Reports- RULE 53

Transcript (~4 min @ 9:27)

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▶ 9:26 Monica C. Medeiros: please thank you I have a hopefully brief school committee report as the liaison to the school committee we've recently had an update the big item on the agenda of course is the BB school and the future of that building for programming etc so just some updates is that we have the superintendent recently reported that we had as of the end of last month in the system just under 4 000 students and last year for instance our 80 percent of the kindergarten class got the first choice for their placement for kindergarten the bb school the update of course they're looking for an option that's going to be sustainable for the next seven to ten years no matter what the model that's chosen there's going to be some increased costs and including for instance the building needs to be brought up to date in including needs to be wired for Wi-Fi and all those kinds of things there's going to be DPW operating costs which are going to be estimated about two hundred thousand dollars per year that's using the horse man as a reference point which is similar in size there's going to be need for additional staff of crossing guard nurse principal secretary special education coordinator so right now the school committee has been presented two options which have been presented to the public one is the K through five option which is estimated would cost an additional 1.7 million dollars in addition to the cost of referenced above there would need to be upgrades and staff in order to be equivalent with the other elementary schools that we have that are k-5 and we have a challenge of repopulating the building and bringing in all grades and moving students from other potentially moving students from other buildings to repopulate that building she the superintendent did ask for volunteers in a brief survey with people would be willing to do this and got a response from only eight families which is about ten students that were willing to move now there's another option which would make the building just pre-k and kindergarten and that's it would be an additional four hundred and forty two thousand dollars and there's some challenges with that too they would need to in that case they would keep kindergarten and pre-k pre-k at the Franklin and you'd have to come up with the placement system for those two buildings and then another placement system because then you would again have another transition into first grade in the different building so there's some concerns about transitions and this may be being too many transitions this concerns about traffic in the area with with a lot of potential drop-offs for kids that age coming from all across the city but there's going to be some additional opportunities to share comments with the school committee and that would be coming to their meeting on December 10th or sending them an email and they are expected to take a final vote on September I'm sorry September December December 10th at their next meeting it's possible that could be delayed but that is the plan so the public can stay aware of that of course and there's you can watch meetings and forums on mmtv and see details on our city website thanks thank you council madaris anybody

▶ 13:02 Scott M. Forbes: else under rule 53 i would like to make an announcement that the melrose veterans advisory board will now have a city council representative to attend monthly meetings and provide council members with updates that include local veteran events and initiatives that take place during the calendar year ward 5 city council sean mcmaster who's been a regular participant advisory board meetings for quite some time now has been chosen to be this council's representative both the advisory board in the city council appreciate your active participation at our meetings and and also during various veteran events around the city of melrose so thank you