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[Mike Mastrobuoni]: Motion to enter executive session.
[Mike Mastrobuoni]: Thank you, really appreciate this. Seems really well thought out. Within those four majors, are all students eligible, are all students eligible to opt in to the honors track or is there, are there a certain number of slots for the pilot program? How do we ensure that there's access for everyone?
[Mike Mastrobuoni]: Great, thank you.
[Mike Mastrobuoni]: Mayor, if I may, I'd like to express condolences for a member of our community, Derek McGuire, who's a neighbor, a friend. He was a Roberts School father who sadly passed away August 16th, a member of our community, as we want to push our condolences to the family as well.
[Mike Mastrobuoni]: Here.
[Mike Mastrobuoni]: Here.
[Mike Mastrobuoni]: Looks good, we see it.
[Mike Mastrobuoni]: I agree, I think it's unrealistic that we'd be able to decide procure complete. Like, what member parks is saying these, these renovations that we need to implement this. So, I mean, I think I think it. There's tension, right? The faster we do this sounds like if there are cost savings, right? The faster we can generate those cost savings. But I think at the same time, it's unrealistic that we're going to change the structure of the building in time for basically a year from now, which is when we sort of need to be done and ready to go. So I think that I'm happy to vote to push it back another year. And I think that that's reasonable.
[Mike Mastrobuoni]: Thank you, Madam Chair, through you. Superintendent, thank you for this. I think it's like, it's a pretty straightforward question, right? Is this something we see a part of the building in the future, whether it's Japanese language school or other community partners, right? It's sort of like a fundamental question of, are we building something for the community? Are we building something specifically for the students? Feels like, I ran quick numbers, like if these folks are a great partner, Specifically, these folks are a great partner. They pay their rent. And basically, this pays for the investment that we would make. Just doing quick math. My question for you is, what's the nature of our agreement and relationship with the school? If we built a space, would that be something that is allocated for the language school? Or is that something that we have to run an RFP for? Are we going to get ourselves into a situation where We create this space, this potential library space, and master law requires us, you know, 30 B, or, you know. Requires us to put out an RFP for the space, and we get an unintended consequence of. You know, somebody else coming in, and then we're sort of in a difficult position. Like, I'd love to know what our. Maybe this is a naive question, but like, what is our relationship to the school and what contract do we have with them? Are they just a regular community schools user, just like anybody else? And sort of like, how would that process go? I always want to avoid, you know, like preferential treatment to certain nonprofits. They're all great. Every single one is great. So I think that would be helpful for me, helpful context for me, if you have that.
[Mike Mastrobuoni]: I think the question is more general. It's like member Rousseau sharing like, first, are we able to build discretionary space, right? Number one, number two, if we do, what's the process for booking that? And I think this is the, again, the fundamental unique challenge of this is it's a library, right? It's like physical media. So it's not people coming in and out, it's things staying there and people, well, it is people coming in and out. It's not just the people coming into the building, it's the resources that they need to have there. So, yeah, I mean, I think I really, you know, I think it's I think superintendent use the word slippery slope. Right? I suspect it's illegal for us to build a space. Suspect it's illegal for us to build a space specifically with 1 vendor in mind, regardless of how awesome or long history that vendor is. So, yeah, I mean, I think we build it's incumbent on us to build a school that. we think we need, and then if there's extra space, we'd love to have folks in. Unfortunately, that turns into a City of Medford problem, right? And I think there's going to be a number of those. There may or may not be a number of those that come out of the project that become City of Medford problems or opportunities to solve. This feels like a pretty straightforward, more likely to go down that route for me because of the challenges of Antiaid because the challenges of it sounds like I'm just learning this from from from my colleagues. So I think those are those are the questions that I have going forward. That being said, like. If the choice is right now, keep it in the keep it in the project and we can take it out later. Like, if the school building school building committee follows that process, like, I'm fine to let them work through that and get the information out. I don't think we have the information to decide that right now.
[Mike Mastrobuoni]: I will second that.
