[SPEAKER_03]: Here.
[Robert Skerry]: Mr. Benedetto.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Present.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Here.
[Robert Skerry]: Mr. Stone. Here.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Ms.
[Robert Skerry]: Geary. Present. Ms. Vanden Heuvel.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Present.
[Robert Skerry]: Mayor Burke.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Present. Second the President's announcement. All please rise and salute our flag.
[SPEAKER_03]: I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Approval of the minutes of January 25, 2016. Motion for approval. All those in favor?
[SPEAKER_03]: Aye.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: All those opposed? Approval is granted. Approval of bills to transfer funds.
[Roy Belson]: Motion for approval.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Motion for approval by Mr. Skerry, seconded by Mr. Benedetto. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Approval is granted. Approval of payroll. Motion for approval. Motion for approval on the floor, seconded by Mr. Skerry. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Approval is granted. Report of secretaries.
[Robert Skerry]: There is none.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Report of committees. None. There are none. Community participation. No papers, Mr. Superintendent. Report of the superintendent. Please rise, Mr. Superintendent.
[Roy Belson]: So Madam Mayor and members of the committee, Distributed to you this evening a report on the call that was received at Ventric High School this morning at about 9 o'clock. It was a robo call, an automated call. About eight other school districts in the area received the same call. Most of them stayed in place and didn't respond to it. We have had extensive discussions with state police, fire, and others about the appropriate responses to these matters. have given you the Massachusetts State Police bomb threat, if you will, a short guide as to how we handle these things. And on Thursday last, we actually had a workshop on it. We will be continuing to talk about these things because they could become more frequent. The one thing we can't let happen is we can't let people who are just mischievous just simply disrupt everyday school. And this will happen throughout the Commonwealth if we just simply need to react. On the other hand, it's critical that we evaluate every threat with great seriousness, and we do a thorough assessment. After we got the threat, we did a sweep of the building. We used other methodologies to book. We used our cameras and other things to see if anything unusual was around. And we determined that this was really not a high-level threat. It was a very low-level threat. And we put it out and moved on. Since that time, the headmaster has notified the faculty and students. Headmaster is sending out a robocall to parents this evening, which will tell them how it was handled and what was going on. So this seems to be the latest in the forms of school disruption that's taking place. We won't take anything seriously. If we think something is a little bit more involved, we will take it seriously and act appropriately. I don't want to discuss too much right now because I don't want to let anybody know all the trigger points that we would have. I have tentatively scheduled with your approval on February 10th a meeting with the police department and other school and community safety officials for the purposes of talking about school security and safety. That was the first night that everyone could agree on, which was February 10th. It's a Wednesday. Now we'll schedule other meetings as we go forward. It'll be a committee of the whole and topics like this will come up and we'll hear from the professionals as to why they feel one way or another when these things come in. So I'm happy to take any questions you may have. Otherwise, we'll continue to follow our protocols and continue to consult with police, fire, and other public safety officials.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Mr. Benedetto, through you to the superintendent. Mr. Superintendent, do we, it says here that every school should have a bomb threat response plan.
[Roy Belson]: Do we have all this?
[Erin DiBenedetto]: We have it. When was the last time it was updated?
[Roy Belson]: We went over it the other day. As you remember, I told you we sent a group to a multi-hazard activity run by DESI maybe a couple weeks ago. They went over it again.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: So will you be updating that? We're comfortable.
[Roy Belson]: I mean, basically, these things are not rocket science, what you do, but we have all these things. We'll show you some things, I need to be careful that are not up to the general public, because I don't want people gaming our protocols.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: And did we do an auto call to a reverse call to our parents?
[Roy Belson]: Headmaster sent an auto call out, and sent one out this afternoon to- Just so parents are aware that this is happening.
[Kathy Kreatz]: Yeah, I got a call, Erin, before I left the house, and my parents- Point of information, Ms.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Pritz?
[Kathy Kreatz]: Yes, point of information.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: That's great, I'm glad to hear that. Communication is key in these situations when safety of people's children are involved. So I think that that should be one of our main things when we have this situation going on. And then parents can make choices based on what they're comfortable with as well.
[Roy Belson]: What we've said before, and I'll say it again, it's very important that we don't, like at 9 o'clock, get it over with and suck on our parents because we want people coming up. And that creates more confusion and more chaos. If we felt there was any kind of danger, we wouldn't wait to move parents into the place, we'd be moving the youngsters very quickly. But there's a need to maintain calm, there's a need to maintain composure, and for everyone to act professionally when these things happen. Otherwise, you create more problems than you solve. And then everyone starts to, you know, think, well, gee, we can disrupt the place. Years ago, pulling fire alarms was a sport in most high schools. You know, people would pull the fire alarms, and everyone would have to do it. Now, back then, they weren't the bomb threats, the shooter threats, and things that we have today. But the same principle applies. If we let people continuously disrupt our operations without good cause, without real understanding of what's taking place, then we just play into their hands.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Mr. Skerry. I had one further question. Maybe you could update the committee with that bomb threat response plan at our committee of the whole safety meeting.
[Roy Belson]: We'll discuss it at that time.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Thank you.
[Roy Belson]: I just don't want to put out major documents that other people can read into and perhaps even get published. And now we don't have the benefit of knowing what we do when people can get it.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Go into executive session if necessary.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Thank you. Update report on Bloomberg Center for Citizenship and Social Responsibility.
[Roy Belson]: Madam Mayor and members of the committee, Richard Trotter is here. He's going to talk to you about the Center for Citizen and Social Responsibility, and funded by the Bloomberg Foundation, and some of the terrific stuff that's going on. So he's here to talk to you with some of the students and some of the other people that are involved.
[Richard Trotta]: Good evening. Richard Trotter, Director of Media, Technology, Finance, and now the Center for Citizenship and Social Responsibility. So welcome to the new members, Ms. Creston, Ms. Bustone. I haven't seen you personally, but welcome to the committee, and I look forward to working with you. Thank you. So the goal of the Center is, the Center for Citizenship and Social Responsibility, is to develop global citizens. Now, those are people to identify with being part of emerging world community and whose actions contribute to building of its values and principles. That's kind of a narrow definition, but it gets more into other issues. So we're talking about developing integrated social emotional learning, financial literacy, citizenship, career awareness, resiliency, and social intelligence as part of our initiative. going to be hosting a symposium April 2nd on resiliency, but really on proactive steps for parents in terms of dealing with addiction. And I'll let Michael Skroka talk about that. Michael's here as an administrative intern to the project. He's done a lot of work with the students, and he'll be coming up following my little presentation. We also have an outreach coordinator, Tim Klein. Couldn't be here, but he's going to be meeting with the community. to spread the message of what we're doing with this center. So I sent to you an outline of all the different activities that have taken place the last two years. Now, the report says students will do certain things. This is what was posted. They actually took place. These events have taken place and have been completed. And some are being conducted right now. Things, for instance, the center has worked with Tisch College to do a curriculum unit at the high school level on empathy. Hopefully, students will learn to be more empathetic by doing this unit. Down the road, we hope to get those kinds of activities at the elementary level where it would be most effective. We also are doing some online learning on financial literacy and digital literacy. That's going on right now. There are, I gave a number to the superintendent, like over 500 students have participated on the online activities. And I think there's around 280 or so students who are involved in clubs and activities for the past two years. Right now we have a financial ventures and entrepreneurship activity going on. And the students are going to be competing right now in the stock market challenge through the University of New Hampshire. And they're going to be doing an entrepreneurship challenge later in the year. And they're going to the Boston Business Journal for a field trip. We have students working on composition of music, creating music that supports the mission of the center, talking about sensitivity and tolerance and empathy. Last year, we did a poetry club. We're doing it again this year also. Students are writing poetry that somehow deals with an issue that might affect their own lives. We have an eyewitness challenge going on with students that are developing projects around being involved and what it means to be in a situation and empathizing with those people. We have an Ethics Bowl team that we're supporting through the Social Studies Department that's going to be competing again in a competition later in the year. We have an immigration project that took place last year and a social awareness project, again, last year, which students completed projects about social awareness. We have a Mustang report, which is the magazine, TV magazine that reports on student activities and highlighting positive contributions that students are making to society and to the school, and also the advisors who work with them. We did profiles of Americans last year where we did videos of people in Medford who were somehow important people in what happens in the district, in the city, I mean, in terms of veterans and things like that. Learning Brain was about studying the effects of how we can improve learning by getting students to mirror what's going on in the world. For instance, there's a thing called a mirror neuron where students, actually not just students, but people, when you watch a movie and you start crying, that's the mirror neuron, and that's a good way of reaching students to try to have a positive impact on the way they think. At the middle school, we had the Model UN going on. It's going on this year. Model UN is a competition. And the students have developed their own presentations and going in the spring. At the elementary school, we had a very strong plan to support our troops. And if you look at the flyer that I sent to you, there were pictures of students who were people, veterans, and sending things to veterans who were out in the field. The Buddy Benches Program, which was coordinated by Michael Skowalker and his students, helped create those benches at the elementary schools for students who have a need to talk to somebody. And that's going on now, and Michael can talk about that. So that's a quick overview of all the different activities. There's more to them, but I don't want to take too much time. But I'll be glad to report any of those activities later on in the school year. Going forward, on March 15, Deb Goldberg is going to do the keynote speaker at the Symposium on Preparing for College, Finances, and Academics. It's going to be at the Glynn Middle School, and I'll give you a reminder of the date, but it's March 15th, and Deb's going to be the keynote speaker. On April 2nd, we have the Symposium on Addiction which I think you have a flyer in your pamphlets. And also, we have a keynote speaker, Dr. Robert Brooks, who's renowned in the field of psychology. And his specialty is teaching students and people to be resilient, which was a key component in preventing students, and even adults, from getting involved in some kind of an addiction or bad habit. OK, so I just want to give you a quick history, and I'll be done. Um, so the center was created two years ago, um, with the funding from the Bloomberg foundation. And, um, uh, when we received the money, I went to the person I thought would be a good resource to determine what we should do with it. So I went to see Roy Belson and we sat down and we've been colleagues for a long time, a really long time. And we also share the same vision and that's the development of global citizens. We both believe that, Education is much more than academics and learning ABCs and mathematical formulas. Our role is to develop global citizens, students, people who will be successful and be positive contributors to society. So I just want to quote a couple of famous people who sort of mirror what was just said. Abdul Kalam was an Indian philosopher. He said, the purpose of education is to make good human beings with skill and expertise. Enlightened human beings can be created by teachers. And that's what we are. And that's what we hope to do. Helen Keller said, the highest result of education is tolerance. And that's also what we're trying to teach. Einstein said, the world is a dangerous place to live, not because of people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it. And that's what we want. We want active citizens who work to solve problems, not create them. Our future is in the hands of our students. We must do our best to prepare them to do the best for humanity. The last quote is from Anne Frank, when she said, how wonderful is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world. And that's what we plan to do. That's in closing. Thank you for your time. I want to pass the baton to Michael Sporker. Michael has been an incredible worker. The students have been incredible. And we wouldn't be, I think, we wouldn't have gotten to this point without them. So before Michael comes up, do you have any questions?
