##VIDEO ID:WYGDTRA8Fy4## I'm chairperson Jerry Robinson will begin with the Pledge of Allegiance Al to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all I want to welcome everyone who is joining us tonight in person on Boston City TV and on Zoom I'm going to ask everyone here in the chamber to please turn off the volume on your laptops or other devices so it does not interfere with the audio for tonight's meeting thank you for your cooperation tonight's meeting documents are posted on the committee's web page bostonpublicschools.org school committee under the August 28th meeting link for those joining us in person you can access the meeting documents by scanning the QR code that's posted by The Doors the meeting documents have been translated into all of the major BPS languages any translations that are not ready prior to the the start of the meeting will be posted as soon as they are finalized the meeting will be rebroadcast on Boston City TV and posted on the school committee's web page and on YouTube the recording will be available in all of the BPS languages the committee is pleased to offer live simultaneous interpretation virtually in Spanish Haitian Creole capano Cantonese Mandarin Vietnamese and American Sign Language the zoom interpretation feature has been activated Zoom participants should click the globe icon at the bottom of your screen to select your language preference I'd like to remind everyone to speak at a slower Pace to assist our interpreters before we start I'd like to introduce miss Karen Sullivan our new school committee coordinator she comes to us with the background in the special education department and will be a great asset to our team please please join me in welcoming Miss Sullivan Ken just want to stand so people can see it we will beginning the meeting with the approval of minutes I will now entertain a motion to approve the minutes of the July 17th and August 19th 2024 school committee meeting is there a motion so move thank you is there a second second thank you is there any discussion or objection to the motion is there any objection to approving the motion by unanimous consent hearing none the minutes are approved we will now move on to the superintendent report I present to you our superintendent Mary Skipper thank you chair um I'm excited to talk tonight about the district's preparations for the start of the 2425 school year as you know we will welcome our students in grades 1 through 12 back to school on Thursday September 5th and then k0 K1 and K2 students will join us on Monday September 9th I know I speak for the entire District Educators all of our principes and leaders to just say we're thrilled to have our students back we can't wait we just wrapped up an incredible summer of BPS programming summer 20124 truly was the best summer ever as BPS hosted approximately 14,000 stud students who engaged in a variety of enriching and fun programs including Fifth Quarter extended school year and the exam School initiative just to name a few I had the pleasure of seeing firsthand the exciting and inspiring learning experiences that our students enjoyed this summer a personal highlight was sailing in the harbor with students in the courageous sailing program where the mayor and I were their passengers we will provide you with a full report of the summer 2024 at our upcoming meeting this fall earlier this month we held the annual August Leadership Institute which we lovingly call Ali in the beautiful space of the Boston Arts Academy this annual Gathering which has been happening since 1996 and I do remember the first one brings our school leaders together to reconnect and prepare for the year ahead this year we focused with our school leaders around using data to inform instruction as well as inclusive education it was a huge success and I want to personally thank Leslie Ryan Miller Nick Brooks Christine Cronin paen Nera white Jeff Rose as well as our entire ilt District instructional leadership team from the academics division for their work in planning the event and for everyone who participated last week we welcomed 200 new teachers at our our new teacher Institute where our new Educators had the opportunity to learn key content build community and gain information about the resources and supports available to help them have a successful first year in the BPS Eric Berg the btu president joined me in welcoming all of our new Educators into the BPS family both events were full of positive energy and enthusiasm and I'm confident going into the school year this is going to be a great one and that we're ready for day one tonight I'd like to walk through some of our preparations we're focused on three major categories family and Community engagement academics and student support and operations and Facilities members of my team are also here tonight to answer questions the committee may have Dr anaris our Deputy superintendent of equity community and family advancement Dr Linda Chen C Deputy superintendent of academics and Dr Sam deina Deputy superintendent of operations I'm going to begin with the family and Community engagement pieces last night we held our annual back to school webinar for families and caregivers on the direction of Dr Tavaris and chief of community engagement Miriam Ortiz mayor woo chair Robinson and all of the BPS deputies welcomes more than 800 participants 800 via Zoom between the live Q&A and the zoom chat the BPS team answered over 350 questions the interactive meeting included valuable information on how to prepare children for the first day who to reach out to with questions and where to turn to for support the webinar was an opportunity for students and families to hear directly from me and my team about the upcoming year as well as answer question questions about our district and the first day of school interpretation Services were provided in 10 languages and I want to send a special thank you to the parent leaders who supported the BPS team by sharing their personal experiences and wisdom getting their own children ready for school we had parent Leo William tab from Tech Boston Nadine mod from the matah hunt Winship parent Elizabeth of Winship parent viani Del Cruz all of them just added so much to the conversation and I know reassured parents who were in the meeting that they'll be ready for the first day of school according to welcoming sir according to our BPS welcoming Services we have a total of 50,60 students who are enrolled in BPS for the school year 2425 as of yesterday August 27th as of today 2351 new registrations have been completed um just a small note but some of those if they're k0 K1 where there's no seat available they ultimately may not be assigned but they are part of the registration process we continue to work through the wait lists and we've called more than 500 students to date weightless calls and emails continue to go out twice a week as seats become available we'll continue to call students off the wait list as seats become available until the wait list expires and that's November 30th for grades 1 to 12 and January 31st for K 0 to K2 a final enrollment number will be available later this fall and we'll share that data with you at a future meeting over the next several weeks we tend to have a lot more registrations coming in so those numbers will grow is our anticipation I'm also excited to share some new improvements to language access in our district translate live devices will be at every wel School Welcome Center as well as at community events the devices will offer an immediate live and two-way Communication in more than 200 languages and the team's working to schedule a demo for members at a future meeting the BPS helpl line will continue to support BPS families this year the helpline recorded more than 31,000 total touch points during last year these would include phone calls emails and walk-ins we're going into the third year with the helpline team in place and we continue to get great feedback from families that they now have one entry point to get questions or concerns addressed we're also able to track and close out requests so that we know popular topics and trends friends and we can ensure families have the information they need we're committed to supporting our students that means that our principals teachers and School staff are ready to meet the needs of all of our students this year we're pro we're focused on providing strong instruction creating welcoming and supportive environments for students and families and engaging students so that we encourage good attendance as I mentioned before the past year was a planning year for the implementation of inclusive education all schools convened ipt or what we called inclusion planning teams focused on planning for specific grade levels and Educators participated in an additional eight hours of PD focused on building foundational knowledge relative to inclusive education practice as we begin school year 2425 inclusive practice Es are being implemented in grades k0 to K2 7th and 9th grade and schools IPS are beginning planning for additional grades to implement in school year 2526 upon reflection of the IP process we're implementing some changes as a result of the feedback we received from different stakeholders for example we'll be focusing on progress monitoring this first year of implementation a for both students with disabilities and multilingual Learners as chronic absenteeism rates continue to decrease attendance will continue to be at the Forefront of our work this year to keep that decrease going strong our students cannot learn if they are not in school this is why it's critical that our students come to school to foster a sense of belonging we will continue to grow our Early College and Career pathway program which have recently added or will be adding 10 new programs across nine schools for the upcoming year terms of operations and Facilities regarding Staffing at our schools and in our classrooms nearly 95% of all teaching and 83% of par professional positions are filled or in the process of being filled before the start of the school year terms of transportation we have good news again this year to report from the BPS transportation ation Department first on Friday August 16th I joined mayor woo to announce that BPS signed a three-year contract with zoom a new bus tracking platform for families that will improve real-time Bus tracking and really enhance communication and transparency about their students bus the BPS Transportation team has already implemented systems and reforms that improved our year-over-year on onetime performance by 2.5 percentage points during the 2324 school year we're confident that this new Zoom technology which BPS has successfully piloted over the past few months will allow us to improve our operations and Gather Comprehensive ridership data to drive our ontime performance higher BPS runs 632 yellow buses on a daily basis transporting approximately 22,000 children across nearly 200 BPS and non-bps sites all students who are assigned to their school in Aspen by August 9th are guaranteed to have their bus assignments in place for the start of the school bus assignments have been sent to families by mail and email and are also available in the Zoom app the team continues working hard to assign buses for eligible students who registered or Chang schools later in August and the vast majority of these students will also have their bus assignments in place for the first day of school more than 32,000 Boston students in grades 7 through 12 receive M7 MBTA passes from BPS students can ride the MBTA free for on the first day and pick up their passes at school on the first day after driver and staff shortages just a couple of years ago we are now fully staffed as of the end of last week we had 743 active bus drivers and 36 trainees 76 active bus monitors and 62 pending hires nearly 200 more bus monitors than last year and more than 25 customer service staff including multilingual staff ready for the start of school on the help up on the hotline at the start of the 2024 school year we will have 39 electric buses on the road representing 5% of our total Fleet as well as propane buses or green transition Fuel and Diesel BPS Transportation under the leadership of Dan Rosengard is aggressively pursuing all available grant funding for Ev buses during the 2324 school year EPS secured nearly $25 million in grant funding which will help us Electrify approximately 75 additional buses tentatively for the start of the 2526 year we continue to meet regularly with our transportation advisory Council to identify and collaborate on additional areas for continued Transportation improvements for students families and schools families and caregivers with questions can contact the transportation hotline at 617635 9520 from 6:00 a.m. until 700 p.m. Monday through Friday they can email us at school bus at Boston publicschools.org or visit our website at bostonpublicschools.org Transportation terms of facilities the BPS facilities department has been busy this summer preparing our fac facilities for the return of students projects include 15 bathroom Renovations that have been completed and three more expected to be completed before the start of school at The Dudley Street neighborhood Charter School the Manning and the odonnell schools 13 gymnasium Renovations completed five major pool repairs completed at Charlestown High School Madison Park Technical vocational High Mah huntt Elementary Yana Academy K8 and Up Academy Dorchester two playground projects were completed one Library project is still in progress at the Hernandez five exteror door projects were completed five kitchen Rena and seven flooring projects in progress three completed just a massive amount of work for facilities with our buildings so that they can be ready beautiful and for students and staff come the start of school I also want to give a special shout out to our custodians who work hard every day to make sure our schools shine when students and staff return thank you for your hard work keeping our buildings clean every day of the year Food Services uh couple updates BPS food nutrition services is ready to make sure that our students have nutritious and tasty quality meals available at our schools breakfast lunch and after school meals are free to all BPS students no paperwork is required this year 98 kitchens will be cooking on site at the start of school and we plan to have 107 cooking on site by the end of October compared to starting with only 85 sites cooking last year full salad bars are featured at every cooking school and will feature rotating menus of fresh ingredients the remaining schools with Staffing challenges or without kitchens receive meals prepared in Roxberry by blackowned City Fresh Foods FNS has 44 open positions compared to 75 last year for day one and we're still working hard to fill those once those positions are filled we'll be able to cook onsite at additional schools our breakfast and lunches feature whole grains lean protein white milk and lots of fruits and vegetables we're also focused on offering culturally relevant meals that help create a welcoming environment for our students and teach them about foods from all over the world kosha and Halal meals are also available at all schools upon request menus will feature seven new culturally relevant dishes including jerk chicken a Caribbean Bowl chicken and CH chick e Tika Masala and a falafal bowl and and bean chili so really the food service is working hard with the schools the students and the staff to expand our menu options terms of safety we're ready to begin the school year by finalizing the deployment of our safety specialist this week our team has met with Boston Police Department School engagement unit to plan for the support and resources for the upcoming year safety Specialists continue to participate in school opening planning and ongoing safety meetings they've also met with BPS trans exportation to learn about the new Zoom app we've hired a diverse staff that includes individuals who identify as Haitian Cape Verdian latinx and black and speak five different languages the BPS Community connectors program will meet with executive director of opportunities and youth Brian Marx for a second year in a row to solidify our collaboration with the supervisors of attendance and will partner in making home visits and those home visits are really critical Community connectors also participated in numerous home visits with BPS family liaison throughout last year including 25 since February alone the office of emergency management what we call OEM has engaged with every school and is also conducted more than 90 School visits to assist with safety plans drills and follow-ups with safety and risk assessments operational leaders in school soups continue to support schools by helping them to complete their safety plans which are due on September 1st they have also conducted various Emergency Management trainings in preparation for school opening including three at the BPS operations Management Institute three at Ali and one at the new school leaders and they also continue to conduct active shooter trainings in coordination with BPD in terms of Athletics I'd like to end our back to school update with BPS Athletics after historic year in BPS Sports our teams have already taken to the field and the pool to start getting ready for what is sure to be an exciting year starting August 19th football cheerleading cross country boys and girls soccer and girls volleyball and swimming began to practice more than 2500 students have registered to play so far with some teams already participating in scrimmages games officially begin on Tuesday September 3rd and I'm really looking forward to sharing their many successes with you um in my superintendence report in the year to come this is also a good place to remind families to make sure that children's physicals and vaccinations are up to date in Aspen and we reminded families of that last year before I close I want to take um a moment just to acknowledge somebody very special to the BPS community at the end of this week chief of schools and accountability Dr Drew eckelson will be leaving PPS to transition to a new role as Rhode Island's Deputy education commissioner for systems transformation Drew's really had a long and impactful career here beginning with his first year in City year as a core member he's been an assistant principal he's been a network superintendent uh he had a previous role as Deputy superintendent of academics and he now sits in the current role of chief of schools and accountability I also just want to remind that Drew stepped up when leadership was needed here in the district before my coming and he was the acting soup he's really been an essential team member um for me and I know for many in our district it's a really Bittersweet moment anytime someone so talented leaves the BPS for a position that they can show even greater leadership um so I will very much Miss through and I know our teams and our Educators and our leaders will miss through and I did not want our meeting to to go he's not here this evening but uh I know he's watching and just want him to know all of our appreciation for his many years of work here in BPS we also like to say here in BPS that it's not goodbye it's just see you later I think there's many of us that are evidence of that so I'm hoping that that's definitely the case with Drew at sometime in the future couple of bright spots uh to to finish with um first of all uh announcing the first cohort of the Dr Carol Johnson District leadership Fellowship this is a new program in partnership with be to develop the next generation of BPS system level and District school leaders the 14-month program is named after former BPS superintendent Carol Johnson that we lovingly call Dr Jay um she gave many years of service at BPS and was really foundational and just really pivoted toward a district that was centered with racial and social justice um really balance support accountability and uh and took a systems level approach to school Improvement and I think just was one of the most relational people that I've ever met she cared about every single person that she spoke with um I want to specifically thank Dr Linda Chen Dr Leslie Ryan Miller and Dr Drew eckson for really thinking about how to bring this initiative to bear and for prioritizing now the next Cadre of senior BPS district leaders these new leaders will continue to cultivate and support BPS in the years to come and it's just a key