Approval of Private School: Melrose Montessori (15 minutes) vote required

Transcript (~5 min @ 14:12)

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

▶ 13:59 Speaker 2: I would also like to note that the addition of a nurse that is now shared between the middle and the high school in accordance with state regulations we were able to add that again this year thank you to the override thank you

▶ 14:20 Speaker 3: seeing no further discussion all in favor motion passes unanimously next item under educational programs and personnel is the approval of the Melrose Montessori school can I get a motion to approve for the sake of discussion so moved second motion to approve is by mr. O'Connell seconded by Jen Razzie Thomas would the superintendent like to speak to this item yes we received this

▶ 14:45 Speaker 2: application I would say after the close of the school year and while they did send us materials the materials did not suffice to meet our requirements with the procedural requirements as you know sometimes you have policy and then the superintendent is charged with fleshing out more procedural requirements so we sent them a letter miss Lindquist sent them a letter with our procedural requirements they sent back quite full materials which I believe are all here in the package and we do believe their intent is to eventually have a full elementary school I would ask miss Lindquist to come forward and address

▶ 15:36 Speaker 4: this further the information on the curriculum because it was pretty lengthy and the superintendent reviewed it and felt like it aligns with state

▶ 15:45 Speaker 4: frameworks right we included all the other procedural requirements with the state requirements and their policies and procedures which I thought was important for you to know since these students will be going to school within the district within the city of Melrose anyone has any questions

▶ 16:10 Jennifer McAndrew: mr. McAndrew thank you thanks for putting all this in um just so I understand they're asking to add it's already goes up to grade 1 and they're asking to add grade 2 for this year with 11 seats 11 additional seats and just so I understand the law requires our approval because the school operates in Melrose but those are not necessarily Melrose students correct okay thank you

▶ 16:38 Speaker 2: the comparison I would give you is several years ago there was another private school in Melrose until it moved I believe to Winchester and so it's open to anybody within the area who wants to transport their child but they've been

▶ 16:54 Speaker 4: operating the grade one since 1984 so now they're moving the grade one up to two and I think they plan on adding a grade each year up to six there any

▶ 17:11 Speaker 5: other questions do we thank you sorry have we ever had any issues with the school that we know of in the community that's caused any problems or no

▶ 17:18 Speaker 2: actually not many of the Montessori pre-k kids come to us eventually you know to the parents make a choice to send them to our K you know as you know our ECC schools about half of our incoming K the rest of our incoming K goes to many schools in the area Montessori being one of them given the

▶ 17:47 Speaker 5: fact that we have such limited numbers of seats I think it's great to have more seats available for different types of education and no rose I mean we don't

▶ 17:58 Speaker 2: object to this certainly you know Montessori is a philosophy that many people feel fits best with their child and as I often tell parents it's their job to make those choices that will work best for their child I'm a defender of public school I believe in public school but I also understand that it's not meant for everyone and parents need choice any other questions seeing no

▶ 18:36 Speaker 3: further discussion all in favor passes unanimously and that concludes the

▶ 18:42 Speaker 1: portion of the meeting EP and P Thank You mr. Abrams key next up is policy and