[Erika Reinfeld]: here.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Take, take your time let me use this mic and then when we go into executive session you can take your time. Well, 45 minutes. So okay I'll start over the 15th regular meeting of the method school school committee will come to order. Please be advised that there will be a meeting of the members school committee, held at the Howard Alden Memorial Chambers Medford City Hall, and via remote participation. This meeting is being recorded. 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, and the meeting ID is 999-900-15529. Member Ruseau, if you could please call the roll. Oh, I can help with that.
[Paul Ruseau]: There it is. Member Bramley? Yes. Member Graham? Member Intoppa? Yes. Member Olapade? Present. Member Reinfeld? Members say yes at present. Mayor Langelker?
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Yes. Seven present, zero negative. If we could 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. We have executive session pursuant to General Laws 30A, Section A3. The Medford School Committee will convene an executive session to discuss collective bargaining with the Teamsters Local 25 MTA regarding administrator grievance, dated July 15, 2025, and the chair so declares. The Medford 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 go into executive session by Member Reinfeld, seconded by Member Intoppa. All those in favor. Roll call, please. Oh, hit it one more time, sorry.
[Paul Ruseau]: Member Bradley, Member Graham, Member Intoppa, Member Olapade, Member Reinfeld.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: member so yes Maryland okay yes 70 affirmative zero the negative motion to enter executive session has been approved, and we will be back as close to six as we can. Thank you.
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[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: We don't have to do any of that. Good evening, everybody. Thank you for the patience. Does anybody have anything under good of the order from the committee hearing and seeing none we're going to go right to the consent agenda we have approval of bills and payrolls approval of capital purchases approval of donations. First donation is Kids Corner childcare center $600 for the playground donation from Japanese language school of greater Boston, and second is $10,000 scholarship to the Medford track team in memory of Michael Mobilia, 1965 Medford High School graduate to be awarded as follows, 2020-26, 2020-27, 2020-28, and 4,000 in 2029. We also have approval of grants, approval of field trips, approval of meeting minutes from our regular meetings, September 2nd, 2025. Is there a motion to approve? Motion to approve. By member Lopate, seconded by member Intoppa. Sorry, all those in favor. All those opposed. Consent agenda is approved. We do not have any reports of our subcommittees, but we do have a number of reports under our superintendent. First up is our Mustang moment, Dr. Galusi.
[Suzanne Galusi]: Thank you so much. I'm very excited. So this evening for our Mustang moment, we have four CTE students that are here joining us. We have Haley Lagrassa, who's a senior in health assisting. We have Will McLaughlin, who is a junior in electrical. Sarah Carboni, a freshman in Exploratory, and we have Gabriella Calitre, a senior in Cosmetology. They're also joined by Executive Director of CTE Programming, Chad Fallon, and Assistant Principal, Sheila Freitas-Haley. So I would, at this time, I'd like to invite the students up to share for Mustang Moment.
[Unidentified]: to the little speaker.
[Suzanne Galusi]: Yes.
[Unidentified]: It's not on. Oh, hold on one second. Yes, there you go. It's red.
[SPEAKER_08]: Okay. Okay, so. Hi, I'm Haley. I'm Haley. I already said that. I'm a senior in health assisting. And as an incoming freshman, I honestly had no idea what the vocational pathway was. But when I heard about it, I had to try it out. I had no idea what I wanted to do. So I thought it was a good way to find out. Going through the rotations, it was really appealing to me. I loved almost every shop, and I tried to picture myself in any of those situations. When it came to health assisting, I first thought I could never see myself in health care. I honestly thought I was going to hate it, but I came out with an open mindset. And going through those four days, I just realized how much I understood already and how interesting I was. And then from there, I knew it was for me. Health assisting was my first choice and I got in without being waitlisted. And ever since then, my shop has been my happy place. I met some of my favorite people there. And without Mr. Fimo, I wouldn't be where I am today. Not only have I met good people in my shop, but in the vocational school as a whole. My classes and the hallways around me are filled with a positive environment. I feel welcome in any shop I walk into and we all help each other out. I can't count how many times a kid from automotive comes in looking for a bandaid. After high school, I plan to go to college and get my master's degree and become a physician's assistant. And I wouldn't be able to even imagine that without vocational school.
[Unidentified]: Thank you.
[SPEAKER_07]: Hi, I'm Gabby Calicci. I'm a senior in the cosmetology program. Exploratory also helped me decide what I wanted to be in. Originally, I went into freshman year wanting to be into business, and I was like dead set going into business. And then as I went through the rotations, I loved Cosmo. I also got in without being waitlisted, and it was my first choice. Um, after high school, I plan to go to college and open my own dance studio, which has nothing to do with Cosmo, but it's one of those things that you can do both. And I'm a person that loves to do both and being, going through the Vogue has let me do that. Also, I love the Vogue just because as Haley said, the community that it creates, like, if you know me, I'm in every single shop but my own during the day. Had nothing to do with electrical, but Cormier was going to get sick of me soon.
[SPEAKER_10]: Hi, how you doing tonight? I'm Will, as previously stated. But, you know, when I was, I knew when I was really young that I didn't wanna just sit at a desk job and kind of sit around and type buttons on a computer all day. And granted, that sounds like pretty fun for some people, but for me, it wasn't the thing. And, you know, I was interested in how things work, you know, looking at like things that I didn't understand, like escalators and the Bermuda Triangle, which I don't know if they figured that out yet, We'll get there, I guess. But, you know, electrical was one of those things that I never really got much of it at first. I'm like, what, what is this? Is this just heat? Is this like, I don't, I got nothing. And, you know, when I started at the high school and was able to go through the vocational rotations and all that, I had a really positive experience in all the shops. All of them were very welcoming. The teachers were very knowledgeable. And they have firsthand experience. You know, a lot of those people, they're not teaching just from a textbook, they're teaching from a place where they've been and you don't always get that a lot of times at a regular school. And I was very thankful to have met all the people that I have and have all the connections that I do now. And I can only recommend it for other people because it's treated me great. And after high school, I planned on, you know, maybe someday opening my own electrical company or business. It would really be great for me. It would be great for someday if I start a family or something like that, but right out of high school, gotta start at the bottom, work my way up, and it's gonna be a great time. That's what I know for sure. Thank you.
[SPEAKER_12]: Hi, I'm Sarah Carboni, a freshman currently in the process of the CTE Exploratory Program at Medford High School. Prior to the program, I was never once in my life told that someone could make a comfortable living without going to college. and going broke. Anyway, prior to Oh, sorry. The longest time I was told if you don't, if you don't go to college, you won't be able to make money, which then you won't be able to make a living, and you'll be homeless. But thanks to the CTE program at Medford High School, I have learned that this is thankfully incorrect. During the program, I have learned several things about the job industry and many different wonderful perspectives of the hands-on aspects of jobs such as that, such as electrical, automotive tech, carpentry, et cetera. The Exploratory Program gives students more information on all these useful and amazing professions Even if I or other students chose not to join, still hold very valuable skills in them. For example, this past month I learned how to change a tire, which is something I believe everyone should learn regardless of whether they choose to do it or not. This is a skill that most people can't do on their own. So the fact that I was able to learn it thanks to this program means so much. from coming from people who actually did this stuff for a living for a long time and who are very passionate about it. It's amazing talking and listening and learning from these people. Having exposure towards other career paths is a very valuable thing to any student and I think many, if not all, people should at least try the program. Thank you.
[Unidentified]: I should say that.
