right uh good afternoon ladies and gentlemen uh my name is Dr Peter Cushing assistant superintendent of schools and uh I'm going to read the agenda and then I will hand it off to our student advisory committee as we head into the topics for discussion as well as members of the school committee uh so please be advised that on March 20th 2024 at 2:30 p.m. there will be a student advisory council meeting of the Medford school committee held at the Medford High School in the superintendent's conference room and via remote participation the meeting can be viewed through Metro Community media on Comcast and Verizon participants can join the meeting in person or remotely by using the following information met for public schools invite you to join a meeting with remote participation option and the zoom link provided with meeting ID number 9339 4711 986 we are also broadcasting to the district's YouTube channel um and the agenda for this afternoon is a roll call for attendance of members and student Representatives which I will defer to member R for that uh and then the rest of the agenda is Introduction of new Committee Member John Anapa uh topics for discussion backpacks homework policy Transportation student voice flow chart uh I also believe it would probably be appropriate where neither the chair or the vice chair are here but I do turn over the meeting to member Russo as the secretary um so which I havek thank you hi everybody um you already read all this just have to do roll and attendance so the lack of order but since I didn't write it down I'm gonna just read off the screen member reld present member inapa present M present Russo present or present we have Quorum thank you everyone um so we have a new member whichever some of you may have watching other meetings that member cha is um new as of you track of the exact date um so I want to welcome him to these meetings which are clear we started them fall we start fall um and so I think it makes sense if everybody go around the table and everybody could just introduce themselves I've already done that so hi uh good good afternoon sha frus Haley assistant principal of operations and engagement hi my name is Darren and I'm a senior at meford high school hi my name is Jaden and I'm a sopore meford high school oh my name is Noah and I am also a senior I'm Maria and I'm a junior in school thank you um I'm Dr Maurice edwad Vincent superintendent of schools and I wanted to say member Russo that all of our members on Zoom today are brand new members um effective January so um please member reinfeld me member olai and member Ina um introduce yourselves to this wonderful group of students all right I guess we'll go in the order that you uh that you called us so hi everyone I'm Erica reinfeld I am talking to you right now from MIT I teach science communication here I've worked in a lot of museums I have background in astronomy and theater and Museum education so all of the disciplines I am interested in that I'm also a Medford Mom I have a seventh grader and a third grader and I am very excited about having all of these voices in our conversations about what our schools are going to look like in the future so thank you for taking up um time after school to be a part of this Council it is amazingly appreciated by us on the committee and also by your fellow students and teachers and administrators so thank you so much uh I can't tell if they can hear us because they were waving their hands can you hear us all right cool I think I can see a thumbs up hi everybody my name is Aron L I'm newly elected as like like uh the thumb was down it I can't it's really far away I know [Music] yeah let me run across the hall quickly and then I'll come right back okay so so we have been having uh unfortunately the zoom room uh software has just crashed on us uh give me one second here to unmute my computer um and can you hear us now thumbs up all right perfect uh member reinfeld whatever you were saying I'm sure it was uh if you could repeat but I don't know if it was anything all right well let me can you hear me before I before I go on Can You Hear Me [Music] that's a yes excellent oh hello there all right so again I am Erica reinfeld I am talking to you from MIT today where I teach science communication but I have also worked um in museums for the Smithsonian and for mit's Cancer Research Center I have a background in astronomy and theater and Museum education so I am about all of the things that you study I am so excited about the curriculum components and I am so grateful to all of you for volunteering your time to be on school commit um on a part of the school committee in a student advisory capacity I'm also a Medford Mom I have a seventh grader and a third grader and I just really appreciate this and I know your classmates your teachers the rest of the committee does as well uh hi everybody my name is Aron like the superintendent mentioned that we are all newly elected so I'm really excited to be here uh I'm a Medford High graduate of 2018 so five years ago and I'm a recent graduate of Boston College this past May um studying political science um so law politics government are my main focuses um when it comes to academics but I have interest in a majority of the um subjects as well so I'm excited to kind of get involved and be be invested in your success and U thank you so much for having me here hi everyone uh hopefully you can hear me all right I've been having some mic issues but uh my name is John andapa I am a also a recent grad of met High graduated in 2019 uh I also served as the class president of the class of 2019 so the senior class president um I just graduated also in May from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design and Industrial design which is all basically product design toy design medical design you name it also informational flowchart so Darren trong really appreciate uh the graphic you have made for us that we will look at later in the agenda um but that's what I'm all about uh my work uh I work at Mass art now and I work in student engagement uh while I was a student at Mass art I also served as the uh student trustee for a year and a half and then the student body president for another two years so for the last nearly decade my work has been in student advocacy and Student Success um so I'm really interested in working with you all and treating you all as a member of the table um because that's what I fought so hard for um at Mass art pulling the students out of the pandemic um because I was a freshman first year when the pandemic hit um so really excited to work with you all because that's what my background is all about so thank you for taking the time to meet with us and join this really important committee all all right we know superintendent is who is yes I'm not sure if you heard me but um