component of our sustainability I also want to thank our partners Boston University Willock College of Education for stepping to the table and supporting the program so well uh I'm also really proud of the work of leaders that and just in terms of the fellows uh to share with you Raquel Martinez who's the head of school at Snowden um Katie Sen who's the program director of World Language uh Joanne etan who's the director of Boston Community Hub schools Anthony VZ vadz who's the program director in the department of early Ed and Carla Jenkins who's the principal at the Tobin Ka there's also financial analyst Christina Radley April Clarkson who's our senior executive director of The Office of data and accountability H son who's the principal at the ma Elementary Monique Rodriguez deos who's our transformation manager and Marcus Simpson who is head of school at Cash Community Academy of Science and health also Ann Hernandez who's the Region 2 District social worker Courtney Ryan Kenny who's the Region 2 Ops leader tinu aru SE who's the principal of the shaw Taylor Elementary Michelle Simon who's the principal of the mosart and S Thomas who's the principal of the trada elementary so we just congratulate all of these fellows uh it's such an outstanding when I look across them such an outstanding group of leaders and it just reminds me every day how blessed we are in BPS to have the leaders that we have this morning members of the BPS tech department um oit honored the memory of cherished member of their leadership team Andy Horan they dedicated the Andy Horan network operations center which is on the third for this building Andy who passed away earlier this summer and I made mention of this um as we did a moment of silence at school committee was a beloved BPS friend and colleague and truly a pioneering force in integrating technology to enhance our students learning I'm also proud to share that we nominated Andy uh post humously and he was in fact the award winner of the secretary's leadership and Innovation award that the 30th annual Massachusetts digital government Summit this is one of the highest Awards that's given in technology in our state and um his wife Ary will receive that on September 19th today I was thrilled to visit uh Boston city counil where earlier uh Dr Albert Holland uh was celebrated again and rightly so for the naming of the Burke High School to the Dr Albert D Holland High School of Technology he was honored there with the city council resolution uh many of his supporters and and fans and myself included were there uh I want to thank councelor Brian Morel for inviting me and for hosting the event um it really is a true celebration and so welld deserved by Al and I know that the uh the Holland Tech will be extremely excited in this new incoming year on Wednesday uh August 14th I joined mayor Michelle Wu representatives of the city's public facilities department and community members at a topping off ceremony or what we call the raising the beam for an addition to the PJ Kennedy Elementary School in East Boston the 21.5 million project includes a 4,000 square foot twostory addition housing a new main entrance uh which is now at level or at grade a new stairwell a new elevator serving all three levels of the building and accessible toilets it also includes a renov ation to provide accessibility upgrades and Fire Protection to the entire existing School building the signing and placement of the last beam Mark the completion of the school's additions to Steel structure partial renovations to the existing building will be completed for the start of the school year uh the addition and the remaining renovation work will be completed for the start of next school year 2526 and finally next week on February September on Friday September 6th at 4:30 we'll be holding the annual Citywide countdown to Kindergarten Celebration which I know is dear to Cher's heart at the Boston Children's Museum uh this is truly one of the best events to go to you just feel great during it and after it um to see all the little ones so excited uh about school and and to just see um pure joy I guess is how I would describe it um I would like to invite the school committee members um you know to put on that yellow shirt I'm going going to kindergarten uh and join myself and share as we welcome the littlest of our Learners and their families into VPS uh it's really a great event so uh I know that this is lengthy uh it was a full of really important updates um the one last thing I'd just like to make a brief comment on was the recent uh decision by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court I know in the paper people may have seen it uh I just want to restate that we recognize par professionals are integral to our mission to provide a high quality student experience here in BPS and um I just want to reassure the committee and the public that uh we have and we will continue to honor the arbitrator's award there's no question to that so uh with that chair I will turn it back to you thank you superintendent I'll now open it up to questions and discussion from the committee like to remind my colleagues about our agreed upon Norm that we each have five minutes one or two questions please make sure your questions are on topics related to the items in the superintendent's report and I'd like to also remind the BPS staff to be brief in your responses and to please speak at a slower Pace to assist our interpreters thank you comments somebody else no I said I just got here um mainly a comment superintendent thank you for the um in-depth report about getting ready for schools so many of the numbers sound good from the Transportation hiring to the overall teacher hiring and um couple of points jumped out to me one loved hearing um about the openings in uh food nutritional Services compared to last year that was a big issue holding back a number of our schools because they just couldn't get the people and glad that's way down and the new menus love that culturally relevant look forward to having a few meals in schools this year and and trying um the falafel in particular um second I was surprised you didn't mention or or maybe I missed it but in in that voluminous list of all the renovations going on that facilities have done the 15 bathrooms the 13 gyms the five pools the two playgrounds the one Library we also have a brand new school opening Josiah quinsey upper school which which I had the opportunity to tour the other day and it is absolutely stunning and just another stunning new high school in Boston public schools and when I stopped and added up you know what we what the city and BPS and um Mass School building authority spent on deborn and baa and now JQ the cardo which is also under under work and I I had the opportunity to tour that as well and it'll be ready next summer um 450 million between those four schools and then um what was it another you said 21 million for the PJ Kennedy the quinsey Lowa has a lot of work going on uh the Horus man which will be opening and they're very um diligently working on in Charlestown or the move for the Horus man from the old Edwards you know we have a tremendous amount of work going on in our schools and as much as we keep talking about having a facilities plan and trying to update and build new a lot of that is going on right now and I hope folks get a chance to see the new JQ it is absolutely it's even more built beautiful than baa and baa and Deerborn are stunning schools as well so we have a lot of good things going on and congrats to the PFD public facilities Department of the city and our facilities Department working so well together and I also had to join your shout out to Dr eckelson uh not only for his long work with our district but in particular and I'm sure the chair would Echo me on this how he stepped up and and was interim superintendent for a summer after we had this committee had chosen to hire you but before you were able to start because of you were closing out your role in Somerville and we appreciated how Drew was willing to do that and um wish him nothing but success with the Department of Education in Rhode Island where I'm sure he's going to be extremely busy right so thank him as well for his time with us and his work thank you thank you thank you Mr CH oh just a very quick uh request you mentioned that um there there there are 300 new uh hirings teacher hiring okay um given the expansive um um inclusion Pro uh program that we are performing right now may I have the or may we have the breakdown on on the hirings um particularly with respect to uh uh newal language programs you know teachers who are hired into newal language programs teachers who are uh multili um and also the breakdown on on on um the national origin you know the the the protected categories So-Cal of those hirings thank you thank you member TR and I I'll make note of that I know that uh we will be presenting uh from human capital the first we have the first school committee meeting in October is they run the data and they pull the data throughout September and then they roll it up and so they'll be able to break down all the hirings then uh but I will ask if there's a a glimpse that we can give for the next school committee meeting particularly on uh the bilingual component because I know that that's been uh for the committee uh definitely an emphasis and it is for us as well okay thank you Mr TR you asked my question I I too just specifically on the new hires not only because of the proposal that we're still discussing but just to have especially when it comes to the licenses right so thank you for that um excited to hear a lot of the progress in terms of you know Transportation Food Services um in terms of Food Services uh also for the folks that are at home at what what point are the families requesting the cultural um you know when we think about food when when is that happening in the process just curious Analise Analise Tanner who's the director is here and so I'd love for her to come up just I think for the committee to actually AES meet her for the first time she's done really transformational work while you walk here to the second question is how can we get some cachupa Bowl included I'm so serious but we would love to like learn a little bit what is the work that you and your team have to do in order to continue to think on adding other um uh cultural food uh just for the future just would love to learn a little bit about that we start our menu plan planning process for next school year in October okay um we get one month of school and before we begin planning next year and we have a really extensive student engagement process where our chefs go out and do Chef in the dining room at our schools once a week to get feedback from our students we also have an amazing program this year called Global student Choice day where we had students last year suggest menu items we tested those out and they vot oted on them at every school and then this year each school is going to serve the menu item that their school voted for which is a big deal in food service we always serve the same menu across the district every day and this um Global day that we're doing allow students to choose the foods that will be at their school um we also have the cafeteria managers go through the menu and give feed back they know what the kids are asking for um and would like and so we're one of the only districts that has all 109 managers give the chef feedback on the menu um and then we go through our procurement process and then we bring it back out to the students again for input and feedback um so that's how we've gotten to those seven dishes that we've added this year and the student choice and we'll continue to be taking ideas from our students and the community so that our menus really reflect our students and what they want to eat oh thank you that's great I did not know about that thank you for sharing um know other questions again just excited for the school year I'm really sad about Drew but I'm also happy for him um it's always sad to see people believe but always excited to see the opportunities are coming up for them as well uh and welcome to the team uh uh Miss Sullivan uh excited to have you here thank you chair thank you superintendent thank you mrin I didn't have any uh particular questions um other than to say um I've had limited opportunity to participate in some of the um countdown to kindergarten uh items um being that my child will be starting kindergarten um next week um so um actually I just came from a parent night so so that's why I'm late um but um I've seen some some great energy around the start of the year so I'm excited for that and um excited to see all the the students seeing their like seeing friends seeing old teachers and I think you know that energy is infectious and so um it's just good to be back around it thank you um just have one comment to make about last night's um back to school event I was on that call with the 800 plus parents which was great but again only represents a drop in the bucket of our our families and was wondering you know whether or not each and every one of our schools is having a similar kind of event for parents it was clear in a lot of what we heard that folks were happy for the opportunity but most of the comments were really more specific to their own School issues and it felt like there were just sort of a certain list of things that would be wonderful to figure out a way that all parents could access this information you know clearly given that there as I said there's so many things throughout this year that we're going to need that very positive parent connection for so how are schools thinking about getting ready as well as so so this is something that we spend a lot of time with the family leaz on and um with our principles on uh and I know Dr devaris because we actually talked about this yesterday um I think it would be good to just share like with the family Liaisons all the work that we've done around PD and meeting time for them with their principles good evening and thank you for the opportunity chair Robinson to superintendent's reminder of the a Ali session with professional development we had the opportunity to have the team of the office of family and Community advancement present to all of our principles we were really fortunate that we have had um you know the support of the academics team to really look for the connection and the importance also symbolically by having us part of ali um we pulled some the principles while there at the meeting to ask them about their plans for engaging families in their back toschool events and the majority of our schools I can report from the poll that we took absolutely have a plan to do a very robust welcoming for our families and for some of those schools that were a bit hesitant whether it's because it's a new community or a new leader and just needed some support that was the opportunity for us to be able to say hey we have some resources we can really support you and here are some of the ways in which we can just show up we're really fortunate to have such um an incredibly involved team for example the helpline they don't just answer phones here at the bowling building they actually are tagged to go and support exactly what you were asking those events to open schools and our teams go out and have man tables and provide resources for families and a lot of really Savvy School leaders really utilize the resources that we provide in order to be front-facing in front of families for us the 2.0 version of this is to continue to have high quality opportunities for families engage at school so that they feel really welcomed and feel a Bel sense of belonging at their buildings so it's always the mark that we want to hit and we're really fortunate that we get to work really closely with the academics team and Dr Chen and I really see that eye to eye that that's part of the really important work that we need to do in schools thank you there no other questions um I'll now entertain motion to receive the superintendent's report is there a motion is there a second second is there any discussion or objection to the motion is there any objection to approving the mo motion by unanimous consent hearing none the superintendent report is approved we'll now move on to General Public comment M car thank you chair the public comment period is an opportunity for parents caregivers students and other concerned parties to make brief presentations to the school committee on pertinent School issues questions on specific School matters are not answered this time but are referred to the superintendent for a later response questions on specific school policy matters are not answered at this time but may be subject of later discussion by the committee the meeting will feature two public comment periods with the first comment period limited to 1 hour priority will be given to those testifying in person time permitting the committee will then open it up for virtual testimony after one hour anyone who hasn't testified will have the opportunity to do so at the end of the meeting we have 19 speakers this evening each person will have three minutes to speak and I would remind you when you have 30 seconds remaining if your remarks are longer than three minutes please email me your comments for distribution to the committee the time that an interpreter uses for English interpretation will not be deducted from a speaker's allotted time speakers may not reassign their times to others please direct your comments to the chair and refrain from addressing individual school committee members or District staff please note the comments of any public speaker do not represent the Boston Public Schools or the Boston school committee please state your name affiliation and what neighborhood you are from before you begin we will be begin with this evening with our in-person speakers our first speakers are Gan McGuire Deedra Manning John mud and Karen Moy broek miss m Miss Jean McGuire please good evening this is quite different from the old days I'm here about the issue of repose uses for the white staum so I will read the first part and ask for comments from you from the second part the Boston students deserve a renovated white stadium and they deserve a public white Stadium not a private sports and entertainment complex built to enable private profits it is clear that this entire process is being driven by the needs of private investors not the needs of the Boston students we feel the process is being rushed the proper State reviews aren't being conducted and community members such as myself and organizations that surround this neighborhood have concerns about public access and transportation impacts that are being ignored in a mad rush to meet this soccer team's desired opening date Boston Public Schools football teams are being displaced from their home at White Stadium I drive by it says school boy Stadium because they didn't know there were girls in the schools in so I assume that the word boy assumes all students in Boston all because this women's soccer team won't allow their cleats on the grass field as far as we know there's still no complete plan for where the displaced teams will practice and play their regular season games the Stadium's design prioritizes the experience for paid socket fans over that of Boston Public School track and field Spectators cutting most of the New Stadium seats off from a view of the track it's clear that the city of Boston is planning to use the $50 million in taxpayers money it's identified for the white Stadium to develop an overbuilt goldplated professional soccer stadium rather than the quality multisport high school team stadium the Boston Public Schools deserve the total cost of this project is being driven up by luxury seating a Jumbotron beer gardens shops for team merchandise and other amenities that have nothing whatsoever to do with Boston School athletics 30 seconds yes oh all right Stadium financing experts say that a flagship High School sports stadiums can easily be built for less than 50 million and there are numerous examples of highquality school stadiums built for Les some of them going on right now in the surrounding communities of Boston Boston can afford a public renovation to White stadium that avoids all the problems of hosting a for-profit professional sports team including the impact of 11,000 fans traveling to and from the park displacing the community on dozens of warm weather days I assume thank you very much keep going no your time