YRBS Presentation (30 minutes)

Transcript (~55 min @ 36:08)

Speakers identified by voice; unnamed voices are numbered within this recording. Auto-caption text — verify against the video.

▶ 36:00 Speaker 6: it next up on the agenda is the youth behavior risk youth risk behavior survey

▶ 36:11 Speaker 4: madam superintendent would you like to invite mr. Kinney up computer just for background information two years ago the Middlesex League superintendents joined forces and applied for a grant from Lahey Clinic, which they have given us two years in a row now, so that we could take the youth risk survey, computerize it, and hire a top-notch data analysis company. Previously we all hired our own data analysis companies, and as some of you may know from past experience the results were often less than reliable so jsi john snow incorporated is a very well respected health data analysis corporation i think across the country if i'm correct

▶ 37:09 Speaker 4: right so we really are excited by the work they've been able to do for us for two years and at a recent meeting of the middlesex league superintendent our goal is to continue to work with jsi in 2021 when we continue when we do the next yrbs so with that i will give you mr mckinney

▶ 37:36 Speaker 1: uh thank you so much for doing say more uh mayor from on the committee i'm privileged to be here

▶ 37:39 Speaker 6: tonight uh and i want to give you a summary of some of our findings it's not so much a summary

▶ 37:44 Speaker 4: I'm sorry if you don't have one of those mics they can't record you for the TV perhaps using

▶ 37:54 Speaker 6: the microphone at the very end of this table here next to okay thank you all is this is this okay

▶ 38:04 Speaker 6: great and and sorry just cue mr. Merrill and he will move the slides forward for you thank you so much as superintendent a more said my name is Alec McKinney I'm with JSI John Snow Inc we're a public health research and consulting firm we've been engaged with the Middlesex League set school districts that some Middlesex County per se but it's the 12 districts that are part of the Middlesex League and I will I want to applaud Melrose for being part of that league you know the CDC the Centers for Disease Control Prevention requires that all states do the youth risk behavior survey and they do a statewide sample but that often does not give you the comparative data nor the comprehensive information that you need to actually act so the the the Middlesex League has taken upon themselves to invest in a collective strategy whether you can compare a regional average rather than using a state average we can have a Middlesex league average and therefore have a bit better comparative data to see where you rank against both your peers as well as the state overall so we use the CDC survey you can go to the next side thank you we use the CDC survey which is a standard survey nationally but we have tailored it to some extent to to add to give the opportunity for every district to add in a handful of questions that are unique to your district or something that you're interested in. The six areas that we're looking at are unintentional injury and violence, mental health, substance use, sexual behavior and HIV, and nutritional and physical activity. You know, to the extent that, before I get going, to the extent that any of this information may be startling or concerning to you, I just want you to know that Melrose is not necessarily unique in a lot of this data. is information that is captured across all the district and it's something that all districts are grappling with and so you know there are some statistics here that that you might be you know that that might be concerning to you but you know again these are issues that that are really really across across the state and across the country so here the shape here on the screen is the map the Middlesex League as you probably know your geography but I do Melrose is to the east sort of centrally but to the far east with where that circle is. JSI developed the survey of course using the CDC as a template. We then administered the survey with each of the districts and then have done standard analysis and reporting through individual district reports which you should have as well as a regional report that gives a sense of where Melrose fits into the region. There were roughly 900 high school students surveyed and roughly 500 middle school students. We looked very carefully at the distribution by grade, by gender, as well as by race, ethnicity and to the extent possible that allows you to give a sense of how the data compares across the different cohorts. I'm going to go through some of the key findings in each of the six areas, but again, this is just a smattering of the information is there and just give you a flavor of what we found so within the area of risk factors and unintentional injury a lot of the questions are related to driving helmet use while riding a bike as well as skateboarding or using a scooter and compared to the Middlesex League Melrose students had a similar rates for taking off you know talking the phone while driving drinking while driving so in some cases there were there were not a whole lot of differences between it the data in this particular area 11.8 percent of of students and high school students report driving while using marijuana compared to thirteen point six so it's you know comparable slightly less for Milrose when you look at helmet use thirty nine point three percent of those students said reported wearing a helmet when riding a bike compared to 28.7 so actually that's a sort of a positive view we also looked at bullying and sexual violence Melrose students were more likely to report being bullied on school property 14.6 percent versus 13.0 again just slightly more relatively comparable but slightly more than the Middlesex average 13.8 reported being electronically bullied and then the middle school students were less likely to be to physically fight on on school property than the Middlesex League so again these are comparable to the Middlesex League and in some cases slightly higher somewhat lower we also looked at bullying and sexual violence among school students Melrose falls in the third quintile if you look at the shade of the darker the shade the higher the rate Melrose falls into the third quintile with respect to the percentage reporting sexual violence in the past 12 months four point six percent and similar rates for sexual dating violence again four point six percent versus four point eight percent in the league where possible if you just go back quickly we have in the report you'll see that we the Commonwealth findings as well in addition to the regional findings mental

