[Michael Ruggiero]: It's a combination of Jingle Bells and Mozart.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Yes.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Yes.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Yes.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you so much for the great honor to serve the city of Medford.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: And it's been a great honor.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you so much, Mayor Burke and Madam Superintendent.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you so much for this report, and it's great that we're seeing the cash.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So first, how many open staffing positions do we have currently?

[Michael Ruggiero]: So it's not just 70 divided by 13?

[Michael Ruggiero]: Absolutely not.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So if someone comes, they get a job?

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Someone says, well, you come in one day a week, and that'll cover your waiting list spot.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: When was the last time a letter was sent to parents saying that there's a need?

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I don't want to criticize the program.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I know you do a lot of good work, but perhaps it would be helpful.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: The second line of questioning I had to do with the paragraph that talked about tuition, are there any children who are, cannot receive,

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Could you speak to that a little bit?

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: First, I want to echo what Member Ruseau said.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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?

[Michael Ruggiero]: So there's that issue.

[Michael Ruggiero]: And parents that would like to participate in the program, they find themselves just finding other options.

[Michael Ruggiero]: It's not worth the hassle and maybe the issues.

[Michael Ruggiero]: But I'm also worried that there are families that need this support, and we're not getting it.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I mean, I guess they come in two flavors.

[Michael Ruggiero]: After school, you have students that are there

[Michael Ruggiero]: that their parents want them to participate and they need a little help.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So I just want to make sure that we're reaching out to those families.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Right.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: It's not impossible.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Other districts have done it.

[Michael Ruggiero]: It's going to cost us more money.

[Michael Ruggiero]: It's possible.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I think we can too.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So I would like to know, I would like to suggest

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So going through the list of resignations here, I noticed that our nutritionist retired.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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?

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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?

[Michael Ruggiero]: Do we know what's going on with the outdoor,

[Michael Ruggiero]: So right now we don't.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I know.

[Michael Ruggiero]: She was just taking it on.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I know she did a lot of work, including making hummus for the kids.

[Michael Ruggiero]: This is concerning to me, especially with some other information that we have.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: And thank you very much for all the hard work on this issue.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I know this is not just important to me, but our entire community.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I do have a couple of questions really quick about the initial observations of the report.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So September 16th, you said, that we did the initial map testing.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Is that correct?

[Michael Ruggiero]: So can you give us a sense of, it was the REI score, was that one?

[Michael Ruggiero]: Or is it RET?

[Michael Ruggiero]: Sorry.

[Michael Ruggiero]: R-I-T.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So on that score, is dyslexia viewed as sort of a place on the spectrum?

[Michael Ruggiero]: Or is dyslexia, how is dyslexia exactly tested?

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So you have someone who knows how to handle these kids versus sort of a generalist.

[Michael Ruggiero]: you know, environment that you would have from the teachers address these issues.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Because, I mean, there's certainly a difference between reading difficulty and dyslexia.

[Michael Ruggiero]: And I guess that's what I'm trying to suss out here on these metrics you're bringing ahead.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Like, if you see, like, five red flags,

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So intervention is applied.

[Michael Ruggiero]: When is the next test happen?

[Michael Ruggiero]: Does that help?

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I mean that some children who had dyslexia weren't identified in maybe the quickest way possible.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Or maybe we could do a better job of identifying earlier to make sure that these kids.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So what I'm trying to get a hold of is what is the educational roadmap.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So I understand a kid, let's say a kid doesn't do great in fall, he doesn't do great in winter.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Let's say he doesn't do great in spring either.

[Michael Ruggiero]: When do we begin to start huddling up and say,

[Michael Ruggiero]: well, maybe this child is dyslexic and that's fine.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I mean, it's not, it's just a different way of thinking.

[Michael Ruggiero]: It's so we need to address something outside of school or some other technique.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Right.

[Michael Ruggiero]: No, and I completely understand what you're saying.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So my son is sick, for example, let's say he has a cough.

[Michael Ruggiero]: We take him to the doctor.

[Michael Ruggiero]: The doctor runs a battery of screens and maybe prescribes him an antibiotic.

[Michael Ruggiero]: But if he's still sick in a number of other weeks, then we do other things.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I have no doubt what you're all trying to do.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I guess one of the things that's not clear to me is the course by which it goes.

[Michael Ruggiero]: And I understand it's certainly

[Michael Ruggiero]: somewhat you play it by the kid, so each kid's a little different.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I understand that.

[Michael Ruggiero]: But it's important for me to understand that after, let's say, eight or nine months of intervention, we're not going anywhere.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: And I'm trying to make sure that we don't have the experience where someone had to pay for their own assessment.

[Michael Ruggiero]: They told the kids just a little has a little trouble with reading or will never be a novelist or something.

[Michael Ruggiero]: These are words the parents will tell me that was was told to their child.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I have no doubt.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I mean, I'm a teacher myself.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Does that make sense?

[Michael Ruggiero]: Yes.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Yes.

[Michael Ruggiero]: And I want to make sure.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Oh, Madam Superintendent.

[Michael Ruggiero]: And I think it's important to recognize I'm not other members that would like to ask.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Well let me ask a few more questions member.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I wanted to get a sense of the early assessments that have been taken.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you so much for all the hard work.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I really do appreciate it.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I think it's great that we're doing the screening now.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I just want to follow up on Paul's point.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Is data collected about our students unbeknownst to them or is there any personalized information that Lexia will then harvest on our students?

[Michael Ruggiero]: I assume they won't.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I hope they won't.

[Michael Ruggiero]: OK.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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?

[Michael Ruggiero]: I mean, I imagine like phonemes are in there somewhere and sentence comprehension is in there somewhere.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So there's

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I'm just voicing my opposition.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you, Mayor Burke.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Two quick questions.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: And what is, this is on page seven, what CDW government

[Michael Ruggiero]: I really think this is a great program.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I'm really glad that we're doing it in our community.

[Michael Ruggiero]: There was something I saw about a month ago on a frontline program, and I wanted to mention it to you.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I don't know if this would help your work.

[Michael Ruggiero]: It was about community policing.

[Michael Ruggiero]: And what they were talking about in the program was how many interactions within some communities with the police is always negative.

[Michael Ruggiero]: the police are coming in to often make what has appeared to be difficulties as they solve problems.

[Michael Ruggiero]: One of the solutions that this program recommended was for police to offer tickets for good behavior.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: And I don't know if that suggestion would help you, but I thought it was a really great idea.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So are these just like cereals that we're offering or what?

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you very much for the report.

[Michael Ruggiero]: You've done a great job trying to keep this stuff up.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Let's see something, say something out.

[Michael Ruggiero]: That phrase carries a police connotation to me.

[Michael Ruggiero]: When I hear that, I think I see something on a subway that looks suspicious, and I'm going to report it.

[Michael Ruggiero]: But my concern is that it's going to go into one giant bucket.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: What I'm trying to say is I apologize.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Right, right.

[Michael Ruggiero]: And a light is a security measure.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Right.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I just want to make sure that we're going to be able to separate the signal from the noise.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: As I voiced earlier today, it's an area I think is of concern.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you, Joseph.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Let me shake your hand.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you very much, Mayor Burke.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: And it's just really exciting for me to know that our hometown made a little contribution to that moving forward.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I'd just like to know, Joseph, can I ask you a couple of questions?

[Michael Ruggiero]: Yeah, sure.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: For someone who's not prepared to speak, you certainly do know the topic very well.

[Michael Ruggiero]: It's very clear.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I would like, I'm sure this invitation is already being extended.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I imagine a number of science students were very excited about black holes.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I've never actually seen them, because my son's first word was actually black hole, because I subjected him to all the videos.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I think that there are a lot of students that would be really inspired by what you've done.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you so much for what.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I really appreciate it.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you all.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you for the paper.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I have a couple of questions about excused absences.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I'm slightly disappointed by the stance our schools took for a couple of reasons.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: The whole point of this walkout is to draw attention to the fact that adults aren't solving this problem.

[Michael Ruggiero]: And the fact of the matter is that by not sort of excusing these absences, we're actually providing almost proof to that.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Look, it's more important for you to go

[Michael Ruggiero]: practice with your color than deal with the fact that the oceans might rise by a couple of feet in a couple of years.

[Michael Ruggiero]: That is, I think, ultimately what disappoints me the most about the school's proposition.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I mean, to sort of echo what member Ruseau mentioned, we would not excuse students to attend a hate rally.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Right?

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: That position could have been taken here.

[Michael Ruggiero]: And I guess that's what I find

[Michael Ruggiero]: There is wiggle, I mean, once again, we don't have the policy at hand.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: And just sort of one last point in this regard.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I also think it's a little,

[Michael Ruggiero]: I don't necessarily know whether teachers should be there.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: You know and we all share responsibility in what's happening in our world right now.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So I think that these are important things to keep in mind.

[Michael Ruggiero]: In terms of the excused absence, I think we can call it what we like.

[Michael Ruggiero]: We should not penalize these students.

[Michael Ruggiero]: We should excuse these absences.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: That's not a fair choice.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I support where member Van der Kloot is going with this.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I'd like to offer a friendly suggestion or two amendment.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I would like to excuse the 1% of students right now that did not attend school on that day.

[Michael Ruggiero]: The 1% that you said there was a dip.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I would like to excuse all students that did not attend school that day.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: We need language to tweak it.

[Michael Ruggiero]: And that is the action that we critique.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: We'll count them among the excused.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I don't think there's going to be some sort of huge consequence to this behavior.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: While I deeply understand students, they wanted to go, they were worried that they would get an unexcused absence.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: They could have standed out for the climate.

[Michael Ruggiero]: But they were worried about some sort of consequence or inconvenience or problem.

[Michael Ruggiero]: And maybe next time they are more willing to actually stand up for the environment.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I just would like to ask that when the plan is proposed, we have options.

[Michael Ruggiero]: It's not like this is what we think is the best.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I thought that the process that we went through for the superintendent search was excellent.

[Michael Ruggiero]: And I just want to make sure that it doesn't go to a subcommittee.

[Michael Ruggiero]: You guys present us a book, and we vote on it, and we're done.

[Michael Ruggiero]: It's something I thoroughly hope that we can all be involved in, because these are serious decisions.

[Michael Ruggiero]: And I commend member Rousseau for doing research on this regard, because that's useful for me to know as well.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Khan, for the report.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I want to ask some questions about illustrative math.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Yes.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So I think this is how it works.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So when kids complete online exercises, all that information is recorded for you to look over.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Is that correct?

[Michael Ruggiero]: So, when the online classes, that information isn't compiled globally for you?

[Michael Ruggiero]: Oh, the exercises themselves.

[Michael Ruggiero]: That's right.

[Michael Ruggiero]: We're not using those.

[Michael Ruggiero]: No, exercises themselves are on paper.

[Michael Ruggiero]: That was my misunderstanding.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Yes.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Do we have a sense of, I remember that printouts and kids carrying binders were a key element of this program.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Yes.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So do we have a sense of how our compliance percentage is going?

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Can you give us a sense of how things are working so far?

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I'm just very nervous about the implementation and I just want to make sure I have a couple questions for you.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So help me understand a little bit about the pedagogy.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Sure.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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?

[Michael Ruggiero]: Is that what we're hearing so far?

[Michael Ruggiero]: Is there like a test that students are going to be administering?

[Michael Ruggiero]: Or is it sort of like all the teachers have a lot?

[Michael Ruggiero]: Oh, okay.

[Michael Ruggiero]: It's the PD day.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you so much for these reports.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I forgot to ask you this, but it's on my list.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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?

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I mean, are there lots of teachers saying, Faiz, I need books like now?

[Michael Ruggiero]: Are a lot of teachers bugging you about that?

[Michael Ruggiero]: I look forward to the update.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you so much.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you for the report.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I had the element of the dyscalculia, I'm mispronouncing it, of course, I'm sorry, elements of this.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: And in terms of the workshops being very competitive.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: It seems like a strange process.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: And while I think it's great that three teachers were selected to learn this program, I mean,

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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?

[Michael Ruggiero]: Because right now it seems like everyone's sort of unclear about where this is moving, and this is a very serious issue.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I mean, we all were very moved by the presentation that came to us about dyslexia.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Oh, I have no doubt.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I don't mean to imply that people aren't taking it seriously.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: And I really appreciate both of you following up on it.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So thank you.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Absolutely.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you so much, John.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you for the report.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I had a question.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: That's fine.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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

[Michael Ruggiero]: Well, in terms of an emergency situation, so we do have the authority via open meeting laws to discuss those issues.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you.

[Michael Ruggiero]: The first question I have was your mix of the opt-in versus the opt-out model that you have.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So the original screening, students are just going to have the survey if they want to fill it out or not.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Is that an option?

[Michael Ruggiero]: But if they get included in the study, it requires both consent of the student and the parent.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Is that still the model that we're using?

[Michael Ruggiero]: Great.

[Michael Ruggiero]: And the second question I had is, you mentioned before that it would be possible to include other questions, a couple of other questions.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: And I also don't want to jeopardize the scientific value by including every single question under the sun.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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

[Michael Ruggiero]: Perhaps Ms.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Of course.

[Michael Ruggiero]: That's the most important.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I mean, I understand.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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

[Michael Ruggiero]: also have a higher likelihood to use marijuana.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I mean, that could be a cliche, or perhaps there's some scientific truth to that fact.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you, Doctor.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Free breakfast, lunch feasibility.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So thank you very much for rushing out this report.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I know that we all asked you to expedite it and with all the other budgetary work that you had.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I've taught at both kinds of schools.

[Michael Ruggiero]: But I do share Member Ruseau's reservations about not doing an after the bell program.

[Michael Ruggiero]: When kids have the opportunity, if mom and dad are running late, that kid doesn't eat.

[Michael Ruggiero]: And one of the issues that we talked about at the superintendent review was making sure we have a consistent program.

[Michael Ruggiero]: throughout the entire system.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I just want to make sure that kid's fed.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: That would be what we test, not sort of we try this, we try this, we try this.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I want to see what happens when the entire district has an after the bell program.

