##VIDEO ID:53d9Rk8X1OU## e e e e e okay good evening we'll get started the 19th regular meeting of the Medford school committee will come to order tonight is December 2nd 2024 exe executive session will be at 5:15 regular meeting 6 PM please be advised that there will be a meeting of the Medford school committee held in the Howard Alder Memorial Chambers Medford City Hall and via remote participation this meeting is being recorded um you can view through medu Community media on your local cable channel Comcast channel 98 or 22 and Verizon 4345 or 47 participants can log or call in by using the following Zoom link meeting ID is 955 4118 4223 um I will call the role member reinfeld member rouso on his way member olap member Anapa member Graham me member branley six present one on the way have we all may rise to salute the flag I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republ stand one indivisible liy and justice for all we have executive session motion to enter into executive session pursuant to general laws 30A section 21 A3 the mord school committee will convene to discuss strategy with respect to litigation executive session P pursuant to chapter 3A section 212 to conduct strategy in preparation with non-union Personnel or contract negotiations with with nonunion Personnel our superintendent of schools and the mford school committee will convene in public session immediately following the conclusion of the executive session at approximately 6m is there a motion to enter executive session by member brandley seconded by member ol I'll call the role member reinfeld member ol yes member Russo on his way member Russo you a motion to enter executive session yes yes um member tapa yes member Graham member brandley myself yes 70 the affirmative zero in the negative we're going to move to Executive session in room 207 and there's no heat I apologize no heat this e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e John is there a motion to suspend the rules motion to suspend the rules to take our rowing team motion by member reinfeld to suspend the rules I'll second and seconded by member branley to take paper 62 out of order um moot all those in favor all those opposed motion passes good evening and thanks for everybody's patience sorry sorry we're a bit late number two is recognition of the Medford High School varsity rowing team [Applause] we have Miss Rachel Perry our director of health and PE Mr Franco Larry and Miss Suzanne Campbell co-presidents of Medford rowing and the students thank you Miss Perry conern there I'm on good evening superintendent Edward vinon and members of the school committee I am honored to recognize one of the hardest working teams in our athletic department our crew athletes work tirelessly on and off the water in in day in and day out for two seasons each year working together to improve as a team and to reach their goals on regard days they're often Bo boarding buses at 5:00 a.m. to hit the road and returning late afternoon into early evening the commitment and dedication made by each of these athletes is truly remarkable I'm going to ask coach starros to come up and to give you some more information about the highlights of their [Applause] season thank you superintendent and council members um the crew team is combines of both boys and girls and these kids are the hottest working kids I've seen in a long time they're they they are very dedicated they work hard and we not only do sweep growing we also do scholar and we kind of concentrated a little this year more on skulling and it paid off by us achieving the team trophy at the state championships and U hopefully we can get the spring one also but um the kids are really dedicated they're hardworking and I can't say enough for them whether it's the boys team the girls teams the novice teams they all work together and each one pushes the other my last year's senior boat we who graduated uh 10 seniors last year it was my second boat that was pushing them all season which became I mean our third boat which was pushing them all the way which jumped all the way to be the first boat this year so we have some really good years coming ahead of us with a really bunch of kids and I'd like to introduce the Captain one of the captains to speak uh James Kish good evening I'm James Kish I'm a junior at Medford High and I'm a captain of the Medford rowing team yeah this trophy uh it says team you know there's a lot of we have all these medals you can see that a bunch of us are wearing those are for your boat but this is about the team and this team is how we got this trophy I mean every single person here really worked for it the entire season again we pushed ourselves you know just to make it happen and this is the first time we won it in team history but although technically yes we have to bring it back next fall I'm not planning to let this go anytime soon so we'll we'll keep going thank you very [Applause] much thank you I'll turn it over to Dr Edward Vincent to give you citations congratulations again yes congratulations on a job well well done I'm very proud of you that trophy is quite heavy so I am going to start with the girls team recognition and um if the person isn't here we will just set them aside so I have Laya Alberto Abigail chalton Sabina [Applause] Lee thank you thank you Megan maty [Applause] Caitlyn matazo Gianna [Applause] puror and Sarah Yousef [Applause] congratulations to the girls and now I'm going to start with our boys team Daniel alberty dandre not here okay Owen Barac coll Omnia Balia Alex [Applause] bre Robert Kars Scott Campbell [Applause] Mason Sharon James Kish [Applause] Addie Cruz rul Gonzalez ivth Henry Gregor [Applause] benenson harres caros SLO Dexter McIntyre Nick Nas maai Harrison [Applause] Muma Peter patalano you and [Applause] Rees Santana Rose Russell congratulations Adam [Applause] sers Matthew strier Patrick Walden [Applause] walat and last but not least Jaden woo can we give another round of applause for our wonderful athletes and can we have the athletes come in the Inner Circle with your trophy so we can take a a photo a group photo either way yeah either side yeah yeah it it's it's open either way come on that's fine yes coaches come as well please e e member and tapa um if I could just say really quick before everyone leaves um I have a long history with medfi rowing um I actually was on one of the inaugural middle school skulling teams so I actually learned how to skull before sweeping um and went through the team in my seventh my seventh grade year at the in eighth grade year at the Andrews and then all four years of high school um one I don't remember a time we medled this Grand uh first of all during The Fall season kudos to you for being able to do that in a fall season rowing those three miles up to the start and then the three miles all the way back and still being able to pull ahead that's absolutely insane um but I was super proud and super impressed just to see this um from you know my time as a rower my time as a coxen at this height which was crazy um but then also my time as a coach during the pandemic and then now like my favorite time of the year is getting to come in Doc Marshall the mayor's cup um and I just just absolutely so proud of you all just keep doing what you're doing and just see this I didn't even think about it till I was sitting here this Grand of an achievement in the fall season just keep doing what you're doing I'm so happy to see the team still going strong even through the pandemic now that we're you know where we are now so just congratulations and keep doing what you're doing thank you [Applause] member olap all right here we go so thank you so much um I also want to say as a former member of the bford rowing team you know I also was a middle school rower where I learned um and I went through the high school I was elected captain my senior year and it for me it was not only a a piece of um experience of leadership but also to be a testament to what this team does and the impact of a true team effort um I was able to continue on in college and even now I still row now um for a boat club here in Boston and I'm here to tell you that this type of program not only as a team but as individuals you learn so much I'm so proud of all of you to be able to do this work and to continue on um I think the dream of what it means to be a rower so congratulations to all of [Applause] you make sure you stay in shape this winter even through the holidays we have the mayor's cagata in the in the spring and I you're going to bring it I know it so congratulations again great job [Applause] coach is there a motion to revert back to the regular by member reinfeld seconded by member Graham all those in favor all those opposed um we have number four consent agenda approval of bills and payrolls approval of capital purchases approval of Grants approval of fa fail trips and approval of regular meeting minutes from November 18th 2024 by member reinfeld seconded by member olapa all those in favor all those opposed consent agenda is approved report of subcommittees we have approval of the diversity equity and inclusion Dei subcommittee meeting minutes from November 19th 2024 member op um thank you so as the chair of the Dei subcommittee i' just like to briefly discuss what we talked about in our meeting um before we approve the minutes um so um it was a very productive meeting we were able to have our um Dei director um Francis noaj come in and work with us and oper and explain to us what she's been doing um to support the school district um we were ask some questions of her and her experience and understanding about what that looks like da today um we had a couple insightful pieces that um it's a little difficult um as the Director to determine how often she's being asked to support the school district um it's Case by case it's situational she did um explain to us and declare that she is not being given any sensitive um information about any one student she does not have the um legal capacity to do that but in most cases when she is um consulted with she's given uh basic information to be able to give her recommendations or suggestions which we appreciated um ultimately we I think as as the committee determined that we felt it would be best to um continue having her support as needed um but also consider um having a new uh position created and Personnel come in and act as a director of Dei for the school district separately from her um additional Consulting um but we would still have her come in um and add receive that stien for her um services to the district um so that was kind of how that sub Comm went I thought it was very productive um and she seemed very um um elated to be there and to support us in the dist in any way she can so um I just want to say thank you to um the director and if there's any questions I'm happy to answer before we decide to continue on the meeting strategic and capital planning subcommittee meeting 1126 2024 update approve the minutes first motion for approval of the minut these are reports of through the chair one at a time what do we got determine if we're going to um approve the recommendation that the subcommittee came to which is to um we recommending that we create a new position um as a Dei lead for the school district while also maintaining the the current stien recommendation we had from the previous meeting um from the de director for the city was the recommendation that we came to may I through the chair ask a question on that is that something that can be we can approve as part of the meeting minutes but talk further on um during budget talks or supplemental budget talks because I know there's going to be a lot of comp competing interests and member Russo um we did discuss in the subcommittee meeting about the timing of this and we did feel that we should not be waiting until budget season