--------- Good good evening. Welcome to the committee school Revere School Committee of the whole of May 19th, 2026. We'll all rise and 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. In attendance this evening, we have Ms. Biagiotti, Ms. Rizzo, Mr. Catignano, Mr. Damiano, I'm here. Mr. Kingston, Ms. Milbury Ellis, Ms. Monterosso, and our newest member, Mr.
Feliciano. Thank you. Welcome. Welcome. Okay. Welcome. Thank you. First order business, we have the approval of minutes. Any questions on the minutes from last meeting? All right. No questions. Any questions
on the warrants? Warrants going once? What? Mr. Kadish, we're moving quick. Warrants warrants. I have a quick question like on 192 in the Northshore Community Gateway to College program.
What is that all about? Can you elaborate? Can you give us what exactly I know it's new. Kids are in high school and they get into the college credits. What is that exactly? Is there like so many credit limits it's budgeted for how does it work? 39,000 150.
We're budgeted for a certain sorry. We're budgeted for a certain number of students and there's an application process that that that program is specifically targeted for students who are struggling to thrive in high school.
And we work with Northshore Community College to provide opportunities for those kids to complete both high school and their associate's degree at the same time. I was just wondering how you came up with that 39,150. Based on the applications and using the We we we agreed with the school that we
would have eight seats. I believe it's eight is the number. Yeah, and that's so that's the cost for the eight kids. You're seeing here the spring semester billing. So there would have been a fall semester and this is the spring semester billing. Thank you.
Okay, any other questions on the warrants? Okay. Finance reports there are none. Food service financials there are none. Communications, none. We have an enrollment update. This Dr. Kelly.
Um I don't know if there were any questions on the enrollment update. It's pretty stable from the last time we talked about it last quarter. You can see the numbers there. Those are the current numbers and I just want to highlight for the committee one thing I did share with you
earlier today was our projected enrollment numbers for and class sizes for next year. So just to differentiate between the two of the two the handout that's in your packet tonight are the actual current numbers and then
the piece that I emailed to you are what we're projecting will happen next year. Any questions for the superintendent? No. Okay. Personnel. New hires, resignations, terminations, and retirements.
Uh just one correction on that list. There is an individual who is named under resignations who with withdrew their verbal resignation and we are working with legal counsel on
next steps in that regard. Okay. I'm sure that'll be before us at some point. Okay. Understood. Any questions from the committee? Okay.
Uh Any late business from the school department? Not anticipated by the chair, vice chair. Uh district organizational structure. That's Mr. Damiano speaking. Mr. Damiano? Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um
the reason I wanted to bring this up for discussion is um as a relatively newer school committee member, um you know, sometimes it's really difficult keeping track of everyone's purpose and everyone's job and everyone
what everyone's supposed to be doing. Um thank you, Dr. Kelly, for providing that um graphic. Although it did take me a minute to look at it and the lines. There is quite a bit and that's actually, you know, one of the reasons why I thought it would be valuable for us as a committee to sort
of just discuss um We don't have to go into specifics. It's not but just to discuss what folks are doing, what they're supposed to be doing, who's maybe wearing an extra hat, uh who's
doing things temporarily, that type of thing. Uh really just for knowledge and understanding so we can make better decisions, better informed decisions as a committee. So, thank you. Thank you. Anyone wish to add to that?
So, uh I'll I'll I'll just say uh Dr. Kelly, you you provided the organizational chart, which is very helpful and we appreciate that. Uh I think that, you know, it sounds like Mr. Damiano is looking just to continue to have clarity on the roles and responsibilities. You've done a nice job of, you know,
I was a parent, still still a parent, but uh of school school-age children in the district and I think that, you know, you're down the school yard, you know, people will ask questions about the hierarchy, about the, you know, that flowchart uh and sometimes it's hard to understand because you think, you know,
it's only about the student-facing educators, which are certainly, I think we all know that there's a huge value in that and those are the ones that make the probably the greatest impression on our individual children, but we like we talked about last meeting is disciplinary action or when things don't
go as planned when it or when there's you know special learning plans when there's out of district students when there's students with high needs the amount of I wouldn't call it bureaucracy but the amount of reporting that goes along with that can really take you know Dr. Gallucci is a great example
superintendent can take him out of his normal routine for 24 hours. Whether it's you know reporting with law enforcement or doctors or parents or caregivers you name it just if there was a child that was disregulated or
if there was a student that just got placed in the district and had a certain IEP. So I think that the amount of administrative work that has gone into the back office of education in our in the Commonwealth is certainly important I I think everything has a
good reason but probably is what the committee maybe looking for a further explanation to understand that those roles and what they mean why there's been different levels of roles in in our in our like elementary school where we all know we go back 30 years it was Mr. Mosher was the principal and
that was it right? Those those times have changed. I mean Fred Senella one of our good friends up here colleagues was an educator and he knows the difference that's you know changed over 30 years 50 years in in the education system but I guess that would probably be maybe add some context.
Thank you Mr. Mayor and Mr. Damiano and I'm I'm happy to sit with anybody and and I think it would be a daunting task to try to go through everything that everybody does. There are 1400 employees in the district. One of the things that we've been
talking a lot about and that I've been um trying to dissuade the misconception that we are top heavy because people think that having 50 administrators for 1400 employees is too many [clears throat] and it it really
isn't for exactly the reasons that the mayor just laid out. Um we have a lot of legal obligations that we're bound by not only locally, but also at the state level and at the federal level. Um and so there are a lot of procedures and policies that we need to go through
whether or not we think it's a good use of time or the right thing. Like we we can't take a complaint from a parent or a student or a staff member and just say, "Oh, hogwash. There's nothing to it." We have to go through all of the work of doing the investigation, of interviewing
anybody who was a witness, of documenting all of that. If it's a state or federal issue, it then has to be submitted to other people in other areas who then review it, who come back and ask for more information. Um And all of this goes on whether or not
um the issue that's being investigated is well-founded uh in its inception or if the complaint is well-founded um and how it is constructed. Um so it is really a very different job and I can tell you that
firsthand just in the seat that I'm in that I've been in for 11 years. It's changed a lot in in these 11 years that I've been sitting here. Uh and that has uh been borne by everybody across the district. Um teachers will tell you their job is very different. The way
that um that some parents it's expected teacher to respond to them within an hour when a teacher is working all day long with kids in front of them all day long. That kind of thing that we've seen happen uh systemically across society is
visited on the schools as well and everybody is feeling that pressure. When an assistant principal has to investigate a claim that a student or a staff member made of being mistreated, that's a whole day. That's So that's a whole day now that that administrator who used to be in the
classroom to help make sure the kids were behaving well cuz everybody we always had that fear that the AP was going to walk through the room at any minute. Do you all remember that feeling when you were in school, right? Um if the AP can't get out of the office in order to do that kind of work, we see
changes in how students behave and what they try to do in the classroom. It all is endemic of the same thing. And so that's why as I've been saying to the committee, the middle schools especially um need more administrative support so that we can be in classrooms and be
working with teachers and be holding kids accountable for the kinds of behaviors that we expect them to have. Um and we have a long way to go in that regard. The same is true at the high school. Um I will tell you that when I started teaching at Revere High School in 1995,
uh we had three administrators. There was a principal and two assistant principals. And we had about 870 students. Right? Three administrators for 870 students. We have a lot more administrators now. There's a principal, a deputy principal,
and five vice principals. So seven administrators for almost 2,000 kids. Right? So yes, we have a lot more administrators than we used to have. We also have a lot more students and a lot more staff. And that requires a lot more supervision and a lot more interaction.
Um so all all of these all of these things feed into where we are. Um I think the district uh even before my tenure as superintendent was always very conservative around um the number of administrators and focused
more heavily on creating teacher leadership positions instead of administrative positions whenever we could. But when the law requires that an administrator be available to meet out discipline or uh evaluate a teacher or
do do needs to be done, we need to have the administrators on hand to do that. Um and that's what I think that you've seen over the last several years in the school district. But if there are particular jobs that any school committee member wants to say, "What exactly does this mean? What does this person do? And what is their
day-to-day?" I'm happy to to sit down and talk about that. Or if the committee as a whole, cuz I know there are a number of new members, wanted to identify a handful of jobs, we could look at that. And maybe that's even a a personnel subcommittee meeting where we could talk in detail about what a
particular job entails. Just some thoughts. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Kelly. Uh I like the idea of maybe us getting together, you know, at another meeting and deciding uh maybe there's some a bunch that we all have questions about
that we can just sort of hit it all at once. That would be To me, that would be efficient. And uh you know, and then if anybody has any additional stuff that I I'm sure you'd meet with them. And And uh yeah, so thank you. That's uh that's pretty good between that
explanation and the Is is that chart you emailed all of us, but um that's not in this packet, right? Yes. Um Pardon? You may want to refer it to the personnel Personnel. I was just going to say that. Thank you.
Okay. Um I don't think the organizational chart is in the packet. >> That's okay. I have it. >> the website. I'll I'll have to look. I pulled it out of my file, but okay. I have it here. You want a copy? You want a copy?
