Oh god, nice and quiet. Good evening everybody. The sixth regular meeting of the Medford School Committee will come to order. It's um we have executive session at 6. We should be right back here at 6:15. Um tonight's March 16th. Um we're here in the Alden Memorial Chambers, Medford
City Hall and this is also um remote participation and we are recording. The meeting can be viewed on the Medford Public Schools YouTube channel through Medford Community Media on your local cable channel um which is Comcast channel 98
or 22 and Verizon channel 4345 or 47. Um, since the meeting is also remote, you can click on the Zoom link and the meeting ID is 9805992 2000 0. Members, if you could please call the role.
Okay, member Russo. Cat, are you in the Oh, here I can. Okay, thanks. Doesn't have the names. >> Mine's not working. >> Oh, go ahead. >> There you go. Member Russo. >> Thank you. Um, member Graham
>> here. Member Master >> here. >> Member Olady will be here in a moment. Uh member Parks >> here. >> Member Reinfeld >> pres. >> Member Rouso present. Mayor Lango Kern >> present. Six present. >> And student rep >> and our student representative. Thank you for being here. Six present. One on
the way. >> Oh, and there's multiple virtual. Thank you. Okay. We have multiple student reps on the call tonight. It's a big one. Um, if we can all please rise to salute the flag. 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. We have executive session upon a motion to enter executive session pursuant to general laws 30A section 21A. Memphis school committee um to conduct a
strategy session on the basis that an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the bargaining position of the Medford School Committee, specifically the Medford School Committee will be discussing ongoing collective bargaining negotiations with multiple bargaining units, specifically SEIU Local 88
Medford School cafeteria workers. Is there a motion to enter a quick executive session by member Rinfeld seconded by member Master Bony? Roll call. >> Member Graham. >> Yes. >> Member Master Bony. Yes. >> Member Olady is still absent. Member Parks.
>> Yes. >> Member Rinfeld. >> Yes. >> Member Russo. Yes. Mayor Lungo. >> Yes. Six. Executive session. >> Yes. Okay. Seven in the affirmative, zero in the negative. We're going to go into a quick executive session. We'll be right back. Thank you all for being here. There's some more seats up front
if anybody wants them in the back. And we'll be right back. pressing and I can Mic check. Mic check. Mic check. Chairman. So, their mics are going to be hot. Mic check.
mic check. Mic check. Mic check. Thanks for your patience everybody. Thanks for your patience everybody. We're just going to get started. We just met in executive session to ratify the Medford school cafeteria
workers. So, congratulations on both sides and thank you to the negotiating team, member Graham and member Rouso and sit and staff. Thank you, Superintendent. Next up, consent agenda. We'll do this quick. Approval of bills and payrolls. Approval of budget transfers. Journal
entry 207291 $1114,98957. Journal entry 2073047,4180. Journal entry 207284,152,943.37. Journal entry 207212 $2,000 and journal entry 207271000. approval of of donations, Medford High
School, Medford Vocational Technical High School parent teacher organization and eight $8,000 and Crystal Campbell Medford Strong Scholarship and the approval of the meeting minutes from our regular meeting March 2nd, 2026. Is there a motion on
the floor or any description on any of those transfers? Any questions? Um motion to approve by member Rouso, seconded by member El Pad. Roll call. All member Russo, please. >> Member Graham. >> Yes. >> Member Master Bony. >> Yes.
>> Member Leat. >> Yes. >> Member Parks. >> Yes. >> Member Brianville. Member Russo. Yes. Mayor Lungo. >> Yes. Seven the affirmative zero in the negative. Motion passes. Um we have our reports of superintendent. Three reports tonight. And first up is our Mustang moment. So
I'll turn it over to you Dr. Gluci. >> Thank you very much. Hello everybody. Welcome. This is like my favorite part of the school committee meetings is starting with Mustang moment. This meeting we have our winter sport athletes that are going to be rightfully
recognized. We have a full chamber of athletes and caregivers and supporters and it's just I don't know fills my bucket to start this way. So I am going to let our athletic director Mr. Robert Olirri get us started. He's going to give just a brief overview of the winter
season and then call up the coaches so that they can rightfully acknowledge their teams. Mr. Olirri. >> All right. Thank you all for having us this evening. Um my name is Rob. I am the co-curricular director u community schools director uh for the Medford
public schools. This evening we have all of our winter sports uh here. Um, basically our our winter sports had a fantastic winter. We had uh three GBL champions. We have over 30 uh allstars that you'll get to hear about this
evening. Um we've had some big crowds. We've had some playoff games. Um we had uh girls basketball, boys ice hockey, swimming, track, um all make the postseason. Uh so um it was a great uh
time to be a Mustang and uh obviously there's a lot of uh excitement around that. We have uh we had over 250 kids registered uh for winter sports and uh we have almost double that for spring sports. So uh we are we're heading in
the right direction and uh hopefully we'll get to hear all about it this evening. Uh so without further ado, I'm going to turn it over to our GBL coach of the year uh for swim um Miss Mary Judge. Um thank you very much. Um this year uh
was a very impressive year. Um, the team was focused and determined to surpass their previous accomplishments. It's taken us 39 years to become GBL champions again, and that's a long time. And they worked very hard in practice
and swam strongly in their meets. They went to the next level in competition to push for the win every event and every meet. Um, as far as team leadership, they were supportive to each other. They led. They kept their eye on the goal.
They inspired the rest of the team to stay on course. This is a very special and very motivated team. We always talk about the fact that swimming for a team coming in first doesn't really win. Um it the addition to second, thirds, and
fourth, that's what really makes the points. And this team really did that. They came through every single time. So, it was it was indeed a very special year. Um, that's really all I can say about them,
but I'd like to announce all my my um GBL Allstars. I'll start with the girls. Captain Sarah Ysef, Captain Zenny Beveres, Mella Duncan, Sophia Tau,
Alessia Gaglio and Captain Jasper Kerr. Now for the boys. Captain Cole Brenton Green, Matthew Stricker, Leonardo Hernandez, Henry Griger, Andrew Tran,
Captain James Cluggish, >> Ununice Cologne. There there are two that weren't able to come. Oliver Crane Wy and Brad Dloceto. They did very well. Thank you so much. Um, I'd like to send this off to Coach
O'Keefe. Thank you everybody. Uh, I want to thank the school committee, the mayor, you know, if I have in this and recognizing all the student athletes, you know, the champs and everyone. Um, I love seeing all the kids come, you know, all-star, not allstar champ. It's respect and being here and I really as my team and I
really appreciate you guys being here. Rob Olari, our new athletic director, you know, just came in this year. He's been great. You know, it was a good transition from from uh Bobby to Rob. You know, we get along good. You know, he's there. He's helping us all the time. So, things are going well, especially, you know, at the hockey
team. Um we had a good season. Had 11 wins two years in a row. 11 wins. Uh in the Greater Boston League, we were the past two seasons we're at 12-0. uh won the GBL last year, won the GBL this year. You know, state tournament, qualified both years since I've been the
head coach. Uh we've competed uh you know, we're building, we had a junior varsity team again this year. First time we brought that back thanks to Rob, he helped uh we incorporated the middle school, which has really helped with the eighth graders, getting them involved and having my guys now, you know, talk
to them and trying to convince them to come to the high school, you know, which is I feel like it we're in the uh we're going in the right direction with the hockey team. Um, for all stars, we had uh four great boss league allstars. Um, we had senior Diego Menace, who was the MVP.
Um, senior Evan Shaloney, who's back here. Uh uh senior Gabe Rudolph and Junior Nolan O'Keeffe also also. So thank you everybody. You know we had a great season and I'm going to turn over the gymnastics GBL champs. Uh the
coach is here Nicole and Kelly. Sorry. Nicole and Kelly. Sorry. Thank you. Of course, my nose just died. I'm going to keep it short and sweet. Um the member high school girls gymnastics team, we had another wonderful season. We had a great turnout, which was really
nice. Um we had a mostly novice team. Um but their journey was really um nothing short of remarkable. Um we started the season with 92.9 against Wakefield and increased that to win the GBL um of 106.1 which is actually a really big leap. Um
thank you um our captain um Ariana Ramos was did a great job leading the team um with a freshman Dylan coming in and surprising everybody um and they helped lead the way to do that. Thank you. Those are our
two allst stars. Sorry, short and sweet. Thank you, Britney. Up next is I'm coach Britney Lindsili. Oh god. Hi everyone. Um I'm Britney Lanzili. I'm the girls varsity hockey coach. Um we do have a
co-op with several different Is this loud? Am I okay? Um, we have a co-op with several different surrounding towns. Um, so as I reflect on this past season, there really is so much to be proud of. Um, these girls showed up every day, worked their hardest, competed at a really high level, um, and
just put their all into it every single day. Um, the season was successful for many reasons. There were a lot of new team record set, individual record set, um, and honestly, I was just so proud to be able to coach this group. Um this season one of our players uh Erin Alves
was nominated and recognized as a Northeastern Hockey League All-Star. Um an honor selected through nominations and votes from different league coaches. During the selection process, the most notable words about Erin was phenomenal,
outstanding, game changer between the pipes. Um, she is the type of player who makes everyone else's job easier and honestly gives our team the ability to compete every single game. Uh, in 13 games played, Erin's season stats included 605 shots against uh, 569 saves
with a 0.94 save percentage. Uh, her work ethic and competitive competitiveness sets her apart. Uh, she's outstanding in every way and honestly very very deserving of this award. Um, congratulations Erin. And next up we have Coach Donlin and
Coach Murphy with the track team. >> Hi everybody. Can you hear me? Okay. So, uh I'm Coach Don. This is Coach Murphy. Um, I'm going to first recognize uh two boys on our team that received uh uh League All-Star um awards and coach Murphy is going to talk about a couple of the girls on our team that also uh achieved some pretty high accolades as
well. Um our two athletes are quite different but very similar in their leadership qualities. The first athlete was one of our multi-athletes competed in the pentathlon almost scoring uh 3,000 points which I know many of you aren't really all that familiar with but is some of the best all-around athletes in the state and he qualified in the top
20 of those athletes. So that's the high jump. That's a lot of events. Um he won uh most of the events that he competed in at our uh league meet. So he was selected as an all-star. Uh all around just a great leader. Um huge role in the team doing a lot of the events that are some of the most difficult and for
years, you know, the thankless events um that come up in the field category of track sometimes and uh we uh we're going to miss him deeply. Uh the second athlete to recognize is Adam Lewis. Adam's been a staple of our team running cross country, indoor track, outdoor track. Uh, and this year he has really
achieved some high marks. He has our school record in the 600 and he's right on the heels of the school record in the mile as well and we hope he gets that in the spring. So, he follows some of the uh greatest uh distance athletes that we have ever seen in the uh city of Medford. And I don't mention that lightly. I've been spending a lot of my
career tracking down these old times and records and Adam is right up there with uh some of the best in the conversation of being the best. So, uh, we really appreciate these two athletes. They are, uh, something. Um, Adam also just competed last, uh, or this past weekend at the, uh, national meet as well. So, you know, they're still doing great
things for us, thankfully. Coach Murphy. >> Yo, I just want to say, too, uh, how's it going? >> Also, also, the first athlete that coach was talking about is uh, Cooper. So, I just want to make sure his name gets in there. I don't know if he got it in there or not. >> I think he's playing lacrosse right now.
