[Lungo-Koehn]: All right, we'll get started. The eighth regular meeting of the, thank you, the eighth regular meeting of the Medford School Committee, May 5th, 2025, 6 p.m. will come to order. be held at the Howard Alden Memorial Chambers, Medford City Hall, and via remote participation. This meeting is being recorded. It can also be viewed live on the Medford Public Schools YouTube channel, through Medford Community Media, on your local cable channel, Comcast 9, 8, or 22, and Verizon channel 43, 45, or 47. Participants can log or call in by using the following Zoom link, and the meeting ID is 930-1206. 2758. Member Ruseau, if you could please call the roll.
[Ruseau]: Member Bramley. Present. Member Graham. Here. Member Intoppa. Here. Member Olapade. Present. Member Reinfeld is not here yet. Member Ruseau is present. Mayor Lungo-Koehn.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Present. Six present, one absent for now. I'm running a little late. Any student representatives on the meeting? Not that we're aware of just yet. Okay. And if we all could please rise to salute the flag. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. We have number three. Does anybody have anything for good of the order? Hearing and seeing none, I'll move on to number four, our consent agenda. It's approval of bills and payrolls, approval of capital purchases, approval of grants, approval of field trips, and approval of meeting minutes. The meeting minutes included here are regular meeting minutes for April 14th, 2025. Is there a motion on the floor? Motion for approval by member Olapade, seconded by member Intoppa. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Consent agenda is approved. We have reports of subcommittees. We do not have reports of subcommittees. We have three reports from our superintendent. First up, recommendation to approve no school choice district, school year 2025 to 2026. Dr. Suzanne B. Galussi, interim superintendent.
[Galusi]: Thank you very much. Good evening.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Good evening.
[Galusi]: So under current school law, a school district is assumed to be accepting school choice for school year 25-26 unless the school committee votes otherwise. So I'm here tonight to discuss and have you make a recommendation to approve the no school choice, Medford Public Schools as a no school choice district. I need to report this decision to the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education by June or within June of 2025. So after careful consideration, this has kind of also been our plan for the past several years, but it is my recommendation that we continue to not be a school choice district. I think it was in my transition plan, we are, having a lot of conversations around enrollment and capacity. We have three out of our four elementary schools that are having some spacing and some enrollment capacity issues, as well as our thriving CTE program, which is wonderful, but there is a wait list for the CTE program. And this school committee has also expressly made their priorities and goals well known about serving the needs of our Medford families to the fullest. That is just my request that we make a recommendation to continue that Medford is a no school choice district. And if you have any questions, I'd be happy to answer them.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you, Dr. Galussi. In our packet, we do have the explanation in writing. Is there a motion on the floor? By Member Intoppa to be a no school choice district. Seconded by Member Graham. All those in favor? All those opposed? Motion passes. Thank you. We have number two recommendation to approve budget transfers. Mr. Noel Velez, our director of finances present. Welcome.
[Noel Velez]: Hello, everyone. Today I have a budget transfer request totaling $25,971.41 regarding seven separate transactions for different school districts and schools, just kind of moving some funding around as they purchase their last items before we get to the end of the school year.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Okay, thank you, Mr. Velez. Looks like a lot of office supplies, instructional supplies, transfers, and then contractual services to maintenance of equipment, totaling 25,971.41. Is there a motion on the floor to approve the budget transfers? Sure. Member Graham.
[Graham]: I don't know if this is actually a question for you, but I was curious. Number six, the budget transfer will cover the need for sound system repair at the McGlynn Auditorium. Does that bring it to full function? Because I hear a lot of commentary from families that that sound system is quite bad. So does this like fix it, fix it? Or is this like a small minor thing?
[Noel Velez]: So this is more of a small minor thing. We are aware of that right now. We're kind of running the preliminary numbers of what that would cost. And we'll probably have that number, I believe by July or August. But that is something we are with myself and Peter, I've been having conversations about.
[Graham]: And I won't hold you to this number, but do you have any idea, like in a ballpark, is it like 5,000, is it 50,000, is it something in the middle?
[Noel Velez]: Peter has that number. I'm going to let Peter control that one.
