p.m. there will be a strategic and capital planning subcommittee meeting held through remote participation via Zoom. The meeting can be viewed live on Medford Public Schools YouTube channel or via Medford Community Media on your local cable channel which is Comcast 98
or 22 and Verizon 4345 and 47. The meeting will be recorded. Since the meeting will be held remotely, participants may log in by using the link below. The meeting ID is 9297832 3964. Um,
and if you would like to submit questions or comments during the meeting, um, my correct email address is Jenny Graham, all one word, at medfordk12.mma. us. and you must submit um your first and last name, your Medford Street
address, and your question or comment. Um okay, I will call the role. Member Rouso is absent. Member Rinfeld present and member Brand present. Two present, one absent. And we'll be along in just a few.
Um, okay. So, I put the um the resolution at the bottom of the agenda just for reference, but I did some thinking, you know, I was doing some thinking about what we sort
of said we wanted to to talk through and think about. And what I was hoping we could do today is talk a little bit about like how would we put this into motion. And in my mind um I see this sort of in two phases which I think you know we we talked a little bit about
even in the um resolution that was sent to us. So the first phase I think is um to really think about what the like how to engage the community in some of the conversation around strategic planning that's never been done in Medford
before. So while we have had strategic plans in the past, um they never have started with asking the community what the community wants their schools to look like. So um to me that's like phase one and then you know phase two is like okay how do we how do we make that
happen? Like what is the action plan that takes us from where we are to where we want to be? Um, so I think like roughly what I was hoping to do today is talk a little bit about particularly that phase one and start to think about how we might do that. Um, I did um put
together a couple of things that we can talk about. One one is a survey um that could go out via email and the other is an agenda for um a series of focus groups. So, we can get to both of those things, but I wanted to pause there and
just find out if anybody had anything else they wanted to like immediately add to like the phase one public input part of the process. Those feel like the right places to start. Um, and I would just say there's a transition between one and two, which
is to articulate the vision and mission. Yeah. which the action plan leads to that and I think that's embedded but I wanted to call it out explicitly. Yeah, I think so too. Um and I think that
um when we talk about asking the community, you know, I think one of the things about the last strategic plan is it it really largely didn't address the mission statement. and I went to pull it so that I could put it into this document and I was like, "Wow, I hate
that mission statement just as much now as I ever have because I don't think it resonates." Like I don't like in my vision of like what this all looks like when it's done. We as a community need to own the piece that says this is the kind of school system we want to show up
for. And then you know the superintendent and the the team has to be able to say if you want us to do that this is how we will do that and this is how we'll get there. But it should be something that like resonates with
people and makes people think like yeah I belong here and I don't think our current mission statement does that at all. Um, a while back when I was like out trolling strategic plans, I happened upon I think it was Lexington's and
their strategic plan like led with like their revolutionary spirit and like it was very was very Lexington like it just like they the community jumped off the page at you in terms of like how they
perceived their schools. And I don't think it's impossible for us to do the same thing. Um, well, we've never really asked the community these questions, so that's like the first step. But I do think, um, you know, sort of focusing
some of this public input work on the mission statement, I think, could really help frame like where are we trying to go? And I think we have like so many wildly creative people in our community that um you know, we're not probably
going to say it's our revolutionary spirit because that's not who Medford is, but like there's there's somebody out there with like the clever catchy way to help people feel like they belong here if we can provide like the right the right sort of source material,
right? So that was like sort of one thing that came to my mind as I was thinking about this phase one is like the output like I I do want the output to be compelling and to to make people feel
like they want to be part of this district so that when somebody is like looking to buy a house in Medford and they happen upon the website and they read this they're like yeah that's where I want to send my kid. Um and I you know our current uh mission statement
certainly does not jump off the page like that. So I think there's like to me there's a couple of pieces. There's like what is our mission and then I think the other part is like and what would have to happen in the minds of the community for us to say like we have arrived at
that mission right like how how do we get there? Um and what are the most pressing things that the community thinks we should be responding to. So those were sort of two things on my mind. The other thing on my mind was like how do we how do we move
um quickly through this phase. I think what I feel from the community is like um people are interested in action and impatient when we're in like the exploratory stages of things um understandably. So, how do we how do we
like put a sequence of events together and a timeline that then allows us to to really come to some of these answers, you know, before too long and that would line up then to all the other things that that this sets off from a strategic
planning perspective. Um, one question I did have though, I think superintendent, you did a series of uh, entry sessions when you took over as the superintendent and I don't think we've heard like what
those results were yet. And I was just I was wondering if you could talk a little bit about that process and maybe some of the things you heard. And I don't know if maybe asking you to like put that on the upcoming agenda so that this like these things pair off together makes sense, but um I was just curious if you
could talk a little bit about that because obviously don't want to we don't want to keep doing the same thing over and over. Um but it would be helpful to know sort of what those were because I wasn't a I personally wasn't able to attend any of them. So
no, that that absolutely is fair. Uh, I actually have it on for the agenda for Monday. Um, perfect. Yep. It's coming Monday on the 20th. Um, and absolutely it's it's overdue. So, I
had uh over about 30 listening sessions um across the district um at each relative um school as well as some Zoom sessions. There were survey and input um
also provided. So I will be kind of detailing some of those broad uh themes that I heard through all of those sessions. Um but I also want to be mindful I think in this process one of
the things you know that you'll see in in my presentation is I do kind of have a slide about like what voices are missing. And I would say that it one of the pieces that I really would like to see this process get to is it
did not capture all the voices that make up Medford. And so when we get to that phase two, I think it would be really important to have some of these sessions in the community um and not at schools. I do want to be
mindful of the place in which we're living and that it also may not be comfortable for people to come out at night to places that aren't schools or aren't safe
places. Um, but I very much would think that I would like the conversation to also be are there spaces in um places of worship or places that families are living um common rooms or
common areas that we could hold some of these sessions so that we're getting uh a greater view and a and a greater voice. Um, I can kind of go through some of the pieces that I will be sharing
about on Monday, but uh, to me, I really wanted to kind of target in on like the stakeholders and how we're going to try and get as many voices as we possibly can. And I would say that that also includes students,
um, especially our secondary students. I'm sure I don't we haven't really talked about who we would be targeting with the survey. Um but I think student voice is another one uh to be captured. Um do you envision Medford community
input from people not directly involved in the school system or hypothetically involved in the school system? I would say especially right now since we are in the process the MSBA process in building a new high school and that
is an entire community endeavor especially for our flagship and the spaces that are encompassed within what those plans look like for the new high school around our early childhood center. Um we have our our pool and our
fields. Um I would say very much that part of that is all woven into the like the importance of where we stand right now in that process and that that's for the entire community. Yes. I also think that there's a subset
of I see the non-parent caregivers but of parent/c caregivers who have chosen for whatever reason not to send their children to Medford public schools. some of hearing that feedback of what some of them were in Medford public schools and
now are not and some of them never were in the district in Medford public schools. Yeah. To the point of looking to have people who are joining the Medford community broadly see the schools as a place for
them. 100%. data of any kind about students that are not in MPS? Like do we have census data about where um like could how could we invite
students that aren't in our realm or caregivers? We we do have census data and we also have data that we have to provide the department of education around Medford residents that do not attend Medford
public schools. And so we do have some data as to where those students are attending in the students attending report. And could we do we have contact information for those families or do we just know where they go to school?