He's always doing something from efforts. So, Yeah. So, Adam's >> and then Cooper, I think, is still a lacrosse practice. He's just always doing something for me at all times of the day and night. >> Um, yeah. And then on the girls side, we had a ton of success. We came in uh second in the GBL, which is a big
improvement from last year. Um, they actually came in 12th out of 24 at the all at the state meet, which is a huge improvement, too. That's really punching above our weight. We're in division one, and we're one of the smaller schools, so it was really great to see that. Um, a lot of that success came um on the backs of our allstars. uh they did a really
fantastic job. We had um Norah Buren who broke our school record in the 300 and was part of our 4x200 that broke the uh school record. We had Isabelli Dusier who ran the two-mile for us. We had um Ania Pierre and um Lena Lena Gomes
McDonald as well as Oh, and um sorry, Sydney Coffel who's in the back right now probably about to kill me who all um ran um that 4x2 together. They competed all the way till the national meet on last Friday and they um did a fantastic job. So overall great season for the boys and the girls.
We started again today so we're right back at it. Um a lot of these kids are taking a week off because they competed all the way till last week and then they're back at it again. So we're really proud of our girls and our boys and I think they had a great season. We're going to hand it back to earlier. >> Yeah. Take a step forward. Take a step
forward. Okay. Yeah. We'll give it back to Rob. Thank you. >> Our boys uh basketball coach was unable to be here tonight since lacrosse started this afternoon. He's also our boys lacrosse coach. So, um I'm going to do the honors of introducing uh two of
our allstars um for the boys basketball team. boys basketball missed the playoffs by uh a game uh this this winter. Uh so hoping to improve on that next winter. Uh they had a couple of big wins towards the end of the season um and won their last game of the year
against L Catholic. Um, so our two all-stars from boys basketball were Tyler Koffield and and Adla Henry. I'm also going to take the um pleasure of introducing the girls basketball team as well as our girls basketball coaches
at work. Um it some of these girls are probably still at lacrosse and softball, but uh the girls basketball team qualified for the uh state tournament uh again this year. Um they had a big win um big wins against Malden um towards
the end of the season. They also uh had wins uh in the GBL verse. Uh they had a very tough schedule this year which uh non-league schedule which was a little different than what they've played in the past. So they did qualify uh and they uh in the last week of the season
beat Mystic Valley twice, beat Malden, beat Reier to qualify. So they had a a very good end of the season. Um and our three uh and our first year coach Terrell Sanders. Um we uh we have three allstars from the girls basketball team. We have uh Joy Richley,
Sienna Fousy, and Emma Malerba. Uh that's all of our allstars for this evening. I just want to say again, thank you for all your support, all the administrative support at the high school. Um there was hardly ever a game where we didn't have an assistant principal, associate principal or principal there. Um and the the kids
really like really love that and uh they love all the support they get from the city of Medford and hopefully we can continue that. Um do we want to do pitchers now? Okay, so we'll do pitches. We'll start with the swim team. Uh GBL champion and >> swim team come on up and congratulations everybody.
Okay, next up we have um the MCCAST Flex Pilot for Medford High School. I'm going to invite up Mar Cabraw, our principal, and David Blo, our assistant principal. I'll do a little training. Um I'll turn over to Dr. Galooi first.
Thank you so much. As as Mr. Blake transitions from honoring all of his high school athletes, um I just want to mention that um assistant principal Mr. Dave Blake is here who will be um primarily presenting. We also have principal
Cabraw joining us virtually. So she is here as well for any questions. Just a very brief frame before I turn it over to Mr. Blau. Um, we presented several times to this board last year over the um, state law now around MCCAST
requirements no longer being the driver to graduation requirements. So, the high school staff administratively have worked very diligently throughout this past year implementing the new graduation requirements. And part of
what they're here to frame today is a pilot program to make sure that we're that they are doing everything they can not only implementing the new regulations but as noted and just want to frame again that MCCAST may not be a
requirement for graduation but it is still our measure for accountability in this in per the department of education. So it does matter how students are performing. It is a good measure for us to determine how grade level standards
are being met here um for us in Medford public schools. And so really to make sure we're putting students at the center um Mr. Blau and principal Cabraw have a pilot incentive uh program to discuss
with you this evening um for your approval. I'm just checking this is on. Thank you so much, Madam Superintendent, Madam Mayor, and the members of the school committee. So, we have Miss Cabaral on Zoom as well. I just want to make sure she's able to speak because I may I may call on her a few moments during my
presentation. >> Can you hear me? >> Thank you, Mr. Cabraw. Um, so you have the proposal in front of you. I'll I'll read through and and give a little added context to some of the items that are on the proposal. So the first thing just to clarify this is this is just for high school and we're looking we're proposing just for the math test which is coming
up in um on Tuesday and Wednesday March I'm sorry May 19th and 20th that is a test that's specifically for 10th graders and what we're we're hoping to launch is a late entry schedule for non-esting students on these days um and the first proposal is just for those
math days coming up in May and the overall purpose as as Dr. Dr. Lucy mentioned is to ensure optimal testing conditions, maintain maintain equitable access to instructional time and support the schoolwide operations while we have MCCAST occurring. So, you know, for a very long time really since MCCAST
began, we've done MCCast where we run MCCAST, but we also run school. So, this is a way of trying to run MCCAST and prioritize it and modify the the school experience for other students who are not testing in order to optimize the the MCCAST experience for those who are. So
the rationale for it first bullet is around ensuring a secure a secure quiet and compliant testing environment and as you know there's strict adherence to state testing protocols for MCCasts which include minimizing disruptions and maintaining a secure setting. Typically we take a section of um seab building
and we have that floor sectioned off. We move the classrooms to different areas to reduce traffic. Um we we hold announcements. We try to reduce the number of interruptions. The idea of the modified day is that there would be fewer interruptions you few to none um at all which really helps ensure that
integrity of the testing environment. You know we've made do for a long time but we're looking to uh raise it to a point where there's none none to begin with and we have uh you know variety of students who are not in the building while testing is occurring which is um which is uh the main part of bullet 2 maximizing student performance and
reducing stress. So, as you know, test taking students really benefit from a very calm and focused environment. If we enter grades 11 and 12 late, which is what we're proposing to do, those 10th grade students testing are much better positioned to concentrate and manage uh their testing anxieties and really
demonstrate knowledge and skills. And that is in alignment with our commitment to provide all students with those best possible conditions when we have high stakes assessments. This also really helps with efficiency and staffing where typically what we do now is we take teachers who have students who are taking MCCAST and
instead of teaching that day they they they proctor MCCAST. So 10th grade teachers of English class for example um or of integrated math 2 would be the proctors of tests or chemistry or the like. And um it does require a substantial number of test proctors. It's it's becoming a bit of a challenge that you know we sometimes have kids in
different grades and classes. So, we really can't have their teachers proctor um if if they're say our 10th and 11th grade in a class like for example like a world language class or some of our um math classes and you know if you go to a modified day you really have staff at the ready and uh those individuals can
really help uh you know they're not rushing between classes they're just there pro and uh you know on on regular school days if we keep a regular day the staffing needs compete with the regular supervision instructional demands of uh the whole school. So that late entry schedule helps ensure adequate staffing
for all rooms, good compliance with required accommodations and also appropriate monitoring of uh all the students in the school without compromising the safety and supervision of the of the broader student body. You know the fourth sections on students who are not testing during MCCAST. As I
mentioned a little earlier, they they typically have to be relocated especially if they're in that part of the building where we're doing testing. So they need to be uh reassigned to different rooms, teachers and students. And there are some disruptions natural that again we we do our very best. We've always made do but it's something where
there is a kind of a natural shortening to their experience or disruption that needs to be managed. That's you know again in a different space. It's not your everyday space. So if you have a planned late entry that maintains continuity and quality of learning by allowing students to follow a normal
schedule once they arrive rather than um experiencing potentially fragmented instruction. And uh the fifth bullet is really, you know, we we um we know this is happening in lots of Massachusetts high schools and it's something where uh it's it's it's become recognized as effective and
um you know for the bullets mentioned it's something that we you know we we believe is really going to help us out. So in terms of the imple implementation plan, I'm going to go through some of the bullets here and also in some of these bullets um certainly allow uh Miss Cabraw to enter into the conversation if
there's any specific information that you know I don't hit upon uh M cabal. So the details of the imple implementation plan you would have uh all testing students so 10th graders arrive on the regular time and begin mammcast promptly um as uh you know the day begins 7:45
they would enter into their testing and begin the test. Those who are in grades 10 and 11 would follow a late entry schedule where they arrive at the conclusion of the testing window which is around 11:27 when we have our first lunch block. And those students in the morning would engage in something that
is an asynchronous college or career exploration activity which uh you know to some extent would mirror like what we do on C3 day in the fall. um an activity where they they do something not in their regular routine in the morning but something that's still beneficial for them in college and career career
exploration. Grade nine students will be in the building. The difference for them is that they'll engage in community building freshman seminar advisory like activities that um take them through the morning. So they they're actually in the building. I didn't mention that earlier,
but that's that's something where they follow a normal schedule, but have a modified experience for what they're going to be doing. In terms of transportation, our plan is to work with the Mr. Schwarz and the transportation office to come up with a specific plan for how to support getting two students to school if they have a
late arrival. And um as you know about I mean 9th and 10th grade are coming on time as usual, but this would be something that could potentially impact 11th and 12th. Mr. Cabal will tend to communication to families, students, and staff well in advance, seeing that we're, you know,
still about nine weeks out from testing. And our attendance procedures would be adapted to reflect that adjusted schedule. So students would um you would be some process for identifying what they did in the morning and then counting them as present so long as they fulfill that. And also something that's important is that if a student any
student does not does not choose into the late entry schedule, we will come up with a contingency plan to allow those students to participate for a full day. Um, and what we hope as outcomes with all this is that we'll see improved testing conditions and improved test performance for all of our students who
are testing. We'll see better compliance with MCCAST security and administration protocols through that more secure environment. We'll see increased efficiency and staffing assignments, reduce disruptions to the overall school community, and enhance equity and instructional time
for non-ested students. So again, we feel this is the best interest of our school. particularly our students who are testing. So, we respectfully request your approval on this uh on this pilot program. I do want to see if M cabal has any additional uh pieces of information
she would like to share. >> No, great job. I'm here to answer any questions. >> Any questions? >> Member Russo. Thank you for pretty much answering all the questions in the presentation that I
think most of us could come up with. At least I'm speaking for myself. Um, I appreciate what's going on here and I understand why you want to do it and I'm going to support this. Um, but again, I I think that it's worth just stating out
loud that this is what's wrong and why MCCAST isn't the answer. We're taking away some education from all the students, it sounds like, except for nth graders who are going to have some other thing that's not their normal structured learning. Um,
to accomplish a goal that won't be used to help guide their own education. The 10th graders will take the test, they'll go to 11th grade regardless of their performance. Um, and those students will receive no benefit. um unlike every test that they're given
by their teachers all year long um where they can course correct and actually do something about it. Um so I mean I'm disappointed this is necessary. I appreciate that it's incredibly thorough and that you've really covered all the bases for students that might have to
come in anyways. Um you know my daughter is in the biotech um for the last three periods of the day and she's a senior. she's not coming in at this time to have lunch. She's just not going to go to school. Um and she's certainly not the
only senior who's just not coming to school that day, right? You you do know that um attendance will be terrible for students, especially the seniors, um who can sign themselves out or have
permission to be let go by their parents already. So, I appreciate the thoroughess. Um, and I'll certainly motion to approve. Do we have to vote on this? I'm sorry. I don't know. Do we need to vote on it? >> Yes. >> Okay. Well, I I will motion to approve
this with many misgivings, but not nothing to do with you or Miss Cabraw. Thank you. Thank you, Paul. >> Um Um Dr. Gussy and then I saw me pox's hand and our student rep would like to speak. I just didn't know if um
Principal Cabraw wanted to address or Principal Cabraw, could you speak about the vision of the freshman um seminar or the the role that you want the freshman to have in your bigger
vision for this? Yes. So, we do want to take advantage of having freshmen that can um be together um for a few hours. We never have time in whole community with any grades. So we would take the opportunity to hold a seminar with them
where we would focus on healthy decision-m time management strategies and goal setting for their high school career. And further um we also would take some time in that time to do MCCAST bio prep because they will have MCCAST
testing in June. So, we plan to do a fun interactive Jeopardy game um with them. And then community building activities, which I think is so very important, especially for grade nine students as they're forming friendships um in a large high school.