[Graham]: Sorry. I have had people interested in what it would take to fix it. So that's why I'm asking.
[Peter Cushing]: So building 25 years old, original sound system. So you're looking at the neighborhood of $25,000 to $30,000. What that would give you would give you a fiber optic board using Cat6 wiring to run from a sound board in the back of the house to a stage box that would allow you to have probably up to about 16 channels and then a line array with four new speakers but for a Auditorium that size, you would probably only need two in the line array, plus some stage monitors so that people on stage are able to pick up and hear what's going on. So fully installed, probably between $25,000 and $30,000. And that's a really accurate estimate given what these systems cost.
[Graham]: OK, perfect. Thank you so much. And motion to approve the budget transfers.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Motion for approval by Member Graham, seconded by Member Reinfeld. All those in favor? Do we have to roll call this because it's budget transfers? I don't believe so, but we can do it just in case. Okay. Roll call has been requested.
[Ruseau]: Member Branley?
[Lungo-Koehn]: Yes.
[Ruseau]: Member Graham?
[Lungo-Koehn]: Yes.
[Ruseau]: Member Intoppa? Yes. Member Olapade? Yes. Member Reinfeld? Yes. Member Rossell? Yes. Mayor Loecker?
[Lungo-Koehn]: Yes. Seven in the affirmative, zero in the negative. Budget transfers have been approved. Thank you. We have number three approval of the school year 2025 2026 school committee calendar.
[Galusi]: Yes, thank you.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Dr. Galussi, yes.
[Galusi]: Yes, yes. Thank you. This is just a draft of the school committee dates for next school year, keeping with the same kind of frequent schedule that we have now, which is the first and third Monday of the month, maybe with some careful tweaking around vacations, but I don't think it was that difficult this year. And there are some dates for Mr. McHugh and Mr. Velez's budget times, which will be fully developed, and I can get that to you. But I'm not, if you have any questions or if there are dates that you'd like to discuss, please let me know. Thank you, Dr. Galusi.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Member Graham?
[Graham]: to one question and maybe one comment. So this year, what we did was we put a third date in June on the calendar so that there's space on the calendar for what may need to happen, which we would then cancel if we don't need it. And I was wondering if we should do the same for next year. I just know when we get to the end of the year, it is impossible to wedge things into the calendar versus like if it's there, we know what we can plan for it. So I was wondering if we could amend this to add June 15th if necessary. And I think it's fine to say if necessary, but that we might want that and thank ourselves in the, our future selves might thank us if we put it on the calendar now. That's fine. And then the other question I had was whether these dates line up with our budget process policy. They do. They do. They absolutely do. Yes. Amazing. Okay, thank you.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Motion to approve as amended. Motion to approve by Member Graham, seconded by Member Bramley. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? The school committee meeting date calendar has been approved. Great, thank you. Thank you. We do not have any presentations of the public or continued business. We do have new business, an MSBA update. I'll turn it over to Member Graham.
