yeah the drinks are over there um minute Janelle can you hear how are you okay you can hear us I can there's a little bit of overlap but I can I can hear usually one person at a time thank okay yeah the gang's all here um uh and I think Chad is the only other person be [Music] [Laughter] other like an hour know that matters but um well we're setting up today um our zo will have a much more fun in future we're just waiting for our vendor to come the microphone is in the center there uh it's completely wireless so if we need to move it as necessary but it also serves speaker um so if I have to unplug some stuff I will do that if there's too much noise just um do we have people in the waiting room on Zoom the waiting room is open so people are free to come in at any time and anybody okay great thank you welcome everybody we're here we made it um that's actually really exciting so thank you all for coming um just by way of some plans for tonight um we're gonna leave at 8 we're GNA leave sooner than 8 um the first thing we're we're I'm going to shift the agenda around a little bit because from KP law is here to do um some open meeting law training so we're going to skip introductions for the moment um so that um Janelle can do open meeting law training because she has a commitment um for the second half of this meeting so I wanted to make sure there's enough time um for her to get that in but before we do that I'm just going to do a quick roll call so that we for the record know who's here um Jenny Graham here uh mayor lgo Kar here Dr Edward binon here Dr galy here Dr Cushing here Mar cabal here liby Brown here Marissa Desmond here Maria dorsy here ran hilard he is absent Tracy Keane Emily Lazaro is absent she has a council meeting tonight uh Nicole Morell is absent she had a prior conflict um Aaron L here Luke prer here Larry Brown here Bob Dickinson he is um not here this evening Fiona Maxwell Joan Bowen yeah Thomas Dalton Chad Fallon incoming I believe um Lori hodon John mlin Paul Rau and Philip Santos is not present tonight he com as well um so we have Forum You're Gonna Learn why that's important in just a few minutes um but I'm gonna turn it over to Janelle in just a second um but I think I'll start by saying um all of our meetings are subject to the open meeting law and um with four years of experience in the open meeting law it did very clunky way to get work done so um I'm just going to say that that's my personal experience it's there for a reason it's absolutely necessary but it will it will require all of you to like think carefully about not only what you're um staying and doing in the meeting but more importantly how you're behaving outside of our meetings because you um can sort of inadvertently um find yourself in conflict with open meeting law MSB requires that we um whole all of our meetings in accordance with the open meeting law um so we thought it was important for um for everybody to have some sort of grounding and all of that um the elected officials in the room obviously are familiar with the open meeting law and can provide guidance to anybody who has questions I've just signed them up for that um I would say to the the Educators in the room like you generally interact with the school committee all the time and you are generally not subject to the open meeting law but in this room and on this topic you are so it's um just sort of a tuning of your set of responsibilities um in this way I'm going to turn it over to Janelle um Janelle if you could kindly let us know whether you want questions along the way or you want us to hold our questions until you're done sure thank you so much can everyone hear me okay yes thank you so much for for having me this evening happy to to present on this very important topic of the open meeting law I will dive into the public records law a little bit to the extent there's a little bit of overlap I always think it's a good idea to cover these topics um certainly I agree in terms of open meeting law compliance um I represent the City of Medford other communities across the state and we are seeing a significant uptick in open meeting law compliance um so certainly a good opportunity to provide best practices talk a little bit in terms of you know what your role is in terms of open meeting law compliance and I understand that some members may be more familiar than others so I'll try to start with best practices and I think that's always a good idea if there are certainly any questions after the training um or along the way I think we can feel free to interject I'm an informal person as many of you know happy to have this be a conversation um if someone feels more comfortable speaking to me after the training I'm certainly happy to make myself available as well um and the mayor has my contact information happy to provide that I would also start by saying certification is really important so for any member that hasn't already completed their open meeting law certification I recommend that be done as soon as possible um the new attorney general has put forth a new updated open meeting law guide last year that's available on the um division of open government's website I'm happy to circulate the link after this but in my opinion if any members are due for their open meeting law certification or for any new members it's a good idea and certainly required under the open meeting law that that be conducted um we are going to cover best practices tonight where this is a public meeting I don't want to go into any specifics or anything that may you know invoke the open meeting law in a non-confidential way certainly if there are any questions happy to follow up afterwards um I think I have the ability to share my screen so I wanted to go through the um the slides that I have and again if anyone has any particular questions happy to either interject I won't take offense or go from there can everyone see the slides okay y great um so we're here tonight to talk about the open meeting law I'm going to talk about best practices I'm going to go through the the sort of fundamentals of the open meeting law um we certainly start with the premise that the open meeting law public records and conflict of interest law throughout the country are really you know aimed at government transparency and to eliminate secrecy in terms of the work um that you all are doing so we know that under the open meeting Law Public bodies such as yourself that are subject to the open meeting law can generally only conduct public business through their public meetings unless there's a specific exemption applies called an executive session which would allow you to have a confidential meeting and we'll cover that a little bit further in the training um but in essence the open meeting law regulates the process by which public meetings can be held and conducted and there are really several components to what the open meeting Law requires so one what types of meetings are subject to the law what rules need to be followed to hold a meeting um sufficient to give members of the public notice and what are the common violations and why um and I think this is always a good idea to cover again not to to scare anyone or detract from any of the important work that that you all are doing but really just so we're all aware of of what the Attorney General's division of open government requires in terms of enforcement um and really to to make sure everyone's on the same page with respect to the work and um in in business of the of the committee the open meeting law addresses four major issues so I want to cover those in detail um and apologies if this is you know some information that many of the members may have but I think it's always a good idea to do a refresher um we know that the open meeting Law requires notice essentially it requires that postings be conducted no more than 48 weekday hours prior to the meeting um we know that the notice has to be posted in a location accessible 24 hours a day including the website and it has to be the meeting has to be held in an accessible location under the Ada if you are meeting virtually or in a hybrid format we can talk about that certainly in information should be available so members of the public know how to log in at home um and any location that you're meeting in person should be accessible as well we also know that the the meeting notice or the agenda should have detailed subject matter items so we'll talk a little bit about what that means but it's it's a detailed list of topics that you will all review so that a member of the public can look at that meeting notice at home and say yes I'd like to attend the meeting because I know these topics are going to be covered or no I'm going to you know pass on this one and go to the next one really someone should be able to say I understand what this meeting is about and I want to attend this meeting based on what's on the meeting notice um we're going to talk a little bit about the nature of the meeting as I mentioned at the beginning there's a presumption under the open meeting law because of government transparency issues um for an open session so the meeting's conducted as we're meeting tonight in an open session so members of the public can see in real time what the public body is doing the votes that are being conducted in the deliberation and we'll talk about what that means um of of the body's business um in the public business being conducted there are certain pretty narrowly tailored reasons for a closed or an executive session and we'll talk about the procedures if you do end up meeting um in executive session conduct of the meeting this is a Hot Hot Topic in recent years essentially you know what rules govern public comment what are the free speech principles that may apply um who gets to speak and when in remote and hybrid meetings so we'll cover that um and then the fourth major component of the open meeting law is the meeting minutes themselves essentially the content of the meeting detailed enough similar to a meeting notice to allow someone that wasn't present to know what transpired or what took place at the meeting the timing for Drafting and approving those meeting minutes essentially for an open meeting within three meetings or 30 days whichever is later is a standard that the Attorney General's division of open government established um and we'll talk about the process to do that most of the public bodies that I work with usually have them approved at a um you know an open meeting of the public body for any minute meeting minutes but some decide to designate that task to the chair or to another individual that's a policy decision but we can talk about that if anyone has any questions on that as well so we'll we'll we'll go through the overview essentially um 48 hours I can't tell you how important that is um prior to the date of the meeting so certainly to be cognizant of legal holidays um vacation schedules um certainly as the summer months um come up and there's various holidays in play Memorial Day juneth as well as July 4th something to be aware of as you schedule meetings that it's 48 week dat hours um not including holidays or weekends the meeting notice should list all the topics with specificity and regardless of whether the meeting was posted correctly we know that the open meeting law says that a meeting occurs whenever a quorum of your public body discusses matters within its jurisdiction so we're going to spend a lot of time on um email email practices and text message practices because I certainly agree with the statement at the beginning of the meeting um that in essence it's just as important what occurs outside of a public B's meeting under the open meeting law as to what occurs during a meeting so we're going to talk about pitfalls and think some things to be careful of relative to your work and essentially something that I see all the time and to be careful about is that we know that a quorum can be reached um regardless of whether an email goes to the entire public body or whether it goes to several members and then is forwarded to other members so we're going to talk about that we call that serial Communications and it's something with the ex you know explosion and all of us use technology all the time it's something to be aware of certainly um as you serve relative to the open meeting law to not get into a situation where there's deliberation over email or text message or other social media mechanisms subcommittees um I don't know if if you intend to create any subcommittees but certainly wanted to review that as well as we provide an overview um a subcommittee is also subject to the open meeting law um the intent to create a subcommittee essentially is not required and the Attorney General will look to determine whether or not the subcommittee is within government and Power to act collectively in serving a public purpose um so generally speaking unless there's an exception and we'll talk about that a subcommittee of your committee is essentially subject to the open meeting law just as the entire complement would be um you know there are exceptions to that if the mayor created a a subcommittee