>> Thank you. Member Parks, I know you said that there's uh other high schools doing this program currently. are um do they have any data on kind of how many students are coming to
school at halfway through the day to member Russo's point >> I think we can look up and and report back if that feels yeah there's nothing I have offh hand so >> yeah and I do think you know with
messaging and so forth and we do have a attendance policy per class um so our attendance policy if you miss a certain class, um, it counts towards your three absences. So, I think like just making sure that I'm communicating, making sure that I'm, you know, emailing in on
announcements for juniors and seniors because I definitely can see that as a concern. Um, but making sure that I'm communicating what our attendance policy is per class period. I think with having them come in at lunchtime, it's a clean break where they will have a full afternoon to engage in period 5, 6, and
7. They may not choose to come for lunch, which is okay, but hopefully getting them there for the three periods at the end of the day once school resumes for all students. >> Alachi, would you like to come up and then member Master >> Bony? Yeah,
>> you can just use member Graham's microphone or you can >> um >> so I just most of these things are not significant. Um but I do think that they weren't mentioning I was just looking through the materials that were provided
and um in there it's linked to sort of what the activities will be. I can see um moving for now that just says late activity. I brought this up with Galooi earlier, but it says late activity entries for juniors and seniors and then also includes freshman information. I don't think that matters very much, but
I just want to make sure that that is known. >> Um, additionally, I I want to agree um with my fellow member here. I think that making sure that this is a really evidence-based approach is important. We want to look at what other districts are doing. We want to look at, you know, I definitely agree that there are reasons
why this could improve scores, but we want to make sure that that is actually seen in other districts who adopted this. Um, because it is a big change and it's not like it requires zero effort to go and and do this. Um, so I think that would be something that I would want to see
uh just in this effort. I don't know if that is, you know, material stuff that you've already done, but I just think that that's important. I think that's my major concern. >> I appreciate that and I agree. >> Thank you. And in the same vein, I'm really interested interested to hear how this pilot goes, you know, in in late
late May or June. um what the experience is specifically to you know what students are coming in what students are not what did we learn um seems like a great plan I you know happy to support it >> thank you >> member Rinfeld >> y what are our opt out rates in 10th
grade I'm wondering what this looks like for students who are not taking the MCCAST but are not in 9th grade or 11th and 12th and wondering if there is a component of deincentivizing taking the MCCAST when the alternative is to have a
half day um do team building. So what does it look like for 10? >> So there's very few I mean I I think that's also a report back on exact numbers but there are there are there are none that I I know of who used you who said they were opting out. I mean I
think we carried a few absences. Um but I can get the exact information and share back. >> I mean mostly I'm wondering what it looks like for those students regardless of how many there are. Yep. I mean I think that um it's hard to
know. I I I mean I think right just sort of not having done I mean I feel a lot lot comes in doing some good checking with districts who have been doing this for quite some time and and seeing what is it that they see and what are the sort of stress points and and um and the like. Um,
>> and just to add into that, I think, you know, we had very few, if any, opt outs last year. Um, but we have worked really closely administration with the grade 10 teachers and really sharing the importance of working hard and showing
your skills at the MCCAST. Not because it's a graduation requirement, and I think many of us have our own personal opinions about MCCAST testing, but really showing where they are and the grow and glow areas for their learning at Medford High School. And I think the
more that the teachers have had conversations about that, the more students are understanding why we we need them to perform their best. Um because like I said, we haven't had any opt outs as of right now and we didn't have any last year either.
Okay. And is the with the new conditions, do you think there's a change in the pressure being placed on students? >> So I think so one thing I think is important about the new our new district policy is that it their participation is
required. That's a graduation requirement. So like basically that you have participated in the test. Um and we are all encouragement and all prep and um trying to boost them and do the very best they can to you know have the
success to build up their own resumes to take pride in what they accomplish. You know I feel like um I mean it's a hard question to know exactly what types of of pressures they're feeling when they're certainly not feeling the past pressures where it's sort of you know what could really feel like a do or die.
Um, so I think we've been able to really, you know, like March Marta mentioned, just find ways to get them to give it their absolute all. And and what we're hoping here is obviously to clear interference where um, you know, that's I mean, we definitely have seen where
there's matters where something is um, you know, is the more interference, the more difficult it can become, you know, emotionally for the child. And, you know, we're hoping that this approach, you know, really just just clears the space, keeps it positive. Um, you know, and I I worry less about sort of the optouts. It's not something we've really
had to, you know, had to deal with in the past. And maybe that was because it was always required and, you know, everyone sort of says the same thing in preparation for it >> through the chair. Could I just like extend one thing to that? I just >> I know it's been said, but I do want to
just echo and I completely understand um the different feelings or beliefs that people bring to this, but we're still a public school system. We are still bound by the department of education's regulations and they are using MCCAST as
our as part of our accountability measure. So there are many professions in life in which there are regular testing opportunities or requirements in order to keep licenses in order to qualify for the profession. So I also think like
even at the younger ages teaching students to Mr. BL's point, how to persevere and how to have adequate test taking skills is important. I think part of this pilot is to the work that Principal Caball just talked about that
she's doing with the grade 10 team. MCCAST is not an organic situation. Students take their tests with teachers. Part of this is having that kind of 360 view for students so that they're they're not just in a room
with a proctor. They're in the room with their teacher or they have eyesight of their teacher who has been the one teaching them through the year in that said content area. And part of that familiarity is we're hoping going to be
a little bit uh more effective in having to do the MCCASTs. uh for our students. I would say personally I my students did attend a district in which this was um used and so the late entry arrival was
something that my my own children encountered but I would say they did not have a freshman seminar and I think they would have really benefited in their freshman year from some conversations around decision-m um executive functioning skills team
building freshman year brings a lot of um developmental, you know, issues and um insecurities. And I think having space for just freshmen to come and be able to work
with staff and one another is just going to benefit them throughout the high school trajectory. Um but we are happy to provide not only the data from other districts around the effectiveness but to member Master Bon's comment too about
what's the data for that lived experience after the fact. Oh, I was just going to say yes and I appreciate how thoughtful this is and I I support piloting it and with any pilot initiative I want to hear how it goes after the fact, but I know my colleagues have a couple more comments and
questions. >> Member Graham and then Elachi. Thank you. Um I am just connecting all of this to the a presentation that Dr. Talbot gave us uh a few weeks ago
actually and she is the first person who has made MCCAST sound relevant to me in all of these years and for those of you who don't remember what she was talking about she talked about empaths as an
important way to understand grade level performance versus like how you are doing in your class so that we're not we're not inflating ing our our thoughts about how we're doing, right? Because we're sort of creating our own tests and
we're giving our own tests and we know the kids and so all of those like biases come in to with teachers, right? And it's natural and they care about their kid, the kids in their class. And so this happens and MCCAST gives you like sort of contrasting data that says, well, we may all be getting A's, but are
we on grade level, right? And that's like the first time anyone has said anything compelling in all the years to me about MCCAST. Having said that, um I also I had a conversation with a parent just
yesterday who was saying um we were talking about SATs to your point about like te testing, right? And like how is my student a straight A student but can't crack a certain place on the SATs? there's grade inflation happening that
is making us artificially believe that this student is somewhere that maybe they're not and the standardized test sort of like lays that out. Right? So I all that to say like I MCCAST is what it is. We have to do it.
I'm totally fine with that. I'm totally fine with late entry. The last like kind of connecting piece for me is several years ago we asked for like a list of like the testing and the preparation for testing and I want us to
revisit the excessive preparation for testing. So if what we care about is are our students on grade level we should be able to assess that whenever it is. We shouldn't need 27 practice tests. We shouldn't need an MCCAST prep class. we shouldn't need, you know, and then we
have like MAP and this and that and like from May until June, nothing happens in school but testing testing like prep testing recovery from like rinse repeat for like two months. And that's like every level and it's it's just it's too
much. And so every time we call a snow day, like I've started to think to myself, well shoot, we just stole another day from kids because what they would they would have learned something in January and like as my you know seventh grade nephews will tell me about Plymouth like we're not going to learn
anything in June. We're just going to watch a movie. And not to say that we're watching movies, but we're it's the value is not the same, right, of like having a day in January and having a day in June, especially because in June all the testing is done. So, we're done.
Like, everyone is out, right? Checked out. So, I'm totally supportive of this. I think it operationally makes sense and I think that has to unfortunately like play a role in how we like manage school. But I I would and I can even get
on board with MCCAST as like a measure of like how we are comparing ourselves. But I would really like us in the next year or so to revisit like the excessive preparation and let and let us stop teaching to the test because I think we
now have permission to not teach to the test um in many ways that we didn't have before and instead say like let's let the test tell us really what's happening not how are we preparing kids. So, um I I would just like to see us like
rationalize that piece of it because I I think kids would be happier in school and I think teachers would be happier in school if they weren't, you know, filling out bubble charts of, you know, multiple choice questions and all that good stuff. So, maybe there's some happy medium there that we can get to.
>> Yep. Dr. Lucy, I just want to make one quick comment. I do think that shift, we will absolutely get that data, but that shift has already happened in terms of not having the prep. I think you may see few days before some test taking strategies but we're not we have
completely moving away from teaching to the test. >> I love to hear that. Thank you. >> Yes. And I can >> the kids do too. >> I can definitely second that is there is a directive as to we are not teaching to the test um and that we're using our grade level curriculums to for for
pacing and for sequencing. and we use map data to inform us as to like where there are areas for growth. Um, but no, there should be no MCAST prep every single day. We do do some testing strategies because it's helpful the
first couple day the first couple days before the test. But yes, I do not expect going into a classroom and seeing a day of MCCAST prep. I sure hope not. >> And please know that's districtwide. >> Love that, >> not just high school.
um Alachi and then member Lead. I >> just want to say firstly thank you to member Graham. That was a lot of what I wanted to say. So I really really appreciate that. Um I do think like depending on the class like I have three days left of Spanish class this quarter.
