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are we ready recording sounds great thank you Dr kushen our third regular meeting of the mord school committee February 10th 2025 at 6m will
come to order please be advised there will be a meeting of the Medford school committee and the Howard Alden Memorial Chambers Medford City Hall and via remote participation this meeting is being recorded can be viewed on medf public schools YouTube channel through or through Medford Community media on your local cable channel Comcast 98 or 22 and Verizon 4345 or
47 by us the foll zoom link me ID 960 8065 7355 remember um rouso if you could please call a rooll member brandley member Graham here member Anapa here member olapa here member reinfeld member Roo president mayor lokern president seven pres zero absent do we have any student
Representatives on the call if we know okay not yet if we may all please rise to salute the flag I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the rep stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all we have number three good of the order hearing and seeing none um we
do have a consent agenda it's approval of bills and payrolls approval of capital purchases approval of Grants approval of donations methord High School orchestra musical instruments $1,000 donation by Medford residents and National Speakers Association conference $177 donation by Elizabeth Gomez for three speech and language Pathologists approval of field trips Winter Guard trip to
Bethlehem Pennsylvania for national competition ition and then the approval of meeting minutes which is a regular meeting January 27th 2025 is there motion for approval of the consent agenda mayor member Graham motion to sever the uh field trip approval to for the winter guard motion to sever by member Graham seconded by member reinfeld all those in favor I all those oppos um field trips has has been
severed is there a motion for approval for the rest approve member L seconded by member inapa all those in favor all those you want a roll call roll call member Russo thank you member brandley member Graham member Anapa member ala yes member reinfeld member yes mayor Loker yes 7ly affirmative Zer and the negative the consent agenda is approved um member gr do you want to take approval of the
field trips when we go to get to your resolution on this or do you like to take it out of no I just had a question about this proposal that I wanted to build to ask before we approved it so is my question is um this uh memo is seeking approval for the out ofate field trip is that correct but it it is not making an ask for funding is that true that seems
correct from what's on the agenda okay um that's all I needed to know motion to approve okay motion for approval by member Graham seconded by okay so this is just for the actual Kil trip um allowance by member Graham seconded by member reinfeld all those in favor I all those opposed motion passes we do not have any reports of subcommittees um we have report of our superintendent proposal to update MHS graduation and competency
determination requirements so I'll turn over to you Dr galy our interim superintendent thank you very much I'm just going to give one minute um for Dr kushin is going to help me by displaying the slide deck uh and I'm just going to start by giving a little bit of historical background so um on the agenda for this evening we're going to I'm going to provide you with the historical context
about why this proposal is coming forward to this body um we're going to talk a little bit about what question two on the ballot was in November um the proposal for updating the statute language for Medford Public Schools Medford High School um an update on mcast participation and some further considerations regarding this uh updated policy proposal so Dr Cushing could you
please just advance to slide three thank you much appreciated so just as a brief um to to frame this a little bit um Massachusetts education reform law of 1993 aimed to increase accountability across the state and it did so by establishing a competency determination standard for all high school students to achieve in order to get
their graduation from high school um that local control as part of this Ed reform was given to school committees as a way to vet and adhere to this policy and deem the graduation appropriate for high school students beginning in the class of 2003 so 10 years later um mcass
served as the way to meet this competency determination and be the deciding factor in how students were graduating so at that point you had students had to um meet for grade 10 mcast and they also had to meet local graduation requirements so since then there have been some updates to that and between 2003 and 2009 grade 10 Ela and math scores needed to
be needs Improvement are higher between the years of 2010 and 2020 they increased they just upped the threshold so that they gave a score the scaled score had to be 240 for ELA and math um and 220 or above in science most recently in 2021 coming out of covid up until recently which was last year um the Department
of Education moved the threshold again um which is also why we saw a little bit of dip in scores and so for those three core subtests Ela mathematics and biology for science students had to be meeing or exceeding so no longer was the the scaled score or the needs Improvement part of that and then as we know a motion was put on ballot question two um
for the November ction and if we advance please Dr Cushing to the next slide it passed so 59% of the Commonwealth of Voters agreed that the mcast should not serve as the competency determination for high school graduation requirement what I have here is just a screenshot to show you that how this how the vote turned out and then the
old language of the statute with the current new language of the statute so what you can see here is they've crossed out that it's the assessment tool which was mcast and they've added the new statute which is saying that in in lie of the competency determination through the mcast test it has to be through the coursework of those aligned classes so if we let me just before we advance to
the next slide what that really means is that they still want the competency determination to meet the needs of State Frameworks for common Corp in Massachusetts for grade 10 in ela in math which they say should be algebra and geometry which we will talk about and in science algebra excuse me biology or chemistry all right so now
we go to the next slide and once this passed and there was a whole lot of work now for districts to do um we had many meetings with a large group of people uh at the high school level um and I do want to say special thanks to those people for meeting continuously and doing not only work during these meetings but also a lot of work outside of the meetings and with their respective departments because Educators were brought into these convers ation