to advise just herself or the superintendent did where they're not individually subject to the open meeting law a subcommittee created by them wouldn't be um it's a very fact specific analysis so we just want to be really careful with respect to the creation of subcommittees or working groups or task forces um to determine whether or not they are subject to the open meeting law some practical ways I try to be practical as many of you know to avoid violations of the open meeting law one person reporting back to the public body doesn't create a subcommittee um and if multiple members are using you know doing work on behalf of the public body you would want to post commit you know post a meeting and comply with the open meeting law any questions so far okay I'll continue on some tips to stay out of trouble um and this is all things that I've seen in in advising um municipalities since 2006 on open meeting law and public records issues so um it certainly comes from experience um if you are attending a meeting of another public body school committee city council um another I'm sure you're all very involved in the City of Medford and the work that um the city does you want to avoid creating the appearance whether that be at another public bodies meeting or a social event or a community event um that you are discussing matters within this public body's jurisdiction um I've handled open meeting law complaints or issues over the years where there's an allegation well I saw a quorum of the public body you know in this room at a retirement party or there was a community event and I think that they were talking about X Y and Z so certainly you want to avoid the appearance um that you are discussing Municipal business to the extent you need to meet jointly with the city council or the school committee or another public body you can post a joint meeting to be held at the same time and place and then minutes would be prepared just as they would for um any other meeting that you may have if you're doing a site visit um certainly a best practice maybe to send a representative to report back and then that content is included in the next sessions meeting minutes um you don't want to be in a position where there's a site visit and an particular location for instance that is not accessible um and then we're going to spend a lot of time tonight on email but I I can't reiterate this enough to try to avoid the use of email or text messages or social media amongst a quorum of of your public body locations um you're going to want to file your meeting notice with the city clerk in there online as well um some best practices with respect to using your um or posting your meeting notice I would recommend not using acronym or abbreviations really someone that just moved to the City of Medford should be able to pick it up and say I understand what's going on at this meeting we all that do work um with public bodies and public entities understand terms like MSPCA or msba D you know um D desie but certainly you know for the first time you may want to spell it out just so everyone knows what is being discussed the meeting notice should indicate the date and time of the posting and if you do revise it I don't know what the practice is going to be you're going to want to include both the date that it was originally drafted and then the revised date as well and that should be done 48 hours and 48 busy business hours in advance regularly occurring items um do need some more detail than just these examples that I've used um what we know from recent determinations from the division of open government is that more detail is better than less detail so we don't really want to use categories such as new business old business or departmental report we really want to specify for instance correspondence and list if there's any notable correspondence or um you know budget analysis and list any particular reports for instance that are going to be done so I would recommend airing on the side of more not less specificity which should be helpful to alert members of the public about the exact topics that are going to be discussed any questions on any of this great um some practical considerations and this does come up obviously from time to time scheduling um scheduling matters or space limitations um generally a meeting may not be continued from one night to the next um as a matter of course unless that continuation is posted under the open meeting law so if you couldn't meet tonight would have to schedule reschedule this meeting and repost it for the new date and time and the notice requirement under the open meeting law doesn't substitute or supersede any other notice requirements if you have them under any other legal requirements so always worth double-checking to make sure you're covering any publication notice or anything else that may be required re ired emergencies um I can't tell you how many questions I get regarding emergencies particularly in the winter months with inclement weather um there are very limited instances when a public body can meet without that 48 hours notice that's required um for planning doesn't equal an emergency we know from determinations of the Attorney General's office so if there was just a mishap with respect to scheduling and I certainly understand everyone's doing the best they can and um you certainly have a lot of schedules to to to figure out um with respect to the public body's business but generally an emergency is limited to natural disasters um Public Health matters and public safety issues so something to be aware of um we can talk a little bit about if something's unanticipated that's a little bit different but posting is is really Limited in the emergency context if you do have an emergency you really need to meet there's a specific reason why the 48 Hours couldn't have been um it couldn't have been posted with the 48 Hours you do want to comply with the open meeting law to the extent you can and really limit deliberations to just that emergency matter um you're going to take meeting minutes of that emergency meeting and then you'd want to post a follow followup meeting where you basically ratify the action that was taken at the emergency so let's hope for no emergencies um but just wanted to make sure everyone had that information as well conducting meetings so we're going to move a little bit from the notice piece of this and the agenda piece of the open meeting law to now how those meetings are conducted um these are topics that I often receive a lot of questions about so I just wanted to make sure everyone had the best practices related to these particular topics of the open meeting law we know that um if the meeting is being recorded similar to whether it be on Zoom or in person that there should be a public statement or notification to the public through the technological means that the meeting minute is going to be recorded um and the basis of that is the Massachusetts wiretap statute um we can't secretly record anyone in Massachusetts um if an individual wants to record the meeting on their own it's not otherwise recorded so someone shows up to an in-person meeting it used to be when I started doing this it would be the big you know the big recording device with a tripod um that we had the old VCR tapes for now of course it's iPhones um the individual must inform the chair of their intent to do the recording um and then the chair would make the required announcement to the public body members as well as members of the public indicating that um the meeting was going to be recorded um in my opinion the chair can decide to reasonably regulate the recording placement obviously as technology is smaller and smaller this is less of an issue but we don't want to block anyone's view so to speak um and people can be in a position where they're not you know interrupting or there's no disorderly conduct in the meeting of themselves any questions on recordings nope okay thank you email um I would say I'm going to try to do the math here um 70 to 80% of the open meeting law complaints that I deal with relate to the use of email text messages or other um other social media mechanisms so I say that again we all use technology it's efficient it's quick um it it Garners a a quick response and certainly I'm sure you all use it you know in in your other lives professional lives personal lives um but really the O the open meeting law does not encourage the use of email or other text messages by members of the public body to conduct their business um email is explicitly addressed in the open meeting law and it is often the reason I see for a violation to be determined by the Attorney General's office um and what the law requires is that a quorum either collectively so reply all situation um or you know a group of individuals or one individual forwards it to another who forwards another um Can constitute can constitute an open meeting law violation so members should really be cautious and a best practice would be not to use email to share ideas beliefs opinions concerns whether serially or to a sing or in a single email regarding business um and you can't use another member to you can't send an email to a non-public body member to then circulate out to the group as well some practical approaches um certainly beware to reply all on emails and really limit the use of email to scheduling purposes only and try to avoid using it to undertake business um we should always assume assume that emails could be forwarded to you know a local blogger um put on Facebook sent to the newspaper um I've seen it before so we really want to be very considerate of the use of um the use of email and this is where there is the overlap with the public records law because even if you're volunteers um emails or text messages or social media posts that are made um in your official capacity or in relation to your service on this um committee really are subject to the public records law as well and so if you use a Gmail account or a personal cell phone to send an email or a text message and there is a public records request for that um that certainly would be subject to the public records law most likely so um just something to be very cognizant of as you begin your service is there a question no I think we're good okay great thank you um texting and social media texting and social media similar also subject to the open meeting law Facebook Snapchat Twitter Reddit all of those are subject to the public records law and the open meeting law to the extent there is deliberation um if you are a user of social media certainly in your individual capacity you have free speech and First Amendment considerations um so I'm not going to speak directly to your individual rights but certainly some practical approaches if you are um posting on your service you don't want to direct comments to your to your other members um and if a matter directly involves issues pending you might want to consider not engaging certainly again be thoughtful about the comments that are made and consider using separate accounts if you do you know if you do run for something remember that applicants um or any individual before you has due process rights so certainly something to to be cognizant of as well um the open meeting law does not mandate we're going to talk a little bit about the authority of the chair in public comment um does not mandate that any particular person be allowed to speak at a meeting so that's something we've seen a particular optic both with respect to First Amendment Auditors across the state um and also I'll talk a little bit about a case that came out last year um that is really important the open meeting law doesn't require that you even allow public participation or public comment though I certainly understand that most public bodies do um the open meeting law has made indicates that the chair essentially has the sole discretion as to who may speak and for how long so comments are directed through the chair as you know um and while public comment isn't required under the open meeting law allowing the public to speak during your meeting or restricting any speech other than based on time place and manner restrictions and we'll talk about what that means does have serious constitutional implications um so certainly if you do allow public comment all of the decisions as to who's going to speak or for how long should be content neutral so not based on the particular message for a speaker or what that individual says but just based on the time that's allotted um you know some public bodies I work with say 15 minutes of public comment everyone gets two or three minutes people are allowed to speak once or twice depending on how B busy the agenda is um and some have adopted public comment policies as well so certainly something to put out there to all of you to consider um and we'll talk a little bit more about public comment but the chair does have the authority to regulate it subject to those constitutional restrictions public participation um whether or not to allow public partici participation is a significant policy decision um here are a couple of factors for all of you