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[Jenny Graham]: actively utilize physical spaces, provide transportation and offer specialized services to students. And whereas the city of Medford is undergoing re-evaluation of zoning and residential areas, be it resolved that the district administration shall undertake a review of potential solutions to alleviate issues of overcrowding and associated inequities. So, I am going to turn it over to Dr Lucy to do a run through of the report that responds to this resolution. And then a little bit later in the agenda, there'll be some time for. Members of the committee to ask questions as well as I see there's a bunch of people who have joined us. So we do have some dedicated time for all of you as well. And. then we'll wrap up. So Dr. Pelosi, why don't you take it away?
[Suzanne Galusi]: All right. Thank you very much. Good evening, everybody. So as member Graham mentioned, the following presentation is in response to the resolution to take a closer look a little bit at enrollment across the elementary schools and areas in which there are definitely some, you know, overcrowding areas of constraint. And so we kind of chunked a little bit of this presentation by data sets. So you may see this slide again when we're breaking up how the data is going to be presented. This first piece is going to show you some data around enrollment in general education, as well as specialized programs over the last three years, average class sizes, and projected student population in some of the out years. So this first one, you can see that this is enrollment in general education, as well as specialized programs, special education, and English learner programming. It's important to note that what you are viewing here is data that was reflective of the October 1 SIMS data that we have to report to the Department of Education each year. That being said, there are definitely some fluctuations in all of this data probably as students are identified in need of special education throughout the year and enrollment fluctuates both in coming into the district and leaving the district throughout the year. But this was data that is reflective of the reporting that we do, so it's standard across all of our reporting areas. It's important to also note that the first column gives the total enrollment for the past three years in all four elementary schools. It shows you what the general education population is, and the special education includes all students on IEPs. So this is student, which is an individualized education program. for students. So this is reflective of students that are both in receiving special education services in general ed, as well as students that are in our sub-separate programming. That is the same for the information here for English learner. So the numbers here are reflective of all students receiving EL services, both in general education as well as in the newcomer programs. which are present at the McGlynn Elementary and the Missittuck Elementary. I think just some key pieces here are just, if we're focusing on this school year, we do see some wide variation between the spectrum of the Roberts, which is at 586 as of October 1. I do know that we're closer to the 610 number right about now. And the Missituk at 418, those are really like the two ends of the spectrum in terms of total enrollment for the district. I think we can also see that though there's a newcomer program at the Missituk and at the McGlynn, there's about a hundred student difference in EL numbers from the McGlynn to the Missituk. The next slide just gets into a little bit more detail for special education services, and it just presents the data in a different way, so you can also see the overall population of special education and English learners in the total enrollment of all four elementary schools. Some of the things for us that we are digging deeper, so I think it's important to note that This resolution was very important. It was conversations that not only I heard in the listening sessions that I did at all four elementary schools for caregivers, but it was also conversation that I heard in the listening sessions that I had with staff. And it's also conversations that we're having as an administrative team internally. We worked hard to get this data, but we also are having ongoing conversations to dig deeper with this data. The conversations are just beginning, I feel like. So I just wanted to put that out there. But some of the things that we are looking into is just making sure that we're responding to some of the numbers and digging deeper a little bit so that we can see I guess if I go back to, we can see that the data looks to be somewhat historical. There's nothing that's earth shattering that we are seeing that we say, whoa, this is an anomaly in the data that we have to dig deeper. I think we can kind of see the trends that are happening in our enrollment. But one of the things we might want to look into is our special education and making sure what is happening in terms of how we're identifying students, because there may be some shifts in the numbers. I think one of the things that's, you know, the Roberts has the highest enrollment, but yet the lowest percentage of students on an IEP, whereas the Missituk has the lowest enrollment, but the highest percentage of students on an IEP. So there are ways in which we need to do a little bit further digging as to what these numbers are really reflecting and how we're getting there. This graph just shows the average, just an average for elementary class size throughout the district for the past three years. And I think, again, The Roberts has the highest enrollment, but our class average sizes are pretty similar across the district, and for the most part have been, I think we can be in the end for me that would be that we are. meeting the need in terms of the enrollment by adding additional sections. We did collapse some sections at the Missituk, and I think that's also reflected in the average class size for this school year as opposed to what it was last school year and in fiscal year 23. This just has some data based on projected student population. For the bulk of our data, it is reflective of October 1 reporting again for the Department of Ed. We are looking at birth data. We are looking at consensus data that we get through the city. But it is important to note, and it is on our radar, that we know of, you know, at least three projected housing developments in the city of Medford that will contribute. We have some of that information where we know how many units and what the projections may be to affect Medford public schools, but we don't have some of that drilled down data, at least for what is somewhat projected for the Salem Street. There are no concrete plans, so it's hard to determine what impact that may have on the Roberts right now at this specific time. Whereas some of the other developments, we know a little bit about the number of affordable housing units. We know a little bit information about what those units look like in terms of how many bedrooms. So we can make some assumptions about what that would mean to the schools and the type of people that would be moving into those areas. But we still don't have a lot of data on the Salem Street one.
[Jenny Graham]: Dr. Blue Sea, can I just clarify real quick before you move on? Please. Yes. Do you want me to go back? Yeah. No, I don't think that matters tremendously. But the difference between what Salem Street and some of the other developments is that Salem Street is not actually a project. Salem Street is a zoning effort to allow projects in the future. So there is no project. That I'm aware of that is, like, in the same kind of development phase that, like. Projects in Medford square are with the new announcement of the project there. That's a project. It has a number of units. Salem street is not that Salem street is zoning that allows. Owners of property to do things to their property that that is the only thing that's happening. That zoning effort is happening across the entire city. Actually, it is not just Salem street. Um, there is, there are rezoning efforts happening city wide, and they are being looked at neighborhood to neighborhood, but none of those efforts equals. A project in the same way that, like. The project on the Felsway is a project with a number of units, et cetera. So not to say that that can't come, but that is one of the key differences in my mind. And I think that can get sort of muddled in the conversation. So I just wanted to clarify that before we moved on.
[Suzanne Galusi]: No, I appreciate that. I appreciate that clarification, and I'm sure people listening will appreciate that clarification. I'm kind of grateful to hear that right now.
[Jenny Graham]: Yeah, and I think the other thing that we may want to share eventually is some of the rationale around the enrollment study that we just finished for Medford high. And there was a lot of discussion there about. what housing development really does to student enrollment and the data does not show that it changes student enrollment in any drastic way with a few exceptions in terms of the types of housing. Um, and so we can make that available, um, as well in a little bit more of a connected way. Um, because that, that enrollment study I thought was like enlightening and interesting in terms of like what we were, How they looked at our enrollment and how we had to do some digging in a couple of places where we felt like specific plans developments were going to do something different to our enrollment than we were, than the sort of normal numbers would bare metal.