>> Why is that? Because we have we have Apple testing, we have national Spanish exam, we have MCCAST, right? we barely finished our we barely closed grades for mid uh for progress reports, right? So, um I think that we definitely see that I
I believe that a large portion of our curriculum in like teaching time in these in these last two years are taken up by not only testing but test preparation. You know, I know that you said I'd hate to see walk into a class and see test prep periods, but unfortunately that is what's happening. And I'm not saying that that's a bad
thing. Maybe we do need to be doing that. But I don't think that anyone is going to say that if you walk into a school and I don't think that we any of us would be surprised at least any of our students would be surprised if you were to walk in one of our class and see a test prep period. I had two. Yes. Two today. >> Mhm. >> Right. So that's definitely not the
case. But um I I do think that you know these tests do have like you were saying they do have value as an objective metric. they do have value as a test taking metric because unfortunately a lot of the things that people are talking about I know that we mentioned the SATs you know they are testing your
content area knowledge but they're also testing your test taking capabilities and a lot of these tests do a good job at training us for that right especially since MCCAST isn't necessarily um a strict requirement anymore that that's a good spot to start with that I also think that math testing provides an important sort of pulse on student um
proficiency in a lot of different areas but I do think that a large portion of the second half of the school year is consumed by testing and testing preparation. I think it is disingenuous to say that you you that we wouldn't see
um test prep periods because like I said I had two today and you know um on Friday I believe I also had two. So, um, we definitely it is definitely prevalent. >> Thank you. >> And and and just to clarify, there is
ELA MCCAST coming up on March 23rd and 24th. So, I would expect some test prep to be happening these few days leading up to it. >> Member Lead, then member Parks. >> Thank you. Um it's two kind of questions
and I know that the superintendent mentioned it about the way that we interact with the state um and their recommendations and and proper adherence. Um have we consulted with Desi about general guidelines or best practices regarding this late entry? I know that it's mentioned I think in bullet point five that many other um
districts around the state have been doing this already and so I just want to make sure that we're properly aligning our um inclusion of this program with what the state recommends. I have not. Go ahead. >> I have not but I again I think this is seems to be a common a common thread you
know through many of the comments to you know we know it's happening but to learn more about the specifics and the the the sort of dos and don'ts that have played out well the best practices knowing it's imminent existence and and you know but getting it beyond the anecdotal seems like you know the right thing to do say
from here. >> Yeah. Thank you. >> So yep. Um and then the other question, it's more just an observation. I know that some um community members are um rightfully so concerned about safety and security of the schools um when people are entering, they're exiting based off the time of day. Generally speaking, with students all entering at the same
time, there's um consideration from um professional staff about um watching doors and the security of that. um with students entering the building at a different time. Is there any consideration? And again, I know we're talking about this as a as a pilot. So, we're going to be considering this um about making sure that we are being careful about the
>> the the folks who are walking in the building, making sure that they're who they're supposed to be. >> Again, that um I'm very glad you brought that up as you need to look at that 1127 as another start on on these days and to, you know, line up security and
administration accordingly. So u no I apprec I appreciate that and and right there with you. >> Absolutely. Thank you so much. >> Thank you. >> I just want to know um Marta if you want principal cabal if you want to comment on that. I do know the arrival every day
the administration leverages the administrative assistants in the office and they are in the lobby um present for when students come in. I'm assuming that that is a similar process that they would follow on this day. >> Yes. So, we would only have one entrance into the building. Normally, we have
several doors open in the mornings um before school starts. So, they would all enter through the main lobby where we would have to track their attendance for the day by our administrative assistance. >> Wonderful. Thank you, >> Member Parks.
>> Just a quick question. the uh yellow school bus um late arrival, is that something that is feasible? Has that been explored? Um and then go ahead. >> So, I had Sorry, I being on Zoom is just
weird. I apologize for interrupting. Um I had spoke with our transportation manager before I had even written this proposal because I thought that there was no point if I hadn't and he said that that shouldn't be a problem because all the other school buses would have already done their drop offs. We still
have logistics to this. Before any messaging goes out to any caregivers, we would make sure that we do have secured the yellow bus for our students. And we are working with the MBTA as well to see if they'd be able to do what they normally do and drive up um to the high
school to do the drop off. If not, there is drop off at the bottom of the street. >> Perfect. And I just want to say this was laid out so clearly and easy to understand. And as a nervous test taker, it's an awesome uh proposal. So, thanks.
>> Appreciate that. Thank you. >> Thank you. I think we have a motion on the floor by member Rouso. Is there a second? >> Okay, Elachi. >> One thing was that um just wanted to emphasize that when I said earlier that we should collect we should look at the data for other districts and see if this improved. I believe that that is
something that should be looked up before this note, we agree on passing this motion because I think that we do not want to, you know, pass something like this and then go back afterwards and see, hey, you know, this doesn't this doesn't necessarily cause meaningful improvement. I don't think we're going to see that it's detrimental necessarily
given that it's so widely prevalent, but I I do think that this is an important consideration before necessarily um this gets votes on. Um, one of our other student reps was saying that they personally feel that um, a lot of the the fact that we administer so many tests and the fact that like calls it
attention a bit to the fact that MCCAST doesn't necessarily matter as a graduation requirement. Like I think they said that it you know maybe people feel a bit tired especially um, just just because they're being tested so much and like a lot of the AP tests for example, >> you only really start reviewing, you
know, a couple like a week or two or three before the actual test, right? there isn't this sort of constant um let's write an MCAST practice essay in December um sort of uh situation. I believe that that is it as of this
point. >> Yes. >> Thank you. >> Dr. Lucy, >> the only thing that I would um say it's very valid point, but there is also a lot of planning um regarding the transportation piece. I did want to
mention that Mr. Evans Schwarz um who was our former transportation manager has left the district and relocated. So, we have gone through a search process and Ms. Aina Williams has been hired.
She has extensive experience in this transportation field. She has worked for two to three other school districts. Uh I believe she's starting Monday the 23rd. So we will make sure that we introduce her to this
body and um to the community. She will take over a lot of this work that Mr. uh Evan Schwarz has done. So part there is a little bit of that overlap in terms of making sure that she's brought up to speed having conversations with both
Eastern Bus as well as um the MBTA. And I think we were very intentional on calling this a pilot. We're asking for your approval for a pilot program, not for something that is permanent. We want to see how this could potentially work
to benefit our students. We are happy to keep regular data and evolve and adapt this uh idea as we gather that data but I would ask that we do motion so that we
can begin planning and we don't have a short runway to just make sure that this could be an effective pilot. But I'm definitely happy to um bring back to this body the the data from the lived experience at the end of the year.
Thank you, Member Brinfeld. And then we'll call the role. >> I think there's a motion on the table. I think we can potentially make the motion to authorize central and high school administration to take the steps necessary to implement this pilot. Um,
and that is pending. The actual administering of the pilot can be pending those arrangements and that data. I think we can authorize you to take the steps needed to implement and implement
once the pieces are in place. Does that seem >> So I I'm just want to make sure we know the date. So then you would want us to have all that data at a May meeting prior to the testing because I would just need to know.
>> Well, I think to to implement once that that those steps have been taken. I think implement contingent on this is similar to the the middle school study which is the intent is to implement this.
>> Okay. >> Unless it is found that it cannot be implemented. >> Okay. Mayor member Graham. >> Um I'm fine with the motion as it was originally written. I don't want to like over complicate this pilot. Um, okay.
So, I I just I want to and I don't like to tell people like go prepare to do work and then we might like yank out from underneath you the ability to like carry it through. So, I think this is like a really low stakes pilot
situation. Um, so I I would not be in favor of that amendment, but I'm happy to vote on whichever motion comes to the floor. >> It's fine. I was looking for compromise. I am also comfortable with the pilot as written. So
>> Elachi full call. >> I do want to agree with member Ryanfeld. I I do agree that it does make implementation more difficult. I do agree that we do not necessarily want to pull the rug out from anyone like you were saying. Um I do think that the main issue that um Dr. Gluci brought up was
that is the timeline, right? We want to make sure that we start moving on this so that it can be as good as possible of a pilot. I I do think I still again harbor concerns that we came up here and we are proposing this without saying oh you know like this has had a meaningful
improvement in other districts because I do not want to come up here and say that this is a free thing to do. I don't think it's I don't think it's low stakes. I think that there's a lot of logistics and stuff that needs to happen in order for this to to occur. Right. This is a big change from protocol we've done previously. It involves, you know, maybe extra security, involves
transportation, involves a lot of areas of the school. So, I I I don't agree that this is something that is easily changed, and that's part of the reason why we need to start on it earlier necessarily. But I I I do think that what I do agree that it is more complicated, but in my opinion, what
member Rinfeld proposed would allow for us to start on the implementation as soon as possible uh to ensure a a better pilot program while also leaving room for if we feel that, you know, maybe there's unforeseen consequences dated later down the pipeline. It doesn't
really hurt us much to do this. I do agree that it does make it more complicated, though. Thank you. >> Yes. >> Is there a second? >> Original motion. Um if we all those in favor >> I >> All those opposed motion passes. Thank
you everybody. Thank you Mr. B. >> Thank you. Thank you, >> assistant principal blog. And thank you, um, Principal Cabell. Next up, we have our report on enrollment and revenue estimates for the fiscal year 27 budget. I'll invite Noel Vez, director of
finance, and Jerry McHugh, our financial analyst. Up. >> Um, and I'm going to turn over to Dr. Gooy to start us off. Thank you. >> Thank you so much. I just wanted to provide a little bit of um context and thanks to budget analyst
Mr. um Jerry McHugh and finance director Mr. Noel Vez. They have done an a lot of work and had several meetings. There's still many more to come, but I do want to just say thank you to them for their leadership and their collaborative work.
They've had lots of discussion and meetings with school leaders, department leaders, central leaders. Um it's been a real partnership and a collaboration. In tonight's presentation is the first of a series as we have here in Medford that you're going to see that's going to
ultimately lead to the district's formal budget proposal. Our go our goal this evening is to just begin laying the foundation to this work by providing a conversation for everyone around the key factors and things that are leading into
our budget uh development and I just wanted to make sure that I said thank you. It's it's a lot of work and a lot of meetings and I greatly appreciate it. So thank you. >> Oh thank you very much superintendent. Thank you everyone um for attending today. I know I'm very excited to get
this um all this hard work um put in a presentation. Sometimes it doesn't fully come through. So we're going to try our best here both by presenting having um what we feel are um transparent slides and of course answering any and all questions you all have. Um today we'll
be going over um enrollment enrollment projections form for public schools our chapter 70 special revenue funds grants at both the federal state and private level um revenue fundings where we are currently sitting in some of our revenue
balances uh net school spending and just a preview of new spending which will be part of our next presentation of committee of the whole and uh with all that being said I'm going to turn over to Jerry right now who will go over the enrollment and how we came to this
process. >> Thank you, Noel. And um thank you for uh making the time for this meeting. And this this kind of follows a practice we've been utilizing over the last three years to talk about the um kind of the
external factors that influence our budget development. Um, I'd also like to thank our uh principles and directors throughout the district who have participated in many meetings and uh had
have come prepared uh to uh describe uh their needs and kind of working with us will continue to work with us as we uh develop a final recommendation from the superintendent.
