PUBLIC COMMENT

Transcript (~3 min @ 0:40)

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

▶ 0:44 Speaker 1: Okay. Good evening, everybody. It's nice to see you. We've been off for a little bit. I will now motion by unanimous consent to open the floor for public comment. Is there anybody in the room who would like to comment? I don't see anybody. Ms. O'Connor, is there anybody online?

▶ 0:59 Speaker 2: Yes, actually.

▶ 1:00 Speaker 4: Oh, we do. Yep.

▶ 1:06 Speaker 1: Okay. While Ms. O'Connor's working to let somebody online, we can have public comment for up to three minutes, and if the person can just state their name.

▶ 1:16 Speaker 2: John Kanslerich from Melrose.

▶ 1:18 Speaker 1: Okay, welcome. You have three minutes.

▶ 1:21 Speaker 2: Thank you. Good evening, Mr. Chairman, members of school committee, and superintendent. My name's John Kanslerich. Been in Melrose for 25 years. I'm a parent of two children who had a great education in Melrose Public Schools. There's some concern regarding the implementation use of recent override funds, especially those earmarked for Melrose Public School. It was my expectation, based on presentations and statements made by the mayor and school committee, there would be a full implementation during the '25, '26 school year. Specifically, 17 positions listed in the override question to be filled in the '25, '26 school year. However, contrary information has left me wondering whether the city fulfilled its promise to make to the community. While certain charts provided to school committee after the override vote reconfirmed those 17 allocations, there's indications that only two positions were actually filled. So to help transparency and clarity, I appreciate response from the committee on a few questions. How many of the 17 positions earmarked from the override were actually filled during the '25, '26 school year? If all 17 positions were not filled for the school year '25, '26, what barriers or decisions prevented the district from doing so? I further ask for transparency and clarity on the allocation of override funds for the '25, '26 school year. Records indicate that only two of the 17 promised positions were filled, costing $195,000, roughly 96 each. This leaves 15 positions unfilled, resulting in 1,455,000 in unspent salaries. In addition to unspent salaries, the 15 unfilled positions represent an estimate of 600,000 in unspent city benefits, such as health insurance and pensions, assuming 50,000 per position. When combined, the school committee has not, to the best of my knowledge, publicly discussed where the remaining over $2 million would be or was reallocated, which brings me to my third question. Because 15 positions were not filled, where/how were those previously defined override funds on over $2 million for salaries and benefits for teachers and administrators positions reallocated in the '25, '26 school budget? I look forward to your clarification of these questions. Thank you for your time.

▶ 3:44 Speaker 1: Thank you very much. Is there anybody else online? There's not. No. No one else in the room. Okay, motion by unanimous consent to close public comment. Okay, now we're going to move into announcements of the superintendent, and I will turn it over to the superintendent.

▶ 3:59 Speaker 5: Great. Thank you, Chairman Kelley. I have quite a few announcements tonight, so I apologize in advance. Before we get started on the ones that are listed, I just wanted to report a few things that are happening on campus so far this summer. Ed Stations and our Summer Learning Academy are in full swing. We've had a great turnout this year at The Lincoln, which is our elementary site, and the middle school, which is our secondary site. And students are continuing their learning, and it's truly just very nice to see. DPW, in addition, is doing lots of works to our buildings and our grounds, including cleaning and some projects that have been outlined. A detailed report will be provided to you once those summer projects are complete, and we can share all of the information and all of the good work that's being done. In addition, IT is also working in our buildings, repairing and replacing equipment across the district. And I'm just thankful for everyone who's putting in the time to ensure that our buildings are ready to welcome students and staff that first, well, I guess last week of August, so on August 31st. Which reminds me, I'll just begin the reminders that our educators return to work on Monday, August 31st, and Tuesday, September 1st, to engage in professional development. I know August hasn't hit yet, so it seems a little bit early, but just figure I'd say that out loud. Our students in grades one through 12 and our pre-K students will return on Wednesday, September 2nd, and our kindergarten students will come back after the Labor Day holiday, on September 8th. Next week, the parents and our educators will be receiving a midsummer update that will include this information as well as some other reminders. So now I will jump into what is listed. In front of you, you have the personnel report in your packet. I'll just preface it by saying that you can see that it's certainly a very busy time of year for our principals and our hiring teams and the business office as well. Many of the hires that have occurred recently are the result of the 17 additional positions brought to us by the override. You will also see that we have had some resignations, and this is typical This is the time of year when often some families are moving and people are making some career choices and different decisions. So we do see that movement. I do want to highlight that we have had many of our teaching positions that have been filled across the district. I'm really excited about that. In addition, many of our administrative positions have also been filled. So that includes the Director of Academics 6 through 12 for STEM, our Director of Visual and Performing Arts and Student Activities, the Winthrop Assistant Principal and Elementary Curriculum Coordinator position, and the Lincoln Assistant Principal. So those have all been filled. And then I usually wouldn't share the open positions. However, I did a cross-reference of what's on SchoolSpring and with the principals today. I just feel like it's important given the time of year, that I'm just very explicit on what's open in each of our schools. All of the positions that are discussed are accounted for in the FY27 budget and listed. Many of the following positions that I'll share currently have finalists or are in the interview process, but someone hasn't signed on the dotted line yet. We still have both first and second round interviews that are occurring also this week. So frankly, we need two special education/early childhood teachers. We are looking for a dual certification for that, and many of our early elementary educators hold that. Horace Mann's fully staffed. Hoover is fully staffed. Lincoln has two special education teachers, and we also are looking to finalize our family and community social worker.