[SPEAKER_30]: You are not the only one. Okay.
[Kimberly Talbot]: I was thinking that is always such a clear speaker.
[SPEAKER_30]: I know.
[Kimberly Talbot]: Wasn't adding up.
[SPEAKER_30]: I think you're just going to have to speak a little louder. The folks that are just joining us, apparently my audio is a little bit underperforming today.
[Matt Rice]: It does not seem like it gets better. Certainly any of the members or any of the participants are welcome to just keep raising your hand.
[SPEAKER_30]: I can try even unplugging the headphones and the mics and just going off the audio.
[SPEAKER_21]: I would suggest trying it already because it's tough.
[SPEAKER_30]: All right, can somebody find say something.
[Kimberly Talbot]: Okay, how about how about that matt.
[Matt Rice]: can you hear me.
[Kimberly Talbot]: it's a little better still a little echoey.
[Matt Rice]: Oh. All right, well it's a little better we'll just have to go with that and I will try and talk as loud as I can that's helpful.
[Suzanne Galusi]: That's much better though, Matt, just so you know.
[Matt Rice]: All right, good. Because if not, I'm just going to turn around and say, Helen has to run the meeting. So that's what's going to happen. All right. So I think we have hopefully the critical mass at this point. Like I said, we'll just give people a few minutes to jump in here. But I think it's probably good to get going. So I'm just going to start off and say welcome to our advisory team meeting for the Medford High School project that is focused here on educational planning and equity. So we'll get into a little bit of what that means moving forward. But I just want to start off with a quick agenda so that you know what we're going to be covering. We're going to do a quick round of introductions, both for project team, as well as the advisory team. So the Medford participants right up front. And then we're really going to cover what this advisory team process is about. We know that there's a lot of meetings involved with this project. Some people may say too many meetings, some people maybe not enough. But this is a critically important topic to the development of the project. And so that is why we have a special advisory team set up for this topic of educational planning and equity. And we'll get into a little bit more about what that means. But right after that, we're going to dive directly into hearing from all the team members, because that's really what we're here for. We want to hear about your priority goals either you individually or the department, the group that you represent. And there'll be a certain set amount of time that we'll figure out for everyone to speak, depending on how many members that we have, team members we have online with us today. And if there's not enough time for anyone to say anything, we can certainly say everything that they want to say. We can accept written comments after the fact. And then we'll close out by just looking forward to the next meetings and what to expect there. All right, so we're going to start with the introductions. And again, we'll let the design team go first, and I will start things off. My name is Matt Rice. I'm an architect, and I'm the principal in charge for SMMA.
[Kimberly Talbot]: And I am Helen Fantini. I am also an architect, but I am a project manager for this project.
[SPEAKER_39]: I'm Rosemary Park. I just want to make sure people hear me. I've been having a lot of audio issues. I'm Rosemary Park, architect and educational programmer and planner with SMMA.
[SPEAKER_38]: Hi, everyone. I'm Sohla Janka. I'm an architectural designer at SMMA.
[SPEAKER_19]: Hi, everyone. Mike Perlo, educational planner with MLP Integrated Design.
[s093VSbtp08_SPEAKER_01]: Hi, everyone. I'm Jen Carlson, project director for the project with Leftfield. We are the owner's project manager. Apologies, I will be driving soon. So if I disappear, that is why. Also, Adele.
[SPEAKER_21]: Hi, I'm Adele Sands. I'm the education liaison for Leftfield.
[Matt Rice]: And Matt Galeno is also with Leftfield. I think he is not on with us at the moment, but he's the other face that you see before you. Now I'm going to shift gears over to the team. So what I would appreciate is if everyone could have their cameras on, as long as you're not, again, driving or in some other way that having a camera on would not be a safe thing to be doing. But it's really helpful for us to be able to put a name and a face together. So I will just read through. I know that there's a few folks that may be joining us a little bit late. This is some ongoing things within the district and some that have not been able to make it today. So I think Will may help us out as well. There's folks that reached out to him in advance and told him that they're not able to make it. So I'm just gonna augment the number that we have here and then figure out how much time we have available for everyone to speak. So if you could just introduce yourself and really briefly your connection to the project, that would be helpful and then we'll move forward. But we'll start off with Joan.
[Joan Bowen]: Hey everyone, Joan Bowen, Director of Student Services for Medford. I'm part of the, I'm working with everyone about what the classrooms and things will look like going forward as our educational plan.
[SPEAKER_30]: Great, Martha?
[Will Pipicelli]: Marta is unable to be here today, but she should be here in January.
[SPEAKER_30]: All right. Nicole. All right, I'm going to take that Nicole with non-fear.
[Will Pipicelli]: She is on the call, but maybe. Oh, maybe having some audio issues.
[Chiesa]: Sorry, I couldn't unmute. I apologize. Hi, I'm Nicole. Can you hear me?
[SPEAKER_30]: Okay.
[Chiesa]: Awesome. Hi, I'm Nicole Kiesa. I'm the Director of English Language Arts and Social Studies. Happy to be here.
[SPEAKER_30]: Is chat on, Will?
[Will Pipicelli]: Principal Fallon's not on now. Okay. I know I talked to Suzanne.
[Suzanne Galusi]: Hi, everybody. It's nice to see you all again. I'm Suzanne Galussi, Interim Superintendent. I'm really excited for this project and to continue the work that we've already been starting and ongoing. Thanks for being here and taking the time.
[SPEAKER_30]: Jenny. Hi, everyone.
[Jenny Graham]: I'm Jenny Graham. I'm the Vice Chair of the School Committee and the Chair of the Medford Comprehensive High School Building Committee. And a parent.
[SPEAKER_30]: Sydney.
[SPEAKER_09]: Hi, I'm Sydney Hamill. I'm a student. I'm a junior.
[SPEAKER_30]: Excellent. Thank you for joining us this evening, Sydney. Catherine.
[SPEAKER_14]: Hi, I'm Catherine Hatch. I teach at Medford Academy, which is one of the alternative programs at Medford High School.
[Khan]: Hi, I'm Faiza Khan. I am the director of mathematics for the district.
[Will Pipicelli]: Megan. Megan and then also Rebecca upcoming wasn't able to be here today.
[SPEAKER_30]: Colleen.
[SPEAKER_44]: Hi, I'm Colleen Mahaney. I'm a special education teacher and reading specialist at the high school.
[SPEAKER_30]: Madeline.
[SPEAKER_06]: Hi, everyone. I'm Madeline McDonough, an English teacher at the high school.
[SPEAKER_30]: Thank you. Dana?
[SPEAKER_10]: Hi, I'm Dana McMahon. I'm a social studies teacher at the high school.
[SPEAKER_30]: Chelsea?
[yGcuIBQZTjc_SPEAKER_06]: Hi, I'm Chelsea McNiff. I'm the EL director for Medford Public Schools.
[SPEAKER_30]: Melissa?
[SPEAKER_00]: Hi, I am the programming and web development teacher at Medford Vocational Technical High School and a parent.
[Aaron Olapade]: Thank you.
[SPEAKER_30]: Aaron.
[Aaron Olapade]: Hi, everybody. My name is Aaron Olapade. I'm on the Medford School Committee, former student of MHS. I'm really excited to be here.
[Will Pipicelli]: Thank you. And then Rob and Stacey weren't able to make it today. Robert. Oh, sorry, Matt. Rob and Stacey, upcoming, weren't able to be here today. OK. So Anne-Marie.
[SPEAKER_05]: Hi, I'm Anne-Marie Regas. I am the parent of a middle schooler and an elementary school student in Medford. Thanks for having me.
[SPEAKER_30]: Thank you. I am noticing that we need to fix the spelling of your name. I apologize for that. We will correct those things moving forward. Norman.
[jO3ADh2wzWc_SPEAKER_03]: Hey, I'm Norman So. I work at the high school. I'm a teacher, and I teach in the biotechnology program.
[SPEAKER_30]: Thank you, Norm. Sorry, I did not get your last name, and so I was unable to put the face, but obviously you know what we mean. Cooper.
[Will Pipicelli]: Oh, sorry. I meant to say that. Cooper, that's your act of practice. OK. Kim.
[yGcuIBQZTjc_SPEAKER_00]: Hi, everyone. I'm Kim Talbot, the assistant superintendent of Medford Public Schools, and I'm excited to join you in this work this afternoon.
[SPEAKER_30]: Thank you. One last, John?
[ufk70y6MGR0_SPEAKER_03]: Hi, my name is John Wilson. I'm a biology and anatomy teacher up at the high school.
[Matt Rice]: Perfect. So we're going to jump into sort of the process here in terms of what these advisory teams are and what we're trying to achieve through this particular meeting and really We'll talk a little bit about why this particular advisory team is a slightly different organization or the potential outcomes from it. So the advisory teams overall are really intended as a way to collect diverse stakeholder feedback from a wide variety of voices within the community of Medford. In terms of educational planning, that is really at the heart of the project that we're engaged in right now. We are designing a high school. There's a lot of other amazing things that happen in and around the high school. But at its heart, this is a high school design project. And so there's a lot of different educational planning, visioning, programming activities that we're currently engaged in. We had an amazing meeting yesterday on the visioning front over at the high school So there are a lot of familiar faces. I feel like this particular group, it's less about introducing ourselves to each other, but it's really more about finding a forum to have a little bit more deeper discussion on particular topics that have come up and will come up as part of the process as we move forward. And so it's really important to have this space to be able to have those conversations. Because there's even just coming out of the visioning meeting yesterday, there's a lot of really interesting ideas that were thrown around and put out there into the world. And it's really a great opportunity to be able to have public and conversations on those. So that's what we're going to be doing as part of this particular advisory team. But the other advisory teams that are up on screen now, sustainability and MVP systems, site safety and security, as well as exterior interior design, These are not things that will be talked about in the absence of educational pain and equity. This is very much intentionally represented as a Venn diagram where the topics overlap and there's overlapping membership between the advisory teams intentionally so that the same people are hearing the same things and have the ability to relay thoughts to different constituencies that we're gonna be talking to as part of the process. And this particular forum, the advisory team, it's as much about us being able, the project team being able to listen to all of you, to the Medford community, but it's also about the individual members being able to hear from each other. And so with educational planning and equity, again, it's a little bit different because everyone does have a familiarity generally. There are actually a couple of new faces here, which is actually really exciting to be able to pull additional thoughts and perspectives into this process. But we're going to be building on something here, and we're going to have the ability to dive in a little bit deeper on particular topics as we move forward. We're really excited that Mike Barolo was able to join us for this discussion as well. He's been the one leading the visioning process that a lot of us have been participating in. So we really do value his perspective in this conversation as well as we move forward, just to be able to, again, further the discussions that we've already been having. Again, the goal here and this is more or less what I was just covering but with some better pictures to look at in terms of just having something up there on screen. We're actually not going to be sort of focusing on the nuances of any of these spaces today. What we're going to be doing today is really just trying to hear priority goals or sort of important takeaways, potentially, that you have been engaged with, whether it's been coming out of the school tours, now that we've done the shadowing day, shadowing day, the programming meetings, or the visioning sessions. If you've been able to participate in some of those, we'd love to be able to hear their thoughts that have sort of risen up and sort of maybe things that are top of mind, because it's always good to sort of vocalize those as opposed to holding on to them and turning until the next opportunity. So this is really our next opportunity for engagement. I would say that if you have not participated in any of those prior activities, that's certainly not a problem at all. Again, we sort of welcome those fresh perspectives that scenario, what we really want to do is hear from you. What are your priority goals for the project? Again, everyone here has a connection to Medford High School, so we want to understand what that is and really what your aspiration is to see and be a part of when the building is completed. So that's really what we're going to be running through as we move forward. Just to help conceptualize where we are in this process. We are looking to open the new high school or essentially renovated high school in the fall of 2030. So that's all the way on the right-hand side of our timeline. We're on the left-hand side of our timeline in the feasibility study right at the outset of the project. And stars that you see are the touch points that we have for these advisory team meetings. So the second meeting that we'll have coming up is scheduled for January 13th. Hopefully already everyone has those invites. And we'll be scheduling the third and the fourth meeting as we come and move forward. In terms of the cadence of the meetings, this meeting today is really a listening meeting. We wanna hear as much as possible from everyone. And we're gonna be taking that feedback and using that to craft the agenda and the topics for the subsequent meetings. In that second meeting in January, we will be compiling the feedback that we're going to be hearing, and then we're going to be diving into a little bit more discussion on every one of those, and there will be opportunities for some dialogue back and forth. We're going to come back in that third meeting, which will be a little bit later in the feasibility study process. We're going to go through a confirmation process just to make sure that we've been hearing what the advisory team is going to be saying and suggesting that is included in the project. And then coming out of that third meeting, we're also going to come up with a set of recommendations. So this advisory team is not a decision-making body, but what it is going to be doing as a mechanism is sending feedback recommendations back to the full building committee. And the full building committee is going to be the one that actually makes that decision to have something included in the project. So that's just the mechanics of how we're going to be working. We do get together one final time before time just to make sure that all of these recommendations are clear and that where there's consensus agreement in terms of what we move forward with. So with that, I'm going to stop sharing my screen now. So we can all see each other. I am going to just do the quick math in terms of how many people are here, which I think is around 19 people.
[SPEAKER_30]: And I think we have about 65 minutes.
[Matt Rice]: So we should each have about 3 and 1⁄2 minutes to talk. And so I'll just run through in alphabetical order. I think going forward, I'm probably going to switch it around to reverse alphabetical order just to keep everybody on their toes. But if people go over the three minutes and 30, I will interrupt you, unfortunately. And this is what I struggle with most in these meetings, because I am not an interrupting person. So I will try to be managing it. And if there's folks that just don't need to take that full three and a half minutes, that's fine. We'll try to bank that as we go. And I'll just keep an eye on things as we move forward to the process. All right. Let me just jump back. There's a list. And I think we're going to start with Joan.
