##VIDEO ID:qepI_nDiY5s## this the 13 reg regular meeting of the mord school committee this is the 13th regular meeting of the meit school committee September 9th 2024 this meeting is being recorded the meeting can be viewed live on the Medford Public Schools YouTube channel through Medford Community media on your local cable channels Comcast channel 98422 and Verizon Channel 4345 47 participants can log or call in by using the following link the meeting ID is 92476 99263 member Uso if you could call a rooll please member brandley present member Graham here member and [Music] dear member ol pres member reinfeld here member C president mayor ler pres seven present zero absent um Dr Cushing do we have any student reps on the call we have not selected them yet but we will have them next week thank you two weeks actually I think we have a meeting in two weeks thank you if we all may rise to salute the flag I pledge allegiance 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 we have number three good of the order before we take up the consent agenda hearing and seeing um no hands I'll go move on to number four the consent agenda we have approval of bills and payrolls approval of capital purchases approval of meeting minutes regular meeting minutes June 10th 2024 special meeting minutes June 24th 2024 special meeting minutes July 3rd 2024 special meeting minutes July 24th 2024 special meeting minutes July 31st 2024 special meeting minutes August 21st 2024 is there a motion on the motion to sever June 24th motion to sever June 24th by member reinfeld seconded by don't need a second or any vote no no need for a second no second or vote also motion to uh sever the capital purchases motion to sever the capital purchases by member Russo all right I'd like to amend the teach the approval of the teacher budget line item the vote was 502 not 511 there were two extensions no no votes thank you so making that correction on the June 24th 2024 meeting minutes so do you want to vote on them separately since you severed them or do you just did you just want to amend them I'll just amend them just amend them them okay so we're amending um the June 24th 2024 minutes and motion to approve everything including the Amendments from June 24th 2024 other than the capital purchases motion on the floor by motion by member Russo second and by second member in tapa all those in favor I all those opposed I love that bills and consent agenda is approved we have reports of subcommittees first up is our superintendent updates and Capital One Capital purchases Capital purchases sorry number four member Russo um I just was looking for um a report on I'm assuming this is for the Brooks uh boiler hot water heater good evening Madam mayor members of the school committee uh as part of my later operations report I talk about the Brooks domestic hot water heater uh a quick view as it relates to capital projects we're not ready to purchase just yet however the two Alternatives b2q provided for us um one is a condensing hot water heater that has significant efficiencies but still runs off of natural gas um the price point is in the $992,000 range they suggest with incidentals and other things budgeting up to $150,000 uh the alternative three uh if I remember correctly is in the neighborhood of $349,000 for full electric um despite uh the the natural gas unit condensing hot water heater will allow the city to still make tremendous strides towards our um sustainability and environmental goals um but given the return on investment versus $349,000 and the lifespan of these pieces of equipment which at most is 15 years uh it would not be a recommendation of myself or other members of the city and School staff that have been part of these phone calls and meetings uh to recommend the full electric unfortunately so before we move forward with uh design heading into purchasing I wanted to bring it before the committee um because of the stated goals of the committee and the district thank you Dr kosing member Russo um if we could just delay the vote on the capital purchases until we get to that item in the agenda if that's okay so motion to table motion to table yes by member Russo seconded by member Graham all those in favor I all is opposed um Capital purchases is tabled thank you Dr pushing we have um superintendent updates and comments I'm going to turn over to Dr Maurice Edwardson our superintendent good evening Welcome to our first school committee meeting of the Year I hope you all had a restful and enjoyable summer and that you're as excited as I am to dive into a new school year full of possibilities before we get started I'd like to acknowledge the efforts of everyone who worked tirelessly over the summer to prepare for this school year whether it was undergoing professional development updating curricula or getting our facilities ready your hard work has not gone unnoticed throughout the summer and in the early stages of the school year we were fortunate to receive multiple donations of school supplies from our Medford community I want to thank mayor Lango Kern and everyone who donated to the mayor's annual summer school supply drive while also recognizing our Medford High girls varsity basketball team for dropping the supplies off at the high school I'd also like to thank the Members Plus Credit Union located on High Street for donating 50 backpacks full of school supplies last week to everyone who donated to our schools we sincerely appreciate your warmth and kindness I also would like to thank the Medford Family Network for donations to the schools as well again thank you for your support of the Medford Public Schools the 20242 school year unofficially began on Monday August 19th during new teacher induction week with over over 60 new Educators and Par professionals across the district at that point in time the week served as a tremendous opportunity to welcome our new staff to Medford among the many activities they participated in was a tour of our beautiful city our new Educators visited tus University the Medford Public Library and here the chambers of City Hall where they spoke with the mayor I want to thank tus University community relations director Roco dco the Medford Public Library and mayor Lango Kern for hosting our new Educators and informing them about our community also I would like to send a special thank you to Medford High School assistant principal Mr David BL and Brooks Elementary School kindergarten teacher Miss Maria machell two longtime residents with extensive knowledge of our city for leading the the tour I'd like to welcome our new administrators as well joining us for this school year many of them you've already met at the end of the school year so I will not reintroduce them again but I would like to formally welcome Miss Katie Bradley who was named as our special education coordinator for the mck and the Roberts Elementary School I also want to welcome Miss Suzanne fee who is our coordinator of Art who you'll be hearing from later on while recapping our summer programming lastly but definitely not least among our other new administrative hires I'd like to formally welcome again Miss Jennifer silver a longtime nurse at Medford Public Schools who recently became our director of Health Services we're so lucky to have all of you here with us in Medford so on Monday August 26th that was the first day of school for all of our teachers and staff members we all gathered at Medford High School gym before staff dispersed to their respective buildings it was wonderful to see so many familiar faces and feel the excitement buzzing through the air on Tuesday August 27th that was our first day of school for our students in grades 1 through 12 and I had the privilege of visiting all of our schools across the first few days of the New Year our students reconnected with friends met their new teachers and began to understand their new surroundings The Passion of our teachers Administration and staff was evident throughout the district with our Meep program beginning on Tuesday September 3rd and kindergarten students following that Wednesday joining our hallways our school Community is officially all together again so now I will transition to news happening across the district Medford High School made national headlines this summer for their positive work in battling chronic absenteeism chronic absenteeism is defined as when students Miss 10% of the school year to battle this issue among many initiatives implemented by high school principal Miss cabal and her team students had the opportunity to use the gym during lunch hours for organized Sports and other supervised activities as long as they attended all of their classes this use of the gym space quickly gained popularity amongst the students leading to Medford High School experiencing one of the steepest declines in chronic absenteeism among all Massachusetts high schools this story was first featured in the Associated Press and given that they are a wire news service was featured across the country in various Outlets such as the Boston Globe The Seattle Times the US News and World Report and more NBC 10 also stopped by a few days later to speak with Miss cabal and our students in a video package that featured on the Nightly News and in digital Outlets nbc10 went on to inform us that this story is one of their most viewed videos on both Tik Tock and YouTube shorts so congratulations on going viral Miss cabal we are so thankful for the collaboration Miss MCG miss m Miss cabal and the staff at Medford High School and our students have shown towards tackling this important issue of chronic absenteeism the tremendous reach of this story is gratifying for our school leaders and a marvelous example of the impact we have as Educators last week moving to the sports realm the United Soccer Coaches team academic achievement award was presented to the Medford high school Mustangs girls soccer team for the fourth consecutive year recognizing their academic accomp accomplishments over the 2324 school year the team's achievement of a 3.25 or higher composite grade point average encompassing all players earn them this unique distinction notably they are one of only six Massachusetts High School girls soccer teams to receive the award this year to our players and coaches coach Roco sieri we are so proud of you for fostering an environment of success both on the field and in the classroom thank you for proudly representing Medford also last week was the beginning of our fall Sports SE season for our high school teams and Mustang nation has had a terrific start to The Fall season last Thursday our boys and girls varsity and junior varsity soccer teams won their opening matches of the year we have also seen season season openers for our boys and girls cross country teams our boys golf team and our own football team this coming Thursday you are all invited our football team will play their first home game of the year at hormell Stadium show your Medford Pride while cheering on our players chair leaders band students color guard and all of Mustang Nation the game kicks off at 6: pm on Thursday September 12th throughout this week Medford will be celebrating National arts and education week our robust arts program encompassing all facets of Performing and visual arts encourages students to express their creativity and let their personality shine through their work as we have settled into the year all art and music classes in grades K through 12 are in full swing the marching band will be making its debut at this week's football game all fourth grade students will be getting a band and Orchestra demonstration this week and signups for the instrumental programs will be open after that additionally auditions for The Fall drama club um presentation will happen this week as well so again please pay attention a lot of wonderful things happening in the arts for our listening community members this week is the kickoff of all of our school curriculum nights curriculum nights serve as a wonderful opportunity for parents and caregivers to meet your child's teacher and school leaders parents and caregivers will hear more about what your child will be learning throughout the school year the Robert's Elementary School and the Andrews Middle School their curriculum night will take place tomorrow Tuesday September 10th the missu and Brooks Elementary School will host their curriculum nights on Wednesday September 11th the mlin middle school will host their curriculum night on Thursday September 12th the festivities will carry into next week when the mlin elementary school will host their curriculum night on Tuesday September 17th lastly but definitely not least Medford High School will hold their curriculum night on Thursday September 19th all are welcome to attend please visit your respective child School website for start times and additional information I also want to just notify the community that next Wednesday September 18th will be our half day teachers will be undergoing professional development sessions in the afternoon these professional development sessions often provide opportunities for teachers to collaborate with peers share experiences build a supportive professional community and this collaboration leads to a more cohesive School culture and Collective problem solving so before preview previewing the rest of tonight's agenda and in reflection of the events that took place last week in Winder Georgia and ahead of the 23rd anniversary of September 11th I just want to take a brief moment to speak and share on these two tragedies that have left an indelible mark on our nation and on so many lives we will always remember those who were lost honor The Bravery of First Responders and acknowledge the strength and resilience of all who were affected by these senseless attacks all of our Medford Public School staff were reminded again earlier this morning of our school safety protocols through a communication staff are encouraged to reach out to building principls and Senior administrators with any questions relating to our safety procedures later this evening there will be um a brief mention during the operations presentation um later today in our schools we do strive to foster a community of empathy understanding and respect it is important for us to come together to remember and to support one another throughout the year we uphold the values of unity and compassion that were so profoundly demonstrated in the aftermath of these tragedies so today's agenda is packed with important topics that will Encompass wide ranging information about Medford Public Schools we will hear about several grant opportunities um that Medford Public Schools has been fortunate enough to receive and we have School principles here with us this evening we have uh principal Miss croll of the Roberts Elementary School and our principal Miss cabal here this evening who will be presenting at different points we also will hear about summer programming achievements presented by assistant superintendent Dr gusi our director of pupil Services Miss Joan Bowen our director of Arts um Miss Suzanne fee our director of English Learners Mr Paul tashera and miss our principal Miss cabal from the Medford High School these individuals along with many others helped shape a great summer in Medford for our students and families immediately following that there will be a report on enrollment and Personnel update from Dr gusi and the final official presentation will be by Dr Dr Peter Cushing um giving us an update on operations happening in the Medford Public Schools I also want to take a moment to congratulate Dr Cushing and his wife Megan who earlier this summer welcomed a beautiful baby girl to their family so congratulations on your new addition Dr kushen I also would like to just take a moment to say that there was originally a mistake M AK in the first posted um agenda that listed the condolences and by mistake we mistakenly listed miss Karen mlin Devine on the condolences section I do want to share that um miss Karen mlin deine and myself we had the opportunity to speak today she is alive and well has fully accepted our um apology for the error that took place when um we were sending condolences to her aunt Miss Pauline Leno Davis Len Davis but we want to just say um thank you Miss mlin Devine for um your understanding and um we apologize for that Miss uh the mistake that took place with the listing I want to just say to all thank you for being here this evening for your unwavering commitment to our schools in Medford and I am looking forward to a great year ahead thank you thank you Dr Edward Vincent number two we have recommendation to approve $35,000 Grant from the Cummings Foundation to the Center for citizenship and social responsibility which is our ccsr group for the 2024 2025 school year I'm going to turn over to you again Dr robbert Vincent so good evening again um this recommendation to approve in 2021 the Medford Public Schools was awarded $350,000 from the Cummings Foundation we are truly truly grateful for the partnership of Mr Cummings and the Cummings Foundation supporting the Medford Public Schools in a variety of capacities this $355,000 um is one of the installments that we will be receiving for um the next 10 years and so this is just for um the school committee to recognize that you did approve the full Grant in the amount of $350,000 in 2021 but we want to acknowledge every time we receive this generous donation from the comings foundation and so I just want to bring this before the committee again thank you you thank you Dr Edward vinon is there a motion for approval mayor member Graham I just have a quick question or a comment um if if possible when these um recommendations come before us if there is anything sort of I I guess I'll say unusual about the what the grant requirements are that those be listed and the reason it popped up as I was reading this was I remember hearing during the budget that there are particular stipulations in this grant about how we compensate our staff so I would call that noteworthy and just to sort of continue to remind folks about what our requirements are to in order to accept and be in compliance with these grants so like the letter