We just know where they go to school, but I think we would need to um work with some of our community partners. And does that usually go well or
and cooperatively or not? I I know I've never like tried to do that kind of outreach before, so I just wasn't sure. Yeah. I only kind of have the anecdotal when when I encounter people. Yeah. And to be fair and and to clarify
uh for anybody listening, the the report, we are not reaching out to families. We're reaching out to the schools and the institutions that the students attend. That's where we're getting the data. So, and I think it may be part of the the
non-parent caregivers outreaches. If it's Medford, the Medford community more broadly, I think it might just be messaging of we want to hear from you whether or not you have kids in Medford public schools. Also, I think that first bullet point should be community spaces that are not
schools. Can just see us looking back at those notes going, "What did what did I think we say that?" Yeah. Okay. Um so we do have um
you know I think the question about like making sure all the voices are heard is an important one. Um and I think we have like our normal ways where we like if we're if we're talking about a survey, right? like we have our normal ways that we are going to push out a survey and
that's going to generate like a body of response, but I'm wondering if like in addition to how we would normally push those things out like either from the superintendent's office or even from the principles, like are there other
targeted ways that we need to reach families? Is there like messaging that comes from our EL department? Is there messaging that comes from our special ed department? Is there messaging that comes from our athletics department? Like, are there other places that have like lots of touch points with families
that we would want to say like we need you also to push this out so that we can collect additional information? Um, and do we, you know, at the elementary level, do we like, you know,
stuff backpacks with flyers? that doesn't work in middle school or high school. But, you know, I think that's sort of the like the reach question. I don't know that we've ever really solved like how do we get to those families that we don't hear from so much. And I don't know if you have any thoughts or
suggestions about that that we need to be planning for. I would jump in and say the community liaison in city hall have some connection there. Um, and I know I know they've been developing partnerships
with a couple of the elementary schools with um with McGlin and Mrs. Tuck. So, I was just going to say that um member Reinfeld, they're they are wonderful. Um and in addition I think uh
the P the PT some of the PTO's um a lot of them have their own newsletters and so I think if if we're including links in multiple you know principal newsletters as well as PTO newsletters and I think we do have platforms
um like when I think of talking points that is very helpful for some families because it's like a direct link not every caregiver has um email, but they do can receive notifications and even the direct links
to the surveys and the newsletters via text. So, I think um using that platform would be helpful as well. And I know Will is here and can probably speak to a lot of the other avenues, but I would
say the the additional messaging from some of the departments that Miss Mcniff can give for EL and Ms. Bowen can give for special education is helpful. Just any additional layer of context
uh for their families is I think helpful. I don't know if you wanted to add anything on will for other avenues that I may not have mentioned. No, I mean I just think trying to meet people where they are when we're trying to talk about big picture um about the
schools I think is always is always a good idea. Um I think if we kind of do some of the ways we do kind of on a consistent basis um we get a lot of the voices that we may have either already heard from or we have heard from a lot
throughout the last um few kind of weeks and months but um finding new ways whether it's even just putting like a quick QR code up in like a local business and just saying like Medford Public Schools wants to hear from you like tell like tell us your thoughts um and just tapping into the communities
like um someone mentioned earlier whether it's the athletics or the arts and just kind of already those built-in spaces that um have have that consistent dialogue throughout the school year. Okay. And um
it's been a while now, but we did we did some Zoom focus groups. What was that? I think it was like 21. Yeah, it was like 21. There was the co there were the co ones, right? And um
I do remember that we had uh we had interpreters join us um for those meetings to support families and we actually did have a number of people join us who were
able to like make use of the the interpreter services. Um, and to your point about safety, I I do think we probably need to think about a multi-prong approach. Like we need to give people the option to come to a Zoom session. And I think we need to give
people an option to come like whether it's one in every school building or in community spaces or on Zoom. like I think there do need to be like any number of um of sessions, but I I was
also sort of thinking about um whether like the ELPAC meetings and the um CPAC meetings if there is a way to like sort of run use one of their standing times where
they have sort of the attention of their commu respective communities to um be able to uh you know hold hold and host some some inerson sessions as well. Absolutely.
Absolutely. I I was able to do that for um CPAC um LPAC just in recent months. Um I think that's a little bit more of a challenge. I can speak with director McNiff, but I think um there's a lot of
reservations right now and so I can touch base with her. And I think what we have just seen in the past couple months is that some direct outreach has been more successful than uh scheduled
meetings. Okay. But I think 100% with their monthly meetings, I don't think that that would be a problem with some pre-planning at all.
I'm also going to put MFN, Medford Family Network on this list. Yeah. Hi, members. So, hello. Oh, my apologies for being late. That's okay. I'm also going to be in the car for the little bit. Okay.
