School Committee — 2017-12-12
Agenda
- Superintendent's Update (5 minutes)
- Second vote required on Policy JFABB: International Students
- Maintenance Report
- Monthly Budget Summary
- Warrants
- MHS Field Trip Request
- Late Start Update (15 minutes)
- Revolving Accounts Quarterly Review (5 minutes)
- Dollar Maximums for Student Activitiy Checking Accounts (5 minutes) vote required
- Education Stations Scholarships (15 minutes) vote required
- MASC Recommendations (15 minutes)
- Executive Summary of School Committee Self Evaluation and Recommendations (10 minutes) vote required
- School Choice Vote (10 minutes) vote required
- Data Presentations (10 minutes) vote required
- 2017 Action Item Progress Report (5 minutes)
- 2018 Proposed Action Items (10 minutes) vote required
- Liaison Reports (5 minutes)
- 2018 Rolling Agenda (5 minutes)
- Vote for School Committee Chair and Vice Chair (10 minutes) vote required
Minutes
CITY OF MELROSE MELROSE SCHOOL COMMITTEE MINUTES● DECEMBER 12, 2017 Aldermanic Chamber, Melrose City Hall Regular Meeting 7:00 PM 562 Main Street, Melrose, MA 02176
(ID # 6083) Announcements - Superintendent Superintendent's Update (5 minutes)
(ID # 6073) Consent Second vote required on Policy JFABB: International Students Adopted
(ID # 6069) Consent Maintenance Report Adopted
(ID # 6071) Consent Monthly Budget Summary Adopted
(ID # 6072) Consent Warrants Adopted City of Melrose Page 1 Updated 1/3/2018 9:49 AM Minutes Melrose School Committee December 12, 2017
(ID # 6068) Consent MHS Field Trip Request
(ID # 6074) Educational Programs and Personnel Late Start Update (15 minutes)
(ID # 6076) Finance and Facilities Revolving Accounts Quarterly Review (5 minutes)
(ID # 6075) Finance and Facilities Dollar Maximums for Student Activitiy Checking Accounts (5 minutes) vote required
(ID # 6058) Policy and Planning Education Stations Scholarships (15 minutes) vote required
(ID # 6059) Policy and Planning MASC Recommendations (15 minutes)
(ID # 6077) Policy and Planning Executive Summary of School Committee Self Evaluation and Recommendations (10 minutes) vote required
(ID # 6078) Announcements - Chair School Choice Vote (10 minutes) vote required
(ID # 6079) Announcements - Chair Data Presentations (10 minutes) vote required
(ID # 6081) Announcements - Chair 2017 Action Item Progress Report (5 minutes)
(ID # 6086) Announcements - Chair 2018 Proposed Action Items (10 minutes) vote required
(ID # 6080) Announcements - Chair Liaison Reports (5 minutes)
(ID # 6085) Announcements - Chair 2018 Rolling Agenda (5 minutes)
(ID # 6082) Announcements - Chair Vote for School Committee Chair and Vice Chair (10 minutes) vote required City of Melrose Page 2 Updated 1/3/2018 9:49 AM Minutes Melrose School Committee December 12, 2017 Note: The listed agenda items are those that are reasonably anticipated by the Chair to be discussed at the meeting. Not all items, in fact, may be discussed, and other items not listed also may be brought up for discussion to the extent permitted by law. City of Melrose Page 3 Updated 1/3/2018 9:49 AM
Transcript
▶ 0:00 Margaret Raymond Driscoll: Good evening. Welcome to the Melrose School Committee meeting of December 12th, 2017. Can we please rise and say the pledge? I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. just to note that this meeting is being recorded first on our agenda tonight is the public hearing on school choice this agenda item is here because it is a requirement by law and regulation in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts once per year every school district in the Commonwealth must declare its intentions around school choice and if the committee is choosing school choice what grades and how many students will be accommodated so that is what we are
▶ 1:00 Margaret Raymond Driscoll: doing here tonight we are having our public hearing first and then we will take a vote later in the meeting the way the public hearing works is it's the same kind of framework as our public comment anyone who wishes to speak must sign up please and then you would receive five minutes to speak on the topic at hand the difference between a public hearing and public comment is that a public hearing is devoted to one topic in this case school choice our public comment which is further down our agenda one anyone is willing to speak about anything related to the schools so with that being said I would open our I would invite a motion to open our public hearing on school choice I'll move second made by Ms. Casatelli seconded by Ms. Dugan discussion seeing none all in
▶ 1:55 Margaret Raymond Driscoll: favor all opposed that motion carries unanimously with one absent our public hearing on school choice is now open would anyone like to speak to school choice Mr. O'Connell may I ask you to to take the sheet please thank you thank seeing that no one has indicated their interest and at this time in speaking to school choice I would entertain a motion to close our public hearing so moved second made by miss Dugan seconded by miss de Selm discussion seeing none all in favor opposed that motion carries unanimously with one absent next on our agenda is well I'll be honest one of our favorite things that we do here in the chamber and that is our school committee spotlight and this evening we're delighted to welcome students from the Horace Mann School so I would welcome
▶ 3:14 Dr. Cobbs principal of the Horace Mann School and please continue hi good evening everybody this is actually a very exciting time for us we are very proud of our work at the Horace Mann School as we are proud of the work of all the children in Melrose and all the great educators so we feel honored to have such a full chamber of exceptional teachers and exceptional support staff and parents to share some of the work that we've been doing at the Horace Mann School we take great pride in promoting leadership in our students as I think you are well aware if you had the pleasure of watching them at the Board of aldermen's meeting last Monday they were exceptional they were very gracious for a number of things not the least of which is our renovation but
▶ 4:01 very certain and strong in their resolve to make sure that the community knows that there is a new governing body in town so tonight the Husky Council is here to talk a little bit about some of the work we're doing this work is being read by Kim Barbagallo who is one of two lead teachers in my building as well as by two parents who have done exceptional amount of work both in my presence and when I cannot be fully engaged in it so without further ado thank you hi my name is Veronica and I am in fifth grade we are the Horace Mann Student Council we call ourselves the Husky Council we discuss important issues and make differences at the school this is the first year ever of husky council it is a group of kids in
▶ 4:56 grades three through five we think of fundraisers and changes we can make to represent our classmates hi i'm isla paulson i'm in fourth grade in one of our meetings we talked about a school newspaper we think the newspaper will be a good idea because the students in our school will know when events are coming up like crazy hair day and field day hi i'm bridget gardner and i'm in fourth grade i'm here to discuss some of the fundraising ideas the main ideas we've brainstormed are nighttime family field trips such as bowling or laser tag five dollars for parents to come and watch during school hours and a loose change bin so the people can drop in their loose pocket change hello my name is zoe tabenis i'm in third grade we talked about some of the challenges in the
▶ 5:49 lunchroom we are working to survey the students to better understand the problem and come up with a solution. Hello, my name is Madeline Sampson and I'm in fifth grade at the Horace Mann School. We would like to say thanks for the new renovations made to the Horace Mann School this summer. Our school is really enjoying the new art and music room, office, and library. I am Grace Jenkins and I'm in third grade at the Horace Mann School. I would like to thank you for the office space and handicap room. Hello, I'm Sophia Holbert and I am in third grade. The whole school loves the new library. They love that it has more room than the old library. They also like all the places you can sit down and read a book.
