be a regular school committee meeting of the Medford um school committee at the Howard Alden Memorial Chambers in Medford City Hall and via remote participation. Um this meeting is being recorded. The meeting can be viewed live on Medford Public Schools YouTube channel through Medford Community Media
on your local cable channel which is Comcast 98 or 22 and Verizon 4345 or 47. Um and participants can also log in by using the following Zoom link. Um the Zoom ID is 964
03165259. Um member Rouso, can you please call the role? >> Member Graham >> here. Member Master Bonnie >> here. >> Member Olady >> here. >> Member Parks >> here. >> Um member Reinfeld,
I don't know if she's coming online. I don't see her. Um absent for now. U member Verso present and Mayor Langokarn >> present. >> Okay, six in the affirmative, one on the
way. Um and then welcome to our student representatives. I see we have three students joining us today. Are you all ninth graders? Yes. Great. Welcome. Um and we have Savannah and Leo. And I'm sorry I don't know your name because we didn't get to
meet Lillian. Nice to meet you. Welcome. Um, so we have three student reps with us tonight. Um, and we will move on to salute the flag. So all please rise. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the
republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Okay. Uh, next on our agenda, we have our consent agenda, which includes approval of bills and payrolls, um
approval of um FY26 stabilization um a journal entry, which is 20871 for 1,85,549. That is um stabilization money from our override. Um, we have budget transfers. Um, journal entry 20850 for $5,1696.
Um, journal entry 20851 for $275 and journal entry 20852 for $800. Um, we also have approval of field trips. Um, one to the auto uh annual auto tech trip to the New England Dragway in New
Hampshire on June 5th. um one world language trip to France and Italy in April 2027 and um we have approval of meeting minutes. We have our regular meeting on May 4th and we have a special uh meeting of the school committee which is a
public budget hearing um that we held remote on May 12th. Uh is there a motion to approve the consent agenda? >> Motion to approve. >> Is there a second motion? Uh motion approved by member Lady, seconded by
Mike. Can I just ask one question before we call the role? >> Um >> I'm running the show. >> What's that? >> You're running the show. >> Um the field trip uh for France and Italy. I'm hearing that um it is only available to juniors and seniors next
year. Is that true? >> Does anybody know? >> Well, Dr. Talbot is overseeing this trip, so I'm going to have her come up just in case there's a follow-up question that I'm not completely aware of. >> Thanks. >> Hi, can you repeat that question? Um my
question was about the field trip and I'm hearing from students that only juniors and seniors will be invited to participate in this trip which is a difference of um policy than we have held in past field trips. >> This field trip is based on other field
trips that uh do this kind of traveling. It's for retention and recruitment and celebration in um multi-year world language study. So the original design of this field trip is that students have enough world language experience to be able to communicate in those countries
and so the initial bar is set at juniors and seniors and um then they'll take it from there. >> Okay. Thanks. >> Y thank you. Um can you call the role member Russo? >> Member Graham.
>> Yes. >> Member Master Bony. >> Yes. >> Member Olady. >> Yes. >> Member Parks. Member Rinfeld is absent. Member Rouso, yes. And Mayor Lango Kern, >> yes.
>> Um, six in the affirmative. Um, zero uh in the negative, one absent. The consent agenda is approved. Um, we don't have any report of subcommittees. I will submit my report from strategic planning at our next meeting. Um, and we'll move
on to the report of the superintendent with the Mustang moment. Dr. Glucy. >> Thank you. Good evening. So, tonight we have students from our career technical education programs. I know four are going to be highlighted, but I'm going
to ask Director Fallon to come up and do a little overview, and he can introduce the first students. >> Good evening. Thank you for having us tonight. It's my pleasure to highlight some accomplishments of some career technical education students tonight. We have four seniors that are going to be
graduating and we have one junior. And I'd like to start with the electrical students and their teacher. Good evening. Uh tonight I'm presenting to you Brody Sherblam and um Cole McDermott. Both of them have been students in our program since they were sophomores and now they've been chosen
to join the uh IBW uh local union union 103. So they'll start their schooling uh in September and they should have jobs by July. They'll be making boatload of money and they'll be doing quite well. So we just want to take a moment to
congratulate them on a job well done. I'd just like to say thank you to Mr. Cormio. Uh he's been a good teacher for the past three years. Um he got me to where I am right now. So thank you. Uh Mr. Fallon, thank you for
letting me into the electrical program because I transferred from Arlington Catholic as a sophomore. um very happy to start in June for the IBW 103.
Uh I'd like to thank the same people as well, Mr. Coro and Mr. found for the opportunities of we have at the Vogue and uh I'm also very excited to start um here in July for the uh union >> and I know it's about the students but
um we do have a certain somebody who's retiring from the district after 29 >> 19 years how dare I um Mr. Cormio is going to be leaving us at the end of June and I just want to publicly thank him for his service and dedication to the electrical program where he was once
once a student. Um, and I really appreciate what he's done for me when I came into Medford as not knowing uh much about the community. He really helped um kind of bring me into Medford. So, thank you Mr. Coro and congratulations to you. Okay, our next student I'm going to
bring up is from our biotechnology program. Jaden Jang is also rank uh was recognized at the Mass Association of Vocational Administrators for the outstanding student of the year. He is also our top ranked CTE student this year and he will be speaking at our
graduation. Jaden, hello. Um, I just wanted to talk about how I ended up getting here and the steps I took to reach where I am today. Um, I originally joined the CTE program because I wanted to explore different
opportunities. I didn't know what I'd do like after high school. And at first I thought I would go into a shop like automotive or electrical, but as I like got through the the exploratories, I ended up choosing biotech. And that's partly due to uh Mr. Rouso. He's uh my
biotech teacher and he's he's a really funny guy and I like the way he teaches. Um my other biotech teacher, Mr. Wel, he helped pushed me to take a class at Bunker Hill, which I thought was a really nice experience because it helped
me get to like know what college would be like in the future, as well as just learn a few more things in biology. Um, >> oh, what is it? >> Where will you be attending in the fall? >> Um, I'll be attending the UMass Boston
Honors College in the fall and I'll be majoring in biology. >> And with us tonight, we have a junior student in the health assisting program. Um uh she's going to speak about her experience recently having completed all requirements and receiving her certification as a certified nursing
assistant. Miss Hannah Maru. >> Um hi. I just wanted to say um like thank you to Mr. Fallon and to Mr. Fimo and our new teacher, Miss Grover. Um, I've been in shop since freshman year
and I 10,000% did not think I was going to pick health assisting cuz I mean like at when I was little I was always like I'm going to cure cancer and I'm going to be a doctor but like being in the shop shows me that like this is so hard. Like grace to everybody who like is like
in the healthc care field because it is a hard job and like in shops specifically like working on all of the like completions you need like in the hours for clinical definitely brought a lot of tears but it was so much fun because it was like I get to like experience everything in the real world
that like I would probably be doing in college as a 16-year-old in high school which I believe is very amazing. And we recently just took our CNA test and we all pretty much got 100 flat on the skills exam. So that was perfect.
>> I believe that's two years in a row. M >> I was just going to say not not that we're keeping count, but that is 100% pass rate. And the CNA test is a rigorous two-part exam. It's a practical assessment and a and a um a written component. And all students that have taken it up to this point this year have successfully passed. These are just
examples of uh many of the things that go on every day in our school, but it's nice to have a minute to highlight a few here tonight. So, thank you for having us. >> Thank you. And >> are there any questions from the committee before we ask our students to come up and take a picture?