[Mike Mastrobuoni]: Happy to go 1st on this. I think this is 1 of the most amazing investments we can make in our students, a student who has access to mental health care, physical health care, reproductive health care at school without relying on caretakers or parents. Without relying on transportation, I think this is 1 of the best investments we can make. It's right now ballpark, a quarter of 1% of the project cost. And in terms of your questions, Dr Lucy, I think this is something that is a really 1 of the huge value as we can make in the new high school. I think it's worth it to absorb potential annual operating costs. My experience in Somerville is that Medicaid reimbursement really does a lot to defray the cost of the operations here. It's a lot of work for the district to contract with somebody to do this Medicaid billing. It's complicated, but it's not rocket science. There's contractors that can do it. And I think with the right plan, this will cost a minimal amount of money. Um, for the district, um, you know, happy to continue working with, with Maryland concurrent on, you know, what, what the future, um, funding plan looks like, but I can't imagine a Medford high school in 20, you know, planning in 2026 without, um, having this resource, um, a student who, you know, is well, is a student who's ready to learn. Um, and I couldn't just couldn't possibly, um, um, um, think that, that, that, that there's any, any better investment we can make here. So I just wanted to start off by sharing that.
[Mike Mastrobuoni]: I move that we, that the school committee recommends that the high school building committee continue to maintain a teen health center space within their planning document process and documents.
[Mike Mastrobuoni]: Yes.
[Mike Mastrobuoni]: Yes.
[Mike Mastrobuoni]: Here.
[Mike Mastrobuoni]: Thank you, Mike Mastrobuoni, 73 Fulton Spring Road. I'll be brief. I think, first and foremost, nobody is pretending like this is a cheap project. School buildings in 2026, they're just not cheap. But we got to remember this is, we have to compare this to the cost of doing nothing, right? Having our kids in a building that eats gas and that isn't heated or cooled properly. I think calling it the biggest and most expensive project in the country, that's not fair. That's not going to be the case. Even comparing this to projects from five years ago is irrelevant, right? Because construction costs have practically doubled or tripled. the cost of bringing our current building up to code we've learned through this process is probably the most expensive thing we can do. And so I just want to make one last point that I really appreciate sharing of financials. I think a lot of residents are feeling like they want to get to that phase as fast as possible. I think we'll be able to have much more healthy conversations about tradeoffs and costs and impacts once we get down to one one design, but something that I'd like to see in future presentations from the team. Mayor is context around projections like this so that everyday residents can understand what these big numbers mean. I think there's a lot of power in sharing financial information, but without context, there needs to be a lot more teaching that's done in these presentations so that everyday residents can understand it, not just you know, folks who live and breathe the stuff like your team. So I appreciate that, but I'd love to see more of that in the future.
[Mike Mastrobuoni]: So a vote yes on this is to vote to opt out?
[Mike Mastrobuoni]: Understood, thank you.
[Mike Mastrobuoni]: Thank you. This may be a naive question, but when I open up, the first thing I did was look at one of the middle school parent guidance handbooks. They're really long. They're 70 pages. They have some information in the front about the district, and then they immediately start going into policies really fast. Has there been any work at any point, or are you planning any work to set up some sort of, like, way to navigate the document a little bit better. Me, as someone who spends a lot of time in obscure, obtuse documents, I could probably... I will have to figure this out, but I think, do we translate this? I know there's a lot of jargon in here, a lot of legalese. What do we do to make sure people aren't getting this information? The reason I'm asking this question is because whenever we update, you know, academic dishonesty policies. I'm really interested in understanding like how the district is going to make sure all the students and the parents know that we're changing this so that we can ensure that nobody has to break this policy.
[Mike Mastrobuoni]: That's really helpful, thank you. And what I've remembered was that my Roberts handbook was totally different, and it was great, and it was awesome. So I'd love to hear what you're going to work on. Thank you. Yeah, thanks.
[Mike Mastrobuoni]: Briefly, who's managing the Article 97 process from Medford residents' perspective? Is that, who's responsible for that? It's the, you know, our consultants, the school building committee, the mayor's office. Like, you know, who's coordinating that? I understand, you know, we all want to be speaking with the same voice, marching in the same direction to get the legislature to get where we need them to. I guess that's my question. Who's leading the charge here?
[Mike Mastrobuoni]: And the SBC chooses the attorney?
[Mike Mastrobuoni]: Curious, but I'm sure we'll figure it out. Yeah. Let me know if you need help.
[Mike Mastrobuoni]: Thank you. A couple of quick questions. First, thank you for the hard work to the SPS team. You identified just over half a million dollars of capital projects to send to the mayor and city council for free cash appropriation. Has there been discussion with the administration and agreement on getting that in and approved?