▶ 6:44 Hello, my name is Lily and I'm in the fourth grade. I think our school really appreciated the art and music room. We really enjoy the space. We also have new chairs that are really cool. Mrs. Bruce, our art teacher, can now keep her stuff in her room instead of on the stage. Hello, my name is Cameron Oradella. I'm eight years old. Thank you for all of the renovations in the school. All of the kids love the renovations. Hello, my name is Eloise and I am in the third grade at Horace Mann School. We're going to say what Huskies love and things that we are proud of. We love our teachers in school. Our teachers are respectful and kind. They're often funny. We love them because they are very nice and great teachers. The principal and office staff are very good too. Hello, my
▶ 7:30 name is Mary Atkinson and I am in third grade at the Horace Mann School. Learning is so fun at the Horseman. I love how all the teachers make learning fun. We get many projects. All our projects are fun, but we always learn. We can be creative, have fun, and we are always learning. Hello, my name is Imogen, and I am in fifth grade at the Horseman School. We have fun in our school by having school parties in class. We also have behavior rewards. Most grades do dojo points. The fourth graders do behavior bucks. When you do something good, you get a dollar, and when you do a bad thing you can lose dollars at the end of the week you get you can get a prize like a pencil or if you have a lot of money you can get a stuffed animal
▶ 8:11 hi Mike hi my name is Jack Burnham and I'm in the fourth grade the horseman students love to get outside and be active recess is a great time for kids to get their energy out this is because we have a big field with a big playground whenever we can we can we go outside for physical education also if our teachers notice us fidgeting we have a brain break and sometimes we go we use a program called go noodle which is a dancing program with very good songs the characters direct the dance moves thank you for giving us the opportunity to introduce the Husky Council to the Melrose School Committee we are very proud to be here representing Horace Mann School and the students we hope to continue to make the Melrose community the best place to live thank you and we
▶ 9:26 Christine Casatelli: are very proud of the Horace Mann Huskies I will invite the school committee to ask any questions they have of our students miss Casatelli wow there is a lot going on at the Horace Mann School thank you to all the students for coming forward and and telling us all the fun things that you do there now you made me want to be a horseman husky so thanks to dr. Cobb and all your teachers and your parents for all the good work that they do to keep your school such a great place thanks for coming tonight mr. cell I I would start off with Wow but someone's beat me to it my first thought was it's really tough to get up front of all these people and talk even if you only have a couple sentences so i want you to know
▶ 10:17 that you're very brave for coming up and talking to us thank you so very much for it the other thought i have is that you guys are so lucky i wish i could take dancing breaks at school or at work or even sometimes at the school committee meetings thank you so much and thank you miss Dugan thank you that was actually my recommendation I would like to steal your idea and I think that we should use go noodle maybe right now it will not be discussed this evening thank you anyone else miss McAllister grand I am so impressed with all of you I can tell that you did a lot of preparing and a lot of practicing and you worked very hard and you have some fabulous people here supporting you looks like parents and brothers and sisters out there thank
▶ 11:13 you so much I have a question for you I want to know why some of you wanted to be on this Husky Council so if if the students can answer by coming up to the microphone that would be very helpful the reason that I start that I wanted to be in Husky Council was just because I just wanted to make our school just a fun place i wanted to be in husky council because um for the fifth graders there's a lot of things that we wish we could have done like for our past grades and we wanted to do more things so that's why i wanted to be i wanted to be on husky council because i wanted to make the school a better place excellent thank you all excellent any other questions for our students this evening Miss Casatelli for the sounds like the Husky Council is training ground for the
▶ 12:26 school the Melrose School Committee we'll see you here in a few years thanks for coming thank you thank you so much we are really grateful for your coming tonight and we wish you a great rest of your school year thank you so much next on our agenda is the report of the student representative welcome thank you please reintroduce yourself to everybody in the chamber so hello I'm Conlon I am a junior at the high school and I'm happy to be here and give you a quick blurb about what's going on at the high school so recently progress reports came out as of yesterday signaling the second half of the quarter the MHS performing arts program is having their big winter concert tomorrow, which includes the band, orchestra,
▶ 13:32 chorus, and lots of performances from all the different performing arts at Melrose, which is going to be exciting. The annual band Christmas tree sale, sold out of trees this weekend. Almost 200 trees off the shelf in a day. The i-Raiders Rumble Lego Robotics competition was hosted at the middle school on Saturday teams from all over the state attending to compete with robots that elementary schoolers made and participated in many students of course are excited for the holiday break only two weeks left to go I don't have a countdown but and of course many seniors are starting to wrap up their college applications and several are starting to receive admissions so good luck to all of them I hope they achieve their dreams
▶ 14:23 In sports news, the winter sports season is starting up once again. The football team, as I'm sure you've heard, won last week 21 to 0. Pretty good, I think. Congrats to them, the band, cheerleaders for a job well done, and I hope they're enjoying their banquet just next door. The winter track team is off to a good start. They competed Sunday at Roxbury, and the boys swim team has their first meet tomorrow at Lexington any questions any questions for Conlon's this evening miss McAllister grant and I think it's I think we need to find another spot for you on the agenda because that is really tough act to follow elementary kids and then you have to do this report they stole the show they were wonderful thank you for the report seeing none thank you
▶ 15:22 so much madam chair if I may a point of privilege certainly to the members of the Melrose public schools community the superintendent and her administration my colleagues on this committee the mayor who is not present and most importantly the staff and teachers of Melrose public schools I want to extend a formal apology. Last meeting and giving voice to concerns expressed by many constituents who wanted accountability from their schools with regards to the proposed school cancellation policy, I pressed the superintendent to speak to this accountability. When she did not answer my question, I spoke in frustration. I must be more mindful of my comments. As was sent to me in the days that followed,
▶ 16:34 When policy makers make insensitive generalizations, the targeted community is harmed. Specifically in this case, my remarks last meeting wounded the dedicated teachers and staff of Melrose Public Schools. I regret my words and phrase in this matter and offer my humble apology. Thank you. Thank you very much. Next on our agenda is public comment. So moved. Second. motion to open by Ms. Casatelli seconded by Ms. DeSalle discussion seeing none all in favor of opening public comment all opposed Mr. O'Connell seeing none six in favor I got it one absent public comment is now open Mr. Moroz would you like to come forward please Hi, I'm Jerry Morrows. First, I understand that this is maybe the last school committee meeting for three of
▶ 17:56 you here, and I want to thank you for your time on the committee, and I hope it's been rewarding for you. It's always a work in progress, and it's a slow progress as institutional change is. But thank you again for all your work over all these years. I do want to raise another issue tonight that at your last meeting, it was frustrating to watch the school committee again make a basic, blatant violation of the open meeting law. And whether you believe it's important or not that you respect the spirit and the letter of the open meeting law, these meetings are the only chance we have to see you work as body and how you communicate to us and that we see that the work you do is done in front of us so we can observe make comment and and have some input at these
▶ 18:58 meetings and when the school committee doesn't show very clear open and honest intent to always respect the law it leaves the public wondering if you don't respect the law in front of us do you really respect the law when we can't see what you do and this goes to the foundations of our democracy about public process you know this committee you all know over the over the last several years have violated the law on more than one occasion for sure and some Some of these things are small technical issues, but they're obvious, there's no reason for them. Other ones are large. The whole competency-based education task force, all the work of that task force was done outside of and without witness by the public.
