##VIDEO ID:ucoZOAdkTf4## e F member member here and myself present uh no student reps I'm assuming because it's our 5:15 we'll let you know if they come on at 6 if we only rise to salute the flag iedge aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all we have our executive session upon motion to enter into executive session pursuance to general laws chapter 30A section 21A the Medford school committee will convene an executive session to update on negotiations with Medford educational secretaries asme Council 93 and the Massachusetts Nurses Association because an open meeting will have a detrimental effect on the bargaining position of the committee and the chair so declares an executive session pursuing to 30A section 212 to conduct strategy in preparation with non-union Personnel or contract negotiations with non-union Personnel um superintendent of schools the medit school committee will convene in public session immediately following the conclusion of executive session approximately at 6m is there a motion to go into executive session made by member andapa seconded by member branley our roll call member inapa yes member Graham yes member branley yes member reinfeld yes member rouso member yes myself yes that's seven in the affirmative zero in the negative we going to move to Executive session and we'll be back on our around 6 p.m thank you e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e from 1924 to 2023 are now available on our website to view there are many people with us tonight whose senior or Staff pictures are featured in the Digital Collection including our very own 1998 graduate of Mustang High School yes our own mayor Longo Kern again that's 1998 if you'd like to check her out this project was managed by the digital chome and wealth a Massachusetts nonprofit funded by our state budget and in collaboration with the Boston Public School Boston Public Library together their goal is to both preserve and disseminate historic materials to the general public before they deteriorate and become lost forever all yearbooks as well as a 1965 newspaper article discussing the fire of the old Medford High School can be found under the students and families tab of our District's site thank you to our library staff member Maria dorsy Medford High School era teacher in year book advisor Mr David Ambrose and our digitalization partners for making this project possible wolof wolof I said I am thrilled to share some great doggy news the Medford public schools counseling department has been matched with an assistance dog the assist dog will be a member of the counseling department working to support students and staff our newest member of Mustang nation is expected to join us after Thanksgiving our director of school counsiling in Behavioral Health Miss Stacy shman will be the handmer and primary caregiver of the dog the dog will primarily stay in her office at Medford High School but may occasionally be seen in the halls or Lobby when outside her office the dog will always be on a leash given what the dog will primarily be located at the high school we are asking families and caregivers of high school students to please contact your school nurse in relation to any dog allergies when miss shman and the dog are scheduled to visit a classroom across Medford Public Schools families and caregivers will receive prior communication from the appropriate staff member a wider announcement about our newest member of Mustang Nation will be shared with the community in the near future looking ahead to this coming weekend our Medford middle schools and High School drama clubs will each take the stage this weekend for their fall performances our Middle School drama club will be performing of Vaudeville take two on both Friday November 22nd and Saturday November 23rd beginning at 7 p.m. at the mlin school auditorium concurrently the High School drama club will be performing their adaptation of almost Maine on Thursday November 21st Friday the 22nd and twice on Saturday the 23rd the ticket rinks for both shows are available on our Facebook page please go there to purchase your tickets also tomorrow I will be sending an email communication to all families and mord public schools regarding safe gun storage we are a proud partner with be smart community volunteers promoting the messaging of secure and safe storage please be on the lookout for that for that communication and more safe storage resources tomorrow afternoon so next week all schools will have an early release day on Wednesday November 27th to begin the Thanksgiving break additionally Medford Public Schools will be closed on Thursday November 28th and Friday the 29th we want to wish everyone an early Happy Thanksgiving may you use this time to cele celebrate and cherish the moments and be thankful for the tremendous impact you've had on those around you tonight's agenda is once again filled with important topics that impact our school Community we will hear a presentation on our after school care for students by our director of family and Community engagement Mrs Megan fber carry next we'll hear from our principal of The Vocational School Mr Chad regarding our robust CTE enrollment and our final report this evening will be from our budget analyst Mr Gerald McHugh regarding the FY 26 school budget calendar thank you thank you Dr Edward vinsent next up we have our after school report Megan Miss Megan FID lary director of family and Community engagement hello hi there can you all hear me yes yes okay um so this is I guess less of a report or less more of an update um I am coming to you in response to some questions that you all asked a few weeks ago just for some clarifications um last spring we had I had given an update that was more of a report last spring I had checked in to say you know give an overview of how the the program went over the year and some thoughts that we had about going forward with um tuition prices as they compare to other districts and uh pay rates as they compare to other districts um and then some questions had come up that we realized hadn't really formally been answered so this is I think more an update to answer those questions that you guys sent over a couple of weeks ago um so I sent in a report uh so that would be I think that's available for the public if they wanted to look for that right it's just some some um responses of um attendance rates and I mean enrollment rates and weight list numbers over time um so those are for both the before programs at each of the four schools and the after school programs at each of the four schools and they sort of tell a story as you all have heard me say a couple of times when I'm talking about weight lists these numbers don't necessarily tell the story that everyone's reading so so sometimes these numbers look very high and it seems alarming that there are all these people in in on a wait list for an after school program and we're imagining that people are having to leave their job early to rush home and are potentially having to quit jobs um what I realized a couple of times um is that you know for example um three weeks ago you had put on the agenda that we would talk about this today at this November meeting so I updated all of my numbers for 2024 for and they they read one way um and then over the past week before I submitted the report to you those numbers had changed pretty drastically because over that time I reached out to families to say hi um just just in an effort to keep accurate records are you still interested in staying on this weit list and some families had said no we're not interested we found other things you can take us off I realized that some of the names I had on my original list of are kids that have moved um some kids we were still interested and then we were actually able to place a couple of kids in that time so again it very much depends on when you look at the snapshot of these numbers to understand what story they're telling I think that's really important to put out at the beginning for that number one weight list question um I should ask is this how you guys want to do this do you want me to kind of go through the questions one by one that sounds good thank you Miss FID lary okay all right so I'm just I'll read question one was current weight lists the school year by building and a comparison of the prior three years at a comparable point in time so um some of them you know some of the buildings they've stayed pretty static stay pretty consistent over time uh some of them have lowered um we maybe if we go through question one then question two so the the weight list story was really what I wanted to talk to you guys about about so is there anything that stands out that anyone has a specific question about for question one member Graham um hi so if I'm reading correctly in question one sorry um it's back away from my microphone a little bit here um what I am understanding is that for before school there's no weight list to speak of except at the Brooks and [Music] um we aren't that far away from being able to clear the before school weight lists I think um and um for after school the weit lists um the enrollment at if I'm reading this correctly the enrollment at the Brooks is decreasing which we knew um the enrollment at the mlin has increased um the mck enrollment has decreased slightly and the Roberts has stayed flat roughly um and um the weight list um is quite small at mcglen and mck um pretty consistent at the Roberts um and and uh biggest at the Brooks right is that correct yes and actually um as we go through the next couple of questions um which are looking at the other after school options in the area um you also notice the the percentages of those students on the wait list you know your correct highest at the Brooks um that are also enrolled in another program so it's again they're not just they're not going home um they are enrolled in another program and I think I think it's worth noting that I think the the word is out that it's hard to get into the Brooks after school program so a lot of people once they're on that wait list they hold on to that spot whether they've found another program or not in fact I did reach out to a Brooks family to say great news a spot has opened up for you and they were really torn she said oh no I feel like I have to take the spot because I know how hard it is to get into this program and she took you know a whole week to talk it over with the family and then they decided to stay with Sigma in the end they decided not to take the spot so they were holding the weight list spot because they know how hard it is to get into but then when the spot opened up they realized maybe it wasn't the best program for their student and Megan can you tell us what is the what is the difference between for the Brooks under the weit list for after school 127 parentheses 57 so the the 57 is how many students are are in other um private provider programs I realized after I feel that that we were going to be talking about that in other places but got it okay yeah um that that is helpful um so can you I guess the other question that I have when I look at this piece of the puzzle is that I think I was under the impression that things would improve at mlin and missu specifically because of City Year and that does not seem to have been the case so can you talk a little bit about about why um City year is a nice it's a nice add-on um but because of the um they they've been working with us but initially at the beginning of the year because of the schedule that they had and the trainings that they were holding they were not available to us right at dismissal which is the most um most important time for us you can imagine that's when the building feels the most for lack of a better word chaotic because there's a lot of transitions happening you know students passing in the hallway um if you know what's happening and you know that everybody knows where they're going it's very impressive but if you don't know what's happening it feels like there's just kids everywhere going in every direction but you can imagine that that's when I definitely need my after school staff on where they're supposed to be and alert because they have to be checking students in and we have a very short turnaround time if there's a student that was is supposed to be with us in our line and is not then we have to find them which requires you know an adult to break away from the group of children to go to the main office and say were they dismissed and we weren't told or to call home to the family and find the kids so that's a little bit of a um and that's where we were hoping that the city year people being on staff and on site would be helpful to us but I know that at the same time the school buildings were feeling the same way like