School Committee — 2019-05-21

Agenda

1. Superintendent's Update (5 minutes) (55:40)
2. Personnel Report (57:20)
3. Warrants (57:52)
4. MVMMS Field Trip Request (58:52)
5. Plans for Summer: School, Enrichment, and Expectations (15 minutes) (1:06:00)
6. Elementary Handbook (15 minutes) vote required (1:08:05)
7. Changes to MHS Girls Hockey (10 minutes) vote required (1:10:30)
8. Proposed 1:1 Program for Secondary Schools (15 minutes) vote required (1:24:40)
9. Consideration of CETUSA Foreign Exchange program’s Application to accept Italian Students for the 2019-2020 School Year (10 minutes) vote required (1:55:12)
10. Presentation of Reformatted Budget Document (30 minutes) (2:17:08)
11. No New Business
12. Liaison Reports (5 minutes) (2:26:35)

Minutes

CITY OF MELROSE MELROSE SCHOOL COMMITTEE MINUTES● MAY 21, 2019 Aldermanic Chamber, Melrose City Hall Regular Meeting 7:00 PM 562 Main Street, Melrose, MA 02176

(ID # 7248) Announcements - Superintendent Superintendent's Update (5 minutes)

(ID # 7197) Consent Personnel Report Adopted

(ID # 7253) Consent MVMMS Field Trip Request

(ID # 7243) Educational Programs and Personnel Plans for Summer: School, Enrichment, and Expectations (15 minutes)

(ID # 7245) Educational Programs and Personnel Elementary Handbook (15 minutes) vote required

(ID # 7254) Consent Changes to MHS Girls Hockey (10 minutes) vote required

(ID # 7250) Educational Programs and Personnel Proposed 1:1 Program for Secondary Schools (15 minutes) vote required

(ID # 7251) Educational Programs and Personnel Consideration of CETUSA Foreign Exchange program’s Application to accept Italian Students for the 2019-2020 School Year (10 minutes) vote required

(ID # 7246) Finance and Facilities Presentation of Reformatted Budget Document (30 minutes)

(ID # 7249) Policy and Planning No New Business

(ID # 7247) Announcements - Chair Liaison Reports (5 minutes) 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 1 Updated 6/5/2019 1:52 PM

Transcript

▶ 0:04 Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the meeting of the Melrose School Committee for this 21st day of May in the year 2019. For the record, let me state that this meeting is being recorded and televised as is our custom. Let us stand as we are able for the Pledge of Allegiance. Thank you very much. First up is our school spotlight series, and tonight the spotlight shines on the Franklin School. Ms. Rosso, please. Terrific. Welcome. Thank you. thank you for having us i thought it was a good opportunity to just i know as as we begin to think about i'll continue to think about some of the space challenges that we have i i thought i would bring you back to 10 years ago when we were first having to take the ripley and the roosevelt and

▶ 1:22 combine them and i think the school committee had a lot to do with that that journey over the past 10 years so it was 10 years in september that we were at the franklin so i thought that i would bring you through some of those highlights as we came together i can remember um superintendent casey called it the suits that jenny cordock and i were going to be meeting with the suits at the franklin and had been used for a couple years as buildings were rebuilt and it was a mess and could we envision it as an early childhood center and we both were first-year administrators and thought how could we do this but the reason why patty white lambright was there with us was the district had seen an increase of special education needs and more not just in the numbers

▶ 2:19 but in the types of of concerns that families were bringing to the district and how were we going to meet the needs to provide inclusive practices for all of our students and then as we went through to present we faced budget demands and increased educational demands for readiness moving from a half day to a full day kindergarten and then the family needs have changed and the district needs to provide full day and full year programming and now we're at a place where we're really looking at how do we meet the space needs of the district what can we as a franklin do for that so we need to stay true to the core belief in who we are that we meet the needs of all all students and that all students are an active part of our classrooms so i went

▶ 3:21 back through some of the archives and history of of the franklin and the the furthest back i could get numbers were from 2011 so that's where a lot of these are and that main focus of why we were bringing the roosevelt in the ripley two really strong programs together but it was to provide for what superintendent casey and assistant superintendent now patty white lambright were identifying of increasing special education needs of students and so at that time in 2011 there were 39 students receiving special education support from early childhood and 156 students from the Franklin in 2011 went on to be part of the kindergarten classroom now today the children going into going into next school year we will

▶ 4:18 have 82 students in the early childhood center who are receiving special education support 174 students will go from the early childhood center this year into the Melrose public schools km1 that it's a hundred and ten percent increase in the related services that we're providing to early childhood students so we did with I will say the foresight of mayor Dolan and and superintendent Casey and the school committee really have made significant changes and i think we are those students are now at the high school so the budget demands i know when superintendent taymor came one of her first charges to me was that we needed to be self-sustaining that we needed to really we at by that point in 2011 we knew that the budget was

▶ 5:15 tight and so all of the title one funding for the district had been used for at that point in 2011 it was used for 15 students early childhood students and it we shifted it all to the elementary schools and were able to with that same funding support math and ela tutors for all of the elementary student needs there they if you look on the left on the 2011 you can see how many different program options there were at the Franklin at that time a lot of half-day programs and there were programs that were really Monday through Friday Monday through Thursday and then the 9 to 1 30 programs half-day and full day the tuition if you look over to the right hand side and currently the four five three and two day programs are the only programs that we have left at the

▶ 6:19 Franklin and that and it represents the tuition figures represent a 45% increase in tuition in order to be self-sustaining the other challenge that we have have met not just at the Franklin but across the straight state is the educational demands of readiness for students in 2011 on in early childhood we were following the guidelines for preschool learning experiences from the Department of Early Education and Care they were great I still use them lots of times refer to them they tell you how to set up a classroom but we shifted and moved to the curriculum standards as did everybody about that same time that the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education for the first time included pre-k in their in the writing of their

▶ 7:15 standards and so we have now have standards for English language arts mathematics for science technology and engineering the history stand and social stand science standards were just updated and include the pre-k and then in 2015 the standards for social emotional learning and approaches to play and learning were included so the Franklin curriculum includes all of that this year a new challenge we took on the to kindergarten and if we weren't sure what high expectations meant we got to see it firsthand and I invited what I invited both of our kindergarten teachers and one went home sick today so she's not joining us but they certainly have worked so hard to make sure that the kindergarten children at the Franklin are as ready for first grade as

▶ 8:15 any other children are and it has been an exciting but I will say challenging journey throughout the year to make sure that that academic rigor for kindergarten is there and you can let Kathy talk a little bit about what the kindergarten standards and framework looks like so like and all the kindergartens in the district are very similar in that we have a 90 minute literacy block every morning and then we have a math block of 60 plus minutes depending on the day then we also do every day is writing we actually one of one of the students said to me miss Bishop we write morning we write noon we write in the afternoon we write a lot because it's obviously incorporated into so much of what we do and then meeting those kindergarten science and social

▶ 9:05 studies benchmarks as well so that's all we are we have our block scheduling we have ours so that we're making sure that we're meeting their needs all throughout the day so one of the other challenges that we have we as a district have faced and the Franklin has really certainly been on the forefront of that is the families need for full-day programming so in 2011 you can see the numbers I think the total number there is a little bit hidden it's 224 where that was the total enrollment and now going into next year we are currently enrolled for 317 but our capacity and again based on work that you have done in partnership with the administrative team the capacity of the Franklin right now is at 374 so

▶ 10:01 that's a it's a 42% increase in the enrollment capacity at the Franklin so then the other the other piece of information data that I looked at was the need for extended day and full year programming for our families in 2011 they had first the first start of the early bird program there were 17 students enrolled then the same play after school daily there were between 20 and 25 students and there were two to three staff members who ran that that program we currently have 50 students that come every morning between 60 and 90 students are with us after school there are 32 staff members and seven classrooms and again when we talk about inclusion our students with special education needs it is not part of their IEP programming the parents paid their

▶ 11:07 parents paid tuition but those students that are with us as well in that full day programming and can be with us from 730 until 6 o'clock at night and their needs are being met in that program on early release days this is probably one of our most challenging to meet the staffing needs there are 88 students who need to be provided with with programming in order for our teachers to have that time to do their their PD in our summer program which will start we finish school on on the 12th of June and summer programming will start on the 17th of June and there will be 60 60 plus students so the 60 students represent parents who are paying tuition and then our extended school year which is the obligation of the district to provide those educational services for

▶ 12:00 our students with IEPs for six-week summer program so a significant that to represents a significant increasing in both programming and enrollment at the Franklin so our message through all of it needs to remain and be consistent in the same whether the the challenging piece and I can remember Cindy talk talking to me one of my first encounters with her to think with my head and not with my heart which is hard for me to do oftentimes because I know that in all of these changes that that there are families that cannot sustain that 45% tuition increase and they can't have their kids there with us as often as possible and so really thinking outside the box how can we get our message and how can we share and reach those community members who who can't pay

▶ 12:55 tuition and who are not part of the Franklin we still share once a week we share our building with North suburban child and Family Resource Network who comes and use our uses our building twice for two classes for alphabet soup for families and i think it's a donation if the families want to be part of that we also in our front lobby we have for any community members there is a family resource binder any family that walks in often i find find an article in the binder with that i can share with them on a resource oftentimes pointing them to the mayor's website to birth to five so that they can get to know the community and find other resources if when lots of times when i have to tell them what

▶ 13:45 the tuition is they cannot they can't they think it's going to be a free program and it because it's not try to point them where they could be getting a free program the picture on the left which is kind of hard for you to see is a display in our front lobby which the kindergarten class you'll get to see in the next slide oh in that slide we'll read the story for you and it's about reading to your bunny making sure that we value um reading and that that sense of oral language that we so value in early childhood is is we carry that over and share that message with our families the boxes that i brought one box to just pass around their take-home boxes that we share with families they were funded through a melrose ed foundation grant that's a picture of them all

▶ 14:36 lined up in our teachers room and teachers will send those boxes home to extend the learning for students who may not be able to be with us for more than a day or a couple days and then the other the second picture is the latest grant that was written by Melrose ed foundation the math boxes were so successful as take home that we did literacy boxes let literacy bags and they're hanging in the teachers room for families to borrow the books and the activities and it gives them guidelines of what they can do at home for for teaching and oops we don't need to go back right at the bottom that read to your bunny the kindergarten I and before she starts that Kathy you might need to help her the kindergarten class read this and when I saw it I thought to said

▶ 15:33 to the teacher miss Robichaux they're hitting the smart board really hard it's our it's the first smart board we've had at the Franklin but it it echoes so they're really not hitting it as hard as so don't worry because Neil Neil saw watched it with me Ellis today and he said the same thing they're hitting it really hard but they're not public service message brought to you by our kindergarten classes in Miss Bishop's class also so that was mr. Bishop's class who was reading that my class also read it a little gentler on the smart one but we also read it and what we part of our writing program is to write some persuasive writing to try to persuade people so we previously we had done one about recycling around our science unit encouraging people to recycle so the