▶ 19:59 And I for one have expressed my frustration with that, that I've been since 2008 trying to advocate for a more competency-based education approach in Melrose, and what was done behind the scenes, I don't feel honored what competency-based education is, accepting that, oh, whatever our status quo is, that, well, the district's moving that way, and so we're just going to accept that. There was no evidence here presented in public that the district was doing that effectively for our students. I talk about the pace of change it you have to accept some level of slow change in an institution however I've been sitting here for too many generations of students of Melrose waiting for the change that they need to happen and we
▶ 20:53 have so many teachers here tonight and I want to say to all the teachers here and to all the teachers generally that I appreciate everything that teachers do as far as I've ever seen teachers come to the classroom every day with the best of intentions and do the best that they possibly can with with their students that they're responsible for and and they try their best at everything they can do the criticisms that I bring to this meeting are policy criticisms I don't believe that the policies of this district the policies of administration allow our teachers to do what they could do for students if they weren't CONSTRAINED OR IF THEY WEREN'T AMPLIFIED, THEIR SKILLS WEREN'T AMPLIFIED BY BEING MORE EFFECTIVE
▶ 21:37 AND MORE EFFICIENT BY FRAMING SOME THINGS DIFFERENTLY IN THE DISTRICT. THIS GOES TO THE CORE OF WHAT WE NEED TO DO FOR OUR STUDENTS. MARGINAL EDUCATION REFORM HAS BEEN GOING ON FOR DECADES AND DECADES AND DECADES, AND NOBODY FEELS THAT WE'RE AT THE POINT WHERE WE'RE REALLY HELPING ALL OUR STUDENTS TO THE EXTENT THEY NEED TO BE HELPED AND EDUCATED. The last point I want to make about this is that the teachers here all understand that educating our students is far less about teaching them specific academic material than it is about developing in them the personal qualities, the personal skills and expertise they need to be persistent when times are tough, to take big problems that they can't solve and
▶ 22:27 break them down into little ones to learn how to use a teacher as a mentor as somebody who can guide them and help them work within their own zone of proximal development this is what we want for our students we want our students to be able to go and be what is often said here lifelong learners but lifelong learning really means having those skills in place that they know what to do who to go to and how to learn something that they don't have facility with. What we need for our students is for them, let me restate this, our students need to be able to leave Melrose and take the next step in their career, whether it be academic or work or otherwise, and know that they have the capacity to take on any challenge that
▶ 23:27 they have, they come across, and that the teachers in our district have provided them the foundation that they can do things from there on out in their in their lives and That's what we're all here for I Don't think anybody would would disagree with what I've talked about We obviously disagree on about how to get there and how to frame a better education system that will do significantly better for a lot more students because right now too many students don't succeed and And as I've talked about for the last last month or so, based on the MCAS results this year, our education system is now framed far more in line with what typically girls receive better than what boys receive better, and that's a big issue that we need to address in Melrose.