[Joan Bowen]: Hey, everyone. So I think what I'm looking for is equitable learning services for our students with disabilities. We have a wide variety of needs, different programming. And to be able to have those spaces that Promote learning promote equity for all of our students. What that looks like I you know we've been part of the meetings and seeing many different schools and. I like the collaborative working spaces. I like to have students to be able to continue the services that they're currently receiving. So students in our access programs still have, in project transition have those, the apartment and those sort of life skills opportunities that they're getting now that those continue as well.
[SPEAKER_19]: All right. Thank you, Joan.
[Matt Rice]: All right, so I know Marta is not able to join. Nicole, I think, was here.
[Will Pipicelli]: I think she was having a slight Zoom.
[Matt Rice]: Oh, challenge. OK. Remind me to circle back then if we get Nicole back with us. So I think we're going to pivot over to Suzanne.
[Suzanne Galusi]: Hi, everyone. So just to maybe extend a little what Joan had said, we have had the privilege of digging into a lot of this work. And having been in the district my whole career, and also seeing some of the work that was done on, I guess, what we are no longer calling the new schools, the new K-8 schools. I think what's important is trying, we're never going to be able to like anticipate too much, but trying to be able to create spaces that are flexible enough so that we have, we can deal with the learning environments that we want to create for our students. We have the opportunity to really be looking at a high school that is the flagship for our community. Here in Medford, I think it's wonderful that our play spaces, our schools are really truly community spaces. And now at the high school here with bringing our Curtis Tufts students up, creating an early childhood program, really looking at what we want to see for the education of our high school students, we really have an opportunity to create um what we envision education to be and our community spaces to be so trying to do something that is going to grow with the community and meet the needs not just for what's happening in the next 10 years but for years to come seems a little daunting but trying to create spaces that are flexible that yes, are equitable, are cooperative, collaborative, and really bring a sense of community together. We don't have large spaces to be able to break out and and for teachers to grab classes together, for administrators to have meetings together, to host community meetings. And our art spaces are not really meeting the needs of our community and our students. So I really could probably go on for five minutes about the things I'd like to see in this space. But I think if I had to like distill it down, it would be about community and flexibility.
[Matt Rice]: That's great, Susan. Thank you.
[Unidentified]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_30]: Jenny, you're up next.
[Jenny Graham]: Thanks, Matt. I actually have the lucky good fortune to sit on all these advisory committees. And part of the reason I'm doing that is because I'm like, Taking copious notes on who I need to call on when various things come up that I think they inevitably will over the course of this project. So I'm just really always very interested to learn from the expertise of everybody in the room. And when I think about educational equity, I think the thing that's on my mind is, What does it look like in motion, instead of like in the word salad that we use around equity, and like, I feel like, you know. I don't have a lot of firsthand experience in this space, but what I hear from others makes me think that there's a lot of really great intentions, but something about the things happening in motion is just not quite a match yet. And I think the question that I have is, how do we let the building help us make a better match? So I don't have anything really constructive to share, except that I'm listening to all of you and taking notes so I can call you later.
[Matt Rice]: I actually think that's incredibly constructive. I think the title of the advisory team is educational planning and equity for a reason. Because I think part of what would be great to hear really is sort of what that word equity means to everybody as we go through. And then I think we can start to really flesh out what does that mean for as a community and sort of within the building itself and beyond the bounds of it. Because I think that the walls of the building are sort of porous when it comes to that particular term. And then I'm going to stop because we're not supposed to be talking during this meeting. So you guys will be doing the talking. So I'm going to shift over to the next group here. Sydney.
[SPEAKER_09]: Hi, um, I feel like my goals like from the student perspective is pretty similar to what has been said so far, but also like building off of that, having like safe spaces for people interested in like all kinds of different topics, having spaces where they are able to explore their interests personally and they feel comfortable doing that and really feel like they're getting something important out of that while being able to connect with other students that have similar interests. And having like safe spaces available to students at like all the time. where they are able to go and like de-stress, decompress, or just have like the time to just do whatever they're needing in that moment so that they are able to go back to class or go back to whatever after, even if it's during lunch, to be able to be fully engaged.
[SPEAKER_30]: Fantastic. Thank you. All right, Catherine.
[SPEAKER_14]: Hi, so I think like my goal for our students and what I would love their day to look like in the future would be that it's very dynamic and there's a lot of like different things in their day and it doesn't feel kind of like as repetitive as a lot of students feel like it is now and there's a variety of like different types of learning and a lot more hands on interaction and a lot more movement and going to different spaces and collaborating and doing different things. And I think from the building visits, we saw a lot of cool spaces that could allow for that sort of thing that I wonder, like, how can we, like, also make sure those are, like, really being used? Like, if we create some of those things, like, I would say highest priority for me is, like, also making sure we're, like, we're ready to, like, utilize that space and, like, really kind of change the way we do things to, like, be a more dynamic learning experience and not just like, we're in this new cool space, but we're kind of like doing things the same way.
[SPEAKER_30]: Yeah, that'd be great sentiment. Thank you. Isa.
[Khan]: Hi, so I am reflecting back on when we talked about the collaboration spaces for the students. I think collaboration is a really important skill and right now. We don't have any formal spaces where teachers would collaborate or, and let alone the students, other than the classroom. So I would love to have more collaboration space for our children and our teachers. It will probably be a space where we can showcase student work, teacher work. and where really true exploration takes place, followed by a good discussion, the discourse, which I think extends, and I believe extends students' learning. I would love for the mathematics department teachers to be closer to each other in proximity and also closer in proximity to the CTE and to the science department because I believe that there is so much opportunity for CTE and for science collaboration with the mathematics teachers. It's like inter-subject and intra-subject that it can lend itself to if it's closer to each other. That could be some coalition building with the, with the departments and there's one thing that I had mentioned in my earlier conversation, and that is the concept of a math lab that runs during the day. during a wind block. And I would like to have a space for that if possible. And this math lab can then extend to before school help for students and or after school help for students as well. So a space like that, because we currently don't have it. And of course the director's office, the department head's office to be closer to the mathematics teachers, because right now I'm in a science slash union office from many years ago.
[SPEAKER_30]: So yeah, thank you. All right, thank you, Peta.
[Matt Rice]: I think Megan was maybe one that was not here and I don't think I've seen jump in. So I'm gonna shift, oh, sorry, Sydney, were you gonna mention?
[Suzanne Galusi]: I was just gonna say Megan's not here. You can go to the next person.
[SPEAKER_30]: Okay, so I think that's Colleen.
[SPEAKER_44]: Hi, so I'm a special ed teacher and I talked to a bunch of different teachers in different programs. And some of the main things that came up is thinking about how we can reduce kind of the stigma of being a special education student about so being mindful of where classrooms are located as well as classroom size. We don't want kids to have to enter into like the small classroom to receive services. So that. being mindful of creating sensory inclusive spaces. So things like dimmable lights, flexible furniture, sound absorption might be appropriate in certain rooms, dividers within classrooms. So if a kid needs to have a more individual workspace within the room, that would be really helpful. Breakout spaces near co-taught classrooms came up a lot when I talked to people. When I talked to kind of transition access and learning group, they talked about wanting to increase access to like the living lab so that students that are in nine through 12 can access more kind of adaptive living skills instruction and having enough space for that. Also something that came up was making sure we have close proximity of social emotional support to our high needs programs. So making sure we have like a calm down or sensory room and like a Councilor workspace or office near our like learning group or TLP rooms, as well as like a dedicated bathroom for those programs since there's like high anxiety in some of those rooms. And some students avoid using the bathroom because they're afraid to go with the general school population. And finally, the last thing that I think came up was a multi-use rec space that would promote multi-sensory learning, movement, collaboration, and helping us meet the social, emotional, behavior, and attentional needs of students without having to go in and take up part of the gym space, which is the PE teacher's classroom. That was the last thing that also came up.
[Matt Rice]: Perfect, thank you. Rebecca, again, I don't think is on, but I just want to mention so that I don't skip over somebody that is here. And I know Nicole joined us, and I see Stacey is trying to jump on and maybe keeps getting disconnected. So I think we'll circle back to Stacey and Nicole as we get through, just to let everyone know. So I think Madeline is up next.
[SPEAKER_06]: Hi, yeah, so I really enjoyed my time. I participated in the building tours as well as a student shadow day. And in talking with my colleagues and the students, student experience and safety are kind of like what I'm coming into this at the forefront of my mind. I believe as many people do, students thrive in comfortable spaces that they feel proud of being in. And that kind of is conducive to productive routines. So I'd like to see spaces that are designed with student reality at the forefront of our mind. You know, I liked Jenny's analogy of the word salad that a lot of the times people bring up, but when we really come down to the basics of How are students going to exist in spaces and is this going to promote their educational experience. I think a lot of those reality checks and you know that can be combined with looking at how is a high quality new modern school that supports all students in an equitable manner, how will that reality look. So yeah, modern, flexible, promoting those learning environments. I'd love to see community spaces, you know, that will be allowing for breakouts for, you know, I have a co-taught classroom, that would be really nice, small group work and just appropriate spaces for all students, music spaces, art spaces, athletic areas, that sort of thing.
[SPEAKER_30]: Excellent, thank you. All right, Dana.
[SPEAKER_10]: Hi there. I also got to join in with the student shadowing day as well as the building tours. And speaking also with my colleagues, I have a lot of feedback. Everybody, even without seeing the school tours, really spoke to that Chapman model where they really love these common spaces in a central area. Our humanities teachers really want a space where we can join together as humanities, both social studies and ELA. We thought a lot of the teachers like to be outside and do, whether it be like readings and plays and performances or I'm just trying to get into the fells in nature and what an important idea would be to be making these shared spaces and accessible outside. We also talked about needing some sort of presentation space for social studies department in humanities we have mock trial model un. We have our community service class that does a ton of different presentations within the community. We have people who bring in speakers from outside and how good it would be to have a gathering space where people could come in, they could present, we would have some sort of small stage available, projection capabilities, things like that, so we could have a more formal space. We also would love, again with these shared spaces, this idea of a writing center where ELA and humanities could be collaborating together to be working once upon a time we would do National History Day, which we've had to eliminate and having these resources closer together would help elevate our student skills and increase collaboration between different departments, hopefully increasing the skills for our students. Along with what Colleen Mahaney was talking about as well, with our special ed teachers, a lot of our support teachers. are across the building. So my co-teacher cannot even get to my room until five minutes into the period. So thinking mindfully about where our support is and where our teacher rooms are and making sure that we have some sort of accessibility to different places within the building. Let me see. One of the major things for the humanities department is that Medford is a historic city. And so having elements of that history really showcased in our building. You know, we have a beautiful entryway where we have some beautiful murals. We have the ship there and kind of preserving that history as well as highlighting other things that we may have missed. Our social studies department wants to make sure that we're making this about Medford and making sure that we're honoring that. And I think that might be it. Loving the idea that like the classroom spaces could open from the walls into shared spaces and everything else every people were saying about flexible classrooms and how they move. Absolutely what the social studies teachers are looking for as well.
[Matt Rice]: Thank you. Dana, we may be drafting you into the exterior and interior design advisory team meeting also just to talk about sort of how that history gets represented. But we'll cross that bridge when we get there. Chelsea, I think you're up next.
[yGcuIBQZTjc_SPEAKER_06]: Hi everyone, so the English learner department, similar to the special ed department like Joan mentioned, has specific programming needs and structures. We have standalone ESL classes that are mixed grades and we have sheltered content classes. So we in our envisioning meetings, we've spent a lot of time thinking about the collaborative space and clustering classrooms sort of based on a team model and taking that from the CTE worlds where they really have like a tight knit community with cohorts of students. And I absolutely love that idea, but I'd want to make sure that the ESL program is embedded into those teams and not separate from them. And specifically thinking about if we are arranging those teams around grade levels, how would the ESL classes fit into that? And also recognizing that while some of the content areas, the content classes are sheltered, they are still a biology class, a US history class, a math class. really recognizing that they are content first, they just happen to be sheltered. And so how does that fit into those clusters of teams? I'd also want to think about to the proximity of the ESL classes to the ELA classes and recognizing and remembering that ESL classes are those students ELA classes. And I would love just if we're thinking about proximity of departments and teachers for there to be a greater bridge between the ESL world and the ELA world. And also in terms of our registration office, I think we have a really great model right now. It's very visible when you first walk into the building, and I think it sort of celebrates that part of our community. So I'd love to continue to have a really visible, even more visible registration and EL department offices that is accessible for the greater community, too. Thank you.
[SPEAKER_30]: Thank you. That is a great vision. All right, Lisa.
[SPEAKER_00]: Hi. So I think that a lot of my thinking comes through the vocational school, since that's where I teach. I think that it's really important to really listen to the teachers around vocational education, because each shop is so unique, and its needs are so unique. And they're different than a typical classroom. So I think it's been great, all the Architecture team has talked with all of the vocational teachers and I think that's great. I think that that conversation needs to continue because there are really unique needs in just in terms of the equipment that's needed, access to the community. Many of the Programs do have interactions with the community, whether it's through the Bistro 49 and having customers come in, or the salon for cosmetology and having clients come in, or auto tech and having people come in and get their cars fixed. So it's a very different kind of interaction with the community than most of the school has. Also, there's this beautiful collaboration that happens between a lot of the shops. They work together. One of the ideas I've heard come up that I think would be great is the idea of like having a model house that the students can work on, so the electrical students can work on the electrical aspects of the model house, the plumbing students, which will be starting soon, you know, carpentry, construction craft laborers, having like that model house would be a really great collaborative space for the vocational students, I think. I think Again, just listening to the really unique needs of each of the programs. I think one of the things that I've been thinking about that I don't fully understand how it will play out in the long run is the teacher space, teacher classrooms, whether teachers will, in the main academic classes, will continue to have individual classrooms or whether they'll be all shared. and how that will play out and really having meaningful conversations with the teachers to understand how that would work if there was more shared classrooms. I think the other thing that one of the things that I felt was incredibly useful was touring other schools over the summer and seeing the design decisions that were made, and really learning from the other schools what's worked really well for them, what hasn't worked as well. Maybe what seemed like a good idea, but in practice was like, that's not really working. You know, what kind of collaborative, we talked a lot about collaborative spaces so far. What kind of collaborative spaces actually get used and how do they get used? And really, I want to, you know, this is such a huge opportunity for our community and I want to learn from other communities from what they've, you know, what insight they've gained from their own experiences.