[Suzanne Galusi]: Yeah, thank you for that. Okay, so this, the next slide is going to talk about space and staffing across the four elementary schools. It is important to note that a lot of this information that is presented here came about from ongoing conversations that we've been having specifically with me and the principals. And so I think what was important to really just get a handle on is that space is very different across the elementary schools. And so I would say that while After the Roberts, the Brooks School has the highest enrollment. But the McGlynn does experience a lot of space constraints. And I think just on the face, the McGlynn Elementary School has only three floors, where the other four elementary schools have four floors. So it does reduce the amount of classrooms. And some of the spaces that, quite honestly, newcomer classrooms are in are not full classrooms, because some of the spaces were originally built to be more of support spaces and smaller group spaces. So the McGlynn, though their enrollment might not be at full capacity, there are some space constraints for them. at present do not house any MEEP classrooms, but for next year, well, the special education sub-separate program that the McGlynn houses is the access program. That program is growing, and so next year they're going to need an additional classroom for the access program. Thankfully, we could condense one of the double sections of the newcomer classrooms, and so We're able to kind of figure that out for next year. But I just think that's just an important piece for people to be aware of for the McGlynn. The McGlynn enrollment, because they are not at the level of capacity that the Brooks and the Roberts are, run each year with a fluctuation of either three or four sections per grade level. Whereas the Brooks and the Roberts are running on average four to five sections each year per grade level based on enrollment. The Roberts school houses the special education sub separate program for connections, and they have five classrooms currently with two MEEP, which is preschool programs. So that's a total of five classrooms. As opposed to the McGlynn, they have newcomer, so that is five classrooms plus access is six. The Brooks School houses the language-based program, as well as the learning group program for their special education subseparate programmings, each for two classrooms, as well as two preschool classrooms for a total of six additional classrooms. The Missituk does not have space constraints at this time. They run, based on enrollment, an average of three sections per grade level. some there was one year where they needed four sections of kindergarten. But this year, they needed two sections for second grade. So enrollment does fluctuate there as well. They house the newcomer. So that is for grades one through five. Just as the McGlynn, that's five classrooms. And they house the therapeutic learning program for their special education subseparate program. They have three classrooms in use for that. And they house three MEEP classrooms. It's also important to note that the Missituk is the only elementary school that is able to provide a dedicated classroom space for the after-school program. So some staffing constraints really are It's tied to enrollment, but it is also tied to the specialized programming that's in the buildings. So I think part of, I hate to use the word constraint, but part of the constraint at the Roberts and the Brooks is that currently their special education sub-separate programming is the largest in terms of enrollment. The access programming at the McGlynn and the therapeutic learning program at the Mississauga have the lower enrollment, there's only. one to three classrooms, whereas the Roberts and the Brooks have six plus, and that's part of it. And with the need for those classrooms, there's also the need for additional staff. So a lot of additional related services need to be given to the Brooks and the Roberts in order to meet the needs of the students within the building. So some of that additional staffing constraint is really to just ensure that the needs are met for the students and the growing enrollment. And each year so far since I left school leadership and have been up here since the pandemic, the Roberts has needed an additional fifth kindergarten every year. We can't say that for the other buildings. The Brooks is right behind. It's most of the years, maybe not all, but the Roberts, it's been every single year. I would also say just as a side note that The Roberts, because of the increased enrollment and because of their programming, could use some additional support, some additional behavioral support, whether that's through a BCBA board-certified behavior analyst or a behaviorist. They're in need of some additional support in that area. So the next section of the resolution talks about the average number of intra-district approvals and the impact that sibling preference may have on that. So before I advance the slide to show the data, I do want to just frame what that means. So intra-district approvals are situations in which students have been given permission to attend a school outside of their residential zoned school. Now, students that are in need of services, so students that may need newcomer, they are going to receive transportation to attend the McGlynn or the Missituk. And students that, through the team decision and the needs of their IEP, if they need a special education subseparate program, then they're going to receive transportation to go there. There has been a There has been a longstanding practice at one of the schools that there is sibling preference to allow students that attend either the learning group or the language-based programming at the Brooks, that their siblings can go to the Brooks as well. I think if we just go to that FAR column, we don't see that level of sibling preference at the other three schools. For this current school year, there are nine students at the Brooks that do not live in the Brooks area, but their sibling is part of the language-based or the learning group, and so their siblings have attended. That is not something that I am necessarily managing or approving, whereas if we look to the first two columns, since I came up here in 2020, And to get a little, well, let me back up. I apologize. Prior to 2020, there were, as we can see, 22 students attending the Brooks that did not live in the Brooks area, four students attending the McGlynn that did not live in the McGlynn area, two at the Missituk, four at the Roberts. In order to get a better handle on this, I started working with the superintendent at the time, Dr. Maurice-Edouard-Vincent, as well as Megan Fiddler-Carrie, our director for family and community engagement that also has a role in the registration office, to try and start tracking this data. At the time, for intra-district approvals prior to 2020, we actually were providing transportation to families in other parts of the city to bring them to the Brooks. And that stopped around 2021. And we began really looking at the needs for inter-district approvals. And I think, which dovetails to our conversation at last night's school committee meeting, in an effort to where we there was some after-school need, and we weren't really able to meet all families' needs to provide after-school care. We developed an internal inter-district approval process, and that process was having conversations with families around their hardship and their request to attend a school outside of their residential area. Those conversations really the approvals were given just for the hardship of afterschool care, or family situations that were delicate, and they had care or transportation that otherwise needed to be handled in a different zoned area. And so those approvals were given. Those approvals did not include transportation. They did not include any sort of enrollment on the wait list of afterschool programming. And you can see since 2020, really 2022, 2023, these numbers that are highlighted in yellow reflect the approvals that I have approved. Trying to also balance some of the enrollment and the needs of the families. I don't know if you want me to pause here on this slide or just keep going. Question. Yes.
[Paul Ruseau]: These are the, where they're transferring in?
[SPEAKER_08]: In most cases.
[Paul Ruseau]: Where they're going. Where they're going.
[Suzanne Galusi]: Yes, these are students that upon, let's say upon enrollment, they are zoned for the Brooks, but they have a caretaker in the McGlynn area. And for various hardship reasons, I approve the student to attend the McGlynn outside of their zoned area for the Brooks. There are situations in here which may involve other delicate situations, such as where the Department of Children and Families are involved, DCF, or situations of bullying or discord, things of that nature. So it's not all strictly enrollment. But I can only speak to what's in yellow. The numbers that are in brown, I don't have data on how that came to be.
[hsUGO5ihrRw_SPEAKER_15]: Thank you.
[Suzanne Galusi]: OK to proceed?