to consider when will the public participation period occur is it going to be at the beginning of the meeting is it going to be in the middle of the meeting or at the end of the meeting how long will it be you know like I said 10 15 minutes is usually what I see um but there are some meetings where warrants particular input from members of the public and so you all may decide half an hour or an hour um we just want to make sure it's it's equal across the board for anyone that'll that wants to speak how long will each person be allowed to speak um and whether or not each person can speak more than once so conducting the meeting policy issues for public common periods um any rules about public participation must relate to the process for such participation and cannot relate to any speech protected by constitutional principles um any restrictions on an individual speech must be narrowly tailored so again try to give some practical advice here items to consider um during a public public comment period you certainly want to avoid a debate to the extent you can um you want to avoid responding before you've had the time or opportunity to discuss it or if the matter is controversial and it is perfectly fine both under the open meeting law as well as under constitutional considerations to just leave matters raised during public comment unresolved they're not on the meeting agenda itself and so it may be something that you decide to put on a a future meeting agenda so that members of the public that may be interested in the topic can come to the next meeting and say okay this is going to be reviewed we're going to have an open discussion we're going to be able to deliberate on it um so some some practical items to consider there matters not reasonably anticipated by the chair must that are going to be discussed by all of you must be added to the agenda after the posting deadline the extent feasible and I'll give an example of that um if you are going to designate an a staff member or someone else to work on your agenda um you want to make sure that that person understands that it has to be added as soon as possible and like we had talked about at the beginning with respect to the meeting notice the updated agenda should show the original date um as well as the date that it was it was changed matters not reasonably anticipated by the chair may be discussed and acted upon but the Attorney General's office does recommend unless it requires immediate attention it really should be put off to a later meeting and included in that meeting posting um so it really is was this matter so time sensitive but yet unanticipated that it had to be discussed at this meeting we updated the meeting agenda um and we're going to essentially discuss it or can we put it off to the next meeting um because it isn't time sensitive and it really could have been anticipated based on the totality of the circumstances any questions on any of that I know it's a lot of content anything from any of the members looks like we're good so far okay thank you so much meeting minutes um I don't know if you've all determined how the meeting minutes will be prepared or created and approved but wanted to make sure and I'll make these slides available to anyone that wants them after the meeting I'll certainly circulate them um so you have them as as well as some other materials that may be helpful as a a little open meeting law guide um the date time and place of the meeting and members present and absent does need to be included um you know I get this question all the time do we are the meeting minutes a transcript and the answer is no um what we know is it doesn't need to be a Verbatim transcript of what transpired particularly as I would imagine you're going to have longer meetings from time to time um what the Attorney General's office has said and what the open meeting Law requires is that it has to have a detailed summary of the discussion of each topic so that a member of the public sitting at home go that goes to the website and looks at meeting minutes once they're drafted and approved says okay I understand what happened at this meeting right I understand this was the topic discussed this is the general nature of the discussion these were the that were taken here are the next steps um it can't be B you know it can't be very cursory but at the same time it doesn't need to be a Verbatim transcript we do know that it should have the decisions made any actions taken and any votes recorded um you all did proper roll call vote at the beginning um if you are meeting in a remote capacity you do want to do a roll call vote and we'll talk about that in a little bit as well the meeting minutes should also reference any documents or other exhibits that you use or consider during a meeting they don't need to be attached to the meeting minuts um but we just want to reference them so that if there is a public records request or request for those meeting minutes and all materials that you use during the meeting someone can go back and figure out what was discussed and put the package together to then send to a member of the public meeting minutes do need to be approved and drafted in a timely manner um we know that that requires um under the current regulations that that approval has to transpire within the next three meetings or within 30 days whichever is later um there are several determinations that talk about you know Staffing constraints or operational constraints alone aren't really a um a good reason for a delay in those approval of the meeting minutes certainly things happen um everyone's busy and people are doing the best they can you know my general advice and best practice is to try to stay on top of the Drafting and approval of the meeting minutes um as best as you can given your other responsibilities a question has come up very frequently in the last couple of years can a public body use Google Docs or you know another document sharing mechanism to edit edit the meeting minutes in advance of it meeting to make that a more efficient process um and generally that is not allowed under the open meeting law because if several members are going into Google Docs and sharing their comments outside of a public meeting that could constitute a deliberation certainly um it can be delegated this task to one individual um it's a matter of policy in terms of how how you want to handle it in terms of efficiency um but there are different methods so if you have any questions on that feel free to let me know and I'm happy to walk through it um meeting minutes are minutes of open meetings are public records as of the moment of their creation regardless of whether they've been approved so draft meeting minutes are subject to the public records law just as approved meeting minutes are um certainly personal notes so if you take you know personal notes um that are not shared as part of the public B's um official files or the school Department's files or the city's files those are personal to you um and I would argue those are exempt under the public records law um but the meeting minutes even in draft form would be subject to disclosure and there is a slightly shorter time frame for a request for meeting minutes under the open meeting law it's 10 calendar days um for a public records requests response it's 10 business days so I just wanted to make sure you had that information as well executive session minutes um I don't know how much you all will meet an executive session but certainly wanted to make sure everyone was aware of what an executive session is um and how those meeting minutes differ from open session meeting minutes um the open meeting law allows public bodies to meet an executive or confidential session um for specific reasons those are all spelled out in chapter 30A section 21 and I have many handouts on this if anyone wants it feel free to let me know happy to share it with all of you um basically if if you all meet an executive session either for litigation or real estate reasons or there's a particular complaint those are the most common reasons to go into executive session um there are specific requirements that apply there must be notice um there need to be roll call votes in those meeting minutes as opposed to the Open session meeting minutes are are confidential so long as that um executive session purpose applies or there may be another reason to keep them confidential even after they're released under the public records law um essentially executive session meeting minutes can be withheld until that purpose has been met unless they're protected under the public records law and the most common example of that is if you were meeting regarding you know threatened litigation or litigation that you were involved in I hope that never happens um under purpose three of the open meeting law and you had Council advising you at that meeting the litigation settles the you know there's no threat of litigation all of that goes away but the meeting minutes themselves may be able to be redacted under the attorney client privilege so there is a little bit of overlap there with respect to the open meeting law process and the public records process so just want to make sure everyone knew that if you do meet an executive session the open meeting Law requires the chair um or the chair's design to review executive session meeting minutes routinely um I usually recommend quarterly just to see can the meeting minutes be released has the purpose expired or not um and so that to get in the habit of doing that if you do end up meeting an executive session I think um is very helpful as things progress same time frame in terms of a response um the 10 calendar days as well not that you need to release them but just that a response be provided any questions on that so far nope thank you I just want to check in every once in a while just to make sure um executive sessions if you do meet an executive session you're going to first convene in Open Session this question comes up all the time well we're just having an executive session Janelle like what do you mean well you you have an open session you start and then the public sees you vote to go into executive session that's what the open meeting Law requires um you're going to announce the purpose of the executive session without compromizing the reason um you know this comes up more often I would say for land use boards for instance but if you had if there was a threat of litigation and you didn't want to impact that at all certainly may decide as a our policy we can't discuss this um so something to be aware of you're going to take and record a roll call to vote to go into executive session and announce publicly whether or not you're going to return an open session or reconvene at all exhibits and documents are going to again be stored in reasonable proximity to the minutes so that we understand what the record of the meeting trans to what happened at the meeting what transpired and really only I can't stress this enough discuss the matters that are cited um so if you do feel as if you have a reason to go into executive session to discuss things secretly um and again they're they're very narrow for the reasons you can do this um you really only want to discuss those matters you don't want the conversation of Vier in a different direction that should be discussed in Open Session um because I have dealt with open meeting law complaints alleging that when the minutes are released everyone can see there was an open discuss a discussion of something else so really be cognizant that you're only talking about what you can talk about in executive session and again it's 30A section 21 and the open meeting law guide that I can circulate after this meeting goes through all of that in detail and there's a very helpful checklist that I have as well um that I'm happy to provide to the committee as they conduct as you all conduct your work um the I do get this question quite often so I wanted to make sure you all new um if an executive session is anticipated it does need to be listed in appropriate detail on the meeting notice um again without compromising your position and um the vote to Executive to the vote to enter into executive session must also be listed as well that you know it's often that you're have you have an open meeting and someone will say well can we go into executive session now and the answer is most likely not um the same posting requir ments apply unless there is an emergency or unanticipated item so I wanted to cover um before we go into questions and I'm happy to answer any questions that anyone has um a little bit of the enforcement process just so you're all aware of it in case this ever comes up and I hope it doesn't um you know Step One is if there was an open meeting law complaint that a written complaint be filed there's a specific form within 30 days of that someone found out about the alleged violation and then from there um the public body would review the complaint discuss a response and issue a response to the complainant along with any action that was taken um the complainant can essentially be satisfied and not do