[Graham]: to give this committee a quick update on where we are. So we have been working since our invitation to the feasibility study to secure what is called an owner's project manager. And that process started with having to take some boilerplate documents, infuse our Medford specific things and then go through all of the procurement hoops that are required by both the city's procurement team and the MSBA to push out a request. So we put out what they call an RFS, which is a request for services. And we did a walkthrough at the high school. We had a good attendance. There were like 15 or 20 people there from various organizations. walking through just to get a feel for the building itself and get to hear some information from us, although it was not required. And then they were asked to submit their proposals. And we received 10 proposals, which everyone says, wow, it sounds like that's actually a lot. Like everybody, yes, apparently it's very good. And people even on the tour were just so interested in this project. Like this is a very desirable project in the world. And I think it's like, It has something for everyone. If you like space challenges, we've got that. If you like having to not disrupt vocational programs, we've got that. There's something for everyone in here. So from the perspective of people who do this for a living, I think it's a very desirable project. So we got 10 RFSs. Last week, the OPM selection subcommittee met with three finalists. And we met each of them on Wednesday. So it was a very long day on Wednesday. The ultimate winner of that evaluation process was unanimous. We had three really good options, but one just sort of stood a little head and shoulders above the rest. Um, their name is left field. They are OPMs by trade. So there's lots of organizations out there that do OPM services and they do other things. I believe left field is just an OPM. That's what they do. This is their passion. Um, they will bring a team to Medford, um, upon like sort of all these final steps. Um, but our recommendation to MSBA is that we'll work with left field. So we're, um, working through the final, um, back and forth on the contract negotiation right now. The building committee will meet next Monday, and actually get to meet the team from left field. So if anybody, it's an open meeting so if people would like to join us they're welcome to do so. And then all our paperwork. I think it's six, and we're still trying to look, find a location because the bistro. is booked. So, but by Wednesday of this week, we will have to submit our recommendation and our request to work with left field to MSBA, along with a whole slew of other paperwork to sort of outline the process that we went through and turn over all the documentation that they require. And that deadline will put us on track for going to what they call the OPM selection panel in early June. I believe it's June 2nd. And at that meeting, presuming that MSBA is in agreement with our selection, they will give us the green light. We will execute the contract and we will begin work immediately, very immediately, to bring on the designer. So that is the architect who will actually do the feasibility study and grapple with all of the cool, interesting, really challenging things that will go into making decisions about what the future of the building looks like. So that's really exciting. When we met with all three vendors. I opened with saying that I am hopeful that my eighth grader sees the inside of something new before he graduates. So I think they understand our urgency quite clearly. And even, we were able to have a lot of dialogue with all of the bidders but with left hand specifically to really impress upon them, just how overdue this is in Medford and that we're very aware that every day that we wait means this will cost more. So they are already thinking about how to accelerate the work that has to be done. Some of it can't be accelerated, but where we can accelerate things like paperwork and getting through gates, we're ready to think about that. And they were just all for the energy that we imparted on them about what we are trying to do here. So it was exciting. The team is amazing. They provide a project manager. There's actually two on our project. One is more communications and engagement focused, and the other is more construction focused. They seem like a very good team. They have a lot of nice energy. There's an educational consultant who was the principal of a vocational school, maybe a superintendent. I can't remember, superintendent. Along with another, you know, any other number of credentials I think she was a special educator to start like she's sort of got lots and lots of good history behind her to help advise from an educational planning perspective, which is an important part of this project. And then there's, you know, we got to meet the people who will be on the ground. when there's construction going on, you know, and everybody just really knew their stuff. So it was really exciting. And if you all would like to join us on Monday, you can meet them too. So our next thing is to work with, to get through this gate and then work with left field to issue a similar request for services for the designer, which is the architect. That selection process is quite different than what we've just done, so we'll learn more about that as we go.
[Lungo-Koehn]: questions. Wonderful. Thank you so much. Member Graham. Member Reinfeld.
[Reinfeld]: So this sounds incredibly exciting, and I love the timeline, not just because I also have an eighth grader. I'm curious how the begin work immediately in June lines up with community input, particularly given that summer is a vacation time and our educators are gone. I know there's an architectural selection and that probably needs to happen before we get the community involved. But when can we expect those sorts of conversations and meetings?
[Graham]: Sure. The big thing is to get the designer on board, because they need to be part of those engaged discussions. So my goal would be that we use the summer for what I would call paperwork. It's more than paperwork. But for the not engaging part of this process, but to fill out the team, get that designer on board. If we can line up to the gates and stages that are outlined with MSBA so that come September, we're ready to go. So in the early fall, we wanna be ready to be having those kinds of community conversations that can't happen until the designer's on board. So the OPM will be very involved in that, but they can't do it without the designer because then we would just have to redo it and that would cost more money.
[Reinfeld]: Absolutely, and I know you have a subcommittee for engagement and communication.
[Graham]: We do, and they had, They had already like watched all of those meetings, of course, and they knew that we had a website they had already seen it so they're ready to bolster like on top of that. The other thing that I appreciated that they talked a lot about is that. community engagement now is not just about hearing whether people want to pool or don't want to pool. That's important. But it's also important for the community engagement to start now so that we are building community interest in the project in the lead up to what will be a debt exclusion vote. So they're very tuned in to the fact that they play a really, really important role in helping us tell this story again and again and again. in all kinds of different ways in the lead up to what ultimately will be a really big ask. Great.