[Suzanne Galusi]: This last piece is on transportation. And this, just so that we're aware, I already spoke about how we were providing transportation, which did result in an additional two to three buses. That no longer happens. And these are the rationales here on the left, which I already spoke about. I do think it's important just in one year to see the difference in transportation costs when we look at what the yellow bus is at the top. You almost feel like we're getting a deal that it only went up by $15. But the daily rate for one bus this year is $475. We currently have 16 buses running, so we will maintain that. We are in the middle of updating the contract for our yellow bus. I don't have the exact cost of what fiscal year 26 will look like, but I think it's very reasonable to assume that it's going to be a little bit north of $475. I think the most drastic change here is in specialized transportation, which is our vans. There are several reasons why we need van transportation. You can see that we have it here for MEEP, we have it for special education needs. We run it in the summer for extended school year for special education. We also have some vans that run for our EL students and for our homeless students under McKinney-Vento. So we right now, you can see the difference. Last year it was about 25 ish dollars a day and now it's $75 a day. The vans run, and Ms. Bowen could probably speak to this a little bit more articulately than I because this is part of her daily existence, but they're based on seats.
[Joan Bowen]: It's the number of seats on a bus or on a van. A lot of our vans only hold eight students, but if there are car seats or a monitor on it, then that will reduce the number of students that we can have on a van. So typically there's six to eight students, and it depends on With me, we have morning and afternoon sessions, so we run, we have 2 separate runs going at that time. Um, but, yeah, so we need to make sure that the students are safe on the bands that they, if they have a harness or a buddy buckle as well as car seats for our younger students.
[Jenny Graham]: So, did you have a question I see your hand up.
[Paul Ruseau]: You did, um, is there any, um. I mean, I don't see a total here, but that's fine, not required. But is there a point where we just don't just buy our own vans? I know at Shore, we've just reordered a bunch of vans. And I mean, I don't know the cost analysis on that. But I suppose somebody has to drive them is the other catch. At Shore, I believe the staff drive the vans. So it's going to be very different. Just something to think about, I mean, but those numbers per day probably don't come up. I mean, it isn't to say that we can't have staff drive the vans either, by the way. I mean, if it happens at shore, we'd obviously have to negotiate that with our bargaining partners, but I guess there are plenty of people who would be capable of it and who would be open to the additional compensation. So just something to think about, because these numbers, like all transportation costs are going just up and up and up and up. So just a thought.
[Suzanne Galusi]: They are. Thank you. OK, so the last piece is just a little bit of a summary and some of the things that we've talked about internally. So I think very first and foremost, there were some major takeaways in running all of this data and that we just want to make sure that we, you know, punctuate right here. So there's definite variation in enrollment across the district. After Medford High School, the Roberts School has the highest enrollment in the city, which is primarily due to its location. I do think that is the piece a little bit about the data seemed to be mostly historical. The Roberts is situated in a part of the city that has a lot of multifamily homes. And I don't think we've seen a lot of family turnover in South Medford, where the Missituk is situated, as much as we have at the Roberts. Space constraints are felt at three of the four elementary schools. which I've already kind of talked about. The MSITUC is able to provide dedicated space for the after-school program in ways that the other three schools are unable to do at this time. The special education sub-separate programming space also varies, as we said in this presentation, due to the enrollment and the individual student needs of the programs, which definitely guides and impacts the level of staffing required. We do feel that additional conversation is needed to review the inter-district protocol. It is not a policy at this time. I would welcome further conversation about that at the Rules and Policy Subcommittee. And just as we talked about, there's definitely an increase in transportation costs overall that are a big impact. So some of the things we engaged in conversation about, which is not what we're necessarily bringing forward tonight, but I do want it to be known that we really had a lot of conversation. You know, one of the conversations was reassigning incoming Roberts enrollment at kindergarten. And once they hit the capacity per the teacher contract saying, In essence, the Roberts is closed, and anyone else that enrolls in the Roberts Kindergarten would have to be transported to, let's say, the Missituk. I'll just kind of go through them and then tell you why we really didn't settle on these. Another solution we talked about was taking all kindergarten enrollment and bringing it to a weighted lottery system so that we would, in essence, be maybe moving away from community-based schools. But the weighted part would, of course, be that families that have siblings already in the school would have a higher weight or maybe need, would have a higher weight, but that was one thing we did talk about. We also did talk about conducting a feasibility study on the use of the MISATUC, because there is great difference in the enrollment of the Roberts versus the enrollment of the MISATUC. As I said, those are the two ends of the spectrum. And so are there different ways that we could actually just leverage or use the MISATUC? Part of that conversation led to this next bullet, which would be like a restructuring of all grade spans, potentially, meaning that one way is we could look at the elementary and have the elementaries all service pre-K to grade four. We could have a middle school take grades five, six, and another middle school take grade seven, eight. We could also use the MISA Tuck as an early learning center and house all of pre-K through and kindergarten and grade one at the Missituk and then look at our other elementary schools to service different grade spans, maybe grades two through four or two through five. We also discussed reviewing the placement of our elementary subseparate programs that we have housed throughout the district because the highest enrollment of those programs is at the Brooks and the Missituk. And we also talked about engaging in discussions in partnership with school committee for the process of redistricting. So all of these things were discussed. Some of them are much longer term projects. But I think it doesn't feel good to say that we are going to stop families from enrolling if they live in that neighborhood. It also would create a hardship financially, possibly, to be adding additional transportation mechanisms in order to educate students. And we see the price of transportation increasing. It also doesn't feel great to say that families wouldn't know, entering kindergarten, which school their child was going to and what other additional hardships that may cause or how we would kind of have conversations around after school. So all that being said, there are some short-term solutions that we have been much more, I guess I could say, kind of like serious about. One would be to relocate the preschool MEEP programs from the Roberts to the Missituk for next school year. We are still looking into what that might look like. It may be a small uptick in transportation costs, but we don't 100% know that number yet, which is why we're still kind of looking into that analysis. But that would free up classroom space at the Roberts. And we are looking, the Roberts is feeling some additional constraints in just how their schedule runs in the school. And so one of those areas is their specialist schedule. And Principal Kroll is an amazing leader that is focused on equity and inclusion for all of her students. And so every student at the Roberts School participates in specials. And so for the Connections students, some of those students are able to really engage in the opportunity of going to specialist classes in the gen ed setting in a true inclusive manner. And some students based on their need and based on their disability, that is something that they struggle with. And so Ms. Kroll has been able to provide a more sheltered specialist experience for her students. And we don't wanna see that stop, but one of the ways we could alleviate for next year the pressure of that is to say that we are providing additional staffing to the Roberts so that the specialist schedule isn't so constrained and that we can really actually provide all of her students with the specialist experiences that they deserve. And then the other thing is that we are We are going to do a space utilization study of all four elementary schools and the two middle schools this summer. It's going to start July 1. We have contracted with HMFH Architects. They are going to do the study. They are really going to be able to go into all six of those schools and give us the information about how we're using our space. how space was intended upon when the buildings were first opened, and give us a little bit deeper of an understanding about how we can leverage our spaces better and what we're able to do. I think this information would also inform if we are entertaining, reorganizing our structure at all, this kind of study is going to be needed to engage in those conversations about restructuring. And... Member Ruseau, did you have a question?