[Ann Marie Cugno]: Madam President? Yeah. Rich, could you just tell us the date again in March?
[Richard Trotta]: 15th.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: And where is it going to be?
[Richard Trotta]: McGlynn.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: What, the McGlynn? And the time? 7th. So March 15th at seven o'clock at the McGlynn. Okay. Thank you.
[Kathy Kreatz]: I just want to say, Mr. Trotted, this is terrific. And I love all the little programs that are mentioned here. It's terrific. I love it. Just wanted to tell you that it's, I just loved it all.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Thank you. Thank you. Um, first of all, this is, I love the programming and I love preparing our children to be citizens of the world and not just, um, in educating them in that manner as well. I had a few questions. Is this based in their curriculum throughout the school day, or is it certain classes that it's happening in, or is it a group after school that's taking the lead on this? I'm not really clear on that.
[Richard Trotta]: Most of the things that I listed were after school activities. Some were in school, the ethics part of that's in the curriculum. We do have some social emotional curriculum at the K through eights that we're looking at, the Michigan model, and the second step. Rachel Perry's part of a group that we're working with. Ideally, down the road, it's really important that we get into the elementary schools as part of the curriculum, because that's the greatest effect that we can have. And maybe have to prevent adolescents from going in the wrong direction. So ultimately, I mean, we haven't done as much as the elementary that I would want, but we're still on baby steps.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: So who's taken the empathy unit that's already been developed?
[Richard Trotta]: Miss Louv at the high school's classes we're doing that.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: So the English, all the English classes?
[Richard Trotta]: Yeah. And they're doing it again this year. So that's available to other teachers. So we're going to say store and have a data clearinghouse for curriculum issues like that. And so the more we have in the store, we're also buying some, uh, materials, books, and materials for teachers. And we also have a room for the high school. It's called the Center for Social Responsibility, Citizenship and Social Responsibility. It's really the Bloomberg Room, but we can't say that because he doesn't want a name after his family. But that was funded by Michael Bloomberg, that room.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: So to continue funding, I was talking to Mr. Skoker a little bit about this. In order for this program to continue, What are you hoping? How are we going to fund this program?
[Richard Trotta]: The goal is to have a resume of good things going on and having an impact and then seeking funding as any non-profit would so that it doesn't cost the school district any money. We still have some money left. We can get through the school year, maybe early next year, but probably in a few months we'll be going back to Mr. Bloomberg of the foundation and seeing if we get some more funds. Um, hopefully they'll see that the positive impact is worth the investment.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: And I had one final, I'm sorry. So your event that's being taken place on Saturday, April 2nd, I think it's a great event for this whole community to hear really loud and very clearly that this keynote speaker is here to help anyone who has parents and teachers and anybody working with anyone throughout the community that has ideas to be proactive steps. for people and resources for people who are dealing with anyone who is in addiction or, you know, possibility of ever becoming an addicted personality. So I really want to emphasize Saturday, April 2nd, 1215 to 5 o'clock. You have professional schedule to be there. I know high school students are going to be speaking. I have a suggestion to contact Cheryl Delaforo. She works with parents, and I have her contact if you need it. She runs a parents group on Tuesday nights. So I really believe that they would love to come if they were invited, and that they could be a great resource, plus the program that's happening could be a great resource for them. So I think it could really work well for both. So I really encourage that piece and if I can help facilitate that in any way, please let me know. And thank you for this. I think this is a wonderful program for the students of MedFit and the community as a whole.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Thank you. A couple of things. The first thing is there's so many wonderful different activities here, but I was concerned because when I looked at these I thought of a certain a group of very motivated students who would be interested in these. How are we making sure that we're outreaching to other students and widening the circle?
[Richard Trotta]: Well, all the clubs and activities are open to all students. So everything you see on that list was publicized by the advisors for the whole school.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Do we have any idea how many kids have participated?
[Richard Trotta]: Yeah, clubs and activities, I think between 280 to 300.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: That's good. And the other thing on this symposium, which is taking place, it says there's limited spots. Is that limited by the number of people who could fit into the little theater?
[Richard Trotta]: Yeah, and we also have daycare. But that's limited also. Marie Cassidy, who's on the committee, I should let Michael talk about this. But anyway, there's daycare. So should I call Michael up now?
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Yes. Yes.
[Richard Trotta]: He's right there. He's not that far. I'll let Michael answer the questions on the event because he's done a lot of work coordinating it. I'll stay here.
[Skorka]: Hi, my name is Michael Sporka. I teach Spanish at the high school. I also am the advisor to the Gay-Straight Alliance and the administrative intern for the Center for Citizenship and Social Responsibility. Today I'm here to talk a little bit about the April 2nd event, the symposium, which we're entitling Proactive Steps and Resources for Parents and Teachers. It's going to take place at Medford High School from 1245 to 5 o'clock. It's April 2nd, that's a Saturday. The event will, our target audience is for parents and teachers with children in grades K through 8. The focus is to provide resources for parents to effectively raise resilient children and adolescents. Our keynote speaker is Dr. Robert Brooks. He's a clinical psychologist. He will be speaking first. After the keynote speaker, we are inviting the symposium participants to attend two of the five workshops that we're offering. The workshops are approximately 40 minutes each. And after the two workshops, we are going to be inviting those participants to attend a resource fair, which will be held in the Medford High School lobby in the foyer there. There are five workshops available, like I mentioned. Those five workshops are as follows. What parents and teachers can do about substance abuse in the home and the classroom. Preventative family strategies is the second. Identifying substances is the third. The fourth is identifying signs and symptoms of anxiety and depression in adolescents. And finally, anxiety and depression, how substance abuse impacts young children. So the idea here is that the participants will hear the keynote speaker who will be speaking on resiliency, Dr. Robert Brooks. And then afterward, they will attend two. So our registration process is as follows. After tonight, and hopefully soon, we'll be posting the registration form on the Medford Public website. The registration form has already been completed, we're just waiting for approval. And on the registration form, they have a choice of their top three workshops, and we will hopefully be able to give them their top two choices because they'll be attending two out of the five workshops. So pretty much what we're trying to do here, like I said, is raise awareness for this cause. It is something that is, I think, prevalent in the community. And I think this is especially important just to bring awareness. So I'd like to say thank you. We've had a committee going for this event. There's a lot of planning, and we're still in the process of getting things going. And I'd like to say thank you to the following committee members. Rich Trotta, Jim Riccardi, Rachel Perry, Tony Vento, Jeff Lapin, Marie Cassidy, Brooke Hoyt, and Penny Foniole. So we've been meeting frequently to plan this event. We're still currently meeting to make sure that this event is a success. A couple other things I wanted to mention too. We also have 24 students that are very active with the Center for Citizenship and Social Responsibility. Three of them are sitting to my left here, and I just wanted to say thank you to them as well. These are three of 24 amazing students, but these three, so Ramon here on my left, Ramon actually, Ramon Fernandez designed the logo for the Center for Citizenship and Social Responsibility. He actually spent a lot of his December vacation working on it, and so I'm very thankful for his efforts. This is Serena Doe. We are currently in the works of creating a, it's almost done actually, a website for the Center for Citizenship and Social Responsibility, and Serena has single-handedly done that, so I'm very thankful to her as well. And then here is Felipe Oliveira. Felipe is the one who designed the flyer for this actual event. So these are three of 24, but we're very thankful for them. And like Rich said, we wouldn't be anywhere without the students. The students are integral process to making the center such a success. And it's such a pleasure for me to be able to work with them every single day. I love my job so much. One more thing that I'd like to mention before I'm done is we also have another event coming up this Wednesday, which the mayor is going to be speaking at. I have a class called K-Straight Alliance. It's a mini, and it's two out of the six days. I have nine students in the class, and the students have actually created substance abuse prevention projects. There are four that they're going to be unveiling on this Wednesday at 6.30 in the chambers here. It's from 6.30 to 8. Also, after the mayor speaks and we hear the projects, we have two keynote speakers, Elena Jurleo and Delaney Tivenon, both who have lost family members to substance abuse and will be speaking on their struggles and also successes. So we would really love for you to come. I think you've already received an email from Brooke Hoyt on that topic. It's again Wednesday, 6.30 in the chambers. I want to also say it's been a pleasure to work with Rich. He's wonderful and I'm so thankful to have this opportunity to be his administrative intern this year. So at this point, I will welcome any questions you have.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: First of all, Michael, I want to say thank you. Thank you to you, to Rich. This is amazing, because this is, I know, this was very critical. It's been a critical topic for the last few years. It unfortunately came to really fruition last year when we did lose a lot of our students. I know that we lost students prior to that. But last year it really hit home when we lost a lot of students, one right after the other. You just mentioned a few families, that it was one week, one right after the other. And you just mentioned three of our students out of 24 that are participating in this. And this is when we talk about bringing the community together. This is when we talk about really working together. And not only in administration, but when we talk about all tiers. And when we talk about all tiers and bringing everyone together and making it not only into the community, but making it really feel like it's family. So I really, truly want to say thank you. for that, because that in itself and the spirit of that brings it all to where it's supposed to be. So I thank you for that. And I really want to tell the kids, not only to the three of you, but just to bring it back to the school and say how much we do appreciate what you've done and how much it really does mean to all of us when you all stand up and really show what it means to you, because it is important that you all show and express how important it is. So I thank you for that. I really, truly do. So I just want to say our support is with you, and I'll definitely be there Wednesday night.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Mr. Scorger, thank you for all of your work. One of the things which I know is that doing an event like this takes a lot of work, and turning out people is not always the easiest thing because there's always so many different other commitments that people have. Are you releasing this to the different Rotary and different groups in town? And I'm just wondering what your outreach is.