>> Did I see questions? Erica, sorry. Member Ryan. So, one one comment which is um so a couple of us attended the health careers signing day at the school and everything you talked about was what the featured speakers talked about. Were
you at that ceremony as well? >> Yes. >> Excellent. Yeah. So, it was really encouraging to to see that what you're doing in school is really mirroring it. And I will say I worked for at a cancer center for 10 years and it takes a lot
of people to find cures for cancer, right? Everyone works together and that was one of the really wonderful things to see. And then speaking of working together, I was wondering in the biotech program um when we when I toured it when I first joined the school committee, they were talking about the a
collaboration between the biotech and the auto mechanics. Did you get a chance to participate in that? because I I remember you just said I thought maybe I'd do auto mechanics and I was really intrigued to to hear how those were coming together. >> So my year specifically, we didn't we
weren't a large part of it, but we were able to uh view like the the go-kart we were working on. We were trying to troubleshoot what happened to the engine after it failed. >> Super important. >> Yeah. >> What about the go-karting? >> Oh. Oh. Uh, we were actually making
biodeiesel in our lab in order to fuel the go-kart. >> Yeah. So, I just I love seeing how everything kind of comes together in practice there. So, thank you for illustrating that and sharing your experience. So, I guess that's all for questions from me.
>> Any other questions, comments? >> Okay. If our students can come up, we love to um take quick pictures to commemorate your presentations with us. Okay. On to item number two. Uh recommendation to approve Medford Public
Schools as a no school choice district. Dr. Galooi. Okay. Thank you. So tonight we're here to present the formal recommendation regarding our district's participation in the
Commonwealth of Massachusetts external school choice program for the upcoming 2627 school year. So under Massachusetts school law, every public school district is automatically mandated to participate in this external program and accept
outofd district students unless the local school committee takes uh an official vote to opt out of the program. Because of this framework, we must officially report the decision that's made here this evening to the to DESIE, the Department of Elementary and
Secondary Education in June each year. So to just after careful consideration um we are here and looking at our operational capacity, our financial capacity, it is the school district's recommendation that Medford Public
School, excuse me, the Medford School Committee vote not to participate in the school choice program for next year. By voting to opt out, we maintain a consistent historical position that Medford has held since this state
program's inception and our decision is rooted in operational and financial responsibility. Um just to capture a little bit, if you remain in the program, um the outofd
district students would receive a state baseline tuition. And these admissions also depend on availability that could introduce a little bit of an unexpected uh enrollment fluctuations across grade levels and or buildings. And so
historically, we have opted out of this to maintain local efforts around maximizing our resources, our time, and our instructional focus for Medford residents. And so therefore, we do recommend that we continue to opt out of
the no school choice status. >> Motion to approve. >> Motion to approve by member Rouso. Is there a second? by member. >> Um, is there are there any questions from the committee before we call the
role? >> Okay, member, will you call the role? >> Just briefly, >> I'm sorry, member master bony. >> Um, so a vote yes on this is to vote to opt out. >> Correct. >> Understood. Thank you. >> Member Graham, >> yes. >> Member Master Bony,
>> yes. Member Olat. >> Yes. >> Member Parks. >> Yes. >> Member Rinfeld. >> Yes. >> Member Russo. Yes. Mayor Long. >> Yes. >> Seven in the affirmative, zero in the negative. The motion passes. Um, okay. I on to item number four. Um,
a recommendation to approve the Medford Public Schools handbooks by Dr. Bloocci. >> I think Well, three is the schedule. Do >> Oh jeez, I just checked it off and moved right past it. Sorry, that's my fault. I'm getting ahead of myself. Uh recommendation to item number three,
recommendation to approve the school year 2627 school committee meeting schedule um by Dr. Gluci. >> Thank you. So I know in your packets you have the proposed schedule for the school committee meetings for next school year 2627.
We have typically followed pretty much the same type of routine and schedule. The only things I would call out is that in November we are um intentionally avoiding the Monday before election day as sometimes that gets to be a little tricky. And then there are three
meetings in March and two backtoback in April to account for the vacation um school vacation that month. Otherwise, it's pretty holding the routine schedule. but happy to answer
any questions. >> Uh, member Reinfeld. >> Yep. I'm curious why the budget hearing is Zoom only. It is a Monday, which means we should presumably have access to chambers. And just in the interest of since this is the public meeting, making
it accessible to people in person and I know the last two years it went really quickly. The year before that it did not. >> Yes. So to be honest, we are open to either way. One of the benefits that we felt this year to having it Zoom only were
were two distinct benefits. One was we did feel that it was maybe more accessible to be via Zoom, but also in full transparency, it was also just the length of time sometimes to be standing at the podium is a little bit easier for
a presentation of the actual presenters. So, I'm also open to maybe a format that provides a little bit more accessibility for the district employees. >> Yeah. The other the other piece that I'm thinking about is that that is March of
2027. And while I know that it is not a budget about the high school, right, our annual operating budget is separate from any kind of capital project. >> Yes. Yes, >> like a debt exclusion. But I I'm wondering if we're expecting increased engagement
because we will be leading up to the a debt exclusion vote in a later in the spring. >> I mean, all of that is possible. This maintains the school committee. >> Yeah. No, this this schedule I think the schedule is fine. I'm just wondering
about the format. I think we're happy we're happy to have it in the hybrid model that we have now. Um I would just maybe we can talk through some of the logistics of >> Okay. So let's let's keep that open, but I'm fine with the dates as written. My
only other question was we I guess we haven't formalized the new rules, but we had indicated that we wanted to set a summer a default summer meeting that could be canceled if we don't need it, but just to put it on the calendar. So I guess that can be scheduled offline with
people's availability since it won't necessarily be on this Monday. >> That's typically what we've done. >> Yeah. Okay. Then I will motion to approve this. >> So we have a motion to approve by member Reinfeld. Is there a second >> by member Master Bony?
Um I did have one question. Um, we also often or at least talk about um a third meeting in June because June tends to be a really busy time of year and trying to jam something into the calendar is much more difficult than pulling it off of
the calendar >> if it's not needed. So, um I might offer a friendly amendment to add June 14th um >> to this schedule >> um if that's acceptable >> from the motion. Yeah. I just when we
get into June, it's really hard to add more things. Um, taking them away is always joyful. So, um, >> as we approach the second June in this position, it's very tight to get everything in. So, >> yeah, >> I I believe we agree.
>> Okay. So, there's a motion to approve with the amendment of the addition of June 14th by member Reinfeld, seconded by member Master Bony. Um, member Russo, do you want to call the role? >> Member Graham? >> Yes. Yes. Member Master Bony. >> Yes. >> Member Olati. >> Yes. >> Member Parks.