[Paul Ruseau]: Yes. Oh, you want to say thank you? Could you go back to slide 21?
[Suzanne Galusi]: Yes, let me try to do that. Oh, see, it's just going to advance me. Hold on one minute. Don't mind my templates here. For some reason, I'm covered.
[Paul Ruseau]: There's an arrow right next to the 24 to the left of it.
[Suzanne Galusi]: I know, but for some reason, I have a...
[Paul Ruseau]: Something's in the way.
[Suzanne Galusi]: Yes.
[Paul Ruseau]: Yes. I love that. Anyways, what's on there?
[Jenny Graham]: Your keyboard arrow do it.
[Paul Ruseau]: Oh yeah, try the keyboard. Try the keyboard arrow. Keyboard.
[SPEAKER_08]: Oh, brilliant. One more. Brilliant. One more?
[Paul Ruseau]: Yep.
[SPEAKER_08]: Okay. Hold on one second. Whoopsie, look at.
[Paul Ruseau]: There it is. So, nope. Other direction. Oh, this is it, right, sorry. The number went away, so I stopped paying attention. So, you know, the redistricting is always a challenge in every district that's ever existed. And I'm not afraid of a challenge. I'm not afraid of political fallout. that will occur, 100% will occur. I bought a house right next to the school, and now you're telling me my kid has to go to school all the way across the city. And I feel for folks in that situation, I mean, how would you know that we're having this meeting right now? You haven't even had a kid yet, or you have your first child. You're not paying attention to this meeting. So that's all manageable. It's also, in my mind, never-ending cycle. Like, if we just redistrict, then it's just a temporary band-aid. Because, you know, I live practically as far away from the Missittook, which is where my kids went. I mean, I could walk to the Brooks in the blink of an eye. But, you know, the Missittook had to be stretched all over the place. And I mean, I didn't know what school my kids were going to go to, so I didn't care. But my point is just like, if you told me that if I moved two houses over, it would have been the Brooks, and I just glanced at those stupid school rating websites not knowing that they're garbage, I'd be like, oh, I guess I'll buy the house two doors down. And that will just, I mean, folks will continue to do that. not to generalize about who lives in Medford, but you know, the folks that are buying single family homes that are in predominantly West Medford and are Brooks zoned, like they're doing the research for that. So it's going to be, and I'm not saying others aren't, but it's just going to be a problem that we just have to keep revisiting. Now, granted, we're 20, five years now since we've been in the new schools, the old new schools. And there has been a couple of, at least one redistricting, which was sort of just school committee wasn't involved. It's just like the superintendent took the map out and moved the streets around is my understanding. So I'm not a fan of redistricting and not when I see all these other options. If these other options were totally ridiculous and just could not work for zillions of reasons, then redistricting it is. That would be the tool in our toolbox. Two options, the pre-K to four, and then the two middle schools is one I know I've talked about with some of you all before. The pre-K to one, and then, I mean, I hadn't thought of that one, and I think that's very interesting. So there's a lot of talk about continuity in a school. I think that the middle school, lottery process, to me, has shown me that people really want continuity with their student cohort. It's rare to get the same teacher one year after the next, unless there's a reorg and you get really lucky. And so, yeah, you'll have different specialists. You'll have different food service workers and the different secretary if you're in a different school. But you want to be with your classmates. both of those options listed there very much interest me much, much more than redistricting because I just feel like we're just kicking the can down the road now. And you know, like the pre-k to one, like some years that'll be a lot more pre-k to one, some years it'll be a lot less or not a lot, but the fluctuation that occurs will not be impacting other schools, it'll be centralized. It'll be, in my mind, easier to manage. And so will the space study, they're going to see all these options, or are they going to just provide data, and then we're going to think about them? I did have a question.
[SPEAKER_08]: The latter.
[Paul Ruseau]: OK, OK. All right, well. they're not going to have to do the thinking on this, then all that talking I just did was for nothing. The weighted system, by the way, I'm actually a fan of the weighted system for a few reasons. I don't think families are a fan of such a system, to be clear. But you know, the mixing of our students across the city. Like, we're one city. And this isn't when I grew up. Well, I didn't grow up around here, but I grew up in a place where there were no neighbors. But, you know, the neighborhoods that people, many of the people who live in Medford still remember were, you know, they were all the kids on the street and we all knew each other and we walked to school and all. I really wish we could go back to that, but I know most kids are not roaming the streets at all. It's just shocking to how few kids you ever see on the streets. This notion that your friends that you go to school with have to be the friends that live next door isn't one that I like it, but I think that's the thing that's gone that is never coming back unless we can literally stop having cell phones and game systems. I would love that day. I would too, but I think we all have to continue to mourn it and move on. So mixing kids across neighborhoods and, frankly, socioeconomics and all the other things, I think, is a great idea. However, if there is one system on this list that will cause an endless political firestorm, it is the weighted system. The family who buys a house next to, pick your school, and then it's told they're going to the school on the other side of the city. Every one of those people will be screaming at us at school committee, and then if we don't have enough time for that, they'll go to city council.
[Suzanne Galusi]: And- Yeah. And I do have to say the one thing that I appreciate so much that's so wonderful about the Missituk is it's also the only elementary school that truly represents the population of Medford in one elementary school. And- Yes.
[Paul Ruseau]: I mean, I loved the school and I, you know, I don't, my kids didn't go to the other schools, so I can't comment on those schools, but the cultural aspects, the, you know, there was a, at least before the pandemic ruined everything, we had the sort of, it wasn't Thanksgiving, but it was like a big thing with lots of food and all the different backgrounds of folks in the community that sent their kids there came. And it was clearly a fire code violation. There were so many people every single year. It was wonderful. So I do agree with that. But I just think the weighted system is like a pretty nasty surprise for families. I think that once we get full, you're going to have to do that for now. But I would be a big fan of what is it going to take, what's it going to cost to do one of those restructurings. And I mean for 2027, like at the school year 2020, fall of 2026 or something, like there may end up, you know, Looking at these numbers, I know that there's, you know, if we moved like a bunch of kindergartners or preschool kids into the middle schools and to Andrews, that we would run into like, the bathrooms are wrong and all this other stuff that's very expensive. So I'm just super.
[Suzanne Galusi]: Sorry. I do think that's important to note too is that in order to do the work for this resolution and to get the data and have some initial conversations. This process to lead us to this subcommittee meeting has been pretty insular. I have not engaged in conversation around solutions with staff members or with caregivers. I think that is one of the things that I'm happy that we're here at this subcommittee meeting to also just extend the conversation. our list of solutions based on the data as a preliminary. Attempt.
