[Mike Mastrobuoni]: Hello, my name is Michael Mastromoni. I'm a parent of two, a public servant, and I'm running for the Medford School Committee. My family and I love Medford because it's a community that values public schools, civic life, and neighbors who look out for one another. My seven-year-old son, Lincoln, and my four-year-old daughter, Violet, are both Robert's school kids. My wife and I have built friendships here with families and educators who care deeply about Medford's future, and that's so energizing. Running for school committee is my way of giving back to a community that's given so much to us. Professionally, I serve as the budget director for the city of Somerville, where I help develop and manage a $400 million annual budget and lead our long-term financial strategy. My job is to make sure public dollars serve the public. That means protecting resources and core programs, connecting spending with community priorities, and keeping services strong no matter what's happening at the state or federal level. I was also part of the finance team that delivered a new Somerville High School in 2021, from early planning through construction. I know what it takes to manage a once-in-a-generation investment like that, balancing fiscal responsibility with the real needs of students and educators. My experience will help Medford as we move forward with our own high school reconstruction, an enormous opportunity to build something lasting and community-driven. But my 20-year local government career isn't just about numbers. It's about communication. In my role, I take complex financial decisions and make them clear and accessible so residents understand not just what we're doing, but why. It's the kind of honest communication we'll need here in Medford as we make big decisions about budgets, programs, and that high school project. Leading our school district requires planning, consistency, and follow through. And that's what I do best. The school committee is not just a policy group. It's an executive body. It hires and evaluates the superintendent, ensures the district's budget reflects our values, and sets measurable goals through strategic planning. I'm ready to do that work on day one. I bring experience, leadership, and a steady hand to preserve what works and invest in what needs improvement. If I'm elected, I'll focus on three things. First, supporting our school through strong curriculum, special education, athletics, and afterschool programs that give every student a place to belong and a chance to thrive. Second, budgeting for values and stability. That means making sure our spending is transparent, sustainable, and focused on what matters most. Third, delivering a successful Medford High School project, a school we can be proud of that's fiscally responsible and built to meet the needs of today's students, their children, and generations to come. I believe in collaboration, not confrontation. I believe in clear communication and honest explanations, especially when decisions get complicated. I've spent my career helping folks understand how government works and how to make it work better for them. I'm proud to be a parent and a public servant here in Massachusetts. Medford deserves a school committee that's focused, informed, and grounded in values. A team that can plan for the future while protecting what makes our school special today. I'd be honored to earn your vote on Tuesday, November 4th. Thank you for listening, and thank you so much for caring about our public schools.
[Mike Mastrobuoni]: Can everybody hear me? Great. Thanks so much. Good evening and thank you for having me. I'm Michael Mastrobone. I'm a parent of two MPS kids. I'm a public servant and obviously I'm running for school committee. My family moved to Medford because it reflects the values that we try to live by. Strong public school system, a community that believes in showing up for one another, and an active civic spirit that you can feel at block parties and PTO meetings. And of course, we also moved here for the Fells. Since moving here, Medford has welcomed my wife and me along with our seven-year-old Lincoln and our four-year-old Violet, both Roberts kids. Running for school committee is my way of giving back to the community that's given us so, so much. In my professional life, I serve as budget director for the City of Somerville, where I manage large, complex budgets and long-term capital planning. My job is to make sure public dollars serve the public, protecting core services, aligning spending with community priorities, and keeping programs strong no matter what comes our way. That includes the federal government and the state government. That experience that I have in my everyday life matters here. I was part of the finance team that delivered Somerville's new high school project in 2021 from early planning through construction. I'm really proud of that. I know what it takes to support a school building project that meets student needs while staying fiscally responsible. And I know how important transparency and communication are when you're spending public dollars on something that's gonna shape a community for generations. I've spent my career protecting local resources, planning for the longterm, and keeping vital programs strong. The school committee, it's not just a policy group, it's an executive body. It hires and evaluates the superintendent, it ensures the district budget reflects our values, and it sets measurable goals and holds us accountable for meeting them. I'm ready to do that work on day one by bringing my expertise, my leadership, and my ability to turn resources into results. If I'm elected, I'll focus on three things. First, championing our public schools by supporting curriculum and making sure every student has a place to thrive. Second, budgeting for values and stability through transparent multi-year budgeting that protects what works and invests in areas where we need improvement. And third, delivering a successful Medford High School project. Such a joy and I'm ready to get to work. I'd be honored to earn your support, thank you.
