e e e e e e e e e e e all and via remote participation this meeting is being recorded the meeting can be viewed live on me Public Schools YouTube channel through met for Community media on your local cable channel Comcast channel 98 or 22 and Verizon Channel 4345 of 47 participants can log in or call in by using the following Zoom link a meeting ID is 953 1198 7344 if you would please call the role member Russo member brandley present member Graham here member Anapa here present member reinfeld present member president mayor Longo present seven present zero absent mayor we have a student rep student your askco is also here yes thank you for being here if you all may rise to the flag please I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America to the rep for it stands one nation unel indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you we have our consent agenda bills and payrolls approval of capital purchases public budget hearing meeting minutes from May 6 2024 regular school committee meeting minutes from May 6 2024 ad hoc subcommittee on handbook process minutes from May 8th 2024 Behavioral Health and special education subcommittee minutes May 15 2024 and a recommendation to approve a $3,000 Grant from the Massachusetts cultural Council to fund summer arts workshops is there a motion motion uh motion to sever the the public hearing units and the behavioral and special ed motion to sever by member reinfeld seconded by member rouso all those in favor motion to sever has been approved I'd like to amend the minutes to the um special education and Behavioral Health subcommittee to include a link to the meeting recording because I believe that the uh feedback provided by the representatives from Curtis tffs should be easily accessible with the record of the votes motion to uh include a link on those meeting minutes by member reinfeld seconded by second member in TOA all those in favor I all those opposed and I'd also like to strike from the public hearing minutes the home address of the students who provided public comment for privacy reasons strike the home address from the meeting minutes from May 6 2024 public budget hearing and just put the just put their names I that they spoke I don't think their home address uh should be of on public record for students motion for um to amend the public hearing meeting minutes from May 6 2024 regarding the budget by member reinfeld is there a second second by member inapa all those in favor I all those opposed meetings are passed as amended and motion to approve the rest of the consent agenda motion to approve the rest of the consent agenda by member ronfeld seconded by second member Ina all those in favor all those opposed consent agenda is approved we have reports of subcommittees ad hoc subcommittee on handbook process May 8th 2024 chcb AB handbook review and schedule the school committee is report me member Russo motion to wave the reading motion to wave the reading with an explanation um it's on it's on the agenda and it's quite long if you I'm happy to talk about it too but if you want to read it you're welcome to what does the committee would they like me to read it second to just to wave the reading um motion for approval by member Russo seconded by member Graham all those in favor I I okay meeting is waved if you could give a synopsis absolutely so um the sorry as I have to take the minutes at the same time give me just a moment we go so on when did we actually meet we met on May 8th to discuss um the process for doing school handbooks the school committee is required annually by law to approve School handbooks and we have uh done that some years and not done that some or many years so uh we worked up a process we reviewed I reviewed I I took some uh example policy from other districts most notably Cambridge um and worked up a timeline policy that we the rest of the committee members um fleshed out um the dates that we the synopsis is that there's three phases of the uh handbook process that we would like to see implemented the first phase is the initiation of the handbook update process which the superintendent office will manage um and there's quite a long date range of August 1st to September 30th for them to accomplish that then those go over to the school council the site count School councils excuse me at each of the buildings and those um individual councils one of their required well one of their tasks as a school council is to draft changes to the handbook um and they get a pretty big October 1st to January 31st is the expected time then they would do that work um and then finally this comes back to the school committee for approval sometime between February 1 and April 30th um there's a whole it's it's there's a lot of language but those are the most important things is that there's dates um and there's expectations and I I think that the big Improvement here aside from having dates the big Improvement is that um there's these two memorandums that will accompany these changes so the the the laws change every year you know court cases Etc and so we often have to update our school handbooks because we don't have a choice um but when the school councils and I've heard this from school councils they get a uh make these changes and they don't have any idea why so um there'll be a memorandum that goes to them explaining exactly why you these are changes that you don't really have a choice on um and then if the school council wishes to make further changes to the handbook such you know things like School pickup at elementary schools um they would also write that up so that when we get the actual handbooks for approval we're not reading them like just this gigantic set of documents with no idea what changed from last year um so hopefully that will improve the process and um make it so that we actually do the approvals um because I mean all the school handbooks stacked together is quite a thing um and having no clue what changed year-to year is U is sort of a Monumental task so that's the um policy proposal um the we we didn't have Administration in the meeting and that was on purpose because we wanted to just focus on what the school committee wanted so if the dates do not work for the for the administration or the school councils we're certainly happy to hear feedback on that um but and you know and adjust those dates so that is the synopsis is Mo motion for to approve what you want to see motion to approve first reading motion to approve first reading by member Russo second to by second member and toer all those in favor I I all those oppose first reading is passed we have uh Behavioral Health and special education subcommittee the meeting was H member Graham can I motion to wave the second reading we of the handbook review and schedule motion to wave the second reading by m Graham yeah we would like reinfeld we would like to give the administration and school councils a chance to confirm that this works for them oh okay fine withdrawn withdrawn faal health and special education subcommittee the meeting was held on May 15 2024 recommendation to colocalize Curtis tffs in the main high school campus would anybody like to give an update on this member usel certainly one moment so at the last school committee meeting was the last one I believe um we actually it's in here on April 29th not the last school committee meeting um there was a resolution to um have the subcommittee discussed the possibility of collocating the Curtis tffs with the Medford High School when we are actually reimagining SL rebuilding um medord High um and there were a lot of reasons for that such as some of the more obvious ones is that me high students not at Curtis t would be in a beautiful facility and the Curtis tffs is if you've seen it is not exactly that um but facilities aside there were all these opportunities that Curtis tough students cannot actually participate in or it's very very difficult to get across town between classes and um Club participation is low um so um at the last meeting there was also the director of the program in Somerville and they used to have a separate program like Medford does and they coo ated when they built a new Somerville high school and uh the reviews were amazing you know students their their therapeutic learning program are you know captains of sports teams participating in all of the clubs so um the the quality of educational experience for those students went very much through the roof so we listened to um uh I believe it was a survey or just maybe just gathered information from um current students staff were in the meeting of the Curtis tffs and the in my opinion the unanimous cons uh opinion of everyone who participated was that this made sense to make this recommendation so um this is the recommendation of the subcommittee um that we collocate the Curtis tus at some point probably when we uh do the high school over um with the main campus great thank you for the work um motion for approval by member so seconded by member ol all those in favor all those opposed thank you we'll send that to the mspa subcommittee report of superintendent Dr marce edwad Vincent updates and comments thank you good evening evening so this evening we will be um having several presentations to recognize some of our student accomplishments but later uh after we get through our first additional four reports we will be presenting the budget update um during this presentation we hope that we are able to answer many of the questions that have come in to the district through email or through direct conversations um specifically regarding the Arts and the change in programming that is going to be recommended for the Arts so I am asking all of you who are here this evening to um please let us get through the agenda and once we're done with that we'll have a budget update and presentation in time for questions and for us to be able to explain um the the rationale and the work that went behind the decisions that did have to be made um I can say um just for the purposes of the audience that is here um there have been a lot of questions about no longer having a marching band or anything related to the Performing Arts and that is completely um complete misinformation um the student experience in the Medford Public Schools will be an identical student experience the um One Arts related position that was um cut was due to a resignation that we received and that resignation has taken place already um the individual has resigned from the district and is no longer employed with Medford Public Schools and that was a Theater Arts position so that was a cut without a face or a name so I do want to call that out because there have been um many Communications about Arts programming ending in Medford and I deeply deeply support the Arts and so do um does the entire me Public Schools so I wanted to just put that information out there and try to correct some of the misinformation um that was spread um I do want to recognize today we'll have our ccsr update um Mr trle will be here with our students and recognize two of our Book Students Savannah mofin and Adam Costello who will talk about um their special project that they did this year um we're very excited and happy to hear about you I want to recognize um Dr Nicole ker our director of humanities who will be recognizing um many of our students that have um performed wonderful outstanding achievements over the course of this year and then we will have a high school update from Miss Cabra the principal of the high school and Mr Chad Fallon principal director of The Vocational School um and Miss cabal will be discussing the high school survey results and then following those presentations um Mr J M our Director of Finance will be presenting um a finance update to um provide context and additional background followed by um a vote of the school committee thank you thank you Dr Edward Vinson we have like our superintendent said uh SE next up is ccsr update and student recognition uh Mr Richard tra director of ccsr accompanied by Brooks Elementary School students Savannah mlin and Adam Costello Welcome to our meeting okay got it okay I should know better I used to run the med tech department um my name is Richard tror I'm director of the ccsr I'm happy to be here couple I want to thank uh school committee the mayor and superintendent um for supporting the program I also want to thank the advisers you have the list in your report um the executive team of the high school have been very uh active and supportive of the program doing a lot of work Oprah and Elena Nara who just got accepted to Harvard University I think that was in in the in news Sophia Su so and um Jonah seagull those four students were very instrumental in getting the high school programs accomplished the last two years um and most mostly I want to thank the students of the ccsr for all their fine work um we also want to thank the benefactors we have three benefactors that have provided $700,000 in funds for the program the cumings foundation Crystal Campbell Community Fund and Bloomberg Foundation um making this possible and we funded through the next six years under that under the Cummings Foundation Grant um as you know the mission of the program is to develop leaders social entrepreneurs who work to make the world a better place it's that simple and uh we've had this year 400 students approximately 70 projects uh in your my full report which you have I think it's 80 pages long uh you will find all those projects and so we're very proud of the work the students did and the advisers did this year um I just want to mention one more thing before I bring the students up uh we have a summer Art Studio program that's going to be run through fun comings Foundation funds and uh that will be publicized once we get the schedule set and it will take place in the month of July and so look forward to that and we'll we'll be putting out there to the public and hopefully we'll get some good response this year I'd like to have Jonah seagull here just Just sh I'd like to have Jon say a few words he represents the high school uh he's one of the executive team leaders and then we're going to bring up Adam and Savannah thank you hello my name is Jonah seagull I'm part of the executive team of the ccsr at the high school um I joined the ccsr as a freshman and since then I began a um a project of W uh River cleanups with my friend Maggie and we've partnered with the Mystic River Watershed Association and held many successful cleanups and we were the youngest ever um winners of a tough's community grant for our effort and um I wanted to talk about how ccsr what I think is really special about it is how it changes your mindset on leadership I can remember when I was a freshman and I just joined the ccsr when I looked around and I saw things around me that needed improving I before I would just walk and continue about my day but now I would think about it and I would say how could I make a ccsr project about this how could I change this and I think that's what's great about the ccsr is it gives you a platform um it gives you a resources not only financial resources and in terms of doors but it also gives you a community that really encourages the mindset of just go out and do it like be the change you want to see in the world um and I think that's really special for children to develop which is why I think it's great that we have this program all throughout the district in the elementary schools and the middle schools and the high schools and I hope it can continue to expand and be a part of more children's lives because it's really just a great place for them to learn that they can make a change thank you oh by the way I recognize two former CCR members Aaron OB and Jord and toer good going guys uh now we introduce the two students from the Brook School who did the excellent report our project on the postal safety and there are Savannah and Adam come on [Applause] up hello I'm going to read the letter dear for letter carriers my name is Savannah mofin along with my classmate Adam Costello we are fifth grade students from the Brooks Elementary schol SCH on High Street we both learned about the terrible attack on one of your co-workers this past Halloween I live in the neighborhood where the assault took place I saw all the news trucks and reporters at the end of my street while my friends and me were trick or-treating I didn't know why they W there but I remember being excited to have a chance to be seen on TV it wasn't until the next day I was told what happened Adam heard the news by over hearing some students talking about it in school we both felt so sad for the victim and so angry about the Cowardly attackers they had no right to put a finger on him mail carriers are very important and deserve to be treated with only the highest degree of respect he was just doing his job delivering on male we've been told there has been a rise of attacks on postal workers we want this to stop luckily we are members of our school's Center for citizenship and social responsibility it is a dis districtwide after school program that's dedicated dedicated to making the community and the world a better place to live each year students are asked to think of a project that will help people and make a positive impact we decide on trying to help me Le carries to feel safer we we were first thinking of supplying you with pepper spray or tasers but after some teacher guidance we thought it was best to go with safety whistles first we co-hosted a school fundraiser at the books to raise enough money to provide all 70 of you a neon orange whistle the emergency whistles have a adjustable reflective lanyard and can admit high and low frequency sounds if you ever feel unsafe on the job blow on this whistle hopefully help will come quickly or the danger will leave quickly we we hope you find this gift useful please always know we appreciate and care about you thank you for serving that Sincerely Adam at [Applause] Savannah questions amazing job and you're great presenter too thank you um Miss Bley and then M topper um I just want to thank everybody uh that is part of the ccsr it is um a huge a huge undertaking um and I think it's a huge um amazing it's really amazing that this is what's happening in our city I love that Jonah said that this is making him be you know a better person he's not walking by something and what more do we want in our Community than someone to say hey this needs to be fixed or this isn't right I think that it's one of the most important things that you can do um it is so hard to get up to that Podium and speak uh Jonah you did it without any writing I stood at that Podium many times I couldn't do without writing something ahead of time you're very well spoken I've watched you grow at the Brooks and I'm so grateful that you're here so thank you so much um Savannah I'm a huge fan of your mama but you might have moved ahead a glofin chain for me tonight that was awesome you and Adam are amazing I've L watching all these Brooks bees come up here specially once a be always a be right so my heart is always there so thank you guys so much for making a difference and thanks for switching out the teaser and the pepper spray good job member and topper I also just wanted to take a second and just recognize how important this program is to our students um I I actually unfortunately only got a chance to be a part of it my senior year in high school but that was the cohort that witnessed it go to the elementary and middle school level and just seeing how much it's grown in only what I like to say two years but it's been like five or six now um is absolutely amazing and I'm so proud of you guys and everyone who's involved um to get up here and speak and do what you do this program really takes you know when you take a moment and look at students special interests and you look at what they want to do to give back to the community and you on that and you encourage them to do it you see such an increase in their overall academic success and their participation in our community the social emotional learning skills that you get and I just I really you know seeing what happened and seeing the unfortunate incident that happened and just immediately coming to action and and doing this I just I can't commend you guys enough and I can't wait to see what you guys do next I really can't so thank you thank you so much you're welcome remember yes thank you um I I just want to a comment that I feel like I see Jonah more than some of my own children um everywhere I go I see Jonah whether it's in a in a play or at the state house um on May 10th or the 9th 6th whatever um he seems to always be everywhere which is sort of um what you'd expect from a uh from our students who are in not just Jonah there are several other students who are also uh at the state house and I don't think that's a ccsr project but you know they uh participation doesn't just start and end with the club times um and that I think that's really impressive I do wonder how anybody manages that much in their schedule but um thank you for all of your efforts yes I just want to say thank you again to all of you you did a wonderful job Savannah Adam and thank you Jonah as well I want to thank U Mr tror I know we wouldn't have this program without the generous support of Cummings foundation and um our other partners but the Cummings Foundation truly um keeps giving back to Medford and this is a worthwhile program to continue investing in and so I just want to send another special thank you to them for their continued support of our school programming thank thank you again member Graham I just wanted to say thank you Adam and Savannah um uh Savannah and I live in the same neighborhood so and I happened to be home when when that attack took place and I happen to be driving by as the police were uh responding so it was sort of hard to understand what was happening at the time but I sure I'm glad the news media didn't ruin Halloween for us in the neighborhood because that would have been terrible but thank you both for taking care of our meal carriers it's really important work thank [Applause] you um just before we finish I just want to mention the fact that the advisor Michael coats couldn't be here because of a family issue okay and he does a fantastic job with the students this is not the first time that he's done an outstanding project with the student so and finally leaving I'm very proud of the program I'm very proud of these students it what makes makes me happy and I'm sure it makes you happy so thank you thank you we have number three Humanities student recognition dror Nicole kza director of humanities welcome good evening um thank you for the opportunity tonight to honor several of our students who have really accomplished so many amazing achievements throughout the year so we won't bring them all up because we know that would take too much time but we're happy for those that were able to attend tonight we know there are games going on and other things happening um and as I go through the names we'll ask um people to stand so that we can honor them Slide by slid but first I do want to take a moment on the next slide to thank the school committee to thank um miss cabal Mr Fallon Mr Tucci and Miss skain for supporting these Endeavors because we could not do it alone certainly for thanking you um for funding and supporting us throughout the school year so thank you so I'm going to be reading a lot of names um you do have the report that you were provided with that explains um several of these different Endeavors but if there's any question S I am more than happy to explain anything um we are going to start with the writing achievements um some of the writing achievements certainly this is not encompassing every um achievement of the year but some of the ones that we haven't had a chance to honor and so we do have the boston playwrights theaters young playwrights project why don't I read the names and then people could stand after with that work for the group the committee okay great um so for the Boston playwrights theaters young playwrights project we have Michaela Callahan Mandy Chow Julia henrad Kean Leo Jonah SE seagull be beia Pierce Kira tramble Stanley sunwu Becky Wang and um Maria Zara and we want to thank Mr boen Flynn for supporting the students um throughout that we were also able um to have the Shakespearean monologue competition we had one of our students who's here tonight uh Jonah seagull who spoke um so eloquently um really Advanced um quite far and Mr Bowen Flynn and all of us were just so proud of the efforts for Boston Globe Scholastic writing award we have our student here tonight Christine De Hotel um who both received both an honorable mention and a silver key she is a student of Mr Ambrose who shared with me today that she has a whole collection of writings so we're very excited to see future um Works down the line hopefully and finally we have the immigration Learning Center teen perspective we had three students from Miss stamford's class um receive Awards mamed habba Michael Pac madget Tak so if we could have the students that were able to come tonight stand and honor them thank you so much and congratulations [Applause] and of course thank you to their teachers as well um the next slide is our students in action so every year we have the opportunity to have some students um go and actually go to um different activities where they can engage in government actions um we had the masc day on the hill um we had four students attend with Mr bow and Flynn and we also wanted to give a special thank you to the school committee members who took who were able to attend um Committee Member Graham reinfeld and rouso as well as Senator Jaylen for supporting the students at the event um the students that were chosen for that were Mandy Chow an dupes Sierra isbel and Jonah seal um seal sorry um in addition to that and I'm sorry I know I'm talking fast I'll slow down I just uh want to make sure I get through the names we also had students participate in student government day and we do have pictures up there um showing them in action as they attended government day that was Helen Lucas and Noah yuras yasasi sorry your Osco I apologize and Mr Bowen Flynn who's our English teacher was able to accompany them said what a wonderful day it was for them um and we were appreciative of their time as well we also had the geography be at our middle school and we had um finalists come and attend and we had some really strong um winners come out of that we shared with you in the narrative some of the questions that they had to answer um they were superb so we did want to take a minute to recognize Joe Hogan Richard mongal Stanley Tong and Stefano Lazaro who achieved first place Elliot trabber Hill who achieved second place and EMT barryman who achieved third place we were really really proud of them really proud of Mr McCarthy Mr valard Miss odonahue and Mr zizo for supporting them through this so all the students who I just named if they could take a moment if they're here and we could maybe con congratulate them for such a job excellent job well done um that would be wonderful thank I should also mention that they will be receiving certificates um within their buildings just not tonight um in the interest of of um just a lot of wonderful success stories the next um event that we wanted to make sure we recognized were our simulations so we have a few different groups that um engage in various simulations through clubs or through classroom activities and we begin with our model United Nations this year model United Nations was run by Mr Matthew broy and he did it as um more of an after school activity and he accomplished so many wonderful things that I did share with you in the narratives um but we were really proud of him to be able to do this after school as opposed to in class um and he you approved the Dartmouth overnight field trip they had a wonderful time and did quite well they have a amazing team I've put a picture in the background for you and I'll just read um the names through and hopefully those who are here can be honored so we have Emma Ben we manchow shahan cadri um who did receive an honorable mention recipient at one of the simulations Brian D plaso who received a People's Choice Award Jack Dodd an dupes yamali eten Sierra Godley Bridget enman Sierra isbel Muhammad Jamal Johnson Margaret Carroll Leanne LOM Evan Russell Kiera tremble Kiana Tron Darren Trang who also received both a Model United Nations outstanding delegate and best oror recipient both two Awards uh davana Vega Jaden Ville Noah yasco and Maria Zar I'm having trouble tonight sorry Z Zaza I apologize um they did an amazing job love the energy and a huge thank you to Mr broy as well if anyone's here tonight if they'd like to stand to be honored we would love to congratulate you for all of your [Applause] efforts okay and last but not least we have our mock trial and our ethics bll our mock trial as you read in the narrative um engaged in multiple trials uh throughout the school year they were um led by our advisor Miss Dau and they um both worked in the classroom to prepare for these mock trials as well as after school and then were able to really go in get different points based on their arguments and um achieve some very strong success particip in mock trial were Michelle Bean Genevie blot Eric Brown Michael caday clay canovan Nathan Chevalier Sophia Dillo Brian D Placo Gavin gain deor garer Nathan Nathaniel Hopper Maria Lima Costa Helen Lucas Anna Sophia morera mateline Morris Theodore Norton Mark Parr tenzen richen and Christopher rothel and then we had our ethics Bowl which I've already presented on before and thanks to your generosity they did go to Nationals they had a wonderful time they performed exceptionally well as you read um and we just wanted to take again I know I already thanked you but we are very appreciative of your support for that um trip and I wanted to read the names of the students who attended um so we have Sonia benipal Ann dupes Andre duti Claire Jingo Amira leim laflam Carmen morgante bahaba salil and we also have our wonderful um advisor Mr esner I also failed to mention in the slide previous to that for model un the other adviser in addition to Mr broy is Miss Gates um if you could stand if you were able to attend um and we could honor you and thank you um for all of your hard work thank you again for your time for supporting these students and a huge congratulations to the students the teachers and everybody else thank you so much I'm here happy to answer any questions but um yeah I'm happy to answer any questions thank you great presentation congratulations thank you thank you very much I noticed a few people stood up more than once too so we got