[Jenny Graham]: Got it. Good afternoon, everyone. We are here for the 13th regular meeting of the Medford School Committee. We have executive session at 5 o'clock, followed by our regular meeting starting at 6. Please be advised that there will be a meeting of the Medford School Committee held at the Howard Alden Memorial Chambers, Medford City Hall, and via remote participation. This meeting is being recorded. The meeting will be viewed live on Medford Public Schools YouTube channel through Medford Community Media on your local cable channel, which is Comcast 98 or 22 and Verizon 43, 45 or 47. Participants can log or call in by using the following Zoom meeting ID 920-8788-4205. Member Ruseau, will you please call the roll?
[Paul Ruseau]: Certainly. Member Branley.
[SPEAKER_08]: Present.
[Paul Ruseau]: Member Graham.
[SPEAKER_08]: Yes, here.
[Paul Ruseau]: Member Intoppa is absent so far. Member Olapade. Present. Member Reinfeld. Present. Member herself present. Mayor Langelker.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Present.
[Jenny Graham]: Six in the affirmative, one absent. Our student members and student reps, our student reps aren't on yet. So all please rise to salute the flag. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Item number three we have executive session executive session pursuant to master law chapter 30 a section a three, the Medford school committee will convene an executive session to discuss collective bargaining with Teamsters local 25, and the MTA regarding teacher grievances dated 519 and the chair so declares executive session of the Medford school committee pursuant to national law section, chapter 30, a section 21 a to conduct a strategy session on the basis that an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the bargaining positions the Medford school committee, specifically the Medford school committee will be discussing ongoing collective bargaining negotiations with the Massachusetts Nurses Association. The Medbridge School Committee will convene in public session immediately following the conclusion of the executive session at approximately 6 p.m. Is there a motion to enter executive session?
[Erika Reinfeld]: Motion to enter executive session.
[Jenny Graham]: Motion to enter executive session by Member Reinfeld. Seconded by Member Olapade. Member Ruseau, if you can call the roll.
[Paul Ruseau]: Member Branley?
[Unidentified]: Yes.
[Paul Ruseau]: Member Graham? Yes. Member Intoppa? Yes. Member Olapade? Yes. Member Reinfeld? Yes. Member Say Yes, Mayor Lungo-Koehn?
[Jenny Graham]: Yes. Six in the affirmative, seven, six, seven in the affirmative, sorry. Zero in the negative, motion passes. We will resume after executive session. Thanks everyone.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Good evening, everybody. Thank you, Member Graham, for starting the meeting. I was on Zoom. We have Medford School Committee will convene in public session following the executive session, which we just had. Sorry, we're a few minutes late. So we'll start, we'll get right to it. We have good of the order. Does anybody have any items that are good of the order? Hearing and seeing none, I'm just going to move to the consent agenda we have approval of bills and payrolls approval of capital purchases approval grants. We have a Cummings Foundation grant of 35,000 for Center for Citizenship and Social Responsibility. Steve McCarthy, 20,000 in memory of Ray O'Brien. We also have approval of field trips, approval of meeting minutes, which are two meetings, one from June 18th, 2025, which is a regular meeting, and August 13th, 2025, which is a special meeting. Is there a motion on the floor?
[Erika Reinfeld]: A motion to sever the CCSR.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Motion to sever CCSR, and is there approval for everything else?
[Erika Reinfeld]: Motion to approve everything else.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Motion to approve. Is there a second? Seconded by Member Branley. All those in favor? All those opposed? Consent agenda is approved, except for the Cummings Foundation. I'll turn it over to you, Member Reinfeld.
[Erika Reinfeld]: Yes, I was just noticing the allowing us to redirect these resources to areas of greatest need. And I'm curious what that means in terms of, is that for within the CCSR program? Is that related programs? Where does this money go if it's not going to what was written in the grant? Or is it just deviation from the line items? Sorry?
[John Intoppa]: Member Intoppa. Sorry, excuse me. As far as I'm concerned, the grants language means that it has to go to the CCSR and that it can't be put into the general rotation fund. So this money remains to the CCSR and is usually spread over a 10 year allowance.
[Erika Reinfeld]: Right, but I'm reading this as communicated in our May 20th email. Foundation is lifting restrictions on the use of grant funds versus to your organization, allowing you to redirect these resources. to the areas of greatest need. I'm just, I don't fully understand. Is that the greatest need within CCSR? I think that's what. The greatest need within the CCSR program as not to.
[Suzanne Galusi]: If I may. So if the motion is severed, I can find out some more information about that and report it to this body so that you can vote on it on another date.
[Erika Reinfeld]: I don't anticipate this is going to be a problem. I just am curious what that means, because this is one of the largest grants we received and one of our largest revolving accounts stipended, et cetera, all of that.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: What? Okay, so is there a motion to table? Member Graham?
[Jenny Graham]: Yeah, as I'm reading the letter from Cummings, it sort of infers that there's a report that we filed an impact report, and they're asking for us to reflect on variances. So I think lifting restrictions is vague, and it probably means something specific that accompanied the letter in some way, or that there's some change in reporting. So I think we just want to be clear on what those changes are.
[Erika Reinfeld]: So motion to table until we have an answer.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Motion to table by Member Reinfeld, seconded by? Member Intoppa, all those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Motion is tabled until we find out some answers on the letter from the Cummings Foundation. Thank you.
