heading to Minuteman. Security plans are in place. All schools have updated their plans and scheduled drills to practice the various response measures. I've attached a copy of a recent article which I sent you previously, but in case you didn't see it, on the bomb scares in Medford Public Schools and was in the American School Board's journal featuring Medford. A preliminary report on our summer maintenance and repair work has been included. Mr. McLaughlin is here. A lot was done, a lot more will be done. Tonight we'll discuss capital planning, which is another dimension of our building repairs and long-term improvement of our facilities. Additional work was completed in our buildings with the help of the vocational school faculty and staff. And we're awarding a new contract to cleaning service sometime this week. We've interviewed multiple vendors. We've narrowed it down to four individuals, four individual groups, and we should have a decision probably by tomorrow or no later than Thursday. We're working on a new initiative that would have students, especially in the high school and the middle schools, adopt specific sections of their buildings for upkeep and improvement. Almost like what you see in the islands around the city where you adopt an island and the like. We'll have you some details on this initiative at a subsequent meeting. After school and before school programs are ready to go. Demand for these programs and services continues to grow. We're working hard to ensure that we have enough staff. It's a little challenging as people come and go in this after school staff at the outset. And sometimes people become available if they feel they don't have another type of job for themselves at this point in time. Supplies materials are on hand for the opening. New techs have been ordered and will be in place this month. Team Medford, Hallmark Health, and they'll be with us on the meeting at the 12th, along with Armstrong Ambulance and Staples, presented over $27,000 worth of additional school supplies to us this past week. Our athletic teams have been practicing and will be ready for their openings in September. A fall schedule is included in your materials. The marching band practices virtually every day. and they'll be very active in our games and other community events this year. I've enclosed some additional articles that have been in the transcript and on our blog that highlight Medford school programs and in particular I put my first article into the transcript this week entitled standing up together for our Medford public schools and cover a lot of the things that went on and will go on in the public schools. We've had several meetings with the transcript in an attempt to try and develop a new relationship that will be positive for the transcript and for the public schools. So we'll follow up with a report on the actual opening of our schools at a regularly scheduled meeting on September 12, 2016. Again, if we go to the next page, you'll see the typed copy of what was actually in the transcript on August 25th, listing many of the programs. One of the interesting parts of this first part was that, you know, obviously I'm calling for parents to stay engaged with us and for us to work with them and to encourage their involvement and giving them ways that they can participate in your meetings and in conjunction with the school system. We spoke to the faculty about a similar thing this week and we think that we're making that a serious priority going forward. I'm not going to read through this thing. I know you've had opportunities to go through these things yourself and if you have any questions I'll be happy to comment on any of it.
[Robert Skerry]: Over the weekend I've seen several phone calls from concerned parents in the elementary bus schedules. One parent was emphatic that the bus time for pickup for her child would not allow the bus and her child to get to school on time. Is there any truth to that or does it need to be tweaked? Will this rule be circulating throughout the community for the next couple of weeks?
[Roy Belson]: It's hard to know whether the buses are going to get there on time in the first week because in the first week a lot of people are still figuring it out. Some people arrive at the stops a little bit late. We think we schedule them to get there on time. But, you know, Pat may have another view.
[5T-XCQueORE_SPEAKER_06]: We used TransFinder for the first time this year and in the past one of the parent complaints was that we were not posting pick up times just to start time. So this was our first attempt to give them a time that their child should be there. And we always say 10 minutes early the first two weeks of school. And as I've told everybody that I've responded to, those are only estimates. A computer program does not know our traffic, does not know our weather. And so as the buses get underway in the next two weeks, we'll review all those and we'll try and put a more accurate time down. And of course that will be affected by weather and traffic. I understand.
[Robert Skerry]: I just wanted to address the concerns of the parents.
[5T-XCQueORE_SPEAKER_06]: Yes, yes. I responded to a lot of them.
[Robert Skerry]: The phone calls keep coming from the same group. Yes.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Thank you.
[Roy Belson]: So the next part of the report has some materials on what was done in maintenance. John McLaughlin is here. I won't try to read through it all because you have it in front of you, but if you have a specific question, John is here. I can answer some and John can answer anything else that you might have. So if you have any questions about what was done in buildings and grounds, more is going to be done. We're still working at things, but for the most part, we're very functional going into the school year.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: Ms. Conyo. Thank you. Welcome, everyone. If Mr. McLaughlin doesn't mind coming up. I know we have the report in front of us, and we know that the report is available to everyone, but is it possible, John, just to go over a few things that you've done so that way people are aware of what's been going on?
[Mr. McLaughlin]: Okay, so here at the high school, we did a lot of painting with the custodial staff, the nurses suite, three stairwells in C building, lecture halls two and three, in the car and near the pool area, and along with the fitness center, we did a lot of painting up in the fitness center. And of course we had the landscape project out front where we tore down 15 shrubs to try to tidy it up a little bit, the appearance of the front. Garland Roofing was here the last two weeks. We're doing a scan of the roof to see if we can find out the longevity of the roof, see where we're at for the past couple of years. Then we had the bad winters. Some parts of the roof did take a beating from the shoveling. Then the ceiling over here in this back room, we removed that. So we're going to make a nice little space for meeting. We're going to do lights and a new ceiling over here so that there's a nice little area over here for meeting. That was working with the superintendent. The backboard project that we're going to be doing in that high school is they're going to start the demo Wednesday. So I'm assuming that that backboard project will be done by the middle of next week. So that was one of our key, key projects this summer, replacing six backboards up in the junior area with the basketball program. And at the McGlynn Middle and Elementary, we had a lot of painting done from the Department of Corrections. The maintenance team went in there and went through all the sinks because we were fielding issues of leaky sinks and things like that. So they went through all the sinks and they replaced over 50 of the hot water cartridges. A lot of times the cartridges creates the leaking sink. So they were down there most of the summer working on that. In working with Mayor Burke, we were able to replace some sidewalks at the Columbus and at the McGlynn. We're still working on it, replacing the curbing that has rotted out over the years from the winters.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Can I ask a question about that? Sure, Ms. Vanderhoof. Could you please tell us what you're replacing the curbing with? I thought that was a higher cost item that was going to be looked at in terms of the capital improvement plan when we spoke about it last spring. So I'm curious, since we've already seen that curbing had a problem, I'm wondering what you're replacing it with.
[Mr. McLaughlin]: At this point, the safety issue ones were the ones that we had to correct. As part of the capital improvements plan, yes, there's still more to be done. But we just wanted to make sure that anything where a kid could trip or create a safety hazard, we went down there to make sure that those were okay first.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: So how are we correcting it?
[Mr. McLaughlin]: We're replacing the curb. They're taking out all the curb and putting new ones in.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: But the same type of curb?
[Mr. McLaughlin]: Yes.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: It's a stronger material though.
[Mr. McLaughlin]: It's a stronger material. Right.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Because what, obviously my question is what's going to prevent that, the same thing from happening again?
[Mr. McLaughlin]: Right.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: And I definitely thought we were looking at a different material completely, so. I'm a little concerned about that.
[Mr. McLaughlin]: Well, when the time comes again, we should probably look into granite.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Right.
[Mr. McLaughlin]: And then our problems, we wouldn't have to worry too much about that.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: All right. Well, we'll discuss this, I guess, with capital improvement. So in essence, this is step one. Yes. A temporary fix.
[Mr. McLaughlin]: Yes. And we did a couple of sidewalk panels at the Columbus School, too, that were creating a hazardous condition. So we're working down there as well.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: We did a site visit of a few different locations that were of serious concern, so we wanted to address those outside of the capital plan so that we felt that the children and parents and teachers were safe going in and out of the school. What's in the capital plan is above and beyond that.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: Mayor Burke, Ms. Cunha, just while we're on that, I know that we have to repair them because of safety issues, and that's definitely something that has to be looked at. My concern, though, is that when we go into the capital planning, is that I just don't want to start seeing patches everywhere. and things starting to look old. If we're going to patch it up and we're going to fix it, I totally understand and doing it now, but I also want to make sure that it looks the same when we go into the capital planning or if it's going to look the same as you repair it because I mean the cosmetic part of it needs to be looked at, you know, looked at it too. So I want to make sure everything just stays on page and that everything still looks as new as we possibly can make it look. Instead of, I just don't want to go to any of the schools and start seeing, you know, like one curb looking this way and another curb looking another way.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Just to refer to the Columbus, they went and they matched the paint because that concrete was treated with a stain. They went and matched it so that it would fit in with what's there already. So they did spend a lot of time trying to work on things not to make it look like it's just going to get it done.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: Right, and that's one thing.
[Mr. McLaughlin]: No, aesthetically we would like to keep the aesthetics.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: And I know that you and your staff and everyone involved has done a tremendous job over the summer and I really thank you for that. Just a couple of things. The carpet in the front where the community, not the community schools is, I apologize. The bathroom is where the pool is. I know that we had put it in there temporarily, but it's still very bubbled up because it wasn't laid down properly when it was first done.
[Mr. McLaughlin]: I think it's ready anyways.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: I think it's ready for either to get pulled out and yeah because that is a safety issue because kids are walking on that and it keeps on rattling, not rattling, wrapping up that you can trip on it.
[Mr. McLaughlin]: You have to be careful because of the flooring.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: Exactly. So that was one and the other thing is that I'm very happy to see the painting outside and the crosswalks and all that, but I'm looking still for my signs. Where are the signs that say, like, slow down, school entrance? We need those signs. No problem. I've seen them in different cities and towns, and it's just, I know that everybody, you know, we know that the school is here.
[Mr. McLaughlin]: We're actually looking to put some speed bumps in, too. That's why I was... Especially up the vocational side.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: The vocational side, but the hill coming down. The temporary ones. Exactly. The hill coming down is really... I've been out there many a times, especially at night during the summertime, and I know people always think it's the children. It's really not the kids driving those vehicles that are spinning around that corner. And my concern, and that's been brought up many a times, so I'm happy that we're looking at it. And again, it's common sense, you see kids, you're in a school area, you're supposed to slow down, but if we could stop putting up the signs for it, it would be good.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: And the crosswalk up here, I hope people notice the artistic crosswalk that was put in for them from the Arts Council. Yeah, it looks good.
[Mr. McLaughlin]: And at the Curtis Tufts School, high school, the DOC came in again and they painted all the classrooms on the top floor. And we were able to do some, we did a test of one of the rooms, stripping the varnish off the floor. You'll have to see it, it came out very nice. So we'll be looking to systematically go into all the classrooms.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Mr. Benedetto. I just want to say thank you very much for devoting some time and attention there. I know you did it last summer, and again this summer. And I'm really grateful for all the attention. And that you and the superintendent, I think last year I had the superintendent walk the building three times with me. I let him off the hook this year, but I think I'm going down in September.
[Mr. McLaughlin]: Well, he was down there too. We all did it again. Before the summer, we all came in, starting to formulate a plan. Chip away. We'll chip away at it little by little.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: And so my next priority down there is that room with the kitchen in it. I'd like to go down and visit that maybe in the next week or two if the superintendent has time. maybe we can coordinate it so we can both be there at the same time, as well as the principal and the special education director.
[Mr. McLaughlin]: Yeah, we were talking about maybe opening that room up again and taking down the wall and then working with it somehow like that, with the wall down. The wall isn't really aesthetically pleasing down there.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: So if we can look at something like that so it could be done over a long vacation or something. But if we stop planning now, we might be able to do that throughout the school year. I'd really love to see that continue. It's a valuable property that the department owns. And I know that the children there really benefit from having that school. So I just want to say thank you for not forgetting about it.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Madam Mayor, I just want to request that when that happens all the school committee members are informed of when there might be an opportunity to view it so that it's not, so that we can all have access to that information.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: I'm just going to piggyback on that and actually a couple of years ago we all had, we all made it a point that we had meetings that were set up to go and visit all the schools and look through all the schools. So if we could do that and include the Tufts, you know, Curtis Tufts School and include all the rest of the schools and we could incorporate that into one of our meetings, our subcommittee meeting, so that way it gives everybody the opportunity to do it again. We all have walked into the schools separately, but if we're going to be looking at this and we're going to be looking at a capital plan that's coming up, I think it'd all be good if we're on the same page.
[Mr. McLaughlin]: And at the Columbus School, we had some roof flashing repaired last week, too, that was damaged from the winter. So that's at the Columbus. At the Roberts, Columbus, Andrews, and Brooks, we had the rug shampooed. They hadn't been done for a while, so we sent them down to have them shampooed. And then, again, at the McGlynn and the Roberts, we had some painting outside in the facade, the metal facades painted. It came out really good.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Mr. Benedetto. Thank you. John, I remember last spring when I was talking about the flooring tile in some of the schools. I don't know if it's just the cafeterias or the entrances. Even at the high school, there were some questions about the entrance coming in. Could you just update us where we are with that?