[Jenny Graham]: I think, you know, as I've been looking at this list as well, like, the other thing that sort of strikes me that is a conundrum is when you look at the placement. Of relative to the placement of all the other schools geographically. It does create a challenge because it's in the corner of the city. So there's, there's not a 360 degree realm around the talk. There's just like, you know, sort of half of that, right? There's 180 degrees. Of houses available, and I'm not a space planning expert, nor am I a redistricting expert, but I've looked at the maps several times and just sort of. Gotten to the conclusion that, like, we would have to pick kids up next to the McGlynn. and send them to the Missituk or we'd have to pick them up next door to the Brooks and send them to the Missituk because there's no other way you could like scoop up another 150 kids because of the placement of that school. And it does make me wonder whether the placement of that school does mean it shouldn't Be used quite the same way as the other schools that have, like, an actual radius around them in terms of, like, pulling students into a place. That's not too too far away so that we can have more walkers to school and all of that. Which I think is valuable for all kinds of reasons. So I've often thought about, like. What could be actually, like, the early didn't sort of come to my mind, but I was really thinking, like, we've invested all this money in the McGlynn playground. Could the McGlynn become a much bigger. Elementary school and the take on. something else like a 5-6 or something like that. So I do think this like study would be a really important place to sort of get some additional data about where we go from here. The other concern that I have though is like what do we need to do for August to alleviate what's happening at the Roberts? Like do we need to Ask incoming kindergarten parents if there are volunteers to be redistricted over to miss a tuck. Like, how do we, it just seems like there is 610 students is too many students for that building. So what. What do we need to do in the short term? I think is my question that could alleviate the right now.
[Suzanne Galusi]: I think for me, and I do open up that question to beyond myself, I know we have Michelle Kroll on the call, Joan Bowen, there's caregivers, there's other admin on the call. I think the only thing that I would say, and again, this is something that we've only been talking about since January. And so there hasn't been a lot of time to message to kind of have a little bit more intent on that. And I don't want to overburden the Roberts, but I think this is why we are tracking the kindergarten enrollment every week. I share with school leaders where we are and what that looks like. At the very least, I think relocating the two preschool programs will free up some space for Ms. Kroll. Hiring an additional teacher will free up the pressure that's currently in the specialist schedule. And those are band-aids for 25, 26. I am completely open to to your point about reaching out to incoming kindergarten families and seeing what is there. Anytime someone reaches out with inter-district approval for the Roberts, I pretty much have been approving it, but it's not much. So I am definitely open to those questions.
[Jenny Graham]: And do you have a sense for like, and maybe this is a next step, like if we relocated the MEEP, Programs. How big could the kindergarten class get before like, we have to ring the bell again at like, could could you take if you relocated those 2 classrooms? Could you take a 5th class at the next year?
[Suzanne Galusi]: Michelle can speak to the specifics of this. I think it's not. She's been living with five kindergarten classrooms. So it's not the matter of, do we have a fifth kindergarten classroom? It's that additional section. Correct.
[Jenny Graham]: No, I think that's what I mean. If you don't have those two MEEP classes, could you add a section knowing how the rest of your sections in the other grades are going to fall out? We needed 6 right now. Okay.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, right now, like, Dr Lucy just said, I currently have 5 case, so that would be fine. I think that my worry is right now. I do have to add a section of 4th grade and. I also, if approved, I'm going to have to add another section of grade two, because I currently have grade, I have five first grades with, I have 90 kiddos that will be moving on to grade two, which would require five. That's where it gets tricky for me, because I don't now have another classroom. So if I opened, if the two MEAPs left and went to the MISATUC, I would be able to make a couple shifts, because those two MEAP classrooms are downstairs on the first floor. I could relocate my Connections classrooms that are upstairs on third floor to come down, which would give me the classroom space for the other grade levels. So it would actually, It would open up a lot of doors for me at the Roberts if that were to occur.
[Jenny Graham]: So, if we move those to meet classes. You can have the right number of classrooms 1 to 5. And you could again support 5 kindergartens if necessary. Correct. Okay. That I think that. With additional with the additional right. So, my next question is whether the additional staff that the Roberts needs are in the budget yet, or if we need to, you know.
[Suzanne Galusi]: They're not yet.
[Jenny Graham]: Okay. Okay, so we have to find a way to support. 2 additional 2.
[Suzanne Galusi]: 2, I believe. The additional fourth is in the budget. The additional second is not. And the specialist teacher is not. That's correct. So it would be two more FTEs.
[Jenny Graham]: And does the budget include five kindergarten or four? Five. OK. Got it. So it's net two extra that we need to find a home for in the budget. Correct. Got it. Um, the, so the space study, my other question, um, is whether the space, the space that he only basically is going to give us the data of like, here's what you could consider doing with this space. Like, they're not going to engage in like the public. Conversation that's for the district. It is a member.
[Erika Reinfeld]: Thank you. Yeah. So thank you for all this. I know that pulling it together was was a lot. And thanks to everyone who's on this call. So I think I'm going back a little bit to some of the questions about the previous slide. But I'm really intrigued by the early childhood. As member Ruseau said, I've heard the five, six, seven, eight floated. I hadn't seen anything around the. restructuring at the elementary level, would that open up more pre-K programming to families in Medford? I think it's not as cutthroat as some of the after-school lottery, but I do hear people feeling really, really lucky to have a preschool space in the public schools. So does it affect that at all?
[Suzanne Galusi]: I think it could. Director Joan Bowen's on the call, but I would say yes, but go ahead, Joan.
[Joan Bowen]: I agree. I think it could definitely open up more classrooms. I think Like we're talking here tonight, space is an issue. We do have pretty good enrollment in our pre K programs and I would like to expand it. And that's something we talked about to with the new high school, having an early childhood set an early education center. That sort of thing so I think this could definitely open more opportunities and I was going to ask how it interfaces with the.
[Erika Reinfeld]: MSBA proposal to bring more early childhood into. The high school, I don't know if there's more to say there.
[Jenny Graham]: If not, I can give a brief update. I mean, what. Because we currently have some early childhood programming in the high school and because previously it was all there, there is a willingness on the part of the MSBA to allow that to be in scope. So it is in scope to explore a universal-ish pre-K model. That could be housed in the new building, whatever that new building looks like. The, the reimbursement structures a little bit different on the Pre K side than it is on the typical. Uh, like, 9 to 12 side, but there is reimbursement there particularly. I think and it will change, of course, as the state. Assuming the state continues to push on the idea of universal pre-K and prioritize and spend accordingly. So I think of this effort as something that we have to do to create some slack in the system to get us to that place. And then potentially be able to extract from this bigger picture, the pre-K and put it at the high school. So we should sort of be thinking about that when we're thinking about solutions so that we're not like yo-yoing, so to speak, back and forth. But I think until we have the data about what's possible, you know, that will be tough. Like, again, in my mind, like, I sort of feel like put 5-6 at the Missittuck and Let the fact that it is that it doesn't have a radius around it and it's in the corner of the city not matter because everyone's going to go there. versus trying to maintain it as the same as the other elementary schools, who knows if that's actually possible or feasible. So I look forward to the study results so that we then can say, OK, with all of this, what really do we have to do and when? And frankly, how does it line up with what will happen at the high school and particularly as the feasibility study there advances? the pre-K piece comes into focus.
