Public Schools YouTube channel through method Community Media or on your local cable Comcast channel 98 or 22 and Verizon Channel 4345 or 47 the meeting will be recorded since the meeting will be held remotely participants can log or call in by using the following information on the city website there's a zoom link as well as a school website and the meeting ID is 967 2729 4638 questions or comments can be sub during the meeting by emailing Medford s C at medford.ma us those submitting questions or comments must include the following information your first and last name your mford street to ask your question or comment member Russo if you could call the role please certainly uh member brandley present member Graham is absent member Anapa here member olap absent member reinfeld present member R present mayor lungo present by present to absent if we all may rise to salute the flag I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America to the rep stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all we have um one item under new business it's a recommendation to approve the appointment of Mr Noel L valz as the Director of Finance for the me Public Schools I'll turn it over to you Dr Edward Vincent superintendent yes and um I did reach out to member Ola he's he is going to be joining us shortly having some Wi-Fi uh difficulties in his location but yes um good afternoon uh mayor Longo Kern and members of the school committee um I am very pleased this evening to have the opportunity to introduce Mr Noel L VES I enthusiastically recommend that the Medford school committee vote to approve his appointment as Finance director of the Medford Public Schools Mr valz comes to us with more than 12 years of finance and managerial experience he was previously the Director of Finance and and business manager over accounts payable payroll and transportation for the winr public schools prior to that he was a financial analyst for the Chelsea Public Schools Mr valz earned a bachelor's degree from Salem State University and he holds an active State lure as a school business administrator he is also an active member of the Massachusetts Association of school business officials which is called masbo and he participates on their vocational subcommittee finding out new things that are going on in the vocational world to bring back to Medford Public Schools he is very eager to expand his skills and improve the Medford Public Schools Mr valz came to to Medford Public Schools this year at the recommendation of Mr Jerry McHugh who worked with Noel in the Chelsea Public Schools and um they have had a partnership of more than five years together Mr McHugh will continue to work closely with Noel as he transitions out of our district next year and Noel transitions into this role during the interview process Mr valz impressed our team with his assessment of other ways to continue to enhance the district through improving and pursuing grant opportunities as well as working to Institute procedures to improve all aspects of the business office in his new role as Finance director Mr VZ will work closely with the superintendent and the district leadership team to monitor the budget for the benefit of all of medford's students in the upcoming year we anticipate Mr VZ will operate under the guidance of Mr McHugh to continue the sound and balanced budgetary practices that have been recently implemented we are thrilled to welcome Noel valz to his new role in Medford and know that his skills and experience will be major assets to the work of our team and impact our students positively as well so I ask this body um the the committee to please feel free to you know ask Mr Val's questions but this is our recommendation for him to be our um Director of Finance for the Medford Public Schools thank you thank you Dr Edward Vincent thanks for being here Mr valz um any you want to add or uh no I think the superintendent um said it perfectly I'm just very eager um if you're willing to have me to join this team um at another level and continue um I believe some of the great work that Jerry started um in in regards to as you guys had said the transparency of explaining how the budget truly looks and making sure that we're being very fiscally responsible uh with the budget that we're alluded with the grants that we also get and making sure that the the the whole Community itself feels comfortable knowing that the the public schools are being very well taken care of financially great could you give us a minute update of just your background and how long you were in Chelsea just so the full committee yeah of course your yeah your history work history yeah so uh I originally um when I graduated Salem State I I ran as a I was a director of an after school program for a few years and then I went to the private sector to go work for marsh USA which is one of the largest um insurance companies in the world and while there um I started learning a lot about I started get um Sharp my finance my finance techniques uh got promoted and then uh Chelsea opportunity Chelsea had an opportunity to go be a financial analyst assistant business manager in 2017 so I had applied and I was very fortunate enough to get the job I worked in Chelsea from 2017 to 2021 um overseeing a lot of the transportation budget Student Activities um helping out with the grants helping out with anything that was Title One to title four related and also end of year reporting and uh and teacher stiens those were a lot of things that fell underneath my umbrella and when I had an opportunity to go to winth up um in the summer of 2021 I took over as a Director of Finance and the business manager in win up in which I became much more involved in the full development of the budget