▶ 17:12 students decided to write ones that would encourage parents to either read to their children or a lot of them use the words read to their bunny your bunny but they understand the bunny really is them so one of my friends just wrote you can learn to read your dad and mom will be proud and you'll love you'll love their phonetically spelling it I like to read to my mom and my dad I am a good reader this one says read to your bunny because books make kids and dads and moms calm and that said read to your bunny so your bunny will read to you and i have to get to i won't i won't hand them all out um but this one this one was one that really made me said read to your kids so your kids can read to you and he drew the dad reading

▶ 18:03 to the child and then he said the next day and now the child's reading to the dad and it's hard to see but in the little speech bubble he says the dad's saying they they grow up so fast so they all were highly encouraging their parents to read to them so they could read to to so that then they could read to their parents someday and all of them i have to say these kindergartners it's been my most this is the top pre-k for many many years this is my first year with kindergarten and one of the biggest joys is watching them learn to read to see that light bulb go off and all of a sudden they're reading everything they can one of my students just came back from vacation and his mother said he was reading everything everywhere like he he couldn't stop

▶ 18:54 reading like the signs and the street signs and everything and she said it was just amazing to see so that's definitely the writing and the reading go together and it's really a big leaping kindergarten a lot some of them start out and they don't know all their letters they don't know all their sounds and by the end of the year they're and they're reading books which is amazing amazing job so you all are aware of those space needs and the challenges for our right currently and in the future and at the Franklin our message will continue to be the same for our students that we are going to support them and give all of our Franklin students wings to fly the wings that are pictured there are made

▶ 19:39 up of feathers each each wing is made up of 320 feathers representing each of the children at the Franklin they all made a feather and we put them together to for art display a busy year but a successful year at the Franklin terrific thank you both mr. Osso and miss Bishop and all of the team at the Franklin school really great great stuff great to have that that history any comments or questions from the committee mr. Kendrick please thank you thank you both so much for being here it's great to see you and thank you for that my favorite part was the song and the reading I I'm wondering if you can tell us a little bit about now that you're getting towards the end of the school year and the kindergarteners are all going to be dispersed to their elementary school

▶ 20:34 other elementary schools for first grade what your because I know you're doing a lot to get to help that transition can you tell us a little bit about what you're doing as they they move on to other schools sure I will say the demands of kindergarten main we need to maintain calm through June 12th and there are lots of exciting end-of-year activities we met probably about a month a half ago to map out what that end of the year would look like we had chicks that were hatched they hatched about two weeks ago and really I think the focus at the Franklin in some ways we bring to kindergarten that developmental approach that says what will best meet the needs of students and decided not to have the

▶ 21:25 eggs in the classroom because they have other work to do and that we felt like it would be distracting we also felt with that the social emotional needs of some of the children that it may not be the best place to be safe for those eggs and the students so that we chose a different location for them I think we took a look at every activity that they were going to do from DPW day that I've only heard about in the past and never had to participate in all to field trips at drumlin farm lots of different activities that the students are going to be doing with peers from the other elementary schools and some of them to yesterday we had field day and we intentionally decided to just make it a Franklin field day not to make it all of go with all of the schools we will be

▶ 22:19 doing our end of the year concert with the Roosevelt school so we will be participating with them several of the schools have shared their end of the year activities PTO we were invited to the Lincoln picnic on Sunday and so I was able to send that email I can't share emails with the PTO but send the PTO flyer to those specific Lincoln families that children that will be placed at Lincoln horseman Hoover also sent me just recently sent me their invitation and so that too will be shared so individually we've had transition meetings without the building principals and the special ed coordinators from the buildings and staff have been coming to visit the kindergarten rooms to get to know our students through the instructional

▶ 23:11 support team process and the IEP process there are there are transition documents that were due to the office yesterday by all the teachers and those will be shared with the teachers the kindergarten dibble summaries will all be printed and shared with incoming the receiving principals too thank you any further comments or questions seeing none thank you both very very much for being with us we greatly appreciate your time next up is the public comment portion of our meeting and without objection the public comment portion of our meeting will be open this is the portion of our meeting when members of the public afford the opportunity to address the committee and matters of interest or concern if there are any members of the public who wish to

▶ 24:14 address the committee please come forward one by one and sign in if you would and identify yourself and we generally afford folks five minutes so please and welcome good evening superintendent haymore and school committee members i appreciate all of you that read my emails over the past week i came to talk to you all in person about the ecamp cancellation for fifth grade my name is michael tubinis i am a guidance counselor of 11 years in cambridge i am a parent of a first and a fourth grader in horse man so this this cut really strikes deeply for me with my fourth grader moving on to fifth grade and i'm also a school site council member so i consider myself to be very involved with the school community and i

▶ 25:09 think it's important that parents and the district work in partnership when making big decisions so So I just wrote it down a little bit. I'm going to read it, and then I'll be out of your hair. I also invited, just so you know, a representative of Camp Cody to come let you know a little bit about what they do. I'm not sure how much you know. I spoke to the program coordinator of Camp Cody, which is where the Horseman School goes, and he was kind enough to come down from New Hampshire and drive two hours. He actually is from Stoneham, so he's going to speak after me if you all would allow that to happen. All right. It is deeply troubling to see the dismantling of a beloved program that has been

▶ 25:52 in place for decades and by most accounts has had a profoundly positive impact on the children of Melrose. All this is done with no input from families or the community during the decision making process. This is a PTO and family funded program. Yet the decision to end appears to have been ultimately made by the superintendent. How can that be right? I'm aware that the committee led that there is a committee to be led by several principals to explore alternatives to e camp but where was the PTO input or input from parents who have experienced the camp firsthand where was the parent voice in this issue the superintendent clearly has the authority to make decisions without school committee vote or parent or community voice in many if not all cases I can

▶ 26:35 understand the need for a leader to make decisions leaders also need to understand what is important to a community and for many in Melrose e camp is a part of the fabric of the educational experience of our community in this situation if there were problems we should have discussed this as a community to work to a solution given the enormous amount of trust and confidence that this community displayed in passing a five million dollar override this decision really does not seem to be the best way to demonstrate a commitment to the best interests of our students or instill confidence in the decision-making process in general stakeholders must be involved it is not a secret that the teacher contract negotiations are well underway right now

▶ 27:16 and it's just as one is just one of the many educators who are also parents and Melrose we are all well aware of what a powerful bargaining chip removing the responsibility of staffing a camp could be in the negotiation process it's hard not to be cynical and question the motives of the adults involved is this decision really in the best interest of our children as an educator who is often asked to go beyond my everyday duties I fully appreciate that staffing eCamp is not without its challenges and if we truly value experiential learning and programs like this then we need to compensate our teachers appropriately with comp days or money or both often we hear about the innovative and forward-thinking ideas of our school district but this decision seems to be

▶ 27:59 regressive we are taking the away the opportunity to participate I mean to practice 21st century skills of collaboration problem-solving and critical thinking in a real-world setting progressive and creative education seeks out these opportunities faces the challenges and and figures out I'm sorry figures out solutions I apologize finally I urge you to make a serious commitment to improving communication with the community that you serve time and time again opportunities to earn trust from this community have been missed in ways that are difficult to comprehend and while I was a huge proponent of the override decisions like this one especially the process behind making it make me increasingly sympathetic to those who

▶ 28:40 voted against it because there's a deep mistrust in the decision-making process I am sincerely hopeful that you will include parents in the future I would be one of those parents that would be more than happy to be involved and helping everyone make decisions that are in best interest of our kids we are all in this to help our kids so that's it thank you everybody i appreciate your time and um is it okay if this gentleman that came down a couple hours to speak i it's a bit unusual quite funny well first of all thank you mr yes fear remarks appreciate it i mean does the committee have any thoughts about this i mean it strikes me that we we have a you know a contractual relationship uh past present uh

▶ 29:26 potentially future any thoughts on the part of the committee in this regard seeing them please come forward if you could identify yourself thank you let me speak I appreciate it I'm not from Melrose I'm from Stoneham don't hold that against me so I'm just going to talk briefly about the history here and and really speak about the positives about the camp trip you know there are several reasons why the trip is being cut but like I said I want to focus on the positives so let me introduce myself my name is Anderson Moore I work with Cody outdoor education which has two locations one in New Hampshire on Lake Ossipee and one on Cape Cod that's where the three of the Melrose schools went this spring this both of these camps used to be part of nature's classroom

▶ 30:23 which is a big organization in New England but just recently both of the sites had sort of decided to run their own programs these are the only two family-owned sites within nature's classroom both of these camps are owned by individual families as opposed to the YMCA or big corporations I think both of these camps are committed to really providing excellent outdoor experiences for students not just during the school year but during the summer camp as well they're big summer camp operations and they deal with all sorts of populations students with special needs students with allergies to certain foods so it's something that we've been dealing with for years and years we think we're pretty good at it actually at this point all of our all of our kitchen staff is

▶ 31:16 full-year employees as opposed to some of the other sites where they're bringing in temporary kitchen staff to handle some of these large groups of kids that may not be able to handle all the allergies that are coming along with these types of trips these days we always have a registered nurse on-site at set both locations they'll be always available 24 7 one of the things I would like to speak about is our inclusion we've dealt with as I said wide-ranging populations schools from Wakefield Redding Malden Lynn all surrounding towns who have been coming to this kind of program for years and years who bring kids with special needs I'll tell you a brief story I worked with nature's classroom for ten years in one week I had a student in my field group that was

▶ 32:09 a paraplegic in a wheelchair and dad pushed him around the whole week and it was one of the best weeks I've ever had an outdoor ed to see his smile at the end of the week was unbelievable and continues to be a real motivating factor for why I continue to do this now I know curriculum can be a big part of this kind of trip but we work with each school to tailor the curriculum to the needs of each school and all of our curriculum is NGSS aligned which is the new science standards so our curriculum is really 21st century and so we can provide great experiences for the kids that can supplement their science curriculum in that they do in school I also wanted to just mention that the the reviews from the Melrose schools this year on their trip this spring were

▶ 33:02 outstanding they were raving about the food the medical care the buildings and the facility in the program itself and so as I said I just want to focus on the positives I don't know what happened order in Rhode Island but I do want to just read just a couple of quotes from some kids that have come to our program I think they're pretty profound so this is from a girl this spring this trip has been great before I came here I was pretty shy and kept my mouth closed but during a team-building exercise where I had to lead the group with a girl I never met things changed at first I was worried and very out of my comfort zone but then I learned that it was okay to take chances and meet new people.