[Jenny Graham]: Member Graham. Can I just ask one other quick question about the scholarship? from Steve McCarthy. This letter doesn't say that it's an expectation that it's set up as an endowment. So in other words, like being sort of corned off in an interest bearing account. And I know that we've had issues with other similar awards like this, so I just was hoping that we could just check into and be clear on whether that needs to be established that way from the outset or if it's just a straight amount of money that will be like worked down over the course of the 10 years. So 10 times 500. I think that's what it means. But I would just like to be clear because we have some other situations that did not appear to get set up quite as as the grant as the donation intended.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you. Thank you, Member Graham. We do not have any reports of subcommittee, but we do have two reports of our superintendent. First up is Mustang Moments. We have student presentations. Arts update. Suzanne Fee, Director of Fine Arts, accompanied by our student body.
[Suzanne Galusi]: Can I just? Yes, Dr. Lucy. Before I invite everyone over, I just want to kind of do a little framing, if that's okay for this body. So first of all, good evening. Madam Mayor, members of the school committee, our students and caregivers, and our central leadership team here, welcome back. And we welcome the school year 25-26. I just want to take a little moment this is a shift in our school committee agenda format so that we're going to be starting our meetings with the Mustang moment so that all meetings will start with the voices of students and I think it's just important for me to explain that quickly before we move on to bringing up Director Fee and the students. So The Mustang Moment is going to be a student-led segment that will celebrate accomplishments, shared projects, initiatives, or showcase talents. So students are the why. They're the reason for why we do this. They're the reason that we're here. And we want this space to also be one in which we're elevating their voices and we're listening to their perspectives. Every time we gather as adults who are in decision-making, who have the power for making decisions. The Mustang moment is just an intentional practice that we're going to have as a way to start the meetings. So for this first meeting, we have Director Fee here, who's going to introduce us to some students and talk to us about the Summer Studios work that happened this summer. Thank you.
[SPEAKER_08]: Thanks for inviting us, and I'm going to let the kids explain a little bit about what we had going on in the art world this summer and the music world.
[Cameron Belanger]: Hi, I'm Cameron Belanger. I'm in ninth grade.
[Evie O'Shea]: Hi, I'm Evie O'Shea, and I'm also in ninth grade.
[Jack Mastermatteo]: Hi, I'm Jack Mastermatteo. I'm in ninth grade.
[Cameron Belanger]: This summer, thanks to support from the CCSR and the Cummings Foundation, we were able to offer three free art workshops, painting portfolio prep and mural making these workshops were open to all students entering grades nine to 12, giving everyone the chance to participate and explore their creativity. Tonight we're excited to share and highlight the mural project we participated in. We began by voting on the message we wanted the mural to convey, as well as the overall theme and vibe of the artwork. We also selected the color palette together. From the start, we knew we wanted something bold and vibrant, an uplifting design with a positive message that reflects not only the arts, but the spirit of our entire social community. From the start, we knew we wanted something bold and vibrant, an uplifting design with a positive message that reflects not only the arts, but the spirit of our entire school community. As a group, we decided on the phrase, dare to begin. We felt it reflected the courage to take risks, try new things, and embrace creativity, whether in art, in learning, or in life at school. It reminds us that every achievement starts with the first step.
[Evie O'Shea]: From there, we brainstormed ideas and sketched out possible elements for the mural. Mrs. Fee and Mrs. Belandra gathered all of our sketches and combined them into one single design that represented contributions from everyone. Once the final layout was ready, we projected it onto the wall and made sure that the composition worked and the design felt visually balanced. We spent a lot of time thinking about the color placement and scale. Our goal was to create something energetic and vibrant, but not overwhelming. A mural that inspires and uplifts everyone who walks by each day. We're really proud of how it turned out, and it's been so exciting to already hear such positive feedback from students and staff across the school. Through this process, we learned a lot about what it takes to create a mural as a team. Collaboration was key. We had to listen to each other's ideas and make decisions together. We also learned the importance of slowing down, taking our time, and paying attention to the details instead of rushing. And maybe most importantly, we discovered how important it is to be flexible. Sometimes what we planned didn't look the way that we imagined on the wall, so we had to adjust, adapt, and try new approaches. These lessons made the mural stronger and gave us the skills that we need to use, that we can use far beyond this project.
[Jack Mastermatteo]: Our mural shows what we can do when we work together, when we are proud of it, and we hope that it inspires everyone at our school to dare to begin.
[Gemma]: Hello, my name is Gemma, I'm the percussion captain and I'm in 12th grade. So good evening and thank you for giving us the chance to share some exciting updates about the marching band. Our first big event of the season is our home show which will take place right right at Hormel Stadium. The event begins at 4pm with the award ceremony scheduled for 6.15pm. Fans from all across Massachusetts will be traveling here to perform, and while we're also proud to host, this will be our very first competition of the season. This is a huge event for us, so we would love to see strong support from the community in the stands. The home show also serves as an important fundraiser to help cover the costs for our staff and other expenses that go into running our program.
[Ali]: Hello, my name is Ali. I'm the captain of the Medford High School Color Guard. Before we step onto the competition field this season, We spent two weeks at our annual band camp this summer where we learned the bulk of our competition show before with both music and marching responsibilities to bring it to life. It's an intense but exciting time filled with long days of practice, teamwork and growth. We ended camp with a special preview of our show on Friday, August 22nd, where family and community members were invited to see our progress. In addition, to taking the show to competitions. Selections from it will be presented at our home football games this season, so the entire school community can experience all of our hard work and the energy we've built. Thank you.
[Jonas Fertz]: Hello, my name is Jonas Fertz and I'm the drum major of the Medford High School Marching Band. So finally, I just wanna share a little bit about the show theme for this year. So our program is a mashup of Pink Floyd's Another Brick in the Wall and Shostakovich's Ballad Suite No. So the music and movement work together to send a message about evolving, breaking down barriers, and connecting with your creativity. It's both powerful and inspiring, and we can't wait to share it with our audiences throughout our season.