[Skorka]: Yeah, we are going to be doing a robocall. That's the first thing we're going to do. We're also going to be extending this. Team Medford is working collaboratively with us. Actually, on Wednesday's event as well, Team Medford is going to be collaborating. We're collaborating with a bunch of local organizations. So, for example, at the resource fair that I spoke of, after the two workshops that the participants will attend, we're going to be having many local organizations that we're contacting come and be there and through our connections with those local organizations and through our connections to Team Medford, we plan to have a full event.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: That's excellent. I also was wondering whether teachers who attend would be eligible for a PDP point or is there any way? I can't do that.
[Roy Belson]: It was a shot.
[Richard Trotta]: Mr. Benedetto?
[Erin DiBenedetto]: My question was very similar to my colleagues, but I also wanted to know if we were sending this flyer home at least to our middle school students. I know it's expensive to do that, but even if we backpack it through the mayor to the superintendent, can we approve that to happen for this to go to our middle school parents in backpacks?
[Skorka]: It'll go up.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: It'll go up. Okay.
[Skorka]: Also, we are speaking at the Rotary Club next week. So that's another thing.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Terrific.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: And we do have the paper present. And I do think doing the robocalls really does let people know in the community. So thank you very much for all your effort and that goes as well to the students.
[Skorka]: They're actually sporting their new jackets that they got today for the Center for Citizenship and Social Responsibility. So I'm assuming they feel really cool.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: I just want to ask, as far as, I know it includes the elementary and the middle schools, why not the high school? Is that part of the criteria of the grant, or is that something that you just didn't want to focus on? Because I know that the high school students are involved.
[Skorka]: Our focus is K through 8, but we would never say no to a parent with a kid in the high school. Absolutely not. So really anybody, focus K through 8, because You know, prevention starts early. So we want to make sure that that's our focus. But anybody in the high school can also attend.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: OK. Thank you. Well, thank you both for being here this evening. Thank you, Ramon, Serena, and Felicity for all your hard work and beautiful work with that. And I'm assuming the billboard has something to do with it.
[Skorka]: So you might have seen the billboard that we did on 93 with Medford High School. And that's one of the projects that's actually already unveiled on 93, but we want to show you. And it has our mini. We have two members in the mini who designed the billboard and went to Team Medford, collaborated with them, and were able to get the billboard onto 93. And if you drive by heading toward Boston, you'll see it.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Excellent work. Thank you very much.
[Skorka]: One more thing.
[Richard Trotta]: Motion to accept and place on file. One more comment. I just want to note that We have three global citizens right now.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: That's right. It is a motion to receive and place on file the update report on Bloomberg Center for Citizenship and Social Responsibility. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? The paper is placed on file. Report on district and schools accountability 2015. Mr. Superintendent.
[Roy Belson]: Madam Mayor and members of the committee, we're calling on our Deputy Superintendent to take you through the report on district and school 2015 accountability levels. It's a very complex area. A lot is changing and we want to make sure you're fully aware.
[Beverly Nelson]: Yes, the word is complex. If you had a chance to look through some of the data and the reports attached, we have been working with this, a team of us, trying to wrap our arms around the whole process and make some sense out of all of the data that we're given, because oftentimes it's contradictory, as I will be pointing out to you in some of the sheets that are attached. We put together this report. It has many purposes. Department of Elementary and Secondary Education has publicly released their 2015 accountability determination. All schools are given a determination as well as all school districts. The purpose of this report is to explain to you what the accountability system is made up of and the various changes because even though this is a system that we were held to a target after four years, Throughout the system, throughout the years, there have been changes and that really is very concerning as we move forward. We also want to report to you on Medford's accountability status of all of the schools and the district. And then we want to interpret, to the best of our ability, the findings based on the data we have received. And so again, we've been working with many of our administrators on all of this. First of all, the accountability system. In 2011, Massachusetts applied for and was allowed a waiver of exemption from the provision of the federal law, No Child Left Behind. This particular law required that all students reach proficiency levels by the school year 2013-2014. Massachusetts determined the level of proficiency as the proficiency level of MCAS. Every year, since that accountability system started, the bar would go higher because, again, the goal was for everyone to be at least 240 by 2014. And as that date came closer and closer and school districts throughout the country were not making this benchmark, that's why the waiver was put into effect as an offering. So Massachusetts, again, had to identify an alternative accountability system, and that had to be subject to the approval of the federal government. So they did, we did, and the new accountability system, rather than having all students reach proficiency by a certain year, was to have all students, well, have all schools reduce what was called the proficiency gap among the different subgroups. The gap was supposed to be, is supposed to be reduced by half by the year 2017. So again, as we move closer and closer to 2017, the expectation bar is higher and higher in closing that gap. We are now on an annual basis held to this new system, which rates schools and districts from levels one to five. One being the best, five is not where you want to be because that's when the state comes in and intervenes. Although we get individual accountability ratings for each of our schools, the rating of the school district can be no higher than the rating of the lowest performing school. Okay, again, this is rather punitive in nature and something that we're held to. Accountability ratings are based on a statistic called the PPI, the Progress and Performance Index. which is a complex formula which is very hard to decipher. And DESE simply has said to us it's based on seven indicators that include performance on MCAS over a four-year period, student growth percentiles, science performance, and then other indicators. Now, what those other indicators are, we have not been able to get clarity around that. Each year, the target number for closing the gap among the subgroups increases since the goal of closing the gap by half is 2017. This year, the target number, and I'm not sure how they arrived at that, was the number 75. OK, so if you're going to meet your target, you had to hit that with all of your subgroups and, again, as an aggregate in the school. This year, for the first time, school districts this past year in the Commonwealth were allowed to have students take either MCAS or PAR. Those districts that opted for PARCC were held harmless in accountability ratings. Despite being held harmless, they were designated ratings along with the districts that took MCAS. Logically, there were questions related to using the same rating system for two very different assessment instruments. DESE's answer to this is that they have developed a formula, a special formula, called the equi-percentile linking. To date, we do not have the magical ingredients for this formula. And we remain very skeptical, since according to psychometrics, if you do a valid longitudinal comparison, all the variables have to stay constant. You can't keep changing things from year to year. And that's what they've been doing with this. So again, it doesn't make sense from a perspective of assessment. logic. Again, how school districts can be rated on the same scale using two very different testing systems remains to us perplexing and we don't have a good answer as to how they are equating the two. While the final goal for performance is based upon growth over four years, DESE has made several changes related to this year's reports and plans for additional changes for 2016. These changes include the following. They have created a brand new subgroup called the Economically Disadvantaged. This subgroup replaces the former low-income subgroup, which was reported through 2014 and was determined based on student eligibility for free and reduced lunch. The new Economically Disadvantaged group only includes students who participate in one or more of the state administered programs such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistant Program, Transitional Assistance for Families and Dependent Children, DCF Foster Care Program, and MassHealth. So those youngsters are in that subgroup. And I will add that a youngster can be in multiple subgroups. They could be in the economically disadvantaged, they could be in the special education, they could be in the ELL. Again, one student can be counted. The score can be counted multiple times. So that was one change. They changed the subgroup. So now we get reported out in a subgroup that didn't exist in a previous year. Secondly, and this is very troubling to me, they're changing the number of students required in a subgroup to report out. It used to be 40. You would not get a report. Let's say you had a subgroup ELL students. Unless you had 40 ELL students in that school, you would not have a report on how those students did. And that's logical, too, because the smaller the sample, the more skewed the results are going to be. If you have a sample of 40 kids, you have a pretty broad scope of students that are tested. So what we learned over our discussions with DESE the past few weeks is that the minimum group for accountability determination in 2014 was moved to 30. Even more troubling, 2015, it was 25, and lo and behold, they told us next year it's going to be 20. This causes some real problems when you're really analyzing data, because the groups that we have 20 in now, we have no reporting out this year. Unless we go back individual student by student, we don't know what that group is doing. But next year, that might be reported out to us. So again, changing these numbers is very difficult to justify, and it's very problematic to analyze. The other interesting thing was this year, the accountability system, the PPI, was awarding bonus points. So we asked, how do you get bonus points? Because bonus points are really very valuable and very important to us. And we were told that bonus points are only given when you move 10% of your students from warning slash failing to needs improvement or 10% of your students from proficient to advanced. And as we sat in that meeting with our representative from DSAC, we were just aghast because we said, you mean we get nothing? from moving students from Needs Improvement to Proficient, which is the whole goal of the system, as long as we have been doing this. We have moved a lot of students out of Need Improvement to Proficient, and we get nothing in terms of bonus points. And if you look at it numerically, think about it. If you have 10 students in the winning category, and you have to move 10% out, and that's one kid, you get bonus points for moving one student up. If you have a hundred students that needs improvement and you get them all to proficient, you get nothing. Really fair. It makes a lot of sense. Makes no sense. I'm sorry. I've been in this business so long that it gets, I guess, more and more perplexing to me. Okay, in terms of