Well, do I don't know if we need an official motion in in this, but um the the the request is to put it into um personnel subcommittee, which I think we all agree on. Um the org chart is is is available. And certainly if you haven't seen it via email um
Dr. Kelly can share it. But I I I want to kind of just piggyback on one more piece that Dr. Kelly had mentioned is, you know, just to make sure that everyone, and this is for the public, too is um, always always uh accessible, including your team. We When we have questions, we
we don't have to wait for a committee meeting to act to get those answers. We, um, very easy to re- respond an email. Um, we always schedule office hours. I know a few members specifically schedule routine office hours where they come in here and check in with either the the
superintendent or the assistant superintendents, uh, you know, uh consistently. And that's how we get our information. We don't wait for committee meet- we don't wait for just one once a month at a school committee meeting. We certainly don't um feed our information off of social media because
that is the worst place to get it. Um, but right from the source, and it's very it's usually very uh user-friendly, but also accurate. And that's when that's when good healthy individual debate can happen, and then you bring that information to the committee. But thank you. Good question. Good
response. Good collaboration. Okay. Regular meeting agenda. Miscellaneous. Nothing, right? Anyway, Ms. Ms. Monterosso. I just have a miscel- under miscellaneous, uh, I just wanted to ask the personnel committee if there's an
update on the superintendent evaluation process. Since we're we're getting close to June, it'd be good to have a training. And just if you have a timeline, would love to know where we are with that. Yes, as a matter of fact, I contacted, um, MASC yesterday,
um, hoping that we can because I I know everyone has jobs and stuff, hoping that maybe we can do a Zoom one, um, as a workshop. Um and as of yesterday, I have not gotten any answer. I gave them like five different dates. So, hopefully they'll get back to
me tomorrow, today. Anyone else? Stacy, if we can do that in person, could you could you make that an option, too? Absolutely. >> Just cuz I'm I'm better with learning when I'm in person. Pardon me? That I'm I'm I learn better
when I'm in person. I was just trying to make it available. I know most people have jobs, different hours, young children. So, I was going to try to get either all together so that they would be able to join Zoom-wise, too. >> version would be great. And I that's
great cuz I who who knows, right? It gives us all a chance to be there. A hybrid version. Thank you. That's great. Let us know when we when we need to schedule. Yeah, don't call me. I'll call you. Just res I'll wait for I'll wait for the phone to ring. All right. Anyone else on the um
committee of the whole? >> [clears throat] >> Well, do you want to on the regular agenda that you want to move to now? I'm you know, do you want to We can't do the superintendent report because that's um you have presentations. I was wondering if we can do nine or 10. I don't know if we need to suspend the rules and
Yeah, we can do either one of those and if the members who put those up a request of a motion with it, then the motion can be made at the 6:00 p.m. meeting, but at least discussion can start now. So, Mr. Chair, the first one under unfinished business is update on
food service program. So, this was a request by three folks, so I grouped it in one. Uh Dr. Kelly actually has an update for the committee as we requested last month. And then Ms. Vessella and Mr. Kingston also wanted uh to speak to this item as well. So,
um A couple of things. So, the the issue with the halal food that we heard from a number of community members about last month um was actually an issue at the regional office
for Chartwells. And what was happening was that we have been serving halal meat all year long. But somebody in a secretarial position who was printing our menus was not properly
identifying when [clears throat] foods were actually halal. And you know, I I have feelings for our students and our families and I'm thankful to them for coming forward last month and making us aware of that and finding
that issue. There's no way the kids would have known that they could be eating that food all along because it wasn't appropriately marked. But if you look at the menu, even starting with this main menu, as soon as I talked to Martha about it and to to her credit, she's our food services
coordinator. She had watched the school committee meeting and seen it. Somebody made her aware of that this had happened and looked into it right away and had the answer before I could even get to her office the next day. So that adjustment was made on the
main menu and you'll see there are five more items now properly marked as halal including most of the meat sauces, the chicken finger chicken nuggets. I don't know exactly what they're called. The taco meat is is all halal. And those
are the things that kids will see multiple times a week on the menu. Mr. Mayor Ellis Dr. Kelly, could we put a statement out on our website or somewhere on Parent Square Yes. >> to that effect? >> That's a great idea. >> we can get this message back to the
parents, especially those who raised it. Yeah. Great. And Mr. Mayor, do you want to just speak to what halal means because I know there's some other co- talk in the community. So there was a question about what halal means. Um
and I'm not You can certainly Google the definition, so I'm just going to go off of my memory. Typically, it has to do a lot to do with the um the farming practices, the butchering practices, and the controls that go into the the sourcing of the meat uh from, you know, from
a lot I I would say that most often I would compare halal uh meats and proteins to be a comparative to organic and/or like farm-raised um a little a little bit more um care and control into how how how the processing goes. Certainly, there's uh
there's no cross-contamination when it comes to uh certain other types of uh proteins. Uh so, if it's beef or chicken, uh if it's designated halal, it it tends to have those um more more natural ingredients, more natural feeds, and certainly in the slaughtering
process or the processing process. I don't know. Uh it's a it's a little bit um more regulated. Um but, there's no there is no additives that are going to magically make you uh any different. Uh so, there's no fear there. It just has to do with the processing of the product. And
when it comes to proteins, there are there are no such things as this halal vegetables or things like that. It's mostly uh uh restricted with um beef, lamb, and uh chicken. Or I don't think fish even uh is pro- Fish doesn't go through If you don't
know seafood industry, there isn't a USDA for fish. Uh fish is a very It's, believe it or not, has regulations, but it's a lot less regulated than than the livestock industry or the poultry industry. So, you a lot of times the boats go out into the sea, they grab, you know, um
uh or they grab, you know, striped bass that's in season coming soon right off the North North New England coast, and they bring it in. The only regulations are how much they can catch, uh but there's really no no no telling where that that wild fish was was gro- was was was swimming. Uh farm-raised uh fish has
a little bit different types of regulations, but there isn't a to my knowledge there is not a halal seafood. I don't think the kids would really enjoy that anyway. Fish sandwich, love them. Thank you Mr. I I just want to thank you Dr. Kelly for the update. You know, the
petition we all received last month had close to 400 signatures from students and families, residents expressing how important this was to them. This has been a common practice that we have had in our district, whether it's kosher, halal food, or vegetarian options on Fridays when Catholics and Christians
are observing Lent. And so, making sure that our students know that they're all welcome regardless of their religious affiliation. And the basic of having something that they can eat to hold them over until they get home to We have students of various home situations, so it's it's really
important that they feel welcome from the food they eat to the people they interact with. Thank you. Ms. Baisel. So, I had some people because of the school committee meeting last month, a lot of people, you know, at the ball field and whatever, sharing their concerns. So, I'm going to share them
with you. And your definition of halal, as accurate as it may be, is missing some key pieces, and I'll get into that. So, um I received a lot of complaints, not more concerns, um because I don't think a lot of people were aware of the fact
that we were offering um halal. And I think that that meeting brought it to the open, and now it's a discussion. And so, um one of them ex- one person explained to me that for the same reason that pork was removed from the menu, so shall halal be removed. We should not be
offering halal. Because there is um there is an issue with people participating in Sharia. When you when you when you slaughter an animal, you have to um um, as recite the
name of their deity. I won't say it. And because of that, now you're you're teeter-tottering on idolatry with Christians, some sects of Christianity. And I know this may seem like a foreign concept to you guys because I didn't know about this either and I started going down a rabbit hole and it's a
thing. And so, um, it is considered unclean to some Christians to touch anything halal because it's it's slaughtered in another deity's name. So, there's an issue there. And there's that was one issue that was
brought to me about how they can't risk, um, also students possibly or potentially or by accident eating halal meat. That's a that's another issue. And so, this is considered to be a sin to buy some and it's something that we need to really think about. The other
issue that was brought to my attention was the whole taxpayer issue paying for a religious dietary restriction. And that, uh, it was suggested that we remain neutral and not provide halal because there are vegetarian options. And yes, fish does not is not considered
meat by the government and so, it doesn't have the same restrictions and it also doesn't have the same restrictions in Islam. They can eat fish. So, as long as by law, I looked it up, too, we are covered as long as we're offering vegetarian options and fish options. They can always bring in halal meat.
But as far as the logistics go, the the issue of what you brought up, Dr. Kelly, about, um, the uh, supply issue and the potential of it not being labeled pro- That's a big problem. So, we could be putting these people at risk thinking that they're eating halal and
we can't guarantee that. And that happens a lot. Matter of fact, um, I found a quote from years in the past that, um, the one of the heads of our our food services was saying that that was the biggest hurdle, guaranteeing
that they are actually halal and and and keeping that chain tight, which it which turned out to be a logistical nightmare. It may not be anymore. Can I clarify one point on that? The the error was on the calendar, the paper calendar, the printing of the calendar, not on the food itself.
>> Okay. >> So, I just want to be Well, apparently that the food itself was an issue before. So, maybe that has been taken care of. So, we're talking about the religious issue with Christians, we're talking about the taxpayer issue and logistics, and we already talked about that. Um
so, and I said about the law and um so, somebody I and I don't know if this is right or not, but I looked up the whole law thing and whether we open ourselves up to lawsuits from Muslims if we don't offer halal and or are we opening ourselves up to lawsuits from
from non-Muslims, Christians, atheists, whoever who are now being forced to participate in and when you look at it like that, I can kind of see the point, right? People are participating in Sharia law by providing this halal food, whether they know it or not. And I feel like that's not our
place to do that. Um I actually agree with a lot of these points. Um and and a lot of people will say, you know, you know, I've had some people or we we talked about last last month about uh halal food and kosher kind of being melded into one. We had a population of
almost 30% Jewish people in this city for a long time and, you know, over time they went away and we never had kosher food in the building. There's less than 1% um Jewish people here now and I think that's like a non-issue. I think that's just been um added in as kind of like a
buffer, but I really think that we need to really rethink our stance here with what we're doing because halal meat is meat sacrificed not sacrificed, wrong word, slaughtered while reciting the name of a deity. That is not everyone's.
And I think we're crossing into muddy waters and I think we really need to reconsider and be careful. So, one one other point if I if I can make it is that no one is required to eat anything. We're not requiring anyone to eat anything that's on any of the menus. There were always multiple options every
day across all grade levels. They include all different kinds of options. Some meat, some non-meat, some halal, some non-halal. There's always a peanut butter and jelly, there's always a salad, there's always a number of different things that any
student can choose from. I think the the key thing is to the point that Mrs. Montaroso made about making sure everybody feels welcomed. Period. Cuz we certainly do not want to be in the business of people's religion
in our public schools at all. And so that brings up having to force now especially now that everyone's well aware cuz I'm going to be honest, I was not at all until this meeting happened. So now everyone's aware and everyone's knows that these workers that work in
the cafeteria and everybody's potentially serving halal meat which is not not to no pun intended, it's not kosher. It's not It's not okay to a lot of people and I feel like we're going to come into some
muddy waters here. If I can just res- Certainly, I I don't like to get into religion when it comes to what we're doing here. So I I I get where you I have got I've been on the committee for you know, 3 years. I've been in the city politics for 8 or 9 years. Not once has anyone
raised any concern. Well, no, it's been very well known for years that this this has been a school committee topic while I've been here. And I've only been on the school committee 3 years about the want to have more halal offerings and the balance was
as you we know sometimes there is a cost concern that had to be that that had to be balanced. But but I'm again, I'm not an expert on anything. I am an I just would say that I think that you're getting some misinformation if you think that each
I think you're get I would be open to it that a lot of the pro proteins that you're you're talking about are not slotted by a person reciting reciting a phrase. They're Some of these are even machine slaughtered. Uh so so
I'm just letting you know that I've been to plants. I've been to meat processing facilities that have divisions that do certain types of processing that is deemed certified to be served as that fashion
of food. Oh, correct. All right? And if you go into Market Basket and you buy a or grass-fed ground beef in the aisle that has a 97 or 90% lean next to the 85% and you grab it and you take it home and then you accidentally flip it over, one of the
same farms that we buy ground beef from for regular and you flip it over and there's that little logo on the in the corner. They do a good job of making sure that they make people aware. I don't know what if there's a religious background to that farm, but I can tell you that I buy both
meats. So, I've been to processing facilities in the business that have been both. I've never seen any religious artifacts in the building or anything to that to that to that piece. But I understand where there's there's frustration and confusion. There's also these rabbit
holes of people that are just angry about everything. And if they're they're angry that a kid wants to eat a healthy meal and be able to be able to be sustained throughout the day, there's really there's a bigger problem. We're not trying to push religion on anyone in the city. We're just trying to like Dr. Kelly mentioned,
be able to provide sustain sustenance for our kids that are in the school for 7 or 8 hours a day and and make them feel welcome. What What What I'll also bring up is as a taxpayer, I'm a taxpayer. Um we we're fortunate that the state legislature pays for 100%
Well, through through Massachusetts taxes and federal taxes, pays for 100% uh of our school meals. So, that all goes through a certain legal lens that is all regular heavily regulated by the state and the FDA. Uh if there was a religious concern,
especially in this day and age, I'm sure that that would be we would be dealt with. So, we're I don't I feel very confident in the meals we have been serving for as long as I've been around and if there's there's serious concern, certainly bring it to the committee or bring it to the the state legislature or bring it to the the
you know, as high up the chain as they need to. But, I just would do do a little more research on the slaughtering method. >> Yeah, so I just I just because of this, I looked up the differences between halal and kosher and this is what I got. And one of them is the prayer blessing. And with kosher, it's a general
blessing. And with with um with halal, it's very specific. Very specific and that's I guess where the issue is for for a lot of people. Um so, I just wanted to put that out there. And another thing I'll add um Mrs.
Biasella is if there's an employee who has a concern around this because of their religious beliefs, I'm happy to work with them and um see if we can make an accommodation for them. This was I just want to thank Mrs. Biasella for bringing this up to us, for doing the
homework on it. Uh she got information from parents outside. She did her own homework before she brought it up and I say thank you for doing that. I really appreciate that. Thank you, Stacy. And I And I hope that you you
that you I do thank you, too, Mrs. Biasella. We We're on the same fields. We see the same parents. We I I I fully embrace what you're you're bringing to the table. I just also and you and you did the research and the homework, but I it's it can be somewhat
you know, just when we say things here, we have to be 100% confident in what we're saying because when we start talking, especially when the sensitivities around religion, I'm very aware of the sensitivities around religion. We all are. We're all elected officials. And we start going down certain certain
paths, it it's it it gives these it just we just should be awfully cautious on how we how we portray that, whether it's whatever religion it may be. You know, you know, we we've come a long way in our school system. The country's come a long way.