So the uh the first thing we we do is when when there's a uh every school district files um quarterly enrollment reports um we look at the October one
report because that uh that report uh uh is the foundation of the uh foundation budget development which is part of the chapter 70 program. Um, one thing we're looking at is um the
births that um are associated with uh the birth year that's associated with the students entering kindergarten next year. Uh the birth the births are down um from the prior year by uh by 110.
I will say that we, you know, we um just as a general comment on enrollment, we um began to see a trend in 2024 that
influenced us to to think about that we were on kind of an upward trajectory with enrollment, particularly in low grades. And um that trajectory appears to have peaked off. Um in for some of
our schools the kindergarten enrollment that we predicted did not materialize. So uh as we do every year we we get a fresh set of um enrollment numbers on October one. We recalibrate reccalibrate our model uh to account for that new
enrollment. Um so we're using um 50% of the births five years ago to predict uh the total uh kindergarten enrollment. And then this year we did an analysis of how many
kindergarten students uh does each school uh take out of that total enrollment. So for instance, uh the Brooks typically gets about a third of the total number of kindergarten students that um uh come into our uh
kindergarten in any given year. Uh so we uh are forecasting uh kindergarten enrollment of 295 for next year and that's 40 40 students less than what we predicted.
um in for FY26 and it's uh 17 students less than the actual uh number of kindergartens that we had in October one. So these next couple of slides will give you what our um projections are for each
grade level. Uh and you could see something we've talked about the last couple of budgets where uh we kind of have this pattern of we have we have a low kindergarten and then we have a high kindergarten and then the next year we have a low kindergarten. So you see
those um numbers bear out as those uh grades start to move up. So on the next slide, uh we'll see uh the grade 6 through 12 enrollment. And I
think um what we might see for the next couple of years is the enrollment in the middle schools trending higher a little bit because there were some um above average enrollments in FY23, FY24,
and the elementary grades. And those grades are starting to uh hit the middle school grades now. And then these slides will be um the same uh data although by school.
So we can see some and and those two schools that are going down, the McGlin and the Roberts are really uh due to lower than expected um kindergarten classes
uh versus what we predicted in FY26. Um and then you see the middle school's trending up a little bit and Medfit high school just has a net uh loss and that you know that's often
times what happens is that you know the eighth grade is um lower than the 12th grade going out. Curtis Stuff is Curtis Tus is fairly stable. But you can see on this the
total enrollment you could see that um we are trending down slightly uh in overall enrollment. And then um we do have some preliminary class sizes and this is an area that we're still working on um for the total
uh for the um budget proposal. But uh the two numbers represent what the class size is for regular uh ed classes. And then the second number is uh an
assumption that any student in special needs subsparate classes or newcomer classes when they go to specialists. Uh the goal is to have those students included with the regular ed students.
And so this suggests that if the maximum amount of students went into those specialist classes, what would the class size look uh look like for the specialist from the specialist perspectives? And you can see that the differential
uh for the three schools that have the newcomers program because that's a little bit larger population. those those class uh schools have the greatest uh differential between uh regular ed teachers and specialists. But
it's something that we we keep an eye on. We don't want them to get too low. We certainly don't want them to get high. We're cognizant of the um maximum um class sizes in the uh collective bargaining agreement. So all that is
looked at as we go forward. And then it's a good time too to look at uh charter school enrollment. And you just want to be confident that um we're not losing uh uh excessive number of students to charter schools and we're
not and for for some reason if we if the trend reversed and we were getting a lot of schools into uh the Medford district, we'd certainly want to know about that for staffing purposes. But the good news here is that um the charter school this
charter enrollment is is fairly stable and is trending down over the last two years. So that means more money stays within the Medford school district and then uh choice enrollment is another feature. Um so student um
uh some school districts will open up their uh enrollment to other districts. Um and that's called the school choice program. Um it's you know we have a um
a couple of students at the uh E S E S E S E S E S E S E S E S E S E S Essex Agricultural School and of course Minute Man is a tuitioned out. That's not really choice, but well well it's a form of choice. But um what was interesting here is that the there are two statewide
virtual schools that serve K through 12 and um the enrollment there has really dropped off significantly. So, you know, SC the virtual schools at one time, you know, were more in favor with parents,
you know, that wanted their students to be taught at home, and it it looks like they're maybe falling out of favor now. Okay. >> Thank you very much, Jerry, for all that information. Um, next up we're going to talk a little bit about our chapter 70
spending regarding our foundation enrollment, uh, foundation budget, required district contribution, uh, chapter 78 and required net school spending. If we can go to the next slide. So here we're, as Jerry was talking about earlier, where our enrollment is,
um, slowly declining. We're looking at a difference of 25 students total from fiscal year 25 to fiscal year 26 based on our October 1 reports and what we're projecting for kindergarten and uh our graduating class. Our foundation budget,
as you can see, is up 3.4 million. Our required district contribution is up 3.3 million and our chapter 70 state aid uh is only up $336,000. um required net school spending, which is something that we do um we as a
school district have to spend uh this amount of money at minimum required uh required as a state as a whole for us to keep um to be desi compliant and we do this through our end of year reporting um where we show DESIE um that we have met these needs through making sure
every penny that we do have is spent properly um for all of our student needs and at next year we're projecting uh 83 million So a difference of 3.6 million from what we'll be reporting and this October when fiscical year 26 funding um numbers will
be uploaded into the DESI portal. >> Can I just make I I just want to make one comment on on foundation enrollment. Foundation enrollment includes all students from Medford including charter school students and choice students. The
earlier slides on enrollment is just our district. So that that will you you may notice that there's some differences between this enrollment total and the district enrollment and that's what accounts for. >> Thank you for that Jerry. But on the next slide just want to
remind everyone about our stabilization fund utilization plan. How we wanted to use um the funding given to us by the great voters here in Medford. Um so right now in this fiscal year we'll be adding um approximately $1,85,000
into our budget which will give our total budget fiscal year 26 of 86,575,549 and will give us an extra 750,000 for next year's budget and then the last piece of it will go into fiscal year 28 of $350,000. Um, but this is just something to keep
in mind as our as our base budget continues to grow and how we're going to continue to utilize the the the stabilization funds um regarding our teacher um steps and lane increases and also some of the new stipens that we
added to our CBAs. Next up, we're going to go over some special revenue fund accounts. Uh these are accounts that um that we keep track of um that we report to Desi but are not part of our general ledger. So we have um IDEIDA which is
part of the special education program. Um currently we were awarded 1.3 million within this within this um budget. We have um we have some staff 1.75 to be exact. We keep um out of out of district tuition here, collaborate collaborative
and non-colaborative schools is we use this grant also to pay a lot of those tuitions which is very helpful. We have of course our ESSA uh titles one, two, three, and four which came in at just over a million dollars. Um we have our we have a lot of our title one
reading teachers on this grant. We also provide um supplies and materials um that the superintendent and Dr. Talbet um deemed best qualified to help um support Medford public schools um throughout this fiscal year. We got of
course our Perkins CTE grant which uh is overseen by Chad and uh Susan Callahan came in at just over half a million. Um we do not put any salaries towards this as this is mainly used for our skills grants which we buy um supplies depending on each program. this year. Um
Chad has been using that for our sheet metal and our automotive program to um to update a lot of their equipment. And uh we also put in uh hoping to get back some information soon from DESIE. We put in for next fiscal year uh a new Perkins
expansion grant for 2.2 two million, which we're hoping will fund um a new plumbing program that we believe will um not only get our enrollment up, but also um keep some of our students um who were not able to get first choice in other programs such as electricity
um and carpentry, which we know are at full capacity right now. So, we're hoping that if this grant gets through, we'll have a new plumbing program to provide for our students um and also other funding opportunities um for the CTE to continue to grow as we're looking forward to the expansion of the program
as a whole with the new school being built. Next up, we got a couple other um small federal grants that we got. We got a special support earmark grant uh which we bought a vehicle for the Curtis Tus and we also bought some um sound
equipment. We have our Mckin Vento homeless education which um is used to support um any student who is homeless um for anything that is not deemed within the school district. So any type of after school transportation, after school
programming, tutoring, things of that nature, we can support them to continue to make sure that they are still including the community even though they may not live here for the moment. And of course, we have our last, we have our world language proficiency, which is uh we use for our French, Italian, and
Spanish students to take their b to take their biiteracy exams and also support them in um in other areas um as they continue to um gain their language proficiency. Next up, uh we go over we got some state grants, of course. We got circuit breaker, uh which is our reimbursement
from anything that Desi deems special education reimburseable, whether it's through our transportation funding or um services we provide for special education. So, this is kind of um almost as a a reimbursement where we put in
Joan Joan does a fantastic job of uploading all the data. Um once they receive it, they spit it out and they give us a certain percentage back. So we got back 3.1 million which um Jonah and myself used to support her to support anything that any expenses that we
either are not projecting um we did not budget for because we had a late move in or we had a a student who went to another um collaborative or even a private school which is what's the tuition may have been higher than we orig. Um and same thing we got our hand
homeless transportation reimbursement which we use um to supplement some of our budget. Continuing um we got our comprehensive school health service grant which is overseen um by Jen Silva. Um with this grant she u purchases a lot of um what
are called um big um big ticket items that are not onetime use. Um, so she uses it to um to help out the nursing um program and continue to buy certain um materials for the nursing program, not as band-aids, but more like AEDs and
things of that nature that can be multi that could be used multiple times. She also keeps a salary in there to support um the nursing program. We've got a few other we've got our um a new grant that just came in this year, our supervising clinic in incentive grant. We have our
cyber security grant overseen by Molly and of course we have our CFCE grant which is uh $180,000 which um sadly will be going away um at the end of this fiscal year. So that is something that we are um keeping tabs on
and trying to figure out what would be best what will be the next best moves from Memphis public schools as we lose um a big chunk of that money. Next up, we have a few private grants um that are overseen um in the business office by myself um Gerald McHugh and
the assistant business manager and a few other people who are assigned to these grants. Um there are um you'll see here two negatives right now. Um one of those negatives is the Cummings Foundation. Um through our own internal audit, we believe there might be a $35,000 deposit
missing. Um which we're currently working with the with the town CFO and the treasury to locate that. Secondly, you'll see there the Children's Trust MFN at a negative 14,000. Um what what's um what's tricky about that grant is you have to spend all the money first and
then you get reimbured and we have what's called a 90-day receipt program. So uh when I when the when all the money when we finish our reporting in July and we submitted it, the money the funds didn't technically come in till October. So, when we do our 90-day receipt, which
ends on September 30th, it didn't um it didn't show those funds, but um we are, you know, we're confident in saying that that account currently is positive because we re we were reimbured that extra $15,000 that we spent in May and June. It just didn't come in for um
during that 90-day receipt time. Next up, we got a few more revolving um accounts. IES are from the vocational program which are looking very healthy and good. Um as you see here in the culinary program we have approximately just over $300,000. Um some of those fundings will be used
um to cover two salaries from the um from the vocational program which we talked about when we when we gave our original um budget presentation for fiscal year 26 to help stabilize it and keep it level funded. So, um, by June or July, you'll see that number go down
when we do a journal entry, uh, for those two salaries. Continuing with our revolving funds, we've got uh before and after school, MEEP, um short tuition, and the parent and childhood account, which also
supports the MFN um grants, uh which also supports and supplements some of the MFN grants um items that they cannot due to um just the the strictness of the MFN program and how we have to use certain grants. So, that money right there, we try to hit it as little as
possible to continue to support that program. Um, as that is um onetime funding and once that funding is gone, um we won't be replenishing that. We won't be replenishing that line. Uh last in it, we've got um our school athletics, edgerly field, and community
schools, which are looking really good right now. A lot of work has been done with the new athletic director, myself and the superintendent um in the community schools to make sure that invoices being sent out properly um all programs are paying what needs to be paid and that um the deposits are going
to direct the correct account. Um so we're not seeing the negatives that we were seeing um the previous fiscal years that we were reporting. Um, regarding the pool, um, which is still at a negative sadly. Um, you know, I'm glad to say that we did see a net positive of $54,000 last year. Um, so we're hoping
that we can continue that net positive. Um, that by the next time we're meeting and talking about revolving funds, we can continue to lower this number as we just continue to look at um, um, proper ways of keeping the poll open at certain hours that are um, both great for the community but also fiscally responsible
for the school district. That's fine. >> Yeah, go ahead. >> So, u this is something that came up at in the school retreat um or the school committee retreat and and uh you know question came up. It's often talked
about the city does um you know contribute beyond the the minimum required by uh desi uh net school spending. So, uh, but the question is how much and what did they spend their money on? And
this is what the city, uh, reports on our, um, end of year report for what they spend on behalf of the school department. And it's, um, employee retirement contributions. So, a lot of our par profofessionals, custodians,
security, some of our non-unit administrators are members of the Medford Retirement System. So that's um the the part of the retirement contribution that's made on behalf of the school department. Health insurance
of course is a big ticket item. Uh there's also uh you know the city also pays for school uh department employees who are now retired and they get uh they're uh uh eligible for health
insurance as well. uh they also pay for uh the charter tuition and the choice tuition. Uh and then there's a state provides a a little bit of money for tuition reimbursement.