[Mike Mastrobuoni]: Thank you, I guess, um, for me, the, the risk of that free cash approval. Getting submitted by submitted by the mayor and approved by the city council, the risk of that going through or not going through is very low, but it's not 0. so I would love to know that, you know, that's something that we can count on. Yeah. So, second of 3, is there anything you can share and maybe this is I think this is probably for superintendent Lucy. Is there anything you can share for us about the approach this? I mean, this budget to me is well below level service, which. is not great. But you've made reductions in staffing and in supplies and services, ordinary maintenance lines. My understanding is the most important driver for student success is having adults in the room with them and keeping our staffing high. What was the philosophy that you had in choosing which of these reductions? I think there was mention of it a little bit at the beginning, but specifically in terms of why a combination of positions and ordinary maintenance and not one or the other. I'll stop there.
[Mike Mastrobuoni]: That helps. I mean, there was the inclusion specialist and the student support assistant. Right. But, you know, I, I hear I hear what you're saying. Um, my last question and something I said a minute ago is, um. You know, I, I want to hear, uh, or I want, I was, I was wondering what the, like, trying to ask about the plan, um, because. In terms of getting, getting us fully funded, um. We still have a gap of $2 million between the budget that is being shared with us and the resources that we've been assigned from the mayor at this time. I want to understand what work is being done to either identify additional general fund revenue or get additional resources to meet this so we don't get into an even further cut situation. you know, there's sort of three levels. There's the lowest amount of resources right now, which is what's been provided to us, this reduced version of a budget, but there's also, you know, the budget that we envision for the district, right, which is something that we can't even conceive of at this point because we're really limited. Just trying to understand, you know, how we get from where we're at tonight to the resources we need to fund at least this budget.
[Mike Mastrobuoni]: I think the important question for me is, you know, what work have you done with the mayor and her team to identify how we're going to deal with this last 2M dollars? I'm really not interested in that coming from further reductions to the school budget.
[Mike Mastrobuoni]: Yeah, that's what I'm really worried about. Thank you.
[Mike Mastrobuoni]: Thank you. Two comments and a question. First, thanks for your work, especially thanks to the volunteers who invested their time for the community. You know, this doesn't happen without sort of this whole team coming together and a lot of work happening, and I've lost my notes. Second, I also am interested in taking a look at the financials, right? I think it's surprising to me, welcome, but also surprising to me that with just a 10% increase to rates, we can fund all these new positions, full-time positions and benefits. So that either seems to me we've been running a surplus for a real long time, which I understand is extremely likely as well. I just wanted to understand the full costing. So, in terms of my question, particularly at the two schools, the Brooks and the Roberts, where we're projecting to really increase the enrollment opportunity, is that because opportunities in facilities, opportunities in staffing, large wait lists in those school communities? And then, you know, along with that, are there any facility needs that we need to do particularly at those two sites to grow this, the resource therein? So I think that's my main question is, you know, why those two schools and do we need to invest in them?
[Mike Mastrobuoni]: Thank you. On number 80, Is the intent of that to just ensure that when we're spending money, we have enough folks here? And so like a quorum could be four. And that's the difference between the two is in one scenario, we need to have four affirmative votes, but it could be something that could pass with four people here would be three to one or three. Okay, great, thank you. I just wanna understand that one slate.
[Mike Mastrobuoni]: Thank you for the presentation, Mr. Dickinson. I know that we're in a similar challenge to a lot of communities all across the Commonwealth. It's difficult. Still good out there for municipal finance. I think one of the first approaches that cities and towns should take is really on the revenue side, trying to solve this type of deficit with revenue. So I'm wondering if there's been any work by the finance department, mayor's department, city departments to change fees for permits, fines, anything like that in order to solve this gap, which again is maybe in $1 million, but does not include a $5 million gap for the school budget?
[Mike Mastrobuoni]: Thank you, Mr. Chair. So one of the things I noticed that was really positive from the presentation was the jump in building permit projections for next year. Are we at liberty to share what those projects are? I know that that's like an anxiety producing projection for a finance professional. So do we have a set of projects that we're identifying those building permits for? And if so, if we can share that, what are they? And then secondarily, do we have projections for future years for new growth? How are we feeling, excuse me, that these building permits will benefit us in the long run? Again, I see a revenue deficit here in the longterm, and it's something that I think is really important to tackle first.
