[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Oh, hey, thank you. Great, thank you. Good evening, everybody. We have our ninth regular meeting of the Medford School Committee on May 19th, 2025, 6 p.m. The meeting will be held at the Howard Alden Memorial Chambers, Medford City Hall, and via remote participation. This meeting is being recorded. The meeting can be viewed live on the Medford Public Schools YouTube channel, through Medford Community Media, on your local cable channel Comcast channel nine, eight or 22 and Verizon channel 43, 45 or 47. Participants can log a call in by using the following Zoom link. The meeting ID is 959-5023-0990. Agenda, member Rousseau, if you could call the roll, please.
[Paul Ruseau]: Member Branley.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: She's absent tonight.
[Paul Ruseau]: Member Graham.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Here.
[Paul Ruseau]: Member Intoppa. Here. Member Olapade. Here. Member Reinfeld.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Present.
[Paul Ruseau]: Member so present, Mayor Langenfeld.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Present. Six present, one absent. Do we have any student representatives on the call tonight? Not yet. Not yet. OK, great. If we can all rise to please 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 our consent agenda, approval of bills and payrolls, approval of capital purchases, approval of grants, approval of field trips. We have our Medford Vocational Technical High School day trip with automotive technology, New England Dragway in New Hampshire. We have our Andrews Middle School day trip to Canobie Lake Park and our McGlynn Middle School day trip to Canobie Lake Park. We also have approval of meeting minutes from our regular meeting on May 5th, 2025. Is there a motion for approval? I remember in Tapa seconded by member old party. All those in favor? All those opposed? Paper passes. We do not have any reports of subcommittees. We have a number of reports of our superintendent. The first is enhancing the Medford Public Schools after school programming. So I'm going to turn it over to Dr. Suzanne Galusi, our interim superintendent.
[Suzanne Galusi]: Thank you very much. Thank you. So this evening I'm going to be presenting on the district's approach to expanding our after school program on behalf of Metro Public Schools students and families. And I do have to say that as part of my transition, I had listening sessions at all of the elementary schools well at all of the schools, but at every listening session. The plight of the after school programming was discussed in detail, I heard a lot of concerns and a lot of like suggestions. how we can make improvements in this area. So I just want to really acknowledge that we hear you and we totally understand, which is why tonight we're going to have a little conversation about how we can kind of thoughtfully expand the afterschool programming for Medford Public Schools. I'm going to, I can't really, I'll wait. Thank you, Dr. Cushing. Okay, thank you. So the objectives in expanding Medford Public Schools afterschool programming. There are five areas in where we have objectives. The first one is our program management, where we are going to be doing an ongoing evaluation of programming, curriculum, staffing structures, and our finances. The second is a look at our enrollment to increase capacity district wide, particularly at two elementary schools that have a large wait list, look at staffing. And so in order to increase capacity in our afterschool programming, we really need to hire some additional staff, dedicated staff to Increased seats. Partnership. So collaboration is very important in all work, but especially in this work. So partnerships with current staff, as well as new staff, partnerships with caregivers, and professional partnerships are all going to be needed in order to increase this capacity. And then communication. So aligning communication methods and channels in a programmatic approach is definitely needed to help understand and update our schedules, timelines, and our efforts of expansion. So on the next slide, key players and some oversight of responsibilities would be myself, which will have a stake in the vision of expanding this program and what Medford Public Schools Afterschool Program is, and communication with stakeholders. We also are going to be working with Andrew Munford in his basic program, which I will get into a little bit more detail later on in the presentation. Megan Fidle-Carrie is currently the afterschool director. She is a integral part of the program for day-to-day management, staff oversight, and key partnership with BASIC. And then communications, our communications director, Will Pippicelli will take the key role in communications for the afterschool program. He will work on developing a frequently asked questions document. He will work on communication plans and templates, and then make sure that he's collaborating and working on a system for enrollment each year and communicating that out in a timely manner. And then there's the creation and maintenance of the afterschool task force, which was really a wonderful grassroots effort from very dedicated caregivers in Metro Public Schools. And so that representation of caregivers at the table for ongoing feedback and input and perspective and decision-making will be key for us. Next slide talks a little bit about the consultancy. So beginning now and for next year, we're going to engage in a consultancy with Andrew and the BASIC team. That consists of three phases. We feel that this consultancy is really going to allow us some critical information to see how we can maintain some local control over the program. It's very important for us to maintain some of that local control and build on the hiring that we have and the program that we have to serve our needs for Medford. And so in partnership with Andrew, this consultancy will consist of three phases. And the first phase is, yes? Member Reinfeld?
[Erika Reinfeld]: I'm not sure everyone who has is listening in is familiar with this basic acronym and who Andrew is so if you could go back a little bit.
[Suzanne Galusi]: Yes, thank you very much. And so I might need so Belmont after school education collected what I'm not sure if I know the entire acronym, but Andrew Munford. started an afterschool program in two districts. It began in Belmont. It has expanded to Maynard. It is independent of those two school districts. So it is an independent afterschool program that is housed within the facilities, the school facilities in those two communities. And he has been able to increase capacity in those two districts and decrease the wait lists. He's, oh, Education Collaborative? Enrichment Collaborative, thank you so much for that. And so in saying that, to not completely remove and privatize without kind of diligent efforts, to expand first within Metro Public Schools, but knowing that we need some help and support, and quite honestly, just a fresh kind of way of looking at things, he's going to partner with us every step of the way, starting now and through next year. So the first phase of his consultancy is a program assessment. So we will be working hand in hand with him, giving him all of our data, he's going to be gathering data, doing interviews, site visits, all the things that he needs to identify capacity needs and create a plan, honestly. So phase two is that strategic development where he'll take all of that gathered data and he will create short-term goals that we could probably implement right next year, as well as long-term goals to grow the program from school year 27 and on. his plan will include what it would cost Medford Public Schools, what the implications are, and also partner with us in the creation of associated schedules and curriculum. Those two things are the priorities for right now and for next year. Phase three, which we are all set to do, but comes after those first two phases are done, is that like ongoing professional development and training that our staff need and will just enhance the program. We can partner with him in the PD that he does with his current two programs in Belmont and Maynard. It can also be tailored specifically to Medford Public Schools. So some of those conversations will be had throughout the year.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Member Graham.
[Jenny Graham]: Thank you. I just also wanted to say that we were introduced to Andrew and basic through some of the folks who I hope will join us on the after school task force at some point in the near future, because they did a whole bunch of data collection and identified basic as an organization who's been able to do some things that we have long struggled to do here in Medford, including like essentially eliminating their waitlist but also radically changing the the type of programming that has happened, or that is available to students in his in those districts. So, the Dr. Galusi and I had a preliminary conversation with him just to understand, you know, the sort of what really was happening in those other districts. And that's sort of where this consultancy unfolded from because I think, you know, he would have been very happy to come here and do the same thing that he has done successfully in other districts, which is to take this off our hands. But that has some downsides here that, you know, in our conversations we identified as like maybe not in Medford's collective best interest. But one of the things that I appreciated about the conversation was not just, and he didn't just have ideas of like what, of how we could do things differently and make a different impact, but instead he could cite specifically how he did it. And he seemed to have, and does have a really keen eye towards implementation, which I think is something district wide that we have always struggled with, not just an after school but across the board so you know in in the conversation with him we sort of. try, you know, try to just understand what that program was all about. And then had some conversation about like, how do we basically have the best of both worlds, which is this program still belongs to us, but also like, it's expanded in the way that Andrew has been successful in doing in both Belmont and Maynard. And so this consultancy conversation came up in that context. I just wanted to thank the folks in the room who are maybe on zoom or maybe here with us tonight that have that so graciously introduced us to Andrew and this model, because it really sort of changed, in my opinion, changed the conversation that we're having about after school and finally has like provided some ability for us to break through what has been like just a complete log jam for a really long time.