[Mike Mastrobuoni]: I hope that's a good one.
[Mike Mastrobuoni]: Thank you, and thank you for your patience. 27 questions is a lot. So what motivated me to run for school committee again is, and I've spoken with a lot of folks about this when I'm out canvassing, is one of the coolest things that's happened to me in my family is when my son Lincoln, he's now seven, he's in second grade at the Roberts, when he started school. At that time, we had been in Medford about four years or so. And the way that the school community really enveloped us became our friendship circle became our family up here was. transformative. It really changed the way my family lives our life. And that's great. And I want to give back to that community. I wanted to give back to Medford since day one when I moved here. I started out by trying some volunteer opportunities. I'm currently a commissioner on the Water and Sewer Commission, where I look at water and sewer rates and long-term planning. That sets up That matches really well with my skill set, which again is municipal finance. What municipal finance is, it's taking complicated problems and complicated rule sets in Massachusetts law and explaining them to residents, to colleagues, to subject matter experts to help them solve their problems. Every day I go to work thinking, how can I create the decision architecture that supports progress in Somerville in my day job. I want to do the same thing here. Those are the skills I have. Those are the skills that I'm ready to be using here for school committee on day one. And I think when you're putting together any team, it's really valuable to have someone with municipal finance experience, whether it's a city council, a school committee, a mayor's team, or any administration. So that's my motivation. I'm really fired up to get to work and help Medford, and that's my skill set. Thank you so much.
[Mike Mastrobuoni]: Thank you for that question. One of the things I've heard most consistently canvassing over the last couple months is what a resource and how valuable having a vocational technical school is. So much excitement about what a gem that is and so much opportunity for improvement. Folks are telling about really exciting things that Arlington is doing with their vocational school. And I've seen firsthand through the Somerville High School project what a great auto tech shop can look like and what a great cooking program can look like. to prepare our kids and our neighbors for the next phase of life. Student success looks like a million things. It can look like AP classes. It can look like athletics. It can look like vocational technical training. Without a doubt, every person I've talked to in the last few months wants to expand the vocational school. They want to open it up as much as possible to the community. They want to integrate it into the rest of the high school. Something that I talked about with someone on the doors very, very recently, and that really really got me fired up was how her student that was on a traditional path felt like they missed out on opportunities for technical school. So when we separate the technical school and the traditional path and those students sort of go about their business in their own way, we miss that cross-pollination. We miss that opportunity. And that is something that can really ignite, you know, the spark of curiosity in a 14-year-old and a 16-year-old and a 17-year-old. So, you know, part of building the high school, part of building a new high school, which, yes, we definitely have to do, easy question, should be thinking about how we integrate the vocational school more into the built environment of what we've got here so that there's that cross-pollination, there's that opportunity, there's those conversations between kids. So, you know, I'm so proud of the vocational school and I think there's so much opportunity there.
[Mike Mastrobuoni]: Thank you for that question. The way I feel about MCAS is colored largely by my conversations with our superintendent in Somerville, Dr. Ruben Carmona. when I'm looking for information on something that's novel to me. Again, my kids are seven and four. I have not done MCAS yet. I go to the experts. Dr. Carmona, what's up with MCAS? What's going on with this? And that's literally how I ask him, because that's how I am. So I think having this data on school, this aggregate data on school and grade and teacher performance is part of part of the puzzle of improving our schools, right? It's not the only thing. We need to continue to focus on our kids, on their growth, on their engagement, on their opportunities, and on the total spectrum of what success looks like. Again, success is not acing MCAS. So that's how I feel. I don't think that MCAS is something that's absolutely necessary, but I think it is a valuable tool for educators. So then what do we do? What's a better world? Again, I'm not a curriculum expert. I'm not a testing expert. But for me, we want to use that information to make data-informed decisions, not to identify outliers and make extreme reactions to them. We know generally where Medford schools are. We know generally what our opportunities are, I think the next step, we don't need MCAS to tell us that. The next step for us is to define what we want our district to look like and make a set of plans to get there. That's what's important to me rather than MCAS.