this is a great time for the city or people to be on staff and on site to help with bus dismissals and to help with bus transitions there are a lot of transitions right at that time that require a lot of uh very alert adults and initially the city year folks were being put to work by the school buildings so we had a conversation with the principles and we had a conversation with City a folks and they were willing to adapt and change a little bit and we're seeing how that's working but it's not every day it's not five days a week so we couldn't just kind of give them their own group um so it wasn't as much the it wasn't kind of another that we could just take 20 more kids or 12 more kids to put with that staff member wasn't like that that we had hoped it would be um thank you for clarifying that I feel like that's the opposite of our impression of the value that cier was going to bring to the table so um I'm really disappointed to hear that because part of the reason we like made space in a really tight budget to be able to do this was to eleviate some of the real staffing issues that we have in the building and buildings um and if we're not actually solving those problems I'm not I would be interested to learn more about the value that the team is bringing to the table and whether it's Justified for us to continue um the partnership so I think that's a you know not a question you can answer Miss Fiddler Cary because that's a cityyear question but um just something uh that I think we should all be thinking about um and then you know I think I mean I do feel like I obligated to say that they have said they they're willing to work with us but so then you know so I'm happy to sit down and and try and Rec rework it again um but it just requires me being like well can I have the people five days a week which I'm not sure that that's what the model is so oh I I thought it was the model so I would definitely like to know more about that because um you know this is an annual expense and if we're going to spend money we need to make sure we getting um what we thought we were getting from it and I get that there's um stuff that happens in a new relationship that you work out the Kinks but um if we're if the Kinks are forever then um that limits um the value so we just need to sort that out um I guess the other thing that um you know I know when we talk about um need the the before school program is not the biggest need it's not the thing people email us about um but I do think it strikes me as the most fixable problem like it it strikes me as there's a handful of kids and there is space um to be able to take in eight kids at the Brooks one kid at mck and two kids at the Roberts so um I would be interested to know from your perspective like what would it take for us to um be able to clear those before school weight lists and how can we um how can how can we help sort of push that yeah I can say that um so for it's some of the students it might require specialized staff um as we've you know we've had that in the past at the Roberts where we had to have staff that were specifically trained to meet the needs of students um and so that is the case for a couple of these kids on the weight list um at the at the misuk we realized uh we had two staff members originally and now we're down to just one the second staff member who was new to the district this year and signed on right away realized that she actually couldn't continue so we just have one staff member um and so that one student on the missu weight list joined after the second person had left so I hesitate to keep adding to that group until a second staff member can be hired um because just as you know if there's an emergency and there's only if they're up in the gym and there's only one adult it's just not an ideal situation um but it it's really a matter of having the staff that can meet the needs of the specific students that we're talking about but I mean if we can find those staff then I definitely think you're right that that's a really doable it's not that one's not a space issue for a change yeah so I guess I'm wondering if um perhaps working with um Miss Bowen to identify what those students needs are and identify staff that may be a match and maybe put out some emails letting the right people know that we are looking for somebody with a particular skill set um who might be interested um I know it's a it's only an hour in the morning so there may be there may be people willing to do it if we can be specific about what we need um and you know again it's not the biggest problem that we have when it comes to the um overall issue but it is a fixable one probably perhaps more fixable than the than the other issues um as far as I can tell anyone else on question one or shall I go ahead to the the next because I I agree that maybe the questions will kind of overlap yes please continue okay so question number two says enrollment information at outside programs and a summary of the offerings Medford is supporting by Transportation um so these out what we're calling outside programs are the private providers in the City of Medford so um many of you have heard of Grace Works Sigma martial arts Salem Street karate Studios Medford Youth Center YMCA um the The Ready Set kids uh Ready Set kids has another program called rsk Steam and also the West Medford Community Center um and these I've I have a good working relationship with all of these guys we keep in touch with each other regularly um unfortunately I did not get updated roster numbers from Salem Street karate Studios so the number you'll see that number in parenthesis that's only the number of students that go by bus so um that doesn't capture any of the Roberts Studios I hadn't heard back from them um in time to get the report out but um you'll notice that we do transport 237 students uh to these after school programs from our elementary schools by bus all of them so um and that that do tailes nice with uh question three or overlaps with question three which is for each weight list the percent of students on our weight list who are enrolled elsewhere um I realized I didn't fill in that bottom that bottom line which is the actual percentages so for Brooks it's 46% of the weight list are enrolled in one of these private provider programs at mlin it's 20% Muk is 14% And Roberts is 29% um and if you look at the numbers of how many students are enrolled in the different programs this it'll show what I said before which is the Brooks students stay on our wait list where Muk and mlin for example they have more students enrolled in those outside programs that then forfeit their weight list spot with me because they say no thanks I no longer need that because I'm in this other after school program so I don't need to stay on your weight list anymore um so I think that that's just a result again what do these numbers What story do these numbers tell us I think that's a result of people knowing how hard it is to get into Brooks and you know hesitating to Forfeit their weight list spot um so let's stop with those two because those are still about our elementary school after school as it exists and then question four and five are more looking to the Future and thinking about what other possibilities there are so are there any specific questions about question two and three I don't see any so you can continue thank you okay um so the question for says you had asked about um description of efforts pursued in creating a program at the Andrews and this is I believe I I started to tell in the spring some plans that we had um in progress we had some discussions in the works um we put out an RFP uh it was like a not so much a request for a quote but as much a request it was a quote and programming ideas and we got back a couple of different options and the one that we selected was from SNL Sports Academy um the report has the link to that but that you can also easily Google them SNL Sports Academy um and they were going to they came and we did a walkthrough with the Andrews middle school and the idea that we were working on was having the middle school be or at the Andrews Middle School which is the only building that's not being used um for after school programming to have the fourth and fifth graders from the elementary schools take a bus over and do a sports focused program at the Andrews which would free up a lot of spaces for the little kids which is the where the highest concentration of the weight lists are at the elementary schools um we were hoping that that would alleviate it and the students that weren't necessarily interested in a sports focused one could go to the YMCA I mean sorry the West Metford cultural um Community Center because that caters to fourth fifth sixth and seventh as well and does sort they sort of do more computer programming in that kind of thing um we thought we would be able to tap into both of the interests but open up some more spots at the elementary school so SNL Sports Academy was really open to any of our ideas they they were really excited to say they would make it work and their model is they partner with colleges and uh hire student athletes to come work in the after school program because the first question I asked the first question I ask anybody who tries to say that they can come help us with our wait lists is how are we not competing for the same staff because we're competing for people who are willing to work from 2 to six which is a very small group of people as we've talked about many times how are you going to find different people than I would just find to hire myself and that was their answer which I thought was very attractive and compelling is that they partner with colleges with sports teams and coaches and they hire College athletes um we ran into we were running into a few logistical problems over the summer trying to figure out how our Middle School basketball was going to work out how the spacing issues were going to work out at the Andrews and you know just as I was starting to get a little bit panicked that would that that wouldn't work out we got a message from the bus company that said there was no way they were going to be able to fide the buses anyway so that you know killed that idea dead in the water in about July um as you know we're not talking about transportation in this meeting today but it does overlap considerably the bus driver shortage the national bus driver shortage has a direct effect on us in our after school opportunities um so the more we try and get creative about things outside of the school buildings that require us to then partner with our bus company to provide a bus the more challenges we possibly face with that so that's something we really need to consider um so if we can figure out the bus situation I think that everybody's on board we'd have to still continue the logistics of the the the middle school activities but I think that that's a a problem that we're all willing to work on so that could start in the fall if we could get that fixed um so we'll continue working on that one um and then the other thing and this is something that I've been working on for a few years again I think I mentioned this in the spring I was working with the mayor's um zoning department or Development Department to try and say what can we do for anybody who's interested in coming to Medford to open up a business so I had reached out to other businesses that I've just heard of that I've worked with in the past in different districts I've worked in or heard about in know different towns where I've lived and said hey is there any chance you'd want to open up in Medford and there were a couple that actually were they're interested in moving to Medford and opening up their own private space in a storefront um you know or a building uh and they would run an after school program and what's nice is they would all be just a little bit different so it could be meeting the actual needs and interests of the students um so I'm I'm really hopeful that that can still take off uh so I will I'm happy to do anything to sort of facilitate those conversations I think the problem in the city has been space there just aren't enough buildings that are appropriate for this so I know that a um at least one of the organizations that's interested in moving into Medford has looked at both St Francis and St Clemens to move into and they both just need extraordinary amounts of work they have been I wonder if it's because they were I'm not sure why but they didn't have to keep up with any AD standards they didn't have to keep up with any um any of the the the building standards that were required to keep up for the Department of Education they weren't and so the buildings would need a lot of work and updating to get compliant um anybody that opened up in