▶ 43:39 Speaker 6: health and suicide one of the most I think one of the more important findings in the survey we look at a series of questions looking at sad and blue and how stressed students are and then look at to the extent that students have thought about suicide have actually a plan for suicide and attempted suicide and so there's a whole series of questions they get at that students fall in the second highest quintile across districts of students reporting they have a plan to commit suicide and sort of prior to that in the continue among the school districts Melrose high schools were among those most likely to report feeling sad and hopelessness and stressed as I said there's sort of a continue with the questions here so twenty eight point nine percent felt sad or hopeless twelve point five seriously considered attempting suicide a nine point nine met had a plan three point two attempted and thirteen point two wanted to do something sort of personally hurt themselves so this is sort of a an indication of a sort of a continuum of issues around mental health and and then of course suicide on the middle school Melrose middle school students for slightly less likely report suicidal ideation and the on the continuums they identified school demands and expectations as some of the

▶ 45:19 Speaker 6: leading issues around stress substance use alcohol is the most reported substance abuse followed by electronic vaping products marijuana cigarettes and prescription drugs this graph shows the middle six percentages of anyone who has ever tried any of these substances on the right and then on the left is the Melrose numbers and the distribution is the same across the board vaping has become an absolute rage across the district and has certainly quickly risen to the number two position but alcohol is and continues to be the leading substance of use as far as yeah next slide thank you you know specifically in the data high school students one in two reported lifetime use of alcohol one in four reported current use one in five reported binge drinking so the data allows us to look at sort of a continuum of use and middle school students reported you know pretty comparable or less likely to drink alcohol and use some of these other substances in general Melrose students were more likely to report recent use of substance use substances alcohol electronic vaping marijuana and cigarettes compared to the to the Middlesex League so slightly but not dramatically more 31 versus 28 when it comes to alcohol 26.9 versus 24.3 when it comes to e-cigarettes, so sort of comparable data. Tobacco use and marijuana use, there are numerous questions on the survey in this regard, 4.2% reported current smokers, 42.9% ever using vaping products, 35% reported they ever used marijuana. are some of the statistics and in general male roses statistics are higher slightly higher than the Middlesex League we also look at sexual and

▶ 47:26 Speaker 6: reproductive health behaviors and you know compared to the Middlesex League there's in some cases they were higher in some cases lower any sexual encounter slightly more likely to report high school students were more slightly more LIKELY TO REPORT THAT DRINKING AND USING DRUGS BEFORE THEIR LAST SEXUAL INTERCOURSE AGAINST SLIGHTLY HIGHER AND THEN CURRENT SEXUAL ACTIVITY SLIGHTLY HIGHER IN MALE ROWS AND NOT USING ANY METHOD OF CONTRACEPTION AGAINST SLIGHTLY HIGHER THAN THE MIDDLE SEX AVERAGE. SO DEFINITELY ISSUES TO THINK ABOUT AND TO WORK ON.

▶ 48:11 Speaker 6: forgive the double negative here but less likely not to use a condom so that's a good thing so compared to the Middlesex League so that was a positive finding and then Melrose students were more likely to report risky sexual behaviors compared to other students in the league although the numbers are very small slightly less likely that's like more likely finally nutrition and physical activity compared to students in league Melrose high school students had comparable rates of not eating breakfast and all seven of days of the week not eating fruits and vegetables not in veg fruits not eating vegetables So, but there is a significant finding that we're not as likely to be physically active. So 14.9% reported that they were not physically active compared to 12.1% in the Middlesex League. So, next slide, thanks. So again, this is very quick. It's a ton of data in the survey. We looked across age and grades. There's at least the possibility to look at comparisons across race, ethnicity, all the numbers. There's not a whole lot of power in those statistics because the numbers are relatively small in Melrose, but there is that ability. Unintentional injuries is an area that can be looked at. Exposure to bullying, substance use for sure. Next slide. Mental health is something that we found across the Middlesex lead schools as something that really needs to be looked at. And in some cases, Melrose were higher than Middlesex rate. So in our regional and district reports, there's a full summary of the findings. But these are just some of the things that we found. So I'm happy to take questions on our approach. And I believe Mr. Fogarty is going

▶ 50:30 Speaker 6: to help with sort of facilitating questions. Thank you very much. So if I may, questions about the statistics or numbers in this report? Mr. McKinney will answer. About our approach or? Questions about Melrose plans, specific plans? Superintendent, that was?