is up thank you I'll start thank you thank you thank you our next speaker is raning my name is deardra Manning I'm a Dorchester resident and parent of two public school students on my last testimony I identified two reasons why I was removing my younger daughter from Boston Public Schools one being the lack of change to an exclusionary exam school policy the other being that the Henderson school still did not have a leader um last week I understand that there was announcement made that Dr Wiggins was hired to be the new head of school it unfortunately was nearly three years since Mrs lamron was assaulted by a 16-year-old girl and knocked unconscious in November of 2021 there were near near daily fights in my fourth grade daughter's classes which prevented her and others from learning nearly two years later I moved my younger daughter to the Murphy when I realized that BPS administrators were not invested in improving the chaotic conditions at the Henderson her academic achievement was also impacted as shown in her map testing the Henderson was an amazing Community serving a diverse population including marginalized families of children with atypical abilities I wish Dr Wiggins the best of luck in restoring the Henderson to the special place it once was instead of improving conditions at elementary schools so that all children can be prepared to compete for opportunities at the few quality high schools in BPS administrators have allowed a construct to be put in place that excludes the majority of students who live in certain areas of the city and who attend non-title one schools from attending exam schools when I was essentially forced to remove my older daughter from the Henderson and send her to a charter school I had no idea that the move made it essentially impossible for her to earn a seat at an exam school when you look at the people who serve on the task force you don't see any members who represent students who attend non-title one schools for example all the BPS administrators and teachers were from title one elementary schools with the exception of those who participated from Bla and BLS there is no one on the committee that represented paroi schools or Charter Schools or even private schools I completely understand members advocating for people from their own communities or representing the interest of clients that they serve but I don't understand why Boston Public Schools did not look out for the interest of members of our community including public school students who are not represented on the task force public schools are meant to serve all members of the public administrators should not be putting policies in place that are meant to exclude s children 12 11 year olds from educational opportunities I find it unconscionable that I'm still talking about this situation and feel that I'm not being heard that even school children who came and talked about being excluded that their testimony didn't seem to matter I'm hopeful that two years from now when my now fifth grader hopefully has an opport Unity for an exam School seat the changes will be in place please don't let this continue thank you thank you next speakers John M good evening my name is John mud as all of you know I'm a resident of Cambridge and a longtime education advocate in Boston I'm going to try something different tonight this is my effort to identify constructive conclusions from the superintendent evaluations that could be the basis for goal setting by the school committee for the superintendent for next year at its upcoming Retreat first on multilingual Learners and native language instruction many members Express concern with multilingual Learners and the importance of native language and instruction it was mentioned in six evaluations and four recommended areas of growth the summit of evaluation States the district needs to have clear plans for ensuring multilingual Learners receive quality native language instruction uh another says is there an an an anticipated timeline for the full native language instruction across the district the problem is that the current inclusive education plan calls for assigning the vet V majority of multilingual Learners into English immersion general education classes with the SL and only a small number of ml students would go into bilingual programs with native language instruction my recommendation is hold a full discussion of multilingual learner policy with reports on the 2024 access and 2024 MK test results for MLS at low ELD levels who are already in gen with the SL if the results continue to show anything like the past 90% failure rate establish new goals for the superintendent those would be stop implementing inclusion for multilingual Learners and two establish measurable goals for the expansion of bilingual education programs providing instruction in native language secondly on equity and Equitable literacy many evaluations mention Equitable literacy but none explicitly ask for the data on how Equity among marginalized groups has been improved as required in the opportunity and achievement Gap policy and the racial Equity planning tool recommendation insist on a real equity and data analysis of Equitable literacy showing the gaps between black latino multilingual Learners special education and low-income students and demand this disaggregated analysis for all RPP reports finally it's clearly true that the improvements in student outcomes under inclusion and Equitable literacy will take time but this assumes that the strategies for literacy and bilingual Learners are correct experts have qu questions about both uh waiting for failed results from Bad policies to show up is a Fool's errand it is the moral failure of the bystander thank you for hearing me sorry I went over L next speaker is Karen Mony Ric hello really glad to be here my name is Karen Monty broek I'm the president of the emerald necklace Conservancy a nonprofit here in Boston and I'm going to use the first few seconds of my time to conclude the comments that Dr G McGuire was not able to to complete Dr G McGuire and I are both uh members of a of a a group these days called Franklin Park Defenders uh Franklin Park is our park but our community is being told to accept changes we didn't ask for and don't want this would never happen on the Boston Common it absolutely shouldn't happen in the environmental justice communities around Franklin Park if this proposal was really about helping kids if the proponents the proponents could donate their money to charity or partner with the city to invest in a public stadium with no strings attached it's not about helping kids it's about making a profit I urge the school committee to reject this privatization proposal and go back to the drawing board with a plan for a truly public renovation of white Stadium those are that's the concludes the end of Dr G McGuire's comments this uh these are my comments um again I'm Karen Monty brck president of the emerald necklace Conservancy we are a nonprofit that partners with neighborhoods and Community groups up and down the emerald necklace and the City of Boston the town of Brooklyn and DCR uh and a little bit of mass do there's a bunch of agencies um that all have important facilities for our public in and around the parks um and uh I I there serious concerns about this proposal which is effectively the 95% demolition of white Stadium the expansion a lease um and privatization of the stadium and several Acres of Franklin Park and the impacts that it has around the the uh the neighborhood I know how important this type of work is uh I myself I'm a graduate of the another Urban Public School System the Atlanta Public Schools I know all of the things that I imagine I know many of the challenges that you face um the emerald necklace Conservancy has uh been working to invest in Franklin Park and has expressed our desire numerous times to partner to find ways to to do this together as Dr Maguire has um pointed out uh and I will be providing uh in a memo that I have provided with a variety of of commissions in the past um are examples of stadiums being built amazing stadiums in the area for 30 million and less um some for 8 million uh for 6,000 students that are amazing and L that would be 100% available to the public students all of the time including the football teams um we know how we know how important it is that those things are available for our public school students all of the time and we'd love to work together to come up with a better alternative you need to know that the community was not involved in develop in this alternative this project was um brought to the community and today neighborhood groups all around the park have signed on to a statement of principal saying they want to renovate white Stadium absolutely and they're excited about the mayor's investment in your budget of $50 million towards that project how can we do that together and make a wonderful project than I want to say say that I think it's important that you know there is an ongoing lawsuit and I I want you to know that thank you thank you next speakers are C caliga Christine jur Co clar Mundo gonal and Robert Jenkins miss kigan here guys not comfortable all right first of all I am the mother of five students three are grown and attended Boston Schools and we're on our second round of kids my daughter is about to start senior year at binka my son is going to his sophomore year at Tech Boston he plays soccer and I love soccer I am also here to say first of all when we talk about food you just changed my things why uh we didn't talk about plant-based do you all know that a plant-based diet is the number one thing an individual can do against climate crisis which we are in not climate change and that leads me to say what why is the Boston school committee not going against this plan for white Stadium I grew up in Roxbury I went to concerts there growing up it is where we go to breathe people with less influence and affluence live around that Park and that is why they're doing this to that Park against people's wishes we don't need 10,000 fans traing through white to get to the stadium irreparably damaging our flora and fauna they're going to take down old growth trees 70 to 100 they're going to put a big thing there with that's an iconic Stadium which was a trust for our Boston public school children and the community use we don't need all that money for the Jumbotron and the beer garden they're going to pave green space we're in climate crisis and for our children every in of green Urban Green Space is is so important right now and that is Legacy we're going to Lo use I mean leave for our children we can fix white stadium with a lot less money without the Jumbotron the luxury boxes the beer garden we just want the stand fixed better locker rooms and a good track that's what our students need and that's what the community needs and I will fight for that if I have to chain myself to a tree they're going to cut down I am serious because this is not the Legacy That I Want from my children or their children and I expect Boston Public Schools to stand with us because you don't do that to a park in these times this is where the inner city goes to have you been there on a weekend in good weather have you seen that that's where people go to breathe and to commune with nature and to gather with their families mostly inner city people and mostly people of color okay so I really don't think they would do this down on Boston Commons or Jamaica Pond the more I live on the funky side now of Jamaica the less affluent side that's where they're doing it and my family still has a house on Waverly Street in Roxbury and so this is what they're doing to thank much your time is up thank you next speaker is Christine jurovich hello my name is Kristen jise and I live in I'm a JP resident I've been a JP resident for Wow almost 30 years um and I'm a parent of two BPS kids um and as a seasoned parent who has been to multiple fundraisers and have raised money for libraries and playing fields and playgrounds and books books and classrooms I see the effort that parents put in I want to say that I support the white Stadium project for a lot of the reasons that people oppose it one of the things that I've seen over my years is and it's not a fun topic but the maintenance of things after we raise money and get these new fields or facilities put in they deteriorate and I mean no offense to the city of Boston or the public schools you have to make difficult decisions but budgets get cut and things do not get maintained and having an outside public private tenant in there will help ensure that the facility remains useful I mean look at it right now it's because of that lack of investment that we're in the state we're in right now and I know there are different people who feel that you know we could do this on our own I've been here for 30 years this has been a conversation that has been going on for at least that long and there have been different initiatives also with private money that has tried to push it through mayor minino did but nothing is happening the fact that it's a a women's soccer team coming in means so much to so many athletes in this city and I too I have soccer players and track runners and lacrosse players so I've been in every field in this city and around the state so I I think it will add value to all the athletic teams in the city and I just want to say thank you thank you very much next speaker is clar Mundo Gonzales and we are having an interpreter Mario then uh inter Mario Mario you are um are you online uh yes I am online just a second we're we're getting your interpreter uh Mar are you there I am can you hear me hello can you hear me I can assist this translation that helps all right I can assist with the translation if that helps but good evening everyone [Music] uh he started school in Ocean Garden he arrived to the country November 2018 and he started at oan Gardens in December of 201 in the three months that he was at the school he um suffers from abuse at the [Music] school uh after the abuse and during the abuse he began wedding himself at school then he resorted to compartmentalizing his violence and and exhibiting violence behavior and he had to be um uh serviced and brought to B Medical Center for services and uh representative at Boston Medical Center um alleged that he was being a victim of violence at home which was not true so they U referred um the case to DCF and DCF did investigate the situation but did not find anything or any fault at home [Music] um after DCF was notified they did investigation at his home three days later and they verified that nothing was happening at home on April 26 2018 K Verdian staff woman contacted he's the primary contact for the school so they contacted him to come up to the [Music] school so uh they contacted his sister to let him know that they um had to come pick him up from school because he wasn't he was disregulated and needed some support he uh usually gets on the bus at 2:20 but he did not uh uh they not get a call till about three o'clock 40 minutes was just too long a time to keep his son at the school without notifying anyone in the family so his aunt um was waiting for him the bus stop and uh she waited and all the um everyone got off the bus and his son wasn't there so she went to the school to pick him up yeah so she at the school he was disregulated um having a violent outburst and his aunt suggested to the school that it wasn't good to keep him at the school and send him home better off that he went to the hospital 30 seconds yeah basically he said that um when he went when he when they spoke to him at the hospital um he explained how the security officer the School grabbed him by the hand put him in a room um allegedly put his knee in his uh body and chest and didn't allow him to breathe and he suffered um suffocated a little bit and um he said when he woke up um from the incident he's witnessed the school resource officer with his knee in his chest um and since then he's been um disregulated um a bed wedding wedding himself and have violent up um [Music] um he's uh he's saying that um the boss Public Schools is aware of the incident what's going on and um all this time later that the uh staff members the school no longer there he has a lot of video um picture proof of the incident that occurred and um his son repeatedly uh has suicidal ideations um because he's suffering from what happen and he's still um weding the bed and and have VI and he have uh dreams and reoccurring dreams of him um engaged in fighting Behavior with the officer and reliving that moment thank you he's just looking for some justice thank you very much next speaker is Robert Jenkins good evening everyone uh my name is Robert Jenkins I'm we're a different hat today but I want to say one small thing about Madison Park superintendent you were there last week for freshman orientation week I just sent you uh email in regards to your team the community advancement team uh both uh Capital planning team city of Boston and uh the school department and a lot of um other partners in in uh giving a presentation to 80 parents I've been there 10 years the last four years of uh you know the freshman orientation was one of the best so definitely uh as it was in the right direction I the Hat I'm wearing tonight is I'm iag member for white Stadium pointed by the mayor's office and I was appointed there to give my objectivity on the white Stadium project I am for the white Stadium project as you know I'm a sports official for basketball which I've already had some scrimmages I have a scrimmage this week at Tech Boston uh so I know um the fields I know people's concerns but uh Boston Latin and Latin Academy have homes and they will be all right but in the matter of that is that it's most important that white Stadium get renovated because I scored my first ever touchdown in Madison Park history at White Stadium my friends and I used to sneak in white Stadium when we lived in Roxberry so white stadium is very near and dear to me I also work for the Parks and Recreation Department as a regional administrator SL Community uh engagement person for white stadium so I know the political landscape and I know the whole thing about white stadium and Franklin Park white stadium is a very I mean I me Franklin Park as itself and white stadium is different from the commons and different from uh you know uh Central Park because in the close proximity where people live at on Hutchin Street and all the surrounding streets people use their cars to go to Elma Lewis to go to the park sometimes to walk to the park I know that landscape definitely is going to be a problem with traffic and transportation but again there are a number of iag members like myself there's 20 of us we're working with City officials we're working with City departments does work have to be done yes but that Stadium needs to be renovated for over 30 plus years one side of the stadium has never been uh renovated we used to play four games there you know four high schools used to play games there and I would know about doing it now but you know we could with security and stuff but anyway what a lot of people need to know a lot of kids are not playing football as a them can tell you the numbers are going low on football they're combining schools so where they're combining schools that don't have football or have those enough students to play it very imperative that we fix white Stadium thank you thank you we will now transition to Virtual testimonies please make sure you're signed in to zoom with the same name you Ed to sign up for public comment and be prepared to unmute yourself and turn on your camera when it's your turn to testify please raise your virtual hand when I call your name our first group of speakers are Alexandra Oliver Davila Mike hman Edith Bazil and dor Dorothy fenel Miss Oliver dava hello sorry about that uh good evening school committee hear you can you hear me yes no thank you okay sorry about that I couldn't get on um good evening superintendent good evening school committee members my name is Alexandra Oliver dula and I'm the executive director of soci Latina which is an out of school time Youth Development organization located in Roxberry and I'm a resident of Rosendale at soan Latina we have been concerned about cell phone use among teens for some time we've seen the negative impacts of too much screen time the harms of social media including unhealthy comparison misinformation racism self harm and cyber bullying the rise of social media and big Tech