Good evening everyone. We're on time tonight from our executive session. So, um, yes, we're rolling. Good cat. Thank you. We have our consent agenda. Approval of
bills and payrolls. Approval of capital purchases. Approval of donations. Sound equipment worth 7500 from the McGlin school organized by KIA givers. Approval of grants. American Academy of Pediatrics 2500 micro grant for
biodirectional communication processes. Approval of field trips. And approval of the meeting minutes from October 6, 2025. Is there a motion for move for approval of the consent agenda? >> Yes, member Rinfeld. >> I'm just what is birectional communication between healthcare
providers and and the nurses? What does that look like? I'm is this it sounds great and I think I'm excited about it, but I would just like to know what it entails. Yeah, there was it does. I love birectional communication.
>> I don't want to put on the spot, but you >> Yeah, we have we have them on. >> Okay. >> Yes. Miss Silva, are you available to give us a little more detail than um the one page we have in our packet? >> Yep. Can you hear me? >> Yes.
>> Good. Um so birectional communication is really looking at the two-way communication process between um healthcare providers in the community and the nurses. So things like when we do release of information um so you know I can't just pick up a phone and call a doctor and ask them to give me information about a child that you know
parents have to sign consent um for us to share that information. So the purpose of this grant is to come up with systems and processes to make that a smoother um a smoother application across the board. >> Excellent. Thank you so much and thanks for signing on. So I'll motion to
approve the consent agenda. >> Thank you. Thank you member Reinfeld, seconded by member Graham. All those in favor. >> All those opposed. Consent agenda is approved. We don't have any reports of subcommittees and we do have a report of our super reports of our superintendent.
So first up, our Mustang moment. Welcome everybody. Yes, we're going to have um Principal Tucci and Director Sieri come and they're going to frame a little bit for the Mustang moment for our two students that are here. Share some exciting news
and just frame a little bit as to what our um middle school students are going to be sharing with us this evening. Welcome. >> Good evening, Mayor Longgo, members of the school committee, Dr. Galooi, and members of our school committee. I'm
excited to be here to introduce two of our incredible students who are here to share some of their experiences in their science challenge class participating in our newest STEM initiative at the middle school level, Robotics 360. Robotics 360 is a robotics program designed to embed real world problem
solving and 21st century skills across our curriculum. What makes this program stand out is its intentional blend of creativity, collaboration, and technical learning. Students aren't just building robots in this course. They're engineering
solutions. They work in teams to tackle authentic challenges. And as they design, build, and test their robots, they're also learning coding. In the classroom environment, the students are really excited. They're super engaged and they're motivated.
They're not just learning about robotics. They're learn how to think, how to iterate, and how to persist through some academic struggle. These are exactly the kind of grade level tasks that we aim aim to engage our middle school learners in. I'll turn over to Mr. Sieri for a few words as
well. >> Good evening, Mayor Longo Kern, school committee members and superintendent. Um like my colleague uh Mr. Tui, I am thrilled uh to introduce this new STEM program,
the initiative at our middle school. Um my remarks this evening will be brief. Um, the one thing I want to emphasize is that robotics 360 is not Lego robotics. Um, it it's a comprehensive K12
educational solution in STEM that uses robotics and one of the components at the middle school is using a robot system called Lego Spike. Um, and that encourages the students to try to engage in these real world
problems. The coding environment uses blockbased programming, essentially Scratch. Um, but they can easily toggle between the blockbased programming and a screen that allows programming in Python. So
they can see the block programming and they can toggle to the uh Python programming and they can code in each and they can code the robots. This versatility is unique to robotics 360. In addition, as the students move
in the program from kindergarten through high school, if they choose, if if you have the entire program, the robots in the curriculum changes, the curriculum challenges change. The lessons change to meet the level of the
students and it leaves us the option and the opportunity to expand in the future in both directions. Importantly, the platform and the programming language never change. Therefore, as students learn programming with different robots, they don't need
to learn a brand new programming language each step of the way. This ensures that they're developing a true working knowledge of programming rather than relearning all the different languages in which to code.
Much of what you'll hear this evening is the student experience. And based on what I've seen and heard, the program is successful. It's only been a couple of months, but both the students and the teachers are excited to engage in their science challenge course. Robotics 360
continues to support our analysis of learning with a fine-rained quantitative data collection on the student learning as they program their robots and go through the different modules. and it dynamically deploys lessons to the students so that they move at the pace
that matches their own success in the classroom. I'm going to turn it back uh to Mr. Tucci to introduce the students from the McGllin and I thank you this evening for listening to us. So tonight I'm proud to introduce two fantastic students who
have been part of the pilot launch here of Robotics 360. They have spent the first quarter of their academic school year engaged in the science challenge class and today they're going to be speaking from the heart sharing their student experience. So please join me in welcoming eighth grade student AB
Annabelle Foster and sixth grade student Oliver Doyki Santos. I'll first welcome Annabelle to the stage. >> Good evening. My name is Annabelle Foster and I'm an eighth grader at the McGlin Middle School. Each quarter we have the opportunity with the new middle
school schedule to partake in a challenge class. My first quarter challenge class is the science challenge where we have the opportunity to engage in building and coding robots. I would like to provide a brief overview of the science challenge. The course consists of a kit with modified Legos
for building and an online program for coding. Not only do we learn the mechanics of an actual robot, but we also learned to code using block coding, which is the base for all coding in the future. Thus far this quarter, my group members and I have progressed to unit 4. We have currently been tasked with
building a crablike robot, which is designed to take information from underwater, scan for ocean temperature, and gather data points that can be useful in helping research aquatic life in the future. In addition to teaching coding, it also encourages us to work collaboratively and identify and share our personal
abilities to better the whole group. Both coding and team building have real world applications that are often lacking in other subjects. The thing that we as students most often ask is how can we use this in the real world? How can we use the Pythagorean theorem to earn an income or pay taxes?
This program has many real world applications. There are team building aspects of the program as well as learning how to follow your strengths and weaknesses and contribute to the group. The challenge classes offer an in-depth exposure to the other subjects in a way that changes people's perspectives on
certain areas that may not be their favorite. The science challenge requires coding in a group. This means we have to divide tasks in the group and come up with cohesive plan. Even if I have no intention of becoming a coder, the programming science challenge has multiple applications.
It obviously teaches you to code, but it also helps people work together, understand their own personal strengths, and allows them to and allows them to contribute in a unique and meaningful way. The group learns how to split up responsibilities. I aspire to one day work in the medical field, specifically surgery. Engaging in tasks like this
better prepares me to develop the skills needed to support me in accomplishing my goals, specifically the collaborative aspects that this course has provided me with and challenged me to persist when engaging with meaningful scientific tasks. Thank you for taking your time to listen to my experiences this far this year, and I'm happy to answer any of
your questions. >> Next up to the podium is Oliver Doyleski Santos, grade six. [Music] >> Good evening. My name is Olly. I'm in the sixth grade at the McL Middle School. This is my first year in the Medford Public Schools.
Someday I hope to work for NASA and I'm excited that in sixth grade we are already learning to code and make robots which is a skill I can use in the future to help me pursue my goals. I learned about coding for the first time in fourth grade. Unfortunately, I didn't really take much out of it because there's too many kids in the class. But
this year during my science challenge class, I've had the opportunity to engage in this work. In science challenge class, we are challenged with working together to code and build robots using our Chromebooks and Lego Legos. Working with my team this year
has been really fun because we all have different ways we want to use the robot. For example, some of my group members want to build a dog robot and another group of penguin robots. As a group, we have to make decisions on how to build different features and add-ons to
enhance the robot's ability to function. For example, we added wheels and feet to our robot to help us better understand which features would help the robot move more effectively and efficiently. In this class, I feel sort of like an engineer because we'll run into difficult situations or roadblocks, and we'll have to fix different problems
that come up. We'll fix these problems by experimenting and speaking with other groups in the class in order to fix the problems. It gives us a sense of accomplishment when we when we overcome these challenges. I really appreciate working
with robots in the school and I can't wait to use my coding skills in the future. Thank you >> member and Tappa. >> Awesome. I just wanted to say thank you both for coming and talking about your experience through this program. um you know these initiative I was in you know
sort of something like this when I was in elementary school and then it was just you know Lego Mindstorms and to see it evolve into something this great in the middle level is absolutely amazing and well you said it yourself about how you know even if you don't go end up don't end up going on to be a coder you know there's so many world life and real
life applications that this has you know it's a different way of thinking it's a different sense of logic it's a different way um to interpret data and situations so even if it's not coding it's still helping you develop as an individual and navigate through the school system and it's giving you that,
you know, hands-on experience to do that and that's great. Um, and Olly, you said the same thing. And Ollie, I just want to say the last person that went through the Memphis public school system that I heard said they wanted to work for NASA ended up being the youngest person on the black hole photo uh team. So, keep
that dream big because you might be someone like that. You probably will. member Russo. >> Thank you. I didn't think I was next. Sorry. Um, so I'm a Python programmer and I will say that um, and I work at Dana Farber Cancer Institute and
a lot of people use it who are not coders. So I think that that is a a skill that you will have a huge advantage over in in any field if you can do your own coding to solve certain problems rather than farming it out to someone else. So don't don't just uh
assume because you don't want to be a coder that that's not your future because being able to do it will be very helpful even if it's not your day-to-day job. So this is exciting. Wish we had this when I was a kid. Thank you.
>> Thank you. Um I know member Graham and then we'll turn it over to our student rep. >> Thank you. Um thank you for putting this into the rotation because the when we worked through all of the schedule
changes and the concept of a challenge class came up. There were just like lots of questions understandably about like what it was going to be and what it was going to look like. and change is really hard to wrap your mind around when you've never done that thing before or you don't have any sort of frame of
reference. So, I um am super happy to hear about like what in practice is happening um because I think that is like the excitement that middle school has been missing um in my opinion. um
having two kids that are not no longer in middle school, like they come home and they talk about their their classes and exciting things that happen in them, but this seems like something like just special for the middle school to really think about and start to embrace like all these aspects of project- based
learning that we talk to in like a way that's like reserved for CCSR. And project-based learning is not reserved for something that you have time to do after school. should be part of what you're doing every single day. So, I'm just like so excited to hear you say
we're learning how to work in a team because guess what? That's what you're going to do forever. So, um the all of that is great. So, thank you both for coming tonight and telling us um about your classes. It's super helpful to see these things in action.
>> Thank you, Member Graham. I just wanted to say as a member of the Medford High School robotics and engineering shop and uh our underwater design uh program, Sunk Robotics, I just want to say that it's so enlightening to hear that there's this sort of pathway
that's been established in that regard. And u we'd love to see you there in in the year or in four years or something because it really sounds like you're laying a foundation for success in that regard. And if you ever need any help or want to
get a head start, shoot us an email and we can definitely help you. Uh, thank you. >> Thank you, Member Reinfeld. >> I echo the thanks for sharing. I'm wondering if you can give us a little bit of advice about what we could do or
in the future to prepare um you to take this on and where you would hope to go next with this. Not you personally, but in terms of what happens in the in the next step of classrooms, either one of you, not to put you on the spot.
>> Yeah. So, what what could we have done? No, of course. What have what what could Medford Public Schools have done to prepare you to take take on these challenges and where would you like them to go next? Um, I think that there's not a lot that
Medford public schools could have done to prepare us because obviously the schedule change is new. Um, I feel like if in the future we could have like a solidified obviously there are a few kinks to work out because this program has been trans it's we're like the
second school in America to use this program. So, there are obviously a couple of kinks including um I think I think just working them out like sometimes a word or two is mistransated and it it doesn't make any
sense or sometimes a code doesn't let you pass and it doesn't tell you why. So, once all these small minor issues are figured out, I think that would be the next step in these programs in the future if that makes sense.
>> Yeah. Thank you. That's really helpful. Thank you. >> Yeah. So, I would say like there's not really much because like it's a new program, but like like kind of like Richie said, like there's like a couple times where like a code doesn't let you pass, but like you
did everything right. So, yeah, I feel like just once they're kind of like fixed and it's like perfect. I really liked having the class. >> Awesome. I'm so glad to hear that and I hope you'll make sure to tell your teachers what what we can be doing to to
better support you. So, thank you. Thank you. And before I pass it over to Dr. Galooi, I just want to say thank you Dr. Galooi for adding the Mustang moment. It's um these presentations that are a great way to start off our meeting and both of you, your parents should be very impressed. You did an amazing job. And
Olly, my son's in sixth grade at the McGlin 2. of you could maybe bring him along with you. You could you can find him in Mr. Bruno's office once in a while. Um but with all joking aside, fabulous job.
You've you seem like you're co in in college presenting as um young adults. So amazing job. Um Dr. Lucy, >> thank you. I just wanted to say thank you to our student representatives. Um you did an excellent job.