[Nicole Branley]: I have to two things to say one, a huge shout out to Mr. Fallon, because he really does run all of these businesses. While he's assistant print you know while he's the principal of the book and it always amazes me, your organization is just amazing to me, I'm a huge Vogue fan, my son is also in electrical and did karate with you, I think, maybe probably 10 years ago, so just FYI. And then my daughter just graduated Medford High, a Vogue student, culinary, loved it, and decided today that she's majoring in criminology and a minor in forensic science, nothing to do with the kitchen. But I think there is this huge myth that we've talked about many times here that, you know, you can still go to the Vogue, you can still go to college, you can go to the Vogue for culinary and become a forensic scientist. That's okay. You know, and I think busy hands are busy minds at school. And I just, when I was in high school, wasn't that long ago, but I went to Medford High. I went to Medford High too, and you couldn't cross that line. And I talked to Ms. Freely, Freitas Haley the other day, and I was saying that we couldn't cross that line when we went to Medford High. If you were a Vogue student, you were a Vogue student, you had a different start time, a different end time, you were not allowed to cross the line. You got in trouble, you got detention if you went over to the Vogue side. So I love how much we've incorporated all of this. I love that. You guys are happy. You want to go to school. I mean, I remember so many days my daughter saying, I'm not going. I'm like, well, you can't go to culinary. And she was like, I'd love that it's the end of the day for you guys. Some of you, you know, Dominic's a sophomore and he has to wait till the last two periods. That is so strategic. I love it because it gets them there and they want to stay and they want to stay till the end of the day. So yay, go Vogue. We have to keep promoting the Vogue. So keep talking about it. Okay. Keep doing good. Really proud of you guys. Thank you so much.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Now it's on. Okay, thank you. Great job. That was a great presentation. Next up we have our CTE lottery report so I'll call up Mr. Chad Fallon, our executive director of career and technical education. Welcome, Mr. Fallon.
[Suzanne Galusi]: Before you begin, Mr. Farrellin, I just want to say that just as a segue, listening to your voices and your perspectives as to what the CTE pathways and programs have meant to you and to have the freshman perspective, of the importance of doing the exploratories and the fact that we have a comprehensive high school that has been able to provide this sort of learning environment and experience for our students is really quite special. And so I appreciate that you took the time to share a little bit of that with us and inform us as we engage in a really important conversation around CTE programming, and the lottery process. And so Mr. Fallon is going to explain to us a little bit of the regulation that this board of education has come down with in terms of how we're assigning students to career technical education programs. And I know Ms. Sheila Freitas-Haley is here and works a lot in partnership with Mr. Fallon. So thank you both very much. Floor is yours.
[Fallon]: Thank you. Little feedback there. Madam Mayor, you should know that they got a real kick out of seeing you in your element because they knew you when they were younger and they were like, wow, it's really fun to see her now as the mayor. So that was cool to be part of. Thank you everyone. I am here tonight to talk about the new regulations that will be in effect for this school year regarding a lottery for admissions into career technical schools across the state. So in May, the Board of Education did vote to adopt a lottery for admissions. I guess I don't need to stand that close. For admission into CTE schools, for our regional vocational technical high schools and for programs. So I do wanna share some information with you tonight specifically about that and share our thoughts on where we think we wanna move in the direction for this school year, because the regulations do begin this year. And I'd like to walk you through a few things tonight. So just to frame it, an admissions lottery is necessary in programs or in schools when you have more applicants than you have seats. If you remember over the last three years, we've had about anywhere from 30 to 50 students on wait lists here in Medford alone. And about 30 to 40 of them are students who didn't get any of their programs. Another 20 to 30 are students who didn't get their first or second choice and maybe were placed in one of their other choices. The Department of Education is also looking that we reinvest our time and energy to work with middle school students to provide them information on pathways and access for high school. I will say that the policy that you may read out there now is really geared more towards the regional vocational high schools that have sending communities. We don't have that issue here. We are welcomed in the middle schools and we have a great partnership. So we really don't need to have an extensive plan. Our plan will really just outline open houses that we do and the work that we're going to do in the middle schools beginning in seventh grade and some course selection information. So beginning in this school year for the 25-26 school year, we are proposing that students at the conclusion of the CTE exploratory rotation, which will be in January, that they're going to still continue to rank their top three choices but that for programs that have more student interest than seats available, we will employ a lottery. Students will still be placed on wait lists, or we'll have the option to choose a program that has space available, and students will be selected from the wait list up until the end of first quarter and sophomore year. One thing to keep in mind, if we have programs that do not fill on the first time around, students can opt into that program as well. So we're only going to have to institute wait lists on programs that fill up. So if there's a program that has 20 seats and there's 18 students who sign up, then that program will not be on a wait list. All 18 students would get that program. The state gives a few options with this. We didn't feel it best to do an admission in grade nine before they came in because a lot of reasons, mainly because of the work we've done to integrate both schools. We really didn't feel it was appropriate to have an application or an admissions policy for grade nine for kids to enter. So we're choosing the option of program placement, which is right in line with our neighboring communities, Somerville, Peabody, Quincy, Cambridge. Everyone's doing pretty much a straight lottery. Some people may decide to do a weighted lottery, which is also an option. we have decided or are proposing to not do a weighted lottery. We feel like a straight lottery would probably be the most beneficial and fair process. I mentioned a little bit about the middle school exploration policy. This is a document that I have drafted and we will share. It has been shared with you and we'll share with the state. It really just outlines the work that we're gonna continue to do in middle school to help kids understand the programs that are available to them in Medford. Quick enrollment update to give you an idea of where we're at today. We have just about 280 freshmen. There's about 318 in the freshman class. About 280 of them are in exploratory now. The high school enrollment right now is at about 763 and 469 students in grades 10 through 12 are in a CTE pathway. That makes up the 1,200 students in the school right now. The number to keep in mind here for grade 10 We have 181 seats. Two years ago, that would have been 145, but because of the additional seats we were able to add last year, hiring a fourth teacher, a third teacher in culinary, a third teacher in auto tech, we've been able to expand some access for students in those programs. So the next steps are to hopefully get an approval of our admissions policy that's been shared with you or time to have me come back and speak more if there's questions and approval of the middle school exploration policy. And both of those documents will need to be sent to the Department of Ed after we have your seal of approval. And then the next step after we decide which option we're going to move forward with, with your blessing, really the communication plan will begin. We'll begin reaching out to the community, speaking to parents, speaking to seventh and eighth grade students to make sure everyone understands what this is gonna look like moving forward. More importantly, working with families of grade nine students right now to let them know what is on the horizon for this school year.
[Paul Ruseau]: Questions?
[Unidentified]: We can share.
[Jenny Graham]: Thank you for this. I, I think, overall, this plan makes sense and I think there's a lot of complications with weighted admissions that have been talked about in the process this decisions been made. So I'm supportive of these policies. I would ask that we really think carefully about the communication plan because I do think it has left lots of questions over time with families. So I think what we heard from students is I didn't know you could go to the book and go to college. And I have heard in multiple parent centric meetings like, that may have been what was true when you were in school, but it's not true anymore. And that's the end of the sentence and the end of the statement. And I think parents leave going, well, why isn't it true? Like, what does that mean? What what are my choices? So I think there's an opportunity to enhance the communication so people can really understand what the programs have to offer. And like, what what typical pathways look like in and out of the programs. And the other thing I would ask is that we think about carefully about the ninth grade decision like it's happening earlier in the year than two years ago. I would personally like to see us spend more time exploring before we ask ninth graders to sort of pick a track forever, but we can talk about that in future years but what I would like to make sure that we do is really think carefully about how we inform families about this decision because I think that has, I think it has always come from a place of people who know a lot about the process and One, you know a lot about a process, you tend to skip over the like really basic questions that people have that then they don't get answers to and they wonder about. So I think there's just an opportunity to tighten up some of the language that we use so that people who only think about the VOC in terms of like how they saw it or experienced it or didn't experience it when they were kids themselves can like really help their students think and evaluate the decision so that students can go to school prepared to like make those choices for themselves. So I think they're just some communication opportunities for us to clear up and I'm like really excited to see the like intentional ask about helping middle school families understand that because I think The vocational programs have so much to offer that when parents are thinking about high school and where they want to send their children to high school, there is no other place where you can go and learn 18 different things right that is available to most of our students. So understanding what that could look like and doing a good job communicating that I think just has huge potential to help people understand like why they should really seriously consider sending their kids to Medford High if they want their kids to have lots of exposure to that kind of opportunity. So I can connect with you offline, but I just think talking to some parents who haven't been through the process would probably be very helpful in like sort of driving out those questions that seem to like linger for people.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you, member Graham. We're gonna go one mic at a time. So let me turn yours back on, one second. Yep, you gotta press the button.