so I do want to thank uh Vilma babau David Blau Joan Bowen Marta cabal Nicole Kaza Roco sieri Kim Clinton Chad Fallon Lori Hodgkin fisak KH Stacy Schulman Paul teera and their respective Educators and so we are going to present a proposal to you that we feel aligns with our instructional vision and the
requirements of the newly passed mandate so the following slides are going to kind of talk you through how we're updating uh and we'll meet the needs of the new mandate so the next slide shows you currently right now what our local um High School graduation requirements are along with the previous competency determination of the mcast so you'll see in order for students to graduate from Medford High School they have to have four years of English
Engish four years of Wellness four years of math including geometry and algebra too three years of a science including biology and chemistry three years of social studies two years of foreign language um one course in fin Arts four years of community service which is accounts to 60 hours um roughly about 15 per year and then the two requirements for mcast
are there that's what it is currently are there any questions on this okay if we advance to the next slide and I have this in two pieces we're not looking right now to wholly change our local graduation requirements but we do need some updated language because some of that language does not reflect current practice so English remains at four years take and pass math mathematics
also continues at four years take and pass but we now have shifted to the integrated Pathways so instead of geometry and algebra it now reflects integrated math 1 two and three um continued with four years of Wellness continue with three years of science continue with social studies but we also have a new department of education requirement um that we're adding in here which
includes the student Leed Civics project um making sure we've updated uh the word World Language instead of referring to it as foreign language um the requirement of or the difference for CTE remains right now um Arts remains as one course to take and pass and then there's just a description of community service and the benefits of community service but the hours of uh
the total hours of 60 roughly about 15 per year remain the same before I move on to the compensa determination are there any questions about these brief language changes okay member and member and TOA this may just be a small so in the phrasing is it and you said roughly but I just want confirmation it's not it's 60 cumulative so could be like 20 okay just wanted to make sure
because some people questions thank you okay next slide please all right so the competency determination um we want to make sure that we have the language of the statute in there so that's just the language that's at the top so that it's very framed what the new statute States um where it is coming from and how Medford is going to address the competency competency determination
so if students have previously earned this through the taking and passing of mcast or the grant of an appeal process then they have already earned their competency determination so for students that have not or moving forward we are saying that students would earn that through the successful completion of grade nine and 10 English language arts coursework as
aligned with m Massachusetts curriculum Frameworks that they would take students would complete and pass grades 9 and 10 math coursework integrated math 1 and integrated math 2 aligned with the Massachusetts curriculum Frameworks the sex successful completion of high school biology coursework aligned with the Massachusetts curriculum Frameworks and participation in mcast ela math
and biology tests um at assigned and for students that receive a not meeting um expectation score that they would just participate in at least one retest I'm going to kind of explain that a little bit more as we move on so the next slide just so we're understanding the impact that this has for our current class of 2025 um as previously stated if they have already earned their competency
determination by taking and passing the grade 10 Ela math and and biology they're all set they've met that competency determination and provided that they've met the local graduation requirements they will be all set to graduate for students who have not earned their competency determination currently then we have already been going back to do some of that vetting to see if they have successfully taken
and completed those courses um before and we are the conversation and the communication with the caregivers is ongoing for the very small group of students that we've already identified the next slide because I think is very important just to kind of um frame is that under Ed reform law which started as No Child Left Behind then moved
to race to the top and is now still Essa every student succeeds act there's compliance that is put from the federal level onto the states to make sure that we are adhering to Common Core to local Frameworks and so the participation in mcast has always been a requirement um and continues to be a requirement for us and
participation is not optional students are should be taking the mcast and so we have been informed that it is still going to be an accountability measure for local districts so now this mandate has removed mcast being used as a graduation requirement for competency determination but it is still
going to be used to assess and put a rating to districts in terms of their accountability it also is still going to be used um as a qualifier for some scholarships as well as the Seal of biliteracy so there are some important factors in terms of our students participation we have been having some internal conversations and continue to have internal conversations around what that will
look like in terms of students knowing that it is no longer a graduation requirement but it is also an important assessment um for them to take so I just felt it was important it is for these reasons that we're having the participation um be part of the competency determination so before I get to the last slide are
there are there questions questions around this member Bley as you um so this year I understand the situation with the class of 2025 and then mcast participation student parti participation is required so every student in the district is taking the test that hasn't changed right participation is required the reason that I say that is because I think you see that a lot on social media circulating that Mt is not required oh just write a letter that don't have to
take it and I I don't think that that's fair to the district I mean you know I also understand the need of a child so like how do we that's the clarifier so it's not going to necessarily the onus necessarily won't be on the student but it will impact the district okay so it's not mcast is not going to unless there are students that are going for scholarships that are going to be tied to the performance on the mcast it's not going to hold student back okay how