[Matt Rice]: Yeah, that has been sort of the really wonderful opportunity of doing the tours. And I think probably the most valuable part of the tours from our perspective and maybe from others as well is the fact that administrators or teachers, educators are walking us around and they're telling us what works and what doesn't work. I think everyone was very truthful and forthright with us because there are some things that are successful. There are some things that were less successful. And hearing those sort of that unvarnished opinion from the people that are actually in these buildings, tremendously, tremendously useful to the conversation. And we will definitely dive a bit more into that shared classroom model as we go forward, because we know that there is a lot of interest there.
[Jenny Graham]: Lisa, I think the other thing like worth mentioning is that there is a lot of conversation going on around change and like, What has to change in order to be able to utilize spaces differently and how you sort of get to a place where you cannot repeat those mistakes. And we'll probably talk about that in some of the upcoming building committee meetings. So if people want to join us, those meetings are open to the public. But yes, the building isn't going to make you change. you have to make you change. So there is a lot of conversation around that whole concept as well that is starting to happen across all of these sessions.
[SPEAKER_30]: All right, Aaron, I think you were up.
[Aaron Olapade]: Thank you. I think like many members here and many members in the community, I think that I kind of want anything and everything, right? There's so many different ideas that we all kind of want to put into one building because we want it to be like that universal design that we're talking about. And it's challenging to kind of start saying what is realistic with the space that we have and the timeline and what fits our community needs. And I know a couple other members have mentioned it, but, you know, when we talk about that universal design and equity, not just as like an abstract idea, but as like everyday experiences for all the users of the facility that we're talking about, I think is my biggest priority. So when I talk about like accessibility and inclusion, that's built into not only like the design of the hallways and the classrooms, the shared spaces for faculty and staff, for people in the community to use. We're also talking about how we are supporting learners of differing needs. So the physical needs, sensory needs, linguistic negotiation needs as well. That's a really big important thing for me. I want this building to, not have to ask students to accommodate to what the building can offer, I want the building to accommodate the students for what they need. Not only that, but I think also when we talk about including the community, there's many people in the community who can remember Medford High from 20, 30, 40 years ago and what that really meant. um as a long-term medfordite for example versus families that are coming in today and there is some taboo that i think still is associated with the high school and like is it safe is it rigorous academically is it going to provide my students my family with what we respectively need as a family here in the city and i think a way to encourage people to feel more comfortable is to create a space that again is not just for the staff and students but also for the community use as they need it so they are not only encouraged to send their students and their young ones to our buildings, but also to find themselves there too, to use the shared spaces that we're talking about. I think a multi-tiered kind of universal design that I'm thinking about is going to offer at least one thing for everybody in the community, regardless of what that may be, you can find something there at the new building or the refurbished building. And I think the last kind of portion of what I'm really excited about or I really want to work towards is continue to grow our competitive edge. There's a lot of conversation at the federal level and the state level about school choice. Research is showing that families are starting to negotiate. Is it financially feasible to send our kids to another non-district school, for example, because of the opportunity that that supposedly offers athletically, arts-related, academically? And I want our building to kind of be again, anything and everything it needs to be for the respective family we're talking about. So that's kind of a lot. But I think that because we're talking about building something that's really never been done before in our city, it's the opportunity right now to start thinking, let's try everything. Let's shoot for the stars. And then we'll have to make those concessions when needed. But let's not make them too early. You know what I mean? Yeah.
[Matt Rice]: There's a lot of great aspirations in there and there's a lot of high bars, but it's good to have the high bar thing and for us to appreciate that. All right, Robert.
[Will Pipicelli]: Rob's not with us today.
[Matt Rice]: Okay, and then Ann Marie.
[SPEAKER_05]: Oh, it's lucky timing to go after Aaron because Aaron sort of encapsulated a lot of the things that I was already thinking both you and Colleen. So my priority would be to focus, as Joan said, on students with disabilities, specifically the high needs learners who have specific programming needs, robust IEPs, multiple services, and really making sure that their academic needs are met. I liked what I think Colleen said about reducing the stigma of going into a specialized space, and almost thinking about it from the mindset of developing the classrooms and the learning spaces from what is the accessibility look like. And when you're meeting the accessibility needs of people who might have particular access needs. everybody's going to benefit from it, right? I mean, you think about like a curb cutout, you know, on the sidewalk, that's benefiting all of us, regardless of whether we technically need that curb cutout. So sort of thinking like from the inside out of designing the space, what do students with high needs need? Anybody can benefit from that. is sort of my perspective. And then also this concept of inclusion versus segregation. Somebody said something about support teachers being across the building or having to go to a different location for specialized services and really thinking about like, it's not just about opportunities for inclusion, but it's really like inclusion being fundamental and not like inclusion versus segregation. And so making sure that inclusion is like the foundation of what where you're starting and then going from there. Does that make sense?
[Matt Rice]: It makes complete sense. A foundational inclusionary goal is wonderful. All right, Norm.
[jO3ADh2wzWc_SPEAKER_03]: I'm Norm Russo. I'm one of the biotechnology teachers and a CTE teacher just like Lisa Miller. And I certainly, I think Lisa Miller was very eloquent in stating how our new school could accommodate the growing demand that we've been seeing for CTE education in our district. And so I want to echo a lot of what she said. Certainly, I recognize a need for my program to change its space, to make it more accessible, and to keep up with the growing demand in the program. And also, I want to stress that the shop teachers, because everyone has Everyone is representing their own industry has such unique and specific needs that the teachers be given a say and a hand in designing their space to meet their needs because I think they know best. And so I said, I'm looking forward to that opportunity. to creating a new space for biotech that's going to be accessible to everybody, but also reflect best industry practices and best prepare students for a career in the life sciences.
[SPEAKER_30]: All right. Thank you, Norm. All right. Next on the list we have Stacy, you're up.
[Schulman]: Hi, thank you. I think in terms of the counseling department, first and foremost, it's pretty nice to hear what everyone else has to say in terms of like their dreams and goals. And I agree with a lot of them, especially around focusing solely around our high needs students and that everyone can benefit from what high needs students benefit from. In terms of the counseling department, I, it was interesting to go to the other schools to see how they situated their counseling department Medford has gone through several iterations of how we place Councilors how Councilors work with other staff members. I have seen that a lot of students benefited significantly from the house model that we have created, where we have two school Councilors and at least one adjustment Councilor and perhaps another service member as part of that house. I think that it has provided a lot of data opportunities for everyone to sit together and talk about what do students need? How are we supporting them? I think it provides students a home base to go to, and also an opportunity for Councilors to collaborate with each other. I certainly think that there is becoming more and more of a need for mental health services, which occupy a lot of a school Councilor's time, even though they're also working on, of course, everyone's working on post-secondary planning for students holistically, right? Whatever our role is, that is our goal, to get somebody off and well in the world. So I think having Councilors to have the ability to work together, I think having a specific college and career center space is really important. Right now we have a conference room that we have sort of dedicated, but we can't fit more than 10 people in there at once. So when we're bringing in speakers or schools or other folks to talk about careers, we're really having to utilize other spaces, which is pretty limiting or outside the CAF, which is also not a great space for us, but has a lot of traffic. And then the other consideration, which I'd previously talked about, is having the space for community mental health care within the health office suite. In my conversations with other schools and providers, the connection to the health suite is really important, both for their billing and what they need, but also for the ability to add a nurse practitioner who could potentially do med management as well, which we have seen such a need for, for our students who are unable to get care elsewhere. So those are my top priorities.
[SPEAKER_30]: Great, thank you. All right, Cooper. Is Cooper not with us? No. OK, then Kim.
[yGcuIBQZTjc_SPEAKER_00]: It's hard to go at the end. John, I don't envy you. You're the last of all of us. For my role, my goal is to deliver on our promise to the citizens of Medford, which is to ensure that kids who leave us are able to thrive in and positively impact the world that's available to them when they leave. And so what that looks like now and what it looks like 10 years from now and 20 years from now could be really different. And so thinking about what my goals and dreams are, I feel like we need to design, as other people have said, for flexibility. We need to design in a space that lets teachers change and adapt to what the students need as they come in to the world. We know that part of our job as teachers is to help kids develop positive identities, both academic identities and social identities in the building can impede us from doing any of those things. So big vertical spaces that allow students to make their thinking visible and provide lots of sight lines, and let them grow in the sunlight rather than in dark spaces where many of us are now, I think would be really important. Thoughtful adjacencies, eating spaces, these are things that really matter a lot Some of the things that I noticed in some of our building tours that I really liked, that I would love to see Medford adopt as well, is I love the cafeterias in places like Wealtham, for example, that have lots of different seating options. There's some counter standing, there's some low tables, there's some high tables. In a space that has lots of sight lines, because we don't have hundreds of people staffing lunch, we need students to feel seen and safe. And we need a space that also can provide maybe some quiet moments for kiddos for whom a big loud space is just too much. I loved some of the library. I see Dana nodding. Dana and I were partners. We hit this tour together. Some of the library spaces were really beautiful, especially the ones that had big glass rooms as part of the library that the doors could open between them. It seemed like it was a space for gathering for, two or three classes worth of students and teachers. It could be made smaller. Lots of sight lines through a library with collection of books is really important as well. And I particularly appreciated the adjacencies that we saw in Weymouth where clusters of rooms had a common space that was adjacent to all of them. I do think part of being flexible for teachers is not making a sign up two weeks in advance to take our kids to a space that's bigger and more fun than our classroom. I think having and have to compete with lots of teachers for that. I can't imagine that's been the same for the last 30 years. I can't imagine it's going to change in the next 30. So having those spaces available is really important. And the final thing I'll say is that I think one of the challenges of designing a school one that has both CTE and an academic side, is we're designing for the students, but the adults work here too. And so in order to build that sense of community among the adults, we need places for the adults to gather in professional learning. So gathering a faculty that's as big as this high schools in an auditorium is not going to cut it for us. Our adults, in order to be the best they can for our kids, They need spaces to collaborate that lets them be as flexible as how we're asking them to be for our students. John, did I leave you anything to say? You're last, my friend.
[Matt Rice]: Well, John, I don't mean to steal your thunder, but Nicole is going to go after you. She slid right in there. So I'm not sure if that's a positive thing or a negative thing, but that's just the reality of where we are. But definitely, you're up, John.
[ufk70y6MGR0_SPEAKER_03]: Perfect, works for me. So let's see. I try to use my headphones real quick because my kids are going to be creating chaos in my house in a moment here. So a lot of the things I was going to say have already been said, but I wanted to focus on two aspects. I saw some missed opportunities in some of the schools we saw in terms of just the classroom design themselves. So I think most of our learning is going to happen in those classrooms, and I thought there was opportunities with, like expanding the whiteboards, expanding some of that stuff that would help in ways just within the room, but I did love the excitement of some of the opportunities with the different configurations, the desks and chairs and those types of things that I'm excited about. I think our school, as a science teacher, I already have a nice room and I already have a lot of that flexibility, but I think much of the school is going to really appreciate those opportunities. The other thing that jumped out at me was the community spaces. I felt that I don't. How do I put it, I guess, in terms of the community spaces. If it's just a matter of me taking my kid my my classroom to a. novel location, to me, that's not going to be a useful location for us in the building. Like I wanted to have something that's either got supplies, materials, something that I can't do in my classroom, or a larger space where multiple classrooms can get together. So I saw a bunch of spaces on the tours where I looked and I was like, all right, this would be cool. I bring my kids here, but I don't think it would provide any better learning than in my classroom. So I was really blown away with the unique things like the Bill Ricka black box theater. I think that's something that makes a school kind of unique and special in the cafeteria spaces being wired so they could be like, I think it was Bill Ricka that had the main caf, but they also had the smaller caf on the side. Um, and that was a perfect space for, like, a larger collaboration. Multiple classes could get in their faculty meetings, whatever it is. So I liked those things. Um, the, I think it was in Chapman. Uh, we saw, like, the, um. kind of smaller phys ed rooms where they had like almost like a boxing room, they had a dance room, they had all those types of things. To me, I found those, I know they're not kind of like big open spaces, I found those more valuable than some of the big open like hey just bring your class here spaces. So those were exciting and I really loved and we have two lecture halls at at Medford High School that are just in such disrepair, but you saw them nice and how useful things like that could be at some of these other locations where you could bring in those guest speakers for Veterans Day and things like that and have a nice quality setting for them. So those were more attractive to me than the small, like, hey, let me just take my individual class to this area. I like the bigger, settings and the versatility of those settings stood out to me on the tours. That's all.
[SPEAKER_30]: Great. Appreciate it. And now, Nicole, you get to wrap things up.