Dr Marie said Vincent superintendent of schools I did pop in to say hi and um I just was taking it from this office here thank you again to all of you for volunteering and being part of this great group thank you Miss frus Haley for also being the administrator representing all of our high school students we truly appreciate um your contributions to this special grouping thank you you want to yeah kind of start yeah um so would it be possible to move the um so the student advisory committee has been working alongside the site Council and we're working on getting a petition out to the students at Medford High School um regarding a backpack policy as we uh the students have a lot of students have expressed that they want the current backpack policy repealed so we've just been collecting um signatures for that petition so we can present on Tuesday uh the site council meeting yeah that's pretty much it on the backpack also there was um there was one thing about backpacks has been of course Very centered around the school obviously school policy not so much around the school committee level but we were told at one point that there was maybe some kind of discussion on the school committee level about it or maybe there was like some kind of walk through like what I I wasn't sure exactly what he said at some point backpacks were discussed um and I wasn't sure exactly like contents that discussion if I remember correctly backpacks may have been discussed as part of the dress code but I don't I might be off on that yeah um you know we did specifically in the dress code I think it was brought up as something consider and it was kind of like are we gonna boil the ocean or we gonna actually Dr part done um so we didn't go there um I believe just before the pandemic there was conversation around the backpack policy but like many things that were happening when the actual pandemic began we just forgot about everything because that wasn't What mattered anymore um so and I believe before I was even on the committee this is my seventh year that that was a major issue that had been discussed by others uh but I I'm wasn't in high school then I was here and I didn't have a kid here and so I don't know how that conversation went so if there was any dialogue about it I feel like at this point everybody's new and doesn't even know what that was um although John and Aaron may actually remember it um but it feels like we should just have whatever that conversation is again because we're all gonna need to go speed on whatever that was and things may be different now anyways because before the pandemic we didn't have a school issu device so things were technically different as well so that's just my thoughts if I could chime in because I I remember if if I'm correct if the students can correct me the current policy is there's a square chart in front of every door that says the bag can't be bigger than this that you're allowed to carry around is that still the policy because that's how it was in 2019 I've seen one teacher have that box okay SE it besides that though yeah right yeah because I know the struggle like I when I was a SE when I was there my floor was C2 and even C2 to B3 was kind of crazy between classes with the three minute a lotted time and I can't even imagine what the class below us which I think was C1 I think 2020 class was C1 or C3 um because I know that's where the struggle was always talked about was with transporting stuff but now as remember Russo has mentioned with most students having school issued devices like the Chromebooks it it's it's an issue of carrying so many objects but also of the fragility of if you drop that you're going to get charged if it breaks so I think it definitely would be worth having a discussion especially with students um especially making sure we have students who know that experience of getting from again dramatically from C1 to B3 um seeing what that is like and where the struggles are and if we need to how big we need to expand that policy or if we need to talk about just regular backpacks or if we you know I think that allocated size is only um I guess like 8X 24 it's some weird like basic purse size I think if if if if I remember correctly um so it definitely would be worth again because of the new added responsibility of maintaining that piece of technology it would be definitely worth relooking at um in terms of making sure that that can be done safely and effectively so I I would be interested um as a note as a petition also like with an added element of the petition to see student comment specifically about what their specific struggles are so we can self-identify right off the bat too so when that petition goes out um I'd be I'd be curious to see what the specific needs are because I don't want to try to solve a problem that no one has and waste so much energy on something that like no we don't have this issue it'd be great to see what like to hear from y'all what that is specifically um is it timing that's causing the issue is it amount of stuff you have to hold um it may be evident but I would like to know specifically just so that way we can work efficiently to design a solution to this issue that you guys are facing to the point where a petition does have to go out and we do have to have this conversation yeah and I think the other part that needs to be a part of the conversation is understanding some of the motivation for why the policy um exists because i' I've heard certainly some concerns around you know is this are we just talking about backpacks but what about large totes and there are some Equity issues where some student populations are more likely to carry a large tote and some are more likely to carry backpacks and are those being treated the same way but is this about the devices that can distract people in class and so this is an opportunity to not have those devices and so how can we make sure that a new policy solves the problems that the initial policy was intended to have so I think that's the other component we see the the burden that the policy can place on students but then taking that away what what are the consequences of that for be for being in class for being between classes I think there are different concerns during passing than there are in class so just making sure that conversation includes not just the impact on students but on the entire class but so what I've heard um this is just from like my talking with teachers every now and then the biggest concern that I know of is like just sort of being a clutter either in the hallways or like on um or like by the sides of desks because obviously you want to keep uh keep walkways clear if you're like say um in a lab you want to keep yourself away from like any chemicals you're using anything like that um and so what we kind of thought was a reasonable sort