[Mr. McLaughlin]: We've been, the superintendent and myself have walked through the main entrance of the high school. And we've talked about different things that we'd like to see, different things that we'd like to do. So we're pushing towards it. At the Brooks School, they had a lot of tiles that were out. Right at the end of the summer, we sent our cop, Frank Olson, down there. He did a couple of rooms in a couple of days. So it's another job that we're just going to keep chipping away at. We have plenty of tiles. You can find them anywhere. The colors are standard, so we don't really have to worry about matching dye lots and things of that nature. We're just going to keep chipping away.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: I think we especially noticed it in the cafeterias?
[Mr. McLaughlin]: Yes. Were they addressed at all yet? The Brooks Cafeteria, last November, we did a lot, but there's still a lot too.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Was it the Columbus as well that had some missing?
[Mr. McLaughlin]: I don't know if we hit the Columbus last year, but I think that, you know, We're going to stop making our way around, just to get back on track.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: I know your list is very long, but it's just something that we remembered. That's fine.
[Mr. McLaughlin]: If it needs to be done, it needs to be done. We can work and get it done.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Just one more question. You just mentioned dye lots, and that hit upon another concern I had. I'm really glad painting is taking place. You mentioned the McGlynn in particular, but I was concerned because we spent hours and hours and days and months when we initially picked out colors, and I'm under the impression that there's no longer existing paint from the original project. So I just wondered what paint you used, how you match colors.
[Mr. McLaughlin]: We have the colors, the original colors and the numbers, all on a spreadsheet. So if I walk into a room and it's the white, I get the white.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: And they still make them?
[Mr. McLaughlin]: Yeah, they still make all those colors. So we try to, you know, they're obviously going to be a little fresher or a little brighter. But yeah, we match them up to to the existing colors in the buildings. And I think you'll see, too, up at the high school, that we're starting to incorporate some of the colors from those buildings up here. Yeah, not the babyish colors, but the more adult colors, like the grays and the dark blues and yeah. Mr. Skerry? John, were you able to
[Robert Skerry]: succeed in getting any grants through Alicia Hunt to replace the lights in the cafeterias?
[Mr. McLaughlin]: Yes, she did. She did get the grant. I think she's waiting for the contracts to come back.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: If I could, we got the contract today and I think last spring I sent everyone a copy of what was in the application. We received $250,000 from the state. And we're doing lighting projects throughout all of the schools as part of that money. In addition, some of the library is getting some lighting repaired as well. And we just got a signed copy today. So work will be going out to bid very shortly.
[Mr. McLaughlin]: >>:And the current stuff, so all the classrooms will get them in the current structure.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Thank you. Thank you, John and the superintendent and the mayor for working on that and especially to Alicia. I know I bothered her a lot last summer, but I'm glad it's... She does a great job. And Kathy Medaglio too, just bringing things to our forefront that kids need and the colors that they need.
[Mr. McLaughlin]: So system-wide we had all the parking lots repainted, all the stripes. which was good. And I was working with Dr. Riccio on a bunch of projects over in the vocational school and over in Method High. And working with Boyd Maloney, athletic director, we were able to refinish the Roberts, Columbus, and Brooks gymnasium floors this past summer. And then, again, working with the mayor, Brian Kerins, and Steve Tanaglia, and Mike Nesta and Rob Poirier from the Department of Corrections, very instrumental in helping us get a lot done this summer. And then again at the bottom, Alicia Hunt, too, for the lighting project.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Thank you, John. Are there any other questions? Thank you. Thank you, John. Mr. Superintendent.
[Roy Belson]: So the rest of the packet on the opening is just some articles that we thought appeared recently. We thought you might like to just have another copy of them or look at them if you haven't seen them. And again, new teacher orientation was held. We put out some information about school brains, the new parent communication system that goes with our data management operations. We had training today. on that with the teachers. The athletic schedule is here, the meeting schedule is here, and the school calendar is here again. So, happy to take any questions you have.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Mr. Benedetto. Thank you. On the school committee meetings, I noticed that we have a meeting and it's listed December 16th. That's a Friday evening. I was wondering if that was a typo and possibly meant to be the 19th.
[Roy Belson]: I'm sure it is and we'll correct it. Okay? Unless you want to come on the 16th and we'll be happy to hold a meeting for you.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: That's quite all right. Also in your opening enrollment in our schools, that section of your beginning... Well, you know, it's still early because people have been coming in and, you know, until we actually see them arrive.
[Roy Belson]: Because what you have is you have people coming and you have people going who don't tell us. So
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Will we have an updated calendar?
[Roy Belson]: Yeah, you'll get a class size chart in our first meeting in September. That'll give us enough time to really see whether people are going to be with us or go or what it really looks like. But it looks like we've got it under control. People can come and go. So we'll see.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Also, I was wondering, and I know I asked for a lot of data, because it helps me understand what's going on in the schools. The other piece is an update of the number of students attending before and after school, and how many staff members there are, and if there's a waiting list. So that way we can see where needs are in the future and just make adjustments throughout.
[Roy Belson]: Again, when they actually show, we've got pretty good enrollments right now, but let's see what actually shows. We are a little stressed on after school staff. It seems like as people get jobs, they leave that program. So there's some turnover there, but everyone's working hard to make sure that that's done.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Thank you. I know these fluid documents, and they'll change throughout the whole month of September, but it's just good to have an idea. Sure. And if I see parents along the way, and they say, oh, I want to get into a morning program, I'll say, oh, it's almost full, so make your calls quickly, or it might be full. It's good to have that knowledge.
[Roy Belson]: Absolutely.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: To be able to pass along throughout this community. Also, we can see which areas we might have to switch staff to different schools. If they're willing to do that, who knows? I know hiring people for those positions is difficult.
[Kathy Kreatz]: I have one question. I wanted to know, I got some calls from some parents with the election on September 8th, where it's the first, you know, full week of school. There are some concerned parents that, you know, there could be some security issues with the people coming in to vote. at the different elementary schools. Some of them are concerned enough that they don't want to send their children to school on that day. And they recall that, you know, usually schools close on election day. So what type of security and, you know, what will be done at the schools, Superintendent, just so that we can make the public aware?
[Roy Belson]: So what we did was we certainly talked to our principals and also to Ed Finn, the city clerk, about the location of each polling station. Now at each polling station, there is a Medford police officer who will be assigned. So they will be there, and the entrance to and from will be reserved strictly for the people polling. Students will not go through those entrances or exits, and the people will not be allowed into the buildings in any other way, unless they're coming there for a student as well as election, and then they have to sign in.
[Kathy Kreatz]: So there'll be a different entrance?
[Roy Belson]: Each polling area will have its own entrance.
[Kathy Kreatz]: And the police will be on?
[Roy Belson]: The police officer will be there.
[Kathy Kreatz]: On all day?
[Roy Belson]: All day.
[Kathy Kreatz]: There'll be coverage even during the day?
[Roy Belson]: Yes, they rotate. They're not there all the time, but they rotate.
[Kathy Kreatz]: Full coverage? Okay, full coverage.
[Roy Belson]: And I did speak to a few parents who called, and you know, someone might keep their youngster home for that day. I understand some people are more concerned than others about that, but If we start breaking up the beginning of school, we lose all momentum this first couple weeks of school because of Labor Day and other things that come up.
[Kathy Kreatz]: Do you think we could have a robocall where just the night before a call could go out to all of the community letting them know that there will be police and there'll be separate entrances just so their parents are comfortable that their children will be safe in school that day?
[Roy Belson]: I'm wondering whether or not if we wouldn't do something like a backpack express. Sometimes robo calls kind of get people uptight. Yep. And if we send them a letter from the school saying how it's going to be set up, that might be an easier way for them to see it.
[Kathy Kreatz]: Okay.
[Roy Belson]: Okay?
[Kathy Kreatz]: Yep. And could we also ask if Lisa would be able to do the MS blog?
[Roy Belson]: Yes.
[Kathy Kreatz]: A little note on that and then we can share that with the public.
[Roy Belson]: Absolutely.
[Kathy Kreatz]: Okay.
[Roy Belson]: Absolutely. Okay.
[Kathy Kreatz]: Thank you.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: Just a quick question. I know that we have the calendar in front of us. I just want to make it clear that last year, not last year, but the previous academic year, we had Monday nights designated for our meetings and our subcommittee meetings. Are we also going to have that extra night during the week that we're going to make it available. So if we have subcommittee meetings, we know it's going to be Mondays and Wednesdays, Mondays and Thursdays. Or how are we going to work it out?
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: That's an internal issue that we can determine on a committee by committee basis.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: And the other thing is that since we are starting I'd like to request that we have Glenn Kutcher come from the MASC, please. So that way he could go over the rules, regulations, and everything of what school board members are supposed to do and what our roles are all about.
[Roy Belson]: I'm sure we can set that up.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: Thank you.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Thank you. The second item before you is the presentation and discussion of the capital plan proposals. And I guess before we get going on, the real details that are in this report is to keep in mind that this really is 100% wish list at this point. Once we get the list compiled from all the different departments of the city, then we'll be better able to decide which projects can go forward in which years. So this is a cumulative list of things that we know, we're aware of, that we need to address. But we will be fine tuning them as we proceed in this process.
[Roy Belson]: These are some additional pieces of paper.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Mr. Superintendent.
[Roy Belson]: So as you know, the mayor has been working hard with her staff to create a capital plan for the city. And the school system was asked to create our own capital plan based on our best estimates and judgment as to what we needed. Naturally, the mayor wants each of you to have the opportunity to review what's in this document so that you can either add, subtract, or modify what's here as she continues with her plan to present something that's a system-wide plan to the city and the city council would obviously have to approve any kind of bonding. As we do capital plans, there are four basic functions and we prioritize based on that basis. Health and safety. If there was a health and safety issue, we'd want to address that as early as possible. A functional need for the operation of the schools, something that would keep us from operating the school. The third would be something of educational value, and the last would be a cosmetic improvement. Albeit, sometimes things are all of the above, or two or more of the above, but we try to at least deal with health and safety and functional needs first to the extent possible. Each project should be reviewed with an eye towards an alternative source of funding. I've just passed out some information about something coming through MSBA on technology and DESE. I've spoke to MSBA again today and DESE to get some latest information. We expect that an RFP will come out of DESE and MSBA in the next few weeks, and then we'll be able to respond more formally to any kind of technology investment that's involved. have to be scheduled in ways that reduce or eliminate disruption. When we did the science labs, you can see obviously we had to move a lot of people around. When we do anything that affects classroom space, we try to do it in a way that eliminates disruption or at least reduces it and doesn't impact operations to the greatest extent possible. have to be scheduled to reflect emergent or anticipated legal and as well as educational requirements. Some things we have to do legally, for example, this year at the beginning we put in another ramp into the Caron Theater to meet the handicap requirements. Other things like that would be necessary to consider. Proposed project solicitance report based upon our best current cost estimates. They've been rounded out. I didn't try to get to $210.26. You know, it's $200,000, it's $200,000, and it could be $5,000, $10,000, $15,000, more or less, one way or another. There may be a preference for combining certain projects in any given year that could produce a preferred economy. And the first step is obviously for you to review it. Now, we broke it out by school, and we broke it out in five years. So if you look at The schools, you'll see that there's year one projections, year two projections, year three projections, year four and year five projections. There is also a piece for technology as the last item, and it's broken up into instructional technology and network technology, as well as district-wide and equipment needs. So we try to break it out in categories that were easy to understand and to give us a sense of how we would distribute. Again, as the mayor points out, This is a preliminary list. It's intended to get the conversation going to keep you involved. Well, at the same token, it's still aspirational at this point, and a lot depends on what other needs exist in the city and what other things can be done through alternative source of funding. I want to begin by thanking Pat for putting the technical side of this all together and working very hard with other school officials with John and others to identify what we thought we needed, sat down and went over it. I want to thank the city's Procurement Officer Schaub for her work in trading ideas with us. We have an individual sheet for each project or each area, so you can look at that as well. And I think having said all of that, Madam Mayor, I think we're ready to take any feedback, and I would suggest we go school by school, go down the list, and if you see something that you think isn't there, And let us know, and if you see something that you don't think deserves attention, let us know. And if you think we're not spending enough of the mayor's money, then let us know. And we're happy to spend money, we like to spend money.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Ms. Van der Kloot, so, you know, obviously it makes sense to go through this tonight, but I think that as a committee member, my expectation was that we would be visiting the schools and walking them and looking at them perhaps more intensely. So that's my first comment. My second comment is when we hit, if you just kind of look at some of the money in the columns, you know, a lot of the, I always thought that if we were going to do a capital improvement plan, We would be putting more money in year one and not waiting until year four to get to playground surfacing or some of these other things, which we've talked about for quite a long time. So I'm a little surprised at how they're skewed so late.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Well, if I could, I didn't put this package together, the school department did, but obviously we've been looking at it. But we have to realize that under Prop 2.5, there's only so much that we can raise through property taxes. So to the extent that we're not able to get MSBA funding on any of these projects, then obviously the burden falls to the city. And we have to afford this along with other needs throughout the entire community. So until we have everything put together, the years really aren't relevant at this point. The funding, what we can support is what's gonna drive how much we can do. This isn't going to drive what we can support. What we can support will drive what we can do. That's the only way it can work. There's only a pie of money that we can spend, so.