▶ 50:53 Speaker 4: Ms. Whiteland-Bright, Mr. Merrill, and Mr. Fogarty can answer, because obviously Mr. McKinney would not be familiar with our curriculum or our plans. A couple of things that I want to say about using JSI and this, again, we are pleased, we feel the analysis is a much more reliable analysis than we've seen in the past. My next steps would be to be able to do more longitudinal comparisons, but that's a negotiation between the Middlesex League superintendents and JSI. Again, YRBS is an every other year survey. For many years on off years, Melrose did the PRIDE. Kathy Gravera, the substance abuse counselor for the city and I just came to an agreement that with the grant that she has available, we will buy the pride again. And we will give it in the late winter, spring of 2020. The reason why we like to use these two surveys alternatively, YRBS questions the students, the pride questions the parents. And one of the concerns that we have is the disconnect between what our kids know and what our parents think they know. and I think that when we plan going forward in conjunction with our city partners having that information about parents knowledge or lack of lack of knowledge is a very important factor in whatever plans we make I don't know Alex if you want to talk about how our rate of participation was compared to other communities or if there's anything else significant that when people look at the Middlesex report they should have in their mind as far as the participation

▶ 52:49 Speaker 6: rates there was I mean the Melrose participation rates in particular were high and certainly adequate for some really strong results a thousand almost a thousand high school students is a you know very a good number across the all of the districts we had more than 10,000 students which is a you know again provides really robust analysis you know the key areas that we found here in Melrose but certainly across the district were around the tremendous stress that students feel and the impacts that that has on on them with respect to you know feeling sad and blue or stressed and you know negative thoughts of suicide those were some of the key findings certainly the substance use of the vaping in particular the increase in vaping over the past few years has certainly reflected in our data and then I mean those are really the two leading issues that we found across the board there's certainly other

▶ 54:14 Speaker 6: important findings but those are the two leading ones pretty much I mean I there were certainly some there were higher than others but the the range was you know within sort of five percentage points across many of the figures any comments or questions from the committee mr. O'Connell thank you very much

▶ 54:37 Speaker 1: Madam Chair and I'll start with a math question I think the superintendent used a phrase longitudinal comparison and when I look at the Melrose specific report I'm particularly interested in seeing where we were in 2017 and where we are in 2019 am I wrong from a statistic standpoint to be interested in that is that not enough time to really begin to draw conclusions is is there more data that's out there or is it just a matter of me and my colleagues getting the past reports and and presenting the data ourselves I guess I have two points

▶ 55:25 Speaker 6: on that you know certainly you know data is informative regardless but it's you You know, and so a longitudinal analysis looking at last year would certainly help, but I think some of these things don't change quickly, and I think typically three to five years with three data points is sort of what we look at from a statistical perspective. So having two data points is not going to be quite as informative. Now if you see a large change, well then, and you can track that change back to interventions that you think could have had an impact, well, then you can make some correlations between that. So I think it's certainly valuable, but I think we'd like to, you know, typically we'd like to see more than just a two-point trend. The other thing I would just say is that a lot of this information is high in its own right. You know, let me just use an example. You know, heart disease, stroke, and cancer, the three leading causes of death amongst adults, and they always are and always have been, and in some cases they go up and sometimes it goes down, but they are still the leading killers, you know what I mean? So you know, I think the data can be used regardless of the longitudinal analysis to identify really what you should be focusing on. Great.