that is attached talks about an impact report um that's important because we want to make sure we're doing those things but if there are other things that sort of outline or restrict or govern in some way our operations those things need to be called out in the memo as well so that we are just clear on what those things are before we approve motion to approve thank you and I do believe part of the stipulation for the Cummings Grant is that we formally um State when we receive it that that's how it was explained to me so I'll make sure to do that thank you thank you motion for approval second by member Graham seconded by member reinfeld all those in favor I all those opposed recommendation is approved number three we have recommendation to approve 50,000 uh $50,000 Grant from Ernie Bach Jr music drives us organization to the Roberts Elementary School Miss Michelle Crowell principal of the elementary school of the Roberts is here to present thank you welcome good evening thank you for having me here tonight to share some exciting news from the Robert school after a successful concert last February where approximately 700 parents attended it was pretty apparent that we were in need of some updated musical equipment to continue to produce musical performances of this magnitude in collaboration with Dr Stern our Music Teacher and Miss Tara shest a Robert School parent the Robert School submitted a grant through Ernie Bach Jr's music drive us drives us Foundation this is a competitive grant that schools and organizations in New England can apply for to support existing music programs over the summer the music drives us Foundation notified the Roberts that they were going to award us a grant to purchase 40 new violins for our string students a new grand piano new student risers a classroom set of ukuleles and a new electric keyboard totaling approximately $50,000 we are truly grateful to the music drives us foundation for this generous grant that will allow us to provide our students with the highest quality music education thank you wonderful Miss Crow thank you please please thank um the par the parent who helped yes yeah apply for this grant I'm G to turn it over to member reinfeld and member rousel I have a question um is there a limitation on the number of schools from a district who can apply for this kind of thing I don't think that there's a limitation so there's some different criteria so um we appli applied specifically for equipment um but there are some different categories um andan it's because I love this and you know I have K the robber so I'm super excited that I also want to be thinking about our other elementary schools and Equity across the district I would encourage folks to apply um he'll be delivering so Ernie Bach Jr will be coming to the the Roberts to do a personal delivery um I'll let you all know he wants to he was inviting everybody and he shows up with his truck so we don't have the equipment yet but he will be delivering everything to our school um and it really just gives opportunity for our kids with music I think the ukulele set is going to be something that you know our kids learn recorder which is really exciting but at the same time like ukuleles are just so cool right and so now our kids will have an opportunity to learn the ukulele in our music class um so it's exciting that's great thank you Meo do you still have a question that was it okay is so obviously there must be a motion for approval of $50,000 by member in TOA do I have a second my member brandley um all those in favor I all those opposed motion is passed thank you excellent I'll invite you all when he comes sounds great number four we have a recommendation to approve 200,000 a $200,000 Grant from the bar Foundation to Medford High School Miss Mara cabal principal of me high school's here to give us some information welcome good evening I'm pleased to share that the bar Foundation a private organization focused on providing all students a high quality educational experience has approved a $200,000 Grant to met for public schools to actualize the instructional Vision at Medford High School over the next 24 months the bar foundation's education program focus on the TR focuses on the transformation of the public high school experience to advance e excellence and equity for young people especially for students of color and other marginalized students across New England we're excited to partner with the bar foundation and appreciate their generosity as well as their support in actualizing the important work motion to approve short but sweet nice thank you Miss cabal um motion to approve by m so seconded by member ryanfeld all those in favor I I all those opposed we will accept 200,000 thank you thank you and thank you to the bar Foundation they also um provide funding to to the city um in our office of prevention Outreach and Municipal vulnerability work so they're wonderful thank you we have a recommendation to approve a field trip for the culinary arts program to visit Johnson and Wales University in Rhode Island here to present is Dr Peter Cushing assistant superintendent good evening Madam mayor M the school committee thank you uh as you know all out of state and overnight field trips need to come before this body uh Johnson and Wales is a world reenal culinary school uh that is offering 23 students Juniors and seniors the opportunity to come to experience a day there view the program their facilities dorms and uh enjoy meals uh created by their culinary students uh recommendation to approve this out ofate field trip for September 17th motion to approve mayor me member brandley uh my child is a student in this program so I don't know if I should abstain from the vote I'm all for it but I don't know if it's a conflict so not a conflict anybody is she attending she's attending still not a com yeah yeah think it's fine they're telling me it's good yes I'll second then it's gonna pass so yeah you always I mean I want to go I want to come EET okay perfect um motion for approval did I hear somebody did by member reinfeld seconded by member brandley before we call the RO member Russo um I'm sure you know my what I'm going to ask that we get the field trip form all that gory details that subsequent meeting um this is happening before our next meeting I can submit it to the committee okay um on blind carbon copy so there's no chance of debate or deliv just I'm not suggesting we don't let them go but we do have policy requiring that form to be approved before the field trip so um I'll pretend that I don't know about the policy for a minute I guess but um just you know let's not put these forward without including all the proper paperwork so we don't have that problem can I can I just ask a question on that just being a newbie if the field trip is within the first couple of weeks and we haven't had time to approve it because this is our first meeting and the field trip is next week how does that work policy wise just curious I just honestly don't know remember Russo um so I mean if the field trip was planned before the end of the school year for the beginning of the school year then it could be submitted then um I would say that we should have a special meeting with a one item agenda agenda we can be in and out in 10 minutes um but we we do have that policy because well I don't want to re rehash history but that's why we we do require that we approve um the form with you know that nursing looked at it and the nursing has signed off on it and all the other stuff and I'm com sure that will all happen but we are also supposed to give this the sign off on that so that that's how I would now now it's of course you know this could have come up literally a week ago um so I think you know we don't exercise special meetings that often we usually save them for like emergencies but I think we should use them more often um for things such as this so we can comply with our own [Music] policies there's a motion for approval by member ronfeld seconded by member brandley all those in favor I all those opposed motion passes enjoy um the field trip to our 23 students number six report on summer programming Dr Suzanne baloi assistant superintendent Miss Joan Bowen director of pupil Services Miss Suzanne fee director of Fine Arts Mr Paul tuxera director of eel and Miss Marta cabal principal of me high school I'll turn it over to you all good evening welcome back um I just have one update um before I kick it off thank you for introducing everyone um director fee is not here this evening so I will be covering the music and the art programming um as well as the early literacy and I do think if there are any questions um Dr kza was also instrumental in the early literacy or the literacy program over the summer so she's also available but thank you very much and I'm going to have Joan Bowen start first good evening and welcome back um so I'm here to report on the extended school year services that were held this summer for our students with disabilities so each summer the special education department provides a wide range of services during the extended school year uh these are for students who are at risk for substantial regression or experiencing difficulty with recruitment of previous learned skills so this year um our teams met and 251 student students were recommended for a wide variety of specialized Services um and approximately 2011 students attended this year so our special education um programs were housed in three different locations we had um programs our Access program for middle school and high school that were located at Medford High School at the missu elementary we had a r a wide range of tutoring and related services and at the Roberts Elementary School we had our meat programming as well as our connections program and on the right hand side just tells you the breakdown of the different types of programs that we um held as well as how many weeks they run for so the programs for our students who require um our most vulnerable students um is a six- week program five days per week from July 1st to August 9th and then we also have a four-week program one is a five-week program and that also includes some of our substantially separate programs it could be language-based program learning group program as well as Access program and then we also have a three-w week I mean a three-day per week four-week program and that's for our Meep students our language-based students and our learning group students um this is three days per week they come in they receive their services um they don't require the five-day program and then lastly is our tutoring and related Services Program that's also a four-week three three-day per week program that ran from July 9th to August 1st the next slide just gives you a breakdown of how many students uh were enrolled in our specific programs this year um and we go from our connections prek to 5 we had 33 students um we had approximately 89 students that attended for tutoring and there's a wide range in between um for all the different Services the related Services included speech occupational therapy Physical Therapy Vision hearing um and those Service as well as um counseling and social skills groups and lastly well not lastly but this is the breakdown of the um Staffing that is required to run our extended school year program uh we had one program supervisor this year we had approximately 20 teachers that worked um two were reading Specialists we had 34 par professionals who supported the programs and one was also a par professional supporting a student who attended summer fun we had speech therapists occupational therapists we also had an occupational therapy assistant school adjustment counselors nursing bcbas and our vision specialist providing services um the success of this program um could not run as as well as it does every year if it wasn't for the devoted uh special education staff who commit to working each and every summer um we we can't run this program without them um I also want to express if you can go to the next slide please um my sincere appreciation and gratitude to all of the staff who work this summer um a special thanks to Kim Clinton who's our special education coordinator she was our program supervisor and really led the way in organizing all of the schedules the hiring the transportation for this program um as well as all of the special education coordinators and etls who work tirelessly from February till June um in the planning and organizing of the extended school year Program scheduling and collaborating collaborating with families and staff throughout the year um so we will continue this program next year um if you have any questions I can take them now or if you want to wait till the end of the presentation member thank you mayor and thank you so much for this presentation I have a couple quick questions um so on the first slide about the 251 students that are recommended um compared to the 2011 that actually attended was the reduction from the recommendation to the actual because of Parental decisions or was it it it was based on Parental decisions so we we plan for the 251 there um parents have decided not to have their students participate they go away for the the summer months um some parents have elected to um have their students attend summer fund and not access our extended school year so there there was a wide variety but we send out a survey in February and we send it out several times to see who will be accessing the extended school year service so so we plan for that but last minute changes come about um and we also offer Transportation so students can access those Services thank you and then for the dates and times um slide with the six week four-week and um various programs is there a set duration for each program or is it the same for all of them and then it just depended on the total amount so we look at the recommendations that the team has made so for our connections program um one of our access programs those are typically our six week programs and then everything else falls into the other four-week uh a four-week 3-day program is typically Meep a a language-based program and our learning group program and then tutoring is always the three days thank you and then for each student that gets um directed towards one program or another is that based off both the recommendation of the department plus the conjunction with their parental you know their custodian like whoever is working with them day-to-day in their classroom and their parents correct so these these decisions are made within the team meeting so it could be an annual review or three-year reevaluation and this is one of the components that has to be considered on a yearly basis so they walk through they look at has the student experienced regression or the inability to recoup skills after say a long vacation or after the winter break the spring break so they take some data and that's when the recommendation is made and then based on what the the team feels the student requires then they would offer the six week the four week that sort of thing thank you so much you're welcome mayor yes member Russo thank you um were you fully staffed yes we were wonderful news I think maybe more so than we needed but that's I'd rather be over staff than yeah that's a problem not many people probably have right um and when we survey um whether people are going to participate um do we ask them why if they say no you know what I I would have to check the survey to see but we do reach out to them several times just to confirm but I I can see if there's a reason why I get back to you on that one may it just sounds like something that might be interesting just to make sure there's not something that you you could do differently that would and we also do we we try to ask further you know is it Transportation they required access so that's also included in that survey um but I can reach out to Kim Clinton to find out if there are any specific reasons and maybe we tweak the survey going forward to to get a better understanding of why great thank you thank you hi good evening everyone Dr Kush the El summer enrichment program we have various programs that happen starting in the end of June it starts with a onewe stem camp at hansom for base uh through star laabs which is a week-long stem camp for students in fifth and sixth grade uh they do robotics engineering computer design um they build Rockets they get to launch them uh it's kind of fun and after that ends then we roll into our summer enrichment program which it's basically uh k through eight uh K through five is at the misuk our numbers actually doubled this year we typically have about 45 students in the program during the summer and this year we had almost a 100 uh then at the middle school which we host up at the high school uh we run a Middle School summer enrichment program and then we do an add-on program for credit recovery for high school students um to get what they need so uh if they failed a class um there's it's combination of enrichment and uh and credit recovery and so and then we also offer tutoring at the Medford Public Library and that's for our secondary students teachers will do office hours just one hour and it's it fluctuates based on uh availability it's U mornings and evenings and students who need help with um getting their summer reading done picking out books uh any of their math or history packets at the secondary level there's a teacher there to kind of guide them through that uh through the summer and those Dr Cushing if you want I just have pictures of what we did also at the elementary program we contracted with uh high tech high high touch Hightech which is a um a science organization um that's in Massachusetts and Maine I think and they come and we get to pick what they're going to do I think last year it was uh Bridges beams and columns this year they did electricity uh they learned how to build circuits uh and so the scientists come and they rotate through the grades uh throughout the day Dr Cushing and then with the elementary program uh because this is enrichment and it's paid for out of title three we try to plan a field trip every week because of our increased numbers we