Medford's accountability rating, we have some success stories and we have one problematic area that we're still working through. The Bedford High School, Bedford Vocational School are both level one, that's the best you can be. That's a good place to be. Level two, all of our other schools, our middle schools, our elementary schools are level two. The Roberts is level three, and I'll go into some of the reasons we can glean for that happening. Unfortunately, as the system is designed, Your rating is only good as a district as your lowest performing school. So you're rated, we're rated level three. And again, that gives you publicly no credit for all the good things that are happening at all of the schools, including the Roberts. Because again, we are looking at the Roberts data and we're questioning some of that too. They were basically one point away from making level two. And my question, because I always cut right to the heart of things is, what did we have to do to get that one point to get to the 21 from 20? And no one can give me an answer. They just give me more charts and more numbers and more statistics. So again, we're not getting great answers as we go through this, and we're trying to do our best. We don't want that school to be level three. We don't want the district to be level three. But you need to tell me why I'm there in order to tell me what I need to do to get out of that. And that's where we're kind of stuck at this point. We're getting glimmers of information here. So the interpretation of the data. We've had our administrative team over the past two weeks looking at this, asking questions, having DSAC people in. And if you look at the district data and the Roberts data too, you can see that we have made gains in both ELA and mathematics. Extra credit has been in high growth, has been given for our ELL performance on the access test. This to me, again, is another perplexing piece, because we're told that one of the reasons why the Roberts did not make their goal is because of the subgroup ELL. Yet, we're getting bonus points for their performance on access. Okay? I'm a very logical person, and that's illogical to me. So, again, these are some of the things we're struggling with. Our analysis of our overall student growth percentiles show that we are in the moderate to high range for all groups across all schools, and that's a 40 to 60 numerical figure, and we're well within that and even above it. As a level three district now, we are required to work with the District School Assistance Center, DSAC. The leadership team met with our DSAC coordinator, Mary Ann Jackman, and the regional data specialist, Hillary Bresnahan on Friday, January 22nd, and we posed several questions about the data that, again, to date, remain unanswered to a certain extent. They've been coming back with some answers, but not all of the answers that we asked for. We are really concerned, I'm concerned, about a system that is intended to measure progress over time whose tools for that exact measurement vary from year to year. We liken the process to that of trying to hit a moving target. We have brought our concerns to the Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents, who has responded to the superintendent that MedFit, with its diligence in examining the data, has brought to light aspects of the system unknown to most districts. We will continue to challenge what we feel is a system that works against the best interests of schools and our students. One of our goals as a school district, with or without an accountability system, has always been focused on improving student academic achievement. We feel that we have made significant progress in moving our students to higher levels of performance. Our student growth percentiles, as I mentioned before, are strong, and we continue to move students in large numbers into the proficiency category. While we recognize that there are still areas of improvement, we are focused on making sure that the data we use to make these improvements is sound. At this time, we have unanswered questions on how the state has interpreted results, not only for Medford, but also for all districts in the Commonwealth. We will continue to remain vigilant about the rating process and advocate for all of our students. I attach to the report just an understanding of the accountability system, just so you can get to see how they started in 2011. This is actually from the DESE website. I've included a glossary of terms and also how they report out the different items. All right, you can see that the PPI is still not that clear. And then I've attached the actual visual of the accountability system which shows school districts in different levels and what we're obliged to do when you're in different levels. And then I've also attached to a couple of sheets of data. Again, I have a folder. I have it with me if you want me to go through it. I have packets of materials like this. just more and more, you can just dig all this stuff out. But I wanted to share with you some of the things that I saw and, you know, Bernadette and the other members of our team saw. If you go to the sheet on the accountability data from Medford, you can see for yourself that the numbers, so for example, if we look at English Language Arts and we look at that first category, narrowing the proficiency gap, we actually got more points than in past years. So if you go down there, you'll see some very solid gains. elaborating on each one. Again, I point out the ELL, the bonus points, the 25 points, the progress that's being made in both English and mathematics, all right? And again, it doesn't look, if you look at the data that we've really regressed, but remember the problem is the bar keeps getting higher and higher. And if they change things like what subgroups are being reported out, That adds another problem to the mix. And even if you look at the data for the Roberts, again, it's in some categories consistent, in some categories higher than it was in previous years. And yet their rating was a level three. Again, their subgroup, the ELL students, were one of the subgroups that didn't make the target, but bonus points for access. So you figure, I can't, you know, I've been in this business 46 years. I'm having trouble with this one. I really am. So the other thing is that I mentioned before that students can be in multiple categories. So we could have an ELL student who score is involved in other categories. And the other thing too is remember that subgroups are based on self-identification. So how do we get students into a subgroup? When a student enrolls in the school district, and they enroll at the Parent Information Center, the parent selects the subgroups. So again, that's how the process is. It's not that the state monitors who's in what subgroup. It's a self-selecting process. So with that, I will answer any questions that I can. I'm still waiting for answers myself, but we'll keep you informed. And we just really want to know, what do we have to do to move up? Because we've been very solid. We've seen gains. This is very frustrating for all of our people. They've worked very, very hard. And the directors of humanities and math, when they sat there initially with the DESE people and they said, we got no credit for moving kids from needs improvement to proficient. That's what we were supposed to be doing, and we've been working hard doing that. That's what the MCAS Academy money, grant money is for, to do that. And yet, hello, nothing there. So anyway, so if I can take any questions. Mr. Skerry.
[Robert Skerry]: Mayor, I read through this report three times Friday night, and it seems to be everything's going into a circle. You know, we have a dedicated cadre of teachers and administrators that year in, year out go through this. And I'm just hard to see that whenever The State Department of Education waxes, it's always the same school. And I know that we've made great strides there. I would suggest through you to the superintendent, Mrs. Nelson, that perhaps Mrs. Jackman and Ms. Bresnahan would like to come to a meeting and explain this to us and break it down and see just exactly why we're at where we're at. And there are a lot of things in here that are misnomers and I'd like them cleared up. I think we owe that to our kids. And we owe it to the citizens of Medford, they're our taxpayers. I just don't think the way that they're doing things is the correct way to do things. And I'm tired of Medford being misaligned when I know that our kids are working hard to improve themselves. And our teachers and again, administrators are working to put everybody on the same playing field. And this report and what they're doing to Medford is not what we expected, it's not what we deserve, and it's not what our kids deserve.
[Beverly Nelson]: They're doing it to everybody, and I think one of the things that's very telling about our school district is that there are many school districts and many schools, high schools, and affluent communities that are not level one. I know Bernadette, you may have some of that data to share, but some of the communities that we tout as the, you know, better economically situated communities and kids do better than they do not at the high school level. So Bernadette, do you want to share some of that?
[Robert Skerry]: Just one last comment, Billie. If they're the district school assistance center, I think they should be here talking to us directly. And if we do have questions, let them answer. If they can't answer it, let them get back to us in a week. let this go on forever and ever in infinity.
[SPEAKER_09]: I had one question that was, what do we need, what one point where do we need that one point, because they were one point away from making level two.
[Robert Skerry]: And if it's one point away, in all courses of life, you have recourse. And, you know, perhaps they better check their figures again and look at some of the answers and really try to get into what's happening here. Because I don't, you know, year after year they misalign. you know, a certain school, and it's not fair to the kids or the teachers in that school.
[Beverly Nelson]: We, we do, excuse me, but we do question the numbers because one of the things we did is there were, I think, 26 ELL students reported out. And when Leslie Trotta went back and she examined the kids who were actually tested, because we had the names and the numbers, it didn't come out to that. One of the things that we thought was really very perplexing that we did discover, and that is that ELL students have to take mathematics, even if they arrive the day before the test. Okay, English, they get a year kind of off to learn the language, although you need a lot more than a year. But we found out that they had those math, they had those kids take that math test, and they didn't count them in the school's results, they counted them in the district results. Go figure.
[Robert Skerry]: It's like I said, it's not an even playing field. And I think Ms. Jackman and Ms. Bresnahan should be here in this forum to explain to us their reasoning and how they come about with what they have to do. I mean, they have to be held accountable. We should hold their feet to the fire.
[Bernadette Ricciardelli]: So just to add to that, good evening. To add to what Beverly was just saying, also what we found missing was rating on two of our subgroups. The Hispanic Latino subgroup for the Roberts Elementary was missing. There was a population there, but it did not get configured into the accountability result. And the other subgroup was the African, it wasn't the African American, I think it was Asian, that's right. So two subgroups, we had missing data. So we did pose that question to Ms. Bresnahan. She did not have an answer for us. So that's one of the things that we're waiting on. It'd be great to say that they just left the data out and that that would help us. Um, but we, we are waiting to get an answer on that.
[Robert Skerry]: I think two weeks is a long time to wait. Mr. Cadelli. I mean, kids' futures are at stake here. We don't know how to make them better. And if they're not going to help us, why go through this rigmarole?
[Bernadette Ricciardelli]: So we have a tentative meeting scheduled for next Monday, February 8th, to talk to Ms. Jackman and Ms. Bresnahan. there is the possibility they may be working with us in our professional development day, so we will be meeting with them tentatively next Monday, hoping to get some answers on that day, if not before.
