[Michael Ruggiero]: It's a combination of Jingle Bells and Mozart.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Yes. Yes. Yes.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you so much for the great honor to serve the city of Medford. I have to thank both my kids and my wife, who often sometimes, you know, they have to sacrifice a little bit of their daddy so I can give up time. And it's been a great honor. Thank you so much, Mayor Burke and Madam Superintendent. Thank you.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you so much for this report, and it's great that we're seeing the cash. I'm just curious, are we going to also be using this funding to improve the intercom system, or is that going to be?
[Michael Ruggiero]: And so would teachers that are in the rooms that don't have intercom access, would they be given a radio, or?
[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you so much for the report. So first, how many open staffing positions do we have currently?
[Michael Ruggiero]: So it's not just 70 divided by 13? Absolutely not.
[Michael Ruggiero]: So if someone comes, they get a job? Is that how it's—if they pass all the Cori checks?
[Michael Ruggiero]: So in terms of volunteers, because I noticed on the back page it talked about middle school volunteers and such. Have you talked to any people in the senior center or any seniors to come down or perhaps we could do a tax deferment program?
[Michael Ruggiero]: So are parents, are parents asked to be volunteers as well?
[Michael Ruggiero]: Well, I mean, I would imagine, so let's say, for example, you are one of these parents that's on a waiting list right now, and so you have to do the calculation. Someone says, well, you come in one day a week, and that'll cover your waiting list spot. That seems like a reasonable request, or we could say the certain ratio of so many days volunteering guarantees a position.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Yeah.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Well, I mean, I understand that this idea that co-op might not work, but it'd be interesting. When was the last time a letter was sent to parents saying that there's a need? If you do happen to have a couple of days that are free, it'd be great if you could help out with the program. Has any of the outreach been done to the PTOs or to the parents?
[Michael Ruggiero]: It might surprise you if it perhaps, I mean, make a suggestion. I don't want to criticize the program. I know you do a lot of good work, but perhaps it would be helpful. to let parents know that if they could put in a little bit more time, especially to the PTOs, if you happen to have one or two evenings a week free, it would be helpful, and then we could start servicing more children, not perhaps with a promise, but just letting people know, you know, if we get more help, we're going to get more help. The second line of questioning I had to do with the paragraph that talked about tuition, are there any children who are, cannot receive, They can't be a part of the program because they don't have the money.
[Michael Ruggiero]: And so, because I guess I'm referring to, unfortunately we know that there's a wait list for vouchers at the state level for parents that qualify, and new state regulations have made the staff requirements reporting process extremely cumbersome. Could you speak to that a little bit? Because it really does sound like there are parents that are trying to participate in the program, waited a long time to be, and then they just sort of got bumped because they couldn't, the state voucher system changed. Has that happened?
[Michael Ruggiero]: I wonder if I could call... It's possible you could just hand them a mailer and say, could you please send this to people on the list, letting them know that... Because I guess my concern with the program is threefold. First, I want to echo what Member Ruseau said. I mean, talking to many parents, they just don't bother applying because why climb a mountain that you're not even going to be able to get to the top of? So there's that issue. And parents that would like to participate in the program, they find themselves just finding other options. It's not worth the hassle and maybe the issues. But I'm also worried that there are families that need this support, and we're not getting it. I mean, I guess they come in two flavors. After school, you have students that are there that their parents want them to participate and they need a little help. And then there's parents that kind of need their kids to be there for them to work that second job to put bread on the table. So I just want to make sure that we're reaching out to those families.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Right. And I understand that there might be information that you're not privy to but I mean I just say look I'll make you a Xerox. Here's a bunch of pages handed out to your members because I mean it seems like you know my family we also use after school services but we can find options. There are other families that you know single moms that just don't have that option.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Suggestion to the amendment to the motion, I would like to have a cost-benefit analysis of what it would have cost to do complete enrollment. It's not impossible. Other districts have done it. It's going to cost us more money. It's possible. I would like to know how much it costs, because I think it's an opportunity for our community to step above and beyond what other communities in our region do, but also recognize that other school districts in America are able to pull this off. I think we can too. So I would like to know, I would like to suggest that in addition to understanding where we are now, I would like an actual assessment of what this would cost us to have full enrollment, or if any kid has a need to have an after school program, we can address that need.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Yeah, it's an amendment or it'll be a separate motion if she doesn't want to.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Okay, that's fine.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you, Mayor Burke, and thank you very much for the report. So going through the list of resignations here, I noticed that our nutritionist retired. So who's current, do we have any backup nutritionist, or is Rhetta the only one?
[Michael Ruggiero]: So are we anticipating on hiring someone new? And if so, when are we going to post the position?
[Michael Ruggiero]: Yeah, I mean, my concern is that not having a nutritionist on staff for the entire district I think is not a great idea as we're piloting a new program like you're saying. So I seriously would like to suggest that we start looking to fill that position as soon as possible or find some sort of solution. Secondly, just I suppose a little greedy for me, I mean, who's gonna be taking care of the blueberries in the middle of the high school? Do we know what's going on with the outdoor,
[Michael Ruggiero]: So right now we don't.
[Michael Ruggiero]: I know. She was just taking it on. I know she did a lot of work, including making hummus for the kids. This is concerning to me, especially with some other information that we have. So I just would like to be updated when we find out more about it and when we're going to be filling out the role.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you, Mayor Burke. And thank you very much for all the hard work on this issue. I know this is not just important to me, but our entire community. I do have a couple of questions really quick about the initial observations of the report. So September 16th, you said, that we did the initial map testing. Is that correct? So can you give us a sense of, it was the REI score, was that one? Or is it RET? Sorry.
[Michael Ruggiero]: R-I-T. So on that score, is dyslexia viewed as sort of a place on the spectrum? Or is dyslexia, how is dyslexia exactly tested? Because that's sort of an either or type of prognostic measure versus sort of like a value on a bell curve.
[Michael Ruggiero]: So what we're looking at here is sort of a battery of different skills, and so if a kid sort of, for lack of a better word, bombs a bunch of regions or domains on those skills, then they're forwarded to someone, or how would that work?
[Michael Ruggiero]: I guess my concern with the issue, and I have no doubt on the abilities of the staff to handle these issues, but being able to address dyslexia is a serious concern that people devote an entire medical career to, basically. So you have someone who knows how to handle these kids versus sort of a generalist. you know, environment that you would have from the teachers address these issues. Because, I mean, there's certainly a difference between reading difficulty and dyslexia. And I guess that's what I'm trying to suss out here on these metrics you're bringing ahead. Like, if you see, like, five red flags, Do you say, OK, so we'll give this kid a couple of months to try to, we'll really focus, we'll bring in some coaches or whatever it takes to get this kid moving, or do we start moving that information ahead with the parents, say, look, this child might need help outside of school in addition to the work that we're doing inside of school, and we've got to figure out a partnership. Do you understand the question I'm trying to say?
[Michael Ruggiero]: And I think it's important that we recognize this as a committee, that we're not screening for dyslexia, we're screening for reading ability. And so the question I have would be, let's say, for example, you give a student this test and they don't do very well for whatever reason. So intervention is applied. When is the next test happen?
[Michael Ruggiero]: Does that help? I certainly do not doubt the ability and the hard work of our teachers, but I think the reason why we're having this conversation now is the recognition that some kids slip through the cracks. I mean that some children who had dyslexia weren't identified in maybe the quickest way possible. Or maybe we could do a better job of identifying earlier to make sure that these kids. So what I'm trying to get a hold of is what is the educational roadmap. So I understand a kid, let's say a kid doesn't do great in fall, he doesn't do great in winter. Let's say he doesn't do great in spring either. When do we begin to start huddling up and say, well, maybe this child is dyslexic and that's fine. I mean, it's not, it's just a different way of thinking. It's so we need to address something outside of school or some other technique. Right.
[Michael Ruggiero]: No, and I completely understand what you're saying. So my son is sick, for example, let's say he has a cough. We take him to the doctor. The doctor runs a battery of screens and maybe prescribes him an antibiotic. But if he's still sick in a number of other weeks, then we do other things. I have no doubt what you're all trying to do. I guess one of the things that's not clear to me is the course by which it goes. And I understand it's certainly somewhat you play it by the kid, so each kid's a little different. I understand that. But it's important for me to understand that after, let's say, eight or nine months of intervention, we're not going anywhere. There's sort of a stopgap or a necessitated next move that we have to make sure, because I mean... So we don't let it go that long. I'm sure you wouldn't.
[Michael Ruggiero]: I guess so as I'm talking to different people, there is the perception or belief or parents have this experience. And I'm trying to make sure that we don't have the experience where someone had to pay for their own assessment. They told the kids just a little has a little trouble with reading or will never be a novelist or something. These are words the parents will tell me that was was told to their child. They paid for an intervention, and now they're actually working with an outside consultant to make sure that that child has the help they need, and they're catching it in the sixth grade. I have no doubt. I mean, I'm a teacher myself. I understand when you have a classroom of students, sometimes maybe their dyslexic kids can often be very bright and very good at hiding and shielding their certain inabilities. So I guess I just want to make sure when I talk to this parent, I can say to them, well, these things won't happen anymore. We have a new screening program and we have a new roadmap to making sure that kids get the process and the help that they need. Does that make sense?
[Michael Ruggiero]: Yes. Yes. And I want to make sure. Oh, Madam Superintendent.
[Michael Ruggiero]: And I think it's important to recognize I'm not other members that would like to ask. Well let me ask a few more questions member. I wanted to get a sense of the early assessments that have been taken. I mean can you give us a sense of what percentage of children have been identified with needs or certain deficits and reading skills.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Okay, so yeah, it would be really great to hear an update. Thank you so much for all the hard work. I really do appreciate it. I think it's great that we're doing the screening now. Thank you.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you.
[Michael Ruggiero]: I just want to follow up on Paul's point. Is data collected about our students unbeknownst to them or is there any personalized information that Lexia will then harvest on our students? I assume they won't. I hope they won't.
[Michael Ruggiero]: OK. In terms of, I just wanted to get one second because as we were talking about this letter that goes out to all parents, are the different areas of testing necessarily aligned between the maps and Lexia? I mean, I imagine like phonemes are in there somewhere and sentence comprehension is in there somewhere. So there's broad areas that could be used when you send this report to parents and saying, we're concerned about sentence comprehension, but we're on it and we're focused on these particular materials. Could something like that be done?
[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you.
[Michael Ruggiero]: We get the RFP in hand?
[Michael Ruggiero]: Well, I would much rather have another committee meeting than before approving a $1.3 million contract. I'm just voicing my opposition.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you, Mayor Burke. Two quick questions. I just want to know, so we're all set with all the air compressors and the HVAC, or are we still in process of repairing a number of them all?
[Michael Ruggiero]: OK, great. And what is, this is on page seven, what CDW government
[Michael Ruggiero]: I really think this is a great program. I'm really glad that we're doing it in our community. There was something I saw about a month ago on a frontline program, and I wanted to mention it to you. I don't know if this would help your work. It was about community policing. And what they were talking about in the program was how many interactions within some communities with the police is always negative. the police are coming in to often make what has appeared to be difficulties as they solve problems. One of the solutions that this program recommended was for police to offer tickets for good behavior. So if they see children in parks doing something, just like having fun, not loitering, not being destructive, giving tickets for positive behavior and trying to make the interaction with police, especially in communities that have, unfortunately, more interactions with police, more positive. And I don't know if that suggestion would help you, but I thought it was a really great idea. I know, I think it was the police department, either Sacramento or Oakland, California, had used this particular program to great effect, to create more community interaction with police in a positive light, rather than, you know, a cop comes to your house because there's a community disruption.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Yeah, in terms of the free breakfast program, I've been hearing a couple of issues I just wanted to clarify with you. So are these just like cereals that we're offering or what? They're pretty, they're robust.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Yeah, I know the report is not officially out yet, but could you give us a sense of what the participation rate is, just a ballpark figure?
[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you, Mayor Burke. Thank you very much for the report. You've done a great job trying to keep this stuff up. My one concern is- Well, it's not just me, by the way.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Fair enough.
[Michael Ruggiero]: I do have one little concern to sort of branch off what Member Ruseau was talking about. Let's see something, say something out. That phrase carries a police connotation to me. When I hear that, I think I see something on a subway that looks suspicious, and I'm going to report it. But my concern is that it's going to go into one giant bucket. So there's going to be the broken light, linoleum that's a little warped, with what could be a serious security concern in that same place.
[Michael Ruggiero]: It's not just because of the way you were describing it a second ago. What I'm trying to say is I apologize.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Right, right. And a light is a security measure. Right. I just want to make sure that we're going to be able to separate the signal from the noise. Like, obviously a broken light is important, but a suspicious bag is more important.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you, Mayor Burke, and thank you very much for your commitment to improving our math curriculum. I would just like to suggest, as you're walking through, if we can get an update on how you feel like our ELL instruction in the math environment is doing. As I voiced earlier today, it's an area I think is of concern. And I would be very interested to hear about your thoughts in this regard about how we, because I think, you know, the reason why we're suffering in our percentages is this one, a couple of areas, and that's one of them.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Yes. Thank you, Joseph. Let me shake your hand.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you very much, Mayor Burke. I just wanted to say that when I originally saw the images online and I read about them in ScienceDaily.com when I first saw them, I was just blown away by the images. And it's just really exciting for me to know that our hometown made a little contribution to that moving forward. I'd just like to know, Joseph, can I ask you a couple of questions? Yeah, sure. Yeah, I'd just love to know, what in particular was your contribution to the project?
[Michael Ruggiero]: That's amazing.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Absolutely amazing. Thank you. Can you just help us understand why this is so special and why it's so difficult for, why this discovery hasn't been made before?
[Michael Ruggiero]: And can you tell us the location, how many light years away it is?
[Michael Ruggiero]: That's absolutely amazing. For someone who's not prepared to speak, you certainly do know the topic very well. It's very clear. I would like, I'm sure this invitation is already being extended. The discovery was extraordinarily, I mean, was inspirational to me, and I'm sure a number of our other students would love to see your work and see some pictures. I imagine a number of science students were very excited about black holes. I've never actually seen them, because my son's first word was actually black hole, because I subjected him to all the videos. I think that there are a lot of students that would be really inspired by what you've done. Thank you so much for what. I really appreciate it. Thank you all.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you. Thank you for the paper. I have a couple of questions about excused absences. Let's assume for a moment we had a child with extraordinary abilities, perhaps they were like a chess master at a very young age, and they had a tournament to attend and it conflicted with school hours. Would that student be able to receive an excused absence to attend a tournament?
[Michael Ruggiero]: But I assume the administration wouldn't penalize a child.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Right, right. I'm slightly disappointed by the stance our schools took for a couple of reasons. While I certainly understand member Van der Kloot's thought that we need to review the policy and change the policy and perhaps the direction that we should move forward. The whole point of this walkout is to draw attention to the fact that adults aren't solving this problem. And the fact of the matter is that by not sort of excusing these absences, we're actually providing almost proof to that. Look, it's more important for you to go practice with your color than deal with the fact that the oceans might rise by a couple of feet in a couple of years. That is, I think, ultimately what disappoints me the most about the school's proposition. I mean, to sort of echo what member Ruseau mentioned, we would not excuse students to attend a hate rally. Right? I mean, that's, that, no, it's not the question, just like a child who is a chess prodigy, we'd all get together and say, you know, this kid's doing well in school, we'll make sure they make up their material, or a child that's going to Spain, perhaps, we'll make sure that they make up their material, they won't miss any schoolwork, and we'll give them excused absences. That position could have been taken here. And I guess that's what I find There is wiggle, I mean, once again, we don't have the policy at hand. But we as a community, as a country and a world, have to recognize that there are things that are more important than words written on paper. And we need to, if we have the capacity to, just like I'm sure in Boston, they don't have a only climate activism is excused. And just sort of one last point in this regard. I also think it's a little, I don't necessarily know whether teachers should be there. I mean part of the idea of this walkout is for students to express their anger and frustration about what we as adults are doing. You know and we all share responsibility in what's happening in our world right now. So I think that these are important things to keep in mind. In terms of the excused absence, I think we can call it what we like. We should not penalize these students. We should excuse these absences. People should not be made to feel like, oh, I have to choose between my world or a bunch of kids I play football with that I really love. That's not a fair choice.
[Michael Ruggiero]: I support where member Van der Kloot is going with this. I'd like to offer a friendly suggestion or two amendment. I would like to excuse the 1% of students right now that did not attend school on that day. The 1% that you said there was a dip. I would like to excuse all students that did not attend school that day. I think that makes more sense than, if we're going to start actually beginning to take action on what's happening on climate, I think then we have to recognize in talking about policy, about which students need to be excused when, I don't necessarily think that, that addresses the issue to the spirit of what the students are trying to protest. And I would like to stand behind them in any way possible, and this is the way I think we can do it.
[Michael Ruggiero]: We don't have the policy in front of us to tweak it. We need language to tweak it. And that is the action that we critique. We're talking about 1% of students, if there were some students that were sick that day, but not sick enough to go to the doctor, okay, we'll count them among them. We'll count them among the excused. I don't think there's going to be some sort of huge consequence to this behavior. And I don't think that we're setting some sort of awful precedent that if people want to go to Charlottesville and hit someone else in the car that we're somehow supporting them. And I think this, with all due respect to the committee, and with all due respect, I think it sends more of a message to our support of the students, that if we vote now and excuse all the students that weren't able to, that have unexcused absences on the book, now we can do that as a committee, rather than send it to a subcommittee where we talk about it and it comes again in like four weeks.
[Michael Ruggiero]: I'm sorry.
[Michael Ruggiero]: I suppose that this is my reservation in all of this. While I deeply understand students, they wanted to go, they were worried that they would get an unexcused absence. And now we're going to retcon it in retroactive.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Maybe that's something that will actually, they'll remember that they had a moment when they could have gone. They could have standed out for the climate. But they were worried about some sort of consequence or inconvenience or problem. And maybe next time they are more willing to actually stand up for the environment. Maybe next time they're more willing to move forward with this.
[Michael Ruggiero]: I think I'll let it pass for now.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you, Mayor Burke. I just would like to ask that when the plan is proposed, we have options. It's not like this is what we think is the best. I thought that the process that we went through for the superintendent search was excellent. And I just want to make sure that it doesn't go to a subcommittee. You guys present us a book, and we vote on it, and we're done. It's something I thoroughly hope that we can all be involved in, because these are serious decisions. And I commend member Rousseau for doing research on this regard, because that's useful for me to know as well. So I would like to maybe suggest that we add a mandate to this subcommittee, that they provide us with maybe three different plans, or... Just for general information, a feasibility study would have to happen at some point.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you, Ms. Khan, for the report. I want to ask some questions about illustrative math. Yes. So I think this is how it works. So when kids complete online exercises, all that information is recorded for you to look over. Is that correct?
[Michael Ruggiero]: So, when the online classes, that information isn't compiled globally for you?
[Michael Ruggiero]: Oh, the exercises themselves. That's right. We're not using those. No, exercises themselves are on paper. That was my misunderstanding. Yes. Thank you. Do we have a sense of, I remember that printouts and kids carrying binders were a key element of this program. Yes. So do we have a sense of how our compliance percentage is going? I know it's early in the year, but I remember as a math teacher, I would have a certain percentage of kids and I'd open up their bag and all the papers would come
[Michael Ruggiero]: Sure. Can you give us a sense of how things are working so far? Obviously, I know it's very early in the year.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Personally, I think it's very exciting that we're trying a new program. I'm just very nervous about the implementation and I just want to make sure I have a couple questions for you. So help me understand a little bit about the pedagogy. Sure. So here we have there is a page that gives I imagine there's like a page that hits all of the modalities that they're doing sort of a guide for the lesson and then the teachers choose from like a potpourri of exercises that they feel would best fit their students that basically how these classes work.
[Michael Ruggiero]: And do we have a sense of how the teachers, so far, so good? Is that what we're hearing so far?
[Michael Ruggiero]: Is there like a test that students are going to be administering? Or is it sort of like all the teachers have a lot?
[Michael Ruggiero]: Oh, okay. It's the PD day.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you so much for these reports. I appreciate as much information about this particular program, because I'm very excited about it.
[Michael Ruggiero]: And thank you so much.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Yeah, one last question. I forgot to ask you this, but it's on my list. Do we know what percentage of the two class books that are being taken out for children that don't have access to computers at home? Do we know how many of those books are being checked out?
[Michael Ruggiero]: Yeah, I mean, I imagine just sort of with the demographics, I'm sure there's some classes that it's a much higher population. I mean, are there lots of teachers saying, Faiz, I need books like now? Are a lot of teachers bugging you about that?
[Michael Ruggiero]: I look forward to the update. Thank you so much.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you for the report. This was, I'm speaking for myself, but I think for the other members as well, this was very important that we work on this. I had the element of the dyscalculia, I'm mispronouncing it, of course, I'm sorry, elements of this. Do any of these screenings actually address those concerns as well, or dysgraphia is the other issue, or these are all directly, we're mostly concerned with dyslexia in these initial incidents.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Great. And in terms of the workshops being very competitive. So the idea here is that the teacher is going to attend the PD and then they're going to come and share the ideas that they learned from these workshops to all the other teachers.
[Michael Ruggiero]: I see. It seems like a strange process. I mean, the teachers you would expect to have the professional development would be the ones that are struggling the most to address the problem in the population. And while I think it's great that three teachers were selected to learn this program, I mean, It'd be great if we could have all the teachers attend.
[Michael Ruggiero]: I think it would be great if we could have a little presentation. I've seen some of the pictures of the Event Horizon Telescope and it's just amazing to actually see a black hole surrounded by all of this plasma. It would be great if we could get a presentation to our middle school students to get them excited.
[Michael Ruggiero]: I want to get a sense of, do we have an idea of when the DESE guidelines will be coming out, or is that the state's unclear on that?
[Michael Ruggiero]: And do we have a sense, is there like a preliminary report that's going to be anticipated, or it's just all coming out at once?
[Michael Ruggiero]: Is it possible that we could have one of the administrators of the program come in to speak about what their game plan and their strategy is? Because right now it seems like everyone's sort of unclear about where this is moving, and this is a very serious issue. I mean, we all were very moved by the presentation that came to us about dyslexia.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Oh, I have no doubt. I don't mean to imply that people aren't taking it seriously. It would just be helpful to me when people call me about the issue that I have more to report other than Desi is trying a bunch of stuff out in some different communities and we'll see in a year and a half.
[Michael Ruggiero]: If they can't, send a personnel member, at least something they can write us, so at least we have a sense of what's going on. And I really appreciate both of you following up on it. So thank you.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Absolutely.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you so much, John. Thank you for the report. I had a question. So I think maybe a number of months ago, the committee voted to have an inventory of all the expensive equipment as like a spreadsheet or some sort of initiative to understand where things are.
[Michael Ruggiero]: I'll get back to you on that, personally. That's fine. If that's the way you prefer to do it, that's OK.
[Michael Ruggiero]: We do have that if there is like a stated emergency that would require that that the chair refuses to recognize point of clarification But but you're not saying an item not on the agenda can be discussed Well, in terms of an emergency situation, so we do have the authority via open meeting laws to discuss those issues. If the chair refuses to put that emergency item on the agenda, we can force that issue to be recognized under open meeting law as long as there's a super majority and we wouldn't violate any open meeting clause if it's an emergency situation.
[Michael Ruggiero]: A supermajority would have to agree that it is an emergency.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Two questions as well. Thank you. The first question I have was your mix of the opt-in versus the opt-out model that you have. So the original screening, students are just going to have the survey if they want to fill it out or not. Is that an option? But if they get included in the study, it requires both consent of the student and the parent. Is that still the model that we're using?
[Michael Ruggiero]: Great. And the second question I had is, you mentioned before that it would be possible to include other questions, a couple of other questions. It would be great if we could have a question also on vaping and a question on maybe activity levels, including like diabetes and like sugary drink consumption.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Yeah, it would be nice if we could have a question about sugary drink consumption as well, because that is a really rising health cost, as you noted.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Yeah, I don't know if this requires an amendment. And I also don't want to jeopardize the scientific value by including every single question under the sun. But if it doesn't actually jeopardize the scientific value of your study, I would prefer questions about obesity and sugary drink consumption and activity levels to also be included Perhaps Ms.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Of course. That's the most important. I mean, I understand. I don't want you to jeopardize the scientific value of what you're doing by expanding out the scope.
[Michael Ruggiero]: I mean, I don't think this requires an amendment, but if you could look into that for us, I'd really appreciate it.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Well, I would imagine, I mean, I'm speculating, I don't have the scientific data in front of me, but I would imagine that children that tend to be less active and also have a poorer dietary environment also have a higher likelihood to use marijuana. I don't know if I have any evidence of that, but it would seem at least sort of, you know, you imagine sort of the person smoking pot, watching TV, eating Doritos. I mean, that could be a cliche, or perhaps there's some scientific truth to that fact. I don't know.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Yeah, the reason why I mention it is I've had a couple of parents now talk to me about, you know, their child was involved in middle school sports and they were very athletic and then the vaping and the drug use came into their lives and all of that stopped. So, I mean, I would be curious to see whether that correlation actually is valid or if it's just sort of like word on the street what I hear. Thank you, Doctor.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Free breakfast, lunch feasibility.
[Michael Ruggiero]: So thank you very much for rushing out this report. I know that we all asked you to expedite it and with all the other budgetary work that you had. I really appreciate it because as I mentioned before as a former educator, I know what it's like when kids show up hungry and I've seen the effects. I've taught at both kinds of schools. But I do share Member Ruseau's reservations about not doing an after the bell program. When kids have the opportunity, if mom and dad are running late, that kid doesn't eat. And one of the issues that we talked about at the superintendent review was making sure we have a consistent program. throughout the entire system. I guess the way I feel about it is that, you know, if you're a child in poverty, it doesn't matter whether you go to the Columbus or the McGlynn. I just want to make sure that kid's fed. So I would like to suggest under this pilot, since we're running a pilot, I would like to have a consistent after the bail program. That would be what we test, not sort of we try this, we try this, we try this. I want to see what happens when the entire district has an after the bell program. And if we have something like 90% participation, then we would know that we have an issue. seeking a second on that or has anyone else had a motion?
