recording in progress good evening everyone we're going to call the Malden school committee meeting to order the time is 6:08 p.m. we apologize for the ttess in starting the meeting and we're going to blame that on the city council who met
here last in the chamber so as we always do we let you know when our next meeting will take place and that will be on Monday April 6 7th at 6: p.m. as we always do as well we'll
pledge allegiance to our flag we'll take a brief moment in honor of those who continue to fight for our country and who have served us in the past we'll then have our clerk take attendance to ensure that we have a quorum sufficient
to allow us to come together tonight and then we will get into this evening's agenda which consists of approving the minutes from February 3rd we'll have public comment uh we'll hear from our
superintendent we then have an update on where things stand with negotiations we have two motions and resolutions one is around our intendance policy and then the other one is around the proposed School assignment
policy then from there we'll entertain uh Mo Personal Privilege and then after that we'll detain a motion to go into executive session for three reasons the first is to approve our executive session minutes of February 3rd
2025 the second item is to discuss strategy sessions in preparation for contract negotiations with non-union Personnel specifically our assistant superintendent director of student services and then item three is to
discuss strategy with respect to Collective bar in or litigation with the Malden Education Association units a b and c uh then from there we'll come back out and we'll move adjournment so there any questions of the uh of the
team if not let's first pledge allegiance to our flag you want to do that I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation
under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all please remain standing for a moment of silence in honor of all those who have fought for our country and continue to do so today thank you will you also please
remain standing for a moment of silence at which I will now turn it over to our vice chair Jennifer spor thank you um so I ask that we have a moment of silence um for an educator that we lost
in Malden last week um Miss Donna quill was an educator at the BB school for um quite a while um before that I believe Linden um and she worked in the pace classroom
so anybody that works with special needs kids has a heart of gold um and it's a truly a loss for this District so I ask if we just take a moment of silence to honor her thank you all right now let us take
attendance mayor Christensen here Mr drummy here Mr McCarthy here miss Bora here miss Macklin here miss hordy here Mr Gray here Mr Bernard Miss Rose zberg here superintendent Sipple here student
representative cathine Fontanella so we have a quorum sufficient to allow us to come together let's get into this evening's agenda of which we have breaking news in quotes and you'll see why I said that in a
minute on Sunday we received an email from the New England Scholastic press Association and the title of the email was Malden High School senior named one of New England's top high school
journalists now when we when we saw that subject matter as you probably can imagine we were just all so proud that typically when we receive these kinds of emails we'll do a
presentation the following month or the month after that or maybe we'll send it to subcommittee but not with mat keing we are just so blown away by what was said in the email that we immediately moved within 24 hours to have Mack here
tonight so we could all say how proud We Are of this accomplishment it says Malden High School senior Matt keading is among the top high school journalists in New England the New England Scholastic press Association announced on
Sunday nespa for short named keing to its first ever all New England High School journalism staff which recognizes the top high school journalists working on newspapers yearbooks broadcasts or
literary magazines throughout the six New England states nespa named only 17 total High School journalists throughout New England and Matt keading
was one of them on behalf of our entire school committee City we honor Matt Keon all right we'd like to have mac come up now Mac we were in such a rush to make this happen that the one thing we forgot
was the citation so we will work on that after tonight's meeting and make sure that we get it to you but for now we are just so impressed with what you have accomplished that we want to give you a moment to say a few words so let me turn
the podium on you're up okay well there's a reason I do writing and not speaking um but uh I started doing journalism through my class my freshman year I had
signed up for it during Co because I wanted to have a class with I with people I knew in it so I knew two people from my middle school were signing up for it and I was like I know how to write I'll take this class um and not to
be cliche the class kind of changed my life um mostly because uh it made me realize how good of a writer I am um but um no I've gone to meet so many people
just from like interviewing people um like people that I wouldn't have talked to before or necessarily topics I wouldn't have researched before um and uh even if I don't pursue journalism After High School it's a skill I'm going to have with me for the rest of my life
so this program has been the best thing that's happened to me throughout High School great we were going to ask what is next for you um I'm going to University of Vermont after this year um uh I will be majoring in Classics uh and
then minoring in ASL on a pre-law track great and we presume you're covering the state of the city address tomorrow morning and if so we're hoping this presentation time will make you go easy on us so I did open with saying I'm a writer and not a speaker so I think you
can handle that all right very good very good okay did you want to add anything um let me go to our superintendent thank you Mr Mayor and uh M congratulations again I had the pleasure of being uh in the hot seat and
interviewed by the editor-in chief of the blue and gold um couple of months ago and um I I shared the article that you wrote about all of the work that we're doing trying to improve the schedule at Mal Malden High and um
others of who work with other districts around the St were like just so impressed by the nuanced and well researched article that you that you wrote to really honor the work and also the intent behind the work and also the a lot of the emotions that
students and teachers alike feel um and the apprehensions that people have and the hopes that they have too and so I just for me it was just a just a small example of what you bring to the table and what and so when I saw the email this morning um congrat congratulating
you for this honor it didn't surprise me at all you're a tremendously gifted um reporter and writer and you've got a great future even if journalism isn't what you make your bread and butter with long term so congratulations again
great all right so we're gonna do a quick picture with Mac if that's okay with everyone school committee will be in Pre freees recoring stopped e e recording in
progress all right we're back now let's see if we can talk that I don't think so but we'll try regular session minutes of February 3rd 2025 motion by Mr Ry seconded by Miss bapor everybody's had a chance to review
them any questions queries qualms if not all those in favor say I I anybody opposed the eyes have it that carries unanimously we're now at public comment this is an opportunity for members of the public to address the school committee we only ask that you state
your name and address for the record and public comment will be open three minutes per speaker and we're going to set it for 15 minutes hopefully we won't need that right everyone all right public comment is now open let's do