>> Member Reinfeld. >> Yes. >> Member so yes. Mayor Lang Gokern. >> Yes. >> Seven in the affirmative. Zero in the negative. The motion is approved. Um on to item number five. Um a
recommendation to approve updated language for MPS restraint policy and bullying intervention bullying prevention and intervention plan. Um, oh jeez, I did it again. I'm sorry. I'm going to back up and stop checking things off my little list here. Um, item
number four is a recommendation to approve the MPS handbooks by Dr. Glooy. >> Thank you very much. >> Going to put my pen down. Don't check it off yet. So, in your packets, um, what we have provided to school committee is
just the updates, uh, the proposed updates to each respective school's handbook. So it is each school for people in the community that are listening have a school council that is comprised of educators, caregivers, and
if you're lucky, a community member. And part of the task of a school specific site council is to review the handbook and see if there are any updates to the language that needs to be accounted for for the next school year's handbook. And
so you have in front of you the proposals from all but three schools. Uh the Brook School, the McGlin Elementary, and the Misatuck are not proposing any change to language for next year's 2627 uh handbooks. But the other schools do
have some um minor tweaks to language and I'm happy to answer any of those questions that you may have. Just high level. Uh the Roberts wants to put a definition for um chronic absenteeism
and a little bit more clarity on how caregivers could fill out quaries. I think the biggest piece to note is that all secondary schools, so Andrews Middle School, McGlin Middle School, and Medford High School have added the language around the updated language
around academic dishonesty. So, as part of the new AI policy that was voted and implemented this year, um part of the language in that calls for updating the academic dishonesty protocols to not
only include AI language, but also with special care to the creation of the panel. Um, and that work this year that you see reflected here was done with secondary and central office leaders
with student input. Um, and so what you have here are those updates to address the concerns that were mentioned at this meeting. Um, and from members of the community. Uh, I gave it its own section, but all three of those secondary schools will include this in
their handbooks. Um, in addition, the Andrews has worked really hard this year collectively with the staff on writing a new mission, vision, and core values. You will see that also included here. And then the
with our new schedule at the secondary at the middle school level, you see just some brief language change for the Andrews and the McGlin middle to account for how challenge courses are graded. and the high school um
is currently working on merging the athletics handbook with the student and family handbook. That is still something that's in flux, but there's just brief language in there to account for that. And then um principal Cabral has worked
in collaboration and partnership with director Leaden on adding some language about AI metag glasses um to the acceptable use policy at the high school level. And that's just a high
level kind of accounting for the pieces uh for the additional language changes for next school year. If there are any questions. >> Oh questions. >> Member Reinfeld. Member Russo was first. >> Okay. Member Russo. >> Thank you. Um
so um the middle schools look fine to me, the high school looks fine to me. Um the elementary schools um the number of places for which recess is taken away as
punishment is a bit upsetting. It's in fact multiple places in each of them because of the consistency between them of course. Um, so I I do I would be uncomfortable approving the elementary school ones till somebody takes a look at those. Um,
so I I would I think the motion we need is motion to approve them all, but um I would certainly motion to I'd rather have some more discussion before I take those off the out of the
take them off the table. >> Member Reinfeld. >> Yes. Um, so the AC I appreci I'm really glad to see that the academic honesty panel language is coming in and that and thank you to everyone who worked to to figure out what that looks like. I think there are still some things that are not
necessarily clear whether the panel is we don't say that it's people who have not been involved in the initial dispute. So we kind of don't know where that's going. Is it going to someone who is reviewing the the potentially plagiarized content
anonymously? Is it a face to face where the teacher who was questioning it is working with the principal to determine like who it needs I think it needs to be clarified who is actually at the table and because basically the academic dishonesty panel is an elevation of this
couldn't be resolved in a one-to-one setting. So what does that look like? Um, and I don't know if there's an appeal process for that as there is for other escalated um, questions. So, I think that was my big question about that. And then there is some
inconsistency on the attendance policies. Uh, so are middle schools, the Andrews handbook says an absence is four hours, the high school says 3.5. Is that because the school day is different? Um, the high school doesn't say anything
about per period versus total hours. The McGlin says two periods, two consecutive periods counts as a day. Andrews doesn't say that. So, I think we need to be consistent particularly between the two middle schools. And then to clarify, does
missing a single period class is that how does that fit into the total absences? Is it that you're is is it the class that you're you're failing? Is it the whole day? What does that look like? So, I would
like to see that cleaned up and more consistent before we approve this. >> Thank you. >> I think there are other there are also some other inconsistencies, right? The missuck says the buses have assigned seats. No one else says that. Um, the
school committee addresses are listed in one of the handbooks. I think it's Andrews. I would love for I would like the school committee personal home address to come out. Somebody definitely went up to my kid and said, "Hey, I know where you live cuz I read the handbook." So, um,
there's uh, it was I want to I don't want to call out which one it was. I wrote it down anyway. But sometimes it's got our email addresses and phone numbers. One of them doesn't even mention the school committee at all, which is fine, but I think I think
that should be consistent as well. >> Any other questions from the committee? >> Oh, sorry. And I I I didn't go into the nitty-gritty on everything, but the school council is mentioned in most places, but not everywhere. And one of them lists a former principal who has
retired as the head of the council. So if that could just be cleaned up to say even if it's just principal/chair because one of them doesn't even name the principal just says the principal is the chair of the committee. So I'm happy to send those but >> I would appreciate that.
>> Yeah. >> Thank you. >> Member Rouso. >> And I don't know if I really need to talk about the issue of the recess stuff now. I know we've talked offline superintendent. So, um, I can save us all the the trouble right now if you feel like you know where to go with
this. >> I I I mean, honestly, I'm I'm happy to have a conversation with you. >> Okay. >> I want to review a little bit more closely. I know that we did this work several years ago. >> Yeah. >> So, they should the handbook should reflect the work that was done several
years ago. There's also at the elementary level we are responsive classroom and responsive part of the responsive classroom approach is that consequences for student behavior are logical. And so we've talked at a a
great deal about the loss of recess when it's logical is for clearly when children have unsafe bodies on the playground. Um or during recess a time to just step away, calm down, get
regulated again. That's logical. That's a logical consequence. Um, if there are situ there should not be language in there, but if there are situations where we're, you know, taking recess away for not bringing in homework, that's not part of the or or
in aligned to the spirit of the school committee policy. So, I'm happy to have a conversation with you and review that with the principles. >> Thank you. I think just being more explicit like um it any student who is referred to the main office um could
have recess taken away and I mean I may have been to the rec to the main office a few times myself as a child but there it is hard to find any kind of like logical consequence um and you know I don't know what the stats
are on how often kids are sent to to the main office um But recess seems like the worst thing you could do is take recess away. It's like kids need that. And you know, I realize Desi does not counted his educational time, which hopefully I can get some of
that fixed, but thank you. >> Are there any other questions? Member Master Bony. >> Thank you. Um um this may be a naive question, but you when I open up the first the first thing I did was look at one of the middle school uh parent
guidance handbooks. They're really long. They're 70 pages. They have some information in the front about the district and then they immediately start going into policies really fast. Has there been any work at any point or are you planning any work to to set up some sort of like
way to navigate the document a little bit better? me as someone who you know spends a lot of time in obscure obtuse documents like I could probably I will have to figure this out but like I think do we translate this I know there's a lot of jargon in here a lot of legal ease like what do we do to make sure
people aren't getting this information the reason I'm asking this question is because whenever we update um you know academic dishonesty policies I'm really interested in understanding like how the district is going to make sure all the students and the parents know that we're
changing this so that we can ensure that nobody um break has has to break this policy. >> So I would say in full transparency I have not undertaken that work yet. I think it is important work. I would say
that at the elementary level which is to what member Russo had mentioned we did do that work to align the way the handbooks have been here historically and like I said haven't done a review or an audit but the school specific
information should be at the front Medford and Commonwealth policies should be at the back there was some work done at the elementary level um preco COVID though to align so that
there was that alignment and it was for I I wouldn't say the sole purpose but two main reasons was to have some to make sure that there was alignment amongst the four elementary schools and for translation purposes. So that way when we're sending out our handbooks to
be translated, the policies that were at the back are right, they're all the same and we only have to have that translation done once and then the school specific translations can be done on an individual basis. But I have there
has not been that work at the secondary level at all. So, I will I mean I'm happy to review especially the two middle schools um for better alignment in terms of layout and format.