they do on the mcast won't necessarily hold them back but it will impact the district yeah and I think that there's maybe this um you know notion that it's not a requirement it is a requirement for for every student so I just think that that should be known to the public that is a requirement for the student but the student won't be held back from graduation or right some of the things that you know are necessary for the student but also it's
necessary for the district and I think maybe if people feel like they don't have to put so much pressure on their child or their child doesn't have to feel so much pressure I think that's just good to get out there because you know it's more our rating versus Stu students rating overall so I just want to make sure that that's true that part is true okay thank you y member Russo thank you um my understanding
according to the former Secretary of Department of Education is that we are required to give the student the test that is not the same as the student is required to take the test we're required to give students food if they don't eat it that's their choice so I do think it's important that that distinction is made that bringing the kids in and saying here's the computer take the test is not the same as saying you have to do this um and I think uh that's
that's sort of where the the the no test movement comes from is that we are required to give it to them does not mean they're required to take it um and so you know we don't have a policy today on this I know that at elementary school in particular this has been an issue um you know frankly our computer science curriculum with with uh air quotes is really just to make sure they can
take mcast because they didn't have computer skills in time to be able to do mcast but they shouldn't be having computer skills by that age because American Pediatric Association says that's not developmentally appropriate so it's there's there sort of this like horrible cycle that we're on where we're purposefully giving kids an education and something they should not have because we're s we're mandated to put them in front of these computers to do something
so it it it's all a bit of a mess but I think it's important to understand that the requirement is that we give it to them it is not required that the kid complete the test or take the test and obviously most kids want to perform most kids come to school and want to do well so most kids are going to take it of course U and I'm not suggesting they shouldn't but uh to say that they must take the test is is is a different thing uh you know it's like
you can't give kids their grades if they don't do the work in school so they must do the work but this is not bad so the only thing I would say to that there's a couple things and I hope I don't lose track of what I was going to say one I think this is a very fluid situation so the governor has just created a committee to continue to vet out um what this mandate has
now done into districts because it has created a lot of conversation for all of these like nuanced pieces I will say especially at the high school level but the population of Medford is also fluid and can be transient at times and so the mcast does allow in some situations um the opportunity for students that may be moving in here um that that that that helps to kind of give
them some of that um level of the competency determination for us I hear what you're saying but right now we are beholden to the Mandate which only removed the local graduation requirement and so we still are going to have our accountability rating tied to this test now maybe this commission through the governor's office or some of the continued work that the
department of Ed is going to do um because it is very fluid I would not be surprised if we see further guidance by the end of the year or at the earliest over the summer in in preparing for the next school year but and I think I really highly think this will not be the end of updating our graduation requirements and our competency determination I think I'm going to be back here probably more more than once to
update this policy um on behalf of the Medford school committee but I think where we are right now our accountability rating is still tied to the participation of our students and that is a factor um I understand originally you know that SNM cast was supposed to stand for a system um and it's really been just a
test so I don't think any of us are sitting here saying that the mcast shows you everything of what a student is capable of achieving but it is a data point that is still mandated by the Department of Education in which we're a public school and we have to adhere to so that's why I wanted to make sure that I'm providing you with the most updated current
information that I have right now thank you Dr so there's one last slide I can talk through and then if there's further questions we can still um talk about it but there's just further considerations that we have had conversations for some of them are ongoing and so just so that you're understand of understand the complexity of it we have had conversations around transfer students in terms of obtaining that competency determination if they come into us um let's say
in in 11th grade or in 12th grade so there are existing um mechanisms within our handbook that we will follow but um there will be collaboration between school leadership and Department leadership um to make sure that they're vetting and looking at equivalent coursework um for approving and adhering to the competency determination um some nuances for English Learners so graduate ation
re requirements for English Learners include the successful completion and appropriate elel level course and participation in both mcast subject matter tests and the access test um for our out of District students it's a very similar process for the transfer that we're adhering to for transfer students um so we will accept equivalent coursework um and that will have a collaborative approval process um through again High School leadership
department leaders and the director of student services and for the students um students between those years of 2003 and 2024 that did not receive a high school diploma um because they didn't meet the competency determination of passing the mcast um the high school team has been D diligently working to gather that data so that we have that list of students that we will be able to
um and actually that's ongoing that they're reaching out to um and making some plans if they want to um meet the competency determination um to change that status for them so that's work that's ongoing um and that in that concludes that's the final slide so if there are any other further questions I'm happy to help answer member R thank you um one of
the things that I don't talked about a lot is that um our students with disab significant disabilities that took the alt mcast um they never received a real diploma it was not allowed um so they could perform all of the requirements we have um and because they use the all mcast they would get a certificate but not a diploma and uh I'm thrilled that the end of the mcast requirement means that those students who have earned a