[Suzanne Galusi]: Thank you so very much. We appreciate listening to what you did all summer long, and we're so excited to see the band competition performance coming up soon. And next time someone's in the high school, you can check out the mural. It's in the art wing right off the main office. We're gonna just have a quick little photo.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: And I think the band show is the 20th. That date wasn't thrown out. It's the 20th at four. And then you can also see the band and the color guard at all the home games, I believe, right? Football games? Yes. So that's a good way to see everybody in action. So hopefully our community gets out and checks out the band, the football team, the color guard, and our cheerleaders. OK, next up, we have our superintendent's update. I'm going to turn it over to Dr. Suzanne Galusi, superintendent.
[Suzanne Galusi]: Thank you. What we are about to go through is just an update for the opening of schools for school year 25-26. So first and foremost, we have welcomed many new staff into the Medford Public Schools. Each individual brings unique talents, experiences, and perspectives that enrich our school community. And every role adds incredible value to our schools and helps us create the best experience for our students and our school communities. So in total, we welcomed about 40 new teachers, two nurses, 12 paraprofessionals, three members of food service, two custodians, seven coaches, athletic coaches, three administrative assistants, and eight administrators district-wide. Those administrators are Dr. Kim Talbot, our new assistant superintendent for academics and instruction, who's here this evening, Mr. Ken Lord, our chief operations officer, who is also here this evening, Chelsea McNiff, our new EL director, Mr. Robert O'Leary, the new athletic director. Ryan McGowan is a new high school house assistant principal. Alessandro Cornelio is the new assistant principal at the Brooks Elementary. Andrew Zides is our new special education coordinator. And Romario Bernacci is the dean of students at Medford High School through the Mustang Academy. I know that memo went out, but I also do think just to note that we are also actively searching for a new world language director as bittersweet news, Dr. Vilma Bobo has left Metro Public Schools. She is now the new director of modern languages for the Boston Latin Academy. Thank you. And then moving forward, Mr. Pippincott, you can go to the next. So last November, some of this is a review, but I just want to cap it and review it on the road here to our opening. So last November, I shared with this committee our instructional vision that was the result of collective work with both administrators and teachers. That vision continues to guide our daily work and our decision making. So to strengthen its impact, this year we have now branded the instructional vision with corresponding icons, providing a visual anchor for our efforts. So the icons allow educational leaders, they allow administrators and teachers to easily highlight and reference the specific elements of the vision that they're focusing on in their practice. You'll see to the left that the high school team has worked collaboratively to create STRIVE. It's our portrait of a graduate, which creates a shared vision of what skills, mindsets, and qualities Medford Public Schools students should have before they graduate. It focuses on things that are beyond just test scores and grades for broader competencies. like collaboration, adaptability, critical thinking, civic responsibility, which will prepare our students once they graduate from Medford Public Schools in college, career, and life. So our instructional vision has also provided Medford Public Schools with our core values. These core values have been shared every time that different elements of staff has gathered throughout the summer that I will highlight on a future slide. But our core values as reflected in both our instructional vision and our equity commitment, if we could go to the next slide, please. is that we believe all students deserve to feel seen, heard, valued, and connected in schools where inclusive, culturally affirming practices allow them to grow, succeed, and fully engage in their learning. We believe that all students deserve opportunities, resources, and support they need to reach their full potential. And we believe that every student's success is our shared responsibility. So our collective charge this year, as you saw reflected in my Friday, a few of the Friday memos, is on belonging. So belonging as a foundation, it's not an add-on, it's the foundation for our instructional vision. Without belonging, access alone is not enough, and expectations can feel out of reach for students and staff. Instruction cannot fully connect to our students' lives if they do not feel a sense of belonging in the classroom. When students feel seen, heard, and valued, then they're more able to take academic risks, engage more deeply in their learning, and rise to the high expectations because they know we trust them and we're going to be there for them. So what does that look like in this school year? So belonging is the lens for our decision-making this year. And what that looks like is we are making sure that we're building inclusive and affirming spaces. We're ensuring that students see themselves reflected in the classrooms. We're maintaining those high expectations. And if students need supports in order to access those high expectations, we are going to make sure that they have them. And we will be using data, not just to measure progress, but also to address inequities that that data uncovers. We are making a commitment to extend this sense of belonging to everyone in Metro Public Schools, because we know that when the adults feel a sense of belonging, they are there and more present to support what our students need. By fostering belonging collectively, Medford becomes a place where every student feels that they can thrive here. Next slide, to support these branding efforts and our collective charge, this poster was created by a Medford High School arts student, Grace Anzalone, and the graphic arts department has printed them. These were sent to schools so that every educator and learning spaces have that poster as a reminder of the why for this year and why we're here. So taking this collective charge and moving into all the spaces of work that have led us to the opening of schools, the first was the administrative retreat. So for the first time, we were able to take the administrative retreat off campus. And through the wonderful partnership that we have with the Barr Foundation, they gave us their space in the North End and we were able to coalesce as an administrative unit, as you heard, we have a lot of new administrative staff, but we also have some veteran returning presence that we needed to have a space off campus for us to reset and refocus on our work for the year. So right here, you can just see some pictures of the staff gathered here, but we were able to really set a strong foundation for the year so that when we're welcoming teachers back, when we're welcoming students and families back, we are very aligned in our leadership and what that looks like for our school communities and our greater community. From there, we had the, so the following week was the induction week, where we welcome all of those new teachers. And we had three days with them to not only get them situated