[Michael Ruggiero]: And if we have something like 90% participation, then we would know that we have an issue.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: But on this particular issue, I do believe it has a significant impact on educational standards.

[Michael Ruggiero]: And it will be seen throughout the entire school system.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So I would, if none of my, no one wishes to second this motion, that's fine.

[Michael Ruggiero]: But I would like to make a motion that we do a universal after the bell program for breakfast.

[Michael Ruggiero]: That's the one we pilot.

[Michael Ruggiero]: And if it doesn't work,

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you very much for this presentation.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I did have a question on page three of the handout.

[Michael Ruggiero]: You mentioned our lower full inclusion rate and lower subseparate rate as compared to the state.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Can you tell me what the state average is and where we compare?

[Michael Ruggiero]: Maybe I missed it in the wrong place.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I couldn't find it.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: One of the questions that came up when we were doing our budget discussion earlier was students, sometimes the Chromebooks will blink out.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Do we ever have students lose data when they do the online assistant if we have a Chromebook that blinks out?

[Michael Ruggiero]: It's not like they have to start from the top.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you very much, Mayor Bergen.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you.

[Michael Ruggiero]: for the report, I was hoping we could speak to Ms.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Caldwell about it, but I appreciate you presenting in her stead.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: that we can fill their spot.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Now, whether that's true or not, I mean, I understand that you

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So it would be very helpful for me to understand where other districts are in this regard.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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?

[Michael Ruggiero]: And then you can report back those figures to us.

[Michael Ruggiero]: It would help me.

[Michael Ruggiero]: When a teacher finds me shopping at Wegmans and they're hitting me with that right now, I feel ill-equipped to represent.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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]: Yes.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Yes.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you so much for bringing this to our attention.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Serving issues like this is why I ran for school committee.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I really appreciate you bringing this to our attention.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Because this is one of the most exciting things about serving on this board.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So please keep speaking up.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Your voice is welcome here.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you, Mayor Burke.

[Michael Ruggiero]: One issue I heard come up reputedly in your state, Charlene, was the professional development funds being rejected.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Could you give me a sense of how often this happens?

[Michael Ruggiero]: Absolutely.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: As a former educator myself, I know how valuable professional development time is.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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?

[Michael Ruggiero]: Even if it's rejected, or not?

[Michael Ruggiero]: It's not that they passed the expiration date of the application.

[Michael Ruggiero]: It's just they weren't the first in the door.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you very much for sharing your concerns.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I just want to make sure that we can see something physical so we can actually move forward with an educated decision.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So I know those classes are particularly challenging.

[Michael Ruggiero]: In terms, I would like to also, in addition to the report, I'd like to suggest that we review the policy in place.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: On our teacher, we have a huge AP offering in my school.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Amber, is the podium microphone on?

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: It's been a real pleasure.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I know we have a lot going on tonight.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I don't want to ramble on.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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

[Michael Ruggiero]: is at school.

[Michael Ruggiero]: We know that for a fact.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I share member Ruseau's energy in making sure we get this done.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Our job as a school committee member is to make sure that we're devoting the right time in the right places.

[Michael Ruggiero]: And I completely understand that we can't get the research done in two weeks.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Otherwise, they're just grabbing a snack maybe every so often.

[Michael Ruggiero]: We need to make this a priority.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I've seen the effect it has on children.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I've taught in both kinds of schools, schools where they have a lunch in homeroom and schools without it.

[Michael Ruggiero]: And I can tell you there's a marked difference.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Anyone else doesn't have anything else to say on this issue?

[Michael Ruggiero]: I think we can move the question.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you.

[Michael Ruggiero]: That's it.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Mr. Ruggiero, did you have one last comment?

[Michael Ruggiero]: I withdraw my comment.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Ms.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So on this question, so the children pulled out the

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Is it possible you can include those items in your survey?

[Michael Ruggiero]: It was just being mindful of.

[Michael Ruggiero]: And secondly, if we do move away from the passive consent model, will that affect the demographics of your participation?

[Michael Ruggiero]: So there are certain communities that won't respond because their parents won't sign.

[Michael Ruggiero]: That's something that we have to recognize as a community.

[Michael Ruggiero]: If we're going to do a truly, a true survey, perhaps passive content is the best option.

[Michael Ruggiero]: appreciate your concerns.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I'm just worried.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you, Mary Brooke.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So a number of things.

[Michael Ruggiero]: First off,

[Michael Ruggiero]: As you know, I'm a math teacher myself.

[Michael Ruggiero]: And so my concern is echoed.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I'm concerned that we're going to have students that don't have access to technology.

[Michael Ruggiero]: The printers aren't going to be working.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I'd follow that.

[Michael Ruggiero]: OK.

[Michael Ruggiero]: And oh, shucks, I have one last question.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So how much do each individual workbook, how much does each one cost?

[Michael Ruggiero]: $26.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I know you already said that.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I'm just getting a little foggy inside.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: If we need the notebooks, later we get the notebooks.

[Michael Ruggiero]: And just one last thing.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I really do appreciate your collegial disagreement.

[Michael Ruggiero]: It's heartwarming at 11 o'clock at night that you have an academic disagreement, but it's always for the kids.

[Michael Ruggiero]: And that's very heartwarming to me to see that.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Mr. Ruggiero?

[Michael Ruggiero]: Mayor Burke, the story that you just shared with us, can you come back to the podium please?

[Michael Ruggiero]: I'm sorry.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Your story that you shared with us is not, I mean I've talked to other parents that have had similar experiences as well.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I'd like to recommend that we, oh I'm sorry, excuse me.

[Michael Ruggiero]: The experience that you shared with us is a story I've heard before, especially with dyslexic children.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Would something like that be possible, Superintendent?

[Michael Ruggiero]: My concern would be just making sure that we're doing the best for curriculum.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you, Mayor Burke.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you, doctor, for this very informative presentation.

[Michael Ruggiero]: There are a number of things that you brought up that really interested me.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So of the 10% that have dyslexia,

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Mr. Ruggiero.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Oh, just a follow-up question on the item.

[Michael Ruggiero]: If we could just sort of work towards having an audit of where we are with the various dyslexia.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Our next presentation is going to address many of these questions.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I mean, it just seems back of the envelope, right?

[Michael Ruggiero]: So we have around 2,000 kids in our elementary school.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So, I mean, the question is, I would like to know, how many of those kids have educational plans in place right now?

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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?

[Michael Ruggiero]: We still have some items left on the agenda.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you, Mayor Burke.

[Michael Ruggiero]: In terms of the landscaping, I want to know, is it possible that we could create maybe a small scholarship for students?

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: And we could allow our students to actually present ideas.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Maybe it's not a scholarship maybe it's an award and a plaque that we present at a school committee meeting.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I just, because I'm a little confused still, so let me ask again.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So will the floor be safe for next year?

[Michael Ruggiero]: If we didn't fund this program.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Right, I understand.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I just want to make sure that if we do do it this year that it needs to be done.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you, Mayor Burke.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you very much for this report, Madam Superintendent.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I really enjoyed reading through it.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I do have a question about your major and emerging scenes section on page 13.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I wanted to know, so obviously we all know that the scheduling issue between the vocational school and the high school is not acceptable.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I guess, and I also know it's going to be a thorny problem to untangle that.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I wanted to know what is your timetable and schedule for addressing it?

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I've noticed this on page five here.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Yes.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So there's a significant drop from grade three to grade four.

[Michael Ruggiero]: What do you believe?

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Do you have a sense, are there any,

[Michael Ruggiero]: disparities between different schools on these?

[Michael Ruggiero]: It's in the first report.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Oh, I'm sorry.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Oh, the new one that was on the desk.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Yes.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Oh, I'm sorry.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I didn't catch it in the envelope.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you very much.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Yes, yeah, follow-up question.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So thank you very much for this that you give us today.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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?

[Michael Ruggiero]: So we could see that maybe we could get a couple more measurement and data specialists at the Columbus.

[Michael Ruggiero]: That would be useful for me to see.

[Michael Ruggiero]: OK.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: It would be nice to know the breakdown per school as well.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Sure.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Member Ruseau, would it be okay if I added that to your motion?

[Michael Ruggiero]: make another motion.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Okay, then I'd like to, or unless we have to, sorry, excuse me.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I really appreciated the executive summary here.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Can we just go to page four of your report, please?

[Michael Ruggiero]: Sure.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So just sort of walk me through this table at the bottom of page four.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: It would be just useful to me.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I appreciate the executive summary and not like a thick binder of problem, you know, issues that we can look on now.

[Michael Ruggiero]: But at home, it would be nice for me to look over these domain by domain.

[Michael Ruggiero]: And if we could break that down by school, I mean, is it challenging to break down by school or just a printout?

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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?

[Michael Ruggiero]: I don't have, I'm sorry.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Oh, excuse me.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Mayor Burke, thank you.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I stand in opposition to this plan for many of the reasons that Member Ruseau mentioned.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I feel like this can be done as in committee of the whole and I dislike the idea that

[Michael Ruggiero]: If I attend these meetings, it will be simply informational.

[Michael Ruggiero]: With all due respect to members that are on this committee, I'm sure they do a great job.

[Michael Ruggiero]: But I think I owe it to the citizens of Medford to be able to speak on these matters.

[Michael Ruggiero]: And I dislike the idea.

[Michael Ruggiero]: While I understand that items that come to us,

[Michael Ruggiero]: We would have the opportunity, it would come to us as an omnibus agreement.

[Michael Ruggiero]: And yeah, I think that this is the wrong direction while I understand the attempt and the idea.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: It was, other members couldn't come in at exactly the right time.

[Michael Ruggiero]: They were five or six minutes late.

[Michael Ruggiero]: It's understandable.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: The first was the question, well, what's this personnel subcommittee for?

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I think we can do it.

[Michael Ruggiero]: It's not like seven of us can't get into a room.

[Michael Ruggiero]: A quorum of our subcommittee is four people, for God's sakes.

[Michael Ruggiero]: If Kathy can't be there because of a family emergency, we'll survive.

[Michael Ruggiero]: You know, this body will continue.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: And while I am very frustrated by this proposal, I understand where it comes from.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: That is within our purview.

[Michael Ruggiero]: And I also do believe with respect to member Rousseau that we are not the weirdo in this case.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I think actually using,

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I don't think that that fosters added senses of transparency for the community.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So again, while I'm very frustrated by this proposal and I do believe it's the wrong direction,

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Sorry, Nicole.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Wasn't she in earlier?

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So is this an assessment similar to the MCAS?

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I would prefer it to be as a committee of the whole.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I do have a couple of questions about it, however.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: was that there were programmatic reasons.

[Michael Ruggiero]: For example, English learners were assigned to one school and other environments.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I think it's excellent, and I think this is a great start.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Because people are right now, at least two years ago, we're used to being able to choose.

[Michael Ruggiero]: And that's something that we are going to say, well, you know, it wasn't working for us.

[Michael Ruggiero]: We're changing the program.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Here's why.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I just want to make sure that the community has an opportunity to participate in that conversation.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So is there a second for my motion?

[Michael Ruggiero]: My concern is this.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I think that we absolutely, most of us can agree that the system that we have now is not working.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: And if you have four friends, and you have a cohort of four peers that you've always been with,

[Michael Ruggiero]: for whatever reason, it's not mathematically impossible.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: It's just going to happen.

[Michael Ruggiero]: And these are options.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I just want to make sure that we're making the right choice.

[Michael Ruggiero]: If this is a one-year kind of deal while we discuss other things, I'd be a little bit more comfortable.

[Michael Ruggiero]: But once again, I mean, I certainly share the superintendent's concerns.

[Michael Ruggiero]: It was an important issue for me during the campaign.

[Michael Ruggiero]: And it's still an important issue for me.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Like, for example, how we are doing some programmatic switches between some kids, if they have EL, are going to go to this school.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Some kids with other needs are going to go to this school.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I mean, these issues are up in the air.

[Michael Ruggiero]: While I have complete faith

[Michael Ruggiero]: in the superintendent, I think it's important for us to suss these questions out.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Member Mustone, I completely understand your frustration, and I know that you just want to go, and I get it.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I just don't.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I think that it would be important for us to take a breath.

[Michael Ruggiero]: We have a problem.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I'm very impressed by it.

[Michael Ruggiero]: The idea of emergency preparedness is important to begin with.

[Michael Ruggiero]: And as you mentioned, it's important to think of it when times are good.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: And other students that need a little bit more assistance.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Madam Superintendent, do we have a district-wide emergency preparedness committee?

[Michael Ruggiero]: And would one be able to be formed?

[Michael Ruggiero]: where we were talking about safety in place.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: And also to forward these recommendations to her so she could report back to us.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I think that there's a lot of great work here, and I really appreciate it.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Can you still ask questions?

[Michael Ruggiero]: So I'm just trying to understand the data frames that you draw this from.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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,

[Michael Ruggiero]: How do they draw their check?

[Michael Ruggiero]: They draw their check from just payroll and that's where it's come from?

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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?

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So if, and I'm not saying that this is the case, but let's say there's Dr., I don't know, Ghostface.

[Michael Ruggiero]: How do, you know, someone who just ended up in the payroll system.

[Michael Ruggiero]: You hear about stories about this every so often.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I completely understand that.

[Michael Ruggiero]: What I'm having trouble understanding.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I'm sorry.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Excuse me.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Yes.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So what I'm trying to understand is, so there's data coming to you.

[Michael Ruggiero]: then you filter that data and make this report.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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?

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I want to make clear to everyone, I'm not implying that I think that there's any malfeasance.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I don't.

[Michael Ruggiero]: What I'm trying to understand is the difficulty in drawing the data.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Because for me, I would, whatever data frame you're working on, you should be able to draw these columns.

[Michael Ruggiero]: and the columns come out.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Like, that's all the database experience I've ever had.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So they would just have multiple entries on the column.

[Michael Ruggiero]: See, that seems to be the solution to the problem.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I mean, that's our job, right?