[Chiesa]: OK. So I'm just can I wrap things up by just saying yes, yes, yes, and yes, because everything that everyone said really resonated with me. The flexibility, the the knowledge and the responsibility of knowing that whatever we're creating is going to go well beyond, you know, most of us, right, and future generations. So I think keeping that flexibility in mind is critical. If I want to speak, if you want me to speak directly to humanities, I know that Dana and Maddie outlined some of what I shared as well. For humanities, I really do want to see a humanities hub that allows for those interdisciplinary opportunities beyond just English and social studies. Right now, social studies and English teachers are all over the place in the building, so it would certainly be nice to have them together more to collaborate. But in addition to that, we do have social studies teachers that are teaching art and ideas or the history through the arts. And so there's a lot of different disciplines that encompass humanities. And I would like to see our new building allow for more of that. The other thing that's really important to our department is understanding that learning goes well beyond these four walls of our building. So we already do a lot of simulations. We do a lot of conferences with Model United Nations. We Zoom with third world countries. But we don't have a space to really do that effectively. I would hope that our humanities hub could have some of those smaller spaces to allow for those simulations, those conferences, and those and just to kind of be able to continue engaging in our partnership, maybe even hosting more mock trial debates, things like that, where we really don't have a space to do that right now. And I know we're just bursting at the seam to do that. The other thing that we've talked about in my department is that writing center. But the writing center, you know, we want to have it where it's offers quiet spaces for conferencing, for writing and for getting support and that it's open to everyone since literacy really does extend across all subject areas. So, you know, that's that's something we're lacking. And I, I just really I think that that is critical as it just kind of hits all the different disciplines. Within the classroom itself, on multiple tours a couple of weeks ago, I really did love how the classrooms opened into different shapes and sizes. I liked how they really lent, many of them lent themselves well to project-based learning, which is very much emphasized in the humanities department. I need to see a classroom where my students can work in lit circles, but they can also be conferencing with teachers. They can do a variety of project-based learning within the classroom itself and not have to wait for a space to be available to do that. So those are basically the main components of what I wanna see for humanities, but I do echo everyone on this call with their needs. I'm really excited for this Dana's point regarding maintaining the historical aspects of Medford is really important. I know that we have Amelia Earhart's propeller. It used to actually be in my office at one point. We have so many historical pieces that need a better place to be showcased. It's not in my office anymore, but you know, Medford is so rich in history. So I would really love to see that come alive as well. Thank you.
[Matt Rice]: Thank you, Nicole. I'm also now going to be drafting you into the interior design advisory team. Thanks. I volunteered.
[Chiesa]: I volunteered myself. That's fine.
[SPEAKER_30]: Let me just pull up the slideshow again. I think I could use. There it is.
[Matt Rice]: Give me a second to come up for everybody. So again, this is a duplicate of the slide that we saw previously, but just as a reminder in terms of what is upcoming in terms of our conversation, we are going to take all of the topics, the ideas that have been brought up, and we'll try to find commonalities where we can. And we're going to dive deeper into each one of those as we move forward. We've been putting these slides together just to give you a little bit of a sense of maybe what we'd be talking about if we hadn't already heard any of the topics that people brought up, just as things that we know we need to have conversations on. And I think there's a lot of things here that we did hear today from members. One of the more interesting items is that first one on the list, though, the toilets. And I know that this is not going to turn into a toilet room advisory team. No one would have signed up for that. But it is something that is important when we talk about equity specifically in terms of how those are used. And we also know that it's a pain point in terms of what the experience is in the building today. And also as we went on those school tours, it's a pain point in brand new buildings as well. And we saw some extremely unfortunate resolutions in brand new buildings and talking with administrators there, there were no magic bullets to be able to solve that particular issue. There was a very almost humorous exchange with the principal over at the Chapman School, middle school, where we walked by an open airport entry toilet room And somebody asked, well, like, how do you like those open airport? And he said, don't do that. Don't do the open, open toilet room entrances. And then we had a little bit more of a conversation and someone said, well, would it work if we put doors on it? He's like, no, no, no, don't, you can't put doors on them either. And so he ended up saying, it's probably like no toilet rooms at all. That would, that would solve it. So there was no good solution there. We saw another airport entry toilet room where the school had installed closing scissor gates in front of it, just to lock students out of a particular toilet room, which is so just reverting back to what a door on the toilet room would do. So there was no real good success there, but I did want to take a second and just preface that we will talk about it at the next meeting because it does warrant conversation and it needs ideas and conversation. And just the fact that there's going to need to be acceptance of change there as well. That topic came up earlier, right? that there's going to need to be a change in terms of student behavior, in terms of adult expectation, and certainly change in terms of the design, sort of level of cleanliness of the toilet room. Some of the things that we heard from students earlier are all sort of that play in terms of that particular topic. So we know it's not a simple one, but it is one that we need to talk about collectively and It does have impact also on the perspective of equity from creating toilet facilities that are welcoming for everybody that's going to be using the building. And that includes both sort of gender identity questions. It includes physical accessibility as well to make sure that differently abled people are completely comfortable using different toilet rooms. There's that strange reality right now that we do have accessible toilet rooms in the building that aren't actually accessible. So we have to overcome a lot on that particular topic, and that's why we're going to spend a little bit of air time there. But I do think that we've heard about most of the rest of these, again, either today or sort of as we've been going through the different visioning meetings, the different programming meetings, and then even the shadowing day. So there will definitely be more to come as we go forward. We'll do a little bit more presenting as we proceed, as we go through. We're still definitely looking for this to be a conversation. We're not just going to be showing you things and saying that this is how it's going to be. We need the feedback. We need to understand if we're moving in the right direction. And again, this advisory team eventually will be making recommendations to the full building committee on these particular topics. I think that is where we are. We actually have a little bit of time here at the end. I'm happy to field any additional questions or thoughts or people want to just sort of elude anything. But I'm also happy to let people have another 60 minutes back into their lives. And either scenario is excellent from our perspective. But I will pull the screen share down again. All right, I'm not hearing a clamoring for folks that would like to offer anything up. I know it is late.
[Suzanne Galusi]: Matt, Dana has her hand up.
[Matt Rice]: Oh, I'm sorry. I couldn't see that. Go ahead, Dana.
[SPEAKER_10]: Hi, so there was a couple things that I thought of afterward that I wanted to bring up. I also wanted to add about considerations of safety, both entrance and exit points within the building, but also the parking lot and just how the flow is going to look in a revised space or a new space. Leaving on time today to get to this meeting because I have a long drive, I was in the parking lot in a gridlock for 20 minutes. So like there are definitely considerations about how this new building or again revised entry and what flow will look like and just from a safety standpoint. We also have kids that are trying to get out five minutes early and they're rushing out because of that gridlock. So I do think we have a lot of lost opportunities for instruction because this is probably a bigger issue there that we're having a hard time managing on other levels. The other thing I wanted to think about too is about we talked about quiet spaces and a lot of safe spaces for kids. We need those in classrooms too. A lot of teachers have their own kind of quiet calm corners if you will and being able to maintain that for our students and also I thought a lot about noise on our tours and you know, in Medford, it's so loud. So, you know, our stairwells and the materials that we're using and the fact that they're so small and tiny and contained, it's like overbearing noise. And in each classroom, while I was being a student, I could hear very easily all the instruction coming from both sides of the room from the surrounding classrooms. So just thinking about quality for our students and being able to concentrate and have a space where people were able to have that appropriate sensory experience. I felt a lot of times that I was overwhelmed and I was like, wow, I can't think about how our kids are handling that, going through this intensity all the time. So anyway, I just wanted to say that because I forgot about those moments.
[Matt Rice]: I certainly appreciate that. And again, I'm going to offer more advisory team participation role to you, Dana. If you stick around for another 14 minutes, we're going to be talking about the site aspect specifically. So there's certainly a lot more to come there. And those meetings will be recorded as well. So everyone will be able to sort of log on and listen in. If you don't want to sit in that live, just to hear what the conversation, the discussions involve as. Right. I will just mention one thing I neglected to note when we were doing that wrap up slide, that the next meeting, we'll probably try to find a way to have a hybrid option there for those of you that would like to be in person. It's a tricky time of year to begin with, right? So which is why the remote option works so well right now. It just allows more participation. But there's also a lot of value that comes from us being in front of each other in terms of just being able to communicate a little bit better. And then Rosemary and I are both in love with Kelsey as well. So we will require that Kelsey shows up to a hybrid meeting.
[Schulman]: You got it, deal.
[Will Pipicelli]: And then just for some housekeeping as well, we'll get the invites for the January meeting sent out before the holiday break. And then they'll probably be updated when the location gets finalized. So just be prepared for that to hit your inbox.
[Matt Rice]: Excellent. All right. Thank you, everybody. Really appreciate the participation and late into the evening and look forward to the subsequent conversations.
[Suzanne Galusi]: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
[SPEAKER_05]: Thank you. Thank you.
[Matt Rice]: You can hang on to him if you want to. If you really do want to, you're welcome to stay for the next one.
[SPEAKER_10]: Sure. What is the time for that?
[Matt Rice]: So it's going to run from 530 to seven in terms of the timeframe. So it's going to be the same link.
[SPEAKER_10]: Do you mind if I just listen while I'm making dinner for my son here?
[Matt Rice]: That is perfectly fine. Okay.
[SPEAKER_10]: Thanks.
[Matt Rice]: I won't call on you.
[Will Pipicelli]: Dana, it's also going to be streamed on our YouTube channel. So if you'd rather just like have a live link up there as opposed to being on the Zoom, totally up to you, but that's an option as well.
[SPEAKER_10]: That would be a great idea. Thank you so much.
[Will Pipicelli]: You're welcome.
[SPEAKER_10]: All right, then I'll do that. But I'll see you.
[Will Pipicelli]: All right, sounds good.
[SPEAKER_10]: Thank you. Thanks, Matt.
[Matt Rice]: Thank you. Will, I see that there's somebody, John Prestigiovanni, in the room, in the waiting room. Is he there for the second meeting? Is that?
[Will Pipicelli]: Yeah, yeah, he is. Yeah, so we're still live right now, so we'll just hang out for a little bit and then we'll roll right into the next one too.
[SPEAKER_30]: Okay, I'll just pause and go off camera, but we'll be back in probably five minutes.
[Jack Buckley]: Hello, everybody.
[Kimberly Talbot]: Hello.
[Matt Rice]: Somebody needs to break the awkward silence at the beginning. That is always me now.
[Jenny Graham]: Everyone.
[Unidentified]: Well.
[Matt Rice]: So Ken, are you taking over the ownership of the remote meeting at this point or is Will still up? There's Will, okay.
[Kenneth Lord]: Will's on.
[Matt Rice]: I'll still be here. Thank you. Appreciate you keeping us on the straight and narrow. So as we've been doing for each of these meetings, this is now the fourth and the final one in this sort of first round of these advisory team meetings. We're just going to give people probably about four or five minutes at the beginning just to hop on. So it will be a little quiet to start off with. If anyone wants this all the time, maybe you should get some elevator music or something similar.
[SPEAKER_21]: And everyone, I'm not sure if you can hear me. This is Jen Carlson from Love Field. But if you want to introduce me when you hit the introduction slides, I'm driving still, because it's that time of day. So just so you know, I can hear everybody very clearly. I just cannot trustily unmute very quickly while driving.
[Matt Rice]: Yep, we got your back, Jen. Thank you. Thank you for the introductions. Stay safe out there. Can everybody see that? Is that up there on the screen for everyone now?
[Jack Buckley]: Yes. All right.
[Matt Rice]: It's probably good for this advisory team discussion if you all just spend a little bit of time staring at the outside of the school on the site. It's definitely appropriate here. These images were taken as we flew a drone around as well, just to get some current aerial. So they should be pretty up to date. This isn't just a Google stock image. I think it was obviously before the leaves started to fall off the trees.
[Alicia Hunt]: It is really interesting to see it from this perspective. There aren't a lot of images out there where you can see this.
[Matt Rice]: No. You can hop on Google Earth or Google Maps and sort of spin around, but it gives you sort of a grainy view of things.
[Alicia Hunt]: You can definitely see it from the other angles, too.
[Matt Rice]: We do have some. We can certainly, as we go forward, and we're probably jumping into sort of the content of the meeting. We can definitely share some other views from around from different perspectives as well. That's helpful to gain a different understanding as we move forward for sure. All right. Since we have already jumped in, I think I'm just going to get us going. And I just want to welcome everybody to this advisory team meeting for the Medford High School project. This particular advisory team meeting is going to be focused on the site safety and security. And this is going to be the first meeting of four meetings that we have on this particular topic. So happy to have everybody here. I am going to run through just a quick outline of what we're going to cover to start off with. So we're going to do some introductions, both from the project team, and we do want to hear each individual team member from Medford, introduce yourselves and give us just a very short explanation of what is your connection to the project or your role responsibility within the city, just so we have some context there. It would be helpful if everyone can have your video on while doing those introductions so we can put a name and a face together with the one caveat that if you are like Jen Carlson and you are driving, We completely understand and you do not need to put your camera on for that. We do want everyone to be safe. We're going to cover really the overview of what the advisory teams are intended to do and sort of the role of this meeting and the overall project and how the schedule, the cadence of these meetings is going to proceed. And then we're going to jump really into the heart of this discussion, which is more of a listening meeting. We do want to hear from every team member who's in attendance what your priority goals are for the project through the lens of site safety and security. We know that the members of this team have particular perspectives here, which is very much what we want to hear. This is both about the design team listening to all of your feedback, but there's tremendous value that comes here from letting each of you hear each other as well, trying to bring together a lot of different voices and perspectives from the community that maybe don't always get the opportunity to hear from each other and understand sort of how is everyone viewing the high school project and what are the goals that everyone is hoping to achieve through this project from your own particular perspective. So we'll start off the introductions. My name is Matt Rice. I'm an architect and a principal in charge for SMMA.
[Kimberly Talbot]: And good evening, everyone. Helen Fantini, project manager with SMMA.
[Unidentified]: Laura Sanchez here.
[Matt Rice]: Dramatic entry from Laura.
[Unidentified]: All right.
[SPEAKER_38]: Hi, everyone. I'm Sola. Should I go ahead?