to um hire for this role this role has a lot of responsibilities that frankly it sounds like the district hasn't um had a person dedicated to do for well ever and um and it doesn't sound when we heard the list of responsibil ities we were kind of I mean I I can't speak for the whole subcommittee although I will anyways because it felt very much like we were all kind of like that's a lot a lot of a lot like um I can't remember the exact number was it 11 or 19 people in Summerville Public School 11 in Somerville public schools to just do this work um they're a little bigger than us like 2,000 extra kids um or maybe they're a lot bigger I don't know but um so having nobody seemed untenable so that was why the committee recommended we get this position um get an actual uh job description drafted and posted after we've reviewed and approved it um as soon as possible [Music] um so that that that's what we discussed in the meeting um so I I'm I'm not really a fan of just waiting another six months or nine months to post this position um we may not get candidates right away I mean you know this isn't the best time to be hiring at all in school districts so it may take a good amount of time to actually hire somebody anyways but if we wait till we're doing our budget um even though we have an earlier budget this year than we have done in the past we've often been kind of behind the hiring curve in this district and uh going to hire putting a a posting out for June 1 even it's like all the districts that want to do this have already done all their hiring so I I'm concerned about waiting if if I may we have the over after the override pass we have the supplemental budget as well I just think it makes sense to talk about this as in a in a big picture we have somebody who's doing the job now it's not a full-time it's not a full-time job and I just want to make sure we're spending that additional money in all the in all the right ways I'm not saying this is the wrong way I just think we need to take a full picture of what that three million looks like member Russo um I certainly agree we need to be very very deliberate about how we spend our money I will say though that based on that meeting even though uh director noaj is doing an enormous amount of work she definitely is not doing some work we need to happen she's not in classrooms she's not inter she's not doing stuff with students related to discipline these are all very important things that this committee for years has been working on um that to date still does not have anybody dedicated to that work and she can't do that work frankly um because she's not a employee of Meer Public Schools so um I understand your point and I think that part of the the uh supplemental budget is a good time to discuss this but I think getting the drafting of a job description is that's not an that's that's going to take some serious work by somebody in the administration and I think we should have that drafted and ready to approve whether we're funding it for this year or not I think is is part of the supplemental I think that could be a different vote then we vote to approve drafting a job description and then it come before the committee for review and additional approvals would be my suggest suggestion member reinfeld that's how I read the the motion here is to create a job description um for somebody who will work in collaboration with the city and propose the stipend for director noaj to continue the work through the fiscal year in a Consulting the stipend basis so that is how I'm reading this that's how you read it I think it was said that draft the job description and post so as long as we get it will come back to us for review and final decision um I would think the supplemental budget will come be discussed very soon and I'd like to see the big picture of the needs and if the needs cost 10 million we still need to stay within budget so member Uso um because um it actually does anything about posting it says that we will create a new I won't read the whole along the Dei subcommittee recommends that we create a new job description for a school-based Dei director who will work in collaboration with the city di director further the MPS will provide an annual stien to the Dei director to compensate for the collaboration and communication with the m with MPS further the superintendent will make a recommendation for the stien amount by the December 16th meeting which I think will come at that meeting so this definitely is not an expense we're not demanding the hiring of this person but uh we have a long history and a member Vice chair Graham motioned I think two or three years ago now to have all the job descriptions actually created and which we are by law supposed to actually approve all job descriptions for people that work for Meer public schools and we all know that there are plenty of people who do not have those things um so I think we haven't hired this person yet we should definitely do this before before we decide to hire it um whether we do or not though in the budget that we're going to have to discuss we need this role whether we decide we're going to fund it now or not I think is a different because that's that's a priorities conversation but the role needs to exist so we can make that decision because I don't think we have a without a job description I don't even know exactly what this person is doing I think that that's part of the job description creation so member Graham um two things one is I just want to point out that the only thing that's posted on the agenda is the approval of the minutes so I think we could approve the minutes and put that resolution on for discussion next week um which I think would be fine and maybe the dates need to would need to be adjusted on the floor but I think we could totally do that um the second is um I haven't had a chance to watch the subcommittee meeting but I would like to because I when I looked at that initial list of things my my immediate reaction was that it was not appropriate for the district to be turfing some of those things to the director at the city that those are capacities we should have as a district in our current central Administration um and then there's like this other part of what it takes to do this work with um like integrity and and Fidelity that does require dedicated people so I would be really interested to see that job description but I would be fine if we just sort of pushed all of that discussion to next week so that it can be properly posted in case anybody does want to come and talk about it but I think director noaj is great but I also think like taking a slice of somebody's already full job like there's hundreds of employees in this city and they probably could all benefit from the work she does in a dedicated fashion without having to be sort of supporting us and I would like for us to have that conversation because I think there's all kinds of things that we should be doing and we aren't and um it's it's not about like you know a a a non-interest in collaboration because I think the only way this works is if you put somebody in the role in a dedicated fashion inside of the organization and then they work with the director at the city because cross collaboration in this space everything's always changed in it's really important um but how it gets like actually implemented and executed can be quite different so um I'm totally on board with having that discussion um at some point in time and I think we could have that discussion in part next week or in two weeks and then we can have it again from a funding perspective um in January and I think for me that's a fine timeline and it it reflects sort of the urgency um but I don't think we have to necessarily decide that tonight we could just we could just approve the minutes and put that on for next week for like a fuller discussion motion for approval is there a motion for approval um motion to approve the minutes by member Graham seconded by member ol all this in favor I all those opposed motion passes strategic and capital planning subcommittee meeting 11262 24 update member Graham chair I'm hi I will be um brief uh we have held two meetings to um put together a recommendation um that'll come before this um this committee um in a couple of weeks at our special meeting that'll be held on December 11th um so I don't think we need to go into a lot of details here but thanks to the committee thanks to some of the folks from the city who joined us to weigh in on particularly the HVAC project at mcllin and Andrews um as well as the conversations that I've been able to have with the OPM and others that are involved in that project so um we have a whole meeting dedicated to this coming up um next week um that we will use to sort of finalize this and then that will feed into the ongoing budget discussion from there so um I just make a motion to approve the minutes motion for approval of the minutes by member Graham seconded by member reinfeld all those in favor I all those opposed motion passes report of our superintendent we have number one Dr Marie Edward Vinson's updates and comments pass it over to you thank you good evening everyone thank you for joining us tonight um for this school committee meeting I hope everyone enjoyed their wonderful Thanksgiving last week and that you were able to celebrate the holiday surrounded by family and friends I want to start off this evening by saying how thankful I am for the great generosity from Mustang Nation this Thanksgiving season there were so many fundraisers and food drives held by all of our schools all of which went to help those in need last Tuesday truly showcased just how special our school Community is Middle School students and staff spent their afternoon following dismissal creating over 100 Thanksgiving baskets for those in need the Andrews cafeteria was filled with not only lots of items set to be donated but seemingly just as many volunteers earlier in the day our mlin elementary school Community donated all their food items raised as part of their 12th annual Thanksgiving food drive students helped hand off non- perishable and monetary donation items to the Medford Family Network who came to the school to thank our students and collect the items phots photos from both events can be found on our District's Facebook page once again thank you to all our families caregivers students and staff for your kindness this Thanksgiving season your dedication has truly made our community a better place Medford Public Schools also enjoyed turkey day the best way possible with a football victory over the Malden tornadoes in the 100 37th edition of the longest continuous rivalry in the country our Mustangs came out on top 34 to4 under some very wet wet conditions our cheerleaders finished off a great fall season supporting the players and coaches while our band didn't play due to the weather their tremendous Spirit was not forgotten I'd like to extend a special thank you to member member inapa and member olap partti who uh braved the weather and supported the Mustangs I also would like to recognize uh members of our city council councelor sang councelor Lazaro and councelor Kahan for coming out to support the Mustangs on Thanksgiving Day and last but not least I'd like to thank state representative Don Donado who was there uh braving the weather and supporting um both teams team but of course the Mustangs came out on top thank you for that so this 20o win capped off a historical season for the vity football team as a result the Medford Mustangs clenched the Greater Boston League championship for only the sixth time ever and this was the first time since 1985 the Medford Mustangs are GBL Champions additionally it's the first time our football team achieved back-to-back winning seasons since 1991 and the first time we've defeated Malden two years in a row since 2001 