[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: via remote participation only. The meeting can be viewed live on the Medford Public Schools YouTube channel, through Medford Community Media, on your local cable channel, Comcast Channel 9, 8, or 22, and Verizon Channel 43, 45, or 47. Participants can log or call in by using the following Zoom link. The meeting ID is 944-068-13258. questions or comments can be submitted during the meeting by emailing medfordsc at medford.k12.ma.us. Those submitting questions or comments must include the following information, your first and last name, your Medford Street address, your question or comment. Member Ruseau, if you could call the roll, please.
[Paul Ruseau]: Certainly. Member Branley.
[Suzanne Galusi]: Here. Can you hear me?
[Paul Ruseau]: Yeah.
[Suzanne Galusi]: Okay, I know you can't see me.
[Paul Ruseau]: Sorry, Member Grant.
[Suzanne Galusi]: Here.
[Paul Ruseau]: Member Intoppa. Here. Member Olapade. Presently absent. Member Reinfeld. Absent. Member Ruseau is present. Mayor Lungo-Koehnly.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Present. Five present, two, oh, please note Member Reinfeld, present. So six present, one absent for now. We are going to rise and salute the flag, please. 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 executive session upon a motion to enter into executive session pursuant to MGL 30A, section 21A, executive session of the Medford School Committee to conduct a strategy session on the basis that an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the bargaining positions of the Medford School Committee. Specifically, the Medford School Committee will be discussing contracts with the Medford Power Professional Association, Massachusetts Nurses Association, the MNA, and the SEIU Local 888 Cafeteria Workers. The Medford School Committee will reconvene in public session after the executive session. Motion for executive session by... So moved. Member Tapa seconded by... Oh, second. I can't unmute. I think that was Member Reinfeld. Roll call, please.
[Paul Ruseau]: Member Branley.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Yes.
[Paul Ruseau]: Thank you. Member Graham? Yes.
[John Intoppa]: Yes.
[Paul Ruseau]: Member Olapade is still absent. Member Reinfeld?
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Yes.
[Paul Ruseau]: Member Rissell-Guest? Mayor Lundberg?
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Yes. Six in the affirmative, one absent. We're going to join the breakout room, go into executive session.
[Unidentified]: Thank you. Hi everyone, we're back, we're recording.
[Jenny Graham]: Okay, so we've just returned from executive session. We have two items left on our agenda. The first is a motion to approve our paraprofessionals contract. And we just took this vote in executive session and we'll take it again here. So is there a motion to approve ratification of the paraprofessionals contract. Motion to approve ratification of the paraprofessionals. Motion approved by member Reinfeld. Seconded by member Locate. Anybody? Member Ruseau, can you call the roll? Member Ruseau, you're on mute in case you didn't know that.
[Paul Ruseau]: I'm on mute and I don't have my camera on, I have no idea. I think it's when I left the room, it must do that by default. Anyways, we don't have anybody who wants to speak, I see. Member Branley.
[Jenny Graham]: Before you call the roll, just in case anybody catches this recording later, I just wanted to thank the members of the paraprofessional union for a really collaborative conversation. This contract, there's actually two contracts, a one-year deal and a three-year deal. And it includes the extension of the school day, which we've been talking so much about. And so with this contract, The paraprofessionals will be ready and with us as we step off in the new year, which we're really excited about. We are trying to fix some of the problems of practice that we see with our paraprofessionals around when they're being asked to cover for different obligations during the school day that are outside of their job. And the thing that. Where I'm truly the most excited about is the creation of some like some flexible time from our paraprofessionals to help us do the things that don't. Get done so consistently in the district today and, um, you know, I think we all heard from members of the community. A couple of months back about the need for bus monitors, so this contract will allow us some flexibility to deploy paraprofessionals among other kinds of duties after school events after school. you know, parent nights, those kinds of things, but also to be able to support our students on the bus while they're in transit when we have like hot spots or flashpoints in the year. Not all bus rides are created equal and we want to make sure that they're all like safe and welcoming spaces for students. So I'm really excited about all of that in addition to, you know, increases that reflect this committee's work to make sure that our staff all are paid a wage that is livable. We've made huge strides there over the last six years, and this contract continues to do that. So thank you to the committee. Thank you to the paraprofessionals union. I'm really excited about this. And I think the people who are the most excited about this are the payroll office, because they will be able to process this without having to do retroactive pay before the year starts. So everyone wins. So thank you to everyone. And member Ruseau, can you call the roll?
[Paul Ruseau]: Certainly. Member Branley?
[Jenny Graham]: Yes.
[Paul Ruseau]: Member Graham?
[Erika Reinfeld]: Yes.
[Paul Ruseau]: Member Intoppa?
[Erika Reinfeld]: Yes.
[Paul Ruseau]: Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.
[Jenny Graham]: Yes.
