Appropriations & Oversight Committee — 2017-11-30

Appropriations and Oversight Committee Meeting

Attendance

Robert A. Boisselle present · Ward 4 Alderman; Donald L. Conn Jr. present · President/Ex-officio Member; Scott M. Forbes absent · Ward 7 Alderman; Gail Infurna present · Vice Chairman; Jennifer L. Lemmerman present · Ward 2 Alderman; Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis present · Alderman at Large; Monica C. Medeiros present · Alderman at Large; Peter D. Mortimer present · Chairman; John N. Tramontozzi absent · Ward 1 Alderman; Francis X. Wright Jr. absent · Ward 3 Alderman; Michael P. Zwirko present · Alderman at Large

Agenda

Minutes

CITY OF MELROSE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE CALENDAR● NOVEMBER 30, 2017 Aldermanic Chamber, Melrose City Hall Committee Meeting 7:30 PM 562 Main Street, Melrose, MA 02176 The public should take notice that the Melrose Board of Aldermen may, on certain occasions, have a quorum in attendance due to standing committees of the Board of Aldermen consisting of both voting and non-voting members. Members attending this duly posted meeting are participating and deliberating only in conjunction with the business of the standing committee. Attendee Name Title Status Arrived Peter D. Mortimer Chairman Present Gail M. Infurna Vice Chairman Present Michael P. Zwirko Alderman at Large Present John N. Tramontozzi Ward 1 Alderman Absent Monica C. Medeiros Alderman at Large Present Robert A. Boisselle Ward 4 Alderman Present Francis X. Wright Jr. Ward 3 Alderman Absent Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis Alderman at Large Present Jennifer L. Lemmerman Ward 2 Alderman Present Scott M. Forbes Ward 7 Alderman Absent Donald L. Conn Jr. President/Ex-officio Member Present

ORDER-2018-38 Classification of Property Request to set a Public Hearing on Classification of Property for November 30, 2017 at 7:30 P.M. and subsequently determine the Classification of Property Recommend Passage Board of Aldermen Board of Aldermen

ORDER-2018-40 Appropriation An Appropriation from parking receipts (29062-590000) in the amount of $28,360 to various accounts as set forth within. Recommend Passage Board of Aldermen

ORDER-2018-39 Appropriation An Appropriation from Available Free Cash in the amount of $936,000 to various accounts as set forth within. Recommend Passage Board of Aldermen City of Melrose Page 1 Updated 12/4/2017 4:30 PM

Transcript

▶ 0:00 Peter D. Mortimer: ...of the Melrose Board of Aldermen. It is a committee of the whole. All Member of the Board of Aldermen are Member of this committee. I am the chairman, Peter Mortimer. We are joined by the vice chairman, Alderman Gail Inferna, also by Alderman Michael Zwirko, Alderman Monica Medeiros, Alderman Robert Boisselle, Alderman Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis, Alderman Jennifer Lemmerman, and President Donald Kahn. This meeting is being recorded by MMTV. It is available for future viewing on the Melrose website, City of Melrose website, as well as the MMTV website. Alderman's Worker has made a motion to open the floor for public participation. Second. Duly seconded by Alderman Inferno. All in favor, please say aye.

▶ 0:48 Peter D. Mortimer: Aye. Any opposed? Hearing none, we're open for public participation. Seeing no Member of the public other than people who have orders before us from the administration being present, Alderman's Worker has made a motion to close public participation. Once again, seconded by Alderman Inferna. Yeah, do we have any- All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed, hearing none, public participation is now closed. I'm going to take order 2018-40. It's an appropriation from parking receipts in the amount of $28,360 to various accounts as set forth herein. Chief and Mr. Flavin, would you come up please? I motion to suspend the rules. Thank you. Who seconded it? Second. Seconded by Alderman Lemmerman, first made by Alderman McAteer-Margolis.

▶ 1:37 All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed, hearing none, we're on suspension. Gentlemen, please elucidate us. I'll go first. My part of the transaction is to move money, $10,360 from parking receipts into payroll. In the last year, as you well know, we introduced the Merchant Parking Sticker Program, which I guess from what I hear is a resounding success as far as clearing up those things. With that comes a cost, a resource cost on our end. We issued 775 free merchant stickers last year and 27 all-purpose $600-a-piece stickers last year for a total of 802 transactions. um these are all new customers and transactions that require time with the people education we have to validate their the ability for them to obtain the pass we have to document it and keep

▶ 2:38 that document documentation and last but not least we have to adjudicate it because this program has created a bunch of it seems to be the rule if you get a pocket ticket you appeal it and we have to go through a process to do that we currently have one one parking clerk at seven hours a week my staff has been supporting this program and they did so over the whole year it wasn't fair to the customers it wasn't fair to every to my staff frankly that we had such a limited resource for which is now a much bigger program so we've added a second parking clerk um 14 hours a week at 20 an hour and that's what this money represents for the rest of the year so now we'll be able to provide resources to the parking community three days a week instead of one

▶ 3:28 and it will balance the load and take some of the burden off of the people who stepped up last year and supported this thank you mr flavin chief lyle would you like to add anything to that Chief Lyle, we'll hear from you and then we'll proceed. But President Kahn is first in queue. As far as the police department, the $18,000 is a first year lease for two new motorcycles. Our current motorcycle is no longer usable. We're on a loaner program right now for about seven weeks, and this is to replace one of them. And to get an additional one to support the police department in enforcement activities, we're going to have two motorcycle officers out in the spring. Obviously, the officer that's riding now will ride through the winter, as long as the weather permits.