[Suzanne Galusi]: Thank you, Member Graham. Thank you for that. So the next slide are our goals for the basic consultancy, which is expansion of the current elementary program. So increase enrollment capacity and decrease the waitlist, which will, which will include expansion of space within all of the schools. And then the second is to review new and extended after school programming opportunities, create, we are looking to part of the work with Andrew is also going to be to look at what it is to expand in a middle school program. And so the first priority, of course, is the expansion of the elementary program to better serve the community. And the other piece of this is to dabble into what it would look like to expand to middle school. And Andrew would be very excited to kind of spearhead and take on that program. So those are conversations that are going to be happening throughout the year as well. So the next slide talks about the Afterschool Task Force. And so the purpose of the Afterschool Task Force is to provide community-rooted recommendations and oversight to ensure equitable, high-quality, and accessible afterschool programs for Metro Public Schools. The participants on this would be, as stated, MPS caregivers, afterschool program staff, school building staff, central administration and consulting partners. And I would say consulting partners would include Andrew, and I would say that it also includes City Year that is currently in the Missittuck and the McGlynn schools and will be returning for next year. as well as maybe others, but at least to start, it would be those two consulting partners. And so some of the key responsibilities for this task force would be promoting community and family engagement and decision-making, helping to align afterschool programming and policies with student and community needs, to participate in the development of monitoring of program needs and metrics, and advise on resource distribution and communication. And so we're very excited to get that set and planned. And further details will come as we go. So our next slide brings us to Medford Public Schools commitment. I do want to say that we are very dedicated to growing this in a thoughtful way and making sure that we meet the needs of Medford families. And so we are dedicated to expanding the afterschool program with steady progress for the next year and the next three years. We are committed to collaborating with the consultancy and with caregivers and with everyone involved to make this a sustainable afterschool program. And we are committed to protecting and leveraging the revenue that we do bring in to the afterschool program to enhance what we're offering. We do feel that it's beneficial to the community of Medford, and we really want to make a valiant effort at trying this before we would have a conversation about outsourcing. And then we do recognize the critical importance of maintaining that local control, both on targeting the specific needs of our community within the program, but also to maintain some of that, you know, local hiring. So the next few slides kind of break down those objectives. I'm just gonna talk broadly about them, but we will make sure that this slides presentation is on the Medford Public Schools website and easily accessible to you tonight or tomorrow morning. So just briefly, the first slide on program management just talks about how we are going to evaluate the programming, the staffing, the curriculum, the finances, and the space needs in collaboration with school leaders and Andrew through his consultancy so that we are building capacity, not just for school year 26, for next year, 25, 26, but also for future years. And that also includes creating a financial model, looking at the pilot for middle school academic support and implementing the strategies and the suggestions that come through the consultancy so that we are sustaining growth past fiscal year 27. The next slide talks about a staffing, our staffing overview. And so we are going to assess how we're using city year in at the McGlynn and at the Mississauga, and we will partner with basic. in order to guide our staffing increases in all four elementary schools. But I just actually had a meeting this morning with the City Year folks in looking at what that might look like for next year. And I don't have like specific details, but they're also broadening their support and really going all in on some additional positions for after-school programming at the Missittuck and the McGlynn. So I'm very excited about that. Once I kind of know what the specifics are, I will relay those, but really leveraging that support from them and really looking at our staffing structures globally, but really at the Brooks and the Roberts to see what's needed that we can increase capacity at all four schools. Um, and we will be using the guidance that we also get from Andrew in terms of what that staffing looks like. But we do know we will start that staffing this summer so that we are set to increase for next year. The next slide for enrollment. Um, we have a valiant effort to do all we can to increase some of this effort by June 15th so that we can communicate that to caregivers. at all four buildings. Additionally, we are going to work on implementing an automated enrollment system. That is something that we are working with collaboratively so that we can have a better system developed and that will meet the needs of the lottery because we know that that needs some enhancing and some communication behind it. And also the guidance that we're getting from the audit. And then the next slide talks about our partnership so I have spoken a little bit about this in terms of our partnerships with with basic and Andrew, our partnership with caregivers and the task force, but I also want to highlight the part the current partnerships that need to be ongoing and extended through part of this work. And that is our current afterschool staff, that is our current school leaders. And so Megan Fidler-Carey, who is on the call via Zoom, we have already had one meeting with school leaders about increasing space at all of the schools because that's going to need to happen in order to increase capacity. So those conversations on the school level are already starting to happen so that we can identify spaces that are sacred and spaces that are flexible so that we can kind of grow for immediate next year. The next slide talks about overall the communication plan. So. with our director, Will Pippicelli. So following this meeting, one of the things that we do want to do is send out a survey to current families that are both enrolled in Medford Public Schools actively and on the wait list. And so this survey would ask for your interest, not for you to sign up, but your interest in offering another track to afterschool programming. So we would like to just get people's input, kind of dabble a little bit and see what the interest would be if we were to offer two or three pickup tracks. Megan has been looking at some data with her staff from school to school around pickup times from this past school year. and to see what the interest would be if there are people that just need one hour of coverage after school so as you know our school times are changing and dismissal is going from 235 to 245 and so we we are Between street data that the site coordinators and Megan Phila Carey gather from caregivers, as well as the pickup times. We do know that there are some families that just need care for maybe that one hour from picking up other students are getting out of their own jobs, some families may need just 90 minutes. And if that's the case, that is also another way that we can increase seats and capacity for the families that need until 6 p.m. So that survey is going to go out tomorrow as another way that we can gather some data to see what is possible for implementation for next school year. So, and in addition, just, I think, having a more aligned system for communication and true partnership with Will Pippicelli, Megan Fidlicari, and myself, that alignment you will see in communication moving forward. And then I would just say in summary, we have a series of next steps so that first and foremost, is the support and collaboration with the task force and getting getting meeting number one on the books, because the support is appreciated. And we do feel that it will help to keep momentum in progress. And it will also bring some collaboration to this ongoing conversation and be able to identify people that really want to kind of roll their sleeves up and kind of dig into the work in those ongoing conversations and decision making. And then review and analyze the basic audit results. So that's going to be critical to informing our work moving forward. And so looking at what the current staffing structures are what the new staffing structures are that we need to make an impact, and really looking at the data that Andrew through the basic consultancy is giving us, which I think we're, he's very excited for Andrew. has not done a consultancy before, but he was really excited to partner with Medford in any capacity. So part of he has to work with his board of directors as to what exactly that will look like, but he's really excited to be partnering with us. So I think that's great for us. And then that survey that I spoke about is an immediate next step that will happen. And then the updated communication so we will update the community on this presentation make it available on our Metro Public Schools website. carefully monitor all throughout next year as well, so that we're really looking at any shifts that are happening in enrollment so that we can keep clearing the waitlist as much as we possibly can. And then I do think it's important to note that we just finished a bid process we were up for our eastern bus contract, and so we just finished that bid process. We'll have a little bit more information about what that looks like, but I do know that it's important to note, as part of that bid process, that myself and other members of the committee did receive messages over the weekend or even today from community members expressing their concerns about some of the current maybe miscommunication around transportation and specifically the transport from students to RSK STEAM lab for next school year. So first and foremost, thank you for your emails because that allows me and my team to know exactly kind of what maybe communication you're receiving and so that we can appropriately respond. So I do wanna say that, but even though we haven't completely finalized the bus contract for next year, it's critical for people to know that we're not giving up. any of the buses we currently have. So right now, I just want people to be aware that we're making a commitment to maintain the current buses that we currently have. and then when we finalize that bus contract, we will have a communication sent out that clearly identifies that bus contract and what the process is going to be to sign up for the buses. But at that, I would be happy to take any questions or any clarifications that may be needed.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Member Ruseau?
[Paul Ruseau]: Thank you, I know this is early, so I do have some questions. I'm trying to understand how the early pickup helps with capacity. If you could just explain that.
[Suzanne Galusi]: Yeah, that's a great question. So if there are families that just need an hour to maybe an hour and a half of coverage, that could be handled in a separate staffing configuration, which means we could remove And I don't say remove, but we could shift those seats and open up those seats to families that need care until 6pm. And that way, not only are we hoping to increase capacity by adding additional staffing, and maybe leveraging city year differently, but if we're also able to use our staffing to handle just an hour to 90 minutes, then those those seats become open that we can also pull from the waitlist to fill those seats for the 6pm.
[Paul Ruseau]: Okay, I'll wait till I hear more because none of that no offense that what you said made sense except that from a like in my mind mathematically, none of that made sense. So I will wait for more information on that.
[Suzanne Galusi]: We have current, we do have some current staff, paraprofessionals, we do have some high school students, you know, we've also received other kind of anecdotal street data from people that would love to, let's say, work in the afterschool program, but can't commit until 6 p.m.?
[Paul Ruseau]: That's the answer I was looking for. Thank you. My next question, how many people presently work in afterschool? Oh, you would have to- Ballpark.
[Suzanne Galusi]: Megan's on the call, and I would have to probably tap her for that one.
[Paul Ruseau]: Okay. Oh, she came on.
[Megan Fidler-Carey]: Hi, sorry, it's a little bit dark on my end. So I have a staff list that's 80 people, but as we've talked about before, it's not 80 positions. These are people we've kind of puzzled together. Some people work one to two days a week. Some people only work till 4.30. So there are 80 different staff members, but we try to keep a ratio of one to 10. adults, not high school students. The high school students are invaluable, but we don't keep them as part of our ratio. So if there's a 1 to 10 ratio of staff to students, depending on the number of students in the program, that's how many staff we make sure to have.
[Paul Ruseau]: Thank you. Just two more questions, hopefully. I'm very much looking forward to the consultancy. How much are we paying him, or have we figured that out yet?
[Suzanne Galusi]: We're still in the process of working that out.
[Paul Ruseau]: Okay, I guess I did have another question to, you know, my understanding is the magic bullet is that, like, I think I've been saying since I was elected that we pay them full time wages, they get benefits, they get retirement. And there will be lots of people to come out of the woodwork to do this work if we do that. So I, I'm looking forward to Andrew's very detailed analysis of our situation, but once we get that report, unless there's gonna be a suggestion to do something different here than they did in the other two districts, which was to pay people, frankly, reasonable full-time wages, which will be, I'm not gonna decide ahead of time, we can't do it. But that is a staggeringly bigger dollar figure than we currently pay. Not just the hourly rate, but insurance. I mean, we have some staff, I'm sure, who literally work here because they get benefits for their family. So we'll cross that bridge when we get there. But I mean, I feel like I've been saying, if we pay people $100 an hour, we would have no trouble finding after-school staff. And I've been saying it over and over and over and over and over. And so yay, if that's what we're going to do. Because I do think that if that's the solution, which has seemed obvious for so many years, then I'm all for it.
[Suzanne Galusi]: Just in response to that, that is definitely part of his formula. So he does hire full-time, full-year staff because his programs do take on the vacation weeks. they offer programming during school vacation weeks, they offer programming in the summer. So part of that piece you're talking about, he does, he does respond to that by hiring year long staff. So that is one of the things that we are looking at. You know, the quantity of how many we can handle doing that for next school year is part of that financial puzzle. But that would be you know, hiring a range, I don't know, of two to four full-time people is part of the discussion that we're having now.
[Paul Ruseau]: Thank you. I'm very excited. I'm happy to see that we're talking about doing something that has been solvable, but has not been solvable for free. Thank you.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you, member Rousseau. Member Graham?