[Roy Belson]: Again, if I can, you know, the playgrounds are functional. They may not be beautiful because of the, you know, the rips in it. We can patch them and make them functional. There are some things that we need to do because the building air quality or safety factors would be far more significant. So, but that's why this is a discussion. This is where you would feed in and say, you know, I think that's more of an issue than you thought it was an issue. But having said that, we try to spread it out so that as the mayor points out, As she goes over what her needs are citywide, that there's some distribution across a time frame that's believable financially. But again, it's all interchangeable. So that's why we're here talking.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: Ms. Cuno. Just a couple of things. I know the superintendent said that everyone sat down during the summer and went over a lot of this and that's how you came up with the list. But did you sit down with like each and every principal of each school and that's what it was kind of their wish list? Or is it just from the site council reports that we got last, you know, last spring? Or how did, how did it really come about?
[Roy Belson]: So, you know, we get site council reports. We look at those. John McLaughlin is obviously involved in every school with buildings and repairs and things of that type. Pat and I have seen any number of requests over a period of time. We've also been conscious of things we have to do. So for example, the vocational school, we know when we did a compliance audit that we know we have to change the door handles on doors to stay compliant because of their handicapped accessibility. So we tried to take all the pieces of information that came from multiple sources We met with principals at the end of the school year, we've talked to them since. So we get input from virtually everybody. But again, I'm sure different people would have different priorities because obviously, if it's theirs, it's a higher priority than if it's someone else's.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: And the other thing is that again, I just wanna keep in mind, I know that this is definitely a wish list. I'm hoping that a lot of the things that are on here will be accomplished. But just to go back to the comment that you just made to the superintendent, is that I know it's not to always beautify everything and we have to do things that are necessities. But we also have to always keep in mind is that When these schools were built, and the refurbishing of a lot of the things that we're doing in the high school, is that we still always want to make them look as best as possible. People are still out here, including myself. I always joked around, and I said that the new schools are always going to be addressed as the new schools. until another school is built. Like this high school was always the new high school, and it's still considered the new high school for some people, and it was built 45, 40 some years ago. So I just want to make sure that that is a promise that I know we as school committee members, I know the mayor, even before being in the position that she is in now, has always made the commitment to the city is that we want to make sure that what we have stays as pretty and as new as possible because we know we're not going to have those finances down the road to start building new schools. So even though that we're fixing and building, I want to make sure That it's not patchwork again, and I know it's been reconfirmed that we're not going to do that. But I also want to make sure that when someone comes through your doors, it's like if you're at home. You know what you need to fix, you know what you want to do, but you also want to make sure that your home always looks beautiful. So I just want to make sure that we deal with that too.
[Roy Belson]: All right.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: Ms. Mustone?
[Mea Quinn Mustone]: I just want to add, if we could put the signage, because I remember Dr. Perella, when all the principals said their wish list, that he just wanted unified signage. I don't know if that's in another budget, or if that got nixed.
[Roy Belson]: Well, signage is probably more of an operating budget item, you know, unless it were major pieces of signage. But, you know, in general science, we do that through operating budgets.
[Kathy Kreatz]: So is that in the plans?
[Roy Belson]: Well, you know, we'll sit down with Dr. Perella and find out what he has in mind.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: Point of information on that? Point of information, Ms. Columbo. That I'm on the site council for that, and that was something that we discussed as the site council, but we knew it was part of the operations, and there is work going on and process going on that that was definitely something that we were going to do. It's not necessarily the capital planning, but it is internal processing, and as far as I know, that was something that was still being looked at and something that was going to be accomplished this year.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Thank you. Mr. Benedetto. As I sit here and look at this list and then look around this room, there is something obvious missing from this list. The libraries. So I encourage everybody to look around and request that the Method High School library upgrade be added to this list.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: I thought we were going to have to go through the list.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: There's a parent I'd like to speak to.
[SPEAKER_08]: Would you like to step forward please? I just had a quick question. Your name please? Hi, I'm Carolyn Montella. I just had a question about the library. When I came to the meeting with the superintendent in the spring, I've been in the school year, there was a beautiful plan for the library and I was very impressed but I was wondering is that going to take place? It seemed like a great hub for the students.
[Roy Belson]: So we were semi-finalists and we didn't become finalists. I can't believe the poor judgment on the part of the Jobs Foundation, but nevertheless, you know, the idea is still there and the enthusiasm in the school is still there, but the funding that we had hoped for that particular source is not there for us right now. But there may be some other source of funding that we can look at and But that funding is not there.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: So until that happens, Mr. Superintendent, can we add that to this list, please?
[Roy Belson]: We can certainly add the library as an item. The question is, you know, what do we want to, what do we project for that? And that's something we'd have to do a little bit of homework on. This is a big place. Depends what we want to do. Furniture would be involved. Certainly rugs, ceilings, lighting. It's a major expense. So I would estimate just off the top, we're talking at least a million dollars.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: As I look down the list, perhaps I thought we were going to read through the list first, but one of the questions that pops out to me is skateboard area deconstructed and modular units installed. and you know we've not discussed that, why are we installing modular units, why would we be doing that, why is it on a priority list, etc.
[Roy Belson]: So again you know this is the beginning of a capital plan and there's a lot of things on here we probably haven't fully discussed but internally we're aware of things that should be done from our standpoint so the idea with modular units is that space at the high school is becoming premium and more and more programs are being developed at the vocational school and other activities. So as a result, the thought was if we can recapture the skateboard park, we may want to build on what is the skateboard park now for a certain number of programs. And that would be a very interesting way for us to expand our programming while at the same time using space that right now is badly used in my opinion.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Right, so I don't even know how to address all of that in the context of this plan right now because there's many, many different questions embedded in that. So I see it as one of the things that administration has put down on this capital planning list. But as a school committee member sort of understanding that the whole impetus or urgency or not or whatever, that's just simply not clear at this time.
[Roy Belson]: So let me try and say it this way, because I think this is probably the best way to, because we're going to go through this question over and over again. There are probably a lot of things that you haven't, as a committee, envisioned because you don't live it every day. And there are other things you would know about, or think about, or hear about that we haven't thought too hard about. Like, you know, you just mentioned the library, we thought maybe, you know. So there's going to be some back and forth. This is not a final document, but this is a preliminary planning document to get your input, to see what kinds of concerns either you have for inclusion or deletion so that we can move forward. And then as we move forward, then we would clearly detail each of our items. Going forward also, remember, once year one goes or year two goes, it may be that year three, four, and five change dramatically after year one and two because of other considerations. So this is a plan. A plan is subject to change, is subject to modification all the way through. It's just an attempt to try and lay out what we see and what might be possible and challenge us to think about what could be to our advantage.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: If I could, I think your suggestion of visiting each school and going through the list that's here and then all of us deliberating at these public meetings at schools, then we can determine a priority list amongst what's here and what isn't here. And that might be more beneficial than us just throwing why this, why that. It may be much more helpful to handle it that way.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: Just to go back on the module units, and I'm not going to get myself fixated on this, but just to try to figure out where we're going, I mean, we had so many students up at the school for so many years, I mean, And I'm going to throw out a question like I know it's going to come to us, you know, from parents that are in the city. We came to this high school and we had a thousand students in each class. I mean, the mayor and myself were part of that. And so times that by four, we had 4,000 students up here and we had enough room for a lot of the things that we did. So I'm trying to wrap my brain around why is it now that we don't have enough room. I understand there's more offices set up, and I understand that there is different developed programs that maybe we have now that we didn't have previously. But if you could just work on that a little bit.
[Roy Belson]: When this high school was built, there were over 25 schools in the school district. And while they were smaller, they housed any number of things. Also, there was the Forest Street complex which has the office of the superintendent and a number of other programs as well. As we consolidated down those programs, you know, I mean those spaces get pushed into other areas, that's one. Secondly, special education has grown exponentially. ELL has grown exponentially. Other mandated programs that we have put in place that didn't previously exist have grown exponentially. Our vocational school has expanded exponentially in terms of programs so we're doing more with the space we have and we have less total space than we had years ago so clearly you know it's not the same ballgame that it was when this building housed, I don't think we ever got to 4,000, but about 3,600, 3,700. I think we exaggerated a little because it sounded really good, you know, back then. But I think the reality was is that, and also back then, there was open campus, if you remember, and not everybody had a room every day. So if you were, you know, didn't have a class, you might have been in the cafeteria, you weren't in the classroom. There are a lot of factors that would mitigate against these things, and plus the fact, too, that there's specialized areas now, occupational therapy, vision testing, things of that type that we didn't have back then.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: Thank you for the clarification, because I know that's definitely going to be something that's going to be asked around in the city. You know, again, if we're thinking of modular units, and we're thinking of putting them where the skateboard area was, I guess, I just don't want a picture like, I've seen how other cities and towns are building their schools, and then all of a sudden, they've built their school that they don't have enough students, and they don't have enough space for their students, and I see these trailers and things. I just don't want to see anything like that happening.
[Roy Belson]: I think one of the things you need to do is assume the early iterations of some, let's say, modular classrooms maybe look like trailers. We've had some that looked a little bit like a trailer. There were more wooden structures at the Davenport, at the Fulton, and places like that at different times in history. But today's modular classrooms, you wouldn't know the difference just from the outside. What they can do today is prefab housing, prefab buildings. It's amazing. They slap them up, and they put them together very nicely, and they're durable. and they've got steel and they've got other things in them that are more expensive, to be sure. But they can easily be put up and they do create legitimate space. So the day of the trailer-like modular classroom has gone away.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: I just want to make clear that if that's where we're going to go, not that I'm saying that we are, it's that type of building that I'd like to see. So thank you for that.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Mr. Benedetto? I'd like to make a motion that we move this to a committee of the whole with site meetings.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: On the motion to move this to a committee of the whole and have site meetings at each of the locations. Seconded by Mr. Scari. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Motion carries. Thank you very much.
[Roy Belson]: So Madam Mayor, if we could maybe take a few second breaks so we could prepare for the next activity and we get the first candidate in. In your packets you have a job description, you have some sample questions, you have some questions you can ask, and you have the resumes of each of the finalists in this position. As I indicated to you in a cover letter, There were well over 20 individuals who applied for this position, some of whom did not have appropriate credentials. They liked the job. And there were some other people who had credentials, but reference checks and other things had us eliminated from Chrome. And there were some people who actually declined after they thought about it for various reasons or took a position elsewhere. But I think this evening we have three very fine individuals. And the process for those of you who have not done it before, the veterans who have done it before as we've had interviews of this type, is that we ask our candidate to give us a little bit of information about themselves, to tell us a little bit of why they think they should be our Director of Finance and Administration. We then go around the room and give each of you a chance to ask one or two questions, and then maybe a second round. And then we'll allow our candidate to give us a little summation, perhaps answer something that wasn't asked or perhaps clarify something that was asked. So this evening, then afterwards, we'll have an opportunity to discuss other particulars after all the candidates have been interviewed.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Superintendent just before we start the interviews I think at this point we really need to recognize the work of Pat Bailey. She's been just a fabulous addition to the school department. The things that she has introduced to us and streamlined processes. You're just an amazing woman Pat and we're very lucky to have had you. We're going to miss you desperately but we wish you the best when you relocate with your family. and we fond memories go, fond thoughts are always being thrown your way so we wish you the best of luck and we will miss you.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: I think the appropriate thing to say is that we appreciate her very much and so we're not going to let her go. We're going to tie you up and we're just going to keep you here because we need you. You've just been so fantastic. We adore you.
[Roy Belson]: So anyway, our first candidate this evening is Christine Patterson. Christine is currently at vocational school, the South Middlesex Vocational School. She's been there for approximately seven years, previously at Blackstone Vocational. So I'm going to ask Christine to come up and say hello to everybody and we'll introduce yourself and we can then begin the process. So Kirsten, you're here and obviously I'm glad you're here. Tell us a little bit about yourself, what you've done and why you believe you'd be a great candidate to be Medford's new Director of Administration and Finance.
[SPEAKER_05]: Well, after that fond farewell, it's been a big shoot.
[Kirsteen Patterson]: So that makes me a little more nervous speaking this evening. But I do feel that my background, my career, has a lot of value to offer a district such as Medford here. And I'm excited for the opportunity to work in a larger city environment. I do have specialized regional and vocational technical background over 20 years. However, I think that translates to many different projects. I've worked with MSBA projects from expansion renovations, roof projects, obvious budget issues, and the like. And I'm also a non-traditional U.S. Navy veteran, so I have a fond place for the vocational trades.