those buildings even if it was us even if we decided we wanted to partner with st Clemens and open up a school satellite after school program the building would have to become uh licensable by the uh early eec what is that the Early Education and Care Department which is who oversees um school age after school programs and so it would require just a lot of work a lot of renovation and money um so I know that those conversations are still happening I think I don't know if they're at negotiation phase with those companies and those and and St Clemens because I think St Clemens is sort of eager to do something with that empty space I'm not sure how much how appropriate is for us to be a big part of those conversations um but whatever help I can do I can you know make introductions or I can take notes at meetings I'm happy to do that and then as we've said I'll do my best to set up transportation for students to get to those places but that you know that's required if we have the drivers for it I'll stop there and see if there are any questions oh and I mean the other thing that we've talked about in the past is the the recreation department um Kevin and I had talked a couple of times about what different possibilities there were about him using the Andrews or him and I think the hegner center right is is on its way yes thank you Miss FID lar yes the hegner center is um we're working through rehabbing that location to create an after school program um through through Medford rck but I don't I'm not sure it'll be until 202 late 2025 26 is our Our Hope okay if there's no further questions there are member reinfeld yes so I I have a lot of questions about the transportation Logistics and I this is probably not the time because we need more specific proposals but the concerns about busing students from every single Elementary School to every other corner of the city uh around seems like a huge challenge but I think we can't have that conversation until there are more specific sites so I just wanted to ask about the SNL sports academy and partnering with local colleges do they have the ability to provide that consistent program for the duration of the public school school year because a lot of College schedules are very different than the schedule um it sounds a little bit like SNL Sports Academy does one time events and provides programming in Pro in after school programs that have a base core staff versus having are the student athletes the ones who are responsible for the full-time Staffing for the duration of the public school year starting in August ending in June and having well that's a great question and we ended up team travel there's there are a lot of challenges that college students have throughout the year that take them away from a regular weekly commitment anyone who's worked with college student workers knows that that consistent Staffing is a challenge so we actually ended up partnering with um SNL Sports Academy anyway I um they when this wasn't working out um I went to them and said well you know since we can't do the Andrews thing can you actually help with my Staffing problems at the at our for sites and they said yes so they provide some staff at each of the elementary schools currently um they're doing gym games so that has helped relieve our staffing um not considerably but it has helped really it has definitely helped so uh we have two to four SNL staff members come every day to each of the elementary school programs and they are in charge of the gym games and so our students cycle through it's on a rotation and so um they've they do they were there the whole year um it's a good question I'm not sure how that works I think that we don't have the exact same people every s single day so um I imagine it's because of different sports so I'm actually hoping that we'll get some of the football players that they when they originally gave us their pitch they were sort of describing big football players coming in and the you know the little kids being so wowed by the football players but obviously it was football season this year and so they we didn't get football players working in the after school program so I'm hoping now that the season's kind of coming to a close that some of them will work in our um winter programs um currently many of the students that we have now are college students they're not necessarily I mean they're athletes but they're not kind of coming from the big sports teams like I I imagined when I heard that too um they've told us that they're giving us staff members every day and uh so far they have it hasn't been a problem and what's really nice also is that there's um a supervisor for each of them for that splits by two schools so we have two supervisors in the city that that check in on their their staff at each of the schools thank you member Russo thank you I appreciate the um endless work in this on this um I realize it's your job too so of course um I I obviously think that like what's going on in the programs is very important um but could you describe for me um for all of us um what happens if you don't have the required number of staff for students let's say that there's how many people are typically with a group of students so the ratio that I try to keep is 1 to 10 but um licensing requires 1 to 13 okay I try one to 10 knowing that we often have staff out so you know let's say that uh you know you're way under the ratios people called in sick um you don't have a substitute pool not that anybody else does for any other area except for well anyways um and uh what what happens in the district when you are not going to have enough people to be with the kids um so luckily we're we don't get in as much trouble as a a private company would we're not we are license exempt because we are in a school building so because the state has already decided that this building is safe enough for students to be there all day um our after school program does not need to meet the the strict licensing standards so we can therefore get to know the kids and the needs of the kids in a different way and staff accordingly so that actually happened today I at the Brooks I I pitch in almost every day um when we're short staffed and so I was at the Brooks today after school I got called in because um three of our our staff members called out and in one of our groups in particular and it's a group that just coincidentally most of the parents pick up pretty late in the day and we've got four higher needs kids in that group and so that requires a lot of um thoughtful Staffing um so I went and I you know I I kind of broke the helped break the group in in in sections um so that we could help with the we could address the needs of the different kids I think what we do in that situation is um not ideally but if if we were very short stuffed we would just put the group in more of an assembly format so we would bring them all to one one place so that there were I never like to have any of the staff by them themselves obviously so there's always two adults with kids for the reasons as I described if somebody gets hurt and you need to give them one-on-one attention or take them from the area there's got to be another adult in the room uh so there's always at least two but it doesn't need to be that 1 to 10 ratio if everybody's in the same room so if you're all in the gym playing a gym game um but that's not ideal because you know not all the kids like a gym game so we like to tailor it a little bit more and to have some quiet games and some creative crafts types things and then some of the sports stuff but if we were short staffed it would just mean kids couldn't uh we couldn't individualize it as much so for example at the Brooks last part of we had some incidents come up at the Brooks last week because because um two of our kids in one of the groups really don't like the gym games but the art teacher who we usually have on staff was out for two days and so that meant that we had to we had to consolidate some groups so this one student who usually we keep out of the gym games we really just needed her to go there and it didn't end well it ended in you know students having some meltdowns and getting in some you know just being unhappy and again it's a long day for a lot of these kids um some who were in before and after school and if they're doing these things that they don't want to and if we have to consolidate like that it's not ideal but thank you but our our staff does a really great job of getting to know the kids really well so they they take a pulse on that sort of thing and kind of make adjustments accordingly and they you know might consolidate only the kids that are up for that and that don't mind being in a big group of of everybody and and put the the right staff with it they're very thoughtful about it and and making those adjustments but it's definitely not ideal thank you I certainly wouldn't have suggested it was anything but thoughtful um I mean when the director has to fill in director is not doing your other job which is continuous recruitment program evaluation and development and all that other stuff and so when I think about us adding you know the you know most school committee members have heard why don't we just hire tough students um or even high school kids um or young adults or whatever the right word is um and and the answer is we can't just not have anybody there because they you know the sports teams is a really good example I mean if we use them for our ratios well they're going to go get on a bus and go somewhere to play a game and can't just have the kids in the room without some adults and what you know we don't we don't want to end up with the director and you know two assistant superintendant and the superintendent and everybody just like having to do after school programming um but if we keep increasing it and we are dependent on people that are not um not that they're not reliable people but their schedule makes it so that they are not going to be a reliable body to be with the students I get I just get very concerned it's always the solution I keep hearing about students in any capacity I mean College gets out before school public schools do um my memory is that winter break for colleges is a lot longer than it is for public schools um so I'm not saying we shouldn't use them for the the way you are using them now because um I think the activities and and that all sounds great but that doesn't solve our capacity problem in my mind and um I just wanted to make that point because you know we we can't be paying you to be filling in um as an on the on the ground person um and also expect you to continue doing your regular job thank you thank you Miss FID lary member Graham um thank you do you have a number of buses that it would take for the Andrews to become viable uh well originally when I was thinking it I was saying 20 students from each school because that would make 80 students for that group um now SNL kept saying they thought they could take more they could take up to 100 but I wanted to kind of work it out and make sure it works first for all of the concerns that we just mentioned um so I was really thinking just 20 from each school which would bean four buses it wouldn't necessarily be four buses but it would be 20 seats which as we know I don't think there's any bus at any of the elementary school that has 20 seats free in it that we could add that stop so and presumably the students at the mlin wouldn't need a bus correct you're right so three that's right three buses um and I I think my question is 20 more than 20 kids fit on a bus so is it really three whole extra buses or is there some lesser like some lesser number of buses that would make this viable well there is but that's what I was saying I don't think at the you're right the three schools I don't think there are 20 free seats on any one of the buses that are there I mean we would just have to do some configuring uh I think it would be a challenge at the Roberts where we need a fourth bus as it is and the Brooks where we only just got a fourth bus um I think those would need an extra bus maybe the mlin they could reconfigure the stops and sort of make it so that they could fit it on one of their fourth buses but um and I I you know I imagine a bus that that could pick up it because you can fit 40 you can fit those 60 kids on one bus but that's not time effective to go to all three of the schools to pick up before they go to the Andrews especially at that time of day that would be yeah I the reason I ask I think it's figuring out what the real number is so that we are coming up on the end of our bus contract right we're going to need to make these kinds of asks and we're going to need to be like precise and specific about it because we don't have an endless amount