>> That's really helpful. Thank you. And I what I've remembered was that my Roberts handbook was totally different and it was great and it was awesome. So, I'd love to I'd love to hear what you're you know what you're going to work on. Thank you. >> Yeah. Thanks. Um, and then I just had one other thing to flag. Um, in the
middle school, um, I know it says the quarterly challenge courses are graded on a past fail basis. And I just want to double check the CBA that that is a continuing policy versus a first year of the um, contract policy. And I'm just
honestly not remembering off the top of my head, but I know there were some one-year >> transitional um conversations versus other things that were um a longer term policy. >> Yes. Yes, agreed. And I think we are
still in conversation. Um >> so I just wouldn't want to put it into the handbook that it was one way if it um is not yet final. So that would be the other thing to flag. Um, but I also thank you for this easy way
to understand what has changed. Um, this makes all of that reading a little bit easier. Um, but to member Master Bon's point, like perhaps at some point we can also get to a place where we can give people like a one pager of like here's
the like really important things you need to know and if you have more questions, here's where how you get how you navigate the handbook kind of um scenario. Um because the handbook is really I mean to say that people read it before they sign off on it at the beginning of the
year is like we're all kidding ourselves but the handbook is there and so the most important thing is that you know it's there and you can go find it if you have a question which is good but you know are there sincerely and things that would be useful for people to know right up front.
>> Sure. >> Member Rouso. >> Thank you. Um, member Master Bony said something and um as well as um member Graham um the the what changed thing that I that we have asked for as part of our policy which is now which is great.
You don't have to reread the whole thing every year. I'm just realizing that like we should provide like an intro to all of them that's like a couple pages that like hey you read it last year just read the first couple pages
you know it changed and then like we can literally tell people if you read it this year you like kindergarten families read the whole thing next year you'll only have to read the first couple pages and tell you what changed. Of course, the middle school families will have to be told to read the whole thing, but um
I think that that would be helpful because I I also think we should revisit this notion of people signing off. We're literally asking everybody to sign and say they did something that very few families have done. Um and that just feels a little icky. It's like
we're trying to make it clear that we mean it. Um, but a signature for something that's 70s something pages long that very few people have read is a sort of it's like a you know it it's just doesn't feel right. So maybe
we can read I I don't think the signature thing is like any kind of mandatory thing. I think that's just something we do. Or is it mandatory? >> I don't know. I'll look into that. But >> we should revisit the signature thing because signing that you've received it
is one thing. But I believe it does say you have read it and understand it. Um, and that's >> it does. I hear I hear you. But I also can understand the acknowledgement part of just having some understanding as to what is in there. There's school
specific information that's important. Um, I think there are to your point I think there are pieces that could definitely be called out. Yeah. But things around attendance, um, arrival dismissal, certain procedures like the bullying policy, and now the AI, I I do think there are some
really key pieces of how the schools function that caregivers should be aware of. So there is a balance between reading 70 pages and acknowledging that you're
>> Yeah. I mean, >> have at least skimmed the table of contents. >> Yeah. I mean, a high level, you know, this is the most important stuff you really need to know that everybody needs to know to be a member of the school community versus a lot of the policies that like, you know, if you're never
involved in any bullying incident, you don't have to read that stuff. Like, there's all kinds of things for which you are in there that you may never need to know. And so, I think it would be fine to ask them to sign off on a few pages, five pages, even maybe 10 pages that you've read that. Um, but it's
starting to feel like our, you know, every time we upgrade our iPhone software, we, yes, I agree to the 780 pages that nobody other than some people on the internet have read. Um, so we can do better than Apple and Google and all
those folks. So anyways, >> so it will be tabled. We'll work on the pieces of feedback that um >> I have that the district has received from everyone and then >> present again with the updates. >> Okay.
>> Sure. Motion to table the handbooks to the next one or the meeting after that one. Meeting after that one. >> I I would appreciate that just because I think we'll need a little bit of time. >> Yeah. So up um the >> June >> 8th >> 8th >> June 8th meeting
>> motion to table to the June 8th meeting by member Rouso. Is there a second by member Rinfeld? >> Um member you call the role. >> Member Graham. >> Yes. >> Member Master Bony. >> Yes. >> Member Olati. >> Yes. >> Member Parks. >> Yes. >> Member Rinfeld. >> Yes.
>> Member yes. Mayor Lungo Kern. >> Yes. >> Seven in the affirmative. zero and the negative. Uh motion passes. Um okay, on to number five. Uh a recommendation to approve the updated language for the MPS restraint policy
and our bullying prevention and intervention plan um by Joan Bowen, our director of student services. >> Oh, hold on. Let's see if I can do that. I don't know why I can't turn on your microphone. Hold on one second.
>> There we go. There we go. Thank you. Good evening. Tonight I am presenting two updates to current metro public schools policies that require this body's approval. So the first one is the bullying prevention and intervention plan. Um currently the district is in
the process of completing their self assessment for the integrated monitoring review. Um and they look at civil rights criteria. And in my review of that criteria, there is some language that is missing that DESIE is looking for in
order for us to get a um a proficient rating and that we're meeting this requirement. Um so the first thing that I wanted to update was the the label which says categories of vulner vulnerable students. Um the paragraph
listed under there where it says as required by mass general law. This is already found in the behavior intervention plan um on page four. But what I would like to do is have that added again to page eight under the decisions and findings, but also to add
this specific language that says, "This plan shall afford all students the same protection regardless of their status under the law as required by Mass General Law. The IEP team or 504 accommodation team must consider what should be included in the plan to
develop the students skills and proficiencies to avoid and respond to bullying, harassment, or teasing if the student's disability affects social skills or makes the student vulnerable. So, I'd like to add that language um to page eight. And that's basically will
bring us into compliance with what DESIE is requiring for the bullying prevention and intervention plan. And then the next part which I apologize it's it's very lengthy which I provided to you but this is the new updated restraint law. Um there are revised
restraint requirements. this update which I've included in your packet um is was drafted in reviewing the new regulations from DESIE but also um we had our special education legal council provide us with um some documents and
some language to use when rolling this out um and this is coming out it's effective August 17th of this year. So the first thing is I do apologize the policy is lengthy because many of the required procedures are included or
referenced. Um these are not required to be part of the policy but provide a structure and process for school staff and administration to follow. Uh much of the language around definitions the use and reporting of restraint is the same. Uh the changes
focus on distinguishing seclusion from timeout. the prerequisites required to use emergency seclusion or prone restraint and the new requirements for any physical space used for timeout and the requirement to have a grievance
procedure. So the chart that I provided that says new restraint law requirements. I basically laid out what the previous practice was and what the current practice will or what the practice will be starting in August um
17th of two 22 2020 2026. Um definitions um that weren't clear are very clear in this document. Um we have been working with our staff at the Misituck school um our therapeutic
learning program about the roll out of this what it's going to look like as well as the documents that go along with this. So once this is um we have hope to have everything prepared by the end of the school year. So when we start in September everything will be up and
running staff will be trained and all the documents will be updated and ready to go. Member Parks. >> Thank you. I have just two questions about um uh the new
uh uh policy. Uh when can you clarify and I know this is part of the the law. What how do you get um parental consent if it can for
seclusion if it is cannot be included in the IEP? Um and you need parental consent through a signature of a parent. Um what is that process? >> So we're in the process of creating those documents. We do have guidance from DESIE of what the language should
include. um if we do not receive parental um permission, we cannot use seclusion. And that is not a practice that the district currently um uses at this time, nor in my opinion is something that we should do. Seclusion
is a student's locked in a room, not allowed to leave. That's not a therapeutic methodology that I would like staff to be using. >> Perfect. So then um what have you been um using currently at the Meta? So, we currently have a timeout room and we
also have a sensory room at and at this time sometimes students need a break and are given um adults provide them with that that choice. Sometimes students are asking to take a break, they may go into the timeout room, but a lot of students are choosing the sensory room as well.