[Michael Ruggiero]: And I believe, and I understand, it's like one more thing that member Ruggiero has thrown at the principals. But on this particular issue, I do believe it has a significant impact on educational standards. And it will be seen throughout the entire school system. So I would, if none of my, no one wishes to second this motion, that's fine. But I would like to make a motion that we do a universal after the bell program for breakfast. That's the one we pilot. And if it doesn't work, If we can't get it to work by November, then we can regroup and say, you know, it just didn't happen at the McGlynn because of rodents.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you, Mayor Burke. Thank you very much for this presentation. I did have a question on page three of the handout. You mentioned our lower full inclusion rate and lower subseparate rate as compared to the state. Can you tell me what the state average is and where we compare?
[Michael Ruggiero]: Maybe I missed it in the wrong place. I couldn't find it. So I'll look for it again.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Great, thank you.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Are we talking like a huge difference or small difference?
[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you, Mayor Burger. One of the questions that came up when we were doing our budget discussion earlier was students, sometimes the Chromebooks will blink out. Do we ever have students lose data when they do the online assistant if we have a Chromebook that blinks out? It's not like they have to start from the top.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you very much, Mayor Bergen. Thank you.
[Michael Ruggiero]: for the report, I was hoping we could speak to Ms. Caldwell about it, but I appreciate you presenting in her stead. First off, I was curious, so in front of the curriculum committee, how many requests are made for professional development?
[Michael Ruggiero]: Yeah, so four were granted approval, is that correct?
[Michael Ruggiero]: Yeah, because I remember when the teachers were here speaking on this very issue, they seemed to be, almost all of them, seemed to have the impression that they've presented things and they haven't had a chance to be approved on.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Yeah, I would, if possible, I would like to request a report to get a percentage of what our denial versus approval rate, but I have a couple of other questions in this regard as well. In terms of our tuition reimbursement, how do we compare looking at other similar school districts?
[Michael Ruggiero]: Yeah, I mean, I can certainly, as a former educator myself, I've taken part of these conferences and I've learned a lot, but on the school committee I can also appreciate the stress to make sure that we have all these positions filled and if someone's away for a couple of days. that we can fill their spot. I guess the sense that I had when TA was here is that it seemed, and many people nodded, and many people expressed their dissatisfaction with the amount of conferences that they had been approved for. Now, whether that's true or not, I mean, I understand that you You think we're being very generous?
[Michael Ruggiero]: If possible, it would be very helpful for me, because I do have these conversations when teachers approach me. ill-equipped to represent the district and say, no, actually, we gave 150 conferences versus Melrose, which only gave 35, or Arlington, which only gave 85. So it would be very helpful for me to understand where other districts are in this regard. I don't know if you have a superintendent database that you would access, but if you could do us a favor,
[Michael Ruggiero]: I don't anticipate that you, everyone's busy doing graduations, and that would be a terrible time. But at your next superintendent conference, when you all meet, if you could pool five or six of our sister districts and say, how many do you guys give out? And then you can report back those figures to us. It would help me. When a teacher finds me shopping at Wegmans and they're hitting me with that right now, I feel ill-equipped to represent. I mean, I think any teacher understands that there is a give and take, but on the other side, it's important for us to recognize that we are part of the voice of the schools, and it'd be helpful to me to have those numbers.
[Michael Ruggiero]: So moved.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Aye.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you so much for bringing this to our attention. Serving issues like this is why I ran for school committee. I really appreciate you bringing this to our attention. I would like to suggest that once we move forward and remove or find a better option for our community that we all can agree on, that you find something else that you think should be improved and you keep doing it. Because this is one of the most exciting things about serving on this board. So please keep speaking up. Your voice is welcome here. Thank you.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you, Mayor Burke. One issue I heard come up reputedly in your state, Charlene, was the professional development funds being rejected. Could you give me a sense of how often this happens?
[Michael Ruggiero]: Absolutely. Thank you. Mayor Burke, I'd like to make a motion that we have a report on the percentage of professional development funds that are requested from us and what percentage we actually give to teachers. As a former educator myself, I know how valuable professional development time is. So I'd like to see that in writing as a report, please.
[Michael Ruggiero]: The percentage of teachers that have applied for professional development monies
[Michael Ruggiero]: Is it, so if a teacher places, thank you, I mean I appreciate it, I just want to get a sense of what's happening. So if a teacher makes a request for a conference or a class in the summer, that teacher's application must still be on file somewhere, correct? Even if it's rejected, or not?
[Michael Ruggiero]: It's not that they passed the expiration date of the application. It's just they weren't the first in the door. Is that what you're saying?
[Michael Ruggiero]: So the teachers applied properly.
[Michael Ruggiero]: So someone, let's say they went to Mass General Hospital and they wanted to receive special training to help our dyslexic students, that wouldn't necessarily be covered.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Yeah, it would be very helpful to me just to, and thank you very much for this information. Thank you very much for sharing your concerns. I just want to make sure that we can see something physical so we can actually move forward with an educated decision. If we have 100 teachers applying for 10 spots, that's unacceptable in my opinion.
[Michael Ruggiero]: I mean, I've taught AP Calculus, so I know it's not so much always just the mathematics, but it's also the ability and getting the educational instruction to teach at a high level to high school kids who are sort of in between being at college ready. So I know those classes are particularly challenging. In terms, I would like to also, in addition to the report, I'd like to suggest that we review the policy in place. Because, I mean, your particular case, it seems like we should be allowed a little bit of discernment, you know, especially for seniors in June. I was just thinking the benefit would have been pretty big to the system as a whole, and just to have that experience, to read the AP exams, see what they're looking for, go back and tell. On our teacher, we have a huge AP offering in my school.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Amber, is the podium microphone on? Oh, I'm sorry.
[Michael Ruggiero]: I just want to say briefly that it's been a real honor seeing you guys work with your energy. It's been a real pleasure. I know we have a lot going on tonight. I don't want to ramble on. But thank you so much for coming down and making this presentation.
[Michael Ruggiero]: So as an educator, former educator, I can tell you that there are students in Medford that the only time they have a real meal is at school. We know that for a fact. I share member Ruseau's energy in making sure we get this done. Our job as a school committee member is to make sure that we're devoting the right time in the right places. And I completely understand that we can't get the research done in two weeks. But for me, I don't need to see the research, because I know that there is a significant portion of students that the only time they eat is at lunch regularly. Otherwise, they're just grabbing a snack maybe every so often. We need to make this a priority. I've seen the effect it has on children. I've taught in both kinds of schools, schools where they have a lunch in homeroom and schools without it. And I can tell you there's a marked difference. Anyone else doesn't have anything else to say on this issue? I think we can move the question.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you. That's it. Mr. Ruggiero, did you have one last comment? I withdraw my comment. Ms.
[Michael Ruggiero]: So on this question, so the children pulled out the the questionnaire, if they are screened as heavy users, or would it also be students that aren't screened as heavy users also be included in?
[Michael Ruggiero]: Oh, so it's going to be an equal number of non-users. If a child's selected, he never has to fear that he's going, because I would wonder if that would affect the methodology.
[Michael Ruggiero]: How many students do you intend on sampling?
[Michael Ruggiero]: So do you anticipate something like you take 125 students that are not marijuana users, 125 students that are, and that's your sample pool?
[Michael Ruggiero]: In addition, you mentioned that on your questionnaire you can include other activities that are unhealthy. I'd like you to expand that net as wide as you possibly can without affecting your research significantly, including questions such as obesity, perhaps TV screen time use. Is it possible you can include those items in your survey?
[Michael Ruggiero]: It was just being mindful of. And secondly, if we do move away from the passive consent model, will that affect the demographics of your participation? So there are certain communities that won't respond because their parents won't sign. That's something that we have to recognize as a community. If we're going to do a truly, a true survey, perhaps passive content is the best option. appreciate your concerns. I have no doubt that the doctor will maintain the confidentiality of all the information that the students... And we can talk about their...
[Michael Ruggiero]: I would prefer we go down that line to address Mayor DiMendito's concerns, but that's where I am. Thank you.
[Michael Ruggiero]: I'm just worried.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you, Mary Brooke. So a number of things. First off, As you know, I'm a math teacher myself. And so my concern is echoed. I'm concerned that we're going to have students that don't have access to technology. The printers aren't going to be working. So out of those 6th and 8th grade classes, how many students did not have a computer at home?
[Michael Ruggiero]: So does the program take So it monitors the students how long they are on the website, is that right?
[Michael Ruggiero]: Let's say you have a student who's online, accessing to it.
[Michael Ruggiero]: So I just want to know, did you have a chance to make an informal poll of how teachers and middle school teachers feel about the adoption of this new program?
[Michael Ruggiero]: So you feel in terms of questions of morale, they're willing to follow you down?
[Michael Ruggiero]: I'd probably follow that too. I'd follow that. OK. And oh, shucks, I have one last question. So how much do each individual workbook, how much does each one cost? $26. I know you already said that. I'm just getting a little foggy inside. OK, so for us to get three copies per class is not unbelievably expensive.
[Michael Ruggiero]: You seem to be of the opinion that let's just go with the binder method, see how it goes. If we need the notebooks, later we get the notebooks.
[Michael Ruggiero]: And just one last thing. I really do appreciate your collegial disagreement. It's heartwarming at 11 o'clock at night that you have an academic disagreement, but it's always for the kids. And that's very heartwarming to me to see that. Thank you.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Mr. Ruggiero? Mayor Burke, the story that you just shared with us, can you come back to the podium please? I'm sorry. Your story that you shared with us is not, I mean I've talked to other parents that have had similar experiences as well. I'd like to recommend that we, oh I'm sorry, excuse me. The experience that you shared with us is a story I've heard before, especially with dyslexic children. And to this end, in regards to what you've brought up, I would like to, at least maybe not tonight, if we can't get it on the agenda, but maybe we can do it another night where we can ask for a report for dyslexia, like a dyslexia audit from the school system. Would something like that be possible, Superintendent?
[Michael Ruggiero]: My concern would be just making sure that we're doing the best for curriculum. I appreciate the presentation that we're going to have tonight, but it would be useful for me to understand where we are as a community versus just research.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you. Thank you, Mayor Burke. Thank you, doctor, for this very informative presentation. There are a number of things that you brought up that really interested me. One of the things I guess that concerns me, so we can expect, according to your research, we can expect 10% of the students in our school system at all grade levels are suffering from dyslexia. Of that 10%, how many, I wasn't sure if I caught it in your presentation, if I missed it, I apologize, but what percentage of students that are in that 10% category are actually aware of their dyslexia?
[Michael Ruggiero]: Would they be medically diagnosed with... No.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Yeah, let me clarify my question. So of the 10% that have dyslexia, How many have a medical, what percentage of that 10% have a medical diagnosis of dyslexia?
[Michael Ruggiero]: that I would like your advice on. So for the students that are in the sixth grade, the seventh grade, they've moved beyond their optimal time for treatment, and they're sort of, they went through the wait to fail model, I guess, and they're in the fifth grade, sixth grade. What steps should we take to address those students?
[Michael Ruggiero]: You mentioned the tablet program that you're developing right now on an iPad. What sort of training is necessary for teachers to quickly and adequately spot dyslexia early on so they can get the best treatment?
[Michael Ruggiero]: How long does this little iPad quiz take or game?
[Michael Ruggiero]: So it would be something that we could maybe Xerox off and just let the kids play with for 20 minutes?
[Michael Ruggiero]: Yes. Thank you.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Mr. Ruggiero. Oh, just a follow-up question on the item. If we could just sort of work towards having an audit of where we are with the various dyslexia. Our next presentation is going to address many of these questions.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you. So currently at the Roberts, can you tell me how many students have IEPs based on dyslexia right now?
[Michael Ruggiero]: And is this for all the elementary schools?
[Michael Ruggiero]: Would you have a ballpark figure?
[Michael Ruggiero]: So let's add that to the report as well, please.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Yes, yeah, I understand that. I mean, it just seems back of the envelope, right? So we have around 2,000 kids in our elementary school. So we know, at least based on the research, what we've heard, that's about 200 kids that are suffering with it right now. So, I mean, the question is, I would like to know, how many of those kids have educational plans in place right now? I don't think that this... For dyslexia.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Yes, that's right, because that's what we're, the idea here is trying to address this issue, just making sure that we know where we're at, because I'm getting a sense that maybe we don't.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Motion to enter Executive Session to deal with the legal matters? We still have some items left on the agenda.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you, Mayor Burke. In terms of the landscaping, I want to know, is it possible that we could create maybe a small scholarship for students? And we can open up to them for a design contest, maybe something like $1,000, $2,000 scholarship to college or a college bond. And we could allow our students to actually present ideas. Is such a program like that possible, Madam Superintendent?
[Michael Ruggiero]: Yeah I really like the idea that I mean of course we could always go out to bid and have a bunch of professionals look at it. But I think it'd be a really fun project for a number of students to actually have an opportunity to have like a little contest. Maybe it's not a scholarship maybe it's an award and a plaque that we present at a school committee meeting. But regardless I'd like to make a motion that we explore this option with the superintendent and she can come back with to us with a report at her leisure.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Can you tell me logistically how composting will work with high school students?
[Michael Ruggiero]: Yeah, thank you very much for this report. Just out of curiosity, so reading through the manifest here, and when I read the floor is fair poor, is there a risk that children will be injured using it?
[Michael Ruggiero]: How old is the floor exactly?
[Michael Ruggiero]: Mr. Giro. I just, because I'm a little confused still, so let me ask again. So will the floor be safe for next year? If we didn't fund this program.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Right, I understand. I just want to make sure that if we do do it this year that it needs to be done. Thank you.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you, Mayor Burke. Thank you very much for this report, Madam Superintendent. I really enjoyed reading through it. I do have a question about your major and emerging scenes section on page 13. I wanted to know, so obviously we all know that the scheduling issue between the vocational school and the high school is not acceptable. I guess, and I also know it's going to be a thorny problem to untangle that. I wanted to know what is your timetable and schedule for addressing it? How long do you think it'll take?
[Michael Ruggiero]: do you anticipate a lot of, for lack of a better word, pushback from the unions on the change?
[Michael Ruggiero]: I just would like to also recommend that we put the lottery date for the middle school selection also on this calendar, if possible.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you, Mayor Burke. I've noticed this on page five here. Yes. So there's a significant drop from grade three to grade four. What do you believe? Why is that?
[Michael Ruggiero]: Do you have a sense of, in the past when we've had these breakdowns, we've been able to see which schools have been performing at what levels. Do you have a sense, are there any, disparities between different schools on these? It's in the first report.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Oh, I'm sorry. Oh, the new one that was on the desk. Yes. Oh, I'm sorry. Thank you. I didn't catch it in the envelope.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you very much.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Yes, yeah, follow-up question. So thank you very much for this that you give us today. But is it possible that we could look at, in the future, or perhaps with the report that you're sending to Member Ruseau, is it possible you could do a per-subject breakdown per school? So we could see that maybe we could get a couple more measurement and data specialists at the Columbus. That would be useful for me to see. OK. Just like you've provided the aggregate data per school, it would be very useful for me to know per subject on each school.
[Michael Ruggiero]: By strength, like geometry, measurement data, fractions, all of these, I guess, subtopics. It would be nice to know the breakdown per school as well. Sure. Thank you. Member Ruseau, would it be okay if I added that to your motion? make another motion. Okay, then I'd like to, or unless we have to, sorry, excuse me. I'd like to make a motion that we have the breakdown for schools that are at the convenient, by topic, thank you.
[Michael Ruggiero]: No, we remember.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you for the report. I really appreciated the executive summary here. Can we just go to page four of your report, please? Sure. So just sort of walk me through this table at the bottom of page four. So there are a number of domains and clusters that are associated with them, and these are the highlights, the areas that we need work. Is that basically the end?
[Michael Ruggiero]: But you don't get a whole table that says item 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10?
[Michael Ruggiero]: Right, right. It would be just useful to me. I mean, there's no rush on this, but if we could get like a PDF, save the paper of all the different items and the districts and state scores, it would just be helpful for me just to get a more complete sense of what's going on. I appreciate the executive summary and not like a thick binder of problem, you know, issues that we can look on now. But at home, it would be nice for me to look over these domain by domain. And if we could break that down by school, I mean, is it challenging to break down by school or just a printout? It would be really helpful to me to see what areas that we could, perhaps there might be an environment that we could leverage someone in the community that has experience with something, for example, molecules to organisms.
[Michael Ruggiero]: I'd just like to know a little bit about the Massachusetts Coalition for the Management of Concussions.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Who's going to, is there a neurologist going to be presenting at that event? I don't have, I'm sorry. Oh, excuse me.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Mayor Burke, thank you. I stand in opposition to this plan for many of the reasons that Member Ruseau mentioned. First off, I think that it's part of my fiduciary responsibility to the city of Medford to review these items in part of our working group. I feel like this can be done as in committee of the whole and I dislike the idea that If I attend these meetings, it will be simply informational. With all due respect to members that are on this committee, I'm sure they do a great job. But I think I owe it to the citizens of Medford to be able to speak on these matters. And I dislike the idea. While I understand that items that come to us, We would have the opportunity, it would come to us as an omnibus agreement. And yeah, I think that this is the wrong direction while I understand the attempt and the idea. I believe that all of us should be present at these meetings and it's very possible perhaps we could schedule these from 6 to 7.30 before Monday or other times.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Yeah, while I completely understand your point.
[Michael Ruggiero]: I mean, it's part of my job. I mean, it's difficult for me to, it was difficult for me to attend today's committee of the whole, but I made it. It was, other members couldn't come in at exactly the right time. They were five or six minutes late. It's understandable. These are important matters, and I do believe that our entire meeting should deliberate.
[Michael Ruggiero]: I think that there's a number of items I wish to address. The first was the question, well, what's this personnel subcommittee for? Well, in my opinion, a great use for it would be to decide if we want a badminton coach and a conversation about a team or a new team and how that individual personnel should be hired. The underlying premise that seven of us can't sit down together and have a thoughtful conversation about these topics is somewhat, for lack of a better word, almost offensive to me. I think we can do it. It's not like seven of us can't get into a room. A quorum of our subcommittee is four people, for God's sakes. If Kathy can't be there because of a family emergency, we'll survive. You know, this body will continue. But in terms of questions of collaboration and conversation, I'm excited that our new superintendent wants to create a more transparent process, and I support the motivation. And while I am very frustrated by this proposal, I understand where it comes from. However, I do not, we can all sit down in a committee of a whole or if we needed something less formalized, we could do something like a dialogue that we had earlier in the year where we can just sort of throw ideas on the board and see what sticks. That is within our purview. And I also do believe with respect to member Rousseau that we are not the weirdo in this case. I think actually using, a process where the community has an opportunity to see what's going on in front of a camera versus a subcommittee meeting which might not. I don't think that that fosters added senses of transparency for the community. So again, while I'm very frustrated by this proposal and I do believe it's the wrong direction, I understand the motivation, and I appreciate the idea that you want to create a more collaborative, a more transparent environment, but we have a forum to have collaborative conversations in a transparent environment, and this is it.
[Michael Ruggiero]: I mean do we have a quorum for a committee if I'll go I mean look I mean The chair right now
[Michael Ruggiero]: In the evening, if possible, at 6 o'clock, sometime around that.
[Michael Ruggiero]: I know. Sorry, Nicole. Wasn't she in earlier? I had her up at the podium.
[Michael Ruggiero]: So I'm interested in your mentioning about the assessment that's going to be at the graduation. So is this an assessment similar to the MCAS? Is that going to be the design paradigm?
[Michael Ruggiero]: I also assume new educational materials will have to be purchased.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Has the state offered any financial support?
[Michael Ruggiero]: One last question.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you so much. Have DESE published the core curriculum, the actual topics that will be tested on this exam, like the different modalities?
[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you very much for all these meetings. I just was curious, how many times do you anticipate on meeting?
[Michael Ruggiero]: If possible, I mean, I would really like to attend these meetings because I'm very interested in this particular topic. I would prefer it to be as a committee of the whole. I understand perhaps we could vote on that now or we could discuss that.
[Michael Ruggiero]: This was a major issue to me when I was campaigning for school committee, and I'm really glad to see the beginning motions of resolving the problem, especially the economic and social disparities between the two schools I've always found very troubling. I do have a couple of questions about it, however. Given that some teachers have after school programs at some schools versus other, will students at the McGlynn be able to take an after school program at the Andrews and vice versa?
[Michael Ruggiero]: And also I was concerned before the issue was joining the two schools or having a random lottery. was that there were programmatic reasons. For example, English learners were assigned to one school and other environments. Will those considerations still apply?
[Michael Ruggiero]: Yeah, I think there's a lot of, I think ultimately this will be this, unless we make a true difference between the two schools, where one has a magnet for one environment and another has a magnet for another environment, which is an option. perhaps we should explore, but this probably is the fairest option to make sure that we don't have the same economic disparities that we have now. However, I would like to know more about the rollout of this program, and I'd like to make a motion that we have a committee of the whole meeting where we talk more about this issue. I think it's excellent, and I think this is a great start. I just would like to have more material at hand to see sort of all the steps and implementation, and I want to make sure we can have a forum for community participation. before we make an official vote on this plan.
[Michael Ruggiero]: I want to understand a little bit more about the implementation, and I would like to make sure that the community has an opportunity to buy into the process versus something that's just a surprise at the end of the year. Because people are right now, at least two years ago, we're used to being able to choose. And that's something that we are going to say, well, you know, it wasn't working for us. We're changing the program. Here's why. I just want to make sure that the community has an opportunity to participate in that conversation. So is there a second for my motion?
[Michael Ruggiero]: My concern is this. I think that we absolutely, most of us can agree that the system that we have now is not working. is I think that there's another option that might be worth exploring, and that would have a magnet school for one environment, and a magnet school for, let's say, math or science, and a magnet school for language arts or humanities.
[Michael Ruggiero]: I understand completely, but it would be, once again, to get a sense of rollout, I think is important. And if you have four friends, and you have a cohort of four peers that you've always been with, for whatever reason, it's not mathematically impossible. I mean, it's probable that there will be groups of friends split up where one kid's at one school and the rest of the group's at the other. It's just going to happen. And these are options. I just want to make sure that we're making the right choice. If this is a one-year kind of deal while we discuss other things, I'd be a little bit more comfortable. But once again, I mean, I certainly share the superintendent's concerns. It was an important issue for me during the campaign. And it's still an important issue for me. I just want to make sure that we're doing this in the right way and exploring all options versus like, oh, this is the new normal. Let's all do it now.
[Michael Ruggiero]: I think it's important to recognize there are a lot of questions that still are up in the air. Like, for example, how we are doing some programmatic switches between some kids, if they have EL, are going to go to this school. Some kids with other needs are going to go to this school. I mean, these issues are up in the air. While I have complete faith in the superintendent, I think it's important for us to suss these questions out. Member Mustone, I completely understand your frustration, and I know that you just want to go, and I get it. But I don't think delaying this two weeks, a week and a half, for us to have a committee of the whole is going to destroy the program rollout. I just don't. I think that it would be important for us to take a breath. We have a problem. but to take a beat, think about this problem all together, and we're probably all going to, once we answer our questions, we're probably all going to agree that this is the right, this is the best thing for Medford, perhaps. But I think that we do need a little more time to think about this.
[Michael Ruggiero]: We're not talking about five months.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Yes, thank you, Mayor Burke, and thank you very much for this presentation. I'm very impressed by it. The idea of emergency preparedness is important to begin with. And as you mentioned, it's important to think of it when times are good. And oftentimes, it's easy to forget that there are students, like you mentioned, sometimes they trip and fall, and they just have trouble walking for a little bit. And other students that need a little bit more assistance. Madam Superintendent, do we have a district-wide emergency preparedness committee? And would one be able to be formed?
[Michael Ruggiero]: where we were talking about safety in place. Do you think that such an implementation would be possible for you to do with your staff?
[Michael Ruggiero]: I'd like to make a motion to send this to the superintendent for report to see if we could convene a district-wide emergency preparedness committee. And also to forward these recommendations to her so she could report back to us. I think that there's a lot of great work here, and I really appreciate it. Thank you so much.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Before the tabling, I just have a couple of questions about the formatting, because I had a similar concern or idea, I guess. Is it possible, if not department heads, or different departments, is it possible for us to list the departments that they receive their paycheck from?
[Michael Ruggiero]: Yeah. Can you still ask questions? So I'm just trying to understand the data frames that you draw this from. So to pull out this spreadsheet here, these columns, you drew that from your payroll system, is that correct?
[Michael Ruggiero]: Well, I guess the reason why I'm trying to understand the challenge of this So you have these numbers also cross-referenced to another data frame that where the warrants are drawn from that pay all these people, right?
[Michael Ruggiero]: So what I'm trying to understand is that if there's someone being paid, let's say, in the high school, How do they draw their check? They draw their check from just payroll and that's where it's come from? Or does it go that there's a warrant drawn from the high school and that goes to pay off the payroll?
[Michael Ruggiero]: I guess what I'm trying to understand is, because I've worked with a little data myself, so I'm trying to understand why is it difficult to pull out the department? Because I would imagine that these numbers must correspond to a different data set that you have, right?
[Michael Ruggiero]: Yeah, I mean, I understand that there must be many different data frames, but what I'm trying to understand is why is it, I still, maybe it's just because my head's so thick here, so maybe you could just go through it with me a couple of times. So if, and I'm not saying that this is the case, but let's say there's Dr., I don't know, Ghostface. How do, you know, someone who just ended up in the payroll system. You hear about stories about this every so often. You read the news that there's some mystery person that's been drawing payroll for years and years and years, even though they're not on the system anymore. That couldn't happen to us, right?
[Michael Ruggiero]: How do you know they're active?
[Michael Ruggiero]: We approve this every week, so I just want to make sure I'm crystal clear on the process.
[Michael Ruggiero]: I understand that people might have different deductions, and that changes the gross wages. I completely understand that. What I'm having trouble understanding.
[Michael Ruggiero]: I'm sorry. Excuse me. Yes. So what I'm trying to understand is, so there's data coming to you. then you filter that data and make this report. So there's no column about where that person works or what that person's title or role is in the company?