this good evening hi everybody so my name is Penny kman I live at 194 Banbridge Street in Malden I'm a proud veteran educator of 26 years at the salemwood school so tonight I'm I'm here tonight to really lean in and think about the
statement do right by all children because to me it feels more like sometimes we are doing right by some children and some families why is it at the sixth grade and uh sixth grade math science and ELA teachers at the salet school teach five
classes a day in an additional Wind Block that tailors interventions to our students needs to 115 students every day but just down the road the ELA Math and Science teachers teach less than
that they only teach 64 students a day to the best of my knowledge they also teach an additional Wind Block but why can other schools have a cap of a 100 when salemwood School receives new students daily and sometimes even transfers from others Malin schools the
math teacher usually teaches seven classes a day on Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday how because she teaches her five math classes recess Duty Wind Block for differentiated instruction and then has a classroom of students to close the gap after school on those three days yes
she's an amazing woman and an amazing teacher but yes this is also killing her and the rest of the team as well as the seventh and eighth grade teachers upstairs in my school we all want to do right by all but we feel central
office The Welcome Center and this school committee make it impossible for us to do that how can we possibly do write by all students with nearly double the number of students and half the amount of time we are expected to reach out to 115 families while teachers at
another school are expected to only reach out to 64 families we spend many of our preps in parent meetings for our 504s our 13 IEPs our 20 level one and two ESL students our 25 students who are either ESL 3 or
ESL monitoring behavior issues family check-ins mandated District training planning field trips to Nature's Classroom we actually really have time during prep to do our prep why does one school have a daily prep as well an additional block set aside without
students to complete the activities I just described when a guest scientist from Mass bioed came into Miss linquist class science science classes last week she was shocked at the incredible differences of schedules timing and number of students at each of our k8s in
the same City I say shame on central office shame on school committee shame on the directors and administrators and even my union siblings for knowing about this completely unfair and unequal distribution of students and
time then we had we're at three minutes okay no if you want to just wrap up you can but we're at the time then we you come to salemwood school and lecture the staff about reaching out to families about attendance of course when one school has doubled the student it will take more time to reach out to families
of course when one school has doubled the students it will take more time to meet with families of course when one school has double the students it will take more time to coordinate schedules with these families and of course when one team of teachers has double the students they will burn out and get sick more
frequently my team received closing up three new students just last week okay very good thank you all right public comment remains open good evening hi my name is Sarah strer I live at 43
havock Street in Malden great and for my three minutes my cooworker and friend Penny Helman would like to finish what she has to say if that works for the school committee uh hold on let me check the rules we do that no objections M Bor no
objections please thank you so last week we received three new students in the sixth grade we are not only teaching content five times a day 45 minute rotations to 115 students we're trying to nurture these students we're trying to teach them etiquette teach them
English make get engaging we are told to be off the computer we are told to be on the computer we are told to follow the same pacing guide as my colleagues who have many fewer students we also find time for model un and in the grade six to write the max courage essays how are
some teachers only held accountable for 64 students with the same expectations as those of us with 100 or more students which students receive more small group instruction which students receive more feedback which students have a better
shot at oneon-one time with the teacher which students get more attention one of 115 or one of 64 which students and families are we really doing right by in 2025 thank you anybody else wishing to
address the school committee can do so now let us check online see if there's anybody online so if you'd like to participate in public comments and you are um on Zoom please use the raise hand function okay all right we're going to
wrap public comment and now go to our superintendent for his report Dr SI screen share well good evening we've had some couple of technical challenges
tonight but it's really good to be with all of you again and um hopefully these there we go good evening Mr Mayor good evening members of the committee and members of
the public and our staff who are here I want to thank you for this opportunity to share uh our report for this month um tonight we're going to be um we already had our special recognition so we check
um we're going to um going to be sharing with you preliminary entry findings um these are U findings from from all of the listening sessions and the classroom observations and from the last um nine
months now since I took um took office and so I'm really excited to share that with you um and then um we'll also be presenting to you a proposed School District calendar for next year um at the end of the presentation and inviting
you hopefully to adopt that so at least we have a tentative calendar in place for next school year so um I've had the pleasure of sharing these findings these preliminary findings with uh parents and caregivers a two different events including one
just on last Tuesday evening um what uh this is centered along with all of our work is around our core values of including and collaborating leading in such a way that people feel included in decisions that
impact them and that we're making the best efforts to collab collaborate across uh roles across schools to make sure that we're um doing the best by uh all kids we're embracing growth making
sure that we're um holding out uh the conviction that none of us are done we're all on a journey we're all growing and we can all be better with feedback with coaching with um with effort we can all be better better and our schools can
be better as as well and the commitment to do right by all kids which I've heard echoed in many places over the last um several weeks um which is really about making sure that whether students have someone to advocate for them or not regardless of where they come from
regardless of what language they speak um that we're committed to do right by all of them as you are aware and as I've shared with um you in previous uh meetings um I've been doing a lot of work over the
last n months to really get to know Malden to get to know the schools to get to know the community and to understand the needs of the district from as many different angles as possible um a lot of that has been listening to stakeholders
nine Town Hall meetings with parents and caregivers sessions with Educators across all of our schools um surveys and more than 50 me meetings with community members over the course of the year I've uh had the pleasure of visiting um
schools at least 40 times and being in over 400 classrooms so far um still have some that we're going to make sure that I had not been in and um we're going to make sure that we get to all of them before the end of the year and then many