Your writing allowed us to really understand and get a sense as to what the classes are like for you, some of the things you're learning, some of the skills you're going to take with you. That's the whole point of Mustang Moment. So, it's to give the community a little snapshot into the lives of
students. And so, I really appreciate the courage it took to come here and present to us. I also want to thank Principal Tucci and uh Director Sieri. Um, Mr. Siri had this wonderful opportunity to work with Robotics 360
and he just was very proactive and jumped right on it and I think you can see the benefit in just the short amount of time that it has had for our community. Um you may have seen in in the Friday memo. I'm surprised they kind of buried the lead here. Um but so much
so that the lieutenant governor and the secretary of education um so Driscoll and Dr. Dr. Tottweiler are coming on Thursday to see this in action and so they will be at the McGlin school um going to a science challenge class to
see robotics 360 um in real time. So we're honored and privileged to be having the lieutenant governor and the secretary of education um doing the program. So thank you very much for your hard work with this as well as principal
SCE. Um, lots of hours of collaboration have gone into making sure that this went off in benefit of our students. So, thank you. >> Thank you. >> Picture
Spotlight. Thank you, Mr. Sier. Good luck with the soccer rest of the soccer season. I heard you had a tough one. >> Thank you. >> Okay, next up we have our facilities condition assessment report. I'm going to invite up Mr. Kenneth Lord, chief
operating officer and Mr. Kevin Proventure. Did I say that wrong? >> I got it. President Hhabib and Associates architects, welcome. Thank you.
>> Okay. Well, uh uh good evening to the mayor, the interim superintendent, and uh members of the school committee. Thank you for having me. Uh my name is Kevin Preventure. I'm an architect and president of Habib and Associates Architect. Uh we've been working with uh
public schools in Massachusetts for the past uh uh 27 years. And uh this year we were asked uh by Medford public schools to prepare a facilities condition assessment for the five elementary uh and middle schools. Brooks, Miss Tuck,
Roberts, uh Andrews, and um McGlenn. Uh we've we've prepared a great many uh of these uh and uh the districts that we've worked with have found them to be an extremely useful uh capital planning tool. and I'm hoping that you'll find
the same results here tonight. Uh if you've had a chance to review the full report and and I understand that you haven't had it for very long, but uh there's a great deal of detail in there. We won't uh be able to get uh to that depth tonight. So uh I'm going to try to
give you uh a an overview of the process, how we work, how we collect the information, and how we arrive at uh at some of the conclusions that I I think will be helpful. So there's a a great number of people
that are involved in putting one of these things together, but I think the most successful results are always when we get a high level of participation from uh the school department and that was the case here. uh all of the school
principles uh and the custodial staff in addition to uh the facility staff all participated uh and it's a very important part of the process. Uh if we don't have access to these people uh there's a lot of information that we
simply just uh can't uh collect. So we're very grateful for that. Uh our team consisted of uh myself as the project manager uh and my co-workers and we also had a team of consulting
engineers uh from GGD who uh joined us on our tours and uh evaluated the mechanical uh electrical and the fire protection systems as well. So we have a a good deal of expertise on the team. So uh just a little bit about the the
the process and and the purpose or the why uh why we do this. Uh we very simply put we describe the current conditions that we observe uh at at the schools. Uh and taking those observations, we uh set
priorities and make recommendations of things that uh we think need to be addressed, things that need to be repaired uh replaced. uh and then we provide budget uh estimates uh for those for those items.
uh and as I mentioned earlier those cost estimate uh supports the development of uh the capital plan. So the the scope of the process uh we start with reviewing the concerns with uh the facilities staff including the
the chief operations officer, the direct director of the buildings and grounds John Mclofflin and the head custodians uh that I I mentioned a bit earlier. Uh principles also provide us with uh some good detail of things that they want us
to know. Um we tour all of the schools and we visit as many of the interior spaces as we can. Uh that took place over the February break um when students were not in the building. So it gives us
a lot of access that we can't get uh at any other time of the year. Uh we don't open every locked door, look in every closet or end under every rug, but um it's really more of a high level overview of what we see.
Uh we identify the deficiencies in the materials in the systems that uh we would recommend for repair or replacement. Um we prepare work items for for each of those observations. And uh we assign each of those a uh
priority which I'll talk about uh in a little bit more detail in a few minutes. We estimate the quantities involved and we assign uh unit cost to those quantities which uh help us to calculate the uh the total cost per each work
item. And that includes soft costs and escalation. Uh and I'll explain what that what that part means in a later slide. So in summary, the method uh the assessment is based on our uh visual inspection and our observations of what
what we can see. Uh we uh rely on those interviews that I mentioned. Uh we also have access to the original construction drawings. Uh these schools are relatively new compared to other schools in the Commonwealth. uh and all of those
uh construction drawings were available to us which provide us with a lot of detail. Uh we review the buildings uh and the systems in their entirety and uh again we have identify those deficiencies uh and they're typically
deficiencies that are related to the age of the building uh or the useful life. uh things that should be considered for replacement for life cycle costing and uh 21st century learning practices. So each of the work items we assign a
priority. We call them scope categories. And so for this assessment we had three scopes uh in order of priority. uh scope number one are items that uh are necessary but not uh yet critical. And
what I mean by that is if you had a critical item that needs to be addressed, you would have addressed it uh already because that's something that's uh you know it's an emergency or or something that has to be addressed immediately. Uh we didn't see any of that uh in in our assessment which uh
which is good. Um, but these are items that will deteriorate uh predictably uh and uh could involve some uh downtime um if things needed to be shut down to make a repair. Uh and these are things that will continue to deteriorate over
time and become uh more and more expensive to address uh if deferred. The second scope category uh are the things that we recommend and these are things that are needed immediately but uh or are sort of in that mid-range. Uh which
are improvements that uh school department should consider to be making based on uh the age of the uh the building, the systems uh and the equipment and the expected uh lifespan
uh of that. Uh scope three is uh the third and last uh priority category and and this uh category is reserved for items that uh may not comply with current codes and
regulations. And the best examples that I can give you are uh the accessibility regulations and uh fire sprinklers. And so in the Commonwealth uh we have uh laws and regulations
uh that stipulate if a sign significant amount of work or if a major renovation is done uh to a building, there are some triggers uh that require uh upgrading uh for fire sprinklers and for uh incremental compliance with
accessibility uh regulations. Uh all of these buildings have fire sprinklers so that's not an issue here. Uh and then there were some minor uh accessibility items that uh we did uh note. Uh there's nothing that is required to be done now
but uh as I mentioned if there were other work being performed uh in the future of a certain dollar value uh those items may need to be corrected. And then finally for uh scope category number three um this also includes uh
building systems or equipment that are approaching the end of their uh service life. And uh what the useful service life is the point in time where the costs of uh continued uh maintenance and
repair uh will start to outweigh the cost of simply just replacing uh the the equipment or the item. We can go to the next. Uh I think we need to flip back on on one. So uh the
work items are compiled into one of five different assessment categories. The first one being the the site. And so these are all the areas that are outside of the building. Uh the parking areas, the uh walkways, uh the landscaping, the
playgrounds, uh etc. uh the storm drainage. The second category is the building envelope. So these are the walls, the roof, uh the doors, the windows, and so forth. Building interiors are fairly self-explanatory.
It's all the things that we see uh right here in this room. The floor finishes, the ceilings, the walls, um accessibility items when uh when they're there, uh doors, um toilet rooms, and so
forth. Uh mechanical systems include uh our domestic plumbing systems, our fire protection systems, gas, uh heating, ventilation, uh air conditioning, and the electrical systems would include
the main uh electrical service, all of the distribution wiring, panel boards, uh fire alarm system, lighting, uh emergency lighting and egress, uh communication systems, uh such as phones,
paging systems, uh, uh, clock and bell systems, security, uh, computer networking, networking, uh, switches, data wiring, and so forth. The next one, okay, I want to be able to look at my uh,
slide a little closer. So there's a there is a a page very similar to this one which you'll find in the complete report which is an explanation of how to read the assessment.
So what this shows is an example of a t typical work item that you will find in the uh assessment and there are there are dozens of these. This example is from missuck and it's the first item in the site
category and it describes uh potholes cracking uh at at the paving in the parking lot. The recommendation here is to uh repave parking lot and to provide
uh new painted uh striping. It's a pretty typical item that we see everywhere. Uh the quantity of this particular item uh is approaching 20,000 square feet. The unit cost that we assigned to this item is $11.90.
So uh multiply that gives us a a total of uh almost $237,000. And then we apply uh the soft costs. So these are the indirect costs that would include
um the district's administration um um costs uh contingencies uh architectural and engineering fees and that's a simple multiplier of 30%. So we add 30% on top of those uh construction costs to get a
total cost to address that particular item. And then we assign that item into a scope category uh that I described earlier. And uh this this item uh we assigned to scope category 2. Um it's
worth noting here that each of the scope categories has a timeline associated to it. So uh for this uh assessment scope one are items that are recommended to be addressed within two years. Scope number two, two to five years and scope number
three is five years and beyond. So considering that uh these items will all be addressed at some point in the future, we also have to account for uh escalation in construction costs. Uh and and I'll show you on a later slide on
how those are applied. But uh at the moment we've been using about 5% uh compounded on on an annual basis. It has been higher. So and during COVID it was uh significantly higher. Historically it's been around 4% but um based on
current uh economic conditions uh it's about 5%. That's what we've been seeing. Go to the next. Uh so just a a very uh quick snapshot of of each of the the schools with some basic data. Uh you can
see that the construction dates are all within uh a couple years of each other from 2001 to 2003. So all built at relatively the same time. Um Brooks uh is uh three stories at 95,000
uh square feet. Uh, Miss Tuck, uh, four stories, a little bit smaller, about 93,000. Uh, Robert's also four stories and about, uh, 95,000 square feet. Andrews Middle, uh, a bit bigger, 104,000 square
feet. And, uh, McGlin, um, the the largest of the group at 186,000 square feet. So alto together uh this is almost 574,000
square feet and and be mindful this doesn't >> I'm trying to listen >> um I was I would just mention that this this total does not include the uh high school Curtis Toughs or any of the
buildings in the school system. Okay. So, you'll also see this table uh in the full report, the executive summary. Now, this this is the uh table that totals uh all of the work items that
were identified for each of the schools and all of the scope categories. uh for each. So uh reading uh left to right uh the total of the scope categories uh for each school is in the column on the
right hand side and reading top to bottom are the totals for each scope uh category. So our highest priority category is scope one and uh we identified uh almost uh $17 million of
of work. uh scope two uh 39.2 million and scope 3 uh 11.8 million approximately. So across the bottom of the table you'll see the inflation factor at uh 5%. So
compounded on an annual basis for scope one two years uh it's 18.6 six. Scope 2 at 5 years 50 million. Scope three also at five years uh 15 million. So uh with
escalation all work included uh everything that was identified for this report uh it totals 83 uh 7 million. Okay. So uh I'll I'll give you some uh
idea of some of the the the things that um uh without going into too much detail of some of the typical things that uh we we found in our assessment. Um in general most of the observations were due to uh deterioration because of a age
and deferred maintenance and it was I think pretty typical or average of uh any school uh of of this age you know approximately 20 uh 23 years 25 years. Uh so no no no real surprises there and
no no real big concerns either. Uh on the site uh on every location uh we noticed issues with pavements um the walkways and and and curbs uh some issues with chain link fences which are
perhaps uh less critical. Uh these are items that we want to pay attention to because they are potential safety uh and and tripping hazards and always find uh a high priority uh in our reports. Uh the building envelope uh all of the
roofs are a combination of membrane and shingle, mostly membrane, and they are all past their uh warranty, and they are at the age where they should strongly be considered uh for replacement. Roofs are
absolutely critical. Um once they start uh leaking, it's hard to get them to stop. Uh and they cause a lot of uh problems um and potentially some environmental problems if left uh for for long enough. Uh we did a more of a
detailed uh uh analysis uh of the roofs and the exterior walls uh which was prepared in support of the preparation of the um statement of interest to the MSBA. And uh Ken has told me that recently the
MSBA uh toured uh Brooks uh Roberts and uh Mr. Tuck and uh took a look at those roofs and uh uh they they they'll be considered for inclusion in the MSBA's accelerated uh repair program, which is
good. It's it's good to be in the MSBA pipeline. Um otherwise uh you know the exterior walls of all these schools are some combination of brick or concrete block. There's some minor cracking uh some some sealants that need to be
addressed. Uh nothing really serious uh or of great great concern. Uh a few issues with windows. The windows are all original. Um, some of the glazing units in the windows have failed, which means the uh perimeter seal has failed and
condensation is inside the glass. And that's that milky uh uh appearance that that you see. Sometimes it looks like it's fogged up. Uh, and those can be replaced. You do not have to replace the entire window unit to address that. Um
otherwise uh issues with exterior doors and frames uh rust buildup uh very very common um you know due to exposure to the elements but also there's a lot of heavy um salting uh and ice melt that we
have in front of uh the entrances and so that uh really um accelerates the corrosion and that that's very common. We see that at almost every every school that we look at. Um interiors, no great surprises. Uh the
deterioration there is very predictable. Uh carpets get uh worn out, walls get scuffed. Uh you know, ceiling tiles get get stained. Um the flooring, uh there's a lot of uh VCT vinyl tile. Uh every
school has it. There's a couple of areas of concern there. Uh, you know, in despite all of the um cleaning and the waxing, uh, the Brooks and Mistatuck in particular appear to
have an issue on the ground floor. Uh, so the the ground floor is a concrete slab on grade and there's a lot of failure uh, in in both of those. missuck uh being I think significantly worse
than Brooks. Brooks is is also an issue, but uh so the tiles are uh cracking, they're popping up, they're chipping uh and just coming up all over. So there's something going on there and you
know the the cause of that is something that goes beyond the scope of this exercise but uh it could be an issue related to uh having um excessive moisture uh in the floor slab or or perhaps a structural issue where the
slab is moving due to um unstable uh soils. Uh there would be some further testing and investigation I think to determine exactly what is going on there, but um it can be uh a potential uh uh tripping or safety hazard. So that
we we recommend that that be addressed. Uh toilet rooms, I mean, we we we see all of the things that we expect to see in in the toilet rooms. Typically the toilet partitions uh in most cases need
to be replaced. Uh fixtures often time need to be replaced as well. The mechanical systems uh so these include all of the the HVAC uh equipment and the controls. Uh we do know that the
equipment and the controls are uh currently being replaced. It's ongoing at Andrews and McGlin. So we did not evaluate that um uh that's being addressed uh in another project but we did look at everything else and all the
major pieces of equipment are approaching the end of their um useful service life uh the boilers, the chillers, the circulator pumps, the air handlers, uh the unit ventilators are the um things that we see in the
classrooms that are underneath the windows. condensers and exhaust fans. So, um these are fairly costly pieces of equipment, but as I mentioned earlier, at some point the cost of maintenance and repair will
begin to uh eclipse the cost of uh replacement. So, just keep that in mind when you're considering your capital plan. uh electrical systems. There really wasn't anything urgent that we uh saw there and no major concerns. The
electrical switch gear and the standby generators uh every school has them. Those are critical pieces of equipment and need to be monitored very carefully. Uh especially the standby uh generator needs regular maintenance and and and
exercise. uh fire alarm systems should always be uh maintained and and upgraded and and and tested. Um there are some opportunities for improvements uh with some of the communication systems such
as a voiceover IP uh telephone system uh or replacement of the uh paging uh and the time clock systems which are fairly uh obsolete. And then finally, security uh is always a primary uh concern and
any opportunities to improve security at uh building entrances uh for access control is always encouraged. So uh just just to wrap things up, I I I find it's helpful to remind ourselves sometimes of of you know why we do this.