[Michael Ruggiero]: I mean, that's what we vote on, is to make sure that these people vote here.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I have, you know, there are many, many names here, and I'm sure they all work hard.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I'm not, I wanna make absolutely clear, I'm not implying anything, but on the same token,

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: We would test a sample.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So we could take 30 people from this list, and I could double check it.

[Michael Ruggiero]: That would give me a reasonable set of understanding, well, I picked 30 names at random off this list.

[Michael Ruggiero]: All these people work here.

[Michael Ruggiero]: That would give me much more confidence.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Because right now, there's no way for me to find any of these people.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I had a question about the vaping that you have on Thursday, February 7th.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Mr. Ruggiero.

[Michael 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Is it possible you could just include the exact URL that they need to download it so they could just click on that?

[Michael Ruggiero]: It says medfordpublicschools.org.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Could you just do the black slash?

[Michael Ruggiero]: Because our website can be a little difficult, especially for someone who has limited English skills.

[Michael Ruggiero]: More detailed.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Such as myself, perhaps.

[Michael Ruggiero]: And with that, I'd like to recommend that we put this online.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I motion to approve.

[Michael Ruggiero]: And maybe this will be covered in the report.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I didn't see it here on the slide.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: It's possible we could find someone in the community that would be willing to volunteer.

[Michael Ruggiero]: For kindergarten.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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?

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: These aren't unique to Medford, of course.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Right.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Perhaps we could welcome in some experts in childhood obesity to speak with us.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Because there have to be some schools in America that are beginning to figure this problem out.

[Michael Ruggiero]: We can't do nothing.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I didn't mean to imply that you're not doing anything.

[Michael Ruggiero]: That was the wrong idea.

[Michael Ruggiero]: This statistic is deeply frustrating to me, because I know how this can affect children as a prior educator myself.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So I really hope that we could do that.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: The curriculum would be the closest I can think of.

[Michael Ruggiero]: But I think it would be best served if we were all there to talk about this issue.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Because we're looking at almost 300 kids that are either overweight or obese.

[Michael Ruggiero]: And the obesity rates, we're looking at like 250 kids here.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I mean, that's just my back of the envelope calculation.

[Michael Ruggiero]: And that's a scary statistic.

[Michael Ruggiero]: The health outcomes of these children are severe.

[Michael Ruggiero]: And whatever kind of solutions we have to think of outside of the box, welcome in other committees that maybe have some ideas.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: this new person will be reporting directly to you and will act independently.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So do we have a sense of that increase?

[Michael Ruggiero]: Because it seems to me that's even a bigger problem.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: We spent a lot of time thinking about the idea of consequences and what the consequences are.

[Michael Ruggiero]: And this is something we debated back and forth.

[Michael Ruggiero]: According to Robert's Rules of Order, we have the authority now, whether we sign the document or not.

[Michael Ruggiero]: And what is activity on becoming a member is actually a subjective element.

[Michael Ruggiero]: The idea, though, is censure has, you are ultimately responsible to the members of Medford, and the citizens of Medford.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So what you say is not, while we can censor you, it's what your authority is to the people of Medford.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So, I mean, the idea, we wanted to add some element that we debated this idea back and forth quite a bit.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: The first item that was referred to us many months ago was about digital documents being posted online.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So, originally we wanted to do a number of research, which we did.

[Michael Ruggiero]: First, we spoke with Dorothy Presser.

[Michael Ruggiero]: She's our representative for the Massachusetts Association of School Committees.

[Michael Ruggiero]: She has no official position.

[Michael Ruggiero]: There's no official guidance on digital documents being posted online.

[Michael Ruggiero]: However, she hasn't heard any negative feedback from the communities that do it.

[Michael Ruggiero]: They also don't track it, but she said probably a sizable minority, maybe 40%, maybe 30% of communities do post online.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So after that, I called a number of different school committees and mostly superintendent's offices to see their position and see

[Michael Ruggiero]: what effect it had in their community posting these documents online.

[Michael Ruggiero]: There were basically four major areas that I asked them.

[Michael Ruggiero]: First, I asked them to describe their posting process.

[Michael Ruggiero]: All of the communities I had a chance to talk to had different processes.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Second, I asked, did it help or hurt the community?

[Michael Ruggiero]: And what problems have you had in the implementation?

[Michael Ruggiero]: Thirdly, I asked, what system did you use to post?

[Michael Ruggiero]: And finally, I asked, did they have any unforeseen problems that arose?

[Michael Ruggiero]: In short, all the communities I spoke to felt very positively about posting documents online.

[Michael Ruggiero]: None reported any significant problems from people using documents in a way that was not becoming or productive.

[Michael Ruggiero]: First, I spoke with some people at Melrose.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I spoke to Diane Hogan.

[Michael Ruggiero]: She's the assistant to the superintendent there.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Overall, she believed that they had a positive experience of posting packets online.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Their community posted packets 72 hours in advance, and they use a program called Grayness, which is used by the entire community.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Diane, or Ms.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Hogan, believed it helped the community in real time.

[Michael Ruggiero]: And they've been doing it since 2012.

[Michael Ruggiero]: They also felt that there's a tendency for rumors to sort of spread through a community.

[Michael Ruggiero]: But with the digital documents there, she felt that those kind of rumors were stymied.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I left a message with the people at Danvers, but they weren't able to get back to me.

[Michael Ruggiero]: And I also called a couple of other districts and weren't able to get back to me.

[Michael Ruggiero]: But the people at Redding, whose name, the last name of this lady I unfortunately forgot to write down, her name was Linda.

[Michael Ruggiero]: She was also an executive assistant.

[Michael Ruggiero]: She believed that they had a very positive experience.

[Michael Ruggiero]: They posted 48 hours in advance of meetings.

[Michael Ruggiero]: And they used PDFs.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So they don't, they do not pay for any expensive system.

[Michael Ruggiero]: They just post PDFs online.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Franklin Public Schools, I spoke to Denise Miller.

[Michael Ruggiero]: They've had also a very positive experience with posting.

[Michael Ruggiero]: They felt like there were no problems with doing anything online.

[Michael Ruggiero]: What they did was a system, actually I'm going to recommend that we do, they send a link

[Michael Ruggiero]: to school committee members first.

[Michael Ruggiero]: School committee members have a few hours to review the materials in advance, and then the link is sent to the community at large.

[Michael Ruggiero]: They don't send presentations or superintendent notes beforehand, and they also use just PDFs.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Finally, I spoke to the people at Lexington.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Ms.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Calvino is the executive assistant there.

[Michael Ruggiero]: She was the most enthusiastic about posting documents online in advance.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: She did have or their community had a little problem with posting PDFs on a timetable that the community understood.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So they just recommend that maybe we have a trial period first to make sure that all the wrinkles are ironed out and yeah.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So there's no confusion about when things are posted.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So our committee unanimously voted to do a similar program as they do in Franklin.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: We voted to send it to school committee.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I wasn't sure.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Can we send?

[Michael Ruggiero]: Yeah, we haven't voted on those minutes.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Yeah.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I'm just, I'm a little confused on the logistics of this matter.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: That shouldn't be a problem to do.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you very much, Madam Superintendent.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I was really heartened by your section about mathematics.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Perhaps it's close to my heart, as you know.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I'm very excited.

[Michael Ruggiero]: about the partnership moving forward, and I think there's a great potential.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I'd be curious to see what they have to think.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Yeah, this is a really great event.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I'm just so proud, Marcie, for being selected.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I think it would be really, really great if you guys could come down and talk to them about the whole process.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Maybe even get some donation money.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Yeah, thank you for this report.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I also really enjoyed the breakdowns.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I was really curious, though, when I originally read this, about the ratio of special education students in pre-K.

[Michael Ruggiero]: It seemed like that's a pretty big chunk of the population, or is that a normal?

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Just so, obviously, if we have one chess kid and that kid costs a million dollars, like a crazy example.

[Michael Ruggiero]: But it would tell me a lot more about the program and participation rates.

[Michael Ruggiero]: But I do have other questions.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I was curious about, on page six of nine, about the math teacher allocation.

[Michael Ruggiero]: In particular, I was interested in the Andrews Middle School.

[Michael Ruggiero]: And I noticed here that the budget there

[Michael Ruggiero]: that we've exceeded the budget significantly.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: And this question is, I recognize you're very, very busy and you have lots going on, especially at this time of year.

[Michael Ruggiero]: But I wanted to know, do we have a sense of different school districts?

[Michael Ruggiero]: Is that a report that would be easily found by you?

[Michael Ruggiero]: Obviously, I'm not asking you to cook it up yourself.

[Michael Ruggiero]: But is there some sort of database of different school systems that have breakdowns as fine?

[Michael Ruggiero]: And for the closeouts and everything?

[Michael Ruggiero]: It would be really interesting.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I mean, I guess it's a question of I'll do the research myself then.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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?

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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?

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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?

[Michael Ruggiero]: So you have the overweight and obesity statistic together.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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?

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I know we're having a busy, but if we could find time on the agenda.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I'd really like to consider this problem, because I think we have a serious problem.

[Michael Ruggiero]: complete child, the statistics broken down.

[Michael Ruggiero]: By grade?

[Michael Ruggiero]: Yeah, by grade, but not just overweight, but also by obesity.

[Michael Ruggiero]: And if possible, I would like to really have a full conversation.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: But obese, that means you're walking into adulthood with a one in three chance of having type 2 diabetes, right?

[Michael Ruggiero]: I mean, it's a serious problem.

[Michael Ruggiero]: That's a lifelong condition.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you, Mayor Burke.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you for the report.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I just recently finished William Dersowitch's book, Excellent Sheep.

[Michael Ruggiero]: and it talks about this idea of the raising rates of anxiety and depression among children and students in America.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: No, like an eighth of our students.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Sure.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Statistically, it's 20%.

[Michael Ruggiero]: And is that what we found with the surveys, where students self-reporting that statistic?

[Michael Ruggiero]: On the survey, do you say, I have suicidal thoughts, for example?

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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?

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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?

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: What are the health factors of those districts?

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Public health.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Oh, public health or education.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I'm not sure where the data would be compiled.

[Michael Ruggiero]: But it would be very interesting for me to know how we're doing, and especially in regards to

[Michael Ruggiero]: Like I said, other factors that maybe if we improved diet, we'd also help depression, help drug use as well.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Yeah.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Just like everyone else, I've attended good PD days and terrible PD days.

[Michael Ruggiero]: How did we do last year?

[Michael Ruggiero]: Yeah, that's what I was curious about, the survey response.

[Michael Ruggiero]: That's fine.

[Michael Ruggiero]: And I wanted to know, how often does the PD committee meet the professional development committee?

[Michael Ruggiero]: Okay.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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?

[Michael Ruggiero]: Before I ran, I feared that it is as they say on TV.

[Michael Ruggiero]: People were simply disinterested and disengaged in local politics.

[Michael Ruggiero]: But knocking on thousands of doors, a passion and brilliance drove me to continue.

[Michael Ruggiero]: After a few months, an obvious answer arose.

[Michael Ruggiero]: It was our timing.

[Michael Ruggiero]: People have amazing energy and ideas to help drive our schools forward.

[Michael Ruggiero]: But 7 o'clock on a Monday is a challenging, if not almost impossible time for many parents to voice their opinions.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Dozens of parents have voiced support for a biannual weekend meeting such as I have proposed.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Thus, I suggest we hold a meeting when parents can attend.

[Michael Ruggiero]: As you can hear in the resolution, I suggest two meetings held on perhaps a Saturday afternoon every year.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I propose we create an idea fair of sorts on important topics such as addressing our budget or energizing after school activities.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: But I hope that we can really move forward real school committee meetings, where great ideas can begin to get some action.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Additionally, I would like to invite Corey Check members of the PTO to help with child care, entertainment, and food during the event.

[Michael Ruggiero]: With these amenities,

[Michael Ruggiero]: busy parents don't have to wrestle dinner or childcare for frisky kids.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Personally, I would love to see these events catered by our new bistro.

[Michael Ruggiero]: But most importantly, I would like volunteer groups and PTOs associated with our schools to advertise opportunities for people to contribute.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Clay Shirky coined the phrase cognitive surplus to describe the untapped energy and talent people have available after work.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I honestly believe

[Michael Ruggiero]: that the city of Medford contains hundreds of scientists that would love to open up and help out with STEM students.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Hundreds of artists ready to inspire.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I know that our superintendent has to work out the details, and I hope to work with her as we move forward.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Seeing that we are almost up to Christmas, perhaps only one meeting this year is possible.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So thank you.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I've done a little broad research.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I know that some private schools have done it in the past.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Wouldn't it be great if the system was, let's actually work together on making something right?

[Michael Ruggiero]: A more proactive response in how we plan the policies of our schools.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I feel like parents have reached out to all of us.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I think the issue is more inviting people that have a resource available that they might be able to provide.

[Michael Ruggiero]: And by creating a time when they can actually attend,

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Are you all set?

[Michael Ruggiero]: I do an official survey.

[Michael Ruggiero]: This is unscientific.

[Michael Ruggiero]: We mis-explained it.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Yeah, there's always going to be issues on the weekend as well.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So some parents, they get told that Monday we may not be able to go on Saturday.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Much different.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Yes.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Mrs. Grant.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Yes.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Mr. Owens.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Yes.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 7 in the affirmative, 0 in the negative.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you for the report.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I had a question about the actual unexpected walk, bike, share table that you have here.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So how is the expected calculated?

[Michael Ruggiero]: This is, it says that we have 47% for other members.

[Michael Ruggiero]: These aren't the numbers.

[Michael Ruggiero]: This is on the GHG.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Can you, when I read this through this report, I was looking for other communities.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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%.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Do you see other communities making that 30%?

[Michael Ruggiero]: So what do you think makes Medford unique in this regard?

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Did you want to speak something?

[Michael Ruggiero]: I just wanted to, I think this report is great.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I think there is a huge potential, especially at that under one mile mark, to improve the participation in this program.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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?

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Patterson, may I ask you a question about financing?

[Michael Ruggiero]: How much would it cost for us to maybe provide a waiver for 15 more students to increase the number to 30?