▶ 24:14 Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Moroz. Ms. Donovan. While the MEA appreciates the public apology, please note that this statement was written prior to the apology and still needs to be shared. Good evening. Lisa Donovan, president of the Melrose Education Association, the local union chapter of the Massachusetts Teachers Association. At the last school committee meeting on November 28th, derogatory remarks were made targeting educators in the district. One remark stereotyped all educators in the district, calling into question the integrity of educators, while the other was a disrespectful comment that was a passive-aggressive remark aimed toward educators. While the remarks fell on the ears of a limited audience at the time, the reverberating
▶ 25:06 effects of those remarks have been far-reaching. I am here tonight to not only express the deep disappointment on behalf of the MEA, but also to address repairing the relationship between the MEA and the elected policymakers of the School Committee. Over the past few years, a concerted effort on the part of the union has been made to be a collaborative partner when problem solving. The remarks made are counterproductive to this collaborative effort. According to the School Committee's website page under the section school committee negotiations goals it states quote the committee recognizes that education is a public trust when negotiating this objective is considered most attainable when there is a climate of mutual understanding and
▶ 25:48 collaboration between the negotiating parties in the interest of student achievement end quote the MEA would like to challenge the school committee members to work harder toward this goal and would welcome the opportunity to partner with them to achieve this back in early September I requested a seat for the MEA on the school committee, much like the student reps. Working together in this manner could factor into the school committee's most recent self-assessment being shared tonight. I am still awaiting a response from the school committee chair to this request. Having a member or two of the MEA present at each school committee meeting could help to foster a better working relationship with the school committee on a regular basis and improve
▶ 26:24 communication between the MEA and the school committee. Potentially, questions could have been asked by the school committee members and answered by MEA members on the topic of the school cancellation project at the last meeting which perhaps could have avoided the inappropriate remarks altogether I am confident that a response to the accountability of educators in the district on snow days under the proposed school cancellation project would have yielded a response similar to this educators work from home long after the school day ends throughout the year going above and beyond what is contractually obligated this is not any different on a snow day under the current policy of making up the days at the end of the school year and would not
▶ 27:02 change with the proposed school cancellation project in fact when an impending storm is forecasted educators pack their bags with extra materials to take home I personally have witnessed this as well as done this myself educators take full advantage of the opportunity the gift of time presented when trapped inside on a snowy day let's not forget the fact that teachers also have to shovel themselves out just like everyone else because teachers are people too. Another foreseeable benefit to the MEA's presence at meetings would help to promote transparency. Currently complete transparency exists in the work that the MEA is doing, such as the October Educator-Parent Forum that had an ultimate goal of partnering with the community and the school committee to
▶ 27:45 work toward the schools that the Melrose community deserves. The MEA intends to hold another forum in the spring to continue this important work with the community and the school committee. Let's not lose sight of why educators are motivated and driven by anything and everything the students who sit in front of them on a daily basis educators are not unlike the elected school committee members who do not always agree on issues but ultimately rally for the benefit of all students after all it is hard to argue with the fact that better working conditions for educators translate into better learning conditions for students honoring and valuing input from educators in the district fosters this positive environment although differences may
▶ 28:25 surface in ways to reach this goal the end goal is the same better learning outcomes for all students the hard-working educators in the district who have demonstrated dedication innovation collaboration and excellence should be lauded for their efforts not publicly accused of untruths the Melrose community and the educators in the district trust that as elected policymakers pure motives are at the heart of each decision and boast that is vote that is cast all that the educators are asking for is that same consideration across the district educators reinforce the concept of not being a silent bystander the MEA would like to extend its gratitude to superintendent a more for not being a silent bystander and being the voice to
▶ 29:05 defend the honor of educators in the district that night barring an immediate response from an educator at the time the remarks were made superintendent a more challenged the remarks made and stressed the fact that educators are professional and honorable and that a trust exists between the district and the union let's move past this disappointing hopefully isolated incident and focus our efforts on improving the educational experience for all students the MEA welcomes the newly elected committee members present tonight and looks forward to a collaborative relationship with the committee thank you for your time thank you miss Donovan thank you for all of you who are with us tonight we very much appreciate the hard and incredibly professional work that
▶ 30:17 you do thank you very much next on our agenda is the announcements of the superintendent thank you is that a motion I would make a motion second seconded by miss Casatale discussion seeing none all in favor opposed that motion carries unanimously with one absent Thank You mr. Selma next on our agendas the announcements of the superintendent thank you I'm sorry on December 1st a group of Melrose educators went to the Metco conference with me and a couple of other administrators this is a great conference probably one of the best conferences we attend every year I'm grateful for the teachers who volunteered to come thank you to miss ward who underwrites their attendance through the metco grant the administrators do pay for their
▶ 31:19 own attendance out of their budgets so that more teachers can attend this year's topic was beyond proficiency educating students of color with excellence and everybody comes back greatly invigorated by this the second conference that sue mcbride one of our teachers is taking our students two is you may or may not know we now have a uh i'm looking at somebody's teacher are we calling it a women's group at the high school we're calling it a women's group at the high school a group of young women who are who are finding their voice and being empowered and sue mcbride took seven of our students this year to the massachusetts conference for women held in boston on the 7th and the massachusetts conference for women has a special strand for middle and high
▶ 32:08 Margaret Raymond Driscoll: school students over 500 women young women attended last year and this year they attended two sessions the gift of failure which is really a very important session we talked to kids all the time about the importance of feeling and learning from feeling and finding their voice through the spoken word and which was the use of literature and poetry especially to find their voice so again I thank all those staff who participated and enabled our students to participate any questions for the superintendent this evening seeing none next on our agenda is the consent agenda which tonight includes the following items the school committee regular meeting minutes of November 28th 2017 the second vote required on policy JFA BB international students an MHS field trip request the
▶ 33:03 Margaret Raymond Driscoll: maintenance report the monthly budget summary and the warrants as follows FY18 school, S18019, in the amount of $68,597.37, FY18 November wire transfer, S18020, in the amount of $54,543.38. Would anyone like to pull anything off of the consent agenda? Ms. DeSome. I would like to pull the MHS field trip request, please. The MHS field trip request will go in educational programs and personnel. anyone else seeing none do I have a motion for approval so moved second made by mr. O'Connell seconded by miss McAllister grand all in favor opposed that motion carries six in favor with one absent next I would entertain a motion to move the educational programs and personnel subcommittee to be next on our agenda so moved second made by Ms. Dugan seconded by Ms. Cazzatelli
▶ 34:13 discussion seeing none all in favor opposed that motion carries unanimously with one absent Ms. Dugan okay so I don't want to keep her too late fantastic good evening everyone this is EP&P subcommittee my last moment at the stand bit sentimental so from the consent agenda we have is there a motion to approve the field trip request yes I would make a motion to approve the field risk field trip request second great motion made by mr. Selm seconded by miss McAllister grand discussion mr. Selm through the chair to the superintendent is there any concern about any of the unrest in the Catalonia region I note that on the field trip there's discussion of possibly going to Pensacola which is just south of that region you want you want to address it
▶ 35:20 miss dagger cane who will oversee that field trip happens to be with us that's why I asked to have it moved up to the beginning Paul do you want to know okay if those of you who don't know this this is Niska dagger cane one of our veteran Spanish language teachers thanks for being here yes ma'am so is my question was is there any concern about the unrest region in the region of Catalonia I note that one of the proposed side trips is to Pensacola which is just south of Catalonia yes we are concerned about that in our request we said that But if we have enough money, and the school and parents are okay, we will take our students to a fair trip, but no longer in the area of Catalonia, because they're undressed.