[Mike Mastrobuoni]: Thank you. Tonight's conversation has been really great. Thanks for teaching me a lot of things, folks. You're all amazing candidates. It's clear that everybody here on stage, and you all for sticking with us, you care deeply about the schools. You care deeply about Medford. So thank you. Something that really resonated with me tonight, a little bit of anxiety, a little bit of concern. What are the feds going to do to us? What does Proposition 2.5 mean for us? How do we find the resources? to keep the promise that we have to keep to our kids. They're not here to advocate for themselves. That's what we're all here to do. We're looking ahead. We're not sure what, you know, the word of the year is uncertainty, uncertain economy, uncertain federal environment, uncertain state environment. What I'm certain about, in this beautiful blue light that I look great in, is that we don't have to do more with less. We need to make these hard choices with clear eyes. We need to discuss with the community what's important to them. And we need to choose those priorities and execute them. When I think about the committee, what I bring to the committee, years of managing public budgets. turning community goals, concepts, ideas into real funded plans. That's what I do every day. We need school committee members who can both champion our public schools, be cheerleaders and deliver results. What does that mean? That means steady, transparent leadership guided by best practices, not chasing whatever's new. I'm running because I wanna support our schools. I wanna support my kids. I wanna support your kids. I wanna support our neighbors' kids. I wanna support our teachers. core to the responsibility of a local government is educating our kids. I want to ensure that we're communicating clearly with our constituents, with our families. I want to make sure that we're budgeting soundly. And I want to make sure that every decision we make as a school committee strengthens the most important responsibility we have. Thanks to MDCC for hosting this conversation. I think I speak for everyone and to everyone who took the time to hang out with us tonight. I'm proud to be a parent and a public servant in this community and Medford deserves a school community that's focused, informed, grounded in values and a vision for the district. We need a team that can plan for the future while protecting and enhancing what makes our school special today.
[Mike Mastrobuoni]: Sure. Thanks, Danielle. I'm really excited to be here. My name's Mike Mastroboni. I am a father of two Medford Public Schools kids. I'm the budget director for our neighbor down south, Somerville. And I am a first-time candidate for school committee on November 4th.
[Mike Mastrobuoni]: Sure, he, him. Yes, thank you.
[Mike Mastrobuoni]: So I live in Fulton Heights, so for breakfast for me, it's Jim's Market. I just learned that they have a Taylor Ham b-boy called the J-Boy. Strongly recommend that. Lunch, definitely Tenoch fish tacos. I love their fish tacos. Dinner for me, it's Nigea. I don't know how that place can do it so consistently. And then I will mention the ghost of Ebisuya, gone but not forgotten.
[Mike Mastrobuoni]: Sure. Thanks for that. And it's a little bit of a long story, but my wife, Christina, and I moved to Medford in 2021. Our kids, my son, Lincoln, is seven. My daughter, Violet, is four. They're going to be in schools here until, I think, 2038 or 2039, right? We are rooted here. We are grounded here. We're so excited to be here. Our story is like a lot of folks who came to Boston for college, spent some time there, graduated into a recession, made their way around different neighborhoods of Boston, Cambridge, Somerville. We spent 10 years in Somerville before we moved here to Medford. We wanted to find a place where we could really lay our roots, get invested in, have our kids grow up in. The coolest part, I think, that I've found about your kids starting school is when my son started kindergarten, your community just totally explodes and you get surrounded by, um, new friends, um, you know, uh, your, your kid's friends. Um, and you start going to these, these new activities and start making new connections. And for me, uh, I want to give back to that community. I've been thinking about how best can I use my skillset to benefit Medford. Um, I've tried a couple things I'm currently on the water and sewer commission, which has been awesome. But for me, the next step is to. To get back to that community that's been so great for us. I've seen the really great strengths of Medford Public Schools so far. I've seen some opportunities, right? I've gone through the after school lottery. I've had my W's and L's there for sure. I've kind of struggled to find the right information or the right app or the right way to contact my teacher because we use 10 different systems. I volunteered at PTO events, you know, had a great time there. just really, I think, for me, in the time that we're in, my skill set can lend a lot to the school committee.