some great students well rounded um we have our mford high school update and Survey results um our principal Miss mat cabal welcome am I on yes okay good evening mayor members of the school committee and super superintendent Dr Ed Vinson it is hard to believe that in less than two weeks we'll be wishing our seniors well as they cross the stage to graduate and continue on with postsecondary in our careers the end of the school year is a busy time with exams events and C C ations but it's also a time to reflect on the AC accomplishments and growth of the school tonight we'll review and highlight the school year specifically we'll review the culture and climate survey share our new core values and Community Norms highlight the accomplishments of our CTE programs along with what is next for MHS the culture and climate survey was administered in May 2023 2024 sorry was administered in May of 2023 and again most recently in late April of 2024 a total of 711 MHS students in grades 9 through 12 participated in the survey during advisory block the survey is composed of eight categories cultural awareness and action diversity and inclusion School belonging School climate School engagement school safety student teacher relationships and valuing of school when presented with the 2022 2023 school year data M MHS identified and shared at a previous School Committee Member three categories the categories included areas of strength are areas with varied results and areas for growth in slides 6 through eight I've provided statistical comparison between the two years it's important to note that Panorama the survey platform identifies increases of more than two percentage points as St statistically significant meaning it could have not happened by chance based on our survey size I've identified questions from the survey to share with you tonight and represent areas of strength and continued areas of growth for Medford High School as shown on slide six School belonging is how much students feel their valued members of the school community in all three questions students showed 5% or more increase from the 2022 2023 school year school engagement students attentiveness and investment in school remain stable at 91% and lastly valuing of school how much students feel that school is interesting important and useful showed an increase of between 7 to %. in slide seven student teacher relation ships strength of the social connected connections between students and teachers within the within and Beyond School this year I would identify student teacher relationships as a strength at MHS with an 8 to 10% increase in the five questions shared this is a testament to the dedication of our valued faculty school safety demonstrated a 9 to 15% shift in the questions identified Schools students at school feel safe students at the school get along with each other students at schools threaten to hurt other students and students at this school fight a lot I consider school safety to remain in the varied results category on slide8 school climate overall social and learning climate of the school this category showed significant growth from the 2022 2023 school year the questions with the greatest change are adults at this school reward students for positive behavior students at this school try to work out their disagreements with other students by talking to them and school rules and discipline are applied equally and fairly lastly cultural awareness and action along with diversity inclusion show that they are trending in a positive direction Medford High School has focused on creating environments where students feel welcomed supported and safe we've made an assertive effort and commitment to hear students and staff voices and Have Not only listened but made changes at MHS to incorporate feedback and suggestions we held more Community Gatherings to build school spirit and pride we work together on core values and have continuously Incorporated restorative practices into our work with students along with providing professional development on restorative and tiered model intervention strategies in the classroom we understand that culture and climate shifts at Medford High School will take time but we're committed to providing an inclusive safe and academically rigorous learning environment that our students and staff deserve I'm pleased to see the positive shifts are being made and that growth is noted over our 11th month span between surveys consensus among educational researchers note a 3 to fiveyear period for change shifting to some of the work done this year together as students and staff we developed our new core values after conversations in advisory and small group panels students selected the Three core values of respect responsibility and empathy and kindness for staff we held a workshop along with discussion and house meetings and surveys to identify the three shared core values Community Norms were developed in January and discussed as a community and advisory we' started working on a shared Vision along with a portrait of a graduate at this time I'm going to pause and I'm going to hand it over to Mr Fallon to highlight our CTE programs and students good evening Madam superintendent Madame mayor members of the school committee can provide a brief update on Career and Technical education for this year um we did have 304 students which was our highest number ever participate in freshman exploratory of those students 185 were placed in pte programs and 72 students chose a traditional High School pathway at this time we have 47 students on a wait list for Cooperative education we had 58 students some of our Stellar Juniors who are ready ahead of time um are out working and making money over 50 employee Partners uh make up our Partnerships now many of our seniors will continue employment after their graduation and two companies that I know of as of this week have offered complete College tuition for these two students that are working so that's exciting um some more updates if you could click the link um I've been talking about the sheds the few times I've been in front of you and I think that's another good time to highlight what our students can do in the community so we started pretty basic and as you'll see the pictures as they increase they've become a little bit better each time because practice makes perfect so that's what we call a man cave at this point or woman cave that was a shed that they just did recently that's at the Andrew school so just to give give you an idea of our carpentry students it's our version of a house building project but a little bit smaller in health assisting we had seven of our students pass their CNA exam we have one certified dental assistant now um we are finding Success With The Bunker Hill Community College dual enrollment program and we're exploring a new partnership for clinical rotations with Winchester Hospital our construction and craft laborer students the picture on the right received their hoisting apprenticeship license this past week and 15 students were inducted into the National Technical Honor Society for our electrical students two students have been chosen to join the IBEW electrical union nine students will be entering the workforce as apprentices immediately after graduation pictured on the lower right is a picture of our graphic design program that made the Mustang Pride t-shirt uh for some new swag that can be sold in the Mustang Mall two more things to share with you tonight one being the biodiesel project that was a collaborative effort between multiple CTE programs so this all started by collecting waste vegetable oil from culinary biotech students began the process of converting and using the cooking oil into clean burning fuel then the students proceeded to learn and master the techniques and to how to successfully produce several gallons of refined biodiesel which burns cleaner than regular diesel fuel they also received a $2,000 Grant from the Medford Educational Foundation to help pay for supplies Metal Fab and Autotech completed an engine swap of a go-kart and and business marketing explored the feasibility of starting a biodiesel production business they also took a field trip to the biodiesel Factory Northeast biodiesel which is out in Greenfield to observe it on a much larger scale uh Coral Chavez will present our biodiesel project at the maava connecting for Success Conference in June along with that if you're in the neighborhood Friday we're having an open house of sorts to Showcase some of our students accomplishments this year we will be highlighting the biodiesel project the last thing I'd like to share and if m of the team are here if you could come up and join me is to honor our robotics team who has once again are they here so this is the third year in a row that our students have competed let me get my notes here and I want to honor the students so I'm thrilled to announce that medford's mvths mate robotics team has again won the mate Rove New England Regional Championship this year they narrowly edged out Philips exitor academy by a score of 445 to 437 now they'll be representing the new New England at the competition in Tennessee correct I'd like to honor Tim Hunt Ben Santana miles hilard Scott Campbell Jonas wors Matt Harris Aaron Ben Daniel Zack brto brochi Franklin Soto Ortiz Noah Reed and Ben wz congratulations I never even try to explain anything in engineering and Robotics I leave it for the students so please tell us what you did hey there um I'm Maddie Harris um member s robotics obviously or mvths robotics team um as we mentioned we compete in the mate ROV competition and so we design underwater robots that are designed to compete in a competition where we perform tasks that mimic real world environmental tasks like like cleaning up say trash from the ocean or um like uh um finding data yeah uh finding data on marine life um improving habitats and stuff like that um it's a real it's a really amazing uh experience combination of a lot of different disciplines and Engineering Hardware uh Electrical uh software I found it to be a really awesome learning experience um and we also like to acknowledge that we couldn't do this without the support of our uh vocational teachers uh Mr Christie he spent countless hours with us and Miss Miller as well our programming teacher and say it's a really great opportunity and very thankful thank you also I just want to thank Miss Rachel Perry who was really um good and helping us find some Lanes in the pool to test our robots so um thank you Rachel for that uh okay back to you Marta all right so I believe we're on slide 14 so alongside school site Council for Medford High School and aligned with the district strategic plan we identified this year four strategic priorities for MHS um and they're included in the school Improvement plan for Medford High School this plan will span over three years and the four priorities are as followed that we want to improve or to improve student academic and Technical achievement the second is to implement practices to ensure a safe inclusive and supportive School climate and culture for all community members number three is to improve Community engage ment and collaboration in routine regular and transparent Communications with all stakeholders in Medford and to create a strategic list of facility needs in order to provide students and staff with Clean safe and academically conducive learning environment so those can be found in the school Improvement plan on slide 15 I would like to update on the status of the Welsh report recommendations that were provided last year and that were reviewed at the beginning of this school year for the first recommendation a creation of MHS committees were recommended there were a total of four that were recommended to the school and to the committee them being Safety and Security team we have implemented this by weekly meetings with our SRO Administration and director of School counseling monthly meetings are also held with the District Attorney's office to discuss support for youth in Medford diversity equity and inclusion committee was recommended we've not formalized a committee yet but we'll have one implemented for the 2425 school year we recognize and believe that inclusion diversity and Equity need to be at the center of our work community on Norms for student Behavior shared values this is something that we decided to do as a whole school com um and to develop shared norms and shared core values along with as a whole school have a shared vision for next year along with a portrait of a graduate and lastly the schedule committee a consultant was hired by MPS and we're continuing to review their recommendations for implementation the second recommendation was to provide more opportunities for teachers input in decision- making and build relationships between teachers and administration feedback is continuously incorporated into all staff meetings along with processes on how to collect feedback and suggestions throughout the year virtually number three parent caregiver surveys about culture and climate M MHS during the 2023 2024 school year we're currently working on creating this survey and distributing it at the end of the school year to our caregivers and parents number four MHS associate or assistant principal we did shift Administration and we did hire a assistant principal for operations and school and student engagement s sorry operations and student engagement um who is now part of the administrative team at Medford High School mentoring for new administrators new assistant principles attended this year the regional AP conference um and mentoring is continuously provided to APS through both Chad and myself they also attended workshops and other professional development opportunities offered to APS in our region MPS has also provided me with a coach this year which has been wonderful through the school administ administrator Association lastly the last slide is um stops for the Horizon Medford High School and this is a program proposal that we would like to Pilot at the High School Medford High School has identified a need for an alternative program for atrisk student students who do not qualify for special education at the high school currently we have the therapeutic learning program but we're looking at piloting a alternative program within the high school for our students these students are currently not making adequate academic progress and they've been identified are repeating a grade for the first Andor second time so they're overage under credited and are at risk of dropping out due to that their struggles consist of student related family related School related or Community related barriers that we have identified that are hindering their academic progress towards graduation by creating an alternative set setting we're able to individualize education provide supports towards graduation and graduating with their cohort and were're were able to be more flexible and understanding student barriers that are preventing them from making the academic progress that they need in order to graduate on time at this time we have concluded our presentation but most importantly and probably the most exciting part of the this time in May is the commitment commencement ceremony that is quickly approaching as our seniors the class of 2024 are about to graduate so we would like to formally invite you to June 5th at hormell stadium for the graduation of the class of 2024 I thank you for your continued support and if you have any questions or comments or we could take them offline okay member thank you for the report um the headliner for me was actually the survey and well there's lots of good stuff in there um but in the survey data everything went in the right direction everything and um I think that's really awesome thank [Applause] you I mean this is your first principle ship right first so um I think there's you should be very proud I mean one year not even a full school year and uh it's I'm impressed so I just there's a lot in here that's we could talk all night about but um the survey data I've been waiting the baited breath and uh thank you for the great work you've been doing and I look forward to what you can do in the future thank you I couldn't do it without the staff and with the students this year they've been extremely supportive and they've really rolled their sleeves up the staff at MHS and and really taken this on with me because it's for our students so I thank them I know there's several in the room but I really do thank them because I couldn't have done it on my own neither could chat or the admin team member Graham and member branley thank you um I just had a couple of questions about the alternative program proposal um this actually came up when we were having some discussions to start to feed some of the work that we have to do for msba to describe the kind of programming that that happens currently in the building and and then also start to think about like what programming would we want to have happen in the building and and uh Miss cabal brought this forward and I asked her to share her thoughts with all of us so that we could understand sort of the the goals here so can you talk a little bit about this when you think you can do this and the Staffing that you think you need in order to do it and any other like barriers that are in your way of helping these students right now yes so I did propose two models of how it could work one is to have a humani to have less staff and have a Humanities and a stem um teacher and then the other one is to have four core academics in the classroom um we have identified students like I had mentioned that are overage under credited and there's an urgency to get them through the 10th grade we know that once get students through the 10th grade their graduation rate is um much higher than if they were to repeat n9th grade or repeat twice n9th grade which we do have students on track to do that so when it comes to barriers that I have currently um it would definitely be Staffing and strategically looking at how that Staffing may work in order to best support the students because I don't want to create a program that is not fully supportive of the needs that they they currently need each day um and then uh also space we would need to look at the space and where that would be best placed within the high school I have lots of ideas for when we reimagined the high school but there is an urgency right now based off the data that we're presented with um with some of our students that are at risk for dropping out and so do you think that you can start this program next year and um is that reflected in your like current scheduling Dynamic so we're currently still doing the schedule I hope to identify if we can and propose to central office if we do have Staffing that would allow for it um we are also at the moment identifying teachers that can provide interventions to all MHS students so it's a little bit of a puzzle piece right now as to if we have the current Staffing needed if we do have the current Staffing needed I would like to take a very small cohort of students and be able to do something and pilot it within this school year within the coming school year um but it really I will not know until probably the next two weeks when it comes to that because I do want to provide interventions for Math and Ela support for all students um I just want to say that this is the kind of strategic project and initiative that the committee has sort of been begging to be put forward from the high school campus and and I'm just so happy to hear that we are looking at the data we are identifying students that are at risk and we know how specifically to help them and where and when to intervene um that's since I have been on the school committee I have like literally been waiting for this presentation so I'm so happy that it's finally here and it's only been four and a half years and it's not been a decade but I I do want to sort of like we're all here be this room is full because we're having a budget presentation soon so I would like to make a motion that Miss cabal gets the Staffing that she needs to Pilot this program next year no matter what happens with the budget I'll second motion by member Graham seconded by member branley um all those in favor I all those opposed motion passes thank you that's it thank you member brandley I think I may be one of your biggest fans um I've said from day one that I thought you were unicorn I was on the committee to hire you m Graham was there also there was there was I know maybe 10 to 15 of us that were in that room when you came in to interview and you walked out and there was this silence and I remember just saying if if all of you don't want to give her a hug right now I'm moving um and luckily you you are the still the unicorn and I just can I don't want to become emotional I promise I would never cry here and every time every every week I say I'm not going to cry um but these are happy happy this is makes me very very happy I have really really pushed for accountability in this District um I have really begged for safety um accountability yes more than anything um I'm proud of you I thank you so much I really do you and Chad are rock stars in my book so thank you very much I'm still not gonna cry um but I think that there's always still work to be done um you know the amount of emails that we get about day-to-day basis things that are happening in the building um still concern me I'm not trying to be a Debbie Downer by any means because I am really Med's chil to here but um I just want to make sure that we don't lose sight of you know the day-to-day things that are going on um The Welch page was not in our packet K do we have a copy yes okay we'll reshare that that was asked to be added yesterday so we added it this morning yeah um awesome thank you you thank you thank you keep up the great work member reinfeld y I have a question about the survey so I am also incredibly encouraged by the numbers I am wondering if there's going to be any effort to break down particularly cultural awareness and action and diversity inclusion Those Questions by some of the more vulnerable populations to see whether the the average across the student population may not be representative of those people who are often targeted by some of these challeng Alles so I'm wondering if we can look a little more closely to see what that sub data looks like there yes I can agree more we had a very quick turnaround for the presentation we really just did like an overall brief um s summary we really do need to break it down in order to continue making shifts and progress so yes that will be done over the summer months to to Really F focus in and hone in onto the work that we need to do I agree thank you and then I this might be a question for the superintendent so the Welch report had a lot of focus on the high school um there was also some of this mentoring for other schools in the district and looking at climate kind of more broadly across the district and so I'm wondering what's happening on that front so we are definitely our primary focus this year really was the high school to get it up in running and have it be a different experience for all of the Learners and staff um with in the building which um the this current survey um reflects the the more broad feedback from the Welch report we we did not do Panorama surveys in the other schools to be able to say this is um concrete data but we do have um support for some of the new administrators who did come on board um so in more Global context there has been support and implementation but the real focus is here for us was the high school to really see this data shift and and start to move in the right direction and we're all very very pleased that that's what is happening right now yeah absolutely I agree completely and I just want to make on record the comment that our you know our middle school students are the next high schoolers and Elementary so this all this work really has to be districtwide and I'm I'm so encouraged by this so thank you and thanks to everyone who made it possible thank you yes our student rep come on up now we have somebody online yes absolutely should be on um well I'd just like to say when it comes to the um slide on student engagement um especially when it comes to student voice uh in my experience and U Darren can certainly speak to it too uh the administration's MHS administration's support for student voice has definitely discernably increased uh over the past year it's definitely been a big help as we've tried to flesh out our role on the student advisory committee and um how we can work to get kids more involved at school that has definitely been um especially thanks to miss cabal and miss fedus Haley who have worked closely with us to try to get uh Implement very meaningful changes uh and just sort of to add off of what Noah said um um when starting with core values um I believe these core values really represent meford high school as a whole um and just speaking with students and being out in the general student body and um I think we've noticed a general uh positive Trends um at the high school with student involvement as well as a student um students well-being and their their kind of like will to be in the schools we've worked carefully with Miss cabal um on numerous occasions um for some of the events that she mentioned such as like the pep rally or student with staff basketball games or other games as well as on policy making as well she has really um stepped up and allowed us to give our input uh when it comes to important things that affect students such as the homework policy as well as other policies that we are currently working with for thank you you two are involved in everything just like some of our students that stood up so we appreciate all your involvement um we do have somebody one person on Chris if you could just name your name and address for the record please gonna unmute you right [Music] now hello yes name and address of the record my name is Christine Bennett from 19 Martin Street in Medford I just had one quick question I'm hearing about this program that will begin at metr high that we're aiming for would that be in place of Curtis tffs the one we just took a vote on would not okay thank you you're welcome thank you um thank you to both of our principles for being here tonight for the presentation there's no further questions we'll move on I'm going to read number six and seven we have the budget update by Mr Jerry McHugh Director of Finance number five number five oh okay Mr Fallon spoke so Medford Career Technical education CTE update Mr Chad Fallon principal director of Medford Vocational Technical High School and Dr Peter Cushing assistant superintendent my apologies mayor can I can I just interrupt for um just so that um the committee Knows Why um these folks are here um as we have been planning for MSB for the msba work one of the things that we have to do because we have such a huge vocational school is fill out some documentation around what programs we have how big they are and how big we want them to be um as we look forward to a new building of some kind and the other thing that this form asks to do is lay out if you need programming space for programs that don't exist today um what are those and how how much you know how much enrollment are you anticipating in these programs that are yet to exist and msba goes on to describe a set of requirements around like what constitutes something they will entertain so Mr Fallon and Dr kushen have been working hard to articulate that um My Hope Is that when they are done we will take a vote here to direct them to continue to explore these these things um because that will be needed to send to um the msba with our chapter 74 viability plan um documentation um so that they can they can sort of consider all of this as part of our sort of input to what ultimately will become a feasibility to study so I will turn it over to Mr Bon and Dr Cushing I just wanted to set that sort of groundwork for everybody else thank you yes good evening Madame mayor members of the school committee first I want to thank Mr Fallon and all the Cs teachers for the amazing work that they do every day giving our kids real world experiences and the work that Mr Fallon and staff have done over the last several years to really bolster and expand the programs um in an amazing manner up to this point so we'll share our presentation and then just jump right in um so desie um approves chapter 74 programs uh right now Medford High school has 15 of them and we've SE seen an increase in demand and enrollment with several programs requiring a wait list Mr Fallon mentioned how many students are on a wait list right now 47 47 students all right we are not accepting students from outside of Medford anymore which I think is really UND really something that the citizens of Medford should know um more than 50% of MHS students are selecting a CTE pathway and a new master schedule will hope align academic and Vocational Technical opportunities as we move forward you want to talk about survey demand so as part of the documents we have to provide to msba um they want to see what our weight list data looks like for the last three or four years so this just gives a snapshot and I highlighted in bold of the programs that every year we do see students on a list that most likely never make it in because in order to come off a weit list somebody has to leave and that doesn't typically happen so you know in our research with looking past in past years and also what industry Trends are telling us autot technology cosmetology electrical and health assisting are areas that we would want to seek expansion in in our uh new building as we reimagine um this next slide shows some um data of students participating in CTE so beginning in 2122 we had just about 195 students in exploratory who placed 63 and it had a weight list of 14 so you can see between 21 and 22 in this current year the weight list is you know at or about the same um a little bit less than last year but there was um also other Pathways they could have taken this year with the expansion of our art selectives so this year we had 72 choose a high school path so when we surveyed the Andrews and the mlin middle school we found we provided some context in a survey which was a brief um presentation from myself explaining about the survey and then we provided the programs we currently have and then we gave them some ideas of programs we're thinking about criminal justice and protective services we had about 83% of the students uh by the way this was based on 344 student responses as of today though there was 357 so I think the the little little guys