[Robert Skerry]: I'd like them to come in and explain their reasoning to this August body, our next school committee meeting. I mean, I take this very seriously.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: If we were going to do that, I'd much prefer it to be at a committee of the whole and a different, this environment is not conducive to the sort of data analysis that we would need to do. So I would suggest a committee of the whole if we were to go that path.
[Roy Belson]: So let me, let me just say this. This system is very, very involved. It was created as a compromise. to deal with the federal government that was trying to change its positions. And you notice a new act came through this past year, E-S-S-A, which changed the basis for the waiver system that the then Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, put in place, and the state got a waiver on it. And in order for the state to get the waiver the second time around, they had to make the system more rigorous and move away from what E-S-S-A says it's trying to do. So that begs a question to begin with. I would just suggest the following. First of all, let's not define ourselves by this particular system. We know there are good things happening. We know there are some things that need to be worked on. Most of our schools are doing just fine. If you look at some, as Beverly and Bernadette pointed out, some of the allegedly best high schools in the state, they're level two and our high school's level one. You know why? Because they haven't got less room to grow. their progress and their performance can only grow so high. So their progress is muted. Now, certain communities, which are way below us in terms of actual performance, became level two. Why? Because they can show progress from the depths up a little bit more, so they get more points. The system fights each other. There are two basic issues. The CPI, the cumulative performance index, which is based on so many points per scoring at each level. Advanced and Proficient getting 100, Needs Improvement getting either 75 or 50, depending on what level of Needs Improvement you are, and then less down below. Now, we do just fine on the CPI. And in fact, we're ahead of some communities that in fact got a better accountability rating. But they've got more room to grow in terms of progress from down here. The performance index deals primarily with growth. Now, if they're going to change the numbers of people in a group and try to compare them year to year, you would fail a statistics course at any local university. You just don't do that. So I brought it to the attention of the association. I'll continue to bring it to the attention. There'll be a robust discussion on the thing. The people who are representing the department, quite frankly, are really just messengers. They can only tell you so much. We really need to get into the people to design these things, and that's best done initially at the association level where we can get them there and really grill it and really talk about more than one district at a time. If you're talking about one district, some of you think you're whining. If you're talking about multiple districts, it looks like, what do you call it, you're saying, this is a problem. So if you take a look at a place like Waltham, a lot of characteristics of that, same thing, drop down. Reading, same thing, dropped down. A lot of places have similar kind of experiences. So I'm not going to define this school district by this particular rating. I'm pleased that the high school and the vocational are level one. I'm pleased that the other schools are holding their own for the purposes of explaining it. But we're not going to accept the fact that the system applied measures that don't ring true to any kind of statistical analysis that we're aware of. or they change the formula without giving proper notice to the districts of how the formula was going to change. So we'll get back into it. Just don't beat yourself up on it. Understand that it's a complex area. Understand that we're committed to doing well by all our students. Understand there's complexity in taking tests, complexity in all the changes that are going on. And we're going to work our way through it, just like we work our way through everything. And in a real short time, we'll be back to you. I'm sure we're going to have some very interesting findings, along with some other districts that have similar experience. But we want to tell you the truth. We're out here tonight talking, giving you the information, because I wouldn't want you to read it in some other place and say, why didn't you tell us? But I'm relatively confident that this stuff is going to get a real scrutinization before it's over. And you should be generally pleased that high school and vocational school score higher than Andover and some other places. Arlington, okay, some other places. Maybe not Arlington, I may mix up one, but you know, score higher than some of these places.
[Bernadette Ricciardelli]: Bernadette has the list. All right, that's okay because, all right, so I have a few more communities. So we know that Medford High School and Medford Vocational Technical High School are level one schools. The following high schools are level two. Lexington High School, Andover High School, North Redding High School, Redding High School, and Wakefield High School. So they're level two, where Medford High School is level one. What I thought was surprising is I looked at district levels also. Redding actually is a level three district. So they're comparable to us in that rating.
[Roy Belson]: And Waltham's a level three. It's a high school, too.
[Bernadette Ricciardelli]: I'm sorry?
[Roy Belson]: It's Waltham, too.
[Bernadette Ricciardelli]: Waltham is also.
[Roy Belson]: The system may work mechanically, but it begs a question as to what it really tells you about actualities. And so, you know, we're giving you the information. We'll continue to research what we're doing. We'll continue to talk to our colleagues and we'll continue to pursue the department as to how they do this, because it's not just for this year, it's going forward. If you're going to rate schools, If you're going to rate programs, you've got to have something that's transparent and understandable, and something that enables each district to work on whatever might be considered a deficit in a meaningful and progressive way, not to be surprised at how you came up. You know, sometimes when you watch certain figure skating things or you wonder how the judges came up with something, well, I think we're saying things, if you watch a basketball game or a hockey game, you know the sport at the end of the game. Enough of the sports analysis.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Thank you, Mr. Superintendent. Ms. Cunha, did you have a question?
[Ann Marie Cugno]: Yes. The whole report, I know the superintendent is saying not to get frustrated, but I'm frustrated. As he said, the commissioner of education has constantly said that he was definitely going to look at the formula of growth. And this has changed everything. How do you look at the formula of growth and not look at needs improvement to proficient and not scaleless with any extra points? Totally don't understand that at all. It's like he's changed the formula upside down without informing anyone at all. You can't change the formula in the middle of this at all. It does not make sense. And changing everything in the middle of students taking tests is just not fair. It's just not fair. So what I do suggest and advise maybe is just as much as you've reached out to the superintendents association is also to reach out to MASC and hopefully between the two associations try to get more support. And to try to look into the process of appeals, because this is definitely something that cannot. I mean, we can't sit back on this. And as you said, Superintendent, I'm sure we're not the only ones that have gone through this, and I'm sure we're not the only ones that are upset over something like this, because You can't change the playing field like this. You have students, administration, everyone investing into this and doing what is being asked of us. And then in the middle of it, you just change it all? It's just not right. It's just absolutely not right. And it's very frustrating, especially when you see the commissioner and he stands there and he tells you that this is how we're all going to work together and this is how we're all going to do it. And then it seems like it's a slap in the face. Very frustrating.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Thank you, Madam Mayor. I'm too troubled by this. Partly my biggest concern is how does it, how is it going to be interpreted by the parents of the Roberts? because as a parent of the Roberts, I would assume that, you know, it would be, it's very complex information. We sound as if, you know, we're trying to make excuses because after all, this is the, you know, report we're getting, but we understand all the technicalities involved, but that's hard to translate. And so I would, I know that a letter needs to go out to the parents of the Roberts, and I just hope that that is well crafted and that, If there needs to be subsequent meetings with the parents to reassure them, that you will obviously do that. I have no doubt that you will.
[Roy Belson]: So what I suggested to you was, is that in the near future, very near future, I'm actually going down to the school and run a little open forum with them. And we answer their questions, come down and talk about the good things going on at the Roberts and talk about the anomalies of the system.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Will you let us know when that's going to take place? Yeah, I think that's a good idea. Again, totally concerned about this. Does this rating now stand for two years? Is there still a two-year cycle that there used to be?
[Beverly Nelson]: Ratings have gone year to year, but now where we're going to be taking the park, we're held harmless, which means we can't go down, not that we would. If we do better, we can go up. So it's a year to year. It's an annual rating.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: And the other concern, of course, is the one you mentioned about the cohorts of the number of kids changing and that a child can be in multiple cohorts. If you have a child who's truly struggling, that means, you know, if there's only 20 kids, that's a significant change. And, you know, if you have one or two kids, that is going to change your numbers significantly.
[Roy Belson]: It should be noted that the state never meets its own targets. It sets targets. It's yet to meet its own targets in some of these special populations. So that's also troubling, too, to set targets that, as a state, we can't meet. and then to hold individual districts accountable for not meeting the same targets the state can't meet. There's a lot here. There's a lot here. But I mean, again, as I just want to emphasize, don't beat yourself up about it. This is informational. We'll need to talk about it. We need to get in behind it. We're going to be working with the state and others to try and make the system of accountability one that is truly transparent and truly rates a school system and a school on how it performs, not on some sort of magical statistical formula, which when you throw it all together, you come up with goulash.
[Mea Quinn Mustone]: I think what Paulette was saying about parents being concerned, as a parent with five at the Roberts, I can say we have wonderful teachers, a dedicated principal, vice principal, and that I hope that you coming to the school will reassure parents that their education is still top notch in this test, however the equation it doesn't reflect what the kids are getting in the classroom, because they've all had a great education with superb teachers. So I want to reassure the people that this test is not what the Roberts is about.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Wonderful. Is there a motion on the floor? I have a question. Mr. Benedetto? OK.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: So I have a few comments. First of all, on the page which says, Title I students who are rated level III must inform parents of this rating. So I'm assuming that the district is sending out letters to all Title I students at the Roberts only, or does that mean the whole district? Because now the district is a level three school.
[Beverly Nelson]: Diane Caldwell was getting the letters prepared. She's not here this evening, but I will check with her. I'm not sure how she left it. I don't know, Rory, if you had a conversation. I know it was definitely to Roberts because she had to do that, but I'm not sure.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Right. I didn't know of all districts in the school because now the whole district is a level three district. Correct?