diploma can get a diploma and I think that that's uh important to recognize is that that change wasn't really part of the the uh the campaign to get rid of the mcast I mean I know some folks were campaigning in that but for the most part it wasn't the main uh push for it but I I think it's a super important feature of getting rid of this requirement so I just want to make sure that it's I agree but I also want to make make
sure that in terms of our local requirement and the CD so both of those things have have to happen in order to get a diploma and the competency determination means that you are able to pass the grade level content within those subject areas so any student that's able to meet grade level requirement for integrated math one and two Ela 9th and 10th grade and biology then
they've they've met that competency determination and then we're moving on to the local requirements thank you yes thank you Dr gy um are you looking for a vote or is this yes is there a motion just because this this would update the policy that is I believe ikf um for Medford school committee policy so motion for approval
to update the graduation compensation um policy I was potentially going to motion to take 25 20253 out of order because that either seems to be a sending this to those to the subcommittee or just updating the policy so I'm I see this is coming up on the agenda but maybe member Russo could clarify whether this is a policy update or a recommendation to send it to the subcommittee
um y member so um it's it's not unusual for superintendents to actually just recommend policy updates um and I mean there hasn't been the practice in Medford for as long as I've been on but I actually appreciate it greatly U the only thing I would say is that the policy um you know it's it's a lovely formatted document which is not what our policy service is particularly good at um and it lacks the policy required policy information
at the end so um I mean if the committee is okay with approving this as amended to include the policy information section at the end then I'm fine with us not having more meetings about it um so that's I guess an amendment to the uh recommendation to approve the policy first reading it would be just to update that language so the chart that's in here that shows the local graduation requirements and the mcast it would
just be to update the local graduation requirements which is really just a shift in how we're labeling the requirements and the competency determination I mean I I kind of do want to just send this still to subcommittee just because like the current policy is you know refers to 2004 and 2005 and format wise like I feel like the whole policy we currently have has to be
thrown out and some of that stuff still has to be incorporate like are the actual credit requirements that are in the policy are those still correct yes okay well that's they reflect current the current need and practice right now okay um I mean I don't really I mean based on that I don't think we need a subcommittee but I do think that like bringing this back in the proper policy format next time sure makes sense to me um if that's okay
with the members but I would well it needs two readings anyways so um so for the next meeting I can put it in that format yeah I can help you with that no problem so the final is um motion to um hold subcommittee meeting to make I think the second meeting will be next meeting okay so
this so Mo sorry motion for approval then by member Russo seconded by member all those in favor I all those opposed motion passes thank you good presentation Dr gy we have another report under superintendent reports number two would be summer fund sliding
scale um report by Dr Cushing assistant superintendent and um Noel valz our Director of Finance good evening Madame mayor members of the school committee um as you may REM remember two weeks ago uh we had a motion for a summer fund budget uh and also to include the exploration of a sliding scale and um rate so tonight I'm here to discuss
that um so first all the information contained in this report was um is sh from the previous report is shared at the bottom just for context in case you need it also on the call with Noel and myself this evening is Mr petris the director of the program so he can jump in and add any he wished he could be in person um but more than fine having him uh virtual so uh just want to get into it right away so annually the fund
begins with a zero budget um we're changing our practice on that beginning FY 26 so that we can start um having medford's summer fund program be a um uh self-funding self-sustaining program as it has been but so that the revenue is not just lumped in with all Community Schools that the program can build year-over-year um can really look at programming and those um things um and enhancing programming um summer fund provides nine hours
of child care per week um every day nine hours so uh currently the fee is $200 uh or $40 a day that makes the per hour cost for child care uh $444 an increase to $250 makes the rate $555 and an increase to 275 which we are taking off the table uh makes the hourly rate for $611 I wanted to provide
the calculations simply because um it was in there last time but there seemed to be very little appetite for that at that point um break card requested is $50 to $250 but we will go through the rest of it so last year um we had 249 students who participated in multiple weeks of Summer fund um some students may have participated less than a full week at some point that's 15 students um but
um 17 enroles were there for all six weeks of the program last last year Staffing um there were a total number of 25 staffers that Staffing level and Mr patrell if you want to jump in on any point that Staffing level may have fluctuated all right based on the number of enrol Lees but the maximum number of staff that were employed was 25
counselors an assistant director uh of two and director of one and counseling fluctuates week by week based on demand um here you have the specific enrollments with the payroll uh as well so uh just as an example first week 71 students the tuition that week is $160 because it goes up against the Fourth of July week that holiday we don't charge people for um
um the I I put in potential just because um of some checks that may have not cleared uh small number of that but so $1,360 potential and our payroll that week was $1,288 67 and you'll see the breakdown of the numbers um moving forward so our uh and then potential Revenue versus
potential price points based on FY 24 numbers um you see the 200 uh dollars per week 250 per week and 275 per week that is based on the numbers that we had last year we have no unroll these right now because we have not opened registration so um that's what that is the overall budget at a glance I apologize let just clear that um so we had um based
on last year's numbers we have an expected Revenue this year of hopefully $131,900 this is all based on the 200 I'm sorry this is for fy20 it's very confusing even for myself at times looking at the summer of the fys as they change but for the fy2 summer fund budget last year we brought in $131,000 uh 960 with uh checks not clearing in the neighborhood of $1,200 for total summer fund Revenue