We tried to convince him to just come to our meeting, but he's the chair at the shore, so they needed him more than we needed him. Judy calls, right? Um, okay. So,
I with the help of a friend um did put together some potential questions we might ask in a written survey. I don't know if you if um we want to take a look at that. What I'm sort of envisioning in
terms of like the report out of this is to be able to say to the school committee, we want to do a survey and it looks like this and we want to do these sessions and the sessions look like this and we're working on the schedule and we want you to participate with us to help facilitate these things and we'll show
you how to do that and we'll get the we'll get the schedule put in place and then we'll release like a a list of opportunities to come join us at these Thanks. Yeah. Yeah. And that that my question was around actually my question was if
we need an outside facilitator on any of this. Um I think I can I think we can script it in a way that we don't. Um, and I actually went back to um, I like hopped in my time machine
from before I was on the school committee and we held sessions like this um, right as I was taking office. It was part of the transition planning um from the mayor's office and we held a session at the McGllin and I went and found that
report and at the end of the report um there was like a a page about like here's what people said about the session and one of the like comments was like please do more of this. So I I it was really wellreceived and I thought people were really excited and energized
about it. So I think if we follow that same kind of model I don't think we have to have an outside facilitator. Um and I think outside facilitators can be very useful but I think in the
context of like the community telling us like what kind of schools they want to have like that is a community conversation and I think we could manage it just fine without that. But I would say that feedback came up in every single session I had
with staff and caregivers that they very much like to have a forum of discussion. Yeah. So do we want to look at the survey first? Yes. And I think I think to be really
clear that this is about setting the direction and future looking um because to the I mean I think there's a I saw there's a question about what's not working well and that's really important um but making sure people feel safe in
providing criticism. I know sometimes people don't feel comfortable talking to the implementers of things but I think particularly if we can have paired facilitation um and I think um you know when we figure
out how these groups get organized um we certainly we could take the approach that we want like just the school committee to participate in the like facilitation role. Um we could take the
approach that we want to just pair like we want there to be some pairing off of people so that we don't have um administrators on their own without somebody from the school committee. And we may there just may be topics where we say like
administrators not on these topics so that um people feel like they can speak up. Like I've had people say to me, "Oh, I wanted to say something about this thing, but I like I I just can't because
I would have to say to this person and I have too many other things happening with that person right then, you know, right in this moment to like add something to the conversation, you know, with that person. So, um, you know, we can try to like protect those like more
controversial topics as well if we feel like that is necessary once we look at the agenda. Um, okay. So, I will show you and I um, can you see my screen? Okay, Paul, I know you can't see it, but what was the question?
Can you see my screen? I can. Okay, perfect. that if I don't look at the road, I can read it. Okay. Well, don't do that. Don't do that. Um, so I did make a comment because we uh when we did the
superintendent search committee. Um, oh, I I remember it vividly. Okay. We did take the time to get the demographic questions right and it was the source of much discussion. Um,
yes, I have all that still. Okay, great. Because I was like, I'm not going to go like that far back in my time machine um to try to dig up those documents. But I think there are some demographic questions so that so that we can say like are we there yet? like are we
getting feedback that is consistent with you know who Medford really is? Um and um you know with the superintendent search the answer was like no like not even it was a big old no. I saw that data as well. It was not
yeah it was a big old no. Now I I am hopeful that this would maybe be a little different. Um and many years have passed since that happened. Uh and we do a lot of surveying now like
we as a you know society we do a lot of that now. Um and certainly as a district we we do more of that. So um at least that can give us directionally like who are we missing so that we can then do some like successive outreach if we need
to which I expect that we will. Um okay. Yeah. So sorry, memor. Yeah. Um, you know, and also like unlike with the superintendent search where we, you know, we had like a deadline and an urgency that was immovable. Um, taking
the time to find and get community input is something I think we can do here. Agree. Um so in addition to the demographic information um question one I um I asked was what is
your connection to Medford public schools? So parent or guardian, student, staff member, community member um and question number two, what school or schools are you affiliated with? Um so I think we can like add to this list here.
Um but just trying to like orient so that we are particularly hearing from students, community members etc. I think you have to define Sorry, go ahead Paul. Uh never mind. I could I took a moment to read and I got my answer.
I think community member is too vague. Is this a Medford school community member somehow? Is this a Medford resident? is yeah, I would change it to just like Medford resident. You may also want a field for we may
want alumni. Alumni alum whatever that plural or singular is I use alum because I don't like the gendered Latin. But what are we missing? We won't ding you on the formatting.
It's Microsoft Word. I'll fix it. But yeah, I'm like, why does everything move around so badly? Anyway, um Okay. And what schools are you affiliated with? We would obviously like have all of our schools listed so that if we're triangulating and we're getting
lots of feedback from one school community and not others like we know how to target and we're not cons I don't know that I think we're covered with student outside of MPS. Do we want to know if somebody's at a charter school
or a um parochial school or a private school or for those non-NPS schools? Is that is that relevant data? I think it is. I think it is. I would just put other in a place for people to write it in instead of us trying to divine that
lengthy list. And to member um Reinfeld's point before, you also could have MFN, some affiliation with MFN that's not in our schools yet. Oh, yes. Future MPS. Future
So the next section, um, the way I the way I drafted this survey was to like try to warm people up to the questions about the mission statement because I think if you just like go in cold on a mission statement, it's really hard for people to correct
tell you what they like about it. So, I sort of in the reverse of the way I would do it in person, but um or like from the top to the bottom, but um you know, what are the top three priorities you believe the district should focus on over the next five years? Some questions
about how important different things are to people? Um and then in section three, what's working well? What needs improvement? What other thoughts do you want to share? So I'll stop there and
ask for any questions, comments, etc. I'm trying to think if it's if there's out of school time if if that's too broad because it covers athletics and arts which also happens in the schools
and afterchool care and and And how how granular, you know, is academic excellence do we need to get into literacy and STEM and and well my thoughts on that are that you
know different people will come at these questions from different backgrounds of knowledge and So, and different points of uh um what's the word I'm looking for? Different lo locus
of uh control, not control, but power, whatever the right word is. So, you know, I think that some people might come at it and be like obviously academic excellence, that's the entire point of school to some people. Um and
we want to allow them to express that. Um, and then other people are going to be from, you know, their own experience of special ed or literacy and are going to be like this is the thing. Uh, and so I think it's going to be hard for us to get the questions so that we don't get
such a broad set of answers. I think that's going to be challenging. I think in the analysis afterwards that's going to be a huge lift. Yeah, I'm wondering if there is a starting point here of these are the
these are the thing unfortunately I don't think we can look at the past strategic plans to say these are the things that have been prioritized in Medford's schools. How are how important are these things to you and what's missing?