▶ 56:45 Speaker 1: I'm glad I asked that question. May I ask a follow-up, Madam Chair? Yes. of the increases we saw or we see in this report is the dramatic increase in vaping and I noted that that was particularly in the middle school and I'm wondering if that's what you've seen across Middlesex and or otherwise in your experience and preparing these types of reports the rates are always

▶ 57:10 Speaker 6: higher in high school but the the rate of acquisition of youth a young young at younger age is is is quite new and it exceeds that which we see with respect to tobacco and cigarettes so a lot of the vaping products are being used much earlier than then let's say tobacco and so you know they're certainly lower but the the rate by which vaping products have been entered you know that been being used by by middle school students is pretty much you know without precedent at least to tobacco use thank you for that and just one final comment

▶ 58:05 Speaker 1: madam chair I think this is all enormously helpful it is every time we do this in particularly your presentation tonight thank you for being here i think what would also be helpful madam chair is if we could have follow-ups and i know we're going to hear from our staff tonight but beyond the staff assembled if we could hear going forward from our school wellness advisory committee our substance abuse prevention coalition the superintendent mentioned miss guevara our substance abuse prevention coordinator I think everyone all of those folks are going to need some time to digest this but if this is going to have any real meaning for us I think it would be helpful for us again in the weeks ahead to hear from these groups that are addressing this on a regular basis within their areas of expertise so I So I would just offer that as a suggestion for all of us going forward.

▶ 59:06 Speaker 6: Thank you. Noted. Mr. Obronski.

▶ 59:09 Speaker 1: What's the time frame of when the YRBS is given to the students? Is it the same across the region, you know, choose what month to give it?

▶ 59:21 Speaker 6: A vast majority of districts administer the survey in the spring between April, in April and May. there are some districts that administer in the fall but there are thoughts that students don't have a chance and but in October to have settled themselves into a rhythm and into school into a sort of a school structure and so the idea is to wait until the spring that's when the state does it and that's when we've done it here in the Middlesex League it takes about 20 minutes it's a hundred and hundred odd questions the skip patterns that we've been we've developed because of the electronic survey allow us to do it more quickly with less burden although I will thank the students I hope you took the survey and it is not a trivial task so I mean I really want to thank the students for doing it when

▶ 1:00:20 Speaker 1: did vaping first appear on the survey do you know it was certainly their last

▶ 1:00:24 Speaker 6: time I'd have to look back I think e-cigarettes started probably I would guess five to six years ago on the survey thank you miss McAndrew thank

▶ 1:00:40 Jennifer McAndrew: you thank you so much for being here it's really helpful I also really appreciate having the the report and the league report where if folks are interested at home or watching you can see you can look at the answer distribution for the different questions too and look at as mr. O'Connell mentioned the 2017 numbers I have a couple of questions and just in a comment more for our administrator team I think are my questions oh okay are we

▶ 1:01:13 Speaker 6: just doing if we can keep just a survey at this particular time okay then I'll

▶ 1:01:19 Speaker 6: wait okay any further questions with regards to the numbers on this

▶ 1:01:25 Speaker 5: document this Donna you yes I do have a question so the survey I was wondering one thing that I found that was left off of it that I think would be data that would be important would be information about eating disorders or like regarding mental health and nutrition I thought that it would be included in that I don't remember seeing it on the survey and it wasn't in the report it's not a

▶ 1:01:46 Speaker 6: standard part of the core but that is a great great thought I I'll have to see if other districts have added that question but you certainly have the opportunity to add eight to ten questions to to this district specific so we can certainly to extent that this happens in the coming years let me just

▶ 1:02:07 Speaker 4: explain so the CDC the Center for Disease Control sets the questions and And then working with JSI, every district was allowed to add eight to ten questions that were important to them. Our questions are driven by our community partners. So for example, the Substance Abuse Coalition, Moros Against Violence, they need us to add certain questions to the survey, because the information from those questions helps them when they apply for grants. So we so we could add it, but we'd have to look at what we have to drop as well. But I think it is an important question.

▶ 1:02:49 Speaker 6: So thank you. Any further questions with regards to the statistics and the numbers of the report?

▶ 1:02:58 Speaker 6: Seeing none. Thank you, Mr. McKinney, for coming and giving this presentation. We will shift now to plans for MOHOS specifically at this time. Any questions or comments? Or did you have an introduction?

▶ 1:03:12 Speaker 4: So, we have Ms. White-Lambright, who is the Assistant Superintendent for Pupil Personal Services, as well as a member of the Wellness Advisory Committee. Mr. Fogarty, who is the Director of Health, Wellness, and PE. And Mr. Merrill, the high school principal, to talk about what they are thinking about in terms of this report.

▶ 1:03:44 Speaker 6: LET ME JUST SAY IN CLOSING, IF YOU DON'T MIND, SUPERINTENDENT TAMER, THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR SUPPORT OF THIS. YOUR LEADERSHIP AS PART OF THE LEAGUE IS REALLY, AT LEAST ON MY PART, NOT MISSED. SO THANK YOU SO MUCH.

▶ 1:03:56 Speaker 4: THANK YOU.