of money for buses so we need to know what all the needs are um and I think it sounds like um your office probably has the data that we need there so I'd just like you to pull that together so that when the time comes we have an answer that is a little bit more precise um available okay cool um and then the other um comment I wanted to make is I I have heard from parents you know um repeat you know repeatedly that things haven't gotten better um I think that they have um but I think that the reason that they have gotten better is because of all of these outside organizations that have come to Medford right so our Collective capacity has increased um your report doesn't necessarily show that and we didn't I didn't ask for that so I totally understand um but it does you know I think it would be useful maybe even just to add some of those like the comments that you've shared with us tonight like this report can tell us what the conclusions are um and um could talk about like how long has this program been in existence so that if we were to look at some consolidation of like all of our after school capacity in the city what what is it and what is the like unmet need and there is still significant unmet need but it's a different amount of unmet need than it was several years ago um in the collective so I feel like um that would be really powerful information to to sort of get right and frame where we're at um for those parents who say we haven't made any progress because I I think even if you look at this you might walk away and say we haven't made any progress and I don't again I don't think that's true um but I think a slightly different like look at this is something that would be powerful to keep on our website so that when people say things like that we have a place we can point them to um the other thing I would point out is that in the superintendent email on a weekly basis um there is a list of job postings of things that we are positions that are open in the district and after school is not on the list um so it makes me wonder are we hiring for after school or are we not hiring for after school and if we're not hiring for after school why not um and maybe it just needs you know all the other positions are like just a hyperlink um maybe it needs like a few words about what that position is like how flexible it is what we're looking for ETC um so that you don't have to click into it and go into Frontline to find the job but um certainly it should be on the list and unless and until like all of these weight list issues are resolved which I know is like not a thing we can accomplish but we should certainly be looking for staff either to make sure you're not having to fill in or that we can do some targeted expansions here there here and there um as as people come online can I clarifying when you said um you're hearing from families that it hasn't gotten better do you just mean the weight list or is there something else that was is needs to be better um I I think the unmet need is what people talk about right like I need something I can't have is the like the overarching thing um I think people do talk about wanting to understand the problem um and is it getting better or worse so I do think there's some communication or some information that would be helpful on the website um I did recently hear people talk about um our registration process being far less uh sophisticated than some of the private programs um and maybe there are some opportunities to work with our communications director and and the website team to sort of shore up that process so I think there's lots of opportunities across the the sort of spectrum of what is needed but I think the big thing that I hear consistently is the unmet need is still the unmet need and it's not improving and I don't think that's true um and I think this report says that but you have to sort of work at it to get to that explanation so maybe there's a way that our communications director can help put something on the website that like makes that a little bit more clear I think another thing worth noting is um what we've talked about this before too but what needing after school means I think that definition has changed over time so that would also be really hard to capture in these numbers um because in the past if there were parents home in the home after school then they wouldn't need after school but I don't think that's still the case I think a lot of parents work from home and they need their kids to not be in the house so that they can work or they feel like they can't their kids can't be in the house so that they can work and concentrate or they don't want their students to come home to nobody else to play with um so they're thinking for socialization reasons they would rather than be in after school where I think several years or you know maybe just even five years ago that was n necessarily the case that wouldn't have been defined as need after school so that's something that I don't I don't know that we'd ever want to get into the business of finding out are which is like how many houses are empty after school that a kid can't go home to an empty house versus and somebody's gonna have to quit their job versus ideally what what they think is best for their child is to be in a socialized setting where they have other people to do their homework with and it's not just going home by themselves even though they have care yeah I mean I think when I think of unmet need it's people who are um on you know not in an after school proog not in an after school program who believe that they need to be and I would challenge anybody who talks about working at home as like an opportunity to watch your kids no if you are working at home you are working or you should and having kids at home is if you wouldn't bring your kid to the office we can't reasonably expect people to do that at home either right um and um lots of companies have very strict and rigid rules around what must be in place in order to even allow that so um I think if people are to me unmet need is I'm trying to get into an after school program and I can't and for why you're trying to get into an after school program is not something I I don't think we need to be particularly concerned about that right um but and like I said I think it has gotten better all there's lots of programs on here that weren't here a year ago two years ago three years ago um and they are taking 40 30 45 kids like those are all kids who were part of unmet need not that long ago um who now have a place right and um I think it's to me like what I'm envisioning um for our communications director because I know he's here here is something that combines all of these independent charts and provides a picture where you don't have to sort of work hard to like look at all the the the weedy details and you can know that um our the totality of our need is changing and it's increasing or decreasing or whatever um so I think that is what I would um I think people would appreciate that because I think people try to understand what's going on and find it very difficult um and in the end we're not telling them the information we're not telling them information that makes them particularly happy so um Ser serving it up in the sort of most cohesive way possible often is like a way around the fact that we're fundamentally giving people bad news when we're saying no I'm sorry we don't have a space for your child in our program thank you member gram thank you Miss FID lary we appreciate the questions being answered um number three we have the CTE enrollment report U Mr cha Chad Fallon's patiently waiting director of principal of the Medford Vocational Technical High School welcome on yeah good evening Madam mayor Madam school committee uh Madam superintendent school committee Lisa Jaden um I wanted to share an update uh I was thinking listening to Megan's conversation waight list is something not um foreign to me and I want to speak a little bit about that tonight with just a brief update and kind of where we're at um we have seen over the last three years increased enrollment in such a way that is making us really look at the way we run our programs the way we run our exploratory program and to help get as many students in Medford into these programs as possible however um we still are left with a wait list so it's important to know that this is year three of a wait list of about 40 students each time that when they choose their programs in grade nine uh just about 40 it starts off a little bit higher we're able to get it down to about 40 of students who don't get into um their choice of programs what we have found is that in some programs because the demand is higher than um than ever before there are programs that really call for additional teachers one being Auto technology a second being culinary for Auto Tech and culinary would both be a three teacher program and metal fabrication and Welding needs a second teacher um when we think about a new seven period schedule it certainly allows for more opportunities and I think we're closer than we've ever been before to looking at opportunities for all students within the building if you know for example a third teacher in culinary gives us the opportunity to perhaps run an elective something that all students could benefit from similar to Autotech um I think all of us could use um the skills that you know cooking and and being able to care for your car and there's certain things that I think all students could benefit from so I think this becomes more of a reality than ever before when we look at this um it's also important to mention that teacher recruitment is well underway when I say that we are faced with an um interesting challenge that we know there's a skills Gap we know there aren't enough trained indiv individuals entering the workforce right now to enter the job market for these trades the average age of an electrician right now is 63 years old so while there's demand we don't have students that are filling the roles as much as we'd like to but more importantly we don't have teachers that are willing to teach because it's a vast difference in Pay um the pay scale so we are working with other schools we're not alone every other vocational school in the state is feeling the burn there aren't enough people willing to teach so we're all kind of putting our heads together and I think what you're going to see in the next year or two is a lot of um perhaps out of thebox ideas um on how to have these students trained and and companies that will hire them if I there was a few my mistake when I had sent this report I um made a mistake on a few of the programs I just want to call out for the paper you have in front of you in terms of teaching staff biotechnology we have um it's really one full-time teacher and then a0 five 0 five is because the teacher is already in the building teaching other sections of science but because the biotech program is growing this teacher also helps us with the sophomore uh the second issue was um for graphic design we are now at one teacher and for film and TV formerly known as mediate Tech we have two teachers that's nothing new uh that just was my mistake when I uh gave the report so you can see the numbers I think the number to keep in mind is sophomore we this is the second year that we brought last year we brought in about 172 sophomores what we're seeing is that less students are are leaving which is good um but if you see the numbers for grade 11 we're still we're holding at about 140 students so we have students that move out of District after grade 10 and we have students that just decide it maybe isn't the right fit for them so they go to a more traditional high school schedule I think the the number that we need to look at is the 423 students that we have grades 10 through 12 within the Medford High School campus that are accessing CTE so with the freshmen right now there's 273 freshmen there's about 38 eight of them that are exploring an Arts and Technology rotation separate from CTE um so 273 students that we anticipate anywhere from 150 to 180 to 190 are going to want programming and essentially we're not going to have seats for everybody we're not alone there's 6500 students Statewide that are on weight list for the 55 to 60 vocational schools in Massachusetts so we need to start being creative of how we can get these kids into to seats because we certainly don't want anyone to go without um so we've been we've been creative we we really try not to enroll kids after quarter one of sophomore year but we make exceptions if a student moves out of district and if there's another student that has been on the wait list we do our best to get them in uh a few things just to mention uh while I have an opportunity um I want