[Michael Ruggiero]: Another 10,000.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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

[Michael Ruggiero]: If there is a need greater, I mean, I know many parents that are struggling in the city of Medford.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Some of the parents work two jobs each.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I mean, this program might be a huge boon for them and their family.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So it would be interesting for me to know what it would take for us to make 15 more slots available.

[Michael Ruggiero]: If, you know, someone provides all the information.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Right, and the staff is still the problem.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Can you tell us which one of the school committee members she's complained about the most?

[Michael Ruggiero]: Is it Paul?

[Michael Ruggiero]: I don't know.

[Michael Ruggiero]: What happened to the coaching school series?

[Michael Ruggiero]: Yeah, thank you very much for bringing forward this information to us.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I'm really excited about this program.

[Michael Ruggiero]: What I would like to do, if possible, would be nice to actually see some of the kits.

[Michael Ruggiero]: If we could actually bring them in, or we can go to you.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: It would be nice.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Does the FOSS program go along a calendar?

[Michael Ruggiero]: Like in October we do worms or whatever?

[Michael Ruggiero]: Yes.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Is it possible we could also add a plaque?

[Michael Ruggiero]: Yes, oh definitely.

[Michael Ruggiero]: To add some historical context.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Mayor Burke, maybe we have to refresh, review the policy.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I think that's a good idea.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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

[Michael Ruggiero]: think that the mustang blue is a great color choice.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I think it might be an interesting idea to allow some of the students to pick out the color.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: On page 17 to 43 of the updated document, there's just a question about classification.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I notice there's a national grid, but it's listed as unclassified.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I was just curious about that.

[Michael Ruggiero]: It's check number 0237291.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I don't know if that helps.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Yes.

[Michael Ruggiero]: OK.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Just curious why that wouldn't show up as utilities.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Yeah, sure.

[Michael Ruggiero]: It's $2,141.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: And another question.

[Michael Ruggiero]: It's looking at electricity.

[Michael Ruggiero]: And then there was one that came up.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I think it's on page 7.

[Michael Ruggiero]: It's on the updated document, 7 of 43.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Yes.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Standard Electric.

[Michael Ruggiero]: And then it says Educational Supplies.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Standard Electric, a vendor?

[Michael Ruggiero]: Correct.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Oh, they're a supplied vendor.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Yes.

[Michael Ruggiero]: OK, so when I was looking at electricity, I was curious about that.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Yeah, this is a question for Cheryl.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I'm just curious, so this bid was submitted to you on the 6th, is that correct?

[Michael Ruggiero]: I received it today.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Is it possible we could reopen the bidding process?

[Michael Ruggiero]: I think everyone here is on the same side.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Obviously, we all want to save $100,000 and have a beautiful playground.

[Michael Ruggiero]: My question is this.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Obviously, my concern is I just want to know, is this being done properly?

[Michael Ruggiero]: How much time would it take for us to reopen the bidding process?

[Michael Ruggiero]: If we had to put, like, let's assume, assume that we do have to open the re-bidding process.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So parents could order what they need online, and then we could just ensure that they have a pickup spot location.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: That's all I have.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you, Mayor Burke.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: And this would be the pupil transportation of homeless students and the amount of money that's spent to this program.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Obviously, I have no troubles helping students that are homeless, making sure that they're a part of our community.

[Michael Ruggiero]: But when we spend so much on these students, that money could be better used

[Michael Ruggiero]: to house them.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: It is the exact kind of bureaucratic insanity which prompted me to run for elected office.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So that said, I would like to ask my colleagues that we refer this issue to City Solicitor Mark Brumley.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Now, I understand that the state is supposed to reimburse us for this money, and they haven't.

[Michael Ruggiero]: But we have a platform to advocate for these children, and by pressing this case as hard as possible,

[Michael Ruggiero]: with either our own attorney, Howard Greenspan, or City Solicitor Mark Rumley.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I think would shed light on this problem.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Is that correct or incorrect?

[Michael Ruggiero]: Well, I think that we need to pursue this issue beyond simply just putting pressure on legislators.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: to advise us how we should move forward.

[Michael Ruggiero]: My frustration is not in helping homeless children.

[Michael Ruggiero]: That absolutely needs to be done.

[Michael Ruggiero]: My frustration is wasting money that could be better used housing these children.

[Michael Ruggiero]: And I find it deeply frustrating.

[Michael Ruggiero]: beyond the other points, the kindergarten aides and the capital budget.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I am going to end up abstaining on this budget.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: And I mean, so I guess it boils down to a question of trust.

[Michael Ruggiero]: And I'm ultimately out.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I'll give you the benefit of the doubt, Mayor Burke.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I mean, I think that's the best move forward.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I've mentioned all my reservations to you.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I appreciate some of the items that were brought up.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I still can't understand why we can't hire a couple more part-time kindergarten aides.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I don't understand the logic of that, but.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Right, and, you know.

[Michael Ruggiero]: This is my first year serving.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: There'll be a committee of the whole meeting where we discuss the capital improvement plan.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you very much.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I just wanted to make sure.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I just also want to thank the members of the school committee.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I really appreciated not only everyone's heart, but also the opportunity to explore the issues with you, because we all have disagreements.

[Michael Ruggiero]: We all have programs that we really love.

[Michael Ruggiero]: But it was a really wonderful experience for me, and I really appreciated working with you.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: And it really means a lot to me how hard people work.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So thank you.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Okay.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: A number of communities have worked with participatory budgeting.

[Michael Ruggiero]: where a certain amount of money is set aside for the community to decide how it's used.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I was thinking that .1% would work out to be about $60,000.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I would like in the future to explore this idea.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I don't know exactly when the right time is.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So parents have a little bit more feedback.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I mean, yeah, I think that would help community participation.

[Michael Ruggiero]: And in addition, parents sometimes have the best ideas.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I'll ask to put that on the agenda when we have the time.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Very good.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So I'm just trying to find the page number here.

[Michael Ruggiero]: It's from the warrant, 18-0-1-3-8.

[Michael Ruggiero]: This is the minimum regional high school tuition out of state, out of, sorry, district tuition expenses.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Eight of 11, excuse me.

[Michael Ruggiero]: It's fourth from the bottom.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Oh, Minuteman.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Do you know of this program, what is the one that most of the students are enrolled in?

[Michael Ruggiero]: Plumbing.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Is it plumbing?

[Michael Ruggiero]: Is that correct?

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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?

[Michael Ruggiero]: Certainly.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Can you give me a breakdown of what programs are enrolled in?

[Michael Ruggiero]: Absolutely, ma'am.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: For the high bush blueberries, the soil isn't quite acidic enough.

[Michael Ruggiero]: If possible, I'm happy to donate the plastic mulch, the thyme, and also the sulfur.

[Michael Ruggiero]: But if possible, I'd like to start preparing the soil so we can get the pH.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Right now the pH is around six, which is

[Michael Ruggiero]: It's way too high for blueberries, so we have to drop that around to about 4.5 or 5.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: These are all really great plants that they've chosen.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: There's a couple of options that we have.

[Michael Ruggiero]: It would be best to rototill the area for the blueberries.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I already have about 30 plants and containers, and I have all the plastic mulch.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: And I would prefer to get that done as soon as possible.

[Michael Ruggiero]: It'll take me probably about a couple of days, I guess.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I just need to rototill it, lay down the plastic mulch.

[Michael Ruggiero]: We have to measure it.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I'm happy to, once again, I'll donate the T-poles and the wiring, and I'll set it up for everyone.

[Michael Ruggiero]: My fence has 7,000 volts that run through it.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: If you want me to install it, we definitely need to shut it down during school hours, and we'll have to talk.

[Michael Ruggiero]: But it's possible we could turn it on once school is not in session, and then I could put it on a timer.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I have a higher voltage on my farm because I want the deers to get shocked.

[Michael Ruggiero]: But if we have people around, we can have a lower voltage.

[Michael Ruggiero]: It's basically like someone, a little bee sting.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Like someone hits you kind of hard with a pencil eraser is what it feels like.

[Michael Ruggiero]: It doesn't leave any permanent damage.

[Michael Ruggiero]: It's humane to the animals as well.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Yeah, we'd have to figure out.

[Michael Ruggiero]: If you want, I'll be happy to lay down the fence.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Or we'll hold off.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you so much for putting that together as a father who's about to have a kid go into kindergarten.

[Michael Ruggiero]: It's a pretty frightening time.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So I think that makes a lot of people a little more nervous.

[Michael Ruggiero]: It is a scary.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Yeah, I know.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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?

[Michael Ruggiero]: I know there's a cost associated, but it'd be interesting to at least know the figures.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Yeah, thank you so much for this report.

[Michael Ruggiero]: First off, I'm just educational and a huge fan of after-school tutoring programs.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Do you think that if we added two more teachers to the program, that would have really solved the problem?

[Michael Ruggiero]: Or do you think, how many teachers would you want it ideally?

[Michael Ruggiero]: Cool.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Please let me know.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Well, it's good.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I need the teaching hours for my license anyway to keep it good.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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?

[Michael Ruggiero]: Just ballpark.

[Michael Ruggiero]: The next question I have for you is, do you know why all these students were participating?

[Michael Ruggiero]: Has there been any conversation with the parents?

[Michael Ruggiero]: Is it just that their parents want them to have more math time?

[Michael Ruggiero]: The students are hungry for more math time?

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Because I've seen how effective they can be.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I think that's a really good point.

[Michael Ruggiero]: a district-wide program if we can, and sort of use Columbus as a pilot, learn what we can from it.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So thank you so much for all this hard work.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I'm really very excited about moving forward.

[Michael Ruggiero]: As Member DiVendetto mentioned, unfortunately, this program came about sort of in an emergency.

[Michael Ruggiero]: We had to do it.

[Michael Ruggiero]: But I think that now that the fire is out, there's a lot that we can learn moving forward.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So thank you so much.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I think it's really important that we design this program to touch both students that are struggling and students that are excelling.

[Michael Ruggiero]: What I found personally, there's a really great program called the AMC8s.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Currently I'm talking with Ms.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Carolyn Joy about this idea, maybe we could add this to the curriculum.

[Michael Ruggiero]: They're really wonderful because AMC, the American Math Competition, and they're designed for eighth graders.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: They actually involve a lot of creativity.

[Michael Ruggiero]: And they feel a lot more like undergraduate mathematics, as it should be.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So the problems are very engaging to students.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Sometimes it could just be the type of thing where you print out a big packet of problems to students, hand them to them,

[Michael Ruggiero]: help out the kids that are, you know, struggling a bit, and then check in with your students that are really accelerating.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I think that, I mean, from my own educational experience, I really saw a huge impact.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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,

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Students really should touch that as well.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So I would just, while I understand the cost, and I certainly appreciate it,

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Because, you know, it's a beautiful subject.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Sure.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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?

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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

[Michael Ruggiero]: of EL students at one school, then you also have EL parents also at that same school.

[Michael Ruggiero]: It creates an environment where you might have one program just happens to be wealthier because of the sociodynamics versus the other program.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: at the McGlynn.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So it would be the reason why people want to go there is that they actually maybe has a full bilingual option.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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?

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[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]: Could you give us a sense of what it would take to actually architect

[Michael Ruggiero]: like bill for that type of program?

[Michael Ruggiero]: So just one last point.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: The first is on subsection four, where you talk about provisions for quality control.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Before I, I just, I really do support the idea of doing partnership programs with local universities.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I really commend the administration for working on this.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I know you guys have been cooking this up since like December.

[Michael Ruggiero]: But could you just outline what are the provisions for quality control?

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Okay.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you so much.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Once again, I just really appreciate all the work you're doing.

[Michael Ruggiero]: No, no, it's good that you're asking because I want you to understand.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I just want to make sure that we're all on the same page.

[Michael Ruggiero]: There's no disasters.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Yeah.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I mean, I know the administration is working very hard to deal with this problem.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I hate to funnel Cassandra, but this is a very frustrating report to me.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: That's what it means, one out of every three.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So this is a very frustrating report to me.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Like, then why are you choosing, right?

[Michael Ruggiero]: If these schools are equivalent, they're truly equivalent,

[Michael Ruggiero]: And then why choose?

[Michael Ruggiero]: Okay, we have more room for ELL students at one school, I understand that, but it's just everyone's randomly drawn.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Or there's a reason to choose one school.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Maybe we could do a math magnet.

[Michael Ruggiero]: That might be easier to draw our STEM magnet.

[Michael Ruggiero]: might be easier to create.

[Michael Ruggiero]: One school has more of a STEM focus, another school has more of a liberal arts focus.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: That's our choice.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I understand.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I'm not trying to take someone to the woodshed here, and that's not my intent.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I think what's frustrating to me about this report is I think it was kind of obvious.

[Michael Ruggiero]: We all kind of saw it coming.

[Michael Ruggiero]: We just hoped it wouldn't be here at the 11th hour.

[Michael Ruggiero]: What I would like to suggest is this.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I mean, no matter what we decide, it's going to cause a little bit of trouble.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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,

[Michael Ruggiero]: Oh, you know, you're at the McGlynn Elementary.

[Michael Ruggiero]: There's 16 kids there.

[Michael Ruggiero]: You know, these are people that, friends that want to be together.

[Michael Ruggiero]: They also should share, even though their school doesn't have this problem.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So in the future, I would really like to start considering more seriously the idea that there is a choice to be made.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Right now, there isn't, right?

[Michael Ruggiero]: We're saying they're equal, they're both great.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Then it's a false choice.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I am in strong support of a weighted average option.

[Michael Ruggiero]: That might be another way to play it.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I think that it seems only fair that we expect every school to basically feed into one.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I mean, first, I just want to address the community at large.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Obviously, this is not a choice anyone here wants to make.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Everyone wants everyone to get what they want or, you know, what their kids, but just talking about sort of the choice.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So we're going to have to do a lottery.

[Michael Ruggiero]: We're basically forced into this choice.

[Michael Ruggiero]: The question is, what is most fair and what is best?