▶ 4:17 Peter D. Mortimer: Thank you, sir. And I'll read the order before we proceed to the colloquy. And it's an appropriation from parking receipts 29062-5900000 in the amount of $28,360 to various accounts that are set forth here. And, President Kahn, you have the floor, sir. Yeah, I just have a couple of quick questions, Mr. Chairman. Is this new parking clerk going to be an existing city employee, or is it going to be somebody else? somebody new so it's going to be a part-timer that's going to come in from the outside and um what's our balance in our parking receipt accounts if this order is approved by the board that's the first line in my notes and i forgot to read it um the current balance is 103 658.31 if the board approves the twenty eight thousand three hundred and sixty dollars

▶ 5:03 the new balance will be seventy five thousand two ninety eight thirty one um we're entering our busy season that balance the residual balance will only get larger as we do all our business in the next two months and what what's the financial impact of the new parking program has it increased our revenue is it decreased is it is a wash there's some um from the the 27 stickers i'm not sure if it was 600 or 300 that's crossed up in my head no it was supposed to be revenue neutral it was supposed to just be something that created spaces for the customers out there it wasn't it's we don't try to we try not to treat parking in our administrative end as a revenue source we respect that but it's really to provide a service and it's not about

▶ 5:52 making money it's about we're making we're doing fine i guess it's the short answer okay and you Do you think that there's enough volume of parking complaints and appeals that this person's going to be working 14 hours a week every week? We have seen that. We're also going to look, this resource will, I think down the line we'll reduce it by seven hours. We should be at least two days a week, but initially we also have to modernize it. We have to put in some programs and initiate some things, so I think over the rest of this year that's certainly. is this new position going to be budgeted for next year yes that's all i'd move to recommend the order for passage mr president khan has made a motion to recommend this order for passage

▶ 6:36 Peter D. Mortimer: second duly seconded by alderman voycelle are there any further alderman wishing to speak on this seeing none all in favor of the motion please say aye aye any opposed hearing none this order will be recommended to the full board for passage at our next meeting on monday you need not attend thank you thank you very much for coming this evening ms driscoll and superintendent timor do you expect um patrick delarusso to be joining you our city auditor all right he told he told me he would be coming as well so we'll have the hearing first and then then uh we'll see if he arrives and we'll then we'll uh proceed to your order okay so we're going to have the public hearing that that has been duly posted and put in the newspaper.

▶ 7:29 Peter D. Mortimer: It is on order 2018-38. It is a request to set a public hearing on classification of property for November 30th, 2017 at 7.30 p.m. and subsequently determine the classification of property. Motion to open the public hearing. Alderman Medeiros has made a motion to open the public hearing, duly seconded by Alderman Lemmerman. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed, hearing none, the public hearing is hereby open. We see no Member of the public coming forward to opine or comment on this order, so Alderman Medeiros has made a motion to close the public portion of the public hearing. Second. Duly seconded by Alderman McAteer-Margolis. And now we will hear from the city officials, Member of the Assessor Board and Mr. Wilcox

▶ 8:27 from the Assessor's Department. The Board of Assessors is here. Lee Fallon and Ms. Galino, nice to see you. Good evening. Good evening. Good evening. The reason that we have this classification airing is actually to shift the tax burden either from the residential to the commercial side And we have a table that we can do that with. There's currently two different tax rates for the city. This meeting actually will set where that tax rate is going to be for this year coming. If we did not choose a shift, the tax rate for the whole city would be $11.74 per thousand. Currently, we have two different tax rates, so there's a table that's provided in this handout that shows you all the shifts. and i actually added an additional shift document for more shifts outside of that

▶ 9:26 the tax levy for this year is estimated at 57 million dollars roughly the whole city the valuations at 4.8 billion dollars this year it's been the highest year the real estate market's been unbelievable with single families and residential which melrose is predominantly residential the history on the levy last year was 55 million this year it's gone up from last year's growth and proposition two and a half we still have one debt exclusion that sits in there so the difference is up to 57 million for this year that we would need to operate the actual market for real estate is is unbelievable again this year I said I think the last two years last year we had 238 sales for calendar year 2015 which we use for our assessments for

▶ 10:18 calendar year 2016 for this year we have 268 sales the average days on the market for last time this year was 42 days it's actually down to 37 so not only are we getting record high prices but they're selling a lot faster the assessed value does does impact it the the average sale price is what I take from MLS so in In 2015, the average sale price was $5.28. This year, for 2016, it was $5.73. So we're seeing a steady increase, and our real estate is actually really going up. On average, we're about 7% over what we were last year for all classes. Single families are actually 7.5%. Condos are 11%. So each class goes up independently depending on what the need is and what the sales are. Commercial, for the most part, has had a 1% to 2% increase.

▶ 11:12 It's remained increasing, but pretty flat. As far as the shift options with our neighboring communities, almost everyone around us shifts to the max. Last year, our shift was 1.525. Most people go all the way up to 1.75, which is the max allowable by law. So we're still way below that compared to other communities. On page 8, the shift options that I actually prepared, the top shift option was if we left it at the same shift last year. So if we pick the same minimum residential factor, it would mean a decrease in the real estate taxes for commercial properties. What we're having is an appreciation of residential value far greater than the commercial, industrial, and personal property. so at some point the impact of the shift is really getting smaller and smaller and this is what that

▶ 12:12 table illustrates so for this meeting i would like you know to pick a minimal residential factor on this page or the other pages provided the next slide just goes over the average tax bills for our surrounding communities last year melrose was at 5909 saugus was at 44.90 Saugus has a lot more commercial industrial properties, which does impact their percentage that they pay on single families. Stoneham was at $5,700, and Wakefield was actually at $6,100, and we're at $5,900. So Wakefield has surpassed us on average tax bill. I've provided some other slides, but at this point I'll open it up to questions from the board. President Kahn. Essentially what we need to do tonight is make a couple of votes here to set the tax rate for the coming year.