congratulations to all our players our families coach Curley and his staff and to all our supporters on a fantastic season with Thanksgiving falling so late on the calendar this year we all have even less time than usual to prepare for the busy holiday season our band got an early start to the festivities with the opening day of their annual Christmas tree and holiday Reef sale last Saturday I just want you to know I this year I got my tree last year they sold out early so all I can encourage everyone is come out this weekend support our band they're there from 10: 10: amm to 4m it's at the Medford High School parking lot they have beautiful trees small medium large ranging from 85 95 and $105 and the reefs are between $15 and $20 ornaments for $5 it's very reasonable I went shopping this weekend for Black Friday and I can tell you the doors are way more expensive than our own marching band fundraiser so please come out and support them this weekend they will be there December 7th December 8th December 14th and 15th while supplies last so as soon as the supplies are gone that's it our award-winning High School in middle school band will be joining our beautiful Orchestra later this month at their annual Winter concert the concert will be held on Wednesday December 11th and Thursday December 12th at 700 p.m. at Medford High School we invite everyone to attend and listen to the tremendous performances from our students as a reminder Wednesday December 11th will be a half day for all students middle school students will be dismissed at 11:30 and all other students will be dismissed at noon lastly I'm really excited to share that kindergarten registration for next school year will begin on Thursday January 2nd this is the earliest we have ever opened registration as we eagerly anticipate welcoming future students to Mustang nation in collaboration with the city information about the kindergarten registration process will be shared in the mail and within the community very soon for those of you who are interested in learning about the process now please visit the new dedicated kindergarten registration web page on our website Building Bridges to kindergarten are presentations where we welcome parents to learn more about kindergarten in our schools and answer any questions that you may have they will be held in January February and March of 2025 we hope to see you there and again go to our registration web page on our website so during tonight's meeting I am thrilled to share that we have already welcomed our wonderful crew team we also uh rowing team we also want to recognize this evening that we're going to have drivein safety course uh presentation from the executive director Mr Dan strollo and Dr Cushing we will also have Miss pette Vander clude who will be presenting this evening as the MEF uh Medford Educational Foundation president and former School Committee Member and I believe we're g she's going to be accompanied by her wonderful grants manager as well this evening thank you so much and we also will have Miss Mara cabal principal of the high school who will be presenting on bathrooms at Medford High School thank you thank you thank you Dr Edward Vincent next we have number three Drive-In control safety course Dr Peter Cushing assistant superintendent and Mr Dan strollo executive director and I also believe we have our student rep on the call Via Zoom um so thank you for joining us Sierra we appreciate having you here hello sorry new system all right good evening Madame mayor members of the committee thank you very much for uh letting us take this opportunity to formally um let you know about the in control uh driver training that the med for public schools has been able to do because of a very good partnership with the Medford Police Department Sergeant Jordan canava um who has authored the grants over the last several years uh this all started about four years ago um when a Community member and Mr strollo uh came to us to really look at bringing in um you know parts of the curriculum to really have students understand texting and driving safe driving um and those impacts uh last year uh previously we had done um some demonstrations at the high school for students where they rode along and last year we were able to start bringing students down to South wouth Naval Air Station or the former South wouth Naval Air Station uh for students who had their permits to be able to uh practice Maneuvers on the course the partnership within control has been simply phenomenal um and we're able to bring down groups of up to 15 students 13 to 15 students per visit um and I will let Dan talk about that because that's his area of expertise but this has been really a phenomenal opportunity for our students um and we would also love to invite any of you to come down and participate in the course as well but Dan strollo thank you I'm impressed I've never been anywhere where my name has been pronounced right three times in a row and I also want to go on record as saying I was very impressed with the rowers I know they left the building as a former motorboat operator just the idea of Motoring six miles for one trip is exhausting but the I'm not sure um I first I'm the executive director of a nonprofit called the in control Family Foundation we've been working in Medford in partnership with safe roads Alliance they're doing the kids speaking up for road safety program in the elementary schools and we're doing the Hands-On program both Community visits where we come to the Medford High School and allow students to ride along with us and learn the importance of seat belts Massachusetts is second to last place for seat seat belt use in the country we are um the importance of staying at or below the speed limit and how much of an impact even just a few miles an hour over the speed limit has on your ability to stay in control of the car and then discouraging impairments drinking drugs drowsiness and distractions all big problems more recently um if you haven't been paying attention we are losing a lot more people on our roadways today than we were just five or six years ago the peak everybody hoped was during the pandemic and then it's continued to get worse every year since one point I always like to make sure everybody recognizes is that the United States used to be the safest place in the world to drive a car can anybody guess where we are today yeah we're generally around 40th Place we focus on technology and technolog is amazing it can do some impressive stuff but if we don't train people how to use it we lose lives and the other big thing that I think with a role that you folks have the death rate in car crashes used to be a biggest issue between the ages of 15 and 18 today it's between 19 and 25 if you look at the number of kids we lose between the ages of 15 and 25 today versus 10 15 years ago it's collectively through the roof but we lose a lot more kids when they're out in the community and no longer part of the high school when they're working when they're maybe you know at College something like that and so it's not the same we don't find out about it we don't mourn them the same way we used to and so these lives are getting lost and we just don't talk about it so part of what we appreciate be being continuously invited back to Medford is you folks are talking about safe driving and we think that's a really important thing when we get an opportunity to run you know last we were there last Tuesday and we had over 250 some odd students sit in a vehicle with us and go through some demonstrations and we talked about do you wear your seat belt and I can tell you A lot of them didn't they told us they didn't and they didn't want to when we put them in the car now when we slam on the brakes at 20 M hour 25 miles an hour they tended to buckle up pretty quick after that but it's an opportunity to show them we're not going very fast in an emergency this can get out of control real quickly what we do down in wayth is a series of drills and again we didn't invent this we stole it from the Europeans who crash it far lower rates than we do right if you look at the kids in the first two years after they get their license here in Massachusetts looking at north of 60% of them are crashing in the first two years that's why it's so expensive doing sh all right we put them through a series of different drills the very first thing we do and I should take a moment and say we use our cars we go through tires every seven days so you don't want to do this to your own car and we put them in a panic stop we have them travel down the runway 50 55 miles an hour and aggressively slam on the brakes and that's a real world thing it happens every day on the highways that we're driving on and they get to experience what what it's like and the seat Bel locks up and that wheel gyrates and the pedal pulsates and it makes noises they've never heard and a lot of people not just the teenagers but this may happen to you guys if we can get to come down and visit us they freak out and they take their foot off the brake which is really counterproductive when I told you to stop that car as fast as you possibly can and they hit the wall of cones that we set up in front of them but what's really interesting is we repeat the drill in 100% of the time everybody stops without a problem and that's what we're doing with them it's about four and a half five hours of training I want to say thank you to Chief Buckley uh Sergeant canava um you know Dr Cushing these folks have really made this program possible we're going to have the opportunity for another 200 to 250 students to participate in this so we could use your help we could use the community's help with getting the word out about the program they can go down in a shuttle bus organized through the school or they can come to us directly and they can just sign up on our website we have a special URL for them but if I can answer any questions I know we handed out some paperwork I just wanted to give you a little brief overview about it and goal is to work with kids while they still have their permit if we can but once they have their license I was hoping to grab the rowing team and you know give them a big hug and then tell them we want to train you because if you've got that license you are not an expert you know it's a thousand hours of driving before you're likely to be considered an experienced driver and some of these kids got their license and you know the other thing you go to some of these European countries the road test is an hour anybody here know how long the road test is here in Massachusetts yeah it can't be more than five months there's a union issue it pretty much ends it they need time to get the next car ready and that sort of thing it's it's not fair to our kids we can do better but any questions I can answer may remember Russel I just wanted to say thank you my daughter actually went through this program this year I don't remember exactly when um and uh she's been driving a lot and um the folks that my my my sister has been in the car with her just this past weekend and said she's such a great driver um I I'll apologize now for any backseat driving that takes place now that she you know she's watching you I let her drive if we're in the car together because um I'm the backseat driver thank you so much though it makes me feel a lot better especially knowing that whole like the first time I mean I think I don't know if everybody does I remember the first time anti-lock breaks I experien them and it is terrifying um it's better if that's not the actual time you need to stop from hitting another car or a person so thank you yes thank you very much for presenting and for all you do for our students appreciate it thanks take care we have a report of Medford Educational Foundation and recommendation to approve a donation um miss pet vandut is present she's the president