to welcome students back on day one, but also for them to understand what Medford Public Schools is all about, what we stand for, what our culture is. So we knew that we wanted them to also feel a sense of belonging as they're coming into this district. and get to know. the greater Medford community beyond just what their curriculum is. So you'll see here, they were engaged in activities that were around what they're being taught, around what our expectations are for teachers. And also they had a tour of Medford and got to spend a luncheon with, which was sponsored by the teachers union. On the tour that you'll see some highlights here where Medford public library, where they were, first dropped off at Colleen's, treated to some ice cream, and then walked up to the library, had a presentation with the librarians here. But also part of the tour on the bus was to make sure that they went and visited not only where all of our schools are situated, but some important landmarks in the city of Medford. I do wanna just also shout out, we had three administrators that had a lot of time and organization in helping get the induction week off and set, Mr. Mike DiClemente, Ms. Catherine Cook, and Dr. Vilma Bobo. And Ms. Cook will continue that work in the mentor program throughout the year. The following week, We welcomed teachers back for the first two days of school. That first day was a professional development day. And staff here, you can see the pictures, but they were engaged in professional development at the elementary level. The staff were engaged in the Safe Schools presentation through the Department of Education and the Safe Schools coalition, they also received a DIBLS refresher to make sure that they're ready for the progress monitoring and the unpacking of the new schedule to make sure that there was alignment there and they could plan accordingly. At the secondary level, the majority of teachers were engaged in presentations from the Unbound Ed organization that we have partnered with through the Barr Foundation in the continued work on GLEAM planning, which is having teachers make sure that their planning reflects content and associated tasks that are grade-level, engaging, affirming, and meaningful. There were other trainings going on at the secondary level through Ms. Cook and Dr. Shulman, and also Ms. Fee brought in Erin Zaffini, and she is leading a year-long training called Equity by Design, Strategic and Realistic Strategies to Improve Equity in the Arts Classroom. If you don't mind, okay, thank you, that's fine. The second day was what we call our launch day. And that's when we welcome all staff collectively back together. It's also time where they have in their classrooms to prepare for students. And it's time that they have with their principals and their directors really getting focused and engaging on the school year work ahead. The day started with a convocation in the high school gymnasium where I led a welcome back section. But we also brought in voices of our high school students to help lead us in welcoming back staff. So here you see a picture of the students. We had Emily Matariz, Matthew Fills, James Klugisch, Guy Martins, and Mia Leal. And they spoke to the staff about what belonging means to them, where they find it at Medford High School, and what teachers can do to help further that feeling and that sense of belonging in not just their classrooms, but in the greater school community. And there are some of those quotes there. I think the highlights is that students are finding sense of belonging, both in the classroom and outside of the classroom, in sports organizations, including Unified Sports, through teachers and their friends. And then the first two days of school, Dr. Talbot, Ms. Bowen, Ms. McNiff, and I We were quite proud that we were able to hit every single exterior school on the first day of school. We probably should have had like a Snickers bar because I think by like 132 o'clock, we were feeling it but we were able to get to every single school, welcome in staff welcome in students and really get a a feel for the warmth and the sense of belonging that we could see both visually in classrooms, in hallways, on playgrounds. And it was just a really wonderful way to kick off the year. You can see a few pictures here. One to the left is the Misutak where they had an intentional gathering of the school as a way to kick off the year and welcome back the entire school community. And I do think it's, there were lots of moments within classrooms and in hallway displays about the sense of belonging that the community is feeling. The next is just a reminder, I know it's probably in principal newsletters, as well as in the, it will be in the Friday memo, but this is also just a snapshot because starting this week, and then continuing to next week is our back to school nights at all of our schools. And I think it's just a really important time to mention that this, if families are able, this is a wonderful opportunity for them to come in and not only meet the teachers but really start to build a relationship with their children's teachers, learn about the curriculum and the expectations, and just some of those common routines. around communication, homework, things that might be beneficial for them to know. If families and caregivers are not able to attend, I would recommend that they reach out directly to the teacher. If they don't have that information, they can reach out to the principal who can connect them in the right fashion so that they're able to get the materials and the information that are presented during that night. It's really important for us that we're able to make those individual connections and build those relationships for our caregivers. And then a brief facilities and IT update. So there has been, this also was reflected in a Friday memo and is posted on our website, but for a lot of the community, you've seen scaffolding and lots of work going on around the McGlynn and the Andrews complexes. So phase one is the work that was done over the summer and I believe is just kind of like buttoning up right now. That was a work to the existing HVAC systems in both schools, new filters, modifications, so that we can increase heating and cooling capacity, which will be able to provide a better level of comfort. for staff and students in those buildings. You also may have noticed that some work was done to make sure that we were ADA compliant in both of those places. So sidewalks, leveled rising ramps leading to the front door. Right now, there are still some temporary handrails in place. Those will eventually be replaced with permanent structures. And then that leads us into phase two, which will be completed next summer. And that is where you'll see like the structural steel part come in so that it can handle brand new HVAC systems that will be replaced at that time. This is a link, this slide deck will eventually be on the website, but if you go on to the McGlynn or the Andrews, there is this update here from the owner's project manager, Consigli Construction. Also exciting is some IT and security work that has been started over the summer and is still ongoing. But what's exciting is that this is for keyless door access, which we're just so very excited for, and it's about time. upgrade to cameras and vape detector systems at some of our secondary schools. So in total, there are 400 new cameras being added to our existing entourage of cameras, 40 keyless door access systems. So all