[Roy Belson]: Okay, so we're going to go around the room and we'll take questions and we'll start off with our senior members, Paula Van de Kooten.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Great, welcome. So you just heard us talk about capital planning and putting together a capital planning plan. What experience do you have in doing something similar and what were your thoughts as we were discussing it?
[Kirsteen Patterson]: very thoughtful comments and questions going around the room so that was some good feedback to hear. Obviously the capital plan is just that, it's a plan and sometimes things creep up and take priority that have to be addressed that were on the wish list but some safety issue ends up surfacing that becomes more relevant. So that's always a consideration. But the plan is always to ensure that there are resources involved that will address those capital improvements going forward so that there are safety nets in place and the improvements of the district are addressed each year.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: You've already seen we're talking a bunch and we all have our own concerns and agendas. And obviously you would report to the superintendent. But we're here too and we're very interested in what's going on. How do you handle that balance for the need of school committee members who approach you for information, which we do with Pat all the time, versus your report to the superintendent?
[Kirsteen Patterson]: Oh, absolutely. We all have a boss that we report to directly, but we also have a board that is the greater community at large, and that's important for considerations as well. Everybody has concerns, and obviously the superintendent would be taking those into consideration as well. But I think it's important and notable to take everybody's concerns, and sometimes they're made in a a walk down to the lunchroom that isn't heard and it's important to get that.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: What would you do if you disagreed with him?
[Kirsteen Patterson]: Well, I think that's healthy in any capacity and sometimes that just creates a broader conversation and some perspective that might not have been seen or addressed the first time around. Okay, good. Do I get another one or is that it?
[Roy Belson]: No, let's keep it moving. Robin Evans Carey Jr.
[Robert Skerry]: Thank you for coming. What do you see as the most challenging part of coming here to Medford, leaving your environment into an urban environment? a lot of things, a lot of balls in the air at the same time.
[Kirsteen Patterson]: Sure, I think that goes without saying for a school business official, finance person, you wear many hats and you have to change them quickly and swiftly. But I would say the biggest factor for me would be to engage in each of the schools themselves. making those connections with the principals, the assistant principals, to understand and hear what their concerns are, to be effective and understand how the budget is built and driven, and I think that's best done going right to the source, seeing the buildings, seeing what their concerns are, and really trying to understand their needs as well.
[Robert Skerry]: We have a diverse community here in Medford, One of the strongest things that we do for our kids is every child gets a chance to get bused to school. Once in a while buses aren't on time. Parents think that the busing is not benefiting their child. current capacity, have you had any opportunity to deal with sometimes irate parents? How do you work your norm to handle the situation and keep everybody on the same level, playing field, calm and collected?
[Kirsteen Patterson]: Well, I think it's being able to empathize and help neutralize the issue at hand. If there's truly something that is going on, you want to take note of their concerns and let them know that you will be following up with them, that you will be looking into the situation. Sometimes it may not be addressed as quickly or the direct method that they may have in mind, but you certainly can do your best and reach out to all sources regarding that issue and assist to the best of your capacity.
[Roy Belson]: The Vice Chairperson of the School Committee, Erin DiBenedetto.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Thank you. Hi, welcome to Matt Finney. Oh, some of my questions have already come forward, like how would you disagree with the superintendent? He's very strong and he knows. But you would also learn a lot from him because he has a long history of knowledge and of the community as well as this role. And he works very closely with this position. So in the last year and a half that Pat's been here, I don't even know how long exactly. Two years, two months, three months? Really feels like a minute. But Pat was really able to streamline a lot of our payment structures from community schools to after school programs to the lunch program. Do you have experience in some of the systems that she just newly put in place?
[Kirsteen Patterson]: Some of them not directly, but implementing new systems? Yes, absolutely. I was instrumental in spearheading many technology projects throughout my current district. We are completely cloud-based. We don't have a need for server rooms on-site, so we were able to realize some significant savings in that capacity. Technology is It's our world, so we have to be able to address it and live within it and be able to engage. And it helps. Initially, it's a challenge. It's difficult going through those growing pains of the maintenance and the implementation and the rollout of a certain technology project, however, once it's in place and things are being utilized, everybody loves it. And, you know, the chatter stops so you know it's working and things are going well.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: And another thing I noticed by watching Pat in the last few years is that she works closely with the finance department of the city. And do you have any experience with that? Am I correct in assuming that? That is correct. And do you have any experience with that? I know with regional schools, I'm sure you've worked with multiple cities.
[Kirsteen Patterson]: Absolutely. Yes. Again, in a regional setting, it's town-based, but it's multiple towns. So it wouldn't be just one town department. It would be multiple. Currently, we have five. So I have worked with each of those town administrators, the CFOs, and or town accountants and treasurers in each of those capacities. So there has to be that level of coordination. transparency and working openly with the member towns, communities, which would translate to the city, City Hall.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: And I know our specific city was looking at changing some of the way the budget is and maybe even a new program, I don't know if it's citywide or schoolwide, so we can see more details of a budget and I'm hoping that you, rather than going to a journal entry to understand like an item on the budget. Have you worked with that type of system and any experience rolling like it over with the city at the same time?
[Kirsteen Patterson]: Yes, I've done several software conversions for the financial accounting program that drills down to itemized entries within an account number, crosswalking it across many funds, obviously the governmental accounting is going to be a little different working tied in with the City Hall side. However, as a municipal, we are one in the same. We are the school district and we are the sixth member town, if you will. So we handle everything from start to finish. So I've seen that process from implementation and rollout to monitoring compliance and reporting out to the member towns as they needed and as our annual budget process to go
[Erin DiBenedetto]: through each line item. Because at times I'm very specific. If there's a big line item for our thing, I'm like, well, what did we buy with that? Or what did we spend on that? And then the way it is now, we have to look at journal entries to find out the fact. And it's a lot that I end up not pushing further. But if it's differently handled, then I might ask for those type of, I like a lot of data.
[Kirsteen Patterson]: Data is good. You can find out a lot of information from that. But sometimes you are limited by the capacity of a software program. Some of them can be a little bit dated and not able to maneuver specific areas. So that has to be taken into consideration. And obviously, a financial software overhaul is a huge expense. timely process that takes about a year to really roll out and be efficient and effective. So that is a complex project that I would assume wouldn't be the first item on my agenda to begin.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: I don't know if it's on the city's capital plan, I'm hoping, but... It is.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: We have a grant right now that we're looking at. We signed the compact with the governor's office to review all of our financial products. Excellent. So it's being reviewed as we speak. Thank you.
[Roy Belson]: Ann Marie Cuno.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: Thank you. First of all, thanks, Ms. Patterson, for being here and thank you for your service. I was reading your resume and it says that your budget exceeds $20 million. What is the largest budget you have worked with?
[Kirsteen Patterson]: I worked with a $36 million expansion renovation project at my former district, Blackstone Valley Vocational and Technical School. That was just for the project itself and then we also had the operating budget. Obviously City of Medford has a substantially higher budget for their school department. However, when you're in accounting and finance there's a couple extra zeros on the end. You're monitoring the same activities, the same items, so that really is not an issue for us.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: Great. And have you, when you mentioned the project that you worked on, again, I know it was in a similar, maybe similar, but it was a lesser scale, as we're discussing tonight about our capital planning. So could you maybe compare a little bit of what you have worked on compared to what you think we're going to be working on?
[Kirsteen Patterson]: Well, the large-scale project was prior to the changes that the MSBA had, so that was a little bit different. So it's really, it's not necessarily an apples-to-apples. I did an accelerated roof project just two years ago that was just that. It was within 18 months we had to get the funding, we got MSBA approval, and we were able to complete the project within two years. So those are different types of projects. However, they're on the same spectrum of getting that state funding, the MSBA approval, and or getting outside resources in order to engage with your contractor and begin a large-scale project such as that. But the oversight, the monitoring, accounting of those projects, I was hands-on the entire time.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: Okay, so basically that's what I was going to ask you. What type of a financial director are you? If you wanted to explain to us what a daily day routine would be for you. I know that it changes day by day, but the main basis of the way you work with the district you're in or with the district that you're going to be in, if you want to share that with us.
[Kirsteen Patterson]: I think that the finance director has a myriad of responsibilities and areas that As much as you walk in the door and have an idea of what your day is going to look like, things happen, and you have to be flexible and maneuver with those priorities. As I indicated, I am a hands-on finance director. I've got an accounting background, MBA. I've worked every single role of the business office operations. I have no problem jumping in and helping out and assisting when we need to. to identify and maintain coverage across training. I think it's all very important so that the team maintains stability for the department and everything can continue to run even if there's a hiccup somewhere else.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: OK, thank you.
[Kathy Kreatz]: Cassie Gretsch. Hi, Ms. Patterson. Very nice to meet you. Thank you for your service. And your resume was really excellent. I really enjoyed reading it. So I read in the resume that at the South Middlesex Vocational Technical, you had the in-house payroll. So I just wanted to know what your thoughts were about getting used to a different payroll system, the conference payroll, and what you would do to get accustomed to it. to get familiar with it or are you familiar with it and maybe you could share that.
[Kirsteen Patterson]: Sure, in my prior district we did outsource payroll for a time. We did bring in the financial software package that enabled us to take on that role internally and save funding in that capacity. It's the same processing in terms of timesheet entry, reporting, getting it in the correct classifications, correct fund codes. It's just a matter of you get to hand off to an outside vendor. At one point, they get to cut the checks and send it back, where we actually do all the check cutting, check processing. And we do online email verification for direct deposit slips. So there is the cloud-based function that we've taken on. the payroll itself start to finish is something that I've done and have no issue with turning it over to a third party.
[Kathy Kreatz]: Oh great. And I did have another question. It might be similar to some of the other questions. I had a lot of the same questions. So I'm really kind of going through my notes here. So have you ever had to attend a school committee meeting, speak before the school committee. If not, it's fine. I was just curious if you've ever been to a meeting.
[Kirsteen Patterson]: Absolutely. I attend every single meeting. I attend the finance committee meetings for the member towns and I been in place in front of the town meetings for the annual budget and or project renovations when we've had to go out and get approval or additional funding for those capacities. So I have been at the town hall in that capacity. That's great. Thank you.
[Roy Belson]: We have much time.
[Mea Quinn Mustone]: So Pat's here very early in the morning and often very late at night. And I know you don't live in Medford yet. So I don't know how you'll handle your commute or have you thought about the commute?
[Kirsteen Patterson]: Well, absolutely. We all have commute, whether it's walking steps out the door or getting in our car and driving to work each day. When you love what you do and you care about the end result and you want to be around the people that you work with, it just becomes a ride.
[Mea Quinn Mustone]: And then grants, have you, could you just talk about, it says a million dollar grants, what grants are, what departments of private government?
[Kirsteen Patterson]: So we have a majority are entitlement grants, so the Title I, the IDEA, the Special Ed, we do have some small private grants, the Perkins vocational, but a lot of those federal grants are drying up, so it seems to, be more relevant to go outside of that window and try to find other opportunities and engage with community membership if you can and look at all the resource availabilities out there.
[Roy Belson]: Okay, so Madam Mayor.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Thank you Mr. Superintendent. Could you describe in a little greater detail your procurement experience? I don't know if in earlier interviews they explained that we're centralized procurement officers at City Hall, but it is always helpful to have the school department that can take the ball and kind of take it almost to the end zone. So I was wondering if you could describe your procurement experience and maybe some of the projects that you've worked on.
[Kirsteen Patterson]: Absolutely. I have procurement experience going back to the military training. So I did contract writing for U.S. government Navy ships, but currently I work for, or I've completed the MCPPO training courses. I've been certified several times within those capacities. I had just recently done the building expansion procurement workshops. And I write the actual procurement documents for the major contracts that we have to do, that we send out to bid. So that's overseeing compliance and opportunities within different cohorts and consortiums where we can jump on some joint purchasing. That's always helpful to know what other avenues there are if you're in a quick situation where you need to ensure that your compliance is met and you need to get some procurement done.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Were you part of the project team for the major construction projects that you were? Yes. Yes, you were. We spoke a little bit about bus scheduling, I think, earlier. Do you take care of that at your current district, or is it left to someone else?
[Kirsteen Patterson]: The bus schedule itself is delineated through some assistant principal that actually works with the student addresses. So we have 13 routes currently that run. So if there's an issue or a parent complaint, I would certainly get that and I would work with the contract provider in that capacity. I do not create the routes and go through the day-to-day addresses of the families coming in, but it's overall compliance and oversight of that contract itself. Thank you.
[Roy Belson]: Ann Marie Cugno, second round.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: My question was actually going to be on the mayor's follow-up question, which is if we had a situation where here in the city of Medford your role would be part of
[Ann Marie Cugno]: the transportation. And if we have a parent that calls you and says, you know, this particular bus is overcrowded and no one's getting on or we're having a situation, what would you do in that situation?