[Unidentified]: Yeah, go ahead. Sorry. Okay.
[SPEAKER_38]: Hi, everyone. I'm Sola Janka. I'm an architectural designer here at SMME.
[Kimberly Talbot]: Great. Kate is out. So go ahead, Kasia.
[SPEAKER_44]: Hi, everybody. I'm Kasia Rodrigo. I'm an urban planner and a landscape designer at Agency. I support the team.
[Matt Rice]: Agency is our landscape architect team member. And I will say that they have the best name to refer to themselves. They call themselves agents at agency. So I think we're jealous and we may have to switch our firm name over to agency going forward.
[SPEAKER_32]: Matt, do you want to go ahead? Sure. Good evening, everybody. I'm Matthew Levine, good at Harvard Tech, Mark. I'm an architect and security consultant for the project.
[SPEAKER_30]: All right. And I saw Matt, but we can jump on also.
[Matthew Galusi]: I'm having major, oh my God. Can anybody hear me? We can. Oh, you cannot. No, we can. Oh, you can, I'm sorry. My computer, I don't know what's going on. Hi everybody, I'm Matt Galussi. I'm a phys ed teacher at Medford High School. I'm really glad to be here and I'm thankful that I get to be a part of this.
[Matt Rice]: My apologies, Matt. I think it's very close in terms of the names. The Matt Galino is the project manager with Leftfield, our owner and project manager. So maybe I saw you jump on instead of him, and I actually mixed up the names. So my apologies there. And then Jen Carlson is also with Leftfield, the OPM. She is the one that's in the FAR. And I'm just going to do that introduction for her so that she can focus on the road. All right. And Matt, I'm going to, um, I'll give you another quick opportunity, um, with a little bit more practice as we jump in, as we go through. Um, so I'm just going to run through, um, and if you're here, um, when I call it, if you could just do the introductions, that would be appreciated. Um, so we're gonna start off with Nicole.
[Nicole Branley]: Hi, I'm Nicole Branley. I'm a current member of the Medford School Committee. I'm also an outgoing member. Um, but I'm also a mom of a 10th grader at Medford High School Vocational Technical High School. Um, and then I had a daughter that graduated this June, and I have been, um, an advocate for the last three years, um, to make sure that our students are doing the right thing, that we're safe, that we're following policies and procedures. So I'm happy to be here. And can I just say really quick, Chief Buckley, it's really nice to see you. Chief Buckley's back. Yay!
[Jack Buckley]: Thank you. What an introduction. You're up, Chief Buckley. Welcome, everyone, and happy to be here. Jack Buckley, I am Chief of Police. It's good to have that title because it explains my role and what my goals are to kind of support this whole operation as we go forward. So looking forward to it. Welcome, everybody. Thanks. Thank you. And hi, Addison. Adelaide, I want to make sure you pass that along. I said that.
[SPEAKER_32]: I will pass that along. Maybe at the end of the meeting, I can have her jump in for a second. Excellent. All right, Teresa.
[SPEAKER_41]: Hi, everyone. My name is Teresa Carr. I'm a Medford resident. I live right up the road, right on Winthrop Street. I'm a mom to two future high school kids. I have a daughter in the fifth grade at the Brooks and a first grader over at the Missitook. My area of expertise and the reason I'm on this committee is I'm a transportation planner, mobility planner. I've been doing this for about 25 years around the country, and I focus in public transportation, but also in active transportation.
[Matt Rice]: You are definitely in the right place, Teresa. Thank you. Amanda.
[Amanda Centrella]: Hi, everyone. Amanda Centrella. So I work for the city of Medford in our Office of Planning, Development and Sustainability. I am an open space planner, so very excited to be a part of the conversation and to be thinking about sort of how, you know, green space, recreational facilities, etc, are incorporated in the site and and sort of circulation in and through and around the site as well. So thanks so much for having me.
[Matt Rice]: Thank you.
[Will Pipicelli]: Matthew or Matt DeMaio? Matt wasn't able to make it tonight, and I believe Joe Hogan, who is our other student, is not on the call right now, but he may be joining shortly.
[SPEAKER_30]: OK. We'll keep going. We'll get going when you say it. That's great. So Todd.
[Todd Evans]: Todd Evans, Medford Fire Chief. So I'm just here to see where the big red trucks are going to be going, what they're going to be doing.
[Matt Rice]: Thank you. Chief Evans, is that better? No, that's fine. Sure. Okay. Thank you. And Matt, sorry, I'll let you do a do-over in terms of the introduction because I put you on the spot there.
[Matthew Galusi]: I appreciate that and sorry for all the confusion, everybody. Matt Colussi, Physical Education, Medford High School. I've been there since 2004. Super excited about this whole project and hopefully I can give you some insight on the building. I'm there every day. There's just a lot I would love to see us get accomplished. So I'm super thankful to be here. So thank you.
[Matt Rice]: That's great. Thank you. Jenny.
[Jenny Graham]: Everyone, I'm Jenny Graham. I'm the vice chair of the school committee and the chair of the member comprehensive high school building committee. So I have the lucky job that I get to sit on all of these advisory teams and 1 of the reasons that I'm. here and interested in that role is so that I can take copious notes about who to call when we have different problems to solve as this building design unfolds. So I'm super happy to be here and I'm always so amazed at like how talented the residents of Medford are. In fact, when we put out an ask and get like just scads of interested people who are super qualified to support various efforts. So welcome everyone.
[Brian Hilliard]: Thank you. Brian. Howdy, everybody. My name is Brian Hilliard. I'm a parent of a junior at the high school currently. And I'm also a member of the building committee. So I've been sitting in a lot of these meetings so far, and happy to be here. I'm also an architect, and I love urban planning and all the design that goes with it. So I'm happy to see how this unfolds, and looking forward to the future. Thanks.
[Matt Rice]: Thank you. Joe. or is Joe our other student that was potentially joining in? Yeah, Joe's our other student. All right, thank you. Alicia or Alicia?
[Alicia Hunt]: Hi, thank you. It's Alicia. I am the Director of Planning, Development and Sustainability for the city. I am actually the parent of a current Medford High junior. Brian, I think our boys are good friends. But I'm not sure that we've actually met. And I have twins who have graduated from Medford High. But I've also, through my work with the city, done a lot of work on building energy. But I've sent a different staff person to that project. One of the things that I was really passionate about, and then I actually I'm going to call out Matt Galussi, he was one of the instigators on getting students outside of the buildings during the school days. And that is a project that he and I worked together on many years ago with a bunch of teachers to sort of make it natural and part of the curriculum. that classes could just go outside into the fells as part of the regular school day. And I have a lot of interest in both school security and the ability of students to not feel like they're in a jail, to feel like they have movement and freedom and the ability to do things and go places and have good healthy places to be going to school. I've also done a lot of work with the buildings on waste and our next thing coming up maybe hopefully January is composting. So I have a lot of interest in all these different kinds of areas. Plus I am the sustainability director for the city. And transportation, bikes. These kids got to start biking to school. Thank you. I'll get off my soapbox now.
[Matt Rice]: That's all right. This whole meeting is a perfect opportunity for soapboxing. That's what we're here for. All right, Nick.
[MCM00001753_SPEAKER_02]: Good evening, everyone. I hope y'all can hear me well. Yes. My name is Nicholas Kalinga, or Nick. Either way goes fine by me. I am the disability specialist for the city of Medford. I work in the office of DEI for the city, but I am also a lifelong Medford resident and also one of the one of the members of the first class to go through the mimeoglyph from start to finish. So I I have lived in Medford for practically my whole life. And I am grateful to be here. Not only am I the disability specialist, I also am a young man with, with my cerebral palsy. So I do use a walker. and other mobility devices. And so this is very crucial for someone who would be in my shoes. And so I am hoping to make the future high school not only an enjoyable place, but an accessible place for all people. Thank you.
[Matt Rice]: That is great. We really appreciate your perspective, Nick. Thank you. Ethan.
[SPEAKER_29]: Evening folks, Ethan Lay Sleeper. I'm a Medford resident and I've got a class of 2037 and a class of 2040 kids. And my, professionally, I worked in architecture and planning. I was also on the steering committee for the comprehensive plan. Um, so have, uh, curiosity for all things planning and then also, you know, some personal interest in the future of the high school. Uh, also, uh. Live pretty close to the fells and spend a bunch of time in there. And I, I see, uh, you know, this, this committee, obviously we want to ensure that the new master plan site plan is safe and accessible for all modes transportation. Um, and. also to really take advantage of this amazing site that we have and really like hearing what Alicia was saying and saw Matt nodding his head too, but the fells and the resource there just to get outside and take a breath of fresh air, maybe even look at opportunities to expand educational opportunities related to outdoor recreation and beyond would be great, great thing to kind of talk about here with all of you.
[SPEAKER_19]: Ken.
[Kenneth Lord]: Good evening, everyone. I'm Ken Lord. I'm the chief operations officer for the Bedford Public Schools. I am in charge of facilities, technology and security, and I'm really excited to participate in this project to try to make all those things work for us.
[SPEAKER_19]: Thank you. Sean.
[lq25S5HOVFA_SPEAKER_00]: Hi, good afternoon, everybody. My name is Sean Mangan. Sorry, I'm in the car as well. I apologize for that. I'm the director of operations and communications at Armstrong Ambulance. I've been with Armstrong for about 30 years. I'm also a lifelong resident of the city, graduate of Medford High School, along with my son a couple of years ago who graduated. Been in and around Medford High School for a long time, responded to hundreds of calls in there for EMS-related incidents. I'm just here, glad to be part of this and to help out however I can. Thank you.
[Matt Rice]: Thank you, Sean. Great to have you here. Tim.
[Tim McGivern]: Hi everybody, Tim McGivern. I'm the Commissioner of Public Works for the City of Medford. So I'm in charge of the public ways, parks, the water system, sewer system, with engineering support, fleet, the fleet of the city, forestry, Oak Grove Cemetery, and we assist with the operation and maintenance of the school sites as well, especially during winter. I also have two kids in the school system and I was once a practicing civil engineer, licensed civil engineer, and my focus was insight development. So, and you know, I worked on some MSBA school projects as well back in those days. So looking forward to helping out wherever I can.
[Matt Rice]: A great collection of folks that we have there. This is wonderful. John. Sorry, John McLaughlin. We have two Johns. Thought I saw John logged on earlier.
[Will Pipicelli]: He definitely was on earlier, but I'll let you know if he's back on.
[Matt Rice]: All right. And John, I'm not going to try and pronounce your last name because I'm going to get it wrong, so.
[SPEAKER_17]: Thank you. Thank you. Good evening, everyone. John Freschi Giovanni. I'm a college Athletic coach up here, a sports coach at Mefford High School currently. Long time Mefford resident, graduated Mefford High School. My three kids have graduated from Mefford High School recently in the past, within the last 10 years. Excited to be part of this group, hear what's going on and hope to give some insight with an athletic perspective. I also work part-time, off-season, in-season with our turf fields and any type of athletic events, kind of like the sort of like coming in the back of a school type activity. So things like safety and some of that and planning, you know, I'd probably give some insight on that to help this group go forward.
[Matt Rice]: Thank you. It does look like you're on site as well, too. I'm guessing there's something going on there this evening.
[SPEAKER_17]: Yes, we have opening night for boys basketball, so we're very busy here tonight.
[Matt Rice]: Thank you.
[SPEAKER_17]: Thank you, everybody.
[Matt Rice]: And then lastly, Melissa.
[SPEAKER_04]: Hi, I'm Melissa Young. I've lived in Medford since 2017. I'm a municipal employee, just not for the city of Medford, I work for the city of Cambridge. I'm an enterprise application specialist, project manager, business analyst by trade. So I was really wanting to be a part of the high school project. And I have a daughter who is going into kindergarten next year. I live in Data and decisions made in data, you know, made with data, operational efficiency, risk management, all that kind of stuff. And my skill set is cross-department collaboration across cities. So like I know a little bit what goes on in every little department. I read all the applications for the city of Cambridge. If it comes from the public end, I've written it. So I'm familiar with all the different departments' roles. So while not the same skill set as everybody else here, I do feel like I can bring quite a bit to the table.