▶ 13:12 Traditionally what we've always done, at least in my 30 years that I've been coming down here, is we've adopted a commercial rate and a residential rate. That's what it means to classify. If we didn't classify and had only one tax rate, we would have a much higher residential tax rate. So, we have to make a determination as to whether we're going to classify or not. I'm going to support classification as we always had. The other things that we need to just deal with and discuss tonight briefly, the commonwealth allows you to take some exemptions relative to the tax treatment of properties. Open space, we have no qualifying open space, is that correct? That's correct. And another thing that we discuss, which I adamantly opposed and I opposed in the past and

▶ 14:05 would tonight is whether we adopt some kind of a residential exemption to a certain dollar amount. Very dangerous vote to take, it creates inequity amongst taxpayers based on the valuation of their properties. I would not support that. So, I would suggest that what we need to consider doing tonight Mr. Chairman is to classify, to adopt two rates with no exemptions, send this along to the full board so that we can vote a tax rate at our next meeting and we have to adopt the shift factor. And as Mr. Wilcock has explained, the shift factor, if we adopted one, which we have traditionally always adopted, allows us to tax commercially designated properties at a higher rate, which is less than 1.75% is the max that we could go.

▶ 15:02 We have a very, very small commercial tax base here in Melrose. And I would suggest that what we should do is adopt the ship factor of not less than 1.65. And I could be persuaded to go higher. But I think in a nutshell, we have to take a vote on whether we're going to classify. We have to take a vote on whether we're going to adopt any exemptions. And we have to adopt the shift factor if that's what the board chooses to do. And after seeing whether anyone has any discussion, I will make motions that I think would be appropriate on these issues. Very good, thank you, President Klein. So did you make a motion that we should classify? I'd make a motion that we adopt a residential and commercial classification of real estate tax bills in Melrose for the upcoming year.

▶ 15:51 Michael P. Zwirko: Second. Thank you. President Connors made a motion that we have a classification of residential and commercial properties for the upcoming fiscal year. Said motion was duly seconded by Alderman Inferna. On that motion is the discussion. Seeing none, all in favor please say aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? All right. So next in queue, I have Alderman Zwirko, please. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. So, Mr. Wilcox, thank you for being here tonight, and also the comprehensive documents. I know you put a lot of work into them, and even between last year and this year I've noticed you supplied more information based on comments received last year, so I appreciate all of the shift options. It just helps to kind of give a better landscape view of what we're looking at.

▶ 16:36 Michael P. Zwirko: And thanks for the presentation. Very well done. helps me kind of work through these issues and one of the questions i had for you is you made a comment that the impact of the shift is actually smaller and so last year we set it at 1.525 this year i know president khan just mentioned something no less than 1.65 but as i look at the the options here i'll just pull one out for example 1.60 where i'm going with this is if we set let's just say we set the rate at 1.60 is it because of the valuation increase in residential properties that we're get almost automatically landing closer and closer to that 1.75 i mean it seems to me that we may be actually catching up and we might not even be able to make a

▶ 17:25 Michael P. Zwirko: a determination of a shift at some point I'm just wondering if the the value of real estate property residential is outpacing that of commercial to us to I'm just wondering it seems like we're making a big jump in the shift over previous years sure as the appreciation the residential value goes up the impact of the shift goes down right and that's what you're seeing last year the residential tax rate was $11.80 per thousand an equalized rate for this year eleven dollars and seventy four cents a difference of six cents so that is a absolute you know the observation that i made also we're very close to a uh equalized rate based on last year's tax rate so every year that you know the values on residential go way up and the commercial kind

▶ 18:09 Michael P. Zwirko: of stays the same or or goes along at one to two percent this is going to happen and we'll slowly itch up to the 175 yeah before um no it's an interesting observation and it's not to say that that we're you know impending any cliff or anything it's just it's interesting these jumps are now getting larger just because of that valuation rise so it was just something I picked out and wanted a little bit more clarification on the the I just wanted to point out because I don't know here it is I don't know the slide number but it's the one where you talk about fiscal year 2017 tax shift and you give some surrounding communities yes I noticed that we're kind of an outlier here in that we don't go all the way and is is that really just

▶ 18:53 a function of the fact that our commercial property is so small it's a it's a function of the Board of Alderman Member have voted on it so I would say that they're friends not friendly to bit they're more friendly with a lower number to businesses or commercial values so that is something that you know you can go one way or the other this one kind of favors the commercial value a little more compared to these other communities but just to add something when you compare all these surrounding communities the percentage of commercial properties is a lot more right fields at 20% you know so I guess might be 40 or 50 percent so there's a huge impact with that shift that's why they're single-family in Saugus the single-family assessed value and tax

▶ 19:36 Monica C. Medeiros: bill is so low because the commercial people at that shift at 175 are paying the bulk of that tax levy okay all right well thank you those are really all the questions I had has helped help the clarification there Thank You mr. chairman thank you very much alderman's work Oh seeing no further alderman wishing to be open alma Medeiros thank you yes I just just wanted to touch on that a little bit further and say that you know what is our percentage of resident I'm sorry a commercial property here in yes so the percentages that I have lumped commercial, industrial, and personal property altogether. The slide that Alderman Zwirko referenced, we're at roughly 8% before the shift. And so that in and of itself is kind of an outlier compared to the other communities?