[Erika Reinfeld]: Okay, that's helpful because then I was thinking, well, if you've got pre-K at the high school, are we considering a K-2 model in K-2 schools and 3-5 schools. So there are a lot of possibilities. And I agree, we have to understand what is possible. And I know there are some challenges around retrofitting what was built for middle school students, for elementary. But I also think we have some inequities at the middle school level in terms of service provided and students in both schools needing things and either having to double staff particular services or concentrating certain student populations in a single school. So I'm really interested in the restructuring for that. I know this conversation is really around elementary school, but. to the sense that some of this can solve some of the challenges we're seeing at other grades, I think is really important. The weighted lottery system, I think the potential and the critiques are all really valid. And I appreciate your explaining what that meant, because I read this and I went, oh, weighted. So if you are within a certain geographic radius, you go there and that gets into the 360, 180. whatever it is, because I have a personal interest in increasing alternative transportation around walking and biking. And I think if you're not busing around a certain radius, anyone who's living within that radius. And then I think there are certain areas of the city that are going to need busing or vehicle transportation either way. And I don't know if that's weighted enrollment or if it's actually a redistricting because you kind of say, all right, if people are all the way up in the heights, they're going to be bused no matter what. So does it make sense? Do they have to be bused to the Roberts? I know traffic in the city, 93. I know it's awful. I live in one of those places where if I walk five minutes, I could go to it. My kids would go to any of the four elementary schools. So I see the traffic. But that's what I was wondering around Weighted Lottery to do a geographic radius. And if there are neighborhoods that need busing either way, Well, I think I would be busing to the school that is closest to them. Or are there more opportunities to rethink where folks are going?
[Suzanne Galusi]: I think more opportunities. I think the weighted does not have to be one criteria. I think their geographical location, as well as maybe siblings that are already in the school. I think there are There are several ways to construct a weighted lottery that we would have to have lots of conversation if that was one of the ways that we were thinking of going, that we would have to craft that as a community.
[Erika Reinfeld]: And I think that could be true for redistricting as well. I know there are much more formal processes that apparently Medford hasn't engaged in before, but there is some common sense logic that is not always applied to the mapping of things, namely that this is my backyard and I could walk here.
[Suzanne Galusi]: And I think it's also, you know, I know I've said it before, but in terms of like the restructuring conversation, I have not brought teachers into that conversation either. And that's a very big conversation.
[Erika Reinfeld]: Yeah. And that was the last thing I was going to mention. So I will step back and let other people add thoughts to the conversation.
[Jenny Graham]: Um, thank you. Remember, I felt I have some thoughts about next steps, but before we do that, I did want to find out if there was anybody who has joined us who had a question or a comment for us. And you can just use the raise hand feature and we will be able to unmute you. Just wanted to say thank you to Ms. Kroll and Mr. DiClemente for being here as well. I know it's a full day and all that good stuff. So thank you for being here.
[Erika Reinfeld]: And I see Ms. Demos as well. I was just going to say that. I see you as well. And I see caregivers as well. We see you, everybody.
[Suzanne Galusi]: It's a big conversation.
[Jenny Graham]: I do see a lot of parents who I know have lots of things to say, generally speaking. So are you sure there's nothing you want to add to the conversation?
[Erika Reinfeld]: It was a lot to take in, but it really was. Lots of thoughts and questions. And given that this is kind of the first public conversation we're having about this.
[Jenny Graham]: We have a hand. Christina McGordy. I am going to Mute you, I think. Hi, I think that worked. Yep. And can you give me your name and address for the record?
[Cristina McCorty]: Yeah, Christina McGordy, 24 North Street, Medford. Um, I, I had a lot of thoughts, but a lot of this is so theoretical that, like, I will say that I'm glad that this conversation is happening though. And thanks for all the people are here, I guess, just because I think. like Jenny was saying, the focus like right now is more on like what happens for this August, right? Because there's a lot of like research and planning to like think about the good long-term solution. So I just want, just because there was so much info, I just wanted to go over the, so if the two, it's two MEEP classes that are proposed to like maybe move to Mississippi. That's correct. Is that correct? Yes. And I think I know we have what I can think of as three empty classrooms. So I'm just like envisioning how this could impact other things. So I'm envisioning like the after school and this other room would probably. be taken from me. And then we're supposed to get back a second grade that we really need. So that's the city year room this year. And then I'm just wondering, like, I know the kindergarten piece was sort of like unknown yet, but it sounded like potentially there could be like kindergarteners sent to Mississippi if the Roberts needs more space. And I'm just wondering about the numbers and like, Um, how will like keep an eye on, cause I don't, I don't know that there's another room. So if they had to open a fourth kindergarten, um, Like that might not be able to have to work, um, out. So. I just was curious about like, if we'll just keep, you know, keep an eye on that and what those K numbers look like, just to make sure that those don't get too big. I know you just redid the numbers too, with like the new contract. And I think. They are all a little bit more close to realistic. So, I just wanted to ask about that.
[Jenny Graham]: And thank you for that question. I think what I heard, and maybe Dr can confirm is that to meet classes, then we would. We would not have a need to also relocate kind of partners this year. Is that right? Okay.
[Cristina McCorty]: Yeah, yeah, I was trying to follow and I know it sounded like they had to add some other classes and I, I didn't. Follow exactly where it landed, so it would sound it sounds like you wouldn't need to. Okay. That was my 1 concern question for for this year. And also the other concern I had is about space, but it sounds like you're doing a space study. Cause part of me wonders like if all this, like what the actual size is and then number of classrooms are at each school. And if like they each could really hold like, you know, more students or whatever. So I'm glad that space study is happening. Thank you.
[Suzanne Galusi]: Thanks for that, Christina. I do think that's important. That's the key piece of the space utilization study. Mrs. Sherman Hudson would be involved clearly in assigning all of this, but I do know myself that there are some spaces in the Missituk that could be used in a different way if needed. It's just that they've had the fortunate ability to use space a little bit more creatively. So I don't worry so much about the space because I do think that Ms. Sherman-Hudson will be able to account for that.
[Jenny Graham]: Thank you for that. I see Rebecca Gutland with a hand. Rebecca, can you unmute or do you need me to do it?