▶ 1:03:57 Speaker 6: THANK YOU, MR. MCKINNEY.

▶ 1:03:58 Speaker 4: THANK YOU.

▶ 1:03:59 Speaker 6: THANK YOU.

▶ 1:04:06 Speaker 5: AND JUST TO YOUR POINT, SUPERINTENDENT, WE ARE HAPPY TO LOOK AT THE TREND DATA AND TO

▶ 1:04:12 Speaker 6: You know, it's only two points, but we can easily track or create some type of report that allows you to look at change this year versus last year. Great.

▶ 1:04:20 Speaker 4: Thank you. Thank you.

▶ 1:04:25 Speaker 6: Ms. McAndrew, would you like to lead us off with regards to questions Melrose-specific?

▶ 1:04:31 Speaker 3: Sure. Thank you. Thank you.

▶ 1:04:36 Jennifer McAndrew: So I'm sure we all have questions about many of the areas highlighted around what Melrose will is doing will do in response and will change or not change I guess I I just had a couple of areas I want to highlight in particular so on I think the the questions around hopelessness and sad and stress that were highlighted is one of the survey findings also one of the areas where Melrose was higher than average and also an area if you look in the supplemental report where up from 2017 so I but one of the things that I also noted in the questions was that Melrose students reported very high rates compared to average of having a trusted adult in their life who they can talk to which seems like a hopeful sign on that front and so I guess I'm just wondering given that is there how our parents getting involved in this conversation around with the district around hopelessness and sad and stress and suicidal ideation and is that an opening given those two findings to think about that community topic last

▶ 1:05:57 Speaker 7: year the substance abuse and prevention coalition they brought in Lynn Lyons to address the stress and she's a tremendous resource and you know regionally she has quite a following and that was a good first step for us looking at this information we as a group thought that we could use a little mental health overhaul in this August we brought in a group from the outside we did a mental health 101 and we educated everybody at the high school level in in some of the middle school that were able to make it about mental health and statistics and things like that follow that up with a nan project for any staff that was willing to uh sit through the two-hour presentation on our first half day in september and then the nan project is going to come back and visit with students in november and also talk about this topic so when that happens guidance counselors will be in the room with the class with the nan project and with the wellness teacher so those are some first steps that we've done some other things you know there's additional staffing around we have two new assistant principals at the elementary level we have two part-time adjustment counselors through the safe steps grant at the elementary level we have the addition additional guidance counselor at the high school we have an additional 0.2 school psychologist at the high school um this new resource officer at the middle school he's been there three years and with their summer camps that's only going to build in relationships so that's that's something new we're very proud to have tinker on campus and crowd favorite every day and then we also have the additional new nurse going back and forth between middle school and high school so many of these things are being addressed and it does take time but uh we're very grateful to have those new staff members in place we're grateful to have partnering up with the man project and uh you know sharing some of this i think you know part

▶ 1:07:50 Speaker 2: the other piece we i think we've done a lot of work around supporting our staff training our staff looking for how to wisely use our resources within the district to support students but when we step back and do look at that big picture it's not just about what we're doing in the school it is about that partnership with the community and certainly partnership with parents it's always a challenge whenever we have different types of presentations to have parents you know we'll put things together and we'll get some parents we'll get some groups but i do think that's an important component of thinking of that bigger picture of how do we really affect change for our students it's it's all of the things that Mr. Fogarty talked about those are good pieces that we have in place but it is that larger picture so that's certainly a topic we could explore further about parent presentations and my thought is also more around clear parent resources so So although in the moment, kind of going to some presentation some evening, you know, we might get some people. But I think it's about, again, being clear with parents and community when they have a question, when they can get help, who can they get help from. clear about the staff as resources and then being able to access that because it's it's not it's not always convenient at that time you go to that workshop it's it's the oh my gosh I need some help and making sure that people know

▶ 1:09:58 Speaker 4: how to access that so along the same lines three years ago the city signed up for the interface resource and they give us statistics every year and I will tell you the staff at the schools are phenomenal about connecting families to interface actually most of the referrals to interface come from school personnel to families I'm not sure that's as well advertised as it it would be in the city whether it's something that goes into the local newspapers or up on the I

▶ 1:10:30 Gail Infurna: don't know where it is on the mayor's website it's been on the blog and just recently someone

