all right we are ready to go great okay good evening we have the seventh regular meeting of the Medford school committee taking a back John I didn't know remember in top I'm like what is that background where are you looks like a movie set okay 7eventh regular meeting of the M school committee April 8th 2024 executive session at 6 pm and our regular meeting at about 7M um this meeting is being held remotely via zoom and it will be it it's remote only and can be viewed live on the Medford Public Schools YouTube channel through Medford Community Media or your local cable channel Comcast channel 9 8 or 22 and Verizon Channel 4345 or 47 participants can log in or or call in by using the following information the meeting ID is 96084 98514 um member rousel if you could call the rooll please uh mayor I'm actually acting as the secretary well member Russo's in transit so I will call the RO really quick uh if that's okay with everybody uh member brandley present mogram member Gramma is on um is she can she unmute herself I believe member gram is also in transit right oh we are uh member and tapa member in tapa are you here yep I don't know what's going off my mic again but I'm here uh member R present member reinfeld present member rouso present and mayor Longo Kar present seven in the affirmative um seven are here with us out of seven thank you do I don't think we had I don't didn't see any student Representatives so I can wait and see if they come on at 7 no one has yet okay if we could rise to salute the flag I pledge allegiance to the flag the United States of America and to the Republic which stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all we have executive session as number three pursuant to general laws 30A section A3 the Medford school committee will convene an executive session to discuss strategy and preparation for negotiations with Medford educational secretaries asme Council 93 Teamsters Local 25 custodians Medford Teachers Association for Kids Corner and Medford Teachers Association for power professionals as well as Carpenters SEIU Local 88 because an open meeting we'll have detrimental effect on the bargaining position of the committee and the chair so declares is there motion to go into executive session motion to go into executive session by member reinfield seconded by I'll second member branley if you could call the role member Ola thank you uh member ranley yes member Graham yes member Anapa yes member Al yes member reinfeld yes uh member Russo yes uh mayor long oern yes seven the affirmative zero the negative we are going to move to Executive session and we'll be back as close to seven as possible um can I confirm it's a different link or is this it's a it's the same link just so the public knows I thought I saw two links that's why I'm asking somebody from the admin it should be the same link breakout rooms are opening e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e member Graham you have been reinvites e e e e e e e e e e e no e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e good evening everybody it is 7 o'clock we're going on to our regular meeting does anybody have any business under good of the order hearing and seeing none I'm going to move on to the consent agenda we have bills and payrolls regular school committee meeting minutes from March 18th 2024 student advisory Council minutes March 20th 2024 as strategic and capital planning subcommittee minutes from March 26 2024 and committee the whole meeting minutes from April 3rd 2024 is there a motion on the floor Mo approve motion to approve by m Russo seconded by um actually sorry before I call a second member reinfeld I have a question um about how things get recorded if someone abstains a vote um because we have it listed as 70 but it was 60 and one exstension on last week's meeting oh then it was that then you can just motion to amend the um minutes and maybe shoot an email over to is it Lisa who draft Miss Malone Miss Malone all right okay so for motion for approval by member Russo as amended by member reinfeld is there a second as amended second second as amended um roll call please member ol uh member Bradley yes member Graham yes member inapa member Ina you're muted of course I am um I'm also just noticing another error in the minute so I'm gonna abstain from this one which might be the same thing that um I'm sorry clarification member reinfeld are you mentioning the vote on the stabilization fund yes I am okay so yeah so as amended then yes I vote I vote to approve sorry that uh member a yes member reinfeld yes uh m Russo yes uh mayor lurr yes seven the affirmative zero the negative motion to approve the consent agenda as amended there are no reports of subcommittee so I'll pass it off to Dr Edward Vincent our superintendent of schools for updates and comments good evening April is autism acceptance month many of you remember this observance previously being called autism awareness month but thanks to the wonderful advocacy of individuals with autism and their supporters around the world we're making an intentional positive shift to emphasizing acceptance of all neurodiverse people their perspectives and experiences enrich and improve our community every day April is also Arab American Heritage Month throughout American history Arab Americans have made so many contributions to our country and our society and today approximately 3.7 million arab-americans call the United States their home finally April is an opportunity to Mark OT month in Medford Public Schools we are lucky to have skilled and compassionate occupational therapy practitioners in every school and serving students at every grade and age level OT makes a big difference for our kids starting with therapeutic early intervention services and extending all the way to postgraduation transition services for students with disabilities um another reminder that this Wednesday school April 10th schools are closed in observance of Eid Al fitter and next week believe it or not is April vacation week all schools are closed the week of April 15 we wish everyone a safe and fun break and look forward to returning to the classroom on April 22nd April 22nd is also the date when many of our member many members of our Jewish Community will begin to observe Passover some students and staff may take time away from school for religious observances particularly on the first two days of Passover when the seder meal is typically celebrated with loved ones I now have an update regarding our Performing Arts recognition last weekend was exciting for many of medford's Performing Arts students on Saturday the Medford High School orchestra won a gold medal and the Middle School string Ensemble won a silver medal at the prestigious mic CCA Massachusetts instrumental and chorus conductors Association concert Festival congratulations to the students their family am and our own conductor director M Sophia Chang on these recognitions and accomplishments meanwhile the Medford Mustang winter Color Guard became the 2024 Scholastic Regional Champions Medford not only placed first in the division but also received the highest Scholastic score of the evening we are very proud of our Mustang guard and their accomplishments captains Maria zasa Mandy chow and Cindy Hamill led the team through this challenging and rewarding season the guard is advised by Haley re and coached by Jackie Gaffney congratulations to all another reminder middle school placement Li Lottery the lottery for Middle School assignments for next year's sixth grade class will take place tomorrow Tuesday April 9th lottery results will be posted on the website at 3 pm letters confirming each students's Middle School assignment will be sent to All grade five students no later than Wednesday April 24th but again the results will be posted on our website tomorrow at 3M Transportation survey tomorrow is the last day to complete the online safe routes to school Family Travel survey please take a moment to complete it it will help us identify roots and other resources to encourage and enable more Medford students to walk bike and roll to school the survey asks about a student's mode of transportation to and from school it takes less than five minutes to complete and is available in 10 languages the survey can be found on our MPS website and Facebook page schools with 50% or higher participation will receive an incentive from the Massachusetts safe roots to school program for everyone logged in on Zoom Thomas will share the survey Link in the chat thank you Thomas Dalton for doing that tonight's meeting we have another busy agenda this evening first we'll present several generous donations offered by our community for the direct support of our students we'll discuss each of these donations in more detail but I wanted to begin by saying a warm thank you to the Medford Educational Foundation the Medford Kanis club and the Medford rotary club for their reliable and impactful partnership and support of public schools after that Dr Suzanne KUSI will present a report on substitute teacher pay and Staffing especially since the covid-19 pandemic adequate and reliable substitute sta staffing has BR been a prominent challenge for all public schools Medford is no exception so we look forward to this informative and important presentation you may have also noticed that I called our assistant superintendent gusi doctor yes indeed I did as you may have read in my Friday memo last week Dr galloi defended successfully defended her doctoral thesis without any revisions which is a phenomenal feat last month at Boston College um the Lynch school of education so congratulations Dr galloi and her original research for her doctorate in educational leadership focused on transformational and culturally responsive leadership we are so proud of you Dr gusi in your packets you'll also find a draft report on the districtwide suspension and discipline report that was requested by the committee earlier this year the final report will be presented to the committee on April 29th so I do look forward to you communicating directly ly with me to send questions um additional pieces of data that you may be looking for so that I can add that to the draft District staff are also working with the school building leaders and staff to develop this report while providing the appropriate and useful context for all of the data that it represents in particular we are working hard to ensure that the report does not inadvertently convey any identifying details about individual students again we invite and welcome your feedback and input um for the final product to be um delivered to you finally in your packets you also received School handbooks for um all of our schools um and the high school version of the handbook that you received will com will be completely finalized in time for the High School presentation that will be taking place on May 6th um the high school handbook will include our medord high school which includes the vocational school and also inclusive of the Curtis tus high school so all three schools will be represented in that one um handbook for your review so these important guiding documents are developed by school principls assistant principales School site counsels um input from staff and again we welcome your feedback and suggestions on the handbooks thank you and I look forward to this evening's meeting thank you Dr Edward Vincent we have like you said three recommendations to approve donations the first up is $3,180 111 from the Medford Educational Foundation yes so the Medford Educational Foundation earlier this year they already donated $113,000 to Medford Public Schools which was a a very generous donation they received an additional 89 um 8,949 in requests from teachers and Educators um they were able to fund $3,180 and of that money um one of the things they were able to help purchase um from our one of our music teachers Miss Sarah Grant she requested four keyboards to be added to the Curtis tus programming and so um we're