[Michael Ruggiero]: So I think we can all kind of agree

[Michael Ruggiero]: that what's most fair is sending kids from the school that is only sending 9% of their students.

[Michael Ruggiero]: What's best also, though, if we're trying to prevent friends from being broken up, that's the best way to do it.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: But if we have a system where 11% of every school is dropped off, we're going to be breaking up friendships.

[Michael Ruggiero]: And the likelihood is they're not going to have cohorts with them.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I feel like this is the best way forward.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: We have the experts right before us.

[Michael Ruggiero]: We have a parent that would like to speak.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Your name and address, please.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I'm done.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Okay.

[Michael Ruggiero]: One last point in support of this idea of Mr. Tucci going down.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: We want parents to have as many options as they can and many possibilities.

[Michael Ruggiero]: And if we can get, you know, 10 people

[Michael Ruggiero]: to move over, that's only five that we have to select from the rest of the cohort.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So I really do support this idea.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I mean, I leave my cell phone in the car for this very reason.

[Michael Ruggiero]: You know, I have my computer here, but I'm not receiving texts to it.

[Michael Ruggiero]: But I think it's important for us to recognize as a group

[Michael Ruggiero]: that we live in an age where people that do have serious disabilities can still participate.

[Michael Ruggiero]: And it would be great if we create an environment for that to happen.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: But it would be nice if we had a number.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Martin lives on this address.

[Michael Ruggiero]: He wishes me to bring this point up.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I really would feel, I think, you know, we live in a time where we can make that possible.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So I would like to suggest, once again, a friendly amendment that we, for now,

[Michael Ruggiero]: I think we can all agree that this is probably for the best.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I leave my cell phone because I get texts during meetings.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I don't prefer, I don't like it either.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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?

[Michael Ruggiero]: Let's go.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I mean, that's, that's also seems to be subverting the spirit.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: can also have a means of communicating with us.

[Michael Ruggiero]: And I'd like to look that we think about ways to make that possible in the future.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: It's from the warrant, 18-0-1-3-8.

[Michael Ruggiero]: This is a Minuteman Regional High School tuition out of state, out of, sorry, district tuition expenses.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Eight of 11, excuse me.

[Michael Ruggiero]: It's fourth from the bottom.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Oh, Minuteman.

[Michael Ruggiero]: The out-of-district.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Do you know, of this program, what is the one that most of the students are enrolled in?

[Michael Ruggiero]: Plumbing.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Is it plumbing?

[Michael Ruggiero]: Is that correct?

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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?

[Michael Ruggiero]: Certainly.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Can you give me a breakdown of what programs are enrolled in?

[Michael Ruggiero]: Absolutely, ma'am.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: For the high bush blueberries, the soil isn't quite acidic enough.

[Michael Ruggiero]: If possible, I'm happy to donate the plastic mulch, the thyme, and also the sulfur.

[Michael Ruggiero]: But if possible, I'd like to start preparing the soil so we can get the pH.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Right now the pH is around 6, which is kind of, it's way too high for blueberries.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So we have to drop that around to about 4.5 or 5.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So I'm happy to donate all the preparations for blueberries, but these other plants that were chosen, I looked them up.

[Michael Ruggiero]: and I talked to some horticultural friends.

[Michael Ruggiero]: These are all really great plants that they've chosen.

[Michael Ruggiero]: We just have to touch up a little bit with the blueberries.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Well, it depends.

[Michael Ruggiero]: If the club would like to plant this September, there's a couple of options that we have.

[Michael Ruggiero]: It would be best to rototill the area for the blueberries.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I already have about 30 plants in containers, and I have all the plastic mulch.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So what I would recommend would be to rototill the area, spread some sulfur,

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: And I would prefer to get that done as soon as possible.

[Michael Ruggiero]: It'll take me probably about a couple of days, I guess.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I just need to rototill it, lay down the plastic mulch.

[Michael Ruggiero]: We have to measure it.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I also can, I'll send down all the drip irrigation.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Yes, of course.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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

[Michael Ruggiero]: I'm happy to, once again, I'll donate the T-poles and the wiring, and I'll set it up for everyone.

[Michael Ruggiero]: My fence has 7,000 volts that run through it.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: If you want me to install it, we definitely need to shut it down during school hours, and we'll have to talk.

[Michael Ruggiero]: But it's possible we could turn it on once school is not in session, and then I could put it on a timer.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: We could actually choose a lower voltage.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I have a higher voltage on my farm because I want the deers to get shocked.

[Michael Ruggiero]: But if we have people around, we can have a lower voltage.

[Michael Ruggiero]: It's basically like someone, a little bee sting.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Like someone hits you kind of hard with a pencil eraser is what it feels like.

[Michael Ruggiero]: it doesn't leave any permanent damage.

[Michael Ruggiero]: It's humane to the animals as well.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Yeah, we'd have to figure out.

[Michael Ruggiero]: If you want, I'll be happy to lay down the fence.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Or we'll hold off.

[Michael Ruggiero]: That's fine, too.

[Michael Ruggiero]: No, I understand.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Kreatz.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Supporting the Tilling.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I just want to comment how awesome that little bag is.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you so much for putting that together as a father who's about to have a kid go into kindergarten.

[Michael Ruggiero]: It's a pretty frightening time.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So I think that makes a lot of people a little more nervous.

[Michael Ruggiero]: And it only gets worse.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Yeah, I know.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I know there's a cost associated, but it'd be interesting to at least know the figures.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you so much for this report.

[Michael Ruggiero]: First off I'm just educational and a huge fan of after school tutoring programs.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: That's when the learning really happened.

[Michael Ruggiero]: But to that point, I noticed in your report, as you mentioned, the ratio of students to teachers is probably not ideal.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Do you think that if we added two more teachers to the program, that would have really solved the problem?

[Michael Ruggiero]: Or do you think, how many teachers would you have wanted ideally?

[Michael Ruggiero]: Cool.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Please let me know.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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?

[Michael Ruggiero]: Just ballpark.

[Michael Ruggiero]: The next question I have for you is, do you know why all these students were participating?

[Michael Ruggiero]: Has there been any conversation with the parents?

[Michael Ruggiero]: Is it just that their parents want them to have more math time?

[Michael Ruggiero]: The students are hungry for more math time?

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: And it has a huge impact on students, especially when it's in a small environment, more intimate.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So I'd really like to start thinking about turning this into

[Michael Ruggiero]: a district-wide program if we can and sort of use Columbus as a pilot, learn what we can from it.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So thank you so much for all this hard work.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: We had to do it.

[Michael Ruggiero]: But I think that, you know, now that the fire is out, there's a lot that we can learn moving forward.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So thank you so much.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you.

[Michael Ruggiero]: That's all.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I think it's really important that we design this program to touch both students that are struggling and students that are excelling.

[Michael Ruggiero]: What I found personally, there's a really great program called the AMC8s.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Currently I'm talking with Ms.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Carolyn Joy about this idea of maybe we could add this to the curriculum.

[Michael Ruggiero]: They're really wonderful because AM, the American Math Competition, and they're designed for eighth graders.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: They actually involve a lot of creativity.

[Michael Ruggiero]: and they feel a lot more like undergraduate mathematics, as it should be.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So the problems are very engaging to students.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Sometimes it could just be the type of thing where you print out a big packet of problems to students, hand them to them,

[Michael Ruggiero]: help out the kids that are, you know, struggling a bit, and then check in with your students that are really accelerating.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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,

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Students really should touch that as well.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So I would just, while I understand the cost and I certainly appreciate it,

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Because, you know, it's a beautiful subject.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Sure.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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?

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Couldn't we just move him to the other school?

[Michael Ruggiero]: Can I follow up, please?

[Michael Ruggiero]: Yes.

[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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: It creates an environment where you might have one program just happens to be wealthier because of the socio dynamics versus the other program.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I mean, I think that we have to recognize as a board that there aren't necessarily perfect solutions

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: at the McGlynn.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So it would be the reason why people want to go there is that they actually maybe has a full bilingual option.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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?

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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

[Michael Ruggiero]: like bill for that type of program?

[Michael Ruggiero]: So just one last point.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: The first is on subsection four, where you talk of provisions for quality control.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Before I, I just, I really do support the idea of doing partnership programs with local universities.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I really commend the administration for working on this.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I know you guys have been cooking this up since like December.

[Michael Ruggiero]: But could you just outline what are the provisions for quality control?

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Okay.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you so much.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Once again, I just really appreciate all the work you're doing.

[Michael Ruggiero]: No, no, it's good that you're asking because I want you to understand.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I just want to make sure that we're all on the same page.

[Michael Ruggiero]: There's no disasters.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Yeah.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I mean, I know the administration is working very hard to deal with this problem.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I hate to funnel Cassandra, but this is a very frustrating report to me.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: That's what it means, one out of every three.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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

[Michael Ruggiero]: to handle that, so this is a very frustrating report to me.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Then why are you choosing?

[Michael Ruggiero]: If these schools are equivalent, they're truly equivalent, then why choose?

[Michael Ruggiero]: Okay, we have more room for ELL students at one school, I understand that, but it's just everyone's randomly drawn.

[Michael Ruggiero]: You know, or there's a reason to choose one school.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Maybe we could do a math magnet.

[Michael Ruggiero]: That might be easier to draw our STEM magnet.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Might be easier to create one school has more of a STEM focus, and the school has more of a liberal arts focus.

[Michael Ruggiero]: These are choices that we could have made, and now here we are at the 11th hour, and those choices are,

[Michael Ruggiero]: not in front of us anymore.

[Michael Ruggiero]: That's our choice.

[Michael Ruggiero]: That's our choice.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I understand.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I'm not trying to take someone to the woodshed here, and that's not my intent.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I think what's frustrating to me about this report is I think it was kind of obvious.

[Michael Ruggiero]: We all kind of saw it coming.

[Michael Ruggiero]: We just hoped it wouldn't be here at the 11th hour.

[Michael Ruggiero]: What I would like to suggest is this.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I mean, no matter what we decide, it's going to cause a little bit of trouble.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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,

[Michael Ruggiero]: Oh, you know, you're at the McGlynn Elementary.

[Michael Ruggiero]: There's 16 kids there.

[Michael Ruggiero]: You know, these are people that, friends that want to be together.

[Michael Ruggiero]: They also should share, even though their school doesn't have this problem.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So in the future, I would really like to start considering more seriously the idea that there is a choice to be made.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Right now, there isn't, right?

[Michael Ruggiero]: We're saying they're equal, they're both great.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Then it's a false choice.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: That might be another way to play it.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I think that it seems only fair that we expect every school to basically feed into one.

[Michael Ruggiero]: And unfortunately, that means one school will have more of a percentage of kids broken up.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Yeah, just two points.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I mean, first, I just want to address the community at large.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Obviously, this is not a choice anyone here wants to make.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Everyone wants everyone to get what they want or, you know, with their kids.

[Michael Ruggiero]: just talking about sort of the choice.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So we're going to have to do a lottery.

[Michael Ruggiero]: We're basically forced into this choice.

[Michael Ruggiero]: The question is, what is most fair and what is best?

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: What's best also, though, if we're trying to prevent friends from being broken up,

[Michael Ruggiero]: That's the best way to do it.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I feel like this is the best way forward.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: We have the experts right before us.

[Michael Ruggiero]: We have a parent that would like to speak.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Your name and address, please.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Hi, I'm Jenny Graham, 7 Ronalee Road.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Absolutely, yes.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I'm done.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Okay.

[Michael Ruggiero]: One last point in support of this idea of Mr. Tucci going down.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I think it's important for the community that

[Michael Ruggiero]: We don't want kids to just be forced at the last minute with no recall.

[Michael Ruggiero]: We want parents to have as many options as they can and many possibilities.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So I really do support this idea.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I mean, I leave my cell phone in the car for this very reason.

[Michael Ruggiero]: You know, I have my computer here, but I'm not receiving texts to it.

[Michael Ruggiero]: But I think it's important for us to recognize as a group

[Michael Ruggiero]: that we live in an age where people that do have serious disabilities can still participate.

[Michael Ruggiero]: And it would be great if we create an environment for that to happen.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: But it would be nice if we had a number or a Twitter feed or something where maybe the chair could make,

[Michael Ruggiero]: You know, Martin, who has a serious disability, wasn't able to come today.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So, but he had a really great suggestion.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Martin lives on this address.

[Michael Ruggiero]: He wishes me to bring this point up.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I really would feel, I think, you know, we live in a time where we can make that possible.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So I would like to suggest, once again, a friendly amendment that we, for now,

[Michael Ruggiero]: I think we can all agree that this is probably for the best.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I leave my cell phone because I get texts during meetings.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I don't prefer, I don't like it either.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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?

[Michael Ruggiero]: Let's go.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I mean, that's, that's also seems to be subverting the spirit.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: can also have a means of communicating with us.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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?

[Michael Ruggiero]: So reading through the report, I can understand some of the teachers' frustrations.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I just want to make sure this is absolutely clear.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Do you or any of your officers believe that Superintendent Belson floated a conspiracy theory that perhaps there was some sort of setup?

[Michael Ruggiero]: I just want to make sure absolutely clear.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I think the answer is obvious, but I want to make sure from your mouth.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Is that correct?

[Michael Ruggiero]: OK.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I've heard so many wonderful things about how hardworking

[Michael Ruggiero]: almost with, I can't even think of an exception, all of the McGlynn teachers I've talked with.

[Michael Ruggiero]: And I just want to express my sincere gratitude for all the hard work you do.

[Michael Ruggiero]: As a former teacher myself, I was never a successful middle school teacher.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I find middle school teaching the most difficult of all teaching.

[Michael Ruggiero]: And so I have a deep, deep appreciation for all the hard work you do, and I thank you very much.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I hope that it's pretty clear that this is maybe a misreading or misunderstanding of what the report was made.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I just can't imagine any of you doing that.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: That is the notice that was made.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: But I share your concerns.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: It wasn't.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: To add on to that point, I mean, I would like to suggest that these important decisions are made during regular committee meetings.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: It's unfortunate that the community had to sort of hear about it secondhand.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: It's important that the public as being a public body, we are under all the laws that govern public requests.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So, you know, if there is a disabled person, we could just hand them the mic.