of limit on that would be like just being able to fit it under the desks there sort of like a standardized desk that we've used for quite some time and there is a spot under that desk to put materials so it would make sense if you could just fit your backpack in there then it would fulfill the same purpose of just putting your supplies there and would still allow kids to carry around stuff and also still keep the walkways clear that's de thank you um I guess I can speak yeah um so for the petition we currently have uh roughly 130 uh signatures and that's been roughly like a week we've been collecting uh signatures um however it's like we're also short on people so it takes time to collect sign as of currently the petition it's only a signature um and it's it doesn't have like a an option for input so we would likely have send out another survey with specific uh options or input for students to uh be able to put in their suggestions or concerns regarding the backpack B yeah like just going around the petition a large problem ask you with students like The amount of stuff you have to carry CU a while back ago like kind of accommodate the backpack policy there was like these like kind of nap saacks handed out like little draw bags you can use but while I can like fit different folders and stuff to issue like the big binders we have to carry like the one and a half inch the three inch binders that we have to carry in between classes and like the timing um going at between classes like it gets worse like you know we to go from like B3 to like C1 for example or like across up to stairs across hallways and stuff like the timing kind of just adds on to like the struggle of trying to carry all those binders like I have to carry a bunch of binders between my classes like you're always trying to like make sure oh you don't drop it for example and like you're trying to get by like in like the thin um staircases too and like you're carrying all that stuff and like it's kind of hard to try and like navigate that getting by so like being able to like at least have some kind of like tote bag or like backpack that can like carry all that stuff in a more condensed manner would then kind of facilitate that Transportation yeah sounds like you all have a fairly good idea the issues and the reasons that we want this so I wonder if rather than doing another survey you might think about once we you have a proposal for what this would look like asking people to respond to that specific proposal rather than having another open-ended feedback that comes in but make it more of a feedback than an input response situation right say here's what we think would solve the problems we know about what have we forgotten or could another you know we talk about informational hierarchy and informational Services would another element of this of the interest to the students would be of I hate to use the word life haacks but other suggested ways of cutting down time between classes of like past precedents of what other students have found effective like I know that doesn't it's not meant to be proposed as a copout of reforming the policy but in addition to looking at the policy would students find it helpful for there to be some kind of information on what other you know students alumni have found effective to go between like I know for me my cheat was that I always had my locker set to the first two and then I could set it to the third and pull it and go um which isn't the safest option sometimes and I learned it from a TV show on Nickelodeon when I was eight um that's the classify but like something like that where it's like where people find opportune times in their schedule where people cuz once I had a rhythm going I knew what to do but um um that was bestowed upon me by another peer so if they don't have that so would an informational suggestion be of other usage to the students essentially in addition to look relooking at the policy but I wouldn't want to exclude that um informational sharing is a beautiful thing so just curious if that would be of interest as well um I guess I can speak from a personal perspective um we as students we get 30 minutes passing time so between getting from class to class and in the hallways there's like quite literally this traffic because sometimes you have people blocking the entire like hallway and you can't get past them and that makes us late so if we add on like trying to get to our Lockers in between classes it makes it very difficult for us to get a m our materials or if we forget something uh personally what I do is I just get all my classes or materials that I need um up to lunch and then I go during lunch um but then there's another issue which technically during lunch we're not supposed to leave the calf after 10es minutes so if you factor in getting your lunch and waiting in the lunch line then we're technically not supposed to leave the calf um but yeah that's just from personal experience but I haven't been stopped from leaving the calf so I don't I don't I think it's just a rule that's like there but it's not enforced in my personal experience yeah I think in the schedule there's like a five minute time period between third period and like four period last laun was like supposed to give us time to like go to our lockers and stuff but like depending on where your classes like then might not exactly really help but I think that's dare to try and accommodate for that no that makes sense thank you for sharing um so we're going to be uh shifting to the uh homework policy um if there are no other like questions or anything would it be possible Dr Cushing to stream the um the Google Doc sure are you on would you like to just share your screen oh whichever is easier I also shared it with you as well okay good afternoon ladies and gentlemen uh my name is Dr Peter Cushing assistant superintendent of schools and uh I'm going to read the agenda and then I will we are having a host of technical issues I apologize for anyone who hear that anywhere um part recording have that sorry if this is the if this is the same Google doc that was shared in the last meeting I believe I have that yeah actually member reld if you could share that would be great a different one all right let me share that right now and the yeah this would be great because we do have feedback on it sorry am I sharing the one that that we had last time we have a different one okay close that window sharing screen all right and I'd ask any of you if you would like to provide some feedback like member Russo we would love to see that um I actually okay okay you can pick another two of them all right it's okay open meeting law right yep I'm so um one of our biggest concerns as students obviously is balancing homework with sort of like home life and other academic work because one of the biggest things