very happy and very grateful to the Medford Educational Foundation for be a um for their generous contribution to that program and again we also want to thank NM bank and their branch manager Jean KLA for their continued um generous donations to the Medford Public Schools through Medford education um Foundation they recently donated $5,000 so I just want to ask the committee um to approve this generous donation in the amount of $3,180 111 um to be added to the medord public schools coffers wonderful motion to motion to approve with thanks motion to approve with thanks well said member ryanfeld seconded by second member Graham yes thank you very much to the bank and to Medford Educational Foundation for donated to our teachers roll call please M branley yes member Graham yes member Anapa yes with thanks uh member R yes and with thank you again member reinfeld yes member Russo yes mayor Longo yes um seven in the affirmative zero in the negatives the motion passes we also have a recommendation to approve $500 being donated by the Medford Rotary Club to the um media technology program and just want to say thank you again in advance to the Medford rotary club for their generous donation supporting our vocational programming and the mediate Tech program will be most appreciative and again it benefits our students so we thank them for this generous d uh donation and my ask of the committee is recommendation to approve this generous donation of $500 thank you um thank you to the rotary motion for approval by motion for approval member inapa seconded by second member reinfeld roll call please yes member Graham yes member Anapa yes with thanks member L yes member reinfeld yes with thanks meor ruso yes mayor lungo Kar yes 70 affirmative zero on the negative donation accepted and third up um another request for approval of a donation um from the Medford kuas Club um to the culinary arts program of $500 I just wanted to share that Medford is so uh blessed to really have both a wonderful Rotary Club and a wonderful Kanas club we want to thank the Kanas club for Their donation of $500 to our vocational programming again C culinary arts are beastro wonderful thriving restaurant and um very grateful for their partnership and their donations and I just want to ask the committee recommendation to approve this donation of $500 from the Kanas Club thank you to the Kanas um is there a motion for approval motion to approve by member Graham seconded by second member and top roll call please member Bradley so can I ask a question do I need to abstain because my daughter's in culinary or can I say yes yes I can say Yes um I would think so but I'm not State eics you hear me yes you're you're not that's not a problem so I'll obain just to be okay yes yes yes no no you can abstain that's fine um you can abstain it's gonna I think we'll accept money I think we got the votes so um member brandley abstains who's up next y uh member Graham yes member Anapa yes with thanks uh member L yes member reinfeld yes and thank you uh member Russo yes mayor lungo ker yes six affirmative um one abstention motion is approved mayor yes member of before we move on can we um ask that the superintendent send a thank you notes to all these organizations on behalf of the committee yes Dr yes yes that's a yes do you need a roll call are we good you got that okay thank you thank you um next up is substitute pay report Dr Dr Susan gloy assistant superintendent of academics and instruction I'll turn it over to you thank you very much and going to Dr King is going to present the small slide deck so while he's searching for it I'm just going to kind of start so good evening uh Madame mayor members of the school committee thank you so much Dr Cushing uh tonight I'm presenting the requested substitute teacher um supply and demand report as background information the school committee stated the following rationale um for requesting this report um first substitute teacher play a critical role in maintaining educational continuity and quality when regular teachers are absent meanwhile Medford appears to struggle to obtain enough substitutes to cover the need second concerns have been raised for a long while regarding the adequacy of compensation for substitute teachers and the potential effect of compensation on the quality and availability of substitutes and third understanding patterns and reasons for Teacher absenteeism is crucial for addressing any underlying issues and ensur uring the effective allocation of resources so as such the slides presentations for this report will cover the sections listed within the request the first section um as listed here covers substitute teacher compensation and District comparisons of substitute pay rates um you can advance the slide thank you Dr Cushing so the table presented here uh displays the details of the current substitute compensation for Medford Public Schools um which you will see has the blue Highlight going right through and then you're going to see the comparison of surrounding districts you will notice a variance in Daily um rates ranging from the high end of $150 per day uh to Meer public schools at $90 per day um with uh wuber and public schools oh thank you um at 110 Dr Cushing's trying out his pointer um you'll also notice that some districts have Set uh a different long-term daily sub rate and some districts have not um at the current time Medford does have two separate scales for substitutes that are working in long-term um coverage needs if they're licensed it's $125 um otherwise it's about $100 currently Medford um as you'll notice m Al en has a tiered approach which reflects the substitutes education experience and lure um currently Medford does not have a tiered approach um moving thank you so the second section covers substitute need and availability and you can go to the so the chart that is that is displayed on here correlates the uh total number of teacher absences to the total number filled by a substitute for school year 23 excuse me 2223 um which is highlighted in the gray bars and then currently for school year 2324 um it's important to note a few things here first uh absences reflect a variety of reasons ranging from sick days um personal days uh jury duty bereavement religious observances uh professional development or conference needs and then various forms of a leave of absence which could be um Family Medical Leave Act maternity um workman's compensation Etc so that is the the third column which for each school year is just a data point to acknowledge that there are leaves of of absence um and each leave of absent absence ranges drastically in the amount of days um that a teacher may be out so it's that that data point is going to fluctuate um drastically you will also um notice that the amount of th this data is just for teachers so it does not include any other staff and the number of total teachers um is listed underneath the school name there are two asterisks at the bottom of this chart that I think are important to note and one is that there are 17 teachers who have like a districtwide status and so they're not reflected in this chart and that the total number of teachers active also fluctuates due to uh various needs for leave of absence currently there are 495 employed teachers but 489 are currently active as of right now um in looking at you can see that there are Trends um the total absences by building for last year um for the most part absences have drastically fell for this school year um in some schools maybe not all um so hopefully we're seeing that kind of as we move closer away from the pandemic we'll start to to see these numbers um improve a bit but last year if we averaged out the daily need for a sub um it was 55 Subs districtwide that includes all reasons for absences um and then this year our average daily need for substitutes is about 32 um people I'm sure there'll be questions but I don't know if you want me to pause or continue going all right I'm going to continue going so uh the third section in this report covers the substitute pool and the current coverage structure for Medford Public Schools um so our active pool of substitutes for school year 2223 consisted of of 38 substitutes three of those were assigned as long-term Subs while this year our current Ive pool is 46 substitutes and six of those have been assigned as long-term substitutes so we have been increasing um the pool of substitutes from year to year um but it still cannot meet the current demand uh most of our substitute pool comprises of college students current Medford Public Schools caregivers and retired professionals uh the availab availab ility of substitutes um because of that compromised of of pool does fluctuate throughout the school year um especially around college students and their availability in the months of January May and June it is important to note at the end of each school year substitutes are classified as inactive until they complete the yearly Corey um which is like the background check and then they're activated again within our system and able to continue working Dr Cushing if you mind going to the next slide this is just a current structure of some internal um coverage that we try to um employ within the Meer Public Schools so first there are instructional support staff um honestly AKA these are the building substitutes and so we have through Esser but we have one budgeted position at each School however not each school has been able to fill the need of one dedicated position currently the Curtis tus the mlin elementary school the Brooks and the Andrews has a dedicated what we call ISS or building sub um the Roberts the Miss and the mlin middle have not been able to fill this position to to date the other position that we have are academic support leads these are new positions um to Medford High School so with the shift in leadership um principal cabal created two dedicated positions this year to help alleviate daily absence absent coverages um and their title is the academic support lead and then the third layer is a student supervisory assistant or SSA these were created during the pandemic um to help alleviate some of the coverage needs around lunch supervision or just daily coverage needs um these positions are unique because they work no more than about 18 hours a week uh currently right now we have these an SSA position at the missu the Brooks and the Roberts um it is important to note that some of our ssas were hired as par professionals um in the past couple of years I also think before going on to the fourth section it's very important to note that the structural nature of the secondary school level uh lends itself to covering teacher absences in a way that's just not possible at the elementary level um for example at both the middle school and the high school level um there are designated study halls or teachers that can be assigned based on um their schedules or open blocks um while at the elementary level that's not possible and so principles are unfortunately forced to make difficult decisions to cover the class within School resources uh and those in school resources can range from the ISS or building sub um but it could also include specialist teachers like um art music PE computer Library Nexus and it also can include reading and El teachers as well as school leaders themselves um and those coverages can range between blocks of time to the entire day worth of coverage okay we we we may go to the next um thank you so the fourth section covers the budget impact of everything I just presented here so on this next table um thank you this next table um will it details the teacher coverage and loss of prep as a result of especially at the elementary level but especially um due to lack of substitutes and the need for Teacher coverages so you will see that last year in total we spent $448,900 just in covering um just in teacher coverages and loss of prep the anomaly as noted in the comment section for March of 2023 um includes a few things one