▶ 20:29 Monica C. Medeiros: Yeah, that's correct. Malden's at 21%, Saugus is actually at 34% before the shift, Stoneham's at 17%, and Wakefield's at 24% before the shift. Well, I just, I know we have you know one of the things we have been many times in the past I wouldn't say every single time but many times in the past this board has chosen to increase the rate so that you know to choose the shift that increases the rate for both commercial and residential around the same percentage and you know I I could see that being somewhere around one point you know three three five percent uh sorry 1.635 or 1.640 and ultimately that's probably where i'd like to see us go we do have uh not that much commercial property but we do have you know what i hear from other communities

▶ 21:26 Peter D. Mortimer: around us all the time is how nice of a downtown we have and how important that is to the success of the community and why people choose to live here so i obviously would like to see us you know you know, provide a benefit to our residents by adopting a shift, but not so much that it could put success that we see at jeopardy. Thank you. Thank you, Alderman Medeiros. Seeing no further, Alderman, President Kahn. I have a motion. I move that we adopt the shift factor of 1.650. President Kahn has made a motion that we adopt a shift factor of 1.650. Is there a second on that motion at this time? I'll second it. Alderman Zwirko has seconded President Kahn's motion. What I would like to do at this time,

▶ 22:20 Peter D. Mortimer: if it's pleasing to the Member of this committee, is if people have no further questions for the assessor and the Member of the Board of Assessors, I would like to dismiss them, put this order on hold until later this evening, hear the order regarding the school department and the huge transfer of funds that we're having there and then we can discuss the shift unless unless we think this is going to be a fairly short conversation i was just trying to be considerate to the people here but why don't we proceed and let's see how far this is going so president connors made a motion to adopt a shift factor of 1.65 said motion was duly seconded by alderman Zwirko on discussion let's proceed then i can see

▶ 23:08 Peter D. Mortimer: from some of the looks i'm getting that that's not a not a popular concept that i just elucidated delineated so uh we'll just uh the assessor just said we're friendly nobody's called me friendly i'm just i was just trying to get people home but uh No good deed goes unpunished. On discussion of the motion, Alderman Zwerchel, please. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Apologies. I should have asked this earlier. I just wanted to confirm that all of the options that are before us are set in such a way that it's to the levy limit. Is that correct? That's correct. We will back in. And the tax rate can shift a penny up or down when we finalize all the numbers. So this is our best estimate at this point before the Department of Revenue reviews all

▶ 23:50 Peter D. Mortimer: of our numbers. Correct. Great. Thank you Alderman Search. Seeing no, Alderman Medeiros. Thank you, and just for clarification to the public, at 1.65, that would increase the average single family tax bill by, or residential tax bill by $187 and the commercial by $579, thank you. Thank you, Alderman Medeiros. Seeing no further, Alderman, wishing to be heard. All in favor of the motion to adopt a 1.65 shift factor, duly made by President Kahn and seconded by Alderman Zwirko? All in favor? Aye. Please say aye. Any opposed? Hearing none, this order will be recommended with a shift factor of 1.65 to the full board at our next full board meeting on Monday, December 3rd. Seeing no further motions on this order,

▶ 24:49 Peter D. Mortimer: thank you very much, lady and gentlemen. And we look forward to seeing you next year. Thank you. I thought there'd be more on that, so. The next order we have before us is order 2018-39. It is an appropriation from available free cash in the amount of $936,000. The various accounts are set forth herein. Alderman Search has made a motion to suspend the rules on this order. Duly seconded by Alderman Medeiros. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Hearing none, we're under suspension on this order. Ladies and gentlemen, from the administration, the school committee, the school department, DPW, city solicitor, superintendent of schools, thank you. Please proceed. Thank you very much. Ms. Tamer will join us in just a moment.

▶ 25:50 Margaret Raymond Driscoll: I just wanted to speak to the budget as it now belongs to the school committee. after it was passed recommended to you folks and which you passed as part of the city of Melrose budget in the spring so part of the order before you is I believe the total is eight hundred and seventy four thousand dollars eight hundred and fifty thousand dollars of that 874 is from these what we call the structural deficit so that is built into the budget and is part of what we voted and part of what you folks voted in the spring so um you've you've seen the school budget in the spring line by line and uh you certainly are familiar with that and you see um what our students and staff are doing very capably every single day and we're grateful for your support

▶ 26:39 and would very much appreciate passage of this order and i would invite the superintendent to speak to the balance of that order thank you miss driscoll good evening superintendent taymor good evening please proceed so as Mr. Driscoll said every year we come in front of you basically for the transfer of the remainder of the money that you voted last June what is slightly different this year is that we had a request for an additional $24,000 two things occurred that we wanted to take advantage of and the school school committee and mr. Del Rosso supported first of all as you all know we're having a tremendous uptick in our English as a second language learners we're at about 161 students when I