anything else and say I'm completely content with how um the committee responded or alternatively they can say I want further review with the Attorney General's office and the Attorney General's office has a specific spefic division the division of open government that is charged specifically with with enforcement of the open meeting law um there's a director of that Division and several attorneys and they essentially review open meeting law complaints to determine whether or not a violation has occurred um there are a variety of options um if there is a violation that the AG's office has um they can nullify the action that's taken there are fines that can be imposed for itional violations um there is also the option to go to court um to seek further um relief if an individual wants to and then three registers registered voters can also bring an action in Superior Court um you know I think I think the bottom line here is to to really take those best practices and try to employ them to the extent you can um and if there's any questions along the way better to ask at the beginning than to let it go further than that any questions so far nope nope I think we're good okay thank you so I wanted to cover some recent notable Court decisions um I've given a long summary here just so everyone has them I think really the takeaway is the the baron case is is a huge case that was recently decided by the SJC the Supreme Judicial Court which is the highest state court in the Commonwealth um and that really dealt with public comment periods um and essentially in summary the Court held that while municipalities are not required to provide public comments during board and committee meetings um if you are required to do so they have to comply with the provisions of the Constitution um so after this decision in South borrow and I encourage you to all read it if you're interested and I have a copy if anyone wants it you know in in my opinion care should really be taken that any public comment period like we talked about a couple of slides back um is limited to these reasonable time place in manner restrictions rather than mandating quote unquote civility or other content-based restrictions um you know certainly this was a trend since the court reviewed this Corey Spalding case um versus town of NAX school committee back in 2018 closely tracked that case um and the ACLU was involved in that litigation um that also dealt with public comments during public meetings where there were allegations the committee improperly limited comments made by members of the public which were critical of the committee but allowed other individuals to speak um you know if we look at these cases together essentially I think it makes sense to have a public comment policy or consistency across the board with respect to time um but regulation of content is is really problematic in light of these decisions um so if there are specific questions of that as you begin to conduct your business certainly let me know I'm happy to to analyze that um you know I've worked on a lot of public comment policies since the baron decision was decided um so happy to to answer any questions that anyone has on that I think practically speaking most people do the time restrictions um for public comment period and decide where in the meeting they're going to have public comment based on their other businesses business for that meeting um I've included reference to two other cases the town of Swansea case was about sufficiency of meeting minutes um so I wanted to make sure you all had that as well and then the Bolter versus whan case was really and I don't know how much this would impact your work but really dealt with employee evaluation processes the current state of the open meeting law um so we know that the covid-19 pandemic era changes are in place until March 31st 2025 they were extended um by Governor Healey in a supplemental budget bill that further extended those temporary measures they were put in place in 2020 and extended several times um I just wanted to alert all of you that there is also significant pending legislation that would either seek to extend this fur further or make modifications to the open meeting law um I haven't heard it moving quickly at the state level but certainly will'll keep um all of you updated along the way if there are changes we would update um certainly update you but for now um You can meet entirely in person you can meet entirely remotely or you can meet in a hybrid format um you know I think instead of holding meetings in a public place you can provide adequate alternative means and we'll talk about what that means public body members can also participate in me in meetings remotely as well the changes are still optional um there are you know technological considerations we'll talk about that but essentially the 2020 changes that were in place remain in effect through at least um March 31st 2025 and I would imagine there'll be further action on those in the next six months adequate alternative access what does that mean um it means that if you are providing um if you are meeting remotely then you have to provide realter access a lag of about 20 seconds or so is deemed acceptable but if there is a technical problem that prevents the meeting from being accessible the stream crashes um the meeting should be paused or rescheduled depending on the severity of the technical issue um so there have been multiple determinations that the Attorney General's office is held that continuing a meeting and posting a recording afterwards does not cure a violation if the meeting is fully remote um the public must be able to access the meeting as it happens um and again this is if there's a remote meeting if you're meeting entirely in person um and you're providing a courtesy link or it's being live streamed as this is on um you know Medford Community then that requirement would not apply in my opinion Zoom as we're here tonight is the typical means but it's not required any method that allows the public to follow in real time is acceptable in light of the um remote meeting requirements additional considerations if you are meeting remotely um you have to make a public statement that the meeting is being recorded again under the wiretap requirements um votes should be taken with a roll call just as we do an executive session and um remote meeting remote members so if there are some people in person and there's some people at home you must introduce yourselves or be introduced at the meeting and the camera should be on to the extent that someone can have their camera on um and they're they're not participating by phone or for medical reasons they can't participate with their camera on um or they've requested an accommodation when holding an executive session um remotely members of the public body should state that no other person is present that no one else can hear them again that goes to the confidential nature of an executive session um and so if we were here tonight I would say you know just so you know I'm here in a room with the door shut in my office and no one else can hear me um that would be sufficient hybrid meetings um many I would say the majority of public bodies I work with or are meeting in a remote or hybrid manner um you can allow your members to meet in members um to meet in person but members of the public can watch a live stream um and you can also allow direct participants so if you had a contractor or an engineer or a project manager um to attend in person but the general public could meet remotely um and a member May attend remotely if even if other members ATT 10 in person um you know the bottom line is essentially if live access stops then the meeting must stop as well um if there is troubleshooting or technical difficulties you do want to be careful again not to deliberate over text or email if there is an issue with a technical feed um and you can resume the meeting once it's resolved um and members of the public are allowed to see the live stream again public body must be able to hear and follow the meeting from their remote location okay so that was a little bit of a I know a lot of information to take in um happy to answer any specific questions that anyone has um as I had mentioned I'm happy to share both these slides as well as additional resources um as a open meeting law training kit um with all of you and happy to answer any questions along the way um and and update you with respect to the litig the the legislation on the open meeting Law changes that may or may not go into effect by the end of next march are there any questions for Janelle okay Janelle if you could send those slides um along that would be great I'll make sure the committee has access to them um and thank you so much for your time thank you all I'll send um I'll send the open meeting ww guide I'll send my slides and I'll send some other um helpful materials as well as a summary of that fa in decision so everyone has it great thank you thank you so much it was nice seeing you all have a good evening good luck with the rest of your meeting thank you thank you thank you all okay so we're right on time um we're going to circle back to some introductions um this is a big group um there are 25 of us in total we have a few members who are not able to be here tonight that let me know that in advance so we will catch them up but I was hoping that we could just go around the room and you could introduce yourself um and just talk out like very briefly about sort of what you see your role in the committee as and making sure that um Everybody in the room sort of gets to know you I if you have an official sort of capacity role in the schools that where they may not have met you before so Peter do you want to start sure good evening everyone my name is Peter in assistant superintendent um the me public schools for enrichment Innovation and operations uh I've worked through both of my career uh 22 years as a high school teacher a high school principal assistant principal um and have extensive experience uh several MBA projects primarily green root repair uh boiler installation and uh helping authoring SOI for project currently just around about two weeks ago um so I'm really just happy to be a part of this team that's joh I'm director of builds and grounds coming to my 38 here working for the method Public Schools uh I look forward to it I I I was on the uh science lab uh when we did the high school science lab msba I was on the boiler project at me high school we did that another msba project project hopefully I can bring my longterm vast experience uh to the Forefront to help us in any way that we can push things forward evening everyone I'm uh Thomas Dalton I'm the outgoing communications director for Med public thumbs down but here your disposal now um I uh I'm a Communications professional uh with a career in in state and local government um but uh when I still lived in my hometown of stonum I also served as a a school Committee Member in ston during that time we started the process with the msba for the new ston high school that's going to this September um so particularly this period of the msba process it's very familiar to me I was serving as a school committee member um during that time frame um certainly very excited about uh all the opportunities that we're going to have to collaborate with this state to gather lots of really good local input it's really hello everybody I'm on the member of school committee this is my seven year say good evening um I'm Tracy Kean um been living in Medford for 12 years I work professionally at as a senior theater and facility manager overseeing the day-to-day operations of a Performing Art Center on PO campus currently a part of a team building a new theater across the river in Austin um groundbreaking was just couple of months a couple of weeks ago um so I bring in some day-to-day operation facility Management and Resources of I'm Maria dorsy um I work here at M high school as the school librarian I I've been in the schools for 28 years I've lived in Medford for 43 years my husband's a lifelong resident and I was in Mal so I feel like it's I've been in Medford M and all the same time um I was working in the old um Brooks Hobs when we transitioned from there into the brand new mlen library and then two years later I transitioned into the new Brook School library and in 2010 I transitioned into the old high school Li which was quite a shock um but you know when we were going through the building process for the other uh schools I um wasn't on the committee but I did participate in some of the walkthroughs in other buildings and I watched those weekly Jack Buckley events with on time and on budget that was um and it it was really I was so fascinated by the whole process um and I see my role as the functional part of the building how it's going to operate for the students the teachers and of course my personal space the liary hi everybody I'm Libby Brown I'm an architect um I've lived in Medford for almost 10 years and um I'm just really excited now that my kids are in school um this is a project that's coming to life and I'm really