it includes so when the contract um was ratified there was a the retro pay of per hour rate for teachers increased and so that resulted in about in $ 34,7 that were paid to teachers on March 2nd per the contract to account for that retro um need uh last year there were also um a great deal of coverage needs at Medford High School and the Andrews Middle School which resulted in the total cost there you can see currently for this school year um all of the data from all the graphs compiled for this report go up into March 31st so we do not have clearly but data for April May or June so to date our current total of teacher coverage and loss of prep is $34,988 cents um next slide breaks down the total toal impact so you can see the graph excuse me the column in the middle has our anticipated budget which was what we allocated in the um operating budget to cover um sub substitute needs as well as teacher um loss of prep and teacher coverage verse what we're actually spending I think it's important to note here as you noticed for last year's spend which was fiscal year um 2023 we ended that year with a total of 87832 that number includes the 448,000 in change from the previous slide because this spending includes all three it includes what we pay for substitutes what we pay for Teacher coverage and what we pay for loss of prep so if we were to subtract the 870 8 324,000 by the 448 and change you'd get the total cost we spent on substitutes and then the final section is um our recommendations and next steps to address the findings of this report and how to effectively address substitute supply and demand and so um final slide Dr Cushing some of the things that we've been talking about internally are adjustments to the current substitute teacher compensation structure um we're discussing it and we're vetting out the implementation for fiscal year 25 this includes but is not limited to increasing the pay scale for substitute teachers and for the instructional support staff position considering the establishment of a tiered pay scale system similar to what we saw for Malden which includ includes consideration of a substitute's experience lure um and level of Education as well as looking into the feasibility of using an Educational Staffing Company um to build a greater pool of substitutes and also to help arrange and organize daily coverage needs um which is being used in some districts so that vetting process of the Educational Staffing staffing company has been ongoing going all year um but these are some of the ways that we're looking to remediate and mitigate the current situation and at this time if you have any questions please let me know thank you Dr gusi any questions from the Committee Member brandley then member Graham just want make sure that you can hear me yes good okay um so just a few questions uh let's see here um do we have data on how often we're pulling reading Specialists so El teachers Specialists you know music PE yes and I can get that to you I don't have it at my disposal right now but I know most of the pr principles um I think the tricky part would maybe be data from last year um where there was a turnover at one building but I I know principles have been keeping that data so I can get that for you definitely perfect I appreciate if you could share that with us that would be great um and then my question what is the difference between a teacher coverage and a loss of prep I know when I was at the Brooks a loss of prep was okay you know Mr sacko is absent there's no one to cover loss of prep correct so teacher coverage is that go ahead that's okay teacher coverage you mostly see at the secondary level but it's when teachers okay you know outside of contractual obligations are covering um or they're picking up a coverage due to an absence or a long-term absence and so we have to pay for that coverage does that make sense they're taking on they're taking on the teaching duties or the coverage of the class for the um absent teacher okay and then loss of prep and teacher coverage paid at different rates so in the previous contract it was $30 an hour and in the new contract it's now $40 an hour so if you're speaking about what was owed to them retroactively we had to go back to when the dates reflected in the contract and add $10 to all of the teachers who either provided coverage or lost their prep for the year okay so teacher coverage and loss of prep is both $40 an hour now yes okay um I think that was all my questions thank you thank you member Graham and then member ol um will all of these um of recommendations and Next Step be reflected in the budget that we see at our meeting after April vacation um or are these going to take more time to unfold um beyond that meeting um I think probably honestly I want to have that conversation with the superintendent and Jerry McHugh um but I know I've been having ongoing we have been engaging in ongoing conversations all year um with Mr M around this and both Mr mchu and I have had um meetings with um the the company to see what we could do but I can get that definite answer from you once I speak to Mr M McHugh yeah I think it would just be helpful um when we meet next about the budget either to say that it is included in the it is contemplated in the numbers that we're going to at that we're looking at at that time or it's not and if it is like what are we saying we're changing so just if we could clarify that when we whenever we talk about the budget whether this is being reflected in or not that's I think that's my major question yeah we do that point point of clarification is that Mr mchu has already spoken about and one of the slides clearly showed that we're under right the budget for this need it does not reflect they're they're not balanced here so the only thing I want to check with him is if it's part of the April 23rd meeting or if it's part of the may8 um May 8th meeting that's what I'll clarify with him okay and then I think the other thing is if we are I mean I think the other point of this um report was to say should we be adjusting our our rate schedule at all um yes or no and so I think the other question for the budget reports is what at what rate is he projecting when he um is making his um calculations so is it at our current rate or is it at some other rate that we're going to go forward with or that you're recommending we go forward with we're I mean I don't want to quote an amount but we are definitely recommending an increase in the rate okay yeah I think it's just whenever we're talking about the budget if we could just be clear about like what rate we are anchoring to from a subay perspective so just so that we understand where we're at absolutely perfect thank you um member then member reinfeld yeah thank you so much for this a a couple questions on the way way end of the of the presentation so when it comes to the feasibility of working with like ESS or like swing education for example is there a timeline that they would require us to you know put forth our want to work with them in Partnership so that we have an idea about if we want to implement that let's say for the beginning of next year is there a timeline on that or we haven't really started that conversation no we have started that conversation and to date there is not a timeline um the only thing that they're clear about is that they can't build a pool overnight and so they spoke a lot about the recruitment strategies that they would utilize to increase our existing substitute pool and so they're just careful to say whenever they let's say potentially we were to you know utilize them whenever we engage in that partnership it will take you know to their end couple weeks couple months to build an adequate subpool for the district okay and then when it comes to costs does that fluctuate depending on how much we're you know sourcing out for their for their aid for us or is that just a flat kind of fee um because we're in partnership with them or is that again part of the conversation with them in general um no some of that is part of the conversation but I mean they will use our existing rates that we have set I mean they they were clear that they'd like to see an increase in those rates um but they will use the current rates that are already set um and then they they take on um for a temporary time kind of full ownership of the staff which means they'll do like the training and the onboarding they'll do the organizing of staff um they'll deal with that for the first couple months of employment and so there is um there is they take a percentage of the the fee the the the pay okay thank you yes member reinfeld y thank you Dr gy I have a couple of clarification questions which is to know so the table of substitute coverage the this school year that's a that these numbers are over eight months whereas the previous year is over 10 months right yes yep okay and but the number is still higher is was uh school year 2022 23 particularly high in absence or are we um or was this year particularly low without more context on either side I can't quite tell so I will be honest I mean I did not go and do a deep dive into pre pandemic numbers so I could do that I mean I do think there there I do think that the absences and the need for absences has definitely um been decreasing as we're kind of going month by month year by year um out of the covid pandemic so I think but also the need for leaves of absence fluctuates so much which you can also see um in that chart and that's a definite factor in terms of some of them might have been entire years of a leave of absence right so and some of them may have been short term um I can get some more data for you if you would like a comparison to pre-pandemic yeah I'm just trying to figure out how we can project ahead as to what the need is going to be and what's typical here you know are things actively going down because of the needs are changing or not I think there may be yeah I think there may be a lot of reasons at play um I would be curious to kind of watch the trajectory from year to year um but um great so and then one little qu do long-term Subs attend planning periods and team school grade level planning is that part of the long-term sub responsibility yes for during the day um I would have to get back to I think some attend staff meetings and training sessions while not all do all right but common planning time during the day with teams yes good you know yeah and then I just wanted to confirm I think you introduced some information that may have shifted my numbers but it looks like we're spending 50 to 60% of the spending on substitutes is in-house but in-house folks are covering about 86% of the need here so if we are shifting away from in-house coverage we're going to see that percentage change although I do want to say especially noting that there are a lot of teachers here thank you for this coverage it is much appreciated 100% And I think that's especially at the elementary level um at the elementary level it's at the expense of so I I think we do have to look at the amount of money that we are spending on coverages and loss of prep um it may be difficult at the beginning but you know we're talking salaries or increases in that substitute pay because especially at the elementary level um they get one prep a day and it's not guaranteed because if the art teacher is out if the music teacher is out they lose their one and only planning period for the day as well as as I mentioned um support staff being pulled and then that means we're affecting students and their services and that's not Equitable and that's not okay so we do we do have to do something um to increase that because right now we also don't have an active subpool that meets the daily demand absolutely so I definitely want to what member brandley said about understanding where the Ser what coverage where the services are being sacrificed in these situations and thank you and then I also wanted to ask you mentioned a few of the things that the Staffing