▶ 1:10:35 Speaker 4: reblogged it onto we did it on the page so i think that's a resource that you know when you talk about when patty talks about community resources um you know it's um the unfortunate truth of the matter is and quite frankly i just had this conversation this morning with um some elementary school staff because i was present for a child in crisis there are not enough child and youth psychiatric mental health services available in this state i'm not even going to talk about this country all right and our experience has been we 9-1-1 a kid to a hospital and the kid gets sent

▶ 1:11:14 Speaker 4: home because the truth of the matter is if you if you can declare yourself safe in that moment they will send you home and this is this this is a horrific issue for for not just educators but obviously for families for children for extended families who have gone through this with young people or even old

▶ 1:11:43 Speaker 4: people doesn't matter how old you are so this is beyond the schools this goes way beyond us we do SOS screening at the middle school you know as Patty and Steven said we brought in the NAN project when we had a suicide in the district a couple of years ago we did extensive work with kids and staff we trained staff at the high school in SOS I will tell you the bonus about our kids Our kids go to an adult, and you picked up on that. I cannot tell you how many times our kids have come forward to an adult and said, I gotta tell you about my friend. And that's a valuable moment, and I'm glad our kids are doing that. It does not relieve the underlying problem, and that's the conversation with the parents about the underlying problem. So, but this is probably one of the most serious issues facing this country right now, mental health in young people.

▶ 1:12:41 Speaker 7: Help for a Friend, that's one of the topics that the Student Action Board of the Meadows and Lanskins Violence Youth, they'll speak to freshman seminars, and that's one of their whole class lessons is how do you support that friend? What type of help, what direction do you send them, who do you speak to? So amongst other things, there's a lot of action student to student as well as adult to student.

▶ 1:13:11 Jennifer McAndrew: Thank you. I'll just do one other one and then I'll stop hogging all the time. Thank you. So in the summary and in the report it was mentioned that 33% of Melrose High School students reported having unsafe sex and that we had higher sexting or texting about sexual activity rates um and then in the this the detailed report on the questions um where students are asked about what they're taught in school about hiv and birth control it did seem like our rates are i know those weren't in the summary but are pretty low compared to the district so i wonder if and i'm not saying there's necessarily a causal relationship there are a lot of factors that lead to those that kind of decision making but i'm wondering if i know we're i think we're in the middle of a wellness curriculum review and if we're looking at our comprehensive sex ed curriculum um and and sort of how that's going i guess in the context of now having these findings

▶ 1:14:18 Speaker 7: so the wellness review we're very excited for that we'll be back in a couple weeks to talk more about that specifically but when you pair the wellness review you look at the curriculum top to bottom K to 12, and now you take this bit of information that we have, there's a lot to digest, but there's a lot that we can see and make some quick hits, quick wins, and then there's some things that will take a little more time.

▶ 1:14:43 Speaker 4: So I would also remind the committee, if you're not aware of it, the state has undertaken a rewriting of the comprehensive health framework for the first time since 1999. and so we're anticipating that'll be released around the same time that we finish the wellness

▶ 1:15:03 Speaker 7: review great thank you that topic um you know sexual education is a 10th grade class wellness too so it is covered but again we'll uncover more of that as we get into that review process

▶ 1:15:17 Speaker 6: Ms. Driscoll.

▶ 1:15:18 Margaret Raymond Driscoll: Thank you and thank you for being here tonight after a very long day. One thing that I found somewhat curious and more than a little disappointing is the high school responses to the questions how wrong do your parents feel it would be for you to have one or two drinks of an alcoholic beverage nearly every day and the same for smoking marijuana and if I'm reading this correctly and if I'm not please let me know that there was not as that the students do not perceive that parents feel that these activities are very wrong or wrong they see that they see that there is an issue but they don't seem to have the same urgency or concern as they might with respect to tobacco and prescription drugs. So my question is because it appears that alcohol use is the number one substance being illegal substance being used by our students, if students don't perceive that their parents have a very negative feeling about this that would signal to me that we as a community of families have more work to do and i want to know if you interpreted that the same way that i did and if i've interpreted it wrong what might be a better interpretation i think you're spot on

▶ 1:16:56 Speaker 7: i mean we're with these kids eight hours of the day so where they are the rest of that time you know that's that's between the families you know we're fortunate when they stay involved in whether it's the arts band drama after school athletics any of our programming it's great where you can have eyes on them for the next three hours in the afternoons um but then they go home at some point or they're off with their friends somewhere it is a community problem with that being said um