▶ 36:20 Sure. So we are considering, if the trip happen, assuming we have enough money, I repeat again, we will go to the southwest. Okay. We're talking about Seville, Granada area, which is very pacific, very safe, and it also offer a lot of historical monuments and ruins and it's a beautiful city. If that happen, it will be that area. We will avoid Barcelona 100% because for now, in one year, the unrest is still. And just to be clear, I don't think that Spain is a dangerous place. It is not. only that I don't want to turn on CNN and see our students in the in the document we actually in the in the explanation we explained we said that we will look for a safe mayor city but no in the Catalonia area the closest to
▶ 37:17 that area will be Valencia perfect thank you so much and just to remind the committee it is the practice of the school committee to check the state report State Department reports as we get closer to a trip and if there is major concern by the US government we we inform parents and they can make appropriate choices and that's the role of the administration not the school committee yes further questions discussion seeing none all those in favor thank you because as you know it's important that we give approval as soon as possible so that we can begin the fundraising as soon as possible so thank you for that next on our agenda is an update on the late start plan for the beginning of the next school year in the packet just folks know there's a very
▶ 38:15 detailed report from the superintendent and the let me make sure I say the title right the start time oversight committee so we appreciate the hard work of folks who were engaged in this and i'll ask the superintendent to walk us through okay thank you Ms. Dugan as Ms. Dugan said there's a lengthy memo there i thank the members of the oversight committee some of them are here tonight Nancy Naslis i see enemies am i missing somebody that was on the committee those two are here and they can speak to it as well if they feel free if they feel they need to or want to they we have worked hard i will tell you thank god my staff are better at google than i am because they created documents for us to share and
▶ 39:02 they created a survey for us to put out there and we have come to agreement on some the concerns that were laid out in the side letter plus additional concerns that the committee brought up those concerns i'm not going to go through them piece by piece you've all read it um have proposed resolutions or action steps we can take there are a couple of things that i still need to take care of personally but those are not matters that are impacting teachers mainly they have to do with ed stations as you all know we recently had a change in administration at ed stations and we have a number of issues to resolve there but we are fully confident Ms. Farrell and I that we will have those resolved by the time we convert to
▶ 39:51 Jessica Dugan: the latest dot times in the fall so if the committee has any questions I'll gladly answer any questions thank you very much just as we kick off to be very clear elementary schools will start at 8 o 3 a.m. secondary schools will start at 8 15 a.m that is for this coming fall september august um 2018. questions miss casatelli through the chair to the superintendent there is still some confusion in our community about um how this is all going to play out i'm wondering um what your plan is to communicate this to our families so the agreement that we have with the mea is that once we finished our initial work we would write a side letter so the oversight committee is meeting the end of january and
▶ 40:45 we're going to write our letter then and then we will send that out to families we agreed as a committee even though the the side letter says we can do it by the end of june we agreed as a committee to get it out as soon as possible you're not writing a side letter you're writing a communication to parents to the community right great will there be an opportunity for parents to ask questions I would assume there are but this is an agreement that we have with the union this and this is a vote by the school committee right absolutely I totally agree and I wish it started in September but aside from that there are some some families who still have I'm wondering if if we would have just an information session
▶ 41:37 Christine Casatelli: that maybe people could ask questions or at least at the schools if that could, if principals might be amenable to just having an information session on it. PTU, well, we'll discuss that with the principals. Okay, because there's still some questions about it there's still some questions about it and i want families to feel comfortable about this going forward well in advance of june thank you further questions discussion time is so short that ends epmp um thanks to to folks who worked on this agreement for a late start we look forward to the communication and um appreciate the subcommittee time thank you thank you very much next on our agenda is the finance and facilities subcommittee mr selm good evening
▶ 42:44 first on the finance and facilities subcommittee is the revolving accounts quarterly review i will defer to the superintendent again we have an agreement that we will bring the quarterly quarterly on a four time a year basis for those of us who don't know what quarterly means and update on the fund balance of the revolving accounts again I remind everybody revolving accounts change over time they ebb and flow depending on the activity so that if you look at this this list and you look at some of these things like the athletics balance it depends on coaches being paid over the year officials being paid if you look at the ecamp ecamp especially um our goal with ecamp is always to spend it down to zero once ecamp occurs
▶ 43:36 in june and there are other similar accounts uh the school lunch account as you know um it is a separate account that uh chartwells reports out on it pays their expenses it pays our meals tax we have been fortunate with chartwells over the past couple of years that they've had a small profit we've used that profit for upgrades and equipment in the cafeterias especially the high school cafeteria and if you have any questions makes an entrance it's been a night of it it's been priorities priorities um if you have any questions ms farrell and i are happy to answer any questions you have about any specific accounts but again you remember these ebb and flow over the year there is no vote required but is there any discussion
▶ 44:39 or questions to be had ms mcallister grant i just wanted to ask if the these accounts were impacted by the changes to the accounts that we talked about at the last meeting where the accounting structure was edited a little bit actually a couple of things that do not show up on this report that were there last time yeah one of them is the fees you sent me an email on summer stay in play no there was fees there's a there was a fund we were collecting the guys because for the Franklin program you start paying your fees in this school year for next year yep so that's been zeroed out so that's not here right now because we're not collecting those fees we're hoping to create something that's more defined as opposed to just a general fund okay the
▶ 45:29 other one that's not here from your previous one is the summer enrichment program that actually was money from summer school which we did it's been several years that we haven't had it so we decided to use that against the to offset the budget and then take it out of the mix because it's not something that we're using year to year I think it would be helpful if there was a column just that had the account number oh that's what I was trying to do was sort of match the budget last year's but I know that the chart of accounts was updated so thank you and if I may I believe in the previous budget document there was a a secondary column that had some minor explanation of each of those accounts and whether or not they were dedicated or more general in the future
▶ 46:29 as we have new members coming on so that they'll be a reminder of what each fund is for thank you that would be helpful any further questions or comments on revolving funds next order of business and this does require a vote would be the dollar maximums for student activity checking accounts in your packet there is a memo and again I will defer to the superintendent and her business officer Thank You mr. some again under chapter 71 section 47 a the school committee must vote on the maximum I think it's two years ago that we raised the maximum mainly to reflect the more expensive costs and the larger amount of monies we're taking in again things like the farm and travel we take in a great deal