And I definitely try to keep keep it out of our political sphere as much as we can by being by being pretty even killed with it. So, I I appreciate I don't I totally appreciate what you're bringing here today. I'm not saying there's anything wrong cuz you know what? You probably have lot
of factual information. I just don't I think that we should talk to if we have a question about where the processing and how that goes, we should talk to our vendor and then maybe get more accurate information to make sure that, you know, we're not hurting someone by trying to help
another. I guess the biggest push is for neutrality and and that would mean not serving it. So, I that's that's the takeaway that I got from most of the parents and and that's the feedback that I wanted to share with the committee as a parent myself because people can't come to
these meetings. That's what I'm here for. I'm here to represent them. And so, it's going to get uncomfortable sometimes cuz I am going to bring things that people bring to me, whether I fully believe in it or not. And it's going to get awkward and that's just what I'm here to do and that's why
I needed to bring this out to open up this discussion and make it clear that there are people watching and there There people upset and there are people uncomfortable, and there are people worried. Um and that and there's a push for us to remain neutral, and serving halal is not remaining neutral, and that's the that's
the takeaway. Mr. Damiano. Uh thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you, Mr. Marotta. And um I wonder does the committee have an appetite to speak to legal counsel on what our position legally could and should be. Uh is this
the type of thing that maybe we should get uh legal counsel's opinion to prevent any potential lawsuits? What What does everybody think? Anyone want to answer that? No. I mean, I I I I I don't think it would ever hurt, but I can tell you that if we're
if we're serving it in our school system, I'm very confident that we're we're we're doing it uh lawfully. Uh but it's certainly worth another ask, and we can I would I would actually ask that why don't we uh have our um food service provider uh talk to us a
little bit more in depth about the proteins that they're they're offering. Okay. Mr. Mayor. I I recommend that this be brought up. Um it says health and special ed, but we always had food um service under that also. So, I would recommend that we
bring this subject up. Um and for more discussion and more homework, and maybe um the person in charge of that subcommittee can invite food service also. Sounds good.
Ms. Marotta. I'll share my closing thoughts. Um and then I know Mr. Kingston also had an item on this. You know, not serving it is not neutral, because if you ask a member of the Muslim community, that is very much not neutral to them. And to me, as a Christian, as a
practicing Catholic, I am taught that especially a most innocent population of children deserve kindness, deserve to be brought into a a space of belonging. So, to imagine that I uh would pre- entertain any conversation of not
offering a child a food that they need to stay full in their bellies, to go home where providing food for everyone else is far from being Christian in how I define my faith. I think also comments when, you know, it's not kosher, but it's it's halal, it's it's
constantly showing that one religion is preferred over the other and that they're not all equal. And so, to have to say, "Well, Christian residents came to me and they don't believe it should be served." Again, we are preferring one religion over the other.
Uh and I don't think that one person's ignorance should be generalized because, like the mayor said, so many people know about this issue. So, if someone on our committee doesn't, maybe they need to do a better job of knowing what we've been discussing for years when they come on. And I think also the fact of the the
arguments that we hear in the community and in the state and in the country when someone says, "Well, a taxpayer issue for this one thing that is different from me." It's the same argument we hear when people say, "Well, my tax dollars shouldn't go to providing English language services to multilingual students." Or my tax dollars shouldn't
go to providing special education services to the students who need it. So, it's the same argument whether it's food, special needs, English language, or providing anything beyond the bare minimum of the law because we're not requi- we're not called as leaders to give the bare minimum of the law. We're called to provide the most that we can for students. And if we're doing it when
it comes to athletics, to arts, to special needs services, then why aren't we do- why would we even just entertain a discussion of not doing it when it comes to the food they need so that they can concentrate in the classroom. And so, the muddy waters for me is thinking that we can pick one religion over the
other when making decisions. And I get that cons- these concerns are coming from residents, but for me it's really important to put on the record that it's not okay to start to have conversations about one religious view over the other deciding what will negatively impact some students. And to clarify, and three
ways that it has been clarified are what are ready. Halal food is always marked, so no Christian is being forced to eat the meat as just as no no Muslim would be forced to work in the kitchen and certain things that don't impact them. So, if there is a worker who doesn't
want to interact with certain meat, doesn't matter what religion, we would respect that like Dr. Kelly said. So, it just really important to to just really share that it is not neutral to entertain a conversation where we remove a practice that has embraced religious diversity for all our
students. As Christians, we are called to welcome specially the most innocent of our population, which are children. And this is talking about food for our children to have full bellies so they can focus in classrooms. And argument about taxpayer is the same argument we hear when people want to deny services
to other children across the board. Thank you. Okay so oh, Mr. Kingston. I agree with the mayor. I believe because the state's involved with our food service program and pays for it, I'm sure they've done their due diligence. Uh you know, if the committee would like to the subcommittee would like to
discuss it further, fine, but I'd rather not see us spend um money on an attorney for something that hasn't um it hasn't com- hasn't been addressed yet. I I just don't I don't you folks want to talk about it, that's fine. You know, all power to you, you know, freedom of speech, but I would hate to
see money spent on an attorney for for this for this issue. I think the state does their job, they're paying for the paying for the product, so I have faith in that they've done their due diligence and that we'd be okay. Cuz if we did have a problem, the first person I would turn to is the state and say, "Hey, you've been paying for this, you know, why wasn't this told to us before?" So,
I I'd rather not see us spend any money, especially when we're, you know, talking about the budget tonight and money being tight and all that, to spend money that way. Thank you. Thank you. I I Miss I think Miss Rizzo's um motion to suggest to go to that sub to
the subcommittee is is worthy. Yes, I just want to leave all our religions out of this. This is about our students, our schools, what's best for everyone. Um so, I would like to see it go to the subcommittee. Perhaps we can learn more. I don't even know if I'm on that
committee, but maybe we can learn more from the um food company itself, and they can have more information. Yep. Okay. Let's refer it to health and wellness. I'll One last comment to that that subcommittee should explore is unless
this becomes a budgetary issue or a district-wide policy, this is actually something that falls within the superintendent's purview because it's like saying I want to vote or implement a policy on fish sticks versus cheese sticks on Wednesdays. Like, food and falls into those day-to-day management
unless we're having huge budget issues or we want to implement a policy that restricts halal meat, which good luck doing that and just the students that you would hurt. So, that's my last thought. Well, thank you. Uh So, this is going to go to uh
health and wellness subcommittee. Thank you. Good dialogue. Do we want to take up an MFC? An MFC uh new business MFC membership in MFC. Yeah. Do you want to talk about that? It's quicky. Mr. Damiano.
Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um I recently took the chatting the course, and I thought it was fantastic. It was really informative. Um Rafael, you'll you'll have to take it soon. Um it's awesome. It's very It's great. The people are wonderful. The program
was super educational. They're very helpful. That's the quality of that program and it's excellent. What I'm concerned about is um I was poking around and it seems and I'm not fully informed and this is
what this item's all about is getting the information. It seems that most of their stuff is available even without membership. And it's not that I don't want to support them and um cuz I do. But I want to know
or I think it would be helpful to know for the whole committee how much exactly membership is costing us and what we're gaining from it versus independent vendors for the services we're using. Um and I do just want to
close on the note that I was very impressed and I really don't think that there's anything better out there than what they're doing. But when it comes to when it comes to all the money that we're spending every penny counts and I
just would like to be able to follow it all the way through. Thank you. Ms. Rizzo. So thank you for attending. It I love seeing people go. I know myself I've gone 13 times and I've gained something new every time
I've gone. The charting of the course is required by the state. Um so we have to take it whether we belong to MASC or we don't. So we still pay I think it's 3,000 a year. It might be a
little bit more now. Matt just went to check. Okay, good. I could be living in the old days. Nothing new. Um but that's for them to come out and do any workshops or attend any division
workshops or even the conference. Um so where I might be wrong is the price. This is Matt Milbury Ellison. Sure. So I rely heavily as the chair of the policy and procedure subcommittee on
the MASC updates to policy changes that they publish. Now I don't know if that's something that we information that would be available to us if we aren't members, but I know that once we approve policies, we send it back to the MASC
and they update the district policy manual. So I don't know how that would come into play, but um for me to try to figure out what policies need updating without having MASC to have done the legwork would be a
a job that I would have to build this committee for. >> [laughter] >> I have to agree with I'm only kidding, but but I'm just saying that's that's what as a member that's what I use the MASC for. When I came on, um our policies
weren't done over since 1983. And as old as I am, that was too far. That was So they even helped us get on board and redo the whole policy manual. So I mean I I just I value because you know what?
You're going to learn what you want within the four walls of the city isn't right. But when you get to work with people outside, you might not do the things the same, but you learn different ways to do things. And even like we have a
conference with the superintendents once a year. We learn different things back and forth. So I don't think it's so much MASC. Like I'm not saying I only support them. That's all we really have that we're members of, but I know if it wasn't for
MASC, I do not see me sitting in this chair because I didn't learn anything the first two years that I was on here because you you were just doing things the old way. And just sitting there.
And I'll I'll just add a a little finer point to what Aisha just said. MASC is the school committee organization that's recognized by the Massachusetts Board of Education. And when the board implements new laws through the legislature,
MASC writes policy sample policies that go out to all school committees so that we can make sure that we're operating within any requirements of the law. And that's a a really important point because if we're not paying attention to that and
conscious of what's happening at the state level in terms of K-12 regulations and requirements, we could be out of compliance. And that would be a really a really big problem for school committee. This is superintendent. We'll just blame it on you. >> Right now, we only have three
communities that do not belong to MASC out of the 352 52. 52 towns. Another thing that they provide is opinion pieces. So like I know we were researching when we first got on, I think um
you know, some topic and whether it was within the school committee's purview. And there was a an opinion piece that was prepared like maybe 20 years ago, but it gave it gives some insight into practice and and
you know, what what usually happens and what is what is really within our purview versus what's in the superintendent's purview. So there are some helpful guidance pieces in there. They're not necessarily policy pieces, but at least we have some type of of guidance if we have questions on certain
things. A a place to start. You know, sorry. And one more thing, sorry, Steven. They also provide school committee members with um different professional development. Like, I know the one that I I went to I do sometimes go to the MASC stuff cuz they have good stuff, but they did one 2
years ago on contract negotiations that I attended that was really helpful. Um the and all of this stuff is included in the membership. Like, it's all all of these extra pieces. Uh I mean, I think you have to pay if you go to the joint conference or other stuff like that you have to pay for your
hotel room and and there's a conference fee. But, they have the free um Stacy, remind me what they call them, coffee talk or something. The lunch. Lunch lunch. >> Yes, yeah. They have the lunch Yeah. There's a lot of free stuff and I I know Matt went and looked the number up, so.
$7,800 for the committee to belong for the year. And then 7,800. And then $1,000 for online policy manual access throughout the year. So, can I just get a clarifier, please? Just once. Is MASC the people who put on
the thing me and and um Yes. Alex went to? >> Yes. They they're awesome. Oh my god, that thing was incredible. I didn't know I Now, I had done it Is it $7,800? >> I did the same thing. No. >> [laughter] >> Maybe. I did the same but I did that
same onboarding, whatever, the charting of the course, years ago and it was completely different. So, I think Stacy has good advice when she says, "Take it." I'm going to I'm going to repeatedly go, maybe every I mean, as long as I'm on the school committee, I will because things change and um you
get clarity. There's professionals there you can ask questions of and they're neutral, so it's comfortable and they're very welcoming and they was it was so informative. I felt so empowered leaving there. I have a stack of notes that I just kept writing everything down. I was like, "Ooh, this is good. Ooh, this is
good." So, I just wanted to clarify that that was them. They're awesome. Yes, there's been a lot of times before elections, school people sign up to do school committee for whatever reason they choose in it for. And I just wanted
to be able to give them the knowledge of what they were getting themselves into and would let people know, like I let her know a few years ago, you can go to the Chatham of the course, it's free, you'll learn, you'll decide if this is what you really want to do. Um so I am
grateful when people do go and like I said I've been part of the MASC since day one and So $7,800 divided by all of us um and the access that each one of us has
individually is is good bang for our buck. Um but I do I am grateful that Mr. Damiano brought this to our attention and I love the fact that you have a keen eye on our finances because it's um it's it's necessary and needed. So thank you.
Uh thank you everybody. I just want everybody on the committee to know I agree. I the merit and quality of the program is in outer space. It's awesome. Um it's just what I was really looking for. Like Matt said um Mr. Cruz said 78
plus a thousand. So I mean it seems like they have it broken down. Um if what they were doing was free, it wouldn't change anything about the quality of the program. So it
was my understanding that we didn't have to be members and for the handful of uh cities or towns or organizations that aren't uh members uh if they're not in compliance, I mean what's the penalty? So really this It more like an
investigative type thing. I'm still So, I now know what it costs us 88 grand total according to Mr. Cruz, $8,800 annually for the online policy access and then the actual membership is 7,800.