revenue of $130,000 760 uh salaries were 9628 approximate expenses of $8,000 uh so total summer fund expenses of $104,000 to 1880 we then had $26,400 uh in revenue generated this does not consider chargebacks that we do for other programs um for electricity and water would be the two primary
the the payrolls um do include um the overtimes for custodial cleanup at the end of the day potential revenue from other programs I just want to say that we put this in here so that we're being transparent uh our El program has students attend after their programs finish we do not currently charge those families uh I consider that we of that
to be a real statement of values to support uh vulnerable populations as well as extended school year programs and that option is there for families all right but we do not currently charge for that so um we wanted to quantify that in some way but I don't want anyone to think that we're seeking to get these funds um all right um before I move forward into the slide liting scale Mr patris or
Noel is there anything you'd like to add or anything that I've missed at this stage uh no I thought You' done an excellent job this is Anthony patris by the way me oh I can do video today um yeah so everything's pretty accurate for what we see on there I mean the biggest thing and uh Dr kushin kind of just stressed it at the end you know the El program the extended school year program just to give you an idea of how that works extended school year well the E program ends around 12:00 and then two years
ago we had 20 kids it was a trial last year double the amount just keep in mind you know obviously he said a best like we're not looking to charge by any means uh uh to a degree but I also keep in mind if I have 135 140 kids that week adding on 40 kids in the afternoon brings our numbers up uh dramatically you know so it is a it is a huge undertaking for our program I just like want to put that out there on top of the other things that I'm responsible for our program I now become responsible
for tutoring schedules with extended school year getting kids to where they need to go having a program that comes with us and attaches on to us so you know there is a lot that kind of happens in the afternoon with our camp as well that I'm glad you know Dr kushion mentioned to everybody thank you so so yeah if you are you done with your no go well I sliding scale but feel free to oh okay I I I just read this earlier so I
knew what the final request was based on all of your research and pulling the data together so yeah mayor oh member Russo and then member brandley is this all says fy2 should you say fy2 24 it I mean it it starts the program starts uh we have actual enrollment numbers are aren't those sum are yeah it's FY are these the numbers
from last summer yes so that's fy4 25 that's fy2 sorry I messed it up earlier so confuse everyone I AC responsibility it is fy2 the prediction stuff is FY oh I hate that so much thank you especially when it's and and the sliding G scale also hurt my brain I'm not gonna lie just um so I just have a point of clarification though I do want to just say that um the director of el PA Tech Sarah also
uses some of his title 3 funding to help support the staffing needs in the afternoon at summer fund I believe last summer it was one teacher and two assistants or Aids just so that there is an additional support added to the Staffing thank you okay member brandley I think that that was just clarified my question so there's someone coming from from the El program to help Mr patris every
afternoon with these 40 extra children yes do we think that's enough people it's it was three additional staff I can get more clarification on um the amount of time if they were there the entire time but I know that that it was one teacher and two AIDS one teacher and two AIDS yes yes in addition to the summer fun Staffing so are they
in charge of Mr Charles just mentioned you know tutoring and all of this stuff is that something that they're responsible for it seems like he's taking care of that part they provide the tutoring but as you know Mr patris helps Ferry the kids to the rooms and where they need to be yes the services the academic services are in the morning and then the social piece is through summer fun in the afternoon and Mr Tech Sarah has
provided some additional Staffing for the afternoon and does that come out of his budget yes title okay okay all right thank you so sliding scale uh currently two programs within Medford Public Schools use a long-existing um sliding scale documents are on our websites uh website um and those discount levels based on um honor uh income levels
are 20% 50% 70% so again before and after care and meat all right we also took into consideration here all right just so that you're aware we are now a community eligib uh Community eligibility provision District when it comes to Food Services what used to drive a lot of financial decisions in District was if a child was considered a free
meal A reduced meal or full pay Community eligibility provision only considers we can get the numbers for reduced but they only consider free now for part of the to be eligible what the community eligibity provision does is it takes away the burden of parents having to fill out those forms every year and it also takes away the burden of the district to have to do a verification process of uh between five and 10% of those forms a random selection every
year was supposed to be done of verifications of those forms to make sure like if Mr Cushing filled it out and you did a random sampling to verify that currently 38% of the med for public schools are considered free under the federal guidelines right so 62% are considered full pay I just use those numbers as an illustration so if we're to extrapolate those numbers though and say well 38%
of students in summer fun just using statistics would be probably considered to be free we'd have to make a decision as to what should the reduction be um using the 20% 50% 70% discount numbers all right um at 20% at $250 a student would be asked to pay $200 all right so
they would be asked to pay $200 at the 20% level at the 50% level they'd be asked to pay $125 at the 70% discount level they'd be asked to pay $75 the corresponding increase based on a sliding scale for a self-funding program would mean that we would need to basically charge $425 to offset the students at 70%
reduction but then we would not be asking for income from everybody so it would have to be $425 to make sure that we are covering our costs and speaking with Mr patris that is an exorbitant sum and um what we're recommending is uh the $50 increase which will allow the director and the assistant director
to maintain affordability for Medford families and for uh us to make sure he offers scholarships now for us to make sure that that process is formalized um more so than it already may be uh and this will also allow us to take a look at the hourly rate of salaries for our counselors and the overall stien of directors assistant directors and others but then also to expand programming based on the numbers that were previously showed of Revenue increasing to about $168,000 I warry