▶ 1:17:26 Speaker 7: the things we've talked about we're in uncharted territory we have a casino four miles away we didn't have that before they've extended out extended hours for drinking um you know there's more restaurants in town there's a lot more access for students and we have to do a better job just holding that line in expressing the importance of what age means and appropriate behaviors are things like that but again we're we're packed into eight hours and they got to get a little bit of math and english and a couple of things in there too and one of the things that

▶ 1:18:00 Speaker 2: mr fogan and i have talked a lot about just in the past week was and i think we're certainly in the same as other districts across the country never mind the middlesex league is we've had such a focus on vaping over the past two years and i think we talked about needing to kind of refocus

▶ 1:18:26 Speaker 2: back to alcohol and THC as well but just as you stated you know vaping is is a craze across the Commonwealth but it doesn't even come close to alcohol and I think we need to on our end refocus a little bit but it certainly takes a village and in the community and in families play play a huge a huge role in that and i think and i had a recently had a parent family coffee about vaping and we got into substances as a whole and and then in our conversations kind of even talking about community events uh that support that um but i think it's the message we send it's the message i send as an adult in the community along with everyone else thank you and i know you'll continue

▶ 1:19:19 Margaret Raymond Driscoll: in those efforts to improve some of that to the extent that you possibly can. On the positive side, if I may, just real quickly, I did find it very heartening that according to the survey Melrose did rank better with respect to number one, studying things you're not interested in, and I feel like that is speaking to our competency-based education and the fact that in light of the presentation that we had to open our evening, it's really reflective of the good work you're doing in professional development and the fact that all of your folks are working really hard to find ways to continue to engage and really up the engagement of all students not just certain students so i thank you for that i also think that the fact that we appeared to be a little bit better compared to the middle sex league and the getting up early to go to school is one data point reflective of our initiative to start school earlier so I appreciate all the work from later well I get up early so it's starting you know having that extra time in the morning and you know students seem to be less stressed around that so I think if as we look at data points and as we're you know started still sort of in in the infancy of starting school later based on the 2015 initiative i think this is one data point that in a professional survey that speaks to improvement there and positive results so i thank you for that thank you

▶ 1:21:20 Speaker 5: ms donahue please yes so last spring i believe we had some sort of i think it was like i think it was a state mandated thing where all of the high school students or at least the sophomores met with their guidance counselors or someone to talk about same risk behavior like you know practices and I was just wondering I don't I do remember someone saying that it was coming from the state and Massachusetts was having all the schools do that but was there any relation between that and the data we heard about today or is there any sort of like those are run independently what

▶ 1:21:55 Speaker 7: you're speaking of is called the expert so we do that in the middle school in eighth grade and then we follow it up again in the high school in 10th grade and it's just it's a quick screening you know how long did that take you 15 minutes 15 minutes you sat down one-on-one with a counselor they're trained in taking this inventory and then depending how you answer those questions you go back to class or you'll speak to someone else so that's done it at two grade levels and you know just an opportunity to look for something that might be going wrong with someone give someone an opportunity to talk about

▶ 1:22:32 Speaker 5: given situation so was that also was that more about like taking action against or students report risky behavior was it about like data

▶ 1:22:44 Speaker 7: collection it's action for that individual student it's not data

▶ 1:22:47 Speaker 4: collection grace it's we're required by state law to give that and then if we think a child is at risk, to refer that child to the substance abuse counselor. So it's about an intervention. If a student scores at a certain point, we're required to at least set up an intervention. What happens after that intervention is set up is up to the child and his or her parents.

▶ 1:23:18 Speaker 6: Great question. Mr. Abramski, please. Question.

▶ 1:23:22 Speaker 1: This is on the topic of the YRBS, but it's a little different from what we've been talking about. the survey results saying 60% of the kids did not eat breakfast on all seven days and that's pretty much on track with the entire league but so we say

▶ 1:23:43 Speaker 4: like kids don't eat breakfast well nobody eats well my curiosity is why they're crossing the street to Dunkin Donuts but that's beside the point but

▶ 1:23:51 Speaker 1: are they like they understood my reasoning for asking this question are they understanding the questions in some respect how's the question being asked

▶ 1:24:00 Speaker 4: that's that that's a very good question because if they they're interpreting the question as you sit down and have a bowl of cereal at home no I didn't eat breakfast what I did was go to Dunkin Donuts when I got to the building that's my point I don't know that's a very good question can I just I just speak to that

▶ 1:24:18 Speaker 2: same thing I was curious about like well I have a protein bar that's breakfast Yeah, that's breakfast, but I don't have a, you know, AIDS and something or whatever. I thought the same thing, so I think that's a good point to kind of pursue further to see what that data looks like. And are we asking the right question?