So, I guess this has evolved my question to do they break services down and what's the cost and I don't really see that number, the 88, being too big of a pill to swallow. But, if it's going to
be something like the Charting the Course is $200 per session. Um how often have committee members, not counting Mrs. Rizzo, of course, actually gone to multiple um that type of thing cuz if we're not members and we're paying a fee every
time, yeah, that adds up. But, if everybody here has taken it once and now next year we're all here again, uh we're paying that amount. And I'm not saying that it's not a quality uh process and I'm not saying that I won't learn something. I will. I'll learn something every time I go. And you
know what? I actually The people are really nice. Uh so, it again, the merit of the program it has nothing to do with the value long-term um versus if we can get sort of an aliquot,
you know, I just I I think I need a little more information. I think I'm going to reach out to them uh a little bit and just poke and prod and see where where we come up and I'd be happy to share my findings. Oh, yeah, I have. I have.
Great. Well, that that's uh that pretty much sums up our committee of the whole. We'll see you in a few minutes for the regular full committee. Motion to adjourn. Second. All in favor? Aye. Aye. >> Mhm. Part: 2
Okay. Good evening. >> Good evening everybody. >> Calling to order the rev school committee meeting uh of May 19th, 2026. will all rise and salute the flag to the flag of the United States of
America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Okay, doc, would you call a role? Miss Basella >> here.
>> Mr. Bronizo >> here. >> Mr. Kajiano >> here. >> Mr. Damiano >> here. >> Mr. Feliciano >> here. >> Mr. Kingston >> here.
>> Here. >> Mrs. Melan >> present. >> Mayor Keef >> here. >> Mrs. Oh, okay. Okay. Uh, Miss Montos, >> Miss Mont. >> Okay. >> Well,
>> good evening. First order of business tonight is recognition. >> Miss Montteroso. >> Uh, more of a point of personal privilege. I just want to let the committee know. Um, and I think I sent an email today. There's someone from my job at Latinos for Education who's here
to film the um, equity team update. So, just so the whole district knows at Latinos for Education, my full-time job, we've been working to highlight different districts and organizations that are really doing a good job at uplifting educator voice. And so, and
how it aligns to the 2024 Mass Leads Act. And so, River has actually been a model for that legislation when it was written up and how we've had the equity council. So, we'll be just filming that portion. Nothing else will be filmed. It'll be part of a statewide campaign that we'll be putting out later in the
summer highlighting uh River Public Schools. >> Great. Thank you. >> And just a point of information for anyone who is new and is wanting um to speak today just to give some guidance. There's three different times um where people can provide public comment. There's public comment which is coming
up. That's for general topics. There's a sign-in sheet in the back for that. Then we have public comment for two separate hearings. So, and we have the uh named sign-in sheets over there, too. So, if you're here to speak during the hearing for school choice, please sign up for
that one. And if if you're here to speak for the hearing on the budget, please sign up for that one. And then we'll call people up when we get to those items. Thank you, mayor. >> Thank you. >> Good job on the recognition, Miss Montroso.
>> Okay. First order, consent calendar. >> Motion to approve. Second. >> All in favor? >> I. >> So ordered. >> Student representative report. Jalia. >> I'm just pulling it up.
>> It's going to be on Doc's screen as well. If you look >> Okay. Uh, yeah, I got it. Okay. Good evening everyone. Sorry. Um, this is this month's student rep report. As always, we're in accordance with Massachusetts general law. First, we had our ELA 10
learning walks where the ELA 10 successfully launched a new unit on anti-gosophicals, giving students the opportunity to engage deeply with the classic text while strengthening their analytical and discussion skills. Recent learning walks highlighted strong classroom communities
while students actively participating in thoughtful discussions, analyzing complex themes, and demonstrating confidence, critical thinking, and ownership of their learning. Next, RHS Rock Ensemble presented music by Iron Maiden with a huge success featuring special performances by the RHS pop
ensemble and the RMA Percussion Ensemble. The NAN project. Seven students participated in the NAM project's mental health youth leaders conference, engaging in important conversations about student mental health and how young people can serve as leaders and
advocates for their peers. Special thanks and congratulations to graduating senior and student senate member Judy Lei for helping organize the opportunity and to Jill Foley for securing the grant funding that made the trip possible. And our robotics team got their 2026
first championship at Worlds where at the 2026 first championship in Houston, Texas, team 125 achieved an incredible milestone, finishing as division semi-finalist after an unforgettable season of hard work. >> Sports roundup. The RHS girls softball
team is having an outstanding season, currently holding a strong 12 to3 record and qualifying four states. Their success reflects consistent teamwork, determination, and competitive drive throughout the season. With their last three games taking place this week and
their senior night this Wednesday, the team continues to push forward and build momentum as they prepare for postseason competition. Jerotc blood drive. The Jerotc held its bianual blood drive last week, bringing together students and staff to support an important cause through generosity
and service. A big thank you goes out to everyone who volunteered their time and made donations helping contribute to life-saving efforts within the community. The event was a strong reflection of the school's commitment to leadership, compassion, and giving back. Jerotc Drill. The Jerotc Patriot
Battalion traveled to Daytona Beach to compete in the US Army Jerotc Drill National Competition representing the program on a national stage. During the closing ceremony, cadets Ales and Santos performed the national anthem, adding a memorable moment to the event. Major
Baler also extends recognition and thanks to the teacher chaperrons whose support made the trip possible and successful. Guide to college admissions. School counselors and Miss Curry hosted a year guide to college admissions 101 workshop for juniors and their families at River
High School in partnership with the Massachusetts Educational Financing Authority. The event provided valuable guidance on the college research and the application process, including admission trends, building a balanced college list, and preparing key application materials such as transcripts, essays,
and letters of recommendation. The workshop reflects the school's continued commitment to supporting students and families as they plan for life after high school. Finally, MGM Youth Scholars Program. Last week during advisory, ninth grade students participated in a virtual information session with the
Mass General Bringham Youth Scholars Program. Students learned about opportunities for mentorship, mentorship, healthcare exploration, paid internships, and ongoing college and career support. Teachers were also encouraged to share this valuable opportunity with interested students to
help expand awareness of future pathways in healthcare and related fields. Thank you. Have a good night. >> [applause] >> Julia, Miss Furola, um you're graduating on June 10th. >> Yeah. >> And and we all know you're going to Columbia. >> Congratul. So, is this your [applause]
LAST >> Is this your last student representative report? >> Oh, great job. [applause] I'm going to put a motion in that from now on we have a a senior night for the student representative and it should be
should be the May meeting. So next year we're going to do it in honor of you Julia. >> Thank you. Good job. And if and if and if anyone went to the rock ensemble, it was amazing and unbelievable. I can't believe how good and how well how talented our students are with music. Uh
but if you can can't hear tonight, it's probably because of that. Yeah. >> All right. Um, and then thank you for the report. I do uh would like to know if the committee is okay with taking the superintendent report out of out of order. We have a number of students and families here that are looking uh that
are presenting and we want to make it comfortable for them to present so that if they wish to leave after, they're certainly welcome to. >> Is that everyone okay with that? Great. >> Absolutely. >> M Dr. Kelly. >> Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um, uh, we have three presentations under the superintendent report. They're all
relatively brief, about 10 minutes each. Um the first one is from the special education department, which is going to give us an update on um the work that they've been focused on and our uh two directors are are going to uh lead us in
that work. >> Hi >> [cough and clears throat] >> Good evening, school committee and members of the community. My name is Lisa Hannifan and I'm the director of student services for prek to grade 5. Joining me tonight is my co-director of
um student services for grades six through postgrad, Katie Failen, and our transition coordinator, Kristen Murphy Cormier. Thank you for the opportunity to provide an update on special education programming and unified opportunities across REI public schools.
Tonight we will highlight three major focus areas. Strengthening specialized programs, transition planning, and expanding inclusion opportunities for our students. First, we continue to strengthen our specialized programming across the
district. Two programs in particular are our capture and ignite specialized programs. Our capture program is the languagebased program um at the Lincoln and Susan B. Anthony schools. This year the program continues to grow through our partnership with
Landmark. Landmark provides ongoing coaching and professional development to staff. This support helps ensure students receive highquality language-based instruction grounded in evidence-based practices. for our Ignite Autism Programs at the
Beachmont and Wayland schools. As part of the Desi Inclusion and Support Network, we are partnering with a consultant affiliated with Boston University and Walker Consulting. Through this partnership, we continue to strengthen the Ignite programming through collaboration with building
administration, teachers, and learning walkthroughs. >> Now, I'll pass it on to Katie. Sorry. Hello. >> Another area of focus this year has been transition planning. We are committed to preparing students with disabilities for life beyond high school. One focus has
been providing students with travel training starting in middle school. This month, the students in the ascend and propel programs participated in an MBTA travel work uh training workshop with the goal to provide students with the skills and confidence to ultimately navigate public transportation
independently. We also continued vocational opportunities as at RHS such as the parallegal assistant training program at the Chelsea courthouse, internships with parks and recreation, and job coaching. Job coaching provides individual support for transition skills
for life after high school. There is also a cohort of students participating in the priaths program to support with prevocational support such as job exploration, workforce readiness, work based on learning, work-based learning experiences counseling and
post-secary. Also this year, Triangle, Inc. provided a 5-day workshop focusing on workforce readiness for students with autism. These experiences help students build real world skills and prepare them for future success. And here is a picture from our MBA travel training
that was at the Army, GMS, and RHS. Um, our third uh area of focus is inclusion opportunities. Our belief is that all students benefit from learning and growing together in inclusive environments. The special education team collaborates closely with our MTSS teams to ensure students can remain in the
least restrictive environment whenever appropriate and receive supports necessary to be successful. At River High School, we added an inclusion co-taught chemistry class to provide additional inclusion support for students with disabilities. Additionally, we incre increasing our
authentic inclusion opportunities for students in the ascend program such as the EC integrated opportunities, middle school peer buddies at GMS and unified elective classes. Now, I would like to highlight one of our most joyful inclusion opportunities,
unified sports. Before we begin, I would like to thank the unified coaches and liaison, Doug Trudeell, Kevin Lee, Tom Mackey, Casey Manion, Kristen Murphy, Connor O'Keefe, Kyle Mi, Lauren Lopez, and Frank Shay, our athletic director. Also, the teachers, the paras, THE
[applause] also the teachers, the paras, and the principles at GMS, RH, RMA, RHS for supporting and fostering unified sports in their schools. And a big thank you to our wonderful students for participating in unified sports. Some are here to speak tonight. UM
[applause] unified means with and without disabilities. Um students coming together to be build meaningful friendships and participate in shared experience. The teams are made up of people with similar age and ability and that's what makes more the practices more fun and the games more challenging
and exciting for all. The ultimate goal is to create a more inclusive school community for all. Currently, we have unified programming at RHS, GMS, and R in the RMA. And this year, we offered unified basketball, unified strength and conditioning, unified track and field,
unified botchi, and unified robotics. We even Thank you. We even faced our new friends at the senior center for two separate unified events. unified a unified middle school botchi game and a unified um high school botchi match. We really
appreciate their hospitality um for participation. The R RHS continues to build participation and unified programming. This year 14 students participate in basketball, five in strength and conditioning, track and field 10, and unified robotics 10.
Um, as we expand our offerings at the middle school, our middle school participation is growing, and we hope our re rising ninth graders continue to participate in unified sports and programming when they come to RHS. Um, at the RMA, [clears throat] 11 students participate in botchi, 13 in basketball,
and at GMS, we had 14 students participate. Um, looking ahead, we plan to continue expanding unified opportunities at the middle school level, growing our programming. Also, at RHS, we'd like to apply for the unified champion school
national banner, which requires us to meet the following criteria: unified sports, whole school engagement, and inclusive youth leadership. Thank you. Now, I'd like to invite our unified athletes to come up and share their experiences in univoid sports.
Come on. [applause] >> Do you want help or are you good? Hi, my name is Alejandra. I love basketball and my friends basket. My name is Little Park.
If basketball is pass YOU [applause] >> what I hold up. What I like about unified sport is how I get to contribute to the school, help others, and just make memories. And it was a
pleasure for me to represent RMA. Now time for me for next year to represent the RHS. [applause] >> Hi, I'm Mariana. First, I would like to thank all the staff members and committee members and teachers who helped put this together and who gave us the opportunity to participate in
unified sports. This season we didn't only work on skills but we built new connections and trust with each other. I learned that with contributing with others anything can be possible with the help of one another. [applause] Hello, I'm Sophia Korea and I just want
to give a memorial moment that I that really meant a lot to me was that every time I saw Alejandra and Emma hug on the court, it reminded me the magic that of this team isn't just found on the scoreboard, but is found in the barriers we break together. We step onto the court as individuals, but with different
abilities. We leave it as a community united by friendship. And that's what unified basketball MEANS TO ME. [applause] HI, MY NAME IS Nom Gessa. I'm really honored to be the voice and represent the unified team and stuff. Uh, it really meant a lot to me because I got to spend meaningful time after school
and I built new connections and I I really hope I've been making positive impacts on the unifi team. [applause] My my favorite part my favorite part is you find basketball, you find track and field, you find
voting, and you find strength and conditioning. And I like basketball party at the end. And I like track and field party at the end. And I like to play TD Gardening for basketball for
field trip in January 14th, 2024. [laughter] And and I like to play Bachi in March 2026 in Senior Center.