that we we as students is that when we're deciding at the end of each year when we're deciding say what classes we want to take next year obviously there's a certain points placed on the classes that we take sort of the academic rigor that we choose to uh strive for but at the same time a lot of our choices are very much dictated by how much homework we perceive or how much homework we um believe that class is going to scal us because on top of being academic rers the all also have a lot of responsibility and I don't want to speak like for everybody but I know I've got a lot of things outside of school I I have a job I have personal Hobbies I know other people have sort of like almost responsibilities and families maybe they need maybe their families need an extra source intome maybe they need to care for a loved one and there's a really big um and homework is a really important way in which school interacts with home life and we feel that there are certain things not everything but you feel like there are there are certain things that can be improved upon and refined to better sort of like protect students from an overbearing workload of homework um and that's sort of what we have in the document here um a lot of it is sort of justifying sort of saying why these certain things are issues why we believe um they need to be addressed um and we do have in some there we are going to update the format of everything in the next uh version but um you have interpers uh specific wording things that we specifically like um we address so uh the first thing on there ma yeah let's read the um we have included in here what's the current homework policy is districtwide provided by um what it NC and laws contain with mayor um I I won't take the time to read through read through verbatim but essentially the biggest thing that we get from here is that sort of homework by the definition set forth here is supposed to improve the learning process and Aid in the Mastery of skill skills or otherwise sort of stimulate interest in a topic um and um obviously there are Provisions already in there but the biggest thing that we want to try to address in this is what we call busy work which is very um it's very informal term the busy work is just something that we're given it's just homework that's given for the sake of keeping students busy it's homework that necessarily might have a purpose but at the same time isn't necessarily linked in a strong way to what's being learned in class or What's um what students are taking out of that class um and if that makes sense it's it's kind of like a loose term to pin down again because it's such an informal term but at the same time it is also sort of the biggest issue we experience as students um and it's something we really want to address here so uh just some things we wanted to bring up um some suggestions almost of different wording We Believe could help prent busy work again although enforcement of whatnot will have to be Case by Case basised by schools um but for example um one of things we have is homework should always have a discernable purpose aing students mastering understanding of a specific topic um or um or stimulating interest again purs to the we saw the uh s definition homework was of um no inance should home be given the sole purpose of keeping students busy um and then additionally this is one thing I included based on uh enforcements uh is the responsibility of indiv dig of individual teachers and school administrators in sure that homework given is used to Aid students Master understanding of the topic sort of a batim of the first suggestion there but also including sort of the idea of who's enforcement and whose job it is to enforce that um all right so I'm kind of moving a little bit quickly but um [Music] yes but I know we don't have like a huge amount of time and I don't want to like read baa I think thing we of course obviously it's avable to you guys You' like to um so the other thing that we often deal with as students is unreasonable due dates and due dates that are very close and just sort of like again not reasonable to what can be expected or what's expected of us for that um and that can be unreasonable D it's got to be like learning by a test the day before it's due getting an essay to do like at the end of the day and due tomorrow things where the level of work required vast exceeds the amount of time we've had to complete it um and uh certain yes and so like a couple of suggestions we have adequate notice and homework assments given few dates if be reasonable for the level of work and time expected to complete it that's another thing too is sort of like the expectation of how much time students should be giving to specific uh topic is to a specific homework assignment because everybody works at a different rates and so the teacher expects uh their student to spend like 20 30 minutes on an assignment that student shouldn't be spending upwards of an hour even if it means they can fully completed because it's just not reasonable for that amount of time to be spend but that um uh one other thing in terms of vacation uh and vacation time A lot of times what we see as students is there will be an assignment due not necessarily right after break but a large enough assignment that we have to continually work during break to finish it by the due date after break um and uh so obviously number one we want to make sure that that scheduled vacation time is respected by all teachers and that if they do decide to give homework over that break that they get at least a week a week's worth of notice for that work so that way students have the opportunity to get ahead of that and to perhaps not have homework for that plate um yeah and then also uh one final thing that we we also believe that that kind of homework should be only reinforcing what students of learning a class and not like learning entirely new things that's it up to DAR yep um so the next section talks about uh it's basically how homework has the possibility to have detriments towards a child's education if they lack the knowledge to complete it so um the intent for homework it should be used as a reinforcement and it should be a logical extension of what is learned in class so students should be able to complete the homework uh and it should not be an entirely new subject um so that's just a little bullet point that we suggested and then I'll just take the next section as well uh taking into account the diversity and background for students attending within meford Public Schools um we often find that a lot of times we have school holidays but uh teachers uh will assign assignments over those religious holidays um even when they're not supposed to so we just have a suggestion that that be added for that reason to ensure equity for all students of all the latest