▶ 47:19 of money ecamp the plays but again what I remind you with student activity funds can only be used for those activities that directly involve our students they cannot be involved they cannot be used for other matters okay motion to approve approve second motion made by Ms. Dugan seconded by Ms. Driscoll I believe any all those in favor any discussion questions comments I did that backwards my apologies it's a football banquet no I'm thinking about missing you ladies ed stations the third item and last item again requiring a vote is the ed station scholarship again in the packet there is a memo regarding the scholarship I remind you this is something we also touched on oh gosh probably about a
▶ 48:21 month ago in this chamber again I refer to the superintendent thank you so as I referenced earlier as you know there's a change in leadership that we're undergoing it at stations and as happens whenever we have a change of leadership in a major department we the first thing we do is review the previous directors practices policies procedures make sure that we have an accounting for everything that belongs to the program and in the course of doing that miss Farrell came to me and said until we get our hands wrapped around what we now have she didn't feel comfortable on recommending a it's not a scholarship and I'll talk to that in a moment a fee assistance so she has asked that we don't do that what we will continue to do is the same thing that we currently
▶ 49:19 do for any student who has a hardship we will take it on a case-by-case basis as an exercise we ran some numbers and as you can see it can be quite impactful unless we have a good system in place and so to that end I went out on my listserv and I asked my colleagues if they have similar situations and how they're handling it as I told mr. school the majority of the answers was well when you find out something would you please share it um but i did have at least three colleagues send me very detailed programs that they're using and miss farrell and i will sit down and look at those programs and see if they are adaptable to melrose so um we should have something probably in late spring on these subjects so prior to discussion i would entertain a motion
▶ 50:16 Jessica Dugan: she did not ask me for she's not out well we require a vote so so i would make a motion if i may madam chair to accept the uh the memo and the recommendations therein that's what i was looking for thank you second uh motion made by mr o'connell seconded by miss mcallister grant discussion miss dugan thanks um i i appreciate the recommendation and support it and um would just like to include that there are quite a few fee based programs that we do have and at this point informally any students with hardships or who are on free reduced lunch are being supported in a variety of ways i think in those programs so i think in any consideration with this it would be important to kind of look at the bigger picture across um ecc athletics instrumental music for the
▶ 51:10 Jessica Dugan: the elementary school etc so I think the the larger picture is really important rather than taking Ed's as a separate that is the intent when I read the materials that we shared I could see that some of my colleagues and they and what they shared with me they were in a similar position and it took them a while with the committee to get to where they needed to get to but they were as long as they were going to dive in they dived in deep and that's great and I do think while often as a district we don't necessarily qualify for assistance because of the percentage of students of low-income families I do think that if we're able to articulate that need a little bit more clearly it's possible that there's some opportunity to be found there I don't exactly know what it
▶ 51:57 would be but I think through this process it might provide some insight into that thank you any further comment motion is to accept the memo as uh written all in favor motion passes unanimously and this concludes finance and facilities for the evening next on our agenda is the thank you next on our agenda is the policy and planning subcommittee mr o'connell good evening thank you very much and happy hanukkah everybody thank you We have two items under policy and planning this evening. The first is our continuing journey with regard to the mask association school committee recommendations. In that regard, we have an updated mask policy grid for the committees and the public's review. We also have three policies before us in the packet.
▶ 53:02 These are on for informational review. do not require a vote or any comments or questions about the grid or other policies seeing none we'll bring those forward again at the next available opportunity the second item on our agenda under policy and planning is our school committee self-evaluation the packet contains all of our individual self-evaluation forms as well as the committee's executive summary of same This does require a vote. Is there a motion to accept the summary? So moved. Second. Made by Ms. McAllister-Grant, seconded by Ms. Dugan. Any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor? And it passes unanimously. And that concludes the policy and planning portion of our program. Thank you.
▶ 53:59 Margaret Raymond Driscoll: Thank you, Mr. O'Connell. next in our agenda is the school choice vote as you know this earlier in our meeting we held a public hearing regarding school choice which is our obligation under the law and at this time I would invite invite the committee to consider the packet documents before you it is a memo from the superintendent with respect to school choice I would invite her to speak to that well please thank you miss Driscoll this year I am recommending that the Melrose public schools does not I repeat not participate for in school choice for the 2018-2019 school year fiscal year 2019 I think we are all aware of our rising enrollment the strain on the on the teacher to student ratio this year we
▶ 55:06 patch together some solutions at the secondary level hired four people at the elementary level and we will need additional staffing again next year that number remains to be determined registration will take place in February if we get to February vacation and I have 300 kids pre-registered I think we can probably safely predict another 15 K's but the high school I'm looking at my November 1 numbers the high school on November 1 was at a thousand six students obviously they're feeling we had a great number of students return or transfer in they're feeling that impact and while the middle school is at a low point that low point will begin to reverse itself next year because the incoming fifth grade for next year is predicted to be 282 so their numbers
▶ 56:05 Margaret Raymond Driscoll: will begin to rise as well so I don't think we have the space please remember under school choice law students who are currently enrolled with us have the right to stay with us until they graduate thank you so for purposes of discussion I would entertain a motion to not participate in school choice for school year 18 second 19 made by mr. O'Connell seconded by miss McAllister grand discussion on that motion seeing none all in favor opposed that motion carries unanimously next on our agenda is data presentations as you may recall from last year's document in 2015 we had a substantive discussion on the kinds of reporting that we would expect from the administration in order to do the business that we needed to do this was intended to accomplish two things one it
▶ 57:03 Margaret Raymond Driscoll: was intended to allow the committee to share with the superintendent basically a year in advance the kinds of data and information that we would expect on our agendas to support the votes that we need to take and the discussion we would have secondly it it is designed to keep us within our roles and responsibilities so the data is aligned with the work that we do and it allows the administration to stay aligned with the work that they are responsible for doing so this 2016 was the second year and that is the date that is referenced at the top of this memo and we are now in the third year you can see that the document is extremely similar the only change proposed is the addition of the maintenance report which is something that we have been getting I think it was
▶ 57:53 Margaret Raymond Driscoll: an omission in the past so that's in effect not a substantive change it is more a correction so that is this is an item that does require a vote so I would invite the a motion by the committee motion to accept the memo as written the recommendation of the memo is written very good second seconded by mr. O'Connell the superintendent is indicated that the end of cycle department review has now been moved to June so I would entertain a friendly amendment to that effect so again it's about halfway down Department review end of cycle is currently listed as September and the end the superintendent is suggesting if it be the will of the committee that that be changed to June so I would consider that