[Michael Ruggiero]: What are the data frames? I mean, I'm trying to understand.
[Michael Ruggiero]: My challenge here is it seems that there must be some sort of data frame of some sort, whether it's something like some SQL database or some database where this employee has all the facts about that employee are in a column on some sort of database.
[Michael Ruggiero]: What's the format of the database?
[Michael Ruggiero]: With all due respect, so the only assurance that we have that we don't have some sort of ghost member on the payroll is that the program tells us so?
[Michael Ruggiero]: I have no question. I want to make clear to everyone, I'm not implying that I think that there's any malfeasance. I don't. What I'm trying to understand is the difficulty in drawing the data. Because for me, I would, whatever data frame you're working on, you should be able to draw these columns. and the columns come out. Like, that's all the database experience I've ever had.
[Michael Ruggiero]: So they would just have multiple entries on the column. See, that seems to be the solution to the problem. If you had someone who works at both the Andrews and the Roberts, they would just have a comma in between the two places.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Well, I mean, we have a fiduciary responsibility to the voters of Medford. I mean, that's our job, right? I mean, that's what we vote on, is to make sure that these people vote here. The idea is that we have a report, but you're missing a key actual value on this data frame, which is to know where this person works in our system. I have, you know, there are many, many names here, and I'm sure they all work hard. I'm not, I wanna make absolutely clear, I'm not implying anything, but on the same token, I mean, there's a crucial, I mean, why not just, why have the employee number or even the name?
[Michael Ruggiero]: With all due respect to your point, which I understand where you're coming from, we don't have to take the entire population and test it. We would test a sample. So we could take 30 people from this list, and I could double check it. That would give me a reasonable set of understanding, well, I picked 30 names at random off this list. All these people work here. That would give me much more confidence. Because right now, there's no way for me to find any of these people. And that, but if I knew that, for example, let's say Michael Ruggiero, I don't want to name any names off the list, but let's say Michael Ruggiero, he works, he's a math teacher at the Roberts, that I would say, he's one of the names that I randomly drew from this page. I can check it if all 30 go through.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Like, I don't have to test an entire population to get some information about that population, man.
[Michael Ruggiero]: I'm all set.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you very much for that. I had a question about the vaping that you have on Thursday, February 7th. How is this event being advertised to parents?
[Michael Ruggiero]: Do you know, Madam Mayor, do you know for the Education Promise Act, do you know the house number?
[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you so much.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Okay. Mr. Ruggiero. Mayor Burkett, but also Madam Superintendent, it would be interesting to know how many parents or families have been affected by the government shutdown. I mean, I've been hearing that there have been a lot of reports, sort of, no one affected by me directly, but sort of secondhand information. And it'd be interesting to know if we could do more, either through Priscilla's Pantry, if we could figure something out.
[Michael Ruggiero]: I'm sorry to keep giving you little corrections or suggestions to the board.
[Michael Ruggiero]: This is on the second page under section one. Is it possible you could just include the exact URL that they need to download it so they could just click on that? It says medfordpublicschools.org. Could you just do the black slash? Because our website can be a little difficult, especially for someone who has limited English skills. More detailed. Such as myself, perhaps. And with that, I'd like to recommend that we put this online. I motion to approve.
[Michael Ruggiero]: And maybe this will be covered in the report. I didn't see it here on the slide. Could you give us like the top five languages spoken by percent, is that?
[Michael Ruggiero]: Can you give us a sense of how many students speak Arabic?
[Michael Ruggiero]: The reason why I ask is for the prior mentioned kindergarten affair might be if we have a large percentage of Arabic speakers it might be useful to have translators for them available as well. It's possible we could find someone in the community that would be willing to volunteer.
[Michael Ruggiero]: For kindergarten. This is not your, this is the prior presentation.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Do we know if we have many Arabic-speaking kindergarten students or first grade students?
[Michael Ruggiero]: Could you find that information out for us next time? Because it would be interesting for me.
[Michael Ruggiero]: I've only been looking at the English.
[Michael Ruggiero]: These statistics are really concerning to me. These aren't unique to Medford, of course.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Right. We're looking at an epidemic of obesity in this country, which have, as everyone here I'm sure knows, has long-lasting health effects. So I'd like to suggest to the committee that we create a community of the whole when possible, perhaps whenever you think we could put together something to see how we could tackle this problem. Perhaps we could welcome in some experts in childhood obesity to speak with us. Because there have to be some schools in America that are beginning to figure this problem out. We can't do nothing. For children to have these issues going forward, they might have health issues the rest of their life.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Yeah, I want to clarify. I didn't mean to imply that you're not doing anything. That was the wrong idea. This statistic is deeply frustrating to me, because I know how this can affect children as a prior educator myself. And I also know the health outcomes that children with this condition, once those fat cells are in there, they have to fight them their whole life. So I really hope that we could do that. I'm looking for a second on the motion, if possible.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Just to repeat the motion, the motion is to have a committee of the whole to address what policies we can put in place to tackle the obesity epidemic in our district.
[Michael Ruggiero]: I don't think we have a nutrition subcommittee. The curriculum would be the closest I can think of. But I think it would be best served if we were all there to talk about this issue. Because we're looking at almost 300 kids that are either overweight or obese. And the obesity rates, we're looking at like 250 kids here. I mean, that's just my back of the envelope calculation. And that's a scary statistic. The health outcomes of these children are severe. And whatever kind of solutions we have to think of outside of the box, welcome in other committees that maybe have some ideas. I really hope that we as a committee can at least begin to think outside the box on this one, because America is, we're having trouble.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Just a question on the chain of command here. this new person will be reporting directly to you and will act independently. So what will the sort of relationship be between this person and the superintendent?
[Michael Ruggiero]: One of the interesting factors I would like to discuss more about is vaping of cannabis oils. So do we have a sense of that increase? Because it seems to me that's even a bigger problem. Or do you think it's of the same magnitude?
[Michael Ruggiero]: Do we have a sense of how the rate has been increasing?
[Michael Ruggiero]: So there's no sense?
[Michael Ruggiero]: Yeah. Seeing that these products are all illegal, do we have any sense of where kids are getting them from or how the distribution networks are happening in the high schools?
[Michael Ruggiero]: So do you think that it's simply the case where kids are just going into community stores, or is it just some kids have access and they're buying a bunch of it and then distributing it?
[Michael Ruggiero]: And what's the penalty for selling to a minor?
[Michael Ruggiero]: I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Mr. Ruggiero. We spent a lot of time thinking about the idea of consequences and what the consequences are. And this is something we debated back and forth. According to Robert's Rules of Order, we have the authority now, whether we sign the document or not. And what is activity on becoming a member is actually a subjective element. The idea, though, is censure has, you are ultimately responsible to the members of Medford, and the citizens of Medford. So what you say is not, while we can censor you, it's what your authority is to the people of Medford. So, I mean, the idea, we wanted to add some element that we debated this idea back and forth quite a bit. Ultimately, we came down on the idea that there should be some sort of provision for a member that we felt acts in violation with the things that we're signing. Otherwise, it's just a piece of paper.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Mrs. DeVantage, yes.
[Michael Ruggiero]: safety involvement and volunteering, but that's something we're still doing some more research on. There are three papers that we would like to have considered in the entire meeting, so I'll just go through the first of them right now. The first item that was referred to us many months ago was about digital documents being posted online. Currently, many parents have asked me to post items personally, but we as a committee felt it would be best if we had a unified policy. So, originally we wanted to do a number of research, which we did. First, we spoke with Dorothy Presser. She's our representative for the Massachusetts Association of School Committees. She has no official position. There's no official guidance on digital documents being posted online. However, she hasn't heard any negative feedback from the communities that do it. They also don't track it, but she said probably a sizable minority, maybe 40%, maybe 30% of communities do post online. So after that, I called a number of different school committees and mostly superintendent's offices to see their position and see what effect it had in their community posting these documents online. There were basically four major areas that I asked them. First, I asked them to describe their posting process. All of the communities I had a chance to talk to had different processes. Second, I asked, did it help or hurt the community? And what problems have you had in the implementation? Thirdly, I asked, what system did you use to post? And finally, I asked, did they have any unforeseen problems that arose? In short, all the communities I spoke to felt very positively about posting documents online. None reported any significant problems from people using documents in a way that was not becoming or productive. First, I spoke with some people at Melrose. I spoke to Diane Hogan. She's the assistant to the superintendent there. Overall, she believed that they had a positive experience of posting packets online. Their community posted packets 72 hours in advance, and they use a program called Grayness, which is used by the entire community. Diane, or Ms. Hogan, believed it helped the community in real time. And they've been doing it since 2012. They also felt that there's a tendency for rumors to sort of spread through a community. But with the digital documents there, she felt that those kind of rumors were stymied. I left a message with the people at Danvers, but they weren't able to get back to me. And I also called a couple of other districts and weren't able to get back to me. But the people at Redding, whose name, the last name of this lady I unfortunately forgot to write down, her name was Linda. She was also an executive assistant. She believed that they had a very positive experience. They posted 48 hours in advance of meetings. And they used PDFs. So they don't, they do not pay for any expensive system. They just post PDFs online. Franklin Public Schools, I spoke to Denise Miller. They've had also a very positive experience with posting. They felt like there were no problems with doing anything online. What they did was a system, actually I'm going to recommend that we do, they send a link to school committee members first. School committee members have a few hours to review the materials in advance, and then the link is sent to the community at large. They don't send presentations or superintendent notes beforehand, and they also use just PDFs. Finally, I spoke to the people at Lexington. Ms. Calvino is the executive assistant there. She was the most enthusiastic about posting documents online in advance. She felt that it was very helpful to members of the community, and she would have actually parents call her back if they were spelling errors or typos online, so that was something that they had. She believes lots of parents use the documents and look forward to the packets to make sure that when they come to school committee meetings, they're prepared in advance. She did have or their community had a little problem with posting PDFs on a timetable that the community understood. So they just recommend that maybe we have a trial period first to make sure that all the wrinkles are ironed out and yeah. So there's no confusion about when things are posted. So our committee unanimously voted to do a similar program as they do in Franklin. We would like there to be a link sent to all school committee members at 12 noon to all school committee members, and then a link sent to the community at large at 4 p.m. These links would be in our entire packets, but what is confidential or materials that need to be presented and put in context?
[Michael Ruggiero]: No, we haven't voted on the minutes yet.
[Michael Ruggiero]: No, no. We voted to send it to school committee. I wasn't sure. Can we send?
[Michael Ruggiero]: Yeah, we haven't voted on those minutes. But I believe at this point we've done a good amount of research on this issue and we can move this forward.
[Michael Ruggiero]: So you need the minutes for this meeting.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Well, absolutely. Yeah. I'm just, I'm a little confused on the logistics of this matter. So the minutes of the meeting haven't been posted because we haven't voted on our last meeting yet.
[Michael Ruggiero]: We did vote at the end of our meeting to send these, to send the digital documents meeting forward to the whole committee.
[Michael Ruggiero]: So there's two items I would like to be reviewed. that we vote for the meet and greet, and two, also, that we start posting digital documents online, which we've cleared with the administration. That shouldn't be a problem to do.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you very much, Madam Superintendent. I was really heartened by your section about mathematics. Perhaps it's close to my heart, as you know. I would really be interested, if possible, when you do have meetings with Lesley University about scheduling the tutor program, I'd be interested if I could sit in on those meetings or at least be forwarded on that process. I'm very excited. about the partnership moving forward, and I think there's a great potential. I'd be curious to see what they have to think.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Yeah, this is a really great event. I'm just so proud, Marcie, for being selected. I was just curious, was there some sort of competition?
[Michael Ruggiero]: It would be just so wonderful if you guys could put together a little YouTube video or something.
[Michael Ruggiero]: If I can make one small suggestion, I know a number of Medford residents at the senior center served at World War II. I think it would be really, really great if you guys could come down and talk to them about the whole process. Maybe even get some donation money.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Yeah, thank you for this report. I also really enjoyed the breakdowns. I was really curious, though, when I originally read this, about the ratio of special education students in pre-K. It seemed like that's a pretty big chunk of the population, or is that a normal? Once again, the male to female ratio seemed a little different, or am I reading the report wrong?
[Michael Ruggiero]: Is that mandated by the state or is that via funding issue or is that just our policy in general?
[Michael Ruggiero]: Great, thank you so much.
[Michael Ruggiero]: I'm all set.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Yeah, I would also like to know participation rates in the different activities. Just so, obviously, if we have one chess kid and that kid costs a million dollars, like a crazy example. But it would tell me a lot more about the program and participation rates. But I do have other questions. I was curious about, on page six of nine, about the math teacher allocation. In particular, I was interested in the Andrews Middle School. And I noticed here that the budget there that we've exceeded the budget significantly. I just want to know what the situation was there.
[Michael Ruggiero]: It just seems like, once again, talking about parity at our middle schools, when you have this page six of nine, when you have one school getting almost $120,000 more from math teachers, that's... So, again, it's about replacement.
[Michael Ruggiero]: It would just be nice to understand what's happening there. And this question is, I recognize you're very, very busy and you have lots going on, especially at this time of year. But I wanted to know, do we have a sense of different school districts? Is that a report that would be easily found by you? Obviously, I'm not asking you to cook it up yourself. But is there some sort of database of different school systems that have breakdowns as fine?
[Michael Ruggiero]: And for the closeouts and everything? It would be really interesting. I mean, I guess it's a question of I'll do the research myself then. But this report itself, when you created it, was this one program that generated all these numbers?
[Michael Ruggiero]: Is it possible that you could create or email us the report when you create this as a machine-readable format? So it would be a little easier for me if I do the district-by-district analysis.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Is it a giant burden for you to send us this report as a machine-readable PDF? Is that an easy thing where it's just Control-P and it's sent out?
[Michael Ruggiero]: Right, but then I'll have to code something.
[Michael Ruggiero]: It's a little Python playdough.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Do we have a sense? So you have the overweight and obesity statistic together. Do you have a sense of what the obesity statistic is for children in the fourth grade?
[Michael Ruggiero]: I would be also interested to know different grades as well.
[Michael Ruggiero]: So the fourth grade has a particular problem.
[Michael Ruggiero]: I mean, the health effects of childhood obesity are significant.
[Michael Ruggiero]: For me, I think that this is a conversation I would like to have more of, if possible, especially thinking of solutions that we could do, whether it's a question of looking at our lunch program or looking at more activities for children, because these are some frightening statistics.
[Michael Ruggiero]: 20% of America's children are obese, not overweight, but obese.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Do you think the lunch program in particular could be explored? Like we offer pizza every day at the high school, right?
[Michael Ruggiero]: I mean, I would personally, if we could, find time for it. I know we're having a busy, but if we could find time on the agenda. I'd really like to consider this problem, because I think we have a serious problem.
[Michael Ruggiero]: complete child, the statistics broken down. By grade? Yeah, by grade, but not just overweight, but also by obesity. And if possible, I would like to really have a full conversation. Oh, you don't do overweight?
[Michael Ruggiero]: Well, I mean, that would at least be a start.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Yeah, I just want to know how many are, because the differences between overweight can be a pound. But obese, that means you're walking into adulthood with a one in three chance of having type 2 diabetes, right? I mean, it's a serious problem. That's a lifelong condition.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you, Mayor Burke. Thank you for the report. I just recently finished William Dersowitch's book, Excellent Sheep. and it talks about this idea of the raising rates of anxiety and depression among children and students in America. I wanted to know, do we compile statistics about reported incidences of depression in our school system?
[Michael Ruggiero]: for children of a certain socioeconomic class, they might not necessarily have access to. I'm just curious, like, when children come in and report a scenario or report suicidal thoughts, for example, is that information recorded?
[Michael Ruggiero]: That's like a fourth of our students. No, like an eighth of our students.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Sure.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Statistically, it's 20%. And is that what we found with the surveys, where students self-reporting that statistic? On the survey, do you say, I have suicidal thoughts, for example? Is that on the survey?
[Michael Ruggiero]: And do you have a sense of how that's changed over time, or is that number remaining consistent?
[Michael Ruggiero]: I think it would be very helpful for me if we could look for a report, while we're doing the obesity report, if we could have sort of a health day. It would be interesting for me to see reports and statistics about obesity, statistics about mental health, and also statistics about drug use as well, because I would like to see sort of the many different comorbidities, I guess, of health in our system.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Oh, okay, great.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Do you have a sense if children are self-medicating? If they're using alcohol, for example, to treat their depression?
[Michael Ruggiero]: To the chair, Dr. Edward-Vincent, are these statistics provided to the state versus different school systems? It would be interesting for me to know how Arlington is doing, how Medford's doing, how Somerville's doing, like our sister cities in the neighborhood. What are the health factors of those districts? Would they report to the state?
[Michael Ruggiero]: I mean, it would be interesting for me to, maybe we could request that from the Department of Education. Public health. Oh, public health or education. I'm not sure where the data would be compiled. But it would be very interesting for me to know how we're doing, and especially in regards to Like I said, other factors that maybe if we improved diet, we'd also help depression, help drug use as well. Thank you.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Yeah. Just like everyone else, I've attended good PD days and terrible PD days. How did we do last year?
[Michael Ruggiero]: Yeah, that's what I was curious about, the survey response.
[Michael Ruggiero]: That's fine. And I wanted to know, how often does the PD committee meet the professional development committee?
[Michael Ruggiero]: Okay. And so did you pick out these workshops yourself or did you work with the superintendent to find these workshops?
[Michael Ruggiero]: Well, thank you very much for putting it on.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Yet when I decided to run for school committee, one main question motivated me. Simply stated, I wondered, with over 4,000 students and $58 million in assets, why are most school committee meetings so poorly attended by parents? Before I ran, I feared that it is as they say on TV. People were simply disinterested and disengaged in local politics. But knocking on thousands of doors, a passion and brilliance drove me to continue. After a few months, an obvious answer arose. It was our timing. People have amazing energy and ideas to help drive our schools forward. But 7 o'clock on a Monday is a challenging, if not almost impossible time for many parents to voice their opinions. Dozens of parents have voiced support for a biannual weekend meeting such as I have proposed. But tonight's meeting time came into conflict with, and these are real responses I got from tonight, late night work schedules that just came up, the parent-teacher conference that are coming up, bedtimes, family dinner. Thus, I suggest we hold a meeting when parents can attend. As you can hear in the resolution, I suggest two meetings held on perhaps a Saturday afternoon every year. I propose we create an idea fair of sorts on important topics such as addressing our budget or energizing after school activities. The goals and themes of these meetings can be chosen by our committee and our superintendent to ensure that we are generating momentum to projects that we already have in the works. But I hope that we can really move forward real school committee meetings, where great ideas can begin to get some action. Additionally, I would like to invite Corey Check members of the PTO to help with child care, entertainment, and food during the event. With these amenities, busy parents don't have to wrestle dinner or childcare for frisky kids. Personally, I would love to see these events catered by our new bistro. But most importantly, I would like volunteer groups and PTOs associated with our schools to advertise opportunities for people to contribute. Clay Shirky coined the phrase cognitive surplus to describe the untapped energy and talent people have available after work. I honestly believe that the city of Medford contains hundreds of scientists that would love to open up and help out with STEM students. Hundreds of artists ready to inspire. Dozens of CEO dads and professor moms ready to open up their business and labs, if only asked at a time when they aren't at work or tucking in their kids. Before we open the floor, I want to acknowledge that I've left a lot of the details and dates of these meetings open to discussion. I know that our superintendent has to work out the details, and I hope to work with her as we move forward. Seeing that we are almost up to Christmas, perhaps only one meeting this year is possible. But I'm really excited about this proposal, and I can assure you many, many parents feel like that this would be a great addition to our school system. So thank you.
[Michael Ruggiero]: I've done a little broad research. I know that some private schools have done it in the past. When I was a teacher, private schools would hold a weekend open house backslash.
[Michael Ruggiero]: I mean, this is something that we can leave open to debate as well. But is it possible for us to have an official meeting where we're not following Robert's rules and therefore making it a very not
[Michael Ruggiero]: Some of the rules are just have a recess and just have a listening session as well, where we're all present. But if we do deliberate, if we do make decisions, yes, we would have to reform the committee or after a recess period.
[Michael Ruggiero]: I would like to suggest that we have a system, a way of thinking about it.
[Michael Ruggiero]: If something goes wrong, and it's really bad, all the parents show up. Wouldn't it be great if the system was, let's actually work together on making something right? A more proactive response in how we plan the policies of our schools. I feel like parents have reached out to all of us. I'm sure we all have solid problems that people have reached out that we've all done solutions.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Once again, like I said, I don't think that the question is, oh, there's some terrible thing that we're just not doing, per se, like a slide that needs to be prepared. I think the issue is more inviting people that have a resource available that they might be able to provide. And by creating a time when they can actually attend, they can actually begin to engage with the community and try to figure out how they can fit that resource into the needs of our schools. Are you all set?
[Michael Ruggiero]: I do an official survey. This is unscientific. We mis-explained it. Yeah, there's always going to be issues on the weekend as well. So some parents, they get told that Monday we may not be able to go on Saturday. But I do believe that if we create an event atmosphere, we create like child care or a movie that we project, create something that's more fun as well.
[Michael Ruggiero]: I just had a quick question about the spent ammunition that you found on the field. Was the caliber the same caliber or a different caliber of bullet that was from the prior incident?
[Michael Ruggiero]: Was the prior bullet a 9mm?
[Michael Ruggiero]: That was a cartridge. Much different. Thank you.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Yes. Mrs. Grant. Yes. Mr. Owens. Yes. 7 in the affirmative, 0 in the negative.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you for the report. It says it's capped at 39, and you have 39 already?
[Michael Ruggiero]: So you're all full.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Yeah, I just had a quick question about the statement here required to pass a criminal background check for the tour guide and the tour directors. Do you know anything about what type or how it's usually?
[Michael Ruggiero]: Okay, so it's a CORI check usually?
[Michael Ruggiero]: OK.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Yeah, thank you for putting together this report. I had a question about the actual unexpected walk, bike, share table that you have here. So how is the expected calculated? This is, it says that we have 47% for other members. These aren't the numbers. This is on the GHG.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Can you, when I read this through this report, I was looking for other communities. Can you give us a sense of what a community like Melrose or Somerville or Arlington, what their participation rates would be?
[Michael Ruggiero]: The line that I found most sort of interesting was the sequence that says if you live less than a mile from the school, the actual participation is 8%, but you're expecting about 30%. Do you see other communities making that 30%?
[Michael Ruggiero]: So what do you think makes Medford unique in this regard? Where are we lacking, I guess, because I would love to see, you know, I think it's a great thing for kids to be able to walk to school or bike to school. So how can we make that better?
[Michael Ruggiero]: Yeah.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Is it possible you could give us these statistics broken down by school instead of having it through the whole district, as you do here, the actual and expected?
[Michael Ruggiero]: No, I'm looking at the greenhouse gas admissions page and how your school compares and has actual and expected walk, bike, chair. That sequence right there?
[Michael Ruggiero]: Also, once it's not, if you don't have the 50% participation rate, it doesn't necessarily get recorded.
[Michael Ruggiero]: It's not as accurate, I see.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Oh, I'm sorry. Did you want to speak something? I just wanted to, I think this report is great. I think there is a huge potential, especially at that under one mile mark, to improve the participation in this program. So thank you so much for bringing all the hard work and bringing this program forward to us.
[Michael Ruggiero]: But first, suspension of the rules. I know we have a number of big reports coming tonight, and a member of the community would like to speak on an event at the Chevalier Theatre.
[Michael Ruggiero]: So how is this weighted?
[Michael Ruggiero]: I totally understand what you're saying.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Are there reimbursement for children of special needs? Is there a financial waiver for students of special needs?
[Michael Ruggiero]: So the full $10,000 has been- Is the need higher than the number of students that we've provided for or around that figure?
[Michael Ruggiero]: Did more people apply for the scholarship than received it?
[Michael Ruggiero]: Ms. Patterson, may I ask you a question about financing? How much would it cost for us to maybe provide a waiver for 15 more students to increase the number to 30? Another 10,000. Would that be the waiver needed?
[Michael Ruggiero]: Is it possible you could crunch those numbers for us as a report?
[Michael Ruggiero]: Let's say, for example, we found $10,000 under the rug here at City Hall. and you reapplied that money, would we lose money from the state if we, let's say, provided a scholarship for 30 other students?
[Michael Ruggiero]: Mayor Burke, I'd like to make a motion.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Yeah.
[Michael Ruggiero]: I'd like to make a motion for us to ask for a report to see if you could report back to us what that number would be, because if If there is a need greater, I mean, I know many parents that are struggling in the city of Medford. Some of the parents work two jobs each. I mean, this program might be a huge boon for them and their family. So it would be interesting for me to know what it would take for us to make 15 more slots available. If, you know, someone provides all the information.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Right, and the staff is still the problem. I mean, obviously there's hurdles, but I would just like you to look into that for us if possible.
[Michael Ruggiero]: have a little bet going here. Can you tell us which one of the school committee members she's complained about the most? Is it Paul? I don't know. What happened to the coaching school series?
[Michael Ruggiero]: Yeah, thank you very much for bringing forward this information to us. I'm really excited about this program. What I would like to do, if possible, would be nice to actually see some of the kits. If we could actually bring them in, or we can go to you. I need a station wagon to bring that stuff.
[Michael Ruggiero]: What I'd really like to see is, let's say we're doing crawfish week, I don't know, for example, it'd be great if we could line up field trips and activities that follow along that theme, whether it's go to the aquarium or the crawfish factory, whatever. It would be nice. Does the FOSS program go along a calendar? Like in October we do worms or whatever?
[Michael Ruggiero]: Yes.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Is it possible we could also add a plaque? Yes, oh definitely. To add some historical context.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Mayor Burke, maybe we have to refresh, review the policy. I think that's a good idea. But to my knowledge, wasn't it that they have to use the facility on a regular basis or is it just one time like the Kiwanis?