But I want I want some kind of grounding. You know, I the other thing that I went back and forth about when I was trying to pull this together just so we had something to talk about was this like rate on a scale of one to five. Like you
could just say five, everything's important and that actually it tells us something, but would it tell us more if we asked people to like tell us in order of importance how this
list rather than rate? Yeah. Yeah. or or or make them pick a top five and not pick the rest because people will you know that everybody picking five for something like the the problem is is that different people will
approach that from different with different methodologies and I think the results will then be kind of useless in a way. Um, so you know, here's the 20 options. What are your top five? Makes them, even if they give, you know, even
if they were going to say they're all their number ones, it makes them decide what's the most important for them. And then that in aggregate across the other people filling out the survey will start to have meaning. I would way to tier things of to say
this is a top priority. This is a Sorry, Will. No, I was just going to say some of the surveys we've done um while we've looked to hire new administrators is we've like kind of listed things like this and said select your top three um and then people can kind of choose more
than three if they want to like on a Google form especially and that was really impactful data that really narrowed like as then we would bring the discussions to some of the committee members and be like this is what the community is kind of prioritizing um in this process. So that's that's
just something that we found especially the survey the committees that I served on it was pretty helpful to at least start the the conversation that way. Yeah. And the question before this is what are your top three, right? Or maybe that's the second question. Yeah.
Yeah. I would say a lot of this overlaps with the data that I will be presenting on Monday. The only one that really stands out to me as like a continuous theme that's not explicitly called out here is
just communication overall. Communication, communication methods. Okay. Um and then um this section four um is sort of my
attempt to start to like open people up around the mission statement. I had to like go find it because I was like nobody's going to know what it is. So um that so I put that in here. And the first question is are you familiar? Do you do you know about this? like was today the first day you learned about
our mission statement because that says that says something right there. Um the next question, do you connect with this mission statement? Does it speak to you in a positive way? Um in your own words, what does this mission statement mean to you? And the mission statement reflects
the kind of school I want to send my children slash the children of Medford to. um agree like an agree strongly agree kind of situation. Um so that was just like me
trying to and then what suggestions do you have for improving or updating the mission statement? Um, so that was sort of my attempt to like pick at like how like starting to open up like this doesn't resonate with me at all,
but maybe that's just me and everyone else is like, Jenny, this is fine and we don't need to be revolutionary in our spirit or in our mission statement. And if that's the case, then maybe that's the case. But um I would just sort of be interested in
starting to pick at like how people like react to this as a as an input to the series of sessions we want to hold. Yeah. So this feels like slightly too many questions about this statement that we think we're going to be rewriting.
Um, I think I think interrogating it is a good thing, but I'm wondering if it's similar to the last bit. What what about this statement resonates with you? Where is it lacking?
I know you're not asking me, but the 21st century education thing has got to go. Um, and this mission state I do like that that reflects the kind of school I want to send. It could also be this strongly agree
agree neutral disagree strongly disagree. Um, and oh, I lost that. I lost the follow on to that. send my children to I have to come back to that. Sorry,
someone else was talking. So, go ahead. So, I was thinking like maybe we could remove this question um this current number 10. So, what does this mission statement mean to you? Like, and just say like do you know
about it? Do you does this speak to you in a positive way? And maybe we don't need that question. This mission statement reflects the kind of school I want to send my children to. And what suggestions do you have? Like it could be just that simple.
Where's the self fit on my page? Do we do we care if people are familiar with this statement? I that just that speaks to how well we've communicated it out or not. I I'm not sure that feels like a looking back question
or maybe can you tell me more about why that that was important to ask? I guess for me like you don't want to assume that like maybe it's just like no I've never heard of
this but it sounds good I like it even the 21st cent right like versus oh yeah I see that on the walls of the high school and I roll my eyes every time like those are two different like ways to like come at like
familiarity right like so I think it's just and it's a yet like yes, no, try to keep some of those questions super simple. So, it's like don't overthink it. Either you do or you don't and then like move, you know, move along.
So, that was my thinking when I put it together, but um to other suggestions The only thing I wonder about is maybe like the format of it too. Um, are you familiar? Read through the whole thing. Yes. No. I think some of that you're going to
probably capture in nine like in the following question. Um I do think that the most like just the data that is going to be really important that's going to drive a lot of the work ahead would be what is now on
this as 9 11 and 12. Um and I'm really hoping we get people to fill in 12. Yeah. Um, well, we could say something like we
are considering. And then you could just that could be just like a statement that leads in to these three questions. I think that's a bit cleaner. But something like uh suggested themes
or items instead of suggestions or because that could give them a little instead of them trying to write a new mission with their you know ideas or adjustments or something like that. Is the question for improving or is the
question to say what would make you agree more strongly in question 11? Is is it to say what what would you change about this mission statement for it to Yeah. What additional elements would make you feel more positive or something
like that? Yeah. Well, not even just I'm not looking for additions. I also want you know I want to from the Pauls who say 21st century feels outdated that I don't yeah I think we can tweak the wording a
little bit but Mhm. And please don't forget to hit save. I don't know if you've done that or not. Did we be transcript? I think I'm on autosave. So, okay, just we've all been burned.
Um, so I can clean this up and ha ask uh meo to add the demographic questions and um would be happy to collect any other input once you see the cleaned up version and then we can plan to share it
on the agenda um for the committee to provide their input to on Monday. Yeah, I think question four is going to need some cleaning up. I think Yeah, we need to find the right balance between laundry list and
hitting all the Yeah. Yeah. We'll take a crack at it and let you know and I'll I can think although I guess open meeting law we can't both there is there anything that you're
thinking about right now on for this list? Yeah. What about belonging or some way to say that? I love that. There's some signs around that have something to do with that.