[Mike Mastrobuoni]: Sure. So in my day job, I'm the budget director for Somerville. So what that means is I lead the team that develops and manages our $380 million a year operating budget. I help plan ahead through our financial forecast, our 10-year financial outlook, trying to make sure that the future looks bright for the community that I work for. And I also plan for and enable some of the really big capital projects, really big building projects, water and sewer projects, through my municipal finance training and background. A big part of my job is taking complicated financial issues and trying to explain them in plain language, whether that's to our subject matter experts, right, to a transportation expert or a public health expert, to elected officials. I've done trainings and spend a lot of time with our city council and school committee in Somerville. And then also to residents. So we try and do a lot of, you know, our budget division within finance tries to do a lot of outreach to residents to help them understand and engage with municipal finance because it's really complicated and it's really hard. And the more residents and colleagues and elected officials understand it, the better we can make good investments together.
[Mike Mastrobuoni]: Yes. So I work on the city side. So we have a whole finance team on the schools that handle the school's budget. But I coordinate across our 60 plus departments with department heads, with finance managers, with our CFO, with our decision team to make sure that you know, we're aligning our dollars with the outcomes that we want to see. So it's a really challenging, fun job. You're kind of at the epicenter of everything, which is what I think what's really cool about municipal finance is it's a skill set that helps everyone. And it's something you really want to make sure you have as part of your team.
[Mike Mastrobuoni]: So a lot of things are going really great right now, absolutely. I'm really proud of the work that Jenny and Paul, who are both on the school committee, have done on labor negotiations. That's been really, really fantastic in terms of compensating our employees well. we've been able to get community support for two overrides. That's great. That's awesome. Like I said, a lot of things are going really well. But the things that the school committee is primarily responsible are They're nuts and bolts, they're executive type things. So I'm talking labor negotiations, I'm talking approving and developing a budget, hiring a superintendent, outlining the vision for the district, whether that's through strategic planning, thinking long term, or policy, thinking near term. So a lot of that work is the stuff that I do on a day-to-day basis. So I hope that By being on the school committee, by being able to be the biggest cheerleader of Medford public schools out there, I can help folks understand school budgets, that they're complex, and how state law, grants, contracts, program evaluation, how all that fits together so that we can again turn our resources into results for our kids and our families and our community. Because I think that's foundational. We have to really make sure that, before anything else, we're investing in our kids.
[Mike Mastrobuoni]: Absolutely. So the Medford High School project is going to be the biggest decision that we're going to make in this generation. It needs to serve kids of today, it needs to serve kids of the next generation, my seven-year-old and four-year-old, and it's going to have to serve their kids as well. We need to get this right, and it's something that we really can't compromise on. Thankfully, my entire career in Somerville has been working on some of these really big projects. Some of my first meetings in Somerville were planning meetings for the Somerville High School renovation project. It was a $290 million high school renovation in a challenging environment during COVID. And it was a really successful project. It's a school that we're really proud of. I want to use what I learned there to make sure that we get the best project for Medford. That's something that's going to be flexible for the future in a way that our current building is not, right? It's something that needs to be accessible and energy efficient in ways that weren't priorities when that original building was built. It's got to be right sized for the future, and it's got to be planned for the long term to protect taxpayers, because the challenge that we're going to face is to fund that. a debt exclusion. So I don't think there's any way around building a citywide school project in Massachusetts in 2025 without a debt exclusion. So we need school parents. We need non-school parents. We need every voter out there supporting this project. And it's got to be the right project for Medford. So that's, I think, really huge. And my experience having done that in the Somerville High School project, and my experience doing that right now in the Winter Hill High School project, in Somerville is going to be really important for the next couple of years.