[Matt Rice]: Yeah, no, it is great. I mean, this, you guys are a wonderfully diverse group and sort of really pertinent and it's good to not have overlapping skill set, but really to have sort of complimentary skill sets. And I think that's exactly what I'm hearing as we go through this. I just want to make sure that I didn't miss anyone that hopped on that is maybe on now. All right, not sound like that is the case, so let me just advance quickly here and then we'll get into an opportunity for everyone to dive a little bit deeper. So just to explain what these advisory team meetings are there's a lot of meetings going on for the high school project at the moment. But this particular set of meetings, not just this advisory team, but the other three that you see up on screen right now, are really a mechanism that we've used successfully in the past to collect diverse stakeholder input from a wide variety of voices across the entire community of Medford. And so it's a classic challenge with these projects. These are incredibly complex buildings, sites, efforts, design projects in terms of pulling together a whole bunch of different needs, all valid and all sort of needing to orbit around sort of a high school project, right? The core of this project is a high school, but we know that this this school building has so many other wonderful programs inside of it and serve the community in so many different ways. It's been referred to as the flagship multiple times and that really is what it is. And so the four advisory team groupings that you see here, Sustainability and Peace Systems, this one, Exterior and Inter-Design, Educational Planning and Equity, they are not individual siloed activities of conversation. We represent these as a Venn diagram on screen very intentionally. There is a tremendous amount of overlap between all four of these. But at the same time, we found that we need to give enough space to each one of these topics to be able to talk through the concerns that are surrounding them. And then eventually what we're going to be doing is sort of bringing all those back into the purview of the full building committee for sort of acceptance. And if there's any synergies or if there's any challenges that are found to be between competing interests, maybe between different Advisory teams, those are the things that we're going to try to get into. And we want to really illuminate up front because we want to make sure, again, that we're hearing from all these voices as we go forward. The particular objective of this advisory team meeting is very much aligned with what it implies in the title. It is this overlap, this sort of collision of site safety and security, which may seem in some dialogues to maybe not be sort of related topics. I'm actually getting the feeling based on sort of our participants here that you all are well versed in how really interrelated these things are. And it's not a scenario where we're just taking a safety and security lens and saying, okay, like, how do we make the building safe and secure? That's not the goal here. We really need to take a perspective of once you enter the site off Winthrop Street, or even when you're on Winthrop Street approaching from different areas, what is that holistic view of safety and security? How are those two things different but related in terms of considerations? And then how do we really account for all the different needs that the site has, be it athletic field, be it access into the fields, be it pick up and drop off, for a whole variety, a host of programs, community access after hours to things like the pool. It's a fascinating and it's a complex set of issues. And so that's really why we have this advisory team to be able to dig into that and start to understand sort of where are the priorities and where are things that we need to focus on. A quick contextual slide here in terms of schedule. We are looking to open the new school or substantially renovated, added on to school in the fall of 2030. That's all the way on the right-hand side of our slide here. We are on the left-hand side in the feasibility study, still more or less at the beginning of this effort. The stars that you see here, one through four, are the different times that we're going to come together with each advisory team to have discussions about the project on this particular topic. So to look at those four meetings and sort of the intent and games behind them, This first meeting is very much intended to be a listening meeting. Again, we are listening to you, but we also want to give you the opportunity to listen to each other. The second meeting is when we will actually come with some material. And we will, based on what we're hearing as sort of the topics that need to be covered, we'll put forward some graphic material and we'll present some concepts. That will look for feedback on in that second meeting, which has been scheduled for January 13th. The 3rd meeting and the 4th meeting are really meant to refine these topics. We want to make sure that we're hearing everyone correctly. And that we can formulate recommendations that will be shared back to the full building committee. So that's really sort of the through. meetings three and four, sort of the content moving forward. And we're going to set those dates as we progress into the new year here. All right. So I'm going to hold down the screen share here. And I just need to do the quick math of how much time we have available. So we're going to shoot for about three minutes in terms of time from everyone. I imagine that some folks may have more than three minutes in terms of what you want to share, because it's just an arbitrary time limit that we're putting out there into the world. If there are things that you want to share with us, if you want to point us to particular requirements that your department or your commission have, or if you just have a longer statement that you want to share, Um, we can definitely take those in after the fact, and we'll add those to the meeting record moving forward. Um, just so we have sort of enough time for everyone to speak. Uh, cause that is important. Um, and if people want to spend less than three minutes, that's absolutely fine as well. Um, I will try to keep track of things and I apologize in advance that I may interrupt you. I actually didn't have to do that at all, um, during the last meeting, which was nice. Uh, cause I am not the interrupting type. Um, but I will. jump in there if I need to. So to lead things off, we're going to go back to the alphabetical list and we're going to be able to start off with Nicole.
[Nicole Branley]: I'm just going to listen for now. I actually have to hop off in a minute. It's my daughter's birthday. I'm sorry, but I'm listening. I'm usually not the one that is quiet, so I'll bring a lot to the table as the time goes on. I think it's really important that we talk to our security monitors who are in the building every single day, and I'll make sure that I reach out to them. I really wish there was someone from the vocational team on this meeting. I don't know if Jenny knows if someone from that side of the high school will be joining us at all. But I think it's important to definitely talk to them. They direct traffic, you know, the security monitors are out there directing traffic at times. And so I think it's really important to have them, you know, their input with us, you know. But yeah.
[Jenny Graham]: And Nicole, just so you know, there were no volunteers for this committee. But if you hear of somebody who feels left out, please let me know. I will make sure they're represented. And then, but they are well represented across like every other. I do know. Yeah. So not to worry about that. And then Ken and John are both here and the monitors report up to them. So they also will like channel to make sure that those folks are included in the conversation.
[Nicole Branley]: That's great to hear. I think sometimes, obviously, perspectives can look different depending on who you're talking to. So I just want to make sure that I reach out to as many people as possible to make sure that if there's anything that someone may not feel comfortable saying to everybody, that at least their words are being said from me. So that's awesome. That's great. Thank you so much.
[Jack Buckley]: Thank you, Nicole. So Chief Buckley, you're up next. Thanks, Nicole. It's taken a few minutes, so let me get ready.
[Nicole Branley]: Want me to reintroduce you, Jack?
[Jack Buckley]: So I'm going to stop, but one of the things I follow this, I know we have a new school. I'm interested in what we're very early on. My understanding is there are no plans, no drawings, no site ideas. So when you put up the dates and the expectations, I suggest that that's going to be a fluid process, right? Because there's a lot of issues related to security and site that we're not going to be able to address until we get pen on paper and start looking at what we're looking at and designing. That's number one. The second part is, at least from my perspective, and I know we're talking in generalities now, but there are certain security aspects that we will not discuss in a public forum. I mean, I know that might send some people off, but they're security reasons, they're security for a reason, and we want to do that. So we can deal with that as we move on down the line. Aside from that, you know, this is a historic site for the city of Medford. It's a difficult site. And we just the site in and of itself is going to have some things that we have to overcome for, you know, in the main sense, I think the access and egress, right. can't do one road anymore. That's going to be a problem for everyone who said they were an architect and an urban designer, like we'll get your thinking caps on because that is going to be an issue that we're going to have to start thinking about. Outside of that, you know, security measures we'll deal with as we go along. I would really like, and I know the architects are involved in this, but like simple things about making sure everyone understands what we're designing. Like this is an A side of the building and a B side of the building, the C side. Common terminology, numbered stairwells, numbered doorways, numbered locations for security cameras. These are some basic stuff. So I'm just saying them out loud to give you an idea of what some of the things that I'm looking for. Communications, capabilities on site. We've spent years with an old high school and my police officers go into that school, can step into one location and not have any access to our radio communications. We've worked with installing BDAs to overcome those things, but modern buildings are often tight buildings, right? And they often come with their own communications problem. We need to think about that ahead of time, right? That's just not going to affect the police, but the fire or the EMS. It's also going to affect internal communications between teachers and staff if they use things other than the PA systems. But those are the things we have to keep in mind as we go forward. You know, other than that, I think it. Most of my issues or concerns might come up during the design phase right like I believe in open concepts right but this this like secure lobbies, open concepts sightlines people know where to go, and we need an easy building. That high school, I heard everyone, a lot of people here say that they went to this high school. That is not an easy high school to get around. It's not. We have to design a little bit more simply, right? A little bit more understanding of where we are in that building and where we're going. But I have confidence in the teams that are doing this, but I'm just telling you what my mindset is going into this whole process. And thanks for the opportunity to kind of spot off a little bit on it. Appreciate it.
[Jenny Graham]: Yeah, and Jack to your point, like, when there are those sort of confidential sensitive conversations, like, we will carve off and engage with you and Todd about those things. The way that they need to be handled, because you're right. Like, we. It's not secure if you tell everybody your secure plans.
[Jack Buckley]: And I knew that would come up. It's a matter of who's going to have those conversations. Much appreciated.
[Matt Rice]: just to give a little insight there too. So we will certainly be coming and speaking in person with police and with fire to be able to run through those things in detail. And that's typically how we will handle that. So good to sort of keep things at a little bit of a higher level, but that was like an excellent start just in terms of what we're interested in hearing today in terms of what those priority goals are. So I really appreciate that. So I think Teresa, you are up next.
[SPEAKER_41]: Thank you. So you asked for my goals, and here I represent not just my own family and with my expertise in urban planning, transportation planning, but I serve as a representative of Medford Safe Routes to School Task Force. I'm co-chair of Medford Mothers Out Front Transportation Task Force, and I'm a member of Walk Medford. I would be really interested in seeing us open up the new high school to the street and to the community. It's tucked too far back where it is currently. The vast array of free parking encourages driving and traffic congestion along Winthrop Street. And it honestly, the way it's situated, it discourages walking and cycling. The location of the high school campus is not central to all of Medford's neighborhoods. There is transit access and there is bike access to excellent transit if the site design did a better job of encouraging that bike access to transit. I'd love to help this team figure out ways to encourage less driving for students, for teachers and for staff. I'd love to see you open up the high school campus to the street. I don't like that there's a sidewalk on one side. I've ridden my bike up to Medford Family Network many times, especially when my kids were younger. I also my daughter does the band camp in summer times and the two of us will ride our bikes together. She uses the snare drum. It's not easy on a bike. And it's also not easy because that hill is a slight hill, but it's a hill. And what it does is it discourages cycling. Not everyone is going to have an e-bike. I agree with what someone else had to say about the permeability of the high school to the fells. That's a secondary focus for my interests, but I do like it. And finally, the vocational school aspect of the high school is such a huge strength to Medford and to the region. So the idea of involving the vocational students somehow in the design and the construction of the school, in my mind, it would be part of that concept of opening up the school to the community.
[SPEAKER_19]: Thank you. Amanda.
[Amanda Centrella]: Awesome, excuse me. I love so much of what Teresa was just saying. I think, so this is a high school first, but I also think of it as this incredible community resource. And so the way that it's situated now does feel sort of insulated from the surrounding neighborhood. If there are ways to, I think there's a balancing act of creating a space that's That has access is accessible and welcoming, while also like maintaining sort of site safety and security for students and staff. I'm very interested in kind of getting into conversations around that. I think that other things that are of interest to me would be, you know, what are ways that the athletic fields and other kind of green space or like public space within the school and around the school can address or at least forestall any sort of Things related to climate. So if you know, are we having any challenges with muddy fields or or just heat things that are responsive to, you know, our felt experience in and around the area. Let's see, I think, yeah, like, what are ways that we can design to encourage different modes of getting to and from the school, getting around the school so much like what Teresa was talking about, you know, encouraging biking, encouraging, you know, use of transit. And I see the fells is this incredible resource resource that is, you know, right there. So, yeah, like how do we, and again I think it's it's also a little bit of that balancing act of. you know, safety and security because there's this open public resource that is next door or like on the footsteps of doorsteps of the school. And like we want, you know, I think to encourage folks in and to come in and around the area, particularly students, I think. So that's another piece of it. Let's see. Sorry, I'm just looking at my notes here. Let's see. Yeah, and I think I'll just add to, like, I know that there's a bunch of programming that happens outside of school programming. I'm aware of, I think there's, I wanna say there's like English language classes that happen at the high school. Correct me if I'm wrong. Japanese school. Thank you, yes.
[Matt Rice]: On Saturdays.
[Amanda Centrella]: Yeah, yeah. So yeah, just sort of again, highlighting, you know, this is a high school first, but it's also like a huge community resource, you know, access to the pool, things like that. So what are ways that we can kind of better and mesh it within our community? Thanks.
[SPEAKER_30]: Thank you. All right.
[Matt Rice]: I don't think that Matt is on yet, Matt DeMaio. So I think we can pivot over to Chief Evan.
[Todd Evans]: Hi, yeah, so some of my concerns kind of overlay with Chief Buckley's concerns also as far as like radio communications, BDAs installed and things like that. But definitely a concern is the access routes there. I mean, as far as coming in two different independent directions, I mean, right now there are currently pinch points at that school on the sides of the school It basically dead ends and it does block in fire apparatus or ambulances and kind of get people stuck in there. I mean, we recently had an issue with a fire in the woods nearby there and everybody was kind of congested in one area there, kind of in a dead end area. And, you know, students are trying to leave and get out of there and they're blocked in and it gets ugly without two ways in and out. So that's definitely a concern. Obviously fire lanes, things like that. We're going to be, we'll obviously discuss hydrant locations and things like that. Landscaping, you have the landscaping team there. We can address things with them as far as access goes. Obviously we'll be discussing sprinkler systems and fire doors and all that stuff. down the road and everything else and compartmentation, but probably especially we'd like to look at, uh, find out what your, what your plans are on like high risk spaces there, such as like labs and, uh, shops, uh, vehicle automotive, probably, uh, gymnasiums and kitchen areas and things like that. So, um, those are going to be some of the things that we want to look at with you. And, uh, Obviously, we'll be talking about the construction phase going on there and what kind of access we will have to think about during construction phase there and like Knox box and Knox box locations and gates if you put in gates and Security such as that so that we'll be able to access that any areas if something happens during that phase And then We'll probably be also talking about later on down the line about like what your plans are with rooftop units and solar panels and things like that. And kind of roof access and roof safety around the perimeter of the roof also in regards to fire department operations. And again, there's probably some other sensitive security things like Chief Buckley mentioned that we'll have to discuss in another way. But that's basically the beginning of it. I'm sure we're going to have a lot of other things to discuss later on as we get further down the road and see some progress here.
[Matt Rice]: Yeah. And photovoltaic panel, that's definitely one of the topics that's going to cross into multiple advisory teams in terms of discussions. I appreciate you bringing it up. OK. Matt Felucci, I think you're up next.