school events and we just another lovely event on Friday night at the ELC um which is so so awesome and other opportunities to meet with parents and see staff and our students in action we've looked a lot of data we've looked at uh attendance data achievement data
graduation and Dropout rates um English Learners uh progress enrollment and also measures of school culture and climate and really looking at all of those things to get another another reference point on how our schools are doing and
what our District's needs are and then lastly uh really engaging with administrators across the district engaging with you all as a committee and with subcommittees and engaging with our labor Partners both SEIU and Malin
Education Association to really uh collaborate and to build shared understanding of what our District's needs are and there are four big strengths that um I've seen again and again and again and um four strengths that I I
perceive to be in place when I applied for this position and I've only become more convinced that these strengths are real and they're deep and they're uh just um such a a blessing for all of us to to celebrate first and foremost of
course are diverse and talented students um this particular uh photograph you can can barely see it but these were the finalists from The Poetry out loud competition who uh performed and I was a privileged to serve as a a judge for uh
just last uh the end of January um and you can see there were students from everywhere who were a part of that competition um and including I believe our student representative was one of those
finalists um we have engaged parents and caregivers uh all of the the town hall meetings were well attended people and even on those uh those uh meetings that had lower numbers of attendance the
parents were very engaged and very forceful in their advocacy for what their children need and what their schools need committed Educators and leaders been struck even since before I started uh the position just how in well first of all how welcoming Educators
have been how welcoming leaders have been but then also how um how ready they were to have meaningful conversations about what the district needs and what students need as well and then lastly a tremendously supportive City and
Community uh we've got a tremendous partnership with the city of Malden but then also with um entities throughout our nonprofit community and other educational organizations um just that really really set a tremendous
Foundation to do right by all kids so there are six areas for Collective action that have also emerged and um in a recurring way have been really evident throughout um throughout all of the listening sessions and across
the months these are six areas in which uh I really perceive they they frame the work that we as a district need to do both in the short term and the long term to make sure that we are the strongest District that we can be first is affirming high expectations
for all I'll go through these quickly here and then I'll talk a little bit more in more detail about each one adapting instruction to meet diverse needs ensuring Fair access to Opportunities partnering with families nurturing a strong
Workforce and then building strength and stability high expectations for all um as as you all know as we've had conversations since last June when I first uh arrived um it's extremely
important that we have the we provide the opportunity for every student to have the broadest set of options they can possibly have when they when they finish High School um whether they choose to go to college is that's their
decision that's their business at the end of the day but it if they choose not to it cannot be because we did not prepare them to have that opportunity and prepare them to thrive once they took that opportunity um and every student regardless of what
their uh their prior educational experience might be or whether they have someone who's a forceful advocate for their learning or not we need to make sure that every student um has that opportunity and so we the adults the leaders of the organization have to lift
up those expectations for every student and that's what that's what this speaks to here in this uh image that you see here it's from our professional learning day that we had in um in November and we had the the
opportunity to hear from many students and who who were very grateful for the education they're receiving in our schools in this particular instance Malin high school but they also wanted to make sure that our teachers knew that they had a lot to offer as well this
particular young lady uh if you can read what it says on the screen there she says I speak three languages do you um meaning she is a young lady who's at the beginning uh stages of learning English but she already speaks two other
languages before she started learning English and she speaks them well and just to to make sure that teachers have an idea that um a every child is um much more than what they appear to be on the surface that there's a depth there's an
intellectual ability there's a uh there's Talent there's desire desire that is under the surface that we have to be present to and mindful of and make sure that we're have a a a program and a set of of of arrangements and classes
and interventions and opportunities that really gives every single student the opportunity to thrive which means leads me to the next one and that is meeting diverse needs we uh have the most diverse School distri
District in the Commonwealth which is awesome which is another thing that Drew me to Malden it's a strength that I mentioned before and that also presents a challenge in that we need to make sure that we are using our instructional
methods and ways that are really meeting the needs of that diverse population three um populations if you will three categories of students and these overlap um are students with disabilities students who are learning English and
then students who are Advanced Learners students who uh are when they walk in the door or halfway through the year they're already ready for more they're ready for more Challenge and I've heard from parents across of the district that
U of all three of these groups and again some in some cases they students who are an advanced learner who's also learning English and there's a student with a disability who's also an advanced learner um but that we have to do right by them by making sure we're meeting them in the diversities that they have
and making sure that our Educators have the training and the support and the coaching to do right by them as well which leads me to the next one which is about Fair access for all uh we heard during public comment something
that I heard at many schools across the district which was a concern that educ ators have that there's a perception at least of varied resources from one school to another um the the speakers
tonight are just an example but I've I've heard that from many Educators across the district uh I also have heard uh from parents as you have as well of concern about different exploratory off
offerings at different K8 schools and even at malen high school making sure sure that all students have Fair access to the opportunities in the building regardless of their um of their of their um their students background so that's
another area making sure that all of our students have Fair access to the programs that we provide and that those opportunities are accessible across our schools as well another area for um for Action is
partnering with families since the first day I walked in the district also I've heard from parents concerns about communication wanting to make sure that they're getting reliable information on a in a in a consistent and accessible