[Fallon]: Mr. Fallon. Thank you. I just wanted to respond. So I've shared with Dr. Galusi some plans. The good thing about this year, especially given that this lottery is new, the way the calendar works now, knock on wood, no snow days until January or February, at least. The last rotation ends the day before winter break. So we have an opportunity where when students are leaving before the vacation, they're going to be going home with a lot of information. stuff will be sent for me, it'll be sent, parents will have information, and then we have some time. We don't have to place students right away in January. We could extend Exploratory for a week or for 10 days to do some activities that I did just share with Dr. Galussi about really what you said, career planning and understanding what this decision means, because my goal While it's to have kids pick a program that they truly enjoy, it's also to help kids who aren't sure that they don't pick the wrong program. Because essentially, this could get difficult and we're going to have people who don't get into programs that desperately want them. My job and our job at the school is to really help kids understand what you want and what you may not want. and to help them understand, don't pick a program because your friends pick it because that, you know, you may have 14 other people waiting to get in. So I hear you and I'd be interested to meet with you and others to figure out what the best plan is. So Dr. Galussi knows we've been kind of waiting for some decisions and then the communication will start. So thank you.
[Suzanne Galusi]: Is it okay if I expand on that. So I did just want to note, and I think that's why it was so important to to hear this perspective from some of the students who didn't the. rotations had you realize that you thought you were going in and maybe we're going to want to wind up in one shop and then the rotations had you realize that oh wait a minute I'm really aligned to the work that's going on here and I want to explore this a little bit more and this is you know where my interests lie. I think that is part of the reason why we're so purposeful in wanting to make sure that this lottery is in grade nine after the rotations, so that there's some context in the decision-making and that we're not creating any sort of barrier to opportunity for our students. And the second piece is for the communication, we do wanna make sure 100%, and we also wanna make sure that we're doing this in varied modalities. So there will be mailings and newsletters and emails, and we'll use our district-wide platforms to do so, so final site and the talking points, but we also need to have some in-person and via Zoom informational sessions so that we're also providing that opportunity to come and listen, ask your questions, hear about the programs, And to your point, learn all of the specific details of what it means to make the decision to go into CTE for the rest of ninth grade, grades 10, 11, and 12. It's a big commitment. It's a big decision. And students, as well as caregivers, 100% need to know what that entails. And we want to make sure that we're providing a little bit more detailed information moving forward.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Okay, Member Reinfeld, and then Member Ntoppa, and then I think we have a student who'd like to speak.
[Erika Reinfeld]: I'd be happy to defer to a student.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Member Reinfeld.
[Erika Reinfeld]: All right, I keep trying to defer and you're not letting me. All right, so I've, can you say a little bit about how the rankings and the lottery interface? Is it a lottery for everyone's first choice? And then, because I see a lot of codependencies here on how that works, and we don't have to get into the exact combinatorics of it all, That's, I think, something at least that needs to be addressed with students and saying, if I'm ranking it this way, how does that preference work? Because the dimension is challenging.
[Fallon]: So in terms of a platform, I need to figure out what we will be using. There's many different things we can use. The good news is all of us comprehensive high schools meet together a couple times a month, so we'll be sharing best practice. Right now, the plan is that we'll still have students rank, but let's use electrical for an example, a program that always fills up. If we have 20 seats and there are 40 students and that's their first choice, the lottery will be based on those 40 students for that program. And we'll go and order first choice for every program and see where we end up. And then if we need to go to a second choice lottery, we'll go there. I wish I could give you more. That's actually what I was looking for. This is new. This is new for me too. I'm going to be calling on Will to help me with the lottery because he's been through this at the middle school.
[Erika Reinfeld]: Yeah, great. I was also hoping you could speak briefly about why the weighted system, why a weighted lottery doesn't feel like the right choice, because one of the things that I have heard around this is, well, should we be prioritizing career intent over doing this for fun, I agree, not because our friends are doing it, but so what led to that decision? I think there are pros and cons of each and I'd like to hear more about why you're making this recommendation.
[Fallon]: So the attendance and distance. So the reason I believe that the state has made this decision is because selective criteria doesn't always work and it's not fair. I always hated, I was director of admissions at a school prior to this and we would receive a thousand applications for 500 seats. If a student made a mistake in seventh grade and had one suspension, that could limit their chances from ever being part of a vocational program. Similar with attendance. If they look at seventh and eighth grade data, that doesn't necessarily represent the same child in grade nine. So when we looked at the weighted option, attendance and discipline, any suspensions, I think I can safely say that kind of around like-minded people, we were talking about it and we just didn't like the idea of a selective criteria. We thought that this, in a situation where no one is ever gonna be 100% happy, this felt like the best option right now. By the way, we can change it. If we decide year one, we don't like it, we're gonna have to update this yearly with the Department of Education. we may decide that we want to change it. For right now, the people around the table, we all, I think, had a common feeling that we didn't want to use selective criteria such as attendance or something like this. What I'm finding is that most schools, like even one of the biggest regional vocationals around, they're also doing a straight lottery. So I think we're all feeling like this is the best way to go because it feels the most fair.
[Erika Reinfeld]: And I appreciate that, because it wasn't necessarily clear what the weighting factors would be, whether it was a positive factor or a disqualifying factor. Sure.
[Fallon]: I should have explained it better. So attendance, they're looking at the year previous to application. Anything less than 27 days out would allow you another chance in the lottery. Discipline would be a 37 H and a half in fraction. That would, if you didn't have one of those, you would have another weight in the lottery. know, the Department of Ed gave this kind of other option that if we wanted to have an interview or a recommendation from a guidance Councilor or something other like interest. Did this student attend an open house or did they, you know, we felt like it was a little bit out there. We didn't really know that that was the best way to move forward. So that those are the qualifiers.
[Erika Reinfeld]: I appreciate that background. And then how are we doing on our wait lists? I guess we don't. We don't know what this year's exploratory will lead to.
[Fallon]: We don't, but I can tell you our, so when I mentioned about, you know, 50 students on a wait list, we're down to 15 right now, which is kind of what we anticipated happening. I have students coming off the wait list tomorrow. Things change, people move, people change their minds. So we've been able to bring kids in right up until still, you know, we'll have some more starting tomorrow. So the wait list is much better. And can I share a little something with the crew? We did, what's that? I know that was intentional really. We have, I got the acknowledgement today. We've applied for two new programs. We have decided to open plumbing sooner than anticipated because the need is there. So we have the Department of Ed has recognized my intent and they are inviting us to go to part A of the four part process for plumbing and information systems and support services for the FY26-27 school year. So stay tuned for that. So inevitably, we're looking at a wait list like we have every year, but we now know we're gonna have, you know, maybe 30 additional seats available. So the time is now, Dr. Galussi and I sat, Ms. Freitas Haley, we all put our heads together and said, how can we make this happen sooner than later? So that's the plan, stay tuned.
