Public Comment

Transcript (~6 min @ 0:30)

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

▶ 0:22 Maya Jamaleddine: Romano Stewart, and Vandiver, also President Mcle ex Officio. This serves, um, as this serves as notice of Quorum

▶ 0:37 Maya Jamaleddine: for the record in, uh, in accordance with the open Meeting law. This meeting is being recorded and broadcast, uh, live on MTV

▶ 0:46 Maya Jamaleddine: and I will motion by anonymous, uh, consent to open the floor for public comment.

▶ 0:53 Maya Jamaleddine: Seeing no objection, we are now open for public comment, and this is the portion of the meeting where anyone can speak on any item on our agenda tonight.

▶ 1:06 Maya Jamaleddine: Do we have anyone online?

▶ 1:08 Speaker 1: Uh, there are no attendees at this time.

▶ 1:12 Maya Jamaleddine: Okay. And if there is no objection, I'll motion to close public comment. Sorry,

▶ 1:21 Maya Jamaleddine: Oh, please come forward.

▶ 1:26 Speaker 2: I apologize. I'm just sorry. Catching record. No problem. Uh, my name is Scott Auden. Can you hear me? Okay. My name is Scott Auden. I live at 41 Winthrop Street. Uh, a few weeks ago, I attended the inauguration of the new Mayor Council and the school committee at Memorial Hall. It was the first time I attended an inauguration, and it was an exciting time for the city. My hope is that that night was a turning point for our city, because while I don't have children yet, I am fearful that under the current trajectory, the situation in our public schools to become even more problematic, the significant changes aren't made. My original plan was to simply attend tonight's meeting to try to further understand the current situation with the schools, and to hear what our elected leaders and public officials had to say about the situation. However, once I saw the list of questions being asked of the superintendent and director of finance, I felt compelled to speak. As you can see, I'm a little nervous. Perhaps I missed it, but I was disappointed that there wasn't a single question. But whether the current budget is meeting the needs of our students and our educators, after nearly avoiding law school time due to a teacher strike last year, it seems as if we are headed on a path to a strike similar to the one that's happening in Newton right now. Unless council can figure out a way to effectively fund our schools. Tonight, we'll hear from the superintendent and director of finance, who I believe have been given a nearly impossible job, even with the question of what changes have been implemented to help what work within the current budget is a bit of a scary one, because the situation, the current situation, especially when it comes to our most vulnerable special needs students, is dire. For example, right now at the Lincoln School, right now, the Lincoln School is attempting to hire a long-term substitute to serve as an academic interventionist, interventionist to provide intervention services to at risk children. Struggling with reading and math, the role requires a master's degree and consists of 18.5 hours per week at a salary of $30, which equates to $555 per week. In the private world, a reading specialist can be paid a hundred to $150 an hour. Just as NPS consistently fails to recruit professionals such as physical therapists and occupational therapists for the summer program, in part, due to the hourly pay being $25 an hour, I suspect it is unlikely this trial will be filled as well. Given that finding staff has been an ongoing issue for several years, which in theory should help the bottom line, I shudder to think of how there could be any more cuts to make ends meet. When it comes to transportation, it seems to me that we need more transportation services, not less. There are young special needs students who live almost two miles away from the school that are ineligible, that are eligible to attend NPS, who are told to take the public bus to school for working family without a car and with other small children. The thought of riding the bus to school each day is daunting enough, but when you factor in a bus system that is constantly running late and can't be relied upon, it is essentially an impossible proposition. While I'm all in favor of trying to make the transportation system more efficient, the reality is that the lack of transportation for some of our most vulnerable children is devastating to their future. Finally, I find some of the questions to the superintendent and the finance director a bit perplexing. One question asked to confirm if it is true that 11 teachers at the Franklin School make over $90,000 per year. It only took two minutes to confirm that this is likely the case. As any teacher with at least a master's degree who has 10 years experience, will be earning that salary as per the contractual agreement available on the NPS website. In my opinion, my opinion, paying $90,000 for an educator with 10 years experience in a master's degree is a great value. The same educator will be paid $98,000 in Winchester and 93,000 in Malden in Wakefield and Stoneham, where the salary scale tops out. At 12 years experience, an educator is paid 89 and 88,000 respectively. In summary, I can assure you that the budget gap is not a result of educators at the Franklin School being overpaid, especially given that we've known their salary structures since January, 2023. We all know the value of early childhood education, which means we should be providing more funding to the Franklin School each year instead of raising the cost of attendance dramatically. As it's been the case recently to help offset the ongoing NPS budget woes. In closing, for years and possibly decades, merose has been replying up, relying on the goodwill of our educators to keep schools operating as best they can to ensure a bright future for our students and our society. Ultimately, the platitudes about how wonderful the teachers are only go so far. It's up to us as a community to demonstrate with an appropriate budget that we value our educators and our school system. There is no better investment a community can make than in its young people. I hope that tonight is a realization that is finally time to properly invest in our Melrose Public Schools. Thank you.

▶ 5:56 Speaker 3: Thank you. Thanks.

▶ 6:03 Maya Jamaleddine: If there is no objection, I'll motion to close public comment.

▶ 6:08 Maya Jamaleddine: Seeing none, we are now closed for public comment. For the record, I would like to, um, mention, um, vice Chair William just joined us

▶ 6:21 Maya Jamaleddine: since we have members of the administration here tonight to speak on the items before us. I'd like to motion by anonymous consent to suspend Rule 37 B before we proceed.