backgrounds and cultural backgrounds and then just another thing that students we students encounter is sometimes teachers will assign assignments uh like into the evening and they'll kind of put us in a scramble to get the assignments done for the next day so we just suggested that any homework assignments uh faculty post or teachers rather that be posted by the end of the day to give us adequate time to complete the assignment and then on the subject of uh sick days we found in our survey um which was I believe brought up at previous um meetings that there's a sizable amount of students who come in sick to school because they don't want to have to make up the work um and we believe part of that reason is because of the influx ible uh policy regarding makeup work for students who are sick um so we just have this B point to address that to ensure that students have adequate time um to complete work that they even miss if they take a sick day which so that students can take sick days without having to worry about being overwhelmed by school work thank you so this is point that we are still kind of workshopping we still need to do a little more research on um but it is as of um as of now the policy of Mentor High School that homework is created on completion rather than accuracy um and again we do want to do more research for suggesting this on the school committee level but we do believe there is um a distinct benefit to grading homework on completion rather than accuracy uh mainly because it encourages students to try to continually try and um try their best as opposed to trying their best and getting um uh marked off for it for example a student may a student may try their best and not understand the topic and then grade it poly whereas another student may understand it perfectly and immediately get that good grade and that kind of creates a disparity between the two in addition to that um what can happen as well is that a student may skimp out on homework they may not necessarily do all the homework and get answers from the friends and if things are greater on accuracy then a student who's very over a student who's overwhelmed with homework would be more encouraged to do um to take sort of that easy way out for the grade as opposed to at least trying something on their own and getting credit for that um and so that's sort of like um again we do want more research on that but that that is something we want to put to um yes the other thing uh we want to talk about is snow days um uh final thing is that we believe that if there's a snow day homework on that snow day so homework shouldn't be uh additional homework should not be um assigned on that snow day obvious obviously we'll need to rework that a little bit more um taking into account whether or not there's like multiple snow days in a row or say there's like a big snowstorm maybe like a week off obviously we'll need to put some sort of quantifier on that just s of the idea that if we have a snow day we should take that day to either shovel relax the to sort of just like take that rest day and not have additional work to do on that day um and then the last stuff in here is just sort of more justifying more um bigs about uh about everything about all the different props written U which I I think I me and Darren have sort of summarized some words yeah that's that's that's about size of it so that was homework homework okay more things thank you this was very thoughtful very well researched and I appreciate what's gone into this can I ask have you spoken to any of the school The Faculty teachers about the alignment any of your advisers about the alignment with their with learning goals and course goals um currently we have not reached out um well currently we have not um gotten any response uh I recently reached out to I believe Mr Gan who is the teacher union representative at the mord high school um so we're looking to meet with him and potentially have him look over the um the homework policy because we have one for a district level and a local level um so it's just we have to find the time to meet with him um but yeah that's we are looking to get feedback from teachers parents and students as well yeah I think that'd be great um meeting with Mr Gan uh Mr Gan is also like at a former position was also a proof reader so he'll be able to help uh if there's any that he feels like should be added as well um I love how much thought has gone into this especially I think I heard someone I think might have been noticed like quantifiers in terms of missing homework especially on snow days and then you know at what point do we go okay we kind of need to start instruction back up I think that's an incredible thought um to be brought into it um I did have a question there was a there was a comment made about um homework assigned is are is the backtracking for one second was a point made has this been happening where faculty members will assign homework like way after hours to be completed for the following day is that what that was referring to where like homework will be assigned at like 4:00 or 5:00 p.m. to then be completed during the school day is that like I don't want to get you know into something if that's not the case but is that was that is that a reoccurring thing that's been happening that's more of like an extreme case but that does happen like on a occasion here and there what we see more often is um say a student will a teacher will be absent for a day maybe we'll go to lecture hall okay um but at some point after that class time has happened after our like alloted class time for that class has happen then we get sort of an announcement on Google Classroom hey this is sort of like homework for tomorrow or password for today or something like that and it feels like if we don't have that inclass time to do that it's it's kind of difficult to either expand on that with homework or or even just like finish it by the next day I gota so it's it's more of looking to especially in those lecture hall which are usually like the last worst case scenario situations of having the work be assigned so that way you're not sitting there playing with playing cards and and just kind of doing other class workor as to in that instruction period where your mind is set to work on American history to be working on a push homework essentially is what the the thought is with that so it's more about that and of like you're getting an email at 400 p.m. that's saying hey this is actually due at 8 now okay just just checking to see what that was I wasn't sure what was going on so I appreciate the the information but overall a lot of thought has been going into this and I really appreciate um the research that's done with you know the National Parents Union within district and local wide within you know quantifiers looking at you know sometimes