[Michael Ruggiero]: or talking about public requests, where all these issues can be addressed.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I mean, I've made public requests and people have been very helpful, but it's unacceptable that emails bounce.

[Michael Ruggiero]: But beyond that, there are other issues that we need to discuss about community engagement, community relation.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I'd like to do that as a body.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: But basically the broad outline would be

[Michael Ruggiero]: how to discuss increasing community engagement on the school committee.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So I just want to make this clear.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Right now, we have a disparity of 29 children.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So if 29 of the 100.

[Michael Ruggiero]: No, 29 of the 176 went to the McGlynn, it would be equal.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Is that correct?

[Michael Ruggiero]: That's my math.

[Michael Ruggiero]: If we were.

[Michael Ruggiero]: OK.

[Michael Ruggiero]: OK, I'll believe you.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So I'm just trying to, once again, trying to get the 15 to 20.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So if we're in a buffer of 15, that would work.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So one school has... Right.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So we need to convince 14 students, basically.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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?

[Michael Ruggiero]: Like is it possible we could identify the cohorts?

[Michael Ruggiero]: So these are 10 kids that just definitely want to be together, they're buddies.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: And it's also in the top two or three among boys.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So there's a serious concussion risk in soccer.

[Michael Ruggiero]: People don't think it's a contact sport, but it really is.

[Michael Ruggiero]: And it's often caused, I mean, my wife sees it.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you once again for your service.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I just had a quick question.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you so much for putting this together.

[Michael Ruggiero]: On page one of 13, this is of the financial year budget expenditure.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Could you just explain what errors and omissions, what that line item is?

[Michael Ruggiero]: I see, I see.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Okay, thank you just for clarifying that for my brain.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I'm a little sleepy right now.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Just a question for Superintendent Delson through you, the chair.

[Michael Ruggiero]: In your cost benefit analysis, could you also include the timescale for implementation?

[Michael Ruggiero]: I'm sure you will anyway.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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?

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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?

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Could you just have the person at the desk take a rolling tally of how many times people go through each door?

[Michael Ruggiero]: It shouldn't be too difficult.

[Michael Ruggiero]: If they walk through the pool door, they just put a little hash mark on that.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Of course, right.

[Michael Ruggiero]: It might not be a perfect study.

[Michael Ruggiero]: You get a general sense.

[Michael Ruggiero]: And there are other times of the day where it's pretty difficult.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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?

[Michael Ruggiero]: I'm not sure.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So just being alphabetical.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Would it be very difficult to add that information in addition?

[Michael Ruggiero]: I see.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Okay.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Yeah.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I wanted to know, have you noticed like a spike or change in incidents of reporting?

[Michael Ruggiero]: I'm just speaking from your personal experience.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Obviously you don't have the numbers in front of you.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Has the rate been consistent, or have you noticed a spike?

[Michael Ruggiero]: In the past few years.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Have you noticed, like I'm just talking about the general trend.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: While I was campaigning, I knocked on one man's door.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I was just curious.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So on this page right here, when you say 122 children, that's the current

[Michael Ruggiero]: number of students applying that program.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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?

[Michael Ruggiero]: We can get that for you.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: You started as the instructional superintendent in Boston Public Schools in 2015, is that correct?

[Michael Ruggiero]: I see.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So while I was researching the Boston public school system, I came across a surprising trend that was talked about in Boston Magazine.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Thankfully, I had a number of really great principals that sort of helped me adjust my teaching style, which needed adjustment.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So I would like to sort of create a case study, and I would like you to imagine a teacher

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: How would you adjust that teacher's style, and how would you communicate the problem to that teacher?

[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you, Doctor.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I have some operational questions for you.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So first, I would like you to imagine that you have a vacancy in your sixth grade for a sixth grade teacher.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: that's not doing very well.

[Michael Ruggiero]: They fail a large number of their students.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: How would you work with the residents of Medford after your first draft is created for your budget?

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: On your resume, you listed data-informed decision-making as one of your core competencies.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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?

[Michael Ruggiero]: As you look over student performance, you put your picture together, which involves some data.

[Michael Ruggiero]: How do you look over teacher performance?

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I have some questions about blind spots and pitfalls.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: And tell us about what led you in the wrong direction, how were you adjusted?

[Michael Ruggiero]: Follow up, Mr. Oshiro?

[Michael Ruggiero]: You used the phrase robust curriculum.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I would like you to describe the most difficult dilemma you faced when you were managing the special education department in Andover.

[Michael Ruggiero]: And as you address that challenge,

[Michael Ruggiero]: I'd like you to focus on three specific areas for me.

[Michael Ruggiero]: First, what made your decision challenging?

[Michael Ruggiero]: Second, what interests were pitted against each other?

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I apologize.

[Michael Ruggiero]: They're perfect.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Speak as long as you like.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So I'm really interested in this conversation about strategic planning and turning that into budgeting.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So I want to talk specifically, if you could, about how you involve the residents of Medford in subsequent drafts.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So your team has come together, they've put together a strategic plan and a draft budget.

[Michael Ruggiero]: How do you receive their input and how do you change the numbers based on that input?

[Michael Ruggiero]: What resources would you develop to augment limited funds?

[Michael Ruggiero]: And how would you hold your administration responsible for maintaining that budget?

[Michael Ruggiero]: Because, you know, plans don't always work the way you think they will.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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?

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So what I'm interested in knowing about is tell us about the most innovative educational practice you've tried, something that was experimental.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So something that isn't inflammatory but something that is not really appropriate.

[Michael Ruggiero]: How would you address that situation?

[Michael Ruggiero]: Let's assume this student has some discipline issues in the past, but nothing serious.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So here's my question.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Over the past few days, I've been looking through my emails in preparation for these interviews.

[Michael Ruggiero]: What has surprised me is how some very intelligent, passionate, and engaged parents of our community have lost faith in our schools.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Some have urged me not to consider any candidate from within our system, even as one as qualified as you.

[Michael Ruggiero]: To these residents, how would you rebuild their faith?

[Michael Ruggiero]: In your experience, how is trust built?

[Michael Ruggiero]: How is it damaged?

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: And I just want to make sure I make that clear.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So community engagement is critical to a successful budget.

[Michael Ruggiero]: That said, how would you construct your first draft of next year's school budget?

[Michael Ruggiero]: How would you involve the residents of Medford in subsequent drafts?

[Michael Ruggiero]: What resources would you develop to augment limited funds?

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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?

[Michael Ruggiero]: Because it is, like you said, a fluid document.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: How long would it take you to answer some of these questions?

[Michael Ruggiero]: I'm just worried that we're going to go a little too fast.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I mean, I'm inclined to second your motion so we can debate it.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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?

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I just have some questions for you cause you know, I'm concerned if there are issues.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So,

[Michael Ruggiero]: If the administration raises a base salary that's not a step increase, the school committee is notified.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Is that correct?

[Michael Ruggiero]: So the base can go up or down.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: If you could send that to all of us, that would be useful so I could review the information in advance.

[Michael Ruggiero]: And so every contract has different rules for step increases.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Is that correct?

[Michael Ruggiero]: Correct.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Oh, so I see.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Right, of course.

[Michael Ruggiero]: And so you can have multiple step increases at once or would it just be one step at a time?

[Michael Ruggiero]: Like every year you would get no more than one step increase?

[Michael Ruggiero]: Okay, that's all my questions.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Mr. Ruggiero.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 44,954 children's and young adult books.

[Michael Ruggiero]: A mountain of material.

[Michael Ruggiero]: But only one small part of what our library provides to the children of Medford.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Beyond these books, or CDs, or DVDs, or curriculum support,

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: We have all seen the pictures.

[Michael Ruggiero]: We need a library without a leaking roof or rotting floors or flickering lights.

[Michael Ruggiero]: And it is for this reason that I ask you to request that the city council approve the construction of a new space.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Yes.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Let's build a new dry home for the greatest minds and a place for children to wander amongst them.

[Michael Ruggiero]: A few members wish to speak on this resolution.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I'd like to invite them to speak.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I just have one question.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So I wanted to know, and maybe Member Mustone explained this, but I just wanted to know would

[Michael Ruggiero]: parents be able to also get an introductory meeting like what Alice is and why it's important and why we're choosing this?

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Can someone second that?

[Michael Ruggiero]: Yeah, I just have a question about professional development days in general.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So you would, usually the different topics be scheduled in advance.

[Michael Ruggiero]: It was just because of the current situation that we decided to move this up.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Is that correct?

[Michael Ruggiero]: Correct.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Yeah, that was part of it.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So we know that the Medford PD fully approves this program the most?

[Michael Ruggiero]: Yes.

[Michael Ruggiero]: OK, thank you.

[Michael Ruggiero]: That helps me understand the situation.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I just wanted to clarify from my mindset.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Yes, thank you.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you very much for this report.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I have a question for you guys.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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?

[Michael Ruggiero]: I've had a couple, when I was knocking on doors, reach out to me.

[Michael Ruggiero]: They were retired professors of physics that might be interested.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So first, I'd like to offer a friendly amendment.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Do we need to have this information presented physically?

[Michael Ruggiero]: Is it OK that we just have this information presented as an Excel file or comma delineated database?

[Michael Ruggiero]: Is that OK?

[Michael Ruggiero]: Because that's a lot of paper.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Yeah.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So you want the physical?

[Michael Ruggiero]: I want it in an Excel spreadsheet every time people want anything at all to be sensualized.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Yeah, yeah, but I mean, I'm just a friendly man.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I think that the paper version just that's a lot of I mean you're looking at

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: But for me, I would prefer to have this digitally.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Mary member.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Yeah, a couple of questions.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So when you say several RTI tutors, how many are we talking about per building?

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Do you have sense of what the participation rate is among teachers?

[Michael Ruggiero]: Are teachers using part of it now because it's too difficult?

[Michael Ruggiero]: They're having trouble using it all?

[Michael Ruggiero]: I'm just, what do you mean when you say Renaissance is a difficult tool to use?

[Michael Ruggiero]: Yeah.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: It's going to be on March 9th from 1230 to one 30.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Um, we cleared the date with the senior center.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So that's where we'll be.

[Michael Ruggiero]: And it'll also just give opportunity for seniors.

[Michael Ruggiero]: that sometimes aren't able to come to our meetings or just have an opportunity to speak.

[Michael Ruggiero]: All the issues were forwarded to the superintendent and to the mayors.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: But I'm going to make sure everything is going to be posted properly.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So I'm going to be posting the agenda online.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So basically, we're only going to have an hour.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Unfortunately, that's all the time they could give us.

[Michael Ruggiero]: But the primary issue of the day is going to be discussing how we can reach out to our senior community to improve

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: And basically just to hear from what we can do.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Just having a PDF is not as useful as having something that is where the data can actually be read.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I'm happy to do a lot of the visualization work.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I just need the data.

[Michael Ruggiero]: That's machine readable, because I'm not going to data entry it all step by step.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Yeah, then I can.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: We can all talk about how we want to address that as well.

[Michael Ruggiero]: But if you ever want me to send you their digital copies, that's why I'm letting you know.

[Michael Ruggiero]: But I don't, once again, it's not machine readable.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So if the PDFs could actually have the text on there, that would be my way.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Two questions.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So the first, I noticed the increase in van bus transportation.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So right now, you're making up the $5,000 as fundraising.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Is that where that money is coming from right now?

[Michael Ruggiero]: Yeah, and my second question involves the instructional supplies.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I would just like to have a report that we can have.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So I'd like to know how much money we generate from these rentals, how large the groups are.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I think that I would like to suggest that we have a committee of the whole meeting with just this particular issue is discussed.

[Michael Ruggiero]: We have all the paperwork before us.

[Michael Ruggiero]: We can have the research.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I want to thank the hundreds of people that have reached out to me to talk about this issue.

[Michael Ruggiero]: If anything, please keep those emails coming.

[Michael Ruggiero]: It would be great now that we have these lines of communications available, that we talk about more constructive things moving forward.

[Michael Ruggiero]: And everyone's opinion here is greatly valued to me, and I thank all the members here at the school committee.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So please keep those messages coming.

[Michael Ruggiero]: If we're going to do this, we're doing this together.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Mr. Ruggiero.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you very much for scheduling this.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Can I just request a report on that mitigation strategy?

[Michael Ruggiero]: Sure.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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?

[Michael Ruggiero]: Oh, sorry.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I didn't know my English.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you.

[Michael Ruggiero]: This is part of my ignorance.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I don't have a little one in kindergarten yet.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I noticed that there was no Information about plumbing.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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?

[Michael Ruggiero]: They're at the Minuteman for the plumbing program?

[Michael Ruggiero]: Is that correct?

[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you very much for putting this report together.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Mr. Nelson.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Um, for people to successfully, uh, petition their government, they need to understand the issues.

[Michael Ruggiero]: And I'm concerned about some of the points that you brought up here.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Because I don't think most people understand that we're going to be facing cuts.

[Michael Ruggiero]: And I think the people need to understand.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So at least if they want to petition their government representatives, they'll be able to.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Not always the case.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So when did you say that the budget negotiations would be happening in the House and Senate?

[Michael Ruggiero]: Did you say May and April?

[Michael Ruggiero]: Okay.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So maybe we could move it to the agenda for the community relations.

[Michael Ruggiero]: We can start working with it.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Yeah.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Okay.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Okay.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Yes.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I possibly could bring it to here.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I could, if I'll, if I, all I need is a trailer and I could bring my some farm equipment.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I have like a bulldozer.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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?

[Michael Ruggiero]: I mean, I know from personal experience from knocking on doors, people would like to participate.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Just walk me through them.

[Michael Ruggiero]: If we can't answer them tonight, that's fine.

[Michael Ruggiero]: The first is on page 1 of 19.

[Michael Ruggiero]: The miscellaneous high school charges of $11,000.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Can you just explore what that is?