[Jenny Graham]: Thank you. I just wanted to also add, as I was listening to your question. I think one of the things that Andrew described like I think really actually when I spoke to him for the first time is there's just a huge spectrum of what after school means based on the particular program that you're talking about, and he, you know, he sort of said it goes from like warehouse to like highly curated, focused curriculum. And I think we're somewhere in the middle of all of that right now. But I think part of what intrigued me about this full time staff is, he's not just he's not simply saying, I'm just going to pay you like you work full time, even though you work part time, like that is not his model. But instead, his model is, I have people who are creating curriculum, and who are curating the experience that improves the, like the quality of the program for part of the day. And then the other part of the day, their feet on the ground and with kids doing the work. So it's a, there's like sort of a two hat role in there that we don't have today in that same way that I'm excited about. The thing that excites me is like, once we can get past this hump of, you know, our intractable wait list, We actually have an opportunity to start to say, how do we plug the needs of our students into this model in some meaningful way so if we have kids who need specific help with homework, how can we create that we have kids who need executive function support, how can we create. structures within this program to deal with that, not just for the kids who are like, quote, lucky enough to get a spot, but that there's enough spots that if you need that kind of support, you can have it too. And so I think it sort of, to me, it opens the door possibility beyond just like, do we have enough spaces for kids who need it to how do we extend the day in a different way? In those particular ways that are meaningful based on what specific kids need, which we don't do right now we can't. And thinking about that as a possibility in the next like handful of years is like a really like to me a really big deal. also really appreciated Andrew's willingness to talk about this like consultancy model because that is financially not as advantageous for him and his organization as just taking our program. But losing $2 million a year in revenue was just not something that any of us felt like was in the district's best interest. So I do think there's a financial model where all of this levels out and we can invest, right? And so I think creating this, this mechanism to be able to invest in increasing the quality of the programming is really exciting to me. And I would love nothing more than to be able to tell parents who are emailing me about after school that we have solved it after all these years. So I'm excited about that too. But mostly like just being able to really think beyond what we have done here, I think is really important. And I'm really grateful that we're. pulling the communication piece into this in a more formal way and saying to our communications director, like, we want you to be doing this communication piece because it's really high stakes for families and it's really an add on to what we do as a district or what our mission is, right? But it's critical. So I feel like it just has never gotten the attention it needs and deserves, the communication around this particular program. and we can fix that. So I'm excited about that too. And I'm happy to make a motion to approve this recommendation so that the district can proceed. I think time is wasting. So I will defer to my colleagues if they have other questions and certainly folks in the audience who I believe may have come to speak, but I would like to put a motion on the table to approve this plan to move forward.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you, Member Graham. Member Olapade, did you have your hand up?
[Aaron Olapade]: Thank you. So I had a couple of cool questions. I know we're at the very early stages, so you might not be able to have an answer to that. Does BASIC let us know about how often they're going to report their findings? I know, obviously, this is a three-year expansion process. I know that they have a certain set of criteria or metrics they use to determine how we are growing in that success pool. Have they informed us of what they usually do? I know it's kind of the first time they're doing this consulting. Is that anywhere yet?
[Suzanne Galusi]: No, not to that, like, granular piece, the Latin my last conversation with Andrew we kind of talked about what those three phases of his work will be. And we're just in the process of sending him, I mean we had to present here, but we're just in the process of gathering the data he's requested and sending it to him. we're first starting out with a one year consultancy. And then I think we will have some decisions to make. I think the monitoring piece he could assist with, but the next steps would really be around training and maintenance of our growing efforts. So I can kind of get to that like granular piece and ask what he's using.
[Aaron Olapade]: That'd be great. Thank you.
[Jenny Graham]: Member Graham? Thank you. I did just have a question and it's gone now. I will let you know when it comes back.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: And I just want to say from the chair, I just want to thank you, Dr. Lucy and the team that's working on this. This has been a long time coming. We've asked for this for several years. I know on the city side, we are working to rehab the Hegner Center through a federal grant, but obviously that takes a couple years to even go through design and architect work. So we are at, I'm just very happy we're at this point, and I appreciate the hard work that's gone behind this for something that's so greatly needed. So on the motion by Member Graham, seconded by... I don't know if there's anyone online.
[Suzanne Galusi]: Dr. Cushing, is there anybody with a hand up? Okay.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Great. Seconded by Member Intoppa.
[Suzanne Galusi]: Can I just add something?
[Jenny Graham]: Sure, remember Graham. Thank you. My, my question is whether before the end of this school year we will see staff rate staff increases for their pay. as we normally do. I know last year we just had like a weird snafu and I think that got left behind. So I just want to make sure we're not leaving that behind again. No, we're not.
[Suzanne Galusi]: That's slotted for one of the next.
[Jenny Graham]: Okay.
[Suzanne Galusi]: Yeah. Along with non unit. Perfect. Thank you. Yep.
[Erika Reinfeld]: Reinfeld? Yes, so I am strongly supportive of this. I have also met with Andrew and was very impressed by the work and seeing what's coming out of the community and really appreciative that this was able to move forward so quickly after the listening sessions. My question is when we will see that proposal, that quote from Andrew and confirm that that's coming out of the revolving fund for afterschool, or I really want this to move forward. And I think member Ruseau may have already seconded. I would, if not, but as the school committee, we do need to know what that financial impact is and make sure that it's not affecting families. We have our tuition rates. So I just want to be financially responsible in authorizing this.
[Suzanne Galusi]: Thank you. We already did the rate card for tuition so it will not impact families for next school year. And I would assume that is where it's coming out of. But I will, I have a note here to, to check in about the member all parties question. I will double check with him in terms of where he stands with his board. He's developing the contract in partnership with his board of directors, as this is something that's new for them. And so I will just, I have a schedule to check in with him later on this week. I'll find out, yep.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you. I think we're good from the body. So please name and address for the record.
[Ada Gunning]: So Ada Gunning, 40 Magoon Ave. I just wanted to thank you so much, Dr. Lucy and the school committee for taking this issue on. It's an issue that, as I think you know, disproportionately affects women who are typically the ones that give up their working hours to be home with kids. It also stratifies our community. People with money will put their kids in private school for the hours. These are things that we don't even see happening, but we know are happening in our community and we don't even track them. And this spring I had an opportunity with a few other concerned parents to do a deeper dive on why other towns seem to be able to provide more robust after school programming the Medford and my single biggest takeaway was the culture and the investment and you know to to member Ruseau's point, like pay people well and you will be able to fully staff your program. And that's why I was really heartened to see that Dr. Lucy, you came into this position and you like really took this issue on right off the bat and you really listened in those listening sessions. Your plan incorporates a lot of our ideas and more importantly to the culture shift, you immediately started meeting with the schools, school staff, admin, And we're just really grateful that you were able to do that. Obviously, the plan isn't perfect, but your leadership is going a long way already. And I also want to thank members Bram and Renfeld, who've been there every step of the way, really working on this with us. We, the parents who have been involved, will continue to stay engaged. We're really excited about the after-school task force and the direct channel of communication on this issue. And just wanted to note that I also am looking forward to increased financial transparency around the after school program. I think that's an area where there's been just like a lack of information to parents that want to understand better where the money is going. So thank you very much.
[Suzanne Galusi]: Thank you.
[Ada Gunning]: Thank you.
[SPEAKER_11]: Good evening. Name and address of the record, please. Hi, Michelle Barkson, 23 Diane Road. So I just wanted to say thank you so much for taking this seriously and putting in all this effort. I'm a teacher in another district, and I just also wanted to confirm that that extra hour or 90 minutes that you referenced would be life-saving for me. And I was texting with two other moms while you were saying it, that it could possibly happen. And just that hour, even the one hour would be enough that I would help out many people. I think even particularly for people that maybe need the full six o'clock, but if it was between 4.15 care and then a little bit of TV versus nothing, they're gonna take that 4.15. I also just wanted to highlight, I think, I know you know this, I know you all have been getting emails and things, but this is such an emotional and difficult issue. It has already kept, my daughter is three, she isn't entering the schools until, fall of 26 I'm already up at night worrying about her getting after school my son is who seven has been lucky enough to be in one of the private programs, but that has been a roller coaster to. I know many families that have sent that are sending their kids to private schools, because they need the hours, and I know people who are considering moving because of how bad the situation is so I just really want to thank you for. making this a priority. And Member Graham, I appreciated the way you were talking about how, you know, being treated with the urgency and the high stakes that is needed. So on that end, I also want to thank you that it seems like the communication piece might be the focus for next year. as well as the transparency around the lottery, that is something that I would really like to ask that we're able to see the have the lottery be public, obviously protecting student identity, maybe it was to 90 numbers or something like that. But that we're able to see it because it's so high stakes and we haven't had really solid communication, some of us on the waitlist and things like that and it's felt as though. it's an afterthought or something, and it's like a life-changing thing for working parents. As you know, more and more, we have two working parents in our community, so it's really important. So anyway, thank you so much for your energy, member Graham and member Reinfeld. I know you've been helping us with this all along. We really appreciate it, and just thank you so much. It seems like we're going in the right direction.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you.
[SPEAKER_11]: Thank you, Michelle.
[Jessica Parks]: Jessica Parks, 38 Corey Street, and I just want to reiterate what they've said, and thank you for coming in and. know, immediately jumping in in your first few months on the job and taking this on with the urgency that it needs. But also, one of the things I learned looking at other districts is needing to look at it creatively, and thinking that outside of the box to figure out how to get more children into our schools and aftercare. So I appreciate how you've kind of strategically looked at it. And I just want to thank you. And I also want to reiterate the need for kind of clear communication as we move forward on a maybe more regular basis, just so families know what to expect and when to expect. That's what I want to say. But I really do want to say thank you, because I think that it was, as you've heard, it's a really big concern in this community. And I just really appreciate it. So thank you.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you all for being here to listen to Dr Lucy's presentation. And thanks again to the team working on this. So there's a motion on the floor by member Graham, seconded by member and Tapa. Yeah. Remember Ruseau. Remember Ruseau. Okay. Um, all those in favor.
[Erika Reinfeld]: Oh, remember, Thank you. Yeah, so I wanna thank the task force, people who just spoke, Jessica, Ada, and others. The deep dive into other districts I think was really powerful, partly because we were looking at that as inspiration and what could be possible versus all the things that other people are doing that we're not. It was really collaborative and open-minded. And on the communication piece, I just wanted to put in a plug for our family engagement and communication subcommittee meeting on June 11th after school lottery is one of the one of the topics on the agenda, along with some of the other family facing communications. So that subcommittee will be meeting in June. Hate to give people more meetings at the end of the school year, but it's important and we wanted it to happen now.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you, Member Reinfeld. Does anybody want to call for the roll? Or is this just a motion for approval? All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Motion passes. Thank you. We have number two, increased flexibility. Yes. We have a long agenda, so I'm glad we took that first, y'all. Okay, increased flexibility for students, health and physical education requirements. Again, turn it over to Dr. Suzanne Galusi, interim superintendent.