[Paul Ruseau]: Members say yes, and Maryland occurrence absent.
[Jenny Graham]: Six in the affirmative one absence. The motion is approved and the contract is ratified, so we will let the We have one more agenda item this evening. Dr. Galussi, I'm going to turn it over to you for agenda item number five, after school site coordinator positions. Take it away. Thank you.
[Suzanne Galusi]: I'm going to try here to first just share my screen. I know that you all received, I shared this with you. Can you see my screen right now?
[Jenny Graham]: Not yet.
[Suzanne Galusi]: Okay. Hold on one second, please. Okay, so we have been, as this body knows, we have been really looking at trying to increase our capacity here for our after school programs. To date, we have removed 53 students from the wait list since last school year. So, we also, just as a reminder for people that are maybe just joining this meeting now, we are engaging in a consultation with BASIC. We are going to one of the very first school committee meetings, present what that might look like, and ask for a vote for that to engage in that consultancy. So, we don't want to be doing too much to our staffing ahead of being able to have that gathered data. But as we're bringing on a new track, which is an early pickup time at 4 p.m., that new track has allowed us to be continuing to clear space off of the wait list. Because when families elect for a 4 p.m. pickup time, in some cases it has opened up a 6 p.m. slot that we can then fill. In order to keep forward momentum going, without going too far ahead as we're engaging in a consultancy. We are here to ask for the possibility of adding, which would be, well, increasing two site coordinator positions from the part-time that they are now to full-time. So really what the request is is just what it would look like in the budget, which I will talk about, which is a revolving account. it would just double what we're doing now. So what the positions would consist of, there's four site coordinators, one for each building. This would be for two site coordinators only that would partner with all four schools to just help out with some of the logistics. Their year would be, there's a breakdown here, so you could see it would be 220 days, which consists of the 180 days of school. We're hoping to add some school vacation programming to this. Time for the before and the end of school summer programming, as well as professional development. They would be working eight-hour days. $36.93 an hour. Some of the roles that it would be, another happy piece is that our partnership with City Year is expanding a bit and they also are getting into the afterschool game and we are getting five City Year employees that are separate from our core members that will be working in our McGlynn and our Missituk schools. And so those additional, so we are getting 15 core members between the Missittuck, the McGlynn Middle, and the McGlynn Elementary. Those core members also work in the afterschool at the end of the day. In addition to those core members, we are also getting five additional staff members for afterschool care. coverage at the Missituk and the McGlynn. So to kind of just help with a lot of these logistics in trying to increase capacity, working with our partner city here, and just assisting with some of the operational day-to-day pieces, it would be helpful to be able to elevate two of those positions right now to full-time. which is in keeping with the model that BASIC does use. So at the end of the day, I'll just kind of highlight here. Right now, site coordinators are currently budgeted to earn $41,277.90. And if these two positions are created, there'd be an additional cost to the budget of $47,504. So as I previously mentioned, the afterschool is a revolving account. The budget can handle this increase. And so we are here to ask if that would be a possibility. And I'm happy to answer any questions.
[Jenny Graham]: Member Reinfeld?
[Erika Reinfeld]: Does this change benefits eligibility for anyone? What does this do? No. Okay. I'm sure I have more questions, but I will.
[Jenny Graham]: Member Tapa.
[John Intoppa]: Thank you. Are these positions, the two site coordinators that are being brought to this role, are they already inhabited roles and are these folks getting promotions or are these positions that need to be reposted and reapplied?
[Suzanne Galusi]: That's a great question. We're not looking to create a new position. So right now, we have four site coordinators that work the duration of the school year, and they work part time. And so what this would do would be creating two of those positions, ideally one at one of the title one buildings and one at one of the non title one buildings. And that would just mean that they are now working full time instead of part time.
[John Intoppa]: Cool. And then, so are these jobs going to be posted and then those four folks are going to apply? Correct. Or is it going to be that they're posted, but then the job is posted to the public with preference to the four folks that are already employed?
[Suzanne Galusi]: Ideally, it would be an internal posting where out of the four.
[John Intoppa]: Okay. Okay. Thank you.
[Jenny Graham]: Any other questions from the committee?
[Erika Reinfeld]: Is there a, oh, Member Reinfeld? Yeah, just a little bit of clarification. It's a little bit on the side here on the city year. So previously, you said we're getting more city year people. Are those more people being paid for? As I recall, we were splitting the city year, we were paying for city year partly out of afterschool, but not entirely. Correct, that's still the same. So, but these new folks that are coming in is exclusively on the afterschool or are we?
[Suzanne Galusi]: No, so, no, correct, no, it is not exclusively on the afterschool, it's still the same split. Okay, so our city year line item did go up. No, we maintained the same price as we did last year.
[Erika Reinfeld]: But for more people.