way in their language from the district from the school from their child's teacher and um that's that's been a focus as you know of a lot of the work we've done initially over the course of this year making improvements in that area but it's still something that needs
to be there's a long way to go and we are going to be working hard on effective communication and it also translates into making sure that families have easy access to District services and they also have the opportunity to collaborate in a
meaningful way with our schools and with the district as well nurturing a strong Workforce our educators are our most valuable resource um and we have to invest in them with competitive compensation to
make sure that we retain the best staff that we can and we attract new staff um that we provide them effective training and support that we recruiting for staff in an Innovative way and also that we create and nurture a
collaborative culture so that PE those Educators feel like they belong that they feel like they have input into into the shaping of our programs um I um also will just say that from early on during my my
listening sessions with staff something that came up again and again was concerned that we are not um we have too many unfilled positions and that too often were posting positions too late and losing out on
candidates when they're looking for their when they're looking for a job um we have been taking that to heart and making some adjustments to practices under the leadership of assistant superintendent Sarah mlin and I want to
invite Dr mlin to come up just for a moment to share some highlights of some work that's happening with Recruitment and building our team for next year thank you I'd be happy to good evening mayor Christenson and school committee members um I appreciate the opportunity
to share briefly just a couple of things that we are doing um in my office as well as across the leadership team I as the superintendent said this work of making sure we are filling every position is Mission critical in terms of running an effective school system so
here are in order of the five that are listed up there we are doing a huge push this week on an early postings of our positions for next year so this means that we will have approximately 50 postings going up later this week on
school spring which is the um website we use for postings these are retirements that we know about these are vacancies that we've had this year that we anticipate wanting to fill for next year there also our highest needs so there's a fair number of ESL teachers a fair
number of special ed teachers we want to fill these positions the best candidates are out there now they're not waiting for the summer to look for job so that is why we're doing a huge push at this time there'll be more jobs posted later in the spring but our initial group is
going out this week we are working to effectively communicate that we have these positions the our careers page on our website has been updated to include School descriptions to include reasons you
should teach in Malden and a link to those job descriptions so if you're on our website and you click careers it doesn't take you right away to the postings it tells you a little bit about why Malden and then you can see all of our postings we're also working on our communication with people who apply
because we know that if people don't hear in a few days they're going to move on they're going to look in other districts where they get a quick response so we're absolutely tightening up our communication back and forth with applicants third thing we need to go where people are looking for jobs I
spent Saturday at a job fair in at Brooklyn High School sponsored by the mass Massachusetts partnership for diversity and education and as I looked around at the other tables and Rivier was there and Medford and all the all our close friends friends along the way
um we're the one District I heard that has actual positions to hire for right now so I think that makes us even more competitive um I will be at Bridgewater State later this spring to talk to their grads um as well as continuing to build relationships with our schools of
Education the fourth thing we are doing is launching this hiring process with an approach of a centralized initial support so we'll do the heavy lifting for principles at the beginning screening people finding out who's most um recommended for these positions and
then move really highly qualified candidates out to the schools for their visits and their interviews takes a little bit of work off of school leaders at this stage um and then we have been working closely with a recruitment consultant who's advising us on strategies helping us to hone our
message and she is helping us identify um potential candidates for our hardest to fill positions so she's prioritized kind of 10 positions that we absolutely know we need some help and support with giving even a wider um recruitment range have any questions I'm happy to
talk more thank you thank you Dr mofan we will have an opportunity for questions in just a moment the last the last area for Collective action is strength and stability um as you recall from last
month when I we talked about the budget projections um the the numbers from Chapter 70 from one year to the next tend to go up and down and the um long-term prospects for funding from the
federal government are very uh uncertain um I would say right now um we need to have uh long-term sustainable plan for the financing of our schools um
as well as our facilities as well as making sure that we can maintain and um keep the our technology up to date for the use of our students and our Educators as well and be open to the possibilities longer term that
Transportation might be able to provide um ways that we could give students access to opportunities that may not be available at their home school by getting them to somewhere else in the district where those opportunities are
available um so strength and stability is really just making sure that we're managing our resources well now but also being as creative as possible working with the city working with our state delegation working with our philanthropic Community to make to
really U establish resources that will help us um weather the the ups and downs of State funding over the over the the longer term so opportunities for engagement um as I mentioned we had two feedback
sessions with parents and caregivers just recently um I there will be lots of opportunities for engagement with Educators I had the pleasure of spending an hour uh today with the entire staff at Malden High School um talking about
the schedule at high school and and that work that continues um but there will be an a feedback session available for parents and caregivers it will be on Zoom it'll be a webinar on Tuesday March
25th from 6:00 to 7:30 I know there was some disappointment by some uh in February that they were not able to participate in one of those inperson sessions and so we're going to be getting that word out to um far and wide in the Community to make sure that
everyone has that opportunity to um to give feedback at that session and then we'll be working with each of these areas and I'll be looking forward to working with you all to begin to launch a strategic planning process later in the spring um where we'll be able to dig
into each of those six areas and really begin to to plan out what our um both short-term and longer term actions are going to be to support our achievement as a district in all six of those areas
and with that I will yield it to you Mr chair before we look at the calendar please questions of our superintendent any questions based on what you heard you've had the presentation for a little bit so there
may not be any immediate questions uh start with Miss Bor thank you Mr chair um thank you superintendent for this presentation um and I know we've spoken offline but I