excited to be a part of it I work primarily in education mostly highered um but some private K12 as well um no msba experience exactly but we've done mscba work so a little bit on the higher ed side but um I just think this is a wonderful opportunity for Medford I work a lot with Educators and Librarians and people from programming through concept design and construction especially with a lot of phase Renovations and you know evaluating existing facilities whether you to keep them and renovate tear them down do both do it all at once um anything between so this is an exciting project just that to be care I'm Larry Brown just an average Joe live a couple blocks away so I don't exactly know where I'm going to fit in all this but I do have a lot of background and construction planning site development uh for primarily residential but also like commercial uh and I won't go into all that but if anybody wants to know my background I can talk to you more about it but I guess my interest is sort of like uh helping you in the process because I've sort of done this kind of thing on a variety of levels not specifically for a school but other kinds of projects as you just pointed out there's there's a lot of factors here and it's got to all sort of be done sequentially we can't just jump to the end and I you know if I can help with that process I'm happy to do Larry you're also a retired Medford occational High School teacher who also moonlight's here um now and again so um and I I've had about 38 years in construction yeah a lot of different faces so don't sell yourself short it's better to Aon was um hi everybody my name is Aron p uh I'm also on the school committee here in Medford uh I'm a 2018 class graduate of Medford High so you know a couple years ago and I just graduated college from BC this past May um a lot of the work that I've done past couple years has been mostly Community engagement youth engagement um primarily um I took a gap year and worked for City or Boston so I was working in class um teaching in the Charlestown school system um and then doing a lot of community work through that as well um while I was at University um since then I've just been named the new program director for city of malin's Youth Employment Program so I'm working in the mayor's office trying to get kids access to job opportunities so if you have kids that are interested let me know I'll try to get them a job for the summer um and for the school year so I'm just really excited to be here I think a lot of the things that I'm focusing on are I think just youth engagement making sure our students actually have access to what they deserve and I think that's what we're all here to do so I'm just excited for all of us so s hi everybody Chad Fallon principal director of Career and Technical education here at the high school uh starting my eighth year in September um this feels like right up my alley because I work with a bunch of people who like to break things down and build them back up and design things and we have 15 programs here if you don't know uh so I see this as an opportunity to expand our programming hopefully adding three to four additional programs to our menu of options happy to be here I'm Jenny Graham I'm the chair of this uh 20 group of 25 so thanks for being here um I I have uh I have two kids in the schools I think they may both miss this project before it's um online um but um I've made lots of promises at home so here we are um but I am really looking forward to this um in my day job I own a management consulting firm I do a lot of work with process Improvement adult learning design and delivery um as well as project management so I'm a certified project manager not in construction um but I do know how to move a large group of people to a goal um and that's what I'm here to do so I um a lot of the things that Janelle was talking about are sort of roles for me to take on in terms of the minutes and we'll talk about all of that in good time but I'm just so thrilled you're all here we have a lot of work to do um and we've actually done a tremendous amount of work and I'm really excited to tell you about that so we'll get to that just as soon as we finish Productions um L prer um uh parents have three children in the school system uh the oldest is seventh grade of the Andrews and then her sister St Roberts and her young Brothers St Roberts um I think I would characterize myself as a uh uh interested and very motivated parent um to uh improve uh the high school environment um so that we can avoid making tough choices later um I think uh you know maybe I I I get hyperfocused on things and so I've conducted a lot of research um I'm pretty uh I wouldn't say familiar but I'm aware of how these complex Endeavors can kind of fall off the rails um and take far longer than they ought to um and so you know professionally I'm an system engineer um I I work in the Aerospace industry uh familiar with complexity and attention to process uh um certainly uh you know I I think uh my role um will just be to maybe ask some I don't know out of the box questions um I know we have a lot of individuals here uh who either work directly for the schools or have some strong connection uh to the school district and so um perhaps I'll uh be looking at a particular problem from a different perspective um and I'll I'll give voice to that um maybe it'll be productive maybe it'll just be a you know thing that's a piece of spaghetti that slides off the wall um but uh I think that's my role here um kind of an outsider role um but certainly I'm motivated to bring a new high school to thank you hi I'm F Maxwell the chief procurement officer for the city of me um I it's nice to see a lot of the realiz I never saw your face yeah um but I've been um with the procurement office City Medford for uh seven years now and this is the a great opportunity there's so many good things happening in the City of Medford and I'm not from Medford so I'm just happy and excited with all the projects that are going on it's it's a great thing um I also come from a community um where we did build a new high school um Middle School back in 20 5 and I was sort of on the other end I was more the Outreach and I did work for the town of north breing but in a different capacity so um and I can say it was an excellent project a great school system and my daughter was the first graduating class um and my son graduated from there as well so I'm looking forward to Bringing Medford deserves it Brianna lurr mayor Medford I want to thank everybody for being here and thank Jenny for taking the lead um and all the work that she's done I have three children two in the public schools one who may get a year or two or three but either way just so very excited to start this process get up and running hi I'm Marissa Desmond um I am an architect I mostly work in campus environments a lot of high Ed but similarly a little bit of K through 12 um I have been focusing PR predominantly on the programming and early conceptual design portions of projects but have followed a lot through from like concept all the way through construction as well um I have two small children three and five years old so I'm really excited to um have a new school for them in the future um be a part of the process um also uh before I started my architectural education and career I taught seventh grade math for a little bit um so so bring a little bit of that along with me as well um just really excited March gabal High School principal here at metai um former teacher um I was an AP as well and my first principal role so I feel extremely blessed to be able to help build a new school in my first um year here for our students because they truly deserve it I have zero building background zero architectural work zero anything that all of you have as uh expertise but what I can do is I can Envision what kind of spaces that our students and teachers and staff need here at Medford High School and I'm really excited to do that um because I think we can really move the needle forward and instruction by creating spaces that are collaborative and um Innovative so I'm excited to be here and thank you I'm Lori hodon I am School director of ctis probably the oldest building all of our certain I actually love old school architecture um love Curtis SP but know that it's not designed for1st Century student um and so I'm really excited having been a high school teacher a principal in Vermont a principle in Western M Northshore and then in the charter school I've always been on either the tail end of a building project where I didn't where I was a student in Middlebury Vermont and saw it happening we were all wearing boots and my brother got to reap the benefits of the new building I feel like I've always been on the beginning or the end of something and I think it's really exciting I think the ability not every town or city gets to build a new school building and to think about the future especially with students that I am working with currently that access in terms of equity and kind of cultural capital and resources for for our students I think it's going to be really important and um I'd liked what Jenny has said kind of Co localizing or whoever came up I love that of thinking about our Curtis T students really being part of the fabric of this building work they deserve it hi everyone I'm Joe Bowen I'm director of student services here at bord Public Schools um I'm a lifelong resident and a lifelong employee this is my 31st year here in Medford um and I've gone the gamut of teacher evaluation team leader coordinator and now in this position um I've also had two sons who have graduated from me Public Schools one went the college route one went vocational so I'm really excited to see the vision of this new high school and what it can bring to methord and to our students but also to back off of L said the equity and accessibility for all of our students hi suzan gy um this is my 27th year so I too was born and raised remember went through schs um I no longer live here but my whole career has been here um started as a teacher and assistant principal School leader at Brooks and assistant superintendent for elementary schools and now assistant superintendent for academics and construction um similar to kind of Mart's piece I'm really excited to get to work with a whole view um for the instructional vision of the schools I think as someone that was Maria kind of spoke a little bit about it so um you know my father was the project manager for the K to8 buildings so I feel like I have kind of lived both sides of of this a little bit but being blessed enough to be one of the teachers in the new at the time 2001 uh M Glenn school um it was great to also see that whole process unfold as an educator and you want to new schools so I think the critical role that we all play these big decisions that are going to impact our Educators our students our families our community um is very important to me so take take this very seriously um and I feel very honored to be part of the team and get to work with all of you thank you good evening Mara Vincent I to was born down the street at Lawrence uh my family my mom's still here down the street in West mford and um I started school Medford I started at the hery school I I went a different path I ended up at St rays and AC I Catholic but um you know I worked at Johnny's food master in West dou Park was my local park and um you know I love schools I love kids I love education um I've been in education now for 30 years um so that's it's pretty scary because I was like 9 that's like I goto answer so I think I'm going to have to make an adjustment but I'm really excited about what this means um getting a new high school for medord um I know at the time when this building was built it was like you know probably like in Taj Mahal it was a beautiful high school but you know 50 plus years later um we need something new and I feel our students deserve it and um we have wonderful vocational programming um we have wonderful academic programming but in a very old building and we do have a wonderful verest house um program which is located in a different facility we have a wonderful Early Childhood options and you know our preschool program for staff here that you know that is housed here and we're fortunate to have those things in Medford and I just feel like Medford is this little gem and um having a new flagship High School will do so much for our students for the community and for the future of our community in general the Greater Community and I just look forward to being part of this process and working with everyone who's here and taking my different experiences and you know adding my voice with all the voices that are already here and um to the mayor and member Graham um you know getting to this group of 25 there were so many wonderfully qualified um candidates that it was like another engineer another engineer another architect um but to get to this group of like wonderful individuals I'm very very grateful I want to give a shout out to Luke who started the process with us two years ago I think and um you know hung in there and