PUBLIC COMMENT

Transcript (~1 min @ 12:30)

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▶ 10:16 Speaker 1: Announce the results of the executive session. The school committee took three votes. The first vote was on the Unit A contract. That passed unanimously seven to nothing, and that is a three-year contract. The second vote was on the Unit B contract. That passed unanimously seven to zero. That's a one-year contract. We expect to commence negotiations with that unit in the fall to complete out the contract. The third vote was Unit C. That passed unanimously with seven to zero. Just want to give a little bit of a highlight around this. So earlier today, the Melrose Educators Union ratified the contracts. So now both the union and the school committee have done that. This is really a result, I think, of the voters who were able to get us Proposition 2.5 override funds last year that had made it possible to negotiate a good contract. Couple of the things that we believe it will do to invest in our educators by funding strategic and sustainable salary increases for all Melrose teachers and paraprofessionals. It supports our paraprofessionals by offering up new training and some paid holidays, prioritizes our families by establishing paid parental leave for all union members who have been employed in the district for at least one year, improves our learning environment by creating collaborative and responsive frameworks for school staff to provide feedback on facilities and school safety, and it fosters professional growth by creating robust opportunities for continuous professional development for both teachers and paraprofessionals. I would like to give a few thanks to fellow members of the school committee who were on the team, Ms. Driscoll and Ms. Razzi-Thomas. It was very good to work with you and to have your perspectivesFrom being on the committee for so long. I'd also like to say a special thanks to our superintendent, Ms. Berman. Without you, I don't think we could've landed this contract so easily. Also, thanks to Ms. Lindquist, our attorney, who was extremely helpful as we worked through our language, and Ken Kelley, our deputy superintendent, who helped us with much of the finances as well as the administration of the contract. And then also, thanks to our union, who were extremely helpful, dedicated to students. We would not have been able to also close this deal without their leadership, particularly the president and the vice president, who were very helpful in communicating their priorities to us. So, I just want to thank everybody. We now have a deal with our three units. In particular Unit A, which our teachers now have a three-year contract. So we will now move on to public comment. Is there anybody in the room who would like to address the committee?

▶ 12:47 Speaker 1: Okay, I don't see anybody in the room who wants to speak. We are launching our Zoom. Does it look like we have anybody in queue online? Yes. Okay.

▶ 13:17 Speaker 3: Don't believe so.

▶ 13:18 Speaker 1: Doesn't look like we have anybody online. We're just double-checking. There is nobody in the room. Okay. There is nobody online. So I'll motion by unanimous consent to close public comment. Public comment is now closed. Now we're going to move into our consent agenda,