▶ 33:46 Hopefully I will take that into my life and find new friends and the girl who I was working with is now one of my very good friends. At Cody Outdoor Education I think I've torn down some walls with people that I haven't known. I also think that Cody Outdoor Ed reminded me of how much I like nature and that I haven't been thinking about that lately. It also has given me a new way to look at having fun and in the end I think this was one of my favorite experiences and I'll read just one more and all it I'll let you guys move on I learned that not everything works out the way you plan it sometimes you just need to go with the flow or work it out since I'm spoiled at home I expect it to be the same but I

▶ 34:35 got an unexpected surprise and it worked out great so you know we provide an awesome science experience for the kids but as you saw here not almost none of that would mentioned any of the science it's really the social emotional part that is a really big part of what we do kids surprisingly grow up a lot in just a few days on this trip some of the kids that come it's the first time away from home and you know for a lot of kids that's that's a big growing up moment so I you know obviously I'm passionate about this this is what I do for a living but I think this is something that kids especially at this day and age need more and more of getting outside interacting with each other and obviously without the cell phones so I would just love for this to continue in

▶ 35:26 Melrose and and hopefully we can make that happen I'd be happy to help in any way I can so thank you very much for your time I appreciate it I know this wasn't a little out of the ordinary so I really do appreciate it thank you you welcome thank you very much miss Bray welcome hi I find this chamber to be incredibly intimidating so imagine how we feel take a few deep breaths use my yoga training thank you for having me here or allowing me to speak I want to be brief I don't want to beat a dead horse but I guess in my defense the horse was already kind of dead first of all so I'm here to express my disappointment in the dismantling of the eCamp experience for Melrose fifth graders both the process behind it and the outcome itself the process I'm an

▶ 36:19 active engaged parent and when I first heard whisperings of eCamp being threatened in the fall at an information session at the Winthrop school I assume there'd be a process surrounding the decision and that I would have a chance to engage at the time my energy and all of yours was very geared towards passing the override so I deprioritized the conversation assuming we'd circle back unfortunately by the time I heard mention of he camp again it was a citywide meeting in April and it was clear that the decision had already been made that the leadership team was in agreement and everything was resolved so at that meeting I felt no point in speaking up or pushing back to me to make a decision to dismantle a generations-old extremely valuable

▶ 37:02 experiential learning tradition in our community without so much as consulting the parents and PTOs who fund it not to mention the children who benefit and grow from it and was so awesome to hear those voices just now is profoundly disappointing to me I tend to exaggerate but it broke my heart furthermore to claim the letter in the letter that this decision the reason for this decision was a reduced connection to learning I don't need to go into that we just heard about that I think that it is not necessary it's not corroborated for sure that there was a reduced connection to 21st century learning in terms of the science standards at this camp from my conversations at citywide and with other

▶ 37:46 parents in our community and through reading the letter it is too clear to me however that there are a great deal of valid obstacles and challenges for the program as it exists now in Melrose to me without knowing the details they all seem surmountable with some creative problem-solving perhaps I'm wrong but I feel that we should have at least been afforded the opportunity to try to solve those problems which brings me to my biggest disappointment which is the outcome no more ecamp really at a time of such rampant obesity anxiety depression excessive screen usage overall societal disconnection with ourselves with each other with the environment and then when little kids are going to school from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. at a time like or that was not their

▶ 38:33 hours but they were a long hours that I heard of at preschool we choose now to get rid of a chance for each and every one of our students regardless of ability to pay to spend three days outside doing exploring and touching the natural world world to me this seems very counterintuitive six years ago the summer before my oldest started kindergarten Melrose made a move to eliminate one of the two precious recesses afforded our young children I am a math teacher I was a math teacher I see patterns and to me it seems poetic that here we are six years later when that little girl just returned elated from Ecamp and I wish she were here to tell you all that she learned and I think she would echo some of the things we just heard that here

▶ 39:25 Melrose is it now eliminating another opportunity for our students to explore and play to problem-solve and work things out I know at the time we were worried about kids getting bullied at recess or not knowing how to join in and play but to me that's all the more reason to have unstructured time and to have skilled and now more well-paid educators to help guide children through that learning if I'm reading correctly between the lines here part of our decision to end a campus because in Melrose in the year 2019 we have more and more kids who aren't as accustomed to being outside and some for whom this experience is overwhelming and hard to navigate for a whole host of valid reasons but again that's all the more reason to commit to doing this work and

▶ 40:15 doing it right just because the work is hard and messy and trickier than it once was doesn't mean it shouldn't and can't be done in fact I would argue that it is more important now in our age of screen time and constant virtual connectivity my husband told me not to offer this analogy but I'm gonna offer it all the same so you know I think that some of us might observe in the world like a decline in understanding of basic civics right and so what would we do as a society say oh they just don't understand how the government works or how democracy works or how do we how to be engaged so we're just gonna stop doing civics education we're gonna just stop encouraging our youth to be engaged so to me that is an analogy to what we're doing here as kids are becoming

▶ 41:13 disconnected we're just ending their experiences to connect to nature I also reject the idea that my resistance about this is because change is hard my pushback and my very heartfelt pushback comes from a place of desperately wanting to live in a community that values meaningful child directed social emotional hands-on experiential learning and I know we do that or I think we do that at the older grades but I'm a ground-up educator and I need believe it needs to start early and then build up be built on from there I know and respect each and every one of you on both the personal and professional level I thank you for your service to our community over the years you've all shown me in both word in action that you do this work because you clear care

▶ 42:02 deeply about our kids and they you are guided by a commitment to serving each and every one of our students this decision breaks my heart because it does not reflect that intention that I know you all have. To me this move is regressive rather than progressive in that it ignores all the data and research chiding us to get kids outside to get them off their screens and to engage with each other face to face in the natural world. Thank you, Ms. Bray. My name is John Sands. Welcome, sir. I'm from Albert Street. Every time I write out the check to the free press I feel like I'm an old man keeping the newspapers alive but without them I wouldn't have known anything about he can't gone and for that matter the move to make the Chromebooks pot of a priority it my kids

▶ 43:14 have enough electronics they were on the screens all the time I lucky enough I was lucky enough to get both my kids to eCamp I feel really bad for the parents who get to fourth grade their kid is next year they're going to eCamp and now it's gone I just feel like some of the decisions are being made without public input that's why I felt I had I wanted to come down here tonight I speak as a parent this evening but I can also speak as an employee next door was on the agenda and I know it wasn't the school committee but you know there's budgetary problems everywhere I think to try to fix everything in the schools is a little too big right now a little too too close to we gave you five million I

▶ 44:03 supported it some of my employee my employee friends next door can't even to live in the city it's getting tough I think it's a little too short-sighted to just say everybody buy a Chromebook and just he can't go away nobody likes change excuse me nobody likes the way things are but nobody likes change thank you thank you sir thank you for your time there's inter Bartolo welcome back nice to see you thank you for giving me time to speak I sent an email which I know all of you received I did not include you oh do you get this who committee emails as well okay so I went to the Roosevelt when I was growing up here I loved you camp I think it's just such a fantastic experience in addition to all the incredible science it's it's more

▶ 45:12 than that it's about independence and responsibility and respect and teamwork and it's just that experience of being first time for me it was I assume for many kids first time away from your parents and I understand that there's challenges but I don't understand why parents were not involved in leading up to this this grand decision to all of a sudden say we're throwing our hands up in the air we're giving up dozens of districts across New England said their kids to eat camp every year I don't I can't imagine that their community is that much different than ours they have students with special needs students with dietary restrictions students with allergies and they're making it work I just don't understand why we are giving up on such an incredibly beneficial

▶ 46:04 program to the children of Melrose and one other thing I did just receive the email saying that the committee to investigate a replacement is meeting on Tuesdays from 3 to 4 I would question how you would intend working parents to be able to attend meetings from 3 to 4 for Tuesdays I'm a teacher and I still could not make it home to attend a meeting from 3 to 4 so I would urge you to reconsider the timing of those meetings I would urge you strongly to reconsider the cancellation of camp first and foremost though thank you thank you very much it's way well Tim welcome I was not planning on speaking tonight I just came to listen at the budget actually but as I was sitting there listening to some of the people who spoke before me many thoughts were

▶ 47:17 going through my head and one of the things that I like to do is read a lot about different studies that are done about child development and child education I'm not an expert but I can read an article in the New York Times and get the gist of it. Many, many executives in Silicon Valley do not let their children have smart devices because it impedes learning. There's a huge article about Fortnite in the New York Times and the addictive nature of Fortnite. My kids aren't allowed to play Fortnite. My son's the only kid in this class that doesn't play Fortnite and he knows it and I say suck it up buttercup that's life and my job is to make your brain healthy just like the rest of your body and that's what we're gonna do here when I went to the middle school

▶ 48:14 orientation when my daughter was starting sixth grade the former principal stood in front of the parents and said please parents smartphones are the devil for the middle schooler. Please do not get your child a smartphone. I didn't. I took his word for it. I now have a seventh grader. She just got my smartphone. And I've already seen, she's not on social media, but I've already seen the changes in her sort of desire to keep looking at it, just like my desire to keep looking at mine. We know from all the data that's out there that fundamentally changes our brains. And now when you walk through the grocery store you see, when I had Scarlett they said don't let your kid watch TV till they're two. It's bad for them. Now you go through the grocery store and you see

▶ 49:07 six-month-olds holding iPhones while their parents are shopping. So while I appreciate all that they do at the ECC, when I hear things like last year how they have to teach the kids how to open their chips faster and the eggs have to be taken out of the classroom because there's too many issues about worrying about how the eggs might get impacted instead of the ability to staff a classroom properly so that we can teach respect for eggs and how to treat eggs so that chickens can hatch safely and I mean this with no disrespect to you whatsoever it's very disturbing to me when I go into my kids class for parties one of the choices now is to go on a Chromebook they don't talk to each other they have we have a craft at a table and they do the craft and then they go get

▶ 50:02 on the Chromebooks it's disturbing and I it's it's getting more and more pervasive and it's pervasive in our schools right now and listening to what the previous speakers were saying it is disappointing because we know all this we know we have the information we know the data we know what causes anxiety and children we know movement is important we know these things these are not questions and yet we keep going the opposite direction of it so somehow we have to figure out how to balance mandates and still create a love of learning and kids that know how to talk to each other and problem-solve as adults and we can say what's the world going to look like 25 years from now but i can guarantee you one thing it's going to require

▶ 50:52 problem solving and the only way to problem solve is to talk to each other so those are just my thoughts um thank you for listening to me and i'm usually more prepared than this but off the cuff thanks thank you miss waywalton much appreciated are there any other members of the public who wish to address the committee welcome thank you um i was also not going to speak my husband kind of spoke for both of us but just as i'm seeing everything get tied together with regard to movement and screens and the outdoors one final piece when i looked at the agenda ties it all together perfectly in my mind and this is probably too late to address formally but in looking through the handbook and looking at i took a quick glance at homework and recess policies and annie

▶ 51:45 made reference to the recess policy six years ago being at risk and the second recess at risk of going away and it was saved just before we came in so now you'll hear people say yes there's two recesses and you'll hear us say that as a district we value movement and getting kids outside and we totally work for social emotional improvements and growth but what we should really be thinking about then is actually formalizing that instead of a policy that currently says that second movement break we can't even bring ourselves to call it recess we call it a movement break is at the discretion of the teacher and it's for K and one so we really are saying this very limited group of kids may or may