there may be certain situations where you know thinking about the faculty member if there is an ex stream case in their end like they may just not be able to get it so the understanding of working with people um I'm talking in circles right now overall just really appreciate the work that's being done and looking forward to seeing what will be presented in the discussions we're having um what would you most like to get from the school committee members who are in the room right now I'm aware of the time and that there are more things on the agenda and obviously I as an educator I have a lot of thoughts on how this all plays out and I don't think this is the moment to go into depth in every point because there's a lot to be discussed and um hashed out but you know is this something that we would want to schedule a subcommittee meeting with the curriculum subcommittee and instruction to to talk about this with teachers and students in the room what would be most useful at this point with limited time for in terms of either in this meeting or next steps that you would like to see I guess just from like my perspective it's it would be nice to try and like try and fast track this um just because homework is such a pressing issue for students um not only at the high school but at the district level so we feel that if we can get this policy thoughtfully completed um like as a priority um for like the school committee in terms of like uh students um handbook policies that would be uh nice to have that priority thank you that's really helpful because I think school committee can set policies and obviously that does take some time there's there's a limit to especially with open meetings of how how fast a fast track is but also there's the stipulation that the implementation falls to the schools themselves and we can't tell teachers how to teach but we can set some of those parameters whether it's about the homework about the expectations for a syllabus a lot of this seems to be about laying out what are the expectations and knowing what's coming over the course of a year um but thank you that's really helpful I see how urgent this is on many levels so with that we're gonna uh hand it off to uh Mandy and Maria to talk about Transportation at the high school hello I'm Maria and I'm currently working with Mandy on the transportation conflict so for this we have not drafted a policy yet because we just wanted to get the proper approval for this first um currently with the transportation conflict we have five main issues um the first one and the biggest one student safety of course um personal experience I think a lot of us have seen this when we're waiting for the buses there's not a proper line for the students getting into the buses it this wasn't like like this before this year especially it has gotten really bad um students crowd and um they push into each other trying to get into the buses and I have seen people get hurt like near the doors of the buses it's like it's a big mess um I think there needs to be some sort of a physical barrier or a line of some sort for us to maintain the order when the students get onto the buses um we can talk about that more but the second one um issue that I have is we need a designated bus departure and arrival position um because there is no set position for the buses sometimes when we are going home and the buses just come line up either at the front or the back students are not used to the different positions every time so they don't see the buses from the doors and they miss the buses and there's just a lot of issues with that as well and this this is another reason why people like the students are crowding because as the buses move down the road the students are also moving down the road in a crowd and it's just a really big mess and not only that our question would be why are there there's three types of buses four actually and there is a different amount of buses that come in there's say like four 101s and then two or three 134s and only 295s and the yellow bus that um people in North me take and we were wondering that yes it's because um the um MBTA don't really go into like the North Medford area is it is there another um alternative slash can we add more buses to people who are not accessible to bus cards or anywhere uh location near that because that might also be a reason why that people are late to school because there's not enough um MBTA um bus stops around where they live and also um I understand that the um pop the majority of people take the 101 but also like the time intervals between them are very out of Border say the 101 has like four buses the time intervals between how they arrive are about 5 to 10 minutes and we're just like curious if we can decrease the amount of 101s and have set arrival times where people who are say um staying after school for extra help and that way we can like students can like know when to leave specifically except um unless unless they have like other issues so that they're like so that they can um take the bus on time and not miss it and possibly wait for another bus and also I take the 95 and I've seen that sometimes it comes from 230 to 2:45 and if I sometimes it comes early as well and it's very difficult because I live like almost across um West meford which is difficult for me to get rides and take the bus and I would just like to clear if there's um any concern any any Aid that we can get to the number of buses and the schedules I just wanted to add on to the 95 part we both take the 95 and honestly it is extremely annoying because she said um the 95 the first one comes very early there are only two 95s and I have seen a lot of people get onto the 95s like honestly there are I would say there are almost more people on the 95 than there are in the 101 and only two buses um a lot of students crowd onto the first one because the second one comes so late um and like I for one have work right after school and I can't get on to the last one because it's really late but I also can't get on to the first one because there are too many people and I can't fit um the 95 another problem when going to school um the first one comes in time I always go on the first one but the second bus it's supposed to come at 7:05 it doesn't come until like 7:18 if if I'm mistakenly missed the bus one day I almost missed like school time first first period yeah so uh you know this was a topic that just came up in not our previous meeting and I want you know that I did reach out to Vivian Ortiz who is safe routes to school and um I had CC the the students to ask her some questions and see if she would like to come and do an audit on our uh drop off and pickup and see um basically you know what her recommendations would be for drop off and pickup with safe routes to school something that also might be appropriate