and of medfit Educational Foundation and former Medford School Committee Member of course hi hi it's great to see everybody um too yeah I have to look around uh so uh I'm here today uh representing the Medford Educational Foundation uh I'm the president and this is David S my uh grants manager who manages all the uh uh grants that come in and organizes them for us uh we're also joined I'm just going to by um our Treasurer uh and um who's not wasn't able to be here um but Steve Hayes uh gaale aranan member Christa Vita um also Diane Caldwell a name you'll all know uh is is part of our merry little group and I think I got them all did I get them all I got them all uh anyway what we've been very quietly doing for the last um eight maybe nine years is giving away money and of course it always amuses me that we have to come and ask you to accept it this amused me when I was sitting over there because I would think you'd be so happy to take it you would just grab it from my hands and no need for formal approval but I'm here to give you $875 tonight to go towards the grants that um teachers applied for so they uh we have a process where they write us their good ideas and um we weigh and deliberate over them uh very often we can't fund all of them we received more than $226,000 in requests just to give you some idea so roughly right now we're uh funding about a third of it uh but last year all together we gave you over $16,000 and it'll be about we're about on track for that this year um and the type of grants that we love to fund is for your like example the Middle School uh Librarians uh join forces and asked us to fund a community read and we think that's a wonderful project to bring the Middle School uh students together uh the misuk has asked us to fund uh which we're partially funding an author's visit they haven't had one for a very long time at the vocational school they asked us for a brand new upgraded 3D printer and um a much more uh expensive one than they they've had and we funded that at your last meeting you okayed a field trip uh uh experience for the uh United Nations club and we're giving them $1,000 towards that trip uh we have an Afterschool cooking club at the Andrews uh we think it's a great idea they working on International uh food and so we're funding some of their expenses so that's the thing we do they're not earth shattering but they sure are fun and we think that they add to a students enjoyment and we know from the feedback that we get that the teachers really present uh rep uh appreciate having another funding source that they can ask to uh for money one of the uh funds we just gave out was for 50 bucks and a teacher said boy really appreciate that very small amount of money but that's something we can do and something which frankly I know that doesn't always happen on your end because you don't you know it's a different thing so anyway uh we are very very grateful to the people who support us uh NM bank has been a great supporter of us giving us over $5,000 for the last couple years the Medford Community Fund has also contributed to us for several years running after we've written for Grants and we're really an intermediary we collect money and we give it away as soon as we get money we give it away and for that purpose I'm going to uh let you know that the Kanas of Medford uh generously just let us know that we'll be receiving a check and at your next meeting in two weeks time I won't come again but I will ask you there will be an additional there were a couple grants we couldn't fund that we really wanted to so you'll see us come up again uh just for your approval and we thank the Kanas um and NM bank and Mr Jean kalaw from meum bank for their incredible support um anyway um I think that about covers it um it's great to see you I have to always note that two of you used to be my students John and Aaron both volunteered at Medford at Winchester Hospital uh when I was there so um it it does amuse me that you've both ended up on the school committee so anyway uh who's going to take the check and make sure it gets to the great place thank you and again I'd really like to thank the very dedicated crew we're small but we've been absolutely consistent for years working together and David's done done a phenomenal job and Steve ha everybody so thank you very much thank you so much take care thank you Paulette thank you David thank you for all you do remember reinfeld yes we've to officially to offici yes I motion to officially accept the check and seconded by member Graham all those in favor all those opposed money has been accepted thank you okay number five Medford High School bathroom update this is from resolution 2024-the School principal thank you for joining us good evening Madam mayor and members of the school committee I'll be joining principal cabal this evening uh in presenting um I wanted to just quickly say that um you know we are working as a district and high school leadership to really make sure that the bathrooms are open that they're clean uh and that we're trying to find ways to improve them constantly uh we recognize that uh all students and community members would more than likely want more uh done but there are challenges being faced Across the Nation um in high schools and in schools that principal cabal will be able to talk about briefly but we want to make sure that we gave you a comprehensive look as to what's been done in the last few months and um work going back several years so I'll turn it over to principal cab hi good evening everyone so I am here to share about the current schedule and planned opening of bathrooms bathroom improvements and the current cleaning schedule that we have at Medford High School I do want to piggyback off of Dr Cushing and say I'm part of several cohorts of principes and administrators um in Massachusetts and surrounding uh States and it is a topic of conversation at every single one of our round taes that we have we have many agenda items and I would say the bathrooms are always number one on the priority list of how to make them um better and more inclusive for our students that being said we're making great strides at Medford High School and we are continuously working to improve and are always open to suggestions or any feedback that you have in order to make our bathrooms the best place for our students to be able to use um comfortably so that being said uh the few slides that I put together is the current schedule and planned openings for bathrooms currently we have um signs on all of our bathroom doors that include the schedule periods 1 through 3 and periods 5 through 6 the house offices so in the SE building all of the house office bathrooms are open during period four it's lunch block um which poses a little bit more of a challenge for Staffing and we have the cafeteria bathrooms open I would say that all students are aware of which bathrooms are open at which times we do have um announcements in the morning where we do periodically put them in I would say the first four weeks of school we always have um announcements of the bathrooms that are currently open as we do have freshmen that are not um accustomed to having a bathroom schedule uh the gender neutral bathrooms that we have currently we have one in the main office that is at use there's no questions asked a student knows that they can go in it's a single stall bathroom we have one in s house office as well same process we have one now in the CTE office that we have opened and we also have one in the main foyer area um that they do need to ask for a key just because it's a little bit hidden but they ask that from the from the security monitor there and they're able to use it with no questions asked so we have a total of four gender neutral bathrooms one per floor um dedicated for our students to use we have been having a lot of discussion about opening the CTE bathrooms we have heard from CTE students that it is becoming a challenge to have to cross over to me the me the compreh comprehensive side to the seab building um and because students have advocated for it we have been able to shift um our security monitors they're zoned right now as to where they are um supervising and we have been able to rezone one of them we plan to open that by Monday um in order to to honor the CTE students and being able to um not miss instructional time which is important we have done several bathroom improvements um we have improved 12 bathrooms um mainly in the SE building because those were were the ones that needed the most attention the CTE bathrooms had been re renovated I think in the past 10 years um so we really wanted to focus our efforts in the seab building we have gotten all new special paint for the tiles that is all repainted new mirrors new countertops um fixtures in the bathrooms to update it and make it look a little bit more modern we've also had deep cleaning that was done by the painting company where they completely power washed all of the floors walls um the dividers and all of the fixtures that are in the bathroom before they painted it um so we feel like is there more that we can do sure but we are in an aging building we call it a little bit of an antique building where we have to do with what we what we have but we can ensure that they're cleaned and that's what's important to us um proposals for bathroom improvements is a purchase um of a grout cleaner that is something that we desperately need the floors is where a lot of the smell comes from especially with the age so we really need some sort of machine to be able to clean it at least on a weekly basis because it is so porous because of the age um so we are proposing that that would be something that would help with the cleanliness of it as well as with the smell that we can sometimes um just because of the age of the building additionally buildings and ground staff um we could always use more people just dedicated to cleaning of the building um we were able to hire a new buildings and ground staff member that is dedicated to just cleaning and cleans all of the bathroom something that we weren't able to do in the past um to make sure that the cleaning schedule is uh adhered to and that bathrooms are attended to every day um Al additionally we have a cam oh do you want go ahead member Russo sorry that these bathrooms are cleaned essentially twice a day with this many people teenagers of any of in particular and that's it so the deep cleaning happens for the seaside building of the house office when we close them we do the deep cleaning so that includes and I think I might have put a slide oh it's actually on the next slide is all uh everything is deep cleaned with solution the floors are mopped they're um swept and mopped and everything is replenished we do have the person coming in regularly once per hour to make sure that they're like sweeping up the floor I don't really call that a deep cleaning I call that like a tidying but to make sure that if there's anything that needs um um attention that we are doing it but when the build when the when the bathrooms are closed is when she is going in to be able to do the deep deep scrub thank you um I just can't see off of that let me thank you um the installation of additional cameras to cover all bathroom entrances all of our cameras in the in the hallways and the SE building do not necessarily point and the directions that we need to point them at and that we need to see and be able to look at surveillance for um who is entering and exiting the bathroom some do some just need to be more updated so we have more of like a 180 360 view of the hallways and that is something that we are proposing and then lastly we were we through the mayor were and actually I I do want to acknowledge our students reached out to the mayor for some Halo detectors which detect Vape smoke smoke in general and also are noise detectors so