[Erika Reinfeld]: That's fantastic news. Is there any way to preview it for the people currently in rotation to experience some presentation, I get that we can't get in there into a shop because it's not up and running, but
[Fallon]: Not really, because the process will really end in June with the Department of Education. So I'd like to think that we're going to be approved, but I've had to find some space in a very old building. So stay tuned for that. Yeah, we did find some space. So yeah, anywhere that there was running water. So my goal would be for next year to have an exploratory, and then the year after take in another group of exploratory. So we'll add each year. in a perfect world. And if you remember, through MSBA, we applied for plumbing and HVAC. I don't think we're ready for HVAC, but plumbing, we definitely, you know, we know the students that go to Minuteman right now are going for plumbing. We know this, we know it's been for years. So instead of waiting for the new building, we decided to just do plumbing, hold off on HVAC, and when we're in the new space, hopefully in five years or so, that we'll have four to five years of plumbers under our belt that we can now have a thriving program to bring in HVAC. So if all works out and we're in some new space, you know, five or six years, we'll already have a headstart on the program. Finding a teacher, another story. But we're hopeful.
[Erika Reinfeld]: All right.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you.
[John Intoppa]: Thank you, Mayor. Thank you for the really good news. It's actually, I was actually just at an event. talking with a parent about why don't we have plumbing and what are the differences and what's what's the deal with that so that's really cool to hear that we have pulling this away, we have a lot, and we have the means to hopefully support that. I'm really happy to see that we have chosen to go instead of the sort of eighth grade rotation and looking at stuff, we're actually going towards the ninth grade. Basically, I was just gonna really reiterate the importance of going through the rotation and seeing, you know, what your options are and what everything happens. You know, there's this difference between, you know, theoretical career paths and applied career paths and folks going through it and saying, well, actually, I really liked the problem solving of culinary more than I ever thought I'd like. you know, this and that. So seeing that, that this that's the driving factor behind that is awesome. I also love the ideology behind the thought of not doing a weighted with a lottery system. That sorry the ringing is insane. You know we talked a lot about you know we've heard from students we've heard from other folks that the vote brings a sense of belonging that actually increases retention among students you know once students are doing the things that they love and doing that sort of you know it's kind of what the CCS are. pushes, it is what the CCR pushes, project-based learning. And when you learn the thing that you wanna learn, your retention goes, and that drives student success. And so for students who maybe don't feel that sense of belonging in school, didn't feel that sense of belonging in middle school because academia, like straight path academia wasn't for them, why put that against them to be admitted into the VOC? Because the VOC hopefully is what will help fix that and help fix the lack of that sense of belonging. I think we also, part of member Graham's point of, talking about what a modern day vocational school looks like and you know the whole thing of my graduation speaker said the same thing you know they said I go to the voc I won't go to college I said I won't go to voc I won't go to college now I've been accepted to all nine colleges that I you know applied to it was accepted in you know with huge financial aid packages because the voc isn't just an end part for people it is oftentimes a stepping stone into another career path maybe they're gonna go into something else Maybe they learn hey culinary is where how I got myself through high school because high school the four year first years of my life and now I'm going to go pursue something else that we don't have as a program like criminal justice like psychology like whatever. But I think we also have to do an important part of advertising our programs that are. maybe lesser enrolled, you know, looking at we, I'm very happy to see an increase in, no surprise to, you know, graphic design and talking about how we need to look at, you know, for maybe the programs that maybe have a lesser waitlist or have lesser enrollment, you know, talking about the advantages of what graphic design is, you know, we're doing a whole wayfinding study in the city. you know what a big part of wayfinding is? Is how it's designed and how people read through things and how people understand information, informational hierarchy, everything, zoning, everything. Everything is determined by how you design the language and the graphics to do it. And I don't know if we're there yet, but I'd love to see that happening. And business marketing being a stepping stone for any career path. Whatever you decide to go to, you wanna open your own business? You can't do that if you don't know how to market yourself or run a business. We have two people in there now, six, nine, it's going down a little bit, but these are the things that we need to be doing to push as that stepping stone. Maybe the voc is sort of like an associate's degree, pushing up whatever bachelors you go to. But if you don't do that, then that's fine. One or the other. So that's sort of the rant that I had in terms of this, but I'm really happy to see where this is moving forward and what we're doing, transforming the vocational program in-house. So really appreciate all the efforts there. you and your staff and faculty are all, and students are all doing today. So thank you.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you, member Tapa. Would you mind passing the mic back to our student, Elachi? Oh, one second. Let me, that's member Graham's mic on.
[ewRLf8jM8M0_SPEAKER_16]: Thank you. Apologies. Member Reinfeld graciously answered our question. So thank you for your time.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you. All right, well, thank you very much for the presentation. Oh, member Olapade. Yep, member Olapade.
[Aaron Olapade]: Thank you. I had a quick question about the eligibility in the draft you provided us. So I know that you mentioned that students that are promoted into the program is conditional based off of their ability to seek the following grade. For students that, for example, aren't able to seek the following grade and they need repeat a year, does that does that remove their eligibility to reapply to the program as well as how does that impact the I know for eighth grade the very least it's March is when the selection process begins in the lottery. How does that does that impact the rest of the lottery system at all if a student is not determined to be unable to seek the next grade yet but they will be eventually some question makes sense.
[Fallon]: it would not impact their chances. Every year there might be a student or two who needs to do some more work. And so we let them either go through exploratory again, or we let them pursue different programs up until now. Things will be different with the lottery, but I don't ever see us saying no to somebody. We do the same thing for students who come into the district late. If they haven't had a chance to explore the programs, we let them do it again up until they're ready. Right now it's a little different because we don't have a lottery, but I would never, if somebody needs that extra time, I would absolutely open them back up to the process.
[Aaron Olapade]: Awesome, thank you so much.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: So do you have a question.
[Paul Ruseau]: Motion to approve the first reading of policy JFA a chapter 74 program emissions policy.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Before the rolls called would you like to say something, Dr. Lucy, I can.
[Suzanne Galusi]: Thank you. I appreciate that I don't want to, I certainly don't want to derail the vote. I just wanted to first thank Mr. Fallon but I also wanted to just comment on some of the pieces that the members were commenting on, I think one of the key pieces here is just in the way that we decided to make decisions about the lottery is our instructional vision that guides our work for the district does have an equity statement in there about making sure that we are opening up opportunities for students and we're providing them access so that they can reach their full potential. And for some of our students, that is through the CTE pathway. And so we feel that the best way to make sure we're doing that and not creating barriers and making sure that we're holding up our instructional vision for the district is to make sure that we're doing the lottery in the ninth grade so that we're giving that opportunity for students to explore the electives and then go through the lottery piece. Otherwise, thank you very much, and I appreciate your partnership in this very important matter.
[Nicole Branley]: Member Branley. The Bistro opens tomorrow to the public, correct? The Bistro opens tomorrow to the public. 8am to 1245. Okay, go, everybody go. It's good. Yes, it's fun. It's great. So okay, that was it.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Sorry, didn't mean to steal your thunder. Thank you, Member Branley. Thank you, Mr. Fallon. We're going to move approval by Member Ruseau, seconded by Member Reinfeld. You want to roll call? All those in favor? All those opposed? Motion passes. Wonderful. Next up, we have member Graham.
[Jenny Graham]: Can we motion to waive the second reading so that we can pass this and move forward?
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Motion to waive the second reading by member Graham, seconded by member Reinfeld. All those in favor? All those opposed? Second reading has been waived.
[Unidentified]: Thank you.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Great, let's keep the plumbers in house. Yes, I hope my son follows that path in a few years, so that's great news. Next up, we have an update to CCSR donation from the Cummings Foundation, Mr. Richard Schrader, Director of the Center for Citizenship and Social Responsibility. Welcome. Bye, great job.