with a sliding scale at this point uh and not to say that I wouldn't recommend its consideration in the future but I worry a sliding scale at this point that with right now um summer fund starting with a z balance that the financial burden would fall back on the district or other Community Schools operations to try to make sure that that we're able to fund the summer fund
program for the six weeks if for some reason we misjudge we over scholarship or do those types of situations member brenley um what was our rate for non-residents from last time uh we had it at 300 um it says you're recommend recom non-resident rate is open for discussion but we recommend $300 at this point
so is that where we've been no it wasn't different this is not different okay it's been the same the same asress yes if I could just add something if I could add something it wasn't until after covid that the first time we've ever really gotten people outside of method very interested I mentioned last time it's a really small number that we have in the course of you know a summer um so this is something that's been new the last couple of years so it's
something we've had to kind of ADD and adjust because we've never really had kids from the outside the city of MEF uh attend our camp before but I also think Mr patrell off is a great program uh now with the addition of uh the school nutrition program offering meals and snacks um it it offers a I mean many of you probably had your children go to it it's a great program member Graham thank
you um my math is not necessarily in agreement with your math here so what I looked at was if we accept the recommendation to go to $250 um but we essentially also accept the 20% discount which would essentially hold tuition at where it was last year if I said 38% of of our students would pay $200 a week
and 62% of our students would pay 250 a week using the 684 I come up with a net potential revenue of 158,000 Z4 if I shift that to say half of our students pay 200 and half pay 250 I come up with 153,00 so while I agree that the 70% discount is not affordable I
am not seeing how the 20% discount would not be viable uh just to be clear we didn't I did not do that extrapolation based on the 38% and the um 62% yeah but it's also I think a choice of the committee to say right now it rests with um the director of community schools and the director of Summer fund to as parents or F or care givers um bring need forward
to respond to the need and provide at the individual level so if a parent family caregivers make the case that you know we really need um an opportunity here for our child but we can't afford it um the program works with them um but it formalizing it is always yeah I mean I think my concern with that is there's you know lots of places in our stored history in Medford where
people point to lack of transparency lack of accountability cherry-picking favoritism you name it it comes so I I do think um from a programming perspective there I understand that like Mr patrell has the best of intentions but if somebody were to bring an allegation forward that sits with this committee and I would really rather avoid BR Mr patelles in a situation where he's having to defend trying to do the right thing so I do think need to be clear rules and I think there
need to be clearly published tuitions that accompany those rules so that the Rules of Engagement for everybody are clear and parents who may or may not feel comfortable saying to Mr patrell hey I need some help like being willing and able to say hey I need some help requires an immense amount of like understanding of the system versus like here's here are the two programs here's this here are these possibilities for you so that people can do their homework
and understand that if I if a then B right like if I meet this then I get X versus I have to go talk to somebody what does that mean am I making a case am I trying to convince him do I need to buy him candy like what is like it it sort of conjures up a lot of things that people get scared about and then frankly don't do it probably also contributes to the bounce checks that we see right those could be families who simply couldn't afford to send their kid but had no no choice right needed child care
so my math says even if half of our students need support that to like our total tuition either 153,000 or 158,000 would still be $220,000 more than last year and if payroll is only 96 like there's a lot of room there to make those adjustments so um unless I'm missing something my recommend my
resol my um motion would be to hold tuition at $200 for those who can demonstrate Financial need um to increase tuition for everybody else to 250 and to increase tuition for non-residents to 300 a week I remember sure so um families who can demonstrate Financial need through eligibility with in what would otherwise be free and reduced lunch right 200
which is the same as last year yeah all other families will see an increase from 200 to 250 out of town participants we love you you're welcome it's a $300 a week to absolutely yeah okay and still a very good deal yeah okay motion for approval seconded by member reinfeld let me just go to Noel um who wants to comment uh thank you everyone sorry I couldn't be
there um in person um but but um J Jenny thank you so much for what you said I if I could have a little bit of clarity and ask a question what date would the school committee like for myself and Peter to use regarding a student eligibility when we run our direct certification because we we run those quarterly so we can either use a December or an April 1 date to dictate um how a family qualifies for these reduced prices um depending on enrollment
and and things of that nature I I guess that's that would be my only thing I'd want to bring up um going if with the recommendation the sliding skill so we have a so we have a date to use the proper report and notify families in a timely manner so I would amend my um motion to say um as established on April f on the April for 1 reports for financial eligibility a lot thank from December to April so I want
to use the what is sort of closest to I'll also add that goad m r so I agree with that and the reason behind it my only question is whether that poses a we're looking to be opening registration in January are we concerned that that would affect people's ability to commit or our ability to guarantee a SP
thought I'm not worried about that in all honesty if we we can still open in January we can let people know about the opportunity uh for scholar shipping as well as um and you know look to support families I don't I don't see it as an issue I think that by going to January 1st um is only going to help families who if you've ever