and gals are still hacking away at the survey which is pretty funny wait till you see some of the results it's who knew they want sewing more than five people want sewing we'll get to that um we Al looked at dental assistants this one um we we had about half of them that thought that this would be something cool to have a dental assisting program we're also looking at things that other vocational schools in the state have had success with so we're we're also um you know taking that into consideration um criminal justice we talked about uh it and networking we had um close to 86% is that 86 can't see um and then plumbers um 66.9 was forter it um Plumbing I had less than I thought the vet Science Program yielded about 63% of students thought that that would be cool and then and these are just some of the survey responses when I said well is there something that you have in mind that you would like us to think about um and a lot of these were repetitive um meteorology I thought that was cool but sewing you know that that came up a lot so it reminded me of kind of that need for that um home economics um so those are some of the survey results we from that so some proposed new programs uh when we're considering proposing new programs for the CTE there are multiple factors to take into consideration one is the survey data you just saw but then we also want to look at what the workforce is telling us all right and what are the types of jobs that are being posted and so when we talk about criminal justice to open up uh you can see the number of jobs that are there but there are also jobs that um a criminal justice path may lead to such as being an attorney um working in the courthouse um anything within the criminal justice realm but you can see the typical entry level education correlating across the table for security guards detective and criminal investigators police officers EMTs so on and so forth down through firefighters um this type of program would not really require much for the school to start up other than a classroom and perhaps um you know not perhaps but a specific dedicated teacher to work with students in this whereas Dental Assisting um for demand looks at 525 unique job OPP opportunities within our catchman area um and 70 with 70% of those for dental assistance right and you can see in our catchman area um where those jobs are posted in relation to Medford anything okay it networking a unique, 1482 jobs all right computer user support specialist for 1389 and network computer network support specialist for 93 plumbing and HVAC a total of 191 unique job postings for plumbers Pipe Fitters and steam Fitters this data definitely surprised Mr Fallon and myself because Plumbing has been one of those shops when you look at Medford High School right now where we have CCL electrical Automotive uh carpentry this is a more traditional um CTE path shop that we thought would have more interest and more support um but we definitely think it is still something for the committee and for Medford to consider as we move forward and veterinary science a total of 266 unique job openings for veteran technologists and technicians and veterinary assistants laboratory Amal caretakers with 7 73% of that category this is the type of track that could lead students to becoming not only vet teex vet assistants but being Veterinary um doctors themselves Peter and I like to joke with Maurice that they'll be cows and horses running around the new Medford campus with our vet tech program um so when we talk about the four programs where thinking about expanding this doesn't mean that we couldn't seek to expand before the new building um is in place um but just to give the committee a breakdown we're looking at seven years of student weight list data we know that there's demand um but there's also costs associated with this so as you saw in your packet we've labeled kind of you know estimated as best we could which it comes down to additional teaching staff um and some equipment you know you're looking at an investment of just under 400,000 to expand these programs whether it be now or within the new building but um if if we take buildout and furnishings and the cost of a structure of it this is what we're looking at to expand the current program so the idea tonight was to provide you um information about the new programs and then the jobs that we're expanding the last two slides really just show um about the Autotech and cosmetology expansion there certainly are jobs in the community so this would not be something that was um a wasted Endeavor the last thing to mention is that based on the Greater Boston Regional blueprint by the way all the data that we shared tonight came from the mass hire um which their job is really to scout the the area and find out where the highest demand is and then they work with people to help them get jobs or get into job programs um even though healthc care and professional and Technical Services won't listed weren't listed in one of the um reports it's important to note that they're still listed as critical to the region so we may not have posted about culinary jobs but it's still something that's very needed so I thought it was important to mention tonight that although certain things aren't mentioned in the regional blueprint which by the way is out of date it's from 2018 and there's a supplemental piece from 2020 um we should just be thinking as we look for new programs what things are critical to the region and that's Hospitality construction Finance Etc um any questions at this point member Graham thank you um in terms of the expansion of Autotech cosmetology electrical and health assisting can those expansions happen in the current space or are you space constrained yes Autotech would require a third teacher cosmetology would require a third teacher and electrical would be another teacher did uh electrical we would need more space Health assisting you could do with a third teacher so at this point it comes down to teaching staff and um none of those are currently budgeted for fy2 is that correct we've had an auto tech position but for the past two years we remove it or it you know for for many reasons it it you know we're we can function without three right now so we usually end up forgoing that position but it's been um talked about for sure okay um in terms of the um expansion of those programs I would love um to see a report at some point early next year um about sort of a proposal from you all to implement those expansions like over the course of the next number of years where space is not a constraint so obviously electrical would be a sort of a separate issue but for the three shops we could expand um what would you recommend that timeline be and do they all go at the same time does one come first or second um but I would like to see that you know it does not have to be now it does not have to be before the end of the year but as we think about like next fall really having you come to us with a sort of a proposal of like what we should be planning for and expecting in the in the coming years if that's possible very much s yes okay um and then I'm going to make a motion that the school committee um request that the msba explore the program expansions and new programs outlined in this presentation as part of the feasibility study second did you get all of [Laughter] that what's that the msba explore all the expansion requests in this got got it motion by member Graham seconded by member reinfeld all those in favor I I actually can we roll call I just want V sorry quick question yes member gram do you mean msba or School building committee sorry School building committee to feed the msba application thank you msba school school building committee thank you um member brandley yes member Graham yes member andapa yes member olapa yes member reinfeld yes member so yes mayor Loker yes seven the affirmative zero the negative motion passes were you finished with your presentation thank you very much great job thank you we have our budget update Mr Jerry McHugh Finance director estimated start time right on schedule about 50 seconds I don't know if we should wait and then right after that we'll have our budget vote of the Medford school committee um and in full disclosure my sister is back to Medford being she is a teacher at the mlin so I'm going to abstain from the vote and I'm gonna ask member Graham to come up and share the meeting please do we are we gonna need a break in the middle do we need to take our like two-minute break now or if you want a motion to recess for five minutes that's fine I think motion to recess for 5 minutes by member ryanfeld seconded by member brandley all those in favor all those opposed we're in recess until 6:35 e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e um so just so that everyone knows thank you all for being here I know it's very hot in here and that's not on purpose I promise um but I'm afraid to consider opening the windows because I don't think that'll work so hopefully we can just beare uh bear with the heat um item number six is a budget update from Mr Jerry mchu our Director of Finance he's going to provide his presentation I'm going to let the committee ask some questions um and get their questions answered and then we will be happy to take public comment from all of you I assume many of you are here to speak just to set your expectations we do ask that folks um speaking at public comment limit their comments to three minutes and one time so please please um bear with us um please feel free to speak from the heart um or whoever it is that you need to speak from um but um also just remember to do it briefly um so that we can all have a chance to speak um so Mr mchu it's all yours um good evening um tonight I wanted to uh just give a brief followup we had a lot of uh comments and suggestions at the public hearing uh some some of those um comments I'd like to address tonight and of course at the end we'll we'll uh have time to answer any other questions that you might have um so just to um to recap we did have um we we had a this is a extremely difficult budget um and at the public hearing we talked about just a lot of um needs to get this I kind of I like to um use the metaphor of a you know a house where we want to do some Renovations we'd like to add on create a family room but this is a year that we have to fix the foundation because the foundation is cracking we don't want it to crumble uh for the future so so we did um propose um reductions in our Administrative Assistant ranks and our administrators to try to gain some efficiencies in administration to achieve some budget savings we have had three uh administrative assistance take advantage of early retirement incentive and we'll be working um with their Union representatives to uh see how we can best um meet the needs of the membership you know with these reductions we also um looked at class size and looked at scheduling um we had a proposed a net reduction of five teachers at the uh Elementary level one at the Middle grades and six at the high school um and then there was this notion um brought up at the uh at the public hearing that you know what's going on with performing ODS you know we've I've um been on email change and several members of the community are very concerned about you know we trying to eliminate the band or the uh the color guide um are we eliminating drama programs one one email suggested that we were trying to eliminate all the Performing ads programs and that um certainly is not the case the budget uh does provide for over $1.7 million for Performing Arts uh and Fine Arts programs um what we did propose was uh to return the management of that program to one coordinator uh it had recently expanded to two coordinators uh but in light of our budget situation we uh brought that back to one and then we did discuss this theater teacher position that um had um uh resignation actually there were two teachers uh in this position over the course of the year and the um students weren't really uh selecting the courses that uh that position was teaching um so that's that's it everything else in this program is funded and that includes um the marching band stiens The the guard stiens drama programs are fully funded um we will seek to uh offer certain theater sections within the teaching assignment of one an existing teacher um that would better align with student interests and uh you could see with the exception of the theater teacher uh all the current teachers uh funded in the uh performing and visual arts programs are funded in fy2 uh the other uh another concern was with our Health Services Program you know how did we come up with these recommended cuts um we looked at the uh massachusett Department of Public Health um recommended um teaches uh nurses per student which is between 250 and 500 students uh the national uh School Nurses Association uh recommends one nurse for every 750 students but we're really focused on the mass uh Department of Public Health uh for our criteria So currently uh we have 15.6 teachers I went back and I looked at the um FY uh 20192020 budget which was the budget U before covid and um at that point in time we had 12.6 nurses uh for roughly the same uh total enrollment uh of course it makes complete sense that we wanted to expand these ranks during covid and uh uh return to school protocols but you can see that um we are um in decent shape in terms of per student uh Staffing in FY 24 and across the board um we have one nurse for every 268 students so in fy2 with the reductions that we proposed um we still uh achieve a uh across the board Staffing of 361 nurses per student um we will have a staff of 11.6 um myself I'm a little bit concerned about the Brooks that's on the high end um but I believe that the um the incoming director can um recommend uh Staffing adjustments to kind of even that out but that's essentially how we uh arrived at those reductions and the next area was guidance council is um we it very similar to the the nurses we looked at um recommended Staffing levels uh 250 students per guidance counselor is recommended um desie published a study and 2019 to take a look at how we were doing against those averages and on average in Massachusetts there 44 students per guidance counselor and then the national average um was um between 600 and almost 800 for middle school and then 200 to 243 for high school so in FY 24 uh we had uh two counselors uh at each of the middle schools and then we had uh slide please and then we had um six counselors at the high school um so we had a very uh our staffing was even um better than the recommended average uh and then in fy2 with those reductions we still we we will have a higher average at the the two middle schools and we kind of maintain our staffing level at the high school so it um even at that even with those reductions there's uh uh on average is one uh guidance counselor per 258 [Music] students and then um kind of another comment was um you know are we these nurses and guidance counselors are uh important in our um social emotional uh learning uh programs and that is uh absolutely true but uh we have a number of other staff that support uh students uh social emotional well-being we have adjustment counselors uh uh bcbas and next ESP and those all are fully funded in fy2 and just to take a look at the the Staffing loads for the adjustment council is you'll see that you know they are uh pretty reasonable um on average we have uh 246 students per adjustment counselor um so we feel pretty good about that Staffing and uh as uh to to address um seal uh priorities next year we did talk about at the public hearing the possibility that our Chapter 70 state aid would increase from um 135,000 over FY 24 to 470 there was an initiative in the uh the house budget which raised the minimum student aid uh from $30 per student to4 uh the good news is that this $104 per student was included in the Senate ways and me budget and that uh budget is currently being debated in the sen Senate so while there's no uh absolute guarantee that we'll get that money until the governor signs the budget it is um uh very good news that both the house and the Senate are recommending the same number so when they go to conference committee to work out the differences uh there will be no difference in this line item so just to um to kind of recap where we left off our current budget is 71.2 million um we went through and we talked about the need we have collective bargaining agreements and other uh School staff uh that are in line for salary increases some of these Collective buying Agreements are already uh agreed to so they're uh binding obligation of the school department uh approximately 4 million of this $8.2 million budget increase is strictly to salary increases and then we identified three other areas uh that make up the other half of that increase which include uh a number of accounts that have been historically underfunded um a number of positions that are currently funded on Essa that uh really need to be in the general fund next year because uh they represent core programming uh and then uh some new spending initiatives um special ed uh tuition is going up um a Chromebook um and tablet refresh uh was $477,000 and other um increases as well which would mean that we would need a budget of $79.4 million um to to meet all those needs um we felt like that was uh unrealistic ask uh to make uh to the city and we um developed the plan to um identify savings uh which got our budget which uh totaled um just under 2.3 million and um we identified some new funding uh we have a pro uh we have an initiative that we would um charge back uh programs that charge fees in um in our school system to kind recoup some administrative and facilities costs involved in supporting those programs we identified $200,000 in revolving funds uh in addition to what's already being charged to revolving funds to um to also supplement the budget and came in at the public hearing with a budget of 76 um 676 m684 th000 uh so I'm happy to answer any questions about this presentation or anything else that you might uh want to talk about from the public hearing questions from the Committee Member Russo thank you um I I greatly appreciate the presentation um the additional Clarity is always welcome as I said in the last meeting um I am deeply grateful that you have uh removed some of the uh removed the uh veil of solvency that we have lived with in Medford for a generation or more um when we have a an expense of $2 million we have a line item of $200,000 to pay for it and we pay the $2 million it is reasonable for the public to conclude that we didn't need that money but we got that other $1.8 Million by scraping it out of this leftover grant for you know reading or whatever we you know we scraped it up from all of these other places and so then when you look at our budget you think we spent $200,000 on an item that actually costs $2 million and that is the opposite of transparency in any and every sense of the word no matter what you think transparency means and believe me everyone in this room has a different definition of transparency we all do agree probably that if something costs $2 million we will tell you it cost $2 million and we'll put a $2 million item in the budget to pay for it and that has not existed in Medford Public Schools for as long as I've been here for seven and a half years and my understanding is for long before that um and it's an incredible disservice to the community to continue thinking that something that costs $2 million is only going to cost us$2 $100,000 um and that is the you know as horrible as this budget is that is um frankly that you know I I can never thank you enough for that because it is something for my seven and a half years I have been asking for um and it has not been something that um I've been able to get um so in light of that um and in light of the fact you did want one other thing that you know you you mentioned whether it was a reasonable request the $79 million um and we can um your job is your job um but in my opinion the request is the school committee's request and we sort of decide what's reasonable um and you know in light of that um I'm going to make a motion that the Medford school committee budget request in the amount of 79 m399 77 $4 for the responsible operations of the me public schools in 2024 2025 be submitted in writing to the me city council and the mayor of Medford within 48 Hours of this motion thank you Mr Roo um be before um we continue talking about Mr Russo's motion um it is on the floor if there is a second it can stay on the floor second second thank you you um but we're not going to take a vote on that until we have heard the questions of the rest of the committee um and we have heard um from all of you so everyone can just take a breath exhale we're going to get to all of you before we get to any sort of voting um Miss Russo can you please um sort of explain those numbers one more time just so that everybody understands what you just said certainly so the uh I'll read the language and then explain it um Zoom keeps coming in and out for me uh the for school committee budget request in the amount of 79,3 199,50 for the responsible operations of the Medford Public Schools in 2024 2025 be submitted in writing to the Medford city council and the mayor of Medford within 48 Hours of this motion so that is the number that was calculated and displayed at the last meeting it is the number that was on one of these slides and um I do have a spreadsheet that I've shared with Dr Cushing if he could would put it up which actually explains that um did you get it that's because my zoom is in and out sorry one second so before we take any vote we'll make sure that we can look at that spreadsheet so take your time Dr Cushing um are there questions from the rest of the Committee Member brandley my voice is so loud um um can we specify the elementary positions by building that are being cut yes um two at mcglen uh Elementary five at mck one at Roberts [Music] um two at mclin elementary five at mck one at Roberts uh for a total of eight um we're adding three teachers one at mclin elementary for the newcomers program and two at the Roberts for special education uh one a classroom teacher one inclusion for a net reduction of five I think seeing five at the Miss is is devastating um and as someone who has worked at the Brooks I know that the staff is short but can I ask why there no staff at the Brooks being cut um not that I want to see anybody cut I'm just curious where the discrepancies are um well it's um it's based on class size you know so if the class size the class size at the mck was low compared to the other schools um with the Brooks I think there's um there's just a switch my memory is um maybe uh the uh second grade which happens to be low a low cohort in the elementary that there was uh one less teacher needed in the second grade but there was an additional teacher needed in the third grade so uh that was a wash okay um other question remember brandley do you want the exact number I have the proposal from last week in front of me um I have it too okay I just want to make sure we're on the same page um with the reduction of the administrative assistance are we still suggesting six are being cut Even though three um are taking the early retirement no so there's only three there's only three now yeah so only three Administrative Assistant will be cut not six correct well there the the position three positions like that word Jerry we talked about that last week because three positions out three people at the end of the day yeah well three of those positions have retired and then that leaves an there's three other positions that we uh would want to find you know other work for if we can so is the elementary position at the mclin being cut yes I don't understand how a building secretary is cut if she was six miles away would she be cut I I don't I don't understand how that is equival is an equivalent I I really this one I cannot wrap my brain around I really cannot wrap my brain around this how can you go a whole school without the school secretary I don't understand how this is going to be possible if if if someone El is going to do her job so does that mean we're paying the other person double where are we where are we saving yeah because someone else is going to have to do her whole job it's it's not it's not well someone will pick up the slack it's this is a whole position has anybody shadowed a school secretary superintendent have you shattered a school secretary member branley would you like this the superintendent to weigh in here yeah that would be great great thank you we still have an additional floal position that um will be part of the ranks and so that is one of the other positions that we plan on um using to support the mcin complex so if she's there every if she's there every day how are we saving money does she get paid less is she not in the Union what happens I don't understand I really do not understand I don't understand the question can you restate that question so if we have a floater who needs to be in a building all the time yes they saving money that person would be allowed to move to other building so case in point if one of the secretaries were to be absent today there will be one secretary man in the office and then if there was the opportunity to assign a floer there the floter would be the second person assigned so one of the things that we're still working on is having that floater based out of the mline complex and um as we prepare to negotiate with the administrative assistant Union in the mcin complex there is also an additional Administrative Assistant that falls under the special education umbrella but is an administrative assistant and so if needed that individual could be deployed to support the M greine complex okay so if you need a floater when someone's absent for one day why wouldn't we need the position filled for the 180 days I'm sorry I just that I that just seems like such a disservice to the mclen elementary Community um I just I think that we're really want to see our district Thrive and I feel like we're we survive every day because I know everybody here is working their butt off and I'm I'm listening you know I watched a mom nurse her baby out here who's been at school all day you know and and another one that has her toddler on the floor these are people who are doing other people's jobs all the time is when you work in a school you're pitching in it's it's not as easy just to close the door and walk away it's it's not how it works when you walk in that building you are a hundred people to a hundred different different Avenues and I really I think that we're we're we're giving the mlin elementary such a huge disservice great we have a floater but if Mrs Hardy's absent at the Brooks and she's at the Brooks then n mlin doesn't have have a secretary in why is Mrs Hardy's position no offense Mrs Hardy um but why is her position for one day so important that she gets covered with 180 days of the mlin doesn't get covered so if I may through the chair um I appreciate your feedback M rley um in situations which have happened uh this past year as well when um both administrative assistants are not available we still have a fairly um significant Administrative Assistant poll and um we tapped into administrative assistance that were located at the high school campus and they too went down to support schools on an as needed basis it was not something that was temporary uh a permanent fix but on an as needed basis so I agree and I'm not denying and saying that people are not working hard but at the same time if there was a problem and we need to redeploy an administrative assistant from the high school which had um nearly 20 um individuals located on that one campus we should be able to deploy them so they could go and support one of the other buildings or another department within the district We Are One District we need to work together as one team this is not um an easy situation for anyone involved and I don't want you or anyone in the audience to think that um we're not trying to think this through properly we have um spoken with one another we've looked at the numbers we had to make some tough decisions but we we in comparison to districts that are of comparable size we still have a significantly larger Administrative Assistant pool in Medford Public Schools okay well I guess we remain to be seen um under nursing four nurses still being cut yes you know as a parent whose child needed emergency services at our school this is such a disservice to every single child and it's such a disservice to these nurses who are working overtime some in my own you know some for my own family they they they helped save my daughter's life one day so to think that we could go for less or we could go one less assistant it's it's it's such a disservice to us school we we are barely surviving and and this is really devastating in my opinion that that this is going to happen that we've got to this point um I'm concerned about the Brooks um the Staffing there you said um you know you're concerned about the Brooks with the health services um well I I said that that um per student um enrollment was higher than the rest of the district so we' want to look at that and you know I I wish I didn't have to um prepare a plan that included Cuts I mean nobody wants to C position don't we but um it's um a lot of difficult choices so we are going to be hiring an incoming director someone's going to take Aver H's place yes so that position is going to be filled that's already been um posted for how long now the position has been posted since February when the director uh previous director Avery hindes um went to work for the Department of Public Health and I we have one applicant who has applied and that applicant is um a part of method Public Schools we have an interview scheduled for next week um to interview the one candidate who has applied and we will include um members of the nursing team who um expressed interest at the time of Miss hines's departure so the um nursing director position still exists it's part of the administrative unit and that position will be filled for July 1st and um the comment that you were making earlier I just want it to be stated for the record that Medford High School will still have 3.0 nurses and at the mlin complex will have three nurses at the mcin complex but the FTE is equal to 2.6 FTE but it's three individuals assigned to the mint mcen complex and three also assigned to the me High School complex how many are assigned to the high school now three it's so that won't change that will not change okay um for guidance um I believe last week we discussed or two