just want to note that I would love to see more information on special education in your presentations um I know we talk about reviewing data in the data section we talk about English language Learners or
English learning progress we don't talk about special education um so I I just would like to see more of that if you could um and then when it comes to our
um hiring right now and if Miss mlin could come back up for a moment um I don't know if you have these numbers off the top of your head buto approximately 50 postings for
2026 are being opened for 25 26 25 256 so I I'm just curious how we do that when we don't have like a formal budget yet to know what our budget expectations are going
to be um great question so it is a combination of retirements in June that we know of at this date so a known vacancy um some lure issues with people that have an emergency license and that
position needs to be posted because if the person doesn't get a license we would need to fill that and then current vacancies in this school year that we've been unable to fill are becoming part of next year's vacancies so no new positions per se that um everything is
with the budget unknown yes okay and so my second question was going to be in regards to emergency lers and stuff like that I know at this point in the game we've usually had some conversations up here about what do those numbers look like um at this moment how many
Educators have we reached out to to say Hey you know we're in March now what's going on um of course we want to work with you what can we do to to help because we want to retain you but do we have any formal numbers on how many I can get them to you we
have them um and the as you may know desie is not doing any more emergency license extensions so even if someone has gotten one once or twice this is the end of it so people are being notified this week that you know we know they are running out of an emergency license and
if they have any questions about how to renew or how to apply for a new license they can contact myself or to desie and our AG so our HR is reaching out to those Educators saying okay we conversations with principles principles have had conversations with educat new
to anybody is not new okay wonderful okay thank you thank you m pfor could I just I'm sorry Mr may I just wanted to add that there there are some what what Dr mlin said was is completely accurate that the the positions that we're we're
posting are positions that we have to have um they are and we we know that they're going to be vacant um based on all the information that Dr mclin described there is a a small number of
English as a second language positions also that we uh based on our projections at this point we are confident that our um well within our budget for for next year that we're also posting can I respond please thank you
so and that was I my thought process was also if we have a retirees a lot of them might be at the higher end of our step and column so budgetary projections would be those salar would be coming in probably lower
giving us some wiggle room within the budget okay thank you all right thank you Miss Bor seeing no other the lights I would just like to ask Miss MZ to step forward I'm probably going to ask a question I already know the answer
to but miss Bor reminded me I presume all this movement is being done in concept with what we're doing on our end in other words does Mr Hogan on the city Side know of the attempt to fill all
these vacancies I'm Mr Hogan and I brief on a weekly basis so he's totally in the loop with everything that we're doing okay very good thank you all right everyone let's move on to the uh School District calendar for 2025
2026 how do you want to introduce this superintendent well just uh thank you Mr mea the uh we were started to hear inquiries through our principles from some of our Educators saying hey um is the calendar
coming out soon um because they're wanting to make their vacation plans for the summer or just wondering when classes are going to be starting in August um and parents also beginning to inquire we uh as Miss Bora may have uh
may share with the committee in her update on negotiations we have several several proposals both from uh malen Education Association and proposals that we made that may affect the final school calendar um in terms of professional
development days and and a variety of other things but uh what we've done here in consultation with mea is provide a calendar that um just kind of assumes that the status quo from our current contract will be um moving forward um
and so that is what you have as a um for your review here and what you can see on the screen now if you're um viewing from home um and that is uh that our Educators would report back for their
first day on Monday August 25th and the first day of school for grades 1 through 12 would be Wednesday August 27th the first day for kindergarten um would be
the 4th of September and we would have um all of the holidays as outlined for each of the months of the year with the last day of school being Friday the 12th of June um assuming there's no snow
days and the graduation ceremony for Malden High School being Sunday June 7th so um again this is subject to change we do have proposals uh that we've made um already uh with regards to early release
professional development and to the day before Thanksgiving that could change this calendar if we get a agreement with the Union on those on those items but at this point that's that may not come for several months and so we wanted to at
least get a tenative calendar on the books so that people could begin planning because the first day of school the first uh day for staff to report back those are likely to be um consistent no matter what happens with those other items so that um if it
pleases the committee and please and Mr Mayor if um if it's possible to adopt the calendar tonight that would be wonderful okay what say you let's go to miss 41 thank you Mr Mayor I have a question and I was just double-checking because I
realized that we did not have this this past year because of the way that the winter holidays fell our last day of school this year was or sorry our last day in 2024 was December 20th um and this has this going up right up until the 23rd I have a question that you may
not have the answer to but I'm wondering about I'm wondering about attendance on the 23rd when it's a full day versus a half day and I'm wondering if either one of those things make an actual like attendance if we're gonna like I I don't
know if this has been brought up by the mea but I'm questioning just that one day everything else looks great by the way thank you Miss Hy uh well one thing I can share and this was data that we were able to share with the mea during negotiations last
week is that our attendance rates for early release days tend to be much lower than our attendance rates for full days and so on those dates one reason why we've
proposed um to not have the early release professional learning next year is be mindful of that that Dynamic um in addition to concerns about time unlearning and and other other matters but um at this point um so so that's why
that we we did minimize the number of days the only date that's required in the contract to be uh an early release day is the day before Thanksgiving okay um that's all thank you thank you m
pfor thank you Mr chair so well I understand that this is tenative um based on our negotiations I just have a question in regards to potential early releases then because the time change now goes from what we currently have as
an 11:00 a.m. dismissal to a 12:45 dismissal on here um how does that affect school lunches because I know now 11:00 a.m. we do not serve School lunch so with the Assumption if we did keep professional development days in with a
12:45 dismissal would we be serving I I mean I shouldn't say would we legally we have to but how does that affect the school lunches in the scheduling um to make sure everybody's getting a lunch before they walk out of the door I don't