uh you know why do we how do we support the goals uh of of the schools and the facilities and it's really it's it's it's really what it comes down to is is the learning environment. We want to provide the best learning environment that we can for our students. And if
there are problems with the building that compromise that learning environment, uh if they compromise safety, if they compromise security, uh those are things that uh you know should always be be top u priority. Um we also
look for opportunities to you know decrease operating and life cycle uh costs uh for the school district and any improvements uh that can be made to the uh operations and uh and and maintenance. Um and finally uh you know
any opportunity to reduce energy costs by replacing equipment with more efficient equipment um can also contribute to um ongoing cost savings. So, that's what we have. Uh, I hope that was helpful. Uh, if you do have the
opportunity to review the full report, there's a lot more detail in there. Um, and if there are any questions now, I can I can try to answer those. Or Ken, I don't know if you had anything else that you wanted to add to that.
>> Member Rouso, >> thank you for that. Um, I'm glad we're not going to go through the whole actual report. We might be here all night. 150 pages. Yeah, that would be a long night. Um, I don't mind a long night, but that's a bit much. Um, you said that the
um the things weren't terribly surprising considering the age, but um I realize it's asking for a ballpark, but what percentage of this is age versus deferred maintenance? and 10% deferred
maintenance is the why we're here or is it 80%. And I know I'm asking you for an exact number that you don't have. >> Yeah, we we did we did not review it in those terms, but if I had to make a guess, it's uh it's probably 8020 in in
favor of age. >> So age is the 80. >> Yeah. >> Oh, okay. Well, that's better than I expected. Was that better than than you? >> Well, I expected it the other way around because when I joined the school committee, we had a budget for
maintenance of like three cents. Um, that's an exaggeration. Anyways, um, the electrical systems, um, I believe we can't do induction stoves because we don't have enough power. Um, so when you say that things were pretty good there,
it was pretty good to maintain the status quo. Correct. Yes. So, if there are other uh equipment that you wanted to bring in that uh would result in an increase on the electrical load, it uh doesn't
necessarily mean that the building can't handle that. It just means that it would need to be looked at. And there there may very well be some extra capacity there. And um I would keep in mind that all of the lighting uh has been upgraded
uh to LED which is an overall you know reduction uh in in electrical energy use. So there should be some spare capacity there. >> Yeah, we we bought induction stoves and had to send them back because there wasn't enough power from the street and then I believe in the building there
wasn't enough capacity to handle it either because they use a huge amount of power. Sure. >> Um, but I just want to understand like status quo is how you determine that it's, you know. >> Yes. >> Okay. Um, you mentioned time clocks were obsolete. I'm assuming that there must
be some old time clocks from back in the gazillion years ago because we have a whole new time clock system that is literally like two months old. >> She's talking about the intercom and clock system in the classroom, not the time clock system. The intercom system that's got it was original to the
buildings. >> Okay. Thank you. Yeah. I don't think there's a clock that is correct in any school. Is there a clock that's correct in any school in the world? >> Anyways, um All right. Thank you. That makes much more sense. Thank you. >> Thank you, member. So, member Graham
first and then member. Um I think my questions are uh maybe more for Ken, but uh I guess one comment, this information will be super helpful as we go into our capital planning. um season here at school committee. So
those meetings are already scheduled for November where we'll be and Ken and I have been in touch about how to like weave this information um into the capital planning that will come to the school committee. So all of that is in progress. But I think the other sort of
question I had is like we have this um we have this operations hero system that I would call a baby at this point like from a systems perspective um and its usage being increasing but not at like full steam just yet. And in my mind, all
of these things are going to be added to that system so that we can track when we've completed them versus like going to find the 150 page report and like keeping track of it manually. Is that what you're thinking as well? >> Yeah. >> Yeah. So, there's there's a couple categories of stuff in here. There are
things in here that we will do through our operations budget, right? Through in-house staff or working with DPW or things like that. There are things that we'll do in our operations budget through smaller projects. And then there are things that we'll need to see capital funding for. So depending on a level of those projects, they'll enter
into operations hero at different areas as well as um our existing systems need to be categorized into operations hero to start building those preventive maintenance schedules that drive all this. So our first up real big push on that is going to be with all the new stuff that's being installed at Lin and
Andrews making sure that's properly cataloged with all the preventive maintenance cycles that are generating tickets automatically that we can address either with our own staff or assigned to a contractor. >> Um that all sounds incredible and I look forward to Yep. >> Um all of that work. Um and we'll
obviously take in some of this a lot of this information and talk about the capital plan. Um, but I would like for us to like report on the overall progress of some of this work because I think like you said, some of these things are going to get done because we're going to do them in the course of
like our normal budget. And I would like for us to be able to quantify that like we there were 20 items on the list and we did five and that's like 5% of like the total value because I think you know this like this number is like is big and
I don't nobody here seems very surprised by it. I'm not particularly um because we have half a million square feet of buildings and we have lots of roofs, lots of boilers, lots and lots and lots and lots of things and so all of this stuff adds up, especially when
they're all old. But I think it would be useful for us to understand like we we got this report, what progress are we making against it? So that when people are like, well, we spent we gave you this much money, what did you do with it? that there's like an easy way for us
to like demonstrate what progress we're making and what and frankly what progress we're not making, right? Because maybe we need another maintenance person if we want to make meaningful progress. Maybe we need two more maintenance people like who we you know those are conversations we need to be having. But like the making the case
that like if you know if we want to make progress on this list and not interrupt student learning then this is what we need. I think that like that data look will be important for us to look at like maybe at the end of each school year or something um at budget time to to start
to help the community understand like the the real progress that we're making like we are making a lot of progress. Um, and I don't think we've ever reported on that mostly because we were afraid that we weren't. And I think whether we are or we aren't, I just want
that like straight story to be available and for us all to like be able to ground in those facts. >> Yep. Absolutely. >> Um, and then my other question was just um, this kind of assessment is supposed to be done on a regular basis. Is that correct? Like on a cycle of like every x
years you should be doing this kind of assessment and what would that number be? Uh I I mean I would recommend uh doing them probably once every five years. I mean I think it it can depend on the last one that you
>> Sure. >> So >> the first one is always going to be the worst, right? >> Hopefully. >> Uh but uh um you know the t the time period that was identified for this assessment
uh was up to five years. That that's really not long time. Occasionally we do get requests to do them for longer periods of time, 10, 15 years. So um you know the the short answer is is you know if the if the report was for
five years, you should do it for every five years. I think that's probably the most aggressive. >> Maybe maybe closer to 10. >> Okay. Great. Thank you. Member Olady and then member Rinfeld.
>> Thank you. To actually follow up on my um colleagueu's question, are there certain portions of the facility that you find should be there should be a more routine checkup on? So, you know, bathroom facilities or HVAC or electrical or do you find that just in general we should be on the same timeline, the 10-year recommendation or
the five if you want to be more aggressive? Uh well, anything in that scope one category is is going to be priority and uh a lot of the dollars in that category are really um come from those roofs. So,
uh that that should probably be a top priority and uh you know being in that MSBA pipeline is a perfect way to uh you know get get that get that started. But um anything that results in water infiltration, uh if the windows start
leaking, uh if the roofs are getting worse, uh those are the beginnings of of problems. So th I would focus on on those areas. Was that a helpful answer? >> Yeah, that's perfect. >> Okay. >> Um and then another question I had when it comes to this assessment, you know, I haven't looked over the 150 page
document fully yet. Um, but when it comes to moving from this current assessment to an actual schematic design and bid process, do you feel like what's the usual timeline that takes to go from where we are now to what it would look like to start that that that bidding portion?
>> Oh. Oh, boy. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, that that could be a very lengthy pro uh process depending on the timeline. So, you know, a small project uh you know, we could probably get design in in in biz in in
six months or less. Larger project uh may take a year uh or or longer depending on the level of approvals that were required, you know, by the city in terms of permitting. >> But it really just depends on the scale of the project. >> Okay. Um and I think in something that
you said, I think it's important that I think the committee and I think the general public who may be listening in that For the most part, the the things that you found in this assessment, there were no majorly emergent concerns facility wise about student safety or student learning that have been impacted. So, if there was a longer process um to get to
that bidding portion, uh student student uh safety wouldn't be impacted because we're taking a little bit longer to >> we we didn't really see anything of of major concern. And and as I I mentioned, I think when we just started our our
conversation, if there were issues that were that serious, they're probably have already been Yeah. >> addressed. >> So, no, we didn't see any anything I think that would be a serious uh issue in in the short term. >> Yeah. Thank you. And then the last kind
of question comment um you said towards the the the last portion of the um assessment mechanical systems, electrical systems about the cost of repairing, you know, it can eventually eclipse the costing of u just replacing. Yeah. >> Can you talk a little bit more about that? I know there's a lot of concern in the community questions about what that
generally looks like when it comes to facility costs. And um you know, we're discussing, you know, a new a new refurbished or new high school here in Medford. And so there's a lot of conversation about what does that really look like in the immediate cost versus long term. Um I just know that you mentioned I wondered if you had any, you
know, just professional experience about at what point does it eventually eclipse that replacement cost? >> Yeah. um a more uh in-depth I think analysis would be required to answer that question uh adequately but um you might
be familiar with the the concept of life cycle uh costing and and that that there's a there's a there's a process that can be applied uh where we would consider for example mechanical equipment uh the cost of
replacing the equipment and then you know we would factor in the energy savings of that equipment and compare that with the maintenance costs if you didn't uh replace that equipment and um you know you can get some pretty pretty good uh results from that. So I I would
recommend doing a life cycle uh cost analysis would probably be the best approach. >> Thank you. >> Sure. Member Rinfeld, >> I have what is possibly an unfair question because you did very clearly state that the high school was out of
scope for this analysis for obvious reasons. But I am curious particularly looking at our upcoming feasibility studies which obviously are going to be happening with our um MSBA committee and design firm. To what
extent are these numbers, these assignments of value translatable to a building like the high school that is significantly older than these buildings? But I'm just wondering to what extent can we look at this and say if we're seeing these tile changes,
these envelope challenges, >> how do we >> if if I may, are are you asking uh could we apply the similar uh you know costs to to the high school if we were to perform that that type of >> Yes. Or would be significantly higher because it's an older building. I I
would expect because of the age of the building that we would find um if you think about it on a cost per square foot basis that it would be more costly to address the high school simply because of its of its age. Uh and I believe that
building was built in 1970 or 70. Yeah, 1970. So significantly older than the buildings that we have here. >> Great. because I think the community is going to be looking very carefully at how we're managing our buildings and
what that means for new construction renovation. >> So, thank you for stepping outside the scope there. >> Okay. You're welcome. >> Thank you, member Russo. And then um going to go on to uh introduction of Dr.