actually had to separate out um so all of the students got to go to the Franklin Park Zoo uh but the Children's Museum and the uh aquarium we divided it K to2 and 3 to 5 five um to offset the numbers because title three will pay the admission the transportation costs everything uh for the students for the enrichment program Dr Cushing these are just various photos of the field trips that the students went on and the summer curriculum is tied into what the students are learning so you know there's an animal component there's sea life there's you know General academics that also happen and then these are photos from Starbase uh this was actually Building Bridges and this was CAD design for uh programming their robots too and then again as Miss Bowen said this wouldn't have happened without the support of the teachers uh this the list of all of the teachers I was also fully staffed I was very lucky because of the increased numbers that I managed to get some additional staff to support the program and then also uh special thanks to Anthony Tris because what we do is our program ends at noon um but what we've done with him is uh arranged that we have 30 slots for the after school program that they can go into summer fund I provide the teachers as an add-on so students can stay um and and get the full day in if they choose quick question you so there were 90 enrolled 30 got to do summer fund were there people who wanted to do summer fund that didn't get to so we took a list we so we send out a separate permission slip after students show up and register and and we keep a separate list so as students not every student that signed up could you know could go on to Summer fund because we only had the 30 slots we can't overwhelm the program but anyone that signed up for it so if a student was absent we could rotate through we would call and say oh you know child can stay today so almost everybody got you know that one wanted to got to experience it at some point member Russo um the numbers growing so much um can you talk about why I wish I had an answer it was a surprise when the registration started coming in and we're counting up the you know numbers and making the class lists um I just I I don't have a reason okay we'll take it like I said it gave me because the registration and we'll accept registrations the day of because again it's enrichment um again it allowed us to you know give us a little lag time because we had that week off to recruit um two more teachers for the program great and title three pays for all of this you yes it all comes out of the title three Grant godess thank you member and TOA thank you this probably isn't an important question this is just me being curious what CAD program are they teaching the kids are they teaching them solid works I have no idea what the name of the program it looks like the program that I was taught in college so the fact that we're teaching these students such a I mean like it might not be but it looks just like that program I use at a college level and at an industry level so I just want to so like I said they were Building Bridges so I don't know if that's what that program would be for but then the other program and the other picture was um run coding so they could actually program their robots to follow a track and then the the robots fight the Lial robot wars that's amazing I wish I had that when I was like that's crazy um were more than just one week yeah that's the only time you can get but I I wanted to take that I'm sorry my mic is echoing everywhere um I'll speak softer um I just want to Echo how great that is um because again like this is these are this is the time to learn these programs and you know it'll sell the future um through that so that I just wanted to send my regards as awesome thank you great thank you very much so at the high school we offered Fifth Quarter forly known as our credit recovery program um if you can oh I'm sorry it was led by um Riley Jones who was the director of the summer school program who's also a teacher at the high school we offered it to both middle and high school students um over the summer to start we set learning expectations and objectives for both students and for teachers for teachers um teachers provided instruction through the standards for the content area um along with providing Competency Based exams and assessments because it was over a short amount of time for the year that the students were engaged in the work throughout the year we offered 30 days of instruction so the program ran from the end of the school year to the first week of August we offered Middle School courses and High School courses for Middle School Ela and math were identified as content areas for summer school along with High School courses that spanned between English Math Science and history for the Middle School numbers we had 23 students enrolled in math 17 students passed 74% pass rate for ELA we had 19 students enrolled 16 student passed and 84% with an 84% pass rate for the high school we had for our math programs integrated math geometry and Algebra 2 we had between a 94% pass rate to 100% pass rate for the English and Humanities we had an English course and a world US History course that we offered um 26 were in the English 85% pass rate history 19 students were enrolled and 79% pass rate for the Sciences we had 18 students that was our bigger number of science students in biology which is grade n 18 students enrolled 16 students passed with an 89% pass rate for chemistry we had 100% pass rate for the five students that were enrolled in that program I want to give a special thanks to all of the teachers that were there every single day over five week span along with Riley Jones who oversaw the program and then the administration that was there for support when needed so the students who didn't pass what support is available what happens next for them yeah so for the students that did not pass it was primarily based on attendance so they missed so many days and they weren't able to recover the credit um they are working with their school counselors now as to how we can recover those credits in order for them to graduate with their cohort on time great thank you very much oh member thank you a question about the students that are entered into this program is there a process in which we work with them going to the next school year about how to you know either be more consistent with attendance or about how to kind of work with your teachers after school about making sure that they're not in danger of uh falling behind their credits just so that you know understandably that these students were struggling to begin with are their ways for us to kind of continue to support them going forward that they may not have had previously yes so we are taking a deep dive in the data from our Saturday Academy that we had running throughout the school year to the students that are enrolled in summer school and how can we best support them throughout the whole entire school year starting from day one um we are working with the school counseling department who are now going to be pushing into classes and providing workshops especially for grade nine and 10 we're finding they need a lot more executive functioning planning and supports um and then as as well as tracking these students so for like the students that were already for example 9th and 10th grade primarily that have engaged in our fifth quarter this year how do we make sure that they're not on track for that starting this week um so that they're not constantly trying to catch up and they're at at a deficit thank you Dr thank you so in June um I'm sorry I'm just going to advance my in June I came with Dr kza and we presented that we got a vacation Grant through the Department of Education um to focus on literacy acceleration for our students this spanned um Medford Public School students from grades one to grade nine um the focus of this was on literacy and grade level skills and easing the transition to the next grade level you can go to the next slide please this was already presented in June but as a reminder um students in the acceleration Academy the they were selected by invitation Based on districtwide data so at the elementary level for grades for students in grades 1 through three that was primarily dibbled data with some of the map data for students in grades four and five that was a combination of Dibbles data map data and mcast data and for Rising sixth graders and ninth graders um again some of of those students had Dibbles data as well as map growth and mcast data this acceleration program was a full day program that took place at the mlin school for one week uh the week of July 9 29th free breakfast and lunch was provided it was structured somewhat typical to a regular school day so that students were able to engage in literacy core literacy instruction as well as in Richmond activities we had a physical education teacher on staff and an art teacher on staff um each class room so the way the grant was set up was that it really was structured for small group targeted teered instruction and so we made sure that we structured that format so that within each grade level span we had multiple teachers in a classroom so each grade more more in the younger grades um and a little bit less as as they progressed but we had about two to three teachers in each classroom so that we were able to Target very specifically that small group instruction and so that in those grades there was a Content teacher or a classroom teacher and a reading specialist um we had for the span about 55 students in grades 1 through three 16 students in grades four through five and a and 15 students in Rising grades six through nine at the end of the grant um program Dr kza sent two surveys one one to the teachers the participating teachers in the program and another one to caregivers to elicit some feedback on how the program went um teachers we got a lot of positive feedback from teachers in terms of the format that we had for that small group instruction that they were able to work collaboratively and really Target the instruction and each kind of own some of that uh reading instruction so there were some future recommendations to have the program start a little closer to when school gets out some of the feedback was that it needs to be a longer program um that one week was not enough um which we have been in active conversations about how we can increase this opportunity Beyond uh desie funding through a grant um and a lot of the positives from teachers they really enjoyed that daily schedule they liked having co-teachers to facilitate with um and they loved the small group instruction the feedback from caregivers um 100% of caregivers said that they would love to have their students participate in this program again um they thought it was very beneficial they appreciated the ongoing um communication they wished that it was a little bit longer or that there was some extended opportunities for Extended Care um and the location we were very mindful to have this housed at the mlin school for several reasons Transportation was not part of this opportunity that we gave to our our families and so the students that were invited a lot of them primarily lived in that area and so we wanted to make sure that we were bringing the program to the students that needed it the most in addition that because our program span from grades one to nine or High School the mlin lent itself nicely to the space um and air conditioning um the next slide just shows a few pictures not many but just you can see the small group instruction Elementary uh on the outer and the sixth and ninth grade in the middle uh and again this would not be possible without the teachers and the people heavily involved in this program so Dr K of the humanities director was this program's facilit um she did a phenomenal job she worked very closely with our literacy coach Kristen Howell and then all of the teachers ring ranging from grade one to um grade nine with our two Specialists as well as uh nursing coverage if you have any questions about this opportunity before I move on to May member Uso then member reinfeld thank you um I noticed the comment in the teacher feedback that um four days was fun but the two weeks we did before was great what is this two weeks we did before we've offered a couple opportunities for extended time in the summer and we've had a couple different formats that we've used one year uh last year or the year before we've done two week half day program and so there's pros and cons to each format that you provide but for working parents half day is also quite difficult to drop students off and pick them up when we don't have transportation uh so we could have done the halfday program um that was not a requirement per desie but we felt very strongly about offering a full day program uh for working parents and also offering students the opportunity to have two meals and some enrichment with the Specialists um so I think it's I think that that outweighs a little bit of I would like to see it be longer than one week um but I think that the full day programming is important for a lot of our families great and um so desie is paying for the meals and the time in the school and all that stuff right um and they're not covering Transportation so um I think that you know that doesn't mean that we couldn't I mean you know we don't have lots of money laying around but that doesn't mean we couldn't Do It um and so when the invitations go out um I'm assuming there's lots of people who do not accept the invitation are we asking them why and is that useful information for planning in the future we we did do that and so and we had a lot of a lot of the the names that were listed on on there did a lot of Correspondence and Outreach to families and in our qu in our survey we had that question as well so I think the the double-edged sword here is that we are very appreciative to the Department of Education for their Grant um but the timing of it was late and so we did hear from some families that they have already they were had Vacations or they were already enrolled in other camps we did have a few situations in where um a student may have attended may have missed half of a day because they had something else and we just were very flexible because the timing of the invitation um was a little later in the year and if we were planning would have been it would have been more beneficial to have that at an earlier date so you're saying dese didn't even come out with the grant early enough it was a later Grant okay I know it's like it was a later Grant and then you you know you apply but you also have to wait the response um to see you've been awarded the grant got it thank you um and then it's great thank you it's a lot of work in between thank you me member reinfeld yes um remind me from June this was a this was to cover the program for one year it not remind me of the scope yes for the grant yes it was literally titled a vacation Grant so it was the intention of the grant was for vacation weeks or summer okay but for one year or one program okay that's yes yes all right uh so remember Russo touched on this what was the percentage of students who accepted we talked a lot in June about strategies for outreach and we did we did so we actually I can get you the exact number in terms of like a percentile um for the students that we invited we were quite successful in in that in the students participating we only because we did have a tiered approach yeah in terms of the students that we were inviting so we only had to go to that next tier just a few times I think for me if I'm looking back at it the pieces where there was more of that work to do was as we progress in the grades all right so we had a lot you know I don't think we had to really go much further for students in the lower grades grades one through three but for students in Rising grades four to Rising grade nine that took a little bit more um correspondence okay do we have an opportunity to compare the students who participated with the Stu students who didn't whether that's through early Dibbles early map or even qualitative we do and actually so this week started both our Dibbles assessments and our math sure did and our math assessments um so we will have a lot of that preliminary data um I think maybe the other piece to an opportunity like this where it was just one week even per dibles if we're using that as our as our Benchmark for Progress monitoring they suggest especially for struggling readers that we're not assessing until after 10 days of instruction so we would have to be a lot of what we would have to be using is this current Benchmark at the beginning of the year because it would just be interesting to see if there was any kind of significant shift in scores comparing looking across the cohort that was invited those who participated and those who didn't assuming they were on similar tear yes yeah and then my last question is it seems like there was a lot of great teacher feedback about the format and how this works how can we use the lessons that were learned in this summer experience to apply them or scale them up as we're looking at more intensive literacy training with Hill and others I'm glad you asked that question I'm going to answer it twofold first I would like to say that even some of the teacher feedback from our secondary staff that also worked um The Fifth Quarter some of that was also in conversations that I've had with Riley Jones and with um principal cabal um there was a lot of interest to F to use that model and bring it over to the fifth quarter especially for middle school students and that's something that we're working on in terms of like the difference that we kind of saw in some of the data between middle school students that participa in fifth quarter and high school students that participated in Fifth Quarter um but also too where this is our new our this is our second year in the literacy program and so we literacy programs are so massive that we spent every last minute of our PD time last year on literacy and this program and we still didn't cover it all and so a lot of the focus this year is definitely