[Matthew Galusi]: So obviously, you know, I want to see a modern state-of-the-art building that, you know, it's flexible learning environment that can support all our growing needs. Right now, that building is massive. And there's a lot of areas where we don't have visibility on, kids can kind of hide out. I graduated in 92 with maybe 2,400 kids in the whole school, and it was too big then. And here we are now with maybe 1,300 kids. It is just a massive space. So there's a lot of blind areas in that building, especially down my end of the building, the gymnasium area. I would love to see that get cleaned up. From a traffic standpoint, I would love to see a flow, like Chief Buckley and Chief Evans both said, some kind of flow around the building. It is, if you go behind the gym, up by the pool area, up by the fields, you know, that's it, it stops. If we could ever get some kind of traffic pattern that goes completely around the building, one way in, one way out, and then we definitely need some kind of emergency egress, which we're going to have to get super creative with that because we have all residential areas around us. I don't know how that's going to happen. Um, obviously access to the fells is huge, you know, from in, in my world, um, 2011, 2012, I got a mass DCR grant. We put in a trail, we have an almost one mile trail that we use a lot with phys ed classes. So I want to make sure that we're still using the fells. Um, as far as field space and whatnot, one thing I've seen with, with other schools that have been built. you have to account for enough parking spaces. You can build these beautiful state-of-the-art schools with these beautiful fields, and you're renting out the fields, or you're doing other stuff in the fields, and there's just not enough spots to park. So we're gonna have to figure that out. What else we got? I love that the community utilizes the building. You know, it is the flagship. We do so much up there. But I would like to see that community utilized spaces ideally grouped together so we can assure security. I'm not saying separation, but seal them off from other parts of the building. Where I am in the gym, I see all the people that go and swim every day, and I think it's fantastic. But we have had people that are new coming to swim, and they're banging on the back door of the gym. And I open the door, and I'm like, can I help you? And they don't know where to go. And God forbid somebody ever got in the building. So I'd like to see that. Like I said, the gym is just, it's so large with so many blind areas. I'd like to see high visibility spaces and also high visibility spaces where kids can gather, faculty can gather and we can collaborate and nobody's being hidden. Oh, one big thing too, my last point, I'll give everyone their time. I would love to see the bus drop-off area be designated just for bus drop-off. We've been super fortunate that we haven't had too many accidents, but I see the way some parents drive when their kids are late to school. And as currently constituted, that bus loop, parents can fly down there. You can have someone crossing the street. So I just definitely feel that's a danger point that we need to look at and clean up. And I'm sure I'll have a lot more, but I want to give everyone their time. So thanks.
[Matt Rice]: You've been very much on time. I appreciate that. Thank you. Jenny, you're up next.
[Jenny Graham]: When I was a kid for about 5 minutes, I wanted to be an architect and then I realized I couldn't draw a straight line and I hated physics. And so I had to move on from that. And I don't envy the set of challenges that we're stacking up for the architects, because I think there's a lot of them. But I have also had more time than most of you to sit with all of the possibilities. And I've been able to see early concept designs from all the people who were vying for this job. None of them I liked in its entirety. But just like my wheels about, The site in particular have been turning for a really long time now. It feels like. So, in the last couple of weeks, like, we've been focused on what's the education going to look like in the building, which has been very interesting. But since you're all here, and we have this audience, things on my mind about the site are things that include certainly a place for all of the modes of transportation to have. Some designated space, like, we heard from students last week that, like, it's a mad dash to the bus, because it's on the opposite end of the building from where they, they end their day. So if the bus is this time sensitive thing, shouldn't it be central to the school for all students to be able to get there? And shouldn't it be a different space than, like. Where pickup is versus where parking is, so I think there's all this opportunity to, like, create better flow around the. Around the space, and the other thing sort of I'm envisioning is that as we do a better job of. Using the space, we're going to have some real estate to do more on the property. Like, can we put a track and field on the property and football stadium on the property? Can we create more playing fields? can we, like, you know, we have, like, everyone talks about the field of dreams. The field, like, half the rubber from the field of dreams is in my house. So I'm here to say, like, it's time for us to, like, dream again about what the field of dreams looks like. But, you know, I think there's just so much opportunity to do the things on the site that the community would really value. And I think one of the keys to this whole project for me is that the high school is not a place you go for four years. It is a community space that everyone sees as a resource. So that's like the pool. I have people in my ear saying, don't get rid of the pool. It's one of the best pools I've seen in the area. And it's the theater. And it's the playing fields. And it's all the things that bring people To the space that may have nothing to do with what goes on in the building. So I just, I'm super excited about the opportunity that's created. Like, we've got all this weird, these weird patches, the grass all over the place that, like, you know, the football team uses practice field and they're like, it's kind of it's kind of junk, but we can't get across the city to use the real field. And there is all this space that's just not maximized in any way. And then my parting thing, Chief Evans, close your ears. But in my mind, I see that we have this amazing skyline view of the city of Boston. And wouldn't some roof access to enjoy that space be so amazing? And then the other thing I super am looking forward to is for somebody before us to solve the question of turf fields, and are they poisonous or are they not? And every time I see an article, I'm like, maybe these guys have solved it so we don't have to fight about it here in Medford. I haven't seen that just yet, but I'm really hopeful somebody's going to figure it out before we have to. And then I think just overall, to me, this is such an opportunity for Medford to like, Create space, like, we, we don't we can't create, like, we're so landlocked here that this is an opportunity to say, like, how can we create space here? That doesn't exist in the city today. So that everybody who ultimately has to go and say, we're going to pay more taxes to do. This has a reason to say, yes, and to me, that's about creating something for everybody in this building. In addition to doing right by the students who are going to spend 180 days a year there.
[Matt Rice]: Thank you. Brian, you are up next.
[Brian Hilliard]: All right. Can you hear me now? We can. Yep. Excellent. So I think I just have two points to touch on. Again, obviously, this is an incredibly difficult site. There's tons of flow and pattern issues that we're all well aware of. Honestly, I'm probably really fortunate as a parent because You know, like I said, our son is a junior and I can honestly say I've never driven to the school during any of the rush hour time so he either walks bikes or takes public transit. And so my first point is the public transit, and I'm not quite sure how it works, he literally gets on the city bus that goes in. And one of the things that actually Jenny and I heard in some of the earlier meetings with the kids is that it's really difficult for them to not only get to the bus stop and get out and get on their way, It's immediately after the bell rings, and there's only one wave of buses. And if you want to meet with a teacher, if you have to take a test after school, if you do after school activities, you're on your own. So it'd be interesting to work with the city and see if we can get another round of buses somehow, so public transit. Because public transit's huge in my eyes, and I'm a big proponent. So that's one. Looking forward to the solutions, I know in my eyes, again, because I've got some history thinking about this kind of stuff, I'm really curious where the phasing goes, because it is a tight site. And I would love, like somebody mentioned, to have some street presence. I'd love to take advantage, obviously, of the in and out of inner space and connection to the Fells. Like Jenny mentioned, up on the high point, there's great views. How do we take advantage? This to me is all hinged upon how the phasing goes. How much of the old building do we keep? How much do we tear down? And that's going to inform the traffic patterns, the site planning, and all these things. So I'm excited for you guys as the professionals to pen to paper and see how that phasing actually informs the site planning and what we end up with. Again, I think it's going to be important. It's going to be tough. It's going to be tight to get everything we want without a clean slate because we don't have one. We have got a lot of stuff in there. So I guess I'll close out by saying good luck. I'm very much looking forward to it and seeing what you guys do and working with you guys. So happy to be here. Thanks.
[Matt Rice]: And eventually we'll have most likely a construction manager that's going to come on and collaborate with the project team, everyone here as well, on some of those critical phasing issues. But you're right, we do have to find a path forward before those folks are really engaged in the conversation. So Joe, I think is not here, right? That was one of our students. So I think Alicia, you are up.
[Alicia Hunt]: Right. Okay. I was making some notes on what some of the other people were saying. I feel like the people who speak first are going to be like, I would have commented on those things. Because I don't have a prompt to respond to. But I was looking at the site. The site is unfortunately extremely constrained because of its surrounding by the fells. But I sent a note to Jenny and to Tim McGivern that maybe we could look at some stuff with the state that are limiting this site. And like it had never occurred to me until sitting in this meeting just now that this building could be tighter and taller. And as long as the programming works so that students don't literally have to run up five flights of stairs, but in the three minutes between classes, it could in fact be a different configuration and taller. But I know there's a lot of hope to not lose the pool. But the pool needs help because we can't rent it out for real good events because there's no ADA access to the viewing area. My daughter did synchronized swimming there. And it is actually an amazing pool for synchronized swimming and one of the few in this region. But we could never hold a meet there because there was no good viewing for it. Whereas that would have been a great addition. I mean, just the opportunities that were lost because of the viewing area not being accessible. When my daughter was starting in the high school, she was terrified of getting lost. And she had been using just the pool for several years to the point where she made a scale model. She asked me for floor plans, which I gave her, and she made a scale model of the first floor of the high school because she was so scared. And so I just, I need to share that it's like we need to think about kids, I've heard that that is the number one fear of kids going into ninth grade is fear of getting lost in the high school and being late to classes. And honestly, I'm thrilled that they're not fear is not of being beat up, but like right like it's not a, but like please, that shouldn't be the fear either. We have been working with the transportation working group in the city that includes people from Medford high school. About our transportation issues and we've engaged tops and we've engaged the senior Center and we've engaged with the transportation. There are nonprofits and organizations that do transportation, and we've been trying to figure some stuff out. And right now, all our solutions are only for the senior population, but I am convinced in my heart that there is a synergy between the needs of our seniors and the needs of our students, where we transport students in the mornings and in the evenings, and the seniors in the middle of the day while those kids are in school, and that the city could figure something out there, but we're not. We're not ending up there yet. We haven't figured that out. And around the vocational spaces, so my son's in the robotics. He's actually my second son to go through robotics. And I just have to say, I think that you should go talk to the vocational students during the day. And just go meet with some of them in some of their spaces and understand how they use those spaces. Because I know that they're doing a lot of really remarkable stuff. My impression is that the MSBA would never fund spaces these big. Please don't take the fire department, the police department, they would freak out if they saw, I'm just kidding, but I'm not, like the equipment that these guys are learning and they get OSHA training in the robotic shop, at least they get OSHA training. I think a lot of the voc programs do. Um, so that's some of the sort of the thoughts and, um, to be clear as far as my understanding is that this building will have solar does not have to have solar on every inch of its roof. But our goal is net zero buildings in the city of Medford. Um, and. This is our flagship and we need to do demonstration. And the only reason that building doesn't have solar yet is because of the state of the roofs and the roofs that have been over the years. I've been on a lot of those roofs. And I was horrified when they took the science labs and they put all this equipment spread all over the place. I'm like, you're ruining our roofs for solar. Let's think about roof design and HVAC design that allows for solar on the roofs. So what I heard from Chief Evans was when you do solar, let's do it safely, not don't do it.
[Matt Rice]: Yes, and we'll get into those conversations. I appreciate that. Thank you.
[Alicia Hunt]: Yeah, I'm sure I have more thoughts, but other people started to say some of the things that I was thinking too. And I've biked up there too. It's not easy. And I've biked up there with kids and it's not pleasant. But what are you going to do? We're not going to lower the site, right? Could we?
[Matt Rice]: More to come. Yes, for sure. Nick, you are up next.
[MCM00001753_SPEAKER_02]: Good evening once again, I hope y'all can hear me well. We can, yes, thank you. Yeah, so as the disability specialist and now the disabled person myself, my main concern is accessibility. Accessibility to the school itself, accessibility to the various students for their classrooms and stuff like that. I did not go to Medford High School precisely for this reason. Even though I went through public school for all my elementary and my middle school years, I had to go to a private school. because Medford High was not accessible and was way too big for someone with a walker or wheelchair to be going. from the north side to the south side to the east side to the west side within five minutes would just not be possible. So not only am I thinking of that, but I'm also thinking of literally entering the school building. I haven't been to mention high in a few years, but The ramp that they have going up to the door? Yeah, no, no, no, no, no. Way too steep, way too steep. And it's not okay. If someone was in a manual wheelchair and they had to come out, they'd go flying, literally flying onto the street and jump the curb. and trying to access the various entryways of the building is very difficult. That being said, much of my job in terms of the city itself. I work with a lot of these people that are on this call, so it's good to see some of my friends here. But one of the major things that I deal with is site plan reviews. So I I will be one of the people that looks at the blueprints and be like, yeah, this works or no, this does not work. So that is one of my major concerns. Also, just to reiterate, Not just being able to access the building itself, but being able to maneuver inside. Getting from class to class, getting from point A to point B. Like I said, I've lived in Medford my whole life. I never knew we had a pool until just now. And that's probably because I wouldn't have been able to access it anyway. So things like that are very important. To also reiterate, the high school is a communal space. there is a church that meets in the high school on Sundays. So I know some of the people that go there. And the fact that I know how inaccessible the high school is, so I've never made a point of going there. That should tell you how many people might be thinking that same way. If we have events in the school, when I was growing up, there used to be a children's chorus that used to meet in the high school. And I was part of that call, call, call, call, call, callers. But I remember how long of a walk it was just to get to the music room from the main door. So again, being able to maneuver that. And let me just say, Me not going to Medford High School was not my parents' choice. It was my choice. Because I knew I would not be able to maneuver the inside of that building within good time, despite having all my friends go there. So stuff like that. And again, I work very closely with both chiefs on this Zoom call. And so I'm sure our roles will overlap as well in terms of safety and whatnot. And so, yes, I think that's really what I have to say on that.
[Matt Rice]: Thank you, Nick. I appreciate your perspective. All right, Ethan, you are up next.