if it's over a certain decibel it actually alerts us and that would mean that there's probably more than three people in the bathroom that's really the decibel level that we have it so we're able to go to the bathroom to um attend to the student or to clear out the bathroom we would like to have additional ones added right now we have four um and we would like to have them in all of the bathrooms and then lastly I I did mention this the bathrooms are cleaned deep cleaned when the bathrooms are closed and then the evening crew also does a deep clean for the morning shift as well so some of our current challenges that principal caral already mentioned are some hallways lack cameras um just how the security system was deployed there are some hallways that lack cameras especially on bathroom so knowing who goes in who comes out uh there are C Plumbing concerns um with uh the disposal of items down toilets that is causing us some significant uh challenges in the Aging facility and aging pipes um so uh correct and there are correct that this requires sometimes us to call in not sometimes we're frequently calling in plumbers uh to repair the issue but then also needing to call in a jet um a jet Plumbing Service to literally blast through uh the clogs that are happening because of items being disposed so the halum the Halo detectors right now it's a pilot program we have limited deployment uh personally we'd like to see uh we painted 12 bathrooms over the summer we did a lot of work in 12 bathrooms we would like to uh we put those Ford Halo detectors in um some of those 12 bathrooms we would like to add an additional 12 these would be for the third floor science Wing bathrooms that were renovated uh brand new uh 10 years ago when those science labs were done those bathrooms were first open to students in 2021 um we um have an odor in the boy's bathroom that is probably urine on aged urine on uh heating so we're hoping that the uh cleaning equipment and training will Aid in getting rid of these Mells uh Staffing uh looking for say two additional staff members to really help with movement around bathrooms to make sure that uh that that would help us to maintain keeping as many bathrooms open as possible to really shrink the zones that the high schools are the high school is using and to make sure that uh we have a quick response um now in November 26 on November 26 2019 I requested this information from the city clerk I also uploaded to the drive uh a report that I gave in I think January of 2020 pre pandemic so um $300,000 in free cash was awarded to the school department uh to upgrade the intercom system $ 59,00 uh Shades in the seab building uh of Medford High School on the first floor were derel so those were replaced uh if any of you have done window treatments you know those are not cheap $32,500 two bathrooms will come back to that at $100,000 technology for new maker space uh and sunsetting desktops uh was $47,500 a significant amount of that went to the electrical upgrades needed for the maker space uh it was a little shocking how much that was and then generator repair and replacement um which in all honesty that was uh it was kind of pre me first year me uh that was uh a quote that did not include installation costs so we have not been able to do that work however where we are in the medord high school building process that might be something we want to reconsider at this point and uh what we've been looking for is we spent $177,000 or so to paint the bathrooms this summer um through arpa it was approximately it was under $10,000 to do the Halo sensors we've budgeted those at around $3,500 because there was a Motorola coupon special on those four sensors believe it or not there was a coupon um I swear to God um you can't make but anyway so um we're proposing for the 12 remaining bathrooms uh would be $3,500 per bathroom that includes all wiring systems those types of things $42,000 in total estimated cost uh the grow cleaning machine this is a machine that essentially is a mobile pressure washer that has numerous attachments one of the attachments uh does the grout cleaning that we needed to do there are other attachments they can do fabric upholstery rugs and other things that honestly I gave up after a few um so that grow cleaning machine uh cameras 10 additional cameras to cover additional areas uh to cover additional bathrooms and other areas of the school 4,000 per camera $40,000 total cost total proposed facility cost is $94,000 we have spent right around the 200 thousand of the free cash um so we have funds available to us out of the free cash to continue uh investing in the Medford High School bathrooms uh in these areas which is not um exorbitant I guess the last thing I will say is the initial idea of renov of two bathrooms was to do a full renovation uh we still have the plans for that uh but number one it proved that it would not make the bathrooms Ada accessible uh and $100,000 to do two bathrooms even in pre pre pandemic pricing was woefully um underfunded uh to to Really renovate these bathrooms uh would require substantial infrastructure changes to the plumbing taking down walls uh there's a there's a there's a custodial closet that's a part of these like call it a cluster girls room boys room custodial closet uh one of the thoughts was to take everything out and do a boys room a girls room a boys room on each side alternating so we essentially go from having six and six to having three and three but bigger trying to do Ada that proved not to be the case even if we wanted to gut these bathrooms as they are take them down to the studs and rebuild them back out uh I I forget specifically because it is five years ago and we couldn't find the quote uh the tile costs alone exceeded the $100,000 all right um so I just wanted to give you a very clear update on what that free cash was it was $300,000 uh that the city council uh approved uh we have been very diligent in using it to pay for what was intended uh with the exception of the generator repair and replacement which turned out again to be a massive project that $61,000 didn't not if you ever want to know I'm happy to talk to you about generator replacement but I don't think that's the focus of tonight um so uh I will stop the screen share now in case there's anyone online or any members of the committee that would like to comment thank you Dr Cushing question from the chair on the smoke and vape detectors are they obviously you GNA you'd like to order more so they must be useful I I thought I did either receive an email or got word that the teens were taking them off the ceiling so have we prevented that in any way or is that something you just run in and and catch who who's done it I mean yeah so we actually were able to catch the the students that were in there at that very moment because it just happened that we were on the app and we got the alert and we were able to go out there it has only happened once and it only happened at that one very time um so we we were going to get cages I guess there's cages that you can put around them we haven't needed to do that because it was isolated um incident that that happened the other thing that we've been working on is you know taking care of our space and our community at Medford High School and we are making great gains in that both in the bathroom so I think like this incident was a perfect example of us being able to then you know over announcements and at our community events talk about the importance of taking care of of our community and our building um with the Vape detectors that we have we're able to collect the data and look at the data we have had a significant decrease in the amount of um what are they call I don't I don't even alerts um because it can be noise level as well as to when it first started to now is there Improvement that we can do 100% we can always improve our students still vaping yes but they're not vaping in the bathrooms they're vaping a lot less so that we're Comm we're providing students a safe place to be able to use the bathroom and one that they feel comfortable walking in we are creating we were hoping to get the Vape detectors installed over the summer to be able to do some trial and error with them um we were unable to do that so we are slowly developing an action plan as to how can we once um how can we best um improve and use the tools that we have currently in the bathrooms that being said the cameras and that's where the cameras come into play would be really supporting the technology that we have of the Halo VAP protectors to see who is entering and exiting the bathrooms at those certain times and we don't have that on all the all of the floors currently right now thank you I would also just like to add briefly that um this isn't about disciplining students the The Vape detectors and any related technology or any work that the high school leadership is doing is about directing students into the diversion programs uh there are two available um not going to go into the specifics right now but there are are to available this is about having students understand how bad Vapes are for them and uh hopefully moving them off them through these diversion programs and what does a diversion program look like if I may from the chair is it just like an hour is it videos is it we actually have it uh through mgh's stened position of um a diversion program that we have at the high school where if they are caught vaping they're immediately put into that and it's a certain amount of sessions that they have to complete um where it's educating them about the use of vaping um as long as well as with the health effects so um that is the restorative practice that we are using because just saying no don't do it or just putting them in Saturday detention or just giving them a punishment is not going to work as so we want to educate them wonderful wonderful thank you member Graham um thank you can you just clarify for me um when you say that um we finally have somebody who is able to clean the bathrooms how many custodians are on the day shift at Medford High it's either six or seven just uh depending on the day it's seven Monday Tuesday Wednesday it is 6 Thursday Friday so I I know the seventh person was a new position that we added um which is great but like why can't the others why can't we clean the bathrooms more if we have seven people on staff who are there to keep the building clean uh that is definitely something we're working on uh we're also working with our custodial supplier Casey products uh to offer trainings on how to properly deep clean bathrooms and to make sure that those skills are not um disused so we do have um we have we just had one training at one of the last half days uh and we are scheduling a bathroom cleaning training for our staff so that we have a clear standard and expectation of how we want them to look um it's also um it is high on my priority list as someone who oversees um this Cate to make sure that the high school bathrooms are well cleaned well sterilized and so that when students go in there not only do they have an environment where people are not congregating and doing things that they shouldn't be doing but they have a clean environment to use for what they need to do for hopefully is a brief time and then get back to class um thank you so it I don't see anything in here about opening more bathrooms per se um which I I am in support of all the ways that you're proposing to spend the um the capital funding that we have um and I would be happy to make a um motion tonight but how do we open more bathrooms so we so we are going to open the CTE what not just in C building so we are going to open the CTE bathrooms by Monday um like I said we've really been working with secur with our security monitors of how we can redistribute them in the zones the build the architecture of the high school is very