[Mike Mastrobuoni]: Thank you, that's really helpful. Just a suggestion, hopefully for next time that we do this presentation or the next time we're talking revenue, I think as a new member of the school committee, it'd be really helpful to have a little bit of longitudinal data in this presentation so we can understand where we're coming from. That would be personally helpful to me and I hope I speak for some of my colleagues as well. Looking forward to that in the next version.
[Mike Mastrobuoni]: Thank you, Mr. Chair. Two quick ARPA questions. I think the first is to CFO Dickinson. Have we been accruing our ARPA interest year over year, or is this a one-year? Is that money sitting in an account in a fund, and we're all accruing that this coming year? I know that we have to close out those grant funds on 12-31, so that's a pretty specific question. I can wait for an answer on that one for the next question.
[Mike Mastrobuoni]: So you're saying we've been posting that to the general fund on an ongoing basis for the last few years? Yes. OK. Yes. All right. Awesome. And second, I think. We heard from Mayor Lungo-Koehn that we'll be adding some ARPA funded positions onto the general fund this year. I'm really interested in what those positions are and what the process was to compare those to funding those new positions on the general fund to preserving other services and avoiding cuts on the general fund. That's really important to me. I think when we created these ARPA positions, we know that they were I'm just wondering what the process has been to compare those to avoiding cuts.
[Mike Mastrobuoni]: Excuse me. Thank you. So I think the phrase unavoidable cost is bugging me a little bit. I think there's a combination of a lot of things in there.
[Mike Mastrobuoni]: Thanks, Ken. I mean, I think it varies, right, from things that would look like compliance, right, special ed resources. There's a lot of budget right sizing, which I think is great. That's, you know, shows that you all are looking backwards to move forwards. I also think there's some choices in there. You know, I think I wholeheartedly support. moving paras off revolving funds, right, in concept, but that feels like a choice at this time. So, you know, this is a great list of needs. It's not surprising. There's a lot going on and there's a lot of work to do and a lot of improvements to make. Mayor Lincoln Kern also talked about a $5 million gap. So I'm wondering what the process is behind the scenes that you all and with the superintendent are undertaking over the course of the next month to identify what's highest priority of these marginal changes, what's highest priority of our existing expenditures to understand, to identify the least painful reductions here. These are a lot of great ideas. Where do we go from here, I think is my question. pair.
[Mike Mastrobuoni]: Briefly, members, I totally agree 100 percent. I'm not asking for cuts. I'm asking to understand the process by which you all decide what's level service, what's service expansion in this big list, what's mostly tied to our district goals, right, so that we can make sure to explain those to residents. And that, so that I can understand the work that you all are doing to identify the risks and trade-offs of different choices that we're gonna make. So, you know, when I see a big list, my eyes kinda glaze over, right? I wanna understand, again, like, you know, where, summarizing where we're investing, what's compliance, what's level service, what's expansion, what's catching back up from something that we learned throughout the course of the year, again, sort of in a summary, this list. It's tough to digest it, even in the couple times I've looked at it since we got it. So, that's the kind of information I'm looking at. And again, not to cut, but to understand where we're at in terms of priorities.
[Mike Mastrobuoni]: Thank you. In the same vein, I'm really interested to hear how this pilot goes in late May or June, what the experience is, specifically to what students are coming in, what students are not, what did we learn. Seems like a great plan. I'm happy to support it. Thank you.
[Mike Mastrobuoni]: Sure, thank you. I'll start with one. Obviously, the biggest red flag is using one-time revenues to support the operating budget. You sort of sandwich the real issue that we see with school funding. And we're not alone in Medford. This is happening across the Commonwealth. But using $750,000 in stabilization funds, I think the drawdown plan is great. I like that that's the way to go. We want to get there. But then, you know, I think I'm using my calculator here, so I might have gotten this wrong, but I see $8.5 million of increased costs on one side. And I think what we heard from the administration was somewhere between a 2.5 and a 3% increase. So I think that's something I'm looking forward to seeing how we're going to figure that out. That's I think the overall biggest red flag for me. I wanted to dig in on.
[Mike Mastrobuoni]: Sure, I understand. But this is still one-time revenue that came in, right? Yeah, I understand. So I wanted to just dig in first and let my colleagues ask their questions. But on revolving funds, we have some really big balances. And you mentioned, I think, one or two are going to have some journal entries, some salaries reducing their balances. But specifically, you know, school lunch, before, after school, Edgerly Field and MEEP. It would be helpful for me in terms of context to understand the trends of where these are coming from and what we identify as a healthy reserve balance for those. Do we feel good about these balances or do we feel like we have room to invest in these resources with the revolving funds? Or do we feel terrible about these balances? They need to grow, right? I want to understand sort of like, do you feel like these are healthy balances across the revolving funds? And do we have target reserve levels for them? For me to kind of understand, is this healthy or not?