[Kirsteen Patterson]: Well, I recognize that there's a new software package that's been implemented, the Transfinder program that is implemented and is built to really identify some of those issues. Secondly, I would go to our district source who's monitoring those buses and really take a look, if it meant sit on a bus and really see what the counts are and make sure that that's what's occurring so that we make sure that we're utilizing the buses in the correct capacity and that there isn't as much overflow and or to look for additional resources if it's needed if that's truly an issue and or to be able to work with the company to look at diversifying the schedule if that's what's needed.
[SPEAKER_02]: Thank you. We're doing one question? Sure. That was it. Was that my question?
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: So I guess I'm going to go back to the superintendent school committee relations and I'm going to ask you what your expectations of both the superintendent and the school committee is and and how you've worked with them in your previous positions.
[Kirsteen Patterson]: Sure, I think as a finance position school business official, the biggest concern would be open communication. I think that's key, it's important to be able to do my job effectively. I think that's helpful all around, open communication. expectation and our hope from Superintendent Belson will be mentoring some leadership, understanding the district at large, knowing that he's had such a long career here. I think that's key and important. Working with the committee, again, transparency and being as open and helpful as possible for any questions or concerns that they may have. with regard to budget, finance, any of the operations that come through.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: At this point, have you seen our budget books, like for the budget for this school year? Not for FY17. I have reviewed prior budgets online. And is it similar, was it similar in your previous position that you would put together, be responsible for
[Kirsteen Patterson]: Making sure that book was that budget was presented to the school committee absolutely and overseeing every line item each and every line item It was developed and reviewed by myself and including salaries looking at these teacher schedules, ensuring that the steps lanes were incorporated within that budget moving forward each year and being able to present every component within that budget to the school committee if middle managers were not able to do so or not available to speak to their own department. However, it would always roll up through myself in that budget development process. Thank you.
[Roy Belson]: So we'll go back to me and myself.
[Mea Quinn Mustone]: I'm good.
[Roy Belson]: I know you're good, but you have a question. I don't. All right. Kathy, how about you?
[Kathy Kreatz]: I just have one question. It's in regards to the bus schedule. What if a parent called you up or even a neighbor that was near a bus stop that the person was very unhappy with the bus stop. This happens and they want the bus stop moved as soon as possible. That is an ongoing concern that comes up every year where people who don't have children going to school live near a bus stop and they're just not happy with the bus being in their vicinity. So what would you do about something like that? How would you approach that person?
[Kirsteen Patterson]: Well again the first step would be to help diffuse their concern and bring a greater light so that they understand that there's limitations to the city itself and buses can stop at only certain places for the safety of children and most likely they might have had children that went through the schools at some point as well. So you want to be mindful of that and obviously just try to reassure them that things will smooth out and or if there's any way to look at a different route. However, it is not necessarily going to happen just as each person wants it individually. Thank you.
[Roy Belson]: Erin DiBenedetto.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Thank you, Superintendent.
[Kirsteen Patterson]: So how many people do you currently supervise? I currently have aid within my department, and I oversee the food services as well, so there's an additional aid. We do, again, our own payroll in-house, start to finish. We do procurement. We do our own food service, scratch cooking. So we oversee every capacity of operations. We work with facilities, we do our own plowing, we do our own, I do the utility contracts and negotiating with the power companies in order to maximize our rates for year to year. Each of those areas is under my umbrella and oversight.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: And so you have eight people that do all of that work combined with yourselves? Yes. And in your office, like your immediate office, how many? There are three of us. And does your office also do accounts receivable and accounts payable as well?
[Kirsteen Patterson]: Absolutely. Everybody thinks the summer we shut down and go off to Aruba, but we still have to pay the bills and get payroll done.
[SPEAKER_05]: So we're always there.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: I actually work at a school, so I'm aware of that. So how many years of experience do you have supervising that many people?
[Kirsteen Patterson]: direct supervision in my current role was seven years prior to that I was the assistant business official at Blackstone Valley where I oversaw the business office staff as well and again I have been well-versed in each of those areas to understand and know what each capacity requires. We did a lot of building rental. We have a lot of outside programs that we do service for communities. There's a lot of receivables that are unique in a vocational school that are not part of a comprehensive. So there were many different sorts accounts receivable that we have to track, maintain, student payments, all of those as well.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: So we're transferring a lot of our payments, like, for example, our lunch program was upgraded a few years ago, and that's going smoothly, and people can pay online now. Now, we're recently doing community schools and rentals of our buildings, and we're switching that over. Getting the word out to people and making sure that follow-up is going to happen. I'm sure we'll get an update of how that conversion went very soon. That's just how I hinted what I like to have, just so you get used to it. Sometimes this doesn't go easily, and people don't realize it. A mindset's been a certain way for many, many years. And some people don't like to change quickly. So how would you address that? And how would you handle community pushback?
[Kirsteen Patterson]: Well, I think that's evident in every school department in the Commonwealth, that we've done things this way for so many years. It feels right. Don't mess with it. Let's just leave it alone. But in the world we live in now, we really have to look at some of those changes. And although change is difficult and sometimes can be uneasy for the team or the staff, my role would be to ensure that they understand why we're doing something, how we're doing it, how they will be able to improve their efficiency as well and learn from the process and be more effective in that community outreach and be more effective in helping those students and the teachers get what they need faster. It is a difficult challenge. I was the second person hired in my current district from the outside ever in 40 plus years. And I did a financial software conversion year two. So it was a necessary process that had to be done. It was green screens that were obsolete. There was no more service on those. So as painful as it was to implement that, everybody came on board and understood that the change had to take place. And it's been very beneficial so far after that initial conversion. The staff and the team love it because now they can see their payroll online. They don't have to wait for a stub in the mail. So good things come out of difficult challenges. And that's how we have to roll with that.
[Robert Skerry]: Thank you. Robert M. and Skerry Jr. During your professional career, have you initiated any in-service training for the people that you supervise?
[Kirsteen Patterson]: Yes, absolutely. I encourage my team to identify some areas that they think they might need additional training, such as Excel spreadsheets and or pivot tables, and to really work at bringing in some direct resources so that we affect the whole team and it's not, sometimes it's something specific that they have to go off-site or they have to go to direct training, especially specialized areas such as payroll. However, we've done some in-service for almost team building, if you will, to get some just positive growth for some support staff that we were looking at. But again, looking at those skill sets and being able to offer some direct resources so that they're able to improve their skill set as well.
[Robert Skerry]: How would you generate a sense of ownership among your employees and keep their morale high, especially the people you supervise?
[Kirsteen Patterson]: Sure. I think it's important to recognize every individual's strengths and compliment them on what they're doing. It's a thankless job. We're not seen very often, certainly not by the students that we serve for the most part. But it's a very important role within the business office structure. And just obviously mentoring and being a partner for them and their growth and helping identify their career path as well and being a partner for them. Obviously, I've got a diverse background. I still have more to learn, and I've got things that I want to learn that they can offer in their different capacities, and I think that that's a reciprocation that's important, and to let them know that that's what I'm here for. I'm not here to upset the apple carton and cause hate and discontent and major change, but to work with you, be able to understand what you do in your role and your capacity, so that I can help assist you in your growth and or step in to hold things together, if need be.
[Robert Skerry]: What role do you see the school committee secretary playing in helping you run affairs efficiently?
[Kirsteen Patterson]: Well, I've never had that direct contact, so that would be quite a... We get to sign the bills every week. Well, I think that would be a great way to really give you an understanding of how everything functions and operates from the very basics of they need pencils, papers, googly eyes at the elementary school and how does that transfer over and recognizing that that's part of the budget piece and this is where that roll-up takes place. So I think that would be more of the conversation building and transparency in that capacity. Thank you. Madam Mayor.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: How many unions are you currently involved with?
[Kirsteen Patterson]: We have three. Teachers? Secretarial and custodial.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Are your teachers paid on a 10 month basis or every union 12 months, 52 weeks?
[Kirsteen Patterson]: Teachers have the option to have a summer pay or a lump sum.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Okay, so similar to what we have, and you're familiar with different pay cycles and all of that. And you've also sat at the bargaining table as well?
[Kirsteen Patterson]: Yes, not in this current ongoing, but the prior contract negotiations, yes. directly involved. Each capacity finance director is involved to some degree with regard to building those schedules, looking at the ideas that have come forth from the negotiation table and putting a dollar value on that. Great idea.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Very good.
[Kirsteen Patterson]: What software are you currently using for finance? We use Infinite Visions. It's a Tyler Tech. It's a municipal financial software. It's under the umbrella with Munis and similar type packages.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Have you ever used admins?
[SPEAKER_05]: It's horrible. I am not. Okay. Get ready. But it sounds like there's something in place for. It's being reviewed right now.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Right now we have a lot of bridges from hoppers payroll into admins which is the financial software and we have another software for our Treasury Department which is where all the cash deposits go. So it's three systems all trying to work together. So I'm really hopeful that we'll be able to streamline but it will be a difficult process. Sounds like something you've already undertaken. Yes.
[Roy Belson]: So we've reached that point in the evening where you get a chance to sum it all up. Tell us something that maybe you want us to know that we didn't ask. And maybe just give that final pitch as to why you need to be the Director of Finance and Administration for the Medford Public Schools.
[Kirsteen Patterson]: Well, again, thank you all for the opportunity and coming in to meet you all. I think it's a great organization. I think doing my research on the district, the Department of Ed's rating is maybe skewed slightly. I don't think they see the true work and effort that goes into a district this size and all the good things that are being done across the district. just reading about the greater Mustang community. I think it's a phenomenal organization. I would love to be a part of it. I think I have a lot to offer, and I think I have a lot to grow. And that's really what I'm looking at as a lifelong learner, that I want to continue to grow. I've had specialized career in regional, vocational, However, I would really like the opportunity to look at the comprehensive side as well and be a part of some great projects that sound like they're on the cusp of occurring here.
[Unidentified]: Very good.
[Kirsteen Patterson]: Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Thank you.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: We'll take a five minute recess.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Thank you very much. Any other commissioners?
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Mr. Superintendent.
[Roy Belson]: Madam Mayor and members of the committee, I'm pleased to present to you Michelle Shepard, CBA, who is currently in Pitchburgh as a City Assistant Treasurer, Elector, City of Pitchburgh. Michelle is licensed in the field as a School Business Administrator. Michelle, the way this works is that we give you an opportunity to tell us a little bit about yourself, we have your resume, and why you think you should be our new Director of Finance and Administration. We'll then go around the room to committee members and they'll ask you a question or two. And at the end of it all, you get to fill in the blanks, maybe tell us a little bit of something that we didn't ask, or sum up some key point that you want us to take home. So without further ado, why don't you tell us a little bit about who you are, and why you're interested, and why you think you're going to be a great find for Medford.
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you. Good evening. And thank you for inviting me to interview with you tonight. My name is Michelle Shepard. I am currently the assistant treasurer and collector of Fitchburg. I've been there eight and a half years. Prior to that I ran my own CPA practice for over 20 years and prior to that I worked at a larger regional firm, CPA firm. I participated on boards and non-profits. organizations as their treasurer and board member, giving back to the community and helping others. Throughout my career, I've gained a wealth of knowledge involving budgets, banking, payroll, purchasing, general ledger, and management skills. All of these are needed for the Director of Finance. In years past, I've worked with a variety of people, including state and federal government agents, attorneys, and the general public, along with City Council. I have had time to establish networks and resources to help me along the way, such as my Maspo mentor, other school business managers, Maspo organization itself, and I've compiled manuals from Maspo along with other sources. So all of this I bring to you.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Thank you.
[Roy Belson]: So why don't we begin by starting with Erin DiBenedetto.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Hi, welcome to Method. I'm Erin. Nice to meet you. So, have you worked directly in a school district?
[SPEAKER_01]: I did do some work during my internship and I do work with the school, Pitchford. We meet monthly, the assistant and the business manager and assistant superintendent. I did work in Clinton for a while. I worked with Dan with some grant work and Sped. Besides that, I've worked with the School of Pittsburgh. What we did was we used Munis, and we were setting up a self-serve employee for payroll along with their purchase order and invoice system to be paperless. We haven't quite got there. There's been upgrades that were made to Munis, and we got forced out of our banking relationship and had to get a new bank. So some of those things have held us up, but we're looking forward to move on with that and get that completed and then get the city on board. The school goes first and then the city.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: And you feel like the switch from the city side to the school side, you'd have the skills in?