[Reinfeld]: Thank you so much for laying that out. And congratulations.
[Graham]: I just want to thank the selection team who accommodated my awful schedule last week. And it was a very, very long day on Wednesday, but we got it done.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Awesome. Great work. Thank you to the selection team. No further questions, we'll go on to resolutions. First is 2025-13 offered by member Rousseau. Benefit school committee may send a delegate, an alternate delegate to the Massachusetts Association of School Committees, MASC, Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents, MASS, an annual joint conference for the purpose of voting during the delegate assembly on the resolutions of the MASC. The conference is Wednesday, November 12th through Saturday, November 15th, with the delegate assembly being held on Friday, November 14th. Voting is only allowed in person and thus is recommended that only members who are able and planning to attend the conference be nominated. Are there any nominations for delegate?
[Graham]: Member Graham. I would like to nominate Russo to be our delegate. He loves this activity so much.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Okay, we have member Rousseau nominated. If there are no other nominations, do I hear a second? Seconded by member Olapade. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Thank you, member Rousseau for representing Medford School Committee. Are there nominations for an alternate delegate?
[SPEAKER_04]: No, no. Oh, I was really loud, sorry.
[Lungo-Koehn]: You're good.
[SPEAKER_04]: I was really loud. No.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Who would like to be an alternate delegate if we have no nominations? Is anybody else planning on going to the conference? Not a definite. Okay. Okay, Member Topper could plan on going.
[Reinfeld]: If you're definitely going, you should be the alternate.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Okay, so we have Member Topper and Member Olapade planning on going. So one of you two maybe could, would one of you like to be an alternate? Okay, Member Intoppa has been nominated by Member Olapade, seconded by Member Branley. All those in favor? Motion passes. Member Intoppa, thank you for being the alternate delegate for the Medford School Committee. Easy peasy. Okay, 2025-14 offered by members so resolution in support of Massachusetts Association of School Committees resolutions reaffirmation, whereas the Massachusetts Association of School Committees ma sc bylaws article nine section one requires adopted resolutions of the association to expire three years after adoption, whereas the MASC bylaws article nine section one requires members member school committees to vote for the readoption of expiring resolutions for consideration of the annual car conference, and whereas the following resolutions are matters The school committee has previously supported. Now therefore be it resolved that the metric school committee reaffirmed support for the following resolutions regarding sanctuary laws for transgender students to increase the maximum balance allowed by the special education reserve fund membership of the board of elementary and secondary education. to request the secretary of the member school committee convey to the MSC resolutions committee chair our support for the above resolutions being reaffirmed and request the secretary of the school committee engage with the MSC resolutions committee and other Massachusetts school committees as necessary to reaffirm the above resolutions pursuant to the bylaws of the MSC. Yes, member Rousseau.
[Ruseau]: Thank you. So this last year we did this for the first time because the MASC two or three years ago made a change because every resolution that had been approved by the body just stayed as a resolution forever to be worked on by the MASC, which, as you can imagine, that list just grew and grew and grew. And of course, if everything's important, then nothing is important. So they changed the rules to require, so the things stay active as resolutions for three years, I'm pretty sure it's three years. And then at that point, they would drop off unless school committees vote to say, no, we really wanna continue to work on this. So these are the three, they were, I think, I can't remember, we got our packets from the association. There was a bunch of them. These are the three that I thought were timely and necessary to continue to work on. The first two are pretty self-explanatory. The last one is because the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education does not allow educators in Massachusetts to be on the board, which pretty much every school committee member and probably every educator thinks is insane. So that's what this is about, is trying to make a change there so that there can actually be some professional educators on the board of education. So it seems reasonable. But if you have any other questions, let me know. Do I have a motion to approve?
[Lungo-Koehn]: Motion to approve by Member Ruseau, seconded by Member Graham. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Motion passes 2025-15 offered by member Reinfeld be resolved that the family engagement and communication subcommittee will meet to discuss protocols for family facing communications around after school enrollment and academic transitions. This meeting will include the director of communications as well as relevant program directors and school leaders member Reinfeld.