And then once they're they're regulated, they're ready to go back to class, they return to class. >> Okay. Thank you. And then my last question is in terms of documenting timeout. I know it's not a requirement by the state to notify parents um similar to how it is a requirement for
seclusion. Um I know it also says it's optional but recommended in our policy. Is there a way that we can kind of make that more of a norm or a actually required practice? So we we do notify parents if if that was to happen, but
that's also one of the documents that we're looking at and we are required to um document the restraints and upload that to DESIE on a yearly basis and I have to review them all. I have to go through what you know if if we see um the same student all the time like that
that's a bigger discussion with staff about what we need to do differently for this student. Um but we will be notifying parents if this happens. >> Great. Thank you. Y >> are there any other questions? >> Member Rinville, >> can you cl for the update to the
bullying prevention and intervention policy? Can you clarify the relationship between differentiating characteristics and disabil and this last sentence about the disability? The disability is one of the differentiating characteristics. Is that what's happening?
I kind of see two section the categories of vulnerable students. >> Yeah. So it could be one or more of those characteristics. So race, color, religion, homelessness, academic, it could be one of >> Right. So how does that how does that
section starting there and then ending with this plan shall afford all students the same protection regardless of their status under the law. How does that connect to the next section about developing skills and proficiencies if the disability affects social skills?
>> So, we have to um on the ed plan there's a section that you have to look at the students disability and if they're vulnerable to bullying and what a plan would be put into place for them. This is just ensuring that that process is being followed. So if a student
>> would that be followed would then that be followed if it were a differenti differentiating characteristic that was not a disability? >> Um I don't believe so. I think this is based on a disability and that's why the IEP or the 504 team is responding in
that way. >> I'm thinking of things like gender support plans and bullying support. >> I think I think this is specific to the >> Okay. So these are just two separate >> paragraphs, >> but there would be protections put into place for >> right >> any any of those characters. >> It all reads as one paragraph. So I was
trying to figure out how they connected, but they are in fact separate. >> Yeah, we could separate them. >> That would be helpful. I I might have been the only one confused, but thank you. >> Are there any other questions? Are is there a motion to approve?
Motion to approve. >> Motion to approve by member Rouso. Is there a second? Seconded by member Parks. Member so will you please call the role? >> Member Graham. >> Yes. >> Member Master Bony. >> Yes. >> Member Olady. >> Yes. >> Member Parks. >> Yes.
>> Member Rinfeld. >> Yes. >> Member Rouso. Yes. Mayor Langokarn. >> Yes. >> Seven in the affirmative, zero in the negative. Motion passes. >> Thank you. Um, okay. On to item number six. We have
um an MSBA update um which will be a little bit of a tag team effort. Our project team is on Zoom if we have questions for them as well. Um but I just wanted to lead it off um and let you all know that um shortly after our
last building committee meeting, we did receive um feedback from the MSBA on our PDP submission. So I'm going to ask Dr. Gussy to talk a little bit about um the feedback on the educational plan that we received and then there's a handful of
other things that I can address once she has done that and our team is on the phone if we need them. >> Yes. >> Thank you. And just to clarify, this is an update about the educational plan, not the last meeting. >> Correct. Okay.
So we have the district has been working uh diligently collaboratively with um school leaders as well as central office leaders to work through the comments that the uh MSBA gave us around the educational plan. A lot of the comments
were specifically asking for enhanced clarification around um how we intend to use the space um how we intend our schedule to run, how we intend to uh educate students in
particular spaces. Um a lot of I would I would just say that a lot of the comments um in partnership with Dr. Talbot with principal Cabraw as well as some of the directors really just highlighted the educational shifts that we are
making and that we are going to see uh implemented now as well as uh in a future building. Some of the um comments also spoke to beyond the high school, some of the spaces that we are that are currently in Medford High School that we
need to um that we are accounting for. As we've highlighted several times, Medford High School is not only a comprehensive high school that includes currently 15 CTE programs, but will include 19 at the opening of this
school, but it also has a lot of community-f facing um elements to it. We have our welcome center, our registration. We have our municipal day daycare uh kids corner that services our
um school employees, city employees, and some of our students as needed. We also have the Medford Family Network uh housed right now at Medford High School. And some of the questions asked for some
specificity around the reason for the colllocation of our welcome center which is our registration center along with metro family network and pieces like that are quite easy to talk about. We
have worked really hard the past couple years to be very intentional about how we're welcoming families to Metro Public Schools when they first enter the district. and very intential intentional about the p positionality and the
location of some of those familyfacing uh supports and departments when they first enter uh Medford public schools. So the location of our welcome center which is our registration office is adjacent to
the um Miss Bowen's office to the nursing department to our e department to our transportation office as well as to Medford family network and that provides a lot of support and services for our uh incoming families. So being
able to provide the specificity around the intention and the why was really important for the um educational plan. I would say that we also were able to provide an update to the MSBA through
this process. Um we had our last or the April 27th SBC, the school building committee meeting. We did make a couple of recommendations. The district made a couple of recommendations um to the space summary which we were
able to clarify in the educational plan. And so just really briefly the work that the district took in looking at the space summary, we we kind of had a three-hour approach. So we looked at redundancies in the space summary. We
looked for opportunities to repurpose in the space summary. and we looked for opportunities where reductions um were necessary. We wanted to make sure that our decisions were farthest away from students. And so we took an
approach to really looking at reducing office space because we're prioritizing collaboration which means we are prioritizing conference rooms where which would be the vehicle to get work done not maintaining um private office space. We
also took an approach to looking at what are the redundancies and what are the places that we could repurpose. We don't know necessarily what education is going to look like 25 years from now, 10 years from now, maybe even 50 years from now. So, it's very important to
have spaces that are going to be flexible and grow with the changing needs of the community. So, looking at spaces um in which we could be the most flexible to do that. Just a highlevel example would be in the space summary.
There were two maker space two maker spaces in the space summary. We felt that maintaining one for the purpose of what that is intended but retitling it an innovation lab would
serve the purpose of maintaining that space for flexibility so that teachers could rent out that space, students could use that space. It could be used for a lot of projectbased learning. It could be used for a lot of even clubs or enrichments
or extracurriculars. And then taking the other maker space to use it as the digital photo lab. That also allowed for some flexibility so that we are maintaining the increase
and expansion of our arts program but we are also being very mindful of maybe reducing that space and being flexible with other spaces. Um I if I were to maybe call out another
one it would be um in addition so we also had a conversation about looking at the um seats in the auditorium and so we have a range here of what MSBA will pay for and
what would really be beneficial to our auditorium space. As we know, there are a lot of spaces across the city that are minimal. It's very difficult to have multi-use spaces. Um the auditorium is
one right now. It if we're counting seats that actually um work and aren't broken, it's somewhere about 300 330 maybe. But what we had decided and what we have reflected in this is to really look at
what it would be to have that range. What would it be to have an auditorium that has 500 seats, 750 seats, which is the cap um for MSBA, 800 seats, and a thousand seats. We've had a lot of conversations around the intimacy of
performance space, but also the capacity of what the principal needs um to be able to have large larger spaces to gather grade levels of students. And this plan is written for three um 1395
students. And so making sure that we could at least get two classes of students in the auditorium for the principal um is very beneficial to overall programming and the high school needs.