uh after we've done an audit or an assessment like that is because the MBTA is a Massachusetts state agency um once we have some some data that we can point to as well as these helpful anecdotes um and kind of qualitative uh analyses of it um we can also consider going to our um State Legislative delegation um our state reps and our state senator would be able to you know help us Advocate with the MBTA potentially for changes or additions to schedules there's a whole process on the MBTA side um you know for that we can't it's not a decision we get to make from Medford although it's certainly a kind of petition that we could raise so um I think I think we should also be thinking down the road about about getting in touch with our three reps and our Senator we actually um have just been awarded a grant from safe roots to school um for bike racks at the Andrew school as a test pilot um so we are working with them uh and um I think that's a great we're launching a survey with s fruits to school later this week on Friday that'll run for about two or three weeks and we're really looking for a lot of participation from across the districts uh from our district um to make sure that we're getting as much information as possible I really appreciate you bringing it to us so I you mentioned Maria five things okay I just want to make sure I got them and so you're going to have to fill in some blanks so the first is safety yeah the second is crowding at the bus lines as they're coming up Steve Miller Drive to the West Courtyard area the third is that there should be some type of signage that says where buses pick up like the 101 will always pick up at this location all right and essentially will pull forward to a stop point the fourth thing is the erratic times Equity purposes for Equity purposes around that and then the fifth just so um the number of buses there number of buses okay yeah right and I think the safety and the crowding with the signage if we're able to do that so that all the students are standing on the sidewalk waiting but also coming up with some sort of procedure of how we do dismissal I think the Bell r and everyone goes out there and especially with the nice weather there's more students out there um so making sure that we're putting in a protocol for dismissal and getting on the bus I think it's great and one of our other student advisory Council students when talking about this did ask um it's a bottleneck at Medford High has it always now for the people who went to school here has it always been that way in terms of like people trying to funnel in yes and pick up and drop off okay in terms of drop um pickup I don't recall so drop drop off to the school I don't recall I drove or got driven in full transparency in terms of pickup um the side where Community Schools is where that like Stone Courtyard is that is what we're talking about in terms of like students funneling it it's always been a mess I remember students like standing on the Hills they used to line up on the hills and try to balance themselves um but also in terms of the buses I am a victim of the North mhod Heights um call I live in the North mhod Heights I live right on the border of malen so if I had to take the bus home I was on the yellow school bus um so I also know that and that picking up at a way different location was always weird to me of why that picks up by the voke automotive shop where the MBTA buses pick up at the community schools entrance um so yeah it's always been crowded it's always I don't I never viewed it as a safety issue at the time so I don't I haven't been up there during drop off so I don't know if it's getting worse in terms of like people just not knowing where to stand how it looks it sounds like from the student Representatives that it is getting a lot worse so if we can figure out ways to Channel students to understand where to go or if the line gets too long where to wrap around and make sure you're still in the same line of the 95 versus the 101 um but yeah um also wanted to give my thanks for this for the students who are working on this issue because it has always been an issue it was an issue when I was there um it sounds like the safety part is a bigger issue that I had never heard of so thank you for bringing that up um but yeah the the whole the north mord boss is a whole another issue with with the MBTA not offering their services really up in our our neck of the woods so I have one question and one comment uh one question is are these conditions exacerbated during inclement weather I ask because I personally am a most as a most seasons biker and so I'm curious about alternative transportation in terms of biking as well are there more people riding buses does the weather affect these issues no I don't think so no and we have quite a few students who do Bike to School absolutely um but there isn't really a difference in inclement weather okay that's good to hear and then the other the comment that I wanted to make is that this is really good timing to have this meeting because we have a strategic planning subcommittee meeting scheduled for Monday about a districtwide transportation survey um and so if there are particular question that you think we ought to be asking more broadly in the community I would certainly love to receive those from you in anticipation of this this meeting on Monday absolutely and I can that can happen over email I'm not trying to put anyone on the spot especially at 3:31 question we we'll definitely I'll I'll work with the students and we'll get some out to you thank you I believe that's it for transportation go ahead so I know we are at 3:30 um but um if members are able to stay for the last piece um so lastly on the uh I think it's in the email as well there's a student organizations vad um so basically I've been working with other members on the C advisory committee to make this because we find that students not only at the high school level but also at the elementary level which I've met with uh Mr Allen who's a teacher adviser for the student council at the Brooks uh but we find that students don't really know how to get their voices heard and how the uh I guess the system works for student voice so uh we' just made this flowchart um and we're trying to get them printed we're in the process of getting a large one printed and hung up around the high school and hopefully at the other schools uh which just outes to students how they can get involved and how change occurs um throughout the district and I just want to Quick uh cycle back to the transportation um as someone who's Bike to School um the bike lanes are not uh safe yeah so that's all I have to say on that can you share the that with me and I'll yes post it up and I know that um I think it was bike Medford but I for anyone listening I don't want to misspeak but