[Suzanne Galusi]: Yes, they have more people that they are. So I believe, don't quote me, but I believe that we had about 11 core members last year, and now we're going to have 15 core members.
[Erika Reinfeld]: Okay.
[Suzanne Galusi]: For the same price. For the same price. Oh, I wish everything worked that way.
[Erika Reinfeld]: But they're still being paid a reason. This was one of our concerns a year ago was that yes, compensation was they're able to live or near Medford or Boston.
[Suzanne Galusi]: Yes, we did not go up in price. It's the same exact cost as it was last year. But I would say that. I think that is a benefit to Medford Public Schools because we are getting it at a slightly discounted rate than what maybe other districts are typically charged for city year.
[Erika Reinfeld]: Great. And then are we confident we will be able to offer vacation week programming for this? Because I see those days in there and not that we don't have plenty of work that people can do for eight days, but
[Suzanne Galusi]: It is a goal of ours. So I think what we probably would not start with the December break. I think that's the one where we have a lot. Yeah, there's a lot of families that have vacation times and things coming up. I think our goal would be to target the February and April break. That's how I was reading the eight days. Yes, yes.
[Erika Reinfeld]: But I just wanna make sure that that's.
[Suzanne Galusi]: And I'm very sorry, there's an excessive amount of emergency vehicles that are reporting to the high school right now. I'm a little distracted and I might.
[Paul Ruseau]: Do you know why?
[Suzanne Galusi]: No, I don't. I'm hoping it's not the woods again. Yeah. I apologize. You can go check that. Do you want us to do a motion?
[Jenny Graham]: Are there questions?
[Aaron Olapade]: Well, see, I had a question, but now I'm worried that the superintendent may have to attend to that. So my question can be asked.
[Suzanne Galusi]: It's just- No, no, that's okay. That's okay, I can multitask right now.
[Aaron Olapade]: Okay, so it's just a quick question just so I have it in my brain. So for the two new positions being incorporated for the site coordinator responsibilities and the budget, the additional $47,500, have we kind of considered a little bit about how that'll be sustained in future budgets if the external funding changes at all? I know that obviously you listed a little bit earlier last year's annual calendar listed 200,000 in. like in net. So have you just kind of thought about that a little bit? I'm sure we have.
[Suzanne Galusi]: I just want to have a- That's a great question. So I'm going to answer that in twofold. One would be, we also are bringing in more revenue. I mean, we've taken 53 people off of the wait list. So we've also increased how much money is coming into that revolving account. And then I would say that I have been, I did have a conversation with Andrew Mumford of Basic just to gauge, not that I'm jumping ahead, but just to gauge you know in his estimation what is a prioritized position to be full-time and his top two are the site coordinator position and then the curriculum developer like the teacher that's really working on the enrichment activities for students and I really don't want to jump ahead we're just engaging in this consultation with him but just to try to keep pace for what we really do believe our Metro families deserve in continuing to increase the capacity and making sure we have the programming and the coverage. Having additional time for people to just work on staffing and hiring and some of those logistics is real and would be helpful.
[Aaron Olapade]: Thank you.
[Erika Reinfeld]: Yeah. And does this take things off of our director's plate?
[Suzanne Galusi]: It provides assistance for sure. It gives her an additional layer of partnership when it comes to just the basic supply needs of the schools, the ordering, the hiring, the maintaining of staff and keeping communications with City Year.
[Jenny Graham]: Thank you. No, thank you. Is there a motion to approve?
[Aaron Olapade]: Motion to approve.
[Jenny Graham]: Motion approved by Member Olapade, seconded by Member Branley. Member Ruseau, can you call the roll?
[Paul Ruseau]: Yes, and it turns out I am unmuted. Member Branley?
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Yes.
[Paul Ruseau]: Member Graham?
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Yes.
[Paul Ruseau]: Member Atapa? Yes. Member Olapade? Yes. Member Reinfeld?
[Jenny Graham]: Yes.
[Paul Ruseau]: Member Ruseau, yes. And Mayor Lungo-Koehnis-Epstein?
[Jenny Graham]: Six in the affirmative, one absent, motion passes. Is there a motion to adjourn? Motion to adjourn. By Member Reinfeld, seconded by Member Branley. Member Ruseau, can you call the roll?
[Paul Ruseau]: I can. Member Branley?
[Jenny Graham]: Yes.
[Paul Ruseau]: Member Graham?
[Jenny Graham]: Yes.
[Paul Ruseau]: Member Intoppa?
[Erika Reinfeld]: Yes.
[Paul Ruseau]: Member Olapade? Yes. Member Reinfeld?
[Erika Reinfeld]: Yes.
[Paul Ruseau]: member. So yes, Maryland occur in his absence.
[Jenny Graham]: 16 affirmative one absent. The meeting is adjourned. Have a good night, everyone.
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