[Richard Trotta]: Thank you for allowing me to give an update on the program. Before I do that, I want to thank the funders for the program. The major funders, number one is Cummings Foundation. They've given us a commitment of $460,000 that has basically supported the program most of the years we've been in existence. The Crystal Campbell Community Benefit Project donated $165,000 for us to support the program. In one year, in fact, there was a gap between the Cummings money, the three-year grant, and the 10-year grant, and they funded the program for a year. They gave us to continue the program without missing a beat. Since 2013, These generous contributors enabled over 3,000 students to create over, let's see how many, 300 projects, basically. It's an estimate over the time we've been doing this, but the impact clearly has been very broad. And in some cases, there have been situations where the students actually have excelled and actually become civic leaders in Medford. I also want to thank the school committee for the continual support over the years, particularly the central office people, Noel, Jerry, and Suzanne, and the superintendent, who's always been a supporter and has been very helpful in maintaining the program and advising us on how to maneuver through the system. I want to thank our advisors and the staff in the program who actually make things happen. And over the years, they've been a tremendous group and have been mentors to the students that have allowed them to do these great projects. And most importantly, I wanna thank the students for their work over the years. We've had a lot of students go through and their work is inspirational and I believe they make the world a better place, which is our mantra. We wanna make the world a better place, one student at a time. So I want to just clarify my role as grant manager. I am in charge of creating and implementing the budget. My role is to adhere to the guidelines of the grant and answer to the foundation for how the grant operates and how the money is spent. I maintain records and prepare annual reports. I supervise the faculty and staff in the program. I coordinate operations for all activities. and grant objectives to support student success. And so those are the main kinds of activities that grant manager does. And I also meet, we have a visit every year to evaluate the program by a representative from the Cummings Foundation. And every time we do this, they've always been very happy with the way things are operating. So the budget, the proposed budget is flexible. It's designed to adapt to student needs. Faculty and staff stipends remain the top priority as they sustain high quality after school programming and student engagement. Once school rosters are finalized and we know how many students we have, we can then decide, determine how many people we need on staff. Once that's done, then we can go to other areas and find those areas based on what money's left. Things like mini grants, instructional materials, enrichment activities, professional development, guest speakers, field trips are all subject to what happens with the staff. It's my job, my responsibility to determine the best way to handle this in terms of money, what's best for the students and what's the most effective way of promoting and offering students a truly enriching experience in this program. This is a multi-year grant, which means that this grant we received this year is one of 10. And the grant budget stays stable. We don't close out in the school year, it's open. It's a multi-year grant. So most years we have, almost every year we have a surplus. which goes to the next year, which allows us flexibility to do things that may be not considered at first, but now, because we have the funds and some interest has been provided that some students want to do something grandiose, a district-wide program, a principal has worked with an advisor and has a project that requires some extra money here and there, that's what happens. In terms of the, Oh, so the closing point I wanna make before we go through the budget is that what we promote is project-based learning, which is a methodology that allows students to make decisions about themselves, that allow them to select what they wanna work on as a project, and the advisors help them. They're advisors, they're not teachers in the sense they don't teach them, they let students design with their help the project, implement the project, and then complete the project and have some kind of demonstration of that project. At the end of the school year, I provide you with a portfolio of all the projects and all the work the students have done, so that it shows you that it indicates what the benefit is to the students. Truly can be life-changing events. I have anecdotes, but I won't go through them now. One of the things that I wanna point out is that by doing project-based learning, students develop leadership skills. They become compassionate leaders because through and by helping other people, they learn to be more compassionate and more empathetic. And we also stress that they are leaders and we call them leaders because they're going out into the world, into the schools, the district, making changes that can help other people. and it makes them feel good, and it also helps the community. So that's a really important point. That kind of experience is life-changing sometimes. And what we're doing is we're creating students who, in the future, will do things to help other people and not just for self-interest. And so that's really the heart and soul of this program. So that's my overview, and I can go through the budget, but do I have any questions?
[Suzanne Galusi]: know, I'm so sorry. Did you just say you were going to go? I just want to make sure that I'm just clarifying so that the membership is aware that I just want to make sure we're going through what the budget is so that is that what we're doing next?
[Richard Trotta]: Okay. So this projected budget is founded on this kind of thing. So every, this year, the teachers, advisors, we call them advisors, they get $2,500 for the school year. Each school has one full-time advisor this year. There is money for an assistant advisor. If the numbers of the students exceeds 25 or 30 students, we hire an assistant. Typically, on average, we've been hiring sometimes three, sometimes four, but not every school requires an assistant. Again, it depends on numbers. We recruit, we want all the students we can get, but we can't make them select us. It's what they desire to do. I have a list of advisors. For the high school, it's Jen Silver. For Andrews Middle, it's Melanie North. For Glenn Middle, Grace Turnbull-Barr. Roberts, Janelle, Colin McKenzie, Mr. Tuck, Connor Hamill, McGlynn Elementary, Nicola Napitano, Brooks, Lee Chasen, and this year, the Curtis Tufts, which is really a wonderful thing. We've had trouble getting advisors. We have an advisor at the Curtis Tufts, Colin Flynn. Now, because it's a small school, the stepping is gonna be 1,500. But if it gets to 10 students or more, we bump it up to 2,500 students. And so every school is covered. And we have what I think is an excellent staff this year. And I'm really looking forward to working with them. So advisors category with what I just gave you without the assistance is $20,000. Now we have 35,000, at least 15,000 as a balance. I expect we might have a couple of advisors, assistant advisors added. but we won't know until we get the numbers. We also have staff that support the program. We have a district coordinator, project coordinator, Janelle Garland McKenzie, who works as the liaison for all the projects and serves as a support person, holds meetings, Zoom meetings once a month, and coordinates all the projects and helps them the advisors with their projects and supporting them. And also she allows them to meet together to work as a team on projects outside of their school building. The administrative system does all the purchase orders and purchasing. It's Mary Lorton, she gets $1,200. Memorial Gardens maintenance is Rebecca McGinnis. She supports the vocational Memorial Garden and the high school Memorial Garden. The one in front of the school with the plaque for Crystal Campbell. Typically we have many grants. Now many grants are grants given to classroom teachers. to work with their students if they have a project after school. They apply for that, they submit a proposal, and if I approve it, they get to do the mini-grant after school on their own time, and they get a stipend. It ranges from, depending on the project, it ranges from $500 to $1,000. We've allocated $2,000, but we don't know exactly that number yet. We will determine later. We have a web hosting service fee for Bluehost. We have our own webpage, which is what the foundation would like. So we do that. But the good news is on the other side, it's student-managed. We have students managing it. So it's a student project to manage the webpage and gives them great experience and an opportunity to be creative. We allot $200 per school for support Instant owned supplies, it could be art supplies, paint, it could be cups, depending on whatever they need it for. Now that money is allotted, it doesn't mean it automatically is used. Oftentimes it's not used, but it's there if they need it. As operational supplies, things like toner for the printer, paper, folders, envelopes, things like that. Subtotal, when you add all these up, it's $30,000, which leaves $5,000 allotted to what we need for possibly and probably some assistance. If we stay within that budget, it ends up being $35,000, which is the projected budget for the school year. So that's my report. I'm happy to answer any questions.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: That's great, thank you so much for the update, well detailed budget. Are there any questions, member Graham? Oh, press it one more time, sorry.
[Jenny Graham]: Good, I guess I'm good. I'll stand way back here because it's very loud. Two things. One, when you do the annual report at the end of the year, can you please include the actual spending against the budget so that at the end of the year we can see what we plan to do versus what we did that's not been included previously? And then my other question is whether is can you send the committee a copy of the original grant award and whatever contract language there is that we've agreed to is it is it just this one active grant or do we have two active grants right now? And is there another one besides Cummings?
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Mr. Charter, if you could just press your mic button and I'll put you back on. You can stay on. It just seems like it's a little more in control. One second.