▶ 1:24:40 Speaker 1: Right. Thank you.

▶ 1:24:41 Speaker 6: Ms. Driscoll, did you have a follow-up?

▶ 1:24:43 Margaret Raymond Driscoll: Just if my personal experience, with kids in my 20s, I noticed a distinct difference between elementary school, middle school, and high school. by the time they got to high school they didn't eat breakfast they were just trying to figure out what day it was and and get moving and they just couldn't they couldn't breakfast but but they ate a big they ate a big lunch so it's also like when they're hungry because i found with boys and girls they were hungry at different times so i think that kind of information and completely anecdotally was for me sort of based on the student themselves and whether they were kind of ready to eat food

▶ 1:25:22 Speaker 4: thank you so I recently I can't don't ask me where I was it's some meeting across the state last week and there was a conversation about this very talk about about kids being hungry and it was an urban school who decided to have food available all day so that when kids were hungry they could obtain food for the the very reason that Ms. Driscoll's talking about. Kids have different eating patterns, things like that. And I don't know what the cost would be, and I don't know how we would do it. But it's something worth thinking about, that in between classes, that you go down and you grab a granola bar or an apple, because kids who are hungry don't focus, so.

▶ 1:26:17 Speaker 6: Any further questions or comments?

▶ 1:26:22 Speaker 3: was wondering if they're in the data that was taken was there a way to see discrepancies between age groups and they're like what they reported was there a way to say like 12th graders do more of this versus eighth graders I

▶ 1:26:40 Speaker 6: believe I believe the data was divided only by middle school or high school I do not believe it was broken down necessarily by grades miss white

▶ 1:26:51 Speaker 2: would you like to I was just wondering if there was a correlation between like

▶ 1:27:02 Speaker 3: getting older and the amount of stress that students reported feeling because I think that as you get older and you are taking classes in school definitely the looming thought of college becomes more cause of stress and so I was just

▶ 1:27:25 Speaker 2: wondering I don't know I thinks that it may lead to students feeling less anonymous if they have to put their grade in but most of us seniors did not take it in 2017 because they were on internship at the time so that's an an interesting point to think about when you're thinking about the two data sets from 2017 to 2019.

▶ 1:27:51 Speaker 3: Like if the survey were to include ages, it might also help for substance abuse treatment and intervention, because social norms might be different for ninth graders versus 12th graders.

▶ 1:28:08 Speaker 6: Well said, Ms. Foley, thank you.

▶ 1:28:13 Speaker 2: I would like to also just acknowledge a couple of our Wellness Advisory Council members that were joining us today.

▶ 1:28:26 Speaker 2: And Maureen Busby is on our School Wellness Advisory. And Maureen has been an active member of helping us to discuss the issues of vaping along with training, have the opportunity to come in and train our paraprofessionals i'm always looking for opportunities in a wide range so we appreciate that and dr alan wolf was here earlier and dr wolf is the school district's school physician who's also a member of the school wellness advisory council and has worked with us in helping to dissect this information

▶ 1:29:10 Speaker 2: and figure out which way to go with pieces and also to help us develop those additional time questions and lots of lively conversations about that so i just wanted to mention and appreciate

▶ 1:29:29 Gail Infurna: their support mayor Infurna thank you just a quick one um and while maureen is here tonight i gave a tour of city hall to the french exchange students today and went into the health department and maureen just kind of nod yes or no if i didn't hear it all right because there were a lot of kids and i wasn't listening to everything but she engaged them in a conversation about vaping and cigarette smoking and i believe from what i kind of got from it vaping wasn't a big thing at all they really didn't know too much about vaping at all over and this was a urban village outside of paris i just thought it was kind of interesting that they really didn't have really much of a clue i don't believe that what you were sort of talking about um so it's kind of interesting they were high school kids you know and here we are right yeah yeah they have more of the tobacco

▶ 1:30:23 Speaker 4: mr merrill can tell you that's always an interesting adjustment when they come here they walk outside and they light up and not realizing that you can't smoke on school property

▶ 1:30:34 Gail Infurna: uh-huh yeah well tomorrow morning we have the German students very good with

▶ 1:30:41 Speaker 6: unless there is any further comments or suggestions I will thank our administrators for coming and discussing this and look forward to their continuing this discussion in two weeks for the wellness

▶ 1:30:58 Speaker 2: thank you thanks thanks for all you do thank you for all you do and last but not least with regards