One more. And I like the field trip of basketball and track and field. [applause] >> Thank you so much. >> Thank you. [applause] >> Congratulations. Great job. >> Thank you.
Any questions for the unified >> yet group? >> Any any committee? >> No, >> Kingston. >> Um I I attend unified sports as often as I can. I enjoy going there. I think it's
great. And um just wanted to thank all the all the adults that do it. A lot of them putting in a lot of extra time and energy and they have a lot of enthusiasm and help the kids out a lot. And I just I every time I go I'm just I leave there and I say, you know, thank thank who whoever you want to thank for having
good people that want to work with our students. And it's it's challenging. It requires a lot of the patience. And I give them all a lot of credit. And I'm usually there I try to make as many home events as I can. And every time I go, I I'm just I'm just always impressed and I'm thrilled. You know, people say, "Thanks for coming." I said, "No, thanks for doing this." Because I'm just glad I
had something like this to [applause] to go TO >> [applause] >> MR. DEIO. >> Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Great job, everyone. It's moments like this that make me very proud to be from City Rivier because I see things like this and it just strengthens our community.
I'm really, really appreciative that you kids are all banding together and looking out for each other and playing together. It really speaks volumes for what our youth is up to. But I do have a very serious question. Who won the botchi game? It seems [laughter] >> I know the answer. >> It was a tie. It was
>> really if you tied the senior center, you should go for the Olympics. [laughter] >> Thanks everybody. Great job. They did beat Chelsea this year. [applause] >> I know that a few of the parents and families may want to leave. Uh and
certainly you're welcome to. You don't have to stay for the whole meeting. If you'd like to, you're obviously welcome to as well. But I noticed a lot of the same faces that do a lot throughout our community as peer leaders, as athletes, as students, but most importantly as educators and parents. You're really
mentoring and in in molding these these kids, these young adult young kids into, you know, future leaders in our community. And we I thank you so much for being part of that and making sure that you're giving them good guidance uh for the especially for the teachers and certainly for the parents in the back of
the room, too. So, thank you very much. >> [applause] >> I just want to say a big thank you to Lisa and Katie for their leadership in our special education department. As you know, as a school knows, um we went over we went under a major overhaul a few
years ago and we are starting to see the fruits of those labors and the incredible teachers that we have the benefit of working with like Andrea and like Kristen who are willing to think outside of the box. So many other teachers too, but the two who are here with their kids today, I'll give you a
shout out. um to think outside of the box and try to do things differently than the same old same old is what makes sure that we have opportunities for all of our students. So, thank you all very much. [applause] Next on the superintendent's list and um
this is another large cadre of students and families that we have here is our report from the Garfield Elementary School and they're going to share with us. Dr. Napier is going to come up with his team um and share what the Garfield Elementary has been up to in their
emerging leaders program. Um I know they have a number of students who are also going to share their experiences as emerging leaders and hopefully future mayors and superintendents and school committee members and city councilors and others among them. Um so Dr. Napier,
I pass it over to you. >> Good evening. Uh, my name is Percy Napier and I'm the principal of the Garfield Elementary School. I have with us my assistant principles, Lisa Kusamano, Adriana Delg Greco, and several of our fifth grade students. Um,
we have Luz Lena, um, Landervert, Talia Wyn, Andreas Mory, Gutierrez, Matteo Argueta Velasquez, and Juan Pablo Castanada Zapata. All right, we have the slides. All
right. >> All right. Go to the next one. [clears throat] >> So, at GES, we um have four schoolwide expectations. That is to be respectful. It is to be responsible, safe, and kind. And every student throughout the school hears those four expectations. And we
try to incorporate that into everything that we do. And so the emerging leaders programs gives us a different type of opportunity to enact those values. So, we wanted our students to build a stronger connection to their school and
the wider community and build an understanding that academics while hugely important um but also just as important how you leverage that learning, how you use your talents and skills is um equally
important. So, our goal was to develop strong leaders who care about each other. They care about their school and they care about their community. So the emerging leaders is a way for us to cultivate these vital dispositions.
So to become an emerging leader we wanted the process to be um aspirational and inclusive. So we didn't select the highest performing students or the most typically well- behaved. We focus on identifying those students with
leadership potential. Maybe not in opport in ways that we would typically associate with being productive or um the good type of leadership but those who had those opportunities and um and had opportunities for growth. So students were required to be nominated
for their participation and a nomination process required an active effort on students part. So they had to go to their teachers to get support. They had to talk to the counselors and also the assistant principal and explain why they wanted to be. So it wasn't you just show
up. You had to put in the work in order to be selected. So our goal was to encourage initiative, commitment, and accountability throughout the process. If you did not follow through that process, you were not selected in this particular round of emerging leaders. So
we included opportunities for students to join later through improved academic and also social effort as well. And so and the idea is that we wanted to reinforce the belief that leadership can be developed over time, hence the name
emerging leaders. And so the program is divided into several different initiatives. One is our STEM discovery leaders, our inclusion champions, the community care leaders, the kindergarten connectors, the academic mentors, and eventually we're going to be implementing a school
ambassadors program. And I'll turn it over to our team to discuss the next component. >> I'm [clears throat] much shorter than him. Um, as if you haven't noticed. Um the first uh group that I would like to talk about is the STEM discovery
leaders. Um we have eight students involved in this program and these eight grade five students go to kindergarten science class and help support our kindergarteners. They help with experiments, they help with activities,
um they help with engagement and it just seems like a really rich experience for both sets of students. The next group is our inclusion champions and we have three students from grade five involved in inclusion
champions and they visit a small learning group early childhood classroom once a week and they have so much fun. They are involved in snack time. They are involved in morning meeting. Um they are involved in relationship building. They're involved with play skills. I
have one student with me, Luciana, who would like to talk about her experience in this group. Lucelena. >> Hello, my name is Lucilena and I am proud to be an emerging leader for the inclusion championship program. In this program,
we work with students in the preschool small learning group classrooms to help them learn, build friendships, and feel included. I enjoy being an inclusion champion because I like helping others and making students feel safe, supported, and happy at the school. We
help with activities like snack time and morning meeting. We help the students play with one another, but most importantly, we help students feel like they belong. This program has taught me the importance of kindness, patience, and inclusion, and I am grateful to be a
part of it. [applause] I think Lucia will be part of our uniform uh unified sports teams at the high school when she gets there. Um the next group that I would like to talk about is the community care leaders. We have eight students involved in this
program. These students have voice and choice each month in our school to run a community project. One month they chose to do a coin drive coin drive for Makea-Wish Foundation. Um another month they decided to collect toothbrushes and
toothpaste for housing families which is an agency in Malden. Um we have also done for autism awareness the an entire school bulletin board of the infinity symbol uh symbolizing all of our you know all of our students and staff
coming together. Um and then they are currently starting a project um titled kindness rocks. So they will be painting a series of rocks. They will be hiding them and tucking them away throughout the school for others to find and people
can keep them or people can hide them and have someone else find them and they will have kind words placed on them. Um I have Talia here that would like to talk about her experience in the program. >> My name is Talia and I am proud to be a
community care leader. I help organize projects that um make a positive impact in our school and community. This year we held a coin drive to support Makea-Wish Foundation. We collected toothpaste and toothbrush for an agency
called Housing Families and created a schoolwide infinity symbol bulletin board for autism awareness month. We are currently working on a kindness rock project where students can find painted rocks around the school with positive messages and choose to keep them or hide
them again for someone else to discover. Being a part of community care leaders has taught me the importance of being of kindness, acceptance, and giving back to others. [cheering] [applause]
I'm a little bit taller, but not by much. Um, so our next emerging leader program that we have at the Garfield School is called our kindergarten connectors. Our kindergarten connectors visit the classrooms um for kindergarten. They assist mostly in the centers to help
with their work and their routines. um you need to be a role model and a helper to be in this program and we have anywhere between it varies at certain points like Dr. Napier said we have students entering the program at different times. Um all five classrooms
are supported um with different amounts of students ranging from 10 to 15 students in that program. Can go to the next the next um group that we have is called the academic mentors and I have a few friends with me here today um to help share about the
academic mentors. The academic mentors assist students in grades one and two, providing learning support as needed. Leaders help classmates practice skills and get organized and feel encouraged in their learning. And they're always under the teachers guidance. Um, and we have a
few gentlemen here today that are hoping to share their favorite favorite thing about being an academic mentor. Come on up. Got this. >> What is your favorite part? You don't need anything to read. My favorite part is uh that we um we get to help them
learn like if somebody is like new to the school and doesn't know how to speak English, we usually help them understand
and do some projects with them to catch up with the other students to learn easier and help them. [applause] Uh, my favorite part of being an academic mentor is that
I could help students that need help a lot. For example, I help two students. One name Oh, sorry. What do you help them? >> I help them with math. I help them with
writing, reading. I help them because they need help. And sometimes they don't understand as well as the other students do. And that's my favorite part of being an academic mentor. [applause] My favorite thing about being an
academic mentor is um getting to know all of them and giving them company and give them um um examples of equations that they need help with. For example, um four quarters
uh are 20 is equals a dollar. Um, and I like to help them if they're stressed or or not getting help. And that's my that's the favorite part of being academic mentor. [applause]
Um, that the next part of the slide has some pictures of our students. Um, sorry, the one before has some pictures of students helping out. Oh, that's okay. Um, all right. So, our next year's
goal, um, is Go ahead. Did we put it on? Oh, okay. Um, so our next year's goal is to start a school ambassador program and our school ambassador program will come from our emerging leaders and these emerging leaders um will be selected. It would be a nomination process only and
these leaders would be um brought up when we have new students in the school and we want to feel make them feel welcome. they will help give tours of the school and provide information about schedules and things like that. Um and then also when we have guests in the building that they would provide that
welcomeness to the school. So that will happen next year to expand the program. And then the last slide is just talking about our participation. We have over uh 58% of the fifth grade students actually participating in this program. Five classrooms supported in kindergarten.
one classroom supported in prek from our three um friends in the inclusion program. 12 um academic mentees help in the 10 classrooms um the nine classrooms between first grade and second grade. And then we've done three community
cares projects. We're very proud. [applause] Thank you Garfield team very much. That's all amazing work and thank you for sharing your fabulous students with us. We're so thankful for everything that you're doing to help the little the little little little students that are
coming up behind you. Um, one thing that strikes me is your ambassador program sounds a lot like the welcome program that was started at Reier High School and it spread to the middle schools and a couple of the elementaryaries and we'll be hearing more about the welcome uh club a little bit later tonight, but
your ambassador program reminded me very much of that. So, great job, [applause] >> Miss Milbury. Um, >> to the students, I bet this this work must feel really good, huh? Yeah, when you help people, I just want I want to
thank you and I want to let you know that of all the people that are in your school, you folks are the most impactful on your classmates. Positivity is contagious and it's so much what is needed and the work that you're doing is
the exact kind of change that the schools need, that this world needs and I am just so appreciative. As you could see, everyone is smiling because we are so proud of you. We love the work you're doing and we know that this is only a launching pad, right? So that means as you get older, you're going to do more
of this work and become even more impactful and someday you're going to be great leaders. So thank you so much. Stick with it and um keep being a positive influence on your classmates. [applause and cheering] >> Miss Montteroso, >> echoing what Miss Mberry said, but also
congratulations on speaking. I saw a few nerves if I saw a few deep breaths and USA and you all did great. So great coping skills there. And a big shout out not only to our educators but to the parents as well, right? Because you all do so much outside of of the classroom to create the the little humans that you
have. So the the ideals they have in them and and their positivity definitely comes from their home. So a big shout out to our to our parents as well. [applause] >> Thank you, Dr. Kelly. >> Okay. >> Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you, Garfield community. We appreciate you very much.