of our buildings will now be keyless. So within teachers' ID badges, there will be keyless entry into the schools. which will be, we're working internally on what the access will look like, but that will be much more streamlined and very beneficial for our schools. And there'll be 19 new video intercom systems and 46 vape detectors at the secondary schools. Yeah, and so that, oh, I have one more thing, but I don't know, we can come back for questions. I know I'm giving a lot right now, The last piece is just a quick City Year update. City Year is back again. We did discuss this as part of the budget, but just so we're aware, there are six core members at the McGlynn Elementary, four at the Missittuck, and seven at the McGlynn Middle School. They are assigned by just enrollment and sheer number of sections. And so additionally this year, we're also welcoming some additional support for the Missituk with five members working in the afterschool program to support those efforts at the Missituk Elementary. And then I think it was very humbling and heartfelt, but they did ask me to be their keynote speaker this past Friday at their kickoff for the core members to start the 25, 26 school year. And they definitely kept this a little secret, but surprised me because I remember all the potty, I got a red jacket. I got a red, and it's monogrammed. And it's monogrammed. So you can see me in that picture presenting to all the core members for Greater Boston and Medford Public Schools. They have asked for my speech. We'll see where that goes. I'll keep you updated. And this picture on the bottom left is the Medford team. We were able to have a nice unity circle and really kick off the year with great spirits. And I'm next to Alyssa David, who is the, the project manager for City Year folks just in Medford. But it was a wonderful experience last Friday afternoon. And I'm really, really excited for them to join us this school year as well. And now I'm happy to answer any questions. That was a lot of information. So I appreciate your patience.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Guzzi for the presentation. Very informative. Any questions from the body? Hearing and seeing none. We do not have any public participation. We do have continued business. First is 2023-25 offered by Member Hays, Member McLaughlin, and Member Mustone. Policy second reading, whereas the Medford School Committee reaffirmed its support for the rights of LGBTQ+, Member Ruseau.
[Paul Ruseau]: I'd like to waive the second reading. I did message these three former members to ask if their ears are ringing. That's the saying, I think. And they were appreciative of this getting its second reading. So I would like to make a motion to waive the second reading.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Motion by Member Ruseau, seconded by Member Graham to waive the second reading. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? The reading has been waived.
[Paul Ruseau]: Motion to approve.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Motion to approve by Member Ruseau, seconded by Member Intoppa. All those in favor?
[Paul Ruseau]: Aye.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: All those opposed? Reading is been approved. Thank you, Member Ruseau. We do have new business. The first is the recommendation to approve new voting and non-voting members to the Medford Comprehensive High School Building Committee, M-H-C-S-B-C, offered by Member Graham. Voting member, Kenneth Lord, M-P-S, Chief Operating Officer. And non-voting member, Dr. Kimberly Talbot, M-P-S, Assistant Superintendent of Academics and Instruction. Member Graham?
[Jenny Graham]: Thank you. These folks will replace Dr. Cushing as a voting member and Dr. Talbot will take Joan Bowen's place who was previously a non-voting member and we elevated her to a voting member when we elevated Dr Galusi and removed Dr Edward Benson from the committee. So there's one non-voting spot, which we are asking Dr Talbot to take on. And so this committee has to vote, and then we'll send that to the MSBA, and they'll have to accept those changes. But that is usually pretty straightforward.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Great. Thank you, Member Graham. Member Reinfeld?
[SPEAKER_12]: I was just going to motion to approve this round of musical chairs. Motion to approve this resolution.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Motion for approval by Member Reinfeld, seconded by Member Branley. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Motion passes. Welcome to the team over there. Yes. 2025-24 offered by Member Ruseau, resolution in support of the I.A.M. Bill H.534-S.2491, whereas half the world menstruates and like all other basic bodily functions, menstruation is not a choice. Motion to waive the reading by Member Reinfeld. Seconded by Member Graham. Do you want me to at least read the resolved part?
[Erika Reinfeld]: Yes, if we could just summarize.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: I was in favor of waiving that portion of the resolution. Resolution, all those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Okay, so I'll just move right to page seven, which is be it resolved that the Metro School Committee recognizes menstrual products are essential and a long-term cost savings measure, recognizes menstrual products are essential and should be considered public goods, supports the passage of the IAM bill, this legislative session, directs the superintendent to transmit official copies of this resolution to the following, Governor Maura Healey, Senator Elizabeth Warren, Senator Edward Markey, Congresswoman Kathleen Clark, State Senator Patricia Jalen, State Representative Paul Donato, State Representative Sean Garbally, and State Representative Christine Barber. Number five, directs the superintendent to transmit an official copy of this resolution to the Medford City Council in accordance with Medford School Committee Rule 77. And six, directs the superintendent to transmit an official copy of this resolution to myself, Mayor Medford. This is passed by, hopefully, an official vote. Is there a motion on the floor to approve by Member Reinfeld, seconded by Member Olapade? All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Motion passes. 2025-25 offered by Member Ruseau to enhance the policy hygiene, BGI. To enhance clarity and promoting compliance, the committee aims to make its policies easier to read. While detailed language can help explain complex ideas, it often makes policies longer and harder to follow. Brevity improves readability, and when policies are easier to understand, people are more likely to follow them. To support this goal, committee policies will utilize standardized language shortcuts throughout our policies to maintain conciseness without compromising meaning. Exceptions to the shortcuts below should apply when, number one, required by law, number two, policy does not warrant Oh, want to allow for the students meeting? Warrant, right? To allow for the shortcuts meeting. Meaning, clarity is required and for the shortcut has more than one meaning in the particular policy. Shortcut superintendent, full meaning, superintendent or designee. Caregiver, parent, guardian, responsible adult, or caregiver. shortcut committee, Medford School Committee, MPS, Medford Public Schools, principal, means principal, or designee. All policies, when adopted, should reference this policy as a related policy. Member Ruseau.