in winther public schools um sitting in negotiations with teachers contracts while I was in while I was in winth we negotiated ated the nurses contract the teachers contract the par professional contract and um we were just and as I was leaving we were just on the process of merging the DPW with the custodial staff as under one unit um in winr which I was overseeing with the new city manager and the new town CFO so that was something that um those were some areas that I was able to really gain a lot of experience uh while also assisting my superintendent and and um in all aspects of Finance um and even being involved a lot with the operations um Capital Improvement um msba things things of that nature I was very comfortable and familiar with great great thank you um member brandley hi Mr valz it's member brandley I just want to welcome you to MPS and know that anything I say on the floor is not personal of course so welcome aboard thanks so much for all you're gonna do thank you thank you member brenley and um we can just Mark member Ola present please if you haven't already member ruso and if any of the members have any other questions please ask them now if not is there a motion on the floor member um reinfeld I have a quick question and then I'm happy to make a motion to approve um I'm curious what collaborative budgeting looks like to you like how do how do you work with other people in the on the leadership team and in the in the administration and schools like how does how does that play out yeah of course um so when I was in win we developed what was called a zero budget system where what it is is um although the town allocates how much money we're going to be getting as a whole school district I would I was meeting starting in November I would meet with all my principles um after filling After figuring out what our salaries would look like and what um any new contracts that were coming in and their pay raises whatever was left over I would allocate that in regards to working with my buildings and grounds department and each principal each principal would come to me with a list of um curriculums that they were either using or curriculums they were interested in using in the future and how that pertained to what the superintendent called was um the the winter public schools Vision uh areas in regards to office supplies normal supplies and what I would also give to them is while they were while they were bringing me all this information I would bring to them information in regards to here was your budget last year here's where you spent a lot here's where you didn't spend a lot do you want to move some of this money around uh we would also look at technology is always a big thing trying to figuring out um where you know where do you feel you are with technology you you know you budgeted 30,000 last year but you kind you went you spent close to 50,000 do you feel like you want to spend another 50 or do you want to move that area into uh maybe the math program and everything else and so what so what I would do is I would meet with the principles in November they would give me kind of a layout of what they were expecting I would take it all in I would find the prices for them I would I would I would work with the vendors to get their prices and then when I would go back to them I'd said hey go reach out to all your lead teachers and the and and and your lead directors and see does this curriculum makes sense when they would bring that all to me then I would sit down with my assistant superintendent and superintendent and we would would kind of lay out the whole budget and um sometimes you know if you requested 230,000 you might get it you might get a little bit more you might get a little bit less but we always try to be very fair um in regards to um in regards to per pupil Personnel making sure that um the the numbers made sense in regards to how many students you had in your building to what you were expecting to spend and also making sure that each each um school um had the right amount of Technology available so if the high school had gotten a big technology BMP one year we would want to make sure um that the um that the elementary schools got a got a got a proper got a proper piece of that pile also for technology so it was always um year to year it was changing was moving we never just copied and paste um we didn't believe in that um but I did feel that by year three um a lot the principles had become very accustomed to it and we were able to really create a what I thought was great open dialogue and there was never really any fuss about oh I feel like my budget um was undercut or my budget isn't fully funded thank you so much thank you Mr valz thank you member reinfeld is there a motion on the floor a motion to approve this appointment motion to approve the appointment by member reinfeld second to by second I'll second me member and TOA um roll call please member brandley yes member Graham absent member Anapa yes member ol yes M reinfeld yes member so yes mayor lungo Cur yes um six in the affirmative one absent the appointment is approved congratulations and thank you in advance thank you we call you know cfoz of the Met Public Schools call me no I'm perfectly fine with it was great to meet you in person and um thank you for taking this on and leading the charge it's a tough job but um we know you do good job thank you I appreciate that thank you very much okay is there a motion to adjourn toj motion to adjourn by member inapa seconded by member brandley call please member Brandon yes member gram absent member Anapa yes congratulations ol yes member reinfeld yes member say yes may go yes six in the affirmative um one absent meeting is adjourned have a wonderful Fourth of July