▶ 52:30 not get a second 10-minute movement break which might be standing up and and dancing in their classroom to go noodle which don't get me wrong is movement my kids love the songs but it is not unstructured free play outdoors and admittedly we've had a horrendous year with weather and outdoor time is limited as it is but when it's a good day if i had a child my first grader were to ever come home and thankfully this year she's had a teacher who highly values this so i'm not really concerned about it but it shouldn't be just that i got lucky and have a first grade teacher that will use her discretion to give my daughter that second break she's six years she just turned seven forgive me she's seven years old just newly seven years old they start the year as

▶ 53:16 six-year-olds I don't know how many adults sit at their desk all day with one movement break even in corporate America now you have people that are going on they're taking walks together we have people with seated with standing desks and all kinds of initiatives to get people moving but our policy doesn't reflect that we value that as a district it's not enough that i've had other parents say well it's not really a big deal because the teachers really do get them moving then let's get behind that as a district and formalize it let's not just hope that you get lucky and have a first grade teacher that values it and frankly when she's in second grade next year i sure hope that her teacher will

▶ 53:53 take that discretion even though it's not in the handbook technically the second grade teacher has no obligation to even offer that break i'd like us to start putting our money where our mouth is and stop talking generally about how much we value these things and let's put it in writing and say we as a district value it so much that we're not even going to make new teachers nervous about whether they take that recess for their kids because they really see them needing it we're going to say across the district k through five we'll take two recess breaks recess meaning play not stand in front of your desk and shake your sillies out and then sit back down again we will not have working snacks where we say we're having a snack break that has social emotional

▶ 54:33 value but really the underlying message that we've been told is that pencil should be to the paper while writing we can't be a district that talks about how we value mindfulness and have those same things happening we have to do it all or we're not doing it right we can't just say we offer yoga at the horus man before school so we're doing it we've got the mindful thing down it's got to be the whole package so that's on a side no I'm not saying we're gonna change the handbook now but my vision would be that a handbook next year doesn't just say K through 1 might get a second 10-minute wiggle break but K through 5 gets a second recess because as someone already referenced the data is there so we know we changed our school time because we said data data

▶ 55:15 data data matters I'm not sure why that doesn't apply across the board but it's just something I wanted to add thank you so much thank you mr. Dennis well said and appreciate it are there any other members of public wish to address the committee seeing none thank you all very very much for being with us and for speaking and without objection the public comment period shall be closed next up the announcements of the superintendent of schools madam superintendent thank you mr. O'Connell to last meeting where we told you that we You would be having the votes at the high school for school committee representatives. That vote did take place. And you will have one, two, three, four, five, six representatives next year.

▶ 56:04 Thomas Broder, class of 21, Grace Donahue, class of 21, Julia Foley, class of 21, Matthew Frawley, class of 21, Brooke Heidebrecht, class of 21, and there is one younger one, Ruby Robichet, class of 22. So it really is very much juniors and sophomores, so we should have a good two years to work with the juniors. So looking forward to that. Any comments or questions for the superintendent? Seeing none. Anything further, Madam Superintendent? No, we are progressing. Last night, as a couple of people referenced, we had the meet and greets on the middle school candidates. I'm hoping to make a decision by the end of the week. I have calls out on reference checks. Sometimes I wait on other people.

▶ 56:52 but I hope to have a decision on that we will be going ahead with the Horace man meet and greets next week on May 29th the letter went out to parents today on that and a follow-up letter I believe will go out tomorrow from my office was it with times we were just waiting on to confirm place so we should be finished with this process by June 1st very good any further or final comments or questions from the committee seeing none Thank You superintendent and that brings us to the consent agenda which this evening consists of the following items the school committee regular meeting minutes for May 7 2019 and MV MMS Quebec Canada field trip request the personnel report for May 2019 and a warrant as follows FY 19 school s one nine zero five two in the amount of two

▶ 57:49 hundred fifty two thousand three hundred and fifty six dollars and forty five cents are there any items which any member wishes to remove from the consent agenda miss McHenry please I'd like to remove the field trip request Canada thank you and that will go to educational programs and personnel any other items that any member wishes to remove from the consent agenda seeing now is there a motion to approve the consent agenda by mr. Ozzie Thomas seconded by miss McAndrew all those in favor and that passes unanimously and that brings us to the work of our subcommittees first up educational programs and personnel with mr. Selma good evening and welcome to the educational programs and personnel subcommittee portion of tonight's

▶ 59:13 Jennifer McAndrew: agenda first up we'll talk about the field trip as this is subject to a vote prior to discussion I'll entertain a motion at this time motion proof second motion made by mr. O'Connell seconded by miss McAndrew discussion miss McAndrew would you like to lead yep thank you thank you I I'm I'm in favor of this just for the record but I did have some a couple of questions or actually more of a I guess a comment you know we've seen a couple of these now this is eighth-grade three-day field trips there's one that we approved initially a few weeks ago a few meetings ago to New York City for three days for students who are taking Spanish I believe and this is for students who take French as we do more and more of these and I think that they're great opportunities I do

▶ 1:00:08 Jennifer McAndrew: notice that the number of students who can participate is limited and is definitely lower than the number of students who are enrolled in those languages and so I'm just wondering if particularly as we start to look at enrollment in the middle school increasing in the next few years I'm just I'm hoping we can take a look at how we could maybe expand these I know know this is being offered as first come first serve or maybe even a lottery if it comes to that so I just think you know if there's a way and I know there's all kinds of other financial considerations and there's there are programs in place to help with that for students who maybe can't afford it but I I want to us to maybe just think about how we could make sure that this is

▶ 1:00:54 available to more students who might want to participate so you I don't believe you were on the committee when Rob Mahoney first came forward and had this idea of international travel for our eighth graders and we told him he was going to go to Costa Rica and we told him start small mm-hmm and this was his foray into starting small what they would like to do eventually is mimic the high school in what the high school does with their foreign exchanges I think that's a larger conversation to which we should divide invite the next middle school principal as well as the teachers because I think there is an age differential here that impacts how many teenagers you want to be traveling with and so I think that is also the consideration here it's not it this is a

▶ 1:01:50 Jennifer McAndrew: several day trip into a foreign country with passports unlike when we go to New York City and we can take two three buses and it's a one-day trip so that I think that's part of the consideration also as to why we're going small and and I appreciate that comment and I get it I'm just thinking that as we move forward I'd like to see us think about because you may you know it's offered and you may be I don't know I'm just guessing but you may be surprised by the interest when you start to have 70 even 80 kids who are taking French and only 30 to 40 can go so I'm just something I hope we were thinking about I'm sure we are I know there are logistics I think it's a great trip it's not that I just

▶ 1:02:33 want to make sure I think dr. Talbot was thrilled to hear that you are projecting 70 to 80 kids taking French I wouldn't be surprised sorry Thomas thank you for bringing this up mr. mr. scan miss McAndrew I was going to bring it up because I was concerned for a two and a half day trip it's a very expensive trip of six hundred and eighty five dollars and I was just concerned about I think that's American not Canadian I'm sure it's American because that we're good about being American centric but I'm wondering exactly how many students you think are going to get some financial support or assistance and if I just want We want to make sure we're being fair and equitable to all. So the reason we ask them to do this as a year out is so that they can plan on their financing, do fundraising if they have to.

▶ 1:03:28 Some families will say to their children, if you want to do this, you need to get a job and contribute to it, whether it's babysitting or something else. So that's why we try to bring them this forward this far in advance. We do, as you all know, underwrite children, but it's done very discreetly. and we will not tell you that number of how many were doing it because sometimes that inadvertently lets you know who was being helped so there's um over the course of the amount of time that i've been on the committee we've approved a ton of trips which i'm thrilled by because i think travel gives all human beings a great sense of their smallness in the world but i'm just wondering from a percentage standpoint if we're running trips that include

▶ 1:04:16 two to three hundred kids over the course of a year without giving us tipping us off at all as a percentage do you know how many we help or assist um not off the top of my head okay we can ask the teachers and off the top of my head yeah i do know among the things that we do is in the metco grant we have a line item to help metco kids who may need help as well so the metco grant is very conscious of doing that but we do we do underwrite a number of kids as we do for their athletic fees and other fees thank you any further comment I would second the comments of both my colleagues the gins as it were my daughter as did miss McAndrews daughter came back from this most recent trip and the comment from my

▶ 1:05:06 daughter while she was entering back into the United States on the bus was to text us and say can we go back next weekend as a family I want to ensure that we extend that same experience to all of our students that want the experience so I am in favor of this yes but I would certainly entertain a larger conversation to make sure that all students who wanted access to this can have access so again I as I said once we have a new administration in place at the middle school maybe a conversation you want to have in the fall any further comment with that we have a motion on the table all in favor motion passes unanimous next up summer plans yes I would invite the superintendent to speak for plans for summer all right so we haven't changed much in the past three

▶ 1:06:10 four years we have in front of you a memo that is very typical high school recovery many years ago we stopped running our own summer school it was not cost-effective what we do is we provide options for our students to make up credits at other summer schools and we provide the families with the list there's a sample list from last year attached to this middle school we do not do credit recovery we do skill recovery you do not need X number of credits to be promoted to the high school but you should have the skills that are required to be successful so we do skill recovery very few kids participate every year it seems to be less and less and so we'll see net last year we broke even so we were incentivized to keep going if we don't break even that's another

▶ 1:07:00 conversation students without borders probably is our most popular program it's a great program for rising fifth graders to get to know the campus and the schools and sixth and eighth graders to stay on campus and have some great activities high school teachers happen to run it this year and last year and they do a phenomenal job extended school year is a is dependent on your IEP your team has to determine that you need extended school year services because of concerns about significant regression so that is determined and we pay for ESY because it is special ed services and there's the sample of the of the summer school that we offer the other thing that we have is as we've done every year

▶ 1:07:51 we share with you the email that will go to families about summer learning expectations for reading math practice and for students who are entering accelerated programs the summer work that they need to do prior to the fall as this does not require a vote are there any questions no and I'm sorry I forgot left out we are able thank you to do the literacy program at Lincoln again this year thank you to the new funding excellent thank you next up on the agenda the changes to I'm sorry the elementary handbook this does require a vote so for purposes of discussion would you like to introduce it first or should I introduce or call for the motion why don't you call for the motion that would for purposes of discussion at this time I'd entertain a motion to approve

▶ 1:08:46 motion made by Ms. Driscoll second by Ms. Razzi-Thomas superintendent please so there's a cover letter similar to what we do with the middle school in the high school to show you the major changes again I will say you what we said to you on the secondary handbook we are in the middle of contract negotiations contract negotiations we hope to have finalized by the end of the school there will be some things hopefully coming in the new contract that we may have to adjust in the handbooks so any approval that you give please give with the understanding that there could be contractual implications that we need to make adjustments for we would like to be able to do that without coming back to add them thank you any discussion miss