to share there's a few things there's many things going on but in our Autotech program right now we have three cars right now that are currently under our roof that we'll be partnering with Second Chance cars this is our third year in a row Second Chance cars is a 501c3 where they donate cars to disabled veterans or people that are re-entering the workforce um this changes their lives drastically for obvious reasons so we will um work with this company out in um are they Acton or conquered right on the the line I believe uh we work with him he'll provide us the car we get the car in tiptop shape and then we donate it to the person um in need our superintendent's been part of it a few times it's pretty powerful um as I go down the list and I was sitting here forgive me but I just want to give some updates biotech I think it's important to know that for the first time ever Winchester high school called upon the biotechnology students at our school to deliver professional development to their teachers which was a a very cool moment for them um our carpentry program and I'm going to talk about carpentry and film and TV because on the same day I was at a construction mentoring program with six of our carpentry students students that we were touring a job site um Harvard University is building three new buildings and they took us on a tour we met with the construction company and The Architects um and then after that we zipped across town and watched the um our film and TV students were one of three finalists for this Mass Department of Transportation Safe Streets campaign where they created a video on safe driving we didn't know what our place would be so we were in the audience and we ended up coming at number two out of the state so there was three it was a first place second place and a third place and the film and TV crew uh earn themselves a spot as number two uh construction just an update if you're anywhere around the high school you'll notice that some potholes have been filled in our construction craft laborers program is working alongside the DF DPW to work on filling potholes and um helping to keep the area more safe our culinary program is killing it with beastro 489 if you haven't been in I encourage you to do so open for breakfast and lunch Tuesday through Friday um I should mention the electrical department right now in our shop it was a collaboration between the electrical and Metal Fab program to I don't know that I've actually seen them up but there's some big Christmas bells that go that get hung outside of City Hall and uh Mr cormo has a cool story because he worked on it when he was a student and now his students so many years later are doing the same thing so those will be installed soon graphic design uh shout out to them they decorate our school with more than just uh posters they we recently put above every doorway in the school building our core values respect responsibility empathy and kindness um those students are doing amazing work beautifying the school health assistant should be noted we now have six students at Winchester Hospital and 100% of the seniors on the health assisting program are out on Co-op which is paid paid work no one goes out on unpaid work in our program um and that's just kind of a quick update on where we are so I'll I'll leave you with this the as we look you'll be hearing some ideas from both myself and my colleagues as we look to the future of Career Tech enrollment in Medford um a lot of planning is underway with the new building what that will look like we've been able to tour walam um Somerville and what was the other school we just tour I was with you all and I forgot Arlington and there was another one too I forget maybe that was just me um W so we we have similar con we have similar constraints which is nice to hear Somerville is also in a in a situation where they have more students than they have seats but as we look to these other schools we look at ways that we can increase capacity we're also going to be looking really closely at our exploratory program and seeing how we're offering this to students and helping students make the right decisions um in in my world the worst thing is a student who chooses Career Tech education and doesn't necessarily have a passion for it I'm glad we get to offer it but I worry about the kids who are on the wait list that might actually um you know benefit from the trade as an electrician or as a construction um supervisor or you know working in in in um a restaurant so we have to figure out really how we're marketing this to students when we start talking to them in seventh and eighth grade what it means to be on a Career Tech pathway um but for the most part uh as of today when I looked at the weight list we were down to 32 students unfortunately now it's too late there we can't enroll anybody in any programs now but we do get that weight list down but we do need to start thinking about what it may look like in grade eight when students apply I say apply they don't technically apply but we may need to be looking at other options um to make it an equitable process for all students thank you principal Fallon member GR um are you following the state level conversations around vocational school admissions yes um I know they've gotten heated I I haven't been as plugged into them but I think the the general story is that they've become that vocational school enrollment has become so um competitive that they are no longer Equitable is that the general story for years no one you know for years when vocational schools were under enrolled people didn't seem to pay too much attention to the admissions policies and now um that it's flipped everyone is looking at the admissions policies um for the most part you'll see for vocational schools and we have a similar policy that we lean on but we don't have to use because you don't have to apply to come to my school anymore it's a little bit different but they were typically looking at grades attendance and discipline and a lot of schools came under Fire about that because you know if you're a seventh grader and you have a mishap why should that really follow you into high school if you have one you know disciplinary action so the state a lot of proponents of the change would like to see a lottery based system and there's people on both sides of that so um you know we're in an interesting position because we don't have to worry about applications per se but I do think we're closer to looking at what we may do in our own admissions criteria but yeah a lot of schools are Under Fire for this um and then I would would also like to see there be like radically improved communication to ninth grade parents in the transition from the rotational exploratory program to like you're making a choice for the next three years of high school like that that came and went with like a lot of confusion last year and my daughter was in that grade so I heard from a lot of parents who were like I don't even know what's happening my kid is picking something I had people be like my kid is picking something I think is like like a really terrible choice for them I don't know what to do about it um and I think parents just like very much felt left out of that conversation in a way that um was hard I think was was challenging um and to your point about like taking a spot away like I get it but like um at the same time they're in ninth grade and they don't know what they want and what they don't want and so I don't know how how you overcome that except to open the lines of communication so I think that's important to to really think about and maybe think about like is it forever if you go in at in that like maybe are there two decision points like one in the last part of ninth grade and another at the end of ninth grade so that there is an opening or something in 10th Grade if kids try try it out and decide it's really not for them um I don't know I just the the communication was a real missed opportunity last year for sure and I just had a front row seat because my daughter was like in that in that Loop and actually like picked a program she went to school that day and I was like I don't know what she's gonna do and when she came home we're like what did you decide um but it was very much um you know she she was fine to do it on her own and we were really happy that she did but I don't think every kid is in that situation and I think there's a lot of parents who had a lot of questions and I think one of the big questions is always like what does it mean to be in a vocational program and it's not the same in every vocational program right like where are you going if you are in X vocational program versus why and those answers are very very different in the programming that we have and they also are nothing like being in a vocational program when we were kids right so I don't think we've ever like really unlocked describing that to parents in a way that resonates I mean heard you say lots of times like it's not like it used to be and I think people are like oh cool but what does that mean um so I do think there's still some work to do to like educate the parents in this conversation um about what it means for them academically like I wouldn't um I wouldn't have like inserted myself but it was not clear to me last year that my daughter was now going to take um online Spanish for example like I think I ctually knew that but because I sit here not because I was like sort of informed of that as a parent so I just think there's a lot of academic pieces of the puzzle that are not as easy to put together on your own um so I don't know if maybe just like informational Zoom would help or something would help parents um feel better about navigating that that transition no that that's totally fair um one thing I did this year that's different is that we're ending exploratory at at the end of quarter two to give additional time so that instead of going through three quarters and only giving students a quarter to experience it now they have two quarters um I hear you with the communication you know from from my seat I feel as though I'm communicating because I'm doing a lot of you know talking points and things like that but you're right it I I think because of the shift in voked and what it looks like now I do need to do a better job having some better Community Forum if you will or parents to understand because and again I think even though you know this is my eighth year when I came in it was the first year of no more application so I think you know we're still trying to figure out what did that look like eight years ago when we were under enrolled as opposed to now I I would almost rather an application sometimes because then at least I would have something to work with my my biggest pain in in Medford which which it's a great problem to have to have all these kids but any other Vocational School you would go to you would apply and you wouldn't step foot into the building unless you were you were accepted so I have this internal struggle all the time where I'm like here we are saying to freshmen come one come all but 40 of you will never make it because we just don't have seats right so I I'm with you I think there's two problems one being that we have to solve the the um you know the enrollment issue and to just better share with parents because um I hear you yeah I do hear you on that um and then I guess the other thing I would encourage you to think about um we we outlined a series of expanded programs in our um msba application that we worked on um back in May June um and we actually did lay out some level of programming that didn't need to wait for a new building and others that did like others that were like completely space constrained and we could not move forward on um the reason I bring that up is because with a successful passage of seven question seven and question eight question eight in particular talks specifically about expanded programming and there's some there's a resolution on the agenda in just a little bit to talk about um a supplemental budget in this fiscal year that would that um would uh be able to spend the money that has been um agreed to by the city um or by the voters I guess I would say and there just may be an opening there for you to think about like is there something we can do in the short term whe whether it's like expand expanding a program with an an additional teacher and just make sure that Mr McHugh has that information so when he's putting together the supplemental budget package that we're going to ask for that if there are particular things that are vocational in nature that they can be at the table as well perfect timing I already had my budget meeting and he him and Noel are well aware okay um and and there is like a you know we'll talk