been sitting online for these camps good Lord yeah and so we haven't open registration yet so once this is finalized it seems like it's going to be supported tonight then are we we're going to advertise and and open registration for for when as soon as possible okay yeah um member reinfeld will this opening of registration
coincide with other with other summer programs I know I don't know if jump start dates are set or other this will be early I think earlier usually start thinking about it in May jump start dates are finalizing right now um so I think we'll have that update within like a week or two definitely after the vacation period if not by the end of the week um the only thing I would say is I don't know as as
um director no um valz said the report is run quarterly so I think we would also have some preliminary information that we could WR start to have some of the understanding as to where the families are that may need potential support and then it would be able to be a finalized list as of April M can I can I ask a question it's Anthony on the zoom um I mean I'm
not trying to be funny but like so what does that I just don't know like so what does that mean for registration as far as like what we would have to do next I'm more just like I guess I got to hear it to kind of understand what the next steps would be if everything does get approved as far as figuring a lot of that out I think we'd update all the forms and then once everything's ready to go release it to the public for registration okay
mogram uh my my impression as well Anthony is that the communications team can support some of that work um because I think last time last two weeks ago or whenever that was we also talked about um the the idea of allowing all of this to happen in an online format so there's no checks um so all of that I think is going to require require support from Will and the website team anyway so I
think putting all of that together as a package um is something that you can expect assistance with from Central Administration we we have been work just so everyone's full transparency we've been working with our website vendor on uh two specific options one that is available to us right now through the forms functionality of our website we already can accept payments and then we're also looking at um an enrollment package with our website as well probably more to come on that in
the future um but just so that everyone's clear uh we're trying to make it so that people don't have to stand in lines people don't have to write checks and that we can uh move into the 21st century I do just also want to check through the wonders of modern technology and just wanted to verify we can run C any time we run it quarterly we can run it any time um through our food service director as well great we will go with the April
first date because I think that's a good standard but as families come in we are able to I mean there will we one of I think not to take up any more air time but um one of the great things about summer fund is the ability for a person to walk in and so I think there will be some level of checks we'll have to see how a day of registration can work work using the website however uh this should
reduce a significant level of stress that has been on Mr pellis in hopefully making this a an easier process thank you yes once we advertise the right way more people are bound to do it online and take that stress away so there's a motion on the floor by member Graham seconded by member reinfeld as am amended by member Graham to make it the April 1st reports for El ability date
250 for those with financial need 2 200 for those with financial need 250 for everybody else and if you're out of town 300 uh can I is all those in favor would you like a roll call no we don't need a roll call all those in favor I all those opposed motion passes thank you mayor can I just make one more comment um if you're going to change the uh salary stiens associated with the program can you bring them to us so that we can have an understanding of what those are before
they go into effect because we are supposed to I think we're supposed to be in in approval of all of those things oh yeah we would I would not increase the salary or stien without bring okay thank you yep can I ask one more question I know we just voted on it but it was something I wanted to ask I just don't want to be rude and interrupt anybody um kids who go to like Catholic school or private school outside that live in meford but go to a school in meford like that I'm just more asking opinion than anything else what would be your would
that be considered out of District as well wow what an interesting wrinkle um I think if they're residents they're residents they're residents yeah okay they live in Medford they are get the resident rate but I'd be super interested to know what the enrollment breakdown is actually which is a totally separate conversation for another time but I think that would actually be really fascinating to to learn about but also M Mr pellis maybe we could work to help recruit those kids back to our school district try thank you
directorz thank you Dr pushing um we have no presentations of the public or continued business we do have new business however offered by member Russo 20 25-3 motion to withdraw second by member reinfall all those favor all those opposed motion is withdrawn offered by member Graham 20254 be it resolved that the
rules and policy subcommittee will develop a policy regarding District financial support for field trips be it further resolve that the subcommittee will consider various types of field trips including local and out of state and outline criteria and perimeters clearly in the policy we had also resolved that the subcommittee will confer with the district Finance team to understand the potential cost impact of the policy the subcomittee will provide recommendations to the school committee no later than June 1st 2025 member Graham um thank you we
all I think received some uh emails from our Color Guard students who were talking about this upcoming um trip to Pennsylvania and um one of the things that brought up for me was really around some of the oneoff actions that we've taken as a committee over the last couple of years um albeit we had s our money to rely on um which we no longer have but we
have we have funded out of state field trips in certain instances um based upon people coming to the podium and making no request and for us saying like we don't want students to have to go out and fund raise and and miss the trips in order to be able you know in order to be able to send some but not all students so with that money Source drying up and with sort of a broad acknowledgement that there's a lot of field trips across the district and there's things like Nationals for
athletics and Nationals for banon color guard and the ethics bowl and the robotics competition there's all these things and we have not set a policy around what we think we should be doing and I think I would love to say for us to be able to say we should pay for these things but before we do that we should think about what a policy might look like and um if we are going to bring forward a recommendation to pay