I do know that they were really hoping for a protected bike lane on W Street um and so I think as you leave Medford High School and become members of the community and those of you still here to still advocate for those protected bike Lanes um as the city moves through various construction projects yeah those protect I was in that meeting that that those protected bike Lanes went away because a lot of people spoke out against having bike Lanes on winr street and the compromise was that the bike Lanes not be protected and that was because people showed up and fought against protected bike Lanes so if this is important please do continue to show up at meetings to Advocate all right let me uh share my screen [Music] and and Darren I'll allow you to so that you can control as you speak or whoever wants to speak um so just starting from the top we just have a little bit um like I guess FAQ for students on why their voice matters and how uh the student organizations work within the elementary middle school and at the high school level as well as how they can get involved it's just a little bit of a blur and then we have the flowchart here oh it's not scr really not cooperating okay um basically it starts from the bottom and it um at the high school level we have the newly formed student involvement organization which is similar to the student council uh basically it's just like organiz a they work together to get students involved and uh they're kind of like the Outreach branch of um student involvement at the high school level that's what it's envisioned to be and then we also have the student governments which work more two grade level concerns and then at the middle school and Elementary School we have these student councils and then that gets forwarded uh so we envision that the meford high school uh St advisory committee would be more of like a legislative um body since legally speaking we can only have five people on it so the idea would be we would uh be just drafting stuff and we'd rely on the student governments student councils student involvement organization to do the actual boots on the ground uh Outreach um which we've also that's part of a larger plan that uh I in the student advis Community working on to get more students involved and uh improve these student organizations at the high school and District level um and then State Side um which we haven't established yet but we're working to uh we plan on implementing a system so we can get Statewide uh changes as well which is uh outlined here and then more on the local level we have uh after we draft the um policy requests letters Etc they'd be sent to the corresponding administrations based on the level whether that be Elementary Middle School uh High School level or and or the uh me SCH committee and that's the flowchart which I believe is you know so thank you for the work in putting it together and for presenting it I'm gonna ask again so what what are you hoping to get from this group at this time in regards to this document um in regards to the document um I guess just uh we have a bunch of draft documents outlining the responsibilities of these students organizations and I guess a big thing we would like is to have these documents on the school committee website under the student involvement that way it's in writing um not on the school committee level but also on the local school level so it's there for us students as well as faculty and parents so there's more uh involvement as well as uh responsibility that are cly outlined for us and if I could offer I only looked at it last week but if I could offer a friendly suggestion that um I think that bigger posters might be better to help follow the lines so as you're doing around school that that might be very beneficial and I know you said you were working on one of those but just so that you know multiple in multiple places no I think this is great like I said my my education my background is in user interface user experience how do we tell people what the ination is um so I'm looking I'm looking at it right now that's why I'm on my phone um I love the color coding I'm just going to like um the fact that we're talking about state level changes how that because what this does is it does a great job of how you know how would you connect the mass legislature to an elementary school like how does that work that feedback gets there and does a really good job of showing how this actually goes through the channels and the ways we need to get it done um so yeah I mean I would definitely support having this in terms of on the the school committee website in terms of how student voices are heard and how that process happens um because it also helps empower the students to show that you know your voice does matter and sometimes that can be hard to convince students of how you know even at Student Government level like how why does it matter why does it matter what I say say nothing get changed anyways well this is how it matters this is how it goes up the ranks and we work together and we get what we need to um be done changed um so I really applaud you all for taking the time to actually take a lot of complex information and ideas and put it into a very visual um very visual chart so thank you for doing that um I just want to applaud you guys as well I think the visual is excellent and um not just words but for for those who um can follow the pictures and follow the dots and see the connection I think it it you guys really did a great job um designing it and making it user friendly and accessible for all levels thank you if I ask member Russo and Mr Dalton what kind of protocols need to happen for something like this to be reviewed and put up as an official the is my new member hat going how would this work well I mean the website is implementation it's not policy so has nothing to do with us everything to do with me yeah it would be it would be totally straightforward to um to you know set up a subpage of the school committee um to you know be a a site for for documents from our student Representatives um I think that's that that would be Rel L straightforward matter of um you know just getting me the the content that we need and then we can just talk about what we want it to look like um when it's done but but certainly the infrastructure is there and um I think we' be we'd be happy to use the website to host any documents you want to be whether it's um you know this this flowchart um or or govering documents or anything else thank you that's it all right well ladies and gentlemen thank you very much is there a mo do you need a motion to adjourn we do all right is there a motion to adjourn second first but that's okay um remember reld yes remember Yesa yes so yes for the affirmative this meeting is adjourned thank you everyone have a good night thank you