know Miss Merz do you want to comment on that uh you are correct that they would they will be uh basic you either you either have to have an early early dismissal to avoid having to serve lunch or you have to wait until lunches have
been served and so that's the reason for the 12:45 um dismissal time um we are thinking of ways to make those meaningful professional learning days even if the students don't even until 12:45 and we don't aren't able to Pivot
on that um whole scenario but um but I'll let Miss Merz speak to the scheduling of lunches and the logistics of lunches because that's definitely her um specialty yeah so if we will have dismissal at 12:45 we will be serving
lunch for all your k8s and at the high school okay what is the latest lunch period in our schools so they fluctuate because some schools have four and five lunches so some lunches do start um at around 12:30 so we'll just have to push
some things a little bit back to make sure that um every child is fed could we think about potentially doing like grabbing go not allowed unfortunately that's not allowed uh through Desi so you have to have it in
the cafeteria or in your classrooms and you need to eat you can't have a grab and go on the way out the door that's a shame the schedules are typically adjusted anyway though so that you wouldn't have the regular lunch schedule that you would have on a
regular 250 dismissal it would be it' be earlier in the day okay um I'm just going to say on a personal note looking at this I did shed a tear because I realized when I looked at that little graduation cap my own child's going to
be there and I can't believe how quickly 2026 is upon us but um I think borrowing any um changes in negotiations i' like to make a motion to adopt motion to adopt by Miss fapor
seconded by Miss Hy any remaining questions queries qualms concerns hearing none all those in favor say I I anybody opposed the eyes have it that carries
unanimously thank you superintendent now down to subcommittee reports and discussions let's hear from Miss Bor on where we are with negotiations M thank you Mr chair um I keep on taking my glasses off
glasses on what happens when you get old so the negotiation subcommittee um did meet with the Malden Education Association on uh February 27th for our first I'm going to call it our first official bargaining session we did meet
one time before that more or less to establish our ground rules um set our schedules but this was really the first meeting where um we the district as well as the um Union presented uh proposals
to each other um as the superintendent um mentioned um a few of our all of our proposals are on uh our website on the Malden Public Schools website they can be found um you go to maldenps.org go
to oh shot I believe it's our what's what's above the school committee that it's like under a drop box about about thank you uh and then go to school committee and then um negotiations and um you can find all our
proposals there one proposal um that the superintendent did talk about is um we have proposed eliminating um professional development days not that we don't want our Educators to obviously have professional development days days
uh or development but um the early ones the early release days thank you um and that would um help us on our our time on learning and and ensuring our students are getting the necessary um
time in schools um as well as um proposing that we make the day before Thanksgiving a full day off not a half day um and that is also attendance um um you know we see a lot of students not
coming to school that day um so of course we are very student centered in all of our proposals making sure that every request is at the um behest of making sure our students are getting everything they they require they need
so uh the next meeting uh the next few meetings are actually scheduled for March 10th at 5:30 p.m. here in council chambers March 26th at 5:30 p.m. again here in council chambers and April 10th
at 3:30 p.m. and we are trying to um accommodate both sides and timing to make sure that um for educators they don't have to leave the district and then come back so some are meetings are at 3:30 and then um some of us on the
school committee do have day jobs so a later start time helps us so um otherwise um we're just getting things going all right any questions of the chair hearing none let's go to motions
oh miss Hy thank you Mr Mayor I have a question regarding the professional development days so we have half days included in here would the move be then to have one or
two full professional development days or would the district no longer Prov be providing professional development to staff during the school day during the week and it it would be 100% on them to do it so individually we do have professional development days built in
before school starts at the beginning of the year right um and then the superintendent can because I believe there's um yes I'm through the chair so we have in we have the Educators work
184 days they have a um the first day back is there's a a a staff um welcoming event but then they spend the rest of the time in their buildings setting up their classrooms but then we have one professional development day that second day they're
back we have another one on Election Day and then this year the third day would be will be in January um the Monday before Mont Luther King day so those will be the three days that will that we have planned for a full day professional development day but we don't have
additional days um besides those three PD days the the professional learning that we would hope to achieve is through another one of our proposals which is embedding collaboration time and
professional learning within their within the day um to the greatest degree possible so as a part of their regular workday day they'll have opportunities to work and collaborate with teachers teachers who teach the same grade level or teachers who teach the same content
in administratively guided um formats and so that and that would be built into the regular workday as opposed to something that we'd be doing at the end of the day with sending students home early okay again there'll be upcoming meetings
to discuss further thank you thank you anybody else okay hearing none thank you Miss ffor now let's go to motions and resolutions everyone first up attendance policy Miss fapor let's stay with her to
me um so we have an attendance policy and what I'm I'm focusing on in within the attendance policy is specifically our unexcused absence policy um and I'd like to make a motion to send it
to subcommittee I don't don't have anything formal here for us um but the reason why I'd like for us to look at it is uh it reads that three unexcused absences per quarter will be allowed four or more unexcused absences in a quarter will require the teacher to give
a student a 59 for that quarter 59 is a failing grade a lower grade can be given if the student's actual average is lower than a 59 and then students can use the attendance appeals process that's where our policy ends there is really no
um discussion about what this attendance appeals process is it does I guess the k through eight does have a policy a procedure not a policy a procedure the high school has a procedure but it's kind
of unknown I think um in reading the the handbook um it says contact School principal for more information um and then I think also just number of absences I would like reviewed because if you have four or
more unexcused absences you get a failing but then you can possibly do this attendance appeals process I'm hoping we could look at like I mean if a student has 20 absences are they even allowed to make up like I
think we should just have some formalization around this policy even more so I'm just making a motion to send it down into policy to be looked at and worked at worked on with our um assistant superintendent of student services as well as um you know possibly