[SPEAKER_01]: required to be able to make that switch? Yes, very much so. I spent several years making this transition from municipality, and hopefully to get into a school system. I completed the MASBO licensure class, and I continue to do education through MASBO. More recently, I've done end of year reports, SPED, circuit breaker grants, purchasing. Recently, there was a developing statement of interest for the Mass School Business Authority. I've gone to internet banking and security courses. I also follow the DOR listserv for the school business officials. I review the questions that they ask, the surveys, the information that they post. And I use that as a resource. And I learn from that. So I see what the others are doing. So I have a good handle on it and what's happening. More recently, I just attended UMass, the treasurer's school, which is a certification program. And we did long-term borrowing, trust funds and gifts, and covered Chapter 32, the health insurance. So I do continue to train in this area. So I think it would make an easy transition.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Great. How many people do you currently supervise?
[SPEAKER_01]: Currently, it's eight. There are four in my office, the treasury collectors. I have two in payroll and two in parking. In the past, I've done as many as 20 accountants and bookkeepers, six administrative people with one IT person.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: And I just have, do you still do any accounting work privately, like, because you had your own business? Very little.
[SPEAKER_01]: Primarily family and a couple of friends.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Thank you.
[Roy Belson]: So why don't we go to Robert M. Iscari Jr.
[Robert Skerry]: What role do you play in developing budgets?
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes. I've used budgets over a number of years for my clients. I've prepared them for their financing, for SBA and the banks. I've also I prepared budgets for board meetings for non-profits, being treasurer for the last 15 years. In addition to that, I worked with the city with the historical and projected data for the budgets, and we actually have the information put into Munis. We do not do a row for the incumbences. We actually have a line account item. So some of the departments do not have access to Munis. So they'll have questions on their revenues and their expenses. So I'm all the time, answering questions that they may have, printing out information for them, and reviewing it with them.
[Robert Skerry]: Could you tell me a little bit about your experience with school transportation, getting kids to and from school every day?
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes. Although I've not actually done it, I've reviewed documents. Maslow had classes on it. I know that you hire your contractors, your responsible in-house person must work with a liaison from the bus companies. You've got to keep track of the routes, make sure those are set, the students are being picked up, that there's no issues. And the other side with the invoicing, to make sure that the bills are coming in, they're getting paid, they're correct. And it depends on how your contract is built. There's a couple different ways of how people actually do their contracts with the routes and just different methods of doing the routes. So I have a good general overall knowledge of it. Thank you.
[Roy Belson]: So let's go to Paulette Vandecourt.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: What do you see as the most challenging part of this new job?
[SPEAKER_01]: I would probably say the software. It's a little different than what I'm used to. A lot of school systems are using Munis along with the city or town. You have your own separate accounting software, so I would need to learn that. But I am a quick learner, so I don't really see that as too much of a problem.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: And have you had experience in collective bargaining?
[SPEAKER_01]: I've had some training from MASBO. There was a lawyer that had a class that taught us outside of that. I work with the payroll department reviewing the contracts that come in from the city because there needs to be an update to the payroll records. Most of the time in either the city or the school, other than having to calculate an estimated cost before they go into negotiation, It's the HR person and the employment lawyer usually handle the majority of that. So there's really not that much there. But in my own practice, as a CPA, I had employment contracts with my CPAs that worked for me. I also had clients that had contracts with their independent contractors, such as dentists and doctors that were combined in their practice. I would review those along with their lawyers So I am used to reviewing contracts and helping to put input into those contracts.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: And lastly, was it typical for you to attend, I don't, in Fitchburg, is it town meeting or? Council meeting. Council meetings?
[SPEAKER_01]: Not required to. I did review them on TV and I did attend when it was necessary. And I'm sure. The treasurer was the one that primarily went in, but sometimes we teamed in.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: You've heard that here it's very typical for our Director of Finance and Administration to attend every school committee meeting, multiple other meetings, and to stay late often. That's fine.
[SPEAKER_01]: That doesn't cause me a problem. But that's not... I haven't done it because I wasn't required to, but I have no problem doing that. In the past, I've worked up to 80 hour weeks between my practice and working for City Hall at the same time. And just when my practice was larger before, I downsized it for sale. So I don't have a problem working late and doing what needs to get done. Currently, in order to get the job done, I work in early, work weekends, stay late. end of month, once a month at least, I'm there until three, four hours later. I have to stay because I have to wait for them to get done entering. I can't have people entering while I'm reconciling everything and closing the books for the month. We need to do that usually at night or first thing in the morning, real early in the morning. So I prefer to stay at night and get it done. Just as a continuation, because I do have that driving in between, rather than come in early in the morning. Because the staff has to start entering right away. As soon as they come in, open up the office, boom, they're entering. Thank you very much.
[Roy Belson]: OK, so now we'll go to Kathy Kretsch.
[Kathy Kreatz]: Hi. Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you. So I wanted to know, have you ever had to submit reports to the superintendent or the school committee at a priority request where maybe we might ask for the breakdown of expenses? Have you ever had to do anything like that?
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, I do on pretty much a daily basis with going through the general ledger and looking up different revenues or expenses for different departments. I analyze them for my own department. Because of the 9 and 10s that come over the counter, that's the interdepartment monies that I've received and turned over the turnover sheets as I referred to them. They're not always coded to the right place. So I may catch it. The auditor may catch it. So I do tend to review monthly to kind of see where things are being posted. I have prepared reports, PowerPoint for my Maslow class, the presentations you are required to. I've done budget presentations for non-profit boards for 15 years. In the city itself, not so much with We don't call it council, but they do come in occasionally and ask questions. You know, why is this here? What's in this income? What's in this account? What do we use it for? And either the treasurer or I will sit with them and explain to them, you know, what the account is for and why it does what it does. And there are occasions for the school will call down and ask, you know, I know I got grant money, I can't find it, where did it go to? So then we start searching. It could happen from community development just as well, not just the school, or police. The grant money's come in wired. And then we wait for them to get information, but a lot of times we'll try to, the auditors will code it based upon the memo on the wire. So it doesn't always land exactly where it should. So sometimes there are reclassifications which requires an analysis.
[Kathy Kreatz]: Thank you. And I just have another question. Have you ever had to submit or run the payroll for the teachers or submit monthly reports to the retirement board or anything like that?
[SPEAKER_01]: I am backup for my payroll person. The school puts the hours in and we do the payroll. We put all the deductions in and run all the payroll in Munis. It's in-house, so yes. I physically file the quarterly reports. I do all the W-2s. I do all the 1099s for the city. I do the 1095, the Obamacare forms for the city. So I am pretty much, very much hands on. We have had several instances with the hours, having to watch the hours because of the ACA with the substitutes and the cafeteria and the other workers have a tendency of when it gets lean and mean, people get over time, they extend their hours. So we've got to watch those hours. I'm also responsible for the workman's car insurance renewal. So I have to review those payroll. There's a DOL report that I have to file. There's unemployment wages that I file quarterly, so yes, I'm very much in tune with the payroll. Thank you.
[SPEAKER_11]: Thank you very much. Do you have any experience with grants, whether state or federal or private?
[SPEAKER_01]: I did do some grants. It was mostly community foundation grants from Mass Cultural. I did do a little bit of grant work with researching foundations and grants when I was in Clinton, doing my internship, trying to find them some money for certain projects that they were looking at doing. And also, Maslow's had multiple classes on it. Not too long ago, they had a federal one at Fort Bevins that I went to. So I do try to keep up on all the little areas.
[Roy Belson]: Anne Marie?
[Ann Marie Cugno]: Good evening and thank you for being here. Could you tell me what is the largest fiscal system you've worked for? The largest fiscal system that you've worked for, like the budget?
[SPEAKER_01]: Our budget is $105,000 million. The school is about 50% of that. 50% of the $105,000? Yes. Just around 52, 53. It varies from year to year. They've been 54.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: So around 52 to 54 million you're saying?
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: Okay, and describe yourself as the financial director. What type of schedule, what type of person, when you come in in the morning, what you would do?
[SPEAKER_01]: My day would probably be similar to currently what I do now. I can give you an example of what my typical day would be. The office opens at 8.30. I get in there around 8 and I'll say my hellos. sit down, work. It may consist of identifying who's missing for the day. I may have to physically open the office, wait on customers, answer phones, along with doing my own work. A lot of times we have the mayor or the staff in asking questions or other departments in asking questions. So I'm banning all those questions. Besides doing my own work, and my own work could involve having to cover payroll because one of my people may be out. Today, one of my clerks was out, so I was manning the phone while the other two were handling the customers at the counter. Along with, I just completed the DOR information, the receivables. I uploaded that to the DOR portal for the city's end of year report. So we have the outside accounts coming in a couple of weeks, so I've been getting the files together for that, along with all the reconciliations, working on the fourth quarter and combining for the year for the workman's comp, insurance renewal for all the payroll information, getting them actual numbers for the whole year. So I presume here would be quite similar where Sometime during the day, you slide into lunch, and then at the end of the day, I would probably sit with the superintendent and see if there's things that have gone on during the day that I might have missed with him, if there's something coming up, our schedule has changed. You kind of set your schedule, and you adjust, looking at the next day, the next week, and just keeping up with the communication, and just seeing what's happening, and just making sure that the staff is brought in on any deadlines that have now changed or come up. What I like to do is kind of have a calendar of items that need to get done and what months and what time and kind of follow through with that so you always have like a little reminder. You have your little to-do list for the day that constantly changes and if you get, you know, two or four of those items done, you're doing really good. which you have what's ongoing through the year and for the flow of everything, you know, including the budgets and just all the reports and the year reports and things that just need to get done, making sure that all the information gets in from SPED, that you have that October 1st, you have the count, you have where all the students are, so that everything else will spool off of that. So that's pretty much how my day usually goes. Sometimes if I have to stay late, it's end of meeting, like I said, or it's end of month and I'm here till, you know, whatever time it takes to finish up everything.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: And as you've probably heard, I mean, we've discussed, well, we've asked questions and spoke about busing. Here, the financial director would also be involved with the busing situation. How would you take care of a situation that arose on a particular day of a parent calling you and saying, you know, this bus is overcrowded? You know, what would you do?
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, I would have first reviewed our contract to see what we have, you know, what are the requirements, what's our plus. the number of students that are allowed on each bus, try to figure out whether that was really true, talk to others that are involved with the liaison or whoever, find out if this was some particular reason, the bus broke down, they had to pick up extra kids, or is this something that's been on an ongoing basis? If it's an ongoing basis, is it something that we need to change a route? Let's take a look at the routes. Is there a problem somewhere? What's causing this? Or is it just an aggravated parent that thinks that there's just too many? And then it'd be a matter of a discussion. Our contract calls for X number of kids on the bus. This is a norm. If it's outside the norm, then maybe next time the contract comes up, we need to review it and see if there's some alternative that we can do.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Thank you.
[SPEAKER_01]: Madam Mayor. Thank you very much.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Do you have any direct procurement experience? in Fitchburg?
[SPEAKER_01]: I have a little. It's primarily been done by our purchasing. We have three in our purchasing department that cover the school and the city. But I have taken certification courses, although I'm not completely certified yet. Maspo has gone through some purchasing classes before it was combined with the MassBys. I've gone to some of the MassBys that were out in Worcester at one point during the trade shows. I've viewed the Inspector General's website and pretty much everything you could ever want is on that site if you want to spend the time for it. There's contracts, there's how to write bids. I have written some bids and some RFPs for garage repairs, for auditing services, for banking services. I did get involved with Pitchfork Historical Society, where I was trying to work for 15 years. We did a $3.5 million building renovation. I was involved with writing the RFP for the contractors. Also, I was on the committee and approved the payments as the construction took place. So I was aware of looking at construction documents. I've done quite a bit and I don't see with, you know, some contracts that I've dealt with in the past that working with the school and going through, I'm sure that I can, I have the resources to, you know, put out whatever RFP or follow whatever guidelines that we need to.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Have you been involved with any MSBA projects in the city?
[SPEAKER_01]: They just recently wrote a statement of interest, Bob did, and submitted that to have more work done at the schools. I have not been directly involved from that side. Some of their work that they have had has gone out to bond. We've combined it with some financing, some borrowings from the city. I was involved with that a little bit. I understand when speaking with others that once you go with the school business authority, basically, you draft your statement of interest. And then they'll approve or disapprove. And they pretty much run the show. And you supply the documents, is what I've been told. You don't have a whole lot of leeway there, not like doing your own construction project.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Very good. Thank you.