[hsUGO5ihrRw_SPEAKER_15]: There we go. I think we got it. Okay. Yeah, I'm really glad this conversation is finally happening. This is give me your name and address. Yeah, yeah, this is Rebecca Gutwin and 47 Morrison Street in Medford.
[Jenny Graham]: Thank you.
[hsUGO5ihrRw_SPEAKER_15]: Yeah, I'm glad this conversation is finally happening. I know at the Roberts, we've seen it coming for like five years. So it was a little surprising to find out that there were like no lands in motion because we were really bursting at the seams. But the thing that I see in some of these plans, and I know we're talking about the MEEP classrooms leaving the Roberts, and I think that's probably the best plan right now. I completely trust Ms. Kroll's guidance on that, is losing some of that community. If all of a sudden, your preschooler can't go to school with their older siblings and things like that, you do start to lose community. And we would only lose that at one school. We don't want to continue down that path too far. I think it would just be a loss for our community in a whole to not be able to offer that. But beyond that, I love the idea of the 5, 6, 7, 8. I think that that could lead to some like really developmentally appropriate places for teens and tweens as they make those transitions. I think that would be awesome. Take a lot of the anxiety out like this time of year. I see a lot of anxiety. Like, I'm talking, you know, parents down from the ledge about kids who are going to middle school with their friends. Like, we would lose, we wouldn't have to have that. We wouldn't have to have those panicking moments. That would be awesome. But I really dislike the K-1 to Early Learning Center, especially if we're looking at the Missituk. I like those first days of people trying to send their kids on buses, especially when they're kindergarten and first graders, are also super anxiety-producing days. And you're going to end up with like, just like, like logistically, the traffic of dropping off at the Missatuck from all over the city, because you don't want to put your kindergartener on a bus without their older siblings. Like, I think that there are some real, like, like community-based hurdles that would need to be overcome with that system. The idea of needing to go to, you know, like three STEM nights because you have a first grader and a fourth grader and a seventh grader is like, We already have, you know, it's so difficult already to make sure that we're not, like, elementaries aren't, you know, double scheduling with what's happening at middle schools and things like that. I think adding to that complexity would be really challenging. So while I think splitting some things would be awesome, splitting it too far starts to, like, create other hurdles that I don't know if we can completely predict, or at least we need to look deeply into. Yeah, I think that was my initial reaction because there's just, there's a lot, there's a lot of moving pieces. So, thank you.
[Jenny Graham]: Thank you, Rebecca. Anybody else?
[Paul Ruseau]: Can I add something? Yes, thank you, Rebecca. I actually really appreciated that, you know, the scenario of Not two schools, but three schools, plus the high school. I mean, you can have kids all over the place, I think is a real concern. I think when I hear your concerns, which when my kids were little, they were two years apart, so would have been plenty of opportunity for two schools. I think our challenge, I mean, the challenge has been explained, I think, pretty succinctly. You know, none of us here would build the Missatuck where it is. That sounds like the answer. But yeah, I mean, we can't make those other schools any bigger. And I think that there's no ideal solution because, I mean, frankly, because of where that building is. There were plenty of other elementary schools when we built those schools that we could have used, but I wasn't around for that. So I do think we're gonna end up, whatever solution we come up with is going to be Constrained I, I think that's a word that's okay to use superintendent doesn't like it. We're going to be constrained. We're going to be constrained by. You know, like, the laws of physics on, like, how many people we can put in a building and I know that you understand that Rebecca. I'm not suggesting you don't, but. And, you know, we may end up with. With, I mean, I think about there are plenty of other school districts that. Even in Somerville that have. I've always thought it was odd that we had such a consistent set of, I mean, great, I didn't think it was odd in a bad way, I thought it was great. Because then you hear about these other school districts, Somerville, obviously Boston, you know, there's K-1, there's 2-3, 4, there's, you know, but then there's also like 1 through 5s, they're like all these different kinds of configurations, which to me sounds Sounded like a nightmare, but I sort of feel like I'm understanding why that is. It's not that it's not a nightmare, it's that it's the only dream we're gonna be able to have. So yeah, I mean, I think transportation costs are definitely going to be a major issue because any of these other options will require significantly more transportation. And I did the math on the current number, it's $1.4 million for 180 days of school. And that's only transporting the kids we do transport. So are we looking at doubling that? I mean, we'll know more once we have the space study and we have ideas. We can probably play that out to say, what will it actually cost? Because maybe it will double the transportation cost. But an additional $1.4 million a year is nothing compared to adding some stories to a building or all the other, you know, physical structure options that frankly are outside the realm of possible at this time. So I appreciate putting the lens on those scenarios, which we did hear plenty when we had the middle school, when we went to the middle school lottery, but this is obviously a lot more complicated because the middle schools are beside each other. So it's a little bit like, yeah, you can drive the extra 12 feet or whatever, but driving across the entire city is a much bigger ask.
[Jenny Graham]: Else other questions comments. Christina.
[Cristina McCorty]: Hi, I had another question because I was thinking about the meat. And is it I know, like, when we. had MEEP come before and we had an extra kindergarten. So the kindergarten moved so that the MEEP could have a bathroom. So like, do the MEEPs, are they required to have like their own bathroom and like changing table? I'm just like thinking. So it would be like, they probably probably have kindergarten rooms.
[Suzanne Galusi]: Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't know, Joan, if you were chiming in. So I think those are all conversations that we would have to have. I do think that if we are prioritizing, I would say that the MEEP classrooms need bathrooms more than kindergarten classrooms do. Right now, when we have to add that fifth section of kindergarten, mostly at the Brooks and the Roberts, but it has happened at the McGlynn as well, there aren't, that fifth section does not have a bathroom in that kindergarten classroom. The need, right, the need is different. So I would say that that's the prioritization for sure.
[Cristina McCorty]: Yeah, sorry. I was just, I'm trying to stay concrete on the things we know versus like all the theoretical. So thank you.
[Jenny Graham]: I appreciate it. Thank you.
[Cristina McCorty]: Yeah.
[Jenny Graham]: And obviously, Mr. Sherman Hudson will be involved in all of those conversations in terms of what happens in her building. So, but I think, you know, I do think it's very interesting, like, to just point out that what people think of as, like. A thing that happens in their school and how it. Would be different or change, like, chances are that change is happening, like, every single day somewhere else. Like, you know, Rebecca said, oh, I go to 2 stem nights and I was like, we didn't have stem night. So there's just all kinds of differences across the schools that get operationalized and really, really different ways. So the good news is we're not creating. New things that we haven't done before. It's just that we have to look in buildings different than perhaps we're used to, like, solving like, building based problems. And so I think that's good because we have done this in kindergarten in many places for. Years now, and I will say, I get a lot of emails about a lot of things and the lack of a bathroom in a kindergarten is 1. I have not received so. Um, I'll take that as a win, but I think it's good that we have a lot of options across, um, you know, across the. The district to learn from, um, so that's great.