[Paul Ruseau]: Thank you. As I've been doing a lot of policy work, as well as contracts, there has been a question about whether or designee is, we've had some contracts where, you'd have one paragraph where it says superintendent or designee, the next one doesn't. And the question becomes then, does that mean that the superintendent is the only decision maker in that example? And I think that at least in all of the stuff I have read, there has been no examples where that actually makes any sense. It's just a matter of, Well, cleanliness and writing the words or designee over and over and over thousands of times in our policies. So I thought this made sense to sort of like draw a line in the sand and say, we will stop saying or designee unless we specifically have to. And the The related policies part there is sort of a way to keep existing policies as is until they get updated. So if a policy does not have this as a related policy, then this does not apply to that policy yet. And I'm not sure everybody knows caregiver in Massachusetts is a legal term. Um, so it's not just like something I made up, and, um, it's certainly a lot easier on forms to say caregiver than parent, guardian, responsible adult or caregiver. If you've ever tried to create a form and for a signature. Um, so that's that's what this policy is for. And I motion to approve it.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Motion for approval by member Rousseau, seconded by
[Erika Reinfeld]: Oh, Member Reinfeld, yeah. Sorry. So I think probably you need to say all policies when adopted or updated. Or is an amended, updated policy in adoption? It's the same language. So that was an ironic comment then that I made. Okay. And so if one wanted to make an exception, these make sense. So one would then have to say the superintendent is the sole decider of this. So that would be the way to make the exception, is to add that language there. If a policy gets- If a policy required that, say, it be specifically the superintendent, or if it's a principle and it's a, I don't know, a Title IX something, and it has to go to this particular person, they would either need to be named by name or say, as the sole person responsible for this?
[Paul Ruseau]: No. So if this policy is listed as a related policy, and it says superintendent, they would have to say correct, they would have to I said no, but I meant yes, they would have to specify that is only the superintendent. There are so few examples other than the quotes that are coming out of mass general law are probably the biggest example where that I mean, that quote isn't gonna be changed. That's the quote from the law. So those would not apply, of course, but yeah.
[Erika Reinfeld]: Great, and thanks for answering my questions. I can second that, your approval, but I see Member Olapade. Member Olapade.
[Aaron Olapade]: Thank you. I was wondering if we would be able to add in the caregiver designation, parent, guardian, responsible to custodian or caregiver. Just add that as an additional term, custodial parent or custodian.
[Paul Ruseau]: Mayor, certainly I've not seen that word once in our policies. So the shortcut is to replace words that are in our policies. So I don't know that. I mean, I'm fine with that. Do custodian or custodial parent or custodial, like what's the exact thing that we would be replacing?
[Aaron Olapade]: In my experience and to your point I think that most of the time it's not being written anywhere in our previous literature I know that that's a term that is being used in other circles and education and just describe other forms of parental guidance in the home or as people custodial parents generally are. biologically related to children, while guardians tend to be court-appointed guardians, there is some separation between the two. More often than not, one of them is encompassing of the other one, but there are some separations that I think some parents may benefit from having just as an important designation. But if you, in your previous experience, haven't seen the word custodian or custodial parent in the literature, then we may not need to add it. But it's just something that I'm conscious of.
[Paul Ruseau]: I think it's a good point, especially around There's nothing that I've seen in my time on the school committee where we even referenced the difference between parents when parents have like a custodial parent and one who, for instance, may have no custodial rights. We make no distinction anywhere, although I think school brains might have something for that to like indicate that a parent has no rights. So, I mean, everything just says parent, And I think we just kind of hope for the best in policy, but it's worth noting that we probably should consider that when writing policy, that when we say parent, we don't just mean parent, we mean the one with the rights, which of course isn't even necessarily parents. So, I mean, I'm happy to add a comma and custodial parents
[Aaron Olapade]: Maybe we don't have to add it in because this is to clean up previous language. But going forward, maybe there's an important opportunity to kind of consider other guardian, parental, custodial ship in the home or outside and how that impacts families differently and being cognizant of people's personal lived experience in relationship to their children or students. So I will retract my additive for the time being.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Okay, retract. So no, no amendment. Okay.
[Paul Ruseau]: Mayor, the two the two amendments I have are to change want to warrant and adopted to adopted or amended. Was the second one sorry, adopted changed to adopted or amended in the all policies when adopted. should reference this policy, the last line. Yeah, I mean, I adopted is an amendment is adopted, but I think it is clear to say or amended. So why not?
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Some motion for approval as amended. All those in favor?