[Mike Mastrobuoni]: Thanks Superintendent. I understand these are fund balances as of the end of fiscal 25. Seven, eight, nine months have passed since then. I think what's helpful for me and I think is helpful for the community is folks see big numbers in here and they say why aren't we doing anything with this? That's not the case, of course, from what I'm hearing from everyone. There's plans to spend these down, but being able to say, you know, a healthy amount for the culinary program is, I don't know, six months of expenditures, and we maintain that amount as a sort of baseline. Like, trying to understand that would be helpful for me, because what we're looking at here is point in time. So that's kind of where I'm coming from, and I look forward to learning more about this.
[Mike Mastrobuoni]: Sorry, I just have a couple quick questions, hopefully. If I can pull my notes up. What's our risk assessment right now for federal and state grants? My understanding is that the continuing resolution from last year kind of bailed us out for this year. We felt pretty confident across the Commonwealth. Has that changed for fiscal 27 and when will we find out? How are you all feeling about the risk to losing any federal or state pass through grants?
[Mike Mastrobuoni]: That's really helpful. Thank you. And as you get more information, sharing with us is obviously appreciated. Two more questions, and then I'll take a hike. Knowing that we have a structural deficit, a pretty significant one, and it looks worse going forward. Are we doing anything to prepay fiscal 27 items with fiscal 26 money this year to give us a little head start? I know that's something we do like transportation or special ed tuition or things like that. Or do we not have capacity to do that because we're running on target right now?
[Mike Mastrobuoni]: Awesome. I'm happy to support any prepayment just to get over the short-term hump. My last question. So I think for 26, our circuit breaker was $3.1 million. Could you share for me and the public, what's our policy for using those funds? Do we use them as recurring income and spend it on an annual basis? Or is it on a year lag? And do we have any plans for that to sort of help mitigate the structural deficit?
[Mike Mastrobuoni]: Awesome. Sorry for not knowing that that happened last year, but that's great.
[Mike Mastrobuoni]: It's a great best practice. And the last thing I'll say is GIC had their health insurance last week. Looking forward to seeing what that means for us, if you can give us a little more capacity on the city side. I think we saved, in Somerville, like $1.6 million with the new rates based on what we projected. We were also projecting, Mayor, like 12, 13, 14. I think it came in at midnight. So hopefully that can help all of us off the city side and the school side as well. So we look at the expenditures. next meeting, love to see sort of how that, how that changed. Thank you for, I appreciate your questions and we'll probably dig in more offline. Thank you. Of course.
[Mike Mastrobuoni]: Thank you. I love seeing this. I love seeing the direct intervention that's pulled directly from what we've seen in state data. You said this is a three year program, three year engagement. Is it likely that, rather like what's our plan to take what we learned in the learning acceleration network and turn it into Mustang Academy? And that's my first question. And the second question is, what's the response been to the sort of PD rebrand? What's the feedback like? And where do you see that going in the future?
[Mike Mastrobuoni]: Thank you, these projects are awesome. They're increasingly tougher to do as everyone's competing to get this done. One of the things that I think about a lot is how we're gonna transition this new building management system, this new high-tech HVAC to our team to maintain. Is that process started or in terms of training our team and our building folks, what does that look like and how can we make sure that we take care of them?
[Mike Mastrobuoni]: Briefly, and I think Dr. Talbot, this is for you, how do we balance year over year data, right? It's easy to get lost in the most recent data. How do we balance that with the long-term trajectory that we've set for ourself, thinking, asking this in anticipation of how we approach strategic planning going forward?