[Suzanne Galusi]: Thank you very much. So in response to the school committee resolution, this report outlines the preliminary approach to Medford Public Schools health and physical education graduation requirements to increase flexibility and better support diverse student needs while also aligning with state and national standards. So the report that you have in front of you just speaks about the current requirements right now are four years of wellness. So that's physical education as well as health. We are here tonight to recommend four years, so four years of physical education. So what would be happening, let's say for next school year, is that the freshmen would take physical education one day per week as part of their CTE rotation if, or their arts technology rotation. Sophomore year, they would take PE two times a week as part of their regular schedule. I do want to pause for this moment just to say as this body and maybe many people listening are aware, we did through the bargaining with the teachers, have changed the high school schedule. So we finally have a merged schedule that will blend the comprehensive and the career technical education side. That schedule not only increases the day by 15 minutes, but it adds an additional period. One of the things that we're kind of working on Right now on and it's in it's an ongoing process is that we are seeing that in order to work the schedule for students. This year, and what many families are used to, is that physical education and health requirements are half the year. So they do, let's say students experience physical education, if they're a freshman, quarters one and two, and then they switch, and quarters three and four, they are in health education. For next year, we're not switching. Now, things may change as we kind of work this schedule and see how it's going for future school years, but this would have year long courses without flipping. They're not half year courses, they're year long courses. So as it stands right now, that's why it says once a week for physical education or twice a week as a sophomore. Juniors and seniors, their electives. So part of this flexibility would be some students may want to take an elective for physical education as a junior or a senior, but other students, if they are, well, I guess I'll get into the specifics in a minute. One of the other options would be to offer a wellness independent study. And I'll talk about what that will look like in further detail in a minute. And then to justify the three years of health right now, what we do have and you would probably notice first and foremost is that health is not listed for freshman year. So there was a very robust ongoing conversation around what health would look like freshman year, specifically for students engaged in the CTE rotations. because we would have to, that is a critical year for health one. And in order to get everything into the student schedule, we would have to modify that curriculum. And that is not what the educators and people that work so hard on that want to do. So in order to maintain the rigor and the, level of instruction for health one, the recommendation would be to put health one in sophomore year and junior year health two, which would mean that the electives are for health, which currently do not exist and would be created, would be in senior year or students could also opt for an independent study. Now, what the independent studies would look like for the physical education independent study. The qualifying aspects of this would be students that are currently participating in, let's say, two seasons of a sport that meet the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association sanctioned sport. It would be for students that participate in clubs. physical activities like rugby or crew or ultimate Frisbee. And it also would include students that are enrolled outside of Medford public schools in like an instructionally based activity, which is a dance program or a martial arts program. So students that can demonstrate that, that's criteria number one. Criteria two would be that they have passed their physical education classes previously. And then criteria three is that they are completing a weekly log of their minutes of physical activity in these pieces. And then at the end of the year, creating a reflection. This would be monitored by current staff as well as approval through the director of physical education and health, Rachel Perry. And then similarly, to have a health education independent study would really be that the students are spending the year engaged in doing research. To a health related topic that they would be completing a capstone project for by the end of the year. And so some of those examples could be For capstone project are organizing, you know, some community events. or launching awareness campaigns or designing like peer tutoring programs, something that they have learned in health one health to that they'd like to learn a little bit more about, or an area of health that they would like to explore more dig into some research. and focus a capstone project on that. The criteria for that is that they have passed health one and health two, and that also would be monitored by existing staff and approval through Rachel Perry, the director of physical education and health. So if you have any questions, I put that forward for a discussion to the members. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Pelosi. Member Ruseau?
[Paul Ruseau]: Thank you. Having been part of the HECAT effort, I guess I'm very concerned about delaying health one. If I thought that in 6th, 7th, and 8th, we were providing truly robust sex part of the health education curriculum. I might be convinced, I might be convinced, not even sure I would, but I'm not sure if we could say that today. I don't know if you could say that today. I don't remember the details exactly, but there was an enormous amount we're not covering in our current curriculums. So I'm just concerned about the impact on students. You know, we already, here and heard during the HECAT efforts that by the time we're learning about this stuff, we've probably already all done it, which is not all students, but an awful lot of them. The point of education isn't to teach people something they already know. So I guess I'm concerned about this not, I mean, why not take away one of the physical education requirements instead? But also, yeah, I'm just very, very concerned about the delay here. And I'd like to hear more thoughts on that.
[Suzanne Galusi]: Sure. And I do want to note that Director Perry is not here because she's at awards night. where she could probably answer, and Dr. Cushing is here, and I know he was involved in that committee, so he probably has much more enlightenment than I do, but the conversations that I was involved with, with Director Perry, with Principal Cabral, with Principal Fallon, the biggest conversation was around, in order for freshmen to do the rotations, there's, which is why you see for PE, it's just once a week. So the concern was taking health one and being able to do it, do justice to health one by only meeting once a week was the biggest area of concern, which is why they move, which is why they landed on really in order to maintain the diligence and the rigor that is in HealthONE. That's why Ms. Perry felt like putting it in sophomore year twice a week for the whole year is going to be better for the program the way it has been written. Mm-hmm.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Yes, member Rousseau and then member Tapa and member Graham.
[Paul Ruseau]: Thank you. Can you, I mean, we just went through this with the scheduling, but can you refresh my memory on the rotation? Like, is that like the first four blocks of each day or how does that work again? Because my kids took it before it was the current format.
[Suzanne Galusi]: Right. I can tell you what it is right now, but next. So it does take up two periods. So in order to get through all of the students that elect to be part of the rotation right now, it's currently periods two and periods three. Next year. I don't know exactly what periods they're slotted for. We're still kind of building these the schedule, but it's still going to need two periods a day in order to get through the CTE rotations. So. within that is going to be the physical education component. So let's just say, you know, students, if they're on a five-day, for their five-day schedule, they're going to be rotating through the CTE shops four days, and then one day they're gonna go to physical education class.
[Paul Ruseau]: Okay, I understand that now, thank you. So right now we are planning and have been The students get to experience all of the CTE programs, which is a noble thing to try to do. If we add a bunch of additional CTE programs with a new high school or before then, we are going to run into, like, we can't have students just spend their whole freshman year doing CTE rotations. There's only going to be so many classes and periods to do this. I just feel like at the moment we've been able to expand it so they can take all of the rotations, which, frankly, it's probably a lot easier scheduling wise in the old way we had to pick and choose and then it was like first, second and third choices. It sounds like a nightmare. But once we've added more programs and there are not, it's not going to be. We're not going to take away English and math and and and other core subjects so that kids can rotate through more CTE programs. So it seems to me like the idea would be, well, we're going to face that soon. So let's face that now and pretend that the additional health class is we're going to put that in and have to require kids to pick one or two of the CTE programs they don't rotate through. we're having them rotate through all the programs. And I just, I just, I have a strong sense that students don't actually imagine that they're interested in all of the programs. Now, I do know from hearing from, I think, I think number Graham's kid, like having gone through one of the rotations that would not have been chosen as a rotation, like it was incredibly interesting. And I think that's part of what education is for, but, but health education just can't be something where you're like, well, we want them to be able to try all of the programs in the CTE programs. So we're gonna delay what I think of as absolutely critical health education for post-pubescent students who are discovering themselves. And I just don't know that I think it's okay for us to It sounds like the other folks that have been consulted were saying scheduling-wise. And I think that's obviously very important. But scheduling-wise is not the whole story here. Not that I think they thought that. But I'm just very uncomfortable with this idea right now.
[Jenny Graham]: Thank you. So I can maybe give you my take on some of that. So I think just to clarify, students are in the CTE rotation for one period a day. So it takes two periods to get all of the students through, but they go once out of seven. So what they do now is, so it's different because it's a six-day schedule instead of five. So they have two blocks, and they go four blocks to a CTE rotation and then two to phys ed or health and they swap. So, when you look forward, they're only going to do that one so I do understand like the reduction of that causing some trouble with getting through the health curriculum. So when I, but when I was thinking about this, I was hoping we could find flexibility in a bunch of ways. So one is in scheduling. The other is in some of these independent study options, which I think create options for kids. I think that's great. But I was also, I also think we need to think about flexibility in our graduation requirements. So this doesn't fundamentally change that we are expecting four years of PE and four years of, or three years of health. That's great, but it is well in excess of what the state requires us to do. And so I think one of the things that I would like to see us consider is to require perhaps something like three years of PE and two years of health and one additional year of PE or health, your choice. So if we're talking about electives, I think that's great because it can give students an opportunity to go deeper into something they're interested in. If you're taking an elective, you should get to take an elective of the thing that you want, not an elective within this particular bucket because it's a graduation requirement. So as I was reading this and digesting this, there's some pieces of this I really like. There are some pieces of it that I think we could go further in terms of creating flexibility. And I think the other thing that we could consider is that the two years, the two periods of PE, which would be health one, let's just call health one for the sake of simplicity. There's no reason that could not happen freshman year we now have seven periods. You can take four core subjects. You can take a language. You can take a rotation. And all the eighth graders are like, what do I do with this seventh period? And they're just like sort of picking electives. There's no reason why that slot can't be used for health. So I don't think it has to necessarily delay health in order to move to some more flexibility. But I think it could be a choice, like if students No, they have to take two years and there's something else pressing or urgent that they want to do that's fine. But I think part of creating flexibility should also be us revisiting what we are requiring for graduation if we want to create access and interest like Maybe you want to be a nutritionist or a public health professional. And so you want to take five electives in health. That's awesome. But if you have no desire to do any of those things, maybe your elective time would be better spent doing something musical or doing something technology oriented. So I think this continues to preserve this idea that we must have all of this stuff in health and PE. And I think the truth is we don't. I would like to see us amend this further so that we are creating real flexibility in a bunch of different ways for students, because I think that's what's best for students. And I know that that's probably not what's best for the schedule right now, because I can appreciate the amount of work being done. But there is no reason why you couldn't use that seventh block, which, by the way, the eighth graders have no idea what to do with anyway. for the most part. to cover health elective if they want to do it on that seventh block. You know, everybody's got a different interest. Some kids are not interested in CTE, then they definitely could take health, right? They're not interested in that kind of a rotation, then they definitely could take health. So I think there are some other ways for us to look at this. I would be happy to amend this recommendation if that's what we wanna do tonight, or if we feel like we're not ready for that, that's fine. But my amendment would be that we are amending the graduation requirements to require three years of PE, two years of health, and one additional year at your choice, PE or health, which could include all of these independent study options, which I think are wonderful. So I'm happy to make that amendment officially. And if we're not ready for that, I'm fine with that too.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: OK, I know Member Ntuk is next. So why don't you go ahead and we'll make the motion after.