[Richard Trotta]: We have one grant, the Cummings Foundation. Okay. The Crystal Campbell funds were donated. And the Bloomberg funds we got years ago, they were donated. So there's no budget around that. The money is used to support the program as needed.
[Jenny Graham]: Perfect. Yeah, if you could send us a copy of the grant award from Cummings, that would be great. Thank you.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you very much. Member Reinfeld.
[Erika Reinfeld]: I just want to thank you for this detailed information. This is very helpful. I just want to urge you when future budgets are being prepared to make sure that the stipends kind of stay aligned with the work within the teacher's contract. There was a lot of work done during the negotiations to make the stipends proportional. This is not part of that contract, and they seem consistent. I've been trying to go back and forth. And so I appreciate it. And I just want to have that on the radar, because lots of our clubs do lots of good work and the advisors and making sure that that's fair and equitable.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you, Member Reinfeld. Any comments, further questions? If not, I'm going to move on to number four. Thank you, Mr. Trotter.
[Unidentified]: I think we need an approval, though.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Motion for approval by Member Intoppa, seconded by Member Branley. All those in favor? Roll call, please.
[Paul Ruseau]: Member Ruseau. Member Branley. Member Graham. Member Intoppa? Yes. Member Olapade? Yes. Member Reinfeld? Yes. Member Rossell? Yes. Mayor Longo?
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Yes. Seven in the affirmative, zero in the negative. Motion passes. Thank you.
[Unidentified]: Thank you.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Number four, we have bus monitor reports. I'm going to turn it over to our superintendent, Dr. Galuzzi. Thank you.
[Suzanne Galusi]: Good evening. Thank you for your patience. It's like the dance of the microphones. So briefly, last year, as part of our ongoing conversations with the community, there was a hope to have some bus monitors implemented on some of the bus routes that we have across the city. In that ongoing conversation as part of the supplemental budget, which was presented on January 13th to this board, we reviewed the possibility at that time of incorporating bus monitors in areas of need. So as a result of that conversation, there have been lots of internal conversations that have been had between central office which has included multiple people, but because transportation is all encompassing and does require a lot of people at the table but I mean, john Bowen and Dr. Talbot Megan Fiddler Carrie myself know well. Lots of people, Mr. Pippa Sally have been on the central office side, engaged in conversations with principals. and assistant principals, as well as Eastern Bus itself. And some of those conversations have included a review of bus routes per school, a prioritization of the bus routes that are in the most need through a needs assessment type approach, the calculation of Eastern Bus monitors, as that was part of the contract that they gave us. There was a quote in there, and we'll get to that in a future slide. A review of the assignments of paraprofessional duties through their new CBA and Schedule A capacity to assist in that nature. Some contingency planning, because we always need to have contingency planning, all well-laid plans. And then to monitor, we want to make sure we are creating a mechanism to monitor reports, concerns, questions, and coverages across the district. So in order to assess the need for bus monitors, this conversation involved the creation of a tiered approach to allocating resource. So that work, as mentioned, was collaborative with school leaders, Eastern Bus and Central Office. It looked at student need, It looked at enrollment or possible areas of overcrowding on buses. It looked at safety concerns. It looked at reports from either caregivers, bus drivers, Eastern Bus itself, community members, and the like. And so taking all of those pieces of data into account, we came up with a tiered system, which was tier one is an immediate priority. So more than one of these areas as highlighted above was brought up in reference to a particular bus at a particular school. Tier two was an emerging priority. Doesn't maybe require a bus monitor at this very moment, but we're keeping a close eye on it. If we had a genie in a bottle and funding was not an issue, then this might be a place that we would put a bus monitor if the need arises. Tier three was just to monitor ongoing, something that we're doing with all of our buses, but this is classified as we're keeping an eye on this bus. And tier four, currently stable. As we take these tiers into account, the next slide highlights for you Mr. Pippa, Sally, do you mind moving? Thank you. This next slide highlights all the buses. So we have 17 buses across the city from elementary to middle to high school. And this prioritizes the tiers for every bus in the city. You can see based on our approach tier one, there are four buses. There's pretty much one at each elementary school and one at the middle school. Uh, areas for the reasons why these buses are in tier one range from, um, student need and support to dismissal issues around dropping off at afterschool programs, middle school. This is a popular bus for a lot of students to kind of hop on, go downtown to the library, visit their friends. There can be overcrowding issues or just a little bit of shifting around buses, let's just say. You will note, I do not have the high school bus on here. The high school only has one yellow school bus that goes to North Medford. Everyone from the school leaders to Eastern Bus, that bus is stable. And that is the bus that's not on here, which is bus 17. There are no reports of a need in any capacity. If we move to the next slide. I just want to refresh everyone's memories if people at home have not seen this, or just to make sure we say it one more time to the committee. As part of the bid contract for Eastern Bus last year, when the contract was up, they did give us a quote because we wanted to know. And for the record, it was our only bid, so we did not get a bid from any other bus company. But their bid for bus monitors was $250 per day. per bus. Now, when I engaged this year in conversation with them, and I can understand where they're coming from, but they gave the example of districts that they are with that have bus monitors on their buses, Cambridge and Chelsea were the two that were given examples, they pay for the entire day because it's very difficult for them to find a bus monitor that's only going to work an hour to two hours a day. So bus monitors in other districts where they have found success are riding the bus for the morning, for the afternoon and for the late bus transport for students home. In converse, so you can see here from this, we have 17 total buses. If we were to take $250 a day times 180 school days, that's $765,000 for bus monitors. If we were, and then all the way down, so if we were to look at just tiers one, two, and three, and remove the buses that are stable, that gets us down to $675,000. If we were to look at just tiers one and two, which knowing that these tiers will fluctuate through the year, but if we were just going to look at tiers one and two, right now that rate would be $405,000. I did subtract two buses from this total, because if you go back to the chart before, there are two buses that overlap from the elementary run to the middle school run. So I removed the cost of two buses to that total. And if we just look at the four buses, which is tier one, it's $180,000. So. I do think for us right now at this point, it's not very fiscally responsible right now to say that we would be going with Eastern Bus to supply our bus monitor staffing. I would say that also part of that rationale is that engaged in conversation with school leaders and Eastern Bus, we there is no report of a need for morning bus monitors. The only need from the stakeholders right now is for the afternoon runs. And so fiscally, it wouldn't be that prudent to do. if we go to the next slide. So the next part of the conversation is to provide some context a little bit for other ways that we can maybe look to provide some support on buses that are tier one to start and maybe looking at what we can handle for anything additional as need arises. So as part of the recently negotiated and ratified contract with the paraprofessionals, there are two levels of paraprofessionals. Some are Schedule B and some are Schedule A. Schedule A have additional hours of pay that they need at the discretion of principals to provide to the school in which they work in. And so right here you can see an outline if elementary paraprofessionals Schedule A owe the district 29.83 hours of coverage throughout the year. That's each para of Schedule A. Right now, the average of elementary school paras that are schedule A is about four to five paras. There are situations, there are two schools in which there may be more paras, but one works the afterschool. So that still brings us down to four to five right now at each elementary school. Middle school paraprofessionals do not owe any time based on the nature of the new schedule and the support that they provide in the morning. and high school paraprofessionals on schedule A owe 19.53 hours to the district. So keeping all of this in mind, we are proposing, if we look at the two levels right now that are of need, we have elementary schools and middle schools. We are proposing using a rotating use of schedule A paraprofessionals, that may be consistent or that also may be intermittent. In conversations with principals and with Eastern Bus, of course, situations in need are different from school to school. And there are some schools where right now they feel like an intermittent need would be the most effective so that, let's say for a week or two weeks, you have a bus monitor, they're reviewing expectations, they're modeling to the students, how they should be at when they're on the bus, when they're riding the bus, sometimes also how they should be getting off the bus, when their stop is, making sure that if there's certain grade, the bus driver's checking tags, all of those things. And we may not need it consistently. We can roll that back, see how that goes if there's a need. reinstall it again. So this rotating use of paraprofessionals would be supportive. We also have talked about the possible incorporation of a small stipend or a stipend to staff members to cover Tier 1 supports. And if the need arises for a Tier 2 bus, that would also serve in that capacity, or if a tier two bus then becomes a tier one. We also want, as said before, we are maintaining records internally so that we are keeping track of documenting reports, needs, and coverages across the district. Middle school, because paraprofessionals don't have the time, The pieces that we looked at there are the stipend option, and we are in conversations with City Air. I have not gotten a direct answer yet, but that's a possible talking point because we do have middle school core members, and the middle school buses are all merged. So the McGlynn students, for people that may not be aware, even at home, the McGlynn students walk to the Andrews. There are 12 buses. and school leadership from both schools are there and present with Jessica from Eastern Bus assisting with boarding. The biggest takeaway from Eastern Bus was the support they need for middle school level is on boarding. And the four buses that are tier one, they did feel that an intermittent approach would be best because if there is an adult or a staff member on those four tier one buses, every day for boarding, setting the expectation, making sure students are seated, that it makes the ride a little bit more seamless. So at this point, I open the floor if there are any questions or pieces of feedback or comments for me.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Member Graham.