>> Yes. >> Um the final item on the superintendence report is an update from our equity team. Um Dr. Garcia has been uh leading this work districtwide for a number of years um all the way back to when he
first started as assistant superintendent for uh equity and inclusion. um and he has a team of teachers, administrators, and students uh who really make our equity mission come to life across the district. So, I
will um as the Garfield team makes their exit, I'll invite um Dr. Garcia and his team up to talk to us about um equity, access, and belonging. And I don't who's going to start? >> Thank you, Dr. Kelly. I just want to um
ask all members of the equity advisory board to stand up. So uh I just want to give them a round of applause for the uh [applause] for the work that I have been engaged in uh challenging you know practices,
processes, you know policies and so on and so forth and really contributing to the development of the fabric cultural fabric of our school. Um I be meeting with this team uh on a monthly basis. I see the tremendous amount and dedication
that they have put out there and um they make me proud. They make River public schools proud and make all the entire community proud. They these are educators that when they once they done with these um hours, they show up um once a month and they put a lot of
thoughts into the equity process. So uh without any further ado, we invite the first person to present tonight. >> Good evening everyone. I'm here to present on behalf of the language access planning and implementation committee. A brief background. We were invited by
Desessie to join this language access plan planning process in January 2024. So we spent part of that year and all of last school year planning our language access plan which you can see last I think right around this time last year we presented. So those slides are linked
there to give you kind of a background. So this year we've been starting to implement a lot of those action items. So there's some brief updates here. So, some things that we've been working on is every school will be receiving a beautiful welcome banner with 16 different languages represented on it.
Um, we will also be at all of our front desks will be working to train all of our staff so that there's documents so that families non-verbally can point to the language in which they may need interpretation so that either we can ask a school staff or we can use our Lionbridge system to ensure that we can
engage right from the start with everyone in a language that is their preference. Another thing that we're working on is a multilingual phone tree. Currently, when you call, we want to have all of our four major languages represented in that phone tree. So, with John Ferrer, as the phone system is
rolled over this summer, we've worked with the schools, it'll be more streamlined, and so then families will be able to hear the options for messages or uh you know, the staff in those four languages. Um, another item we applied for and received a competitive grant
from DESIE to train nearly 25 uh, interpreters who work in all of our buildings, our family liaison, our parent information staff. So, we have folks that are trained and ready at tier 2, which is a broad general interpretation and then tier three, which is more advanced for your special
education meetings, more formalized structures. So, we have a lot of folks uh right now finishing up that coursework. So, that's been an amazing opportunity. And then, as you know, being in meetings for the last year or so, we've had uh headsets available so that these folks that are trained as
interpreters can simultaneously interpret while the meetings are going on so that it reduces, okay, now I have to say it in this language, that language, this language. So, it allows better access for our families. So, in brief, we are working on continuing our
action items and we are seeking to do a a fall roll out with all of our families and publicizing more details about the plan and all of the next steps. All right. [applause] Um, I'm presenting on behalf of the MTSS
planning team in the data accountability working group. MTSS is a core objective of Revier's 5-year strategic plan. Why is that? Because MTSS is a framework used to help all students to have access to grade level curriculum in instruction also called tier one and it supports our
goal in the district to support all students to meet grade level expectations. In a nutshell, the MTSS framework outlines how instruction and other resources should be allocated. We want all students 100% to have access to grade level curriculum and instruction.
To achieve this, we know some students about 20% will need extra strategic support that they can receive in small group settings with and with outside the class and a smaller percentage about 5% will need more intensive support. This year through district through
district-based and school-based professional development, including a district supported PGT routine called ISP, which stands for the instructional support protocol, we have been made gains in our implementation of MTSS to support all students. According to a
survey of all RPS educators, 97% reported improved understanding of MTSS grounded in equity. 74% reported improved instructional practices in classroom as a result of using the instructional support protocol.
[clears throat] 71% reported that using strategies improves um students learning. Um let's um let's drill down and hear specifically from educators about what impacted this work. Um here [clears throat] are some reports from both teachers and school leaders we wanted to highlight. There's a few
quotes for you to read. Um the data and accountability group then surveyed educators to collect resources for tier 2 A. Tier 2A is defined as small group instructing instruction connected to the tier one lesson
typically 15 to five 5 to 15 minutes. We received resources from educators from EC to high school. Our focus is to make the right supports easier to find, use and monitor. The next step for the data and accountability working group is to collaborate with the MTSS working group
to organize resources for our MTSS database called who knew it. We would like to identify gaps in the resource bank and search intentionally for resources to add and we'd also like to provide tools and to support progress monitoring data collection. Thank you. [applause]
>> Good evening. My name is Mary Davies and today I'm going to be representing the bias and sensitivity review and um we started with one very important question and that is how do we create more pathways for our pair professionals to become licensed teachers here public
schools. Uh we know that many of our pair professionals already have deep relationships with our students. They belong to our community. They know who we serve because they are themselves many times parents and former students of this community. We wanted to know if
there was any way we could really see if there was a genuine interest in them going to the next step and that's becoming one of our licensed certified educators. Next slide. To begin with, we created a district survey. 75 pair professionals responded. What we found
was very encouraging. Over 53% of them were very interested in becoming licensed teachers. Another 17 said they were somewhat interested. Even more importantly, 75 of the respondents said they would want to begin working towards lensure within the next year.
Because of the strong interest, we began building partnerships. We are currently working with UMass Lowel to explore a cohort model specifically for our district. We um and our pair professionals. We are also exploring support from Middle Sex
Community College for pair professionals who do not yet have an associates degree. We are supporting both the the pair professionals that want an undergraduate degree to become a teacher and also the pair professionals that already have uh an associates or
actually uh bachelors. So we want to get them in. Um, our next step is to continue developing these partnerships and identifying pair of professionals who already hold that degree and only need support in navigating the lensure pro uh process. [laughter] This process
is more than staffing shortages. It's about growing educators from within our community and creating opportunities for talented people that love and support our own students. Thank you. [applause] Good evening everyone.
[laughter] >> Hello. >> I'm proud to represent the educator growth and professional development working group. So we had two projects this year and our first project was to refine our equity
interview questions. We want to show all candidates for jobs at River Public Schools that equity is our core value. We align questions from the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education teacher evaluation rubric
to make these questions. Our goal is to make sure that every candidate is asked an equity question that matches the job in which they are applying for. After finalizing a menu of questions for interviewers to choose from, we presented the questions at the December
cabinet meeting where administrators, directors, and supervisors answered the questions. And this activity began a what to look for document that can be compared with future candidate responses. So our second project that we worked on
this year was about leading new educators uh professional development and growth. For the second year, Dr. Kis Warham worked with new educators on culturally responsive teaching practices. This year the training was in person and it was
three hours long. So we administered a survey afterwards and we got some excellent feedback and results. 84% of respondents said that they would be interested in additional district provided professional development opportunities on culturally responsive
topics which is amazing. We got a lot of great feedback. We have two quotes. So the first one says this training was informative, relevant and there were realistic action steps. Thank you Dr. Warden. And the second quote we highlighted today is, "It's important to
address inappropriate language or behavior as it happens. Responding consistently helps set clear expectations and reinforces respect." So, our next steps moving forward are to continue this excellent professional development progress that we started for
our new educators with Dr. Warham. We want to explore voluntary offerings for staff who would like to continue their professional development since we have so much interest. We got the go-ahad from Dr. Warham to create a poster for all staff that highlights Dr.
Worm's key points and strategies so that it stays in the forefront of people's minds. and we're going to ensure that the equity interview questions that we've started the process of implementing are being used and continue
to survey administrators to get feedback. Thank you. [applause] Now it's family engagement and um community relations. Greetings everyone. My name is Aaron McNamer and I'm presenting on behalf of the family engagement and community relations
group. Last year, our focus was on conducting a temperature check to better understand how family engagement efforts were being experienced across the district. That helped us identify gaps in opportunities for improvement. This
year, we've taken more concrete steps. We launched a district-wide spreadsheet to track collaboration to track event data and we created a checklist for staff hosting events. We also did this um with the data and accountability group last year. That was
their goal. Our goal is to streamline planning, reduce scheduling conflicts across the district, and bring more consistency to how events are organized. We're also working to better evaluate the success of our events. To do this, we're using tools like exit tickets, QR
codes, reflections, and comparing attendance versus non-attendance in these events. This helps us understand not just who's coming, but how meaningful and effective the events are for our families. Looking ahead, our next steps include
continuing to evaluate events across the district and strengthening collaboration with family liaison, especially in response to survey feedback. We also want to ensure that the universal event checklist is consistently used before
events are advertised to families. In addition, we're developing a universal postevent survey and reflection tool as well as creating a resource hub that highlights successful strategies and interventions. This will allow schools and teams to learn from
one another and build on what's already working well in other schools. Overall, our focus is on is on improving coordination, increasing engagement, and making sure our events are impactful and accessible for all families. Thank you.
[applause] Good afternoon. My name is Nora Ashure and I am a sophomore at River High School. My name is Naelli Shawn and I'm a sophomore at Rivera High School. >> My name is Jamila Figueroa and I'm an eighth grader at Garfield Middle School.
>> Hello, my name is Emily Manor and I'm an eighth grader at SBA. The mission of the welcome club is to expand across the district so more schools have systems and structures that help students feel welcomed, connected,
and engaged in their school community. >> So for elementary, the elementary expansion, we have um for Lincoln, we have 10 student mentors and then for Paul Rivere, we have 22 student mentors. Middle school expansion. For SBA, we
have 20 20 student mentors. And for the high school, we have 26 student mentors. And this image portrays a district-wide welcome club collaboration event that just happened last month where welcome
club members from across the district met at the river high school to collaborate and share ideas and establish working goals for their schools for the future years. Additionally, here's a link to a video that shows the Welcome Club's impact,
which was recognized on the television station Channel 5. >> You want me to play it? >> Yes, please. [laughter] >> I will try. >> There it is. It was so good. >> It is on the website.
Yes, it is. >> All right. Thank you. Thank you. Oh wait. >> Next up, by school level, um for for elementary schools, we are connecting and engaging with families of newcomers. Next step for middle school, build on
SBA's first full operational year with mentor involvement and orientation. And for the high school, we're going to provide ongoing training to welcome club members on leadership, interpersonal skills, and communication skills. We thank you for the time, and we look forward to expanding welcome clubs
across the district. [applause] So, to the welcome club members, do you think that there's room in your group for the Garfield School if we can convince them to make their um fifth grade ambassadors be part of the welcome club?
>> Yeah. All right. I'll get I'll I'll have Dr. Napia reach out to uh Mr. Cabrala and see if we can get that connected. Uh but thank you to everybody on all of the different aspects of equity that you've been working on. Um I truly believe and I know that Dr. Garcia believes we have
to be working on all levels of equity in order to impact um any equity at all. And equity isn't something that we do beside or on top of or next to everything else that we do. It underpins everything that we do. And if we're not talking about equity um in every aspect
of our work, then we are missing the boat on that piece. So, thank you all so much for your tremendous work. And thank you to the presenters and the folks who are here who may not have presented, but I I see you and I see the work that you do on all of all of the equity work that you do with [cough] Dr. Castillia,
>> Miss Montrosa. >> And you know, I just I want to give this group a shout out again. the fact that there's constantly um we're chasing grants and we're getting those grants, we're getting that funding and knowing that the state is continuing to prioritize this work given the the economy that we're in is so important
and I constantly see our teams at conferences all the time uh because we continue to be a model for the state which is also why you know River Public Schools is being highlighted for a statewide campaign on how we're elevating educator voice and centering equity and it's not just to check a
compliance box from the 2024 mass leads exact, but it's it's just like the work that you're all doing and truly believe in and the fact that we have students talking about their group setting working goals and making strategic plans like that's that's something I'm just now doing in my day-to-day job. So,
those are such great skills that you're going to continue to you use and lead. And I think the last one was I love that we as a committee are finally hearing a little bit more about this parrot to teacher pipeline. We know how important that is for these homegrown programs and
how successful it has been. And I think just one plug um for anyone who hasn't heard is that Desi has now approved one of the first alternative certification lensure programs. So you for our educators who have struggled to pass the lit comm there's now a waiver process
that people can look at to be eligible for and I know that's going to help a lot of our parents who are on that route. So thank you so much. [applause] M Mr. Danielle. >> Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Uh, I just wanted to acknowledge the welcome club as
someone who was recently welcomed by them at Susan B. Anthony, and I want to say that it is absolute top tier. You guys do a great job. Remember me? [laughter] >> You guys were awesome. And I uh I when I walked in, you know, just you were right
there. And if that's what you're doing for me, I can only imagine what you're doing for your peers or anybody else that might be new to the school cuz quite frankly, I I hadn't stepped in the Susan B. Anthony before that day. So, I had been in the Whan many times, but never the Susan B. Anthony. And I felt
extremely welcomed by uh by the crew that you guys had there. So, just thank you. And I I see this picture of you guys, and next year I want to see it doubled. So, great job. [applause] Just to wrap it up, uh, Miss Montterroso
and the entire team, you know, to the educators for for putting this program together and continuing continuing it. Uh, we know how important it is to uh, see our educators represent our students and and reflect what we see in our students. So, it's super important to us. But, I will say, you know, when you
have an ashore up there, it's always a a pleasure. You you do such a wonderful job. And your brother's a great mentor for you. not not to single you out. The entire panel has been fantastic. This whole superintendent report, seeing our students and our educators work together
collaboratively, they represent our district really, really well, and I couldn't be prouder. So, thank you very much. [applause] >> And that concludes the superintendent report. >> Anybody? >> All right. And if we're gonna if we're going to go back to regular scheduled
business, we are on public speak. >> Yeah. So, I think we're gonna do public speak and then we're going to give context about two different hearings we have. Robin's not here, so I'm going to ask Matt if you can pass me the sheets that we have so I can call names. Of
course, people can continue to sign up. So the first is if there's anyone signed up who wishes to speak on general items not related to the two hearings on school choice and budget.