Um, one thing I do want to call out since this is I mentioned it at the meeting, but it is a public meeting and I do want to mention because I I think I made some confusing remarks in our recommendation and I just want to call it out that one of the things that was
also listed in the space summary is we've asked for a review through this process for some of the CTE spaces. So right now um and this is part of the work there are within the shops a
lot of the shops call for bathrooms, dressing rooms, um adjoining classroom space as well as office space. So we are also in a review process with our project team to see if we need all four of those spaces in
order to meet student needs. In addition to that, there are some toileting. There are some programs and some spaces in the space summary that call for individual toilets. One of the things we had conversations
about um internally was making sure that there are some of the specialized programs that maintain toilets within the classroom. For example, um the project transition and the access classroom. It is very important for the
functioning of those classrooms to have toilets or bathrooms within the programs. But some of our other programs, so long as there are adjacent bathrooms or toilets in what's called the grossing factor, but just in the hallway is
sufficient. Um, we are not reducing accessible toilets. This was just um kind of calling out specialized programming. I could probably talk for a very long time about the comments made um and the
updates that we've had in the past couple weeks and happy to answer any questions specifically or member Graham if you think I've left some key highlights out um on the ed plan I think two maybe two things to flag one is um
the MSBA sends these comments in a letter and we are preparing a response via that letter to them which will go to them this week >> and then as part of PSR. Any of those comments will be fed into the ED plan and that's likely to come back here for
review and approval of the broader educational plan in its updated fashion um that integrates all of these things going forward. So, there's like a two-part process there. One um will go to MSBA this week and we're on track. The project team um and um the admin the
district administration has been working on all of that. I would say the other thing that was salient about the feedback from MSBA um in their commentary was that they are they wanted some clarity around um Medford's
understanding that certain programs are outside the scope of what MSBA will reimburse for. So MFN is a good example of that. Um and so we just had to simply acknowledge yes we know that that is not something that would be eligible for reimbursement. But they also sort of
framed um that they wanted there to be clearer like costing of some of those options so that if you wanted to take a narrow view of what the project will cost, you could. So if you wanted to say what does just 9 to 12 look like, right,
you could do that in our next round of costing. So that um sort of coincidentally was almost exactly what we outlined and approved at our building committee meeting in the middle of April. Anyway, so um that was already sort of well in hand and their feedback
didn't have to like interrupt um the the cost estimating that was going on and will be shared with the building committee on Wednesday of this week. Um but just really like an attempt to sort of clear um to clearly outline like these are things that exist in the
building today, these are things that are 9 to12, these are things that um are community- based programs, etc., etc. just so that there's a little bit it's just a little bit easier to like read and digest. Um and so the MSBA had very similar feedback to what the building
committee voted on at our last meeting um in April and um so that's already well in hand and we'll talk about that. Um about parallel to all of this conversation um DCR made us aware of a deed restriction on the property that um
the project team was previously unaware of. Um and that deed restriction um is um a restriction for 999 years that um restricts the city of Medford from building anything really but recreation
and access roads on the prop on those pieces of property. Specifically that um deals with the the back part of Edgerly Field and the football practice field down along this side of the um the building. We did share that um out with
the community at our community forum last week because it has made its way into the ether with lots of misinformation and speculation about what happens next. So, we felt like we had to correct um the record and make sure that um the project team is really the source of information and input um
about that deed restriction. So, yes, in fact, there is a deed restriction. Um yes, in fact it does impede three of the designs and what we will review with the building committee on um Wednesday night are some adjustments to the designs that
would clear us of that restriction um in whole. Um so we would not be our timeline would not be impeded. Also simultaneously um the state delegation has been super responsive and helpful as has DCR in understanding what options
exist um if we wanted to lift move replace the deed restriction in any way shape or form. Um and we did get confirmation today that the answer for any sort of change to that deed restriction would be an article 97 process which is not a short process. Um, so the building committee will
consider on Wednesday night um whether we want to um pursue those or adopt some of the revised um design options that would keep two of the three options in play. Um and um we'll see where the
building committee sort of falls on that. But all of that is happening at the same time as we are talking about um how this oversight happened, who um is responsible for the oversight and to make sure that the city of Medford's interests are protected. So all of that
is also going on at the same time um and resolution to that is um complicated and ongoing um and probably is not likely to be the source of any sort of resolution by Wednesday night because there's lots of there's lots of parties involved. um in that conversation. So um what we are
going to try to do on Wednesday night is make sure that the building committee is clear and aware of um the deed restriction. And my apologies to the building committee that um we were not able to meet before this news um sort of made its way into the public
conversation um because it's certainly always the project team's intention that the building committee knows these things first. Um but also to give um the building committee some options for a path forward. Um and there are a hand there are a handful of options which
include some um some re po like reshuffle like reorienting of the buildings um in the 2C options that we've carried forward to completely steer clear of those deed restrictions and still preserve a no modular um
posture which um we were worried was not going to be possible. So all of that is coming on um Wednesday night with additional costing information and um some you know some re revision to costing based on the space reductions that have been made based on updated
assumptions based on all of this like new latest information um and in a sort of more comprehensive top tobottom fashion. So there's one place and source for that information. Um, I think that is everything in terms of like what I wanted to update you all
on, but I did want to um open up the floor in case people had questions. >> Member Rinfeld. >> Yes. Uh, so did the MSBA request specific changes to the educational plan? I know you said you're in the process of responding, but and that it
will likely come back to us. Is it possible for us to see what those changes were since we did approve this plan as a body? >> Yeah, I mean, we can certainly share with um this body the response that sort of frames like the answers to their questions, which I think would give you
a better orientation of like what's to come in the ED plan. I I wouldn't say that anything they did requested a change to the ED plan. That's really not the MSBA's like goal in any of this. Um they asked questions about things that
were maybe unclear or newer like our schedule is evolving so they had questions about that. Um and it's I think the project team's opinion so far has been that like cleaning that up will change the ed plan in so much as it's clarifying just like here's where we
were here's where we are now. Here's where we plan to be by the time we have a new high school. So that that will change in the ed plan, but it's not they didn't come back and say, "Okay, we disagree with your ed plan." That's not sort of not the goal of their comments. The goal of their comments is more to
match to make sure that the space matches the ed plan. And that um the other thing that they had questions about was like Medford Academy where Medford Academy is a new program. It's new since our statement of interest. It's new since our eligibility documents. And so I think they were
seeking clarity around like does this exist now? Does it or is it something you hope to do in the future so we can answer that question and then I think that will satisfy things. >> Seems totally reasonable. >> Yeah. The comments actually overall like I I actually pulled Salem High School's
um documents to say even for myself like how does what we received compare to what other communities receive at this stage in the game? And it was very comparable. >> That's great. Um, and I'm also actually very glad to hear that we are I really love that the building committee did
this in the last meeting to say what are options A B C D for the auditorium. So I appreciate I know it's really hard to look at things in isolation and to but I think that's really helpful in thinking about well if we don't do this as part of this project what does that mean and
how does it affect what some other plan is which I know is also hard to quantify because if you're talking about renovating an old building and turning it into a preschool like the toilets like that retrofitting is not your typical oh yes just bringing it up to code. So, I appreciate the any ability
we have to make those decisions. Um, I do want to on record just express disappointment that this deed restriction got past that in that feasibility. I it's upsetting that this wasn't caught. And I'm we're moving on.