[Michael Ruggiero]: Yeah, well, I certainly think that the mustang blue is a great color choice. I think it might be an interesting idea to allow some of the students to pick out the color. Is it possible that we, I know time is short, but is it possible that we could open up maybe for like a little informal vote to get the kids a little jazzed about the whole project?
[Michael Ruggiero]: Yes, thank you. On page 17 to 43 of the updated document, there's just a question about classification. I notice there's a national grid, but it's listed as unclassified. I was just curious about that.
[Michael Ruggiero]: It's check number 0237291. I don't know if that helps. Yes. OK. Just curious why that wouldn't show up as utilities.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Yeah, sure. It's $2,141. It's about right dead center of the page, 17 of 43.
[Michael Ruggiero]: I'm sorry.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Yeah, it's, I'm sorry.
[Michael Ruggiero]: I see. And another question. It's looking at electricity. And then there was one that came up. I think it's on page 7. It's on the updated document, 7 of 43. Yes. Standard Electric. And then it says Educational Supplies. Standard Electric, a vendor? Correct. Oh, they're a supplied vendor. Yes. OK, so when I was looking at electricity, I was curious about that.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Yeah, this is a question for Cheryl. I'm just curious, so this bid was submitted to you on the 6th, is that correct? I received it today. I'm just curious, like, why didn't they... Well, I do have an answer for that question of why they did not submit the bid.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Did you talk to the lawyer on duty today, or did you talk to the
[Michael Ruggiero]: This vendor is certified to make a bid on the project.
[Michael Ruggiero]: But they didn't make a bid on either round.
[Michael Ruggiero]: I see. Is it possible we could reopen the bidding process?
[Michael Ruggiero]: I think everyone here is on the same side. Obviously, we all want to save $100,000 and have a beautiful playground. My question is this. So I guess I'm trying to understand why they didn't bid the second round.
[Michael Ruggiero]: How many vendors gave you this ballpark figure?
[Michael Ruggiero]: Do you know, is there like a warranty process on this company versus the ones we have?
[Michael Ruggiero]: Yeah, I mean, I guess my feeling is I like the idea that we could save $100,000. Obviously, my concern is I just want to know, is this being done properly? How much time would it take for us to reopen the bidding process? If we had to put, like, let's assume, assume that we do have to open the re-bidding process. I appreciate that.
[Michael Ruggiero]: So it's like a two-month, and we can't install in December.
[Michael Ruggiero]: I had a friendly amendment that we have someone, whether it's either Howard or Mark Romley, some legal representation, because it seems like there are legal questions in play here. Definitely.
[Michael Ruggiero]: I just want to make sure that we have a legal representative at this meeting to make sure everything is clear.
[Michael Ruggiero]: I think it might be an interesting project for our web coding to put together like a little web store to avoid the problem where we have an overfill issue. So parents could order what they need online, and then we could just ensure that they have a pickup spot location. So like, you know, Bobby's mom bought these supplies online, we'll have a little label printed out, Bobby's mom gets her supplies right at school.
[Michael Ruggiero]: On page seven as well, so the Roberts miscellaneous charges, is there a particular set of charges that fall under this or?
[Michael Ruggiero]: That's student activity, yes, thank you.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Yeah, I just wanted to make sure, thank you. That's all I have.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you, Mayor Burke. Superintendent Nelson, do you have a sense of what the size of the capital budget request would be just ballpark figure?
[Michael Ruggiero]: Would the mayor be able to speak to the size of the capital budget?
[Michael Ruggiero]: After the last budget meeting, I was deeply disturbed. Not by so much the presentation of the budget or anything that was contained in, but a fact I learned that I wasn't aware of. And this would be the pupil transportation of homeless students and the amount of money that's spent to this program. Obviously, I have no troubles helping students that are homeless, making sure that they're a part of our community. But when we spend so much on these students, that money could be better used to house them. The fact that we're spending over $13,000 a year to move a child here from Medford to whatever community they come from where their parents might be living in a shelter is insane. It is the exact kind of bureaucratic insanity which prompted me to run for elected office. So that said, I would like to ask my colleagues that we refer this issue to City Solicitor Mark Brumley. Now, I understand that the state is supposed to reimburse us for this money, and they haven't. But we have a platform to advocate for these children, and by pressing this case as hard as possible, with either our own attorney, Howard Greenspan, or City Solicitor Mark Rumley. I think would shed light on this problem. Like I said, it's absolutely absurd that we spend this money to truck a child back and forth, rather than helping them house, helping them find housing. And I seriously would like to make a motion that we refer this issue to City Solicitor Mark Rumley.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Well, we've been doing that.
[Michael Ruggiero]: It's my understanding that the Supreme Court ruled that they have to reimburse us for this money. Is that correct or incorrect?
[Michael Ruggiero]: Well, I think that we need to pursue this issue beyond simply just putting pressure on legislators. I really do.
[Michael Ruggiero]: So the resolution I'd like to put forward.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Well, they can put a ruling for... There is a ruling from the Supreme Court.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Yeah, I would like to make a formal motion to have City Solicitor Mark Rumley and Howard Greenspan look at this issue. to advise us how we should move forward. My frustration is not in helping homeless children. That absolutely needs to be done. My frustration is wasting money that could be better used housing these children. And I find it deeply frustrating.
[Michael Ruggiero]: beyond the other points, the kindergarten aides and the capital budget. I am going to end up abstaining on this budget. I have difficulty.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Well, I- And this is not a capital budget.
[Michael Ruggiero]: I understand it's not the capital budget, ma'am, but could you please I'm asking just for a rough estimate.
[Michael Ruggiero]: On the capital, so you have no idea.
[Michael Ruggiero]: I mean, with all due respect to the superintendent, whose opinion I do value, my frustration is parents are very concerned and very frustrated about the state of some of our grounds. And I mean, so I guess it boils down to a question of trust. And I'm ultimately out. I'll give you the benefit of the doubt, Mayor Burke. I mean, I think that's the best move forward. I've mentioned all my reservations to you. I appreciate some of the items that were brought up. I still can't understand why we can't hire a couple more part-time kindergarten aides. I don't understand the logic of that, but.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Right, and, you know.
[Michael Ruggiero]: This is my first year serving. I've noticed other members have maybe more frustrations than I, but I'll cut you some slack, I guess.
[Michael Ruggiero]: So in mid-August, you mentioned that you would roughly have a timeline. There'll be a committee of the whole meeting where we discuss the capital improvement plan. Thank you very much. I just wanted to make sure.
[Michael Ruggiero]: I just also want to thank the members of the school committee. I really appreciated not only everyone's heart, but also the opportunity to explore the issues with you, because we all have disagreements. We all have programs that we really love. But it was a really wonderful experience for me, and I really appreciated working with you. So I just want to, beyond all of the work that our finance department did, and all the work our superintendent, and I'm sure all the work that Dr. Edouard-Vincent put in as well, I just wanted everyone to know, I mean, we worked very long on this. And it really means a lot to me how hard people work. So thank you.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Okay. Thank you. Mayor Burke, I also have another point that's not a part of the process, but something I'd like to see in the future. A number of communities have worked with participatory budgeting. where a certain amount of money is set aside for the community to decide how it's used. I was thinking that .1% would work out to be about $60,000. I would like in the future to explore this idea. I don't know exactly when the right time is. We could put this as an agenda item so we could debate it or I'll make a motion right now to explore the idea or put it on the next time we have an agenda.
[Michael Ruggiero]: No, I would like to see community budget and the school budget. So parents have a little bit more feedback. I mean, yeah, I think that would help community participation. And in addition, parents sometimes have the best ideas. I've learned a whole lot from the people that have called me.
[Michael Ruggiero]: I just want to get a sense of when we'll do that. I'll ask to put that on the agenda when we have the time. Thank you. Very good.
[Michael Ruggiero]: So I'm just trying to find the page number here. It's from the warrant, 18-0-1-3-8. This is the minimum regional high school tuition out of state, out of, sorry, district tuition expenses.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Eight of 11, excuse me. It's fourth from the bottom. I just wanted to know, what are the two programs that most of the students are enrolled in?
[Michael Ruggiero]: It's the Minuteman Regional High School and Vocational High School. Oh, Minuteman.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Do you know of this program, what is the one that most of the students are enrolled in? Plumbing. Is it plumbing? Is that correct? Plumbing still?
[Michael Ruggiero]: How many kids do we have currently in the program?
[Michael Ruggiero]: Could you just give me a breakdown of the program when you have time? Certainly. Can you give me a breakdown of what programs are enrolled in? Absolutely, ma'am. Thank you.
[Michael Ruggiero]: So we had the reddismith and the landscaper and I, we walked the area and sort of viewed and we also did some soil tests. For the high bush blueberries, the soil isn't quite acidic enough. If possible, I'm happy to donate the plastic mulch, the thyme, and also the sulfur. But if possible, I'd like to start preparing the soil so we can get the pH. Right now the pH is around six, which is It's way too high for blueberries, so we have to drop that around to about 4.5 or 5. So I'm happy to donate all the preparations for blueberries, but these other plants that were chosen, I looked them up and I talked to some horticultural friends. These are all really great plants that they've chosen. We just have to touch up a little bit with the blueberries.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Well, it depends if the club would like to plant this September. There's a couple of options that we have. It would be best to rototill the area for the blueberries. I already have about 30 plants and containers, and I have all the plastic mulch. So what I would recommend would be to rototill the area, spread some sulfur, and then give it a couple of months, and then we can apply some, I have prepared some acidic wood chips, so that'll help as well. And I would prefer to get that done as soon as possible. It'll take me probably about a couple of days, I guess. I just need to rototill it, lay down the plastic mulch. We have to measure it. I also can, I'll send down all the drip irrigation.
[Michael Ruggiero]: The way I handle this on my farm is we have an electric fence. I'm happy to, once again, I'll donate the T-poles and the wiring, and I'll set it up for everyone. My fence has 7,000 volts that run through it. Obviously it won't hurt anyone, but it could be a great prank for kids to mess around with, so we'll have to talk with the community. If you want me to install it, we definitely need to shut it down during school hours, and we'll have to talk. But it's possible we could turn it on once school is not in session, and then I could put it on a timer. and then we can shut it off once it's on eight o'clock and deer won't bother you.
[Michael Ruggiero]: We could actually choose a lower voltage. I have a higher voltage on my farm because I want the deers to get shocked. But if we have people around, we can have a lower voltage. It's basically like someone, a little bee sting. Like someone hits you kind of hard with a pencil eraser is what it feels like. It doesn't leave any permanent damage. It's humane to the animals as well.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Yeah, we'd have to figure out. If you want, I'll be happy to lay down the fence.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Or we'll hold off. That's fine too.
[Michael Ruggiero]: No, I understand.
[Michael Ruggiero]: I just wanna make sure it's in the committee.
[Michael Ruggiero]: I just want to comment how awesome that little bag is. Thank you so much for putting that together as a father who's about to have a kid go into kindergarten. It's a pretty frightening time. So I think that makes a lot of people a little more nervous. It is a scary.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Yeah, I know. Or so I've heard.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Do you know, have you heard much interest expressed in the community about starting a pre-K program that's also available for everyone?
[Michael Ruggiero]: Do we have a sense of what the cost of that kind of program would be in the community?
[Michael Ruggiero]: Sure. Could we ask that as a report from the superintendent that we could ask to see how much a universal 3K program would cost Medford? I know there's a cost associated, but it'd be interesting to at least know the figures. Thank you.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Yeah, thank you so much for this report. First off, I'm just educational and a huge fan of after-school tutoring programs. I know for my own students, I feel like, you know, during class, I could just sort of run them in circles sometimes, but when I was one-on-one with them, that's when the learning really happened. But to that point, I noticed, you know, in your report, as you mentioned, you know, the ratio of students to teachers, probably not ideal. Do you think that if we added two more teachers to the program, that would have really solved the problem? Or do you think, how many teachers would you want it ideally?
[Michael Ruggiero]: Cool. Please let me know. And so if you ever need help in that way, I'm always happy to find one or two days a week to help you out. Well, it's good. I need the teaching hours for my license anyway to keep it good. My second point is, can you just give me a sense of what percentage, I know maybe you don't have the numbers handy right now, but of the 68 students that participated in the program, how many used the bus? Just ballpark.
[Michael Ruggiero]: The next question I have for you is, do you know why all these students were participating? Has there been any conversation with the parents? Is it just that their parents want them to have more math time? The students are hungry for more math time? Or is it they saw their MCAS scores and it was like, let's just put out fires?
[Michael Ruggiero]: I mean, in the future, I think that these type of, and I would like to sort of make this point to my colleagues as well, I think that for our school district to be one of the best in Massachusetts, this is the type of program we're gonna have to have district-wide. Because I've seen how effective they can be. I think that's a really good point. a district-wide program if we can, and sort of use Columbus as a pilot, learn what we can from it. So thank you so much for all this hard work. I'm really very excited about moving forward.
[Michael Ruggiero]: As Member DiVendetto mentioned, unfortunately, this program came about sort of in an emergency. We had to do it. But I think that now that the fire is out, there's a lot that we can learn moving forward. So thank you so much.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you. I think it's really important that we design this program to touch both students that are struggling and students that are excelling. What I found personally, there's a really great program called the AMC8s. Currently I'm talking with Ms. Carolyn Joy about this idea, maybe we could add this to the curriculum. They're really wonderful because AMC, the American Math Competition, and they're designed for eighth graders. When I taught them to seventh and eighth graders, the problems themselves aren't just like, you know, where's the formula, chunk the formula, and you're done. They actually involve a lot of creativity. And they feel a lot more like undergraduate mathematics, as it should be. So the problems are very engaging to students. Sometimes it could just be the type of thing where you print out a big packet of problems to students, hand them to them, help out the kids that are, you know, struggling a bit, and then check in with your students that are really accelerating. I think that, I mean, from my own educational experience, I really saw a huge impact. Because, you know, math can be, you know, it's taught and this isn't anyone's fault, obviously, but when you're teaching to a test, Math can seem soulless, but the AMC 8s, you really feel the creativity and the beauty of mathematics, which is something we really should have. Students really should touch that as well. So I would just, while I understand the cost, and I certainly appreciate it, Sometimes, you know, kids that are accelerating really can kind of cruise a little bit, while teachers help the ones that are struggling, give some challenging, more advanced problems to those students, so they can get a taste of what math really feels like. Because, you know, it's a beautiful subject. So I hope we can design this program, and I hope we can pilot this program for the whole district.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Yeah, I had a question. Sure. Do you know if there's interest in the student body in other languages, other than the Romance languages?
[Michael Ruggiero]: So of this A team and B team, it's not simply that we can put the B team at the Andrews and the A teams at the McGlynn.
[Michael Ruggiero]: To just transfer them? Like once they're, let's say they get to, you have a newcomer student, he's a really quick learner, he moves up to level four. Couldn't we just move him to the other school?
[Michael Ruggiero]: So I guess my concern would be when you have a large concentration of EL students at one school, then you also have EL parents also at that same school. It creates an environment where you might have one program just happens to be wealthier because of the sociodynamics versus the other program. I mean, I think that we have to recognize as a board that there aren't necessarily perfect solutions, but do we have a sense of how many students are in the A team versus the B team?
[Michael Ruggiero]: If you had to just give me a rough estimate, I'd try to put you on the spot.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Just one of the options that have been floated with some of the parents that have talked to me about this issue is this idea of creating a language magnet school. at the McGlynn. So it would be the reason why people want to go there is that they actually maybe has a full bilingual option. So every kid that goes through the McGlynn gets both, I don't know, whichever of the EL students that you have the most of, and that language. Could you give me, I mean, I know that I'm asking you to do a lot of ballparking, but is such a program possible? Is that an option that's on our table?
[Michael Ruggiero]: Are there any other magnet schools in the area that do either Haitian Creole or Portuguese?
[Michael Ruggiero]: Brockton. So if we did a bilingual Portuguese magnet school, we'd be the only one in the state that has that program, is that correct?
[Michael Ruggiero]: Could you give us a sense of what it would take to actually architect like bill for that type of program?
[Michael Ruggiero]: So just one last point. So if we did a bilingual Haitian Creole program, every teacher that's in there now, we'd have to find a new home for them. And we'd have to make sure that, or at least they'd find a way to get certified in Haitian Creole.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Yeah, just two questions. The first is on subsection four, where you talk about provisions for quality control. Before I, I just, I really do support the idea of doing partnership programs with local universities. I really commend the administration for working on this. I know you guys have been cooking this up since like December. But could you just outline what are the provisions for quality control? Because we're allowing them to hire the contractors, how do we really know that they won't shaft us?
[Michael Ruggiero]: And sort of just to branch off Paul's concern, which is my concern as well, I just want to understand, so prevailing wages, how do we know that let's say they find some company, they say, oh, they're prevailing wages, don't worry about it.
[Michael Ruggiero]: All that will be verified and we'll make sure. Okay. Thank you so much. Once again, I just really appreciate all the work you're doing. No, no, it's good that you're asking because I want you to understand. I just want to make sure that we're all on the same page. There's no disasters. Thank you.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Yeah. I mean, I know the administration is working very hard to deal with this problem. I hate to funnel Cassandra, but this is a very frustrating report to me. I think we all kind of hoped it would go away, but here we are now at the last minute with no options of really solving it other than take them all from Brooks, which means that 33% of one out of every three kids that applied to go to the Andrews might get sent to the McGlynn. That's what it means, one out of every three. Or we take 11% out of the general population and we say to the 16 kids that go to McGlynn Elementary that they're just you know, even though that they want to go to Andrews, you know, they went to the McGlynn, they kind of wanted to do something new, you know, we're saying you also have to handle that. So this is a very frustrating report to me. What's most frustrating about this whole point is sort of this false choice that's being laid out in front of us that, oh, you can choose, but they're equal. Like, then why are you choosing, right? If these schools are equivalent, they're truly equivalent, And then why choose? Okay, we have more room for ELL students at one school, I understand that, but it's just everyone's randomly drawn. Or there's a reason to choose one school. Maybe having, I love the idea of having a Haitian Creole magnet school in Medford, make us unique in Massachusetts, but that's a huge investment of time and energy. Maybe we could do a math magnet. That might be easier to draw our STEM magnet. might be easier to create. One school has more of a STEM focus, another school has more of a liberal arts focus. These are choices that we could have made, and now here we are at the 11th hour, and those choices are not in front of us anymore.
[Michael Ruggiero]: That's our choice. That's our choice. I understand. I'm not trying to take someone to the woodshed here, and that's not my intent. I think what's frustrating to me about this report is I think it was kind of obvious. We all kind of saw it coming. We just hoped it wouldn't be here at the 11th hour. What I would like to suggest is this. I mean, no matter what we decide, it's going to cause a little bit of trouble. But it seems like if we expect that every school sort of has a reasonable distribution, it seems only fair to me that the Brooks School would be, you know, we say 17 or 20 kids have to go. And that just, you know, maybe that seems, you know, when we think of like what is fair for the community, is it fair for the entire community to say, Oh, you know, you're at the McGlynn Elementary. There's 16 kids there. You know, these are people that, friends that want to be together. They also should share, even though their school doesn't have this problem. So in the future, I would really like to start considering more seriously the idea that there is a choice to be made. Right now, there isn't, right? We're saying they're equal, they're both great. Then it's a false choice.
[Michael Ruggiero]: I am in strong support of a weighted average option. That might be another way to play it. I think that it seems only fair that we expect every school to basically feed into one. And unfortunately, that means one school will have more of a percentage of kids broken up.
[Michael Ruggiero]: I mean, is it possible that we could only have a chance of 17 or is the number 20 a hard one?
[Michael Ruggiero]: Yeah, just two points. I mean, first, I just want to address the community at large. Obviously, this is not a choice anyone here wants to make. Everyone wants everyone to get what they want or, you know, what their kids, but just talking about sort of the choice. So we're going to have to do a lottery. We're basically forced into this choice. The question is, what is most fair and what is best? So I think we can all kind of agree that what's most fair is sending kids from the school that is only sending 9% of their students. What's best also, though, if we're trying to prevent friends from being broken up, that's the best way to do it. Have one school that's not sending their kids actually make, because the probability, if you have three buddies, of two of them getting selected, so at least you have Tom, you might not have Bob, but at least you have Tom with you, is much, much better. But if we have a system where 11% of every school is dropped off, we're going to be breaking up friendships. And the likelihood is they're not going to have cohorts with them. So I think that we're looking at, we're surveying what's not only best and fairest, but what is best for the kids. And I really do believe that this plan of Paul's, which is something we're kind of cooking up with two minds while he's working in parallel, I guess is the phrase. I feel like this is the best way forward. It's best for the students, and it's fairest.
[Michael Ruggiero]: May I make a friendly amendment to that?
[Michael Ruggiero]: Is it possible, seeing that we only need 17 students, would be acceptable?
[Michael Ruggiero]: Well, let's ask the administration. We have the experts right before us.
[Michael Ruggiero]: We have a parent that would like to speak. Your name and address, please.
[Michael Ruggiero]: I'm done. Okay.
[Michael Ruggiero]: One last point in support of this idea of Mr. Tucci going down. I think it's important for the community that for, you know, we don't want kids to just be forced at the last minute with no recall. We want parents to have as many options as they can and many possibilities. And if we can get, you know, 10 people to move over, that's only five that we have to select from the rest of the cohort. So I really do support this idea. I think either we're paying now or we're paying later, because there's going to be a certain, there's going to be feelings about this, especially when we're taking such a large percentage.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Overall, I definitely support the spirit. I mean, I leave my cell phone in the car for this very reason. You know, I have my computer here, but I'm not receiving texts to it. But I think it's important for us to recognize as a group that we live in an age where people that do have serious disabilities can still participate. And it would be great if we create an environment for that to happen. I agree that we should have all of our personal, like, you know, someone shouldn't be sending member Ruggiero a message or member Paul a message, because that's kind of, it's kind of working beyond the spirit of open meeting. But it would be nice if we had a number. or a Twitter feed or something where maybe the chair could make, you know, Martin, who has a serious disability, wasn't able to come today, but he had a really great suggestion. Martin lives on this address. He wishes me to bring this point up. I really would feel, I think, you know, we live in a time where we can make that possible. So I would like to suggest, once again, a friendly amendment that we, for now, I think we can all agree that this is probably for the best. I leave my cell phone because I get texts during meetings. I don't prefer, I don't like it either. I get the same kind of, and I don't want to, you know, I don't think it's fair for me to like, hey Mia, do you really want to do this? Let's go. I mean, that's, that's also seems to be subverting the spirit. But on the same token, I think it's important for us to pursue avenues that people that do have serious issues that they can't come to meetings. can also have a means of communicating with us. And I'd like to look that we think about ways to make that possible in the future. If I can make a friendly amendment for us to sort of figure out the wording together now.
[Michael Ruggiero]: So I'm just trying to find the page number here. It's from the warrant, 18-0-1-3-8. This is a Minuteman Regional High School tuition out of state, out of, sorry, district tuition expenses.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Eight of 11, excuse me. It's fourth from the bottom. I just wanted to know, what are the two programs that most of the students are enrolled in?
[Michael Ruggiero]: It's the Minuteman Regional High School. Oh, Minuteman. The out-of-district.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Do you know, of this program, what is the one that most of the students are enrolled in? Plumbing. Is it plumbing? Is that correct? Plumbing still?
[Michael Ruggiero]: How many kids do we have currently in the program?
[Michael Ruggiero]: Could you just give me a breakdown of the program when you have time? Certainly. Can you give me a breakdown of what programs are enrolled in? Absolutely, ma'am. Thank you.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Yes.
[Michael Ruggiero]: So we had the reddismith and the landscaper and I, we walked the area and sort of viewed and we also did some soil tests. For the high bush blueberries, the soil isn't quite acidic enough. If possible, I'm happy to donate the plastic mulch, the thyme, and also the sulfur. But if possible, I'd like to start preparing the soil so we can get the pH. Right now the pH is around 6, which is kind of, it's way too high for blueberries. So we have to drop that around to about 4.5 or 5. So I'm happy to donate all the preparations for blueberries, but these other plants that were chosen, I looked them up. and I talked to some horticultural friends. These are all really great plants that they've chosen. We just have to touch up a little bit with the blueberries.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Well, it depends. If the club would like to plant this September, there's a couple of options that we have. It would be best to rototill the area for the blueberries. I already have about 30 plants in containers, and I have all the plastic mulch. So what I would recommend would be to rototill the area, spread some sulfur, and then give it a couple of months, and then we can apply some, I have prepared some acidic wood chips, so that'll help as well. And I would prefer to get that done as soon as possible. It'll take me probably about a couple of days, I guess. I just need to rototill it, lay down the plastic mulch. We have to measure it. I also can, I'll send down all the drip irrigation.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Yes, of course. Happy to.
[Michael Ruggiero]: close to the school This would be up to the school committee how we handle this problem the way I handle this on my farm is we have an electric fence and I'm happy to, once again, I'll donate the T-poles and the wiring, and I'll set it up for everyone. My fence has 7,000 volts that run through it. Obviously it won't hurt anyone, but it could be a great prank for kids to mess around with, so we'll have to talk with the community. If you want me to install it, we definitely need to shut it down during school hours, and we'll have to talk. But it's possible we could turn it on once school is not in session, and then I could put it on a timer. And then we can shut it off once it's around 8 o'clock and deer won't bother you.
[Michael Ruggiero]: We'll talk about that. We could actually choose a lower voltage. I have a higher voltage on my farm because I want the deers to get shocked. But if we have people around, we can have a lower voltage. It's basically like someone, a little bee sting. Like someone hits you kind of hard with a pencil eraser is what it feels like. it doesn't leave any permanent damage. It's humane to the animals as well.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Yeah, we'd have to figure out. If you want, I'll be happy to lay down the fence.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Or we'll hold off. That's fine, too.
[Michael Ruggiero]: No, I understand.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Kreatz. Supporting the Tilling.
[Michael Ruggiero]: I just want to comment how awesome that little bag is. Thank you so much for putting that together as a father who's about to have a kid go into kindergarten. It's a pretty frightening time. So I think that makes a lot of people a little more nervous.
[Michael Ruggiero]: And it only gets worse. Yeah, I know. Or so I've heard.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Do you know, have you heard much interest expressed in the community about starting a pre-K program that's also available for everyone?