[Beverly Nelson]: I'll have to double check. Well, not all of our schools are Title I schools.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Right. So we only have three out of four. So any Title I school could possibly need a letter. But my guess and interpretation that it's just the Roberts because of their school. That's initially what I believe she said. So, well, we have explained away a lot of what this test and the changes, but what we haven't talked about really is that this test is given and these ratings are for everybody in the Commonwealth. So we are only one school district dealing with this. But we are compared to those other school districts. And the level three, according to this paper, it says you're in the lowest performing 20% of schools. That's concerning to me in a lot of ways. Number one, I want to be, I want to take corrective action if we need to and get more help to the Roberts so we aren't a level three school district wide. Okay. Whether or not we like the way they, they put the formulas together and how they change it is, is one issue. But the other issue, we own it. We're a level three school. That means when someone moves into our community, they research schools, this is what they're going to see. All right? Also, we are way better than this. We owe it to these children to look at what we're doing correctly and where we need to improve. Not make reasons why this doesn't count. Well, it does count. And we can't decide that it doesn't, because it does. And this is our tool that we're being evaluated on. We need to do better. And that's our responsibility. So I own what it says and I want to work together with our administrators, our teachers, and our staff as a whole to make it better. So that way next year we're not having this conversation again. I don't know if that means that we need to have an academic committee meeting and just really go through some of these data and really look at our middle and elementary schools about where they are and how we can help them perform better on any test that the state decides to give us, in any way they mean to jumble how we need to prove that our children are doing well. I want to make sure we're doing that next step. OK, we have the data. Let's move forward. Let's fix it for next year. Let's do that. So through you to the superintendent, I'd like to schedule an academic affairs meeting. As of right now, I was the committee chairperson until new committee Thanks. So I would like to call that. I'd like to make a motion for that committee to, to me. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you.
[Roy Belson]: So again, I'm going to say this so that I'm very clear as to how I feel about it. We're doing an awful lot of good things at that school system that is questionable label to school. It doesn't mean, that teachers aren't teaching, and good things aren't happening, and that we won't work on doing better. But we don't need to flagellate ourselves. There's a lot here that needs to be looked into. The school has got a lot of ELL students who have to take a test with less than a year in the school. The school's got a lot of other challenges that maybe some of the other schools maybe don't have, and maybe we have to look at the shifts in population. The equity percentile eliminated almost 54% of the schools from being rated. And just simply moved them over to the side. Schools that did less well on the cumulative performance index than the Roberts. There's a lot here that needs to be looked into. We are certainly committed to doing a better job and working at it. But I want to say it clearly and unequivocably, you know, because I'm not afraid to say it. At this stage of my life, if I can't say it, I don't know when I will be able to say it. The school's a good school. It works hard. The teachers are good people. We'll continue to make progress at that school, but let's not beat ourselves up. We'll work at it. We'll do well. We'll find the issues we can do better on, but let's not beat ourselves up. This is a very unusual scoring system that the state can't even explain, never mind the people in the field.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: By the way, I just want to mention that last week I did have the opportunity to go visit two of the kindergarten classes. It was a wonderful experience. I walked through the building as well and talked and stopped and talked to a couple of teachers. I saw the students working hard. I was at the kindergarten classes. I think the most interesting thing, again, they were very much similar to classes that I was used to when my children attended at the Hervey, except that there was a higher caliber of learning going on. When we hear kindergarten is more like first grade, I saw that. I saw the material that they were doing. And it was just both teachers who I visited who had been here one night, Ms. Goss and Ms. Skiffington, and the whole experience was so wonderful. I do hope that the other ones of you who can take advantage. And you don't want to be disruptive in the classroom, but if you get a chance to go in, it's great. And by chance, I was at the Roberts, and I went into an ELL classroom where it was just fantastic. So it's funny that the words of the superintendent saying, there's an awful lot of good things going. And when I was there personally, I saw those good things going on.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Thank you. There is a motion on the floor for a subcommittee meeting on curriculum. All those in favor? Seconded by Mr. Skerry. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Motion to receive and place on file this report by Mr. Skerry. All those in favor? All those opposed? Paper is placed on file. Report on distracted driving program. Mr. Superintendent.
[Roy Belson]: Madam Mayor and members of the committee, last Thursday, or Tuesday rather, January 26th, we had a terrific program on distracted driving. It's the fourth time we've had the program. The mayor was present, as was Catherine Fretz, and a whole pile of other people, and it was a terrific program because basically it's dealing with our young people's need to pay attention to the skills of staying alive, and the skills of being concerned for each other and not just simply taking care of their routine business while they're driving or doing other things. And it drives home a really critical point. I won't take the time to read the whole program, but just simply to say even a few moments of distraction can alter your life and the lives of others, people you care about in a permanent way. It's a terrific program. We're going to do more with it. We're going to put some things on the on our cable and on our web page, and we're going to keep driving it on to our kids, because there are too many examples out there of young people and older people, parents and others, who we always say, don't let your kid drive drunk, but don't let your kid drive distracted either, because either way, you can hurt somebody, including yourself.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Thank you, Mr. Superintendent. If I could, from the chair, just I had the opportunity to attend with Ms. Kreatz, and it was such a moving Deliver it. actions that we saw that day, from plays to people speaking, people that had left, including Emily Stein of Medford and her little four-year-old daughter, Evie, who were part of a PSA that they put on. It was very, very moving, and it could have been shown to a group of any age bracket in our community. It's not just a children, a young adult issue. It certainly is a mature adult issue, as well as middle. So it really could have been put on in any forum, and people would have walked away looking at things a lot differently. Distracted isn't just your cell phone, it's your navigation, it's the radio, it's makeup, and coffee. It's a host of different things. So just a shout out to the community that, you know, our kids are getting it. They're in the lower bracket of distraction when you do rate them. But it goes out to everybody that we all need to be conscious. And as I told us that day, we shouldn't be selfish. We should be putting others first. On our time, pull over if we need to make a call, but don't be selfish and make the call while you're driving or texting while you're driving. So, Ms. Krebs, if you would.
[Kathy Kreatz]: Mr. Feldman, he was terrific. And I really feel for his loss. And he's been around the United States. And he wears wristbands on both sides of all the families and their favorite colors of the wristband from all the children that have lost and that he's met and encountered. It really was heartbreaking. You know, he's so brave. He can go around the country and share his story and try to help others. It's incredible. And Emily, who's from Medford, was there. She's terrific also, and her little daughter. It was really incredible. It brought tears to my eyes. I realized that I drive distracted just with the navigation system and changing the channel or driving with the coffee. It just really set in and it makes you think that you don't realize what distractions are until it was brought to our attention. I thought it was only texting until I went to the presentation. It was really powerful.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: And just a note on our students. how respectful they were. And everything that I have seen over the last several, several years, but especially of late, they're just very respectful young adults. I'm very proud of how they act in public forums.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Ms. Van de Kloof. I just want to mention, I didn't get to it this year because I had gone two years ago. Um, and You know, it's funny, sometimes I catch myself being distracted, and I visualize that pink wristband. So even two years after, that program has an impact on me, an adult. So it's really excellent. It's on my dashboard.
[Roy Belson]: Can you keep it on yours? Absolutely. One more comment. Just going back to Bloomberg report tonight, this report tonight, and our most recent discussion about accountability. good school, a good school system, a good educational program is better known by more than test scores. There's a lot of good things these kids do. You saw last week the vocational stuff coming out. You'll see more coming out. Let's not just simply classify ourselves on a test score. Let's understand the comprehensive nature of what we do, and let's lead that charge into the Commonwealth rather than simply be defined by some very narrow parameter.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Motion to receive this report and place it on file. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Report passes. Report on state budget proposed by Governor H2.
[Roy Belson]: Madam Mayor, members of the committee, Governor Charles Baker issued his proposed budget on January 27. Proposed budget is a $39.1 billion document. that make some new investments in targeted areas such as unrestricted local aid, child welfare, and substance abuse prevention. Major areas of the government see limited increases, and many accounts are level funded. There are no new taxes, but there is a plan for corporate tax relief over four years. The proposed budget holds new spending through a 3.5% increase, although revenue is projected to increase 4.3% next year. The administration hopes to close the $635 million gap that they say currently exists and to rein in the costs of mass health. It should be remembered that this is only the beginning of the state budget process. The House and the Senate will weigh in with their own versions. Oftentimes, the word is that the governor's budget is dead on arrival. But to be a little bit more respectful, I think the House and the Senate will obviously have their own versions. that will then go to conference committee when they finish that, to iron out their differences. It will then go back to the governor, who could then veto some of the legislative actions. It will then go back to the legislature for a veto review, which could often lead to overrides of the governor's vetoes. The whole process usually doesn't complete until late June. However, we should get a pretty good idea on how it will play out after the Senate and the House do their initial work. The following is a preliminary view of the proposed budget and how the governor's budget might impact Medford. And the reason I talk about the governor's budget impacting Medford, because now we'll begin the lobbying process with our own legislators to improve things we don't see in this governor's budget. The cherry sheets are attached to this report for your review. They're called cherry sheets because at one time they were printed on cherry colored paper. It's not because- And it stuck.
[SPEAKER_11]: And it stuck.