the School principles just to make sure we are doing right by students okay motion's been made by Miss Bor seconded by Mr drummy everybody clear okay all those in favor say I I
anybody opposed the eyes have it that carries unanimously now over to Miss Rose zberg proposed School assignment policy re for referral thank you Mr chair this is also um a motion to send um a proposed
assignment to schools um to also send that to um policy and procedure sub committee um it's an updated way and and just so it'll be really clear in this cas through the superintendent um that we've been speaking to it um and and this is
his work we all have the copy um and to look at it talk about it um to sort of standardize um and so that everybody will know what the assignment process is um it needed some updating so here's the way to get it going is to send it to us
so a motion to send the um proposal for assignment to schools to policy and procedures motion made seconded by Miss Hy any other questions about that everyone let's go to Mr
McCarthy uh thank you Mr chair um I just have a question actually about this second motion um so through you to miss zberg um so like the school assignment policy
is it like actually what pertains to being like a passing grade or homework I'm not I'm not exactly sure so what what exactly is this about I'm not clear this is about I believe where
student attend school you might be referring to the policy proposal we're on two right yes so it says School assignment policy yeah where someone is assigned to go to school oh okay I thought I was I was I
thought it was like like School assignment oh yeah meaning no no okay no just where they well that's what I that's what I was getting at no where they attend if they actually come to school no where they are assigned to go oh so like what school they're going
to exactly got it yeah all right right Miss Rose adward yeah okay I have okay very good anybody else Miss spor thank you just a quick question um because I know we're in the middle of like kindergarten registration and so are you
looking for Action from the subcommittee um sooner than later or not to put this on or I wasn't sure if this was something that we're looking at um down
the road or like let's meet now because yeah we have kids enrolling and okay just want a clarification to know what to expect be the subcommittee we will be getting I'll be getting your availability later this week so we can
meet thank you thank you anybody else hearing none all those in favor say I I who here is opposed the eyes carry it unanimously all right everyone we're now
at Personal Privilege left to right start with Mr drummy thank you Mr chairman uh Fairway school PTO and SSC is having their meeting tomorrow night at 6:30 they'll be on Google meet if you go to the Fairway school PTO website
it'll have the links hooked up for you uh early release Wednesday everyone knows about that and then on uh Thursday there's title wi bingo I don't know if you're going to be calling it Mr chairman it's been a while I understand that that'll be at 6 PM in the cafeteria
the Fairway on the 10th the the Harlem Wizards are coming uh to visit the ferryway I I was talking with principal staly seems to think they're playing the high school huh teaches Steve somebody
said yes next month oh next month April or August April April oh well in that case principal stall is in trouble because he gave me that information Mr dry could you get that info to all the members I will do that yes I will I'll will follow up on that
uh on the 11th right next door here there is a fundraiser at the Santa Fe uh burrito from between 3 and 800 p.m. so if you go there and you want to eat just tell them you know here for the ferryway school
and uh they give them a percentage for their uh for the PTO on the 13th uh there is paint night for those of you that want to take out your creative differences it's a $20 fee you do have to register ahead of time it
does include a slice of pizza and a drink I was told uh again if you go into the Fairway school PTO website it shows the link and it downloads the uh the form that you have to fill out because you have to give you uh students name teacher class and all
that so that is on the 13th and on the 20 from the 24th to the 28 8 is the book fair uh again the Fairway school is also looking for help on that if you want to sign up you have to be Corey checked on
any school function you need to be Corey checked so if you want to do and help out again going on The Fairway School PD website it has the link to go on to fill out for the Corey check and I think I've just about covered it
except everybody happy thank ah yeah Happy Thanksgiving Happy St Patrick's Day this is a problem with the Irish we have this block and Mr Mayor I'll be at tomorrow's meeting and you really have to go really far at the state of the city to beat last year coming out of a
coffin I'm just going to say that so pressures on you my friend always what else is new thank you Mr chairman all right very good did you have anything Mr Gray yes thank you Mr May um I only have one
item this year Malden porch Fest will be taking place on Saturday May 31st and I'd like to inform everyone that I will be hosting we'll have two incredible acts
we're going to have the king serpent variety troop Pirates there will be sea chanties dancing singing and comedy it looks like it's going to be a great time it'll be at 295 rear Lebanon
Street malen Mass act number two will be the map family Learning Center some of malin's finest k through eight children will be performing and it's going to be a great
time if you want to come and see some of our brilliant malen children from the map family Learning Center they'll be performing on pianos guitars and they'll be showcasing their skills these are K to8 Kids you better show
some enjoyment okay we want to encourage the talented young people of our city of molden that's all come on May 31st porchfest my place thank you all right
over to Mr Bernard thank you Mr chair uh I don't know if I can beat that no I can't beat that anyway uh so uh this Wednesday March 5th of course uh early dismissal no lunch served uh on uh the
week from March 10th to 14th is the uh salemwood book fair on March 12th the school council will be meeting over Zoom at 5:00 pm on the March 18th caregiver teacher
conferences from 3:30 to 5: um this is going to be the last Conference of this year so if you want to go and hear what your kids are doing make sure that you guys show up uh there will be a CPAC meeting uh on March
18th at the five uh the 58 cafe from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m. uh the next day Wednesday the 19th there'll be a fto meeting from 68 in the 58 cafe and then
uh on the 25th there'll be the title one Bingo family night at 6 PM you might be doing a lot of bingo it's the only thing I'm good at I'm told so all right thank you Mr Bernard uh over to miss Hy thank you Mr Mayor so
for Forest Dale speaking of bingo Title One Bingo is going to be on Tuesday March 11th from 6: to 7:30 come down and have some pizza play Bingo and win some books the next PTO meeting is Wednesday March 12th at 6 p.m. on Google meet
check out the forest lpto Facebook page for the meeting link the book fair is coming starting March 17th to the 21st the Scholastic Book Fair will be in the library and the biggest fundraising event of the year is Rock The Walk which
has recently begun now until March 28th students and families are invited to participate in the biggest fundraiser of the year the event will culminate on Friday April 4th please pay attention for more details and a slight side step this
Saturday uh March 8th Senator Ed Marky will be having a town hall meeting right over here at our Malden High uh Senator Jason Lewis will also be joining him um the doors open at 1 o'clock but it begins at 2 I highly recommend you