[Michael Ruggiero]: Do we have a sense of what the cost of that kind of program would be in the community?
[Michael Ruggiero]: Sure. Could we ask that as a report to the superintendent, that we could ask to see how much a universal pre-K program would cost Medford. I know there's a cost associated, but it'd be interesting to at least know the figures. Thank you.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you so much for this report. First off I'm just educational and a huge fan of after school tutoring programs. I know from my own students I feel like you know during class I could just sort of run them in circles sometimes when I was one on one with them. That's when the learning really happened. But to that point, I noticed in your report, as you mentioned, the ratio of students to teachers is probably not ideal. Do you think that if we added two more teachers to the program, that would have really solved the problem? Or do you think, how many teachers would you have wanted ideally?
[Michael Ruggiero]: Cool. Please let me know. So if you ever need help in that way, I'm always happy to find one or two days a week to help you out.
[Michael Ruggiero]: I need the teaching hours for my license anyway to keep it good. My second point is, can you just give me a sense of what percentage, I know maybe you don't have the numbers handy right now, but of the 68 students that participated in the program, how many used the bus? Just ballpark.
[Michael Ruggiero]: The next question I have for you is, do you know why all these students were participating? Has there been any conversation with the parents? Is it just that their parents want them to have more math time? The students are hungry for more math time? Or is it they saw their MCAS scores and it was like, let's just put out fires?
[Michael Ruggiero]: Yeah, I mean, in the future, I think that these type of, and I would like to sort of make this point to my colleagues as well, I think that for our school district to be one of the best in Massachusetts, this is the type of program we're gonna have to have district-wide, because I've seen how effective they can be. Now, for me, when I was a teacher, it was math club, but there were some parents, I was like, yeah, it's not, bring them to math club, it's okay, I'll make sure we find some time for them. And it has a huge impact on students, especially when it's in a small environment, more intimate. So I'd really like to start thinking about turning this into a district-wide program if we can and sort of use Columbus as a pilot, learn what we can from it. So thank you so much for all this hard work. I'm really very excited about moving forward.
[Michael Ruggiero]: You know, as, you know, Member DiVendetto mentioned, you know, unfortunately, this program came about sort of in an emergency. We had to do it. But I think that, you know, now that the fire is out, there's a lot that we can learn moving forward. So thank you so much.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you. That's all. I think it's really important that we design this program to touch both students that are struggling and students that are excelling. What I found personally, there's a really great program called the AMC8s. Currently I'm talking with Ms. Carolyn Joy about this idea of maybe we could add this to the curriculum. They're really wonderful because AM, the American Math Competition, and they're designed for eighth graders. When I taught them to seventh and eighth graders, the problems themselves aren't just like, you know, where's the formula, chunk the formula, and you're done. They actually involve a lot of creativity. and they feel a lot more like undergraduate mathematics, as it should be. So the problems are very engaging to students. Sometimes it could just be the type of thing where you print out a big packet of problems to students, hand them to them, help out the kids that are, you know, struggling a bit, and then check in with your students that are really accelerating. I think that, I mean, from my own educational experience, I really saw a huge impact, because, you know, math can be, you know, it's taught, and this isn't anyone's fault, obviously, but when you're teaching to a test, Math can seem soulless, but the AMC 8s, you really feel the creativity and the beauty of mathematics, which is something we really should have. Students really should touch that as well. So I would just, while I understand the cost and I certainly appreciate it, Sometimes, you know, kids that are accelerating really can kind of cruise a little bit while teachers help the ones that are struggling, give some challenging, more advanced problems to those students so they can get a taste of what math really feels like. Because, you know, it's a beautiful subject. So I hope we can design this program and I hope we can pilot this program for the whole district.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Yeah, I had a question. Sure. Do you know if there's interest in the student body in other languages, other than the romance languages?
[Michael Ruggiero]: So of this A team and B team, it's not simply that we can put the B team at the Andrews and the A teams at the McGlynn.
[Michael Ruggiero]: To just transfer them? Like once they're, let's say they get to, you have a newcomer student, he's a really quick learner, he moves up to level four. Couldn't we just move him to the other school?
[Michael Ruggiero]: Can I follow up, please? Yes. So I guess my concern would be when you have a large concentration of EL students at one school, then you also have EL parents also at that same school. It creates an environment where you might have one program just happens to be wealthier because of the socio dynamics versus the other program. I mean, I think that we have to recognize as a board that there aren't necessarily perfect solutions But do we have a sense of how many students are in the A team versus the B team?
[Michael Ruggiero]: If you had to like just give me a rough estimate, I'm not trying to put you on the spot.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Just one of the options that have been floated with some of the parents that have talked to me about this issue is this idea of creating a language magnet school. at the McGlynn. So it would be the reason why people want to go there is that they actually maybe has a full bilingual option. So every kid that goes through the McGlynn gets both, I don't know, whichever of the EL students that you have the most of, and that language. Could you give me, I mean, I know that I'm asking you to do a lot of ballparking, but is such a program possible? Is that an option that's on our table?
[Michael Ruggiero]: Are there any other magnet schools in the area that do either Haitian Creole or Portuguese?
[Michael Ruggiero]: So if we did a bilingual Portuguese magnet school, we'd be the only one in the state that has that program, is that correct?
[Michael Ruggiero]: I know of no Haitian Creole... Could you give us a sense of what it would take to actually architect like bill for that type of program?
[Michael Ruggiero]: So just one last point. So if we did a bilingual Haitian Creole program, every teacher that's in there now, we'd have to find a new home for them. And we'd have to make sure that, or at least they find a way to get certified in Haitian Creole.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Yeah, just two questions. The first is on subsection four, where you talk of provisions for quality control. Before I, I just, I really do support the idea of doing partnership programs with local universities. I really commend the administration for working on this. I know you guys have been cooking this up since like December. But could you just outline what are the provisions for quality control? Because we're allowing them to hire the contractors, how do we really know that they won't shaft us?
[Michael Ruggiero]: And sort of just to branch off Paul's concern, which is my concern as well, I just want to understand, so prevailing wages, how do we know that let's say they find some company, they say, oh, they're prevailing wages, don't worry about it.
[Michael Ruggiero]: All that will be verified and we'll make sure. Okay. Thank you so much. Once again, I just really appreciate all the work you're doing. No, no, it's good that you're asking because I want you to understand. I just want to make sure that we're all on the same page. There's no disasters. Thank you.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Yeah. I mean, I know the administration is working very hard to deal with this problem. I hate to funnel Cassandra, but this is a very frustrating report to me. I think we all kind of hoped it would go away, but here we are now at the last minute with no options of really solving it other than take them all from Brooks, which means that 33% of one out of every three kids that applied to go to the Andrews might get sent to the McGlynn. That's what it means, one out of every three. Or we take 11% out of the general population, and we say to the 16 kids that go to McGlynn Elementary that they're just, you know, even though that they want to go to Andrews, you know, they went to the McGlynn, they kind of want to do something new, you know, we're saying you also have to to handle that, so this is a very frustrating report to me. What's most frustrating about this whole point is sort of this false choice that's being laid out in front of us that, oh, you can choose, but they're equal. Then why are you choosing? If these schools are equivalent, they're truly equivalent, then why choose? Okay, we have more room for ELL students at one school, I understand that, but it's just everyone's randomly drawn. You know, or there's a reason to choose one school. You know, maybe having, I love the idea of having a Haitian Creole magnet school in Medford, make us unique in Massachusetts, but that's a huge investment of time and energy. Maybe we could do a math magnet. That might be easier to draw our STEM magnet. Might be easier to create one school has more of a STEM focus, and the school has more of a liberal arts focus. These are choices that we could have made, and now here we are at the 11th hour, and those choices are, not in front of us anymore.
[Michael Ruggiero]: That's our choice. That's our choice. I understand. I'm not trying to take someone to the woodshed here, and that's not my intent. I think what's frustrating to me about this report is I think it was kind of obvious. We all kind of saw it coming. We just hoped it wouldn't be here at the 11th hour. What I would like to suggest is this. I mean, no matter what we decide, it's going to cause a little bit of trouble. But it seems like if we expect that every school sort of has a reasonable distribution, it seems only fair to me that the Brooks School would be, you know, we say 17 or 20 kids have to go. And that just, you know, maybe that seems, you know, when we think of like what is fair for the community, is it fair for the entire community to say, Oh, you know, you're at the McGlynn Elementary. There's 16 kids there. You know, these are people that, friends that want to be together. They also should share, even though their school doesn't have this problem. So in the future, I would really like to start considering more seriously the idea that there is a choice to be made. Right now, there isn't, right? We're saying they're equal, they're both great. Then it's a false choice. Let's have a reason for kids to go to one school versus the other.
[Michael Ruggiero]: I am in strong support of a weighted average option. That might be another way to play it. I think that it seems only fair that we expect every school to basically feed into one. And unfortunately, that means one school will have more of a percentage of kids broken up.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Yeah, just two points. I mean, first, I just want to address the community at large. Obviously, this is not a choice anyone here wants to make. Everyone wants everyone to get what they want or, you know, with their kids. just talking about sort of the choice. So we're going to have to do a lottery. We're basically forced into this choice. The question is, what is most fair and what is best? So I think we can all kind of agree that what's most fair is sending kids from the school that is only sending 9% of their students. What's best also, though, if we're trying to prevent friends from being broken up, That's the best way to do it. Have one school that's not sending their kids actually make, because the probability, if you have three buddies, of two of them getting selected, so at least you have Tom, you might not have Bob, but at least you have Tom with you, is much, much better. But if we have a system where 11% of every school is dropped off, we're going to be breaking up friendships, and the likelihood is they're not going to have cohorts with them. So I think that we're looking at, we're surveying what's not only best and fairest, but what is best for the kids. And I really do believe that this plan of Paul's, which is something we're kind of cooking up with two minds while he worked in parallel, I guess is the phrase. I feel like this is the best way forward. It's best for the students and it's fairest.
[Michael Ruggiero]: May I make a friendly amendment to that?
[Michael Ruggiero]: Is it possible, seeing that we only need 17 students, would be acceptable?
[Michael Ruggiero]: Well, let's ask the administration. We have the experts right before us.
[Michael Ruggiero]: We have a parent that would like to speak. Your name and address, please. Hi, I'm Jenny Graham, 7 Ronalee Road.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Absolutely, yes. Thank you. I'm done. Okay.
[Michael Ruggiero]: One last point in support of this idea of Mr. Tucci going down. I think it's important for the community that We don't want kids to just be forced at the last minute with no recall. We want parents to have as many options as they can and many possibilities. And if we can get 10 people to move over, that's only five that we have to select from the rest of the cohort. So I really do support this idea. I think either we're paying now or we're paying later, because there's going to be feelings about this, especially when we're taking such a large percentage.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Overall, I definitely support the spirit. I mean, I leave my cell phone in the car for this very reason. You know, I have my computer here, but I'm not receiving texts to it. But I think it's important for us to recognize as a group that we live in an age where people that do have serious disabilities can still participate. And it would be great if we create an environment for that to happen. I agree that we should have all of our personal, like, you know, someone shouldn't be sending member Ruggiero a message or member Paul a message, because that's kind of, it's kind of working beyond the spirit of open meeting. But it would be nice if we had a number or a Twitter feed or something where maybe the chair could make, You know, Martin, who has a serious disability, wasn't able to come today. So, but he had a really great suggestion. Martin lives on this address. He wishes me to bring this point up. I really would feel, I think, you know, we live in a time where we can make that possible. So I would like to suggest, once again, a friendly amendment that we, for now, I think we can all agree that this is probably for the best. I leave my cell phone because I get texts during meetings. I don't prefer, I don't like it either. I get the same kind of, and I don't want to, you know, I don't think it's fair for me to like, hey Mia, do you really want to do this? Let's go. I mean, that's, that's also seems to be subverting the spirit. But on the same token, I think it's important for us to pursue avenues that people that do have serious issues that they can't come to meetings. can also have a means of communicating with us. And I'd like to look that we think about ways to make that possible in the future, if I can make a friendly amendment for us to sort of figure out the wording together now.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Chief Sacco, can I ask you a question, please? So reading through the report, I can understand some of the teachers' frustrations. I just want to make sure this is absolutely clear. Do you or any of your officers believe that Superintendent Belson floated a conspiracy theory that perhaps there was some sort of setup? I just want to make sure absolutely clear. I think the answer is obvious, but I want to make sure from your mouth. So none of your officers feel like there was any sort of a sense of Roy Belson trying to say there was some cabal to take down the principal. Is that correct?
[Michael Ruggiero]: OK. I just want to make, from my opinion, from talking, I've had the opportunity, the blessing of talking to a number of the teachers, and I've also talked to a number of the parents. I've heard so many wonderful things about how hardworking almost with, I can't even think of an exception, all of the McGlynn teachers I've talked with. And I just want to express my sincere gratitude for all the hard work you do. As a former teacher myself, I was never a successful middle school teacher. I find middle school teaching the most difficult of all teaching. And so I have a deep, deep appreciation for all the hard work you do, and I thank you very much. I hope that it's pretty clear that this is maybe a misreading or misunderstanding of what the report was made. I do not believe that Roy Bellson ever tried to throw the teachers under the bus as if any of you would ever lay bullets in an auditorium in a safe space. I just can't imagine any of you doing that. So thank you, and I'm sorry about this miscommunication.
[Michael Ruggiero]: How the issue was brought up, it was, I was under the impression that we were going to discuss the transition strategy. That is the notice that was made. I didn't, it would have probably been more helpful to the community and to me as a member if the discussion was about continuing Roy Belson's contract. Because I wasn't, personally, I wasn't really prepared to have all the reasons and to rehash through the argument other than what I did. But I share your concerns. because I do believe that it was an important decision to make and I think more community input would have been very helpful, as I made clear during the meeting.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Yeah, but it doesn't say that Roy, just a clarification, it does not say that in addition, Roy Bellson's contract may be extended. The idea of the, while what we, I do not claim that what we did was a violation of open meeting law, I don't think so. It wasn't. But it would have been more clear to the community if that issue of Roy Bellson's extended contract was made more apparent.
[Michael Ruggiero]: To add on to that point. To add on to that point, I mean, I would like to suggest that these important decisions are made during regular committee meetings. I understand that sometimes we do need to go into executive session or committee of the wholes, but that particular issue should have been televised so the whole community could hear it. It's unfortunate that the community had to sort of hear about it secondhand. It creates an environment of mistrust.
[Michael Ruggiero]: I wanted to address a couple of the other points that we've sort of moved past, including the public records requests. It's important that the public as being a public body, we are under all the laws that govern public requests. So we have a subcommittee of community relations, but I think this issue is sort of, I would like to have all the members present. So I'd like to make a motion that we have a committee of the whole meeting where we can address, go through all of the items that are important, including maybe having a mic stand in the back corner. So, you know, if there is a disabled person, we could just hand them the mic. or talking about public requests, where all these issues can be addressed. So I'd like, like I said, to make a motion that we have a committee of the whole meeting to address all community engagements.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Yeah. I mean, I've made public requests and people have been very helpful, but it's unacceptable that emails bounce. But beyond that, there are other issues that we need to discuss about community engagement, community relation. I'd like to do that as a body. So that'd be my motion.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Well, we can work with the chair and just sort of add items on the agenda that would be, like we normally would when we have a meeting request. But basically the broad outline would be how to discuss increasing community engagement on the school committee.
[Michael Ruggiero]: So I just want to make this clear. Right now, we have a disparity of 29 children. So if 29 of the 100. No, 29 of the 176 went to the McGlynn, it would be equal. Is that correct? That's my math. If we were.
[Michael Ruggiero]: OK. OK, I'll believe you. So I'm just trying to, once again, trying to get the 15 to 20. So if we're in a buffer of 15, that would work. So one school has... Right.
[Michael Ruggiero]: So we need to convince 14 students, basically. 14 on the, that would be the most, if we can convince 14 students, are there any incentives that we can offer other than low class size that we can offer to those 14 students? Like is it possible we could identify the cohorts? So these are 10 kids that just definitely want to be together, they're buddies. And so we're gonna make sure that they go over and we can get to our 14.
[Michael Ruggiero]: My question, so I just want to know when is the deadline we have to decide exactly on the lottery?
[Michael Ruggiero]: I just want to remind the body that soccer is the leading cause of concussion among women and girls. And it's also in the top two or three among boys. So there's a serious concussion risk in soccer. People don't think it's a contact sport, but it really is. And it's often caused, I mean, my wife sees it.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you once again for your service. I just had a quick question. Do we participate in the American Math Competition, the AMC 8s, AMC 10s, AMC 12s?
[Michael Ruggiero]: Yeah, the AMCAs are just tests.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Do we do that in the middle school, the eighth grade AMCs?
[Michael Ruggiero]: Yeah, I just have two questions. Thank you so much for putting this together. On page one of 13, this is of the financial year budget expenditure. Could you just explain what errors and omissions, what that line item is?
[Michael Ruggiero]: I see, I see. Okay, thank you just for clarifying that for my brain. I'm a little sleepy right now. And also, on page two of 13, I had a question about the photocopy lease and purchase.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Those are my questions.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Kreatz. Just a question for Superintendent Delson through you, the chair. In your cost benefit analysis, could you also include the timescale for implementation? I'm sure you will anyway. I just want to make sure that that's going to be part of your analysis.
[Michael Ruggiero]: That'd be perfect, because I imagine the cost to add numbers to the doors, it's not gonna cost a lot of money, but it'll take a lot of time for everyone to put the numbers on.
[Michael Ruggiero]: I want a clarification.
[Michael Ruggiero]: So what would this study, I'm just trying to understand exactly. So it's just going to be a number of people that walk through the door every day?
[Michael Ruggiero]: Through the chair, before we vote on this motion, is it possible you could do a foot traffic study? Is that going to be much more difficult, Superintendent Belson, or?
[Michael Ruggiero]: Are there motion detectors that can be used in front of these doors? Because then you could just do, like, just click in?
[Michael Ruggiero]: If it's possible, I'm not too interested in seeing that you have all the video cameras right there. Could you just have the person at the desk take a rolling tally of how many times people go through each door? It shouldn't be too difficult. If they walk through the pool door, they just put a little hash mark on that.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Of course, right. It might not be a perfect study. You get a general sense.
[Michael Ruggiero]: And there are other times of the day where it's pretty difficult. I'd like to make a friendly amendment to the motion that if we could just have a foot traffic study of all the doors, seeing that we're going to be doing anyway. of the, well, that all the doors that are, all the doors.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Motion to accept.
[Michael Ruggiero]: I just, if I could have a point of clarification, I just want to make sure exactly what's going to be on the report. Can you just walk us through that, what the particulars of that report would be?
[Michael Ruggiero]: Would on that report as well also be the department they're a part of and the school that they're working at, whether it's elementary versus high school? I'm not sure.
[Michael Ruggiero]: So just being alphabetical. Would it be very difficult to add that information in addition?
[Michael Ruggiero]: I see. Okay.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Yeah. I wanted to know, have you noticed like a spike or change in incidents of reporting? I'm just speaking from your personal experience. Obviously you don't have the numbers in front of you. Has the rate been consistent, or have you noticed a spike?
[Michael Ruggiero]: In the past few years. Have you noticed, like I'm just talking about the general trend. Would you say that the trend of bullying has increased, decreased, or remained about the same?
[Michael Ruggiero]: Madam Speaker, I'd like to recommend that we have like to make a motion that we review this issue at a committee of the whole. I feel like there's enough here just there's we we have enough questions between us just and I would like to specifically look at cyber issues as well.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Yeah, when I was on the campaign trail, I was really surprised at the number of really brilliant professors at local institutions that live in Medford. While I was campaigning, I knocked on one man's door. And when I told him I taught mathematics, he quizzed me on a bunch of questions, because he was one of the developers of the MRI. After sort of talking to these people, some of them said that they would enjoy actually coming into Medford High School and maybe making brief presentations. If we could, obviously we don't want to interrupt curriculum because we have state mandated priorities that we have to do, but if we found you these volunteer professors, would we be able to fit them into our schools?
[Michael Ruggiero]: I'm sorry for my ignorance of this, but what is SBIRT?
[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you, Superintendent, for putting together this report. I was just curious. So on this page right here, when you say 122 children, that's the current number of students applying that program. Do we have a sense of how many students have applied to be a part of that program?
[Michael Ruggiero]: Is it possible you could just put in the information of how many students have applied for these programs? We can get that for you. Thanks.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Madam Speaker for the next item on our agenda I'd like to move that we go into executive session.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Good evening, Doctor. You started as the instructional superintendent in Boston Public Schools in 2015, is that correct?
[Michael Ruggiero]: I see. So while I was researching the Boston public school system, I came across a surprising trend that was talked about in Boston Magazine. When you started in 2015, Boston Magazine stated that your district spent about $17,000, $17,500 per pupil, and it ranked your district 116 out of 125 area schools. Despite spending about $2,000 more per pupil since 2015, the ranking over your tenure actually slipped, and now some educational experts rank the Boston Public Schools among the five lower ones. I wanted you to comment on that, and I was wondering, what do you think that Boston Magazine might have missed over the couple of years that you've been working in the Boston Public School system?
[Michael Ruggiero]: Yeah, when I was a teacher in Houston, before that I mostly did private schools, so my experience was more of children of affluence. And then when I started teaching in Houston, it was sort of that big transition of children that had a lot of trauma, a lot of poverty. Thankfully, I had a number of really great principals that sort of helped me adjust my teaching style, which needed adjustment. I wondered, how would you, how do you help teachers like myself, or teachers that don't necessarily come from high trauma, high poverty environments, and how would you educate them to help integrate that into their teaching style?
[Michael Ruggiero]: And finally on this topic, I sort of want to take a case study real quick. I was reading through the Department of Education, the 2015-2016 reports, and it was showing how minority children and children with disabilities are often disciplined at higher rates with more severe outcomes. So I would like to sort of create a case study, and I would like you to imagine a teacher that you notice a similar trend, that for similar discipline situations, they tend to be disciplining children who are minorities and children in poverty with disabilities at a more severe rate. How would you adjust that teacher's style, and how would you communicate the problem to that teacher?
[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you, Doctor. I have some operational questions for you. So first, I would like you to imagine that you have a vacancy in your sixth grade for a sixth grade teacher. I would like you to walk us through your process of how you would acquire a nice set of resumes, what you would look for in those resumes, and ultimately, how you would interview them and then select one of the candidates.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Sure. My next question involves, I would like you to assume you have a very talented and hardworking principal, but they have a particular set of teachers or maybe just one teacher. that's not doing very well. They fail a large number of their students. How would you help that, after you've shown the data, you know, that this teacher still hasn't changed their style, how do you help that teacher move on to a more effective position, or when do you decide when to let go of a teacher?
[Michael Ruggiero]: And finally, community engagement is a critical part to a successful budget. How would you work with the residents of Medford after your first draft is created for your budget? How would you help sort of get the people of Medford on board with it and how would you integrate their criticisms?
[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you, good evening. On your resume, you listed data-informed decision-making as one of your core competencies. With some of the flaws and the issues with the MCAS and any data set, I wonder how do you separate the signal from the noise when you evaluate student performance?
[Michael Ruggiero]: Mentioning accountability, I was curious, how do you go about evaluating teachers in this regard? As you look over student performance, you put your picture together, which involves some data. How do you look over teacher performance? Sure.
[Michael Ruggiero]: And finally, when you look over the data information about teachers and students, what do you think is the hardest or the hardest field of goals for your students to achieve moving forward?
[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you. I have some questions about blind spots and pitfalls. My first question is, in your decades of experience in education, what common pitfalls do you see superintendents fall into, and how would you avoid falling into those traps?
[Michael Ruggiero]: Also, I'd like you to tell me about, tell us about a time that you were taking an action, it wasn't quite proper, and you had a mentor adjust your behavior. And tell us about what led you in the wrong direction, how were you adjusted?
[Michael Ruggiero]: Follow up, Mr. Oshiro? You used the phrase robust curriculum. Can you explain what that means exactly?
[Michael Ruggiero]: Dr. Stray, as I was reviewing your resume, your special education work really stood out to me. I would like you to describe the most difficult dilemma you faced when you were managing the special education department in Andover. And as you address that challenge, I'd like you to focus on three specific areas for me. First, what made your decision challenging? Second, what interests were pitted against each other? And third, ultimately, how did you mitigate some of the negative consequences of your decision to move forward?
[Michael Ruggiero]: And ultimately, how did you mitigate some of the negative consequences of this decision?
[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you, Dr. Strait. I really enjoyed the conversation, talking about community engagement and successful budgeting, which involves a lot of what I was going to ask you next.
[Michael Ruggiero]: No, no, they're perfect. I apologize. They're perfect. Speak as long as you like. So I'm really interested in this conversation about strategic planning and turning that into budgeting. So I want to talk specifically, if you could, about how you involve the residents of Medford in subsequent drafts. So your team has come together, they've put together a strategic plan and a draft budget. How do you receive their input and how do you change the numbers based on that input? What resources would you develop to augment limited funds? And how would you hold your administration responsible for maintaining that budget? Because, you know, plans don't always work the way you think they will. So how do you identify when things begin to go wrong in the budget and then address that problem?
[Michael Ruggiero]: What resources in the community would you develop to augment limited funds?
[Michael Ruggiero]: And finally, what indicators do you look for to notice points where your plan is beginning to fail? And how do you adjust them?
[Michael Ruggiero]: So I'm a certified teacher myself, and one of the things that I think about a lot is this idea of risk in education and trying experimental new ideas. On one hand, you want to try the most innovative approaches, but on the other hand, when you deviate from a known path, in some respects, you're risking educational time that will be lost on the student. So what I'm interested in knowing about is tell us about the most innovative educational practice you've tried, something that was experimental. And I would like to know about some of the resistance you received from the community and how you went along implementing that plan.
[Michael Ruggiero]: I wanted to ask also about discipline, because I don't think we've asked a lot of those questions so far. So I want to give you a hypothetical situation, and I'd like to hear how you could address it for us.