with Hill and with our school leaders is definitely on that small group instruction um so much so that over the summer we used teachers from the district uh literacy leadership team as well as school leaders we met in June to really look at our Elementary schedule and the teachers worked with their principles over the summer and we were able to not only align the elementary schedules across the district but our real primary focus was on that literacy block and ensuring that our students are present for tier one instruction and not forced to have to be removed from the classroom for their services so we were able to really look at our literacy blocks K to five and ensure separate times so that students have that tier one instruction they're part of that small group instruction and that services are provided at different opportunities so students aren't sacrificing any of that so that's a very big focus of the literacy instruction this year is that small group instruction and so when Hill comes around this year our focus with Hill this year is on um they're going to be coming into the schools once a month each building and they're going to be working on that piece of the implementation of the program and part of that is going to be focused on the ecre the small group instruction um and as well as the tier one whole group time does it affect the tier 2 model as well uh the the coaching or the schedule I guess both yeah so what we were finding and the reason that really precipitated having this summer work is is that we have a lot of students and especially in our Title One buildings of the mlin and the missu there's a lot of students that are duly identified maybe triply identified and they need to have multiple Services um it could be special education e related services and too often students were missing that tier one time with their peers and so we wanted to make that sacred so that students are learning alongside with their peers they have they have time with their teacher in small group instruction as well as having to leave the room for small group instruction and so we were able to the elementary principles with myself and Dr kazer and and the literacy coaches and the teachers on the DLT the district leadership team that worked on this all summer we were able to create more aligned schedules to meet those needs thank you yeah member Graham um how much was the Grant from desie roughly I don't want to misquote is is Dr keer on the call I am okay can I'm gonna toss this you Dr K okay it was approximately 40 grand um it just a varied based on how many student participants was around that amount we can get you the final amount but it was that was the General time frame I mean General amount 40 40 okay thank you um thank you for that and we've done this before and how did we pay for it in the past so that we've had before we did get a Desi Grant but we've also used Esser okay and is it a grant that comes around every year or not necessarily we have our fingers crossed okay got but I would like to be I would like to in conversations with um Dr kza and the literacy coaches I think we would also like to see if there's other ways to fund the expansion because even if this comes up again um if we were to offer it with the same format and at the same level of Staffing uh we would need to supplement that to expand it beyond that one week okay I it's just helpful to know as we um you know ultimately think about the budget and What needs to go in the budget um particularly because planning for this if we're doing it in advance is going to predate you know preedee any sort of budget hearings and approvals and all that so um when you're ready to present a proposal please do so that we can figure out how to handle that um proactively thank you thanks okay so director fee moving on to the last part of this presentation and I am saddened she couldn't be here she's very dedicated and has done such a fabulous job um she did not have a summer because uh director fee has spent the summer securing our brand new band director who's fabulous uh Michael dampier and making sure that these programs went off without a hitch so started during covid was the jump start music program to try to re-energize that has now become an annual staple and so the jump start music program was very successful it was a two- week program uh for Rising students in grades four through eight as a way to either continue their music instruction or if they were interested in chatting with friends get them involved um there were over 80 students that participated in in the jumpstart music program our brand new band director and music teacher Michael dampier was there as well as Emma Baptist uh Sophia Chang and we even had high school students that were volunteering and helping with the younger students um I think it's very important to note that there were very various string and percussion instruments that were given to students free of charge so that they could participate in this program although some families did opt to purchase the programs it was up to the family for the first time this year as part of jumpstart music we were able to include a color guard section so there were students in Rising I believe they were Rising fifth and sixth graders um and we had excuse me there were okay thank you for that um but it was wonderful and at the end of the program they they did the on the final day they did do a performance so that the orchestra and the band and the color um gave a wonderful performance to caregivers uh and other people that were working up at the high school that day it was one it was a wonderful um addition and it's important to note that a lot of the coordination was also with the band parent organization they've worked tirelessly this summer and very closely with director fee and me for public schools and so we're very appreciative of them uh and they were able to also secure a tough screen to help with that and then for the first time um director fee also had a summer art program and so this was free of charge for this first annual year and it was funded by the Medford Arts Council the Cummings foundation and the City of Medford Community Fund um it was a pilot program but it was very very successful high school students there were about 12 students that participated at the high school level and they did a Studio week uh on self-directed projects and everything was connected to social issues um that were important to the students um they created ceramic pieces cardboard sculptures paintings uh drawings and more for students in grades four through eight there were 30 students that participated um they learned and practiced different skills and techniques and applied them to personal projects that reflected a social um issue of their choice and then for students in grades one through three approximately 25 students participated there um and they spent the week using just exploring different art materials um and learning around the themes of kindness you will see on this last slide there is just a few pictures that director fee um included from the workshop and again as with all program ing this summer would not be possible without the dedication and commitment of teachers and Community we actually had community members helping as well um thank you if you have any questions I can attempt yeah no thank you for doing a great job with Miss fe's presentation and thank you to miss Fe for all the hard work M I just want to thank all of the staff and teachers that have done spent their whole summer doing all this stuff a lot of this stuff happened in places that weren't the coolest facilities either um so you know it's it's it's one thing to spend your summer working with kids it's another to do it when it's too damn hot in the buildings um so thank you to all of the too many people to list but thank you to all of this wonderful staff and the administration for making it happen too thank you for that and I do think it's important with all that programming if you added up all of the staff and the Educators that participate to make this possible for students um it's it's it's a lot and so we're greatly appreciative of that great yes thank you thank you you don't have to go far I think next up you're getting do a report on personnel and enrollment um thank you Dr goie thank you right thank you um Dr Cushing is just going to present I know you had in your packets just a basic overview of the enrollment uh so far in for Metro Public Schools I know you've probably heard this before but I just have to reiterate how fluid of a situation enrollment and Personnel is at this time of year um our reporting to desie is always the first October 1st and so there's a lot that's happening between now and October 1st so much so that even the Dr Cushing you may go to the next slide I believe in your packets on Friday you received this as an overall um enrollment View and so one of the things that I just want to explain is it's a slightly different format than what you're used to seeing um our data analyst Kim miles Works tirelessly always but especially this time of year constantly updating this for us and so one of the things you'll see in the far right is something that's called um BD and it doesn't reflect a specific school and so what happens at this time of year is that there's a lot of students whose registrations are not complete and that's for various reasons and so they may not have been assigned to a school yet which is why things are constantly changing um that could be for it could be medically pending and it's with um nurse director Jen Silva it could be eel um and there may be some testing with director Paul Tex's department or it just may be that they have not followed back up and have chosen not to come to medord Public Schools um or there may be another registration hang-up in which the registration office is following up with phone calls to try and assist and see what's going on so over the weekend if you just Advance please Dr krushing to the next slide um Kim miles had sent this because again over the weekend she was working on cleaning up some of the information and so this was of yesterday and this is the most current information that we have you'll see a shift in the total enrollment um because she was cleaning out and making sure that it was accurate in terms of students that have um moved on or decided um oh I'm terribly sorry um and so this is a more current view of the enrollment right now for the district I'm not quite yeah do you have any questions before I move to Personnel mayor she over there sorry yes member Russo um just Could you um just send blind cc to the school committee when the October one report goes to desie I mean it's not going to look terribly different but it's good to have you know I I keep these reports but I also know that there are so many any of these reports so it's they're not the important reports so it's prelim preliminary right now correct yes mayor member um thank you for the high school enrollment data is it possible for us it doesn't have to be obviously right at this moment um but could we have that this the Medford High block separated to the Medford High plus the vocational program just so that we understand how those numbers are changing for the for the current time is that possible that is possible yes thank you mayor yes member brenley sorry um can we get a regular update on on enrollment monthly quarterly somewhere just to see how our numbers are staying yes to you mean this report yeah sure just a little bit regularly just so you know even if it was like January 1 or come to Spring just to see where we stand just I don't know if there the time for that but just curious with you know cuts that being made and budget issues you know are we being supported properly you know nurse guidance all the things that we worried about back in May and June some of those things haven't changed so that concerns me with some of the numbers so I just want to make sure that we're where we're supposed to be thank you no problem Graham um I think the other thing that's important to call out here is the huge disparity in enrollment at our elementary schools um it in my mind it was always like about a 100 kids different and now it's like pushing 200 students different between the Roberts and the Miss um almost 150 between Brooks and miss and I just want to point that out um to to do a couple of things but one is to put on our radar collectively that like we can't the Gap can't keep widening like we have to do something different than we're doing today and I've talked to people about this a lot there's not an easy obvious answer short of like picking a bunch of kids up who live at the mlin basically and sending them to the mck or picking a bunch of kids up that live next door to the Brooks and sending them to miss so because of the sort of placement of the mck building in the city um there's sort of less that you can draw from to add to those numbers and I know it's a huge challenge but I I don't think we can continue to like operate in this fashion so we have to do something can I I'll I can respond after you comment that I I would 100% agree um I've had several conversations with principal croll I don't know if she if she wants to come up here um but one of the conversations we've had because again the Roberts is the only kindergart is the only school where we had to add yet another fifth section for kindergarten and their numbers are at a 100 um within her schedule so like the specialist schedule students go for their specials um there is no more space in her schedule let's say if we had an influx and we had to add another section somewhere in her school there's no more room with in the existing schedule so it's a it's a it is a big issue that we definitely have to address um quite quickly mayor member so so I'm I'm putting it on my list for the budget season um because you know options are the ever nightmarish redistricting um which is not a permanent solution it's sort of like my mind it's like a 10-year solution because people who think that they need to go to a specific school will simply buy a house in that District it will be a painful experience for people who bought a house near a specific school knowing that that's where their kid was going to go and then they go to register and they find out that's not where their kids's going to go um so I mean every district and has ever redistricted it's not a good experience for the process but it's necessary um you know in my time on the school committee we have moved programs all over this city because for one reason only the Roberts was too full or the Brooks was too full we were never doing it because it was right for kids it was always we were just too full and so you know some kids ended up on buses uh the newcomers program has been all over the place um and making decisions that are right for the kids is should be how we're approaching these things but that does also mean we're going to have to all experience some pain um in redistricting if that's what we decide to do um so I'm adding it to my list my short list of things for us to consider budgeting for in the upcoming year because it it it isn't like we just get a map out and just start drawing you hire a company a consultant who is specialized there are Consultants that specialize in exactly this thing and they figure out things like what happens to busing and like you draw the line here and oh there's these three new babies that were born this week on that street like they do all that hard work um and uh I I think we're long past the need to do that because um we we have to do what's right for kids and and if the the Roberts is literally I mean the scenario of like a bunch of new people just move in that District um that we're in bad bad situation in that that case because if we decide those new kids have to go to another school well they might live right beside the Roberts and meanwhile people who are really far from the Roberts right at the edge they're get getting bust to the Roberts it's it's it's not table to just avoid this very challenging and politically very unfun experience because as you said we're we're maxed out um and you know there there are other things I mean you know not that I don't think the principles all do great jobs but like we have a prin we have principles making about the same amount of money one has 177 more students to to manage um and I don't think they should get paid differently I think we should resolve that problem so um well guess we'll be talking about that more soon because we can't keep going thank you thank you all right so lastly I'm just going to give a very broad overview of personnel um to date we've hired again this is also fluid so we have had people um resign or retire as early as this week um or last week um and so but in total we have hired around 44 is teachers um we do have a new literacy coach uh we did have two new literacy coaches but one was part of the the resignation um so but we've had new literacy coaches adjustment counselors Behavior therapists um educational team leaders a new carpentry teacher um there is a new nurse to help with the Brooks and the Andrews school um communities we have um an engagement specialist for M for public schools um who just just started today which is wonderful and a new payroll manager um and also in total we have about nine new power professionals um but there are still some vacancies and areas in where we are hiring um there still about and I use that about 20 open teaching positions but please note that those range um from specialized uh instruction to long-term substit needs um because we do have staff that have reasons for absences that we have to co cover with long-term um Solutions and we still have about I think just just three par professional positions to fill so if you have any questions broadly about Personnel member brandley can we just have a copy of that that's not in our packet those two p with the Personnel thank you I think was no it's in the drive but I'll make a I I can do a PR copy yes yes yes all right thank you very much thank you mayor member Russo I believe that there's some members of the public who want to speak on this yeah