challenging as to where the B we all know this where the bathrooms are located and just the amount of space that our security and we are very fortunate with how many we have but just the amount of space that we have at the high school um it's thin for the amount of security monitors that we have that being said we are making it a priority to to reassign them their zones to be able to open CTE by Monday morning great and then um why are the bathrooms in the B building never open that's been a that's been a coverage issue um surprisingly uh when we did open them over the past couple of years those despite being the newest and nicest were heavily vandalized at times um so uh they have been closed for cleaning or repair or things like that at times right now it's literally a coverage and Staffing issue other high schools have the benefit uh or however you look at it of Staff having duties and uh it may be that your duty uh is to sit outside a bathroom right or your duty is fill in the blank of anything that may be that's not really an option for us at this time um and it does pose challenges when then things that you know in other places would be uh an opportunity to have staff you know not only being there as set of eyes but also relationship building and those types of things is uh comes with uh additional fiscal um realities so it's either um two additional staff be they engagement Specialists or monitors or however you want to look at it in a broad sense or um it's figuring out a way to fund um M Preps got it so essentially if we had two more staff members you could open how many more bathrooms we would be able to open the be bathroom because I would have someone zoned specifically there in the B3 in the science Wing as well as the CTE the CTE bathroom we're going to make work for now um but it would really provide full coverage for areas that are not as trafficked and what if you only only had one staff member then I would be able to open the B3 bathroom with the plan that we currently have for the CTE bathroom to be opened on Monday okay that's helpful um and then um Dr Cushing you said something that I think was polite in terms of what was happening students are flushing Vapes and causing Plumbing damage yes that is very expensive is that what you were saying yeah it is it is I don't have those costs in front of me we haven't been able to pull them yet uh our plumbing costs are through the roof um we've we've definitely suffered broken pipes as a result of them uh and sewage backups so I understand students frustrations I do um and I I will say that the situation at Medford High School is vastly better um this year than it has been in previous years uh The Vape problem is is it can't go understated like what it's doing to our kids what it's doing to our plumbing so I guess they're Plumbing our plumbing uh but it is it is not it is not you know and my last my last stance as a principal uh was in southern Wester County and our school had only four bathrooms in it so eight boys and girls and we closed three of those groupings and had every student in the school will go to a single grouping because the vaping was out of control and similar problems in 2018 2019 and yes those are Draconian measures we had nowhere near the Staffing of Medford High School to cover those bathrooms and unfortunately the last thing I ever want to do is make a teacher sit and every student had to sign into the bathroom Okay um that was 201829 I only share that to say it is a problem that High School principles and Middle School principles I took the doors off my bathrooms because thing bad things were happening when kids thought they could be obscured all right and we were able to do that they were set up in a way that was airport style this is a problem that unfortunately is really perplexing uh Secondary School leaders I would also propose not in this money I would propose VAP Vape sensors in every single one of the middle school bathrooms just FY um thank you and I think um one request I have is that if you are talking to parents about their students vaping that you're making them aware of the real cost like every time we spend X dollars on Plumbing it's money that we are not able to spend on students doing something that will help them get an education and I think we need to quantify that both for students and for parents so that people can start to understand the consequences of of the actions and decisions that they're making to your point like being willing to take care of your community is important um but there's also a very practical dollars and cents component of all of this which is we can't just decide not to fix the plumbing it h we have to fix the plumbing so that means we will have to decide not to do something else and I know the big one of a big concern that we've heard is the bathroom closures and the bathroom bathroom closures happen because we have the plumbing issu so sometimes we're able to just close one stall sometimes because it's an overflow or whatnot we have to close the whole bathroom so that is the reason why there is frustration about bathrooms being closed or being relocated is it's a plumbing issue at times and can we just be really clear and transparent about that this bathroom is closed because that's what we of a plumbing issue like on the wall on the door yeah you know again like it's it's hard to help everybody make good decisions all the time but when you can see in real like consequence like what's happening um to your you know your classmates um hopefully that will deter some folks as well um so what you are asking for in this um proposal is essentially approval to proceed with the Vape sensors the grout cleaning machine and the cameras um out of the capital funds that have been allocated for bathrooms and and then two additional staff members is that correct I I think well I mean the two additional staff members I think we need a longer conversation of where in the budget that would come from sure yeah but I just want to make sure I'm understanding like what are you asking us to think about spending but not necessarily tonight but yeah what is I mean thinking about spending the 94 um which is already allocated uh there's also some leftover Capital money from the um significant amounts of it have been expended from the uh science renovation science lab Renovations uh there's still a little bit left available there so um just to make sure that these are estimates they're really I think they're good estimates based on uh livid experience over the past several months um but to really make sure that uh we have what we need moving forward without really tapping into the supplemental and other things um but you know want to make sure the committee is aware we're looking at about $94,000 want to make sure that these bathrooms are in the best shape that they can be in a 54 year old structure um where there was a lot of deferred maintenance um ideally I'd love to be able to replace the heating elements in those bathrooms because I don't I really don't know any way to get the uric acid out of it um so when those heat up is when the smells get bad um so uh make you wear those and then those two staff members uh and then a consideration of you know we'll have to think about like what's the best yeah assignment thank you um I have a couple of motions but I will like let everybody else ask their questions and I think there's probably some folks online who may want to speak as well we have somebody online so gonna go to Metro member rousel the member ryanfeld then we'll take a resident online oh me and member brandley it was first right um so um I've really uh been thinking a lot about this Vape problem especially in light of today's Supreme Court uh arguments which if um the antiba anti-regulation um approach to government that we can expect um happens that we're going to see a massive spike in Vape use because every flavor Under the Sun will become available instead of just Menthol and the plain cigarette flavor um when that happens um I think we're going to have to really think hard about what our comfort level is about detecting Vapes on our students I'm not interested in a metal detectors and I'm not interested in like making the place feel like a prison on the other hand the number of the percentage of students and middle middle middle school students already using Vapes is very disturbing without all of the these flavored ecigarettes being available so if the Supreme Court does overturn that uh and you know neuter the FDA in this regard I think we're gonna have to really have some serious conversations about how how uh direct we get about checking every student for Vapes and I know that there's equipment that can actually do that um and I hope we're not there I hope we don't have to go there there but um I'm very concerned um that the floodgates will be opened on on Vapes that will make them irresistible um so I I'm glad we're having this conversation now um I hope next year we're not having a different conversation um so I certainly support the additional two people to be able to open up all the bathrooms about the expensive Plumbing stuff uh repairs as aside from the signs I do think that we should literally just put it in in that morning announcements if there's room and it's not a big issue because I don't think and frankly until you've owned a home you don't have a clue what Plumbing costs um and so to just say you know bathroom you know this the repairs were you know $116,000 or whatever they are um and put the bathroom out of order for two and a half weeks or whatever the the real numbers are um because and and I think that there's messaging there that well for many students those might also be relatively meaningless if you're not paying your own bills um but you could also say that means we will not have money to do and then you just draft a little list of things that cost money similar to those amounts so we're not going to get to do this in the school system because instead we're fixing pipes because you throw your Vapes away um because this this budget is a limited amount of money and that's just the way it is and um I think peer pressure a healthy peer pressure can be useful here um and uh you know I'm disappointed to hear about how many uh Vapes are going in the in the plumbing apparently in the boys rooms more than the girls rooms but um we need to make these things real I think that's you know we have a whole financial literacy thing going on and I think for students that are going through that who will start to get a grasp of what stuff costs when we start to tell them that like yeah you threw something in the toilet and it's costing if you've been through the financial literacy program you know four months of your salary or income you know that that's when it starts to be like like it costs more than a car um and I think I'm hopeful that that can be useful um not that I know I know that getting this information is not like you can't click a button but um I appreciate all your work and hope we can get these Vape sensors everywhere um and the cameras so we can see who's going in and out of the rooms thank you thank you member reinfeld and member branley you you mentioned renovation couldn't get something up to Ada standards can you confirm that we do have Ada accessible bathrooms in the or we we do okay it's it's the science Wing um I'm just trying the one in the main lobby the main foyer that uh literally you'll see it was built like in the it was carved out of the foyer of the lobby um and I'm trying to think of others yeah the beastro does have one um so not necessarily convenient for people who need them but they are on site yeah thank you member brandley okay uh well first I'd like to thank you for all your head work on this I appreciate it very much um also would like to thank the custodians who are cleaning the bathrooms um they're