[Michael Ruggiero]: OK. So I would like you to imagine a student who has filmed a teacher without the teacher's consent or knowledge and puts an inappropriate but not terrible voiceover over this YouTube video. So something that isn't inflammatory but something that is not really appropriate. How would you address that situation? Let's assume this student has some discipline issues in the past, but nothing serious. Similar sorts of problems.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Mayor Burke, first off, I just wanted to know, is the live stream okay?
[Michael Ruggiero]: Okay, so that's being addressed okay. So here's my question. Over the past few days, I've been looking through my emails in preparation for these interviews. What has surprised me is how some very intelligent, passionate, and engaged parents of our community have lost faith in our schools. Some have urged me not to consider any candidate from within our system, even as one as qualified as you. To these residents, how would you rebuild their faith? In your experience, how is trust built? How is it damaged? And what actions can we take to ensure greater community participation at all levels of the Medford school system?
[Michael Ruggiero]: And how would you work to, for some, I've talked to a number of parents and especially the ones in high school actually do have a very high opinion of you. And I just want to make sure I make that clear. But that said, I mean, among the other parents, how would we reach out to them to create a higher trust environment?
[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you.
[Michael Ruggiero]: As all cities in Massachusetts, severe poverty touches the lives of some of our students. What types of challenges do you think that these children endure and how would you help them succeed?
[Michael Ruggiero]: Would you like to share a particular experience that you've had in particular dealing with a student that had severe poverty and how you helped them?
[Michael Ruggiero]: I'd like to talk to you about budgeting. So community engagement is critical to a successful budget. That said, how would you construct your first draft of next year's school budget? How would you involve the residents of Medford in subsequent drafts? What resources would you develop to augment limited funds? And how would you hold your administration responsible for the budget itself?
[Michael Ruggiero]: Would you engage with the community to do presentations for the budget and how would you receive their input as you move along?
[Michael Ruggiero]: Yeah, and finally, how would you notice if there was a problem with the budget? Because it is, like you said, a fluid document. So what indicators would you look for when things start to go wrong, and how would you adjust it?
[Michael Ruggiero]: So you're asking for a committee of the whole specifically to handle, for these questions to be addressed?
[Michael Ruggiero]: Just another question of clarification. How long would it take you to answer some of these questions? I'm just worried that we're going to go a little too fast. I mean, I'm inclined to second your motion so we can debate it. But I'm just, I wonder, how long would it take you to get this payroll information?
[Michael Ruggiero]: Could I make a friendly amendment to your resolution before, could we make it in two weeks? One week seems a little quick.
[Michael Ruggiero]: The chair will call it at a reasonable time.
[Michael Ruggiero]: So I'll second the motion.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Mr. Ruggiero. I just have some questions for you cause you know, I'm concerned if there are issues. It's okay if we, if this is not the appropriate time for these questions, I just trying to get my head around all of this. So, If the administration raises a base salary that's not a step increase, the school committee is notified. Is that correct?
[Michael Ruggiero]: So the base can go up or down. We're not notified of those?
[Michael Ruggiero]: Could you send us copies before the meeting of the digital, I have the digital teacher's contract, but it would be nice to have the other collective bargaining contracts. If you could send that to all of us, that would be useful so I could review the information in advance. And so every contract has different rules for step increases. Is that correct?
[Michael Ruggiero]: Correct. Oh, so I see.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Right, of course. And so you can have multiple step increases at once or would it just be one step at a time? Like every year you would get no more than one step increase?
[Michael Ruggiero]: Okay, that's all my questions. Thank you.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Mr. Ruggiero. 44,954 children's and young adult books. A mountain of material. But only one small part of what our library provides to the children of Medford. Beyond these books, or CDs, or DVDs, or curriculum support, hundreds of story time hours and tutoring sessions, the most important parts of our city library are the safe halls sheltering the students of our schools. We have all seen the pictures. We need a library without a leaking roof or rotting floors or flickering lights. And it is for this reason that I ask you to request that the city council approve the construction of a new space. A place where children can not only study for the MCAS, but also a space where WIM can take a child to the dialogues of Plato or the history of DNA. Yes. Let's build a new dry home for the greatest minds and a place for children to wander amongst them. A few members wish to speak on this resolution. I'd like to invite them to speak. And if anyone has any questions.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Is it possible that we could have an official appreciation certification that we could do through the school committee?
[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you, Mayor Burke. I just have one question. So I wanted to know, and maybe Member Mustone explained this, but I just wanted to know would parents be able to also get an introductory meeting like what Alice is and why it's important and why we're choosing this? That is a good question.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Is it possible I'd like to make a motion that we pursue a community event because a number of parents have been asking me this very question. So we can actually have a full forum on what Alice is, why we're moving toward it, and why we think it's important for the city. Can someone second that?
[Michael Ruggiero]: Yeah, I just have a question about professional development days in general. So you would, usually the different topics be scheduled in advance. It was just because of the current situation that we decided to move this up. Is that correct? Correct. So in terms of the ALICE program, I just wanted to know a little bit about how the decision was made to move forward with ALICE versus like these other programs that we're mentioning. Yeah, that was part of it.
[Michael Ruggiero]: So we know that the Medford PD fully approves this program the most? Yes. OK, thank you. That helps me understand the situation. Thank you.
[Michael Ruggiero]: I just wanted to clarify from my mindset. Thank you.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Yes, thank you. Thank you very much for this report. I have a question for you guys. So do you, if there is someone in the community that has the ability, like a retired individual, would it be possible that they could help tutor kids in these AP classes? I've had a couple, when I was knocking on doors, reach out to me. They were retired professors of physics that might be interested. Or if you had someone in the community that was able to help out with tutoring, would you guys?
[Michael Ruggiero]: Could I ask the deputy superintendent to look into how we could create such a program?
[Michael Ruggiero]: Perhaps we could look at something doing in collaboration with the library.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Yeah, I just have a couple questions. So first, I'd like to offer a friendly amendment. Do we need to have this information presented physically? Is it OK that we just have this information presented as an Excel file or comma delineated database? Is that OK? Because that's a lot of paper. Yeah. So you want the physical? I want it in an Excel spreadsheet every time people want anything at all to be sensualized. Yeah, yeah, but I mean, I'm just a friendly man. I think that the paper version just that's a lot of I mean you're looking at A lot of entries.
[Michael Ruggiero]: So I would like to offer a friendly amendment if it's accepted that we have this information presented physically and if one of the members needs it to be printed out, then they can request it. But for me, I would prefer to have this digitally. If I'm going to search it or scan it, I would need it digitally anyway.
[Michael Ruggiero]: I just wanted to present that motion before. Mary member.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Yeah, a couple of questions. So when you say several RTI tutors, how many are we talking about per building? Like three or two?
[Michael Ruggiero]: And, um, so I have a, this is on page two of the report and you say Renaissance is a difficult tool to utilize. Do you have sense of what the participation rate is among teachers? Are teachers using part of it now because it's too difficult? They're having trouble using it all? I'm just, what do you mean when you say Renaissance is a difficult tool to use?
[Michael Ruggiero]: Yeah. Um, so we, we, as the three members of the community relations subcommittee, we all worked out when would be the best time to me. It's going to be on March 9th from 1230 to one 30. Um, we cleared the date with the senior center. So that's where we'll be. And it'll also just give opportunity for seniors. that sometimes aren't able to come to our meetings or just have an opportunity to speak. All the issues were forwarded to the superintendent and to the mayors. I think maybe just due to the timing of things and what's been going on lately, I think maybe it's been lost in the shuffle. But I'm going to make sure everything is going to be posted properly. It's also been posted in the senior newspaper that they have.
[Michael Ruggiero]: I'm following up with the deputy superintendents to make sure everything is posted properly.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Sure. So I'm going to be posting the agenda online. So basically, we're only going to have an hour. Unfortunately, that's all the time they could give us. But the primary issue of the day is going to be discussing how we can reach out to our senior community to improve whether it's through tutoring or maybe through RTI, whatever sort of implementation that we're able to have for the senior community to help out with our education system. And basically just to hear from what we can do. All this will be posted officially though.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Yeah, unfortunately.
[Michael Ruggiero]: I think that it would be very useful for us as a committee to actually have something that's machine readable as well. Just having a PDF is not as useful as having something that is where the data can actually be read. And I also think it'd be great for us to have an easy way to visualize the budget, whether it's a pie chart people can click on. I'm happy to do a lot of the visualization work. I just need the data. That's machine readable, because I'm not going to data entry it all step by step.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Yeah, then I can. We can do a lot of great stuff with that.
[Michael Ruggiero]: I also started off with a school committee Facebook page for my firm. We can all talk about how we want to address that as well. But if you ever want me to send you their digital copies, that's why I'm letting you know. But I don't, once again, it's not machine readable. So if the PDFs could actually have the text on there, that would be my way.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Two questions. So the first, I noticed the increase in van bus transportation. So right now, you're making up the $5,000 as fundraising. Is that where that money is coming from right now?
[Michael Ruggiero]: Yeah, and my second question involves the instructional supplies. Has your department reached out to like Blick and Michael's Arts and Crafts to see if we could get a grant from them to get some art supplies?
[Michael Ruggiero]: It's going to be Thursday, the 8th. It doesn't look like we're going to get snow according to the forecast.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you for the clarification.
[Michael Ruggiero]: I'm certainly, I think this is important that we do this. I would just like to have a report that we can have. So I'd like to know how much money we generate from these rentals, how large the groups are. I think that I would like to suggest that we have a committee of the whole meeting with just this particular issue is discussed. We have all the paperwork before us. We can have the research. But for me, I need to know what are the groups that are currently renting, how much income we receive from these groups, and the size of every one of these groups, whether it's the Impact Church, how many members they usually receive on what days.
[Michael Ruggiero]: There's a senior group at the pool, right?
[Michael Ruggiero]: So we have to be fair and equitable about that. Least detail until this issue is resolved.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Mayor Burke, I mean, I definitely have sympathy with the church and this is partly their home as well. Um, so I, if that is acceptable to church, that's definitely acceptable to me until we can talk about this issue in more detail. So I'd like to add in addition to my motion to make sure that we have police details until the committee of the whole can meet for this weekend to make sure they're responsible for at least two details.
[Michael Ruggiero]: No.
[Michael Ruggiero]: This week has been challenging for all of us. I want to thank the hundreds of people that have reached out to me to talk about this issue. If anything, please keep those emails coming. It would be great now that we have these lines of communications available, that we talk about more constructive things moving forward. And everyone's opinion here is greatly valued to me, and I thank all the members here at the school committee. So please keep those messages coming. If we're going to do this, we're doing this together.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Mr. Ruggiero. Thank you very much for scheduling this. Are we going to be advertising this in the transcript?
[Michael Ruggiero]: Yeah, I noticed the price increase for electricity from a little over $0.08 to $0.09. I wanted to know, have we ever looked into getting solar panels for the school, or how much that would lower the cost?
[Michael Ruggiero]: Great. Can I just request a report on that mitigation strategy? Sure. Thanks.
[Michael Ruggiero]: I wanted to know what materials are being used for the tutoring program.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Are you looking for more volunteers from the community, or do you think you have enough as of right now?
[Michael Ruggiero]: Yeah, one quick question here. I believe it was Miss Irving, one of the teachers, mentioned that new teachers had trouble finding the forms or knowing where the forms were located. Is there gonna be any training provided to new teachers as they come in, like a packet with this information in particular?
[Michael Ruggiero]: Mr. Russo? Oh, sorry. I didn't know my English.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you.
[Michael Ruggiero]: This is part of my ignorance. I don't have a little one in kindergarten yet. But I was curious, do we have like a welcome binder for parents that are coming into the schools?
[Michael Ruggiero]: I'm looking over the list of trades here. I noticed that there was no Information about plumbing. I know we don't have a plumbing department here We send most of those kids to the miniman is it just there's just not as much interest in our community I think there could be some interest in the program one of the things that we were talking about although I can't
[Michael Ruggiero]: How many students do we have right now? They're at the Minuteman for the plumbing program? Is that correct?
[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you very much for putting this report together. Mr. Nelson. Um, for people to successfully, uh, petition their government, they need to understand the issues. And I'm concerned about some of the points that you brought up here. I would think it'd be really good for the community if we could put together a little presentation of how the state budget affects our local schools. Basically, what you've done here is very informative, but it'd be nice if we could perhaps do it through the community relations subcommittee, something that could be advertised and taught. Because I don't think most people understand that we're going to be facing cuts. And I think the people need to understand. So at least if they want to petition their government representatives, they'll be able to.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Not always the case. So when did you say that the budget negotiations would be happening in the House and Senate? Did you say May and April?
[Michael Ruggiero]: Okay. So maybe we could move it to the agenda for the community relations. We can start working with it. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Okay.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Yes. You could.
[Michael Ruggiero]: I'd like to make a motion to approve this issue and also think about ways that we can make the budget a little bit more accessible, a little bit more being sexy. We can talk about sexy budgets.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Um, uh, Mr. Wilson, do we know, is there a great issue or cause I have some farm equipment. I possibly could bring it to here. I could, if I'll, if I, all I need is a trailer and I could bring my some farm equipment. I have like a bulldozer. Do you guys need grading work done or,
[Michael Ruggiero]: Just a couple.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Is it possible we could project a movie or provide, obviously not child care, but entertainment for kids, for parents that are not able to find babysitting on that night? I mean, I know from personal experience from knocking on doors, people would like to participate. They're just not able to because they have little ones.
[Michael Ruggiero]: For the focus group, for the night of the focus group.
[Michael Ruggiero]: I'd really appreciate that.
[Michael Ruggiero]: I have three questions. Just walk me through them. If we can't answer them tonight, that's fine. The first is on page 1 of 19. The miscellaneous high school charges of $11,000. Can you just explore what that is?
[Michael Ruggiero]: It's the first line item. First line. First page, first line.
[Michael Ruggiero]: That's student activity accounts. I see, okay.
[Michael Ruggiero]: OK. And do we normally break down the schools by activity, or by group, or is it just all lumped in there? By school. Well, that's Medford High School. It's by school. OK.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Is it possible in the future that we could have this broken down by club? Because I'd be interested to know if certain clubs.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Ms.
[Michael Ruggiero]: OK. Yeah. Just out of curiosity. Yeah. I mean, definitely.
[Michael Ruggiero]: This next line item, it's on the same page. This is the American Alarm Company. Is this every quarter or are these monthly charges? I'm just curious about that breakdown and how that line up works.
[Michael Ruggiero]: And I believe I have one more question. On the West Medford auto supply, this is the last page on page 19 of 19. So is this a wholesaler for our automotive department? I just wanted to clarify.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Vocational for the automotive. That's it. Thank you very much.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Second.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Aye.
[Michael Ruggiero]: In addition to that motion, I would like to ask that we move this issue to two of our subcommittees. The first is the building and grounds to see how we can move forward on this issue, and also to see if we could do community relations to see if there are any subcontractors in the town that would be willing to donate grounds.
[Michael Ruggiero]: But in addition to the estimate, I'd like to suggest that we send this issue to Building and Grounds for more research.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you, Ms. Cheryl.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Superintendent Belson, is it possible that Glenn could put on a presentation for the community? Because he's seen a lot of these superintendent searches. It would be really helpful. He is.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you, Mr. Superintendent, for putting this forward. I'd like to, seeing that we're sending this to subcommittee, I just want to add another item that we draft material that can be used to help these groups, maybe like a sample bylaws. Could be set up, not that anyone has to follow them, but just like a template. We have a recommended set of best practices that we could put, maybe a binder, that we could put together for different PTOs, just to help them have the best process possible. Yeah, I'm just making, we're adding items on the list, right? We're at nine, so.
[Michael Ruggiero]: So this statement will not change any minds, those that know me. in my commitment to transparency already know my work ethic. I shall try my best.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Oh, excuse me. I'll speak a little louder. This statement will not change any minds. Those that know me in my commitment to transparency already know my work ethic. For the rest, I shall try my best to open my heart and write as honestly as I can about this situation. Words matter. I've spent the past few weeks meditating on the words I've settled upon. I've prayed to help me see any terrible mistake that I might have made. I've spent sleepless nights rereading the article in the transcript and my quotes in them and searching my motivations. While I now have access to more means of dealing with these situations in the future as a school committee member, As a private citizen from the bottom of my heart, I really, I regret nothing. Here's why. I want to live in a city where every resident is free to challenge those in positions of power, even me. It may seem like a silly thing to believe that a treasurer or a president of a PTG occupies a position of power, but they do. Every group that works inside of our schools and inside of our city government occupies a position of power. As a candidate, I came across a $6,092 mistake that many, many people did not know about. While I appreciate the treasurer's statement that she made the community aware, it seems that the issue is buried. In my opinion, This mistake should have been reported to the parents of Medford in 2014 when it happened, and not just maybe a small group of members of the PTG, but to the wider community at all. To my knowledge, neither Roy Belson nor many, many of the other parents knew about their losses of their donations. So after great deliberation with many of the parents involved, thinking about what kind of example we wanted to set our children, we decided to report the Ed Rarer to the people of Medford. I never once labeled any member of the McGlynn PTG a crook or a criminal or a monster. As a matter of fact, I never mentioned any names in any of the correspondence that we had in the transcript. In my heart, I knew that hard-earned money was wasted, and the people of Medford deserve to know. So we called for transparency. To the undecided in this room, I ask you, did you elect me to stay silent when I found evidence that money was wasted? Would you have preferred that I stand mute? If I find evidence that our schools have not used money properly, I'm going to speak up. I serve at your pleasure, but I forever stand as a fierce defender of the values I cherish and the city I love. The treasurer and the president of McGlynn PTG seem convinced that they run a tight ship. God bless them. They have worked very hard, and I appreciate all the time they have invested. But here are the facts. The laws of their group demand they present financial information when asked. They didn't. The laws of their group demand they keep their rules and their ledgers handy at every meeting. Didn't happen. Their rules require a budget at the beginning of the year, but it wasn't provided. Mothers felt belittled and humiliated. How dare parents ask questions, eh? I have no doubt that every single parent at the McGlynn PTG loved the children and want to help our city grow. Nonetheless, you can't play fast and loose with the rules. You would think that after stumbling into such a chasm with the IRS, people would be a little more cautious. Those are the facts. But before you go, I think it's really time we can move forward. There's a great proposal on the table here. Parents will have financial information now when they're asked. Our school committees will work to help parent groups become as effective as possible. Training will be provided. Never again will thousands of dollars be lost into a hole. I think this is an exciting time and I think we have a great proposal here. And I hope everyone, both sides of this issue, look forward to moving. Thank you.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Do you want to say something?
[Michael Ruggiero]: I'm going to respond briefly.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Can we move that issue to the Community Relations Subcommittee? Because a number of people have talked to me about how can we publicize our policies more effectively in conjunction with our own services?
[Michael Ruggiero]: Yeah, through the chair.
[Michael Ruggiero]: I have two questions. The first is, so the alcohol use from the sixth to eighth grade dropped pretty precipitously from 2011 to 2013. And I was wondering what accounts for that drop. And the second thing I had is maybe just helping us understand the analytics. So you have children completing a survey Do we have any sense of how many people are actually users but are concerned that if they fill out this survey with this information it will be seen by a teacher that they're handing it in? Do we have a sense of like heroin use? I know overdose is a serious issue in Medford. So do we have a sense of underage heroin overdoses in Medford right now?
[Michael Ruggiero]: Oh, what was the drop? The drop was pretty significant. If you have 10%, that's a significant selection.
[Michael Ruggiero]: And do you have a sense of how many kids are using but don't report on the survey?
[Michael Ruggiero]: Yeah, through the chair.
[Michael Ruggiero]: I have two questions. The first is, so the alcohol use from the 6th to 8th grade dropped pretty precipitously from 2011 to 2013. And I was wondering what accounts for that drop. And the second thing I had is maybe just helping us understand the analytics. So you have children completing a survey. Do we have any sense of how many people are actually users but are concerned that if they fill out this survey with this information it will be seen by a teacher that they're handing it in? Do we have like a sense of like heroin use? I know overdose is a serious issue in Medford. So do we have a sense of underage heroin overdoses in Medford right now?
[Michael Ruggiero]: Oh, what was the drop? The drop was pretty significant. If you have 10%, that's a significant selection.
[Michael Ruggiero]: And do you have a sense of how many kids are using but don't report on the survey?
[Michael Ruggiero]: Friends and neighbors, my name is Michael Leggero, and I'm running for school committee. Let me tell you why. Somewhere in Medford, a baby was born. Lovely, curious, and if anything like my pumpkins, a bit of a troublemaker. Soon this beautiful child will be entering kindergarten with my son, Kason. Until I had a child, I could only see the rough outline of responsibility drawn by fatherhood. Yet being a parent has opened my eyes beyond the circle of my own family. As a math teacher with over seven years experience, I know education is destiny. Every kindergartner's future is shaped by the parents and administrators and teachers standing in front of them. It is an awesome responsibility. The parents of Medford invest in our school system. It is your responsibility to elect the most capable candidates onto our school committee. Thank you for your time and considering my unique set of experiences. But before I jabber on about myself, let's talk about our schools. The Mustangs make our city proud, but is it too outrageous to imagine our schools as the best in Massachusetts? In the 80s, Medford was placed at the top of almost every school ranking in Massachusetts. People traveled the world to visit our schools, believe it or not. Now, well, we've fallen into the middle of the pack. U.S. News and World Report ranks Arlington 12th, Somerville 69th, Everett 89th in Massachusetts. Medford, we didn't even crack into the top 100. Great Schools, it's an online website, ranks our district 5 out of 10. Boston Magazine recently ranked Medford 89 out of 125 Boston-area schools. Our four-year graduation rate has fallen from 87% a few years ago to 80% now. These rankings are a wake-up call. All students should aim as high as possible. Let's not settle for okay. Let's make our schools the best in Massachusetts. No, strike that. Let's play as hard as our musk gangs fight. Let's be the best school in America. My teaching career has stretched from Philadelphia to Shanghai. I have experience teaching mathematics at both elite universities and highly ranked public schools. I helped build a successful math team in Houston, and I hope you give me the opportunity to fortify the schools here in Medford. Currently, I run an organic blueberry farm in Massachusetts. As a small business owner, I know how to stretch a buck. I know that throwing money at a problem will not solve poor planning. Customers demand responsive business. I hope to add this type of responsiveness to our schools. Here's some plans to help us move forward. Because Henry won't give me 10 minutes, I only have time for four. First, we need to make our school committee more accessible. As a parent of two little boys, I can tell you from personal experience that 6.30 on a weekday is a tough time to make it. What I suggest is that we rotate our school committee meetings into the weekends, at least once a month, and provide parents with some entertainment for their kids. This way, excited kids and tired parents will have an opportunity to speak about what's going on with our schools. Let's extend relationships with the local universities. Right now we have a really great relationship with Tufts. Let's look to schools like MIT and Harvard and open internship and lecture opportunities. Third, we need to reduce the disparities between the schools here in Medford. The Andrews and the McGlynn, for example, it is unacceptable that poverty rates at one school is half the poverty rate at the other school. We need to make sure that parity is achieved. Fourth, let's improve relationships with parents of special needs children. By far the biggest complaint that I hear as I've been knocking on doors among parents is the resistance to individual education plans. As a teacher, I acted as a liaison between parents and administrators. I will continue this work on our school committee. My campaign is about creating the most successful and transparent school district in Massachusetts. If you have some time, check out my website, takegovernment.com, or call me directly. My home number is 781-866-2191. I'm always happy to talk, hopefully after my boys are in bed. The children of Medford deserve the best. Join me, and let's take our schools from good to great.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Yeah, my name is Michael O'Jarrett. I live on 18 Pembroke Street. I want to address this question in particular because I had a number of parents say that they weren't able to get into the school of their choice. This happened to me twice now. Right. There was a school that was closer to them and one parent was so outraged That they were like, oh, if Medford is going to treat me this way, I'm going to take my kids to a private school.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Elementary.
[Michael Ruggiero]: And I just want to know, what percent does this happen? Because, I mean, you know, I've only heard one side of the story.
[Michael Ruggiero]: It's probably. Yeah, they have fresh choice. There was the way the district lines worked out, that they were closer to one, but they weren't requested. I just want to get a sense of what percentage. that happens? Very small, very small.
[Michael Ruggiero]: It's possible that there was a miscommunication. I'll talk to the parent and see if we can forward that information to you guys. But it was that exact issue that she could walk it, but now she can't walk and she was very frustrated at the response she received from the school district. I'm sure it was just a miscommunication.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Yeah, it's not that, I don't think there was any malfeasance or practice on anyone's part, it was just a question of miscommunication. And I just wanted to get a sense of how often that happens for parents, because as well, many parents don't think that they do have a choice, at least in my experience when talking to them.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Yeah, the parents I spoke with, I have to talk with them obviously, but I'll forward you the information if they agree. They felt they were sort of, Pushed into the Columbus, and I think that that was just that whether it was the reality of the perception I just maybe it's a question of just clearing it up We don't want to have one school, which has 300 kids in one course And that's the challenge of course very good.
[Michael Ruggiero]: One more question here. If a parent has trouble reading perhaps the form for admissions, what's the default school that they get sent to if they don't return the form to you? Is it that they get defaulted to McGlynn?
[Michael Ruggiero]: I want to address this question in particular because I had a number of parents say that they weren't able to get into the school of their choice. This happened to me twice now. Right. There was a school that was closer to them and one parent was so outraged That they were like, oh, if Medford is going to treat me this way, I'm going to take my kids to private school.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Elementary.
[Michael Ruggiero]: And I just want to know, what percent does this happen? Because, I mean, you know, I've only heard one side of the story.
[Michael Ruggiero]: That's what I heard. It's probably. Yeah, they have fresh choice. There was the way the district lines worked out, that they were closer to one, but they weren't, they requested. I just want to get a sense of what percentage. that happens? Very small, very small.
[Michael Ruggiero]: It's possible that there was a miscommunication. I'll talk to the parent and see if we can forward that information to you guys, but it was that exact issue that she could walk it, but now she can't walk and she was very frustrated at the response she received from the school district.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Yeah, it's not that, I don't think there was any malfeasance or practice on anyone's part, it was just a question of miscommunication. And I just wanted to get a sense of how often that happens for parents, because as well, many parents don't think that they do have a choice, at least in my experience when talking to them.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Yeah, the parents I spoke with, I have to talk with them obviously, but I'll forward you the information if they agree, they felt they were sort of pushed into the Columbus, and I think that that was just, whether it was the reality or the perception, I just, maybe it's a question of just clearing it out.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Of course, and that's the challenge, of course.