[Mike Mastrobuoni]: Sure. So something that really keeps me up at night is preservation of our progress. Everywhere you go right now, you listen to NPR, you listen to the radio, you listen to a podcast. These are uncertain times. We don't know what's going to happen next. That's not OK for education. That's not OK for our kids. I'm worried about federal or state cuts in aid. I'm worried about potential slow pace of development in Medford if we have some economic headwinds not in our control. Pair that with consistently increasing expectations of our schools. We need to do better every day. That's a recipe for risk. Part of what I do is trying to make sure that we mitigate those risks. I want to work with the public schools administration, the superintendent, the city council, and the mayor to get on the same page about how we're going to approach these risks together. I don't think that it's helpful for Medford residents If the school committee is holding the mayor or the city council is holding the mayor or someone is holding someone hostage, we need to work together because residents rely on what we do. I also want to work with city staff to make a sustainable multi-year plan to preserve services, including some kind of planning of what if we lose Grant A, what if we lose school lunch funding? What if the state drops our Chapter 70 resources for next year because the feds did something to the state? So those are the things that keep me up at night. We are also in a really, really important opportunity for this upcoming school committee, you know, who are going to be able to hire a superintendent that aligns with our values. We all know the superintendent is just so, so critical to the success of the district and we got to hire the right person and then we got to work with them to start thinking strategically about. What do we want Medford schools to look like? And what are the steps we got to take to get there? Um, I want to be thinking ahead. I want to be looking around corners and I want to make sure that at the end of the day, it's in service of maintaining the core function of what, what a city does, which is, um, funding school for our kids.
[Mike Mastrobuoni]: Sure. You know, I consider myself a very, very strong progressive. I'm really psyched and fired up. to be running with some great new friends with Our Revolution Medford. I think we have a really important job to do over the next six or seven weeks here, which is talk to residents about the Medford that we want to see. right, which funds public schools, which fixes streets and sidewalks, which moves us towards more community safety and removes barriers to participation in government. The reason I wanted to run with those folks is because that vision of what Medford can be is really compelling to me. I think that We have work to do to make sure that the election goes the way we'd like, but I think in school committee, the way I picture it is think about the team that you want facing challenges that Medford schools are being presented with. I wanna make sure that you have folks with finance experience, folks with curriculum experience, folks with really, really close knit ties to the students, right? You're building a team that's gonna respond to these challenges. Think about how, you know, your vote, who you want on your team with your vote, what you wanna build as a group. And I think, you know, just because The challenge that I'm really focusing on is the high school and the sustainable investments. I'm really fired up to work on a lot of the other issues that we're seeing in the schools, including things like supporting the after-school ecosystem and taking an all-hands approach on figuring out how we build that out with our nonprofit partners, how we improve language access, how we try and get a single point of contact for families to tap into the system. All those kind of concrete things are really exciting as well. So I'm fired up to work with a team that has values, that has a vision for what they want Medford to look like. I'm not sure all the candidates are maybe brave enough to put that out there, what they want to see it look like. And that's why I want to run with these progressive folks who have put a lot of work into making Medford, to improving Medford and making it the place that we all want it to be.
[Mike Mastrobuoni]: You know, when I talk about kind of what team do you want to build for the school committee, you want to kind of piece together skills. I think something that's important to always know is that we don't know what challenges we're going to face. But what are the core values of the people that you're putting in office who are going to take on the next challenge that we don't know? We can't even imagine what it might be. So what I want folks to know is that core values for me are having well-resourced classrooms in well-maintained buildings. I want fairly paid educators and staff. I want afterschool programs with capacity, and I want special education that allows Medford kids to stay here in district. I think we've made a lot of progress there, and I wanna keep that going. And I wanna bring my skills, my energy, my perspective as a parent as a public servant and hopefully in the future as a member of the school committee to help make that happen and help the community that has really embraced us. And I'm really looking forward to that. It's been so fun so far.
[Mike Mastrobuoni]: Best way to reach me is MikeMastroboni.com, M-I-K-E, and then Mastroboni is M-A-S-T-R-O-B-U-O-N-I. Also on Instagram at Mike4Medford, F-O-R Medford. So those are the best places to reach me. My email is also Mike4Medford at gmail.com. I've learned so much canvassing. I didn't realize that our community was so full of teachers with so much great experience and so many great ideas. They've all been willing to chat with me about stuff. So if you've got questions or you want to talk about something, just shoot me an email and hope I can earn your vote on November 4th.
[Mike Mastrobuoni]: Thanks so much, Janet. I really appreciate you. And thanks to the volunteers, everybody who's out there, everybody who's voting. You know, Medford politics is so much fun.