Company would do in terms of onboarding what I always have this question when we bring in Consultants what is the added value of paying a staffing company to do this work versus things that we've thought of in house such as just raising the rates of pay why are we bringing what else is would the company add that would make that sure um right now we currently don't have a position that I would say don't quote me on this title but I would just say like attendance coordinator let's just say we don't have someone right now that works on Recruitment and that actually organizes daily coverage needs so the way it works right now is we have an online portal called Frontline and teachers when they need to be absent they go in digitally and they record their absence in that system our current pool of substitutes are also connected within this system and they can go in they log in they can see all of the coverages that are needed within the district and they select the ones that they want to take as work for the following day or the that morning um but there isn't someone that's maybe actively making phone calls and trying to connect substitutes um to the coverages that are needed we're just relying on the online Portales that does that make sense that Mak sense yes I'm just trying to understand where that that money is going to go to hire someone outside versus to the the people doing the substituting it doing the coverages thank you member reinfeld thank you Dr galy thank you any further questions do you need a vote to go to malen freites or you g to come back to us at the next meeting once we have more of the budget figured out I think I think we'll come back to you um with what finance and the superintendent is recommending okay thank you thank you next up we have new business we have offered by me in tapa recognition of autism acceptance month whereas autism acceptance month is recognized in the month of April and whereas autism acceptance day is recognized on the 2nd of April now therefore be it resolved that the meford public schools and meford school committee recognize autism acceptance month within the Medford Public School System recognized for future uses usage autism acceptance day as April 2 on all official Medford Public School calendars distributed to the public and report to the Medford school committee on steps being taken with the Medford Public Schools to support students impacted by autism spectrum disorder ASD and how we go about identifying students who may need these services that have yet to receive them explanation those within The Advocates of the Autism Spectrum Community are looking to distance themselves groups that treat autism as a disease and something that needs to be healed the focus is not on awareness of autism spectrum disorder ASD but more of a focus on acceptance of the members of our community that fall under the autism spectrum and making sure there are Equitable systemic Pathways for their success being conscious of decisions that may impact members of the ASD Community both systematically and socially this is the first step in this process to better understand and see how we as a city can better serve our community members impacted by ASD I'll turn it over to you member and TOA for a motion or and anything else you'd like to add thank you very much um Cher lungo Kern um yeah I just wanted to put this motion forward to sort of recognize and also I guess more amend our current calendar so I know we have we take a vote in November to put forward days of observance I also want to clarify this is not a day off holiday I'm looking to put forward it is more of a day of observance day of acknowledgement um currently as it stands the last calendar I had checked um it is referred to as Autism Awareness Day Autism Awareness Month and this motion looks to amend that and to change that language whether it has to get table till November or if we can do it right now which would be preferable um so it's it's where it's already labeled and where it needs to be changed um the third part of the motion um a clarification about identifying students is how we're looking at um how we are screening screening techniques as well as looking at ways that uh parents can come to us as a district to look at receiving Services however they may need it um this is something that I would like in writing and to sort of get a report on um I have a personal this comes from a and the explanation kind of talks about it of looking at how we make change and how we are impacted as a former student in the Metford public schools with an IEP Who belongs in the neurod Divergent community on the spectrum of the um attention deficit disorder Spectrum um this is something that I witnessed um I witnessed students who had 504s and IEPs um their struggles how some of them would lose them because they were doing better um which to me makes no sense because if you're doing better on a plan you're better because of the plan it helps you um so I'm really looking to see what we are doing and this is sort of the first kind of steps and looking at how we as a community um can become allies within the autistic Community I'd like to make another point of um the use of disorder um uh is not too popular on my apologies for using the official language um but also um you know this really really comes from um my personal experience working with those um within the autistic Community um as my buddy Dan puts it best it's pretty easy for me to make you aware that I have autism and then he usually proceeds to do it um but it's really hard for members of the community to accept me um and I would like to mitigate that harm we're talking at a higher education level mitigate the harmful effects that this has on our students um before they even get there and as someone who's been looked at funny and scrutinized because of my diagnosis this is my way of putting steps forward for better allyship um but we also want to look at the success we want to look more at the success not so much as a disease needs to be healed as mentioned in the motion um but I feel like we can't do that until we look at how we are helping and how we are aiding the community so that is all I have on the motion thank you member Ina um so I'm going to assume your moveing approval is there a second I can second second by member branley Dr Edward Vincent Yes I I guess as I was just listening to the description um on bullet number three um I I completely agree with autis acceptance month but where it's saying how students are identified like there is a process that has to be followed legally and so I'm not sure um I I guess I need clarification or I'm not sure on the ask of saying do you want something that we legally have to do as a district to switch the way in um either change the wording or I I guess I'm just not clear about Point number three because there are things that we have to follow legally by desie um when IEPs are being developed and um I agree students should not be um treated as if they need to be healed but I just wasn't sure about what was being approved um when it says how we go about identifying students because there there's medical documentation the the medical community sends recommendations there's official um IEP testing that takes place and I I just want to be clear on um what the ask is because I don't want the committee to be saying yes they approve it and putting the school in a position where we are not um following the appropriate regulations that we should be following understood Dr Vincent um so maybe some clarification for member and toer or would you like to amend section three of your resolution yeah I think um thank you Dr Edward Vincent for bringing your concerns um I think that's what I'm just looking to see is what are the procedures we have to follow um that's really I I'm sorry if the phrasing is this is my first motion um my apologies that the phrasing is weird um but yeah I'm looking to see what protocol are from desie okay so you're looking for information rather than us providing services to people that um need them even if they haven't been identified right change that um report to the school committee on steps being taken to provide supports for those impacted by autism spectrum disorder correct yeah good as an amendment yeah that that would be good as an amendment I would say a better amend would be reports to the meford school committee on steps being taken with the Metford public schools to support students on the on the autism spectrum due to just recommendations from the community on language surrounding how we address it okay so then just strike um the second half of that number three perfect correct yep for approval by member and TOA as amended by member and TOA seconded by member brandley roll call please if I may yeah member reinfeld had their hand up oh okay member reinfeld um I just in regards to point number two our policy IC I uh lists this although as um awareness day so I think that's a pretty easy motion to amend that policy the question of putting it on calendars is a little different because we have the public calendar that is the closures and then there was a page two that was religious and cultural observances and then there are a lot of other things in our policy that we recognize awareness acceptance advocacy months and so I'm wondering if that is part of in terms of distribution to the public is part of the longer conversation about the calendar and how it's published um but absolutely I think we should amend the policy as it currently exists that line there um and then my question on number three I wondered if it would make sense although possibly not with the suggestion just approved um for the subcommittee to sit down with CPAC the for family networks um autism spectrum parent support group um and then the conversation around procedural safeguards and fura and all of those screening things and then prepare something that the FK committee might be able to approve with the concrete step for the administration I wonder if that information gathering might be well suited for subcommittee with members of the community mayor member Graham um can I um add to that suggestion that this go to the behavioral health and special education subcommittee um for that review yes um member and Tupper is that okay yes absolutely um that would be great to have that conversation with CPAC as well well as bring that to the subcommittee and also to answer sorry um to answer the question at hand of M School's calendar distribut to the public yes it would amend it to where it is already written um to where that to where days of observance are listed um because it has also been brought point of singling out one holiday is a concern which I fully understand so wherever this would naturally be written is where we would like to see it amended so yes all all recommendations of amendment are taken into consideration for the motion okay motion to move to committee as amended a roll call please member brandley yes M Graham yes member inapa yes member olap yes member reinfeld yes member Russo I believe we lost Paul um for a minute so he should be back we'll just Mark him absent and mayor lungo Karr yes six in the affirmative one absent motions approved member BCE chair Graham is gonna read resolution thank you thank you and uh member Russo is online and just can't seem to respond so um Dr Cushing if you could try to address that while we um talk about the next resolution um okay so um item number 20248 offered by me be resolved that the Medford school committee will adopt the filing revise subcommittee structure for this term um and um this is basically to recognize that we have a a relatively new member of the Committee Member in tapa has um taken his seat um after the resignation of member mclachlin and uh we had previously established subcommittees for the term um and so I went through I did um trade some information with member inapa and also went back to all of the um information I had about the formation of the