absolutely name and address of the record Miss McKay um speak yeah Green okay can you hear me yeah you thought you were rid of me right no I come in peace um I'm actually which is not always how I've come in the past um so this is actually following up on um what Mr Russo just said so myself um another teacher from the robits tonight and a few that are online we're here tonight to ask you to consider starting a process of redistricting the elementary school for the 2025 26 school year currently we do have elementary schools that are overcrowded while some schools are underc capacity the Roberts Elementary School currently has 594 students enrolled like Dr galy said that might be fluid from when I wrote this at this time second only to medf Vocational Technical High School we are the largest school in Medford our school currently hostes to meet preschool classrooms five connections classrooms and 27 regular education classrooms we have five kindergarten first and third grade classrooms and four second fourth and fifth grade classrooms currently our second grade enrollment is borderline for needing five classrooms our building is at full capacity without room for any more our school required a major restructuring of space this summer to accommodate all of the grade level classrooms as well as spaces for our reading Specialists adjustment counselors speech OT PT and special education classrooms there is currently not one open space available in our school with some teachers having to double up according to the website mass.gov in 2021 Massachusetts had 69,1 127 live births which was a 4% increase from 2020 next year is the year that this is going to impact our schools as the children will begin entering kindergarten we will see this impact for the next two years and are anticipating that we will continue to need five kindergarten classrooms at the Roberts Elementary School logically when there is a large number of kind Garden classrooms at a school the trend of needing five classrooms per grade level continues up throughout the grades as is the current situation we find ourselves in we can expect that next year we will need five fourth grades and the following year we'll need five fifth grades if more second graders move in we may possibly even need five second grade classrooms and we simply do not have the physical space within our building for this currently grade levels with the only four classrooms per grade level have a large amount of students in each classroom and we have students that are arriving daily we feel that it is necessary for Medford to begin redistricting the schools redistricting allows the schools to be balanced which creates equity and learning we want all children to have access to an equal education we want to be able to meet the needs of our students in a balanced and fair educational system and we are asking you to please consider this matter and create a plan to redistrict our schools so that we can fairly and safely educate the children in Medford thank you thank you Miss McKay heard loud and clear may I ask what that looks like is that initiated by school committee is that initiated by the district I I would say we should it would be a joint um a joint effort um I can Echo there is no room in the end no room uh no room in the cafeteria at the Roberts everywhere is packed and the Roberts has the smallest playground structure of all of the Just Just where they're physically located they're landlocked there is no room so we really need to do something but where the Roberts is located is also where we have the most triple Deckers the most apartment buildings along the Fels way so that is where we have a heavy heavy conent ation of families and the population is changing a lot in Fon Heights yep yes y I think whether it's redistricting or other options that there are things being explored um behind the scenes I know by by admin so I'm sure you're creating a plan and we're going to bring that to us um whether it be redistricting or X Y and Z because something obviously needs to be done this has been an issue for several years the Roberts that I'm aware of member Graham um one of the things that we've been working on through the msba process is um working with msba to certify our enrollment projection for Medford High that enrollment projection when when we um sort of get to agreement is how we will decide how big the school becomes so we've had to actually do a lot of really like interesting and fascinating work around like future projected enrollment and so we we have to give them information about like our live births and we have to give them information about um projected housing and and there's been a whole slew of information we've had to provide to them um I am working to make it a little bit more digestible than the because they you have to submit everything into the system and it makes it really hard to extract it in a way that it makes sense um so I am working on something to be able to put on the website so people can see that but it's been it's been sort of an interesting conversation with um Folks at City Hall about like what what is actually coming down the pike from a housing perspective um and housing production goals and all of that good stuff but I think the other thing that I would say is um I would love for the city staff to be watching carefully when Real Estate in the Roberts neighborhood like directly adjacent um becomes available because there is no way out of the parking situation over there and there is no way out of the playground situation without more space so I do think the city needs to do something seriously to address that because you can't there are 200 more kids trying to use that playground than trying to use the two playgrounds at missu and a giant field so there there's and there's just literally not time to walk to hickey Park For Recess every single day so something has to give there whether that building becomes drastically smaller in enrollment um because of the space constraints or we try to address the space constraints there's probably a bunch of facets there some of which are in our control and some of which are probably more city um City controlled sort of Endeavors and decisions so I think we need to look at all of that when we think about districting what's a reasonable time frame to get that kind of report of what that looks like or what models are being considered the enrollment projection report probably within a month or so I will have that up online for everybody because it is a document that we can share um so that piece is easy enough to provide um it's just sort of it's a formatting mess and I think it's going to be really hard for people to digest the way that it sort of gets extracted from the system right now um in terms of like that bigger conversation about what happens next um I'll defer to the superintendent but I would imagine we have to have some meetings where we talk talk about like what even our goals would be for that kind of conversation because something like that could start like this big and it could end up this big and it could go in any sort of Direction so we might want to think about sort of putting some parameters around what we're trying to accomplish so is that is that a special meeting of this body is it a strategic planning group I think we could maybe do it either way but I would think it's maybe a committee of the whole because it's such a big project right and hopefully somebody will be brought to to the to the entire entire committee within the next you know month or two sorry superintendent I cut you off if you were going to address I just was going to say it it definitely the the data for the msba which member Graham was just mentioning and um really trying to there there are easy solutions where you say you need a bigger building but we're trying to focus on the high school so we can't necessarily talk about another building but how we either look at different programs which member Russo made mention of that our El program has traveled to every single Elementary School at one point or another and so we have had to make programming shifts as well so all of all of the above is something that we would have to look at Specialized programs what are the numbers and um how can we do it in an equitable fashion but um the Roberts situation we we are definitely aware that we need to we need to start at least trying to come up with a game plan so I think once we have that the final numbers from the msba um the enrollment projections to engage the community the staff in um being part of that process so yeah I would love to see that Committee of the whole meeting happen this fall once those numbers are presented thank you um gonna invite Dr Cushing assistant superintendent schools up for our last report which is a report on operations good evening once again Madame mayor members of the school committee uh it is just the written report tonight I don't have a presentation um I do welcome you to come and see a lot of the shiny new equipment in our cafeterias or throughout the district that we've been able to procure as I move through this um so uh as I um as this report goes on there are two specific requests that I'd be seeking approval for this evening uh the first um I'll tailor a little bit more narrowly than in the written report um as it pertains to the Brooks say again it is hold on sorry y it went off it was the last of the five original hot water heaters and it failed uh in May of 2024 um we looked at doing an emergency procurement for it and just coming and having a plumbing company replace it however in looking at our sustain ility goals and looking at Best Practices for how we should do things um I hit pause on that uh as we were able to mitigate uh some of the concerns without having hot water with chemical cleaners hand sanitizer installing a 4 gallon if I remember remembering correctly hot water heater for handwashing in the kitchen um and doing some other mitigating strategies um so uh member rouso had sent a um uh some questions that are in here as pertains to this um if any other members have further questions on this I'm happy to submit them to the engineering company as I said back in the springtime uh there are a lot of things I'm good at I can ask answer engineering questions on HVAC um to only a limited to Beyond a limited degree um the our goal was to do something that was fully electric unfortunately as I mentioned earlier this evening uh the costs are extraordinarily High it also Al requires significant upgrades I did not mention this earlier it requires significant upgrades to the Transformer capacity um exterior of the building in the area uh that I believe that's in the neighborhood of $150,000 inclusive of the $349,000 price those uh pieces of equipment would not be ready uh for upwards of a year to be able to be installed to support uh what would be needed for the full electrification of this project at the mlin I'm sorry at the Brooks so um my recommendation is uh and as I said more narrowly tailored um is for the design and construction management piece uh we're going to have to figure out the funding allocation because at present $150,000 allocation in the school budget is entirely unrealistic um but this is a pressing Capital need um that unfortunately forced itself on us mayor member Russo thank you I appreciate that you try to get answers it doesn't sound like b2q actually wants to give an answer to the question I asked about after 15 years my my question was pretty straightforward is there any reason to believe that when this equipment must be replaced that the electric replacement equipment in 10 to 15 years will be any cheaper than it is today um there's going want to be a day when we're not going to be able to replace this stuff with with fossil fuel based um equipment and when I look at expenses like the electrical upgrade the infrastructure upgrade that's going to be required if we chose the electrical option well that number will get bigger and bigger every year I mean that's a lot of Labor um and big equipment so every year that number will continue to go up so in 15 years I don't know double triple whatever it be today um on top of inflation so um I mean my estimate you know is that we are looking at just being fine with an additional 185,000 pounds of carbon emissions um by choosing the gas option over the electric option um I really wanted them to do analysis like just pretend electric rates don't change between now and 15 years from now pretend that gas rates don't change because we can't know those two things but what would it cost to operate these two pieces of equipment over 15 years um I don't know why that was too hard for them based on the response it sounds like they didn't want to be bothered because this this sentence here frankly is really obnoxious it says um it uh sorry where's that sentence essentially they're saying all that we should care about is cost that that's what they're saying they're assuming that the only thing this committee and this community and Humanity should care about is how much it costs and if that's the case we should all get start with coal going because coal is probably cheaper than everything else um so I I don't find their answer particularly satisfying and I hope that in the future we can decide that we're not going to accept their answer until they actually give us an answer that um answers our questions it's not inappropriate for this committee to want to know this information as we are about to take a vote to pollute an additional 185,000 pounds of carbon into this atmosphere for one boiler at one school um I just think it's I think it's absurd that they don't see this as anything other than a cost analysis um and I don't know how else to be more ticked off about it than that I'll let my colleagues ask their questions if I may I I will say that um that this has nothing to do with our OPM or our designer it has been extraordinarily sobering um overall um the lack of viable options from moving more quickly to full electrification or to really move off of fossil fuse through these projects um and that's the best word I can use is sobering um I had high ambitious goals for us to be able to do those types of things and just unfortunately it's either exorbitantly costed to do it or the equipment does not exist in ways that we might think it would yeah it sounds like cost and time because of the equipment so member Ryan Feld then member Russo again well I would like to motion that the capital planning subcommittee in an upcoming meeting dedicate an agenda item to identifying a scope and timeline for coordinated electrification across the district because we can't keep doing this on a one-off as things fail oh this one's too expensive and they are they all end up being too expensive we have to do this look big picture you know this was the the last one to fail but what's next second what was the subcommittee the capital planning [Music] subcommittee do we need more language I got enough thank great thank you motions on the floor by member reinfeld seconded by member Graham um to have a capital meeting with on this with the subcommittee to discuss a plan um motion for approval all those in favor I I all those opposed motion passes member Russo um this just dawned on me when somebody's mentioned I think you mentioned um kitchen and electri okay sorry yeah um I mean we did buy stuff that we have to send back because our electrical infrastructure can't handle it so you you know when we decide we want to replace the Brooks's kitchen equipment with induction everything we will be paying this expense then because that we won't be able to do it then so it's kind of like every project that is around electrification we will either decide that we're just GNA well I guess we can't do it it's too expensive but it's like the same big expense in the middle of all of those decisions um and which year we decide which budget do we decide when does the city ever really have enough money to do that stuff that's those are big big questions but we're never going to get to our our goals around carbon emissions if we just every time we have the decision we're like well we can't afford it right now we're never going to afford it the other thing too we just replaced um and I brought this before the committee prior to doing it we just replaced uh a number of uh ovens across the district and Our Hope was that those were going to be electric ovens and unfortunately Even in our quote unquote new schools which I know we should not use that terminology um the electrical circuitry was either not identified or misidentified which would have related to even further and higher costs um you know dating back to original construction and development and trust me those buildings are built very well and um but just to be able to identify the circuitry uh there I don't know the exact voltage or amperage but if something trips with this new equipment you're supposed to call an electrician rather than have director Smith go and flip the breaker herself because there's a possible of electrocution so there's um it just unfortunately at every turn because when when director and I director Smith of food services and I started on this path of really updating the kitchen equipment for the first time in all the years that the kitchens have been open at the um five schools uh our goal was to replace them with all electric um but the time cost really isn't even a factor when it comes to um Food Services because we have a surplus there or for specific Food Services expenses unfortunately the challenge is the time to get the equipment in in order to serve and prepare for our kids now so in the report later on I talk about what we will be doing to slowly move forward but again it's something that we all wanted to be a snap of the fingers all right this equipment has is at the end of its life let's move to full electric the challenges with that prove to be I would use the term exponential as compared to what we expected thank you Dr Cushing mayor we do need to approve the the capital planning that the capital purchase um I'll make the motion to approve it because they need a boiler and then if before I call for a second if we