Um, is safety on there? Not explicitly. Facilities and infrastructure are Yeah. Yeah. But safety is both physical safety
and correct emotional. Yeah. It's a hard one because what do we mean? How do we interpret it? Where where does this particular data go? What what's going to happen with the feedback to this question? Is this where
our pillars and values come? Is this where our priorities come out? What what are what where are we trying to go with this question? I think for me it's like it's an input potentially to some of the like inerson
sessions just to like aid in our preparation but also like not everybody's going to take the time to come to something in person and I want to give people the space to say I'm not going to come to anything because I
can't or I won't or I don't want to or I'm not comfortable but I do want want to tell you that the like single most important thing to me is this and um you know these things these things matter to me. I I am paying attention even if I
can't be physically present. So it's sort of a way to give people a little bit of an opening um to participate in this process. Mhm. Um, so the person I was just getting a
ride home uh to from uh my shore meeting actually was a researcher in surveys and stuff and she's not in the car anymore, but um she did mention that um having whether it's you know gift cards
or Medford swag drawings um and then you know publicizing that each time we you know who, you know, Sarah S. from West Medford won this for filling out this survey. Um, that those things can drive
uh responses quite heavily even though it won't cost much. So, uh, that's just I think you know I know like with the superintendent search we we I think we didn't do that and I think we
relied heavily on I don't want to say guilt but frankly that's you know one interpretation of the uh do you feel responsible to having input to this uh and um I worry about and I I
think the results there kind of highlighted the inequitable use of that approach. Um so just a thought that I thought I should transmit because um I don't know how much swag would cost, how many drawings we would
do, but I think that if we could uh do something like that that kind of is a hook to get people to fill it out, that might be helpful. Yeah, I was going to mention that. That's what we do in
in surveys kind of across. She also mentioned something else enough to do. Yeah, she she mentioned something else that actually I didn't understand until just a second about, you know, getting people to fill it out early means
they'll be in that drawing longer and have a better chance of winning. So, um Yep. You know, so that that's just I was a little confused when she said that, but now I understand. Every week we'll have five lucky winners. So register early
for more chances to win. Okay. Any other thoughts or questions? Yeah. So the the thing that we haven't talked about yet that came up in in the resolution to prompt this meeting is questions around the leader the district
leadership to provide that basis for appointments um and the mandate for the person in the superintendent role to really feel guided by the community and supported by the community in that. So,
I'm not sure if that's coming up or if that's part of, but we have tied this opportunity as a chance for the the community to to weigh in both on what the mission and milestones are for for
the district, but also for what they're looking for in district leadership. So I think we would want to um provide some context for the survey, right? Include the presentation from the
superintendent that she's going to share with us on Monday. Yeah. And I will just note as you're as you're typing that right some of the this behind the resolution is in speaking with the Massachusetts Association of School Committees and talking about what
happens when when appointments happen very quickly as they did in this case and h and being able to ground the work in a community process.
Um, and that that this is often a good opportunity for the district to articulate values, which in our conversation, we my conversation with our mask representative was saying, you know, she she said to me, "Well, when was the last time the community weighed
in on this?" And I said, "Well, it's it's long overdue." And so being able to articulate that Yeah. And I I will acknowledge the awkwardness of this conversation given who is in the room right now, but I think it's really
important to note that this is a bigger process and quite fair. on what those questions might be. Um, so what I'm what I'm trying to do is not
I I want this I want it to be forwardlooking and not necessarily what has worked and not worked in the past with le with leadership. And so
I think some of it is similar to what we've done in our hiring of other leadership roles of right what are the the things that are most important the core if if we as a district have
these core values this is what that looks like in practice. This is this is how I feel supported as a staff member. This is how I feel supported as a family.
I think it's a little bit challenging because many people don't fully understand what the what the role is. Um, but I think I do want to know
the most upfront question is what are you what what are you looking for in a leadership? possibly these are the qualities that are that are most important to me. Can I jump in, please? So, I I I really appreciate you got to
where you did on this. Um because I was going to jump in and say, but most people don't know what these jobs are. Even if you were to give the job description, they really don't know what they are. Um and you know one of the things that I
am always uh uncomfortable with is uh is you know it it'd be like saying the teachers are the only ones who can hire the directors that they will report to or the principles they'll report to or or the
only people who can hire the superintendent are the people who work for the superintendent. and cuz they're the only ones who will actually know what that person does dayto-day for real um or what they want them to do. Uh and
it's a lot like what do you want in your primary care doctor versus what do you want in your surgeon? And I want my primary care doctor to have exceptional bedside manners and to be compassionate. And I don't care if my surgeon is a
psychopath. Are they a good surgeon is the only qualification. So, so um I think that's what makes me nervous about asking people what do you want in this leader of this particular kind considering the vast majority of the
people of Medford will not be educators themselves. Uh I think the educators answering this question will have a very good and interesting set of answers which I think are very worthy of calling and separating and being like okay this is what we're hearing from the educators. I
think that is super meaningful. Um and I think the non-educators I'm not saying their opinion won't matter but I think it has a different I don't want to say waiting a different uh value not more or less just a
different value. Uh, and um, you know, it this is one of those things. It's like like the surgeon versus the primary care doctor. You know, like people might say they want to have a friendly surgeon. Um, but it
turns out they don't. Um, so this is really a really hard area to nail down because also like people's experiences with district leadership, whether as students or parents or
employees. Yeah. In other places or with previous superintendent will have a big effect, I think, on what they want. you know, when we had the gun clip thing, uh, I remember Glenn Coocher said, "A third of the people are there for the reason that
you're holding this event. A third are there to air grievances that may have nothing to do with anybody even in the room." Um, and I don't want to repeat what he said the other third were for, but you know, I don't our current
superintendent, a future superintendent, like they're not the superintendent that the kids who have kids, the people who have kids in Medford now experienced. Um, and so it's just very very challenging for me to understand what we
get in that regard. Um, that's useful because this is going to be a lot of data to not data, it's going to be qualitative stuff that has to be mowled over and understood and interpreted.
I just pulled some questions with the help of um Copilot and I have no pride of authorship of any of these questions. Um, but now we have something to react to.
So curious what you think about these. And I was I was pulling up the last set of questions which you know it was significant or current issues which is actually what this is this is asking here. I feel a little on the fence about this
question. Um, not sure I want I don't bad answer to this question either. I don't know. I just think it's it's important and the Medford community is the Medford community and Yeah, exactly. We want someone who can
work with the Medford community like that. Mhm. about this member or so. Do you need to read you the questions? Uh, no. I'm just sitting down at my home
office. Um, so I don't have a chance to see it yet, but give me a moment. Okay. Um, I'm looking at the past the at the last superintendent search. There's a question, what are the strengths of the district that you want to see continued
by the new superintendent? I think that's a really strong question that taps into both of these points and potentially what are the
what are the areas that you feel that the that the new superintendent most needs to address? Although I think you've And what are the most urgent areas for improvement?