was always checking in so I'm just looking forward to um this process and just really want us to stay positive and optimistic about what is to come and um remember gr Jenny I don't know if you want to share with them about the uh field trip that you took and how exciting of us took and how exciting that was and it'll be even more exciting for the rest of the team to go and have those similar experiences sure um thank you all for the um words of excitement um I want to do um a couple of things between now and 800 pm and I we're gonna we're going to be out the door at 8 I promise um but just as a quick time check um two two big things um one is I want to give you a bit of a sense of what's been happening um to lead up to today um and where we are in the process um so I'm going to talk a little bit about that we're going to bring up a quick presentation to do that and then before we leave tonight um we will form some subcommittees so that we can move quickly on some of the near-term work that we need to do um so we'll talk about that in just a minute but Peter if you can bring up that presentation for me that would be great okay um you can go ahead a couple of pages keep going one more here we go um back in February we started so in December the msba um invited us to the eligibility period and we'll talk about what the eligibility period means in just a couple of minutes um but that invitation said you're invited to this process which starts on May 1 so tomorrow we start um however um the committee named me the chair of the of this building committee um back in February and we there's a lot of work that has been done so far one of the things that we had to do was was find all of you right so in the context of trying to say what is it that we want as a school committee for this building committee to do we established um a list of goals there's going to be many many more goals but I did want to like set the stage of um the work that we're going to do for the next five to seven years um the first is to plan comprehensively for all programming currently residing on the Medford High School campus including vocational and non-vocational 92 9 to2 education 9 to 12 Athletics the Medford Family Network Medford Community Schools programming early childhood education including but not limited to the Medford Early Education Program which we call Meep and kids corn so that there's so much more that goes on in this building than what we think about when we think about a high school so that's that's one thing for you all to start to think about um number two what's that can I take a picture oh yeah and I can share the slides no no I can share the slides that's yeah I can share all the slides with you um afterwards um number two is to consider whether the placement of cff tough's high school on the Medford camp campus will provide increased educational opportunities to enrolled students at Curtis tffs um number three ensure robust public input and stakeholder feedback at appropriate Milestones throughout the project that complies with msba guidelines and guidance from the Medford school committee listen to educator and administrator input regarding the future of educational best practices and plans for the students of Medford that means we care a lot about functionality so we want to know that the spaces will work for the student and the teachers in the building it's really really important um number five create plans for the building that advances meford climate goals and achieves any chips and and Lead five Lead version five certification to meet the parish climate Accords 2030 and 2050 targets and moves efficiently and effectively through the building process in a manner that ensures students are able to learn in the new building as quickly as is feasible so that's a huge task as quickly as is feasible is still in the measured in years and not in months um but as the in the context of building this committee um once um I was designated the chair we we got out the call for applications we started to collect applications and all you were here meanwhile um there's a lot of work to do in the eligibility phase that we've already begun so I want we'll talk about that in just a minute but if you can go to the next slide so this is a really J graphic um that did not blow up very well from theba website but as we talking about the entire process right we are just outside the box for another like six hours um on May 1 we'll hop inside the box into that eligibility period at each of these steps in the process the msba will have to sign off that we have completed all of the requirements of that phase there will have to be a board meeting where they vote to invite us to the next phase so at any point in this process the msba could say you're not ready to move on they could also say we don't like what you're doing um and they could also say forget about it so our job here is that none of those things happen our job is that we are going to play this clean we are going to be comprehensive and we are going to move as fast as we humanly can okay so we're going to give the msba a run for their money because we're going to be ready for them they nobody's ever spend them five years we'll see um but that eligibility period lasts for 270 days so by January we have to be done with the eligibility phase I'm going to talk a little bit about what happens in that phase beyond the eligibility phase just briefly when we talk about forming the project team that means bringing on board our owner's project manager then we go into the feasibility study when people think about what we're doing on this committee they think we're doing a feasibility study right now they think we're deciding are we building are we renovating where are we building is it on the field is it in the parking lot how's it going to work we are not there yet so please tell all your friends we will get there and we will work with professionals to to help make those assessments um on behalf of what we need to do in this building um and then we move on to schematic design um funding the project um that is where we vote as a community to fund this project I cannot stress how important that will be but also we've got a lot of work to do before we get there um once that happens we go into detailed design then we put a shovel in the ground and then at some point in future we complete the project so that's sort of the Soup To Nuts my goal is that we're just going to take this one step at a time we're going to do what we need to do to be compliant with the eligibility period and then we're going to move on um as we near that next phase we're going to start talking about how can we accelerate the work um but for right now our focus is eligibility so if you can flip to the next page um the eligibility process is its own graphic which you cannot see so go ahead and flip to the next slide um okay so there are five things that have to happen in this phase one is the initial compliance certification it's a legal agreement that binds the city to comply with the mba's process it has been signed and it has been delivered to the msba we are one day ahead of schedule and I'm going to own that thank you mayor and superintendent we're on our way um number two the building committee has to be formed you're all here the school committee said meet before May 1 and here we are on April 30th we've done it um the form will be submitted to the msba um shortly so we are working on that and that'll be submitted shortly um that's obviously the easy part it's paperwork um I think the whole eligibility phase is a lot of paperwork but this is the easy stuff and we're just going to get it done and get it out of the way the msba will need to sign off on our committee um we have met all the requirements um so the the msba has all kinds of things require um that it requires of us in terms of who is on this committee we've met all of those requirements with all of you here um now we're going to dive into the actual work there's three there's three additional things that have to happen one is what they call an educational profile this Pro this docu it's a it's a template document um and it requires us to say what happens in this building today how many classrooms how many math classrooms how many swing spaces how big is your theater all of it right so it asks you to describe currently what happens in this building it also asks you to describe what you envision for the future of this building um so this is where those conversations about Curtis toughs um those conversations about Early Childhood become very very important because between our statement of interest and this eligibility phase educational profile that will set the tone for how all the construction professionals actually can do their work so this is going to set the scope as it were for the work that has to be done to to actually get this building put up so there's a lot of work that's been done right now in this um in this process um I have been meeting with the administrative team since February we meet multiple times a week they're very sick of me um yeah I would be sick of me um but one of the things that we have started to do is say um what can we chip away at and so the document is pretty well drafted when it comes to what do we do in this building all the classrooms have been counted um all the programs have been outlined there's a little bit more work for the administration to do in terms of what happens today to accurately describe that the other thing that is obviously much more complicated is having some conversation around what will we do in this building in the future so in that conversation again we've been having a lot of sort of broad conversation um we've been sort of tapping into like the Strategic plan parts of our brain to to ask big questions um and I'm going to use Curtis TS just for um a quick minute we have had some discussion about um do our Educators think that is something that we should be thinking about and the answer to that is yes they said yes we should be thinking about that um and so we started to say okay what does that look like what might the requirements be so we've started that conversation um but that conversation is bigger than what this committee can sort of chew on um because it it sort of dabbles in um responsibilities of the school committee so last night I served up um a a resolution asking our special education and Behavioral Health subcommittee which is actually chaired by member rouso to have a meeting on a very tight timeline to collect input and feedback about that very narrow topic would collocation of the Curtis tops onto this campus in some capacity be beneficial to the educational outcomes of the students that go to Curtis TS um there is another Medford resident who actually spoke last night um he is um in charge of this of a very comparable program at Somerville he talked about this transition just happening in Somerville and how it exploded his population um it has Chang the game for the students who need that alternative setting um in terms of access to things like sports teams um in our case The Vocational programs um so there's huge huge opportunity but we want to make sure that the commit the community and the committee have some opportunity to sort of think about all of all that that might bring to the table and provide a recommendation back to this committee so that has been turfed um last night officially to the special education subcommittee they will meet they will invite current staff current students farmer students um community members etc etc and Jack hey um from Somerville to come and talk and work through that and provide a recommendation so they're on their way that will come back um by by mid June um so they have their work cut out for them but that will help us inform the drafting of that piece of what we envisioned for this school because um what we likely will need is not just a couple of classrooms somewhere in the building building um part of why the Curtis tus is successful is because the environment is considerably different than this very very big campus with 1,200 students so we will have to think carefully about how we craft that but hopefully the work that the subcommittee does will come back to us and can be sort of funneled in um Mara and Chad will come to a future school committee meeting in the coming weeks and Marta will be talking about some of her ideas for alternative programming um and and what all that might look like even in the short term and so that is something that will have to be sort of folded in Joan and um Suzanne and I and and Paul had a conversation yesterday about um Early Education our elementary schools are busting at the seams we'll have to Grapple with that problem sometime Meep used to be housed here um and we are going to explore a case that says um Meep should come back here um and that may or may not be ultimately where we land but that is something that we're exploring because now is the time um we also talked a lot about students who don't have any sort of prek education and as they enter our Public Schools um just how challenging the entry for those students