definitely ons Heroes on the day-to-day basis um question um when that plumbing emergency happens where does that come out of MoneyWise like it comes out of facility repairs facility repairs and so obviously that's a huge dollar amount that we're not budgeting for I'm assuming correct I mean I don't as much as I budget at home you know I had a sink that was clogged like three weeks and it was you know impossible and it costs a lot of money um so I can only imagine the depth of that so that is really disappointing to hear and I'm I'm really curious why boys more than girls like a girl throwing theirs in the trash and boys are just flushing it it's I don't know well uh girls are not throwing them in the trash from what we know okay yeah that's that's very interesting to me um yeah I think it's imperative that we have the the bathroom staffed so we can open as many safely as possible so definitely two staff members looks like it's um would be helpful so thank you for this um and you know just really a big thank you to everybody who's cleaning the bathrooms I I hate cleaning my own bathroom so I can imagine a bunch of teenage boys I have one that's enough so thank you thank you member brenley um Cheryl name and address for the record please hello hello um charl Rodriguez 281 Park Street can you hear me yes we can hear you okay um so I noticed that the students really weren't considered in this entire presentation how this is affecting them it seemed to be more of a logistic thing but right now there's no bathrooms open in The Bu building and we're talking about hiring a staff member and only being able to open one bathroom currently if all the bathrooms on the schedule are open that's one stall per 100 students and the students are not all aware of what bathrooms are open because the office staff isn't even aware of all the office bathrooms open because I have called multiple times and asked them what bathrooms are open and they've told me it's at the discretion of the principal and I noticed that it was said that the main foyer key um bathroom was available to be used and when I was in the school last week the security monitor told me that that key had been taken away from him a student had come and asked for the key and he said he didn't have the key so currently without any bathrooms open in the B building students are looking at a two to three minute walk from the be building if they have to go to the cafeteria and if it's lunchtime they're probably going to be gone for 20 to 30 minutes after they wait in line because the only bathrooms open at lunch which is also period 4 are at the cafeteria and just last week my student went and tried to use a bathroom and there were at least six students in each stall vaping and they went into the guidance office and asked for the key and were asked why they couldn't use the regular bathroom and when they told them that was the first they had heard that there were at least a dozen students in the girls bathroom who were vaping because there was no detector going off so currently what we have is students are struggling to find open bathrooms when they do find them they're full of people vaping and also the mo the bathrooms are clearly not being monitored now so I don't know why we would need need an entire staff person to watch B3 bathroom when the bathrooms that are open now are clearly not being monitored and students are not able to use them fully using the bathroom is a human right and we need to consider that these students are a people and they should be treated humanely this bathroom situation is going on for far too long and I didn't hear any real resolution in that presentation nor acknowledgement of the difficulties that our students are facing in real time time thank you so if I may uh I've seen the lobby bathroom open uh and seen students using it myself um as I said at the beginning we understand that this situation is far from perfect uh we wish that as every school leader and I speak as someone who is unfortunately no longer a school leader I say that because leading a school is a wonderful thing the last thing School leaders want to do is be woring about bathrooms they want to be woring about Fine Arts and curriculum and the curriculum of life like our driving course they want to worry about the things that are going to really excite our students and get them and every school leader wishes and you can you can go to any of the numerous Facebook posts Facebook pages that are principal pages and you can see like oh my God bathrooms bathrooms bathrooms it is a fundamental problem that is facing ing schools and as I said at the beginning I know it is something that our school leaders at the high school wish could be resolved even in the best situation in a building at 54 years old there are going to be challenges maintaining all the open bathrooms there are bathrooms that at some point uh for whatever reason especially in the B2 area were converted to storage all right there are no functioning fixtures in some of them so uh really the only bu building bathrooms that I know that are functional and able to be opened are on B3 um so it's it's un it's an unfortunate situation of 54 years in the building and also facing challenges that are uh mind-numbing to people trying to focus on academics building students building successful citizens and I apologize if that soap boish soap boxshoe academic outcomes improving building a better school and a better Community for the greater good of Medford but bathrooms is at the Forefront member Graham thank you um can we make sure that all the people involved who might be responsible for holding a key or Fielding a question have clear talking points about how to describe what bathrooms are open at any given time like it it seems to me like I'll call it a training issue I don't think that's exactly the right word but there's a communication issue being perpetuated that sounds very legitimate and fixable um if we can make sure that we have some conversation with those key staff so that they know what's happening dayto Day first of all and second of all um if they are supposed to have a key that I they have a key I know we have heard lots of things about the reing of our buildings from a security standpoint and I hope that's not what's being sort of perpetuated here but I just want to make sure that the people who um can provide access to students for the bathrooms in that Central space know that um that they are allowed to do that yes so the key is only needed to be asked by in the main foyer area I will make sure that he continues to have the key my understanding is that he does have the key and that is the only place that a student needs to ask for a key just because of the location secondly the administrative assistants do know which bathrooms are open on a consistent basis I think the the um the confusion sometimes is when a bathroom is closed and what we have started to do is either myself or one of the aps if a bathroom is closed for repairs we send an email to the students we're trying to do that so that the students know so that they're not walking there and then seeing the sign um that has taken a little bit of coordination to do but that is something that we have I have asked my assistant principles to do is to if there is a bathroom closed please email I think we just need to make sure that the the administrative assistants are aware of that as well and I think that that probably hasn't been communicated directly to them when there is a bathroom closed for for repairs yeah yeah I think for sure they are some of the most helpful people in your building and I'm sure they're not they're they're not wanting to not be helpful right so I think we just need to make sure we're giving them the information that they need to be helpful when students are asking them whether it's the main office or the ap's office or the guidance office like all of those places are places that I could see students actively going to to say where do I go right um so that I think is really important as well so if you could handle that communication piece I think that would help um I'm excited to hear that you have a plan to open bathrooms on the CTE side of the building because that is actually the longest walk you could imagine in the building if you have to go from there to all the way to se um and I'm finally like learning the building so I'm really proud of myself but that's I don't always get lost it's like half the time I get lost now um but um I would also like to make a motion to approve the proposal to um use the um Capital funds for the Halo VAP dispensers the grout cleaning machine and the cameras motion for approval by member Graham seconded by member Ola all those in favor I all those opposed motion passes um and then I would also like to make a motion that you all um put forward for consideration in the supplemental budget what the Staffing complement would look like so that that can be an option we consider in the supplemental budget um come the first meeting of January and I'm and before the RS called I'm I'm assuming too that we're not dependent on these only four Vape sensors and the even if the bathrooms aren't fully monitored um full-time that there's a schedule of who goes and checks what what bathroom when I mean are there being are there sporadic checks on the bathrooms to make sure there's not three four five kids in a stall yes so we consistently have security monitors that are zoned by all the bathroom but also the floor because we can't have the hallways not monitored as well so they have a zone that they need to basically Circle throughout the day we do change it up because if not that would be very boring on them so there's different zones at different times of the day as well of all of my assistant principes as well as myself I did about five bathroom checks today anytime we walk by a bathroom we may we go in to check it even if we're going to a meeting or an observation or so forth um we are trying as hard as we can um the cameras and making sure that all the are working properly and that we have the correct angles will be so incredibly helpful because then we can backtrack and be able to see who is in the bathroom how many students were in the bathroom right now it's only in some of the bathrooms when we walk in and see it okay so that that um motion will be very helpful is helpful member brandley just one question on the angle is some areas need more video monitors and then others just need the angle changed I think both I'm not a camera expert neither am I but I know when I go to see some of them don't necessarily help and they only view down one hallway and not the other okay so that seems is that I feel like that's an easy fix but I'm also five feet tall a little little less now but i' I'd Reserve I can't reach them but like how does that happen like how can we get can that part be something that's fixed that might not even cost money we can but I'd really Reserve any further comments on uh cameras and no appreciate that too okay motion was on the floor no I appreciate that seconded by member reinfeld all those in favor all those proposed motion passes thank you very much for the presentation we don't have any presentations of the public or continued business but we do have new business offered by member and topper policy a df- w-water wellness policy the Medford Public Schools is committed to the health safety and well-being of our students faculty staff Community Partners and doing so the me Public Schools commits to providing Safe Drinking Water for consumption districtwide to ensure Safe Water the following testing frequency will occur water testing for all non-drinking intended fixtures bathroom sinks slop sinks outdoor fixtures will occur every four calendar years to ensure the Action level demands are met for lead copper levels water testing for all drinking intended