Maybe there might be a better phrasing than that, but it's kind of a different version of what's most important to you. I feel like this question is maybe a little
too in the weeds personally like it's it's fine. It's sort of inoculate innocuous but I don't think it tells us so much. Do to Dr. Galucy's point about
communication being important. Good point. I think this isn't quite the question, but I think it's a good point that I mean it's a select all that apply. So I I would agree that was the feedback. I
think I do just from the pieces that I heard people like to have that the options of the followup even to the regular correspondence via email. People really liked having the forum to be able to have discussion. So I I think it's
important for data. Yeah. I'm I'm Oh, there it is. Okay. Yeah. What was your question you had for me, Jenny? Did you have it? Do you have any thoughts about these questions?
No, I think I I mean question above the current question one, I thought resolved my uh concern that nobody knew what the superintendent did. Um because I I think that that it's not open-ended. So, I like I like
that. Okay. And I would swap your second two and I would put strengths and urgent areas back to back and put the communication after. uh to the point is there another is
there a specific question for educators and it doesn't necessarily have to be a branching survey but if you are an MPS educa because I do agree that's feedback that's really well wouldn't I would expect um
that they would answer these two questions And then at the top though, we're identifying what role they are when they're completing the survey. Yeah. Um and we said um
student, staff member, mentor, resident, MPS alum. There questions about that. So for the focus groups, um, all right, just one more. I know member Russo, you're going to go back. You're going to pull the demographics. Is that
this question of the the graduate of Medford public schools parent guardian at this school that school all the other schools English we also have had questions about parent guardian of a child in the English language learners receiving 504 accommodations all of those
all of those those are the demographics we're talking about not the oh you're muted well Can't you read lips? Just kidding. Um, I'm looking at them right now. Um,
and no, we don't ask those questions in the demographics. Okay. I'm looking at the the super superintendent search demographics and it includes things like um parent or guardian of a child receiving
special education supports and services 504 participating in athlet Yeah, there's a whole this question six question six I want to say it's from survey monkey. Okay. Question six I have is your
combined household income. Okay. I can I can send you this as well. You just send those to me and I will include them. Yeah. Because it's got education professional educator in Medford public schools. Medford residents with no children in Medford. Anyway,
yeah, if you send those to me, I can add those in. Okay. Yeah. I think I'm looking at just the straight like demographics like the federal government would have. Yeah. And then I have I have what neighborhood.
Yeah. I am less concerned about that. Yeah. I have there's there are a bunch of demographics. Language you speak at home, how many children. I'm not sure we need this quite this level of detail,
but Oh, yeah, there's neighborhood. Yeah, these were based off of um I think we should keep this because then we can use them to compare across other surveys we do. And these are best practice at least at the
time of writing this. Yeah. Yeah. This is from 2018. Yeah. Great. I will send that after this meeting. Let's keep moving. Okay.
Um Okay. So, I also put together an agenda. Um it's a twohour session. Um, and I can sort of walk you through it at a
high level. So, we don't have to like words smmith every like little piece of this, but essentially um, we would welcome people and we would use, you know, we would kick it off and give some, um, some framing, right? Like
this is part of a multi-phase process. We want to focus first on what we want our district to look like and what our goals are and then we'll you know talk about um you know how we will like make progress towards those goals. Um
we'll introduce the the facilitation team whoever that is and um we'll spend some time talking about the mission statement. So we'll talk about like here's the mission statement. tell us what you think about it. Like
what is what are your reactions to the mission statement? And we will ask people to like write down their thoughts on stickies and we'll have people in groups. They'll write down their thoughts and we'll like organize like what are the positive thoughts, what are
the negative thoughts and then we will have people work in small groups to say like go ahead and discuss and like tell us what a compelling mission statement would sound like to you. So we start to generate some like creativity
and some ideas and that kind of thing. Um distinguishing between mission statement and vision statement. I just do notice that a lot of the other district strategic plans kind of have both. I think the vision comes out of the conversation and the mission is more of
a respond to. But yeah, um I think those are like I always find it hard to keep people in one bucket or the other. Um and I think the answer is like both of those things are going to happen at the same time and that's okay. like you
can sort of collect all that information and then be like, "Okay, now like what part of this is the mission? What part of this is the vision?" Um, but being like sort of pressed for time, like you would have to sort of have the time to to step people through like what goes
where if you wanted to like get to that level of detail, which I felt like we're like it's a little it's pretty packed as it is with um two hours. So, okay. Um, so then we'll switch gears and
we'll ask everybody to take a few minutes and to think about like what are five things we would need to do well in order to realize the mission statements that we were just talking about and working on together. Um, everyone will write them down and then we will on
their sticky notes and then we they will come up to like a big whiteboard essentially and put up their sticky notes and then we will ask the whole group maybe there's two groups depending on how many people are in the room but then we will ask the whole group to work
together quietly silently to categorize the sticky notes which is a process where everyone is at the board everyone is moving things around. Everyone is saying like this goes here, this goes here, but we're doing it quietly so that people are having to like really engage
with the process instead of like getting sort of distracted in the chatter. Um, we'll ask people to like step back and take a look at it, right? Um, see what they see everything that's there. We'll facilitate like a walk
through of that information. We'll give everyone a break. Um, and then what we'll do during the break is we'll set up these like these groupings in different areas around the room. So if there is a grouping that is like after school um we'll take all of the after
school stickies and off they will go to the after school sticky group and when people come back from break we'll ask them to like pick a spot to go sort of check in on and work with. And we'll dive a little bit deeper into that topic
around like what is it that um you know what don't they see that maybe they were surprised they didn't see? Um what surprise them about what they see and ask each group to give us a little bit more input on like why this thing is so
important to them. Like why did they if they're at the after school like board, why are they there? Like what is it that has to work for them in order for them to feel like we're achieving the mission statements that we were talking about,
whatever that ultimately becomes. And um specifically about after school, so that there's like some richer data there than just like a bunch of sticky notes about things that people wish we could do and don't do. And then um that's like that's
the end. So 2 hours everyone and we're done and everyone goes home. Um the prep, the idea then would be like hosting several of these sessions around the community and being able to like aggregate all of that information.