That's the important part. But I just think it's important to say that it's really unfortunate because I think it caused a lot of consternation. Um, and then my question around that is is if the building committee recommends trying to get that lifted, does MSBA does the
process have a pause button that would allow for something like this or no? >> Um, I think we would have to be in conversation with the MSBA. They are aware of the deed restriction. Um, as soon as we became aware of it, we let them know, which is what we're required to do. Um, I think this stuff is fairly
common for them in their world. Like I feel like a really big surprise for us >> and I think it is, but I, you know, I think big surprises happen on these kinds of projects all the time. So they um they understood sort of what we were doing and the steps we were taking. if
we had to um if we well if the building committee wanted to proceed with an option that would require an article 97 there probably is a timeline impact to that um that we would have to work through with MSBA because the question is really about sequence of events and
like how how done does that process have to be before you can start designing a building etc etc so I think that would be a pretty collaborative conversation for us to have to have >> okay and I I will say I'm very encouraged that the project team was able to spring into action and create
some new designs that that so as disappointed as I am that this happened I have been impressed with the response of notifying and moving forward and looking at options not catastrophizing and just really bare putting heads down and
figuring out what solutions were. So I want to thank everyone involved with that and that's it from me at least for now. Um are there any other questions from the committee member? >> Thank you. Um you know one of the things
about the article 97 um first of all they are very common. Um and they have a very high pass rate. They have to go through the legislature. Um, and one of the things I think we need to get a really solid understanding of is um, is
there sort of like an MO memorandum of understanding or something that can be done? No. So, we cannot we would not be able to hire a construction manager to begin the project with the assumption that this will actually be done.
>> I think that's the question we would have to h have conversation about. Um there is no MOA that's going to come forward that says like this is going to be fine. An article 97 I think requires a twothirds voice vote of the legislature. So I don't think anybody is
willing ever to be like yes I will get twothirds of the legislature to agree with this thing. So um no there will not be anything like that coming forward. Um we were able to confirm that today um in our conversation with DCR.
Um, however, that doesn't mean that everything has to stop or that our CM couldn't come on board it, but it would mean like if we needed to pursue one of those options, we would have to have some conversation with the MSBA. Um, the article 97 process is not inexpensive.
Um, it generally does take quite a long time. Like moving really lightning fast is like four to six months. Um, and then we, you know, we will bump into the legislative recess and all of those good things. So, um it'll be interesting to see what the building committee um
decides to do on Wednesday night, but there is a motion um that was at least drafted so that the public could read it and digest it that would um actually formally take three options off the table and insert two options um for consideration of these revised
alternatives so that if the committee chooses to take that up, there's some like notice and preparation for the community to participate in that. Thank you. >> Any other questions? Me >> this might be a question for Wednesday.
If the committee votes to put those two options, how does that affect the cost analysis that's happening now? >> Um, we confirmed today that the costing is equivalent um because they are substantially the same designs as the 2C
options were before. Um, and so that there's not a there's not a cost con a cost estimating concern. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Any other questions from the committee? Member Master Bonnie
want to go first. >> Go ahead. Briefly, who who's managing the article 97 process from Medford residents perspective? Is that who's who's responsible for that? it's the, you know, our our consultants, the school building committee, the mayor's office, like, you know, who's coordinating that? I understand, you
know, we all want to be speaking with the same voice, marching in the same direction to get the legislature to to to get where we need them to. Um, I guess that's that's my question. Who's who's leading the charge here? >> Um, that's actually a great question and the answer to that is not entirely like
perfectly clear yet. So, article 97, the first thing um that has to happen is you engage a land use attorney and they really help guide and shepherd the project um through that process and we're in the process of talking to several land use attorneys to um formally bring somebody into that if we
choose to go that route. Um but article 97 does um require things like land swaps, etc. So, the city of Medford will have to be involved in that because um the school committee nor the building committee own land. those those um parcel any parcel that might be involved
would have to come from like a recommendation from the city. So that's why the land use attorney is so important because there are a lot of tentacles and the project team will have to um be called on to do some things in terms of environmental impact and um and then the city will have be called upon
to do things and the building committee. So the land use attorney will really would really like shepherd us through that process. Um and it would take all of us but it you know the process itself is um you know it costs money on its own
um to even make the process happen because of all the moving parts >> and the SBC chooses the attorney. >> Um that's a great question. Um, we would have to determine who the land
use attorney works for and and on behalf of and if it's the city of Medford, I think I would need guidance to answer that question correctly. Not 100% clear. >> Curious, but I'm sure we'll figure it out. >> Yeah, >> let me know if you need help.
If I could, Member Graham, to just say that a lot of the internal meetings that we've been having, especially as of late with all the issues um that we're dealing with, um member Graham, Dr. Guzy, and myself have been the ones meeting with the delegation, discussing
the land use attorneys and really collaborating to try to get through this this difficultish time. Um, and then I just also wanted to add that PDT feedback and the responses that our consultants
are working on are being provided to the MSBC committee on Wednesday. So, I just ask that that be forwarded to the school committee. So, you also can read the full PDP um responses from the MSBA if
you'd like or throw it into AI and get a summary generated for you, plus see the city's responses along with um the school building committee. >> Yep, we can send that along. >> Member Parks, >> uh that actually was a little bit of my
question is would we be able to see those um questions and responses? And um you had mentioned Salem um and looking at those um is the project team also said that these are you know in line with comments that they receive in terms
of just asking for these clarifications and kind of basically dotting your eyes, crossing your tees and really reinforcing what is said in kind of a yes this is what we mean kind of manner if that's what I heard correctly as you were saying.
>> Um yes they have. I don't know um if um >> and maybe that's better suited for Wednesday's meeting, but >> they're on the call so I'm sure they'd be happy to answer that. That's right. >> Um I don't know Jen or Matt Rice if you would like to take a answer at that question.
>> Absolutely. Uh this Jen Carlson with Left Field. Um I'll start and then Matt um if you want to add any color. Uh yes, I would say these uh comments are typical for the PDP um feedback that we receive from the MSBA. Uh at this stage,
we you know, we typically see them looking to clarify the ED plan since um submitting with the PDP package. It's the first time that they're seeing the ED plan and and reviewing it um to to start asking some of their questions. Um all of the questions that we've seen in
there are really in line with what we see across projects. um looking for clarification on schedule and new programs. Um just as Dr. Galooi had um outlined um that Matt Matt Rice >> Yeah, I can also just add that we did
share Oh, sorry, Matt Rice with SMMA. Um can add that we shared with Dr. Talba and Dr. Galucia as we were going through um sort of coordinating the process um the response comments that um came from our Lexington High School project, our
Wakefield Memorial High School project, and all the way back to our Waltham High School project. And I think those consistently showed that the comments that uh Medford received were very much in line um with comments that the MSBA has made consistently throughout um at
this stage of the project development. Um, so it was it was good to see that commonality and um I also appreciated hearing um Jenny's comments about uh the Salem High School comments being in alignment as well. I think there's there's consistency in terms of how uh the MSBA is providing guidance and
feedback here at this stage. >> Great. Thank you. And then um my second one with you all here on this um if you could confirm what my thinking would be in terms of the CM um this is kind of to respond to member reserves. um the
article 97 and the CM at risk model would kind of be completely at odds with each other because the CM at risk model coming in when there's so much unknown um would really um lead to a wildly um
uh outofouch costing from a CM at risk. Would that be kind of your thought process or >> could they kind of help with that process in any way, shape, or form if they came in earlier.
>> Do you mind if I respond to that memor? >> Yes, please do. >> All right. Uh so um we would at this stage if um if the SBC does decide to uh move forward with an article 97 process,
um that process would be a timeline for that process would be built out. We would um as member Graham stated, we would be uh in close talks with the MSBA to make sure that timeline works out. The article 97 process is at least a
known uh concept and process that can be um scheduled out. It would not be the first project that we worked on um that an article article 97 process is happening while the CM is brought on during the tail end of schematic design
uh for a project. In fact, it is um it's helpful to get their um their early buy in and um involvement so that um they can weigh in on things that like around logistics and and phasing um of some of
that work. Um and I'm sure SMMA, if you want to add to any color, I'm sure you've seen the same. >> Yeah. You know, Jen, I think that's an accurate description of sort of the value that the CM can add um as part of the process if they were to come on board now, but um it could also go in
the other direction as well and we could wait. I think there's we can be a little agnostic in terms of the CM um at this point in the process. >> Thank you. >> Are there any other questions from the committee? Member Lady.