[SPEAKER_29]: Thanks. So I'll start out with some just overarching kind of site planning goals and principles to consider. So I think, you know, site planning goals, we want to focus on functional and welcoming campus, keep students safe, allow staff to supervise and respond quickly to emergencies. And really, all those those goals should span the site planning, safety and security as the integrated package for the new high school. The campus should be organized so it's clear conflicts between vehicles and pedestrians are minimized learning spaces can expand in the future. We should ensure that good access to outdoor learning areas. Preserving green spaces and kind of separating noisy functions from quiet academic zones. So providing safe, efficient circulation for buses, parent drop off, student drivers, service vehicles, pedestrians with clearly separated paths. Locate buildings, fields and parking based on topography, drainage, environmental constraints. also allowing for room for future additions. Create a campus that feels welcoming, legible, easy to navigate, with clear wayfinding and logical zoning of uses. Relative to safety, ensure safe pedestrian routes with generous well-lit walkways, accessible entrances, protected crossings, especially near drop-off zones. Designed for clear emergency egress and gathering areas with obvious evacuation routes, access for fire, police, EMS. Also address environmental and building safety, so structural integrity, site drainage, indoor air quality, safe materials, et cetera for student health. And also, while doing this, consider uh, there's, uh, concepts from the, like, crime prevention through environmental design that could be applied, uh, things like natural surveillance, controlled access, territorial reinforcement, um, being able to, you know, detect intruders and enable staff and first responders to respond quickly, but doing all that without making the high school feel like a fortress, um, And so some of the ways you could start to do that limiting and controlling public access with a smaller number of supervised entry points, secure main vestibule leading to reception, maximize visibility with clear sight lines, appropriate lighting, window placement, so parking paths and entrances can be easily monitored. Defining secure perimeters, internal zones, using fencing, landscaping, doors, access controls, all aligned with lockdown and emergency procedures. I think that's kind of like the baseline that we need to achieve and this next little bit is a little bit more exciting in in that I'm trying to incorporate some ideas about how you could actually integrate the high school site plan with the Fells. So I think site planning and Fells access needs to be a primary objective. We wanna create a coherent network of pedestrian and bike connections from the campus to the Fells that are safe, visible, accessible in all seasons, reinforce the school's role as a gateway to the Fells rather than a barrier at its edge. Organize buildings, parking, and circulation to pull hard edges away from the fells. Reserve that edge for habitat, outdoor learning areas, low-impact recreation rather than vehicle-dominated uses like today. Use site grading, planting, stormwater system to restore more natural hydrology along the fells interface.
[Matt Rice]: Ethan, I apologize. Just at the three minutes, I want to make sure that we have time for everybody If it's possible for you to just give us sort of the rest of it as written, that would be very much appreciated.
[SPEAKER_29]: Yeah, sure.
[Matt Rice]: Okay. Thank you. I apologize again. I am not the world's best interrupter by far. No worries. All right, Ken.
[Kenneth Lord]: Yeah, thank you. So over my career, I've been involved in, I think, seven other school building projects. I'm really interested in seeing how this one can solve some of the issues I've seen that have come out of designs and other schools that I've been involved with. So my primary concern starts with just site circulation, separating the bus and parent traffic and student parking traffic and pedestrian traffic on site, making sure that's safe, well lit, but not lit so it bothers the neighbors. That's always an important concept of light pollution, making sure that inside the building we can segment all of our public areas properly from the school areas so that if we have JLS using a tremendous amount of our building as they do it every Saturday, we can still segment it off in the rest of the building so we can have activities in other parts, making sure the gym, the library, the theater, All those other spaces can be segmented and used. Our meeting spaces also being able to be used. Like right now we have, you know, the one popular PD place that we use is in the third floor of the science wing. So getting people to and from there during the day for public meetings is difficult. making sure the site's fully accessible, easily accessible for people who have disabilities. And one thing we did in the last project I was in in Wilmington is we actually had CISA, the Cybersecurity Information Security Agency of the federal government, they provide physical security assessment. So they'll have someone will come out and will actually advise on design and current spaces and how they can be protected for security reasons from whether it be from site circulation to avoid vehicle ramming opportunities, whether it's intentional or accidental separating traffic, internal examination for security cameras and secure glass and all that kind of stuff. So I'm really interested in all of those things. to make this as a safe and secure and usable space that we can.
[Matt Rice]: Thank you. All right. Sean, I think had to hop off. So I think it is Tim who is up next.
[Tim McGivern]: Thank you. I heard a lot of great things, and I'm going to try not to repeat those things, but I heard lots of great things. And I also understand it's very, very early, so there's not very many drawings or things that we can review. So totally understood, which is a great opportunity for me to sort of highlight, which a lot of folks have been. Early site design is really important in setting goals in your site and going up on the school if you need to, multiple stories to get some of those goals realized on the site, I think is important. You know, I'm going to be looking at the circulation as well, how it's designed, especially for maintenance. Obviously, that's going to be my focus. But I think for things like bus loops, parking for students versus faculty versus public, buses, drop offs, a lot of things that were said, good lighting, the site work, you know, should be to city standards, materials and things like that. Um, and then, you know, some folks talked about construction, but that's, that's going to matter. It's a large site. Uh, if, if that's the site that, that is, this is happening at, so, you know, erosion control is going to be a big deal. Uh, construction traffic leaving and entering the site, those conflicts and, and those types of impacts are going to be, um, you know, going to be really important, especially when the building is, is, uh, going up and they're doing heavy, heavy, uh, site work as well. Um, Just a couple things to note, I think it's important to note, Steve Miller Drive is a public road. It's not really part of the site. So, you know, it is a landlocked site, as folks have mentioned. So that's the way in, that's the way out. And the hill, there's not a lot you can do about that, as Alicia mentioned, because the site's mostly probably sitting on ledge. If, you know, The fells right next door is any sign of that, which it is. So anyway, looking forward to the project and looking forward to reviewing drawings. And I've worked on complex sites like this before, and the phasing is going to really drive it. So it's going to be interesting to see how you guys do this. So good luck in the challenge.
[Matt Rice]: Thank you. Appreciate that. It really is a challenge, but we do enjoy it, actually.
[Tim McGivern]: It's a good one.
[Matt Rice]: Definitely. John McLaughlin. We can't hear you yet.
[John McLaughlin]: Hi, John McLaughlin, director of facilities. It's excellent to hear people's perspectives on all of the different aspects that they want to see. employees of the school department for 38 years, primarily up at Merritt High School. We've discussed them all in the past and in the future. The security issues with Chief Buckley and Chief Evans with the fire issues. I've had a unique perspective to be involved in all of those discussions over the years. I'm definitely looking forward to it. I do enjoy, like I said, I enjoy listening to the public's perspectives. Like, I never even thought about biking up the hill and, you know, and the kids getting tired. You know, that's something that it's never, really I've heard before. And it's a very interesting perspective. And it's a real perspective. And it's, you know, in designing of the building. So we still don't really know what we're going to receive just yet. But it's good to hear that the people that are involved, I believe that, you know, listening to everybody, Alicia, We have a good understanding and idea of what we need to do. Nick, you know, accessibility. I mean, the building's 1970. There was nothing accessible in 1970. Anything that's accessible up there was an add-on. And it's just, it's good to hear everybody. And I look forward to moving forward. Thank you.
[Matt Rice]: Thank you, John. John Prestigiovanni. I didn't butcher that too poorly. I know that he is probably still hanging around in the gym right now. All right. So then I think we might kick it over to Melissa.
[Jenny Graham]: Looks like we've got John. Oh, go ahead, John.
[Matt Rice]: Oh, it's OK.
[SPEAKER_17]: It's OK. There's some awesome things happening tonight. You know, as with Matt DeLucie, you know, him and I both graduated here in 1992, and we've both been pictures of the school here on site for many, many moons in different roles. The site circulation is huge. As there's an event going on at the Turk Field, when there's events going on in the school, the gym area, a Saturday morning for Japanese school, the traffic and the safety, the parking is just horrendous. So hopefully learning and helping with that function would be fantastic. Everyone has really kind of ruined some ideas of the notes that I had. I love the idea about this being the flagship of our city with community space, love to see something like a quad area like they have on college campuses with a beautiful view of the Boston. Something more into the athletic side of it, maybe an indoor, outdoor track or dome type building for winter seasons for us to utilize and for our, not just our fall, for our athletes here at Medford High School, but our youth sports can utilize this here at the high school. So many great ideas, lots of, you know, looking at in and around parking areas, athletic fields, things like you mentioned already, like more lighting, more security. I liked the idea, but maybe some more fencing. We see it as working up at the turf fields and working in and out of the vents. We have other students from other schools utilizing our equipment here, using our facilities, using our turf fields. They don't even live in Medford. They sneak in and use our fields because it's here. They show more cameras, more security, more lighting to hopefully stop some of that type of stuff going on. But everyone's all hit on the point that I wanted to bring up. But again, the site circulation, the safety, the security is some things that definitely would like to look at going forward and see what we can do from this group. So thank you very much.
[Matt Rice]: Thank you, John. Appreciate that. And now we can go over to Melissa.
[SPEAKER_04]: Hi. So I guess reasons why I had interest here. I work on some large scale projects in the city of Cambridge and it is obvious to me that in these large-scale projects, you see a lot of departments not talking to each other or they don't realize one department's working on something or another department's. My big thing I would like to bring to the table is collaboration across departments and asking people what their needs are. Everyone thinks they're doing the best job, but it's always surprising. You usually don't have someone who has an overarching view of what is going on. So the fact that we have a third party running this exciting to me. The two-way access, I can say I'm not, again, born and raised in Medford, but I have gone to the high school many times because I have a small child trying to go to the Medford Family Network events at night. I have gone, got stuck up in that corner, and then I was trapped, and then I said, oh, maybe I belong here, maybe I don't. No signs, it's dark, I'm, like, knocking. I have my five-year-old daughter just trying to go in, like, that winter, like, night event. It's a little wild, the way the parking works and how everything is set up in there. And I've done a lot of Metro Family Network events. It's just, it needs to be a circle. Every time I think of that, I think of it as the same thing as that Everett Plaza. Like you just, if an emergency happened there, you are trapped. You are stuck there and it's like, good luck. Cause it's a one way in, one way out. Community, community buildings, community access. Again, the Vienna flagship is something I'm interested in, in a modern flow. But yeah, I guess what everyone said, I really do piggyback on them, but I don't think people think hard enough, right? Like I had issues with buses here in Medford, and you can work with your state representative. We can ask for things. I think Medford is like the last to come to the table. We're like thrilled to get like other people's crumbs. And in reality, We are a big enough city. We are here. We are residents that pay taxes just like everybody else. And we should be asking for things from the state. We should be asking for additional buses. We should be asking for grants and additional funding that I feel like we always think of like as a secondary thing. And that's, I don't know, that is- It isn't true.
[Tim McGivern]: It isn't true. It isn't true? No, we're always looking. We do ask the state to move buses. We ask for more service. We analyze everything that they put out. And Alicia's office in particular is outstanding at getting grants.
[SPEAKER_04]: I'm saying nothing doesn't happen. I'm saying I was very close when I lived in Somerville. I work for another community. Again, funding is just done very differently in Medford than it is in neighboring communities. Sorry, it wasn't meant to like, I don't know. It wasn't meant to bad mouth. It really is. Yeah. Sorry. Thank you.
[Tim McGivern]: We do communicate with the MBTA. We request for buses. We change bus routes. We move stuff. We do that on the regular. It's part of our normal process.
[Alicia Hunt]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_04]: I appreciate it.
[Alicia Hunt]: Thank you. But I think what we're getting at maybe some of this, does the school know to tell the DPW department in transportation that it would be great if those MBTA buses left 15 minutes later or 10 minutes later and that we'd ask for that. Like that's this internal conversation that sometimes it happens and sometimes it happens ad hoc and not like as intentional as it could be.
[Jenny Graham]: Morning, Alicia. I'm keeping a very long list of asks for our state delegation, so.
[Matt Rice]: And I'm smiling just because I know that there's a little bit of tension there, but I think it's great to be able to sort of have these conversations and have the opportunity for each department to sort of share out what they are doing. I mean, that's really the focus here is to try to make sure that we can all hear each other as we start to sort through what the issues are on site. So I have, I think, a minute. I'm not sure if that's enough time to get the screen back up here. I'll try to do it very quickly just to remind people that January 13th is our next meeting. We put up some topics and just so you can understand what to expect the next time as we went through. I think actually we covered a lot of these. There's a lot more. uh, topics that were brought up today, which are absolutely excellent. Um, and we will dive into, um, those as we move forward into the next meeting, um, we will be trying to do that last or sorry, the next meeting, um, as a hybrid meeting, um, so that there can be an in-person component. So for the, those of you that do want to get together in person that we have that opportunity, but again, really appreciate everyone's time this evening, um, understanding that it's a busy time of year. and that we're late into the evening here, but your voices are very, very much appreciated. So with that, I will, oh, Chief Buckley has a parting word.
[Jack Buckley]: Sorry about that. No, it's just a question. Is there going to be further information we could have available? Like one of the things I'm interested in is what is the actual square footage of the land we own and what is the square footage of the current building? And what is, do we know yet is intended to be kept during construction? I think that's going to put a little bit of perspective for me anyway.
[Matt Rice]: We can certainly share that information just as we have it. We are in the final stages of finishing up the onsite work for the survey now. Probably early in the new year, we'll have an actual survey that will confirm the acreage. And we're just about there with the survey of the existing building, the scanning of it as well to confirm that. Um, so in the not too distant future, we definitely will have that. I will leave us with the notion that we still don't have any idea of what's going to be renovated or saved or built new. Um, those are the things that we're going to be exploring, um, as we get into the new year. Um, I think Jenny, you mentioned the fact that the building committee meetings are going to start to touch on some of those things. So, um, if you're curious there. And you want to either watch those live, participate in them live, or watch them after the fact. It's a great opportunity to sort of become a little bit more up to speed with the project. But Chief Buckley, we're also going to be reaching out to you, Chief Evans specifically, with that information as we go forward.
[Jack Buckley]: Thank you.
[Will Pipicelli]: And then just some housekeeping as well. We'll work on sending out the email for the calendar invite for next month's meeting before the holiday break. And then we might just update it once we figure out the exact location and hybrid setup. So just keep an eye out for that invite. And if you could just accept it or decline, depending on your availability, that would be greatly beneficial for us. So thank you.
[Matt Rice]: Thank you, Will. And thank you again, everybody. I hope everyone has a good evening.
[Unidentified]: Bye, everyone.
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