[John Intoppa]: Sure. Thank you, Mayor. My first question, right off the bat, so what, I probably should know this, but what sort of defines a club team? Is it just anything not within MIAA? for a club sport. Cause seeing it's more of like the fact seeing crew labeled as club is what throws me off a little bit. Um, cause we have like an official crew team. It has an organization that it belongs to. It's not MIA, but it's, it's more of a confusion thing.
[Suzanne Galusi]: Not like it's not it, but, um, I don't know if I could answer that right now. I would have to do a little bit of research to get you your exact answer. I don't know if Dr. Cushing knows that answer. You know, that answer.
[John Intoppa]: what defines a club sport? Because like, I know that we don't have like an official rugby team. We don't have an official Pulse McFrisbee team, but like we do have an official crew team. So I know that might confuse, I mean, it confused me, but it might confuse some members of the public of what that is defined as. Because I know like, I'm not sure if rowing is the only one that's not under the MIA umbrella. I know that they're under MPSRA, not under MIA. So I'm not sure if that's what the qualifier is. But I mean, obviously it still counts. That's the big thing is it still counts under this because it's sanctioned by the school and runs into that. But I think it was just more of like a point of information question.
[Peter Cushing]: I think it would be, there's been considerable talk across the state around two sports in particular that are going through MIA approvals that have come up for votes. I serve on one of the committees for the MIA. Those are girls flag football, which is a spring sport and ultimate Frisbee. Yeah, so I think those are two that all many high schools, I don't say all many high schools are considering right and that would be next in line for a club. I would also consider. I would also consider having worked in athletics with Medford for the last six years for crew to be considered more than just a club sport because of its escalation.
[John Intoppa]: Right. Yeah. That's where my, that's where kind of my question was, because I know that, you know, when we were under, when I was on the rowing team, you know, it wasn't MIA, it wasn't part of that, but there's still a sort of a state competition. There's, and it's technically two different sports in the fall and the spring. but that was sort of what defines a club sport and also what does that mean for students who want to pursue the, because I love the independent study option. I think that that's phenomenal. And I'll get into that in a second, but that makes sense. So thank you for that. So I sort of, you know, I echo the thoughts I think of my colleague member Graham in terms of giving people more of that flexibility and choice, you know, We talk a lot about purpose-driven leadership when it comes to the Center for Citizenship and Social Responsibility and students sort of picking that, charting their course, if you will, in how they navigate, you know, high school. And then, you know, if they pursue higher ed, you know, there's all these options of what you specifically study and all that fun stuff. And I know that we do it, I've seen the benefit to the, art school version of a rotation where you have students come in that wanna be two-dimensional, but then they end up becoming a glass major. And we've had discussions with our graphic design department and graphics department about students not realizing the full potential because maybe they're not done through that. Maybe like this is what they're interested in, but they don't realize the benefit of like working corporate graphic design or working public in terms of the way that they're doing what they're doing. So I think giving them the more flexibility there, I would agree to a lot of that, those choices in terms of, you know, we encourage, you know, we still offer health or we still offer PE, you know, you know, for four years, but, you know, giving yourself that flexibility where, you know, maybe if you could use that time to focus on the arts or focus on some other things within the CTE program like that might benefit, you know, I know that I think, The way we used to do it was it was two quarters health two quarters fitness or. So i'm wondering if you know when we're looking at scheduling if we decided that you know, because I still think a health program in the first year is essential, you know there's a lot of things that are going on, especially. we've gotten talks about, we've gotten emails from students about mental health concerns. And all of a sudden you're in high school and that's a whole different ballgame. And how do you navigate that? How do you know how to sort of cope with that? And so even if it's as simple or I shouldn't say simple, but even if it's as, all right, half the students as first years, you go to fitness, half go to health and then switch. Cause I think that's what we did. when I was in high school.
[Suzanne Galusi]: It's what's currently happening.
[John Intoppa]: What's currently happening, yes. So even if it's one per week for that, you know, like, or if people can choose to go on the track of, I mean, that might be even more of a scheduling nightmare of you know, they opt into staying for the whole academic year to be in PE, or they wanna do the switch, or they wanna, you know, just, again, giving them that flexibility. And I know we don't wanna create too, too many options. I know that that becomes then a logistics nightmare, and, you know, we don't wanna put a strain on our staff, but, you know, if there are students who, you know, are like, I think that I'm gonna go to college, and I'm gonna play football, and I wanna, you know, play PE, and I wanna stay active, and I wanna do that, because that's the course I wanna go, or even if they don't go through higher ed, whatever, you know, then they do that. Or, you know, someone's like, Hey, I got a lot of things going on and I want to know more about that. Then they have that option to do that. Um, so I sort of echo the comments, um, about member Ruseau and Graham of giving people that flexibility. Um, and if you already have the expectation that they're both running for the academic year, you know, it's just a matter of spacing in terms of classes, you know, like their health is always going to be running and PE is always going to be running. So then, or maybe I'm thinking about it too broad. I'm not gonna pretend like I understand what I'm saying. Then they can either stay concurrent with those two, I'm staying in health first half, second half, or I'm switching. So then that still benefits the plan that we're doing. I'm just trying to think more, I don't think holistic's the word, but trying to think more broad of again, we're getting close, we need to get the schedule down. What is the most creative fix that we can maybe pilot and see like, does this work? If it becomes a scheduling logistics, we know we've got to come back this time next year and go, all right, maybe we need to fix that. But I think we do need to stress because it could be miscommunicated that say we take up member Graham's amendment three years PE, two years health, that doesn't mean that health isn't only offered those two years, that that is just the requirement, and you have to complete it. I think for arts, what is it, one year? I did it for four years. I did orchestra first period every year, except for when they made it second period. and Mr. Zegna got really mad about it, rightfully so. So they, like just making sure the public is aware that that is the case, that it is still being offered. We're not taking gym away for a year. We're not taking health away for two years.
[Suzanne Galusi]: No, that is, and Director Perry, there's already electives for physical education, but she is working on expanding some of those offerings. And she is currently involved in creating electives for health, which did not previously exist.
[John Intoppa]: Well, I think that's great because, you know, I think, yes, they don't exist. And, you know, we just had food allergy awareness week, you know, like, do we have a whole curriculum of health about how to deal with Narcan and epinephrine and all these other life-saving drugs that we don't talk about? Is there a health elective that is just life-saving medication? how to administer it, how to help someone in need, or how to help yourself. Is there stuff on sex ed? Is there stuff on mental health? It kind of gives it that for people to, for students to make that choice where they can have the option, but also to be comfortable with that option and to maybe, I want to you know, high school might be the place to learn of like, hey, do I wanna become a psychologist? Do I wanna become a psychiatrist? Do I wanna go into this? Maybe let me, or sports training. Maybe let me take that health class on mental health. Let me take that health class on life-saving medication. Oh, I didn't really enjoy that class. Maybe that's not for me. That helps limit my horizon.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you.
[John Intoppa]: Of course.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you. If there's no further comment, do you wanna make an amendment, Member Graham? or did you talk to policy? Do you want to talk about that amendment?
[Jenny Graham]: No, I didn't. No, go ahead. So, um. Great member. So it's going to read it for us.
[Paul Ruseau]: The motion is to amend the graduation requirements to require three years for P E two years of health and one additional year of either P or health.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you, member. So so this
[Jenny Graham]: And Mayor member Graham, I think what I would ideally like to see is there's like maybe some tightening up of the language that could be beneficial. So maybe we see what this would look like both in the graduation requirements policy, as well as like what what this offering would be and look like for students um you know like at the next meeting or something so that there's because we just did a lot of changes and I want to make sure there's something cohesive that we all agree is the spirit of what we're saying um when we say we're going to amend this recommendation.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Sure. Okay so motion to to amend but to not fully vote for approval tonight um we'll postpone till next to the next meeting which is in about two weeks with a time to digest and any further way you want to clarify it for us. Okay on that motion to amend by Member Graham, seconded by Member Reinfeld. All those in favor on the amendment? Aye. All those opposed? Okay that amendment passes and then motion to continue this for till our next regularly scheduled meeting to review and digest. Member Intoppa.
[John Intoppa]: So I might have missed it. Was that part of the amendment, was there the talk of looking at health being offered in the first year?
[Jenny Graham]: I think that would allow flexibility, yes. OK, thank you.
[John Intoppa]: Then I don't. I was wondering if I needed to add another amendment or motion to amend. But if it's in that motion, if it is technically ingrained in that, thank you.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: OK, motion to continue the discussion. hopefully move approval on the plan at the next regular meeting by Member Graham, seconded by Member Intoppa. All those in favor? All those opposed? The paper passes to be continued. Next up, we have operations planning and posting. Again, Dr. Suzanne Galusi, our interim superintendent. I'll turn it over to you.
[Suzanne Galusi]: Thank you. Lots of papers tonight. Okay. So I do want to begin this presentation by first expressing my sincere gratitude to Dr. Cushing, our outgoing assistant superintendent for Innovation, Enrichment and Operations and Beverly Public Schools next superintendent. I'm very, very excited for him, but we do thank him for his dedication to Medford Public Schools and his leadership, especially around the operational needs for Medford Public Schools. And so not enough can be said for that because in his leaving, that is going to create a hole that really we need to look at in terms of making sure we're still providing some oversight and some supervision and some planning around the operational needs of Medford public schools. So we have been having conversations internally to thoughtfully look at what that approach could be and how to better align the supervision and the oversight of the districts ever evolving operational needs. So what I have, if Dr. Cushing doesn't mind, first and foremost, what I do want to kind of frame a little bit is a restructuring of our organizational chart. And I'll just give one minute, of course. Oh, it's there. Thank you. It's hard for me to see over here. So what you can see in front of you is just what would be displayed. So there's lots of changes happening in Medford Public School. And so right now, Ms. Bowen and I are actively involved in the hiring process with member Reinfeld of finding the next assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction. And what this, Shift would be would be the creation of a chief operations officer position to fill Dr. Cushing's roles that he oversees right now around operations. So this role would directly supervise and oversee and help to facilitate all needs under buildings and grounds, all needs under our instructional technology in the IT department, and the needs of the security and safety for Medford Public Schools. Of course, this role would have a lot of cross functional support. For other departments within the school district, but the main priorities would be around facilities it and security. I do have here. Um, a job description that I just propose, um, in order to post for what I would like to do, which is create the chief operations officer position. Um, I would pause maybe for a minute if you have any questions around that proposal before we talk about the job description.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you, Dr Galussi. We all have the job description, um, in our packets. Okay. And I'm sure most of us have read it. If there are no questions, is there a motion for approval? Member Reinfeld?