>> Yes, it's more of a comment actually. Um I think as members have mentioned and I think um I can agree that it's the deeply frustrating um instance that this is occurring. Um and I'd like to know more. Um and I as many have noted like online and member Graham mentioned you know there's um a spread of
unintentional misinformation or just mis you know misunderstanding about what's going on because we're learning better all in real time. So um I just implore members of the community, members of the building committee, just anyone who's interested to reach out to our team um to better understand what's going on. We we hold office hours. Left field does
those on Fridays. Um we have our community forum, our building community meetings, our school community meetings. Um I just think it's a really important time especially as we're going to move through this process and better understand what to do next. it's in our best interest as a community to stay um committed to this work because it's deeply important to all of us
individually and I think as a collective and I just don't want us to um fall into our um more negative attitudes because I think that I'm feeling very frustrated just because this is very very disappointing and it's many years of work that we've been putting in and um to have it stalled like this is um incredibly frustrating. So I think I
just ask everyone uh stay together on this. So thank you. >> Thank you member Leat. Are there any other questions from the committee? Okay. Um All right. Well, we will be um moving
on. We don't have any continued business. Um we do have um one item of new business offered by myself and member Lead. Um whereas the Medford Public Schools Project Transition Program serves students ages 18 to 22 with disabilities and is intended to prepare
them for employment independence and full participation in adult life. And whereas evidence-based transition practice shows access to meaningful community-based work experience is a key predictor of successful post high school employment outcomes. Now therefore, therefore, be it resolved that the
Medford School Committee request the superintendent and the administration to conduct a comprehensive assessment of the current project transition program and recommend improvements to assure alignment with best practices in transition services. Be it further resolved that this assessment shall evaluate the program's effectiveness in
providing community-based real world work experiences, including pathways to paid and competitive employment, supporting individualized student needs and transition planning align with student goals, tracking data on placements, paid employment, and postexit outcomes, engaging students and
families in planning and expectations. Um, be it further resolved that the administration shall present its findings, recommendations, including any proposed programmatic staffing or resource changes to the school committee by December 2026. And be it finally resolved that the Medford um school committee affirms its commitment to
ensuring all students in the project transition program leave with the skills and experience necessary to successfully enter the workforce and adult life. Um, member Lady and I have been um, working with some of our CPAC families
um, for the last year or so. Um, I think we heard from them um, on the heels of the successful override and um, they are very interested in making sure that um, the students that CPAC represents are sort of at the front of our mind when
we're thinking about programming and that kind of thing. And most recently they reached out to both of us to talk about project transitions and specifically wanting to um understand how to advocate for an increase in opportunities for students in the project transition program specifically
as it relates to employment opportunities. Um so um member Leat and I had a like brief conversation but really this work belongs with the administration. Um, so this is sort of us trying to frame for you all the the
ask and the excitement um of the community for support um in in investigating what's possible for our students here in Medford. Member Leat, did you want to say anything else? >> Thank you. Um, yeah, to to um double on what member Graham said, I think that
one of the most important things in our community is our pack groups across all the all the schools. um our CPAC and our LPAC especially are ones that um I've taken a special um working group working attitude towards and I think that um they have asked um things of us and I think it's really important that we're maintaining our commitment to them. Um
it's really challenging especially when the the services that that their students and their um advocated um individuals need aren't always as available to them as they would hope. And so I think this was just a commitment to um making sure that we're working towards properly securing those opportunities for these students um to the best of our ability and
understanding the pathways to doing that. Um, I think it's just it's it's something that we we say we want to do and it's hard um enough as is as a parent um with students who have differing needs um to find those opportunities because they're not always readily available. And I think as a district we want to make that commitment
and make them readily available. So I think we may have somebody in the waiting room. of the Zoom that may want to speak on this issue. So, I just want to give her a minute to get signed in. Um, is there any other qu are there
questions or comments from the committee? And is there anybody in the public who would like to speak? Um, just to recap, we had some folks just joining us. Um and we reviewed the resolution that is on the school committee agenda um asking the
administration to um do an assessment of the project transition program and specifically the work that um the program does around um uh meaningful employment and job placement. Um if you would like to say something
and you're on Zoom, you can just use the raise hand feature and then we can unmute you. Um, Patricia Cherry will will unmute you and if you could give us your name and address for the record, that'd be great. Sorry, I'm in the car. I'm having
technical difficulties. Um, Patricia Cherry, 20 WY Street, Medford, Mass. Did you um have a comment that you'd like to provide us? Well, what I just I would really like to um express that
myself and many of the parents in the city of Medford whose kids attend these programs or will be attending this program um are
very what's the word? Not very happy with the support that this program receives. And I think that this is something that needs immediate attention and it should be at the top of a list of a priority list. Um so I just want to
once again say, you know, this this is really really important. Um we're doing meetings. We're trying to get things going and we really need support in this area. it it it's been asked before um and some of the things that have taken place over the past two weeks um with
the jobs that you know did not go to this program that we felt should have been offered to this program and would have been a benefit to this program um were not we weren't thought of. So, that's basically my comment is
that I really, really, really need you guys to help with supporting this program. It's part of the Memphis public school system. Um, our kids deserve the same paths that every other child in the Memphis public school system gets. It
should be no different. It shouldn't look any different and it shouldn't have less support given to it. And that's all I have to say. Thank you for listening. Thank you, Patricia. There any other questions or comments
about this resolution? Dr. Lucy, >> thank you. I just wanted to mention um we of course are happy to do a review look into this. I would say I think even just for increased communication and awareness for this um committee as well
as the community would be very beneficial. I know for project transition there is a lot of work that's done to make sure that students are exposed um but engaging in the review I think will be very helpful um and happy
to get that done by uh next December I do know that Ms. Bowen with um Miss Clinton, one of the the secondary um special education coordinators had kind of had this on their to-do list
to begin to begin in the fall. So, it's kind of timely for us here in the district. Um but I think the clarity and greater detail will be important for the community. >> Great. Member Reinfeld.
>> Yep. Just I think in response and explicitly what that relationship looks like. >> Yes, I do know that there I don't want to speak for Miss Bowen and I don't know the intricacies. So, this would be like
a learning opportunity for me as well. But I do know that Medford does engage in project triangle. Medford has a dedicated position within project um transition that does this job
of working with students um for opportunities within the community. Um, but I think like I said, a review of what we are currently offering as well as just maybe having our communication
be more broad and clarified is also an important part of this review. >> Thank you. There any other questions? Is there a motion to approve? Motion approved by member Leady,
seconded by member Reinfeld. Um, member Sof, you can call the role. >> Member Graham, >> yes. >> Member Master Bonnie, >> yes. >> Member Alati, >> yes. >> Member Parks, >> yes. >> Member Rinfeld, >> yes. >> Member Member Rouso, yes. Mayor Lungoarn,
>> yes. >> Seven in the affirmative, zero in the negative. Motion passes. Um, we do not have any requested reports. Um and we don't have any condolences this week. Um our next regular meeting is June 1st at Howard Alden Memorial Chambers in
Medford City Hall and on Zoom in addition to our building committee meeting which is hybrid format on Wednesday evening at 6:30 um which is at the Medford High School Library and on Zoom. Is there a motion to adjurnn?
Motion to adjurnn by member Reinfeld, seconded by seconded by member Master Bony. Member so if you can call the role. Member Graham. >> Yes. >> Member Master Bunny. Yes. >> Member Olati. Yes. >> Member Parks. Yes. >> Member Rinfeld. Yes. >> Membero. Yes. Mayor Langok.
>> Yes.