Uh so it's 20 uh close to $26 million is spent on behalf of the school department in the city budget. >> Yeah. >> And then Okay, >> member Rouso. >> Thank you. I'm sorry to interrupt you,
Jerry, but um I thought the city never saw a single penny of the charter tuition dollars when that is subtracted prior to the city receiving its money. >> Yes, but it's so >> but it's counted in the net school spending.
Yeah, we we have an allocation of cha of um chapter 70 that goes to the city and the state will deduct the chart of school amount of the chapter 70 and send it directly
to the schools. >> Okay. So in the accounting of it, the full chapter 70 is accounted as coming in and then the child school tuition is counted as an expense. >> Okay. Thank you. That's that's
fascinating accounting. I'm sure you all understand it. And it's uh it's just another way of making it not look like the state is just paying for charter schools >> because it's really our money, but we never see it. It's like in in real life. There's no other scenario where that's a thing, right? Like
Well, charter schools are public school. So, let's not go there. Thank you. >> Yeah. And then the next slide um because a a second question came up at the retreat. You know, how do we how does Medford compare to other school
districts uh in terms of their above uh net school spending um requirements. So Medford kind of falls, you know, on the higher end, but in the middle, there's two districts that contribute
more uh than Medfit in their uh net school spending requirement, and then there's three districts that uh spend less than MedFid. So just wanted to follow up with that u
that topic that came up at the retreat. is issue. Yeah. >> Um may I ask a question from the chair? Are you Are you done or >> No, no, no. We still got a few more. But if you got two more. Okay. Sorry. Go. Please continue. >> No problem. Uh thank you. And then um
just to kind of give a quick summary of what we're going to be talking about next and um what are a few things on the agenda for the next committee of the whole. Go to the next slide. Thank you. U we're just going to talk about um some new spending requests and increase to the current budget. Um just to give you an
idea of what those numbers represent and what they look like. Of course, we'll have much more detail um in our next presentation. Um but it's always great to just have an idea of what's coming up. So when you read that U provided funds for salary and step increases, that is based on um current CBAs that
have been agreed upon where we reviewed um everyone's steps in current lanes. And we also looked at um any salary adjustments that would be needed and that was the total number we came out to. Funds unavoidable for cost increases. Um just to give you a few ideas of what's coming up. We've uh
we've got the access classes over in the McGlin Middle School which will be which were um added on later in the budget year. We've got two Curtis TUS teachers currently who are charged to um uh a tuition reimbursement line which um once that once that account gets to zero
which we believe will be this fiscal year, we'll be taking over those two salaries in the general ledger budget. We've got a few one-on-one paras u for IEP stu for students with IEPs who've moved into the district um throughout the school year. We've got two at the Matuck, one at the Brooks, one at the
Roberts, and one at the high school currently. We've got, of course, yellow bus rate increases, which we project that to be about $100,000 more just based off this fiscal year to next fiscal year. That is just to keep the current buses we have available. That is not to add any new bus routes. Um we're
also moving um eight paras from the before and after school um revenue line into the general ledger. Um so that's going to beef up that number a little bit. Um, also just to go over some things in facilities and operations, we've got the cleaning contract which
will be about $200,000 higher next fiscal year compared to this fiscal year. And we're char we're just just based on what we're getting right now. We're looking at about a 25% increase in utilities uh for both heat and electricity just based on what we were
at last fiscal year to this fiscal year. and just trying to um continue to figure out um trying to put a good dart on that number for next year, which is always hard to predict. Um but we're doing the best we can to project that. And then of course we've got our school-based initiatives, which is um those are new
requests from our principles and directors based on proposals for either um new FTE positions, um certain types of curriculums they would like to see increase. Um and last but not least, you know, um one thing we really want to keep talking, we want to keep looking
into is supporting supporting our whole staff with um some professional and curriculum development initiatives um which would increase us which we're looking to increase that by another $176,000 based on last year's um budget.
>> And that is our first presentation of committee the whole questions >> from the chair to answer them. >> Yep. From the chair, if I may. Um, on the enrollment data, now that we've learned the sad news about St. Joseph's school closing, I believe at the end of
this school year, did you take that into account at all or is that were these done be prior to? >> Yeah, these these these were done prior to, but we are trying to get information of what their current enrollment is. >> Um, so we can make sure we've factored
that in. >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. Dr. Lucy, >> we are going to get a more specifics to the grade levels, but I do know just from Gabby Dosta in our registration
office that she has um received some registrations coming in from St. Joseph's. It's not we're not seeing it in the kindergarten numbers necessarily, but we are seeing it sprinkled throughout the grade level spans. We can get that that data for you
drilled down at each grade level. Thank you. Um, and one more question with regards to the Medford Family Network. Um, I believe schoolside administration has met with them with the issues they're going to face next year financially due to a reduction in
their grant, I think, that they've had for 10 years. So, I know we're going to probably working collaboratively on that. But any insight you can give us um the city side or the committee now because I don't know if the whole committee is aware that they have run out of that that main grant that they
they do operate out of I believe potentially three positions. What conversations you've had so far? >> Oh yeah. Do you want to talk on that superintendent or >> I can follow up after you? >> Oh sure. Uh yeah. So we um we have met um I meet monthly with Ireina um just to
go over her grant totals as a whole and to go over her budget and salaries. Um last week we did she met with myself, the superintendent, uh Marie Cassidy, Megan Fidler, Carrie, and Jerry. Uh we all kind of just brainstormed um kind of looking at what it looks like as a whole. Um so she did provide for us some
preliminary numbers based on people's salaries, um what they've done so far for the community, what programs they want to continue to run for the communities. Um, and we we're just looking at that number and we're the goal is to kind of take what she's going to submit for what grants are still open
minus what it cost as a total and then we'll have a cleaner number. Hope we're hoping by the end of April to kind of as you said collaborate with the city and figure out how we can close in that gap so that this program can continue to support um all the metro residents. >> Okay. Thank you. And then my last qu question before I go to the committee
and Alachi is um you mentioned increases to I think you said gas and electric. Um we also have I think a 13 to 14% increase in health insurance which obviously is on the city side. >> Um did you factor in a potential hike in
cleaning costs due to an ordinance that the city council might be passing? in. >> Yes, we we we factored in about $200,000 um based on the current contract to what we what we're projecting at the moment. Yes. >> Okay. Thank you. Member members of the committee, do you have any questions
before I go to Alachi? Member Graham. >> Thank you. >> Um can you on I found it very helpful to that you added the chart about uh net school spending that sits in the
city budget. I think that's like really opaque to a lot of people. So, I appreciate that. >> Um, can you add a column that I assigns like a number of staff who are participating in some way? So, I'm just trying to quantify like
how many how many staff for which are the is the city contributing to retirement? So because we have the most people, I think it would follow that we have the most retirement
folks, but I don't think that's actually true. So I would like to know I would like to understand like how many are how many are we in this category as a percentage of um the city's sort of overall population and same thing for health insurance like how many active
folks do we have on health insurance? um versus how many retirees do we have on health insurance again as a percentage of like who all is in the pool so that we can understand like that impact. >> Okay. Yeah. And typically what happens
is the um for the retirement side most of our staff is are members of the teachers retirement system. So they're excluded. So, uh,
the rest of them go to Medford Retirement, but that's also where the city DPW is, the city firefighters. So, on the on the retirement side, we we tend to be smaller than we are on the right. >> Health insurance. >> I think that's what I'm trying to like
>> Yeah. >> help people understand. >> Yeah. Yeah. And we do have a number of people that um the city offers an opt out um >> uh incentive to to not take health insurance. So we could add that into
>> Great. That would be that would be very helpful. Um the other thing that I wanted to call some attention to that is starting to um bubble up um from the MSBA project is about the pool. So like
we run in the red and I want to like just put a fine point on that like the pool is not a profit center for MPS. Is that fair? And when the pool runs in the red, how do we cover the cost?
>> Um well we I think the main goal is we try to catch up with rate increases. This year I met with um Rachel Perry and we took a look back three years on pool revenues and expenses. Um
you know we with the pool we have a structural deficit. We we don't collect enough money for the staff we're deploying to meet the hours of operation. >> Right. Um in addition, pool chemicals
have increased um tremendously. P, you know, we could also look I I think the goal was to try to make enough money within the pool to cover the high school's use of the pool, but that's not
happening. So, we could begin to budget some money in the high school budget for pool use. So we think it's not we're we're kind of a fiscal agent for a community benefit.