subcommittees um at the beginning of the term and I'm putting forward a recommendation on how the um how the subcommittees um will look going forward L um for the committee's consideration so um and just so you know I didn't just simply assume that member in Tapo was um interested in the same things that member mclin was although there was like a shocking amount of overlap so that was nice um but there were other sort of you know there other sort of things that were happening um in terms of people's requests um the first time around that we were able to sort of Shuffle around in this um uh in this revised um subcommittee structure so um it is in your agenda um it includes um the be the behavioral health and special education um subcommittee buildings and grounds curriculum instruction assessment and accountability diversity equity and inclusion family engagement and communication rules and policy strategic and capital planning superintendent evaluation and last but not least and we'll talk about this in just a um a little bit the ad hoc committee handbook um and evaluation process um is there are there any questions or any motions on the floor motion to approve motion to approve by member so seconded second by mayor Longo Kern uh Miss brandley member branley can I just ask one question would it be helpful um if people you know the participants on the meeting know who's on what committee um sure I'm happy to read them um so the behavioral health andaluc I'm sorry you could potentially share the agenda on screen and not read it all that would be a great idea but one second um while that while that happens I will um let people know who the chairs are um Behavioral Health and special education chaired by member Russo buildings and grounds chaired by member branley curriculum instruction assessment and accountability by member reinfeld um diversity Equity inclusion by member late family engagement communication by myself rules and policy by member Russo strategic and capital Planning by myself Strate uh superintendent evaluation by member L and then the ad hoc committee handbook evaluation process by members um Dr kushen are you able to pull it up great thank you getting it now um so we did have a motion on the floor by member rouso and I believe a second by member reinfeld is that right right oh I'm sorry mayor Longo Curry and we'll just make sure that everyone can see this before we um call the rle thank you thank you perfect thank you uh member L Patty can you call the role please member branley yes member Graham yes member in tapa yes member yes member reinfeld yes member rouso yes uh mayor lungo Kern yes seven in the affirmative zero in the negative motion passes um these sub commit will be updated on the med for public schools website um now that we have taken this vote um so you can look for that information there um in the coming weeks um once updated um all of our information is on the website anyway but you'll be able to see the subcommittees there as well um item 202 24-19 also offered by myself um which is a recommendation to appoint the school building committee and provide an update about um the uh Medford High School building committee so um Dr Cushing I have some slides that I would love to be able to share um if you can allow me to do that you should be good to go okay so what I wanted to do tonight was two things um just let me know if you can see my screen can you see that yes yes okay um what I did want to do tonight was a couple of things I wanted to provide um the committee an update on where we are um and also uh the community because I know there's a lot of interest um in this process to um form a a committee to um lead forward on our um bid for a reinv visioned Medford High School so um I thought I would um provide a presentation I actually have given pieces of this presentation to various um uh internal groups um over the course of the last couple of weeks um when people have asked so I've just been trying to start to pull together something that um we can use as we're talking to people about what we're doing so as you may recall um we are required to create a building committee um and there's a particular set of folks who are required um to be on the committee earlier the um earlier uh this year in February we um passed a resolution that appointed me the chair of the committee um identified the people who would U be on the committee and put out a call for applications so we'll get to that um in good time uh but the other thing we did um during that meeting was talk about what were our goals um for the committee and I think it's worth um restating as soon as I can clear some Zoom alerts out of my way here okay um so plan comprehensively for all programming currently residing on the Medford High School campus including vocational and non-vocational um 9 to 12 education 9 to 12 Athletics for family Network Medford Community Schools programming early childhood education including but not limited to uh Medford Early Education Program which is MEEP and Kids Corner as well as our transition program um item number two was to consider whether placement of the Curtis TS High School um on the Medford High campus would provide increased educational opportunities to enroll students um item number three is to ensure um robust public input and stakeholder feedback at appropriate Milestones throughout the project that complies with MSP guidelines and guidance from the school committee number four listen to educator and administrator input regarding the future of educational best practices and plans for students of Medford um item number five create plans to for a building that advances medford's climate goals and achieves um any chps and Lead version five certification to meet the Paris climate Accords 2030 and 2050 targets um and finally um moves efficiently and effectively through the building process in a manner that Ure students are able to learn in the quote new building as quickly as is feasible um so where are we um the process um of going through uh and building with msba is actually um a five to sevene process um there's a very defined set of steps that we have to strictly adhere to um that's the graphic you see on the right um and at each step um you have to consider that there's a gate that or gives us a a an invit a to the next step in the process um and we have to sort of um go through whatever and meet the requirements that msba lays out for each phase in the process um in order to be invited to the next phase um so we are some way some ways away from shovels in the ground but the one thing I wanted to make sure people are aware of is um we are we are here we're this star is and that and that that is to say that we are out we are not even in the process just yet so our eligibility period starts on May 1st that is when our clock start starts ticking for eligibility um and I'll talk a little bit about what happens in the eligibility phase in just a second but um msba sort of staggers the start times I'm sure that um is important on on their side in terms of getting brand new um projects up and running that is very labor intensive um so there was there's some staggering that happens in terms of um those imitations going out and when they actually begin so our start date is May 1st so we are still ahead of that start date um the eligibility period starting on May 1 um has to be concl concluded within 270 days and there's a whole series of things that are required um for us to deliver in order to be considered as like compliant with our eligibility period deliverables this phase of the project is really the phase where the district has to describe what it does in the building and what it plans to do in a new building um this is where we talk about how how big is our population what is the growth of the city this is this is where all of that sort of Cityside schoolside planning happens um and then from here um we you know we start to engage with the construction professionals so then we can bring on an owner's project manager and then we can bring on the designers to do the feasibility study and on and on and on but until we um until we finish this eligibility phase none of those things can begin um so um what you may also remember is that back in February um we asked um the administration to get started and there's a tremendous amount of work that has to happen in the eligibility phase that uniquely um the administration really has to do the work um so it's things like counting math classrooms and um describing any changes to the educational process um that they're envisioning that would have an impact on um space considerations for example um so this phase um we have asked the administration to get started and they have um we have been working very diligently really since February um and so I just want to give you a quick rundown of what's happening for each of these five deliverables in the eligibility phase so the initial compliance certification it's basically a legal agreement um our attorney has reviewed it I've reviewed it we've all reviewed it we're ready to sign it um as soon as msba sends it to us which will happen in a few weeks um we're ready to sign it and we have been since December so um check one of five off the list um the second thing um is to form the school building committee we actually um will do this tonight so the school committee has to establish um a committee to that oversees the project um there are some requirements about who must be on the committee but the vast majority of how we form that committee is entirely up to this group um and much of this was laid out um resolution that put out the calls for um applications um back in February um item number three the educational profile there's three there's two parts of this for us um the first is the the true educational profile so it talks about like what do we do in our building today and how do we envision it will happen in the new building and for us this includes much much more than just what happens um in the 9 to 12 space because there's so much more that happens in our building um msba has asked us and has authorized us because our statement of Interest outlined that this building is more than just a high school um that we consider and think about things like our prek programs um the Medford Family network uh and then you know again possible integration um of Curtis toughs in some capacity um onto the campus um so just a quick status for you all um the drafting of this is in progress um our current state questions so all the questions about what happens today and and how many classrooms exist um and how many spaces all of that um is complete and it's in review by the administration so that'll be in good shape for the building committee um when they are ready for it um the future State questions um are also sort of in process um there's a lot of discussion happening there and that discussion is continuing um we do anticipate that some of those discussions um really are sort of beyond the perview of the building committee but really more about um the educational work happening in the building and so those things will come before the school committee in various forms for consideration um in the coming weeks and months so I would anticipate some of those reports coming forward between now and the end of the school year the other piece of the educational profile for us is our chapter 74 viability so that handles all of our vocational programs um there is a there's a separate set of deliverables required um for um for each of our programs which includes talking about um our demand and our capacity um and any plans we have for um changes so those changes could include things like um creating additional capacity for shops that are over subscribed or where there's a huge weight list um uh that we deal with on an annual basis it could also include our ability to say there's a shop and a vocational program that we don't have today because we lack the space to do so but it fits um in our strategic priorities