algorithm addictive design has had serious impacts on youth wellness and mental health teenagers are more today than at any other time in our history we also see how the lack of sleep from Nighttime cell phone use is hurting young people including decreased academic success as well as depression kudos to BPS for having a no cell phone policy that is a great start when we surveyed youth from soan Latina they shared that although they are aware there is a policy there is inconsistency in its implementation this summer so Latina implemented a new policy where youth had to put their phones away in a locked cell phone cabinet we worked with families to ask them for their support in planning ahead with their team we assured them we would always have someone answering our main line in case they needed to get in touch with their team and we also assured youth that they would be able to contact their family should they need to we had a wonderful summer we also worked on teaching youth about the algorithm and how it works to get them addicted and how big Tech is targeting young people harvesting and selling their information we also talked about the positives of social media digital life is not going to go away and it is not all bad at soci Latina we believe that we need to support youth through education and helping them to come to their own conclusion and take agency over how they experience and youth social media and Technology we have been focused on supporting you to be digitally responsible and digitally well I know BPS has several schools who have piloted the Yonder pouch and have seen some great results I think that is an option to seriously consider are adopting across all schools however it is not enough I'm advocating for BPS to make a deep Financial investment for more education during the school day on the positives and negatives of living in a digital world as well as Tech ethics we are no longer living in a digital divide a device divide but rather a knowledge divide where youth of color are being left behind and we will have serious negative consequences in their future career options BPS shouldn't be fully responsible for tackling this issue parents and Guardians you need to look at your own Tech use it's addictive for all of us not just young people and you need to role model what you want to see I also encourage families not to get a phone until 8th grade uh BPS the time to act is now thank you very much thank you thank you next speaker is Mike hman my kishman dochester beaser A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens it was the best of times it was the worst of times it was the age of wisdom it was the age of foolishness it was the season of light it was the season of Darkness it was the spring of hope it was the winter of dispar we had everything before us we had nothing before us there are two evalu of Miss Skipper one a self evaluation by the superintendent and by our unelected school committee and by an Uninvited beasa who conducted its own survey of RA membership and what do we have a tale of two school systems at our last meeting Mr cardet Hernandez asked his qu colleagues an excellent question why is his evaluation so Divergent from the rest of his colleagues he was the only member who was C highly critical of the superintendent my question why am Miss Skipper self evaluation and the school committee's evaluation so different from bash's Community evalu evaluation to quickly summarize except for Mr cardet Hernandez the school committee agrees with Miss Skipper that you are doing a very good job and deserve a nice pay raise while Bea's Community evaluation concluded cludes that you have failed our children my own conclusion strongly confirmed by Bea's Community evaluation is that we need an elected school committee and a new superintendent my two most important reasons one you have aggressively increased racism and inequities a few examples from the very beginning of your misleadership you fired black and brown central office workers and replaced them with those loyal to you Dr Charles granson the chief Equity officer wrote you a letter expressing concern about the mistreatment of black and brown central office workers you fired him when Dr cilus was our CEO and under the leadership of Dr granson Community Equity roundtables discussions were held on a regular Bas basis discuss how different parts of the system would benefit from with an equity analysis these meetings were excellent under your miss leadership C died you have failed to use the racial Equity tool to evaluate the effects of closed policies without prior Community involvement and without using the racial Equity tool you and the mayor aggressively attempted to move the O'Brien from the heart of the African-American Community to white r rockbury two the spread of a toxic culture which began at the very beginning of your regime and recently described in great detail by the release of silence speaks 100 plus voices beyond the trauma thank you very much I'll send in my yes thank you next speaker is e pil good evening a time of fiscal abundance shows one's character and Leadership when you take care of the most vulnerable you take care of everyone despite a watershed of multiple sources of funding this Administration showed a scarcity mindset lacking vision and Innovation for student Improvement no prog made no audit showing why McKinley schools comprised primarily of black students are required to provide a hub of wraparound therapeutic support for chronic AB absenteeism hover is around 80% and 2third of its population dropped from enrollment leaving most classrooms empty McKinley schools provide no sense of worth meaning purpose belonging dignity or opportunities for black youth advancement relying instead on metal detectors random searches cameras seclusion timeout rooms physical restraints and safety offices Federal data shows current suicide rate of black youth ages 10 to 19 increased by 54% compared to a 177% decline for white youth suicide rates for black youth are increasing faster than any other racial or ethnic group The District named McKinley after a legendary civil rights leader but ignored constant pleas to address the mental health and restorative justice needs of its students staying silent makes this com this committee complicit in exacerbating McKinley students trauma instead of investing in their future this school committee and superintendent perpetuate the pattern of clustering black students into chronically underperforming underfunded underresourced failing schools the superintendent's evaluation process Dodges Community engagement by holding this process for the first time in the summer when no one is watching and now under the watchful eye of the mayor's office guiding this process why is that seven school committee members very Divergent ratings were average in what appears to be a Liker scale a Liker scale measures subjective opinions rather than employing datadriven criteria rating a superintendent proficient with zero Improvement in student outcomes at a time of abundant funding shows a lack of focus on our children specifically black students make it make sense thank you thank you very much our next group of speakers are Dorothy fenel Maria gimenez Ted Losa and Fran Harrington Dorothy panel can you hear me yes we can hear you uh my name is Dorothy fennel I live dark play cross from the main entrance to White Stadium I'm a mom to three BPS girls K1 through sixth grade they're all very excited for the first day of school uh I'm also looking forward to all of their High School graduations in a redeveloped white Stadium I'm very impacted by this project I'm also very excited by this project but more important from my excitement I think that the school committee has a vested interest in supporting the stadium Redevelopment uh I believe in the power of government to enrich constituents lives I know that as a committee you provide more than just education you're wraparound care for families at all levels of the spectrum of needing Services um I am thankful that there is a institution in our government in the city that is making sure that our children have social services and housing and three meals a day so thank you for providing those to the BPS kids um as a tax payer a taxpayer a property owner and a mom I'm looking out for all the BPS kids and I want you to use my tax money in a way that doesn't have to pick one of the many services that you provide over another I want you to be creative and looking for ways to leverage public private Partnerships to advance the services that you provide to the the city um as a transportation planner uh which is what I I do um I think the key here is that to me white stadium is more than just an asset Redevelopment and a park Improvement I see it actually as a catalyst for um for rethinking mobility in my section of the city I think that um this is a part of the city that has been historically overlooked uh when it comes to Opportunities and that my neighbors have been given no other option but to drive and I think that this focus on a larger car light access for larger events be it for the stadium um for soccer I think what you're actually enabling is solving Transportation challenges uh where crash scks are high and it's very dangerous to be on bike or on foot and I think the focus here is that the folks who are on bike that are on foot are the folks who can't drive and that's my b as kids and that's all their classmates uh I think what's what's really interesting about this project is that I myself have a a two two parent working family and it's a struggle with the stability that we have even to get our kids to all the activities that they need to get to when I look at the white Stadium project what I see is they're going to be an urgency in making sure there thank you our next speaker um Maria gimenez and Ted L are not here so we will go with Fred Harrington with sorry with FR ran Harrington hi there can you hear me yes we can hear you awesome thank you uh hello good evening everyone uh I'm going to keep this very short um my name is Fran Harrington I'm a BPS alumnist I'm from the bla class of 2002 I'm also a 20 plus year resident of jamaic plan and I just want to voice my support for the white Stadium renovation proposal uh I believe that the student athletes in DPS deserve a world class stadium and think this current proposal uh is the mostro the chance that we have to accomplish it at least four years that uh that I've been part of uh this so I I would like to uh turn over the rest of my time thank you all I'll Havey night thank you very much our next speakers are Sarah Freeman Ruby Reyes Sky Ortiz and Tony D Roa Sarah Freeman is not in the meeting Ruby Reyes good afternoon my name is Ruby Rees and I'm the executive director of the Boston education Justice Alliance and a Dorchester resident in June 2024 the Bea Community organized a people's evaluation of superintendent Mary Skipper we plan to carry out this process annually to incorporate authentic Community engagement practices close to 400 detailed and lengthy cont comments were included in this survey here are some of those voices the intentional push out of black and brown leaders have left a void in the district the superintendent pushes a white- centered narrative and has erased the voices and input of black people her racism is codified in the policies that accelerate opportunity gaps the elimination of working groups and task force task forces is the opposite of involving stakeholders when families have requested meetings with District officials above Regional superintendent they have been dismissed out of hand referred to District staff who do not respond to phone calls or emails and who will not schedule meetings family concerns about facility School climate and school and Regional leadership and more have gone ignored or Worse treated with dismissive content the superintendent would rather spend the people's budget line the pockets of publishing companies for a silver bullet solution then put time and money into the real solution higher enough qualified staff to effectively support students with all types of needs and give them enough time to do so one of the most significant concerns in a CL complaints about the superintendent is the absence of data in her reports it becomes challenging to assess what is truly happening when information is not based on upto-date collection or when certain data points are deliberately omitted potentially obscuring supporting evidence for the information being presented working under this in superintendent feels toxic the stress levels are high and morale is low the toxic environment affects mental health leading to burnout anxiety and even physical health issues staff members who once loved their jobs now dread coming to work the superintendent needs to commit resources to restorative justice in all schools done effectively so that students who cause harm including bullying are help accountable for their actions and given the opportunity to make things as right as possible superintendent Skipper actively suppresses dissenting voices she dismisses concerns avoids engaging and meaningful dialogue and often resorts to condescension parents who advocate for their children's needs find themselves ignored or brushed aside teachers who raise valid points are met with defensiveness teacher turnover is high and BPS is unwilling to recognize their role in turnover teachers do not want to work in these conditions and with no support many teachers are doing the job of multiple teachers it is in Equitable for adults and students those are just some of the quotes um and it's just really disheartening that our school committee um isn't reaching out and having a community engagement process for parents students and Educators next speaker is Scott your tee by your teeth please unmute yourself and turn on the camera hello can you hear me yeah we can hear you okay so first I want to thank you Mary skipper for your beautiful speech earlier next I want to thank the Boston school committee for this public common opportunity um my name is Sky Ortiz and I'm the parent to three students at the Russell Elementary School in Dorchester the rayan and giaan and then public comment includes the following four recommendations the first recommendation is that all schools should be directed by the district to dignify the concept of a mission statement and unduly promote their own definite mission statement that will further stand as the emblematic Insignia of the school's educational purpose that is exclusive but pronounced of a prevailing transmission that mirors the district's mission statement at the universal level the second recommendation is for the urgency of a rapid revision of the Boston Public Schools code of conduct amended with the incorporation of an additional section to the pre-existing 144 entitled students for the Department of Children and Families these students are perceivably the most vulnerable population even over those with disabilities in advancement due to Prior um priorities of protective risk there's a d need for targeted support for the small group of students in order to stop and prevent any infringement of these students rights by in in relations to Boston public schools and to provide a life to be lived quality education and experience the third recommendation is a revision to the attendance and policy um attendance and punctuality policy that includes a statement of the recognition um and required advising to each student to be respected and treated as the sovereign individual that they are and that they are only confined unless otherwise to the construction of a learning system with the Dy DC of a realistic educational worldview open source system structured by a student- success based performance model approach and my last um recommendation the fourth recommendation is for the employment of an organization employee performance Overview at every Elementary School which includes a reassessment of all staff understanding of the Boston Public Schools district Visions goals policies and procedur procures along with required singular monitoring periods to review staff ability to fulfill their role by aspects including but not limited to conduct and obain progress 30 seconds plus and lastly the implementation of live streaming audio for all communic School communication interactions and all forms of correspondences such as all school grounds classrooms meetings telephones and web active monitoring management to positively impact and deplete further discrimination and marginalization that may limit students with the Department of Children and Families but also expand all students to be enrolled in an inclusive diverse public education system thank you next speaker is Tony D Roa oh yes good evening my name is Tony derocha recently retired BPS teacher and Coach I'm just um in favor of white Stadium renovation I was a student at Boston Tech and I ran tracking cross country there and I've been a coach uh BPS for many years as well as college level and Youth Level again I understand the importance of keeping the stadium as a public entity but I also been involved in many public private Partnerships and how they can work together the key is to make sure that we have everything in writing to the community can see the benefits for both but we also know that the city the size of Boston many times what we say we're going to do doesn't really happen so it's important that when we have an opportunity to get funding from private organizations as well as a public organizations to make sure that we utilize it correctly to benefit we have a worldclass cross country course but we have a stadium in a track that is one of the worst in the state nobody wants to come here and compete against Boston public schools because we have lousy facilities we have an opportunity to have a world class facility that our students deserve but most importantly also having access for our community members I remember as a student sneaking into the stadium to Al just to train because it was closed but with this new stadium and the option to have it open till 10 pm but the community ed that's going to be a benefit yes would I like to see it stay public yes will it stay public yes but there are many benefits we have to look at the benefits and to make sure they outweigh the negatives so again my support for wife Stadium renovation thank you thank you very much chair that concludes our public comment great thank you thank you Miss parix and thank you to all of those who spoke with us this evening and shared your perspectives your testimony is very important to us our first action item this evening is the grants for approval totaling 4,565 422 is um we've made an adjustment to the grants tonight so the very first two that are on the list are not going to be um taken into consideration this evening I'd like now I'd like to turn it over to the superintendant for any comments great thank you chair we'll revisit those at a later date uh you see um you know as you'd expect at the end toward the end of the summer uh a large amount of Grants to go in support of our work uh you see everything here from those that will support health and wellness uh playground projects there's one on cyber security one on jrtc uh these are just you know really uh all of the things that uh are supporting programming that's getting up and running for the fall some fall into the bucket of U maintenance so they're being re-upped uh and they were previous grants and then there's others uh that are new so I think you'll see the details in the grant packet uh and there are people here from respective departments to answer any questions that uh you may have thank you I'll now open it up to questions and comments from the committee Mr TR just just a very short question the English for new bostonians $30,000 Mr can you speak on the oh sorry I thought I have this but anyway right um yeah again the the English for new bostonians the $30,000 it looks small but um it's just a quick question where is that going to be distributed or or directed to they they currently uh thank you m Tran they have they currently have sites so this is one of those grants that allows us to continue they uh Winship is like a good example in the Brighton aluson area that they do so this is a annual grant that we typically uh get with them thank you welcome any other questions no Madam chair he just superintendent I'm delighted to see three um playground fundings all coming from the community preservation act so it's nice to see