>> Um and if the pool was a separate entity like the the rink is, we would probably have to pay some rent or some charges. So that that might be a way to try to balance the budget. But I think what I talked to Rachel about was we have to
look at increasing the rates, but we should really look at the hours of operation. And um you know, initially uh it seemed like it's it's well used early in the morning, but maybe less so,
you know, at 7 7:30 at night. So that might be an opportunity to to shave some labor costs in combination with a rate increase. >> Thank you. I I'm completely I don't use the pool myself, but I am completely in
favor of that being a community resources resource that we manage like as a fiscal agent. I just am not in favor of extracting money from the budget for educating kids to cover a community resource. So, I want to make sure like that is not upside down. Um,
and I think I think there's a lot of people who believe the pool's very profitable and I just saying it out loud because it's not true. So, there's there's a million myths around the pool in particular, um, including how it was paid for and what shape it's in and like that misinformation is going to I think
going to pop up a lot. So, I just want to be able to be ready for people to understand what the actual financials are there so that um if asked, we can provide we can provide an accounting of that. >> Yeah, we we haven't really done a deep
dive on on like mechanical um deferred maintenance or improvements that need to be done that that would be way outside the the you know the membership fees that we charge. >> Yeah. And I think the other um you know
in a similar vein right the MFN we are like a fiscal agent essentially like um making that program like move forward and it's been able to sustain itself. But um you know we do need to as a community figure out how to fund MFN.
That's I don't I don't see that solely as a district problem. I see that as a city problem. Um because those most of the kids served by the MFN are not even yet school age students. Um, and it's a wonderful resource and I want to see it
continue, but I want a bigger um, tent for folks to come with their creative ideas and purses. >> Um, so we can fund that. >> Thank you. >> I think member Master Bony, member parks, and then I just heard member
Russo. That's what I saw hands. >> Sure. Thank you. I'll start with one. Um, obviously the biggest red flag is using onetime revenues to support the operating budget. um you sort of sandwich the the the real issue that we see with school funding and we're not alone in Medford. This is happening
across the this the the Commonwealth, but using $750,000 in the stabilization funds, I think the draw down plan is great. I like that's the way to go or maybe want to get there. Um but then, you know, I I think I'm using my calculator here, so I might have gotten this wrong, but I see $8.5 million of
increased costs on one side. Um, and I think what we heard from the administration was somewhere between a two two and a half and a 3% increase. So, I think that's something I'm looking forward to seeing how we're going to figure that out. >> Um, that's that that's I think the overall biggest red flag for me. Um, I wanted to dig in,
>> master if I could, if I could. Sorry to interrupt you. It's not the any stabilization. This is the stabilization account from the money from the override. Just making sure you knew that, which I believe you do, but it's not like a stable legislation account from the general fund.
>> Sure, I understand. Um, this is but this is this is still onetime revenue that that that came in, right? >> Um, yes. >> Yeah, I understand. Um, so I wanted to just dig in first then let let my colleagues um ask their questions. But on revolving funds, we have some really
big balances. Um and and you mentioned I think one or two are going to have some journal entries, some some salaries, um uh reducing their balances, but specifically you know school lunch before after school, Ezraly Field and MEEP. Um
it would be helpful for me in terms of context to understand the trends of like where these are coming from and what we identify as a as a healthy reserve balance for those, right? Do we feel good about these balances or do we feel like we have room to invest in these resources with the revolving funds or do
we feel terrible about these balances? They need to grow, right? Um I want I want I want to understand sort of like do you feel like these are healthy balances in um across the revolving funds and do we have target reserve levels for them >> um for for me to kind of understand >> is this healthy or not? >> Yeah, of course. So we'll take this one
first. Uh yeah, no, thank you so much for that. Um so regarding just the school lunch, so the school lunch of course is a federal um program that is audited um very closely and those funds can only be used for certain um spending requirements. We have right now myself and Rea Smith meet monthly to kind of go
over those. So um the goal right now is over the next two years to start um drawing down some more of those funds to refurbish a lot of our equipment. Um, but we also want to reserve some of those some of those funds for when we build the new high school and we can build a cafeteria that we believe will
be up to par with any cafeteria um in the state of Massachusetts where that wouldn't have to dip too much into um some of our other funding so we can use that as as needed. Um so that is just regarding in that that big number when people see 1.5 million um in school
lunch um that is a really nice number but we also want to be we also have to understand that there are certain provisions that um that are put towards that number that we can't we can't spend as we deem fit. We have to we have to spend it as the federal government government deems fit. Um that only involves our school lunch programs, our
cafeterias, staff involving our cafeterias. um for the before and after school program. I do believe that number at one point was close to 2 million. Um so we have started looking that number down where we've um we've invested in the after school program bringing in a consultant. Um we had a few paras hit
that hit that account um this this fiscal year just to kind of help support the budget as we continue to um to rightsize that budget properly. So, um, that after school program, um, you know, I believe we've done a good enough job with it to kind of, um, properly hit it,
but not continue to draw down those funds cuz just in case, um, anything that comes in the future. And regarding the MEEP, that number is a little high right now. Um, what that number isn't representing is um, there is a journal entry done based on what the ME program does, the square footage they use of the
building, the business office, us being their fiscal agent. Um, we do charge them a journal entry. um that that number isn't currently showing based on um the our electricity bill and everything of that nature. So yeah, so we um we do use those funds properly to um those revolving funds properly to
support our our budget as a whole. Um so I do like those numbers where they are right now. Um the school lunch one definitely um is something we're looking to spend down, but we want to spend it on our equipment and um renovating a few of the cafeterias. >> Yeah. Can could I just add on to that? So you buried the lead.
>> Sorry. Um, Miss Smith, Director Smith, I think, is well aware of what she's sitting on. Yeah. And so, she actually has been actively looking to >> renovate a lot of the outside. So, not Medford High School clearly, but the
other school cafeteria spaces. And she's working with, I'm sorry, between Ken and Noel and Jerry. They may know the name. I'm not quite sure of the name of the consulting group that she's working with. They just won the bid like a week ago. Yes. I forgot her. >> Yes. And so she's
>> Excuse me. What was it? >> Imaginate your space. >> Imagination. >> Imaginate your space. Yes. >> And so she's I really wanted her to come here and do a presentation. Hopefully too many people are not listening to the missuck because that's where she's starting. Um and they'll be like
>> be surprised, you know. >> Yes. Yes. >> Well, I know. But I am just saying so she's going to start at the Mituck and then move from school to school. I think it's like a the work to do this. This crew comes in and they renovate the entire space. They make it very student
centered, very um they kind of weave in the identity of the school while also adding some like educational and historical components. So where it's and I don't want to give too much away at the mituck but their motto is the Matuck
monarch and you know >> Yes. So there is a plan to spend that down and al also beautify and make a little bit more student centered our cafeteria spaces. I would say that I think it's very important on all of
these slides there is a date this before and after school program Noel mentioned it but I just really need to like crystallize there are eight paras being paid out of
this account that Mr. McHugh spoke about moving into fiscal off this revolving account because they should not be there for the fiscical year 27 budget. So this is not wholly representative of what is in that line right now. Yes, we want to
preserve a little bit, but our goal and all the work we've been doing with um BASIC, the consultant that's here is to be spending this money on enhancing capacity for our community as well as enrichment opportunities for our students. The goal of the afterchool
program is not to make money. it's to have maybe a little reserve, but I just wanted to be very clear that that is not what's representative right now. Um, and I do believe that Miss Bowen, not that it's for today, but me, she already has
a plan for fiscal year 27 to be increasing some capacities in MEEP by extending some additional seats as well as some uh full-time enrollment, full-time programs like expanding our capacity right now for our
MEEP programs. >> Thank Thanks, Superintendent. Yeah, I understand these are fund balances as of the end of fiscal 25, 7, 8, nine months have passed since then. I think what's helpful for me and I think is helpful for the community is they folks see big numbers in here and they say why aren't we doing anything
with this? Um that's not the case of course from what I'm hearing from from everyone that's not there there's plans to spend these down. um being able to say, you know, a healthy amount for the culinary program is, I don't know, six months of expenditures and we we maintain that amount as a as a sort of baseline. Like
trying to understand that would be helpful for me. Um because what we're looking at here is point in time. So that's that's kind of where I'm coming from and I look forward to to learning more about those. >> Okay. >> Member Parks and member Rouso. >> Oh, sorry.
>> I I have one question. It might just be clarification. Uh the facilities and operations requirements line item for 600,000 I think. Um is that different from um what Mr. Lord came and presented two
weeks, two meetings ago I think it was cuz I think he presented for fiscal year 27 was about $2 million worth of work >> and not getting it done >> and it at the next committee of the
whole we'll we're going to do a deep dive into each of these categories. Um but part of what Mr. Lloyd reported on was capital that are going to go into the capital improvement program, but some of it is or over half of that
600,000 is our maintenance contracts for day-to-day maintenance is still uh underfunded. So that would represent, you know, what we believe is full funding for those contracts. >> Member,
>> thank you. Um the pairs that are being covered by the revolving account are not being included in our net school spending. Correct. >> Um correct. >> Yeah. >> Okay. I just want to make that clear. >> And that number is down.
>> Oh, it's way down. Yes. it was over 20 um were allocated, but uh so and my it's it's coming down and we'll we're going to have a proposal to to get them all off uh in FY27, but um
>> great. I I this has just been a a long eight or nine year process that has um had a couple of regressions but not the last few years thankfully um where our budget did not in any way shape or form
reflect what we spent on education. I mean it was probably a better ballpark than saying my paycheck at my day job covered education but it was truly very very far from what we really spent. Um, and you know, there was a time
20 was I think almost all of the parishes at one point were covered in revolving accounts. Like it was we had full-time specialed teachers like regular MTA teachers who were not actually paid for out of the budget. They were paid for out of revolving accounts. And that's just insane because
it makes comparison year-over-year utterly impossible for the school committee or the public to ever know what's going on. Um, so you know, when we go up 4%, it's 4% over the last budget, but if we moved a whole pile of people back onto
the into the correct place, um, it's re in order to get to 4%, we really would need far more than 4%. Um, so I'm glad we're getting close. I would like someday before I sail off from
school committee to have a budget that reflects actual spending of the public schools. Um I also just wanted to kind of be a little more blunt about the pool deficits. Um we are spending money on the pool that we are claiming to the
state is being spent to educate kids. Correct. It's in our budget. We find the money from the budget. Everything's everything's accounted for in in the revolving fund. So we do report revolving fund expenditures but um it's
it's right now it's not part of the base budget. >> Okay. we did when when the deficit was much larger. Um when I was director, I I had facilities which also didn't have the money, but I had them by uh
chemicals because I didn't want to drive up the pool deficit anymore. And I felt that that was comparable to the high school's use uh of the pool. So, it somewhat offset it, but uh we're kind of getting back to getting um you know,
getting all the expenses accounted for within that pool revolving account, >> right? Thank you. And I mean, I think we have to bud the budget has to get balanced somehow before the end of the year. Yeah. >> Um, so, you know, I don't think anybody
here likes the idea that we took some money from one revolving account that and spent it on something other than the revolving account it was expected to be spent on, but my understanding, and I know there's many different kinds of revolving accounts. There are some that the state explicitly in law like
outlines what they can be used for. Um, and I just, >> yeah, >> those ones I would hope we if there's a dollar in there and the law says it can only spent be spent a certain way that we're only spending it that way. So like the food service money, we're not using that to buy pool supplies
>> because we'd get audited. That'd be bad. Um, but there are other evolving accounts where we're kind of a little more free to do what we want, which is how we've gotten by. But I think >> as a community, if we want a pool, the we get the money from somewhere other
than before and after school, we get it from fees or we get it from a line item from the city for the purposes of a pool or whatever. Um, and then it's crystal clear. We know what it costs. We know where the money comes from and where the
money's going. this, you know, revolving account approach to things is the most non-transparent thing on earth. And it isn't that you all don't know what's going on, but there's no budget book to go look at. There's no end ofear report
that will show you this stuff. So, I'm just very obsessed with us getting done with saying one thing and then, you know, just moving the dollars around in the back room. um which I don't mean in the the negative like it's a nobody's
doing anything wrong. It's just not honest. So >> yeah, if we um we we do everything we can to get all our revolving accounts um out of deficit by the end of the year, you know, and be in compliance with what
those revolving funds are. But from an accounting perspective, all the revolving accounts are in one fund. So if we have a small deficit in the pool, we have surpluses in all our other accounts. So it's looked at kind of a
bottom on a bottom line basis. We're still positive. >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> Yachi, >> yes, she was next. >> I'm gonna keep this one very quick. I just want to agree with uh Mr. uh with Rouso just just that uh we want to be
trans as transparent as possible. I think that sometimes I I've been, you know, hearing I've watched these beatings last year and also been here this year and I have seen a lot of what um you guys talked about, right? Like we are um even if it's not malicious, charging it to the chemicals to
buildings is, you know, maybe not as obvious just from an interested citizens perspective. um even if it does accurately reflect how much we want to um how much of the funds from which place we want to delegate to the pool. Um the one thing that I noticed when I
was looking over this material earlier and then also now was just that a lot of the numbers in the slideshow are in parenthesis. Um and they just wasn't explained what that meant. Could you elaborate? >> That's um >> some of them are >> counting that signifies a something
that's in a negative balance. >> Okay. There was there was just one that I thought was interesting because most all most of them were red, but one of them was not. That was I thought was >> Yeah. In the in the net school spending is that this the um less charter reimbursement.