[Michael Ruggiero]: It's the first line item.

[Michael Ruggiero]: First line.

[Michael Ruggiero]: First page, first line.

[Michael Ruggiero]: That's student activity accounts.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I see, okay.

[Michael Ruggiero]: OK.

[Michael Ruggiero]: And do we normally break down the schools by activity, or by group, or is it just all lumped in there?

[Michael Ruggiero]: By school.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Well, that's Medford High School.

[Michael Ruggiero]: It's by school.

[Michael Ruggiero]: OK.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Is it possible in the future that we could have this broken down by club?

[Michael Ruggiero]: Because I'd be interested to know if certain clubs.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Ms.

[Michael Ruggiero]: OK.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Yeah.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Just out of curiosity.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Yeah.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I mean, definitely.

[Michael Ruggiero]: This next line item, it's on the same page.

[Michael Ruggiero]: This is the American Alarm Company.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Is this every quarter or are these monthly charges?

[Michael Ruggiero]: I'm just curious about that breakdown and how that line up works.

[Michael Ruggiero]: And I believe I have one more question.

[Michael Ruggiero]: On the West Medford auto supply, this is the last page on page 19 of 19.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So is this a wholesaler for our automotive department?

[Michael Ruggiero]: I just wanted to clarify.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Vocational for the automotive.

[Michael Ruggiero]: That's it.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Cheryl.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Superintendent Belson, is it possible that Glenn could put on a presentation for the community?

[Michael Ruggiero]: Because he's seen a lot of these superintendent searches.

[Michael Ruggiero]: It would be really helpful.

[Michael Ruggiero]: He is.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you, Mr. Superintendent, for putting this forward.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Could be set up, not that anyone has to follow them, but just like a template.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Yeah, I'm just making, we're adding items on the list, right?

[Michael Ruggiero]: We're at nine, so.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So this statement will not change any minds, those that know me.

[Michael Ruggiero]: in my commitment to transparency already know my work ethic.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I shall try my best.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Oh, excuse me.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I'll speak a little louder.

[Michael Ruggiero]: This statement will not change any minds.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Those that know me in my commitment to transparency already know my work ethic.

[Michael Ruggiero]: For the rest, I shall try my best to open my heart and write as honestly as I can about this situation.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Words matter.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I've spent the past few weeks meditating on the words I've settled upon.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I've prayed to help me see any terrible mistake that I might have made.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I've spent sleepless nights rereading the article in the transcript and my quotes in them and searching my motivations.

[Michael Ruggiero]: While I now have access to more means of dealing with these situations in the future as a school committee member,

[Michael Ruggiero]: As a private citizen from the bottom of my heart, I really, I regret nothing.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Here's why.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I want to live in a city where every resident is free to challenge those in positions of power, even me.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Every group that works inside of our schools and inside of our city government occupies a position of power.

[Michael Ruggiero]: As a candidate, I came across a $6,092 mistake that many, many people did not know about.

[Michael Ruggiero]: While I appreciate the treasurer's statement that she made the community aware, it seems that the issue is buried.

[Michael Ruggiero]: In my opinion,

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: To my knowledge, neither Roy Belson nor many, many of the other parents knew about their losses of their donations.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I never once labeled any member of the McGlynn PTG a crook or a criminal or a monster.

[Michael Ruggiero]: As a matter of fact, I never mentioned any names in any of the correspondence that we had in the transcript.

[Michael Ruggiero]: In my heart, I knew that hard-earned money was wasted, and the people of Medford deserve to know.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So we called for transparency.

[Michael Ruggiero]: To the undecided in this room, I ask you, did you elect me to stay silent when I found evidence that money was wasted?

[Michael Ruggiero]: Would you have preferred that I stand mute?

[Michael Ruggiero]: If I find evidence that our schools have not used money properly, I'm going to speak up.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I serve at your pleasure, but I forever stand as a fierce defender of the values I cherish and the city I love.

[Michael Ruggiero]: The treasurer and the president of McGlynn PTG seem convinced that they run a tight ship.

[Michael Ruggiero]: God bless them.

[Michael Ruggiero]: They have worked very hard, and I appreciate all the time they have invested.

[Michael Ruggiero]: But here are the facts.

[Michael Ruggiero]: The laws of their group demand they present financial information when asked.

[Michael Ruggiero]: They didn't.

[Michael Ruggiero]: The laws of their group demand they keep their rules and their ledgers handy at every meeting.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Didn't happen.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Their rules require a budget at the beginning of the year, but it wasn't provided.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Mothers felt belittled and humiliated.

[Michael Ruggiero]: How dare parents ask questions, eh?

[Michael Ruggiero]: I have no doubt that every single parent at the McGlynn PTG loved the children and want to help our city grow.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Nonetheless, you can't play fast and loose with the rules.

[Michael Ruggiero]: You would think that after stumbling into such a chasm with the IRS, people would be a little more cautious.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Those are the facts.

[Michael Ruggiero]: But before you go, I think it's really time we can move forward.

[Michael Ruggiero]: There's a great proposal on the table here.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Parents will have financial information now when they're asked.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Our school committees will work to help parent groups become as effective as possible.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Training will be provided.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Never again will thousands of dollars be lost into a hole.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I think this is an exciting time and I think we have a great proposal here.

[Michael Ruggiero]: And I hope everyone, both sides of this issue, look forward to moving.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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?

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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]: I have two questions.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: And the second thing I had is maybe just helping us understand the analytics.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So you have children completing a survey

[Michael Ruggiero]: Do we have any sense of how many people are actually users but are concerned that if they fill out this survey and profit with this information will be seen by a teacher that they're handing it in?

[Michael Ruggiero]: Do we have like a sense of like heroin use?

[Michael Ruggiero]: I know overdose is a serious issue in Medford.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So do we have a sense of underage heroin overdoses in Medford?

[Michael Ruggiero]: Oh, what was the drop?

[Michael Ruggiero]: The drop was pretty significant.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: The first is, so the alcohol use from the sixth to eighth grade dropped pretty precipitously from 2011 to 2013.

[Michael Ruggiero]: And I was wondering what accounts for that drop.

[Michael Ruggiero]: And the second thing I had is maybe just helping us understand the analytics.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So you have children completing a survey

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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?

[Michael Ruggiero]: Do we have a sense of like heroin use?

[Michael Ruggiero]: I know overdose is a serious issue in Medford.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So do we have a sense of underage heroin overdoses in Medford right now?

[Michael Ruggiero]: Oh, what was the drop?

[Michael Ruggiero]: The drop was pretty significant.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: The first is, so the alcohol use from the 6th to 8th grade dropped pretty precipitously from 2011 to 2013.

[Michael Ruggiero]: And I was wondering what accounts for that drop.

[Michael Ruggiero]: And the second thing I had is maybe just helping us understand the analytics.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So you have children completing a survey.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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?

[Michael Ruggiero]: Do we have like a sense of like heroin use?

[Michael Ruggiero]: I know overdose is a serious issue in Medford.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So do we have a sense of underage heroin overdoses in Medford right now?

[Michael Ruggiero]: Oh, what was the drop?

[Michael Ruggiero]: The drop was pretty significant.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Let me tell you why.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Somewhere in Medford, a baby was born.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Lovely, curious, and if anything like my pumpkins, a bit of a troublemaker.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Soon this beautiful child will be entering kindergarten with my son, Kason.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Until I had a child, I could only see the rough outline of responsibility drawn by fatherhood.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Yet being a parent has opened my eyes beyond the circle of my own family.

[Michael Ruggiero]: As a math teacher with over seven years experience, I know education is destiny.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Every kindergartner's future is shaped by the parents and administrators and teachers standing in front of them.

[Michael Ruggiero]: It is an awesome responsibility.

[Michael Ruggiero]: The parents of Medford invest in our school system.

[Michael Ruggiero]: It is your responsibility to elect the most capable candidates onto our school committee.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you for your time and considering my unique set of experiences.

[Michael Ruggiero]: But before I jabber on about myself, let's talk about our schools.

[Michael Ruggiero]: The Mustangs make our city proud, but is it too outrageous to imagine our schools as the best in Massachusetts?

[Michael Ruggiero]: In the 80s, Medford was placed at the top of almost every school ranking in Massachusetts.

[Michael Ruggiero]: People traveled the world to visit our schools, believe it or not.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Now, well, we've fallen into the middle of the pack.

[Michael Ruggiero]: U.S.

[Michael Ruggiero]: News and World Report ranks Arlington 12th, Somerville 69th, Everett 89th in Massachusetts.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Medford, we didn't even crack into the top 100.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Great Schools, it's an online website, ranks our district 5 out of 10.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Boston Magazine recently ranked Medford 89 out of 125 Boston-area schools.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Our four-year graduation rate has fallen from 87% a few years ago to 80% now.

[Michael Ruggiero]: These rankings are a wake-up call.

[Michael Ruggiero]: All students should aim as high as possible.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Let's not settle for okay.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Let's make our schools the best in Massachusetts.

[Michael Ruggiero]: No, strike that.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Let's play as hard as our musk gangs fight.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Let's be the best school in America.

[Michael Ruggiero]: My teaching career has stretched from Philadelphia to Shanghai.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I have experience teaching mathematics at both elite universities and highly ranked public schools.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I helped build a successful math team in Houston, and I hope you give me the opportunity to fortify the schools here in Medford.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Currently, I run an organic blueberry farm in Massachusetts.

[Michael Ruggiero]: As a small business owner, I know how to stretch a buck.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I know that throwing money at a problem will not solve poor planning.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Customers demand responsive business.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I hope to add this type of responsiveness to our schools.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Here's some plans to help us move forward.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Because Henry won't give me 10 minutes, I only have time for four.

[Michael Ruggiero]: First, we need to make our school committee more accessible.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: This way, excited kids and tired parents will have an opportunity to speak about what's going on with our schools.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Let's extend relationships with the local universities.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Right now we have a really great relationship with Tufts.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Let's look to schools like MIT and Harvard and open internship and lecture opportunities.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Third, we need to reduce the disparities between the schools here in Medford.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: We need to make sure that parity is achieved.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Fourth, let's improve relationships with parents of special needs children.

[Michael Ruggiero]: By far the biggest complaint that I hear as I've been knocking on doors among parents is the resistance to individual education plans.

[Michael Ruggiero]: As a teacher, I acted as a liaison between parents and administrators.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I will continue this work on our school committee.

[Michael Ruggiero]: My campaign is about creating the most successful and transparent school district in Massachusetts.

[Michael Ruggiero]: If you have some time, check out my website, takegovernment.com, or call me directly.

[Michael Ruggiero]: My home number is 781-866-2191.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I'm always happy to talk, hopefully after my boys are in bed.

[Michael Ruggiero]: The children of Medford deserve the best.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Join me, and let's take our schools from good to great.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Yeah, my name is Michael O'Jarrett.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I live on 18 Pembroke Street.

[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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: This happened to me twice now.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Right.

[Michael Ruggiero]: There was a school that was closer to them and one parent was so outraged

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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?

[Michael Ruggiero]: Because, I mean, you know, I've only heard one side of the story.

[Michael Ruggiero]: It's probably.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Yeah, they have fresh choice.

[Michael Ruggiero]: There was the way the district lines worked out, that they were closer to one, but they weren't requested.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I just want to get a sense of what percentage.

[Michael Ruggiero]: that happens?

[Michael Ruggiero]: Very small, very small.

[Michael Ruggiero]: It's possible that there was a miscommunication.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I'll talk to the parent and see if we can forward that information to you guys.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: They felt they were sort of,

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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?

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: This happened to me twice now.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Right.

[Michael Ruggiero]: There was a school that was closer to them and one parent was so outraged

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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?

[Michael Ruggiero]: Because, I mean, you know, I've only heard one side of the story.

[Michael Ruggiero]: That's what I heard.

[Michael Ruggiero]: It's probably.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Yeah, they have fresh choice.

[Michael Ruggiero]: There was the way the district lines worked out, that they were closer to one, but they weren't, they requested.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I just want to get a sense of what percentage.

[Michael Ruggiero]: that happens?

[Michael Ruggiero]: Very small, very small.

[Michael Ruggiero]: It's possible that there was a miscommunication.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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?

[Michael Ruggiero]: Is it that they get defaults 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: This happened to me twice now.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Right.

[Michael Ruggiero]: There was a school that was closer to them and one parent was so outraged

[Michael Ruggiero]: that they were like, oh, if Medford is gonna treat me this way, I'm gonna take my kids to a private school.

[Michael Ruggiero]: And I just want to know what percent does this happen?

[Michael Ruggiero]: Because I mean, you know, I've only heard one side of the story or...

[Michael Ruggiero]: It's probably.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Yeah, they have fresh choice.

[Michael Ruggiero]: There was the way the district lines worked out, that they were closer to one, but they weren't, they requested.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I just want to get a sense of what percentage

[Michael Ruggiero]: What was the last time you redistricted?

[Michael Ruggiero]: It's possible that there's a miscommunication.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: And I think that that was just, whether it was the reality or the perception, maybe it's a question of just clearing it up.

[Michael Ruggiero]: And that's the challenge, of course.

[Michael Ruggiero]: One more question here.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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?

[Michael Ruggiero]: Is it that they get defaulted 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Cheryl.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Superintendent Belson, is it possible that Glenn could put on a presentation for the community?

[Michael Ruggiero]: Because he's seen a lot of these superintendent searches.

[Michael Ruggiero]: It would be really helpful.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you, Mr. Superintendent, for putting this forward.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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

[Michael Ruggiero]: I shall try my best.

[Michael Ruggiero]: We're having trouble hearing you.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Oh, excuse me.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I'll speak a little louder.

[Michael Ruggiero]: This statement will not change any minds.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Those that know me and my commitment to transparency already know my work ethic.

[Michael Ruggiero]: For the rest, I shall try my best to open my heart and write as honestly as I can about this situation.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Words matter.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I've spent the past few weeks meditating on the words I've settled upon.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I've prayed to help me see any terrible mistake that I might have made.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I've spent sleepless nights rereading the article in the transcript and my quotes in them and searching my motivations.