[Roy Belson]: Okay, so any other questions anyone has right now? Okay, so Michelle, tell us a little bit, something we didn't ask you or give us some reinforcement about something that you want us to know. Give us that extra boost as to why you should be our person.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think I would be a good candidate for the position. I'm very confident. I've been self-taught in Fitchburg. I did very little training. It wasn't available. So in those eight and a half years, I've pretty much self-taught myself everything that I know about the city. I have no problem with moving forward and finding if I have to stay late or do anything. I have resources available, like I mentioned, my mentor, Masbo. written documentation that I can find answers to things. A quick phone call from somebody, you know, clear up a question. I'm confident that I can do it. I'm loyal to a fault to my job, as my husband would say. I've been told that my background is very similar to Pat's and that I would make a good transition. I've been a track record of my longevity in my positions that I've held, and I think the stability to this position would be very advantageous to you. I have a strong accounting, auditing, and finance background. I'm very quick-learned. I did find a very nice environment here. People seem very friendly, and I really look forward to being the one that you pick to move the school forward. I believe in learning and education. It's been a long road for me. As you notice from my resume, I got my license in 2013. I have been interviewing in that time frame. I've been going up against candidates who have done the job, and the school committee seemed to feel that experience in the job outweighs the desire, the devotion, and the dedication to succeed as a director of finance. I've always excelled with whatever tasks that I've been given, because I won't accept anything less, no matter what it takes. I'm here to tell you that I am as good as anyone else to doing the job, and if given the opportunity, whoever hires me won't be disappointed.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Thank you very much. Thank you.
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Thank you very much. Take a short break.
[Roy Belson]: So Diane Johnson is with us. Diane is currently the director of, chief financial officer of the Arlington Financial Schools. And let me introduce you to the people around the table. Paulette Van der Kloot, Henry Cugno, Robert Emmett Skerry Jr., Erin DiBenedetto. Mayor Stephanie Burke, Diane Caldwell, Assistant Superintendent, Kathy Kreatz, Mia Mostone, and what's her name? Beverly Nelson, Deputy Superintendent, and Pat Bielefe. I do that.
[Kathy Kreatz]: He's getting tired. We should read name tags. Well, you know, I'm older.
[Roy Belson]: What do you expect?
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Older and better, right?
[Roy Belson]: All right, so anyway, Diane, thank you for being patient with us tonight. We went a little bit longer than we thought initially, but that's what happens in public meetings. Tell us a little bit about yourself, about your background, your qualifications, and why you believe you would be a great person for this job here in medicine.
[SPEAKER_15]: I prepared an opening statement because I didn't want nerves to overwhelm me. So if you don't mind, I'm going to read it. My memories of the Boston Red Sox extend back into my early childhood, when my grandfather would have the game on the radio. I've always taken it to be a sign that the Red Sox won the World Series in October of 2004, just as I started on the path of school business administration. Last night, fighting my nerves about this interview, I watched Faith Rewarded, Nessun's documentary about the 2004 Red Sox. I went to bed reminiscing about the joy of standing in the crowd outside of Park Street Station watching the duck boats roll by. It really did help me get to sleep last night. It felt very good. I completed my undergraduate degree at Dartmouth wanting to become a college professor. I went straight into a doctoral program at Harvard, only to discover that tenure-track job opportunities were increasingly rare, as colleges and universities began shifting to part-time staffing to meet their teaching needs. Not seeing a clear path to the life I had envisioned as an undergraduate, I left graduate school with a master's degree. After graduate school, I worked as an office manager in a small film editing equipment business, which led me to an HR position at WGBH. I moved on to work in the budget office, where I was an analyst for such shows as Zoom and This Old House, before specializing in federal grants management for Channel 2. But like academia, public television was undergoing a major shift at this time, and I was downsized in the spring of 2004 as a result. That summer, I came across a job posting with the Cambridge Public Schools, which seemed to be a blend of the work I had done at WGBH, and something called purchasing. I was intrigued. I applied, and I was hired. It was here that I discovered school business administration, a career that seemed designed for me. My supervisor, CFO Jim Connery, was a longstanding business manager who had been mentored into his role by his predecessor. With Jim's support, I enrolled at Bridgewater State, which at the time was the only academic path to licensure for school business in the area. I attained my license and continued to grow under his leadership. Unfortunately for both of us, Jim got sick and retired earlier than he had planned. I was chosen to serve as interim CFO. I served as replacement for a year of transition, then was hired by Arlington, where I have been the CFO for the last seven years. I thank you for the opportunity to interview tonight, and I welcome your questions. Thank you, Diane.
[Roy Belson]: So we're going to begin by going around the room. I'm going to start with Mia Mostow. You've been writing questions all night.
[SPEAKER_11]: I have to be honest with you, though. I did work at Federal Tax for 23 years.
[Mea Quinn Mustone]: I guess the one concern that I feel like we talk about is grants.
[SPEAKER_15]: So if you've written them, followed them, which grants, how did it go? Yes, I took extensive training while I was at WGBH in federal grants management and was, oh, it was quite a few credit hours. I flew to Washington and took all kinds of coursework. So at the time, which was, God, the turn of the century now, I was very conversant in really the nitty-gritty of federal grants management. Since then, my job has taken me away from more of the day-to-day of grants management. It's become more oversight. So at one point, I was extremely familiar, and I think I could catch up again.
[Roy Belson]: More? No? All right. So we'll go to Ann Marie Cugno.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: Good evening, and thank you for being here. Thank you. Thank you for being patient. We ran over. What is the largest fiscal system that you have worked for? That would be Cambridge. And how much is that?
[SPEAKER_15]: At the time I left, I think their general fund budget was about $125 million.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: OK, and have you, what about the school side? That was the school side. Oh, that was the school side. I like to bring your money, to bring your money. I know that. I'm just trying to put things in perspective. I'm sorry.
[SPEAKER_15]: I'm sure the budget is significantly larger at this point.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: Oh, they are here. I left seven years ago. I know. As a financial director, explain what your day would be and what you think you would be doing.
[SPEAKER_11]: Here?
[SPEAKER_15]: Well, by biology and preference, I'm a morning person. So it would be my choice to come in early. And I like to do my thinking and analytic tasks at the beginning of the day. I found when I was in Cambridge when I was doing finance on the one hand and purchasing, writing bid documents and specs on the other, that my brain didn't really take to doing both in the same day. So I would kind of set aside days to be financial and days to be procurement so that I could focus on writing or focus on analytics. I just don't shift gears very well, which is kind of sad. In the afternoon, I try to do more of the day-to-day tasks. In Arlington, for example, right now, we still use a paper quadruplicate PO system, and so I have to hand-sign everything we buy. So I have many hours to invest in signing my name over and over. No, it sounds awful, but it's actually very important. You'd be surprised how much you can retain when you review everything. Not everything, of course, but you have a general gist of things, and things do pop out at you. It seems to me that one of the truisms of school business is that you never know what your day is going to bring. And that is a great thing if you hate boredom. It's not such a great thing if you need to keep all your ducks in a row. So you need to be able to blend precision and planning and getting things done with the ability to be flexible as things pop up.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: We do, well the financial director here in our city does a lot with the transportation and the busing. If there is a situation that occurs and you have someone who calls and is complaining about, you know, the route is overloaded or there's too many students on the bus and the bus isn't getting there on time, explain to us what you would do in that position.
[SPEAKER_15]: Well, one of the things I've learned from the present town manager in Arlington is that very often citizens need to be heard. You know, they need to feel like somebody cares and that somebody's listening. So I would initially take the time to write down lots of notes and, you know, hear everything they had to say. You know, is there anything else? How long has this been troubling you? Is this your shift or has it been this way from the beginning of the year? Really try to get as much information as I could. take their number and tell them I'd get back to them. Then I would go talk to the people involved, the bus driver, the routing, however it's handled. I would try to get the facts from our side and see what's going on. And then I would definitely circle back to the person as soon as I could and say, you know, I've looked into it. And whatever the answer is, at this time, I'm very sorry. We hope to be able to make a change in x amount of time. Or that this was a one-off because another bus broke down and it won't normally be like that. Whatever the actual answer is, I would always want to be truthful. If that's the way it's going to be and there's nothing to be done, I would try to say that in a way that was as palatable as possible. But I would want them to know that we're taking their concerns seriously. And if it was a genuine problem that we couldn't address immediately, I'd want to be sure we were looking at it as we move forward into another budget cycle.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: And how would you take care of looking into it in the future?
[SPEAKER_15]: Well, is it a problem of stock? Do you have enough bus inventory? Are your buses sufficiently sound so you don't have a lot of breakdowns? Are your routes, are you trying to do too much in too short a period of time so you end up with too many kids on the bus? Are your buses wrong sized? Do you need a different size of bus? Those would be some of the initial questions that come to mind in trying to solve that.
[SPEAKER_02]: All right, thank you.
[Roy Belson]: Okay, so we're gonna go now to Erin.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Hi, I'm Erin. Could you tell me how many people you currently supervise? Let's see, I have
[SPEAKER_15]: I have four direct reports and a shared fifth. I also am sharing one of my people who is currently overseeing the payroll office as well. So it's kind of by extension. Those are my direct reports. I work very closely with the communications director, the assistant superintendent, and the special ed director. The report that I share is the fiscal manager of special education. And so she reports to myself and to the special ed director.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: So, Pat's just spent a lot of time since she's been here, a little more than two years, two years, two months, and how many hours? really updating a lot of our systems. So like our community schools program is now online, so when people want to use any of our buildings, they have to go through that program. And are you familiar with some of the programs? I'm sure you've talked to her about what we're currently using.
[SPEAKER_15]: We haven't discussed the specifics of your program, but I am a big fan of modernization. I implemented a budgeting software in Arlington, and we were the second district in Massachusetts to implement this, and it's a tremendous tool for planning and reporting. Right now, we're going through a big Munis upgrade. I've worked with Lawson Insight, PeopleSoft, and of course, Munis in my travels. And I've, you know, right now Arlington is also a Google platform district, so I'm becoming pretty conversant in Google Docs and all of that, though Google Sheets cannot hold a candle to Excel in my humble opinion. I use the network as well. I really, I am always glad to find efficiencies in that way, and I enjoy technological implementations. When I implemented my budget file, it was, perhaps the timing was ill-considered, They couldn't get me onto the schedule until November, and I have to roll out a budget book by the first of February. And so I did the implementation in November and December in time to get the budget book out, and that was probably not my wisest choice, but we got it done.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: So do you present the budget to the superintendent or at the school committee meetings or whatever?
[SPEAKER_15]: I present them at the school committee meetings. And I also present them to the finance committee. And at town meeting, I'm on hand to answer any questions, any technical questions on the budget.
[SPEAKER_08]: Great. Thank you very much.
[SPEAKER_15]: Paulette.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Diane, do you attend every school committee meeting in Arlington?
[SPEAKER_15]: I did for many years. And in my last contract cycle, I negotiated that I would go to the first meeting of every month throughout the entire year. That's when I do my monthly financial reporting. And during the budget season, which runs from the beginning of November through the end of March, I would be at every meeting. But I don't go to the second meeting in the fall and the spring. Unless there's something brewing, which there's a lot of construction going on in Arlington right now. And so I ended up at more meetings, nevertheless, because there were construction issues.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: That's interesting that that's something you negotiated. Here it is customary, more often than not, that our finance director is at our meetings or at our beck and call. So that sort of leads me to the second question is, what are your expectations regarding your relationship, both with the superintendent, your boss, if you would, and the school committee? And how has that worked? I know in Cambridge, I'm not sure whether you had direct contact with the school committee?
[SPEAKER_15]: I would come as an assistant to the CFO. And when I was the interim CFO, I would obviously be there in his place. Not a lot. I have a lot of contact in Arlington. Arlington is very much into subcommittees. I meet regularly with the budget subcommittee and the facility subcommittee and I serve on other town committees where there may or may not be school committee members on those town committees. So I see a lot of them.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Can I ask why this position in Medford interests you and why you would be leaving Arlington? Absolutely.
[SPEAKER_15]: Because you led me right into it. Night meetings. Arlington loves to meet. They love to meet at night, and they love to keep it going. And as I said, I'm a morning person. My best thinking time is early in the day. For me to be at a night meeting, I'm here tonight, I'm amped up, I'm ready to go, and I'll go home and wander the house for several hours until I calm down enough to be able to get to sleep. issue but literally most of my weeks from September to March I'm in two or more meetings there are at night and there are weeks when I have done as many as six night meetings and four nights and that kind of toll it has taken a toll on me. I currently serve on the permanent town building committee which meets two Tuesdays a month. I serve on the capital budget committee meeting committee which meets two Thursdays a month from from the beginning of September until sometime in March. I'm expected to attend as many nights of town meeting as they feel is appropriate. I have to go to the finance committee whenever they ask. Now that we're having building projects coming online, I'll be expected to serve on the building committees, and they'll meet opposite Tuesdays. And then we haven't even gotten into subcommittees. So I was really curious about this. And Pat knows I was always at Maslow. How many meetings do you have? How many meetings do you have? And so what I figured out is that with town meeting styles of governance, it's typical 25 to 35, 30 to 35 being fairly typical. And city styles of government, it's 20 to 25 night meetings a year. In Arlington, I generally average 70. And I've had years where I've been above 100. And if I were a night person and I was happy to be up late, that would be different. But I feel like in the seven years I've been there. I'm pretty much in a chronic state of exhaustion from September until the end of town meeting in May or June. And then I try desperately to catch up in the summer when things come back online, and then it starts again.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Well, I have heard about town meetings in Arlington, so. I did want to ask you one thing about your resume, and I'm not even sure if you know this, but under every single job experience you've had, it says, please do not contact this employer.