could just make sure that the purchase and either a short description and the price tag is on the agenda just so we ar referring back and forth because I'm going with a little electronic copy um that would be that would be very helpful for the future so motion for approval by member Uso seconded by second member Ola all those in favor I all those opposed motion passes thank you Dr Cushing um the so the second uh request for approval by this committee uh I based on um previous work I've done in other school districts um student parking uh does have a fee with it the high school leadership team has asked me to come forward this evening to request a $150 annual fee that would uh fund um uh activities for um those students uh across the across the school uh and if the senior class members want to paint their space 50% of the fee would go to the senior class fundraising efforts uh for various activities throughout the um year for seniors um so I'm requesting as part of the rate card this seems the best place for this type of thing to live because then it would fall under annual review of the school committee um but would be designated to go to a Student Activities account uh senior class activities account is already set up we would need to set up the other Student Activities account to make sure that it falls within the stated purpose um for uh student centered community activities as requested by the high school leadership if I can from the chair I mean I I think we all should speak on it but it's not on the agenda and I don't feel comfortable moving forward with it until like we're transparently putting it on an agenda um because report on operations I don't think covers it that's just my opinion from the chair member rouso and then oh I'm sorry I don't me member reinfeld I'm just curious why this wouldn't go towards other Transportation related costs if it is a parking fee for vehicles and a yeah the transport there so it's student transportation as in their own Vehicles whereas the fees that students pay for a bus pass for the MBTA go to the MBTA um but we collect no other transportation fees um so it's more of just I would say parking fee as opposed to a transportation fee member Graham um I would agree with you that this should go on the agenda I'm generally not in favor of charging kids to get to school like no matter how they have to get there um I don't think we should charge for buses I think we should provide more buses than we do if you've been paying attention on social media there's a lot of conversation about buses um the the program around free MBTA Transportation was stopped without this committee's authorization to do so we have to stop charging kids to get them to school like it's our job to educate them and we can't do that if they're not in school and so like for me for any which way that we're going to charge families to get them to school it just feels like we're heading in the wrong direction I understand that we are charging some kids and not others and I think that is also a problem but charging more kids for me doesn't get us closer to the goal of not charging kids to have to get to school so um I'm not super in favor of this but I do think it should go on the agenda separately noticed so that um parents can um understand that that's what we are talking about so motion to um motion to table even it's not even on the agenda so there I can withdraw it and bring it yeah maybe withdraw it and then just make sure it's very transparent um on the on the agenda for our next meeting that would be very um appreciated thank you so mlin playground update um we had hoped to have the playground open for the end of August and the beginning of school uh there was uh an unfortunate uh situation where the playground equipment itself uh was packaged for a efficiency and at the same exact time um so that meant multiple pieces of equipment's parts were mixed in together and at the same time the playground manufacturer changed their labeling system but failed to update in a timely enough fashion their instruction manuals uh so a piece of equipment that may have taken between five and eight hours to sort that piece of equipment took approximately 40 hours so that's just one piece of equipment uh so it it led to an extreme delay the other thing that really caused a delay in uh visiting the playground during the summer uh prior to August 1 uh the intense heat to work out there um cause and we have put in I believe it's 66 trees countless shrubs bushes that once those mature uh the heat element of the playground should not be as much of an issue especially as we head into school and shoulder months away from Summer but working out there was uh a challenge so we have tentatively not tentatively we have scheduled uh October 8th at 3:30 PM as a ribbon cutting ceremony uh we anticipate being done with the full playground uh toward the last week of September we'll use that time to go through punch list items and other uh things that need to be fixed repaired swapped out uh we were sent the wrong color scheme for the weo round the man ufacturers accepted full responsibility for that um all the colors were designed for accessibility for students with vision impairments uh our uh carpentry shop and Metal Fab has is in the process of rehabbing the Buddy bench uh so that it can be reinstalled at the playground um and um I'm happy to go into detail if anyone has any questions about the mlin playground but in addition to playgrounds we also uh received up of $20,000 from the community preservation preservation uh Fund in Medford uh for three bike repair stations one at Medford High School one at the Andrews one at the mlin and for a significant upgrade to bike racks not covered at this time but bike rack upgrades at the mlin and Medford High School we've already installed upgraded bike racks from a grant uh thanks to Vivian Ortiz uh and other members of smart Roots school for us to be able to really um install those at the Andrews you can see those already installed our goal is to have the repair stations installed in the next couple of weeks here we're working through procurement on that member reld I'm just curious whether we get any um remuneration from these companies that delayed our process you said they accepted full responsibility does that is that just an I'm sorry is it do we so on this on this issue uh we don't see renumeration coming on other issues regarding the playground um the the the shed canopy structure Pavilion uh over the stage for lack of a better term uh it was was um not properly drilled so they had to send a jig out and that that caused uh several days delay that did come with several thousand dollars of renumeration okay and what about the parts that the the manual unfortunately nothing okay that's a sorry for that yeah but we I I will say that um cork construction and um cople wolf have done a good job on really being budget Hawks on this yeah uh and supporting this so no it sounds like the project is going as smoothly as I can and I just want to thank the mlin element I know right uh thank the mlin elementary community for their patience on this I I do as well and the principal assistant principal and all the students were still on horl yeah thank you um hold on moving on and while you're while you're looking for your next item maybe a thought process before the next meeting on the parking spot issue is teens high school students paying for a spot so they can decorate and have their own okay something like that just to think more a little bit more creatively yeah I will work with our high school staff leadership on on to the next Transportation um I put this on so that we can have an open and honest conversation uh so despite budgeting for and requesting uh additional buses uh our yellow bus provider has uh as to yet been unable to provide those additional buses um in particular uh those buses would help alleviate overcrowding on our Middle School runs as well as our uh routs at the Brooks and the Roberts as evidenced by the enrollment update that was given by Dr gusi um so these buses are really critical to alleviate the overcrowding and to also provide transportation to our students uh looking to get to some after care programs so the parents uh are not faced with that burden as they are in other districts we are um also working through with one of our new partners SNL saturnite headlights you may remember them from helping to put on the fifth grade Olympics uh they're working at the Brooks right now in particular and so we're uh have permission slip requests out two families uh for that interim time from dismissal to about today pick up by the that late bus was 3:37 in order to get them to I believe it's ready set kids and sigma um so we're we're trying to work the work the problem and um also make sure that we're examining our bus contract um by our count um you know it says approximately 18 buses um by my count we have four buses to completely fulfill our contract um uh based on an invoice received today for 14 buses so um in my opinion we're going to continue to press our yellow bus provider um to make sure that we are receiving the buses uh that our students need I know that there was uh we sent out a transportation memo to families I don't want families to think that there's a blanket um under two miles you're cut off or anything like that it's just because of the overcrowding we really have to take a look at each and every student by no means if your child is in a dangerous situation are we going to throw them off of a us um we don't have enough crossing guards in the city I'm working with the chief on that to you know post on Facebook and to recruit and to see if we have employees that could do special employee status and and work crossing guard lunch duty or whatever it may be um we're trying to solve and problem solve these complex issues uh to make sure that our families and students are first safe and then have the convenience slash requirements of life in 2024 2025 to make sure that their children are supported between the time they get out of school and the time that they are able to get home from work to be with their children um it is a complex problem that unfortunately is being faced Across the Nation when it comes to bus shortages e our our yellow bus contractor has the equipment they are allegedly training drivers and uh we hope that that is going to yield benefit it is budgeted for we have the resources for those two add additional buses if something doesn't give in the coming days we will put together an RFP to seek two buses from elsewhere if necessary however I know that this is a very uh discussed issue at this point through the chair did they say how long it's going to take to train that they're in bus drivers are in training do they say how long it's going to take for to get two more so I did speak with um Mr Chuck buiter who's the owner of Eastern bus today um they are facing the same crisis that's happening everywhere they trained 16 new bus drivers and two weeks before school started um 12 of those bus drivers moved on for different reasons so they were down to for bus drivers and they are retraining again so we spoke today in person I was also with um Megan fidler carry who is over our family and Community engagement um so he is working diligently I express the um pressing issue that Medford is facing and he is prioritizing Medford and said he wants to be able to provide us with an update um before the end of this month but I am going to continue to check in with him but he clearly expressed that they thought they were ahead um they have their own training but I think there's a lot of poaching going on and people moving from one company to another company so um that was the information that he had today but that they are working towards that um we do have 14 buses servicing the Medford Public Schools the additional two buses that were requested um we are not being charged for those additional buses because they're not servicing the Medford Public Schools and also because we are in collaboration or coordination with the Catholic schools they have access to approximately three school buses so that is inclusive um of the total number of buses but again we're not being charged for the buses that we don't have access to and then just thank you Dr Edward vinon just to follow up the training that the current um Personnel are in now is that a two- week training is that a four-week training um he did say it was several weeks I didn't ask for the specific number with the um CDL license they do have a small group going through um right now but he did say that the the you know that large group of 16 that they were really counting on um you know they didn't expect that they were going to lose 12 of them so it's a very competitive um field out there and he he is trying so I'm going to continue to keep advocating for Medford and seeing if he can get us some um harder numbers but at this point in time um they do not have the bodies and again the money was already allocated so they want to have the drivers so they can be compensated for the additional buses so we don't have the drivers to service our schools and families and they don't get the compensation because the buses aren't working for us and if somebody wants to make a motion I think since we're not paying for the two buses that we budgeted for as we hear of overcrowding issues because like Dr Cushing said we're not going to make kids walk home in a dangerous situation can we make sure that there's a monitor on those bus buses with that funding until these two additional ones come online so that we don't have any Li well nobody gets hurt and there's no liability on the city and schools so we could definitely we don't formally have um monitors but that is something that I'm sure we could definitely um try to post and see if whether we could get par professionals or other people who would be interested in being bus monitors for a morning run or afternoon run yeah thank we are also running calculations um the bus capacity is um for grades second and under is 77 uh for grades three and up uh is 51 all right so as we prepare our bus RFP for uh bid later this year I'm sure there will be definitely more conversations on that from this body thinking about um trans expectation across the district but as we prepare that um we are looking at what it would take for every single student if needed to receive transportation and what those costs would be um the rough numbers are uh bus costs uh about $115,000 a year please those are rough numbers but $15,000 a year um moving into next year okay um member Russo and then we may have a parent that wants to speak sure thank you um you know I I'm just reading an article um from this last year about Wester and they um they they got no bids so they decided to um purch at leaste 13 buses and that's sort of the trial of bringing busing inside um I think that the the elephant in the room here is that we want workers to work for 20 or $25 an hour and for every parent that has ridden on a school bus for a field trip you know that is utterly insane um because you couldn't pay me enough money to ride on a school bus every day no way um so you know if we want to solve the problem and I don't think solving the problem is expecting Eastern bus and all the other bus companies to find these magical people to work for frankly very much money for terrible hours I mean they're not 40 hour a week jobs um you know a solution that I I'm going to ask you if you know of districts that have brought all Transportation inside do they really run into these problems or do they have to pay their workers living wages with a pension and health care and I mean I don't know whether the bus companies do all that stuff well I do know that they don't pay them enough but um do districts that have brought this stuff all in house and have a union and all that other stuff do they have these problems I know I know this past year Framingham made the decision facing similar problems um Framingham brought theirs in I can't speak to I can start calling and speaking to Transportation directors um but I I don't in all honesty know okay that I mean it's just I don't know either and but I do know Framingham did bring it inside now I would say that's a one to twoyear planning phase is to be able to make sure that you can bring the equipment on board if we want to talk about electrification how does that tie in potentially to Medford High School plans and uh whatever types of solar arrays and whatever and housing buses there you know these are the types of questions does our DPW or how are they being repaired have the equipment that can be repairing them um those those are just like broad questions that I've already started to consider it is though I will say bringing transportation inhouse is a capacity question question of the ability for us to do it well and that would be I'd say like a two to one to two two to three year planning phase to be able to make sure that we do it well and it's not something that becomes more of a fiasco than it already is yeah I certainly don't think we can do that for this upcoming contract that's would be impossible I think um and I don't know that it's a solution I mean you know the the the efforts that Eastern bus and the other bus companies are going through to find people to work in these jobs I mean I heard I don't even know who I had the conversation with I don't think it was you but like during the pandemic all these workers went to work for Uber and they're not interested in coming back to a job paying less that is you know um I won't say worse because I mean obviously lots of people drive buses probably enjoy it um I would not be one of them but um but they all went someplace where they got paid even more with a lot more flexibility and all the other stuff so um thinking we're going to get them back if we keep paying them the same and this is the same conversation we have with after school we really want to solve the after school and it's 50 it's 60 it's $70 an hour and you can raise your eyebrows but do you want to solve the problem or not because we're not making new people so we got to get people to quit existing jobs to get the