are and so we are also talking about things like how big is the weight list and how many students come to us who have never been in some sort of preas setting and what kind of capacity would we need to service a a bigger uh more comprehensive Early Education Program out of this building because all of that would need to go into this document so we are working on that um so as these things are happening um there's been a lot of work to date on this educational profile the one big piece of the educational profile we haven't touched yet is the communication strategy I'll talk about that in just a minute um but on the education side there's so much that our Educators have to do for us to be able to get that document pulled together I just want you all to know it's all in process and as we go through our next SE our next several meetings we'll bring those documents forward so we can start to do like broader reading of those documents um ask for suggestions make sure that we are really thinking about all the angles of what we need to describe um and so that is where I think all of you play a really important role to say I think you need to describe what we're doing here a little bit different L based on what I know or based on sort of what the vision is for the Arts programs or for the vocational programs etc etc so um so that's where we are on the educational profile um Curtis T's collocation is in subcommittee um the other the other big sort of um new newer um newish changing topic is MEEP what msba describes um as the reason for delay often in communities is that they're having to make very big decisions that feed their building process like do we combine two schools and So that obviously has its own energy and its own set of requirements which makes it very challenging to um to be able to um move quickly so we are trying to both think very big because this is one a One-Shot opportunity um to to think about what the district really does need um in a very comprehensive way but also um you know move as fast as possible so all that work has been um in play in progress and and moving as as quickly as is humanly possible and Peter can you go to the next slide very similarly on um The Vocational side because we have a very active vocational school we have another document that needs to be filled out which is a chapter 74 viability chapter 74 is the chapter of the regulation that stablishes vocational programs right okay um that drafting is in progress we have to tell them here are the programs we have here is the capacity of those programs here's our current enrollment and things like what is our weit list we also have an opportunity to describe intended expansion of these programs Chad and Peter will be at the school committee talking about potential for expansion that is a school committee matter because expanded program takes much more than just a building it takes equipment it takes Staffing so the school committee has to weigh in on that so that's going to come before the school committee on May 20th and that will feed sort of the finalization of the Chapter 70 form and and this group will read through and sort of get ready for that as well um and then there is a piece um of the puzzle which um the mayor and the superintendent and I are talking to msba about later this week which is really information around city planning so we can start to um feed information into what they call their enrollment study that helps size the building so you've probably heard a lot about this building was built for 4,000 students and now there's only 1,200 that whether 4,000 was the number or not I don't know but it is true that the number is different um and so one of the things that the msba will do in the eligibility phase is they will say we're going to build a building for this many students that usually tracks with something like what happens in the building today however um if there's huge planned expansion um in the City in terms of housing units going up for development they're going to want to know all of that um so that they can size the building because they don't want us to build a building that is immediately out of capacity they also don't want us to build a building that will never be um at capacity right so um so that's some of the work that's happening there um fourth thing maintenance documents um that is um there's a a questionnaire that we have to answer that outlines all of our maintenance practices across the district so it's things like do you do recommissioning and how is your staff trained there's like 20 variables that document is also in draft um and moving along as quickly as is humanly possible um we'll get to that probably a little bit later in June final thing that we need to do um to be considered done with eligibility is we have to identify um funding for the feasibility study which is probably somewhere in the neighborhood of two and a quarter to two2 and a half million dollars um we're not ready for that yet but we're making plans the mayor and I are working on what will that plan be from um a financial task force perspective um so that all so that that money can be accounted for and cared for as quickly as it is required to be questions about the process sure is the fifth one um so when it says local authorization does that imply the electorate doesn't cast a vote and want a majority or does it imply the city government has identified funding correct in full a part of which will be reimbursed but I think the authorization has to be for the full amount the correct tell you what the reimbursement is based on where we fall on re correct so the Fe so the feasibility this funding will have to cover the whole expense of the feasibility study not the whole project just the feasibility study which is like two2 to two and a half million dollars um the city will pay for that entire um feasibility study upfront and then once the msba certifies our reimbursement rate for the project and we are successful all the way through they will reimburse the piece the the feasibility study that is commiserate with the um the allocation percentage that they provide us so yeah yeah they will use that same formula and apply to the feasibility study and rebate back the city but the city has to front this money so what has to happen here is if we needed to go out to an El the electorate to procure this money we'd have to do that we do not anticipate that we need to do that um we've got a funding plan for that um and we should be good so we we're okay there um and that will require a vote of the city council to authorize the funds um and put it in a place where we can access it but we're um in good shape there um as I mentioned all of this has to be wrapped up by January um each has a particular deadline um associated with it um I am going to um be really aggressive Rive and tell you that I want all of these things to be completed before the start of school next year um and wherever it is possible I want these things to be done by June 30 um so that is why we've been meeting and working and pushing um and I think that um it's it's important for us to stretch so let's let's stretch and let's get ready um the msba will have their work to do in terms of um in terms of getting um the enrollment study certified and all of that but I want us to be able to give them everything they need so that we can move as quickly as possible into that next phase questions about timeline okay um so we have just um 20 minutes left um to that end um we have listed on the back of the agenda a number of upcoming um subcommittee meetings I would like um us to think about and prioritize two things um as we um go into this first phase one is um a Communications and Community engagement committee I want um I want sort of a subcommittee which um would be no more than seven voting members um but an interested group in to meet in subcommittee to really be able to describe and outline our community engagement process I think um you all have seen people um in the community Express their their concern for is medre going to screw this up are we gonna make is it going to work is it GNA happen right so there's there's huge community outreach that has to happen and and the sooner that we start that um the more successful we will be in the end um I think this is a bigger conversation though because in also in my mind we have a huge array of boards and commissions many of them are interested in this project and so there's going to need to be some Outreach to understand when and how to engage them so we can have that on our master plan moving forward second group group I would like to form tonight is the rules and onboarding committee so I um just like you heard from Janelle we do have to establish some rules of how we will operate particularly around public participation but just in general um I expect this committee to be time limited I'm hoping you can meet once and bring a draft back to this group um and and then we can adopt those rules and sort of manage from there um and then the third um committee that won't meet quite as quickly but um will meet um you know before J before the end of June is the finance subcommittee so that will be a standing committee that will um meet and continue um throughout the life of the project um it's important to note that when the time comes where the community has to vote this committee is not where that work happens um it com so if we are talking about um ultimately needing a debt exclusion in order to fund this project this committee is not where like let's pass the debt exclusion happens that actually cannot happen here it has to happen outside of this group um so this finance committee I see this as more um providing input um and insight into things like purchasing procurement um of our owner's project manager um of our Architects that kind of thing um but also to help inform like the fine-tuning of what do we need for feasibility are there other costs we need to be accounting for so there is there is some Finance work to be done albe it um you know I'm not anticipating that that group will meet until a little bit later in May um so we'll talk a little bit more about like Robert's Rules of Order and all of that in our next meeting um I know it's everyone's like looking at me like stop talking please it's almost eight um so I I think what I'm interested in is like if there are people who heard any of those topics and said I really want to be part of one of those subcommittees can you just identify your and I would also politely suggest that the school administrators maybe keep your hands down because you have your own work to do to get ready for all the rest of what we just described so you're 100% welcome to to participate but we need you to be presenting at the school committee we need John and Peter to be helping with those maintenance plans Etc so um if there are folks who are interested in any of those other topics um the committee cannot be too big um but it can be any any size that we deem necessary um in order to get the work done so those subcommittees I put them on the calendar we will meet by Zoom completely um on those evenings just to make things a little bit easier um but you know each will have a pretty specific deliverable by our next meeting on May 13 which is to bring back a draft of um sort of what their proposal is um are there any volunteers yes for the other two you didn't specify how many is it does matter I think it's um I think it can be any number of people it cannot be more than seven voting members um but I think we've just if we literally have just taken the all the the school staff off the table like I'm not overly concerned that we'll like trip on that but I'm more interested in people doing the things that they feel like are good fit for the work they're doing uh for the work that they're passionate about um thank you um Maria thank you Tracy rules okay Communications Marissa awesome I mean I put on two and see if there we enough Finance okay okay I'm gonna put you in finance how's that sound okay did I hear okay and Fiona finance and can we sign Bob up for finance as well [Laughter] great yeah yeah absolutely um any other takers for these committees if you don't get enough Finance all right I to put you on the list me two people for rules and onboarding that is correct um I was planning to sit on all of the Committees but correct um maybe we can um ask Emily Lazaro to be on the rules and on boarding subcommittee um and so I will check with her but um and I have put Nicole Morell on the communication subcommittee as well so um we'll check in with them but is there anybody else who feels strongly where would you like to go um Communications okay great um well I was I was GNA say Finance but I definitely don't have as much experience in that okay I think we're goodn no you have work to do but when it comes time to pick OPM oh absolutely 100% And I think for all of the like actual technicians in the group like there will be a working group before we get too far into this that has to put out an that has to put together an RFP for an owner's project manager that is not expertise that I hold um that's