[Mike Mastrobuoni]: Good evening, good evening, Madam Chair, members of the board, Mike Mastrobone, 73 Fulton Spring Road. I'm a parent, I'm also a municipal finance professional, and I strongly support the proposed zoning updates, primarily because they align with previously stated goals of our community. First, increasing density and mixed use projects near transit and squares means young families, downsizing seniors, and first-time homeowners, as examples, can have access to opportunities to live here in Medford. Right now in our schools, we have 62 McKinney-Vento students. These are neighbors that couldn't continue living here, and we pay to transport them back to Medford from where they're living now after becoming homeless. This is a symptom of housing affordability, in my opinion. Full stop. Second, like it or not, Proposition 2.5 in Massachusetts is a restrictive limit that we need to take very seriously. If Medford is not saying yes to investment, we are falling behind. We're falling behind in revenue to fund our basic city services. We're falling behind in revenue to fund investments in infrastructure. And we're also falling behind in our ability to fully fund our schools. These are non-negotiables as far as I'm concerned. Third, the amendments to zoning before you are essential to translate our comprehensive plan that already exists into reality. The action items from that plan are littered with recommendations made in the updated zoning that's before this board. To name a few, creating accessible 12 and 18 hour communities, ensuring affordable housing for all, and achieving our sustainability goals, as well as encouraging balanced growth. So tonight I want to make it clear I support the recommendations made in the zoning reform package. I urge you to move forward at the time that you see fit. I appreciate it. Thank you.
[Mike Mastrobuoni]: Good evening, Council. Mike Mastroboni, 73 Fulton Spring Road. I'll be brief. I think either proposal moving to ward or district-based representation is a positive move. I think for a couple of reasons, one, lowering the barrier to entry for people trying to campaign in terms of cost, in terms of effort. I think secondly, having a representative That you can go to on a local basis, I think, for me pushes me towards the. eight individual board Councilors approach. I respect the immense amount of work that the Charter Review Committee did over a number of years, the level of effort they did in reaching out to as many residents as possible. And the last thing I'll say, this isn't really my area of expertise, but I think looking retrospectively at turnout numbers and voting numbers, I think it's a bit of a red herring, you know, when people are able to when people running for office are able to focus on individual wards, you know, different wards have different ways of outreach. and people be able to meet people where they are in a way that makes sense, whether it's tough students or folks in apartments. We're gonna be having a lot more big apartment buildings coming in the city, hopefully. That's a challenge that everybody will have to face. So I think for that reason, I support word-based city councilors, and I look forward to hearing the rest of the conversation. I appreciate the work everyone's done on this. Thank you.
[Mike Mastrobuoni]: Melvin, Laurel, there's a bunch of, there's like an iPhone user, a cell phone user. Let me know what you want me to just submit everyone.
[Mike Mastrobuoni]: Here's John, I just let him in.
[Mike Mastrobuoni]: So it looks like then everybody else is. Okay, go ahead.
[Mike Mastrobuoni]: Thank you, uh, no, but thank you, Anthony, Michael, and Marilyn for your time. Um, we really appreciate it. I think I speak for everyone. I say that, um, I'm the, uh, by day I'm the budget director in Somerville. So this is a process, um, uh, about which I am a little bit familiar. I've been involved in the charter review, especially with respect to the, the CIP and the sort of the role of finance and things like that. Um, I'm relatively, you know, compared to the rest of the group, probably I'm very new to Medford. So what's important to me as a newer resident here, at least in this process, specifically kind of like, you know, what extent do we want to hear from the mayor, from the council? Can we hear from the mayor and the council? or are we simply negotiating with ourselves to find out sort of what can or cannot pass? I think I come at this from obviously like an administrative good governance bias, right? Just because of my day job. And I wanna find out what relevant comparisons in terms of size, scope of government there are between like Medford and the surrounding communities I'm not interested in. In reinventing the wheel here, there's best practices. We're not the first ones to do this. So trying to figure out what's worked in other places and what have been pain points. And then really trying to strike the middle ground between flexibility and creating strong guardrails. I think at the end of the day, well, I'll leave it there.
[Mike Mastrobuoni]: Yeah, just just really briefly, I'm wondering what our ongoing engagement with the call center looks like? Is there we are we going to have presentations on specific topics from them on our regular meetings? Or are they going to be advising us answering questions that we have? Like, what does that look like?