[Cristina McCorty]: Christina is your hand up on purpose. Sorry, I just want to say I wasn't saying I wasn't. I didn't ask that because of the K not having a bathroom. I was just trying to map out the changes in my brain. We've had K without bathroom before because they actually moved. I just didn't want people to think I was complaining about that.
[Jenny Graham]: No, no, no. All of these things are different. It's all change and you have to work your way through that. You know, in whatever way it is needed, so it's okay. I just, I'm, I'm glad that. The principles are not, like, also having to be space planners in their spare time. Like, they can talk to each other and hear about how they, how these things have been operationalized real time, which is great. I have a few thoughts in terms of next steps around what we might report out to the school committee and just so that they have a sense of what we talked about here. So there may need to be a brief presentation at our next school committee meeting. And I was thinking that we might want to report out this committee recommending that those need classes move recommending that the budget addition of 2 occur and then potentially. The formation of some sort of caregiver team that. will work with us on the space, I don't know what to call it, the strategic space planning team or something like that. Namely, maybe a small group of people who can help support community engagement, which will have to start to happen in the fall once that initial study is done. Those were the three things I was thinking about in terms of what comes next. And I don't know if my colleagues agree with that and want to make motion so that we can vote those out or have other thoughts.
[Paul Ruseau]: So moved if you're writing it down.
[Suzanne Galusi]: I just want to add I would just want to would like to add staff to the. Space utilization team.
[Jenny Graham]: Yep. Okay, so. The first motion is to move to meet classrooms from the Roberts to the miss a tuck starting in August of 2025 by members.
[Erika Reinfeld]: So seconded by. I can 2nd, but I did have a question from his crawl to Rebecca's point. Are we do we know how many families. Are are going to be affected in terms of. I guess we don't know who the incoming preschoolers are unless we happen to know a parent.
[SPEAKER_00]: Correct, I don't have incoming MEAP numbers right now. I only just have my, what I have so far for my incoming kindergarten.
[Joan Bowen]: I don't know where, oh, sorry. Oh, go ahead, go ahead. We're working on collecting those numbers and I think we'll do a deeper dive on if they're in the Roberts community. We do have some students that are outside of the Roberts community based on the specific MEAP program that they require if it's a half day, full day, that sort of thing. But we do provide transportation to meet students. So that would also be provided to parents. But we'll take a deeper dive actually to where their address is and how that will impact them attending the Missituk school.
[Erika Reinfeld]: Yeah, I mean, in particular, but to Rebecca's point around whether they're being separated from their their siblings. Yeah, because I was going to ask if there's any way to have one Meep classroom so we can prioritize people whose families are already in the system. But it sounds like we need both those classrooms.
[SPEAKER_00]: I would need both classrooms. Yeah.
[Suzanne Galusi]: I just, yeah, I would want, I think we can also find the data. I mean, the McGlynn does not have a preschool program right now. There is no Meep at the McGlynn. And a lot of the way that the MEEP is structured is it's there's not always the luxury of like, it's not always a community-based program.
[Erika Reinfeld]: Yeah, I mean, I know a family who has students at Roberts Brooks. Correct, correct. I know this happens.
[Suzanne Galusi]: I'm not minimizing anything. I'm just saying that it's presently not at the McGlynn. We do have the future goal of cohabitating all of the preschool programs together. And we can find that data exactly about The makeup in terms of neighborhood families.
[Erika Reinfeld]: And I think I think that might be worth including in messaging around the shift, obviously, that the priority is. freeing up the space for the Roberts now, but also to remind people that this is part of the long-term thinking, that it's being considered both in these space utilization studies, but also in the new high school, because we have the rare opportunity, unlike other cities, to co-locate that kind of programming in a high school. Yeah.
[Suzanne Galusi]: Thank you for that.
[Jenny Graham]: Okay, so we have a motion to recommend that these two MEEP classrooms move from the Roberts to the Misituc starting in August 2025 by Member Ruseau, seconded by Member Reinfeld. So I'll call the roll. Member Ruseau? Member Reinfeld? Yes, sorry. Yes, yes, 3, 0, motion passes the 2nd motion by members. So, was to request the addition of 2 to the Robert school budget beginning in August of 2025 is there a 2nd. 2nd, so the motion is by members. So, seconded by member Reinfeld. So, I'll call the role members.
[Paul Ruseau]: So, yes.
[Jenny Graham]: Member Reinfeld? Yes. Member Graham? Yes. Motion passes 3-0. And the third motion as amended would be to create a strategic space planning task force of staff and caregivers to discuss and prepare for community engagement once the space needs study is complete. So moved or seconded whichever you need me to do. By member Rousseau, seconded by member Reinfeld, so I'll call the roll. Member Ruseau?
[Paul Ruseau]: Yes.
[Jenny Graham]: Member Reinfeld? Yes. And member Graham? So that is motion passes 3-0.
[Erika Reinfeld]: Do we need to authorize the space study or that's already engaged and ready to go?
[Suzanne Galusi]: Already engaged and ready to go.
[Erika Reinfeld]: Yeah. And along with FY26 budget?
[Suzanne Galusi]: No, I don't believe so. No, 25.
[Erika Reinfeld]: I can double check, but I'm... That's separate from the recommissioning. Correct. Great. And I think as part of the moving, once I think, once the full committee is able to provide, approves, I suppose it's possible that they won't, but the relocation of the MEAP classrooms, I think communication needs to go out as soon as possible. I know we've had challenges in the past, Um, by last, what appears to be a last minute change and an inability to plan for an upcoming school year.
[Paul Ruseau]: So, yes, um, we don't have the authority anyways. Here is a CYA, uh, vote. Um, so I, I mean, I, I think the superintendent should begin the planning efforts regardless of, I mean, if the school committee voted no, that'd be unfortunate, but.
[Erika Reinfeld]: Well then, I don't know, I think the sooner we can communicate with families, the better is my point.
[SPEAKER_08]: We agree.
[Jenny Graham]: Great. Are there any other questions from the committee? Comments? Motions to adjourn?
[Erika Reinfeld]: Just wanted to say thank you for doing this. I know I was kind of beating down your door even as you were in the process of transitioning. So I appreciate the turnaround on this.
[Suzanne Galusi]: No, it's important work that has to get done.
[Erika Reinfeld]: I know it feels, as somebody said, five years too late, but I'm glad it's happening. I'm glad it's moving. And thank you to all the staff and caregivers who signed on to learn more and raise issues. Thank you. Motion to adjourn. Motion to adjourn.
[Jenny Graham]: Second.
[Erika Reinfeld]: Second.
[Jenny Graham]: Seconded by member Rousseau. I'll call the roll. Member Ruseau. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.
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