▶ 1:09:37 McAndrew just a question and to clarify I think for the community is important um are we discontinuing the wraparound service we're gonna roll it back into ed stations Patty white land right will be coming back to you this summer we had an analysis an internal analysis of the program and it is not what we expected to be it was supposed to be for kids who needed to be picked up and needed that time differential because their siblings were coming it's turned in to be for lack of a better description many edging ed stations and so we want to revisit it and rethink how we're running it so you'll be coming back to us at the proposal yeah yeah okay thank you any other discussion seeing none motion on

▶ 1:10:30 the table is to approve all in favor motion passes unanimously next up changes to Rose High School girls hockey Mr. Fogarty come forward with your permission now this does require a vote but Mr. Fogarty please introduce the topic thank you this year the last two years we've been very successful of girls hockey we've won the league the last two years we had 16 students on the team this year five of which are graduating three of which have chosen to go to private school next year and they declared that to us so that leaves us with eight girls the smallest team in the league last year was water time excuse me was um Woburn with 12 if we asked for a waiver potentially we got three eighth graders last year to the year before that three the year before

▶ 1:11:24 that I think those numbers would hold true and Stoneham found themselves in a similar situation where they have nine athletes on their girls team and we're looking for approval to get a waiver to join with Stoneham Stoneham high school being the home team we would share we've had preliminary conversations with them and we would share staff you know part with our school part with their school we would use their stonem arena as the home base because they would be designated the home school so I come to you asking for the opportunity of a cooperative team with stonem high school through conversation with the principal Merrill superintendent a more to go for a waiver reaching down to the sixth the

▶ 1:12:09 seventh grade we didn't feel that would be the right move socially physically emotionally to put potentially an 11 year old girl in the room with a 19 year old and therefore we're seeking this cooperative opportunity this time I would entertain a motion I would make a motion to approve second motion be made by mr. O'Connell second by mr. McAndrew a discussion mr. school what is what would the name of the team be we haven't gone that far we would be wearing stone and blue but uh they would be the host school that's typically what happens when you have a school one school becomes the host and they do a little more of the legwork if you will I'd recommend you add some red to the blue uniforms we'll try and maybe include something about now if this is a

▶ 1:13:03 Margaret Raymond Driscoll: cooperative team I think it should be represented as such for your consideration I think what we as a community we believe in our athletes we believe in our student athletes in particular as we've discussed in this chamber before I think we have a proud history of all our athletes and I don't think that the Melrose tradition should get lost in something that we feel is for the greater good of all students certainly completely agree with your concerns around safety and so I think that's certainly the larger and most important issue and certainly the goal is to sustain student athletics in whatever form a student chooses to take that I think that is critically important to students I would hate to see the Melrose tradition lost in the

▶ 1:13:56 entire mix we hope that this is going to be a one-year fix if you will so we hope to have numbers to support ourselves here on our own but time will tell with with that and we certainly do not want to lose our identity as well and they know that and David Pignone their athletic director he and I have known each other a long time and very respectful for conversations about what our needs are what their needs are as well thank you madam mayor thank you very much thank you for coming here this evening I do echo mr. skills comments and just for some information where is the home team where is the home ice now it's the store mice arena up on Montville that's what you use now well I'm sorry we're Flynn ring oh okay you're a Flynn rink yes but we go

▶ 1:14:49 forward with this we would play the girls team would play out of Stoneham sure sure great thank you very much mr. Thomas I'm just curious a couple questions who thought this up this has been talked about well the co-op hasn't been talked about but obviously for the last three years I've come back and asked for the the waiver here and uh i did not see us losing three students to the private schools this spring i i knew we were going to lose the five with attrition of graduation and uh i was hoping that i would just be coming back asking for that eighth eighth grade waiver we knew it was going to be a lean year you know maybe get us up to 12 but once those three students declared it um the conversation was brought up with stoneham and uh they're the most viable uh watertown they

▶ 1:15:45 have nine students returning to their team and we've done that before but to go melrose to watertown or watertown to melrose dollars and cents wise it's it's a it's a tough task so wakefield is 16 students returning to their team wilmington is 13 burlington has 16 and uh it just kind of made sense that with the proximity of the two schools that it happened to work out so again again for those of you who don't remember we were watertown melrose for many years and we worked hard to become our own team but girls hockey is a pathway to college scholarships and as good as we are the really competitive schools are the privates and that's where kids getting scholarships out of so you know i i don't fault the families for wanting the best for their

▶ 1:16:37 children but the problem for us is we don't have enough girls to safely um have a first line and a second line and that's important to us how about the players and the coaches what do they think of this i had feedback from two families and one family was asking for that middle school waiver i've come and asked for an eighth grade waiver eighth grade waiver lets an eighth grader play at the lowest level and for us it's varsity middle school waiver would allow a sixth seventh or eighth grader play at that lowest level which would allow for that student to play on our varsity team so potentially you know a sixth grade in a locker room with an 18 year old that's it's not a good mix i did not want to go down this road and um but once those three

▶ 1:17:27 students declared we were limited without choices as far as the conversation it stemmed out of a Middlesex League meeting that we have monthly and once we were talking about this when teams were coming in asking for their waivers storm and I we happen to be sitting next to each other and that's when the conversation started and he entertained thoughts with other schools as well and we just thought it would be nice to keep it together in the league with this how about will it decrease our cost in ice time it will it will so i going back to you your question a moment ago i had two families reach out to me the other family was looking not to play with middle school athletes so that family was hoping that you know this rising

▶ 1:18:18 senior would be playing with someone of her own age physical ability and so forth so those are the two families that reached out to me the coach has a nice relationship with their coach our coach frank sorrenti um he's comfortable with this we know this isn't ideal but we know this isn't long term either middlesex league would never allow that and uh like i said i hope it's one year thank you okay mr obronski just a couple of comments i think this is a positive thing i mean you're going to keep girls playing i think that you're right in saying that to have a sixth grader with a senior that's a little um ridiculous to say i don't think we'll be losing our identity in the sense it's a one-year shot we were just talking about keeping kids engaged

▶ 1:19:07 and keeping kids active and trying to keep kids having opportunities i think this gives these girls the opportunity to play and stone's close i think this is the best way to move and i appreciate all your leg work on it because i know it's not easy uh thank you thank you any further questions or comments ms mcandrew just one super quick same fee that's the plan um and that's up for debate because talking with stoneham their fee is significantly lower than ours but i i think for us i think it's easier to stay with where we are rather than restructure our fee system we're at 600 they're at 300. we will have costs associated with it we would split the ice time again these are preliminary conversations we haven't sat down there's

▶ 1:20:05 no contracts we haven't gone that far we're just looking for the approval to move forward but uh the ice time would be split it looks like their staff would work the the rink because it is their home rink they are the host school their athletic trainer their scoreboard operator things like that we would split the coast split the coaching duties with each school the transportation costs we'd still have to talk about any other comments i have a few lightning round if you will what's the max roster size I'm sorry what's the max roster size for Middlesex oh it's an MIA roster I want to say it's 22 okay and we've only been at 20 twice in the history I believe that was 17 18 and 16 17 and the minimum minimum you

▶ 1:21:01 mentioned Watertown at 12 Woburn played last year with 12 Woburn sorry I haven't heard a minimum I do know a minimum in a sense that you need to have a backup goalie when it comes to tournament time so it becomes very difficult to play without that right madam superintendent I would remind you I refereed ice hockey to put myself through college I know I don't have a part-time job but thank you I appreciate it we are in dire need of referees second but I think I might be biased in doing in doing this one year would we lose access to Flynn the following year I did speak with them quickly today would we lose access each time you solicit ice from the different venues it is a one-year deal so they

▶ 1:22:03 want to make sure we're comfortable we're going to be able to move forward and then they'll consider they're looking to get the boys that done improvements over there they would like to get the boys back to the Flynn there's a lot of things up in the air right now but no we we could go back to the Flynn next year if necessary if there's a concern might I suggest maybe alternate practices that either just to make keep a pressure last remind me did we approve the eighth grade waiver for this upcoming year we have not I have not asked for that at the same would you still expect to ask for that I will not ask for that if this cooperative team goes through even if you only have a roster of 17 yes okay understood last but not least I see women's lacrosse

▶ 1:22:53 youth lacrosse everywhere I see women's soccer here in Melrose everywhere do we have a similar situation with youth hockey and it's so is that some a is there some way you can help facilitate that I I'm not a hockey guy I was a wrestler if I can talk about that it's a nausea the hockey world is a little bit different to me we do have numbers to support the program but you're counting on every kid that signs up to play youth hockey coming through Melrose High school and as Miss Tama already mentioned a lot of these kids are taking alternate paths to go to the Division one route there are people that will tell you hockey experts will tell you that that 14 year old female athlete that's where they're going to peak with their skill and the you don't see a huge

▶ 1:23:44 progression you do in the mind but not so much physically so the older kid gets a little bit wiser a little bit better skater maybe but it's the mind of knowing where that pucks going to rebound to make that next pass going the other way so you're counting on a parent a family making a decision early on with the trajectory of that child and they're not usually sharing that with us we know the numbers in that element or that elementary school age you're counting on them to come to the middle school counting on them to come to the high school and as we see we're losing kids each year you know some of these more skilled players to some of the private schools some of the schools they play more games more exposure they play longer periods of time so that's more

▶ 1:24:29 minutes on ice so depending on what school you go to in what league you're gonna play in dictates the amount of exposure you're gonna get at the end of that which translates to a division one down to division three thank you very much okay so we have a motion on the table to approve all in favor motion passes unanimously thank you mr. Fogarty thank you thank you next up on the agenda is the one-to-one program for secondary schools the Chromebooks superintendent would you like to address this prior to thank you mr. Selma we brought it back we revised the first half of the information to meet the school committee's requests it would be a pilot it would not be required to people would volunteer and I want to talk a little bit about the need for

▶ 1:25:29 technology so a couple of things last year we brought in a with your permission we put in a BYOD program I'm looking at the memo from June 18th no actually since June 18 2013 my Lord our time flies Lordy and we've had we've had some good luck with it mainly with the older kids who really like their own equipment and do a lot of work cooperative work with other kids through Google ed and the more we've become a Google district the more the kids have been collaborating they you know we do a lot of authentic projects we do a lot of project-based learning almost all our kids from fifth grade on who now have portfolios of their work that track that carries with them as they go through middle school and high school and that they can take to college mr. Ellis just

▶ 1:26:24 sent out the annual May email in which he tells all the kids how they capture their stuff so they can take it with them and it is very much part of our lives and part of our children's futures as you know from things I have shared with you the state is really gearing up on its requirement that every student graduate high school with computational knowledge what began as a suggested framework four years ago the digital literacy and computer science frameworks last year I shared with you has now become mandatory we have to find a way to incorporate it into our other subjects you backed us in hiring the digital literacy specialists at the middle at the elementary school who have done a phenomenal job and big piece of their work is around being a responsible