Um and potentially like ask some of the like most engaged people to work with us to help us author like this setup to the strategic plan around what is our what is our mission statement and and how do we start to clearly talk about that and bring that back forward to the
community. So that's the the premise is that this is like a collection of an input collection opportunity um for the community to be part of this process. And then once we get through this, we get to phase two. Now we're talking
about okay like how would we do how would we do this? It's like if this is where we want to go and these are the priorities, how what is the actual plan that would take us from where we are to this place that we've described? And that's the work that comes in that
is like less about the community telling us what how to do that and more about um the superintendent telling us how to do that. So we're so we get to so we as the community are clearly saying here are our priorities and here's our go here are our goals and now superintendent you
tell us like how are we going to make that happen and what do we need to do to line up to that vision. So that's the idea. Can you scroll up a little bit to the I guess it's the sorting. This is a very awkward place for the
need to do well because a piece that I had been thinking about of to say if these are our if this is our vision, if these are our values and our priorities, what does that look like? paint a picture for me of what
that looks like. I think that's a slightly different approach than what's described here. Got a mission statement. We need to do these things. Well, I think my a concern is I'm not sure
depending on the group that this is, they may or may not know what it is that needs to be done to get there. I'm wondering if it's jumping a little bit too far into well what does a school district do?
What what does the administration do? Or maybe maybe that's just the phrase maybe that's a different way of phrasing what I'm saying of what does this look like in your daily life? And actually, let me step back a bit and ask, are these focus do do we envision
these focus groups as being demographic specific that we've got all educators in the room doing this or is it going to be a mix of caregivers and educators recognizing of course that some of our educators are also Medford caregivers, but are we are
the focus groups focused around who's in the room as well? I think they I think they could be organized like in subsections like if for if there's a
focus group that we see like lots of um educators at like we could group people right like we could group educators and caregivers separately. Um, some of that like really you sort of have to respond
in the moment to who shows up. Yeah. To say like, okay, this is how we're gonna like deal with the crowd that we have. And some if it's a like a big session where you have lots of input, it does make sense to sort of like group people. Um, but you may have a really
small session where everybody working together is like uh has its own value, right? Yeah. I'm just thinking academic excellence maybe looks different to someone who's in the classroom every day than it does to
the parent. I would say to inform this work, we would need a cross-section of stakeholder in involvement here and and you know depending on to member Graham's
point like who's showing up. I think there are other opportunities that we are going to be capturing voice um because I also think students have a a a stake in this as well. And I thought I remembered earlier on there
there being a line about examples too like uh was there there's something in here that stated about um examples from other districts? Yes. Um where did I put that?
Just to your point, Member Graham, I think depending on where people are coming from, um, an exemplar is always, excuse me, good to have on hand. It's right here when when we when people
break into their groups. Oops, sorry. When people break into their groups. I mean, I I think it would be ideal if we had different groupings, but I think the the challenge is is the timing. You know, who's available when is just not
going to, you know, we'd have to have so many more sessions if we had an educator set of times and a parent caregiver set of times. And it's just I think we will have to discuss how we're going to handle um non-English speakers. We want
to make sure that they get support, but we can't have an army of interpreters there in case somebody shows up because that's going to be very expensive. So, um, well, that's that's an accommodation
question that is and yes, people are welcome to drop in, but if there's anything we can do to make this session more accessible, whether it's gluten-free food or Yeah. Yeah. language translation or
100% and I also think that where we're going to have this inperson session matters and I think um member Graham I don't know you had mentioned Zoom but I think that a Zoom option might be beneficial
and for some of this work and I think we can talk about we've done it a couple ways in terms of having people here for interpretation live and in the moment and also in like separate breakout groups where the whole
thing can just be in their native language. So I think I would like to make sure that I'm having those conversations um with Miss McNiff and our community liaison to see what that like what the best approach would be to
gather that input. Yeah. And I do think um this isn't just one session. I think this is several sessions, right? Like how how we do this like you know some people are
like have this stuff on the weekend because that's when I can go and other people are like do not have this stuff on the weekend because that is when I cannot go right and and every and everything in between like it's you know it's sort of a challenge. So, um I was
thinking we would want to have like five or six sessions. I don't know if how that number feels to all of you. Um but I I mean
it seems small to me that number. I know it's a lot of work. Um but about quickly. I don't know. I mean, maybe we do five or six to start and then like at three
we get together and decide do we need to add more. Um I don't know. I mean, we also have to acknowledge that like if we get excellent participation, we're going to need the the analysis is going
to be a massive task. AI policy allows us to expedite that work. That's a good point. There's I I think there's one of the things we also find in surveys is there
you do hit a point when you start getting the same answers over and over. Um and I don't know how many sessions of this it takes to get there. I I'm not sure five and six is too few. I think we
may see similar pieces. I also think that maybe the Zoom focus groups if this is very sticky note and I love sticky notes. Um, if this is very sticky note based, the Zoom sessions might be about just going deeper into specific
priorities that came out of the larger survey or that came out of these sessions is to say everyone prior everyone said this is important, but they didn't want to work on it. And so that's where we're having
we're going to have a conversation about this topic that that came up that needs more fleshing out. So I I think the Zoom sessions are potentially different than this that they're about say more
than was on the survey. this is your chance to to go deep and engage with other people and have a conversation and hear what it means to them and does that change how you see this priority?
I would just respectfully ask for one to for at least a small number to be just Zoom because I think we may have I really want very much to try to capture as many voices as we can and I do think we have in light of the current context
some people that may not feel comfortable participating if these sessions are in the evening and I think Zoom um is an option that I'm hoping hoping we can get some voices to participate if they're able to do it
from home. I I also think um and I don't forgive me if I missed this because in my transition out of the car, but it would be helpful to get the demographic survey results for folks at these as well.
Um because um Erica's point about you know we start getting the same results um is important but if we're getting the same results and it's because we're getting the same people same demographically the same people
that doesn't mean it's time to stop that means it's time to shift and right talk to different people. Absolutely. Yeah. But don't keep having the same conversations. I I agree that that's you know there's only so many hours in the day. Yeah.