[Mike Mastrobuoni]: Thank you. I'll be brief. Thank you for your comments. Everyone knows a couple of us are new here. I rely on what I heard from residents, what I heard from the evaluation that you all did, and that the two former members did. I think that's really the key for me. I heard really strongly from residents. Again, I'm not gonna belabor this, but in support of hiring Dr. Galusi as a permanent superintendent. Like you all, I also discuss with folks what it would look like to run a process. From my perspective, and this is hard to say, I'm a process guy, I do this, for a living process is not important than results. And I think, you know. like my colleague, like member Olapade, I think we've actually gotten more than a process over the last year. We've gotten a tryout. I think that goes well beyond what a superintendent search would tell us about the person sitting in the chair right now. So again, I'm basing my decision to support entering into negotiations immediately based on your all work, the comprehensive review that we discussed last meeting. but also with my own experience over the last few months. I mean, Dr. Galusi, everywhere I go, you're there ahead of me, even if I think I'm early, even if I think I'm going to the most obscure meeting, you're always there. I think that, to talk about a tryout, I feel like we all have room to grow, and I think everybody here recognizes that, but I think you've aced the tryout. I think I'm feeling really great. All things considered, so to wrap up, all things considered, I think the choice to pair immediately best matches the moment that we're in right now. I'm prepared to endorse the superintendent and especially the team that she's put together. I think that's what really I can't stop talking about. I'm here for consistency. I'm here for perspective of that team. I'm here for your focus on staff up and down the organization. What I heard from residents, and you guys all read the same emails, what I heard from staff was how much you support the folks up and down the organization. I want to keep seeing that. And I think all those things together means, tells me that we're on the right track. I'm prepared to support this team.
[Mike Mastrobuoni]: The screen's good, right?
[Mike Mastrobuoni]: Thank you. And thank you for the presentation. And thanks to the whole team for putting this together. It's a really big document. So I have two questions. The first is, is the solution to creating this ed plan building a high school? Or are there other things that we would want to be considering along with building a high school to implement this ed plan? Are there policy pieces there? And that's the first question.
[Mike Mastrobuoni]: That makes sense to me. And I think to the extent, you know, we'll be reading through this, but really highlighting that these are the things that we're gonna go forward with immediately that we've identified will be really helpful in, you know, the next year while we wait for the school. The second question is, it's a long document. I'm thinking about from the perspective of a member of the public, like how would you read this document? It's got 20 sections. If I've got time for a few, like are there really key pieces here that can't be missed, and you're not allowed to say the whole document, which I think would be fair.
[Mike Mastrobuoni]: Madam Chair, if I may, in recognition of her immense work and service to this committee, I nominate Jenny Graham for vice chair of the school committee.
[Mike Mastrobuoni]: Yes.
[Mike Mastrobuoni]: Second.
[Mike Mastrobuoni]: Yes.
[Mike Mastrobuoni]: Yes.
[Mike Mastrobuoni]: So, if I may just reminding folks watching at home that that's in a week, we don't have extra time in between the meetings. So, you know, feedback, just the timing is really really important on this.
[Mike Mastrobuoni]: Thank you. Briefly, Superintendent. great first meeting for myself and I'm really happy to get caught up on all the work that you and especially the leadership team have been doing. Three things that jumped out to me, it's clear you're doing a lot of organizational change and organizational improvement. That's hard work that takes a long time and it's really great to see So that reflected so much in the work that you want to share with us. Second, the idea of curriculum development support, helping our educators not have to take the time to develop the curriculum, but really focus on how they present it and try and make that connection. That's a real force multiplier. And again, something that I really want to give you credit for and give your team credit for. That's fantastic stuff. And finally, something near and dear to my heart is community schools. It's such a community resource. And as the managers and stewards of those places, I think we have to strike a balance between the generational equity of allowing supporting the users right now and being able to maintain those assets for users in the future 10, 20, 30 years from now. So I'm really looking forward to what your team is going to bring to us to talk about what the future of community schools looks like. But thank you so much for the presentation.
[Mike Mastrobuoni]: Those bus darts can work a miracle.
[Mike Mastrobuoni]: Hello, my name is Michael Mastrobuoni. 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 Mastrobuoni. 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 Mastrobuoni. 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 Mastrobuoni 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 Mastrobuoni, 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 Mastrobuoni, 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]: Yeah, I just think on the on the topic on the question that you asked. I think the response is is totally reasonable and measured and I you know I support it. I think I would honestly probably go a step further. It's like we we have. I got a personal level like we have a mandate to do our job and I and I and I worry that you know they're trying to sort of. Short circuit not short circuit at. I'm trying to be respectful, right? Like, like, I just think like, we want to put together our process and we want to make recommendations. And I think like, that's one second. That's, that's the way we should go. I don't think I don't think at this point, we should we should engage with the proposals on the merits, whether they are whether reasonable or not, like, I think what you said in the memo is that we are going to do our process that we have planned to process to to get community engagement and to put together something comprehensive. And I think that we should maintain that. And long story short, I support the letter that you wrote. And I think, yeah, what Ron said about getting it into the record, I also think is important as well.