Meo Brown. >> Thank you. Um, you know, I think this 5% each year we don't get this work done that the prices the costs will increase is an important consideration, especially since prop 2 and a half means we can only get two and a half more
percent. So, we go further and further in the hole. Um, I just ran these numbers. If we did nothing in seven years, it would be we would be costing us 15 million more than we would have possibly brought in to pay for it. Um, I don't think we have the money to pay for
most of this stuff anyways. Um, but I just think it's important to note that, you know, this 19.5 million or 18.6 million for the the scope one, like those are things we should be doing in FY26, which we're in right now, not not
FY27 and FY28 and FY29. Like, that's this year's work. Um, and I don't know where or if we have any thoughts on where we're going to get the money for that, but all of that will go up more than a million dollars by not doing it this year. Um, and more than another
million dollars the next year. Meanwhile, all the other things are going to get more expensive, too. So, um, on the one hand, I'm not surprised by these numbers. On the other hand, I'm wishing I had um some kind of medication
to help me stop hyperventilating because I mean this this $83 million is is our entire school budget. Um and each year new things are going to come on to that that five years out.
That five years next year is our two to five and there's something that gets added on after that. Um, so I I I'm really glad to see these numbers, but I also think the it's these are not numbers based on tearing off a roof and
discovering that water leaked into everything and whole walls have to be replaced or something crazy. So these are these are best guesses without invasively looking into the building to find out what's really going on. And so
in my mind I see these as the low end. Um because I mean we have had many years of what we like to call you know call deferred maintenance which is just another way of saying no maintenance. Um
and and you know we've we've done a good job I think you know finally getting the the uh you know co forced us to get some of the HVAC systems up and running in the in these particular schools and but you know we looked at other schools like um at the high school which I know this
doesn't cover but we looked at what would be it cost to improve the um the u heating system in some of the buildings and it turn in some of that building it turned out there was no way to make it less expensive because they had not actually been running for years. So, you
can't get more efficient than zero energy use. Um, and I I'm just very worried that this is a low-end number and we don't have a plan for how we're going to I mean, we used all of the the free cash this year alone. Um, by next
year, there's no more money to cover any of this stuff. So, I I'm freaking out a little bit. Um, and I assume many of us are. And I think we need to make sure the public knows very clearly that we are underfunding our schools
to the order of tens of millions of dollars a year and and this is fabulous, but I think member Graham's point about getting it I I think this should be on a website and I think it should show the progress for this year and I think it should show
that each year we didn't get progress, we went further in the hole. I don't know how to graphically show that, but you know, these things are just going to keep going up and we're going to spend less than just the increase. So, I'm I'm
want to thank you for the report. Now, I can't sleep. Sorry about that. >> Member Tapa, >> thank you for putting this report together in this summary. It's really helpful to see breakdowns. It's really
helpful to see um you know in terms of the accessibility needs in terms of what you know should be done now what should you know what can be not deferred further but what you know maybe doesn't need to be acted on immediately
I don't know why I'm circling back on this question but our windows are they all double pane windows for that for the buildings >> yes they're uh double pane insulated >> so would we have to reg them in order for them to become insulated again or to
prevent the condensation. I mean, I know we have to reglaze them, but do we have to come in and also do that process at the same time? Are they still integral in that sense? Which is a very specific question. >> Yeah. Well, I you know, I think um most of the uh windows were uh have two two
sashes, you know, a top part and bottom part. >> So, uh each part has a glazing unit in it. >> Yeah. and one of those glazing units may have failed, for example. So, really all that needs to be done is the glazing unit needs to be removed and replaced with a new one. >> Oh, awesome.
>> Yeah, of course. >> It's fair it's a fairly simple thing to do. >> Cool. Um, great. Yeah. I think I just also want to press the point, you know, as as we're pressing points in terms of deferred maintenance and and all these things to talk about, you know, we've got to get the money to fix things, we also got to fix them right and we got to
do it correctly and we can't cheap out on things because this is what happened with C3. We built C3. We created C3. C3 was great. It's the new science wing. We're going to have a great time. It's going to be awesome. And then the roof is leaking within a year, right? It's
awful. you shouldn't have four trash cans in a classroom when it's just been redone in and all this. Um so really making sure that yeah like like member Russo said like when we pull the roof off we need to make sure hey in you know as as you mentioned you know things get worse and sometimes you know one crack
leads to multiple and water gets in there and water is the real enemy um unfortunately when it comes to these things. Um but making sure that you know we don't put ourselves in another situation where we spend I don't know I wasn't on the committee I was in high school at the time um how much money we poured into C3 only to possibly have
things um ruined especially in a science wing contaminants hello um can be impacted. So, making sure that, you know, we're not um we're using the right materials, we're using the right folks who have the understanding of the materials because we don't want to replace floor tiles and then step on
them, they all crack or they use the wrong adhesive and this happens and that happens. So, again, not to speculate that we will ever cheap out, not to speculate any of that, but just affirming that we need to make sure that, you know, if we're going to spend the money, we might as well spend more because if you know, we if it breaks,
then we have to spend more money. it's just going to be more, you know, more things down in our pocket and it's going to cost more. It would it would cost less to do it right the first time than to try to fix our mess the second time. So, thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you for the presentation.
>> Um, next up we have introduction of Dr. Meg Mayo Brown, NSIP New Superintendent Induction Program Program Director and Coach. And I'll pass it over to Dr. Suzanne Galooi, our superintendent. Thank you so much. I'm very excited to
have my coach here, Dr. Mago Brown. She's going to talk a little bit about the NISP program, new superintendent induction program. A little bit about herself. Um, and happy to answer any questions that you may have for her or myself. So, without further ado, Dr.
Mago Brown. >> Thank you. Thank you very much, Dr. Glucy. Uh, good evening and thank you for the opportunity to join you. As Dr. Dr. Lucy said, "My name is uh Meg Mayo Brown. I serve as the program director for the new superintendent induction
program and coach for your superintendent, Dr. Galissy. I'm here to introduce myself uh and thank you for your support of Dr. Galoo's uh participation in the program. Uh prior to this work, I served as a superintendent of schools in
Massachusetts for 14 years, eight years in Fall River and six years in uh Barnstable. Uh the new superintendent induction program has supported new superintendent for the past 15 years. Dr. Galooi is in cohort 16. NISP is a
three-year induction program for new leaders new to the role uh of superintendent in Massachusetts. The curriculum centers on instructional leadership, team building, and supervision and evaluation with equity integrated uh across all content. The
goal is to develop transformational leaders who understand and meet the needs of all students. NISP, as we call it, is a program of the Massachusetts Association of School Superintendent supported by the Department of Elementary and Secondary
Education and the Bar Foundation and endorsed by the Massachusetts Association of School Committees. Participation overview for Superintendent Galuzi is year one. She will spend 48 hours of content day learning plus up to six hours a month of
coaching. In year two, she will engage in 39 hours of content day uh learning plus four hours of coaching. And in year three, she joins regional consultancy groups facilitated by NISP coach where super her peer superintendent engage in
problems of practice and they meet on a monthly basis. Superintendent consistently report that NISP's content, coaching, and collegial networking are highly valuable to their leadership. Each coach works with leaders to establish on-site coaching
opportunities, including providing feedback on leadership team meetings, providing feedback on entry planning and findings, visiting classrooms, and observing one-to-one meetings with school and district leaders. The relationship between the NISP coach and
the superintendent is one of confidentiality. Feedback is provided exclusively to superintendent gluci. As a leadership development program, NISP supports leaders as learners with a focus on transformational leadership. NISP supports the development of the entry
plan and in this case very much a transitional plan for Dr. Beluci. the subsequent report of entry findings, which I'm really excited to um listen in on that tonight, which sets up the district for a strategy for improvement based on the findings. Thank you very
much. It was a pleasure to be here. >> Thank you very much. We appreciate the update. Member on top tapa. Sorry, if I could just give a a point of personal privilege on the last uh document. I was just reminded by my colleagues that I misspoke. Um I always
like to correct myself when I can. Um in my ramblings, I referred to the wing, the science wing as C3. It's B3. B3 was the one that's leaking. Um I'm just I'm really tired tonight. I'm sorry. Uh but I am informed that C3 is in fact leaking. Uh so I was technically
correct. I just called it the science wing. Um but C3 is leaking. B3 was leaking when I was in high school, which was when that was built. Um, I think I was one of the first classes to enter that. So, um, just a just a quick uh clarification on my misspeaking. So,
thank you to to my colleagues behind me for correction. >> Oh gosh. Okay. Do Dr. July, anything you want to add about the your induction program or everything's going well and >> No, I mean I'm very I feel very grateful
to have the uh guidance of Dr. Meo Brown. She's been wonderful. Um whether it's texts or phone calls. She's definitely come a couple times to Medford High School. We've gone on some school visits. Uh she's I haven't told this to the principles yet, but she's
going to be joining the next principal cohort meeting. we have those monthly. Um so she will be joining that next one so that she can you know participate in and observe my instructional leadership with school leaders and uh I'm happy and I welcome
the feedback and the guidance. So I feel um quite grateful. Thank you. >> Wonderful. Thank you. Next up we have our transition entry findings report. I'll again turn it over to Dr. Galooi, our superintendent.
member rental. >> Sorry, I just had a quick question about INSIP. >> NSIP. There we go. Um, is there any kind of 360 feedback program or um talking to
the people that your work impacts? And that might be a question for for Dr. Mayor Brown. And I'm asking because I've um been a part of other executive coaching that does include some of that 360 feedback
from in thank you for the question. In March of each year, each of the three years, Dr. Gooy will participate in a 360 feedback um form with her leadership team and principles and whomever actually she wants to provide it to. The
result of that feedback go directly to Dr. Valooi. We actually advise superintendents not to share it at a public meeting, but actually to share it to inform their own practice and growth as a leader. >> Thank you. I appreciate knowing that that exists and it's part of the program.
>> Great. Thank you. I'll turn it over to you on the transition entry findings report. Dr. Guzy. >> Thank you. So, good evening, Madame Mayor and esteemed members of the school committee. am uh quite honored to be presenting my interim findings as they
are to date. So when I began my tenure as interim superintendent eight months ago, I did so with deep gratitude and a strong sense of purpose. As someone who grew up in Medford and is proud to have been educated through its public schools,
serving this community has been both a personal honor and a professional privilege. Over these past months, I've had the opportunity to view the district district through a new lens. As I listened closely, engaged with stakeholders, and learned from the diverse perspectives that define our
school communities. Through this process, I gained a deeper understanding of our district's many strengths, as well as areas where continued focus and alignment are needed. So, this report captures that learning and this reflection.
Um, I think it's important to also note that this the insights that were that I were gleaned from this process will inform our collective work ahead as we develop a cohesive district strategic plan designed to advance belonging,
equity, and excellence for Medford Public Schools. So part of this was taken from the transition plan that I presented to this body in January, but the trans I'm calling it the transition slash entry plan since I I have been in Metro public
schools for 29 years. Um but this just highlights a little bit of the purpose of that plan. So first and foremost, it was to maintain consistency uh and calm in a moment of transition. Um, it was to
inform the school community about transition activities and to maintain open communication. Part of that was strengthening the relationships that I had already had with staff, with families, with caregivers, with
students. Um, it was to also I to look at Memphis public schools in a new lens and to identify strengths and areas of focus that will help us inform our work moving ahead. and it was to outline the next steps of
our work. So these are the buckets of work that I've been doing since January of 2025. So part of this process included gathering stakeholder voice and input. So I facilitated over 30 listening
sessions at school communities via Zoom. Um, I met with caregivers. I met with staff. Um, I attended and participated in district and community events, district-wide school and leadership meetings, and I reviewed survey data. I
do think it's very critical and important to mention that in this bucket of work um I would say that I did not gather a really diverse um input from our diverse community of
Medford. I would say that moving forward and to inform the work that we have to do for the strategic plan. I think it's really critical to make sure that we are meeting people where they're at. Um though I offered multiple modalities in order for people to participate, it
still wasn't representative of what Medford is today. The other bucket of work that uh informed this was observing in schools. One of my favorite things. Um but to date, between January and today, I've
conducted over 200 classroom visits and observations. And I've reviewed that data with our senior leadership and school leadership as well. I also worked to enhance my understanding of district operations. I
think we know my background here in Medford. I've gone from being an educator to a school leader to the assistant superintendent for elementary schools to the assistant superintendent for academics and instruction. So operations was was something I needed to
lean into and build that muscle. And so what I did in that area was held a lot of meetings with finance, facilities, IT, athletics, and community schools. I reviewed overall functioning and current
structures. And a lot of that led me to making sure that we had positions in place that could help lead a lot of that work. And so hiring key personnel in these areas to assist the overall functioning of the
district, the support needs, the structure and the growth was critical. I think you saw a little snapshot this evening um for the chief operations officer position that was created that has been tremendous in establishing much needed structure in the which we'll get
to but um in the areas of operations within the city of Med the Medford public schools and then the last area was to advance and establish shared understanding alignment and next steps.