for things obviously that has to be budgeted and all the other things and we would need to understand like what is the potential cost of such a policy so this is just simply to say that the rules and policy subcommittee will take this up and we'll draft a policy think about the different kinds of field trips work with the administration and then also you know think about what the financial impact of whatever the recommendation is so that um our class our advisors our students like they know what
the rules of the road are and it isn't um sort of a squeaky wheel situation where we have some things being funded and not others so I you know we might have to take some baby steps to get to a reality where we don't have to ask students to fund raise and pay for things but the first step and baby steps is to like decide like where it is that you want to go so my hope is that the policy will help us establish where we want to go and then quantify
like what you know what are the steps we might take to get there this is just to move it to subcommittee motion is for approval by member Russo seconded by member o all those in favor I suppose um paper will go into subcommittee for review and Report out June 1st or before next up 2025-the makes the following changes to the membership of the smithford
Comprehensive High School building committee replace Dr Edward Vincent superintendent with Dr Suzanne gy interim superintendent as a voting member um replace Dr G's position as assistant superintendent as a voting member with Joan Bowen as a voting member and replaced Tom Dalton as a non- voting member with Will pitelli as a non-voting member remove at the request of the Committee Member Lawrence Brown non- voting member add an MTA member
and met resident at the recommendation of M Coral to replace Lawrence Brown you further resolve that the committee is renewed through September 2026 or through the conclusion of the feasibility phase whichever comes first motion for approval by um can I just say something Qui gr um just to clarify the addition um with you know when we added um Mr Brown to the committee he told me he was like in this for a year
he's newly retired um I'm envious of his retirement but I guess he's ready to actually be retired um so he sort of filled a spot that we talked about being really important which is some additional voice from the MTA um I did go back through and the vast there there weren't a lot of other potential candidates who are still in the district Etc so this will allow us to go ask m cabal for a recommendation for somebody who
is both an MTA member and a Medford resident so it's not two people it's just one um but just an acknowledgement that that's going to happen outside of the initial application process so that um there is somebody sort of filling that space and then once this is approved and Marta Works to identify that person um we'll have to submit this form to the msba which is why we all need to approve it tonight wonderful thank you all that work um motion for approval by member Graham seconded by member
Ina all those in favor I all those opposed motion passes 20256 offered by member Graham be it resolved the member school committee enters into the feasibility study agreement with the Massachusetts school building authority for the meford high school project member Graham um yes so um as you all know we worked really hard to get all of our eligibility um information into the msba in
early July um we worked with them really from July until December on um what is called an enrollment certification which is essentially the head count of students that we will build a high school for um so our current enrollment at the high school is about 1,200 students um and we've worked really hard with them to demonstrate um what we what we see here in Medford um in in collaboration with them mayor's office um and our head of Planning
and Development um we've looked at uh permitted projects we've looked at Future potential projects we've had conversations and we certified enrollment with msba at 1395 which is almost a 200 student increase which is great um I think that's a really sort of nice number and a place for us to grow into um now the next step in the process is for us to authorize the feasibility study agreement which um is a standard
agreement it outlines um and reports on things that have already happened like the approval of $3 million do Etc um and um allows the district to enter into this next phase where we will hire an owner's project manager and a designer to do the feasibility study and this body needs to is the approving body for um the feasibility study funds to be expended in that way um so we need to sign that this group will need to um sign off on that tonight and then
um the board meeting for the msba is the week after February vacation I think it's the 26th or 27th so it's my full expectation um that the the team will recommend to the board that we be invited to the next phase um which is exciting the building committee is going to get working starting tomorrow to get ready for those next phase deliverables so we can very quickly get an RFP out the door and be ready to hire owner's project manager and really get to this next phase which is where like all
those meting questions get answered which is exciting so this group needs to um give us authorization to sign that agreement um Howard um attorney Greenspan has a document he'll fill out the mayor has something that she will sign on behalf of the school committee and then we will be off to the races for the board meeting V that meeting is the 24th 24th thank you motion to approve by member reinfeld seconded by member ol all those in favor can you do a roll call just
so that we can report it yes roll call please member branley yes member Graham yes member Anapa yes member olap yes member Rino yes member so yes may Longo yes seven of the affirmative zero the negative paper passes thank you thank you do not have any reports requested um we do have a few condolences the members of the Medford school committee expressed their are sincere condolences to the family of an
Louise Riley Ellis Miss Riley Ellis was a special education teacher for the Medford Public School elementary schools members of the meod school committee Express their sincerest condolences to the family of Phyllis con con erne Conor Miss conery was a first grade teacher in Medford Public Schools me the members of the me school committee expressed their sincere condolences to the family of Robert G chevier former principal of both St
Clement and St Joseph's and teacher at St rils and maton and members of the M school committee Express their sincerest condolences to the family of Josephine jod petner mother of Alison Watts special education teacher at the Brooks Elementary School we all may rise for a moment of silence
thank you our next regular meeting is Wednesday February 26 this meeting will be held um via remote participation is there a motion to adourn I member Graham seconded by member and tapa all those in favor all those opposed meetings Jour have a