that the group that you know oversees that funding is putting it back into three three playgrounds three different schools three different parts of the city love to see that yeah we really appreciate their support okay all right if there's no further discussion I'll now entertain a motion to approve the grants as presented is there a motion so thank you is there a second is there any discussion or objection to the motion is there any objection to approving the grants by unanimous consent hearing none the grants are approved our second action item this evening is the approval of in kind donations with a total estimated value of $65,900 I'll now invite the superintendent to offer any final comments uh wonderful I see Tony beatric in the in the crowd as well but um you know this is the Lang Lang Foundation is always been great support to us uh this is uh in support of uh many of our music programs and so uh we would strongly encourage the support of the school committee uh in in thanking and receiving this in kind thank thank you and now open it up to questions and comments from the committee I love this yeah I'm sorry us it's great thank you right hearing none I'll now entertain a motion to approve the in kind donations as presented is there a motion so move thank you is there a second is there any discussion objection to the motion is there any objection to approving the in-kind donations by unanimous consent hearing none the ink kind donations are approved as presented thank you thank you our third action item this evening is the approval of the Massachusetts Association of school committees Ms annual membership dues of 8,635 now I'd like to turn it over to the superintendent for any final comments uh this is just your normal member dues so we would encourage you to uh to vote for it so that we can continue to be a part of masc great thank you and now we open it up to questions and comments from the committee okay Madam chair may I just um say I want to thank the mass associations the school committee because they actually provide training for all of us yeah as we join ongoing training and particular their executive director Glenn coocher who is always on speed dial every chair of this committee for um open open meeting law guidance um all sorts of other training and guidance best practices of school committees across the state um so uh particular thanks to the executive director um Len coocher who is extraordinarily helpful to all of us absolutely just because I wasn't here when yall voted on this last year sh so is this something that we vote every year for the school start okay and is this the only Association uh that we're a part of that has some sort of membership sure City SCH Council grade City Schools okay that's the other one okay thank you y great I'll now entertain a motion to approve the Massachusetts Association of school committee's annual membership dues as presented is there a is there a motion so moves thank you is there a second is there any discussion or objection to the motion is there any objection to approving the motion by unanimous consent hearing none the motion is approved as presented thank you our our final action item this evening is the superintendent summited performance evaluation and rating for school year 2023 24 as you may remember from our previous meeting Dr Alin shared the committee's final evaluation of superintendent Skippers performance resulting in an overall rating of proficient I am thankful to Dr alkins and Mr O for guiding The crucial process I also want to extend my thanks to all members for their individual valuable individual feedback which I know the superintendent or team have studied closely and will use to guide our work moving forward now I'd like to invite the superintendent to provide any final remarks great thank you chair and so uh just to thank you Vice chair Dr alkins and and all of the committee members for your work on the evaluation I know it's very timec consuming and it's important because it gives critical feedback to myself and to our team about what we need to be focusing on and doing better uh but also recognizing the you know the progress and the work that the the teams have been doing um I'm I'm really looking forward to the fall Retreat when we can talk about our goals and the resetting of our goals I think that will be very much very informative for us to all calibrate and uh know what our work is for the the coming months so uh just thank you very much I continue to be very excited and very humble to be in the position that I am here um it is uh it is one I take with the the utmost um just the utmost energy and every single day I wake up to do my best here and to ask of our team to do the best here for every single student in our district and to especially for our students that we regularly you know talk about our black and brown students our special education our multilingual learner with and without disability who historically in the BPS that has not been the case for and so we will continue with that same energy and focus as we enter year three of my superintendency to continue to make progress take feedback and become a continuous improver thank you thank you I'll now open it up to questions and comments from the committee sure I would like to jum in first thank you thank you for for your Indulgence first of all I I would very much like to express my admiration and heartfelt gratitude to Dr alkins and vice chair Mike oil for the uh submission of of our evaluations you did such a professional job I wish I I have that kind of a skill to do to do the same thing but you know I I do I do see the value of of your uh submission um the important thing here is that I've read all of uh each in individual members uh evaluation of the superintendent throughout my my uh throughout my my my work life I have uh I have performed a myriad of uh evaluation performance evaluations of staff and and and of uh candidates stuff like that and I understand the uh the the different viewpoints and the different um suggestions different ideas different Visions each evaluator bring to the to the process um a as as a group we are all looking at the same set of data the same set of uh parameters and we are evaluating out um based on the same set of uh uh goals but then we come up with different um ratings um where uh that tells how much objective objectivity and subjectivity that we bring to the uh to the process there is no way that we will ever be in in concert with each other on on on the process I myself personally I like to State for the record um I've been I I I I do understand the public process the So-Cal public uh performance evaluation that that we heard a couple of days ago even today but I I I I I will say here um um my support for the uh superintendent will remain strong regardless of how we are perceived um as a public uh body where we are uh appointed or or soall unelected but um the work that I have seen subjectively based on the same set of matters objectively based on the same set of here I am expressing myself again the support is there and the support will stay until I see otherwise thank you comments the comments again I just want to say to you superintendent um thank you very much for I know the very hard work that um you've done and as Mr Tron says um when you're trying to serve this many people there will always be many different responses to what works and what isn't working I think the most important thing is to acknowledge that that um we have a lot of great needs but um striving to try to meet them all and improve in those areas where we are falling short it's critical and I thank you for your commitment um to doing that um and um look forward to the retreat in the fall because I think we all have some work to do now as you enter into year three um to look both at how we work together um what our goals are and to look at ways that we can make sure that we are hearing from the vast diversity of our student body parents community so that um we can look at how all of those voices can be um part of what we are attempting to do next on behalf of the students of Boston but again thank you and again thank you to both both you um Dr alkins and Mr O'Neal for um taking us through this process and we will continue in the wall okay so there if there's nothing um further I'll now entertain a motion to approve the superintendent's school year 2023 2024 Summit of performance evaluation as presented and provide the superintendent with the final overall performance writing of proficient is there a motion is there a second second is there any discussion or objection to the motion Miss Prix will you please call the role yes thank you Dr alkins yes M um Miss Lima Barbosa yes Mr Tran yes Mr O'Neil yes and Miss Robinson yes it's passed unanimously thank you thank you Miss Prix and thank you again superintendent for your steadfast dedication to BPS the committee looks forward to working together with you and your team to make this a great year for all of our students uh now we'll move on to reports Madam chair I'm sorry just point of information if that's okay just because since we took this vote I think it's important for us to State publicly that under the superintendent's contract she's now eligible and will receive a 2.5% salary increase I just think it's important we say that out publicly but that was contingent upon receiving at least a provision rating so that is all laid out in her contract yes so just wanted to I felt it's important to say that publicly after the vote all of us also receive right certainly anyway we'll now move on to reports our first presentation this evening is a policy revision recommendations I'll now invite Deputy superintendent of operations Dr Sam deina to please step forward with this presentation while he's getting settled I'd like to invite the superintendent to give some opening remarks wonderful thank you chair um so tonight we're making recommendations for revisions of two school committee policies the student information policy and the school naming policy we're submitting these changes to the school committee for your review and consideration for a future vote these revisions are part of our regular review of policies to ensure that we're consistent with current laws and District practice and we expect that this year we will be bringing additional proposed updates to the committee monthly or as needed going forward on September 16th 2020 this body voted to approve the student information policy the policy was developed during the summer of 2020 by a superintendent's working group consisting of 15 internal and external members on December 31st of 2020 the Massachusetts legislature approved the police reform law following the passage of the legisl the student information policy needed to be updated to be in compliance with the new law Dr deino will present the proposed revisions in more detail but I do want to make clear that these revisions do not change the information that we are required to report to BPD so again these changes do not change any information that were required to report to BPD it actually however reduces the information sh Ed between BPS and BPD because BPS staff are no longer permitted to write reports that are stored in the BPD database these revisions ensure our policy reflects the updated legislation the city of Boston also recently updated its policy on the naming of public buildings we're proposing these policy revisions so that the school committee's policy passed in 1998 aligns with the city's policy the Provisions also clarify the engagement process and delineate naming decisions that require a school committee vote and decisions that can be approved by the superintendent Deputy superintendent of operations Sam DEA has been working on this for long time uh so he's going to be here tonight to answer any questions relative to either of the policy recommendations thank you Dr T thank you superintendent good evening Madam chair members of the school committee and members of the public joining us this this evening this evening uh we bring forward two revision um policy revision recommendations the first is the policy regarding preparing and sharing student incident reports and other student information with Boston police and the second is a school naming policy as REM reminder these revisions are part of our regular view um of policies to ensure they are up to date with current realities the student um as superintendent mentioned the student information policy was developed on summer of 2020 and approved by this Committee in September of 2022 I'm sorry 2020 the objective of the policy at the time was to ensure students are safe in school and at school related activities while also reducing the number of police reports that are written for school related incidents that may instead be addressed by the code of conduct and to ensure that protective student information is not shared through a police report the policy outlines procedures related incident reporting and information sharing between Boston public schools and BPD the recommended policy revisions we bring before you this evening are made to bring this policy in compliance with the Massachusetts general laws act relative to equity Justice and accountability and law enforcement commonly referred to as the police Reform Bill which took effect July 1 July 1st 20121 under the police Reform Bill the type of incidents that have been and will continue to be required by law to report to the BPD have not changed the superintendent mentioned however Boston the office of safety service employees can no longer write reports that are stored within Boston Police Department this slide highlights the proposed revisions based on the updated legislations most importantly it eliminates language referring to Boston school police officers and clarifies that BP staff are no longer allowed to write Boston police incident reports it also documents that what the what the what the incident report writing expectations are for the office of safety service staff and indicates what may or may not be included in an incident log the policy revision also outlines an updated process for notifying families following an incident it's important to note that following any type of incident school-based staff and central office staff will continue to provide support to students and families supports will be done through our multi-tiered systems of support that are in place through social emotional learning Counseling Services mentoring Services as well as individual support from our school psychologist family lisons and Community connectors who will work closely with families in the community after school hours the original policy called for a working group to convene regularly to review data regarding the reports filed with BPD and one's internal to Boston Public Schools due to the change in law BBS employees are no longer uh no longer have special police powers to write Boston police reports as a district we have also decided to Cease the writing of our internal reports known as ssr1 as a result of these changes we recommend the removal of this working group oversight a working group may be reconvened in the future to revisit the policy should State legislation change second policy revision uh recommended is for uh superintendent circular number four which covers our policy around uh School naming and procedures this policy was last voted on um by the school committee on September 16th 1998 just to put into context very long time ago in recent years we've seen an increase in school communities requesting name changes to schools and spaces as indicated on the slide the policy revision presented this evening aligns with the city of Boston's updated police um policy on naming buildings and differentiates between naming a school naming a physical space within the building um and naming a physical a building the proposed Visions include how the naming of a physical building needs to be in compliance with the city's policy for naming municipal buildings how the naming of a school Community needs approval from this school committee the naming of a space within a building can be approved by the superintendent indor design and does not require school committee approval the revised policy also clarifies the engagement process required prior to bring a propos name change to the school committee or superintendent thank you for allowing me the time to outline these two policy recommendations and I'll turn it over to you uh for questions yeah thank you Dr deina and thank you to your entire team for this work these critical on these critical issues I'll now open it up to the committee for questions and comments go ahead uh can you clarify what was the thought process unless it's just following what the city of Boston's um rules are that we're trying to align in terms of the name of special rooms like why is the not the Committees not well what why are we proposing that the super the school committee does not vote on that um great question um so the reason why we're proposing that is because um a lot of schools uh like to name spaces things in schools such as Auditorium chairs outdoor spaces um rooms um gymnasiums and uh a lot of libraries even and we're seeing more and more schools wanting to do that to reflect more current realities and more um historical context if you will as well or name them M for people that work for Boston public schools in the past so we've getting so many of these requests and the process for doing those are very um lengthy and thorough and um it takes a lot of time to one do those procedures and two for T you all come and here a lot of those takes a up a lot of valuable time that we have and it it does compete with other priorities we have in the district and sometimes it's hard to get these on the calendar so we felt that it was appropriate that the superintendent um has that ability to just focus on those namings but the bigger namings of buildings and spaces should comply with the city policies as well as um school committee um approval is there still some sort of community engagement prior of the okay yes the policy around like how they uh the proposal come forward is the same um but the vote the the authorization is just a little different okay for the last point you say uh you're proposing clarification of the engagement proces required prior to bringing a proposed name change to the school committee or superintendent so you're saying that that you all will come to us in the superintendent to explain us what the community process will be before actually giving us the The Proposal is that the the the draft language is in the draft propos that you have in your folders so it's there about that okay thank you you're welcome me again I'm I'm referring to page four of the student information policy I understand that the um BP Safety Services employees now do not have the uh whatever that kind of power is um and I do also understand that the Boston police department will have the sole responsibility as well as um you know the the discretion in bringing charges against uh uh a student yes that's correct despite the fact that uh the BPS service employees may have some other information that that may that may be in opposition of that is there a a process say restorative justice included a process that that would somehow we can interject or the BPS Employee Service employee can interject or can somehow influence the BPD decision in bringing charges against a student just based on a certain same same set of I I've seen different interpretation of different Personnel even among lawyers you know regarding an incident whether it is whether it is uh something that can be that is indictable or is not which right here I'm reading this looks like you know everything rest with the the uh the police despite the fact that students are during that those hours are within our our our our control sure so um my response is going to be a balance one because yes there's an opportunity and mechanism for our school staff and our safety Specialists uh to Advocate on behalf of students depending on the gravity of the incident however depending on the level of the incident um for example if a weapon is found or a firearm is recovered um clearly um we have to just let go and let police dictate what happens there for the more minor infractions there is a dialogue that occurs between our staff and Boston police um that he try to defer a students to more restive practices handle those infractions through the code of conduct and then provide supports through