So really through all of this information that I was gathering um establishing and enhancing district organizations, systems and structures was and is and always will be critical
continuing instructional alignment that has already been in progress and informing the upcoming strategic plan. So I think it's important to give a little bit of reminder or or context about what we've done so far and where
we have come. So since being um I would say I'll go back to 20 uh 22 was the time in which the my position shifted from the assistant superintendent of
elementary to the assistant superintendent of academics and instruction. That position is critical to see the vertical alignment of our academics and our instruction districtwide which we did not have that lens before. That was a big learning
year for me and that was really the year where I had to do a lot of learning at the secondary level and a lot of middle school and high school classrooms. And there were a lot of aha moments during that year. And that was really the year that we decided that we needed
to be grounding our work in an instructional vision because it didn't matter if I was in a kindergarten classroom or in AP uh physics
standard one content may look different but how we're teaching all students and the learning environment we're creating for students that mattered districtwide. So that instructional alignment kind of began I would say in 2022. That summer
which was 2023 uh Medford public schools attended the department of education's first instructional leadership institute. We were lucky that one was housed at TUS. We didn't have far to drive. But that that learning for us as a district
instructional leadership team was very profound. That's where we we grounded in a lot of work um that helped us inform our instructional practices. In combination around that same time, as
this body may remember, we had Spring Point, which is um and we had Desi Air report come. Those were two neutral reports that spoke about the instruction
that our students are experiencing every day. That work along with what we received in terms of professional development really began to our work in looking at what is the
student experience, what are we doing for our planning and for our instruction that came with us to the development of the instructional plan. That work was done collaboratively with school leaders, with department leaders,
with teachers. And I know that I have presented on this work before to this body, but I think it's very important to remember that this work was aligned to the Department of Education's expectations for uh the instructional vision of districts and it also is where
our core values came from. This work also encompassed our access and opportunity for all. So when we were at the department of elementary and secondary education instructional
institute over the summer, we were introduced on a district level to the opportunity myth, which is TNTP's um the new teacher project, well researched um study on how students
even though we're saying that we're providing grade level content, they're just not meeting grade level standards. And why is that? We really dug in to this research as a district team. And teachers, we created a professional
development series that lasted the year and teachers received that. This past year in 2024 2025, we brought on some sustained coaching for our staff. We've brought on through the bar Foundation,
Unbound Ed, Lynch Leadership Academy, and we've continued our partnership with Hill for Literacy since 2019. I believe all of this work has come together in our advancement of what we want to
see the student experience be. Part of this work also is creating aligned schedules and walkthrough tools so that our school leaders and our department leaders are coming together and not just like coalesing but aligning in
what we want to see in classrooms. And through this work, as we've explained before, we also at the secondary level, our teachers are we are making sure that our teachers are planning for gleam instruction, which means they are planning so that their
lessons are grade level, engaging, affirming, and meaningful to our students. Thank you. So, I thought it would be very fitting and really help us continue the work that we have been doing thus far in this
district to continue the work with TNTP's national framework. Their next year they went from the opportunity myth to opportunity makers. And so this framework, my findings are going to be
grounded in this framework of belonging, consistency, and coherence. In everything that I've gathered, this frame not only fits the work we've currently been doing, but also fits the work that we have to do. It is aligned
completely with our instructional vision and I think would be a great launch for the work that we have upcoming for our strategic plan. So just to capture before we move on the the three pillars belonging is just to
make sure every student feels known, safe and valued and my findings will reflect that. Consistency every student experiences high quality grade level learning in a safe well-maintained environment. And the coherence is that
every system from instruction to communication to facilities works together to support learning. These are overall um just highlights of the strengths and areas for growth that I found uh in
gathering all of this information. Our strengths, we have engaged and supportive stakeholders. I think you can see it in the Mustang moment. I think you can see it with our student representatives from our students to our educators to
our staff to our caregivers to our community um and to our city partners. We have engaged and supportive stakeholders. We are very lucky that we are in a system where we have so much support.
Our students represent diverse backgrounds, perspectives and talents. That's an asset. We have deep community commitment to students success and well-being. Over and over again through anecdotes,
through data, there are so many examples of how the community rallies to support our students and our staff and our communities. And it's just a wonderful part of Metro Public Schools. And another strength is our shared value for inclusion, equity, safety, and
excellence, which we see on a continuous basis even here during these meetings with your resolutions and your support for the work that we're doing. Areas of growth for the previous report, maintenance of facilities and security
upgrades. We're going to talk about some of this. There is work ongoing. There's work to still to be done, but that is an area of growth for us. alignment and coherence of communication. So I think this one there was a wide spectrum of input that I received during uh my time
gathering information. But things that rose to the top and continuously were just the alignment of school to school that communication varies widely. Um classroom communication methods and
um I would say schedule also varies. athletic communication and just overall communication chain. The other piece of area for growth is capacity expansion of the afterchool program which we've been doing
consistently but there is still a lot of work to be done. Um diversifying our educator staffing that is a big growth area for us. I'll talk a little bit about that, but that is work that is that needs to be prioritized. Our
students need to see representation um in their classrooms and in the hallways. And then creating more visible and supportive opportunities for neurode divergent and LGBTQ plus students. that also came up in a lot of my community
meetings making sure that all of our students can visibly see the supports that Medford Public Schools is offering them and provides for them. So the first pillar is belonging and that means
knowing, supporting and growing every one of our students. So strengths in this pillar were strong relationships among educators, students, and families, a shared value for inclusion and equity,
and deep community connection and pride. The reason why the pillar of belonging is so critical is because it's not something we feel, it's something we build. When schools design systems, environments, and routines that are safe, inclusive, and well- cared for,
they send a powerful message that everyone matters here. Through these structural commitments, everyone is supported to grow, achieve, and believe in their own success. The next slide is going to detail some
of the focus areas and a little bit of the action items. And I will narrate a little bit some that are have been already in progress, some that are yet to come. So the first air focus area for belonging is expand student voice and
opportunities for leadership. Now the current imple implementation of the instructional vision focuses on that and that gleam framework that educators are following also focuses on that. We
want to make sure that we're allowing a lot more opportunity for student voice in classrooms through the feedback we've received from neutral observations to school and district leadership observations. We need to capitalize a
little bit more on the amount of um time and access students have for voice in classrooms. The instructional vision is providing us that pathway and we're working on aligned professional development and
observational feedback. Fidelity to social emotional learning practices that are already in place is also critical to this work which is responsive classroom and restorative practices. Some of what we're really working on is pushing the restorative
practices piece a little bit more. it's responsive classroom is a is a little bit has more of a solid footing at the elementary level but restorative practices is a little bit of a growing edge right now. Um Dr. Tab Talbot has made sure that everyone has access to
that high quality text where we are making sure that we're modeling some of this at district leadership meetings. Uh that is work that we are that is ongoing to make sure we have refreshers in place for our teachers. And then the Mustang moment I think is a really great example
of how we are modeling elevating that student voice and why it is so important for the community to hear and just making sure that that transcends into all areas for students. Uh, another focus area is to build structures that help every student and
staff and caregiver feel seen, heard, valued, and supported. I think structure is probably going to be a big thread that you see throughout this report. Um, first and foremost, I think the foundation of all of this was the collective charge this year was on
belonging. And so we really want to make sure that students feel that sense in their learning environments so that they feel safe enough to learn and challenge themselves. But what we want to make sure is that connection to how making
sure we're holding rigor and expectations for students is also showing them that they belong. review of engagement strategies across school communities. So this is work that
we have started but is also ongoing. So continued support for our LGBTQ plus student groups and increased visibility initiatives. Some of those conversations have started. They 100% will be continuing uh and need to be
prioritized. We are in the process of reviewing instructional supports and enrichment for neurode divergent students especially at the elementary level. I think in course selection at the high school level we see a little bit of of autonomy and um power that
students and family members have when they're choosing classes. And at the middle school level as was evidenced here tonight with our new schedule we have more opportunity for this. It's the elementary that we really need to be focusing on. What does that
spectrum look like? How are we enriching neurode divergent students who need who need a challenge and who need to have some meaningful um exposure and access the professional development that we are
continuing in this realm as I spoke about instructional vision gleam but it's also culturally responsive equity centered trauma-informed approaches uh in relation to what I spoke about before it's also safe schools we brought on as I reported for we brought on safe
schools this year at the elementary level. All of the elementary staff had very critical training on safe schools on that first professional development day. That has also led into our elementary principles um working with
their staff to make sure that we are establishing rainbow clubs at the elementary level. Um that is work that is beginning right now so that our elementary students and families um have that support
again fidelity to responsive classroom equitable access to programs and supports and then policies that affirm and protect every student's identity. I think it's really important to call this out especially for this board here. Um
the school committee has really made sure that this is a priority in the policies that they have brought forward that they have passed that they have stamped that we have made sure are established in Medford public schools.
Um first and foremost I think is the non-discrimination policy which included um harassment and retaliation. There was the non-discrimination for on the basics of gender identity. the immigration enforcement policy, the equal education
opportunity policy, the dress code policy, the bullying policy, just to name a few. The last focus area is to update update and modernize facilities and security.
So critical to ensure that safety measures are in place and followed. Um, I'm not going to stand here and say that this is all perfectly in place. There are places where this is solidly in place. I would
say gold star goes to the Missatuck Elementary School. Um, every time Dr. Talbot and I are visiting for our rounds, we are at we are greeted with a pleasant greeting and then asked what our purpose is. Um, that we have to make
sure that that model is at every school building. uh safe, well-maintained facilities. I think um we heard from Hhabib and we had Mr. Lord at the podium and though there are some maybe frightening things about
it, uh I welcome the conversation to get to some decision- making around what Medford Public Schools can handle in these updates, what needs to be placed in capital planning. Um I have all the faith in Mr. the Lord and
his leadership. He has already been establishing wonderful structures and it that's just been three months. So, I have a lot of faith in where we're headed. And then the other piece is consistent communication and family engagement,
which I alluded to before, but the the family engagement is definitely uh a muscle that we need to be flexing a little bit more and building. Moving on to the next pillar which is consistency and that's ensuring
equitable access to high quality learning. Our strengths are dedicated skilled educators committed to growth and improvement and we see that every single day. I just have to call out our educators who it is
so evident as we go from classroom to classroom how much they care about their students and how much work they are putting in to their lessons so that students are getting all that they need
and feel supported. uh a collaborative culture among instructional teams is a strength and our students are a huge strength. They are invested and ready for learning. I think one of the poignant pieces that I'll expand upon a
little bit is no matter what level from classroom to classroom our students are engaged and they are compliant and they are ready. they are ready for the next level of Medford public schools to make sure that
we are providing them the excellence, the rigor, the challenge uh that they deserve, the support that they deserve. And then again, huge strength for us is engaged caregivers and community
members. They are completely committed to advancing instructional e excellence and that is seen on a daily basis. So what does this pillar of consistency mean? It means that building trust and ensuring that every student in every
school experiences the same high standard of excellence. It extends beyond instruction to include the environment, the resources, and the communication systems that sustain learning. The biggest piece of this is that true
consistency means a student's opportunity to succeed doesn't depend on the teacher or the school in which they attend. It is up to us to ensure that that consistency is throughout the entire
district. So, moving on to our areas of growth. Oh, well, nope. Before I get to that one, I'm sorry. I forgot about this. Um, this is just a brief snapshot. There is a lot more data um to pour over
when it comes to ensuring equitable access but I think this is our accountability data for the past two years. It is just an overview and just a snapshot so that you can see um a little bit of where we have been just in the
past two years. Now, I think it's very easy to say there was a lot that was happening last year um around Demcasts and regulations that had had shifted and executive orders that were in place, but it is still work for us to be looking
that our performance overall declined in a lot of subgroups. And so, our Asian and multi-race subgroup shot so showed the most improvement. And so those two subgroups made substantial
progress in meeting goals and we have work to do across the district and in other subgroups. And so really these results highlight the need for consistent instructional quality datainformed and inclusive supports and
targeted interventions to promote equitable equitable progress for all of our learners. This is a little bit what I highlighted before. We need to make sure that that is happening across the district and not not siloed in areas.
So leading to our focus areas. Thank you. Um strengthen vertical alignment and instructional coaching across levels. So that vertical alignment that I spoke about before,
how we're going to get to that is first and foremost, we're looking at conducting a humanities curriculum review and alignment. We need to make sure that curriculum in
materials and instruction is inclusive and that they are high quality instructional materials. That is work that is ongoing um that Dr. Talbot is leading in direct work with
Dr. Kaza and her department. increased time on learning that we saw through the updated school schedule has which we saw a little bit tonight has really provided and opened up access and opportunity for our students.
Oh, thank you. And then our district walkthrough schedule, we have been aligning that and developing that so that it is consistent across the district. So during school leadership meetings, during
district leadership meetings, everyone is on the same page and everyone is talking about instruction that is aligned to our instructional vision. And then our continued partnership with Unbound Ed, with the Lynch Leadership
Academy, and with Hill for Literacy. I think it's important to note that on the side here, these are some quotes that were gathered in the community meetings and the surveys. And so one of them that spoke profoundly to me that I wanted to make sure that I included here was to
collect and analyze student data to design and implement differentiated structures of support, coaching and professional development to build the capacity of staff which includes principles, department leads and teachers to deliver and support culturally responsive instruction.