[Reinfeld]: Thank you. So one of the things we hear a lot is, what do I expect when there's an after school lottery or when my child is coming to kindergarten or moving up to sixth grade or to eighth grade and I think the district has done a really nice job and. bringing on a director of communications to centralize some of the communications coming out of the central leadership, but I think we do better in some areas than others when it comes to communicating expectations about transitions for families. knowing that we have a director of communications now, and we recognize some of the things that are always going to need to be communicated. Obviously, there are program specific things that need to come from a program in the moment, but I think overall, I think we are at a point where we can really start to put together some frequently asked questions and some schedules that can be communicated to families in advance. And so I would just like to have a deeper conversation and bring Director Pappichelli into that conversation to discuss how his position can support some of these very broad communications that affect a lot of people.
[SPEAKER_01]: Mayor?
[Galusi]: Yes, Dr. Galusi. Thank you for this. I think I know that I have reported and spoke about to this board, spoke about my meet and greets that I had at all of the elementary, well, at all of the schools, but at every single elementary school and at some of the middle schools, this topic came up a lot. And so I would welcome the, opportunity to have continued conversation. I think we are trying internally to really look at our current afterschool, what we're able to offer for opportunities. And so I think that it's important to keep the lines of communication open. And Will does an exceptional job with communication. So I think it would be positive and beneficial.
[Reinfeld]: And I will just add this isn't to take authority away from people who are doing communication, but it's to support them in that work and to, I think this meeting could also give some of our families a chance to communicate to us. I know you heard a lot of it at the meet and greets, but what they would like to know what they're expecting so we can be ahead of that and not have all of our folks on the ground, spending all their time answering questions about things that could have been communicated in advance so that they could focus on doing the work and executing on it.
[Galusi]: Yeah, thank you.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Great. Thank you, Member Reinfeld. So motion approval by Member Reinfeld, seconded by... Member Graham, all those in favor. All those opposed motion passes 2025-16 offered by member Reinfeld, whereas the federal government's current approach to taxation and tariffs has the potential to affect supply chains for school supplies, whereas shipping ports are currently experiencing fluctuations in their regular traffic from international goods and shipping. be resolved that the superintendent shall direct school and department leaders to identify the essential supplies for classroom use in 2025-2026 school year and make student supply lists available to families by June 2nd. Be it further resolved that the district make every effort to anticipate internal needs for such materials so that a reserve of necessary supplies will be available throughout the year in the event of product scarcity and or rising costs, including for students and staff experiencing economic hardship. Good resolution. Thank you, Member Reinfeld.
[Reinfeld]: I think this mostly speaks for itself. This is kind of a trumped up version of our don't run out of paper resolution that I think we passed this time last year. But, and I, I do apologize because I know it is work to put together those school supply lists because they do change from year to year and I hate putting more work on school staff in this busy time, but I think it's really important that we give our families and indeed are the people in the system. As much lead time as possible to pull together what they need for academic success in the new year when in the new academic year when we don't necessarily know what's coming down the line.
[Galusi]: Is that okay? Did you? Okay. Thank you. So I just, I do want to make sure I know one quick thing or just a few quick things. One student, we can work to get the student supply lists. They may fluctuate. I think the harder piece would be checking in with secondary.
[Reinfeld]: That was actually, I was going to mention that because I know that class selections are still being made and we're still figuring out what the offerings are. So I would look to you to advise on how best
[Galusi]: to handle that right there are core supplies that are needed and with the disclaimer that we cannot give this these elective sorry i cut you off no no no no no no but yes i did mean to mention that no i appreciate that because that would be the bigger lift right now because of the the middle school and high school builds with the passing of the new contract that's all still very fluid right now and some of the supplies are really kind of positioned at that level. When we're talking supplies at elementary, they're all suggested, none of it is like required, but we can work to do that. I think our meeting, so you would like this by the June 2nd meeting.
[Reinfeld]: I was thinking that gives us, because normally I think the lists go home on the last day of school in elementary school. They typically, yes. At least that's when I've gotten them. I'll just say that.