about this in just a minute but there is like a near near term um aspect of that money as well it's not waiting until next fiscal year so great yeah good to know yeah so thank you okay may member brenley um so I have a whole bunch of notes because I'm a big fan so um I am honored enough to be on The Advisory board for the Vocational School through the culinary program through my daughter um and we had a meeting last week the first one of this school year um I believe there was 120 in attendance there wasn't a seat at the beastro to be had we were looking for seats for which were're together were parents uh business owners in the community um staff members and students and to look around that room and to see how much um like really love was in the room was really overwhelming to me uh for the culinary program there was the executive chef for um Earl's kitchen the owner of delock Bagels uh there was an owner of I can't remember all the things this gentleman did but he was a a friend of chefi um and he owned food trucks um but these people came out to you know listen to uh the students talk and show around the the beastro and it was very impressive you also gave out an award and I believe it was the first award so I just want to know if you could tell everybody about that because I thought that was really cool sure we um um one of our long time well for about five or six years now Asher Nichols uh owns a Remodeling and construction business and he when when a few teachers and I talked about who do we want to recognize this year as an employer partner he was the first one that came to mind so um you know like all good ideas it was a little bit last minute of mine so I called on my friends down in engineering and I was like hey can you make me a plaque and of course they exceeded my expectations and carpentry got involved and it was pretty cool so yeah we awarded to a to an employee partner an employee partner to thank them for taking a risk I mean when you hire a 16 17 18 year olds you're taking a risk as a business owner and he's done it continuously so um that's something we're going to do from now on every year at our our fall advisory dinner is honor one of our partners because it's important to give a shout out to them because it's you know there these these kids are still learning and they're willing to take them on I agree and I think it's amazing how many business owners were at that meeting that that night and whether they're in the community or you know in the area and it the that group got up and I believe there was one already graduate from Metford High yeah and one student from Metford high that was working with them and I just think it's really nice to recognize them to say like you are taking this risk and we appreciate you and there were just so many business owners there and so many people that you recognize from in the community that you're like oh she's a hairdresser oh I know her from you know the elementary school um or the local daycare and it was just really I think it just really a nice night and I I think more people need to know about it because if you aren't a vocational parent you wouldn't know that that's on the on the schedule um just a few things that I think about in my spare time um I think there's still a myth about the vocational school that you know I graduated meford high 30 years ago I'm going to my reunion at the end of the month and and you really went to the voke if there wasn't a great path for you academically and I think there is this myth that parents still say oh no I want my daughter to go to college so she's not she's not going to go to the vog and I think maybe that's what member Graham was sort of mentioning like there are so many paths that include you know academics that I think that that is lost on some of I don't know I don't want to say the world but definitely not just metric specific that you can go to the voke and you are going to college it's not just you know some of the programs are certainly more towards getting into a union or whatever but I think that so many of them are also geared towards going to college and so I think Bri bridging that gap between the high school and the vog is so imperative because we do need kids to take language still we still need kids to explore other options and so obviously that's not just on you of course um just something that I think that we need to be aware of that we need to get the word out um and I also am qu wondering um you do have to keep up your academics correct to stay in your shop of course yeah and so I think that people just feel like if you're there it's because you are not excelling in academics but it's actually the opposite you need to keep up your academics in fact that's why you'll see a little dip in the numbers junior year because unfortunately some kids don't make it over the summer you have to pass your academic Court courses if you don't you have to fulfill them during summer school and some of them might not do that so their high school schedule will be changed to make up for the course that this courses that they're deficient in but then there's no room for CTE so yeah um do you know if students attendance on a day-to-day basis is higher if you're in the vocational program I don't have that in front of just curious about that um and I'm always impressed that the academic teachers and I noticed it a lot this here at at curriculum night um how supportive the staff is to the vocational students and I I think it's really nice they know that obviously the academics are priority but they're talking about these students that are they know that they're out at work that they're doing Co-op that they're trying to tailor their teaching style to really incorporate what these kids love and I think that that was so great to see in science and math and English you know these different different academics that they want these kids to Excel and and still really be you know workers in the community and and I think that that was like a nice thing that I hear every year that that the staff says you know like how important they know the voke is to these kids um someone also mentioned to me how they feel like the behaviors of The Vocational School students um is is is better um because they're busy yeah their hands are busy um their minds are busy and I even know in my house that there's never a question about wanting to go to school yeah you know there's never a question about that like I can't I can't miss it you know I can't miss it no it's this day it's you know U my daughter chopped 30 pounds of onions today in goggles um um she's never done yeah oh where do you see the picture I won't show it publicly but it was it [Music] it um it's it's it's awesome that you know there was no complaint you know she came home and she's like I got to get in the shower I smell like onions I'm like okay um but but I think that they do things that are so out of the element but because they love their shop they want to they want to do it and I think that that's such a great incentive to come to school every day and you know never wanting to be late um I think that that is I not that I not that I would think going to school to chop onions is more exciting than going to school to do math but um but on the day-to-day basis I think these kids are coming to school because they love what they're doing and I think that that is great and so I just want to compliment you on that and the staff at the vog obviously um let me think what else um I want to congratulate you too because you mentioned in the meeting the other day that not only are you the director and obviously principal of vocational school but you're also managing 15 am I correct yes businesses never a d moment thank you appreciate that thanks um I'm just trying to manage my house and it's a lot some days right um and so I know um me grah mentioned it but what is your ultimate vision for a new Medford High School meth Vocational Technical High School oh boy let meate my blueprints now just Kidd can you send it to us please you know I I seeing the other schools has been helpful because I've seen what I like and what I I don't know that I love and it the whole mbba process process has I'm assuming that we we probably have a lot less input than I thought we would and that's a good thing we're not going to be here forever we're building a school for 50 60 years so when I look at other programs I'm picking up what I think would work for us and what doesn't and I'm also being realistic thinking when we sit down with these Architects they probably have an idea and they're going to probably welcome our suggestions but at the end of the day we may not get everything we want so I definitely have a list of things that I know are are like non-negotiables here's what we know works here's what works for Medford here's what we need um but it's it's a really cool time to be an educator in Medford right now because it's getting closer and you know two years ago it was seven years away and now maybe it's five years away or four so it's it's a fun time to be here um because we can kind of see the Finish Line uh I I you know thinking of what uh Miss Graham said it it really I get wrapped up in the work sometimes so I forget to promote we don't do enough of that so I think the communication and the promoting is important because there is so much going on on a day-to-day basis and you know it's a little different for me I'm the only CTE administrator in Medford so I have to you know call on my colleagues which are always willing to help but it is a different lens to to work through and I do have to remind people sometimes I'm like yeah well you know we have a a a repair plate in the Autotech shop that's under my name I'm I'm the repair shop owner so it's funny you think about it for me it's great because I get you know all these different things but you can apply for a lot of different jobs it's it's a great experience but um what you said is true there is definitely great things happening um at the high school and the programs I oversee are fantastic the teachers come to work every day and care and I think that your staff is so engaged and I love how they collaborate with each other that makes me so happy I mean I remember coming to to look at the the voke last year going into biotech and feeling like I was in a different world yeah they were amazing they were amazing in biotech and I loved how last year the I I hope I say this right biotech was taking the oil from culinary and changing it into glycerin and then also taking some to make the was it the gasoline or the diesel for the right am I right my on there and then there was something to do with yeah with the with the welding shop and I'm like this is so cool that they're all working together it's cool until the welding shop decides to fire it up on a Monday morning and there's smoke billowing in the hallway and we're like oh that's us again sorry yeah okay we need a shop to take care of that part too so no it's awesome and I just I'm doing all I can to promote the culinary program um I think everybody sees on my delicious food that gets taken back to some of the public schools um or that I'm having for lunch or taking home for dinner um but it's great and it's so affordable and I think that people don't realize how affordable I mean I walk out of there with $40 worth of food but I'm feeding the Sommerville special ed office I'm feed I'm having lunch for the rest of the week I just found out suar Somerville doesn't open their restaurant to the public I don't believe they do we get a lot of emails um Mr panty joosie is the CTE director over there um their menu looks great too but okay A little partial over here want talk about the thank you no no we totally do we totally do I love it I love it I love it I know a few more people have questions but thank you MK you member member reinfeld then member and toer no I just wanted to say so they covered some of my my question about the expanded program but I just want to say as you're thinking about the new schedule and the new Pathways to definitely I just want to say publicly to make sure to talk with our arts department because I know they have a lot of ideas and are facing kind of that opposite challenge of under enrollment because of scheduling and the opportunities so I would love to see that proposal come to us as a coherent U you said lots of out of the box thinking I know they're already working on ideas there as well so we're part of a team together exactly and so I'm excited to see what's coming there because I think it is multiple sides of probably dice not coins to torture a metaphor yes that's it thank you member reinfeld member and TOA yeah I just wanted to say you know in in that same vein as remember Ral talking about about you know the art