take these jobs it's really basic simple math it's capitalism um so if we want to solve these kinds of problems they can be solved but they are not going to be cheap the taxpayers have to decide do we want to solve the problem or we just want to complain about the problem because the two cannot or just complain about how much it costs because it it you can't have both well you can but you don't get a solution thank you member Russo May member Graham um I I have huge reservations about any idea that we would have to bring buses and house like we I would need to see a bulletproof plan that y um we're going to do it well because I think we try to do a lot of things here on the cheap and it never works out so I it would take a lot of convincing for me to agree that we have the the organizational capacity we lack basic systems and structures every single place that you look to think about bringing on something that we know nothing about I have huge reservations about I think we could maybe get there at some point but um what I would like to see is for us to own the pieces of this process that we already own and don't do well every single year so we need to completely re-envision how we think about bus service we should not be asking families if they are going to ride the bus unless we know that they're eligible to ride the bus and that we have space for them like we know where every kid lives and we should be using that information proactively before two weeks before the start of school to be mapping routes and doing all the things that we need to do so I I think there's a huge amount of improvement to make all around including with our vendor and if we need to have them come to a future meeting I'm happy to do that um it's a very complicated problem but we have to own the pieces of this problem that we have failed at as well and I think the communication piece of this and the planning um and really just sitting back and saying what should this process look like and when would these steps happen would probably result in a completely different process than we do today um so I think that is something we can actionably do whether we have two more buses or three more buses or zero more buses like we can get the registration process right and we're not even there yet so I do think that needs to happen um we need to not be in situations where we're sending emails to families after the start of school telling them hey change your plans like we sorry we don't actually have a bus for your kids after all like we we need to do better by this process for the things that we can control and it's not everything we can't control how many bus drivers quit training in the you know the week before school like we can't control that but we can control a whole lot of other things so um I do think I would like to see some sort of analysis of like how this process should go in the future because I don't think we're there um and this is extraordinarily uh complicated issue I get that and I appreciate that and I just want to say I know how hard people are working to try to fix the like unexpected string of problems that are sort of unfolding as the school year unfolds and I do really really appreciate their work we have a new coordinator of Transportation in our administrative assistance unit she's learning a brand new job that never existed before and having to do this all at Prime Time the office is frankly probably too small to have a director that shares responsibilities with all kinds of things and this and just want Administrative Assistant like there's a lot of problems here that we need to own ourselves and try to fix and do better by because we like if if we could tighten all of that up would this problem have been better probably um maybe not entirely but probably at least somewhat better and we need to do that next year because we just can't we just we do this every year every year it's it's chaos and um it seems like the chaos shifts every year but it's still chaos so we need to maybe try not to do chaos next year thank you member gr member brandley um I just want to agree with member Graham the proactive word was used and I feel like we are a district that is constantly reactive and it's aggravating it's aggravating to see that it's I feel like in so many different aspects we react to things that happen instead of being proactive and I would love to hop on board to anybody that wants to be proactive because I'll come to every meeting but let's be proactive we know school's going to start we know it's going to be warm we know that you know it's going to get cold like we know these things are going to happen yet we're always shocked and I and I it it blows my mind and yet I don't know why I'm surprised so so I think if we could be proactive that would be great we know kids are going to take the bus I was a parent that always filled out that oh yeah you know we live we live here and we're going to take the bus to the Brooks I I don't know why we we always end up in a predicament like this and it's for more than one subject and it's just like M gr said being proactive we know school's going to start next year we know we need the buses and obviously there's some stuff that we can't control in many different aspects but this seems something that that we can control so um I know that you said that you had a meeting coming up I would love to join you because I think that this is imperative that you know two weeks into school that we're telling parents well now we can't take your kid well you know and you said well we're not going to leave your child out you know if it's unsafe who's who's who's going to make that judgment you I'm not I'm saying that you can't but is the parent GNA make that judgment well I don't think my child can cross Mystic G oh well it's only a mile so they can I don't think that's fair who's who's to say whose child is more responsible to to Cross High Street or you know I I know that my son has said to me before when he was at the at the MCL Middle School I'm gonna ride my bike there what from West Metford that makes no sense to me it's too far you know what I mean it's too it's it's rush hour traffic there's so many you know obviously the bus to me would be the safest route for you to get your kid to school and there is the convenience of it people have to get to work this is this is a district that the majority of parents are two working parents and you know they they have to get to school and to think the kids are going to walk I mean I know when I go for a walk it takes me 15 to 20 minutes to walk a mile so what time are kids getting up what time are we sending them out the door is it dark because that I think this all has to factor into it and I just think it's such a you know a broad aspect of saying like you know we're going to make sure the kids are safe but who's who's going to be the final say and what's safe for each individual kit so I just think that we just have to throw that out there and like I said I'd be more than happy to hop on board with any transportation meetings coming up so if you can let me know I'd be more than happy to do that so thank you thank you um yeah um just come on up and give your name and address for the record and hi sure Christine Gala 116 exchange Avenue I just agree with these two women um my daughter just started the Andrews they usually get the bus um we live in like housing so all the kids walk up to Hicks AV in Main Street now I got an email um Thursday September 5th that they're going to be cutting the buses for a two mile radius well they're they're like 1.9 so I don't understand what's going on like so my kid is and all the other kids in the neor are going to be in Jeopardy Crossing Mystic G right they didn't even they didn't even think about this like we don't even have um a crossing guard there or the crossing guard for near Wegman like what is going on like what time does these kids have to start um walking to school 7 o'clock and then the winter time it's complete dock out um and I've been a method resident for 52 years I know I love Medford to death but you know the city plowings not the best you know so uh what are they going to how are they walk in these sidewalks I I thought I'd have more parents here for that but you know it is what it is yep I think there's been a lot of activity on social media so trying we're trying to calm people down because that M it too I just don't you know so I mean I don't know if the admin has an answer about 1.9 miles I don't think we're going to be excluding anybody from a bus but I'm not going to speak for yeah I that's what I got out of the so I think that the email was mic on yeah I I think the email was the the message was a blanket statement to let people know state laws regulations those types of things but that if a child is ever going to or family is ever going to be told that you know you live a half mile or whatever it may be all right that um we would look at each individual situation to say all right um you're walking through ruselt Circle you're Crossing this major thoroughfare for parents to also understand and um for the members of the committee to understand Medford with several state roads moving through it I'm not talking 83 but I'm talking the Fels way um and other state roads those are not under the jurisdiction of the Medford Police for crossing guards those are under if I remember correctly dcr's jurisdiction which we you're then at the mercy of the state to put crossing guards there um and I don't mean to be Flip or anything like that it's just a it's a compounding complicating factor of if you have students under X distance to school where if we could have a crossing guard we may face a barrier with our state Partners just as one example so we we hear you and I don't know if that I mean none of the kids in the neighborhood went to the bus stop today they didn't think it was bus so either they walked or um my daughter was actually sick I usually take the kids to school anyway um another parent had to put them in there you know it just we don't know what to do we didn't know if it was the bus is there is it there for tomorrow I don't know should I have my kid walk up and then she GNA walk back home no no bus stops have changed and nobody's there check checking your address um so I think there probably needs to be some followup message yeah it's a little confusing you know especially if if your kids have to well I'm just speaking on my kids if they have to walk underneath that bridge basically there's almost homeless people there or walk in near McDonald's Park there's coyotes there like I don't think they really had a thought they thought into this before they put out the email for uh I don't know that's just I just feel like there should be more we'll definitely be able to go back and just look at the different stops look at the distances and see where we're at especially for the middle schools okay maybe the first set of messaging should have been you know we're experiencing overcrowding and if you're a capable of taking your child especially if you live more than two two miles away please do so while we uh bus drivers are getting trained and we're trying to get two more buses online so hopefully the admins all here they heard heard you loud and clear and and I do know that it's state because that's State Road then we should have contacted State first before we eliminate and we can't get any um crossing guards like or cops cops even do it now right State Police would be state state police I don't think that don't know City it's just scary because you just want your kid to make I mean a mother came up to me today and said I didn't know anything about the bus and I said yeah there was an email whatever School mcglenn Andrews and she said I don't even know if my daughter made it to school I haven't seen her because she works like parents like rely on these buses because they work both work full-time like it's just scary I don't know know this is my first time up here so don't mind me like you did good you did good it was it was good to hear a real life experience um so I I think from this put your child on the bus tomorrow um and hopefully some more messaging will go out especially to um the area where you live okay yep all right thank you do we have another comment Dr Cushing one more you're good am I you an address yes and P Caro 42 Guild Street um I just actually had a quick question about all this bus stuff when did it change because it used to be only a mile before covid it was a mile and then they changed it to two for Co because of Elementary I think it's a mile for elementary yeah two miles for Middle yep got it that's what it is okay but yeah that's what changed my kids got old kids got old thanks you did it don't worry you didn't okay thank you we're going to move on we have no presentations of the public we have no continued business and we have one new oh we're not done oh um we have Eileen learner name and address for the record eileene okay Eileen learner nine Adam Circle Medford Mass you know watching this meeting is more painful than a lot of the meetings that I've watched before that have been very painful also because to see all of you guys who work so hard to serve the city and the schools you know scrambling to solve problems that you can't solve without money and um from the everything you've talked about today revolves around money and we're just not we just don't have enough money even if we get the override we still need more money and I just think one of the things that I'd like to see the city doing is pressuring the state to pressure the federal government to give the states and the city more money we need need more money and it it's not magically going to appear we need it for everything and and for us to be looking that somehow we're going to be able to solve these problems I think you know is is unrealistic we can't solve them without more money and I just want to thank all of you because I know from watching this how excellent all of you are and how dedicated ated you are to the students and I feel so frustrated that you're not able to do what you can do if you were set free with the amount of money you need to do it so that's it have a good night Dr Cushing I'll be I'll be quick um so um Freedom Way lighting was completely replaced uh over the summer uh HVAC chilling Towers serving the classrooms at the Roberts uh failed towards the end of last year uh we were able to get train in We did an emergency procurement through the city approved by the Commonwealth uh to have train come in to repair that uh that Chiller has two circuits one circuit is functioning uh speaking to the representative from train today uh that circuit will be able to uh handle the shoulder months he said as we head into June July August next year the second circuit will have to be repaired we have a quote of approximately $23,000 for that at this point uh received today um so we'll be able to really look at that um mlin um water infiltration so along the rear of the building we've had a persistent issue for several years now we are seeking quotes uh We've uh got two in right now for repairs and construction management so design construction management they vary between $65,000 and $95,000 uh again another unbudgeted expense that we need to be aware of for repair of this this originally came before the committee in November of 2021 um so since March I've been really trying to accelerate it but there are some procurement challenges with scope and over $10,000 we need a scope for the scope of work so it's a chicken and an egg challenge uh Medford High School bathrooms uh so 12 bathrooms uh received a facelift this year uh we had a tile painting company come in uh they we removed the countertops and sinks painted 12 of the bathrooms uh we deep scrubbed and uh did as much as we could to get the uric acid out of the grout in various places and painted the bathrooms new countertops exactly not a fun topic to talk about but um you know they really do look good we are uh really happy to provide that for our students and we hope that they provide the due care and respect uh throughout uh Food Services uh in our kitchen we've replaced and upgraded significant amounts of equipment in the past 12 months we purchased all new point of sale equipment five new gas ovens one new electric oven that's at the Andrews two new ice machines eight new milk coolers uh new steamer two new Kilt tilt Skillets and we're currently working with procurement to purchase six new standup refrigerators we're also working to install remote monitoring devices on our freezers and walk-in coolers in order to respond if we have a power failure we did suffer a power failure this summer and we lost $20,000 worth of Provisions uh so we're installing these devices to make sure that that never happens again um Dr Cushing before you continue are there any questions about what Dr Cushing has gone through he just did three updates real quick yeah sorry that's okay I just want to um you know the the bathroom work is great but we have all been to many bathrooms outside of schools and somehow the uric acid is not what you smell so I would like to hope that there's regular maintenance that can keep it from being where the the grout has absorbed all the way to the the board the blue board in the back uh because that's not actually what happens in most bathrooms in most places you go to um and I've been to bathrooms in other schools um like at Shore and you know they don't have to tap people in to do that kind of work because it's cleaned daily that that is our goal yes our goal is to provide uh daily cleaning close the bathrooms during the day uh refresh them uh and then provide deep cleaning as required we will be having a training on a half day for our custodial staff more than likely in October on proper bathroom cleaning techniques wonderful thank you uh provided by our uh janitorial supplies company Casey um I do want to say uh that we are also doing electric upgrades for tilt Skillets Steamers and an oven uh at each of the elementary schools uh and uh the mlin complex that work was already done at the Andrews um but we're going to move deliberately un fortunately not as quickly as we