multi assist support mentoring counseling and those pieces so there is an opportunity to engage with BPD and you know they have the final decision but we do have a voice in what happens as well to an extent thank you you even though I I do not see much of a support for the students I'm I'm you I'm still F flastic at how police departments are dealing with students issues I've seen a lot I I'll give you an example well marijuana was once um a for a forbidden type of uh control substance but let's say if a student has some some of that a little of that in his or her backpack is that subject to police uh or BPD service employees uh requiring of of disclosure that that contrary to the practice some had already been in that way yeah marijuana has been decriminalized um so so what happens now is that there's there's um just uh referral to our substance abuse um uh programs has counseling with the students about their use and trying to redirect them from that but it's nothing criminal that the Boston police would um would uh would finalize students for so what what uh I'm sorry to take a little time but you know this this is the area that I strongly have a heart in given the fact that I may be doing something regarding that [Music] um uh how much of a weight can the process of uh restorative uh justice including mediation uh arbitration whatever what not we have there that would influence the uh police decision it's hard to say um because we we can just recommend um what we believe is fair on behalf of the students and our schools and our school based staff and Central staff do advocate for students um to the extent we can um because clearly we do not want to criminalize our students we don't want to um get our students in the school to pris pipeline we're very cognizant of that and a lot of our policy changes that we made over the years do reflect that however the decision um whether to move forward to prosecute or not does unfortunately lie in the hands of Boston police um but we do advoca and speak up for our students especially when we know that they can benefit from being redirected from the from the school of prison pipeline I see thank you thank you there other question no other questions all right thank you the committee looks forward to taking action on this recommendation after the September 11th meeting thank you thank you Dr de our second and final report this evening is a presentation on the white Stadium renovation and Lease authorization I'll now invite chief of operations Dion Irish and senior director of Athletics Avery esale to please step forward with their presentation while Mr Irish and Mr esale are getting settled I'd like to invite the superintendent to give opening remarks thank you chair so tonight excuse me tonight PBS in the city are here to provide a brief update on white stadium and ask the school committee to grant me the off authorization to enter into a lease agreement with a partner Boston Unity soccer for the renovation of white Stadium the finalization of the lease agreement will allow the city's public facilities Department to move forward with the Demolition of part of the existing Stadium this fall as you know the stadium is still in active use despite its current state of disrepair it is inaccessible and lacks adequate locker rooms restrooms and indoor spaces the field and track need replacement our students deserve much better the new white Stadium will provide an outstanding home for BPS Athletics the new community space strength training locker rooms Physical Therapy spaces will be a resource for all student athletes in partnership with the city and Boston Unity soccer our goal is to renovate white Stadium into a modern multi-service Athletic Complex for our schools and a larger Community white stadium is vital part of our larger strategy to enhancing athletic programs Citywide I'm going to now turn it over to the city's chief of operations Dion Irish and BPS senior director of Athletics AR asdale and they'll provide a brief update on the status of the project the community engagement process and the proposal before the committee tonight thank you superintendent good evening chair Robinson and other esteemed members of the school committee as was said before my name is Deion Irish chief of operations for the city of Boston and I've lived on both sides of Franklin Park and white stadium for most of my life um so very happy to be here tonight we'll try to be efficient but thorough with this presentation today in partnership with BPS Athletics and the mayor's office we are excited to present the transformative proposal for the renovation of white Stadium envisioning it as a pre Premier athletic hub for BPS students over the past two years I've been closely involved in the development of this project and I'm thrilled to share our plans for revitalizing white Stadium through a generational investment in BPS Athletics today we'll discuss the merits of the project and the partnership model that we're proposing the extensive Community engagement efforts and the next steps in our planning process our vision is for white Stadium to be more than just a sports facility we see it as a vibrant hub for athletic experience Community Gatherings and cultural events renovating white stadium is not a new idea and this was mentioned earlier previous had administrations have tried for decades but were stamed by the scale of the investment needed and different visions of the Stadium's F future and most of those um attempts in the past did also try to leverage private funding our approach prioritizes and expands access to the stadium for both BPS students and Community through a partnership model that aligns with our goals now Avery sdale our senior director for athletics who has led the visioning sessions for this renovation will now walk you through how this proposal will benefit the BPS Athletics program uh good evening school committee members uh Happy New Year um as the data on the slide illustrates our team worked tily to provide diverse sport options for our students uh however white Stadium our primary facility for BPS Athletics no longer meets the evolving needs of our staff and students the existing conditions at White Stadium directly impact our students experiences our athletics department operates from the facility depite despite its shortcomings which include outdated infrastructure and lack of necessary resources to truly expand our offerings and increase student participation we need a modern modernized and renovated Stadium white Stadium's current challenges include limited programming hours uh we only operate currently from 8:00 a.m. to 400 p.m. on weekdays uh this limitate limits our ability to host events like our city championships uh track meets and our facilities are not ADA Compliant uh this means that public restrooms and water fountains are extremely limited uh given the stadium hasn't seen significant investments in decades um it's clear we needed a private private partner whose Vision aligned with ours our goal remains for white Stadium to be BPS owned facility with private partnership support for upkeep and investment our renovation planning began with visiting sessions uh last spring and summer that included input from students coaches uh administrators and key Partners to our department to ensure that the project proposal focuses on BPS student needs we developed the following Vision expanding Stadium hours from 8 to 15 hours daily increasing BPS and programmable hours from 250 to 900 annually upgrading um both the exterior and interior interior world class eight Lane track uh on the exterior renovated basketball new basketball courts uh and Tennis Courts improved walking paths and expanded Green Space um renovating our indoor spaces uh to things that we didn't have before uh which included um study areas uh indoor Training Center modernized lockers uh and Facilities open to the community and it was important that these facilities uh be ADA Compliant um so all students of all skills uh will have the ability to practice uh and participate at the stadium as well uh Chief IR will now go through the details of our partnership thanks a in structuring this partnership we prioritize bps's use of white Stadium this slide illustrates a typical week at the stadium 90% of the time during a game week would be dedicated to BPS and Community use the private partner would least specific areas for up to 20 nwsl games per year that includes championship games and ensures the substantial access for BPS Beyond prioritizing Public Access our partnership brings additional benefits to BPS and the community that were advocated for during the during the community engagement process including new funding sources such as the initial the initial capital investment annual lease payments and professional maintenance legal agreements codifying Community benefits including job opportunities internships and mentorships for mwbe businesses local Enterprises and BPS students opening amenities to support our community events at White Stadium establishing a neighborhood Council to provide ongoing feedback on Stadium programming and operations designing for minimal noise and light impact increase safety and environmental sustainability aiming to make white Stadium one of the only three carbon neutral stadiums in the country these commitments are detailed in the Boston planning board and development board memo as a part of the article 80 large project um development review ensuring that they are legally binding our main stance is that this BPS could not deliver this state of the amenity and upkeep them without the support of a private partner our proposal is shaped by extensive Community engagement which included 50 Public meetings 900 public comments small group briefings with stakeholders including the impact Advisory Group multiple City commissions such as the Boston landmarks commission the bpda the Parks Commission have reviewed and unanimously approved the project we will continue the dialogue through ongoing Community meetings and other communication channels to key stakeholders to keep everyone informed and involved we are briefing you today as the next phase in this process because the school committee must authorize superintendent to negotiate a favorable lease agreement with the Boston Unity soccer Partners alongside the city and BPS leaders like Avery it's important to emphasize that we have committed that no demolition or construction will begin until a lease agreement is signed that aligns with the commitments we've shared publicly this Slide clarifies the lease boundaries the red section represents the area Boston Unity soccer Partners will lease for up to 20 nwsl games per year while the larger area outlined in Black remains accessible for BPS and public use when games are not in session this diagram consolidates the feedback from BPS community members park experts uh illustrating design that provides State art facilities and seamlessly integrates with the Franklin Park landscape enhancing Green Space and reducing barriers around the stadium we have made arrangements uh to ensure uninterrupted athletic opportunities for students during construction in collaboration with coaches we've identified relocation sites and additional amenities to meet teams needs uh bla girls soccer will practice at Malcolm X field and play games at moley Park bla and BLS football or excuse me bla football will practice at Playstead BLS football will practice at Clemente and the f um with game games at alternative locations track and field practice uh we're working on um enabling English High School to host track and field practice um with no impact to cross country this fall uh our BPS tennis team uh looks to have expanded use at the Franklin Park shadic tennis courts we received questions about the long-term homes uh for bla and BLS football which traditionally play a total of 10 games at White stadium and so we've committed to the teams uh that they'll be able to play Marquee games at the stadium at a latter part of the season and the city will find long-term um homes for the two these two teams thanks so we are incredibly proud to stand behind this project today as it will provide a number of opportunities for BPS students and the community coaches and students have long awaited these upgrades and we believe that this vision and partnership deliver on these aspirations we respectfully seek your vote to move forward ensuring that in just two years our students will have access to the state of the athletic Hub that they can proudly call their own leaders from BPS the mayor's office and our legal team will be here to answer questions after this but I I do ask one request if we could also allow our attorney samon NY just to say a few words before we take questions absolutely thank you thank you thank you thank you uh good evening my name is samon aboli I've been counsel the city of Boston on the white Stadium project uh since uh March 2023 uh representing the city both in the ongoing litigation involving the project uh permitting of the project and also the uh lease and other agreement negotiations if there are any questions about the structure of the transaction or permitting or the litigation I'm happy to answer those uh I just wanted to give a couple remarks in an update earlier during public comment you may have heard reference to an ongoing lawsuit involving the white Stadium project and I suspect you will have received or will receive a written comment letter uh detailing the lawsuit and also asking this committee not to take any action until the lawsuit is resolved uh so I just want to take a moment to give a status update on that litigation so the committee is aware of where that stands there was a case filed by the emerald necklace conservancy and a number of individual plaintiffs in February of this year and with the fing of the complaint there was also a motion for preliminary injunction that was filed seeking to prevent the city from moving forward with any permitting any Contracting any lease negotiations regarding the white Stadium project until the conclusion of the lawsuit the preliminary injunction motion was fully briefed we had a hearing at the end of March a judge of the Superior Court issued a 32-page decision denying the motion for preliminary injunction finding that on all of the legal issues raised by the plaintiffs they are unlikely to succeed on the merits of any of their claims some of them involving the applicability of article 97 and then the others involving whether or not the project complies with the will of a Boston philanthropist named George Robert White uh which un under um which funded the initial construction I suppose of white Stadium back between 1949 in 1951 uh even though that litigation is technically still open uh given that prior decision the city of Boston feels very confident that we'll be successful in the litigation and in any event there's an outside trial date set for March 2025 we are currently in the fact finding stage of that case uh but uh most importantly there was a specific ask to the judge at that time prevent further permitting prevent further lease negotiations prevent further contracts all of those requests were denied and so there's really no reason why any public bodies uh need to wait given the lawsuit and I think as evidence of that of course several other public bodies and commissions have as uh Chief Irish pointed out unanimously approved uh this project obviously before the school committee has approved the lease thank you excuse me I'm sorry you're out of order excuse me excuse me it's I'm sorry you're out of order excuse me you're out of order this is you were here for public comment the public comment period is over thank you tell the truth before you make any and I'm a BPS parent I have a right to speak you have a right to speak during public comment thank you but what he's saying is not true I'm a plaintiff so I know what's going on you guys deserve to know the truth should we take a brief recess we're gonna take a brief recess e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e thanking you all for your update and now opening it up to the committee for questions and comments so go ahead I'm I forgot all this um thank you Chief very excited to see yall here today um for this proposal I I'm just curious on the what the responses have been on the different concerns when it comes to environment right we're hearing about the trees I just I just want us to sort of if you could answer that because I know the presentation it's not there just for transparency that would be good for us to know at least for me to know if that helps like what's because I know like one of the things that you noted I just clst the slides uh was one of the three one of the three only stadiums what's the time I don't have the notice I they do the are no about yes car thank you so I know that is one you know one benefit are there any other benefits or anything that we're doing to make sure that we're not creating more damage especially with the um climate crisis that is ongoing right now I just want to know how we're addressing that holistically in this proposal so I'm also G ask my colleague Luke to come forward and help with some more of the details but yeah there there um many positive attributes to this project and it has really like been improved over time based on a lot of the feedback we've gotten so like let's talk about like um the work that we've done with Reed Hill the brand and how we've aligned it yeah better definitely you don't have all the aners to that's fine you can always follow but yeah no no problem um thank you for the question so um you know we worked with the Reed hilderbrand uh Team who was the masterminds behind the Franklin Park action plan um to really reconfigure the design of the stadium um to better respect many of the historic elements of Franklin Park um so for instance there used to be a a bean siiz building that was in um the playet area that had many of the programming for the team uh the team store and many of the food and beverage areas um through Community feedback and through the work with the Reed hilderbrand team that programming space uh has been removed and been uh confined within the stadium itself uh we've actually been able to give back over an acre of Green Space to Franklin Park which is the first time in 75 years we've been able to do that so that's really great um part of this project another aspect of um the project that we're happy with the redesign is respecting many of those historic sight lines of Franklin Park um so there's a historic View From The Overlook looking down into the Playstead um we removed the building structure in order to respect that sight line and reconfigured the stadium to respect the north south access of Franklin Park itself so um many of the community meetings that we held uh in the work with the Reed hilderbrand team has really um been beneficial for the project because we've been able to preserve all of the BPS programming which is the key of this project but also um respect many of the elements of Franklin Park itself thank you Luke yeah I'll add before I turn over the say there's still ongoing work that we need to do especially around like Transportation yes and um the plans are coming along well and will be codified in our in our um transportation access plan as well as our refining our plans and how we protect um during those times when there is a game the resident parking as well as parking within Franklin Park itself uh and just one more thing um and I I'm only commenting on this because very close to this document but I think in the materials that were provided to the school committee uh there is the bpda board memorandum the the the significance of the bpda board memorandum is that's is then turned into a binding cooperation agreement with the development team which is the soccer team and the city and the parks department is going to be involved with that as well in the bpda board memo actually talks about a number of additional environmental mitigation measures as a result of the project you I'll highlight three really important ones you know one there's a commitment even though the transportation plan is still coming together to convert to Electric shuttles at some point because shuttle service is an aspect of the transportation plan the second is the establishment of a tree Bank uh you've probably heard that as a result of the the stadium there's going to be demolition or removal of some uh some trees including invasives and there's