[Galusi]: Yes, and I think secondary is more when the students receive their schedules in the middle of the summer. So we can try our best. I just don't know if I can sit here and tell you we're going to have a complete full list by June 2nd. That seems fair to me, and I think some is absolutely better than none here. If it's in draft mode, I can show you one in draft mode. And then the other piece I did wanna say, and if you have like specific questions, I know that Noel can answer some of them. He's been keeping in constant communication with his Masbo network and other financial directors across the Commonwealth. And so they are definitely tracking a lot of this piece for you and has, you know, given me a lot of information pertaining to this subject. Because I know a lot of the conversations that have been happening that Noel has been having, and I don't necessarily want to speak for him, but you know, the anticipated piece would probably fall heavy on technology and CTE. A lot of what people are feeling right now is that we'll be okay with consumables. A lot of them are made in this country, but some of the materials that CTE may need and things around technology devices would be the pieces that are being tracked a little bit more closely with this uncertain time right now. But I welcome if you have specific questions, Noel might be able to answer them a little bit in more detail than myself.
[Lungo-Koehn]: And then maybe if, I don't know if you wanna adjust and just be resolved that the superintendent requests district school and department leaders to identify the essential supplies for next year and make them available as soon as possible versus by June 2nd, as we just heard that it, that might not, June 2nd might not be possible from all. But I think the resolution goes a long way that you want them out as soon as they can.
[Reinfeld]: I'm okay. I normally don't like the vague language of as soon as possible or at earliest convenience, but I think that's reasonable. So I accept that amendment. Okay.
[Lungo-Koehn]: I think Member Ruseau had. Member Ruseau?
[Ruseau]: Thank you. You know, I feel like it's been many years where we've talked about, or I've talked about, you know, we have these huge supply lists. Everybody has to descend on target. And the things that people are being asked to buy for the most part are not, they're good for a couple thousand years, probably. I mean, I don't know how long a Rima paper is actually good for, but if it's not in the sun, it's probably good for a very long time. So I just, if we weren't dealing with the schedule change, I would feel like I would say, let's do it now. we should just order a truckload or two of this stuff and have our students buy it from us at a discount, because it'll be cheaper if we were ordering pallets of paper and pallets of three-ring binders than Target's going to sell them for. So next year we should do that, okay? There's so much going on right now, I feel like it's totally not okay to ask for this because it is a logistics piece of work. It's not really, I don't think it costs that much. It's just a, it's a logistics effort and I don't think we have the bandwidth, but something to think about for next year because I do think it's silly that, you know, These things that are the same things that my kids bought when they were in kindergarten are the same things being bought today in kindergarten, and they do not go bad, other than maybe glue. And there's no reason we can't buy them in bulk and have them for our students at a lower cost, or maybe someday at no cost, but that's a different conversation. And I think that it might help teachers also to be like, okay, we have, know 20 students and I need 20 of these and if we can get the parents out of the middle then the teachers can just fill out a requisition to get 20 of those and it just seems really clean and people aren't driving all over on weekends when they're busy and Facebook black market and you know it seems like an awful lot of effort by an awful lot of people when I think that if we took it out of the hands of You know the caregivers, and just teachers fill out a form I want this many things for my classroom for my students, it just seems really straightforward. But next year we should approach that. Thank you.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you. So, okay so there's a motion on the floor by member Ryan feld as amended member and tapa. Oh, as amended, so we're changing the shall to requests and the June 2nd to as soon as possible. A motion by Member Reinfeld, seconded by Member Intoppa. All those in favor? All those opposed? Motion is approved. Offered by Member Intoppa. Food Allergy Awareness Week Proclamation, whereas more than 33 million Americans have food allergies, nearly 6 million are children under the age of 18. Whereas research shows that the prevalence of food allergy is increasing among children and adults, whereas nine foods cause the majority of all food allergy reactions in the US, which is shellfish, fish, milk, eggs, tree nuts, peanuts, soy, wheat, and sesame, food allergy reactions can range from mild symptoms to severe reactions such as anaphylaxis, whereas anaphylaxis is a serious allergic reaction that is rapid in onset and may cause death, whereas every 10 seconds food allergy sends a patient to the emergency room. Reactions typically occur when an individual unknowingly eats a food containing an ingredient to which they are allergic. whereas emergency medical treatment for severe allergic reactions to food has increased by 377% in only a decade, whereas childhood food allergies cost U.S. families 34 billion each year, whereas now, therefore, be it resolved that the Medford Public Schools and the Medford School Committee proclaim May 11th through the 17th, 2025, Food Allergy Awareness Week in the Medford Public Schools and encourage the residents of the city of Medford and its associates to increase their understanding and awareness of food allergies and anaphylaxis. The source can be found at the Food Allergy Research Education, which is a national nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the quality of life and the health of individuals with food allergies and to providing them hope throughout the promise of new treatments. I'll pass it on to you, my fellow colleague with allergies, Amber and Tapa.