so we have the options there um from a chapter 74 perspective to think about growth of our growing vocational program and um this is I think another place where you'll see um some information come forward to you from the administration as they think about what those programs are um and the the msba has lots of rules and regulations around what they will consider to be um a a program that um they will they will expand for so for example um if we came forward and we said that we wanted to pursue um a a new chapter 74 program they would ask us to substantiate the demand here in Medford they would ask us to talk about like where those um where those programs are offered in our surrounding area and they would also ask us to to describe to them how our our expansion in that space would fit with um the regional blueprints for the labor market in the area so it's not just like we want to do this it's we want to do this we have the demand for it and the area um that you live in actually also has demand for um this kind of vocational program to be in place um so this is like maybe a more concrete example of some of the things that um the school committee might see coming forward so we talk a lot about um and I I'll just use electrical for a minute um that that shop is at capacity so um one question and consideration we have is does the does the demand and the capacity support and expansion of that um of that program and if so this committee will have to weigh in and say yes we agree that that is something we want to pursue um from an educational perspective and then it can go into our um into our eligibility based deliverables um because obviously even if we had the space um creating expanded opportunities in the vocational program does mean um a commitment to supplies and teachers and um and all of the things that make a good solid vocational program chck um so that's all coming um but all of that work has been happening um the superintendent team has been meeting very diligently to um put all that together the other piece that we'll have to do um from a from an educational profile perspective um is work with the city to provide information about our population Citywide um and also provide um inputs around plan development um projected growth of school AG children Etc because part of what msba will do is they will um they will they will Define what our Target enrollment is and that will guide all all of the sort of sizing of the building when we get into that phase so all of this has to be provided by us in this eligibility phase so that they can do their work and then ultimately um they can report back to us that is the size of the building that um from their and that can um drive forward um all the design and planning the other thing that we have to provide um in this phase is um a series of documents that outline our current maintenance practices um and that includes not just the high school but um our entire district and it ask questions like um do you have job descriptions for your custodians and mten and staff and and um do you regularly recommission buildings um and um how who you know what kind of contractors do you have on board um that help support proactive maintenance so there's a whole s of questions here um that we have to answer as well um we are well underway drafting um this these answers um in addition um and working with um the superintendent and Dr Cushing and um John mlin who is our head of buildings and grounds so we're they're they're working diligently to be ready to provide all this data and and much of this is you know rounding up data that exists um across the sort of across the system and really being able to put it in one place and create a cohesive narrative so there's tons and tons of work going on um across all of those deliverables and then the fifth and final step of Eligibility we're not ready for yet but um our um our mayor and our city council will have to um help identify um how we will pay for the feasibility study as a city and um the way that the process works from a feasibility study perspective is the city um the city does agree to fund the feasibility study and at the point at which um we progress through all the um various phases of the project there's a reimbursement that comes back to the city um presuming that we go successfully through all of the msba step we're not ready for um funding the feasibility study just yet um but that is sort of the sort of the off-ramp from the eligibility phase and into the phase where we start um hiring the project team which really means bringing on the owner's project manager um and then ultimately bringing on our designers that will do the feasibility study um as you may remember uh we approved that there would be 15 voting members um of the committee um and a series of non- voting members as well um and um we also put out a call U for additional for additional um support um and we put out a call for applications um to appoint nine additional members which includes one school Committee Member One city counselor and seven open positions um for uh members of the committee who are residents um which include which may include um teachers and staff from Medford Public Schools who are welcome to apply as well as um specifically members of the community with architecture engineering and construction experience um or experience with large program uh management and communication uh so we have a really active Community who was really really excited about um this Prospect we got 104 applications for nine um member slots uh the 104 applications included um two school committee members two City counselors eight MHS staff members and then 92 other members of the community um our our candidates um are both diverse and qualified so we have had lots of um lots of many many many many hours of reading to understand who the folks were that we applying um our demographics from an applicant perspective um 82% of those who applied were current or future parents of MHS students 16% were people of color there were nine members of the disability community and there were nine members of the lgbtqia uh Community um from a relevant experience perspective 62% of the applicants had architecture design engineering or other construction experience which is a huge number um 66% had large um program Communications experience and then there were many um applicants who were members of a whole variety of boards and commissions across the city so that was our applicant pool um and um as we um thought about as you may remember um the superintendent the mayor and I um got together and we have we've spent many hours um combing through 104 applications to really try to create um a committee that um is representative of Medford um and um uh sort of meets the needs of What U we outlined in terms of the charge so our recommendation tonight and I'll come back to this slide in just a second but our recommendation tonight is that uh we agree to we vote to appoint uh member Ola as our school committee member uh Emily Lazzaro as our city council member um community members including Libby Brown Marissa Desmond Maria dorsy who is also a staff member at MHS uh Brian hilard Tracy Keane Nicole Morell and Luke Pryer and then I'm also going to request um that you all vote on appointing an additional non-voting member of the committee um to appoint member Russo as a non voting member of the school building committee um the committee is um subject to approval by msba um so there may be changes that have to come once the msba gets our gets our submission um for the committee um there may there may be some changes there um that they might require but my um conversations with them so far um have outlined that um uh we have a lot of broad latitude and that everything that we're putting forward is consistent with what they're looking for um our um our school building committee selection um that we've put forward we think represents medford's um incredible diversity so um 89% of our um of our recommended um uh appointees are current or future members of the of MHS students um 55% identify as female with 45% identifying as male 33% are people of color 9% are members of the disability community and 22% are members of the lgbtqia plus Community um so um I'm going to leave this up for um a moment but I believe that um my recommendation would be that we take two votes tonight one to appoint the voting members um as described here and then a second to appoint an additional non- voting member in member reso um so I will stop there but I'll leave the slide up so um uh mayor did you want to take over or do you want me to continue no no I know there's some questions from the committee and the public and uh all I can add thank you for doing the slideshow is that the amount of expertise and interest in this process is pretty exciting um and we hope to one way or another use or utilize the skills of all 104 people that want to be involved in this process because we have um not only this committee that we need to move forward but we also have a campaign throughout our community and education that needs to take place to get you know our hope is to get everybody on board to want to build a new flagship school for our students and staff that very much deserve it sure Vincent also spent several hours over reviewing this I had just wanted to Echo um what member Graham and the mayor just said that um the 104 applications they were absolutely you know outstanding the amount of Architects and engineers and people who had like um authentic experience that could be you know the pool was so strong we could have had like five running committees I mean I know that's not what the ask is but I want the community to know that um it was not an easy decision um but from msba experience to architectural experience to Communications experience um it was a a wonderfully strong pool of candidates and I know that we're going to look for other opportunities to um even if it's you're not part of this particular grouping to continue to tap into the expertise knowledge feedback and willingness of um all of the community members who really wanted to be part of this process so I just wanted to um Echo that it was was not an easy process but um you know it it was a rewarding process and I was just very impressed by the quality how strong the entire um pool was very very strong pool so thank you to everyone who did apply and I think we are Point um I just wanted to help people understand sort of what comes next um so certainly we will publish the profiles of all the folks who are appointed to the committee on on um the school building Committee website which is in construction right now um and the committee will meet for the first time um before May 1st um they have to be the entire committee has to be trained um because they will all be subject to the open meeting law all of our meetings will be conducted in public as are all of our school committee meetings um but the very first things that the committee is going to need to do is establish um operating ground rules for the school committee the school building committee and specifically to develop the communications and public engagement um strategies that will help inform the enrollment profile um and the operating structures in general so part of the the first jobs of the committee is really to say how will we engage the community um before we even get there um I do plan to send a note everybody who applied and encourage them to let us know um what their particular interests are so that as we are scheduling meetings that might be topically um relevant to certain folks that we can reach out to them proactively and invite them to join us at the meetings because we do want to hear from qualified people in the community um whether they're on the committee or not so all of that is to come in terms of what we plan to do and then we will also report to the school committee in May um about what those communication strategies are but part of that communication and Outreach