▶ 1:27:18 digital citizen understanding how these devices work what is appropriate and was not appropriate so that we're building good skills and our little ones as they move up the ladder we have built our pathways mr. Merrill mr. Conway mr. Parsons after him miss miss Acevedo miss Jones mr. Cristiano and miss Greenwood and myself dr. Adams have been working for two years on building out those computational knowledge pathways that the state expects us to have and we think we are in pretty good shape as a school system probably better shaped in a lot of others because we were able to build off of a lot of things we had already done the courses that are given at the middle school in robotics in CAD design the courses miss miles does in you know digital portfolios miss Arnold

▶ 1:28:19 at the high school with God knows we have enough courses we have all sorts of design courses we have AP comp science courses so we've built up pathways that we feel for we're meeting the state requirements where we are having difficulty is in the number of machines that we have the past six weeks have been extremely difficult the state has deemed as of this year all MCAS and all access exams are computer-based and to do that securely the approximately 1300 Chromebooks we have in the district get taken offline to speak they get converted to test mode and that's very difficult especially at the high school where you have kids finishing up portfolios finishing up applications a lot of our kids submit portfolios with their applications where you have AP

▶ 1:29:16 final papers due and kids have collaborative projects due this is the senior capstone we coming up all that stuff is submitted through Google ed and we've had to take machines offline so we have debated how to do this and it has always been a struggle in this district when we did the tech audit and I have to think of thinking Margaret hat may have to remind me four years ago we almost five years into the tech audit where the alderman and the school committee agreed that the city would have a technology audit to see where they were in terms of their wireless their wiring their access points and their equipment at that point our goal was three to one and to do that that the alderman and the city agreed that they would put a line item into the city's budget for us to lease equipment.

▶ 1:30:20 Why did George Pezos and I choose to lease equipment? Because this nice little machine that Cindy Tamor bought for herself is about a year away from being obsolete and useless, and I paid for it. If you lease equipment, you can turn it over every five years. that was the route we went originally again we Chromebooks weren't the machine back then they were just entering our world Chromebooks have since replaced this they now have a lifespan about seven years Neil tells me they're a little bit more useful they're cheaper we're able to put them on a cot we can do what is called a management system we can control them all from a cot but what What happened at the same time is our population began to grow, and we began to slip away from

▶ 1:31:18 our goal of three to one, and we've asked our PTOs again to supplement. So I will say there is not a PTO in the city who has not bought a chrome cart in the past two years, as our numbers have gone up, because we keep trying to get to that two to one now. We're slipping down to two to one. And that's getting away from us as well, and the problem is the requirements of the state. If we did not have the requirements we have for MCAS, if we had not become a Google district, maybe our lives would be different, but we are a Google district and MCAS requires everything online. Where almost every kid needs their own device so that they can be functional in the current environment. That does not mean kids are on 24 hours a day.

▶ 1:32:13 Believe me, teachers are very purposeful about this. So what happens is you may see a kid using a machine, you may not see a kid using a machine. The other thing that I have to tell you as a former SPED director, this is a godsend to some of our kids, all right? This is an accessibility instrument. For some of our kids, for speech to text, text to speech, the ability to widen the font, the ability to put the yellow screen over if they have vision problems, the ability to have closed caption, this has become more and more important. And as we all know about accessibility, using the famous analogy about curb cuts, what becomes accommodation for a special ed kid turns out to help everyone you all know the

▶ 1:33:06 analogy about curb cuts curb cuts were made for people were on wheelchairs now everybody with baby carriages on a crutch and everybody else uses a curb cut and looks for it it's the same thing here while it would be desirable for the district to purchase these ourselves to the amount we need four thousand or so it is not feasible and let me explain why first of all let me talk about the override because really as I said to the mayor earlier today I start I'm getting a little frustrated everybody thinks the override was much more money than it was I remind everybody the override had three purposes staffing student enrollment and space that was the focus of the override it was basically a restoration override it returned teachers to our staff it met it gave us

▶ 1:34:08 enough staff for our growing enrollment right now it is meant to give our teachers a competitive wage it is meant to address some of our space issues while there is two hundred thousand dollars in that money it is to cover the increased costs we have due to enrollment it is not going to buy a machine for every kid okay i mean i have had that override spent 15 different ways in the past eight weeks and i am so appreciative of it i am having a wonderful time thinking about how to best use that money who should we hire isn't this great we you know we put out our social emotional we put out teachers our ESL people are hired already it really has been very rewarding but it is not an abundance of money we have negotiated a contract we hope that will be approved we think we have done well

▶ 1:35:04 by the teachers that was the purpose of the override we are looking at the Beebe school there is money set aside for the Beebe school that was the purpose of the override okay for For us to be, even if we weren't one to one, even if you increase the numbers we were, even if we were to really become one to two, which we're not at this point because of our rising enrollment, the $300,000 that is in the city's budget that will be rolled over next year is insufficient, okay? Now I can negotiate with the city and ask for more money. Somebody here can do the math for me. Who told me they were a math major? $200 a machine. I think the Chrome card that we use to manage them is, how much is it? Is $2,600, and every Google license for every child is $28.

▶ 1:36:16 So, thank you, Liz. So, I don't know how much that comes to at the moment. How many do you need? 4,000 because we're about to roll over what we currently have I would you need 4,000 Google Chromebooks mm-hmm that's for one-to-one throughout the district right your program brand new ones program is 6th and through 12 right so if we were to go high school 2000 2000 right okay thank you good good calls wanted to make sure all right so just add 50 each that's 500k right plus the Chrome cards plus the $28 per license for Google ed all right so that's one option whatever that comes to here's my nervousness about that I need the alderman to commit to that for every five years okay here's your other choice

▶ 1:37:12 you can bond art Flavin will tell us you have to have seven years to bond okay ultimate have to approve it you need seven years to bond okay so that would just take you to the end of the lifespan on a Chromebook we are facing needing all new Chromebook all new smart boards in the city Neil has run the numbers for me his estimate for all new smart boards because the city did that years ago for us we had less classrooms they're beginning to die they're an important part of our education okay almost all of our books now have smart book capability every textbook we buy is connected at least at the elementary school okay the estimate for the new smart boards is nine hundred nine hundred and ten thousand dollars that has to be bonded somewhere along the

▶ 1:38:14 line the mayor and her office as you heard her when she spoke to the joint committees is beginning to build a capital improvement plan all right I have begun my walk arounds at my buildings preparing for summer work I need roofs the high school roof Denise Gaffey put in for the accelerated improvement plan we were turned down okay high school roof needs to be repaired Horace Mann roof needs to be repaired I don't know what other roofs need to be repaired i was at franklin today franklin needs all new windows all new doors it is where the hoover was three years ago i'm looking at a bird's nest in the window the block okay we have lots of other competing demands on bonding if the city wants to bond it i

▶ 1:39:25 accept it if the city wants to commit to approximately how much did you come up with liz 500k 500k every every five years not including the cost of the chrome cart or the 28 license per student okay so let's call it 700k all right every every five years i'm open to it but i am very aware of the competing needs of this district and while i appreciate parents concerns about this i have concerns about this too i am in the classrooms constantly and mr merrill is up back and he'll tell you i go like this when i see a kid not paying attention and on the phone and i have teachers who have have phone caddies and when the kids walk in they all drop their phones okay um i don't know where else to turn so i am open to a solution but to say we do not need

▶ 1:40:19 technology is to deny what the expectations will be for our children as they leave us whether it's for college or the workplace i understand parents concerns about screen time i share it but that's a combination of us and the parents working together to set parameters for their kids every one of the candidates last night said they would not allow phones would not allow cell phones in the middle school but one of the candidates turned around and said but i do want to see kids on devices doing work and learning how to be creative problem-solve and collaborate and using technology as a tool so that's where we are the other thing that I will address in this whole conversation is again teaching and

▶ 1:41:20 learning is just so different some of you have come to spend the day with my my kids and my staff and I really appreciate it and I think you've seen how different it is when we talk about personalized learning we're talking about meeting your kids needs when the teacher says all right everybody you're gonna and I was in a class yesterday middle school great great project have to share it with you the the model UN kids came over to the middle school and with the sixth grade set up a mock model UN it was fabulous every groups of kids got a country and just like what happens at model new model UN here's your country here's the problem you need to solve you have X number of hours to do this research write a paper and present on it was a fabulous project based

▶ 1:42:14 learning activity for our kids okay all right now once out that team that high school kids said all right here's the problem do your research the Chromebooks came up kids did their research took what they had wrote their papers Chromebooks went away and the kids presented to other kids and made the arguments pro or against whatever the topic was it's a tool it's not a substitute we would never have a school system where kids are on them all day I've seen those school systems it is a tool but it is so much part of who we are i understand the need to balance but i also understand the importance of this and what our kids are going to be asked to do so we left this last meeting with a motion to table at this time uh madam mayor would you be willing to entertain a motion

▶ 1:43:16 Gail Infurna: to reconsider well i guess i would make a motion to remove it from the table so that would be a motion to reconsider uh and i don't recall who seconded it last meeting two minutes i believe every the vote was unanimous so anyone could second it at this point so i would second mr was second on tabling them thank you so at this time we have a motion to reconsider seconded by mr obramsky uh discussion main thank you very much um First of all, I want to thank you for the work that it came to in revising this cover letter. And Superintendent Taymor, I truly appreciate your explanation tonight and your honesty tonight with us. I think that I'm finding that very helpful. I've learned a lot since I talked to you earlier today.

▶ 1:44:21 Gail Infurna: And through your explanation tonight, I have gained a great knowledge in why these are used and how you have explored all the other means of funding. I still think the timing is awful, but sometimes we don't have that control if you need to get these going for September. I will support this with this revised cover letter saying that it's somewhat of a pilot program. I'm a little iffy as to what a pilot is going to come out and show, but it at least prepares everybody for a year. It gives people more notice, I think, to prepare that they will be purchasing Chromebooks if possible. The one thing I do ask, and I do say this with all respect, the cover letter has um neil ellis's letterheading on it i would appreciate it that it came from you

▶ 1:45:22 Gail Infurna: good catch thank you yes and on the second page of it um signed by you as the first one i don't think neil really even has to be on this at all so i would appreciate this cover letter that is going out to the sixth and ninth grade parents is that how i understand it you know have your lead ahead um have this language on it and we'll see how it goes and um though i won't be here next year sitting around the horseshoe i will be watching so um but i do really appreciate the work that went into this i really appreciate your honesty and that explanation tonight i think I think I find it helpful, I hope that the parents out there find it helpful, and that's the way it is. So, let me just say two things in regard to the $200,000 from the override money.

▶ 1:46:17 That part of that money is going to pay for the fees for the Google licenses? Right, correct. And to help underwrite those families who cannot afford it. Correct. Correct. Thank you. Mr. Obrunski. Yeah, I'm in favor as well. appreciate the fact that we tabled this I was more curious to see what the idea throughout the community was towards this and I really haven't gotten anything negative on it whatsoever and it's funny when I went home from the meeting it was a thing on my table for our school supplies and every year we get this box for the box of school supplies and the box of school supplies size is 50 bucks, and so over six years, my kids are in the Horace Mann for six years, it's 300 bucks a kid.