attending that I believe it's also virtual I don't know if it's virtual it is immediately y if there's a delay okay so uh good way to get the ear of your elected officials if interested thank you thank
you Miss bfor thank you Mr chair um just a quick blurb I'm going to read to you as you may or might not excuse me may or may not know the option for public bodies in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to
hold public meetings remotely or hybrid as set to expire March 31st uh we've had overwhelming success I mean we have 22 people online right now um watching this meeting um so with that being said I am
advocating strongly for um anybody that is wants to participate in in public governance to contact your state legislators for Malden that is Senator Jason Lewis representative Paul Donado Representative Steven alino and
representative Kate lier gabian thank you um to advocate for this provision to be become permanent um I know it has been extremely helpful for um you know people
with families I cooked dinner many times while I'm I'm watching city council meeting so my little Soap Box BB announcements uh we have Tuesday uh tomorrow Title One bingo at 6 PM
Wednesday is early release Thursday who laughing at me Bonnie at me she's laughing at me Thursday is culture day uh Friday uh the vocabulary parade will be happening at
9:00 a.m. um Sunday 2 am don't forget to um turn your clocks may see spring forward uh spirit week starts on Monday the 17th uh Tuesday March 18th is the grade
three music show at 1:30 the theme is the power of music k of our conferences Wednesday March 19th starting at 3:30 and Wednesday the 26th School site council meeting 5:00
p.m. and then on March 12th the transition fair at Medford High School in collaboration with Malden and lastly somebody has a birthday and
last June graduation he made us wear hats yes so I would be remiss if I didn't bring a balloon to say happy birthday to the chair thank you I won't say when it is I
just know it's within 24 hours or so y so happy birthday Mr chair thank you thank you thank you madam Vice chair thank you I think all right
um to what Miss fapor said we have met with our legislative delegation about remote access and we have signed a letter with all the Metro Mayors to do the same so miss bapor really summarized
it perfectly of all the policies and laws out there this one we believe has been most beneficial for our community and fingers crossed that they will continue it I can't see any reason why they wouldn't but you never know in this crazy world we live in but I feel like
our our city has really made the pitch to continue it uh Mr Rose zberg thank you Mr chair I do not have a birthday balloon to give you but I also do not have any bingo news so consider that a happy birthday thank you okay um
for the lynen it is um read Across America um is this whole month um they will be having author visits um a local author Claire or Diane creen will be coming tomorrow um book character day is Wednesday so you um you can dress like a book character the kindergarten has
their annual event fairy tale players who are going to be there on March 13th um it's an in-house field trip the Harlem Wizards as we heard about um will be there on March 10th to do a show um teacher conference March 19th 3:30 to 5
PTO is having a virtual meeting on Thursday at 7:00 which will be via Google meet and that is to plan the Multicultural night which is scheduled for April 11th so keep that one um in in your thoughts um for 8th grade they're
doing um some fundraising um for their activities so they're hosting a paint night on April 4th get in touch with the main office um for info on that um for both of these they're also doing yearbook shoutouts they put together yearbook every year um so that went out to e8th grade families but if other people are interested you can contact
the main office um during Ramadan there are students who observe um who go to the library um instead of um going into lunch so they do they could use a little bit of help with um with those kids to also get touch with the main office congratulations to the model un who
raised $1,300 to pay for buses and registrations to go to events they did coration sales a volleyball event and a movie night um well done done to be able to raise that kind of money um they did not have the information yet for me they did host a readathon in all of February
and um it was neck and neck and the results were coming out later today so I don't know at press time I didn't have the info uh March 10th through 14th Scholastic Book Fair will be going on they do need volunteers for that another congratulations to lynon student David
ducasa I'm hope I'm saying that right and teacher Mel valderama um they went and there was a a um weekend comp ition and David won a braille contest over the weekend so congratulations um and also congratulations to Malin
playpro um they were able to go and performed at the on Saturday at metg um which is a theater program um it's kind of hard because it is competitive so they're not moving on but
they put on the hope and heartache Diner um they also are putting that on tomorrow for free um at Jenkins at 3:00 and while they're not moving on there were um part of the program they recognize kids who may have done an excellent job in whatever area there
were four different students from Malden who received Excellence for acting those are Natalie K keing Matt Jason Chan Maxwell Torres and Alexia Mariel Lima so those were Excellence for acting um and I agree with this one they also got a
tech award for excellence in set Des design went to Ivan Lynn so those are um fantastic Awards there were eight different um I think it's eight eight different performances um that day menen was one of them um and did a great job I encourage you to go check them out um
and lastly on a on a um changing thing it's more the uh public sector I want to congratulate um Don Macklin who has been named and selected by the zanta club of Malin to be one of our women making a difference and this is to she's part of
the um awardees for the humanitarian award along with councelor Amanda linham for their creation of Mary Malon which they've been doing many years so I congratulate her in addition to um Miss Macklin and miss lenan being recognized
we also the Amant Club is also recognizing um detective Renee Kelly uh lri arai Lauren Connelly who is a teacher at MC and Michelle langwang who is a former school committee member um and those will be there's a um ceremony
that is done on March 27th at Spinelli's but congratulations to my co- School Committee Member all right very good thank you and just from the chair as Mr drummy alluded to tomorrow we will be delivering our annual state of the city
presentation uh it will be held at 8 o' in the morning at Anthony zalden on Canal Street for those that can't attend it will be recorded and will be showing it live uh throughout the month of March and also as Mr drummy alluded to
we try to change it up every year so our communications director Elena Savino wanted me to provide you with this hint this year state of the city is all about answering the right
way so that's your hint we'll see you tomorrow if not we'll be showing it through the month of March and we'd love your feedback we do have a lot of challenges but based on what I've seen over the past month leading up to tomorrow we have a lot to
be proud of as well so with that being said we'll now entertain a motion to go into executive session motion made by Mr drummy seconded by Mr Bernard clerk will call the rooll May Christensen yes Mr drummy yes
Mr McCarthy yes Miss fur yes Miss Macklin yes Miss hordy yes Mr Gray yes Mr Bernard yes Miss Ros iberg yes recording stopped school committee is now in executive session
e e e e e e e e e e
e e e e e e e e recording in progress recording stopped