And I viewed that quote as a charge and that is work that we are making sure that we can meet uh for the community member that so profoundly mentioned it. Another focus area is a review of current student services and supports.
So this came up in varied ways during my community meetings. Um, some were around college prep, some were around uh supports for for caregivers, around social emotional um supports that they
that the school could help them with. Um, it came in lots of different veins, but really the importance to this was to make sure that we review current practices and materials. that is happening now in a lot of our
conversations and will be developed throughout the year. Um and it also was making sure that we are developing and distributing those resources so that caregivers know where they are. So some of the ways we've done
that is um our comm's director Mr. Will Pipeelli has built out part of our website to include a lot of those supports. there's now at the hands ready uh resources and support for our immigrant families. And so we've been
having conversations around with other department leaders around how can we really be building our website to make sure that it is an area of resource and support for the community and then making sure that our professional
development is aligned with this core focus. One of the things we're looking at is uh co-eing practices and places where they're really rock solid that could model for other areas that might need a little bit of uh increased
professional development. Another focus area was increased rigor and student voice and learning. I've mentioned this before um but this is where it shows up in action. And so our instructional vision has given the path to that. Our aligned professional
development consultancies and coaching also support that. But what we're really making sure we're working on is when we're in a classroom, the lesson plan and the content may be grade level, but
what we're asking students to do to show that learning is the area of focus for us this year. and that's in the planning. So what that looks like students that might need some scaffolded supports, but we don't want to oversup
support because then we're going to drop that rigor and we're going to have that that lesson now be not grade level. And then in areas where students might be exceeding above grade level, what does that look like? So that's the work that
we have ongoing this year. Um the next professional development day just two weeks away is also going to be continuing this. We have Unbound Ed coming back um and continuing that sustain sustained professional development that they did in August.
instructional technology. This this was also a thread. And so the things that came up the most and especially from from caregivers, but also from staff was um a review of screen time policies and finding that balance to technology and
offline learning. And that came through in even right down to not just instructional classroom spaces, but also it's an indoor recess day and do we have to have screen time to fill that time? And so a review of how and when we're
using technology in classrooms um and how like the AI policy comes into play is all is all conversation. And then of course a review and enhancement of monitoring systems. So we have firewalls in school, but if students are taking those Chromebooks home, what does that
look like? So making sure that we are also providing that communication to caregivers so that they're really clear um is a focus area for us. And then as previously mentioned, continuing to diversify our educator staffing. This
has been a significant challenge for Medford Public Schools. We have tried multiple avenues in order to have greater success with this. Um we are continuing well we are starting an audit of our recruitment efforts and
procedures. But I think some of the biggest pieces that we're really trying to leverage is our student our partnerships with local universities for student teachers as well as our cityear reps. So we have some city year core members and this year we have some city
year student teachers and so they were core members in the past and now they're coming back to Medford public schools as student teachers and we're hoping that this might be a nice partnership that will provide us with some diverse candidates as well as the universities
that we are partnering with and Dr. Talbet is leading that work to bring in uh more diverse representation within our student teaching um fellows.
And then the last pillar is coherence. And so coherence is putting all of this together. It's aligning systems, priorities, and partnerships. And so our strengths for coherence is a shared
vision for student success and community partnership. And it's a strong sense of purpose and collaboration. And so what does it look like when a system is coherent? Well, it ensures that every part of the district operations, instruction, and
communication work in sync toward a shared purpose. When systems are aligned and information is clear, families understand expectations, staff can focus on instruction, and students experience
stability and trust in a coherent sess system. Messages, maintenance, and mission all move together to support learning and belonging for everybody. So what does this look like for our
focus areas? I think this is really where we start to see the systems that were in some areas woefully needed. So our first focus area is to improve communication and ali communication alignment districtwide.
So when I was gathering this this information, some of this review of the current systems in place has already started. I think we had we had the s'mores platform for a very long time.
And I think when I came in as interim, that was one of those like intentional decisions that I made to make sure that the Friday memo is using the platform that we want school leaders to be using and that there's that consistency for caregivers so that they know what that
format is and they can navigate it with ease. And so there were places where that maybe um wasn't as aligned to the district expectations and there are still areas for improvement. It's probably never going to be perfect, but
that review is ongoing um and needed. And then to streamline processes and communication chains. So this came up a lot. So when parents have questions, who should they reach out to? So establishing that chain of command um was important.
The update of our org chart which is on the website I think gives a snapshot for caregivers to understand where where they can reach out to um pertaining to what their question may be. And I know
principal Cabral at the high school has created her own chain of command. She has her own org chart so that you can look and see where the key personnel lie and it makes it a little easier. So some of that work is is in process. And then
I heard over and over again from staff as well as caregivers, can you please do this at least once a year? And I think that format which was for my meetings u my community meetings, it was agendree.
And I think people really appreciated a dialogue and a discourse to just talk about what they really appreciate and what they really hope. And so I want to make sure that I honor that and that we figure out a way and that we are
scheduling and making sure that we're doing in community forums to inform practice to honor that stakeholder input and it also strengthens belonging. And so we have some upcoming forums I think which will be critical for caregivers around
um the vision, the mission and the leadership of Metro Public Schools. But that is something that I want to make sure stays uh at least an annual basis continuing facilities maintenance and safety upgrades. And so some of this
work, so you saw this evening the conditions report that has come in and we will be aligning that work to our district work as well as the capital planning um moving forward. the creation of the chief operations officer. Um that
position oversees facilities, IT and security and those are three areas that were in desperate need of systems and structures and Mr. Lord has
already begun to do that work and there's a lot more to go. I know it's only been three months. Um but I am very grateful for that. And then I know that this body has already been reported on, but it's very important to note that the security camera upgrade at every school,
the keyless entry and the vape detector detectors at the secondary level, those upgrades should be finished um by the end of this calendar year. There we go. That's perfect. Um and that's that's very exciting to us.
We really need the keyless entry and that's going to help the com just the overall functioning of the district in ways that we should have been doing a very long time ago. So, we're really excited for
that one. And then we uh Mr. Lord is spearheading um the establishment of a district safety committee. And so I think in partnership with that, each school has their own is developing their own
safety committee. Um, we've got a lot of interested and dedicated administrators who signed up to be on the district safety committee. But this is going to be an opportunity for us to make sure we're having frequent and regular
conversations with our community and city partners so that we are all aligned in the loop and making sure that we keep the safety of our buildings and our staff and our students. um top priority
academic coherence and alignment. And so this is the piece that really is going to focus on we don't want it to look different depending on which teacher you get or what school you're in or what team you have at middle school. It needs to be here are expectations across the
district. So promoting that rigor and that equity and that belonging across all schools and all departments is the priority of this year. And Dr. Talbot is leading this um work with school and department leaders.
Making sure that we are having high quality instructional materials in the hands of our teachers for our students is critical. There are places in this district where that is a growing edge for us and that's a focus for this year.
Um, and I will plant a seed that some of that does, you know, cost money and so there will be ongoing conversations around um, needed curriculum and then we've I've highlighted on it
before, but the where we are now in terms of taking our instructional vision, the findings of this and more findings to come and what that looks like for our strategic planning for Metro Public Schools.
And then certainly not least um but lastly the ex expansion of our after school programs and the capacity for access and equity. Uh a lot of work has been done with this and I'm just I'm actually really proud of this collaborative effort. So a task force
was established and it is regularly meeting. We actually have a meeting tomorrow night. Um we have very dedicated and invested caregivers. We have two school leaders, two site coordinators. Um Mr. Pipicelli helps
facilitate that and then Megan Fidiciary is also part of that committee and um it's doing some great work. So far we've seen about 68 seats added um to our afterchool programming just this year alone. And the basic consultancy
um Mr. Andrew Mumford and oh my goodness, I'm going to forget the other gentleman's name. I'm I'm very sorry. They will be joining our task force meeting tomorrow as they're beginning their work this uh school year to really kind of get a sense as to how we're
operating and give us some areas for improvement to really help us be able to grow our capacity in a sustained and meaningful way in benefit of our students and families. And then we did see uh just one more thing, Mr. Pipelli, I'm sorry. We did
see a staffing upgrade there. So, two of our site coordinators are now full-time, which gives um the program a little added support to really be working on making sure that we're as staffed as we possibly can be and what that
recruitment looks like and working on what the um the curriculum looks like. And then now you may go, Mr. uh Thank you. And so at all in all, if we're building for our future together,
what does that look like? And so I think you could see through all of these slides, Medford's greatest strength is really its people. It really truly is. We have caring educators, families, and students that are committed to one another. You see that in every space you
go in. Our next chapter is now about focus and alignment as we build systems that match our heart with our practice so that every student learns, thrives, and belongs. And we want to make sure that
teachers that we're equipping teachers with what does that mean? You know, you can protect and care for your students while also having high expectations for them academically. And so that's that's the work. That's the push this year. our students are ready and we have to push
them. And so part of this is engaging stakeholders in defining priorities for our vision, mission, and leadership for Medford Public Schools and making sure that we capture those diverse voices in Medford in that work. Um, and I think
the varied format that was discussed at the subcommittee really will go a long way to making sure that we capture every voice in Medford. And then using these findings, between the findings that I have presented here to you this
evening and the findings that we will gather through that work, we're going to have a great pool of resource to be able to pull from from in developing u Medford's next strategic plan. And that strategic plan will be a coherent
roadmap for systematic improvement and student achievement detailing the actions and the benchmarks required to achieve sustained success. And so that concludes my report of entry findings in building belonging,
excellence, and opportunity across Medford public schools. And I am happy to answer any questions that you may have. Member Reinfeld that member Reinfeld. Thank you. I'm going to limit myself to to one question at least for now. Uh so
I would love for you to tell us. So I think what I love about this these findings in this report is that it really does frame what the conditions for learning look like and what we need to do to really maximize those. Uh what I would love to hear from you about is
how academic achievement uh factors into all of these things particularly in terms of real-time monitoring. I think you know you showed the accountability scores which are informative. Um they also tell us what happened. They don't tell us what is happening actively. So I
would love your thoughts on that. >> That's a great question. I'm gonna try to remember everything that's in my head right now. I think f Yeah. I mean, first and foremost, I think you have like the the high arcing answer to that question and then you have some of the the nuts
and bolts at the bottom. Um, I think if I just like I can pick out one small thing around let's say writing. So, one of the areas in which Medford public schools probably lost a little bit of the accountability was writing. And so
we did see in areas that students that were maybe let's say you know classified as meeting expectations once you calculated that writing score it dropped them a little bit. And so one of the areas that we've had discussion about and that you know Dr. Talbot is working
on is writing. That's like a nitty-gritty piece. overarching I would say and what I really wanted to kind of point out in this report is that we have all of this data that has helped us inform a little bit about where we're
going and some of the neutral reports that we've been able to pull from and a lot of the observations that we've been able to pull from and some of the um data that school leaders get
is in our classroom spaces let's Okay, as I mentioned before, but I can kind of like explain a little bit more. We have really we have engaged students that are presenting as ready to learn and we have
content that is grade level, but what we're asking our students to do may not always match that grade level expectation. And I think maybe what we're seeing is there's we need a higher level of discourse in our classrooms.
And so part of the ways that students really understand what they're learning is to grapple with it, is to talk about it with their peers, is to not work maybe in silos or in isolation and you
know spit out content or data. And I think that is a muscle that we need to flex. And so, and we need to, excuse me, we need to build we need to build that. And so, we've kind of seen some of those opportunities, or I could
maybe say missed opportunities that that's part of the the professional development that we're doing this year with staff. So, what does your planning look like when you sit down to plan? Are we making sure that you're planning so that your instruction is grade level?
Yes, I think we can check the box. our instruction is grade level. But if we move on to those next levels, right? Are we making sure that that is engaging for our students? And if so, how how are you making it engaging? How are you making it affirming for them so that they can
see themselves in what they're learning and why it's important? And then how are you making it meaningful? So those are the levers that I think we need to be pushing and leaning into a
little bit more because I think that leads to a level of understanding that maybe not all of our students are able to engage in. I think you know it's it's doing these walks. This is learning. You could see it with our students today,
right? that is happening in some of our challenge classes because students are actively engaged. They are problem solving in real time. They are engaged in in project-based learning. You see it in the vocational schools. You walk in any shop, any student is going to be able to stop and tell you what they're
doing, how it aligns to state standards, why it's important, and what they're going to get at the end of this. But that might not be happening in every academic space. And our students need to be experienced and exposed to that so
that when it comes time for um standardized tests or uh an important project where they have to show what they know. We've given them the opportunity to grapple with that and understand that at
a level that's much deeper than just copying something off the board or just spitting back facts. Does that make sense? >> It does. And I think there's also a component of making sure teachers have the tools to recognize that and draw it
out and when it's not happening, how to intervene. >> So how do you know that it's happening in real time? So to that I think the things that we put in place last year still ongoing but what has been implemented for this year
is one that gleam planning. We now have an aligned walkthrough tool that has created a crosswalk between Gleam and our instructional vision. And so school leaders, department leaders, when they walk in, they're all they're all on the
same walkthrough rubric so that everyone's looking for the same things, talking about the same strengths, growth areas. And then the Lynch Leadership Academy professional development that's happening right now is with our school and department leaders. And that's
coaching. And that's coaching for observational feedback. That's coaching to have maybe some challenging or difficult conversations. And the Lynch Leadership Academy that comes in is coaching our administrators.