a commitment to replace uh by by actual you know tree trunk size as opposed to just one by one the tree canopy in Franklin Park um uh and that's a commitment both from the city and the team to establish this tree bank so that there will will be a uh caliper inch per caliper inch tree replacement of tree canopy and then the third of course is there's a commitment from the team uh to uh to create a a SE charge on ticket sales uh that will go directly into investments into Franklin Park and improvements to Franklin Park and those are all detailed in that bpda board memo and if I if I could just add um another one of the important Community benefits to this project is there's going to be a $500,000 uh annual community benefits fund with a 3% annual increase each year uh and this $500,000 will be dispersed over four pillars um one of those pillars is Investments within Franklin Park uh one is within Youth Sports and local youth sports programming um the third is local businesses that surround the park economic development of those local businesses and the fourth is the health and wellness of the black and brown communities who live around Franklin Park and so this commitment is just another one of the um major economic benefits that the team is providing that will um be directly uh reciprocated right into the community thank you um I have ran Community process has a former on leaon so I totally understand why we need to listen to Butters um into folks that are going to be impacted by it I'm also a barkum barely had a stadium barely had of anything and I played Sports so I am excited of the idea of the renovation but I also understand concerns when we talk about privation in good faith I'm hoping that this we're doing this in good faith and if there are concerns or people continue to have the same questions my feedback is always like try to bring those answers right in the front of the conversation that we're having so that's one thing I uh appreciate the slide in terms of how the we're prioritizing BPS usage of the spa of the space I fought really hard for the Student Union at UMass hammers to be the renovated on the new one to be 100% for students because it's our it was well not mine anymore but it was our student fee that was paying for that so I I I really hope that we can maintain that whatever whatever the system is whatever the calendar tool all of that needs to be something that we need to bring back once youall have that conversation um I'm also curious to know does the BPS Community somewhat have access to the space that we're going to lease like if that what does that look like um because it is a nice idea I would love to have a experience as a soccer player at Burke to see a soccer a women soccer team playing and I have to go all the way a Gillette I I totally get that I would love to see nice things in my neighborhood but would love to understand if BPS Community especially the students also have access if if even if it's limited what does that look like well I I mean I think um from my seat those are things that um I always think about I mean I think when I look at Boston uh the opportunities that others come into the city to participate in I think we make sure that we're making sure they're accessible to our students and our kids um I know in our discussions uh the unity group has discussed um ticket um incentives for uh people in the neighborhood the local people to the stadium um but I think from my seat that'd be something we want to push um at another level to make sure that our kids um have constant access to the games so nothing right now in The Proposal there's nothing that there's a commitment that the BPS Community also have some sort of access to to the least space I I don't think there's nothing official but I think as we talk those would be things from my that we'd push it's fine if it's not there now I'm just asking if not I would encourage for that conversation to happen if sorry if I if I may clarify there there there is if you're talking about physical space phys can they go there walk around can they go see the like are they getting free tickets to see the game like you know what I mean like I know that the bench side they'll be able to sit there right that's I'm talking about the actual facility the infrastructure like are our students athletes also going to have access to that yeah so so in in the in the agreements as they're coming together right now there is limited access to not just BPS but all community members to certain aspects of the West Grand stand which is being leased so up here we have a diagram of the proposed new facility and the breakdown of um of the space you know the first thing I'll is a lot of the amenities that are going to be on the team side you see front Center built into the BPS side so they will have new locker rooms they will have a new grand stand they will have community space strength and conditioning area but under the agreement the way it works is the West Grand stand is leased to the soccer team but then there's a reciprocal license and what that reciprocal reciprocal license says is that basically any other time during the whole year except for the times that the team is actually using the stadium for a game which is just 20 days out of the year and only for a certain part of that day for the game and some setup and tear down that all of the the entire grand stand itself and the stairs so people who want to sit there walk up and down run the stairs they'll have access to the West Grand stand both the community and BPS as well as any kind of concourse or stairs areas to access those facilities another important element of this is that we're not leasing the field to the team the city's retaining ownership and the and the whole interest of the field and we're only letting the team license the field only for the games so that soccer field and that new track that's accessible no restrictions to BPS students coaches trainers and the community all year all hours of the year except during the times that the team is using it for you know games then we have a prioritization schedule in the lease in the in the stadium usage agreement the kind of last tier priority is if it still fits in the calendar after taking into account All City events BPS events community events then we'll also allow the team to have one practice per week before a game somewhere that it fits into the master calendar thank you for that um My Hope Is throughout this process and this is been on goinging right we're here now is that this is being done with a lens of environmental justice because the the stadium might look nice but if around it is not looking nice then the community didn't really gain anything so I'm I'm hearing what folks are saying but I can't lie I'm super excited to see a nice Athletic Facility especially in my community I live in Four Corners is not that far uh and I'm excited to see graduations like like Burg we couldn't have graduation there this year because of the weather but imagine if we have this done and we'll be able not only to see athletic U Sports and events but even like celebrations and we have so many families that can't even go to their kids graduation because they're confined in their little auditoriums the cafeteria or whatever that is so I I know that wasn't really highlighted but I know why stadium was also utiliz a lot for graduation celebrations again it's just making sure that folks are being transparent uh throughout this process hearing folks out not everybody's going to agree but I you know I hear people on like if we're doing development how is that going to impact everything else um and make sure that we're having a Hol holistic conversation but thank you for answering the questions in the presentation looking forward to see where this goes oh no you go ahead Mr TR yes okay um so looking at the slide six the I think it's slat 6 sample future week so this is an example week of what it looks like with a soccer game and I'm assuming that on a week without a soccer game they're not practicing at all during that that particular week so then it becomes completely BPS or Community event and so one question how do requisitions for community events get processed and prioritized said and prioritized yeah and prioritized I'm sorry yes yeah I I mean I think that um in our current situation that's been a uh probably an area that wasn't defined as as well um as we enter into this uh hopefully into this new stadium um I know we're looking to put together a committee uh different stakeholders to be able to um kind of evaluate those requests um and give a decision in terms of uh you know what we're able to um fit into what we have um and I think also understand uh the different impacts that the events have and and um you know make appropriate uh decisions for the for the facility yeah and if I could just add on to that um something that Avery just briefly mentioned is a community advisory Council um so what we're establishing here is something called the white Stadium neighborhood advisory Council uh it will be um comprised of different co-chairs such as the Parks and Recreation Department um BPS Athletics and the Boston Unity soccer partners um but the body will be made up um of community members um a Parks Advocate and BPS students uh and staff and the reason for this committee is is to make sure that um if there's any issues that arise at the stadium or any operational challenges um there's a mechanism for which those concerns can be uplifted uh and Boston unity and the city agencies can um fix those concerns or address those issues one of um the things that this committee will help oversee is scheduling and prioritization of of different events that want happen at White Stadium um so they will look at the BPS schedules and the different community events who want to be there for a year and help make recommendations of of which events should um be scheduled when and and at what times so there's no conflict um or overlap of events that makes sense um and then also with regard to Transportation um obviously that's one of the biggest um concerns from the like adjacent Community um immed immediately adjacent Community that's there I heard in the presentation and even before about shuttles and the development of a shuttles shuttles from where exactly yeah yeah no that's that's a a great question um so as the plan prioritizes that there'll be no parking on site for game days um so they're prioritizing a multimodal approach shuttles being one of those multimodal options um So currently there are four off-site saddle Parking Lot locations um So the plan is is that if you purchase a game ticket and you want to drive you'd have to select one of those lots that you're going to and then once you park your vehicle you will take a shuttle with other people who drove to that lot to the stadium um also other than those four Lots there will be um shuttles from orange and red line stops um we're continuing to work with the MBTA on which um stops will be used but the current proposal is um Jackson Square and Forest Hills uh and so you know working with the MBTA there's definitely some um alternative options that they've proposed and that we're looking at um but the conversations with them have been very productive and so there will be shuttles from those satellite Lots as well as MBTA services that will take you to the stadium um and just to clarify there will be two shuttle routes there'll be a a northern route and a southern Loop um just depending on which part of the city you are um coming from can I ask from this conversation it's just more because it was from what you were asking but I can wait I can wait no I was done with um and going back to the line of questions thank you so much sh um in terms where are these Lots like where's the the lots that you're referring to like if people are parking have you all already identified those so the team is working on um solidifying the contracts for those lots they haven't been identified yet but they have been identified in which areas of the city they're trying to capture folks from depending on um expected participation in which Spectators will come from um so inance like i93 South is is an area they're trying to capture Spectators from um places in the northern part of the state as well um but those lots haven't been identified but once we make those recommendations and continue to develop the transportation plan uh while we refined the tapa agreement we will be sure to make those information public are the shuttle routes um like for Four Corners in Geneva for example the commuter RA are those being included on those routes too not just Red Line Orange Line but but also the commuter exactly so that's what I meant by the ongoing conversations with MBTA thank you uh first of all thank you for your presentation I think it's very thorough and thank you for all the answers to uh my colleagues questions uh many of those are uh fully uh uh explained and fully answered I I thank you um I understand that okay uh the lawsuit well first of all lawsuits will result in our Improvement in in in our making sure that the project is going to be successful and the project is going to be uh viable for to for everybody I hope and um thank you for your answer on on the issue of the the will because that was also one of my concern the uh the public process understand that everything has already been in compliance with whatever the procedural Law requires that you know of course a bunch of um administrative agencies uh that are involved have already approved so far um that's good and uh while I do understand the the concern from from from from the uh from from the uh plaintiffs well for lack of better word the from the pl plaintiffs um side of of the story uh given the fact that uh their motion on the likelihood of uh success on on the irre harm had already been uh addressed by by the judge so that that that does open our moving forward and um that's how it is my concern there are two folds first of all I I don't understand how the Boston public school has been surviving so far given the fact that that stadium has not been ADA Compliant I understand that it's buil 1945 but you know it's not a historical landmark and has never been sued for ADA compliance I think that would would have more of you know viability to to toh to succeed but um anyway this going to address that the question I have right now given the fact that we keep hearing privatization and a l person assuming that you know for the first time I hear it privatization does carry some political connotation that hey everything we wash our hand you take it over uh I would like you guys to make sure that this is not a private deis it is a public private partnership the community need to hear that because when I first hear privatization of course it does have legal connotation we each have our own definition of privatization but a layer person would think oh oh God this is you know just on the political side the this does bring a lot of um confusion and a lot of um uh misunderstanding into the process so the recommendation is that defeat that defeat find way I don't know find way to defeat that connotation this is not again a privatization this is a partnership thank you okay go ahead just offand what is the if you know like what is the anticipation of of growth and I guess you have to sort of know what is the the growth of the interest within the soccer team itself um and where this is going so so where I'm going with this question is particularly what is the commitment that we know that it remains that this layout that you have here remains as it is mostly BPS Community oriented um especially as popularity with the team grows which is what we're thinking and hoping right but I can anticipate a situation where the team comes back and says like hey we want to lease more of this stadium and we want to to your point about privatization then it becomes slowly but surely the team owns more of it than the community does and I think that's also a concern yeah I mean I I'm I'm happy to tackle just the enforcement piece of that because I think your question gets to the heart of how do we make sure these commitments stay intact over a period of time and there may be kind of non you know legal answers to this but you know this this graphic you see here and some of the other aspects on the slides you know the the city is going to Great Lengths to make make sure that all of this is codified in very airtight legal agreements with the team that commit to this type of setup and this type of shared use of the stadium and the field for the entire lease term uh importantly you know not not you know the lease isn't just oh we're going to lease this to you and the general Provisions about the lease so all these commitments around usage prioritization of events what is being leased what are you allowed to use the stadium for what access you need to give to the public in the city and the students to your side and in all the other parts of the stadium we're not just saying that in public presentations it's all word for word in the agreements that the team will sign that lease is for an initial 10-year period And so they're locked into that and then they have two additional 10-year renewal periods but on the same terms of the original lease agreement so for at least the next could be anywhere between 10 and 30 years this is the deal that the team is accepting and this is the the only deal that's on the table between the city and the team that that's what the legal agreement does and it binds everybody to this setup that you see here in front of you today and so just to be clear so the risk in that is that if after 10 years the team doesn't want to necessarily do that then essentially the the community is left with having to maintain the upkeep for the entirety of the stadium just just want to be clear about it I if is it is it is legally the case under the lease agreement that if after 10 years they choose not to renew the entire Stadium including the team's investment in the stadium all reverts to City ownership it's all city property we can use it how we want to use it but yeah that'll obviously come with the obligation to maintain the entire Stadium as well go thank thank you madam chairman thank you to my fellow members for the questions and gentlemen thank you for your presentation this evening um informative I I do note you know um Chief Irish I think you read this but this has been unanimously approved by the zoning commission the landmarks commission the Boston Civic design commission the Boston Planning Development agency and the Parks and Recreation Commission and each of whom looked at it through various lenses right based upon how does it fit with this how does it fit with that areas of oversight that they have with the school committee so my interest is going to be what does this do for Boston Public School student athletes right and what is the best possible thing for our student athletes um and so one area I wanted to explore on and and thank you to fellow member Tron talking about the difference between privatization and partnership because this truly to me is a partnership particularly as Council as you laid out about you know what would be in the lease and it struck me one line in here and I think it was almost glossed over because I think about what are the benefits to having a team there right a woman soccer team that our student athletes can see up close they can see them practice they can see play and I saw this line in here about uh let me find what I wanted to get which is right Hardwoods on either sides job career and mentorship opportunities with the focus on mwbe and local business and BPS students could we talk for a little bit please about I assume this is coming from the team right so beyond just Leasing and playing there talk to me for a second about this job career and mentorship opportunities for BPS students yeah I'm happy to speak on that a little bit um so the Boston Unity soccer team um has committed to providing internship and mentorship opportunities for our BPS students as well as you mentioned those summer jobs uh and those are in various Fields um so from working with the professional sports medicine people who are working with at the professional women's team on athletic training um to those who are operating the you know AV and Technology at the stadium um so really you know a wide range of internship and mentorship and job opportunities for our students to teach them a variety of skills uh and also another interesting part of