▶ 27:42 became superintendent we were at 82 so when I just began my sixth year so you can all I've shown me that you're good graduates of Melrose high and do your math and so we are experiencing that and when that occurred we needed to buy approximately ten thousand dollars worth of additional educational materials one of the decisions that we had made was previously at the elementary level we had been funneling our ESL students to the Lincoln and the Roosevelt's and as the population grew we found that we can no longer do that first of all as you all know we have interest school choice we certainly don't want to close neighborhood families out of their buildings but the other piece is we also did not want to create schools that became known as the ESL school no more

▶ 28:36 than you'd want school known as the special ed school or the I don't know whatever other category you want to put so we added the Hoover this year especially with the addition of the three modules we saw that as an opportunity to begin to move some of our incoming ESL students to the Hoover so to that end we added a 0.5 ESL teacher and but we needed materials since we no longer had all the children at one of two schools the middle school in the high school have their own ESL teacher so that was one thing that we did the other thing that we we that we are piloting is you may or may not be familiar with the fact that the Commonwealth of Massachusetts has allowed two virtual high schools one operates out of Greenfield mass and one operates

▶ 29:32 out of a collaborative and I think it's in Dedham it's called Tekka the educational collaborative and for any one of our students attending those schools we are charged $5,000 a year it's treated a school choice we have a growing number of children in Melrose who have a few challenges some of them we have some budding future Olympian Olympian Olympians is that the word I want Olympians or Ballarat ballet dances musicians who are involved in intensive training programs that really require a flexible school program we also have our students that we refer to as fifth-year students they did not meet all their requirements they have yet to receive their diploma but it's a very difficult situation for them to come back and attend Melrose High when all of their

▶ 30:32 peers have exited so to that end we have we are piloting our own Melrose high school online high school and it's for those two categories of children at this time it's a pilot because it was very important to us that to keep Melrose children connected to Melrose if the child goes to one of the other two virtual high schools, they lose the connection with Melrose High, they no longer can participate in Melrose High activities such as the prom, the play, any other club that they might be interested in and can fit into their schedules. So with the support of the school committee, we are piloting this year, Melrose High online. And to that end, we are we have some seed money $14,000 and we have partnered with a I don't know how to explain it to all of you if

▶ 31:39 Robert A. Boisselle: you're not familiar with it one of the growing industries in education is people who provide online education or online education modules and we have partnered with a company who can mirror Melrose High's curriculum and our people have vetted it and they have found it a good match and we're using that company it's called ingenuity to pilot Melrose High's high school online and that was the 14,000 Thank You superintendent a more are there any Member of the board who would like to ask any questions alderman boys out please in the two items here school uh in the 19054 and 16204 i understand the medicare fund that that's involved here in the transfer of three hundred thousand dollars and the 19054 with the 574 in your opening comments i'm getting the impression

▶ 32:43 Robert A. Boisselle: that this money is sort of spread through the budget that we reviewed this past spring is that correct now with this new outside contractor merrill's uh high online is that money also being used uh for this particular type of piloting yes it is so that's these extra projects you were talking about uh they are incorporated and used to fund up were they discussed in the budget in in the beginning no this is new i think you said right this this um again uh i think you all understand the difficulty of the budget timeline and uh you know life in the schools don't does not stop in order for you to vote on this budget and then june 3rd or whatever it may be and so again the need for the esl teacher as we finalized our registration numbers

▶ 33:36 towards July 1 we realized we needed to add a half a teacher but that also meant materials we had the month the funding for the half teacher in the budget because the school committee had included a 2.0 extra positions for the growing population at the elementary school so again do the math 2.0 minus 0.5 and that's one of those positions but when we made the decision to begin to add move students to the hoover as an es school esl school we did not have materials there so that was a decision that was made late june july and again the melrose high school online there was a process we had to go through we needed to run it through school committee we needed to get their permission we had to write a policy that they would approve and a procedure and until that

▶ 34:30 was all finalized um i could not bring it forth to mr delarusso as a possible pilot when you say finalize it does this have to be approved by the state educational department or is this no it does not it does not it does not but what i do need is what we wanted to make sure is that we did not create a situation in which uh families felt they could say i don't want mr zirko for social studies so therefore i want to take the course online so what we wanted to do was create criteria policy and procedure around it so that at least in the first couple of years of the pilot we were aiming it at specific children that we would have lost to an out of district placement or a choice school try to keep them in melrose high and then make an evaluation of how successful

▶ 35:21 Robert A. Boisselle: the program is now how do you evaluate the the results of this this is a pilot what are the final results so we will look we will look at um how many students uh become involved in it um what their completion rate is what their grades are we have already had our staff vet the courses to do a comparison between what that course offers and what our course offers and so that's how we will evaluate it now do do these students actually participate in the state exams yes they have to take all the state exams as well do you look at are you going to be looking at the results of the state exams versus the staff who are taking in the height in school versus the one they're in this Melrose high they will be getting a Melrose high school diploma

▶ 36:11 I have to look at everything okay I cannot issue them a Melrose high school DIPLOMA UNLESS THEY'VE MET OUR STANDARDS DO YOU SEE THE VIRTUAL SCHOOL MOVING AHEAD IN THE NEXT 5 10 MAYBE BY 2030 THERE WILL BE VIRTUAL SCHOOL CLASSROOMS WE ALREADY HAVE VIRTUAL SCHOOL CLASSROOMS MR BOYZELL THE ONLY DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE VIRTUAL SCHOOL CLASSROOMS THAT WE CURRENTLY have is this is a best description ace a a separate Melrose high school because we've limited who can attend it but currently within our own high school we have a number of students who take virtual classes either because they are interested in something or their schedule is so heavy we have to try to balance it we have a position in the high school called an academic