[Roy Belson]: And it stuck, okay? Number one, unrestricted local aid is increased to measure by $480,827. This is municipal aid money. It's more than usual in recent times. It's a good hit. The city can use it. At one time, there were two categories of general aid and additional aid. That was collapsed several years ago into general unrestricted aid, and now there's one category for that. Number two, Chapter 70 general education aid is up $96,340, higher than last year, and is equivalent to approximately $20 per pupil. Last year, we got $25. The distribution is lower than last year based upon the change in state weighted calculations and a $5 per people lower than the minimum aid of FY 2016. Medford is a hold harmless district. Hold harmless means that we won't get lowered and we won't get raised, except for the minimum aid hit. Because of the numbers and because of the economics of the Chapter 70 formula, which places Medford between the wealthy communities and the less wealthy communities. At one time, we received as much as 37% of our school budget from the state. Today, we're lucky to see 19% from the state, at least in the general distribution, maybe even less. And it won't move until these things actually take place. So that's what hold harmless means. No new provisions are made to address the recommendations of the recent Foundation Review Committee. You may remember that some of you were involved with that. And there was an $800 million initial recommendation to add, but that money's nowhere to be found. It's certainly not in the governor's budget, and there's no reference to that at this time. That would have raised the foundation level. However, I'm concerned that it may have raised the foundation level and given Medford no new money. I think we talked about 151 communities might not benefit from it at all, even if the 800 million were there. The quality kindergarten budget, one which you have an interest in, and I provided you that report in the back of your folder tonight if you go to it, was level funding. But the distribution rules are changing. It's likely the governor's plan, if the governor's plan is sustained, that we will get approximately $109,580 in FY17, rather than $143,362 in FY16. Now, the House last year eliminated it. The Senate put it back in. The Governor apparently decided that it was worth something. I don't know how that's going to play out. We'll have to see where that goes, but you'll have an analysis in the back of your folders tonight about how it plays out on the kindergarten side. Non-resident transportation is another fund. That's the money that we get for buses that go to Minneapolis. That will offset Minuteman's bus as it has this year at about 50% of the cost. Bus costs about $65,000, okay? Homeless transportation is level funded when we pay a portion of the anticipated liability. And it always depends on how many are homeless across the state and for men. The more homeless, the bigger the bill. The more transportation, the bigger the bill. The more across the state, the less distribution, because there's only a limited amount of money, so the percentage distributed comes down. But it's only projected about half of the anticipated liability. Charter school funding is a real sleight of hand proposal. This year, the line item was $54 million below the formula for reimbursement. $54 million below the formula for reimbursement. The governor proposed increasing that line item by $20.5 million, which doesn't close the gap. makes it sound as if it's, you know, it's a real good ad. He also wants to change the distribution formula from the current six-year plan to a modified three-year plan, with some communities only getting the first year of the three-year plan, and 100% for the first year. That would be Medford. We would lose substantial money. Depending on your communities, charter enrollment, and economic disadvantage, which we're not economically disadvantaged in terms of the state. This proposed method would cost Medford reimbursement funding over the next few years, and obviously we should strongly oppose it. We're having discussions in the Senate where the opposition seems to be stronger. The House seems to be in favor of some form of charter lift, but I need to find out what specifically they're going to go for. As you know, there's a petition out there that will be in the election next year if this legislation doesn't pass. In the current tense, the projected net charter cost increase over last year could be as much as $547,611. Furthermore, DESE may allow Mystic Valley to grow its enrollment by 400 students, probably not all in one year, and this could obviously affect us. Now, the reason for that is DESE restricted Mystic Valley because it wasn't taking in ELL students or a sufficiently diverse population and its governance structure was considered to be less than favorable. For some reason, the commissioner is saying, well, they've made progress. My read of their version of progress isn't very high. But if they're allowed to take more students, that could impact us. And that means the numbers go up. And that means there's less reimbursement. And that means it takes dollars away from the locality. This is a major fight that has to happen on the Hill. Special education circuit breaker funding is level funding. These cost factors for extraordinary placement and spend inevitably go up. It's probably $11 to $12 million lower than what the Circuit Breaker Coalition, of which I serve on, anticipates the next year. These are the costs of private day placements and residential placements. Now, it's a mixed bag. Obviously, we want the money for this, but I'm also very concerned that In some of these places, the private schools are just simply trying to raise their tuition costs or adding to it. So we need to have a bigger discussion about that. Plus the fact transportation in schools is not funded. And we think that sometimes can be as expensive as the other. The Department of Public Health School Health Services grant is also level funding. And we can expect a small reduction in that distribution if the governor's budget were sustained. That pays for school nurse and a few other school related activities. School choice costs in FY17 are projected at 62,000 versus 16,712 in FY16. That number could change three or four times. So I'm not so sure how that's going to play out. Those are just estimates based on what they think might move. So it's not something to be ignored, but I don't think it may hold because every year it's a little different. The early education and care department funds some of our early childhood operations. There are several programs involved. The governors consolidate some of the funding streams, so it's unclear which programs will benefit and which ones will be cut. This needs to be fleshed out over the next deliberative period. The Children's Trust Fund, which funds a good part of the family network, a major contributor to our family, is level funding. They're trying to do more, and hopefully They get more because they're a very good program, but if they get level funding and more and more programs come in, then they cut back what they can give to any one program. Overall, the cherry sheet proposed by the governor assigns 814,088 in new receipts to Medford and 869,051 in new charges. It's a negative of 54,963. So you can see that state aid to Medford is very flat, very flat. The above is a very preliminary snapshot, which we'll continue to analyze and refine. We'll also strongly lobby the state house delegation for adjustments that are more supportive of our needs and objectives. Cherry sheets are attached.
[Robert Skerry]: I'll be happy to answer any questions you have.
[Mea Quinn Mustone]: I just, I don't know what number nine school choice costs refer to.
[Roy Belson]: There is a program called school choice. that enables a youngster to go from Medford or from, well, we don't participate in it, go from Medford to another community for a fixed amount of money if they wanna go there, if that school system, let's say, wants to participate. There are some schools out there that take youngsters in on school choice because it fills empty seats and they get five, $6,000, depending on whether special needs or not, and it gives them a certain amount of money. It's a very low amount of money. And if a youngster has certain needs and the like, it could very well be losing financial proposition. However, they're projecting that there's probably 10 to 12 youngsters from Medford who might fit into that category going elsewhere next year. Okay? Thanks.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: There's a motion to receive and place on file this report. So moved. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Paper's placed on file. Report on Minuteman Regional Technical High School, Mr. Superintendent.
[Roy Belson]: Madam Mayor, Minuteman's another example of something that we've worked with for a number of years. And we've put a lot of money into Minuteman. And to some degree, part of it was because our vocational school wasn't everything it needed to be. But our vocational school is rising and done very, very well. We've got a lot of other options in our collaborations with Cambridge and Somerville and Waltham that enable us to do some things that will help us keep our students home and keep our dollars home. Minuteman Regional Technical High School currently serves 673 students from many different communities. There are 16 member towns who enroll 396 students, and 277 students come from non-member towns, like Medford. When Minuteman was originally built in Lexington in 1975, it projected serving almost 1,000 students. The history of Minuteman enrollments tells us it was a very unrealistic projection. Ron Fitzgerald, who at one time was the superintendent of Minuteman, told Commissioner Dave Driscoll at the time that he would always need at least 100 students from outside the district each year, each freshman class, to reach that goal. And even with that, he didn't reach the goal. The following is the current enrollment from member towns. You can see that, I'm not going to read it for you, but you can see some of the towns are very small, like Wayland 2 and West End 5 and so on and so forth. And the big ones are Arlington, Lexington, Lancaster, Belmont to some degree, okay, Acton. But they're made up of 16 towns and not many of them, you know, send a lot of Doversons to. Seven of the member towns are actively considering withdrawal from the regional district under a one-time option. Normally, withdrawal would require a unanimous vote of all members. The seven communities would decrease current enrollment by 57 students. They include Boxboro, Carlisle, Dover, Lincoln, Sudbury, Wayland, and Weston. Those are the ones who are actively voting. Minuteman realized that it couldn't get 16 communities to vote for a revised regional agreement and for a new school. So as a result, the school committee came up with a plan to allow communities to leave on a one-time option if they would approve the revised regional agreement. This is what you've got here. Seven communities can only leave if they approve the new regional agreement, which would diminish their voting capacity if they were to stay. So if they stay, communities that send fewer kids would have almost proportionate voting, less power. So instead of having a 1-0 vote, they might have a 0.5 vote. OK, compared to communities that send a lot more. The Minuteman School Committee devised this one, too, because with seven communities in opposition, there would be no constructive way to gain sufficient town meeting support across the region. Seven projected leaving districts recognized they stay there for a pupil cost would be extraordinary for a limited number of students. And the new building was constructive. And the projected capital debt was apportioned. For example, Weston would pay approximately $49,000 per student. Good Harvard for that. Plus a special needs cost assessment. Minuteman is the most expensive vocational school in the state, with the exception of the agricultural schools. And that's an under the instance. Some of the agricultural schools are pretty good. As previously stated, non-member cities and towns currently provide 277 students as follows. Boston since 25, Medford since 34, Waltham 44, Watertown 66, and others about 109. Next year, Medford will have 17 seniors graduating this year, and we'll have 17 students remaining there, and they can't take ninth graders. The current base tuition for our district students is $17,005, plus $4,500 in special needs services required. The rate is set by the commissioner, and that rate's coming down based on agreement. Minute Man has the MSBA tentative go-ahead to build a new school in Lincoln for 628 students. I have no idea how they're going to get 628 students there. The towns that remain in the district must approve bonding for $144.9 million plus interest on a 30-year period, meaning $300 million. State funding is projected to be $45,206,061 for the proposed 257,745 square foot school. Okay? Now, that 45,000 belies the reimbursement rate that's being advertised at 42, 43, 44%, because it's really only 32% of the actual cost, because not all costs that Minuteman is proposing are eligible for reimbursement. It'll come out in the town meetings. If the project goes forward, the school is expected to be open for the fall of 2019. Most estimates are 2020. take a little bit longer. There are many non-financial contingencies to be worked out before construction can take place on the Lincoln site. For example, wetlands, EPA. Secondly, Lincoln is asking for mitigation for the use of their land, police and fire and other considerations yet to be decided by the Minuteman School Committee and others. So we're not clear as to how that's going to play out and how that might delay or not delay what's going on. So let's look at the Medford impact. Currently, we have 34 students at Minutemen. This year, 17 seniors will graduate, and no ninth graders can go there under the new state regulations. Also, the expansion and development of our vocational program will keep future students home. Three years ago, we had 50 students at Minutemen. We also had cooperative agreements with neighboring districts in Cambridge, Somerville, Waltham, and Boston through our Solve Collaborative. The reduction of our enrollment at Minutemen will enable us to save significant funding, which can be reinvested in our own school system. in our own vocational school or other concerns that you would find to be priority. The collaboration between the high school and the vocational school is also a major achievement, since it will enhance college prospects for our vocational students and provide occupational skill training options for high school students at a reasonable cost. So this is what's going on right now. Town meeting should take place somewhere before March 1st. We'll begin to see what takes place and what moves forward, but it's clear that we are moving away from Minuteman. Minuteman has to solve its own issues. Right now, financial, building, all those kinds of things, and there's a lot of disagreement among the towns. That doesn't mean they won't build a school. It just simply means I don't know how they're going to get 628 students when the Metro Vocational School and Waltham and other places are building and expanding their own programs so that, Somerville, so that The kids are going to stay home. Happy to take any questions.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Could I ask just one question from the chair? Sure. Lincoln is willing to host a new Minuteman Regional High School and they want to withdraw from the region? Yes. That's accurate.