>> It's just in black type instead of in >> is it just is it just it doesn't matter. It's fine. >> Oh, >> the 720,000. >> Oh, the 720. Yeah. >> Yeah. >> It should be in red, right? >> Okay. But it's not it's not something else.
Great. Thank you. Thank you so much. >> Member Master Bony. >> Sorry, I just have a couple quick questions hopefully. Um, if I can pull my notes up. Um, what's our risk assessment right now for federal and state grants? Um, my
understanding is that the continuing resolution from last year kind of bailed us out for this year. We felt pretty confident across the Commonwealth. Um, has that changed for fiscal has that changed for fiscal 27? And when will we find out? Um, how are you all feeling
about the the risk to losing any federal or state pass through grants? >> Yeah, I'll take this one. Um, so thank you for that question. Um, currently right now, um, we've met with our liaison Michelle Thomas over at Desi. Um so right now what we understand is we will be what's called um almost at a
level service funding where our grants um both our title one through fours our ideas will kind of stay where they are as is. Um, of course, um, with the political climate currently going on, um, we keep a close eye on how many teacher salaries and if we were to lose
all those fundings, which is why we, you know, we wanted to provide that fiscal year 26, um, awarded amount, um, what that would look like in the future because then, yes, to keep, you know, um, these reading teachers, to keep, um, our students in these collaborate these collaborative um, outside tuition
programs, they would have they would ultimately be absorbed in our budget as a whole. Um, so at the current moment, you know, we're we're grateful that at least it's it's staying um level funded, but as we all know, tuitions are not staying level funded, salaries are not staying level funded. Um, so Susan Callahan, myself, the superintendent,
um, you know, we go over as we're going to ultimately be submitting our fiscal year 27 and kind of get an idea of what that's going to look like overall. >> Yeah. I just I want to add one thing to that though. So, um, the guidance we I'm sure you have the same guidance. I mean
the guidance we've received is that yes right now we are to assume they are level funded. Big giant asterric on title one because the federal um definition of the poverty level has shifted so that um federally they've
changed the parameters of the poverty level and so what that does is 10% more people are not going to qualify for poverty. So what they are expecting for us for title one is that sure we're
level funded but expect 10% less >> in allocation because the poverty level definition has changed. So we will wait to see what the allocation is but that's been the latest guidance that we've received um from the
department of education. >> That's that's really helpful. Thank you. And yeah, as you get more information sharing with sharing with us is is is obviously appreciated. Um, two more questions and then I'll take a hike. Um, knowing that we have a
structural deficit, pretty significant one. Um, and it looks worse going forward. Um, are we doing anything to prepay fiscal 27 items with fiscal 26 money this year to to give us a little head start? Um, I know that's something we do like transportation or special ed
tuition or things like that. Or do we not have capacity to do that? Um, because we're we're running uh on target right now. >> I would say it's a little too early. Um, we have done a few projections over the last few weeks just based on how many salary how many paychecks we have left
um items we've purchased um current blank and POS. Um it's a little too early for that right now, but we'll definitely we always look into that's one of the first things we look at. what can we prepay? Which, as we know, all you're doing is you're kind of kicking the can down the road. Um just in case anyone's trying to um understand, you
know, when you do something like that, it is great um for your budget on the short term, but in the long term, we still want to, as Mr. Russo was saying earlier, we want to look at really um our budget being properly funded. Um >> yeah, I I think um but one of the
strategies we use along those lines is um we try to do that same thing with our revolving funds. So culinary arts had a big budget uh balance had a big balance. So we do target employees to be paid
through those funds. But at the end of the year, if we don't have to move, if we have a little flexibility in the general fund that we don't have to charge everything we planned on or MEEP or culinary or some of those others,
then we are able to retain the money in the revolving fund to be used in the future fiscal year. So, it's a similar idea to what you're talking about. >> Awesome. I, you know, happy to support any any prepayment just to get over the the short-term hump. Um, my last
question, so the I think for 26 our circuit breaker was $3.1 million. Could you share for me and the public like what's our policy for using those funds? Do we use them as recurring income um and and and spend it on annual basis or
do we is it on a year lag and um do we do we have any plans for that to sort of help mitigate the structural deficit? Uh yeah, as um as we started last year, we use it on a year lag um basis. It's it's best to kind of um a support the budget
and um let us proper properly use our circuit breaker funding. So myself um and Joan Bowman, we sit down and we go and Jerry and um her admin assistant Nicole, we look over what our tuition costs are going to be next year and we kind of map it out in advance and we look at what's going to hit the general
ledger, what's going to hit our circuit breaker, what's going to hit our idea grant and um and that way we know we always have money in the re in the reserve in case we have a move in in March or we have a move in in October, we have to pick up the we have to pick
up the tuition right away and we know we weren't going to have an extra I don't know any school district that has an extra$1 $150,000 um in their budget, but you know, you know, worst case scenario, we use some of that circuit breaker money, but u we we we've been trying to do it on a lag um which we started last year and we're
we're keeping it up this year. >> Awesome. Sorry for not knowing that that happened last year, but that's great. It's a great best practice. Um and and the last thing I'll say is like GIC had their health insurance last week. Looking forward to seeing what that means for us if it can give us a little more capacity on the city side. I think
we saved in Somerville um saved like $1.6 million with the new rates based on what we projected. We were also projecting mayor like 12134. I think it came in at midnight. So hopefully that can help all of us at the city side and the school side as well. Um so you know we look at the expenditures next
meeting. Love to see sort of how that how that changed. Thank you. I appreciate your questions and we'll probably dig in off more offline. Thank you. >> Of course. >> Thank you. Um thank you for the presentation. Um very >> I just I just want to mention one one
thing. Um just kind of as a heads up um I've worked with um my colleague Dr. Talbot uh to develop a um a presentation or or some feedback from directors and principles
um about what they're doing in their program, what their accomplishments have been, their vision for implementing their program, what they're looking to use their FY27 budget on. it's a chance
to um hear like in the director's voice what they're trying to accomplish. So, you know, we're we'll send it out ahead of the next um committee of the whole meeting. So, you can kind of have that as part of your context for for what
we're going to describe. But you certainly could, we would welcome, you know, feedback to improve this process if you think it's worthwhile um uh for your decision that you have to make.
>> Thank you. Thank you very much. >> And next up, we have um under new business offered by member Reinfeld where as historically low temperatures have recently laid bare the vulner Oh, sorry. electrical and heating
systems in our school buildings. And whereas seven of the eight school buildings have in progress and planned updates for these systems. And whereas in 2024, the district developed protocols for extreme heat conditions. Now, therefore, be it resolved the district shall create a similar mitigation plan for extreme
cold temperatures. And be it resolved that the plan will include protocols for relocation of ed educational activities in buildings where certain rooms disproportionately compromise the public safety, physical safety of students and staff in specific locations. Is there a
motion on the floor? I'll turn it over to member Rinfeld. >> Yeah, I don't have a lot to say about this other than thank you to Mr. Lord and everyone who worked really hard to to deal with these historically low temperatures. Um, now that the urgency has passed, I would love to see
um what was done documented and turned into a protocol so there isn't scrambling in the future. Happy to answer questions. But >> motion for approval by member Rinfeld, seconded by >> member Olady. All those in favor.
>> All those opposed. Motion passes. Thank you member Reinfeld for bringing that forward. And 2026-09 also offered by member Reinfeld. Whereas members of the MPS community have provided input into the strategic planning process via survey and focus groups. And whereas Medford School
Committee has identified a permanent superintendent for the district. And whereas the Medford Comprehensive High School Building Committee has submitted its educational plan to the Massachusetts School Building Authority. And whereas the district is convening a dedicated task force to address overcrowding at the elementary levels
and examine the viability of a 56 and 78 model for MPS middle schools. Now therefore be it resolved that the strategic planning subcommittee shall meet to establish the process deliverables and timeline for the development and review of the communityinformed strategic plan. Member
Rinfeld. >> Yes. Again I hope this is fairly self-explanatory. Um but this is just to acknowledge that the foundational documents and data are in place for the strategic planning process that we approved in October. um and that there are other synergistic
processes going on at the same time and I want to officially press the go button on making the mapping out what the strategic planning process is going to look like and I think a subcommittee meeting is the right place to do that. >> Motion to approve. >> Second.
>> Motion to approve by member Graham, seconded by Master Member Master Bony. All those in favor? I. >> All those opposed? Motion passes. Um, our next meeting is April 6th. It's a budget committee of the whole number two here in Alder Memorial Chambers, Medford
City Hall in addition to Zoom. >> Member Opad. >> Oh, yes. Member Elachi. Member Elachi. >> Member Joerger. Yeah. No. Uh I just wanted to just give a quick closing statement is that the just as a just for
next time uh the student representatives uh are going to be presenting on the April meeting about we just gave out a survey actually a couple weeks ago about just lunches and buses and sort of uh gathering student opinion on those fronts and what students thought was problematic and and what were were the
main issues. So we we'll be presenting that next meeting. We're looking forward to that. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> Thank you member Elatche. Um is there a motion to adjurnn? Sorry, a question on that point. Will we receive a copy of the presentation in advance the way we do for our other
>> Yes, absolutely. Yes. >> Yes. Thank you so much. >> Great. And we have an MS um BA meeting tomorrow night. 6:30, I believe. >> Yes. >> 6:30. >> On Zoom >> on on Zoom. That's correct. Okay. Thanks for reminding me. Um motion to adjurnn.
>> Motion to adjurnn >> by member Rinfeld. Seconded by >> Second. Member Graham. All those in favor?