▶ 58:52 Margaret Raymond Driscoll: a friendly amendment if that is acceptable to those who made the motion and the second I would accept that as a friendly amendment indeed very good so So we are back to the original motion, which is to approve the data presentations document with the change noted. Any further discussion? Ms. McAllister-Gran? Could you just clarify the enrollments, including kindergarten enrollments, why are those under P&P policy and procedure rather than EP&P, ed programs and personnel? The last two items. Ah, yes. I think that's what had been done probably at the time. Okay. my recollection is probably your recollection that this year we were putting them under EP&P we did well no we didn't they fell under P&P but they
▶ 59:43 Margaret Raymond Driscoll: made more sense to me under EP&P which is why I was okay so I think that's a good question I think the original and thank you for the reminder too is where you're kind of doing a look back I think what we were doing is the our enrollments are the drivers of our policy and our planning particularly the planning so that's where that's why they landed in that spot I don't want to take away the only two items so thanks for taking one for the team further discussion seeing none all in favor opposed that motion carries unanimously next on our agenda is a reflection at the end of the year similar to our self-evaluation and we are looking at the goals that we set for ourselves last year so you can see that we set for ourselves three goals and we have
▶ 1:00:41 Margaret Raymond Driscoll: addressed many of these and I would entertain any discussion around the extent to which those were achieved or any comments that anyone on the committee is interested in making seeing none I congratulate all of you for a significant hard work in a very intentional way around achieving these goals in the interest of benefiting both our community and our students so thank you to all of you for that hard work next on our agenda are the proposed action items that we discussed we we attempted to discuss a couple of times the hour became late and so it was moved to this meeting you can see that the the changes that are in the memo the only changes are the dates pushed out a little bit to reflect the shift in moving
▶ 1:01:38 Margaret Raymond Driscoll: the agenda item from its original planned discussion date ultimately to this date so i would invite any discussion at this time or a motion subject to the will of the committee Madam Chair, I would make a motion to approve. Motion to approve by Mr. O'Connell. Do I have a second? Second. Seconded by Ms. Dugan. Discussion? Ms. DeSalle. Just for clarification, this is something that requires a vote, not merely discussion? Correct. Because we voted on our goals, now we need to vote on our action items. Excellent. Thank you. Further discussion? Seeing none, all in favor? Nope. All in favor? Opposed? that motion carries unanimously next is our liaison report so I would certainly invite anyone who would like to share work on their in their liaison positions
▶ 1:02:37 to comment at this time mr. so the Melrose Human Rights Commission held a reception on Saturday no I'm sorry Sunday at the BB estate celebrating 25 years of existence it was very nice to see past commissioners and present commissioners commingling and sharing and a good time was had by all just as a reminder save the date as the MLK day of service is coming in January very quickly here so mark your calendars so that you can give back to the community more than you already do thank you thank you anyone else miss Dugan not necessarily a report just a comment on liaison roles in general mr. O'Connell has spoken to it recently but it's such an important way for us as committee members to be informed and to also be available to our communities
▶ 1:03:41 Jessica Dugan: through these roles so I just want to the to the folks who I liaise with my very much appreciate you being very welcomed in those discussions and and what it did to inform my thinking as a member of the committee and and hope that we as a committee continue to really embrace and and dive deeper into those into those roles thank you mr. McAllister grand I just want to on behalf of birth to five Melrose birth of five the the principals of the elementary schools held their annual welcome to kindergarten presentation and then subsequently the series of tours of each of the schools for incoming kindergarten parents and they'll be doing it the second iteration of that show and after the holiday break and I just wanted to thank them for all the
▶ 1:04:38 Margaret Raymond Driscoll: work that they did on that presentation the idea originally came out of birth to five and they took it and ran with it and have a really comprehensive presentation that they do the some of the tours that the schools were led by students who are members of the student councils so I think it's just become a very comprehensive and informative event for new families to our district anyone else seeing none next on our agenda you will see the rolling agenda as reference at our last meeting we had I had taken the ruling agenda and discussed that at length with the superintendent heard feedback from you folks and a tentative agenda is before you we had also voted to change a couple meetings in there based on religious holidays and so forth so you'll also
▶ 1:05:32 Margaret Raymond Driscoll: note that something new this year pardon me is the inclusion of some of the community events that it is the privilege of the committee to participate in so that is certainly there for our incoming folks and as much for the community to show the importance to us of community involvement taking the opportunities to listen and participate and support the many organizations and families in the city of Melrose so any questions on the rolling agenda that will be updated periodically as always if you have suggestions for changes please bring them forward and there's certainly a process for agendas last on our agenda this evening is the election process of the school committee chairman and vice-chairman the there is a packet
▶ 1:06:35 document that explains this the superintendent oversees and facilitates this process and I will sit in the horseshoe while this process I'd like to ask the newly elected members to please join us at the horseshoe Mr. Umpremsky, Ms. McAndrews, Ms. Rozzi-Thomas, enough seats can we start with a go-noodle activity yes I want Mr. O'Connor to lead us in a go-noodle activity go right into that I think we could we could use that as a fundraiser people would pay to see it in partnership all right thank you everyone welcome to our new members I am requesting nominations for chair madam secretary if I'm a tooth for the 2018 calendar year mr. O'Connell no I didn't know if was 2018 thank you madam secretary I would like to nominate Margaret Driscoll to serve another term
▶ 1:08:04 Christine Casatelli: as chair of this committee uh seconds are not um required in this process are there any other nominations seeing none is there any discussion by members miss casatelli i've known margaret driscoll for was it 10 10 years now seems like an eternity doesn't it and i've always found her leadership to be collaborative and she inspires me as a committee member to do my best work she is relentless in the work that she does for her for the committee and I feel like with her leadership and training our new members this committee will continue to do its best work any other comments second let's just go would you like to say a few words I think my colleagues for their support as always it is a privilege to serve the people in this
▶ 1:09:11 Margaret Raymond Driscoll: horseshoe our families our staff our students and all the larger community of Melrose there are many people out there who depend on our schools and our children to be their guiding light for the future so it's a privilege to serve I am grateful for your confidence in my work and I am grateful for your support with that I will do a roll call vote Ms. Cassatelli yes Mr. Selm yes Mayor Dolan yes Ms. Driscoll yes Mr. Obradsky yes Ms. Rozzy Thomas yes Ms. McAndrews yes Mr. O'Connell yes Ms. McAllister-Grand Ms. Dugan yes and I think that is unanimous vote Ms. Hogan we will repeat the process for the position of Vice Chairman for the 2018 calendar year Ms. Driscoll I would like to nominate Mr. Ed O'Connell as Vice Chairman of
▶ 1:10:09 Christine Casatelli: the Melrose School Committee for the FY19 school year are there any other nominations or 2000 2018 2018 calendar not the school year right it's the calendar um are there are there any members of the committee who wish to comment miss casatelli again mr o'connell has been a wonderful colleague always bringing up new ideas i remember him sitting at the public participation table with um with his students who he was helping to become civically engaged so i think we're a better committee with you on it and thank you for all your hard work now and in the future any of anybody else mr o'connor would you like to say a few words um no thank you very much miss castelli and i accept the nomination and i'm happy to serve the committee in any capacity