[Erika Reinfeld]: Sorry, you wanted questions about the organizational structure and then about the job description?
[Suzanne Galusi]: I just wanted to know if you had any questions around my thought process or the needs for the position before we kind of engaged in the job description, that's all. Just offering you the opportunity.
[Erika Reinfeld]: No, I think I think my only question was around. Exactly how much is on the superintendent plate in terms of the finance communications and human resources? And I think that has previously reported to the superintendent, correct?
[Suzanne Galusi]: Yes. And I think it's, I think that that part is okay for right now.
[Erika Reinfeld]: I know, for example, food services was not a direct report to the superintendent.
[Suzanne Galusi]: No. So that is a shift. So food service did fall under Dr. Cushing. So that would be one shift where I'm, I'm putting food service under the finance department. So there's, I'm sure you're aware, like great overlay in a lot of that. So I would also be in communication with Director Smith, maybe around programming and communication where, you know, will also takes an active role. But in terms of The oversight, I have that department under finance. I think it's an understatement to also just, we don't know where we're headed. Right now, our breakfast and our lunch is provided by funding that we just don't know if it's going to be there. And I think there's going to be a lot of conversations that Director Smith is going to have directly with Director Velez.
[Erika Reinfeld]: Thank you. Yes. So one of my questions was going to be, can I see the org chart? So I'm really glad that this was provided and I've been trying to read through it while we've been right before the meeting. And so I'm also thinking about all the things that our new assistant superintendent of curriculum instruction is going to do, but having seen candidates, I'm sure they will be up for this. Agreed.
[Suzanne Galusi]: So those, I mean, in full transparency for people at home that may not see the org chart, those are the other two pieces. Dr. Cushing had oversight of Rachel Perry for physical education and health, as well as Molly Layden for instructional technology, which would shift to the assistant superintendent for academics and instruction.
[Erika Reinfeld]: Although, as I recall, Ms. Layden's position covered some of the networking as well. So there was some splitting.
[Suzanne Galusi]: Yes. So the instructional component that weighs more predominantly for students will be the assistant superintendent for academics and instruction. but any pieces that kind of go into the technology aspects of like devices and things would be part of this COO position.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Division makes sense to me. Thank you. Member Graham.
[Jenny Graham]: Thank you. I just had two suggestions on this job description. Yes. One is under instructional technology leadership. The very last bullet. Instead of saying directly supervise the network administrator, I would just recommend that we say the district's senior it leader. Because right now, that is a network administrator, but that is likely not to be the senior person in the future. So I just wanted to be clear that it's all yours, whoever this person is, and that the senior leadership of IT, as that department evolves, will report into this person. And then my other suggestion is under operational infrastructure and cross functional support. I would like to see this person be responsible for full implementation and optimization of our operations hero platform, which has been rolled out. and needs attention to really start to produce the kinds of benefits that we want to see from a facilities, maintenance, security perspective across the district. And moving from that, like trying to get out of the backlog of being reactionary and into a proactive maintenance space. So just to very specifically talk about that. that full implement implementation and optimization.
[Megan Fidler-Carey]: Thank you.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Remember, let's see who's next member so then member Reinfeld.
[Paul Ruseau]: Thank you. slightly off topic, I guess, but if we do run into a situation where the funding is not going to come for free meals, this body did vote on December 19, 2022, that they'll be free and meant for public schools regardless. So while I'm really hopeful this does not come to pass, If it does, it's not a conversation for the food services director and the director of finance and the superintendent. This body has to make that decision. And so until we change that, it's free regardless of whether the funds come. Obviously, if that happens, we would need to understand what the impact is and make a decision, but just a clarification on that. Thank you.
[Suzanne Galusi]: I'm aware. Thank you.
[Erika Reinfeld]: Member Reinfeld? also have two suggestions. One is under qualities MPS is looking for, I would like the last bullet point, I would like the innovative leader to identify and implement both projects and processes. I think it's not just about coming up with great ideas for projects, it's looking at existing resources and synthesizing them into a system and also being able to execute. I know that's covered a little bit in execute sufficiently, but I think the new projects, both the ideas and the implementation, and that it's also about the processes we're looking. And then to the point of the org chart, I think it would be helpful to have a section around, actually, I think it's certainly the way I have seen job descriptions is supervision, received and supervising. I forget the exact phrasing, I can find it and get it to you, but the list of everything that will be supervised, because in reading this, my first thought is, oh, it's the facilities person, and that's it. but I think just calling out these are the areas, but in terms of actually supervising people, because I think that people management and that delegation is a really key part of this job description and knowing how big the team is, or at least how many departments are under the supervision is important for someone applying for it and doing the job, of course.
[Suzanne Galusi]: Yes, no, thank you, because I did note it is listed there in the last bullet for the IT. Member Graham made a recommendation to change some of that language, but I am noticing that we need some tightening up under the safety and security.
[Erika Reinfeld]: Yeah, and I think just synthesizing it into direct reports and that bulleted list is really helpful in seeing the job descriptions. I think we did that in the assistant facilities director of saying this person is responsible for custodians and I forget the whole list. I looked at it right before this and it has gone out of my head, but no confusion that way.
[Suzanne Galusi]: Thank you.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Member Intoppa.
[John Intoppa]: Thank you. Sorry, I stepped out for a second. But did we talk about what the salary range was going to be?
[Suzanne Galusi]: We did not.
[John Intoppa]: Okay, because I do know I, I shouldn't say I know, but I'm pretty sure there's a new state law that we have to put the salary range on all job posting so I don't think competitive salary convention with experience will cut it I think they need hard fast numbers. So I just want to make sure we're in compliance with that. which I should have caught that for I think for some other ones we've looked at but I just am now hiring students for my day job so I know that I've had to put, you know, very specifically, this amount, this range of hours in order to be compliant with mass state law so just making sure that when we do. I know like you have here like bracket insert Medford public schools application portal I think that. Um, we just need to make sure that we have that salary range, however big it may be, you know, like you said, commensurate with experience, I think in order to just be compliant, we need to just have like actual numbers and we could be, we shouldn't do, you know, like, I don't know, like 80 to 160 K, but like that is technically compliance as far as I'm concerned. But I think like making sure we're as close as possible to what realistically is that. And then that I think has to come in front of us. I'm pretty sure. Um,
[Suzanne Galusi]: So you're asking, do we have that answer? I would say yes. I mean, right now, in the conversations that we've had internally, that range would be about 100 to 150. OK. OK.
[John Intoppa]: OK.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Good question. Thank you, member Intoppa.
[Paul Ruseau]: Member Ruseau? Where does transportation go in all of this?
[Suzanne Galusi]: Transportation right now.
[Paul Ruseau]: I know everybody wants transportation.
[Suzanne Galusi]: Transportation is still a very, we are still having internal conversations around transportation. All right. Transportation right now lives with Megan Fidle-Carrie. It has had oversight by Dr. Cushing. And so That is still an ongoing conversation. I think... Sorry.
[Paul Ruseau]: No, that's okay. And where does Megan Fidler-Carey fit into this?
[Suzanne Galusi]: Megan Fidler-Carey right now reports to me as the superintendent, but I would say that part of her role... Right now, Megan Fidler-Carey has reported to myself, Dr. Cushing, previously, you know, Dr. Edouard-Vincent, because she wears so many hats. So I think part of the ongoing conversations we're having around transportation is kind of what makes the most sense, because Megan Fidlicari is the administrator that is over transportation. She clearly needs support in that role, but I also don't want to pile so much on the COO position, because I think with the ongoing projects that Dr. Cushing has been very instrumental in starting and initiating and overseeing, those are still going to keep going on, as well as we're in the middle of the MSBA process. And so I'm hesitant to put too much in that position where facilities and IT and honestly, security are very critical.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: If I may make a suggestion from the chair, I don't know if I can make an amendment, but maybe one of you could propose it, that you do have something in here, whether it's in the position overview or second section. because we see where your main focus will be for the COO, but something that just says, and any other job duties, tasks, projects requested of the COO. Motion by, okay, so that would be an amendment by member Tapa included with the amendments by member Reinfeld and member Graham, if all are in favor. just somewhere in there that so everybody gets overwhelmed everybody needs to take another project or another task that the CEO isn't going to refer back to the job description say sorry, not in my job description.
[John Intoppa]: I think to simplify the amendment just I think the simple line of and other duties as assigned by the superintendent so that way it is clear where that instruction is coming from. But, you know, that is, I think my job description even says like other duties as assigned, which is pretty vague but I think including them at by the superintendent of schools or interim superintendent of schools will be
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: there's there's some basic language that's used on the city and school side. So you don't have to use mine or word by word, but you get, yeah, I think we're trying to get suggest and I think that's the basic language statewide.
[John Intoppa]: So I think, yeah, that's what we said. Yep.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: All right. So there's a, is there a motion on the floor for approval as amended by three members so far?
[Unidentified]: Motion to approve is as amended by
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you, Member Graham. Is there a second by Member Olapade? All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? The COO job description has been approved as amended.
[Paul Ruseau]: Thank you.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Now let's get the personnel on board. Recommendation to approve RICO five-year contract, Dr. Peter Cushing, Assistant Superintendent.