[Roy Belson]: It's tricky because obviously there are different factions in Lincoln. But Minuteman owns land in Lincoln. So even if it doesn't participate, Minuteman owns the land. But to build on it, would require permits from the town, obviously, and that would require mitigation as they're talking about sewage, they're talking about all the kinds of things that water, all the kinds of things that would be fire, police, it would be typical.
[Mea Quinn Mustone]: What's the program that most of the kids from Medford go to Minuteman for currently?
[Roy Belson]: It's varied over the years. Okay. At this particular point in time, the only programs they think they can still go there for is horticulture.
[Mea Quinn Mustone]: Okay. And then, so if we chose not, the kids chose not to go to Midland, but they want to go to horticulture, that would be Essex agricultural.
[Roy Belson]: They could go to Essex agricultural, but we would like to hope that, you know, since horticulture isn't really a field in which there's a growing market demand, we'd like to argue that why would you put a kid in a field that the market demand is actually coming the other way? There may be other areas that a student can go into that would suffice or at least meet their interest. But why would you go into horticulture in a world that is not funding that? Maybe environmental science would be a better choice.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Ms. Vandekly. Mr. Superintendent, you indicated, and as we know, Medford is not a member district to Minuteman, just the way Arlington is, for example. But at one point along the line, I remember that they were arguing that we should pay a bigger share when they built a new school because, after all, if we had kids attending. At this point, that discussion is totally off the table, correct?
[Roy Belson]: At this point, that discussion is something that isn't in play because the school hasn't been built. And the state has indicated that if we were, in their opinion, if we did have to pay a capital assessment, it certainly wouldn't be at the level that they're asking their member towns to pay. It'd be only for those facilities which are actually impacting the kid. Now, we have argued, and we simply have some pretty good legal backing for this with attorneys that we've discussed this with, that this is an unfunded mandate. The commissioner exceeded his authority in putting that in regulation. The board exceeded their authority with sending it off to the state auditor and then off to the legislature, the courts rather if necessary. So that would be something.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: The other question I have is within, obviously, we have some great programs and expansion of our vocational school. You've just indicated that Waltham is doing the same with themselves. Is there, yet somehow Minuteman has managed to say, yes, there is a need for our school, a continuous need. Is there, within Massachusetts and the other vocational schools, more capacity so that students could be absorbed in a different way?
[Roy Belson]: Most of the vocational schools are pretty full. There is a movement on the part of the governor to expand vocational education across the commonwealth. There is a $75 million bond that he's putting out there for vocational school development. We will be applying for some of that money. In fact, the proposal is in. We'll talk about that at another time. It's in the area of culinary and hospitality. And it's a very substantial thing in conjunction with WIN. Okay, but we'll go into that at another point. We also have our new media world that's being built and developed and again to be talked about at another time. But the reality is is that we are very well positioned to block any programs that Minuteman would have put up and say we'll take Medford kids with. Not that, you know, at one time, I'm going to say this very honestly, at one time, it probably was a case for some kids to go to Minuteman because if you wanted to go to college and you wanted to take some of the more advanced courses, maybe you couldn't get them through the traditional vote that we were running, okay? And some people took advantage of that. So let's accept the fact that, you know, we weren't doing everything we could do to perfect that, although we did do some things that, you know, that would improve our program and attract kids to keep them home. But that's gone. That's gone. And for us to pay the extraordinary cost that's Minuteman, and to travel our kids to Lexington or Lincoln, whenever it's going to be, doesn't make any sense. We need to build up our own programs, do what we have to do. Minuteman's a level two school, by the way. Medford Vocational is a level one school. Not that, again, I'll go back to the issue. Don't hang too much on those issues. But, but, but, when it works to our advantage, But I mean, but the reality is, is that we've made significant movement. And let's make that movement work for us so that we can invest in our own kids, in our own place at a better amount, fund other programs that you're interested in, and make sure that we develop our school system, our community, with the neighbors around us who want to work with us and collaborate with us, rather than somebody who just simply needs us as a cash cow.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Thank you. I just wanted to say that another significant change was when we don't have to send our freshmen there for their freshman year. We get to keep them in Medford and that's a new change within this whole process. And once children are in our, you know, stay within their districts and make friends, they're less likely to leave them to go somewhere else unless they have a vision in their life. And then of course, if we don't offer it, we're going to find them the right program. But that's really a significant change coming forward.
[Roy Belson]: One of the things you need to remember is, is that it was never supposed to be that ninth graders would go. Commissioner Driscoll at the time, was lobbied by certain members of the state board to make an exception because Minuteman was struggling. And the idea was, well, you send a few kids over there. Send a few kids over there. The few kids became a lot of kids. And they went out of whack. So the argument was put it back. We had testified at the board. We were there with others, Austin and others, and made our points, and we carried the day on that.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: I believe, if I remember correctly, you led the charge in that? I certainly did.
[Roy Belson]: I was certainly part of it, certainly part of it. I've been selling bureaus lately.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Motion to accept and place on file.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: On the motion to accept the paper, place on file. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Paper is placed on file. Negotiations? None. Old business? None. Communications? None. New business? School committee resolution? Be it resolved that the Medford School Committee expresses sincere condolences to the family of John Donahue. Mr. Donahue was the brother of retired Supervisor of Health, Eileen DeBattista. School Committee resolution, be it resolved that the Medford School Committee expresses sincere condolences to the family of Catherine Silver. Mrs. Silver was the mother-in-law of Fire Chief Frank Gilberti. Also under suspension, offered by school committee member Mr. Skerry, he had resolved that the school committee express a sincere condolences to the McLaughlin family on the passing of Robert McLaughlin, Army veteran and former Medford police officer. He was the uncle of John McLaughlin, director of school maintenance for the Medford public schools. And also under suspension, be it resolved that the Medford School Committee express its sincere condolences to the family of William Hamkin. Mr. Hamkin, who died suddenly, was a graduate of Medford High School. Mr. Hamkin was the brother of Sheila McGlynn and brother-in-law of Mayor Michael J. McGlynn. Will everyone please rise for a moment of silence on the passing of these Medford residents.
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Just in regards to the whole business, I know it's not on here, but can we request an update on the crossing guard at the Fells? Where we are with that? We were- On the Fells? Yes, we were- Was it DCR? Yes, it was in the superintendent's office who was looking into reinstating a crossing guard that had been removed from there. And I'm just requesting that an update, and maybe at our next meeting.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: On the motion that an update be provided on the crossing guard position on the fells that are in the 2CR roadway. All those in favor?
[Erin DiBenedetto]: Aye.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: All those opposed? The motion passes. We also have a paper and a suspension for the van. Yes. Is there anyone that could... Actually, the superintendent was supposed to speak about it, but since he... They would like to go to Hershey Park, Township, Pennsylvania. It is Friday, May 20th, 2016, to Sunday, May 22nd, 2016. There's a lot of educational values, including Zoo America, music in the parks, etc. The cost for a student in a quad is $385. Triple 410, double 465. They also will be having adult chaperones. As on past trips, the BN Director will serve as the official chaperone. Additional chaperones will be added if needed. Typically, we like to have one chaperone for every eight to ten students. They were looking for our approval. Ms. Cuno.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: Yeah, if I may, I'm sorry. The BN Director was here. She was going to actually put this on the agenda. They just found out about it at the last minute. She was going to put it on the agenda, but she didn't realize that we were going to meet on the 29th. And the agency that has been contracted had told her that they needed to have the approval by the 19th. And if she didn't give them an answer, then she would lose the spot because there are other invitations. So that's the reason.
[Robert Skerry]: Madam Mayor, I've reviewed the paper, find it in order, and recommend that we approve this trip to Hershey, Pennsylvania on behalf of the mayor.
[Paulette Van der Kloot]: Madam Mayor, we do not have the costs associated with the... We do, okay.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Great, thank you. On the motion for approval, seconded by Mr. Benedetto. All those in favor? Aye. Roll call, Mr. Superintendent? No. All those in favor?
[Robert Skerry]: Yes.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: All those opposed?
[Robert Skerry]: Motion passes. Roll call.
[SPEAKER_03]: Roll call vote.
[Robert Skerry]: Okay, Mrs. Cugno.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yes.
[Robert Skerry]: Mr. Benedetto.
[Robert Skerry]: Kreatz. Yes. Mr. Stone, Mr. Skerry, yes. Mrs. Vanderbilt, yes. Mayor Burke, yes.
[Ann Marie Cugno]: 7 in the affirmative. I should have probably disclosed that both of my children are on it.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: You can, I don't think it's a problem. Marked Ms. Cuno as abstaining due to a conflict of interest. On the motion to adjourn, opted by Ms. Cuno. All those in favor? Aye. Meeting is adjourned.
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