strategy is um not just to say like how will we operate and how will we engage the community um but they'll specific will specifically take an action item to talk about proper engagement of all of our boards and commissions across the city um and how best to work with um various um you know sort of special interest groups across the city um and make sure they are brought into meetings where the where topically it makes sense for them to be involved um because all of that public input in engagement is really important um member brandley did you have a question yeah member brandley and then Anthony Gan hello um I am wondering how much the feasibility study is that's a great question um they they vary widely depending on how big of a building and how many students and all of that but um I have been told to think in the range of2 to $2 and5 million um but that is all work that we still have to do um to get to the point of um having good numbers in that in that Cas so the feasibility study alone is two to2 and a half million dollars yes yeah um and you said reimbursement would be 100% that's if we get reimbursement will definitely not be 100% um so at at some point further in the process msba will um establish what our reimbursement rates are and if we successfully move through all the phases of the um of the project they will reimburse the feasibility study at that reimbursement rate so if they say your reimbursement rate is 50% then we can expect them to reimburse us at the you know as sort of successful conclusion for the feasibility study at that 50% rate um so it will be commiserate with the the reimbursement rate that is established by the board okay so we are going to be asking the city council for this money where does that money come from um that is all work for the mayor and the council to to do in good time yeah okay and then just one other question uh non voting member addition is member rouso um why why was that decided um so my recommendation um was for a number of reasons one is that um there were two members of the school committee who applied only one can be a voting member um but I feel like um as I looked across the committee there's a handful of things that I think are really important um Meo is the most senior member of this committee so he has more history than any of us um but he also has um a deep understanding of uh running and being part of a committee that is compliant with open meeting law and um I think that's really important um as well as um really thinking about trying to make uh the ability of this committee um to sort of be part of the process as broad as possible so that's my recommendation okay great thank you um member and Cha sorry the thought was there and then it quickly left I yield my time to Mr Gan if possible um I'll I'll R raas when I think of it um member reinfeld yes so in the initial approval to set up this committee we had identified various subcommittees such as communication and Community engagement sustainability mechanical electrical Plumbing finance and then others as needed um does this composition have the ability to form those subcommittees along with the non- voting members I see you nodding so my other question is looking at the broad range of expertise that we got uh this committee was also designed to I've been pushing very hard for advisory committees throughout the process are there particular advisory committees that you anticipate meeting based on applications who were unable to be seated as voting members or general expertise that we need yeah that's a great question um yes there will be a number of advisory committees um and part of the this the committee the school building committee forming and um establishing its communication strategies will also include include sort of that rounded take instead of just like our take on what those um advisory committees could and should be um so I want to bring all of these members together to have that dialogue so that we're hearing from all of them about what um what they're seeing that they need um and um recommend because these are all folks that are incredibly qualified there are folks on the committee who are very familiar with msba um they they're Architects on msba projects um they're involved in sustainability in K12 education like it's it's a very very um amazing and impressive group um and so I think as the committee begins to meet it will do a couple of things it'll it'll identify those advisory committees um it will also um identify um whether we collectively believe that we need a vice chair of the committee so I think that's really a question that's best answered once we know what all the other structures are so all of that will sort of be decided by this committee um as they get together and get to know each other and we get to know each other sort of strengths and how we're going to organize all that stuff thank you yeah I'm looking forward to receiving the initial report so we can confirm that those things are moving and are as inclusive as we need absolutely so I will now defer to Mr Dean thank you member reinfeld Anthony Guan just address for the record uh thank you uh Anthony Guan 45 Elm Hill Avenue in lemonster uh president of the Medford Teachers Association um just two points one I want to say that I applaud the appointment of Maria dorsy to this committee uh Maria gives a lot to our school She's a great member uh and an excellent cooworker um I would uh also encourage uh if more community members are open um to have more teachers on this committee as just sort of the day-to-day operation questions can probably be best answered by those if that isn't possible then on these advisory committees and these um reach outs for specific Specialties I would reach out to uh the teachers that work at Medford High School just again for the day-to-day operational questions um more specifically I would push this committee to include people who would understand the needs of the vocational programs the amount of space and equipment and especially the uh specificities of some such as the robotics program in which temperatures need to be kept at specific levels and Equipment can be affected by the environment um so would push that early and often if not a permanent member of the community voting then a advisory committee be set up for vocational needs specifically uh thank thank you thank you thank you Mr Gian um totally agree and one of the things that has to happen um you know as we as we get all of this um I'll say paperwork in place right the msba will tell us how much space is allowable for various things they have lots of rules and you know and to be perfectly honest their rules around the vocational programming are improving but they have always disadvantaged um vocational programs and we know that and people are very aware of that um and so when we talk about bringing on um experts um to lead the feasibility study one of the things that happens in that visibility study space is lots of um staff uh oriented um Vision sessions that get to the heart of all of the things that you're talking about so I anticipate a much broader um inclusion of folks who work in Metro High School in that phase because those are the folks who will be describing sort of what the options are and what the possibilities might become so when we get there there will be educator specific um Vision sessions that our Architects and our owners project manager Etc will hold on our behalf um specifically to make sure that we are hearing from all of you but I think at any time you know I've told principal cabal I'm happy to come in and chat um with um her staff anytime that she uh would that you all would like to hear from me um and you all can feel free to reach out to me at any time um if you have questions or you'd like to see um you know you have an idea or thought and the last thing I'll say is that our meetings will be open to the public just like these meetings are so we would love to have you all join us at those meetings as well thank you member Graham um and thank you Mr Guan if I may from the chair and then I'll go to member inapa um I just want to point out that this was a long week of not only reading 208 pages of applications but also working as a group of three trying to discuss the pros and cons of different makeups of this committee and for me I just want to let everybody know I just feel like it's a a little bit overloaded with um politicians especially where Jenny and I are already me Members so for me to have a agree to a non-voting member which I know is going to be a separate vote I mean I'd have to suggest that we put two to three two to four others on as non-voting alternates so that we can just balance this committee out a little bit more that was my concern over the week um there are 90 94 resident applicants um all highly qualified and um I just I had a struggle with that with that balance um and there was some give and take and it was agree to disagree type situations but I just wanted to make that clear from my perspective I want to make sure that um this committee can move forward um without any issues and the only way I could see voting for one non- voting member is if we have a committee of you know a group of two a group of three or five which would serve as non- voting alternates member and tapa thank you Madame mayor um I would just like to I've realized the point was uh more on the lines of the question of member brandley but I would like to Echo the point made by MTA president Gan as well as um chair lungo Kar uh it does feel a little politician heavy and I would love to see um if we do have a non- voting member addition because again the guidelin said one minus you know the uh you know the two being you know member Graham and member lungo Kern um and this is no this is with all due respect um this is not a shot uh I want to make that very clear remember rouso is a very very intelligent person especially when it comes to uh open beating law I have used it as a resource for many questions it's just a matter of me wanting to have more um of our community members who maybe don't have that say that maybe this board would have um and including especially uh our teachers um whether that be Pa professionals whether that be the people who walk those buildings daily um because they will tell you the ins and outs um that evolve every single day um so yeah I would say that you know obviously it's two different motions but uh I would Echo the concerns of chair lungo Kern and would probably want to put to get more you know four to five I don't know what the legality of having you know teachers that don't live in our district because for my understanding we have quite a few teachers who don't live within the meh Public Schools who may be uh eligible to want to do this I don't know the legality of that that's just my own ignorance um but if we can open up it to having more than one school cre member even as a non- voting member I don't see why we couldn't do that um but I think that's all the collective thought I have right now before I just start talking nonsense okay thank you member and TAA um member brandley um I'd be more than happy to offer anything that anybody needs if I needed to be another voting non- voting member I'd be more than happy to volunteer for that just to throw that out there if we want to take the non- voting member addition off altogether I'm comfortable with that too um but just to offer that I'd be more than happy to do that also thank you member brandley I motion to approve the community members it sounds like we feel comfortable moving forward with that vote now the first vote motion for approval of the committee members by member reinfeld seconded by I'll second member brandley roll call vote member Bry yes member Graham yes M Anapa yes m al yes member reinfeld yes M rouso yes mayor Longo Curr yes seven the affirmative zero and the negative the community members is um 1 through seven are approved and thank them in advance for their many hours of service ahead