WEBVTT

METADATA
Video-Count: 1
Video-1: youtube.com/watch?v=jkMXlHr8qIg

NOTE
MEETING SECTIONS:

Part 1 (Video ID: jkMXlHr8qIg):
- 00:07:37: Meeting Start, Roll Call, and Special Recognition Introduction
- 00:09:07: Name, Strength, Story Award - Christina Caruso
- 00:11:34: Name, Strength, Story Award - Richard Romanoff
- 00:13:55: Name, Strength, Story Award - Flores and Jadiman
- 00:16:32: Approval of Minutes and Public Comment Guidelines
- 00:18:25: Public Comment - Olivia Levine: Uncomfortable Dance Class
- 00:19:51: Public Comment - Jaylani Hunter: Alleged Teacher Misconduct
- 00:22:31: Indicators of Success Presentation - Attendance, Dropout, Mobility
- 00:28:05: Personnel Updates, Enrollment Report, Adjournment


Part: 1

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Good evening everyone. Can we please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance? Veronica, can I get a roll call for attendance, please? Mr. Small. Present. Ms. Covarrubias. Present. Ms. Enriques. Present.

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Mr. O'Regan. Ms. Balderas. Present. Dr. Neville. Present. Ms. Cabral. Present. >> Mr. Fernandez. Present. Oh, and it looks and it looks like Mr. O'Regan just joined. Mr. Gomez Pereda.

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That's eight present and one absent. Thank you very much. We'll move on now to special recognition. I'll hand the microphone over to Dr. Abeyta. Every school committee, we do a name, strength, and story award.

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And we have a couple that we'd like to recognize tonight. Um our first I'm going to call up Dr. Aaron Jennings, our um Chief of Staff and Equity, to come up and share his name, strength, and story award. And

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this is for Christina Caruso. Hello everyone. I have the um great honor of um sharing briefly um um why Ms. Caruso deserves such a great honor of name, strength, and story. Um since the since March 2023, I've had

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the great privilege of working with her in coordinating and bringing um circle students, fourth grade students, to City Hall every year um as a part of civics and learning in student government. Um I went back in my um agenda and I noticed

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that um on the first session in 2023, um we you all came here and we had a tour of City Hall. We met with all of the school department and also city government at the time. And so, since then, every single year, we work together. Um it's and it's to see you interact

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with your students with the level of care, compassion, um Name Strength and Story there, I might say, has been joyous. Um I have one slight problem. I haven't received this year's email yet, so I'm waiting on that, but without >> [laughter] >> Without further ado, I just want to

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recognize and honor um Ms. Crusoe. Thank you so very much. Congratulations. >> [applause] >> And if if if full committee can come up and take a picture. >> [applause] >> Okay. Our next Name Strength and Story, I'm actually going to have our

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Communications Director, Michael Sullivan, share a little bit about Richard Romanoff. I have the distinct pleasure to speak about Richard Romanoff this evening, who is involved in all aspects of our music program in Chelsea Public Schools as

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both the music teacher at the Burke Elementary School and as the K to 8 music lead in the school district. On top of all the work he does during the school day with his students, he also works before and after school running programs for kids. He recently supported one student at the Maurice H. Segal

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Clark Avenue Middle School audition for and get selected to the Massachusetts Music Educators Association Northeast Regional Festival, where this student played the oboe among the Northeast region's top student musicians. He's heavily involved in next week's

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district concert as well as in community events annually in the city, like leading students to sing Christmas carols at the annual City of Chelsea tree lighting and holiday celebration. Richard has been a has been an incredible educator and made a positive impact on the lives of his

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students. He's incredibly deserving of this honor. Congratulations, Richard, and thank you. >> [applause] [applause] >> And for our next Name Strength and Story award, it's actually a duo, but one of one teacher cannot be here tonight,

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Ashley Flores. She's a teacher at our high school. Uh she teaches special education, and then her amazing partner and paraprofessional, um Oseba Oseba Jadiman.

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And I would just like to say a few words, um these two pair as a as a partner duo, they are amazing. They love on their children. The skills that they teach them are life skills, skills for life.

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And I often get called I got called one time when they were on a field trip, and uh they did a Zoom with me on the bus just to to say hi to me and just um just share what they were all the wonderful things that they're doing with our

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students, and so I know that they truly care about our students, and it shows with everything that they do. And so I would just like to say thank you for your dedication, and thank you for how you pour life into

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our children. >> [applause] >> And that completes my report. Thank you, Dr. Abeta. We now um I'd like to get a motion to approve the minutes of the regular School Committee meeting on March 26th, 2026.

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Amend them to the record. So moved. Thank you. We now move on to public comment. I will read. Before we begin the public comment, I want to review the guidelines so that we can ensure everyone has the opportunity

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to be heard and the meeting proceeds respectfully in an in orderly manner. Sign-ups for public comment are closed. If you signed up prior to the start of this meeting, your name will be called in the order received. Each

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speaker will have 3 minutes to address the School Committee. When your name is called, please come to the microphone, state your name, and begin your remarks. When the 3 minutes have ended, we ask that you please conclude your comments so that we may move on to the next

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speaker. We understand that people feel strongly about the issues at hand. However, we expect all speakers and members of the audience to remain respectful and professional. Personal attacks, profanity, threats, and disruptive

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behavior will not be tolerated. Anyone who is disruptive, disrespectful, may be asked to leave the meeting so that we can maintain a safe and productive environment for everyone. We appreciate your cooperation and your participation in