>> No. Anyone on Zoom? Dr. Kelly. >> Okay. So with that, we're going to move into the hearings where we will have opportunity for people to speak on school choice and budget. So I would like to make a motion to close the general public speak. >> All in favor?
>> I I >> So now we're going to move on to the we're going to move into the first hearing about school choice. Uh so Dr. Kelly, well actually do do we all want to invite people to speak and then give context on each hearing or
Typically we have public speak that come up and speak and then we close public speak and then we go on that business. Okay. >> Nobody general public speak. >> Yeah. >> So is there is there anyone who signed up to speak on school choice? >> No. >> No. Okay.
>> Okay. Would you would you like to go over the school choice program? >> Yeah. Let's we can finish that hearing. >> Okay. Um so just a summary for the committee on um the school choice program. We are required by the state of Massachusetts.
Um the school committee is required to take a vote annually to determine whether or not uh you would like to admit students from other districts into the Rivia public schools. Um if you choose to do that um there is uh tuition
uh reimbursement that we get from the state instead of going to the students home district would come here. Um at this time although we have seen a significant decrease in our enrollment over the last uh school year the course of the last year um I would advise the
committee um to stay with our long-standing policy of not admitting students from other districts. It is my distinct hope that um as things level out and even off, we're actually going to start to see our enrollment increase
again. Um I see the teachers in the room. I see the union in the room. I'm hopeful the union will be supportive about the big great benefits. We saw so many wonderful things uh from our students tonight. And if we can get that message out to parents and the community and they can understand the wonderful things that are happening in our
schools, then that should help us uh bring some of the community members back into the Reveal public schools which will which would uh help with our enrollment and help with our funding. But hopefully we see that over the next couple of years. So my recommendation to the committee would be that you vote
against um school choice. And um I know that um committee woman Bronson Rizzo is going to read the exact motion, but just a reminder to the committee that it's framed in kind of a backwards way with a
double negative. So um the grammarians in the room, the English teachers would would uh scold me for tripping over that, but yes, double negative. Um and so a vote of no means that you do not want to admit outside students into REIA public schools. So Mrs.
result. >> So, this is a motion that we, the Reier School Committee, vote not to adopt the state option for school choice, which would allow non-residents to attend the Revier public schools. To clarify to the
committee, a yes vote would in indicate the school committee has voted not to participate in school choice. Do I have a second? >> Second. Roll call. Miss Bayella.
>> Yes. >> Mrs. Bronson Rizo. >> Yes. >> Mr. Kajiano. >> No. >> Mr. Damiano? >> Yes. >> Mr. Feliciano? >> No. >> Mr. Kingston? >> Yes.
>> Mrs. Melbury Ellis? >> Yes. >> Miss Montto? >> Yes. >> Mayor Keefe? >> Yes. So with that we will move on to the second hearing which is about the 2026 27 uh budget and this is going to feed
organically then into the report of ways and means by chairman Mr. Kingston. So we'll start with public comment first and then we will move on to the ways and means discussion. >> Okay >> second. >> So we have three people who have asked
to speak. If anyone else wants to speak as well you can always line up after. So I'll call people and then according to our policies uh people have three minutes unless we have more than five people speaking on one topic. I will find my phone. Okay. When you uh come we ask that you please just share your
street address and your affiliation to the schools. So first we have Jane Chapen. Chapen. >> Okay. Thank you. My name is Jane Chapen. I uh live at 15 Guild Street, Boston Mass, and I am the president of the River Teachers Association.
Uh good evening, school committee members. >> [clears throat] >> I'm speaking tonight on behalf of the educators across the district who feel that our voices um the voices of the people working directly with students every day have been largely absent from this budget discussion and the
decision-making process. As the committee discusses what cuts should be made heading into next school year, we first need to acknowledge a difficult reality. Our schools cannot handle any more cuts. If we truly want to serve the students the way they
deserve to be served, triaging, prioritizing [clears throat and cough] or softening cuts ignores the larger truth that Rever public schools needs more investment, not less. Our class sizes are too large. Our case loads are too high for special
education guidance counselors um and support staff. Our students already have too much um sorry our schools already have too much deferred maintenance and the budget situation. This should be a wakeup call for the city council, the school committee and
the mayor. We need to do better for our students by fully funding our schools. We should be discussing how to increase investment in public education, not how to discuss it. But since we are here, we must prioritize protecting positions
that directly serve students, especially our most vulnerable students. The current version of the budget makes far too many cuts to critical services and particularly special education. At a time when the district is already struggling to meet student needs and maintain compliance, reducing special
education supports will only deepen our already serious crisis. The current budget does not do enough to prioritize student facing services. Without action, students could lose access to really important programs as we just saw like adaptive physical
education because those teaching positions are being cut. At the same time, this budget continues to fund non- studentent-f facing administrative positions that do not directly support instruction. And I want that contrast to really sink in. We are discussing cutting gene
game-changing supports for students with disabilities while maintaining positions like public relations specialist that reflects a set of priorities. And tonight, educators are here, family, community. We are asking the committee
to choose students. Thank you. [applause] Karen St. So, please correct me if I mispronounce your name. >> Good evening everyone. My name is Karen Suttle. I am a social worker at Balan. I
live at 58 Alustin Street in Medford. And I'm going to be reading a statement that was written by one of our special education teacher who wants to advocate for maintaining all current special education teaching positions. And I think this is particularly important.
And I heard a lot today about how our core value is equity. And so special education staffing directly impacts our students across access to instruction, their ability to make meaningful progress, and our ability to meet legally mandated IEP services. These are
not optional supports. These are required services that ena ensure equity and access to some of our most vulnerable learners. The role of a special education teacher goes far beyond delivering service minutes. It includes modifying curriculum and
assessments, collaborating with general education teachers, monitoring progress, and ensuring students can asex grade level instruction. If staffing is reduced, special education teachers will be responsible for multiple grade level,
which limits collaboration time and reduces the consistency of instruction that is essential for inclusion and student success. We also need to consider group size and intensity of instruction. With reduced staffing, students with disabilities could be
placed in groups of 10 or more, significantly decreasing individual support. This would also create real challenges in meeting IEP services minutes across grade level. We have already seen in this year during a maternity leave absent that staffing
constraints require us to adjust the schedule of four staff members just to maintain services for one special ed teacher. It is also important to consider that case loads are not static and typically increase throughout the year due to evaluations and referrals.
Maintaining current staffing levels is essential to ensuring that we meet IEP requirements, support effective collaboration, and uphold our responsibility to provide equitable and appropriate services for students with disabilities. Thank you.
>> Thank you, Karen. [applause] Next, we have Casey Cones. >> Good evening. It's really hot in here. Um, my school address is 68 Tuckerman
Street. My home address is 74 Atlantic Street in Winthrop. Um, tonight I am speaking about the future of our adapted PE class. We've been speaking so much about equity and inclusion tonight and it makes me really proud to be an educator in this
district. Um, I'm an integrated preschool teacher so I teach the littles. Um, I've been here for five years doing that. adapted physical education and the critical role it plays in supporting some of our district's most vulnerable students. Excuse me, I'm so nervous. Um,
should not be overlooked. This program serves more than 230 students across multiple schools and specialized programs throughout the district. For many of these children, adapted PE is not just gym class. It is the only specialized program outside of their
classroom setting that they are able to consistently and successfully participate in. For our early childhood full day substantially separate students, this is their only special. Through structured routines, games, and
individualized support, students develop communication, emotional regulation, social interaction, turn taking, following directions, and motor skills. These are foundational life skills that help students access learning, build relationships, and function successfully
throughout their school day. Adapted PE also provides something many of our students rely on deeply, consistency. As students transition between schools and programs, they continue working with familiar staff who understand their needs, routines, and communication
styles. That continuity creates safety, trust, and success for students who thrive on structure. As a district, as I mentioned, we speak a lot about equity and inclusion. Equity means ensuring our highest need students have access to meaningful
opportunities and appropriate support. Removing this program would disproportionately impact students who already face the greatest barriers within our schools. Adapted PE is not a luxury. It is a necessity. Our most vulnerable students
deserve support systems that help them grow regulate participate and succeed. Thank you for your time and consideration. [applause] Thank you. That last call anyone on Zoom, Dr. Kelly?
>> Okay. Okay. So, with that, we're going to u move on from the public comment portion of the hearing and then I'll pass it to Chair of Ways and Means who truly you have led us all through this process, Mr. Kingston. So, thank you very much. >> Good evening.
Um just for the edification of the new members and for the public, um the budget process is a long one. It's done throughout the year. We're very fortunate to have Mr. Matt Cruz as our business administrator. He gives us updates during the year on the [clears throat] budget and where if the
budget is on target, if the budget has u excess or is in the negative. Um and he provides us with those reports at our uh school committee meetings uh regularly. So we've been talking about the budget um this particular budget for next year
uh probably since January. We've had a number of meetings. Sometimes we're delayed by the state. We rei we rely heavily on state aid. If you if you want to make changes and help us and help yourselves, I would strongly encourage
you to talk to your state legislators. Until chapter 70, which is where we get all most of our funding from, gets until that formula gets corrected, we're going to continue to have um issues um at the local level. We're not the only community that's having issues this
year. I pick up the Boston Globe and read it faithfully every day and there I think there's more communities that have a problem than don't. So unfortunately we're not alone in this process. Um the committee the subcommittee which is made up of myself, Stacy Bronson Rizzo and um
recently Miss um Miss Montterroso um have met and discussed the budget. Dr. Kelly has used her principles and her directors and her team to um present the committee with the budget which we have discussed. we relied on her um her and
her team's ability to identify what the needs were in the district and um we came up with the on May 4th we met for the last time as far as for this budget um and we we gave a recommend we are giving our recommendation to the full
committee to support version 3.0 O. Um, and that's pretty much that's pretty much what it is. Um, I don't think anyone's happy about having to cut positions. I I know no one is, but unfortunately um with rising costs, our
health insurance went up 9%. Um, that's very difficult number to deal with. Um, so that makes it difficult. Costs, as you know, if you go grocery shopping every day, inflation is really high. So, anything that we have to buy um for the schools is increased as well.
And our chapter 70 money just wasn't at that level that we needed it to be on a percentage basis in order to continue providing all the services. The two the 3.0 budget um is taking 2.6 million out of the um district reserves to help this
year and to help cushion the blow of having cuts. Um, we will have some left over, but we don't, no one has a crystal ball, and I certainly don't. So, we don't know what's going to come up in the future. We will be opening a new high school in two years, which is going to cost us some more money. There'll be more staff. There'll be more custodial,
more electrical, more power, a lot a lot of bills coming up with the new high school. It's 20% larger than this building. So, that's something that the school committee has to prepare for. The other item, um, we will have an early childhood center opening next year, and that'll also increase some costs for the
district. They're all positive things and I look forward to both of them. But in the meantime, we really have to look at what we're spending and how much we're using of the of the district reserves. Um, and that's pretty much all I have to say on the matter. Thank you.