▶ 1:47:06 The Chromebook's cheaper, like when you really look at it in the context. And it's the reality as the superintendent says of the direction in which everything is going and every person, and I don't see how we can't move a favorable action on this, but I appreciate the time at the table to get an idea of how people thought. the initial as the mayor said you know the sticker shock of it after the override was sort of like holy smoke now we're gonna have another fee but I really don't I don't think it's as big as an issue as we had originally thought and I thank you miss McAndrew thank you I'm glad that this is reformulated as a pilot and as I'm glad that the financial assistance is in the pilot as well so

▶ 1:47:58 Jennifer McAndrew: that everyone who wants to be part of this can I would like you to talk a little bit about how you plan you and your team and I know we'll have a new middle school principal but will and your educators will evaluate if this is successful in the next year like what are some of the things you're gonna look at so we will immediately look look at how many kids develop portfolios okay and the other thing that we'll look at is how often is when you give options you know again the conversation we're doing a lot of work around universal design for learning and we talk about the options you give kids on um you know uh presentation process product how many how often when we're in a classroom are we seeing kids have options do you do a textbook do you do a chromebook do you do

▶ 1:48:54 some other source to get your information how often do you use different options for producing your work because that's again part of what we want to be able to do is give kids those options and then neil will be able to run analysis uh you know through google analytics of what is happening Thankfully, we have strong firewalls and we block a lot of stuff, but he could tell how often kids are getting on, where the peak times are, and we can see whether those peak times align with classrooms or some other reason for having peak times. We can tell you right now that lunchtime at the high school, don't try to use your own device because everybody's on the phone. you and I think I would just mention that I think the example you provided

▶ 1:49:51 Jennifer McAndrew: from the sixth grade and the the gem project and and the the participation of the model UN students and is a great example and I think it would actually be really useful I think for the community and I would find it useful for you to to and your team to come back with some of those kind of examples even maybe in one of our showcases so we can actually even see some of it happening and how it was used because I know that that particular example is extremely well received and very impactful on the students both the older and younger and so I think and it's a it's a good example of how you need the devices in available but it's not the point of the thing so I would I would look to try to do that part of our

▶ 1:50:43 job is to help educate to the community on how education is so rapidly changing and how we're using these tools that we ask parents to to purchase so that's it thanks any further discussion mr. Thomas well I just want to stress again for anyone watching or interested in this all of this is that it's a voluntary pilot program that really it's asking parents to consider as their students are coming into sixth or ninth grade, if they're going to buy a device, that they would be thinking about the Chromebooks. And I really want to echo what Ms. McAndrew just said, is that it's really important if people don't work in education or aren't familiar with Google and all the things that the drive can offer, that the classroom can offer, that they are taught about it or they're exposed

▶ 1:51:34 to it. Because once you learn about it, you see all the different things it can do. I know that even in first and third grade this my kids are learning about it and it's it's like a whole nother world that opens up for them so I am very mindful that every family has to make decisions about how much screen time is good for their kids and I really want all the families in Melrose to know that those those decisions are still with them even if they decide to go with this program the parents are still in charge of whether they their kid a phone whether they allow the kid to have extra screen time besides homework time I think that all that all the tough decisions still have to happen and all the limits still have to be set whether they join this program or not and so I

▶ 1:52:21 think we just have to keep trying to be partners with our families in the district and listen to them and pay attention to them and also make sure they understand why we're asking for this so I appreciate your primer and and And I think this is well worth trying to see if families are willing to do this and see where it leads. But I do echo a lot of the concerns that parents brought up and families brought up at the beginning of our meeting with public comment that I think we also have to pay attention to the outdoors, getting outside, not just being on devices all the time. So thank you. Mr. O'Connell. Thank you, Madam Chair. just building on that it is voluntary and if a family chooses not to

▶ 1:53:08 participate a Chromebook will otherwise be available for that student so no one is making a choice to go without technology here and in fact with this voluntary program families are being given the opportunity to get a device if they choose at a reduced rate in addition to the accommodations for financial hardship so just to be clear a decision not to participate in this voluntary program doesn't mean your student doesn't have a device available we will always make that available so thank you very much any further question or comment so the motion to reconsider is essentially a motion to approve motion to approve the motion to reconsider this is a motion to take from the table and the original motion stands

▶ 1:54:10 okay the original motion was the original motion was was for approval made by ms rossi thomas seconded by mr obramsky so should it be with the amended letter sorry so we need to vote to reconsider no we're just voting the original motion that's what I thought I just said okay very well thank you so then the original motion was to approve and I believe miss McAndrew did you want to I'm sorry who I seem to misplaces madam chair madam mayor did you want to add an amendment to change the letterhead change the letterhead and the signature on the page to that it should be the superintendent mr. Obronski do you consider that friendly amendment yes excellent thus we have a motion on the table all in favor motion

▶ 1:55:12 passes unanimously thank you everyone last but not least consideration of CET BUSA foreign exchange programs application to accept Italian students for the 2019-2020 school year. This also was tabled last meeting, so I would entertain a motion to reconsider. To remove from the table. That is my motion, to remove from the table. Excellent. Second. So motion made by Ms. Driscoll, second by Mr. O'Connell. original motion on the floor was since you have the minutes open right there to approve I believe yes excellent thus discussion at this time would you actually there was no there was no motion to approve it was just a motion to table so at this time do you want to introduce the topic or did you want to

▶ 1:56:07 know I'd like to introduce it we need a vote since we voted to table so vote Vote to remove from the table, all in favor? Motion passes unanimously. Madam Superintendent. Okay, so the last time we considered this, these people were new to us and I was not really, I don't want to be involved with another organization who are bringing in and exchange students because we have enough of our own students plus rotary and other families however saying that some information came to light after the fact that i would like mr merrill to share with you so that you can have a better understanding of how this firm came to reach out to us good evening good evening hi evening thank you so um we have an exchange program with

▶ 1:57:11 our Italian students with a school in Florence that has been going back and forth so recently our students have been there last year students from Florence came and stayed with us with one of their two of their teachers rather one being Simona Della Valle she inquired back in September through dr. Talbot who is not someone in charge of any of our foreign exchange students or past but someone who's in charge of exchange trips trips through global language miss Della Valley explored with her the potential of her child and two other students from Florence coming back to share in some of the experiences she did for the first semester of this coming school year starting in in late August and she started to inquire with families that she had already built relationships

▶ 1:58:15 with about hosting at that time she had asked dr. Talbot if we had any affiliation how do we go about this our answer at the time was education who we were still in a relationship with dating back a few years ago when we went through this process with the SEVIS certification and started a relationship with educatious which is a company that forms exchanges since we just haven't done business with them they don't we haven't provided them enough business some high schools have upwards of 40 students through educatious in this school we had had a couple here and there and they just moved on from us so at that time the teacher in Italy started looking into other companies who could help with what would be the visa process which is formulating an i-20

▶ 1:59:15 that helps with the student visa to get a student here to echo miss Tamar's sentiment around we're not looking to create another relationship with with CET USA or education or any company like that that being said having gone through the SEVA certification I think as a district we value some of these opportunities with having our students be in in different countries in also hosting students from different countries whether it's truly through student exchanges through global language but also on a smaller scale with having exchange students visiting and staying in our community for a semester or a possible year I don't think we ever want to get to the point where we're in a relationship that we're bringing in 20 kids at a time but surely

▶ 2:00:16 it's a great opportunity for our student body and our community to be exposed to this so this isn't a case just to be clear of this company randomly reaching out to us and I would caution that that could occur later now that they know Melrose Mass but we're not looking to form some kind of relationship with them and have students come this would be three these three students are students that we already have a relationship with the parent who's a teacher at the sister school who inquired about bringing her child here and two other friends of that child and had already reached out to some host families so this wasn't a case of this company finding host families that's how it would work with educatious

▶ 2:01:13 or a company like that you sign up to them and they start calling communities to try to find people to stay with a lot of that work was already done just through the relationships that Miss Della Valley created so I hope that clarifies a little bit and I'm not sure what you were thinking any decision but I do want you to have all the information before making the decision for purposes of discussion I would entertain a motion at this time I would make a motion approve motion made by mr. O'Connell second second by miss Razzie Thomas discussion mr. Brunsky any girl hockey players in that they bring in Chromebooks yeah my only issue with it is like so these kids would have obviously they have equal access to tryouts and stuff right that's my really

▶ 2:02:24 that was my big concern like so if we do open this up and at some point they do they do bring 10 or 15 kids, how does that play out in terms of kids who've spent their life here in terms of trials? So we're not going to open it up, Mr. Obrinsky. All we're doing is talking about these three kids, one of whom has already been here in the past. Right. Wants to come back, spend more time than the two weeks the kids typically spend, two to three weeks they typically spend. and we would make it clear, I would have Amy Lindquist make it clear in her response to this company that this is a one-time only relationship. This would be an exception to our policy. And you're saying it's a semester? Just how long, talk to me about the time frame of a semester.

▶ 2:03:16 Fifteen weeks. Fifteen weeks. It would be until January. January. All right, September to January. Okay, thank you. Ms. Driscoll. So, if I remember correctly, at the last meeting you mentioned that if a student has a connection in the district, that the sending family can make their own arrangement, the student, by virtue of that, is entitled to attend school here. and this and the district nor the committee has any say in this that's right because if they live you know it's called pillow law and it's where you lay your head you can get to go to school and we've had those situations you know I think I explained we have families who grew up with hosting children from other countries they get to be adults they've maintained a fresh friendship and you

▶ 2:04:23 Margaret Raymond Driscoll: say to your German sister gee I would love to have your son for a year why don't you send him to live with me for a year it'll be a great chance for all of us and that happens and there's very little we can do about it as long as the host family or the has the right to make educational medical decisions so my question is what does it give the district by us sanctioning this I'm not even sure but what are we voting on I don't know what does it do so because if it doesn't do anything I don't if we don't input so our responsibilities our policy budget right your contract so I I don't understand what role we have in this number one I don't understand what giving them it would this would would providing some kind of affirmation be an indication to them that we seek more

▶ 2:05:20 Margaret Raymond Driscoll: partnerships in the future because I don't want to provide any that's what I don't want I it's so I I'm struggling to find out what we're trying to do here and I'm inclined to say that doing nothing doesn't tie us to anything, doesn't imply anything, and doesn't affect the decisions of these students whatsoever. So I think taking no action might be the best course of action. That may be a good solution. I brought it to you because at that time we did not know the background, and it you have a policy in which you name certain organizations that we find acceptable and and even when we did education we brought it to you for your approval okay so I would not form this relationship with another company not