this project that's a direct benefer for BPS students um is that all of the we mentioned the tree loss at the stadium or in the tree replacement all of those um that wood will also be donated to the Madison Park uh vocational tech school on their Wood shopping program uh and they will be creating from fure that can um go right directly back into Franklin Park so also providing our students at the Madison Park School with um different skills and and resources that they can benefit their skill set no and and I'll never forget my first job in eth grade was walking up and down the aisles at BC Stadium selling Coke for the concessioners so I know a lot of our students get summer jobs um a lot of our students get summer jobs um through Aramark at Fenway Park and I think this would be a great opportunity for our students as well but you know I grew up in Jamaica plane I spent a lot of time in the park and when I was a student athlete the one year I played freshman football it was on a dirt field at Clemente field in in the Fenway right and and yet I was recently talking with a A young student female student athlete in BPS and she plays soccer and I said to all did you hear about this woman soccer team and she said no and I started to explain to her and the eyes got this big like you me and I may be playing on a field that the women's professional team is playing on I mean it just it it was inspiring to see how excited she got by that opportunity because I think this is a um incredible opportunity for our students not just the extra time and and chief I you and I have spent a lot of time out at White Stadium together right we've seen how bad it is right now and how embarrassing it is and yes not 88 compliant and and and that's only one side of the stadium the other side you can't even walk over to because it was fire damage years ago so the opportunity for our BPS students is incredible and yes thank you uh MMA Barosa pointing out we do need to be concerned about the impact of the community and make sure that it's listened to but when I put the prism on of what this does for our BPS students I'm incredibly excited by the opportunity I do want to understand um Council this probably is a question for you and the request is that we authorize the superintendent to partner with the city to negotiate and enter into a lease and it says specifically and I just want to understand what this means subject to the commitments contained in BP's Technical and price proposals submitted June 26 2023 in the Boston plan development agency board member dated July 18th so my question is when it's saying subject to those two things how does the superintendent ensure that BPS students you know come out strong in this I'm I'm trying to think of a better way to phrase it our first priority are you know are the top priority in this yeah so I and and maybe it's helpful to talk about what those subject to documents are that's why I suspect saw it in there it sorry um so the uh this is just a it's it's a little the reason it's got those subject is it's a little technical so uh because we are Leasing Property uh that belongs to the city of Boston uh it has to go through this chapter 30b competitive procurement process we can't just you know the city can't just dispose of property it has to go through a it has to publish a request for proposals outline the terms of the request for proposals and then solicit proposals to those requests and so um when you then enter into a lease agreement it has to be on terms that are the same or at least more uh favorable to the city than what was in the original request for proposals and likewise the team cannot Backtrack on commitments it made in its technical proposal when it submitted its technical proposal that was the deal that we understood they were giving us so now they have to have to stand by that deal they can't now renegotiate aspects of the technical proposal all of these commitments we're talking about today and kind of prioritizing BPS use BPS student use retaining control of the field and the track and the East Grand stand those are things that were in the RFP to begin with so that controls that governs and um and and you know we worked hand inhand with BPS staff at the time to develop the RFP by the way uh so when we say subject to it's we're going to enter into a lease but can't be on less favorable terms to the city than what was in the RFP and what was in Boston unity's technical proposal and what was in their price proposal those are essentially set the floor for the city on what is acceptable in the lease the last subject to is this Boston Planning and Development agency board memo through the community process and as you know we've talked about today the team has made a number of commitments that are over and above what was in the technical proposal things like the tree Bank the dollar per ticket search charge for investments in Franklin Park things around noise Transportation uh design of the stadium things like that those are all documented in this bpda board memo which then later will turn into a cooperation agreement so not only are we saying okay lease has to be compliant with the RFP and the proposals we also got to make sure all these mitigation measures and commitments that the team has made through that bpda process they also find their way into the lease and the accompanying documents so by us authorizing the superintendent to enter into lease negotiations subject to these Provisions it is covering all the promises or commitments that have been made to date and changes including basically everything in this presentation right that's exactly right none of these are nice to have or H to have yeah everything you've seen in this presentation appears in one or more of the agreements between the city and the team excellent thank you very much thank you madam chair for the question thank you um thank you very much for the presentation um I think I have a one well I have several concerns but um I think one thing um particularly living in the community I don't live near Franklin Park but grew up my whole life going to Franklin Park and remembered when the only way we used to get to Franklin Park was by going on the bus and now I'm trying to drive to get to the other side of the Arborway trying to drive through Franklin Park understanding how all of this has changed just on a day-to-day basis wondering about you know I understand there's 20 day 20 game days but the question is beyond those 20 game days and all of the other activity City Plus school what are the other disruptions to the community um B basically it I wonder Al also when I think about what goes on in Gillette and the communities and I mean they're a mega of 45,000 people trying to get there but understanding what that kind of disruption is to those communities um for the sake of having this wonderful entity amongst them but also thinking about the city of Boston and who lives nearest to the park um and as we think about our city and the gentri the reality of the gentrification of our city um and there are fewer and fewer places that people who have lived in this community for Generations still live that being one of the areas you know how are we really being both Fair sensitive and honest with the community about and and hearing because I understand we've had 50 meetings lots of people have come and there are people completely on opposite sides of this issues in terms of both the overall benefit to Boston public schools and Humanity but the the true impact it will have on their daytoday living experience will I be able to get home will I be able to get out of my house to to go elsewhere you know what will this look like because I can't imagine as I as I know now how I access um coming you know across um humble Avenue to come into the area going down that very narrow pathway how will all of that change both and and then thinking about all of the housing that is literally built right on top of that current access and entrance because this was done 100 years ago those houses have been there for a very long time when our city was conceived to being a very different place than it is today and you know it's like plunking down a major something right smack dab in the middle of your neighborhood I can understand the concerns thank you madam chair for that question and I'm also one of those neighbors who lives like I said on both sides I grew up on the sver street side and now I'm on the American Legion Highway side so I'm also like personally connected to this um I I will start and then you know I think lukee can probably jump in um cuz we we've probably had more than 50 meetings meeting with um anyone who wants to meet whether it be an individual small group meeting with the church uh the beray church on sver street just to really understand people's concerns and and make sure we're thoughtfully including them in a plan this the plan for transportation I would say a couple of big things about it is one is that we we are very carrant for example last weekend we had about 30,000 people in in Frank frankon Park and there was no real like Transportation plan so I think this is this is an opportunity for us to rethink how we get people in and out of Frankton Park in a more sustainable and in a less impactful way for for community and and that's what we're trying to do and model that we're using is based on like large events that happen when there is no parking available at those events um I can't remember the name of the exact um PGA tournament that happened in Brooklyn a few years ago that was a great example that they developed a transportation plan for a place that had no parking right and we we also know that um like Fenway Park is is another great example where the majority of people who are going to a game there uh they can't expect to drive and park there so we're we're using bits and pieces from different thing and also um connecting with Community to make sure that we're developing a plan that focuses on public transportation that focus focuses on on multimodal um transportation and also on sustain environmentally friendly shuttle services to get people in and out and we also want to use that as as a road map for other large events that that are happening in the park um to to make sure that those are those also have a plan yeah I could just add in on a little bit of that um so the PGA Tour that um Chief Irish is mentioning is actually at the Brooklyn Country Club and so the Brooklyn Country Club doesn't have any parking and so as he mentioned there's roughly you know thousands of Spectators are trying to get in and out which is where this plan has been adapted from um that plan prioritizes the shuttle services as well which is um the basis for the plan for white Stadium um you know something else that i' I'd like to highlight is that through our community engagement process we heard that many events at Franklin Park today have major transportation impacts on the neighbors um such as the ba half marathon so we've been working closely with the baa and in other large events to provide them insights on our proposal um to really try to better manage um you know Transportation impacts in Franklin Park as well and I'd just like to highlight a couple key elements of The Proposal um the first is that on certain areas and residential streets around the park will be limiting to only residential vehicle access only and the shuttle um services so for instance on on Walnut AV uh often times people try to cut through the residential streets to to beat the traffic in eglon square uh and so what we're doing there is is we're making walnut AV residential only um so you know we've taken a a for game days obviously um and so for game days Walnut AV will be residential only and through a traffic analysis um currently there's roughly around 600 to 650 cars on Walnut hav uh every hour and so with these restrictions in place we'd actually be only having 150 vehicles on Walnut AV so drastically decreasing um the traffic on those residential Cal streets uh another thing about this proposal that is really trying to protect uh residential parking around the neighborhood is is an implementation of a game day RPP or residential parking program so this is something that's similar to what's in place uh up in Chestnut Hill for uh the BC football games uh how it will work is if you live within the walk shed Zone which is uh 1.2 miles radius around the stadium one of those residential streets your car is V uh registered to one of those uh houses you'll be for an RPP sticker uh that sticker would just go on your vehicle and then when BTD is doing their enforcement on game days um you're you would be preserved and so that's really protecting the residential streets from people trying to park and clog up those streets um we're also protecting Visitors by providing a visitor placard for those for those houses as well and I think the only other place I mean as we look at it from our space The Architects and as we look at the designs and thinking about how we program the stadium um our traffic needs are part of that conversation right so we're talking about obviously we have the the biggest event which could be an event that brings in 10,000 people but what happens when we have a soccer game on a Tuesday afternoon between two BPS teams you know what kind of traffic is that driving and what is our plan to kind of deal with that so I think as we're able to define the uses of the stadium and what we anticipate the The Spectators to be will better be able to understand um the impacts and how we plan for it and I think I think hopefully we we get ourselves in a spot we have a plan for a small event a medium event and a large event um that we know we can go to and that will work um that everybody can be aware of as they're coming to I think that the other piece is we're also making sure we're staying in contact with Parks um obviously the the Franklin Park action plan has been a big part of this but making sure that um they're kind of on board and understand the the different programming that we're looking at and that we're working together to make sure that it all works for everybody involved great thank you any goe um Luke you talked about the residential parking for game day how are we communicating to the nonresidents uh are there going to be signage as well um because if I live on Walnut is residential I get my sticker but then my friend from Canada comes visit me I don't remember as a game today because I not you know what I mean so how are we how are we going to inform the non folks so they don't get their car Toad and just just a question if it's not there I think that's something to think about no I think that's a great point and so I'm sure everybody's aware everything is now digital tized right so um you know purchasing your ticket is no longer in person it's all via phone so the team will be doing extensive communication um letting people know that you're not allowed to park on site so when you purchase your ticket you'll have to select which mode of transportation um you'll be getting to the stadium with so if it's a vehicle you would have to select which satellite parking you'd be going to there any other it still doesn't communicate to folks that didn't buy the ticket though like I'm talking about the audience that's not going to the game and they Park on I'm not talking about me going to the game so that's just to clarify my question yeah and and I think most likely that that'll be with posting We normally do like 48 hours ahead of time but there's still details of these things that are going to be worked out because no no one solution is a perfect fit like it has to be customized and modified and then even after it's operationalized need to like monitor it and make improvements but um I think what we're on the path toward a plan that I think would be a better better condition than we currently have I I agree that residents need to be priority they should have their spot first but I also want to be up you know thinking about the folks that are not from the air and they there but Chief you brought up a point there is a already in practice of postage that even when you're moving out you got to put that no parking during this day so that is also a good practice that we could probably do that for game dat thank you we need any last questions before wait question are are all Unity games only on Saturday no okay so no so I'm also thinking about how or have you I'm I'm just thinking about surrounding Franklin Park immediately right so obviously like Brook Charter School comes to mind on the American Legion side and then you have um the Hernandez which sits on the other side right street so like School Street right there so also how have you all thought about the timing of this disrupting things like let out for school and yeah I I primarily I'm thinking let out for schools and things like that for families yeah I mean it's it's all like school like essentially like how what conversations have you had with BPS Transportation at this point and even the th I'm just listing those two School communities off the top of my head right that are going to be affected particularly as things occur during the week right I'll start off and then luk can jump in but you we we really can't even speak specifically to like B USPS like schedule right because we're talking maybe in general about nwsl schedules and from what we seen around the country but each schedule need needs to really be built around the availability of the stadium for example like with the Celtics and the Bruins they just can't they have to schedule around each other so we we have like City events that we know we're going to have that are important to us and where we have days when the stadium is not available so a schedule have to be built around availability and also um we've seen most of the games for other teams are on the weekend we've seen some Saturday some Sunday I've seen seen I think a Wednesday game but it it could have been a holiday you know that led to that particular game so there are different factors that will have to be inputs into building out of schedule yeah and oh sorry super go ahead no I would just also like to add that um you know it's all based primarily on like broadcasting schedules as well so um the impact of like School timing on a weekday is probably not likely due to the games being broadcasted later at night um and also just want to maybe I can pass it to Sammy here but there's also commitments around um like the end times of games and commitment times around when um the stadium would be turned over to Boston Unity as well so there are commitments built into the lease around timing and usage if you're interested this is probably my Boston competitiveness coming out but is there a playoff season for the nwsl yeah yeah there is but that's built into those 20 games it is okay yeah so it could be the season could be less than 20 games because the 20 games include I see so that's the max no not not if when okay the 20 is the maximum so are we okay again thank you all um and the committee looks forward to taking on taking action on this recommendation at a future meeting thank you thank you thank for your time now we turn to public comment no public comment okay new business the only new business that I just want to remind folks is that you will be hearing from us in the next week with some looking at for to try to establish a date for um a retreat in late September early October um and next week is the first day of school so hopefully people will get their pencils and sign up to go to greet new ones all right and don't forget next Friday is uh countown to Kindergarten Celebration at the Children's Museum 4:30 to 7:30 this Friday no not next Friday that's right that's right next Friday the six that's it all right our next hybrid school committee meeting will take place in person on Wednesday September 11th at 6: pm here at the bowling building um is there a motion to end this meeting no moved thank you is there a second there there was a person um on Zoom that wanted to speak earlier I didn't know if you were going to have the second comment period She wasn't able to they register she did register but she wasn't when I she she wasn't available the first the first time but two separate periods yeah s thank you there any discution or objection to the motion is there any objection to approving the motion by unanimous consent hearing none this meeting is adjourned thank you all and have a good night --------- ##VIDEO ID:J8olzVnD_OM## f ET / HTTP/1.1