[Peter Cushing]: Good evening, Madam Mayor, members of the school committee. Recently, in reviewing our contracts with the current office, it came to our attention that our RICO contract, which is a three year, was coming up for expiration. Interestingly enough, we actually have three separate contracts for lack of a better term with Rico, we have 55 devices on the current three year. And then we have the office copier for the main for the superintendent's office. It's a color copier on a one year and then a random nurses copier on a one year. So that's 57 total devices. We also have a device in kids corner that is For just a separate contract that was entered into. So what we're going to do is move to 58 devices in meeting with I recently had a meeting with The Rico reps Molly laden Anthony to Torah on our networking side. and a few other members of the district leadership team just to really review this. And to me, $185,000 was a little steep. In working with our vendors, I've always tried to extract value. If you remember last year with our phones, saving about $35,000 a year, looking at various other pieces with the security systems that we'll be deploying, saving significant money there instead of just sticking with the state contract. getting 28% value plus lots of free items. One of the things that we've been looking for with our photocopiers is device management. So we can completely move away from having individual printers, paying for individual toner, maintaining those devices, purchasing those devices. And one of our problems is printing confidential items. We'll be adding a solution called PaperCut. Papercut will allow our staff to scan directly into Google Drive. We don't have that option right now. It's a scan to your email and then or scan to a USB. So we'll sync up with Google Drive. We will also be adding e-faxing. We're going through demonstrations on that. So we'll be able to sunset some of the hard lines that we're paying Verizon for into the building. And then finally, along with this is, and I just had a brain fart, I apologize. Probably not what I want to say on camera, but it's been a long day. It's also... Oh, to make sure as we talk about a new security system, the basically the devices will be set up for secure print. So everyone's ID badge will connect through paper cut and we expect to see some school districts are seeing a 30% reduction on better average is about 20% reduction in paper, toner, all these other things that if I'm correct, are industry standards basically for anywhere outside of schools and schools are finally catching on. So the other thing too, when I was sitting with them was that 185,000 was a lot for a district. I like to see our money goes towards academic endeavors. And so I leaned heavily into our partners to come up with a better option. So at baseline, moving to 58 machines, All right, our annual expense reduction will be $36,260. It's $216. So adding a machine and reducing our annual expenses by $36,216, or more than 50% of a teacher's salary. Also, estimating other savings with paper cut up to $45,816. I understand sometimes people are challenged with a five-year contract. I think it's a fiscally responsible decision to move in this direction and recommend this to the committee.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: From the chair, if I may, with paper cut, I'm assuming you need to make sure that we have good Wi-Fi and networking. So is that come up at all?
[Peter Cushing]: They are wired, hold on, they are wired, but it is also something we're working on, a comprehensive look at our network solutions. So, but Madam Mayor, you're 100% right, but they are wired. And we wanna make sure that our network is extraordinarily robust.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: And we're saving with paper cuts. So if the network goes down in one school and you can't use paper cut for a while, it's not a loss or it would be, because I don't see a breakdown for how much paper cut is versus the fact that I guess, which is really good that we'd be saving 36,000 a year.
[Peter Cushing]: Yeah, paper cuts woven into the cost of this proposal.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Member Intoppa.
[John Intoppa]: Thank you. So I'm excited. I'm excited to see the, that's the boring part, decrease in cost. So on the state side, at the state institution I work at, we actually use PaperCut as a printing platform, and there are a lot of positives. There are a few drawbacks, like you said, Internet goes down, what's good is that the way PaperCut works is it sends to all the printers. So realistically it's because it's tied to your ID badge. If you go to print to the nurse's office or on the third floor of C building or even in the Brooks, like it still goes through and you're able to print from wherever. This is a no means an endorsement of PaperCut conflict of interest law, but because we don't use it, we use it, but it's not an endorsement. What's also good is that we can set up specialized accounts. We know where the money's coming from. So there's way people can, if people hold multiple hats or hold multiple roles, you can actually assign different departments. So when you go in and you go to print, it says like from a dropdown, like from a shared department. So, you know, at my place of work, you know, I could say, oh, this is coming from student government, or this is coming from student engagement, or this is coming from housing and residence life, you know, wherever it will be. So the only, I think, pain point we have for users is getting used to loading money on. So I'm not sure how that logistical work, but I do think that this is the, from personal experience of using the paper cut platform, I do think this is a good print management solution. So I can put the motion on the floor to approve the recommendations.
[Peter Cushing]: If I could address one point, the biggest pain point that we see is going to be managing active directory. And just those types of I mean, as you may see, keeping directories up to date on the website, things along those lines. That is just one of the things, though, that is going to have to be sorry for the emphasis. But as we move to a security system that is based on credentials, it's just going to have to be part of the operations of the district.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Okay, there's motion for approval, seconded by Member Ruseau. All those in favor? Aye. Roll call has been requested.
[Peter Cushing]: Just one other thing. This is also a motion to send to the City Council so I can once again visit them.
[Paul Ruseau]: Member Graham. Sorry, was there a question?
[Erika Reinfeld]: Council.
[Unidentified]: Member right now.
[Erika Reinfeld]: You mentioned sending this to City Council. How is this? How does this fit into the budget proposal that we have?
[Peter Cushing]: We budgeted for $185,000. So we're going to have some room.
[Erika Reinfeld]: Okay?
[Paul Ruseau]: Thank you.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Yes. Six in the affirmative, one absent. Motion passes. Thank you. Thank you. Recommendation to approve budget transfers. Mr. Noel Velez, Director of Finance, is coming on up.
[Noel Velez]: Good evening, everyone. In front of you all today, you have a request for 10 budget transfers, totaling $132,789.46. Anybody has any questions, I'd be more than glad to assist.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Is there a motion to approve all the transfers? Sorry, I missed that. Okay, one second, please.
[Jenny Graham]: Yes, Member Graham. Thank you. Transfer number two, the comment says this budget transfer will cover the taxes and the number of employees given unemployment, which was larger than the budgeted amount of FY 25. Yes. Can you clarify which part is larger, the taxes or the number of employees given unemployment or both?
[Noel Velez]: Both, they kind of go hand in hand. So the more employees you have on unemployment, the higher your tax charges are. And
[Jenny Graham]: I guess I just wasn't thinking that there was a huge number of unemployed. folks? Is it is it more that there's a bigger number of employees that are contributing to our taxes? I just want to make sure I'm clear about the narrative of like, higher than expected unemployed staff.
[Noel Velez]: It's a two part or one part is, we did have a few more who applied over the previous year than did two years ago. And also, we the state of Massachusetts has what's called a four year look back.
[Unidentified]: Yeah.
[Noel Velez]: So if an employee worked here two or three years ago, and for whatever reason did not apply for unemployment and then chose to apply for unemployment within that three year span, we would still be held responsible for them. So that is kind of, that kind of bumps up the numbers a little bit. I mean, we, I feel that our, the business office, we try our hardest to look over the accounts every month. And we work with Lisa over in the HR department to make sure that if there's any fraud, even if there is fraud, just so everybody knows, you still have to pay it upfront. What happened is you hope that you win your appeal, which takes about four to six months, and then you will see that on the back end. So there's a good chance that some of this was fraud, we put an appeal in, and hopefully we'll see that money anywhere between October to January of next fiscal year, sadly. But it won't assist us this fiscal year, as we just want to make sure that we're paying our bills on time. Because if you don't pay your bills, you're then charged a penalty and more taxes, which can raise the cost of any district even higher.
[Jenny Graham]: Sure. Thank you. That helps. Thanks. I'm all set.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you. There's a motion on the floor for approval by member Rousseau, seconded by member Reinfeld. All those in favor? All those opposed? Transfers are approved. Thank you.
[Unidentified]: Thank you very much.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: We have number six, rate card for MPS summer programming. I'm going to turn it over to Dr. Suzanne Galusi, our superintendent.
[Suzanne Galusi]: Okay, thank you. So in response to feedback from families in our four district run after school programs, as well as caregivers involved in the Medford Public Schools literacy acceleration programming that we've been able to offer each summer. I, which I have kind of in my previous role had oversight and facilitation of the literacy program. And we've kept ongoing survey data. We have tried different formats for that program. We've offered half day offerings. We've done full day offerings. And so in all of the feedback that we gather from families, the need for a full day program to allow for their work is critical. And I think in where we're situated this year, we have, there has not been any grants offered right now through the Department of Education to help offset the costs of what a full day program is. And so in that data that I have collected in my previous role and in the data that Megan Fidelicari is, gathering continuously from the afterschool families, Medford Afterschool and Megan has designed a summer experience that will balance the needs of both families that are reflected in these survey results and to create a meaningful academic enrichment for the summer. So what we have here for you this evening is a proposal for what we would like to do for an afterschool program to kind of fit all of these needs. So what MAPS would offer is both a full day option for families that are in Medford and a half day option for families that are enrolled in the literacy program that is just being finalized right now to help make sure that not only are we creating ways to kind of be fiscally responsible, but also be able to provide families with extended care if they so need. So part of what is being developed is this program would prevent summer slide. Because students would be engaged in weekly thematic activities and projects that would enhance academics and exploration. So this program is being developed, Megan is having some ongoing conversations with district administration, specifically curriculum directors, and she is also in collaboration with Medford Public Library, so that this program would offer, especially in the morning, opportunity for students that are not part of the literacy program to be engaged in summer reading activities, to be engaged in Math Director Faiza Khan's math calendar activities as well as some extended academic opportunities. And this program would be so due to a lot of the work that is happening HVAC related at the McGlynn and the Andrews This camp would be housed at the Brooks. In the previous years, the literacy program has been housed at the McGlynn, but we would need to shift everything over to the Brooks because they have space for both of those programs. These sessions would, the MAPS program would run for the month of July from July 7th to August 1st. And the literacy program will run from July 7th to July 18. Lunch, of course, is provided and breakfast for families if they so choose. And then we have here the breakdown of what that would look like. So the full day program would be from 9 to 3 with the option of extended time. So families could drop off at 8 and families could stay till 4. of course, financial assistance is available. The literacy program is free. And if families choose to extend the day for their children and want them to participate in the enrichment project based activities in the afternoon, then there's a separate scale for what that would look like from 12 to three. And what the extended hours would look like if families are opting for that. And just in lieu of any possible questions that you may have on the top of your brain, we are in the process right now and we'll be getting out communication around the literacy program to invited families this week.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you, Dr. Galussi.