weeks ago we discussed that they also teach a class so if we're cutting them by half who's teaching the class the remaining staff [Music] do you want me to repeat that so the guidance counselors um at the middle school I believe last week we talked about or two weeks ago I'm sorry that we talked about um that they also teach classes so I'm curious who's going to teach those classes now that there's one one less person how are we managing them to teach the class plus service the students well that's a scheduling um issue for the principal and so you know there there's still be one uh counselor assigned to each school so one counselor and how many students are at at the middle schools uh projected for next year I think it's 440 for Glenn Middle and 442 for Andrews so in 180 days they going to service 440 students plus teach classes and then at the Andrews one person is going to take care of 442 students plus teach plus teach classes to 442 students um I'm just trying to figure out the math I'm not too good I'm suggesting that everything is going to happen exactly the same It's Not Gon to happen this is what I'm afraid different staff I'm afraid it's not going to happen and this is what scares me this is what scares me superintendent yes um member brandley in addition to the um positions that were stated in Mr McHugh's presentation we do carry 17 FTE as adjustment counselors we do have bcbas we do have Nexus Specialists we don't even have um School psychologists listed so um under uh the leadership of Stacy Schulman our director of Behavioral Health and School counseling there are approximately 45 um individuals it could even be as high as 48 right now that provide counseling supports to students so if it's not in the person of an adjustment counselor it may be a guidance counselor it could be a school psychologist um we we as a district actually have very robust offering in terms of sell supports for our students so I I I know that there is a cut that was um slated to take place and if you look really closely at the numbers we truly tried our best to stay away from the teaching core and um not impact the teaching core um because the teaching Corp is the closest to the students so I just want to say for the record that although there is one cut that has been identified um we still have the other support services that are in place and through Grant writing we actually still have Partnerships with outside agencies that are supporting some of our school programs as well do adjustment counselors teach classes no right no okay and then do you need to have an IEP to see an adjustment counselor yeah yeah adjustment Conor do you need to I think Miss Bowen is saying no you do not need to have an IEP what about a school psychologist okay I'm just asking so the answer just so that people that are on the phone can can understand the questions and answers um the question was do you need to have an IEP to see an adjustment an adjustment counsel or school psychologist and the answer to both is no okay um for Staffing adjustment counil as said it was reasonable that's that's a scary word to me that we're just reasonable um I don't know I think that's it for me thank you Jerry I appreciate your help I appreciate these numbers I don't like them I'm I'm I I can't help but be cranky about it because it's devastating like I've said before there's nothing more I want than to see us Thrive not to survive um my children are in this District you know this this is our family to me this is what community is all about we need to fight for these these students we need to fight for these teachers we need to fight for the ad you know these these administrators that are in the building that are that are on the ground every single day um you know program directors I mean the whole marching band is here it's it's not just cutting a position it's cutting the heart of a program I can't I can't I can't agree with that that's I haven't slept in two weeks thank you thank you thank you superintendent your comments I appreciate you answering the questions thank you thank you member brandley member thank you um I just want to clarifi uh ask a question um so as the finance technically the finance director right now right yes um you made none of these decisions correct pardon did you make any of these decisions well we I did as part of a team you know I came up with some recommendations I mean not not all the recommendations were accepted and some uh you know turned out to be NW workable but um the U the first task was you know to figure out what how much does it cost to provide a level service budget to midford public schools and then from there um I completely agree with you my job is to prevent to present the school committee with the plan I think you know it's very reasonable to to bring up um issues where some folks might not think that that plan is working but um we were part I it was a group decision program directors were talked to see you know if uh things were workable and again when you get into those discussions I mean nobody um people would prefer to have the exact same staff they had last year because they kind of know what that prog program uh is like but then they uh it's up to to them to kind of see how they would make it work with less staff uh thank you I I think that uh you know all of us here have received many emails um and some of us here have discussed disliking well we all dislike the cuts um I think that you know if in fact we do not get more money from the mayor from from the city budget um this is nowhere near enough cuts and um even if we got enough to avoid additional Cuts any additional if we decide to keep any position it is a different position that must be cut well equivalent amounts of money so um I think it's important to remember that uh and and I'm that that group of people just to to clarify Mr M did not include school committee members correct did not that's right um I think that's important because you know there's uh not to be defensive but as the senior member which Paulette used to do that I guess that's on me now um you know it's it's really important to note that we're not in the rooms making these decisions um that we hire the superintendent and it is a superintendent's job to present a budget um and we can vehemently disagree um and we can vote or not vote for the budget um in the last budget hearing um I made a state M that in Massachusetts no school committee has refused to pass a budget so there was no understanding of what happens on July one if we refuse in that intervening two weeks xbridge actually did not pass a school budget they are sending out layoff notices to all their staff and the state has said on July one they have zero dollars and will not have a school district so let's really hope for x bridge that somebody passes a special law to find a way around this for them I do not envy them but unfortunately the answer we now have from their disaster they're going through is that if we do not approve any budget on July one the Medford Public Schools closes every employee HR by the way included so if you have a question about your benefits too bad the superintendent everybody goes home um until we figure out how to pass a budget so we are not in a situation where we can grandstand and I don't mean that in any way um but sometimes well I mean frankly all of us grandstand at different times um but we can disagree with this all we want but if we do not pass a budget by July one there will be no public school system and that's kind of hard to wrap your head around because you're like it's the law there has to be one but the state just clarified in the last two weeks weeks to xxbridge that no there actually you will have zero dollars to spend nobody will get a paycheck there will be no HR person when you have a change in benefits it's kind of a cat catastrophic level of Anarchy almost that is hard to comprehend but um and I'm sort of glad it's not us that's going through it but you know we're going to try and get more money that's what my motion is for is to do that level service budget so that we have dramatically fewer layoffs um and um but at the end of the day if that number is not we are given we either pass a budget that we dislike immensely or there's no me for public schools on July one those are the two options um and so I have a spreadsheet I share with Dr Cushing if he wouldn't mind um sharing it and if I can interrupt from the chair um for those of you who may be joining us for the first time um lucky you because we do this every year and it um is five years in counting of being pretty bad so what we have tried to do in the last couple of years is um do two things when we are talking about the budget the first is to request what we need from the municipal government so that is that is the motion that member Russo put on the floor then we need to wait patiently or impatiently as it may be um for the mayor to finish her work Citywide um and for the council to pass their budget and once those two things happen the preliminary number that was provided by the mayor under the budget ordinance um by the city council was preliminary that means it's not final so we will get a number through a pass budget via the mayor and the city council at some point between now and the end of June and at that time we typically will pass a second request or a second motion that actually spends the money appropriated so what Mr Russo put on the floor tonight just for you all to be clear is a our request to the municipal government I don't think it outlines any Cuts it's you said level service is that correct correct level service okay and it also adds um four well some of these things were things that were savings like four literacy interventionists we don't actually have any right now even though we had budgeted for them so this adds them back in and then for um P professional behavioral specialists as well thank you and you can see that on the screen now so that request will go to the mayor obviously she's here tonight but that will go to the mayor it will go to the finance team at the city it'll be considered by the city councel bre tomorrow evening um when the superintendent um does her annual presentation to the to the city council they that then we all have to let them do their work um and wait patiently or impatiently depending on who you are and um when they finish their work they'll come back around to us and say Here's your number and then we will be back here if the number is not what we requested it it never is spoiler um and we will talk about like the brass tax of exactly what happens so that's the process I just want to make sure everybody knows what that is um where we are right now is we're making a request um what Jerry has laid out is sort of something in the middle of like what we might request and what is responsive to that preliminary number so um I I just want to make sure everybody is clear on that before we um take public comment but there are no other comments from the school committee um member did you have another comment oh I did not I just turn my mic off okay um M and tapa thank you very much um I again want to just say that I my comments are more comments than questions uh maybe a little bit of both but wanted to take the opportunity to sort of give my concerns to also let people know that they are heard because a lot of them are from the many many emails that we have gotten over the last two to three weeks I believe um and I just want to take a moment and apologize to those who I wasn't able to get to immediately right away but really appreciate you reaching out with your personal experience and things that are going on um and your concerns um again some of the things I'm I'm really concerned about us bouncing back and sort of not bouncing back um really relying on the staffing recommendations I feel like you know may is mental health awareness month and we are in a mental health epidemic in crisis and I'm really really concerned about the amount of nursing the health Cuts as well as the guidance counselor Cuts I know there are adjustment counselors I know we still have 17 of those in this proposed budget however the ease of access to students are the nurses those are the people who if you are having a panic attack you go right to the nurses I have done that numerous times at the high school it is someone where if you don't know where to go that is a safe haven and I know that the high school still has three but that's just an example of you know later on however um I worry about the ones you know the one full-time I know there's some sharing going on I made the comment um at the last meeting and we'll make it again about how one can be a little dangerous especially when it comes to medication at all levels you know you can't be administered to education I mean you can't be administered medication without a nurse present you can't not give it to yourself whether you are seven or you are 19 that is just not a possibility um and so I wanted to really push push back on that you know I I'm I'm you know seeing go from six to four but still really concerned about that um a lot of my other concerns have already been echoed um when it comes to the Performing Arts I'm really happy to hear that you know there's going to be a stip in position however I'm really concerned about a stien position to fund the marching band In Color Guard because that is such an intensive program in our education system I was an orchestra kid so I got to witness firsthand how much you know work they put in and I also want to make a a com that I didn't make earlier but you know we made a comment about how many people were repeating and repeatedly standing up with our students but I want to notice how many of our Humanity success stories had uh Performing Arts marching band and color guard um garments on it's a lot it's a lot of work and I I've seen it and I worry that when we start to stien or we start to do that the work may not be I don't want to say appealing to someone but it's not enough um and oftentimes what that happens is it creates a work environment that is too tiring and then people leave and then we don't want people you know that we've had here for 14 years that really love the work but then can't afford to do the work anymore so they make that tough decision to leave and then we can't find someone to replace them because we no one wants to do that work for you know however much money that is um so those are some of the big concerns that was a lot of the concerns we had gotten in emails was was about the Performing Arts position directly in the state of that I know there was a lot of misinformation I know there was a lot of talk about the performing arts program being slashed or cut entirely um but that's one of the main concerns I have as as someone who sees that sort of on a day-to-day about you know people being underpaid people wanting to have these Ambitions and not being able to fulfill them because of that um the Performing Arts there's a huge you know it was actually said in an email that reminded me of the term social emotional learning and you know how the academic exess again what we just showed the academic success that our um our students have when they are in that um so that that's sort of where my Now new concern is with the stien positions I appreciate there's money being put there however that condition um that also translates to the misuk I was talking to some of my former uh teachers which is crazy to think that um you know seeing them here today um was reminded by one of my teachers that was pregnant when I had them and they showed me a photo of their 16-year-old son um and it made me just really really think back to the time that I was there and it was the Miss tuck um really concerned at the number of positions that's being cut there especially you know a lot of people had said that the class sizes aren't what are as advertised that we have a lot of Staff members really doing the part of their job description that's other duties is assigned covering for each other um and how many of our you know language learning students are there and how we are cutting down at a school where we send a lot of people who need maybe extra Aid uh there and so that's a huge concern of mine um and one that I wanted to Echo from the thousands of comments and and people who are here today to talk about that um I feel like there's definitely some more comments that have definitely been you know re-shared so I won't I won't go through some of that but I just want to again thank everyone who's here today and um thank you Jerry for again being transparent I know this isn't easy to do and I I appreciate being able to look at the numbers and see them um but those are so sort of some of my high Lev concerns so thank you y thank you and thank you member and TOA for summarizing some of those emails because we all got them um so these numbers didn't change since the last meeting um so I will also repeat myself from the last meeting which is to say there are no good Solutions here there's only least bad um but what I want to know is what are the other options here you know we this looks terrible having no money and shutting down the schools is also terrible what other things were considered what can we what can we expect here what if this is the best what what did we not do to make this happen and then particularly in terms of the extenda circumstances numbers I think we've done a great job of presenting the big picture and how much money is here but we got a lot of information about what those on the ground numbers are how many appointments are happening how many um IPS how many particular needs are happening at the missu across health services and I don't see any of that here to understand why what makes this the least bad solution so we're gonna have to figure out with the money and I know it is the the the role of the district to do that um Jerry thank you for absorbing these comments you did the numbers but that's not where you took the data that was given but I feel like I just don't have any of that information about other than hearsay what people have sent me and knowing that this was sat down and said this was the possible course of action and it wasn't feasible because of this but this is feasible and I want to know that it really is I need to know that there's a plan you can say this this person is going away again I'm going to repeat myself because this is the same presentation the work isn't going way and so who's going to be doing it right if you're cutting the person who's leading the effort to roll out our new health curriculum where is that happening now what what will this look like in practice because these are the numbers so I don't know that we have time to get into those nitty gittes but I would really like to see some more information not just on numbers but the the on the ground numbers the qualitative reasons that this is the least bad plan um I think we have a question from our student reps too so um Jerry do you have a an answer I think that's perfectly reasonable and I think the um um member Graham pointed out that you know we're still kind of in the middle of a process but um we need to see you know how much money we'll actually have to spend and then we can uh put some of that information you know in terms of uh plans going forward with some of the uh programs that are affected by cuts no and Darren do you want to speak um uh just responding to something member reinfeld said uh in terms of like other Alternatives other options sort of like least bad options um me and Darren had heard um I don't know how feasible it is but the idea of a prop 2.5% override from the city if in the event the city doesn't Grant the um uh full level budget that we would be asking for um I'm not sure again how feasable that is I'm not a finance guy but I feel like if it sounds like that's not going to be what's happening even if we ask for that budget even if he asked for that money it doesn't sound like the city's really going to give it so my just my thought is like if that doesn't happen is that a possibility to ask the city to ask the people for more money if we can't get more money from the city okay I can take a shot at that how's that sound right so so um in order to put forward a proposition two and a half override to the city um the mayor and the council need to agree to that um I sit on the city's Finance task force and I know that that is very much part of the discussion happening right now so I believe that we will see a request from both the council and the mayor to do a proposition to and a half override there is um there are still a lot of questions to be sort of asked and answered we've never even tried this in Medford before in history we are one of like three communities in the entire state that hasn't even tried we have a lot of questions we're trying to collect answers and those answers might include or could include if we do a proposition two and a half override and it passes how quickly can that money flow to the schools um that is going to and that's why I say we have to let the mayor and this the council do their work um because they have a lot of questions to ask an answer to figure out like what is that path forward there's all kinds of other stuff that goes on in budgeting that the mayor is still working on um as she puts her budget out so she may find that um you know for example local receipts from local receipts were higher than expected and so the revenue forecast can change so there's a lot of variables still happening but I think to answer your question yes a proposition two and a half override is very much on the table and that would allow us in the first time in medford's history to ask the community to tell us how much they value our schools and I I I've said it a million times I've campaigned three times I'm a supporter I will knock on your door and I will convince you when we get there but yeah it's a good question and I think that's where what we're going to do tonight is we're going to make a request so that everybody in the city knows what we need to help Medford Thrive not survive what Jerry has presented is like that sort of middle of the road response that includes both like what do we want to thrive and then what do we think we might actually have at our disposal and how do we sort of close that Gap and if that number that comes back from the city is something less than what we have asked for then this committee will have to make the choices about what is funded and what is not so but to answer your question absolutely um raising revenue is one way that you balance the scales um so you're right On Target it's just not something this group has the authority to do or I would do it tonight Darren there are a lot of things I want to I want to touch on um so first I just want to address the cuts um is working fine comfy these are horrible but comfy you're taller than I can't hit um so I was discussing with uh Noah as well um and we strongly believe that any sort of cuts um whether directly to teaching staff or to the supporting staff that support the students or the faculty or the administration uh will affect the um SOC called teaching core um of students ir and cause irreversible damage um and furthermore I just had some questions regarding uh additional proposed spending since we're talking about Cuts yet there seems to be in my opinion some questionable spending so I just had some questions regarding that um so on the on page 14 of the uh presentation um there's proposed uh 20% of our apple and Chromebook inventory uh Technologies be refreshed and that will cost roughly $477,000 um so I just wondering roughly how much of that is um needs to be immediately replaced is how much can be uh delay until further funding is available yeah so um that represents 20% of the inventory so our approach was to have a fiveyear plan to um a fiveyear cycle to have a complete refresh um the problem that we have is that many of these Chromebooks were purchased uh during covid and of course that was absolutely necessary because of remote learning um so now we are faced with the problem of you know all these Chromebooks are like aging out at the same time so um we really it's going to be still a couple of Rocky uh years I think because the um uh the need will be greater in the beginning of the year but if we can get on um uh one5 refresh I think that well put us on a a good path um the staff actually wanted something shorter and uh I I just didn't think that this was a year that we could entertain that um Jerry can I just also say from the chair that um when you look at the depreciation life cycle of laptops that are frankly like more powerful and sophisticated than a Chromebook um the typical depreciation life cycle is like two or three years in any Corporation so when we talk about a 5year life cycle we're actually talking about a pretty extended life cycle um for our equipment for our students so luckily Chromebooks have fewer moving parts and so that's a little bit more feasible than in a a laptop situation but this depreciation cycle is very long already in today's time yeah and it includes tablets too which I used uh in the lower grades and I just had another question can I just add to that course the the Chromebooks have a designated life cycle not because only of the durability of the device itself but the license the Chromebooks are licensed and the license expires at a set date and they cannot be extended so the Chromebooks not only is it the device it's the device license that comes with it that once that terminates that's it for the Chromebook thank you okay um and another question regarding um buses on page 15 one um I just had a question on um this proposed that there would be two additional buses costing roughly 16500 th sorry $165,000 um I was just wondering where those buses would be going and um based on what sort of studies or data would back up the need for two additional bus well the um that was um in speaking with the um person in charge of Transportation um there was a lot of uh concern in the community about overcrowded buses at the beginning of the school year uh so two buses would would alleviate some of that overcrowding and if that funding was ultimately provided then we would um work with the bus company to redesign The Roots um um in order to uh spread out the the the Riders through uh an increased number of buses superintendent did you have a comment about that yes um I just wanted to comment down that the Brooks and the Robert schools both schools which um had high ridership on the buses the um Elementary buses were really packed and um there was a lot of we were trying to switch routes around so we do need um at least two additional buses in order to alleviate overcrowding on um those bus roads thank you Darren did you have more questions yeah I have one more okay um and then my last question is regarding um the payroll that's HR new positions capacity in supervision to FTE costing roughly $150,000 I was just wondering if there's any possib that instead of adding those new positions if those can be uh kind of uh rolled into existing positions that we have and have those positions fill it out based on doing like cross trainings or uh any other position so that we don't have to add two more while we're cutting the positions yeah yeah um I did not like the idea of trying ask for these two positions in at the same time we're making all these Cuts but um I felt like I would be given uh it I would be providing a disservice to um the school committee if I didn't identify uh this particular need there's um the the there was a um maternity leave uh in payroll this year which resulted in a 50% cut to the staff because there's only two payroll people for the entire District uh they um there's uh a lot of Demands with mtrs reporting now um and that has been behind and we're trying to get that current um many employees participate in benefit programs and tax deferred programs that require uh weekly maintenance when when those um uh when changes uh when employees want to make changes to those programs and uh so somebody has to be there to answer questions and direct the work so my vision for that um the business office is um we have two people in accounts payable uh that could be supervised by the assistant director we have two people in payroll that could be supervised by this new position there's a grants manager and um and of course the director so that to me is kind of a a better organization of the office um when I worked for Chelsea Public Schools there there was 14 positions in the business office um and granted they uh they get a lot more money in Chapter 70 so they have uh kind of the bandwidth to to provide that Staffing and the um the enrollment is is also locked than medfit um but it's just it's too low uh the same thing with with HR there's three people in HR including the HR Director um there's one staff assigned to our absence management application which has to be um maintained you know that takes up most of that person's time just maintaining that to make sure it's accurate it feeds the payroll system it it provides information to School principles about their Staffing uh there's another position that deals with um um fringe benefits as well within HR and um the the the amount of onboarding that has to be done uh getting back to individuals who would like to be substitute teachers beginning of the year it's very difficult to uh uh to keep up with that um uh there's no uh offboarding uh protocol right now that really should be implemented with somebody leaves there's a lot of things that have to be buttoned up um so again that's it's it it's just too lean um there was at one time I was told that there was additional staff in the payroll and additional staff in HR and then over the course of trying to deal with you know uh competing needs um and and not you know sufficient resources to address those needs that those positions have have kind of gone away so I'm recommending um that they be restored I just had a question for the chair sure um would would it be a good time to introduce uh like a petition to the school committee um you can describe it right now if you want point of clarification just before we move on um can you put your microphone on so we can hear you point of clarification yeah um I just wanted to not to stir the pop but in reference to student members strongs with the payroll manorial positions I think there was some also concern from the union about those usually being Administrative Assistant roles and then them being non-union is that still a proposed effort I just want to get clarification if that's changed that was no we're not trying to take work away from right um the administrative assistance but we do believe that the work