[Erika Reinfeld]: Aye.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: All those opposed? Motion passes. Next up offered by member Graham 2025-26, the method school committee resolution requesting city council adoption of chapter 399 school bus stop arm camera enforcement. Whereas the Commonwealth of Massachusetts enacted chapter 399 of the acts 2024 title and act concerning the safety of school children embarking and disembarking school buses, which authorizes municipalities to install and operate school bus violation detection monitoring systems. And whereas this law also allows cities and towns that formally accepted provisions to use bus mounted cameras to detect and record motor vehicles that illegally pass a stopped school bus displaying flashing red lights and deploy a deployed stop arm pursuant to Mass General Laws chapter 90 section 14 and 14 c. and whereas pilot programs in Peabody and Salem have demonstrated the effectiveness of these systems with thousands of violations recorded in a single school year highlighting the urgent need for enhanced enforcement tools to protect students and whereas the law includes strict privacy protections requiring that non-violation recordings be destroyed within 30 days and violation-related recordings within one year of final disposition, whereas the safety of Medford's children is a top priority and the implementation of stop-arm cameras has been shown to deter illegal passing and improve compliance with school bus safety laws. Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Medford School Committee respectfully requests that Medford City Council formally accept the provisions of Chapter 399 of the Acts of 2024, thereby enabling the City of Medford to install and operate school bus violation detection monitoring systems. If further resolved, the Medford School Committee recommends the establishment of a joint committee, including one representative from the School Committee, one representative from the City Council, the Chief of Police, the Superintendent of Schools, and the Mayor or designee, to evaluate and recommend policies regarding the use of revenue-generated citations, We'd further resolve that the school committee respectfully request that the mayor agree to earmark citation revenue for exclusive use as directed by the recommendations of this committee with priority given to student safety initiatives, transportation infrastructure improvements, and public awareness campaigns. If I may from the chair, I know a school committee member or two might have met with the company, maybe just elaborate on how long it takes to implement and the cost of implementation and who pays what, because I do know the companies do pick up certain fees. So if somebody could just maybe elaborate a little before there's a motion on the floor.
[Jenny Graham]: do that. Thank you. Thank you. Yes, over this summer, I met with some Medford residents and met with the president of the city council and some folks that are from organizations that provide this service. So The way that this whole process works is we have this, the council first has to say yes we're adopting the statute. And then once the council does that, under the law, then we have to the superintendent can like bring a contract forward we can approve that contract. and then it can be put in place. The law does not require the sum of the steps that I have outlined that I think are important around like collaboration across city government and with the chief of police to think about sort of ticket revenue. But to the question about who pays for this, Medford is a community that's been designated by one vendor in particular, but I assume by many as a, a city where the violators will essentially fund the whole cost of the implementation. So essentially, they will put these stop arm cameras on the buses for free. they will take a piece of the violation revenue that gets issued. And in an event where there are no violations for a month, they eat that cost. And it's sort of a numbers game, like that's not happening in very small communities, but the sort of dynamics of Medford, the number of students, the number of buses, the number of roads, the size of the city, all of that makes us a candidate for this violator funded protocol that they are pursuing with many communities like Peabody and Salem and others. So over time, what happens, the way the process works is the camera takes a picture of you in the middle of a moving violation three times, like front, middle, back or something like that. So it's like, it's you, right? So they can tell who the car is and what the light is. This organization will then do like a first level culling of all of the footage. and pull out anything that is like, you know, blurry image, not, you know, whatever it is. So they'll pull all of those out. All of that's then transmitted to the police department where they will review the footage, they will issue the citation. So the police department, and I know that there have been some meetings with the chief of police as well, the police department will issue the citations just like they would, you know, any moving citation. This is not a citation like if you get a ticket, it's a fine and it could down the line prevent you from like renewing your license. But it is not going to be tagged as a moving violation on your insurance. But that ticket revenue comes back to the city into the general fund. So part of my ask is that we sort of cordon off that funding so that we are using it to continue to improve safety for our students that are riding buses and walking, frankly, and think about how do we how do we leverage this, this funding to hear from the community, via all of these different players being involved to. do some things that will improve pedestrian and bus rider safety. So that is something that I'm requesting in this but it is like separate from what is required by law. So this ask is just to say to the council that we agree that we want to do this so that they can adopt the statute and then it would it'll come back to us for like execution of the of the contract. I do have a video I can send to all of you after the meeting which I just received But I think overall, like there's a lot of, you know, having a vendor do this, first of all, they're going to maintain the cameras. If the cameras stop working, they will replace them. If we get new buses, they will retrofit the buses. You know, they'll pull them off one bus, put them on another bus. So, and then they take a portion of the revenue for that. I forget what the exact numbers are. I don't have them handy. But there is no cost to Medford to do this, but the ticket revenue does come to Medford.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you, Member Graham. I remember talking to the vendor at a conference I went to, and that was my recollection. They do get paid somehow, but there is no cost to the contract. So that's correct. And yes, hopefully help with people passing buses.
[Jenny Graham]: Yeah, they did have a lot of good information, which they're more than happy to come join us at the next meeting if the superintendent wants to move forward with them as a vendor. And they had a lot of information about sort of what happens over time, right? There's lots of moving violations, and then they do sort of plateau. But he pointed out that we are, you know, minting new drivers every single day. My daughter's in driver's ed. So, you know, there's new drivers on the road all the time. Medford, one of the things he talked a lot about was that Medford is a cut-through city for many communities. So you can't get to the highway unless you come through Medford if you live in certain communities. And those are those roads where it's particularly challenging for students to cross safely. So I thought all of this, there was just a lot of net positive for us and for students. And if we stop having revenue because there are no more moving violations, that is also a win because that means people aren't passing school buses when they should not be and endangering students. there seems like there's only wins in this, which is exciting to be able to choose. So yeah, they're happy to come. They offered to come tonight. And I said, since this is like the first time we're going to talk about this, and then the council will have to do their thing, and then we'll have to come back around, that it might be more appropriate for them to come next time. But they're very excited about Medford and partnering to make our streets safer.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Great. Thank you so much. Member Intoppa?