[Erika Reinfeld]: Member Reinfeld? Thank you. So you answered one of my questions about the cost for the literacy program. So two questions are you looking. Is there talk of developing a math specific program which is another area of summer slide I know last year we had the grant specifically for literacy and so that's where our focus was, you mentioned. the morning activities, but what does this look like for stem or math in particular.
[Suzanne Galusi]: Right, so I would probably. So the difference is the the Medford public schools literacy. is to just, it's what it has been for the past several years, right? It's invite only because we are using district data in order to target the students that need that continual emphasis on literacy development. And so we're looking at DIBLS data, we're looking at MAP data in order to craft the invitation list. If I would much, I would really love to be able to be developing a math camp, a STEM camp. Right now there are not a lot of grants out there. True. To offset any of this. And I think these are things that we have to have conversations about building. And I do think that was Megan's earnest attempt here in a lot of conversations that she had with after school families and in the ongoing conversations she's had with her staff, she very much wanted to create a program that could not only target some of those areas in an academic way, but in an exploration enrichment way, but also to assist families and maybe take that piece off their plate so that if they are working all day, they don't have to fight with their children about doing their summer reading and working on some of the math calendars that Director Kahn puts out, while also creating a theme for each week and having some kind of project-based opportunities for students to engage in, and maybe some walking field trips to continue that exploration. It's in my, if I had a gene in a bottle.
[Erika Reinfeld]: Just curious about big picture long-term. So that actually splits my second question into two questions. So just to confirm, so this is for elementary families? Yes. And the MAPS program is anyone, any elementary family in Medford or? Yes, yes, two rising grade six. Okay. And then, The thing when I when I saw this I went, how does this stack up we have we approved a summer fund program, which is significantly cheaper than than this for families, I hear that this is academically and enrichment focused. And so I'm hoping you can explain a little bit about how this fits into the broader summer offerings. And then with an eye towards the future we talked when we approved summer fun about rolling out all of our summer programs at the same time. So I would like to see that in the future and I think you know that but I wanted it on record but. Could you put this in the context of the other summer opportunities in Medford, because the price difference is significant and I understand the staffing is different and the curriculum development is different, but it would be really helpful to hear what makes this an important part of our summer portfolio when we have summer fun as well.
[Suzanne Galusi]: Yep. So first I would say that some of the delay is on me completely because I'm always so far in order to provide the literacy programs in the summer. I have we have been using and relying on some desi grant funding to offset that and they're typically around this time of year that they're offering them and so I. I have to get better at like moving up that timeline, even despite. So this year I was hoping that that would still be the case. It's not. And so I think we have to just make a better effort to be more time efficient with with rolling these out, but knowing that that the grants weren't a possibility and having conversations ongoing with Megan, this seemed to be an opportunity to, A, not overtax Summer Fun. There's a lot happening at the Missituk. So Summer Fun is housed there, the EL program is housed there, there is some ESY housed there, and much how our EL students and our students with disabilities are able to have their services, but also have some social time in summer fun without overtaxing that program. This was a way to maybe infuse some more academic focused explorations in a camp. but also be able to provide families that are attending the reading, the literacy camp with childcare opportunities. And so it kind of evolved from both need and the desire to maybe help with like the reduction of summer slide. So the difference in price is $100 more. So summer fund is 250 a week, this is 350 a week. There is an increase in that and that is really to just account for staffing needs. cannot maybe sit here and go through all of the staffing needs of summer fun. Um, verse this maps program, but a lot of the staffing that Megan Fidler Carrie is using to support this initiative is her existing staff. Um, and I think that accounts for for for some of the increase as well as the supplies because of the because of the thematic nature and the academic component in order to do some of the STEM related activities, the materials. are, I don't want to say pricey, but they're just probably, they cost a certain amount of money that we have to make sure that we are accounting for.
[Erika Reinfeld]: And then are there accommodations for special education services?
[Suzanne Galusi]: Yes. The same one-on-one support that we needed.
[Erika Reinfeld]: I'm sorry. Oh no, one-on-one support that's needed, aids to facilitate
[Suzanne Galusi]: Absolutely. Yep. And the sliding scale that's used for the afterschool program would be in place for this. Thank you.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Member Graham.
[Jenny Graham]: Thank you. I guess two comments or questions. One is, when we communicate about this, can we tighten up the communication that previously went out about this topic? Because that communication generated more questions than answers. And I think this is like sort of late in the game so I think addressing questions like, what if I already registered for summer fun camp and I want to do this instead is that allowed. I think we just need to like contextualize that this is, this is an academic offering that we are providing sort of based on the availability of this grant and that is part of why this is happening at this point in the year. So if we could just make sure that communication is really tight and clear so we don't create confusion or an idea that this is a better camp than summer fun. I think they are different and they're intended to be so but I think we need to articulate that when we communicate about it. So that would be one request. And the other request I have is that as we start working on slushing out the work that we're going to do with basic around after school is that we get a cohesive out of school time program put together, where we can think about things like could both of these things have happened in the same place. I know right this year that's not possible for all the reasons which is fine because of the HVAC project but are there, you know, What should a portfolio of summer programs look like that would maybe support some of the costs around the academic enrichment or additional academic support? Can these programs start to fund that for us so we are less reliant on grants and more reliant on a self-funding program that can do that? So that's like a next year thing. But as we talk about after school and what's possible, I would also like some of these programs to be a little bit less like haphazard around the district and a little bit more cohesive.
[Suzanne Galusi]: I agree. Thank you. Very fair.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you. And motion to approve. There's a motion for approval on the floor, seconded by Member Opade. All those in favor? All those opposed? Paper passes. We do not have any presentations of the public or continued business, but we do have new business. We have the first reading of policy JJIF, concussion policy 2025-18. The purpose of the policy, member Reinfeld?
[Erika Reinfeld]: I'm not sure if I'm allowed to do that. I think the purpose of the meeting of some of these details. It's a very long policy. I don't know if I'm allowed to do that if we have to Okay. I think the purpose is useful and. Motion to waive the reading by
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: of those opposed. Motion to waive the reading, because it is about 10 pages, has been approved. And this is a concussion policy pre-participation. It outlines pre-participation requirements and training, caregiver requirements, exclusion from play. It outlines when one can return to play, athletic director responsibilities, athletic trainer responsibilities, coach responsibilities, school nurse responsibilities, record maintenance. And I'm sure it's posted on both the city and the school calendars in the attached agenda link if anybody wants to review it. I recently got to go through this with my daughter, so it's good that we have a protocol. Member Graham.
[Jenny Graham]: Thank you. I was just curious, is this a replace? I'm not sure where this came from or who suggested it. Is it a replacement? What's changed? If that would be helpful.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Great questions. Dr. Cushing, did you want to answer? Oh, Member Ruseau?
[Paul Ruseau]: Yes, I put this forward, I noticed actually just now that it doesn't say who put it forward, but, and Dr. Cushing will probably remember better than me why I did that. Sorry, it was a lot of work, but I suddenly forget why. Not because I have a concussion. I don't have a concussion, I promise.
[Peter Cushing]: So as I've always been about transparency, This is one of several policies that appears that during a period of maybe 2016 to 2022 ish that policies may not have been forwarded to MASC. to be in our online repository. So recently, I've been doing a lot of work with Director of Health Services, Jen Silva, on our field trip policy as an example. And while we were sitting together at my table, I forget how even concussion came up. And I said, hey, let me actually go in and look that up in the online policy manual. And as it turns out what is listed under there is a paragraph from pre concussions becoming as known as they are, which kind of raised an eyebrow for myself, and she said no no Toni Wray previous health service, a previous health service director. has done work on this and this was put forward. So we went through forward and on to member or so he's a really great job of looking through it, asking some really critical questions about it. And moving forward, I will say, you'll get another one coming up soon the field trip policy that largely the school district has been living by but is not technically uploaded into the policy handbook. So I just want to make that clear that as I'm as I'm moving forward through these things, you'll get them and that policy review will have to be picked up. But just so everyone's aware.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Cushing. Member Intoppa.
[John Intoppa]: Thank you, Mayor. And thank you for the context. It's really good to know. We've done protocol, which I remember in the rowing team, there was protocol when someone got a concussion. My question is, so looking through, it looks like the sort of the pre-agreement that students have, I'm sorry, the specific language is the MIA Pre-Participation Sports Candidate Medical Questionnaire. Is that we just using that as a because I have a feeling this question might come up. Are we just using that as the standard? Or is it only for MIA sanctioned sports? or is that going, is that form? It is the, so it's on the second page, it's under purpose, it's under, I'm sorry, pre-participation requirement training, page four, it's like the big body paragraph, the first big body paragraph right there, where it mentions how the students, oh, it just says extracurricular athletic activities, okay, so. It's just anyone who's participating extracurricular athletic activities. It's not just specific to MIA. It's club sports, rugby, whatever have you. Correct. Okay. Thank you. That was just, I didn't see that first sentence, I guess. Thank you. That's my only question.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you. Member Ruseau.
[Paul Ruseau]: Motion to approve.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Seconded by, oh gosh, that was a member Graham. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Motion passes. Thank you, Member Ruseau. We're going to flip to page nine. We do not have any reports requested nor condolences, but we do want to notify the public of a meeting tomorrow, May 20th. That's the strategic and capital planning subcommittee. It's gonna be by Zoom at 6 p.m. The next regular scheduled meeting also falls on the same night as the Junior Honor Society at the McGlynn, which I believe some of us have a conflict with. So we can poll the members and see if we have a quorum or if we're gonna move that. So the next meeting is tentative June 2nd.
[Suzanne Galusi]: Yes, I would request that I can get back to this body because I do think that I did reach out to Principal Tucci, who may be working to change that date.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Oh, Mr. Tucci is going to change the date. Okay, so keep us posted. We'll let the public know. Okay, is there a motion to adjourn? Member Ntaba, seconded by? Second. Member Graham, all those in favor? Aye. All those opposed?
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