▶ 37:05 facilitator and what his job is is to work with those students who are taking virtual and blended classes we have students who just spend three days with the teacher three days online we have students who do all online we have a great number of resources but many of them are free because the major universities in the country run two consortiums in which anybody can take a course and we use those courses for our children as well we also have a relationship with a number of universities so that some of our students are doing dual enrollment now with these students that are online how do they interact with the student body itself I mean they're taking these courses at home or the ones at Melrose High School online yeah yes okay do they

▶ 37:56 Robert A. Boisselle: interact with these student body in any way with outdoor activities or after school activities yes by virtue of it being Melrose high school online they can still considered Melrose high school students and entitled to join any activity at Melrose high if they went to a choice school such as Greenfield to Tecca they cannot participate in anything and that's one of the things that drove us on this we really wanted to keep Melrose kids involved with other Melrose kids how many students are there right now we only have a couple a couple yeah so that this 14 this 14 000 we're talking about it's just covering it's it we're not spending the full 14 000 at this point really all right that's pretty good all right thank you

▶ 38:43 Monica C. Medeiros: thank you very much thank you mr chairman thank you alderman boy cell next in queue we have alderman medeiros please thank you um so just to kind of clarify so the so of the 574 000 that we see as a line we did anticipate through budget cycle five hundred and fifty thousand yes and then this other twenty four thousand is ten thousand towards ELL and the need for additional materials and the piloting of this program so is it already in place the Noro's pie online yes so it's already in place in already moving forward and I think there's a lot of promise for that and for those students how many so do we already have some students that have chosen to do the virtual high school in either the Dedham or Greenfield yes we

▶ 39:48 have and and we have met with those families and offered them Melrose High online if they if they would like to come back we also know of a couple of students coming up through the middle school that we will be in this situation with and we're working with those families as well and they're interested in and keeping their children connected to Melrose and ultimately hopefully that will be sort of a net positive if we're keeping funds in in district now is there additional staff that needs to be hired in order to to run this program that's an excellent question miss Mendeiros at this time not the assistant principal at the high school is overseeing it at this point but if it does grow to such a size that we do need additional people we

▶ 40:33 Monica C. Medeiros: will have to bring that forward in the budget but to mr. Boyz L's earlier question our online and blended learning within the high school program that we currently offer to student these the 1011 students who show up every day is growing as well and we're anticipating a need in that areas as well how do you handle things like attendance is it by is it just like if I have to take a continuing education course yes online they know how long I've been on the screen yes whether or not I'm interacting yeah everything that you're doing at the college level or the graduate school level that they can do as well and that mouse doesn't move you're in trouble it's nice to be able to offer this and to offer that connection to Melrose and then we should

▶ 41:30 Monica C. Medeiros: be very proud of both of the athletes and dancers that are that's right forward as well as the students that choose to make sure that they finish their education and get that degree in the end no matter what it takes thank you i did just want to ask also about ell and is this something that we anticipate growing in the future or is the level going to stay the same is is this something that we took into account i don't know if you know the answer in the demographic study yes and we anticipate it growing um even without the demographic study there are national studies to the degree at which many states are going to see a tremendous increase in esl there is there is a somewhat of a concern under the current

▶ 42:20 federal administration that some of our immigrant families may leave we do know that a large portion of our haitian families have already left if you talk to our clergy the haitian church in Melrose has seen a tragic decrease as people have moved to Canada or in order to feel safe but we do think that's an increase the other thing that we are concerned about is you may know that the governor recently signed a new bill into effect about English as a second language while a bonus in it is the seal of bi-literacy which Melrose is one of the few communities that piloted it for the state that was approved as a state um educational achievement that will go on students diplomas but at the same time they're going to revamp english as a second language again

▶ 43:17 i don't even want to count how many times i've seen this in my career right now we're under an english immersion model they're going to give cities and towns the ability to move back to a bilingual model it'll probably be a couple years before they figure out the regulations on that but that at that time we're going to have to analyze our population their needs and maybe revamp our approach how many non-english as a first language students do we have or i should say how many languages do we have i think at the last count we had 60 odd um and uh you know you actually hit upon a good question uh while 161 children receive english as a second language services there is a second category we call it first language not

▶ 44:11 Gail Infurna: english and it's on our demographics and probably three times as many students are in that category Thank you, Alderman Medeiros. Next, we have Alderman Inferno, please. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. With Alderman Boisselle questioning, I really kind of thought he was going to ask the one question. I was surprised you'd stopped. When you were talking about the tuition of out-of-state, out-of-district students, what is the cost of a high school out-of-district child? It depends on what you're talking about. Choice is only $5,000. because that's what the state has set as that price if I send a child to a private artist out of district placement for special needs depends on which one you send them to you send them to schools such as crotchet Mountain you're

▶ 45:03 looking at three hundred and fifty thousand dollars if you send somebody to landmark you're looking in the mid-sixties and that's not including transportation if you send them to seem our collaborative it may be in the mid fifties but even at $5,000 you have three four or five of these students that go out there's $14,000 as well exactly that was the point I was surprised you kind of thank you very much Alderman Inferna next we have Alderman McAteer-Margolis please thank you mr. chairman thank you for being here this evening and I'm always happy when we're able to have enough free cash to satisfy our obligation that we made the promise in June that we would do this for you and it's always great to hear about the new things and the