[Michael Ruggiero]: While I now have access to

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Here's why.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I want to live in a city where every resident is free to challenge those in positions of power, even me.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Every group that works inside of our schools and inside of our city government occupies a position of power.

[Michael Ruggiero]: As a candidate, I came across a $6,092 mistake that many, many people did not know about.

[Michael Ruggiero]: While I appreciate the treasurer's statement that she made the community aware, it seems that the issue was buried, in my opinion.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: To my knowledge, neither Roy Belson nor many, many of the other parents knew about their losses of their donations.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I never once labeled any member of the McGlynn PTG a crook or a criminal or a monster.

[Michael Ruggiero]: As a matter of fact, I never mentioned any names in any of the correspondence that we had in the transcript.

[Michael Ruggiero]: In my heart, I knew that hard-earned money was wasted, and the people of Medford deserve to know, so we called for transparency.

[Michael Ruggiero]: To the undecided in this room, I ask you, did you elect me to stay silent when I found evidence that money was wasted?

[Michael Ruggiero]: Would you have preferred that I stand mute?

[Michael Ruggiero]: If I find evidence that our schools have not used money properly, I'm going to speak up.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I serve at your pleasure, but I forever stand as a fierce defender of the values I cherish and the city I love.

[Michael Ruggiero]: The treasurer and the president of McGlynn PTG seem convinced that they run a tight ship.

[Michael Ruggiero]: God bless them.

[Michael Ruggiero]: They have worked very hard, and I appreciate all the time they have invested.

[Michael Ruggiero]: But here are the facts.

[Michael Ruggiero]: The laws of their group demand they present financial information when asked.

[Michael Ruggiero]: They didn't.

[Michael Ruggiero]: The laws of their group demand they keep their rules and their ledgers handy at every meeting.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Didn't happen.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Their rules require a budget at the beginning of the year, but it wasn't provided.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Mothers felt belittled and humiliated.

[Michael Ruggiero]: How dare parents ask questions, eh?

[Michael Ruggiero]: I have no doubt that every single parent at the McGlynn PTG loved the children and want to help our city grow.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Nonetheless, you can't play fast and loose with the rules.

[Michael Ruggiero]: You would think that after stumbling into such a chasm with the IRS, people would be a little more cautious.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Those are the facts.

[Michael Ruggiero]: But before you go, I think it's really time we can move forward.

[Michael Ruggiero]: There's a great proposal on the table here.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Parents will have financial information now when they're asked.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Our school committees will work to help parent groups become as effective as possible.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Training will be provided.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Never again will thousands of dollars be lost into a hole.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I think this is an exciting time and I think we have a great proposal here.

[Michael Ruggiero]: And I hope everyone on both sides of this issue look forward to moving.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I'm going to respond briefly.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Sure.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Sure.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Yes.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Yes.

[Michael Ruggiero]: My name is Michael Ruggiero.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I live on 18 Pembroke Street.

[Michael Ruggiero]: When a teacher asks to review her syllabus, no one wonders why.

[Michael Ruggiero]: When a captain surveys his ship at night, no one asks him to what end.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Some call our efforts at home on petition undemocratic or imply that this process is somehow seditious.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Our group has collected, as of right now, over 1,800 signatures for one simple reason.

[Michael Ruggiero]: We want to review Medford's charter.

[Michael Ruggiero]: There's nothing demonic or undemocratic about what we hope to do.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Our goal is to simply involve you, the city council, Medford's finest, into this initiative.

[Michael Ruggiero]: A regular review, as almost everyone agrees, is healthy.

[Michael Ruggiero]: But why do we ask for this review now?

[Michael Ruggiero]: Why not, as Councilor Knight says, just keep collecting the signatures?

[Michael Ruggiero]: Well, the mayor campaigned for a charter review.

[Michael Ruggiero]: It is in your power to ask for a charter review.

[Michael Ruggiero]: It's not undemocratic at all.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Most of the members of this council have been recorded on record as championing this process.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Beyond this, a lot has happened in the last 30 years since our last review.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Our city has changed, and a new blueprint is needed for us to adapt.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: These words sound very politic to me.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Many cities, most cities actually in Massachusetts, have regular charter reviews in their process.

[Michael Ruggiero]: It's built in the process.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I can assure you, Councilor Knight, that we're going to keep collecting signatures.

[Michael Ruggiero]: We will reach our 6,000 signatures.

[Michael Ruggiero]: There's no question about it.

[Michael Ruggiero]: We're not asking for the City of Medford to automatically accept these changes.

[Michael Ruggiero]: This would be an elected body, and any changes that they make would have to be approved by the City of Medford.

[Michael Ruggiero]: trying to hold a gun to the city of Medford's head and ask for a ransom of some ridiculous amount.

[Michael Ruggiero]: We will get these 6,000 signatures.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Councilor Marks presents this Home Rule petition to make the process of charter review as inclusive as possible.

[Michael Ruggiero]: He wants to involve every level of our government to move this charter review forward.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Our group could do it alone.

[Michael Ruggiero]: We can keep gathering signatures.

[Michael Ruggiero]: We could force City Hall to accept a review.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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?

[Michael Ruggiero]: A vote against this petition tonight is a vote against this type of reclusiveness.

[Michael Ruggiero]: All I ask is for everyone not to pretend.

[Michael Ruggiero]: If you're against charter review, that's fine.

[Michael Ruggiero]: That's your right as a citizen of Medford, and I respect that view.

[Michael Ruggiero]: But just state your position honestly.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I live on 18 Pembroke Street.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you for this council for allowing me to speak about charter review.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you to Councilor Marks for presenting this resolution.

[Michael Ruggiero]: And thank you for allowing me to speak about charter review.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Those two words, charter review, sound about as boring as can be.

[Michael Ruggiero]: But I assure you, it's perhaps the most important issue facing Medford today.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Why?

[Michael Ruggiero]: The charter is basically the blueprint of Medford.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Well, maybe we'll strike that too.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Blueprint also sounds really boring.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Let's think about this in terms of biblical terms.

[Michael Ruggiero]: The charter is the soul of Medford.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Maybe this sounds exaggerated, so let me illustrate an example of how the charter has affected our community.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Consider the library.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: The library is leaking.

[Michael Ruggiero]: A number of months ago, over 200 or so children's books were destroyed as a result of water.

[Michael Ruggiero]: But how does the charter have anything to do with this one example of the leaking library?

[Michael Ruggiero]: For years, the library has been continuously underfunded by the city administration, the victim of numerous budget cuts.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Things became so lean in 2012 that Medford needed a special waiver from the state to maintain certification despite not meeting basic funding standards.

[Michael Ruggiero]: For six years, this process continued.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: The charter, which is the constitution for Medford, as Councilor Marks says, allows the city administration unilateral decisions about funding measures.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So, even though all of this issue came up, nothing got done.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: We have a new mayor now, and that's good news.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Many people are excited about the opportunity of addressing many of the crumbling buildings throughout our city.

[Michael Ruggiero]: But nonetheless, even on the campaign trail, Mayor Burke supported this process.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Both candidates did.

[Michael Ruggiero]: While I was campaigning, we collected over 1,500 signatures, which is where we're at.

[Michael Ruggiero]: We're a little over 1,500 signatures for charter review right now.

[Michael Ruggiero]: My group discussed this compromise measure tonight.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Overall, we think it's pretty good.

[Michael Ruggiero]: A number of members of the group want to discuss clarifications and maybe some reservations about some ideas here.

[Michael Ruggiero]: But I want to talk about this in more broad strokes.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 1986, a lot has happened since the days of Hulk Hogan.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I don't know if you guys remember, but Halley's Comet visited us in 1986.

[Michael Ruggiero]: It's going to be visiting us again in 2076.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I seriously hope that we can get this issue fast-tracked.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I live on 18 Pembroke Street.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So taking a step back here, I want to understand what we're advocating for.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I'm all for having more conversations about charter review.

[Michael Ruggiero]: We've been having them once a month in the Magoon Room in the library.

[Michael Ruggiero]: But on the same token, right now, without having the city solicitor actually draft a document, we're just talking.

[Michael Ruggiero]: We're not talking about any actual object where we can begin to discuss the pros and the cons of it.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Thus, I understand wanting to have more conversation.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I think it's a great idea.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I think overall, everyone agrees that we should have charter review.

[Michael Ruggiero]: The question is where we should go now.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Well, we don't want this to turn into another point of contention.

[Michael Ruggiero]: If we have an object where we can actually discuss, review, at home, doing your homework,

[Michael Ruggiero]: We can call other people, see what they think about this document.

[Michael Ruggiero]: If we have a draft document in hand, then we'll be able to move forward more adequately.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: We have a number of members that are disabled.

[Michael Ruggiero]: We have a number of members that have difficulty making it from the bus schedule.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Now, of course, we don't want to rush into this process overnight, but let's move forward.

[Michael Ruggiero]: By referring the issue to the city solicitor, he'll have a draft for us ready next Tuesday.

[Michael Ruggiero]: We can look at it online.

[Michael Ruggiero]: That's moving forward.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Opening up another open-ended conversation, perhaps that could lead to more contentious arguments.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you.

[Michael Ruggiero]: My name is Michael Ruggiero.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I live on 18 Pembroke Street.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I just want to make a brief clarification to a point that was brought up.

[Michael Ruggiero]: We are still collecting signatures.

[Michael Ruggiero]: That process hasn't stalled.

[Michael Ruggiero]: It hasn't failed.

[Michael Ruggiero]: We've collected over 200 just this month, and we had a number of really snowy and rainy days.

[Michael Ruggiero]: We will keep getting signatures, whichever process.

[Michael Ruggiero]: We want as many people involved in this process as possible.

[Michael Ruggiero]: We don't see this as an either-or kind of deal.

[Michael Ruggiero]: We want to just get signatures to let people know this is going on, to invite them into the conversation.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So I just wanted to make a clarification.

[Michael Ruggiero]: We're actually doing really great work.

[Michael Ruggiero]: We're moving forward, and I'm really proud of all the people that have collected signatures.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Welcome.

[Michael Ruggiero]: My name is Michael Ruggiero.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I live on 18 Pembroke Street.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Um, I love the idea of Councilor Marks.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I've seen it done successfully in a number of cities, Los Angeles included.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Uh, but my concern involves more than just the idea of getting a wall to make sure that

[Michael Ruggiero]: people can express themselves.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: My concern is broader.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you.

[Michael Ruggiero]: My name is Michael Leggero.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I wish to speak in opposition of this plan.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Hello, my name is Michael Ruggiero.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I live on 18 Pembroke Street.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I want to address a couple of concerns I have really quick.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I think we all agree there.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I just want to make that point perfectly clear.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So here's my concern.

[Michael Ruggiero]: We're not talking about income here.

[Michael Ruggiero]: It's not like the average house owner or widow, as we mentioned before, just now made, oh,

[Michael Ruggiero]: Now they have $30,000, $40,000 extra in their pocket that they get to spend.

[Michael Ruggiero]: This is not income.

[Michael Ruggiero]: This is property.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So I would suggest strongly that we do not increase actual tax level on the citizens of Medford.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: This is still a tax increase on a number of people in Medford that are struggling.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So let's consider this vote very carefully as you make it tonight.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you.

[Michael Ruggiero]: My name is Michael Majuro.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I live on 18 Pembroke Street.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I want to speak really quickly about this rate increase.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I am very much in favor of taking the entire amount out of retained earnings, and here's why.

[Michael Ruggiero]: First, I want to bring up the point that Councilman Mark brought up.

[Michael Ruggiero]: It feels sort of like rate pairs of playing three-card Monte.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: It seems to be the same game that's going on here.

[Michael Ruggiero]: We choose one option of, well, we'll just conserve more.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Nope, rate pace is still going to go up.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Nope, that doesn't work either.

[Michael Ruggiero]: A 5% increase is very onerous for a lot of people in this community.

[Michael Ruggiero]: It has to be probably one of the top three complaints I hear in the city, especially in the senior center.

[Michael Ruggiero]: It might not seem like a huge increase for a lot of people, but it can really hurt.

[Michael Ruggiero]: There is no reason why we shouldn't take the money that we already have currently in surplus, and here's why.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I think the best reason why we should use the money that we already have reserved

[Michael Ruggiero]: is that's the skin in the game that the city already has.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Maybe that's where the conservation needs to be looked at.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So I strongly suggest that we should take this money out of retained earnings

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I'm sorry.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Hello, Mr. President.

[Michael Ruggiero]: My name is Michael Wajiro.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I just want to make a quick announcement.

[Michael Ruggiero]: First off, I wanted to thank all of the wonderful people that put up these beautiful trees.

[Michael Ruggiero]: It's quite beautiful and on a different note.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I wanted to mention something really quick.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I have right here, I've been circulating a petition to review our charter.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Both of the incoming candidates and our incoming administration wants to review the charter.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I just want to, I ask everyone to participate now in this conversation.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Um, there's going to be a meeting at the library on December 10th at six 30.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Everyone is welcome to attend.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Um, so we can all discuss this as an open and forum possible.

[Michael Ruggiero]: So thank you.

[Michael Ruggiero]: My name is Michael Ruggiero.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I live on 18 Pembroke Street.

[Michael Ruggiero]: I would like to suggest to the Councilor that she adds an amendment to this legislation.

[Michael Ruggiero]: It would be useful if information that was pertinent could be presented digitally also so people could view it at home.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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,

[Michael Ruggiero]: If we could have this information available to us digitally, it'll allow us to actually do a little research beforehand.

[Michael Ruggiero]: The second thing I'd also like to recommend that we could have a digital recording on all committees of the whole meetings.

[Michael Ruggiero]: Today, we just learned that there's going to be about a 7 to 15% rate increase of the water bill.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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.

[Michael Ruggiero]: And thirdly, I just want to address the general tone of the meeting.

[Michael Ruggiero]: It's frustrating when the administration continually bulldozes through certain choices that this legislative body is governed by.

[Michael Ruggiero]: 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?

[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank you.