[Mike Mastrobuoni]: I won't belabor the point. I like the idea of starting fresh from a modern document and working backwards, which will give us a little bit of direction on the key issues that other municipalities are facing or or are putting into their charters, right? I think that's a valuable place to start from and work backwards. And then perhaps, you know, as we're going through a section, we can try and research what, okay, what does the existing charter say about these topics? Just to inform that, but I do feel like we should start with a modern outline.
[Mike Mastrobuoni]: Or I put that person in the waiting room. I think they're messing with us.
[Mike Mastrobuoni]: Yeah, this is tangentially related. Laurel, tell me to stop if I'm too off track. But it comes out to the position, I think, that we find ourselves in, which is we want to know where to focus, because we don't know where to focus. Like it's like a sort of circle where we're not exactly sure what is, we want to make sure that residents are telling us what is critical to them. but they're gonna need us to educate them, right? It's this circle. And I think it may make sense, at least in terms of before we really get focused on what survey questions we, sorry, what survey questions we want to ask or what outreach we wanna strive for that we understand at least from the call centers perspective, what the key, like, we've got the outline of a modern charter, but like, maybe if we would go through all of the key topic areas that we want to, that are out there and possible so that we can start identifying those and be able to ask those questions. We don't necessarily know what we don't know yet. And I just think like that, and I'm not sure how set in stone the schedule for meetings is, but like that might be a great kind of first step before we start developing materials, right? That's my opinion on kind of where it feels like we need to do that first to be able to share that with other folks.
[Mike Mastrobuoni]: I think it's worth giving a shot, at least maybe doing some sort of, we could just do some sort of polling offline to see if there's a night that that kind of catch as many people as possible. I think it makes sense to keep us moving, especially early on. We could, we could drop off later.
[Mike Mastrobuoni]: I'll just say super fast, if there's any changes that we want to make, I'll take notes and then I can do a revised version as early as probably this weekend.
[Mike Mastrobuoni]: Thanks, Melva, and thanks for the presentation, Anthony. While you were going through, uh that that whole that whole list i was thinking really about how do we know it sounds like you said a lot of uh pieces of medford's charter kind of default to state law because we don't we don't have a position we don't have part of it as part of part of our ordinance um so you know if we decide whether or not to make changes to medford's charter we're either proposing new changes or accepting the status quo Some of which we can read Medford Charter, but still not know. I guess anything that we decide not to do is a tacit agreement that whatever is in state law is what we choose. I was wondering, my question is if there's an easy or straightforward way to understand what's in state law, whether that's Chapter 43 or elsewhere, so that we know what not making an action not making a decision ends up looking like?
[Mike Mastrobuoni]: That makes sense. It sounds like what you're saying is, whether or not we decide to change anything, there's value in just writing a clear, understandable charter. So thank you for that.
[Mike Mastrobuoni]: Thank you. That was actually my primary question is, yeah, I think I'm currently working on a participatory budgeting project in Somerville and You know, in in in much the same way as our charter reform project. There there's a huge barrier to entry, right? Um, and I think, you know. Both previous speakers mentioned, um. You know, reaching out to to underrepresented groups, right? And we've been we've been kind of wrestling with that. In our PB process I think I want to mention, two things, three things really, really briefly. The first is budget right because we will, I think it's really really important to be able to translate items for folks in the community who don't speak English. That goes with. But what Eunice said about, I wrote it down, really answering the question, what is charter reform? Like, what are we doing here? I think an average resident has no idea what that is. And I think the second thing is being able to drive people to the charter study committee website, trying to build that out with some really basic information to draw people in, I think, is a really, really critical piece. And just always having a place to send people, whether it has its own, you know, the link I'm looking at, the URL I'm looking at right now is really long, but maybe the webmaster can get us, you know, MedfordMA.org. Charter study or something like that. So we always have a place. We have a consistent message to get to get people to what we think is the best information. And I'm just looking, I'm looking through a presentation we just did to the Somerville City Council about spreading the word because we are also on a limited budget and participate in In Somerville PB but you know we're planning on mailers to residential addresses right blanketing the city in the way that other folks said, but the really key one I think that has worked well for us is partnering with nonprofits city. Groups who have connections to nonprofits or community organizations, churches, things like that. Has been shared with us as a best practice for. Immigrant communities, people of color within within Medford and Somerville in the areas that's that's. A really important way to meet people where they already are, so we can't expect people to come to us right? As many events as we go to, it's still going to be people who already. receive information from the city, we need to, we need to go to places and interact with folks who, you know, otherwise wouldn't, wouldn't be hearing this information. So I'll leave it at that. But yeah, I think this is the most important, the biggest barrier we have is getting the word out.