▶ 46:02 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: initiatives that you're piloting and preparing our students for about do you know about how many ESL kids are at the Hoover this year not off the top of my head but it's I'm glad that you've kind of expanded that also and I was going to ask about the bilingual but you sort of beat me to that so you know years ago we used to say we might like to have a French immersion program at the Ripley we were you know before we closed the Ripley we'd say like hey to K to three we'd do like French immersion so maybe you'll be back there someday who knows Spanish based on the whatever it comes down the path with the new regulations and I'm also very excited about your your MHS online program I think that

▶ 46:49 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: sounds terrific do you foresee in the future that becoming anything like a collaborative where students from surrounding communities could participate for a lower fee than they would be paying to you know kids from Wakefield or Stoneham for something other than the 5,000 that they're paying out to Greenfield or whatever so currently the Middlesex League superintendents and just so you all know there was never really a Middlesex League superintendents but Middlesex League being a sports league the superintendents got together and decided we ought to start acting in concert since we're so often compared to each other and we've undertaken a number of joint efforts the first one being the late the move to later start times we

▶ 47:37 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: did that in concert we recently did our YRBS our youth risk behavior survey in concert and the project for this year happens to be to create at least one one course that all 12 of the high schools in the league can share and that that's our goal for by the end of the year to have something ready to go for next year I mean we were always so fortunate to offer the number of languages that we do and at Melrose High in comparison to many other communities and we used to always say we should be offering this on a tuition type basis to surrounding communities they can't afford to have you know a German teacher because they only have three kids that want to take German whatever so so good luck with

▶ 48:19 Monica C. Medeiros: that going forward I'm a little disappointed I won't be here to continue to support you thank you you've done a tremendous job in my estimation the past six years and I've enjoyed working with all of you thank you thank you it's mutual Thank You Alderman McAteer-Margolis next again we have Alderman Medeiros please I have to say forgive me I know it's either has just happened or is upcoming a public hearing on school choice for the school committee so do you anticipate having students from other communities and maybe I'm premature and asking this question until you take that vote but do you anticipate having students from other communities often to go to Melrose High online not at this time thank you thank you Alderman Medeiros I'm seeing

▶ 49:13 Peter D. Mortimer: no further aldermen wishing to be heard do we have a motion please for eight hundred and seventy-four thousand well there's a deal with the entirety of the order is nine hundred thirty six thousand dollars okay so but that includes two out of four first two do you want to with you want to hold off on the motion and we'll talk about motion we could divide it all we could keep it together discuss the other things and do it all at once yeah yeah probably better to do it all at once um all right so do you have any uh other questions then for the other portions of the order i just have one other question are we going to win on saturday absolutely all right the guarantee so are there any i think i think mr zirko tweeted

▶ 50:15 that that he has the inside scoop and we're going to win on saturday paper says we're slightly favored by the way joe guarantee right newspaper says we're favored by two points alderman's workout please could we call up um we certainly can't the other Member uh thank you thank you lady and ladies and gentlemen thank you thank you mr chairman would you like to speak to uh mr shenna if you don't mind mr shenna would you join us please good evening everybody good Good evening, Mr. Shanna. My portion of the order is not as complex. However, it's a continuation of a program we proposed in the spring that the board funded. It's a $12,000 request to continue installing the 25 mile an hour solar powered radar speed signs.

▶ 51:19 read our speed signs um right now we have them in place there's two on howard street there are two on upham street we have one on franklin one on wyoming i know at the last traffic commission meeting there was a group of constituents from west emerson street that came forward and discussion came about using these and we didn't have any funding for them so So, we're very gracious that the auditor was able to come up with some funding. This will buy four more signs, and like I said, there's discussion of putting some on West Emerson Street. We're also looking to put some on Sylvan Street. The ultimate location isn't my call solely. It's something that both police chief and I have discussions on, and

▶ 52:13 our engineering staff and we he involves his traffic bureau and we always do it in consultation with the traffic Commission and attempts to help them solve problems that they're hearing so that's what the funding is for they have been successful the police chief reports of their success and we're also hearing it from residents all you need to do is really slow one car down which has that domino effect of sewing cars behind it and we found them to be operationally pretty pretty easy once they're installed we're having some trouble with the one on wyoming ave it seems to go into low low low battery mode when it doesn't get enough sun so we may make some adjustments to that in the near future but the other ones seem to be working well thank you mr shenna

▶ 53:04 Gail Infurna: First in queue, we have Alderman Inferna, then President Kahn, then Alderman Dworka. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. You're welcome. Thank you, John, for this, and I am delighted that we have been able to find the funds for this as a representative on the Traffic Commission and actually being on it for many, many years. This is the number one thing we hear about is the speed of these streets, and the way Melrose is mapped out, do have a perimeter of streets that are very typical of high speed yet being very residential also so I think this is nice I have also heard that positive feedback from them I know when I drive by him and it says thank you I usually say you're welcome in the car you know and I I move on what I was questioning

▶ 53:52 Gail Infurna: and I not quite sure if we ever heard this before even the first time we purchase them is the maintenance of them you know when they break down now I've noticed the one on Upham Street sometimes is not working unless it's secretly working you know it's just not flashing or anything so I was just you know is it all solar is that the main maintenance of it or is there other problems and so they function they're powered strictly by solar and you know that solar panel needs to be facing in the right direction the maintenance is that the battery needs to stay charged and in the future if the battery doesn't accept the charge anymore we have to change the battery. We've had the one on Upham near Gooch and the one on Wyoming has been the most I'd say most