So they'll go through observational rounds and they're coaching our administrators as to how to engage in those conversations and they're they're observing that in action so that they're giving our administrators direct
feedback. >> Thank you. You know, I could talk about this for a very long time, but I see lots of green lights, so I will yield to colleagues. >> Um, member Lady, >> thank you. Um, to go back a little bit to the belonging portion of the um, slideshow, you talked quite a bit about
um, the fidelity to responsive classrooms and restorative justice. Um, can you talk a little bit more about like what that actually looks like? I know we've been discussing that for quite a little while now and the cost and implementation of these types of practices is very lengthy and can beite quite difficult. So, I just want to hear a little bit more about that. >> No, thank you. It's another thing I
could probably talk about all day. But responsive classroom really came in district-wide alignment during COVID. Um, we wanted to make sure that I mean that focus was really on social emotional learning at that time. There was a different level for like that
safety feeling. Um, so at the elementary level there is responsive classroom. There was a lot of responsive classroom professional development. Every year during the induction week for new teachers, there's training on responsive classroom and it's built in to the
elementary schedule. So every day elementary students are starting their day in a morning meeting and that's tier one. So all students are gathered together. There are no services during that time. Nothing else is happening.
There might be a blip of like a violin or an orchestra lesson once a week because that's difficult to schedule. But that is a sacred preserved time so that teachers have their entire class. That's where you build community. That's
where you also build expectations and you're modeling those expectations. And sometimes, as always with students, there are moments where you have to remodel expectations. And that community space is the perfect space to do that.
This year, we also um had a teacher that worked on quite well and all summer long. So, um Jen Ellis is a teacher at the Brooks. She worked on aligning the morning meeting so that we have a
district-wide focus once a month. So every month there is a different focal point for morning meeting and it starts with the principal and the principal is doing um gradespan assemblies and they're setting the tone for the entire
month and then there's other morning meeting activities and lessons that the teachers are carrying out. So there's this continuous thread throughout the district. Uh Dr. Tablet, this month is responsibility.
Yes. Okay. Just checking. I have not remembered every month, but um and it was great when we were doing some walkthroughs. You could see on the board how the teachers were connecting their morning meeting message to what the principal had just done in the assembly, you know, the the day before or the week
before. So I think that thread is pretty pretty well established. I'm sure there's always areas of um focus. I think the biggest piece is the restorative practices. So at the time when we really made a conscious effort to bring responsive
classroom in, it did not exist at the secondary level. I will have you know it now goes up to grade eight. And this year they're piloting high school. So I have there are two educators in the district. Um one is in the process of
getting trained by responsive classroom. The other one is a trainer for responsive classroom and um works for responsive classroom and that's the high school art teacher Jen Banger. So she's looking into the high school component just to see the restorative practices
piece is a high quality instructional material that really works on creating this community. We brought it in for our secondary staff so that we had we could create this circle time for teachers to
be able to do this um building of community at the second secondary level. It also is a space where sometimes where trust has been broken or expectations have to be reestablished. There is a component to
that program that is um bringing people together, students and and affect you know affected students affected staff so that there can be a conversation um to repair something that has happened. the way at the time that this
was rolled out at the secondary level um around co time was like a train the trainer model and so bringing on Dr. Talbot what we're in the process of doing is kind of like looking at what that structure was because that is something that's a little siloed across
the district there are some school leaders and some teachers that are really using restorative practices very well and then there are areas where it's just um needs a refresher or not happening at all. And so first and
foremost was equipping everybody with the text um which Dr. Talbot made sure was in the hands of all the school leaders and department leaders and then looking at that list of who are our trainers and what can we do. I will say
we have made a very intentional effort so that new teachers are trained in restorative practices during induction week. So we do have two um I believe it's Colleen Mahaney and Cheryl Jano, two teachers at the secondary level that have led that in the induction program.
So our new teachers have a frame. Um but the fidelity of its use is really what we're working on. Thank you so much. >> Thank you. Um with member Graham, then our student rep and member Russo, if I
have it in order. >> Thank you. Um I just wanted to say thank you for all of this work. Um you know, when we asked you to step into this role, it wasn't on anybody's like agenda
for the year. And um we also, you know, gave you enough time to settle into the job. And I I think by like by all accounts you did that very rapidly. And I'm just so thankful that you have done more than just settle into the job and
keep the lights on in your time here. Like you are creating like coherence to to use your word to the vast majority of things that need to happen here. And and not only are you sort of naming it and framing it, but you also are like
leading the work. So, I thought this was just like a really nice summary that started in like why why did you go about things the way that you did? Um, and I just really wanted to say how much I appreciate it. And I do agree with you that when we get to I promise I'll be super fast and we talk about strategic
planning. Um, but there's a lot of like interwoven pieces of this that we can build on and move quickly. So, thank you. >> Thank you. Um, our student rep, >> Mr. On top is mic, please. >> I can do it. Cat Cat's been doing it for
me, but did she step up? Hold on. >> Here we go. >> Yep. >> Um, I guess this is probably a very small detail, but I wanted to know how to interpret the like accountability rating graph because what exactly is accountability rating? Like what does
that mean? >> That's a great question. Great question. So the Department of Education every year gives targets to schools to meet and they measure it on a scale of like
little progress, moderate progress, substantial progress, well above. And so what this means is when we look at all students, we we even declined for
looking at everyone globally. But then it's really important to look at smaller subgroups of students as well. So you'll see here we have high needs which encompasses a lot of these categories together. We have the c the group of um
English learners, students that are lowincome students with disabilities. Um and then we have our racial groups. We have Asian, black, African-American, Hispanic, Latino, multi-race, and white. And so what the department of education
looks at is they look at the h globally at how did everybody do in meeting the targets that they established for us. And then they also look at all of the subgroups to see in some places when you
first look at the scores or your accountability ratings it might be that like everyone's looks like they're doing a really great job. But when you dig a little deeper, sometimes there's groups of students that aren't meeting the targets. And it's really on us to be
looking into what's happening here and how can we help. And the other piece is that the accountability rating that the department of educa, excuse me, education gives us is they take last year's rating and then they take the
current year's. So in this case they took 2024 and 2025 and they did like an average and that's how they get their accountability rating. >> Is this done based on like testing based on >> MCAST? MCCAST. Okay.
>> MCCAST >> only. >> It is based on the MCAST scores >> only MCCAST. Is that helpful? Do you have another question? >> No, I think I'm good. >> Okay. Thank you. Um, member Rousel,
>> apologies. Can I uh actually ask one more thing uh regarding the >> uh Yeah, I just wanted to try and get a more concrete answer. Um I know that you were uh gave gave a very detailed explanation about how this process is
conducted and the importance of this process. I think we were asking I don't want to presume but I believe we were asking mainly for uh what is the actual accountability rating as a statistic is it the percentage of students which meet grade level expectations is it like
>> oh thank you for that sure yes it is. So it's it's based on MCCAST. So it is it's a rating as to how Medford public schools met the targets that the Department of Education assigned
and then they're using MCCAST as the tool and how we met th that target and they are looking at all the tests from grade three up to grade 10. >> Uh I apologize maybe I was not uh clear enough. Uh what exactly? Uh
accountability rating is a percentage. It is a percentage of what? >> It's I'm sorry if I'm not clear. It's a percentage. So if you you can actually see this yourself. If you go on the Department of Education or you just go to Google and you type in Medford
accountability rating, it will bring up so that you can see there's a calculation there where they look at it's I'm going to have to go back and look. I don't want to like misquote the exact calculations, but I want to say it's like, you know, a percentage of how
we did last year and they take a percentage of how we did this year and they kind of average that together to give us our accountability rating. So they're looking over a 2year span. >> So it's has a temporal aspect. >> I'm sorry. What?
>> So there is a temporal aspect here. It is regarding improvement from pre prior years. I'm just trying to >> well so the importance of this so as we all know last year in November >> voters did um pass
that the MCCAST is no longer used as the sole reason for graduation requirements but MCCAST is still the tool that the department of ed is using to make sure that districts are providing grade level
standards. So the MCCAST measures how well our students are doing taking a test that is assessing their their capacity on grade level standards. >> Sure. Um
>> Dr. Talbot, I I don't want to put you on the spot, but if you think I there's any clarity to add, come on up. >> You don't have to. Yeah, I think that I think that did I mean I think that was a good answer. >> Thank you. >> Am I not?
>> No, I think that was a great answer. >> Member Russo. I I think the complexity here is that it's I mean I'm looking at it right now and it's there's achievement growth, high school completion, there's like
many things and many categories and many possible points you can earn and there's points earned and the waiting and it's they simplify it and call it a target, but it's not like your MCAT scores this
year versus your MCAT scores next last year. Um, >> yes, >> it's it's like most of the the the the Deathy data, they try to give us a number for something that is many many many
many numbers that they have a formula for. And um, you know, there's this this this axis that says percentage um, you know, percentages are supposed to be zero to 100. Nobody gets a zero,
nobody gets a 100. Um, and year-over-year that that is going if you were doing if everybody in the district did better, every student, that wouldn't be 100%.
Um, because unless every student went from wherever they were this year to a perfect M score MCCAST score next year, then I guess everybody would have 100% and the there would be no possible growth the following year. Um, so that's what you would get a growth percentage
of your growth expectation for next year would be zero because if everybody got a 100% on the MCCAST this year, you can't do better than that. Um, and this this becomes a real problem in certain very affluent communities where everybody
does in fact score very very high. It's very challenging. their their expected growth year-over-year is very low because there's no way to measure that anybody's learning anything more because their MCAT scores are so high. So, it's
>> we as a committee just talk about this and look at this number and >> mostly we're looking at the the lines and how they're going up and down, but what's behind it is very detailed and messy. >> Yes. Uh I have thank you to my fellow uh
representative. I've just reviewed the formula posted on um the website uh and I understand why you're speaking in such vague terms. Um >> yeah, but I uh so I apologize for my insistence on
that front. >> No, no, no. However, I think that um given the um far removed nature of uh this metric from an easily quantifiable
uh improvement or um achievement by our students, I um sort of would like to know your input on how you plan to interpret this data. Uh, additionally, uh, memberio
uh, mentioned interpreting uh, the the lines on the graph, which is another point of misleading. >> Yes. >> Given given that there's it's a bar, it should be bar. Uh, >> yeah. I guess for, uh, our
superintendent here, um, how do you sort of take this data and interpret it to like executive action that you want to take? Great question. >> Yeah. Right. I have So I would say that
MCCAST is just one measure. And so what this does is it allows us to see how we are meeting grade level standards from grades 3 to 10. It also shows us the areas in which we might want to dig a
little bit deeper and look at other data because having that like corresponding set would be important. So, one of the things we have in the district is the district-wide uh map and WA MAP test, which is another
data source that gives us information again on grade level standards, but it's nationally normed. And it allows us to dig a little bit deeper to see the areas and the strands in which students are
doing quite well. and then the areas that they may need a little bit more additional support. Another area of data that I think would be important to look at is also I'll just maybe say for like the high school level of which you all represent
would be what do our what do some of our course selections look like? What do AP classes look like? What do honors classes look like? What's the representation? what's the methodology, what is happening in those classrooms.
Um, it allows us to look at our district data in terms of benchmarks that the science teachers are using so that they can talk about how students are doing. MCCAST has some great reports that allow us to also dig down to the strands so
that we can see well maybe Medford Public Schools is doing great in this area of science but in this particular area of science across the board students struggled. So that's going to be an area for us to say oh okay well where does this particular
area in science come up in our teaching? Is it coming up in May? So, we're not having enough time to actually teach it. Is it coming up so that I don't know there was something that happened that impact that score um or that rating?
But between taking MCCAST and digging down there and then branching it off to our own data that we have internally to really look at like what's the story here? That's what's
going to help us be able to not only remediate or enhance, but show us what that path could be. Now, you have to be honest with me. Was that direct or clear enough?
>> Yeah. No, absolutely. Um okay >> I think I don't I know that you might want to talk here but I want to ask one more question which is um this was my understanding a statistic that you chose to include on the slides uh for your presentation.
What about uh this particular um data uh made you feel that it was indicative of the story you're trying to tell? >> Great question. For me, I think there was a lot of data I could do.
My presentation um wasn't necessarily on student data sets, but I really did want to paint a picture that we have some work to do in Medford. And so I think it is only one measure.
MCCAST is only one measure. But um our accountability measures should be higher than they are. And I just wanted to show on just a landscape that we to encompass what it was last
year, what it was this year, and just of the work that we need to do ahead. >> Yes. Uh thank you so much. Um I think drawing concrete conclusions
from um maybe a nebulous source such as this uh can be difficult. Um so um there's some level of concern on that front uh from my perspective but um I understand that there are alternative
sources of data which I would urge you to uh use as the basis for your uh analysis. It sounds like you already are to some extent, but just >> thank you. >> It's important to uh understand the statistics on which you are basing your
actions. >> Thank you. >> Just to make sure that I'm getting this right. Um so it sets overall trends based on like the MCCAST which is a very like vague sort of data set in general because it's like standardized testing
and then the sort of changes from that you use to target the more actually meaningful data sets to see where the actual problem is. This was this did not frame everything.