not why I'm here so we will be like relying on everybody for different subcommittees over time this is just like in my near view what I thought we should start with does that make sense does anybody have any other suggestions on things that must happen imminently I have a question sure uh you mentioned like the Curtis potentially coming here and these various uses for the facilities uh who is exploring those options IE like Community head like uh working maybe with a uh Community College evening courses like I was over there helping about with the AGC Association of general contractors and they're doing adult education is is somebody like putting a bunch of options on the table that you guys are like consider um or how's that yep kind of sort of not but not quite we're not quite there yet so I think um once we get through this initial blush of the chapter 74 piece like it might make sense for us to sort of add that in so when we start reading through those documents I think that's a good time to say like who else do we need to reach out to because all that kind of stuff will impact accessibility proximity the size of certain facilities versus the other storage y parking you know okay yeah I think that's a great idea I'm going to put it on the list um yes first you know if everybody in the room was like should be here it's not but Community Schools is so yeah okay yeah so I want to ask you know um who's going to Resource this committee with a any form of digital infrastructure so reference thei there's thei there's um there were survey conducted that's fed. y um there's probably a whole list of other public documents y that are not actually publicly accessible but that should be you know this communication Community engagement subcommittee um is going to have burden of communicating the same thing probably to many people y That's most efficiently done through a website through um uh maybe a shared repository and certainly there could be an outward facing you know portal right like a website like every school that's have one of these projects or and and then kind of a backend repository where uh this Shellman can look at um the SOI for example it could be available anytime um to members for you know sort of on the access list sure that takes resourcing I can give you an upate through school system we got this so um we actually um procured a URL that's unique to this committee and it's building mhs.org is that right okay um so the URL exists um the page exists um Thomas is actually working on um the sort of Bones of that community resource um the reason that we asked you all for for bios and pictures is those will all go on the website so he's working through all of that um in his role as the Director of communications Tom has agreed even though he is um out the outgoing director of communications to stay on specifically for this project until we hire his replacement um so that website is um being built both by Thomas and some of oura vocational students I'm assuming um under Lisa Miller um and there will be a documents component of that where all of those publicly accessible documents will be so that when somebody says where is this we can point them to one place all our meeting minutes will go there all of our meeting agendas will go there um so we've got a whole structure in place already um to try to do that um we're not quite ready but I am hoping by the next meeting we'll be able to give everyone a tour of that website okay um and so just the followup is that'll be the outward facing portal how about the back end for us so that's a tricky question because um under the open meeting law there really isn't a backend for us as soon as a as soon as an agenda is posted all of its documents are part of the public record and if we are what's tricky is if we are working on things behind the scenes we are very likely violating the open meeting law so um the administrators have working copies of the documents that they are working on and they do not represent a quorum and they can continue to do that once those documents come here they will be placed in a like publicly available um drive and when we talk about editing a document there's no offline editing of this committee it is not allowed under the open meeting law so unfortunately we will painfully sit here and jointly edit a document is truly one of the most painful parts of managing this process um that you all have signed up for I'm sorry um but yeah it is it is incredibly painful but offline the kind of offline editing that works super effectively in literally every other place in the world is not an option here okay so no Google Drive no shared documents um things will be released when they're released they appear on the website when they appear on the website they're essentially configuration controlled and cannot be changed unless those changes are conducted here first correct um yes last terrible it's it is terrible yes yes it is it is absolutely terrible um we have found ways to make it less terrible but it's you know degrees of less terrible sadly um and um that is a Surefire way to like get yourself in hot water um with the community in terms of how documents get edited um so there will and when we do those I find that those meetings are far more effective on Zoom you can sit where you need to sit and everybody can watch a document be edited and there can be no sort of idea that the document is being edited without um happening in the open so we have to tread very lightly on that um but yeah I it it is um a process but strange that it applies to the graph documents I could see it applying to release document nope there's of Us weating com yes yeah so yeah I had a like just the and like write our comments there and answer is no you typ your comments respond they were like they acknowled yeah just we're sorry this is like we agre this proba yeah um thank you again for being here just I'm very interested in the comms piece too although those nights don't work but I'm happy to always take calls and they will come back here L okay all of those updates will come back here um any other questions I can answer about subcommittees or anything else that was on the agenda I have question I have a question about voting yes when we get to voting yes and if we're not what's one thing that I've never got my head around is proxy allow no um no it is not is proxy allowed in in a a meeting no you no you cannot assign your vote to somebody else as we this meeting we're going to practice voting um because we have to vote to adjourn the meeting um generally that would happen via what they call a Voice vote where everyone just says I and we go we're just gonna practice a roll call because it's again weird and awkward so we'll do that um to join the Mee to adjourn the meeting but um any other questions before we adjourn the meeting he was paying attention um but I think the other thing that's worth describing is that there are a healthy number of non- voting members on this committee um the reasons for that are not because we don't want to hear from you you're here because we want to hear from you when the vote happens we will not call your name and you will not vote but other than that um you are a full member of this committee we were I was cautioned um that when you have too many voting members it becomes very hard to conduct business because you must have a quum of the committee to even meet and conduct business that all becomes very very complicated so this was sort of our attempt to say we want to have a a big round committee but we also need to be able to like move efficiently and effectively and all of that stuff so that's sort of the rational behind um what we did there um and you know I think that you know the size of this committee is going to change over the course of its life for sure um so of the 25 yes there are there are 15 voting members of the committee which is also still quite a good number of voting members um and we'll practice voting in just a second um but are there any other questions next meeting um the rules the rules and onboarding May 7 Community engagement May 8 um and they will bring their findings back to this group on May 13 um so the genis the vast majority of our May 13th meeting will'll be um working through those recommendations agre in on those plans um again so that we're sort of in startup mode and then after that we're going to get into the meet of some of these documents that the Administration has been working on um and start doing a read through of those documents talking about what's there um and that kind of thing but we're going to move fast um we did lay out the meeting schedule um just by way of like a little bit of rationale there we're going to meet as best we can in person here at B show 489 for between now and the end of June um I promise you we're going to get back to Monday nights come the beginning of next school year um but this between now and the end of June um between school committee meetings and holidays it was like completely impossible to actually hold that kind of schedule um we'll meet only via zoom in the summer um and we actually move the meetings to Wednesdays in consideration that Mondays and Fridays are really very hard in the summer to get a quorum of anybody to do anything so hopefully um we can make that work but I did try to keep the meeting schedule light um I think there will be more subcommittees between now and the end of August but this was just sort of a start so people can try to organize their busy lives yes um so things Oney question you can't make it's okay send your also send an email all your thoughts topics voice has um actually technical question yep so um uh gentleman can't make the meeting sends you an email indicating his thoughts and recommendations uh possibly even a decision y um earlier we heard emails are a bad idea for just about everything except agenda setting Y and so this sounds like a gray area I was wondering I'm new to open meeting law and those two things are in Conflict yes how does it work so I can I can sort of tell you that I think any lawyer would tell you don't put anything in writing ever right so that's where we start don't put anything in writing ever um having said that if you are going to put something in writing um it like in that kind of scenario yes it's a great area what you should do is like make contact with somebody and say hey can I send you my thoughts and have you discuss these things with anybody else or do you intend to and so if you can feel reasonably sure that you've got a closed circuit right that you say to me can I send you my thoughts and I say yes and I say I'm not going to talk to anybody else about these matters then we're good it only becomes a problem when you have then connected to a number of people that represents a voting majority on the committee so if for example you Saidi want to tell two people because I'm not sure who's going to like actually make the meeting that's still okay because you're you're south of eight when you have talked with yourself included with eight people now you're in trouble that is when you have violated the open meeting law the tricky part is everybody involved has to have the same understanding of who has been involved in that conversation what did I miss most like you can be very intentional I'm always telling you and you're like uhuh and then you go and do the same thing we are all violating the law no matter what we did to try so that's I think that's very yeah serial deliberation does not care about anything plans sure that it's just the to of us right yeah viate that I Bren if I don't know right right yeah we are going to get everybody an email address under Medford Public Schools and I would strongly encourage you not to use your personal email under any circumstances um for any business related to msba so as soon as those emails are set up we'll convert everything over um but I would strongly advise that you not use your personal email for anything it makes public record compliance way year I was the records access Officer school district any any documents that get done in the official business school other than your personal notes uh our public records automatically need to be fishable or at least reviewable if somebody asks for them so doing it all within your Medford Public Schools email address within your Medford Public Schools Google Suite notes and things like that really helpful to just contain it all share with others right don't forget your draft your draft email is not a place to right any last questions it's 803 um we're just gonna like Roberts rules adjourn this meeting is there a motion to adjourn motion to adjourn by member olap seconded by member Russo thank you oh you cannot seconded by Dr Edward Vincent okay I'm going to roll call um mayor Longo Kern absent uh Maurice Edward Vincent Yes yes Suzanne gusi yes Peter Cushing yes Marta cabal Libby Brown yes Marissa Desmond Maria dorsy yes Brian hilard absent Tracy Kean yes Emily Lazaro absent Nicole abson Aaron olapa yes Luke prer yes one two three four five six seven8 nine 10 10 affirmative zero in the negative five absent meeting is ajour