▶ 54:37 challenging in terms of getting it the right direction. I think last week of the week before IT through the the software is on a laptop and we're actually transferring the process of transferring the software onto DPW laptops so we can do it ourselves but IT went around and checked them all for us because um some were not sending the right message at the right speed and we made some adjustments but we're gonna that's how we found out that the one on Wyoming likes to go into that low power mode like when your battery on your iPhone is low so we have to overcome those we just don't like to arbitrarily move them a lot of thought one in our engineers and and Melrose police went out and to find these locations and they carefully pick these

▶ 55:24 Gail Infurna: locations. So we just don't want to randomly Oh, let's try it here. Let's try it there. So before we move it, we're going to make sure that we we continue to watch it. And but that's it has to be in the right spot. So there's not an additional a big additional maintenance fee or cost, you know, to some point in time, we're gonna have to change two batteries on each right? Okay, very good. Well, I think it's a great investment especially like I say for those streets that are typical of the high speed but yet very residential so thank you very much I certainly support this Thank You alderman Inferno president Kahn please very good thank you sir alderman Zwirko please yeah I withdraw as well my question was asked

▶ 56:04 Robert A. Boisselle: by Gail Inferno so I'm all good thank you thank you very much alderman Zwirko alderman Boyce-Hell please I don't talk to the solar light units on upham street and i don't hear very many people saying that but except a few but i do hear a lot of people talking about the traffic system on main street especially in early morning early evenings are all the units we'll say from west wyoming to uh upham street are they all interconnected with each other or are they all separate units no they're all separate they're all separate units and the downtown portion of main street from emerson to wyoming is not interconnected main green street is interconnected with franklin when we did that project and lebanon

▶ 56:59 Robert A. Boisselle: street all of lebanon street is interconnected and sylvan street is actually interconnected with wyoming we did that about a decade ago with the fidelity project on main street but there's that gap so we try to phase them and time them so that you know one green light gets you another one but there's no guarantee downtown that that that's the case is it is it a problem of money to interconnect them or do we have to do the entire street to get them interconnected in some way or can we I know there are a lot of landlines but can we get some Wi-Fi I mean we're putting up all these towers in downtown areas some way to Wi-Fi these connections yes with part of the complete streets program one of the

▶ 57:47 projects was to look at those intersections and to try to look at ways to improve the timing and the funding so we're at least gonna over the winter we're at least gonna figure out what that entails we have to bring in how much is it gonna cost and attempts to you know maybe propose that with our 19 budget okay so you have a study in beginning you've been acknowledged it was acknowledged during that whole program when we will look at pedestrian access and vehicle access and we were talking about that throughout the city that consistently came up where one green light didn't necessarily get you another yeah in the downtown area the problem seems to be that people coming in from West Wyoming going through each of the set of lights and by the time to

▶ 58:31 Robert A. Boisselle: get to Upham Street then it becomes a race to get to the green light at the far end of the Main Street or did zip right up up Upham Street to pick up time and you might say no it's a valid observation okay so there's a study with DPW for coming maintenance and improvements within the lighting system I mean something we're looking at yes all right thank you thank you mr. Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Alderman Boycelle. Seeing no further, Alderman wishing to be heard. Is there a motion, please? Motion to approve this order. We have a motion. No motion. We're taking them all the same. Thank you. Mr. Van Campen. Then raise your hand and ask the speaker people. Oh, sorry. Yeah, as I said. We were under suspension of the rules,

▶ 59:18 so I thought everyone was coming forward. Sorry, Mr. Chairman. You want to? He asked Mr. Van Campen to come forward. He's been waiting so patiently. Mr. Chairman, I'm really just here wish everyone happy holidays so happy holidays to you sir I'd like your festive tie thank you red for the season thank you so so this is really a housekeeping move in the legal department as Member may realize recently we settled a long-pending case and utilized approximately $29,000 from that stabilization fund to complete that settlement so what we're doing is we're taking advantage of our free cash and replenishing the fund and adding an additional $11,000 to it so happy to answer any questions thank you very much

▶ 1:00:04 sir seeing no questions Oh Alderman Medeiros please thank you assuming we approve this expenditure transfer what will that leave the balance would be a hundred and twenty eight thousand eight sixty eight sixty three thank you and a similar question to mr. de la Russo is if we approve this expenditure of free cash what will that leave us for free cash available the balance would be 1 million 342 282 Thank You alderman Medeiros alderman McNaught margolis please thank you um mr van kempen do you have any pending um issues that you feel at this time we don't we typically view the stabilization fund as additional insurance for those claims that may be otherwise uninsured so keeping somewhat of a healthy balance is probably a good practice for the city and is that usually about the amount

▶ 1:01:29 Peter D. Mortimer: do you have 128 000 or are we yeah it's it's fluctuated around 110 000 over the past few years so we're going to be a little higher than we've historically been over the last few years okay thank you thank you thank you alderman McNaught margolis seeing no further alderman wishing to be heard we have a motion by alderman MacMaster my goal is to recommend for passage order 2 0 1 8 dash 3 9 an appropriation the amount of nine hundred thirty six thousand dollars as previously read duly seconded by alderman Boyce L seeing no further discussion all in favor please say aye any opposed hearing none this order will be recommended to the full board for passage at our next meeting on Monday night motion to adjourn Alderman

▶ 1:02:26 Peter D. Mortimer: Zwirko has made a motion to adjourn duly seconded by Alderman Inferna all in favor please say aye aye any opposed hearing none we're adjourned thank you one and all

Appropriations & Oversight Committee — 2017-11-30

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