that the administrative assistance has should be supervised and kind of somebody that can um um lead what work will be done you know particularly at the beginning of the school year at the end of the school year and then at different times there's just uh there's not enough time to get all the work done it's just too too much coming in and somebody has to be uh able to um act as a traffic controller to see what needs to be done immediately and what can be put off okay thank you chair M so while we wait for that um I think you know the we've been asking for additional payroll and business staff for years now um and you know we are the ones to hear that we pass a union we we we get around ified Union contract and it can take months before people get their check um and you know and maybe in 1950 that was one 100% reasonable in this day and age if it's less than a week something's really really wrong you type the numbers into a computer system it does the calculations but we don't have that in Medford um and so considering how manual it is at the moment um we need more staff because so folks should not have to wait weeks or months get a partial for the retroactive stuff and then another month goes by and they get their longevity from three years ago and it's like nobody can figure it out if you're especially on the receiving end um and um you know last I believe it was last year we had a presentation um I forget who gave it to us but we had asked for a uh what would it cost for Medford Public Schools to become modernized computer systems munice is the is pretty much what everybody buys um and it was 18 months and like 1.7 million I think if my memory is correct um to buy the software to train all of the staff to have the Consultants helping all of the staff because you know like the payroll will have to happen the day after we have munus and with all the training in the world you can't just like walk in and just make it happen so we definitely you know and if we had munus we might be able to reasonably have conversations about adding staff but when I look at other districts Malden I believe has 20 people in their business office they're not much bigger than us and we have five is that right six six um there's not less work here there's more work here because we don't have the systems so um I know that choosing between nurses administrative assistants administrators uh teachers and the business office is a pretty ugly choice to have to make but um when people are become employed here it'd be nice if they could start getting a paycheck within a reasonable number of weeks of actually being an employee or when you retire it'd be nice if you can find out hey can I retire now and we can help you instead of by the time you get an answer you've already decided Well I guess I'm not retiring this year um so it it is an ugly choice but it is one we have been pushing for for several years and um I hope we can keep that in the budget because in addition to everything I just described the school committee has asked for reports that are not possible with the Staffing levels we have some of them are possible because of the systems and the software can't just push them out but um and and these reports are not just another report to throw in the recycling bin they're reports to help us guide the district and understand where we want me public schools to go and without that information you know it's it's you're steering without a map and it's it's just not a a good situation so I appreciate that they're in there I hope we can keep them in there but um I also just hope we can get the 79 million and stop being all worried thank you Darren did you want to um tell us about your petition so on behalf of the students of meford High School uh Technical vation High School along with faculty members with over 200 student signatures and over a dozen faculty uh member signatures including the teach me Teachers Association Union president Mr Gan um we'd like to introduce this petition uh to the school committee the students of meford public schools are formally writing this petition to Madame mayor Brianna Longo Kern meford City Council and meford school committee to ask that the rainy day fund be utilized to fully reconcile the meford public schools funding deficit for the meford public schools 2024 to 2025 school year we believe this action is not only possible but necessary to preserve the quality of education and well-being of students and faculty attending educational facilities throughout the district we believe that the budget cuts proposed constitutes an immediate emergency to the students of meford public schools the stakeholders petitioning the city acknowledge that the city of meford is presently experiencing a budget deficit if approved however the school committee's proposed cuts of 20124 2025 budget will have a detrimental effect on the quality of education and well-being of students and faculty and may further Drive Away families from considering enrollment in our City's public schools in particular Cuts proposed to the numerous school nurse positions administrative assistants guidance counselors teachers coordinator of Music Etc put me public school students at an educational emotional and social disadvantage compared to the surrounding public and private schools while surrounding school districts will be investing more resources to improve quality of education and address student well-being manord will be stripping away the already limited systems in place if the affir affir mentioned positions are cut student athletic enrollment Arts andol ment academic self-efficacy and the ability to seek medical examination will be severely reduced and slor delayed students with medical conditions may not be able to receive treatment within an adequate time frame engage in extracurricular activities or enjoy field trips due to shortage of Staffing necessary forms and paperwork will take significantly longer to process and students will meet with their guidance counselors less frequently and may miss many educational opportunities furthermore teachers will have larger class sizes put more strain on our already overburdened faculty irrevocably harming our school committee one specific area that will be systematically quote gutted as a result of the proposed budget cuts is our beloved music and fine arts department the current position of coordinator of Fine Arts plays a vital role in the daily operations of the music and fine arts department this position cordinates numerous activities including but not limited to scheduling all Fine Arts concerts and performances band band classes marching band Color Guard drama club and any music and Fine Art field trips we are especially concerned that this action will set a dangerous precedent and will become a larger issue if ignored sidelined students deserve an exceptional learning environment with well-paid teachers and faculty as well as a safe and operable facilities in order to thrive in a fast-paced learning environment it is for all the reasons highlighted in this petition and many more that we request just 5 million of the 25 million currently stored in the rain day fund be used to fill the operational deficit for the 2024 2025 meford public school budget this action will give the meford city government time to propose a 2.5% override tax measure for property taxes and provide the meford community crucial time to vote on said tax measures again this is not only possible but necessary in order to to ensure that students get the education they deserve spe thank you Darren thank you Noah there's many many pages of signatures here so thank you um and I think you know sorry I'm gonna maybe step away oh is it can you turn your mic off I it's causing the feedback okay I think that's better I'll stand back um uh I I know that this has been particularly hard on students thank you all for being here tonight um I long for a day where our students can just be kids and they don't have to worry about budget cuts um and we're not there yet obviously judging by how many students are in the audience um but you're you you've all been heard you've all been heard by all of us I don't think there's a single person in this room that wants to make the kinds of cuts that we are talking about having to make um and we will get to a vote that sort of solidifies that in just a little bit but before we do that um I do want to hear from the Comm the community if there are folks who would like to speak um so as a reminder three minutes please be brief um and if you come to oh sorry M La go ahead thank you um I think I just want to Echo what our student representatives are saying and I think what we're hearing from the community and email and other Communications and just passing um I said something about this in the previous meeting where how do we weigh the cost of Education to student preferences student interests and how we support our students in every aspect of their experience um in the classroom um and outside the classroom and I think that What's Happening Here is that we are all noticing and recognizing that this can't happen we can't do it this way our students deserve more and I hope that we continue to advocate for that and work towards finding some way that we can avoid these Cuts or in ways when if we do have to have these Cuts how we can cons solve they properly so that student experience inside and outside the classroom is not being affected in any direct way um I think what's most important to recognize is that our students here are speaking not only from their personal experience from the experiences of those they are are part of their kinship the people that they're recognizing people that they're seeing as being ones who need to speak for what they believe in and I can thank you enough for being here um and speaking for your experience I wanted to speak to Jerry if he's still here did he leave oh thank you I just had two quick questions on the slideshow so on Slide Five um and I just mentioned before from the previous meeting on May 6 you know the the bullet point some theater sections will be offered as part of a teaching assignment to align with student interest how are we clarifying or how do we determining student interest because evidently students want these types of programs I understand that this particular Point suggests that students are not as interested in the in school you know theater program necessarily but out of school of course that's the case yes yeah so the out out of school you know I think we've covered that that's in the budget um this particular position I think um you know students um fill out their schedule preferences that just went through a process uh on that I think for this particular position there were only 11 students over three sections um that chose so there could be a section for those 11 students but it doesn't necessarily command um uh a full teaching position and then on slide 11 with the guidance counselor for the fy2 staffing the according to this that you're not going to reduce the MHS Staffing in any way but for the mlin and the Andrews if we just you know just do the basic math if you were to reduce the MHS from six to four and then move two of those counselors to the one to the mclin one to the ERS to maintain those Staffing numbers from FY 24 at the middle school levels I mean at the elementary you would have a you know 20 220 students to one counselor and then you would have a 295 to one counselor at the MHS which is more consistent with the national averages you're suggesting um I don't love using National averages I'm sure most of us would not like to and I understand that we might have to in this unfortunate case but that seems to be more consistent with that yeah well I think the the main point um like my I am not the last word on this you know and there's there's um the feedback from school committee and then we have a program director so I think the bottom line for guidance counselors is um very good um was it better this year yes uh but um you know the directors now can weigh in and kind of smooth out those uh uh th make those Staffing decisions to make sure there's as much Equity as possible okay and then I think the last comment is kind of piggy back off what I said pre previously I think that when we are receiving emails and Communications from people in the public and we're seeing parents and students um most primarily saying how do we advocate for our students when we're not seeing that from our government we're not noticing how they're being supported and that's their responsibility and I think it's our responsibility to find ways that we're actually doing that and I think that at what point does it stop because I think that um member Graham mentioned that if we continue this the previous meeting when we if we continue the system of not making decisions that are going to financially support our students people aren't going to come here and people aren't going to stay here and we're seeing that Trend at the middle school and high school level and I think that I don't know how to make the immediate fix and I'm not sure we necessar have one direct fix and I think Cuts is not the way um especially at this level um and then we have the other amount of money that isn't really being discussed that could be even more Cuts potentially and so I think that I just don't know what we do if Cuts is the only fix because at what point do we then start cutting programs because that's not that's not on the table now but it will continue that will become a problem if we continue down this path and I understand that you're not you know the one that created the system that we currently live in financially but I think that we need to continue figuring out ways to avoid cuts um I know that our student representativ suggested a prop two and a half um and other ways that we can improve our financial situation here in Medford so I mean we will continue to look for resources I we've corresponded by email but the interim uh uh Health director is um interested in U medic reimbursement which we receive some but we could actually improve our uh reimbursement potential that might provide some resources for extra staff as well um but I completely agree with you that you know this is um a trajectory that we don't want to be on um and uh you know the the school committee is right to kind of advocate with uh City representatives and U our Department of Education that Governor field rep you know you you can you should continue your advocacy to get the adequate funding that we need thank you member so thank you I'll just be quick because um um Darren actually said something really important about um time um and um Jerry have you already begun projections for next year if for next for FY 26 on you know I mean some of those things you can just stick them in a spreadsheet find out here's what the teacher contract says here's what the custodial contract says here's how much it's going up have you started that already yes yes so the the salary um increase of four million was was based on projections for fy2 I meant for fy2 six you you can see into the future on some things open contracts you can't necessarily but you can make a guess yeah am I correct that um we will have a very similar nightmare next year if we do not dramatically increase renue you are correct thank you I think that's important for anybody who might be on the fence about an override um because if we don't then what we're doing right now is going to seem like the good old days because once we've if we have to go through with these Cuts next year like all those things are gone already what else is it we're cutting and you know I said in the last meeting arts and I don't mean all of Arts this year obviously still $1.75 million um but if we are multiple millions of dollar short next year we're not cutting math we're not cutting science we're not cutting English and we're not cutting history did I get all those um those aren't really those are not options we're not getting rid of elementary schools or middle schools so when you look at what we will not be in trouble with with the state if we cut we all know what programs those are and there's a lot of people here from those programs um and so we have this nightmare to get through right now but the moment we finish and pass some budget we are it's like rinse and repeat if we do not find dramatically more revenue for the city and the state is not going to come and save us at all they really aren't um and I think you know I I certainly Advocate with my my state senator and the State Rep and you know there's some improvement but as I said in the last meeting the there's no formula to fix Medford because our property taxes everybody wants to say their property taxes are too high because nobody likes taxes but our property taxes are the seventh lowest in the state um and you may not feel it I may not feel it and I certainly don't look forward to paying more in taxes but the facts are the facts so the state will not fix this problem so if we do want to have a public school system we'd be willing to send our kids to we have to pay more on property taxes is the only actual option the only option because we don't want to like say to the teachers oh you're going to get 0 perents for the next three years you know everybody's like you get two and a half every year that's too much and then in the same breath but we're going to give teachers 3% a year and I'm not saying they don't deserve it but second grade math says you get two and a half% more you're G to give out 3% more where's it supposed to come from the answer is it's supposed to come from increasing property taxes going up more than two and a half and that's not a school committee problem to solve although we can scream about it till the end of days um that's a city problem uh you know mayor and city council problem and then the voters and hopefully lots of you all will join in the drive to get people to vote um because if you don't next year we're going to have this conversation again and we're not going to be cutting a coordinator or a um non-filled theater teacher if we have to cut many millions of dollars next year I mean I don't I don't want to say those words out loud but we all know it is not math it's not science it's not English and it's not history it's Arts that that's what it is so I hope we can get past just tonight and this budget and recognize this is your engagement has got to continue because showing up once a year isn't going to fix it thank you [Applause] member brandley um so just to follow up um Jerry you had mentioned that when things are cut we would then talk to the directors about how that would happen but didn't we cut the directors it says six right departments affected administrators is that the same thing yep but that's not all but I I think the point is they're still employed at Meer Public Schools through the end of this year so this that work would have to happen in the right now in order to be ready for next year so if the contract ends June 30th and we get the numbers on June 30th didn't you mention that date how do how do we ask somebody who's no longer in the position um I think the hope is that we would have those numbers long before June 30th well I have a lot of hopes tonight and I'm not sure that there going to happen so we can hope that that's the case but is that really the reality if if we've cut those positions uh which there are still a a number of um directors and coordinators employed you know to make Department yes but why would I want someone in a different department to answer the question about a different department am I am I missing something um the superintendent can answer she' like yes membery I'm asking for clarification you are asking if the directors and administrators have been informed about the um potential cuts and what would happen yeah so I know that they've been informed and and Jerry said that he doesn't have the final Ines that he would consult with the directors and they would they would you know figure things out then but if we've cut the directors how do we ask them no so we we have had I have had d conversations with all of the impacted individuals and what would happen is once we have the final numbers that we're working with at that point in time we will impact bargain with their Union representatives and look at where the work would be redistributed okay so um I've been an ongoing communication um with their representatives as well and so um we we're just kind of in a holding pattern right now but there has been communication and um it has been clearly communicated okay um on the payroll positions um it says that there are times people are waiting weeks or months and that it would be nice um that we could if we could get some of these reports that we've been asking for that some some of the things we asked for is a system issue but some is a person issue so if it's a syst an issue and we hire two people we still have the system that we have to deal with that we're not getting a new one up so if we have two people that still can't get those numbers out of the system is it really worth hiring the two people um well for payroll we're suggesting going from two people to three people okay um and then for the retirement does retirement not go through City Hall um even local yeah the city administers a local retirement system and we have uh School staff that are members of the local retirement system and then uh the teachers and certified administrators belong to the mass teachers retirement system so that comes from that office you're talking about in payroll well both I mean they both have uh needs um so do we know if if the holdup is City side or School side no my mising I make sure there's a lot of there's a lot of um request for information so if PE people going to retire that's going to trigger um uh requests from information from mtrs uh some people might be planning their retirement so they ask mtrs you know what what are my options when can I retire and so they have to come and request information from us okay uh to try to figure that out and then there's every time we run a payroll we we have a need to do reporting to uh mtrs as well okay um and then just in the um sake of Education um I just want to give the definition of grandstanding it's It's a noun and it's derogatory and it says it's the action of behaving in a showy Manner and attempt to attract favorable attention from Spectators or the media so I in no way ever want to be grandstanding if I seem grandstanding to you uh this is just who I am can I show my heart on my sleeve and I have passion for things that I care about and this is what I care about and this is why I'm in the seat are there members of the public that would like to speak can you state your name and address for the record uh Benjamin vers 17 Palmer uh Benjamin vers 17 pal stre K Le 90 Avenue uh members of the school committee my name is Benjamin vers I'm a junior at Medford High School and one of the drum Majors for the Medford High School Marching Band I've been part of the band program since in Medford since fifth grade my name is k Le Al I'm also a drum major and also a junior at Medford High School and I've also been a part of the band program since fifth grade and we just would like to share I guess our perspective on this and how it affects us we stand before you today to advocate for the position of the coordinator of Performing Arts within the Medford Public Schools the coordinator of Performing Arts plays a pivotal role in creating and growing a vibrant and successful Arts community in Medford they Pro they provide invaluable support to many performing groups including marching band High School uh the marching band High School concert band and middle school concert band as well as Elementary band Color Guard theater program and the jump start music camp we are sure you already understand the numerous benefits of Performing Arts for us as students it's valuable it's a valuable extracurricular activity uh it provides avenues for self-express connection and it creates a sense of self- belonging and camaraderie and it also Fosters school spirit we would also like to make it very clear that we understand that you do not intend to get rid of this these programs however by removing the coordinator of Performing Arts you risk dismantling the infrastructure that sustains these programs um without adequate guidance and support these groups will struggle to operate efficiently leading to a decline in participation and quality so the marching band was hit especially hard by the pandemic and we dropped from about 80 students every year to this year only 14 win players and evidently the past few years have been rebuilding years for us and you can see this if you look at our elementary bands and our Middle School bands today um just two weeks ago at our annual spring band concert we had an elementary band of 125 students perform for hundreds at chaler theater and in just a few more years with the continued support of this position this director the high school marching band will grow back to and possibly even surpass um its former State and enrollment in the band class at the high school level tells a similar story removing this position risks halting all the momentum that we've gained when momentum is lost it is easy for a program to decline until it disappears altogether this by no means is a new story other programs in clubs like the dance department or more recently interact Club have disappeared because of a loss of vital leadership and support again we understand that you don't want to do these uh Cuts but we however we we also urge you to understand that the Performing Arts cannot succeed without this position thank you thank you your name and address for the record please Maria zra 56 Lambert Street okay so I'm a junior at Medford High and I am the captain of the Color Guard team and I've been in color guard for almost five years now color guard has taught me the importance of leadership commitment and dedication and it has taught me to deal with my anxieties and just perform in front of large crowds the next two seasons of marching band and winterart are going to be my very last seasons and I am beyond excited because I know that we will be able to bring home even more trophies and medals to add to our undefeated status during our competitions parents and students from other schools will come to us and tell us about how excited they are to see our shows and how much they love us but this reputation that we we have built as the Medford Mustang marching B and color guard will crash and fall without the support of Miss re Miss re has had many obstacles in her time in Medford High and she has persevered through all of them for her students whenever we lacked proper funding she single-handedly started fundraisers or even paid out of her own pocket to help us win season after season whenever we had nowhere to practice and prepare for our competitions she fought relentlessly to get us at least and Elementary School cafeteria to practice in it was certainly better than nothing in her position as you've heard she is not only responsible for marching band and color guard but also the drama club and jumpstart music camp and all of these have had the most successful Productions and seasons in this year than ever before so I urge you not to make this decision you will struggle to find someone else qualified enough to fill such an involved position everything we have built will mean nothing because we may never be able to reach the same amount of success without her persistent efforts and I want to bring up one more thing the reason why we have such a small amount of students taking band classes is because of our poor scheduling in our school currently like CTE exploration and um the fact that there are not enough classes offered throughout the day and because of these poor scheduling problems s um we have to make up for the time lost after school with added practice days so I just wanted to that thank you name and address for the record 65 Fountain Street so I'm one of the captains of the color guard and I've been part of the marching band for three years and next year is my last and final year and I can't wait to perform perform the last final show wear my last final costume and look at the last final props that I'll be seeing for the past 14 years Mrs re and our coach Jackie gaty started a marching band and color guard from nothing and organized each show for their students for us and they have worked tirelessly so that we can have a show every season and even a better show every year and inspired us to continue our passion every single time and along the way they fa a series of challenges such as losing our Winter Guard floor and chasing after it and dealing with understaff positions dependent on stiens and the school only provides three marching band stiens yet we have 11 marching band staff members during the fall and to support us Mrs R started a band parent organization to fund competition fees buses uniforms flags and in struments ensuring that we can have a show or even the thought of having a show and in my time with the band I have never seen one moment where Miss B is not thinking about us or working on the marching band show or even organizing concerts for the high school middle school and Elementary School the marching band is a place of musical enrichment and belonging and the fine arts program may be identical with out her but the experience will not be the same and this place is our family and it's become my family as well and taking this experience away from us would change everything so I ask you please reconsider Mrs Fell's position on the budget please thank you thank you Mandy name and address for the record Road med good evening I'm here to represent the B parent ation I've been volunteering for the past 13 years and some of you may have seen me around I've also volunteered in events to take place throughout the school such as arts and drama and the main reason we're still around after all these kids my kids have graduated uh for the kids in the school I can go all night on why this is so important to the school and the band color God and drama the changes of so many of these kids' lives friendships bonds have been made I believe it's time that she puts in into place to take I'm not sure if everyone knows how much time that she puts into this I'm pretty positive that no one does I'm talking about Mrs re the endless hours that she puts in Above and Beyond in the Sens of payout in these positions let me run through them spring band camp 15 hours equals five days excuse me five days per three three hours per day August band camp 70 hours 10 days 7 Days um we get weekly practices 72 hours 10 weeks Tuesdays and