[Michael Ruggiero]: One more question here. If a parent has trouble reading, perhaps, the form for admissions, what's the default school that they get sent to if they don't return the form to you? Is it that they get defaults to McGlynn?
[Michael Ruggiero]: Mr. Ruggiero In addition to that motion, I would like to ask that we We move this issue to do two of our subcommittees The first is the buildings and grounds to see how we can move forward on this issue and also to see if we could do Community relations to see if there are any subcontractors in the town that would be willing to donate
[Michael Ruggiero]: But in addition to the estimate, I'd like to suggest that we send this issue to Building and Grounds for more research.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you, Ms. Cheryl.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Superintendent Belson, is it possible that Glenn could put on a presentation for the community? Because he's seen a lot of these superintendent searches. It would be really helpful.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you, Mr. Superintendent, for putting this forward. I'd like to, seeing that we're sending this to subcommittee, I just want to add another item that we draft material that can be used to help these groups, maybe like a sample bylaws could be set up, not that anyone has to follow, but just like a template. We have a recommended set of best practices that we could put to maybe a binder that we could put together for different PTOs just to help them have the best process possible. Yeah, I'm just making we're adding items on the list, right?
[Michael Ruggiero]: So this statement will not change any minds those that know me in my commitment to transparency already know my work ethic I I shall try my best. We're having trouble hearing you. Oh, excuse me. I'll speak a little louder. This statement will not change any minds. Those that know me and my commitment to transparency already know my work ethic. For the rest, I shall try my best to open my heart and write as honestly as I can about this situation. Words matter. I've spent the past few weeks meditating on the words I've settled upon. I've prayed to help me see any terrible mistake that I might have made. I've spent sleepless nights rereading the article in the transcript and my quotes in them and searching my motivations. While I now have access to more means of dealing with these situations in the future as a school committee member, as a private citizen from the bottom of my heart, I really, I regret nothing. Here's why. I want to live in a city where every resident is free to challenge those in positions of power, even me. It may seem like a silly thing to believe that a treasurer or a president of a PTG occupies a position of power, but they do. Every group that works inside of our schools and inside of our city government occupies a position of power. As a candidate, I came across a $6,092 mistake that many, many people did not know about. While I appreciate the treasurer's statement that she made the community aware, it seems that the issue was buried, in my opinion. This mistake should have been reported to the parents of Medford in 2014 when it happened, and not just maybe a small group of members of the PTG, but to the wider community at all. To my knowledge, neither Roy Belson nor many, many of the other parents knew about their losses of their donations. So after great deliberation with many of the parents involved, thinking about what kind of example we wanted to set our children, we decided to report the Ed Rarer to the people of Medford. I never once labeled any member of the McGlynn PTG a crook or a criminal or a monster. As a matter of fact, I never mentioned any names in any of the correspondence that we had in the transcript. In my heart, I knew that hard-earned money was wasted, and the people of Medford deserve to know, so we called for transparency. To the undecided in this room, I ask you, did you elect me to stay silent when I found evidence that money was wasted? Would you have preferred that I stand mute? If I find evidence that our schools have not used money properly, I'm going to speak up. I serve at your pleasure, but I forever stand as a fierce defender of the values I cherish and the city I love. The treasurer and the president of McGlynn PTG seem convinced that they run a tight ship. God bless them. They have worked very hard, and I appreciate all the time they have invested. But here are the facts. The laws of their group demand they present financial information when asked. They didn't. The laws of their group demand they keep their rules and their ledgers handy at every meeting. Didn't happen. Their rules require a budget at the beginning of the year, but it wasn't provided. Mothers felt belittled and humiliated. How dare parents ask questions, eh? I have no doubt that every single parent at the McGlynn PTG loved the children and want to help our city grow. Nonetheless, you can't play fast and loose with the rules. You would think that after stumbling into such a chasm with the IRS, people would be a little more cautious. Those are the facts. But before you go, I think it's really time we can move forward. There's a great proposal on the table here. Parents will have financial information now when they're asked. Our school committees will work to help parent groups become as effective as possible. Training will be provided. Never again will thousands of dollars be lost into a hole. I think this is an exciting time and I think we have a great proposal here. And I hope everyone on both sides of this issue look forward to moving. Thank you.
[Michael Ruggiero]: I'm going to respond briefly.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Sure. Sure.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Yes.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Yes.
[Michael Ruggiero]: My name is Michael Ruggiero. I live on 18 Pembroke Street. When a teacher asks to review her syllabus, no one wonders why. When a captain surveys his ship at night, no one asks him to what end. Yet as our group works to review the city's charter, the constitution for our city, some members of this council seem confused as to why we should go through the effort. Some call our efforts at home on petition undemocratic or imply that this process is somehow seditious. Our group has collected, as of right now, over 1,800 signatures for one simple reason. We want to review Medford's charter. There's nothing demonic or undemocratic about what we hope to do. Our goal is to simply involve you, the city council, Medford's finest, into this initiative. A regular review, as almost everyone agrees, is healthy. But why do we ask for this review now? Why not, as Councilor Knight says, just keep collecting the signatures? Well, the mayor campaigned for a charter review. It is in your power to ask for a charter review. It's not undemocratic at all. Most of the members of this council have been recorded on record as championing this process. Beyond this, a lot has happened in the last 30 years since our last review. Our city has changed, and a new blueprint is needed for us to adapt. But I've heard these words float about City Hall, I'm for charter review, but I want them to get the signatures, I want them to go through this process. These words sound very politic to me. How it is very easy to pretend to be for charter review, and then do nothing to actually help the process along.
[Michael Ruggiero]: I just want to respond to that question about the process. Many cities, most cities actually in Massachusetts, have regular charter reviews in their process. It's built in the process. I can assure you, Councilor Knight, that we're going to keep collecting signatures. We will reach our 6,000 signatures. There's no question about it. We're not asking for the City of Medford to automatically accept these changes. This would be an elected body, and any changes that they make would have to be approved by the City of Medford. trying to hold a gun to the city of Medford's head and ask for a ransom of some ridiculous amount. We will get these 6,000 signatures. Councilor Marks presents this Home Rule petition to make the process of charter review as inclusive as possible. He wants to involve every level of our government to move this charter review forward. Our group could do it alone. We can keep gathering signatures. We could force City Hall to accept a review. But wouldn't it be healthier if everyone in our city was involved in this change, from city council to the mayor's office to all the people in our city? A vote against this petition tonight is a vote against this type of reclusiveness. All I ask is for everyone not to pretend. If you're against charter review, that's fine. That's your right as a citizen of Medford, and I respect that view. But just state your position honestly. It's one thing to say I'm for something and then not do anything to help the process along.
[Michael Ruggiero]: My name is Michael Ruggiero. I live on 18 Pembroke Street. Thank you for this council for allowing me to speak about charter review. Thank you to Councilor Marks for presenting this resolution. And thank you for allowing me to speak about charter review. Those two words, charter review, sound about as boring as can be. But I assure you, it's perhaps the most important issue facing Medford today. Why? The charter is basically the blueprint of Medford. Well, maybe we'll strike that too. Blueprint also sounds really boring. Let's think about this in terms of biblical terms. The charter is the soul of Medford. Maybe this sounds exaggerated, so let me illustrate an example of how the charter has affected our community. Consider the library. Right now, if you visit the library, you're going to have to walk through a bunch of buckets that are raining water on different parts of the area. The library is leaking. A number of months ago, over 200 or so children's books were destroyed as a result of water. But how does the charter have anything to do with this one example of the leaking library? For years, the library has been continuously underfunded by the city administration, the victim of numerous budget cuts. Things became so lean in 2012 that Medford needed a special waiver from the state to maintain certification despite not meeting basic funding standards. For six years, this process continued. And even though members of the city came to petition city council for help about this issue, and city council continuously voted on improving the situation at the library, nothing was done. The charter, which is the constitution for Medford, as Councilor Marks says, allows the city administration unilateral decisions about funding measures. So, even though all of this issue came up, nothing got done. The issue became so bad that the state actually threatened to pull certification from the library system in Medford, and thankfully, through one last sort of 11th hour measure, a number of residents raised their voice and the city administration finally decided to act. We have a new mayor now, and that's good news. Many people are excited about the opportunity of addressing many of the crumbling buildings throughout our city. But nonetheless, even on the campaign trail, Mayor Burke supported this process. Both candidates did. While I was campaigning, we collected over 1,500 signatures, which is where we're at. We're a little over 1,500 signatures for charter review right now. My group discussed this compromise measure tonight. Overall, we think it's pretty good. A number of members of the group want to discuss clarifications and maybe some reservations about some ideas here. But I want to talk about this in more broad strokes. 1986, a lot has happened since the days of Hulk Hogan. I don't know if you guys remember, but Halley's Comet visited us in 1986. It's going to be visiting us again in 2076. I seriously hope that we can get this issue fast-tracked. There is a number of people that are excited to add their voice to this process, and I thank you so much for bringing this issue up to us.
[Michael Ruggiero]: The Press My name is Michael Ruggiero. I live on 18 Pembroke Street. So taking a step back here, I want to understand what we're advocating for. I'm all for having more conversations about charter review. We've been having them once a month in the Magoon Room in the library. But on the same token, right now, without having the city solicitor actually draft a document, we're just talking. We're not talking about any actual object where we can begin to discuss the pros and the cons of it. Thus, I understand wanting to have more conversation. I think it's a great idea. But referring the issue to the city solicitor for a draft, not the final draft, but for an actual document that we can use as a starting point of charter review. I think overall, everyone agrees that we should have charter review. The question is where we should go now. Well, we don't want this to turn into another point of contention. If we have an object where we can actually discuss, review, at home, doing your homework, We can call other people, see what they think about this document. If we have a draft document in hand, then we'll be able to move forward more adequately. Just a number of people have come here tonight, but you have to understand, for some of them, it's not easy to come to city council chambers. We have a number of members that are disabled. We have a number of members that have difficulty making it from the bus schedule. Now, of course, we don't want to rush into this process overnight, but let's move forward. By referring the issue to the city solicitor, he'll have a draft for us ready next Tuesday. We can look at it online. That's moving forward. Opening up another open-ended conversation, perhaps that could lead to more contentious arguments. Thank you.
[Michael Ruggiero]: My name is Michael Ruggiero. I live on 18 Pembroke Street. I just want to make a brief clarification to a point that was brought up. We are still collecting signatures. That process hasn't stalled. It hasn't failed. We've collected over 200 just this month, and we had a number of really snowy and rainy days. We will keep getting signatures, whichever process. We want as many people involved in this process as possible. We don't see this as an either-or kind of deal. We want to just get signatures to let people know this is going on, to invite them into the conversation. So I just wanted to make a clarification. We're actually doing really great work. We're moving forward, and I'm really proud of all the people that have collected signatures. Thank you.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Welcome. My name is Michael Ruggiero. I live on 18 Pembroke Street. Um, I love the idea of Councilor Marks. I've seen it done successfully in a number of cities, Los Angeles included. Uh, but my concern involves more than just the idea of getting a wall to make sure that people can express themselves. My concern is that if we have a parks department that has trouble emptying trash cans, responding to people that leave when the park lights are left on all night, needles that are sometimes found in parks. My concern is broader. If we can't have a park system that addresses these major problems, perhaps a wall with some interesting art on it might not suffice. Thank you.
[Michael Ruggiero]: My name is Michael Leggero. I wish to speak in opposition of this plan.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Hello, my name is Michael Ruggiero. I live on 18 Pembroke Street. I want to address a couple of concerns I have really quick. While I appreciate that the rate has decreased, this is still ending up, because property values have increased, this is ending up as a net increase in taxes for the average citizen in Medford. I think we all agree there. I just want to make that point perfectly clear. So here's my concern. We're not talking about income here. It's not like the average house owner or widow, as we mentioned before, just now made, oh, Now they have $30,000, $40,000 extra in their pocket that they get to spend. This is not income. This is property. So I would suggest strongly that we do not increase actual tax level on the citizens of Medford. Just because the property value goes up and the rate goes down, it's one of those six dozen of one, half of the other. This is still a tax increase on a number of people in Medford that are struggling. So let's consider this vote very carefully as you make it tonight. Thank you.
[Michael Ruggiero]: My name is Michael Majuro. I live on 18 Pembroke Street. I want to speak really quickly about this rate increase. I am very much in favor of taking the entire amount out of retained earnings, and here's why. First, I want to bring up the point that Councilman Mark brought up. It feels sort of like rate pairs of playing three-card Monte. You know the game where you have three cups and one ball, and no matter what you do, you just can't seem to find it. It seems to be the same game that's going on here. We choose one option of, well, we'll just conserve more. Nope, rate pace is still going to go up. Let's make it so that we have actually this huge bonus to make sure that we can withdraw from in cases that there is an overage. Nope, that doesn't work either. A 5% increase is very onerous for a lot of people in this community. It has to be probably one of the top three complaints I hear in the city, especially in the senior center. It might not seem like a huge increase for a lot of people, but it can really hurt. There is no reason why we shouldn't take the money that we already have currently in surplus, and here's why. I think the best reason why we should use the money that we already have reserved is that's the skin in the game that the city already has. If that number keeps going down, then we're going to be the force to address perhaps the leaks that are causing these huge rate increases, or perhaps just looking at where the schools are and why they're using more than they should. Maybe that's where the conservation needs to be looked at. So I strongly suggest that we should take this money out of retained earnings to have it go on the rate payer who are actually already conserving is an onerous, and it's going to be difficult for many seniors. Thank you.
[Michael Ruggiero]: I'm sorry.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Hello, Mr. President. My name is Michael Wajiro. I just want to make a quick announcement. First off, I wanted to thank all of the wonderful people that put up these beautiful trees. It's quite beautiful and on a different note. I wanted to mention something really quick. I have right here, I've been circulating a petition to review our charter. Both of the incoming candidates and our incoming administration wants to review the charter. I just want to, I ask everyone to participate now in this conversation. Um, there's going to be a meeting at the library on December 10th at six 30. Everyone is welcome to attend. Um, so we can all discuss this as an open and forum possible. So thank you.
[Michael Ruggiero]: My name is Michael Ruggiero. I live on 18 Pembroke Street. I would like to suggest to the Councilor that she adds an amendment to this legislation. It would be useful if information that was pertinent could be presented digitally also so people could view it at home. It seems to be a rather small request that if there is a large item, $300,000 debt that the city is going to have to pay for, If we could have this information available to us digitally, it'll allow us to actually do a little research beforehand. The second thing I'd also like to recommend that we could have a digital recording on all committees of the whole meetings. Today, we just learned that there's going to be about a 7 to 15% rate increase of the water bill. If that information could be presented digitally to the average citizen, I think that would be useful, so at least they could hear it at home. And thirdly, I just want to address the general tone of the meeting. It's frustrating when the administration continually bulldozes through certain choices that this legislative body is governed by. Is there anything more we can do than just reminding the administration that they have seven days to provide financial information so people can view it? Thank you.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Hi, my name is Michael Wajiro. I live on 18 Pembroke street. Um, there's a couple of points I want to, that it's sort of floating in the air right now that's very frustrating. The first is just a general lack of transparency that's available to us as citizens. If six members of the people that we elect to actually review these documents aren't receiving the documents within a year and a half, we have to ask, how could the average citizen ever find this out? How could the average citizen ever find out that we have all of these overrides? That's the first point I wish to make. The second point I wish to make is about mistakes and how we handle mistakes. I think it is poisonous for us to make mistakes and then just say, oh, no problem. Let's just go out to bond. It is not how we handle our errors. When we do make mistakes, it's like free money. We just go fishing in bond. If we actually have to take the money out of our general fund, then we'll actually feel it versus some future date that's going to be thrown down the line. We have to ask ourselves, is this a general trend? Maybe it's a one-time mistake. Maybe it's $350,000. It happens. Projects do go over. Maybe this is just a one-time thing. But haven't we seen this reoccurring over and over and over again? I ask the council to respectfully avoid using the easy motion of just simply going out to bond when we make mistakes like this. We have to start paying for them, because then we'll actually start feeling them. Thank you.
[Michael Ruggiero]: My name is Michael Ruggiero. I live on 18 Pembroke Street. I wanted to speak in favor of this measure. Since 2012, the number of heroin-related deaths in this country have gone up three times. It's a three-fold increase. Massachusetts has a pretty serious heroin problem, and unfortunately, Medford's problem has a 20% higher incident rate of heroin use and abuse than Massachusetts, which is a frightening statistic. I think it's excellent that we're beginning to get some more attention on this. Oxycontin works on the same pathway as heroin. So what happens is people get started on Oxy via a back injury or knee injury. something like that, and then before you know it, they find themselves cut off from their pain medication that they are now addicted to. I've seen it as a teacher, and my wife, who is a rehabilitation doctor, she sees it all the time, people having injuries as a result of OxyContin. So I think it's excellent work, and please keep it up. Thank you.
[Michael Ruggiero]: My name is Michael Ruggiero. I live on 18 Pembroke Street. I just want to make a quick update. The people at Chevalier Theatre have been nice enough to they're going to drop off some DVDs of the complete debate at the library for people to check out. Then until everything is available online, I think that'll provide a nice option for people. Thank you.
[Michael Ruggiero]: My name is Michael Ruggiero. I live on 18 Pembroke Street. I'm an intervener in this project. And there's a couple of things I want to say before I move on to some other points. The first is the general tone of this conversation. This project has not been approved yet. And I think that's important that we consider the pros and cons of this project. The gentleman from Eversource mentioned that there would be significant rate improvements as a result of this project. There are no guarantees to rate payers. As of right now, this project is roughly slated to be about $74 million, and those $74 million will come directly out of our pockets. I want to read a prepared statement I have about this issue in particular, because I think it's important that I make sure I say all the things that I want to. At City Hall on July 15th, Eversource presented its plan for an 8-mile, $74 million power line, which they hope to build underground along Main Street and Route 38. Many citizens from Medford, myself included, voiced their objections to this initial power line presentation. There's a couple of points I want to bring up here. Unfortunately, while I really appreciate Eversource coming down, there And all the questions that the citizens of Medford asked at July 15th have not been addressed. There were about five major flavors of questions, and I'm just going to go through them one by one. While Eversource's power line improvement is intended to benefit the citizens of greater Boston, it's really opaque to understand exactly how Medford will receive any improvements whatsoever. I think that this was a major theme throughout the night. Why is Medford going to be shouldering the responsibility if much of this Power Live improvement is greater New England? That's a very vague term of what's going to be improved. So I think there needs to be a point-by-point analysis on why Medford needs this plan. The $74 million price tag will be covered by rate payers. And it's disappointing that this price tag has not been included in this presentation. Understandably, they didn't want to perhaps spook people, but I think it's an important element knowing that we're going to be paying for this. And as was mentioned at the conversation, there was a lot of concerns about traffic and environmental impact. And unfortunately, while once again, you know, I understand you all are very busy, it would have been good to actually see more information about what is the environmental impact of this. It's going to have an impact. Now, I'm sure Eversource will do the best it can to minimize that impact, but it will have an impact on our roads and our environment. So how is that going to be mitigated? Currently, there is a multi-prong evidentiary process that's going on right now. Currently there's 28 pages of unanswered questions that various citizens have asked. The city of Somerville is in fact an intervener on the process, not an intervener, they're a step below intervener, but they're engaging in this process. I would encourage everyone on this council to engage with it more as well. If you would like to view the 28 pages of questions or any of the documents that I have access to being an intervener in this project, please call me at any time. I'm more than happy to furnish that information, as I'm sure Eversource is as well. At the meeting, I asked four main questions. And one of the big questions I would like to hear answered, and it's in this 28 pages of questions that Eversource has to respond to, is basically, why is this necessary? With improvements in alternative energy sources, from solar to wind, Why is it that we need to build basically another pipeline? Because that's what this is. It's a pipeline. Now, of course, electricity is going through it. But are there other options? I'm sure Eversource will do the best they can answering their questions. Currently, the way I stand on this whole process is I'm not really sure. Maybe it is the best thing for Medford. Maybe it's not. But they are required by law to provide an alternative strategy for this process. Now, Eversource, as of right now, have provided an alternative pipeline, another much longer road that would tear up many more streets than the current preferred plan. But this is sort of a false choice. It's like going to a diner and there's two choices on the menu, scrambled eggs or eggs sunny side up. It's still eggs, right? So what I really hope to see from Eversource is why other options will not solve these problems. And as of right now, I mean, because they're working with the interveners to answer these questions, They haven't presented many of these answers yet. So I think it's important that we remind ourselves that this is a big project, and it is not finalized yet. Eversource has many different hurdles to overcome. But here's what we do know. The process will be expensive. It will have an impact on our society. I would encourage everyone to think seriously about this process that's going to cost us
[Michael Ruggiero]: Now, maybe, as the gentleman said, this is part of another sort of project that will help New England immensely. But I think we need to consider these ramifications very seriously. If anyone at home is interested in receiving any of the documents I have mentioned, please call me any time at 844-TAKE-GVT. Thank you very much for allowing me to speak, and thank you very much for Eversource for coming down. Sure, my number, once again, is 844-TAKE-GVT. So, TAKE-GVT. Please, I'm more than happy, you can also email me anytime at mr.takegovernment.com. I have access to hundreds of pages of documents, and I'm slowly sort of filtering my way through.
[Michael Ruggiero]: I'll post them on my website, takegovernment.com, in the next couple of days with the campaign. It's been a little hectic. Thank you, everyone.
[Michael Ruggiero]: My name is Michael Ruggiero. I live on 18 Pembroke Street. I just want to give a clarification. Saying the letters to my number might not have been the most useful for everyone. So my number is 844-825-7000. 3, 4, 8, 8. If anyone is interested in talking about the documents I have access to, I'm happy to help send anything away, as I'm sure the people of Everstar as well.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you. My name is Michael Ruggiero. I live on 18 Pembroke Street. The issue of broken roads is endemic throughout Medford. Every single road that I have walked down in this city has serious problems. From Evans Street, which hasn't been repaved in any of the neighbors' memories,
[Michael Ruggiero]: Yes, I understand. But the issue of this idea that the committee, oh, if we just bring it to the committee, this issue will be solved, is, at this point, I think we can see that's a failed thought. It has failed throughout the entire city.
[Michael Ruggiero]: I believe the gentlewoman who just spoke on the issue can clarify that issue. The issue, beyond that.
[Michael Ruggiero]: On the issue with the balls in front of Oasis or the pavement signs that we just go through this?
[Michael Ruggiero]: So beyond this idea that if we just have a committee.
[Michael Ruggiero]: If it falls under the city council's domain, do it. Just do it.
[Michael Ruggiero]: I've spoken for hardly a minute, sir. Thank you. The issue, as the city council can remember, we had something like 30 residents from all over Medford talk about this very issue of rotting roads right near their house. If the city had someone who was directly responsible for these issues, like a transportation engineer, then we wouldn't have to continually play this game of hot potato. Thank you. Thank you very much.
[Michael Ruggiero]: My name is Michael Ruggiero. I live on 18 Pembroke Street. While we're bringing up the issue of building inspectors, I want to bring up an issue that came to my attention today. While walking on Evans Street, there's a unit now. It's 3638 Evans Street. It is being rehabilitated. I guess there was a fire there. But there are no markings for permits on the space. And a number of neighbors are worried about whether the space is being illegally rehabilitated, or it's not being brought up to code properly, or if just trying to understand the status of the space. So if that could be looked into in addition, I would really appreciate it.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you.
[Michael Ruggiero]: My name is Michael Orgero. I live on 18 Pembroke street. The first thing I want to address is a point that Councilor Knight brought up. Many business owners are not able to attend the Traffic Commission meeting because it's during the day, and they are running their businesses. I've had an informal poll. I've had an opportunity to discuss the issue with a variety of different businesses. I have many on tape. About 80% of the businesses in Medford believe that the parking meters have hurt their business. That's a fact. About 10% say it hasn't really hurt, hasn't really helped. The 10% that actually think it's helped their business would have preferred a system of just enforcing what we had. So that's the first point. The hours of the traffic commission are not convenient for Jimmy's pizza. He's making pizza.
[Michael Ruggiero]: With all due respect to the Councilor, the fact that 80% of the businesses in Medford are losing business should be his concern. And he can make an easy recommendation.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Beyond these two points, in this perhaps squabbling environment, going to these traffic, listening to this conversation about traffic over and over again, I'm reminded about those cartoons with Wile E. Coyote. where you have the coyote chasing roadrunner and the background keeps changing, but everyone really knows there's no movement. It's just the background keeps swinging around. Ultimately, this problem boils down to the way that we have written our charter. We need to review our charter. Currently, my team is circulating the petition to actually have the charter reviewed, so mysterious contracts cannot be signed in the middle of night without prior approval of the city. Thank you.
[Michael Ruggiero]: My name is Michael Ruggiero. I live on 18 Pembroke Street. I just want to speak to one item. I think this is an overall a great idea. I commend the mayor's office and the community garden group that have done some great work. I wish to draw your attention to section 2 slash 552 subsection A. All these commissioners are going to be appointed by the mayor. This might work out great now that we have a current mayor that works collegiately with these groups. However, this might not always be the case in the future. I suggest that these members are elected directly from the community gardeners themselves. I understand that one person might need to be brought in from the mayor's office to make sure that there is a line of communication between the mayor's office and these groups. But I think it is a mistake to have all five commissioners directly appointed by the mayor. would be that perhaps there would be in the future a mayor who is not as interested in community gardening as this current administration. So I urge that you consider that four of these members are elected at large. I've taken a brief sample of the members here. They do support this idea as of my conversation. Do you not support? Oh, you don't like the idea that you elect people directly? I'm sorry. You think that's enough, the three? I'm confused because I just spoke with the city solicitor. Perhaps there's a miscommunication on my end. If there is, I withdraw any sort of objection. The solicitor said that these five people are appointed by the mayor as of now. Is that correct or not?