[Intoppa]: Thank you, Mayor. Yeah, it's no surprise to anyone that this is a huge, you know, aspect of my life as someone who suffered with an anaphylaxis, you know, tree nut allergy for all my life. I think it was actually the first meeting with that whole chaos of me coming onto the committee where I promised I wasn't gonna say anything and lay back and then ended up going into a whole tirade about how I went through therapy as a child. And I did that. I ended up going through therapy as a child because of an allergy incident within my elementary school where that was a safe haven for me. That was a place where I felt like I could be safe and eat food and not have to worry. And I found something with nuts in it in the school and it was being served by the school and I spiraled. And I was put into therapy for it. And that shouldn't happen to any child. And the school took abrupt action. I actually remember the vice principal at the time, Ms. Brenner, sitting me down in her office and made me look through all of the food information sheets. Didn't make me, but was like, this is everything. I would refuse to eat anything because I didn't trust it in the school system. And so we've evolved and we've changed. And yeah, it's real. Gen Z is showing. really alarming statistics of the increase of those with food allergies. And the awareness level does not match the increase that people are suffering from it. You know, some people still think hand sanitizer kills those germs, or I can eat it two seats away, or if I just wipe it with hot water, I'll be fine. And it's not. It's not okay. And you know, how do people use epinephrine, you know, auto injectors, my entire senior thesis was in epinephrine auto injectors and the lack of people knowing how to use them. And it's no fault of their own, they just weren't taught. So looking at ways that we can better make this aware, you start with a proclamation. I want to thank the Pellican family for sending this our way and making us aware of this and telling their story. But yeah, I just wanted to put this proclamation forward so we can get the ball rolling on, you know, better ways to make sure that the community is aware of how to deal with this issue. Thank you.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you. Thank you, Member Intoppa. Thank you for putting this on. Shanine Pelequin emailed us all, her child, you know, children with food allergies, one thing for us adults to have them, but children with food allergies is scary and it's so hard. bringing awareness through the school committee and obviously I'm sure we'll all do it next week through our social media accounts is so important. I'm going to pass it off to Dr. Lucy. I think we have somebody on Zoom that would like to speak.
[Galusi]: We do. Thank you very much for this resolution. It is very important. I too am an adult with food allergies and I carry my EpiPen around with me always. But our director of nursing Jen Silva has just consistently been an advocate and a champion for this work. She and her whole entire department, especially with a lot of information and a lot of training for staff around the use of proper EpiPen if need be. She is on via Zoom and has some things to share about the work of the district and her department.