Wednesdays practices three hours each three satday practices four hours each nesbet competitions 72 hours equal six competitions with practice in the morning 12h hour days they are long days football games 16 hours four games four hours each game to set up and breakdown parades for fundraising two parades four hours each and that's on our own time that's a total of 283 hours so if you break that wage down of what she gets for stiens to $33,700 it's breaks down to about $13 an hour that's not including the trips that we go on such as the matching down Main Street in Disney and Six Flags competitions Hershey Park nesba meetings that take place 30 35 hours year we have a couple of trophies which youve probably seen in the audience with us over 100 plus have been W because of her she's always been trying to make Medford the schools to where everyone wants to be there is no stiens for that so who can we get to do all that with the heart of what she has to put into it for less than $13 an hour I hope this will give you some information towards what she does in the city and she's so proud of us in the city that she provides so I keep hearing that she has that we're not getting rid of maing band drama and color so she's the backbone bone of all this so is she walking out who's taking the position I mean it sounds like we're not keeping her position so i' just like to know who's going to fulfill all these drama color God uh Mach and band and all these other programs that you Prov thank you um I'm gonna ask the superintendent to answer your question once we get through some of this public comment thank you point of clarification Vice chair um point of clarification I know that we made a motion earlier to strike the addresses of our student members in the minutes would it make sense to suspend the rules or make a motion to strike the students who have to speak further to give their address when they speak at the podium for minutes or there I mean most people aren't giving it anyway or it can't be heard so I think we're okay if you just want to tell us your name that's fine I just want to clarify and make that known to the students that they don't have to sure thank you they have your name and address for the record Brendon crowy T stick in the road um I'm 19 years old and I graduate from Metro vational Technical High School last year I've been a part of the March and band for a total of 11 years four years helping my dad load and unload the trailer while my brother was playing the drums six years playing bass drum and one year coming back as staffed out March band after I graduated now was I good at the drums no but did I enjoy it yes I did um when I first joined the fifth grade band class at the Roberts Mrs REO taught us how to play our choice of instruments and was already talking about students that that they're able to join Marching In when they get to middle school trying to recruit them [Music] early as you have probably already heard multiple times this is not a full-time I mean this is not a part-time job it's a full-time job it requires a lot of lost hours of sleep and preparation just for March and 11one adding on the hours to plan for the concerts field trips events around the city Winter Guard and School Musical adds a lot more hours of work in late nights at the school getting ready for these events without Mrs R the band will fall apart and without the band and the other Fine Arts we lose creative Outlets uh for children who really need them thank you thank you is there somebody else who would like to speak go minut address for the record please hi my name is joia morbe I live at 50 Hicks Avenue Medford Mass um honestly um to clear up most of the confusion which I'm sure you've heard is there's not a concern of um removing performance Arts it's the concern of Miss re because she is the Performing Arts and if their her position is eliminated the question is where does she stand because without her she is and I love all the teachers here I grew up in Medford I've gone to school um I love all these teachers I see some of my elementary school teachers here and I'm so happy they're here and the one thing that I can say is Miss re hands down is the heart of the of Medford she is one of the most hardworking teachers I have ever met in my life when I was auditioning for drum corp um in 2020 before covid she would stay with me up until 8:00 pm some nights just just to help me rehearse the concern about her position is yes we understand that um that her job could her position could be removed and replaced with more costeffective um Solutions but there are hours countless hours that go into such a position that you do not even see there are many hours that are unpaid that go behind and if taking away her position and finding more cost-effective ways to solve the problem are put into place the Integrity of our programs of the drama club of the marching band even just other musical um arts in the school their the Integrity of them falls short because there as you see there's not a lot of Performing Arts Educators in the Medford Public School System and there is an understanding that of course the major subjects math history they're important yes and there's an understanding of that but I as an educator I teach the Medford band I'm an Alum and I most of my hours are unpaid honestly like I received the very little check this year and that wasn't even a concern of mine because there's nothing more rewarding and seeing children who have such a love for something you don't find that love a lot of places but you see kids who are marginalized every day if you hear some of these stories of these kids who struggle in school and they and they have a lot of children have mental health disorders and they're really struggling a lot of these places that they find Healing that they find connection is in these Performing Arts is in arts in general and honestly if we if we say say that you guys are here for the schools you're here for the children why is there not a concern for what these children need to be able to thrive emotionally mentally physically because this is why they're all here this is why they're all standing right here because they feel like this is the only place they have and since Miss re she'll sit with you at lunch she'll talk with you she's someone she's some of the only people that she helps kids get into college she helped me with my college application those are hours that can't be paid that can't be made up so I urge you the school committee I don't care about the positions I care about Miss REO and who she is to this community and if you take her away where do the rest of us stand thank you thank you name for what um I'm a senior at Medford High School and I've been in in the band for like six years and this is really hard for me to talk about but I deal with mental health struggles and stuff and a lot of my friends are in band and I want to see them Thrive next year when I come back from college and I'm going to join College Band and stuff and that's all because of the band here and it's really important to me that like I see them Thrive and it's such a family I feel like we all look out for each other and we all help each other like Jia helped me with my college applications like during finals during finals during a band competition she helped me with my college applications and that's like I feel like that's something you won't find anywhere else that's like a community you won't find anywhere else other than like the Arts and with band and like Miss re runs it all that's all thank you are there other bents who would like to talk no okay um superintendent can you respond to the question that was posed earlier before we continue I hope I'm responding to the uh question appropriately but for Miss re um I have met with her we have spoken about um other positions within the district that would be available where she would be able to have um some flexibility basically um some of the work looking very similar to what was happening like two years ago um so we have had discussions we have not um fully identified what that could potentially look like but the idea would be that if she was um in some type of a teaching capacity whether it could be at the high school or working with Elementary band she would still be um involved in the Arts and we would work collaboratively to um figure out the the the additional band responsibilities um there is impact bargaining which I said earlier needs to happen because she is part of a um a unit but um prior to two years ago we had one um administrative role which covered the Arts and so we're we're going back to one administrative role working with the Arts but seeing how we could be creative to still have uh to still allow our students to have an identical Arts experience and So based on all of the work that we've been doing and looking at for from a student perspective the students would still be having access to all of the Arts the the one position that was r produced we talked about at the high school level that was one theater position where 11 students signed up out of 1,200 students for three sections and that's just not financially sustainable but aside from that that is the um only official um position that had been reduced but it was reduced due to enrollment so even if we weren't in this predicament there would have been a reduction there because it wasn't [Music] sustainable thank you your name and address for the record good evening my name is Kristen Turner 38a dadley Street Arlington I'm currently a teacher in the Medford Public Schools the fine arts department Performing Arts specifically I've worked with Mrs R for 15 14 years I have also been instrumental no pun intendent in in developing the elementary music and the middle school program as well as currently the last three years as an instructor in the jumpstart music program and so I just want to stand with our students and advocate for the clarification thank you Dr vinon for that clarification and what may take place uh going forward and advocating for our students at the high school level because I'm most concerned about a comprehensive music program for General music band strings grades K to 12 and yes this does vitally impact our marching band but it also impacts all our programs K to 12 and for 15 years I advocated and was the instructor for the district at the elementary level and in three years now you I heard the numbers for the jump and the program going forward we have over 120 students performing at the elementary and middle school level there needs to be an opportunity at the high school level to have that comprehensive arts program thank you very much thank you your name and address for the rec Jennifer Silva 49 winr Street um hello school committee superintendent and mayor um I am a school nurse I am also the chairperson of the meher chapter of the Massachusetts School nurs Association I'm a parent with children in the meher public schools students were always a tough act to follow but they did an awesome job and I want to Echo as a parent um who has a student in the elementary band that Haley R is the heart and soul of our Band program so she is really amazing um and so Kudos all these kids back here and I also want to speak a little bit about the pros staff cuts of the misuk um I am a misak parent but I know there's tons of Educators and parents behind me so they will speak to that some more um just to sort of clarify some things that were said during the presentation um I want to remind everybody that we do not currently have a director of Health Services um on our outgoing director did give recommendations prior to her departure but those do not match what's in the proposed um budget that's been presented okay um nurse staffing really needs to be based on Acuity not numbers the numbers that were brought up earlier the Massachusetts recommendation of 1 to 250 500 students that data is from 1998 the information from nassin National Association School nurses of one nurse to to 750 is from 2011 so I think there have been a lot of changes since then um currently the NASA position statement was reviewed and revised in June 2020 and I'd like to read it it says as the position of the National Association of School nurses that access to a registered professional nurse all day every day can improve students health safety and educational achievement student Acuity and school Community indicators should be assessed to determine appropriate Staffing levels access to a school nurse May mean that more than one school nurse is necessary to meet the needs of the school population couple of things that I just want to give some real life scenarios of what these proposed Cuts mean for nursing so it's been mentioned many times that the high school is not being cut who do you think is going to go to the other schools when nurses are out the nurses from the high school so our we will be we will be cut essentially because we'll probably have two nurses on most days if we have to go cover other schools without Subs um currently based on seniority um one of the nurses that's sort of on the proposed Cuts is a high school nurse we also have a high school nurse will be on maternity leave in the fall which means one experienced high school nurse in that office and having to bring people up from other offices and move people around so when we talk about oh one nurse at the books or 1.5 here those people are going to get shifted um the Brooks one school nurse proposed sees almost 90 visits a day I don't know how one school nurse could see 90 visits in one day that's impossible um quick story last week we had a situation in one of our buildings where one student was exhibiting signs of a seizure while at the same time another student with diabetes was having a hypoglycemic episode which means they were having really low blood sugar um both of these could have resulted in true medical emergencies but luckily there were two nurses in the building who could manage both emergencies while they were happening if there was only one nurse available that nurse would have to decide which student to care for I don't think any parent wants us to make that decision um if there had been one nurse one of those would have truly resulted in a medical emergency that honestly could have resulted in death seizures hypoglycemia those are medical emergencies we need nurses on staff to manage those emergencies so I Ur you not to pass this budget as is find a way to keep appropriate nursing staffing and remember that safe Staffing safe lives thank you your name and address for the record hi I'm Norton I live at N3 Street uh superintendent Edward Vincent at the start of this meeting you said that the student experience me high would not be affected by the budget cuts anyone with a brain can tell you that is a blatant lie with the help of Performing Arts director the drama club its best show in recent in my memories history with Mom Mia uh the band with their trophies has won a myriad of awards across the last you know four years of me being here with the help of his re the loss this position along with every other position being cut will set Med for back years classes are already overcrowded at every level of schooling teachers and fact are ridiculously overworked I'm an AP student a class that thrives on individual attention from teachers and small class sizes for discussion and growth of individual students one of the AP English classes in my year has 29 students one less than the acquired maximum that is not a safe place to foster a good learning environment cutting these members will only ruin these classes more and take away from Individual student attention to quote Nicole brandley we are barely surviving these budget cuts will rip the heart and soul of Medford out furthermore in my four M High I have never seen you once sitting on a class talk to a teacher or faculty member or talk to a student if you want to make these Cuts please know who you're talking to make a connection speak to anyone I beg of you thank you thank you your name and address for the record hi Stephanie lowki 37 hiav me Massachusetts good evening thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak tonight on the proposed school budget we are the missu we are here tonight to talk to you about how cutting five teaching positions will impact our school and our students we love our students our students are the future our students are Priceless while we understand the complexities around the school budget deficit cutting five teaching positions from one Elementary School an elementary school that is currently in search of a new principle with all of these changes on the horizon first student population we're asking you to rethink this very unwise decision let's strive to do what is right for the Miss talk elementary students thank you thank you your name and address for the record yes um Paula Burke 37 Hicks Avenue Medford um good evening superintendent um chair and mayor thank you for giving us this opportunity to speak this evening um I'm speaking on behalf of the teachers the families and the students of Medford I actually grew up in Medford I am a former graduate of Medford High School and currently I'm a first grade teacher with over 24 years of service to our city and there'll always be a budget to balance above all it takes knowledge and good judgment the original um proposed budget if it's passed um that proposes these cuts to our school department especially the misch school will affect us in the following ways um we'll have bigger class sizes that will affect our social and emotional needs of our most needy children since the pandemic medfin made it a priority to support all students with enough Educators and programs in the schools to address their needs these Cuts will not allow for these programs and teachers to continue to provide this support the miss school will be impacted the most by these cuts which also includes the therapeutic learning program as well as the newcomer um we can all agree that the Early Elementary years are very important years that as we are building these necessary foundational skills for learning in life research shows that having large class sizes impacts the students in many ways including less individualized support for students overpopulated classrooms can cause more anxiety in children and is a challenge to provide consistent communication with families um please put yourself in these little shoes of our youngest population and make a decision to put them first when making important decisions with our school budget thank you so much thank you name an address for the record uh Allison gilmet 37 Hicks of I'm also a teacher at the misuk I'm the computer technology teacher here to represent the Specialists uh if this proposed Bud budget doesn't pass and class sizes are adjusted to 22 plus most classes will be even larger with the p push in of the TLP and the El newcomers making our classes maxed out for individualized Teacher support student engagement access to all all the materials and not to mention the physical space which for some classrooms is already at capacity currently we are able to Pro provide that individualized support and attention to those that need as well as engage with students on a one toone basis at some point during the class as Specialists we service the whole school for only 45 minutes each week having smaller class sizes enables us to cultivate engaging interactive lessons and meet all student needs each of them at the Muk thank you thank you your name and address for the record H cath Kathleen Vader 37 Hicks a uh so my name is can you hear me my name is Kathleen fader and I'm a school adustment counselor at the missak I've been at the misuk and with the district for six years now I'm here to speak on behalf of the therapeutic team we believe our students will be negatively impacted by the proposed teacher position cuts to the building this year over 25% of the MCH student population has been individually supported by one of the therapeutic staff members on top of our 25% um identified case load we also provide many more with in the- moment counseling crisis response Endor social emotional regulation and teacher cons consultation the students we serve require social emotional accommodations and supports to be implemented in the classroom by those teachers these accommodations can vary and may include reinforcement systems break schedules specific communication plans for families specific engagement uh engagement strategies with each student our success hinges on the hard work of the teachers to implement these for our students we have an extremely strong teaching team at misuk they are Relentless in their willingness to support all aspects of our students they are constantly seeking our Insight our ideas our expertise to make sure every single Miss student is given everything they need to succeed the current plan to cut positions will directly impact the ability of our amazing teachers to do the exceptional work they do ultimately impacting the associal emotional well-being and learning for our students thank you thank you name an address for the record Julia Murphy 37 Hicks AV um I am a special educator in the therapeutic learning program at the mck school uh in my fourth year with all the challenges our students and our staff face throughout the school day one of the most rewarding experiences for the TLP staff is seeing our students flourish and thrive in general education inclusion many of our students use the skills they gain in the TLP to rejoin their general education peers 30% of our program currently includes in general education classes and are not on those rosters when there's more students including in your room there are more challenges there are more voices that need to be heard more accommodations that needed to be provided and consults that need to be attended what I found working at the MCH Elementary School when I go to a grade level meeting is that our students are welcomed with open arms teachers work with our staff to learn what our students need and how they can work collabora collaboratively as a team when we choose classrooms for our students to include in we look at things like class sizes student need already in the classroom and best fit the best fit is smaller class sizes where student where teachers can give the students the time and energy they need when a student in the TLP is in a classroom for one hour or two the attention from the teacher that they receive is vital during these times teachers are providing accommodations not only academically but behaviorally as well with increased class sizes we're not considering the students who are not on those rosters like our newcomer and therapeutic program therapeutic students our Jed teachers treat all of the students in their building as their own and welcome everyone as they walk through the door teachers meet these needs when they have the time and the ability and the resources to do so we are taking away resources from our District's most vulnerable students I was recently asked what the most important piece of the misset school is and that is the fierceness of our teachers and how we fight for our students and that's what we're doing right now I urge you to consider how these Cuts will affect our most vulnerable students in every piece of their day thank you thank you your name and address will be hi there Kathleen K I'm the present principal at the Miss elementary school and I'm here tonight before you thank you for listening to us and hearing our thoughts and and and ideas but I'm basically here to support the staff because they are wonderful they really are truly truly and I think anything I'm going to say right now they've said better than I have and I'm not rised because that's how wonderful they are um collectively individually as Educators and I've seen them for 12 years and I've watched them grow I've watched them come together and collaboratively it's really a great place to work the missu really is medford's Hidden Gem and um I've been here for 12 years so I think I I have the right to say that maybe I don't but it's my bias but I'm I feel that but I think what's important is first of all our adjustment counselors do sometimes teach classes because that was brought up before and I think it was uh said that they don't but they do at the Miss talk um the other thing is I just wanted to give some numbers and I know that the mlin also has uh the El newcomer group but they don't have the TLP and that's the therapeutic learning program and they do they're lovely children and as the teacher said they're welcomed with open arms but they do require a little bit more manpower and so looking at some of the proposals if we go down to two pretty much except for kindergarten because we don't know who the El newcomers will be and they're all new Every class what I've done with the numbers that I have is once they go to their Specialists there's going to be at least 27 to 28 kids in that specialist class many of whom do not speak English at all as their first language and also one or two of those TLP kids because on some of the grade levels there's only going to be two classes and as you all know when you do placements and we try like Julia I believe had said that we want to do the best balance we can for the kids so that they're getting the best education and the teachers are able to give that to them and when you add children into these classes that who that don't speak English they want to be part of the group but sometimes when there's not enough teacher ability to help them then they kind of hang by themselves and they don't really get fully what they need in those specialist classes now you add the TLP that bring their own challenges and like I said they're welcome with open arms but I just do worry with the larger class sizes that there will be something lost for those kids so I just want to thank you for your time and thank you for my 12 years here thank you to my wonderful staff you name an address for the record please Tera Hennessy 59 Bowden Street I think you all received my nice long email that I sent earlier this week um obviously my children go to the misuk so I have W in fourth grade in Miss shrim wiz's class one in kindergarten and Miss Pena's class sorry about my voice I'm also the PTO president and have luckily served on the p on the PTO for the past four years now um one of the things and I think all these teachers have said it so much better than I could have about the welcoming and about the community that's one word that I think they didn't say but is so important about the Miss talk and that's Community I think each one of them I know something about their personal lives and they know something about mine and my children's as well one thing I wanted to point out is that you know Miss Penta she has 16 kids in her class of which some are El students but we wouldn't know and identify them in the kindergarten yet my son already knew how to read how to write how to add how to subtract when he came into kindergarten and so what did she do she quickly noticed that and she noticed he can help he can turn around and he can help some of these other students if there was more 22 23 24 in their class would he have been identified maybe I don't know that also happened to my younger son when he was in kindergarten that happened to be the covid year where they got cut short but that's okay some of the other things I wanted to bring up which I did bring up in my email as well is how many of our students are on IEPs in 504s they're in our classrooms they're being assisted with our teachers but they're being pulled out for special services they're included in those numbers but now you're going from a class of 16 to a class of 25 in fourth and fifth grade you'll go from a class of 20 to a class of 30 and then when you add in those El students for our specialty classes or TLP students into our Core Curriculum now you're jumping to 35 36 38 in those other courses how is a specialist going to be able to notice that my child loves codings so much and is giving him extra work in her computer class because he's already done it and instead of him just sitting there twiddling his thumbs is being given coded in third grade now fourth grade so those are the things I want you to think about when you're thinking about cutting five teachers from the missak as well as thinking about we don't have anyone that helps out when someone is missing so someone's sick now that specialist instead of having that specialist class is now in the classroom so what happens then to that 36 students that are supposed to be going to that specialist now they're still with the teacher so please think about this when you're thinking about cutting those five people from the Miss thank you thank you your name and address for the record Jessica White 138 Mitchell AV um I am a speech pathologist at the Brooks um and I'm here representing the related Services Department um because um I haven't really heard anyone here talking about the fact that the head of related Services position has been proposed to be cut um so I'm going to read a letter that we wrote as presented at the May 6 2024 initial budget proposal meeting we as a department were disheartened to learn that a special education administrator position has been eliminated it is our understanding that specifically this administrator is the coordinator of related services this is a decision that will D that directly impacts the most vulnerable members of our school community and we strongly urge this position be reinstated in the 2024 2025 budget update as was discussed on May 6 in the May 6th meeting our district leadership and staff are already stretched in their responsibilities like member brandley pointed out in that preliminary budget hearing without administrators who are experts in the fields they they are overseeing we risk burnout of the already overextended leadership and overreliance on senior staff members as coordinator of related Services Katherine cook Works tirelessly behind the scenes to make sure our special education students have access to the assisted technology they need as well as ensuring they are getting the support they need for their speech therapy occupational thy Physical Therapy vision and hearing services we simply could not do our job without this position whether it is making sure a non-verbal student has timely access to a working iPad with a highly specialized communication app which is no easy technological feat in this District or ensuring our vision impaired students have access to high quality orientation and mobility and vision Specialists um Katherine is behind the scenes making sure that our students are getting what they need as a certified speech language pathologist