Okay. Yeah. So to to your point I think this is a this is a useful framework and who who engages with it will inform what happens next. And because where
again this is leading is that synthesis transition between what you initially described as stage one of engaging the community and phase two of creating an action plan. That synthesis
comes out of this. It comes out of the survey and it comes out of the Zoom focus groups that won't have I mean I guess there's there's jam boards and educators can tell us all about how to engage people on Zoom in this
interactive way. Um but I think also technology challenges can be a barrier as well. Yeah, for sure. though is is about the conversation and the either the targeted questions or the
tell me more that you couldn't put in writing. That's an important component. this this what you've described here is the doing the work and I think I just want to make sure the Zoom component as well is about hearing
more voices there. There's hearing what people have to say and there's doing the work of turning it into that mission, that vision, that action. Yeah. And I think what I'm envisioning
is um that we would hold these sessions and then we would have another subcommittee to like get that parsed and into some sort of
like a working draft that could then go back to the school committee. So does that is that a natural transition to start talking about timeline timing? Yes. Um,
I will also say that I we'll have more information coming soon about the timeline for community sessions around the high school project. Um,
but I think the January deliverable is primarily about work that is happening inside the district with the ed plan. So, I'm not anticipating tons of communityoriented meetings
between now and the end of January, although I could be wrong about that. The high school project for the high school. Um, and I do think timing wise trying to uh collect this input and feedback
between now and the end of January is the right timing. if what we're endeavoring to do is like have a productive conversation in the leadin to decisions about a permanent superintendent on July one um and a
strategic plan that doesn't take another five years to build. I would anticipate you can have visioning sessions for the project in the next few months for the community. Yes, community
stakeholders, parents, okay, have some sort of a vision. I mean, this is how the other projects I've been on run. They'll have visioning sessions where they grab a bunch of people together and a couple sessions and they will show you different designs, different things, and you kind of put your post-it note or your color stickers
on what you like and gather information and stuff like that. I had thought that that ran kind of parallel with feasibility studies. Am I Yeah, that's what starting in January is certainly the timeline that was presented to us.
Well, there there's two deliverables that are part of the feasibility study. One is the plan and the other is the I'm going to get it wrong. Preferred schematic
design. So the plan is like what are we going to do in the building that is due in January. The what what do we prefer the building to look like in order to do that is I think June. So
okay. So that visioning does sound important for community input. So I am really I'm also really concerned here about people's fatigue in providing input as much as everyone wants to.
Yeah, it could could come early or later in the feasibility study process depends on how they run it. It could strictly focus on, you know, because you have to do a lot of work on the number of spaces and the size and square footage and all that kind of
stuff. and then building placements and, you know, differentiating between, you know, uh, renovation, a new building and and repair only options and stuff like that. And then they may flip the design. I've seen it done the other way. They do it first, but it's going to be interesting where the architect is just
coming on board and we're kind of already moving forward. See how they Yeah. structure it. Um, we have a meeting with the architects later this week. Um, and we could certainly ask the OPM this question. Um, so by Monday I can have some answers about like what we
anticipate that looking like. Yeah. Yeah. We wanna the fatigue thing is a you know real but I don't want that to be an excuse for not engaging people and have people
say but I wasn't you know I didn't have a chance to to weigh in on the high school and on the strategic plan and it's a matter of scheduling it. Yeah. So I everyone's favorite thing is scheduling.
Yeah. Um um and I that actually raises one point that also came up in the resolution is how things like the educational vision and the instructional vision, the this work that has been done that feeds into
strategic planning, how this comes into community input. I think you know if you have a focus group around if we say oh yes academic excellence is the priority well how does the instructional vision align the process for bringing those pieces that already exists right we're doing
some focus work around this mission statement that exists that we know needs to be updated but what about these other pieces that exist right there's a capital planning conversation around the facilities and infrastructure Sure.
There's Yep. And maybe that's a little more phase two than phase one, but I want to acknowledge that those pieces exist and there has been some work done
there as well. Yeah. And I I do think that part does start to like those puzzle pieces start to come together in phase two. Um and I think frankly like whatever wherever we like leave a draft of um the mission
statement like I think even that is going to be like continuously like fine-tuned while the strategic plan is created. Like I I don't think that we should expect that there's like not any change that happens there. I think
that will certainly be tweaked and adjusted as we go. But um we want to have enough of an anchor that it can guide instead of like follow. Yes. All right. So I just moved us away and
now I'll move us back to the scheduling. So it sounds like we need some more input. We need to know what the high school community schedule it looks like in order to Yeah. And I think we can um and I sorry I would just say in that
meeting can you ask what the flexibility is because I would love to know if they say oh no we want to do it this way but if we did it this other way this is what it would look like if we say well we need to do this community input first is that even an option. Yeah we can find out.
Thank you. Um, and then I can look at the calendar and maybe like try to propose some dates for the school committee to think about and then we would have to like think about locations and things like that.
But um, with the holidays coming up, it is like a little bit sticky. Maybe a lot sticky. And of course I will note that there's also a question of whether the composition of the school committee stays the same or not which can
influence that is true. So I don't think we can I think we just have to move forward. Um but yeah, it could change. I don't know.
So, we're reporting out on this Monday. Monday. I don't think we have motions to um I think we need a motion that I will like get this cleaned up and prepared for Monday.
Uh so, Okay. And I'll clean this up and get it ready for our presentation on Monday to the school committee. Um, and seconded by member Rinfeld. We'll call the role. Uh, member Rouso. Yes.
Member Rinfeld. Yes. Member Graham. Yes. Um, so I will clean it up and get it ready for Thursday. Thank you for all the work. Sorry I wasn't here early.
That's okay. Yeah. Sorry. My sister's dog came in and she's sniffing furiously behind me and making a lot of noise. So, it's very distracting. Are we at motion to
15 minutes early? Motion to adjourn 15 minutes early. Second. Uh motion adjourned by member Rinfeld, seconded by member Rouso. Uh member Reinfeld, yes. Member Rouso, yes. And member Grant, yes. Uh three in the
affirmative, zar in the negative. pot.