[Mike Mastrobuoni]: Are you talking about for materials to share?
[Mike Mastrobuoni]: I'd be happy to do some graphics if it's Okay. Is it okay for you to share with me. Some text I can include that. And then we could review them a couple options for our next meeting. Is that, is that reasonable? I'm happy to do that.
[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?
[Mike Mastrobuoni]: Hi, everyone. Mike Mastrobuoni here. I live just off Roosevelt Circle, Fulton Heights. This is my first journey into Medford government. I actually work in Somerville. I'm the budget director there. So we just went through this process. A lot of you guys might have keyed into that. So some of my favorite projects at work are modernizing local government. So really, I'm ready to join this process. I'm looking forward to it. So thank you.
[Mike Mastrobuoni]: Switching would be, would be valuable to me. Yeah. I've got my, my wife works late Mondays. And then I think I just think in terms of if we don't have a perfect day for everybody, let's, let's try and do the best we can for as many people as we can.
[Mike Mastrobuoni]: We missed third.
[Mike Mastrobuoni]: I'm fine either way.
[Mike Mastrobuoni]: John, I'm happy to split it with you too, as well, or like we can work on a backup system. Yeah, I'm fine doing that. We can trade off.
[Mike Mastrobuoni]: Thank you. So, I want to, and maybe I'm happy to take a backseat if you want to stay on this topic of length, but I want to go back to public participation that you asked about. I think what's, I'm usually a reader of minutes rather than a watcher of meetings for for Medford City Council but I think What's important to me is continuity of flow and meeting the meeting goals, right? I think letting, or I don't wanna say letting, having public jump in after every discussion topic, I think is a little bit potentially detrimental to the discussion that we're having, right, in an ongoing way. And it might make it hard for us to get through our meeting goals, right, if we're constantly getting sidetracked. What, what might make sense and I'm happy to hear any anyone else's ideas, but maybe if if residents have comments on the topic of the meeting. that would make sense to do at the end where we can listen to what folks have to say if it's on the topics of the meeting. And if we can do a good enough job of laying out what the next few meetings are going to be, that might be a possible solution. And then we could also hold something like an overflow meeting, things we didn't cover or we don't plan that haven't been on an agenda. It's more like a listening session. I think that might be something that we could do. I just, I think I feel pretty strongly that letting folks pop in and out, in and out. I think that's difficult. One, to get participation. People won't know what's happening, like when they're supposed to be ready. And two, I think it might kind of disjoint the conversation. And on the topic of length, I think it's important that we hear from the Collins Center first before we sort of can really gauge that they'll definitely have some, some info for us.
[Mike Mastrobuoni]: I agree with all that. Definitely want to limit. Yeah, don't want one person just running it back. I think, not to belabor the point, I think three minutes is a great starting point. And let's see what our participation looks like, right? We might get a whole mess of people, but we also might be here by ourselves every meeting. So I think starting it this way is totally a reasonable way to start. And let's commit to not being set in stone. That's my opinion.
[Mike Mastrobuoni]: Sorry, I should have asked this when you said when you asked if anyone had questions. One thing that I was that I just want to either flag or talk about if we have time. I'm fine flagging it and dealing with it later. If we're going to use any sort of, if there's like city preferred collaboration, like a Google Drive or a OneDrive or something like that. I've just seen that be really helpful in being able to access what's going on in Somerville's process. just to see, you know, the minutes and things like that, right. It's one thing to have them posted on Medford's website. But I think it would be another thing if we had like a like a public collaboration space. So just something to think about maybe for next time.
[Mike Mastrobuoni]: Sure, presentation slides, definitely meeting minutes, definitely like running tally of, well, I just think for me, it's the only way a lot of people will be able to access it if they can't log in live, right? So the meeting minutes become really essential and the slides, I think, links to the videos, which I know people can get at Medford Community Media, but I just think, having as many sort of points of contact are beneficial.
[Mike Mastrobuoni]: Thank you very much.