>> Uh, thank you, Mr. Chairman. >> Multilosa, >> I don't know if um, Chairman Kingston or maybe Dr. Kelly or Matt you kind of we have new members who are voting for the budget for the very first time. So if we can just get a walk through of what that will look like and [clears throat] I think also one point of information I'll
make I know we have one member this is um the first meeting so we can options to vote are yes no abstension or present. So if anyone feels like they've just come on and they haven't been part of the conversation they want to abstain that's an option. Also for the community's edification we do have some
members who have conflicts of interest because they have family. So, if you um see that someone's abstaining, it might be because um they're aware of their conflict of interest, but it'd be great if we could just get an overview of what's about to happen and then enter into discussion. >> Um I thought Mr. Cruz was going to give
that explanation, so I did not. Thank you. [clears throat] >> All right. Sure. Happy to jump in. Uh so, remember when you're thinking budget, we're trying to get our money behind the mission of the school district. every
child that's a part of this district educated well is the mission. Getting our money behind that is what we're going for in the 170 pages of budget that we're approving tonight. Uh our money comes from a variety of sources
primarily from the state commonwealth of Massachusetts Department of Education funding us and from the municipality the city of Rivier funding us. So what our committee is doing tonight is saying, "Hey, we have been assigned a certain dollar amount to do
our job and here's where we feel it is best to put those dollars for the good of the mission that we are on together." The first part of those funds are uh maintained by the city so that they can pay some bills on our behalf. They're
called qualifying costs. So things like pension costs, health insurance costs, payments to other schools like charter or choice schools. So there's a certain amount of money that the city holds on to to pay those bills for us directly.
Once that is subtracted from our total, we get to our appropriation. That's what you'll be voting on tonight. What you have direct control over, here's how you want to mobilize it or appropriate it. You'll do that by voting
on series or cost centers. Each of them targeting targeting a specific part of doing our job together. So there's six or seven series that you'll vote on. And each of those series has some non salary spending on services, supplies,
materials, other costs, and some salary spending. And so you're going to vote each series by those two different breakouts. and then at the end you'll vote a total appropriation to say here's what we're committing to spend well in
FY27 for the work that we're doing together. The uh one thing that you'll do as a committee member is if you have immediate family who are impacted by their compensation attached to a series.
For example, if you are married to a teacher or a custodian, you're not going to vote. you're going to abstain from the vote on that specific series. It only applies to the series where their compensation comes from, not to
the 5,000 series where there are some benefits and insuranceances because their health, dental, and life insuranceances are paid directly by the city. So, you're not voting on that tonight. So, you can abstain if you have an immediate family member in a series. the uh chair of the ways and means
committee will read every dollar through each of these series and we'll take a roll call for each series and you're committing to that amount. [snorts] Uh my job as the CFO once we get the year started is to make sure that we are spending within the will of the
committee. So that's why we're doing it by series and I track those series cost centers on a quarterly basis to make sure that we're within what you are approving tonight. So you are um giving vision and also control in the vote that
that you're taking tonight. That sums up the big picture of we're going for and then the ways and means chair can lead us through that vote. It takes a few minutes because we have to do each series and then the total. >> It's on page eight for any committee member who wants to follow what we're
actually voting on what each series is. I know everyone's been able to review it but to follow along. Thank you, Madam Vice Chair. Um, Mr. Kingston, you go you're going to go through so that in the the will of the committee is to vote in favor of version
3.0. Correct. >> Okay, Mr. Kingston series 1000 administration salary 2,479,826 non salary $1,9,12
for a total of $3,488 and excuse me 3,488,928. So moved. Second motion second. We have a second call roll. >> Miss B uh Basella
>> present. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Bronson. >> The microphones. If everybody's sitting at the same time, none of them go on. So, please wait till your name is called. >> Mrs. Bronson Rizo. >> Yes.
>> Mr. Kajiano. >> Yes. >> Mr. Damiano. >> Yes. >> Mr. Feliciano. Yes, >> Mr. Kingston. >> Yes, >> Mrs. Milbar Reales. >> Yes, >> Miss Montto Rossu. >> Yes,
>> Mayor Keefe. >> Yes, >> Series 2000. Series 2000 instructional services 82,489,745 salary non-s salary 3,699,359 for a total of $86,89,104. So moved.
>> Do we have a second? >> Second. >> Miss Basella >> present. >> Mrs. Bron Rizo >> not voting. >> Mr. Kajiano, >> yes. >> Mr. Damiano, >> yes. >> Mr. Feliciano, >> yes. >> Mr. Kingston,
>> not voting. >> Mrs. Mel, >> Mrs. uh Mel Ellis, >> yes. >> Miss Montto Rosso, >> yes. >> Mayor Keith, >> yes. Series 3000 other student services salary 5,189,936
non-s salary 7,660,427 total $12,850,363. So moved. >> We have a second. >> Okay. >> Miss Basella. >> No. >> Mrs. Mr. Bronson Rizo. >> Yes. >> Mr. Kajiano.
>> Yes. >> Mr. Damiano. >> Yes. >> Mr. Feliciano. >> Yes. >> Mr. Kingston. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Melbury Ellis. >> Yes.
>> Miss Montto Roso. >> Yes. >> Mayor Keith. >> Yes. Uh series series 4,000 operation of plant and maintenance 2,588,836
salary non salary 7,936,676 for a total of 10,525,512. So moved. >> Second. Roll call, please. >> Miss Basala, >> yes. >> Mrs. Bronson Rizo, >> yes. >> Mr. Kiano,
>> yes. >> Mr. Damiano, >> yes. >> Mr. Feliciano, >> yes. >> Mr. Kingston, >> yes. >> Mrs. Melbour, >> yes. >> Miss Montto Roso, >> yes. >> Mayor Keefe,
>> yes. Series 5,000 benefits and insurance 1,678,931 salary non-s salary $550,000 total $2,228,931. So moved >> second roll call.
>> Miss Basala. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Bronson Rizo. >> Yes. >> Mr. Kajiano. >> Yes. >> Mr. Damiano. >> Yes. Mr. Feliciano, >> yes. >> Mr. Kingston, >> yes.
>> Mrs. Melbour, >> yes. >> Miss Montto Rosso, >> yes. >> Mayor Keefe, >> yes. >> Series 7,000 capital investment non salary $103,000. So moved. >> Second.
>> Roll call. >> Miss Basala? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Bronizo? >> Yes. >> Mr. Kajiano? >> Yes. >> Mr. Damiano? Yes, >> Mr. Feliciano. >> Yes, >> Mr. Kingston. >> Yes, >> Mrs. Malbury. >> Yes,
>> Miss Montto Rosso. >> Yes, >> Mayor Keith. >> Yes. >> Series 9,000 tuitions 17,558,739 for a total of $17,558,739. So moved. >> Second.
>> Miss Basala. >> Yes. Miss Bronson Rizzo. >> Yes. >> Mr. Kajiano. >> Yes. >> Mr. Damiano. >> Yes. >> Mr. Feliciano. >> Yes. >> Mr. Kingston. >> Yes.
>> Mrs. Malburyes. >> Yes. >> Miss Montto Rosso. >> Yes. >> Mayor Keefe. >> Yes. >> Total appropriation salary 94,427,274. non-s salary 38,517,33 for a total of $132,944,577.
So moved. >> Second. >> Miss Basala, >> abstain. >> Miss Bronson Rizo, >> yes. >> Mr. Kajiano, >> yes. >> Mr. Damiano, >> yes. >> Mr. Feliciano, >> yes. >> Mr. Kingston,
>> yes. Miss Melbour, >> yes. >> Miss Montto Rosso, >> yes. >> Mayor Keefe, >> yes. >> Thank you. That's um >> that is the final version of the budget.
Just uh for for um just to let everyone know the total budget uh for the school is set at $164,257,800 for the uh calendar year or the school year of 2027.
Okay. Thank you, >> Miss Montrosa. >> I just want had some thoughts to close out the discussion of the budget. I think looking at other districts and seeing how we are one of the very few that does not have a deficit and that we've closed our deficit and I think as a school committee it's a it's it's a
very hard decision to make these decisions to ensure a sustainable future for the district and so knowing that we made these decisions keeping in mind student safety classroom support enrichment activities from sports to arts and you know actually the MTA leadership did did my homework for me
and it's really interesting to see how for example In Boston, we know they have close to 600 positions being cut, hundreds of layoffs amidst a 22.8 million deficit. Brockton and Framingham are close to 100. And we have other districts cutting specialists, librarians, art programs, closing
schools. Yet here are when you break it down, the layoffs are less than 25. And I know our district always works hard to repurpose people. For example, if a parah um isn't needed in one grade, we try to find them a job in another school or another grade, preserving and
thinking of the human first and what comes with that. And I think knowing that we're leading values aligned decisions like these is what makes me really proud when we we make such difficult decisions as a school committee. >> Thank you, Miss Montroso. Mr. Kaj,
>> first of all, I'd like to thank the Ways and Means. They they [clears throat] did have to make a lot of decisions. Uh M um Jacqueline uh Stacy Bronson Riso and Chairman Kingston. Uh one of the things they didn't really mention is we had a
decline of 32323 students and that was over probably over $6 million worth of uh revenue that could have been for the uh for the school. But thank you for making those hard decisions. Uh, I know it took a lot of time and work. Thank
you. >> Thank you. Anyone else? >> I promise it's the last one. >> No, go ahead. Sorry. >> It's a big topic. >> Uh, just this is really important. I think one thing I want to thank is the educators who really made their voices heard since January. Like we've gotten
so many emails and one of the main things we heard from educators was protect our health. So when people advocate and they engage in the process the way they have like we see those changes and I know a lot of people are waiting to hear it's it's almost 200 pages but one of the things people wanted to know is where are our paras
where are our health aids and our health aids stay our paras I think yes mostly stay or being reshifted so just folks were waiting to hear what happened to health dates and I wanted to let folks know >> and if I could just add to that because I know everybody's very anxious to hear
exactly what positions uh we're moving on from um for the time being anyway. And I'll just say if you read my uh preamble, I'll call it um to the budget. I talk about how important it is that when budget is better or as enrollment
increases that we recover these positions uh as much as we can because none none of none of the positions are unimportant. Nobody should leave here with that impression. But uh we do have to think about what is fiscally responsible and especially the school committee in this kind of a budget time
has to think about what is fiscally responsible. Um and I'm I'm proud of the fact that we've been able to with very few exceptions um uh move a number of positions but still keep s class size at the lower elementary right around 20 with some
21s. one class that's up at 25. That's higher than we hoped, but um you know, we'll continue to monitor that through the summer. Um we're around 24 for the upper elementary. Our middle schools are back at around 2021. Um the high school
is uh higher up around the mid 20s to 26s and 27s in some places. Uh we will continue to refine that as we as we go on. So, um, if it turns out that we need to add another history teacher at the
high school in order to make class sizes reasonable, those are the things that that we're going to have to do. And it might be that we discover uh, as you, you know, peel down the layers of uh, everything. you we might discover that there were some classes that there were only six kids who wanted to take and
that might be a difficult conversation with six kids but then reduce a larger class size for a different elective or a different core class th that's the kind of work that we're going to be doing throughout the summer. Um but principles and my office uh will be starting the
process of getting in touch um with with folks um if jobs are being eliminated. In some cases, it's already happened. Um, and we'll continue that iteration of if one person leaves, who can go into that spot and then what does that open and how does that change the calculus if
at all? We will continue all of that. >> Thank you, Dr. Kelly. Anyone else? Okay, that was the wrap-up for the 27 budget. >> Thanks. Thanks, ma'am. We already went out of order for the superintendent
report and I assume that was your ways and means subcommittee report. Yes, >> Mr. Kingston, correct? >> Okay. And uh earlier in the committee of the whole we went over some conversations regarding unfinished business and the update on the school food service program. There was a
recommendation to discuss that further in >> in subcommittee in health health subcommittee. And uh the also the membership for MASC was a discussion for new business.
Do we have any other any other topics tonight? >> Motion to adjurnn. >> Have a second. All in favor?