[SPEAKER_15]: And mostly because people have retired or left or are no longer with the company. It's more like, I don't want you chasing dead ends. I worked for Susan Posner at GBH in the budget office for several years. She left GBH before I did, and I don't know her whereabouts now. It's really more of the timing and who's still there. Thank you. I've had to check references and running down long gone references. It's not a lot of fun.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Right. But it's a funny thing because on it, it feels kind of negative. So that was why I was curious. OK.
[SPEAKER_15]: No, it's part of the default setting on School Spray. So it's either yay or nay. I got it. And there's no opportunity to say why you're saying nay?
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Yep. OK. Thank you very much for explaining. Robert Evans, Scary Junior.
[Robert Skerry]: Ms. Johnson, describe your management style.
[SPEAKER_15]: Well. I think I pull from two basic interests in my life, academia and athletics. I'm a ski instructor in the winter at Loon Mountain in New Hampshire, and I am a soccer coach for my young children and was a soccer coach for my older child. So I like teamwork. I like the sense of shared vision and building the collective to work together. When you have the kids for a 12-week span, you have to work really hard to get a team going quickly. And that's really fun. When you have a collective vision, you can accomplish so much more, and with so much more fun, because you're working together. From the academic side, I really like to have my staff learn as much as possible and grow in their job. Because for me, the ultimate is to be trapped and to not be able to grow and learn new things. And so all of my staff at Arlington have gone through the NASBO office staff training program, except one who just joined my team. and will be going to it. One of the staffers, my purchasing agent, is now MCPPO certified and goes to the MAPO meetings and takes part in that. So I really try to encourage professional development.
[Robert Skerry]: What initiatives have you fostered to help your teammates, your colleagues at work, gain in service training or knowledge above and beyond what they would normally do in their job position?
[SPEAKER_15]: Well, we, as I said, we've taken advantage of what the MASBO offerings. I encourage them, you know, if at any time they come to me and say, you know, this looks like a really neat seminar, I'd like to go to it. You know, I'll try to make funds available if it's possible. We've, we had a facilitator come into our staff meetings because we all pretty much agreed that our staff meetings had become dreary. And so we worked on a norming exercise to come up with the rules of how we wanted to conduct the meeting, and to think about what's important to us. And it was very clear that the rules emerged very painlessly. Everybody wrote three rules on an index card, and we passed them around, and start and end on time, and things like that. And so we decided as part of our norms that we would share the chairmanship. And so there's like four different roles in our staff meetings, and it shifts every week. So who's putting together the agenda and chairing the meeting? who's taking notes, who's doing the various tasks in the staff meeting. And we send out an email to everyone and say, what would you like to talk about at the staff meeting? What's on the agenda? What would you like to see? And the person who's facilitating it gathers that information, puts the agenda out, and we have a meeting. Since we did that, I think everybody enjoys the staff meetings a heck of a lot more. I know I do, because I found constantly being at the chair of a staff meeting to be tough sledding.
[Roy Belson]: Thank you. Kathy Gretsch.
[Kathy Kreatz]: Hi, very nice to meet you. Nice to meet you. Hi. So Pat, actually she oversees the payroll and we have Hopper's payroll. How do you feel about getting accustomed to a new payroll system, leaving Munis and transitioning over to Hopper's?
[SPEAKER_15]: Well, this will be my fourth fiscal system, major fiscal system. So they all kind of work the same. The buttons might be at different spots, but they're all trying to do the same thing. And so it generally isn't a big problem to acclimate myself to a new system.
[Kathy Kreatz]: And so another part of Pat's responsibility with the bus schedule is the the coordination of the homeless student transportation. Have you ever been involved with anything like that?
[SPEAKER_15]: Oh, certainly. McKinney-Vento and our organization is predominantly handled through special education, mostly because in Arlington we have neighborhood schools, and so 95% of the transportation is special education transportation. So I've been familiar with McKinney-Vento from back in Cambridge, and more familiar with it in Arlington. but trying to set up systems to make sure that, you know, you find out who's the sending district and you get the cost shared down correctly and you're persistent and it's a lot of work. But, you know, I imagine Pat's set that up pretty well, so hopefully keep it going. It's always a challenge, though, because, you know, everybody would like to dodge the bill, so you have to be pretty zealous. Especially with, well, I won't say.
[Roy Belson]: Thank you.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Thank you, Mr. Superintendent. Do you have a decentralized procurement process in Arlington, or do you answer to the town manager's office or the SCPPO?
[SPEAKER_15]: Well, it's kind of a split. It's centralized at the school level, but capital projects and construction are handled through the town site.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: So almost all procurement, budgetary procurement, goes on through the school system with no approval levels? on the municipal side?
[SPEAKER_15]: Not entirely. Well, the purchasing side does, but the payable side goes through the comptroller. So there's one comptroller who handles the final step of the payables, and the treasurer's office is responsible for issuing the checks. So that's where the overlap is there. But the purchasing office on the town side is one guy, and the purchasing office on the school side is my staffer and me. So it's not, we talk a lot.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: So you put together RFPs, RFIs, all sorts of different.
[SPEAKER_15]: And I've been part of, and though I haven't done construction bidding, I've been part of pre-certification and designer selection and been on the permanent town building committee for a number of years. I was on the Thompson building committee with the MSBA. I'm on the building committee for the high school. It's just been picked up. I was the point person on the application for the high school, and we got it in the second round, which I don't know whether that's... Congratulations. Thank you. I don't know whether that's a tribute to the writing or to the dilapidation of our building, but either way, we're in the system.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Is that the last project that you worked on?
[SPEAKER_15]: Well, still working on the Thompson is finished, but we have to put a sixth classroom addition on it because it's too small. We're rehabbing the Stratton building, which is the last of our seven elementary schools to get a full rehab. And we're bringing a old middle school that's been out of service for 30 years. We're renovating it to bring it back into service. So we have experienced pretty tremendous enrollment growth. Arlington was designed, when they started the rebuilding process, they had 4,200 students and it had been fairly stable. We're now at 5,400 students and projected to continue to climb. So it's been a real challenge.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: How many unions do you work with in the school department?
[SPEAKER_15]: Teachers, clerical, bus drivers, traffic supervisors, custodians, senior maintenance people, and the administrators union. I think that's them.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Are you a member of the bargaining team?
[SPEAKER_15]: It depends. Typically on the teacher negotiations, I tend to provide the analytic work. And so I'm sort of bringing the financials to the table or making financial proposals. I'm not usually in every session. There's an HR director now in Arlington, and so he is at the table for all of them. In our last clerical contract negotiations, I was at the table with two school committee members and the HR director. And we finally got something done that we've been trying for many years, and we finally accomplished it. That was a good feeling. Lots of sweat equity when you're at the table. For sure.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Just one, just to spoof up some of the earlier questions, have you ever seen the admins financial package? I haven't. I have not.
[SPEAKER_15]: But, you know, as I say, I've had experience with several, so.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Have you been part of any conversions?
[SPEAKER_15]: Yes. When I was at When I was in Channel 2, they went from an in-house program system to Lawson Insight, and we developed our own grants management module working with consultants. So we were really, we were supposed to be beta testing it. We were, it was worse than beta. So we were really deep in that. And then when I went to Cambridge, they were converting to PeopleSoft. So I was part of the ramp up of PeopleSoft over there. Did you like PeopleSoft? Pros and cons. I developed some real Excel compensatory skills, but they've served me well over the years. Any financial system that works logically, once you figure out the internal logic of it, it's fine. And in this day and age, all systems can be convinced to export the data into Excel, so then you can do whatever you need to do. It's a little more tricky. Some of them don't like to ingest the data, so preferably they export and import.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Very good.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Thank you very much.
[Roy Belson]: Are there other questions anyone would like to ask?
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: I do. You gave us a number of students in Arlington. What is their budget?
[SPEAKER_15]: We are at well, I should say that Health insurance for both retirees and active employees is on the town side, and so isn't considered part of our budget. But we're around $62 million all in. That would be grants, revolving, and general fund. General fund's about $57 million this year.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: And I just wondered, in terms of the transportation routes, you mentioned special ed, which I'll set aside.
[SPEAKER_15]: But in terms of the other routes in the city, the only mandatory route we have is to take some students in the sixth grade from the east end of town up to the middle school. okay everybody else is within walking distance of their elementary school so you know we have no mandatory elementary transportation we do provide a bus for a fee for one elementary school which was a deal that was made when they closed the former elementary school what's the fee? I think it's 225 for a single and 325 for a family. Oh, interesting.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Okay, and I guess the last question is I'd like you to tell me about a difficult situation which you faced in Arlington and how you resolved it. Fiscal? Behavioral? I'm going to let you pick. Oh, boy.
[SPEAKER_15]: Let's see.
[SPEAKER_02]: Everything is smooth in Arlington. Have you figured it?
[SPEAKER_15]: No, really, it's my harassment of riches. I'm just trying to figure out which one's going to show me in the best possible light. Well, I'll go for the low-hanging fruit. When I arrived in Arlington, I inherited a budget. I arrived in September. And I inherited a deficit budget, which was not readily apparent because the existing chart of accounts had so blurred and obscured things. And customary practice at the time was not to direct expense to grants, but rather to expense it all to the general fund and then JE it into the grants, which I knew from my experience was an extreme no-no, but that's the way they had always done it. So it was really hard to figure out exactly how big a problem it was. I struggled mightily. And being a brand new school business administrator, I wasn't eager to stand up and say, gee whiz, I can't make heads or tails of this, but I think it looks bad. I wanted to look like I knew what I was doing. So I knew it was bad, and after a month there, I put a non-essential purchasing freeze on everything, and I did all I could to sort it out, but it was not very easy, and while it was communicated, it was not communicated as widely as it should have been. Arlington and their many committees, there's an expectation of communication at a level that coming from a city government was bizarre to me. And so, you know, people got left out of the loop, not out of malice, but more out of Diane coming from the city side, where if you told this person, then that was sufficient. So it was a very ugly time when that all, and the auditors came and said, ah. But we got it sorted out. And in the process of struggling with FY10, I had arranged the FY11 budget to work on very different stuff. I implemented a new chart of accounts, which is a total no-no in your first year as a business manager anywhere. But it was necessary. I just had to get some order out of there. And we were able to write the, you know, really drastic cuts to get back on track. We figured out where the revenue projections had been grossly overstated. We got it together and so in FY11 when they had a special town meeting to address the deficit issue, and of course they took back the amount of the deficit out of our current year expenditure, we did not have to make any additional cuts. I had worked it out so that the deficit was completely covered out of the current year. everything came out clean, it was a lot of drama, it was very stressful, and it has absolutely put, burned into my heart that I will never run a deficit budget. Hadn't even been my budget, which was the part that was really tough to be blamed for something that I had inherited, but nevertheless. I also learned a very important lesson that if I would ever find myself in a situation like that, I would come before the school committee and I would say, ladies and gentlemen, I'd like to ask for an audit. I can't figure out what's going on and I need help. So please get me auditors in here so we can figure this out. That was the big mistake I made as a rookie. And had I to do it over again, I would certainly do that. But of course now, when I go looking for new jobs, I'm carefully investigating the fiscal solvency of a community before I throw my application in.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Well, I'm not going to make that mistake a second time. Diane, you know our motto, right? On time and on budget. Love it. After my own heart.
[SPEAKER_15]: Under budget is what I like.
[Roy Belson]: So we've reached that point of the evening. Let's sum it all up with another question. We've reached that point of the evening, Diane, where you get to tell us something we haven't asked you that you want us to know, or to sum it all up and tell us why you're the best person for this job.
[SPEAKER_15]: Well, there's lots of things I could tell you. I carefully wrote down answers to all the questions I received ahead of time. I'm actually delighted that you went off book because I feel a lot more comfortable answering the questions like this than trying to figure out should I read it, should I answer it? Thank you. I think I'll just read my closing statement, if that's okay. I see government service as a relay race. You take the baton from the person before you, do your best to improve it while you have it, then make a clean pass to the person after you. I was lucky to get such a great pass from Jim Connery. He showed me the wisdom of succession planning. You've been very fortunate with Superintendent Belson. You have a fiscally stable, well-run district. It will be very difficult to replace him once he retires. There is no substitute for knowledgeable experience. But I can help with the transition to new leadership. Since your existing systems function appropriately right now, I can take the time to build relationships around the district and learn as much as I can from everyone. I can begin the process of holding institutional memory and become a resource to those who come later. With my mix of urban and suburban experience, I bring a background that will be sensitive to the cultural diversity and unique needs of Medford. I would welcome the opportunity to work with Superintendent Belson, his administrative team, and all of you. I hope that you'll choose me to be your next Director of Finance and Administration. Thank you.
[SPEAKER_18]: Thank you very much.
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