Katherine is a related service provider herself having a coordinator with a background in the related service field is essential this is a highly specialized field different from teachers we are evaluated on a different Desi evaluation rubric from teachers there are no other members of the administration that have the background to effectively evaluate related service providers having a coordinator who is an expert in the field overseeing our Department ensures we can continue to deliver high quality services to the students of Metford Katherine stays on top of the issues facing our disciplines when providing services in the school and supports Us in implementing evidence-based treatment across the district while upholding idea she understands what to look for in the quality of our therapies and what professional development we need and is a resource for us in both ethical and clinical issues we are deeply concerned about the Trickle down effects of not being overseen by an expert in our field as a speech language pathologist speech language pathology assistants occupational therapist occupational therapy assistants physical therapist Physical Therapy assistants teacher of the dep teacher of the visually impaired and orientation and Mobility specialist of the Medford Public Schools we simply could not do our jobs effectively without a dedicated administrator in the in line with the district's mission of providing Equity to all students the coordinator of related Services ensures that our City's most vulnerable students get the equ get that Equitable access please reconsider reinstating the special education administrator position and I just want to add that I've already stated this but we really serve a unique role in the school um and I don't think that other people really understand what our licensing requirements are um and it's really important that we have someone who can help us with um not only following Desi regulations but the regulations of our state and federal guidelines um additionally Katherine makes sure that we have people from Perkins contracted to the school district to make sure that our visually impaired students have services with the tvi and the O orientation and Mobility specialist so I think it's really important that we have someone here who can help with that I know it was mentioned earlier that um we're considering looking at Medicaid reimbursement for in in terms of like having more resources for the school related service providers are able to bill for Medicaid services and it's quite complicated we've been trying to figure it out for a while I think it would be helpful if we had somebody who understood our roles and responsibilities who could help us with that um thank you thank you hi there hello my name is Simon I live on 38 KY Street and I a third grade student at the mck elementary school I think cutting the teachers is a bad idea because having more Stu I think having more students would make it harder to learn and because I would miss my teachers who helped me throughout the years thank you Simon hard act to follow your name and address for the record and I want to say I'm very proud of you Simon that was amazing um Christina mordi 24 North Street um I wasn't going to say anything because I feel like the principal and the teachers and the Specialists that um spoke up um on behalf of advocating against the cuts at the Muk really covered all the you know a lot of the important points um but I I wanted to speak just because since I'm here I wanted to urge the mayor to please please um Advocate or allocate more money to the school budget and please please move forward with that prop two and a half I remember sitting here last year and you know other years and last year we were talking about it was going to come to you know the 20 uh 24 budget and it was going to be worse and the only way we can like break this cycle is to get more money um I don't want to see any of these things Cuts but I do want to talk about the missu um I think you know cutting five really six full-time Educators when you include the kindergarten it's it's not feasible um I was pulled into um subbing at the misuk because um over the years of being in the PTO and working in the after school clubs and getting show the kids I fell in love with the kids of the Miss tuck and it's a great community and I can say that when I have been subbing like I did two long-term POS positions this year one was a class of 20 and one was a class of 14 and in that class of 20 it was the hardest 12 weeks of My Life um and it's not even funny it it was really just you know there there is not enough in Medford to to Really service the needs of these kids you have kids who need social emotional help and you know there are not enough people to to like serve them um because they're tied up in crisis um but just having you know when you look at the numbers and you're like oh okay these all come out looking around the same but you really have to think about you know equity and not equality like look looking at the data from all the different schools you know we have 60% High needs so 22 students in your class where you have a school with a higher percentage of high needs you have more High needs kids in your class and like they talked about we have you know more kids pulled in so that 22 isn't really accurate um so we you know we need more funds we need to keep all our teachers we need more than what we currently have um we need to pay subs like I said I got I went to sub because I was you know so sad hearing so many teachers losing their preps and so many um spe like Specialists having to do other jobs and not serve their kids so we need more if we really want to get to where we're thriving um and not just scraping by we're we're scraping by now with these Cuts it's it's worse and yes like come in shadow people like see what the reality is like I'm speaking to like you know the superintendent and the people who look at you know like what cuts can be made like come see and I'm not saying that and like uh trying you know to be like defensive it's true like um I think there's a big disconnect you know when you don't spend every day in the school but that's all thank you thank you Christina hi all right I am Anthony Gan at 45 Hill Avenue in lemonon Massachusetts and I the president of the Medford Teachers Association I tried to Bri Simon to let me go first but he wouldn't take it quick Indulgence I want to say that this time of the year is really hard teaching between the weather getting nicer budget season closing finals mcast all that so I just want to say to see so many of my students here few of my students behind this bar and all the members who came out to do this this reinvigorates me so I just like to say thank you and I'm proud of all you [Music] all right to be direct I'd like just put my full support behind the budget that's currently on the floor the level budget and to push this is not a radical budget this is not a progressive budget this is what we have now right this is not to change things this is to keep things as they are the changes that were recommended before would leave us in chambles uh guidance counselors at the middle schools come to mind first the guidance counselors have a special set of skills and we can have adjustment counselors the adjustment counselors are extremely important but guidance counselors help with class placement they have help with social emotional and if you only have one guidance counsel for school sickness happens one gets sick you're all of a sudden getting another position to cover the guidance council's position so it's not feasible uh we had a presentation today that basically said MHS is trending in the right direction and you know I'm I've been in MHS for seven years now and while I am impressed with it it what uh principal cabal has done is she has implemented the staff we have to make it rent better and to say you're doing well now do better with less isn't reasonable so to congratulate the high school and then to cut six positions from it doesn't seem to make much sense um we have the last meeting uh we had it said that um a administrative assistant said when she goes to clch she has to close the office so all of this talk of like we need information we need the schools to run smoothly we need this if he cut staff eventually there's not going to be somebody in that office Dan to the phone and if that phone calls an emergency we're going to be out of luck there's a lot of numbers being thrown around about what is the ratio of counselors to students I'm going to trust the American count uh School counsel Association which is made of school counselors run by school counselors they recommend a ratio of 250 students per school counselor as far as the theater program and as far as it having low numbers there are restrictions on the way things are scheduled as it as the schedule currently stands we also ran this for a year right yes students pick classes based off of their interest they also pick classes based off of the recommendation of their friends so we basically ran this for one year we had two teachers is in the position so we had no stability and now we're saying well nobody wants to take it this year but again if you run anything for a year and you don't have the stability of a singular teacher to sort of make that recommendation you're not going to get student interest you do have to run it for a while and the idea that we have the drama club and the budget ignores the fact we don't have somebody assigned to that it is a stien that somebody has to um volunteer into and I've had a lot of experience talking to teachers who have done the drama club and talk about the labor that they put into it and how labor intensive it is so if we want someone to run the drama club but we also want to cut down on staff and make the job harder no one's going to take that position because they're going to have to focus on what they contractually have to do I'd like to end by saying almost every award and congratulations given tonight before the budget talk is based off of a stary volunteer position that one of my members takes and there is a limited of time a limited amount of energy that a member has to do this they want to do it they love it I ran a club for four years before I had to stop because of budgetary reasons so I just want to say that like for all the awards we given out and for all the thanks were given and for all the the celebration of these students it's really based off of teachers who are willing to take it on and if we increase their load now they're not going to take it on later and we're going to lose these things so again I support the level budget and I ask the mayor and city council I'll be there tomorrow and I ask that this be this be funded fully thank you thank you Anthony your name and address for the record evening Lily Scott 30 College Avenue um I wasn't planning on getting up to speak tonight um but hearing that the missu could lose five teachers was a real punch to the gut um I'm the mother of a current first grade student at the Miss and an incoming kindergartener um our experience at the Miss has been incredible over the last two years the community that the teachers many of whom are here today the admins also present the parents and the students has been amazingly impressive I know everyone here wants what is best for our students and these are really tough conversations that no one wants to have I personally agree with you Committee Member Roso about needing to raise taxes um it's embarrassing that we've grown so much as a city but haven't seemed to be able to harness the commerate revenue um however I don't think it's possible to understand the full picture by looking solely at student teacher ratios um as someone who accompanied the first grade class on their field trip last week thank you Miss PTO I bore witness to the incredible challenges that our teachers and Paris deal with every day including including having to physically restrain a student the M the MCH supports populations of students that needs lots of extra help and we know what happens when there's less individualized support for these students everyone loses our elementary schools set the path for academic success for our students careers for the rest of their lives and let's not cut them down before they even get a chance to start thank you name address for the record Michelle wh P Street president of the Medford marching band parent Association organization oh wait a minute I need these okay like you remember Bley I can't read without having it written down either so as members of the meab bid parent organization both past and present in the room here tonight we'd like to address the assumption that the extracurricular activities of marching bagard and wiard will continue with that operate with the enthusiastic support of the district the Medford band parent organization has and will always continue to fully fund the programs that these kids put on every single year you all know it we come out to you for fundraising we ask you to place ads in our program books it's not easy I I would not be able to do your job however our kids are the ones that are losing here if Mrs re's position of coordinator of Performing Arts is completely eliminated that's exactly what you're doing you're taking away the pride and power of these kids there's nothing left for them to have it as an extracurricular activity it's funded by a stien that's right Mr Carley brought that up earlier 283 volunteer hours is done by that stien position so I ask you if we don't have that coordinator of Performing Arts position who are we going to have do you have somebody in place these kids have spring band camp in one month from today do you know who is going to take on that role I don't think anybody is I'll continue with this is hard I am a band parent for a wife my oldest child joined in 2012 when the band first started my 13-year-old now has been a member for three years and just to think that the possibility of that extracurricular activity is not going to be available to him it's disheartening I would like just to bring up um I think we'd like to know how the current two coordinator positions were absorbed into one how was that decision made and what was the process did these two coordinators of Arts have a application process or was it just deemed that one was better than the other if I may um what I would be at Liberty to say on the floor um not getting into specifics um but both candidates that are currently in the roow are highly qualified artists in different venues or in different domains I should say um in the past when we had an Arts role it was one position and that person oversaw or all Arts programming both fine arts and Performing Arts when we had the abundance of Esser funding we went back to Arts programming and we added two positions so we essentially took the Arts divided the Arts into two sections and brought on two coordinators so what we're doing is going back to one administrator overseeing the Arts um what I can say is that um Miss R has been aate public schools for 14 years and the other coordinator Miss Fe has been with the for public schools for 21 years so um they are both wonderful Mustangs um so we have been looking at just other pieces of um data but we had to make a decision and the decisions were really really difficult decisions that had to be made um and they both have strengths in different areas um and they both value support the Arts so um a decision was made but we are not impacting art programming I'm going to continue to say that we're not impacting it or stopping it because we're not cutting programs okay the offerings will still be the same for students if if someone were to choose to not do something then we would have to open it up to the other 20 staff members that are part of the or 19 members that are part of the arts program in to see if they would be interested um in doing that so essentially you're saying that there is a possibility that there will be no competitive marching Ben season next year I'm not saying that actually I that is not what I'm saying so all let me bring up to um history of for puzz I just want to remind you that you have three minutes I I okay that's there's still a lot of people that need to speak and I just want to be respect so let me just end it with this that the history of the Medford Public School's director of Arts has always been somebody in the music not the visual arts so it doesn't make any sense that you're going to give a director of Arts position for somebody that's going to cover the Performing Arts who has no experience education or knowledge thank you thank you name for the record Megan Smith seven ardan Road B had gimbus 31 lilav we are here to address an issue that is not only close to our hearts but vital to the fabric of our community the proposed budget cuts that jeopardize the continuity of the band program and the Performing Arts at our schools B and I are both alumni I graduated in 2019 and Bou in 2021 I first joined band in fifth grade inspired by my mom who had been a part of it and encouraged me to give it a try my passion for band grew over the years leading me to join the marching band in high school where I served as drum Ranger and treasure band has always been a way for me to connect with my mom and has become an integral part of my life bringing me some of my closest friends and has been instrumental in forming connections throughout my adult life when I first joined the marching band in seventh grade I was excited but nervous and wondered how I would be perceived as I was one of the youngest members that year but after the first day at band camp despite the scorching Sun I instantly felt like I found my group of people for example I met Megan there and now we've been friends for 10 years as my passion deepened over the years I took on more leadership roles ultimately serving as president during both my Junior and senior years our band director Haley re has been the Cornerstone of this program her dedication passion and Relentless effort over the past decade have elevated the band and its accomplishments to a national level she has not only taught us how to read notes and play our instruments but also instilled in us the values of discipline teamwork and perseverance under her guidance we learned that our success depends not just on individual talent but on our Collective effort and Harmony now faced with the possibility of budget cuts we are at risk of losing this Irreplaceable mentor and the program she has built this decision would not only impact current students but also deprive future generations of the opportunity to experience the transformative power of the Performing Arts the ripple effect of this loss would be felt throughout our community parents families alumni and local supporters who have all marched alongside the band throughout the years the Performing Arts are more than just entertainment the Arts Foster creativity critical thinking and emotional expression skills that are essential in every aspect of life moreover band and drama are often safe havens for students who may not find their place elsewhere they provide a sense of belonging and purpose a chance to shine and to be heard band was not merely an extracurricular activity for us it was a safe space it was a place where we felt welcomed valued and truly a part of something larger than ourselves removing these programs would strip away these safe spaces and the opportunities they provide for self-discovery and growth we stand before you today not just as former band members but as a testament to the profound impact this program has had we implore you to consider the far-reaching consequences of these budget cuts we must invest in our students Futures by preserving the programs that nurture their talents their spirits and their hearts let us not take away the heartbeat of Medford let us fight to keep our band director our band and our Performing Arts programs alive for the sake of our students our community and the Legacy We Leave Behind we must stand together and ensure that these vital programs continue to flourish thank you thank you you name and address for the record Rick mcin 87 West Street um compelled to speak with you today for three reasons the first is as the father of an alumni who was in the marching band I've seen other things the same things that the students have already spoken about and what other parents have spoken about so I'm not going to uh I'll just say yes to what they've said the second reason is I'm the son of a career music educator taught uh music in public schools for 40 years uh and he told me in the 1970s that this would happen I'm going to tell you about that in a second the third reason is because as a professional musician myself and professor at the most influential School of Music in the world I've seen the power of music on four continents both as a performer and as a clinician so my dad uh he taught music in public schools for 40 years I remember the 1970s he told me that one day what would happen happen is the uh school committee or principles or whoever was actually managing the money would cut the music program enough that it just they wouldn't they wouldn't cut it completely just enough to let it die which is what is happening you say that you're going to still support the Arts that's not true um the uh the impact that other people have already discussed you should take to heart because it's very important but there's another element that's very important which is the mission of the Medford Public Schools is to provide a supportive and effective educational environment that helps students successfully meet their individualized goals this will no longer be true when you cut Miss reo's position by cutting her position you will make it so that future students do not sign up for music a previous student spoke about how it's virtually impossible to do it anyway because of the ways that the scheduling uh conflicts prevent them from actually taking these courses m y l i n myelin that is the uh aspect of neur of the brain the neurological neuron wrapping that actually makes your brain process information more effectively and more quickly none of the things that you teach in school none of the things Mr R referred to earlier English Math Science History I can't remember what the rest was on his list none of those things actually imp improve or increase brain processing speed the only thing that does is music by cutting Miss re's position you no longer support the Arts you also no longer support the mission of the school because you no longer support the brain health of the students who go here thank you thank you your name and address for the record my name is Jarry hitz I live at 72 warham Street um I have uh let's see so I have a child in fourth grade at the mck school I also happen to be the PTO treasurer of the mck school so I understand some of these challenges with trying to balance the budget um I want to mention one of the Practical things of potentially small larger class sizes with fewer teachers at the mck next year um so in my child's class this year a class of 20 as I understand it there are disciplinary problems in the class us and teachers haven't told me about them I hear it from my child so I don't think my child is the the the cause of them but but there are problems in the class and with a class of 20 as I understand it it's close to overbearing and I can't imagine what the the mix of kids would be with even larger class sizes and how the teacher would have to deal with those disciplinary problems so think about that as we're thinking about how we um manage things for next year thank you thank you your name and address for the record Sharon Hayes 69 Ripley Road I think I'm more nervous on this side than on that side um I'm not here to advocate for any particular position or program because as a parent I realized that every single one of these Cuts will affect my children directly or indirectly immediately or in the future as a long-term impact and that's true for all of our students um as a parent of of an elementary school student um who's at the largest school with the large currently largest class size I I can Echo the worries that the misuk has about what larger class size what what the impact is on students um we we similarly at the at the Roberts in our class sizes of 20 or more there are a bunch of classes that have some significant emotional behavioral needs um ones that don't qualify for special education supports but who need supports and you know as a school district we have been lean for a very long time and so we also don't have those extra supports that a lot of other schools other school districts might have we don't have a lot of reading Specialists we don't have math Specialists we you know we don't have probably as many adjustment counselors as we need given the needs of our students so when you then increase class sizes and even if it's only by one two three students the impact on the students the impact on the teachers is huge and we know that across the country and certainly in our district teachers are burned out and if you then add to that by increasing the class sizes you know I'm also the parent of a marching band student a a Orchestra student a regular band student so I know the impact that that will have if we cut if we cut anywhere in the Performing Arts um any position that's going to necessarily have a ripple effect um again I could go through any of these one more just I took some notes when I think of the nursing staff um I can say from personal experience when my kids were very little both of them had some real school anxiety and when they needed a break from the classroom where they had somatic responses to their anxiety where did the teacher send them to the nurse's office not because they were sick but because that was place they could have a break maybe they could lie down on one of the little beds they got a little TLC from the nurses who were absolutely amazing who would call me and say you know your child's here but he's fine just want you to know that he's here um so it kind of I was I sitting back there you know I my stomach started to twist just hearing people come up and you know everybody's fighting for the pennies and the the and the dimes and um I think we as a community and I know I think member Graham said this earlier and I think every school command said this at some point we need to come together and decide how much do we value our educational system how much do we value our public schools and what are we willing to do to fund them to a level that meets that value that we get from them and so I hope people will take away from that's not just you know my my program may be cut that my child's in or you know something in particular my child needs is being cut but as a whole our school system is being decimated which might be a little strong but we're being cut after cut year after year there are positions that the school committee I can say having been on the school committee wanted not just wanted but felt were really necessary to really have a high quality education for our students and they would get cut those positions like liter Specialists would get cut very early in the budget season so the people walk away from this just thinking about what do we do to make sure we have more money in the future I I I hope people will walk away with that because this isn't going to get solved by one program being reinstated or one teacher being reinstated this is going to I I think member Vero asked and as Jerry McHugh answered this is going to happen again next year if we don't do something about it we're going to be back in these meetings talking about what positions are we going to cut now and what impact is that going to have on our kids and our teachers so I hope people think a lot about that and think about what we need thank you your name and address for the record Michelle Michelle hadti 594th street I'm the vice president of the secretaries Union Yes I say secretaries I'm old school so first I'd like to again this week I'd like you to reconsider the mlin school position for the secretaries um let's see so they only have 192 students less than the high school in voke and the high school has the vocational secretary the main office and next year we'll be cutting one for them both so it will be two assistant principles also because we're getting downgrading them too so I would like you to rec consider that and we already have a floer so who would the first floer which the mlin school be pulled first or would the other floer be pulled first that's one question and then regarding the H the HR and payroll position we already have the grants manager Kate MOS I'm probably killing her name but I'm sorry the finance director Mr mchu um accounting manager Mr valz and then hi Mrs cuso any payroll work has to fall on our Union unless you're hiring two more administrators which is kind of over the top but I don't understand why we can't try to hide to save one of our secretaries who makes 20,000 less than this $70,000 salary you want to give to two people so just by Saving one secretary you'd be saving 990,000 or okay HR you would have HR I understand that one for underneath Janine but I really like you to take that into consideration too so we can save at least one more secretary and we were already losing three and then three retiring which wasn't really that wasn't really their choice to retire now but had no choice really I'm Mary Joe Patron I'm the president of the administrative assistance Union and as Michelle stated we're very concerned again on the safety and I'm even more concerned about the safety at Bedford High School eliminating an assistant principal Administrative Assistant because I'm very for I have a radio in my office and on a daily basis they're calling the assistant principls are calling their assistance and saying I'm sending students to you they need a break we're having an issue we had a fight at the high school on Friday we had to separate some students we need to make sure that the students know they have a safe place to go if you have nobody on the second floor of the ad on the second floor as an administrative assistant only the third and the first one person is out now you have one Administrative Assistant covering the entire high school that's a scary thing to me and and students are very smart they recognize when there are people missing if there's an assistant principal out if there's a a teacher out we have a lot of rors and they're going to be much more roaming at that point the a mlin school is is the big concern because that's younger students much younger students lot of parent concerns and that's a big issue with regards to