Department how do we work with them um my point was actually going to be about the the graphic design Department who I've had the fortune ability to work with as a student um in doing stuff with the uh Center Center for citizenship and social responsibility but this may not be a maybe not a topic for tonight but the question of um how we're seeing enrollment in the graphic design department and possibly helping alleviate that sort of weight list you know if we can get more people into the gra graphic design Department um as you know we have two Educators in there making sure we're not overwhelming them but um I know that um at my time as a student at Mass art um I was a design major but I was not in the graphic design department but they switched from graphic design to com design communication design and in doing so um brought a bit more of opportunity for their students mainly um our um students who are from other countries because that helps with visas um by it because it by changing it to com design and by changing some of the GL class identifications it actually makes it part of stem in some way so that may open us up to some other grant opportunities whether that be a future educated there's a visiting artist or you know maybe a part-time employee um but also to upgrade what we have as a shop um so that discussion of possibly and when you change the Comm design it is more I guess theor based and it is more you know a lot of the education is more um surrounding the wise and strategy which when folks go if they choose to go to places like massart or other higher education institutions um it almost better serves them if they are getting that communication design which is still very similar to graphic design uh education but it's more it almost gears them up more for that that thing I know like you know it's one of the smallest here but at sart it's the largest Department um and I don't think people fully realize the benefits to graphic design or communication design education um I I I don't think people view it too much as you know an art thing but I know some institutions it's almost looked down upon in their vocational schools but I feel like um the opportunities are very I mean you can't go anywhere without a graphic designer uh everyone's hiring them they're actually sunsetting the graphic Communications Frameworks and it's everyone's going to be under the new Frameworks which are design and Visual Communications so I think what you're saying speaks to that yeah that I think you'll grab a different population cool awesome yeah great thank you thank you Mr Fallon we appreciate you being here before we go into number four I want to just recognize our student representative Jaden Vil thank you for joining us you've been here a while I'm sorry I didn't um recognize you sooner next up we have our draft fiscal year 26 budget calendar uh Mr Gerald McHugh budget analyst good evening everyone um I uh recently completed a draft of the U of our budget calendar and I also reviewed the um policy and procedure document that school committee passed last year uh along budget uh for budget development so I uh attempted to align the the calendar with that document as well um in going through it I I am respect respectfully um requesting that um some minor changes to the the procedures document be enacted so we can get a little bit more time at the beginning of the process to pull all the budget information together um right now you know that would have to be pretty much completed I think by the beginning uh by the end of January um what I'm suggesting is that we use January and February for that uh budget development and then use the month of March to adopt the budget have the public hearings um and then um present it to the to the mayor uh in April which is um uh a good a good date good early date to get the budget to the city and to begin to Advocate with the city for its passage um I also provided some time uh on a TBD basis for committee of the whole meetings that um we would want to take Place uh in uh February and March and this is certainly something that you know doesn't have to be approved tonight I mean we're Loosely um moving forward based on the draft schedule but if there's uh spec specific items you would like to address um we can C we there's certainly time to to incorporate that into the document thank you um Mr mchu you have it outlined in the six page document you you gave us so okay and nobody has any questions if everybody could review this oh member Russo and then member reinfeld thank you um I I'm I'm perfectly comfortable I mean with us discussing the the timeline from our policy um this is the first year with the policy so I think we all kind of assumed it would not work exactly um the one thing though is that um part of the policy is to align with the capital Improvement plan um and I'm trying to just dig into it really quickly right now because um one of the one of one of the uh challenges we had was that we had a date that we needed to make sure aligned with the city's budget ordinance um and um I can't tell necessarily from this document whether we're going to blow past their date um because those conversations were back in June and frankly it feels like five years ago already um so I think we do I I can go and back and try and figure out what I have to look at the minutes but um there was an important date here that required a lot of pushing things earlier than I think even we had initially thought we wanted um because we knew this was a very aggressive timeline change um but the budget ordinance has a date which I don't have in front of me and um we don't want to miss that because then okay that kind of makes that a problem but I'm not giving you enough information to go on right this second so I will um take that as something to do to go back and find that that information so that we can see you know I mean the bud City's budget ordinance is also new so um if there's like an impossible way if it's impossible for us to meet their deadline then I think that that's a conversation um that we could have with the council um but I just want to point that out it could be uh it it it's an excellent point and I think um we should should probably call out the capital plan uh specifically in the in the timeline and we can definitely figure out a way to get that done ahead of the general fund budget thank you thank you Mr M member Graham oh I'm sorry me member ryanfeld you had a question no I just wanted to ask if this was a proposed change to the policy itself or if this was a for this year only given that we are like we're looking at a proposed budget supplement and some restructuring based on the override results um I I think that um as member Russo stated the you know this is a first year working with it um if we can work with the revised schedule this year you know might make sense you know at the beginning of next year's budget development to take a look at that calendar see if it worked for the school committee see if it worked for the school department um and then make any appropriate changes but if if it if it does work I would I would assume that it might become permanent right and then I also just wanted to note that we have scheduled a budget hearing for February 26 and so that's putting it right up at this deadline here yeah when as the the year progresses the school committee will begin to identify dates when they want to have meetings to collect information and those will just get plugged into the calendar yeah but we had we had voted to approve that schedule with the public hearing and then another optional public hearing if needed after the request yeah maybe maybe we could send you those dates Jerry and you can make you could send your recommendation recommendations for adjustments um yep there was the I'm I am proposing that we kind of pushed that that February um deadline to March and then uh the second public hearing was I think uh in the event that um the budget the school committee approved was not the budget uh that the mayor would recommend or that the city council would improve and then have an opportunity to have another public hearing to discuss kind of how we're going to reconcile uh those two budget lines yep we have um Jerry we did schedule February 26th April 30th and then June 9th so you're asking to move the 226 to sometime in late March yeah I will um I'll look at those dates and then I'll I'll someone will get a communication back with with maybe some U proposed alternative dates okay based on the draft calendar sounds good thank you okay member ryanfeld if you're all said I'm G to pass the floor to member Graham thank you um I just wanted to call out for the group that the capital planning piece is on track um we have one more subcommittee meeting next week I believe and then um we have a committee of the whole scheduled for December to do um the the committee of the whole here to understand what the capital plan looks like for um for the remainder of the year so that'll be done um I don't I I think we should try this revised calendar for this year in particular because we're also just about to ask um the budget director to put us up mental budget together for this fiscal year which was not planned when we put all this together so I think as long as the we can give the council an appropriate heads up that whatever they were expecting from us is going to shift a little bit I think it'll be fine um and then I do think we should talk about it after it's done and you know presumably next year we're not talking about a supplemental budget and decide if if the timeline worked or it doesn't work got it thank you member Graham thank you Mr McHugh so we'll wait those um date changes and coordinate accordingly sooner the sooner the better obviously to get it in our calendars no for questions yep thank you um we'll go on to the the rest of the agenda we have do not have any presentations of the public nor continued business but we have a number of items under new business 2024-25 myself mayor Brian Longo Kern M school public schools is in accordance with Master Jal law 149a section 4 A1 authorizes using construction management at risk services for the mlin school complex and the Andrews Middle School HVAC upgrade project and authorizes the mayor to sign the risk Services contract with the construction management at risk firm to form all of its obligations in connection with the project um if I may through through the chair um we are moving along with our HVAC project and this will just allow contracts to be signed so would ask for a motion for approval motion to table motion to table by member Uso seconded by can I explain why yeah sure member Russo um I believe this is our attorney does not feel like this is actually something we can approve at this time and I could be wrong I I'm take the table back sorry um can I jump in member Graham thank you um I did talk to um our attorney today and I actually talked to director hunt as well so CM at risk the only person in City who is able to sign a CM at risk contract is the mayor on behalf of the city um what this is doing is just authorizing her to sign a CM at risk contract um which essentially allows us to bring the construction folks into the project much sooner than in the typical procurement process and what that is supposed to do is generate a like sort of tighter handoff between the design folks and the construction folks so you don't have the situation where the design folks design something and the construction folks are like I I can't do that for whatever the reason might be um and it's pretty new to Medford that we are entertaining cmat risk um in general um and I know msba is definitely a fan of cmat risk projects for um for big building projects um but I did talk to um everybody today and this resolution is just about the contract itself and the mayor the mayor of the city is the only one who can sign it so um I feel like based on what I was able to learn today and I did talk to our attorney on the way out he this is in fact consistent with what needs to happen in order to allow that work to proceed um I think he has other steps he has to take that he's less clear about but this is a step that only we can take and until we take it they can't move forward with procurement so member R thank you so is our attorney still being asked to sign something for which he does not think he certainly does not feel comfortable signing at this point or is that not based on this so This separate piece of the puzzle that will have to be addressed but it's not this and this will not put him in a place where he has no options correct okay then I with withdraw my table which I think I did that but um motion to approve motion second okay motion to table has been um taken off the floor U motion for