fixtures kitchen sinks classroom sinks water fountains water filt filter systems stations will take place every two calendar years to ensure the Action level demands are met for lead copper levels action levels the action levels per 310 CMR 22 the Massachusetts drinking water regulations are defined as follows for each metal and the presence of lead results in the range of 1 to 15 PBB and or equal two or greater than 15 PBB the Medford Public Schools will conduct water testing of all fixtures in said building at least twice a singular calendar year until all results yield one PBB testing will continue at this frequency for an additional year to ensure safety needs are met in the presence of copper results equal to greater than 1300 PBB the Medford Public Schools will conduct water testing ball fixtures in said building at least twice a singular calendar year until all results yielded testing will continue at this frequency for an additional year to ensure safety needs are met action plan plan if the action levels are met per 310 CMR 22 the following procedures must be met by the administration and building staff in the presence of LED results in the range of 1 to 15 PBB handwashing only signs must be posted at each impacted fixture in the presence of LED results equal to or greater than 15 PBB the fixture must be disabled and signage must be posted at each impacted fixture the presence of copper results equal to or greater than 1300 PBB the fixture must be disabled and signage must be posted at each impacted fixture all action plan items must be communicated and executed in the impacted communities of the impacted building no later than 36 hours after the discovery of said results member Ina sure thank you mayor um I think it goes without saying why this is on the agend agenda and why this is being proposed um a lot of what this does is it affirms the actions we have taken um through the ongoing incident with the lead being discovered in our school buildings um and it takes the recommendations of the mwra in the state of Massachusetts as well as some federal guidelines and determinations of frequency of testing um what happens if we identify that there is presence um of said Metals in the buildings I will say just for a point of clarification in the um policy reading um the policy states for in the presence of lead results in the range of one to less than 15 ppb and then um there is there is a less than sign just to that just is mainly also for the copper level because there wasn't an identifiable range um obviously the pipes are made of copper it's more of like when that starts to really really leak into the water um usually due to age if I'm not mist M Aken um so it's just a matter of making sure that once it hits 1300 that's when they need to be disabled there wasn't really like a safe like oh it's handwashing only I couldn't find that anywhere um which is why it's a little less detailed um but this is to um reaffirm our commitment to making sure our community is in form to making sure that um is clear the action to take um when this is discovered um and how long we should be be really kicking into gear um but I don't think I really have any further comments I welcome as many questions as if I if I made through the chair did where did you get these standards because I do know um a lot of this is relevant um to the handwashing only signs but removal of fixtures did you did you get this somewhere specific just because if it's safe to to wash your hands after you run the water for 30 seconds would you would you why would we remove the fixtures and test twice a year I don't maybe um hold on like fixture must be disabled so the dis just disabled as in like it cannot that was following the guidance of what we followed through our testing and through what we've been doing where if it was above 15 parts per billion the fixture was disabled until we could figure out a cause and so it's not it's removed not physically and that if that I'm maybe I'm misunderstanding the phrasing um but the the idea was that that was way too high of a level of lead and that the it could not be used um and that furthers the philosophy that we've been using of we we want to make sure that um even if flushing is available we cannot be certain that that is happening at an adequate time and we need to just take proper action um so that is following the philosophy of what we are currently doing um and that that is a concern of mine and I agree with that philosophy of even if it's flushing like let's just get it down until we could figure out the best way to do it because um it's not even like a comment of there's no good faith that people don't know how to time it or people know how to do it but it's just not giving the opportunity for that to possibly happen and I hope that that clar verifies the the understanding and you got this language from the M MW the the ranges were through the MW um and then it was mainly from the mainly to reaffirm the the ranges with the MW as well as so according to the 310 cmr2 um massachusett drinking water regulations as well as what we have been doing with the recommendation from UMass Amherst and mass um de member Russo there it is thank you um was I I had something to say sorry it's getting late um oh I I I won't do this right now but I think that if we were all forced to just like decide what 30 seconds was we would all discover that most of us are wrong um and I think that when safety is at at issue I think that that is not acceptable um that's just not a high enough bar just flush it for 30 seconds doesn't I mean there's not a there's not a giant clock in front of every sink with a second hand going so you know what 30 seconds is uh you go to the dentist they do all these things that have timers everywhere why because nobody knows exactly what 30 seconds is or 90 seconds so I I I agree that that we should not be relying on that flesh recommendation um and um I think they make a motion to approve the first reading I I remember uh during our presentation uh from Alex from the state organization that they said that the 15 parts per billion was being reduced to 10 parts per billion by the EPA and legislation upcoming I just want to like you know put that out there because I know it's 15 in here I don't know if 10 is the right target mayor member so um I'd like to amend my um approve uh my motion to approve the first reading by changing the frequency of review from four years to one year assuming it's okay with do we have cap capability of doing every this yearly yes yes sorry I just to clarify I was just changing the frequency of policy review that's all okay Mo motion for approval motion for approval then Dr Cushing do you do you feel that this um Pol policy is doable and do do we know if this is how it's handled in most school districts um I honestly can't say in most school districts because it it has never fallen into the AC ademic realm that I'm used to however um I I can definitely look into it but uh I mean I think it's doable for a first reading and um you know I I also as a matter of practice I've always felt that policies are great to at least have a run through the policy subcommittee um but um you know it's an important policy it is Mayor M bruso um I did look to see if other school committees have a policy on this there were two School committees that did don't ask me which ones they were um and one of them was very vague like you know we'll have safe drinking water um and the other one sorry just it was a very unenforceable policy so I just thought it was interesting but the other one was actually far more restrictive it was like every year every fixture and um I did wonder greatly what on Earth they're spending on that or if they're really doing it but um I didn't spend more time on it than that but so there were only two of all of the 349 communities in the school committee manual in Massachusetts that even had anything um so I my my guess is most just assume that this is being handled already by the Department of Public Works or or Board of Health or something but we we did that as well so uh that's why I support this thank you member inapa and if I may that is why I you know really appreciate the um and it was it crossed my mind as writing the policy to put the frequency to a year just to see you know um I have a hope and a feeling that we will not have to you know go into that realm of testing everyone twice a calendar year if it's lead detected after we fix and solve the issue that is happening within our schools now um because there those are a lot of areas impacted and I'm hoping that once that is fixed we won't have to go into the realm of doing it every year once a year uh as stated in the policy um which is why also they're separated between two and four of the priority of you know really making sure ones that we are consuming um are being tested and that range comes from also I believe it was the mwr's range of three to five years for just testing in general um and so ear on the side of caution of doing two and four um so I appreciate that because again if if we find that the we do not simply have the people power or the funds to do this at this frequency we at least know that we've done our part to help fix the issue we have now and then we can revisit it and figure out what the problem is and how to amend that yeah and I I just don't want to set somebody up for failure Whoever has to take this project on no no 100% um because we don't know what the problem is yet we're looking into it remove we're we ordered new fixtures to see if it is fixtures so to me to me if I may mayare the the part of the policy where it says what the plan is has already been started so to me this almost this is the start of that two-year cycle of we've already done all the testing so the two years we are if the policy is enacted we are already within that cycle so we now have two years to retest that that's when that started um and I think that that is a comfortable date to start because we did it we tested them all we're going to have to keep testing them to make sure that our Solutions are permanent solutions that we didn't just fix a small issue that we actually got down to the root of the problem we figured it out good um but in my eyes that that two-year calendar has has started if we have to push it to be in two more years when it gets like that's when it officially gets you know whatever I don't understand the logistics of that quite yet but um to clarify that is that is my my thought process with it so thank you remember I I would like to know either at the second reading or as a result of the investigation just who where the responsibility is going to lie for doing that testing because this most recent round of testing obviously was through the program that we are now no longer eligible for I mean we're eligible for the grants to update the drinking stations but we can't we won't be having the state come in and do this testing to the level that we did so I don't need it codified but I would like it I would like to know who's going where that responsibility will lie but I will second the motion to approve the first reading on this oh it was okay all those in favor all those opposed motion passes condolences a members of the Medford school committee Express their conser condolences to the family of Rita a muu former administrative assistant for the Medford Public Schools members of the Medford school committee Express their sincere condolences to the family of Mary Margaret Marge mckinon who was the administrative assistant to the principal of Metford high school for 31 years and also known as the school mom if we all may rise for a moment of silence please thank you our next regular meeting will be December 16th 2024 here in the alen memorial Chambers Medford City Hall in addition to zoom is there a motion on the floor to adjourn by member brandley