had all hoped to just do it all but we will start replacing that equipment uh as we can um there's further uh we're really excited about the menu items in Food Services the National Conference was here uh we're bringing on uh veggie burgers on a more regular basis Bento Box Brazilian Marita uh a ramen noodles that I have to say sampled it is absolutely phenomenal uh it it's restaurant quality uh and we're very very excited uh to welcome on board with Retta Smith who has done nothing short of miraculous work in her year being here and as we thanked other people earlier tonight I really need to thank Retta for the work that she she's done um we've also brought on board an assistant director a position approved by this committee last year uh Rita Tuscano uh she is really brings a passion for feeding kids and feeding them really good food um we're bringing in produce fresh produce from places like littley Farms um and we're trying to make our culinary experience something that kids see as a positive not as your typical School food options so m r quick question the the priority on local produce I absolutely see it reflected in the lunches can we also expect to see it reflected in the breakfasts which I think tend to be a little more carbon packaged I can definitely talk to uh director Smith about that um I do know that um we have in the past worked with Walden local meat um and so for we will be we will be bringing that uh on as well so I'll see what we can do for our breakfast I just uh um apparent this was news to me because I don't follow this level of detail with food um but the the USDA has regulations on the number of calories and uh I have a friend who has a a son at the high school who's like you know a man an athlete and the same number of calories have to be given to that person to somebody like me or somebody who doesn't need many calories and it's really kind of Bonkers that like 850 calories it doesn't matter what on Earth you as a human being need is the way it has to go and I mean I just I just found this out I found it rather unfortunate but that's those are the USDA rules I guess and um I think it's crazy frankly I mean some of these you know I was not an athlete as you probably could have figured out but if I was like 850 calories is a stack for some of these kids and that's supposed to be their lunch um and I just think it's really unfortunate I just wanted to mention it I'm sure uh two members of the committee who were recent graduates uh might be able to say that five chicken nuggets and some tater tots doesn't exactly make you a great crew athlete or uh whatever it may be um so I mean you know we are offering the free meals under um you know the state's awesome program for us to be able to do that um but to welcome students if you know and we're doing everything we can to make sure and director Smith does does see this as an issue it's just also what we're bound to and what qualifies as a reimbursable meal which I learned that for a six-month period of time um working very closely with desie uh Medford High School mck and Brooks uh is the missu and Brooks will have their lighting upgrades completed uh by December 31st it's a it it's basically a no-brainer program through National Grid Mass saves 50% of all costs will be reimbursed uh so the $300,000 project only costs about $149,000 uh it falls under procurement law uh chapter 25A uh as a green energy piece so uh working with Alicia hunt and other me Paul riggy um we started to move forward on that we do have phase two of lighting upgrades going throughout mford High School where we had very high uh carbon producing uh lights t2s and worse um burning at our high school all day all night and so we're working to replace those even though the building is sunsetting we have an obligation to the students who are there to provide a better experience and so that's why we move forward with that phase too but we will also be doing it at the Brooks and the misuk yes I love I love the efficiency of this I just want to make sure we're being aware of the effect that certain LED lights can have on headaches migraines for the student health reasons we have I have not seen that just yet I'm not saying it's not happening right so just to something to keep in mind proactively yep um sorry uh caregiver University we're working with the Medford Department of Health to create a caregiver University uh to help support our family just want to make sure you know that that's on the enrichment side of my title uh technology we purchased 950 Chromebooks uh for student use 120 MacBooks we're also moving to higher security so that we'll have staff uh have USB devices to be able to plug in to their uh computers to be able to log on uh with a multiactor authentication um so that we'll be upgrading our security uh school committee members you'll be uh included on any updates to that as necessary to log into your accounts um security at a baseline uh not just because but thanks to the mayor supporting us with arpa funds we've been able to replace all exterior BLS uh and the district with the exception of the Curtis tffs the key sign out form is at the very back of this packet we're being very very prescriptive and uh you know to many people's consternation just not handing out Keys uh we do have um I wanted to provide also for you the standard response protocol this year we uh we're continuing to use this it was implemented in 2023 but we added two tabletop exercises those have been produced for our uh principles to use with their staff as well a tabletop exercise allows people to go through a drill without going through and living the trauma of a drill uh you may have seen recently that the New York City schools have outright banned all um drills uh because of the trauma that they can cause I skipped over it in here but starting tomorrow morning uh you might see a crane in front of the mlin school as Gibson Roofing starts hoisting the six skylights again thank you to Madame May and her office for the arpa funds to support this project to replace the six skylights uh we've had significant water infiltration in the library we will work to repair the Interior Space once the work is completed um and we're sure that everything is uh completely done as far as um positions in my area we are actively hiring and interviewing this week and next for two custodial positions uh to work weekend shifts and we'll also be looking for substitutes building monitors uh to fill for when those positions are absent if you have any questions happy to thank you for your time are there any more questions from the committee I'm gonna call it a no we're gonna move on thank you Dr Cushing um we don't have any presentations of the public um or continued business but we do have um one item of new business um it is a offered by member rouso it's the first rating of policy AC non-discrimination including harassment and retaliation um so I am going to read this in its entirety because um I know there's some urgency to this policy so the Medford school committee and Medford Public Schools are committed to maintaining an education and work environment for all School community members free from all forms of discrimination including harassment and retaliation School community members include school committee employees Administration faculty staff students Volunteers in the schools and parties contract to perform work for the Medford Public Schools the Medford Public Schools does not exclude from participation deny the benefits of the Medford Public Schools from or otherwise discriminate against individuals on the basis of race color sex sexual orientation gender identity sex stereotypes sex characteristics religion disability age genetic information active military veteran status marital status familial status pregnancy or pregnancy related condition housing status ancestry ethnic background national origin or any other category protected by state or federal law in the administration of its educational and employment policies or in its programs and activities this commitment to the community is affirmed by the following statements the Medford school committee commits to one promoting the rights and responsibilities of all individuals set forth in the state and federal Constitution's pertinent legislation and applicable jurisdiction judicial interpretations number two encourage positive experiences in human values for children Youth and adults of all of whom have differing personal and family characteristics and come from various socioeconomic racial and ethnic groups number three work toward a more integrated society and enlisting the support of individuals as well as groups and agencies both private and governmental in such an effort number four using all appropriate communication and action techniques to Air and address the Grievances of individuals and groups number five carefully consider in all of the decisions made within the school district the potential benefits or adverse consequences of those decisions on human relations number six initiating the process of reviewing policies and practices of the school district to achieve to the greatest extent possible the objectives of this statement the med for public schools requires all members of the school Community to conduct themselves in accordance with this policy it shall be a violation of this policy for any member of the school Community to engage in any form of discrimination including harassment retaliation or to violate any other civil right of any member of the School Community we recognize that discrimination can take a range of forms and can be targeted or unintentional however discrimination in any form including harassment and retaliation will not be tolerated it is also uh it it shall also be a violation of this policy for any school Community member to subject any other member of the school Community to any form of retaliation including but not limited to coercion intimidation interference punishment discrimination or harassment for reporting or filing a complaint of discrimination cooperating in an investigation aiding or encouraging another member of the school committee to report such conduct or file a complaint or opposing any act or practice reasonably believed to be prohibited by this policy um there is an asterisk from um an earlier list about race um race to include traits historically Associated race with race including but not limited to hair texture hair type hair length and protective hairstyles member Russo thank you I want to warn everybody that the rest of the Title Nine policies which we'll be receiving in the coming weeks make this look like a paragraph some of them are like dozens of pages long unfortunately um so maybe we'll want to think about how we get through that in a meeting because we do have to at least read it once but anyways for this one um this is one of uh many policies that we have to this is this is when we're updating for Title 9 all of our other Title 9 policies don't exist let's put the past in the past um they should have existed but um so I don't I think the policy speaks for itself um and there is a number of cross references almost all of those don't exist in our policy manual right now but those are the ones that are coming before you in the coming weeks um so that's that and just for context the Title Nine um regulations have ch have changed recently and so this is us sort of getting into line with those new regulations um is there a motion on the floor motion to approve the first reading motion to approve the first reading by member reinfeld seconded by member Anapa um all those in favor I I all those opposed motion passes are there any other motions associated with this policy motion to wave this is this the sort of thing where we can wave the second reading this is very much aligned with the Massachusetts Association of school committee recommendations so motion to wave the second reading think we should do that no all right withdraw the motion okay so this will be on the agenda again next week for final reading got it oh there is one more all all those in favor sorry about that um item number 202 24-32 sorry did you ask if it was at all those in favor did we didn't take a vote I know we we we did vote appr I didn't write it down sorry you said yes oh good it's late thank you um okay item 202 24-32 offered by member rouso policy beb3 consent agenda will have Grant approvals and field trip approvals added after approval of bills membo yes um we this is a relatively new thing for this committee the um consent agenda I believe we just created that last year and it um I believe these additional two types of approvals or things that we just approve so um I think it was the last meeting or meetings in June where we're like oh shouldn't this just be in consent agenda and I think everybody sort of thought it should so that's why I'm suggesting we amend this is there a motion on the floor I I had a question sure my only question is if this is something that we need to hear from the Department that's requesting the field trip or we need to acknowledge the grant by some terms of the grant we would then just sever it from the consent ofenda to do that great I motion to approve motion to approve by member ryanfeld seconded by member inapa all those in favor all those opposed motion passes i' like to make a motion to um wave the second reading of the amendment to bedb there's a motion to wave the second in of the um of 20 24-32 by member Russo seconded by member reinfeld all those in favor I all is opposed second reading second reading is waved um we don't have any reports requested tonight um but we do have a number of condolences um the members of the Medford school committee Express their sincerest condolences to the family of Helen a jolos a retired cafeteria worker for medord public schools the members of the me school committee Express their sincerest condolences to the family of John J Bailey Jr husband of former Medford Public School teacher Janice Bailey and father to medford's Recreation director Kevin Bailey the members of the Medford school committee Express their con sincerest condolences to the family of Joseph tortur grandfather of Anthony tortor who is part of our district tech support team members of the Medford school committee Express their sincerest condolences to the family of Dr Melvin LaVine father of Ian LaVine from the Andrews Middle School the members of the Medford school committee expressed their sincerest condolences to the family Robert Irving and Andrews Middle School teacher and Medford Public Schools employee for over 40 years the members of the Medford school committee Express their sincerest condolences to the family of Pauline Lennox Davis Aunt of former mayor Michael J mcglinn and Karen mlin Divine since our sincerest apologies for the original misprint the members of the Medford school committee expressed their sincerest condolences to the family of Caesar a Gomez father of Brooks Elementary School staff member Lauren Gomez Mr Gomez was a US veteran and passed away just before his 100th birthday the members of the me school committee expressed their sincerest condolences to the family of Wade Ferguson or Wade Seer who was the a class of 2019 Robotics and Engineering Mustang graduate of the Medford educational Technical High School and finally members of the Medford school committee uh Express their sincerest condolences to the family of Francis P Frank zizo father of middle school teacher Frankie zizo and Uncle of high school teachers Brittany lenil and Kaylee lenil um if all could please rise for a moment of silence thank you um our next regular meeting is on September 23rd here in Alden Memorial Chambers Medford City Hall in addition to zoom is there a motion to address CH if if I may um point of Cl m in tapa thank you sorry point of clarification um my sincerest condolences to the uh family of Robin Irving who was a mcglen middle school um educator oh thank you um just wanted to point that out I also just wanted to say real quick because I know um some of his family might be on the call and as a representative of the class of 2019 um just really echo my sincere condolences to the family of Wade um I've been trying to figure out how to really feel about this whole situation as we've all seen it play out um but I wanted to just tell a quick story because I feel like it's an important message and I know it's late but I I'll make it quick um when the class lost um a perative Cod in 2019 um we were all extremely grief stricken and about two years later um Wade actually reached out to me um because we had known been working on scholarship and he was like hey man I'm sorry to bother you on your personal like it's fine you can always reach out um and he was like I'm really you know I was really close with him and I really wanted to do something for him and I don't know what to do but um I really want to do this thing that as a man of Faith he wanted to do um uh proxy baptism and um and he had said you know but I really want to make sure I do this right and I really want to make sure that I go through the proper channels and I talk with the family because you know I could go to their door if I wanted to but you know I don't I want to do this right and um so we we talked with the family and we um we got their approval and he went through with it he was able to do it um but you know something that Wade really stood for you know making sure we care for and consider for and love one another even when no one is looking because he didn't have to do that but he did and he made sure that he was at peace and the family was at peace through no incidentals um and I really just employ everyone listening that as we sort of navigate this grief um to use the power of community and to check in on one another um and I employ you all to text or or reach out to in any way that you can carry pict however you feel like you can um to someone you haven't talked to in a while and so just really really um build that sense of community Through what we have so thank you thank you member in tapa is there a motion to adjourn M motion to adjourn by mayor lungo Kern seconded by member branley all those in favor anybody opposed have a good night