[Jenny Graham]: Thank you. Thank you for this. I really appreciate that we are solving problems that we have known about for a really long time. And we've, you know, for a whole variety of reasons not done this before. So thank you for doing that and for doing it really thoughtfully, because I think, you know, it's not a good use of funds to just assume that support is needed on every bus every day for 180 days, because what we really want is to be modeling behavior that teaches kids how to ride the bus responsibly. And the goal would be that you don't have tier one buses, but that there's a plan to respond when something happens. So I really appreciate the work that went into this and the collaboration between the Eastern Bus and your office and the principals, because I think that's how we actually start solving problems in the district. So thank you for that. And the only question I had is, if parents are seeing some need for to like sort of raise some awareness about a bus issue that they're observing in some way. Do they contact the principal who do they contact.
[Suzanne Galusi]: Well, I actually have some fantastic news to answer that question. So we have just hired a transportation manager position for the district. It is a non-unit position. And so this person, Mr. Evan Schwartz, his first day is next Tuesday. He is coming to us with experience. in this role. Most recently in for Brookline public schools in which Eastern Bus has had experience because Brookline is one of their districts. So they actually have worked with Mr. Schwartz before, spoke very highly of his skill set, his professionalism. So I'm very excited. I don't want to bombard Mr. Schwartz. The minute he comes in, we will make sure that we are introducing him to the community, to this membership, if you so like. We will make sure we send to parents and put on the website under the transportation, his contact information. But I would say first and foremost, it's the principals for sure. And then once Mr. Schwartz gets going, he is going to be all things transportation. So thank you for that.
[SPEAKER_07]: It's a very important question.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Member Reinfeld and Member Ruseau.
[Erika Reinfeld]: Thank you. I was gonna ask what conversation had happened with City Year, but that got answered. And then also I think the intermittent is a very useful model because what we don't want is we've kind of identified with the paraprofessionals contract that there are a lot of ways to support students with those hours. And I would, as urgent as bus monitoring is, I would hate for that to be all the only extra support paras are providing. But my question is around training. and who these bus monitors are reporting to in terms of how they're being trained, what's the supervisory, and what's the liability? Because I know drivers are employed by Eastern Bus, and that's the contract. So how does that work, logistically, managerially, and liability-wise?
[Suzanne Galusi]: That is a fabulous question. In conversation with Eastern Bus, we did discuss the use of monitors that would be supplied by the district rather than supplied by Eastern Bus. So we are in conversation with them. In terms of training, I would say that the bus monitors report to the principal. just to keep that chain of communication solid. And it's the principals that are hearing the reports or the concerns, mostly from caregivers, definitely from bus drivers, definitely from Eastern Bus. I think it's important to note that all the buses do have video surveillance. So oftentimes when reports are given to the district, depending on what the report is, school leaders are working with Eastern Bus to review the tapes. There's, Mr. Lord, I'm sorry, I'm looking at you. I'm not quite sure, but I know it's video. Is it also sound? Like, is it audio recording as well? I would have to look into that. I know it's video, but I would just have to look into that one. And I think the training, Mr. Schwartz is starting on Tuesday. So that is part of the conversation that we're having with Eastern Bus and Mr. Schwartz as he arrives. So are we.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Member Ruseau.
[Paul Ruseau]: Thank you. I just wanted to acknowledge how fast you turn this around. I mean, we did just do the pair of contract. It seems like last week wasn't, but I wasn't really expecting all that to happen quite so fast. So I'm thrilled. So thank you.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Member Olapade.
[Aaron Olapade]: Thank you. I had two quick questions. So I know that the to comprise the actual tiered system to a prioritization, you know, you implemented a couple different ways to the criteria or metrics. Is there a metric that we're working on to determine like the actual reduction of incidents and success of this as well as whatever that may look like, are we able to kind of implement some type of mid-year report to kind of see how this is progressing so that hopefully we're seeing the numbers continue to go down so that ourselves and the district and I think families understand like why we're doing this.
[Suzanne Galusi]: That's the absolute goal, which is why that's part of our action steps in the internal documentation that we are keeping so that we are tracking reports when we've used coverages and how we've used those coverages and That's our goal. And that's what we're hoping to see. And to the members input before I think there is a key piece around modeling, and I will say just, you know, one of One of the things that I also want to make sure that I haven't really in full transparency like done yet, but like also to keep the conversation going with Metro Police on the city side, the Roberts bus that is tier one, that's the bus that goes to the Boys and Girls Club. And I've had lots of conversations with Dr. Talbot, who has gone to every elementary school, seen dismissal procedures, lots of conversations with Megan Fidlecary. And there are a lot of reports about all four elementary school buses kind of converging in a really compressed area of the city. And what is happening is there's a large amount, there's a lot of students on that bus. And I can also get you the ridership numbers, which vary dramatically from school to school. And I think that also factors into the tiered system, which is really why the McGlynn didn't have a tier one. Their ridership numbers are much lower. So if I look at that bus at the Roberts, the ridership numbers are high, and there were more than one instance of students getting confused because so many students get off the bus for that afterschool program. that some students are getting off that bus and it's not their stop. And so some of the afterschool programs have a dedicated person that boards the bus, makes sure they have the right students, they get off the bus. So I think part of this conversation too, which is why I'm very grateful for Mr. Schwartz to be here. But I think part of this is also ongoing conversations with Eastern Bus, but with some of the afterschool programs. And I don't know if there's a possibility to put a crossing guard down there. That's something that I would like to look into, but, and I haven't heard that there's necessarily as big of a problem with the other elementary schools as there was with the Roberts. So there's a lot of little nuanced pieces there, yeah.
[Aaron Olapade]: Thank you.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Great. Do you need to vote of any sort? Thank you. We do not have any presentations of the public.