▶ 1:11:07 thank you again I will do a roll call vote Ms. Cassatelli yes Mr. Selm yes Mayor Doran yes Ms. Driscoll yes Mr. Obramski yes Ms. Rozzi-Thomas yes Ms. McAndrews yes Mr. O'Connell yes Ms. McAllister-Grant yes Ms. Dugan yes that is again an unanimous vote I thank you all we have a chair and vice chair for next year um just a reminder to everybody we will repeat this process on january 9th unfortunately without miss casatelli miss mcgallister grand and miss dugan and may i have a point to personal privilege you certainly may all right um i i just want to thank uh the three women who are stepping down um i think one of the things that i have said to um all of you in private and in public is you definitely have changed the vibe of
▶ 1:12:04 this committee I think it is a more welcoming place I think it's a little bit more relaxed I think we sometimes have fun together even when we disagree and I think thank you all for your support of the Melrose public schools supporting my students my staff and myself for you two over the past four years two years and I can't count that high miss Cassatelli but really your your spouses and your children should be very proud of the sacrifices their mothers and partners made on behalf of a lot of other children so thank you mayor Dolan yeah I just like to say the following I was at the football banquet so I was a little late as I've always said being on the school committee is the hardest job in government is the hardest there's only been a close second
▶ 1:13:01 it is the hardest job of government and Jamie when we had a broken kindergarten process you had recently moved to the city and you came to the superintendent and you didn't just complain but you said I'll help you fix it and you spent hours and hours and hours and now although it's never perfect it is a million times better in the level of anxiety and fear that people had that kept them up you know it could be we're physically ill because of what they were going through use you you in in others and commit in your committee solve that problem that is something that not everyone knows but everyone's benefiting from Jessica you have always when people wouldn't run when people don't want to run for to school committee to make really kind of bad to say tough
▶ 1:13:51 decisions not bad and you rose up from the leadership of the Lincoln School leader in that school that had been through bad times and great times and you have always always kept the pressure on to secure middle management which is being eliminated throughout districts which is really the blocking and tackling of how kids do better and and I can't thank you enough four years is a long time and you made an incredible difference Chris we sat for my first term right with Katherine Clark who just moved to the city in the BB school for in front of hundreds of people every other night for hours because the city was was almost in receivership and bankrupt and you're still here right both of us right and you have been absolutely incredible you have made some
▶ 1:14:52 of the tougher people only know the tough decisions that this woman made like really tough decisions that the type of CEOs of major companies have to make and she did it with grace and dignity and never took a dime right and you have built you have been one of the people if I were to to say that have built our schools to where they are today you would be on the Mount Rushmore you'd be one of the people on Mount Rushmore you like my dad served a lot of years in the school committee to serve on the school committee not for any greater aspiration or benefit so you are a hero to this community and you should be thanked by everyone you want who sees you on the street and your family should be thanked too so so thank you you've you've given far more than you've taken
▶ 1:15:43 Christine Casatelli: and thank you thank you miss Casita thanks Rob for those words so 16 years has gone by fast or slowly depending on what particular night it is and what vote we're taking so in all those years there's really has been a lot that's happened in the district there's we built a state-of-the-art middle school we put together an early childhood education center we put together an after-school program at every school we have new programs at the high school that challenge our students in their studies and in sports and in the arts and none of that could have happened if it weren't for my school committee colleagues past and present who have worked on these programs and voted to make them happen I'd also like to thank the city officials like Rob who always
▶ 1:16:51 Christine Casatelli: had the school made them a top priority I'd like to thank all the four superintendents plus an interim who I've served with especially superintendent Taymor who's always been an exceptional partner in the school committee and as I've gotten older I've gotten grumpier and I thank Cindy for her patience in those meetings that I have with her that poor Diane has to close the door because they get a little loud sometimes I'd like to thank all of our teachers who have become some of my best friends here in Melrose and for our administrators and staff who do everything they can every day help our kids to make our school a special place I'd like to thank in particular all the families who are so generous with their with their time and their donations most
▶ 1:17:51 Christine Casatelli: of all I'd like to thank our students who have always made the school committee the best job in the world so people have asked me what my favorite moment has been as a school committee member and my favorite moment is every Melrose high school graduation where I see our community at its best and work and see those kids as they go off to do the best things in the world people always ask also asked me what I'll be doing now with all my spare time and I shared with them and I'll share with you that I am in I'm in the middle of a PhD program and with in education with a specialty in literacy and I can truly say that I would never have attempted that if it weren't for my time on the school committee which has been a life-changing experience so I hope for
▶ 1:18:58 Jessica Dugan: our future school committee members that this will also be a life-changing changing experience for you in conclusion I've been honored to serve in this job that I love in the city that I love and for that I am extremely grateful to the citizens of Melrose thank you very much would anyone else like to comment I should have spoken before miss Casatelli but I did want I want to say thank you to a whole bunch of people my family in the community um but mostly I want to say thank you to this group of people it has been very enjoyable to do this hard work with you and I ran for school committee because I wanted to bring an urgent yet positive and collaborative and productive voice to the table I hope I was able to do that and I'm excited to see this group
▶ 1:20:22 Jessica Dugan: continue in that way so new folks thank you we'll be watching and Cindy and I were having a conversation within the last month or so and it was it was normal and fun and and we were pushing each other and she said isn't it time that you start to wind down and I paused for a minute and I said you know I'm really looking forward to continuing I don't really see this as a wind down for me my kids have a lot of years left and I'm excited to continue thanks thank you does anyone else have a comment then I will speak for you if you don't mind your work has been outstanding we're grateful for your service and for your love of our children so any further comments seeing none I'm incredibly grateful to all of you your service amazes me every day I will miss you if
▶ 1:21:52 Margaret Raymond Driscoll: you know me this is who I am I will miss you all I'm delighted to welcome our new folks with us and I am delighted to see us all as sitting right here as a transition team that is going to continue to evolve the amazing work of our staff our administration and the hard work that these volunteers do for that huge paycheck every day but that's not why we are in public service we consider it a gift and as mayor Dolan so eloquently said we all get more than we give so thank you again unless there are further comments I will take entertain a a motion for adjournment adjourn motion to adjourn motion to adjourn has a tally seconded by miss Dugan discussion seeing none all in favor opposed that motion
▶ 1:22:49 Margaret Raymond Driscoll: carries unanimously and we are adjourned