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you, Dr Lucy and good evening. John, thank you for bringing this forward. This is so important and I'm so excited about us making this proclamation to make May 11 to 17 food allergy awareness week in our schools. I would like to talk a little bit about how we currently promote food allergy awareness, though. We all know there's so much more work to do. So first, I'd like to talk a little bit about our Food Services Director, Retta Smith, and her staff and how diligently they work to ensure that our students with food allergies who need meal modifications can access school meals. Retta really works with families who need support and who need different meals in the cafeteria to make sure those meals are safe to consume. Our building administration, our nurses, our cafeteria staff all work with families to determine different systems that can be used in the cafeterias to keep kids safe with food allergies. Some of our cafeterias are using what we call peanut tables rather than peanut-free tables, which are kind of a thing of the past. And at those peanut tables, a student who has a peanut-containing meal can actually sit with a friend and eat at that table to sort of keep it a little bit more contained. We also have some schools that are using sort of individual desks so that students can eat and prevent cross-contamination. And all of these really are efforts to support our mission to be inclusive and not exclude students with food allergies. Our nurses train all staff on how to give epinephrine. And I don't know, people without food allergies may not know this, but there has been a huge advancement in medication for food allergies, for emergencies. Now we have an intranasal spray that we can use, which is much easier for lay people to give rather than an injection. So soon enough, we'll be training all of our staff how to give that as well, which is a big improvement. At the Misatoch Elementary School, students have had the opportunity to participate in what we call the Be a Pal or Protect a Life program. What the Be a Pal program does is it helps children learn how to protect a life by being a good friend to others with food allergies. What they do is they partner sort of older students to be leaders to younger elementary students, and those students mentor those students about food allergies. Our nurses, Karen Roberto and Lori Boriello, train those leaders about food allergy awareness, and then those leaders visit assigned classrooms throughout the year. and work to teach younger students about snack rules. Their goal is to teach them about how serious even life-threatening food allergies can be, how important it is not to share food with each other because of food allergies, and about washing hands after every snack and meal to prevent cross-contamination. As part of our professional development this year, Karen and Laurie also educated their fellow nurses about the Be a Pal program so that we can work on bringing it to all of our schools in the district. And in addition, this past weekend, there was a New England School Nurse Conference where Karen and Laurie had the opportunity to present their work to about 300 school nurses. So it's pretty exciting to share what they've been doing. Last thing I want to talk about is that we are currently working with caregivers to form a food allergy educational support group. The objective really is to provide camaraderie, friendship, networking, support, education for all of our families who are managing their children who have been diagnosed with food allergies. We've affiliated with the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America in New England to provide support for the group and Dr. Xavier, our school physician, is also providing some support at a physician level for the group and we're looking forward to our first meeting via Zoom on May 15th at 7 30. Again, thank you so much. I appreciate that this proclamation was made.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you very much Ms. Silva. Member Intoppa.
[Intoppa]: Yeah, so thank you so much. And I actually meant to mention that in my whole, you know, speech on top of the speech of, so like many of us, I got to go serve lunch for, you know, I'm going to lunch service hero day. And I got to visit my old school, the Mistletoe, and they sort of gave me a tour of the building and I got to feel like, you know, principal for the day. And it felt really wrong to be back there because that was a no go zone as a student. And one of the things that I was really happy to learn about was that the nut, the, you know, the peanut tree nut free table is now the peanut tree nut table and where, you know, I used to have to sit there away from all my friends and I used to sit there and eat, you know, lunch every day. And now that's not the case. And that those students don't feel ostracized from the group and separated from the group because of something they can't control. So I was really happy to see that. And they showed me the bathroom that they lead the students to so they can properly wash their hands. So they're not bringing it back to the classroom where they may sit next to that student. So thank you Nurse Silva for bringing that, Director Silva for bringing that to all of our attention. It was really nice to see that on Friday. So thank you.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you. Is there a motion on the floor by Member Intapas for this proclamation? Seconded by Member Reinfeld. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Motion is approved. Next week will be declared Food Allergy Awareness Month. A week, sorry, week. We do not have reports requested or condolences, which is nice. We have our next regular meeting on May 19th, 2025, here in the Alden Memorial Chambers, Medford City Hall, in addition to Zoom. And again, next week, six to eight, on Monday the 12th is our MSBA, is the MSBA committee meeting. Is there a motion to adjourn? Yes before we adjourn before I call the roll I just know there's some great happenings for our schools and the city this week. Tomorrow is the PTO fundraiser it's the Harlem Wizards you can buy tickets I believe at the door 6pm at doors open show starts at seven all proceeds go to our PTOs which is elementary I believe PTOs which is great. And then on the 10th of May, we have our disability fair. That's at the McGlynn school from 11 to two, that's gonna be a great session. You can just pop in or you can stay the whole time. So please join us at our disability fair, which again is May 10th, Saturday, 11 to 2 p.m. And to all those moms out there, happy Mother's Day. Motion to adjourn by. Member Reinfeld, seconded by Member Intoppa. All those in favor? All those opposed? Motion's approved. Good night, everybody. Thank you.
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