mayor I'd like to also make a motion that um member and Emily Lazaro are appointed as voting members pursuant to our original motion second member Graham motion for approval of our voting members for school committee and city council seconded by member rouso roll call vote remember brandley yes M Graham yes member inapa yes member ol yes member reinfeld yes member Russo yes mayor Longo current yes seven in the affirmative zero in the negative um member ol and member Lazaro have been approved to be on the committee thank you for your service and also like to make a motion that uh member Russo is added as a non- voting member of the committee I'd just like to make make an amendment or if one of my colleagues can that we add at least two more non- voting alternates in case we need them and we can hopefully tap into two other community members that are willing and able um to serve on this committee I'm happy to accept that Amendment mayor okay motion for approval by member Graham as a about that member Russo yes are we talking about people who have actually applied or we're just going to randomly thinkig people that you want mayor it's not who I want member Russo it's people that applied we had 92 community members and including teachers additional I don't know how we want to create the makeup but I think we should add two more um people that applied from the community okay I just want to clarify you keep using the word alternate though these are not alternates so don't know what you think the um non- voting members are they must come to every meeting they required for a quorum actually I'm not sure about that but they must thank you um but they are not alternates they don't they don't get to vote if voters voting members stop showing up or if we have to find a new voting member we they don't get the seats well you said I I don't know what I think they are and what the motion was that that they would be alternates so two additional non-voting alternates from the school or from like alternating for the non- voting member Russo or we can we can change the amendment and just add two alternates from the community non-politicians or we could I don't know what an alternate means man point of clarification point of clarification member and tapa I think the point is is that member Graham in presenting was saying about how Ms um msba may have a cap of a certain amount of the working groups the idea was is that we approve three and if we need to cut down to one non- voting member then we look at the pool of who we want to put forward the idea is to have three and if we can have two then we have two and if we have three then we can have three or um the msba is not going to weigh in on the size of our committee our committee is also already very large with that said I think if we want to add two additional non-voting members I think that's totally fine I would not call them alternates though because that has a whole different connotation and we really haven't even talked about what that might mean so I my I'm happy to amend the motion to say that we're going to add member rouso as a non-voting member and that there will be two additional non-voting members um brought forward to this committee um for approval at the next meeting I'd second that could I add on to that in the statement that they should be priority sent to uh faculty members of the building that is being built I think it should probably be from that pool non from from that pool yes from the applicant pool that's what non politicians from that pool y okay thank you okay so the amendment to have them as non-voting members under a personal privilege point of personal privilege mayor I find it offensive that as a politician you're using politician in the four-letter word sense of it it's really obnoxious I just want to be um very open with that you are a politician there you're talking about politicians in the negative sense that the public frequently does it's not helpful when politicians ourselves talk about each other in that sense okay you're not concerned about the number of politicians you're concerned about politicians in the negative sense of the word so I just need to get that out there because your tone is extremely offensive oh your Tone's offensive member Russo that's fine you're talking you're condescending so I'm not going to tolerate it either um I think any if you look at the list is member Graham myself two voting members from current we we I mean past politician another one I mean there's we had May that's what the msba requires and I'm asking to make the board larger so that we can have more community members because I don't think this is great Optics can we move the question motion for approval as amended by member Graham seconded by second yeah I thought member Russo had done that roll call please uh member brandley so can we just be clear that we're adding the two additional members correct from the pool that's correct to be what're presented and voted on at the next meeting as to who they are thank you yes uh member Graham yes member Anapa yes member Al yes member reinfeld yes uh member Russo yes uh mayor lungo Kernan yes seven the affirmative zero and the negative motion as amend it is approved uh mayor can I just say congratulations and thank you in advance re surface to the people that we've just appointed um and to let everybody know that I will be in touch um after tonight yes thank you very much thank you everybody thanks everyone we have reports requested revised School handbooks as requested handbooks for all schools are respectfully submitted for revie review by the ad hoc committee Brooks Elementary school mck elementary mlin elementary Roberts Elementary Andrews Middle School working draft mlin Middle School Metford high school vocational technical Curtis TS final draft to be submitted on May 6 2024 is there a motion for approval there's a question about this um the ad hoc committee when created was about developing the process for review I was told it wasn't about doing the actual review um sorry I just got a zoom error message um so I want to confirm that is this ad hoc committee doing the review as well because I am concerned about my time I will say that is my bias on this I think that depends on at least for me that depends on what you all come up with in terms of like what you think the process should be and if you recommend that that's great and if not I think I would be happy to hear whatever that recommendation is and just to report that we because this committee changed we do not have the final process in place yeah for the record member friendley um I just have a quick question why do we have a different handbook for every school why do we not have a handbook for elementary one for middle and one for high school if I mean um each each School is is required to have a handbook the the essence the content of the handbooks are nearly identical but it is a process that they go through with their in individual School site councils um and so there are the majority of the content is identical same set of rules um and the councils have the opportunity to weigh in and there could be very slight um minor differences but um I would have to say like 90 more than 90% of the content should pretty much be identical but there is a requirement for each school to have their own handbook like okay I I figured that that was a case that we all needed they all needed to have their own handbook I just figured one could say the Brooks with the principles and you know whatever staff that needs to be on there but all the meat is the same because to me if I'm a student at the Brooks and I go over to the mlin the rues should be the same if I'm at the high school and I walk over to the voke or I'm at the at the Curtis those rules should be the same same at the mlin and the Andrews so I'm just I just want to make sure that like you said 90 something percent or whatever it is the same yeah so there are some excuse me um they are essentially 90% the same but there are a few caveat so in the in the high school one there will be a slightly different um the Curtis tffs will follow what the high school does but due to the nature of um program requirements or needs there are um there could be some slight modifications so it'll all be in one handbook where you can look at it and you'll be once once it's finalized by that May 6th meeting you'll be able to see where the slight changes are but essentially all of the schools are doing the same okay I just when I got the B I'm like I can't go for four you know elementary schools and see if page one was the same as page one all the way wrong so I just wanted to make sure that was clarified thank you welcome follow on that you said every school is required by whom is that a school committee rule is that a state rule what is yeah it it's something that every school does with their site counsel they work on their school handbooks and even with their Improvement plans they are involved with their um School site councils it's just um it's I mean for as long as I've been in education every school has always had a handbook which clearly talked about what are the rules so that the families parents caregivers know oh if you do X Y and Z you're violating the code of conduct um and you know all of the you know we spent a lot of time this committee talking about expectations whether it's around bullying and other things so it's following the laws but also just having it in one place so you could have an artifact to refer to um so I guess I'm looking at it from this side for the first time so I was curious yeah thank you member Russel yes these are required by law to be approved each year by the school committee there a motion for approval I will put forward the motion member and topper seconded by are we just motioning to receive them and place them on file like we're not approving the handles right now right no because it says the final draft to be submitted on May 6 2024 so I just figure we're approving that the final drafts will be sub submitted um on May 6th 2024 got it thank you motion for approval by member in top seconded by second member reinfeld um roll call please uh member branley yes member gram yes member and tapa yes member L yes member reinfield yes member Russo yes mayor Longo Curr yes 70 affirmative Z the negative motion passes or revise School handbook submission by May 6 passes suspension and discipline report a draft of the districtwide suspension and discipline report has been provided to the members of the for review and feedback the final report will be presed at the April 29th 2024 meeting motion for approval what are we approving that they'll be presented at at the next meeting yes and we're sending comments feedback further requests to you Dr Edward B yes thank you I'm unmuted motion to approve Thank You seconded by member in tapa roll call please uh member brandley yes member Graham yes member Anda yes yes member reinfeld yes member Russo yes may lern yes 7 the affirma in the affirmatives zero in the negative paper passes um we have two condolences uh the members of the me school committee Express their sincerest condolences to the fam family of Gladis Gomez grandmother of Brianna martinetti nurse at the Roberts Elementary School also the members of the mord school committee Express their sincerest condolences to the family of prudence Penny Ro an elementary teacher in Medford for over 30 years we all may take a moment of silence thank you our next meeting is on April 24th 2024 it's a committee the whole budget meeting fiscal 25 budget meeting update number three and that will be via zoom and April 29th is our regularly scheduled meeting in the Alden Memorial Chambers Medford City Hall in addition to to zoom toj by member seconded by member reinfeld roll call last roll call please M brandley good job um yes uh member Graham yes member anava yes um member old party is a yes member reinfeld yes member rouso thank you for doing this tonight yes uh maror lingo kran yes thank you