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this important discussion. Thank you. Veronica. First speaker is Olivia. Hi. Good evening. My name is Olivia Levine, and I'm a junior at Chelsea High School. And last semester I took Yanna and I

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used Valentine's dance class, and I encountered a very uncomfortable situation with her talking about wanting to have intimacy with somebody in the school. Quotation marks, which is what she said, "You have a boyfriend, right? You should

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should I have sex with this person, or should I not?" I was 16 at the time that this was happening, and it made me feel very uncomfortable and unsafe being in an environment with her the rest of the dance semester that I had, and especially the dance semester that I

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have with her right now. I continue to feel uncomfortable in her class and in the school environment which she is a part of. I was scared and unsafe to reach out for help due to hearing about the students in schools that department did

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not help with other students that spoke out. Thank you. >> [applause] >> Next speaker, Jaylani. the copy already? And I have a copy, also. Good evening, everyone. My name is Jaylani Hunter, and I'm a student at Chelsea High School. For the past 3

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years, I've been enduring a teacher who has been inappropriate towards myself and other students. I've personally witnessed her sexual harassment and more. Her name is Eliana Anaise Valentine. I've been almost forced to kiss someone who walked in on me naked and made a

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perverted comment. But you already know that. I've been I've been told about her sex life with another teacher many times, but you already know that. She ran her fingers through a 14-year-old boy's hair and borderline flirted with him, but you already know that. I've

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gone to the school, city hall, and police, which have all failed. She has deep roots into the city which protect her. I come up here to ask you, why is my voice not enough? Why is my story not enough? Why am I, the 17-year-old student, the one

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responsible for coming up with evidence when you keep our phones locked and the teacher takes our phones during rehearsals? I was told I needed more people to speak up. At this moment, 1,031 people have signed my petition. Parents, students,

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even alumni have signed this petition. This behavior has been going on for years even before I came to high school. I stand up here because I'm the only one brave enough to protect these students and now I have a question a new question for you. Why are 1,031

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voices not enough? Ever since I made a post on Monday, I have had hundreds of people reach out to me in disgust of the situation. Not only in disgust, but with their own stories. Stories from students who have graduated

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and stories from students that are still here and stories from old staff members who have said that you guys laugh about this behind doors. I come up here to share my story because to me I have felt unheard.

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Today I was kicked out of school for leading a protest by the school and the police, robbing me a day of education, especially because one of my teachers is about to go on maternity leave. I wonder why my voice isn't enough. Why

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what happened to me isn't enough. Thank you. >> [applause] [applause] >> Those are the only two that signed up today. Okay, thank you. Okay, at this moment we will move on to

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presentations. Great. I would like to call up our assistant superintendent um Dr. Tamara Blake Canty for indicators of success. Good evening, everyone. I'm sorry. Dr. Canty, I'm sorry.

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I need to close off public comment at this moment and we'll move on to presentations. Thank you, Adam. Good evening, everyone. Our indicators of success highlights the goals and priorities of the district

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that cap that's captured in our strategic plan. Tonight, I will be lifting up three of our indicators of success. I will be lifting up our daily attendance,

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high school dropout, and our mobility rate. Our daily drop In fact, actually all of our um data points tonight are connected to the district's um priority that focuses on rigorous and culturally relevant

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instruction for all students. Our daily attendance rate as it pertains to pre-K through grade eight is holding strong at an average of 92% and that's for the month of March along

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with year to date. For high school, we're holding steady at 81% on average also for the month of March and year to date. Our second data point,

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our high school dropout rate, October 1st enrollment was 1,683 student. The number of students who dropped out were 54.

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Our percentage is 3.21. Therefore, 97% of our students continue to remain engaged and enrolled in our schools. Thank you to our amazing teachers and administrators and staff.

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We are still holding below the average um for our yearly dropout. So, last year's average was 3.78. We are at 3.2. The final data for tonight is our mobility rate.

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At the ELC for the month of March, we had three students in, three students out. At the elementary level, we had 11 students in, 16 students out. At the middle school, we had seven

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students in, 10 students out. At the high school, we had 18 students in, 10 students out. Cumulatively at the district level, we had 39 students in, 39 students out.

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That's even. Year to date at the ELC, we had 36 students in, 20 out. At the elementary, we have from Octo- from September to current, 127

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students in, 87 students out. At the middle school, 100 students in, 58 students out. At the high school, 165 students in, 126

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students out. Cumulatively from September to current date, we've had 428 students in, 291 students out. So, we've been able as a district to hold on to 137

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students. Thank you. Any further questions? Do any committee members have any questions? None. Thank you. You're welcome. Our Our student reps are not here tonight.

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And so, we will move on to our personnel update. So, we do track our hires and our the demographics of the people that we do hire. So, this month this past month, we've hired 50% Caucasian,

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50% Hispanic, 0% black, 0% Asian Pacific Islander. And then for our enrollment report, we are holding steady at 5,785 students. I would like to commend these two reports for the record. Thank you so

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much. And that completes my reports. Thank you, Dr. Arveda. We have no committee reports and no new business. So, at this point, I will move on to announcements.

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Um are there any announcements by our committee members? Okay, seeing none, I'd ask for a motion to adjourn. Motion to adjourn. I second that motion. The meeting is called to order. Adjourned.

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Thank you. Have a nice evening, everyone. >> Mhm.