[Suzanne Galusi]: I did just want to make sure as where I know we're going to move on to some resolutions, but I did just want to say this week. At the elementary level, caregivers will be receiving the devil's early screeners sent home. This is the first time we've done this in this manner and not during report card conferences, and I wanted to just make sure I highlighted it here we're making sure that we communicate that in the principal emails, the Friday memo, but just wanted to say it here so that parents are aware that it is coming home this week. And so please be checking your child's backpack.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you. Great, thank you very much. No continued business. New business offered by member Reinfeld, 2025-32. Whereas the Medford School Committee unanimously accepted the ad hoc resolution that the design firm selected to work on the new high school present to the Medford School Committee and a public meeting before commencing work on the feasibility study in January, be it now resolved that the seven individuals elected on November 4 2025 to serve on the Medford City Council for the term beginning January 12 26 shall be invited to attend this meeting of the medical committee were in the presentation is made. Would you like to speak or you want a motion for approval. Motion to approve I think this speaks for itself. Yes, for approval my bed for member rental seconded by member Graham all those in favor. Hi. Motion passes. Thank you for the resolution and also offered by member Reinfeld, 2025-32, whereas the Medford School Committee desires to take student experience into account in its decision-making and understanding the impact of those decisions. And whereas student councils meet regularly in the schools to discuss issues relevant to the student experience, we have therefore resolved that the regular school committee meeting agenda shall include a designated block for presentations by student representatives. and be it resolved that these presentations shall not preclude additional contributions by student representatives during the rest of the meeting, and be it resolved that the superintendent shall work with the student council leaders to encourage cross-school communication to inform presentations of student representatives, and be it further resolved that the school committee shall designate one member each season whom the high school student council may invite to attend their meeting on a monthly basis, and be resolved at the school committee member in attendance at the school Students Council meetings shall act, primarily limit preliminarily as an engaged observer and shall not speak in any official capacity for the elected body in these meetings, and be it finally resolved that the rules of the member school committee and policy be D E D B agenda creation in format of regular meetings of the school committee shall be updated to include these provisions. Member Reinfeld. Thank you.
[Erika Reinfeld]: So this is this resolution is meant to formalize the student involvement, given that we've had consistent student representatives, and we would like to really give them a place to speak, not mandatory, but the option and then to ensure a mechanism for school committee to members to attend meetings at the invitation of and figure out how to do that without breaking open meeting law and with and acknowledging that many members of the committee are unable to commit to regular meetings and also that students deserve a space to be with students without the committee present. So this is designed to do that. If my colleagues have questions, I would actually ask that they defer and let the students respond first. We didn't go back and forth on this just because of the timing for submission of agenda items and their meetings. So I would request that the students get to speak first and then I'm happy to take questions from my colleagues.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Absolutely. Thank you, member Reinfeld. Do you want to speak there or do you want to go up to the podium? What do you feel more comfortable? Yeah, right there. Yeah, so you can face us. Just remind us of your name and then please let us know what your thoughts are.
[Erika Reinfeld]: And you need to activate memory.
[ewRLf8jM8M0_SPEAKER_16]: There you go. The Student Advisory Committee on behalf of the Greater Student Advisory Organization would like to express approval for this resolution. The impact of student input we believe is invaluable as a guiding beacon for those that administer policy, which is ultimately meant to service those very same students. Conversely, those who create legislation have unique wisdom on the transformation from the dimensions of problems and evidence to that of quantifiable statutes. As described by Machiavelli, those who draw landscapes place themselves below in the plane to contemplate the nature of the mountains and of lofty places in order to contemplate the planes place themselves upon high mountains. Furthermore, As affirmed in Clause seven, we believe that both of these groups should serve not as the speaker through the mouse piece, but as the one who advises the speaker. We believe that this resolution is one that will prove invaluable in the continued cooperation between the school committee and the student body. Thank you.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you very much. Member Intoppa and then Member Reinfeld. Let's take this. And thank you for being here. It's wonderful to have four student representatives from the school council. Member Intoppa and then Member Reinfeld.
[John Intoppa]: Thank you, Mayor. Just a few questions. In terms of, actually I'll go with some language questions first. When you, Member Reinfeld, when you say designate one member each season, what determines a season?
[Erika Reinfeld]: I knew that was going to come up. I would actually like to ask the students what makes sense. So I'm recognizing the fact that I had originally said semester, and then I realized we're in trimesters. So that felt like the right, but then I realized there's a- In quarters? I'm sorry. Quarters, sorry, we're in quarters.
[Unidentified]: Yeah, I was gonna say we're in quarters.
[Erika Reinfeld]: Sorry, elementary school is trimesters, and that's the last progress report I looked at. Yeah, so I'm happy to do it by quarter, if that makes sense. I think the most important thing is that there be a break in that January for any term changeover in perpetuity, but... Is quarterly correct? My preference would be fall and spring. Yeah, I agree. That's what I was going to add.
[Jenny Graham]: Yeah.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Half year? Students, half year, September to December, and then January to?
[Erika Reinfeld]: I was just saying there's a lot of January to June. That's a lot longer than September to December.
[John Intoppa]: Okay, I mean.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: We give four people a term the opportunity, so it's up. It's up to you by quarters.
[John Intoppa]: I quarters. There's quarters. Let's just do quarters. If it stays the same, it stays the same. Doesn't mean it has to change.
[Erika Reinfeld]: Each quarter.
[John Intoppa]: season quarter. And then obviously this is sort of like our policy on public engagement, presentations to the public where if they don't have anything or if they don't, like they're not being expected to prepare everything every, you know, by week to make sure that they have something.
[Erika Reinfeld]: But if they want, if they have a presentation to make, there is a designated place in the agenda for that to happen.
[John Intoppa]: And they are so, cause they're behind you right now. The best way for them to do that is to, I'm assuming email who?
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: The chair, I believe, the chair and the superintendent is how people put resolutions on along with Lisa Joanne.
[John Intoppa]: And then the last thing, so I guess, so I will, if there's no other questions for my colleagues, I'll motion to approve and also with the amendment of changing season to quarter and also adding, which you can sever this if you want, one alternate elected. So for the result that the school committee shall designate one member each quarter and one alternate whom the high school student council may invite to attend their meetings on a monthly basis that way. if someone can't make it, we're still as informed as we possibly can be.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: That's a great, yeah, that's a good amendment. Yeah, so motion for approval as amended, accepted by Member Reinfeld, made by Member Intoppa, seconded by Member Olapade. All those in favor? All those opposed? Motion passes.
[Erika Reinfeld]: And then I would like to motion that the rules of the school committee, oh, oh no, just lost it, hold on, that item 34 be updated It currently reads student representatives serve as non-voting members of the school committee. Student representatives will be encouraged to participate in school committee meetings. In the rules, sorry. I can't what? I can't amend the rules now? No, it's not on the agenda, but you can put it on for our next meeting. Sorry, it was in the resolution of be it resolved that this will be updated. Then can I update the policy? Okay, then I will update the policy so that, so this is policy B-E-B-D, sorry, B-E-D-B to insert item six, presentations of student representatives in between report of the superintendent and presentations of the public. And accordingly, presentations of the public, continued business, new business, reports requested, condolences, and next meetings will all bump up a Roman numeral. I'm happy to, I can share this on zoom if that's helpful. I can I can send it to the.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Yeah, yeah, if you could just, if you could share where on the agenda would be one more time because we want to make sure it's after the Mustang minute.
[Erika Reinfeld]: So I had, I had suggested that this go after the report of the superintendent before presentations okay public basically where it is right now. before new business.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Okay, policy. All right, so you'll update that and put it on the next agenda for us to approve. Okay, wonderful.
[Erika Reinfeld]: Presentations of student representatives. I thought I could get away with reading it since it's in the resolution, but happy to submit it separately.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: We have no reports requested so move to, we do have one condolence members of the method school committee express their sincerest condolences to the family of Richard doubt husband of Maureen doubt a Medford public school educated for over 30 years, serving as a fourth grade teacher at the Lincoln Kennedy and Roberts elementary schools, and uncle Andrew O'Brien principal of the McGlynn elementary school if we all may rise for a moment of silence please. Tomorrow morning, we'll be picking a designer with the MSBA. So we'll hopefully have good news by noon-ish. And then our next regular meeting is October 20th, 2025, here in the Alden Memorial Chambers City Hall, in addition to Zoom. Is there a motion to adjourn? I remember on top of seconded by member Branley. All those in favor? All those opposed?
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