approval by member Graham seconded by member Russo all those in favor I I all those opposed motion passes 202442 offered by member reinfeld whereas a resolution was offered and approved at the June 24th 2024 special meeting of the mord school committee that the committee received a report by December 15th describing the implementation impact of position reductions between the previous and current budget year to inform the budget request for the upcoming fiscal year and whereas the voters of Medford authorized on November 5th 2024 the assessment of additional tax funds to support the district staffing needs and expand access to programming be it therefore resolved the report shall Focus on concerns identified during the Spring budget hearings and prioritizes expressed during the fall campaign season including what not limited to the district's ability to provide students with ongoing and acute mental health support arts and vacational programming and administrative support as well as the effect of Staffing changes on class and case load sizes be further resolve that the presentation of the of the report be limited to roles and responsibilities independent of individual employees performances and other confidential matters member reinfeld yes so this was just to bring this request to the Forefront I'm actually going to make a motion to consolidate this with the following resolution because I would be happy to see this report this summary of um what our position responsibilities are looking like to inform the next budget cycle to be part of the justification for the budget cycle so motion motion to consolidate by member reinfeld seconded by member Graham all those in favor I others opposed motion passes I'll read the next agenda item that it will be Consolidated with 202443 offered by myself mayor lungo Kern and member Graham be it resolved that the administration will present a proposed supplemental budget to account for funds made available through the passage of Bor questions seven and eight at our J January 13th school committee meeting mayor member Graham thank you um I'm super excited that we get to talk about this because it means we were successful in um generating 7 million more dollars a year for our schools so thank you to every voter out there who supported this it's super important and there's a million seven million reasons actually why um I'm excited about it and um there's a lot of like moving parts of how this works mechanically and I think the city's like finding its way through all of that because we've never done this before um the council does have papers in front of them to appropriate the money um to us and then in turn what that means is we will need to um have a public B budget hearing like we always do to um determine the spending of that money um the ballot questions uh were effective July 1 2024 so that does mean the full amount of $7 million will be available um via the override question will begin to be collected um come the January tax bills um but we will have an opportunity to put together a supplemental budget um for to be spent in the last six months of this year um that has to be consistent with the the spirit and nature of the questions and so that is very specific so to answer all the questions of like will the money be spent how it's supposed to the answer is yes it has to be um and it's going to take some time I think for the um for the budget director to put together what that spending proposal is um and it's going to take a fair bit of work um on behalf of the administration to put that together so really sorry we're asking you to do that between now and January um but it is really urgent because the money um the money does have to be expended in fy2 so it would be the $7 million in total less the advance which we have actually already spent which was $1.75 million um so it's $5.25 million in total um uh 1.25 of that million dollar is related to the things outlined in question seven um four million outlined to the things outlined in question 8 they are slightly different like for example maintenance is a question seven item that was articulated not a question 8 item that was articulated um so there's going to be a fair bit of work on the budget director's part to figure out what the what this looks like going forward um and how how we advance things like the Consolidated School schedule that Mr Fallon was just here talking about um and there's just there is a literal ton of work to be able to to do any of the things that um were we were hoping to be able to do so um the resolution asks that um the administration come back to us at the beginning of January with that proposed supplemental budget and now um based on member reinfeld resolution um specifically paying attention to those areas that um were cut last year like um nurses for example guidance counselors um Etc so that we can assess whether uh like our secretary at the our administrative assistant and a second administrative assistant at the mlin complex for example um so those things were cut out of the budget last year there is an opportunity for us to sort of uh remediate that this this now that the supplemental budget has gone through and the question is I think to member reinfeld Point um how is it going with this change in Staffing and where are the places that we need to shore up and which of those places can we do um in the short term in the right now and which of them are really school year positions so that we can plan accordingly for that as well Y and I will just add this bit at the end of my resolution about um limited to roles and responsibilities that's just to say what I'm not looking for is a conversation about people's performances and how individual people are and are not meeting these responsibilities is what is the need what are the responsibilities um and do we need to make that a permanent do we need a temporary coverage for this role or should this be built into the new budget so just to clarify it shouldn't need to be said confidential matters stay confidential but I want to be really clear this is about the need and the responsibilities that people have in the system and I'm excited to have that conversation about how we can meet students needs through some of the supplemental funding and if I may through the chair member reinfeld when you wanted them Consolidated are you looking for your um information also on January 7th are we consolidating that date yes okay so all all the information on the two resolutions I don't want to make the administration prepare report for our December 16th meeting and that's what I was just making sure of um so we're looking to see that on January 13th okay is there a motion on the floor for approval motion to approve my member um Graham seconded by second member reinfeld all those in favor mayor I mayor all thoseo can we just say we're approving as Consolidated I wrote the language but you're not going to make me read it are you motion to approve as Consolidated thank you y second all in favor I I all opposed motion passes 2024 -44 be resolved the member of the school committee formally appoints oh will sorry he want to speak on that last resolution oh on this one okay um will pacelli as a non- voting member of the Medford Comprehensive High School building committee and remove Mr Thomas D Dalton uh as a non voting member welcome just had to make sure I turn the S right seen it going on for a month now um but thank you uh mayor Longo Kerr and members of the school committee for allowing me to speak tonight um Brill with the opportunity to join the Medford Comprehensive High School building committee uh in this non- voting role throughout my time so far in Medford as the Director of communications it's really clear to see what makes Medford Public School so special um just so far this year alone we're only in November we have new community spaces at the mclen elementary school with the new playground the new Memorial Garden that we just opened up at the high school last fall the clippership papa Park that I know National Arts Honor Society members and students helped decorate so all these wonderful spaces our Educators and School staff members continue enhance the social and emotional learning of our students I encourage people to check out a story coming on the radio later this week that's all I'll say for now um on Billy and Lisa in the morning show uh most importantly though our students are really demonstrating the tremendous growth inside and outside the class classroom my main goal when accepting this position in the role of director Communications was really sharing all the positivity that's happening in this District I think throughout these last few meetings and even with Mr Fallon's presentation tonight it's clear that students are doing so many amazing things and continuing to uplift that um is really what makes this role so important um but being based at the high school I really have daily insight into the community Spirit miss cabal Mr Fallon and their team are doing into bettering the educational environment for our students that enrollment pres that enrollment report presented tonight shows the increasing desire for students to participate in the vocational educational experience and really highlights the limitation our current High School um provides with that recent passing of question seven and8 really demonstrates the community's desire to invest in education and I really look forward to collaborating with you on the school committee as well as members of the administrative team to appropriately communicate to the community about the effects of that Monumental decision and then as it relates to the new high school building committee I've already helped the committee as an unofficial member I've helped create the inment projections and the maintenance and capital plan reports really digestible language for the community I helped do the meeting minutes for September's committee meeting and the subcommittee communications committee meeting and then also joined in on a number of Tours uh through our neighboring school districts over these last few weeks I also spoke to our final site de website development team uh last week and just getting more information on what a dedicated website would look like for this new project um this early work has not only increased my appreciation for the efforts that have already been done but also grown my desire to really be a part of this process and then lastly I just want to use this time to express my sincer appreciation for our previous communications director Thomas Dolan um he's been tremendously helpful in the transition for me he actually came to the office last week and uh we got to chat for a good 45 minutes or so and also to superintendent uh Dr Edward Vincent for providing me with this opportunity to join Mustang nation and her support since I joined in July um in an age where really building trust and community Through communication with constituents is more crucial than ever even themes that we've spoken about tonight through various presentations I'm really thankful and eager for this opportunity to join the committee um in this role so thank you thank you so much well for all you've done and we look forward to having you on the committee y mayor member Graham um we do need to take an official vote so that I can um send everything to msba motion for approval by member sorry I had one quick question M right I'm fully in favor of this does this also Place uh him on the Comm Communications and Community engagement subcommittee is that a yes yeah because I think that's really important here yeah he has um will has already he said that he's been supporting it but is do we need to formally do that as well you don't need to do that here the um building committee has handled that so great I'm happy to motion for approval um motion for approval by member uh Graham seconded by member reinfeld all those in favor I all those opposed motion passes thanks will thanks well next up we have condolences the members of the Medford school committee Express their sincerest condolences to the family of Marin L kidney mother of Kim FL flarity who worked at at Medford High School in support of transportation and is a member of our Administrative Assistant unit and the members of the Medford school committee Express their sincerest condolences to the family of Laurel Schuman mother of Johanna Granada speech therapist at the Roberts Elementary School we all may rise for a moment of silence thank you our our next regular meeting is back in the Alden Memorial Chambers Metford City Hall in addition to zoom on Monday December 2nd is there a motion to motion to adjourn by member reinfeld seconded by member branley all those in favor I all those opposed Happy Thanksgiving everybody