No, this was one data set amongst many data sets. So the other pieces were my like community community input, surveys, observations, um leadership meetings.
There were lots of data sets in what was informing my report and this was just MCCAST was just one of them. Thank you, Dr. >> Thank you. >> Um, member Russo, you all finished?
>> I hadn't started. Member Russo, >> thank you. Um, I just checked the budget and we don't have a budget for recruitment. Is there actually a recruitment budget sort of tucked in some other line item or do you plan to add one in the next budget
cycle? >> At this time, no, there is not. Um but it is part it's we are just starting to have conversations right now to inform the budget for fiscal year 27. >> Thank you. >> So that and professional development
>> right. Um I next unrelated uh the consistency thing. I really appreciated that because ironing out these differences between classrooms and schools, you know, when we talk about students that aren't having their needs met or where there's areas that need to
focus in the positive way looking at everything, um when everything is different, it you don't know where to look. And I think that um removing as much variation as possible so you can see those
differences >> um is a critical first step, a hard first step. Um but you know, I mean, as a school committee member hearing, one of the things I've heard countless times is
parents from one school or classroom who will be friends of parents from another school. Um you know what I'm saying? Um, and they'll hear about these great things happening at another school. And I'm not saying schools should all be the same.
Um, they certainly all have their own cultures, but they will be things that you're like, "Yeah, why wouldn't that be happening in every third grade classroom, for instance?" Um, and it's sort of just been a theme of something I've heard over and over for years. And
um I'm glad that that's a focus that you recognize as um being very important. Um I won't bemoone the MCCAST data, but I printed the highlevel reports for MCCAST for this year uh for the school committee form we just had. Um and it
was 2 and a half inches thick and that was the top level summary forms only. Um, I think it's important to understand that the MCCAST data you're given would take a staff the whole school year to understand and analyze. It is a shocking
amount of information that you are given. We don't even the the the state's website does not show even a fraction a tiny it shows a small fraction of the data that you actually have because you have the student level data, the teacher level
data, the school level data um in very very graphic detail. Um and obviously much of that can't be public because it's going to have student information. you can't have like an individual teacher's performance on the state website because that doesn't necessarily
mean what somebody might conclude. Um, but you have all that data and when it's released it's um, you know, it takes a lot of time and effort to figure out where to go. Um, and this whole consistency thing is going to be helpful
because um, you know, the when I printed out all of these reports to prepare for this uh, forum last week, one of the things that was noticeable was there was a a large increase in the dropout rate, also known as a large decrease in the
graduation rate. And if you looked, it was students of um, who were very likely immigrants. Um, and what was h what's been happening? They they've been disappearing from school. And when a
student disappears from school, they're a dropout. However, if they then reenroll in a school anywhere else in the country, we get a request for their transcript and they don't count as a dropout. They're a transfer. But if they go to another country and they don't ask
for their paperwork, they count as a dropout. And so dropout sounds like such a negative way of saying it, but as having dropped out. Um, so I think it's important to understand that like a huge increase in in a huge decrease in
graduation rates does not necessarily mean anything is happening in the schools. It it could just mean that students have stopped coming to school because of the stuff going on at the federal level that has made coming to school for many students or staying in the country for
many students just and their families not ex uh what they want to be doing or they have a choice about. Um, so I think it's important not to just look at these highlevel numbers and decide, you know, what they mean. And I think that's
really like we want to interpret the numbers. They're in our face, but like this, you know, Hispanic Latino number going way down. It it does not necessarily mean that the students that sat and took the test did
worse. Could be that they didn't take the test. It could be that MCCAST is required to be taken. Well, was required to be taken even if you didn't speak a single word of English and you showed up the day before MCCAST. You were sat down in front of a computer and expected to
take a test for which you could not even read. Um, and >> yeah, and I think too think it's important to note that attendance and participation are also part of that factor. >> Yeah. And so I think if we recall last year we had a school that actually
received um they went down in their accountability because in a particular subgroup there wasn't there were some students that elected not to take the MCCAST and so it is not just uh achievement data there are multiple factors that go into
creating the accountability data. Um, and at standing right now, Medford Public Schools has one person in the data department. >> Right. >> So, to your point about all of the reports about our compliance with the Department of Education,
um, that's an area that is is understaffed quite honestly. I mean, one person is kind of in charge of or responsible for doing all of the above. So, I just wanted to highlight that it is a sea of data and figuring out where
to focus is is in many regards a prioritization and and >> this report really helps me understand where you're going to look because the C is just too too much data. So, thank you. >> Thank you.
>> Thank you. There's no further questions. Thank you for the presentation. We'll move on to um we do not have any presentations of student council reports of subcommittees and no presentations of the public. So we have continued business strategic
planning update member Graham community outreach survey community input focus group surveys running October through January. >> Thank you. >> Yes. So the strategic planning subcommittee met last week and we talked
about um based on the resolution that we all um passed unanimously a few weeks back about how do we sort of be reignite our strategic planning process. So a lot of what Dr. Lucy has talked about today like will all fit nicely. Um but one of
the things that we've never done here from a strategic planning perspective is actually talk to the community at the beginning of the strategic planning process. So, I have lots of feelings about what a strategic plan looks like. And it starts, if it's going to be effective, it starts with um your
constituents, whoever they are, your customers, your constituents. Like, you have to know what they want before you can build a plan to achieve that thing. So, um, and as you all recall, like we explicitly put the strategic plan on
hold about a year ago, a year maybe a year and a half a maybe two years ago now. Um, because we were focused on the work that had to be done to advance the high school project. And then when it became clear that we were going to be making a superintendent transition, it
seemed like not the right time to ask a superintendent to um, ignite a strategic plan. And then we asked you to stabilize the district. Um, and then summer approached and so here we are. So this is like the first possible chance that we have had to sort of get this going
again. So we did meet and we talked a little bit about wanting to hear from the community in a variety of ways and um we came up with two like two things. One is a survey. So if you all remember that when we hired our last superintendent, we did a superintendent
survey. We did a survey about what the community was looking for. Um, and if you also remember, we um, back six years ago when the mayor took office, her transition planning team of which I was a part held a community focus group um
that talked about what does the community want to see from Metro Public Schools. So, we're going to bring those two things forward again as good tools to start to hear from folks. So, um, you all do have in your packet the proposed, um, survey. Um, I will note a couple
things. Um, the survey is trying to get at questions about our mission as a district as well as about who you are and as a respondent. um and to also get
some input um for all of us as we head into the spring of next year around um what people are looking for in a permanent leader of Medford Public Schools. Um so rather than trying to survey people on multiple occasions um
trying to sort of wrap all of that in and still be concise so that people will answer it. Um so the survey would go out soon um and there would be obvious it would obviously be translated. it would be pushed out in a variety of ways. Um, but the demographic information in particular is one of the ways that we
will like be able to keep tabs on who we're hearing from and who more importantly we're not hearing from as we um collect this information. So when we did this a similar survey about the superintendent search seven years ago,
we heard from a lot of people who look like me and not a lot of people who look like member and um we knew that at the time and we couldn't really do anything about it because we had to hire a new superintendent. Um but I think as we
have continued our work, we have better tools and strategies to connect to various people including some of the um the community liaison that work for city hall um our director of English learner services um and others. So we have to
figure out like how do we start to start to like reach those communities in a proportional way. So that's part of the hope for this survey is not just that we do it and we get information but that we can collect input from something that resembles our actual population and
demographics. Um the second thing that we'll do and I put in here um a proposed agenda is hold a series of focus groups where we can do a little bit more free form dialogue around sort of what comes next for me public schools from a strategic planning perspective. Um, and
the idea is we'll hold like five or six meetings some between now and say the end of January. Um, we'll try to do at least one on Zoom to capture the people who may legitimately not be comfortable coming in person to a meeting. Um, we'll make sure there's translation services available, but we're interested in in
hearing from people in that more um like flexible setting around our mission. Um and then the the idea once we're done with both of these things is we will have like a clearer picture of what that mission that working mission might be. Um and then we can say okay now how do
we how do we move that mission forward and how do we create a plan that has priorities around the work that we're doing. And so that's sort of where the the work that Dr. Glucy is doing um likely fits very nicely into that frame. But we'll see what the frame is and then
we'll make decisions about how to go forward. Um the other thing that I would mention is we are in discussions with the architect because that we will also be starting a big amount of community engagement activity for the high school and we are actually talking with them later this week and we've asked them to
think about like what would their projected timeline look like so we don't like survey everybody out all at once. Um, but are there places where there's some like natural overlap that would allow us to um reach a single group and
talk to them about a bunch of things at the same time? So, they were going to come prepared with some information about that later this week. So, whether it's five or it's six, exactly when they'll happen, exactly where they'll happen, we're going to wait for that information and then go from there. Um
so the only thing that I would say um the minutes did not come forward in this meeting so we'll have to give you the minutes um at our next meeting but the two big outputs from the meeting and the substance of the meeting were what you have in front of you around survey and the proposal for the focus groups. Um
and I would love it if this group said yes we think this is a good plan so that we can get moving because um every day seems like it burns up faster than the last um right now. So, um, we I think the goal again is for us to have some common language in short order around
where we're trying to go so that as we weigh the su the interim superintendent's performance and um what we want to do for next steps come July 1 that we're like looking at what our community has told us. We're looking at what we think the plans might be. We're
looking at the progress that's being made and then we're making informed decisions about the next leader of Memphis public schools. Um so any questions? Thank you member Graham. Um hearing and seeing none. Is there a motion for approval
by member Ol seconded by member Rinfeld. All those in favor I. All those opposed motion passes. Thank you member Graham. 2025-18 second reading of policy JJ if concussion polic
>> Yep. It's a concussion policy by member Rouso. Motion to wave the reading by member Graham. Seconded by member Rinfeld. Um all those in favor? All those opposed? We reading has been waved. This is our second reading on concussion policy. Um, the policy
outlines a purpose, pre-participation requirements and training, additional caregiver requirements, exclusion from play, return to play, athletic director responsibilities, athletic trainer responsibilities, coaches responsibilities, school nurse responsibilities, and record
maintenance. Is there a motion to approve the second reading by member Russo? Seconded by member Intapa. All those in favor? All those opposed? Second reading has um been approved. We have new business offered by member
Russo 2025-34 required quarterly update of the shore educational collaborative. Um, member Rouso, is this to get it on a upcoming agenda or is I know we do have packet in our member Russo.
>> I just need a motion to receive and place on file >> by member Rinfeld, second by member Graham. All those in favor. >> Papers received and placed on file offered by member Russo 2025-35. The school committee must vote on each
resolution from the report of the resolutions committee of the MASC. Members received the report as part of the Massachusetts Associations of School Committees joint conference 2025 materials they received via US Postal Service in September of this year. The
votes we'll take we take will guide the delegate on how to vote during the assembly which will be held on Friday, November 14th. The full language of the resolutions can be found. >> Thank you, member
Graham. Seconded by member Olady. All those in favor. >> Okay. >> No, thank you. >> Okay. And mayor. Yeah. Reading has been waved. Motion to approve by member Graham. Seconded by member Rinfeld. Member
Russo. >> Um. Yes. So, um I I'm going to assume everybody read it. Um these are the um the list of the So, this is there's a little confusion about this. This is a new process. I think this is our second or third year, but
second year, but these are the our professional associations resolutions. These are the the legislative priorities for them, what they try to get the state house to pass. Um, so we we tell our professional association what to focus on and because that list had become
untenably long um because they would be there forever until they finally got passed by the state house and as you know our state house is not exactly moving along quick on anything. Um so now they expire after 3 years unless
school committees um in a majority at the at the association conference in November um vote to reassert that these should be priorities. So I I certainly recommend that all of these things which we did in fact vote for when they were
originally presented um that we would support sending them all back up. >> Okay. And there's a motion on the floor ready for approval and already seconded. So all those in favor, >> all those opposed.
>> Paper passes. >> Um there are no reports requested. We do have a couple condolences. Unfortunately, the members of the member school committee express their sincere condolences to the family of Dan Tully. Mr. Tully was a passionate member of our
Medford community since joining the district in November of 1987. In addition to his time here as our senior night custodian, Mr. Tully also worked for many years as a night custodian at Meford High School. For 37 years, he made our city stronger from ensuring clean learning environments to
being a welcoming presence for our students, staff, and community members. We're saddened by this loss to our McGlin school community. We'd like to offer our sincerest condolences to the family of Mr. Tully during this difficult time. If we may
all please rise for a moment of silence. Thank you. Our next regular meeting will be on November 3rd here in the Alder Memorial Chambers, Medford City Hall in addition to Zoom which is the day before election day. Is there a motion to adjurnn
>> by member topa? Seconded by >> Oh jeez. Okay, member Graham. All those in favor? All those opposed.