[John Intoppa]: Yes, thank you. So quick question, because this made me think of it. And, you know, in particular to you said the cut through city, I know that living in the heights, my part of the heights is a huge cut through and it's always been a battle between Medford and Malden over what do we do? So that stems a question of the buses on the Fells Way. Correct me if I'm wrong, but are the tickets then issued by the state police because that is a state road? So then how does that money get back to us? Or are they still issued by Medford? They're still issued by Medford. So Medford, okay. So thank you for the clarifying point. I wasn't sure exactly how that all worked with state roads. This seems like something that I think it's funny. I was actually talking about this with an old colleague about at my other place of work, because they had actually been looking into this, because Medford tried to pilot this back in 2011. And we had tried to do this. And in speaking with former member Falco and former member Vanderkloot, it seems like it never kind of, especially when Vanderkloot and I were talking about it, it seems like it never really picked up because, and I don't want to misquote her about how, about like, who owns the cameras? How does it work? How does that all system? So I really appreciate seeing this. all laid out in terms of that, and I know that member Ruseau has a microphone on, but if there are no other comments, I'll motion to approve.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Member Ruseau?
[Paul Ruseau]: Thank you. I mean, the summer seems to have destroyed my memory of this conversation I know we've had. Do you have a memory of, I just remember that they had done some stats and there was a lot of these things happening. It's like, because I feel like I don't actually ever see it. I was kind of like, how often does this happen? But it was a huge number. And I didn't get excited about the money. I just got like really angry about how often people are willing to endanger our kids.
[Jenny Graham]: I did bring my notebook. They did a three month pilot in Peabody, and there were 977 violations and in Salem there were 942 in a three month pilot so those pilots are very recent because the law just passed sort of paving the way for all of this to happen in a more cohesive way, but they said. that there are 300 cars hit school buses last year in Massachusetts. They also did describe that they are actively working in many other states who already have legislation around this. So they are not a new organization. There's just new access here in Massachusetts, if that makes sense. And then the cost that they will extract from the total revenue is, I believe it's $250 per bus per month. They did also note that they can put cameras on special education vehicles as well. However, if those special education vehicles transporting students leave Medford, the cameras are not able to be used outside of the city limits of Medford. So they would only be capturing things happening yeah in districts in district roads um and um it's a 250 ticket and they find that when you get a ticket you do not usually get a second ticket but if there are some people who do um so it's yeah it's not um an inexpensive ticket, but they do see over time that like in sort of year one, there'll be the most tickets and then it will plateau and sort of level out to be something sort of consistent after that.
[Suzanne Galusi]: Member, I'm sorry, Dr. Galussi. And the only thing I would also just mention for people that are at home listening, I think you may have mentioned this, Member Graham, and I apologize if you did, but just so people are aware, like the camera is fixed on the outside of the bus, but it does not start recording until that arm comes out, which with the stop sign on it, then it will start recording from that moment on. And then once the arm comes back in, the recording stops.
[Jenny Graham]: Right. The camera does not record anything going on inside the bus.
[Suzanne Galusi]: Not inside and not while it's, you know, riding along on the street. Just important to know.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you. Member Reinfeld.
[Erika Reinfeld]: Yes, I was just wondering, are there other companies that do this? I assume we have to go through city procurement. Are we going to be, what's the timeline that we can expect to see this? And is procurement going to be a challenge?
[Jenny Graham]: They are on an approved vendor list, so that is not a requirement. Great. There are other companies that do portions of this. I've not sort of looked into them in tons of detail, but my understanding is part of what this organization in particular is offering is the curation right so they're like maintaining the cameras they're previewing the footage they're calling out all the stuff that's junk so that when it gets to the police department here in Medford it's a it's an easier lift for Medford to go ahead and issue those citations. So there is a level of like services that they're providing in addition to all the camera maintenance, all the installs. So you can buy cameras with lots of different people, but then you'd have to have the manpower to do the editing and the reviews. So their technology obviously is serving them up what is useful, right? Like if the arm comes out and nothing happens, there's still footage and their technology is like weeding all of that out on our behalf.
[Erika Reinfeld]: That's really helpful. And then in regards to the special education vehicles, you said it stops at the Bedford city limits. Is there any effort now that this legislation is in place, kind of for cross-district to do some coordination and have that shared resource.
[Jenny Graham]: I don't believe that's possible just yet. They did talk about, perhaps you could send a warning without an actual citation, and that they were more than willing to explore all of that with us. But every city has its own like piece of this. Because some cities like ours have sort of the luxury of having being violated or funded our neighboring communities probably do not in for various reasons. So I think some of that. will maybe come together over time, but probably not right at the outset. But the implementation, they're eager, and they're ready to go. And we did not ask about the specific timeline, because we weren't sure what it was going to take to get through these steps. But they seemed to feel good about things moving quickly.
[Erika Reinfeld]: Terrific. I think this is great. And I really appreciate the earmark request as part of this, as this is really about student safety. And I would love to see those funds go towards that. So thank you. Is there a second yet?
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Not that I'm aware.
[Erika Reinfeld]: I'm seconding.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Oh, she beat you. Oh, you seconded. Sorry. Member Branley seconds. Yep, I heard Branley first. Member Branley. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Motion passes. Exciting. Thank you. We have one condolence. The members of the Medford School Committee express their sincere condolences to the family of Anna C. Fioretti. Anna gave her spirit and energy to her classroom for 40 plus years as a fourth grade teacher in the Medford public school system, where she educated generations of children. Quail may rise for a moment of silence, please. Thank you. Our next regularly scheduled meeting is September 22nd, 2025. That's 6 p.m. here in the Alden Memorial Chambers, Medford City Hall, in addition to Zoom. Is there a motion to adjourn? Motion to adjourn. Second. By Member Reinfeld, seconded by Member Intoppa. All those in favor? Aye.
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