▶ 2:06:10 knowing what they were about without your approval at the same time our attorney wanted to be able to say the policymaking board has said yay or nay but I understand the points you're making any further questions or comments I agree I just like to say I agree with mr. scorn I think the best course of action is no action anyone else I miss her if I may be sure I suspect what we're gonna find out is that organizations like this and I think this is reflected in the letters of recommendation and our reference that are in the packet provide services for these students that are necessary and appropriate to get them here and miss Merrill mentioned the visa process so yeah I guess the question is do we value

▶ 2:07:24 having these types of exchange students and if we do the reality is the services provided by organizations like CET USA are of value to those students and so the question I think that's before us is based on the the recommendations and references in the packet are we comfortable with this particular organization providing those types of necessary and appropriate services to get the students here and to manage their their existence here and and further I think you know I would coming to the meeting having not heard from mr. Merrill about this before now I was prepared to vote against this because this just seemed to be out of left field and you know us supporting some some business model that had really nothing to do with us but clearly you know this

▶ 2:08:33 is about supporting existing relationships that we have and facilitating and furthering those relationships so based on the packet documents I don't see anything here that would suggest that we should not do this and it sounds like the people with whom we have a relationship want us to do this so I understand what what mr. school is saying but I think given ultimately given the existing relationship giving you know my limited understanding of how all this works I I would still support approving this because I think it doesn't hurt us I think it helps these students and I don't have any other adverse information about CET USA so I think I ultimately I think these students need this service or these services and if we say no to

▶ 2:09:44 this CET USA proposal we're effectively saying no to these students or at the very least making their life much more difficult in terms of their ability to get here and be here so I would only add that we've said no to you can't imagine how many so yeah I mean other companies that they just get Melrose through being a certified SEVA school they'll reach out and we miss Taymor has the ability or myself at her discretion to just say no thank you and then we do that so we would not be tied into yeah I mean this this seems to be about an existing relationship with at least one of these students and or their families if not all three so again I would I would continue to support this thank you madam chair may I ask a point of clarification

▶ 2:10:43 superintendent do we need a formal relationship with this company in order to allow those students with whom we already have a pre-existing relationship the ability to attend Melrose High School no they need they need a letter from my office saying that we agree that the students can come that's what they have been seeking for a couple of months and I think that has to do with the visa the visa process correct it's not a it's not a contract of certain amount of kids per year or anything like that it's just an okay and thank you for that question because just that was my question too just to further clarify so there's nothing mr. O'Connell's point to there's nothing stopping these students from

▶ 2:11:33 Jennifer McAndrew: using a company likes a non-profit corporation like CET USA to facilitate their travel to the United States whether or not we have a we approve this my guess is this is my guess is this has gone on before in the city of Melrose and neighboring communities without anyone's knowledge and they would still need a letter in order to get a visa they probably have to show some sort of educational plan or whatever they would need a letter for me but you I mean just my understanding is that you could grant that now for a student without school committee approval yes and we have when it's been a situation like I've explained I don't want I'm trying to avoid using names but no you know we have had a friend of all of ours had a foreign exchange student

▶ 2:12:35 Jennifer McAndrew: that you know she knew through family right with her but you know she approached us the same thing and would you approve it those students also use companies to help them get placed perhaps right so I I'm I I mentioned last time I don't there's a couple things about that I don't get maybe it's just failure of imagination I'm with mr. school I don't think we need to do this thing I don't think we need to vote because I don't think it's necessary to facilitate the travel I don't want to be unkind in some way or unwelcoming to students who we have a relationship with I just don't think we need this and I'm sort of again like I said last time I feel like this is all backwards if we decide that this is valuable as a program in some way to the Melrose

▶ 2:13:27 public schools I would hope we would do that in a way that seeks the best partnerships for us with organizations to make that happen and not this I guess way so I don't think it's necessary for us to approve this a good idea just saying no or you're taking miss Driscoll's point of view that no action is the best cool I don't know what the vote is so I guess no action do you do madam mayor thank you do you make motions of leave to withdraw or to place on file that's what the ultimate have done in the past we have generally not done that we have generally either yeah generally the our practice has been that we generally individuals withdraw the motion and if they select not to which is fine um it goes to a vote generally so there is a motion on the table there's a motion on the

▶ 2:14:30 on the floor now correct so if that person could would withdraw that motion then we could make a motion to place it on file no then there's no motion needed no action requires no motion so okay if that is the will because if no one else makes a different motion then it uh okay Mr. O'Connell. Thank you, Madam Chair. Yeah, I guess we're going a long way around and through this. I think the key here, perhaps ultimately, is that we don't reject this, which ironically enough for me is exactly what I was intending to do when I came to this meeting tonight. so because this company is it's not just getting in the hair you know reading between the lines and reading the lines that they're they're part of managing

▶ 2:15:24 these students lives while they're here and maybe we don't care about that alternatively maybe we do care about that we don't want that I'm but I'm not hearing that so all that said it doesn't sound like we're we're inclined to reject this I will withdraw the motion to approve it motion to withdraw made a motion withdrawn I should say made by mr. O'Connor thank you second second by mr. Ozzie Thomas no further comment I believe that concludes then educational programming and personnel take two minutes if it's not on the agenda we can't afford all right we can't allow that does it pertain to anything that we spoke about not at this time I was just gonna invite everyone to graduation it's all that just graduations next friday night um six o'clock fred greenfield a week from this friday

▶ 2:16:44 yep week from friday night the 31st uh whether you have a graduate graduate i know we'll see you but if not you get a younger older student come out and watch us recognize and celebrate these students and uh all that they've achieved over the years and secondly awards night is thursday night i want to thank all the people at home who have helped make some of the scholarship opportunities possible through the permanent scholarship fund and other individuals of families they'll be over $300,000 awarded to over well over 200 students so thank you all very much thank you all thank you mr. sell next up finance and facilities with ms. McAndrew all right evening everyone this is the Finance and Facilities Subcommittee there's one agenda item for us this

▶ 2:17:59 Jennifer McAndrew: evening which is the fiscal 2020 reformatted budget document I'll just very quickly remind everyone that when we pass the budget we talked about several additional opportunities for getting additional information and reformatted documents including this evening and as decisions continue to be made about the override money and other hires and as the contract negotiation wraps up there is additional information for the community even though all that money was accounted in the original budget and still is here this is additional information and we will do this again in September when more of those decisions are made our goal here is to provide the community with as much information as we have when we have it and to answer the committee's questions

▶ 2:19:00 with that I'll turn it over to the superintendent and miss Farrell thank you for being here so late so again as requested by the committee this is our document that does by buildings does with 2018 the actual 2019 budget 2020 requests with comments anything that has been spent on the override funds is in blue there is still a great amount of money that is unassigned but accounted for I think when you get to it so I think it was page 19 she's saying 21 I'm also thinking 19 19 on mine as well because we are still in the process of making decisions as I said earlier as soon as we can make a decision on what a a position should look like we are posting it and as soon as it is filled we are putting it into this document again because of the way we function

▶ 2:20:10 there and there are other factors that determine placement of staff for example how many speech teachers we may need at the Franklin how many ESL teachers we may need at the Hoover versus the Lincoln all those things wait for student enrollment figures to play out and then we make those assignments to buildings similarly on specialists for the elementary schools there is a committee of teachers and administrators working hard to try to plan how many how many specialties we needed each building they are cognizant of some Changes that will be coming in the in the contract and they are working within those proposed changes And those decisions have not been finalized yet either. I would like to just

▶ 2:21:05 Draw your attention to a couple of items in here and then we can open it up for some questions Just in generalities the superintendent already indicated that you know There's a lot of planning that's still going on and we're being very cognizant of what our needs are and how the money should be spent and so we do not want to rush into that you will see when I pointed out to you that we are able to highlight some areas that are very specific that we know but yet some others that are still up in the air so pages 7 through 21 of this document break out each of our cost centers whether it's a particular school or a department like special education curriculum on page 15 if I could use that as an example you'll see that the

▶ 2:21:52 first item on that page is high school teacher salaries in the comment is that the override very specifically said that we will be hiring for teachers for that building so there's an allocation of money yet to be determined after those positions are hired if it's an English teacher that money will go into the English line and likewise if it's a math teacher and so on about half ways down on the page you'll see a second entry that's in blue and that's for the additional position that is going to go to the high school which was for a guidance position so again we've tried to put things where it was very specific the middle school we know has four teachers as well the other page that I really want to draw your attention to is page 21 this is really where a bulk of

▶ 2:22:44 the money is because it has not been distributed at this point you'll see that we have an ESL position we have the paraprofessionals we have the elementary social workers the assistant principal position elementary specialists again as the superintendent said we are looking at schedules we're looking at student population and needs and again once those are determined they will then go to the particular building so that when we report back in September you'll see that assistant principal in a building you will see those paraprofessionals highlighted in each of the buildings that they're assigned to and then half ways through that page you're also going to see over in the comment column negotiations there's a chunk of money 1.85 for negotiations and again we are

▶ 2:23:40 in that process there is only so much information that we know for sure and that's commented down below where I say that $500,000 is allocated to teacher steps no matter what the contract says for percentages or anything of that nature that's guaranteed that that happens you go from step one to step two you go from step five step six so some of that's already been distributed the rest of the money which is one point two eight is for our further negotiations on what kinds of percentages market adjustments whatever it might be it also has to support all the other units that we talked about as part of the override about bringing paraprofessionals and VN drivers up to minimum wage and you know increases for administrators so there's

▶ 2:24:32 an awful lot there still to be determined and again at some point once those contracts are settled that money will also then be distributed to many lines because again those teachers represent every building in multiple categories within those buildings so those are just a couple of the things at the back of this document you have pretty much all the supporting documents we provided in our earlier versions with some comparisons with who our staff are what their backgrounds are some of the comparisons with us and other districts so hopefully this answers a lot of the questions that were out there and we will continue once positions are filled to come back in the fall with something that really can earmark what positions went to what locations thank you

▶ 2:25:28 Gail Infurna: questions madam mayor thank you very much thank you for your work and this is much more detailed very easy to read clear as to where everything went where the actuals were last year and the year before so I think this is very clear I just asked that this this record also gets put into the IQ m2 for the board of Alderman on the budget on the budget night that you go before there it's in already it's it already perfect perfect just so that they have the same document that we are all working off of so thank you for that thank you which is January 3rd that would be nice okay any other questions or comments seeing none that concludes finance and facilities for now thank you thank you miss McAndrew and

▶ 2:26:38 that brings us to the announcements of the chair do we have any liaison reports seeing none do we have a motion to adjourn so moved made by miss Driscoll seconded by miss Rosie Thomas all those in favor and that is approved and we are adjourned thank you all thank you

Original documents

• Minutes (CivicClerk PDF)
• Agenda (IQM2 PDF)
• Bulletin (IQM2 PDF)
• Minutes packet (IQM2 PDF)
• Agenda packet (CivicClerk PDF)
• Agenda packet (IQM2 PDF)
• Other (CivicClerk PDF)
• This meeting on the city portal