[Michael Ruggiero]: Legislatively, I just want to clarify, as of right now— Thank you, Counsel, and I— Sir.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Fair and open means that the people of the garden control the commissioners that apply. As of right now, unamended, these five commissioners will be appointed directly by the mayor's office. That is something that we need to consider if there is a mayor that comes in later who is not as excited about this community garden commission.
[Michael Ruggiero]: It's very important to remember that. Without this commission now, they're still going to speak to Mark Rumley. Was there another call for a point of information, Councilor Knight?
[Michael Ruggiero]: The issue is not a simple binary one, where to speak, to improve this provision, what we have before us, is not simply to shoot it down. This is a great idea. It should happen. These people are doing great work. The question is, how do we protect them adequately? That is my only point. Thank you.
[Michael Ruggiero]: My name is Michael Ruggiero. I live on 18 Pembroke Street. While on the face of it, this project seems to be a needed improvement to the city of Medford. What concerns me is the expediency at which this project is presented. No information has been presented to the community. We don't really know which streets need to be digged up. We don't know necessarily, maybe more improvements would be necessary, maybe less. Without having adequate information presented to the public and to the council in advance, I would urge you to delay this issue. I understand that this issue needs to be brought up in some haste, but perhaps a committee of the whole meeting could be held where this issue could be reviewed in more detail. Please, this action represents a pattern of behavior by the city administration. Just do it quick. They don't really need to know. City Council doesn't need to know. The public doesn't need to know. And they'll rubber stamp it. Please, do not use your vote as a rubber stamp. Take time to consider $2.1 million. That's a lot of funding for this city. Don't rush the proposition. Thank you.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Do I have to call an agenda item, Mr. Councilor?
[Michael Ruggiero]: Come on. It's on the agenda. May you open up? Oh, this is a trick.
[Michael Ruggiero]: 15-594. 15-594, yeah.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Hello, Councilors. My name is Michael Leggero. I live on 18 Pembroke Street. Thank you for taking this issue out of order to make sure that a number of families can speak. I'm going to speak briefly. A number of people want to talk about this issue. The first thing I want to address is what is a transportation engineer? Technically, the role that we're looking for is called transportation engineer. Traffic engineer would also be okay, but transportation engineer has a broader role. Really quickly, a transportation engineer has safety implications. They study and report unsafe road conditions, and they work with local police to report on speeding hotspots. They also work with police to identify potholes into roads. It has economic implications. Transportation engineers survey pedestrian flow in commercial areas, suggest improvements to help get more of our shoppers into our stores. And finally, they also help us alleviate traffic. They explore public transportation options, safe bike lanes, and they also help choose which routes to ship on. This would cost the city roughly $80,000 a year if you decide to hire someone full-time, but other options exist to also hire a traffic engineer contractually through MassDOT. or even to work with Tufts and have students study traffic patterns as well. Here are some possible suggestions of issues that could be worked on. First, we could consider streets that are now being used as cutoffs. A transportation engineer would perhaps suggest laying down speed bumps in those areas. They could also compile a searchable online list of street hazards, such as potholes, where residents could actually track road improvements. A number of residents I've talked to throughout the city of Medford, they have potholes in front of their house that have existed for years. If there was a transportation engineer with an online database, it would allow people to actually see where they are on their improvement. could also study the effects of Medford parking and offer solutions to us. And finally, they could spear line the Green Line expansion. We have a lot of options for this. I have a little handy visual if you want to check it out. I have a number of families that I'm going to invite to step up to speak about traffic issues on their streets. And you guys can come up now. Thank you so much for waiting.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Hi, my name is Michael Ruggiero. I live on 18 Pembroke Street. This is just a small sampling of the people that could be helped by having a full-time traffic engineer study these issues. I urge you to please vote yes on this issue. Every single street I've walked down in Medford has these problems, from Spring Street to Harvard Street to Winthrop Street. Every single street I've walked down has these problems. Unfortunately, I'm just one guy. I wasn't able to spread enough of the word out to get more people here, but I think we have an excellent opportunity to alleviate some of these problems. Thank you.
[Michael Ruggiero]: May I ask a quick question? On the paper now, is there a recommendation to hire a traffic engineer? So there is. Can we put it on the paper now? Because at the budget meeting I was there, and I don't recall that motion coming up. Oh, was it a different budget meeting?
[Michael Ruggiero]: The traffic commission is not really solving these problems right now. I think there needs to be an individual that has control of these issues. Every single street I've walked down in Medford has these problems. There needs to be one individual who's ultimately responsible for these issues. Madam Vice President.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Or transportation. I don't know if it's fair to many of the individuals that took time out of their schedule to attend a variety of different meetings. While I understand that there is this issue to you want to explore different options, I hope that we can understand that many people came out today about this issue. We don't have enough civil engineers on the Medford staff as Councilor Penta pointed out. Having someone that actually studied transportation here directly in Medford, I think, would alleviate many of these issues. You're right, Councilor. He would make recommendations, and these recommendations might actually cost more money. But these would be recommendations that would be needed throughout the city of Medford. They wouldn't be squandering.
[Michael Ruggiero]: A very disappointing fact in our city that when a paper is sent to the executive office, it is just, as you say, collects dust. That's unacceptable.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Well, then you can have two papers as well.
[Michael Ruggiero]: My name is Michael Otero. I live on 18 Pembroke Street. Could you bring up the slide with the phase three pedestrian circulation? Right now, as you know, on the, right where the exit is off 93, there's a blinking light, and pedestrians can cross at that point. There's no light that allows it to stop and then the pedestrian to cross safely, but now you can't really, oh, okay. Right now, this pedestrian circulation route, you can't really see it on the slide because of the lights, but is it possible, gentlemen, to put a crosswalk right in front of the river. Do you see? That's a long way to go to cross. Yeah, yeah, sure, right here. Right here. Because that's a long, because this area is a pedestrian area as well. You can cross up and there's a nice little park that comes over this way right here. That's a long way to go for a pedestrian or someone who has a handicap. to cross the street, to make it from one side to the other?
[Michael Ruggiero]: I see. So it's just something. OK. Thank you. I have a couple of other concerns with this project. My biggest concern is I thank you gentlemen for arriving today and providing me this packet and to provide this PowerPoint presentation. It'd be much more helpful in the future. if all projects, before they start, we actually get to see the full details of these projects. It helps companies and businesses plan their activities. So that's one concern. The other concern I have is the, and it's already been voiced by Councilor Pensa, the time scale that we're talking about here. We're looking at over 1,200 days, 1,200 days for a bridge that's 121 feet. What does that work out to be, like an inch a day? That's a concerning figure. I have a feeling like we can do better. I haven't looked at the project, and I know you gentlemen have a lot of challenges to overcome, but I really wish we could have seen the bidding process and there could have been more communication earlier in the project. Thank you.
[Michael Ruggiero]: My name is Michael Leggero. I live on 18 Pembroke Street. It is disturbing the rate and speed at which this budget has moved through these chambers. I've seen all of the members of this council work a number of weeks to try to figure it out, but it's been so compressed to try to get things through. To vote on this budget and hope that answers come on the back end is literally putting the cart before the horse. If the answer is literally, oh, we'll work and look into it, the budget is fine. That's an answer. It doesn't have to be a proper answer or an answer that satisfies everyone here. Let's look at our two possibilities. What happens if we don't pass this budget tonight and we look at it next week or we come to an emergency meeting? Medford's not going to fall apart in flames. There are no creditors like those Capital One commercials where the Vikings come off the mountains. It's going to be fine. We're going to survive it for a couple of days. What's the other option? What's the other possibility that this budget is passed? and these answers aren't come about. The fire station falls apart. Lights still don't exist on Medford Square. Our views, our city begins to crumble. I urge you, do not do the easy thing on passing this budget and hoping answers come down the road. Make sure that answers come about now. Thank you.
[Michael Ruggiero]: I know what a budget is.
[Michael Ruggiero]: A budget, if money is being allocated to something, and it's not being used properly, The budget is the proper place to discuss those issues. That's what a budget is for. If I spend $100, if I give my wife $1,000 to spend on groceries for the next three weeks, and she comes back only with ice cream.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Well, don't vote on a budget if you don't have the answers to these basic questions.
[Michael Ruggiero]: With all due respect, Councilor, to have a resolution that you'll approve the budget in hope that answers will come.
[Michael Ruggiero]: The budget passes on the condition of the responses. What answer would satisfy you if it's, we're working on it?
[Michael Ruggiero]: My name is Michael Ruggiero. I live on 18 Pembroke street. Um, I haven't, I've been walking down a number of cities. There isn't a single street. resident of a single street that hasn't complained about parking. On some of the streets, it's up to 10 to 15 people that live on that street complain about sidewalks or potholes literally right in front of their house. I think the issue is more fundamental than this, however. I think it involves us transferring so late in the year and finding out that these funds are available when there's almost a point when there's nothing we can do about it. I understand Ms. Miller's position that she has two weeks basically to scrap together a bunch of contracts I mean, in addition to other responsibilities, that's very challenging. However, in the future, if it's possible, this council should possibly hear transfer requests much earlier in the season than at the last minute that we're hearing them now. Thank you. Thanks.
[Michael Ruggiero]: My name is Michael Ruggiero. I live on 18 Pembroke Street. The issue I wish to bring up is Wright's Pond. As this council is aware, the prices increase has been a little challenging for a number of residents that I've talked to. I ask that the council make available to residents under certain financial challenges perhaps 100 or 200 passes to Wrights Pond that could be, maybe they could be charged the rate that they were paid last year. This would be a real help to a number of families and I don't believe it would cost that much. Thank you.
[Michael Ruggiero]: I understand that there was a meeting, but unfortunately, because it was exactly the same time, I had to decide if I wanted to participate in the transfers versus Rights Pond. I think both issues are important, but I thought the transfers being a million dollars would be something I should participate in.
[Michael Ruggiero]: I believe the body could perhaps make a recommendation to the Parks Commission. to provide 100 or 200 passes to families in financial need. I don't think that's such a difficult question to ask.
[Michael Ruggiero]: My concern is that because we're so close to the season, people buying tickets and buying passes, that maybe even if there is a change for next year, perhaps we could lower the rate again. But for this year, providing 100 passes seems like a very minimal thing. And I think it would help a lot of families.
[Michael Ruggiero]: My name is Michael Vaggiero. I live on 18 Pembroke Street. Unfortunately, we didn't have enough time for me to ask a question to our new budget director. But I was hoping to find out whether we anticipate maintaining this funding over more than just one year. Right now, there's a groundswell of energy and focus on this issue. Let's make sure that as the city council and as we as a public maintain a focus on this budgetary line item to make sure that it doesn't drop out after 2016. Thank you.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you.
[Michael Ruggiero]: And you voted for her too. And I voted for her too, okay?
[Michael Ruggiero]: My name is Michael Ruggiero. I live on 18 Pembroke Street. I think everyone in the council wants a solution to this contract issue. I believe here is our issue. Here's our solution. It fixes all the problems. Let me read from the contract directly. In section four, chapter D, it says the operator acknowledges, operator being Republic Parking. acknowledges that it is within the exclusive discretion, province, and jurisdiction of the city to set, amend, alter, or change the amount of fees, fines, charges, or other expenses that relate to parking spaces in the city of Medford. The way that we fix the problem is make the parking spaces worth $0. It does not violate the contract, and it removes this possibility of having any violation
[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you. I'm not a lawyer. Absolutely. I'm just providing a possible solution to this parking problem. We do not have to violate the contract. We do not have to pay onerous fees. We have control over how the parking works in this city. That is the solution. Thank you.
[Michael Ruggiero]: My name is Michael Leggero. I live on 18 Pembroke Street. I want to, I wish to talk about sort of the tone of what this budget increase or this fee increase actually says to the community. The reason why we have a park and we make it available is that we want people to enjoy it. We want people to be outside. We want people to bike in. You could charge $5 for our library cards, but we don't. Why? Because it has a positive impact on the community. This is the, we have to consider very carefully these kinds of increases. And for this reason, I hope that we can maintain the level that we were at last year. Thank you.
[Michael Ruggiero]: My name is Michael Ruggiero. I live on 18 Pembroke Street. It's a sad fact of local politics. Our turnout, voter turnout, only one in every four registered voters in Medford actually vote for our local elections. Why do you think it's so low? There's obviously a lot of theories. But walking through the city, people are very sort of, they've given up. on city politics, and it's heartbreaking in a way. By us reviewing the charter, we can enliven the debate, bring more people into the process, add more sunlight into the process, how the budget is made, how are zoning decisions made. These are vital issues to our community. To begin to work them, creating a charter review committee is essential. But if you look through Chapter 43B, Section 10, it's in the Mass General Law, there are actually two flavors of charter review commissions. And I think it's important that the council know of the two flavors.
[Michael Ruggiero]: So there are two flavors. One, if this board decides to create a commission under two-thirds vote, that commission will not have the ability to answer certain questions and will not be able to even advise about term limits or other issues like changing the mayor or significant changes to the charter. An elected board, however, will have the capacity to make significant changes to the charter or actually recommend them. In this capacity, I would recommend that we try to move forward to creating an elected commission. So there will be a vote on the ballot. Would you like to review the charter, yes or no? And then people will vote for a number of elected people that will actually be on this position. That is the direction that we should go and I hope we have an opportunity to come to that conclusion.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Yes, 40 Canal Street.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Michael Ruggiero. I live on 18 Pembroke street. I wish to discuss the budget that was presented at the meeting of the whole. Um, while the budget is, you know, there's a lot of thorough paperwork here. It is concerning that some residents might not be able to access this document digitally. Also, um, this document, if it's presented digitally can be searched more thoroughly. than if it's presented sort of in loose leaf paper, or if I lose it today. I asked the council to present a resolution to Louise Miller to make sure that this document is presented digitally. I know she's very busy, and she's taking over a new role in the accounting office. But this document should definitely be digital so we can search it, use it, and reference it online for people that might not be able to come in. Oh, yeah. Thank you.
[Michael Ruggiero]: If she can print this, she can save it as a PDF. So it would be better to save it as a PDF, because then it would be much easier to search machine-wise. If she scans it in, it will be much more difficult to search. It can be transferred as well. But if she can print this document, then she should be able to do it as a PDF. I mean, I realize it's more work for her to do, but it's important that the citizens have access to this digitally. Thank you.
[Michael Ruggiero]: I do. My name is Michael Ruggiero. I live on 18 Pembroke Street. As Councilor Lombo-Kern mentioned, With the installation of the virtual runway 33L, when there is a northwest heading wind in Logan, we can receive up to two flights every minute. The flights are heaviest often at night when there is a northwest wind into Boston. There's a number of different groups that are involved. One of the information that I'm reading right now, just to give people a heads up that are listening at home, If you go to bostonwestfairskies.com, there's a number of listing of information about the flight paths. As a father of a nine-month-old baby, I can tell you it can be pretty extreme living. And we live at the convergence. Medford is the convergence of five different paths. So it's not that there are just so many more people flying into Boston. It's that the people that are flying to Boston are going on fewer and fewer paths, and they're all converging on to Medford. So, thank you.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Good evening. Could this state name and address for the record? Michael Agiro. I live on 18 Pembroke Street. I think it's absolutely essential that we review the charter, but we need to do it in a public forum where people have the opportunity to speak about the pros and cons of different systems. It's a little disconcerting to me because I review the agenda every night, and I didn't see this item on the agenda. It kind of surprised me. I'm all for a charter review, but let's do it in a kind of environment that allows for a diversity of voices from the community to participate. Thank you.
[Michael Ruggiero]: I'm meeting with City Solicitor Romley on Thursday.
[Michael Ruggiero]: I do. My name is Michael Ruggiero. I live on 18 Pembroke Street. As Councilor Lombo-Kern mentioned, With the installation of the virtual runway, 33L, when there is a northwest-heading wind in Logan, we can receive up to two flights every minute. The flights are heaviest often at night when there is a northwest wind into Boston. There's a number of different groups that are involved. One of the information that I'm reading right now, just to give people a heads up that are listening at home, If you go to bostonwestfairskies.com, there's a number of listing of information about the flight paths. As a father of a nine-month-old baby, I can tell you it can be pretty extreme living. And we live at the convergence. Medford is the convergence of five different paths. So it's not that there are just so many more people flying into Boston. It's that the people that are flying to Boston are going on fewer and fewer paths, and they're all converging onto Medford. So, thank you.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Good evening. Could this state name and address for the record? Michael Agiro. I live on 18 Pembroke Street. I think it's absolutely essential that we review the charter, but we need to do it in a public forum where people have the opportunity to speak about the pros and cons of different systems. It's a little disconcerting to me because I review the agenda every night, and I didn't see this item on the agenda. It kind of surprised me. I'm all for a charter review, but let's do it in a kind of environment that allows for a diversity of voices from the community to participate. Thank you.
[Michael Ruggiero]: I'm meeting with City Solicitor Romley on Thursday.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Name and address for the record. My name is Michael Ruggiero. I live on 18 Pembroke Street. The question I have, it seems like this issue might be a little larger than Snappy Patty. How can a business be doing work construction without the building inspector posting a work stoppage order on his permit? I don't understand.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Michael Ruggiero. I live on 18 Pembroke Street. I agree with Councilor Penta. I think that these issues are better served before an up or down vote that's addressed with all the pressure of having a budget. If it doesn't get filled, all of those students are in trouble. The sooner we talk about these issues and the sooner we, and the more we participate in the budgeting process, whether it's school committee or also city budgeting, I think the better the program will be when it's finally released. and the more transparency that will be in the program.
[Michael Ruggiero]: My name is Michael Ruggiero. I live on 18 Pembroke Street. My first suggestion is I'm also frustrated by the carnival being here and the lack of parking. May I suggest that the city provides a shuttle that ferries people from Riverside, the parking lot on Riverside, which would be available at 6 o'clock, to this building? There are numerous different agencies that would be able to do that. So perhaps that would be an option, rather than having people hunt for parking all across town. My second suggestion involves the wording of the resolution, and it involves the word, I think you should involve the word breach, due to breach of contract. The reason why I suggest this is that there's numerous places in the contract where you can terminate, but those terminations also have some consequences for the city. Well, let me read you off this particular section. It's off page 15 of the contract, section 23. In addition to other termination rights here under, with party may terminate this agreement upon breach by the other party of any covenant, term, or condition wherein provided the breaking party first releases written notice, which you have in multiple resolutions, of such breach and fails to remedy same within 10 days if a monetary breach or 30 days if a non-monetary breach. After receipt of written notice thereof and any breaching party fails to commerce remedying such non-monetary breach within said 30 days, period, if such breach cannot be reasonably remedied within 30 days. That's a lot of lawyer speak, but the idea is this. If they've broken the contract, which they have seemed to on multiple accounts, some of which you all have pointed out, some of which I've handed to Councilor Penta and highlighted points, they haven't responded within 30 days, they haven't remedied these points, they're under breach of contract, there are no consequences for canceling this contract under the city.
[Michael Ruggiero]: So in conclusion, I think you should, due to breach of contract, those words might sound trivial and maybe legalistic, but if a judge agrees that Republic is under breach of the contract, there are no serious consequences for the city, where if you just cancel, there may be some consequences. Thank you.
[Michael Ruggiero]: They just changed that. Are they changing them?
[Michael Ruggiero]: Michael Ruggiero, I live on 18 Pembroke Street. While I appreciate the frustration that has led to this motion, I strongly suggest that you neither table this resolution nor vote yes for it. This council, if so many resolutions have gone to the mayor and the mayor has ignored them, this council is complicit in enabling an administration that prefers procrastination to action. I urge you, do not simply just re-look at things that you've already gone through and don't table this. Do not allow the mayor's office to coast into the end of its term. There is too much important work that must be done in Medford. I respectfully suggest that perhaps the resolution should be, if the mayor does not respond to all 23, if that is the right, 20-some number of unresponded resolutions, then a vote of non-confidence will immediately follow. And also for transparency, may I ask that all of the unresponded resolutions be read. Thank you.
[Michael Ruggiero]: My name is Michael Ruggiero. I live on 18 Pembroke Street. Before I understand that there's going to be a committee of the whole being held on the 22nd, I wish to request two pieces, articles of information from Republic Parking so we can review from the public. The first is on their contract attachment on page 11, the operator's personnel. The operator acknowledges its responsibility to submit a recruitment plan that includes a description of its strategy to hire local residents, which shall include recruitment fairs, local print, radio, and Internet advertisements. I'm not aware of any plan that has been posted, so one could be reviewed by the public before the Committee of the Whole. That would be of great help to me, so we can prepare. The second thing I wish to ask for, if we could actually see the daily sales receipts that Republic Parking has posted. I have not been able to access any of those online daily receipts that they've received. And I'm most interested in the money that they've received after 6 o'clock, because I know that the meters are still running. So I think it's important for the city to know the money that they have acquired that is illegal. Thank you.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Yes.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Michael Ruggiero. I live on 18 Pembroke Street. I would like to advise the council to consider not just doing something, but doing something that's scientifically proven to actually work. While D.A.R.E. programs have had some small positive influence, many different journals and scientific papers have shown that the D.A.R.E. program has been rather ineffective. I'm looking at one right now. The Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology published a pretty widespread paper called Project D.A.R.E. No Effects at 10-Year Follow-Up. Work needs to be done, obviously. Heroin is a serious problem in our community. However, it's not just what we do, but why we do it. the reasons for our change. Thank you.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Yes, please. My name is Michael Wajiro. I live in 18 Pembroke Street. I'm curious, have there been any complete architectural sketches of this bridge? Because I'm not aware of any. And if possible, could the council request one? like a complete architectural sketch of what the bridge will look like, timetables of how this bridge is being constructed.
[Michael Ruggiero]: So the DOT has like an architect on the plan? That they've changed multiple times? They just haven't shown it to you guys?
[Michael Ruggiero]: My name is Michael Ruggiero. I live in 18 Pembroke Street. I would like to bring to the council's attention the part of the contract, the RFP attachment, page 17 report, subsection 16 AA, says that the Republic Parking has to provide daily, week, I'm quoting, daily, weekly, monthly, and annual field sortable reports summarizing all citation, boot, tow, collection, repayment activity. As of right now, according, if they have delayed that reporting for over 60 days, they are in violation of their contract. They only have 30 days to actually report that information. Also, under the signage section, also from the RFP attachment, they are required, under section 12, signage. They are required to replace or repair missing damage signs within 48 hours. So they are also responsible to maintain signs. If they are in violation of the contract, which appears to me, just from what we've heard and what's been said so far, then if they don't fix it in 30 days, they have to leave. Thanks.
[Michael Ruggiero]: My name is Michael Ruggiero. I'm from 811 18 Pembroke Street. I agree with the council. I think it's dangerous to sign another contract, 10-year contract with Comcast. I'm not sure if the council is aware, but the fastest internet speed in the country is in Tennessee, Chattanooga, Tennessee, and they run their own network. a possibility that this city could actually get involved in. Chattanooga is a local tech hub as a result, offering internet speeds of a gigabyte per second for $85 a month to its average citizen. There are lots of options available to this town, and signing another deal with Compass for 10 years will not only hamstring future negotiations, but will also limit Medford becoming a technology hub. Thanks.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Michael Leggero, I live on 18 Pembroke Street. I have a question for the council. Is it possible that the council could summon a representative of Comcast here to talk about this contract and negotiation? Or is it possible to at least invite someone from Comcast here?
[Michael Ruggiero]: May I recommend that the council invite someone from Comcast to speak? Thank you.
[Michael Ruggiero]: If you want to. The point I have would like to make, obviously, a public hearing would absolutely be best. But if a public hearing is not able to be arranged, it seems that you could invite, if it's possible, the council to invite Comcast here just to speak on, to hear some of the public concerns. I don't see how that would necessarily detrimentally affect the contract. Thank you.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Sir, you wish to address the Council? Yes, Mr. President. My name is Michael Leggero. I live on 18 Pembroke Street. I'm worried that there's perhaps a false dichotomy forming. republic has violated the contract, then there's going to be no charge to the city of Medford. Um, I bring the council's attention to number 23. If there is a non of the contract page 15, if there is a non-monetary violation of the contract, they have 30 days to fix it. And if they don't, that's it. End of contract, no fee. Um, and on, as you mentioned, uh, Councilor Penta on, uh, Attachment RF0100, which is also mentioned in the contract, they have to identify license plates with a 98% accuracy. If they're tagging people at a 30-minute stop and they haven't been there for 15 minutes, that's also in violation of the contract. They would have to address that. Also, another issue, just a clarification, if we break the contract and we are found to be in fault, We don't own any of the equipment. It's all theirs. At least the kiosks and a majority of the equipment. So if we do break the contract and we are found to be in fault, the equipment goes back to Republic. Thank you. Thank you.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Go ahead. Oh, Michael Ruggiero, 18 Pembroke Street. I've been doing some research on heroin addiction. The numbers are staggering. Currently, right now, in America, about a million people are believed to be addicted to heroin, not mentioning the lives that have lost, the stories that we've heard today. But $20 billion have lost in crime that's generated. It's obviously a problem that Medford needs to deal with. One thing I want to bring up, however, that has only been touched on the periphery tonight, is how methadone is one of the most proven treatments to handle actual long-term heroin abuse. It is often believed that methadone clinics will increase crime in a community, but there's no evidence of that. If anything, there's evidence that long-term treatment facilities actually help. So I just wanted to bring to the Council's attention, perhaps, while committees are certainly useful in uncovering solutions, perhaps one thing that needs to be considered is methadone treatment in the country.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank You mr. President, my name is Michael or Jiro. I live on 18 Pembroke Street. I have two questions. The first is With the license plate information that has been aggregated by Republic parking Is that information being sold to private people as a big data enterprise or what happens to that data? Does anyone know?
[Michael Ruggiero]: Oh, thank you. My second point is I've been volunteering at the senior center, and a number of seniors have expressed confusion over how to input you know, their license plate and pay for it. Maybe it would be helpful if someone from Republic Parking would go down there and give a lecture. Some of these individuals have trouble, you know, putting in emergency contact numbers into their phones. They're not particularly tech savvy.