the payroll I got I have to say this because I did work in payroll I was deployed to another department because they needed help in another department when we had the 20091 11 changes reorganization I did the mtrs report and it was Perfection until a person who we don't speak about anymore decided it shouldn't be done by me but he couldn't figure out who should do it so he dropped the ball I was fine doing the report until he said that I also feel like there is there's been a huge amount of changes in the way the finances are done we've had numerous Finance directors so I'm hoping and I think Mr rouso does that we finally get one way to do finances because it's been done multiple different ways and it seems like Jerry has a much better handle on finding the the the hidden monies and helping I'm buildings and grounds is a perfect example of a department that has to buy it has to fix things no matter what so we just he is able to approve our over over budget POS with our with our request and allow us to put keep the students in the safe positions that they are or repair the problems that we have so I do appreciate Jerry's but I mean I think a lot of our problem is the number of Finance operators we've had in this District over the last 24 years that I've been here and the last thing is I did make a decision to retire they changed my job and for my own family it makes more sense for me to leave but I'm walking out the door with knowledge in my head as are the other two people and also the administrators that are going to be walking out the door I hope you understand what you're losing with knowledge that these people are given and a bad taste in their mouth because it was not a very nice way that any of it was done so that being said I'm just sharing that information on my end and with regards to miss re today I was counting $122,000 she raised on the Mama Mia play because I also do Student Activities Miss REO has done an incredible job in the time that I've worked with her but miss fee is bringing in grant money like you wouldn't believe and if she's going to have a lot more work to do running a whole department you're going to lose the ability to write those grants to run those those programs that she's running so please remember when you combine a job you lose the ability to do extra things that they are both doing right now so I do thank you I appreciate what you're going through but honestly I think you're losing a lot more than staff and that's a big problem thank you thank you your name and address for the record my name is Enoch I live at nine Avenue um Madame mayor Madame superintendent and the committee thank you for being here also thanks for listening listening to us it's not easy these are not glamorous positions you claw your way into Medford is a wonderful city to live in but it's a challenging District to attract and retain great talent and I I think no one knows that better than you superintendent my and I moved from Los Angeles to come to serve I'm a pastor in the Church of uh with of a church and city in Boston and the City of Newton so I'm familiar with the Boston public schools and the new public schools but all my three boys have grown up in Medford uh three in the Roberts um two in M Glenn one in Andrews and all two have gone through the high school one just graduated yesterday from toughs the other one is also in toughs and my other son is the one that's one of the two drum Majors who's hoping for a season next year in terms of what we can say I know you're making a lot of the hard decisions so as I understand the situation um you've got lots of other folks I can tell you in Greater detail the emotions and the impact and I know you way up each one each person's story so what I can share a little differently would be to just I can't advocate for the other groups either um because I don't have the privilege of being a parent of every I feel like my kid does a lot but in all those Sports and teams and clubs and nurses so I know you're making hard decisions and I and I do believe this committee and all the Administration has poured over the budget to really try to figure out how we can make it work so I'm going to come with just a few angles uh superintendent I think respectfully some folks may have a different perspective of the impact of losing misel so I I understand and you're doing your best and so I appreciate that but I think if there's time to dialogue if it's appropriate be happy to connect with that about those things but I do think there's a pretty big disconnect um and I know at the last committee meeting talked about like you know superintendent and Committee Member showing up I understand there's laws about that there's a lot of good reasons why superintendent community members can't just walk all over the buildings they want so I appreciate that but oh actually she can that's great she can she can that's awesome that's great but but all that's to say that I recognize it's a lot of people to take care of a lot of a lot of shoes to try to understand so I appreciate that but that being said um what I do know in my work as a pastor and in different agencies and cities is you try to keep um essential personnel and there's two kinds of essential Personnel there's the high performers and you know we won't that stays in your room as you discussed the the realities of performance reviews and what they can bring to the city making the best use of every city dollar to the best education of our city and our kids I understand that but then there's also an essential Personnel that this without that person it really is a critical lynchpin to the functioning of that program at the Quality and level that we really want to see so that's the thing I would say appealing for really the creativity I appreciate that to make it work I guess I'm just another voice to say I actually think it'd be incredibly hard to hire someone to do the kind of commitment and work that misell has I know school districts right now that would salivate that the thought that she would be on the market um so I know you know that but I guess as you go back to make the hard decisions I am pleading with you to consider that to make those hard decisions with creativity secondly and just trying to add two things that haven't been said tonight not because I need to be original but and I didn't want it to get spicy but um when I first came to the city hall for as a parent it was probably in the Middle School my oldest was Orchestra and the the funny thing was the wonderful committee members of which at that point were all white had a hard time pronouncing all the names of the vastly diverse Orchestra at that point and I realized oh all the kids that are not white kind of coales just these programs I haven't gone to every football game every basketball game every cheerleader competition I haven't gone to all those things but it seems to me that there is a potentially High concentration of people of color and uh I don't know for a fact but lgbtqia plus are in some of these programs and I you know we could do a study you guys could commission it but you might be inadvertently disproportionately impacting some of the few programs that actually that's what I think they mean by the safe spaces so I guess whether that's a study you conduct or whether that's just another assessment as you're making those hard choices to rep prioritize that I think these are one of the places where my wife and I were one of the only you know our son was one of the only East Asians in the med schools when he was a kid you know one they said like look at all his friends are all diverse it's like a I said it's like a WB TV show sitcom cast but I said they're not diverse and like actually some of the parents um the class of they they disagree with me they look so diverse no these are the non-white kids in their class they all hang out together because at the time there are so few so I think whether there's so many great programs so many great things but in terms of the really trying to make a me of welcoming saity for all that's something to consider the third and final thing is I want you to know that we do pray for you regularly and pray for you and your decisions so thank you for all that you're doing and just appreciate the work and we we've only lived in Medford our entire time master and we're really grateful the Lord brought us here thank you for your time thank you your name and address for the record I'm Maggie Fowler 28 wedm Road and I am a junior at Medford High School so I know that so many points have been brought up tonight and I don't want to run over anything that's already been said but I feel like there is an aspect of this whole entire situation that we've been sort of missing and as a member of eight years of the Medford performing arts department I've been part of the marching B I've band I've been part of the Medford High School orchestra as well as the Middle School orchestra string Ensemble and Elementary School orchestras and I've also been part of the drama club for every year that I've been in high school and I would like to vouch for um the the fact that the removal of this Performing Arts coordinator position would trickle down into every single organization that falls under the performing Arts umbrella and this includes the marching band but as well as the drama club and the orchestra and the percussion groups that are a part of these and the winter guard and every single Elementary and Middle School group that reflects these organizations from the high school every single one of these organizations would be impacted by this removal and I've seen a lot of mention of the band and I've seen a lot of mention of the drama club but all of our organizations rely on Miss Rel transportation management her organization and her communication between just the people of these organizations and these activities without her would be nearly impossible to run because of this I strongly invi advise a reconsideration of these position cuts and thank you your name and address for the record Stanley t um so me personally I started out as no a kid who went to another school in another city I had no idea what band was until I got a little older and then realized my sisters are in this my sisters are creating a legacy and they left behind for me and when I came into band I've been here for two years and then I was like if this is I don't want to be known as my sister's brother I want to make my own legacy like I want to leave a mark here like I want to be here for every I want to help like division is like when you take away the Arts when you break it up or like when you give it to one person think of Miss fee Miss fee is like think of her she has to do so much more if you're giving all that to her or that whoever's next it's not going to be one person with all that stress and then you have like think of it like a train Miss Rella is the couplers that hold the train cards together if you take the couplers out you take Miss re out the train which is the band or the entire department it falls apart and then it could crash crash and like break like burn like if you take the most important component like nothing will work properly ly thank you thank you your name and address for the record uh my name is Gavin gagy often mispronounced as G uh noted uh unfortunately I really don't have much to say I kind of only joined uh two friends here for the ride as I usually do really um but since I'm up here I might as well have something to say um so I have this uh quote from a guitarist that I look up to which is ironic since I myself am a drummer I'm a bit more than that um um the quote is music is our friend um and that was said by uh Robert FIP of a uh from a who's a member of a band that I really admire called King Crimson not like that information is relevant or anything but um I particularly I particularly like that quote because I feel like and I feel like we all can agree in the band on the fact that music is our friend and for most of us it's um all that we have really and um if you uh if you take that if you um take away that that uh position what was it again the um director director of coordinator offorming hours if you take that away you're probably going to be taking away um what is pretty much all we have I mean sure we can we can uh connect with music some other way but it won't be the same as uh with a group of people which is what I personally am uh great for I do not know I do not know where else to go with this so I'm just going to leave it here thank you good your name and address for the record Colby Robbins 37 hick have I'm the librarian at the misuk um I just want to quickly Echo what my colleagues have said about cutting the mck positions I do think it would be a great disservice um but would also remiss if I didn't talk about another position that is being cut and that is the director of technology and libraries Molly does an incredible job at what she does she has cultivated devotion within her staff uh I can speak of nothing but good things about Molly um she has advocated for the library in a way that I have not seen anyone else do in this Administration um the library Prov provides such an amazing resource and safe space for our kids that to get rid of that position and just lump it somewhere else takes away all of that um so I really hope that you take that into consideration when you look at these cuts um you know it's not just a position you know she's an advocator for not just her staff but all of these students from kindergarten all the way up to 12th grade um and we also mentioned on the technology side all of our Chromebooks that were bought in covid are getting to the end of their life cycle which means somebody needs to focus on repurchasing replacing all of that and heading up tech support which provides vital vital support to our students I can't count how many times a day I have students coming into the library going Mr Robbins uh my Chromebooks broken can you fix it I go I am teaching a class I will try to get to it when I can but I don't have the time right now um so we really need somebody in that position to guide that that's really all I have to say but thank you thank you you name the Jess the record good evening Jessica Bruno saers street I'm here tonight to advocate for the Performing Arts and specifically from Mrs R I emailed several of you and did not receive responses from most of you so I'm going to not bore you with my long lengthy address but I'm going to just read one excerpt because I only heard one other parent mention this group but just please bear with me another point that I want to bring to your attention is to is the educational exclusion this cut will have on a subset of the student body let's be honest not all students are athletes some students can't participate in sports due to disabilities and have physical limitations and others who may be neuro Divergent can't do to do to cognitive and developmental limitations so eliminating a program accessible to all abilities is discriminatory research shows that neurod Divergent people Excel creatively and inclusive programs such as those overseen by Mrs re positively affect peer relationships social emotion health and incentivize good behavior in addition to the disabled no Divergent populations research also shows more lgbtq students participate in sports at a much lower rate than their non-lgbt lgbtq Pairs and of those lgbtq students Performing Arts have proven to be a safe haven for that for those youth robust Performing Arts programs like the current MPS performing arts program led by Mrs R have been shown to empower youth improve mental health and well-being and create a sense of belonging and inclusiveness so I please urge you to find the funding reallocate fundings mayor Rihanna lokar please over look into the override and and just support the Medford Youth and and continue on with this program because these stiens are not going to cut it let's be real we saw how many hours go into a program like this how many elementary middle school students are rising up and and have taken on orchestra band and and are promoting into the high school without the the these programs in place it's it's not going to be it's not going to empower our youth for the Next Generation thank you thank you um we do have um a couple of folks who've been waiting very patiently on Zoom so um is it Chris Bennett yes good good evening and thank you for being patient um I have a I have a couple of concerns one of my the biggest issue that I'm finding is that we're defining cuts from the number of students rather than the raw data from doe which breaks down diversity special needs and an identified therapeutic school so by eliminating that that type of information it's just blowing my mind I'm looking at the data from Doe and I'm looking at the mcglen specifically right now which is the most diverse it's got the most high needs 71. 34% most elll you have 64 incoming kindergarten students and you have students with disabilities at a 15% now although the misit is considered a less amount of students we have we're at 3324 per of non-english are English not as their first language 22% of students with disabilities and 57% with high needs they have the lowest mcast scores in our city now the Brooks although they have a high percentage of students they have the highest mcast scores they are the least diverse of all of the schools we came from 11 ele elementary schools I'm old I have four children went through Metro Public Schools I have four grandchildren I'm seeing that Medford that had 11 elementary schools we watched maintenance get cut cut cut so the schools weren't even able to be replenished we've gone down to a total of four we have two middle schools and one high school okay so now we're looking at cuts on specifics on how many students per school which is what's giving them the ability to break down I'm also an advocate children with special needs I've I've placed a lot of children with the school system to the misch school because they were the most able to handle the therapeutic needs of a lot of these kids some of them had autism some of them had other areas that had concerns and all of the school work together which is why it's a therapeutic School everybody worked together to work with all these children now if we have to think out of the box maybe we need to make it that all schools are thrown together and the kids get to go whatever school that that they're assigned instead of everybody going to one particular school so everybody wants to get into the Brooks because they have great mcast schols what about all the kids that have special needs they don't make it there you know why because the class sizes are kind of big it's not really tolerated as easily over there all of the kids are tolerated the misch we have a lot of kids that don't speak English or they're English language Learners and all of a sudden we're going to start cutting so how are we going to implement those students going into the regular education classes they're supposed to be in the least restrictive environment if a child shows the ability to be able to access the standard curriculum with support they should be allowed to be doing that if you have 22 kids in there or 23 or 24 we're going backwards that's the kind of stuff that went on in the 80s and 90s if we are talking about doing Fair watch but I just wanted to remind you that you have three minutes okay if we're going to be fair then we need to make sure that we are Equitable right now we are not we're not Equitable at all I'm looking at the numbers that from the Department of Education I encourage all of the school committee members to really really pull that apart to see that um we're we're in trouble we need to make sure legally they're in the least restrictive environment we need to legally make sure that they have an appropriate supports we legally have to make sure that those students who were supposed to be receiving services are getting the services and those uh service providers are not taking care of another class so I'm looking at the legal issues of this and how difficult this is going to be if we don't resolve this maybe we need to St from scratch and put all of the schools together in a big jumping pot because a lot of people that are in walking distance to the brook school have to go to the missu so we got to figure that out it's it's just wrong what's happening right now we are not diverse in our schools at all Jessica hey hi Jessica Haley full Lock Road medfin um so I just have a few things few questions few statements um when we're talking about the budget two things come to mind um I know the school committee got their raise not sure how much is being taken out of the budget for that and also we are now paying three doctorate salaries our superintendent and two superintendents are now both doctorate salaries so I'm wondering how much with the school committee raise and now three doctorates in the administration how much is coming out of just those salaries also cutting nurses cutting secretaries adjustment counselors those are the three people that my son goes to he's on an i suffers from anxiety and when he's having an issue which happens not too often but he definitely needs it sometimes they send him to the nurse they send him to the adjustment counselor so they'll send him to the office to sit with the secretary and those are the people that we think we can get rid of my son's going to the Middle School School the mlin and you're telling me that we're going to have one adjustment counselor for all those kids highly any secretaries nurses so where's my son going to go when he needs the help because he'll need it St in Middle School um also we're using Nexus as a form of mental health I want to know does any of these Nexus teachers have mental health credentials or are we just saying that Nexus is helping kids with mental health but are these adjustment counselors are what kind of degrees do they have in mental health um also with the ox I think my son will kind of thrive in the ox as he gets older um with him having different disabilities I think that would be a good place for him to go granted I don't know much about it yet as he's only hitting sixth grade he hasn't been really into it yet but I think that getting rid of the Arts directors obviously you're hearing all the children they need that lady um and they rely on her so I would like to say to the mayor we have the money in the extra cash which is technically our money and I think we should have a say of where it goes I know everyone's talking about the 2.5 override well right now we don't have that but what we do have is the extra cash and what we need to do is keep our secretaries keep our nurses keep our guidance counselors keep the arts program we need this for our children they are not someone that can come in you know second and let's just figure out the money because you know what all the administrators the school committee everyone's getting their money but the people who are really working with these kids day in and day out those are the people you want to Jessica I'm giving you finish my time 30 okay so I I'll email to get some of these responses because I know I said a lot you're not going to remember it all thank you Jess just like you to take it in consideration thank you Amanda [Applause] gas hi I know you guys are all very tired and probably want to go home um I'm Amanda gas I teach at the Roberts Elementary School this is my 14th year teaching um and I wanted to commend everyone who spoken tonight because um it's I feel like people have been very eloquent and really stood up for um the things that they believe in um I am a kindergarten teacher so I wanted to call attention to um the additional kindergarten classrooms that um are not being um provided with teachers for next year um and I know that that's based on enrollment um but I wanted to call your attention to it so that you can keep an eye on it because what happen last year was that we um lost a good teacher and ended up having to scramble to hire new teachers at all the um elementary schools for additional kindergarten classrooms because of enrollment and especially at the Roberts I know it's true at other schools as well but we have um students who enroll you know way past now right they're enrolling in August even in September um but definitely throughout the summer um and I just think that we should look at the trends in enrollment in the different schools and make sure that we're prepared because um we have an excellent new teacher um teaching at the Roberts and kindergarten and I would hate to lose her and be scrambling to hire someone again in um in the fall kindergarten is anyone who is step foot in a kindergarten classroom knows that we really need good teachers that these kids need um the support and that if you are talking about having uh four classrooms if you're talking about having [Music] thank you Miss G I see one more hand El hello can you hear me yes we can your name and address for the record please lucil melow east border Circle in Medford um I've just been watching this all night and I normally don't say too much but as a former educator in Medford and whose child has gone to Medford um I'm a little disappointed and um about a lot of these cuts and I just think right now that we should keep these Cuts use that rainy day fund then work on the prop two and a half because the only the only people who are losing out are our schools and our students and um just to add my daughter did all her band and music in elementary school and in Medford High School and the band was good but it's even been better now and she used that to get into college okay and she was in one of the largest well-known marching bands in in this country and it all started in Medford High School and some people as a prior um speaker said was some kids are not into sports and Athletics my daughter did do sports but she wasn't the best music was wish she thrived and I just think that um so many kids and as a former special ed teacher I've had students who music was their thing be it violin be it flute be it whatever and they found their place in their home so I'm just giving my two cents that we just need to right now that rainy day fund is there for a purpose yes we don't want to use it all the time but use it this year and then work on that two and a half thing because there are also places in this city where money is also mismanaged and spent and not at the expense of our school and our students and our community and that's where it needs to go so thank you very much and I appreciate all your time and effort for everybody there thank you thank you Lille Dr pushing could you please put the spreadsheet back up on the um screen and member ISO could you please repeat your motion thanks for remember it just kidding I have the language here the motion was uh the member school committee budget request in the amount of 79,3 199,50 se4 for the responsible operations of the mord public schools in 2024 2025 be submitted in writing to the mord city council and the mayor of mord within 48 Hours of this motion it was um I made the motion it was seconded by member ola roll call point of clarification is this number with all the cuts or without the cuts there are no Cuts in this number in this so this number that we're putting forward is our request is our request okay I'm just trying to the municipal government okay yes it's just a request that's all it is right now guys it's a request but it is the first step I understand but what I should clarify in my clarification is is this number because I I'm getting confused language again a month on the job um is this number one that reflects the cuts in our packet or is this one that is the level one that is if this is level service this is level service if we do not so this does not include the cutting of the director of pro performing art correct okay that's that's all I would yes thank you very much okay roll call please it's very important to know what we vote on we vote that everyone else understands what we're voting on I do not feel comfortable voting on a budget that has this many Cuts but if this number that we are putting forward then yes it's the bottom number not the top number yes we voting on the bottom in bold correct uh member branley yes member Graham yes member anaba yes member Ola yes member reinfeld yes member R yes and I believe the mayor must abstain abstain so five in the affirmative one abstention I reest to the municipal budget is 7939 774 I'm sorry six in the affirmative one exstension our request to the municipal government is a level service budget which also includes four literacy interventionists four par Behavior Specialists um for a grand total of 79 m399 774 motion passes [Applause] um we're going to move on here um it is 11 10 um we don't have any presentations of the public tonight um item number um I can't count in R numerals anymore seven thank you uh continue businesses and msba update and is there a motion to table that oh motion to table motion table by member so seconded by member and everybody all those in favor I all those opposed can you turn on your mic yes thank you so much um so point of clarification for the fifth time recommendation uh on the consent agenda we did not vote to recommend to approve the $3,000 Grant from massach it was in the consent agenda we we motioned to approve the consent agenda and it was unanimously approved okay so we're all set there um there are um there is no new business and no reports requested um we do have a number of condolences uh members of the Medford school committee Express their sincerest condolences to the family of Daniel Danny dejo Jr father of Denise Greco mlen per professional and after school program assistant members of the Medford school committee Express their sincerest condolences to the family of Robert J broy brother of Medford High School history teacher Matthew broy the members of the Medford school committee Express their sincerest condolences to the F the family of Paul Arnold Pini father of Emily py and El assessment specialist and Lead Teacher if we could all rise for a moment of silence our next regular meeting is on June 3rd 2024 here in Alden Memorial Chambers mord City Hall in addition to zoom um I hope you'll all join us again soon for happier times um and I want to say a special thank you to all the um students that we celebrated at the beginning of tonight um I was really worried about asking people to come to this meeting to be celebrated because it wasn't going to be a fun meeting but honestly it was what I needed um to make it to 10 p.m. so thank you is is there a motion to adour motion to adour motion toour by member second by member all those in favor all those appose